HOME OF THE HARVEYS

Portugal Recap

2012-01-26T16:22:00.001-08:00

I am really trying to get a Portugal post written (a few months late!) but for now enjoy some pictures and I’ll explain everything later.

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Training for Foster/Adoption

2012-01-24T20:50:00.001-08:00

We started our training last week. It’s a lot of training. So much that I only like to look at it one week at a time as not to get overwhelmed.

Basically, there are about 15 different training sessions you have to go to- most are 3 hours long, one is 8 and I think one is 4 or 5. This month they are offered on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-8.

The trainings are in south Arlington so for us that means leaving at 5:00- dropping C off with a friend, picking up dinner or taking it along- and driving an hour in rush hour to the training. The drive home is faster but it still puts us back much past Cason’s bed time. To be honest it’s exhausting- not counting the part where we sit in class for 3 hours. The last two weeks have been class tues/thurs, church wed, something at church friday and saturday, church sunday and start again on monday. Cason finally lost it on Saturday night on our way to dinner. We are taking a break this week on the trainings to regroup because on Saturday we have an 8 hour class.

So far we have been to: Child Development, Communication, Separation Loss and Grief, and Sexual Abuse. We are usually in class with a few other couples and it’s a casual talk and very open for asking questions or exploring topics. It’s interesting but at the same time very dry- sitting anywhere for 3 hours is hard for me to do. The grief class and abuse class were heavy. We knew that when a child has been placed in foster care it is likely they have some baggage; but when you really sit down and learn about what some of these children go through, it will break your heart. But it reminded me why we are doing this in the first place.

We also learned that when you have foster children that licensing can stop by any time and inspect your house. So imagine your worst day as a parent- it’s 3:00 and everyone is still in their pj’s… including you, laundry is everywhere, dishes are in the sink, everyone is in a bad mood, you park the kids in front of the tv so you can get a break, the house is cluttered with toys and there might be some silverware from the kitchen and tools from the garage mixed in there somewhere too- and there’s a knock at the door and it’s someone wanting to come into the house to see if you are meeting all the standards for a foster home. Now they understand that life happens- so dishes and toys and pj’s shouldn’t really make a difference. But that’s the kind of day you don’t even want your friends to come over, having a stranger judging you as a parent… that’s hard.

And that’s where praying comes in. We knew this would be a giant leap of faith when we started. That we had to fully rely on God to provide our strength and wisdom and patience and peace. He would remove our worry and make ready our path. Finishing the training isn’t going to be the hardest part of our journey, in fact, it’s probably the easy part. Most people have 9 months to prepare for a child coming into their home, I always wondered what it would be like to have a child dropped off one day without that 9 months of mental and physical preparation. God is providing that preparation for us now. These 50 or so hours of training are allowing us to mentally and physically get ready. Most importantly they are allowing us to spiritually get ready. The Lord is teaching us to give it all to him NOW- the training, the scheduling, the fears, the uncertainties, the frustrations- none of it matters because we are doing what God has asked us to do. He will take care of it all.

I have come to love this verse- it is on the wall of our training room:

Children are a gift of the Lord, like arrows in the hand of a warrior - Psalm 127

Too Much On My Plate

2012-01-18T19:52:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel overwhelmed?

No?

You should probably stop reading now.

I have too much to do to even blog, yet, I'm sitting here blogging and not accomplishing things.

I have so much to show you and tell you but sometimes when I have so many little things to do I just can't do anything.

Here's a little update:

- Tuesday and Thursday nights we have been going to training to be foster/adopt parents. The training is from 6-9, childcare not included, and it's in south arlington which takes an hour to drive to in rush hour traffic from our house. We have about 50 hours of training to do and it's informative but very dry.

- In order to make room for a new little girl we remodeled a tiny area in our house so I could move my office into it and turn the current office/guest room into a girls room. Sounds simple enough right? Well, I had to move everything from the areas we removed into the guest room. Now we need to remove plumbing, paint, carpet, install desk and shelving, clean before I can get everything out of the room and actually make it into a nursery. Whew, I'm already tired.

- I have 2 designing jobs going on right now that are taking up a ton of time. I actually really like working on them but I constantly feel guilty because It's taking me a long time to get them done. But I think I might wrap up one this weekend and I can't wait to show you all the details.

- I'm teaching 2 classes this quarter I have never taught before and they take a huge amount of prep time. Like lots of research and writing and power points.

- I need to make some art for one of the projects I'm working on. I don't even have all the stuff because taking Cason to hobby lobby is a real pain. The stuff I do have is sitting in a pile.

- Speaking of piles, I have a pile for goodwill (okay maybe 2) a pile of clothes that don't fit cason anymore, a pile of misc bills, several paint samples, Christmas toys that have still not found a permanent home, clothes that need putting away, a stack of books for my class prep, and maybe a few dishes sitting around.

That's all I can think of right now. I've made a list of things to do, I constantly think of all the things that need to be accomplished, and I just shut down. I'd rather do nothing than start a list of items that I will never be able to accomplish.

I'm not usually like this, just sometimes. Just when my list gets long.

I know none of that stuff matters in the long run- my eyes should be focused on the Lord and they are.
But it's hard not to still get overwhelmed.

So, please send a plumber, a maid and a personal assistant my way. Meanwhile- I'll be accomplishing things... hopefully!

Pictures of lil C

2012-01-12T19:56:00.001-08:00

Cason really likes to have his picture taken. He will do something silly and tell me to take his picture.

Here are a few.

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How I Quit Starbucks

2012-01-10T11:44:00.001-08:00

I got one of these

And I started drinking this:

Whew. Now I can check "quit Starbucks" off the list.- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas- Part 2

2012-01-05T19:23:00.001-08:00

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We had such a wonderful Christmas. Cason got some great toys that he has had so much fun playing with. Mike got a workbench for the garage that inspired him to straighten and re-arrange our garage which now looks great! I got a few of my favorite things- tea, clothes, makeup, accessories… all the good stuff!

Christmas- Part 1

2012-01-05T19:05:00.001-08:00

One of the first presents we gave Cason was a motorcycle. It was given to us by a family at our church and Mike cleaned it up and got new stickers and spray painted it. Just like new.

We had it outside and opened the garage with Cason on the inside for his first view. The neighbors happened to be out there at that time so he was more focused on all the people more than the motorcycle at first.

It didn’t take long before he was off!

Down the sidewalk…

There are some buttons on the top that make engine noises. He had to find out where the sound was coming from.

The motorcycle goes about .5 MPH so there’s not much danger of running into anything.

Riding in the street is so much fun because he gets to drive with the real cars.

Present #1 is a hit!

Becoming Licensed for Foster Care

2012-01-03T21:03:00.001-08:00

If you missed yesterdays post read it first HERE or this one won’t make much sense.

There is so much we don’t know and so much we still need to learn but I’m going to attempt to tell you about the first few steps in our journey.

Step 1: Find and agency to work with and go to orientation.

It’s possible that you can work directly with CPS but in our journey we chose to work with an agency.

It was important that we found a group to work with that was not only founded on faith but lived out their faith in their everyday practices.

We decided to work with Arrow Child and Family Ministries.

We attended orientation in early November. We immediately felt this was the place for us. The founder was a foster child himself and is a believer and their commitment to the Lord was evident in all parts of the orientation.

During the orientation you find out more about foster care and adoption and fill out a basic information form that allows them to run a background check on you. You can’t move forward without a background check.

Part of the information they want to get from you is what kind of children you would be open to. For our family- we asked for a girl in the 0-3 age range. You are also asked what kinds of disabilities (physical and emotional) you feel you are equipped to handle.

A few weeks later we found out we passed the background check (whew) and they would like to move forward with us!

Step 2: Home Check

Well, step 2 is probably to start the training but with the holidays of November and December we might be a little out of order.

A week before Christmas someone from Arrow came out to our house to show us the checklist that would be used during the home study and see what we would need to do to our house to be prepared.

Everything looked great at the house and the changes are pretty minimal.

The things we need to do in our house are:

Put a fire extinguisher in the kitchen (do you think they come in cobalt blue?)
Put smoke detectors in all sleeping rooms, the hallway, the living room and the kitchen. So in our house that’s every room. It’s going to be really annoying when the batteries start going out.
Put a screen on the window in the kitchen that we ripped off the time we got locked out of the house. Long story.
Put any dangerous tools in the garage out of reach as well as fertilizers and other chemicals.
Change this room

from whatever it is currently to a little girls nursery…. or toddler room.

And for the record, it only looks like that because we are converting another space into an office so we can make this room a bedroom. Oh, who am I kidding. It looks like this a lot of the time.

The last one is the hardest. I mean, it’s easy because I love to decorate and I can’t wait to design a little girls room. But hard because it is a serious step of faith. We don’t know what age we are getting- zero means a crib, three means a toddler bed. They have different toys and needs and it’s hard to know how to design a room with so many unknowns. We don’t know WHEN- it could be three months it could be a year. God could change our hearts. We don’t think he will change our hearts for foster/adoption but he could tell us we need to take a boy… or an older child… or siblings… or any number of different things. Starting to convert the room means we will be totally acting on faith. A step we are excited to make, excited to see where the Lord leads us… but a tiny bit nervous too. :-)

Step 3: Lots of training

Keep you posted!

Motivation

2012-01-03T20:06:00.001-08:00

Thanks to some advice from friends I created a little motivation for Cason to go to the potty. We are almost 3 and have made NO progress with potty training. As in zero.

So, I got some toys that I knew Cason would love and placed them behind the potty.

When he walked in and saw the toys he started jumping up and down and told me he loved his presents! I explained how he will get them- by using the potty. He said okay and I asked if he wanted to try and go to the potty and he said no.

No problem, no pressure.

Except he keeps taking me into the bathroom and showing me the toys and he is so excited and now I feel like the worst mom ever because he obviously doesn’t want to use the potty and now I’m taunting him with toys.

And I promised myself that I wouldn’t force the potty training thing- I just want him to go ONCE so he knows what it feels like and what he is supposed to do but we have not even gone once.

And it’s crazy because he can understand all sorts of things and tell me all sorts of details about his day and the past and he can’t go potty. Ugh.

Poor Cason- those toys will tease him forever.

Our Expanding Family

2012-01-02T20:53:00.001-08:00

I think it took about 1 day after I had Cason for someone to ask me if I was ready for another one.

Seriously? I think I wanted to hit them.

Cason is almost three and I get asked that question much more often.

When someone asks when we are having another child I typically say “no way”.

But there is a little more to the story- so let me tell you now.

Mike and I have always wanted to adopt. In fact, I think we talked about it before we even got married. The thing we didn’t know was HOW or WHEN.

We had Cason and I felt like my life was spinning out of control for a few years and more children was the last thing I wanted to think about.

This summer Mike and I were visiting friends in Houston and sitting in their church service and I felt convicted about saying we wanted to adopt but making absolutely no progress towards that. We felt it was time to start researching our options.

