*loaded* potato recipe

I thought I would share a picture and a recipe of the potatoes we had this past weekend. I always cook my potatoes in the oven... Super easy. Just rinse the potatoes, sprinkle kosher salt on them and bake at 400 degrees for an hour (give or take depending on the size. Pierce with a fork to check for tenderness.) Tips - I put them directly on the rack. I don't wrap them in anything. Just straight to the oven. And your time may vary depending on whether you keep your potatoes refrigerated or room temperature.


The fixin's on the potato are:


Butter
Sour cream
Cheese dip (from our local restaurant)
Lettuce
Tomato
Chives
Salsa (also from restaurant)
Strips of grilled steak




Delcious is a total understatement, my friend...
















Dont'cha see Shep trying to dig in? One second later and that sweet little hand had a piece of steak in his hand... :)

Thankful

In Sunday School, we are going through the book of James verse by verse. Scott and T (my brother in law) have started teaching through this book and they rotate chapters. Scott does a chapter, T does a chapter... so, we are in chapter 4 now and it's Scott's chapter. We just started the chapter on Sunday and at the beginning of last week, Scott told me we should make it through verse 10. Ha! Anyone knowing my husband... well, that just isn't gonna happen. Guess how far we made it? Verse ONE. James opens chapter four saying, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" We spent the Sunday School hour talking about how we must make war with our sins... we must make war with the things of this world. We have two choices. We can either make war for the lusts of this world or we can make war against the lusts of this world.
Now, what in the world does that have to do with my title "Thankful"? Well, Scott used a simple illustration (simple, I said) on selfishness and our desires about what happened at our house on Saturday night. We ALL know what went on Saturday night, right? It was the b-i-g-g-e-s-t football game of the season. Alabama vs. LSU. And we ALL know how much we like football around this place, ay? So, we made steak potatoes (of which I promise to post a recipe) and planned on watching the game. Without going into a lot of detail, we have been struggling lately with the amount of time that we aren't spending as a family. We seem to all be going in four different directions. And Scott knew that spending 4 hours watching a football game (THE one to see, mind you) wasn't the best idea and that he needed to "make war" with his internal desires. With that said, the past few weeks, we've been playing Monopoly as a family and Ella absolutely *loves* it. She wanted to play this weekend but there just wasn't enough "time". So, making war against those desires, Scott decided we would as a family, play Monopoly. Saying that Ella was thrilled was an understatement. We sat down, while THE biggest gave EVER was on and played Monopoly. Now, what's going to stand out in Ella's memory when she gets older? Will it be watching a football game or playing a game? Exactly. So, as Scott told that story in Sunday School, he couldn't help but choke up. And that is brokenness. That's how God works. But what made me so thankful was the fact that I got the sweetest compliment after class. I had someone tell me that I have a precious husband and they are thankful for his transparency. Wow. One year or so ago, all I would have gotten was "you know, we love Scott, but he comes across arrogant, like he knows everything and very provocative". I'm not saying that he wasn't some of these things. (Truth be told, I think he was provoked more than he provoked, but whatever). But I praise God where he has us in our life. I am thankful for Gracepoint Community Church and I'm thankful for my precious, transparent husband.
I tried to keep that as simple as possible so your eyes won't glass over and you won't fall asleep. So, if it's choppy or seems to be stream of consciousness then I apologize. I don't claim to be the best writer but hopefully the point was made. And I'm gonna give this clip of John Piper from a sermon as he is pleading us to "Make War" on ourselves...

http://youtu.be/wrY0h33coR4

Ultimatum

My husband gave me an ultimatum the other day... he said either post something on my blog or delete my blog. I said, well, I guess I'll delete it. Then he says, no... I don't want you to do that. I enjoy reading it. So really he was saying -- *Get to it*. Write something. Truth be told, I haven't been writing, not because I don't have time but because my computer has turned into a dinosaur. It literally took all of Shep's nap time back in er-- August-- when I wrote the last post. Something's going all wonky with my pictures when I try to upload them and I can't figure it out. My computer had (up until yesterday) 125gb of 150gb of storage space used. I *finally* got everything moved to our little external hard drive (I think that's what it's called) and so hopefully things will speed up now. So, it's not b/c I've been too busy that I haven't blogged... it's because I've been too impatient with this computer. I'd rather spend Shep's nap times doing more important things... like, you know, knitting, taking a bubble bath or enjoying a book on the porch. Pfff. Yeah right.

On a side note, our church is hosting Secret Church simulcast tonight. Should you be one of the 3 daily readers that read this (that's according to my Google Analytics ;)) please pray I stay awake... I'm SO not a night owl anymore. 6pm to 12pm tonight. Nothing but bible study!

Who dat?

