Learning Flexibility

Ok.  So I have this huge chicken (around 8 pounds).  We put it from the freezer, into the fridge in the garage a couple days ago.  I got it out today, so I could spice it up, only to find, it is still VERY FROZEN!!!  Change of plans for dinner!  Tonight, we are trying a new recipe, called Taco Pasta. 

I sure was counting on the leftover chicken, though.  And, it's rather embarrassing, when I told Sarah that they could stay for supper, as we were having chicken.    There is no way that chicken would get thawed, though.  

We still have Jeremiah, and he is such a sweetie!! We have been having so much fun with him!!  He is walking all over the place, and is getting inquisitive, checking out all the rooms in the house, and my cupboards.  :)  Love that!!

Time for an update.

Well, here we are, into the new year, already.  Where does the time go??

My poor dad has been having back/hip problems (he thinks it is sciatica).  He is really in a lot of pain. Then, we got more snow.  As if we needed more, ha!  We had a snow storm in early December and got 2 feet of snow, or thereabouts.  Today, we got another 3-4 inches.  My dear husband went over to my parents house, and snowblowed for them.  Then, Mom asked us to come over for supper.

We had a wonderful dinner at my parents house!!  We had a meal in the pressure cooker, and it was so good--had pork chops, that were so tender and tasty, with gravy and peaches and I'm not sure what all else was in there, and we put that all over rice or noodles.  YUM!!  Brownies for dessert.  (she caters to my children--she is so sweet)  While we were there, Siah & Sarah dropped off Jeremiah, as they were going out to eat with Josh & Brittany.  I begged them to let me keep Jeremiah overnight.  He is so much fun, and so easy to take care of!!!  I was going to watch Jeremiah tomorrow, anyway, as Sarah has a prenatal visit in town.  This just works out so nice.

Sometime this month, I should be a grandma, again!  Sarah is due on January 23rd.  Should be a girl, whom they are naming Claire.

I had a wonderful Christmas, did you??  I got some very nice presents, as everyone overly blessed me.  I got some of my favorite perfume, a new crock pot--of which I am so excited!!  After cooking, it turns to warm!!  My old crock pot was cooking things too fast, and when we would be out and about, we would come home to a nice crispy meal, rather charred.  :p   I wish the Christmas break could have lasted longer, however.

Ben graduates in just a couple of weeks!!  We are so excited for him, and we are looking for a motel, as we need to be down there for a couple of days--February 4th & 5th.  We will have to see what the Lord has in store for him.

Well, my brain has turned to mush.  I am so tired.  So, I will close off, as I think I am just rambling.  :)

My how time flies!

I had a title for this post, but when I went to post on it, a while back, it wouldn't let me.  :)  So, here it is working, today.

I think we were having router troubles, and not even knowing it!  My hubby tried to get the Wii to update, but it wouldn't work.  So, he called Nintendo, and almost 2 hours later, it still wouldn't work! They suggested it was the internet, and to take it to someone's house who didn't have our internet provider.  He then called our internet provider, and they claimed it wasn't them.  Took the Wii to my parents house, and the updates worked!  Came home, and it still wouldn't work here.  Called the internet provider again, this time they said it must be the router.  Got a new router, and it is working great!!  I can even upload a video clip to my Facebook page, rather quickly!  Before--it would take all night, or many hours--for a 30 second clip!!!  I don't remember what all else we noticed that since we got the new router, it works!

Why is it, when a product says it installs easy--it usually doesn't??  It took us a bit to get the new router up and running, but now it works very nicely!

Becca flew out to Chicago on October 23rd, for a Journey to the Heart.  This was her first time flying!  She will fly back on this Tuesday.  Can you believe I got round trip tickets cheaper than I could have driven her back and forth 2 times??  Especially when you count in the gas and food money.  Not to mention my sanity!!!  I asked her if she would like to fly, and she said that was a nightmare for her!  She said she thought planes went down a lot, we did have a nice chat about that.  Then, I told her that she would be way safer in a plane on the return trip, because otherwise, it would be me driving through Chicago to pick her up!  (my hubby works the polls that day)  She wanted to fly, after she found that out--ha ha!

