Paisley Print.

We're Almost to Texas!

2 more days until Texas! (As if you can't see the little ticker counting down the days!)

We are so excited and I can hardly wait. This week has actually flown by faster than I thought!

I am going to be busy tomorrow packing and getting the house in order before we leave.

We are flying out of St. Louis on Saturday evening. I will be back sometime in the next two weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to post this on my blog to ask for much needed prayer. One of my middle school girls in our youth group just sent me a message to let me know her dad, Duane, is in cardiac ICU right now on a ventilator. He went in yesterday for a minor back surgery and had a heart attack in the operating room. His heart stopped and they did CPR on him twice. Now he needs open heart surgery, but I don't think he is even stable enough at this point for that.

I can't even imagine what she is going through right now...she is missing school to stay with her dad at the hospital. She is very worried and scared for her dad. Please lift up this entire family in your prayers.

Kitchen Story #1

I finally got around to getting some pictures of the new kitchen.

Remodeling our kitchen has been a long two month process, and at times it seemed to take forever to make any progress. I honestly didn't think it would take that long with a kitchen as small as ours. Let's just say that the organization and communication of our sales coordinator and contractors weren't as efficient as they could have been, but I would still do it again. I have learned many things, including that I needed to improve in the area of having patience. :)

Here was our timeline in a nutshell:

September 6th-We first went to Lowe's to arrange for installation of the cabinets, countertop and sink. We had to discuss measurements and a blueprint for the kitchen.

September 11th-Our contractor came to our house to measure for the cabinets. We decided we wanted to add extra cabinets above our washer and dryer (which is in our kitchen as well) and above our range/fridge area to allow for more storage space.

September 14th-We met our sales coordinator at Lowe's to finalize and pay for everything. We came home excited and ready to have a new kitchen in the next week or so....or so we thought. :)

September 17th-Our cabinets were delivered to our house. They took up half of our living room.

October 2nd-It wasn't until this day that we finally got our new cabinets installed. Apparently our contractors only work Monday through Thursday, which made it very difficult to arrange for an installation since Friday is my only day off and dh works Mon-Fri. They made an "exception" for us, however, and we were able to schedule it for this day.

I spent the few nights before packing everything into boxes, which was hard work. I bought paper plates and utensils and that is what we ate off of for the next few long weeks while we were without a kitchen sink.

October 6th-I only had to work the morning of the 6th, so we were able to arrange for the countertop measurements to be done on this day.

October 16th-Our countertop was delivered. It made its home on our living room floor. We also had measurements done for our tile backsplash (Originally, we weren't anticipating replacing our backsplash, but now I'm glad we did. Our previous backsplash was a white laminate material and some of it had to be ripped off when they tore out the old cabinets.)

October 22nd-Met with our sales coordinator to pick out tiles for our backsplash and finalize everything. We chose a 4x4" porcelain tile, Rialto White, and a decorative tile to go with it.

October 23rd-Our countertop and sink was installed. I have never been happier to have a kitchen sink and wash my own dishes again! It had been three long weeks without a sink and now I've learned to REALLY appreciate the blessing of having a sink with running water. Even if I have to continue to do dishes by hand, I will gladly do so. :)

By the end of the week of Oct. 26-30 or the beginning of the week of Nov. 2-6 we had expected to hear from our tile contractor to schedule a time to install our backsplash. When we still hadn't heard anything, I called Lowe's and they said they would call him to find out. The next day we heard from the tile contractor, who said they had never heard from Lowe's that we had finalized and paid for everything, so they didn't know they had the green light to schedule the installation.

November 13th-Tile backsplash installed. We also got our new gas range delivered. (You can read more about that here.)

So that's why it's been a long, sometimes frustrating, process.

I'm glad it's mostly over now. I still have to paint (we have chosen a pretty green color, called Dusty Leaf by Waverly), which I am planning on doing sometime soon.

Then we will most likely replace our linoleum floor in the spring/summer with wood laminate flooring, but dh is planning on doing that himself with the help of a friend.

So...are you ready for pictures???

(Keep reading!)

Kitchen Story #2 (Before and After Pictures)

BEFORE:

The contractors told us that the wall cabinets were the original cabinets that were built when the house was built in the 1930's. The base cabinets must have been added later.

AFTER:

We replaced our old double bowl sink with a stainless steel single bowl sink, which gives us a few extra inches of much-needed counter space.

And the stove before and after!

Goodbye, Old Faithful Stove...& Other Happenings Around Here

It has been a busy weekend so far!

