Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

I recently made this crockpot recipe that I saved some time ago but kept forgetting to make.  It's called Marry Me Chicken, because it's supposed to be good enough to inspire a proposal.  :)
It was very easy, just put everything in the crock pot and let it cook and we thought it was very good too.  I'll definitely be making it again.

Marry Me Chicken

1 1/2 - 2 pounds chicken breast or thighs, cut into bite size cubes
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon onion powder
4 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sun dried tomatoes

Mix corn starch and broth in crock pot. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 6 hours.
Serve over rice.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Spending time with Cassie

You may remember that although our granddaughter Cassie likes to come over, and says she's staying overnight, it hasn't gone well in the past, and we've ended up taking her home.
She was going to be staying with us when her new brother was born and since Andrew would be staying at the hospital, there wasn't going to be the option of going home.  We were all worried about how that was going to go, and Heather and Andrew kept talking to her to remind her that she had to stay.  

Here she is on the first evening.  She had lots of fun playing, but as bedtime got closer we started hearing "I miss Papa and Mama".  We reminded her they were at the hospital and couldn't come home yet.

Here's Bob with her in the rocking chair, reading a book before bed. She cried a little but then went to bed and only woke up once.  She went right back to sleep when I checked on her.

We found out she's wide eyed and talkative in the morning.  I love hearing that cheery little voice first thing!
She slept well the other nights, just a few tears before bedtime and we all told her how proud we were of her.

Here's some photos of things we did while she was with us.

She loves playing in our family room downstairs and getting out the Matryoshka dolls. We have a playhouse and lots of kitchen toys down there. She takes our orders and serves us with a smile!

We visited the ponies down the road and fed them apples.

We used an idea from Jenny the Pirate and went on an adventure walk.  We put packing tape around her arm, sticky side out and she collected pretty things she found to put on it.  

One morning she surprised us by dressing herself.  She wasn't at all worried about putting on pajamas from different sets and tennis shoes with them!

We played on Grandpa and Grandma's "playground"

We went to the Dollar Store and she picked out slime, but this slime had a ball in it that lit up.  Here she is playing with it, and the light up ball is by her Mr Ted.  She kept saying "How cool is that?"  Best $1.25 I ever spent!

One morning she decided I needed to take her picture with about every stuffed animal she could find in the house.  :)

She did some bike riding...

and some porch sitting, but not too long because she doesn't really believe in sitting!

She found flowers in the yard for her mom, but we knew they wouldn't make it home so I tried to get a picture, but she kept closing her eyes!

Before we knew it, it was time to go back home.  I had her sitting on our bathroom counter to get ready and I thought she looked so cute sitting there with the bear so I snapped this photo.

She was happy to be home with her family and we were tired out!  But we had such fun and we think our house is a little too quiet now.

43 years!

Last week Bob and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that many years!  I'm thankful for all those years and the way that Lord has blessed us in them.
We both had the day off so decided to have a fun day together.
We started by stopping in at Andrew and Heathers to check on Connor and drop off a little something for him and Cassie.

He's doing good.  Andrew took this picture later, but when we were there we finally saw his eyes open.

Then we went to Meijer Gardens.  I've shared this place with you before.  Aaron and Laura gave us a membership there, so we can go and wander around whenever we want.  This time we wanted to check out the Japanese Garden section.

As we walked to the Japanese Garden, we got a glimpse of this huge sculpture.  The Meijer Gardens are also known for their sculpture collection.  This particular piece is probably the most famous.  It's 24 feet high!  It was designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1482.  It was for the Duke of Milan and was to be the largest sculpture of it's time.  However, there was a war going on and the bronze that was to be used for the sculpture was repurposed for the war and the sculpture was never made.  However, the plans had been saved and in 1999 a cast was made and 2 sculptures were poured.  One went to Milan, Italy where da Vinci had planned it so many years ago, and one came to Grand Rapids where it was placed in the Meijer Gardens.

This is at the entry of the Japanese Gardens.

They have an area with lots of bonsai trees.

This was my favorite, with a bunch of trees.  It was probably only about one and 1/2 foot tall.

There were lots of winding paths to walk and stone benches if you wanted to rest.

We loved this sign we found in one section.

The Japanese Gardens cover 8 acres with this lake in the center.  The gazebo you see on the left is on an island in the center of the lake with the beautiful footbridge to get to it.

There are several small waterfalls to enjoy.

Here's another view of the bridge from the other side.

There are so many plants and flowers to enjoy while you are walking.  These are Japanese Anemones.

