February! Really!?!

I find that each week I am wishing for Friday and then Friday after Friday I wonder where the week went! Am I the only one?

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Recently I have made my MOST FAVORITE cookie recipe and the best part.... NO ONE in my house except me likes them :) YUM! Bad part- I eat them all :(
If you want the recipe for Cranberry Walnut Drop cookies leave a message! 

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Austin had a trip to Krispie Kreme and he LOVED it !

(Despite my Father-in-Law and Husbands, love for Dunkin Donuts)

I tried to get him to tell Tony that he liked Krispy Kreme better than Dunkin Donuts but I think that he knows we are a house divided and there was no forcing him to make a choice (even with the promise of another donuts!)  Its ok, Im just glad the Dunkin Donuts is closer to us, that way I wont eat nearly as many as I would if it was Krispy Kreme! Boy to I LOVE them hot and they melt in my mouth!

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Tony helped Austin create his first Pinewood Derby car. (Tony will tell you more about that later) And they had fun!

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We have visited an indoor pool to take some of the cold out of our weekends. Lots of fun except for he 15 minute breaks which Austin dreads. Austin's friend Ethan hung out the afternoon and even went to church with us. One the way home they were so excited to make paper airplanes they had to have the light on. :) Ethan is such good friend and I always love it when he comes to hang out with us.

 

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We even got to see Emily play indoor soccer. I haven't seen an indoor soccer game since her dad played in Columbus Ohio. I like that it is a fast paced game.

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For Christmas Tony bought me a Zoku pop maker it is a lot of fun! The really cool thing about this pop maker is that the pops are ready in less than 5 min! I finally bought the ingredients to make a chocolate whopper pop and boy were they good! Austin and I had one right away!

If you look closely you can see the candy pieces in the pop.

 Before           and               After

 

 I think he thought they were good; what do you think? :)

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Sunday is always a day of regeneration and renewal. Every Sunday is a 12Stone day and when rare day that I cant go to church if feels like I missed a big part of my week. This week was open baptism and it is amazing to see how God move us. I have vivid memories of my public acceptance of Christ and how he had changed my world forever. That is my prayer for all these who step into the baptismal waters (in street clothes!) and publicly proclaim their love and devotion to Jesus Christ.

 

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Each nice day we really try to get Austin outside to practice bike riding. This week we had one of those days. Tony, being the AWESOME father that he is, decided Austin needed some momentum so they started going down the hills rather than the sidewalk. Now our road looks just as it does in this picture, down hill. But the yards have these mini hills that if you fall, no big deal. Austin and Elijah, who knows how to ride a bike, had a great time riding down the grassy hills and Austin was actually having fun (What!?! having fun while LEARNING!?!?) He built up his confidence a lot and pretty soon what soaring to the curb using a borrowed balance bike. So progress but he is learning that bike riding can be LOTS of fun! I cant wait for him to get good enough that he and Elijah can ride there bikes around the neighborhood like I did as a kid.

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Homemade Taquitos again!

Austin is still asking for store bought ones but this time he said they we almost as good at the store bought ones :) I'll take it! 

I am really trying to cook more 'clean' and less processed, if I can. This batch I got 15 taquitos rather than 12. I am calling them my skinnier Taquitos because I dropped about 70 calories by making them with less filling than the first time around!

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Well that's it for the Mimms' crew, for a while.

I have asked Tony to write an article on the Pinewood derby and include more pictures so be looking for that in the near future.

Jen

New Adventures in Scrapbooking

I am so excited this weekend to have started on my project Life Album. It is a great way to captures images from everyday life and allow you to put them into an album. ( I love this little video about what project life is on Beckys blog) Many people have taken to this type of scrapbook and there are many products out there that make it easy, but the very wonderful part is that you can use what you have. I chose to buy a kit from Becky Higgins line called SeaFoam and I LOVE it!

 

I am excited to see our everyday life show up more in my scrapbook than just special events and holidays. I enjoy looking back and remembering what life was like, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Which is exactly the reasons why I started back on this blog.

