Priceless

Every night before I go to bed I go upstairs to check on the girls and last night this is what I found. I tell you seeing things like this make all the crazy days we've had lately worth it. I pray that they always have a love for one another like this.

DOORS!!

It really is the small things in life that get me excited and this is no exception. After living in the house for 2 months now we finally have doors back on downstairs!! Shortly after moving in Jeremy took ALL the downstairs doors off in hopes of painting them with a sprayer however it didn't work out as he had planned. Finally after some nagging (hey we do have a baby on the way) and just asking for at least 3 of the doors (2 bathroom and 1 bedroom) to be back on before Harrison gets here, I now have 8 of the 11 doors back up. Thank you to those of you who have come over and been patient with us when we explain the "potty issue"...you no longer have to go upstairs for assured privacy. :)

Baby update

I just realized that I haven't given an update on our soon to be new member in a loooong time. I guess with all of the other life stuff going on I just forgot. :( So anyway, I went to the doctor last week and had her check me because it was going to be 2 weeks before I went back in putting me at 37 weeks (I'll be 36 weeks Thursday) and she said that I was at a 1. the only reason I did this is because I think he's going to be early, like a week or so, and I wanted a base line for the next time I went in. Everything is still going well and in all honesty time is flying by. I've had so many people ask me about the waiting and I guess with the craziness of the house and such I really haven't had time to think about it. That probably sounds bad but it's the truth; between moving, birthdays, holidays, painting, moving again, etc being pregnant just hasn't been that bad....not to mention God has blessed me with 3 wonderful pregnancies. So my due date is May 23, 31 days away, any guesses as to when you think he'll actually be born?

Random thoughts

From time to time (normally in the bathroom) I think of some pretty random things. Here are a couple that I wanted to share:

*why is it called a minivan? Or better yet, why are there conversion vans...what do they convert into?

*why does it take a potato chip, piece of candy, spoon, etc. for some people to see Jesus? Can they not see rainbows, changes of the season, the way the ocean moves, or even newborn babies?

*Why is the pope so popular?

*When is Grey's Anatomy coming back on?

Election year???

Is 2008 really an election year? No, I haven't been hiding under a rock, I do realize that it IS an election year, but this time is so different from past elections. Here it is the middle of April, only 7 months left, and we have yet to know who the top 2 candidates are? I know we hear about the top 3 every night on the news-who said this, who did that, blah, blah, blah-but when are we going to get to the REAL stuff? To be honest I'm not crazy about any of them running this time but I also don't know where to go to get the true answers to where they stand on issues, such as their voting record. Does anyone know of a website to find it out? I'm also not looking forward to all the ads that end with "I'm ________ and I approve this message" but the leader of our country is a big deal and it just bothers me how flippant we've (as in our country) been this time. We are in the middle of a war, economics are shaky, gas prices are outrageous and the next person who comes into office is the one who will be handed all of this to sort out. So my question is, what is your opinion on this subject?

Is it bad...

that my 3 year old knows it's Target just by their symbol? I had pulled up the Target website the other day to double check their sale on diapers before heading to the store and as soon as it came up Gracie said "Target. That's Target!" No she can't read but she pointed to the header where the little red circles where and knew exactly what they stood for. Maybe we should try some different stores! :)

ICE!!!!

I fully believe there is a point in every pregnancy when you just have to have ice. With the girls there were several days that I would have to stop by Sonic and get a large cup of ice, nothing else just ice. It seems as though I have now hit that point in this pregnancy but at last I have found the answer....certain Sonics sell 8 pound bags of ice!! Oh what a joy that for $1.50+ tax I can now enjoy their perfectly crunchy ice anytime I want and it comes out cheaper than stopping each day for a cup that I can down in about an hour. Thank you Sonic for making my day!

Casseroles

I think that casseroles have become my new favorite meal especially in this delightful Spring weather. What other meal can you throw a bunch of stuff together in a pot, throw it in the oven, and then go outside and play until it's ready. Personally I don't like slaving over the stove (probably because I'm not good at it) and I've found with casseroles they typically make enough for Jeremy to have left overs the next day for lunch. It has also become evident to me that very shortly we will be adding another member to our family (it's sort of snuck up on me this time) and I'd love to have something quick and easy to make for dinner. Here in lies the problem...I only have a couple of casserole recipes. So I'm asking you to help me, can you please share your favorite casserole recipe? You can either leave it as a comment here or if you have a blog post it there but be sure to leave a comment telling us to check it out. Does that make sense?
To start things off I'll post my favorite...Mexican Chicken casserole.

