Live a Little! Love A Lot!

3.31.11

Every since my kids were little, Bruce and I had this tradition of whenever we traveled without them we would write them a letter for every night we were going to be gone. At bed time they would open it and read all the I love yous and how much we missed them. I guess I started this tradition because of the what ifs? What if something happened to us? What if something happened to them? I just wanted them to know how much we loved them. We never wanted them to ever doubted it. It's always been our thing. I don't know if they ever kept the notes but I hope some day they will pass this tradition on to their kids or even spouse. Yes, Bruce and I do this for each other as well! :) If we have to be apart it's always really sweet to get a letter! :)

My kids are not so little anymore and we are going through the transition of Cassie going more and more on her own. It's not always easy but I know that we have to let her become more and more independent. It's the circle of life.

Cassie will actually spend spring break without us this year. It's really bitter sweet. I'm happy that she gets a chance to go to Florida with one of her best friends Brooklyn Moore. I know that John and Kim will take great care of her but it's different because we're not with her for the next week. I guess this will get me ready for her week long trip to Kenya and then college next year. Whoa, STOP the press! Yikes! I will just stick with this week and day by day work on missing her. :)

Before Cassie left I ran out of time to write her letters so I switched it up. I needed to get her snacks for the trip so not only did I get her favorites....Little Debbie's, Fruit Gushers, Gum, Cheezits and sour gummy worms but I made her a note with some candy bars.

It said

Dear Cassie,

Have a great time on Spring Break! I will miss not being there with you! We know you will have SO much fun tho! Just a few reminders:

Call your momma at least twice! Don't meet any boys named Heath (taped a Heath bar there)

and forget Whatchamacallit (another candy bar) from New York (peppermint patty) Also don't forget to Snicker ( yep, you guessed it a snicker bar)

love mom

I know it's really dorky but it was my little note to her before she left! :) Like I said it's just our thing! We like to live a little and love a lot! :)

So, while Cassie is laying in the 90 degree sun on the beach, her mommy will be here in the cold praying for her! :) I love that girl!

Oh boy or girl!

3.27.11

We are happy to announce that Doug and Rene' will be adopting a baby! We're not sure when this will all happen, but what we do know, is that their profile book is out there, and now we just wait and pray for a mother who will give them the best gift ever. A baby boy or girl! I'm so excited for them and this new baby! I know it will be loved so much, not only by them, but the whole Dyksen family as well!

While we wait for baby boy or girl, we have been able to do some fun stuff like throw baby showers! We all know how fun it is to see all the cute baby things.

March 19th 2011 10:30 am

Mom D, Kelly, Cara, Cassie and myself threw Rene' a Dr. Seuss baby shower. Carter even helped out. He designed the invitation layout!

Pretty cute huh?

Mom Dyksen made a super cute diaper cake.

Kelly made some cute Dr. Seuss cake pops and Cara made a yummy breakfast casserole

While people arrived we had each guest sign and write something to baby Dyksen in the Dr.Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll will go!!!

First things first tho! We dug into the yummy breakfast casserole, cake pops, muffins and some wonderful punch Rene' requested which reminds me that I need the recipe! :)

Rene' then shared about the adoption. They have their profile book out and have reached their financial needs which is a huge blessing!

Then came the fun part........opening all the cute and fun baby gifts!!!

Mom Dyksen made the Dr. Seuss blanket! Way cute!!!

She ended up with lots of nice things to welcome baby Dyksen!

We wrapped up the shower with a time of prayer. Each person took turns praying for the health of the baby, for the mother who will give their child to Doug and Rene' and gave praises! It was such a moving time!

I'm so thankful for being part of such a special baby shower! Adoption has always been near and dear to my heart! It's my prayer that this little one will grow up knowing that he or she is very much loved and will grow into a relationship with our heavenly father!

Here's just a few more pictures of the guest that helped make this shower special!