Still learning

Today as I sit and pray on Gods word I have a visual that in first thought is to keep to myself ( don't show them how crazy you really are, Jennifer) then second thought, what if no one has thought of this in the same way, so I'll share- I was reading John 17 and I realize Jesus is a teacher, I know nothing new but not just any teacher he is more like an aerobic teacher or workout teacher. What, you ask... Well I started thinking Jesus knows ALL this stuff, how to talk with God, how to show mercy, love and kindness and yet he does it all. Like an aerobic instructor leading a class, I'm supposed to have my eyes on him and mimic all his moves, it's really hard to do this when I only show up for my 'workout' once a month, but if I'm a regular attendee it gets easier and I feel more comfortable and more connected with the moves. Have you ever tried to workout by yourself? It can be okay once in a while but day in and day out, at least for me is very unmotivating, this is where fellowship, belonging to a church, small group really helps. Combine daily and weekly workouts and it becomes easier to become spiritually fit. (Trust me I know this is easier said than done, I do struggle each day).

So this year I am going to make Jesus my workout instructor not just someone I read about and pray to. I will fail at times and I will wonder about the big picture when trials and disappointment come my way. But, as PK said yesterday at church, God's disappointment doesn't come when we fall it comes when we don't get up and try again.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:26 NIV)

Practice makes perfect

Austin is loathing practicing to start riding a two wheel bike. It is a chore to get him outside and practice on a borrowed balance bike. Once I get him outside he is all about making goals and trying to beat his own records. He has even told me 'It's not as bad as I thought', but the next day we go out he fusses again. So don't let the smile fool you :)

Busy Weekend!

Well as weekends go this was a very busy one but the most beautiful in a while! I think it is crazy that it was a high of 72 today! Can you believe it? I still compare January with the blizzard of 2010. And here I am fighting to stay in jeans and long sleeve shirts. It will be in the 50s by Monday so go figure!

Friday we celebrated with Austin during his school awards ceremony where he receive an award for all E's! We are so proud of what he has done in school and he is growing and learning so much.

Then today after celebrating our little friend Jackson's 4th birthday at Bounce-a-Rama, Austin and Tony went to begin building Austin's first Pinewood Derby Car. I think that Tony was as excited to start this project as Austin was. Tony still has his cars from when he was in Boy Scouts and Austin has been playing with them for years and now, he gets to make his own. They made great progress on it and now to the painting process. We will reveal the final car soon, so stay tuned.

I have also been getting into experimenting with some new recipes. I have made it a goal to try and eat as little processed foods as possible, knowing this can be a big task I am taking it slow and picking certain foods that I feel I can replicate with out a lot of extra purchases. I have found two recipes that I really like and plan to make again. Thanks to Pinterest for making it easy to find many choices!

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (with optional Nutella Swirl) 

Recipe here {in our house we ALWAYS opt for Nutella!}

They were soooo good, I have to warn you thought- I got about 30 regular size muffins out of this recipe! So plan on eating them a lot or giving them away :)

We love taquitos and we usually buy them by the 30 pack. I thought I might mix up some homemade ones. 

Creamy Chicken Taquitos Recipe here

I was concerned about them being too spicy for me (not a spicy eater) or Austin so I cut back on the spices and left out the jalapeno. In the end they were a little bland, so next time Ill add all spices and no jalapenos and we will see what that version tastes like. These came out about 2x the size of the frozen store bought ones, so even though the recipe didn't make 30 we will actually eat less per serving than normally. But over all very delicious!

 

Guess Who? Yep the Mimms!

Guess who it is?!? Yep it's the Mimms again! I have been motivated to dust off our old blog and maybe bring it to life again. Since I'm the only one with this commitment right now, prayers are accepted :) And your patience!

Is it really 2013 already?!? I love looking back at our old post from when we were pregnant with Austin and our journey into this blog and it is pretty amazing to see. I love seeing the moments we captured in pictures and words. Tony is a great writer and I have always depended on his 'way with words' to help me. I only hope I can do justice to his posts :)

We are getting back into the swing of things after our wonderful winter break. Thanking God for another year and all the new adventures and friends I hope to experience this next year.

Where to go, who to visit, what to see. Austin is at a wonderful age as we plan; he loves telling me all the places he wants to visit. As most of you know I LOVE to travel so this is right up my ally. We are going to try to make it to more Georgia locations than we have in the past.

