2011 Resolutions

Well the end of 2011 is rapidly approaching so I thought I would share with you all how I did on my resolutions. I feel like I've done pretty well. There are a few things that didn't happen, but over all I did pretty good.

1. Become a better student of the Bible. I am really good about my daily Bible reading, but I need to throw some more study books into the mix.

I did great with this resolution! I read 12 study books over the course of the year. They were:

Daughters of Eve by Lottie Beth Hobbs

The Christians Everyday Problems by Leroy Brownlow

Some Do's and Don'ts for the Christian by Leroy Brownlow

Convicted by Brad Harrub

Behold: The Lamb of God by Kyle Butt and Eric Lyons

Greatest Questions in the Old Testament by Leroy Brownlow

Seasoning your Words by Nancy Eichman

Greatest Questions of the New Testament by Leroy Brownlow

Showtime by Dan Chambers

Diall 911 by Bob Spurlin

Out with Doubt by Kyle Butt

Rock Solid Faith by Bert Thompson

I really enjoyed reading all these books. My favorites were Convicted and Out with Doubt.

2. Continue my fertility diet for at least the next six months. Hopefully I won't need it for that long, but I'm not really holding my breath. Also, I've been horrible about my diet the last couple of weeks so I am basically starting over.

I did this, but it obviously didn't work out for me. I was very disappointed that my results weren't what I was hoping for.

3. Read at least 12 books from my 100 Greatest Novels list. I did get through 16 books this year. I am currently reading War and Peace and it is going pretty slow. It's a huge book.

I read 13 off the list. The books I read were:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

My favorite from this list is definitely Jane Eyre. I read it before and still enjoyed it the second time (it may have even been the third time).

4. Pay off the majority of the credit card. This also entails not using it this year. Or not using it as much anyway. I'm excited that we are stable enough (as in moved and a steady preaching position) that we can really focus on this now.

Haha! We have had a lot of unforseen things happen (the biggest being the damage from the tornado) and haven't been able to make much progress on this. It's definitely a fail on this list.

5. The Lisa/Jessica Project. I want to continue making 2 new dishes from the cookbook each week and blogging about it.

I quit this. The recipes just weren't that good. After plugging along through several recipes, I only found a few that our family liked. It wasn't worth it to me to finish the project.

6. I want to have better dental hygiene and I want to teach Chloe Jo better dental hygiene. We always brush our teeth in the morning. In the evening...eh...not so much. We need to start brushing them at least 2 times a day.

We have definitely done this one! We have established a great bedtime routine and now brush our teeth before bed every night.

7. Be better stewards of the Earth. This includes continuing our weekly recycling which includes cardboard, glass and cans. We plan to create a compost barrel for our food scraps. Also, I need to start recycling paper. I am going to get a 2nd trashcan just for our paper products.

This one didn't go so well. We never did the compost barrel and we still only recycle what the city will pick up.

8. Finish Russ' school scrapbooks. I think this was on my list for 2009. HA! Seriously, though, I need to at least finish those up!

I finally finished these!!! I was so glad to check them off the list! I also am caught up through summer of 2007 in my regular scrapbooks.

9. Finish the "Pray without Ceasing" cross stitch. I have been working on this for entirely too long! I started it when I first realized that getting pregnant was not going to be easy for us. It has a baby praying with adult hands around the babies hands in the praying position. It is beautiful.

I didn't do a single stitch this year. I kept getting it out to do and then it would just sit wherever I put it for a few weeks before I put it away again.

10. I have 2 blankets that I have started crocheting and I need to finish them. One of them is for Russ and I started it before we got married 6 years ago! It's high time I finish it. The other one I started in November so it's not a huge priority.

I finished one in the beginning of the year. As for the blanket I was making Russ, I made the executive decision to throw away what I had done and forget about it. Russ never uses blankets and it was just too much work for something he wouldn't use.

As I said before, I did pretty good this year! I will do another post soon about my 2012 resolutions!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It's time for yet another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday!

To play along, go here!

I'm loving that we leave tomorrow for our Christmas festivities! We are going to stop at my brother's house in Tennesse first and then drive on to spend Christmas with Russ' family in Arkansas followed by time with my family in Missouri! I am so ready to see everyone!

