Snaggletooth

Today all elementary students had the day off due to literacy assessment days. This meant that Bjorn had school. I was quietly working in my classroom when I was paged by the office that I needed to call the middle school as Bjorn had chipped his tooth. I quickly call the school and ask if I need to call a dentist. They say yes. So here I am imagining worse case scenarios until I can arrive. Luckily, the school is down the street from where I teach. I arrive at school to a pretty upset preteen. He tripped in gym and landed on his face. Here are the results:

We then went to the dentist. We have the best pediatric dentist in town! He is so nice, laid back and very thorough. He takes x-rays and lo and behold, he has broken it so the nerve is exposed. He tells us that we can't wait to have it fixed so gives Bjorn nitrous oxide. Bjorn was a little out of it for about an hour. Luckily, the school had found the broken pieces (yes, it broke off in two pieces). The dentist was able to grind down the nerve, add some calcium and put the pieces together and bond them to the remaining part of the tooth. All for $99!! What a bargain as I was expecting $300-$400. Unfortunately, there is a 50/50 chance the bond won't hold and he will eventually need a root canal. But for now he is back to his handsome self and not a snaggletooth!

Chicken Enchiladas

Part of my goal this summer is to be prepared for the school year with meals that are easy to prepare. I spent far too many days eating out this last year and need to get back on healthy family meals. I was talking to my sister Sara about this and bulking up my 3 month food storage. She asked me to share recipes and ideas on my blog.

My plan is to have 18 dinner meals in my pantry and freezer. My goal is to have enough to make 5 of each of these meals, or 90 meals total. I have 9 meals planned out to purchase this summer and I plan to add to this throughout the year. Here is my first meal: chicken enchiladas. This is one I got from my sister. They are so easy to make and freeze. I always double the recipe to cook one and freeze one. This 8x8 pan serves my family with a meal left over for me to take to work the following day.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 large can chicken, 2 poached chicken breasts or 2 cups of shredded chicken from a roasted chicken ( I like Costco's the best.)

1 28-ounce can or 2 14-ounce cans of enchilada sauce ( Hatch Green Chile is one of my favorites)

1/2 cup of sour cream

Shredded cheddar or jack cheese(I love cheese so I just eyeball what looks good)

12 flour tortillas ( I used some whole wheat tortillas from our local farmers' market)

1. Place chicken in a large bowl. Mix with sour cream, a splash of enchilada sauce and some shredded cheese.

2. Pour 1/3 of enchilada sauce in bottom of 2 -8x8 pans or 1- 9x13 pan. Divide tortillas between the two pans. Take one tortilla and soak both sides in the sauce in the pan.

3. Fill with a spoonful of chicken mixture and some more shredded cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

4. Pour the rest of the sauce over the filled tortillas, dividing equally between the two pans.

Top with remaining shredded cheese.

5. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or cover with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and freeze for up to three months.

Everyone will love this version. My sister won the Best Enchilada contest at her church with this recipe. It is the sour cream that makes it so delicious. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does. If you have any great recipes that you would like to share that would be great for the freezer or food storage, please let me know.

Happy eating!

Date Night

Last Sunday Dane and I were fortunate to attend a fireside at our church with Dr. Stephen Covey as the guest speaker. He is the author of The Seven Habits books. He is an amazing speaker. He talked about strengthening your family. His main points included:

1. Create a family mission statement

2. Use an Indian talking stick to settle disagreements

3. Create meaningful one-on-one relationships with your children.

We decided to start this immediately. Luckily, Friday Bjorn was attending an 11-year old Scout overnight activity with Grandpa Neil, so Anders and I had our first date night. Here is what we did.

We drove to Target. On our way over, the music requested was Christmas. Anders mission was to buy a toy with his gift card he received for his birthday from the Zonies. So many toys, so little money!

We spent 1 hour and 45 minutes in the toy aisles. Anders is asking if he can buy a Bakugan. I nixed that one.


Here is the final choice. Mom had to pony up the remaining $5. A small sacrifice for a happy boy!

After going to Target, we ate dinner at Panda Express. Anders fortune from his cookie was, "Look to next month for some pleasant surprises."

We returned home to play a rousing game of Life, which Anders thoroughly beat his mom! After Life, we watched Disney channel and Surf's Up! We then snuggled up in my bed and Anders slept until 11:30 am!

We had such a great time and I am so looking forward to spending many more nights like this with both of my sweet boys!

Just a quick update

Summer is officially here! I finally finished with a week long summer institute at school last week (minus students) so now I can begin to enjoy the reward of being a teacher: summer vacation! Here is a quick update of our family.

Bjorn officially finished elementary school. He will be attending middle school next year as a sixth grader. He seems to think that this is really exciting and cool, but I don't think he has grasped how much his academic life will change. He has signed up to play trumpet in band which I am sure will necessitate me buying earplugs. He has also started swimming 5 days a week on the Gold team.

Anders finished kindergarten. How sad it is to see him grow up so quickly! He just celebrated his 6th birthday this past weekend. He got a new bike and is tearing around the neighborhood with it. He also finished his second season of soccer. Today he started his first art class at the Fine Arts Center and came home with paint on his face, jeans, and feet! For Anders, everything is a full body, immersive experience.

