Happy 13th Birthday, Rachel!

I can say that I am now officially the mother of THREE teenagers!  Is that unbelievable or what??? 

I am so thankful that God has blessed me with this daughter.  She is kind and loving, caring and giving, and is a total joy to Ron and to me.  She has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh and make others laugh.   She is so very bright, and it is fun for me to watch her devour book after book.  In many ways, she is my "mini-me"  :-)  I thank God daily that he gave me this child to love and care for!  I can't WAIT to see what God has planned for her!

Rachel had her birthday party last Friday, but we still tried to make today a special day for her (in spite of some of the housecleaning we had to do :)  How many kids get to have TWO birthday cakes with ice cream??? 

Rachel's  birthday cake...white cake with white frosting and sprinkles.  And of course, BLUE writing, and the number 13.  Wow! 

Rachel and her "at home" birthday cake.  We got to enjoy this after a dinner of grilled bratwurst, sauerkraut, corn on the cob and french fries.  With our friends Phil and Aubri who visited from NE today!  What a birthday treat!  It was GREAT to spend the evening visiting with them!

Then we went to Grandma Marge and Grandpa Richard's house for a birthday celebration.  Today is also Grandpa Richard's birthday.  (He celebrated his 13th birthday 69 years ago :-)  Rachel got to blow out the candles, and then we lit them again, and Grandpa Richard got to take a turn at blowing them out!  Yummy chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles!  And ice cream, too!

 

Happy Birthday, Rachel!!!

Memorial Day

We had a great day yesterday.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Sunny and nice and warm.  The Memorial Day service at Rose Hill Cemetery was enhanced by the S-F MS band.  Rachel, of course, played splendidly :-)

The kit used for this was Liberty Everlasting, by Janniscrap designs

I spent the afternoon preparing for dinner.  Ron was a great help in peeling and chopping the potatoes for potato salad.   I boiled up 2 chickens for a little while, and then finished them off on the grill...smothered in BBQ sauce.  MMMMMM....  The evening was so nice that we ate out on the deck.  It was just lovely.  Some of us REALLY got into the whole "eating BBQ with your fingers" thing....

The kit used for these pages was "A Country Picnic" by Janniscrap Designs.

Giggly Girls

Rachel had a birthday party on Friday afternoon.  Not only was it a birthday party, but it was ALSO the last day of school.  So you can about imagine the giggling that went on all evening.

We left our house at about 5 after they got here from softball practice.  We drove to College Square Mall, where we had a shopping mall scavenger hunt.  They had to find sale signs and take photos of different things around the mall...like someone in their group wearing 5 inch heels...and someone in their group "bumping" a volleyball, etc.  Then we had pizza.  After the pizza, each group was given $13 ('cause it's Rachel's 13th birthday party) and they had to buy as MANY different things as they could, for that $13.  The FINAL stop of the night was ice cream at Coldstone Creamery. YUM!

I used a kit called Emma, by Amy W. designs when I created this layout. 

New Hymnals!!

Yay!  Today was the day we used our new hymnals, The Lutheran Service Book, in church.  We got to use the old order of service from the OLD Red Hymnal...I just loved it.  I told Ron "I feel like I've gone to church for the first time in 20 years!"  Even after all these years with the blue hymnal "Lutheran Worship", I still could do today's service from memory.  I could happily use ONLY that order of service for the rest of my life.  Sadly, I'm sure that won't get to happen!  We sang 2 'familiar' hymns, and one new one.  I think it all went well...I'm already looking forward to going to church next Sunday, to worship again!

 

 

Weekend's Over...

What a weekend!  Caleb made his first solo drive to Cedar Falls (twice!)  He got a bit mixed up on the way home last night, but figured it out on his own. 

Ethan went to Cub Scout Day camp yesterday.  They did all kinds of things like making rockets out of PVC tubes and 2 liter bottles and rolled up paper (Ethan's went the highest), and gold fish races (poor goldfish!  They put a gold fish into an eve spout and took a straw and blew behind the fish to make it go all the way to the end!  It sure sounds like he had fun, and they had a beautiful day for it!

Rachel is learning to mow the lawn this year.  Here is a scrap page that I made of her doing her new chore.

Today was graduation at SF-MS.  Caleb and Cameron have 3 days of school left (they don't have to take semester tests, yay!) and Rachel and Ethan will be done on Friday.  Summer is almost here!

Rachel took a picture of KT lazing on the deck yesterday.  Of course...I scrapped it ;)

Field Trip Fun!

I got to go with Ethan last week on his 3rd grade field trip.  We had a great day!  We went to Waterloo to the Imaginarium, and sat in a portable planetarium, had a lesson on pioneers AND a creepy crawly critters program!  What a full day!  Here are 3 scrap pages I did of the event.

These two layouts were made with Lisa's template (that I adapted to fit what I needed) and her "Sunshine" kit.

This template is called "Superstar" and was made by Tracy Drane.  The papers and such were my creation :)

Latest Scrap page

Tonight I finally took some time to make a page with my daughter in it!  This picture was taken in April when we visited Burlington. 

 

I am not always very good about remembering to give credits for the stuff that I use on my pages!  I'll try to be better about that!  This GORGEOUS freebie kit is from April Mouse.  She has some beautiful kits, and I'm grateful that she shares her creativity so freely!

Track Days are over...

and in recognition of National Scrapbooking Day, I did a few layouts of Caleb and Cameron and their running season.  Many of their meets were rained out, but they did get to run a few of them. 

Caleb

Cameron

Savory Roast Beef Sandwiches

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe!  This is what is for supper here tonight.  It is a yummy sandwich...moist and juicy!

1 beef roast (3-5 pounds)

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1-2 tablespoons minced garlic (2-3 cloves)

2 - 3 tablespoons dried minced onion

This can be done in a couple of different ways.  You can slice the beef roast VERY thinly, (easiest while still partly frozen) or you can cook in the juice and then shred the meat.

If you are slicing the beef, slice in thin slices and place in a crock pot.  Mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the meat.  Cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 3 hours. 

If you are going to shred the meat, just plop the roast in the crock pot, mix the other ingredients and pour them over the beef.  Cook (same times as above).  When the meat is fork tender, shred with two forks, and put back in the juices to simmer on low for 30 minutes to 2 hours...gets the meat good and flavorful!

Serve on buns!