No more Captain Caveman

Hear that Captain Caveman voice? Love it! We have always known that Daniel had large adenoids. The guttural language patterns? Check. Deep voice? Check. The snores that sound like a Mack truck and often interfere with sleep? Check.

Although he has had enlarged adenoids, he hasn't really been sick in about three years. So, this year, beginning in January, we couldn't understand why he was getting ear infection after ear infection and every sinus bug he came across.

While on his second round of antibiotics, one day I noticed that he could NOT hear me. Not the normal "I am a kid and I have selective hearing when my mom wants me to do something" loss of hearing, but a genuine loss of hearing.

I am hypersensitive to that because when I came back from maternity leave with Daniel, I realized one of my kindergartners was unable to hear within normal ranges. I referred him to the school nurse, who immediately worked with Medi-Cal to get an ENT referral. He had permanent bilateral hearing loss due to an infection that had gone untreated. He was eventually (in 2nd grade) fitted for hearing aides that he now wears full time. (By the way, he goes to school with Jake and is an A/B student! Yeah, Juan H.)

So, Daniel's pediatrician tested his hearing and diagnosed him with diminished hearing from the fluid that was failing to drain from his ears due to his enlarged adenoids. She quickly referred him to an ENT doctor.

Say, "Ahhhhhh!"





When the ENT saw Daniel's tonsils and adenoids, he felt we should remove the adenoids and tonsils (also enlarged) and put tubes in his ears to help with the draining. He was positive that Daniel's hearing loss wasn't permanent and would be better on the drive home from his surgery.

Perfect! Here Daniel is having his vitals checked. (Look at that crazy hair! He couldn't use any hair pomade or gels.)






Waiting for the anesthesiologist, Daniel kept himself busy with his DS. Once the anesthesiologist saw his airway, he had to do some scrambling. Due to the size of his tonsils, he was uncomfortable blocking the airway for general anesthesia. He decided to do an IV instead. That was no fun!







The surgery only took about 45 minutes. Dr. Lebovitz was amazed at the size of his adenoids. Apparently, they were twice the size of the tonsils which were already out of control. Poor guy! We had no idea!
Here he is still under the effects of the general anesthesia.





Still feeling woozy, but starting to come around. He is watching Looney Toons on my iPad.






Although Daniel was in a lot of pain, this certainly made his day better.






Daniel was still taking it easy about a week later. What a life!







He is a cool kid!

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Happy Father's Day

On this special day, I wanted to take a moment to thank the special dads in my life!
First, I'd like to recognize my daddy. He is the sweetest, most loving dad with whom I could ever be blessed. My daddy has always supported me in my endeavors and adventures. I love this picture of daddy and me.


Next, I want to recognize Jake's dad, Derek. He is a terrific father to Jake and I sincerely appreciate the way we work together for Jake's sake. He will always hold a special place in my heart for the love that he provides Jake.


Last, but certainly not least, I want to recognize my husband, Rene. He is the most amazing man that I have ever met. Not only is he a wonderful provider for our family, he is a fantastic father to our children. He is their playmate, and at times their disciplinarian. He kisses boo-boos and challenges them to chess. He gives them unending support and loves them beyond measure. Finally, he is a model patriarch. He is kind and giving while being firm and clear. He couldn't be more perfect! (Not to mention, he is absolutely gorgeous! *whistle*)


I hope that all of the fathers out there were treated well on this special day!
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Happy Flag Day

From my Gabriela to all of you!
(Edited to fix the typo. Damn you autocorrect.)





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The Very Quilty Quilt

With summer vacation finally upon us, I am playing a bit of catch-up. (As is par for the course.)

Although my kids are in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program and must be placed with teachers who have obtained their GATE certification, I am still somewhat able to pick teachers for them.

So, there are teachers that have had all four of my children.

Last year, to celebrate the kindergarten teacher that had taught all of the kids, I made this Brown Bear, Brown Bear Quilt for Linda DiVerde.

This year, I get to celebrate Joan Dyer. She has not only been there for all of my kids, but she has also been a good friend to me.

I chose to use Eric Carle fabrics again, since he is such a staple in early childhood literature.

This quilt features many of the characters found in the Eric Carle "The Very" series: "The Very Quiet Cricket," "The Very Lonely Firefly," and "The Very Busy Spider," among others. (Check out my mitered corners! This is the first time that I've ever done them.)












She absolutely loved it, and we absolutely love her!

