Sunday morning

I'm not dressed.

Mason spit up on Damen's Sunday clothes

Mason spit up on his Sunday clothes

Dustin's still in the shower

I'm dressed

Damen and Mason are dressed again

Running a comb through Damen's hair and find

Toothpaste

Hair is clean

Everyone's dressed

Boys in the car

I spill half a box of Junior Mints on the kitchen floor

The End

Baby at 3

Months that is, he's ONLY three months old

I didn't like the first set of pictures above, so I took the one below on a different day.  

18lbs 25in long

Yes, he's really that big!

 I 

Oh and so dang cute!!

Gossip

I never used to give much thought to what I said.  I like to talk, if you've ever had me on the phone you know, I can go on for HOURS!  And who doesn't love to hear a bit of gossip?  A juicy tidbit about someone or some situation?  Usually sharing those little "bits" weren't hurting anyone, no big deal.

 Until one day.  

One day I repeated something I'd heard about a friend to someone else.  It didn't hit me right away, I kind of had to hear myself saying it over and over in my head, it just kept bothering me.  

Then it hit me. 

I'd repeated something that brought into question my friends religious loyalty.  This was a judgement that someone had made, and by my repeating it, I had made too.  

I was horrified at what I'd said, it was terrible.  It ate at me for a while until my conscious couldn't stand it anymore.  I humbly ran to my friends house to apologize.  Running because if I didn't do it right then I might have chickened out.  She would never have known what I'd done, it may never have gotten back to her.  But then again, it might have.  I have never felt so low and awful about myself before.
That experience more than anything I've heard or read, really changed how I view gossip and the lives it effects.
This is a fault that I despise about myself, but change is possible, I know.  I'm not perfect, I still love to talk and often share stories, this is something I'll always have to work on.  But I try to keep it to things I know are not hurtful, are true, and if not then I recall how I felt when I shared that awful comment.  Not repeating gossip isn't always easy.

Recently a close family member has become the subject of hurtful and false gossip.  It's heart breaking watching them hold their head up high trying to rise above it.  I wish that somewhere out there is someone that cares enough to NOT repeat the things they've heard.

Making a conscious effort to share or not share something you've overheard could be of no consequence to anyone but yourself, but even that is enough to think before you speak.

2012

Ahh, another year GONE!  

Last year seemed at times to be trudging along so slow, and other months (like November) I can't seem to recall at all!  

Last year we discovered that with the right doctor I CAN get pregnant with out harsh, mood altering drugs.  We discovered that pregnancy just at the end of January.  

Some of the months that followed were LOONNNGGGG, or so it seemed.

August was exciting, school started for Damen, thankfully he loves it so much!

September was one of those months that took forever!  My parents left to teach english in China that month too:(  Miss them!

Then came October.  

I can't remember much since then, I blame lack of sleep:)

January 1st, 2012 we got to bless this little joy in church.  It was a fantastic way to spend the first day of the new year, with family, loved ones, and a special blessing pronounced on our new baby.

May the rest of the year prove just as fantastic!

And if not, I'll have a great memory of the first day anyway:)

Christmas 2011

We stayed home for Christmas and had ourselves a very special day.  We got up with Damen at 6am and opened stockings.  Then Dustin and I made a wonderful breakfast with my new-found-it-in-the-cupboard bunt cake pan.  Monkey bread and for good measure, eggs and bacon too.  Damen wanted nothing to do with the monkey bread, he was missing out!
After breakfast Mason woke up, we all got ready and headed off to church.  When we got home we all changed into Open presents clothes and got to work!!
Legos were the hit of the day, Damen got a ton and we put things together the rest of the day.
For dinner I made steak, salad, green beans and potatoes, it was SO good!

We really enjoyed waiting to open presents and being able to go to church made the day so much more special.

We're thinking next year might be a little bit more chaotic with a toddler running around!

Umm food?

Do you make stuff up?  

Do you look in your cupboard and fridge, see what you have and then make a meal from it?

Or do you plan your meals, buy those foods you need and make a meal?

I'm a "make it up as I go along" kind of gal and that goes for food too.  I never thought this was unique, or strange until last week.  We had some missionaries from our church over for dinner.  Now, these are young men (19-22) and they tend to eat anything.  I made a dinner that we call Chicken Wraps.  They kept asking over and over what it was, what it was called, what was in it.  When I told them I made it up and the ingredients change every time, they acted SO surprised.  They ate it up, and it's one of our families favorites, but it got me thinking.
Last night I opened the fridge and took three different leftovers out, made a casserole and a salad and called it good.  It turned out better than I expected.
Sometimes it's a happy surprise how these meals turn out and sometimes we decide never to try it again.  The apple pork chops I made twice, it just wasn't meant to be.
I love cooking this way, making and inventing, creating.  I also like to try new things and will use a recipe from a magazine or online.  We have tried and true recipes that we love also, but most nights I'm just winging it.

So, I'm curious how do you do food?  Is my way common or do most people go by a recipe and standard ingredients every night?

It typing this I realize, this is how I craft and sew too, just kind of make it up as I go along, sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not!

If you want to know, my chicken wraps consist of raw cut up veggies (carrots/cucumbers/tomatoes/celery/onion whatever we have), a grilled chicken breast or two chopped up and mixed with greek yogurt, sour cream and a dry ranch dip mix.  All of this gets wrapped up burrito style in a flour tortilla.  Oh and maybe cubed cheese too!
The casserole last night consisted of leftover rice and chicken, a chicken thigh cooked and cut up(left over from another meal), and fried green beans cut up.  Mixed together with a can of cream o/chicken soup and topped with grated cheese. Mmmm, it was so creamy good!
I have no measurements, just make it to taste or what will fit in the pan.

Treats!

Holy cow I've been busy in the kitchen!!  It started Sunday with a trial batch of these http://gallamorewest.blogspot.com/2011/12/easiest-christmas-toffee.html  

They are ridiculously easy and SO good I had to make another batch on Monday!  I also made up two bags of "chocolate popcorn" which is popcorn with melted white chocolate poured over and mixed in.  Then I got a hankering for my favorite popcorn additive, hot tamales!  I decided to try something new, I melted down about half a cup of red hots:

 poured them over one bag of popcorn, then quickly spread it out over a paper bag so it wouldn't become one giant blob.  YUM, seriously.

 Today at Winco I saw these Jumbo Peppermint marshmallows and decided to try them out in rice crispy treats.  Also, YUM.  

There is a lot of giving of treats, but still, I'm not sure when I'll be off this sugar high!!