Dinner Tonight

Smothered Steaks and Mushrooms

I made this up myself!!!! I loved it!!!!

ingredients:
6 eye of round thin steaks that were pounded out
1 pack of Mickormic brown gravy mix
1 cup of cold water for the gravy mix
large pack of fresh sliced mushrooms
butter
vegetable oil
flour
garlic powder
natures seasoning
a little milk


What you do:

i had saved some flour with garlic and nature seasoning from another thing that i had made. So i floured the steaks on both sides and then put them into the pan with a little vegetable oil that was a little heated. Brown on both sides. Meanwhile, prepare gravy mix according to package directions and when the steaks are brown on both sides pour gravy over the steaks and add a little milk. Reduce heat to low and cover. In a seperate pan, saute the mushrooms in butter and garlic powder and add to the pan with the meat. Simmer for about 25ish minutes and enjoy!!!!!

YUMMY!!!!

I LOVE MY BABY BROTHER!!!!

Most of the world already knows that Kaleb is on his way but I HAD to share this picture!!!! Kaleb, we can't wait to meet you sweet boy!!!!

Some more new words

Rachel is saying this stuff these days:

COOKIE
NO
STUCK
HAPPY
PUPPY
HOME (BETTER THAN BEFORE)
GO
GREEN
THREE
T (THE LETTER)
SPOON
YEP
AMEN
BOWL
THANK YOU and YOU'RE WELCOME (they sound about the same most of the time)
MINE
POTTY
HOT

If we offer her some food that she doesn't like or recognize she will spit out her tongue and make a splert sound!!! She also does that if I try to feed her sometimes because she wants to feed herself!!!

I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them right now. As I type this Rachel is sitting in her Daddy's lap eating cereal from his bowl!!!! She has done that about three or four times since that picture a while ago!!

The terrific two's are on the way!!!!

6 happy years later . . . still laughing together through life!!!!

a few of my favorites . . . .

Crystal took some amazing pictures of my wonderful family for our 6th anniversary!!!! I love them all!!! But here are some of my favorites!!! I have such a wonderful life and the family that I always dreamed of!!!! By the way ~ these pictures were taken about a week after we found out that number 2 baby is on the way!!!! I am now 11 weeks pregnant and doing great!!! It truly is a wonderful life!!!! Thank You Jesus!!!!

Daddy's cereal

Are we starting something here????

Home, ball and bath

Rachel is learning even more words!!! Lately she has been starting to say home, ball and bath!!! Last night, she actually said ball in its entirety!!! When we are on the way home from going somewhere she says hom (meaning home) and just this morning she said it when we got home from walking the dogs!! She says bath after dinner right before her bath!!!

She has started shrugging her shoulders too!!! If i ask her a question and she's not sure what the answer is she will shrug her shoulders!!! its mostly when i ask about something she wants or doesn't!!!

She has been eating cereal in a bowl with milk!! She can even tip the bowl up to her mouth and drink the milk without a total mess!!! This morning she sat in Jere's lap and shared his cereal!!!! I got a couple of pictures that i will post very soon!!!

Rachel has been learning to dress herself as well sorta!! She likes to help pull her shorts up and picking out what outfit she wants to wear!!! She loves shoes and wants to change her shoes often if we let her!!!

Fun times!!

Dad-doh

Rachel's vocabulary has exploded lately!!! Its so fun to hear her say something and try to figure out what that something means!! I'll tell you about some of her newest sayings ~ its so cute and fun to see her learning!!!

One of the new words that is said around here lately is dad-doh. It took us a while to realize what that meant. Then we heard her say it from her bed at night right after Ema (our new puppy) had barked. We paid attention for a few days and discovered that dad-doh seems to mean "bad dog" and she seems to think that when a dog barks, they are being bad. Probably because her big dog, Sadie, almost NEVER barks!!

