10 Months

Today my baby boy turns 10 months old. And guess what...I never did post his 9 month picture! Dern it! I was doing so well with taking his picture on his EXACT birthday and getting them up on my blog on his EXACT birthday. Oh well. I did actually take his 9 month picture just a hair after he turned 9 months, just never posted it. I figure if I post the 9 month picture today along with his 10 month, I'm at least still posting on the 23rd, so it kind of makes up for it, right? Ok, whatever. I know I'm being completely ridiculous about it and you're thinking, "We don't really care. Just stop rambling and get to the picture." So without further ado, I present Ty's 9 Month AND 10 Month White Chair Pictures:

What he's up to:

• The big one: He's basically walking. He only takes a few steps at a time before he falls, but he can definitely do it. He looks like the people in the Thriller video with his hands straight out in front of him and wobbling all over.
• Another big one: He has TWO teeth! The two bottom teeth are out and ready for some food!
• He eats anything and everything we will give him. He still loves him some Cheerios. He is also getting Goldfish, Cheese Crackers, Fresh Fruit, and he had his first try of Avocado and loved it.
• He still hasn't quite mastered the sippy cup, but he's getting close.
• He says "Mama" Yay! It is the sweetest thing in the world when I go to get him out of bed and he says, "Mama." Oh I melt!
• He also says, "Baba" for his bottle.
• He's still wearing his helmet and probably will be for another few months. Good thing it doesn't bother him a bit.

Until next time...which will be the very last white chair picture before he is a year old....sniff, sniff.

"Marlboro Man's Second Favorite Sandwich"

A few days ago I saw The Pioneer Woman on The View. She was talking about her new cookbook and had a variety of foods from the book for the hosts to try. It reminded me that I had seen a sandwich on her blog a while ago that I wanted to try out. It was Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich...a sandwich with beef & onions, Worcestershire & Tabasco. Totally up my husband's alley. When I visited The Pioneer Woman's blog this morning to get the recipe, I came across Marlboro Man's Second Favorite Sandwich. And this particular sandwich happened to have ingredients I felt like might be a little more kid friendly. So I decided to make that one instead. Now, of course, The Pioneer Woman herself has step by step instructions along with incredible pictures of everything right on her blog. And I realize I could have just linked you to that, but what fun would that be for me? So I present to you, Marlboro Man's Second Favorite Sandwich...Lindsay style.

Here's what you'll need:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, Peppered Bacon, Cheese, Lemon Pepper, Buns, Wax paper

One more key ingredient

The first step for me at least is to thaw out the chicken. I put the soap dispenser on top so the entire package stays under the hot water and it thaws quicker.

After trimming all the fat off the chicken, place the breasts in between two pieces of wax paper.

With the flat side of a mallet, pound the chicken until it is a uniform thickness.

Coat both sides of chicken with Lemon Pepper.

The way I pound chicken, it can get a little messy. Pent up aggression, I'm taking out on the chicken, maybe? So I make sure and soak my counters in this when I'm done.
And, yes...I am completely plugging a Clorox product. Anything you guys want to send me for free now would be great. Go ahead...bring it!

Slice the bacon in half. It's actually really easy to do just straight in the package.

Oh and I forgot about one more key ingredient.

Yep, Cheerios....to keep the baby happy & content while you're frying up the bacon.

Fry the bacon.

Take the bacon out, when cooked, and drain the grease from the pan. The Pioneer Woman actually has a photo of her pouring the hot bacon grease out of the pan. Because I really didn't want to burn down our house for the reason of having the perfect Pouring-Bacon-Grease-Out-Of-A-Pan picture, I opted out of that picture. You'll just have to imagine it. Add 1 Tablespoon of the bacon grease back to the pan and heat the pan until it's pretty hot. Add the chicken. You want the chicken to sizzle when you put it in.

Cook the chicken for about 4 minutes on the first side. Until the edges are opaque & white (no longer pink). Flip the chicken over and add bacon to the top.

Add sliced cheese on top of the bacon. I used American for the girls and Cheddar for Marty & me.

Place top on pan and continue cooking chicken for at least 4 minutes on the second side and until cheese is good and melted.

Meanwhile, melt some butter.

Brush the melted butter on the buns and place in the oven on broil to toast.

Put chicken on bun and enjoy! You can add all kinds of your own twists to this recipe: Mushrooms, Grilled Onions, Condiments, Etc. Mmmm!!

The house sure smells like bacon after dinner. Good thing for these.

And more of these.

And evenings like this, so you can open all the doors.

