Sick Days

I have been under the weather for a few days now. I woke up Wednesday feeling great and by the time I came home from work I had a sore throat and a fever. It's crazy how fast it can hit you. I was just telling someone the other day that I was happy because I hadn't taken a sick day this year...spoke to soon!

I came home and took Tylenol and sore throat medicine and hoped it would get better, but it just got worse. So, I went to the doctor on Friday and found out what I had expected... that I had strep throat. I got an antibiotic and am feeling much better today. I should be able to go back to work on Monday.

I am so thankful for medicine and especially antibiotics! My throat hurt so bad I didn't even want to swallow and after taking just 3 pills I already feel so much better. It made me think about all the people in Haiti that are sick or hurt and can't get simple medications that can save their lives or at least take the pain away. It breaks my heart for them. I know strep throat is minor compared to what they are going through, but pain is pain and we are so blessed to live in the U.S. and be able to go to a doctor and get medicine when we need it.

Joyce Meyer's ministry is partnering with Love A Child to help Haiti. They have already donated an x-ray machine and 904 pounds of medical supplies. Here is the link to the page on her website if you want to find out more or donate. I have partnered with Joyce Meyer's Ministries for a few years now and one thing I know about her ministry is that they love to help hurting people. When I first heard of the earthquake, I knew Joyce's ministry would be there as quick as they could. I know I can't help every single person, but if I can help just one by donating it is worth it. Pray for Haiti!

I have to go now, another Lifetime Movie is coming on....I think I have seen every one by now :)

Stay Well and take your vitamin C

The Little Couple

One of my favorite shows is the Little Couple on TLC. Every time I watch it I am more amazed at how much they both have accomplished and how they don't let anything stop them despite their challenges...and doesn't Jen have the cutest clothes? She is always so adorable! It is amazing how she climbs up on the step stool and takes care of all those preemies. I am always inspired after watching the show and reminded that I have nothing to complain about! I also love the fact that they live in Houston. Secretly, whenever I am in Houston I wonder if I will see them :)

On last night's episode they took some friends who were visiting from out of town to the Kemah Boardwalk, which is pretty much right between Beaumont and Houston.

I love the Kemah Boardwalk! Bill and Jen didn't get to stay long because of the cold, rainy weather but they rode the Ferris Wheel and played some games. Then, they took their friends to buy cowboy boots at Cavendars in Houston. It was fun to see Kemah on T.V. It made me want to go there when the weather is warmer and eat some crab legs..Yum!

Day of Rest

One of my New Year's resolutions was to start making Sundays a true day of rest. I think it is really important to have one day to relax and not do much of anything. I have really enjoyed my rest day so far.

I went to church this morning and then came home an ate lunch. I was in the mood to watch a movie so I looked up the movies at Red Box, but there wasn't anything I wanted to see. I decided to watch one that I already owned. I watched Facing the Giants. The first time I saw it was in the theatre and I remember wishing I had paper and a pen to write down some of the things they said because it was so good! This time I was able to do that.

Here are some of the quotes I wrote down...

"Do the best you can and leave the results up to God!"

"God can do whatever He wants to do, however He wants to do it! And He chooses to work in our lives because He loves us."

"We will praise Him when we win and we will praise Him when we lose."

"Is there anything too hard for God?"

My favorite scene in this movie is where Coach Taylor blindfolds Brock, a football player, and has him do the death crawl on the football field with a guy on his back. Brock doesn't think that he can make it to the 30 yard line, but he ends up going all the way to the end zone. The whole time Coach Taylor is telling him not to give up, keep going, he can make it, and Brock is saying it's too hard, he wants to quit, and it hurts.

Every time I see that part it makes me think of how God is like the coach in our lives telling us not to give up and to keep going even when it hurts! So good!!! Thank God for good Christian movies!! I heard on the radio the other day that the same church that made this movie and Fireproof is making another movie and it should be coming out this summer. They said they are not making another movie just because they have made two, but because God is telling them to. I am looking forward to seeing it.

After watching the movie I cooked dinner. I have been craving a spinach and cheese quiche. I found a recipe online and it was so good and sort of healthy with the spinach right :) I put the recipe below.

Two Cheese and Spinach Quiche

9 inch Pastry Shell

1/2 cup shredded Swiss Cheese

10 oz chopped Spinach (drained and thawed)

1 cup Half-and-Half

2 tsp flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

3 eggs

Heat oven to 450 and bake the pastry shell for 5 minutes covered with heavy foil (I put 2 layers of regular foil). Uncover and bake for another 5 minutes, set aside. Reduce the heat to 350. Combine the spinach and Swiss cheese and sprinkle over the crust. In a bowl, beat the eggs, half-and-half, flour, and salt. Pour over the spinach mixture and sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top. Bake for 40-45 minutes on 350. Enjoy!

