50 Things

I have seen this done on other blogs and thought it might be fun. I wanted to share 50 things about myself that you may or may not know. Kind of a “get to know me” sort of deal. Sorry if this gets too lengthy!! And if you want to know more just leave me a comment and maybe I can add to the list!! Enjoy!

1) I am 34 years old – will be 35 in January.
2) My hair is permed, but after 3 kids I now also have some natural curl in there too.
3) I have always been jealous of people that have long, beautiful, straight hair. Mine has always been frizzy at the ends and doesn’t look nice straight.
4) I would love to get Lasik surgery done.
5) I am obsessed with my teeth, always worried there might be something in them so I am always checking them in a mirror.
6) The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is brush my teeth. And then before I leave for work I brush them again.
7) We have 2 cats and a dog. I thought that I was a “pet” person but I have come to realize that for me the idea of being a pet person is way better than the reality of being a pet person.
8) When our cats vomit on our carpet I secretly want to throw them outside and see if they “runaway”. But the thought usually makes me feel pretty guilty.
9) I love to read but I always seem to start a book and then have a hard time finishing it.
10) When I do find a rare moment to read I tend to read every 4th word. I am a skimmer and often find if I reread something that there is something that I have missed.
11) I LOVE doing craft projects. I have a craft closet in my house that is stuffed full of crafty things. Problem is I often start something and then don’t finish it.
12) One of my character defects is starting something and then not finishing it!
13) I would love to learn how to sew, quilt specifically. But I am afraid that I will learn, start something and then not finish it and I don’t have another closet to spare for storage.
14) When I was younger I wanted so badly to be a professional ice skater. My friend Renee was really good, got to take lessons etc. and I thought it was such a beautiful sport. But I wasn’t athletic or graceful enough for a sport like that!
15) I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. My brother Mark taught himself how to play and didn’t even know how to read music. I would love to be talented like that.
16) If I ever learned how to play the guitar I would want to learn “church camp” songs. When I went to camp I always thought it would be awesome to be that person up front leading the music.
17) I took piano lessons until I was 8 or 9. I begged my parents to quit. My piano teacher had lost her husband and she would tell me that he was on a long bus trip in the sky. It creeped me out and I didn’t want to be alone with her. Besides my love of “quitting” was already quite developed and practicing was just no fun.
18) I am now living out my desires to be a talented musician vicariously though my oldest son Isaac. His piano teacher says he has more talent in his little finger than most do in their whole body. I encourage him NOT to quit.
19) I am jealous of women that say they are planning when they will get pregnant next and then make it happen. Getting pregnant with Gabriel and Elijah wasn’t “easy” and I always thought it would have been nice to “plan” it.
20) I don’t think I am done having kids yet. Maybe it is lack of sleep, or hormones from nursing but I already want to be pregnant again. It isn’t a good time really financially but my heart’s desire is to have a daughter.
21) If we do ever get pregnant again and have a daughter I want to name her after my best friend Karlena. She is an amazing example of faith and it would be such an honor to raise a daughter teaching her about who her namesake is.
22) I am blessed with a good job. I like what I do and who I work with. But if we could afford it I would stay home. I get so much enjoyment out of helping at the school or having lunch with Gabriel or having nice meals ready for dinner and I wish that I could do those things every day.
23) I am jealous of moms that get to stay home and be available for their family in that way.
24) I am often envious of people that don’t live paycheck to paycheck. We are definitely responsible for any debt we have and are working to be debt free some day but it seems that often others have an easier time at it than we do.
25) Jealousy/Envy is another one of my character defects. I often pray that God will help me be content where I am, not seeking after where I think I should be.
26) My natural tendency is to point out the negative in situations. I am working hard to combat this and with God’s help I am seeing life in the positive now much more often.
27) I accepted Christ as my personal Savior when I was really young at a Christian Women’s Club brunch I went to with my mom.
28) I reaccepted Christ every time that we went to these meetings. At the time I was looking for some “big change” and when I still was my regular self I thought that I didn’t do it right so I kept trying over and over hoping that someday I would “get it”.
29) 3 years ago I began a journey of developing a real relationship with God – one in which I am seeking His will for my life and trying to walk with Him daily.
30) I say that I am seeking God’s will for my life but I secretly hope that path doesn’t take me somewhere uncomfortable.
31) I often stretch myself too thin. I don’t like to say no to people and I want to be involved and helpful, but it often leaves me feeling worn out. I need to get a better handle on my priorities.
32) I love to sing. If I am alone in my car you would find me with the radio turned up and me singing along.
33) I only listen to Christian radio. The songs speak to me. I find such joy in worshipping through music.
34) I secretly wish that I had an amazing voice. I would love to be able to belt out a song like some of those musicians do. I do sing in church on occasion but it terrifies me.
35) I don’t read my Bible like I should.
36) I am addicted to HGTV and the Food Network. My favorite shows are the Cake Challenge competitions and the “Designed to Sell” shows.
37) I sing silly songs to Elijah to make him laugh. I have one that I made up that was to help him hear and identify his own name. It goes like this: “Elijah, Elijah you’re my baby, you’re Elijah”. Gabriel and Isaac think it is funny and now they sing it too!
38) I also sing “You are my Sunshine” and “I am Waiting” to him. I LOVE that it makes him smile.
39) When I eat M&M’s or Skittles I group them together in a color pattern and then eat them. I sometimes make then into shapes first and then eat them in a specific pattern.
40) I am absolutely Type A.
41) I have a routine in the morning and I always do the same thing every day.
42) I have a short temper. My temper is DEFINITLY another one of my character defects. I often have to apologize for getting angry about something that wasn’t really “worth” getting angry about.
43) I love to take pictures and would like to someday take a class and learn how to take better pictures.
44) I think that being a photographer professionally would be so fulfilling. Maybe someday when we are independently wealthy! Ha ha
45) I went on a mission trip to Jamaica when I was a freshman in college. It was an amazing experience. I hope that someday I can do something like that again.
46) I don’t spend enough time telling/showing Dominic how much he means to me. He is my best friend and I often take him for granted.
47) I love to blog. I used to journal but - yes you guessed it – I quit that. But something about an “online” journal has been easier for me to keep up with.
48) I have different ideas every day about things I would like to blog about but in reality I probably blog about 1 out of every 10 ideas.
49) I know that with God’s help I can do all things but I am often scared about what I can handle. I put the emphasis on me and often forget about the “He” in those situations.
50) It is my heart’s desire to be an example of Christ in everything that I do. I usually fail miserably but I am not willing to give up on the thought!

