A Fun Weekend!!

This has been a great weekend! I am thankful for God blessing me with such a great weekend after the tough week I had at work. There were lots of tough situations at school this week that left me drained! On Friday we went with Corky Alexander to see Emma singing with Eddie James. This was a super powerful service. After the week I had, it was wonderful to see how full of life and joy the teens are that attended. I left feeling like I had left a huge bag of other people's burdens at the feet of Jesus. Today, Saturday, started with Robb, Anna Claire, and I walking our dogs. It was soo beautiful walking outside. I had just read my friend Faith's blog where she listed things that she loved about life. While walking, and really throughout the day I kept thinking about the things I loved. There may be a lot of difficult things that we deal with in life but... It does not compared to the many wonderful things that life holds for us/ me. I am surrounded by beauty. After walking I went grocery shopping by myself (always a fun thing for me) and cooked a pot of chili and apple crisp. These were for game watching at Suzy's house. We went over there with a variety of friends and family to watch the Alabama/Kentucky game. It was fun to watch all together, even thought Alabama did not look great. Hanging out like that is why I love Saturday's. It is so important to take time to share life with others. Especially the good things about life. Dealing with the death of a student has given me a whole new appreciation for the freshness life and needing to live it to it's fullness.

Consignment Sales

I LOVE going to consignment sales! I have gone to two and am now addicted. It is a great way to keep kids dressed cute for super cheap. In November there is going to be a great consignment sale called Just Between Friends. It will take place at the Old Woolen Mill. For the first time I am planning on selling clothes as well as buying. I can't wait to take part in consignment in this manner. I have been setting stuff aside for this sale for the last couple of months. There is a great website for the state of Tennessee that list the big sales in each city. I am amazed at how many there are. The website is: http://www.kidsconsignmentsales.com/tn.htm
If any of my dear internet friends and family want a buddy to go with them to a consignment sale call me. I love going and get great deals. This summer I paid $1.00 per outfit for an armfull of super cute clothing items.

Lasagna

***** Not our lasagna****
This past Saturday Robb and I made Lasagna for the first time. It was fun to do this together! This is not a dish that you can just throw together. We created a big mess! But had it all cleaned up before our guest ( Suzy and Judy- Robb's mom and sister) arrived for dinner. I would have taken a picture of it but I left my camera at my parents house last time I visited. I used the following recipe but changed 2 things. 1. I did not use bay leaves. 2. I used half ricotta cheese and half small curd cottage cheese. The balance was perfect!! It makes a huge lasagna. Perfect for having people over and having left overs. By the way. The left overs were even better than the original!

Lasagna al Forno Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence Show: Food 911 Episode: Lousy Lasagna -Orlando FL/Lady Marmalade -Cathedral City CA

1 pound dried lasagna noodles Olive oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, sliced 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped 3 bay leaves 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 1 pound ground Italian sausage 6 ounces tomato paste, (1 can) 30 ounces ricotta cheese, (2 containers) 1/4 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped Salt and black pepper, to taste 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 cups tomato sauce, prepared 1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded Grated Parmesan and mozzarella, for topping Cook the lasagna noodles in plenty of boiling salted water until pliable and barely tender, about 10 minutes. Stir with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. Drain the noodles thoroughly, coat with olive oil keep them moist and easy to work with. Coat a large skillet with olive oil. Saute over medium heat, onion, garlic and herbs. Cook 5 minutes. Brown beef and sausage until no longer pink, about 15 minutes. Drain fat into a small container and discard. Stir in the tomato paste completely. Set aside to cool. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta, parsley and oregano. Stir in beaten eggs. Add Parmesan, season with salt and pepper. To assemble the lasagna: Coat the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch pan with a ladle full of tomato sauce. Arrange 4 noodles lengthwise in a slightly overlapping layer on the sauce. Then, line each end of the pan with a lasagna noodle. This forms a collar that holds in the corners. Spread 1/2 of the meat mixture over the pasta. Dollop 1/2 of the ricotta mixture over the meat, spread to the edges with a spatula. Sprinkle 1/2 of the mozzarella on top of the ricotta. Top with a ladle full of tomato sauce, spread evenly. Repeat with the next layer of noodles, meat, cheeses and sauce. Top last layer with noodles, sauce and shredded mozzarella and Parmesan. Tap the pan to force out air bubbles. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Let lasagna rest for 30 minutes so the noodles will settle and cut easily. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Local Produce

I know, I know... the first blog in ages and it is about local produce. Oh well, something is better than nothing. I have found a cool website where you can search within your area to find local farms that sale to the public. I am very interested in this sort of thing and look forward to visiting one of these places soon. There are several in the close to Cleveland area. Here is the link: www.localharvest.org

