Shake shake shake...

Mk is getting older and with that comes changes.   She no longer thinks everything I say or do is cute or funny...she is starting to be...wait for it...EMBARRASSED!   Which is fun...don't get me wrong...I don't want to ever humiliate my child...however a little embarassment over mom acting silly in public....sign me up!  I am pretty silly anyways.  So last week after ballet we went by starbucks before we headed home from Abilene.    Whole I was waiting for my coffee mk was shaking up her milk...so I started singing "shake it up baby now...shake it up baby...twist and shout..."  she quickly shushed me.  I said "what...am I embarassing you?"  She said "no...but someone might hear you!"  Of course....I continued and did it again this week!  I love her so much and I love having fun with her!  She is growing up too fast!  In this pic she is trying to cover my mouth as I was singing :)

T-ball (some pics)

Here's a couple pics of our little t-ball player befoee her first game.  It was so fun and so cute.   I will post more pics of the game later...just wanted to feed you need for uber cuteness!  

My new favorite product

So in the midst of Mk having the tummy bug and a 102* fever Bria had a bloody nose in her sleep last night.   She woke up ans Mike went in to her but she didn't realize what was going on amd just said she needed a hug.  Well she is on the top bunk and it was dark she she leaned over and got a hug and mike bever realized her nose was bloody.  This morning when Bria got up mk freaked out when she saw all the dried blood on B's face.  That's when we found it...dried blood on her sheets and pillow and pajamas...great...blood does not usually come out easily especially if it is dried. 

So I decided to pour some clorox 2 on it and see what it could do.  I figured it would be a long process of washing them several times trying several different theories.  To my surprise, as soon as I poured it on the blood it started to foam up everywhere the blood was.   I washed everything in hot water and to my utter shock IT ALL CAME OUT!!! 

I told Mike tonight that I will always ALWAYS keep a bottle of this stuff around for this type of situation.   I am sold! 

A sick kid and a steak

Last Thursday Mary Kate stayed home from school sick.  She had a cold...its been going around.  As per usual, by the evening it was bothering her asthma as well.  She is better now, but we took last Thursday to get some rest and recover.  She wanted Dora chicken soup for dinner but requested it in a bread bowl, so i obliged.  If there is something I CAN do to help her feel better, you can bet I will!

Mike had a Pastor's Luncheon in Abilene that day so I had him pick up some steak and sparkling cider and we had a date night in...I mean not that I have anything against dora soup...but yeah...this was better.  If you have never done a date night in you should.  Put the kids to bed a little early.  Make a nice dinner.  Light some candles.  Enjoy.  If you think about it, even if you get nice steaks (the hubs got ribeyes from sams for about $15) you are spending less than you would at a restaurant and saving on gas and a babysitter!  What could easily be a $100 dollar date night when all is said and done is now a $20 date night...thats how we roll!  I also made a salad, some broccoli and some cheesy potatoes to go with it!  It was delicious and so nice to get some quality time together!

Before we ate, Mike was trying to open the sparkling apple grape juice.  Now you know you are a pastor when you have NOTHING to open a bottle with!  So what do you think He did...

First he tried the ...well...as I am writing this I realize I don't know what they are called save for the characters on Handy Manny...well whatever Squeeze is that is what he used...pliers maybe?  I don't know...Im a girl...LOL!

Anyways, that wasn't working so we move to below where he used the needle-nose pliers to slowly and methodically pry the lid away from the bottle.

I love the look on his face...so intent!  I am so blessed to have this man as my husband!  

When life gives you...

A couple weeks ago the church decided to pull up s bunch of trees by our house.  Since we haven't had rain until this week there was a fire ban.  This morning they decided to burn the pile of trees.  Bria said it was "funner than the bomb fire" from homecoming.  The pile was still smoldering this evening when I took mk to softball practice and so I decided to get stuff for s'mores.  And since dinner was still about 30 min away, we had dessert first...I guess when life gives you a campfire. ..make s'mores!  Or something like that!

Thoughts on running...

I have always hated running.   I have never been a runner.  But I went running 3 times this last week.  Something has come over me....part of it is my daughter mk...she wants to do a triathalon and wants to run.   I want running to be something we can do together.   I want to set a good example for her.  The other part of it is my new years resolution...I resolved to lose 60 pounds this year.   Thats not going to happen without a little sweat!  So running...here are some thoughts so far:

1) I still don't love it...yet...but I am startimg to notice a desire to run...I am already planning out when to go next and how to work it into my schedule...that is a HUGE step for me.

