Getting to Know Them

I found a questionnaire I thought would be fun to have the kids answer.  Answers in pink belong to daughter and answers in blue belong to son. 

1.  At what age is a person an adult? Why do you think so?

19 years old because they don't live with parents
18 years old because that's everyone has told me

2.  If could change one rule that your family has, what would you change?

later bedtimes
I'm pretty satisfied with everything right now.

3.  What is something that makes your family special?

We love everybody.
The way we do things differently from other families.  

4.  Of all the things you are learning, what do you think will be the most useful when you are an adult?

Reading
Being a Christian

5.  Are you a good friend? Why do you think so?

Yes, because I'm nice and help friends if they need help.
Yes, because I care for my friends.

6.  How would the world be different if animals could talk?

You could understand them and it would be lot noisier.
It would probably be a lot less animals and more guns.

7.  Would you cheat on a test if you knew you would not get caught? Why or why not?

No, it's not the right thing to do.
No, it's wrong and I need to get the fair grade that I deserve.

8.  If you could grow up to be famous, what would you want to be famous for?

Being good with dogs or babies.
... maybe acting

9.  If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?

Pick on bubba
Pull pranks

10.  What is the best gift you have ever given? Why was it so special?

Jetta because she's crazy and smart.
The LEGO tumbler because it was really detailed and big.

11.  What is the hardest thing about being a kid?

Not being able to drive
Obeying rules

12.  If you were a teacher and the kids in your class would not listen to you, what would you do?

I would take them to the principal or call their mom and dad and tell them they are not behaving.
I'd "drill sergeant" them, if one of them does something wrong, they all get punished.

13.  Where is your favorite place in the world?


At home.
Disney World, that place was awesome!

14.  If you could give one gift to every single child in the world, what gift would you give?

A puppy
A Bible in their translation

15.  If you could travel back in time three years and visit your younger self, what advice would you give yourself?

I would tell myself to not be as naughty.
I would tell myself to just stay on the path you're going on because you're doing good so far.

16.  What five words do you think most describe you?

awesome, sweet, nice, helpful, listener
awesome, kind, black-belt, fast, honest

17.  If you could invent something that would make life easier for people, what would you invent?

Jetboots
Teleporter 

18.  When was a time that you felt lucky?

When I found $10 in my jeans pocket.
Winning dodgeball in p.e.

19.  What do you think would be the hardest thing about being blind?

Building LEGOs
Learning how to move around and reading braille.

20.  If you could make one rule that everyone in the world had to follow, what rule would you make? Why?

You have to adopt one puppy or more, unless you are allergic to them then you have to adopt something OR be kind to one another.

Not wage war against each other.

I completely enjoyed doing this questionnaire with the kids.  I should do this every year with them.  I would love to see if their answers change and what the new answers would be.  

Most of their answers didn't surprise me. However, I was a little surprised about my son saying he would like to be famous for acting because he doesn't like to be on stage at all, except for tae kwon do.  I was also surprised my son wouldn't change any family rules, especially since he said obeying the rules was the hardest part about being a kid.  

I was not surprised at all about my daughter wanting everyone in the world to adopt a puppy.  It was amusing that my daughter would tell her younger self to not be so naughty.  

Also, I gave the kids a short test to see what was their love language.  The five love languages are quality time, physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service and receiving gifts.  I was surprised that my daughter's primary love language is physical touch.  She loves hugs and sitting in my lap, but I thought it would be quality time.  Whenever daddy's out of town, she sleeps with me.  Her leg is always draped over me or she snugged up against me.  Her secondary love language is words of affirmation.  Her last love language was receiving gifts.  My son's primary love language is acts of service.  His secondary love language is words of affirmation and his last love language is physical touch.  

I wonder if these will change over time.  It was very enlightening.  I need to make sure I am telling my kids that appreciate them more.  I don't want to give them a false sense of accomplishment, but I want to make sure they know when I think they've done a good job or have worked hard complete a project.   I think most people tend to give love in the way they like to receive it.  It's only natural.  I have realized that my kids are different from me and from each other.  I would like to make sure I can find ways to show my kids love in their love language.  

What do you do to get to know your kids better? 

Catch Him If You Can

It's been an eventful morning on the Treasure's island.  I took both the children in for their well-child annual doctor appointment.  My son had not been looking forward to this visit because he knew he was going to get two immunization shots.  

We arrived early, as we usually do, to do paperwork.  The nurse called us back to the small room and took the kids' vitals.  Our wonderful pediatrician, Dr. B, came in did part of their exam.  She was called out of the room, so the nurse came in with my son's immunization shots.  My daughter didn't want to watch so she stepped out of the room.

My son had to have a shot in each arm.  As the nurse was getting things prepared, my son had hopped on the bed.  I could tell he was very nervous because he was breathing heavily and pretty quiet.  Not laughing and chatting like we were just a minute before.  The nurse laid everything out beside him and started to prepare his arm.  She rubbed it with an alcohol wipe and told him to relax his arm.  Then she told him to relax his arm and look away, again, and then again.  I'm not even sure he was breathing regularly.  She pinched his arm and gave him shot.  She asked him how it was.  He said, "Well, it just felt like pressure.  Well, actually I feel light-headed."  Then his face went pale and he slumped forward.  He had passed out on the nurse.  Fortunately, she was standing right in front of him.  She held him for a minute and tried to talk to him to see if he would wake up.  He didn't wake up, so she laid him down onto the bed.  

