With Thanksgiving

I guess I waited till the last day of November to make my 'thankful list' but I say it still counts. Here's my top 20, not necessarily in order.

1. Justin, for loving me for who I am but always encouraging me to be more than I think I can be

2. Eli, for bringing joy to my life every time I look at him

3. Family, for always being there for us and loving us unconditionally

4. Friends, for being there when our family can't be, for laughing with us, for understanding when we can only manage a brief meeting/phone call/email

5. Knowing that God has my path laid before me, will never fail me, has a better plan for my life than I could ever dream of

6. Security and safety

7. Good jobs

8. The freedom and ability to learn new things, often with just a click of a mouse

9. Generosity of others, and particularly our friends who have given us not one, not two, but three carseats

10. WeightWatchers for being so simple to follow with so many resources that my journey this year has been an easy and often fun one

11. Our health

12. The bumper sticker I saw yesterday that said "Its okay to say Merry Christmas"

13. Our three branch government

14. The joy of scrapbooking

15. Support and compassion of our congregation at PBC

16. The phone conversation I had with my almost-6 year old nephew this week

17. Sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce (why are these only holiday foods???)

18. The teachers I had growing up, a couple of which I can still hear guiding me through life at 30 years old

19. Eli's 4 hour nap today that allowed me to paint my toenails and scrap a few pages

20. Precious time to ponder the joy of Christmas and anticipate celebrating my Savior's birth

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with those that you love, and look forward to a very Merry Christmas centered on the true reason for our Christmas season.

New Orleans

Justin, Eli and I took a day trip to New Orleans last Saturday with our friend Jenise. It was a very long day, but a lot of fun and well worth it. Justin loved the architecture, I loved the food and music, and Eli loved being held a lot. That may be all he loved since he didn't get good naps and the food was too spicy for him, but we'll say a good time was had by all!

Holly and Justin in front of a paddleboat. There was pipe organ music playing that reached several streets over and was fun to listen to.

A street band we heard- just like in the movies!

A lovely shot that I took. The city is obviously still being rebuilt and restored, but they are doing a great job and the spirit of the people has not been affected!

Eli sporting his new winter coat and hat. The coat has a hood on it, but I had to buy him a toboggan that tied under his chin to keep him from pulling it off. Even then it lasted only so long.

Holiday Recipe Series- Part V

Because I'm too tired from a three hour attempt at getting Eli to sleep tonight... Here's the easiest and yummiest snack for the holidays.

White Chocolate Popcorn

1 bag of microwaveable popcorn
1 1/2 squares of almond bark, chopped

1. Pop popcorn as directed in microwave and place in a large bowl.

2. Melt almond bark in a saucepan on low-medium heat till smooth, but be careful not to scorch.

3. Pour almond bark over popcorn and stir with a wooden spoon till coated. Spread evenly on wax paper or foil laid on the counter till dry and cool.

Enjoy!

Holiday Recipe Series- Parts III and IV

Pecan Tartlets

cooking spray
3 large eggs
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup dark corn syrup
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped pecans
24 pecan halves

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place twelve 3 oz ramekins in a baking pan or on a cookie sheet; coat ramekins with cooking spray.

2. In a medium bowl, beat eggs with salt. Add melted butter, corn syrup, sugar and vanilla; beat well. Blend in chopped pecans and spoon batter halfway up ramekins. Place 2 pecan halves on top of each ramekin.

3. Bake for about 17 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees and bake until a knife or toothpick comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes more. Remove from oven and allow to cool; serve in ramekins with a spoon, either warm or cool.

Yields 1 ramekin per serving. 3 WeightWatchers points per serving.


Crustless Pumpkin Pie

1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 12 oz can fat free evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves)
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup Splenda

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray pie plate with cooking spray.

2. Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth. Pour into pie plate.

3. Bake 15 minutes at 400, then reduce heat to 325 and bake an additional 40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Yields 8 servings. 1 point (or Core) for Weight Watchers per serving. 3 points for 1/4 of pie.

Good Night Scouts

By Justin

So no one can remember how we started this tradition, but every year on the Monday before Thanksgiving my Boy Scout troop has its feast. It is a great tradition. No matter how long you have been away or where your life has taken you, you can count on old friends showing up for the event. Some years there are surprise guests. Some years the crowd is thin. Yet one thing has remained constant, the fellowship and brotherhood given and received by all.

