Life with these Lanier Boys

Up next, overeating.

2011-07-23T13:22:00.001-05:00

I'm going to have to take a tangent here and talk about cooking instead of running, but I'm in the writing mood, so we might just have a few posts today or the coming days. I do love to talk about running

and cooking

and books. I'm reading some really good ones right now. One in particular deserves its own post, so I'll wait.

Now, no one likes a boastful person, so I ~~won't say that I have recently outdone myself with my cooking~~ will just simply talk about what I have cooked lately and the responses I have heard in and around my kitchen.

Wednesday night Chris and I were reading and I interrupted to tell him what we were having for dinner Thursday night. After my detailed description he says, "Well, I guess someone will be overeating tomorrow night."

We had this

in the crockpot with 1 cup of water, cooked all day on low. Then I shredded it up with a couple of forks and served it with soft tortilla shells, shredded lettuce, cheddar cheese, and homemade salsa. I did not major in anything even remotely close to English, writing, journalism, etc. so I do not have words to describe how good this is. I'm wondering how many days can go by before it is acceptable to prepare it again. I will be devastated if I ever cannot find this at a store. Go now to Sam's and buy it.

We also had corn on the cob, but that is hardly worth mentioning.

For dessert,

oh my. This is when all the noise started. I have never heard so many yums, uummms, oohs. Chris crowned it with the title of "best dessert I have ever made". It's all gone.

Now, here's a link to the recipe. I do not recommend using the icing she suggests. I made it one other time and I did not think it was the best icing I'd ever had. I actually thought it was the worst. It was the one and only time the Pioneer Woman has ever done me wrong. I still love her, though, because I used her recipe for buttercream icing instead and that IS the best icing I have ever had.

Now, just one more thing. I have her cookbook and the spine is broken and the pages are falling out. We have some overnight guests coming and I'm going running at 5 am tomorrow, so I was looking up things that I could prepare today or tonight for breakfast in the morning--things I can just heat up when I get back. I'm making a traditional breakfast casserole, but I wanted some muffins or cinnamon rolls too. I only have one pan of PW's cinnamon rolls in the freezer and I'm a little stingy with those, plus I'm not in the mood for a marathon, completely trash my kitchen session of cinnamon roll assembly. The cookbook naturally falls open to that recipe, so I almost missed these little beauties. Please do yourself a favor and read her post about these and then make them. I just whipped them up very quickly and had everything I needed on hand.

I'll be thinking about them while I'm running in the morning and will be happy to eat several of them as soon as I get back. With coffee. Normally it would be milk, but I was out of town last week when my Oberweis milk was to be delivered so I had to buy one gallon of Prairie Farms to get us through until Monday when they deliver again and let me tell you, that milk is NAS-ty. (Elise, that was for you.)

Running From Knives aka Part 2

2011-07-11T22:54:00.000-05:00

I bought some Mizuno running shoes based on the recommendation of our local running guru at the running store. I felt legit. Not really.

I decided to do the Couch to 5K plan (you can google it). I was able to complete the first 3 weeks without dying. I actually felt exhilarated, my endorphins were already responding. It's no wonder and it didn't take much. Surely I had an excess build up of endorphins since I hadn't done any exercise in 6 1/2 years to release them. Then my knees started hurting, REALLY bad. And I've had a baby without an epidural, so this wasn't just your average almost 40-year-old starting to run and everything's going to hurt syndrome. I had to go to the doctor. I was told I had "fat pad syndrome"--not a really uplifting diagnosis for someone just starting back exercising (for the name alone). It's when the cushioning under your kneecap gets inflamed due to weak quadriceps muscles. It took about 2 weeks but I got through it. Someone (who shall remain nameless but lives in the same house as me) suggested I run on the treadmill for my first couple of times back. Perhaps it wouldn't be as jarring on my knees as pavement. Okay.

I'm not really sure where I started back up in my plan at this point, but I think it was somewhere in week 2, which means I was still doing way more walking than running. I hit the Y, hopped on a treadmill, and completed my "run". The outside of my left ankle was complaining. I didn't tell anyone. I just tried to push through. There was no way there was anything really wrong with it. I tried to convince myself that I was going to have aches and pains as my body adjusted to this running thing, so I did the RICE thing--Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevate. I also took large quantities of Motrin. It stabilized, mostly, and I tried to do some more of my plan.

And then I almost fell getting out of bed, so I gave in and went to the doctor AGAIN. Now at this point I am feeling like a complete loser. I had lots of thoughts going through my head; here are some of them:

"Am I just being a wimp?"

"Am I so athletically challenged that I can't even do something as straightforward as running properly?"

"How embarassing. I've gone and told everyone that I want to be a runner and I've signed up for a 5K and now I can't get past week 3 in my training. I'll never run this 5K. Fail."

I had a grade 4 (the worst) stress fracture in my left fibula and wore a big black boot for 8 weeks. In the middle of summer. I took the kids to the pool. I rode the exercise bike because that was all I was allowed to do other than swim laps. I tried to keep up my cardio and by doing intervals on the bike, I was able to work up a pretty good sweat. I still wanted to run more than anything. I felt psycho. It was tied to my emotions in a big way because I never felt like an athlete growing up. I didn't play any sports and was told I was uncoordinated. And now, here I am, free from all the peer pressure of high school, finally pursuing something that I feel very passionate about and my body is failing me.

There it is. I forgot I also wore the boot while we were on vacation in Seaside. I had to offset the hotness of the boot by wearing soffe shorts and tank tops everywhere. I would have preferred a boot in pink, green, yellow. Anything other than black. Good grief.

I saw runners everywhere. I wanted to trip them. It was such a strange experience to feel upset that I couldn't really "work out". I'd spent my whole life coming up with excuses so that I wouldn't have to work out and now I was desperate to.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll dangle a carrot to keep you coming back. Part 3 involves a 5K race, an MRI, a bone density scan, and a post-menopausal bone disease.

I must stop and watch this on Netflix.

How I Went From Saying "I'll Only Run if I'm Being Chased With Knives" to a 1/2 Marathon

2011-07-09T08:51:00.000-05:00

My husband is a runner. He wasn't always, but a few years ago, he just started running and before I knew it, we were driving to Kansas City so he could run in a marathon. I thought he was craaazzzzy, but it was exciting to see him cross the finish line. My first words to him: "You look like you've aged 20 years." Now that I've run a big race of my own, I know those weren't the most helpful words, but he's a guy and he loves me so I think I'm okay. At his graduation from ASAM in 2009, they did a roast for the graduates and he was picked on because of his running--it was actually very funny. He's from Alabama and my name is Jenni, so you can see where that went.

So, naturally people would ask me if I was a runner. And that's where my "Only when chased with knives" comment would come in. Another favorite was, "If my children's lives are being threatened." I didn't exercise at all. Prior to having kids, I went to the gym 4-5 times per week. I never ran, though. Ever. I remember struggling in PE to run a mile or whatever distance that was that they made you do. Actually, I remember being miserable, so I stayed far away from running. But I did other things and I felt like I was in good shape.

When I got pregnant with Michael, I had a little trouble at first, so the doctor advised me not to exercise, so I stopped. And I never started back. 6 1/2 years went by. Chris ran another marathon and one of my old friends, Jen Conley, moved into town. We picked up right where we left off, comfortable in our friendship because we had been neighbors 10 years earlier in Wichita. And one day when we were together she casually asked me if I was a runner. I laughed and gave her my standard answer and that was it. I didn't know it at the time, but "behind the scenes" things were a-happening. God was doing some magnificent orchestration, He had some plans for me that involved me doing the one thing I hated most. He has a sense of humor, doesn't He?

My husband was also doing some Jedi Mind Tricks on me while I was sleeping.

So, one random morning last May I woke up and thought I might like to become a runner. I am not making this up--it really happened exactly like that. I did not say one word to Chris. I needed to make sure that this was not some weird misunderstanding, some glitch in my brain. I gave it a few days. It didn't go away. When Chris was at work, I googled things about starting to run, couch to 5K, etc. I printed out a plan. On day 2, I was going to have to run for 90 seconds straight--I was nervous. Really, I was. Nervous about running and nervous about telling him. I'm not sure why because he is very supportive of all the other crazy things I come up with, but anyway. When he got home from work I told him I wanted to become a runner. He was surprised, but tried to not act surprised. You'll have to ask him what he really thought, but I think he was excited. It's hard to tell, he's got that Lanier "show no emotion" gene. His first suggestion was the greatest a girl could ask for, though:

He said, "Well, you need to go shopping and buy yourself a pair of good running shoes. Go ahead, I'll stay here with the boys."

to be continued.......

