What Are You Reading?

Do you have a list?  I do and it seems to be growing.  What a funny idea for me to have a "Books I Want to Read List".  Can I just say, that is totally out of character for me!  Less than 10 years ago I could count on one hand the number of books I had read for enjoyment.  Today, I am willing if only I could have a 25 hour day.

I really enjoy Francine Rivers as an author.  She has a new book, maybe even 2 out, I'm on the waiting list at the library.  My other favorite Christian author is Karen Kingsbury.  The Redemption series is wonderful which leads into the First Born and Baxter series.  The Shack has been on my list for about 2 years and as soon as I can get it from my mother-in-law I'll be diving into that story.  My friend Vicki has my interests up about a book titled, "So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore".  Too bad they couldn't come up with a longer title.  On top of those I have 3 Debbie Macomber books on my night stand.

Geesh, my high school English/reading teachers would be shocked to know that I read books.  I'm pretty sure they knew I read the Cliff Notes and tried to get detailed info from all my friends before every quiz.  You see, I just didn't have time to read in high school.  My life was packed full.  If it weren't for some fun/laid back classes, school itself would have messed with my social life.  Phone calls, sports and boys really did occupy way too much time after school to focus on something as boring as sticking my nose in required reading.  :)

Now that I have a nook color I have my nook books and my "physical, hold the paper & turn the page" books. I like the Nook but I seem to read faster and get less distracted when I read books printed on paper.  I don't know why that is.  One a positive note, it is hard to find time to read and when I do, often it is late at night. Often a few pages in I fall asleep.  The Nook saves my spot every time.  Love it!

I have 3 books to plug today.  The first isn't surprising...THE NEW PHENOMENON by Chris Raabe.  In the near future author Chris Raabe will be speaking at Peru State College.  I don't see this as a venue that will sell lots of books but it's great exposure and I'm praying that the novel is incorporated into their reading choices for YA lit classes.  Another note worthy comment is we have our own domain.
http://chrisraabe.net  will take you directly to Chris' blog.  This is just a starting place eventually we will do more with it.  One more comment, it you have not gone to the facebook page for The NEW PHENOMENON and liked it, please do so now. CLICK HERE We will be doing a book give away in the next month.  You must like the book and make a comment on the post to be entered in the raffle.

The second book that I plan to read soon is THREE BURNING BODIES by Brian Bogdanoff.  He is a retired local police officer who wrote a non-fiction book about a case he helped solve.  We met with Brian today for tips.  His book is doing very well and has even been a number one seller on Amazon.  His book is available in e-version as well as printed form.

Last but certainly not least I've gotta send out a shout for my Daily Bible in Chronological Order.  We are reading it together as a family.  There are many stories already (we're only in Exodus) that I have read or heard many times over the years but suddenly they make more sense when you know what happened 400 years before and after.  The girls are asking great questions too.  When I don't know the answer we look it up or I say, ask your Sunday school teacher.  LOL!

This week I'm sending up some special healing prayers for Evan and his mom at Mayo Clinic, Dylan at UNMC, Klint at Lakeside Hospital and Dad.

Celebrating for Months

Life gets crazy.

Sometimes it is necessary to plan to procrastinate.

Our sweet little pink princess was born in December.

For a mom with unrealistic, over board party plans

this is a problem.  December is a busy month!

 As you can see the Christmas tree in the background, we really did do a little family celebration in December.  Emma spent her own money to buy Liv a pink frilly skirt from the dance store and Reagan made a cute pink visor but we hit the bulls eye with our gift...a PINK Nintendo DS!

I'm not sure about the outfit she's wearing...

 I do spend quite a lot of time at the elementary school so it

is only natural for me to hang out with the birthday girl for a little while

on her big day.  We went out for recess...burrr!  We had lunch...Panda Express.

And most importantly, we had treats.  She asked for cupcakes from the store.

(secretly I was sad, I like to MAKE treats but she wanted to be like everyone else)

6 weeks later......

Here we are at Bounce U
It's one of those fun places with inflatables for the kids to bounce in, on & through.