One thing that really pulled at our heart was foster children. Mike’s sister works for an agency so it has always been on our radar- but as we started thinking about how we would add another child to our family, foster care kept coming back into our hearts.

We are in the early stages and there are still so many things we do not know. Here’s what we do know.

The Lord has called us to adopt and given us this direction. Unless the Lord gives us a different direction, we will continue to move forward.

Based on the fact that people feel compelled to tell me foster care horror stories every time I mention that this is what we are planning on doing, foster care has a scary reputation. Here’s the deal though, the LORD is guiding this process. There will be ups and downs. We are not naive to think that it’s going to be easy, we know our hearts might get broken, but we are trusting the LORD to carry us through.

Can I have more children (a common question)? It doesn’t matter right now. We want to adopt whether I could get pregnant again or not.

One night mike and I were praying about our decision to adopt. I showed him a verse God led me to in Ephesians: He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—Ephesians 1:5.

A few days after that we found out that we couldn’t work with the first foster agency that we wanted to and would have to keep looking. It was discouraging and was easy for me to start thinking that it would be easier to just wait a few more years. That Sunday in church pastor started a new series and the verse he opened with was Ephesians 1:5. I started laughing (almost crying) because I knew that was the Lord telling us to keep going. Since then we have found an amazing agency to work with and we can’t wait to get started.

I’ll be keeping you posted with updates and timelines as we continue in the process. I can’t wait to tell you all the details as we go along.

If you feel led to pray for us, please do. Here are a few things:

We had lots of training to do over the next few months- we need to find time to fit in the training and find childcare for Cason
Pray for our future child(ren)
There are a few things we have to do to the house to get ready. Although adopting through foster care is not very costly, some of the stuff we need to do at the house will cost money. Pray that the Lord will provide for that.
The Lord gave us a very laid back son in Cason, perfect temperament to have a new sister arrive on the scene one day- but we know that with any change it will be an adjustment period. Pray for his heart to be ready when the day comes.

Thank you- and stay tuned!

Keeping the Kids Busy

2012-01-02T19:34:00.001-08:00

Pinterest inspired me… again.

I got to hang out with Cason’s good friend Jack some the week before Christmas while his momma worked. I was in the market for some activities to keep them busy.

This was a super easy setup. I put some paper down and used crayons to draw their names and some circles. I wrote color names that corresponded to M&M colors (I omitted the brown because I didn’t have a brown crayon).

Then, I divided a bag of M&M’s in half and put them each in one circle and showed the boys how to divide up the colors. The goal was to divide the colors BEFORE eating them. Jack did much better with that concept (as seen below). Cason separated a few then ate a few, then ate a few more.

This activity occuppied the boys for approximately 5 minutes. That’s 4 minutes longer than coloring occupies Cason so I was happy with that!

Christmas Concert

2011-12-29T20:22:00.000-08:00

Cason got to participate in the Sonshine Christmas program this year and I was so excited... and nervous. I wasn't sure how he would do but they all did great!

I think he really liked being in the spotlight.

When he wasn't waving to us he was doing the motions or watching Shiloh do them.

He even got a chance to be on the big screen.

I'm already looking forward to the concert next year! Thanks to Zach for saving seats for a couple of hours so we could be on the second row!

Family Photoshoot

2011-12-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

We had family pictures done for the 1st time by our high school neighbor. He did a great job and I edited them a bit and I really like how they turned out! He gave me about 300 and here are a few of my favorites.

Any favorites?

I'm Back

2011-11-29T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have so much to tell you from Portugal but It's been a whirlwind since I have been home with family Thanksgivings and putting up Christmas decorations and getting caught up with the work I missed. Whew, I'm still exhausted. How long is jet lag supposed to last anyways? I think I should probably stop using that as an excuse.

The picture above is a look at the city Coimbra where we were serving. It was so incredibly beautiful!

We took our cooking very seriously.

We really did... but sometimes we had a few minutes to relax before the guests arrived.

All utinsils were washed before using.

Some of the "imports"

2011-11-20T02:05:00.001-08:00

Here are some of the things we have used every day here. The Portuguese make everything from scratch (another reason I like them so much) so they are amazed by box stuffing.

We checked 2 50lb suitcases full of food. Actually, one was 54lbs. So we had to open it up in the airport and pull out 4 lbs. Michelle and I each ended up carrying on a bag of pumpkin bread.

So far everyone has liked the food. Only a few have loved it but they are very polite and eat everything. The kids are hesitant to try it. One thing they have all really liked is the cranberry sauce. No one wants to try it but when they do they love it. Also, sweet potatoes with marshmallows are a big hit. Neither thing is popular here.

Michael and Cristi always take the opportunity to explain about thanksgiving and why we celebrate. They talk about how families take hands to pray (which we do) and then go around the table to say what they are thankful for. That is sometimes harder for them but they all participate.

Cooking for the neighbors tonight so pray for good conversations with them.

Thank you for all your prayers. This trip has gone so smoothly and I know it is because of prayers from you.

More later!

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Location:R. da Paínça,Coimbra,Portugal

Cooking in Portugal

2011-11-19T04:24:00.001-08:00

We knew when we came that there would be a lot of cooking. 5 full thanksgiving dinners in 5 days. I've never cooked 1 full thanksgiving dinner much less 5. The cooking has gone easier than I originally anticipated... Cooking almost everything from a box makes that possible I guess. It is still long days of standing on your feet and lots of cleaning up messes.

One thing we did make from scratch is the pumpkin pie. Here's Michelle trying to fit 2 in a tiny European oven.

You can see a few of our meal items here.

I'll take more pictures when we start really cooking in an hour!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Av. António Portugal,Coimbra,Portugal

Portugal- The First Few Days

2011-11-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

First of all- forgive me, I am typing on a Portuguese keyboard and it´s a little different.

Tuesday morning we arrived at DFW at 8:30 in the morning and took off for Miami, a 3 hour layover then a long flight to Madrid, another 3 hour layover and off to Porto. Cristi met us in Porto with our 5- 50 pound bags and we headed to the mall for lunch. The food court was really cool and offered us a lot of options ( including McDonalds) but I had some crepes. Yummy!

We looked around a bit and headed to Coimbra to their apartment. It's wonderful and modern and the perfect place to entertain. After lugging the suitcases in we headed out for dinner.... at McDonalds (I can't escape it!). After dinner we came home and pretty much crashed. Exhausted after being in an airport or in the air for 24 hours.

Thursday morning we got up and headed to breakfast at a cafe inside the grocery store. We proceeded to grocery shop for the next few hours for a weeks worth of Thanksgiving dinners. 3 grocery stores later we got back to the house and made sandwiches and started cooking.

The pies were first- 2 pumpkin and 2 pecan. Then we headed to Calvin's elementary school to read them a story in English and share some pumpkin bread and chocolate chip cookies. They were totally precious pre-schoolers and we loved watching them interact with each other and speak in Portuguese.

When we were done there we headed home to do the rest of the cooking- green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, pumpkin soup, turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing- and I'm sure there was more. LOTS of cooking, cleaning, arranging, etc.

At 7:30 or 8 the students from the local University start arriving. Michael and Cristi meet with them twice a week to help them practice English so this night was ~~all~~ mostly in english. 15 students came and that was a BIG group. Luckily we had doubled some of our recipes. I could go on and on about how much fun they were. I think we counted 5 different countries represented and we loved teaching them about thanksgiving food, helping them with English words, playing cards, learning more about their lives and telling them more about ours.

I will have to wait to post pictures until I get home and unload them from my camera but we got a lot. When we sat down to dinner the first thing they wanted to do was pray. They have seen so much American TV and movies where people pray before their Thanksgiving meal they were excited to participate in the tradition. We also took the opportunity to go around the room and talk about what we are thankful for.

They were absolutely precious and we were so blessed to meet them last night.

Today we toured the city this morning and after another grocery run we started cooking. It's time for me to go help Michelle put the finishing touches on dinner before our guests arrive in 1 hour.

More pictures later!

Practicing Thanksgiving... For Portugal

2011-11-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

A month ago (or so) we had a "practice" Thanksgiving dinner for our Portugal trip. We have to take a lot of the food with us and many of the items are going to come from a box or a can.

My first thing to practice was pie crust. I have only used frozen pie crusts but I figured the box wouldn't be too hard.

Apparently I need to practice a bit more because it was hard. Easy to mix- hard to roll out and get in the pan and get even. Mine is not very pretty. Tasted good, but wasn't pretty.

This is the pumpkin pie. It doesn't look great either. I used the sweetened condensed milk recipe and I couldn't get it smooth. I'm going to try the condensed milk recipe in Portugal.

I also tried to make cranberry sauce using dried cranberries. Dried cranberries are lighter than cranberry sauce.

First you soak in apple juice.

Then cook it down with some orange zest and sugar. At the end you add cornstarch. I wasn't using a great recipe and it just tasted like cornstarch. Fail.

For the sweet potatoes we had two options. There are boxed sweet potatoes and canned. Did you know there were canned? I didn't. I made the boxed and put them in a casserole dish and topped with marshmallows. The canned I mashed and stirred in some brown sugar and orange juice and topped with oatmeal and brown sugar. I liked the canned better but cans are heavier and most of the others liked the boxed so that's what we are taking.

Also on the menu green bean casserole and stove top stuffing.

We also had some cute kids to entertain us.

Gifts from Portugal

2011-10-30T19:43:00.000-07:00

When Mike came home he brought us a few gifts.

Cason's favorite was a soccer jersey. Apparently soccer if very big there and Cason loves soccer too!

I couldn't get him to stand still. This is him playing soccer.

So Cason doesn't usually play games at breakfast but he calls the game boy his "boy game" and it's so cute. Besides the battery doesn't work and he thinks it's a field journal just like Diego. It actually looks like Diego's field journal.

Beside the field journal is toast spread with pumpkin jam from Portugal. It's really yummy. Funny, they don't have canned pumpkin in Portugal but they do have pumpkin jelly!

Mike also went to a pottery place that had many beautiful things. Mike worked hard to find something that I would like because most everything was very traditional. I think he did a great job with these two pieces.

Here's the best part. The bowls were 4 Euros each. That's like $6. Apparently they sell the traditional pottery at Williams Sonoma and it's not $6.

Two Weeks Till Porgugal!

2011-10-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

So the countdown has begun. Well, sort of. I didn't realize until today that we only had 2 weeks and now, I feel like there's a lot to do. Here are a few shots of Portugal from Mike's trip:

Number one on the list is collecting food. Michelle and I organized the meals we think we are cooking and figured out how many of each ingredient we will need and in what country we need to buy that ingredient. Then we passed out the list and are asking people to donate what they can. We are accepting grocery gift cards as well because I'm sure there will be a few last minute items.

