Here we are in NC!

We arrived safely at JAARS in NC on Monday afternoon. Our computer cable went out last week and a new one arrived in the mail yesterday-so we are back with the internetz!

If you are wondering about the fact that we left on Sunday but didn't arrive until Monday that's because we got bumped in Houston (but we volunteered) and spent the night there. So God provided over half our return airfare by doing that ($350!). Very cool. Anyway, we are settling in, with special thanks to Daniel's parents who left this morning. They brought a boatload of wonderful toys (many from Daniel's parents' church in Indy!), clothes, food and other wonderful necessitiies of a comfortable life here. What a blessing.

I am learning the ropes at my new favorite store, Harris Teeter and enjoying a THREE bedroom apartment! So much room its crazy. So, needless to say we won't be "roughing it" while here, but will be missing our friends and family at home lots.

Daniel begins aviation orientation on Monday (and the wives actually have a class with them the first day too). There are two other guys doing this training, one pilot and one pilot/mechanic. Daniel is a mechanic in case you were wondering;).

I'll have pictures up soon, but am pretty awesome and left our camera at the Peruvian restaurant Daniel's parents took us to yesterday. Ooops. We don't have a car here so we'll get it back on Sunday when we go to church near there in a JAARS rental car.

We're glad to be connected to ya'll again!

Loves me some (NW) grocery bargains!

But I love you too North Carolina shopping (or at least I hope to!;). 2 days from now I will be learning the ropes at two new stores: Food Lion and Harris Teeter! So weird to think of it. Anywhoooooooo...here's the last shopping I did while here in the great Pacific Northwest:

Albertson's: $3.72 total. I am not even sure how my total was this low. I am thinking the cashier doubled my diaper coupon (up to $1) on my second transaction. I am always super thrilled when I can get healthy stuff for free like this and $3 diapers are always a huge prize to be had!

Fred Meyer: Just under $6. $4.30 of that was for 2 mini coupon binders that I will be transferring all my coupons to for the trip to NC. My box is a little too big for the suitcase and to justify the cost to pack it! The Purex were better than free after catalina, so I rolled them to buy 2 sets then used the final catalina to buy the coupon binders. The 1lb of ham lunchmeat was $1 after printable coupon adn the uncle bens' brown rice was free after coupon found in the fred meyer coupon bin! I used the fruit/onions for fillers in the first 2 transactions (and we've already eaten them up;).

And this is my big coupon helper:

North Carolina here we come!

In T minus 2 days we will be in North Carolina (@ JAARS)! Although I am not looking forward to the plane trip one bit (2 littles with way too much energy for over 8 hours!) its going to be good to get there and get settled. That said its going to be hard to say goodbye to the grandparents (on my side of the fam) for the first extended time and its already been hard to say goodbye to our church home. So in the interest of not dwelling on the sad things, here are some things I am looking forward to in NC!

~ Harris Teeter and SUPER DOUBLES!!

~Finally seeing my awesome in-laws again!!

~Getting to see and live near our friends from Equip, J & J and their sweet daughter(s)!

~Sweet tea:)

~Southern hospitality and charm (I need some more of both!;)

~Being a part of a new church (mixed feelings of course-I am trying really hard to look forward to this one!)

Anyone have other things we should be excited about in NC?

What's that kid's name again?

Mortified. That's the best way to describe the way I feel right now. I just went to order Liv's birth certificate by phone and the lady asked for Liv's middle name. I couldn't remember it for what felt like an ETERNTY, and finally after 15 or so seconds I was able to come up with it.

I am surprised she even let me order the certificate after that!

(to make matters worse Liv has the same middle name as I do;)

Silly Grandpa Trix are for kids

I love this picture because my kids are so goofy in it! M loves to play "kitchen" and apparently was making sure grandpa was well fed.

Not sure why M has the scowl on-but it cracks me up!

And Liv--she learned to "real" crawl yesterday! It is too stinkin cute!

Menu Plan for the week of Feb. 15th, 2010

Basically I disregarded 90% of the menu plan last week and made other meals. We had TONS of leftovers from the Superbowl party so that had a lot to do with it. Last night I made the yummiest crustless quiche with spinach,cheese, onions and leftover brown rice. We ate the entire pan and it got rave reviews. I am going to try to make it again (didn't use a recipe) so I can post it here sometime.

Breakfasts:
cold cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, banana muffins from mix

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: Steak diinner night at Barney's! My grandma has a BOGO coupon she wants to use:)

Tuesday: Ham and bean soup

Wednesday: Peanut butter noodles (didn't get to this last week), frozen broccoli

Thursday: BBQ meatballs (make extra plain ones for Sunday) over brown rice, broccoli

Friday: Easy Homemade pizza or frozen pizza

Saturday: Meatloaf from freezer, mac n cheese, peas (another we didn't get to)

Sunday: Chicken Tortilla soup

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Loves me some grocery bargains

Safeway and Albertsons this week. Some hot deals on oil, TP (amazing how much you go through as a family of 4 adults and a toddler!), and yogurt. $10.xx for 3 bottles of smart balance oil, 1 olive oil, 24 rolls of TP some clearance canned goods (broth, cranberry sauce, marshmallow fluff(mom wanted this???) condensed milk etc. for $0.25/$0.50 ea).

