Questions Anyone?

I was visiting one of my blogland friends Jill a while back and she had this wonderful idea about answering questions from her readers. Then Karolee did the same thing recently. I thought I would “borrow” the idea from these lovely ladies.

Over the next few days leave a question you would like for me to answer. Ask me anything you would like to know. I will post the answers to those questions.

I would also like to thank Yokoso for the Faithful Visitor Award. This was what she had to say: I award Nadine from "Just Being Me" blogspot, for being such a faithful visitor. Thank-you Nadine, for always being there, for surprising me with your short but sweet comments and for your understanding. You are a great representation of our Heavenly Father’s faithfulness, who never leaves us nor forsakes us.

I have many faithful visitors who stop by. I’ll like to pass this on to those who faithfully read this blog, whether you comment or not. Thank you for visiting me and letting me be part of your world.

Now don’t forget to leave your questions.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Murder at the Deadwood Saloon

Tom and I were invited to a surprise murder mystery birthday party. His lovely secretary wanted to surprise her hubby because he always wanted to have one. The surprise part was that it was at my house. It was fine because the church was being used by the youth and her landlord doesn’t like large gatherings, so she asked if they could use our home. She came and decorated and cleaned up afterwards. It was the easiest party I ever had at my house.

She gave us out roles. I was Sally Starr, saloon/dance hall girl. Everyone had to dress up and there were certain things we had to do during the evening. Let’s just say I got into my character and had fun with it.

Tom was Montgomery Money an investor from the East. He looked very handsome dressed all in black (Johnny Cash had nothing on him). I have to say Sally flirted with Mr. Money all evening long.

We were all given money ($500) that we could use to buy beer/root beer (which Sally refused to pay for), information and bribes. In the middle of the party the murder took place. We were given an envelope that contained clues and encouraged to get as much information as we can.

Tom’s secretary kept stealing his cash, which was really funny. I mean literally when he wasn’t looking she would simply grab it. I kept convincing others to hand me over theirs. In the end certificates were awarded for Best Dressed (Marshall Dalton/also the birthday boy), Most Money (Black Barbara/Tom’s secretary) and Drama Queen Award for the best performance of the evening was awarded to…can you guest? Alright it was me. Thank you, thank you. I want to thank all the little people that helped me get this award. (Pictured below.)
Here are some other pictures from the evening.

Friendly game of poker anyone?
The outhouse. (See the cute sign on the door.)
Banker Bonnie keeping a close eye on the water glasses.
Clay Coldwell, local resident of Deadwood and once-known poker great.
Marshal Dalton (aka birthday boy)
Minnie Money (Montgomery’s daughter) with Jesse Wales (outlaw)
Harry High-Stakes – owner of the Deadwood Saloon telling a joke
Mitch Maverick (aka the dead man). Doesn't he look peaceful?
The outline of the dead man.
Montgomery Money
Sally Starr loves him.
© Nadine Z. 2007

Cream Cheese Chicken

I’ve posted recipes before and as you all know, I usually use pictures. I don’t cook with exact measurements so it’s difficult to give out recipes. Cream Cheese Chicken is an idea that developed out of a snack Tom had at a party once. The hostess took chicken and placed a bit of cream cheese in the middle, wrapped a piece of bacon around it and then baked. I decided to try it as a meal and added an easy sauce. This is one of my family’s favorite dishes. If you try it, let me know.

First you fillet a piece of chicken breast, add a bit of salt, pepper and parsley. Cut a slice of cream cheese to fit down the middle.

Cover the cream cheese with the sides of the chicken.
Take a slice of bacon and wrap it around the chicken. If it’s a big piece it might require two pieces of bacon. Don’t be stingy.
Stick toothpicks on the ends to make sure they don’t open up.
Place the chicken in a pan with some water. Bake at 350 for about 30 – 45 minutes until chicken is cooked.