2) Considering I haven't done any regular exercise routine in a long time...I feel pretty good.  I am running just under a mile each time...part run part walk...I am gettimg faster each run and pushing myself to run more each time.  I am good sore.  I can still move.  But I feel like I have worked out.  And it feels good.

3) I am not sure how I feel about trail running.  That's what we have out here...completely unpaved dirt/gravel road.  I don't hate it...in some ways I love it...I feel like I am just running down the road and all of a sudden I have gone a mile...its more scenic...its less monotonous than a treadmill or track.  I like that.  But I am not sure how I feel about running on uneven ground...it has caused some pain in my hips...nothing too bad but it is uncomfortable.  I also have had to switch to my old running shoes because my new ones are very smooth bottomed more suited to pavement or tradmill where my old ones are trail runners.  Much more comfortable than my new ones even though they are old and more worn out.  I will need to get new trail shoes sooner than layer. 

4) my hope/plan is to work up from a mile to a 5k.  I have a tenative plan to run a 5k down in Austin near my sister in september.  I like having something to work toward.   My hope/goal is to ru n the whole thing...no walking.  We shall see. 
Here are two pics.   The second is a pic of what I have been eating for lunch most days.  I am trying to incorporate a low calorie diet along with the exercise.  The first pic is from my front door...this is where I get to run.   If you look to the right I run down to the last telephone pole and then back.  Its about a mile.

Week in photos

Oh, this week was so busy!  I started the week by writing out a to do list...with a pen and paper...something about the satisfaction of checking things off the list is so nice!  I was able to get most of it done which was a huge accomplishment.  Monday night I made these...Chicken Pot Pie in puff pastry...the recipe said it was quick and simple...it lied. Making the filling was pretty easy as I have done that before, but trapping it in the pastry dough was another story, and then they are impossible to move once you fill them...at least they were tasty!

Tuesday and Wednesday I started watching baby Emery.  She is the 7 wk old daughter of a friend from church.  I am watching her until the end of the school year.  She is so precious!  Seriously...and Bria adores her and loves helping...as you can see by the joy in her eyes here!

Bria and Mike are in full swing with Tball...no pun intended...He is coaching her team.  She loves to hit the ball but gets bored with fielding and ends up picking flowers instead.  I am told Mike will be doing a guest post regarding his adventures as a tball coach to 4 year olds!  This is her right before practice Monday.

Thursday was Class Picture day....they also take individual pics.  MK wanted her hair curled and it turned out super cute.  I took a picture of her right before she left on the bus assuming that it would not look as pretty after school...you never know!

Much to my surprise...she still looked super cute after a full day of rowdy 2nd grade!  This picture is on our dinner date Thursday night after ballet.  Her hair still looks cute as does her whipped cream mustache from her hot chocolate!

Tonight is a busy night at our house...MK has two of her friends over for a sleep over tonight and we are waiting for my sister and husband and 3 kids to get in from Austin for the weekend.  We made homemade pizza for dinner which is pretty common around our house on Friday night.  I also made this brownie pizza which is just brownie batter and milk chocolate chips on top baked.  We all enjoyed it with some ice cream and toppings...Brownie sundaes, YUM!  

Since we have so many staying over tonight, the sleepover girls are sleeping in the back living room!  We moved the old tv down there and they are getting comfy!

Hold on, wait a minute...

We have been chugging along down here with spring.   It has been nice and warm...mid 70s and 80s.  So much so that I even moved my tomato plants outside!

So along comes this week and it is COLD....Brrr!   I know I have soften up being down in Tx and that a high of 40 isn't really that cold but after being so warm this weekend and most of march...it felt even colder!  So today I decided chicken noodle soup was in order...from scratch ...so good and warm!  And what goes better with soup than a nice fresh bread bowl? 

 Oh it was all sorts of amazing!   I used my normal sourdough bread recipe and just made it into little round loaves instead of long ones.  The kids gobbled it all up which I barely noticed because we were gobbling ours up!  Luckily it will be warmer by the end of the week...60 tomorrow and in the 80s by the weekend.  What could be better?