A full day

What were you doing at 7am this Saturday morning? Gabriel and I were indulging our blue cravings by making blue cupcakes with blue frosting and blue sprinkles!!

Ever since my friend Amanda introduced me to the wonderful world of food coloring I have been going nuts! So this morning we decided to make some special treats in Gabriel's favorite color! He even went as far as to tell me that we had to pretend it was his birthday again and made me call him "Birthday Boy"!

Later this morning we took a short trip across the "border" into Iowa where we went to order a passport for Isaac. He will be going with his grandpa on a mission trip to Hayti in late December and we needed to get that ordered so it will be here in time. I am really excited about this trip and hope that it is an eye opening and heart changing trip. We have so many things to be grateful for here that we take for granted and I am hoping that helping others and being of service might really have an impact on him.

After that Dominic and I spent a couple of hours in our yard bagging up what turned out to be a very large amount of leaves. 7 - 55 gallon bags full! It was a big job but it was a beautiful day to be outside doing yard work.

Once that job was complete, I cleaned myself up and went to meet my mom to go to a Holiday Open House where a woman from our church was selling her homemade craft goods. We both found a couple of things and it put me in a pre-holiday spirit!

While I was gone Dominic worked on putting Christmas lights up on our deck and for the 1st time in several years won't have to be out in freezing cold temps to get our house decorated! YEAH!

Now after we have all been fed, we are going to watch a movie together called 'Aliens in the Attic". I hope that your day has been full too. Full of love, laughter and lots of time with your family! Blessings dear friends!

This and That...

I wanted to share a couple of photos that I took yesterday. Let's face it -Elijah is SO BIG. And by big I mean he is one fat baby!! :) He barely fits in his Bumbo chair because his thighs are so fat. He is working on his third chin as we speak and is sporting what we lovingly refer to as his "Trump" do. The hair on both sides of his head have all but worn off but he has this bunch of long hair in the top middle of his head that is growing longer with each day. He looks a little dazed in this photo but I think he was trying to figure out why his mom and dad were laughing so hard when we were taking his pictures. Thankfully though he is the only healthy boy in our household so maybe all that "fat" is working to his advantage!