(sorry, folks, I know you are hanging on my every word, but I'm starving and this is going to be a book)

P.S. I'm going to put some pictures in these upcoming posts of me and my peeps during our 1/2 marathon. I don't presume that anyone out there cares to read about me and my running, so please know that I'm writing this really for my own memory. My journey to becoming a runner was a gift that God gave me and I want to be able to look back and see all that He did!

Elise.....you will be so proud.

2011-04-14T15:44:00.000-05:00

So, my dad is an artist. His career was a furniture designer. He's retired, and now he paints. He's always painted, but never had the time. Now he does, and my house is filled with his art--I love it. While I am creative with some things, I do not have this gene anywhere in my body. I cannot even draw stick figures well. So far, my children have been quite deprived of a humanities education--I avoid doing art or even teaching them about it. I skip the poetry reading in our curriculum and have not taught them one spec of anything about music. My youngest son loves to draw and color. I suspect he may have my dad's artistic talent. My oldest son loves music and regularly asks for guitar lessons and even sleeps with music playing in his room every night. I am a bad homeschooling mother for not cultivating these loves in my children, so things are going to change around here.

You are aware that I recently switched curriculum to My Father's World and thankfully we will be doing lots of artsy fartsy stuff (that I will actually do). As part of their art this coming year, I had to purchase some nicer art supplies for them. My dad was in town, so we went over to Art Mart in STL and got what we needed. My dad was in a state of complete bliss while we were in that store. It made me want to do a math problem.

Anyway.

Yesterday the boys wanted to paint because they knew the new supplies were there. Although I did not get out the new stuff, I did give in and allowed them to paint. They were so happy. Here's what they painted:

A Spidey costume always helps get the creative juices flowing.

So, now I can actually say that I'm excited about doing these subjects with my kiddos this fall. Are you ready for this? I even played classical music for Michael while he was painting.

So, what else is going on? I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the boys this summer. I will be struggling every day just holding myself back from starting with my new curriculum. But I really do need to get Cal reading just a little bit more, so I'll wait. I was thinking about doing an extreme weather unit study, but Michael has been having crazy nightmares about earthquakes and the house ripping apart, so I'm thinking that's a really bad idea. I'm considering doing Potato Chip Science because one of my friends is doing it and it looks fun and easy. I'm also considering a Grossology book of experiments. I have it on hold at the library and am waiting ~~patiently~~ for it to be available for me to check out. I think the boys would absolutely love making snot and blisters and fake poop. Why do I even say "think"? I KNOW they would.

I scored big today over at a friend's house. Just this morning, I was looking at this book on Amazon.

I almost added it to my cart and bought it, but I kind of ran out of time and needed to go, so I figured I'd do it later. I get to her house and she says she has two bins full of stuff she wants to give away. I'm welcome to go through it and take whatever I want. What do you think was RIGHT ON TOP?

I'm considering going through this book so that I can obtain a well educated mind. I really don't have one. Yes, I have several degrees, but I was not educated classically and I feel completely inadequate about it. I have not read hardly any of the classics--those book lists that are floating around that are like the "100 books everyone should have read" type things?--yeah, I've read like 6 of them. So, anyway--I'm considering. It will take me out of my comfort zone, but I think it will be good for me.

I once almost made my friend Elise pass out when I told her I had not read "Anne of Green Gables"--tragical, huh? Can you tell I'm reading it now?

2011-04-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

My oldest son, Michael, was baptized on March 20th. He was ready. My husband actually baptized him, which was just unbelievable to watch. Thank goodness I was distracted by my youngest son waving at himself on the big screen. You can see in one picture that I have this "do that again and you will regret it" look on my face. Had I not been slightly distracted, I would have really made a mess of myself in front of the entire church. Here's the face.

I went to church before the rest of my family that day because I was running the lights for all three services. As I sat up in the booth listening to the sermon at the first service, Ian read one of the 52 Stories. These are stories that are told each week about someone in our church that has a neat story to tell. I had no idea what the story would be that day, but I'm sure my mouth stood agape as I listened to him tell the story for the first time. My eyes welled with tears knowing what was to come for my family at the next service--Michael's baptism. I cried every time I heard the story read that day. I'm going to copy her story here word for word. She gave me permission. I couldn't have said it better. Here we go.

"The day I gave birth to my son and I was able to hold his tiny little fingers, and count the ten perfect toes, and feel his tiny heart beat in his chest I was hit with two profound truths. The first, there was no way I was ready for what was in store for me. And secondly I realized God loves me. I am human and I am overcome with joy and happiness and love for this tiny little person who will undoubtedly hurt me, reject me, and ultimately leave me. But the joy at that moment, the love and the pull of my heart told me that if I being merely human felt this much, just imagine how God the Father feels when one of his children comes to him in baptism, committing for the rest of their days to accept the responsibility of being the heir to their Fathers world.

When after 15 years the tiny perfect child I gave birth to comes to me and tells me he feels he needs to be baptized, the first reaction I had was the same one I had when I found out I was going to be a mom in the first place. The anticipation of great joy, the future of growth, of new learning experiences to be had. All these emotions ran through my body, my heart leapt and I could feel my eyes tingling with the threat of tears. There was a two week period between the decision to be baptized and the actual baptism, in that time I asked him questions and we talked about the decision. I prayed and I asked him to as well. The morning he was baptized I was so elated. I felt like a new mom all over again, my son knows that Jesus is the Son of God and has accepted His authority, entering into a relationship with the Living God. My relationship with God is the most precious thing I could teach my son about, it's also the one thing I cant wrap up and give him or go out and buy for him and now he gets to have his very own relationship with God to grow and develop and learn through. There is nothing in this world that he could accomplish that would make me more proud to be his mom than the day he chose to enter into the family of God through baptism."

Oh, I just well up again reading it now. Amazing, isn't it? Not just the eloquence of this passage, but the reality of it, the truths that are embedded in it--for me, for my children, for anyone who will accept.

To Music: "This is My Father's World".

2011-03-31T13:55:00.001-05:00

I went to the homeschool expo this past weekend in St. Louis. Last year at the expo I discovered Dianne Craft and our lives have changed drastically for the better. Not that we weren't okay--but Michael REALLY was having a hard time with anything to do with school--especially reading. I could totally make this post be about nutrition, essential fatty acids, and my ~~obsession~~ relationship with real food (as opposed to "frankenfood")--which is, by the way, my absolute favorite term to describe processed fake food.

Tangent.

Michael is a joy to homeschool now. Not because he loves it or even has a desire to do it, but because he gets it. I no longer feel I have to jump through hoops for him to get it--he just does. It is like a switch was flipped after I removed all the junk from his system and started giving him real food and essential fatty acid supplements. He's in 1st grade. When I began homeschooling him this past August he was barely reading anything--he couldn't stay focused, was easily distracted. He would be distracted by the ticking of my wristwatch. Not so today. Over the course of a few months, he blasted through Hooked on Phonics K and 1st grade. I gave him 1st grade readers from Sonlight. He said they were too easy. I gave him 2nd grade readers from Sonlight. He said those were too easy. I tossed aside the first half of them and went straight to the last ones in the schedule. He doesn't say they are too easy, but I never have to help him with a word. I gave him a reader from our curriculum for this next school year that we'll be starting in August (which is a 3rd grade reader) and he read it just fine.

This is a miracle and I don't say that lightly. I really mean it.

So, back to my title and my thoughts about the expo. I went with a few of my buddies--Alisha, Lynelle, and Elise. Elise and I were separated at birth and we say this because we think alike and do LOTS of things exactly alike and are interested in the same things. But there is one big difference: Elise reads poetry to her children, plays classical music for them, exposes them to art. Me? Not so much.

I'm into stuff like this:

So, when I tagged along to a "My Father's World" workshop with the rest of the girls, I was done. I feel like I spent the rest of the weekend at their display booth. I have abandoned my Sonlight and my eclectic mix of classical and Charlotte Mason that I pull out of thin air. I could almost say I am in love.....

I cannot wait to get started. I'm not sure I will wait. I was able to purchase what I needed and take it home that day, so I've ripped into all of it and read through it, basically played with all of it. It's like Christmas. My struggles with art, poetry, and music are solved. The only problem is that my husband will not stop singing.....this is My Father's world.