Another one is boo-boo which really means boo-boo. She has this boo-boo on her forehead from a fall long ago that we recently started putting vitamin E oil on it every night before bed. Last week at bedtime, we were reading a book with pictures of animals. There was a picture of an owl with its head turned so all you could see was one eye. She pointed to the eye and said boo-boo and then pointed to the boo-boo on her forehead. When i told her it was the owl's eye she pointed to her eye and said eye!! Then she pointed out all the eyes of the animals on the pages we were looking at!!!! I was very proud of her for that!!!

She likes to hold the phone up to her ear and say hewwo too!!! The other day, she was missing her Daddy (Rachel has become a HUGE Daddy's girl and I love it!!!!) So I called Jere at work for her to talk to him. Rachel got sooooooo excited and kept holding the phone to her ear and saying hewwo!!

She says bye-bye too and often!! She likes to go places and play at other people's houses!!! When we go on walks with the dogs she waves and says hi to people who pass us!! Its great when we are all in our kitchen and she sees our neighbors in their kitchen and waves and says hi to them!!!! Or when she says hi to the people on the golf course from inside the house!!!

There seems to be some confusion about who Jere and I are to her and its hilarious!!! For a long time, Rachel called for her Daddy by patting her chest and saying Mama ~ seriously for months that always meant Daddy. Recently, she started saying Dada again but its not consistant for Daddy. Sometimes, if she can't get my attention or what she is requesting by calling me Mama, she says Dada!!!! Its the same with Jere too!!!

Earlier this week we were playing with markers and i told her one was blue so now she thinks that all markers are buuu!!!

She can sign please and does it consistantly to get what she is requesting! Signing eat and drink are the same thing to her so we have to ask which she wants!! I taught her to point to her ear as how she asks for music. She LOVES Misti Edwards music and until just a few days ago thought that the CD for the car HAD to be "Always on His Mind." If I had a different CD in or she was in Jere's car she would keep pointing to the radio and ask for HER CD!!! Just over the past few days, she has started
accepting the other Misti Edwards CD we have in the car as acceptable music!!!!

She is learning to drink from a regular cup too!!! On Monday, we were taking pictures with Crystal Diaz and Rachel drank from our water bottles like a champ!!! So then we gave her little cups to drink from at home and she did okay with them ~ except when she decided the dog needed her drink and dumped it into the dog dish!!! So we are back to sippy cups with a regular cup every once in a while!!!

She loves to play on the computer on Starfall.com!! There is a section for phonics and it has songs for each different vowel sound ~ her favorite is the short a song!!! Every time we come to the computer, she tilts her head and says "a a" ~ this is her way of asking to play on the computer!!!!

Rachel LOVES chocolate, ice cream, rice, cookies, french style green beans, cheese, bananas, apples (another new word!!!!), chips, and fruit snacks!!! There was one night this week that i asked her what she wanted for dessert between cookies or ice cream and she got so excited about the ice cream it just made me laugh out loud!!!! Of course, we make her eat other stuff but these are her favorites!!!! I have decided to make her a chocolate cake for her birthday this year!!!

Rachel is really growing up as you can see!!!! I keep looking at her and thinking how much she is starting to look like a little girl and not so much like a baby!!! She is starting to look like Jere to me these days and her hair is growing some!! In the sun, her hair looks strawberry blonde!!!!

I am in love with my little girl and delight in each day with her!!!! Thank You Jesus for this little treasure in earthen vessel that You have entrusted to me and Jere!!!!

Trying to process . . .

Bubba called last night and said that Dad moved into the nursing home on Tuesday afternoon around 4:30ish. He said that Arlene did well and didn't break down. Bubba called the Heritage during the day yesterday to check on Dad and they said that he woke up during the night and asked "Why am I here?" to which the nurse tried to explain that this was where he was going to be staying now. Then during the day Dad had just basically followed the nurse around all day. I plan to call the Heritage later today and check on Dad if they will give me information about how he's doing.

Whenever I try to process all this, I just can't. My mind wants to escape to something else. I don't want to face it. It hurts so bad. A few weeks ago at church the message from Denise was about God's mother heart and His desire to comfort us. I went up for prayer to be comforted about Daddy. And God did comfort me about what was going on at the time. But it seems like each day that something else comes up about how bad he's doing and i feel cut all over again.

