Project 366: (Days 54-62)

It is time for the latest installment of Project 366. My photos have been awful. I think I must be rushed but I also need to really figure out how to focus better. It seems like I'm getting a lot of blur and the depth of field is throwing things off a bit.

Here they are...

54/366:

54/366: Big enough to make waffle number three by herself this morning and mighty proud of it, too.

55/366:

55/366: Pool party fun in February.

56/366:

56/366: A little Tangled on a Saturday morning.

57/366:

57/366: Mommy's big helper!

58/366:

58/366: Sweet Millie Mei.

59/366:

59/366: I wear it proudly!

60/366:

60/366: My big girl at the dentist.

61/366:

61/366: A big girl play date!

62/366:

62/366: Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss! A fun day in first grade.

Menu Plan Monday

Yes, we still eat around here.  Yes, I still do a menu.  However, I just haven't been so diligent in sharing.

Here's what's cooking this week:

Monday-Leftovers for Don and Lindy from my birthday dinner.  Don't feel sorry for them.  They'll be having yummy pecan-crusted chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, grilled zucchini, and some grilled pesto chicken flatbread.  Yum!  Meanwhile, I will be dining at Tiago's with my "big sisters."  Here we are last year celebrating in Port Aransas.  Notice the big pile of goodness in front of me!

Tueday-BBQ chicken and cheddar sandwiches.  I thought they sounded yummy and who doesn't love the combo of chicken, bacon, bbq sauce, and cheddar cheese?  I could do without the bun and am not quite sure how I'll eat it yet.  I'll make sure Lindy sets the table with extra napkins!   I think a nice side of mixed berries and some carrots and celery will bring some color and lots of vitamins.

Wednesday-Out before bible study...

Thursday-Pierogies, broccoli, and salad.  If you don't know what a pierogi is, I am not sure I'm totally qualified to tell you.  They are dumplings typically filled with mashed potatoes, onion, and cheese.  They are a staple among Czechs and Polish people, from what I understand.  I was first introduced to pierogies while I was at East Stroudsburg University.  I had a friend whose mom would make her homemade pierogies for her to bring to school; a total labor of love!  They were incredible--especially drenched in butter!  If I'm not mistaken, I can remember having them at the "caf" every once in a while, too.  Anyway, they are wonderful.  I have found a frozen brand that really is very good and the closest thing I'll be getting to homemade.  My body can't handle drenching them in butter like it used to.  Okay, honestly, it really never could handle it!  I pan fry them in minimal (hardly any) olive oil with garlic and they are really quite tasty!

Friday-It is the most wonderful time of the year!!!  Nope.  Not back-to-school.  Nope.  Not Christmas.  It is the $19.95 Party for Two at this restaurant all month--Two soups or salads, one medium SPECIALTY pizza, and a pizookie.  It really is a superb deal for our little family of three, as the pizza alone is usually more than the whole deal.  For $20 we get about six meals (three people eating twice--not three people eating six times) off the pizza.  We order the Mediterranean and have never been disappointed.  The p*izookie is incredible!  We order the Gh*irardelli chocolate variety.  Pure bliss on a plate (and my thighs).  Friday Night Family Pizza night is ON!

Saturday-Grilled chicken with basil lemon pasta and some yet-to-be determined veggie and salad on the side.  Don and I like to cook together but sometimes a lot of the time we get lazy and don't plan for it.  I think it is time for us to be elbow to elbow this Saturday using up some of that basil growing on our back porch.


Sunday-I'm banking on there being some leftovers!


I'm suddenly hungry!  I think my multi-grain Cheeri*s have worn off...

What's on your table this week?  If you like to peruse recipes pop over here to see what 100s of other people are eating this week!  Have a healthy snack first, though, because you're going to get hungry!

Monday miscellany

A while back my friend Sara posted about what she was reading this summer. I was happy to see that I'm not the only person with a few reads going at once.

I love to read but sometimes I go through EXTREME dry spells and don't read for months on end and then other times I read like I'm never going to be able to again.

I thought I'd check with my beloved readers to see what is on your nightstand and share with you what is on mine.

Here's what I've been reading:


I actually finished The Help a couple of weeks ago. It is a very powerful story set in the deep south in the early 1960s. I really shudder when I think about what was going on just a few years before I was born. I like to think that things have dramatically changed and shudder to think that maybe they haven't...

