Round Here

...which, if your interested, is one of my all time fav (counting crows) songs.

I just love this tray. I found it at Ikea.


A friend gave us this Kitchen cart because she redid her entire kitchen and didn't need it anymore. It really helps in the space! I love baking by it because everything is accessible and tidy too.

Forgive my horrendous photos of Corrina. I have to snap quickly else she bullets over for the camera.


I made the very best oatmeal chocolate chip muffins today from one of my loneyspoons cook books (guilty confession: I made them yesterday too, and we ate them all, so I made more today. We did share a few...)


I can't leave everyone these delicious pictures without posting the recipe, now can I? So...

Oatmeal Choco-Chip Muffins (p. 53, LooneySpoons Cookbook):
1 1/4 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups boiling water
**Pour over oats, stir and let sit for 20 minutes
In the meantime...
Combine
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
** stir these dry ingredients together
In another bowl combine
2 egg whites
1/4 cup pureed canned peaches (seriously, i just used apple sauce... 1/2 made very moist muffins!)
1/4 c. marg or butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
*mix together, then add to oatmeal... mix very well then add to flour mixture
The batter will be VERY thick. Stir until all ingredients are moistened, then add 1/2 cup (yeah right, like I didn't add more!) Chocolate Chips!
bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes

I am in love with mini muffins, so I make one tray of these, one tray of normal, then about a half tray more of mini...

Being At Home

We have been home for almost a week now. We have taken our time to settle back in as it was difficult to part with such good family moments and wonderful visits with friends ( Both Claire's report of our visit and Susan's report are MUST READs, or at least see the pictures!). Corrina is completely back to her 'normal' self. In fact she is even better than when we left because while we were away she learned to twirl in circles and to do the chicken dance, well, the chicken flap part. She is sleeping well and enjoying all our visits with friends here. Just today she was horribly bored with Dave and I around dinner time when our friends (al, sarah, heather, candace) came through the door. Corrina ran excitedly toward the door, laughing and waving widely at her guests. She was pretty sure that they had all come just to see her! She ushered them all in and showed them her toys... all in her precious silent way.

A confession: I have never seen Dirty Dancing, until tonight, and now I UNDERSTAND. What a great movie (except for the abortion subplot... poor unborn babies). When I was maybe 9 or 10 I had a mini pops record (yup, record!) with alot of great songs. What I didn't know until tonight was that most of those songs (and pictures on the record cover of children dressed up like adults) came from the movie. Ha! I love it! So, I am not sure if this makes me a geek, or a romantic, or what!

While I was watching the movie I felt like I was in someone else's house. Why, you ask... well, I was on the internet last week when I came across a posting for an ikea garage sale. Of course we told our friends and went ourselves and there we found a wonderful, comfy couch. We deliberated purchasing it because while it was a little more than we were budgeting to spend on a second hand couch it was in great condition and a 1/4 of the original price. But in the end we could not pass up the opportunity to have a couch that we could actualy sit comfortably (have you ever sat on our couch? You know what I am talking about then!). We also found a great little cabinet for our television, which takes the tv out of Corrina's height- so no more turn offs during the plot of movies! We rearranged, although we are not completely done as our old couch is still stuffed in a corner of our living room. However what we have done feels like a real living room with a cozy touch, yet still functional for our very busy toddler. AHHHHHHH, I can't express through words how wonderful everything is and looks-the best part, the cheap cheap cost!

Corrina's Recovery

Good news! Corrina’s surgery went very well! She is happy and healthy and all is well.

It is Saturday, May 5, and we are writing from Sarnia because Corrina is recovering so well we were able to leave the hospital after only one night! The morning of surgery Corrina had a lot of fun playing in the many different play rooms in the different sections of hospital that we were in for prep and such. She was having wagon rides around the waiting room (seriously, the most amazing children’s hospital I have ever seen—it was like an amusement park at times), and rode into her surgery room in a wagon, happy as can be (well, a little worried, but no where near upset). She was given an orange flavored mask to start the anesthetics which looked very fun to play with and went to sleep immediately. The doctor and nurses were wonderfully nice, and most importantly really loved children and treated Corrina with such care! Surgery was about 2.5 hours, followed by a short testing time that assured the implant was in the proper place and working, which it was!! We went to see Corrina in recovery after she had woken up from surgery and she was upset and disoriented, which is to be expected. However, she had two doses of morphine so we knew she wasn’t feeling a thing! The nurse gave Corrina a few freezies which calmed her down and filled her little tummy. She soon got over the fact that her IV was there to stay and just started working around it. For the first few hours she was touchy and had a hard time settling down. She drank a lot of juice and cuddled and fussed. She had a little nap around dinner time, ate some jello, juice, and other friendly foods, and followed that up with a walk around the hallway. She was VERY eager to move which told us that she was recovering well. In fact, she recovered so well and so quickly that she didn’t give mom and dad time to “recover”! She slept great that night, didn’t vomit, and only woke up once for a cuddle and diaper change (IV’s really do fill those diapers up, but I only got peeded or leaked on twice, so I was happy!). This morning her bandage and IV were removed which allowed her to play without restriction and run around the hallways. Yes, she was running less than 24 hrs after surgery. That’s our Corrina!
The hotel that was stayed at was GORGEOUS. Everything was comfy and luxurious (the best shower I have ever had). Corrina didn’t get swim because the pool was closed (of all days) for maintenance. But it is nice to be able come home (to the Colvin’s, that is)
We just arrived in Sarnia after our 3 hours drive from Toronto. Corrina slept! We are all doing well but need some rest.
I cannot think of anything else to report, however if you have questions or want to talk on the phone please email or call us!
As you can tell God has been taking tremendous care of us (there was a little fellow across the fall with an new implant that wasn’t doing so well… vomiting and such… so we know that her recovery isn’t average). THANK YOU for your prayers, support (in so many ways!) and love.

Sorry for how long it tooks us to write this up. Take care everyone!

Love Janie, Dave and Corrina

(first time washing dishes with mama! If you look closely you can see that her ear is sticking out a little because her stiches/sterri strip tape is pushing it forward... that's all you can see of her surgery from the front though!)