Don't Open the Door

Yesterday I had another chat with my kids about opening the door and letting people in. They have been told many times that they are only to open the door for Grandma and Amy Jo. The reason for this is that I have been scared many times by a deep male voice saying "Hello" because my kids just let them in the door. It freaks me out every time. It happened again yesterday while I was in the bathroom putting on makeup. Hence, the talk about not letting anyone in the door.

Today when I got out of the shower I found this note on the window next to the front door.

Sorry! Me and Lily can only open the door for owr Grandma Lori or Amy. Come back later when Holly's out of the shower. thank you!

Heart Ache

This is Grandma and Grandpa Dennison. This picture is from the Everson Parade just this past July. Grandma and Grandpa celebrated 60 years of marriage this past August.

My heart is breaking today at how difficult Grandma's health issues have been. The short story is that Grandma had heart surgery in September for a torn Aorta. 10 days later she had a pace maker put in. After a long recovery, she was home briefly before she went back in this last time. Just last week they were seeing small signs of improvement. Then Grandma fell and broke her hip and her shoulder. She came down with pneumonia and is too weak for them to do surgery to fix her hip. So since Saturday they have kept her highly drugged. Today they couldn't even get her to wake up. It's been a hard road for Grandpa and his four daughters (Mom included). I went and visited today and my heart ached to see Grandma so frail, broken and bruised.

Sunday Pastor Grant spoke about pain. He talked about how God will carry us and cover us in our pain. I'm asking all you prayer warriors to keep Grandma and our family in your prayers. While we can't see God's plan right now, we ask for comfort and strength to endure this long road. Thank you.

Tasty Tuesdays!

Tonight's dinner was going to be spaghetti, but then I received an e-mail from my sister that we will be doing birthday dinner for Mom on Thursday, and we are having spaghetti. So instead of giving you my runner up spaghetti sauce from our Spaghetti cook off (that's my nice way of saying I lost the spaghetti cook off to my hubby), I will give you a few tips. I shared some of these the other day with my cousin's wife Katie. We were talking about how to get the kids to eat more fruits and veggies and I shared with her some ideas. So enjoy, and please share any other great tips you may have!

• Cut up zuchinni in very small peices and sneak them into spaghetti sauce. (Maybe that's why I lost the cook off?)
• When you bring home whole fruits and veggies, chop them up right away. If they are easy and accessible, you are more likely to use them. I cut up a whole cantaloupe, and store it in a Tupperware container in the fridge. I also cut up a whole head of celery and put it into snack bags that are quick to grab in the morning for the kid's lunches.
  
• Applesauce in pancake batter is a great way to sneak in some fruit.
• My kids love peanut butter on celery. I'm not a fan, but they love it.
• My Mom always put fruit in jello. We loved it!
• Muffins!! Blueberry, Banana, Applesauce, Zucchini.......
• And don't forget dip! Most kids will eat fresh veggies if they have ranch to dip it in.
  

Fall Family Photos

A BIG thanks to my sister Amy for taking these wonderful family photos. We met up with Amy at Hovander Park in Ferndale to catch these great fall colors. I purposely left out the picture that will be in our Christmas card. You will have to wait for that one. Check out Amy's website on the sidebar and give her a call for all of your photography needs!

Happy Halloween!

When a good idea backfires

Nate has been cracking my up lately. He's turning into a typical 4th grade boy. Sometimes I don't like it, but other times it's been fun to see the new things he comes up with. Now that the tooth fairy myth has been busted, he's starting to catch on to other myths (I see the end of Santa soon!). But he's also a good sport about playing along for his sister.

So tonight at Costco we were trying to keep Lily near the cart and after the third time telling her not to wander away, Nate tells her, "Lily you have to stay by the cart or the aliens will abduct you". He then looks at me and puts his finger to his mouth like a "shhh". So we keep shopping and then Nate walks off to look at something. Lily tells him, "Nate you have to stay by the cart or the aliens will abduct you!" in a very serious tone. Nate and I started laughing. He might be growing up, but he will have to watch out for the smarty pants on his heals!

Lessons Learned

Things I have learned this week:

• Don't sponsor your child per lap in the jog a thon. When you do that, it will rain and the kids will jog inside the gym, doing 29 laps in 30 minutes. That's $1 per lap, per kid. YIKES!
• If you teach preschoolers to make worms out of play dough, they will then put the worms down other student's shirts.
• Don't wear white to preschool!!!!
• If one child signs you up to bring cookies for their class Halloween party, don't think that making pumpkin shaped sugar cookies is a cute idea. Because then, the other child will want you to do the same for their class and you will end up making 4 dozen pumpkin shaped sugar cookies with orange frosting and sprinkles.
  

Tasty Tuesday

Wow, I actually remembered Tasty Tuesday.....on Tuesday! Here's a quick crock pot soup that I made on Saturday. It was so nice to come home from the hospital with dinner done and smelling wonderful. I sent the leftovers to Grandpa along with some homemade rolls. Yummmm.

Chicken Enchilada Soup

1 can diced tomatoes
1 can enchilada sauce
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 jar garlic salsa
1 can cooked chicken (or leftover chicken)

Dump all ingredients into crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream.

Update

I'm sorry that I haven't' been blogging much. Life is crazy and right now I'm just trying to keep up with the basics. Grandma is still in the hospital and the doctors say that they have exhausted every test they can do. They still have no answer as to why Grandma is in pain and has no appetite. Grandma is on a feeding tube right now, and they won't discharge her until they can take it out. Please keep her in your prayers. We are all pretty frustrated that we have no answers. Thank you.