Tag: Life w/the Colemans (Page 2 of 8)

Texas Smile Lines

May 25, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

The night we left for Texas, I looked in the mirror and noticed how

pronounced the little smile lines around my eyes are getting and wondered,

“Will anyone we visit say, ‘You haven’t aged a bit since I saw you last.'”

Savannah said something like that when we saw her last year in CA.

It makes you feel so good to hear it.. even when you know it’s not true.

It had been 16 years since we’d last seen her.

I think she actually meant I was thin rather than young looking.

I’ve gained 20 pounds since then.

This trip we heard something a little different.

From Mike’s aunt we got, “Where’s all your gray hair?”

and “Well, you don’t look sickly.”

I think maybe the things they’d heard about us

sounded worse than we looked and hopefully are.

Then when I posted this picture of my new
cowboy boots on FB, my Mom Commented:

“Oh, grandmother, what big feet you have.”

Love them both to death. I think they caused more smile lines in my face.

I had thought about trying to smile less to prevent my lines

from getting worse.. but only for a second.

I guess this camera angle does make my feet look a little bigger.

They are size 8.5. Is that big?

For those of you who don’t know (Mom), cowboy boots

are made with heals to help you stay in the stirrups

and with extra inch or two in the pointy ends,

so if a horse steps on your boots

(horses can be ornery) they miss your toes.

Will I ever out grow being embarrassed by my parents?

Guess that’s what I get for being so vain.

Love,

Jenny

Texas Trip for Six

May 25, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

We were so please that everyone was able

to get off work for our trip to Texas this time.

It had been 5 years since we had all been.

The only problem was that the cars we have now only hold up to 5 people.

It worked out well though, with two cars and three

people in each (divided up by musical taste)

we had plenty of room for guitars and food and

homeschool curriculum for my nephews and niece.

The only thing was that it cost us over $600 in gas.

Still cheeper than renting a van.

Our first stop in Texas was at Texas Pride Barbecue.

We arrived just a little too early at 10:45 AM

after driving 14 hrs. and 45 min.

Time to stretch and take photos:

Are these cows?

Joel stayed up most of the night trying to make sure

that the siblings driving his car didn’t fall a sleep.

Lunch family style.

After lunch, we drove the last two hrs. to Mo Ranch to see my family.

Mike and I saw a big gray fox there.. twice.. no photo.. too quick.

I didn’t take any pictures of my family.. because they are so much more

talented than I at taking pictures and it seems unfair to make

the kids pose one more time for another photo.

I did take some pictures of Mo Ranch’s Greenhouse.

I need to check out their chapel on another visit.

We had a great time seeing everyone.

I’ll have to blog more about it later..

Someone send pictures.

After Mo Ranch, we spent a few days in San Antonio.

We went to the Alamo, saw Switch Foot in concert and some dear friends..

James took these pictures for us with his ipad.

Remember the Alamo. It’d been a long time since Josh had been.

Judi and I tried on Joel’s new hippy glasses at County Line BBQ.

He’s so proud of them. Got a compliment on the 10 seconds after he bought them. Looked for a leather beaded vest to match the whole rest of the trip.

County Line’s BBQ beat out Texas’ Pride’s hands down.

We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican buffet, Ponchos.
Just raise the flag and they’ll bring you more to eat.

This is a picture from our favorite park in San Antonio, O.P. Schnabel.
Its been done up really nice with new maps and mile markers.
And the Bandera YMCA on the premises has a new
swimming pool with big double tube slide.

We also got a picture of the house we rented when we were expecting Judi.
The things I remember most about this house is that it had a garden
which I killed and we found mouse droppings on our key board.

We left Christmas day of that year for Mike’s first government job in IL.

Judi was born 10 days later. Glad she gave us some time to unpack.

One of the places we miss most in TX is our favorite grocery store, HEB.
We got to shop at the newest, largest HEB Plus: a whopping 182,000 sq. ft.
They sell everything from organic food, to T-shirts, to TVs.

We brought two HEB briskets, one large package of
HEB sausage, and one package of HEB Fajitas home to AL with us.
Anyone know how we can get it shipped?

We had a great time visiting Mike’s family near Breckenridge, too.
Karen and Kyle have grown by leaps and bounds.

Mike’s parents treated us to dinner at Chester’s,
the best hamburger place in SA.

There were so many grandkids that we split up to play hands and foot.

