Christmas has just flown by! I can't believe it's already over. Since I have had to work the past 2 Christmases, I soaked this one up big time! We started by heading out to my parents on the 23rd. We stayed in New Prague until Christmas Day. I had such a great time. It was great finally getting to spend a good chunk of time with my family. Our car was packed full when we left which made it interesting traveling with Oscar. It was perhaps even more packed when we headed back to Mankato.
On the 23rd we just hung out with my parents. We played a game of Taboo and sat around and visited. Both my parents were off on Christmas Eve. We spent the day baking and making goodies for Christmas Day and finishing up some last minute gift wrapping and shopping. Then, that evening we went to church. I love going to church at Faith. It is so great to be back at my home church. On Christmas Day we got up and went to church then came home and Miked filmed the beginning of a movie. After that we started to get dinner ready and opened gifts. Oscar had 5 gifts under the tree! He's a pretty special little kitty I guess. For dinner we had ham, Christmas salad, garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert, Hilary made chocolate mousse. Yum! After dinner we played another game of Taboo. Shortly after that it was time to get going. We were planning on staying until the 26th but we had heard the weather was suppose to be icky so decided to head back to Mankato early. It was probably a good thing we left early, because we were able to swing in to see Mike's parents before they left to go up to the Fick's cabin for Christmas on Friday. Mike and I were bummed we couldn't go up with them but it was my extended family's turn for Christmas this year.
Friday we were exhausted and I was fighting off an icky cold, so we spent the day vegging around the house watching movies. It was great and relaxing...except our house was a disaster! On Saturday we headed down to my extended family Christmas. First stop was in Luverne to see Grandma and Grandpa Bush. My uncle Dale and aunt Lisa were there as well. We had a good time visiting and of course snacking on Christmas goodies. Both sides of my family were celebrating Christmas at the same time on the same day so we missed the Bush side's meal with the rest of my cousins and uncle Steve. Around 2:30 we headed off to Sioux Falls to go to my Aunt Debbie's house for Swenson family Christmas. We had a great time there as well. We played a card game and opened gifts. This year we decided not to exchange gifts, but we all get things for Grandma and Grandpa Swenson and they always bakes us a bucket of cookies and gets us a little something. Before we ate, Mike gave the family prayer. I'm always so proud of him. He does such a nice job. For dinner we had BBQ beef sandwiches. Delicious! And, there was graduation cake because 3 of us graduated from college this December. Mike and I had to take off shortly after dinner. We had to try to get home at a reasonable hour because Mike had to preach at Heritage Lutheran Church in Apple Valley at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday.
So we were on our way back and we had just passed Luverne (making us about 1 1/2 -2 hours away from Mankato) when our tire burst. It was horrible! We had to pull over onto the side of the road and change the tire. Not only were we tired, but it was dark and about 8 degrees outside. Plus, there was wind. Yuck Yuck Yuck!! We had to take several breaks to get back in the car and warm up. Luckily, my parents were about 30-40 minutes behind us. After we got back on the road, they caught up to us and followed us back up to Mankato. We picked up Oscar, packed our bags and piled into mom and dad's car with Hilary and Steve for the ride to New Prague. We would have to use one of their cars to get up to Apple Valley in the morning. This was quite the change in our plans. We were just planning on driving up from Mankato on Sunday morning at around 6 am. It was a crammed car ride with 6 of us plus Oscar in the car, and when we got to New Prague, we were all exhausted.
Mike did well preaching on Sunday. He did 2 services plus a Bible Study. His voice was tired and sore after almost 3 hours of straight talking. Yesterday, we took the car in to get new tires. That $160 bill hurt but it is amazing how the Lord provides. We happened to get almost half of the money needed for the tires from Christmas gifts from family and graduation gifts, plus a monetary gift in the mail from someone at Bethany in Luverne who has adopted us as the seminary student. That made the sticker shock of new tires not quite so bad. Thank you Lord! Now we are back safe and sound in Mankato all cozy in our little house recovering from a very busy but fun week. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a safe, healthy and blessed New Year!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Delicious Recipe!
Not a whole lot new with us. I've been trying hard to study everyday for my boards. I have major anxiety about it and devote as much time as I can handle every single day to studying for it. The more I study the better I feel about it and the more confident I am in myself. So, maybe if I keep studying really hard, I'll be able to go in and take it without any worries. Pray that I can keep up the studying and that whenever I end up taking it, I pass.
Mike and I are getting all ready for Christmas. We got all of our shopping done. I'm just waiting on one more package in the mail. This year we are spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my side of the family. Each year we try to alternate whose family gets dibs for the extended family Christmas and this year it is my family's turn. We also realized that my family has been getting the short end of the stick since I worked the past two Christmases and with Thanksgiving too since I've worked those. My mom hasn't had a holiday on the actual holiday for probably 2 or 3 years. So, this year we are letting them have the whole shabang! I'm excited to get to go up to my parents for a whole 3 day stretch and then spend part of the weekend with them too. We will celebrate with Mike's family when Johnny and Amanda are in town from Florida. They'll still do their traditional Christmas Eve celebration but we'll miss out on that this year.
