You can Find us at the Y-M-C-A

You know you're singing it now ... you're welcome :o).  One of the things we love about our new home is the YMCA that is just around the corner.  The kids are soaking up all of the activity that goes on there and John and I are trying to keep up with them!  Will is playing basketball and looks forward to the games every week.  He's been learning a lot about the game and he *might* even be a little bit tired after the practices & games each week (but probably not!)  Kate is taking "nastics" and her favorite part of the class is when they get to jump on the "jumpoline".  Somehow she seems to have even more energy after her weekly class.  I'm so thankful for two healthy children who love to run, jump, and play.  Now for the good part ... pictures. 

Will is all about defense!

I love this picture - notice Will's teammate's arm around Will's shoulders!

Go team!

Ready to play!

This might be my favorite picture of Will so far this season.  He is really serious about defense!

We always start with stretching!

Ta-da!

By far, Kate's favorite part of "nastics" is jumping on the "jumpoline"

I'll admit I'm biased, but this girl is beautiful!

This is serious business!

I love gymnastics!

How to make a "peanutbutterjelly" by Kate

First, you spread the "peanutbutterjelly"

Then you smile for your mama to take a picture

The you spread the "peanutbutterjelly" on the other bread

Cut your sandwich into 4 triangles

Add Doritos - don't skip this step!

Can you tell how much Kate likes this step

You should probably taste a Dorito just to make sure it tastes alright

Admire your sandwich and enjoy!

Fancier than Spaghetti

I am not a fancy cook.  Really.  When John called yesterday to say he was on his way home, the conversation quickly turned to what was really on his mind ... "What's for dinner?"  Chicken Carbonara, I replied, which was followed by silence.  "No, really, what's for dinner?"  Chicken Carbonara.  "What is that?"  I told you I'm not fancy.  My itallian repertoire can be summed up in two (count 'em, 1 ... 2) dishes - spaghetti and frozen pizza.  I've been determined to try out some new recipes and somehow, my attempts have not been terrible but actually edible!    So this week I adapted (oh, yes I did!) this recipe to suit my family - mainly, I don't eat shrimp, so I changed it to chicken.  This recipe is so easy ... almost as easy as opening a jar of spaghetti sauce.  It was a big hit with John, only now I think he'll be disappointed the next time he asks "What's for dinner?" and I say spaghetti.  Let me know if you try it!!

Chicken Carbonara

 

Ingredients:

½ lb spaghetti, uncooked
4 slices bacon, chopped

2 uncooked chicken breasts, cubed
1 cup frozen peas
1 tub (10 oz) Philadelphia Italian Cheese and Herb Cooking Creme

 
Cook spaghetti in large saucepan as directed on package, omitting salt. Meanwhile, cook bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet with slotted spoon, reserving 1 Tbsp. drippings in skillet. Drain bacon on paper towels.
 
Add chicken to reserved drippings; cook and stir on medium heat @ 7-10 min. until done.  Stir in peas & bacon crumbles; cook 1 min. Add cooking creme; cook and stir 3 min. or until heated through.
 
Top cooked spaghetti noodles with chicken mixture, enjoy!

 

 

 

