Birthday pictures and yummy recipe

This will be a real quick post because we are going to try and go see Forbidden Kingdom tonight. Wanted to post a page that I made with a couple of Nikelle's birthday pictures. She was laughing so hard (at WHAT, we still don't know!!) But I wanted to scrap the "belly laugh" moment for her, and she is sorta upset that I chose not so flattering pictures, but let's face it, when it's that funny, you really can't be worrying about what you look like!!

I also made some really yummy brownies the other night. They have virtually NO fat in them, as they are made with sugar free raspberry preserves and no oil. They were moist and yummy (I think I already said that!) and for those of you that like "cakey" these are perfect. You can also use apricot preserves if you don't like seeds.

Chocolate Raspberry Brownie

1 1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup fat-free egg substitute

1 (10 oz.) jar sugar-free raspberry preserves (cherry or apricot works too)

1 t. pure vanilla extract

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. pure almond extract

1 cup all-purpose flour (I mix mine 1/2 & 1/2 with unbleached/wheat)

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Thouroughly coat a 13x9" pan with nonstick cooking spray. set aside

With electric mixer, combine sugar & cocoa. Gradually pour in egg substitute and raspberry jam, beating on low speed until sugar is no longer grainy. Add vanilla & almond extract and beat briefly to mix. Combine flour and baking soda and stir in with a flexible rubber spatula. DO NOT OVERMIX!!

Bake 30-35 minutes. Brownies should be slightly under-baked but not runny in the center. Allow to cool and cut into 2x2" bars.

NOTE: because of the jam, these brownies are sticky to cut. To reduce sticking, wet the knife between each cut or partially freeze the brownies before slicing.

Nutrition: (per 2x2 bar) 114 calories; 0.7g fat; 26g carbohydrates; 0mg cholesterol; 86mg sodium.

You must try them! They are so surprisingly delicious!! (And you won't feel terrible eating some....but remember moderation!!)

Frustration & Bummed

The main frustration I'm feeling these days is that the camera that I ordered that I thought would be here by the end of April, looks like it is on backorder and it may be months before I get it. Super Bummer! But I'm trying to not think

about it too much. Hoping that if I don't think about it, it will get here really quick. But I've been frustrated because for the digi class that I am taking, taught by Jessica Sprague, there is one assignment where I need to take a blurry (on purpose) picture, where part of it is in focus. Well I tried it with my little point&shoot, and it just didn't work. So now I will have to wait to finish the assignment. Again...bummed. But I did get some other pages done.

We were so excited to be able to go outside today and play. Looks like tomorrow will be raining for the big party. (Nikelle's a bit bummed about that one) But hopefully it will be fun. She has decided to go to Classic Skating. Guess I'll be strapping on some skates and get my booty movin! Skating always makes me feel like I'm 13 again (just without all the cute boys that I want to skate with!!) I'll put up some pics of the party sometime soon.

Quiet time= Productivity!

Tonight Andrew took the kids to the library while I was still out running errands, so I came home to a quiet house! So what else does one do when they have the house to themselves?? No not that! I scrapbooked........(Ok I usually do that anyway).....but I got to enjoy some tunes while I worked! I mean I like Strawberry Shortcake and Barney as background music, but sometimes it's nice to listen to "big girl" music!!

I had seen this page on another site, and decided I could try to make my own ribbon bracket background. After going through 146 differnt ribbons, I finally found some that I liked and made it work for me. I had tons of fun stitching, and playing. Now that I've learned some more things to do in Photoshop Elements, I'm finding the options are endless. I can't believe how much there is to still learn!

So Andrew just informed me that my little Carissa beat the pants off him today. Well they were playing "Ants in the Pants" and she kept getting them in, and Andrew couldn't get one in to save his "pants"! But the cute thing is that after every ant she got in, she wanted a big hug and then she did a little dance! What a cutie!

