I'm Gonna Be

The iTunes Shuffle Game.

Here are the rules:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. on shuffle.

2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.

3. You must write the song name down no matter how silly it sounds.

If someone says “you’re okay” you say:

Mad About You by Belinda Carlisle

How would you describe yourself?

Rejoice by Chris Tomlin

What do you like in a girl/guy?

The Christmas Song by Celtic Woman

How do you feel?

One Week by Barenaked Ladies (which, by the way, have an awesome children's album)

What’s your life’s purpose?

Little Town by Amy Grant (one of the BEST Christmas songs ever!)

What’s your motto?

How Great is Our God by Chris Tomlin

What do your parents think of you?

Have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi

What do you think about very often?

My Savior My God by Aaron Shust

What do you think of your best friend?

And Winter Came by Enya

What’s your life story?

Soldiers by Out of Eden (I know several of you are starting to line dance right now... lol)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Forget About It by Suzy Bogguss

What do you think when you see the person you like?

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!

What will you dance to at your wedding?

Whip It by Devo

What will they play at your funeral?

Stuck on You by Lionel Richie

What is your passion in life?

Barbie Girl by Aqua (I am soooo hoping this isn't true!)

What is your biggest fear?

St. Elmo's Fire by John Parr (one of the best movies EVER!)

What is your biggest secret?

Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

What do you want right now?

What's Love Got to Do With It by Tina Turner

What will you title this post as?

I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers

So, yeah, I'm staring at a $25 iTunes gift card right now... maybe even wishing I had used it before I did this little game.  oh well...

Lesson learned...

The mister left around 4:30 this morning to go on a mission trip to Guatamala with our church.  He will be gone all week, getting home next Saturday evening.  I'm really glad he gets to go.  I can't wait to hear all about it.  However, he had only been home 8 days before he left.  That trip was for business... ping-ponging around Europe for 12 days.  It's really hard when he's gone, both for us and for him.  For me, it's just hard to be the only parent.  It's exhausting, truly.  With two girls in elementary school and an 18-month-old, we split the responsibilities every day.  I help with homework while he entertains the dude.  I take the dude outside to play while he cooks dinner.  But when it's just me, it's hard.

So this morning, I was going through my mental to-do list:

• chores (this will be hard b/c usually the mister entertains the dude while I clean and keep the sisters on track)
• laundry (5 loads at least)
• errands (need to go to HobLob and maybe Target to finish the Halloween costumes)
• Candypalooza 4-6 p.m. (carnival hosted by our student ministry at church)
• and the dude needs to nap at least once, if not twice to make him a happy camper

I was dreading the day... thinking we will not get it all done... especially with the mister gone.  And then it dawned on me... service for God is not supposed to be convenient.  It's supposed to be a sacrifice.  If it's something we can do from our La-Z-boy, is it service?  I don't think so.  It is a sacrifice on the mister's part to go to Guatamala (he's using 1 week of vacation).  It's a sacrifice on our part for him to be gone for a week.  Service for God is supposed to stretch us, bend us, make us feel a little (or a lot) uncomfortable.  

Now, it's the end of the day, and amazingly enough, the day was extremely successful.  We got ALL the chores done.  I need to fold 1 load of laundry and put away (tomorrow after church).  We only had to go to HobLob to finish the costumes for tomorrow.  Candypalooza was succussful.  The dude got 2 naps.  Amazing.  Thank you, Lord.

No,

the earth didn't fall off its' axis.  But apparently, I did.

So, yeah, summer FLEW by.  The sisters had camps, I had camp, and church had camp.  And then there was family vacation.  I'll have to save that for a post all by itself.   Then school started!  (Yes, I am pretty sure I heard the heavens open and angels began to sing.)  THEN, mother's day out started!  OH YES!  (I'm pretty sure I heard Jesus singing with me!)  Little man goes just twice a week, but that is just enough.  Although I haven't used my time wisely.  It's still early yet.  I give it a couple of more days of mdo, and then I should be in a groove.

So, just to make this post make your heart skip another beat, I'm going to share a recipe with you!