The "Special Meeting"

In my last post I wrote about a "special meeting" Marty & I were set to attend. If I'm being completely honest and I do always try to be on this blog I have been a little hesitant to write about it. Not because I'm ashamed or embarrassed, but because I had fear. Fear of what people would think. Fear of what people would say. Fear of not being able to answer questions we may get about why we are doing this. But I have come to a place of peace and comfort. That's not to say that the fear doesn't creep back in every once in a while. I've just learned to listen to the voice of God telling me not to fear. The meeting was an orientation to learn more about an organization called Arrow Child & Family Ministries. They are a ministry that places foster children in homes to be adopted. It was kind of funny when the speaker went around the room and asked each couple why they felt like they were there and our answer simply was, "We're not exactly sure. We just feel called to be here." And that's about as honest of an answer as we can give at this time. We're not exactly sure why we are pursuing this or where this is going to lead. We simply feel called to go to these meetings and learn more. I think one of my biggest fears in sharing this is, I was afraid if we shared this news and then in the end, we felt it wasn't God's plan for us to foster or adopt, what would people think of us? But I have come to realize that's not what this is about. It's not about what the end result is. It's about feeling a call from God and blindly following. And let me say, it's not easy. It hasn't been easy to just jump head first into this without having a clue where it's going to lead. But there is a peace about it. A peace that as long as God is guiding us, we will be where we need to be. The entire time I was sitting in that room Tuesday night listening to all of the information about the process of fostering & adopting I had fear after fear and doubt after doubt coming into my head.

• "What am I doing here?"
• "I'm not equipped to deal with these things."
• "There's no way I could love a child that isn't my biological child, like I love mine."
• "I don't have the patience to handle something like this."
• "Why am I here again?"
• "Do we really want to 'mess up' our family dynamic?"
• "Why wouldn't we just have more children of our own if we can?"
• "Am I putting my children in harm's way?"
• "Are we even good enough parents to our children now to justify bringing more into our home?"

I mean, we are talking loads of them. Bombarding my brain. And every time they flew in, it was as if God was right there ready to just "poof" them into oblivion. With each thought that crept in, I kept hearing, "It will be ok. It will be ok. Move forward. It will be ok." So for now, we are choosing to move forward. We have no idea what the end of this journey looks like. There are so many possibly outcomes. We have decided to take the slow & steady path and continue taking the classes when we can. I'll certainly keep you posted on how it's going.

Bullet Points

We've had too much going on the past few weeks to write a cohesive post, so they're comin' atcha as bullet points. Here we go:

• Ty is so close to walking, it's crazy. He looks like Frankenstein when he lets go of the coffee table and tries to take a step. He's taken about 1.5 steps so far. We're thinking it won't be too much longer before he's full-on running. He's definitely keeping me on my toes lately. He's opening cabinets, trying to go up the stairs, pulling things off of tables. Lord help me.
• Yesterday was Easter. I got the girls cute dresses from, where else, Target. We got all dressed up, loaded up in the car those of you with multiple children can appreciate just the effort that takes and headed to church. I was armed with my camera, ready to get some family pictures of everyone dressed in their Sunday Best. As we pulled into the parking lot of the church Reagan threw up. Nice. So much for pictures, Easter church and the egg hunt. I did manage to get 1 picture of the kids at home before we left and thank goodness I did. That pink dress of Reagan's didn't look nearly as cute with regurgitated toast on it.

• Marty & I are going to a special meeting tomorrow night that I am very excited about. More on that later...
• I love David Gray. Well, I mean I love his music. You know what I mean. Totally random, I know. But I was just thinking about how I used to listen to his music all the time and I've gone away from it for a while. I think I'll go back.
• MacKenzie brought home her 2nd "All A's Honor Roll" Certificate. Go MacKenzie! Her teacher said she is such a great leader in the classroom. She really is one of the kindest people I know. I could stand to learn a thing or two from her.
• We had a neighborhood Crawfish Boil/Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday and it was a blast. We've had such great weather here lately we thought it would be the perfect time to spend the afternoon outside getting to know our neighbors. Who knew Summer would come on that exact day. Whew! Alas, it was still a good time even in the heat, and I did not take one picture. It felt good.
• I am singing at church this coming weekend for the first time in 2 years. I can't even believe it has been that long.
• As much as I hate that Reagan missed school today because she's not feeling well, I was glad to cancel a doctor appointment and spend the day lazily around the house.
• I've got about 6 loads of laundry to finish up, including the towels I used to clean up more throw up, so I'm going to go get started on those. I know. You don't have to say it. You wish you were me.