What's UP!

Well I know that I basically vanished from the blogging world. Of course, not too many read my blog to begin with so i don't think it was that big of a deal.

In case you didn't know...
I am back in South Carolina...Pendleton to be exact
I am now working full time...yep, I knew I got that BSN for a reason
I have a child in school now!!! (half days count, right?)

So, life has changed for this Momma! I'm not at the place in my life I thought I was supposed to be right now, but I am where God wants me at this time.

More to come as life permits...Hey I work 40+ hour weeks now!!!

Giveaway

There is another awesome giveaway on Two of a Kind! Hope I win this. Carly would LOVE it!!!!

http://www.twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.com/2011/04/play-outdoors-with-step2-extreme.html

Go to step2 and check it out. http://www.step2.com/

New blog I am following has giveaway.

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I am super, super busy. I have just now started planning Carly's birthday party and it's in a month!!!!! Wow. I would normally be done by now! She wanted a princess party and I asked her about the boys who would be coming. We discussed it and decided that she wanted a Princess and Pirate party. How fun! So while I was looking for cupcake ideas I came across I blog I am quickly falling in love with. Check them and their giveaway out. I hope I win!!!! http://www.twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.com/2011/04/wilton-easter-baking-prize-pack.html And check out wilton too! http://www.wilton.com/

Give Away on a friend's blog

http://thebeholderofbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/03/spring-has-sprung-giveaway.html

Go there she's doing a give away!

First Two Recipes

Baby Greens with Gorgonzola and Almonds__________________________________pg.28

One of the best salads I've had. The cheese has a nice bite to it. The almonds add a crunch that you would usually get from croutons. There is just enough dressing for the amount of greens. I ate two portions of the salad for lunch and it was filling for me. I am sure you could add a few ounces of grilled chicken to add some more protein without adding a lot of extra points. I give this a 5 out of 5 Bravo Stickers.


Parsnip Soupt with Smoked Paprika_______________________________________pg. 23

This soup has a very earthy taste. I would say it's not great and it's not horrible. This soup would probably be better received in the fall. If you are expecting a creamy soup you will be sorely dissapointed b/c it's of course missing the cream. The soup is only 2 points for a cup so it's a good swap. I found 2 cloves of ginger to be a bit strong in this soup. I think the next time I make the soup I will decrease the amount of chicken broth and garlic cloves. I give this 1 out of 5 Bravo Stickers.

Weight Watchers

So I started weight watchers about 3 weeks ago. I have lost over 5 lbs so far.Weight Watchers is easy to do but still takes effort. Some days I am so lazy and don't put in the effort I need to!

I want to lose weight for not only me but also my children. There's nothing to tell you that you're comletely out of shape like going to the playground with your 3.5 year old! She wants me to run and jump and climb with her and I am about to die trying to keep up with her!

I love both my girls and desire to have a long life (God willing) with them. Being overweight will not help me with a long life. And the life I have may be racked with illnesses related to being overweight. That is not what I desire.

Not only for those reasons but also my body is a temple, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body," (1 Cor. 6:19-20). If I am not taking care of my body, I am not honoring God.

So, I want to get in shape and to a healthy weight. NOT a stick thin unreal looking person. I don't think that would be honoring God either. I just want to be healthy!

A few weeks ago I bought a WW cookbook. It is the Weight Watchers" PointsPlus Just 5 cookbook. It has 125 recipes with just 5 items. Starting tomorrow, I will be making a meal from the recipes in the book. I have to start tomorrow b/c I need to go grocery shopping today. ;)

I will cook the recipes, eat them and then blog about what they tasted like. I will also try to get my child to eat them and see how that goes. My husband will pick and choose what he will try and I'll post what he thinks to. So come back and see what's cooking and how tastes.

There are a few of these cookbooks on Amazon and eBay, however the price is high on those sites. If you dont attend a weight watchers meeting and would like a cookbook, let me know and I could purchase one for you and ship it to you. I will have to check and see how much that would cost.

Happy Cooking and Happy Weight Loss to Me!

Super Sunday: I've missed a lot.