Here's our list:
Bag Chocolate Cookie Mix 5 bags

Box Mashed Sweet Potatoes 4 boxes

Box Pie Crust 4 boxes

Box Stove Top Stuffing 3 boxes

Can Crushed Pineapple 2 cans

Canned Pumpkin 9 cans

Canned Cranberry Sauce 6 cans

Cherry Pie Filling 2 cans

Crackers (Wheat Thins) 2 boxes

Crasins (4/3 cup in 1 bag) 10 bags

Dream Whip Package 7 pkg

Evaporated Milk 11 cans

French Fried Onions 1 container

Gravy Packets 5 packet

Kraft Homestyle Macaroni 2 boxes

Large Marshmallows 2 bags

Pecan Pie Mix 2 boxes

Pickle Relish 1 jar

Ranch Dressing 1 jar

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce 1 jar

Seasoned Stewed Tomatoes - Italian Seasoning 2 cans

Turkey Oven Bags 2 boxes

Vanilla - Large Jar 1 jar

Williams Sonoma Pumpkin Bread Mix 2 boxes

Williams Sonoma Turkey Rub 2 packet

Yellow Cake Mix 2 boxes

If you see anything that you want to grab and drop off at the church then please do!

As far as prayer requests right now just pray that God begins to work in the hearts of the Portuguese people and that they will be open to coming to the dinners we will be hosting.

I'm so excited about this trip and I thank the people who are helping make it possible. I heard a song on the radio this morning about going through the motions and it reminded me that I don't want to just go through the motions on this trip- I want to give it my everything and make sure that I'm giving it my all every day I'm there.

More to Come!

Dad's Home!

2011-10-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

Friday night Cason and I went to pick up Mike from the airport. He was returning from a mission trip to Portugal and had been gone for 10 days! You can check my brothers blog for some additional information about their trip.

We went to the airport early so we could people watch but there were really no people where we were waiting.

Cason played his "boy game" while we waited.

Yep, see- empty.

DADDY!

Cason called to make some dinner reservations for us.

Then waited patiently so he could grab the luggage.

And of course he helped get the suitcase to the car. Such a great helper. Especially since it was over an hour past bedtime!

Portugal for Thanksgiving

2011-10-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's official! Michelle Langley and I will be heading to Portugal the week before Thanksgiving to help our friends and missionaries there the Gereckes.

The plane tickets are purchased and we will be taking off November 15th for a week of cooking and serving Thanksgiving dinners to groups that the Gereckes have been ministering to.

I'm excited... and nervous.... and overwhelmed... and ready... and soooo not ready.

There seems to be a lot to do- trying to plan recipes and figure out what ingredients are in Portugal and what ingredients we need to take with us... and how we are going to take them with us and how much money we need to buy groceries there and how much money we need to buy groceries here and how am I going to survive a VERY long trip there and a slightly shorter trip back.

Not to mention I have never left Cason for more than 2 nights and I really will miss him terribly. I mean sooooo much.

I wrote HERE a little more about how I felt led to go on this trip, and that has not changed. If anything, God has continued to confirm that I am doing the right thing.

Right now prayer support is what we need:

- Pray for the people of Portugal- that God would begin to soften their hearts for the team that goes in October (including my husband and brother) and continued to work in their hearts for the November trip as well.

- That Michelle and I would be able to organize the food, recipes and grocery lists before the trip.

- For peace as Michelle and I prepare to leave our families for a week. That childcare for our 2 year olds would be easy to find and we can leave without any worries for our family.

- For the Gereckes- they have a lot of prep work for the October and November teams and they could use some supernatural help on that.

- That the Lord will provide the funds- Michelle and I have begun the fundraising process and we are trusting that the Lord will provide what we need.

If the Lord is leading you to support this trip, there are several ways you can do that. We need money- to help pay for trip expenses as well as groceries in Portugal. In the coming weeks I will also be telling you about the grocery needs that we will have. We will be taking lots of food with us and we will need donations to help with that as well.

If you would like to help with the money- you can send a check to:
First Baptist Church Colleyville- Attn. Dale Molden
5405 Pleasant Run
Colleyville, TX 76102
Please put "Portugal November Trip" in the memo line.

Thank you so much and stay tuned for updates. We had a "practice" cooking night and I have lots of insight to share!

Snapshots of our day

2011-09-27T18:02:00.001-07:00

Going for a walk...

Trying on shoes...

And a chocolate milk with "my lolli"

What a great day!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Big News

2011-09-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

I pretty much only titled it that because I wanted to see if anyone would think I was announcing a pregnancy or something. I'm not- I just have something exciting I want to share.

On November 15th I will be leaving for Portugal for a week long mission trip. I'm so excited about the opportunity and what we will be doing there.

Let me tell you how it all started... if only I knew. I was involved with a Bible study called One on One. It's a wonderful study and God started showing me how to have a heart for the world. It's easy to focus on what is going on directly around you and forget that there's a big world out there.

So I began to pray about how I could have a world focus- for God to show me what my place was in the world and how I could be used to bring glory to His kingdom.

Michael and Cristi used to go to our church and are currently missionaries in Portugal. I found out they wanted a team to come over in November to cook Thanksgiving dinners for the families and college students they are ministering to. The people in Portugal don't celebrate Thanksgiving but due to American television, they are very curious about it.

Well, God spoke to my heart about the trip and I started trying to work out a way to go- including finding a team to go with me. For several weeks God continued to bring up Acts 1:8 -

"but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

I continued to feel led to go on the trip yet still needed someone else to go. I asked some friends to join me in praying for someone else to feel led to go.

Well, it took less than a week and God brought another person for the trip- and not just any person- a wonderful friend- Michelle Langley.

So began a week of planning, asking questions, and wondering if we were crazy to leave our 2 year olds across the world for a week.

I can't wait to give you more details over the next few months about the trip, the people of Portugal and how cooking Thanksgiving dinner will be a ministry opportunity there.

A couple of fun things-

- There isn't a lot of American food in portugal including (but not limited to) sweet potatoes, marshmallows, cranberries, canned pumpkin, pie crust.... I could go on. We will have to carry all of those things over with us. Thanksfully- they do have Turkey!

- We will be staying in Coimbra.

It's where the "A" is on the map.

- As you can imagine. Getting there does cost money. I am asking people to pray about supporting me in my journey. More on that later. We will also need lots of food to go with us plus we will be buying what we can when we get there. Don't worry, lots of menus and ingredient lists and substitutions coming soon!

Vacation- Part 2. Houston!

2011-09-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

So after our night in Salado we headed to Houston to visit our friends Jay and Julie. They live in Sugarland and promised to show us all the cool stuff.

One night we went to a french restaurant- Aria. It was delicious!

Here are Jay and Julie. Aren't they cute!

They have a son Cason's age. They love to play together.

We also went to the Childrens Museum. The one in Houston is AWESOME. It's less expensive than the one in Fort Worth and way bigger. The kids loved it and they were exhausted when we left. Two signs of a good day.

This is a pic of us driving to Houston. It should be at the beginning of the blog but it isn't.

He is holding a mini boogie board we found at Target. He calls it his skateboard and loves throwing on the ground and standing on it.

Here are the boys playing at a mexican restaurant. They were so silly.

Soon I will post pictures from my high tea. You don't want to miss those!

Picture Before and After

2011-09-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

I needed a picture to go in my laundry room. I had the perfect spot and a vision- just needed the picture.

So I stuck Cason in the dryer for a photoshoot. I took a bunch of pictures and only one was going to work.

I started with this picture. I know it doesn't look professional but I'm okay with that. I like having pictures around that are candid and show some of the facial expressions or actions that I see on a day to day basis.

I took the photoshop to edit it a bit before I sent it off to be put on a canvas.

I had a look in mind that I was going for so I edited it a little more than I usually do. The edges look a little funny because I needed some extra room to stretch around the canvas. You can't see it at all in the final product.

Check THIS POST to see where I used this awesome picture.

And check THIS LINK to see who put this picture on canvas for me.

Vacation Part 1- Salado

2011-09-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is part 1 of probably 100 cause it takes a million years to load pictures and I have a million pictures.

Summer is the busiest time of year for the youth (except for fall, winter and spring) so we don't get to take the usual summer vacation. We try to get away sometime in September to recover and rejuvenate. This year, we took an adventure to Salado, Houston and Galveston.

First stop, Salado. There's a "famous" little place called Stagecoach Inn on the highway that's been around forever. We thought it would be fun to stop in for the night and break up the drive to Houston... well really just do something random.

Here is where we stayed. These are the nice rooms- the ones with free wifi. Let's just say, it wasn't the Ritz. I didn't even take pictures of the inside. I figured you could go to the web site and look for yourself. It was fun and clean but don't expect fancy or romantic or hip or to find anyone under 70 staying here... or in the whole town of Salado.

This was something fun we found. A place called Roy T's that makes their own donuts and kolache. Very yummy and Roy greeted us and told us all about his place. Then visited with everyone else there (who he probably sees daily) and it was a lot of fun to get such great small town service.

We also ate dinner at the Stagecoach Inn. I had been once before in college and remember it being a lot of fun. It was just a normal dinner (a bit high for the quality of the food) but the appetizer, salad, hush puppies, entree and dessert are all included. Now, by appetizer I mean canned fruit and by salad I mean lettuce but the dessert was good.

Sorry there are not more pictures. We went shopping the next day and purchased a whole lot of nothing. It was a fun detour but I wouldn't plan on going for an extended period of time.... or with a 2 yr. old... or with a man.

I love my kiddo

2011-08-28T14:53:00.001-07:00

Just going through my phone and found a cute picture. He put the bandana on himself.

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Sip n Doodle- McKinney

2011-08-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Awhile back I purchased a groupon for a place called Sip and Doodle in McKinney. My mom purchased one too and we figured we would go right away to learn new painting skills. Well, 6 months later it was 3 days from expiring and we booked a space.

They provide the canvas and the paint- you provide the drinks and snacks. You pick a picture of what you want to paint (or I guess you could bring your own) and they give some instructions and you get going!

Here's mine at the 1/2 way point. You start with the background and chalk on the design and paint right over the chalk.

Here's my final painting. I won't be giving up my day job but I think it's kind of fun and whimsical.

I'm so proud.

Here is moms. The owners said she was the best in the class... and the best job on that particular painting they had ever seen. Way to go mom!

Painting Babies

2011-08-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

I was about to name this post "painting in the nude" but I thought that might attract the wrong kind of blog traffic.

Someone had the brilliant idea to let the kiddos paint on canvases and create brilliant works of art. It wasn't my idea but I wish it was. Not only have I discovered that Cason is a true talent, I also now have a masterpiece for my kitchen.

Cason is taking the opportunity to admire Jack's work of art.

Cason needed a snack break. Painting is hard work.

It's finished! I can't wait to show you the picture in the kitchen! It's beautiful.

And now it's time to get clean. Painting is messy business!

Hug Your Youth Minister Today

2011-07-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read the blog Stuff Christians Like? It's so funny... and true. This article was particularly hilarious.

Treating Youth Ministers Like Silver Medal Ministers

Fortunately we go to a church that is very supportive of the youth ministry, and they are not silver medal ministers, but some of his points had me rolling. Especially the first one as I picture something like that happening on one of the senior adult trips.