Remove chicken from pan and place under the broiler. Be very careful and watch the chicken. You want your bacon to brown, but not to burn. Turn the chicken and brown the other side.
Finely chop half a small onion and place it in a sauce pan with butter, salt and pepper. Cook it until the onion starts to become a bit translucent.
Add a can or two of Cream of Chicken soup.
Slowly add a little bit of water to the pan until it turns into a sauce consistency.
Remove the toothpicks and place chicken in a pan and cover with sauce. Bake chicken at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.
© Nadine Z. 2007

The Hallway

I had a two hour ride to my daughter’s apartment on her birthday. I decided to make good use of my time. The only two days I worked last week were bad. That’s all I’m saying about it because I don’t want dwell there. I thought it would be good to listen to some worship music. I put in one of favorite CD’s, “Under Your Shadow” by Josh Young. The song, “I Lay It Down” came on and the words spoke to my heart and I just wept. Here are the words:

I lay it down, all that’s in my heart
I lay it down, I place it at Your feet
For You alone have everything I need
I lay it down

I want more of You
I need more of You

I lay it down, my need to understand
For I believe that You have a perfect plan
Yes, I believe that You alone are God
I lay it down

I want more of You
I need more of You

So I come to You with arms open wide
Give my heart to You, only You can satisfy
Let Your fire burn
Through the depths of my soul
Take me deeper Lord, I want to lose control

As the song played it ministered to my heart. I realized that I was standing in a hallway. A hallway is not bad place, but it’s a transition place. Behind me is a door that is closed and in front of me was a new door that was not opened yet.

Before God could open that door, I needed to lay down my wants and desires and seek after His. He has my best interest at heart. He knows what is best for me. I don’t need to understand why I’m in the place I’m in. All I need to know is that He loves me and has the perfect plan for me. This requires trust. I can trust Him to provide.

If I open my hands and let go of what is in there, then God can come along and fill it with something new. I need to let go of my agenda and grab a hold of His. The hallway is not a pleasant place to be, but how long I last there is up to me. Do I choose to fight what God is doing or do I choose to relent. I choose to relent and let Him be God. One thing I’m certain of is whenever that new door opens, I’m ready to leap forward into it.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Happy 24th Baby Girl

Today is my daughter’s birthday. I can’t believe she is 24. Am I old enough to have a child who is 24? I must be, because she is. If you want to read last’s year post about my girl click here.

Tom and I are very proud of the woman she has become. We have always told our children that they should dream big and go for it. I’m proud that they are. She’s beautiful, articulate, intelligent and in school studying psychology. She is a mixture of both us, even though I see more of her father in her. As she gets older, I’m noticing my genes kicking in. I love my baby girl even though she’s no longer a baby, but a beautiful woman. She humors her mother and lets me call her baby girl anyway.

I’m heading up to her apartment today to bring her birthday dinner. On the dinner menu is kicked up Caesar salad with mushrooms and avocados, cream cheese chicken, asparagus and roasted red potatoes. I baked a cake a vanilla cake with vanilla pudding inside – her favorite (pictured above).

After church, I’ll load up the car with food, presents and cake and drive two hours to spend some time with my baby girl. I can’t wait to see. Unfortunately her dad is still in New York, but his heart will be with us today. If she lets me (she’s camera shy), I’ll take some pictures from the festivities and post them later tonight.

Some pictures from my daughter's birthday. Below the gifts. I wrapped it up in new towels. This way she can have the towels as a gift also.

Here is the unwrapping.

Blowing out the birthday cake.
After our meal we could only handle a little piece of cake.

© Nadine Z. 2007

At Least I Have My Cute Shoes

The first day back at work after being away for three days is always the roughest. I knew this before my I went to work today. I got up and prayed. I asked God to give me grace for the day. I would hate to think what my day would have been like if I didn’t start it off this way.

It was a crazy day and I can’t believe how close I came to quitting. I was getting yelled at for things I didn’t do because I was there for the past three days. I was thinking why I almost lost it today. I wasn’t disrespectful to my boss, but I did tell him to back off. In relaying my day to Tom, he asked me an interesting question. He wanted to know if I was trying to get fired. I wasn’t, but I was firmer than I ever was in the six years I worked there.