Guest post: a first!

So yesterday for Easter I told you how My parents came over for lunch.  We love being so close to them so that we can spend holidays and tuesdays and random days together!  Anyways, I always love to have extra people to cook for so It was a win!

On the menu for Easter lunch was: Ribs, broccoli, cheesy mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, and homemade angel food cake with fresh raspberry sauce.  Everything was so amazing!  The ribs were unbelievable!!!   It is my second time making ribs and they turned out GOOOD!

But by far the show stopper was these babies!  And  NO...I didn't make them....My sweet momma did!  

And yes...that is my oldest daughters tongue poking into the picture...she likes deviled eggs!

Now you can see her whole face.  Aren't these little chick deviled eggs cute!  I love them!  And I couldn't just leave y'all hanging without telling you how to make them...BUT...

.....I didn't make them.  So after some begging and pleading I convinced my sweet momma to write a guest post here about her eggs!  I love my mom so much...she really is one of my best friends and I am so grateful to have here in my life and the lives of my girls!  Please enjoy her post and show her some love!

Ok Erin....
channel erin... channel erin.... channel erin....
So the plan was to go to Erins for Easter dinner and I was to make the deviled eggs. Erin is such a good cook and so creative and I did not want my eggs to mess up her meal so I decided to make deviled chick eggs like the ones in a picture Ben had shown me. Then Erin says "Mom write about your eggs and I will put you as a guest on my blog". I am not a blogger, I am doing well to handle texting and using a smart phone! So Erin told me to channel my inner Erin so this is what you get! 
I boiled the eggs like normal and pealed them when done. Instead of cutting them like regular hard boiled eggs I stood them point end up and cut the tops off, removed the yolk to mix up, added just a few drops of yellow food color to make them more yellow, and filled the bottoms. I took a dab of yolk mixture to attach the tops at an angle. Then I took two baby carrots and cut thin slices on the angle and put them in as beaks. I used two cloves and used them as eyes. I put them in a small muffin pan and if I do it again I will use small cupcake liners as well. It was fun and not that hard to do.
So now you know both how to make deviled chick eggs and why I let Erin do the blogging!
unchannel Erin.... unchannel Erin....Unchannel Erin.....

Easter

Happy Resurrection Sunday Late...although I don't think there is such a thing since Jesus is still Risen today! 

This was our first Easter as a Pastor and it was definitely busier.  On Saturday we had a big outreach event.  We had an Egg Hunt for kids.  Being the first year and not knowing what to expect in a small town, we had no idea how many kids would come.  As it turned out, we had 40 kids and their families!!!  We played games, fed them all lunch, and hunted eggs, but before hunting eggs, Mike took the opportunity to share the Easter story with the kids using resurrection eggs.  It is a set of twelve plastic eggs that each has a piece of the Easter story in it (one had coins for Judas betraying Jesus, one had a piece of leather symbolizing the whip Jesus was beaten with, etc.).  The kids loved it and we loved getting the opportunity to share God's love and invite them to church!!  

Easter Sunday was great as well.  We had a good crowd there, Mike preached a great sermon, and the children's choir sang special music!  I have been leading children's choir and it has been so much fun.  They did such a great job!  After church, my parents came out and joined us for lunch and a relaxing Easter afternoon!

We don't do santa or the Easter bunny, we just give our kids gifts.  Instead of doing a bunch of candy we decided to do one gift a piece for the girls.  We must be turning more country because for Easter we got MK a Beebee Gun!  It is a lever action rifle that holds 400 beebees!  I think we might be a little crazy but she LOVES it!

For Bria we got a disney princess razor-type scooter.  She LOVES it both because it is a scooter and because it is princess!  As soon as we gave it to her she started riding it around the house!

After my parents left we found "The Wizard of Oz" on TV and enjoyed some family time cuddling and relaxing or in Mike's case, napping (which I am sure is pretty relaxing)

I had leftover pasta dough from the ravioli that I had frozen, so I took out the pasta dough and let it thaw out.    I used my fettuccine cutter attachment (for the first time) and made pasta for dinner.  It was so good...I may never buy pasta again!

Watch for another post soon about our Easter Lunch including a guest post from a surprise guest!!!