Cupcakes

Saturday we had a little family get together for Eli's birthday.  I think it's safe to say  that he was pretty excited about the cupcakes.

If you are friends with me on facebook, you already know this story.

That morning I baked all the cupcakes (about 40 of them) and had them out on the counter cooling.  I then ran upstairs to change the laundry.  When I came back downstairs I noticed one cupcake was missing and there was a trail of cupcake crumbs on the floor.  I asked all the kids if anyone ate a cupcake but no one would fess up.

Eli kept grinning at me and giggling when I asked him if he ate a cupcake.  And his breath totally smelled like chocolate.

I found the cupcake in the trash with a tiny little Eli bite take out of it.

The little stink.

We had hot dogs, baked beans, watermelon and chips for his birthday BBQ.  

All things that he loves.

And then of course, he finally did get to eat a cupcake.

Blowing out the candles was a hit.

Wade was in charge of the candles.  So he let Eli blow them out twice.  

(and then six more times Sunday morning.)

He was a little obsessed with his Cars Candles.

And then of course, a two year old needs two cupcakes.

What a happy boy!

26 Weeks.

I took this picture a week and a half ago.  

I'm now 27.5 weeks.

Maybe only 10 to go?  

That is a scary and exciting thought all at the same time.

5.  

What are we going to do with 5?

Sunday Photo .33

Random bits from our day:

Before church.  

Gage was sick, so Gage, Eli and Wade stayed home.

They rested and took naps.

Hopefully those sniffles and cough will go away soon.

I feel like ever since we've moved here we hardly ever get to ALL go to church.  

Someone is always sick.

boo.

At dinner tonight Wade declared that it was time.  

We hadn't made a zip line yet in this house. 

True.

So what did we do after dinner?

zip lines.

(Noah is up there, behind the scenes, building and constructing Lego ships to shoot down.)

Most people are just now starting school.

We have 5 days this week and then get a 3 week break.

Woo Hoo!

Just in time cooler temperatures and fall.

Tonight I baked our first apple pie of the season.  

The house now smells good enough to eat.

Tonight while getting ready for bed I walked into Avery's room and asked, "Where's my baby girl?" (referring to Avery).  Eli came running up to me, pointing to my belly and said, "Right HERE!"

What a smart little boy.

I think he's going to be a great big brother.

Kids are all in bed.

It's raining outside, and I've totally missed the sound of rain.

I think it's time for a piece of apple pie.

The Big 2!

 Two years ago today Eli Owen joined our family!

Eli is such a happy, content boy. He is easy going and will put up with just about anything...except nursery at church!

Eli is such a typical boy! He loves to race cars on his car track all day log. He loves trains. He loves dirt, sticks, being outside, bikes and skateboards.

He also will sit and play princess and house with his sister, make me some dinner in the toy kitchen and give the best cuddles around.

He doesn't just give five, but loves "bones" or "knuckles" too. Each time he makes them explode like little fireworks too.

Eli loves his two "ankies" (blankets)...and of course those little two fingers that keep him happy. That is going to be one hard habit to break!

His favorite color is blue. Because if you ask him what color anything is, blue is always the answer.

Eli is a talker! He totally reminds us of Noah because, just like Noah, he can say anything an everything. Some examples of things he loves to say:

Crossing guard (we wave at him 3 times a school day), ankie, ancake (pancake), pillow pet, car, train, show, and the one that makes us laugh every time he says it, 

"I fart!"

He can also say everyone's name in the family: Daddy, Mom, Gage, Noah, Abery (says it with a b), I (for himself) and baby.

Eli totally thinks he is just as big as everyone else around here. He loves jumping off the couch an stairs, trying to ride the big bikes, and being a total dare devil! He thinks he needs to sit on the potty everyone someone else goes, we are totally not going there yet though!

At bedtime he loves to climb in his own crib and jump. But then we tell him, "Eli, it's time to lay down and go to sleep" and he does!

He loves to help do the dishes, he tries his best to put away silverware. (I find it in all sorts of drawers!) an after grocery shopping I can always find him at the back of the van when we get home, waiting for a bag to carry in. He loves to tell me, "I help!"

He really is an easy going kid. I hope that the 2 and 3 year old years won't change that:)

(He recently added "mine!" to his vocabulary, so I'm not holding my breath!)

It's hard to believe that it's been 2 years already.

He makes us smile and laugh every day. 

 We love little Eli!

