Pinterest recipe for Stuffed Peppers and Child Safety

As promised, long ago when I thought it was a great idea to blog about myself, I would like to share a receipe. Would you believe it, I found it on Pinetrest. The site I spend a little too much time on. If you have not been sucked into the Pinterest black hole...do it. Do it now. I love being able to organize the different receipes and craft ideas...among thousands of other things.
But this receipe.
It was fairly simple, and even though I had beautiful Marisha and Cynthia over to cook with me, I think I could have had a Pinterest Success Stories as opposed to a Pinterest Fail. Again, for those Pinteresters, you know exactly what I mean.

We made Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers. The pin I found originated from the Skinnytaste blog, and it was the featured recipe on November 6, 2008, and I adapted it only because I did not have ingredients it called for.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/11/turkey-stuffed-peppers-45-pts.html

Would you take a look at that delicious looking pepper.

 As you can see, it was not the photo I took.

We used 3 bell peppers, which made a total of 6 servings after we halved them....and then three ladies and two 18 month old children gobbled them up before we could take a victory picture.

But I promise, they looked just like this. Actually, we might have put a little more cheese on ours.
 Just a Scosh.
Because I am showing you the Original Recipe photo, I thought it would be polite to show you the original recipe as well. I will indicate where we added our own twist:

• 1 lb lean chopped turkey meat- Ground Turkey worked great
• 1 garlic, minced
• 1/4 onion, minced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro or parsley Did not have
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• salt to taste
• 3 large sweet red bell peppers, washed We used Red Yellow and Orange. All added great flavor
• 1 cup fat free chicken broth Mine had not obtained freedom from fat
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce Used Bertolli Four Cheese Rosa. It was a good choice. (sorry Mary)
• 1 1/2 cups cooked rice I used Brown Rice
• Olive oil spray
• 1/4 cup reduced fat shredded cheese

 The original recipe directions are as followed:
Heat oven to 400°. Spray a little olive oil spray in a medium size saute pan and heat on a medium flame. Add onion, garlic and cilantro to the pan. Saute about 2 minutes and add ground turkey. Season with salt and garlic powder, and cumin and brown meat for several minutes until meat is completely cooked through. Add 1/4 cup of tomato sauce(I used 3/4 of the 4 cheese Roma jar in the end) and 1/2 cup of chicken broth, mix well and simmer on low for about 5 minutes. Combine cooked rice and meat together.

Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise, and remove all seeds. Place in a baking dish. Spoon the meat mixture into each pepper half and fill it with as much as you can. Place all stuffed pepper halves on the baking dish and pour the remainder of the chicken broth on the bottom of the pan(this helped cook the peppers). Cover tight with aluminum foil and bake for about 35 minutes. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and enjoy.(we put the cheese on top and then cooked. Cynthia even made a foil 'tent' so that the cheese would not get cooked to the top...and thus gave us a Pinterest Success vs Fail photo...which we would have had to post)

Clara featured in new child size 5 baby shark robe

Oh you came here for your Clara fix? Well look no further. Let me tell you something about this child. 

 She has learned "No". And not just 'No". It's "NO, emphasis on the short o"...almost like a nah".
 She spouts this horrific noise as she points her chubby inch and a half long pointer finger at me, at the dog, at the neighbors dog, at the kid in the pool who said hi to her...She is relentless.
I'm pretty sure she would do it to Pope Benedict XVI if he showed up in the mojave desert tomorrow.

She is perfecting tantrums daily, but she is also surprising me by how well she follows directions and how much easier it is getting for us to understand one another.

Andy and I realized that we ruined our chance to use the "I'm going to count to 3" as a rule of warning...as we played the "one, two, three, weee" swinging game as we walk on either side of her.

My Hartley-Diedrich family will be happy to hear that we did not abandon this way of (hopeful) preventative discipline, but chose to simply count in German. Lets be honest, it sounds a lot more threatening.

So when Clara will not climb down off the coffee table after I ask her, I simply start the slow chant (through my teeth) of "eins......zwei......drei..." and depending on her speedy reaction she ends up escaping with her dignity, or with a few minutes in time out.

Due to the fact that she has been falling out of her big girl bed, I must thank pinterest again for this wonderful idea! We nabbed a swimming pool noodle for $1 and simply slid it under the sheet. Tonight is the first night using it...we will see how it goes!

