Capitol Ministries: A Lot More Nonsense

Picture this: You're trying to remember how to find a family blog. There's this family that you know. Cute kids. Funny videos of clueless t-ball players. Where is it again? It has something to do with diapers... Kids in diapers... three in diapers? No, that's not it. Diapers for three. That's it. Doop duh doop duh doo... Probably diapersforthree.com. You try that.

Kind of reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood... Happily skipping along, carrying her cake in a basket, going to visit Grandma. Just instead of a path in the woods, it's the interwebs.

It was a bit surprising today to find that someone had been messing with our blog name. We've been diapers4three.com for a while. Today, we found that someone had purchased diapersforthree.com. The site contains this simple statement:

The Board of Directors of Capitol Ministries has investigated the accusations made in 2009 against our President and Founder, Ralph Drollinger, and found them to be unsubstantiated. We have known him personally for years, and continue to stand behind his biblically-based, biblically-qualified leadership of Capitol Ministries.

This site is an obvious response to our 2009 post about Ralph Drollinger and Capitol Ministries. (A friend of ours made a similar post on her blog. Now there is a lovely rip-off of her blog as well.)

Whodunnit? A little research shows it's the same person who purchased capitolcommission.com in an effort to steal attention and potentially donations from the real Capitol Commission.

Whois shows the registrant is none other than Capitol Ministries and Ralph Drollinger:

Registrant:
Capitol Ministries
22831 Market St
Newhall, California 91321
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DIAPERSFORTHREE.COM
Created on: 18-Feb-11
Expires on: 18-Feb-12
Last Updated on: 18-Feb-11

Administrative Contact:
Drollinger, Ralph converse91.josh@gmail.com
Capitol Ministries
22831 Market St
Newhall, California 91321
United States
(661) 288-2622 Fax --

Technical Contact:
Drollinger, Ralph converse91.josh@gmail.com
Capitol Ministries
22831 Market St
Newhall, California 91321
United States
(661) 288-2622 Fax --

Domain servers in listed order:
NS51.1AND1.COM
NS52.1AND1.COM

For the record, the board referred to in the statement above was not the same board that all but unanimously resigned due to Ralph's behavior in 2009. And knowing quite well the details of the situation, I can assure you that the extent of the current board's investigation was tantamount to saying, "Well, those are Grandma's clothes, so that must be Grandma!"

But as far as the real story goes, you can find that here.

Moral of the tale? If you're thinking about donating to Capitol Ministries, don't. Unless, of course, you don't mind your money going toward buying women's clothing for the big bad wolf.

Video: Face-off at First Base

Chicken Enchiladas!!

This is definitely not a food blog, but one of our all-time favorite meals in this house is my mama's famous chicken enchiladas. With a sour-cream base instead of the traditional red enchilada sauce, they are scrumptious and typically a bit different than expected, but quite popular amongst many. It's my favorite meal to bring to new mamas, and with that, I'm often asked for the recipe. I've been meaning for sometime to type the recipe up from the hand-written notes I took while watching over Mama's shoulder so I could share it. But of course, it's taken me a long time and now I can't even remember all the people who have asked for it! So, I'm hoping that blogging about it will serve the purpose of reaching those who want it! =)

1 big onion, finely chopped

1 rotisserie chicken (Mama says to avoid bbq or lemon pepper flavors; I often will get a Costco sized rotisserie chicken and double the batch with it)

1 can chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup sour cream

1 4.5oz can chopped green chilis (I rarely have these in the house. Most likely, if I have made these for you, they lacked the green chilis. Sorry.)

1/2 teaspoon adobe seasoning

1/2 tablespoon southwest seasoning

1/2 teaspoon salt

16 oz shredded cheese (I used the mixed shredded from Costco. Mama uses mexican or colby jack mixes)

1 package corn tortillas (a single batch typically needs 15-20 corn tortillas)

Saute onion in a little bit of oil in a big pot. Add some garlic powder to taste (or I just typically throw in a small scoop of minced garlic from the big jar I keep in the fridge). Over medium heat, add green chilis and 1 tablespoon of flour. (And keep in mind that all these measurements are estimates from two people who rarely measure while cooking!). Add cream of chicken soup and half a can of chicken broth (you can swish the chicken broth in the the cream of chicken soup can to get the last bits out!). Wisk to stire. Add 1/2 - 3/4 cup sour cream (I typically "lose track" and add a bit extra. You can never have too much sour cream!). Wisk, wisk, wisk. Add adobe, southwest, and salt seasonings. Wisk a little more. Bring to boil and then reduce heat to low to medium.

Pull apart the chicken meat and remove skin and bones. Add meat and any juices to the mixture and heat until thoroughly warmed, then turn off.

Heat oil in a frying pan to soften corn tortillas, making sure the oil is hot enough to fizzle when you put the corn tortilla in. It just takes a second or two on each side. Soften tortillas individually and lay out on layered paper towels.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray 9x13 pan with oil. Fill the tortillas with filling, sprinkle with cheese, roll and line up in pan. After the pan is filled, moisten the tops with liquid from mixture and cover with shredded cheese. (Any leftover mixture is yummy over rice the next day!). Bake approximately 20 minutes, until cheese is melted and looking yummy!

