Please Pray For My Dad

A few months ago my dad, Kent Wallin, went to set up his doctor at the VA hospital. It's customary for them to run tests. Upon running tests they found that he has a mass in his lung the size of a soft ball, signs of a stroke on his brain, and high blood pressure. They now know that he's diabetic, also.

They've been trying to get his blood pressure down, but nothing seems to be working for very long. He's been hospitalized several times because they don't know what is causing the high blood pressure and it won't stay down. My dad has always been pretty healthy. He doesn't usually have high blood pressure.

The last I heard they are going to do a biopsy on the mass in his lung to see if it's cancerous. Because it's not growing they don't believe it is.

The stroke that he had has affected him greatly. He's not able to do a lot of simple tasks, or it takes him longer than normal to do them. He'll be driving and forget how to get where he's going. He's lived in Houston for most of his life. He'll forget how to do things that he's been doing for years. He's having migrains and pain on left side of his head. He looses strength in his left side and drops things and he's not able to hold things or grasp them tight They are going to continue to run tests for further damage from the stroke..

Because of all this he is not able to work. The doctor has asked that he not drive until his next appointment on the 14th.

My dad has always been a hard worker. He's always sacrificed to provide for his family. He's the one that has always been there when everyone else has left my siblings and I. He's only 56 years old! I'm very thankful that we were able to see him for so long and he was able to meet our children. This has been very hard for him. Understandably, he's depressed. The doctor has prescribed antideppresents. He doesn't want to talk about what's going on, because he doesn't want his family to worry. Please pray for him. And, for his family. It's rough seeing my dad like this. Thank you very much.

Cameras!

A little before Simeon was born Jarrod's wonderful sister (one of the three wonderful sisters he has) gave us a digital camera.  She wanted a new one and was so wonderful and gracious to give us her old one.  Up until then we had been using a Polaroid and disposable cameras.  Well about a year ago (I probably have that wrong) it broke.  So Jarrod went online (Ebay, I think) and bought another one exactly the same.  A month ago I lost it somewhere in our house.  So my wonderful husband bought me a new camera off of craigslist.  It was a Kodak Easy Share.  Two weeks after enjoying it's wonderfulness it broke.  Yep, two weeks!  So, my wonderful husband bought me a new camera for Christmas.  This one was from the store!  I don't like it.  The pictures are delayed.  You can't do that when you have kids.  Your camera needs to be quick.  Real quick.  Because, those kids won't smile forever.  Then I found our other camera.  I was so happy!  But, then I broke it.  It won't turn on.  I have our Christmas pictures on that thing!  And guess what?  I lost the second one Jarrod got me for Christmas.  I am not a happy camper right now! 

Humility?

I think God is trying to teach me humility.

Last night Jarrod invited some friends over to our house. I wasn't at home and did not know that he was planning on doing this. So our house was what I would consider a mess.

Today we had errands to run. Which means several different stores to go to. Starting with Wal-mart. There we are shopping and Crimson keeps kicking her shoes off. I finally get tired of continually putting them back on so I put them in the basket, right beside her. When we are paying for all of our stuff I notice that her shoes are no longer in the basket. I rushed through the store, going down every aisle we had been down to no avail. Her shoes are gone. We were not going to go home to get her some more, nor were we going to buy her some more. (I try not to pay more than $10 for a pair of shoes.) So she had to go about the rest of her day without shoes.

Then we were at Safeway. I went outside to get a coupon out of the car. When I came back in the store I see Jarrod taking a big, opened, and partly eaten candy bar away from Crimson. The cashier had seen her do it. Of course Simeon shared in the spoils.

Yep, it must be that I need to learn humility.

What's been going on

Well, it's cold here. I'm in a baking and creative mood and we just got supplies for baking last night. I already made some shortbread bites (small shortbread cookies you can just pop in your mouth). Good!

Jarrod sold the Marshmallow. We made a $1,600 profit! Thank You, Jesus!

I'm considering taking Eliana off the pacifier. She only uses it at night and I have to get up to put it back in her mouth. I'm not cool with that, but at least she's not wanting to eat.