A White Square Day

2011-03-16T13:54:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I had a lot of these days--white square, meaning a big beautiful white square on the calendar with nothing filled in--a "nothing to do day". Maybe I had preschool drop-off/pick-up, but otherwise I was free to homeschool Michael and then do whatever we decided to do. I found that I pretty much could stay on top of errands and chores and occasionally squeeze in homemade cookies or an impromptu trip to the park. I loved it. I will admit that I am a homebody. I don't say this to make you think I just want to stay home all the time, but I do not do well spending my entire day in the car, driving from one activity to the next. Some people thrive on this and love to be extremely busy and out and about, but not me.

Then something changed and I still don't know what happened, but all of the sudden, instead of having one day where I was kinda busy, I had 4 days that were crazy busy. I was miserable by the end of the day and started drowning in chores, errands, homeschooling, and nothing was being done 100%. I kept saying to myself that I needed to stop saying yes or stop trying to fit too many things in, but I kept doing it.

But no more.

This morning at 5:30 am, Michael came into my room and said he needed to throw up. He made it to the bathroom and was sick off and on for several hours. Once I knew he really had a little bug, this relief came over me because I realized that I now had been given a white square day. No preschool drop-off, no Rx pickup, no homeschool group, no 3 mile treadmill run at the Y, no haircuts. As I went to bed last night, my mind was already calculating how I was going to accomplish all the things in my day today. Now, some of these things are fun (homeschool group), some are things I choose to do (like go to the Y to run), but when I start feeling relief about not having to do the things I normally would choose to do, then I know I am doing the right thing.

I don't even really know why I felt like I wanted to write about this today. I guess it's nice to have those lightbulb moments and I wanted to share. This is turning out to be a perfect day--my boys are happy, playing and content to be home. I have homemade bread dough in the bread machine and I'll be making pigs in a blanket with it later today and we won't be in a hurry, so the boys will get to help me. I've changed all the sheets and washed almost all the clothes. We haven't spent any money or burned up any of our precious overpriced gasoline. The weather is beautiful, so I have the backdoor open. But, in a bit, my husband will be home and I'll get to go to the hair salon (even if it is just to have my bangs trimmed) and run one other errand and that all sounds just right to me.

I had to put my white square back in b/c I wanted to say that I used a picture of a white square plate for a reason. I want some of these! Oh, Ikea, why can't you be close to me?

So, back to my "no more crazy busy days": I really mean it. I am a stay-at-home mom. I homeschool my kids. I cook from scratch. Days like today should not be as rare as the animals in McGrew Zoo, they should be the norm. So, starting today, they will.

And in case you don't know about the animals in McGrew's Zoo, you should--it is my all time favorite Dr. Seuss book. I will stop what I am doing 99% of the time when one of the boys brings it to me to read.

Vinegar fumes

2011-03-10T20:12:00.000-06:00

I hate to admit this, but I had a huge cooking flop tonight. But the story ends well. I saved it. I cook from scratch and do it often, but if you know me, you know I've been on a cruise and away from home and have not cooked a meal in 2 weeks. I guess this was just the way it was going to be tonight.

I could blame it on many things: the dog acting crazy, Cal kicking a basketball in the house, my neighbor stopping by to pick up something, but I won't. I think the excuse I will settle with is that my body and brain are off-kilter because I went from 85 degree temps to 45 degree temps in a matter of hours. I won't recover. My Southern blood got a taste of high temps and there is no going back. I'm not normally a tanning bed sort of gal, but I might have to sneak in there once a week just to be functional on my normal levels :)

So, want to know what I was making? Lemon Thyme Chicken with Roasted Asparagus and Zucchini with Couscous. Delicious.

I was at the crucial point where I had to add garlic, thyme, lemon, and white wine all in rapid succession. I managed to add the first three, then poured in a huge heaping helping (2/3 cup) of white wine VINEGAR. Did I mention that my husband loves this meal and did I mention that my husband HATES VINEGAR?

I texted him to say I had ruined the chicken, but then I got a little mad and decided I was not going to be beaten by my chicken disaster. Here's what I did:

I pulled the chicken out of the steaming vinegar sauce and put it on a plate. I poured the offensive liquid down the drain, washed the pan, then washed the chicken. Yes, I washed my dredged in flour, already cooked, beautiful golden brown chicken in water. Then I remade the sauce, submerged them for a dip, and served it up. Every bite was eaten.

So, Chris asked me why I said I ruined the chicken and after he finished his last bite I told him about my vinegar mistake. Not that he couldn't smell the vinegar fumes.....

I'm going to read a lot and here's what.....

2011-02-23T08:12:00.001-06:00

So, in the near future, I will be going on vacation with my husband. To say I am excited is an understatement. I am going to read a lot. Here's a list of the books I'm taking with me:

--A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Diana Gabaldon

I've been reading this book for several weeks. It's almost 1500 pages long, book 6 in the Outlander series. I'm hoping to finish it in route. Whenever I read one of her books, I have to read 3 or 4 other books before I start the next. I think about the characters while I'm reading the other books and wonder what they will be up to in the next one, but I can't go straight to the next one, even though I want to. It's just too much.

--Made from Scratch, Jenna Woginrich

This book is a memoir about the author's attempt to make a sort of homestead in the city while keeping her corporate job. She wanted to become more self-sufficient with food, clothing, and life in general. She caught the bug to do this based on an urge to figure out exactly where her supermarket food came from. I think it might be a bit fluffy when compared with Omnivore's Dilemma, but a good vacay read for some initial insight.

--Farm City, Novella Carpenter

My mom saw this book at B&N yesterday and called me to say it was "right up my alley". I think she perused the first chapters, which I just did on google reader and I think she might be right. It's about a couple who sought self-sufficiency in Oakland, CA on an abandoned lot. They grew their own food, kept chickens, and other animals all while the sounds of the freeway were nearby. She adds in tales of car alarms and homeless men living in cars to go with, so I cannot wait to get my hands on this one.

I'm still undecided about my additional fiction book. I think I'll finish my 1500 pager soon, so I'll have to go through the stack beside my bed to see who's worthy. My husband asked me yesterday how many books I was taking, so I said, "How many books are YOU taking?" Maybe 5......

Stay tuned for more about why I choose the foods I do, where I buy them, and why I cheat (sometimes!).

Weird thingy in the middle

2011-02-20T15:13:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the little photobucket "this picture has been removed" annoying thing on the screen. I'll get rid of it later. I'm going for a run and I'm out of time.....

Gasp!.....oh well....on to the homemade yogurt.

2011-02-20T15:09:00.000-06:00

So my gasp is due to what I saw when I logged into blogger. It has been an entire year since I blogged. And I really have a lot to say. I am sorta speechless about that, though. I'm not going to tell you why I haven't blogged because I really don't know. I'm not going to make promises that I'm going to blog more often because it seems that I'm not very good at making promises where my blog is concerned.

But, I do have some really cool things going on right now and it would be nice to tell others about them, so maybe.......

It amazes me sometimes (when I really think about it) at how much I am off the beaten path. I homeschool, I cook from scratch, I purchase local meats and produce. Shoot--right now I have about 1/4 of a butchered cow from Alabama in my freezer outside. We eat real food--no preservatives, dyes, etc. If I had a baby, I would use cloth diapers. In a few weeks, I think I'm going to venture into "grind your own flour" land......

so, it makes perfect sense to me that I would get excited over something like making my own yogurt. I have a friend that does it and she shared her technique with me. I tried it and it worked and I have some extremely good yogurt in my fridge now. My husband is repulsed by it. I could hardly get him to smell it and I know he won't try it. He's a good sport to put up with all my other things, so I'll let it slide.

I'll tell you how to do it. Oh, and sorry I don't have any pics like Pioneer Woman. I wasn't planning on blogging this until I got a gentle suggestion to blog it, so I am unprepared. Maybe I'll update this the next time I make a batch and add some pics. It's so easy that pics really aren't necessary anyway.

Here's what you need:

big pot
couple of quart mason jars and lids
whisk
candy thermometer
plain yogurt
1/2 gallon milk
small cooler
kitchen towels

So, boil some water in your big pot and sterilize your jars and lids for about 10 minutes. Remove them from the water on a clean towel. Pour your leftover hot water into your empty cooler and close it.

Pour your 1/2 gallon of milk into your big pot and heat over medium heat until the temp reaches 185 degrees. Remove from heat and place in a cold water bath in the sink until the temp lowers to 120 degrees. While you are waiting, put about 2 tablespoons of plain Dannon yogurt in each jar (you'll need 2 quart jars). Once your milk is 120 degrees, pour it into the jars, put the lids on and shake them up. I vent the lids at this point, just to get the air out.

