My Mom, the Blogger

My Mom is blogging now! Don't worry, she's not posting her kids' achievements, sporting ventures, or drama. She's blogging about life as a baby boomer. I never thought I would see the day my Mom would be blogging, but she's doing it quite well. Check her out. Her link is on the left of my page "Bytes from a Baby Boomer".

PS She gets really excited about comments so drop her a note and let her know you stopped by.

Diorama

EG was assigned a project in school of designing a diorama. Now, before you jump down and look at the picture I must tell you I am not "one of those moms". I'm not crafty, or artsy, or Hobby Lobbyish. I don't enjoy projects and I think my kids should do the bulk of the work.

That being said, I cheerlead all the way. I give direction and provide supplies and I give lots of moral support.

Now that my disclaimer is out of the way....the first night we worked on the diorama I got this email to my inbox. I think she meant to send it to a friend, but I'm sure glad she accidentally sent it to me.

At arc we do this project where we get to pick a project. I picked the shoe box thing where we decorate the box. It has to be a one room school house. I love it! It's so fun!!!!

I am doing it with my moms help. She's awesome. I might do another one (but smaller) too! Everyone will like it! ARC is so fun! I love it!

As if that wasn't reward enough, here she is with her finished product. Mind you, it's far from perfect. But, to me, the fact that she can take full credit for it makes it an A+!

Life Is Sweet in Sugar Land

This past weekend we went for a quick trip to Sugar Land. It was the first time all of us had gone back together since the move. Our first stop: Lupe Tortilla, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We have MISSED this place!!!

Next we drove by our old house and visited our friends Pam and Tyler. Tyler didn't want me to take a picture, but I tried.

Abby spent 2 nights with her dear friend Megan. Megan's Mom was so sweet to include another friend, Kyla, in the playdates. Abby had such a wonderful time.

Ellie Grace stayed with us at the hotel, but got two very special play dates with Brooke and Sophie.

Hannah stayed with her very best friend, Katherine.

These two were inseparable when we lived here. It just so happens that Katherine's Mom grew up in Tulsa and her parents still live here. It's a lucky coincidence that we get to see them at least once a year! Alice was so sweet and had a cookout/swim party so we were able to see some more people. The kids had a great time.

I hung out mostly with Lazy Mom Leslie,

but we did manage to meet up with some friends for lunch.This is me with my friend, Melanie.

A funny story here. When I was uploading my pictures on my new Apple computer it had me label faces. Those of you with Apples know what I'm talking about. You label people's faces so that you can sort by say, pictures with Hannah or pictures with Abby. Well, it starts to recognize faces and ask you, "is this Hannah?" When I was tagging this picture it asked if Melanie was Hannah. A little while later I went to workout with my trainer. She said she had just seen my pictures on facebook. She said, "there's one picture of you with a girl that looks like she could be your sister." We pulled up the pics and she was referring to Melanie. Too funny!!

I also got to sneak in a lunch with my Aunt Raini and crew. Of course we ate at yet ANOTHER Mexican restaurant. They were afraid I might be getting tired of Mexican food, but seriously??? NO WAY!!!

Spring Fling

One event we look forward to every year at school is the Spring Fling. This year's theme was western. Seeing as how we spent the last two years in Texas we love a good western theme! My girls still had last year's cute rodeo shirts hanging in their closet so we were good to go.

EG's grade did square dancing. It was so precious.

Here she is with some precious friends:

Abby's grade did Miley Cyrus' "Hoedown Throw-down". It was also pretty darn cute!

After the performances we are allowed to go back to the classrooms and see what the kids have been working on. Each year, all the classes publish books that they have been working on. We stopped at EG's class first. Her book was just precious. It was basically filled with short stories, which were all events from her life. She had one page of artwork and one page of writing for each story. Everything she wrote about was just so precious, but I had to show you this one. Remember Unlucky 13? Well, EG hasn't forgotten!