A series of Unfortunate Events(From a 1st world perspective)

I debated how to write this entry, as I wanted to share with everyone the unfortunate hilarity that plagued our house this past week. Yet, I felt like after my 'woe-is-me-I-have-Scoliosis-and-it-doesn't-even-hurt' post, that I should not follow up with more whining from a middle class American.

 But I'm going to.

It started out when Andy left his iPhone in a Humvee. Not in a friends car. Not on the desk at work. In a Humvee. Even though we've had an Army filled life for the past 2 years, somethings still catch me off guard. Long story short, there is no hope recovering the phone. Hopefully a bearded lizard out in the Mojave drug it back to it's hole and used the remaining battery listening to Toby Keith, Kenny Loggins, and the theme song to Robin Hood prince of thieves. (I try to keep Andy on his toes, musically).

So many ways to lose a phone from this vehicle..

That is my best assumption. In reality, someone probably found it and doesn't feel like trying to give it back. Someone took Andy's coffee mug after a giant formation of soldiers and I guess he had a little melt down in front of some people. Luckily, I had purchased a 2 pack from Costco, so I wrote his name all of the second one. I should have thought to write his name on the iPhone too...

Anyhow: I had planned on upgrading my phone once I got to Alaska in July. My iPhone has been awesome, but I'm wearing it out, and if anyone follows the facebook photos I put up, the quality is getting horrible. Why not get a nice camera instead? According to Andy, I still believe money grows on trees and I was told to make a "want" list...and when I get a job I'm allowed to buy those items with my own money. He's lucky is so handsome, otherwise I would have taken that statement and bought the car that had the built in DVD system.

The whole reason I was waiting to purchase a phone in Alaska was because California charges $50 in taxes to purchase an iPhone. I am not going to rant, but I do feel cheated. I do believe in taxes, and I understand why they are needed...but I do NOT believe in the tax of an electronic that is not the same across the country.

So what happened? I paid it anyways. Only one of our lines was eligible for upgrade, and we sucked it up and paid our dues to California. This state will be lucky if it sees ONE cent from us after we leave. (watch, now Clara will want to go to UCSD for college). So, as I write this blog, I am waiting for the post man to deliver the new phone. That means I haven't even showered, because you KNOW the one time I'm in no condition to answer a door bell, he'll ring it 4 times.

On Thursday Andy left into the field around 4 am. Because he is phoneless, and I think where they were running a mission he did not even have service, I have not been able to talk with him. It's frustrating, but like I've said before, I know he's only 20 miles out in the desert playing war, so I'll be okay.

But, while he was gone, I endured a series of unfortunate events with Clara.

It all started when she woke up way too early for her own good. Because she had begun to hit inanmiate objects and yell at the music playing while I did the dishes, she earned herself an early nap in her crib. About 5 minutes of crying protests go by and her cries turn into painful shrieks. I raced up the stairs at an incredible speed to find poor little Clara's leg WEDGED between two bars of her crib. I know she did this on purpose, but I don't think she took into account that her knees are larger than the rest of her leg (right, because she is only 18 months) and her poor right like was stuck bad.
I quickly, but gently, tried to ease her leg back into the crib, and poor scared Clara screamed louder in pain. I tried to maniptulate the cheap wood horizontally, to see if it would give just enough for Clara's leg to go back into the crib. It would not budge.



In the one or two seconds I stopped to think of my options, Clara looked at me with so much fear and pain that I summoned all my he-man mama bear woman strength and I ripped the bar clean off the crib.

Hopefully Andy has learned his lesson in proper photo etiquette

 She was pretty upset after the whole ordeal, and she has two dark bruises on either side of her knee. I guess this was Clara's newest way of telling us she was ready for a change in the sleeping department. You may notice that her mattress is lower than her crib frame. That was our attempt to keep her from climbing out of her crib, as she had done on the lowest crib setting back in February. You may recall 'rug burn Clara'...and she didn't climb out, she threw herself from the crib. We caught her in the act.

.





I decided to use this experience to turn her crib into a big girl bed!  It looked really promising, until I tried to leave the room and let Clara take a nap.

 
After an Hour of trying everything, (all those toys and blankets) I finally turned her big girl bed into a 3 sided crib and she fell asleep.

As of today, she has slept like a champ all night long in her "big girl bed". She woke up this morning, walked into my room, and patted me on the arm while making the 'hungry' sign. But today for nap time, I had to turn it back into the 3 sided crib. She is so worried she is going to miss something, I think the 'open' side of the bed is way too damn tempting.

