Back to my roots!

And having the time of my life!

I know it's been over a week since you've heard from me, I just got to a computer and wanted to come in and let you all know that we made it safe and sound. It was a LONG LONG airplane ride, 20 hours total but the kids were great and we were just happy to be home.

It's been amazing being with my family, there have been tears and laughs and hugs and reminiscing.....and I've been able to smell the ocean and wet my feet in it and watch the delight in my children's eyes as they gathered seashells and dug their feet into the sand. Amazing!

I'm making this one short because I'm heading out for breakfast at my dad's coffee shop (I have photos of course LOL) and I have tons of pictures of the family and my house and the aquarium inside an actual ship that was washed ashore.

I'll be transferring all of those pictures to my dad's computer today and will be starting my visual journey with you. What's coming is even better because monday morning we're heading to the Kruger National Park....I can't wait.

So I'm sending you all huge hugs and kisses all the way from cold South Africa. I miss you all, I can't wait to get back and visit your blogs and see what you've been up to. Until then, stay safe!

God Bless,

Slow Cooking Thursday!

All my slow cooking recipes are now online and starting today, I will add all the recipes shared weekly to my online del.icio.us site too. So if you're wanting to find ALL the slow cooked recipes that have been shared since the first SLOW COOKING THURSDAY, here is the link for you.

Don't forget to add your name to Mr Linky and a link back to your SCT post so others can come by and see your recipe too.

By the time you read this post I'll be on an airplane heading home to South Africa, so this is my only SCT post for the next 4 weeks, as soon as I return I will restart it again :)

Southwest Breakfast

Ingredients

1 pound bulk pork sausage cooked and well drained
1 meduim onion diced
1 red bell pepper chopped
1 can 4 oz chopped green chilies drained
2 and 1/2 cups grated pepper jack cheese
18 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

spay the inside of your crockpot with nonstick cooking spray
beginning with the sausage layer the meat, onions, bell pepper, chilies and cheese repeating until all the ingredients are gone
in a large bowl whisk the eggs until well combined and all the yolks are broken and mixed in well
pour over the layers in the crock pot
cover and cook 8 hours on low heat
serve with sour cream and your favorite salsa

I'm packed and ready to go!

I'm not kidding you, and you know that huge list of To-Do's????? All done LOL

There's no holding me back now, all that's left is the laundry that I'm washing right now, I'll throw whatever else we need from there into the luggage and pack the toiletries and that's IT!

We have to be up at 3am so I'm wondering if maybe I should just not even bother going to sleep, I'll have plenty of rest on the super long airplane rides. The kids WILL be going to bed because last thing we need is overtired and cranky kiddos.

I have a couple of errands to run today, just last minute stuff, then I have to pick up Jasmine at school (it's her last day), come back home and clean the house. Am I the only one who can't go away without leaving everything neat and tidy? I've had people tell me "why do you bother cleaning, you're not going to be here for a month?". Well actually that's exactly WHY I want to leave things tidy, can you imagine returning from that exhausting trip at night and walking into a dirty and messy house? It would be enough to send me back out the door LOL

Remember the baby bird from yesterday? Well this morning we found him dead. The kids were heartbroken. The problem is that it seems the mom came back and then took off again and didn't return so the little thing must have been starving and cold and scared all night long. It's so sad.

Right before Jasmine left for school, the kids wanted to bury him, so that's what we did. Buried the bird at the foot of the tree, then they place a mound of pretty white rocks on it and they even put flowers on there. How sweet is that?

A few minutes later I heard Nicholas talking about the baby bird being gone and Jasmine said "He's in heaven now Nicholas, now he's happy and he's not alone anymore"......to which Nicholas replied "YEAH, he's with God, he's lucky". It is a wonderful thing to see and hear, knowing my children already understand these things.

I guess I need to get my errands started, so I'm heading out. I'll come by and visit everyone before I leave and then I'll update the blog as soon as I can so you know we made it safe and sound there.

Don't forget the Slow Cooking Thursday post tomorrow, I'll have it up for you all but then you won't get another one until I get back, I know you understand :)

Hugs,

I'm singing in the rain!!!

What a wonderful day it is. First of all, it's HERE, the passport is HERE in my little hands and I couldn't be happier. Praise the Lord, all our prayers have been answered!

Thank you all so much for the prayers and the thoughts and the comforting words while I felt like I was loosing my mind and worried sick. It means a lot to me to know that even though I haven't met you personally, I can still say I have great friends in the blogging world.

And if that wasn't cause enough for celebration he also blessed us with some much needed rain. As I write this it's thundering and raining really hard outside, it's bringing a huge smile to my face, we were desperate for some water here and finally got some. Praise the Lord again!





On sunday we also got our fence up in the backyard, we had been waiting since pretty much the week we moved into this house and only now they came out. But again, it works out just fine, we're having one of the airman stay at our house and watch the girls for us, and I didn't feel right making him take them out on the leash, this is better for everyone involved.

The girls love it out there and we've had ZERO potty accidents in the house since then.


Then I stepped out front to bring the trash can back in and saw this......I thought she was hurt or had fallen off the tree with the high winds we've been experiencing the last two days....but no.....

She sat there for a few minutes and then took off leaving this little bundle behind RIGHT as the rain started pouring. Oh it broke my heart to see it sitting there, but the mommy come back, and I'm glad she did because I'm helpless when it comes to birds and I have no clue how or what I would have done to help the little one.

I'm pretty much all packed and ready to go but I have a few last minute things to throw in the luggage.

Here's what my to do list looks like:

• Finish Packing
• Do all the laundry and pack what we need, put away what we don't
• Change all the bed linens
• Gather the recipes I want to take
• Pack away all the digital camera accessories
• Make sure all the passports and travelling documents are together and ready
• Leave phone numbers and contact list on refrigerator
• Finish uploading songs to my MP3 and movies to the Ipod
• Return all books to the library
• Pick up Jasmine's report card and yearbook from school
• Ziploc all medicines etc for the carry ons
• Make sure kids backpacks are ready
• Run to bank to withdraw some money to leave behind in case dogs need something

Let me tell you, just reading it makes me want to run away considering that I only have tomorrow left before all this has to be done....but I have no doubt I'll knock everything off that list.

Thursday morning I'll have the Slow Cooking Thursday post up for you all, but then there will none until I return.

I do plan on blogging from South Africa, I have access to internet and my oldest brother already told me he has an extra laptop I can use for whatever I need. So I'll be posting photos and taking you along on my journey, starting at Phoenix and ending back on base when we return. I'm so thrilled I can't wait.....just knowing that this time next week I will be enjoying the feel of sand beneath my feet, the smell of the ocean and a much deserved break at the beach.

I'm off to pick up Jasmine from school and give her the good news that mommy's passport came in, she will be over the moon.

God Bless,