One year ago today....

Jenn Unsell's blog inspired me to post some pictures from last year at this time. Exactly one year ago today, I was doing Orientation Counselor training. This picture is a picture of a scheduled mandatory fun break. :) Do I miss it? Not really! I don't miss the long hours or the really hard work. But I do miss the students and the great sense of accomplishment I always felt on the first day of SOAR. But even missing that is not enough to make me want to go back to work to leave this precious little girl. She's just as much hard work if not more than anything I've ever done. And just one smile or slobbery kiss makes it ALL worth it! I'm also including some pictures of me from one year ago. :) And one picture of Emma about a year ago! :)

Small group celebrations...

We LOVE our small group! Monday was Amanda's birthday, so we surprised her on Wednesday with a cake and other goodies. Albert brought his faorite drink to share - IBC Rootbeer and Nathan brought Krispy Kreme donuts. We didn't think to take a picture of the cake with the candles in it. Oh well! :)

We've been discussing Pastor Coty's sermons from Sunday at our small group. He just finished going through a sermon series on The Tragedy of Weak Desires. He spent five weeks on five different topics: money, sex, success, entertainment and family. I missed two of the sermons due to being in the nursery, but was very glad we were discussing them in our small group. This has been a good sermon series for me to hear. It was all about desiring other things more than God. I will admit that honestly this sermon series was very convicting. I tend to desire almost all of those things more than I desire God. I spend more time thinking about those things than I do spiritual things. My joy must first come from God. "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4) I KNOW this verse, but do I live it? No, not most of the time. Lord, I pray you will change my heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Give me the desire to follow hard after you. Teach me to love you above everything else, even my husband and my daughter. Show me the joy that only you can give. Father, I pray this in your son Jesus Christ's name. Amen. 

And she crawls...

Well, our little Emma is crawling. She doesn't crawl all over the place just yet, just far enough to reach whatever it is she wants at the moment. It's hard to believe she is big enough to crawl!! She is also almost sitting up on her own and she is trying to pull up. She's a little scaredy cat! But it won't be long. I will try to get some video this afternoon of her crawling and post it on her blog. She's also been waking up at 6:20am the past couple of mornings. This is TOO early for Mommy! I REALLY need to get her curtains up! I think it will help if it isn't so light in her room so early!

KFC Coleslaw...

Our neighbors also grew cabbage and theirs did MUCH better than ours. I think because their garden is where our new one is, but in their back yard. And it gets better sun. Anyway, they gave us a head of cabbage and Jonathan asked me to make coleslaw with it. He is pretty particular about coleslaw and only likes the KFC slaw and the Chick-fil-a slaw. I found the KFC slaw recipe online and made it. It turned out pretty good! Here is the recipe.




Authentic KFC Coleslaw: The Real Thing

4 1/2 teaspoons tarragon vinegar (key ingredient)
6 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used conola)
3/4 cup chopped onions
2 1/2 cups Miracle Whip (I used Helman's lite mayo)
1 cup sugar
2 carrots
2 heads green cabbage

Mix oil, onions and sugar. Add tarragon vinegar. Fold in mayo. Pour over grated carrots and cabbage. Fold in well. Refridgerate in and air-tight covered dish. Best if made the night before serving (I found this to be VERY true. It was SO much better the next day!)

Apparently the tarragon vinegar is the key. Also, you want to make sure the cabbage is chopped to the size of corn kernals and the carrots the same. This recipe make ALOT! You could easily cut it in half. Oh...and your food processor is your FRIEND in chopping the carrots and cabbage!! 

Secondary Garden...

This is where our garden has been the previous two years. We went ahead and planted a spring garden there this year. Our lettuce is almost gone and we aren't sure the cabbage is going to mature. We also just put in our basil and lemon balm. In the corner you can see our rosemary that we have had for three year. In the pot is our oregano. I know...it looks dead, and we thought it was, but it seems to be coming back!! We are excited!
 

Finished Garden...

Here is our garden all fininshed! We got dirt and plants last weekend. You can also see that Jonathan mulched with grass clippings this weekend. We really want some tall trellis for the back, but is is SO expensive. We planted 2 better boy tomatoes, 2 roma tomatoes, 1 stripey tomato, 2 long neck yellow squash, 2 acorn spuash, 2 green peppers, 1 jalapeno and 1 cilantro plant. YUMMY!

Babies in the nursery...

So it took me a little longer to post these pictures than I intended. Sorry for those of you that were waiting! We usually have 5 or 6 babies, but last week, there were only 2. I've also included a picture of Hayley. This picture was WAY too cute not to post!