I feel like my time there is coming to an end. I believe God will provide a way for me to be able to quit and minister with Tom. My heart is not in it anymore, but I want to finish well. I want to do my best everyday. It’s important to do what is in front of you with excellence, before you move on to the new thing. I don’t want to circle this mountain again. How you leave one thing can affect how you enter the new thing. I know this in my head. Sometimes things get lost between the head and the heart. I guess I needed this reminder today. I thank God for bringing me to a place where I can recognize it.

The day ended well. I had dinner with a friend and we came back to my house for some Tim Tams. Yummy. Tomorrow night I get to dine with a couple of more ladies. You guessed it…more Tim Tams.

My bag got delivered and as you can see from the picture above at least I have my cute shoes.

© Nadine Z. 2007

I’m Home, But…

I had a great trip. I can’t begin to describe how right it felt being by Tom’s side for this trip. It was hard to say goodbye at the airport. He was heading to New York and I’m heading home to Washington. My heart is with him. Believe it or not his plane was delayed for an hour and a half. Unfortunately he was on the plane for that time instead of being with me in the terminal. My plane didn’t leave for a few hours. Good news is my plane did take off on time. The one is Salt Lake City did also. I had a very short window to get to the second plane. Here’s the problem with that…I’m home but my luggage isn’t. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to kick myself for not doing a carry on. Now a days it’s so hard because you can’t take liquids over 3 ounces and it has to fit into a quart size bag. I just want to say that I’m not letting this ruin my whole trip. The trip was very good.

Tuesday was a good day. We joined the men at the board meeting in the morning and then after lunch we went shopping. Yeah! Nothing bonds women together more than shopping. One of the gals needed some shoes, so we looked for shoes. I came away with a $65 pair of shoes on sale for $21.oo…score! They are comfortable and I can wear them when I’m teaching. I had planned on posting a picture of them, but they are being held hostage by Delta Airlines.

We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant called La Hacienda Ranch in Colleyville. Check them out at laharanch.com. The food was yummy. They make a delicious tableside guacamole. I love avocados in any form. They are known for two things: 1. the founder Mariano Martinez invented the frozen Margarita machine and 2. George Bush ate there.

It was nice getting to know everyone on the board and put faces to names. There is the annual Association of Bridge Churches meeting coming up in January. I’m looking forward to seeing all of them again.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Dallas Here I Come…Eventually

I was up early this morning (3:30 am) to get to the airport by 4:00 am. Thank God we live in a small town with an airport that has easy access. The first flight went just fine. We landed in Salt Lake City without a hitch. We had to hurry because the second plane was leaving a half hour after we landed and was of course on the other side of the airport.

At this point we are less than two hours away from our final destination – Dallas. At first they make an announcement that the flight crew is delayed and we will be boarding in about fifteen minutes. Then I notice the time for departure changes to later. I knew we were in for it when all of sudden our flight was off the board. The thing Delta should have done at this point was explain what was going on. It seemed that the flight crew was coming from a place that had a nasty storm and as soon as they arrived we were going to leave. Finally they arrive…an hour and half later, we board. We sit. They have to check a computer problem. Another twenty minutes go by. Okay, we’re finally on our way and taxi into position . . . psych! We have to turn around because the computer problem is not resolved and we now need a new plane.

At this point I’m having flash backs to rental car nightmares and hotels called HoJo. We sit some more with vague promises of information in a few minutes. Finally they will let us back on the same plane we just got off from. The problem now it seems is the flight crew is MIA. Four hours later from the time we were to take off we finally do.

YEAH!!! We have arrived. It was so good to get here. We are picked up from the airport and are staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Dallas. It’s a very nice hotel and we have a lovely room. The bed is one of those sleep number beds. I will sleep well tonight.

