Football Season is Here

Last Friday was the first game of the year, and with that comes several traditions.  First, and possibly the most important . . .  

Runza! 

About 6 years ago, Chad made a commercial for Runza.

In his commercial, he said that he eats a Swiss cheese mushroom Runza every game day because it "helps us win football games". It was a fun experience (Blessing #926), and people still ask him about it, even though they haven't aired it for a few years now. 

For instance, this summer we were at the FCA Coaches Marriage Weekend. One of the couples we met saw Chad's purple shirt, heard he was from Holdrege, and asked Chad if he was the guy in the Runza commercial.  Having strangers approach him, asking if he was in the Runza commercial still happens a couple times each year. 

And because coaches don't like to break tradition, he still eats Runza every Friday during football season. So last Friday, Chad & I resumed the tradition. However, it didn't help us win this time. But we always enjoy our "date" over his 30-minute lunch break. (#927) 

 

Another thing that comes with football season is the post-game parties at one of the coach's homes. And my contribution to the meal Friday was my absolute favorite "cucumber salsa", along with a new recipe: Mexican Cheesy Potatoes. I found it on Pinterest, and it was a hit! Everyone asked for the recipe. The secret ingredient? Salsa con queso.

 
Mexican Style Cheesy Potatoes

1 15oz jar Salsa Con Queso
1/2 c. Butter
1 c. Sour cream
2 TB minced onion
1 (2 lb) bag frozen hash browns
2 c. Shredded Mexican cheese

Combine melted butter, sour cream, onion, and salsa con queso; mix well. Stir in hash browns. Pour into glass 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hr. prior to taking out of oven, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and let bake til melted.

Taco Chicken Bowls

I tried a new recipe today. And it was A-MAZ-ING! (Blessing #922)

(photo from Budget Bytes)

 

Not only did it taste great, but it was super duper easy (#923), and cost only $10.66 for the whole thing. (#924)

I stumbled upon a blog called "Budget Bytes", which is full of great recipes that don't cost much. I thought it would be a great resource for Jacob at college, but I found a few recipes I wanted to try also.

The Taco Chicken Bowls I made today were so easy! You just dump and heat. I made it in my crockpot before church this morning, and when I got home, I just had to cook the rice and shred the chicken. It was so simple! And even Jillian liked it! (#925)

Taco Chicken Bowls
(serves 8)

1.5 pounds chicken breasts
1 (16 oz) jar salsa (I used picante sauce)
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained
8 oz frozen corn
1 TB chili powder
1/2 TB cumin
1/2 TB minced garlic
1/2 TB dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp salt
Cracked pepper, to taste
2 c. Dry rice
8 oz shredded cheese
1/2 bunch Cilantro
 
In crockpot, combine all ingredients except rice, cheese and cilantro. Add 1/4 cup water to crockpot. Stir, but make sure chicken is on bottom. Cook on low 8 hrs (or on high 4 hrs).

Near end of cooking time, cook 2 cups rice according to package directions.

While rice is cooking, use forks to shred chicken.

 

To build your taco bowl, layer the following:

Rice, chicken taco mix, shredded cheese, and fresh cilantro.

And if you want to make it even easier, just use a package of taco seasoning in place of the individual spices.

Wa-lah! And if I can get Jillian to eat it, it defintely a keeper.

 

First Day of School

Jillian started school last week. Since the rest of us weren't home from Rochester yet, it was grandma Patty who captured Jillian's first day of school picture for me.  (Blessing #917)  Looks like she was excited for 2nd grade.

Jenica missed her first 3 days because of her surgery. So today is officially her first day of school as a freshman. (#918)  The only big problem is that she can't carry anything over 5 pounds for . . . get this . . . 6 weeks! I'm not too worried... I'm pretty sure she can find a "book buddy" to help her to/from class.

Today is also Jacob's first day of classes at UNK.  (#919)  He made sure that he didn't have any 8 o'clocks this year. Not even a #14 from Jimmy Johns and a cup of Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks would get him outa bed that early.

Jacob is renting a house close to campus with 5 other guys this year, and we've been helping him get things moved over for the past couple weeks. Four of them graduated with Jacob, and the other guy is dating a gal who graduated in their class.

