Sourdough

This has to be fast because I hear someone playing after his nap. He hasn't hollered yet so I'll get this done.

I was able to get some bread baked yesterday after the fiasco with my starter. It turned out okay. Still isn't exactly what I want, but is tasty. Also, I think I'll have to use a different recipe. The one I used is for a honey whole wheat sourdough bread, so it has a different flavor. I didn't have whole wheat flour so I added wheat germ and ground flax seed that I do have. This is what came out...

Once this is gone I'll have to bake some more. By then my starter should be good and sour too.

Sourdough Monster

I decided to try making a sourdough starter. Now you have to understand that I generally haven't cooked a whole lot in my lifetime and I haven't played with sourdough other than the Amish Friendship Bread that gets passed around for awhile. I have found several recipes for the starter here lately and since I've been experimenting with baking bread I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Easy right? Wrong. Well, mixing it up was. So was leaving it to bubble and ferment in a warm spot. I mixed the flour, water, yeast, and sugar. I put it in a container above my stove since I knew it would be warm in the cupbard there. I was making Navy bean and ham soup. I went into the living room with Bear and vaccuumed or something that took a little bit of time, but not tons. When I went back into the kitchen to stir the soup there was some sort of dough on my teapot. I couldn't remember spilling any while I was putting the starter up. I looked up and when I opened the cupboard I found this:

This was Bear watching me clean up the mess. He wasn't too sure about the crazy growing stuff. Neither was I to be honest. At least I was able to rescue most of the starter. We'll see if I can make bread with it. At least I know my yeast is good.

Merry Christmas

It's a white Christmas in Montana. We have about a foot of snow and it is still snowing. Tom and I are planning on going cross-country skiing here after a bit. I thought I would put a couple of Christmas photos on here from Bear's first Christmas. He is the one kid I've seen actually go for what is in the package versus the paper or box. He doesn't seem to have too much interest in the boxes.

We are certainly blessed this Christmas. Good friends and family, albiet too far away. Christmas in our new home has been a very pleasant one. It would have been nice to have everyone here, but the weather isn't very cooperative this year, not to mention schedules.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Travels

The above are earlier pictures that have needed to be posted. Tom and Bear like to play when Tom gets home from work.

Now onto Bear and my travels... A month or so ago my best friend, Jo, and I decided we needed to get together and make Christmas cookies. Well I picked this last weekend. Bear and I flew to ID and my folks came and got us. We got to drive to their house in blowing snow. A cold windy start and an indication of what was to come. We visited with the grandparents for a day or so, then went to Jo's house to bake cookies. Bear got to watch Christmas cartoons while I baked. The old good ones like "Rudolph" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Mom and I drove back to their house that night in a pretty good snow storm. Not too bad, but it wasn't a fast drive.

Then came the crazy trip home to MT. Tom and I decided last minute to send me out of Jackson instead of Idaho Falls, a good thing too as the flight out of Idaho Falls had cancelled. There were also more seats available and an earlier flight. That way I might have a shot of making it from SLC to Missoula (everything was full or overbooked). Well we made it to Jackson okay in spite of the pass being pretty hairy driving. Bear and I got on the flight okay, but then we proceeded to sit on the airplane for 2 and a half hours while we waited for the runway to be cleared and the plane to be de-iced. It was snowing like crazy. Bear is such a great traveller that he took all this in stride. He ate, napped, and played. Not a bit of fussing. Well, a tiny bit that only I noticed. As we sat and waited for the runway to be cleared, the cabin door had iced up. The crew was determined though. We had the announcement of "We will be getting this door closed." They did, and we made it into the air, and a very short flight later, we were in SLC.

There our saga continued. The weather all over the country had gotten bad. Several Denver flights had been re-routed to SLC. This is in addition to the traffic of the holidays. The E concourse was crazy! There were flights being delayed and cancelled all over. Bear and I tried to make it on 3 different flights that late morning and early afternoon. Not a single open seat to MT. That is to any city in MT, not just Missoula. We killed several hours in the airport. Bear made friends at the airport with a couple of kids who were about 10-12 years old and were also non-revving to MT. He had a great time people watching and playing with little dogs that were stuck at the airport too. Finally at about 3 p.m. there was a flight to Kalispell and one to Missoula. They were leaving about 10 minutes apart and we were listed on both. All of a sudden we were paged for the Kalispell flight. We had a seat! We ran for the plane without a moment's notice and Bear's friends made it on too. What fun. Everyone was excited to make it on a flight.

