52Q-3

Question: Do you believe in fairies?

Our house has some of it's own little fairies milling about because we recently discovered the playmobile collection. My daughter acquired The Fairy Garden from Santa this Christmas. Each fairy has wings, some sort of hat (made out of a flower) or crown, and bare feet. It comes with tiny animals; a bird with a nest full of eggs, bunnies, and a butterfly. Hopefully this summer we can make an outdoor fairy garden with some of the interesting bark, leaves, and mushrooms that grow here. The magic is alive!

Granola

Here is another yummy granola recipe. It is delicious sprinkled over yogurt, or in a bowl with milk.

8 cups oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp salt
1 package sliced almonds

Put these ingredients in a bowl and mix together.

1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Put in a saucepan and bring to a boil, then pour and stir into the dry mix.

Put on two greased 9x13 pans. Cook on 300 degrees, stir every 6 minutes, 4 times.

Let cool in the pans, but be sure to stir it a couple times while it is cooling. The first time I made this I just left it to cool without stirring it and it stuck to the pan. I had to chisel it off with a knife. So be forewarned, you must stir it while it is cooling.

Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Cute Critters

This collage is created with the pictures of critters we were lucky enough to photograph in Indiana. (All except that lizard in the upper left hand corner, we found him on our vacation in Oregon.) Pictured above are a lizard, horses, lemurs, rabbit, finch, walking stick, quail, chameleon, and meerkat. The Indianapolis Zoo is amazing. The girls always enjoyed the time we spent visiting the creatures there. In our current residence, Washington State, we find a lot of new and different animals. We have a beaver dam in our backyard, see plenty of deer, wild turkeys, flickers, quail, bear, dogs, and fish. Hopefully, we can get more exciting photo's to share with you.

52Q-2

I use to be terrified of change. It put me in a bad mood when things didn't go how I planned. I am learning to embrace and accept change like a long lost friend I didn't realize I was missing. I am learning to be flexible and open to the beauty of something new.

52Q-1

Well here it is my first card of the new year.

Question #1: What do I wish for this year to bring?

• I want to learn how to use photoshop. Now I just need some quite time!


• Lots of hiking, swimming, and exploring.


• Create and organize a space for me.


• A sweet bundle of joy and love


• After the sweet bundle arrives: return to running.

Drum roll please....

We went in for the ultra sound to make sure the baby's measurements correspond with the due date. We also checked on the subchorionic Hematoma. I had hoped when the bleeding stopped that it meant the hematoma was gone. I was wrong. It is still there and measures 4 cm x 1.5 cm. I don't know what the original measurements where but I hope it is smaller.
The technician said everything looked good with the baby. And... it's a girl!

A Year of Questions and Answers

In 2007 I participated in an art journal challenge by Emily. This year she is hosting it again. If you feel like letting your creative side loose, please join. I will be posting my weekly card, so stay tuned....

Compare and Contrast

Our dog Kennel this fall.
Our dog Kennel full of snow. Notice the dog house under the tree. Almost completely buried by snow. Our picnic table and cherry tree.

Want a lick?

Subchorionic Hemorrhage

At 10 weeks and six days into my pregnancy I started bleeding. Bright red blood. I assumed I was having a miscarriage. It happened in my eleventh week with my second pregnancy. The same thing, bright red bleeding and the passage of tissue. It was the weekend, of course, when the doctors office is closed. So we called the E.R. and mentioned the symptoms. They said it would take a couple of days for the miscarriage to happen and I should only come in if I started to bleed profusely. I called my doctor on Monday morning and told her I miscarried. She wanted me to come in and get an ultrasound to make sure.

The hospital is a 40 minute drive through the mountains. I felt weak from loss of blood and emotionally spent. I had grieved the loss and expected the worse.



The ultrasound technician saw me in the hall way, limping toward the room. He asked me if I had come to get my knee checked out. (My uncomfortable gate was due to the fact that I had a full bladder which is required for this kind of ultrasound.) We told him why we were there and he had me lay down on the bed and turned the monitor away from me. He started looking around and then turned the screen toward me. "There's your baby right there."

There was a strong heartbeat and a wiggling little baby. I couldn't believe my eyes. My diagnosis: Subchorionic Hemorrhage. There are three levels of hemorrhage; mild, moderate, and severe. Mine turned out to be a moderate hemorrhage. I couldn't find much information on the Internet about this, but did find this web page. It is also known as subchorionic hematoma, which means the placenta was tearing away from the lining of the uterus. My diagnosis: 50/50 chance of keeping the baby.

I went home and slept for three days. This was around Thanksgiving time. Our plans changed and instead of visiting family we stayed close to home and I rested. My doctor advised no strenuous activities but I didn't have to go on bed rest. I was told no more running.

Now I am seventeen weeks along. I can feel the flutter of movement from the baby. It is so reassuring to finally make it to the point where I don't wonder how the baby is doing. I can sense the position changes and observe my expanding belly. I really look forward to this expanding belly.