Amazing sugar cookies!

I came across a recipe for Swig sugar cookies on Facebook last week and decided to veganize them.  Oh my gosh they were amazing!  I wanted to post the recipe with my modifications, but the woman who posted it asked that it not be copied.  So, you can find the original recipe here, and just know that I used vegan butter, sour cream, egg replacer and milk.  Oh, and I used yellow food coloring rather than red.

the week in review :)

Cora and Thalia have continued to recover from their surgeries and were able to go back to school on Wednesday.  They were both very excited to get back into their normal routines, but it was kind of bittersweet for me to have them go.  I had gotten used to having them around during the day.

Maizie went to the orthodontist on Thursday after losing her last baby tooth only the night before, and was told she can start her braces any time.  I'll be scheduling her appointment on Monday.  She'll be the last to get braces for a while because we have to finish paying for Jonah and Ethan's before we can add another.

Thursday was also the 3-month anniversary of my mom's death.  I miss her so much.

On Friday, Zoe got into a car wreck and totaled our little white Saturn.  Thankfully, she and the other couple involved were OK, but it's going to be hard for us to be without this car.  It was the car that was supposed to be going with Joshua to BYU after his mission.  There's no room in the budget for a replacement, plus our insurance will go up, so we're just going to have to make due for now.

Friday was really a bummer day, but Curtis and I went out with some friends to plan Zoe's and their son's joint graduation party, and then Curtis and I went to volunteer at Bountiful Baskets.  We had a really good time and it was just what we needed to take our minds off the events of the day.

Here are a few pictures:

Thalia, after Zoe brought some goodies to the hospital

Thalia back at school

Our Saturn :o(

weekly menu

This is the menu for the coming week.  A bunch of us (including me) are sick with some awful stomach bug, so there's nothing planned for today.  I've had a cup of white rice in the last 24 hours.  ;)

Creamy black bean taquitos (We make these all the time and they are yummy!)
Warm fingerling potato salad (I'm adding broccoli and tempeh bacon to make it more of a main dish.)
Cheesy mushroom quinoa (I chose this because it will use up my kale, mushrooms and bokchoy, plus it sounds tasty!)

Here's what we got from Bountiful Baskets this week, and there are a few other things I already had on hand:


oranges - lunch
mandarin oranges - snacks
mangoes (small and large) - snacks, later
strawberries - lunch
watermelon - lunch
pineapple - Tuesday
grapes - lunch
bananas - later

bok choy - Wednesday
green peppers - lunch
kale - Wednesday
green onions - Tuesday
red potatoes - later
rainbow carrots - Thursday
baby carrots - lunch
snow peas - lunch
mushrooms - Wednesday
broccoli - lunch and Tuesday
spinach - Thursday
romaine lettuce - Thursday
green leaf lettuce - Thursday
asparagus - Wednesday
tomatoes - later
roma tomatoes -Thursday

weekly menu

Sorry there are no recipes for this week.  With all we've had going on with Thalia and me being gone for so many days, this is the best I can do.  I will confess that the falafel balls are coming from a mix this time, and I plan to bake them rather than fry them.  I'm making the tzatziki sauce from plain almond yogurt.  I have some really yummy soft pita bread I got at Costco that we'll stuff everything into, along with some lettuce.  Okonomiyaki are Japanese pizza-like fried pancake-type things.  There are a few vegan recipes out there, but I'm thinking I'll use a traditional recipe and just replace the eggs with flax meal.  It's my favorite egg replacer for things that need a good binder.  I'll be mixing napa cabbage, green onion and maybe bok choy into the batter, then topping with mushrooms and bacon (which get fried into the pancake).  Then we'll top with nori flakes, mayo (Kewpie is the traditional kind, but we'll use Vegenaise) and homemade okonomiyaki sauce.

For the pizzas, I have pre-made brick oven flatbreads for the base.  I'll use the white cheese sauce that I often use in recipes and have posted many times here before (use the search box and look for baked ziti for the recipe).  Then we'll top with arugula, mushrooms and asparagus, all of which we have in ample supply this week.

My lettuce wrap sauce is a little different every time, but usually it's soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger, red pepper flakes, garlic, sugar, Sriracha, and a little corn starch to thicken.  This time I may make a peanut-y sauce, but I always have to make separate sauce for my peanut-allergic Zoe when I do that.  Anyway, even though we don't like to use too many processed vegan "faux meats" in our meals, I'll be using Boca veggie crumbles for this.