He's all about free or cheap stuff and found a couch, love seat, desk, and 2 swivel chairs for his new place with a little help from Sami, along withh a bed that his gma & gpa were no longer using. (#920) And once Jacob and his roommates covered up the large pink flowers on the couch and love seat with a brown sheet, it was perfect.

Notice the "Loper" on the wall (above the free love seat)? It's an official UNK game room now.

There's absolutely nothing feminine about this house. Total guy hangout. Pool table, foos ball, xboxes (yes, there's more that one, much to the regret of their mothers), mis-matched furniture, and "NFL ticket" on their cable channels (gasp! homework on Sundays is looking rather slim). I know not to visit on a Sunday. Or maybe if Chad goes AWOL, I'll have to check to see if he's in Kearney with Jacob.

I just hope they remember to study with all those distractions.

And in case you wonder how they'll handle meal times, they have rules:

I guess that's simple enough, and I'm glad they are addressing that potential problem before the year gets started. Hmmmm....do you think the list of rules will grow over time?

And did you notice the Bible verse written in on the bottom of the marker board? Not sure who added it, but I like it.  (#921)  Philippians 4:8 "And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

Going Home!

This morning has been full of good news.

Jenica remembers how to smile. So good to see it again! (Blessing #912)

The ECG, echo, and X-ray all looked great. (#913)

She got all of her IVs, bandages, and anything else that was restricting her movements taken off. (#914)

Chad & Jenica both slept better last night. (#915) But the biscuits & gravy were all gone by the time he got back to the hotel to shower and eat breakfast.

Jenica gets to wear real clothes again. (#916)

And the most exciting news is that...... we get to go home!

Flexing Her Courage Muscles

Jenica's surgery was yesterday and everything went really well. (blessing #905). She's so brave. The surgeon she had must be one of the best, based on the comments we heard from the nurses and the ICD specialist. After he left our room from our pre-surgery consultation, Jacob said "I think my IQ went up 7 points just by him walking into the room". There are a lot of really smart people around here. (#906)

 

One really cool thing Mayo's Child Life does is bring in a local ceramic shop on Tuesday afternoons for kids in the hospital to paint. It's called "Color Me Mine" and is a lot like "Paint Yourself Silly" in Lincoln. The kids can paint one of the ceramic pieces and then the gals take it back to Color Me Mine and fire it. When it's all done, Mayo Child Life will mail it to us. (#907).

 

It was a good distraction for a couple hours for both Jenica and Jacob.

 

See that chair Jenica is sitting in? That doubles as Chad's bed. Poor guy. But he insists because he knows how important it is for me to get a good nights sleep. He's always taking care of me. (#908)

Jenica's doing good, but getting her pain under control has been difficult. They are pleased with her progress, and I know that each day will get better for her. She just needs to be patient. I'm so proud of her. She's been showing a lot of courage these past couple weeks, and has been trusting God with this situation. (#909)

Oh, and she's been playing the "I just had surgery" card a lot.

I get to pick where we eat, because I'm having surgery..... when playing Farkle, we hear: I want to go first, 'cuz I just had surgery..... And her favorite: I need an iPhone (and an iPad, and a Macbook) cuz I had surgery..... On the way home we'll probably hear: I need to ride in front cuz I had surgery. Can we stop for a snack break since I had surgery?

Speaking of gadgets... When Dr Ackerman came in to see Jenica this afternoon, Jacob was listening to his iPod while playing a game on his computer and texting on his smart phone, while Chad sat at the desk doing lesson plans on his computer. Technology is a good thing. (#910) For example, Jenica's defibrilator has a Transmitter that sets on a dresser at home, which automatically captures the information stored on her ICD and transmits it to her doctor in Rochester so he can continue to monitor her heart and watch for problems. How cool is that?!

So many of the people we've met here are amazed to hear that we have 3 children, each with heart conditions. Some wonder how we do it? Hopefully, they can see the peace we have, which can only come from trusting God with every little detail. And because we trust Him, He gives us the strength we need to flex our courage muscles. (#911)

Surprise!

