Friday, August 30, 2013

Just 3 More


Just 3 more classes until we are finished with foster care training! We still have to take a 2 hour CPR and car seat class, personal interviews, and house inspection...then we will be licensed and certified foster parents! I am very excited, hopeful, and a little nervous to be honest to take on this HUGE challenge and responsibility. I know that sometimes..maybe alot of times, God  gives us more than we can handle. The purpose of our pain, struggles, sorrows, challenges, weaknesses and trials is to make us rely and turn more to Him for help and so that His great power is made evident in our weaknesses-when we can't handle more. When we are able to continue and survive with peace in the midst of tribulation, others wont see us, they will see Him. I am so very grateful for this wonderful opportunity and all of the knowledge that we have received that is going to help us so much....and not only will it be helpful for these foster children, but also helpful for us when we have our own kiddos too. Like I said before in my first foster training post, I really think that they should offer these free classes to any parents or "to be" parent(s) who would be interested. Well here's to foster parenting and a 3 day weekend!! 

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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Falling For Fall

There is still a few weeks of summer left. It's around this time every year I start yearning hot cocoa, boots, big cozy sweaters, fall colors, scarves, and jackets. Without a doubt, it's my favorite season! From the temperatures to the fashion to the fun activities, fall has a big place in my heart. Here are some outfit ideas for the upcoming fall season that I love. What do you like most about fall?








-KIMBERLY-

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Monday, August 26, 2013

Obedience Brings Blessings


We learn obedience throughout our lives. Beginning when we are very young, those responsible for our care set forth guidelines and rules to ensure our safety. Life would be simpler for all of us if we would obey such rules completely. Many of us, however, learn through experience the wisdom of being obedient. There are rules and laws to help ensure our physical safety. 

The Lord has provided us with guidelines and commandments to help ensure our spiritual safety so that we might successfully navigate this often-treacherous mortal existence so that we can return eventually to our Heavenly Father.

He’s not taking things away from us to be mean or giving us a long list of impossible rules to follow. He’s teaching us what things are going to benefit us and what aren't  because He wants us to live the very best life we can. He doesn't want us to be upset, bitter, hurt, resentful, and lost, which often come as a result of disobedience. He wants us to have righteousness, peace, love and joy. Just like a parent with a child, God is saying to each of us, “Why don’t you just do what I tell you to do? I’m telling you this for your own good.” 

The truth is, whatever God asks us to do, it’s for our own benefit, so we need to take it seriously and submit to His direction and His will. The more we do this, the happier and more at peace we will be.

John 14:15 says, If ye love me, keep my commandments. Notice that Jesus didn't say, “If you keep my commandments, I’ll love you.” He already loves us perfectly, and He could never love us more than He already does at this very moment.

Okay..I’m not saying we can buy more of God’s love through our obedience, but our love for Him will grow as we live in obedience to Him and as we experience His faithfulness. The more I grow spiritually and love God more, the more I want to obey Him. I love Him for everything that He is because He’s beautiful, amazing and faithful to all of His promises.

  
Lets think of the soul-stirring act of obedience of Abraham and Isaac. How painfully difficult it must have been for Abraham, in obedience to God’s command, to take his beloved Isaac into the land of Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. I can't imagine the heaviness of Abraham’s heart as he journeyed to that place? I would imagine that anguish must have racked his body and tortured his mind as he bound Isaac, laid him on the altar, and took the knife to slay him. With unwavering faith and implicit trust in the Lord, he responded to the Lord’s command. How amazing was the pronouncement: “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”

Abraham had been tried and tested, and for his faithfulness and obedience the Lord gave him this glorious promise: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

Although we are not asked to prove our obedience in such a dramatic and heart-wrenching way, obedience is still required of us as well.

It is my prayer, that no matter how many things you need to work on, give them to God one by one and let Him do the work in you.

As you step out and become more determined to obey Him, He will help you do what needs to be done.

Not only will you experience more peace and joy, but your love for God will grow and grow.


//KIMBERLY//

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Friday, August 23, 2013

Fry’s Friday Freebie ~ Free 2 Liter of Ten Soda (must load coupon today, redeem thru 9/7)


free_ten
Fry’s has a new Friday Freebie coupon for 1 free 2 liter of 7 Up Ten, Sunkist Ten, A&W Ten, Canada Dry Ten or Dr. Pepper Ten.
You must load the coupon today, but have through 9/7 to redeem it.
A2 Liter of 7 Up Ten, Sunkist Ten, A&W Ten, Canada Dry Ten or Dr. Pepper TenFREE Fry’s digital (Load on 8/23 only, redeem by 9/7) (should be one of the first coupons listed, if not, sort by “most recent”)
Final price:  FREE
** Grab the 2 liter and hand the cashier your VIP card when you buy your groceries. The price will automatically be deducted, making it FREE!
AddIf you have Facebook, make sure you load the weekly Wednesday coupon: Spend $50, Save $3 (expires 8/27/13)
You can see the full Fry’s list here.

Thanks Bargain Believer!!!

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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Fry's: 2x Fuel Points (Ends on 8/31)



Have you added the 2x Fuel Points digital coupon to your Fry's card yet?
 Until 8/31, you will earn DOUBLE fuel points on your grocery purchases at Fry's.

All you have to have to do is add the digital coupon to your card 
and the double fuel points will show on your receipt.



-KIMBERLY-

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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

My First Food Truck Experience

Yeah yeah I know what you are thinking...."You have never ate food from a food truck?!?!"
Yesterday was my first food truck experience. One Eighty Q came out to our office building
from 11-1pm. They are known for being the best bbq in town. After trying One Eighty Q,
I think I would have to agree with them on that. The food was so tasty and had so much flavor.
I can now say that I have ate food from a food truck. Full success!! Have you heard of food truck
Fridays? Well they have one in Phoenix that I would love to take Josh to or go with friends, not only
for all the different types of food but just for the experience too. Adding this onto my date night "to do" list.









