Ice, Ice, Baby!

We are most definitely in the midst of an ice storm!  It's really quite pretty, and I can say that because we have power.  The minute my power goes off I am going to HATE that ice with a passion!  Luckily, we still have power and we're safe and warm.  Since it is so cold and all, I thought I would do two things:

1) share a neat-o crock pot recipe

2) share some ice pictures I took this morning

I found this recipe in my crockpot cookbook and I almost didn't make it because it's not really something we would normally eat.  I mean the base of this soup is beans, beans, and more beans.  With that said, it actually turned out pretty good and it is probably very low in fat.  I'm sure it's quite high in sodium, but at least it's low in fat!  I replaced the sausage it called for with turkey sausage and you can't tell at all.  I personally think that you could chunk just tons of vegetables in here and it would be great, too!

Sausage, Vegetable, and Bean Soup

1 1/4 cup dry Great Northern beans
1 14.5 oz can Italian-style tomatoes
1 14 oz can beef broth
3/4 lb Italian sausage links (I used turkey - much healthier)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup red wine or water (I used water)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried italian seasoning
1/2 of a 10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed
1 large yellow squash or zucchini (I used zucchini)

Let beans soak overnight (or you can simmer them for 10 minutes and let stand 1 hour)

Combine all ingredients except zucchini and spinach.

Cook on low for 11-12 hours or high for 6-8 hours.  Squeeze liquid from spinach.  Stir spinach and zucchini into soup.  Cover and let stand 10 minutes.

For some reason John Michael spiked a low fever yesterday.  He napped for hours and I figured he might be getting sick.  It's a good thing that we're all home today just hanging out so that he can nap and get well.  He's not really sick, just a little fever.  Hopefully he'll be better soon.  If he were feeling better we could dress him up and take him outside for a few minutes to get his picture with his first snow.  Enjoy our ice pictures!

The gutter!

And YES, I'm aware that it's 70 degrees in Alabama today.  Nice!

Verse O' the Day:

For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Isaiah 41:13

Aquarium, Part Two

While we wait for the winter weather to make its way in this afternoon, I thought I would post some more pictures from our day at the Aquarium.  I am hoping and praying that we don't have really bad ice!  As long as the power stays on I'm happy!

Verse O' the Day:

In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.

Isaiah 30:15

Tulsa, The Other Windy City

Yesterday we headed over to Tulsa to visit Kelly and Scott and check on Baby Harper.  We had a great little visit and we were so happy to hear that Harper is improving little by little everyday.  She is a miracle and I cannot wait to see their Going Home pictures!  What a wonderful day that will be!

Before we got to St. Francis hospital we stopped off at Cracker Barrel for lunch.  Our lunch started out just fine.  John Michael was sitting in their little high chairs that look like real chairs.  He was having a great time and playing and looking oh so cute.  He batted his long eyelashes at strangers and our waitress.  He was too cute for words:

Reading the kiddie menu

 

Then, he had a meltdown.  It wasn't an all-out meltdown but it was pretty bad.  We were trying to keep him happy and quiet but we were still getting stares from surrounding tables.  You know those stares that come from people that don't have kids or old people who just don't remember when they had kids.  Thank goodness it was really loud in there!  I really didn't think we'd already be battling his test of wills this soon at 8 mos old.  He ate pretty decently but he wanted his spoon and he wanted it NOWand of course he wants to throw it.  If you don't give this child a spoon or his cup when he wants it he goes crazy.  Basically we took turns eating (reminds me of the colicky days) and I eventaully just had to leave the restaurant.  I didn't even get to look around the old country store and buy some 1960s candy that we don't need.  Some days I just can't figure out our firstborn.  Is he already a hard-headed little guy or is it me or is it already a test of wills with him?  Only the coming months can tell!

After lunch we headed to the hospital and by the time we got there the wind was so bad!  I'm not sure if that's a normal thing, since it IS Oklahoma and all, or if that was just an especially windy day.  I could hardly push the stroller against the wind it was so bad.  It took all of our strength to open our car doors!  I know it was hard for Jordan to drive in it.  It's pretty windy where we live, and we're still getting used to that, but I would be so mad if I lived in Oklahoma.  My hair would never look good and be full of volume.

Since we took about 200 pictures at the aquarium I think I'll break this post up into 2 posts so that all the grandparents get to see lots of pictures of John Michael at his very first Aquarium visit.  The Oklahoma Aquarium is pretty good.  It's got some neat things to see but it's pretty small.  If you're ever around Georgia, head to the Georgia Aquarium.  It is by far THE best aquarium out there.  You could spend all day there.  It is SO worth the trip to Atlanta.  We went the day after our wedding before we flew to Mexico.  Anyway, here are some pictures from our day!

Toad the Wet Sprocket, Anyone?

Caution:  If you were born before 1980, you might not find this post interesting!

A high school friend of mine gave me a great present for Christmas this year.  She burned four whole CDs of high school and some college music.  It was the biggest mix of random stuff!  As I drove around today I finally got around to listening to some of the songs and I was instantly 16 again.  You know, the songs that you played when only one of you had a car and everyone rode in that one car because they turned 16 first!  You know who you are, you read my blog!  Or the songs that made you think about a certain boyfriend or the songs that you played just driving around town with nothing to do.   Our little group listened to a variety of songs, as we were not all the same in our musical tastes.  We tore up our Dave Matthews CDs though.  I still love Dave to this day!  The songs that defined our high school years to me were ALL on these CDs: Semisonic, Aerosmith, Better Than Ezra, The Wallflowers, Sugar Ray, Beastie Boys, John Mayer, Matchbox Twenty, Counting Crows, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Goo Goo Dolls, Phish, Widespread Panic, and Barenaked Ladies - just to name a few.