I'm so thankful to have married a youth minister. After 3 weeks of youth camps I'm ready to have him home for sure but I know how hard he has been working.

So hug your youth minister today. He's been working hard this summer. Surviving on carbs, zero sleep, soft drinks and supernatural energy that can only come from the Lord.

Mike is coming home tomorrow- YEA!

Minor Surgery is Only Minor for the Surgeon Performing It

2011-07-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to clarify before I continue my story:
My mom took Cason home Friday night and that turned out to the the best thing ever. Trying to manage a 2 yr. old in and out of a hospital would have been a nightmare.

I had been craving some alone time- just me and my thoughts. Sometimes God answers our prayers in the strangest of ways. I got some alone time- it was attached to an IV and an oxygen monitor in a place that wasn't my home- but I got to be by myself.

So Saturday morning I wake up waiting for someone to come take blood and tell me how my gallbladder was functioning.

Instead, my nurse comes in with some paperwork. She tells me I'm about to have surgery and she needs to have me sign off on some forms. She proceeds to tell me that they might cut an artery, nick another major organ, give me a blood transfusion that might contain AIDS or hepatitis (uh, haven't we fixed that?), and death is possible too. Please sign here.

I proceed to have a melt down. As the tears are flowing she looks at me with a questioning look and asks if I will be okay.

Between sobs I say "those side effects are pretty rare, right?"

She lovingly says "No, not really, just last week I had a patient with some major complications during surgery"

Best. Nurse. Ever.

For some reason I sign the forms and continue to sob. I was not so much worried about the complications, I mean, if the Lord wants to call me home over a gallbladder than he will. I just felt that I had no idea what was going on. What happened to the blood test, the gallbladder function test, who was my surgeon, was my gallbladder really that bad?

Next a surgeon came in surprised to find me completely un-done. I was looking for some re-assurance and questions answered. When I asked if it was really necessary to have it removed he responded by telling me that medicine is not an exact science and removing the gallbladder was their best guess.

Great. Feeling much better now.

He then went on to tell me it was an easy recovery and I would be able to go to a birthday party that night. No lifestyle changes needed and I wouldn't miss it at all. He them mentioned the nurse would be in soon with some paperwork. Ha. Got that one a little mixed up didn't they.

I started feeling much better, calmed down and was ready to go. (Too bad it was all lies)

They come and get me for surgery and I am wheeled downstairs. I don't remember much about pre-op or the surgery (it's a good thing too). What I do remember is waking up in pain. Major Pain. No one mentioned that I would wake up in pain, I thought I would wake up in no pain and the pain would creep in as the anesthesia wore off.

I was the only person in recovery that day and there were 2 nurses. Apparently they shoved a tube down my throat and scraped every side on the way down. I whispered that it hurt. She gave me some pain medication that didn't help and then proceed to spend the next 10 minutes complaining to the other nurse about how no one bothered to ask them if they wanted Chipolte. Hello- still in pain over here.

I think I asked for pain meds 3 other times and finally they said they couldn't give me any more... yet I still hurt.

After I "recovered" I was wheeled back to my room and got some pain meds that actually worked. I tied to go back to sleep but kept hearing a loud beeping just as I would drift off. A nurse stuck her head in the door and asked me to take big deep breaths. Apparently as I drift off I stop breathing enough to make the machine happy. I finally called the nurse and got hooked up to an oxygen machine so I could finally sleep.

The rest of the day was pretty simple with the exception of the million trips to the restroom. It was irritating because I had to unhook- the leg squeezers, the oxygen in my nose, the oxygen monitor, unplug the iv pole and lower the bed each time. I think Mike thought I was just messing with him each time I asked until I pointed out the huge bags of water they were dumping in me through the IV pole.

At some point my nurse came in to chat. We were talking about the surgery and she tells me how important the gallbladdar was (the thing I just had removed) and how I will have to change my diet for the rest of my life. I asked if there was a brochure or a nutritionist she could send in. She said she would check. How can you tell me all that and not give me some help?

By 11:00 that night I was still in a lot of pain. The oral pain meds were not working and I was so frustrated. What was the speech earlier about being at a party tonight? The nurse said I could have another shot of IV pain meds and I got up to go to the bathroom for the hundredth time and had another melt down. My expectations were completely different that reality.

Update

2011-07-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

I'm so sorry I haven't posted about my surgery. The Internet is down here and typing the story on my phone sounds really annoying. So- tomorrow I will fire my Internet company and find someone else!

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Something New

2011-07-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that you are all waiting to hear about my gallbladder removal but I have one favor first. Please head over to my NEW EVERYTHING DESIGN web site and follow me. Tomorrow I will post the rest of the story... If I have more than 5 followers :-)

Thanks!

My Second Trip to the ER

2011-07-01T12:51:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I woke up in a little pain but nothing major. They had given me some pain medication the night before but the Dr. had encouraged me not to take any because pain is a warning signal and if I was in too much pain I needed to go back to the ER.

I didn't eat much breakfast or lunch that day and I spent all morning trying to get in to see a GI doctor. None of the GI doctors would see me for weeks and I was so frustrated because they told me at the ER I needed to see someone the next day.

After lunch I we got Cason down for a nap and I went to lay down as well. It wasn't five minutes before I jumped up and thought my whole chest was going to explode. The pain was a million times worse than the day before. I didn't know whether to call an ambulance or go to the ER- I wasn't sure what would be faster but I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it either way. Mike drove pretty fast- all while I'm whispering for someone to please help me. I kept wondering if I passed out would the ambulance make it in time?

When we got to the ER I sort of hobbled in and asked the lady at the front desk to please help me. I told her I was here last night and I needed help. She asks my name, social, all the usual info while I almost died on the counter. Then she asked me to sit and wait until they could get to me. WAIT? I sat in the chair and moaned for someone to help me- looking in the door of the ER hoping someone would feel sorry for me. I just kept asking for someone to help and the other 10 patients in the ER kept looking at me... probably hoping I would just stop talking... or pass out so they could see some real action.

They got me into a room and I began the long wait for pain meds. Do they not understand that is a top priority? We started on more bloodwork and another sonogram only to see the same thing they saw yesterday. Gallstones.

As a side note, one of our very good friends was also in the ER. Ben Wertz had come in earlier that day and was probably a few rooms down but we didn't figure all that out until later.

The Dr. came in later and said that they wanted to keep me overnight and they would do another blood test in the morning to determine the function of my gallbladder. From what they saw, I would probably need to have the gallbladder removed eventually but he was not sure when. He said the surgeon would visit me in the morning to talk to me more. I mentioned that tomorrow was Saturday... that doctors don't work on Saturday and therefore I didn't want someone who would rather be playing golf stopping by to tell me about my health. The doctor looked at me strangely and assured me that the surgeon who would see me would actually be okay with working on a Saturday.

We began to wait until they could transfer me upstairs. That took at least an hour.

While I was waiting a nurse came in to take more vitals or something. She began to tell me not to let them just assign me a surgeon. To do some research and make sure my surgeon was a good one. She told me not to just let them do surgery if I didn't really need it. She said to take ALL my valuables home and not to leave anything in the room.

I told her thanks... I guess. I said all I knew about the hospital I learned on Grays Anatomy and so far, this was nothing like that. She looked at me like I was a little strange. It wouldn't be the last time during my stay at the hospital.

This began my experience with interesting nurses.

We finally headed to my room on the 5th floor (which was very nice by the way) and got hooked up to an IV and an O2 monitor and settled in for the night.

Michelle came and played Uno with me and Mike went around the corner to visit Ben... who was also on the 5th floor. It was actually such a blessing to have Ben in the hospital at the same time. We spent a lot of time visiting and I think it helped calm the nerves of both of us and our families in the unfamiliar hospital experience.

Tune in tomorrow for my list of reasons never to have surgery.

My First Trip to the ER

2011-06-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday started as a normal day. I woke up with a little bit of heartburn but it passed relatively quickly. Cason and I played and played and around 4:45 when Mike came home the heartburn seemed to be flaring up again. I rested for an hour before making dinner and eating it.

As the time went on, the heartburn got worse.

I took 2 tums, drank some milk, took more tumb... nothing helped.

We were supposed to go to the airport and pick up my brothers car. He had flown out around 6 and left his car in 1 hour so we could pick it up. We headed to the airport by way of CVS to pick up some Sprite. I thought that might help.

I asked Mike to take the long way to the airport so we would pass the hospital... just in case I decided to go.

See, I didn't want to go. I didn't want to be the girl who went to the ER for heartburn. How could I facebook that?

Less than half way to the airport I told Mike to go to the hospital. The pain was worse. I couldn't get comfortable. I had no idea heartburn could be this bad- and I had some serious heartburn when I was pregnant.

Remember when we set out on this little trip we were just going to run by the airport. As we walk in the hospital I realize my son has no shoes. Classy.

The front desk process was pretty easy and they got me right in to the next step. They take your vitals and ask you like a million questions and most importantly how bad your pain is. A 10. The pain is a 10. When can I have a shot?

She sends me back to room 11 and leans out the door to tell Mike that I will be here for a couple of hours at least. What? I have a shoeless 2 year old and I know you are about to send me home with gas or reflux- that will really take several hours? I told Mike to call Weslee because she lived the closest.

They sent me to the room and I began the big process of waiting. Waiting in pain was the worst. Somewhere in my waiting my brother texted and asked if we had retrieved his car yet. Uh, not really. If I tell him we were at the ER he would call my parents, and that would make them worry and drive down, and that would mean someone knew about my dumb ER trip. I thought I would take a casual approach. I texted him back "We will be a little late, had to make a quick stop by the ER". I was hoping that was casual enough that he would NOT call my parents.

No such luck apparently, within 5 minutes mom had mike on the phone and it wasn't much longer before she was driving over. Something we turned out to be very thankful for.

Meanwhile I'm in the back and the FINALLY get an IV in and start pumping the anti nausea meds and at last, the pain meds. Beautiful wonderful things.

They started a billion questions, an ultrasound, bloodwork, an EKG, chest x-ray and other things. All symptoms pointed to gallbladder problems but those typically occur closer to when you have a baby. The ultrasound showed some stones on the gallbladder but for some reason they didn't feel like it was a huge concern.

By midnight they were ready to let me go. Told me to eat a fat free diet and call a dr. in the morning.

We went home and straight to bed.

Oh, funny story. Since we didn't know we were going to the ER- I didn't have a diaper bag for Cason. Gone are the days when I kept extra diapers in the car as well so poor Mike had to change a very wet and dirty Cason into a swim diaper. If you are a mom, you know what happened an hour after that.

Tomorrow I will post about my second trip to the ER. It's much more interesting.

Today's harvest

2011-06-03T10:54:00.001-07:00

Yellow squash and a banana pepper!

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Green beans

2011-05-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

I have gotten some yummy green beans from the garden! The green beans have been super easy to grow and fast too!

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The first zucchini has arrived

2011-05-16T06:29:00.001-07:00

I am very excited to report that my first zucchini has arrived. May 17, 2011; 0 lbs, 1 oz; 3" long. He's a bit small but apparently if you harvest the first ones early they produce more throughout the summer. Here he is pictured with his sister the radish.

