Summer is almost here!

Oh my goodness summer is almost here. Samantha has one more week of school and then she is done until the fall. I was done May 16th and managed to get straight A's so I am officially on the dean's list. Eric graduated from the Peace Officer Academy on May 10th so he has been hitting it hard to find a job. He has one now working back at the resort for the boardwalk marina security. Its a job for right now to pay the bills.

This is going to be our first year that we can actually plan a garden. So far I have 16 tomato plants in the ground and 52 onion plants. I have a lot more planting to go and I really need to get to it but the weather has been having a mind of its own lately. I can't wait to be able to harvest all the yummy food. Samantha and Hunter have been very excited for it all. Hopefully the pumpkins I will be planting will get decent sized for jack-o-lanterns this year.

I promised at the beginning of the month an update of how Hunter has been doing over this last year since it has been a year since we found out he has neurofibromatosis. We have learned so much this last year. We met the geneticist in Spokane and was not impressed so when the geneticist from Seattle was coming over we jumped at the chance to meet her. I was unable to go due to school but Eric went and really enjoyed her. She explained something that we noticed. Hunter would be a happy little boy one minute and then all of a sudden he would just go lay down in his dark room or put a blanket over his head and just lay around. It mostly lasted for only a short time but still it wasn't him. When Eric met with the geneticist from Seattle she explained that he was actually  having headaches. It is something common for people with NF. They come and go just randomly. The great news is that he hasn't had a headache in a really long time. This winter became a challenge for us. The kids were so excited to be able to go out and play in the snow. Hunter was so excited but it hurt for us to try and get a glove on his right hand due to the neurofibroma on his arm. It was so hard to find gloves that would protect his hands and keep them warm. He would cry so much if his hands would get too cold. He got to a point where he didn't want to go outside. We finally were able to find a pair of gloves that would work and he has done ok with them. Hopefully this next winter we can get better gloves since he will be bigger. He has been showing us all the things he is capable of. You would never know he had something on his arm. He uses his hand and arm just like a typical 2 year old. He does have to watch it because it is a bit more sensitive but it is getting better.

This summer is going to be a great one. We finally are all in one place again. The kids have 2 grandparents around and hopefully one more coming up soon. I am going to make more of an effort to hang out with friends and reconnect. I am excited to go out camping with the kids. Eric and I are taking a weekend to go to watershed festival so we will have a kidless weekend to ourselves enjoying great music. There is so much more that we plan on doing and we will keep posting all of our adventures.

 



 

 

 





Turkey hunting

Kristin and i took off up to 4th of July pass looking around for some turkeys and mushrooms. Is good to get out and about get back up into the country we had been in a long time. We got high enough into the mountains we had to use four wheel drive to get through some snow on the road.

We made several attempts stopping looking for mushrooms but kept striking out. We decided to continue down the road a ways  and we're just hitting that point where we're deciding it's time to turn back around.

We both had long forgotten about turkeys figuring where to high and had a big surprise when we came around the corner and spotted four turkeys in the middle of the saddle.  A good size tom was standing  strutting with his three hens. 

When the initial shock wore off of seeing a nice Tom at the elevation in the mountains I decided it's time to get out and shoot him.

I got out of the truck grab the gun loaded it up  and ever so stealthily snuck through the brush toward the turkeys. As I approached I noticed all three turkeys walking directly toward me about 15 yards away through the brush. I took up my position as all three of them looked right at me and turned around walking slowly away.

I  raised up my shotgun putting the bead right on the toms neck the only problem was the other hand or directly behind them. Ihad to wait for the hens to keep walking away and down to the right it seems like it seemed like it took them 20 minutes to move away from the Tom. 

Finally the tom was all alone as able to take the shot.  Mr Tom went down and is now going to be on the wall and in our freezer.

April Showers

A nice warm and rainy day can mean two things in North Idaho, mushroom hunting and turkey hunting are starting up. Oh yes those little hidden treasures in the forest that can elude us but taste so good sauted in butter and put on top of a juicy steak. I am talking morel mushrooms.

 

Yesterday I was wandering around our garden area in the backyard and noticed that we have mushrooms growing there. Not something we could eat but hey the possiblity of other mushrooms growing was starting to come to light. So as a family we decided to trek into the woods today and explore a bit even though it was raining. We unfortunately didn't find any but we all had fun and got out. A few wet and dirty feet didn't stop any of us. Especially Hunter who loved running ahead of us so he could stomp in the puddles before we could say no. Samantha took the sneaky route and claimed she didn't know where we were talking about. I will be searching for rain boots for them soon if we plan on taking them out in the woods more.