We let Tom know that we needed picked up in Kalispell which is about a two and a half hour drive from Missoula where Tom was. He drove to come get us in a snow storm. We landed and got to hang out in the airport for an hour or so while we waited for Tom to make his way through snow and traffic to get there. Finally we were reunited with Tom and Buddy! (Tom had stopped at the house to pick up the dog.)

We went to dinner and debated spending the night in Kalispell since it was a good 80 mile drive home. We decided to drive, for Bear and I were ready to sleep in our own beds. We had okay roads as the storm had subsided. As we neared St. Iggy, we could see someone had their hazards on. We slowed and realized the guy's truck had broken down. We stopped and helped of course (we are in Montana after all). He used Tom's phone to call his uncle that lived up the road, and we waited with him until his uncle got there. He also had his wife and new baby in the truck. Now you have to understand we live on an indian reservation, so yes they were Native American. Kinda the stereotypical kind to boot. Long hair, missing teeth, tattoos, and camo clothes. Really nice though. The sad part of living on the res is that there are people who make Tom and I look wealthy even when we are broke. At any rate his uncle and cousin showed up, and we finally finished our drive home. We pulled in at about 10 pm, a relief since Bear and I had gotten up at 4 am so we could get to the airport by 6 am. Needless to say we all slept in this morning. Bear joined Tom and I in bed at about 6 am, and we didn't actually get up until almost 11 am. I love Christmas vacation!

Here's Bear enjoying Grammy and Grandpa's Tree and living room.

Bear hamming it up with Grammy. She's just out of the frame.

The train in the snow on the way to the airport at the beginning of our trip. We were almost to Evaro and the tracks are right next to the road. This is about 4:30 a.m. since we had to be there for Tom's shift that starts at 5 a.m.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Brrrrrr!!

This was our dining room window a couple days ago. From the inside.

We made it up to about 10 degrees F above zero! This means we got half of our house thawed out. We've been covering windows and trying to thaw pipes for two days now. We have weird frozen pipes. At first we didn't have water in the kitchen, nor did we have hot water anywhere. That was yesterday. Today: still no water in the kitchen, but then for awhile our bathtub drain and the water was frozen. As of this evening, we have both hot and cold in the kitchen, no hot in the bathroom, but the water is draining out of the tub. At least this means we can easily do dishes, and we can now do laundry. This is still bad news for showers though. Bear can take baths in his little tub on the table with heated water no problem, but Tom and I just haven't figured out how to fit in his tub.

He's pretty happy being bundled against the cold. This has been the nap outfit of late. His heater in his room just hasn't been cutting it (we are working on that issue among others). He sleeps with Tom and I at night when it gets really cold. We all four pile in together. Bear, Tom, myself, and Buddy at the foot of the bed. It gets toasty warm then.

Meanwhile we are also trying to get ready for visiting, visitors, and the holidays in general. I think I have one more Christmas card to write and then mail. One other to mail as soon as I get an address. I figured that is one thing I'd better get done this year; what with a new house and baby.

Our first bit of snow. We only got about 6 inches. Nothing like Austria. So sad about that. We are supposed to get some more snow in the next couple days before we get sub-zero temps again.

cold

We had the snow earlier today, but now it is cold! My windows are all frosty. Those are my house windows, not car windows. According to the weather on the computer it is about 1 degree F. Brrrrr. I'm not about to go out to find out what it really is here. My thermometer is out on the garage. I just don't want to know the temperature that badly. Besides it being snowy and cold the wind is blowing. I do love winter! I kinda hope it gets bad enough that Tom can't go to work tomorrow. A snow day would be great.

Tomorrow will be a day of getting more photos off of the camera. Then we'll have the photos of snow. Right now I'm freezing out...there is quite a draft by the computer.

Snow!!! Yippee!

We are finally getting some snow after having none. It hasn't seemed like it is almost Christmas. For goodness sakes we had almost 50 degrees F only a couple weeks ago. Now we have about 6 inches and it is continuing to snow. It is supposed to do this today and then it is supposed to get bitter cold the next couple of days. I guess tomorrow our high is supposed to be -1 F. I'm okay with that so long as the sun is out. I love cold sunny days. I know this one is short, but I'd better get some sweeping and shovelling done while Bear sleeps.

Trees,snow, and the holidays

We have yuck weather here lately. We had a tiny bit of snow the other day. Just enough to get the hopes up but no more. It rained last night and melted the skiff that was here. The mountains are beautiful with snow, but none here in the valley. I'm hoping we get some by Christmas. I like the not having to drive in it, but it doesn't seem like the Christmas season without the ground being white. We are trying to make it feel a bit like Christmas anyway with our tree. It's still better than a tropical Christmas. I do like the weather to actually change once in awhile.

