Fun proposal

A friend shared this cute clip with me. It's a fun marriage proposal that's sure to make you smile!

Chicken Enchiladas

Sandra at Diary of a SAHM is hosting Cooking Thursday again. Stop over at her place and check out the other recipes.
I'm sharing one of our favorites today. Hope you like it too!




Chicken Enchiladas

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
4 ounce can of diced green chilies, with juice
3/4 cup sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
2 cups shredded, cheddar cheese, divided
10 large flour tortillas
1/3 cup milk

Melt butter; add onion and garlic and saute. Stir in green chilies, sour cream and soup. Remove 3/4 cup of sauce and set aside. Add chicken and 1/2 cup of cheese. Fill tortillas with chicken mix and roll up. Place in greased 9X13 pan, seam side down.
Add milk and 1/2 cup cheese to remaining sauce. Pour over enchiladas. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup of cheese over top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
Serve with green onions, sour cream and salsa if desired.

Wordless Wednesday

I love the way the leaves on this bush start all curled up and then unfurl as they grow.
(I'm not so good at the wordless part of this!)

Genesis Code Winner

I've drawn a winner for the Genesis Code movie. The random number selector chose comment #3, and that's Kalli of Mommy's Everyday Life!
Congratulations to you, Kalli! I'll need your address and it will be sent to you. Thanks to the rest of you who entered!

Memorial Day

My friend Glenda from He gives a Song, gave me permission to share this with you. I think it portrays what Memorial Day is about so well! We are blessed to live in a country where we are not forced to fly our flag, but because of the sacrifices made by our military men and women, I for one, am proud to do it!
Thanks to all those past and present that have defended our country. A special thanks to my son Andrew, who is returned to the USA in February, after a year in Afghanistan.
Hope you all have a good Memorial Day!

The Genesis Code review and giveaway

I was given the opportunity to review The Genesis Code this week. It's a movie I'd heard good things about, plus parts of it were filmed at Hope College, near me in Holland, Michigan.
Ernest Borgnine and Fred Thompson and a few other familiar faces are in this film.
The story is about Kerry, a Christian college student who is assigned a story for the campus newspaper. She has to interview the Blake, star of the hockey team, and as they get to know each other they find they disagree on the Bible, specifically Genesis.
As they deal with other issues going on in their lives, Kerry sets out to show that science and the Bible are not in conflict.



We thought this was an interesting movie and appreciated it's promotion of intelligent design. At the same time, we were disappointed in the assumption that when science and the Bible are in conflict, that we have to adjust what we believe the Bible is saying. I think we will never be able to understand Creation with our limited minds, and sometimes we just have to believe!
That being said, it did raise some interesting points and was a family friendly film.
If you would like to win a dvd of this move, all you have to do is leave a comment. I'll be drawing a name and posting the winner on Monday evening.


“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or
services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it
on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally
and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance
with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the
Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Flower shopping

My kids gave me a nice gift certificate to a nearby nursery for Mothers Day. I love walking through and looking at all those beautiful flowers! Here's what I ended up with for now.
I'll be going back with Bob to buy some perennials for the back yard.


A pretty welcome basket for the front porch.

I always get a fuschia to put by my front door. They do really well there and the hummingbirds love them!

Isn't this mixed basket pretty? I like the mixture of purple and yellow.

Thanks kids! I'll enjoy these all summer long!

Wordless Wednesday

(Alaina's 6 month picture)

What a week!

I have to say that I'm glad last week is done!
Those of you who have been around for a while, have heard me talk about the annual inspection at the nursing home. Well, last week was that time again.
Every year the state comes and does an inspection at every nursing home in our state. It's never a fun week. There are usually 4 inspectors and they want to watch everything we do and ask lots of questions. They are never nice - tend to be very intimidating and can be accusatory so that doesn't help matters.
This year on top of the four regular inspectors, there was a federal inspector grading the state inspectors. Because of the federal inspector, the head state inspector was also there to defend their inspectors!
When they arrived, they told us that we would have extra citations because of the Federal inspector, which doesn't seem right, but there's no one to complain to.
I was lucky enough to get to take one of them around, and answer lots of questions. I found it frustrating to hear her ask what I thought were leading questions - "If you don't like the food, do they make you go hungry?" This was asked to someone with dementia, who answered no, but she really didn't understand the question.
I also had to do a med pass, with a state inspector and a federal inspector each writing things on their clipboard as they watched me give meds, inhalers, insulin and check blood sugars. (I passed!)
In the end, we did well. Many of our residents told them we are like a family and that they get good care, so that really helps. When they left the inspectors told us that if the Federal inspector hadn't been there we would have been cite free which is pretty incredible, and makes it even more frustrating to get the ones we got.
Now we'll need to put in our corrections in paper to the state and then they will come back to make sure we are clear.
I'm just glad to have it behind me!

Happy Birthday Andy!

Monday the 21st is Andy's birthday. He's been a blessing to us from the day he was born!
He is currently stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He's been really busy lately so he has hasn't been able to come home, but it's nice having him close enough to make an occasional trip back here and hopefully it won't be too long before he gets another break.
Happy Birthday Andy! We love you!

Harmonica man

My Friend Pat from Living on Grace posted this short video on her blog. This clip shows that even with modest means, a person can make a huge difference in their town.
It's only 2 1/2 minutes long, so I hope you watch it!

