Snow day!!

On Wednesday night I was tired. I thought I would go to bed early, but I didn't make it.

About 5:30 am on Thursday morning, my cell phone rang. I answered, groggily. It was my Dad... he said, "I just got a phone call, Putnam County schools are closed today" So I went back to sleep...until around 9:45. I was so glad for those extra hours of sleep.

I wasted most of the day with sleeping, laying around, watching TV, and playing on the internet. Then I exercised, showered, and went to Walmart. We needed some milk...and I wanted to make stir-fry for dinner and we were out of brown rice.

I baked some orange drop cookies that didn't turn out very well. :( They had frosting on top and it made them gooey and too sweet.

I cooked my Chicken Stir-fry and it was SO good. I usually use those frozen bags of mixed veggies...but this time I cut up my own green peppers, onions, green onions, carrots and broccoli. I HATE frozen broccoli. They always give you the stalks!! YUCK! I also put some slivered almonds in it...fresh squeezed orange juice, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger.

I loved it so much that I can't wait to make it again. I told Jesse that I was going to cook it again next week! I brought some for my lunch at school today! :)

After dinner we went to Mike & Alyson's house. We watched the Oklahoma and Florida game there. Alyson is about ready to pop out a baby. Actually, shes scheduled for a C-section on Jan. 13th. I'm gonna have a new neice named Leah Alyson. :)

Well gotta go talk about Tom Sawyer!

1st day back..and Hawaiian Muffin recipe :)

Yesterday was the first day back to school. I am thankful that I had a place to go back to! By this I mean that I'm glad I have a long term job right now. It may only be for another month. I think Ms. Richards will be back in Feb.

Yesterday was a busy day. I went to school..and I kinda had a little bit of a headache. I really hated getting out of bed at 6:15 am. blah. But the day went by quickly.

I had to make myself exercise yesterday. I did a Jillian DVD finally around 6pm. I cooked dinner... Pineapple Baked Chicken, Wild Rice, and a Salad.

I also had 2 old yucky blackish bananas that I needed to use..so I made some Hawaiian Bread Muffins. I'm bad about making up recipes and not writing them down, so I'm going to try to recall what I put in them because they are really good. I dont really measure so.. I have to guess at the amounts.

Hawaiian Muffins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Makes 12 muffins
Bake temp. 350
Ingredients:
2 mashed ripe bananas
½ c. crushed pineapple
¼ c. walnut or macadamia pieces (opt.)
1/8 c. orange juice concentrate
¼ c. coconut, toasted (opt.)
1/3 c. canola oil
¼ c. Splenda, granulated
¼ c. dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 c. oats, quick cook
½ c. whole wheat flour
½ c. all-purpose white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt

Directions:
1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray muffin pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, mix bananas, pineapple, walnuts, orange juice concentrate, and coconut.
3. In a small bowl, mix canola oil, splenda, brown sugar, and the egg. Combine the two mixtures in the medium bowl.
4. Add oats, both types of flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just moistened.
5. Pour batter into prepared muffin pan. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on cooling racks.

*These are healthy and they turned out really good. If you’d like them really sweet, you can use all sugar and no Splenda…or add more sugar. Also you can use all all-purpose flour instead of the whole wheat. It’s not as healthy, but it would probably taste even better.

Nutritional Content:

for each muffin (when divided into 12 muffins)

Calories 161.94 kcal
Cholesterol 17.71 mg
Fatty acids, saturated 1.41 g
Other Carbohydrates 17.5 g
Protein 2.43 g
Sodium, Na 215.43 mg
Total Fat 9.28 g
Total Fiber 1.54 g
Total Sugar 1.23 g

new blogger template

I was SO sick of looking at that old template. I'm really excited that I found this one. It really suits me. It may be here for awhile.

I also added a little picture slideshow so all you out there can see what I look like now. Kitsy and Jesse are in a few of my pictures too... along with a couple of my neices.


Today was a lazy day. I woke up late...and just layed in bed. Jesse tried to watch Tropic Thunder but he said he couldn't finish it because it was so stupid.

I moped around the house. Played on the internet (thats when I changed my blogger stuff) and then decided to work out. I did a Jillian DVD from Netflix...and then I tried a Yoga video but it was beyond boring.

After a shower I headed to Walmart where the lines were 4 miles long. I almost read a whole issue of Shape while I was in line. Well, ok... I just skimmed it.

I just finished putting the groceries away and now I'm about to bake some cookies. Jesse called me from Ty's house and said he wanted some cookies. I haven't eaten that much today... so I'm all for it! So... gotta go find some recipes!

looking back to 2008

Believe it or not...this is a true story.

When I was in Bible College, which was from 2001 to 2003, I remember very specifically God speaking to me about the year 2008. In one of my notebooks or prayer journals or something I joted down a note in the margin. It said "2008 is a year of CHANGE"

For some reason I always imagined that to mean that I was going to have a baby in 2008. Thats a pretty big change, right?

So I always kinda had that in the back of my head. I was always thinking, "Whats the change gonna be?"

When 2008 was half over I started really thinking about it. I remember one sunday at church the thought came back to me and God spoke to my heart and said, "It's not a big change but a year of many changes"

Looking back on 2008....

I graduated in December of 2007. Jesse and I sold our house at the end of 2007. We packed and moved to a new city...in a new state. Jesse worked for UA. I started working for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools. Jesse switched jobs to work for Hughes & Associates. We packed up and moved back to WV. I lost 15 pounds. I stopped biting my fingernails (little but worth mentioning.) Jesse switched jobs again to Nationwide Insurance. I started working for Putnam Co. Schools. Substitute teaching CHANGES every day. Jesse switched jobs AGAIN to work for Beneficial Finance.

I think that God wanted me to know...way back in 2002 when He first talked to me about 2008....that even all these little changes are in His plan. Its very hard to try to understand why God would want all these changes...and I don't pretend to understand why we've been through all of this....but because he spoke to me about it I know that He had his reasons...and I can live with that.

Also... as soon as I learned that Barack Obama's theme for his campaign was "CHANGE" I was slightly taken back. It was strange. I just had a little feeling like he was going to be our president.

Lately.. I've heard many news broadcasts and other things where they have decided CHANGE was the theme for 2008. This, to me, is so strange because in my mind 2008 and CHANGE have always been linked.

Here are some links to more on 2008 and CHANGE.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1864100,00.html

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/weekinreview/buzzwords2008.html