Cheese Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 8 cups chopped baking potatoes
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 medium brick of Velveeta
• 16 ounces sour cream
• bacon bits
• shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: Peel potatoes then chop them up into bite size pieces. Put in pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. DO NOT DRAIN WATER! Add both cans of soup and Velveeta (I cut up the Velveeta into chunks so that it will melt faster). Stir frequently until Velveeta is melted. Add sour cream and stir until blended. Serve up your soup and enjoy. As you are putting the soup into the bowls you can put the bacon bits and shredded cheese on top.

Overall rating:

• Simplicity: 4
• Taste: 4
• Nutrition: 3

Total rating: 3.75 stars

Wendi's report: This was magnificently delicious. I mean, so, so, so good. It only got 4 stars for taste because our boys had no interest in it. It's really too mature for their age. But holy cow. Loved this. We used real bacon instead of bacon bits with took away from the simplicity slightly. And I must be honest, JB cooked this one instead of me. I know this is breaking the rules, but he got a new pot and wanted to try it out, and I was busy with the boys, and it just worked out that way. But he told me that even I would find it remarkably easy. Try this folks! Scrumptious!

Home from N.O.

We are home from New Orleans. We arrived yesterday around 10:30am and immediately caught up with JB and headed to the Aquarium for a fun afternoon. Then it was back to the room for naps before we ordered some dinner from the restaurant downstairs and ate in our room while watching the Olympics. (Gosh I miss them! The only part of cancelling our cable that is tearing me up.)

This morning we brought Joni to the airport :( and then headed home. We were here by lunchtime -- in time for everyone to take naps including JB and me. Isaac immediately went into the house looking for Scrubs. I don't think he understood that he was still at dog camp. I'm going to pick him up tomorrow morning.

I have a bunch of pictures from our day and a half in New Orleans but they went back to Fort Lauderdale with Joni so as soon as loads them up, I'll post some.

Isaac is talking like crazy right now. And he's starting to say some funny things, albeit not on purpose. Here's a few from today:

***
Isaac while sitting in his clubhouse (aka the linen closet) with JB, hands Daddy his Scrubby stuffed animal. "Bubby," he says.

John nods and asks him: "Where's our Scrubby?"

Isaac looks at him and says: "Utah." (obviously from being asked a hundred times this past week "Where's Daddy?")

***
Mommy hands Isaac his milk. He pushes it away and says: "Warm" making it obvious he wants it warmed.

Mommy takes it from him and says: "Warm please?" wanting him to say please.

Instead of saying "Pease," Isaac simply says "Otay." (okay).

Headed out of town

Well as you can tell from the picture above, we are packed and ready to go!

Today, right after Elijah got up from his morning nap, we headed down to Destin to take Scrubs to dog camp. I always feel badly leaving him, but you know, the dog doesn't even look back as he runs into play so I can't feel too badly. Afterwards, we stopped at Destin's Outlets to let the boys play and let us shop and let us all eat lunch. After that it was back home. I worked feverishly in the car while Joni drove to prevent two tired boys from falling asleep before we got home. Then it was naps for everyone (except Joni -- she doesn't nap; she just reads.)

We are now ready to leave bright and early in the morning to head to New Orleans. We hope to go to the zoo and/or aquarium before turning in for the night. On Sunday morning we'll drop Joni off at the airport before we return on Sunday.

Here are some photos from our day. As you can tell, wrestling is now a favorite activity in our home!

Prayer tips?

No pics today. I had Bible Study. Joan watched Elijah. Brittny came over with BBQ for dinner since both of our hubbies are in New Orleans. I'm fairly disappointed with Joan's performance today on pictures, but she did finish off our 1000-piece puzzle challenge so I think I'll cut her some slack. She also cooked a roast with mashed potatoes and gravy yesterday. I think that earns even more slack.

I was encouraged by our speaker today at MOPs. Encouraged to pray. Pray without ceasing. Pray all day every day. Make prayer the center of my life.

I got a letter from Kelsey again the other day. She said that living in the convent has allowed her to revolve her life around prayer instead of to revolve prayer around her life. I want to be able to do that while not living in a convent.