So blogging has taken a huge backseat recently. I am sorry to anyone who checks in regularly. I don't have but 8 followers so I don't think too many people have missed me. I am going to try to be more dilligent and make this a better blog.

Carly is doing pretty well. She has gone through an adjustment period and has acted out a bit. Today she is not feeling 100% and is running a fever. She has two friends here who she call best friends, Ansley and Drew. However, if you ask her who her best friend is she will still usually say Sarah Bradley and say she misses her. She has moments when she gets so upset that she bursts out in tears and starts saying she misses MeMe, PawPaw, Nana, Pop, Sarah Bradley, Uncle Daniel... It hurts my heart but she likes it here too.

Alyssa is a much happier baby now. As I write this she is rolling around beside me and "talking" to me. She loves to grab her toes and smiles all the time. she is starting to giggle more. She is a super chunk and I love it!

Zach and I are doing good. It is taking a bit of an adjustment to get used to things here. It's also hard to get used to having him at work all the time after having him home all the time for 6 months. We are having fun getting to know new people and new ways of life. We have a lot to learn about Texas. One of the first things we learned was about driving the Texas way. I still mess up all the time and don't realize that someone wants to pass me but I will learn.

God is blessing us and our decision to follow Him. This has been a huge move and I am still very homesick but I think we have found a place where people truly LOVE GOD! That makes it worth it all!

Biscuit Recipe?

I have a problem. I love to bake/cook! (that's not the problem) Today, I had a lot of buttermilk left over. I bought more than I needed for soaking my chicken (for frying). I decided I wanted to make some yummy buttermilk biscuits to go with the chicken. I found a recipe online and followed it to a T. What came out were not the fluffy soft biscuits I wanted. They were hard biscuits on the outside, YUCK! I threw them out.

Next I went to my Taste Of Home cookbook. I found a recipe there and thought surely it would be a great one. It is much better than the first ones but it still isn't what I really wanted.

You know the ones I want. The HUGE, fluffy, melt in your mouth ones.

So I charge you my friends...send me some recipes to try! I will be going through my cookbook collection and trying them all until I find what I am looking for.

Awesome Giveaway

Frugal Mom is doing an awesome giveaway and I hope I win! The link is
http://www.frugalmom.net/blog/2011/02/proctor-gamble-giveaway/.
Go try for yourself.

Goal Updates

I set my goals for 2011 back a few posts ago and I wanted to do a small update on how I am doing so far! Remember change doesn't happen overnight and it takes 28 days to start (or stop) a habit.

1. Lose 75 lbs. So far I have lost around 5. I am starting to work out more and I started Weight Watchers 2 week ago! On the road to healthy!!!!

2. Friends- I have made some new friends here in Texas and am really enjoying getting to know them and hang out with them. God is good! I am keeping in touch with my friends in SC but not as much as I would like. I have only skyped with my bestie once. :'( We need to rectify that goal and try to start doing better!

3. I have started doing a Bible study but have not been as good as I wanted to be. I have now started a blog with my Bible study to help keep me accountable to doing it. check it out here: www.studyingmybible.blogspot.com . I have not been sharing my faith as much as I want to. I have shared with at least one a month if you count the student ministry but I would like to reach outside of that to others too. I need to talk to my daughters more about God and faith than I have!

4. Paying our payments on time but haven't started saving money yet.

5. Trying to communicate better, supporting his ministry but have not found just us time. Time to work on that one.

6. Working on that one! Needs lots more work!!!

That's where I stand as of now! I will update again in a few weeks. Hopefully I will be doing even better in all of them!

Valentine's Day: It's easy now!

I truly enjoy Valentine's Day. My love languages are gift giving and service so they go hand in hand with holidays so there aren't many I don't love.

Right now, I feel like Valentine's Day is pretty easy for me. I have to get valentines for my hubby and our two sweet girls. We usually try to get Carly some little Valentines to hand out to her friends too. The easy party is, neither of my girls are in school right now.