Now, empty that hot water out of your cooler and put a few kitchen towels in the bottom. Put your jars down in there, but don't let them touch each other or the sides. Wrap them up with more towels around the sides and tops and close the cooler. Do this quickly so your cooler won't cool off.

Leave the cooler alone for 10 hours. Don't pick it up, move it, or open it. You will be VERY tempted to open it up because you will want to see how your yogurt is doing, but don't do it!

You can leave the yogurt in the cooler this way for 8-16 hours, but my friend suggested 10 so I listened to her. It was the perfect amount of sour taste for me too. After your time is up, put your jars in the fridge. Once it's cold, it's ready to eat. I do open my jars before I put them in the fridge--I just wanted to see what it looked and smelled like.

That's it--seriously. And, it's so much tastier and certainly cheaper than buying yogurt in the store. You will be amazed when you've done it and you might feel like more of a woman.....like that you might could survive if you suddenly were dropped into the late 1700s....but maybe that's a bit much. Just sayin.

Deep Thoughts

2010-02-01T19:53:00.006-06:00

So, I was thinking the other day that it seems like I always have some sort of project. It could be any variety of things: from sewing a cute bag to reorganizing my cookbooks or even something which seems more serious like a self-improvement process or "ordering my private world". I put this in quotes because it's a book I'm reading right now with that exact title by Gordon MacDonald. I borrowed it from my pastor because I like all sorts of things that he has to say and when he said he reads this book 2-3 times per year I thought I should read it at least once.

The idea of contentment came into my mind, though, and I wondered how these two things are related. Constantly having a project, whether it be a craft or yourself and contentment. When Christians talk about trying to achieve contentment, being able to rejoice in any circumstance and to put it crudely "being happy with your lot in life"--where does self-improvement fit into that? Maybe they aren't related at all. I do think God expects us to bloom where we're planted and rejoice in all things, but I also think he expects us to take initiative for improving things as well. I think sometimes my conclusions about the things I need to improve upon aren't always what His conclusions would be. This would be where praying for His wisdom and discernment would come in handy. I am quite sure that all my improvement projects would be successful if I was only choosing the ones He would have me choose.

I guess I'm telling you all of this to let you know that Chris thinks I should start really blogging about our homeschooling journey. I don't consider myself much of a writer and I don't really see why anyone would care to read what I have to say, but I am considering it. He thinks I should post about what it is REALLY like--all the things that are stressful and make me want to throw in the towel and all the other things that make it a truly joyful experience too. I guess a great number of the homeschooling blogs you read focus on the choice of curriculum, the great books that a particular family is reading, or the never-ending bliss of homeschooling in general. The scenes you see in pictures of the entire family dressed in their homemade clothes, reading old-timey stories by kerosene lamp. Don't get me wrong: I am not trying to sound critical of anyone who has things like this happen in their home. If that is what they want and it works, then I think that's great. But--it doesn't happen around here. I guess he tends to think that most other homeschooling moms are just like me and we all wish that we could be really honest about how most of our days really just suck and that we feel like we are failing. Instead, we read these other articles and blogs about the way it is supposed to be and feel even more like failures--I guess he just is thinking I'd be really honest or something.........

I don't know yet--but I am doing a lot of thinking about it. I have some good stories to tell, good resources to share and also lots of other boring stuff to talk about. I'm also now having to write my closing thoughts while listening to all the descriptions of the Legos in my oldest son's latest Lego catalog--so now I am really showing my talents.

So, to spice things up a bit with a picture. Here you go.

Does anyone have a cure for chronic constipation in a 6-year-old that doesn't involve a Fleet's Enema? I'm trying the above, but I've already thrown away 3 pairs of underwear this week and it's only Monday. This little adventure just might make for a great first post--heehee.

Wild Horses

2009-12-19T11:41:00.002-06:00

I know a few months ago I said I was going to update my blog once a week.

I did well for a while and then we went out of town a whole bunch. And then..........

my dad fell off a galloping horse at Thanksgiving and I just didn't have it in me.

My brain did not work, my house was not cleaned. I think my children were fed. We were visiting cousins who live on a farm outside Nashville. 5 of us had already ridden the horse. My dad decided to go and when he got back we were all going to go inside, drink beer, and watch Alabama whip up on Auburn. Well.....one out of three ain't bad, right? Last I checked Alabama did whip up on Auburn and then Florida too. I do love Tim Tebow, though. That's another post entirely. Now I'm off on a tangent.

I'll save you the nasty details and say that my dad is doing GREAT. He is still healing, but is expected to make a complete recovery from the accident. I am finally starting to get the constant replay of the horse galloping with my dad out of my mind, although I don't think it will ever completely go away. Nor will the feelings I got from having to be the only nurse out in the middle of a pasture helping the injured party (her own dad--yikes). I do think that time heals most wounds, especially those of a physical nature. What I KNOW is that God heals every wound and even though I would like for this not to have happened, He has given my family and me many more blessings through this event that we would not have had otherwise.

Over the past few years, I have started to really understand why we are to rejoice in all things. It's not always what I want to do and sometimes it takes me a while and sometimes I just have to force myself. I probably shouldn't admit this, but sometimes I even tell God that I don't want to rejoice, but I do and I think he knows I'm faking. I do think He's glad I said it, though. And I think that sometimes saying something out loud is the first step to making it true on the inside. I'm going to try this more often now and see what becomes of it.

I'll try to post again before Christmas, but just in case I don't......

Merry Christmas!

Only 4 Hours of Sleep

2009-11-20T11:51:00.004-06:00

I went to see New Moon last night at midnight with 4 of my girlfriends---it was so good. I can't even do it justice by talking about it, so I'll be brief. They did a much better job of portraying some of the underlying emotions between Edward, Bella, and Jacob this time around. The werewolves are MUCH larger than what I imagined when reading the books. The Volturi are mesmerizing and Edward was at his best in the scene with them where he was wearing this blood red robe--it was a delight to say the least. Okay, enough.

This was the start of my favorite part of the movie--and there is that red robe.

Okay, so on a lighter note. I almost feel like these two topics shouldn't even go together. Well, anyway.

I am starting a new tradition this Christmas. I went to the library and let the boys pick out 24 Christmas books. We got an assortment--reindeer, snowmen, Santa, and Baby Jesus. We are going to put them in a big basket by their rooms and starting on December 1, we will read one book per night, slowly emptying the basket, and letting this be our "countdown to Christmas". I have seen where some people wrap each book in Christmas paper so the kids get the thrill of unwrapping the gift and being surprised by which one it is. I am considering doing this, but am trying to weigh the effort versus the enjoyment--hard to say. Maybe it will get old opening them every night. I'll think about it for a while.

I also really want to make one of these.

Up and running

2009-11-03T19:55:00.002-06:00

I went over to the Apple store today and picked up my computer. It now has a brand spankin' new hard drive that has double the RAM of the other one. I'll have to admit it is super cool. It's just different enough that I notice. I kind of feel like I have a brand new macbook, especially since there was NOTHING on it. Yep--no pics, documents, iTunes songs, mail, calendar items--zip.

While I was waiting to get my little white piece of heaven back, I sought out to discover just how many pictures I lost. What I discovered was that I had backed up quite a bit AND I had uploaded almost all of our significant events and vacations onto my blog or facebook page. So, now I am totally looking at it as I am not nearly as behind with my scrapbooking as I once thought. How's that for perspective?

So, just wanted to give you a little update. I'll post again later this week with some pictures--maybe some oldies but goodies just to celebrate that I have them.

Until then, I'm going to go downstairs, retrieve my external hard drive and BACK UP my new computer AND do it every month for the rest of my life.

How's that for a hard lesson..........

This post will have no pictures......

2009-10-27T16:00:00.003-05:00

I just got home from the Apple store in St. Louis. They gave me the wonderful news that my hard drive is gone. Along with it, everything on my computer. Yes, your first thought is correct. The pictures are gone. I backed up all my digital photos about a year ago and have been meaning to get around to it again. So, that means, one year's worth are GONE.

The thing that makes this even harder to swallow is that my computer was only 2 years old, a beautiful little white MacBook that came loaded with Time Machine. You've heard of it, right? It's that cool thing that allows you to back up your entire computer on a schedule and restore it to its original state if your hard drive ever blows up. Well, that was the other thing I'd been meaning to get to--utilizing Time Machine. You see, I own an external hard drive, but it's full of digital scrapbooking pages and elements. Pretty full. So I was thinking those things were more important than my pictures and I was getting around to purchasing another one to use for my Time Machine backups.

Yep--just getting around to it--like NEVER.

