Prayer Needed for My Father In Law

You never know when life may take a sudden turn leaving you to realize how fragile it is and the importance of family and not taking anything for granted. I've been down this road myself and today we had another family scare.

This morning, we received a call from my mother in law that my husband's father was being rushed to the hospital and all she could get out was "it's his heart". We soon found out that he had suffered a heart attack and his heart had taken a pretty big blow due to some blockage in the major artery to the heart. He is in ICU now being observed now because they told us that's the worst artery to have blockage in.

We feel that this morning God was watching over him. He normally gets up very very early to head out fishing on the open ocean for a few hours before heading to work. Had he been at work or fishing, we would have probably lost him. Instead, he slept in this morning and his family was there to call 911.

Please keep him in your prayers. And please give your children, husband, significant other an/or parents a hug and tell them that you love them. Please also remember that the special moments we share with our loved ones and the moments captured in time are some of life's greatest gifts.

Sharing a Little of My Polish Heritage

One of my hobbies is genealogy and I've learned a lot about my ancestors in the last 10 years of research, solved some family questions, met some very distant cousins and learned even more about my heritage. The past several years my research focus has been on my Polish ancestors who immigrated to the US and settled in western Pennsylvania.

Yesterday afternoon, I was trying to figure out what we were going to have for dinner and something popped into my mind that I have not had since I was a child - Halupkis. Both my grandmother and my mom used to make these a lot when I was young and it's a meal that my Polish great grandparents would have made, too. When we were little, our family called them Pigs in a Blanket which is a much different version than the hotdog in a crescent roll.

Making them and eating them last night brought back a lot of memories and took me back to envisioning my ancestors making them, too. So, I thought I would share this delicious Polish recipe with you.

Halupki (Stuffed Cabbage Rolls)

4-6 servings

1 head cabbage
1 1/4 lbs ground meat
salt and pepper
1 egg
1 teaspoon parsley
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove chopped garlic
1 cup cooked rice
2 cans tomato soup
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 3/4 cups water

In a large pot (I used an 8qt size), boil the head of cabbage 10-15 minutes. Carefully remove the leaves from the head after the cabbage has been boiled.

In a medium bowl, mix the meat, salt and pepper, egg, parsley, garlic, onion and rice together.

Place a spoonful of the meat mixture into a blanched cabbage leaf (use more meat mixture if the leaf is large) and roll the cabbage leaves to enclose the meat mixture.

In a 5-quart dutch oven, place some leaves of cabbage on bottom of pan.

Add cabbage rolls on top with the seams face down.

Mix tomato soup, sugar, vinegar, and water together.

Pour over cabbage rolls, cover and cook on medium heat for 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!

Happy Independence Day!!!

"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness. " - Thomas Jefferson

There's nothing like enjoying a hometown parade to celebrate the 4th of July! This morning, we joined many others to watch the festive parade in Middleburg. Our daughter was excited to be in the parade with her Karate studio, Middleburg Martial Arts.

Ean, Karl and I waved our flags and celebrated with everyone around us. Of course we had our camera and got some amazing images of many of the wonderful groups and floats, and of course Mikaela doing some of her karate. But, those will have to wait until later this weekend to post a few of those. What an awesome morning!

We're going to enjoy an afternoon cookout and then tonight we'll be heading to St. Augustine to watch the fireworks from the bridge!

We wish all of our clients, friends, family and this wonderful country we live in a Happy Independence Day. God Bless the USA!

(We encourage you to check out www.campaignforliberty.com - something very close to our hearts.)

My Little Girl is a Teenager

Thirteen years ago today, after 24 hours of labor, my little girl came into this world. Then I held the most beautiful little girl in the world in my arms for the first time. I named her Mikaela Taryn.

Looking back, it's hard to believe that 13 years have gone by. It has been such a great journey watching her grow to the young lady she is today, passionate about writing, about art, about her close friends. This Saturday she has invited only her closest friends to celebrate with her in a Girlfriend's Day Out.

Tonight we will be celebrating with her favorite type of cake that Ean and I will be making today ...a dark chocolate cake with dark chocolate icing - she definitely inherited her taste from me! ;)

She woke up this morning and asked to open just one gift before school started. She decided she wanted to dress up for school today, too, something she doesn't normally do.

I'm just so proud to call her my daughter.