It is odd that some things have remained the same through the years. Herb still makes coffee and wassail. Dad always brings the turkey and dressing made by some woman of my family. I always take corn. It is weird how it just happens.

Two lasting traditions have held true through the entire life of this event. First, we go around the table and each of us voice what we are thankful for. Often they are the same. Some years someone brings a special poem to share their thanks. Some years someone brings story with a prop. It is a moving time of really feeling the bond we all share. The second lasting tradition is the group close that has end every Scout meeting in my memory:

"And now, may the Great Master of all Scouts, be with Us till we meet again. Good Night Scouts"

~Good Night Brothers~

Holiday Recipe Series Part II

By Justin

Hot and Creamy Grilled Cheeses

3 Slices of plastic cheese or some left over velveeta
2 pieces of Mrs. Bairds' Thin Sliced White Bread
butter

Heat a pan over medium heat and melt a small smidgen of butter. Don't skimp and use Pam. And don't think your non-stick pan is okay. It's Christmas, have some butter.

Butter one side of each slice. Place one slice down with the butter side down after your pan is nice and warm. Put your cheese on this slice and cover with the other side with the butter side up. Flip when you want. Keep flipping till golden brown.

Best enjoyed with a Coke.

Happy Holidays.

Holiday Recipe Series- Part I

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Bars

(18 servings, 3 points per serving for WeightWatchers)

cooking spray
9 whole reduced-fat cinnamon graham crackers
3 Tbsp butter
16 oz fat free cream cheese
1 cup sugar
2 cups fat free sour cream
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 325. Spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
2. Crush graham crackers in a ziploc or grind in food processor, then place in bowl.
3. Melt butter and pour over graham cracker crumbs. Mix with fork till blended.
4. Press crumb mixture evenly onto bottom of prepared pan and place in refrigerator.
5. Beat cream cheese with mixer till smooth, then add sugar and mix well.
6. Mix in 1 cup sour cream, then add cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Add remaining sour cream and mix till just combined.
7. Slowly beat in each egg one at a time until incorporated, then mix in pumpkin.
8. Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pan over graham cracker crust, spread evenly and smooth top.
9. Bake until set at edges, about 30 minutes. The very center will be a little loose. Cool completely and refrigerate overnight before cutting and serving.

Note: For best results, all ingredients should be room temperature and mixed as little as possible, only until each ingredient is just combined.

Enjoy!

Boy Scout Popcorn

I've found that trying to blog every day in a given month (I know, I'm failing, but still trying to get most days) has made me scramble for topics. I do have things to say such as what I've done today or what new things Eli is doing or what Justin and I talked about over dinner, but I suspect those might emit a yawn from you.

So, I'll share a little happening that occurred. Two years ago, a cute little Cub Scout came to our door selling popcorn. Justin being the Eagle Scout and all around nice guy he is, ordered a good amount of popcorn and gave the kid a check. We never heard from him again, but the check sure was cashed. I would like to think that there was just an oversight, that they truly couldn't reconcile why they had an extra order of popcorn and weren't trying to take our money.

Fast forward two years. A different cute little Cub Scout came to the door a couple of weeks ago with the same goal. Justin answered the door again, and when all was said and done he had ordered a huge tin of three bags of flavored popcorn and gave the kid a check. I shook my head as I would have saved payment this time until the goods were delivered, but oh, well. I didn't ask any questions really, until the popcorn was delivered by the very cute kid a few days ago and I asked Justin what kind he had bought. Yeah. Two bags of Cheddar and one bag of White Cheddar. Seriously. They sell plain, buttered, caramel, chocolate, anything you can dream of, and we get three bags of fake-cheese powder dusted popcorn.

Well, this is good news for me on WeightWatchers. There is absolutely no temptation whatsoever to sneak a few bites of Justin's popcorn while he is at work. I'll just continue with my 98% fat free mini bag and pretend its just what I was craving.

Quite the Sale!

by Holly

My mom is in town visiting for a few days and I took the day off of work today to spend with her and Eli. After a slow morning of breakfast, loooong nap for Eli and finally getting our stuff together, we left the house around 11am. Lunch was at Boston Market and it was fabulous! All I can say is Sweet Potato Casserole rocks! Next up was The Container Store for a few 'necessities' in organization. Then Kohl's. And more Kohl's.