Yesterday we finally got our tile backsplash installed and our new gas range delivered. Hopefully tomorrow we can get the gas range kit that we need (the stove didn't come with it) in order to hook up the new stove. The delivery people apparently don't hook up gas stoves, we found out.

It was a little bittersweet to get rid of our old stove...it was an old, old Sears-Kenmore continuous cleaning gas range from the 1970's, complete with the brown flowers on the stove backguard! It was definitely dated, but it was a good stove. It came with our house when we bought it 3 1/2 years ago and who knows how many people have lived here and used it over the past 30 or so years. The back two burners were the only two that still worked, the oven door didn't close completely (leaving a 1-2 inch gap), and I had to adjust my cooking time on almost everything so it didn't burn. I have set off the smoke alarm many times over the past 3 1/2 years because of that stove! But if I adjusted the time about 10 minutes less than the recommended cooking time, it was usually just right.

Our new stove has an ELECTRONIC timer and clock! It also has an oven light! We are moving up in the world! :)

Moving on...today I met my best friend and all her other bridesmaids at David's Bridal to try on our bridesmaids dresses for her wedding in May.

We ordered our dresses and then...went out for ice cream. :)

Then tonight we had a dessert fellowship at church for all the deacons and their families. My husband, who has served his "trial" period as a deacon at our church for a year, is now getting ordained as a deacon tomorrow during our late morning service. I am so very proud of him and proud to be his wife! There is one other deacon that is going to be ordained tomorrow as well at the earlier morning service.

I was going to try to post kitchen pictures but my camera battery was dead and then I had to search high and low for the battery charger. I promise to post some soon though!

Peppermint Bark

Photo from williams-sonoma.com.

Every year around Christmas time, my aunt sends us peppermint bark from Williams-Sonoma.

It is my favorite Christmas treat and there is no other peppermint bark like it! It is rich and creamy with just the right peppermint taste, not too little and not too much. It is seriously addicting.

Today I got home and discovered a package on our front porch. Since we weren't expecting anything in the mail, I was rather surprised. Then I opened it to find two tins of peppermint bark! I was so excited. I am going to try to save them for Christmas, but I may have to taste test it first. ;)

It's a little pricey per tin, but it's totally worth it. If you're looking for a Christmas gift to give, this is the perfect one!

Taco Soup

I had never had taco soup before, but when I tried this for the first time and tasted how delicious it was, I decided I had to make it! Yesterday I doubled the recipe to make enough to feed around 40 youth, plus several adults. Everyone seemed to like it!

This recipe is so easy--you literally just throw everything into a large pot (or crockpot) and heat through until hot. The hardest part is opening all the cans! :)

Taco Soup

2 lbs. ground beef

1 can pinto beans (rinsed)

1 can black beans (rinsed)

1 can chili beans

2 cans whole kernel corn

1 can tomato sauce

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 package taco seasoning

1 package ranch dressing mix

1 tbsp. chili powder

Brown ground beef and drain. Add all ingredients to large pot, mix and heat until hot.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream!

Blessed Be Your Name

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's all as it should be
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be Your name

Good Saturday

Sooooo...today was a GORGEOUS day outside! I am so glad we took the time to get outside to get some fresh air and enjoy the beautiful weather.

My little sister came over this morning to spend the day with us. I did some laundry and cleaning, then all three of us went on a walk with our dog Abby. There is a park across the street, but we walked a few blocks down the street to a smaller, quieter park. It really just has a huge grassy area and a swing set. Did I mention I forgot how much fun swinging was?! It's been at least a couple of years since I swung (swang?!) on a swing.

We did that for awhile and Abby just sat there like a well behaved dog and watched us. Then she had to get some energy out. We made a huge pile of leaves and watched her as she ran around in the leaves like a maniac. She literally was going crazy and running so fast it was hilarious! She had a great time! I wish I could have gotten it on video or at least gotten a picture of her, running around like a chicken with her head cut off!!

Since it was so warm outside (AWESOME weather for November! Seriously, I wish every day was like this...) we went to Coldstone to get ice cream. Then we decided to be spontaneous and dh treated us to the movies. We went to see "A Christmas Carol." It was okay...I didn't realize it was going to have so many scary parts. It's PG, but definitely not for younger kids (and there were a lot of younger kids in the theatre!)

Anyways, it was fun and we don't get to go to the movies a lot.

That was our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow I am making the Sun. night meal for 35-40 youth. I am going to be trying out a recipe for taco soup! I hope it turns out well...stay tuned for the recipe!