I trust my Father with my dad and I know that Dad is in a good place where he will finally be safe and he can't get hurt or lost or mugged or etc. . . . So I just look to Daddy God about my dad. I know that He is able to comfort me no matter what may happen with my life or my dad. Is it okay for it to be this hard to handle??? if it isn't, i'm sunk!!!

I know a family who's son is 2 weeks younger that my little girl and their little boy was just diagonsed with CANCER. Whenever i think of them or the whole situation with my dad i realize that I would lose my mind without Christ in my life. I'm so grateful for who God has been in my life and who He will continue to be.

and so finally, i have been clinging onto this promise: "Be anxious for nothing . . ." Phil 4:6 Nothing is the combined words "no" and "thing" and i know that my Daddy God means what He says.

I love Him, therefore, i trust Him wholly! Please Lord help me to process all this new information about my earthly dad. Its hard so please make it easier for me to understand. Daddy, I cling to You always and especially now more than ever!!!

update on my Dad

***Beth ~ you have already read this ~ sorry******

Yesterday was the day Dad was to go live in the nursing home. But last night I got this email from my biggest brother about Dad's status. PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR HIM AND MY STEPMOM, ARLENE. Thanks!!!

Well, just prior to our 10am appt to bring Dad to Heritage Manor, they called with the news that his roomate (all rooms in this unit are semi-private) was on his deathbed and had his family gathered. Obviously, we opted not to admit him today. So I will keep you updated.

On another note, the progression is so unbelievable, I now believe he may be in a wheelchair by the end of the month. His balance has been off and tonight, he fell at the house and neither he nor Arlene could get him back to his feet. I drove over and picked him up but his balance is still way out of whack. He is shuffling instead of walking and because of his condition, he has a tendency to lean backward (his neurologist had prepared us for this) which makes a walker ineffective. Ultimately, he will not be able to stand. His speech continues to decline to the point where it is unintelligible now. The most I get out of him is a couple of words at a time. It is truly disheartening.

If there is one silver lining, it is that I think in his current mental state, he may not be resistant to moving to the nursing home. Previously, he had moments of lucidity where he was coherent and his neurons were firing on point. I don't see any of this anymore, which is a blessing to me. I hate to think that he would "come to" and find himself in a strange place surrounded by strangers.

I want him to be with us as long as possible but if its in a vegatative state with no quality of life and no recollection of loved ones or his surroundings, I hope God takes him. That is a hard thing to type, much less think.

Not lagging in diligence

So we now have 2 dogs and a daddy who has allergy issues with the dogs. But Jere allows the dogs because he loves me ~ i asked for them. Rachel really loves the dogs but she can't yet ask daddy for a puppy so mommy helped. Jere has been having a difficult time since Ema joined our family and its a bad allergy time of the year.

So Daddy God convicted me of being lazy and not taking care of my beloved and my home. Therefore, i have a new aim ~ each day before bed i will clean the kitchen (that drives ME crazy to have a messy kitchen) and sweep my house for my beloved. I also want to vacuum each day.

I have good news! Today was a success!!!!! Earlier as I vacuumed I was cursing the allergens in my home in the Name of Jesus and telling them to GET OUT OF HERE! I can't wait to see how doing this stuff blesses my hubby and my home and my God!!!

I know that i can't do this stuff without the Lord so I also hope to get up earlier than every one else and spend time with Him! On that note ~ its very late and I need to go to bed now!!!

Ema and Sadie

Until this morning, Sadie just tolerated Ema. But this morning they were playing together and everything! I threw them both outside and when Ema barked i let just her in. Sadie had to stay outside to calm down before i would let her in! That was different!!!

Ema and Rachel

My Dad and other stuff

Here's the skinny on Dad ~ he is going to move into a nursing home next week some time. That hurts so bad to even type. The facility is amazing and i know he will be well cared for there but it still is a very hard reality to look at. I know its for the best for both of Dad and Arlene and that Dad will be safe there. Arlene is having an exetremely difficult time dealing with it. Please pray for them!!!! I can't begin to fathom what Arlene is going through but I know my Daddy God knows and will help make the transition as smooth as He can. I keep begging Him to help them both. The place is called the Heritage Manor ~ check out their website if you want ~ its http://www.heritagemanormandeville.com/default.htm and Dad will be in their Secured Care Unit (SCU) for Alzheimer’s/Dementia residents. So he will be safe and Arlene and all of us can breathe a sigh of relief that Dad will be safe.