Our speaker today shared that we spend three years of our life just "waiting." Waiting for the doctor. Waiting for church to start. Waiting for the movie to begin. What if we prayed during all of those waiting times?

Just wondering if any of you have some ways that you incorporate prayer into your life? Other than devotional time, how do you remember and focus on prayer all day long?

P.S. I wonder if this evening you could all take one moment to pray for an online friend of mine who is hoping to be home more with her children. She is looking for a way to work a bit less? If 300-400 people read this blog and pray, that's a lot of prayers going her way!

Speaking at MOPs

So. Speaking. Yikes. I know I was a teacher once-upon-a-time but that was ... seven years ago. How the heck I stood in a room full of 17, 18, and 19 year olds and lectured, I have no earthly idea.

What was I thinking?!

The first year I taught was 1999. I was 21 I think. I remember I had a few 19 year old students.

It makes my stomach hurt just thinking about doing that again.

Next Tuesday I am going to be speaking again. The first time I've really gotten up in front of a group since I left teaching after five years in the trenches.

I'm going to be speaking to our MOPs group on adoption and infertility.

Your prayers would be so appreciated. I am excited for the opportunity to discuss how people on "the other side" can help those dealing with the pain and loss of infertility.

*****

In other bits of random news, today, JB is flying from Utah to New Orleans. Joan and I will be joining him on Saturday morning. We hope to go to the New Orleans Zoo on Saturday, drop Joni off at the airport (sad face) on Sunday morning, and then drive back to Base. I have Bible Study this morning. Tomorrow I have to drop Scrubs off at dog camp. Busy, busy, busy.

The days seem so long sometimes with two little boys, but the weeks and months just zip by!

Wednesday

So before I get to Wednesday, here is a link to Tuesday night on Joia's blog. (Please note that this is a baby shower so feel free not to go to the link if this is too much for you right now.)

We managed to get ten of us gals together for a little surprise shower for Sarah at her favorite place: The Melting Pot! Unfortunately, she almost opted out of attending at the last minute due to fatigue, a heavy working husband, an overdue paper, and a young daughter who didn't want to eat dinner. While Jodi headed up the shower, I was Sarah's ride, so I had to pull a few not-so-true-lies in order to make sure she didn't cancel! In the end, all went wonderfully.

Here are some pictures from the rest of our Tuesday which due to some cold weather and cloudy skies, was spent completely indoors:

Thank you for the cars Lisa! Isaac is in heaven. He keeps saying "New cars". He played with them nearly all day.

Post nap fun. Isaac always wants Elijah to join him in the crib for playtime after afternoon naps.

Joni obliged Isaac's request to play with some of his toys inside his crib.

I love this picture! The delivery truck is dropping off something for Ms. Aimee next door. Everyone ran over to take a look.

Wrestling.

We decided that this light would make a good addition the our clubhouse.

But who would carry it was another matter entirely.

Inside the clubhouse.

Isaac and I made a video for Daddy in "Uuuu-tawww" (Utah) today. Click here to check it out.

Too cute

Joan was not up to her normal level of photo quantity yesterday, but she made up for it in quality. Take a look at these adorable snaps she took of Elijah and Scrubby while I was at MOPs. (Yes, Scrubs wears a shock collar. Please, PETA, leave me a lone. I don't actually have to shock him like, ever, but I do ring the little bell and it makes him listen like nothing else.)

Here picture taking prowess continued when Isaac and I got home from MOPs and we all met up to play outside before afternoon naps:

Before hading to the Melting Pot, Joan entertained the boys with "Where is pinkie? Where is pinkie? Here I am!" The boys were infatuated with this song and she had to sing it more times than I thought humanly possible:

After the evening's entertainment, my wonderful babysitter, Mary came over to watch the boys so we could head out to The Melting Pot for a surprise baby shower for our wifia friend Sarah. I will write more about this when I snag some photos from Joia.

Speaking of Joia, she and her kiddos had a sleepover at my house last night. Mary watched all four of the little guys and then, since I was watching her kids for her first thing this morning, we all just crashed at our house. Way cool!

But more on that later. These are the pictures of our Tuesday that I didn't post last night because I was too stinkin' tired!

