My New Favorite Thing

Lately it seems like I've been struggling to get dinner on the table. The other meals are nothing fancy, but I like dinner to be something homemade if I can pull it together. So, I put some serious thought into this problem and there was only one obvious solution: the crock pot.

Really, think about most crock pot (slow cooker) recipes you know. Dump some items in for anywhere from 3-8 hours and then when your family is starving, it's all ready to scoop out and feed them!
I already had some recipes that I liked from previous years, but I found another website from a friend's blog that was called A Year of Slow Cooking. Apparently this woman used her crock pot for a year straight to provide dinners for her family. I think she might be my new hero.
So far I've tried her carnitas recipe and tonight we did her Slow Cooker Meatballs in Peanut Chile Sauce. Both were a hit. Both were easy.
The trick with the crock pot is to remember to do it early enough in the day. There have been plenty of times that 4 o'clock rolls around and I'm wondering what to do for dinner and think I should've used the crock pot. 4 o'clock with no dinner plans usually equals In'N'Out for us. (It's really naughty that we live so close to one and that it's so darn cheap to feed the whole family.)
My old crock pot has become my new answer to dinner. The two biggest problems:
1. Cleaning the crock pot after we finish up, so that it's ready to go the next day.
2. In most recipes there's only a main dish. Who needs sides anyway?
So, if you've got a great recipe to share--leave me a link or email it to me! I'm on a mission here.

I Have a Squeaky Bra

Seriously. I do.
I'm not really going to post a photo with this one because I don't think it's appropriate.
I realized that my bra squeaks two nights ago when I was getting changed into my pjs for a relaxing night of doing whatever I wanted to that wasn't caring for my kids and then eating some pazookie--chocolate-chocolate chip cookie dough with chocolate ice cream on top. Yes, you read that right--chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.
Not that the treat of choice has anything to do with the squeaking bra because really it doesn't. I mean, it's not as though the bra was squeaking because it has a heavy burden to bear--not in my case anyway. I guess that bra was just voicing its complaint about how hard a bra works with no real appreciation. Really, 'cause it lifts me up when I'm feeling down doesn't it?
However, I don't think I can continue to live with a squeaky bra because I don't know what other people will think when they hear that squeaky noise coming from my general chest area. Some problems you don't just live with.
Good-bye squeaky bra.

Finding My Roots Part IV

For those of you who have been following my journey to locate my dad's biological family, I figured you may be interested in the latest chapter. For those of you who haven't read the whole story, it's here and here and here). I hesitate to really call it a finale because I do believe that now that I have found them and met them, they will be a part of my life forever. So, I believe it's actually a bit of a beginning really.

Sara, Maegan, my dad, me and Debbie

Sara & Maegan are twins!

This last Thursday I flew out to Arkansas. My dad flew from Colorado and met me at the airport. We were picked up by my dad's uncle--whom neither of us have ever met before. It felt a bit like those blind date set ups you hear about where the woman wears a red carnation or something else as an identifier. Anyway, I did actually think about not being able to recognize him because I've never met him before and all the photos I have of him are about 40 years old. So, we exchanged cell phone numbers. Would've been more romantic had I worn a flower, but a cell phone will do.

I have to have a side note in this story to say that a mom, such as myself, traveling without her kids is a mom who feels a bit lost. I can't remember the last time I traveled without a child and I really did feel weird and incomplete. I mean I could actually read a book! I didn't have to say, "Stop touching that," or "Here, have gummy bears for lunch," in order to control the masses. I missed my kids terribly. I felt weird without them with me. I can officially say I am a stay at home mom. Now, back to the story.

I called Darrel (my great uncle/my dad's uncle) and we met right at the escalator. He gave me the biggest, tightest bear hug and right away, I knew the trip would be good. He is a very handsome guy--he looks a lot like Colonel Sanders of KFC fame. His hair is the most gorgeous, white hair I think I've ever seen. I was telling his daughter, Debbie, how much I liked his hair and she said, "Oh yes. Dad is a dandy." In other words, he takes great pride in looking well coiffed and handsome. Sorry I am finding myself providing a lot of details here. You've probably all stopped reading by now. Darrel is actually in his pjs here. He didn't know I'd want to take a photo or he'd be looking even better!

Sara, Maegan, my dad, Darrel and Debbie

(Bethany was sadly gone that night.)

We chatted the drive back to Searcy and ate dinner together along with his daughter Debbie and Debbie's daughters Sara and Maegan (twins) and her other daughter Bethany. The conversation was nice and introductory. I was surprised to discover that they didn't know any of the story of my dad's birth. My dad's mom, Doris, had never spoken about it at all. Not to her siblings, not to her own mother even. I can't imagine how that affected her for the rest of her life.