 
  

//Beef brisket tacos and spicy mac & cheese//


-KIMBERLY-

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Monday, August 19, 2013

Trash to Treasure: End Table Redo

Over the weekend, I decided to finally paint our living room end table. We bought this end table on Facebook Mesa Consign for $20 as a project piece. Well...this end table sat in our living room for a few months until I actually had time to get around to redoing it. I didn't even think about using this table redo project as a post, so I forgot to take a picture of the table before I painted it. I only have pictures of the finished product unfortunately. But.....I did manage to search the internet to find a used dresser with what the color and the condition of the end table looked like before. See below...

This was the color and the condition of the end table before I painted it. Maybe just a little bit darker.

 I was going to paint the table black, but our leather couches are black. I also wanted 
a light color to brighten up the room a bit and really bring out the duck egg blue colors
and light grey accents that we have in our living room. I decided to paint it bright white.
I really do love the way it turned out! It completely changes the look of our living room.
Here are some reasons to spray paint furniture


Do you have any project pieces that you are working on or NEED to finish? What are they?

-KIMBERLY-

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FREEZER MEAL: CHICKEN ENCHILADA CASSEROLE


I have to be honest. The next few months for us are going to get really crazy over here. 
With all this craziness going on, the last thing that I want to do is cook every night.

We decided that meal planning would be a great idea for us to save some time and some money. We sat down together and searched online for some quick and easy meals for weekly meal planning. We were searching on Pinterest when we found prepared freezer meals. Genius!!! Prepare it, freeze it, take it out and cook it! For whatever reason I just couldn't believe that something made ahead of time and froze would still taste okay after reheating. Well..we prepared it, froze it and had it last wee for dinner. Delish!! Who would have thought?!?! Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing with you all the different prepared freezer meals that we make, so if interested you can make them too!
Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!




Chicken Enchilada Casserole
4 cups cooked chicken breasts cut up or shredded
1 tsp garlic salt
1 cup sour cream
1 can cream of mushroom soup
2 cups Mexican cheese (1 c. Monterrey, 1 c. cheddar is a good option)
4 ounce can of green chilies
1 bag of "warm" white corn tortillas 
1 disposable casserole dish



TO FREEZE
Season, cook, and dice chicken. Combine all ingredients except chicken and cheese and set aside. We warmed all of the tortillas by simply adding a little oil to a skillet and heated them in the pan for about 1 minute on each side. We then ripped them into medium pieces and set aside. Place 1 cup of cheese aside for topping. Place approximately 1 heaping Tbsp of filling on the bottom of the disposable casserole dish to cover the entire bottom, then layer pieces of enchiladas, chicken and cheese. Repeat until you have filled the casserole pan. Cover with plastic wrap, puncture a few holes in the plastic, and cover with tin foil. 

TO PREPARE
Preheat oven to 350. Remove enchilada casserole from freezer, leave foil on pan and cook for approx. 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook additional 15-20 min, until bubbling and cheese are completely melted. 


***Note: Since you are freezing the meal, we found it best to take it out the night before or the day of and let it thaw a little bit before cooking it, otherwise it will take forever to cook!! We learned that the hard way I guess. Right now I have a freezer pot roast meal in the crock pot cooking at home. The house is going to smell so yummy when I get home tonight after work!





So what do you think? Is this something you might try? 
If you do try this, I would love your feedback on what you think!!


Linking up with...




-KIMBERLY-

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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Fantas-Eyes Review/Giveaway






In my opinion, you can never have too many pairs of sunglasses. I was so happy when I was contacted by Fantas-Eyes to do a product review. Another pair of sunglasses? Sure! Why not!
When my sunglasses arrived in the mail and I took them out of the box, I immediately fell in love.
If you know anything about me, I am a "bling" kind of girl. I get it from my Mom. No..really... I do.
Whether it's sunglasses, jewelry, handbags or clothes, I love when they add that little touch of bling!

I own 2 pairs of aviators, but none that look like these..so these were perfect to add to my collection
of sunglasses! Whenever I do product reviews, the product may look great on the internet but sometimes when it arrives its not what I expected as far as the look and quality goes. When I took these sunglasses out of the package (which it also came with a drawstring sleeve to put them in), I 
notice the quality of them. They are not cheaply made but a very good quality. I love these sunglasses and I am so glad that I could add them to my collection. Thank you very very much Fantas-Eyes!

Ok...ok...so you are probably thinking to yourself. Ya ya..I don't really care about the review, what
about the GIVEAWAY?!? Yup that's right you can enter to win a pair of sunnies from Fantas-Eyes!


Mandatory Rules:

*Follow Fantas-Eyes on Facebook
*Follow Fantas-Eyes on Twitter
*Follow Fantas Eyes on Pinterest
*Follow Diary of a Brown Eyed Girl on Google + Followers

Giveaway will run from August 17th through August 24th.

//Winner will be announced Monday August 26th//

Good luck!!


-KIMBERLY-

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Friday, August 16, 2013

FARMERS MARKET























 





 



 






























A few weeks back KerrinPaola and I went to the farmer's market  at Road Runner Park. We had such a blast together, except for the fact that we were dripping in sweat!  After looking and exploring for a little bit, Kerrin bought a breakfast burrito and we  sat down in the grass to relax, talk and hang out.
We each tried a small bite of her burrito. A few seconds later my mouth was on fire! I am not a big fan 
of anything spicy or hot for that matter. My husband on the other hand will dump hot sauce on
everything if he could.  I love farmer's markets and I would like to visit other ones in the valley too.

What do you like most about going to the farmers market? 


-KIMBERLY-

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