Something so small

This morning I walk into the kitchen to fix Tony's breakfast and pack his lunch. I hear this rattling noise coming from the laundry room. My heart skipped a beat and I stood real still and listened ... Yep. Something was really rattling. I turned on the light in the laundry room, but couldn't muster up enough courage to look. I go back in the bedroom and whisper, "Tony, I think something is in the laundry room - I hear a rattling noise." He comes out into the kitchen and bravely enters the laundry room. :) He didn't see anything, but was able to determine that the noise was coming from the furnace/water heater area; something was trying to chew and scratch it's way out. It was pretty loud, too. Sigh. Tony had to leave for work. :( Which left me there by myself with the continuous rattling. I prayed out loud and told whatever it was to go away. I started cleaning and vacuuming the laundry room and utility closet. I opened the back door and set a few things there to carry out to the shed. Then I carried our recycables and trash to the car for my weekly trip to the dump. I came back inside and continued to reorganize the utility closet. I start to walk back out to the kitchen when I see something move out of the corner of my eye. It was right there by the screen door, trying to get outside. A little grey mouse with a long tail. Everything started going in slow motion. The little critter couldn't get out, so he started to walk along the edge of the wall toward the kitchen. Praise the Lord, I had piled some things there to carry to the shed, which made it difficult for the mouse to get in the kitchen. I picked up one of our Ron Paul signs (go Ron Paul!!), prayed that the mouse wouldn't go into the kitchen, opened the screen door, and guided that little mouse out of our house. I was shaking... and stopped to listen for the rattling noise. I didn't hear it anymore, which means that he was the culprit. Hard to believe that something so small was making so much noise! I called Tony right away to let him know. When he get's home from work we'll have to take a closer look at the furnace/water heater because that little mouse apparently chewed it's way through something. Lord willing, it will not go run and tell all of his friends about this new entryway into our house. Seriously!

Great Giveaway - Excalibur Dehydrator

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A Feast for Two

Last week I started craving Thanksgiving dinner - a whole month early. ;) Several things probably attributed to this desire: the cooler weather, looking at past November issues of Martha Stewart, gazing through Fall wedding ideas with Chrissie, thinking about what I want for my birthday (which is near Thanksgiving), making a pumpkin pie last week, seeing Thanksgiving decor clearanced at Target (I kid you not!)... So, I wanted Thanksgiving dinner, but I didn't want to wait a whole month for it! Soooo, I decided that that Tony & I could celebrate early. A feast for just the two of us. :) We had roasted turkey legs, steamed baby carrots, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, homemade stuffing (it was amazing), and sweet dinner rolls. Yum. Yum. Yum!!

In other news, we rejoiced when Tony turned in his last assignments for Management and Microeconomics on Saturday. :) He has started two new classes this week: Statistics and Discrete Math. I think our brains will be getting a really good workout these next 8 weeks.

AND, I met Tony for lunch yesterday. We love it!! Seeing each other mid-day, sharing a veggie sub, and talking about various things. I think it's becoming a weekly outage. ;)

Click here to read his most recent blog post - Long Life and God's Plan.

Living Life

Nearing 6pm last night, as we were running our 3-mile trail, Tony turned around and asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch tomorrow. "Of course!" It is something we haven't done in a long time. And actually, I had been thinking about surprising Tony for lunch one day this week. I just think it's so neat how God presses on our hearts the same desires and thoughts. So, I'm going to meet my sweet husband for lunch today!! And I'm very excited! :)

After we got home from our run, we were talking about dinner... and decided that it was a good night for a date!! :) So off to the new IHOP we went. Oh, how I enjoy sitting across the table from the one I love the most; conversing with him about the little details of everything. I love living life with him, the one whom God created to be my beloved!! Sweet! The original plan was to eat IHOP, and then come home and make a pumpkin pie {this cooler weather is really putting us in the mood for such fall flavors}. But I forgot to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few missing ingredients. So maybe I'll make that pie today.

Rainy Day Pillow

Two of Tony's old button down shirts turned into this.

A wonderful find at Ollie's. This book only cost me $7.

Checkers anyone?

gathered goodness

A basket weave pillow made.by.me. :)

Over the weekend

Six years, nine months, and a day ago, Tony Denham asked me if I would like to go eat lunch with him after church. I replied shyly, "I'll have to ask my parents." ;)

That previous Wednesday, unbeknown to me, my dad had approached Tony and told him, "You have permission to date my daughter." That Thursday, dad invited Tony to our house for dinner and a round of SkipBo. And I didn't find this detail out until three years after the fact, but my dad actually gave Tony money that Sunday morning and said, "this is to take Shayna out to eat." {I love our story!!} My parents joyfully gave me permission. Tony picked me up in his little white pickup truck and we ate lunch at Ryan's. We talked a lot! And as we were leaving the restaurant we both said, "It feels like I've known you forever." And it really did!! That was the beginning of Tony & Shayna. I praise God bringing the two of us together! I love you, Tony!

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Chrissie has started coming over my house once a week for cooking lessons. It gives us time to catch up and talk about wedding details. Brittany joined us this past Friday and we made mexican lasagna with homemade tortillas and jasmine rice. :)

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Nine and a half hours of Saturday was designated to schoolwork. Our minds get soooo tired and ansy after soooo much studying. As we were sitting there at the dining room table, reviewing for a test, we hear the faint melody of an icecream truck. It gets closer and closer. We go (okay I ran) to the front door to see if any of the neighbor children were running out for icecream. It was raining outside as the truck slowly passed by our house. We sit back down at the table, start to study again, when we hear the melody getting closer again. The truck had turned around and was now driving by even slower. We debated briefly if we wanted icecream, did we really want get wet, how much is this going to be?? Oh, but it would be fun!! So I grabbed some cash, and we ran outside in the rain to meet the Icecream Man. I told him, "We're big kids!" To which he replied, "I serve all ages." :)

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Sunday afternoon, I made a big mess in the kitchen. We had invited my family over for dinner, so I stayed busy making monterey jack cheese & sweet potato soup (served with chips, made.by.mom salad and made.by.Brittany. green beans). I also made my very first Rum Cake. The recipe called for 16 eggs and made lots of cake batter and just as much frosting. I was picturing the cake to be really moist and fluffy with all those eggs, but it was actually pretty dense. It still tasted alright and everyone ate it, but I don't think I'll use that cake recipe again. The frosting, on the other hand, turned out excellent! And since there is so much of it leftover, I'm going to pick out a different cake recipe later this week and try again.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Preheat oven to 450*
Peel and cut 4-5 cups of butternut squash; place in bowl.
Toss with 2 Tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp sea salt, and a generous amount of the following: cumin, cayenne, coriander, pepper, paprika, cinnamon, all spice, ginger, and ground cloves.

Place squash in an oiled roasting pan and roast for about 45 minutes (stirring every 15 minutes).

Relaxing...

We were able to cram all of Tony's school work into five days - he submitted the last assignment late Friday night. Every night was a late night - like midnight. The mornings came fast. It was all worth it though, because it enabled us to spend the weekend at Surf City with his family - what a lovely little getaway it was!! Tony & I slept in Saturday morning, which was amazing! We enjoyed breakfast together, slowly packed up our things, and made our way to the beach. Time with family, pier fishing, staying up late talking, sleeping in a twin bed~the two of us, lots of tasty food, the fish park, Bumblebee Shop, more pier fishing, yummy cheeseburgers with my love... {Sigh} It was such a relaxing weekend!