In other news: we got a puppy!!!! She is a mini schnauzer and Rachel is in love with her. We named her Ema after her mommy (Emily) who was hit by the mailman when Ema was 5 weeks old. She is incredibly sweet and cute and suprisingly easy to train so far. Rachel is learning to pick her up and loves to carry her to us. Its awesome that Rachel will grow up with both of her dogs: Sadie and Ema.

Jeremy says "No more pets!" I agree!!!! But i love my dogs!!! Thank You Daddy!!!

My Dad (part 1)

well, Rachel and I just got home from visiting my Dad, Arlene, and Bubba and his family. I'm exhaused but glad we went. by the way, this is going to be a long blop post so might as well get a cup of coffee and relax. I am also not going to give the full story of what's going on with my dad ~ if you don't know just ask in a comment please.

I'm sure i will tell the story a hundred times but i wanted to blog about it too so i can look back and remember the visit.

So our flight left from Hobby on Saturday morning at 9am. I didn't sleep worth a hill of beans the night before we left and had to be up at 4:30 ~ i know, i know, good start to a trip. So i wake Jere up around 5ish. Rachel was up and loaded in the truck by 5:30ish and we left for Hobby about 5:45. Everyone had told me to allow an hour and a half to get there so that's why i left so stinking early. We got to the parking lot by 6:45 (no I didn't speed ~ there was just no traffic!) I get all our stuff meaning Rachel, stroller, backpack, big 40 pound suitcase, and car seat. Then I start walking toward the supposed area where the shuttle is going to take me to the terminal.

What's this???? Where is the shuttle??? OOOHHHH!!! THERE IS NONE!!!! Okay, I can handle this (i think with the might of Jesus) So I have to walk to the shuttle ~ with all our stuff I'm sure i was a sight to behold because i had my baby in the strolller and all the stuff attached to the stroller and i was walking to the terminal. Oh yeah! I forgot i also had to pee!! fun times!! The terminal wasn't that far from the parking lot so we got there with all our stuff, checked the baggage which left me with the baby, backpack, and stroller. I can handle this!

Then we waited in the airport ~ i was okay once i was finally there. Boarded the plane which had alot of empty seats so Rachel go her own seat. Rachel flew with flying colors (praise God) she played, made a mess with goldfish and the lady i sat next to was a great help.

We got off the plane and Bubba met us at baggage claim and helped with the luggage. I was so glad to see him!! All that is going on with Dad has finally brought my oldest brother and i together and I love it!!! Bubba, (he will FOREVER be my Bubba!!!) Ashley, Anna (7 months), Andrew (2 and a half), Rachel and I drive to Dad's house. It was a good drive because we talked about stuff with Dad that we needed to discuss.

We get to Dad's and Bubba and Ashley took their babies home for naps. I have to tell you something that my wonderful baby girl did though. In the car, Andrew was playing with Rachel's little lap top toy and loved it. When they were about to leave Dad's house Andrew was throwing a fit because he was sleepy. Rachel got her lap top and purposefully went outside and gave it to Andrew in the car then she went back inside the house!!! Man! Our God is good to give us Rachel!!!

So i put Rachel down for a nap with her blanket and babies from home. I was really nervous about her not sleeping at Dad's because she is a picky sleeper so i asked lots of people to pray and DADDY GOD ANSWERED!!! My sweet little love did not have a problem sleeping there at all!!!

Then go downstairs to talk to Arlene and visit with Dad. Arlene tells me that for the past week she has been having to shower Dad because he wasn't washing his body anymore. This on top of everything else she was already having to do for him. Now the only things that Dad can successfully do on his own are eat and use the restroom ~ literally! And Arlene was exhaused!!!

Rachel just woke up ~ gotta go now ~ more to come later!!!