The plan was to invite 6 friends since she was turning 6.
Bounce U's smallest package was for 15 kiddos so we invited 12 (plus my 3 girls).
We had 9 friends show up, it was a perfect number.  Now to get going on the thank yous.

 Max is one of Liv's buddies.  The poor guy was there without any other male backup. 
Two boys didn't RSVP or make it and the other little boy got sick right as they were heading
to the party.  He was so mad at his mom for keeping him home.

Chris and Melanie on the balance beam.
We were trying to switch places without falling off.
We fell every time.  My friend Stacey enjoyed getting
some rather unattractive pictures of us...those won't be posted here.

This was Olivia's first party outside of our home.  No, I didn't do this for the other two at this age but I've gotta say it was worth the money we spent to avoid the mess at our house.  Next year we'll probably go back to something like pizza and cupcakes at our house and then I'll wish I spent the money on bowling.

I love birthdays (even my own).
I love celebrating the life God has give us.
It nearly killed me to take an entire year off of birthday parties last year (sept-feb)
So now I am back to making cakes and going over board and I LOVE IT!



Toro Magic

What a crew!

Soccer crazies...they were every where.  I am afraid the Raabes could be included in that group.  Our 10 year old soccer team traveled down to Kansas City for the Winter Magic soccer tournament.  Toro Fusion was formed just 3 weeks ago. I am very pleased to say that these little girls worked hard to become the tournament champions beating out teams who had played together for 5-6 years.  Way to go!!

Reagan has decided to hang up her softball glove to go full speed with soccer.  This was our first out of town soccer event.  We did it big...Friday through Monday!  The girls and the parents had a great time getting to know each other both at the games and in our down time.  I am excited to continue the season and watch the girls grow into stronger, quicker athletes.

Staying in a hotel with a pool is a pretty exciting thing for a bunch of girls.

It was a little disappointing for them to find out that Coach Chad was concerned

their little bodies would be worn out before the weekend was over.  His famous

saying for the weekend was, "you have 30 minutes to swim."  I couldn't help

myself...doesn't it look like the girls are getting the "bad" news. 

This was actually a pre-game pep talk. 

The march into the walls, game #1.

 There's my girl, full speed ahead zipping past all the defenders.

We started out the tournament with a loss to Agape Xtreme. The Fusion girls lead the whole game

(in spite of all the bad calls) and with 40 secs left in the game we were still up 5-4.  Those big girls from

Pleasant View scored twice and sent us back to the hotel knowing we had our work cut out for us

in the remaining 2 games.   Our goal was to make it into the winner's circle on Monday morning.

Nothing says bonding like making duct tape flowers.

 #8 might be small but she is mighty.

Reagan knows how to bring her power to a penalty kick.

The Raabes had the best following thanks to our KC family.

Aunt Angie, Uncle John, Uncle Rodger and Aunt Laura we appreciate

you driving all over KC to support our Toro girls.  Love you guys!

The Tebow

It's a craze right now but seeing my daughter do this gave me an opportunity to talk to her about the platform that she has right now.  If you have followed Tim Tebow at all, which I had not until recently, you have heard of his faith in Jesus Christ.  He recognizes that he is no better than the next person just because he can throw a football with a certain level of accuracy which enables him to make millions of dollars a year. Instead he uses his celeb placement as an opportunity to speak to the lost and for those who are without food and shelter.  We all have an opportunity to do something for the greater good.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Chris was just starting to think the male:female ratio was getting a little better and then we added another female to our home.  I'd like to introduce Bella our baby kitty.

Vincent and Bella

Oh she might look sweet but she's a little feisty thing!  She has

become well acquainted with the water spray bottle.

She likes to bite and scratch and even though Vincent doesn't

have front claws he can hold his own.  I've seen him smack her across

the face when he's taken all he wants.  Makes me laugh.

The first few days were touch and go but now the two run around playing

all day long.  Vincent might slim down a little with his new exercise program.

