Sisters and Friends

What a fun day I had today! My sisters and I met Ginger from Just a Thought for lunch. Before I tell you about our time together, I have to give you a little history. Ginger and I went to school together, from kindergarten to graduation. We saw each other occasionally in the almost 30 (!) years since we graduated but not often. Last spring, after I started blogging I noticed comments on Short Stops blog that made me want to visit the commenter's blog. I don't know many Gingers, but I was still surprised when I went to this blog and saw that the Ginger who was commenting was the same Ginger I went to school with. (She hasn't changed much!) I have so enjoyed reading her blog, getting to know her family through it and reading all of her insightful thoughts. She also started reading my sister Terri and Cheri's blogs. We decided it was really time that we met and had lunch together. Ginger is a brave woman and decided she could handle us all at the same time. She may be rethinking that at this time. We really did have a good time. Good food, good fellowship, good laughs! There was a problem getting a picture, because people were laughing and goofing off!
This one turned out a little better.
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What a blessing to meet up with someone from your past and have them become part of your present! We'll have to do it again sometime and who knows what other bloggers we can find to take along!

Slow Cooking Thursday

Thursday means in time for another recipe. Here's one that I think is really good, but I don't make often because some of the family have a thing against pineapple in main dishes!

Maui Chicken

6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

14 1/2 oz can chicken broth

20 oz can pineapple chunks

1/4 cup vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 9-10 hours. Serve over rice.

Tocheck out more slow cooking recipes, visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Word cloud

I saw this on another blog and wanted to try it. This site picks out words from assorted posts and puts them into a word cloud. It was fun to see what words they picked out. I noticed that both Laura and Heather made it on the list, but Bob and Andy didn't. I even saw a few of my blogging friends names!

If you want to make you own word cloud go here and click on custom.

Interesting facts on the human body

I recently came across this list of facts about the human body that I thought was quite interesting. The intricate way in which each part of our body works together really shows the greatness of our Creator!

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~Scientists say the higher your I.Q. the more you dream.
~The largest cell in the human body is the female egg and the smallest is the male sperm.
~You use 200 muscles to take one step.
~The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.
~Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.
~A pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands.
~A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.
~The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades.
~The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
~It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
~The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds
~At the moment o f conception, you spent about half an hour as a single cell.
~There is about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
~Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
~The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substance in your body.
~Your teeth start growing 6 months before you are born.
~When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate, they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate.
~Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people.
~Your thumb is the same length of your nose.An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
~Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.
~Every person has a unique tongue print.
~Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.
~Three-hundred-million cells die in the human body every minute.
~The feet account for one quarter of all the human bodies bones.
~On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2,000.

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I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Fossils

fossil - The remains or imprint of an organism from a previous geologic time. A fossil can consist of the preserved tissues of an organism, as when encased in amber, ice, or pitch, or more commonly of the hardened relic of such tissues, as when organic matter is replaced by dissolved minerals. Hardened fossils are often found in layers of sedimentary rock and along the beds of rivers that flow through them.

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I mentioned in a post a while back that when I was young, we used to collect fossils. Some people said they would like to see them, so here are a few pictures.

I lived on a farm when I was growing up, so there was lots of space for us to run around and things to discover. One of our favorite things was to go out in the fields where there was a creek running. Along the creek was a stoney hill that didn't have any grass growing on. We would sit on the side of that hill and search for these fossils. It took some time, because they were small, but we would always come home with a handful. They were great for show and tell at school!

Before my Dad sold the farm I went out and collected these ones to save. I'm glad I did because the property is now commercialized with several stores and the hill is bulldozed.


Here's a close up so you can see how small they are. Seeing them brings back fun memories of things I did as a child and makes me realize how lucky I was to live where I did and

be able to have that farmland to run and play on.

How do you like this flooring?

Check out this picture. It was sent to me in an e-mail. This is an actual bathroom, that has a painted floor.

Whoever painted this was very talented. I think I'd be scared to step onto that floor!

Slow Cooking Thursday

Thursday is here and it's time for another slow cooking recipe. Here's an easy chicken recipe.

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Tex-Mex Chicken and Rice

1 cup converted uncooked white rice

28-oz can diced tomatoes

6-oz can tomato paste

3 cups hot water

1 pkg dry taco seasoning

4 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast, uncooked and cut into 1/2" cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

4-oz can diced green chilies

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Combine all ingredients in large slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 4 1/2 to 5 hours or until rice is tender and chicken in cooked. Enjoy!

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For more slow cooker recipes visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Works for me Wednesday

For today's Works for me Wednesday I am sharing something I recently discovered. I have used frozen dough before. I've tried the bread dough and the rolls but a few weeks ago I tried this:


This is Rhodes frozen dough - Texas Rolls. They come 24 to a pack and cost $3 and some cents. As the name suggests, they are bigger than the normal size rolls. When done they are the size of small buns. All you have to do is pop them out of the freezer and let them rise in a pan for 3 to 4 hours, then bake them for about 20 minutes. They smell wonderful and taste like homemade.