The winners of each table played a championship game.

These two computer nerds played a round too..
but were unable to defeat the runners up this time.

Mike’s aunt and uncle and two of his cousins stopped by for a visit.
All five of these cousins live in the area now; several are becoming
empty nesters and grandparents. It was great to catch up with them.

More when I have pictures.

Love,

Jenny

Rainbows and Double Rainbows

May 10, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

A few weeks ago Judi called me on her way home and said,

“Mom come out side.. there are rainbows.”

I made her back up and position my car under the rainbow. 🙂

There were at least 2 rainbows that day.. I think I saw three.

And since then there have been 2 more in the same spot.

Mike said maybe it’s a sign that we are doubly blessed.

We are so doubly blessed and I love the rain,

the nice Spring we’ve been having and the rainbows.

Thank you, Jesus.

Love,

Jenny

Christmas (Eve) Morning

December 26, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 3 Comments

I actually should start with the night before..

Mike took me rug shopping.. yay!

We’ve been having problems with the puppy making

messes on the rug in our hearth room.. especially

when mom isn’t home to let her out a billion times a day.

My wet vac might as well have a permanent home there.

A friend helped me find these rugs on Thursday.

I was thinking about buying some cheep, ugly carpet tiles and

she talked me into these machine washable runners.

Not beautiful but functional and way better than the carpet tiles.

Mike thought they were OK so here they are. 🙂

Christmas Eve morning I made myself some

gluten free ginger bread cookies..they taste pretty good..

a little weird.. but I’ve gotten used to them.

I think I missed them up by trying to grind my own

cloves instead of making one more trip to the store.

Here we are getting ready for presents.

We are all dressed because we were going

out for lunch right after.

Judi tried on the head band Wendy made her.

James thinks posing for photos is torture.

George is wondering what’s going on..

I passed out the Christmas cards we got for

everyone to see.. and had to explain

the boys who their 2nd cousin was.

Mike read us the Christmas story from

the second chapter of Luke.

The most interesting gift was the assortment

of hot sauce Joel got to share with everyone.

Joel didn’t need any socks.

Joel and Josh are making plans for how to use it all.

Lunch at Casa Blanco

Josh’s ipod camera..

Love,

Christmas.. Wrapping Things Up

December 23, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

For many Christmases now, the kids have wanted only

two things: money and candy.

There were many early years were we only had five dollars for each from us,

but their grandparents aways gave them plenty for a nice Christmas.

When they were younger, we actually gave them

their money and took them to the toy store

before Christmas, so we could wrap their presents

and put them under the tree.

A couple of years we bought a family gift.. like a game system.

One year we went on a family vacation as our gift.

Two or three years ago we super surprised them

by shopping for them and sneaking their presents in

late one night while they were asleep.

They never even thought to look in our closet..

because we had never hidden gifts from them before. 🙂

We never have presents under the tree..

now that they shop on line after Christmas.

I think the last couple of Christmas mornings we just pulled stuff out

of Walmart bags and gave them to them. 🙂

This year I decided to be a little more creative

with their candy/money wrapping and made these gift bag tags..

using part of this free printable nativity I love.

We discovered chocolate oranges a couple of years ago.

They instantly became part of the tradition.

I made these money wraps for their cash yesterday.

Most years I forget to go to the bank in time, and have to

write them an IOU. This year I actually got their

grandparents’ checks cashed in 10’s and 20’s for them.

And bought them some things they needed like socks and gloves.

Judi’s been a little confused by my redecorating everything

and insisted that we keep the candy cane buying tradition, too.

I didn’t want them on my tree, so I put them on this wreath instead.

I usually buy 2 dozen so the kids get 6 each.

I made this star/cross wreath some time ago out of
the 4′ Christmas tree we had before inheriting my grandmother’s
much nicer tree and some dowels and wire.. it fell apart.

I redid it this year with duct tape and twine.
It’s much stronger now.

I put an extra wreath in the bucket I bought for my fall flowers.
The bucket needs a red bow.. doesn’t it?

Back inside…
Have you seen this book? I really like it.

I had packed these glass ornaments (below) in our advent candle pillars
for our last move and didn’t find them until this week.. (over two years later).

I haven’t been together enough to actually do an advent devotion.

Maybe next year with the book above.

I decided they would be safer hanging here than on the tree.

I hung them across some wire left over from my

names of Jesus ornaments with some invisible thread.