Crock-pot Shredded BBQ Chicken

3-6 thawed chicken breasts
12 oz. + BBQ sauce
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T Worcerster (whatever) sauce

Quite simple.  Put the chicken breasts in the crock-pot.  Mix all other ingredients together.  Pour over chicken.  Cook on high for 3 hours.  Take chicken out and shred (I used the two forks method... are there other methods?  am I really the one that would know if there were?).  Put the shredded chicken back into the crock-pot and mix in the sauce.  Cook on low for 1 hour.  Serve on toasted hoagies.  YUM!
You can use frozen chicken breasts, but you will need to cook them longer (obviously)... say 5-6 hours.  But I'm just guessing.

May in a Nutshell

I guess I now have to do a "May in a Nutshell" post since I didn't post but once in the whole month.  To finish my last post...

• Sister #1 did, in fact, ROCK the TAKS (state standardized test)!  She got a 100% in reading and missed 1 in math (or vice versa... can't remember).  We are so proud!
• We invited roughly half of the neighborhood over for dinner and swimming the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  We had about 12 adults and 17 kids (ages 1-12)... the Mister made a ton of hamburgers and hot dogs (we still have some in the freezer!).  Everyone had a good time and are ready to do it again!
• We finished our Wednesday evening church activities.  Both Sister #1 and Sister #2 worked hard all year memorizing Bible verses, and both got plaques to reward their hard work.

Here are a few pics from the trip Mister & I got to take to Hawaii:

(Self explanatory)

(the view from our balcony)

(a short hike... I was desperately searching for whales)

(a different hike.... into a rain forest... thankful we weren't there on a Wednesday or a Sunday!)

(just part of our fascination with signs)

April in a nutshell...

So, I guess I fell off the face of the earth.  Why else would I go 2 months without posting?  So, to get caught up on everything, here is a summary of April:

• My husband had to go to Hawaii for business in late March/early April.  We were able to find childcare in a flash and I was able to go with him!  I'll do a recap of that trip tomorrow.
• Sister #2 was baptized on Easter!  So exciting!  Just this past Sunday, we observed the Lord's Supper for the first time since she was baptized... the only comment she made afterward was that she didn't like the cracker.  Really?  Really.
• Little Man turned 1!  We just celebrated with family here at the house (third child = no big shindig).  Amazing that it's been a whole year since his birth!  
• My 3rd grader ROCKED the TAKS (standardized test).  We haven't gotten the results back yet, but I am confident she did well.

Hmmm... maybe that's why I didn't post in April... not a lot going on.  But I guess that's a good thing!

The Drive Home

  

So the drive home from Colorado last week was interesting to say the least.  The Mister thought, "Why go the way we came?  We'll take a different way!"  (I'm paraphrasing here.)  So, instead of taking a nice 4-lane divided highway to Albuquerque (to hop on I-40), we drove over to Pagaso Springs, and then south to Santa Fe.  That leg of the trip was OK.  We kept saying we would stop in the next town to grab lunch, but the next town never had a fast food joint.  So we finally made it to Santa Fe, stopped at a big truck stop, and took a break.  We bought the sisters lunch from the Subway in the truck stop.  Nice.

From Santa Fe, we took I-25 for a ways until we needed to take another state highway south to I-40.  The Mister took it upon himself to use the navigation system in the suburban.  We now know that when given the choice between "fastest" and "shortest"  a) they are not the same... think wisely; and b) consult the map in your hands to determine the size/quality of the road; and c) go the way you've been before!  I don't remember exactly what he chose, but we ended up on state highway 3 (otherwise known as "A Trip Through the Backwoods of HippieLand New Mexixo").  I took some pictures of signs we encountered on this scenic drive...

 This should have sent off warning signs in our heads when we first saw it, but no...

This one made me laugh...
I guess the people in backwoods NM can't read, so instead of the normal sign "Watch for Falling Rocks", they just have a picture of rocks falling from the cliff onto your car.

Throughout the week, we had seen signs for Elk.  On this road we even saw signs for cows.  But this takes the cake.  It reminds me of that part in Cars where they go "cow-tipping" except that it's "tractor-tipping."  Right?

This one isn't as funny, except that we kept waiting and waiting and waiting, yet the road never went down to one lane.   I guess  their road was upgraded sometime along the way, yet noone fixed the sign.
Oh, and most of the time we were going slow, because of all the tight curves, and so 25 was not unheard of.

Really?

Congested?  By whom?  None of the "towns" had more than 8 houses... so how was it going to get congested?  Really.