Mike finished up his semester at seminary and is home for a few weeks. DQ closed and so he is just doing stuff around the house. It is great because he has been doing all the cleaning and laundry so I can focus on studying. I think he is relieved to have some time off too.
Well, now to the title of this post. I made the best Sloppy Joes the other day. I'm not joking...they were AMAZING! These are definitely going on our list of regular meals. In fact, this recipe may be making a weekly appearance. It's not too bad for you either if you use nice lean beef and whole grain buns. Since I count Weight Watchers Points, I figured out how many points these have and for 1/3 c it is only 3 points. Not too bad, pair that with a 2 point bun and it is pretty reasonable. So for these mind-blowing Sloppy Joes you'll need:
-1 lb. lean ground beef (7% fat or leaner)
-1 cup ketchup
-4 tablespoons of water
-2 teaspoons Worchestersire Sauce
-1 to 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard (I used one teaspoon but the recipe calls for 2)
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder (we used chopped up onion instead)
-1/2 teaspoon salt
Brown up you ground beef (and onions if using) in a non-stick pan and drain off fat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered.
And that's it! This made 2 1/2 cups for us which was enough for 6 servings equalling 1/3 cup each. And they were delicious!
Mike and I are getting all ready for Christmas. We got all of our shopping done. I'm just waiting on one more package in the mail. This year we are spending both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my side of the family. Each year we try to alternate whose family gets dibs for the extended family Christmas and this year it is my family's turn. We also realized that my family has been getting the short end of the stick since I worked the past two Christmases and with Thanksgiving too since I've worked those. My mom hasn't had a holiday on the actual holiday for probably 2 or 3 years. So, this year we are letting them have the whole shabang! I'm excited to get to go up to my parents for a whole 3 day stretch and then spend part of the weekend with them too. We will celebrate with Mike's family when Johnny and Amanda are in town from Florida. They'll still do their traditional Christmas Eve celebration but we'll miss out on that this year.
Mike finished up his semester at seminary and is home for a few weeks. DQ closed and so he is just doing stuff around the house. It is great because he has been doing all the cleaning and laundry so I can focus on studying. I think he is relieved to have some time off too.
Well, now to the title of this post. I made the best Sloppy Joes the other day. I'm not joking...they were AMAZING! These are definitely going on our list of regular meals. In fact, this recipe may be making a weekly appearance. It's not too bad for you either if you use nice lean beef and whole grain buns. Since I count Weight Watchers Points, I figured out how many points these have and for 1/3 c it is only 3 points. Not too bad, pair that with a 2 point bun and it is pretty reasonable. So for these mind-blowing Sloppy Joes you'll need:
-1 lb. lean ground beef (7% fat or leaner)
-1 cup ketchup
-4 tablespoons of water
-2 teaspoons Worchestersire Sauce
-1 to 2 teaspoons of yellow mustard (I used one teaspoon but the recipe calls for 2)
-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/2 teaspoon onion powder (we used chopped up onion instead)
-1/2 teaspoon salt
Brown up you ground beef (and onions if using) in a non-stick pan and drain off fat. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered.
And that's it! This made 2 1/2 cups for us which was enough for 6 servings equalling 1/3 cup each. And they were delicious!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
I can't believe it's finally here!
Well, after 5 1/2 years of long hard work I'm finally graduating! Tomorrow I get my nursing pin and on Saturday I graduate. Pinning ceremony is a pretty big deal for nursing majors; however, for me it is not that big of a deal. Up until about a year ago, I didn't really know what it was. Plus, I don't think it signifies that much because getting "pinned" doesn't make you a nurse. Passing your boards makes you a nurse. That being said, I'm really excited about commencement. To me that is what truly signifies my accomplishment. Also, I'm graduating Summa Cum Laude! I'm so happy because I've worked so hard ever since freshman year to graduate with highest honors.
Mike has been pretty busy lately. He's been studying hard for the finals he needs to take early to come to graduation on Saturday. He's got big plans to make another movie over Christmas break. And, he'll be done with DQ in a couple of weeks for about a month while it closes.
We've gotten just about all of our Christmas shopping done. We once again aren't going to be sending out Christmas cards. I really want to start doing this, but we are scrimping and saving this year to pay for my review class and boards and decided to put it off for another year.
Well, that's about all that is new right now.
Mike has been pretty busy lately. He's been studying hard for the finals he needs to take early to come to graduation on Saturday. He's got big plans to make another movie over Christmas break. And, he'll be done with DQ in a couple of weeks for about a month while it closes.
We've gotten just about all of our Christmas shopping done. We once again aren't going to be sending out Christmas cards. I really want to start doing this, but we are scrimping and saving this year to pay for my review class and boards and decided to put it off for another year.
Well, that's about all that is new right now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