I'm loving that we did our family Christmas gift exchange yesterday! We had so much fun and Chloe Jo was hilarious to watch!

I'm loving my dear husband!

I'm loving my sweet Chloe Jo! She received these two Cabbage Patch Dolls from Santa this year. The one in the skunk costume didn't come with a name and we haven't decided what to call her yet. The other one's name is Hailie Eva (one of the nicest CPK names ever!).

I'm loving that Russ brought me these flowers Monday. I always love getting flowers!

I'm loving Pinterest. I finally decided to check out what all the fuss was about and one of my Facebook friends sent me an invite. Um, can you say "addicting?"

I'm loving these pins that I found yesterday. I actually pinned about a thousand. These are just a few I really liked.

I hope you all are having a fabulous Wednesday!

My Recipe Box: Armadillo Eggs

One of the things I made on Saturday for the Christmas party were armadillo eggs. I had never made them myself, but I had ate them a few times before and really wanted to try making them myself. I had to search the internet for a recipe and finally found one and printed it off (I found it on allrecipes.com). They turned out so good!

Armadillo Eggs

2 12 oz. packages ground sausage

1 8 oz. packages cream cheese softened

30 jalapeno peppers

1 pound sliced bacon, cut in half

60 toothpicks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place ground sausage in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain sausage and place in medium bowl. Mix with the cream cheese. Cut jalapenos in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds. Stuff each jalapeno half with equal portions of the sausage and cream cheese mixture. Wrap with half slices of bacon and secure with toothpicks. Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until the bacon is evenly brown.

Productive Day!

I don't know about you all, but I've had a very productive day! Okay, I haven't really done that much, but what I have done has taken time! This morning, Chloe Jo and I went to the library and I checked out a couple more books from my Top 100 list that I have been working on. I just finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison which brings my total up to 28 books read. So....only 72 to go. That's not too many more, right? Heh. Today I checked out Native Son by Richard Wright and Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I'm not sure why I felt compelled to get them both since they are both big reads. Oh well. If I can't get to them both before they are due it's no big deal.

After the library we went to the local Wall-to-Wall-Mart to pick up a few essentials for this week. I didn't do the normal grocery shopping. I think we can get by on what is in our cabinets and refrigerator until we leave on Thursday. We have to go back tonight so Russ can get a couple of desperately needed jeans.

After we got home I dragged out my sewing machine and got to work on making some burp rags my sister asked me to make for the soon-to-be-born baby Brenson. I like how they turned out and I hope she does too.

I just zig-zagged the edges of the fabric onto the middle of the cloth diaper.
While this project was very basic and easy, I did 6 of them so it was time consuming.

After I finished the burp rags, I had enough of the flannel fabric with the animals left over to try a new project. I was surfing a few weeks ago and came across this pattern and I have been wanting to try it out. I thought the first pair I made had too small of a hole and would cut off circulation to the feet so I ended up giving that pair to Chloe Jo for a baby doll and made a second pair that turned out much better. I also decided to put the giraffes on the sole of the second pair. I think they turned out so cute!

When little guy has tummy time these giraffes will be there to entertain big sister!

And that's what I've been doing today. Now to finish supper and off to Wall-To-Wall-Mart we'll go!

Successful Party!

Russ and I hosted a successful holiday party for the church here last night. It was small as we only had 4 people come, but our congregation is small (30 to 35 on Sunday mornings) and we had a great time anyway! We had way too much food and all of us ended up with a lot leftover. We had an ornament exchange and I think the game was so fun! I read the poem "The Night Before Christmas" and every time I said the word "the" we passed our ornament to the right. Every time I said the word "and" we passed our ornament to the left. It was hilarious and everyone enjoyed it. We had a blast and are looking forward to our next party! Here is a picture of Russ and I before people started getting here.
And because I can't resist:
I found this dress on clearance at JC Penney and used a coupon so it was very inexpensive and I love it. Chloe Jo loves it, too. When I put it on her this morning she was so excited that she had to twirl in it. I love my little girly girl!

Holiday Card

I think everyone we sent cards to this year have had time to receive them so this is for all of you, my blog friends!

We hope you all have a great holiday season!