One last note, if you are ever in Dallas, you have to go to Boi Na Braza. It’s a Brazilian Steak House. The food was amazing. First off they have the fanciest, upscale salad bar I’ve ever seen. There were hearts of palm (which taste a bit like artichoke), fancy cheeses, olives, artichokes, sautéed mushrooms, asparagus, and the list goes on. You can feast on the salad bar alone. The other part of this fabulous dining experience was the waiters come over with meat on skewers. They cut off chunks of meats off and put it on your plate. They have 15 varieties of pork, beef, lamb and poultry. They will keep bringing it until you pop. Then there were the desserts. Oh my…I had caramel cheesecake w/pecans and a layer of chocolate. It was divine. Check out their link, you can see for yourself.

We took a drive through downtown Fort Worth. Tomorrow is a day of meetings and shopping.

It’s past my bedtime. I hope you all have a great day.

© Nadine Z. 2007

South Pacific

I had a wonderful time with Tom yesterday. We went to Spokane and stopped to see our daughter on the way. It was nice to visit with her.

We stopped at the World Market (so excited Spokane had one) and got more Arnott biscuits. Now I’ll have plenty to share. It’s a fun place with many interesting items from all over the world. My hubby took me to dinner at Outback. We had a nice steak dinner and then headed over to see the show.

It was a nice production of South Pacific at the Spokane Civic Theatre. We had good seats. I remembered 99% of the songs. I just can’t get, “Some Enchanting Evening” out of my head now. They did a good job. I have a great husband who seems to manage to pick out the perfect gifts for me.

We head out to Dallas tomorrow, so I will keep this post short. I hope you all have a nice week. I will check back on all your blogs when I get back or during down times if I get the chance.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Tim Tams & Other Stuff

My friend Cindy introduced Tom and I to an Australian treat called, “Tim Tams.” What is a Tim Tam you ask? Well it’s a chocolate coated biscuit with a chocolate cream center. The idea behind this biscuit is to take a little bite on each end and then dunk it into a hot liquid (coffee or for me hot chocolate is the best) and suck the hot liquid through the biscuit. Once the hot liquid touches your tongue and softens the biscuit you put the entire biscuit in your mouth. The act of putting the biscuit in your mouth is called a “slam,” hence it’s often referred to as having a “Tim Tam slam.” There is an explosion of chocolate goodness that is beyond words. Every chocolate lover should try this. Arnott’s are the makers of this heavenly delight. Besides the original flavor of chocolate, they also come in caramel and double chocolate.

The only place that sells them here in the U.S. is the World Market. There are 297 stores – click here to find one near you. Tom had a class to teach in Portland and stopped at the World Market and picked me up some of these treats. He is a great hubby. If you live near one of these stores, do yourself a flavor and buy some. (Yes I know I said flavor and not favor.) Remember don’t just eat them because it would be a waste. The fun part is using them as a straw. Invite some friends and let them join in on the fun. They will love you for it.

In other news, I get to go to Dallas next week with Tom. He is on the board of the church organization we belong to. The founder thought that the wives should come to the next meeting. I’m excited because I’ll probably go shopping with the other wives while the meetings are being held. This will be my first time in Dallas.

This Saturday we are going to see South Pacific up in Spokane (it was my birthday present from Tom). I’m very excited because we will also stop by to see our daughter who goes to school nearby.

Until next time have a great day.

© Nadine Z. 2007

The Notebook

I finally watched the movie, “The Notebook.” I know it’s been out since 2004, but for some reason I missed it. If you haven’t seen it don’t read any further, go rent it and then come back. The following contains the ending of the movie.

The movie begins with an elderly gentleman named, Duke and an elderly lady in a nursing home. Duke reads to her a story about two young people in love, named Noah and Allie. We get to hear about how they met. We learn that they were separated by Allie’s mother who didn’t approve of Noah’s financial class. It’s obvious that Duke has affection for this elderly lady. As the love story unfolds, you find out that Duke is really Noah and the elderly lady is Allie. The sad part is that Allie doesn’t remember Noah because she has severe Alzheimer’s disease.

