Is Neil ≈ Briana?

The short answer is no, but I would like to think so. Last quarter with little effort on my own part I was able to pull off a 4.0 in all 4 of my classes! This is big and for those of you who have always achieved 4.0's you may need some background as to whom I am and then you may understand what happened here.

In high school I was described by my teachers as being very confident, assertive and self aware. This was not actually true of my character at the time yet flattering all the same. I was also known to be somewhat bull headed and conflict oriented. I often challenged my teachers, class mates, principles, coaches, parents, the church and Jesus who is God. I was not a good student and was pleased with myself when I accomplished B’s and C’s. In fact I graduated with a C average.

For those girls who had studied hard, befriended your teachers and upon graduation peppered your valedictorian speech to excerpts from the works of Plato, Shakespeare or Churchill you may remember me. I was the student who would walk in late, find a pencil on the ground and sit down and get a B on the test without studying. I never did my homework, I often skipped school (my sr. year) and had issues with the authority in my life. Ultimately I was out to have fun, and look and act dumb. I never read a single book and was proud of it, often bragging to those responsible students in my class. I found that by acting stupid, it would be easier to gain social acceptance. So in a reexamination of my character at the time one can easily see that this does not sound confident. This sounds insecure, prideful and rebellious. The person I first described, as confident would have embraced responsibility and intelligence as an attribute which set him apart by allowing God to make him into a man. I on the other hand was not that guy; I was the irresponsible guy who often forced stupidity onto himself in an effort to be accepted. I am often harsh with those who act as I did in high school, and one must understand that I have every right to do so for I was one of them 4 years ago. By the grace of God I no longer am and if they repent, Jesus will do the same for them.

Last quarter, with little effort and little complaint I achieved 4.0’s in all my classes in college! I have never achieved greater than a 3.8 in any one class and I may never do so again. The idea is that God has made me into a geek and the worst of all geeks; I am a Bible Geek! One of my mentors Mark Driscoll has said once that he is a bible geek and I agree with that for myself. God has taken a hard headed and prideful person and done great things with him, this being one of them. Although my offering is small, His ability to multiply what I have is great. In short, this is a miracle. I have given Jesus a piece of dried fish and stale loaf of bred and he has multiplied it to feed five thousand.

the big 2-0!!

Happy Birthday BABY-BABY brother!!!! We hope your day is fun and filled with all your wishes coming true (within reason of course!)

We love you!!!!!

{photo taken May 2008)

Belly pics

I couldn't resist posting this. Click on it and enlarge it. And don't spend time looking at mom and dad, or Parker's ear, or my weird facial expression. No, look at Tyler. Priceless. Simply priceless.


My friend Sara said she noticed a difference in my size between when we left West Palm on the 5th and when we got back on the 15th...which confirmed how I was feeling. Things seem to have firmed. And expanded. Hmmm. And, we missed our 22 week shot, so Parker peer-pressured me into 23 weeks pictures. So I thought I would share them. Here goes!

Love you all!

Briana

PS - Parker and I are still super excited about our super duper deal we got on a new TV hutch in Poulsbo on Saturday...as soon as Tyler emails me the pictures, I'll show you all.

Dad and Tj are going to pick it up soon - and keep it for us til we're moving west to fetch it!

Yummy Bran Muffins (and healthy too! shhh!)

Ingredients:
2 cups raisin bran cereal
4 cups whole bran cereal (I used grap nuts)
2 cups boiling water
1 cup plain nonfat or lowfat yogurt
1 1/2 cups sugar (white, or brown, or molasses)
4 eggs
4 cups buttermilk
5 cups flour (whole wheat is best, but any combination of whole wheat and white will work)
5 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Optional Ingredients:
1/4 cup milled flax seed
chopped walnuts or pecans
extra raisins
shredded carrots or zucchini
cinnamon, nutmeg
granola sprinkled on top

Pour boiling water over cereal in a large mixing bowl, stir, and allow to cool. Cream together yogurt, sugar, and eggs. Add buttermilk and cooled cereal mixture. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl, and stir into cereal mixture until combined. Do not overstir - batter will be lumpy. Spoon into muffin tin - fill almost to top.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Yields about 48 muffins.