And last but not least, this is the sign we encountered when we (finally) made it to the interstate.  I'm glad we are educated people and knew which way to go and what highway to get on, because this sign is not really useful.  Especially to someone from out of state and has never heard of Santa Rosa or Encino.
Nice.





We finally made it to Amarillo, where we stopped for the night.  All along we had heard about this storm system that was coming through that might drop some snow flurries.  But we're from Texas, and so we never know if we can trust the weatherman.  They get so excited about impending storms and a lot of times, they exaggerate.  So we checked into our hotel and then went out for dinner.  Yes, it was a little windy (or a lot).  Yes, there were snow flurries.  Yes, the temp had dropped 20 degrees.  No, we didn't process it all and consider driving home that night.  We should have.  We woke up to several inches of snow on the ground and a nice icy coating on the streets.  By the way, did you know that most of Amarillo is one loooooong overpass?  It is.
Here are some pics of our drive home.  Some parts were really scary, as they were near white-out conditions.

Thankfully, The Mister drove all day.  I volunteered, but I warned him it would take a lot longer if I were driving.

I think there were a few times that angels were plastered all around our truck and kept us safe.  Not everyone knows how to drive in this stuff.

By the time we got through Wichita Falls, the roads cleared up and we were able to go a normal speed.

Here's a cute pic of Little Man... sleeping in the car with his mouth open.  I just had to put that one in!

Spring Break

We had a wonderful family vacation over spring break.  We checked the sisters out of school a little early on Friday, packed up the suburban, and headed west.  We stopped overnight in Amarillo, and then kept on driving west.  Needless to say, Little Man is not a fan of driving for hours on end.  But we managed.
The Mister scored on the vacation rental... He found a 3 bedroom townhouse about 20-25 minutes south of the ski resort.  It was perfect!  The sisters shared a room (and it had it's own TV) and Little Man had his own room (all upstairs with a full bath).  We had a large master bedroom downstairs with a king-size bed (we have to have a king... otherwise no one gets any sleep!) and a large master bath.  They even had a garage and a washer/dryer!  We managed to cook all of our evening meals at home and make lunches for the days we skied.
Purgatory (now called Durango Mountain Resort) was wonderful!  I would go back in a heartbeat! There were plenty of green runs (easy) for us to chose from, and even more blue runs (medium difficulty).  The sisters were great skiers!  We had to tell them a time or two (or three or four) to slow down because we couldn't keep up!
Little Man went to childcare the 3.5 days we skied.  He didn't like it much.  But he wasn't horrible for them either.  I think he just tried to tell them who was boss.  Apparently they didn't know that everyone should focus their attention on him!  Imagine!


Here are some pics from our trip:

The sisters and The Mister on the slopes.

The sisters striking a pose... the one in the blue coat is a little crazy!

 A quick pic on the lift.

Little Man has started this new thing...

He raises his arms over his head like he's on a roller coaster.  It's cute... we all say "Yeah W___!"  And he grins from ear to ear.  Here he's doing it with some kitchen utensils toys in his hands.

I'll show you pics from the wild drive home another day.  

February in a nut shell...

So, February came and went before I even realized it!  Here's a few highlights:

• 5 10th grade boys and 2 college-age leaders stayed at our house for a weekend. It actually went better than I had planned.  They ate and drank everything we offered them, but I'm not surprised.  I did have to pick up and wash every single towel in the two bathrooms upstairs.  Again, not surprised.  Good guys, good weekend.
• 13 days (out of 28) this month at least 1 person was sick at our house.  Some of those days, there were 2 or 3 people sick.  I hope that NEVER happens again.  We've had our fair share of sickies... yucky germs, GO AWAY!
• 3, 237 loads of laundry were done... and 2 comforters have been sent to the cleaners... all because of the Month of Sickness.  I think I am still trying to catch up.
• Because I was sick one week for 3 days and still recovering for 2 more, I had to cancel my much-looked-forward-to scrapbooking weekend with a girlfriend.  Her parents have a beautiful lakehouse on Texoma and we go at least once a year to scrapbook all day all weekend.  Totally bummed.
• 2 days cancelled for snow... and we actually had measurable snow!  In fact, one of those days made weather history!  I got some pics; I'll post them another day.
• I did get to go on a overnight trip to Canton with 5 of my girlfriends.  It was fun, but I didn't buy a thing!  But there will be a next time...