A little boy slapped Crimson in the face tonight. A friend's daughter told me and I told the little boy that he is not to slap my baby in the face. I told him to tell her sorry. He said no. I told him to get out then and go tell his parents what he did. He said no. So, I got out (of the McDonalds play thingy) and went to tell the mother and she started yelling at me that I shouldn't talk to her son like that. Now, to be honest, I was quite stern with this little boy. But, I did not talk to him any different than I would have my child if they had done this. She went on to say that she would never talk to my kids like this and how would I like it if someone talked to my child like that. I told her that I wouldn't have a problem if someone talked to my child like that if they slapped someone else's child in the face. She called me a curse word and I told her that's great. Cuss in front of your kids. That's being a lady. And I left it at that. I wouldn't let Simeon and Crimson play with that little boy anymore. If he's not taught how to properly treat people then I don't want him around my kids. The lady heard me tell Simeon and Crimson this and was like, "Oh my goodness". Hey, woman, teach your child! But, I didn't say it. I just thought it.

A Mood

I'm in a creative mood. I think it might be the changing seasons. I want to make topiaries, flower pins, and hats. Being creative costs money though. I spent it all at the Gilroy Outlets. It's hard for me to resist a sale.

Tuesday's Date Night

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but every Tuesday evening we drop the chitlins off at Jarrod's parents' house and head out for some much needed alone time. Some people call this date night. We do too. Well this Tuesday we couldn't decide where to go. So Jarrod just started driving. We ended up in San Ramon. This is not too far from where we live. We were driving along when we saw a cute little italian restaurant. We pulled up and read the menu outside. It looked expensive, but it's date night. Sometimes you need to splurge. We go inside and they looked a little surprised to see us. They had more than one fork on the table. It was a really nice place. I regretted my decision to wear flip flops for this date.

We ordered our food. Jarrod ordered what he was thinking would be mozzarella sticks for an appetizer. But, it turned out to be prosciutto covered with a small salad with pieces of real mozzarella in it. That's not our usual salad, but it was pretty good. For our dinner Jarrod ordered Lasagnette Alla Napoletana, Individual baked lasagna filled with tomato-basil sauce, pesto and fresh mozzarella. I orderedGnocci Alla Piemontese, Home made potato gnocci with fontina cheese and truffle sauce.


When they brought our food out I looked at mine and thought, "We are paying $15 for this?"
Then I tasted it.

It was wonderful. It was awesome. It was like the tastebuds in my mouth were saying, "This is what we've been waiting for. This is the elixir of life!" It was that good. I made Jarrod taste it. I forced myself not to put some in my purse so that my sister-in-law, Rebecca, could taste it. I wanted to mail some in an envelope to my sister-in-law, Jessica. It was that good! I raved about it to Jarrod. So much so that when we got home he looked up how to make it. When he looked up the truffle sauce he decided he wanted to grow the truffles. Truffles are a type of mushroom. And the cheapest ones sell for $300 a lb. That explains why this Gnocchi was so expensive. It was like heaven in my mouth, people. It was that good.

Sleep. There's nothing like it.