Poor girl! It was such a traumatic day. She remembers it vividly and knows it was the day her daddy almost died.

Abby's class did a poetry book. They had all different poems in there, and she will definitely kill me for this, but I can't resist. Sorry this photo isn't great, and the book is still at school.

The part my camera cut off on line 3 says, "I wish that people would give me food and I would not have to clean my dish." Maybe I'm cracking the whip a little too hard over here??

Ever Wonder What God Is Trying To Teach You??

I do! I definitely think this year my family's health has either been under attack (i.e. Job) or God is trying to teach me something.

This actually started the week of Christmas. I received one of those phone calls that will stop you in your tracks. My mammogram came back abnormal. For some you, this might not be shocking, but we have NO history of breast cancer in my family. None. Zilch. Neither of my sisters or Mom have ever even been called back on a mammogram.

I had an appointment at the hospital the day before Christmas Eve. Not a very fun start to the holiday. After another bad mammogram there, they performed an ultrasound. All I was told was, "looks benign. Come back in 6 months to re-check."

Well, this didn't settle real well with me, my mom, or my doctor. My doctor made me an appointment with a breast surgeon, just to be safe. We were leaving for a ski trip the day after Christmas so the appointment would be when we returned. As much fun as we had on our trip, it seemed as if a big cloud loomed over the week. But, it was finally determined by the breast surgeon to, in fact, be benign. Whew!

The same day I was called about the bad mammogram, I must have been a nervous wreck because I sliced my finger opening a can of soup. Thanks to a good friend for stitching me up. That little finger caused me some havoc for several weeks.

Three weeks ago I woke hope with a horrible case of hives. I mean horrible I'm not going to post a picture of my face, but my lips were swollen, eyelids swollen over, etc. I looked like I had bad plastic surgery. I have never had an allergic reaction to anything! Ever! My friend, Gayle, drove me to the urgent care and I'm so glad she did. They gave me a steroid shot. When I got to the parking lot I started feeling lightheaded and before Gayle could get to me I fainted. Are you believing this story? Crazy! And of course Daniel was out of town. We never really figured out what was causing the hives, but the best guess was an allergic reaction to an antibiotic I was

taking. I probably need to go for allergy testing because every so often, like this morning, they reappear very mildly.

As if all of this isn't enough, I received a phone call from a mom on Hannah's gymnastics team. "Amanda, I don't want to alarm you, but Hannah has fallen. They have her stabilized and I can see that she is wiggling her toes." This is not a phone call any mom wants to receive. Ever! Hannah had fallen on her back. They wanted to call an ambulance, but I knew that would scare her so I raced out to get her. (yep, Daniel out of town for this one too!) Luckily, her x-rays came back perfect. I am so so thankful for that, but a few weeks later and she is still hurting so we are headed to an orthopedist this morning to have her checked out.

And finally, last night at her gymnastics class, Ellie Grace hurt her wrist. Honestly, I almost didn't even take her to the doctor. It was swollen, but she could move it so I didn't think it was broken. (Mother of the year here) But, I decided better safe than sorry, and sure enough, broken wrist. It is so swollen that they were not able to put a hard cast on it yet. Instead she has a soft cast. The doctor asked if I had an orthopedist. Well, conveniently I do and I will be there tomorrow. She sent me with the x-rays and I will talk to him this morning while I am there with Hannah.

Again, I'm not sure if I'm under attack or being pruned for His glory. But, evidently I'm a slow learner! Whether or not this is the point, I have learned not to take good health for granted. I have learned that life can change with one heart stopping phone call. And, I have learned that even though we think we are in control, we really have none.

Gymnastics Regionals

I had a GREAT weekend LAST weekend with Hannah in Fort Worth at her gymnastics regionals. Her big goal for the weekend was to make the Top Ten in at least one event. She has only been to regionals once and the closest she got was number 11. The Top Ten get awards on stage at the end of each session and so this was the ultimate goal.