So as it stands. 3 sided crib for naps...big girl bed for night time. It's progress :)

I have to wrap this post up with the story of the death of my Kindle. (See, I told you this was filled with 1st world woes)





I found Clara a pair of plastic pink high heels a few weeks ago. They are way too big and, like her mother, her foot is way too wide to fit into a normal heeled shoe. But she stomps around in them all the same.

During one of her stomping/cat walk struts. She tripped and fell up against the wall.

Well, since I am such a horrible mother, I laughed out loud before I covered my mouth to hide my smile.

Clara went from aspiring teenager to full pissed Godzilla. And that was when the rampage began. 

This is the result of Clara-zilla above

 RIP in Kindle. You were no match for 30 pounds of force reigning down up on you from the misunderstood stomp of a toddler. Thank you for getting me through over a 100 books.

I will leave this blog with a thanks to Kelsey Cebula, who said I could have her old one :)

And with this picture of the three of us at the Drive In watching Madagascar 3. Clara refered to it as "mommit mommit", since I pumped her up with "I like to move it move it" for the past 3 weeks in preparation for the movie :)

Heidi Jo Scoliosis Lean

Ever since I gave birth to 9 lb 2 oz Clara, my back has been bothering me. Andy has always called me "the princess and the pea" when it came to beds....I think Goldilocks would have been a better reference, as I am much more apt to say "This bed is too hard...this bed is too soft...this one is just right :) We are currently on the second bed in the Goldilocks scenario...but I have been promised a King size "just right" this fall. Originally it was going to join our family when we moved from Fort Irwin, but I was nasty and pulled the "I'm not trying to squeeze all of us (whenever Lean Baby part 2 shows up) into one bed...because you know Clara will ninja her way in here half the time"....so by pulling the baby card from the deck, he agreed a new bed could be purchased.

Back to the point of the story, my back has been bothering me, and I kept thinking it was my pillow top bed that is now too soft. It's moved around, had two large people and a small person..okay and Ju-Ly spending quite a bit of time on there. Ever since I had Clara, I have had 5 different series of lower back muscle spasms (throwing my back out) that have completely immobilized me. I had gone to the clinic here and was given low dose muscle relaxants, and those helped a little, but didn't even completely take the edge off.

I finally went to a chiropractor. One of my favorite people in the world, Kelly Watson, just became a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Therefore, I did not even want to tell her I went. But, as it would have taken a week just to be seen to be referred to a PT...I figured I'd just avoid her. She lives in Florida, how hard can it be? I broke down and emailed her that night. ALSO, Mind you, Andy's father had a horrible experience with a chiropractor, and since he is Captain America to Andy, that means chiropractors do not do anything good. I am actually really sympathetic for my father in law, back pain is nothing to make fun of. But I WILL make fun of my husband, who flat out "doesn't believe in" a chiropractor. When I asked him, "Andy, how do you think they have stayed in business for so long?" I am not even joking, his reply was " Well, psychics have been in business a long time too Heidi".

So while my husband was trying to convince me the chiropractor was akin to a psychic, I made my appointment and made the uncomfortable hour drive to Barstow. The chiropractor was awesome, especially for getting me in the same day I called, and he also took x-rays for free since I was the spouse of an active duty soldier. While he is taking my x-rays he says, "Oh, you have a bit of scoliosis huh?" And I laugh and say "Oh ha ha ha, my back just hurts"...

In which he replies, "No seriously, you have scoliosis"

 My back is on the right.

 Or so I thought for the last 25 years.

 Nope, that is my back on the left! Crazy!

My right hip is also higher than the other hip... But this is not what was making my back hurt. Granted, there are quite a few things that could be worked on, some tension and pressure released here and there that would probably help my back NOT to have spasms. The chiropractor did a few adjustments and I left feeling better, but still with pain in my back. I came home and was excited to show Andy, proof that I wasn't just whining as he so dared to mention in the conversation that included physic chiropractors... He had the nerve to ask me "were you in the same room when he took these?" "um yes, Andrew, clearly you have never received an x-ray". But THEN he asked me if I was sure it was my back! "I mean, did you see him print the exact photo?"
Holy cow Andy.

He just could not believe that my back could look like that without him noticing. Since I don't walk around with my hands touching my toes, I doubt he would notice...and even when he made me bend over and touch my toes so he could feel my spine (super painful with muscle spasms going on by the way) He still was not convinced.

Now granted, I understand that my is not the same as the photo to the left, as mine is blown up to be focused on my lower back, but I still think that is a significant curve. Perhaps that it was it was so hard to have Clara? It took that kid forever to make it down to the right area...no wonder, that little adventurer was squeezing through maze!

