All Aboard the Polar Express

Over the weekend, we went to celebrate Asher's birthday by taking a train ride with Santa. It is called the Polar Express Ride. We had a great time and Asher asked Santa for a REALLY LOUD drum set. (Like they come any other way) We had hot chocolate and cookies and of course Candy Canes. Asher also got interviewed by a local news station and made his first TV appearance last night. I recorded it and it is the last thing on this post. If you can't tell Asher say, "I'm here to see Santa." Oh, yeah and when we went to meet the engineer that drove the train I found out that it was my band director in high school. What a fun surprise so we got to go up and check out all the controls and blow the whistle. It was a great way to celebrate Asher's birthday and he loved everything about it.

Caroline and I with Mr. Metzger

The ride is very mesmerizing.

"I'd like a REALLY LOUD drum set"

He putched "Asher believe" in the ticket.

At least that is what he said.

Brad and his Mom

Getting ready to ride!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Little Guy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

World Aids Day December 1

Compassion – Make a Donation – Sponsor a Child

So thankful!

I am so thankful for

• my family - all of them. If you just include our immediate family and Brad's family and mine we have 45 family members in all that's our parents, brother, sisters and in laws and nieces, nephews and are own kids. What a blessing!
• our Lord and Savior who gives us everlasting love and called as His child
• many friends and neighbors
• lots of laughter
• a warm house
• food on the table
• a promise of light snow tonight
• a loving husband and best friend
• and much, much more!

Man, I have so many things to be thankful for. Our family walked a 10K to start the Thanksgiving Day. It benefitted many organizations around town including the Ronald McDonald house. We spent the rest of the day together with Brad's mother and by 8pm we were all ready for bed. We had a great time walking with 15,000 of our closest friends in our town.

Our God is still doing miracles.

I've been following this blog for quite some time and just want to share it with you. You may have experienced God's miracles or maybe you haven't. Well, this family as a sweet little miracle that just arrived in their family. They are not out of the woods yet, so please be praying for them and little Samuel. You'll have to read back some months to get the full story but God has a plan for this little sweet tough guy and his special family. May God be glorified!

Photos from the real celebration

Well, I'm home and enjoyed my time with my parents. I was able to celebrate my mother's 77 birthday. I missed my husband and kids but had a great time with my Mom and Dad. Though Mom was a little under the weather we enjoyed visiting, looking at lots of pictures, eating some good sea food and watching some football together. I'm glad that it will only be a few weeks until I see them again when they come home for Christmas!

Happy Birthday MOM!

I'm off to celebrate with my mom her 77th birthday. I'll miss my husband and kids but I look forward spending a short few days with my Mom and Dad. My mother has spent many a birthday baking a turkey and all the fixins. I'm sure she has spent it shopping for Christmas gifts and I know she spent it with sick children cause I remember my sister having Mono one Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for my Mom and looking forward to helping her celebrate!

A little like Christmas

We have been blessed to have some of our family that lives in Monterrey, Mexico here in town. So we took the opportunity to have a little Christmas celebration early. We went out to eat and then watched a the movie - Santa Clause 2- projected on Grandma's wall. And then we made funnel cakes and topped them with ice cream and strawberries and chocolate. It was a fun evening and a great way to kick off our Christmas season. We love you cousins and tio and tia! We will miss you all at Christmas time.

If you are interested in a new fun Christmas tradition try this recipe from my friend Shelley via her friend Rachael Raye. They are sooooo easy and very yummy!!! Funnel Cakes
(from Rachel Ray, I typed in "funnel cake recipe" and came up with this)

1. Heat three cups of vegetable oil over medium high heat until it reaches 350-375 degrees.
2. Whisk together 4 cups of flour, 1/3 cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well, then add 2 1/2 cups milk 3 large eggs. Whisk until smooth.
3. Put batter in gallon sized bag. Remove excess air, and seal. Cut 1/4 inch wide hole in bag. Carefully squeeze 1 cup of batter back and forth into oil making a free form lacy web. Cook until golden on bottom, about 2 minutes. Using tongs, turn the cake over and cook until golden brown on other side, about 1 more minute. Transfer funnel cake to paper towels to drain.
4. Dust funnel cakes with powdered sugar and serve warm.
These were quick and easy, and got two thumbs up from everyone.

Fun Food

I have the amazing opportunity to learn how to cook Ethiopian food one Sunday afternoon. The kitchen smelled like onions and lots of spices. And I've learned that onion, berberre (sp?), ginger and garlic pretty much go into EVERY THING. I had my camera the whole time we cooked but I was enjoying the time with friends and the experience I forgot to get it out. We literally cooked for over 4 hours and I left early. For those of you that know your Ethiopian cusine we made (which really means I chopped onions and watched) these dishes: Shiro, Misra Alecha, Spinach (my favorite - Caroline's too), Siga Wat, Spicy Lentils, Siga Be Alecha, and Tibs. I hope I can remember what we did when I try it on my own. My only problem is Caroline and I are the only ones in our family that like Ethiopian. Anyone have any ideas to get Asher to like it. I hope it grows on him :)!

