New do...

It was definitely time for Jackson to get his hair cut again. He was beginning to look like a shaggy dog. Really. Shaggy. So Thursday afternoon, I took him to get a trim. Well, for some reason, this time he seemed to be way more anxious about the hair trim and would not sit still. So after several attempts to use the scissors to cut his hair, Christine finally just pulled out the electric clippers and cut all the hair away. Well, not all of it, but it is now really short! But, I am not upset at all. I actually love it this short. He looks like a little man now. Guess turning two means that we need to get a 2-year old hair cut too!

before ... (with his "horns")

after ... with Ganga

Guess what?!?!

Yay! Another year older... can you believe it? I sure can't. However, we are saddened because "Ganga" cannot be with us this year for the party. We will miss her but I am sure that she will be enjoying her once in a lifetime trip to Israel! We love you Ganga!

Jackson's birthday isn't actually until the 27th so I am sure that I will be posting a few more things about the big day including pictures! I am also working on his letter that I will post on his birthday with his traditional "birthday picture". Yay! I am so excited!

Dinner.. Failed

Because of the profession that Wayne is in, he does have a “swing shift” type of job. Well, it just so happened that he was at work last night so, I had plans to fix dinner for just me and Jackson. Wayne was going to eat steak with the guys. I took out some chicken breasts because I always seem to find something to do with chicken. I do love to try new recipes – especially stuff with lots of starches. I know that they aren’t good for you, but they seem to make the best dishes, i.e., stuffing, rice, potatoes, etc. However, I usually do have to have a recipe in front of me, for the dishes to work… usually.

In conversation with a co-worker a few weeks back, she had mentioned that she makes a baked chicken dish with rice and, of course, chicken. So, I thought I would make my own rendition – keyword: thought. My ingredients: long grain rice, cream of mushroom soup (probably should have used cream of chicken because I have SOOO many more cans of that – but that topic is for another posting), and chicken. Oh, and little bit of milk. I called my mom before hand to see if I needed to add water to the rice and if I needed to cover the dish and she recommended that I cover the dish and that I could use some water, but not a lot. I did read the can paper for the cream of mushroom soup and it said that I could mix with milk or water, so I chose milk.

I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees. Isn’t that the norm for everything? Remember, no recipe in front of me. I used my Pampered Chef square baking dish and mixed the rice and one can of cream of mushroom. Then I laid 3 chicken breasts on top of the combination then poured just a bit of milk on top of the rice… hoping it would seep in. I covered the dish with tin foil and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. Why 30 minutes you ask? Because that is how long the Shake-n-Bake packaging says that I need to cook my chicken breasts when I use that… Did I mention I do better when I have a recipe?

The timer goes off after 30 minutes and I take the dish out. (I really wish that I had pictures of this!!) I open the foil and the milk has not seeped into the rice as I had hoped… It was just as liquefied as it was when I put it on the rice. The chicken, however, did look done. In an effort to make the milk mix, I lifted the chicken breasts and stirred the milk into the rice mixture. I thought I would bake it a little longer to see if it would thicken up a bit. Ahh, then another thought… cheese… cheese would be great. I sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese on top of the chicken and put it back in the oven (uncovered) for another 10 minutes.

After I pulled the dish out for the second time, I was really excited about tasting this new dish of mine. I cut one of the chicken breasts up for Jackson and tasted. It was pretty bland… plain chicken with cheese on top. Not sure if I was really expecting anything more. Then, I scooped out some rice to put on his plate. I tried a little bit of the left over rice on the spoon. … … … hmm… interesting. Crunchy rice. Almost so crunchy it seemed as though I was eating it from the bag. I tried some from another section of the dish. Hmm… more crunchy. So, Jackson got chicken nuggets (he would have preferred them anyway) and I had a chicken breast. Yummy. Did you catch the sarcasm?!?!

Moral of the story… probably should have mixed the milk in the rice and used a bit more than just 1/4 of a cup or so.

Second moral of the story… use a recipe!