Here's the finished product. If you want to see what works for some other people, visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.

Winter, again...

We are under another winter storm warning. I must say that I am really getting quite tired of this. I don't remember a winter like this for a long time. It seems we dig out, only to be dumped on again. This is what I just found on our local news station website:
According to the National Weather Service:
...GRAND RAPIDS BREAKS THE RECORD FOR NUMBER OF DAYS WITH 3 INCH SNOWFALLS FROM MIDNIGHT TO MIDNIGHT FOR FEBRUARY.

And, here's the prediction for tonight and tomorrow:

Monday night, lake-effect snow will continue with 1-3" inland and 3-5" along the lakeshore. Temperatures will slip into the mid to upper teens. Blowing and drifting snow will continue. Wind chills will be around 0-10°.
Tuesday, lake-effect snow will accumulate an additional 1-2" inland and 2-3" along the lakeshore. Temperatures will hold steady or slip further into the mid teens. Wind chills will be around 0-5°.
Tuesday night, lake-effect snow showers will continue with another 1-3" accumulation. Temperatures will fall into the single numbers. Wind chills will be in the single numbers.
By Wednesday, my area is predicted to have 9 to 12 more inches of snow!

Here's a few pictures to show you what it looks like. (I didn't take these)

These are people walking on the frozen waves of Lake Michigan

This is the lighthouse in Holland, covered with ice.

It is pretty, but I'm so ready for it to be done! I am not looking forward to driving to work again tomorrow, through drifts and poor visibility.

Here's a little reminder of Spring - it is coming!

Marriage

We had something kind of unusual happen to us Saturday night. Bob and I went out for supper. We were enjoying our meal and having a nice evening. When our waitress came to our table to give us our bill, she asked how long we had been married. We told her it had been 26 years. She then said "You look happy. Would you mind telling me how you have kept a happy marriage?" We told her that we were Christians and because of that we have God in the center of our marriage. We also said we like to have fun and try to maintain a good sense of humor. She told us that many people she knows are getting divorced so she was looking for advice for whenever she got married. I don't feel like I'm too good at giving advice off the top of my head and later have thought of more things I would have liked to say. I wish I had said that just because we are Christians doesn't mean that marriage is always easy. I would have liked to have told her that respect is important, and more. We didn't have a chance to say much more to her, as she was very busy and we only saw her for a minute as we left. I'm glad she is thinking enough about it now to ask questions and I hope the advice she gets is helpful. What about you, what advice would you give in a situation like that?

Random acts of Kindness Week

*This is a sticky post, scroll down for more recent posts

Random Acts of Kindness Week
Feb 11- 17

Did you know that this week is Random Acts of Kindness Week? I'm thinking this would be a good time to challenge you all. I would love it if you would think of some kind thing to do for someone this week. It can be big or small, you can do it for someone you know or a stranger. Just keep your eyes open for ways you can help someone this week. After you do something for someone, write a post about what you did and link to this post using Mr Linky. You may enjoy it so much, that you do more than one kind thing! There are some ideas above, but you may have some great ideas of your own. Please feel free to publicize this on your blogs, but ask people to link back here, so we can see what fun things people do.

Have fun being kind to others!

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"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:11-13

Bloggers of the World

Karen in New Zealand has given me this award called "Bloggers of the World". Thanks Karen - I really appreciate it. I love the way blogging allows us to get to know each other and be friends with people who we would have never met without our blogs!

For more about this award, go here.

I would like to pass this on to some of my blogging friends who live far away from me. Some may already have it but you are getting it again!

First I'll pass it back to Karen in New Zeeland

Bonnie in Australia

Jennifer in Japan

Ally in Spain

Saija in Canada

Mary in Canada

Sarah in California

Valentines Day

Bob and I don't always do much for Valentines day. We often just get each other a card and will go out for supper. This year I had to work during the day and Bob had to work during the evening. While I was at work, these flowers were delivered there for me. Isn't it a nice arrangement? I like the red vase with the beads tied around it. The flowers came from the florist shop where Laura is now working , so I am wondering if she did this arrangement. She's been so busy the last few days that I haven't talked to her.

I laughed when I came home and saw this. Bob was still sleeping when I left for work this morning. When he made the bed he put these two bears on it. They are bears his sisters made for us (aren't they cute?) and I guess they are symbolizing the two of us , sitting there together.

What day is it?

Do you know what day February 14 is? If you said Valentines day you would be right, but - it is also Heather's birthday! She was born on February 14, 1986. I was in labor with her for over 24 hours and I think it was because she wanted to be a Valentines baby. She was born only 8 minutes into the day. Of course, the long labor may have had something to do with the fact that she weighed 9 pounds and 6 ounces!

Here is a picture of Laura meeting her new sister. She was pretty excited to see her, as she had been hoping for a sister. (After she came home, she wasn't as sure) Look at all the black hair Heather had. She soon lost it and it came in blonde.