Who dat is? I been missing you fo sho! ;)

School is starting back, my house is back in order after this, (so you will be seeing more of me):

Santuck and Ella's reward

Last week, we had to help Ella with a project for school. No, I didn't take any pictures. Yes, I'm ashamed. I'm over it, ok? ;) The project was about John Adams. Not John Quincy Adams, but his dad... the second president of the United States. The project was to be on half a sheet of poster board and would be graded and judged at school. The winners would go on to Montgomery for a little regional contest. We took one evening brainstorming ideas on what we would do. She is a bit over ambitious when it comes to crafting (hmmmm...) so I had to reel that little imagination back in several times. But in the end, we decided to do the background in the Star Spangled flag and then glue a picture of John Adams, a small paragraph of his accomplishments, a picture of the White House (he was the first pres. to live there, by the way)and a picture of his home state, Massachusetts. I was proud of how hard she worked on the project. She gets distracted very easily so we had to make sure she stayed on task. She measured and cut out the stripes for the flag and helped glue them on. We used a little bit of hot glue so she wasn't able to do that. She did 85% of the work. She was so proud to take it to school. We had to have it to school on Wednesday at 8am sharp because the "professional" judges, as she called them, would be there to judge. First place, $10, Second place, $7.50 and third place, $5.00. When I picked her up that afternoon, she had this sly look on her face. She gets into the car and says "aren't you gonna ask how I did on my project?" And I said, "well, yes... but you could get completely in the car first!". She was so excited that she got 2nd place! She was thrilled most of all about the $7.50 she was to get the next day. So excited, in fact that when Scott woke her up, she jumped out of bed (as she NEVER does) and quickly got ready. So, her poster is somewhere in Montgomery awaiting another competition. Once it's finished, I'll be sure to post a picture. So, what did she do with her money? She saved it for Santuck! Do huh?? Oh, yeah. If you've been around here (Wetumpka, that is) very long, you've heard about it. It's Santuck Flea Market, but if you are from around here, we just call it Santuck. That's how we roll, ;). Once a month (except January and February), the little community of Santuck hosts a flea market. Now, when I was a kid, it was really a flea market. I've been "going to Santuck" since I can remember and I have very fond memories of the actual flea market. But, of course, things change over the years. Now, you'll find things like knock off Louis Vuiton bags, contraband cd's, machetes, turtles, dogs, candles, plants, unfinished wood, Amish cheese (it's good!), antiques, and the list goes on. I go periodically for a few reasons. Number one... I live a mile down the road from it and why not? Two... the candles (JJ's candle in birthday cake is my fave) and the rugs. Rugs? Really? Um, yeah. 3 rugs for $10? Who can beat that? Oh, back to Ella. What did she get with her money? She had $7.50 to spend remember? Are you ready for this?? Yes, a gun. My baby girl is packin' heat, ha ha ha! And since this picture was taken, Scott has painted the orange cap to make it more realistic... God love that man, ;) The "BB" gun was $5 and $2 for 1000 extra bb's. Scott bought "us" a pair too so we could all shoot. And I tell ya, that has been the most fun money we've spent in so long. Those little suckers shoot a long way too! She'll be wanting a REAL gun next, just watch. So, I'm anxious to hear what she tells the kids and teachers at school when they ask her what she did with her money... she wanted to take it to show and tell but I didn't think that'd go over too well, ;) And here are other images from the day on Saturday at Santuck. One last thing, I do believe this was the most crowded I've seen Santuck in all my years of going. It was crazy packed.

Oreo blizzards

There is no doubt that having two children changes the dynamic in the family. We have to "spread the love" between both of them and be aware of each of their affectionate needs. Because there is such a big difference in their ages, they both have completely different needs. While it seems we pay much more attention to Shep, it's simply because we have to meet so many of his needs whereas Ella is much more independant and can do things on her own... such as making her own drink, brushing her own teeth, taking a shower, etc. But to her little mind, she sees us with Shep all the time and she can get quite jealous. So, we make sure that we spend extra time with her when he isn't around... and being that his bed time is 7:00, this works out perfectly for us. We usually put him down and then have an hour or so with her, put her down and then it's quiet time for us. All of this is on a perfect day, of course... it usually happens on Fridays! So, this past Saturday night, we decided to have Oreo milkshakes and game night after T.O. went down. The cast of characters:



Pour 1 cup of milk into blender.

Next,gently drop ice cream in blender...

Blend, pour and top with oreos and enjoy!

The Benchmark

Scott and I have figured out the benchmark on how I'm feeling from day to day. I get tired of him asking me "how are you feeling" "you ok" "you sure you're ok" and on and on. I KNOW he does this out of love and compassion. I KNOW how much he deeply cares about me. And if anybody is close enough to us, it's obvious that he loves some Da... ;) Always has. And I pray always will. He's quite protective of me. So, if things are not quite right with me, he constantly asks me. He just wants to make it right. How blessed to be loved. Well, I SO appreciate him and thankful that he does care about me but if I'm asked over and over again how I feel... well, it makes me think about how I feel when I wasn't otherwise thinking about it. If out of the blue he asks me, I may just say ok. I do say that 90% of the time. But after he asks, I may start thinking... well, my back does ache a little. What could that be? Or ooh... I have a bump on my forehead, what is that a sign of? Just silly, crazy things I know. Sooo... we've figured out that the best way for him to know how I'm feeling is to be observant before asking. How am I carrying myself? What am I engaging in? Mainly, what HAVE I been doing? We've both discovered that if I'm feeling good, then here are some things that I might be doing.

I may be making a honey do list
I may be planning a trip
I may be spring cleaning
I may be blogging

So, ya wanna know what I did yesterday and today?

-Called Scott with a gazillion ideas for our house (on a shoestring budget, mind ya)
-Looked up ideas for a trip for our 15 year anniversary (which is next year, sheesh!!)
-Cleaned the house yesterday (sans upstairs... ugh. That one's a doozey)
-Purging books, books and books.
-And I'm writing a blog post.

Now... do you need to know how I'm feeling today? ;)