So....I'm feeling ~~a fire boiling up inside me~~ a little stressed about life in general right now between Michael's broken toe/croup/breathing treatment/antibiotic snafu and now the impacted poop that had to be enema'd out at the hospital. ~~I won't mention my diflucan/z-pack illness predicament~~ Suffice it to say we've had some activity around here that I've handled just fine, even with the computer meltdown. I did tell Chris last night that it was a good thing that Dancing with the Stars taped on the DVR while we were at the hospital. Talk about coming unglued.

That's enough for now, I'd say.

Nyquil D and Mucinex

2009-10-19T08:54:00.003-05:00

make a great combination for alleviating cold symptoms. My body has been attacked by a vicious cold virus. Even the hubby is amazed at how it has affected me. Yesterday he said, "You haven't ever been down like this." I'm kind of astounded too. I don't normally get sick to begin with and when I do, I get over it quickly. Not this time. Maybe I have a mutated strain of swine flu.

I am rallying today. I have done all my morning chores, my load of laundry is almost ready to go into the dryer. One quick tangent: is anyone else comforted by the sound of the washing machine & dryer going in the background of their home? For some reason, I love the sound. Okay, back to my rallying. I am going to homeschool these boys today (in a few minutes, actually), take them to swim lessons, and possibly make an apple pie when we get home. And I just updated my blog again for the third time this month. Okay--enough about me.

Although, I am wondering if I'll use the entire bottle before I'm well.

Giving In to Good Changes

2009-10-09T18:26:00.003-05:00

Well, hello there people!

It's been a dreary two days here. It's dinnertime on Friday night. I've made an old recipe that I remembered us really enjoying, but now I'm not so sure. I guess we'll see. It's still dreary, getting cold enough in the house that I could almost be convinced to turn on the heat, but I won't. There's something about turning on the heat that I don't like. I can't explain it--it's not that I love summer so much--quite the opposite. But I can't bring myself to turn it on just yet.

I also cannot stop eating these Pringles Bold Bites (zesty parmesan flavor) chips that Chris brought home just now. I stop typing after every couple of sentences just to eat another one. Maybe I won't be hungry for my so so dinner.

So......I just have to share this. I would consider myself to be gifted in the home organization area. I thrive on charts and schedules for home management. I also have a computerized grocery list organized by aisle for the store I shop in. I have most things that I purchase on the list and highlight what I need. I feel pretty satisfied with how I keep our home organized and running, but there is always room for improvement. I HATE to clean. I came up with a cleaning schedule for the entire week, so I only have to do a few things each day, but I hate even doing that. I'm sure many of you have heard of the FLY Lady. I have always wanted to follow her ways, but her "ways" are on the internet and I don't like reading page after page of stuff on the computer. Imagine my delight when I ran across this. An actual book I can hold in my hand, and read, and follow.

This book is written for people who have disastrous houses. Houses so full of clutter that they can't even clean around it. If you are one of these people and you have just given up--this book is for you. It will change your life (and I don't ever say that). You are probably wondering why I was so excited by this book if I feel like I'm holding down the fort okay over here, right? It's because if I follow her ways, I only have to clean for 1 hour on one day and 15 minutes all the other days AND I get Saturday and Sunday off. Including laundry. There are some things she says you have to do. When I first started reading about her ideas on the internet, I thought I could skip those things--like shining my sink, making a control journal, putting on shoes. Once I bought the book, I decided I was going all out. It's gone well. I like it. She says I'll never have to "spring clean" again and I believe her! Except I did it all in my cute heart slippers.

Just so you have some pics to enjoy--here are two of the boys doing this week's science experiment: geodesic design using marshmallows and toothpicks.

I also got my hair highlighted twice this week--but that's another story. Have a good weekend--we've got a long one!

One more thing.....

2009-10-02T14:12:00.001-05:00

Just trying out my new signature!

Motivation

2009-10-02T12:58:00.009-05:00

Whoa--I am embarrassed. Has it really been 8 months since I last updated my blog? That is ridiculous. A couple of my friends have almost been as bad as me. I say "almost" though. They haven't gone 8 months. Anyway--these two people have motivated me to update my blog once a week. I think I can do it.

I'm also going to try something new. Instead of just talking about us and what we're doing, I'll be adding in some useful information too. It might be a Bible verse or lesson that has really affected me lately, a recipe, a home organization tip, or even a random fact. Michael is memorizing various information as part of his schoolwork and most of it is put to a tune. We play these "songs" all throughout the day, especially in the car, which means I am memorizing them as well. I am learning just as much history as Michael is because I hated it when I was in school and now I am fascinated by it.

So, anyway--here goes. Wish me luck. I'm even thinking of turning it back public, especially since we just started fresh here in a new, undisclosed location!!

So, what did we do this week?

Michael fell while hopping down the stairs. He broke his left pinky toe at the growth plate, so we had to go to the pediatrician, then outpatient x-ray, then the orthopedic doctor. I discovered through all of this that Michael vomits when he has a broken toe and is extremely nervous. So, we used this about 8 times on Tuesday.

Now we have this:

and I no longer have to carry him, watch him crawl/hop on one leg, or maximize the weight capacity on Cal's umbrella stroller just to get him from one place to the next. He thinks he has a robot leg and is compliant to wear it. I am extremely happy.

I am also on a mission to organize my recipes into this book. I'm going to put my most loved ones in here. I've already made a spreadsheet with all of them, so when I'm meal planning I just pick from the list. Right now all the recipes are in about 10 different places, so this will be a huge time saver to have them in one spot. I'm basically going to copy this idea, except I'm going to try to have around 45 meals instead. No, I'm not trying to be overly ambitious, I already have that many on my spreadsheet.

Now to finish for today. Just a cute pic of Cal with his playmobil pirates.

Have a great weekend. I promise I'll be back soon!!

Birthday Party

2009-02-03T18:54:00.003-06:00

We had a joint birthday party for Michael and Cal this year at a fun play place. Michael is now 5 and Cal is 3.

Snow, snow and more snow.

2009-02-03T18:49:00.004-06:00

We've gotten about 4 or 5 snows up here so far. The boys aren't as enchanted anymore when it is coming down. They still love to play in it, though. Here are some pics from a couple different snowfalls. We've made some interesting snowmen, that's for sure. My favorite is the one with the olives for eyeballs--he looks totally possessed.

Painting

2009-02-03T18:41:00.002-06:00

We use a really neat book to do some of our homeschooling activities. It has a list of wonderful books to read aloud and then activities to do with each book. These activities are related to things in the story and help me teach the boys while having fun at the same time. These are some pictures I snapped while the boys were painting. We were trying to recreate the pattern on the kitchen floor in the storybook, Jesse Bear What Will You Wear. It is a random pattern of triangles, circles, and squares. I also had some little kitchen helpers making stromboli the other day. They love to help me cook. Michael asks me almost every day if he can help me cook.

Campfire in the Backyard

2008-11-14T13:14:00.003-06:00

The boys love the Veggie Tales graham cracker/marshmallow song and want us to build a fire in the pit all the time. Cal likes to roast the marshmallows and then play with them. He won't eat them unless they are on top of chocolate. He says, "Where's the chocolate?" over and over.

Cal is still obsessed with everyone else's shoes.

2008-11-14T13:12:00.003-06:00

Halloween

2008-11-14T13:08:00.003-06:00

Sorry I've gone so long without a post. I'm addicted to Facebook and have been uploading all my recent photos to those pages.

Now I have more than I can personally eat

2008-09-11T14:45:00.003-05:00

My New Jersey friends are getting ready to get some presents!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

2008-09-11T14:43:00.002-05:00

This is Sneaky's new "I'm on bedrest because I have a back condition" crate.

As you can see, some people have other ideas for it.

The Batwing

2008-09-11T14:39:00.003-05:00

Pap sent this to Michael the other day--unassembled in its original box, of course.

THREE HOURS LATER.............Mommy had it all put together.

6 Year Molars

2008-09-01T20:45:00.002-05:00

For the past few days Michael has been complaining about his mouth hurting. I looked where he was pointing and saw what looked like a canker sore. I put some Orajel in there and he seemed to feel better.

Tonight he asked me for more medicine for his mouth and I had him lay down on my bed while I put it in his mouth. I put my finger in there before I put the Orajel on and the "canker sore" was hard.

Poor Michael G, he doesn't have a canker sore, he has a 6 year molar!!!!! I'm so sad--this is his first permanent "adult" tooth :-(

Sorry I don't have pictures--didn't think you'd want to see inside his big mouth!

