Napping Around

These two are the King and Queen of napping in our house and lately it's gotten pretty cute ... Even if you aren't a cat lover, I don't think you can resist thinking these pictures are adorable : )

 

Auntie Jen

Welcome to my nephew, Aiden Ricardo, born December 11!  Thank goodness I was ready a few minutes early and checked Facebook before we jetted off to the Dominican Republic on Friday and saw that my step-sister was in labor.  Little Aiden was born a few weeks early and is a tad jaundiced, but otherwise doing well.  Word on the street is that he's pretty dang cute and I'm driving to Lexington to see for myself and meet him this afternoon!

"Paw Paw" and his first grandbaby

Thankful

I'm behind on blogging and behind on posting for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd combine the two in an effort to let my (five) readers know what I've been up to and for what I feel the most blessed.   

Here goes ...

I'm thankful that in these tough times I have a paying job and a roof over my head ... I'm thankful that I have a wonderful, caring and supportive family and thrilled that I was able to give back to them by hosting a baby shower for my step-sister this past weekend (post to come) ... I'm thankful that I have a father who cares enough to take my car into the shop to look into my squeaky brakes and brings me home a totally fixed automobile, with new tires to boot ... I'm blessed to have celebrated 6 months of marriage on November 23 ... I'm blessed to have a strong network of friends and am lucky that I can afford to celebrate (another) destination wedding in Punta Cana in less than two weeks ... I'm thankful for my good health and that my not-so-good health a few years ago allowed me to get involved with the Team in Training program and show myself that I can be a runner - I just signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon in March!!

Mike's grandmother passed away this past week and I'm heading to Pittsburgh tomorrow for the services.  I hope to get back on a regular posting schedule soon.  I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is gearing up for the Christmas season ahead! 

Much love,
Jen

Give and Get at Gap Stores

Click here to download a coupon for 30% off at all Gap Brand stores (including Gap, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic, Banana Republic Factory Stores, and Old Navy) from Thursday, November 12 to Sunday, November 15 ... the best part is that 5% of all sales will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help find cures for patients like me! Only 46 days 'til Christmas .... Happy Shopping!!

What's For Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore

It's fall and I'm all about bringing out my slow cooker to make dinner a bit easier ... nothing is better than coming home after a long day, smelling something delicious and knowing that dinner can be on the table in a matter of minutes. For some reason I had been dying to try Chicken Cacciatore in the slow cooker and found about a gazillion recipes when I searched the internet. This recipe won out and man, was it delish! The sauce was so good that I plan to use it as a regular tomato sauce for other dishes.

n

Most traditional recipes call for mushrooms, which I don't like, so this was perfect. I was worried I might have trouble finding fire roasted tomatoes at the grocery, but they were right there in front of me with the other diced tomatoes ... who knew. I was able to get low or no-sodium-added tomato sauce and paste and I used an Argentinian Malbec as the wine component. I added a bit more pepper and onion than the recipe called for (about 2/3 each of red, green and orange pepper and an entire medium size onion) ... imagine that, me adding more veggies to a dish : ) I really wanted to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, but couldn't find them at the store and the same variety of chicken breasts were on sale ... next time I see thighs, I'm going to stock up as I really think that would make the dish even better. I pre-cooked the chicken as the recipe suggested, but really don't think that added anything and will skip next time. This recipe makes a TON ... at dinner we had the equivalent of 3-4 portions (Mike eats way more than me, thank you genetics) and have a whopping 6 lunch-ish size portions remaining.

n

I've asked for a slow cooker cookbook for Christmas, a product of a slow cooking blog I recently added to my daily feed; so I hope to find many more tasty recipes for the fall and winter. Enjoy!!

n

** Image courtesy of CompanysComing.com ... I didn't get a good one with our camera **

Words of Wisdom

For Amber ...

From one of my favorite places to find a smile.

(I am badly behind on posting ... mainly because I'm behind on uploading pictures ... and because I'm pretty boring : ) Look for updates coming soon!)

You gotta have Faith ...

I don't mean for my blog to become a bunch of sappy stories, but my Dad sent me this in an e-mail yesterday and I couldn't help but pass it along ...

A Dog Named Faith

This is a story about a dog who was born on Christmas Eve in 2002. He was born with three legs - 2 healthy hind legs and 1 abnormal front leg which needed to be amputated. Of course he could not walk when he was born and was rejected by his mother. His first owner also did not think that he could survive. Therefore, he was thinking of putting him to sleep.

At this time, his present owner Jude Stringfellow came into his life and wanted to take care of him. She was determined to teach and train this dog to walk by himself. She thought, all we need is a little faith. Therefore she named the dog 'Faith.'

In the beginning, she put Faith on a surf board to let him feel the movements of the water. Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and to reward him for standing up and jumping around. Even the other dogs at home helped to encourage him to walk.

n

Amazingly, after only 6 months, like a miracle, Faith learned to balance on his two hind legs and jumped to move forward. After further training in the snow, he can now walk like a human being.

Faith loves to walk around now. No matter where he goes, he just attracts all the people around him. He is now becoming famous on the international scene. He has appeared in various newspapers and TV shows. There is even one book entitled 'With a little faith' being published about him. He was even considered to appear in one of Harry Potter movies.


His present owner Jude Stringfellow gave up her teaching job and took him around the world to preach, 'that even without a perfect body, one can have a perfect soul.'

n

In life there are always undesirable things. Perhaps a person who feels things are not going as well as they could will feel better if they change their point of view and see things from another perspective.