Sleep is a wonderful thing. I didn't know how much I truely enjoyed being able to sleep until I had Crimson. After I had Simeon I did what every mother is told to to do survive. I slept when he slept. Sure, I slept at weird times, but I slept. With Crimson I was introduced to the wonders of coffee. I always thought it was too bitter, but with enough cream and sugar it become my elixir to survive the first few months. I'm going through this again. Sleeping when Eliana sleeps is not an option. Well, I guess it is. I can take a nap when she does because that's when Crimson takes one and sometimes Simeon. But, I look at this time as an opportunity to get things done uninterrupted.
I'm sitting here today exhausted, wanting a nap, but more importantly wanting ideas on how to get Eliana to sleep through the night. See, my thing is that I want to get up with Jarrod when he leaves for work. I want to make him breakfast, iron his shirt, hand him his lunch, and send him off with wishes for a good day. But, I also want to be able to spend some quiet time with him after the kids go to bed. This means that I stay up too late. Add to that the fact that Eliana will wake up anywhere from one time to four times during the night wanting to eat. Then I get up, or just woken up, when it's time for Jarrod to get up. It might take me just a couple of minutes to go back to sleep after he leaves, or 30 minutes. Then Eliana wakes up about an hour or two before Simeon and Crimson and wants to start her day. I try to doze while she plays on the bed next to me, but let's face it. That's wishful thinking.
I have Eliana on a schedule where she will get rice cereal, or oatmeal, for breakfast and some kind of vegetable for dinner. This is along with her nursing whenever she's hungry. I don't know if I should add lunch in with that or what.
So, I'm looking for answers on how to get a better night's sleep when I should be taking a nap. And if none of this makes sense then it's because I'm tired and should be taking a nap.
Yesterday I was tired. Friday night we went all the way to Stockton (an hour's drive for those that don't know) to have dinner with friends. Then we drive all the way back home. Meanwhile we have a birthday party to plan for Crimson, shopping that needs to be done, butterfly wings that need to be made, cakes that need to be made. But, we are, instead, piddling around and eating with "friends". That stressed me out. So, we get home (it was almost midnight, I'm sure) and I get started on the wings and the cakes. I finally decided to go to bed and start again in the morning. But, I'm so tired that instead of getting up at 6 I get up at almost 8. Around 10 we have to hurry and go because there are a few last minute things to get at the store and I ran out of supplies for the butterfly wings. Did I mention that the party started at 2? We get to my in-law's house around 11:30. I had butterfly wings to finish, a cake to put frosting on, a house to clean up, good bags to fill, and food to start cooking. Two and a half hours were barely enough time to do all this. We stay there until around 9 that night. My sister-in-law was having a karaoke party. I tried to stay, but I was tired and still had to get ready for church the next morning. We get home and I don't even give the kids a bath. They were tired too. I got up at 6 to get everyone ready for church. We got out of church a little later than usual (but it was a totally awesome service!) and lunch took longer than usual. So by the time we got back home we had roughly an hour for a nap. It's better than nothing. We had a meeting at the pastor's house. We ended up staying longer than we expected. We got home around 10:30, but I didn't go to bed until almost 12. I woke up with Jarrod, but couldn't drag myself out of bed. When we did start our day I had to fight with Crimson to make her bed. All she had to do was pull the sheet and blanket up and put her pillow on her bed. I wish my bed was that easy to make. So I said all that to say that I was really tired yesterday and sleep deprived. I was depressed. I went through this after having Crimson, but it was worse with her. I had a thought that sleep deprivation could be linked to depression and post partum depression. I looked it up, but didn't have much time to read about it. When I get depressed like that I like to clean. So, I rearranged the living room yesterday. It's something I've been wanting to do so I did it. And now I want to throw all of the kids' toys away and just give them sticks to play with. Because, their toys are all over the living room again. But, they would hurt each other with sticks.
Wow, this is a long, babbling post. Can you tell I'm tired? I'm going to go take a nap now. Hopefully I still have time.

Sleeping babies

One of the greatest feelings in the world is when a baby falls asleep on you. On of the most annoying is when that baby thinks she can't sleep anywhere else. I'm happy to report that Eliana has decided she can sleep in her own bed. We moved her bed into Crimson and Simeon's room. She's learning to put herself to sleep by crying it out. She hasn't had to cry for very long, thankfully. She sleeps so much better in their room. Well, I guess it's her room too now. When Crimson was a baby I had read something about babies sleeping better when they know their parents aren't in the room with them. I thought it was a little crazy, but I was willing to give it a chance. It worked! So I was willing to give the crazy idea another chance with Eliana. She's still waking up to eat, but not as often as before. Plus, I don't have to worry about her getting woken up when Jarrod's getting ready for work. I'm quite thankful for that.

A couple of things

1. I hate Halloween.

I hate having to explain to my four year old son that the "man" in that yard will not hurt him. That he's just some stuffing in clothes and a pumpkin. I'm thankful that Jesus kept him from having nightmares about it. I've thought about getting away during Halloween, but where could we go to get away from it all? I thought of going camping. But, you have those weird people that like to sacrifice animals in the woods and stuff. I hate Halloween.


2. I'm so glad to be home.

Vacation is good for a person. It's nice to relax and get away from all the stresses and worries of life. It helps to get a new perspective on things. Like living in a 16 foot rv helps you appreciate your small townhome/apartment. Sometimes I miss the small space though. It's so much easier to clean.

Another reason why we will homeschool

My niece came home from school today and was telling me about a book that her class is reading. She showed me the cover of the book and was saying that the boy in the story had to fight this (a picture of a man with a bull's head). Then he had to fight this (a picture of a rottweiler with three heads). Then he had to fight this lady (a woman with snakes for hair) and he cut off her head. It was at this point that I asked her what grade she was in. She replied that she was in gourth grade. Fourth grade and she's a reading a book like this. The book is The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan.


After looking up the book online I've learned that it's a fictional story based around greek mythology. Some people believe it's important to learn about greek mythology. To be honest I don't see the importance in it. I, honestly, believe it's more important for our children to learn Bible stories. There are more useful lessons to be found in the Bible than in greek mythology. And that's my two cents.

Playing around

I took a picture of Eliana on Sunday. I really liked how one picture turned out so I played around with it at picnik.com. What do you think?

Original

1.

2.

3.