Things we have accomplished since last we blogged

• We have lived in Georgia longer than Missouri!!! (It truly baffles me!)
• We have a 1st grader! 
• We have one less dog (we miss you Max!)
• Tony is 40! :)
• We had to get a new car for Tony
• We have a new neice, Anna
• Grandpa Smith and Grandma Hindle went to Heaven to be with Jesus
• My Mom is an Ovarian Cancer Surviver

There is probably much more but of course I cant think of them when I really want to.  Thanks for sticking with us and I would love for you to comment If you actually got an email about this post. (I wonder if your email address is still in here after all these years! :))

Also comment on what is new with you since last time we posted to our blog! Have a great day!

Hopefully it isn't as long until the next time I write :)

It's Way Past Time For This Post

Obviously we've not been keeping this blog site up to date lately. Jen had been the one keeping this fairly updated and we have both pretty much moved to posting anything we're up to on Facebook (and in my case, Twitter).

More than likely, if you'd been keeping up with us here, you already are following us on Facebook and Twitter. If not, then find us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.

New Microsoft Ad

Been awhile since we posted anything here. Most of what we share now is on Twitter and Facebook. But, this format lends itself better to longer posts. Let me start this post off by saying that it is being written by someone who has always used a pc and just recently has switched to a MacBook to learn the OS and platform to better support the Mac users at the church that I work at.

Recently Microsoft came out with a new commercial. From what they have a history of putting out, commercial wise (and some will argue, product wise) this ad is one of the best ones they've done in my opinion:

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0bb6a07c-c829-4562-8375-49e6693810c7&showPlaylist=true&from=shared" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

In the last day or so though I've seen the Mac faithful completely pan the commercial. Paraphrasing some of the twitter posts and Facebook statuses I've seen, they are basically slamming the $700 pc she bought saying that it was garbage, who would want a AMD Turion processor, it didn't include gigabit ethernet or 802.11n support, etc.

It seems to me they completely missed the point of the commercial. To me, the point was, for the money...you can get more 'machine' buying a pc than you can a Mac. Yes, the specs on a $700 laptop don't quite stack up to the specs of the $999 MacBook. Two points on that:

1. She found the laptop with the requirements she wanted, 17" screen and under $1000. Which, she accurately pointed out, completely throws the Apple platform out as an option.
2. Spec a pc laptop at $999 and compare it to the $999 MacBook. As a matter of fact, I'll do it for you:

$999 pc laptop from HP -
SYSTEM COLOR Bronze/Chrome
PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2.133GHz)
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Parts and Labor
DISPLAY Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display
MEMORY 4GB DDR2 at 1066MHz
HARD DRIVE Size: 500GB SATA Hard Drive
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT 512MB Dedicated Ram
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
WIRELESS CARDS 802.11abgn
NETWORK CARD Integrated network connector 10/100/1000 LAN (RJ45)
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
BATTERY OPTIONS Lithium Ion Battery (8 cell)
KEYBOARD Back-lit Keyboard

And now, the
$999 Apple MacBook
SYSTEM COLOR White
PROCESSOR 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 90 days complimentary support and 1 year repair
DISPLAY 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy widescreen
MEMORY 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
HARD DRIVE 120GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
VIDEO CARD NVidia GeForce 9400M
OPTICAL DRIVE SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
WIRELESS CARD 802.11abgn
NETWORK CARD Integrated network connector 10/100/1000 LAN (RJ45)
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated iSight 1.3M Pixel webcam
BATTERY OPTIONS 55 Whr Lithium Polymer Battery
KEYBOARD Keyboard (English) / User's Guide


So, now if we want to make comparisons, it's much more "Oranges to Oranges." (To avoid the obvious pun.) The $999 HP laptop meets or beats the specs on the $999 Apple MacBook.

You may be starting to assume from this post that I really don't like Apple or the Mac, you'd assume incorrectly. I do not dislike Apple or their computers. I'm actually even typing this post while using my Mac. To me, whatever you need to do your job the best is what you should use, be that Mac or PC. What does sometimes drive me absolutely nuts though is the mentality of some Apple/Mac fans, that the hardware is some how so much better than the PC. I will give you that the design of Apple's computers is amazing. But here is where I may burst some Apple fans' bubbles...the inside of your Mac....(I'll whisper this part) is a pc! Isn't that insane!!! They did this to you when they switched the Mac over from the PowerPC platform to Intel. Don't start with the "OS X is so much better than XP, Vista, etc." I'm not talking about operating systems or software. Notice I left those out of the specs.

