Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thanksgiving service, 2008

On Wednesday night we had a time of testimony and sharing what we were thankful for this year. This is always one of my favorite services. It's encouraging to hear how the Lord works in other's lives and how He has blessed them.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

As Requested....

Marie's Crock pot Mac-n-Cheese
I use my large crock pot for this. If you have a smaller crock pot, you'll need to cut this recipe in half, because it fills up the 8 quart. This is perfect for dinners with the family or church socials.
1 16oz box macaroni, cooked and drained
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups sweet milk
1 cup grated medium cheese
2 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup melted margarine or more if desired
2 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste
2 cans of cheddar cheese soup
Spray crock pot with non-stick cooking spray.
Combine all ingredients in crock pot and mix well.
Cook for 3 hours on low.
After 3 hours, cover with grated cheese for 15 minutes
And just for the record, I always add more cheese. lol
Bon appetit!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Thanksgiving

I had the opportunity to cook Thanksgiving dinner for my family this year. I'll admit it was tiring, but it was fun too. Sometimes I think I thrive under pressure. lol

Wednesday morning, the guys got outside raking and blowing leaves.


Our little neighbor boy, Tyler, came over and visited with Justin while he raked leaves. Sweet kid, that one!


Bruce relinquished the blower into the capable hands of our youngest, who felt he had graduated to man-hood seeing how his dad had given him the operating machinery.

Once the leaves were raked, everyone was ready to get ready for the Thanksgiving service at church, where we are given an opportunity to stand and say what we're thankful for. It was a blessing!

My cake baking buddy, Amy, made this cake that daddy ordered from her. Isn't it just the cutest? I dare say it's the BEST she's done yet. It was so good!


The children spent the night with daddy after church. Mom and I took the opportunity to get a jump start on the Thanksgiving meal. She wasn't able to do a lot, but was able to contribute to the meal by doing things while sitting at the table. Here she is preparing the dressing.

I'm not sure what time she got in bed, but it was after 2:00am when I finally laid my weary head down.

Thanksgiving morning, Jeremy came over for a milkshake. I think he had a chocolate milkshake and then one with peanut butter. I had a kit kat milkshake.
Thank you, daddy. They were delish!


John enjoyed his milkshake too.
But I think daddy enjoyed his most of all. lol

Watching football....
My itty bitty, 6' tall, fourteen year old nephew, Michael was there too. I think he stole some of Hannah's height somewhere along the way. She barely comes to his chest. lol

No family picture album is complete without bunny ears.


Hannah was supposed to be straightening her room, but I found her snoozing on the bed instead. :)

Before....

...after.
This crockpot mac-n-cheese is my mother in law's recipe. It's so good and easy. I was supposed to cook it on low for three hours, but wasn't paying attention and cooked it on high for well over two hours before I realized what I had done. I was glad I added extra milk. It turned out fine.
Bruce prayed and then we did buffet style getting our meal.
The kiddies around the kiddie table are getting older and older! My, how time flies!
Check out that smile...must be good viddles!
Daddy's appetite was good! oops! I forgot to put my all purpose cleaner up.

The dessert table was slap full. My sugar is going up just looking at it.

My college age, adult nieces and their friend were having fun playing on the trampoline.



All the kids, including the little neighbor boy, ended up sitting and talking together. At one point they were all jumping together. That was scary!

Me and my sister-in-law, Jenny. She's having surgery soon to remove her gall bladder. Bless her heart, you could tell she wasn't feeling well.
When everyone was gone, my mother-in-law stopped by for a little bit. We had a good visit with her and then I fought my eyelids to stay open the rest of the evening. When I finally lost the battle with the eyelids, I retired to my bed and had the best night's sleep I've had in a while. I don't think I even turned over in the night.
So how was your Thanksgiving?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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Daddy came over today and brought the ingredients for Hannah to fix two pies that he learned to make by Mrs. Kim O'. I'm afraid she has created a monster.
Bruce and the children have gone to visit my mother-in-law while I prepare supper....and do my blog post. *grin*
I think I'll do my pumpkin pie and apple pie tonight. My crisco is chilling in the fridge for my pie shells and I'll prepare my veg-all casserole (with the exception of the cracker topping) to sit in the fridge until Thursday. I have a turkey breast in the crock pot so daddy will have plenty to take home with him tomorrow. He'll have plenty for after Thanksgiving too. It smells so good.
I must attend to my supper now. "See" ya tomorrow!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Bright Eyes

Daddy had his eye appointment today. At first we waited for his name to be called. As you can see...he was in rare form today. Come to think of it, these days are becoming less and less rare.


The poor nurse couldn't get anything done with his shenanigans.


He was reading the eye chart pretty good until the third sheet. Then I think he just started blurting out letters in hopes of getting at least one right.


They checked the pressure in his eyes, which was really disgusting. She was rubbing that thing all over his eyeball. I felt a little queasy by the time she was finished.


When his doctor came in for the surgical procedure, he asked me to step back into the waiting room. He would need total concentration since he was using the laser. But the whole time I was out in the waiting area being quiet, I was wondering if daddy was behaving himself and allowing Dr. Farr to concentrate.


The procedure took all of about ten minutes, if that. Which really surprised me.

Since he washed his cell phone in the washing machine *sigh* I drove him to Verizon to see about getting another one. We checked in and were number 1 on the list. However, we kept being skipped over and decided to leave. Opting to come another day or to another store.

