perfect pool days

a couple of the smiles that just melt my heart :)

Turkey Day

am I getting ahead of myself? or am I just waaaaay behind ;) ?!

neither!

it was actually just 'cook a turkey day' for me today.

i had purchased an extra turkey last Thanksgiving, but never got around to cooking it.

decided turkey probably wasn't going to make the move with us...so needed to be cooked!

i have never actually cooked a turkey before today ~ my wonderful hubby handles all the holiday cooking around here :) *sigh* yes, i know how blessed i am :)

so, he dressed the turkey for me last night before he headed back down to LA and this morning, I put the hulking beast of a bird in my oven!

and, oh my! it turned out lovely..if I do say so myself ;)

I did not take a photo of the carving, as that was also a first for me and not particularly a pretty sight. did I mention that i am now (after carving the turkey) a vegetarian again? lol  ok, not really, but it was pretty bad and i have not actually eaten any of it yet, due to the trauma of cutting it up :p 

no, i would not survive in the wild. unless there were many, many berries... and no bears to wrestle them away from.

Apple Nachos

    Yummy!

Delicious!

Fun!

Let's Make it Again!

be prepared for what you will hear, when you serve these for snacks ;)

the chef and her 'nachos'

To Make: cut 2 apples (we used Granny Smith) in rings , melt 2 T. peanut butter and drizzle over apple slices, top with coconut if desired, could also use yogurt as your 'sour cream' :)

it's really happening

I am shipping them out!

hee hee. not really ;)

just beginning to pack for the move

(thought I'd start with the valuables)

heartache and hope

Cancer has been a very present subject in our house this year.  In December, when a friend's 4 year-old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, I began praying intentionally with Gabby, Ian and Evie for her to be healed. Evie was in her Sunday School class at church, and we were driving her brother once a week to an appointment, so I knew they would be asking questions, and decided that confronting the subject head-on was best.

We celebrate with the family (via their web updates) everytime they pass a new hurdle. It is a long battle they have ahead of them --20 more months at this point, but she is doing good right now.

Through their website I was reintroduced to a young man (only a few weeks older than Gabby) that I had heard of back in the summer of 2007 when I did Relay for the Cure. His team was the largest and best decorated on the track. His name was Luke, and his cancer came back for the third time in March.

We added his name to our prayers. But his battle ended in May and I tried my best to honor his life and his family's legacy of faith by explaining to my children how he had gone home to be with Jesus.  Two months later, my 4 year-old still sometimes says 'Luke' when she is praying for people needing healing, then she stops, pauses, and says 'oops, no, not Luke. He is all better now.' It makes me smile on the outside, but still feels like a kick to the gut inside.

Another name that just left our 'needing healing' list is Miss Rose. She is the mother of Shell's best friend, Maria. Rose is also Shell's boss at work.

She battled breast cancer a couple of years ago, but the cancer came back.

These past few weeks, she has been getting weaker, and concern had been growing, but because she was such a strong person, she carried so much at home and at work all the time, it was unfathomable to those around her to imagine her not recovering.

Early this morning Shell, who has been staying at Rose's house to be a support to Maria, texted that Rose had passed.

The words of a song keep going through my head... "no more sorrow, no more pain. I will rise, on eagle's wings, before my God, fall on my knees..."

Because we do serve a God who is greater than cancer. Because He knows our days before we live them and walks beside us in everything. Because He loves us. Regardless of what we believe, what we do, what we say.

I am angry right now. and sad. But I have faith that God knows what He is doing. I don't want Rose to be gone. I don't want her two beautiful daughters to have to miss their mother. I don't want my beautiful daughter to hurt.

And, so, I do what I am training my children to do. I pray. I give this to the One who set it all in motion. The only One who can handle all the hurts of this world. The One who loves us through our darkest moments. The One who has a plan, who is shaping and molding his children.

And, as I sit here at my computer, trying to put all of this into words, feeling lonely and wondering who I can call at this hour... my phone rings. The name on the display is a friend who lives near St. Louis--it is not that early for her (!)--and as I answer, I realize it is a 'butt-dial'...her children are talking in the background, I can hear her, very muffled...I smile and hang up. Thank you, for the reminder of how not alone we are :)

Another Opening, Another Show...

This time, Noel Coward's "Present Laughter"!

If you are in the area ~ please come see this hilarious play. Opens tonight at The Magenta Theater.

In-and-Out Burger's Secret Menu

Over a month?! It has been over a month since I last blogged?! How did that happen again?? soooo sorry.  for anyone still checking in.

and what is it that brings me back to bloggyland? not the PILES of unfinished blogs about family life...nope! rather an article that clearly defines the SUPER SECRET (until, of course, it was published?!) menu of my favorite burger joint.

The following is an excerpt:

Burgers

* Veggie Burger: A hamburger with extra tomatoes instead of meat

* Extra Toast: This order toasts your bun a little bit more than usual making it extra crispy

* Protein style: Protein style removes the bun and wraps your burger in lettuce like a burrito.

* Grilled Cheese: A bun, tomatoes and onions, if you want them, grilled with melted cheese.

* Flying Dutchman: For the ultimate meat eater. No bun, no veggies, just two beef patties and two slices of cheese.

* Double meat burger: a double double without the cheese.

* Animal style: makes any burger come with extra pickles, extra sauce, grilled onions, and a mustard cooked patty.

* 3 by Meat: three beef patties and no cheese.

* 2 by 4: a double double with two extra slices of cheese. Not for the weak hearted.

* Chopped Chilies: This adds diced jalapenos to any burger

* Mustard grilled patty: ask for this and they will spread your patty with mustard before grilling it.

* No Salt: you wouldn’t think that this would apply to a burger but it does. In-N-Out patties are heavily salted, ask for no salt and you will get a much healthier and fresher tasting patty.

Fries

* Fries animal style: an order of French fries drenched in cheese, grilled onions, and special sauce (a thicker thousand island dressing)

* Fries Light: French fries taken out of the fryer a little early. These are a little bit raw on the inside and less crispy.

* Fries Well-Done: The opposite of fries light. This order leaves your fries on the fryer extra long, making them really crispy and oily.

* Cheese Fries: Fries with melted cheese on top

Drinks

* Neapolitan shake: All the milkshake flavors swirled together, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

* Root Beer Float: Half vanilla milkshake and half root beer soda.

* Choco-Vanilla Swirl: A chocolate milkshake swirled in with a vanilla milkshake

* Lemon-up: Lemonade and seven up mixed together.

* Large and extra large shakes: if you ask for a large shake they’ll give you a shake in a medium sized soda cup and extra large in a large soda cup.

* Tea-Ade: An Arnold Palmer. Half iced tea and half lemonade.

 

You can read the entire article here.

 

Soooo, have you ever been to In-And-Out?

 

Did you know there was a secret menu?

 

my hubby has been ordering his burgers 'animal style' for years ~ but I only just began ordering my fries that way (i know, i know--but I don't live there yet--obviously will not be able to do that all the time once I'm down there!!!) this last summer. of course, now that I know about ALL of these fun SECRET options--I am excited to try them out!!! some of them, that is. the '3 by meat' sounds truly repulsive :p