Going back to the $700 laptop the girl in the commercial purchased. If you look at the specs, it's actually not REALLY a bad laptop at all. The processor runs at 2.1 GHz. Yes the AMD Turion chip is still slower than either of the 2 laptops spec'd above but for her it's probably fine. Plus the Turion chip helps keep the cost of the laptop down. It's most likely going to be a home use pc so who cares that it doesn't have gigabit ethernet. Honestly, how many normal home users actually have gigabit ethernet switches/routers in their house? 802.11n...still not even a ratified standard and isn't expected to be published until at least January 2010. So again, is it really that big a deal for the average home user? For $700 the girl got a 17" widescreen laptop with a 2.1GHz processor, 4GB of ram, a hard drive that is 200 GB bigger than the one in the $999 MacBook, and a DVD Recorder. Not a bad deal at all.

Are Mac prices starting to come more in line with PCs? I'd say yes but, spec for spec they are still overpriced. It's a good ad from Microsoft.....and a valid one.


(I've turned off comments because I'm certain I'll get flamed. This blog is normally used to keep my family updated on our life and as such don't want them to have to deal with flame comments. If you want to flame me...do it on twitter. @tonymimms)

"Bad Rap"

Ok..I know we are way behind on posting here to our blog but, this past Sunday, at church, we talked about the tithe and this skit was put on. It's hilarious...check it out.

Playhouse Disney Live! On Tour

Today we took Austin to see Playhouse Disney Live! On Tour. It had a lot of the characters from shows he watches on the Disney channel. When it first started, I'm not sure he really knew what to think about all of it. He had a really sour look on his face but he started to smile a few times when Tigger and Pooh came out. By intermission and the second half he was enjoying himself. While we were walking out at the end, Jen and I were asking him if he had had a good time because during the first part he "didn't look like he was having much fun." He looked at us and said, "I had much fun!" Here is a pic I took with my phone. Jen took some better ones with her actual camera. I'm sure she'll get them up on Flickr soon.

Click it to get a bigger size.

Christmas Lights Are Up!

Today I got our Christmas lights up. I had planned on doing it yesterday and actually started to but then found out that all the light clips that I put up and used last year had dry rotted and would break each time I squeezed one to put the light back in. Didn't have anymore clips so after Jen bought some more for me I went out today and pulled down all the old clips, put the new ones up and hung the lights. There has to be some type of clip that I can leave up that won't dry rot.

Making pizza at Macaroni Grill!

After Levi's baptism we headed to Macaroni Grill for some lunch. Emily and Austin got to play with some pizza dough while waiting for our table.

Compassion in Action

In October we had fun doing a food drive in a local subdivision. Austin had a great time and loved collecting can goods.

The Computer Nerds at my house

My BoysI cant remember what they were looking at but it was soo cute

American Way

Austin and I are off to vote. Austin is eating a snack. The wait is 1 1/2 hours.

Political Dinner

This morning at church they showed a video about what it might look like if in-laws who have different political views got together for dinner. It's pretty funny. I hadn't been able to work with the film crew in a while but did get the chance to work with them on this one. Below the video I've also linked to the audio of today's sermon. It was a good sermon on "Daniel The Politician". I definitely encourage you to listen to it if you have some time.





Daniel The Politician

Bob or Bob?

Austin is going to be Bob for Halloween, but the question is which one? He tried on the Bob the Tomato costume today and decided that he didn't want to wear it anymore. So he decided to be Bob the Builder. We will see which Bob wins out in the end.... Stay tune......

ABC Song

Austin now loves to sing the ABC song before he would get embarrassed if we heard him singing. Now he says 'I sing it again' and he does. It is very cute. Enjoy!

Jennifer's In The Movies!

Ok, she's not really IN a movie but she has helped out with a couple of short films that have been shot by the film crew from our church. She made some of the costumes used in the films. I've embedded the films below. One is just over 8 minutes and the other is about 4 and a half. She actually is mentioned in the credits in the second one as a 'seamstress'. They spelled our last name wrong though... ;-P

If you'd like to see more short films that they've made, head over to www.whitestonemotionpictures.com

She made the watchmaker's (not the son) costume in this one.



She made some of the 'prisoner' costumes for this one (and got in the credits at the end!!)

Austin Is A Bus Driver Now!