Randoms

Saturday mornings are usually pretty relaxed at our house. Should we be up and doing chores around the house? Yeah, probably. But, it is so much easier to just sit on the couch and do nothing or just spend time playing "po po cars" with Jackson. Amongst all of this relaxation, I have spent some time updating myself on all the blogs I follow. I don't want there to be any postings that I haven't read. I really enjoy all the writing styles of each blogger... so unique and characteristic of their own personalities. However, I also had some time to look at old postings of my own. One that really caught my attention was the one from August 5th, 2010. I had a recollection of "Day One of No Cable or Internet". So, it has been five months and I do have to say that there are a lot of days that I miss both of those unnecessary amenities. For instance, watching cartoons in bed with Jackson on Saturday morning or being able to post pictures to my blog at any time. However, for the most part, I think we have survived well without them. I may not be up to date on my favorite TV shows like the Biggest Loser but it has been nice really enjoying my family and spending an extra 5 minutes playing with Jackson as he takes his bath. These moments will always be cherished. However, I will say that he probably already has Toy Story memorized... I have to have something to keep him occupied while I cook dinner! :)

Here is a picture of him I snapped this morning with my phone. I apologize for the poor quality.

** Side note: I posted my picture after typing my post so Blogger automatically put it at the top of my posting. Of course, my touch screen cell phone will not allow me to highlight and move text around. But hey, it's there! Only my perfectionistic ways will be aggravated by the placement of the picture!

New Year, Fresh Start

Happy New Year!
Wow, I cannot believe another year has passed us by. In an effort to try and play “catch-up”, I am going to help you re-live our past year in a quick little posting.

January: Jackson turned 1!! We planned a small birthday bash at our home and the snow fell, and fell, and fell some more. There were many who couldn’t come but we still had a great time celebrating this wonderful milestone with Jackson.

February: Wayne and I were able to enjoy a weekend to ourselves on a marriage retreat with our church. It was definitely nice to get away but it was even better to get home and see little man again. I also was able to purchase a new digital SLR that month. It has been fun trying to learn how to use that.

March: Jackson had his first battle with the stomach virus. That was just lovely. Oh, and he didn’t keep it to himself either. He just had to give that to Mommy too! Enough said about all of that! Bo did celebrate his fifth birthday this month. He is such a special addition to our family. We sure do love that dog!

April: Wayne turned another year older! He had to work on his birthday this year but I did take him his favorite dinner… fried chicken and yeast rolls! We also celebrated the day of our risen Lord and Savior, Easter.

May: Another year was added to my life this month as I turned 28. We also celebrated Mother’s day. My May was very special this year. You see, I was actually born on Mother’s day in 1982 and every so often, my birthday will fall on Mother’s Day. It happened in 2010. So, in an effort to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s day, my mom planned a surprise trip for her and me. The destination? San Fransisco, CA. Didn’t actually find this out until we got to the airport the morning we left. She told me she chose the destination because it was her mother’s favorite city and she wanted to go and see the city for the first time with me.

June: We took Jackson to his first baseball game. He really LOVED the french fries. I tell ya, he is a boy after his mom’s own heart! He did make it through the whole game, he was just a little frightened when the fireworks started at the end. Typing this makes me reflect on those nice summer days/nights spent with family and friends. Nothing could ever replace those moments.

July: We took a trip to Atlanta see my aunt and her family. It was kind of a reunion for my mom’s side of the family. It was nice to spend a long weekend with everyone. Wayne and I were also able to go to a Braves game. I had been to one before but that was a first for him. Jackson also turned 18 months old this month!

August: Jackson had his 18 month check up scheduled for August 13th. I was a little concerned because by the end of July, he wasn’t walking yet. I told Wayne that I was definitely going to mention it to the doctor when we went. However, I didn’t want to have to discuss this with him, I wanted Jackson to walk. Well, low and behold… the week before his appointment, the boy was walking! We were so excited. However, we knew that this was another step for gaining more independence and that definitely frightened me a bit! My baby was growing up.

September: Wayne and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary in Atlantic Beach. Jackson also went to an ENT specialist to discuss options for tubes. The doctor told us if he had another ear infection within the next 6-8 weeks, to call him and we would schedule a surgery date. He also explained that having his adenoids removed would be best as well so that we could try and resolve a lot of Jackson’s congestion.

October: Jackson had a pretty big bang up at day care. He was walking on the side walk and tripped. He scratched his nose pretty bad. We went to Charlotte to celebrate my cousin’s daughter’s (Sydney’s) 2nd birthday. Jackson went bowling for the first time. He also helped her open her presents. We went to the fall festival at our church and Jackson dressed up like a cow and had fun playing several of the games. It will be interesting to see next year when he really tries to play for candy!