Granola Bars

I've discovered homemade granola bars. They are the easiest thing in the world to make and they taste so good. My first ones were made with peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, oatmeal, and dried cranberries. That's when I fell in love. They were so good. I put some globs of peanut butter in a pot and began to melt it. As it melted I added some honey and brown sugar. When all of that was pretty much in liquid form I added the oatmeal. I stirred until it was all mixed together. I still had the fire on. It wasn't sticking together too well so I added some more honey and brown sugar until it was sticking together. I turned the fire off and added the dried cranberries. Then, I spread it all out on a cookie sheet and let it cool.
I've made several different kinds since my first batch. Some things I've learned since then: Use peanut butter or some oil or your bars will stick to the cookie sheet, wax paper or whatever you use. They will also turn into bricks. Put wax paper on top and press down to make them nice and uniform as possible. Use a potholder, because it is very hot. Do not add more peanut butter if it's not sticking together. Your bars will turn out to be more like peanut butter bars instead of granola bars.

In the midst of the storm

In the midst of the trial I'm glad I can say I have a God that knows my every need. I have a God that cares for me. Even the little things. I have a God that wants what's best for me. Even if what's best is to allow me to go through a storm. That storm is there to change me. It's there to strengthen my faith. That storm is what's going to get me to that next step. There's a purpose for that storm. And, He's there through it all. He gives me peace in the midst of the storm. He gives me strength in the midst of the storm. I'm thankful for my God. I'm thankful for His grace and mercy. It really does surpass all understanding. Because of Him I'm able to stand. I have strength through Him. I have joy in the midst of the storm. Thank you Jesus!

He is moving and great things are going to happen.

God is moving in a mighty way. He's reaching out and changing people. He's preparing us for the work that's coming. For the revival that's coming. I can feel it. It's like we are right on the edge and He's about to push us off into revival. I didn't realize that this isn't just going on in our little ol' church here in Livermore, but all over the world. The Lord is preparing us. The devil is attacking us too. But, our eyes are open to his tricks. We are aware of what he's doing. We don't need to fight back, but to stand. He's attacking marriages, finances, families... He's attacking with sicknesses, depression... I think he knows we are on the brink of a great revival and he's scared. His time is almost up.

Jarrod and I are planning a trip to Houston the middle of next month. We will be driving to Farmington, NM first and preaching that Sunday, September 20. We are so excited that God wants to use us. The next Sunday we will be preaching for Bro.Spencer in Houston. The following Sunday we will be back in Farmington. God has a plan. He's preparing us for revival and He's going to use us for this revival. This is awesome and we are so excited!


For thou oh Lord are a shield for me.
My glory, You lift my head!


Power In The Name

Power in the name of Jesus
Salvation in the name of Jesus
Freedom in the name of Jesus
Everything I need
Protection in the name of Jesus
Deliverance in the name of Jesus
Healing in the name of Jesus
Everything I need is in that name

I wish I would known
About the cross, Your blood
Your tears, Your love
You did this for me
I went for so long
Wishing I would have been told
About how You love me so
I'll stand and testify
About the One who saved my life
Nobody greater and that's no lie
This s what I know and I believe it!

Words and Music by James Avery Simms

Here's my proof.

Every parent thinks their kids are some of the cutest in the world. I'm no exception. Here's some proof.

Here is a video of Simeon and Crimson singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqU3-8F_UdY

Simeon loves Eliana. And, she loves him. I have to really watch him, because while I'm trying to let her "cry it out" he will go and pick her up and bring her to me. He will, also, decide that she would like to play with them or watch a movie with them. So, he will push her around in her bouncy seat. He loves to talk to her too. She loves the attention. Sometimes when I'm busy I will tell him to go talk to her. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiMZOYudHM0

A conversation with Simeon

Simeon: Mommy I want to take a shower with you.

Me: You can't.

Simeon: Why not?

Me: Because you're a boy.

Simeon: But, I don't want to be a boy. I want to be a girl.

Something with leftover potatoes

So, I was lying in bed the other morning. Awake because Eliana woke up to eat. For some reason I had trouble going back to sleep. So, I started thinking about things. Then, I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about things. It becomes a deadly cycle that keeps me awake. Anyway one of my thoughts were about a ziploc bag of potatoes in the refridgerator and what they would be like if I mixed them with eggs. So, I woke Jarrod up and told him if he got up and got dressed I would make him breakfast. He's always game for breakfast.