When my Wonderful Life turns Crazy

I'm back ... at least I'm trying to be!  Lots of things have happened since my last post a few weeks ago.  I've wondered if I should try to go back and re-create the events of those weeks, but obviously I haven't found the time to do that.  Should I just jump in with what is happening right now?  No, I'm just feeling like I should put my heart out there in this one.
Sometimes, in the midst of "life" happening, it just doesn't seem so wonderful.  It seems more like - well, crazy.  I've realized that my focus has been in the wrong place.  In the middle of the boxes of things that still need to find a home, the stacks of pictures that need to find a place on the wall, and the ever growing to-do list, I lost my perspective.  Looking for a new church home seemed like it should be exciting.  It's been hard.  We're trying to find the balance between looking for the place where the Lord wants our family to serve Him and love others, and the place where we feel like our family can grow to know Him more.  Not to even mention worship styles, Sunday School vs Community Groups, and dress code!  I started trusting in myself to find the "perfect" place instead of waiting on the Lord to lead us to His perfect plan for our family.  And finally, I miss my friends.  I think it's true that sometimes "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone."  There's a group of girls in Oklahoma that I'd give almost anything to meet at Starbucks tonight to talk and laugh until well past closing time.  The kind of girls that live life with you - carrying your burdens, taking care of your kids when you need a haircut OR a date night, and laughing with you until your cheeks hurt.
So, that's why I haven't been blogging ... who wants to read about me wallowing in self pity!?!  While John was gone this summer, I read Philippians chapter 4 every night before I went to bed.  I started reading it with verses 6-7 being my prayer for a restful night's sleep.  The Lord used it to open up my eyes and heart to so many other things He had to say to me through all of Chapter 4.  This past Saturday, I opened my Bible and it naturally fell open to Phil. 4.  This time, verse 8 just jumped off of the page at me.  

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."  

While in my head, I knew that my problems were not at all a big deal compared to what is going on in the world around me, my heart wasn't listening to my head.   I had stopped looking for the good, true, right, pure, and lovely things God was doing in our life.  The house is coming along - I may even post pictures in a week or two :o).  We've found a wonderful place to serve and worship the Lord and we're excited to get involved with this community of believers.  And, I had to remind myself that friendships are not formed over night.  There are several girls who've gone out of their way to make our family feel welcome here.  Maybe I can start a Starbuck's tradition in Wichita - who knows!?!  Bonus ... I'm headed to OK for a girl's weekend this Friday - can't wait to see you girls!!  

Most importantly, I was reminded that even when life gets crazy, hard, not pretty, or even painful - and it will - it can still be wonderful when I keep my focus on Him.


***I'll end with a cute picture of the kids so you can see that we've moved on from crazy and we're back to living that Wonderful Life!***

Will had us cracking up with his 'stache.  He insisted that it go over his mouth & not above it!

Some Rules were Meant to be Broken

 ***Attention grandparents and other concerned parties, no children were harmed during the taking of these pictures***

I'm running out of ideas in this "temporary home". Our new house is SO close to being finished that I just almost can't stand it! So, we've resorted to jumping on the beds. And jumping between beds. And jumping from the bed to the floor. And turning back flips. Okay not really. But these two monkeys are loving (and taking full advantage) of mom's lapse in judgement. And so far no one has fallen off and bumped their head. I see a trampoline in our future.

Temporary Fun

It's kind of funny how things work isn't it? The kids and I spent a week in a hotel with John just before he left for his deployment. It was fun ... for the first night. :o) I took crazy pictures of the kids thinking I would eventually blog about how you keep your kids entertained in a hotel for a week. Well, those pictures are now on our computer that's all packed up and stored away for a few more weeks (and let's just be honest, at this point you'll probably never see them!) While we were there, we met a family at the pool who was staying at the hotel for 4 weeks while their house was finished. Four weeks!?! I couldn't even imagine. Well, guess what!?! Now, I don't have to imagine, because we're living it ourselves. There's not one thing to complain about, but some of the logistics have been interesting. I let each of the kids pack a small rubbermaid box of toys. Will's box has a mix of legos, transformers, and bakugans. Kate, oh Kate. Somehow, we managed to fit a baby, the baby's diaper bag complete with diaper, wipes, food, and bottles, one pair of "C-rella" dress up shoes, a purse, pretend hair dryer, and an old cell phone into her box. She wanted to bring her kitchen, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Miraculously, those small boxes have provided hours of entertainment. In the whirlwind of packing up our house, I was trying to pack clothes for all of us for 6 weeks. This was the third week of August on about the 69th day of over 100 degree temps. Can you guess what I packed? Shorts, tank tops, t-shirts, flip flops, bathing suits. I'm loving the cooler weather that September 4th brought and we are all loving the two, count 'em 1, 2, cool weather outfits I brought for each of us. Last week, I *got* to wash Will's jeans every night so that he could wear them again the next day. Once we found out we were going to be staying in a furnished apartment, I didn't worry at all about packing anything from the kitchen. Well, just in case you were wondering, we have had some seriously creative meals with our two pots and one pan. Note to self, if you have to do this again, keep out a pizza cutter, cutting board, frying pan, and cups that don't break when they're dropped. Will and Kate have now shared a room for most of the past 4 months (our long trip home this summer and now our time in the apartment). Bedtime used to be so easy and I didn't even know it! These two crack themselves up for at least an hour after we've put them to bed. It's funny during the day, not so much at 8:30pm. The hardest thing has been keeping the kids quiet ... you know trying NOT to get kicked out for noise violations. My solution? Let's go to the park. But we just got back from the park 30 minutes ago. I know, but we didn't swing on every single swing, let's go! Mostly, it's been enjoyable to have our little family in this small space ... lots of Uno marathons, movie nights (or afternoons!), pb&j sandwiches, and family dance parties (but no stomping on the floor, or we'll get kicked out!) I'm just so thankful we're together!!!