I'm still reading this:


My friend, Elissa, loaned me the book Going Public in May after we had talked about public school versus private school one day over breakfast. At the very beginning of 2010, I broached the subject of sending Lindy to a private Christian school with Don. (Is that sentence structure all screwy?) He was surprised by the topic as much as I was. I think the realization that in Fall 2010 Lindy would be starting school really hit. Suddenly I was feeling unprepared and worried about what all Lindy would be encountering in a public school environment. I was also concerned we'd be losing some influence, too, and possibly be facing a lot more competition.

After discussion, prayer, and consideration, we decided to send Lindy to public school. We had not been financially preparing for the expense of private school and we just couldn't do it. Also, as we were thinking about it, I heard a quote and it really resonated with me. Since then, I've heard it several times. I believe the quote comes from Colt McCoy's father and it goes something like this, "Our job as parents is not to prepare the path for our children but to prepare our children for the path."

At that moment, I realized I was really concentrating more on the path and not her heart. PLEASE DON'T GET ME WRONG...I am not saying that if you choose to send your kids to private school or homeschool them that you are not doing your job or that you have it all wrong. I don't feel that way at all. Really. The parents I know who have chosen those options are VERY concerned about their kiddos and are doing an excellent job parenting. So, please don't think I am criticizing or saying one is better than the other. What that quote reminded me is that no matter what, where, or who, we needed to be stepping it up and preparing her heart for that path and capitalizing on teachable moments.

The book Going Public has provided some great thoughts, ideas, scriptures, and encouragement as Lindy begins a new chapter in her life three weeks from TODAY!!!

Last but NOT least, I've been reading a less pretty version of this:


Here's a confession. I'm undisciplined. I'm a slacker. I'm a wannabe sitting on the sidelines. I can't even think of a time--recently--that I've set a goal and accomplished it. I am busy but I'm not accomplishing what I want to accomplish. I'm not being self-depracating; I'm being honest. Last year at some point I was whining to Don about how he was responsible for my weight gain and lack of exercise and he said, "So what you are saying is you want ME to be your self-discipline..." Um, yeah, basically...By the way, ouch...

With all that said folks, I set a goal. Yep! I set a goal to read the entire bible this year. I've started and stopped in the past but this year I'm going to do it. I am. Really. Sadly, I am on June 3rd and by my calculations that puts me at about two months behind. However, I WILL do this. I am not doing this with anyone else. I'm being my own self-discipline. I have no one to blame but MYSELF if I don't achieve my goal, which, by the way, I'm going to achieve. I felt like it was a more important goal than all the other quasi-goals I have floating around in my head.

I have been amazed at all I've been learning and all I had forgotten. I've been trying to read for comprehension and not just gloss over things. I'll admit it is rough at times. This approach offers some of the Old Testament, some of the New Testament, a Psalm, and then a verse from Proverbs each day. That breaks it up nicely in my opinion. God in his INFINITE wisdom gives me some great nugget for me to savor with each reading!

Along with catching up in the above-mentioned, next up for me is Crazy Love:


I'd love to hear what you've been reading or what you're wanting to read.

Happy Monday! Hope it is a great week.

Traveling partners

June 12, 2010

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am severely behind on blogging. I have honestly thought of scrapping it and calling it quits. I may still merge the three blogs into one. I am not sure. Anyway, I decided it is easier to do random posts to catch up, rather than try to sequence them.

Last Sunday--June 13th--Don and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. That totally seems surreal and impossible to me. I can't begin to convey how thankful I am that God so carefully orchestrated our paths to meet and allowed us to become traveling partners for life. I was thinking about where he had been and where I had been before God plopped Don on a church pew behind me and my family in May 1991.

Don was born in CO, moved to UT when he was a baby, then grew up in TX. He went to college in MD and during that time he spent summers working in a lab at Los Alamos, NM, "cruising" on a submarine, docking in Israel and Hong Kong, traveling to PA for Army/Navy games, road tripping all around the country playing Ultimate Frisbee and watching Navy football (BEAT ARMY!). After he graduated, he went to Cancun, spent time in FL for his first round of flight school, and visited who knows where else. He already had logged thousands and thousands of miles in his personal travel log before he showed up in my life that wonderful May morning.

I, too, had a few miles in my log. I was born in southern CA, moved to HI at four months, moved back to CA, then moved to VA at eight, made my way to PA for 7th grade through my sophomore year of college, and moved back to CA--this time northern (Sacramento). During that time, I had been to many states, met hundreds of people, and thought I met "the one" more than once.

