They're here!!!!

I'm so excited I want to share this with everyone! My sister in law, Debra, had her baby girls early this morning. However, they are about 11 weeks early. Both girls are doing good, but one of them is on a ventilator and they both will remain in the hospital for about 2 months. They're in Abq at Lovelace Women's Hospital.

Samantha Catherine is 2 lbs, 8oz and Gabrielle Marie is 2lb, 10 oz. Gabrielle is the one on the ventilator. Please pray for these tiny girls (my nieces, I can't believe it!!!!) and for their parents.

Don't worry I will be sharing pictures as soon as I get some!!

Also...

If anyone has a tween, or teen daughter then I've got a great website for you. Vicki Courtney is someone who is in women's ministry and her focus is teaching virtuousness (is that a word?) to girls in today's culture. I found her blog so I added it as one I follow.

For anyone who is in the same shoes as I am (having a tween daughter) I hope you can use this great resource. Vicki Courtney also has written several books. Anyway, I thought I'd share that with you all.

have a great day!!!

Dayna actually cooked!!

I know for most people cooking dinner is not anything exciting to talk about. But in my house, whenever I cook, it is a big deal.

My dear husband does the cooking in our family...a) because he likes to cook...and b) we'd starve if it was left up to me. I'm lousy at cooking. So whenever Aaron is gone it's a serious cause for panic with me because I know I'm going to have to cook decent dinners while he's gone. My children can't eat macaroni and cheese for every meal, so I have to suck it up and cook.

Despite the fact that I dislike cooking, I really like the Food Network and am a Rachael Ray junkie. I have tons of cookbooks and subscribe to "Quick & Easy" by Taste of Home. So I've got a lot of resources at my fingertips and I have actually learned a lot from watching the Food Network.

So, Aaron is gone this week at a church conference in Dallas so I've been having to do the cooking. Actually, I've lucked out most of this week... Weds was Awana's and they have dinner there, last night (Thurs) we ended up eating at Sonic after dropping Tracey off for youth night at church. So tonight is the only night I have to cook since Aaron is at this moment driving all night long from Dallas in order to rescue my children from their mother's cooking.

I have been known to cook decent meals on occasion but usually it's only Tracey and I who will eat them. The little ones and their daddy are too picky. But tonight was different...well, partially. Kylee didn't touch her food, but Krysten devoured it. (Tracey's not here). I considered tonight's meal a success based on the fact that 50% of my children ate it (and it actually was pretty tasty).

You're probably thinking I cooked something wonderful and exotic like Sea Bass and escargot (yes, i've actually eaten escargot) but no, it was only Beef Vegetable Soup. I got the recipe from my latest issue of Quick & Easy. And you know what...it really was quick and easy! Truth in advertising.

This, of course, is Kylee's untouched bowl.

Weekend at Bernie's...

...or maybe at Gina's!

The girls and I took a spontaneous road trip this weekend.

Aaron was called to a fire on Valentine's Day, which wasn't a big deal since we had taken our Valentine's dinner the night before. So when Aaron leaves...so do we!

After he left Tracey told me that she wanted to do something fun instead of clean house all weekend. I told her "you know what, you're right! Let's go see your cousins in Sierra Vista."

So I called Gina Sunday morning and we hit the road after church. The little ones were so excited...they've been waiting for months to get to go see their cousins. Gina just recently moved back from West Virginia.

We had a great, relaxing weekend. The cousins all got to spend time together and Gina and I got to visit. I love having her so close by (well, if you can consider a 3 hour drive close), she's my only cousin on that side of the family and we're both only children so we tend to stick together.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Thank You!!

I want to say thank you to my followers and readers. I appreciate the fact that you take a little time out of your day to see what's been going on in my life. I've enjoyed writing my blog and now I'm always looking for something to share with all of you.

I'm also going to shamelessly ask for more people to become official followers and I would love to have more comments, I want to know what your reactions are to what I write. If you have questions, I promise I will answer them.

Have a great Valentine's Day!!!

Great weekend!!

My weekend in El Paso was fabulous! It was so refreshing to spend the time with just women. We laughed and giggled about the silliest things until the wee hours of the night. We ate at great restaurants and enjoyed some great bonding time. I learned the finer points of navigating a rather large vehicle in the rather small streets of downtown El Paso. We never got lost...we just took some roundabout ways to get to where we're going. I'm still not used to the way roads are set up in Texas. I always get over too far to the left and then get stuck in the u-turn lane.

Doesn't this picture look like we had great seats? I zoomed in on the jumbo-tron to take this picture. Beth Moore kept moving around and so I didn't get any good pictures of her. Aren't I such a dork?? Check out her blog here to see a great video of pictures from the weekend.

Here is part of the gang at Living Proof Live!!

Olive Garden...one of my most favorite places to eat. I took my usual "tour thru Italy." mmm....tasty.

Ah... yet another fine dining establishment...PF Chang's. Chinese food is a rare treat for me.

On a different subject, we had a 2 hour delay today. Tracey and I did the happy dance. Then EVERYONE in this entire corner of the state had school cancelled except for us. All the Silver teachers had to drive thru Deming to get to work becuz they told us they'd dock us a day of pay if we didn't go to work today. I got to school around 11:15.

Beth Moore live!!

I am so excited...tomorrow I am going to see Beth Moore in El Paso! I am going with a group of friends from church and we're gonna spend the night, eat at restaurants with no playlands, and do a little shopping.

Her events are a wonderful opportunity to be spiritually rejuvenated. I so enjoyed it the last time I saw her (in Phoenix).

I even discovered that she's got a blog, so I became the 1635 follower.

Did I mention I am going to eat with grown-ups...at restaurants where your food doesn't come in paper bags??!!! I think I'm almost as excited about that as getting to see Beth Moore.


On a different note...

I put something new on my blog... but you have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see it.

Bedtime Woes

Okay...I jinxed it.

A few days ago I blogged about the fact that Krysten was doing great with her new "big girl bed." She was doing great...for about a week. The last 3 nights have been AWFUL!!!! Awful I tell you. She keeps popping out of bed like microwave popcorn. It takes forever to get her to stay in her bed. I feel like I'm on an episode of Supernanny...the part where she takes off and leaves the parents to fend for themselves.

Help me someone...!!!!

This also causes problems with getting Kylee to sleep since they share a room.

Tonight I let Kylee sleep on the couch. Bad mommy. Tracey's on the floor in front of the fire. Doesn't anyone sleep in their own bed in this house??????

(as I am typing this, Kylee has wandered into my room and climbed up into my bed)

I knew I shouldn't've said anything...that'll learn me.