Traci, Kelly and Cara

The Grandma's

Rene' and Yvonne Klinge

Rene' and her mom

Rene' and her girlfriends

The Dyksen girls

Now that the shower is over we wait and pray! We know it's not our timing but God's timing. So, in his prefect timing we will have a new baby Dyksen! Until then we wait!

Ohhhh la la

3.25.11

"When I'm 18, I'm going to spend my spring break with you" Zacari Clay Salsibury (my nephew) 13 years old

I had to start my blog off with this quote for a couple reasons.

1. It melted this aunts heart

2. I plan to hold Zac to it! lol

I figure by the time Zac is 18 there will be some cutie girl in his life and good ol' aunt Serena will be chop liver and last years news.

Spending time with my nieces and nephews are something I truly cherish! It doesn't happen as much as I like but when it does we have a blast!

It used to be tradition that about every spring break my niece and nephew Zac, Zoe and Zalie would come to our house to spend the week. We would always find fun stuff to do. Unfortunately, the last couple years we have not been able to keep this tradition. The kids go to school in Bluffton Indiana and they have their spring break a whole two weeks before we do. :(

This year was a little bit different since I'm only working a few days a week. I was able to go get the kids for a few days!

The girls and I decided that we wanted to have a "spa" day. There was only one problem. What would poor Zac do? I decided that there was only one way to fix this. We picked Carter up from school at noon! Carter had no clue he was having half a skip day. Needless to say he was pretty excited when we picked him up.

Before we picked up Carter or even could start our spa day I told the kids that I really needed to get some wash done. I thought this would be a great time to keep the girls busy so I pulled out the markers and paper and told them that we needed to name our "spa" and would need some signs. The girls went to work right away and this bought me some work time!

The girls also made signs for our "bakery" as well.

We picked up Carter from school at noon so Zac and Carter could have some guy time. (sadly enough, I don't have any pics)

After having a quick lunch it was FINALLY "spa" time!

I told my "clients" to wait upstairs. While they were waiting I ran some warm water in the tub with lavender salts, lit some candles and had Nature's Way radio playing on Pandora.

Zoe choose to soak her feet first.

While Zoe soaked her feet. Zalie relaxed with a facial and cukes on the eyes. She kept laughing because the cukes kept slipping off her eyes.

I gave both the girls arm,hand,leg and feet massages. I also gave them mani's and pedi's with the new polish they picked out.......Bubble Gum Pink of coarse! :)

I would say they look pretty relaxed!

After "spa" time we starting working in the Glittery Cupcake Bakery.

Today's special? Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes! YUM-o!!! After all, what would girls day be without chocolate! :)

The only thing I would change about this recipe is the frosting. It was very hard to spread and I had 2 disappointed girls who wanted to decorate pretty cupcakes. At least they tasted good!!!

Food for thought

Today I was lucky enough to do one of my favorite things. I love spending time in the kitchen baking and making several meals at a time to stock up my freezer!

Fridays are my grocery shopping day and yesterday I made Sam's Club one of my stops to stock up on hamburger meat. I like to buy several of the large packages and when I get home I get to work browning, shaping, sealing and freezing!

I actually ran out of time on Friday night so Saturday afternoon I set my kitchen up for my make ahead meal stations. I started browning some of the meat so I could freeze it and start making our Sunday lunch. Also I started forming lots and lots of hamburger patties. Some of the patties I turned into plain ol' hamburgers to throw on the grill Saturday nights for Carter and the others I turned into Mock filet migons. I also sealed bags of "frozen" pizza. Friday night we had ordered a rather large pizza from our favorite pizzeria Gerace's. I bagged up our left overs and we will have two more yummy pizza nights!

I love the feeling of being able to stock up my freezer and have several meals planned ahead! This next week not only do I have my menu already planned out but I also know that all I have to do is go to the freezer and pull out dinner! Who knows I might even be able to share some food with someone who needs some cheering up! :) Whatever might happen this week I feel somewhat prepared and honestly it feels really good!

I would like to share the recipe that I made for our Sunday lunch. I hope that you enjoy!

Sour Cream Noodle Bake

8 oz egg noodles

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/4 cup small curd cottage cheese

1/2 c sliced green onions

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 1/4 ground chuck

1 can 15 oz tomato sauce

1/2 salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat over for 350

Brown ground beef in large skillet. Drain fat, then add tomato sauce. 1/2 tea salt and plenty of fresh ground pepper. Stir, then simmer while you prepare the other ingredients.

Cook egg noodles until al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese. Add plenty of fresh pepper. Add to noodles and stir. Add green onions and stir. To assemble add half of the noodles to a baking dish. Top with half the meat mixture, then sprinkle on hale the grated cheddar. Repeat with noodles, meat, then a final layer of cheese. Bake 20 min. or until cheese is melted.

I hope you get some time to enjoy your kitchen soon and I welcome your favorite recipes anytime! :)

Spring is here!

Living in Amish country there a few ways that you can tell that spring is coming.

1. You start seeing the tractor's in fields

2. People start flocking to the greenhouses to buy plants for the gardens

3. You start seeing people out in their yards raking and you can tell they have been struck by spring fever like my husband was last night.

4. It stays lighter out at night and people still complain about day light savings time! ;)

5. Last but not least......when driving in the country you see clothes hanging out on the line!

A normal part of living in the country and the Midwest for me was hanging laundry on the line. Honestly, I didn't even realize that people thought it wasn't normal or that it was a hassle for that matter. It's just something that my family grew up doing and something that I now enjoy doing myself. It reminds me that the weather is getting warmer. I love watching the wind whip the towels around and I love the smell of fresh air when I bring the clothes in from the line!

Today was the first the day that I hung wash out for the season! I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited! Every year I'm pretty stoked about the first time I get to hang out the wash! Some people get excited when they see the first robin but for me it's the first time I get the hang the laundry out for the season. Thats how I measure spring is here! As I was hanging the towels up I was greeted by our 3 outside cats. It didn't take them long before these feisty cats noticed the towels blowing in the wind. I quick ran back inside to snap a pictures of what calico cat decided to do. Crazy cat!!!

Even tho I'm not a cat fan this still made me giggle! I'm so happy spring is here!

It's a girl!

March 14,1993

18 years ago today I gave birth to Cassie Nicole Dyksen.

She arrived in the world at 11:17pm after a very short labor.

Weight 6lb12oz

Goshen Hospital, Goshen Indiana

This blog is dedicated to my daughter!

It is so hard to believe that Cassie is 18 years old today! My little girl is just not a little girl anymore. I can't seem to wrap my mind around that next year she will be graduating from high school and moving on to her next adventure.......COLLEGE. The thought throws me for a loop actually! You know the day will come but yet it does not even seem real. It seems like just yesterday, she was a little blond girl who would sneak kittens in her room and push them around in a baby doll stroller. I will never forget when she was two and decided that she would no longer would sleep in her bedroom. It would become the battle of the wills between her and her father or when she started playing soccer at the age 5. All the times she would have her friends over for slumber parties and attack Bruce with makeup. There are so many memories and stories that I could share. So many fun times! This weekend would be no different. We took Cassie to her favorite Mexican restaurant for her birthday. At the end of the dinner we asked if they would sing happy birthday to her even tho we knew she did not want them to. Her face turned a bright shade of red which was hilarious!

After dinner, Cara (her uncle Craig's girlfriend) and I decided that we were going to take her to a tattoo parlor as a "joke"

Cassie thought we were bluffing so Cara and I took her inside.

Cassie had wanted to get her tragus pierced for a while now. For those of you who don't know what that is. It's the part of the ear by the hole in your ear.

look at the size of the needle in her ear

She wanted me to hold her hand just in case it hurt.

This girl didn't even flinch! She had a HUGE needle in her ear and nothing! CRAZY!

After 18 years lots of things have changed. Who would have thought that I would be in a tattoo shop with my daughter watching her get a piercing. OK, maybe it's not that shocking but just the same!

Happy 18th birthday Cassie!