CRAZY Last Weeks

Hey Bloggers!!!                                                                                             **written 7/11/2013**
Wow it's been a while. Last time we "talked" I revealed the gender of our still nameless baby boy, and mentioned that we were hit by another driver. A LOT has happened since then!!

We continue our renovations to our new garage turned bedroom. We have trim & baseboards left! Mikel is putting the finishing touches on our AWESOME closet!! I am jealous of myself with this thing. I cannot wait to post pictures!

After our wreck they did not total our van out. It was repaired & returned within a week or 2. At 1st we thought about trading it in for a newer vehicle, but due to the instability of jobs & layoffs, we decided we better wait it out & stick with what he had, it was paid off!

I signed Faith up for VBS that last week in June. On Wednesday June 26th, I left my 36 week appointment to pick up Faith from VBS & my van died. So I tried to start it again only to find nothing happen. No electric, no turnover. Nothing. Great. Dead battery. I wish. I called my father in law to come to our rescue & help jump my van & give us a ride home if it still wouldn't start. It was raining that day. I thought. rain & dead battery. After hanging up with my father in law I saw what I thought to be steam coming off the hood. Something (God) told me to get out & check. I had my 2 kids strapped in the van ready to go & the girl I babysit strapped in as well. (she is 12) I got out of the van lifted the hood to investigate only to find a fire on the left side of my engine! I dropped the hood & yelled to get out. We all got out & to the church when I heard a WHOOSH then turned to find huge flames protruding from under the hood, out of the headlight & a lot of dark smoke. My pregnancy hormones got me at that moment. I BAWLED!!! Here I've had a love/hate relationship with this van & I  was heartbroken to just watch it burn. My babies were just in there & strapped in. This van was MINE. It had been paid off for a good 3 years. Needless to say, my van was totaled. So here we are 4 weeks till D day & we have to search for a new van & stuck with car payments again.

We finally found something & are supposed to go sign tonight.

I recently developed preeclampsia & am being induced Monday, at 39 weeks. I am praying I can go into labor on my own Friday night. my daughters 8th birthday is on Tuesday, so I don't want to be in the hospital for it.

Food For Thought.

Hey fellow bloggers
Last time I TRIED to update & write a post I tried numberous, countless times to post & it just wouldn't go through. I don't know why. Anyway this will sum up my summer in a nutshell.
Happy blogging.

May/June I don't even remember.

*this photo of the fire itself was captured by an onlooker*

June 26,2013

Purchased July 11, 2013

Jeremiah born 7/15/2013

Gender Reveal

Hey bloggers!


So, our weekend of April 13th was quite eventful! We had a very cold start at the AHA heart walk. My dad ran his very 1st  5K!!! He is 54, he is a triple bypass & stroke survivor! Heart disease & stroke are the number 1 & number 4 killers! He is a survivor. Anyway, he made us all very proud! My sister, her husband & my husband all ran with my dad & stayed with him through the race. They finished in under 45min!!!! I am so proud beyond belief that my dad entered a race, never really having run before & he finished! After the race, we all participated in the heart walk. It was soooo cold that morning & windy!!!! During the walk my husband & I both realized we locked our keys in the house. We had to call a lock smith to let us into our own home. :( This was at 10am! I had a Gender Reveal Party scheduled at our very messy house at 1pm! I still needed a shower & to finish cleaning. Just what I needed! (NOT!) Anyway. All ended up going very well. We had a few of our closest friends that we invited along with our family here in town. Everyone came dressed in pink if they thought we were having a girl & blue if they thought we were having a boy. We had pink & blue Hawaiian lays, lips & mustaches for people to carry & pink or blue ribbons to wear. We had a sign with the results from several Old Wives Tales, & a voting page.
I have some great friends! I had 2 friends volunteer their time to be my photographers for the day! They got a LOT of great pictures for me. I'm including pictures from the party. Yesterday, we were on our way to church when a lady ran a stop sign & smashed into the side of our van. Needless to say we are down a car for a while. Everyone is ok. We chose to go to the hospital to have our family all checked out to be safe. We all are ok. And yes, our baby is doing just fine! In fact measuring yet a week bigger than before! This lil nameless child measures as big as a baby due July 16th (my daughters birthday) not that of one due on July 22nd. This baby better wait till after my daughters birthday. Please pray for everyone involved in the accident.
Enjoy the pictures & have another cup of java on this cool soggy day.

It's a boy!

 

Have another cup of java. (I'm going to need a lot after baby boy #2 arrives!)