The End of an Era

My history with curling irons is extensive. I *wish* my old photos weren't packed away at a friend's house right now so that I could prove my history to you with pictures. Really, I wish. You'll just have to imagine 9 year old Ansley Cook living in Southern California saving up about 3 months worth of allowance to buy my first curling iron. I became proficient in curling iron use within about a week thanks to my best friend from across the street. She was a year older than me and had 12 months of experience with this curl making machine. At first, I gave myself ringlets each morning before school. I'd pull about half of my hair up into a little side pony (with a coordinating scrunchee, of course) and out the door I would go. It wasn't until we moved to the fashion forward Sumter, South Carolina that I would learn about the magic a curling iron could work on your bangs. Another friendly neighbor helped me perfect the 3-layer bang effect. You know, curl two sections toward the back of your head, the front section toward your nose, run a brush through it and spray wildly with Rave. Mercifully, I only rocked the bangs for 2 school years. Unfortunately, I also had GIGANTIC glasses and a large gap between my two big front teeth. I think the bangs drew people's attention upward, so it worked. I may or may not have also owned and used a crimper during this tumultuous period of my growing up years. In middle school, not to be left behind on the newest trend, I got a perm. The curling iron got a break for about a year. Once I hit high school, I finally learned to sit back and watch as new trends would come and go (at least with my hair - please don't ask John about the prom dress I wore to our first prom!). Since my 9th grade year of high school, I have curled my hair with a curling iron almost every day. The size of the curling irons I've owned have varied from the teeny tiniest to the one I curled my hair with this morning - affectionately called "The Big Mama". Yesterday when I was fixing my hair, I noticed that Big Mama was smoking - never good. This morning it heated up like an old pro, but promptly started smoking again ... aw man, I guess I'm going to have to make a trip to Target. 45 minutes later, I was showing my un-curled hair in public. Gasp. Honestly, I've never been very good at fixing my hair, and I'm new in town, so I'm pretty sure no one noticed me or my hair. I'm pretty sure they (Target) stocked their aisle to trip me up on purpose. The first half of the hair care aisle was filled with shiny flat irons. I've been wanting one of those pretty things for about 4 years, but I just couldn't bring myself to fork over the dough for one. I must have had a weak moment this morning (probably from the lack of curl in my hair!). A weak moment and the $40 gift card in my pocket and before I knew it, I was in the check out line with a pretty pink chi flat iron in my cart. I was tempted to have a "do-over" once I got home from target ... wash my hair again, dry it and try out my newest, up to date styling tool. But, there were two kids who had bigger plans of going to the park. So, I'll have to wait until tomorrow for my new era to begin. Here's to many years of smooth, straight hair, although I hear you can make some killer curls with a flat iron!;o)