Hot & Pink

What do you think? Should I get them? Are they too reminiscent of the 80's? Can I even walk in them? I left them at the store today, but I wonder if I should go back and buy them. They were priced at $26.99. Hmmm......

Gretchen

The many funny and beautiful faces my Gretchen likes to make!

I'm not tired!

Yea, that's what they always say when they are near the point of exhaustion. Case in point:

Purses

I've been making purses lately, and I just love them! My friend Patty taught me how to make them. They are pretty easy, and the color combos are endless. I've made two so far, but have bought fabric to make several more. My next step is to start adding a few flower embellishments to them, and buy the closures for them, because right now they are just open top purses. But here are my first two:

Forever Family Anniversary

Today was the 2nd anniversary of the adoption of our three beautiful, energetic, life-loving children. It was a bright and sunny day, so we joined Auntie Brenda and Nicolas at the Valley Mall for some lunch, and then drove down to Discovery Park for some playtime. The kids had a ball. For dinner, we joined my parents and a friend from church for dinner at Red Robin. We gave the kids each a new book to commemorate the day and had a yummy dinner.

A New Home!

Well, we have made a huge leap - we are buying a house. And not just a house, but 10 acres of land along with it, and a large shop/garage, and hopefully, a lifetime of memories. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! I've been so eager to get back to living in the country, and God has found a way to grant me my dream. We got it at a great price, a steal some would say, but I know that it was put there for us. Do you want to see it? Here are a couple of photos of it:

The house - look at all the trees around it! And it's so quiet out there!

The backyard - needs some serious watering, but come next spring, it should look awesome.


We close in a couple of weeks, and start moving things out there soon after. I've been cleaning and packing, but need to move it into high gear now.

I Heart Faces Week 37 - Vroom Vroom!

This week's challenge was to use some sort of vehicle in the photo. I love this one of Daniel on a vintage farm tractor at one of the Greenbluff Farms last fall.

To see more entries, head on over to I Heart Faces

Winning Pillsbury Bake-off Recipe

OK, I'm a little disappointed. Maybe a lot disappointed.

Some of you may remember - I don't know, all two or three of you that read my blog - that I entered the Pillsbury Bake-off Contest last year. Here is the post about it if you don't remember.

Out of curiosity, I went on to the Pillsbury site tonight to see who had won the contest. This is the winning recipe. Really? Really? It seems this contest has become more of "how can you super simply use our products", rather than how good are your kitchen skills. I don't know - you tell me - what do you think of this winning recipe?

By the way, the recipe I submitted was for Thai Chicken Pizza, with a homemade sauce on a refrigerated pizza crust from Pillsbury, which was one of the requirements - that I use at least one of their products in my recipe. I actually used two qualifying products - the pizza crust and the peanut butter. Would you like to try a losing recipe? Here is mine, although not in such great detail as the one I had to submit for the contest. But you can get the idea.

Meegan's Peanut Sauce
1/2 c. crunchy peanut butter
2 T. soy sauce
1 t. white sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
1-2 t. dried pepper flakes
1/2 c water

In a small pan, stir together peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, garlic and pepper flakes until well mixed. Gradually stir in water until texture is smooth and creamy. Cook over medium heat until slightly bubbly.

For the pizza, spread 1/2 of sauce on a pizza crust. Put on a layer of cooked and chopped chicken. Arrange assorted veggies - my favorites are julienned carrots, red onions, and chopped broccoli. Pour remaining sauce over chicken and veggies, and sprinkle with a mixture of feta cheese and mozzarella cheese. Bake in oven according to pizza crust directions.

Enjoy - we love it!

MOPS

My MOPS Group started back up again today. It was a good meeting, and I absolutely love the decorations this year. I meant to take more pictures of the cool tables and such, but I ended up only taking the two below. I love how they re-purposed old doors and windows into chalkboards. This year the theme is Momology: The Art and Science of Mothering. Our verse for the year is Psalm 139:10, seen in the photo below. I'm really looking forward to getting to know my table mates this year.

Austin's First Day of Kindergarten

What a big day! Austin's first day in Kindergarten. He has been talking about it all summer. He was so excited. He got his school supplies and backpack two weeks ago, and has been showing it off to anyone who came near him! He has been talking about how "I'm 5 now and I know how it works". Such a smart kid! His first day went really well today, and I didn't cry a bit. There were plenty of other moms crying as they were leaving school, but I think both Austin and I were so excited for this next phase of his life that we didn't even think to cry over it. He had all the confidence in the world going into school, and hardly had time to say good-bye. James got off early so we could all pick him up together, and then we headed out to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate the big day. Such fun!