 

KIDS

Kids. Anyone that is a parent knows. Kids. Nuff said, am I right? You love them so very much, but sometimes..... they can drive a person to rip their hair out & run screaming.....
We often joke that kids need to come with an instruction manual. I sure wish I had one sometimes. Faith was so easy. She had her moments, don't get me wrong. But for the most part, we never had any problems with her when she was a toddler. Isaiah however is my child that I fear will land us in the ER one of these days. I'm honestly shocked he hasn't yet.

Now, God does give us an instruction manual. The Bible. It is full of knowledge that is still very relevant to today. My problem, is it doesn't tell us certain things. Like, how to remove gum from hair. Or what to do when your child climbs up to get ahold of the Borax & eats it, or how to get permanent marker off of furniture or skin. How to get peanut butter out of hair once you learn it removes the gum from the hair. How to get your child's finger unstuck from a shopping cart. What to do when your child is running a fever of 103. What do you do when your child gets Cayenne pepper in their eyes. What to do when they poop during their 1st bath. What to do when they eat dog poop.

Yes, these are real issues I have had with my kids. I love my kids. But really?! Do they have to give me such a hard time? I blame my husband. I was a perfect child. :)

At least the instruction manual God gives us gives us light in our dark days. He gives us hope and assurance that it will get better. We can turn to Him in prayer for guidance and strength. We can pray for wisdom. If we seek Him, he will help us through these tough times. I love that I have God to turn to, He helps me to calm down & find the humor in the situation. Usually, the humor comes later after it is all over.

It is my prayer that if you too have a child(ren) that give you a hard time, you too will seek God's guidance.  My favorite verse is Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength"

So to that, I'm gonna have some more java!
Who should make the coffee? The man should. Says so in the Bible, so it must be true. Hebrews! :)

How Pinterest Was a Blessing

So,

I have this little 2 year old boy. I love him. I really do. Some days, I could really give him away. (not really.)
Meet Isaiah: 

 

 

 

What's that on his hands? Oh, just a little,

 

permanent marker. my worst nightmare.....

 

 

So, I walk into the kitchen & my sweet (not) 2 year old boy is ON THE TABLE, with marker! Not just any marker, a KING SIZE SHARPIE!!  Guess where else the marker was?

 

So I did what any mother in this day & age would do. I cried help on Pinterest. I found a few questionable ideas. Then I found this.  Use a soft damp washcloth & some regular old toothpaste. (Thank you to my dentist for always giving us travel sizes every month. I've got a huge stash now.) 

 

I did a LOT of rubbing. Had to reapply, reapply reapply. Rinse & then use polish to shine it up again. And voila!

 

You can't even tell it was there! I can't believe it! Isaiah should be very grateful. This may have saved his life. haha. Now, about that marker on his skin...... I wonder if a good ol minty toothpaste bath would do the trick? :)

 

To that, I'm gonna have a cup of java! 





Things To Come

Hi bloggers!

I don't know about you but this last couple of days have been really tough. I am not liking this time change. It is dark when I wake up and I can't seem to wake up totally. Sure hoping I can get used to this fast!

Coming up this week I will be trying out a couple new Pinterest recipes. Breakfast Ham & Egg Cups and a crock pot applesauce. Look for those around Wednesday or Thursday. I am excited to try out a couple new recipes. I love trying new things & reporting my opinion on it! We love apple sauce & go through it very quickly. I am hoping this will be a less expensive way to enjoy something we love. We also love breakfast food but we don't always have time to cook so I am hoping I can freeze the ham & egg cups so that they are at our disposal.

Next week I look forward to reporting about my experience at Hearts at Home . I am very excited. This will be my second time there. It has been a few years. I am looking forward to having my mom join me for her very 1st time at Hearts at Home.

Later this year (hopefully earlier than later) I will be blogging about our garage to bedroom redo! The ball is rolling finally! The subflooring has begun, and insulation has been replaced. We have a LOT still to do. By we I mean, my hubby is doing all the labor & I am simply supervising. haha. We  have been blessed with wonderful, talented  and helpful people in our church that are helping as they are able & we are so very thankful to them! I cannot wait to share the before, during and after pictures as we turn the garage into a master bedroom.

Well, that is all for now & I hope you are just as excited as I am about the Things To Come!

Have an extra big cup of java on this gloomy messed up day. (thank you time change...)

Girls Night Out

Hi bloggers!

I don't know about you SAHMs, but I need a break from time to time. I love my kids. I love watching other people's kids, but I need a break too.  I mean, working moms & dads get to clock out & leave their place of work behind & go home. I however, never leave my place of work. There is no transition where I can drive home & clear my head. I eat, sleep & breath my job. I am not complaining about it. But you have to step into the shoes of  a SAHM to really understand it.