One day both my girls with be in school and on Valentine's Day they will have school parties. Now I've told you before I have these visions of grandeur of being a super mom. In my mind, I want to be the mom who bakes the cupcakes for the party and decorates them all super special. I want to make Valentine's Cards with my girls that will be super special to give out and not just the customary box of them that I buy right now. I want to go into the classroom and have the kids say, "look theirs Carly's/Alyssa's mom! she makes the best snacks!"

Please understand, this is not about me wanting accolades for anything. I just want to be that kind of mom! I want for my girls to want me in their classrooms, at their dances, in their life! I don't want them to be like, "Oh no, mom's coming again.".

Last night I had fun. We have a Valentine's Banquet at the church. The youth group did it as a fundraiser. I got to help cook and send out food. i was in my element. I just can't wait to do stuff like that for school parties!

Anyway, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY everyone! I pray that above all, you know God's love! Because until you know how to love your creator, you can't fully love anything else!!!!!!!

Texas

Sorry I've been away from the blogging world. We have recently moved from South Carolina to Texas. It was a long journey and there is still plenty to do but my house is feeling more like a home.



We started our journey with my hubby in the moving van pulling his car in front and me, my mother-in-law and the girls in the van. Birdie rode with Zach. We left that first day amidst a lot of goodbyes and tears. My best friend came by to tell me bye and represent my family. She was not a happy camper! I really felt bad for my father-in-law who watched all of us pull away and had to go back into what must have been the quietest house EVER! My poor momma and daddy were both at work back in Orangeburg.



We drove that day from Clemson, SC to Tuscaloosa, AL. From one college town to another! It was a long day of driving but the girls did so much better than I thought they would! The next day we made it to Shreveport, LA. We spent the night there, got up and hit the road again. Now long into that drive we made it to TEXAS. That night we stopped in Abilene. The next morning we got up early and headed to Bronte.

When we arrived in Bronte, we found our new home and a lot of new friends came over to help us unload all our stuff.

So we are here! Have been for a little over a month now and we love it. It's hard sometimes when I think about how far away my family and friends are. It hard on Carly too.
The good thing is we know this is where God wants us and He will Bless us for following Him!

Goals for 2011

As I mentioned yesterday, today I am going to write about my goals. I have done the whole new years resolution thing before and failed each time! So let me make this clear, this is not a resolution. These are goals...they will for the most part be measurable. I have been thinking about them for several days so here they go.

Physical goal: Lose 75 lbs (this is more than a weight loss goal, this is a goal to lengthen my life, be able to play with my daughters more, to feel better about myself, and of course to look better too.)

Social: Make new friends in our new home town, keep in touch with friends in Clemson/Seneca/Greenville/etc., Skype with my bestfriend at least once a week and let our daughters see each other

Spiritual: Read the entire Bible, have a quiet time at least 4 days a week (I want to do it every day but my first goal will be 4 times), share Christ with with my daughters every day, share Christ with at least one person a month

Financial: Pay off the van, save at least 1 months worth of emergency money

Marital: communicate better with my husband, support my husbands ministry, set up at least 3 hours a week of just Zach/Michelle time!!!!

At home: set up a revolving menu, establish a cleaning schedule that minimizes cleaning time and maximizes Mommy time, cut down on the wasteful time on computer, set up a family game night at least once every two weeks to play games with Carly

This year I want to make myself proud. I want to clarify that statement...it is not about being prideful...it's about being proud of yourself and having no regrets...it's living life to it's fullest! There are more things I want to do but these are my GOALS. I plan to update you at least once a month on my progress.

Are there any goals you have for this coming year! Remember for them to be goals they have to be measurable.

Busy, Busy, Busy...

Sorry it's been awhile. We have been super busy around here. We went to visit a church in Texas and now will be moving there in January. To be honest, before we went to Texas I was convinced we were wasting our time by going there. I just knew it wasn't the place for us. What a difference a weekend can make. Bronte is a very small town in Texas. The people of Bronte are some of the nicest I have ever met in my life. Zach and I both felt like we were more welcome there than we had ever been. We prayed about and on January 8th we will become citizens of Bronte, Texas. There is a lot to do before we can pull out.