While I had gotten up walked over to them, I was laughing because I couldn't believe he had passed out.  My laughing turned to crying when the nurse laid him down onto the bed because his body went  rigid.  His left arm was stiff against his chest, his right arm straight out and his legs both pointed straight out.  His body started to move like he was having a seizure.  As soon as that started, the nurse ran out of the room to find the doctor.  I don't think she was gone more than 30 seconds, but it was a long 30 seconds.  My son's body shook a bit more then stopped.  When he opened his eyes, his face was flushed and sweaty.  He was agitated and asking what happened.  He had no idea what happened and was wondering why I was standing over him.  The nurse and the doctor came back in the room and I told the doctor everything that happened.  Dr. B asked my son a series of questions to make sure he was alert and aware of his surroundings. The doctor didn't seem to think it was a seizure because he was fully alert and oriented just minutes after it had all happened.

I think he had just been so nervous about getting the shots he had stopped breathing and that's why he passed out.  The doctor had my son lay down for a while and then sit up and later stand up to make sure he wasn't light-headed anymore.  My daughter came back into the room.  Truthfully, I had forgotten she was out there in all the commotion.  When I saw her face, I could tell she was upset, confused and scared.  She broke down crying.  I'm pretty sure I started crying again too.  The doctor continued the rest of the well-child exam on both of the kids.  Everything else with the exam was fine.  My son still had to get his last immunization.  He did fine, no problems at all.

There doesn't seem to be any other side effects besides a sore arm and a little tiredness.  He's back to his usual wise-cracking, quick-witted self.  Thank the Lord.  Now I just need to remember about possibility of him fainting whenever he gets shots in the future and we're all good.  

Chocolate Lava Cake

A couple of weeks ago I discovered The Pioneer Woman's cooking show.  The show popped up on Netflix.  I've heard of her before, but I had never seen her show because we do not have cable.  I had not ever been to her blog.  I had knew she has a cooking show and lives in Oklahoma.  Anywho, after I binge-watched five episodes, I asked my Facebook friends about her.  Apparently, everyone has heard of her and seen her show.  

My friend, Jenny, brought me one of her Pioneer Woman cook book today.  It's called The Pioneer Woman Cooks Food From My Frontier.  I haven't made anything from it yet, but I already like it because she has step-by-step instructions with pictures.  Very helpful for a person like me who is culinarily challenged.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that I made a corn casserole for Thanksgiving.  I found a recipe on Pinterest.  I wanted a crockpot recipe that would be easy to make and that I wouldn't have to cook or prepare at my mom's house.  It only called for a can of corn, a can of creamed corn, one package of Jiffy cornbread, one stick of butter and a cup of sour cream.  I doubled the recipe and threw it in the crockpot for four hours.  By the time it was time to eat, the middle had somehow liquified.  The outsides and bottom had burned to nice charcoal color.  My sister thought it was a cheese dip.  It was sad.  I redeemed myself a few days later when my friend, Mrs. Courtney, gave me her recipe for corn casserole.  Same recipe, just cooked in the over for 45 minutes instead.  Perfection.  I wish I had a picture of the first corn casserole.  It was horrendous.  

However, today's experiment was not horrendous at all.  It was a little bit of heaven.  I found the recipe on Pinterest when I was searching for Pioneer Woman recipes.  Actually, the recipe I found on her blog was a guest post so it isn't technically isn't a Pioneer Woman's recipe.  It's from Tasty Kitchen.  The Tasty Kitchen calls the recipe a chocolate cobbler, but it's more like a chocolate lava cake.  It is so delicious and easy to make.  If you bake even just a little, you'll most likely have everything in your pantry.  The last step in the recipe is different than any other cake recipe I've seen, but it turned out perfectly.  It was a hit for my whole family.  Of course, I topped it with vanilla ice cream. I could also see drizzling it with caramel sauce.  Mmmmm.

So you basically make a chocolate cake.

Then you make a cocoa, sugar and brown sugar topping you spread on top of your cake.  Next, this is the step that is a little different.  You add a some hot tap water on top of of the sugar topping.

Slide it into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.  When you pull it out, it looks similar to brownies.

However, when you cut into it, you see the chocolate goodness or "lava".

Scoop it out, top it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and try not to eat the rest of the cake. 

Here is the original link on the Tasty Kitchen.  She has spectacular step-by-step pictures on the post.

Here is the recipe. 

Chocolate Lava Cake

Ingredients:

1 C. of all purpose flour

2 t. of baking powder

1/4 t. of salt

7 T. of cocoa powder, divided

1 1/4 C. of sugar, divided

1/2 C. of milk

1/3 C. of melted butter

1 1/2 t. of vanilla extract

1/2 C. of light brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 C. of HOT tap water

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Combine flour, baking powder, salt, 3 T. of the cocoa, and 3/4 C. of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.
3.  Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.
4.  Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish.
5.  In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa.
6.  Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.
7.  Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!
8.  Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Let stand for a few minutes and serve topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Let stand for a few minutes if you can hold yourself back.