So........... I HATE to cook and it's Thanksgiving...

Ok, maybe "hate " is too strong of a word, I really do not like to cook. I really do not get any enjoyment from making food, eating the food - yes, making it - no! If that's your thing then God bless you! God gave us all different gifts for a reason! Now that I'm an adult (44) and I have some "adult" children (ages 22 & 18) and they are not living at home any longer and God has blessed us with being able to move back to Ohio to be closer to everyone, I have decided that it was time to start our own tradition and I would make Thanksgiving dinner for us and we would have our own dinner on the Sunday before The Thanksgiving Day where we go to my mother's house and visit with my other relatives and play our annual fierce battle of girls vs boys in Pictionary! I LOVE this game....so funny..another blog.... So meet my new best friend:

Cooking the turkey breast in the crock pot was the best idea I ever had!! It was so easy and the turkey was so moist and tender! The best part was it didn't tie up the oven so I could work on cooking the other things. If you're going to cook a breast, I would really recommend trying this. There are tons of recipes online, just make sure the turkey you pick out will fit in your crock pot; mine was a bit too tall and we had to rig some 2 liters of pop and some duct tape to keep the lid on! 

Urgent: The Evil Amongst Us is Winning!!

 
Evil, is all around is, we know this. But when you come face to face with it, when it's over a life or death situation suddenly everything takes on a whole new meaning. I copied and pasted this picture from my step-son's Facebook. He was a very bright, attractive 21 year old young man and is now on death's doorstep due to recreational drug use of some prescription drugs. One thing Facebook has allowed me to see is the way today's youth perceives life and especially our Lord and Savior. I partially raised my step son Brock. I got with my husband when Brock was 10, and Brock promptly left when he was 18. I did the best I could, I can only pray that he is saved, only the Lord knows a person's heart for sure. His maternal grandfather didn't believe in God and he died several years ago and despite all of our attempts Brock never professed to be saved but never outwardly showed his hatred for the Lord until Facebook came along and we were able to start seeing snippets of what was in his thoughts. This is just a sample of his favorites. He never would friend me on Facebook for obvious reasons but I managed to get on there and see this blasphemy. It's also sad to me how many others "liked" his pictures or made other comments but now that he's in a coma, some of these same friends are "praying"....huh? Well, I couldn't let it go. This is what I wrote on his Facebook:

 

This is Julie Schmidt-Ramsey Brock's step-mom just to clarify who's writing this: Galations 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked" Listen everyone, the Bible is real, God is real whether you choose to believe it or not. Even the devil believes in God! I would suggest that that everyone needs to evalute their own faith in God and before they need to call on God because then it... might be too late. It's funny how everyone wants to mock God and Jesus but now after a tragedy everyone wants to pray and call on Jesus. PLEASE don't wait until it's too late, it's not a joke, this is your life!!! Your soul! God loves you, He wants you to be with Him in heaven! Do you really believe there is no God? Do you really believe you will just turn back into dust? Do me a favor, go to church tomorrow pray for Brock Ramsey, he is in a coma, he's not good, don't let your loved ones worry about whether you are saved or not. Let them have the peace of knowing they WILL see you in heaven, talk to someone, a pastor, your grandma, someone you trust, don't let another day go by because you never know when your last breathe will be and do you really want to "hope" you know where you are going? or do you want to for sure? John 3:16-17 " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

I hope that if you are reading this you have already accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you have not, please do not wait another second. This is not a joke, this is not fiction, this is not a movie. This is as real as real gets.

If you are a believer already would you please pray for Brock? He's in a coma at Ohio State University, it's only been 3 days but things are not looking good, we need Jesus to come with a miracle. I pray God will give him another chance at life and what a great testimony this would make!

Thank you for reading this and thank you for your prayers!

 

I am not a baby!

