A Sneak Peek: Tuesday

Today we bought a new refrigerator/freezer. Ours was going out...ice cream was mush & milk was just about luke warm. Blah!

This sign was in the Sears window. Haha

Out with the old...

In with the new!

We went to Burger King to get some lunch and they were taking a bit long to get us our food, so they offered us free drinks! 

Mmmm...Cherry slushie!

We attempted to do some weeding this afternoon/evening, but the mosquitoes are AWFUL! You go outside and are attacked! If you know me, you know that I get eaten alive. I'm pretty close to looking like I've got measles or something...Lol....maybe not that bad. :) I have had several though that have turned into pretty good sized welts. I've joked around that I look like I've got tumors....they're that bad! I've discovered some anti-itch stuff that works wonders! It's by Highly Natural Herbs which is based out of Wauconda, WA which is about an hour away from here. It's like a miracle cream or something! (The dogs LOVE the cream - Charlie especially. If you put it on, they're right there going crazy trying to lick it off...it's so funny!) They have alot of other salves too, and the great thing is they're all natural so you feel good about putting it on you. I bought some bug spray today, and I don't know if it was my imagination or what but it almost seemed to have the opposite effect.

A Sneak Peek: Monday

After the past two posts you may go into shock by the lack of pictures in this one. =)

Today was pretty easy going. I was home alone most of the day because people were either at work or in Wenatchee shopping for the items needed in our church office.

My day pretty much consisted of laundry. :)

I did watch Braxton for about an hour. I had the bright idea to walk to his grandma's instead of driving since it was such a nice day. It's about a 15 minute walk, and while it was nice...it was HOT! Hmmm...not sure how often I'll be doing that since the weather is only going to get warmer.

The evening was spent watching Little House on the Prairie and doing some much needed blogging! I think I'm all caught up now! Now it's off to bed for me. :)

A Sneak Peek: Father's Day

Sunday started just like every other Sunday does, with the exception of a few things. Selena started having contraction during Sunday School so her and Chris headed back over the pass during the morning service. Unfortunately they stopped and we don't have a baby yet. :( Since they ended up leaving church early, it was a blessing that we had a guest preacher. Actually he's here for a couple of weeks. Steve is a preacher-in-training from Tabernacle Baptist Church in TX. He's spending a couple of weeks over here to gain some experience working with a new church plant...a missions trip in a sense. It's been a blessing to have him here and us 'kids' have especially enjoyed having another young person around!

We celebrated Maggie & Olivia's birthdays.

After church we packed...and I do mean PACKED...in the suburban and went to my favorite spot...Black Pine Lake.

"Look over yonder!"

While most of us were squished...

Others had all the room in the world. Lol

We went and walked around Winthrop for a bit and HAD to stop at our favorite ice cream shop! Then we went home, had some homemade pizza and the 4 "big kids" played games. It was an exhausting, but FUN day!

:~:~:~:~:~:~:

I'm so thankful for my dad. The older I get the more I appreciate him and the man he is. He's the best dad I could ever ask for! The Lord definitely knew what He was doing when He put my family together!  Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you so much!

My How Time Flies!

I can't believe June is already half way over! It seems that we've been so busy. This week is another "Sneak Peek Week", but before I start that I want to post some pictures from the first half of the month!

Braxton loves to push the vacuum around.

Checking things out

Time to take a break and text some friends :)

Grandma W came for a visit!

Trying a s'mores for the first time!

We made a quick trip to Oak Harbor =)

Enduring the cold wind at City Beach

The *BEST* coffee ever!!!

We had lunch with Nicki for her birthday

Stopping to smell the roses...or in this case...pansies. =)

Did some fishing

Deb and the kids came to visit! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the kids...sorry Selma and James!

Sisters

Happy Birthday to my favorite sister! ;) I can't believe you're 20!! As the years pass, our age difference seems to vanish. You are truly one of my best friends! I love you to pieces!

Is it a Brownie or a Cookie?

*Edit ~ I forgot to mention that we didn't have plain yogurt like the recipe called for, but I substituted sour cream and they turned out just fine. In fact, we didn't even have enough sour cream so I used a combination of sour cream and milk!*

I love looking at food blogs. Recently I came across a new one called Macaroni & Cheesecake.  So far I've tried her Hamburger Buns, Pop-Tarts, and now these Chocolate Fudge Cookies. Everything has been so good! I just made these cookies and Wow! It's a cookie, but it tastes like a brownie. The outside it kinda crispy, but the inside it chewy and even a little gooey. Yum! But don't take my word for it...try them yourself!

Photo from Macaroni & Cheesecake

A Sneak Peek: Memorial Day Weekend

Since I didn't post Friday or Saturday, I'll go ahead and give you the whole weekend since we had some very special visitors!

Friday:

I watched Braxton all day and even had the adventure of going to the store with him! It wasn't the first time, but I definitely learned a valuable lesson...even if you think he should be fine in the short amount of time you expect to be in there, be prepared with a drink and snacks! :D

I don't have a total number of the souls saved in Juarez, but it was 150-200! Praise God! He is definitely working in Mexico!

Olivia & I made homemade pop-tarts. They're nothing like store bought, but they're really good! 

Nicki & Alyssa came to visit for the weekend!

Saturday:

We went on outreach in Winthrop. 

The four of us girls went out to lunch...it was really good! We spent the afternoon/evening playing games, watched a movie, and just enjoyed each others' company. 

Playing one of our favorite games - Sorry Card Revenge - while Nicki was napping. ;)

I won!!

Josh came home! Because of flight delays he didn't get in till midnight, which meant he didn't get home until 3. Bleh! Poor guy had to wait around in the airport for hours while feeling horribly sick from food poisoning the day before. Thankfully he's on his way to feeling better!