 

So before we went out on our little adventure I had already planned on dinner for the night. Some great tasting cheese bread to go with some ham and potato soup. I found the ham and potato soup recipe from this blog. She has a bunch of other yummy recipes that I think I might be trying in the future. The bread recipe makes me so glad that I can have wheat. It was so moist and yummy. I remember making it from an old bread machine instruction booklet so I was on a mission to find one that would live up to it. I had great success from one on Taste of Home. I gave one loaf for my dad with a big bowl of soup and the other loaf stayed home with us. It is almost gone so I think I might be making more this week. At least it's easy enough.

 

I am so glad to have a great end to the day because tomorrow is the official end of my spring break. I didn't get hardly anything done but it will just make me wanna get things done this week. Tomorrow its my cooking class so I get to learn a new recipe. So far I have made 3 new recipes and enjoyed them all with a little bit of tweaking. I just hope the next 5 weeks go quick because then it means its summertime for me. Yay!!

 





We are back!!

Ok so I am really going to try and stay on top of this. I am constantly having to get on the computer for class so why not try to keep up with the blog while I am at it. It's been over a year since Eric has updated it. So much has gone on since then.

First of all Eric is officially out of the coast guard and we are back to living in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. It has been so great to be back "home". We bought a nice house that is really close to everything that we need. It is so nice to not have to drive 30 minutes to go to the grocery store. Now its 2 minutes. So much better and so many more stores to choose from. I can actually shop for some great deals instead of sucking it up and just accepting the price. Not good for couponing.

Eric is currently going to the Police Academy here. We are so grateful that the GI Bill is covering it all and he is able to get a housing allowance and unemployment that covers all our bills. He is doing great in school and will be done in May. Time is flying by. He still hasn't gotten a full time job offer so we are hoping that one comes soon. There are a few agencies that are really interested but no offers yet.

I am currently going back to school full time. I finally decided I wanted to go into physical therapy. I am currently working on my psychology degree right now and will apply for graduate school after I finish up my BS and all the prerequisites. I have a long road ahead of me but I am doing great so far. I should be making deans list this semester with straight A's. I have learned a lot and I am fixing my mistakes I made when I was younger. I am taking this more seriously and it just pains me to see others treat college as a joke. They will learn like me one day. I have met some great people and will continue to do so.

Samantha is currently going to Pre-K at the Lutheran Academy that is just down the street from us. She loves it and goes 4 days a week. She has met some new friends and also really likes her teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better person to help her transition into a whole new place and situation. She has gotten so much better attention at this school and has learned so much. She is going to be great next year in Kindergarten. She is already looking forward to go to big girl school because that means there are big boys there and she can kiss them. Eric is going to have a handful with her when she gets older.

Hunter is now 2 and a half. He is growing like crazy. He loves hanging out with his babysitter, Shay, Grandpa, or me while sissy is at school. He has been learning so much. He is a little climber and discovered how to climb in the kitchen drawers so he can get stuff off the counters. Eric built a strawberry planter and Hunter climbed all the way to the top of that thing. I can't wait for the weather to get nicer so he can climb all over the play stuctures down at the lake.

We had a great Christmas with my parents and the kids. They really enjoyed having grandma and grandpa there. Next year will be a lot more fun since Joyce is moving here and my parents will probably be here to celebrate with us. Samantha had her spring program right before spring break and she was a little butterfly. She was so happy to have those wings on. Hunter was jealous. She learned all about Easter and what it really is about in school so she was super excited for Easter. They got to dye eggs the night before and had a blast. The next morning both kids loved looking for the eggs. Hunter still needs to learn to be a bit more gentle and not throw the eggs in his bucket. He cracked a few so those got ate up quickly. Next week Samantha and I start school back up from having break and only have a little bit more left and then it will be Summer break. There is so much we are going to do I can't wait.

I am determinded to keep up on this blog. I am going to try and share more of whats going on but also to share some recipes that we have been trying. I hope I won't annoy you all with them but I am wanting to improve on communicating with everyone. I have really been slacking and I need to fix that. I hope to hear from some of you. I will add some pictures when I get more aquainted with the program again.