Work in progress:

Okay, a little late but here are pictures from when my Mom and Dad were down here.

To see the full sized pictures, click on them. I

‘m not sure why they made them so small

Reunion: this was only the second time Mercy has ever seen my Mom and Dad, but she took them right away. She especially loved Grammy because Grammy speaks 1 year old

Mercy and Grammy

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Our little angel

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We had some fantastic sunny days while they were here. The flowers were in bloom…

Dogwood Blossoms

Lovely Lilac Ladies!

My lovely mum

 

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…and we spent a lot of our time outside working in the garden and taking walks.

A special moment

Me and my girl!

3 generations...

 

My Dad

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Mercy LOVED playing with us in the dirt!

Hehehe!

Oooooooh, strike a pose!

Curious about the world...

Silly, you know I'm cute!

 Here she is chasing her shadow  

RAWR!

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This was a special trip to McDonalds! AMEN, CHICKEN NUGGETS!

She loved the animal cookies!

Her happy meal box turned into a viking hat!

FEAR THE VIKING CHILDREN!

Gimli: It's true you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for dwarf men.

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Mercy enjoyed coloring with Grammy!

I think she was sneezing...

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On their last day, we took a trip to Tanglewood Park.  

 

We had a picnic…

                                                         

 

…and walked in the gardens:

My family

My Mum really liked these bright pink blossoms

They had a really cute children’s garden. Mercy was the only one who could fit under this trelise!

This tree is a couple hundred years old and is one of the largest White oaks in NC! The branches were so long they were latched up with wires.

Our most exciting find of the day! Jon found a secret tunnel where the shrubbery had grown over an old path! So cool…

All in all, a lovely visit! I wish they could have stayed longer, but we were glad to have them while we could. We miss you Grammy and Grampy DAY!

  Love,                                         

Jon, Marie, and Mercy!

Ingredients:

Okay, my husband feels that this is very important. We both prepare our bowls differently. You can try it both ways and let me know which one YOU prefer. And to be fair, I won’t tell which way I eat it and which way he eats it.
1. Sautee onion and garlic in 1 tbls butter until onions are just browned.
2. In a large pot combine all the ingredients and stir.
3. Bring to a bowl
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. It can sit on low heat for a while until you are ready to serve. It is best served hot!
1 can chicken
1 can corn
2 cans chicken broth
1 can rotel diced tomatoes
38-40oz (a few cans) of diced tomatoes
1 medium onion
2-3 cloves diced garlic
1 tbls butter
Ground Cumin (I don’t really measure, just sprinkle it in until it smells good):
Black pepper

Ingredients:
1 Box moist yellow cake mix (will also need water, oil, 3 eggs)
1 small box Jello cheesecake pudding mix
1 regular sized container of cream cheese frosting (or you can make your own, if you prefer)
Cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 Degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 12-cup bundt cake pan.
2. Mix cake mix as directed. Add the Jello mix to the batter and stir until blended.
3. Separate cake batter into two parts. Mix about 2-3 tablespoons of Cinnamon into one part.
4. Poor non-Cinnamon portion into the cake pan. Then poor Cinnamon portion over it, swirling it from side to side. Take a butter knife and swirl them together, but be careful not to mix too much.
5. Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. While cake is baking, separate the frosting into two equal parts. Mix a tablespoon or two of Cinnamon into one portion, so it is really cinnamony.
7. When cake is finished, let it cool completely before decorating.

Decorating: I like to drizzle the frosting over the cake. You can make it look really cool and it’s easy to do. Just get two small plastic baggies, clip a small hole in a corner and poor your frosting in. Then just drizzle each one over the whole cake.

Let me know if you have any questions! If you try it, please let me know how it goes! I hope to add pictures soon.

So without any more blabbing, here it is…..

Ingredients:

12 ounces uncooked penne pasta (the recipe calls for Ziti, but I like penne better)

2 pounds ground beef

2 jars spaghetti sauce (recipe calls for one 28oz jar. That’s 2 regular sized jars. I used roasted garlic and onion flavored)

2 eggs

1 carton ricotta cheese (15 oz)

2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (divided)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Meanwhile, brown beef in a large skillet. Stir in the spaghetti sauce.

2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, ricotta cheese, 1 and a half cups mozzerella cheese, and Parmesan cheese. Drain pasta and add it to this mixture. Stir it until pasta is well coated.

3. Spoon a third of the meat sauce into a greased 13×9 inch baking dish. Top with half of the pasta mixture. Add another third of the meat sauce, then the rest of the noodles. Top with the remaining meat sauce.

4. Cover with tin foil and back at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle the rest of the Mozzarella cheese. Bake about 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

5. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Serve with: A fresh green salad and garlic bread!There you go! Hope to see a lot of you try it, and remember to leave a comment on how it goes! Other side suggestions are welcome and appreciated!　

“World’s End”
“The Daleks”
“Day of Reckoning”
“The End of Tomorrow”
“The Waking Ally”
“Flashpoint”

Commentary:

 1. General comments while watching:

• Of course the special effects are cheesy at best.
• On the up side, Susan isn’t quite so spastic.
• I am having a real problem with William Hartnell in the first part of this series. Sometimes he is brilliant like the later Doctors, but at times he seems downright stupid! At least he is arrogant and speaks too much
• Mmmmmmmm! Chills! Seeing the Daleks coming up suddenly always sends a chill up my spine! LOVE IT!
• HAHA! “You will all die. The males, the females, the decendents!” —Sound familiar!?