I think they look like musical notes. Even Judi thought they were cool.
They are the same color blue as the satin I used to wrap the tree.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Love,

Jenny

Trimming the Tree (with ornaments)

December 23, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Every Christmas up until last, I’ve bought the kids an ornament at the
after Christmas sales to add to their collection.. then each Christmas
the kids got to decorate the tree with their own ornaments.
They loved this when they were little..

Last year, the kids decided it was too much trouble to put their ornaments
on the tree and that they didn’t really care about collecting ornaments.
It kinda hurt my feelings..

I decided that if I was going to do all the work from now on
that I was going to start over with new ornaments for me.

At the after Christmas sales last year, I bought these ornaments
80 or 90% off.. I was so excited.. my favorite color..
I guess my blue and white tree has gone out of style..
there were so many of them left to buy.. I bought 20 for a little over $20.

A few weeks after that, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed
something to do distract myself from my impending surgery
and while recovering. so I started making the quilted ornaments
with the names of Jesus on them that I showed you in July.

Reading the names of Jesus all those weeks was great therapy,
but when I hung them on my new slim tree
a couple of weeks ago.. I didn’t like them. 🙁

I loved reading the names of Jesus on the tree…
and I love quilts.. They just aren’t my decorating style. :-/

So I decided to make simpler, paper ones.

I bought some scrapbooking paper in my favorite colors

and a corner punch and went to work.

The cardboard, wire and beads I had on hand.

Judi and I both liked the glitter idea.

Here’s my new, slim, names of Jesus tree.
I found the ribbon on clearance last year too..

There are 25 different cards with over a hundred names.

I decided that I had room for a few more ornaments
and divided all our old ornaments into themes.

I hung the ones that reminded me of Jesus on the tree.

This is one of my favorites..

Then decided to save the snowmen for January..
and make a winter wreath or garland.

There were other ornaments that I will try and have the kids

go through and donate to a thrift store next year.

I didn’t have a tree skirt.. so I pulled this satin out of my

grandmother’s stash and wrapped it around the tree.

George had to try it out right away.

My newly decorated tree.

Here are the jpgs if you’d like to print your own:

🙂

What’s Cooking for Thanksgiving

November 23, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Thanksgiving is my kids’ favorite holiday, “because we get to eat.”

Joel and I spent 3-4 hours on Monday grocery shopping.

He had to take his car in for an oil change and

was happy to hang out with me while he waited.

Judi is my regular grocery shopping helper.

She is so well trained.

I made a Thanksgiving Shopping List that

I re-print every year and she knows it well.

She’ll be home from Guatemala late tonight.

It doesn’t usually take quite so long..

but we were out of EVERYTHING after 10 days of no fridge.

I am so glad Mike fixed it. So far so good. Yay!

As my mom pointed out, it usually takes me several days

to do all the cooking for Thanksgiving.. but

I don’t mind because the kids enjoy it so much.

Yesterday, I made some stuff that turned out great:

Cranberry-Orange Relish

1 lb. cranberries

4 apples, peeled

1 orange with about 1/2 of the peel

1 1/2 c. walnuts

1/2 c. pineapple with juice

1 c. sugar in the raw

Blend in blender.

Refrigerate overnight.

Will keep in freezer for 2 months.

Spicy Pumpkin Ginger Soup (for lunch)

1 onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 apple, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 oz. ginger root, grated

2 T. butter

1/4 c. peanut butter

1/4 c. roasted pumpkin seeds

salt

black pepper

4 c. pumpkin

4 c. vegetable broth

thyme

nutmeg

Two pumpkin pies (one sugar free).

Then the sugar-free Peanut Butter and Oatmeal cookies

didn’t turn out so great. I so need help with those. 🙁

Today I made some Banana Pudding with Xylitol.

I hear it’s good, but can’t eat it because the xylitol comes from corn.

I also made some Pumpkin Chip Muffins.. the kind we eat every year

for breakfast ..and a gluten free recipe I tried for the first time.

I had to run to the store for muffin liners mid-mixing them

(I added them to my grocery list for next year.)

and almost forgot to add the pumpkin in when I came back.

Thank God they looked funny and I realized my mistake.

They went really well with my leftover pumpkin soup.

Pumpkin Chip Muffins or Cake

4 eggs

2 c sugar

14 oz. can pumpkin

1/3 c vegetable oil

2/3 c apple sauce

In a small bowl whisk together,

adding each in order until smooth.