New Obsessions

2008-08-22T20:14:00.004-05:00

Cal is still very into trains and Thomas, but Michael isn't really (thank goodness). Of course, Cal likes to like whatever Michael likes, so he follows along with just about anything. The new thing in our house is Legos and Batman.

DeeDee found some Batman pjs and sent them to us today as a surprise. She had no idea that I had been out at Target just yesterday trying to find them, unsuccessfully!

Of course, trying to get the pictures of Michael was like PULLING TEETH. He is 4.5 and has a BAD CASE OF THE WIGGLES all the time! Cal was willing to stand back against the wall and pose for his pictures, then rushing over to preview them to make sure he liked them!

Chef Hats

2008-08-22T20:09:00.004-05:00

Okay--so the boys got these chef hats from my aunt, Amy, for Christmas. They decided yesterday that they needed to wear them with their sunglasses on while inside. They also needed to wear them outside while swinging. Then Michael said his hair was getting hot and he took it off so Cal followed suit.

Tomatoes

2008-08-17T19:55:00.002-05:00

Can you believe these beauties???? I was out this evening admiring my tomato "trees" and I think I can officially say that I will probably have more tomatoes than I can personally eat!

Bathtub Boys

2008-08-03T20:14:00.001-05:00

They look like they're in their own little worlds don't they?

They call it the GARDEN State

2008-08-03T20:08:00.003-05:00

Now I know why they call this the Garden State--check out my tomato plants. This is the first time I've ever planted tomatoes in my yard and some of them are bigger than my fist. I love home-grown tomatoes so much that I can eat them like an apple, so I'm going to have a happy tummy the rest of the summer!

Cal DOES NOT Take Naps

2008-07-24T14:27:00.002-05:00

For most of you, this is not a new revelation. Cal started climbing out of his crib about 3 weeks before his 2nd birthday and he's been in a big boy bed ever since. When he stopped taking naps then, I thought it was probably just the novelty of being in a new bed and having the ability to get up and roam around the bedroom. Then I thought it was the distraction of his toys and books, so I took them out of his room. That's when he decided to pull his clothes out of the drawers--all of them. So, I gave him his toys back and gave up.

Now he has what we call "quiet time" in his room, but he is anything but quiet. He sounds like he is coming through the floor and makes an absolute mess--it is ridiculous.

He also likes to lie in the floor and look out the bottom of the door crack to see who is walking by. He can identify all of us by our feet and yells at us as we walk around upstairs. I'm going to set up my video camera one of these days to capture all this, but for now, here are some pictures of his little blond head under the door.

"Homeschooling" at its Finest

2008-07-24T14:22:00.003-05:00

Michael is very interested in firefighters right now. He has some books about them, fire trucks, and loves to watch Fireman Sam. Chris took him to the fire station on base for a lesson from a real firefighter.

I Heart NY

2008-07-14T20:03:00.003-05:00

I have forgotten how much I love New York City. I can hop on a train for free (military perk) and be there in about an hour. The train takes me into Penn Station by Madison Square Garden and up the stairs I go into the heart of Times Square. I've been twice this month already--once for the day with Chris and the boys and our friends, the Mathernes--and another time with my mom, aunt, and cousin. We spent the night and were there for two full days of exploring and eating!!

I think we'll go many more times--it is so close and so easy to get there.

Niagara Falls

2008-06-20T22:05:00.005-05:00

We went to Niagara Falls after our time at Dutch Wonderland. It's about 7 hours from our home--it seemed like forever to get there, but it was totally worth it. We took a boat ride on the Maid of the Mist boat tour, which takes you into the basin of the horseshoe falls. They give you these blue ponchos to wear before you get there and it's an open deck boat so it's kind of amusing to see everyone in their ponchos--but thank goodness for the ponchos because when you are in the basin of Niagara Falls you get wet!! We also went over into Canada to see the falls from that side, which is prettier than seeing them from the American side. We also had dinner over in Canada and then spent the night at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station.

Dutch Wonderland

2008-06-20T21:56:00.003-05:00

In Lancaster, PA there is a kids amusement park called Dutch Wonderland. It is like a small Disney World created just for kids aged 18 months to around 6 or 7. Michael was able to ride every single ride--some were actual roller coasters and the log ride. Cal could ride all but 3 of the rides. Even though there were plenty of people there, we never had to wait in line and again, we had perfect weather. We all had a great time and if you are ever in the area, I definitely recommend it. We had recently been to this area when we went to Strasburg last month, so I had Chris make a slight detour over to a bakery so I could get a Whoopie Pie, my new favorite dessert.

Strawberry Picking

2008-06-20T21:49:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of us picking strawberries at Johnson's Farm in Medford. This place is incredible--I can't do it justice and the weather was perfect--no humidity and about 80 degrees. This farm has a "pick your own" everything--so we'll be going back for all sorts of fresh fruits and veggies this year.

JBird Bags Is Born!!!!!

2008-05-31T15:29:00.002-05:00

Okay everyone--it's official! I've had so many people compliment me on the purses I've sewn and then follow with the question: "Do you sell those?" that I've decided to do it. My family, friends, and hubby have been very supportive and encouraging so I'm out taking some small baby steps.

I'm currently working on a few original designs and exploring some other avenues. I've created an etsy account and a separate email account so be on the lookout for some of my items coming soon. Once I get some things listed on etsy I'll send an update to the blog to let you know!

My new email for sewing related inquiries is: jbirdbags@gmail.com.

My etsy site is: www.jbirdbags.etsy.com

Sewing Frenzy

2008-05-24T07:31:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of some of my most recent projects. The orange/brown/green bag is from a pattern called the "Happy Bag". I was not really so happy while I was sewing it--it was a lot of work. It was worth it because it is really cute and unique, but phew! My mom and I bought fabric to make two of these--one for her and one for me. Hers is supposed to be her Mother's Day gift but I was so exhausted after making mine that she hasn't gotten hers yet. After sewing a couple other projects, I am happy to say I am ready to make hers now.

The other bag is from an Amy Butler pattern called the "In Town Bags". It was super easy, required tiny amounts of fabric, and took me about an hour to make.

The skirt is the "Barcelona Skirt" from Amy Butler. This is the first clothing item I've ever made other than nursing scrub tops. This has a hidden zipper in the back and was my first zipper. It turned out just right. It's hard to see the details in the skirt, but it has these really cute frayed edges all down it--it's not just one piece.

Amish Country

2008-05-24T07:22:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday we decided to take a break from packing and go on a little excursion. There are so many things to do in this area that we are overwhelmed but excited to see all that we can while we live here. We've decided to plan one big excursion per month. Our first one was a trip to Strasburg, PA--it was about 2 hours away. You probably are aware that we have some train lovers in the family, so we felt like we could indulge the boys with trains while we indulged ourselves with some beautiful scenery and some really good food!

While we were there we went to several train museums, rode a train in an open air coach through Amish countryside, ate lots of good food, and stayed in an actual caboose that was converted into a hotel room. Not 4 star accommodations by any means, but the boys were thrilled so it was worth every bit!

Chris's favorite food from the area was Shoo-Fly Pie--we brought an entire one home and ate it all this week.

Allison's Photos

2008-05-11T11:06:00.004-05:00

Allison Richardson took these family pictures of us right before we moved. We were in downtown Charleston. Since we move all over the place, we try to get pictures taken that have some scenery that documents the area. While in Oklahoma we had pictures taken in a wheat field, so downtown Charleston seemed fitting for these. Enjoy. I've also added a link to Allison's website so you can see more of her work and also contact her if you'd like her to photograph your children--she is wonderful!!

We Made It!!

2008-05-04T21:10:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to let you know we made it to NJ. Chris's car decided the journey to the Northeast was too much so it decided to break down right before the Maryland state line. He abandoned it at the local Honda dealer and rented a car to finish the journey. We haven't figured out yet what we'll do about that--first things first! We'll try to get a house tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Tiger Taco

2008-05-02T08:12:00.002-05:00

Unpacking looks so easy with the Tiger Taco. Maybe we'll try to find one on our way to NJ!

Our house in Summerville is empty and we are going to be on our way today. We are heading up to NC today to stay with my parents for a few days. The boys have been there all this week having a great time--it was a huge help to us!! I'll keep you updated with our progress. Our email will stay the same and our cell phones are on. We'll hopefully be there by Sunday and appreciate all your prayers!!

Sweet Home Alabama

2008-04-18T07:23:00.003-05:00

We just returned from visiting family in Alabama. Chris's mom and dad live out in the country and there is this huge field across from their house with all these wildflowers. Here are some pics of the boys picking flowers.