She brought her friend, Morgan, from school. We had a great weekend. It started with waking up at 3 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding. Oh yes we did!!! And after a 2 hour gymnastics practice you would think we would be ready for a nap, but instead we headed to Six Flags. I was exhausted, but the girls had a great time.

Hannah did great in 2 of her events. In her best event, trampoline, she had a major error at the very end of her routine. We calculated what her score would have been without the deduction, and she would have gotten 3rd place overall. (there were 5 states represented at this meet!) Amazingly, Hannah still got 10th place overall. This tells you how good she is on tramp that she can mess up and still make Top Ten. She was disappointed, but overall very happy with the whole weekend. She not only made the Top Ten in tramp, but in her other 2 events as well. (one 6th place and one 3rd place!)

It was a GREAT weekend!

Mother's Day 2011

This was probably the best Mother's Day I have ever had. It actually started a little earlier in the week when my computer crashed. It was deader than a doornail. I have been wanting to switch over to a Mac so this was the perfect opportunity to do so. After a couple of days of frustration and many, many hours on the computer I am finally up and running!

So, this morning I was blessed to have my little darlings give me multiple cards and pajamas. Pajamas are on of my favorite things, and now that my favorite store Soma has arrived in Tulsa I'm set!

Church was awesome, as always. I think I sometimes take for granted the fact that I am married to a God-fearing man who is willing to make God and church a priority. I am so thankful that I don't have to nag my husband and kids each week to get to church.

lunch out, we headed out for a brand new adventure. We went hiking at Turkey Mountain. For those of you that don't live around here, we are fortunate in Tulsa to have this little hidden treasure in our backyard. For years I have heard seedy rumors about the things that took place at Turkey Mountain, but after reading about my friend Katie's adventures, we decided it was safe. It appears like the parking lots and some of the trails have been redone. There were tons of hikers, families, bikers and picnic-ers. Our kids (and us) had an absolute blast! We hiked 2 miles and could have gone further. This is a must-do for every Tulsan. We will be making a repeat appearance for sure!

As the day comes to an end, I am blessed to be listening to Abby and EG practice their guitars. Sheer joy!

So pretty!

I know I'm biased, but those are some of the prettiest Tulips I have ever seen...and the girls aren't bad either!


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Clean Eating Greek Salad

All I can really say about this is, "YUM!!" I got this recipe out of The Eat Clean Diet Cookbook. I love serving different types of chilled salads in the spring iand summer, and this is a bonus because it's so healthy. If you still haven't bought this cookbook, you need it!!

A Sweet Sight

I was putting laundry away in Ellie Grace's room tonight and this was on her nightstand. Every time I find evidence of my kids reading their Bibles or making their prayer lists I melt. Pretty sure God feels the same way when He sees any of His children doing the same.






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A Star Is Born

After years of living in her big sister's shadow, Abby has finally found her niche. She auditioned for the talent show this year singing "Back To December". Here is the link to watch her performance on You Tube.

She did so great. After a dress rehearsal and 2 performances, she started loving that stage! As luck would have it, our music minister and friend, Jon Ward, coincidentally asked her to sing with him this week at church. She was beyond thrilled. He sang Casting Crown's "Slow Fade" and she had the child's solo at the end.

Her Juju and Paki took her shopping for the occasion. They dressed her from her headband all the way down to her shoes. I told her she should ask to sing more so she could get more clothes. She said they made it clear this was special because it was her first time. Shucks!

Click here to see Abby. She's at the end, but don't skip ahead because Jon is great.

She got to sing in both worship services and really did great. She's got the bug now. She asked me this afternoon if she could start singing in coffee shops and hotels. Um, I think we will stick with church and school for awhile!

Chicken Nacho Cheese Soup

This is another recipe from Amy. We had this quite often when we were first married. And then I started having babies and toddlers and went through that period of life where you can't serve soup for dinner. Remember those years? Toddlers just aren't interested in soup, and if by some chance they were, it would make such a huge mess it wouldn't be worth it.