4 cooked and shredded chicken breast
1 can Rotel tomatoes
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
1 onion chopped fine
1 TBSP chili powder
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups shredded cheese
1 regular size pkg. Doritos

Line casserole with 1/2 bag crushed Doritos. Mix Rotel, soup, broth, garlic, chili powder, and onion with chicken. Pour 1/2 of mixture over chips and then top with 1 cup of cheese. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly.

This is really yummy and with the different flavors of Doritos they have now (I usually just use the original kind) you can try different ones to make it taste unique. Also, if you like lots of cheese like I do you may use more than 2 cups. I hope you enjoy!

How and Who

That last post was so long already that I didn't want to include all the details but I think now that I should fill in some blanks. first with Gracie: We have recently purchased an adult 3 person swing on a stand that sits on the deck. The girls LOVE it and with Wednesday being a nice day they were out on the deck playing on it and riding their bikes. She had just gone outside and as she says she tripped and hit her head on the cross-bar of the swing stand. I have no idea how it gashed her head open because it doesn't appear sharp but nonetheless it happened.

Now the who...the person who we met at Cracker Barrel was Clive Pearse from Design to Sell.
Like I said, he was really a nice guy and yes had the full British accent. Too bad though that we didn't find out why he was in town :(

Gracie's stitches

Poor girl. Amazingly she did really well; I counted 2 internal and 7 extenal stitches.

What a day

Do you ever have those days that you think are going to be "normal" and then they end up crazy? Yesterday was that day for me. Actually it started out pretty normal but that was only until about noon. I started the day getting myself and the girls ready because I had a regularly scheduled Dr.s appointment and planned on stopping by and seeing a friend who had just delivered while there at the hospital. I took the girls over to the in-laws, who were gracious enough to watch them for me, and while there found out that Jeremy's grandmother had been taken to the hospital the night before due to pneumonia. I just added that to my list of things to do while at Baptist, went home to meet up with a friend that was going with me, and then headed to the hospital. The trips to the different locations at the hospital went smoothly and I was even able to see the renovations to the new maternity ward that I will soon be staying in for a few days. *sidenote* the new rooms are really nice and although the bathroom seem smaller I think they look really nice.

After we left the hospital we decided to get lunch before we both had to go and pick up our girls. We drove around a little and then decided on the new Cracker Barrel. Okay to be honest, I instantly got a craving for it once I saw it and we HAD to stop! Anyway as we were getting seated I saw some people that I knew and hadn't seen in a long time so I went over to say hello. This is a new concept for me because when we lived in WH I never saw anyone I knew and now pretty much anytime I go out I see at least one familiar face. We talked for just a minute and then I went back to order. While sitting there I noticed a guy at a table behind us that looked really familiar but I jut couldn't place where I had seen him. Don't you just hate it when you KNOW you know someone and just can't figure out from where? I kept boiling it over in my head and then it hit me...HGTV! I had my friend look, without being too obvious, and sure enough we both knew that was who it was. I could have left it there but something inside me said just ask and make sure so I asked our server if she knew who he was. Of course she didn't, she was probably 18 and like any 18 year old watches HGTV but I did convince her to ask him if that was who he was. Amazingly it was and he wanted to know who was scooping him out :) which became obvious once the girls came over to tell us we were right. He did come over and speak after his meal and was really a nice guy. See guys it was true, HGTV is in the area!!!

I wish I could say that is where the eventfulness ended however truth be known it's where it began. After lunch I picked up the girls and we went home to play outside some. They absolutely love being outside so I let them play on the deck while I started getting dinner ready.
Jeremy had just come home and we were discussing some issues he had the night before with his sleep, deciding on if he was going to go and see a Dr., when Gracie came to the door crying. I looked at her and she had gashed her head open! It was obvious she needed stitches so I called Jeremy's mom to see if we could bring Carleigh back over while we took Gracie to get her head taken care of. We packed everyone up, got in the car, and then realized that neither Jeremy or myself had our keys on us and that we had locked them inside the house. He hopped in the car (we keep the key in it...don't ask!) went to his parents for the extra house key and then came back so we could be on our way. We decided to just go to the Urgent Care so that we could get both of them looked at at the same time, not to mention faster than if we went somewhere else. As we had suspected Gracie did have to have stitches, 8 I think, and thankfully they said that Jeremy is just having some sleeping issues which we hope to solve with medication. The funny part of the story is that we told Gracie if she was really brave and still while they put the stitches in we would take her to Chick-Fil-A, get her a Sprite (she rarely gets Sprite), ice cream, and let her play on the the playground (we never actually go in so this was a big treat). Well after we left the clinic and were in the car Gracie said "if Nena (Jeremy's grandmother) is really good at the hospital she can go to Chick-Fil-A and get some chicken, a Sprite, and some ice cream!" Oh don't you just love the heart of a child.

I just hope we don't have any more eventful days for awhile! :)