We're Back!

Why hello Blog.  It's nice to see you again.  I recently took a hiatus from this blog spot for many reasons but the most important one being I lost my username and password ( and by lost I mean I forgot) and I was too lazy to go through the digital cavity search that Google basically requires to retrieve that information.  However, this morning I said " Why not? " and spent upwards of 30 minutes practically filling out my entire life story so I could grace you all with my posts again.  I know you're forever grateful.
I also just realized it was EXACTLY a year ago today since I made my last post.  Apparently March 27th strikes me as a writing day.  Coincidence? I think not!
So much has changed since a year ago in our nutty little lives.   We bought a house ( we officially have to call ourselves grown up's now).

We became the parents of a kindergartener.   

And in case you were wondering, the metamorphosis of " becoming a kindergarten parent" entails sobbing hysterically for the last 3 months leading up to D-day and telling your husband 2 days before he starts school that you've decided homeschooling would probably be the best route for education. Or at least it did in my particular case.
But I survived.  He survived.  Derick survived ( although I'm sure he questioned his sanity after having to calm me down and remind me that " bullying " didn't apply to the little girl telling Carter he scribbled when coloring)... I mean, the horror!!

Our middle and hilariously oblivious son Jax has had to adjust to not having older bro around the entertain him.  He also discovered his passion for Wii video games and I've recently contemplated an intervention.  The kid eats, breathes, and sleeps Mario Brothers.  But I suppose his brain isn't completely going to mush since we've made major strides in learning to spell his name and recognize letters and numbers.  Previous lessons had included me asking " Jax, what letter is this?" And him replying confidently " 7!!"
Yep, we've made leaps and bounds in progress.

But he's hysterical and witty and you have to admit that any kid who falls over the same object 3 times and never moves said object is pretty darn love able.  :) 

Then there is our sassy pants Audrey.  She has really grown in the last year - maybe the most drastically out of the 3.  However,  I'm going to steal a friends mentality though and upgrade her from a newborn to an infant.  No one ever said denial wasn't a happy place.  This girl is a walking firecracker bedazzled in sparkles and everything pink.  I never knew I could KNOW so much about Disney princesses without being admitted into a mental hospital.  She gives her older brothers a run for their money and I must admit I love that about her ( except when she's giving me a run for my money... Then it's not quite as entertaining) 

She's 2.5 going on 25 and certainly acts like it some days.  

Then there is my right hand man.  My main squeeze.  My honey bunch.  Ok, I'll stop.  He's done a lot in this last year. The biggest recently was securing a trainee position for a lineman apprenticeship program.  AND getting to do it in our town.  Which was a big dang deal considering he'd been commuting everyday and he hated that drive.  He recently started at his new office here in town this week and so far all is good ( even though I worried and acted like a total Mama Bear who was sending my kid off school).  He had to remind he was a 30 year old man capable of making new friends.  To keep it extremely short, this whole situation with his job has been one answered prayer after another and aside from Dericks hard work,  God has yet again taken care of our family in ways we really thought were impossible.  

So I guess this post was more of a " I'm going to talk about our family and all the normal, mundane things we've done in a year and you all be really excited about it" post.  Which I'm sure is exactly what everyone is doing.  I'll look for it to be a viral sensation soon and shared on a The Today Show like tomorrow.  

In the meantime, have a great week my friends.  

The " No - No" Post.

You'd pretty much have to live under a rock right now to not be aware of what is happening.  If you have Facebook, Twitter, a television or radio, you're aware of the hot topic "marriage equality" debate.  It's hoarding my news feed on Facebook to the point where I counted every other post had something to do with it.  For the most part, I have stayed out of it.  It's a heated issue.  It can get ugly.  People get hot headed and irate and friendships can be ruined.
Late last night, I was surfing Facebook (does anyone even say "surfing" anymore?) and I ran across a post where someone wrote that if you're against marriage equality, you're prejudiced.  That just didn't sit well with me.  I mean, I don't know this person.  They didn't know me from Adam.  I hadn't called them prejudiced against Christians for being an advocate on this issue.  It just didn't seem fair.  The more I thought about it, the more I decided to ask them why they thought this.  I wrote that because I chose to follow the Bible on what God says regarding homosexuality, in my mind, does not make me prejudiced.  Since when did standing up for a certain belief or idea make that person an out dated, back woods, hillbilly who is against any progression in the United States??
They then responded with the classic " Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".  Okay, if I'm being completely and TRUTHFULLY honest here, I don't feel that scripture applies to me disagreeing with homosexuality.  It's being taken and shaped into what we as people want it to be.  Which is that we're not allowed to judge so in doing that we're not allowed to open our mouths and stand up for what we KNOW as Christians is morally wrong.  We're being complacent. We don't want to "offend" anyone.  Frankly, I'm tired of having to tip toe around worrying if I'll offend someone because I'm stating what the Bible says.  The Bible tells us to  “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."  I don't believe that it means we get to pick and choose what we witness about and what we don't.  We're supposed to follow all of God's word, not just the parts that are easy.  With that all being said, I'm not condoning hate.  I'm not condoning cruelty.  I have friends whom are gay.  I would never want to see them hurt, beaten, abused, or tortured because they are gay.  However, they know my opinion on the issue.  They know I do not agree with their lifestyle.  And all I can do as a Christian is pray for their hearts.  Pray for their salvation.  I do not have to beat a Bible over their head and condemn them to the pits of Hell because as we all know, that's not effective.  I simply think that we, as Christians, are starting to conform to what society wants us to believe by making us feel we're "out dated" if we don't.  And I'm afraid that the minute we start losing touch with what the Bible says, twisting it and conforming it into what we WANT it to say, is when we're all in trouble.
And with that, I'll happily step down off my soap box.  