Red Oak, The Home of The New Phenomenon

On January 3, 2012 the newly published young adult fiction author (and his smokin' hot wife) traveled to Red Oak, Iowa to share his novel with the home of the fighting tigers. Red Oak holds a special place in Chris' heart, after all it is the setting of the first book in the Phenomenon Trilogy. We were thrilled with the excitement that was generated by the five book talks in the schools.  At the end of the school day we zipped to the public library to find a crowd already waiting to purchase THE NEW PHENOMENON by Chris Raabe. 

In case you are not from a small town, let me explain something to you.  The people of towns such as Red Oak, Ia support the school, the city and the interests of the community.  If only we had known there were so many distractions already on the calendar that day we might have changed our date. 

1. High school boys basketball game at home

2. High school girls basketball game away

3. High school wrestling

4. City Council Meeting

5. THE IOWA CAUCUS...how did we miss this one????

We still had great sales and met so many wonderful people. (funny side note: chris' old girlfriend stopped by but sent her son in to buy a book, she wouldn't come it.)  We want to send out a shout to the Red Oak community and say THANK YOU!  So many of you asked about book #2.  It is still being edited and revised but we will let you know when it is available, we hear there's a possible October 2012 release. 

We gave away a bunch of these shirts

If you didn't get one we left some at the library.

Chris speaking to the middle school students

He saw about 280 kids at the first stop of the day.

Chris gave some tips about the writing process.

1. have a plan

2. write on

3. revise revise revise revise

4. edit

 5th Graders took in every word the author had to share with them and then eagerly peppered him with questions about the cover, the characters, making money and book #2.

 Our last group of students for the day was a bit of a surprise.  Chris thought he was going to be speaking to two small groups of 9th and 10th grade students which turned into several hundred 9-11th grade high school students.

It was fun to watch Chris give the same presentation to each group but change it just enough to capture the interest of the student.  Some may say he pushed the envelope just a little at Red Oak High School but the kids loved it.

What use to be Red Oak Jr High is now Red Oak Middle School.

In general it is the same building with some minor changes.  Thank goodness they got rid of the pink walls.

You may recognize the name of these streets from the book. 

Here it is...the house where Christian grew up.

He really had his bedroom in the basement and really hit his head going down the stairs on numerous occasions.

Notice the wrap around drive way and there's even a boat parked  back there.

This picture is one of my favorites from the day.

Red Oak is the home of the fighting tigers and you bet, the water tower is bright orange...there it is in the background.  This picture should have been on the back of the book.  :)

I also want to say "HEY" to our friends the Brownlees.  It was fun to see your parents...hope you enjoy the book.  We miss you!

Good are always the way of the Lord.

It's embarrassing that I have to admit again my lack of trust...ok probably faith.  I told God what we needed and then I doubted we could do it.  He exceeded it because it was Him and not me doing the work.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  He always has our best at heart.  Thank you for loving me and coming to my rescue time and time again!

Great are you Lord!!!

Christmas Post

This year was a little different since Christmas landed on a Sunday.

I have this hard and fast rule that my kids wake up in their own home on Christmas morning. There's just something about walking running downstairs early in the morning to see what is under the tree. Here's a little hint: I would probably change that once in a while if we were on a cruise or something wonderful like that.  The big deal about a sunday morning christmas is my volunteer job at church.  Since I had to be at church early, we opened all out gifts on Christmas Eve instead of just our jammies.  

Just Dance 3

Can you tell the middle schooler is more than a little excited about a new game for the Wii?

Gloves for hunting...it's the little things that make us happy.

The girls were very pleased with their christmas gifts

Family photo

can you tell I raced to get in the picture?

 Right after church we loaded the (new) van for Smith Center. 

We spent 2 days with mom and dad. Now that they own the house next door as well, our family has a lot more room to spread out. If I could just get my mom to use paper plates instead of the good dishes and silver the trip would be nearly perfect.

Aw, a snapshot with my Daddy!

The middle schooler with Oma

Before diving into the puzzle (that turned out to be very difficult) Emma worked her

creative magic on everyone's fingernails.

Just imagine Chris there in the back row.

After the many many trips to Smith Center over the years, 7th grader finally

got her picture taken by the marker.  The claim to fame in my small town growing up

was our amazing football team and living in the center of the 48 states.