Our Morning Adventure

Today I took the day off from the studio to spend some time with my kiddos. This morning, my little man, Ean, and I decided to embark on the birding adventure (see next post down) at the Tillie K Fowler Regional Park. What fun it was!

There were about 20 little ones from ages 1 to 7 who came to learn a little about birds and enjoy a beautiful morning! First activity, after passing around a few feathers, was a fun Cat in the Hat story, Fine Feathered Friends: All about Birds that was read to everyone. Afterwards, each child was given a pair of "binoculars" (okay, really two toilet paper tubes taped together) to decorate with the many markers that were available. The parents then tied string to allow the binoculars to hang around the neck. We were all given an important tip on how to correctly use binoculars! What is it? Use your eyes FIRST to find the bird, and then lift your binoculars to your eyes! Makes a lot of sense rather than scanning the sky with your binoculars and not being able to see anything! We also listened to different bird sounds from those cute little stuffed birds you can find at the zoo gift store and even JoAnn's.

After we had our little lessons, we headed outside to look for birds! So, how do you make sure you can find birds when you have a whole handful of little ones? Well, you strategically hang photos of birds along the trail and then the kids can discover them as they walk along! And, the birds don't fly away as the group moves in closer! Very cool! Aside from the photos of birds, we did see a live hummingbird and a woodpecker as we walked the trail.

When we made it back to the Nature Center, we all spent some time discovering some of the amazing little creatures in there -- live snakes, mice, frogs, lizards, and many fossils, bones, skins and some taxidermy animals, too! Then, a quick peek outside through the window revealed a live raccoon walking through the garden area!

What a great morning and here are some snapshots to share! If you have the opportunity to attend this event in the future, I would highly recommend it for the kids!

Getting back in the habit!

The past month has been very busy, both with business and my family!

My son and I had a great time on our whirlwind trip to Pennsylvania. Although it was very short (19 hr drive on Wednesday and 19 hour drive back on Sunday), we did get to visit with my aunts that I haven't seen in a very long time. My son was so excited to see snow, however, when we arrived, the only snow was that which had been left over from the snow plows and were mostly covered with cinders and dirt. So, my dad and I ventured over to the ski resort I spent much time with growing up just so Ean could experience the joy of snow. He absolutely loved it! The visit with my aunts was wonderful and I'm hoping to be able to travel back up there this year to visit with them again.

Half my family, including myself, have been dealing with a bout of a very bad cold, however, we are on the mend and are almost back at 100%.

On the business side, we've been enjoying working with our amazing clients. We are putting some finishing touches on some new products and expect to announce them very soon! You definitely won't want to miss them!

And, my promise to you is to get back in the habit of updating my blog regularly! We've got some pretty neat things planned for the blog. Stay tuned!

Our Family's Christmas Tragedy

Christmas Eve 2007, we spent a wonderful evening with my husband's family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, and their children. It was a magical evening for the children and a wonderful time of having the family together. The one person missing was Bryan, my husband's cousin, who was serving in Iraq.

On Christmas Day, we each spent Christmas in our own homes celebrating the true meaning of Christmas as well as seeing the delight and awe in our children's eyes when they awoke to see what was under the tree.

All of our holiday cheer was shattered when we received word at 10 o'clock in the morning of December 26, that Bryan was killed in Iraq on Christmas Day when an improvised explosive device detonated near his position. Bryan was serving with the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg, NC.

Bryan was the only child of Karl's aunt Sylvia. He had been deployed to Iraq for his second tour since November 2006 and had just received his orders stating he would finally return home in early February 2008. His daughter turned 4 on New Year's Eve and his son was born this past May. Bryan was 33.

The outpouring of support from the community of St. Augustine where Bryan grew up was so overwhelming. Nearly a hundred Patriot Guard Riders with flags on their motorcycles also stood with flags on either side of the sidewalk leading to the church; a several mile procession with people taking time out of their work day to stand and hold American flags with their hand over their heart; three gentlemen who saluted every vehicle in the procession; the sheriff's deputies who stood at attention at nearly every intersection; the fire fighters who positioned two ladder trucks at the entrance to the cemetery over which flew an enormous American flag; and the house on the procession route who had a sign in their front yard thanking Bryan.

Please keep Bryan's mom and his wife and kids in your prayers. We will miss you tremendously, Bryan.