Busy Bee's

To say it's been "awhile" since my last entry I guess would be an understatement.  Life happens. Kids happen.  Put together makes for very little time to blog.  However, here I am, at 4:30 in the afternoon sipping some caramel mocha coffee and avoiding the laundry that keeps beckoning me to fold it.  Instead, I figured I'd update everyone on, well, our marvelously mundane life.  :)
Since my last entry, Derick found out his discharge date from the good ol USMC.  That made for a few mixed emotions on my end.  Elated joy on Derick's. :)  I think I'm more attached to this lifestyle than he is.  Regardless, we will be regular old "joe schmoes" come Nov 29th.  He goes on terminal tomorrow and is pretty happy about it.
Everything is progressing smoothly with our plans to move out into town (Stafford for all my local friends!)   It hasn't gotten "crazy" yet but I think this is the calm before the storm.  I'm just bracing myself for bouts of insanity come about 2 weeks from now.  Which I'm sure will make Derick feel like he's living with an OCD, menopausal, psycho path until I'm certain that TMO hasn't lost any of our possessions.  Sounds like fun, right?
On a side note, our baby girl has started walking.  Yes, I cried. And yes, I danced around like an idiot when she took her first steps, ultimately scaring her to death and pausing any more walking attempts for a good 3 hours.  But,  she is now a full blown walking machine and is loving all the new mischief she can find.

Carter lost his first tooth about a week ago.  Again, I cried ( it's been an emotional month...)  He yanked "the sucker" (his words) out with his own two little hands and is now checking approximately every 2 hours to see if his big tooth has made its appearance.

Jax is, well, Jax.  I say that because to list all the things that boy does would take me a few zillion pages.  He makes me laugh harder ( and yell louder) than probably any person on this planet.  But I sure do love him.  He did have an ENT appointment a few weeks ago and his tubes were still in place and looking great.  His speech is improving daily and the difference in his vocabulary from pre tubes to now is remarkable.  No speech therapy for our little "mayhem".  :)

As for me, I got an iPhone.  For those of you who are close to me, you'll see what a milestone this is.  I caved, tossed my ancient cell phone to the wind ( okay, actually Carter broke it, but that's not the point) and went down to good ol' Best Buy and said hello to modern technology.  I'm now one of those people who checks my phone every 2 seconds and pretty much has it glued to my hand.  I love it.
I think that about sums it up for our crazy little family.  To any of you who kept up with our blog ( if there even was any... ;) I apologize for the lag in posting.  I'll try to ignore my children more frequently so I can write more often.  Just kidding. Sort of.  :)

Homemade Salted Caramel Coffee Creamer

So, I have to start off by saying that while I'd LOVE to take credit for this fantastic idea (and recipe)... well... I can't.  I have to give props to my good friend Jessica Recore who so graciously shared this with me. Being the coffee junkie that I am, I go through creamer at a ridiculous rate.  I decided to give her recipe a shot - it had the words chocolate and salted caramel in it so I was automatically sold!  After I made it ( which by the way took me all of about 3 minutes!) I was in love.  So, thank you Jessica!  I'm now going to spread my addiction to the world :)

What you'll need:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 package of hot cocoa mix ( I bought Starbucks Salted Caramel)
1/2 cup (give or take) of milk



Whisk ingredients together until smooth and thinned out resembling the consistency of coffee creamer.




The finished product!!  I poured mine in an old coffee mate container I had :)





ENJOY!!!

Are you there God? It's me again...that crazy lady who keeps bugging you!

So, as many of our friends and family know, Derick will soon be medically separated from the good ol' Marine Corps.   It's taken a lot of tears and cups of coffee for me to process my life without someone in digiflage calling most of the shots.  Call me crazy, insane, or a masochist but I like this life.  It may be hard and not always ideal, but it's been "the normal" for me since I packed up my things at newly 20 years old and headed off to California to be with my new Marine husband.