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That's my boy!

I am so proud of my son, Jake. (Well, I am proud of all my children, but this post is dedicated to Jakey.)

At the close of each year, the kids get to celebrate all of the things that they have accomplished that year.

Tuesday of this past week, we were invited to two awards ceremonies for Jake. The first was during the school day and it was the awards ceremony for Grade Point Average.

Jake had a 4.0. One of only 5 students in all of seventh grade! Woot!



He also received an award for being a member of PLUS (Peer Leaders Uniting Students.) It is a leadership group that holds forums for teachers and students, alike. This was his first year on the PLUS team and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He will be continuing with PLUS during his eighth grade year.

During the evening ceremony, we anticipated that Jake would win the Outstanding student for 7th grade math, like he did the previous year.

However, we forgot that he can't win that because he isn't in a 7th grade math.

He is actually in the Algebra class for 8th graders. (The counselor suggested he skip 7th grade math and take the 8th grade Algebra because math is so easy for him. They were right because he was one of only two students with an A at the end of the year and the other was an 8th grader.)
Well, the instructor had to give the award to an 8th grader, even though he told us that Jake was his best student; but, I digress....

So, we had no idea what award he would be receiving. Well......

Jake received the Outstanding Student in Language Arts for 7th grade! I love his wrinkled brain! I really do! Here is a snapshot that I took during the ceremony, after he received his medal. Isn't he adorable?


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Worky-work, Busy-bee

It is the busiest time of the year!



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Letters to Paris Quilt

Last year, I donated two quilts to Kaitlyn's Promise to help raise money for the Kaitlyn Vallery Memorial Scholarship. I was able to donate Charmed Star of Avignon and Twinkling Tesselations.

I finally finished one of the quilts that I will be donating this year. I did the majority of the quilt-top at our Idyllwild Quilt Retreat.

I decided to name the quilt "Letters to Paris," because I used a Moda fabric line called "Pom Pom de Paris" and the cream-colored fabric has tiny letters of the alphabet embedded in it.





(That's my cutie-pie husband holding the quilt for me. See his cycling socks! Thanks, my sweet.)

This is the first quilt that I have made that is set en point. Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult in the least.





The fabrics in this line are so pretty and feminine. They really went together nicely. I included a closer picture, albeit poor quality, in the hopes that you could see the colors better.





I am hoping to get one more quilt finished to donate, if our somewhat chaotic lives cooperates. *fingers crossed*
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Summer Yum!

If I haven't mentioned it previously, it should be stated that this blog is in no way, shape, or form a recipe blog. I do, however, enjoy cooking and love to share recipes that work for my family.

Like most families, we eat lots of salads during the summer months. I am pretty lucky that my kids enjoy most vegetables and will try almost anything that I put before them.

I happened upon this Lemony Orzo recipe the crew really loved.

It is unbelievably simple, tasty, and versatile. We have eaten it as a stand-alone pasta salad on a warm day, a side for chicken and steak, and even as a salad garnish (my favorite.)

Ready to whip some up for your family? Here's how!

You'll need:
3/4 cup uncooked orzo
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon honey
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup diced English cucumber
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper (I've also used yellow and orange.)
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (My family doesn't dig dill, so I used thyme.)

Preparation
1. Dice English cucumbers and bell peppers and set aside.



(Obviously, I used yellow and orange bell peppers, this time.)


2. Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain and place in a large bowl.
3. While orzo cooks, combine lemon rind and next 6 ingredients (through black pepper), stirring well with a whisk.



4. Drizzle juice mixture over orzo and veggies; toss to coat.



It should also be noted that the original recipe called for 1/2 cup of goat cheese, but my family isn't the biggest fan of cheese, so I omitted it.

Hope you enjoy as much as we do!


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You down with OPP? Yeah, you know me.

I apologize for the lame 90s reference, but it is relevant here. Only the OPP isn't for Other People's Property (or other choice nouns), it is for Other People's Pantries.

I am extremely honored that my pantry was featured this week on The Perfect Pantry's weekly feature "Other People's Pantries."

Our family is fortunate in that we have a pretty large, walk-in pantry that houses the massive quantities of food that this family seemingly requires.

Here is my kitchen:









(These are the only pics that I can grab from the interwebs, but I have made some changes since these were taken. I added a chalkboard to the pantry door and I took the doors off above the stove.)
The pantry is through the door just to the right of the fridge.



