Must Try Chicken Recipe

About a month or so ago, I tried a new recipe that I found somewhere online... it was so good and out of the ordinary for chicken enchiladas-- please try... you won't be sad that you did! Tastes homemade with very little effort! Love that!


Chicken Chilaquiles


1 can fully cooked chicken breast (next to tuna)
2 green onion bulbs, chopped (6 total)
1/2 c Monterey Jack/ Colby cheese mix (divided in half)
1T Parmesan cheese
1/2 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 c milk
1/4 c cilantro
1 can (7 oz) Herdez Salsa Verde Mexicana Picante
1 fresh tomatillo
8 corn tortillas


Directions: Mix chicken, onion, 1/4 c cheese, Parm cheese, taco seasoning in bowl. In food processor, mix milk, cilantro, salsa, tomatillo and blend until runny. Put half of the milk mixture into greased baking dish. Spoon chicken mixture into corn tortillas and place seemside down in baking dish. Cover with remaining milk mixture and top with 1/4 c cheese. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes until cheese browns on top. Makes 8. (This dish is not spicy, but you could sub out the cheese for monterey jalapeno cheese and add half of a fresh jalapeno to milk mixture to give it kick... I may try this next!)

24 Weeks

My 24 week check up went good. My Dr. had to go into emergency surgery, so I had to see the MAN on call... luckily he was just measuring my belly, blood pressure and baby's heart beat! Most of our discussion hinged around round ligament pains that I had last week (thought my appendix was bursting at one point!) and soreness... apparently the baby is moving and kicking so much that my organs are getting bruised internally-- Tylenol seems to be the best answer. I asked him if this would go away when baby gets bigger when there won't be so much room in there to move around to which he replied coldly "No, it will probably get worse and stronger as baby builds more muscle." Thanks for those kind words, Doctor!

On a side note, I was on the phone with Tiffany the other night and noticed baby got the hick-ups! It is so fun to watch my belly move around and feel little hands and feet remind me of the life that we will soon get to enjoy!

Nesting Begins

Last weekend, Brent painted our nursery- mint chocolate chip green! I think he can tell I am getting antsy to see it start looking like a baby's room, so this was a big help! We have come a long way from the storage room it was a month ago!

This weekend, we registered at Baby's R US! We had so much fun-- I momentarily lost Brent at the breast pumps, but he quickly recovered by the time we got to the bath time section. We went to dinner afterwards and Brent said he was ready for Baby Brewer to be here... music to my ears!

I like my Carbs!

After visitng Melody and Justin, we were "inspired" to eat a little better. They are big into cross fit and zone dieting, so we kind of observed their eating patterns... the main thing is NO Carbs (no rice, pasta, chips, minimal bread). The idea is to minimze the amount of complex and simple sugar stores into your body so that your body directly burns fat stores from proteins instead of sugar. In place of carbs is vegetables, fruit, milk, and meats. Brent wants to give it a go (and I hesitantly want to support him since we are both pretty picky eaters). We have ventured out to try new foods-- asparagus!, cantaloupe, Mahi Mahi, oatmeal based granola bars, whole wheat pita bread, almonds... I would say we have come pretty far. Yesterday, we were discussing my hesitations and the conversation went something like this:

Brent exclaiming: "I am really starting to feel better lately with our change in diet... what is for dinner? I am starving!!!"
Abbey unenthusiastically: "Spaghetti with whole wheat pasta"
Brent: "Why is this so hard for you?"
Abbey: All my life I have loved and been loved with food... I go to Honey's house, I get banana pudding, I go to my parent's house, I leave full, we have dinner parties, I go all out. I think that a fat husband means his wife loves him more than a skinny husband's wife!"
Brent would disagree :)

Maybe I am hung up on this because I am the only one with the expanding waistline, but I am doing my best to get on board and support my hubby through his desire to be healthier. Thanks, Mel and J!

Two Wolves

Honey sent me this email... thought it was too goo not to share!

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ' My son, the battle is between two ' wolves ' inside us all. One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other is Good. - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. ' The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ' Which wolf wins? 'The old Cherokee simply replied, ' The one you feed. '

Seattle!

We went to Seattle this past weekend to visit Melody and Justin... they showed us a good time start to finish! We stepped off of the plane and immediately smelled coffee... I have NEVER seen so many people drinking coffee than in this city! SO, we had to visit the first Starbucks:



We went to Pike's Market and the fishermen pulled Melody behind the counter to catch a flying fish!

We toured the Museum of Flight and walked in the old Air Force One plane that Kennedy, Nixon, etc. had flown in:

We took in the sights (Mt. Ranier in the background):

We ate at Salish Lodge sitting on top of Snoqualmie Falls and enjoyed "honey from heaven":

We toured Theo chocolate factory:


And watched boats cross the puget sound from fresh water to salt water (something I new nothing about!) We also watched salmon swim upstream through the ladder system in place that allows them to swim between fresh and salt water.

