As Carmen approaches three years old, I thought I’d share a little nostalgia with you. I miss hearing Carmen laugh, watching her look around in awe of something new and wondering what she’s thinking.
Here is a brief video of when we dedicated Carmen to the Lord in 2007. I did the best I could with the sound but it was recorded way too low. You’ll probably want to turn up your speakers.
Carmen’s Dedication to the Lord from Dave © on Vimeo.
Today was a beautiful day, way too beautiful to stay cooped up in the house. The girls and I ran some errands and afterward stopped for a treat. I picked a frozen yogurt shop, thinking that Lauren would like frozen yogurt.
Clearly, she had high expectations!
After she took a bite, she wasn’t so sure.
Lauren informed me that this was NOT chocolate ice cream and that it tasted like yogurt. She handed it to me and said, “You can have it!” No fooling this girl! She knows her chocolate ice cream!
Happy 33rd month birthday to Carmen!!! Three more months and you will be 3! Last summer we didn’t think you would make it to two years old and here you are a year later. We hope you have a comfortable, peaceful day.
Thank you Ada for coming over this morning and bringing coffee cake and tea! What a lovely way to start the day! 
Since we have a new recipes category, I decided to post a recipe. This soup is one of my favorites. I make it once per week and eat it for lunches. Dave likes it too, especially with chips and sour cream. Lauren used to eat the black beans but now says “no black beans for me”! I got this recipe from http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/.
Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 16 oz. jar prepared salsa (I use mild Sante Fe style salsa)
1 1/2 tsp cumin
Add everything to the crockpot and cook on low 8 hours. After 8 hours, take the chicken out and cut up or shred. Put chicken back in soup. Serve plain or with chips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, etc.
This soup is good the first day and FANTASTIC the next day!
The grocery store had Reese’s peanut butter eggs on Easter clearance yesterday. The cashier told me she bought twenty eggs. Lauren is allergic to peanut butter so we have banned all peanut products from our house. I am going to eat an egg on the porch in the rain so I don’t contaminate the house. Dave gets to eat his at work today. The things we do for our kids!
I would rather have a Reese’s peanut butter cup than Godiva or any of those other “fancy” chocolates!
Ok, gotta run and eat my egg!
Carmen update: After 8 months of treating C-diff, the doctors don’t think it’s C-diff. Carmen has not responded at all to Flagyl or Vancomycin. Carmen just finished a 6 week tapered dose of Vancomycin and did not have one day without mucous diarrhea. She continues to test positive for C-diff. The doctors think she is a carrier but the continuous mucous diarrhea is from something else. (Good call Danielle!) They have tested for all sorts of possibilities but every test is negative. They switched her formula but that didn’t stop the diarrhea (from Nutren Jr. to Neocate Jr.). The infectious disease doctor is ordering three more tests (I cannot remember what she is testing for) so hopefully we will get an answer soon. The positive in all of this is that the diarrhea doesn’t seem to bother Carmen at all. In fact, she is far more comfortable than when she was chronically constipated before all of the diarrhea started. Anyone want to take a stab at the Mystery Diagnosis?????
We added a “Recipes” category to our site. A few people have emailed asking for a recipes category so that it is easier to find a previously posted recipe. Thanks, I am very flattered!
Connie, Carmen’s former nurse who moved away, gave Lauren the Cranium game, the Balloon Lagoon. We had loads of fun playing it today. Thanks Connie!