We were in Kohl's about an hour and a half before Eli lost it and was unconsolable. He'd already had two bottles and wasn't about to be distracted by toys and such. We proceeded to check out, each armed with our 15% off entire purchase coupon, and saved lots of money on our already sale-priced items. Guess what happened as we finished our transactions? Eli fell asleep in the stroller. Sooo.... I took our bags to the car and we kept shopping! About an hour later, we finished up again and checked out, again with our 15% off coupons. (they were good all day.) We again saved a lot, and were thrilled with our purchases.

After that we met Justin at our brand new Chuy's in Plano and had the best food! Mom was gracious enough to take Eli home for bedtime and Justin and I went back to Kohl's. Yes, you read that right. Justin needs a new suit and we got some toys for Eli and our nephews for Christmas. Once again, the coupon!!

To sum it up, we got great deals anyway, but those coupons were so great I decided they were bloggable. Here's to your great bargain of the weekend!

A New Blogger

By Justin
A great friend of ours has finally bit the bullet and joined us in the blogging world. Jenise is a close friend that I work with and have for a while. We seem to follow each other around. Jenise is an avid traveler with a great hand at writing. These two will no doubt bring great posts in the future. More than most, Jenise is also a deep hearted Texan like me! So her blog title is correctly named 'Come Back to Texas', which she often does on her worldly adventures.

Surf on over and welcome Jenise to the sphere!

http://comebacktexas.blogspot.com/

Nana is Here

By Justin

Holly's Mom flew in this afternoon and Eli couldn't be happier. I enjoy Nana visits as well. Who can complain about a extra set of hands around?

The Narrow Gate

by Justin

So I was wondering how are we suppose to make life decisions in light of being Christians and being in this world? I feel like I work hard to spend time in prayer, in the Bible and in contemplation. Yet I still don't know how we are to KNOW the right path to take. I guess I am really not asking for any comments, as much as laying out thoughts in my head.

In college I heard many great speakers. Few, if any, really stick in my head, but one has remained through the years. I can't remember her name, only that she was a new regional director for IVCF in Texas and she was from Colorado. She gave a great talk over Mathew 7:13:

"Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it."

Her talk was a great illustration of what the path of the narrow gate would look like in contrast to the wide gate many follow. She talked of how worn and easy the wide path would be, worn down as it would by the many people. She related the narrow path to hard walking across unfamiliar and lonely places with a few people. Best of all she drew a great picture of how the world might just walk through the wide gate because 'that is just the way everyone is going, we should go with the flow'. The world doesn't stop to truly consider the narrow gate and its path.

She, in true IV fashion, ended with a challenge as college students to stop and consider our paths as we trudge around campus. She was trying to warn us to live our lives as Christians and be wary of the world and its mentality of the wide path. For some reason, and often for good ones, I think about that picture a lot in my head.

I think of the paths. I think of the narrow gate. I wonder if it is rusted shut or takes a shove to get through it. I think how easy the wide gate would be. I bet someone has propped it open with a rock, making an the path even easier.

More than anything I wonder if I have already passed the gate and am down the wrong path...

His and Hers Styles

(post inspired by Aimee's post on her View- see Houston's blog)

The two front rooms of our home are Justin's office and Holly's scrapbook room. Its interesting that these rooms can be so close, so open, and yet so very different. They are open as Holly's room was intended to be a formal dining room and has no doorway framed, and Justin's has French doors that we never close. They are separated by our tiled entryway.

Justin's room: is painted bright blue with 5 yellow horizontal stripes on two walls, has a modern Ikea light fixture, 3 dark stained bookshelves, two desks with computers, filing cabinet, aquarium and the requisite office clutter that goes along with such a space.

Holly's room: is still builder off-white, has a traditional chandelier, china cabinet, sewing cabinet, two desks, two scrapbook organizer carts, chair and requisite crafting clutter that goes along with such a space.

They both have snippets of Eli paraphenalia. A glimpse into our lives and styles. Here's the kicker though: I spend considerably more time in Justin's room b/c I work in here, and rarely do I make time to spend scrapping in my own sanctuary.

sigh

November 8th in History

(adapted from PR-Inside.com)

Today is Saturday, November 8, the 313th day of 2008. There are 53 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1519 - Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortez reaches Mexico City with his small Spanish force and 1,000 Tlaxcaltec allies. The Aztecs, believing he is an incarnation of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, receive him with great honor.

1793 - The Louvre Museum in Paris opens to the public.

1892 - Former U.S. President Grover Cleveland beats incumbent Benjamin Harrison and becomes the first U.S. president to win nonconsecutive terms in the White House.

1895 - Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, German physicist, discovers X-rays.