Here's Tom and Barrett (above)before the tree was decoratedOur tree with the train after the lights went on. It's tough getting a photo in a dark room of a lit up tree.

Bear was sunbathing one nice day recently. Made for some good pictures, most of which I won't put on here. I don't think the poor kid would appreciate that later in life.

Holidays

We got our tree up and decorated tonight. I don't think I've ever had a tree up this soon. Not even officially Dec. A few more hours to go for that. The train is set up underneath. It will be fun for Bear's first Christmas. He sat and watched the train go round and round as Tom put ornaments on the tree. It's exciting to see kids at Christmas. It will be more and more fun as he gets older. It will be nice to have our house this year to start traditions like the train and putting the stockings and tree up. On a tiny bit of a side note: We got the tree because they had them at the grocery store for 10 dollars. We couldn't resist.

Late November Photos

I'm finally getting the photos uploaded. Bear is now eating solid foods so we got some of him eating and making a cute mess. Grandpa decided to have Bear try chocolate. He liked it. I have almost the exact same picture from being a baby with my dad.

Here's Bear and his first meeting of his great-grandad.

Here's Bear helping Dad do laundry and modeling his hat that Omi got him.

Hanging out with Great-Grandad Thanksgiving day just before we came home.
Reading the new Christmas catalog from Duluth when we got home Thanksgiving day. He liked Dad's hat so he got to wear it for a bit.

Four generations:

Turkey Day

So Bear got to meet his great-grandad this Thanksgiving. It was pretty neat getting to see four generations together. With me not being a teen mom I wasn't so sure the kid would get to have any great-grandparents. I'm glad he does. He actually has 3 on my side and 2 on Tom's. It's pretty fun to see my grandad play with my son. I'll get some pictures on here hopefully tomorrow so long as Bear lets me. The travelling hasn't done too well on his schedule. More tomorrow...

training

Just a quick word or two since I'm already up too late...We've been busy this week with grandparents who are babysitting/visiting. I'm still working this week and Tom is in SLC. More training. We'll be visiting my folks for Thanksgiving so we can see the house I grew up in again. It is on the market. Of course in this economic down turn it may be there awhile, but you never know. At least it is giving them time to work on the place in order to sell. And, "Off to bed" said Sleepyhead. I have work tomorrow. More later.

Doctor visit

Just a quick one tonight... Bear is now 17 pounds and is 27 inches long. We had the 4 month check today. Good healthy kid who is growing like a weed. He had another round of shots too. He is such a tough kid. He cries when he gets the shots, but stops not long after. By the time we had his clothes back on and a coat on he was done crying. Even to the point that we went out to eat across the street from the doctor's office. It is so nice that we can do that all within walking distance of the house. My boys are off to bed, Bear is already there and Tom is on his way. I think it's time for me to work on doing some dishes and getting some reading done.

Finally I make good on my promise of photos.

I'm realizing that the last time I posted I said I would put photos up the next day. Oops. Here they are. He's sitting un-assisted in the middle of Tom and I's bed. He's been drooling a lot lately. I'm thinking he may be working on some teeth. We'll see if they pop up soon.

Missing things is what happens when I go back to work. Thank goodness they let me have Bear with me on Monday mornings. We have not yet had to use daycare or a babysitter. This next week Tom is back in SLC so my parents are coming to visit and help me out with Bear. That will be his first time with anyone besides Tom and I. It will be interesting to see how everyone fairs.

It is finally acting like fall. Cold nights, sunny days, and snow on the mountains. So far still no snow down here in the valley. That's okay for driving back and forth to work. It makes the roads much nicer without the snow.

Mornings are pretty quiet around here. Bear is awake but just playing in his crib, and Buddy is asleep on the couch. Buddy thinks he's a person. I'm thinking Bear is just about asleep, but I'm staying away from the door in case he isn't. If he isn't he'll see me and want to get up and play. Not that I would mind terribly, just that he needs his naps. It's amazing that if a kid doesn't sleep during the day they don't sleep well at night either. Doesn't make sense to me. I don't know what has changed the last two nights, but Bear has decided his belly is empty at 3 a.m. again. Must be a growth spurt. All I know is it's kicking my butt. I'm not used to being up at that time of day anymore.