Sunday:

At church we had a surprise visit from the Dolans! It's always nice to see familiar faces!

The Majors came over for dinner (pizza!), we played games and also got to see pictures and hear about Josh's trip! God is certainly working and moving in Mexico!

Monday:

We played more games! Can you tell we like games?? Sorry Card Revenge and Phase 10 are two of our favorites!

The girls left today. :( We had such a wonderful time with them! I can't wait till we get to see them again! 

It was nice weather-wise, but as the afternoon went on it started getting gloomy with rain off-and-on and thunder in the distance. 

In between rain showers we were able to get our garden planted! We have pumpkins, eggplant, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe,  corn, onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce and green beans. We already have some tomatoes, peppers and strawberries planted and growing, and hope to get some spinach, peas and maybe even a blueberry bush or something like that too. Next weekend we'll be getting a rhubarb plant from my grandma which I'm really looking forward to! Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp...Mmmm!

A Sneak Peek: Thursday

Watched Braxton today. Since I've been watching him I've been trying to teach him how to say 'please' in sign language. Well today he did it! Yay!

There's this show on Netflix called Pantry Raid. Have you heard of it? It's about a chef that goes into someone's home and makes a meal out of whatever they have in their pantry. It's pretty neat to see what he comes up with. Anyways, yesterday my mom told me that she wanted me to do that today. Figure out something from what we have in our pantry to make for dinner, and it couldn't be anything on our menu for the week. So, I looked at what we had and believe it or not my inspiration came from a packet of lipton onion soup mix. Lol. I made burgers, fries and apple upside down biscuits for dessert. I mixed the lipton onion soup mix with the hamburger meat and then we had the usual toppings (I sauteed the onions...they're so much better that way!).  I made homemade hamburger buns for the first time, and they were delicious!  

Sorry, I don't have a Juarez update for you tonight.

A Sneak Peek: Wednesday

Today found us outside doing more weeding. Just about the time we decided to call it a day it started raining. Good timing! It's been raining off and on ever since.

I successfully made a batch of cinnabun popcorn! My inspiration came from Our Best Bites. Since I was having trouble doing their microwave version of caramel, I decided to make our recipe for caramel plus make the necessary changes to make it cinnabun popcorn. Mmmm....it's so good!

Have you ever done this? Brown Paper Bag Popcorn. It works really well! You won't find me cooking popcorn over the stove anymore. This is quick and the cleanup is a cinch!

Put 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in lunch sack.

Fold the top down twice and tape it shut, keeping the bag flat just like you would regular microwave popcorn.

Pop it in the microwave and put it in for however long you normally cook your popcorn. Do this step two times. You should get about 12 cups of popped corn. Then put it in a big bowl.

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup brown sugar, 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup corn syrup, and 1/2 cup butter. 

Bring to a boil and let it boil for 5 minutes. No matter how much it goes against every bone in your body, don't stir it while it's boiling. After you 5 minutes is up, add 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar & a pinch of salt.

Pour it over the popcorn and stir, stir, stir. You're going to stir for a while trying to evenly cover the popcorn. 

Spread out on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. Pop in a 200 degree preheated oven for 1 hour.

After it comes out of the oven and has cooled a bit it's time for the almond bark. Melt 2 squares of almond bark. I've done the sprinkling with a fork method, but found that I like putting the melted bark in a ziploc bag, snip the tip and pipe it on. Otherwise you tend to get big clumps of the bark.

This is the best part of the whole process....eat it! Your taste buds will thank you. =)

Juarez Outreach Update: Between Monday & Tuesday there have been 67 souls saved!

A Sneak Peek: Tuesday

Today was more cleaning, plus some yard work. We have so many plants around here it hard to keep up with everything!

I've started giving my mom piano lessons, and today was her second lesson. She's doing really well, and is top of her class! Never mind the fact that she's my only student. ;-)

I recently saw a recipe for cinnabun popcorn that looks so good! The recipe has you make the caramel in the microwave and I just can't seem to get it right. Last week I didn't cook it long enough, and today I burnt it. Tomorrow I'm going to give it another shot using our tried and true caramel corn recipe, while make the minor tweaks that make it 'cinnabun' popcorn. Hopefully I'll have good news to report. :)

We had another prayer meeting tonight. Report from yesterday: 33 saved! Praise the Lord!

This video was on the msn homepage today and is so cute! I had to share it!

A Sneak Peek: Monday

Today started in the wee hours of the morning with a dog sitting next to my bed trying to get my attention. That's what he usually does when he needs to go to the bathroom, but when I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 5-ish I told him to go back to bed. He did...for a minute...and then he was right back next to my bed whining and bumping the bed trying to get my attention. Ahhh the joys of a puppy. Why can't they stay in bed until I'm ready to get up? Max used to...sometimes stay in bed even after I got up. =)  Bless the person who came up with kennels because it allows the rest of the household to get a few more hours of sleep without having to constantly make sure the dogs aren't getting into something they shouldn't. It was a lesson quickly learned...a couple of hole-y socks later.

We worked out this morning! Yes, you read right! With the exception of a few days, we've been pretty faithful with it! 

We did some deep cleaning. It's not always an enjoyable job, but the end result is so worth it!

I watched Braxton for about 30 minutes in the window of time between his grandma going to work and his mom getting off work. I always enjoy watching him even if it is for a short amount of time. 

We had a prayer meeting tonight for the Juarez Project. We'll be getting together each night this week to pray for this outreach. Again, I ask that you join us as we pray for safety and growth in the lives of the men involved, and for souls to be saved as a result of their efforts.