2. The Daleks:

A. Time Paradox> There is very confusing element of this series. Here is a conversation between Ian and the Doctor: 

Ian: “Doctor, I don’t understand this at all. We saw the Daleks destroyed on Scaro, we were there!?”

Doctor: “My dear boy, what happened on Scaro was a million years ahead of us in the future. What we are seeing now is about the middle history of the Daleks.” 

Ian: “I see. Well they certainly look different don’t they?”

Doctor: “What is so different about the Daleks? Oh I see! You mean the disks on their backs?”

Ian: “Yes. Perhaps that accounts for their increased mobility? Do you remember on Scaro they could only move on metal?”

Doctor: “Yes, yes, quite so, but remember this is an invasion force. Therefore they have to adapt themselves to the planet!”

I’m glad they included this conversation, because it explains how Daleks in the past could be more advanced than the Daleks in the future. A fact that needed explaining. This conversation is also crucial in understanding the difficulty in overcoming the Daleks. The Daleks adapt and change to suit the current situation and location. This is something we will see again and again throughout the years, and is the key reason for the difficulty in their defeat. .

B. I was really interested in the human slaves. They are very much like the Cybermen in that once the mind control breaks down, they go insane and kill themselves. Doctor Who has always been very forward in it’s speculation of human/machine hybrids, often showing the darker side of this long standing scientific study. While modern medicine seeks to improve the quality of life through artificial limbs and organs, Science fiction has been exploring the more disturbing possibility of machines taking control of human bodies and using them for their own purposes

C. Dalek Military Strategy: Pretty ingenious, of course, though a little on the cowardly side. They bombarded the earth with a series of metorites that brought on a new plague. Of course, no one would have suspected an invasion, it would just seem like natural circumstances. Then, once earth got weak enough, they just came in a started picking people off and turning them into slaves.

E. Purpose: Mining for something. Haven’t got there yet!

3. Philosophy

-In “World’s End” Ian raises an interesting philosophical question that comes up over and over again throughout the Doctor Who years. In the second part of this episode he states that he doesn’t want to know what has happened to the earth or where all the people are. This seems very un-human of him, and makes me think. If you could know the future and it was terrible, would you want to know so you could try to change it, or leave it alone and hope for the best?

-Susan: “Oh the Daleks, everything they touch turns into a horrible sort of nightmare…” –She sums it up nicely. If you have not watched these earlier episodes, it may be difficult to understand the terror and horror the Doctor and his former companians feel when they see these creatures coming.

-”Things aren’t made better by running away.” Susan wants to get in the Tardis and run to some place safe (big suprise), but the guy she’s with says this to her. This gives a little insight into this gals upbringing. She and the Doctor have always been running. She longs for a place where she belongs and can call home.

 It reminds me  just how marvelous and wonderful all life is. When joy is in your heart, even the mundane everyday tasks become beautiful. Eating supper with my family and talking about our day; working in the garden and seeing Mercy trying to pull up roots like Mommy;  hearing the sounds of little laughter; even doing the dishes!  I wish everyone could look at life through the eyes of joy and realize that it really is beautiful.

 I called Jon.  As we discussed retrieval options, a little red car pulled up in front of us! My heart leapt with joy when I saw it was my pastor, John, and his wife Anne! They were on their way to Winston-Salem and saw we were stranded! Not only that, but they had a car seat in their car already. God worked out a ride for us before we even knew we needed one!

I am so thankful that God is constantly watching out for us. While we plod aimlessly along not thinking what unexpected tribulations might be waiting for us just around the corner, God is working them toward His glory and our benefit. What an amazing thought! Even when things come up that could rob our joy and cause frustration and panic, God is there taking care of His children.

I would also like to say thank you to those who helped and are still helping us out in this situation. Please pray for the car, it’s still by the side of the road

4/19/2010: Just a little update! My husband was able to get the car started and bring it home! It turns out the radiator got so hot the oil boiled! Not sure why it overheated because there was coolant in the tank, but it wasn’t transfered over to the radiator.. Still a mystery.

So all is well now, but the car is still rattling quite a bit.

Mercy and I have been spending quite a few hours a week working on organizing the patches near the house. This is a LOT of work. The beds have been neglected for many years, and the root systems are more tangled than the roads in Winston-Salem! The work is hard, but I find a sort of satisfaction in it. After working outside for a couple hours, I am more calm and peaceful than if I had sat at a computer or read a book all morning.

Of course, I am perfectly content sitting inside with a book. But if that was how I chose to spend my time, not only would I miss out on the physical stimulation, the mentaly calming benefits I get from focusing my mind on a task, and the spiritual benefits that come from working with God’s wonderful and beautiful creations, but I would also miss out on moments like this….

1. Today I went to get her up from her nap, and she was sitting up in her crib, her wee little hands tightly gripping the side. When she saw me, she got excited and pulled herself up INTO A STANDING POSITION!!! My heart did a leap of joy and fright as I was simultaneously proud of her new accomplishment, and panicked that she might flip over the edge!

2. Crawling: It began a little bit at a time in July 2009. By August, she was wiggling her way around the house! Jon and I worked really hard for this one! Every night we’d practice with her, holding her belly off the floor and trying to get her to crawl back and forth. Of course, she never did when we were trying to get her to. It happened all of a sudden. One day she just started scooting herself along! I couldn’t believe it!

3. Walking:

4. First Tooth:

4. First Birthday: