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[norwegianmama]

Chicken Pot Pie Soup for a cold Halloween Evening

3 chicken breast halves

ground pepper and salt - to taste

olive oil

1/3 cup butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 quart (4 cups) heavy cream

3 cups of chicken stock

2 cloves minced garlic

½ small yellow onion, minced

1 cup frozen green peas

1 cup chopped carrots

pinch of rubbed sage

Pinch (about 1/4 tsp) fresh grated nutmeg

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute until cooked through. Remove from heat and cut into chunks. Once cooked, remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Then into the same large skillet, melt butter and saute the onions until they soften; about three minutes. Then slowly add flour, stirring until consistency of peanut butter, but do not brown like a roux -- you want it to remain a golden color. Slowly add cream and keep stirring. Add chicken stock ( to taste), and garlic, and stir until thickened. Add peas, carrots, nutmeg (optional), and cut up chicken. Remove from heat. Thin to your desired consistency. 

Move into crock pot and cook on low for 2 hours, carrots and peas will have cooked through.

Serve with puff pastry sticks.

For the Pastry Sticks

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed per package instructions

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Cut each sheet of thawed puff pastry into 1-inch strips and place on a large cookie sheet. Brush egg onto the pastry strips (for browning). Bake for 10 minutes, or until dough has risen and turned light golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside until ready to serve.

[norwegianmama]

Let the journey begin. This is the much needed couple time after a rocky 2016. (And rocky 2 past weeks with the car accident😳😳#notourfault😡) On the slow but steady road to recovery of our souls, bodies, relationship and personal well being❤️❤️

[norwegianmama]

Now heading to London and Paris this summer❤️❤️(no kids☺️☺️) Any favorite spots that people love in one city or the other?

[norwegianmama]

Rain and rainbows in San Diego ... what more could you ask for?❤️

[norwegianmama]

Relaxing Day in La Jolla❤️

[norwegianmama]

My Saturday mornings consist of weights and the "disks of death" 😂😂 and some motivational music to get me in the mood to get my butt kicked by my trainer.

[norwegianmama]

The craziness of Christmas marketing is all too real in retail 😂😬

[norwegianmama]

This is what happens when you don't have any jewelry (in your own mind;) for a party. You end up making your own ☺️ #

[norwegianmama]

Fun jewels made for a Denim and Diamonds event for my son's school. 

[norwegianmama]

Worst Day of My Life

-Last photo taken of us in Savannah, Georgia in June of 2014

One year ago today my world came to a halt. I received a phone call early in the morning from my mother saying that my Papa had a stroke in the night/early morning, was in a coma and was being taken to the hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. I was in disbelief; we had just gotten done with a family vacation to Savannah, Georgia two weeks before for my 40th birthday and had just said our goodbyes at the airport in Minnesota to fly back to California. I don't remember much of what happened next except that I was able to get my husband on the phone to make flight arrangements for myself ASAP, contacted numerous relatives on Facebook to keep them in the loop as to what was happening, talk to my friend Kimberly (who brought me coffee), have no idea how I drove Aiden to and from his orthodontist appointment before my flight and then to have my friend Chris drive myself to the airport at the exact same time my husband was getting into San Diego on his flight.

I barely remember the flights up to Minnesota, except for the lady and her family that were kicked off the plane (for being the most obnoxious woman on the face of the earth) and made my flight from Denver to Minneapolis 2 hours late. My wonderful Uncle Greg, who picked me up after midnight and drove me all the way down to Rochester.

Now this is the part I have tried to suppress for so long. Walking into the ICU and seeing my Papa hooked up to all of the machines breathing for him. My heart stopped that day. I couldn't cry, I was in shock. I remember sitting next to him and just holding his hand and softly saying over and over again... Please wake up... Please wake up, Papa.

Sleep finally overcame me and I slept in that same room for about 3 hours before being awoken to talk about a meeting that was to take place that afternoon with my papa's neurologist about taking him off of life support. “There was nothing to be done”, she said. “The moment before he hit the floor when he collapsed was probably his last conscious moment before he slipped into the coma from his stroke”, she also stated. Words, words and more words, when all I wanted to hear at that moment was hope but there was none to come. We sat in that small conference room as a family and made the hardest decision to date.

My Papa walking me down the “aisle” at my Tahoe wedding in 2006

Two Grandpas and my son Aiden (age 2)

Father/Daughter Dance

[norwegianmama]

Functional but Classy Computer Desk

Our family had bought this unfinished computer desk about 6 years ago now with the intention of refinishing the thing. Well, as you know, life gets in the way and I finally got around to finishing it!

It was so easy to do… You start with an unfinished computer desk such as this…

Sand down the entire cabinet... I find the paint doesn't peel away from the wood as easily when you do this step first. After you sand it all down, take a cheese cloth and wipe all the sawdust off...trust me... you do not want saw dust and paint to mix...not a pretty sight!