The packers are scheduled to arrive on the 28th of this month and finish and load by May 1st. We'll officially leave town on the 2nd of May and try to arrive at McGuire AFB by May 4th. I'll have my computer with me the whole time so feel free to email and I'll also provide updates on our moving progress. We'd love your prayers as we go through the moving process and know that God has gone ahead of us to pave our way!!!!

Oh yay, my friends!!!!!

2008-03-29T08:29:00.002-05:00

I've been meaning to tell you that I had the wonderful privilege of seeing both of my best friends this spring. My friend, Missy Kennedy came to visit while Chris was deployed and I saw my friend, Amy McCullough while we were down at Disney. Here are some pictures!! I think the ones with Missy are still on my camera--I'll add those later!

Phew........Disney!

2008-03-29T08:17:00.002-05:00

Here are some pics from our recent jaunt to Disney World. We had a wonderful time and the boys loved meeting all the characters. Cal LOVES Minnie Mouse and I really thought he would faint when he saw her in person! They seemed to enjoy all the little rides, especially the flying ones. Michael was scared of the trolls in the Maelstrom ride at Epcot.

We went to Animal Kingdom the first day, Epcot the second, and Magic Kingdom the third. Magic Kingdom was so crowded that the other two parks seemed deserted. All in all, Disney is a really great time, but an extreme amount of work with 4 and 2 year olds!

So, the reason I say "Phew........Disney" is because we are just now recovering 1 1/2 weeks later because both of the boys got this stomach bug right as we got home--guess there were some great germs on all those handrails--yuck!!

Okay........I feel this is becoming a pattern.

2008-03-13T12:47:00.002-05:00

Once again, I sit here wondering where all my time has gone as I realize I haven't posted to my blog since New Year's Eve! Wow! Would you like to know where all the time went? I was consumed with the boys--having to do everything for them and all the house stuff while Chris was deployed for 67 days--like they say on the bear hunt: phew--we made it!!

Now that we have our family life back to normal we are in moving mode. Our house is on the market to rent or sell, we are sorting, organizing, cleaning, donating our stuff and preparing to greet the packers on April 28th. If all goes according to plan, we should be packed and loaded by May 1 and heading up to NJ shortly thereafter. We are going to try to live on base since we'll only be there one year and we won't know about that until we get there.

I have also become obsessed with sewing purses using patterns and fabrics by Amy Butler. I made 8 purses while Chris was gone! I am also going to try to make some new rag type quilts for the boys beds--we're going to try and put them in the same bedroom up in NJ! That should be interesting.

I hope to do better at updating more regularly--sorry! We'll keep you all posted on our new contact info when we get it.

My Cute December Boys

2007-12-31T21:17:00.000-06:00

Christmas Pics

2007-12-31T21:12:00.001-06:00

Michael's Bday Pics

2007-12-31T21:02:00.001-06:00

These pictures go with my previous post so I won't add a lot of copy--enjoy!

Where have I been?????

2007-12-31T20:22:00.000-06:00

Okay--sorry! Has it really been two months since I posted to my blog--wow!! I thought I'd get in a quick post before the year ends and update you all on what we've been doing the past couple of months.

We had a wonderful time trick-or-treating on Halloween with Michael's best buddy, Jacob Iannace. Originally Michael was planning on being "Thomas the Tank Engine" and we had the costume. I went to the store to purchase a costume for Cal and Michael saw the chicken costume and it was meant to be. If I'd had a little more time, I would have tried to fashion some sort of "egg" costume for Cal, but the Woody worked out great for him--he even wore the hat for quite some time. Of course, you can't really count on the weather to be even slightly cold here in October, so we were really surprised that Michael didn't pass out from heat stroke all bundled up in all the chicken fur (feathers) that comprised his costume. Anyway--it was fun!

We traveled to three states during a two week period around Thanksgiving--NC, NJ, and AL. We got to see almost our entire family on both sides and the kids had an absolute ball with their cousins. After Thanksgiving, Michael stayed at his Nana's house all my himself for a week. They made a mansion of a gingerbread house, played on tractors, loaders, and concrete trucks, and of course, Michael got undivided attention and also a "yes" to practically everything he could come up with that he wanted to do. That's what grandmothers are for, right? It made for a difficult couple of days when he got home and had to share me with Cal and all the other household duties that make up my day--but we all recovered!!

We had Christmas at our house twice this year. We celebrated with Chris's mom and dad the weekend before and then my parents, grandparents and aunt came down for Christmas. Santa dropped off a big boy bike for Michael and a kitchen for Cal. We had Michael's bday party the weekend before Christmas with a few friends--I can't believe I have a 4-year-old in my house!

Now we're looking forward to Cal's 2nd bday in January--he's decided he is a big boy now by starting to climb out of his crib and also climb on everything else. So, we turned Cal's crib into a toddler bed the day after Christmas and he's good to go--he loves climbing in and laying his head on his pillow!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year. It's almost 10pm on New Year's Eve and I'm not even sure I'll make it until midnight :-)

more pictures..........

2007-10-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

I think I tried to insert too many pictures at one time so these weren't included in my last post.

Big News!!!!!

2007-10-19T14:37:00.000-05:00

Well, along with these cute pics of the boys, I am updating the blog to let you know that we will be moving away from Charleston this coming April. Chris was selected to attend school. We will be going to ASAM at McGuire AFB in New Jersey. We are so excited since this is a great thing for Chris to do in his Air Force career and we have heard wonderful things about the area in New Jersey. We will leave Charleston at the end of April. We will probably live on base since we'll only be there for one year, but we are going up to visit the area in November and will look around at all our options. Hopefully we'll have lots of visitors since we'll be 45 minutes from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from NYC. I'm already thinking about the colored lights on the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and all the window displays at Christmas!! The pictures are just some cute recent ones of the boys doing silly things. Michael still likes to squeeze himself into his Captain Feathersword costume and they love to walk around in whatever shoes I happened to have lying around. Enjoy--more updates on the move to follow!

Another Digital Layout

2007-09-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

I did this page of Mark tonight. This will be the last page of the book. The background paper that looks like a flag is actually some artwork of his that I scanned into my computer. The typed story is something he wrote on the computer one day. His mom printed it out and gave it to me and I scanned that in too. I love how I was able to use these items of his on the page in a way that I wouldn't have been able to in a regular scrapbook layout.

YIKES!!!!! Addicted to Digital Scrapbooking!

2007-09-14T23:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, if you are reading this you probably know that I am an avid scrapbooker, rubber stamper, card-making addict. Now I can add digital scrapbooking to my repertoire. For the past year, I have unsuccessfully tried to teach myself how to do this. Yesterday I stumbled across some video tutorials. I watched every one of them while the boys were napping today and created this page tonight in no time flat.

This is going to be the cover page for an album I just finished making of my cousin, Mark, who passed away last October. I'll be giving it to his mom, Georgia, soon and I think this page is perfect for the beginning of the album and I hope she likes it.

Now I'll begin working on my family albums and I'll probably digitally scrap them so I can determine if I want to make the switch to all digital layouts. I'm about three years behind, so I'm hoping I'll be able to save time, storage space, and money by making the switch. Only time will tell...............................and I'm sure my hubby will have some opinions too!

Michael Dumping the Loader

2007-09-03T22:02:00.000-05:00

This video needs no introduction!

Michael's Adventure at Evergreen Concrete

2007-09-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

Well, when we were in Alabama last month visiting Chris's family, we spent one afternoon up at the concrete plant that Chris's mom and dad own. Michael was thrilled to sit in one of Poppa's concrete trucks and pretend to drive it, so you can imagine that he really didn't know what to do with himself when he climbed up into the loader and actually got to steer it and make several trips of loading and dumping into the hopper. Chris's dad said after the first dump, Michael said, "Let's do it again." So they did it again about 4 more times. If I can manage to get up the nerve to try uploading videos again, I'll load the video of him doing it!

Cal on the Dishwasher

2007-09-03T21:34:00.000-05:00

Hope you aren't still waiting.........

2007-09-03T19:59:00.001-05:00

for the videos!! I haven't been able to psych myself up to try again. We've worked on our computer a little and have been busy getting ready for all our fall activities. It has been unbearably hot here--believe it or not, too hot to even bother going to the pool! We've had rain for about 5 days and this afternoon we enjoyed a much needed day outside. The boys played all over their swingset, in the sandbox, had wagon rides, and rode scooters and cars. We even fired up our chiminea in the backyard--it was beautiful outside!