1960 - Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard M. Nixon for the U.S. presidency.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin approves a draft constitution that will give him increased powers at the parliament's expense.

1997 - Chinese engineers divert the Yangtze River from its natural course, clearing way for the construction of the enormous Three Gorges dam.

Today's Birthdays:

Edmund Halley, British astronomer (1656-1742)
John Milton, English poet (1608-1674)
Hermann Rorschach, Swiss psychiatrist (1884-1922)
Margaret Mitchell, U.S. author (1900-1949)
Katharine Hepburn, U.S. actress (1907-2003)
Alain Delon, French actor (1932--)
Mary Hart, U.S. television host (1950--)
Parker Posey, U.S. actress (1968--)

Thought For Today:
"Man is born to live, not to prepare for life." -Boris Pasternak, Russian author (1890-1960).

A New Friend!

We met some friends in the Fort Worth vicinity a couple of weeks ago, a mini reunion of sorts. Justin's Scouting friends Armand, Scott and Ethan were there with their families (spouses, parents,...). We missed the Johnson's!

Armand and Jelaine were there with their new baby Trey, pictured below. What a sweetie!
Eli was pretty excited to meet his new friend and clapped for him, after doing some poking and prodding to make sure he was okay. Thanks for calling guys! Great to see you all.

Is it Friday yet?

So we're not having the greatest of weeks, but we're muddling along. Eli began throwing up on Friday but we thought it was b/c he had a lot of drainage and didn't take any action until I got called to pick him up early from daycare on Tuesday. We went straight to the doctor (after the third episode of puking in the car seat, and I must say our carseat cover is the cleanest car seat cover in the universe now!) and found out he has two ear infections and a stomach virus. Oh, and he's teething again. Geez.

He's doing much better but is not daycare-approved, so I'm working half days this week and getting my work done in the evenings after he goes to bed.

Justin followed up on Wednesday with his own rendition of the stomach virus. He was in bed (and the bathroom) all day and attempted work for a few hours this morning but came back home. He seems better now, but you know how the after-effects of a stomach virus are.

I'm not having any of those symptoms but feel tired, nauseated and achy. I'm hoping its from taking care of my boys and working and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning up messes, and not actually the bug for me. We'll see.

That's our week for you. Oh, and our presidential candidate lost.

The Election

By Justin

How can you sum it up. My guy lost. My hope of a split Presidency and Congress did not happen. Now we have four years to determine if President-Elect Obama really is a genuine guy, bent on restoring hope to everyone. Or is he a left wing pawn bent on giving tax breaks and my money to others. Will he govern from the middle or slash and burn from the left. Will he really reach across the isle or will he just let Pelosi and Reed run the country from the top seat. Will he respect the Constitution and the rights laid out there-in? Or will he decide that national healthcare, paid for by you and me, really is in the 'common good' doctrine. Will he respect the lives of the unborn? Will he find a way to dig us out of this debt hole? Will he cut and run or leave with honor?

I don't know. But I know his time is limited in my head. There are mountains to climb, and as a person who didn't vote for him, he has precious little time to get his ship on track for me to vote for him in 2012.

Halloween Pictures!

In reverse order somehow...

Trick-or-treating at our friend Erin's house. She had a special treat for Eli- animal crackers, and a special treat for Mom and Dad- a baby bottle with mini candy bars! Yum. Thanks Erin!

All dressed up for Justin's Halloween party at SWA. Justin was BamBam, as part of the whole Flintstones cast with his friends from his department. Eli was the Sock Monkey and I was 'Justin: Southwest Employee'.

Eli sporting his Sock Monkey With Skinned Nose costume at his daycare's Fall Carnival. The Deputy Sheriff's badge was a prize for pinning the nose on the Scarecrow, with a little help from his teacher.

Well, Eli loves his pumpkin, especially the long stem! A little prickly in the mouth though. His shirt, courtesy of Grandma, says 'Peek-a-Boo!' with jack-o-lanterns and skeletons covering and uncovering their eyes. Very cute.

Mondays

by Justin

So you may or may not know that I work four ten hour days each week and have Mondays off to spend it with Eli. Honestly four ten hour days are grueling. I leave the house at 5:15 in the morning to get to work by 6 and leave work at 5 to get home in the neighborhood of 6:15. It is unfortunate that in this scenario I miss absolutely every stick of traffic in the morning, only to be in the thick of it in the afternoon. Catch me any day but Friday afternoon and I will tell you that it is absolutely worth it to spend my Mondays with my son.