Confession: I am addicted to sweets. Seriously this is no laughing matter. You will often find me with several rolls of Smarties in my pocket. You know those little rolls of candy that we ate when we were young?? I can't seem to get enough of the sweet stuff. Yesterday when I stayed home with the boys I had a craving for something sweet and for baking so I made this "Afternoon Delight Peanut Butter Pie". It is SOOOO good. If you have ever had the peanut butter pie from Perkins you will LOVE this pie. And it is so easy to make. I felt like I was doing some "Semi-Homemade Cooking" like Sandra Lee from the Food Network yesterday.



In an effort to also feed the family (since sharing my pie was most certainly out of the question) I decided to try something that I had never made before. (Amanda I am going to try that chicken casserole soon - yum!) I had heard of someone else trying this spaghetti casserole and found a recipe online and decided to try it. Overall it was pretty good. It turns out a lot like a lasagna and the recipe says it makes enough for 8 - I think this pan could have served many more than that!

The only thing I would change with the recipe is to use a few less noodles. Once it baked up it wasn't quite as "saucy" as I would have liked. But overall it was fun to try something new that everyone in my family could enjoy!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Happy Halloween

• I wanted to share a couple of pictures. Gabriel - as in several years past - dressed up as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. He was so excited to go trick-or-treating but the poor thing has been sick since early Friday morning. All signs and symptoms are pointing to H1N1. We aren't taking him in to the doctor to know for sure as really there is nothing they can do for him. So we are keeping an eye on him and working to keep his fever at bay. He felt much better this afternoon and we thought letting him get a little fresh air would probably be ok. So we got all dressed up and basically went down 1 side of 1 block and he was done. He was at home out of the costume and asleep in the recliner by 7:30 and we didn't go out until sometime after 7pm. But as we went home Gabriel told me that this was "the best trick-or-treating ever"!
  

• I found this cosutme for Elijah at a garage sale for cheap - less than $5. And it is warm and soft and most likely will fit him again next year. It is a 12-24mo outfit and was a bit big on him. But I had to try it on even though he wasn't out hunting for treats and took a few pictures of how cute he looked!!
  

• The last picture was taken last Saturday when Dominic and I went to a little Halloween event where we each had an opportunity to share about how God has moved in big ways in our lives/marriage. It was fun and the best part was making Dominic's costume together. His whole costume was made from scratch. If you can believe it the breastplate, leg guards and skirting deal that he is wearing is an old rug covered with a fake leather material! Dominic had the idea and we spent several hours together making it. The white "tunic" was sewn by Dominic's mom out of some fabric I found at Saver's for $2.99 and the burgandy sash was 2 silky pillowcases I also got at Saver's for $0.99 each! He made the arm bands out of an old ice cream bucket and covered them with the same fake leather. The amount of time we put into it is really pretty sick but it was good bonding for us so it was worth it!

Kids Against Hunger

I have to share how proud I am of my dad. I blogged before about the Kids Against Hunger packaging site that he worked so hard to start here in Sioux Falls. So far he has been very successful at getting it off the ground and people from all over are coming forward interested in packings!

Recently he did a packing with some University of Sioux Falls students and both Keloland news and the Argus Leader came out to do news stories. I wanted to share the links to those stories and incourage you to read about the impact that my dad, along with many willing volunteers are having on starving kids locally and worldwide.

Just click on Keloland and Argus Leader above and it will take you right to the stories!! Dad my desire is that one day I can make an impact like you are on the world around me!

Preview....

Last weekend a very talented friend from church, Anna, met us and took our family pictures. She gave us a CD of her work and I have to say it is AMAZING. I can't share everything because I still haven't decided what we will send out in our Christmas cards but I wanted to give you a little preview! Enjoy!!

What is it??

Any guesses what this might be in the picture?? If you guessed pancakes you are right. But theses are no ordinary pancakes. Tonight was "red" pancake night!!

Now I have to admit this is not an original idea. My friend Amanda gave me the idea. Check out her blog and see all the amazing cooking creations that she comes up with.

A few days ago she posted pictures of her rainbow pancakes and I knew that my boys would enjoy that. We made blue - Gabriel's favorite color - first. Tonight was red and we decided that green is next. Maybe we will go crazy and do all the colors on a Saturday morning!!

And I know it sounds crazy...but tonight the red pancakes tasted better than the "regular" ones usually do! So go check out some of Amanda's tasty treats and be inspired!! :)