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Cute Shoes for Sale

2011-05-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

Apparently, the rumors are true. Your feet are never truly the same after you have a baby. So, I have several shoes I do not want to part with but they are not going to fit again. So sad. I would love to sell them to a friend so I don't have to take them to goodwill.

Poetic License brown shoes with hot pink on the top. Size 8. Worn maybe 5 times. Comfortable but too small for me. $15

Mia shoes. Size 8. dark brown with plaid around the flower. I heart these shoes and sad to see them go but they are just not comfortable anymore. Worn about 5 times. $15

These are possible the cutest shoes I have ever seen. They are actually my sisters and therefore I will be giving her the money if they sell. They are a really deep red crock skin look with a super cute loop on the toe. They are from shoedazzle. Worn once to a party and the heel is just too high for me. I think a 9 is a little big for me too cause my toe slips forward a lot. $20

Steve Madden heels. If you need a basic red shoe this is a good one. Size 9. They have been worn the most of all of these but are still in good shape. $10

Beautiful Shoedazzle black suede shoes with gold chains. worn once and they are a little big and high for me. I dream of wearing heels this high! Size 9. $20

Let me know if you need more information or are interested in any of these shoes. If they are local I'll bring them to you but if you want them shipped I can do that too for whatever the sipping cost will be.

Squash

2011-05-09T06:00:00.001-07:00

My zucchini today. There's some squash in there too. It's taking over.

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Radish

2011-05-08T20:14:00.001-07:00

Here is the baby radish I pulled from the ground and then used in some mango salsa. Hopefully more radishes this week. See previous post for more on my garden.

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Growing a Vegetable Garden

2011-05-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

The garden is growing and I am so excited. You can find the first garden post HERE. The pictures below are from two weeks ago and it's even bigger now!

In this bed I have cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, baby yellow tomatoes, green beans, beets (not shown), jalapeno, red bell peppers and roma tomatoes.

The far right bed has tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, carrots, another tomato, green onions, banana peppers, chives, and strawberries.

The bed on the far left has rosemary, three kinds of basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and something else I'm forgetting. There are also 3 kinds of mint in pots.

Here are the radishes. They started from seeds and grow so fast. My next post I will show you a radish I pulled up this week. The rest should be ready soon. I have never really eaten radishes but I'll be looking for some recipes.

Only one of my 4 tomato plants is producing right now. I hope the others hurry before it gets too hot. The tomatoes are much bigger this week!

This is the zucchini plant. It is giant! I think it's twice the size of the picture now. This is after a hail storm and the hail went straight through the leaves of the plant. It produces beautiful yellow flowers then the flowers fall off at the stem. I don't think that is what should be happening so I will have to do a little reading on taking care of zucchini. If you know what is happening- please tell me.

Slumber Party

2011-05-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

Carsyn came over the other day for a playdate. The kiddos were tired and I thought Dora would help extend their bedtime.

So cute! Carsyn really wanted to be sleeping and Cason was more interested in Dora.

Today I found myself singing a Dora song. I may regret ever turning that show on.

School Easter Egg Hunt

2011-05-04T20:13:00.000-07:00

They have an Easter egg hunt at school and it was great fun. There was a hunt last year when he was 1 but I wouldn't so much call it a "hunt" as a "roll". This year, it was serious. It was every 2 year old for himself.

And they are off...

Shiloh is ready to go too.

Finding eggs is so much fun. It's hard to find them in this crazy carpet! He started out slow, even with the encouraging words from his ~~parents~~ mom.

Then he hit the motherload.

Counting our eggs. The school had smartly taped them together so there was no sneaking candy.

Shiloh managed to break into one. Bliss.

And then everything changed. The teachers took all the eggs away. every. last. one.
Rude.
Cason was very sad. He worked hard for those eggs.

Don't worry. He recovered quickly and all was forgotten.

Easter! He is Risen!

2011-04-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

We had such a wonderful Easter weekend and I have so many pictures to share that I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm just going to give you a preview of what we had going on.

There were glitter eggs. No Easter is complete without them!

There was a cute little bunny.... One of the cutest I have ever seen.

School egg hunt with his bestie.

Really good food!

Decorations. Glitter eggs are important but the most important are the verses that remind us that this holiday is not about eggs- it is about Jesus.

More egg hunts- checking each egg to see what kind of candy is in store.

I love my precious family!

And there was silliness too.

How does your garden grow?

2011-04-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

This year, I decided we needed a vegetable garden. To grow our own vegetables. So we can afford to eat. Have you looked at the price of tomatoes lately?

I told Mike about my plan for our new garden and he gave me a funny look. Maybe because I don't garden. I don't even like the outdoors- there are bugs out there. Nevertheless, my mind was made up.

From the extremely small amount of research that I did, a raised garden is the best way to grow vegetables so that is what we did.

We decided to use a flower bed kit from Home Depot. You can easily make your own but we weighed the cost of lumber and supplies and the kit and found the kit to be the most affordable option for us. This is 3 kits and each square is 4'x4'. I helped put them together (not shown). Mike is disturbing the soil that will be under the garden. It helps with drainage... or so I was told. We put a weed barrier down after that (not shown).

Next we filled it with dirt. By we I mean Mike. I went to the store to pick up the dirt but that's where my involvement ended. The dirt was the most expensive investment I think. There are probably less expensive ways to get dirt- like digging a swimming pool- but for time we just purchased it at Lowes.

Next came the planting. We used some seeds and some plants from Calloways. I'll be covering the plants we used in a later post but 2 of the beds are vegetables and one is herbs.

My mom helped with the planting. She will be taking some of the veggies so I thought she should be put to work. The hardest worker was that little thing in the back.

Lots of water on those new plants.

Watering is serious business. Look at that lip- pure concentration. I would also like to point out what a trendsetter I have. Some people wear sunglasses on their heads but that's overdone. Wearing sunglasses on your stomach is the new thing to do.

Here it is all finished.

The cute plant tags are from ikea and the little windmill things are supposed to keep the critters away. And I think they look pretty.

I talk to the garden every morning. It's totally healthy. I also pray for my garden. I pray for a bountiful harvest. So many vegetables I have to give some away to friends. I know it sounds silly but I had a friend who had a peach tree that had never produced fruit. One winter, her husband prayed that the tree would fruit and that summer they had so many peaches she was bringing bags to the office. I made all of Casons peach baby food with her peaches. Times are tough right now and everyone would like to save money at the grocery store. Maybe some of my vegetables will help with that.

This morning I read this:
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61:11

Lakeway Resort and Spa

2011-04-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

When we were on Lake Travis last year (see previous blog post) we took a few days away from our resort to go to another resort across the lake. Since the first resort was practically free we thought it would be fun to stay somewhere really nice for two nights.

I researched all the big resorts around the Austin area and decided on Lakeway Resort and Spa. This resort looked incredibly nice but was the most affordable.

It turned out to be a great choice. Since we were there at the end of September there was no one there. It was great. They knew our name, they got us whatever we needed.

Here is our room. You can't tell much because we have already trashed it but it's pretty big and it was nice. We started with a parking lot view but the second night we switched to a lake view. Much better.

I just liked these chairs. I think they would go great in my house and I wanted to steal them but I took a picture instead. Any place that has chairs like this is alright in my book.

I didn't get the best pictures of the pools but there are about 4. There are little conversation areas at the bottom of the picture. You can see but this pool overflows into another pool below. I believe this is the adult section of the pool. There is also a swim up bar. Since no one was at the resort we didn't really get to see how this all worked.

This is part of the building with the conference center and spa. The spa is on what looks like the bottom floor but it's actually not. I did go to the spa and it was amazing. The relaxation room had an indoor and outdoor part so you could sit over the water and relax.

The pool that we liked had the beach entry and the little fountains. It kept C plenty entertained and was really safe.

Here's another view of that pool looking back at the buildings.

Cason loves the water!

This is what got me. My favorite brand of tea in our rooms. I'm a fan of any place that has good quality tea in the rooms.

I highly recommend this place if you are looking for a lakeside resort but don't want to spend what some of the name brand places charge. I liked that it wasn't very crowded but if you are into groups apparently it's really hoppin in the summertime. I believe they have concerts by the pool on the weekends and stuff.

I couldn't resist adding some pictures from the web site since they are so much better than mine.

This is the relaxation room at the spa... see, I told you it was nice!

Here's a view of all the pools. The waterslide wasn't open when we were there but it looked fun!

Here's a better view of the room. This is one with a lake view- we thought the lake view was worth the upgrade.

Here's a beautiful night view. There are more pictures on the web site.

I'm already trying to find a time we can go back!

Summer Vacation... Last Year

2011-04-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

I was organizing pictures and realized I never posted about our summer vacation (which actually happened in late September because Mike doesn't actually get vacation time in the summer).

My aunt offered us some time share points and we selected a condo on Lake Travis. We stayed for a whole week and had a blast. I love vacations!

First things first- a bubble bath in the big tub. I always underestimate how many bubbles to put in a whirlpool tub.

Here's our condo. It was really cute and 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom so plenty roomy.

Every morning we fed the deer.

There was swimming...

And laying out...

And Shuffleboard.

About 1/2 way through the week Weslee and Zach and Shiloh joined us. The kids had fun at the park.

The kids look like they have aged 3 years since these pictures- not 9 months!

There was more shuffleboard. There were approximately 2 other families at this group of condos when we were there and none that were our age so we had a very quiet vacation. I think that's one of the best kinds.

Like all good redneck parents we stripped our kids down to their underwear and stuck them into a lake. They loved it!

Do you see the bump?

2011-04-11T19:49:00.001-07:00

I don't really. It's there but it doesn't bother me. Maybe cause I can't see my profile in the mirror. I'm thankful for that in so many ways. It still aches on some days but it's getting a lot better!

I went to the ENT and she said I should have no problem with my nose in the future and I didn't have to fix it. When she was looking in my nose she said one of my nasal passages looked swollen or something. She asked if I had allergies and I said no because of course I don't. I told her I just get consistent colds at certain times during the year. To that she replied "uh, don't you think that might be allergies?". Nope. I don't have time or money for allergies so I'll go with cold thank you. She prescribed flonase or some kind of nasal spray and although it wasn't what I went in for, I was very grateful for her find.

On Sunday I went to a park. Soon after I got there I started sneezing and itching and eyes watering and nose running. I pretty much feel awful today. So clearly, it's not allergies. That sounds nothing like the symptoms from all those allergy commercials for medicine I can't afford. I'm going to go use my nose spray and hope I feel better in the morning!

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Setting the table

2011-04-07T15:34:00.001-07:00

They say setting the table nicely makes you feel more excited about always eating at home. I'm trying it out tonight to see if anyone notices. I feel more excited about pizza already. Homemade pizza that is.

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Tales of a Broken Nose

2011-03-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Though I will attempt to blame this on Cason, the truth is it was probably all my fault. It's all fun and games until someone breaks a nose.

