Cranberry Chicken

This is a recipe from a new cookbook I picked up....YUMMY. It cost me about $8 for the whole family of 6...and some rice and vegys and ta da. You could cut that price down even more depending on what you pay for the chicken and if you have coupons for the other items.

8 oz. Catalina dressing
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1-1 lb can whole-berry cranberry sauce
4 boned chicken breasts

Mix together dressing, soup mix and cranberry sauce, pour over chicken. Bake uncovered for 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

(I used extra chicken breasts and there was plenty of sauce)

On Running

Things I like about running:

• the "alone in my head time"
• worship songs on my ipod
• its good for me
• the scenery
• S...L...O...W but steady weight loss
• how humbled I am by God's handiwork
• thinking I am almost done and realizing I'm not
• wildlife
• running EVENTS!!
• traffic lights that I catch...a forced break
• a sense of accomplishment
• a new vocabulary full of new running terms
• I am an athlete
• cool shoes
• it forces me to be patient, a trait I am still working on
• I'm running farther than I ever imagined I could

Things I dislike about running:

• road kill
• garbage trucks passing by on a hot day
• running beside traffic
• thinking I am almost done and realizing I'm not
• traffic lights that I miss...no breaks
• shin splints

Vandals

Last night we were targeted by vandals. About a half hour after falling to sleep I woke up to some unfamiliar sounds. I looked to see if it was Sarah because sometimes she wakes up in the night and plays. Not her. So I stood quietly in the hall and listened. Someone was moving right outside my front door! I woke Sandor immediately and he took off down the stairs and listened. Then he turned on the porch light and opened the door. Nothing there. Weird. We headed upstairs again and the noise started up again. We listened. We could FEEL this vandal pressing against the door as we listened from the other side and we could hear him moving around so this time we peeked out into the dark. A masked vandal was on the porch and slowly his cohorts appeared around the corner of the garage! Big and FAT...they were trying to steal the dried corn cobs off the stalks I had arranged on the porch as fall decorations. Not one, not two, but THREE big raccoons. Oh well. Let them eat it!! BUT what a mess they left for me this morning and one very inconsiderately sat on my mum and crushed part of it. Ah wildlife. I think I will clip the rest of the cobs off and leave them for the vandals as a buffet....rather than have them destroy my decorations any further.

Something my sister Laura shared with me....

Heather

Thanks to the Speyside Heather Garden & Visitor Centre for this information


When God first made the world, He looked at the bare and barren hillsides and thought how nice it would be to cover them with some kind of beautiful tree or flower. So he turned to the Giant Oak, the biggest and strongest of all of the trees he had made, and asked him if he would be willing to go up to the bare hills to help make them look more attractive. But the oak explained that he needed a good depth of soil in order to grow and that the hillsides would be far too rocky for him to take root.
So God left the oak tree and turned to the honeysuckle with its lovely yellow flower and beautiful sweet fragrance. He asked the honeysuckle if she would care to grow on the hillsides and spread her beauty and fragrance amongst the barren slopes. But the honeysuckle explained that she needed a wall or a fence or even another plant to grow against, and for that reason, it would be quite impossible for her to grow in the hills.
So God then turned to one of the sweetest and most beautiful of all the flowers - the rose. God asked the rose if she would care to grace the rugged highlands with her splendour. But the rose explained that the wind and the rain and the cold on the hills would destroy her, and so she would not be able to grow on the hills.
Disappointed with the oak, the honeysuckle and the rose, God turned away. At length, he came across a small, low lying, green shrub with a flower of tiny petals -some purple and some white. It was a heather.
God asked the heather the same question that he’d asked the others. "Will you go and grow upon the hillsides to make them more beautiful?"
The heather thought about the poor soil, the wind and the rain - and wasn’t very sure that she could do a good job. But turning to God she replied that if he wanted her to do it, she would certainly give it a try.
God was very pleased.
He was so pleased in fact that he decided to give the heather some gifts as a reward for her willingness to do as he had asked.
Firstly he gave her the strength of the oak tree - the bark of the heather is the strongest of any tree or shrub in the whole world.
Next he gave her the fragrance of the honeysuckle - a fragrance which is frequently used to gently perfume soaps and potpouris.
Finally he gave her the sweetness of the rose - so much so that heather is one of the bees favourite flowers. And to this day, heather is renowned especially for these three God given gifts.

Facebook

I don't know if this is good or bad but I have a facebook. My dear sister encouraged me to start one and now I have this and that to balance along with Sarah's (sorely neglected) webpage. So thanks, sister Sarah...I think?

A Personal Record

Every once in a while in the middle of a very regular day something fun happens. For me on Thursday that meant that all of a sudden I had free time to go for a run. It was an absolutely perfect day weather wise for a run. So I decided to do my long run since I knew my weekend was pretty busy and I would likely miss it if I didn't take the opportunity to do it now. So I headed out for my long run which is currently 6 miles. Slow and steady is the rule for long runs so I just ran...I didn't try to go fast or slow I just went. At the end I hit the button on my stopwatch and took a look as I walked home...1 hour 7 minutes and 42 seconds! A personal record and I wasn't even trying!!! That is exciting. Besides that the run was a lot of fun too.