Snowman Ornament

I have been seeing a lot of homemade snowmen ornaments around blogworld lately and I really wanted to try to make some with Chloe Jo but I was pretty sure that she wouldn't like it and would think it's too messy. I had all the things we needed so I went ahead and tried to do it with her last night. Here is the finished product!
I think it turned out really cute, but Chloe Jo hated it! As feared, she deemed it "a mess" and said she didn't want to make anymore. I'm glad I didn't go buy new ornaments for her to do! I think it would have been so fun to make a bunch to hand out as party favors and to family for the holidays, but some things are just not meant to be. I'm still glad we tried it and that we have this one to hang on our tree for years to come!

If you want to make ornaments with your little one, it's super easy. Just paint their hand white and let them hold the ornament. Use a black magic marker to add eyes and an orange magic marker to add the nose. I also wrote her name and the year on the bottom of the ornament. Super simple and oh-so-cute!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It is mid-week Peeps and time for another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving this graphic that my brother sent me. He said it reminded him of Chloe Jo (she loves ice cream and he took her to get some a couple times over Thanksgiving):

I'm loving that we are going to be doing our family gift giving on next Tuesday and that we will be leaving to spend Christmas with our families on Thursday! I. AM. SO. EXCITED!

I'm loving that I have most of the ingredients for the things I will be making for our Christmas party on Saturday! It's almost here!

I'm loving that we will be going with Russ to the preaching school on Friday so that we can attend that congregations singing night! I love singing night!

That's it for today. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks!

Link up here!

Cardassians vs. Kardashians

I am a geek. A Trekkie. Or Trekker if you will. I love watching Star Trek. Always have and always will. My brother let me borrow the complete series of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. I just finished watching DS9 with my hubby tonight. :) He was not a Trekkie. He is now. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I brought him over to the dark side!
Anyway, moving on. One race of aliens that play a huge part in the series of DS9 are the Cardassians. My poor hubby keeps calling them the Kardashians!

Cardassians vs. Kardashians?

They are both Warrior races. The Cardassians have fire power. The Kardashians have their feminine wiles (as can be attested to by Kris Humphreys).

So who would win in a fight? The Spoonheads or the K-Team?

Eh. It's a toss-up.

Music Monday

I know it's late, but I really want to share this music Monday video! I love me some Straight No Chaser and this has been the cd of choice in the car this year (and last year, too!). Enjoy!

Cookies, Onesies and a Menu

Ya'll, it has been bo-oring around our home the last couple of weeks. I'm finished making, buying and wrapping Christmas gifts. I am trying to save some cash for our upcoming trip to Arkansas and Missouri so we just haven't been getting out much. We've been doing the usual weekly things: working on letters with Chloe Jo, going to the library, doing puzzles, etc. We've also been watching entirely too much Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. My brother let me borrow the whole series and I'm trying to get through it so I can return the dvd's when we see them at Christmas. I've also been trying to decide what I'm going to make for our Christmas party. One thing I really liked about the congregation we were memebers of in Springfield was that the minister would host a Christmas party for the members every year and we have started that tradition here. I know I will be making armadillo eggs and home made apple cider. I'm thinking about making rice crispy treats and maybe one other thing. I'm not sure yet. Any suggestions?

Chloe Jo and I did make cookies on Monday evening. I try not to make sweets very often because we eat them way too fast so this is a treat!

I've also been working on a project for my soon-to-be-here nephew, Brenson. My sister asked me to make some onesies and burp rags for him. I haven't gotten to the burp rags, but here are some of the onesies I did for him. I think they turned out pretty cute!

I think they turned out really cute!

And that is what has been going on around here. Hopefully I'll find some better blog fodder to post next week!

Oh Christmas Tree

I haven't blogged since last Thursday. THURSDAY people! There really isn't much going on right now. The only thing worth mentioning is that I made this adorable Christmas tree shirt last week for CJ.
Since it was a product of my own imagination (no etsy ideas here!) I think it turned out really cute! Although, I may have to hotglue the inside of the bell. Then again, I did know where CJ was every second of the day so maybe I don't. :)

Jingle Bell Shadow Box Tutorial

*EDIT* The original idea came from Blue Eyed Blessings and can be found here.

I saw this project on another blog, but I can't remember where! If you posted this project or if you know who did, please leave me a comment so I can give the reference. Although, that person probably got it off of pinterest!