I resurrected this recipe this winter. Wow! Should have brought it out sooner. It's a huge hit with the kids. I should warn you, though. If you are looking for healthy meals stop reading now. Come back another day. This soup is so good, it's almost like serving queso in a bowl. It's especially good on a cold winter night.

You'll need:

2 quarts water
1 whole chicken or 3 pounds chicken pieces (I use a rotisserie chicken for extra ease)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can fiesta nacho cheese soup
1 can rotel
1 small block of velveeta cheese or 1/2 of the normal size block

Combine all ingredients in large stock pot and heat on stove until cheese is melted and rolling boil is achieved. Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!






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Corn and Rice Casserole

This recipe is from my sister-in-law, Amy. It's an absolute favorite of both of our families. We serve this every Thanksgiving, and it my house it has replaced the cheesy potatoes with the corn flakes. It goes great with most meat dishes: brisket, pork, ribs, and even BBQ chicken.

1 package mahatma saffron rice (cook according to directions)
1 stick butter
2 cans mexicorn-drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup grated cheese

Mix all together. Bake at 350^ for 30 minutes until bubbly.




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Beef...It's What's For Dinner!

I got this recipe from my awesome trainer, Dawn. If you are in the market for a trainer you can find her here. Not only is she the world's best personal trainer, but she is always helping me plan healthier meals for my family.

Here's what you'll need:

3-4 pounds of beef tips (extra lean)
1 large container of beef broth- you know, the really big one
1 onion cut into chunks
1-2 green bell peppers sliced
Garlic salt to taste

1 package whole grain egg noodles

Combine the first 5 ingredients in large baking pan. Cover and cook on 325 for approximately 2 1/2 hours. Check every 30 minutes or so to make sure there is still plenty of broth. Add more as needed.

Cook the noodles and top with beef tips. I served mine with peach slices. This is an absolute favorite of my kids'. The beef cooks so tender. Enjoy!





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Prayers That Avail Much

As adults, we tend to worry about what our prayers sound like. Maybe we don't want to pray in public because we are worried about what other people will think. Some people are "really good pray-ers", whatever that means. Sometimes we worry about what we are praying for. Is it too trivial or little for God? Shouldn't we be praying for world peace instead of good weather for our child's birthday party at the park?

Most of us know, it's ok to pray for these things and we know God doesn't care how they sound, yet we still get wrapped up in the delivery. I believe it's the simplest prayers that touch God's heart the most.

While putting away laundry last night I found this notebook on Abby's bed.

Could this be any more precious? When is the last time you just took your requests, plain and simple, before our Heavenly Father?

Chicken Spaghetti

Here is my recipe for chicken spaghetti that I said beats The Pioneer Womanrecipe. So after you try it, you have to let me know what you think. And you can be honest because I have thick skin. (and a thick belly from all the cheese in this recipe!)



6 large chicken breasts
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 package sliced mushrooms, fresh
1 stick butter
10 ounces spaghetti
1 can (1 lb.) chopped tomatoes
1 can ripe olives
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 lb. Velveta cheese, grated
Salt and pepper
Few dashes worcestershire sauce

Simmer chicken till cooked. Remove chicken and broth. Do not throw broth away. Bone and dice chicken. Measure 1 quart broth back into pan. Melt one stick of butter in skillet and sauté celery, green pepper, onions, garlic, and mushrooms till tender. Pour this mixture into broth and boil for a few minutes. Add spaghetti and cook until spaghetti is done. Add tomatoes, olives, soup, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and cheese. You can serve from this pan or pour into a large casserole dish and save and heat later. If you do this, heat at 350* until bubbly and hot in the center.

Serves 10-12. It's huge. You can freeze half if you aren't feeding a large group.

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Blogger For IPad

Hey Melanie! Guess what? There's an app for blogger in the app store so now I can blog from my iPad. Thanks for getting my wheels turning. It costs $2.99.

Let's see if I can upload a picture



Oh wow!! There it is!!! Hooray. Now go buy your iPad!