Keeping it organized makes it easy for me to take stock of what we need each week.

You can find more pictures at The Perfect Pantry.

Enjoy and thanks so much to Lydia for including me in her weekly feature. :)



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Mami's Day

After spending a fun-filled, busy day with my family, I can go to sleep counting my blessings.
Here are four of them:



(L to R) Cristina, Gabriela, Daniel, Jake (I can't believe how little they all were. I swear there are times that I can still feel them asleep in my arms.)

These little babies made my life absolutely complete, and continue to fill my days with happiness. *Love*
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(Spring) Cabin Fever Quilters Retreat

This past weekend, I was able to get away to Idyllwild with some of my favorite ladies-my Cabin Fever Quilters Friendship Group.

Donna (the Dynamo) and Mare (the Amazing) planned and organized an outstanding weekend for us all. It was fantastic and can't wait until we do it again.

We spread out over most of the living room/dining room. I'll admit that it did look a bit like a sweatshop. :) (That is my machine and table in the left foreground.)





We stayed up late each night and were up early each morning. (I swear that Donna and Mare didn't sleep, at all.)
I wasn't able to finish all of the projects that I prepped, but I did finish four quilt tops. Hopefully, I will find some time in the coming weeks actually quilt them.
Here are the things that I finished:





Our little group got sooooo much stuff finished!
These belong to Mare and Marie.





This picture shows Marie and Andrina's work.





Next, you can see Andrina and Donna's completed projects.





Here are Sue's completed projects (with mine.)





Finally, these are Linda's Civil War reproduction blocks (and Linda holding them.) She completed 25 of these beautiful blocks!





As much fun as we all had, it was nice to run along our merry way home--





--and spend Sunday with our families.



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Happy Easter!

From our family, to yours.


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Snow-Scrappy

Woot! I finished another block exchange quilt! A few months ago, I posted about the Snowman Block Exchange that one of my friendship groups hosted.
I am so excited that I finished the quilt top with all of the blocks.
I chose to border each block with some homespuns and some flannels that I had in my stash to even the blocks and to bring the whole thing together.
I also added a block to those exchanged to fill some empty space.





I don't think that I'll be quilting this one until next fall but I think that I'll back it with flannel to make it extra snuggly. :)
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Scrappy Bargello

When I went to Road to California Quilt Show in January, I purchased some supplies, fabrics, and a few kits.


Of all the things that I brought home, I was most excited about the bargello quilt. (You can see it in the top corner in the picture of my booty.) The pattern was created by a quilter at the Quilter's Coop in Temecula and it was just my style!

Other than the fact that it is almost exactly the colors that I use in my kitchen/great room, I loved the fabrics provided in this quilt for other reasons. They are all Civil War Reproductions and fairly exquisite, in my opinion.

This is the first Bargello quilt that I have made and I have to admit that it was pretty quick and easy. I can say, with a fair amount of certainty, that I will be using this pattern for other quilts. (Maybe I'll be able to make use of my moda stash using this pattern.)

So, without further hesitation, my scrappy bargello....



And, just so that you can love the fabrics as much as I do, here is a close-up:


Love it! It is about the right size that I could even use it as a table cover on the farm table that separates the kitchen from the Great Room. The possibilities!
We will probably just use it to snuggle which is the best use it could have.
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Friendship Spool Quilt

Back in May of 2010, one of my friendship groups decided to do a spool block exchange. I posted about our first exchange in the post titled Hangin' by a Thread.

For the next few months, every time that we met we would bring enough spools to exchange with other members of the group.

During Spring Break, I finally had a chance to piddle around with them and piece them together. When I put them up on my design-wall the block in the top, middle jumped out at me. It seemed a little too..."bright," compared to the others.


Here is a close-up of that block.


I decided that if I wanted to use it, I needed to try something different. I tea-dyed it. It was super-easy to do with such a small block.

After steeping a tea bag in boiling water, I pushed my fabric in and let the tea set. I think that I left it in for about 10 minutes.

Then, I took it out and rinsed it in cold water.

Such a difference! It matched the other blocks perfectly!


Below is the finished product with all of the spools represented. I love the eclectic look that this quilt has. I used a sage green border that brought out some of the colors in the spools.


The back is a blue floral that is from the same fabric line as the green fabric. (I can't remember the line.)


Now, I need to figure out how I am going to piece together our Snowman Block Exchange. Hmmmmmmm.
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