I mean, no matter how much you love your job. You have a bad day. Now, imagine you can't leave. You have to stay the night at work. Would you be stressed? yep. You bet you would be.

Now, I haven't had a day for myself in a LONG time! My hubby has begun working our after work 4 days a week. He comes home long enough to change & isn't back till dinner is over! This stinks! I get zero break till just before bed & then he is pretty pooped form working & working out so, I don't really get to just "clock out" for the evening & go hide somewhere in the house. So, a good friend of mine & I decided we needed a break. She works full time & gets very tired. She is a super hard worker. She is a nail tech & let me tell you, she does excellent work! But it is labor. It is tiring. Anyone that's ever worked in a salon knows that you are not just the hair dresser, or nail tech, but apparently it's in your job description to be a psychologist. I've not personally worked in a salon, but I've spent enough time to hear the conversations. So, long story short, my friend T needed a break too.

We decided to hit up Next of Kiln in Mt. Zion. We can walk away paying more likely less than at the movies, we get to go home with something to speak of the night & we can have a conversation. It definitely was a better choice than going to the movies. We then had dinner at Applebee's (which they took my Fiesta Lime Chicken off their 2 for $20 menu....bitter) then we headed off to browse around the mall! We had a great time getting away, paining our coffee mugs, eating a tasty dinner & hanging out at the mall.

This is my completed project.

 

 

So ladies, have another cup of java! And get out of the house from time to time!

Crockpot Cheese Tortellini

Hi bloggers!
So, if you've been following the last few posts, you know I have been trying some new recipes that I find on Pinterest. You also know that the last 2 were a bust with the hubs. I am soooooo happy (did I mention happy?) to report last night was a SUCCESS! O-M-G! It was so very good!! We loved the Crockpot Cheese Tortellini found here at Little Fellows. This recipe required very little prep work, cooks slowly all day in the crockpot & taste amazing! I cannot wait for the leftovers later!

This one is so very simple. 2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes (drained), 1 9oz bag of spinach, 1 19oz bag of frozen cheese tortellini, 4Cups chicken broth, 1 8oz package of cream cheese & 1lb Italian sausage. The only prep work is cooking your sausage. Put everything in the crockpot & cook on low for 4-6hrs. So simple!!

We love the Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden & this recipe reminded us of it, but with tortellini instead of potatoes. The only change I intend to make is adding some crushed red pepper for a little spice. Other than that, we found it amazing. Before we knew it the hubby had gone back for 3rds! Which makes me feel great, but..... he has been trying to cut back on all the eating. haha. Well, so he blew it for 1 meal. It's fine by me!

(thanks aunt Ashley for the super cool car plate!)

 

So to this my blogger friends, have another sip of java & branch out & try new things!

Chicken Gyros

Hello fellow bloggers.

Last night my family tried some chicken gyros. I LOVE gyros. Especially the tasty sauce that goes on them. I have been really wanting some gyros lately but I'm too cheap to go buy one & too lazy to make them. I have a recipe in a Pampered Chef cookbook to make the gyro meat. So, when I was browsing Pinterest & came across a chicken gyro recipe, I was excited to try it. Prepwork was fairly simple. I'd say it's not easy, but it is in no means difficult. Just took a little extra prep work. I'd say about 20 - 30 min. Less if you get all your stuff out ahead of time, which I did not do this time around. I also have a 2 year old that loves to get into things when I am busy.....
Anyway, all you need is:

Tzatziki sauce:

1 cup plain Greek yogurt

1 regular cucumber, peeled and seeded

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken:

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Juice of 1 lemon (2-3 Tablespoons)

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 heaping Tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

1 Tablespoon dried oregano

Salt and pepper

1 1/4 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Tomoato slices & red onion slices for topping.  

 

I did not have red wine vinegar so I substituted for the white. I also do not like onion so I chose to not put onions on mine.

 

I think it had good flavor. The Tzatziki sauce was a bit "dry". It left my mouth feeling dry. I think it's all that cucumber minced up in it. Maybe less cucumber would help? IDK. I would definitely eat this again. My hubby however wasn't a fan. So, that makes 2 meals this week I have tried & he has not liked. Usually he loves my cooking so this is new to me to disappoint. But, I say it isn't my fault, I didn't create these recipes. :)

 

like my fancy dishes?

 

 

Well, that's that. Tonight I shall try yet another new recipe. You can find this recipe over HERE on The Girl Who Ate Everything.

 

Have another cup of java cuz baby it's cold outside!