18 Months of cuteness!!

Yep folks!! Rachel turned 18 months old a week ago!!! I still can't believe it!!!

Why am I too big for this stuff???

I know that I used to fit in here ~ what happened???

The Duck Park

ahhh peace

in this crazy world where we live is tooo easy to get distracted and lose peace ~ but then i have to stop and listen to the quiet inner voice of the Holy Spirit and am reminded of what really matters

the story of Peter walking on the water is such a great metaphor for me ~ its in Matthew 14:22-33. Matthew 14:29-30 says "And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out saying Lord, save me!"

I think a great deal happened for Peter between those two sentences but to me the main thing is that he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at what was going on around him and then began to sink. it reminds me to always (as much as possible) keep the eyes of my heart focused on my Lord and not my life.

I'm glad the Holy Spirit is patient with me and loves me! I'm learning .. . .i hope you are too!

Forgetful

Why was i awake at 2:45 in the morning last night? Well Rachel woke me up originally but then i couldn't make my brain hush so i could go back to sleep.

What was my brain saying??

Well in truth ~ it was uttering a bunch of lies about my Daddy God and His provision for my family and i was listening to them all! Lord, please forgive me for my forgetfulness! I was pondering bills that needed payiny and a Wildtree party that i wanted more from.

And guess what??? By 2 pm today Daddy had taken care of all those issues!!! He ALWAYS gives EXACTLY what we need in the EXACT MOMENT WE NEED IT!!!!

Thank You Father for Your continued provision and patience with me!!! I am truly grateful for being Your child!!!

Here he is!!!!

My friend had a BABY today!!!!

Yep folks! That's right and I was one of her doulas!!! I met Kate at church through another friend and she is awesome!! Her due date was Dec 30th, and we througb her a shower yesterday at my house ~ it was great fun and i made the cake!!! I love offering myself through cooking and baking!!!

Anyway, Lisa (the other doula) called me this morning saying that Kate was on her way to the hospital just as Jeremy was on his way out the door to work. We had no plan for someone to watch Rachel so I scrambled for a little while til I called Bethy's Aunt Glada and she said to bring her over ~ Aunt Glada to the rescue!!!! THANK YOU AUNT GLADA!!!!!!

SO i drop off Rachel in the loving and able arms of Aunt Glada and fly to the hospital. Kate is dialated to a 5-6 and Baby Jeremiah is doing well. This was around 10:35ish in the morning. Kate decided the epidural was in order because she was having bad back labor. Lisa got there in time for the epidural shortly after i got there.

Contractions, contractions, contractions, crying in pain, crying in pain, crying in pain *I knew the feeling* then epidural and aaahhhhh Oh thank You Jesus for the wonders of modern medicine!!!!

Kate is progressing well and dialated to a 9, the doctor breaks her water and finds thick merconium ~ could be problems but so far its okay ~ we keep going then Jeremiah's heart rate drops a lot ~ trouble! It goes back up quickly but the nurse says that the doctor might want to do a c-section and Kate starts crying ~ do I know where she is or what?? I talked Kate through to stay calm as much as I could ~ the doctor comes in and checks Kate ~ 10 cm but Jeremiah's heart rate is still doing wierd things ~ dr decides to let Kate push through a few contractions I think it was four maybe five but then Jeremiah's heart rate drops again and dr says we gotta go so Lisa gets ready to go with Kate to the OR ~ they leave Eva and me in the room to wait and pray and cry for Kate

sooo waiting, waiting, waiting then text from Lisa saying come to the room with a smiley face ~ walking down the hall we hear crying from Kate's room ~ we walk in and there he was!!! Little Jeremiah David all beautiful and screaming ~ he was born at 2:55pm was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 in long ~ When Kate comes back in the room she tells me that when she heard him crying it was all worth it ~ i knew it would be like that!!! Also come to find out from the Dr Little Jeremiah had the cord wrapped around his neck three times and wrapped around his arm!! He was doing acrobatics in mommy's tummy!!!

So there you go ~ another birth story with some hard parts but an amazing ending!!! isn't our God a great God or what????