Navy Graduation

On October 7, 2011, my sisters graduated from Navy Bootcamp!

It was amazing to be there and to see them graduate! Nicole and Lorelei are doing awesome, and amazingly got to be together almost the whole time in bootcamp.

This is the drill hall where the graduation was held. It was packed!

Here is Nicole and Lorelei's division, Division 340

All the divisions that graduated that day. Over 900 new sailors!

Close up of Division 340. I know it's pretty much impossible to see the girls. Nikki is holding the flag on the farthest left, and you can see Lorelei standing to the immediate right of the flag on the farthest right.

Once the graduation ended, everyone in the whole building rushed to see eachother, it was great! We couldn't wait to congratulate and hug the girls!

After the graduation we had 8 hours to be with the girls. They had to check back in to the barracks and rest up for their flight leaving early the next morning to Maryland.

All the family went to Longhorn Steakhouse for a celebration lunch with our Sailors!

The girls arrived in style with my Uncle Paul!

Our table, there were so many of us we asked the waitress to take a picture from each side of the table. 

Nicole!

Lorelei!

The food at the restaurant was a nice change from bootcamp meals! 

Here they are! Lorelei and Nikki, I couldn't be more proud of you!

Casey's Birthday

May I start this post by showing you how adorable Casey was as a child... 

..Well, still is in my book of course!

For Casey's birthday I made Carrot Cake Cupcakes!

Recipe via Pioneer Woman. (Click here for recipe) A place to find good recipes when you can't get a hold of your Mom or your Mother-in-Law. (ahem, Kathy C)

Mmm! 

These cupcakes are so tasty, Casey ate four! And he really would've appreciated it if I didn't put candles on his cupcake, or take his picture.. Hmm

Josey giving her Dad some birthday love this morning before he left.

On the Birthday Dinner Menu is:

Baked Chicken Thighs, using the spices from my "The WHOLE Chicken" recipe. (Click Here)

Baked Sweet Potatoes, with butter and brown sugar.

Frozen corn, ...cooked of course! Add some sugar to them while they're heating up.

and Sourdough Bread not made by me, but I would like to some day.

 I Love you Casey! Happy Birthday!

Dog Days..

Hi!

I'm tired!

In many ways shapes and forms...

Josey should be tired too, due to her lack of sleep for the past two nights, and her unwillingness to take a good nap the past few days.

I know my husband is so tired and weary. Gone ALL day some days, just trying to finish up harvest.

I don't want to sound like I'm complaining... I'm just in a weird spot right now, and have to try really hard sometimes to "look UP", look at the positive, and keep going :)

Wanted to share what keeps me going in these "dog days of parenting and farming". One of my favorite verses! Always a good one to turn to.

Matthew 11:28-30
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." 


We'll just keep on trucking! And, after seeing old pictures like this one... I wonder how I can even utter a word!

I am VERY thankful for modern farm equipment! What a blessing!

Beginning of Harvest

Harvest Photos

Casey taking a break one morning with Josey. She's learning to have a good eye for the best tractors! 

Casey cleaning off the combine with the blower. That job is especially fun on a windy day.

One of the tractors, John Deere is the way to go around here! That yellow pipe you see is loading the corn way up into the grain bin. Where corn is dried to the correct moisture then trucked into town. 

Casey seeing if Josey wants to climb up the grain bin for him. She wasn't so sure...

(I couldn't upload these next photo's any bigger)

One day we went on a little family ride in the combine. It was Josey's first time! She watched quietly with really wide eyes at what was going on. Josey seemed to like it in the end!

Josey hanging out by the old Mack farm truck.

Little scrunched nose face!

Sitting with Grandpa Ray! You can't tell he likes Josey at all, huh? :) Grandpa Ray just loves her! She's pretty much got him wrapped around her little finger.

Everything has been going decently well with harvest so far. (Yay!) Casey's still going back and forth to college in between everything. Josey and I have been holding down the fort at home, with occasional trips back and forth to the working men. Josey is getting about 3 more teeth at the same time, which is great fun (NOT). Poor baby! I've also had some awesome girlfriends visit this past week. It was great to catch up and have some girl time. Fall is our favorite time of year! I can't wait for all the gorgeous colors, baking pumpkin bread, making soup, and bundling up!

