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Broken Hearts

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

You know those moments when something that seems so simple finally dawns on you? I think sometimes God holds onto those enlightenments until you can actually use them. I’m not kidding myself here; I don’t think He held onto this one so I could write about it. I think He held onto it so I could get it. So it could sink in fully.

At our Night of Worship Wednesday, Cadillac Zak talked about his heart being broken for those who are lost. Some would call it his calling–to seek the lost. My friend danseusean is called to LIFE. Abortion breaks her heart. While these two things are seemingly unrelated, they came together for me in a big bang Wednesday evening: the thing that breaks your heart, physically pains you, is what you are called to fight for in the Lord. I don’t hurt that way for either of those things. It took the clanging symbols I was hearing Wednesday to put it together–our hearts break differently.

I have prayed the prayer many times before, “Break my heart for what breaks Yours…” I want to know what I can do to reach people for the Lord. I think, though, what I learned was that our hearts all break differently–and for different things. We can’t all reach everyone. The Lord uses our strengths, and sometimes our weaknesses, to allow us to reach people for Him. In teaching, it’s called the jigsaw method: we each take a small piece, learn it, study it, and come back to the group something to contribute to the whole. That’s not to say we don’t feel for those who are lost or babies who lose their lives. That’s not it at all. It’s the big heart break, the first-love-can’t-breathe-can’t-eat kind of hurt. So I prayed, “Help me focus on what breaks my heart and work to reach those people.”

I hate seeing marriages and families fall apart. I hate seeing kids lost in the mix. It pains me to watch celebrities make a mockery of marriage. It is disgraceful and disgusting to me. There is a billboard in New Braunfels above a pawn shop (I intend to take a photo every single time I drive by, but I always forget; I did a Google search to see if I could find it since I didn’t have my own photo and found this article with a link to a billboard that is almost identical) that shows a woman flashing her wedding ring with an angry look on her face. The caption says, “Cash in all the bad memories.” I cringe, literally, every time I drive by. It is so sickening to me that people think of marriage as temporary. I want to change that. I want to help people find the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to help them put their families back together. So, for now, my prayer is, “Where do I start?”

Baby Gray/boots/Ranch

One of the Boys

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

This was Baby Gray’s second Opening Weekend, but the first he got to really take part in.

We kicked it off Thursday by heading to get him a pair of boots. You can’t hang out at The Ranch without your boots!

We tried on several pair, but these were the favorite in the end. He wore them around the house Thursday to practice walking in them. As you can see, they coordinated nicely with his athletic pants and t-shirt.

Friday afternoon, we headed to The Ranch. Baby Gray was all decked out in his boots, jeans, and camo. We made a few visits in town before going to the country. Everyone loved his little boots!

When we got to The Ranch, T-Paw took us to look at the new roads in the back. We loaded up in the Jeep, and Baby Gray sat with me in the back. He wanted to sit in his own seat, so I buckled him up to keep him still (in case you were wondering, it didn’t work). He was getting a little sleepy as we rode, so I did what any good parent would do when their kid whines in the back of a Jeep.

I rolled the windows down and let him hang his head out to look at the cattle! Of course! (Disclaimer: we were on private roads with no traffic and in the back seat away from the airbags. My child always rides in a cars seat for regular travel.) He pointed at each cow we passed and looked at everything as we rode.

He explored the pig Mr. Gray was skinning, checked out the fire, and dug in the dirt.

T-Paw had a few buckets and some golf balls that came in handy while we were outside. Baby Gray dumped them, put them back in, chewed on them, and threw them.

Since we were at “deer camp” he even got to go to bed without a bath–just like the big boys!

Saturday evening, we packed up and headed home. Baby Gray was sad to say good-bye. I can’t wait until he is old enough to go have a few “Mad Days” with Daddy.

Baby Gray/nap/wagon

For the Love of the Game

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

As previously mentioned, sometimes naptime at tailgate looks a little strange. Oh, the sacrifices.

This weekend, the wagon was the scene.

Annie/Baby Gray/retirement/road trip/surprise

Are We There Yet?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

It seems we’ve had way more surprises in Baby Gray’s life than I’ve had in quite some while. Last week was Annie’s retirement party; T-Paw, Baby Gray, Aunt Cookie, and I pulled a little covert operation to make it special.

T-Paw and I loaded up about 6:00 last Wednesday morning and took a little road trip!

Aunt Cookie headed in first, with T-Paw, Baby Gray, and I still out in the hall. Our plan was to send Baby Gray toddling in on his own as the initial surprise. He started off being pretty clingy, and I didn’t think he was going to go for it. Finally, I planted him in the doorway, and off he went to Annie!

It was priceless!

I managed to position my lens right in the door frame so I could get some photos without totally blowing our cover at first. Some of the shots were a little shaky, but I think these captured the moment.

It was a long trip, but Baby Gray was a star traveler, and it was absolutely worth it! On the way home, he made a little “caw” noise about four times, and that was the extent of anything like fussing or being unhappy. He’s a superstar!

love/marriage/writing

What I Meant to Say

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

I try to provide a little insight when posting, aside from just the happenings of Baby Gray. Sometimes I do well; others, I write a lot of comments to accompany photos of my sweet little guy. Lately, with all the cute Halloween-ness, I’ve done a lot of brief posts with baby happenings.

While I enjoy the Chronicles of Baby Gray on a periodic basis, most days, my heart desires to write something more like this. It’s witty, helpful, and right on.

Mind you, I’ve never met Jess, but I can hear “her voice” in my head as I read her posts (you know, the voice I have created for her). I love this particular post because it is so true. Marriage is worth the work. Men and women are different. We all have quirks that make our spouse a teensy bit crazy. That’s marriage.

That’s love, life, and a home together. It’s man and woman as one, the way God intended. Thanks, Jess, for saying what I meant to say.

Baby Gray/Halloween

A Spook-tacular Day!

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

Baby Gray sported his spooky shirt today, prior to donning his costume. He didn’t even get the white ghost too dirty! Unfortunately, while we were outside playing, Bean called to say that Shooby was running fever at school and wouldn’t get to join us for the evening. I’m sad we missed out on Dorothy and her ruby red slippers.

Much like last year ~~and the year before that~~, we had plans to be at Dr. C’s house this evening to hand out candy for all the Belvin trick or treaters.

I found the cutest dip to make to take with us. I used to make spider web cupcakes every year, and this was so cute, I couldn’t pass it up!

Little C was decked out in her cupcake costume, sans hat, when we got there. She showed Baby Gray the bounce house, but he wasn’t ready to try it just yet. He did manage to stand outside the bounce house and bounce on the grass for a little while. He wouldn’t even go in when Jax did.

He was such a cute Charlie Brown; I thought he fit the costume well. He finally warmed up a little and played on the front porch and in the living room. He mastered the small step in the front door’s threshold; he was pretty proud. Oh, those baby steps.

In keeping with the boys will be boys theme of this Halloween weekend, Cookie and I attempted some photos of Baby Gray and Jax. Not so much, actually.

After a bath with Little C in some green, green bath water (Little C mixed the color tablets herself), Baby Gray donned his jammers and crashed in the car on the way home.

I’ll start planning next year’s costume tomorrow.

Baby Gray/Halloween/tailgate/treats

Oh, The Festivities!

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 1 Comment

Once I finally got Baby Gray’s costume finished up, we headed back to the pumpkin patch in our neighborhood.

Charlie Brown wasn’t much for smiling, but he did have a good time. I have really been wanting a new lens for my camera, and these photos just drove that home. How cute would these be with a little bokeh for the background? Ah, so cute.

We did finally get him to crack a smile at home on our front porch. He’s got six teeth now, and I think he was trying to show them all to me.

Luckily, we got this pumpkin patch trip in before Baby Gray and I headed out west to surprise Annie at her retirement party (I’ll post more on that later). As soon as we got home, we packed back up and headed to College Station. Whew! We were worn out!

As kind of an after thought, I packed Charlie Brown’s outfit in case Little J and Miss K were going to be doing any Halloween-y activities Saturday evening.

Thank goodness I did! Charlie Brown, the roaring diney, and a pretty, pretty pumpkin loaded up in the wagon to trick or treat in downtown Bryan.

Somewhere along the way, Mr. Gray acquired a dino head–Dino Dad!

It didn’t take Baby Gray long to figure this trick or treat business out! Thanks to some good leadership by Little J and Miss K, he was eating candy in no time!