November: Jackson did have another ear infection so his surgery to have tubes put in and have his adenoids removed was November 17th. He did really well with the surgery and slept most of the day after the surgery. He spent the rest of the week with Wayne at home and they definitely got a lot of bonding in! I also cooked a Thanksgiving meal for my in-laws. This has seemed to become a tradition. I hope it sticks. I really enjoy doing that for them. It is always great to sit down and reflect on the things that we are thankful for and to count our so, so many blessings. Many that we don’t even deserve.

December: Wow, did this month run upon us! My brother got married on the 4th of the month. Christmas seemed to just jump into my lap and then run away really fast. Because of Wayne’s work schedule we did celebrate with family three weekends in a row. It was nice to have plenty of time for each family group and not have to rush off to the next place and try and see everyone in one day. We also learned that Jackson definitely found a larger portion of his vocabulary. It was so neat to see how much more he was talking since he had tubes put in his ears. I guess he could really hear for the first time.

On the last day of the year, we spent the evening with my brother and his wife at a joint friend’s house. We all brought in the New Year watching the ball drop on tv. Jackson even stayed awake for the midnight ball drop!

I know that I am leaving something out but I think this definitely highlights 2010. I am so thankful for another year and we will just have to see what is in store! Please know that much to your liking (hopefully), I will try and blog more often. My husband talked me into getting a nifty “smart” phone for Christmas so, now I have the internet on my phone. Pictures may be limited but hopefully I will be able to just write more often. I really do miss it!

Merry Christmas

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Contentment

(please note: this is a long one!)
Recently, I have had several battles with being content. I believe that this is evident in many of our lives because we are all human, but I have just been severely struggling with it and I believe Wayne has too. I have blogged about our ventures in trying to pay off some debt and that is going well. We both know that we need to get that off of our shoulders and we have been praying that we never allow ourselves to get there again.

However, both of us are striving so hard these days for the next step in life. Wayne really wants a new house – a bigger house. I, most days, would like to have another child soon so that Jackson will not be so much older than his sibling. I know that it is okay to dream. That is healthy for us; we need to strive to have more. However, I find that at times, these two items just consume us. Consume our daily lives and most of our conversations.

On several different occasions Wayne has told me that he is just tired of me talking to him about another baby. He is tired of everyone saying something to him about another child. I told him that I would do better about it but we are in the time in our lives when others are just going to mention it. We are in the childbearing years and that is what people our age talk about.

I was talking to my mom Saturday evening about all of this and that I had been going through these battles internally. I had mentioned that if I have to stop talking about another child and be content with Jackson, then why can’t he (Wayne) be content with the house that we have. Why do I always have to hear about his plans for the new house, what he wanted to do, where he wanted to build at, etc. The response? The wise words from Mom? “DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!” “Don’t worry about any of it. God, in his perfect timing will provide”. “You will kill each other dealing with this mess.” She is so right.

“Don’t worry about it!” filled my head for the rest of the evening. I have consciously made an effort to quit worry about it. I have prayed that God would help me be content and I have continued to thank him for everything he has provided for us and everything additional that he has allowed us to have.

Yesterday I was driving to get Jackson after work. The thoughts and conversations about all this stuff hadn’t come to my brain so far for the day. However, the radio announcer started introducing the next song… “Waiting Room” by Jonny Diaz (lyrics below)… I had heard this song before and listened to some of the words. However, this time I listened to each word and boy, did it hit home.

God definitely has his perfect plan for our lives. Again, just because Wayne and I want a new house and another child doesn’t mean that we need them right now. God knows what He is doing and if we have to wait a little longer, we need to be happy with that. Even if He tells us no for one of them or both, we have to still continue to praise Him for the blessings that he has given us. There is a reason for every decision that He makes and we must strive to be content with those decisions.

Here in this waiting room yearning for You to say go
And though I’m convinced that a yes would be best
This time You’re telling me no

It’s not that I don’t have an answer
It’s just not the one that I’d like
But through this time Lord I must keep in mind
You’re always wiser than I

You have a much better purpose
And You have a far greater plan
And You have a bigger perspective
Cause You hold this world in your hands

The things that I seek are from You
Like the strong healing touch of your hand
But when You say no help me trust even though
There’s a reason I can’t understand

When that miracle comes cause Your answer is yes
I will praise you for all of my days
But when Your wisdom declares that a no is best
I will praise You just the same