Kohrs Superhero Sandwich

In a recent conversation with my older sister we were tossing sandwich ideas back and forth.

I wanted to find ideas for meals Casey can eat while driving the combine.

(This is a combine ;)

After she read to me a recipe idea, we both stopped and said "Mmmm! Doesn't THAT sound good?" (we started licking our lips and giggling at each other) We read about a three layered french bread sandwich, each layer slathered in butter, then tossed in the oven.

Doesn't that sound good???

Both of us did decide that the recipe needed major modifications. There wasn't even cheese on the original recipe! I decided to make this for dinner last night. My sister's family sadly missed out, but were sent pictures to drool over.

So, this is what we came up with.... A Kohrs Superhero Sandwich!

What you need:
French bread
Butter
Lunch Meat
Cheese Slices
Caramelized Onions
Italian Dressing (or similar)
Oven Temp: 400 degrees

First, chop up your onion and place it in a pan over med-low heat with 2-3 tabs of butter. Then, cut about 4-6 inches off of your french bread, to make the size of your sandwich. Then, take your bread that you want to use for the sandwich and cut it into three slices horizontally.

Spread butter on the bottom slice and add meat and cheese. Take the middle slice and spread with (ALOT of) butter, and drizzle with Italian dressing. Place onto the bottom layer of the sandwich.

I decided to do one sandwich with Italian dressing and one with Spicy Ranch. Both were tasty! Now, place meat and cheese on top of your dressing. Take onions off of the stove and scoop them right onto the top of your cheese.

Now put the top of the sandwich on and spread with butter.

Wrap in foil and place in preheated oven on top rack for 15 minutes. I was nervous for how the sandwich would turn out. I thought that when I opened the foil I was going to have a huge mess inside. But surprisingly I didn't!

Here's a close picture of all the layers. Mmm Mmm delicious!

Casey's reaction wasn't bad either! I was told that the sandwiches were amazing the first bite. After the second bite, I got a DOUBLE thumbs up, and Casey said the sandwiches were a home-run!

The salad you see is from a previous post, you can find the recipe here.

I love having recipes like this that are so quick to make and taste so good!

Family Thoughts and Family Fun

The past week has flown by! We have been busy, and will start to get more and more busy in the weeks to come.

Harvest is on it's way! We might start next week. I don't think I will see Casey for awhile. He's going to school full time and will be spending every extra second he has in the fields. I feel like we are holding our breath. There is a lot of excitement, expectation, and unanswered questions hanging in the air. We've been watching the grain markets and weather all through the past season, the roller-coaster of prices up and down, the weather from dry, to wet, or windy. It's a weird feeling to have SO much put into the fields, and all the outcome is mostly out of our control. We just have to be patient. It really is not in our hands, it's in God's. Thank goodness for that! Because I (we) would be a nervous wreck. Farming has certainly stretched our faith in many ways. This time of year is interesting for us! I know Casey and his Grandpa are just itching to get in the fields!

We spent Labor Day weekend in St. Louis, with Casey's Dad and his wife. It was nice to get away and have a break before the craziness of harvest starts. We went biking while we were there. The men went on the technical mountain trails, while us girls went on the paved route. Josey was happy to ride in her little bike trailer. She is so cute and tiny in there! We put her boppy pillow behind her to make it more comfortable with all the straps. She talked to herself and looked out her little windows the whole time. I must add, that all this happy baby bike-trailerness was a slow weight that creeped up on me! And, I was happy to accept Tina's offer to switch bikes halfway through. I felt very out of shape. Ha! There was also a white haired, mustached, elderly gentleman that passed us a few times, which added to me feeling more out of shape. We really enjoy biking, and have to find some local trails we can go on. It's a really fun family activity!

As summer fades into fall. We are looking forward to cooled of weather, a change of pace, harvest, the gorgeous colors of the trees, baking, and of course hunting season!