We were just playing on the floor. I was laying on the ground on my back and Cason was climbing on me. We were laughing and playing and he was perched on top of my knees until he lost his balance and fell backwards. The back of his extremely hard skull his my nose... and only my nose. It felt like a bowling ball had fallen from 3' and smashed into my face.

I rolled over and grabbed my nose expecting it to be missing or flattened into my skull. I remember saying "I think I broke my nose" and feeling terrible pain. Cason was crying but mostly because he was startled by the fall. I'm not sure how my nose didn't leave a divot in his skull.

That was late Wednesday night a week ago. I took some advil, added some ice for a few minutes but it hurt too bad to have ice sitting on my nose. I had to keep looking in the mirror to make sure my nose was still there. oh, the pain.

The next day I decided to document my possible broken nose journey. I realized that I don't look at my nose that much because I couldn't really tell if it was swollen or not. Maybe a little puffy.

This is Friday morning. One black eye. The side I sleep on.

Very thankful for my friend Bobbi Brown this morning. I don't know that I have ever used these three products together. They are intended to be used together but I typically use each one separately. Today, I needed all three- base, color corrector, concealer, and powder (not shown).

After makeup. Not bad. I mean, it just looks like I missed a spot with my concealer- or I let my eye shadow flake under my eyes.

And that brings us to Saturday morning. Two black eyes. Very nice. My eye lids are black too. Or purple rather.

After makeup. Better. Not great but better. I thought this would be the worst day. Isn't day 3 always the worst?? Ha.

And here's day 4. Sunday. There are so many things wrong with this picture. There are reasons why people don't take pictures before they put on makeup- much less with black eyes. Ew. It hurts me to look at it. This is about blogging though. This is about the people. I did this for you. It's humiliating but it had to be done. Do you see that my eyes are some kind of disgusting green yellow? Lovely.

After makeup. Here I am at church. I asked the 2 year olds to please refrain from throwing toys at my face. Just for today. Hmmm, still looks green to me. gross.

Hi sweet pea. Thanks for breaking my nose. I still love you.

And that's where my pictures stop. I couldn't bear it anymore. They eyes have gotten worse every day since. "That's not possible" you say. Well I can tell you that it is.

I went to the doctor yesterday and it turns out, it is broken. Not in the way where it is totally offset to one side but in the broken and only slightly offset with a bump.... like Owen Wilson.

Okay, not like Owen, I don't even know that I can see it. My helpful doctor said that she could see it. I'm going to an ENT dr. next week mainly to make sure that it won't cause problems in the future. It still aches, especially at the end of the day. That's weird since you don't really use your nose. It's not like it hurts cause it's been working hard all day. Maybe smelling is harder than I thought.

Spring break with the Harveys

2011-03-19T13:09:00.001-07:00

During spring break mike turned 32 and Cason turned 2.

Not to be out-done, I got a broken nose. And two black eyes.

More details and pictures later.

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Dirk

2011-03-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

I needed a fish. A beta fish to be exact. I wanted this fist to swim in a bowl which I already owned and be a centerpiece of a table decoration at C's birthday party this weekend. Something fun. Something to talk about. I figured C might like to watch the fish swim too.

The family was out and about and I asked to go by the pet store and pick up my beta fish. (I had already gone to Wal Mart against my better judgement because they used to sell fish but not anymore).

At Pets Mart we were greeted with a wide variety of fish. Mike decided that a goldfish was a better choice for us and I picked out the very special goldfish that would live in the bowl which I already owned.

When the Pets Mart lady came to retrieve said goldfish she mentioned that goldfish would only live 2-3 years in a bowl and approx. 12 years in a tank. She did not recommend a bowl. I refrained from mentioning that I was just hoping this goldfish would last through the weekend and I was not planning on having him as a part of our family for the next 2-3 years much less 12 years.

So what's the perfect fish for a bowl? A Beta. That's what I thought. Back to the Beta section to pick out the perfect Beta.

While I'm looking at the fish trying to decide which color Beta would look work best with my party color scheme, Mike has found the cute Beta "tanks"... and the rocks.... and the plants.... In his opinion the bowl we have at home was not going to work for our new pet. We needed this small glass box designed for beta fish.

The helpful Pets Mart lady said that our fish would be "less stressed" if we had an ugly fake plant in the box.

The last thing I want is a stressed out Beta.

So, we leave Pets Mart with a Beta, a Beta box, marbles, an ugly fake plant, Beta Food, and Beta Water purifier. If we had stayed any longer we would have left with a giant tank that cleaned itself.

Does that look like a stressed out Beta?

I didn't think so.

I wanted you to notice that this tank is no ordinary glass box, no. This box came with it's own light. A light that the Pets Mart lady said the fish did not need but it does reflect nicely off the blue marbles I picked for the bottom (they match the color scheme of the party).

Our fish is a boy (of course) and since I did not get much of a say in his environment I figured I should get to name him- and I was going to pretend like he was a girl- the only girl in my household.

Mike said since he was blue we should call him Dirk. Cason said "Hi Dirk". And that's how I lost that battle.

Cason does love Dirk. He talked to Dirk more than he talked to me. It's really quite cute.

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Vitimins

2011-03-12T05:43:00.001-08:00

These vitamins taste so good I want to eat more than the recommended 2.

Yes, they are mine.

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Baby monitor pictures

2011-02-18T20:50:00.001-08:00

I wish our baby monitor had a way to take pictures, there have been so many great ones over the last few years.

I put Cason in his bed with his croc shoes on. They are a little big and he likes to play with them usually. I checked the monitor a few hours later and he fell asleep wearing them. Wish the picture was better!

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Good sandwich

2011-02-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

I like this stuff.

It's relatively new and very yummy. It's like a rotisserie chicken carved into a box. It's in the lunchmeat section and it's probably a little more expensive than your typical lunchmeat but since it's new there have been coupons in the paper and it's been on sale. It's probably less processed than regular lunchmeat too... since it looks the same as if you carved the chicken yourself.

Random Story: I woke up this morning and both of my pillows were on the floor with the pillowcases removed. I'm not a restless sleeper and my pillowcases could not have slipped off. Something in my dreams made me remove the pillowcases and dump the pillows. I remember none of this. I am super tired today. Weird.

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Valentines Cookies

2011-02-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

I made Valentines cookies this week for Casons class that turned out really cute and since they were pretty easy, I thought I would share.

First, make a cookie dough. I made a shortbread cookie instead of a sugar cookie because my smart friend Connie said that it held it's shape better when you are making cutout cookies and tastes even better (if you like that sort of thing). Shortbread cookies only have butter, sugar, flour and almond extract (or vanilla). Very Easy.

Next grab the rolling pin and a floured surface and roll it out to about 1/4" thick. I cut them into squares by eyeballing it since I sent mike to the store the night before a blizzard and he was unable to locate a heart cookie cutter- even with the help. (Can you believe I don't own any cookie cutters?) I'm guessing that's because everyone else had the smart idea to make heart shaped cookies for valentines day during the blizzard.

Layout your squares. They can be close together because they don't spread.

I used a knife and carved a heart into the dough only going about 1/2 way through. This is the part where I needed the heart cookie cutter but it was actually really easy to just draw it in with the knife.

When they were done baking and had cooled I made a quick icing with powdered sugar and red food coloring and milk and a little more almond extract. Using a spoon I spread it on the heart surface. It was actually pretty easy. I kept the icing pretty thick so it didn't run all over the cookie.... and having cooled cookies is key.

Unfortunately I overcooked the cookies or overmixed (or both) and they were a little hard. I'll try harder next time!

I'm sure that the 2 year-olds really enjoyed these cookies. When I got to his class they had licked off the pink icing and hadn't really touched the rest. Oh well, at least they looked good!

Check out the Valentines Decorations I made HERE.

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Legacy Cakes

2011-02-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is my new favorite and if you are close to Grapevine you need to get over here! I was introduced to these amazing cakes by my sister who is friends with the owner. Megan appeared on Americas Next Great Baker on TLC and came in second. If you watched the show- she is just as nice in person as she was on TV.

Legacy Cakes

Legacy Cakes is on Main Street in Grapevine. It's no secret that I'm a Sprinkles fan when it comes to cupcakes but I'm telling you, her cupcakes are just as good. On top of that- she is usually in the store and such fun to talk to.

There are often different flavors but I love the new cookie dough one I just tried today.

She is an incredibly talented decorator as well. Her wedding and special event cakes are beautiful.

So go. Try it. And let me know what you think.

A Slap In the Face

2011-02-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

More like 5 slaps. 2 has taken over and I'm getting eaten alive. Cason got to this stage so quickly I don't feel at all prepared. Today in addition to getting slapped 5 times, headbutted, a favorite dish got broken and I lost my religion with the dog. That has nothing to do with Cason being 2 but it might not have happened if I hadn't had such a rough day.

I feel terrible saying this but I can't handle being stuck inside anymore. It's 0 degrees outside and everything is covered with ice and school has been cancelled the last two days and it's cancelled tomorrow too. I liked my routine. Tuesday while Cason was in school I cleaned the house. So, the house is messy. Wednesday mornings we went to BSF and I really enjoy that that time... but that didn't happen. Thursdays while Cason is in school I write my lessons for Thursday and Friday. Not going to happen. I'm out of activities to keep us busy and my house is somewhat of a disaster. I should be thankful we have heat and each other but I'm just ready to get the routine back. I hope I'm not alone.

Oh, and can one of my 3 readers please tell me how to stop Cason from throwing things when he gets frustrated? If you hate commenting on blogs please email me or something.... It's an emergency. Also, tell me if you are supposed to spank and do time out or just spank.

Thanks.

So much to say...

2011-01-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel like you have so much to do you don't know where to start? I do. Typically I do nothing when I get like that. That's how I feel with blogging, way behind so I don't know where to start. So, I'll start with a cute pic of baby c.

What happened? When did he almost get to 2? He's acting 2 even though he technically isn't there yet. When he gets mad, he will throw himself on the ground and roll around crying. I just walk away. Don't know if that is good pArenting but thats how it goes at my house. I've also noticed that he will stiffen his body and straighten his arms above his head when he doesn't want me to pick him up because he realized that made it harder for me. It's quite irritating.

Did I tell you that i. Teaching 3 classes and not really working at the firm anymore? I want to figure out how to get some design work back in- especially on days like today when in my class of 3 students, 1 had car troubles and didn't show up and the other 2 didn't bring their projects that are due cause the didn't understand the directions... Which is bull. I don't think they realize what is going to happen when I take 50% off for being late. Most days I like it though.

There's more to say but I better get back to class. More later.

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Best. Movie. Ever.

2011-01-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

Okay, maybe not the best but it's up there. I was sitting in church on Sunday wishing the choir would bust out in this number. If our music minister decides to add it to the repertoire then I will be there to do the rap part. It's my dream.

I'm serious- I'll do it.

New Addition

2011-01-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

Check out the new addition to our living room on my design blog.