Cooking Thursday

Time for another recipe! You know how you start making new recipes, and sometimes forget the older ones? This is one of those recipes I rediscovered. It's a burrito in a pan - so good! It also freezes well, so instead of a 9x13 pan, I split it into 2 8x8 pans and freeze one.
For more recipes, visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Pan Burritos

2 pounds hamburger, browned and drained
12 ounce can tomato paste
2 packages enchilada sauce mix
16 ounce can refried beans
1 pkg large flour tortillas (10)
20 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

Mix tomato paste and enchilada sauce with enough water to make 5 cups of sauce.
Take 2 1/2 cups of this sauce and mix it with the browned hamburger. Add the garlic powder, salt and pepper if desired. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add refried beans.
Grease a 9x13 pan. Spread 1/14 cups of remaining sauce on bottom of pan.
Lay 3 tortillas on top, tearing them to conform with bottom of pan.
Spoon 1/2 of meat on top of tortillas, then spread 1/3 of cheese over top.
Add another 3 tortillas, then rest of meat.
Add another 1/3 of cheese followed by one more layer of tortillas.
Pour remaining sauce over top and add remaining cheese.
Bake 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Wordless Wednesday

(Lots of maple tree seeds this year!)

This is what ... looks like

This is what sad looks like

This is what sorry looks like

This is what bad judgement looks like

This is what "holding it" looks like

This is what a pile up looks like

This is what forgetting something looks like

This is what being obnoxious looks like

This is what bad judgement looks like again!

This is what a sense of humor looks like!

Mothers Day

Hope you all had a nice day on Sunday. I had to work during the day, and we had a nice day there. We had lots of visitors and a Mothers Day tea. All the ladies got a flower and they enjoyed themselves.
After I got home from work, I got a call from Andy who was having a relaxing day in Kentucky. Bob, Heather and I then went to Laura's house for supper.
We had a good supper and of course, we all enjoyed seeing Alaina!

I love holding this little darling!

Isn't this picture of Laura and Alaina sweet?
It wonderful seeing your daughter as a Mother!

Being Mom

Have you seen The Skit Guys? They are Christian comedians and I always enjoy them. I'm sure you will enjoy this video as much as I did.
Happy Mothers Day!

Cooking Thursday

Time to share another recipe! Stop over at Sandra's place for more good stuff.

I tried a new recipe this week and was it ever good! It's made in the crockpot and is quick to throw together. You can use it first for a nice dinner over rice, then with a little change, use the left overs for a casual lunch.

Chicken Taco Chili with Rice or Nachos

1 medium onion, chopped
16 ounce can black beans, drained
16 ounce can kidney beans, drained
8 ounces can tomato sauce
10 ounce package frozen corn
2-14.5 ounce cans diced tomatoes (use tomatoes with
chili if you like it spicy)
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili seasoning
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Combine onion, black beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce, corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, cumin and chili seasoning in crockpot. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours. 1/2 before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return to crock pot and stir in.
Serve over tortilla chips for chicken chili nachos or over brown rice. May top with shredded cheese and light sour cream.
*10 servings at 203 calories, before adding tortilla chips or rice, cheese or sour cream.

Wordless Wednesday

Spring trees

It's been such an unusual Spring here in West Michigan. We had a very warm March, causing many things to start growing early; then April was very cold. We had many freezes which has really caused trouble for the fruit farmers.
May has been very wet, and for the most part, it's been cool.
All this unusual weather has mixed up the plants and trees. I've been noticing what a variety of growth I see on leaves. Some trees are are full of leaves, while others are barely opening.
We see this in our front yard. We have 7 oak trees, which usually are fairly similar in growth. Here's a few pictures of the variety in our yard.

#1: just starting to open

#2: much more open than the first tree




#3: Fully open

Unusual, isn't it? Such a variety within one yard!

Alaina at 6 months

Our little Alaina is 6 months old! She is now sitting up on her own and has 2 teeth.
She's also going through a phase of being scared of people. Bob's Mom just came back from Florida after spending much of the winter there, so we stopped with Alaina to see her, but Alaina wasn't happy about this plan at all. She cried almost the whole time we were there, so I couldn't get a picture of her with great-grandma.
After we got back to our house, she was her usual happy self.



Here she and Oliver are, checking out her basket of toys.

Hanging out with Aunt Heather


Then it was feeding time. Laura had sent us a video showing us Alaina's new talent. She's learned to blow raspberries, while eating. As you can imagine, this makes quite a mess.
We told Bob he had to feed her, as he's been the one trying to teach this to her (Although not while she's eating!)

She did pretty good here - no raspberries!

Not bad - minimal mess!

Cooking Thursday

We have occasional potlucks at work, and it's usually a good place to get a new recipe! A few weeks ago one of my friends brought this dip to our potluck. I was hesitant to try it, because I really don't care for mustard. However, everyone was raving about it, so I gave it a try and it was really good. I then made it for my small group gathering at my house, where it was again given great reviews. The girl I got the recipe from said she serves it with pretzels or cracker chips.
For more recipes, visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Pretzel Dip

2 cups real mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup mustard
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper

Stir together and refrigerate overnight before serving.

Wordless Wednesday

(Snowball bush)