3 c flour

2 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. all spice

1 t. nutmeg

1 dash salt

Mix in a large bowl. Make a well.

1 c walnuts

1 c chocolate chips

1 c raisins

Stir in wet ingredients about 25 strokes

until just combined. Don’t over stir.

Spoon or use a 1/3 c. measure to fill well

greased or paper lined muffin tins about 3/4 full.

Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 20-25 min.

or 55 minutes in a bunt pan.

I made the gluten free muffins basically the same way with only 2 eggs,

and 1 and 1/2 cups sugar, then substituted 1 and 1/4 cups teff flour

and 1/2 cup tapioca flour for the flour.

I just finished the Strawberry Jello Salad – and realized that

I could probably safely eat it. 🙂

I stumbled across this recipe this morning

Olive Oil and Vinegar Dipping Sauce:

3 large cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped

1 pinch salt and black pepper

and decided to add it to my Thanksgiving Dinner list..

I think I’ll enjoy it more than gluten free/corn free gravy.

Tonight, I am making Cheesy Spinach Burritos (for dinner).

Then I’ll put the turkey in the oven to cook over night on low.

And we’ll go the the airport to pick up Judi!!!

Tomorrow we’ll make:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Green Been Casserole

Ore-ida Crinkle Crispers

Crescent Rolls

Gravy

Turtle Pie

and

APPLE MALLOW YAM YUMS

4 med. sized apples

2/3 c. pecans or walnuts

1 c. raw sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 pkg. frozen sweet potatoes, thawed

1/2 c. butter, sliced

Cut apples and sweet potatoes

into chunks and toss together.

Layer in buttered dish.

Dot with remaining butter.

Cover.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

It will probably all last a couple of days at the most.

3 Large boys who “get to eat.”

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Jenny

Busy Week with Mitch and Nana

October 10, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

I decorated for fall for the first time.

I think I am normally just too busy with school this time of year.

I bought these flowers last December at 80% off with

the intention of making a wreath. At least I got them out..

and I made the pumpkins from scratch with some found wood.

Back in in 2003, after we’d just moved to Florida, I ended up with

second degree burns on my right arm after opening this pressure

cooker while it was under pressure. I was tired, wasn’t thinking clearly,

and couldn’t find directions on how long I should cook the fresh

corn on the cob I had just bought from the vegetable stand.

We decided to make chili for Mike’s parents one night last week,

and I took some time to look up the best way to cook dried pinto beans,

because ever since I started making my chili in the crock pot

my beans had been coming out crunchy – yuck!

I found the national bean council’s suggested method for

“gas free” soaking: Wash, cover with water, boil 3 minutes,

cover, set aside over night, rinse, cook.

Then I stumbled upon a you-tube video on pressure cooking beans,

and decided to conquer my fear and try it out. It worked great!

Just 12 min. under pressure and they were done.

Way better than 2 hrs. simmering on the stove.

Can’t wait to try out some more recipes.

While the chili was simmering in the crock pot, we got to go

to an open house at Mike’s work.. first one they’ve had one in years.

All the kids had off work and Mitch and Nana had just happened to plan

their visit at the right time. It was great to learn about what all his office does.

We’d planned to pick up our favorite BBQ another night..

only to discover that Chuck Wagon was closed because they had a booth

at the 45th Annual Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention.

How fun. We had no idea what we’d been missing all these years.

Gatherings of fiddlers playing blue grass while dancing.. gospel singing.

Banjo, dulcimer, dobro, harmonica.. all ages.. competing for the title of

Tennessee Valley Fiddle Champion. Food, arts and crafts, perfect weather..

Can’t wait to go again next year.

Saturday we went up to Fort Payne to show Nana Little River Canyon Falls.

The weather was perfect all week.

And Fall was really starting to show it’s colors.

We took the scenic drive.

Saw some hawks.

Had a really good time.

Got a few pictures.. but the sun wasn’t especially corporative.

Sunday afternoon we had a partly cloudy day

and decided to try for a family picture.

Took a ton of pictures.. this was the last one.. somehow the last one

usually turns out to be the best one.. glad we took “one more”.

Our eyes are a little squinty.. but it’s better than last year.. we never got one.

It was great seeing Mitch and Nana. Judi won every game she played..
didn’t matter who her partner was. The boys had a couple of days
off work and it was great to get in some family time.