The food was wonderful from eating chowder on the pier at Elliotts and steaks at 21 in Kirkland, we feel completly spoiled! For our last trip together as all "grownups", it was one we will never forget!

July 4th weekend

What a nice LONG weekend! Thursday night, we were headed up to Southlake Town Square to watch the fireworks show with friends, but REALLY misjudged the traffic jams-- we knew we would never find them with so many roads blocked, so in an attempt to be patriotic, we went to Home Depot instead and bought a flag for the house and watched the fireworks from the parking lot!

Friday afternoon, we crashed the Harris household to love on Tiffany, Ben, and Addison... we got some much needed sun at their pool and ate wonderful hamburgers (thanks to Mike) and all of the fixings (thanks to Wanda)!

Saturday afternoon, Brent put the baby's crib together (after we cleared out the room- daunting!) Half way through us clearing out the room, Allie needed to go outside, so I let her out the backdoor as usual. About 15 minutes later, I heard her bark and ran to the backdoor (totally forgot she was out in that heat), but no Allie. Brent had mowed that morning and forgot to shut the gate so he headed to the front door-- our sweet Allie was there panting and waiting to come in. This no doubt scared us half to death because she was not wearing a collar and confirms our parenting skills STILL need work! We are glad she is a scardy cat and didn't get adventerous.

Saturday night, we went to another Cats baseball game. Brent laughed at me when I went back for a second snowcone... I seriously just wanted to get through all of the flavors ;) Now, I can make an informed decision the next time we go. My favorite is Strawberry, then Blue Coconut, Cherry, Grape, then Banana. A lady in front of me told me they can add cream to it also, not sure about that, but I may be up for trying that too! We concluded the night with another great fireworks show.

New Friends, New Games!

Saturday night, we went to dinner with our friends, Sarah and Wade and their sweet 3 year old Clayton (they have another boy on the way 2 weeks before our due date!). Clayton loves to tell stories and asked me if I would tell him one before he went to bed. I need to brush up on my story telling because I was drawing blanks for like 2 minutes while he waited patiently for me to think of a good one! I finally came up with one, which later Sarah informed me was Rapunzel (couldn't remember her name and not sure I got all of the details right on :) We ended up back at their house for dessert and Wii... this was my first attempt at Wii and I must say, I beat Brent at the Wii Fit skiing (ouch)! Here he is hula-hooping!

Ginny comes to town!

My first friend that I made when we moved to Dallas came back on business last week! She, Evan, Hayden and Blitz have since moved back to North Carolina.

Ginny and I met for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory...

We were one short because Camille had a stomach virus :( We missed you, Camille.

20 Week Check Up and Sono

The sonogram went great! The baby's heartbeat was 136, heart has 4 chambers, stomach looks good, 2 hands, 2 feet, 20 fingers & toes! The baby is measuring on track at 11 ounces and I am at the right weight gain. I drank 2 boxes of orange juice before my appointment so we would be sure to have some movement-- in the middle of the sono as we were looking at the baby's hands, he/she clapped! What a miracle to see this life inside me and dream about what our sweet baby will look like- truly beyond words. Here are some pictures from the sonogram... I will tell you what you are seeing since it is hard to tell!

Our favorite picture: Feet
Baby's face on the left, 2 hands in a fist and body on right:
Baby's face (looking left) with neck and shoulders:
Hands:

Celebrate!

Brent's parents came up for the weekend to visit and celebrate that the CPA is over! We had pizza (and fudge!) on Friday night and played cards, Saturday we drove to Possum Kingdom lake to "check out the property"... I think a lake house may be in the Brewer's future???? After many bathroom stops and pull overs for "I think I am going to be sick", we made it there (it is only a 2 hour drive, but I didn't take my meds in time!). Saturday evening, we dined at Texas De Brazil... the food was wonderful and the company better! I think we all got our money's worth!

Baby Names

I am not sure if we have told you all our baby names...

GIRL= Elliott Leigh
BOY= William Luke (going by Luke)

A lot of people have asked, but no, these are not family names.

Reckless Kelly

On the way to the stone yard (we are putting new edging in the front of our house) and before we went to Westin Gardens for our landscape consult (we are working on a 3 year plan for our backyard), we went to Cabellas to see a Reckless Kelly "concert". It was to begin at 1:00-- we got there at 1:00 to hear the last verse of the one song they played. Big dissappointment... they were playing at Billy Bobs that evening, so I guess they were saving the show for then. This is the best picture I could get since they immediately packed up as soon as we got there!

