Chicken enchilada soup

We had this super yummy recipe for dinner the other day that I sorta invented from several recipes I found online based on what I had on hand. I love that the weather is getting cooler and it's time to have soups and such for dinner! The crock pot is SO easy and fast...and it's waiting for us, ready to serve when we get home from sports and such. This fit perfectly in a 4 quart crock pot (with a bit of room to spare). If you have a larger crock pot, feel free to increase the measurements by half or even double it and you'll have some to freeze too!

2 or 3 chicken breast pieces, frozen
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can hominy drained
1 can green chiles
1 small onion, diced
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup enchilada sauce
½ t salt
1 T minced garlic

Put all in crockpot on high for 3 hrs, then low til dinner (if chicken isn’t frozen then low all day is fine). Mid afternoon pull out chicken breasts, shred with fork and return to crock pot. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream, serve tortilla chips on the side and enjoy!

It's a bird...it's a plane...

Have you ever seen an airplane and wondered who the heck was in it? Since they are so high up in the sky and you can't see in the windows and they cover such great distances, it always seems so mysterious as to who is inside. We live very close to the airport and when the planes are landing west-->east we can see them flying by in the north sky from the big grass park area by our house. Well, twice now Carter and I have known the exact time that Joshua was landing here in Boise and we went outside and actually saw HIS plane flying by the house on final approach. I don't know what it is, but it's crazy exciting to look up and see a plane and know Joshua is on it. So these are the pictures I was able to snap two weeks ago as he flew by the house. The first one shows the plane coming out of a counterclockwise turn and then you can see it straightening up in the next couple. The last picture is right when we lose sight of the plane just before it's about to touch down. Click on them and you can see the plane better.

Update on Regular Fish

Sorry, I've kind of slacked on an update. Here's the good news...he is still alive! The even better news? I think we actually FIXED him! After 10 days in the hospital, he was still not looking awesome, but he was eating again and swimming happier. I also switched his water conditioner and took the coral out of his bowl (this was to eliminate any other variable that might have been making him sick or providing a place for bacteria to grow). Now, his fins are healing (not clumped together and curled in knots) and his color is better (no more brown ick on his pretty blue skin). I have to crack up at the lengths we went to to save this fish...and I'm so relieved it worked!!!


Now, I bet you are wondering what the heck is all over Regular Fish's new bowl (yup, new bowl, cuz I cracked his old one trying to sterilize it when he was sick...so he is living in an old vase right now)?? Well, Halloween is upon us and Carter was VERY excited to be decorating around the house and outside, and the other day he declared that Regular Fish needed some decorations too. He wanted to draw pictures on 8.5x11 pieces of paper and tape them all over his bowl, but I convinced him that wouldn't work as we wouldn't be able to see Regular Fish and he wouldn't be able to see us. Soooo we were out shopping and Carter spotted some gel clings and lo and behold...Regular Fish has Halloween "decorations"!