Feeling So Blessed

Words cannot express how grateful I am for our family and friends. Starting with family... we feel so deeply blessed to have such a loving, helpful, concerned, and open family. Also to have our family live so close to us!!!! Each and every one of our family members is there to support and help us as much as possible. Honestly, I wish there was a way for us to show how incredibly appreciative we are. I love our family so much! Each one of you has played a major part in helping David to be here at OHSU. From watching our boys, to being with David, driving us, prayers, love, phone calls, laughter, and so much more. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! You are all amazing!!!

We too have some seriously wonderful friends that have reached out to us so much. Thank you for stopping by to visit with David, and those who have sent him such sweet and kind messages full of so much love. Thank you to my sweet friends for being there when I needed someone to watch Stephen or Lynn because we had another family emergency that created a change in our original plans. This week has been so eye opening for me to understand how important it is to be flexible in life. I have a hard time with that because control and plans keep my anxiety at bay, but I definitely need to learn to feel comfort with more spontaneity and when things change quickly. This week has been great for that!! I also want to thank those that wish they could stop in, but their plates are also full. We totally understand and feel for you at this time. You are all so sincere and full of so much love. We are forever grateful for those that have come into our lives. Your outreach and love does not go unnoticed. Thank you!!! 

          

Hospital Bound

We finally made it up to OHSU yesterday. In my opinion, one of the most beautiful hospitals ever. OHSU lies atop the Marquam Hill and the drive up is stunning. We get to be in a sea of luscious green while the trees are in full bloom. However, when we get to the campus there is just a special spirit here. One that lies in the heart of a volunteer. A spirit of compassion, love, and sincerity. This is also how we feel about the staff that we have been blessed with while David is up here in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. He has a week of inpatient testing here to locate and understand his seizure activity. He is by far the cutest, sweetest and most adorable patient ever in an adult setting (lets face it, nothing beats the face of a sweet little kiddo in Peds, but I am sure David was picture perfect as a child in the hospital!) He is my favorite patient ever!

We have been enjoying and making the very best of our situation up here. Our boys have been able to come visit their daddy and we all think he looks just like an Easter bunny. Don't you? So adorable! While David had some tests done today I got to go on a quick walk outside. This was fun because I took a picture of the flag pole that we see out our window every day. I could also see David in his room, which was kinda awesome and weird at the same time. You never know how many people can see in until you leave the room and feel like, oh no, the whole world can see us!! Oh well, it's worth having that beautiful PNW sunshine coming through our windows. Plus we lucked out to get a corner room. Instead of just one window we have four. Pretty spoiled I'd say! While on my walk I took a couple selfies, hospital pics, etc. It felt fantastic to get some fresh air on such a glorious spring day, but shhh...don't tell David because he can only walk a couple feet around his room. Pretty much has to stay in bed all day and he is being monitored 24/7. So he vicariously lived through me on my walk!

OHSU has always been my favorite place in Portland and I would come here often as a teenager and in college to just visit, think, and see the view of Portland. Anytime we have friends or family come in from out of town we usually take them on the tram and sky bridge. It is so much fun! One day I dream to be a nurse here, and this visit is making me so antsy to become an RN, so we will see what happens in the near future. Gotta love inspiration right???

Finding the Joy in Cooking

Have any of you tried to cook, but just did not like it..one bit? Well that is me!! I used to love to bake, that was before I had kids...now there is no way that I would bake like I used to because I can just see myself losing all self control. However, if I do bake we will keep just a little of what I made, and deliver the rest to others. That way it is fun for our family, they get some of the goodies, and others do as well without anyone feeling guilty about eating a whole batch of something.

Enough about baking...now back to the original question. See how sidetracked I get? Tangent could be my middle name! Any who, I have never been fond of cooking and I think that stems from not finding the creativity behind it. Growing up, we had wonderful food and my mom always made sure there was some sort of vegetable(s) with our dinners. However, we had more simple meals, which I loved and appreciated as I had two full time working parents.

Time can be limited, but my kiddos usually take a good afternoon nap and that means it is the perfect time to cook!! I just need to take advantage of that time. I have decided to find some delicious Pinterest meals that I will be using to get more creative and actually find the joy in cooking. Discovering more beyond the task itself has always been a goal of mine. So hopefully this whole thought process will work. David and I recently decided that we need to make healthier meals and beef up our vegetable intake. So yesterday my sweet brother Andrew (the ultimate chef) and I went to Chuck's Produce. This is a local store and let me tell you...it is AMAZING! You feel like you have stepped into a rainbow of deliciousness and it just makes you crave all things healthy! So we stocked up there and of course at Costco (our home away from home).

Last night was the first of many nights to come of healthy, mouth watering dinners. I made these Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps by Cooking Classy (recipe here), but since we recently ran out of chili powder I used taco seasoning and I did not add chicken broth because there was already enough liquid left in the mixture from the juices of the turkey. Then I topped them with a bit of mozzarella cheese and sweet peppers. YUMMY!!! As a side dish we had cauliflower seasoned with vegetable seasoning and a slice of unsalted butter. Everyone in my family loved it and ate it all up. Big news for my picky three year old, but we are really working on having him finish his dinner. So everyone was happy, tummies full, and no guilt of having seconds because it was all so healthy!

    

Easter Egg Hunt

Being a part of the Camas/Washougal community has been such a wonderful experience. From parades, to first Friday events, Christmas downtown with fake snow (it seriously felt like a dream in a snowglobe). Today we got to go to the Washougal Easter Egg Hunt. The afternoon was filled with an egg hunt, music, Easter bunny, cotton candy, sno-cones, and much more. We had a blast!! Here are my two little chickies taking a break from the search so that their momma could have her own picture perfect moment.

    

Meet Our Lynn!

So much has happened since I have last written on my blog, that I just cannot play catch up so I am starting fresh! However, there is one tiny detail that turned our family of three into a family of four!!! This is our absolutely adorable, sweet nature baby boy Lynn Elden Richardson.

Lynn is almost one year old now. He was born on April 5th, 2015 (Easter baby). That day, our little Stephen became a big brother!

I feel so very blessed to have the absolute sweetest, most adorable little family! Can you tell that I might be just a bit biased ;) Here are some of our Fall family photos!

Christmas feels like it was just around the corner...

Our life from 2015 in a nut shell! Thanks and hope you enjoyed a little bit of catching up.

Simplifying Life!

Finally getting back into blogging and I am going to make this a daily habit. Short, long, it does not matter. This is my online journal, blog, outlet to the world, website, all for me and for others to enjoy if they'd like! We have so many new things coming up in life that I cannot wait to share with you all! Hope you enjoy and will write a quick catch up post here soon.