Dane is flying back to Joplin, MO as I type. He was able to come home for the weekend to celebrate Anders' birthday and sneak in a bike ride with his Dad and buddy Kent. He is currently a Team Lead which means he is in office reviewing files and helping the managers out with paperwork and such. He is enjoying this new aspect of his job.

I just finished my first year teaching. I absolutely love it! I was fortunate to find out that I now have a permanent position, as last year I was only hired for the one year. I will continue to teach 3rd grade and am on the best team ever! My summer will consist of ferrying the boys to their activities, exercising, and spending as much time at the outdoor pool as the weather allows.

I hope you are all having a great summer and have set a goal to post at least once a week! I will get pictures up next time.

Proud Mama!

As a mom, it is so amazing to see your kids succeed at something. Last month, Bjorn was able to attend Challenger Learning Center as part of the SOAR (Student Opportunities for Academic Richness) program at school. At Challenger, students simulate a space mission. He and his classmates prepared for 2 quarters to take part in this program. The had to design a mission patch and run the space mission with no outside help from their teacher. Tonight they had their press conference for the parents. Bjorn has turned into quite the young man. He is so articulate and very poised in front of a group. Here is a video of him giving his portion of the press conference. He was the only student to do a power point. I am definitely a proud mom!

Project 365

One of my many 2009 Resolutions includes updating my blog every Sunday. We have morning church now, so there is no excuse not to spend 15 minutes each week doing this.

For those of you who are aware of the scrapbooking world, Becky Higgins, the scrapbooking queen, has designed a kit called Project 365. The entire premise is that you take one picture each day and then journal about that picture. It can be anything you want, but it is a project that gives a glimpse of what your life is like over an entire year.

I was really excited about it and decided that I wanted to purchase this kit along with about 25,000 other crazy scrapbookers. It went on sale on January 1. I promptly got on to order it at 9:00 am when it went on sale and two hours later finally received a confirmation of my purchase. Come to find out that the kits sold out in two hours, the website crashed with so much traffic on it and there were only 5000 kits to be had.

So I am one of the lucky one's who was able to get my hands on one. Here is our life this last week.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Monday: It is a snowy day outside and quite cold. We are ready to go back to school and Anders decides it is necessary to wear his ski goggles to school.

Tuesday: It is back to swim practice! Here is Bjorn in his brand new Michael Phelps swim cap getting instructions from his coach, Wendy. This brings back so many great memories for me, as a swimmer and as a coach.

Wednesday: This is our commute to school each morning. This is a view of Pikes Pike with the sunrise hitting it. I definitely cannot complain about the scenery here or the beauty I get to see each day. This is the mountain from which Katherine Lee Bates wrote "America the Beautiful." Each day I can see first hand why she wrote "purple mountain majesties."

Thursday: Anders at swim practice. He usually has swim lessons for a half hour, but the next session doesn't start until next week, so here he is watching everyone else swim and asking when he can be on the swim team too!

Friday: 6:20 pm and we are all in our pajamas ready for bed. We were all asleep by 9:30 pm. Let's just say it was a long week. Getting up at 5:30 am each morning, teaching all day, and running the kids around to their activities after school has me pretty wiped by the end of the week. As you can probably guess, Dane is gone right now. He is hanging out in Portland, Oregon.

Saturday: Family Fun Art Day at Bemis School of Art in Colorado Springs. Every three months, the Fine Arts Center's art school has family art day that coincides with current exhibits. It is one of Anders' favorite things to do here in town. They get to paint, play with clay and experiment with all types of art mediums. We are starting to have quite the collection original art work.

We are Back!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

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Here is a slide show from this summer and this past weekend. We have been quite busy since the last time I posted. Here is a quick update of our life: July 25-Principal at Bjorn's school calls me to let me know she has to hire another 3rd grade teacher. Wants me to apply for the job. July 28-Apply for job July 29-Interview for job July 30-Get job August 6-Start teaching third grade and my first year of teaching! I am so loving it! I was not planning on looking for a job until next year, but this was such a blessing in our lives. I feel as if I was just handed this job on a plate. It is only a one year contract as the teacher whose position I took is in a one year position at the district. I am working really hard to make sure I have a position there next year. Anders started full day kindergarten and Bjorn started 5th grade. Dane was home for 7 weeks and then deployed to New Orleans for Hurricane Gustav. He is still there. He came home last weekend and we had a great time. Missing him lots! He was a great house husband my first month of school! Spent a day in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was so much fun and it so beautiful there. Passed my teacher's test in August a couple days after I got my job. Anders started playing soccer. The pictures of him looking mean at the boy from the opposite team is because he is covering him and the boy is not standing still. Last weekend at the game, Anders yelled at another boy who was moving away from him, "Hey I am covering you!" Bjorn started the swim team. We have some happy grandparents to finally have a grandchild swimming. He went to his first practice meet today. I was waxing a bit nostalgic remembering the good times growing up at the pool. Although I must say, the indoor pool is a bit nicer for the parental folks than what my parents had to deal with and still do deal with. I have been warned by my dad not to succumb to the swim meet volunteering as I will end up like my mom! We are back to school tomorrow after our two week fall break! That means no more sleeping in, taking naps or just reading a book for fun! Although I can't complain because at the end of the school day I always ask myself, "Was that work?" And I always answer no because teaching is way too much fun!