Please pray for us as we embark on this new journey with our family. We are trying to follow God's path for our life.

On other news, I can't wait for Wed night!!!!! Zach is taking me to a Garth Brooks concert!!!!! Woo Hoo!

Tomorrow come back for my 2011 Goals.

Prayer Photo Album

I just received a Christmas Card address list from a message board I am a part of. As I thought of sending out pictures of my family and receiving pictures of others, I wondered what I would do with the pictures this year. Most years they go up on the fridge and sometimes they fall and end up under the fridge. Sometimes they get shoved on top of the fridge. I love to look at them and think of the people who sent them to me but I have never taken a "next step" with them.

So this year I thought of a next step...I am going to make a prayer album. I will put the pictures sent to me in a special album and commit to praying for these families while looking at their picture at least once a week for the next year. I think it will be a neat way to remember to pray for them and for Carly to get to help by seeing the families we are praying for.

So I challenge you this year to do the same, esp if you get a picture of my family! Take the time to pray for blessing on others this season and this coming year. Let's see what blessings God will pour down!

If you want to receive or send a picture/Christmas card to/from me please email me at comment on this post!

Super Sunday...Super Dad, My Hubby

This post wont be long. I just want to say that I love my husband dearly and am so thankful for him. He is the best daddy! I love to see him with our daughters. A lot of dads don't do diapers, read to their children or put them to bed. A lot of dads don't take the time to learn how to put their daughters hair in a pony tail. My girls are fortunate enough that their daddy does all those things. I love to hear him sing to Carly at bed time. And even more...I love to hear her say, "Daddy" "what" "I love you!". It is just the most precious thing! He truly is a Super Dad!

A giveaway

http://wingerteam.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway.html

Head over and check out this amazing woman's blog.

Super Monday...Super Cool Way to Cut Up Grapes

So how many of you feed your young children grapes? If you are like me you love to feed them something good for them but hate the time it takes to cut up each individual grape. Be honest, it's a pain in the tucus. ( I have no idea if I spelled that right?) Carly loves them but I don't give them to her as often as she would like because of that.

Well that is in the past now. While watching 30 Minute Meals a few days ago, I saw the answer to this problem. She showed a way to cut several grapes at once. I have tried it a few times and it works!! You can also use this method to cup cherry tomatoes (which Carly also loves). So I just knew I wanted to share it with all of you in case you didn't see it yourself.

So go into the kitchen and get 2 deli lids (any small lids from bowls will work), some grapes and a knife that is at least as long as the lids are wide.

Step one: Lay lids side by side.

Step two: Put grapes on top of one lid turned upside down. Fill it up.

Step three: Place other lide on top.

Step four: Slide knife between two lids while pressing down.

Step five: Enjoy fresh grapes easily cut in half.

Go ahead and try it! it's too cool.

Hope this is exciting for you. I just love it!

The Beholder of Beauty: Beauty is Free Stuff

The Beholder of Beauty: Beauty is Free Stuff: "What?! I went to bed with 9 followers and woke up with 11! You know what that means... Giveaway time!! Nothing fancy. Just some cute stuff I..."

Arizona

Zach has been talking to a church in Arizona. You got that right...ARIZONA. As in, a 32 HOUR drive from here!!!!! Now you're asking...How do you feel about that? I am scared, excited, sad, happy and on and on. My emotions are all over the map. That is so far away from everything I have ever known. We were looking at pictures today and it hit me that there are no TREES!!! I grew up in trees and there are none like I am used to there. Wow!

You may be wondering, how do you really feel. I want to make something clear. Before Zach and I got married I knew he wanted to go into ministry. It was not a surprise to me. I felt called to do it with him. We are partners! When you decide to go into ministry, you quickly find out that there are NO guarentees except that God goes with you. You have to lay down your life and pick up the cross. That means that you go where ever God leads you. Do I want to move all the way across the US? NO. But I do want to go where God wants to send us! So I submit to my God and my husband's wisdom. Because, where ever I am God is there with me!

I will keep you updated on whether we are going there or not. Only God knows at this time. My pray is that HIS WILL BE DONE!!!!