We took a selfie while stopping at one of the benches.

We went for an early supper after that, then went to visit the local Community Fair which is taking place this week.

There were lots of people enjoying themselves.

We didn't go for rides though, we went to see some things in the display barns.  Alaina and Ruby had entered some art work for judging.

It was hard to find their things because everything was just set on tables and some things were behind fencing so people couldn't touch it.  We found some though.  This is a drawing Alaina did.

They also both made stocking caps.  They had several other things I couldn't get photos of but they got A's on all of the things they entered.

After the fair we went home and had a quiet evening.  It was a wonderful day and a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

I tried a new recipe last week that was incredibly easy.  If you like Alfredo, you'll like this one. The thing that made it easy was that you didn't have to cook the pasta before putting it in the oven.  I wondered how that would work, but the pasta turned out perfect.  I had try to keep shredded chicken in the freezer, so all I had to do was throw it together and bake it.  Easy and good!

Chicken Alfredo Bake

1 box pasta (I used bow tie)
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
2 cups chopped spinach
1 jar alfredo sauce
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Stir together alfredo sauce and chicken broth.  Then stir in pasta, chicken, spinach and 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese.
Place in greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.
Cover tightly with foil and place in oven.  Bake for 40 minutes.
Remove foil, stir and sprinkle remaining cheese on top.  Bake for another 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and let set for 5-10 minutes before serving.
*I did half of this recipe and put it in a 7x10 pan.  It was still enough for 2 meals.

Wordless Wednesday

 

My little entrepreneurs

I have to show you what my granddaughters, Alaina and Ruby have been up to. They told me they had been making bracelets and selling them at the end of their driveway. Then I got a message from Alaina saying "Grandma, we are selling today so you can come if you want, but you don't have to".  Well, you don't have to ask us twice!  Bob and I headed over to see what they were up to and this is what we found.

Here they are with all their signs and products.

They told me they bought this sign at a neighbors garage sale for 50 cents to use on their table.

They had a sale going!

Here's some of their bracelets.

They also have painted rocks.

I bought this rock to put on my desk at work.

They even make their own bags out of cardstock.

I thought this was all pretty creative and a good way to spend their time.

He's here!

Most of you know we've been anticipating the birth of a new grandbaby.  This little one was prayed for long before he arrived as our daughter had a hard time getting pregnant both times, and then throughout this pregnancy.  He was due in the beginning of September, but because our daughter has Type 1 diabetes, this was a high risk pregnancy and she's been followed by special OB doctors and lots of ultrasounds.
She did well through it all, and was able to keep her blood sugars stable.  However, diabetics often have big babies, and because this baby was measuring large, she had a C-section scheduled 3 weeks early.

Meet Connor William!  He weighed 10 pounds, 7 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long.  He was born Thursday shortly after noon. He had to go to the NICU because of blood sugar issues (not unusual in babies of diabetics) and some low oxygen levels related to being born early and being a c-section baby. (The patches on his cheeks were for O2 tubing)

There was hope that he would be out of the NICU on Friday night, so we took Cassie up.  The bag Bob is carrying is a little toy she picked out to give him.

Unfortunately, although his blood sugars were good, his O2 levels were still not stable so he couldn't come out of NICU.

Cassie was so sad.  This is Andrew doing a facetime in the NICU to Bob who had Cassie outside the door, so she could see her new brother.

It wasn't enough though.  Here she's crying on Heathers shoulder because she wanted to see Connor.  It was heartbreaking for all of us.

Andrew made a balloon out of a glove for her, which distracted her for a while, but then we had to go home and leave Dad and Mom. So it was a rough bedtime that night.

Saturday Connor was still not released from the NICU because of oxygen levels so we didn't take Cassie up there, just played here at home.  She did good all day, but was tearful at bedtime when she misses her parents the most.

On Sunday, Bob went to church by himself.  I didn't want to put her in nursery with strangers and I also knew that sitting through a service would be asking too much of her.

Then we got the news that Connor's O2 sat was good, and he passed the car seat test.  He was getting out of the NICU and both he and Heather would be discharged in the afternoon.
They were planning on Cassie coming back home as she was really missing them, so we packed her up and brought her back around 4.
She was happy to be home and to finally meet Connor!

First look at her new brother.

She was bringing him toys.

Cassie and Connor

Happy Grandpa and Grandma.

Happy Family!

Love the cheeks.  Bob says he's going to be a trumpet player.

We are thanking the Lord for this wonderful gift!