Sweet Rachael

I haven't mentioned my dear sister in law on my blog yet and it is time that I do.  She is in need of a heart and liver transplant.  Has waited for years. And, officially became part of the family on August 20th(yup, a newlywed!!).

She's getting weaker and the road looks tough.  I sent her a text tonight and asked her how she was.  Her response, "I'm hanging on by a thread..."

She is on an emotional roller coaster not knowing what the future holds for her.  As a family member, I honestly don't know what to do but PRAY.  And, I do PRAY dear friends.  Will you join me and pass this on to as many people as you can???? 

Here's her caring bridge site that gives a little more info: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/Rach

In searching for a scripture, this one stuck with me:  2 Corinthians 12: 9 

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect  in weakness.

Project Gillen: High Tea

Candy signed up to send encouragement to Leah and Anna this month.  She decided to send them to the Biltmore Inn for high tea on Saturday the 18th.  They had never been before, so they were pretty excited.  Here's a few pictures:

Thanks again Candy for participating in Project Gillen

Vote for Leah Gillen

Go to this site please----------> Top 25 moms with inspiring families
And vote for Leah Gillen, Out of Deep Waters.  Right now, she's number 18, but we want to keep in the top 25!  Please continue voting, Thanks :)

You can vote every 24 hours for the next 18 days

My Life

So, I've been trying to put into words what has been going on in my life.  But when I think about it, I have so many emotions from moment to moment I don't have any idea where to start.

Life is crazy right now!  Getting our house on the market earlier this week meant cleaning, packing and organizing.  Thankfully, my hubby was awesome over the weekend and we worked hard to get the house where we wanted it to be for showings. However, the garage is another issue!

I know God is moving us where he wants us. Jeremiah 29:11 always comes to mind:  "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

That verse doesn't change the emotions I'm feeling at the moment.  We've lived in this community for 7 years and I'm going to miss it tremendously.  I'm going to miss my favorite fall activity of walking to the high school with my family and watching football.  Yes, we'll be able to keep a part of this tradition in a way, but it won't be the same.  I'll miss my friend who lives down the street with 7 kids who supports me when I need help and I jump in when she needs help.  I'll miss much more than I can list right now...

I'm not a fan of getting re-established in a community.  When we moved here it was difficult, almost culture shock.  We are moving back near family, almost where we lived before, and I'm expecting some form of culture shock too(going from small town to metropolitan area).  Also, we'll be downsizing from a house to an apartment, which I realize is supposed to be short term, but it will still be an adjustment.

So, I go from being excited about where we are moving to and sadness about leaving the community we currently live in. I know there will be blessings I can't even imagine, but before then I need to work through the current emotions I have.

We already have many more boxes than this picture..

Some reflections on my 7 years here:
1.  We were newlyweds when we moved, but the month we move will be our 8 year wedding anniversary. When are you no longer considered a newlywed????
2. I was able to get a social service job here, and in the Portland area nothing opened up for me. 
3.Although I had a child while here(and still don't have my pre-baby body), I weigh what I did when we moved and I'm definitely in better shape. My hubby says to remember this when I get discouraged, he's GREAT like that :)
4. I became a stay at home mom, which has fueled my passion for fitness.
5.  My hubby got his doctorate after all his hard work...all of us made sacrifices to make that happen.

New goals:
1. Find more people to sign up for Project Gillen, Please pass on the info if you know someone who may be interested in participating, or email me ideas...
2. Become as fit as possible, maybe train for something???
3. Someday become a fitness trainer.  Not sure how this goal will come to fruition, but all I know is I'm gonna kick Emily's butt when we start our workouts ;)

These new fitness goals may be years in the future, but they are something that I know I'll be able to focus on someday.

Oh, and somehow I'm a much better housekeeper with the house on the market, maybe this will become habit :)
 

Easy creativity

Well, this weekend was crazy getting the house ready for the realtor to take pictures.  Last night I needed to focus on something for stress relief after my daughter went to bed for the night.  I decided to finally finish a coffee filter wreath I had started and also wanted to make a heart out of some cardboard I had saved.  Here's the final product:

Both of these were super easy to make but a little time consuming.

For the coffee filter wreath: you need some form of plain wreath(got mine at the dollar store), coffee filters and a glue gun.  Fold the coffee filters how you like and glue away.  It took me a little bit to plan out how I was going to do this, but once I got into the groove it didn't take long to finish.

For the heart you need: cut pieces of tissue paper, glue, a pencil and a heart shape(either poster board or cardboard).  Glue the area, wrap the paper around the end of a pencil and place on the cardboard how you want it.  Then, I used a hole punch to add some ribbon to hang it on the wall.

Please continue to pray for Julie Longstreet.  She is now home, but is weak and has some mental confusion.  She goes back to the hospital for chemo on Friday. 

Trying something new...

Instead of reviewing books, I've decided to become a BzzAgent. Basically, I get to try products(which are free) and tell you my opinion.

I signed up for the Oroweat Healthful Breads campaign because we always need bread in our house.  I'm allergic to wheat, but I do eat bread every now and then.  Thanks to BzzAgent, I received this awesome coupon in the mail which covered the cost of the bread.

Since I am allergic to wheat, when I do choose to eat it I'm pretty picky about what I splurge on.  I decided to make this oven baked french toast for breakfast.  It tasted so wonderful(although my body didn't think so while I was sitting in church this morning!)!!

The bread may be low calorie(80 calories per slice), but this recipe is not:

6 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 tsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 slices of bread

1/3 cup butter

Preheat oven to 375, beat eggs with fork, stir in milk, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Dip bread in mixture and put in prepared baking dish, pour any left over mixture onto bread.

Cut butter in tiny pieces and scatter over bread.

Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown.  

Dust with powdered sugar and add your favorite syrup

Although this recipe was a hit in our house, we won't be having it very often.  This bread is yummy and we mostly use it for peanut butter and jam toast for breakfast.  I would highly recommend this bread for sandwiches!