Let's see if I can run through some of my last week--aside from school every day, we also added in a surprise birthday party for our oldest son, Joshua.  Can you believe he is 27????  Someone in the church reminds us--that in 3 years--Josh will be the age we were when we moved here.  Wow!

Tuesday night, we went out to eat with a couple from the church.  I guess my hubby had said we would take them out to eat, and quite some time had passed.  We went to A & W, and it was ok.  I should have gotten a hamburger, instead of the broasted chicken.

Thursday, we went to my parents house at noon, for a meal.  She is so sweet to cook for all of us.

Friday night, I had my parents over to our house for a belated birthday meal.  I had wanted to do it on Mom's birthday, but Dad took Mom out for the day.  This worked out really nice, as she got 2 days of celebrating--well, maybe a day and a half.  I made chicken roll ups, homemade croissants, mashed potatoes, gravy, parsleyed carrots, and cherry cake.  Afterward, we played Mexican Train.

I have gotten all my windows, inside and out, washed.  Then, it rained.  And did we have a wind storm!!  They say that if we were living in hurricane country, it would have been a class 3 storm!  I did rewash my living room area windows, inside and out.  I can't believe how bad the rain streaked them.

Well, I guess I should close this off.  Thanks for listening!

The count continues. . .

I have 2 teens in braces, as of today.  Becca has had braces only on the bottom teeth, she wears the palate adjuster on the top, to stretch out the mouth, before they can put the braces on the top.  We took Dan in today, just expecting they would do the preliminary work.  He came home with the braces on all his teeth (he has more room in his mouth than Becca does).  We were shocked they did it all today.  His mouth is a bit sore.  He has a cool neon green on his, and Becca has pink.

3 is the number of bee stings I have gotten so far this summer.  Almost had a bunch more today.  Jon & I went to get some stuff out of an old van.  When he slid the van door open, we found out that some paper wasps had built their nest on the sliding door.  They came out hopping mad and buzzing all around.  I was so glad I didn't take Matthew with, as he was begging to go.  Jon and I stayed real still, and they buzzed around, and then left.  I was worried about closing the door again, but Jon got it done, and we took off out of there!  So, how did I get the 3 stings?  Well, the first 2 happened at one time--I was testing the pool, and putting chemicals in.  I wasn't looking down, and the bee got between my foot and the sandal, and when I walked, it stung--twice.   I can understand that one.  It's the 3rd one that has me confused.  We were laying on some recliners in the pool one day.  All of a sudden, I got stung on the inside arch of my foot.  Not sure if I subconsciously felt it on my foot, and jumped, or used the other foot to brush it off.  Still kind of fuzzy.  All I know is, it hurt!!  And I sat up quickly, which made my float kind of sink.  I was screaming, and Rick & Dan were laughing--thinking that my float got a hole, and I was just sinking, as they didn't know I had been stung.

Well, enough counting for today.  I need to go to bed.  OK.  One more count--25--that is the minutes it is past my bedtime. 

Oh, and 1 cute thing.  I couldn't resist another count!  Matthew was singing the "Countdown Song" for children.  You know the old time one "Somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place".  Except, Matthew sings it "God has repaired a place."  Ha, ha

Good night!

99 cents a pound is not a good deal for grapes!

. . .Especially when you get the whole big bunch home, and find out they are horribly SOUR!!!!  Major pucker power!!  I have seen people eat a grape in the store, and always thought it would be stealing. Is eating 1 grape stealing, or not??  I surely don't like getting 5 pounds of sour grapes home!!!  I think I will freeze them, and then sugar them.  Otherwise, what do you do with them??

I've been cleaning like crazy today.  So, I thought I would sit down and give myself some reward time on the computer.  Yeah!

Jon's car did break down. I guess it was the head gasket--major expense.  So, he ended up buying another car really cheap.  Sold the old car to the mechanic for a couple hundred.  2 days later, the newer car died!!  Seriously!  I guess it was an air filter needed to be changed, and it needed a tune up, and fuel filter.  Running fine now, but he might need the fuel pump changed.

Well, I need to get back to work.

