Pizza Tacos

They're just so yummy!

Tonight we had one of our favourite easy meals for dinner (tea, as we call it here).  It's so yummy I thought I'd share the recipe with you.  I found this recipe on-line somewhere after I had just gotten married. 

Pizza Tacos
1 pound mince (ground beef)
8 ounces pizza sauce (I make my own so I use about 1 1/2 cups)
Pepperoni - sliced (use as much or as little as you want)
6 flour tortillas (I used 5 flour and 2 smaller corn tortillas)
Shredded cheese

Brown the mince.  Stir in the pizza sauce and pepperoni.

Spoon part of the mixture onto each tortilla and top with some of the shredded cheese.

Fold one side of tortilla over filling and roll up from the opposite side.  Place seam side down (very important) on an ungreased baking sheet.   Bake at 180C or 350F for 10 - 15 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Enjoy!  Careful, the filling is HOT!!!!!

2012

Christmas 2011

We forgot the camera and had to take this after night church.  That is why we all look a little out of it! :)

2012 - that sounds so space age!  Shouldn't we all be driving flying cars now?  I remember when I was growing up in the 90's thinking that 2000 was a long time away.  Now it's been over 10 years since Y2K.  Unvelievable!

So anyway, back to Earth.  As my mom reminded me the other day, I haven't updated my blog in a while.  Well, I switched over to Google+ because someone kept telling me how wonderful it was.  The only problem I had with it was that I couldn't find my blog on it.  I'm sure it's quite easy to do and if I had time to sit down and play around on the computer I probably could have figured it out.  However, I don't really have a lot of spare time to sit around and figure new computer programmes out.  So, I figured out how to delete my Google+ account and go back to the plain ole' Google.  Ahhhhh . . . a sigh of relief, something I'm familar with.

Now, what's been happening since October?  One major thing has been occupying our time especially mine.  At the end of October I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease.  Graves' Disease is a type of hypertyroidism.  Basically, my immune system was attacking my thyroid and then my thyroid would work over-time to protect itself.  This lead to increased heart rate (114 beats per minute resting), increased metabolism (losing weight very rapidly), increased hunger, hand tremors, hair falling out, insomnia, extreme fatigue, and hormone issues that left me feeling like I was going crazy.

The doctor did blood tests and found that Graves' Disease was the problem.  He proceeded to put me on medication to slow my thyroid down.  They've found that there is a medicine that if taken for 2 years can cure your thyroid and you won't have any more problems with it.   The problem is that this medicine only works for 40% of people that take it.  I was not in the 40%.  The side effects that I had were a supressed immune system and a rash all over my body.  I ended up in the emergency room because of a high fever and the rash.  There we met another doctor that was more specialized in this disease.

A week after the emergency room episode I had an appointment with the doctor we met there.  They decided to give me anithystemines to help with the rash, but they didn't help.  You could no longer see the rash on my body, but I was so itchy.  Like uncontrollably itchy.  I couldn't sleep and I wasn't functioning very well.  The doctor then decided that I need to have my thyroid destroyed.  This is done by using radioactive iodine.

Nearly a month later I had an appoinment with a specialist who did some tests on my thyroid.  He asked me right there and then if I wanted the radioactive iodine.  We said yes knowing that this would be the best solution for me.  He took me into a little room, a nurse came in with a little glass bottle with a straw and told me to drink.  I did and that was the end of my treatment.

That was on 19 December.  For three days after I was quite sick.  Thankfully my mother-in-law was off of work and able to look after Abby.  On the fourth morning I woke up with more energy that I had had in a long time. 

This week has been so good.  Each morning I wake up feeling rested and have so much energy throughout the day.  My house is finally getting clean! :)

So, why am I telling you all of this?  Do I want you to feel sorry for me?  No, I know that there have been a lot of people praying for me and I wanted to let them know from a first-hand account how it all happened.  Also, I want to thank all of you that prayed for my family and me.  We couldn't have made it through all of this without your prayers.  It was such a blessing knowing while I was going through this that there were people praying for me.  I can't tell you how many times I cried and thanked God because I felt so loved by people.  So to all of you who have been praying for  us, thank you.  You are loved and appreciated!

Water

What happens when you give a girl a cup of water?

Why, of course, she dumps it on her Daddy's head!

That was so much fun!!!!!