Heather is about 6 in this picture. She was a really easy baby and an easy kid. The most trouble she ever gave me was being born! She still rarely gets upset and often does things to help at home without being asked.

Here is Heather now. She has brought a lot of joy to Bob and I and we are happy to see the Christian young women she has grown up to be. Happy Birthday, Heather. We love you!

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Another of my blogging friends is also celebrating her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Diane!

Random Acts of Kindness

I thought I would share what I've done for my random acts of kindness this week. First I bought a potted tulip plant and brought it into church when the secretary wasn't there. I put it on her desk with a note saying thanks for all you do and wishes that this would brighten her day. I left it unsigned so she can wonder who brought it! (Bloggers from church are to keep quiet!)

I also bought a gift certificate from our local grocery store. I am sending it to a family I know who don't have much extra money. I enclosed it in a note that said how much they were apreciated and again didn't sign it. I like the thought of people wondering who was thinking of them! I've been trying to be aware of ways to help people, often in simple ways like holding the door or helping carry things. I have found that there a lots of little things to help with if you are just paying attention.

What's your rating?

Cheri and Jennifer had this on their blogs and I thought I better check out my rating. I'm happy to say I am family friendly.

Click on the box above to see what your blog rating is.

The sun shows its face!

I'm happy to report that although it's still cold here, the sun did shine on us today! It was so nice to see it again and the snow on the trees looked beautiful in the sunshine. I had the day off today and went with Bob to the Dr. The roads weren't great, especially in the morning when we left. As a matter of fact, I think every school in our surrounding area was closed due to the roads and the extreme cold. Anyway, as I said, Bob went to the Dr today. He had another good report. All of his tests have come back good. The Dr is going to run a few more labs, but he doesn't feel the problems he had were heart related. I know this Dr from when I worked in the hospital and trust him, so will just wait and see what these labs show. Bob has been feeling good and hasn't had any further problems. Thanks to all of you for your concern and most of all for your prayers. I also have to thank my brother-in-law Mark, for really coming through for us and blowing out our driveway twice in these last few snowstorms! I don't mind shoveling, but when the drifts are to your knees it's kind of overwhelming! I'm sorry to say we are supposed to get more snow tonight, but not in the quantities it came in last week.
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Don't forget to show a little kindness to someone this week!

Are you sick of hearing about snow yet?

Would you believe that we are in the middle of another bad snow storm? We're supposed to have snow and high winds tonight and tomorrow. It is now 10:00pm, the roads are already getting bad and the high temp for tomorrow is predicted to be 7 degrees.

The sign above was put out by someone from Holland, Michigan who is keeping his sense of humor in the middle of all this snow!

A message from Japan

I got an e-mail from my blogging friend Jennifer who lives in Japan. She has a message she wanted me to share with my fellow Michigan residents. To see what she says, click here. Thanks Jennifer - you're pretty funny!

What really works?

Don't you just hate it when you buy something new and it doesn't live up to all those promises the advertisements made? It seems that most advertisments are half exaggeration! Girlymom over at The Red Door is asking us to post some product reviews of things we have used and really liked. Here are a few of my favorites.

The Works Tub and Shower cleaner.

This stuff is awesome. We have well water, so our tub not only has the normal soap grunge, but hard water deposits. I buy the bottle of it and squirt down the sides of the tub, leaving the tub plugged so when it runs down the side the bottom is cleaned too. I turn on the exhaust fan, leave the room for about 10 minutes. When I come back, all I have to do is wipe down the tub and rinse it - it's clean!

Max Factor Lipfinity.
This is long wearing lip color. I can put this on in the morning and it really does last all day. I do reapply it if I go out again at night, but it really lasts and doesn't seem to dry out.

L'oreal Bare Naturals Mineral Makeup

I know many of you have admired my flawless skin, (ha,ha) this is how I do it! :)

I heard of quite a few people who enjoyed the mineral makeup, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money for it. I tried this shortly after it came out and have really liked it. It is easy to use and a jar of it lasts a long time. It comes with a brush so you don't have to get that separately. I always used cream foundation before and find this looks more natural and my skin rarely has breakouts anymore. (One would think that at 47 years old, that would no longer be a problem!) I use the foundation, blush and also the eye shadow. The foundation and blush cost about $14 for a jar but Walgreens often has them priced for half off 1 jar if you buy another. As I said earlier a jar lasts a long time.

Hamilton Beach Panini Press and Sandwich Maker

I got this at Christmas and I love it. First of all, it doesn't take much space because it stores standing up. Second - it makes great sandwiches! They turn out nice and crispy just like the panini's you buy in a restaurant. I have tried different types of bread, meat and cheese and enjoyed them. This press has a floating head so it accomodates thicker sandwiches without problems. These sandwiches work well to make a quick supper!

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Another favorite product is Mr Clean magic eraser. It really does live up to the advertisements. For other product reviews visit Girlymom here. If you post your own review let her know and she will add a link to her blog.