Latest update

We had two big milestones today. Bear laughed out loud and he sat by himself. He's been working on sitting. (He'd much rather be there than on his tummy.) I set him in the middle of Tom and I's bed at one point and he just sat all on his own. No help from Mom and no pillows supporting the bottom. Bear has a great laugh. He decided his dog was funny. Buddy was just hanging out in the living room not far from us doing his normal dog stuff. Scratching, playing with a toy, etc. All of a sudden Bear was giggling. I'm not sure why he thinks his dog is so funny but he does. Their realationship is fun to watch. Buddy loves to lick Bear. He thinks Bear is delicious. Although Buddy is very good, I do have to watch extra carefully now that Bear is grabbing and pulling hair. I know how much it can hurt when Bear gets ahold of me, and I think Buddy is a bit of a wimp when it comes to getting his hair pulled. Poor Buddy has whined a couple of times all ready as Bear got ahold and pulled. I tell Bear that he has to be gentle and make him let go. All the while telling Buddy he's being good. Someday Bear will start to connect that he is actually hurting the dog when he pulls. Problem is that I don't want to discourage him too much since he's just learning his motor skills. At the same time I don't want Buddy to have to resort to defending himself or end up not liking Bear. So far they seem to love each other, but we'll see if that continues.
I'll get some pictures on here tomorrow. For now it's off to bed to try to keep up with the kiddo.

Cold

So one more day of not going to work. Bear is feeling better, but I didn't think he needed a day at the shop. He is still a bit snotty, but the sneezes have become few and far between. Thank goodness. Suprisingly he's stayed in a pretty good mood. I know I don't stay that smiley while sick.

We have snow progressing down the mountain-side. Slowly the snowline will reach us. I hope it does soon. I love the first snow. Although I suppose we should let it wait until we get our leaves raked. I don't see why though. I love the first snow! I don't think I could ever live where there weren't four seasons. That's the majority of the fun. The change.

I'd better run and see if I can get my laundry and dishes done while Bear is asleep. Maybe I'll even get some cookies baked.

First Cold

So, I'm at home on a very rainy election day with Bear, who is sick. For being sick he is in a very good mood. It is just a minor cold. (Thanks Dad.) I'm just glad he waited until he's four months old to get sick. I don't know if I could have taken him getting sick when he's any littler. He's too little as it is. A person that small shouldn't be allowed to get colds. Poor kid doesn't even know how to blow his nose at this point. The suction bulb is not a fun way to do things. Bear doesn't like having things stuffed up his nose, and I don't particularly care for being the one stuffing things up his nose. I thought that he would be the one putting things up his nose and that it would come at a later date. You know, marbles, peas, and who knows what else. I must say though that I'm glad that hasn't come about yet.

Okay, I was talking about his cold though... It isn't bad, just a stuffy nose. I want to make sure he gets enough sleep and we can get the stuffy nose to clear. I don't want it to get any worse in other words. So far he's still smiley, but makes funny noises when he breathes. That and he sneezes lots. The nicest part has been that I was able to talk to his nurse yesterday. She called me for a completely different topic and asked how Bear was doing. When I said he had a bit of a cold she called me back with a recipe for a home-made saline solution to put in his nose. This is because the cold medicines have been over medicating kids, so they aren't recommending that parents give kids (especially infants) the o.t.c. cold medicine. I'm okay with that since I don't even particularly care for medicines for myself. I like to get better, but it's nice to do it without drugs if possible. So we are doing the saline solution, have a humidifier going in his room, when he's nursing I make sure to have the baby Vicks on my chest. I found his skin doesn't like having Vicks put on it so I put it on me so he still gets the effects of the medicine, but doesn't have to have it irritate his skin.

In re-reading what I've written I realize it isn't the medicine itself that is over-medicating. It's the dosage instructions on the label and/or parents where the fault lies. It isn't the medicine that is making a decision.

In talking about medicine though, I am going to run to the grocery store and see what they have for eucolyptus oil or something of the sort to put in his humidifier. I'd like to have more options for making the little guy feel better. We are going to have to bundle up though because of the rain. That is one bad thing about today... I can't run by myself and leave Bear here in bed since Tom is in Salt Lake for training. That's also why I'm not at work today. Thank goodness work is good about that sort of thing.

Update to Halloween

So I finally got the photos taken care of. It is a bit of a fiasco since my camera's software isn't on Tom's computer which is now the computer hooked to the internet. Anyway... the photos... This is Bear being licked by his dog. This is how we went trick-or-treating, minus the dog. Evidence below. Also below is Tom dressed as Harry Potter. He even went so far as to darken his eyebrows. (Not in this picture. I took this the night before so I didn't have to get up at 3:30 a.m. with him.)