I went with a very light grey because the kitchen is a navy blue with white accents and cabinets. I also replaced the old wooden knobs with ones I found at Home Depot. I wanted it to stand out but in a subtle way.

The last detail was to take the boring inside panels and make them fun for the kids...So, I thought...Chalkboard paint!!

The one thing to remember when working with chalkboard paint.....many layers! At least 3 to 4 layers and let it completely dry in between layers or you will get a lot of streaking.

....and Voila! You have a functional but fun for the kids, computer desk :)

[norwegianmama]

Life

Life is a strange thing. One minute you are having a wonderful start to the summer celebrating your 40th year of life on a bucket list trip to Savannah, Georgia. The next you are receiving a phone call in the early hours of the morning letting you know that your dad has had a stroke and is currently in a coma. So, you count your lucky stars that the kids are still sleeping because you feel like you are about to have a nervous breakdown, right there, as you are sobbing on the kitchen floor. Your husband is in another city for work and there is no one to turn to for a shoulder. A girlfriend comes over with coffee as you figure out how to get up to Minnesota as quickly as you can. The whole way up on the plane, all you can think of is… He has to wake up, this has got to be a dream. You reason with God and plead with friends on Facebook to pray for father. You get up to Minnesota around midnight, thanks to a woman and a family who delayed your flight in Colorado due to being kicked off the flight for thinking she was above all the little people on board and more important than anyone else. (Ie …a royal bitch) Your uncle picks you up at the airport and drives you straight to Mayo clinic in Rochester, about an hour away. You get to the hospital and finally see your dad, who does and doesn’t really look like the dad you knew and grew up with. He has tubes coming out of him, a breathing tube in his nose and part of his hair has been cut (which he would have hated) to place a shunt in his head to stop some bleeding. You are in complete shock but cannot show it because your mom is standing there and you know you have to be strong for her. So you hold your dad’s hand and keep holding and keep whispering, please wake up… Over and over again. Until it gets to be almost 24 hours that you have been awake, so you fall asleep on a cot in the same room for a few hours. There is to be a family meeting to assess the situation…so your dad’s two sisters come and his brother that drove you down the night before along with two of your cousins. The doctor comes in and says that your dad had a massive stroke and that he basically didn’t feel anything the moment he struck the floor of the kitchen, where my mom found him the day before. There is nothing that can be done and at that moment, I just don’t feel anything. It just feels like a dream, a really bad one. So we are given some time to “say goodbye” and call my dad’s other brother who is a minister in Colorado, so he can say some last rites and also say goodbye. You never think in your whole life that you are going to have to say goodbye to someone you love so much, so early on. They pull out the breathing tube but you cannot bear to be in the same room. This is a man who would have given you the world if he could…. This was my Papa and my heart is completely and utterly broken without him.

[norwegianmama]

Day one is done

Day 1.... I did it, I got my butt out of bed at 7am to workout by 8am (I go to a fitness club and have to get a 4 year old pumped at the idea of getting out of bed early during the summer) 

I got it all done in time to take my 10 year old to his physical at 10am...yeah! All of these last minute errands to get him all ready for a new camp he is going to next week up in Yosemite. Two weeks in Yosemite... I am jealous ;) Even though we did just get back from the Sequoias camping, which was beautiful (even though I do not love camping).

I have been running around trying to get the last of camp stuff bought...why wasn't I already organized, you ask?..... We haven't really been home since the beginning of June! We traveled to the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia to celebrate my 40th birthday this year. I love Savannah but would not recommend going in June and with two children, especially when you have less than a week to explore (and Savannah, you really need more time than that!) Then traveling for 4 days in a Jeep Cherokee with 3 adults and 2 kids, not my ideal road trip, all the way back to a small town on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border that my parents decided to move to a little over 10 years ago. Staying in Minnesota/Wisconsin for the rest of June to visit with my parents and other family. Are you following the craziness so far? We flew back on a Sunday and the following Tuesday left home again, this time for camping in the Sequoias for the few days leading up to the 4th of July because we decided to be crazy and drive all of the way from the Sequoias on the 4th of July to Palm Desert to meet friends for the holiday weekend (that is 6 hours and 22 minutes for those that do not know how long you actually have to drive to get there...and that is with no stops, which no one in their right mind wouldn't ever stop, especially with 2 kids in the car!)

I digress for a moment though ;) ...... Day 1.... I did it!! Now time to cook up these pork chops in a nice healthy way!

[norwegianmama]

Welcome To My World

Welcome to the world of a displaced Minnesota (Norwegian) native, mother of two boys, a male puppy and a husband that travels for work weekly. You might say I am surrounded by males....eeek, all of that testosterone! ;)

I am finding myself with too many interests lately and needed a forum to document them all...not that I am the next Nobel Prize Winner or anything. Just simply need a place to inspire, create, vent, explore, etc.... So bear with me as I start my journey.