my first homemade mobile…

This post is for all of my crafty friends who have asked to see pictures of the mobile I made for Sam.  The whole reason behind me making a mobile for Sam (instead of buying one) was primarily out of frustration.  Baby mobiles in the stores have cute animals hanging from them, but the only thing the child can see is the boring bottom of the creatures!  They can’t even see the faces…just the boring brown feet of some monkey or giraffe!

My original idea was to sew fun-colored fabric into balls and fill them with stuffing, but one night I was laying in bed and this idea popped into my head…Yarn! (Yes, at times I do think about homemade crafts in the middle of the night). I love yarn and all things knitted (even though I am not such a great knitter), so…I thought I would give this a try.

Since I have never made anything like this before, I wanted it to be super easy to make and very inexpensive, just in case the idea flopped!  Obviously, this mobile accomplished both- yarn is cheap and even Sam could probably roll it into balls!

Anyways, I wanted Sam to have something colorful to look at when he plays in his crib.  The boy loves looking at the colorful pictures in the books that we read, so hopefully he will enjoy this!

The more I look at it, the more it resembles a solar system to me (not exactly what I was going for), but I like it nonetheless!

strawberry picking + strawberry recipes

One of mine and Joe’s favorite things to do here in Minnesota is go berry picking.  Picking strawberries is our absolute favorite!  We like to visit the strawberry fields that allow you to eat as you pick, so…we spend all morning picking berries and leave very well fed!  One of my little dreams is to grow my own berries one day, but until then, we are happy to take the thirty minute drive to pick our own.

Here are some of the berries we’ve picked along with our favorite strawberry recipes…

Strawberry Jam

2 quarts strawberries, washed and stemmed

1 package (1-3/4 ounces) powdered fruit pectin

6-3/4 cups sugar

Crush strawberries and measure 4-1/2 cups berries into a large saucepan. Stir in pectin and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar and return to a rolling boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and skim off foam. Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Remove air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids. Process for 10 minutes in a boiling-water canner. Yield: about 7 half-pints.

Strawberries Romanoff

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup orange juice

Sprinkle strawberries with sugar. Cover and refrigerate 15-20 minutes. Just before serving, whip cream until stiff. Gently stir in orange juice. Fold in berries or serve individually in small bowls topped with the flavored cream. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Chocolate Caramel Fondue

1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

1 jar (12 ounces) caramel ice cream topping

3 ounces unsweetened chocolatechopped

Fresh strawberries

In a large saucepan, combine the milk, caramel topping and chocolate. Cook over low heat until chocolate is melted. Transfer to a fondue pot and keep warm. Serve with fresh strawberries. Yield: 2-1/2 cups.

Strawberry Walnut Salad

6 cups mixed salad greens

1 pint fresh strawberries sliced

1 package (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Balsamic vinaigrette

In a large salad bowl, combine the salad greens, strawberries, feta cheese and walnuts. Drizzle with vinaigrette and toss to coat. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Strawberry Lemonade

3 cups cold water

1 quart fresh strawberries

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup lemon juice

2 cups cold club soda

Lemon slices, optional

Place half of the water, strawberries and sugar in a blender; cover and blend until smooth. Transfer to a large pitcher. Repeat with remaining water, strawberries and sugar. Stir in lemon juice, then add soda. Serve immediately, garnished with lemon if desired. Yield: 8 servings (2 quarts).

Top 10 annoying Facebook Statuses…

One of my friends on Facebook started compiling a list of the most annoying Facebook Statuses.  I found it hilarious because I, too, find the exact same ones a tad annoying.  This is all in good fun so please don’t take offense if you post any of the following statuses. And by all means, please feel free to add to the list…

1. Only posting the word “is” as your status or saying “there is nothing on my mind”

2. Without fail, every Monday someone will post something along the lines of “case of the Mondays”

3. “Woot” – I understand that people are trying to express jubilation, but i don’t think i’ve ever heard anyone actually say this word. Maybe “Woo hoo” but not woot. Is it an Aggie thing?

4. Excessive exclamation points after EVERY sentence!!!!!!

5. Consistently long, drawn out, and very detailed – this would include giving us a rundown of everything you had for dinner, a play-by-play of everything that’s gonna happen with you in the next hour, or anything that takes more than 3 or 4 status lines – Hint: If I have to click “Read More” to read your status, it’s too long. I understand the occasional long status, but consistently is just annoying.

