Friday, November 30, 2007

Raining!

It's raining! We haven't got much in the way of rain yet this fall/winter, but it's coming down right now. I like rain. I just pulled some banana bread cookies out of the oven and, yum, they turned out pretty well! I had some of those over ripe bananas to use up and wanted to do something other then bread, so I looked around on allrecipes.com and came up with these. I really like that site by the way. The cookies really aren't that different then bread, they're basically just really small breads.

Mommy and Junior went to exercise class today and we sure got a work out. Some of it was soooo hard! And there some points where I went ahead and quit for a while. What we really need is to exercise more!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

A special treat!

One of the special treats I got on this trip was that my husband took me to Longwood Gardens! They were beautiful!!! There were extensive and beautiful grounds, a lot of which we were able to see during our time there. There is also a huge conservatory with room after room of lovely plants. I've done three posts this morning with pictures from our time there...so if you want to see more pictures, check out the two additional posts below.






The Orchid Room!

The orchid room was one of my favorite parts! They had tons of orchids in one room... and I really like orchids! I don't know that I've ever seen so many in one place at one time! Stephen took some good pictures of several of them.





More Longwood Gardens Pictures








Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Lots of Blue

Happy Thanksgiving to you all a couple days early! As it's unlikely I'll be posting on the actual day, may I wish you all a wonderful day full of blessings, good food and fellowship with friends and family, and most of all, hearts full of thankfulness to our Lord for all the countless blessings He has poured down on us!!!! And for those of you who know my brother, Randy, his birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, so after you've had your fill of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans and pie, maybe you could call him up and wish him a happy one...before you take that nap or plop down to watch a football game!!! :-) Happy Birthday Randy!!!

Well, we started buying baby stuff last week!!! Yay!!!! We now have a crib, some bedding, a car seat, a stroller, and one of those baby carriers that you can wear either in front of you or on your back. And let's just put it this way...should my Dad be right and "his granddaughter" REALLY IS on her way...then she's just going to have to put up with quite a bit of blue. :-) But think of it this way, by the time she's old enough to start learning her colors she'll probably have a brother who is using most of that stuff anyway!!! :-)

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Family visit, Thanksgiving, Morning sickness, and EARLY CHRISTMAS MUSIC! :-)

Good morning everyone! Hopefully, you all haven't just quit checking for up-dates because it has been so dreadfully long since my last post!

Well, how about a little news about life in our household. We got the privilege of having my Mom and three youngest siblings here from Monday night until Saturday morning of last week! We had some fun times together! Mom spoiled us while she was here and, among other things, bought us some lovely plants for our back yard! Caleb and Melissa did A LOT of swimming in the pool, even though the temperature in there is down to around 61 - 62 degrees!!! They're tough! We played a bunch of games together as well. Some of you might be surprised about how crazy and feisty I can act sometimes. You might have to look twice to make sure it's me! :-) We took a little hike at a place a friend had recently introduced me to. We also took a drive and they got to look around and see a bit more of the area. They were able to go to Bible study with us and meet some of our friends from the chapel. One day, while Stephen and I were at the funeral of a friend, they went to a park that a neighbor had told us about and then found a McDonalds with a really big play area. The morning they left Stephen took Caleb to the park near us and they tried out Caleb's new boomerang. So...that is some of what happened while they were here. Thanks again for coming family!!! Come again soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we are planning to head to the east coast to see some of Stephen's family. It also got arranged that my brother, Mark, is going to join us for that time, which I was quite happy about!!! Yay!!!

Well, it looks like I may be getting over the morning sickness, though it was never really bad in the first place! That is a way in which I am glad I did NOT take after my mother!!! No offense Mom! :-) And I think I was the one who made her the most sick!!! Hopefully, this pregnancy is the one I get the sickest with too! :-) Well, we are scheduled to find out if we're having a boy or a girl sometime during the end of December. I don't remember the date exactly. My Dad is already talking about "his granddaughter" and Stephen says he thinks it's a boy.... :-)

OK, one last, shocking thing to tell those of you who may be reading this and are one of those who think that all the Christmas stuff should start AFTER Thanksgiving...I'm currently playing Charlotte Church's Christmas CD! All you "after Thanksgiving" people, please forgive me...and hopefully, we can still be friends!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Company, Drawing, and a Sandwich

I'm afraid it has been about three days since my last post. My "sincerest" apologies to one of our regular readers who says if we have a blog we should post EVERYDAY!

Life has been pretty eventful around here. Besides some regular activities we had company over Thursday night (as I mentioned in a previous post), then we were over at someone else's home on Friday for supper. Later on Friday evening a friend came in at the airport and was here for the weekend. Sunday he had lunch with some other friends from the chapel and we had three different friends (also from chapel) over for lunch. Our friend who was here for the weekend left this morning and we're expecting my Mom and three of my siblings to arrive some time this evening. We will probably get to have them here for at least most of the week! I haven't seen any of them since August when we went to the camping trip.

Today I have art class, which is usually fun. At this class we're suppose to do a picture that includes at least one tree and water. One of my latest attempts in the drawing field is a portrait of my handsome husband in his uniform. I'm not done with it yet, but so far I'm pretty happy with it. Maybe, when it's done I'll take a picture of it and put it up on the blog.

Ok, anyone want an idea for a DELICIOUS grilled sandwich???!!! I got this idea from a Taste of Home cookbook, but have done it a little bit differently. But very basically, this is what you do. Take a piece of focaccia bread and cut it into two horizontal layers. Spread the sliced sides of the bread with basil pesto (I've used both homemade pesto and store bought, both with delicious results :-)) Then, layer ham or turkey, sliced apples, and cheddar or mozzarella cheese. Put sandwich together and grill on an inside grill. I used a George Forman grill (great wedding gift!), you know, the kind that closes kind of like a waffle maker. When the sandwich is hot and the outsides are crispy, take out and enjoy! Stephen and I both REALLY like these! I think I'll have one later today!

Friday, November 2, 2007

Camping!

This is a picture that was taken when we joined the family earlier this year for a family reunion / camping trip up in the Sierras. That's one of my Uncles being funny in the background. :-)

Neighbors and company

Last night we got to have two couples that are neighbors of ours over for dinner. We had fun sitting around chatting and laughing. We chose to do one of those menus that keeps you busy for awhile! We had tenderloin, shrimp, asparagus, homemade rolls, homemade cranberry sauce and Parmesan potato wedges. My husband very kindly helped out when he got home from work. We're blessed with some very kind, fun and interesting neighbors. We've been invited to go to dinner tonight at the home of some different neighbors. So, this is kind of our neighbors week.

Then later in the evening we're planning to pick up a friend from the airport who is going to be here for the weekend. And, Lord willing, my Mom and little sister will be be coming in for a visit beginning of next week. So, the next days should prove busy, eventful and full of blessings!

I went to stretch and tone class today. Man! She really gives you a workout! Sounds like such an easy class too!