Fri., Feb. 29 - Sun., Mar. 2

These are our good friends, Tommy & Shavon, who open their home to us every Thursday to share supper and Bible study with our families and some of Shavon's friends from work. They took a break from working in the kitchen for a second so I could shoot this picture. (Shavon usually wears her hair down; she had it fixed so fun this night I took my camera!)

Here is a picture of some of the children we spend Thursday evenings with. You see N & J on the left in front. Beside Natasha is Troy and Sarah's daughter, Galonadel, 4; her little brother, Malakith is 2 but I didn't get a picture of him. I also didn't get a picture of Tommy & Shavon's son, Zane, 4. On the left at the table are Tommy & Shavon's Teah (hair down), 9; beside Teah (TAY-uh) is her neighborhood friend, Leti (short for Leticia), 11.

This picture shows Sarah (L, navy shirt), Jeremy back in the kitchen making his plate, Shavon, her brother Chris, 16, and Tommy.

While supper is being cleaned up before Bible study starts ... and then for a while after Bible study is over, everyone takes turns playing Guitar Hero. It's 'big fun' when we take our family's controller over there because the game is set up so that with two controllers, two players can play either co-op (playing together), face-off (highest score wins), or battle (see if one player can beat the other before the song is up). I can't tell you how much this crowd enjoys this game!!!!! One way our family benefits is that it is good away-from-home sportsmanship practice. :) Here are Teah and Natasha battling. Battles are actually all we do of Guitar Hero on Thursdays; it's everyone's favorite. It's fun for each parent to coach his/her child; it's fun for the children to battle each other; it's fun to root for the underdog; it's fun for the children to have a chance at beating one of the adults (each player chooses his appropriate level of difficulty, so, for example, Justus and Jeremy can battle on the same song, Justus playing it on "Easy" and Jeremy playing it on "Expert" ... and Justus wins ... a lot, actually! LOL [Note: Teah and Natasha have THE SAME HAIR, just different colors and N has bangs.]

Here is Sarah battling Justus.

This picture shows how enjoyable Guitar Hero is. At the moment this picture was taken, Jeremy was battling Shavon. Clockwise from Jeremy are (L, front) Troy, Sarah's husband, David, Shavon's friend from work who is actually renting a couch from Tommy & Shavon at the moment, Chris (practicing!! He is the original Guitar Hero freak of this crazy bunch!), and Tommy, scratching his arm.

The day Justus was sssssso sick, Wednesday, I took this picture of him taking it easy in bed with books. Looks like a great time, eh?? [Justus was feeling somewhat bad again today, in his stomach; he didn't even eat lunch today, just a couple bites of bread and a little water. After we got home he spent a lot of time on the toilet. When he was through I said,"So, you feel a lot better after all that, huh?" He said, and I quote exactly, "I didn't know I could have THAT MUCH in my system, when I'm just this little!" OH NNNNNNNO!!!!!! LOL]

This picture of Chewie was taken about 2 weeks ago when he weighed only 25 lbs. This is a VERY common sight.

This is another common sight, both the couch cushions removed AND Chewie believing that the entire purpose of couch cushions is for his comfort/pillows.

Jeremy and his dog.

This is the picture I took of N walking both dogs week-before-last.

Here is a picture I took of Priscilla and Elaine while the children were swimming at the pool at the Hilton.

Elaine took this picture of Priscilla and me. That's not the computer; the picture is blurry. :(

On Friday Jeremy fielded about 8 long phone calls and wasn't getting much of anything done at the office so he decided to come home and not get much of anything done ... at least he could be with his fam. lol I did laundry and did a sink of hand-wash dishes. Then Jeremy treated us (incl. Elaine) to supper across town at Joe's Crab Shack, something we do once per year when we live near one. (Oceanside and Memphis are the only other two places we have been that had one.) It was lovely, lovely timing, what with the distracting and highly-demanding (especially emotionally) week we had. After supper we got to go to Bookman's and came home with a little purchase of three used books, one for Jeremy, one for N, and one for me (Homeschooling, the Middle Years - gulp!).

Unique things about Saturday are that N made a recipe I clipped from a magazine: "Pumpkin Whoopie Pies," soft pumpkin-bread-like cookies glued together like a sandwich with cream cheese frosting between them. I ended up being on the phone during a lot of her cooking, and was VERY nervous about whether or not she did all the measuring correctly. She HAD to have, because those cookies turned out great!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!! Go, Girlie!!!! The children played outside for llllllots of time this day. I flopped Shepherd's Pie for supper because I left out the garlic; it was blllllllllllllland!! lol OOPS. Oh well, on the leftovers we can sprinkle some garlic and make them more enjoyable than it was the first time 'round.... lol I edited some more recipes for the church recipe book, the children did a lot of picking up around the house, and N & I were able to select and price some more items for the garage sale.