Walking Past

This has been a week of real counseling for me. Many weeks as a school counselor are filled with paperwork, academic counseling, meetings with parents, talking about college; everything but what is really going on in the students life. This has not been one of those weeks. I have talked with many students who are truly hurting.Each of these kids, girls and guys, have come into my office looking neat, clean and all together. They have fallen apart in my office, shed their tears, used a bunch of Kleenex, talked and listened. Before leaving my office there is always the question, " Does it look like I have been crying?" They wait a few minutes and hope the redness has gone away in their eyes. They want to walk the halls again looking "all together," even though their world is really falling apart. This week has caused me to think about how many students I walk past in the hall who seem tough, cool, beautiful, without a care in the world; but in reality are broken inside. We all walk past each other, with the little glance to see if they are going to acknowledge you, the average student does not want to seem to eager. I am at an advantage to the students, it is my job to be the acknowledger. I walk down the hall working to acknowledge students and draw them out of their shell. It is funny, some love to be acknowledge and spoken to, while others act like they have never seen me, much less spilled their guts to me. That is the balance that I must find, when to speak and when to let them walk on by. The hallway of a school can be a wonderful place full of seeing your friends and hanging out or a dreaded place that reminds students of how lonely they are. Sorry to end on a downer. This post has gone several different ways. Oh well. These are just things I have been thinking about this week while walking down the hall to meetings or to go see Anna Claire.

End of the Week

We made it to the end of the week!! Yippee. It was a long one but ended on a positive note. Work is going well. I actually enjoyed being there today and felt like I accomplished a lot. I had several students drop by to see me because they were excited I was back. It was nice to be missed. Dropping Anna Claire off went very smoothly and I finally feel at peace about where she is. When I checked on her, she was either happy or asleep. Thanks to all for the prayers.

Back to Work

Yesterday was a hard day! It was the first day back to work, with Anna Claire in daycare. There were definitely tears shed as I dropped her off. We are very blessed that the daycare she is at, is in the building with me.This is very reassuring!I am even able to go check on her. But, it was still soo hard to turn her care over to someone else. Please pray that this gets better with time. Work as a whole went ok. It was pretty hard trying to decide which thing needed to be done first. There were several balls that were kind of dropped while I was gone so, I am working to get those back into the air. Thank goodness with me missing the 1st two days due to illness, it is a short week.

A Not so Great Easter.

This Easter was not a great weekend, even though there are smiles on our faces. Judy, Robb's mom, came up on Friday to spend the weekend with us. She arrived bringing sweet gifts for Anna Claire, her first bunny, a little basket, a sweater, and several other cute surprises. Judy was sweet and sent Robb and I out on a little date without Anna Claire. Anna Claire and Judy had a fun couple of hours talking and playing together. Robb and I came home and Judy fell sick pretty quickly after that. We thought she had food poisoning. After a rough night, Robb and I convinced her to let us drive her back to Cleveland. It was an uneventful trip with the pleasure of seeing Suzy. Sunday morning was ok. We had 50 + people in attendance, a children's skit, and a moving sermon by Robb. We came home for a simple lunch with Omar, a new guy at church. Later that afternoon Robb became very sick. He has the stomach flu and is struggling to get over it. Not the way you want to spend a relaxing Sunday. Please keep him/ us in your prayers. So far Anna Claire and I have avoided it, and we want to keep it that way!!! I was supposed to go back to work today but stayed home to help take care of him. The first day back to work has been postponed till tomorrow.

Easter Candy

One of the things I love about this time of year is Easter candy. There are so many special ones that I only eat around Easter: Peeps, Cadbury eggs, jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, malt ball eggs ( the kind that paint your lips/tongue) are just a few of the highlights. Really any of the chocolates taste better in the form of an egg. I have such a hard time not buying bags of these favorites because many are only out once a year. But.. I do resist. I love Easter egg hunts and will always be the type of person who puts the " good" candy in the eggs. Not the nasty sugar eggs!! You the know what I am talking about. The bright hard , sugared"eggs" in the tiny plastic bag. Egg hunt organizers love to take these by the handful and throw them out for kids to "find." I think the rational behind this is " at least everyone will have something." Yuck! As a kid I remember not ever taking the time to pick them up because they were always gross to me. Speaking of being a kid. The "paint your lips" comment comes from my childhood. I would take the pink maltball eggs and paint my lips like I had lipstick on. Silly!! What is your favorite type of Easter candy? I found this great website has done a lot of research on Peeps; how they react to cold, doing surgery so they are not conjoined, what happens to Peeps in a vacuum. It is cute!! www.peepresearch.org

Back into the World of Blogging

So the blogging world has been quite for me over the past two months but I am back on track. Below is an album of Anna Claire's pictures. I am going to post one more album and then future pictures and updates will be mostly be on her own blog- annaclaireblackaby.blogspot.com. I want to keep this my site more about me... which I am sure will still include a great deal about her.
Life has flown by over the past two months. It is amazing how each day may seem to drag out but the "whole" of days flies by.