After a seven year separation, Allie comes back to Noah. He promises her that he would love her forever, even though it may not be easy. Fighting is okay because love trumps turmoil. The doctors and Noah’s children tell him that there is no hope for reaching Allie. Her disease is progressive and she will never know who he is. Noah never gave up; instead he lived at this nursing home to be near Allie and to read to her the story of their lives. You find out that the story was written by Allie with an inscription, “Read to me and I’ll come back to you.” His devotion to her and faith that she would come back to him moved me to tears. There was a very brief moment when she realized the story was about her and him before she had a terrible set back. The ending nearly did me in. They died together in their sleep.

This was a story of love that never gave up. This was a story of hope and faith in love that is eternal. Tom asked me what made me cry. He wanted to know which character I related to. You know in this story it didn’t matter. I could see either one us never giving up on the other one regardless of what doctors may say.

Love that lasts a lifetime is always a gripping story. It grips us if we don’t have it and it grips us if we do. I’m blessed for having found that kind of love. I know that I’m not alone because there are many out there who have been blessed to find their “Noah.”

Lord I thank You for Tom. I thank You Father for Your love.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Now That’s Fabulous

I was awarded the Totally Fabulous Award by Karolee from My Montana Moments and Demara from Yokoso on the same day. You both are very sweet and I thank you for the honor. This is what the author of the award had to say:

"This award was designed by Mike At Ordinary Folk and was originally offered by Christy of Totally Fabulous. She says the award is for “bloggers who are fun, cool, and of course Totally Fabulous!”

Do you want to know what I love about this award? There is no limit as to whom I can give it to.

Many of you read this blog and I think you all are fabulous. You come here and leave encouraging and nice comments.

I go to your blogs because you write stories that are encouraging, funny, and inspirational. You always post fabulous pictures of your beautiful children and family. Some of you write about life, freedom, writing, home schooling, and raising children. I’ve enjoyed getting to know all of you in blogland.

I have found one thing in common that has made all of you fabulous in my book and that is – your honesty. Whether life is going well or you are struggling with something difficult you post your stories. Those stories help others to know that they are not alone. Your wisdom touches many. Thank you for your honesty.

ALL of you who come here and are on my sidebar, claim your Totally Fabulous Award. For all the reasons I mentioned above and more you rock!

© Nadine Z. 2007

The Old Mug

This morning I made coffee to bring to work. I was enjoying my coffee in my travel mug (pictured above) while talking with Tom.

He looked at me and asked, “Do you know how old that cup is?”

“No.” I replied not really interested in the age of my cup.

“I used that cup back in New York." (This makes it over 15 years old.) "Don’t you think it’s time you get a new travel mug?”

“Why? I like this one.” I said a little defensive of my mug.

“They have really nice ones that come in all sizes and it would look so much better than that one.”

“Really? What are you trying to say? It works fine and it’s the right size for my morning coffee.” I continued my defense. “Are you saying that I should toss it aside simply because it’s old? Should I replace it with something new because somehow the newer thing would be better?”

My poor husband looked at me and laughed. He knew I was talking about more than just the mug. He joined me by saying, “Besides it’s red, white and blue and still keeps coffee hot.” We did continue a bit on this track.

It got me thinking. Some of my favorite things are old. I love old movies, old books and old shoes. Maybe that’s because I’m old. When did being old become a bad thing? There is nothing more fascinating to me then having a conversation with a much older person and hearing stories about their lives.

My mom is 82 years old and now has Alzheimer’s. I’m grateful for the times I prodded her for stories about when she and my dad meet. If I didn’t listen to those stories when she wanted to tell me, it would have been too late.

In my church experience, I’ve listened to people who are older than me tell stories of the past. Interesting stories about how they saw God move. I’ve watched as God still used them to minister to those around them. The bible is filled with stories of God using men and women when they were much older. Nothing can beat experience. This gives me hope for my future. It means that the Lord will continue to use me as long as I’m willing to serve Him.

An old mug is in the eye of the beholder.

© Nadine Z. 2007