So, here we are - 6 years, 2 deployments, and 3 kids later and we're facing the dreaded word that most military families cringe at ... CIVILIAN life!  Eeeeeek!  Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of praying the last few months.  Which leads me to the point of my rambling.  About 2 weeks ago I decided I needed to pray... and when I say pray, I didn't mean the couple word prayers that I sometimes sputter out when I'm aggravated or upset ( "Lord, help me not kill my children")... No, I mean the long, heart to heart, soul cleansing, comforting, conversation with God.  So I went to the only place where I ever have a smidgen of privacy - the bathroom!  I figured God wouldn't mind.  And I spent about 40 minutes just talking and praying with him.  I gave up the burden of worry and anxiety that had been weighing on me about this whole job process for Derick.  I prayed God would open the right doors and lead our family to the right job for him.  I prayed for God to change me, allow me to be the wife Derick needed me to be, the mother my kids needed me to be, and most of all, I prayed for peace and comfort as we enter this new chapter of our lives that is very much unknown right now. I gave the entire situation to Him and asked for God to control it.  Whatever His will was, then that's what I wanted.  I left that bathroom feeling a heck of a lot better than when I went into it.
The next day, Derick came home and told me he had an interview with a certain job he had been interested in.  Then a few days later, another job opened up to him.  A few days after that, a road block we had encountered regarding the military and a certain civilian job was removed.  Little by little, I could see things changing.  It's like I'm watching and witnessing God carving out the path for our family.
I saw a quote in one of my Bible devotionals.  It read " "Prayer does not change the purpose of God.  But prayer does change the action of God."

My 40 minutes in the bathroom may have been just a minuscule amount of time but I believed it changed alot.  I'm now not so anxious or worried by our future but I have peace that no matter what, we'll be taken care of.  And you can bet I'll be spending a lot more time on my knee's ... in the bathroom.  :) 


 

Grandma Board's Chicken Rotel

Recently, my Paw (Grandpa Board) was hospitalized for a bowel obstruction.  He had surgery Friday morning and so far is in the ICU recovering.  His wife, my Grandma Board, is the author of many recipes my grandmother and mother passed down to me when I got married.  Very few people are lucky enough in life to have their great grandparents around when they are born, much less to grow up with them.  At 26 years old, I still have both my great grandparents and my children are blessed enough to know their great-great grandparents "Gigi and Paw".
My Grandma Board now has Alzheimer's and as I mentioned earlier, Paw is in the hospital.  These circumstances made me think about the many memories I have and the times spent with them.  Every Christmas Eve piled into their tiny house on Madison street.  Summer afternoon's swinging on their front porch.  Grandma making us cackle with laughter at her impression of a woman named "Annie" from back home.  The smell of Grandma's Coconut Cream Pie.  Childhood memories that are more precious to me than any material item I could ever own.  I may have grown up, have 3 little ones of my own, but anytime I make Chicken Rotel ( a staple of my Grandma's) I can't help but think of her and smile.  She doesn't remember people or places as much as she used to.  Alzheimer's is a wicked disease that doesn't play fair.  But she'll always be, in my mind, the sweet, gentle, loving, funny, cooky, God-fearing, prayer warrior grandmother that gave me and my brother and sister so many irreplaceable childhood memories.

Grandma Board's Chicken Rotel
4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ; cooked and shredded
1 chopped onion
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 bag Nacho Cheese Dorito's; crushed
1- 8 oz cream cheese
2 cans Rotel

Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.  Place shredded chicken in bottom of dish.  Add the chopped onion on top of chicken.  Add the crushed Dorito's on top of the onion so you're making layers.  In a medium sauce pan over low heat, add the soups, cream cheese, and Rotel.  Stir constantly until melted and heated through but not boiling.  Pour over the layered casserole.  Bake at 375 for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Homemade Ranch Dressing

I decided to start making my own Ranch dressing after seeing Jax break out in splotchy, red spots anytime he would eat bottled Ranch dressing.  My kids practically drink the stuff and I came to realize that it must be some preservative in bottled dressing that Jax is either allergic or sensitive to.  I mixed up a batch and let him eat that and low and behold, he didn't break out!  Not one spot! I've recently had a lot of my friends asking me for the recipe for homemade Ranch dressing.  While it's very easy to find recipes online for various ways to make it, I decided to experiment and find my own way of making it that I like.  After about a month of making it different ways I think I have finally perfected it!  So, for anyone who wanted it - here's the recipe! 

1 cup mayo ( I use regular) 

1 cup sour cream ( also regular)

1/2 cup buttermilk  ( you can use less for a thicker, more "dip like" consistency)

1 tsp freeze dried chives1 tsp parsley

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/4 to 1/2 tsp ceyenne pepper

1/2 tsp ground sea salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend on low until smooth.  Taste and add any additional seasonings/spices as desired.  Enjoy!!