Starring Jing Ying

Naomi demostrates her "bear hug"

Meet JingYing

Big sister Brooke is good at spoiling her younger sisters. This week she took Naomi on a little girls day out to lunch and to Build-A-Bear. Her red pantie wearing panda bear is named JingYing which was her Chinese birth name. She just loves this bear and gives it "bear" hugs all the time.

Hey, Halloween's Over!

So how would you like to meet this guy in a dark hallway? Yea, that's what happened to me. Although he is a very nice fellow and has some very annointed music, I couldn't help but jump a little when I turned around and he was standing there. I probably gave him a scare with my reaction. We both seemed a little stunned to find the door that seemed to go backstage blocked by a big trunk. That was my excitement for the evening of the David Crowder Band concert. It was a great show and I was grateful for the hotel room that the station hooked me up with and that Mike, Jo and Naomi were all able to go too. It was our first big event on the west side of the state. Our new station over there should be up and running shortly and we'll probably be doing many more, it's a good thing I like Grand Rapids!

Welcome November

What a week! My birthday, then Mike's, the Light the Night event and more. I wacked out my back so I'm hobbling around. We went to Journeys coffeehouse in Midland to see Michael Maher play on Mike's birthday. The Maher clan sang a great rendition of Happy Birthday to him. They are much better singers than they are cake deliver-ers. I had them take the cake with them so it could be a covert operation and surprise the birthday boy but I'm not sure what happened after that. Let's just say that it still tasted good. Friday was crazy with the Light the Night deal. I was the Linden team leader and responsible for keeping things running smoothly. I spent most of the night cruising between the 3 homes because two of the 3 were getting blasted with visitors. Which of course is a good thing. Mike took our little ladybug to one of the homes and stayed there. Jo-Jo was doing the "hippy" thing and hanging with her friends. The daylight savings time threw our schedule for a loop on Sunday. We planned on going to a birthday party but Naomi decided it was time to take a nap so we missed out on that one. I'll be making a drive to Grand Rapids this evening to work the David Crowder Band concert. I'll be spending my drive with Jesus discussing the candidates and praying for wisdom for myself and all of America's voters. Tuesday will be a big day...for the world.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me! Thanks for all the Birthday wishes. I feel loved! I had quite a few people ask, "what did you do for your birthday?". Well, let's see...I changed poopy diapers, cleaned up cat vomit on the carpet, laundry...the usual mom, wife, pet owner stuff. Pretty uneventful until I got to thinking, which is always scary. I remember a birthday five years ago. A birthday when I was uncertain as to whether God could hear my prayers or my families prayers, friends prayers, co-workers prayers. Five years ago when in 3 days (Mike's birthday too) I would be heading to the hospital to get hooked up to an IV and have toxic stuff trickled into my body to get rid of the toxic stuff in it. Go figure??? I couldn't help but wonder if he could hear us, answer us, fix me. In my heart I knew He could and despite satan's attempts to crush my spirit, God kept me strong and gave me signs to let me know that he wasn't done with me yet. Although I would never wish cancer on anyone, I wish everyone could experience the tingle of prayers being answered and knowing that God is in charge. People asked, "how can you have such a good attitude?" while I was going through treatment. How could I not? When you're getting loved on by you're Daddy Ol' Mighty. I knew I was safe and that his plan is always better than mine or anyone elses. There was a test score on one of my medical reports. My score was a 9 out of 9. I looked up what this test was for and it was to determine the estimated success of treatment. 9 out of 9 was the worst score you could get. But satan didn't estimate the power of prayer and so here I am 5 years later.
Happy Birthday to Me!

The adventures of Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Thumb

It's such a shame that State fans are just so used to losing that they don't know how to behave when they win! Someone in my household, not me, but I'm not saying who, felt a creative urge after the win last weekend and had to vent his artistic, more like devilish, talent on a poor unsuspecting co-worker who happened to be a Michigan fan. Of course this was such a big project he, oops, I mean, this person, had to engage another fence sitting fan into partaking in this occasion. I'm not naming names but I have heard them called Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Thumb. But just because someone is nicknamed Tweedle Thumb and a friend of ours has an injured thumb doesn't mean that is who I'm refering to...

Time to store up fat for winter hibernation!

What is it about fall that makes me want to cook? Brooke and I went on a little cooking binge this week and ventured into some pie baking. I have to confess that Brooke did most of the work but I was head cheerleader. We made apple and pumpkin pies. oooohhhh they were yummy! The apple was made with jonathon and granny smith apples and the pumpkin was made with sweetened condensed milk instead of evaporated. DE-LISH!
For the big MSU/U of M game day get together with the Taylors I made some chicken n cheez enchiladas, found the recipe in a magazine. Wooo Wee! Another winner!

Here's the recipe if you're interested (I doubled it):
1-10-3/4 oz. can Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 c - sour cream
1 c - Pace Picante sauce
2 tsp.- chili powder
2 c - chopped cooked chicken
1/2 c - shredded colby jack cheese
6 - flour tortillas
1-sm. tomato, chopped
1 - green onion, sliced
In Med. bowl mix : soup, sour cream, chili powder, set aside
In Lg.bowl mix, chicken, picante sauce & cheese.
Divide the chicken mixture between the tortillas, roll up the tortillas and place them seamside up in an 11"x8" shallow baking dish.
Pour soup mixture over the filled tortillas.
Cover and bake at 350 for about 40 min.
Top with tomato and onion.