So, I went downstairs and got the potatoes. I had made potato salad, but cooked too many potatoes. I put them in the 'fridge with hopes of making something with them. I don't always remember that I put things in there. I mashed the potatoes and added some eggs I whisked. It was probably about 2.5 cups of potatoes and 5 eggs. I took some chicken out that I had been saving for sandwiches. I cut about 1/2 cup up and put it in the potato/egg mixture. Oh, I had added some seasoned salt to the potatoes before adding anything else. So, I mixed all this together, melted some butter in a pan, and spooned some of the mixture in. I cooked it like pancakes and added a slice of cheese when I took them out of the pan. Mmmmm good. Although Jarrod said they needed salt or something. I disagree.

I took pictures, but they have gone missing from the computer. Like everything else that goes missing I shall blame the kids.

Chicken 2

So, this is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.

I was putting the Cream of Chicken in it and decided let's go for it and add the sour cream. Then, I decided let's go for it and do cheese and biscuits. You can never have too much cheese. Well, maybe you can.

Here's where I had added the biscuits. What? Those don't look like biscuits? I was informed that what I make is called "drop biscuits". I don't roll them out and cut them out. I drop them on the pan. Makes sense to me. Hey! When you have three kids and one of them is screaming becuase you actually left her sitting there and aren't holding her would you make the traditional biscuits? Not me!

And the end result was.... Yummy yummy for my tummy! The biscuits kind of soaked down into the other stff. I was good and I hope to make it again.

Chicken

I think I cook chicken too much. There are a lot of recipes for chicken, but if you think about it there's only so many ways to cook it. When you are thinking about your health you don't want to fry it too often. Sure you can boil it and do some kind of soup with it, but that gets old. And, boiled chicken is bland. Very bland. I think I'm just bored with chicken. I want to try something else. We have hamburger meat, but there's even fewer recipes for that. I want to cook some lamb or veal. I want to be more adventurous with my cooking. If Jarrod were reading this he would probably tell me that I'm already too adventurous with my cooking. Maybe it's just one of those days.

Right now I have dinner cooking in the oven. I've taken a casserole dish (rectangular pan with sides) and let the butter melt in it, in the oven, while the oven warmed up. I cut up some chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, and corn and mixed those in with the melted butter. I sprinkled some seasoned salt on top and it's now cooking for 20 minutes. I'm debating whether or not to add the can of cream of chicken soup with the sour cream or without. Should I add cheese on top of that or let biscuits bake on top? Do I really need to make more biscuits? Do we have enough cheese? I'll let you know what I decide. I might even take a picture.

That reminds me. I took a picture of what I made the other night. It turned out really good. My intetion was to post a recipe with the picture, but I've already forgotten how I made it. See this is what happens. This is why I cannot make the same things twice unless I get it from some other recipe. I make it up as I go along and plumb forget how I did it. I made this really good chicken and biscuits recipe (trying to copy the chicken and biscuits from Cheesecake Factory) and plumb forgot how I made it. I kick myself every time I think about it. Anyway, here's what I made the other night.

Bye bye clutter!

We are reorganizing boxes of stuff. It's funny how we can go through the same stuff we went through months ago and throw away what we thought we should keep. Slowly, but surely, the clutter is going away.

Unpack?

Unpacking from camping is a long process. I can't just put everything away. Why? Because I got an idea and so I have to reorganize everything. If you were at my house right now you would see the mess. Sigh, I must go get this done.

Potatoes

I waited too long to plant my potatoes. Way too long. They grew, how shall we say, moldy, green and fuzzy, gross. I think it might be too late to try again. But, I got some red potatoes from teh market tonight. I'm going to try to grow some from them. I love red potatoes. They are so good roasted or boiled and then just covered in butter. Nummy nummy for my tummy. I did the strawberry kit. Nothing so far, but it might be too early. We shall see, I hope.

I forgot and an update

Wow! I completely forgot that I had made this blog.

Well, I guess I'll let you know what's been going on with me lately. lol My thoughts. I want a garden. Not a flower garden. I have enough flowers. I want to grow some vegetables. I don't think we get enough direct sunlight, but it's worth a shot. Last week Jarrod and I bought some potato seeds and a strawberry kit. I saw some tomato plants on sale at Safeway. I'm going to see if Jarrod will buy me one or two.

I've been so tired lately. I'm surprised I have any motivation to clean, because I really just want to sleep. But, a dirty house stresses me out. There's the motivation right there. It's frustrating, though, because I have to stop what I'm doing every hour or so to feed Eliana. So, a lot of things only get half done. Like the laundrey. I've got one load in the washer and one in the dryer. But, unless I miraculously grow some extra arms it's going to be sitting there until I get more than five minutes of free time.

And so those are my thoughts for the day.