I am off work tomorrow for MLK day, so I might make it 2 days of rest :)

My blog book!

A while ago I came across this website that turns your blog into a book. I love scrapbooks, but I really don't have the time or money it takes to sit and work on them so this is a great alternative for me. You can choose what blog entries you want to include in the book. I started my blog last March, so I printed mine from March to January 1st. I plan on printing it every year in January. I was so excited to get it in the mail this week. Here is how it turned out....

This is the front cover. You can choose from 4 different covers and you can put 1 picture on the front. A hard cover book is $40.00 and a soft covered book is $15.00. I think it is well worth it because scrapbooking can be very expensive.

Table of Contents

It includes all the pictures and text in each one of your posts

I am very happy with the way it turned out....what a great idea!

Brrrr.....It's Cold!

It hasn't been this cold in Southeast Texas since 1997! I love cold weather, but an Artic cold front I wasn't so sure about....the word Artic just sounds so harsh. I also love cold weather when I can be indoors sitting by a fireplace and drinking hot chocolate. I teach in a portable building so all day today I was in and out of the freezing cold. I bundled up, but I was still so cold. I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like tomorrow and the rest of the weekend with even much cooler temperatures. I am excited though to be able to wear my cute scarf that my friend Alecia gave me for Christmas (thanks!) and my furry boots!

With below freezing temperatures coming, I took my dog Maggie to Pet Smart last night and had her bathed and treated for fleas so she could come in the house. I love her, but I have never been an inside dog person. I borrowed my neighbors truck to bring her to the vet since she was dirty from being the outside dog that she is. Then, when I picked her up in my car I covered my backseat with a sheet. She looked so good when I picked her up.

As I brought her inside she was unsure about it, but she warmed up to the idea quickly. It took me a little longer as I tried to eat my tomato basil soup with her sitting beside me, staring at me, and sticking her nose in my lap. I am pretty sure that I am still not an inside dog person, but the Bible says "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animals" Proverbs 12:10.

Can you believe that she is 13 years old? I don't know if it is the angle of the picture or what, but I think she almost looks like a puppy in this picture and look at that smile :)

I got her a new collar and dog tag at Pet Smart too!

....I could get use to this!

Keep warm tomorrow!

Christmas in PA

Happy New Year!!! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I just got home from Pennsylvania last night. We left on Monday, December 21st, and headed to PA for Christmas with dad and Glenn. We went to DeSoto and met up with Steph and Ross and stayed at Ross' mom's house that night. On Tuesday, we drove 10 hours to Nashville, TN and stopped for the night. We purposely left at 6:00 in the morning so we could see some of Nashville. I am so glad we did because we checked into our hotel around 5 and then went to eat at Darfon's, a local restaurant that someone recommended to us. Then we went to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and drove by the Grand Ole Opry House.





The Gaylord Opryland Hotel is huge! It was the perfect time of year to visit because it was all decorated for Christmas. The lights and decorations were so beautiful! Everywhere you looked there was something to see. There is even a river that runs through the hotel complete with boat rides....it reminded me of the River Walk in San Antonio.

Christmas lights inside the Gaylord Opryland Hotel

Outside there were even more lights and decorations! There were hundreds of people walking through the hotel looking at the lights.

I loved the beautiful Nativity Scene they had outside!

Early the next morning we left and headed to Canonsburg, PA to meet up with dad and Glenn at Glenn's apartment. On the way, we stopped in Ohio at a gas station and saw these Amish people selling baskets out in front of the gas station.

Our first Amish sighting!

I know that the Amish don't like having their pictures taken so I took this through the car window. We got out and looked at the baskets and were able to talk to the man and his son. It was really cold outside and we asked how they stay warm while driving. They told us that they just cover with a blanket....I can't imagine that, I mean it was COLD!! Of course, the baskets were hand woven and so beautiful. It was funny though because the gas station had a McDonald's attached to it and when we first saw them they were sitting in their buggy eating McDonald's hamburgers.....I guess I just didn't picture the Amish driving through McDonald's.

We went to Glenn's apartment in Canonsburg and then headed to the farmhouse. It was about an hour drive from Glenn's and we went through Pittsburgh. We stopped an ate dinner at the Georgetown Inn in Pittsburgh. It is a really nice restaurant that sits on a hill and overlooks the city. Mom, Steph, and I really dressed to impress in our sweats and lounge clothes we wore in the car :)

This is a picture of the restaurant overlooking the city.....It was so pretty at night!

Next door to the restaurant was a lookout spot where you can take pictures

After we ate, we drove to the farmhouse. It was dark outside, but there was snow on the ground and everything looked so pretty, especially the closer we got to the farmhouse. It was off many rural country roads and the drive was beautiful even at night!