An Amazing Sunday

Wow!  Last Sunday at church was amazing.  On Saturday my husband had invited two adult men, a teenage boy, and an 8 year old boy to come to church on the bus.  On Sunday morning we were all pleasantly surprised when they got on the bus.  The teenage boy got saved during Sunday school.  The two adult men came forward during the invitation and both got saved.  The little boy got saved in Junior Church along with 6 other children.  My husband said both of the men came down the aisle as fast as they could at the invitation.  What an awesome God we serve!  Please pray for these men that they will continue to come to church and grow spiritually.  The adults' names are Huri and B.J.  The teenage boy is named Arvill, and the young boy is named Brendon.

Also on Sunday morning we went to pick up one of our most faithful bus riders, a young girl named Summer.  When we arrived at her house she was waiting outside with one of her friends who was going to come to church with her.  Summer decided at the last minute that she didn't want to come to church and ran away down the street.  Her friend decided that she was going to come to church anyway.  As the bus was pulling away from the house, we turned around and saw Summer running after the bus.  She changed her mind and decided that she was going to come!  We gladly stopped the bus and let her get on.  Please pray for Summer that she will stay faithful to church.

One of my responsibilities on Sunday mornings is to teach the teenage girls' Sunday school class.  This Sunday there were 5 girls in my class (all a bunch of chatter boxes!)  I was a bit concerned that they weren't going to stop talking long enough to let me teach the lesson!  They did stop and we had a wonderful class together.  Please pray for these girls.   They all are 12 and 13 years old and all except one of the girls come to church without their parents.  From previous experience this is the age when many of them drift out of church.  This particular group of girls seem so interested in church.  We need to win their hearts.

3 months, really?

Has it really been 3 months since I last posted?  Wow, so much for getting better at this blogging. :)  Well, I suppose I'd better catch everyone up with what's been going on around here.
At the end of July to the beginning of August my husband got to go to a preaching conference in Australia.  He had an amazing time and came back refreshed and ready to move the church forward.

After he got back, we had a surprise Birthday party for him at the church.  I won't tell you how old he is, but look at the candles on his cake.

On the 19th of August my husband and I celebrated 6 years of marriage.  We were blessed to be able to get away for a day.

At the end of August we moved house, again.  This is our 7th move in 6 years of marriage.  We had no intentions of moving this time.  Our landlord's house had sold quicker than he thought it would and so his family had to move into the house we were renting until they could move into their new home.  Below is a photo of the front of our new home.  The rent for this house was out of our price range, but this was by far the best house and area we had looked at.  After praying about it, my husband talked to the landlords and they were willing to put the rent down to a price we could afford.  Isn't God good!  Hopefully we will be here for a few years.

About two days after moving into this house we started Abby out on a new diet.  She had been having some stomach problems.  We had already eliminated dairy products and bananas from her diet because of eczema, so we took the plunge and eliminated more things to see if we could help her out.  Right now she is on a dairy free, egg free, gluten free, citrus free, and corn free diet.  She is doing really well on this and her stomach problems seem to be going away.  It is quite hard to find recipes though! :)

The first Sunday in September was Father's Day.   Abby was so happy to spoil her Daddy on this day.  I had every intention of taking a photo of the two of them on Father's Day, but it didn't actually happen.

Nick and I also got to watch the Cold War.  Let me explain.  The Rugby World Cup is being held in New Zealand this year.  We went to watch the USA play Russia.  The media had been calling it the Cold War.  I'm pleased to say, the USA won.  What!  You didn't know the USA had a rugby team?

Also in September, our car was sent to the garage for its 6 month warrant.  Every 6 months you have to take your car into a certified mechanic and make sure it's safe to use on the roads.  We knew our car would have to have some work done, but weren't prepared when the mechanic told us it need $1,000 worth of repairs done.  He advised us not to put that much money into our car because, in all honesty, it's not worth much more than that!   My husband asked for a couple of days to think and pray about it.  Three or four days later he called the mechanic back and told him we would just like to get rid of the car.  The mechanic (who is saved, and a friend of my husband) apologized and said he was sorry for going ahead without my husband giving the word, but he and some of the men in his shop had done the labour after hours and had found some really good second hand parts and had finished the job already for $350.  Praise the Lord!  Another blessing about our car was that my big brother heard about our problem and gave us $500 to help with repairs or getting a new car.  Do you think he wants change back?

God has been so good to us always.  It is a blessing to serve Him.