Catching up...

The past week has been a whirlwind.  After throwing together a surgery date for Cora and Thalia to get their tonsils and adenoids out (and for Thalia to get tubes) in Billings, we ended up having to do three pre-op appointments, including a cardiology visit for Thalia in Billings.  We learned that although her medical reports from China said her heart was healthy, she actually has mild leaks in her aortic and mitral valves.  Ironically, these leaks have nothing to do with Down syndrome, but are probably due to her having had rheumatic fever at one point.  :o(  She'll have to be seen yearly, and at some point they'll have to be surgically managed.

The T&A surgeries went well.  We stayed overnight in Billings in a hotel just to make sure all was well, and then headed home.  Unfortunately, Thalia completely quit eating and drinking, and what little we were able to get into her she threw up.  That night (Tuesday), Thalia also threw up a surgical sponge!  We have no idea how she swallowed it, but we called the ENT and he speculated that it had come from the anesthesiologist since all of his sponges have a blue radiographic thread in them.  He asked us to save it and bring it to him at our follow-up appointment, but I also called the manager of the surgery center to let her know about it.  She said she would investigate it and would start with the anesthesiologist as well.  We'll see what they find out.  I'm just grateful Thalia didn't choke on it or something!

Anyway, Thalia got so dehydrated that we had to take her in for IV fluids on Wednesday.  On Thursday she was no better, so she was admitted and didn't leave until Saturday.  She absolutely would not eat or drink, and she was super lethargic!  I was really starting to worry, so our bishop and Curtis gave her a blessing on Friday night.  Miraculously, within one hour, she was eating, drinking, smiling, and using the bathroom.  I know that she was healed by this blessing.  We were able to take her home the next morning and she's been doing great since.

Cora, on the other hand, has done well with the after care, but is now facing the real possibility of having to have another surgery.  She had such enlarged tonsils and adenoids (her tonsils TOUCHED in the middle!) and snoring/apnea that we really had no choice but to remove them, but now she's left with a significantly hyper nasal voice.  She is unable to build up any oral pressure for sounds like p/b and t/d, so they come out sounding like m and n, and all of her speech sounds resonate in her nasal cavity.  She sounds they way a child with a cleft palate does.  I'm just sick over it.  She doesn't need one more problem in her life or one more thing to make her different.  I'm going to call the ENT's office today and ask if we can do endoscopy at her follow-up to determine whether she's got enough structure to work with (and therefore therapy might be helpful) or whether she'll need surgical management.  My gut tells me it will be surgery.  Dang it.

Joshua emailed today and is doing great.  I can't wait to talk to him via Skype on Mother's Day!  He's such a great kid and I miss him a ton.

Teffy is going prom dress shopping tonight for her Job Corps prom next month.  I'm excited for her.

Zoe is busy planning her graduation activities.  I'm ordering her announcements today.

Ethan is doing great with soccer.  He had two games in Livingston over the weekend which they lost, but he had fun.

Jonah has been sick but went to school today.  He, Zoe and Ethan also had district music festival over the weekend.  They find out today what their ratings were.

Loundia is busy with track and tried out and made it on the high school dance team for next year.  We're really proud of her.

Lily is also busy with track.  Her IEP is coming up and we're hoping we can FINALLY get them to commit to get her a full-time interpreter.

Maizie is doing great and enjoying all the new skills she's learning in gymnastics.  The gym is expanding soon and she's thrilled about all the new space and equipment, plus they're getting ready to start competing around the state.

Sofie is big into gymnastics right now too.  She's doing well in school and generally happy these days.  :o)

Thalia and Cora should be going back to school in a couple of days, and I know they're looking forward to that.

Jackson is kicking hiney all over the soccer field.  He gets goals in every game they play.  It's so fun to watch him!  We've never had such a sports-inclined kid!

Beck is counting the days until he is no longer a kindergartener.  He's enjoying his hip hop class and wishing he could be on Jack's soccer team.

All the kids just had their piano recital last weekend.  I'll try to get some video uploaded soon.  They did great.  :o)

Joshua's email - 4/22/13

DANG! Time flies!!!!!!  This week went by crazy fast!!

Elder M and I have been working HARD! We're trying to find new investigators so we're working with members, and we've been doing some tracting, and contacting potentials.  We've got a few people that seem pretty promising that we're trying to work with, so that's exciting!!