Safeway: inspired by ecoupons and the hope for some freebies I went to Safeway. And I was not disappointed. I got 3 free yogurts: Fiber one and 2 yoplus. Cheap Nestle Choco Chips: one for $1.24 and one for $0.74 after ecoupons and paper, better than free frosting, 4 cookie mixes for about $0.50 each, 4 brownie mixes for about $0.50 each after coupons, 5 lbs of apples for $2.57, whole wheat flour for under $3 after coupons found at store, oscar meyer bacon marked down to $0.99 and I think that's about it. Total was $12.02!

Not a healthy week, but we have been working through a stockpile of many other items such as canned veggies/fruits and a bunch of organic milk, eggs and meat markdowns from the previous week. We also have been eating a huge bag of oranges, carrots and celery so we have some fresh stuff we're working through.

Meal plan coming tomorrow!

Lincoln Logs

Having kids that play together is the BEST.

Gone so long?

Sorry about the lack of posts lately! As usual we think our life will slow down for that deep breath but it just hasn't happened. Our "parternship development boss" or coach from Wycliffe actually gave us an assignment to take some time to slow down and recupe as a family but we have given that one a big FAIL. But we have enjoyed ourselves in the midst of being on the go.

We took a trip to Spokane to see one of our best friend(s)' new baby and that was a lot of fun. We didn't see a lot of people since it was last minute, but Daniel was able to see the progress Moody Aviation has made to their program since he attended and catch up with some of his old peeps so that was fun. And we stayed with our ever gracious college pastor's wife, who is also a lovely friend and was my Matron of Honor. Very worthwhile trip.

Tomorrow we are sharing about Wycliffe and our plans with them in the Sunday Morning service at Wenatchee Valley Baptist. The church has been through some very difficult times recently but God has been moving so powerfully there and in my family recently that I can only be amazed at His work despite trials.

Daniel and I love to listen to music from Sovereign Grace Ministries and one of my favorites is on Come Weary Saints. Every Day is one of my favorites and some of the lyrics are "Thank you for the trials, for the fire, for the pain. Thank you for the strength, knowing you have ordained, everyday... you are with me. In my uncertainty your grace is all I need..."

It hits the heart of what we've been needing to hear when nothing is certain but God Himself. I am continually amazed at how God uses trials for His good (Rom 8:28) even when we can't see it.

Our Crowded houseful

Everyone minus my brother (who is getting married in a few months!) in this picture lives together for the time being. Its actually been a lot of fun- and we've all been keeping busy!


Its hard to believe we leave for North Carolina for training at JAARS in less than two weeks!

Menu Plan for the week of Feb. 8th, 2010

Last week was some week! Some very good things happened, for one we finished moving out and got our house rented out! Now we're just praying it goes well while our renters are there this next year:). Another is that we've been able to be involved in my parents' home church and have been encouraged by some of the things happening at the church amidst the difficulties of losing their pastor and half the congregation recently.

But last week was also filled with hardship for our extended families with my dad losing his job as a VP market manager for the bank he's worked for the past 16 years. The bank is restructuring and eliminating two of the market manager positions althogether so its not about him but it was a crazy shock to the family. We also have a serious health scare that we will find out more about with extended family soon. But God has been good and we've seen His hand in the timing of our coming over here at this time so clearly.

Breakfasts:
cold cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs (I got 6 dozen on mark down for $0.09 at Safeway this weekend!!!) bacon

Lunches:Leftovers

Dinners:

Monday: Leftover Seven Layer Bean Dip, chips, carrot sticks & dip

Tuesday: Baked Potato Soup and Beefy Vegetable Soup for my parents' Bible study group (we'll eat leftover super bowl foods of some sort:)

Wednesday: Peanut butter noodles (didn't get to this last week), frozen broccoli

Thursday: BBQ meatballs (make extra plain ones for Sunday) over brown rice, broccoli

Friday: Easy Homemade pizza or frozen pizza

Saturday: Meatloaf from freezer, mac n cheese, peas (another we didn't get to)

Sunday: Spagetti with meatballs (from Thurs.), garlic bread, green salad

Visit Orgjunkie for more plans!

Donuts mmmmmmm....

I made these homemade donuts this morning. YUM! Not good for the waistline by any means but I've been waiting for an occasion to make these for awhile:)

No, mine weren't the prettiest in the world
But M sure seemed to enjoy hers:) They were dark chocolate glazed, yum

My sweet birthday balloon and flower from my parents

Daniel and I are going to see the Blind Side while my parents watch the girls and then to Red Robin all together with a free birthday burger and gift card-fun day!

Family Pancake House

Last time my parents were visiting us *snif* at our former home we went out to eat at Family Pancake house. We heard a joke about IHOP once that went something like this "why do they call it I HOP- you never see anyone hopping out of that place after eating there, after all that white flour and sugar and fat rolling or crawling is more likely:)" well family pancake house is kinda like that. Doesn't quite put a spring in your step when you eat there, but it sure is tasty:)
The fam

The girls

I might mail her to Kalamazoo...

I will share more tomorrow but we had a wild day of suprises (not the good kind) today. But a funny story (now that I have some time behind us!): my sweet little handful of toddler girl was watching a video on the laptop in the bedroom while I tried to console a cranky baby and finish cleaning up our dinner mess.

I came back to check on her and noticed something funny...she was covered in blue marker! Not only was she covered by I noticed my laptop was too! Patience Lord--I need more!