Today, Sunday, was --oof-- SOME KIND of day! This was the day Jeremy was to announce to the whole congregation our plans to find a different place to be employed ... and why. :( That announcement ended up following on the heels of Shavon's baptism!!!!!!!!!! After watching her faith grow and grow as she has heard more and more of the word, we were not at all surprised that "transfer of ownership" of her life was the next step in her spiritual walk. We are so joyous, with her, that she is no longer her own but is God's. Amen!! [Though her grandpa, Jim Blount is mostly-blind and mostly-deaf, the tears of joy on his face were especially moving.] It was also extremely lovely that Mary (Shavon's sister) and Freddy (Mary's fiance), from Phoenix, were present today and got to witness Shavon's baptism!

The four of us stayed rather late after the church meeting; many folks had much to say to us and we feel blessed to be loved so much, though so torn at the stark truth of the entire situation. argh

Because of my ill health and thinking last night, I made a(nother) mistake in the kitchen which eliminated our only Sunday lunch plan. GR!! "GET IT TOGETHER!" (eye roll) So we ate out AGAIN this afternoon, just soup and salad at Olive Garden; it is light, satisfying, quick, and relatively inexpensive. I'm anxious to get back into my homemaking routine!!! This afternoon Jeremy and I worked together attempting a fix on the Guitar Hero controller Justus broke last week; alas, it didn't work. Jeremy took a few calls about the announcement this morning, and our contact from Casa Grande called for verification on a couple things before their meeting tonight. As of this afternoon they were unsure if they will come to a final decision tonight about whether to invite us to go work there with them; again, 'no rush' ... on either end. Everyone wants to make sure it is THE RIGHT thing.

On the way home from the evening service we purchased a second Guitar Hero controller for our family. This will greatly increase our enjoyment of the game and its benefits, while actually allowing us to spend LESS time with the game on! So tonight we 'battled' ... and munched popcorn.

We had a surprise visit from a fairly new-Christian church friend about our age, who actually showed up at our house inebriated. (blink, blink) He was completely discreet, and didn't even come in. Jeremy answered the door, and they sat under the stars on the chairs out front. Thankfully this loved one wasn't too 'far gone'; he came to our house because he is so confused about why he has such a hard time fighting an addiction to drugs including alcohol; he told Jeremy tonight that he's even been to treatment for it. Interestingly, Jeremy has never had a chance to share with this man about Jeremy's continual battle with alcohol addiction, so it seemed to us a tremendous show of trust that this man knew he could come here and be safe, physically and spiritually/emotionally, while seeking some answers. After some pretty serious, point-blank discussion, Jeremy was pleased to accept this man's request that Jeremy be his Accountability Partner. SO, I'm thinking Jeremy will likely have a whole lot more to do with this him in coming weeks ... which will be wonderful. A little later, Jeremy and I had a discussion about how amazing it is to watch God's plan work. The blessings are received even on the listener's side of such an interaction because, for example, in this case, knowing this truth about this man helps us sssssssso much better understand some characteristics with which we had previously been frustrated. Confessing sins to one another, "transparently", and building each other up is ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH ... no surprise, since it's yet another aspect of God's perfect plan to bring mankind back into relationship with Him. God be praised!!

Now, as requested, here are Taco Salad details:

Taco Salad

"Ingredient Options":

lettuce, torn (Romaine or other)

cheese, shredded (cheddar, Monterey Jack, or any other Mexican cheese/mix)

olives (black or green/pimiento stuffed, whole or sliced)

tomatoes, chopped

avocados, sliced

jalapeno slices, fresh or canned, sliced

cooked beans (kidney, black, or pinto/refried, or refried pintos from a can)

tortilla chips

Mexican-seasoned cooked hamburger (or chicken)* [Stir in chopped green chiles.]

Salsa! (5 Roma tomatoes, diced; 3 green onions, minced; 1/3 c. chopped fresh cilantro; 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced, to taste; 2 T. lime juice; 1/2 t. salt, or more to taste; make a day ahead if possible, so flavors can meld.)

sour cream and/or

Ranch dressing (3/4 c. buttermilk, 1 1/4 c. mayonnaise, 3/4 t. dill, 1/2 t. garlic powder, 1/2 t. onion powder, 1/2 t. parsley, 1/4 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper; blend well. Sour cream can be substituted for the mayonnaise. Mix equal parts Ranch dressing with sour cream for Ranch Dip.)

* Taco Seasoning (substitute for a packet from the grocery store, to season 1 lb. hamburger)

1 t. chili powder

1/2 t. onion powder (if you didn't cook your meat with chopped onion)

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper

1/2 t. oregano

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. parsley

1/4 t. garlic powder (if you didn't cook your meat with minced garlic)

1/4 t. cumin

1/8 t. white pepper

1/8 t. red (Cayenne) pepper, or more to taste

a splash or two of lime or lemon juice