So, here we are in March.  We're looking forward to a family ski trip to Colorado over Spring Break.  Should be fun, except we're driving.  Not sure how the Little Man will do in the car for hours on end.  I'm already planning tricks to put up my sleeve.  

what was I thinking?

So, I volunteered to host teenagers in my home for the weekend.  I'll give you all the highlights next week. However, I'm zooming around trying to get this place clean.  Normally we clean on Saturday mornings.  The Sisters have cleaning lists.  So do I (and the Mister).  And we work and clean and work and clean until it is all done. But they aren't going to be here this weekend.  I'm sending them away.  So I'm doing all the chores.
And on top of it all, the Little Man is sick.  Has been since Sunday.  Hopefully, tomorrow he will be fever free and we will be on the way to recovery.  That would be awesome.  If he is still running a fever, we will have to get x-rays to check for pneumonia.  Nice.
I think I hear a load of laundry calling...

blog help?

so yeah, the frame in the header is empty.  any suggestions on how to put a photo in there?

A Love/Hate Relationship...

I have a love/hate relationship.  Well, I probably have several.  But the one I'm talking about right now is  the relationship I have with this:

This is one of our Le Creuset pots.  I think the Mister calls it a "Dutch Oven."  Whatever.  Anyway... Let me explain.  I love it because a) it's Le Creuset... one of the best makers of kitchen ware around (can you tell I'm trying to avoid using the word p  o  t  too much... not sure if this entry would show up in a google search for that word... and well, I just don't want that!).  I also love it because  b) it makes this:

That is one of the easiest dinners to make... pot roast!  Around 3:00 this afternoon, I browned my roast in some oil, added some red wine, salsa, onion, carrots, potatoes, and onion soup mix, and voila!  Three hours later, dinner is served.  And I just LOVE the potatoes that have been cooked with a roast.  I think I LOVE them more than the roast itself.  Yummm!

But you can also tell in this picture one of the reasons I hate it.  Can you guess?  If you guessed that it's a booger to clean, you are right!  See that oil splatter (I guess that's what it is) around the top of the dutch oven?  Yeah, it's a pain in the patootie to clean.  Because Le Creuset's are made with cast iron (I think), you can't soak them for very long or submerge them in water because the top rim will start to rust.  Nice.

The other reason I hate it is because of it's color.  Flame.  That's what the color is called.  And there is not a single other thing in my kitchen that is that color (on purpose).  And get this... we have 2 Le Creuset's this color.  We bought the first one at a Chef's Catalogue warehouse sale many many years ago.  I think we bought this color because it was the lesser of two evils.  I don't really recall what the choices were, but surely they were atrocious if this is what we thought was best.  And then when we bought the second one, it had to match the first.  Because that is what you do.  I know, I don't really get it either.
So there you have it.  My love/hate relationship with my dutch oven.


Oh, and I know some of you might be falling out of your chair simply at the thought of me cooking.  The Mister is out of town this week, and we ate out last night as well as the night before that, so I had to cook.  And no, no one has died from my cooking.  Hmmpf.

I fought the law...

well, really it wasn't the law.  It was the ink in the printer.  And it won.
So now I look like I'm turning into a smurf.  Literally.  My hand has blue stains.
I've tried everything.... soap and water, a cleaning wipe, Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser, fingernail polish remover, and even the stuff men have in the garage that's like soap with grit in it.  And my hand still has blue stains.
Nice.

Where did December go?

Well, my gracious sakes!  Where did December go?  I mean really?

I know I've been a slacker on this here blog.  I kept saying (to myself), "I'll get the camera out and upload some pics and then I'll post."  But that never happened.  Until right now.

For the week of Christmas, we went to Steamboat Springs for some skiing.  We totally loved it and had a blast!  The girls had skied before, but it was about 18 months ago.  So we put them in ski school for 2 days, and then we skied together on the 3rd day.  They are totally on board with making this an annual tradition. Here are some pics of our trip:

Sister #1 and Sister #2 in their cute coats & hats...

pretty self-explanatory...

On Christmas, we went to the fancy restaurant at the top of the mountain for brunch...

the girls loved it because they had (among other things) a chocolate fountain with fruit & marshmallows for dipping!

There are many stories from our trip... including the one that explains why we're thankful Sister #2 wore a helmet while skiing... but I'll save those for another day.