As you know, we have been trying to keep Jenica's mind off her upcoming surgery by keeping her busy, and her friends Abbie & Ashlyn are top-notch planners and pulled off a big surprise last night. (blessing # 902)

Paul & Alimah were here with their kiddos, along with my parents for a BBQ. (#903) Jillian, Adam, Lily, and Xander and Jillie are all about the same age and have so much fun together. And ... it was a gorgeous day. (#904)

Paul loves sporting' his Duster & Husker garb and fits in quite nicely.

Jacob was grilling. (#905)

And all of a sudden, some of Jenica's friends showed up with a super cute DQ cake, a gift, and then kidnapped her for a few hours.

Most of them are classmates who are also on her softball team. They headed to Valentinos in Kearney first, and then some bowling, Mini-golf, and sand-volleyball at the Big Apple.

Oh, geesh . . . Even our dog Rollie is showing off his old rump in the picture.

Surgery is set for Monday, so this was a fun little "pre-surgery"/end-of-summer bash for Jenica and her friends. I hope they realize how much of a blessing they are.

Tomorrow, we head for Minnesota.

Two-A-Days

This has been a hard week for this mama, and all the other moms who aren't used to getting up quite so early in the summer.  Two-a-Days began Monday.  At 6:30 a.m.  Aaargh . . . .

The night sky is just beginning to fade at 6:30 this morning.

My alarm was set just as early as Jenica's, so I could get her to softball practice on time every morning. 

Football practice has begun too.  But Chad left the house before Jenica, so I became her taxi driver.  

Even though Jenica is having surgery next week and will be out for the season, she's still part of the team and still went to practice each day.  She absolutely loves the girls on her team.  They are a pretty special group, and they go out of their way to make sure Jenica's included.  (Blessing #901) 

It's the MOST Wonderful Time of the Year

Just imagine this song . . . you know how it goes. . .

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . .

Now imagine sinking your teeth into a juicy, sweet, mouth-watering, giant Colorado Peach! 

Even Jillian's mouth starts to water, just holding it and smelling it.  Ahhhhh......

Yes!  It's that time of year again.  The most wonderful time of the year.  (Blessing #899)

And I'm so glad God ripened these beautiful fuzzy peaches now (#900), because if they would have come next week, we would have been gone and someone else would have had to eat our lug of peaches for us. 

Breakfast. . . lunch . . . and supper.  Oh, yeah!  Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

The Red Box Back-up Plan

We've been trying to keep Jenica busy these past few days, to keep her mind off her new "life vest", which is such a drag.  (the vest, not trying to keep her busy.  Ha ha!)  Last night, her youth group went to the river to hang out, get wet, grill hot dogs, and make s'mores, and a couple of her friends invited her to come along.  (Blessing #894)

Jenica's the one on the left

Thanking God I wasn't the one getting tackled out there.

Jenica absolutely LOVES being "all grown up" and part of the Senior High Youth Group now.  For her, it felt like it took forever to get there.  For me, it's just weird.  It just doesn't seem possible that she's already doing the high school gig. 

I got to hang out at the river with Jenica last night too, because where Jenica goes, I go for the next couple weeks.  Oh, and Jillian was there by default. The girls love playing with Jillian, so she wasn't lacking for attention.  And it was fun for me to be part of the mix too. (#895)

Jillian splashing Reyna

Anyway, this new apparatus Jenica has to wear can't get wet.  Which means she can't wear it while playing in the river.  That's when the back-up plan comes into play.  We are now proud (?) owners of a home defibrilator, which I had in my backpack at the River. 

As I drove to the river with Jenica and her youth group, you can probaby guess what I was praying. . . that God wouldn't give me an opportunity to try out this new "accessory" yet.  I'm thanking Him for that answered prayer.  (#896)

So, this is our new routine for the next 11 days.  Not the river part.  But the life-vest-with-the-red-box-as-a-back-up routine.  Jenica will have surgery in less than two weeks, to get her new hardware.  And then, life should resume back to normal again.  Whatever "normal" means.  In the meantime, God will continue to be our strength, and our peace with all of this comes from Him.  (#897)  And as a result of all this commotion, both Jenica and Jillian have started their own "Blessings Journal" now too.  (#898)