Chicken, vegetable and rice soup

It's been a while since I've posted about food, so I thought I should mention last night's dinner.  I made a pretty thick soup/chowder and everyone seemed to like it...

Here's what I used, though I wish I had used more chicken and maybe added some garlic to the crockpot, along with some pepper at the end...

1 whole onion
4 celery stalks
2 chicken breasts cut into half dollar sized pieces
some leftover frozen carrots and corn - we had more corn than carrots due to a Boog-sized rabbit ;)

I let all that cook in the crockpot with some chicken broth all day.

When I got home at the end of the day, I used this cream base that I found on Allrecipes.com.  We didn't have any pepper apparently, so I couldn't use that...but I did add a tablespoon of minced garlic and let the cream base heat a bit more.

Anyway, once the cream base was done, I added it to the crockpot, including the extra chicken broth, which made it a little less thick - I wasn't sure if it was going to be too thin, but it was actually thicker than I would have liked since I served it over rice for me and The Boy...Boog decided he didn't want rice with his "soupa" but ended up eating a big bowl of it.

My sister and her friend also had some and said it was good...Surprisingly enough, there was enough for all 4 adults, Boog, The Boy had a second bowl and there's some left in the fridge...

Update!

My awesome Boogie is working on day 3 of no diaper!  He went all day Friday and again yesterday with no diaper except at bedtime.  I am so proud and ecstatic over this - and he made the move all by himself, which makes it that much better.

Blog updates:
the view from here now has a FaceBook and Twitter page!!

the view from here can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/lifehereonout - @lifehereonout.  And FaceBook is https://www.facebook.com/lifehereonout.  Please be patient while I get these pages up and running.

And an official logo is in the near future...

a month...

So i just checked my email and saw one from Baskin-Robbins...they have a birthday club, for kids and adults...and it takes me getting this email to realize that my birthday is in a month...time has kinda flown this year...maybe it's because of watching Boog grow up...watching the new things he does and how big he's getting...

For example, he was having cereal for breakfast this morning...which is probably healthier for him that the little mini donuts he usually gets, but Mommy is a slacker this week and hasn't gotten more...he got the milk out of the fridgerfator (refrigerator) for me...and told me it was heavy, but he's strong boy...and he made sure to push the juice container back when it started to slip off the shelf...

He decided this morning that he didn't want to put a new diaper on when he got dressed this morning, he wanted to wear his unnerwear...the ones with Patrick Star on them...so that's what we did...he made it through breakfast and the ride to daycare with no accidents...i've been to scared to call and see how he's doing...i don't want to get my hopes up that we might be phasing out of diapers...i'll update tomorrow...

love my Boogie

Happy Mothers Day

What a bittersweet day for me...

This morning the Boy got up with Boog, took his wet diaper off, told him to be quiet and watch TV - and walked out of the room.  Okay, I'm thinking he went downstairs to get juice and donuts for the kid...

Boog comes over and says mommy a few times and I open one eye and look at him...that isn't working...So awake I am...and wondering WTF is taking so long to get donuts...then I think maybe he's making something for me and him for breakfast...

Boog and I are sitting up watching TV and just kinda hanging out when I hear the Boy's scooter come back into the drive way...WTF?  Oooh, maybe he went and got McD's for breakfast - I'd be down with that...

Nope, comes upstairs with a little balloon on a stick and a card!

But when we went downstairs, he did make me breakfast...and even cleaned up...

(He told me he pushed his scooter down the driveway and out from in front of the house so I wouldn't hear him leave lol.)

More of my mom

She was a beautiful person, inside and out.  The way I'd like to remember her is as she was before the alcohol and bitterness took hold.  She was fun and had such an awesome energy - she was goofy and caring.  We played the song "Brown Eyed Girl" at her service, and that's the mom I miss...

I'm crying daily now, just thinking about her and the things that she and Boog are going to miss out on...I have so few pictures of them together...

My sister drives my mom's truck now, and Boog sees it and says "that my gammaw truck" but the hard part is when he says he wants to see her or go to her house...I just don't know how to tell him that he can't see her anymore and that she's not home...

I'd give just about anything to have her send me one of her crazy spelled, all in caps, text messages asking if we're coming over tonight...and I'd say yes...and this time, I wouldn't stop taking pictures...

 I may not be happy with the decisions I made to stay away from her at times, but she also made that decision...If I had to keep him away from her happy to avoid the horrible, so be it...I just wish things had turned out differently...I still love her, and always did...

Tammy Lynn Friend-Hotter

It is with much sadness that I make this post...I have lost someone who made me much of who I am today...

San Francisco, after the 1989 earthquake

My mother passed away on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

My mom and I had a very rocky relationship - though I never doubted that she loved me, and hope she never doubted that I loved her.

She joins her mother, father and daughter.  I know she will be happier with them than she was here with us.  She loved all of us, but she never got over the loss of my sister Joelle or my grandpap.

Tammy and Joelle
Halloween

Tammy and Eddie (Carroll Edward Friend)
Prom