What does a typical Monday entail, you ask? Well I am glad you did.

Most Mondays are spent around the house. We wake up and have our bottle. We bug Mommy in her office a little bit and then have our Breakfast. Hopefully we will spend some time playing on the floor and getting into things before our mid morning nap. After nap we try to get outside and take a walk. Then come back for lunch. About twice a month I meet a friend (Rene for those who know him) for lunch somewhere in McKinney or Allen. We have a good time then head hope for hopefully our afternoon nap. We bug mom some more to get through with her work so we can have some family play time and so I can take a child break. Then it is our normal nighttime routine of dinner, play, bath, play, book, bottle, then bed.

Often the schedule changes with things that come up. For example, today we ran a few errands to the AT&T store, The Home Depot and to get my pickup washed (or warshed). Sometimes we try to help mom out and get some of her things done. Other times we just do what we want.

I have learned a few things about my Mondays. One, I could not be a stay at home dad. I would go crazy. I would weigh 300+ pounds. I would not love my child well. Two, Holly is a saint to balance work and mom so well. Seriously, where does she get that energy and zest from? She never seems to want a day of from being a parent like I do! Finally, all the tiredness from work is worth it to have a quality time day (mostly) alone with my son.

Time for bed! Eli went to sleep at 6:15 tonight and hasn't quite learned what daylight savings time is all about. Could be an early morning tomorrow!

Fiesta!

Our church, Plano Bible Chapel, had its 40th Anniversary party tonight. It was quite a celebration complete with Tex-Mex, a mariachi band and lots of fun at Southfork Ranch. Great to see our friends, eat good food and just enjoy a party without any of the work.

Eli didn't get the memo about the time change, so he was up at 6:30 ready to go. I was not. But Justin and I take turns getting up on the weekends and today was my day. Eli and I had breakfast, played and took an hour long walk in the stroller and still had time to play again before getting ready for church. With the fiesta tonight we only had the 11:00 service and no Sunday School. He never naps in the nursery at church so he was reaching the end of his rope by the time we got back home. After lunch he went down for a nap and so did we. 2 1/2 hours later I woke up and realized we had to leave in 20 minutes for the fiesta! Yikes! Fortunately Eli woke up happy and we were on our way on time.

Okay- pictures tomorrow. And by the way, I never got around to checking on the couch cushions last night. I cleaned half of the bathroom, painted my toenails and watched the last half of the Tech-Texas game. Well worth staying up late for that!

Fight Raiders Fight!

Let's hear it for Texas Tech!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

National Blog Posting Month

by Holly

Okay Aimee and Krista, I'm in. I guess I have it easier than you guys since Justin and I can tag team posting on our shared blog. :) Since I'm exhausted and don't have it in me to walk to the other room to get the camera, no pictures tonight. I'll just let you know what we've been up to.

Last Friday evening was Eli's daycare's fall carnival. I love fall and everything associated with it so even though he didn't know what was going on, we went. He wore his Sock Monkey costume like a pro and even left the hat/head of the monkey on! Halloween continued with Southwest Airlines' humongous Halloween celebration this Friday. Eli and I went for a few hours in the morning and took in all we could before he had had enough. Justin's entire department was in costume, as was most of the company. It really is amazing that the whole headquarters is transformed into skits, spook houses, kiddie play rooms... Well done. Gary Kelly's employee-voted costume turned out to be ZZ Top. It was nice, but I've seen better from him in the past.

Skip forward to Halloween evening itself and we dressed Eli up for the third time in Sock Monkey, strapped him in the stroller and went trick-or-treating. Now, that only entails our friends Erin and Bryan's house, and a quick stop at a neighbor's who walked out to see what Eli was dressed as, but I think that's enough trick-or-treating for a 10-month-old, seeing as he fell asleep before we were back home!

Today was spent doing random stuff. Justin took Eli to visit Grandma, Pops and Nannie and I had most of the day to myself. I weeded the flowerbeds, did some laundry, made fruit dip and then spent the afternoon at my friend Rebecca's baby shower. She is expecting her baby girl Lucy sometime before Thanksgiving. I was in charge of the food for the shower and we planned for 75 so it was a big deal. We ended up having 55, so that's not too bad. Quite a shindig for a little girl that's not even here yet! And now Eli's in bed, Justin is at a birthday/football party and I'm trying to convince myself to clean our bathroom while Eli's not going behind me 'exploring'. Or maybe I need to make sure the couch cushions stay put...