We tried to get a group shot (we had three or four cameras, plus adults herding kids back to the photo), but…

…boys will be boys! The only one who stayed put was Miss K! We think she was guarding the candy.

I tried to get a shot of Charlie Brown with his candy bucket but to no avail. Maybe I’ll be able to get one tonight.

Halloween/Recipes/tailgate

Trick or TREAT?

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

We tailgated this Halloween weekend, so I needed to come up with a cute Halloween tailgate treat. I found something perfect!

I got the idea online and ran with it–candy corn bark! It’s super easy and delicious as well. I ran to the store (no, it wasn’t Monday and I had already been to the store this week, but I made an exception) to get the ingredients I didn’t have already. Unfortunately, I didn’t buy enough white chocolate coating the first round and had to go back a second time. Ugh.

The good news that came out of my double grocery store trip is I learned a tip for melting the coating. I usually buy the white almond bark in the blue package. The squares are individual and you pop them out to melt them over a double boiler or in the microwave. The HEB brand comes all in one piece in a tray you can microwave. I was able to melt the whole package of the HEB brand in only 1.5 minutes! Wow. I’ll use it again.

Back to the bark–it’s way too easy.

Before learning about the cool melting tray in the HEB brand of candy coating (or if the traditional method strikes your fancy), use a Pyrex bowl and a sauce pan for a double boiler effect to melt the coating while moving on to the other steps. Or, microwave the coating, either way.

Line a jelly roll pan with waxed paper, crunch up some pretzels, and spread them out.

Then, crunch up some Oreos (I wanted the orange-filled Halloween Oreos, but they didn’t have them; I settled for the chocolate-filled Oreos) and add them to the pan. Pour the melted coating over the pretzels and Oreos.

Top with candy corn and orange sprinkles, then place the pan in the refrigerator to set.

Once set, break into pieces and store in an air-tight container.

It was a huge hit! I’m adding this to my yearly Halloween treats.

baby food/Baby Gray/fruit/grocery store/snack/store

Yummy for my Tummy

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

I’ve mentioned before that I tend to stay out of the baby aisle at the grocery store. Usually you get a lot more for your money in other aisles of the store.

Several months ago, I found these in the canned fruit aisle. I bought a package for Baby Gray to try. They are freeze dried strawberries and bananas–nothing added or extra. The ingredients only list strawberries and bananas. He loves them! They have become our go-to travel snack. They’re not messy like taking diced fruit, and he can eat them pretty much anywhere. I buy a minimum of two packs a week.

A couple of weeks ago, I found out Gerber also makes freeze dried fruit. I compared the prices, and these are a better value. I have bought the Gerber apples, though; HEB’s apples have added sugar and cinnamon.

Disclaimer: Remember, I am not a doctor or dietician. This is simply what works for my child. Please use your discretion or contact your doctor with questions. I mean, I am friends with a dietician, but I’m in no way authorized to tell you what to feed your kiddo.

chicken/crock pot/dumplings/Recipes

Hello, Dumplin’

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Mrs Gray / 0 Comment

Even though it doesn’t technically feel like Fall most days around here, I am still ready to eat some cool weather food by this time of year! I’ve learned to adapt to my high-heat crock pot so it’s a little more usable. Monday, I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. In the crock pot. On a whim. It was worth it. (You see, my meal plan had chicken and dumplings, the traditional way, set for Tuesday. I’m glad I gave it a shot.)

These were definitely the easiest chicken and dumplings I’ve ever made, and I would argue they might have been the best.

3-4 chicken breast tenders, cubed

1 can cream of chicken

1/2 box chicken stock (by box I mean the pourable “box” that some broths come in)

1/2 box vegetable broth

1 package matchstick carrots (you can grate your own if you really want)

1/2 white onion, chopped

2-3 stalks celery, chopped

1 can buttermilk biscuits (keep refrigerated until ready to use)

Set crock pot to low
Put both broths and cream of chicken
Add (raw) cubed chicken and veggies
Go about the day
Cut biscuits into quarters and drop into hot mixture
Stir to coat biscuits; they will begin to puff up
Leave on low for about another hour
The dumplings will create a bit of a crusty top
Stir well before serving

Again, this was super easy, but it turned out really, really well. I don’t know that I’ll go back to my traditional recipe.