Potato and Leek Soup

I have been wanting to make potato and leek soup for a long time, it just sounds like a great soup to have on a cold winter night. So I got all the ingredients when I did my grocery shopping and finally got around to make it on Monday night for supper and it turned out great!

Here are the pictures of it; I have now posted the recipe.

3 leeks, chopped
1 1/2 cups of carrots, diced
1 1/2 cups of celery, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup fried bacon, chopped
2 Tbs. butter
2 cups milk
8 cups chicken broth
12-16 red potatoes, washed and diced
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. parsley
3 Tbs. cornstarch

In a large pot add broth, spices and bay leaves; turn heat to medium. Drizzle a large skillet with olive oil and fry potatoes until barely done, do the same with leeks, carrots and celery and add all to the large pot. Fry onions with butter and/or bacon. Add to pot. Simmer for 10 minutes or until carrots and potatoes are at the point of being tender with out loosing their shape. Add milk and thicken. To prevent lumps pour 2 Tbs into a small tupperware container, add cornstarch, shake vigorously, then add this mixture to the soup. Simmer for another few minutes and serve.

She Can Visit Anytime!

Last weekend Nate's brother and his family came to visit. They came up Friday evening, we went out to eat at Macaroni Grill, Mmmmmm, their bread is the best!!! Then on Saturday Heather and I spent all day at Ikea, shopping!!! I love Ikea!

Saturday evening we had Aaron, Jami and little Chloe over for supper and then Alan, Heather and Colin had to head back home. Nate, Jami and I played a game while Aaron watched Chloe. We also had some ice cream for dessert after our food settled a bit. Chloe was just so cute I had to get the camera and take a few pictures. Here are some of the cutest ones.

Mmmm, ice cream!

Playing with baby wipes is more fun than all the nice toys Mom brought for me to play with.

Awww, you can tell she loves her Daddy.

Ready to head home in the cold, all snuggled up in her fuzzy snowsuit.

Great Clips

You may have already seen some of these, but here are a few neat clips to watch if you have the time. Some are from other blogs that I keep up with.

Sand Art: I just saw this one and it is sensational, it isn't just a picture in sand, it is a whole story

If you like this one, there are a lot of different ones if you just search youtube for sand art.

Charlie: This one I found on Lani's blog. It is two adorable British boys; and just a warning, after you watch this clip, you may find your self saying "Charlie! Charlie bit me" with a British accent.

Sneezing Panda: No matter what pandas are cute, but this one should make you chuckle

Sleepy Puppy: This is just adorable, he is just trying so hard to stay awake and upright!

Hawaii Chair: We were talking about this with someone the other day, I don't remember who

Ladies

We need to start planning our Ladies Craft Night for March!

Valentine's Day/Weekend

Jana's Valentine's day 2008:

Wednesday; went in to do clinical prep for Thursday, discovered I was assigned a patient that had about 20 things wrong with them, so I was up late prepping, stressing and didn't get to bed until after 1 a.m.

Thursday; get to hospital at about 6:40, I am completely stressed out because my patient is on 20 different a.m. medications, and I get to give them all. I was in the patient's room almost all day and didn't even get time to take a break to eat lunch because I hadn't had time to chart all of the cares, assessments and info on the patient. I survived, and all in all it was a really good clinical, it went by fast since I was so busy, the nurse that was assigned to my patient was very helpful and I learned a lot. Plus the patient was a nurse themselves, so they were helpful as well.
13:30 - Leave St. Mary's hospital and go straight to Methodist hospital and start work at 14:00. Treat myself to lunch at Jimmy John's at 14:45, I have earned it!!!
20:00 - Let Travis (co-worker who is also in nursing school) go home early, he has had a longer day than I have and he needs to be back to work at 06:00
22:00 - finally go home myself, I would have been able to go earlier, but Nate had a broomball game and I could not get a hold of him to get a ride home.
23:00 - Crash into bed!!!

Friday; sleep in until 10:00, go to work at 13:00

As you can see, we did not have time for any romance on Valentine's day, so we celebrated friday night after I got home from work. Nate bought the makings for real Sangria, and I bought the chocolate!

Sangria: Red Wine, Spiced Rum, lemon, lime, orange, sugar, orange juice, sprite

It was really pretty when we poured the red wine in over the orange juice

Ready to enjoy, I must say there was way too much for two people and I think next time we will make peach sangria, it is better

Saturday night we went down and stayed at Gina and Richards, then Sunday we got a room at a hotel that had a nice pool with slide, kiddy area and hot tub. Gina, Richard and the kids came over and went swimming and we got pizza for supper. Then they left us alone to have our romantic evening of Nate playing his new game on his Nintendo DS and Jana watching TLC, Food Network and HGTV. ;)

Olivia, Gina and Emma in their jean skirts; Jasmine made it into the picture as well

Emma's latest skirt, I think it is the cutest one I have made so far

close-up

Westin, being the cool dude in aunty Jana's sunglasses

Who are all the visitors???

I set up a counter to see how many times the blog is looked at. I see there were about 20 or so hits since last night and I am just curious to see who is stopping by. I would love to hear from all of you, so just drop a line by clicking on the comments link at the bottom of this post and say hello!


Thanks so much! -Jana

Gina's Skirt - Finished

Moving Gina and Richard and Ladies Craft Night

Here are a whole bunch of pictures of the kids, Gina and Richard's new house, moving day, laundry night and our First Monthly Ladies Craft night!


The kids were so interested in Uncle Nate's morning grapefruit, he ended up sharing the whole thing with them, each eagerly waiting their turn for a bite.

What are we looking at???

Uncle Nate brushing his teeth!

Cubbies/lockers in the entryway, a plays for shoes and coats, there are six total!

They stairs down to the basement

Kitchen

Looking from the living room into the entryway

Many of the different types of wood used in the house

Upstairs bathroom

Master bathroom sinks

Master bathroom shower, all tile, very nice

Gina and I worked on this painted cupboard unit

Cool kitchen sink

Slate fireplace

Richard and Brian moving stuff

Westin helping

Gina, I think she was frustrated that the guys had just put the mattress down on the garage floor

Nate and Emma

Dad bringing stuff out of the semi

All the stuff in the garage

Living room, kitchen and entryway

Emma and Olivia

Exhausted on the bed

Doing laundry at Jeff and Julie's Classic Wash

We filled all but 5 of the small washers and all of the dryers. Lots of bedding and some clothes but there was more to do! A family of 5 has a lot of laundry!

Westin was finding this fascinating

In the dryers!

In the process of making a jean skirt for Gina

Ladies Craft Night, making a skirt out of a pair of pants. L to R - Carla, Lucille, Jami, Kayla, Amanda - All hard at work.

Carla, Sandy and Mary

We had a great turn out for our first craft night. We are looking forward to making this a monthly event. We will rotate who hosts the event and the project will be different and the hostess gets to choose it.