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Find My IPhone

Have you downloaded this fabulous app yet? If you haven't, you must stop what you are doing and download now. It's free!

You download this app to all of your I-products. I have it on my IPad, my Iphone, my kids I-Touches, and my daughter's IPhone. Whenever anyone misplaces it, I can go to any of the devices, or my computer, and activate it. I can make the lost device beep and can also program a message on it. For instance, if I know it's lost inside our house I will make it beep so we can find it. If I thought it was lost outside of our house, I would make and beep and have it displayed to say, "please call xxx-xxxx". Trust me, you need this app, especially if you have kids.

It also displays a google map and pinpoints the exact location of your IPhone. Honest to goodness it gives you an address.

Insert funny story: my niece is a senior and high school and is friends with a big husky football player. His IPhone was stolen and he had this device installed. He found the address, went and knocked on the door and said, "You have my iphone and I want it back!" He succeeded. Of course, you and I might have to befriend big burly men to go with us for this to be successful.

I have used this app 3 times just this week to locate EG's ITouch within our house. Do you have this app? Have you ever located your IPhone using it?

PS Melanie and LindaB, the recipes are coming today or tomorrow.

Food, Glorious Food

I have never cooked as much as I have the last 2 weeks being snowed in. I have been in the kitchen constantly. Honestly I have been running the dishwasher twice a day. It's insane. And we have had kids in and out for 2 weeks, which I love, but the second I pull out a pan of brownies from the oven they disappear. So, I thought I would share some of what I have been cooking. If you want any of my recipes, just let me know.

My favorite meal was the chicken spaghetti. Yes, I know, Pioneer Woman has a recipe for this. But, I gotta tell you. My recipe beats hers hands down anytime. I will warn you that you can feed a small army with this recipe. It just so happened I had 8 kids at my house that day so it worked great. If not, you could always freeze half and pull it out later.

One night we had a shoulder roast, cooked in the crockpot on low all day with frozen green beans and baby carrots. I also made the new potatoes with olive oil and Lipton Onion Soup Mix. Those are a favorite of my kids.

Ok, if my personal trainer is reading this post she should stop now.

Seriously. It's not going to get better.

A favorite at my house is pork butt. Yes, disgusting name, but oh so juicy and yummy. My sister-in-law gave me a great recipe for a rub to put on it. I usually smoke this, but recently started cooking in the crockpot. Fabulous! Just don't forget the crockpot liners! I serve this with another recipe from Amy, corn casserole. This is different than anything you have probably had. It's made with Mahatma Saffron Rice. Oh how my kids beg for this!

We also had some of the old standby favorites: taco soup, chicken nacho cheese soup, spaghetti and meat sauce. And, last night we went out with a bang. I baked a turkey. Just like Thanksgiving.

I'm done! Put a fork in me. We are eating leftovers the next couple of days cuz this Mama needs a break...and some healthier recipes!

Bueller, Bueller...

Tap tap tap. Is this thing on? Can anyone hear me? Bueller?

It's been so ridiculously long since I have blogged about anything that I'm not sure anyone is listening besides my Mom.

I have so much to blog about and so little time. Where to start? Ok, how about with the truth. The truth is that I got an IPad for Christmas and I love it. My very favorite app is Flipboard. Have you heard of it? It was named app of the year last year by apple. You can put many things on your flipboard and personalize it the way you want. For example, my flipboard has Facebook, google reader for the blogs I read, USA today, and the list goes on.

The quality of the photos is just phenomenal. You will never look at Facebook the same way again. And so here it is, the reason I am blogging again. Blogs have never looked better than on Flipboard, and I am just dying to see my own blog on it!

Do I have too much time on my hands? Yes. Do I have a brain freeze from the -11 temperature we saw this morning. Oh yeah. Are my kids starting to drive me crazy. You bet.

Well, I'm off to go enjoy reading my own blog on Flipboard. What is your favorite app?