More to post

Thought I would share a few more layouts I've finished lately. Some I finished during conferance, and some I've done in the past couple of days. Today is Nikelle's birthday, and I started a page this morning just playing around trying to figure out if I could design my own bracket { } frame. I got pretty close, but still need to fine tune it, so I found one I had in my stash, changed the paper on it, and created something completey different than what I was going for.

For Nikelle's birthday, we are having her actual party in a couple of weeks, but we gave her the "big" present tonight. She's been complaining about her bike being too small for her (it was), the seat was uncomfortable (it was) and the gears never worked right (they didn't) so we decided it was time to get her a big girl bike. Not one that the little girls ride around on...but a real big 26" bike! I doubt her knees will ever touch the handle bars on this baby!! I'll post a picture when I have better light! (Maybe we can keep the snow away tomorrow!!)

Class assignment for Week 2 and a Funny!

First I will start off by saying how thankful I am for the thoughts and prayers regarding Carissa. She truly is feeling much better. So much better in that yesterday, we were in my bathroom, she found my shower cap under the sink and put it on her head. Then she went back downstairs and got her play food, brought it up and told me that she was cooking, because she is wearing a "chef hat". I really wanted to get a picture of it on her, but she was on to the next thing before I got back with the camera. Then when I tried to "pose" it, she wouldn't cooperate for me. So I guess next time we go upstairs, I'll pack my camera with me, so I can capture it!!

So we have started week 2 of the digi class. The lessons are challenging, and I'm learning things that I never, ever would have figured out on my own.

Nikelle's birthday is tomorrow! She will be 14! Yikes...how does time go so quickly?? I wanted to share one of my halloween pages that I've done. The reason is that 8 years ago, Andrew and I filmed a short movie that was (loosly) based on the Matrix concept. And we've kept our costumes from the movie. (why I'll never know, cause I will NEVER wear them again, but I knew he'd be SO angry if I had gotten rid of them!!) Well she'd been asking for a couple of years now if she could wear my outfit for halloween. I didn't think she was big enough then, but this past year, I thought she could pull it off. Little did I know that she would look better in the outfit than I did 8 years ago!!

I couldn't get my scanner to work, but I did manage to take a picture of my picture. And I post this only for some massive public humiliation, well and proof that I wore it once upon a time! Good thing we were young and dumb back then!! Sorry it is blurry. The original was a bit blurry too. Best I could do without a scanner. I really need a flat bed scanner, so I can start scanning all my old prints. I have tons of things that I could have used for the lesson yesterday dealing with "then & Now". But unfortunatly I only have digi for the past 3 1/2 years. Someday, right!

Well I had better decide what needs to be done for the celebration tomorrow. (it's only gonna be a quickie, cause she will have young women's in the evening, so we are doing something with the family over the weekend.) I hate it when the list is longer than the time I have to do it in. Oh well, that's what I get for waiting for the day before! ( I was silently hoping tomorrow wouldn't come, but it looks like it's happening any

Back to normal!

Just wanted to update on how Carissa is doing. She made it through the night, even though she had slept for almost 8 hours during the day! This morning she woke up full of energy, singing songs and wanting to play. (I was even OK with her waking up at 7, considering she made it through the night!) She has a healthy appetite, but is clearly staying away from anything she ate while she was sick (saltines, toast, cheerios) and she is her happy silly, self again!!

I can't believe how close she was to needing an IV to hydrate herself again. She was showing signs of mild dehydration when I took her to the Dr, and then she started looking even more dehydrated. It was Andrew who brought home the Sprite, that we were able to mix the pedialyte into (she wouldn't touch it, flavored or plain). Once she started getting the pedialyte, she perked right up. I'm so very grateful she didn't have to have the experience of going to the hospital. I never thought I would be SO HAPPY to hear her scream, in her silly little way!

Is it over????

