Thursday, August 28, 2008

Meme about the Hubby!

I found this at "Diary of a SAHM" and thought it sounded like fun.

1. Who is your man?
Neal, wonderful husband and Daddy, hard worker, possessor of a Mechanical Engineering degree, but works more as a sales manager. Since April of this year he's been my $100,000 man! (wow, heart surgery sure is expensive!)

2. How long have you been together?
18 years next month (September 22, 1990, was our first date)

3. How long dated?
Five months! He knew a good thing when he saw it! ;o)

4. How old is your man?
He is 41 years old

5. Who eats more?
That's a personal question, now isn't it? I look like I do, but he actually eats more.

6. Who said "I love you" first?
He did

7. Who is taller?
He is, but not by much -- just two inches.

8. Who sings better?
We can both carry a tune okay, but we're not great singers. I guess we're about equal there.

9. Who is smarter?
Depends on what subject you're talking about! He has the most education, so I'll give him this one!

10. Whose temper is worse?
Oooohhh, I think we're about equal here too. I lose it quicker, but when he loses it it's not pretty!

11. Who does the laundry?
I do

12. Who takes out the garbage?
Ben does! :o)

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Me

14. Who pays the bills?
I do

15. Who is better with the computer?
He is.

16. Who mows the lawn?
This summer we didn't have to mow much because it was so dry. Beth and I usually mow it, but Neal does from time to time.

17. Who cooks dinner?
I do because I'm home, but he's a good cook, too.

18. Who drives when you are together?
I did after his surgery, but he's been driving lately.

19. Who pays when you go out?
He does, but it's coming from the same pot!

20. Who is most stubborn?
Again we're about the same, but if I had to chose one of us I'd say him (he'd probably say me!)

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?
How can I admit to something when I'm never wrong? ;o)

22. Whose parents do you see the most? I guess we see my mom most often since she lives in our terrace apartment. But Neal's parents live next door!

23. Who kissed who first?
I hugged him first and he kissed me first.

24. Who asked who out?
I asked him out! I needed a date to a play. He and I were working together with the youth at church and I thought he'd be fun to go out with. We were married 5 months later!

25. Who proposed?
He did (yes, I let him propose!)

26. Who is the most sensitive?
Definitely me!

27. Who has more friends?
That would be me. He's my best friend, but I do have more girl friends than he has guy friends.

28. Who has more siblings?
Again -- the same! Only he has two sisters and I have two brothers.

29. Who wears the pants in the family?
Well, we both wear pants...but he's the head of our home.

30. How did you meet?
In the singles group at our church.

Sky Watch Friday



Here are a few shots from the front yard:









For more Sky Watch photos, head on over -->> HERE!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Sky Watch Friday









For more sky beauty, head on over to the Sky Watch blog!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

New Author!

We started a new writing curriculum this year. It's put out by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It starts out with a simple concept of rewriting another story using a key-word outline. The story the kids rewrote today was The Hare and the Tortoise. I started out with a younger curriculum so that I could teach Ben and Beth together. It was easier for Beth, but I think she still had fun. She'll be posting her story on her blog later today.

The main rule was for them to stick to the theme of the story. In the original story, the Hare challenges the Tortoise to a race. Obviously the Hare was much faster, so it didn't seem like much of a challenge. Then, because of a fateful mistake on the Hare's part, the Tortoise amazingly wins the race! The kids had the freedom to change the characters and the circumstances...just not the main storyline.

So, drumroll please.................

Spider-Man Challenges Mary Jane to a Race

by Ben, age 10

One day Spider-Man was annoyingly making fun of Mary Jane and how slow she was. "Why don't you race me if you think you will win?" she asked. "Because it would be way too easy!" he answered.

"Race me?" he asked a moment later. "Fine," Mary Jane agreed.

The Green Goblin was judging the race. "On your mark, get set, go!" Spider-Man was off! Mary Jane was going pretty fast, but by now she couldn't even see Spider-Man. Then all of a sudden he heard a scream. "Go get 'em Tiger!" Mary Jane yelled from far off. So off Spider-Man went to save the world! Meanwhile, Mary Jane kept plodding on.

Two hours later, Spider-Man, exhausted from fighting, limped across the finish line to find that Mary Jane had won the race.

The End

Chocolate Nut Clusters

A friend of mine made these a couple of weeks ago, and they were SO good! Terribly fattening, but if you have a special occasion to make them: DO IT! :o)

CHOCOLATE NUT CLUSTERS

1 (16 oz) jar dry-roasted peanuts
1 (9.75 oz) can salted whole cashews
2 Cups pecan pieces
18 (2 oz) chocolate bark coating squares cut in half (this is about a package and a half)
1 (12 oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 (1 oz) bittersweet chocolate baking squares broken in pieces (I leave this out)
1 T shortening
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a 5 quart crock pot/slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours (I check after 1 hour and it never needs more than 1.5 or it scorches) or until chocolate is melted. Stir and THEN ADD VANILLA and stir well to coat. Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto WAX PAPER (or your counter will be a mess!) and let cool for about 2 hours or until firm. Store in airtight container. I think this originally came from Southern Living Magazine. Yum!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Salsa 2008

This is what we've been doing the last two Saturdays...Salsa, baby! Saturday before last we canned 36 pints and last Saturday we canned 40 pints! We did something new this year and added black beans and white corn to some of it. We really like it!


Here's one of the pots of salsa. Total time from peeling tomatoes to putting them in the canner was about 3 hours.