Breakfast

We are now working on our fifth week of school.  Time sure flies.  One of the very first things I noticed about school being back in session was just how hungry my boys were getting.  Our new school has lunch an hour later than Gage is used to, has one more recess and has longer hours.  Noah was having such a hard time when I would pick him up from school.  Even though he was having good behavior in class, he would fall apart in the car on the way home the first couple days, crying, yelling, just so upset.  Then after lunch a new-happy-Noah would appear and he would tell me just how much fun he had a school and how much he loved it.

I had to find a way to keep these boys full longer.  I put it out there on facebook and got some really good suggestions.

Where in the world were we before facebook, pinterest and google?

(Oh yeah...the library)

~

One problem that we face is making everyone happy. There are six (almost seven) of us.  All with different opinions.  At dinner I say "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" but in the morning, I like everyone to wake up to something they are excited about and leave for school or start their day happy.

Generally, the ideas friends suggested on facebook came down to more protein and/or more whole wheat.

Eggs are a great protein to eat in the morning and are really good for them, but only half of us like eggs.  

I also know they would love to eat sausage or bacon every morning, but I am positive that would break our grocery budget.  Sunday's we usually have sausage or bacon with our breakfast and we easily eat through 2 packages.  Every morning?  no way.

We already spent a LOT of milk.  5-6 gallons a week.  

Some like cottage cheese.  Others think it is the grossest thing invented and won't even sit next to the ones eating it.

Looking through the suggestions and ideas I found, these are the ideas that we tried.

Whole Wheat Pancakes

Sunday morning means pancake morning around here.  I make up a double batch of whole wheat pancakes. We eat one whole batch and then I freeze another batch. Half the kids like chocolate chip pancakes, so I add those to about half the pancakes.  I stack the pancakes in between paper towels and freeze them in large freezer gallon bags.  In the morning I can pop the pancakes in the microwave for a few seconds (30 seconds for 2) and the kids are totally happy!

So far I've tried 2 different recipes I like:

(click for link)

Charity's Whole Wheat Pancakes 

My husband prefers these the best out of the two recipes.  They use honey instead of sugar.

and Whole Wheat Pancakes

I like these out of the two recipes.  I like the cinnamon, my husband says they have too much.

The kids eat either recipe without complaints.

Note: I do think I need to start tripling the recipe.  We are usually out of pancakes by Wednesday or Thursday.  Little Eli loves pancakes. He wakes up the first thing I hear from his crib are: "MA-MA!  Ancake!  Ancake!"  

He then eats 2 -3 pancakes each morning!

Sausage Pancake Muffins

I've also started making these sausage pancake muffins every Sunday morning too.  After I get done whipping up the pancakes I make one more batch of pancake batter. I've made them with both whole wheat pancake recipes, and either work fine.  I am guessing you could use any muffin recipe too.  I cook link sausage and cut each one in two.  

After doing some comparison shopping I've also found that if you can find the sausage links that are heat and serve kind, you can usually find them on sale.  (something like 2 for $3 or 10 for $10).  This ends up being the cheapest when you look at the price per sausage.

I mix up the pancake batter, cook (or heat up) the sausage.  Then in each muffin tin I drop in half a sausage link and fill  it about 3/4 full of pancake batter.  I heat the oven to 350 and bake them for about 10-15 minutes, depending on if I'm making large muffins or mini muffins.

**Make sure you spray your muffin tins with lots of cooking spray, and then spray them a little bit more.  Or just use liners**

I like the regular muffin size ones for myself.  I can reheat two in the microwave in one minute, run out the door with them and eat them on the way to school drop off.

The kids love the mini muffins.  Usually it only takes about 30 seconds to reheat 2.  Gage also has liked them as an after school treat.  I also think they would be good dipped in syrup or with a jam, but my kids like them plain-jane.  Their happy. So I'm happy.

Breakfast Burritos

Another thing that I've tried for breakfast is frozen breakfast burritos.  

Only half of us like them (because of the eggs).

I don't have any secret recipe for these, but when I can find a good sale on breakfast sausage I like to assemble a bunch of these.

One pound crumbled, cooked and drained breakfast sausage (we like maple flavor kind)

12 eggs, scrambled

grated cheddar cheese

Assemble in tortilla, wrap up and then freeze on a cookie sheet.  I've found this makes about 12 burritos. You can also add anything else your family might like - different veggies, etc.

 After the burritos are frozen you can move from cookie sheet to large ziplock bag.  

I've found it takes somewhere between 45-60 seconds to re heat these in the microwave (wrapped in a paper towel).  Wade likes to eat them with salsa.