Reality

2011-01-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

I was flipping through pictures to find the most perfect and beautiful pictures of our Christmas decorations and I found this one. It wouldn't be right to show my clean house if I didn't show you this first... since it is how the house looks 99% of the time. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

2011-01-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

I'm so behind on posting. I'm a little overwhelmed by that. I have a bunch of Christmas pictures that I intended to post as they happened and now Christmas has come and gone and no one cares about our family Christmas but I'm going to post them anyways. Baby steps. Maybe by March I can knock it out. I'm overwhelmed by a lot right now to be honest. I have projects I want to do, goals I want to accomplish, things that need cleaning, folding,straightening, cooking and crafting. I feel like I'm constantly moving and working yet I'm not getting very much done. Then at night when I want to crawl into bed and watch TV like a zombie I feel so guilty that I'm not up accomplishing things.

Deep Breath.

Now to what I wanted to tell you. This Christmas I tried a craft project with Cason. I love crafts and I'm sure some people think we have a daily craft time at my house and let me assure you- one day we will- but for now, I'm too afraid to bring out the paints and markers for fear of the mess.

I got brave and decided we could paint the brown craft paper I was using to wrap presents. This way we could wrap grandparents presents in personalized paper. I stripped cason down, covered the entire kitchen table in the brown paper and got out my silver and gold paints. Red and Green would have made more of an impact but you know what happens when red and green paint gets mixed (ugly) and those colors didn't match my other presents (and we can't stray from that).

I even made a potato stamp so C could stamp hearts on the paper.

I had to make some of the marks because C only really wanted to color in one spot. Hand prints were the most fun and probably the part grandparents would want to see most.
As I'm typing this I realize that I should have cut out a hand print for me and put it in a little frame. Now I'm irritated at myself for not having that little treasure. Ugh.

Very proud C with his finished work. He went straight to the bathtub after that!

I also should have had a picture of the wrapped present but I don't. Here is a pic of some other stamping I did on the brown paper.

I stamped the LOVE on one package then outlined it in glitter pen. The package below it is the one we wrapped in C's paper but you can't really tell.

I encourage you to try this project next year. Lots of fun and really quite easy. It cost $0 since I had all the supplies. Just remember to save yourself a hand print!

Before and After

2011-01-13T11:41:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to show you some sweet pictures of C and a little photoshop stuff.

The boy that lives next door is in high school and is interested in photography. He's got a great camera and loves taking pictures so I love letting him use C as his model. He shot some photos while cason was playing in the yard the other day and let us have them. They turned out so great- I really have no idea how he got shots like this and every photo I take C has his eyes closed.

Here is one shot:

I love it but I thought I would try to give it a little boost.

Now I really love it. Boost is exactly what it is called in Pioneer Woman's Actions for Photoshop. It's super easy, just the press of a button and bam- lots of color pop. If you are not reading this womans web site, you really must. Packed with great stuff.

Here's Another:

I think this one is cute but I don't love his facial expression. To me, when people are not smiling in photos it looks too "directed"... Like the photographer is in the background saying- "Give me a sexy face" and the person in the photo immediately wipes away the smile and pokes the lips out. Hello, smiles are sexy people. You look nice, approachable and pretty when you smile.
Sorry, excuse my rant. I guess I have been looking at too many senior pictures lately. I know he isn't being directed here, I mean, he's not even 2! I picked this one to play with because I thought I could get some good color pop.

I boosted and sharpened this one using her actions but I also sharpened his eyes and added a little color to his lips. I think his bright pink lips look so cute in the other shot and he was looking washed out in this one. I was trying to make sure he didn't look like he was wearing makeup. Then I added a little blur around the edges and I like how it turned out. Oh, and I cropped it before I did anything.

What do you think?

Soup

2011-01-06T16:11:00.001-08:00

With fistfuls (yes, that is plural) Cason waved his hands in the air. Waved them like he didn't care.

I have some cleaning up to do.

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Home Office Help?

2011-01-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

You can read this article. You might recognize one of the names... it's mine! Someone called the Art Institute and wanted one of the design instructors to comment for their article in Panache magazine. Since I am the only design instructor, I got interviewed. I made it clear that my experience is in commercial work and I don't deal with as many residential clients but she didn't care and said I had very good points. I believe this magazine has been out for a couple of weeks and I have recieved 0 (as in zero) calls, emails, texts, facebooks, or other sort of communication to tell me how much they learned from my insightful office commentary. I have also recieved 0 (as in zero) people begging me to create the perfect home office design for them. I'm sure all those messages were left at the school and I will get them when I get back. I will say that althought I have recieved 0 (still zero) calls, the author did a great job putting my comments in a way that made me sound somewhat intelligent- which I can promise you I did not on the phone.

Enjoy the article! Home Offices- Panache Magazine

Is it just a stage?

2010-12-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

Cason is obsessed with Finding Nemo. Obsessed. Every morning when he wakes up and walks through the den he begins requesting "nemo, nemo". after breakfast he continues to request until it turns into a screaming fit of rage. Same thing after nap and any other time of the day we are in the house. I don't know how long this will last or if it is the beginning of him falling in love with the TV. If so, I need to put a stop to it now. If it's just a passing thing, I will avoid the screaming fits and let him have a little Nemo. It's frustrating because he never really watched TV until last week when I put nemo on so I could finish cooking.

Please tell me some of your kids have had similar things.

Wish List Shoes

2010-12-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

I live a happy normal like with my clearance rack jeans and my target shoes. I don't need more... I rarely want more. But I do want these. Really bad.

Are they practical? Probably Not. Are there other sequin shoes out there? Probably so. Why do I want them? I seriously have no idea!

They are sequin UGGS.

I blame my mom. When we were growing up we were not allowed to get the brown leather jacket with the map on the inside... or Jabeau jeans... or even a hypercolor shirt. I was deprived of all these things that made someone in Jr. High cool. Now I need the approval of the jr. highers. So really i NEED these shoes... or else I shall go the rest of my life seeking the brands that will make you popular to fill the void in my life that a lack of Guess jeans left.

I have no idea how much these shoes are. I cannot look. I'm thinking they cost more than I spent on my kitchen table.

Disclaimer: I was not deprived as a child. Please do not judge my mother for not providing me with these things. It is mostly not her fault I was not cool in jr. high. We were dressed just fine in our Gap clothes....unfortunatly Gap was not that cool for Jr. Highers. Even though I am aware of my issues, I'm doing the same thing to my child. The sales are just so good.

Disclaimer 2: I will not be getting these for Christmas. I already know that. It just helps me to share sometimes.

Christmas Ideas for Little Ones

2010-11-30T09:30:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for something for your little one, these are a few things on Cason's Christmas List. He won't be getting all of them...and he doesn't even know he has a list, but hopefully it will inspire you if you don't know what to buy.

Mini Dyson Vacuum.

Um, how cool is this? It really works and apparently they can empty the canister too. It looks like the Amazon one is sold out but I found this one at http://www.leapsandbounds.com/ for $34. I think that's reasonably priced considering other Dysons are un-reasonably priced.

I have never purchased anything from Pottery Barn Kids before. I love most everything there but the prices are a little high. I think the prices on these are pretty good too.

We have a long hallway and this foam bowling set would be perfect. I think Nana might get this one for him, she doesn't know it yet but Cason would love it. It's on sale right now for $39

The golf set is also from Pottery Barn Kids and I think I might get this one for Cason. It's only $19 on sale which is actually the same price as the fisher price golf set at Target. Now I know what you are thinking, a 1-1/2 yr. old is too young to play golf. Well, we are looking at the next Tiger Woods folks (without the adultury!). He takes Mikes club and swings it at a ball and i'm certain if he had clubs his size he would be a brilliant tomorrow. Ok, I'm not totally certain but for $19 I'm willing to take the risk.

I'm pretty sure every kid needs one of these... a magna doodle. We had a tiny one that just appeared at our house somewhere which probably means Cason lifted it from another kid. That one broke but he would carry it around everywhere and make me trace his hand. Much safer than markers and paper at this age.

I got this board book for Cason at the Modern Art museum and I currently cannot find it in my house. Very frustrating because I was really looking forward to it. It has pictures of Andy's paintings and identifies the colors. The perfect gift for a future brilliant artist.

Another book. Apparently this book has paintings from modern artists and it's a touch and feel book. It encourages the kids to feel the art in a 3-d kind of way. I've had it on my Amazon wish list since before Cason was born but I have not seen one in person. The Reviews are good Though so I may just have to get it.

Todays Snapshot

2010-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

Its still warm enough to play outside so that's what we are doing. I wish it was a little cooler but I'm sure that will come!

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Cookies

2010-11-20T11:32:00.001-08:00

Martha's version:

My version:

They may look different but I bet they taste really similar.

This is my first recipe of Christmas cookies for the year. I freeze the dough then can have homemade cookies whenever I need them for events!

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I can't stop!

2010-11-10T14:07:00.001-08:00

Taking pictures of C that is. Love that we can manipulate photos so much from a phone!

He's started fake smiling now (see below) so I have to try and get a good shot when he is not looking.

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New project

2010-11-09T14:51:00.001-08:00

I got this...

And now I want to make this...

Yes, those are cookies. I think I should start now because it will take me till Christmas to get those made. By the time I'm done I won't want to eat cookies ever again so I hope someone wants cookies as a present!

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

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B-ball

2010-11-07T16:42:00.001-08:00

I got a basketball goal for Cason. He loves it. He thinks he can make a basket.

Mike thinks it is his. He raised it up to the top and plays like he's on a real court.
Luckily Cason is okay just watching.

...and I am okay making smores.

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Park day

2010-11-06T16:33:00.001-07:00

I love going to the park in nice weather... So does Cason!

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Halloween- part 2

2010-11-02T19:55:00.001-07:00

For Halloween night we went to my moms in McKinney. Cason was a pirate and learned how to trick or treat.
He's not great at it yet but we have some more time to learn.

Cute little pirate.

Knock. Knock.

Some neighbors came over with their red wagons. The other kids were running around crazy.

But Cason was just happy chillin.

Could someone bring me some more candy?

Cason got a little hungry after all the relaxing.

Ahhh, pj's and game time. Great end to a long day!

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Halloween- part 1

2010-11-02T19:16:00.001-07:00

Halloween has a few stages for us every year. Stage 1 is actually his parade at school which I don't have a lot of pictures of, so technically this is stage 2... Which is the carnival at church.

He went as a ranger fan this year. I know, I took the easy way out but I had to save his other costume for that night and it was a little too warm for the day.

Here he is with mike... Who was also a ranger fan.

The first bite of candy. Yummy.

Oh look- a bird.

The wagon was a brilliant idea.

Hard work deserves an ice cream. That was fun!

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Sometimes God Sends you to get a manicure.