More Christmas pictures to follow as I get them from my mother-in-law.

Exceptional Showings by Father and Daughter

Here she is...my sweet little Kindergartner, ready to perform in front of a

sold out gym.  Every mom, dad and grandparent armed with a camera, video recorder and tripod.

I grew up in a school with a place large enough for parents to watch their little darlings perform.  Anymore, school districts can not afford such luxuries so we cram into cafegymatoriums in hopes we snag good seats before all the other crazy parents arrive.  Turns out we were in the second row but still had a hard time seeing little Liv because of her placement on the risers.  As you can see, that didn't stop this mama with a super duper zoom-in lense.  I will prevail!!!

Monday both Olivia and Reagan performed with their classes but we attended on the Tuesday show.  Too bad I didn't sneak in while Reagan was singing on Monday because she went home sick and didn't make it back to school.  So it's not that I like to just take pictures of Liv, I didn't have a chance to see Reagan sing with her classmates.  Never fear, she did recover just in time to make gingerbread houses on Wednesday.

Again, because my sis-in-law lives near by we were able to do lunch on Tuesday before the concert.  Holly, we are so happy to have you and Stephen in the metro.

*********************************************************

 A snapshot of Chris and the publisher, Cindy at Brewsky's Bar and Grille for the second book signing of

THE NEW PHENOM3NON.

Again, a fun night visiting and getting books into the hands of young readers.  I want to give a shout out to a few friends who have been so great to support us everywhere we go. 

Good to see the Vints, Christensens and Gerdes Families!

We also ran into some old college friends, thanks Pattersons!

Time and time again, I step back and look at the blessings in my life.  If I didn't ever have trials, I don't think I would recognize the beauty.  I don't want to ask God to take away the trouble just help me through it.  The sun shines so much brighter after a week of cloudy days.  My body feels so healthy and alive after battling off the flu.  And I feel the Father's loving arms around me after I have tried to make it on my own.

Thank you God for loving mankind so much that you sent your son to Earth for our benefit, not yours.

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son,

that we would not perish but have life everlasting.

John 3:16

NOTE:
Purchase books at Chris' website   http://chrisraabe.wordpress.com/about/  click the "buy" button at the top.
Please submit book reviews to http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.goodreads.com/  We love 5 stars (wink wink) but do leave your honest opinion.

Love me some RAK

In case you are not familiar with the term RAK, it stands for Random Acts of Kindness.  It is by far one of those things that gives me a buzz.  I can't say too much but it has been a joy to spread some RAK around. 

Just try it out for yourself.  Start on an easy one, when you are in the drive through pay for the  person behind you.  They won't ever know who you are but it will bless their socks off, even if it's only a $3 cup of joe.  Other ideas: shovel a neighbors driveway, send a gift card in the mail, make dinner for someone just because, send a kind note, the possibilities really are endless.  Lately I have been hearing on the KLOVE radio station report of individuals going into KMart and paying off strangers' lay-away.  How cool is that?  Trust me, you can not out give God.  He is so much bigger than your little checkbook.  He will bless you back.

You can do this without spending a penny.  Look each person you meet on the street, in the eye and warmly greet them.  It is a gesture that has been forgotten. 

Blessings to you as you go out of your way today and tomorrow to make someone else feel loved.

A Not So Christmas Concert

It's not a Christmas concert any more, in fact, it's not even a Holiday Concert, it's just a

winter concert. 

In years past there were Christian songs like "Away in a Manger" those were dropped for "Frosty the Snowman".  Now it's just a bunch of songs that have nothing to do with any season at all. 

Last night was Emma's middle school Winter Choir Concert and 30 minutes after that the stage was reset for her Winter Orchestra Concert.  Both were wonderful but 3 hours on hard folding chairs is a little tough on my backside.  Just as I was about to make a comment to my hubby about no Christmas music all 3 grades came out to sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas"  Hallelujah!!

Emma made the swing choir this year.

I would love to tell you about the dress debacle but I don't want to get negative. 

 Emma and choir friends

 Yes those are leggings under her dress. 