Ham and Egg Cups

I've seen these around on pinterest and thought they would be fun to try.  Since Avery loves helping me in the kitchen we tried them out last week while Noah and Gage were in school.  They gobbled a bunch of them up for lunch that day.

Ham Cups

Spray your muffin tins and layer one or two slices of ham in each cup.  I've found two slices of ham work best.  Beat your eggs and season (we like the Johnny's salt from Costco).  For the regular muffin tins I found it was one tablespoon of eggs to each cup.  Then we topped with some cheddar cheese.

We baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minute or until eggs are set.  You don't want to over cook them though.  

You can add anything else you might like - onions, peppers, even cream cheese would be yummy.

I think these are best if you don't freeze them.  You CAN freeze them just fine, but reheating them can be problematic.  You need to reheat them in the oven or a toaster oven, not the microwave. 

Unless someone can tell me how to reheat them in the microwave without burning the ham.

Ham Omelet Cups

These are easy to make along side the the ham and egg cups.

Diced ham

couple eggs beaten and seasoned

grated cheddar cheese

(again, you could add anything, we were just using the same ingredients as above)

I mixed everything together and spooned a tablespoon or two into each mini muffin tin.  Then I baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes or until the eggs were set.

**make sure you spray the muffin tins really really good**

These are yummy little snacks and much easier to freeze and reheat (in the microwave) than the ham cups.

Smoothies

I like to make smoothies for the kids, and they like them, but they are usually more a treat than filling.  We finally got a Magic Bullet and the kids love using it.

One version we love is the fruity kind.

Pretty simple.  We buy a bag of frozen mixed fruit at Costco and I like to add yogurt and milk to that.

Another one most of us like (my favorite) is what I like to call the Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana-Rama.

When I buy bananas always buy an extra bunch, cut them up and freeze them.  Throw some frozen banana pieces, a spoonful of peanut butter, some chocolate milk mix and milk in the bullet and blend.  You could also use cocoa powder or protein powder.

Sidenote:  I saw on pinterest, and we've tried it - If you have someone that eats a diary free diet, you can also make homemade ice cream with frozen bananas.  Just freeze slices and then blend them up.  They become the consistency of ice cream.  You can add cocoa, peanut butter, berries anything you want!

~~

Also this week I plan on getting out the oatmeal and putting together some "instant oatmeal" packets.  I've seen a few ideas floating around the internet and pinterest but how hard can it be to make up our own packets?  Oatmeal is always a big hit, so I'm hoping that will go over well.

Another thing that I've tried on days that we eat a little bit early, mornings they seem really hungry or days we walk to school is handing them an extra string cheese on the way out the door.  That way they get a little bit of protein as they leave for the day.

The pancakes and muffins I make up on Sunday morning.  We attend church at 1pm right now so things are pretty relaxed and it's easy to make that much food on a Sunday morning.  I might have to switch to a Saturday morning cooking day when our church time gets switched to an earlier schedule.

The breakfast burritos and ham and egg muffins I usually make with Avery.  She loves helping me cook in the kitchen, so on grocery shopping days while the big boys are at school we go shopping, and then come home and cook and assemble together.  She loves it.

~~

To me, a lot of it is what is easy, fast and can make our morning schedule go smoothly.  We are all up by 6:30 every day.  The school bell doesn't ring until 8:35, but that doesn't mean that I WANT to spend a lot of time on breakfast each day.  The boys have a list of items they have to finish every day before they can play or do something they want.  I have things I have to attempt to get done each morning too, as well as make sure 4 little people are up, dressed, happy and ready to go.

Everyone wants to get their list done and their tummies full first thing.