Rice: I typically make rice with this meal. I make my rice in a pot on the stove, and I substitute chicken broth for the water when making rice to go with these enchiladas.

Green beans: I usually saute some green beans in BUTTER and a bit of garlic, then salt to go with this meal. Sorry if any of you thought this side was actually healthy! ;) My mama uses celery salt and pepper on her green beans. They are yummy, too.

Toppings: MORE sour cream and some guacamole go well as toppings on these yummy enchiladas. Or not. Depends on the mood. For my guacamole, I typically just smash up an avocado with a little bit of lemon juice, a couple tablespoons of mayo, a bit of garlic and a sprinkling of salt.

Now I'm hungry. =) Hope you enjoy!

Video: Money Saving Workshop

One of our plans for this blog was to share "money-saving tips" from time to time. We haven't been very good at doing that lately, but I think this video more than makes up for that.

Christina and two of her friends recently shared their shopping strategies and money saving tips with other ladies at church. Although she does talk about me a lot, I think she did a great job.

Here's the video so you can watch. If any of the tips don't make sense or you need more explanation, feel free to leave a comment below.

You can also find all of the videos, including the presentations by Doria and Margaret, here.

Video: Danny and Mikey's First At Bats

Video: Mikey and Danny's First T-Ball Game

View photos

Happy Birthday, Baby!!

You know, it's hard to find a picture of you when you're the one always hiding behind the camera. Just saying. (Hmmm....)

Gosh, David, you know that I adore you. And I love how much your kids adore you, too. You are an amazing man, and I don't know how many times I've told you that over the years, but I know that I've thought it many, many more times. I'm so thankful that God created you, saved you, and has continued "the good work that He has started in you." You amaze me!

Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... =) Yeup. You're a good one to imitate, as you imitate Christ. Thank you for being such a good leader for me. Thank you for being such a good father to our children. Thank you for loving us in our imperfection. Thank you for being so quick to notice your own imperfection and, through the grace of God, deal with it.

Thank you for being wise and long-sighted. Thank you for being gentle and compassionate. Thank you for loving God. (And God, thank you, thank you, thank you so much for loving David, first!)

God has richly, richly blessed me through you, David. And I'm very, very thankful. I pray that God will richly bless you this year -- that in all the areas that I can already commend you, you will grow even more, and that your delight in our Lord will strengthen and bolster you. I pray that the prayers of your heart will be answered and that you will know, more and more, the goodness of His will.

I love you, Baby, and I thank God for you. Happy, happy birthday!!

Video: Mikey, Danny and Ruth at T-Ball

Video: Selah Does the Dishes

Happy Birthday, Selah!

It's your birthday, sweet girl... three years ago today we first held you in our arms. Your daddy says that you were the model child since Day 1, arriving at a very reasonable 8:30 PM and allowing us all to be in bed before midnight. We all know that three years later, he's still wrapped around your little fingers!

You're a delight. A joy. An amazing child with such a cheerful and helpful disposition. Your smile brings a smile to every face around while your laugh is just positively infatuating. Your feet are never still but your hugs and love are generously given. Like I already said, you are a delight!

We pray that your passion for life will grow and deepen into a never-swaying passion for the Creator of life! He loves you so much and delighted in creating you... and we are ever so thankful that He delighted in giving you to us, too! We pray for wisdom in raising you and we trust in His goodness for directing your path. We love you so much, and we are so thankful that we have such a good God -- we entrust you to Him!

Happy, happy birthday, sweet Selah!

(Guest appearance by Swiper)

Diapers and Robots

What do diapers and robots have in common? According to Wired, the answer is Diapers.com:

Diapers.com warehouses are a bit of a jumble. Boxes of pacifiers sit above crates of onesies, which rest next to cartons of baby food. In a seeming abdication of logic, similar items are placed across the room from one another. A person trying to figure out how the products were shelved could well conclude that no form of intelligence—except maybe a random number generator—had a hand in determining what went where.

But the warehouses aren’t meant to be understood by humans; they were built for bots. Every day, hundreds of robots course nimbly through the aisles, instantly identifying items and delivering them to flesh-and-blood packers on the periphery. Instead of organizing the warehouse as a human might—by placing like products next to one another, for instance—Diapers.com’s robots stick the items in various aisles throughout the facility. Then, to fill an order, the first available robot simply finds the closest requested item. The storeroom is an ever-shifting mass that adjusts to constantly changing data, like the size and popularity of merchandise, the geography of the warehouse, and the location of each robot. Set up by Kiva Systems, which has outfitted similar facilities for Gap, Staples, and Office Depot, the system can deliver items to packers at the rate of one every six seconds.

In related news, Amazon.com recently purchased Diapers.com. So far this development has been a very good thing for us. After Christina signed me up as an Amazon mom, we were able to order pull-ups for less than Costco prices with free delivery right to our front door.

One final note on robots...Mikey is really, really into robots right now. So if any of you have any spare robots that you're not using, feel free to send them our way.

Video: Eliana at Gymnastics