This Crazy World

As many of you know, a shooting occurred at our local movie theater. Neither Chris or I knew anything had happened until we started getting texts from family and friends wondering if we were ok. It was unusual that we didn't hear anything since we live right around the corner from a local fire station. Of course, I think we get so used to hearing the sirens, that we don't really pay attention.

We barely had our eyes open and our day was off to a fast start in a way we never imagined. During a Monday to Sunday work week, Chris gets 2 of those days off. That week, providentially Chris had that Friday off. He pretty much never has a Friday off. Chris immediately jumped into action by getting in contact with our pastor seeing what could be done to help. Pastor Mike and Chris picked up donuts and headed over to the high school where the families and survivors were gathering. They were able to pray with several people and share the Gospel.

Later that evening, our church, Wellspring, hosted a prayer and worship time. How important it is to come together to pray for those hurting right there in our community. After the prayer time, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings to eat a late late dinner.

Needless to say, our day was re-arranged and busy! Because the shooter's apartment was only 1 mile away from our house and they were talking about booby traps that may involve chemicals, I elected to stay home with Elianna in case we had to evacuate. Thankfully none of that happened. While I should have been getting ready to have GG come in the next day, I watched hours of footage via the computer. What is it about crisis that makes you want to watch over and over the same things? Ask me to watch Sports Center over and over? Uh, no thank you! A royal wedding or a local crisis over and over? Yes, thank you.

Many of you prayed for us and we so appreciate those prayers. Below is the email we sent to many asking for prayer.


We are asking for prayer for our city, Aurora. As you probably know, a shooting occurred at the local movie theater. To put it into perspective: This theater is approximately 2 miles from our house and the apartment building being investigated is about a mile from our house.

This morning our pastor, Pastor Mike, and I were able to minister to several people at the local high school where families and survivors gathered. Tonight our church, Wellspring Community, is hosting a prayer service at 5:30 pm. We will then attend the community vigil at the municipal building at 7 pm. We are asking that you would pray for us as we reach out to help those in need and those struggling to find hope in such a desperate time. Our desire is to be a light in the midst of such darkness knowing that light shines brightest in the darkest of times. Pray for the families of those who lost loved ones. Thank you for your prayers.


Recently, we headed over to the large memorial that has been set up right across the street from the theater. It is amazing to see the outpouring of love from people in our community. It is a huge memorial. So very very sobering.

Yummyness!

Ok so there is a lot to post about but not a lot of time apparently. Grandmother is here until next Thursday, we let a missionary from our church in NJ borrow the truck, and we have VBS this week. It's been a bit crazy and with just 1 car getting Chris to work and me to VBS - oh boy! But I did want to really fast post because I know I'm getting tired of looking at dead mice. Yuck! Since that post we have caught 2 more. Haven't seen any activity so I think we got them all.

Now to the reason this post is titled Yummyness!. Last night I decided to make a copycat recipe for Chick-fil-A bites and Chick-fil-A sauce. Now do you understand? {It definitely wasn't because of the dead mice.}  They were both delicious and tasted just like it. So for those of you who don't have a CFA near you (and love it!), this recipe is for you to now make at home whenever you want! Yay! And you'll never guess what the secret ingredient is!?! Pickle juice!

Chick-fil-A Bites

2 large chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces 

   and seasoned with salt and pepper
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup pickle juice
1 egg
1-1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup peanut oil, divided (or canola or vegetable oil)

Whisk together egg, milk and pickle juice, and pour into a large ziplock bag or a bowl. Add chicken pieces and marinate in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours.

Combine flour, powdered sugar, salt and pepper in a large ziplock bag. Shake to combine. Remove chicken from the marinade and add into the bag. Shake to coat the chicken completely.

Heat half the oil in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat (6 or 7 out of 10). Test the oil by dropping in a bit of the flour mixture. If it sizzles, the oil is ready, if it pops, lower the temperature a bit.

Gently place chicken pieces into the oil with tongs. Do this in 2 batches, as you don't want to overcrowd the pan. Cook the chicken for 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown on one side. Turn the chicken over and allow to cook for 3-4 more minutes. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Heat the remaining oil and continue with the other half of the chicken pieces.

Recipe from IowaGirlEats.com

Chick-fil-A Sauce

1/2 cup mayo
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon smokey barbecue sauce

Whisk all ingredients together.