I think a lot of these ideas have helped our family.

~~~

Just to make this post even longer, I have to include this:  Every time I think of hot breakfast, I have the memory of my mom making all six of us hot breakfast every morning before school.  (it's when we lived in Mississippi, so I must have been 4 or 5 years old and all six of us were still home) 

I swear she must have got up at 5 am (or earlier) every day just for us.  She would have oatmeal, pancakes, sausage biscuits or waffles  for us every morning when we woke up.  She even made homemade syrup.  (still does). I'm sure she did it for a lot of the same reason that I do - it's cheaper to make homemade than to buy cereal for 8 people - but it's one of my earliest memories of her. 

I'm also sure we didn't appreciate it and I bet we all wanted cold cereal.  I'm guessing that because we also always had sandwiches from homemade bread, instead of store bought bread and always wanted store bought.

 What we were thinking?  Homemade bread?  Hot breakfast every day?  We had it good!

Thanks mom.

Maybe someday my kids will remember me making up a million pancakes each Sunday and popping them in the microwave for them each morning. 

:)

Sunday Photo .32

We survived another week.  Just when we think things are looking up, another curve ball comes our way.  Some days I wonder if this year is ever going to get better.  But we are blessed.  I know that despite all the curve balls we are blessed.  I just try and remember that on hard days.

Enough about that.

We did have a relaxing Sunday today.  Wade got to the crock pot before me this morning and turned my pork roast I was cooking for BBQ sandwiches into a pork roast, potatoes and carrots for dinner.  Add some homemade whole wheat rolls and chocolate chip cookies for dessert and there were no complaints at all from the kids.  Amazing.  

Anyone want to come wash all the dishes?

After dinner we went on a little stroll through the neighborhood.  We checked out some new houses being built.  Noah thought they all looked like jails and couldn't figure out why anyone would want to build their house that way.

Avery found a lady bug on our walk.  She gently carried it all the way home.  She really wants to keep one as a pet.  Then while showing her little lady bug off to everyone, Eli smashed it.

(I snapped this picture, right before the crime was committed)

The poor girl was crushed (just as much as her bug).

Our little bug smashing Eli turns 2 on Tuesday!  

Where did the time go?

Darn it, these kids just won't slow down or stop growing up.

Sunday Photo .31

Just the two of us. We survived both speaking at church today and are both glad that is over. That deserves a picture of us, even though it is a post-kid bedtime picture and we both look tired from the long day.

Now it's time for a treat, a tall glass of crystal light and some veg time while watching Food Network & the closing ceremonies. Our favorite Sunday evening activity. It's been a busy day, busy weekend, overall a busy week. I'm doing the whole blog post off my phone because my legs are just too tired to get up and walk over to the computer. How lazy is that? The busy-ness starts all over again tomorrow.

Pass me the m&m's and everything for now will be just fine.

Snack Wrap

Sometime I totally put too much thought into what to have for dinner and in the end the idea I come up with is so simple.  

I know everyone will probably read this and say, "DUH, we eat this all the time"

But it was new to me.  Maybe I'm a little slow;)

I also have to say - when I do our big shopping I like to try and find the best price for chicken breast and then come home and just bake the whole bunch up with some seasoning, chop it up and then freeze it all that day so we have already cooked chicken in our freezer almost all the time.  It saves a lot of time.

Yesterday was a doozy of a day.  (see post below).  I didn't want to make anything on our menu plan and I didn't have a lot of time either.  I knew I had cooked chicken breast and a lot of tortillas...but what to do with them?  I knew we didn't want Mexican, enchiladas, or burritos again.  We eat those a lot.

I searched Allrecipes.  I searched Pinterest.  Then it dawned on me, I could make homemade McDonald Snack Wraps!  How easy!

Homemade McDonald Snack Wraps:

chopped romaine lettuce

chopped cooked chicken breast (warm or cold..we had ours cold)
(you could also use breaded chicken strips)

shredded cheddar cheese

tortillas

ranch or honey mustard sauce

I didn't have honey mustard sauce, so I mixed up some of my own.  1/4 cup of mustard and 3 tablespoons honey.

Assemble in your tortilla, wrap and enjoy!

I served ours with some fresh cut up fruit and cottage cheese.

Everyone in my family loved them.  4 of us had ranch, 2 of us had honey mustard.

Wade must have liked them because when he came home for lunch today he used some frozen popcorn chicken we had in the freezer to make himself a few more of these babies for lunch.

So simple!

{never a dull moment}

It's true.  There is never a dull moment around here.  And sometimes it just gets a little bit silly.

I document it sometimes on facebook (because it's easier) but not everyone has a facebook account (shocker, I know!) and I need to be better at documenting it on my blog as well so it can all be included in our yearly blog book.

Nothing like documenting the craziness of us, right?

Here are a few of my favorites from the past week:

Our school in Washington was a strict "no walking" school.  So when we moved here and Gage saw all the kids walking and riding their bikes he was ready to have his turn.  It's been so hot that I've been delaying this adventure for my own selfish  pregnant sake.  Last week I made a deal with the two boys that if they would finish their morning chore list on time and without complaining every day that we would walk to school on Friday.  I forgot Friday was early out day, so the times in between seemed even more ridiculously short, but the boys came through with their end of the deal, so I had to come through with mine.  

My facebook status:

Friday, August 3
First attempt of walking to school: we made it there in great time this morning. As we dropped off Noah, I asked him if he wanted mommy to drive to pick him up, or if he wanted to walk home. He said walk. A few hours later we walked back to get Noah. At this point Eli got too tired and wanted me to hold him, Noah decided he was in fact, too tired and hot to walk, and wanted to ride in the str

oller, and Avery, well she was just Avery, talking about how I never let her have gum (life is SO not fair!) lipstick, her hair, how sand was in her shoes and she was too hot too.

I am NOT superwoman. I cannot push a double stroller with 100 pounds of kid in it, hold a crying tired 2 year old while 24 weeks pregnant when it feels like 110 degees outside.

Just then our awesome neighbor, drove by and asked if some of us wanted a ride home (she didn't have room for all of us). Noah totally jumped at it. And he was the reason we were walking in the first place!!! Avery, Eli and I walked the rest of the way home.

A few hours later I DROVE to pick up Gage. I presented him with two options: he could throw his bike in the back of the van, or we would follow him home. He had a nice bike ride home while we followed him.

Lesson learned: I think I'll stick to driving. Nothing wrong with that.

~~

Another great status:

Monday, August 6 
Just helped Noah's wildest dreams come true...all he has wanted the last couple weeks is to go to the dollar store and buy handcuffs!?! A few earned quarters later I have one happy boy. He sure cracks me up!


~~ Yesterday was a great example of just how exciting my life has become.  I had three separate status updates:

Thursday, August 9
Nice. Noah just informed me that he told his teacher she looks like she is having a baby. She is not. There go any bonus points he might have earned!

A few hours later:
What an eventful day at school for us. First Noah's comment (see my earlier post). Then Gage got hurt and came home early. Good thing Daddy can do the big (bloody) stuff, because I am only good at putting band aids on the minor stuff and giving him Popsicles until Dad gets home.

(He had been racing another boy in his class and tripped on the ball of the group that was playing kickball.)

And then after dinner, we finished off the day with this one:
Day keeps on getting better: Wade just had to use tweezers to get gum out of Avery's nose. I know it could have been serious, but it was just too funny. Where do my kids come up with these things?

~~
No picture was needed of that last one. I helped hold Avery's hands while Wade got the gum out, but then I had to leave the room while he attempted to give her a lecture about putting things up your nose.  I was just laughing too hard.

Such is life around here.  Busy, silly, and a never a dull or boring moment.  
And we are adding another one?!

I can't wait!

Sunday Photo .30

Eli had a horrible stomach bug this week.  I kept waiting for someone else to get it, but somehow the rest of us dodged it.  He seems to be feeling better now and actually stayed for an hour in nursery today without us! I can't believe he will be two in a few short weeks.

Avery now sleeps through the night!  And has NO sippy cups!  One of us still has to sit in her room until she falls asleep, but that is still progress!  Oh - and there's fact, that she hasn't slept on her bed in two weeks, she sleeps in her sleeping bag on the floor.  Maybe that toddler bed is just too little for her, she was always falling out, and maybe she needs a bigger bed (that she can't fall out of), who knows?  (Eli will need to pass down the crib in a few months, so I'm sure we can arrange that) She's sleeping, and that is great!

Noah's holding string cheese in the picture.  He is always cracking us up.  The other day we were discussing a scripture story and the bad guys were going to kill all the good guys unless they denied Christ.  I asked the kids what they would do, that would be a hard situation.  Noah replied, "I would just pretend to be a bad guy for just a little bit.  Then I would be safe and turn into a good guy again."
Seriously?   He was totally laughing at us the whole time.

Gage is liking bits and pieces of his new school.  His primary teacher came up to me in the hall after church and said, "Did you know Gage sings louder than anyone in the whole primary?"  Yeah.  I know that.  Sorry - we probably should have warned you.  He loves to sing.  And has total confidence when doing it. Not everyone can do that and I love it.

Baby girl is growing, kicking and causing all kinds of joyous aches and pains that pregnancy brings.  I met my new OB this week.  Still no name, and we still aren't sure we like the list we even have.  Sometimes the she kicks and the kids can feel it.  They think it is SO funny to feel their baby sister kick them.

That sure is a lot of little people that need love and attention.  I'm trying my best to slow down, to sit, play and to BE there for them.  Each of them in their separate ways that they need me.  They are all so different and so alike at the same time.  Isn't the family the most amazing structure?  I look at them and feel so blessed.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