The boys start their mom's morning out days on Wednesday of this week and Michael and I are in full swing with his K4 curriculum that I'm homeschooling him with. So far, he is very receptive to learning and is doing a great job with it. I'm looking forward to having two days a week to get stuff done while the boys are at the church. We're also doing MOPS at our church and Michael will be going to AWANA with his friend, Samantha.

Stay tuned for the video

2007-07-26T22:35:00.001-05:00

Well--wishful thinking. I still can't get it to work right. It's 11:35 and I've been working on this for 3 hours. I'm giving up for now and will try again later.

Keep checking back for more videos.

Video of Cal Walking!!!!!

2007-07-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well, here's my second attempt at inserting video clips to my blogger. The problem hasn't been with me, but my computer. The program I usually use to upload videos isn't working, so I had to use another one which was uploading the movies too large for YouTube and the blogger to accept. So after hours and hours of teaching myself how to use the new program, I think I've got the hang of it..........

My First Attempt with a Video

2007-07-26T15:33:00.001-05:00

Here's a cute video of Cal taken this month. He is flexing his muscles, grimacing his face, and showing us how strong he is........

Michael's Guitar and other Silly Pictures

2007-07-13T13:59:00.001-05:00

Cal eating cookies in his chair

Guess who wants to be picked up?

How is it that Michael is a preschooler now?

He cannot stand still for pictures today!

Just a boy and his guitar

He used all the markers on his nose.........

only the orange and blue on his leg

Well, I couldn't resist taking this picture of Michael with his guitar. His Nana and Poppa bought it for him and he plays it all the time. He usually sleeps with it too and tries to carry it everywhere we go. He ran downstairs after his bath while Chris was getting Cal dressed and picked it up just like he was-----

The pictures of him with marker all over his face and leg were about a month ago. He had been watching a video for quiet time and I was upstairs putting Cal down for a nap and jumped on the computer for a few minutes to check email, etc. I was thinking to myself that he was being really quiet......................

The other pictures I took yesterday--nothing special about the day, just some pictures!

Disney World Vacation

2007-07-13T13:38:00.000-05:00

Jenni, Amy, Dee Dee, Michael--you can see the anticipation on Michael's face

All of us with one of our guides, Raymond

Michael and Dee Dee on the Astro Orbiter

Michael Harris and Piglet

Michael and Pooh

after a long day at MGM

The first day at MGM

waiting to potentially get wet

The boys and I went on a two week trip while Chris was TDY to Georgia. First, we went to Disney World with 8 members of my family: my mom and dad, my aunt Amy, my Uncle Rickey and his wife Georgia and their three kids Melissa, Matthew, and Michael. After we had our fun at Disney, we went to visit my friends, Amy McCullough down in Tampa. We stayed with her about 5 days and then came home just in time for Daddy to arrive. Disney was wonderful. Other than vacation and fun, our primary reason for going to Disney was to take my cousin, Michael there before he has major heart surgery later this month. He had a twin brother, Mark, that passed away in October 2006 after heart surgery. They were born with pulmonary atresia and have been through many heart caths and surgeries. Michael has always had a better prognosis than Mark, but even still, we had him in a wheelchair all throughout Disney World. He gets very out of breath and tired if he exerts himself too much so it worked out great for him as far as not getting tired. It also worked out great for the rest of us because we never had to wait in line. Another great experience at Disney was during our day at the Magic Kingdom. When my dad's boss found out our reason for going to Disney, he made some phone calls that resulted in us having a VIP-guided day at the Magic Kingdom. We had two guides that were the nicest guys that took us everywhere--we never waited in line, never had to worry about where we were going--it was wonderful. I told Chris I'll never be able to go back to Disney because we were so spoiled this time around!!

But, the most important thing was that we were able to take my cousin, Michael, to Disney World before this major surgery and see all the magic and wonder in his eyes.

Tybee Island Getaway continued.................

2007-07-13T13:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some more pictures from our scrapbooking weekend..............

Tybee Island Getaway

2007-06-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

I went to Tybee Island, GA with 5 of my girlfriends this weekend. We stayed in a cute cottage about 1 block from the beach. Tropical storm Barry came through on Saturday so we stayed inside! We went down there to scrapbook, so we didn't mind the weather. This picture is of my friend, Missy, and me outside of my new house in SC. She went scrapbooking with me and came all the way from Ohio. We had a wonderful time--I'm just speechless at how happy I was to see my friends from far away!

We moved into our new house here in Summerville in April and we love it. We're the only house in a cul-de-sac with lots of woods behind us. We moved because we wanted to be closer to the main areas of Summerville and also to leave behind some stuff we didn't care for in our other neighborhood!

I'll add some more pictures of our girls' getaway weekend when my friends email them to me!

Tall Ships and Dragons

2007-06-04T12:40:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago they had a Tall Ship Festival downtown. I think around 8 ships sailed into the harbor and were docked all weekend. We went to see them and they were so pretty. One of the ships, the Gloria, from Columbia sailed into the harbor with the crew standing on the arms of the masts, some were 100 feet up. After we checked out the ships, Michael discovered the fountain at the park and since we had a change of clothes with us for him, we let him get in. You can see for yourself what fun he had.

You know from previous posts that Michael is now into costumes, thus my name for this post. He's only worn the dragon costume out in public once--to a Mexican restaurant. My aunt, Georgia, gave some new ones to him that her sons have already gone through and this was one of them.

Post Haircut Pictures

2007-05-20T07:15:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures I promised.

Cal's First Haircut

2007-05-19T19:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally did it! Cal had his first haircut today. My easy-going, laid-back little man hated every minute of it and cried the whole time. Not even M&M's could make things right! I'll add some pictures tomorrow of the finished product. He has a cute little bowl cut. Michael watched and he kept saying, "Cal's getting a haircut. I don't need a haircut." He definitely needed reassurance that he wasn't next in line. He still isn't thrilled with haircuts and only cooperates because I threaten him with punishment and the fear of not receiving the sucker at the end. Cal didn't even want the sucker when he was finished--he just wanted to leave!

Check back later for some post-haircut pictures!

Michael's Captain Feathersword Costume

2007-05-16T12:54:00.000-05:00

Last night I was going through a Rubbermaid box and found some costumes. I showed one to Michael and he wanted to put it on. Up until now, Michael has not been into wearing costumes whatsoever. He's never wanted to wear birthday hats, Halloween costumes, etc. Well, times have changed. He wore the costume all evening, slept in it, and wore it to school today. All this time I've been wanting him to wear costumes--now I'm nervous I won't be able to get him out of it!!

I think some people at school this morning were afraid they had missed dress-up day or something.

I'm not sure if I'm thinking clearly.......

2007-05-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

Well, here's my first attempt at blogging. It's 11 at night, Chris is flying. I should be in bed, but I'm up here doing something that I will probably become obsessed with, but don't have the time for................but it seems like such a great idea. I have friends that have blogs and I'm always so excited to read what is going on in their lives. Will I have people excited to read mine??? Oh well, we'll see what happens. In theory, this is a great idea. We move all the time and we always have a couple of friends we stay in touch with at each place--maybe I can talk all the people I stay in touch with to start blogs too.

So, where to start? I think I'll start simple for now, even though we've had some really big stuff going on lately. We moved into a new house and we love it. Michael loves it because our bedroom is on the first floor and he can easily venture into our closet and put on our shoes. I'll post the latest pictures of him tromping around in mine. Cal really needs a haircut. Chris accuses me of dressing him like a girl on Sundays and now my friends are asking me if I'm going to cut his hair anytime soon. I'm just so used to it being long and I'm so afraid someone will mess it up even though I saw some pictures today of it when it wasn't so long and he looked so cute. I think we will have to cut it this week, much to the dismay of my mom.

Michael had his program at Child's Day Out today. He's been belting out all these songs at home for us, so we kind of knew which ones they were singing in the sanctuary today for the big crowd. Well, we got some great footage of him standing there like a Roman statue--about 20 minutes of it. His teacher had told me last week they'd had trouble with some of the kids picking their noses, pulling up shirts, hands where they shouldn't be, etc. We started to get nervous when he pulled up his shirt a little, but then were okay when we saw his teacher motioning something at him and he pulled it down. He didn't sing one word or make one hand motion until the very end when he participated in the big finish. Of course, all the way home, he went on and on about how he sang in the program--I just love it! We were so proud of him and waved at hime constantly, but he didn't wave at us. Isn't it usually the kid waving at the parents?????

Okay--I have to go to bed now. Sorry the one picture is sideways. I thought I'd be able to turn it, but can't figure it out right now!