Keep it Up!

Adam says I need to give an update, so I'm here to say the Illini are now ranked either 19th or 20th depending on the pole. WAY TO GO BOYS!! Now....on to the IL vs MN game on Thursday....FOCUS! I know they can do it! Are you with me? ILL...

We're Ranked!

Scroll down and see....#24! Woo HOO! And tonight at 6pm, the Fighting Illini battle Ohio State! ILL...

Playing vs Building

Several months ago we separated all the Thomas the Tank Engine toys, keeping only a small wooden track and some engines, and sold them to a friend from church and donated a bunch to church. The track we kept is tucked away somewhere to dig out years from now when Kabe is all grown. I'm not a total pack-rat, just a memory-keeper in the sense that I want pieces of things (not everything) for the future.

I sent Kabe to his room to clean up but he showed back up in the living room with this piece of Thomas. In his defense, he wasn't playing - he was trying to take it apart.


This has come to make a little more sense to me in the last couple days ... okay I probably should have caught on sooner, I'm a slow processor. With the furniture Kabe has in his room, there isn't much room for playing so typically he brings his stuff to the living room to play. I am continually talking to him about 'playing' with his lego's or stop 'playing' and pick-up, etc. He is sure to correct me usually saying something like, 'Don't you mean building?' This 'building' is pretty serious business.

MLK Day

I love Holidays where I get the day off from work and Kabe has the day off from school. Today has been a lazy day. Once we were up & around Kyler & Brandon came over & played MarioKart with Kabe. I'm tellin' ya, people of all ages love this game!



Now, the three of them are outside again, buildin' snow forts, havin' snowball fights and pullin' each other around on the sled pretending they're on a hill. Oh to be an 8-year-old again.

We've been home a lot lately because of the extremely cold weather, because I haven't felt well, because it's icy or snowy, because we haven't had plans or various other reasons. Being home is usually okay, but when we're stuck at home and it's too cold to be outside....uh, not so fun.
Luckily, today (Saturday) was nice enough to be outside more than 20 minutes at a time. At one point I caught them in the midst of a snowball fight.



Not always the willing participant, he was done with pictures.

Finally!

Way back in the beginning of December Adam & I bought our Christmas present to each other, but of course, it wasn't in stock so we waited thinking it would surely be here before Christmas. And we waited. And waited. And finally on January 11th (yes, a Sunday), it arrived.

We've finally joined techie world of LCD screen's, surround sound, and blu ray discs....and after less than a week, we can already say we love it! We're still figuring out how to do stuff with it and which remote to use, but we're enjoying the process. This screen shot is of MarioKart wii. New toys are fun!

Snow Fun!

Snow is great to play in, but it's -10 outside and there aren't many hills around us.


So Kabe and one of the neighbor boys have decided to make their own sledding fun and pull each other around. First Kabe pulling Kyler (above), then Kyler pulling Kabe (below).


Guess it's better than no snow at all.

Hmmmm, Chocolate!

Adam & I enjoy hanging out in the kitchen. We interact well together there and we're an especially good team. He usually takes the lead and I'm the sous chef.
But when it comes to me figuring things out on my own, I lack the confidence to take the lead and step out of my box much. I tend to stick to basic things and prefer baking over cooking...although even with baking, I tend to take the easy road.

As with most hobbies/interest of mine these days, I tend to look online for sources and like to follow blogs that give step-by-step instructions and easy how-to's that will also take me just a little out of my comfort zone.

It's no surprise then, that I like the blog Bakerella. I've been following it for a while now and have seen some great recipes I thought I might like and also some pretty good instructions. When I saw the recipe listed below, I knew I needed to try it. It's SUPER SIMPLE....and although totally within my realm of comfort, but necessary for my palate right now. Oh. My. Heck. It uses this recipe from Betty Crocker using these two mixes....how easy is that?



Once they're mixed you put the brownie mix in the pan and then drop the cookie mix in to make it look like this. Uh Yum.



Then...Bake as directed. Go to the Betty Crocker site & print the recipe.

Once completed you can either just cut & eat or use this frosting recipe like I did from Bakerella.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
6 Tbsp butter

• In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.
• Pour over the chocolate morsels.
• Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.
• Pour over brownies and let set before cutting.

So simple, but these taste so much better than baking the two items separately. I can't keep my hands off them!

Enjoy!

The Carrot Pitcher

Way back in the beginning of December we had a progressive dinner with our small group that ended with a white elephant gift exchange. Remember how I mentioned that Jay "forgot" this lovely carrot pitcher at our house? Lucky for him we remembered to take it to him tonight! He almost forgot it at Lynne's house, but she caught him! ;)

Bedtime Stories

We took Kabe and a friend to see Bedtime Stories on Saturday. I never know what to expect of Adam Sandler, but this was a cute film. It had a little bit of romance in it, which was great for me....although it wasn't too sappy so it was okay for Adam too and provided a plot which was good. And the boys loved it because it provided just enough 8-year-old boy humor to keep them laughing, but not so much to be annoying. It was a great family outing!
Do you have any good movies to recommend?

Commitments

On New Year's Eve Kabe and I were in the car driving down the road when he asked what we were doing the next day. We then proceeded to have the following conversation that went something like this:

me: why?
Kabe: Tomorrow (the 1st) will be a very busy day!
me: why?
Kabe: because of the commitments.
me: commitments?
Kabe: yeah - people make commitments at the end of the year like exercising more, being nicer, talking about Jesus more or being a better friend and it all starts tomorrow so everyone is going to be very busy with those commitments!
me: so, do you think we should make some commitments?
Kabe: yeah, we should probably work on making people love Jesus.

Okay...so our conversation didn't end there. We talked a bit about what we could do to make people love Jesus and whether we could actually make people love Jesus or whether we should just show people about Jesus through our words and actions. In the end we decided that showing people Jesus would be one of the commitments we would work on, Kabe & me.

What about you? Did you make any commitments you can share? I'd love to hear about them!

I proceeded to ask him why. He then told me he thought Thursday (the 1st) would be a very busy day. I was curious about this and asked

Did you make Resolutions / Goals / Commitments this year?

Something New

I like photography. I like to capture moments, I like to document events and create a timeline. I like all kinds of photography and lots of different aspects of my hobby. I enjoy learning all about it and trying to better my skills (okay, that's probably WAY too big a word for what I possess...), but the point is, I enjoy learning about it.
In an effort to do that, this year I've decided to document my life in Project 365. Some days will be weird and a stretch I'm sure...or as you'll see when you (if) you look, a little boring, but hopefully if you stick it out, you'll see what I hope to see....some growth and somewhat of a life story enfold!

My efforts will be documented at Just Jen. See you there....and definitely, let me know what you think...I can definitely use some help/tips!

Home!

We made it home safe and sound from Iowa and of course, Kabe still had one more gift to open from us. Santa Claus had made his visit to Iowa, but this gift was just to big to haul back and forth and would be too tempting to open while we were there and of course, with 1300+ pieces we didn't need to leave any behind.
Being all about Star Wars these days, this was a huge hit! Since I'm posting retro, I'll be posting the finished product pics soon. (he's almost insistent!...sorry - bear with me).


Also found at home, a HUGE broken tree limb in the back yard on the Bradford Pear. This just barely missed the house and unfortunately, will probably need to come down now or be trimmed immensely. These trees aren't known for their sturdyness and once they begin to break....they're done for. Goodbye master bedroom shade.