The update is that she has kept all fluid down for almost 8 hours. Woo-hoo! She is still pretty sleepy and lethargic, but she is at least not throwing up anymore. Who knows what will happen when the meds wear off, but we are now much more optomistic about a recovery. She's even tried to eat some white rice. I really hope that she is over the worst of it. We had a scare earlier when she woke up suddenly and seemed to be disoriented and almost looked like she was hallucinating. It really scared me! Now we just hope that she is able to eat something, and that she will sleep tonight. (she's been asleep off and on for the past 8.5 hours) Thanks for the prayers that were offered.

Update

We thought we were pretty much over the worst part, as she held some clear fluids down for about 5 hours, but this morning (ironically) while I was on the phone with the doctor's office, who called to check on her, she threw up again. The Dr wanted to see her this morning. Seeing as how she has already lost 1 1/2 pounds, they gave her some medicine that will (hopefully) keep her from puking anymore. But in case it doesn't work and she keeps puking, we will need to take her to Primary Children's hospital if she can't keep any fluids down. She seems to hit this 4.5-5 hour mark, and then she loses anything that she's taken in. And right before I sat down to type this she lost it again. We made it 4 hours this time. Poor thing doesn't even have the energy to sit upright. She has now resorted to falling over in the recliner and falling asleep. Anyone who knows her knows that this child has NEVER willingly slept anyplace other than her bed (not even the car!), so she is really feeling awful. Makes me want to go to the museum and wipe every toy in the place personally!

Protection failure

Some of you may think this means I had a computer failure....I only WISH! We have tried SO hard to keep Carissa healthy this winter, and we were starting to see the light at the end of the LONG tunnel. We've kept her home from nursery, or taking her to lots of public places. Not because we are paranoid...but because when she gets sick, she ALWAYS loses weight, and when she is barely 23pounds, she just doesn't have anything that she can lose. Well I mentioned before that we went to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway on Monday. Well Wednesday night as she was sitting in her chair eating dinner, she threw up. She had been complaining of her stomach hurting for about 30 minutes before this happened. We just figured it was because either she needed to eat, or she needed to go potty. We tried the potty thing, which didn't change anything, then tried the eating. Well after the "eating" she then threw up another 4 times between 7 & 9:30. She made it through the night, and woke up happy and energized. She wanted something to eat, and I knew enough to take it slow, but after a couple of hours, she threw up again. Then she made it through most of the day, including a 2 1/2 hour nap. But she never was herself. Just wanting to be held and pretty sleepy all day. At around 6:00, I spoke to her pediatritian, and she told me just to try and keep fluids down. Well so far tonight, she has only been able to hold water down for about an hour. I was really hoping this would be something that would pass quickly, and she would bounce back. There is nothing worse than seeing your little angel laying in your arms, knowing you can't take away the pain. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better, otherwise she will need to go to the hospital for an IV. The strange thing is that she only ran a fever for about 2 hours, and then it went away. Now I just wish the puking would stop. I'm sorry for anyone reading this, that may be grossed out, but anyone who's a mom has certainly been through it. Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers. Thanks

Day 2 of class

Part of the first lesson is to practice what you learned. So I picked a few things and created my second page for class. The additional challenge today, was to take some photos or a project that you have been putting off (and believe me there are LOTS of those to choose from around here), and just DO IT! Well I have been struggling with these pictures, and I wasn't sure how to incorporate all the pink in the shirt. I didn't really want to convert them to B&W, so I wanted to keep them in color. But I think by using a complementary accent color, it turned out nicely.

Journaling reads: At 2 ½, you’ve decided you are “big” enough to blow bubbles on your own! But learning how to get the bubbles out of the wand with the power of your own breath, is a difficult lesson indeed! I was trying to teach you to position your mouth in the “O” position, and blow air out. But you repetedly would say “ooooo” and then switch your mouth position back to “ffffff”. After a lot of trying, you finally got a little bubble out, and you were so very pleased with yourself! And then frustrated again, when the same result didn’t happen on the next try. But keep trying my sweetie, you’ll get it someday!

We'll see what tomorrow brings! Maybe I'll get more done today...it's not even nap time, and I already finished this one! HMMMM what other projects do I have to finish???