6. Only posting song lyrics

7. Even though I am a twitter user, I still find it annoying when people type stuff like “coffee @ #starbucks w/ @7jay29 @brownbear @razorboy46 @tomfrank @hurley83, then 2 #transformers2″

8. Constantly posting sarcastically, negative things.

9. Anything having to do with how many ugly ducklings you’ve found in farmville, the fact that you are looking for a punching bag in mafia wars, that you just won 1,000 chips in poker on a hand where you had a high king, or how long you would last in a zombie apocalypse.

10. Constantly trying to be abstract

Sam’s first pumpkin…

Today is October 31st.

For some of you that means…”Happy Halloween”!

For others of you that means… “Happy Reformation Day”!

…and for the rest of you, it is a mix of the two, so…. “Happy Hallelujah-ween!”

Today was such a fun day in the Rigney house!  Joe and I carved our first pumpkin together.  That might not seem like a big deal to most of you, but I have never carved a pumpkin in my entire life!  Not once.

We picked out our pumpkin and I designed what we would carve….

Joe did the dirty work of cleaning out the pumpkin…

…and not too long after that, we were done!

My most favorite thing about Fall is when the leaves turn colors, so that inspired our theme…

While I was toasting pumpkin seeds and cleaning up the mess we made, I overheard some giggles coming from the other room and had to grab our camera…Enjoy!

silly sam

Needless to say, Sam no longer dislikes tummy-time!

soup, soup, soup!

It’s that time of year again here in Minnesota, fall turning into winter much sooner than I would like!  In order to stay warm and creative with our cooking, the girls in our small group met together one Saturday morning for a soup exchange.

Joe and I have enjoyed these soups so much, so I thought I would share the recipes in case you are looking for a way to stay warm and feed your family this winter.  For all you Texans out there, these recipes will come in handy in case the temperature ever drops below 65…

Tomato Bisque: from Jenny Rigney

1/2 C chopped onion
1/2 C butter
3 T flour
1 t dill seed
1 1/2 t dry dill weed
1 1/2 t dry oregano
1 can condensed tomato soup
4 C canned crushed or diced tomatoes
4 C chicken stock
2 t salt
1/2 t white pepper
1/4 C parsley, chopped
4 t honey
1 1/4 C heavy cream
2/3 C half and half

In a large pot, saute’ onions in butter along with dill seed, dill weed, and oregano for 5 minutes, or until onions are translucent.  Add flour and stir.  Add tomato soup, tomatoes, and chicken stock.  Add salt and pepper.  Bring to boil over medium  heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add chopped parsley, honey, cream, and half and half.  Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.  On low heat, bring to serving temperature.  Do not boil.

Notes:  If you don’t have both heavy cream and half and half, try using evaporated milk or 2 C of half and half.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: from Haley Scharf

5 c chicken broth
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can sweet corn
1 can Rotel chiles & tomatoes
1 chopped onion
1 diced green pepper
Diced cooked chicken (~3 breasts)

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for about 4 hours.  Alternately, saute onion and pepper with a little olive oil in a large saucepan, then add remaining ingredients and simmer on medium-low for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with tortilla chips!

Butternut Squash Soup: from Colleen Kniffin

2T butter
2 small onions, chopped finely
1 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed
5 cups chicken stock
8oz of potatoes, cubed
1t paprika
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 t snipped fresh chives, plus a few whole chives for garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in large pot. Add the onions, and cook for 5 mins, until soft but not browned.  Add the squash, stock, potatoes, and paprika, Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer for 35 minutes, or until all the veggies are soft.  Pour the soup into a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reheat gently without boiling.  Stir in the snipped chives just before serving. Garnish each serving with a few whole chives.

Italian Ground Beef and Veggie Soup: from Kristin Tabb

Simmer for 30 minutes:
1 lb ground beef or turkey, cooked and drained
1 medium onion, diced
2 14-oz cans Italian-style diced tomatoes
1 can tomato soup
4 c. water
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 T. chili pepper

Then add:
4 c. water
4 boullion cubes
1 can kidney beans
1 large diced carrot
1 large potato, diced
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
1/4 c. barley or small pasta (like orzo, shells, or cavattapi)

Cook another 30 minutes or so until veggies are tender and barley (or pasta) is cooked.

White Bean and Ham Soup: from Mandy Jabbour

3 cans (15oz) Great Northern beans (rinsed & drained)

2 medium carrots, diced

1 small onion, chopped

2 TBSP butter or olive oil

2 1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cup cooked, cubed ham

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

1 Bay Leaf

Mash 1 can of beans & set aside.  In large saucepan, saute carrots & onions in butter or oil.  Stir with the water, ham, seasonings, whole & mashed beans.  Cook over medium heat until heated through.  Discard bay leaf.

