A little time out

I will go ahead and say that this post is probably going to end up being a complete soapbox. But I dont really think in a complaining griping kind of way.

So anyways, this week the youth at our church are at youth camp. They go to Florida for a week. Now, we went to Florida during some of my youth camps as well. But it was still more like camping staying in long rooms comlpletely full of bunk beds. These kids go and stay in these fancy villas. But that is pointless to what I really want to talk about. I was looking at my facebook and I can see where all of these teenagers are posting about camp. And to be honest it just made me sad. I mean here they are posting about what an amazing service but seriously? There was no tv, no phones, nothing when we went to camp. And it should be that way. It should be a time of getting away from all of those things. Thats just my opinion. I wanted to say something about it on facebook but I know exactly what kind of riot that would cause. Its not just the youth on there anyways. Its the leaders that are down there with them. So thats what I wanted to share.

Weekend Getaway

Wow...even sitting here my body still feels completely exhausted. Just from one day! Friday morning we drove up to Clarksville, TN. for a little mini getaway. A friend of ours had given us a hotel room for the weekend. If we didn't have a baby nursing we probably would have really taken advantage of it and had some alone time. But we had a blast! We got there a little bit before lunch time. Then we went to lunch with a friend and came back to the hotel room. I was already starting to get a headache and the we were trying to get the babies to take a nap and my head started hurting really bad and I started getting sick to my stomach. For some crazy reason I didn't have any tylenol with me. So after realizing these babies werent going to sleep anytime soon we headed out and ended up at the mall. This is where we learned that apparently my 6 month old son absolutely HATES shoe stores. And I am not exaggerating. Every time we went into a shoe store he started screaming. And then we were walking around Target and he was doing just fine. My husband started to go look at the shoes and he started screaming again. It was definitely strange. After the mall we went to eat and we still had a gift card we had gotten so we were able to go out to eat with that. So that first day was an extremely inexpensive day. We had been discussing what we wanted to do the next day and we eventually decided on going to the zoo. I have never been to a zoo and I've always wanted to go. We probably would have went on our way down Friday if we weren't meeting for lunch. So when we woke up Saturday we decided to go ahead and pack up. The zoo was an hour back towards home and we didn't think there was much point in driving an hour back away from home just to get up and drive home the next morning. We had a birthday dinner to be back for today..(Sunday). So we went to the zoo and I probably enjoyed it more than anybody. It was extremely hot and then it became nap time. There was a few times that my daughter pointed and was like "ooooh" or "wow". But for her age it was hard for us to point out the animals to her. She has quite mastered looking where we are pointing. And these animals aren't in cages like at other zoos. There was a couple of animals we never even found. They were hidden so well in their area.
We ended up being at the zoo for about 5-6 hours then we went to this restaurant we read about on The Travel Channel. It was really good and really cheap! I would definitely go back. Then we walked around downtown and took pictures with the statues of Elvis and the giant ice cream cones.
At one corner there was a Mennonite family singing and handing out tracts. We ended up talking to a guy with them and it was surprising to me to learn that we really have a lot of the same beliefs. We got to talking about how so many "Christians" have the mentality once saved always saved. It was funny to me though that after having this discussion with him you would think it was clear that we knew we were saved and living the right way but he still wanted to give us a devotional and encourage us to read it.. But then it may have been its a book he enjoys and thought we might too. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. We did get the family on video singing. Then we drove 2 hours home, passed out and now its Sunday morning. We wont be making it to church this morning which makes me sad since our Pastor will be gone all next week but we are still exhausted. Sorry, I am a horrible story teller and I hate going back through and reading and seperating out paragraphs. Maybe one day....

Waffle Maker

So my husband absolutely loves waffles. I however am a pancake girl myself. I had actually been planning on buying him a waffle maker for father's day but he ended up getting a bicycle instead. And of course we go yard saleing almost every weekend and I've looked there for one too. I had originally looked at Walmart and the cheapest one was close to $30 I think. It could have been closer to 20 but I dont really remember. Anyways, last week I got the chance to run real quick into a thrift store and there was a waffle maker for $4.00. I was so excited to get it for him! It was just the cheapest one you could get at Walmart and makes two waffles at a time. This morning was the first chance I've had to use it and now for the experience. IT WAS AWFUL! First the directions even said that it takes 5-7 minutes. Thats for TWO waffles. So we have two adults and a one year old going to be eating. So the end result was the waffle maker didn't cook evenly. Instead of getting the nice crunch that waffles have they were completely brown in the middle and soft on the outside. It took me almost an hour to finish the one bowl of mix I had made up. And in case you cant tell by the cooking process they weren't even good. They were actually almost cold by the time the last two finished cooking. So then I was grumpy because I had wanted to make these for Brad and then I informed him I would never be making them again. So now Im thinking ahead to Christmas. Im going to have to research them and get a good one. It may cost more but if it works it will get used. And it absolutely must cook at least 4 waffles at a time or it will never be worth it.

Homemade Sloppy Joes

This is what we had for suppThis recier last night and they were really good! Its been awhile since I last bought sloppy joe mix but if I remember right I think it is now over $1.00 a can so really this has to cheaper than buying it since a can is for one pound of meat. And its a very simple recipe to put together with stuff usually on hand.

2 pounds ground beef
1 lg onion, chopped
1-1/4 cups ketchup
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp brown suger
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp chili powder
*This recipe also called for 1/4 tsp ground allspice but I had none and it was still good~

In Dutch oven, cook beef and onion until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 30 minutes or until heated through.