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As you can tell, this recipe is very flexible; you can alter the cereals, flours, yogurt=shortening=apple sauce, etc).

I made these tonight, and drastically altered them from the recipe I found online (but posted it as I made it). They turned out moist, fluffy, and not too sweet (most bran muffins are too sweet for me, or sweeter than they need to be, or both). The granola on top adds a crispy contrast to the moist muffins. Reviewers of the recipe say they freeze and refrigerate well, or you can put the batter in the fridge and make some each morning.

Gotta love it!

Beej

Back to Florida :|

We got back around 10:30 yesterday morning, and went right to bed :) until about 5pm. Thanks to the mean nasty compression tights, I didn't have much swelling from the flight. Then got up and went back to bed around 11, and am feeling less jet lag than I ever have before!

We had a doctor's appt this morning at 8:15, and all is well! We didn't get good ultrasound pics at all, so no more of those, for those who enjoy them. I have only gained 6 pounds so far, total, which the nurse says is good, and if I keep it up, may lose all the weight or more during childbirth. I was really worried about my weight after an indulgent week in the Northwest, so this was very good news!!!

Thanks to mom, dad, and tyler for so much fun and quality time at home! I really enjoyed seeing you! (Parker did too :)

Love you all!
Beej

PS - 23 weeks and counting!

Sharing here first

I made this last night. I feel it's missing something and maybe I'll figure out what that is one day, but for now I'm just happy to have it completed. at the top there's a tab that says "read me". It is attached to a piece of paper that has Signe's memories of the day printed on it. *MAYBE* someday the kids will see this tree in person and when they're older the journaling will make sense....for now it's for the rest of us :)

New Recipe

Briana shared this recipe with us so we are going to try it this week. We will let you know the results. BJ swears by it. -Dad-

Lee Harrelson
Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad The creamy dressing mellows the heat from the chiles—and best of all, it can be prepared in less than 30 minutes. Dressing:1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro2/3 cup light sour cream1 tablespoon minced chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce1 teaspoon ground cumin1 teaspoon chili powder4 teaspoons fresh lime juice1/4 teaspoon saltSalad:4 cups shredded romaine lettuce2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved1/2 cup diced peeled avocado1/3 cup thinly vertically sliced red onion1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained1 (8 3/4-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, rinsed and drained
To prepare dressing, combine first 7 ingredients, stirring well.
To prepare salad, combine lettuce and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.Tip: Add a spoonful of adobo sauce for a spicier salad. Kidney or pinto beans also taste great in this dish.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 2 1/2 cups)CALORIES 249 (30% from fat); FAT 8.2g (sat 2.8g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.7g); IRON 2.2mg; CHOLESTEROL 50mg; CALCIUM 106mg; CARBOHYDRATE 25.1g; SODIUM 650mg; PROTEIN 23.3g; FIBER 7g Cooking Light, AUGUST 2006

Roman Shade

I started this project for the bonus room in October and finally it is done! I have lots of excuses for how long it took - I am just glad it is done. Now that I am 'experienced' I will move on to our bedroom.

My kids do listen!

Growing up mom and dad taught me many things - I remember little "tricks" that mom taught to help me learn things and remember them. I am realizing this now as I'm teaching Hailee the SAME tricks!

*using your thumb and index finger to determine left and right. Your left hand makes an "L". I see Hailee doing this sometimes...she WAS paying attention

*tying a square knot. with your ribbon: right over left and under....left over right and under. I use that in my scrapping and card making and Hailee is working on learning while she creates her masterpieces.

*How many days in each month. I still use my knuckles sometimes! I've shown this to Hailee but she's not quite there yet - but sometimes she'll ask me about one of the months just so I'll show her the trick!

*and from Tyler - Hailee knows this and now Braden is learning - the stop light song!!! 'Red means stop. Green means go. Yellow means caution, please go slow.'

I love that I can teach them the same things that were taught to me - and I hope they'll do the same!