Man to man defense

Today I played some man to man defense instead of my usual defense of necessity: zone.

I had MOPs this morning. I decided to take Isaac and leave Elijah with Joni since Isaac loves "shurch" and Elijah often doesn't. Can you blame him though? Look at this picture I snagged from the FUMC's website. This is the entry way to the children's wing. The whole thing is a giant aquarium. What little kid wouldn't love it?

Wouldn't you know, Isaac decided to cry today when I left him. I truly think it was because his brother wasn't there and things felt strange, but either way, he did stop crying very quickly. Maybe I took the wrong little guy to "shurch." Joan disagrees. She had a great time with Elijah boy while I was gone.

Spending one-on-one time with the boys is such a breath of fresh air -- very refreshing. Part of me feels guilty that I don't get it more. But I know that for Isaac and Elijah to have each other is well worth the trade-off of having to share their Mom.

Anyways, I had a wonderful time just being the mother of one this morning. It was quite refreshing. And Joan agreed. She enjoyed the one-on-one time with Elijah. She took Scrubs and Elijah for a walk and just had some great play time with him. I had some wonderful conversation with Isaac, and we could take all the time in the world just lesiurely walking into the church building. He loves to walk up the big stairs by himself. He's very proud that he can do it now without holding onto my hand.

I brought apple pie to MOPs as it was our table's turn to bring food. I did not make the apple pie. Joan did. It was excellent. What a Joan. On another note, I am actually speaking at our next MOPs meeting. More to come on this when I don't have a "helper" on my lap typing with me.

Anyways, back to my day, Isaac is napping. Elijah just got up. Then, this evening is a very fun night on the town. We are headed to Melting Pot for an evening with the girls. Joni is joining me and a babysitter is taking our place. Yipee! Many more details to come, I promise.

Oh, and let me end this blog by telling you that kids really do imitate you. Yesterday Isaac dropped his cup on the floor on the kitchen and without even thinking about it said, "Shoot!" I'm glad that is the worst of my words otherwise, holy cow, there is no telling what he would say.

Story time at the Val-pee with Jo-knee

It was an early morning here. Both boys up at 5:15am. Not sure why. At 9:15 we headed out to the Valparaiso Public Library for Story time. It was a perfect activity since the weather was quite rainy this morning.

On our way home, Joan kept telling me what a great place that was to take pictures. I wasn't sure what she meant until I saw these photos. The colors are just awesome and the pictures are so vibrant. No wonder the kids like it there so much.

Take a look for yourself:

My friend Nancy's son Jack was there. Isn't he a cutey? He is sooo fast too! Not sure how Nancy keeps up with him. I thought Elijah was fast. Doesn't hold a candle to Jack. Another gal from MOPs was there with her little boy. So nice to see familiar faces.

"After a comes b and then c and then d. Got it little brother?"

"Joan. No time for pictures. Can't you see I'm busy picking out my book?"

Yes that is a Barbie Doll. I never even saw that while we were there.

When we got home, the weather had cleared up a bit. Time for some bikes and Frisbee. I got the Frisbee caught in the tree. Scrubs decided to try and jump and get it down. He was jumping for quite some time and got quite tuckered out. Here's a photo and a video of the event:

We didn't get many pictures of the boys, but Joni did capture a cute video of them on their bikes. Check it out:

After that, the boys went down for early naps. As a result, naps were over earlier than usual. So we headed out to the park. Joan forgot the battery to her camera. Man! No pictures of that. But just take it from me, we had a great time.

We finished the evening with Indian take-out and the movie Radio. Way fun! The only bad thing is that it is 11:45 right now. What am I still doing up?

In other good news, today is my third day in a row without a migraine. This is an amazing blessing as without medication, I was lucky to put two days back-to-back in recent weeks. Three days in a row is glorious. Please pray this continues for me. I've been taken off all medication while we try to get to the bottom of the headaches and so far, so good.

Have I told everyone how much I appreciate Joan? I am so blessed by her friendship and her role in the lives of my boys. She has been such an integral part of my life, and I just don't know what I would do this week without her. I know I could handle both boys by myself for a week, but it seems incredibly daunting. Love that gal!