We also listened to our fair share of Tu-Pac.  Sorry mom, I hid the CD from you because I would not have been allowed to own anything like that if you had known!  Southern, white, middle-class females=gangsta, right?  My musical tastes have changed a lot in the last few years.  I wouldn't really listen to Tu-Pac anymore nor do I identify with Widespread Panic anymore.  I hardly even turn on the radio in the car anymore, and when I do I can't seem to find anything that I like except for KLRC.  I am, indeed, old now.

Since I'm all old and stuff, I have a baby that I took to playgroup today!  We had a great time and John Michael got to play with Sarah Kate some more!  He really likes her and always wants to pull her and take her pacifier away!  I have to watch him to make sure he doesn't pull her all the way over!

They both have such blue eyes!

I didn't get around to taking any pictures of the other kiddos with all the pizza and cupcakes around!  I was a little preoccupied with feeding myself and John Michael!

Tomorrow we are planning on having a family fun day!  Jordan is off and we are going to head to Tulsa to visit Kelly for just a quick little bit and then possibly head to the Tulsa Aquarium.  Jordan and I went there a few years ago when we were still dating and I was flying up to visit.  We figured John Michael would enjoy looking at the fish.  He's only 8 months old, but maybe he'll like it and maybe he won't scream all day.  We can only hope.

Verse O' the Day: 

“Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?” says the LORD; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?”

Jeremiah 23:24

Have I Lost My Accent?

We've had a quiet, uneventful weekend.  We've spent the weekend in quite prayer, mostly, for Baby Brayden and Baby Harper.  I think that God is doing incredible things through these two tiny infants.  His plan and ideas are WAY bigger than we can know or even think about.  My main concern is for these parents.  I hope they are getting some amount of rest to gear up for the long road ahead.  I can't imagine being postpartum and everything that comes with that and then have this land in your lap.  They are very strong, indeed.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!  Today is not only MLK Day or Robert E. Lee's birthday, but it's mine and Jordan's dads birthday!  Jordan's dad passed a few years ago from cancer and I never got to meet him so I don't have any pictures of him.  We think it's neat that our dads share the same birthday!  Happy Birthday to you, Dads. We love you!  I love posting wedding pictures of all of us because we clean up quite nice!

It was August...in Alabama...in layers and layers of a gown, you get the picture!  It was HOT!

Jordan's step-dad, Nat, and Dad at the end of the day.  They were probably consulting each other on how much money they had spent over the last 48 hours!!!!

In other news, Jackson is finally groomed!  Yay!  He looks so great and smells good too.  No more vomit smell from him.  And speaking of vomit, I think that the stomach bug has finally run its course (crossing my fingers) for John Michael.  I kept feeding him so much rice cereal, that now I think we have the opposite problem than what the stomach bug left.  Time to get started back on pears and apricots!

I took snacks to our Shepherding A Child's Heart parenting class at church last night.  I was the first one signed up, so I just made a bunch of stuff to cover all the bases.  I didn't want to go first because I was going to wait and see what everyone else ended up bringing before I come up with my menu.  I made mini croissant turkey/ham sammiches, a veggie try with ranch, chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies, and spinach dip with fritos, and sweet tea.  I had a little problem with my sweet tea, though.  I made it fresh at home and it was still pretty darn hot when we got there.  I was banking on using the ice machine in the area where our class was.  Well, there was NO ICE to be had.  Yup, you guessed it, I served HOT SWEET TEA to our fellow church members.  I guess it couldn't be helped, but UGH!  Bad, bad southerner. 

Also, we met a lady in class who is from a town not 30 minutes away from our hometown in Alabama.  Weird, isn't it?  We even knew a few of the same people.  She was super nice but informed me that I don't sound very southern.  Excuse me...don't sound very southern?  She also said that Jordan sounded more southern than me.  This was a very, very, very sad day for me.  Have I been gone from the deep south for too long?  Is nearly 3 years enough to lose your Southern drawl?  Laws A Mucy and Heavens to Betsy, I hope not!  Actually, I'm quite devastated.  Jordan informed our new friend that when we go back home and I get around everyone else, then I sound more southern.  Thank you, babe!  I'm going to have to work on my Northern Alabama drawl.  I say this with a laugh because everyone knows that North Alabama dialect is not nearly as cool sounding as South Alabama.  None the less, as a forever true Southerner, I must work on not losing my accent!

Many, many people have asked me about my spinach dip recipe.  I tell you what, this recipe is EASY and it is SO GOOD.  Take it to any kind of shower or get together and it gets gone!  Put this dip around men and it gets gone even faster.  You simply follow the directions on the Knorr package that can be found on the soup aisle.  Now, you COULD serve this with veggies as the picture shows, but why do that when you can have Fritos Scoops with it?  Fritos make everything better and the saltiness goes with the smooth taste of the dip.  You have to let this dip sit overnight before you serve it.  It lets it get good and mushy and flavorful.  Oh, how I love spinach dip!  P.S.  Serving it in a bread bowl is extra yummy because at the end you can eat the bread that soaked up the dip!

Photo courtesy of Knorr.com

Knorr Spinach Dip

1 package frozen, chopped spinach

1 container (16 oz.) sour cream - the REAL kind

1 cup mayo - the REAL kind

1 package Knorr vegetable mix

1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped

3 green onions, chopped

Combine all ingredients and chill!

Verse O' the Day:    neat verse, I've never really seen this one before

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6