This project is so easy and I love the way it turned out. It only took me about 15 minutes!

What you will need:

• Shadow Box (I chose the smallest box I could get at Hobby Lobby)
• Jingle Bells
• Letter stickers
• 1 piece cardstock (I used red)

The first thing I did was cut the red carstock to the size of the frame.

I poured some of the jingle bells in the shadow box and reinsterted the back with the cardstock.

I then put the sticker letters on the front of the glass!

And that was all there was to this project! It was so simple and it made a very nice decoration!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

It is once again time for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Link up here!

I'm loving that we had a great time last week spending the Thanksgiving holiday with my family! I'm very much looking forward to going back to Arkansas and Missouri for Christmas in a few weeks!

I'm loving the Seasonal scents from Febreese. This blue candle smells yummy! It is called Winter Magic & Glow.

I'm loving Christmas crafting. I am working on a project now, have one ready to start and made this one yesterday. I will put up a tutorial tomorrow. It was super easy and I love the way it came out!

And as always, I'm loving my wonderful family. Chloe Jo is so excited about the Christmas lights and all the trees around this year!

What are you loving on this wonderful Wednesday?

Um...what!?

A few weeks ago, Russ and I were in Wall-to-wall mart and we were walking by the women's pajama department. I looked over there and, to my surprise, saw this:Footed pajamas for adults. Apparently they are this years Snuggie. Because some adults don't act enough like babies. They will just need a binky to top off the whole ensemble.

So what we have now is adults wanting to look like babies in footed pajamas and babies wanting to look like adults in jeans.Does anybody besides me see the irony in this?

Thanksgiving!

Our family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I hope all of you did, too!

Early Tuesday morning we loaded up our car and headed to Western Tennessee. My brother and his family just bought a house and wanted to host the holiday this year. Everything went smoothly until about hour #6. We hit Nashville at rush hour and it took us forever to get through the city. Then Chloe Jo had an extreme meltdown in the bathroom at a Wendy's. She had an accident in the car and it took us a while to get cleaned up. The whole time she was screaming and acting like I was abusing her. When we finally came out of the bathroom everyone in the restaurant was staring at us. I was already frazzled because she acted so crazy so I was really upset when everyone was staring at us. I'm not going to lie. We left without staying to eat and when we got in the car, I cried for a while. It was not my best mother moment for sure. We had left at 6:30 in the morning and didn't get to my brother's until 9:30 (our time) that evening. It was a long day.

My sister and her family came in on Wednesday and my parents came on Thursday. It was so nice to see everyone!

One of the things we do every year is go around the table after we eat and tell one thing we are thankful for. This year I am extremely thankful for our health and that our little family is doing great. I'm so glad we weren't in our house when the tornado came through our town and knocked the tree over on it!

We spent 3 fun days in Tennessee with my family and had so much fun!

There was a lot of singing with Grampy.There was a lot of goofiness going on.

There was a little bit of crafting.

There was some smooching on Grampy.

Of course, there was lots of delicious food!

Friday afternoon we went out to a local state park. Russ and I wanted to have my sister taking Christmas card pictures, but we also took several family pictures.

G-Jo and Grampy (my parents)

Jeremy, Kaylee, Jordan and Shawna (my brother and his family)

I think you all know this little family!

Chelley, Brenson (in utero), Brianna and Chris (my sister and her family)

You're never too old or big to sit on your Daddy's lap!

G-Jo and Grampy with the grandchildren...they look so proud of themselves!

We stayed out at the park and played for a while before heading back to my brother's house.

I think this is a really cool picture. I may have to have it printed and frame it for Jordan's room.

Cute picture of Shawna and Jeremy

The kids and their spouses (minus my oldest brother and his family...they weren't there)

Brianna thought hanging on these rings was fantastic!

Jordan thought so, too!

Chloe Jo preferred sliding.

And Kaylee preferred posing for pictures.

I'm so glad we decided to drive out to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year! We will also be traveling to celebrate the Christmas holiday this year. We weren't able to do this at all last year so this is very exciting for us. I haven't been back to Missouri since January and Russ hasn't been back to Arkansas where his family lives or Missouri since last summer. We are also going to have our annual Christmas party in a couple of weeks so we are going to be very busy for the next month. That's all for now. I have a date with The Closer now!