Here's my trusty canner. We've had this for at least 14 or 15 years. My Mom and Dad bought it for us for Christmas one year. We've canned just about every summer we've been married (17 years). During the time we lived in Georgia we didn't can as much. We didn't have a good spot for a garden. Neal tried really hard though!


Here's some of our jars. These weren't actually canned yet. We went ahead and put all the salsa in jars with regular lids on them until it was their turn for the boiling water!

This year we also canned 14 qts of green beans. We had so many leftover from last year, that we didn't feel the need to can 70 qts like we usually do. We did eat a lot of steamed green beans though! Yummy!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

I Surrender All

After church this morning Ben came to me in tears. He said "Mommy, I'm not saved." I said something like "but Ben, you asked Jesus into your heart a couple of years ago." Then he said something that floored me "No, I did that to make you happy, but I didn't really mean it." All this said through tears. At this point we're standing outside the church, so I said "okay, let's go find someone to pray with you." The very person I had in mind was standing right inside the door. He's the father of one of Ben's friends and is very easy to talk to. He and his family are actually missionaries in Japan and are home on a furlough. He took Ben back to a room where they talked and Ben prayed and received Jesus as his Lord and Savior! When Ben came out I'd never before seen such a look of joy and peace on my precious son's face.

When I asked him about it later, he said it had been bothering him for a long time, but when we sang the song "I Surrender All" during the invitation that did it....he had to make things right with God. I'm so glad he did!

Here's the words to the song we sang:

I SURRENDER ALL

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In his presence daily live.

I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me Jesus, take me now.

I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

Have you surrendered all?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Sky Watch Friday



Welcome to my Sky Watch Friday pictures. These were taken last Saturday night. We went to a local farm league baseball game (not sure what they call themselves. i think they are a AA team or maybe it's just one A...) Anyway, part of the view from the ballfield is of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was an evening game and at one point I looked over my shoulder and saw this beautiful sky. I immediately left the game and went to take pictures for SWF! :o) So here's what I got (other than the last one being cropped, these were not changed from the original picture.)







For more Sky Watch photos, or to join in the fun, click HERE!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Sky Watch Friday



Today I'm posting some beautiful Virginia views. These were taken at the peach orchard last week. All of the mountains except one are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains.







This is kinda weird, but I liked the look of the barbed wire. This is just a hill...not part of the Blue Ridge.

Do you see the steeple peeking through?

For more Sky Watch photos, head over *here* sometime after 7:30 pm GMT or 2:30 EST tonight (Thursday).

Teresa Needs...

I found this on Jennifer's blog and thought it would be fun. Here's what you do:

The challenge is to google your name and the word "needs" and tell us the first 13 things it says.

So here's what *Teresa needs*...

1. Teresa needs to lay off the sauce! (*hiccup* "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?")

2. Teresa needs one more miracle to become a saint. (The kids and I were talking about saints this morning...if I only knew then that I only need one more miracle...)

3. Teresa needs a nose job. (Now they're getting a little too personal...)

4. Teresa needs to make hard business decisions to keep the cash flowing. (Ain't that the truth!)

5. Teresa needs YOU! (When did I replace Uncle Sam?)

6. Teresa needs a finishing school as she is a crude classless act. (Excuuuuse me?)

7. Teresa needs her fans, but she doesn't need them to be so aggressive and over- promoting. (One fan at a time, please!)

8. Teresa needs to come on board. (I'd like to go on board an ocean liner to Hawaii!)

9. Teresa needs to build her own solid foundation, and investing time and energy into her home, domestic relationships, and inner life. (Who's been reading my diary?)

10. Teresa needs to raise $6500.00. (I don't need to raise $6,500, but I do need to raise about $1,300 for mine and Beth's mission's trip to Mexico in January!)

11. Teresa needs to confirm her commitment to her new unmarried life. (HUH???!!!)

12. Teresa needs a doctor. (Do you know something I don't???)

and, finally, what does Teresa need?

13. Teresa needs to be praised! (Thank you...thank you, very much!)

What about YOU...what do you need?

Friday, August 1, 2008

Fireproof Review

In an earlier post, I mentioned the movie Fireproof. This is a new movie opening in theaters September 26th. If you've seen the movie Flywheel and/or the movie Facing the Giants it's made by the same people...Sherwood Baptist Church.

My friend, Pam, from Georgia went to the screening of Fireproof. I felt certain it would be a good movie, but it was exciting to hear her opinion of it. I thought I'd share a bit of her email here:

"Last night I screened the movie Fireproof, written and produced by the Kendrick brothers from Sherwood Baptist Church, who also did Fly Wheel and Facing the Giants. Fireproof was FANTASTIC. If you liked Facing the Giants, you won’t be disappointed. I couldn’t stop talking about it when I got home and am ready to see it again. I would encourage all of you to go see Fireproof. This movie is about marriage but also so much more. This movie will challenge you not only to take a look at your marriage but also how you are living your life. This movie will make you laugh one minute and cry the next. It portrays true struggles of a marriage and gives answers that we all at times are searching for. Please be in prayer for this movie and that people will be opened to seeing it. I believe God will use this movie in a mighty way. So many can be reached through this movie – the website for the movie is http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/.

Please take time to visit the website and view the trailer. (Also a girl from the 80s, Kirk Cameron is in it and his acting is at its best!) Please be in prayer for the opening weekend of this movie because it will determine how long the movie stays in the theaters. Please pray for those who see this movie that their hearts will be opened to receive God’s word. Please pray for Sherwood Baptist as they continue to answer God’s call and are writing their next movie."


So if you get the chance, please head on out to the theater during the opening weekend (September 26) and support their latest movie! I'm sure it will be worth your time and money!
Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."