Notes: You can use any white bean for this soup.  I usually ask the deli to thickly slice a half pound of ham and then cube it at home.

This is a pretty thick soup.  I usually end up adding a little more water at the end.

Happy Four Month Birthday, Sam!

It’s me, Sam! I am four months old today and lovin’ it!

If you don’t mind, for the rest of this post please refer to me as, Sheriff Sam!

I love this new costume!  I feel pretty much amazing in it.

And just when I start thinking to myself, “Watch out ladies, Sheriff Sam is in town!”

…my mom goes and sticks me in THIS!

There goes my chance at a date to the 5 Month prom…

c’mon ladies…just one more chance!

This month my parents have been telling me all about Fall!

They even took me to my very first pumpkin patch and let me pick out my first pumpkin…

I got so excited learning about Thanksgiving and the feast that my mom said we will eat…

I just wanted to make sure I was prepared…

Here is me and my momma (after I forgave her for the frog costume)…

Some highlights of the past month for me have been:

1) Discovering my hands!

I like to put them in my mouth…all the time…

2) Lots of daddy time looking out the window…

3) My Bumbo Seat…

4) My mom letting me take a bath in the bathroom sink…

5) Lots of Tummy Time in my crib…

6) My nightly Milk Bath (i.e. the bath that washes away all the milk I have collected in my neck!)

7) Learning how to giggle at everything…

See you next month,

Sheriff Sam

four years ago today…

…around two o’clock on a beautiful, fall afternoon…

…I married this man…

After a 1-year friendship, 5-week dating relationship, and a 6-month, long distance engagement, I walked down the aisle a ‘Smith’ and left a ‘Rigney’…

We packed up our Uhaul, said our tearful goodbyes at our wedding reception, and headed north for the freezing, 19 hr. and 16 min. away, state of Minnesota, not knowing if we would ever move back home…

I can remember the degree in temperature dropping and dropping and dropping with each state line that we crossed.  I also remember looking over at my sweet, brand new husband about half-way through our trip and in my humble, grateful, submissive honest-to-God heart thinking to myself…

“WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST DO?! …I seriously just left my entire family, all of my friends, my home of 23 years, my church and the comfort of an extremely warm state for this man.  I mean, I love him and all, but did I just trade ALL of that to follow one man across the country?!  Oh, he better NOT mess this up!” True story.

Well Joe…

Right now you are up at Bethlehem working, and at some point today you will be sitting in your office and will check our blog.  I just wanted you to know after four years of marriage, I am happy to say that you have definitely not messed this up!  If anything, God has used you to be the one who has kept us going strong.

I think we both had some idea before heading into marriage that life for us would never be the same.  I think we both knew that in getting married, we would definitely face our share of difficult challenges along the way and also experience some of the deepest joys of our lives.

Both have been true.

What we didn’t know was how difficult the challenges would be, or how deep the joys would be.  I am thankful that the Lord did not tell us beforehand.    Looking back over the past four years, it seems as though each year has been so very different from the others….

Our 1st year was, well, “Our 1st Year”….

So much change took place.  Our first home together, our first real winter, our first move after 6 months into our second home, our first group of friends as a married couple, a new state, a new church, new jobs, new responsibilities, new family members, new priorities, new struggles, new expenses, new conflicts to work through, new memories, new jokes, new joys.  It was shocking to me all year long how well we thought we knew each other until we actually got married!

Our 2nd year was one of the funnest times in our lives…

Minnesota really began to grow on us.  God deepened our friendships, our marriage, and our relationship with Him.  We settled into our new jobs and loved them, we made our little basement apartment more and more like ‘home’.  Our friendship with each other grew deeper and the “newness” of married life began to turn into a comfortable, yet preferable, way of life.  It’s funny how the beginning of relationships are so filled with butterflies and nervous excitement that you almost don’t know how to be yourself!  I would pick the safe comfort of really knowing each other while running ordinary errands with you any day over the nervous butterflies in my stomach during the first couple weeks of dating.

Our 3rd year, to put it mildly, was really painful…

We continued to beg God for a child, but He did not give us one.  Most weeks felt as though we lived in the doctor’s waiting room.  Your dad was diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimers.  The sadness of friends moving far away began to set in.  The heartbreak we met when our dear friends lost their daughter continually brought us low.  The list could go on…

We cried a lot this year.

We prayed a lot this year.

You actually did more of the praying and I probably did more of the crying.