Have you ever tried playing a cello in a short dress...it wouldn't be a pretty site! 

Em and her cello buddy Andi.

 Silly girls!

Emma was so excited to have Aunt Holly at the concert

We'll see a lot more of Holly now that she and Stephen have moved to the metro area

 Aunt Holly teaching Emma how to OPEN her mouth when singing.

There they are. 

Emma and Dax are first and second chair. 

I have very few pictures of Emma playing that don't include our buddy Dax.

May the music and festivities of this Christmas season bring you closer to the love of our Savior.

White Chili

I have to tell you about our amazing dinner tonight. A few months ago the girls' school had a chili tasting event.  That night I tasted some fantastic White Chili and have been wanting to get the recipe since then but have not done it.  Finally tonight I went to AllRecipes.com and found this one.  As with all things I tweeked it just a little but this has become a family favorite after just one meal. Click HERE for an easy, yummy dinner.

Here are a few of my alterations:
1. I used part of a whole cooked chicken, not just the breasts
2. I did not use the cayenne pepper because our family is whimpy
3. I used 3 cans of beans because that is all I had and did not have time to soak dried beans.
4. I added about half a brick of cream cheese before adding the beans
5. I had some parmesean and mozz cheese instead of Monterey Jack.
6. I also smashed some of the beans so the soup would be thicker.

Next time I will try it without the cream cheese.  No need to add the dairy or calories.

Happy Eating~

Books to Sign

Last night we got a shipment of books so today the author is hard at work signing.  I'm trying to crack the whip but the poor guy has been sick for 2 days.  Luckily it is possible to sign books in sweats, on the couch while the television is on.

Truly, this is another very exciting time.  I remember when...
*the book was finished, July 2nd, 2009.
*we found out that Write Life was going to publish Chris' novel,October 2009.
*Chris had a couple students read the book and they loved it.
*we didn't think the book would ever be released.
*we saw the proof copy...a REAL book in our hands.
*we witnessed the masses file in at the book launch party.  We couldn't believe so many people were there to support this effort.  And then we sold out in 50 minutes.
And now this, six boxes of books arrive and we have the privilege of sorting, signing and mailing off books.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged, supported and prayed for us. 

It's Beginning To Look Like...

CHRISTMAS

I love this time of year...the decorations are just one of my favorite things.

Below you will find many photos of our preparation for the season of Christ's birth.

We had some problems with the star!

Guess it's time to buy a new one.

 BREAKING OUT THE ORNAMENTS

MY SWEET GIRL

(I have 3 of them)

ANNUAL PEPPERNUT MAKING

This year I had the girls get out all the ingredients, measure everything and start mixing all on their own. This recipe calls for 14 cups of flour so towards the end requires mom's help but until then, they did a great job.  This is a bitter sweet event for Emma.  Eating this time of year is a constant reminder for her that she can't eat many of her favorites.  Never fear Emma...I'm working on some very special recipes just for you.  Hang in there!

 SKINNY TREE

This is my tree and now that I look at the picture, it really isn't all that flattering.  To see it in person, it is beautiful.  Growing up we always had a "beautiful" tree and as a child, I did not appreciate the beauty.  All I wanted was a fun tree like the Grothous (neighbors) tree.  Remembering that, I have my pretty tree in the front room and the fun tree in the family room.  I love them both.

FAMILY TREE

The girls have so many ornaments, they love digging through the box each year to rediscover interests from past seasons.  Next year I plan to add a vintage tree.  I need to remove some of my snowmen and stars to make more room.

VIEW FROM MY FRONT DOOR TODAY

This wreath was made for me by my dad several years ago.

TWO CHRISTMAS FAVORITES

I should have a picture of peppermint ice cream too but haven't bought any yet.

CHRISTMAS GOOSE???

Chris went hunting this morning.  Now my freezer has a bunch of goose in it.  His plan to make goose jerky.  I'll taste it but sounds like a man food more than a Melanie food.

FYI: he didn't shoot all of these, that would be over his limit but he did clean them all.

JUST IN CASE...

I don't get christmas card mailed out, or even made.