I ran an errand to Wal Mart, stopped to buy us lunch, and then dropped daddy off at his house. I no sooner got home when my dear husband decided we needed to go pick up something in the way of a Christmas present for a special someone. We stopped by the hospital first to see Mrs. Janet, but were told she had been released and sent home. That was good news considering she was worried they would have to cut her open today. Praise the Lord they did not!


We did our shopping and got home in time to see Mike and Kim. They had dropped by to bring us supper. I told her to wait until mom went home from my house, but mom said she had been wanting Kim's lasagna. So when I spoke to Kim last night at church she said they would come tonight. And boy, did they! They brought with them lasagna (her grandmother's recipe), salad with ALL the fixin's, garlic bread, and a gallon of sweet tea. They also brought paper plates, bowls, and cups. Clean up was a cinch!

Thank you L family for your thoughtfulness in every detail of supper. It was so nice not having to cook this evening and it tasted absolutely superb!


Thou hast given so much
to me,Give one thing more, - a grateful heart;Not thankful when it pleaseth
me,As if Thy blessings had spare days,But such a heart whose pulse may be Thy
praise.
~George
Herbert

2008, Eye Appointments, and Thanksgiving Quote

Well, it's after midnight. The week of Thanksgiving is officially upon us. Where has 2008 gone?

Bruce and I were listening to the radio today and they mentioned something about November 23rd. "Isn't that today" he asked? I thought to myself, No! That's at the end of the month. But guess what? It IS the end of the month. Again I ask...Where has 2008 gone?

I'll start doing little things leading up to Thanksgiving Day sometime tomorrow. Daddy has eye surgery Monday afternoon and so while Justin and Hannah stay with mom to meet her every need, I'll be driving daddy to his appointment and making sure he gets home safe and sound. Funny story about daddy....this morning he was having difficulty focusing. He just couldn't seem to focus on anything all morning. He kept thinking to himself, "Wow, my eyesight really is getting worse." He taught his Sunday school class and walked down stairs, all the while squinting out of one eye so as not to fall into walls or trip over his own feet. Mrs. Ava passed him in the hall and said, "Well, Brother Birt, you've lost a lens out of your glasses!" LOL The good news is, his eyesight isn't as bad as he thought it was this morning and he found the lens to his glasses.

Bless his heart.



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The pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts …
nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. --H. W. Westermayer

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall...

I was up with the children this morning as they were getting ready for church. Everything seemed to be going good...for Sunday morning, that is. And then it happened. The house shook with a thunderous roar and crashing of something or someone falling.

My first thought was that mom had slipped and fallen. I took off to her room, flung open her door, and there she lay. How relieved I was to see that she was snug as a bug in her bed! "What was that," she asked? I wasn't sure but my next thought was of my husband.

I ran into our bathroom, flung opened that door, and there, all pitiful looking, my dearly beloved sat in the bathroom floor. A little disoriented and bleeding from his shoulder, it was obvious he had fallen getting out of the shower. The visible affects of the fall was bad enough. And then I noticed that his big toe was bleeding too. Not to mention that now his back was tightening. Something he has frequent problems with.

Poor baby. I painted and bandaged his wounds and kissed his head.

He was fine to go to church. When they returned home from church this afternoon he was walking a little stiff. Which leads me to believe his back has tightened a little more. He's napping now. I hope he doesn't wake from his nap in pain.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Hair Day and Thanksgiving Shopping

Friday afternoon I took mom to get her hair cut at Missy's. She was feeling a little blue with cabin fever and although I think she was too tired to go, she was happy to get her hair fixed. Since she couldn't lay back in the chair to get her hair washed, I washed it in the sink before we left.


I'm glad Missy was able to get to her yesterday.



Uhhh, wow.


I was going to tell you that this was Missy drying mom's hair, but that would be along the lines of, "DUH."


See the little sign that says "I'm a beautician, not a magician!" I got that for Missy a couple of years ago for Christmas and she's had it up ever since.


Almost finished!


Tah-DAH!


From left to right is Bruce, Mrs. Freida, John, daddy, Missy L, and mom. Mrs. Freida and Missy L came to visit last night and then John and Mikey showed up. Although mom was really tired, she had a pretty good day.

Mom and I got up this morning and headed to Wal Mart so she could get the things needed for Thanksgiving. We got there early enough to get her one of those little motorized carts. She putted from one end of the store to the other and back again. We also picked up groceries for daddy and delivered them. He was very happy to see the almost seventy dollars worth of groceries we bought for him. He even kissed his jar of bread and butter pickles. Mom was able to visit with Dolly and walk room to room in her own home. She really enjoyed that. We stopped at Food Lion to pick up a couple of things we couldn't find at Wal Mart, ran to pick up Justin's suit from the cleaners, and finally back home. By the time we got home, she was ready to crash. But not until after lunch, a visit from her hubby, and seeing my kids off to their youth outing. They shouldn't be back for several hours and it will be quiet in the house. So she should be able to rest nicely tonight. Lord willing she'll be at church Sunday night and is looking forward to that! I am too.






Friday, November 21, 2008

More S'mores, Please!

Wednesday night we had Sigma around a bond fire with S'mores for the teens. I must admit that this was my first time making S'mores. And they were pretty good!


Of course the kids had a great time. It was really cold Wednesday night and the heat from the fire felt good.



We had a few visitors that night who came with Jeremy. They were really sweet kids. I'm glad they were able to make it in on the fun.




Justin chewing his s'more.

Brother RJ delivering his message for the evening. I see Caleb and Jamie were listening closely to the sermon there.


Ohhhhhhhh, it was so warm!



We were packed up and ready to go home, but Caleb wanted just one...more...s'more.