We didn't get to plant a garden this year because of the move.  When we left Washgington it was barely warm enough to start planting, and by the time we got here and settled most people were already harvesting.  It makes me a little sad, I loved having a little bitty garden in our backyard.

This house has awesome raised boxes in the backyard, but right now they are only home to Noah's lonely growing sunflower he planted in preschool last spring and held in his lap all 14+ hours of the trip.  Plus, there's the fact that we are planning on buying a house next summer, so I don't think we will use the planter boxes next year either.  Honestly,  I'm not sure when we will get to plant our next bitty garden.

I love fresh tomatoes and vegetables.  And I really have such a hard time paying for veggies at the grocery store - that taste worse  -and  that I know I could have grown.

I'm getting off track.  One of my favorite fresh summer veggies is zucchini.  If you grow it you usually have it growing out your ears.  And judging from pinterest, I think a lot of people have it growing out their ears right now.  We were lucky enough to have someone from Wade's office share some home grown zucchini with us this week.  I have a couple different favorite recipes, but we had to start off with Wade's favorite.  His mom's Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 cup oil (you can substitute applesauce or softened butter)

1 teaspoon salt

2/1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

2 cups shredded zucchini

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In mixer blend together sugar, eggs, vanilla and oil.  

Add zucchini.  In separate bowl mix together salt, flour, soda, baking powder and cocoa.  

Slowly add dry ingredients to egg/sugar/zucchini mixture.  I like to bake mine in a greased 9x13 baking pan.  Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

After the cake cools you can frost it with your favorite chocolate frosting.  Sometimes I make a chocolate glaze instead of frosting, this time I made a chocolate cream cheese frosting.  

Enjoy!

~~

The kids were so mad at me when they saw me putting the shredded green stuff into the cake.  They said I was ruining their chocolate cake!  But once they tasted it they were hooked.  They were so surprised that they could see little specks of green, but not taste it.

Wade had a piece after lunch today (He comes home for lunch now!!!).  He actually asked me if this cake was healthy because of the zucchini.  

Uhhh...no.  Then I broke the news to him about the cup of oil.  He still says it is his favorite because it's his mom's recipe.

Maybe next time I will make it with applesauce - but he complains more than the kids when I mix things up like that;)

Next up this week:  baked zucchini fries and Turkish zucchini bake.

Yum-o!

Chick-fil-a

I usually don't go all political, and I don't like to debate.  But I do like to state my opinion.  And I loved this quote I saw on facebook today, it has been on my thoughts all day.

"I disagree"  is not equal to "I hate you"

Isn't that the absolute truth?
I believe that marriage should be between a man and woman.
But just because I believe that, and because I might disagree with some of my friends and their views, doesn't mean I don't love or care about them.

~~
A few years ago a good friend and I decided to have a scripture study playdate once a week.  We would chat while the kids would play.  We do not belong to the same denomination, but it was nice to get together and discuss scriptures and views we had on religion.  In the end I was not converted to her religion, and she was not converted to mine.  This is a dear friend who I love, and she has told me that after these discussions and through her own research she doesn't believe that I am a Christian.  But she does believe I live a good life.  I believe that I am a Christian.  I believe in Jesus Christ, that he died for me and my sins.  But my good friend and I disagreed on this issue.

Did it ruin our friendship?  No.  We had to finally agree to disagree.  Like adults.  I have a lot of respect for her, she is an amazing woman, wife and mother.  And while we haven't lived close the past couple years, and  we disagree on this, we pray for each others struggles, and cheer for each others blessings.  I know she would have stood in line with me today.  She probably did in her own town.
~~

I disagree with Wade from time to time.  Shocker, I know.  Just one example, he is a total BYU fan, and I tend to lean towards the Utes. Arch rivals. Does that make me hate him?  He is my best friend and I choose to be with him forever.  No, I don't hate him.  We disagree on this issue.  (Even though deep down he knows I am right.)
~~

So tonight our little family of 6 (almost 7) waited in line and had Chick-fil-a (drive thru) for dinner.  I have friends on facebook that might not agree with this action, and they can choose to take it how they want.  I am taking my family there to eat because I think marriage should be between a man and a woman.  I also believe in free speech.  I believe in supporting this cause.

Oh yeah, and there's the fact that I also think their chicken is the best chicken in the world and it's been a long four years living in Washington, without it.  That might have something to do with it.

So here's to free speech, agreeing to disagree and good chicken.