Recipe from www.KneadySweetie.com

Picture from IowaGirlEats.com

Life is funny, but sometimes I'm not laughing

Ah life! 7 years ago when Chris and I got married, never once did I think that I would have an ugly gray box in my kitchen that would catch 11 mice in it.

Oh wait . . . yeah. You read that right. 11 mice. In my kitchen. In a span of 3 days. Not proud of that fact. At all. But somehow it's life and life's a funny thing, but I don't have to laugh at it.

{This is a fair warning! If you do not like rodents or disgusting subjects, then go away! because that's all I got. That and a crazy story, but that's nothing new.}

Sunday Harley began sniffing and getting agitated at something in the dining room by the buffet. Because "the mans" (as Elianna called them) were putting in the back fence, I didn't think too much about it. Just figured he heard them working outside and was getting all worked up. But then he didn't stop and I got all worked up. Long story short, there was a mouse underneath the buffet that ran into the kitchen and under the stove. Uncool. Very uncool. So we put up mousetraps. We put up 2 "regular" mousetraps. You know the kind that you stick cheese and peanut butter on and snap! it gets the mouse. And one ugly gray mousetrap that they walk into but can't get out of.

We caught them in pairs of 2 except for, obviously, 1 of them (seeing as we caught 11). Here's where it gets disgusting. The first 2 mice we caught was the momma mouse and a baby mouse that was feeding on the momma even though she was caught in the trap and was dead. Oh that is disgusting! Chris said there is a good sermon illustration in that one.

The next 2 we caught were in the "regular" mousetrap together. Disturbing!

The last 7 we caught were in the big ugly gray trap. We haven't caught anymore so we think we have the whole family minus the daddy. Do mouse families live in families? Hopefully not because we still have one on the loose then. We like to believe that's the end of them. I'm thinking they got riled up and moved into our house because of the new fence being put in.

We got rid of the mice just in time because Grandmother flies in tomorrow to stay for 2 weeks! Can't wait to see her!

PS:  Sorry for the disturbing pictures!  Chris wanted me to post this since this is part of our life.  Crazy as that life is at times!

Friends

When we lived in New Jersey there really wasn't any little girls Elianna's age. There were boys but no girls. When we moved out here, we were super excited to find out that in our church alone, there are 3 other little girls right around Elianna's age. They are the cutest together! Minus the screaming and running around crazy and the screaming. Boy do they like to scream!

The oldest is Noelle followed by Dani then Natalie and finally Elianna. I am so thankful she has a great little group of friends. They play (usually) well together and thankfully their parents have the same parenting values we do!

Elianna and Natalie

Elianna and Noelle

Elianna, Noelle and Natalie

Elianna and Dani

Survivor Island

So I made it through Friday with the extra children just fine. Although I did tell the mom that I was not prepared for the questions upon questions the 6 year old asked over and over. "Why do you have a hammock?" I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to answer some questions. I was too scared to say because someone gave it to us for fear she would ask why they gave it to us and who and when and where. Oh my! I thought the 2-3 year old stage was hard. I am so not prepared for the 6 year old question stage. Must prepare myself ... now!

Friday evening we had friends over for dinner and as a result Elianna did not get to bed until around 10:30 pm. Not a good move.

Saturday Chris had a charity soccer event for Starbucks he played in. 

Chris playing in the soccer game

Elianna had fun playing with the corner flag

Later Saturday Elianna had a birthday party to go to. 

Birthday girl

Eating lunch with her friend, Dani

Then she took a short nap before we headed to our pastors house for a leadership meeting. 

Playing dress up

Saturday night, Elianna didn't get into bed until 9:30 pm and for some reason would not fall asleep until sometime after 11:00 pm. Not good!

Sunday between services, she took a good hard nap. Thankfully we were able to get home early from Sunday evening church but once again she refused to go to sleep until after 10:00 pm.

So while I survived 4 children on Friday, 1 small almost 3 year old with a serious lack of sleep, may just do me in.  Praying she gets some good sleep soon.  Praying I will have a loving and kind attitude and reaction whether she gets sleep or not.

Happy Monday from my very own Survivor Island!

What?!?

Today I have 3 extra kids. The fence guys are tearing the fence down outside. I know. What was I thinking?

Friends at church have 4 kids (pregnant with the 5th) and the oldest is having a birthday party tomorrow. Since they live in a small apartment, my thought process was to help the mom out by watching her 3 kids (she kept the smallest one) so she could make the cake, food, etc etc. No problem, right? They could play in the pool. Run around the yard. Go to the park if necessary. We did all that - the first hour they were here. What?!?