He also did not think it was very funny when I said "Hey, look how skinny I look in my x-rays"

Side Note: I was born this way. (Gaga style). There is a chance that the curve become more pronounced during my huge growth spurt (like 4 inches)  in high school. But I do not need surgery. I scared Reba and Mo pretty bad when I send them the photo. Sorry girls :) If anything, I hope to get in to see a Physical Therapist to learn stretches and exercises that will help my particular back and keep it from getting too tight!

Fast forward a Few months to Summer in the Mojave Desert

Apologizing for my lack of blogging is an understatement, as I am mad that I waited so long.

In all honesty, I started to feel like everything I wanted to write about was about my child. So i waited until I could think of something else to try to exaggerate and and draw out....but only this came to mind ...

  There is a part of me that does not want to be classified (by my friends without children)...as the 'mom who wouldn't shut up about her kid'. Yet, most of the current hilarity in my life comes from mine and Andy's own expense of procreating.

Granted, we do live very far away from friends and family, and I'm sure those who are interested probably appreciate hearing the ins and outs of our hard headed Hurricane Clara. Not to be confused with Hurricane Clara who never hit land fall in 1977 (see photo).

This Clara has hit landfall and has a special talent for casing catastrophic destruction, most of it on my nerves. But, in the eye of the storm she is peaceful and sweet, often giving me kisses and squeezing me until she finally exhales as loud as she can before whirling off to rip all the magnets off the refrigerator and throw them in the garbage. To Andy, She is an excellent DE-clutter-er, as she has taking a liking to throwing everything away..into both the trash and the recycling. I'm sorry for the recycling center, I think they have received empty bottles, rinsed out cans, a few socks, some dog food, my brand new mascara, and a few 'stinky stinky' diapers. Selfishly, I am not sorry I stopped fishing the miscellaneous items out of the blue bin, as it would literally take up half of my day.

Although it is hurricane season 24/7 at 8318 A Shiloh St, it does not take into account our HOT 103 F sunshine we had today. It makes it hard to be motivated to go outside and do anything! We have been having a LOT of water dates...in our little princess pool or at the pool here on post. Clara SUCH a little fish. Miss Chloe Allen called it on day 1...'that girl is going to be a swimmer'. she might be right. What she did NOT call on day 1, was after 20 minutes at the pool, Clara would whine to have her puddle jumper removed, and then take it upon herself to try to throw herself into the deep end.

Most recently she got in trouble for trying to jump in the deep end, had her puddle jumper put back on, and THREW herself forward onto the ground screaming. Good thing she had a floatation devince on her chest, otherwise it might have knocked the wind out of her! (Clara is 30 pounds and almost 3 feet tall!!) When she realized I was not impressed, she simply opened that big wide Lean mouth and proceeded to LICK the ground. We have not been back to the pool since.

But while we get to bask (or chase toddlers) at the pool, Andy gets to work out in the heat, dressed in a full military uniform. That poor guy gets home from work (I know, that's almost a joke in its self) and heads straight to take a shower. Complain as we might, I know both of us are VERY thankful it is a dry heat.Even if it is 110 F by 9 am.

So you can probably guess we are not the biggest fans of the Mojave desert.

 But we are fans of each other, and glad that even if he works non stop around the clock with only 6 days off a month, I am happy that he is in my desert backyard, and not the desert over seas. A lot of spouses here tell me they think it is easier when their husband deploys, as you know he will be gone and you do not have to worry up the disruption of a routine and schedule until he comes home. I can fully understand that, but never experiencing Andy being gone on deployment myself, I try very hard to be optimistic and thankful that we do see him as little, or as often as we do.

So much happens every day that I curse under my breath that I have not documented it, via blog. Clara likes to read books, I am starting to love the heat, Clara got stuck in the top of a McDonalds playland, I stopped drinking soda, Andy and I are reading "The Inheritance Cycle" by Christopher Paolini, not caring that they were probably meant for kids almost half our age, Clara talks to animals in a high pitch voice, as if thinking that higher decibel makes them love her more...

But above all..

She is growing and growing and growing. Her Michelin-man arms are still there...but her legs are growing long and lean. Oh, hello blog title. She is a constant reminder of the patience and I am working so hard to hold in my heart, and when I surrender, and let go of frustration, the greatest reward is her toothy little grin and her excitement at the possibility that I might understand what she is trying to say.