a girl and her dog

what's with that half-time show?

fergie singing guns & roses. really?

i don't know about you, but i didn't get it.

what i did get was Glee after the super bowl. fun. entertaining. and that "see your chevrolet in the USA" commercial? loved it.

so, what was your favorite commercial?

recipe: yummy pulled pork

2-3 lbs Boston pork roast
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp seasoning salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp red pepper
1 can beef broth

heat oil in dutch oven. add onion until soft. mix garlic, seasoning salt, black pepper and red pepper. rub into roast. quickly brown pork roast in olive oil and onion. add beef broth and enough water to fill dutch oven half way. bring to a full boil. reduce heat, cover and simmer 3-4 hours. remove roast from dutch oven, shred pork and remove fat.

use broth as an au jus for sandwiches. or use it to make gravy for mashed potatoes. if you prefer bbq pork, add your favorite bbq sauce to warm shredded pork.

it's yummy. you'll like it. trust me.

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snow day craft

snow days make me want to eat and craft.

craft? OK. eat? not OK.

so Grace and I worked on a Valentine craft.

first i cut out a bunch of red hearts in all different sizes. some with pinking shears, some with straight edges.

then we painted them.

while we waited for them to dry, we took a snow break.

finally we taped straws on the back and cut them to different lengths to create a valentine bouquet.

what do you think?

trying to blog again

so i'll start with something very important.

have you tried the chocolate chip cookies at McDonalds?

they're the bomb.

i mean really. they're good.

but they do have 160 calories each.

so sorry I mentioned them.

Blogging by Necessity

Did I spell that right? I'm home recovering from a kidney transplant. I was called last Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Arrived at the hospital at 10. Went into surgery at 3. And was done by 9. It went so fast I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. No more dialysis. A few more pills. And a little time to recover. I was out of the hospital by Tuesday.

I've been thinking a lot about the people who lost their loved one and made the decision to donate organs. I'm so thankful for them. And praying for healing and comfort in their time of loss. I can't even imagine. My life has changed for the better, but someone else paid the price. It's a lot to think about.

I'm looking forward to having more energy for Grace. Getting a good night's sleep for a change. Becoming an advocate for organ donation. Making a difference. It's something I need to do. Something I've been putting on hold. Why do we do that? We do we say "someday". The time is now.

If you haven't spoken to your loved ones about organ donation - now's the time. The best case scenario is that it will never come up in your lifetime. But if it does, having the conversation ahead of time makes it so much easier.

This life is so precious. I'm so blessed. Praise God for this kidney.

And now, for pictures of Grace since the last time I posted was October! Ugh!

That was then, this is now...

3 years ago today we adopted our beautiful daughter. We're still amazed at what a perfect match she is for us!

Guess who went apple picking?

And it was fun! Lots of fun. The weather was perfect - sunny, cool, awesome. We went to Eckert's with my brother and his boys. It couldn't have been a better day. Other than the fact that we somehow ended up with $30 worth of apples. Anyone need some apples?

A little late but still fun...

I made fun-in-the-sun cupcakes for our China reunion this summer. They were fun to make and turned out pretty cute. At least Grace thought so. I got the idea here. Bakerella always has great ideas. Check out her cute Halloween cupcakes. The spiders remind me a little too much of the ones we see in every corner of the dock when we're on the lake. Eeeewww!


I found food markers and even drew on bikinis, sunglasses and swimsuits. I used blue icing and graham cracker crumbs for sand. They were pretty tasty!

Driving Lessons

We believe in starting  young. For instance, you're never too young to start driving lessons. At age 3, Grace knows where to find the gas and how to buckle the seat belt. We're still working on the fact that you actually have to steer. She hasn't quite got the hang of that. Her cousin Colin did his best to pass on his mad driving skills.

Ring Pops Make Your Teeth Blue

There's a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood and one of the waiters always likes to see Grace. He thinks she looks like Dora. 

Every time we leave he gives her a special treat. Last night it was a ring pop. 

Grace calls it her binky. Then I call her my baby. Then she argues that she is not a baby. 

It's just part of the routine. Along with her blue teeth.

My Family from WiddlyTinks.com

New Character in Curious George

While reading Curious George to me the other day, Grace mistakenly referred to "the man in the yellow hat" as "the yellow man with the green hat". 

I had to stifle my giggle.

Is it really July?

So yesterday when I got home from work I put on sweatpants, a hoodie and socks. What? In July?

What happened to global warming? Should we rename it global cooling? Now I'm not complaining about the cool weather. I think it's heaven - 68° in July. Yahoo. But it's not making a whole lotta sense to me? In honor of the cool temperatures, Grace had a photo shoot. 

And while this picture appears to show a sweet cooperative girl, she was NOT sweet or cooperative. She didn't want to listen to anything I said. She refused to talk to anyone in the room. She was very bratty. I know she's only three, but how do you deal with this behavior? I could use some good advice. I would like to teach her that she needs to listen and follow directions. I can say something five times and she totally ignores me. ACK! 

On another note - she picked the boots to go with the dress. I think it works.

Reunion Recap

You know when you come home from church camp and you feel high on life from the fellowship and spirit that permeates the camp? You know that feeling? When you can't wait to get home and share that feeling with everyone around you. When you have an epiphany moment and you feel all is right with the world and you're right where you belong? Do you remember that feeling? That "you against the world, with God on your side" feeling? That feeling where you want to keep singing church songs and avoid saying goodbye to the people and the place that just contributed so much joy to one weekend or week in your life?

Yeah, that's kind of how I'm feeling. It wasn't exactly church camp. But I felt blessed. I felt the hand of God in everything we did. I felt the holy spirit bringing people from far and near to celebrate the joy of 10 little girls and their families. It was a great weekend. Full of talking, laughter, good food, great friends and fun. It was a weekend I'll never forget and one I hope happens again in our future.

In case you're reading this and you don't know what I'm talking about, we spent the weekend with 9 other families that traveled to China with us and adopted a daughter at the same time. 9 families from as far away as California came together to celebrate the joy of adoption and family. It was an awesome weekend. 

Thank you to all my friends that traveled to St. Louis for our reunion. You made it so special. I haven't scrapbooked in a long time, but this weekend is definitely going down in some kind of memory book. It's just too good not to share.