I have to also say that when Darrel heard we were coming out he offered to have us stay in his house and drive his car, so that the trip would not be expensive. That is true charity. He didn't know anything about us other than my phone calls and emails and he completely opened up his home to us. He is an amazing man.

The next day my dad and I drove down to Little Rock, so that I could do some family history work on my grandma's lines (this is my mom's mom--I'm not trying to make this confusing I promise). Strangely enough she has several family lines that go back to Arkansas and now my dad's biological lines go back to Arkansas too! I was able to get some information, but unfortunately, the state of Arkansas has lost a lot of records to fires and probably some to tornadoes as well I'd guess.

Another side note--tornadoes touched down five miles away from where I stayed. FIVE MILES! We actually drove through where it landed and I can't put into words how seeing devastation like that in person will shock you. I've seen plenty of post tornado photos on TV and the Internet, but never in person. It's crazy. There will be one house razed to the ground and 10 feet away another house won't have a scratch. Whole trees pulled up by the roots, walls and boards thrown all over and just mass devastation.

The last day we were there I was able to finally meet my great-grandma. Do you realize that if my dad's mom were still living, there would be FIVE generations alive on the earth right now. (Five is apparently a theme here.) Since her son Darrel (my great uncle) is still alive, there really are five generations alive. That never happens anymore.

See how she's holding his hand. She didn't want to let go. It was so touching.

When we walked in to meet her she was so sweet and had us come right over to her and she kissed our cheeks and said how happy she was to finally see us. After I showed her some pictures and video of my kids, I had my dad go sit close to her, so I could get their photo together. She grabbed my dad's hand and didn't want to let go. She said, "I've missed you. I've thought about you again and again through the years."

It's how I imagine it'll be when we arrive in heaven. Our family will be waiting and they will hold us close and say, "I've missed you." I just can't tell you how much that meant to my dad to know that this woman has thought of him and worried for him. His biological mother died just three years shy of us getting to meet her and the woman who adopted him died when he was nine and the next woman that raised him died just a few years ago of Alzheimer's; not even recognizing him the last several years of her life. Then, here is this woman who has held his memory in her heart for 52 years and loves him immediately upon meeting him.

After we left visiting with grandma (or Me-maw as they say in the South), we went to the cemetery where my grandma, my dad's mom, is buried.

We ate BBQ that night and I ate a hush puppie (I liked it) and fried pie (I LOVED THAT!). I could definitely adjust my diet to southern cooking. Of course, Darrel cooked every meal for us and he's quite the host when it comes to whipping up a meal (sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy along with homemade jam--and that was just for one breakfast!)

Debbie, Maegan, Bethany, Darrel, Sara, me and my dad

It was a very wonderful trip. I felt at home with these people. They are wonderful and accepting and so much fun. I want to visit again and continue to nurture this wonderful new family that I have been blessed to find.

Who Do You Look Like?

It's interesting how each person seems to see your children differently. I, personally, don't see myself in Ryanna at all. I think she looks completely like Derek's side of the family: brown eyes (Derek's mom is the only grandparent with brown eyes), darker toned skin, skinny, skinny body. All of those things make me think Derek's family.

Ryanna


Derek and His older sister

Now Owen, with his bigger frame and blonde hair and hazel/greenish eyes, I can see my family more clearly there.

Owen--that smile!




Me and Owen with our blonde hair--at least he doesn't have a sunburn!

Though I definitely see a part of Derek's face shape in Owen.

Eli, I still don't know which family members I see there. He does get really tiny eyes when he smiles like I do. Funny, I think it's so cute on him, but I hate it for myself. Aren't we always our own worst critics?

Eli

Me--maybe I look like Eli?

His smile gets me too!

Any Eli in little Derek?

So, last week we were at Owen's soccer practice and the coach comes up to talk to us and notices Ryanna and Eli. "Are these all yours?" he asked Derek. Derek responded affirmatively that we were indeed the parents. To which the coach responded, "They all look like your wife."

The next day at the soccer game, which I was unable to attend, another parent made the same comment to Derek.

Now, I tend to take strangers views on which of the children look like which parent with a little more validity given that these strangers didn't grow up with me or Derek, so they don't have the bias which people who have known you for a long time may have.

However, this idea, I just can't buy. All of my kids look just like me? How can that be when they all look different from each other? I thought I'd post some of Derek's baby pics and some of mine and some of our kids and then you can tell me who you see...

Maybe I'm just wondering about all of this because I'm finally making the trip to meet my dad's biological family. Yes, on Thursday I leave for Arkansas to meet my own great grandma for the FIRST time. Pretty amazing. I'm so excited. I guess I'm wondering too...do I look anything like that side of the family? Any habits that were genetic? Is that even possible? Guess I'll find out in a few days!