For those of you who haven't experienced Ethiopian food you take a piece of the injera (the rolled sour flat bread) and pick up some of the stews (called "Wet") and eat with your hands. There are no untenils used in the meal and if you know the people you are dinning with they help to serve you a bit or two and this shows their respect for you. This is usually all served on one big platter and you dining party is to sit around together and dig in!

The election lives on

We caught Asher walking around this weekend saying, "I'm Baaarak Obama and I feel this message." Some things aren't easy to forget or wear off. Atleast he has our next presidents name down.

Happy Halloween!

I really waffle every halloween. I love to see my kids dress up and have fun collecting candy. I love picking pumpkins and the family time of carving them and eating roasted seeds. But, I really struggle when we go around our neighborhoods and seeing caskets in yards and reminders of death, evil and distruction. It's a great time to reach out to neighbors cause EVERYONE is out and especially this year. We have wonderful weather of 65 degrees and we went out two nights this week. Besides halloween night we also went to the local outdoor mall two nights before for a dry run on our costumes. The kids had parties at school and the day was full of fun.

Finding the creepy crawlies in spagetti

Mall trick or treating

We have a "road trip", a quarter back,

batman and a cheer leader

Our Genie or is it I dream of Jeanie

Caroline is a girl being blown in a wind storm

or maybe an Midwestern in the September Hurricane

The "Quarter" back - He has a quarter taped to his back

Batman flying

Carving Party

Caroline's sunshine pumpkin

Caleb's football throwing pumpkin

Abby's Silly Girl pumpkin

Asher's Batman pumkin

We had lots of roasted seeds from these pumpkins

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Tonight as I got Asher out of the bath tub, I was telling Asher how God made him. We were going over his body parts and how God made his hands, and his strong legs and his soft hair and beautiful skin and his sweet smile. Asher stopped me and said, "When I was a baby God held me in his hands." And I thought a moment and said, "Yes, Asher God held you in His hands when you were a baby." And I thought oh, if he only knew how much truth that statement holds and then I thought some more. I realize that this statement is true each and every day for all of us if we allow it. God holds all of us in His hands each and every day. Out of the mouth of babes!

The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I love this time of year and the annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We will be still make the trip even after our kids are grown. There is nothing like the smell in the air, the crunch of dried vines and leaves, the feel of straw as you pump along on the tractor driven wagon ride. We came out of the afternoon with four of the most perfect pumpkins (according to the kids). Caleb claims it is his best ever! All four had different criteria for just the right pumpkin and it was fun to see them all make the choice and for one of us the choice kept going even after we were on the wagon ride back. There always seemed to be a better one out there. Stay tuned to see the creating of the jack -0-lanterns!

Are you ready for some football?

This weekend the three younger ones and I had the privilege to go cheer on my nephew CJ (#82) who plays tight end of SIU Solukis. We were able to cheer along side my sister, Sharon and my brother-in-law, Drew. We are die hard fans now and can't wait to catch another game in person. But until then we will be catching him on the web and listen to the play by play.

Horses and Whales and Bears OH, MY!

Ok, not sure what we will be for halloween but we were having fun trying on some oldies but goodies.

OH . . . IO

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Yes, Asher referred to himself with his Ethiopian name which is amazing since we don't call him Asher Mamushe too often. And the rest is the product of listen to the Ohio State Marching Band each Saturday morning and reading a board book called Ohio State 101. By the way, if you are curious who his favorite player is since the tape ran out . . . it's Beanie Wells!

Water for Ethiopia

I just came across this organization and even though it's not September anymore I'm all for raising funds for Water in Ethiopia. The organization is called Charity:Water but their Ethiopia project is with Born in September Project. Take a look at this video and if you need to know more go to http://www.borninseptember.org/ I talk my water for granted soooo much, but as my kids learn in school - Water is life and is needed all over the world. So excited to see nice clean water getting to Ethiopia. I'm gonna be a part of it - Will you?

Paint and Bubbles Day!

Asher had his first finger paint day and yes it was a challenge to keep the paint on the paper. He wanted it on his belly, lips and some how got on his underwear (still potty training). Then we got cleaned up and went out for some bubble time. It was windy so the bubbles came flowing out when you held up the wand. I love having a toddler at home so I can have this kind of fun too! Asher really misses his sisters and brother when they are gone to school and of course, Dad at work, but we try to find fun things to do to help the time go faster.