Text? List? Or Facebook?

While planning Tori's birthday party, I asked her to make me a list of items she would like to have to eat at her party so I could figure out what to buy at the store the next day.

In true, Tori fashion, she quickly and without thinking replies....

"Do you want me to text, list, or facebook you?"

Good thing I'm not too technology challenged to live with my daughter!

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Mom, do you know what I want to be when I grow up?

No Zach, what?

A marine.  A marine that paints things.

How's that going to work for you?

I'll paint the bad guys faces when they get close to me so they run away crying.

(pause)

But I might die.  Becuase it takes me so long to get into my thing with my paintbrushes.

It's Cookie Friday

With it being Good Friday, the kids are home from school today.

We decided to make cookies.

First I made some chocolate covered oreos for Easter. 

I'm so excited about these, because although my painting technique leaves ALOT to be desired, this is the first time the painted chocolate hasn't melted and ruined the design when I poured the main section.

YEA ME!

Then, we made sugar cookies.

I wanted to try out decorating them using Sweet Sugar Bells instructions.

Tori and Zach helped.

Okay, they really ended up doing it all...I'm a cool mom that way.

(Yea, right.)

We weren't really patient on the designs and didn't wait the 20 minutes between layers like we were supposed to, but we had fun anyway.

Zach went with more abstract designs.

While Tori tried to paint intracit designs,

and ended up hating them so much she had to eat them.

And mine were rather boring

But we had a good time and now have some yummy cookies.

I Stand All Amazed....

Okay, so again I stand amazed by the little things that give me hope to keep carrying on with the trials in life.  The stress over the house and other financial matters keeps building.  I've been trying to figure out what we are supposed to do.  We didn't get the rental house that we thought might be the answer to our prayers, and although I've applied at several places in town, I haven't even gotten one call back.

Things have been slightly stressed.

So we decided to get away for a few days and go on vacation.

We went home.

We spent a lot of time with family and at the family store The Chocolate Box.

One day when we were there, Hank started talking to a young man that he had known when he was in our church's young men's program several years ago.  The young man had gone on a mission for our church and while there had suffered terrible carbon monoxide poisoning.  He had been sent home early and fought hard to get back to a normal life despite some terrible health issues.

When we returned from vacation, Hank sent a letter to the mission leader of this young man's mission.  Apparently the man was a warden at one of the prisons with which Hank works.  He wanted him to know that this young man was doing well and recovering.

The mission leader responded almost immediately thanking Hank for the information and the two struck up an email "conversation".  Hank was excited to know that an LDS member could indeed succeed in the strange prison system we find ourselves working for.  The warden said he was actually just getting ready to move next week to another prison complex where he would advance and there was hope.  Hank was told to "keep in touch."

Immediately Hank went and looked up the new prison area.  Funny to find out, it was one of the prisons that had just pulled his paperwork for consideration on a paid move to a lieutenant's position.  I'm not saying anything will happen.  It could all just be an interesting "HUH" moment....but I still stand amazed by the little things in life.

“Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.  (Alma 37:6.)

I truly stand amazed and again have hope that the Lord is truly looking out for me and my little family through the stupid mistakes that we make each day.

You Don't Understand....

Zach's been pretty sick lately.

I got a call from the school nurse Wednesday and she said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to take a breathing treatment.  He had started coughing with the change of seasons, and I told him to go see her if he felt he needed. 

By the end of the day, he was not feeling well and on Thursday, had had a very low grade fever.  He stayed home from school and I dosed him with cough syrup (a big no, no I know, but you should have heard him!) and ibuprofen.  He still wasn't better Friday morning, so he stayed home then too.

His fever broke Friday afternoon, but he still wasn't feeling better Saturday.  So I mentioned that I was going to take him to the doctor.  Apparently he really must not have felt good because that's all he wanted to do all day.  Finally that afternoon, I took him over to Ambucare.

The doc wasn't totally sure what was wrong with him.  He wasn't sure if he had some kind of whooping type cough that was manifesting in adults, or if it was just his asthma rearing up.  So he went ahead and put him on an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and some steroids.  He said Zach should probably start feeling better by Sunday afternoon.

Well, Sunday morning came, and he must not have been feeling better.  When I woke him to get ready for church, he starts sobbing....

"You don't understand what I'm going through."

"I can't handle this Mom."

Is it bad that I just rolled my eyes and kicked him out of bed?  Son....you have no idea how much I understand.

I can't handle this either.

Fiesta Friday-- Strawberry Instant Breakfast

I  got this recipe from a lady at our church.  She was sharing healthy weight loss meals at (at the time) Enrichment night.  She and her husband had gone on this diet and lost LOTS of weight.  This was the shake they had for breakfast every morning.

This shake has all the vitamins and proteins and such to make a really healthy breakfast or other meal.  I can't remember which diet or book they had read, but it worked for them.

I tried it when I was going through one of my weight loss periods.  I would have it for breakfast every morning.  I didn't lose much weight, but I fell in love with the shake.

Over time, I ran out of ingredients so my shake evolved.  I eventually dropped the gelatin and olive oil and found the shake just as yummy.  Not sure it has all the vitamins and such anymore, but it still tastes wonderfully and is VERY filling.

So, I'm sharing this Strawberry Instant Breakfast for this week's Fiesta Friday.

I hope you'll let me know if you try it and what you think.

Photo Perfect

I got lucky and won another House Party.

It's a yummy Philly Cream Cheese Dinnertime Dilema party.

All week on my blog, I've been working on things to get ready for the party I'm having next week.

Today, I made a photo booth.

I've seen these around in the party blogs and the props are pretty popular on Etsy right now. 

I have been looking for a party to be able to have this at.

For better or worse, I'm going to have one at my luncheon party next week.

I hope the girls will get into it and we'll have some fun.

Today, I needed a few pics for my blog to show off the tutorial, so I had the boys help me with pics.

I think they turned out cute.  Don't you?