From Cats to Rats

We had the pest control guy out this weekend for a general treatment. Not wanting a reoccurance of last year's Black Widows, I had him check out the attic too-- we went ahead and dusted it. As he was spraying around the outside, I heard him talking to Brent (who was mowing) about minor MICE droppings in our attic! NOOOOOOO!!! Apparently, they aren't that bad and he just told Brent to put out traps after the dusting settles. My big question is: what do they want in the attic??? And why did Brent ask the guy if he had told me about the mice??? LOL!

Go Cats!

Brent has missed a lot of baseball since moving-- we decided that we would go see the Fort Worth minor league team play ball against San Deigo. He feels he can support the Cats since they are in no way affiliated with Dallas. :) It was a great game-- Brent kept me well fed:

The Cats won 18-6 (San Diego did not want to roatate another pitcher in, so we ran up the score in the last 2 innings).

Their first base coach is 82 year old Wayne Terwilliger. He played for the Dogers in 1951 among 4 other big league teams while in the majors.

Apparently "The Chicken" is a ledgend in minor league baseball, so we snapped a picture of him too!

After the game, we watched the best fireworks show I think I have ever seen! They were all around us and covered the sky. Pretty neat! We just may be their newest fans! We are going back next week!

Proverbs 6 and America

Yesterday, in Sunday School, we studied in the book of wisdom, Proverbs 6. This was mainly talking about work ethic and that our attiudes/ actions/ business dealings should reflect Christ, not leading nonbelievers astray. If we choose to profess Christ as Lord in our lives (which He demands that we do if we are truely saved), then we work will all our heart as unto the Lord, not for man. In reading further, I came upon these verses:

12 A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, 13 who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, 14 who plots evil with deceit in his heart-- he always stirs up dissension. 15 Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy. 16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

Immediately, I turned my thoughts to our Nation and the upcomming Presidential Elections just 5 months away. Brent and I have been watching a doccumentery on the Discovery Channel about the race to Space and the excitement of our entire nation as NASA took President Kennedy's challenge to walk on the moon by 1960. During Apollo 11, the world was watching and the astronouts recited the first Chapter of the bible as they were orbiting the moon looking back to earth. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth...". Brent and I were amazed and excited that these astronouts would have the boldness to make those the words that they spoke at such a monumental time in our nation's history. Today, just 50 years later, it is almost mocked and chastized to utter such views of Christianity-- the views our nation was founded on.
Now, 48% of our country is lining up behind Barack Obama, a man we know very little about. They say a person is defined by the friends he keeps, so we look to them to answer the question "Who is Barack Obama?". These friends, which Obama has known for 20+ years, are now being denounced for political reasons. We look to:
--Farrakhan (black terrorist)
--Rev. Wright (spued hatred for America from the pulpit)
--Rezko (shady morgage dealings with Obama)
--Jim Johnson (advisor to Obama's search committe for VP who took a sweetheart deal with Countrywide for below market interest rates saving him 50K/ year on his morgage while Americans are drowing in their own morgage debts)
--his Grandmother (Christian who helped raise him).
In 5 more months, Obama may not have any friends left! He is either the worst judge of charracter, or a liar-- neither of which are very presidential.


Now, I go back to the verses in Proverbs above. If America is still willing to support a corrupt, radical, homosexual supporting, abortionist then we have NO RIGHT to ask God why he is allowing recession, uncertainty, terrorisim, and division to our country. It is by HIS GRACE that we have been a prosperous country until now. It is OUR CHOICES that are weakening a country that was once revearred among all other nations.

Matthew 10: 32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

17 Weeks!

South Austin Jug Band

Our favorite Newgrass/ Texas Country band that we discovered at Austin City Limits in 2003 was playing at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens this Sunday night (South Austin Jug Band). We packed the cooler, threw some folding chairs in the car and got there as soon as the gates openend! It was a great night and a great show, but what I will most remember about the night: Baby Brewer liked the loud music so much, I felt movement for the first time! The first 5 flutters, I held Brent's hand, but I didn't tell him because I wanted to make sure I was feeling the right thing. At number 6 I told him and felt it 3 more times! Amazing feeling!

Lesson Learned

A few months after we moved into our house, we had an accident with decorations falling off of the top of the refrigerator and taking a chunk out of our countertop and tile floor. Very upsetting. So, we rearranged the iron bookends around the cookbooks. Problem solved... or so we thought. This Friday, I was putting some groceries away, slammed the refrigerator door and the last 2 remaining vinegar jars holding pretty pickled vegetables fell to the floor with a loud fury! Glass and vinegar went EVERYWHERE. The odor was more than Brent could handle, so this was his get up (he said it helped him not throw up):

After going over the floor twice with the broom, twice with the shop vac, and twice mopping with heavy bleach, we think we got it all. Might still wear shoes in there though!

Jamie Visits

Brent's sister, Jamie, was in town for the weekend and we thought we should show her some Fort Worth hospitality at a hole in the wall BBQ joint that one of Brent's co-workers raves about. This bear scared us as we turned the corner to be seated (we later warmed up to him).