The Farmhouse

The farmhouse was even more beautiful than I imagined! It looked so beautiful covered in snow. We were told that it was hit or miss this time of year that there would be snow, but thanks to the blizzard the week before there was plenty! This was the first snow that this part of PA had so far this winter. I thank God for leading us to this farmhouse. Mom and I must have looked into hundreds of places to rent and we were so blessed to find this place.

The kitchen

Shelly, The lady who owns the farmhouse, inherited it from her uncle. It was built in the 1800's and it had been in her family for a long time. She restored it recently and just started renting it out. She did a great job with updating it and still keeping period details like the claw foot tub.

Shelly called us a few weeks before we left and asked if it would be okay if her parents brought us a Christmas tree and decorations. Her parents own a Christmas tree farm nearby and wanted to give us a tree. It was so sweet of them and we were so happy to have a Christmas tree! Glenn slept on the fold out couch in the living room.

Mom and Dad's room


Stephanie and Ross' room

My room


The farmhouse sits on 100 acres

The next morning the guys had some fun throwing snowballs at us :)

Being from Texas and not exactly having allot of experience with snow, we attempted to build a a snowman and had no idea how much work it takes. Glenn and Ross would shovel the snow and Stephanie and I attempted to make it into one big round ball, but it was not easy. It looks like a breeze in the movies! Our snowman never got much taller than it was in this picture :)

There was a fire pit outside and we enjoyed sitting around it drinking hot chocolate and making S'Mores.

Weenie Roast

We decorated our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve

As we were sitting by the fire one day, we saw a deer walking across the field behind us. It was not scared of us at all...it almost walked right up to us and I got some good pictures!

We borrowed a friends tripod and took family pictures

We spent most of our time at the farmhouse just relaxing, watching movies, sitting around the fire pit, cooking, playing cards and Scrabble together. One day we got out and drove around to look at the scenery and go to the grocery store. We also went skiing at the Hidden Valley ski Resort that was nearby. The drive to the ski resort was so beautiful!

Ready to ski!

Mom and dad are not skiers so they sat inside in the lodge and took pictures of us. Mom took this one and I love it because she got all of us in it. Glenn is at the bottom, me, Steph and then Ross. It was a perfect day for skiing. It was not that crowded and it was sunny. We skied the twilight hours from 1-10. During twilight they turn on lights and you can ski at night. None of us had ever skied at night and it was fun, but we only lasted until about 7:00. I woke up the next morning so sore....you use muscles skiing you didn't know you had and I fell a few times :)

The day before we left, we woke up to snow falling. It snowed pretty much all day and I tried to get some pictures of it. This is my favorite one with the rocking chair on the front porch.

We spent 7 days at the farmhouse and time flew by. On our way back home Nashville was our stopping place again. The drive from the farmhouse to Nashville was 9 hours and we left later so we got to Nashville pretty late.

Music Row

We drove down Music Row and I tried to take pictures while we were driving. I thought we might see people singing on the street, but it was a weekday and it was late.

Country Music Hall of Fame

The Pancake Pantry

The next morning we ate at the Pancake Pantry before we left to come home. It is a really popular place in Nashville and we were told that no matter what time of day you go there is always a line curving around the building. We stood in line and it was freezing outside.

They have every kind of panckae imaginable, but I had to get my favorite..blueberry!

Mom ordered the pecan pancakes with pecan syrup and we shared. The pecan pancakes tasted more like dessert. It was so good. Stephanie ordered sweet potato pancakes with a special syrup and Ross ordered the cornmeal pancackes with bacon, eggs, and jalepenos in them. It was worth the wait!

We drove throguh Memphis, TN on our way home so we had to stop and eat barbecue. Memphis is famous for its barbecue and we ate at Corky's. It was featured on the Food Network for one of the best places to eat barbecue. We ate really good on the way home! And since we were in Memphis we had to visit one more place...

Graceland

We found out Graceland was only 20 minutes from where we ate so we drove by. We didn't have time to stop and tour it, but we were able to get pictures of Elvis' house from the street.

This is the best picture I could get of Elvis' house. There was a huge Nativity blocking most of it and I was surprised the house was right off a busy street. I always pictured it way out in the country somewhere. Across the street from the house was a musuem and his private plane, the Lisa Marie, that you could tour. My pictures of it didn't turn out.

The Gate to Graceland

There is a brick wall surronding the house and it is covered with notes written to Elvis and thousands of signatures.

All together we were in the car driving for 40 hours roundtrip. We went through Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio, a small part of West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. I am so glad that we drove so that we could see everything along the way, but I think we all agreed that next time we are flying! We can't complain too much because Ross drove us the entire way.....we didn't force him to he actually wanted to drive because he was more comfortable. I am just so thankful that we are all still speaking after that many hours in the car together :) It was such a blessing to be able to spend Christmas in a snow covered farmhouse in Pennsylvania. God is so good and full of surprises! We prayed that Dad and Glenn would get off that week and He answered our prayers and more! I look forward to 2010 and all the good things God has in store!!