Add to all these facts - one of the kids is scared of dogs. Freaks out scared. No problem, right? Kids outside - dog inside. Kids inside - dog outside. Except my landlord texted me yesterday to tell me they are tearing down our fence the very same day. What?!?

Thankfully the kids are now playing very nicely in Elianna's room. No crying or nashing of teeth so far. It's amazing! Poor Harley is locked in our bedroom though probably wondering what in the world he did to deserve that.

When I told a friend that I was going to have 3 extra kids today, she told me I should have waited to get my haircut until after today. That way if I end up pulling out all my hair, at least I wouldn't have wasted the money on a haircut. HA!

In all honesty, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would or could be. I'm very thankful they are playing nicely together. A little crazier than normal? Yes! But it's great to be available to be a blessing to someone else.

Cruisin'

Last summer Elianna's legs were still a bit too short for her bike. This summer they are just long enough so she has been learning to ride. She does pretty good as long as she remembers to keep pedaling and doesn't get distracted by everyone else walking past or the dog in the yard or "Rocky" climbing the tree or anything else. She gets so terribly distracted and forgets to pedal. Kinda hard to ride a bike not pedaling.

The next thing she struggles with in the bike riding department is keeping her eyes in front of her. Read above paragraph about people, dogs, squirrels, etc. and add in looking at her feet. So when she does pedal, then she is steering all crazy around because she is not watching where she is going. It's quite the experience!

We are working on her keeping her eyes on us while we walk (backwards) in front of her. It can get very frustrating to keep telling her "Keep your eyes on me" "Trust me" etc etc. It's also a good lesson for me to remember. Keeping my eyes on God and trusting Him. It's not an easy thing to do whether bike riding or plodding along in life but in both instances, its necessary.  Thankfully God has a lot more patience than I do!

Best $20 Ever Spent

While we were having our 100 degree temps here in CO, I mentioned to Chris that we should get a little pool for me Elianna to splash around in. We had a splash pad of sorts but last summer it got "broken." Well, Chris and I sorta had a breakdown in communication as he heard me asking if we could buy a pool that cost $100. I mentioned a $10 pool seen at Walmart. Thus the confusion of me wondering why in the world he was wondering how we would pay for such a pool and fill it up. Needless to say, I broached the subject again because, well, it's been super hot here. That's when we figured out the breakdown.

The other day I went to Walmart and since they were out of the $10 pools, I splurged and bought a $20 pool that has been the best $20 ever spent. Elianna loves playing in her pool or at least with her pool. 


I will even admit to the fact that one night Chris and I even decided to sit in it to cool off.  Let's just say the water was a bit cold for my taste and wasn't terribly relaxing so I headed out.  Kinda hard to relax when your wishing for a hot tub effect not a chill blast zone.  Somehow though, the frigid temps don't seem to bother Elianna.

So... if you are looking for us this summer, this is probably where we will be.

Fourth of July {2012}

This year's July 4th was a bit different. To start, we knew we would not be seeing fireworks since most places (with the exception of the Rockies game or Elich Gardens) had cancelled their fireworks due to the dry weather and wildfires. Secondly, my Chris had to work from 6:30 am to 2 pm.

To celebrate a little in the morning, we invited one of Elianna's friend, Natalie, her little brother, Levi, and of course, Miss Angela over to swim in our little pool. Elianna and I both love to snack on food so I put together a plate of little snacky foods to munch on. Apparently Natalie and Levi also like munchy foods too since they all seemed to want to snack more than play in the pool.

Once all the food was eaten Elianna and Natalie played in the water while Angela and I got to sit around and chat. It was nice to have adult conversation for a bit!

After Chris got home and Elianna got up from her nap, we went to the "lawn" outside of the municipal building and met several families from church. There was a "concert" of sorts.  Natalie and Levi, Noelle and Micah, and Josh, Abigail and Patrick and, of course, their parents were there. It's super nice because Natalie, Noelle and Elianna are all around the same age and play so very well together.  They had fun running around having fun while the parents hung out and ate and talked and ate.

It was pretty much anti-climatic since there were no fireworks at the end to conclude our evening. I understand why the fireworks were cancelled but it was a bit disappointing to not be able to see any this year. Come to think of it, last year I worked and we didn't see any fireworks then either. Next year we will have to see about breaking this non-firework trend.

Elianna and Noelle in the back of a police car.  Better be the first and last time...

 We think Unca should have a police car like this!