We're still working with A!!! We had a lesson with her last week and it was actually one of the best lessons we've had in a while!!  She read 12 chapters of the Book of Mormon a couple nights prior to our lesson and she LOVED  Lehi's Tree of Life vision!!!!!  We talked all about that and about how she's been feeling the Spirit SO STRONG when she reads the Book of Mormon.  We invited her to come to church, and she said she works on Sundays.  So we talked to her about how Heavenly Father blesses us with miracles when we show our faith.  We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 and talked about all the difficult things Nephi and his family were asked to do, but how Heavenly Father helped them to be able to work through those difficult times and challenges.  She liked that a lot! So she's planning on talking with her boss to see if she can get Sundays off so she can come to church!! WOOHOO!!

I had a ridiculously awesome exchange with a missionary by the name of Elder L this week!  He's been out 19 months and he's been a Zone Leader more than half of his mission.  He taught me A TON!!!!!!!!!!!  The funny thing is that I google searched "Wisconsin Milwaukee mission" before I came out, and I found a video on youtube of two missionaries playing and singing a song about P-Day on Youtube.  When I came out, I asked my trainer, Elder G, if there was a missionary named Elder L in the field, and he said, "yes, but it's probably not the same one."..... So the other day when I was on exchanges with Elder L, I asked, "So, this might be a really weird question.... but did you ever record a video of you and your companion playing and singing a song about P-day?"  His eyes widened and he exclaimed, "YOU SAW THAT?!?!?!?"   HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! It made his day to hear that I had seen that video! So that was pretty cool.  He turned out to be an incredible missionary and I learned so much from him!! I enjoyed that exchange more than any other exchange I've been on!

Anyway I love you ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Also, I keep forgetting to mention that I think the youth of the ward (and anyone else who would like to) should make Mormon.org profiles!!!!!!!!!!!!  Everyone in Utah has 'em! All the cool kids are doin' it!!!!  Write me and hopefully I'll see you guys on mormon.org sometime soon!!!! Yay!

Love,

Elder Whicker!!!

Joshua's email 4/15/13

Dang!! This week has definitely had its ups and downs, but things are definitely looking up! We were supposed to have a lesson with the Cs!! We were planning on extending a baptismal date! But they had to cancel because they've been having some family struggles.  They asked if we could just not meet with them "for a few weeks" and so we were pretty bummed about that.  Elder M and I, and some of the members prayed HARD and fasted for them, and I called them and talked to them about how important it is to keep making good choices, ESPECIALLY when we're faced with opposition.  And as long as we rely on the Lord, he'll take care of the rest.  They really felt that was true, so eventually they agreed that they should keep meeting with us, so we now have an appointment with them this Wednesday!!! I really hope we can finally reset a date for them... They're SO READY to be baptized!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting, which I always enjoy because Elder C is one of our Zone Leaders.  His companion Elder H is just like him too, so I love 'em!!!!  Elder C is definitely one of my favorite people I've ever met, hahahahaha! He's hilarious and always brightens up the day! Haha.  He's coming home this year and going back to MCC in Miles City, so make sure to give him a warm welcome this Fall!!!

Afterwards, we had some lessons with some partmember families, that turned out pretty well.  One of the families isn't really progressing much, but the other one is, so we'll keep working with them.  We invited them to begin having Family Home Evening! So we'll follow up on that with them soon!!!

We came into contact with R and L again! They've been gone a couple weeks looking for a home that they can move into near Chicago I think.  We invited them to come to church, and asked about them reading the Book of Mormon.  They said they'd love to come to church and they've been reading the Book of Mormon!  They say it doesn't make much sense to them yet, but we're trying to set up an appointment to teach them the Restoration so that they can more fully understand where the Book of Mormon came from and why it's important.

We found a few new potential investigators from tracting and doing prayer surveys!  One guy, named H, let us in his home and we talked to him about prayer and strengthening our relationship with God.  He's a trucker, so he's gone a lot, but he said he'd come to church whenever he gets a chance!  We also found a girl named J who we gave a Book of Mormon to and prayed with.  She started crying!  So we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she said she would start.  Way cool!

That has pretty much been our week!  Areli cancelled our appointment, but hopefully we can get something set up with her again.  She's just been busy with work.  R and L are way cool, so hopefully we can set baptismal dates with them too.  I love watching when investigators start reading the Book of Mormon and they can feel the Spirit and they catch that glimpse of the Glory of God! Just gotta keep it up and can't lose that focus! Same goes for missionaries, and pretty much every one of God's children as well!

Love you all!

Elder Whicker!