Today I'm just having a pity party for myself I guess. Some days are harder than others being away from my family. We moved to Iowa some time ago and EVERYONE is back home in the Tri-State area (Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana) near Cincinnati. There was a death in our extended family this past week and I wanted to go home so bad, I wanted to be with my family, not just to see them and comfort them but for a selfish reason too. I guess I needed to see them and be comforted that they're still there. Even with all of today's technology there is still nothing like feeling the arms of someone you love wrapped around you and seeing their actual face in person, feeling their energy.  My parents are getting older too, my dad just had a triple bypass last year. That was so scary, I'll never forget how he looked after the surgery when he was on the ventilator. They tell you what he'll look like but nothing can really prepare you for the shocking reality of it. I want to be home so bad, I want to be with my family so bad. Is it so wrong to feel that way? I'm here with my husband and my 13 year old step-daughter but I feel like I'm all alone.  I'm going to be 44 years old, why do I feel like this? I feel like an alien and my "lifeforce" is being drained because I'm away from my planet. Obviously God has me here for a reason, I know this, I've already seen the HUGE miracles in my husband especially. Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me? I'm not a 3 year old that needs her mommy! Is this what I'm supposed to learn? How to be alone? How to live without my family? Why is it me? Why was I the one sent away? Why did I have to move? Why did my husband lose his job? Why did we have to lose our house? Lots of people don't live near their families right? Lots of people don't even like their families!! Send them away!

I can do this! ....... I do all things through Christ who strengthens me! .... Dear God please help me I pray...........

My family in 2009 when we left, it's grown more since then!

MY Grandma - she's 91 now!

My brother and his wife

My sister, her husband and my niece

My Mom and Dad

I love them and miss them all so much!

God bless them all and keep them safe!

Amen

 

What do you think about these earrings?

Remember last year about this time those feather hair extensions came into style? I wanted to get one so bad but after I started seeing 12 year old girls with them, I just felt stupid being 43 years old paying $40 to get rooster feathers glued into my hair. But here I am again looking at feathers for my hair. So, I'm thinking about these feather earrings! I've seen some stars wearing some of them and I think they look so cool Plus since I have crappy thin brown hair, I thought maybe since these feathers were longer, it would actually add a little more volume and interest to my hair.

..... What do you think?

Do you like them or will this just look like another desperate aging 40ish women trying to recapture her coolness?

I was cool at one time.... I swear I was.....

No.....                              this is not me...........                           I wish!

K is for Kidding, L is for Lying and M is for Myself

So I know I'm kind of doing my own take on the Alphabet challenge for April and I wasn't able to write everyday this past weekend, so today I'm going to do K, L and M. They go perfectly together especially for what I did today. I joined Weight Watchers again today. I did their program last year and lost about 25 pounds, I have kept about 20 of it off but you see I can't lie to myself anymore, I am morbidly obese. Like for real. I normally NEVER talk about my actual weight! Even when I was going in for surgery I made sure that my weight wasn't openly discussed. So here it goes....   I weighed 277.8 this morning at my first weigh-in. I figure if I'm going to do this, if I'm going to really do this, then I have to do things differently so I might as well announce it to the world. My husband used to smoke almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day and through the Grace of God he was able to quit cold turkey, so if he can do it, why can't lose weight? I know all things to do! I've done every program they have out there! But yet here I sit, still so ashamed of this "addiction", this thing I cannot control! I ended up in the ER over the weekend for a very bad migraine and my husband was standing right next to me when the nurse asked my weight. I was MORTIFIED! I know my husband loves me, but I think God has put blinders on him to make him not see my weight. I had to say my weight out loud, there it was for the first time, the first time "it" was ever said in front of him. I was humiliated, I couldn't look at him. He said nothing. He still hasn't said anything. I'm still afraid to ask him about it, it had to be a shock for him to hear those numbers. I'm 5'3" and he's 6'5" and I weight more than he does. I'm going to use this as a turing point for me, I am entering a transistion phase right now, with God's grace I will change!  No more kidding myself, no more lying to myself!