Counts

It seems to me I had a whole list of things I had been counting.  Right now, I can only think of a couple.  The buds on my fabulous rose bush!!  I had 87 roses on that bush, for the first flowering of this year.  Then, it went dormant for a bit, and now it is loaded again (I haven't counted them as of yet).

3 days until the dog gets fixed!!  No more heat cycles for her, or stressing for me!

7 days till our school year starts.  I am not ready!

A whole bunch of gallons of water that Sam has drank from the pool (I can't count those gallons!)  Sam has learned a bit how to swim.  This coming from the guy who can't stand to have water on his hair or face whilst taking a bath.  He loves to dunk himself in the pool!!  I'm so amazed at how much he enjoyed the pool.  Normally, when we go to a motel, he freaks out in the pool area, and I have to have him double protected (floatie swim suit, and an inflatable bucket seat).

Many laughs with Sam.  He learned how to pedal a bike!  He is also pretty good at riding the scooter, until he took the spill on the road, and scraped his face, both elbows, and both knees.  That's not the funny part--what is funny, is still wanting sympathy over the boo boos (still, even though you can't see them any more).  Also, last week, he was helping me remove the husks from some corn.  He was so patient, and at long last, got it down to the corn, to which he replied, "MOM!!!  It corn!!!"  I'm not sure what he thought he was doing, as I had a whole pile of corn on the cob between him & myself!  He did 3 ears for me--I'll take the help!!

After that, he looked over at the dog, who was panting very heavily.  If you are unfamiliar with a child with Down's, you might not know that there is a lot of work involved in training them to keep their oversized tongue in their mouth.  I used to have to push his tongue in his mouth, and remind him (Sam, put your tongue in your mouth).  Now, I don't have to push the tongue in his mouth, just give him a gentle reminder (Sam-tongue).  He is getting really good about it, now, and only does it when he is concentrating very hard at something.  Back to the dog.  So, she is there panting, and her tongue is hanging wayyyy down!  Sam goes over to her, and shoves that big, long tongue, back into her mouth!  It worked for a few seconds, and it was back out, to which, he patiently pushed it all back in.  :D  Love his patience and persistence! 

We've had some tough times recently, and sure do appreciate the prayers, and emails we have received.  Still not through the woods.  When I'm counting my blessings, you are on my list!

Ouch, a sunburn hurts!

Well, I spent way too much time in the pool yesterday, and I am now paying for it.  :-(   It was very relaxing, though!!


We have been having VBS this week.  Instead of doing arts/crafts, we do sports.  The children have a choice between flag football, or soccer for the 4 to 11 year olds, and volleyball for the 12 on up range.  It has been a nasty week, weather wise.  God-wise---it has been great!!!  I think every night, we have had conversions from non-churched kids!!  We now have 50 kids registered, and they are such a great group!!  We go from 6 to 9 every night.  My hopes were to get the kids checked in, and then come home.  Those were my hopes--reality is, I register them, and then head to the kitchen to get the water and gatorade, and snacks prepared.  But, last night, I was able to leave at 7:30.  I came home, and hopped in the pool--it was so relaxing!!!  Ah!  My fabulous neighbor has been helping me out this week, as well, and she came over, and joined me in the pool, as it was so hot and humid. 

When I got back inside, I found my hubby had called, they were all trying to find the take home papers!  I guess everything went awry (I must hold it all together, huh??).  I texted dh, and told him that I left the papers with the rally leader.  They did finally find the papers, AFTER all the children left. 

Tonight, I will have to stay the whole time, and wear many hats in doing so--registration lady, snack lady, photographer, and nurse, to name a few. 

Our dog is great.  All she does is lay there, and she loves to be petted.  2 days after we got her, she went into heat.  :-(  SERIOUSLY??????   I was so upset, as I was going to have her fixed right away.  So, now we wait.

I am trying a new recipe tonight.  It is called "Crock Pot Gyros".  We love Gyros!!  Hope it tastes good!!

Jon's car has broke down (we think it is serious), and my hubby had to run him into work yesterday and today.  We are still waiting on a verdict on his car.

That's all the news for now.