2010-10-24T16:40:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning I was up playing with Cason. I ran to the garage to take something out of the freezer and came back in to a screaming baby. I assumed he had fallen or rolled his little wagon over his foot. We comforted and soothed and went in to daddy for some more loving. I was trying to search his whole body to see if I could find out what was hurt. I finally found this:

Ouch. No wonder he's screaming.
He refused to walk for the next few hours and we were happy to carry him around. I even let him have a snack on the sofa. Finally he started walking (while holding his toe in the air).
At some point i noticed that a box that we had propped up in the den was no longer propped up. A box I told myself earlier that morning I needed to move because it wasn't safe there bit didn't move because I thought Cason wouldn't bother it. I was wrong apparently.

It continued to get darker and grosser over the next few days (be thankful i don't have pictures) but others who saw it said he would probably loose the toenail but it wasn't a big deal. So I didn't worry.

So Tuesday morning I went to get manicure. I was feeling a bit guilty cause I don't usually do that but when I started talking to the lady, she said I should ask the doc if they want to drain the blood and it would help with the healing. I would not have called the doctor unless I had gotten a manicure that day.

I called the doctor and they said if by some chance there was a fracture in the growth plate his toe would never grow. So I panicked a little bit and we decided to go ahead and bring him in.

They looked at it and said it probably was fine but go ahead and get an x-ray. Now is when I'm so thankful to go to cooks and everything is together right by my house. We head over there but I call mike on the way across re parking lot and tell him to please join me cause I'm a wimp and can't bare to hold down my child alone for an x-ray. They take the pictures and say they will get back with me the next day. A few hours later the doctor calls and says there is a fracture. Fabulous.

I call the bone doctor the next day and they get me in on Thursday. To shorten the story it's at the tip of his toe and it's not a big deal but it will take forever to heal. They gave us a boot or he can wear supportive shoes.

I'm not cut out to deal with this stuff! He is doing great, just wimpers when we say "toe" and holds it up when he walks barefoot sometimes.

I think the worst part is the conversation I had to have over and over with each new doctor:

- what fell on his toe
- a box
- like a moving box (judgement in voice)
- no, like an ikea box
- like a decorative box then ( still judgement- wondering why I have decorative boxes at my house that can break babies toes)
- no, more like a moving box then I guess
- oh, and how did it fall
- I don't know. I wasn't in the room okay. I left a hazardous box in my living room then left my baby alone to play with it. Please don't arrest me.

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Loss

2010-10-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

Last night Cason woke up screaming every 45 minutes for his Daddy. He doesn't usually do that. All I could think of is a friend who lost her husband yesterday... and a precious little first grader who's daddy will never come home. I don't know why heaven needs Daddys. I still can't believe he's gone. I keep waiting for someone to call and say there was a mistake, this is just a big joke.

Maybe Cason sensed mommy and daddy were sad and that made him sad too. I don't know. I went and snuggled him as long as he needed. I didn't care. Life is so short and we can't miss these moments.

Snapshot

2010-10-22T17:24:00.001-07:00

This is a pic from my morning date with Cason. We skipped first hour at church cause it's been a rough week (more on that later). I took him on a coffee date to market street for something different. We had a great time!

Before.

After.

I have the Photoshop app and I love playing with photos on it. It's not super fancy but it lets you do some fun things.

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My Little Cupcake

2010-10-22T17:20:00.001-07:00

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A typical afternoon

2010-10-22T17:06:00.001-07:00

I'm playing with my photo apps some more journaling a typical afternoon with casons favorite activity.

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Quick change

2010-10-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

Remember this?

I just turned it into this:

Nothing motivates you like having friends come to stay!

-- Post From My iPhone

Good sweet potato recipe

2010-10-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

For dinner, I cut a sweet potato into wedges and brushed it with honey butter (just mix honey and butter). Brush it on, don't toss in it. Sprinkle with chili powder and bake At 400 for about 45 minutes... But watch it so they don't burn. Eat. My fav way to make sweet potatoes so far and I bake them all the time.

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Free the birds... No more cages

2010-10-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hahah, just kidding. The eggs do taste better though.... And they look cool. Is it worth the cost? Don't know.

-- Post From My iPhone

Cage free

2010-10-03T16:02:00.001-07:00

Today I purchased cage free all natural eggs.

Tomorrow I shall tell you if chickens that don't live in cages make better scrambled eggs than chickens who do. They package says they taste much better. So i have high hopes.

-- Post From My iPhone

I want to blog more!

2010-09-22T20:57:00.001-07:00

I really do. I have so many good posts in my head but nothing is getting out on paper... Well, computer.

Our life has been, well, crazy the past few months. I'll have to give details later but it's just really busy.

Cason is still precious. He says a lot of things, more than I thought he would at this age but then again, I know nothing about this age so he could be really far behind and I wouldn't know it. Thats the way I like it.

He is so silly at bathtime. He is taking swimming lessons and the school says he is very talented and should keep up the lessons. Ok, so it wasn't exactly those words and it's something they say to everyone to keep the money coming in but he loves it so we keep swimming.

I have to keep an eye on this one. He's a climber. Yesterday he climbed to the top of the barstool and I still have no idea how he did it... And I was standing right there. Anyone have a climbing wall they are selling?

We went to houston to visit Julie a few weeks ago and had a great time. Cason isn't a huge fan of car trips but once we get there he's good.

Our camera is broken and has been since march. I have 3000 pictures from the time Cason was born to the time he is 1 year and 3 pictures over the past 6 months. I have cell phone camera pictures but that's it. Anyone selling a camera.

My mom is letting us borrow her camera for our vacation next week. It weighs more than Cason and has more buttons than your average aircraft but I am convinced I can read a few tutorials on the trip down and be a professional photographer by the time we get to lake Travis. If only I had a brother who was a photographer to give me tips...

So that brings me to vacation. We are headed to the beautiful lake Travis to a condo in the middle of nowhere that may or may not have wifi in the community center which may or may not be within walking distance. I can tell you what's not within walking distance... A Starbucks. Hopefully I can still function by the end of this trip. True relaxation isn't true relaxation without a Starbucks... That's what I always say.

A picture to leave you with.

-- Post From My iPhone

Dinner tonight

2010-09-02T19:46:00.001-07:00

I brought back an old school recipe from a few years ago. It was circulating big time for awhile but I haven't made it or been served it in a year so I thought I would give it a try.
Green Bean Bundles

I realize that wrapping green beans in bacon takes away some of the benefit to eating veggies but if you have someone in your family that's not a veggie fan, this might just work. I don't eat the bacon because I like my bacon practically burned and I feel this is a disadvantage to this recipe because I cannot get the bacon crisp. I even pre-cooked it a bit this time.
I used fresh green beans and blanched them- cooked them in boiling water then immediately dipped them in ice water to stop the cooking. Then make your bundles using 1/2 slice of bacon. Then drizzle with butter, garlic salt, Creole seasoning, and brown sugar. Then bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

I will have to post the rest of dinner tomorrow. I'm tired now!

-- Post From My iPhone

On my way to work this morning

2010-09-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

This is what I see:

All things are right in the world again.

-- Post From My iPhone

Flashback to homecoming

2010-08-31T17:35:00.001-07:00

Special thanks to my mom who brought this over so I could store it at my house... I was looking for something to fill my extra storage space.

Oh wait, no, no I wasn't.

I was kind of hoping this was one of those things that got to stay in moms closet until the day I was ready to show my kids what I wore in high school. Apparently, that's not the thought mom had.
I can't bring myself to throw it away but what am I supposed to do with it???

-- Post From My iPhone

Oh, yum.

2010-08-27T11:41:00.001-07:00

Welcome to another edition of what to stuff in your wonton wrappers. I had to un-freeze the whole package the other day and now I need to use them up. Today we are trying goat cheese, crasins, and walnuts. It it so yummy! I baked it at 350 for about 10 minutes. I sprinkles a pinch (and I mean a tiny pinch) of sugar on the top in hopes that it would melt in the oven and add some flavor to the wrappers. It didn't but they are still good!

Give it a try!

-- Post From My iPhone

Bad Cason

2010-08-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

Mr. Adventurous decided to climb on the kitchen table. I have found him here a few times. I only took a picture the first time, the other times he gets a spanking. It's dangerous!

How long until he climbs on the kitchen cabinets???

I think it's time for gymnastics.

-- Post From My iPhone

Target colors

2010-08-25T08:23:00.001-07:00

What a relief to find that the colors in my home are still in style. This is a new display at target and its the same colors I have had for years! I would like to think that I was the pioneer of these colors but that is probably not the case. Either way, I won't be changing my color palette any time soon... Maybe adding some new target accessories!

-- Post From My iPhone

Mascarpone, wonton wrappers and other such matters.

2010-08-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Alright, so there were some people who pointed out in the comments section of my last post that while the napoleons sounded yummy, they were not made with typical pantry staples. Here is the truth, I did have to run to the store for the mascarpone. I had only used it once before but Giada uses it all the time and I think they use it for tiramisu also so I felt that it would work well in this dish. The wonton wrappers I did have in my freezer actually. They are great to keep on hand because they are less calories than bread and you can stuff them and bake them with lots of different things inside. I stuff them with ham and cheese and make little hot sandwich pockets. They get crispy in the oven which is nice because a lot of things don't get crispy until you fry them.
I just thought of something else I could stuff in a wonton wrapper. If it works, i'll post it tomorrow!

Peach Napoleons

2010-08-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was inspired to make a yummy dessert the other night. Inspired by a restaurant I went to where they had peach napoleons on the menu. I didn't have one but when I saw them on the dessert tray I thought "I can do that". The restaurant used puff pastry for the outside. Puff pastry is one of lifes greatest pleasures but it's loaded with fat and I didn't have any in my pantry. Here's my version:

Slice 2 peaches and toss in a bowl with a tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 tsp almond extract. Set aside in fridge for an hour or so.

Heat oven to 400. Place wonton wrappers on a cookie sheet and lightly sprinkle with sugar. Bake 5 minutes ( or maybe 10, I cant remember).

Mix 1c marscapone cheese with 1/4 c powdered sugar. Set aside.

When ready to serve, place a wonton on the plate, spread with cheese mixture, top with a few peaches. Repeat.

I think it was very yummy and it's an easy, fast, fresh summer treat!

-- Post From My iPhone

Hoops?

2010-08-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

I found these great basketball shorts for c. They are a little big but that's the best part. I think thats how all the thugs wear their shorts these days.

I took him to church so he could show off his skills. He had to flirt a bit first.

Then he was ready for some dunking.

He tried a little baseball as well. He just wants to have a sport for every season.

I probably shouldn't let him out in this heat!

-- Post From My iPhone

New coffee table

2010-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

I re-arranged the furniture in the living room and needed a coffee table so I moved the Nelson bench in.

Then I moved it out.

-- Post From My iPhone

Future gymnast?

2010-07-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

Cason loves to climb on anything. The higher the better and he shows no fear!

Here he is sitting on top of our magazine holder.

And the dismount.

He might become a rocket scientist or something too. Here he is playing cranium. It's a very advanced game... Requires higher level language skills. I'm not tryin to brag but... That's a pretty smart kid.

It's possible he might be a magician too.

Is this your card?

-- Post From My iPhone