Though I am not sure why, it still amazes me how God chose two people who had known hundreds of people and lived and traveled all over the place to meet and fall in love. I am so thankful He did, though, and for the journey he has allowed us to continue to travel together. We have logged many miles together and prayerfully we will continue to do so. This past year has been filled with many detours and road blocks and I couldn't have survived without my traveling partner by my side.

Looking at the picture, above, I am amazed that man still loves me! Talk about crazy, big hair and chubby cheeks! Yikes. We had a great anniversary dinner at a place called Roaring Fork--sans Lindy--and a nice evening together. I ate so much, I felt like I might get ill at one point. Sorry for the visual. That NEVER happens, as I try not to eat to the point of feeling stuffed. Our anniversary is usually the only time we order an appetizer, main course, and dessert, so I totally wasn't used to the whole gamut and everything was so yummy I had to eat it all. Thanks to my sweetheart of a friend, Ashleigh, for sneaking behind my back and arranging to watch Lindy for the evening.

Since we brought Lindy home, we really haven't used a babysitter a lot so we don't experience "date" nights very often. I know, I know, all the relationship experts would get on to us about that but I truly think we have a very healthy, happy, and harmonious marriage, nonetheless. I know PLENTY of marriages that have far surpassed mine and date nights were non-existent. Ironically, though, both of us bought gifts for one another which included future date nights. I have to admit, I am kind of excited! It is a great excuse to dress up more than usual, have dessert with dinner, and maybe he and I will actually get our picture taken together more than once a year, too.

And the winners are...

I'd like to congratulate the three winners from my Random Acts of Kindness giveaway!

There were 15 contestants...


Then my lovely assistant chose the first winner....


And it is Tamra from Variety is the Spice of Life. Tamra is about six weeks away from giving birth to her first child. Shopping for her prize will be great fun!

Then we needed another...


Congratulations, Heather, from Our Little Ladybugs. I know you said you didn't want to be "entered" but you were, friend! Um, I think you got your gift in the mail today. Hope you enjoy it.

One more to go...

It is Kayren from LUVTHEBABIES. I'm thinking about this one...Hmmm....I have a couple things in mind for Kayren. If that sounds like you should insert an evil laugh, don't. Only good intentions here.

Congratulations to my three special winners. Thanks for the "random" information you shared. To those of you who didn't "win," I wish I could do something for all of you. Come back again, though.

Remember to spread kindness where ever you go!

xoxo~
Lisa

Holiday highlights

Happy new year!

It seems I'm a bit slow getting myself into gear for the new year. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that 2010 is off to a good start for you.

We had a very nice but exhausting Christmas and New Year's.

For Christmas, we traveled to southern California for a week. Some of the highlights included:

A quick jaunt to the famous Santa Monica Pier. For those of you in the throes of winter, here's some California sun for you...





A fun day at Knott's Berry Farm. Sure they don't have the mouse or princesses but they have the cute beagle we all love and a world famous fried chicken dinner.





The FIRST time for Lindy to sit on Santa's lap...


LOTS of bonding time with the family. We were so fortunate to see my grandparents, parents, brother's family, aunts and uncles, and cousins.





Christmas morning at Matt & Erin's, Christmas day and evening at Uncle Steve & Aunt Pauline's, and a late celebration at home. Christmas morning included "a white Christmas" thanks to "Uncle" Kyle's HUGE box of styrofoam peanuts.











An educational visit to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley and a tour of a retired Air Force One plane.

Time at my grandparents (which somehow went undocumented in photos)...

After we returned home and had our quiet Christmas, we turned around and headed to Houston for quick family trip.

The focus of the trip was to watch Navy play Missouri in the Texas Bowl and to have some quality time as a threesome. We did a lot of driving around, a little bit of shopping, some yummy eating, and some exploring in downtown Houston.

The game was GREAT and our seats were AWESOME! We were in the 4th row on the 40 yard line right behind Navy's bench. Navy trounced Missouri which was both surprising and exciting. We got to see the elder President Bush (as we figured we would) toss the coin. If you look REALLY closely, you can see him in the pictures. He's the one with the ball cap and blue blazer.








Just composing this post has made me kind of tired, so now I know why I felt so exhausted after our trips!

We closed out our year in a wonderful way and we started the new one with many hopes, dreams, and good intentions. We don't know what the new year holds but we pray it will be one of good health, happiness, and many blessings.