Other video of Bear

So here's another one, the one that is also on Facebook. It's a bit better quality, but older. Bear was just getting the hang of smiling well. Now he's got it down pat. He's decided here lately that Dad is pretty darn funny.

Halloween

So we had our first Halloween. Oh my goodness our little town sure knows how to turn out the trick-or-treaters. In two hours we went through 5 big bags of candy. Our street was congested with little goblins, pirates, witches, dragons, and many others. I couldn't believe the turn out. Even Bear went trick-or-treating. A good friend of ours brought her two girls up and we walked up two blocks and came back down the other side of the street. It was plenty for the little ones. Then we sat here and had a blast handing out candy to all the other kids.

I love Halloween! It means I get to dress up. I went as my standard witch. Bear didn't seem bothered by the fact that his mom didn't look normal. Granted I didn't go all out like Tom did. He dressed as Harry Potter. Even went so far as to dye his hair brown. Yes, permenant dye. I was pretty amazed. I have pictures that I am having problems getting off my camera onto Tom's computer. I forget that his computer isn't set up with my camera's software etc. I'll have to get those onto my computer and then his. It's a bit of a fiasco.

But at any rate Bear got wrapped in a fall colored quilt and wore his pumpkin hat while we went out. I decided it wasn't that big of a deal for him to get super dressed up. Once he is starting to get excited about getting dressed up then we'll put more time and effort into a costume. At this point it seems kinda silly. Especially when his Aunt Tracy made him the cutest little pumpkin hat. Bear models the hat well, I think.

For those on Facebook, I've posted another video there. It's older, but a better one in that you can actually see most of it. I'll work on getting it here as well for those not on Facebook.

Video

So hopefully this works... It's a bit grainy (ok, very) but it's the Bear and Buddy with Bear modeling his new pumpkin hat from his Aunt Tracy. Buddy sure does like his boy. Bear is starting to figure out that his puppy-dog is awfully nice to pet. Buddy has decided that Bear tastes good.

A great smile

Fall

Just thought I would post the photos I promised yesterday... We have Tom and I's commute. This is topping the hill above St. Ignatius:

This one is almost to Missoula:Then we have Tom and Bear getting the list ready for my birthday dinner. You can see my mostly painted kitchen in the background:

One of my new favorites:
Another new favorite:

Paint

So I've finally gotten the gumption to paint the kitchen. I'm not done but it is coming along nicely. For tonight anyway... Bear isn't very good at letting me get things done during the day. He must be going through another growth spurt. He has not been wanting to nap much here lately. All he wants to do is eat. Mom just can't keep up. I think he's pushing 20 pounds already. I'd say he's at least 15 pounds, but I think it's more. We'll find out soon. Our four month check up is the 14th. Another round of shots and all the weight and height checks.

But I was talking about the new color of my kitchen. (See... He doesn't even let me type about things because I start talking about him.) So we moved in and the house is completely white walls as most of the family has seen. Well I really like blue and yellow together for a kitchen. I found some great bowls and a plate that are a navy blue with bright sunflowers on them. Perfect yellow. So now my kitchen walls are almost a sunflower/daffadil yellow color. My cabinets are still white; as is all the trim. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to paint the dining room and living room so they all tie into each other. We also need to paint the bedrooms, but I can do those "to taste." They aren't nearly as critical to coordinate with the rest of the house. The living room needs to be coordinated with our light/slate blue color along with the yellow from the kitchen and something in the dining room to tie them together. I don't want things to be too neutral, but I don't need to be too dramatic either. You see my dilema now?

Okay I'm starting to get rummy from being up too late. I know there aren't any photos this round, but I'll try to get things going tomorrow on that. I have some more to put on the computer. Including some of the larch along our drive to work. Fall is truly beautiful here.

Hanging out with my boys. Rather, not as much as I'd like.

So I have started working full time again... I haven't decided if I like it or not. I enjoy work. That isn't a problem. What I don't like is only getting to see Bear 3 days a week and not having a full day off with Tom. That's no fun. Problem is that I don't get paid to stay at home with the kiddo. It would be great if I did, but just haven't figured that one out yet.

I am amazed how quickly Bear grows. I sort through his clothes about every 2 weeks to pull the stuff out that is too small and rotate in the bigger stuff. They always tell you the kids will grow like weeds. It isn't that you don't believe them, it's just until you go through it there really is no concept there.

It sounds like someone is up from his nap...