God tested us in ways that He hadn’t ever tested our faith before, and while we weren’t always faithful…He definitely was.  Early on in our marriage, we chose Jeremiah 32: 38-41 to be our “life passage” in a sense, but not until this year did it truly begin to take root in our souls…

“And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.  And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.”

And well, our 4th year has been all of the above…

…Full of change, so fun, difficult, and unbelievably wonderful.  God continues to be faithful to us.  We found out that we were pregnant with Sam on our anniversary last year.  What a gift it was for the Lord to completely surprise us in this way on our 3rd year anniversary!  Becoming parents together has been one of the greatest privileges of our lives.

Today we start our 5th year.  And again, we have some idea that we will, more than likely, face more difficult challenges and experience even deeper joys as the Lord remains faithful to us in year five.  I am thankful that the Lord has not told us what is in store.  We don’t have tomorrow’s mercy yet, but we will when we wake up.

Do you remember when our pastor in college told us that one of his prayers for us is that we would love each other more at each anniversary than we did the year before?   I thought at the time I couldn’t possibly love you more than I did while we were engaged.  I was wrong.  I do love you more on this anniversary than I did on last year’s.  And I love you four times as much as I did on our wedding day.

There isn’t anyone I would rather live life alongside than you.  There isn’t anyone I would rather learn how to be a parent with than you.  You have become my dearest friend these past four years.  Under the Lord, no one cares for me the way you do.  No one serves me or helps me or forgives me or talks with me or laughs with me the way you do.  You are a patient and gracious husband.  You live with me in an understanding way even when you don’t understand me.

I really had no idea the gift I had just been given as we crossed the Minnesota state line and began our lives here together.  I wouldn’t trade a single day of being your wife for anything in the world.

Happy Anniversary, Joe.

I love you,

Jen

sam’s first trip to TEXAS…

Sam here!  I just got back to Minneapolis from my first trip to the great state of Texas!  I had a wonderful time meeting more of my family and some of my momma’s friends.  Here I am on my very first plane ride, my momma snapped this picture of me with her phone.  I love Southwest Airlines and Southwest loves me!  (Before you judge me for the outfit that I am wearing, just know that I had one on that matched until I got a little airsick!)

My momma let me sit in the window seat while everyone boarded the plane.  This served two purposes: 1) I got to look out the window, and 2) No one sat down on our row, this way my mom could change my diaper and let me nap during the flight.  We didn’t feel bad about this because the flight wasn’t full!  Both me and my mom recommend this little trick for moms flying with young children!

I got to meet SO many new special people…

Here I am with my great-grandparents, Pop & Mee-Maw from Mississippi…

I also got to meet my Aunt Melinda and cousin, Colin.  I love Aunt Melinda for several reasons, but I really love her for making sure that Colin didn’t sit on me or poke me in the eyes!  And here I am without any pants…

My Aunt Melinda bought me my first Houston Astros outfit, very fitting for my first trip to Texas!  I LOVED it!

Here I am with my mom’s oldest friend, ‘Aunt’ Becky…she is pregnant right now with a little boy, my future best friend!

I also got to meet my ‘Aunt’ Marian and her four little kids, Antonella, Jeremiah, Samuel & Augustine… we were instant friends!  I can’t wait to dress up in costumes like Jeremiah and Sam did…

Here I am with Jeremiah.  I know I look scared in this picture, but I wasn’t…I really do love this kid.

Here I am with two of my momma’s friends, Emily & Betsy.  My mom has been friends with them since she was a little girl…

I also got to meet Betsy’s little boy, Pete!

My momma also introduced me to her life-long friend, Regan…

…and Regan introduced me to her daughter, Maren.  We hit it off!  See…she is already trying to hold my hand!

What a cutie!  I think I have a crush…

I also got to meet my Uncle Ryan…I love him and want to play baseball just like him one day…

I also got to meet my ‘Uncle’ Emory and Su-Su…

and my great uncle Shaun…

…and Miss Joy, one of my Sassy’s best friends…

One of my most favorite parts of visiting Texas for the first time was getting to spend lots and lots and LOTS of time with my Papa and Sassy…

they LOVED me!

My Sas bathed me every night…

Papa and Sassy have the most comfortable beds in their home…best naps of my life!

Papa even let me sit in his “big boy” chair…it was pretty much amazing!

I’m so glad that me and Colin got to be with Papa and Sassy at the same time…

I had such a wonderful time!  So, I decided that I would go back to visit in November, December, January and March!

melts my heart…