I am going to try to make it a point to capture as much as I can on camera!

Kitchen Redemption

I needed a little redemption after making the most horrible dinner late last week. NOTHING turned out. Not even easy peasy to make frozen vegetables. We were of course, more hungry than normal that night. I was so mad I couldn't talk all through dinner... that gross dinner.

After a few humbling days of just sticking with what I know, I decided to try a some new recipes again. Thank goodness, everything turned out last night.

Chicken Cordon Bleu stuffed with canadian bacon, Red Leaf Salad, and Italian Peasant Bread were on the menu.

Along with the grand finale... Peanut Butter-Banana Pudding for dessert.

Here it is! I thought it was so pretty!

Peanut Butter-Banana Pudding
(from Southern Living Secrets of the South's Best Barbecue)
This is a make ahead dish. Prep time: 10 minutes, Other: 2 hours.

1 (3.4 oz.) package French vanilla instant pudding mix
2 cups milk
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1 (8-oz.) carton sour cream
42 vanilla wafers
6 small bananas, divided
1 (8-oz.) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Prepare pudding mix according to package directions, using a whisk and 2 cups milk. (Do not use an electric mixer.) Add peanut butter and sour cream, stirring well with a wire whisk.
Line a 2 1/2- qt. casserole with 14 vanilla wafers. Peel and slice 4 bananas. Top wafers with one-third each of pudding mixture, banana slices, and whipped topping.
Cover and chill at least 2 hours. To garnish, peel and slice remaining 2 bananas; arrange slices around outer edges of dish.
Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Another Milestone

Josey stood up for the first time this afternoon. Wow, what a big girl! She just had her diaper changed, and has always been eyeballing our remotes. Once she squirmed away from me, with her new diaper, she went right to the chair and pulled herself up!

Here's a video for the grandparents!! ... AND everyone else! :)

I'm saying she's naughty because she knows she's not supposed to have the remotes. How bad is it that her motivation for standing for the first time, is to do something she knows she isn't supposed to? 

One Tooth

Update: Josey has one tooth that FINALLY broke through!

This update is kind of late.. We first noticed her tooth broke through on August 8. Josey will never let me see it, or try to feel in her mouth if there is more teeth coming. I have, however, seen that her top front teeth look like they will be here any second! Her gums are just bulging!

Here is my best tooth shot. Just imagine seeing her tooth on the bottom right!

Josey is also trying to climb everything. She can't stand up by things yet, but she is determined. The look on her face is hilarious in this next shot! Josey has really been working on that highchair! One day soon I'll be watching her try to climb to the top of that highchair like a little monkey!

Psalm 91

Psalm 91

Theme: God's protection in the midst of danger. God doesn't promise a world fee from danger, but he does promise his help whenever we face danger.

Author: Anonymos

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High

will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare

and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his feathers,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of the night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.

A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

You will only observe with your eyes 

and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling-

even the Lord, who is my refuge-

then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;

you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him;

I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

He will call upon me, and I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble,

I will deliver him and honor him.

With long life will I satisfy him

and show him my salvation."

-----------------------------------------------

The youngest of my family, Nicole and Lorelei, have been in Navy bootcamp a week today. I am so proud of them! It's amazing how God works, that they both got the job that they wanted, and got to go through bootcamp together. They signed up under the job mass communications. Nikki is going for photography, and Lorelei journalism or broadcasting. They have been on my mind so much. Both of the girls have said that this passage keeps rolling through their heads. I can't wait to see them graduate! Then they both will go to Maryland to school for 25 weeks. Another blessing, that Lorelei and Nikki can be together in school. We'll have to wait and see what's after that school... 

I am also excited that their bootcamp is in Northern Illinois! Even though I can't see them until they graduate, it's nice to know that they are close by. 

This passage means a lot to me personally. I read it almost every day while Casey was deployed in Afghanistan. 

As you read this, or go about your day. Please keep Nicole and Lorelei in your thoughts and prayers. Also, the rest of our military and their families.

Here are links to the girls' blogs. Lorelei's Blog-Click Here ...... Nicole's Blog-Click Here