 

Fun at Church...

I served in the nursery this morning and these are a few pictures that I took. All the toddlers (minus Andrew) decided they wanted Mrs. Gibson to read them a book and they ALL wanted to sit in her lap!

I just realized that I did not get any pictures of the babies! Next week...
 

Fun with friends...

After the guys finished working on the boxes (previous post), we had dinner at the Keller's. Kelly grilled salmon and corn on the cob. I brought lettuce from our spring garden for a salad. We would have had left over baby shower cake for desert, but Kelly dropped it on the floor...yes the whole thing. It was pretty funny, I have to say! :) The kids had a great time playing together. You can see the three oldest Keller boys watching the Ketucky Derby. They were fasinated. Ben wanted the pink horse to win! I guess he wanted the horse whose jockey was wearing pink to win! LOL! After dinner, Emma took a bath with Andrew and Jonathan. (There are a few more pictures on Emma's blog.)

Fresh veggies...well, almost!!

Jonathan and David built garden boxes for Kelly and I yesterday! Here are some pictures. Our box is the free standing one and Kelly's is the one next to the house. I am SOOOO proud of them! I think they did a fantastic job! They still need to put all the rods in and get soil. I can't wait for home grown tomatoes!! There's nothing like 'em!

Moving friends...

Saturday friends from our church moved to Tennessee. Jonathan helped load the truck while Emma and I entertained the troups! We are very sad that Donna and Jody have left us, but we know God is sovereign and has placed them exactly where He needs them right now. We hope they will still come to visit!! Emma and I had to leave before the loading was finished. When we left, I wasn't sure it was all going to fit! But somehow they got it all in there!!

Today, Emma and I are going to lunch with Kelly. :) Her two older boys are at the Wachovia Championship with their daddy, so Kelly has the two younger ones. It makes it easier to run errands and go to lunch with just 2 little ones! Speaking of lunch, I better go finish getting ready and geta few things done before we go!
 

Girls night IN...

We had a little gathering for 2 ladies in our church who had babies not too long ago. They both had girls, so we decided to have a girl's night in and wear our jammies! We painted toenails, talked and just had a great time! Thanks Kelly for hosting!
 

Easter...

He is risen! He is risen indeed! We had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday! Our church usually meets at the University in a classroom. It can sometimes feel like school rather than worship, as you can imagine. Well the power went out on Thursday and there was an explosion in a manhole beside the building where we meet. Four university employees were hurt. The power in that building still was not back on Friday, so we had to find an alternate place to meet. Our pastor called the pastor of a near by Seventh Day Adventist Church. They meet on Saturday evenings, leaving their building vacant on Sunday mornings. Through God's providence we were able to meet on Resurrection Sunday in a church building! It was SOOOOOO nice. After church we gathered with some friends at the Keller's to enjoy a WONDERFUL meal together. We hope you all enjoyed celebrating our Lord's resurrection as much as we did!

The Great Hair Dilemma...

And yes I capitalized the title because it will go down in history and everyone will read about it and remember the day Nicole HATED her haircut! Does it look horrible? Probably not. Was it a bad cut? Probably not. But it wasn't what I at least thought I had asked for. For the first time in a LONG time, I almost cried in the chair. I kept seeing all this hair fall to the ground and I kept telling myself it was just hair, but that wasn't (and somehow still isn't) very comforting. I've felt a little guilty feeling so sad about my bad haircut. And I know I should just get over it. I mean it is only hair afterall. I guess the major problem is that I have not lost much of the weight I gained when I was pregnant and I'm feeling very fat and ugly. The only thing I did like at the moment was my hair. Whew...I feel better even just typing all that! LOL! Isn't funny how free we feel after writing? I used to have this English teacher (I think her name was McConnell or something like that... ;) ) who made us journal everyday and turn it in at the end of the week. As I reflect back on those days, I think about those journals and often ask myself why I don't do it more. Maybe I will...

Memorial Garden...

Saturday was a great day! We spent the morning on the porch drinking coffee and watching Emma play in her Exersaucer (see picstures on Emma's blog). Then we drove to Concord to go to Memorial Garden. The flowers are BEAUTIFUL!! There is a large circle of tulips that had not yet bloomed, but should be gorgeous by this weekend. It's really not stroller friendly, but we had the Baby Bjorn so it wasn't that big of a deal. If you haven't made it to the garden, you should definitely go!

Saturdays don't get much better than this!