One of the teachers where Austin goes to school noticed that every morning he wants to go and look at the "two little white buses" in their parking lot. It's become a routine for him and me each morning. She told me that one day she would bring him out and open one of the buses and let him check it out. So one afternoon she did and took a picture of him for us. I think he was the only one she took out there so it was a pretty neat little special trip for him.

Cool glasses

Austin always complains about it being sunny so I decided to 'invest' in sun glasses. So far they are being kept ph.d. we'll see how long they last.

Our Little Reader

Austin loves to read; We were working in the office upstairs and Austin decided to read in his window seat. He loves books! Now when he plays he even narrates for his trains! "Help! says Gordon"

DadLabs Take, pt 2

Here is DadLabs video of their take on McCain from the dad perspective:

DadLabs Take, On The Presidential Candidates

A website I checkout is doing a two day overview on Obama and McCain from a dad perspective. (for those who don't know about DadLabs this won't be a totally serious tone the whole time). Today was Obama, tomorrow will be McCain.

Now I have to share

Austin LOVES Starbucks Green Tea Lemonade!

Beautiful Saturday

We spent a wonderful Saturday morning at Tony's softball game. It's starting to feel like Fall (or atleast for the day). Playing cars will never be the same now that Austin has found dirt .

Monkey Joe's

New Adventures

We started attempting potty training this week; things aren't going too well. Sitting a lot but no action :) But when you get an M&M every time you sit, it isn't so bad.

My Sister Finally Has A Flickr Page

With Jen's help, Kim, Jeff, and their daughter Aroa now have their own Flickr site. You can check it out HERE and I will also be adding a link to it over on the left. She can now take all her pictures off her memory cards so she doesn't have to buy any more for awhile! ;-)


Also, I've updated the links to where I work and where Jen works now. We've both changed jobs recently. You'll notice my job link and our church link are the same now. Many of you know that I am now on staff at our church as the IT guy there. I really enjoy it and it's a great opportunity to not only serve but to get a chance to learn alot.

Cardinals Baseball At Busch Stadium!

Bill Gates Retires....His Last Day At Work

With my background in technology it's really kinda strange to think about this being Bill Gates' last day as chief software architect of Microsoft. Obviously he's still going to be on the board but just not involved in day to day activities.

I thought this was a neat video about his last day at work. It's cool to see someone with his stature have a sense of humor. Check it out:

At MiMi's Beach.

The new IT guy in the house.

Bermuda, Bahama, Come On Pretty Mama!

Well we just got back this past Tuesday from our trip to Bermuda. We had gone out there for some friends of ours wedding. Many of you know DeLenn. She got married to a great guy named Taylor Faulkner. They had their wedding at Elbow Beach in Bermuda. We got to meet some of their really good friends from Houston and became friends with them as well.

This was Jen and my first time to Bermuda. We stayed there at the Elbow Beach Resort. The wedding was on the terrace at the resort, overlooking the beach and the ocean. We just hung out at the beach for the first few days until after the wedding. Then we went with DeLenn and Taylor to go swimming with the dolphins. Taylor had arranged that outing as a suprise for DeLenn and graciously had asked if we would like to go with them. It was a extremely cool experience. We have a few really cool pictures that we bought of the event but haven't got them scanned in yet. We will get those up on the Flickr account soon.

After that experience we all, all being Jen and I, Taylor and DeLenn, and 5 of their friends (now our friends as well), went on a chartered boat tour of many places around the island. The boat also had a glass bottom so we got to see really awesome reef and shipwreck sites.

Yes there really were that many fish in one place next to the boat...there were just as many on the other side!!! Who knew fish liked hamburger buns that much?!

On our last day there Jen and I went and saw the Gibbs Hill Light House. We climbed all the way to the top and went out onto the platform around the light house. Amazing view...even though it was hazy. These are just a few of the pictures from our trip. You can check them all out on our Flickr site. (As always, you can click on the 'Our Pictures' link on the left, or on one of the pics in the slideshow on the left, or you can just click HERE)

We had an AWESOME time. It took awhile to get used to people driving on the 'wrong side of the road'. Was also very strange to experience how much they use their car horns. They use them much differently than we do here. Most of there honking is actually friendly. They honk at people they know, and from what I understand, to not honk back is bad manners. Go check out our pictures on Flickr!