Ahh, Summer...

The last day school is over. I now have a 5th grader and 8th grader... I just can't believe it!
Of course, the 8th grader has been been acting like a moody teen lately so I'm actually not that amazed I guess.
And, oh does God have a sense of humor... we get out of school today and mother in law gets released from rehab tomorrow to come to our house. Again, pray for my patience...really. I mean it. Do it now.

A couple of crafty gifts...

I have the school nurse's end of year party tomorrow... the instructions said to bring a $5-10 gift for an exchange. The suggestions were "sunscreen, a beach towel or something like that for summer"...Now, if you know me, you know I can't show up with a bottle of sun screen to swap(that however, is prob. what I'll end up cause that's the way my life works). I like to have the cutest gift for the swap...

I shared my idea with Jennifer, she added to it and we made a couple of very cute gifts. We started with a very cute Margarita recipe book. I included recipes for several types of margaritas, margarita marinades, salads, chicken, etc.

Jennifer suggested using envelopes to make an accordion book for it. So easy and so cute!

We added a pitcher and glasses from Walmart, salt, a jar of our margarita jam/sauce and I think I'll have the cutest gift. I also made one for a teacher for the end of the year...

I also decided to do a little project to go with a graduation gift...

What's red, yummy and has a million cups of sugar?

Jennifer came out for the long weekend and I quickly lined up some projects for us! I wanted to do some little end of the year gifts for teachers so we made Strawberry Margarita Jam. It tastes so yummy but really may need to be strawberry margarita "sauce" instead of jam...it's just a touch on the 'not quite jam' side...Jennifer was excited to learn to make jelly (or sauce)...

She got a little too excited with one jar...but in turn the dogs got quite the strawberry treat! She gives a better explanation of this event over at her blog...

I also found corn on sale and couldn't resist... so Jennifer also learned the art of cutting corn off the cob...

Found out Elvis really likes corn...

Jennifer may be afraid to come back... I told her next time we go pick apples.

Jennifer has a long history of dropping things... if you notice that I can't use certain letters while blogging it is due to the "Margarita Pie" in the bottom left corner of my keyboard...

And, look how she cleaned it up....

I am always amazed at how much more I can get done on a three day weekend.... last weekend and week were spent busy with the mother in law and broken hip so this weekend not only had a lot of rest and fun but a LOT of laundry

Are you praying for me to have patience? I don't think you are...

Whew, what a week! The mother in law is tucked into a very nice rehab facility for her broken hip. She is doing great. But. She is getting a little fussy...she is having a hard time with the not smoking, the food isn't good, they aren't keeping her busy doing enough rehab., but walking to much is too hard... It's going to be a long few weeks.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure I would be very, very grouchy if I was stuck somewhere and the food was bad... that would be enough motivation for me to get better. My therapy would be a walk to Starbucks or Taco Bell!

We enjoyed a lovely production of "Beauty and the Beast"... Here is my girl, a villager, 'Lady with Baby'...

I am so ready for the weekend!

Let's pray for my patience

What a weekend! It started out well. A quiet Friday night, a margarita with a friend and then it was crazy from there.

Mike's mom flew in Sat. for the girl's dance recital on Sunday. Sat. night we went out for dinner and as we were walking to the car she fell-I knew what was wrong when we tried to help her up...

We went to E.R. to confirm that her hip was broken. The rest of the weekend was a blur of hours at the hospital, phone calls, surgery and still trying to get girls to the recital.

Mother in law wouldn't agree, but she has done WAY better than I expected. Given that she isn't in the greatest of health, I am just shocked at how well she is doing! They had her up today, less than 24 hours after surgery, taking a few steps. Looks like tomorrow or Wed. she will going to rehab. for a couple of weeks. Her quick trip to see us has defiantly not turned out the way she planned.

The recital was great. The girls both danced so well.

Grandma had already bought them roses so they still had flowers from her.

This week is full of more hospital hours, phone calls, school choir rehearsals and performances, usual school work, shopping for Pat some things she needs, getting her in rehab... and one night this week I am going to have to work in some laundry!

But I am grateful. Grateful that it happened here where we can take care of her, grateful that she survived it and it doing well. Grateful that Jennifer was already planning on coming this weekend and can bring some of her things she needs. Just grateful she she is coming!

Not only am I praying for Pat's recovery, I'm really praying for my patience and attitude as I help her in the coming weeks and with her sister's...I love those Aunt's but one of them enjoys a little drama!

Sounds like a bonus question to me...

Let me take a moment to tell you of my love for Target. I asked for clothes for Mother's day. So Mike told me to go shopping... you know how when you finally go shopping you can't find much... that's what happened. Everywhere except for Target. Target is faithful to provide, at least in the tee shirt, skirt and shorts dept.

I was easily talked out of skipping church Sunday... even years after loosing my mother, I still don't really enjoy church on Mother's Day...I know I'm a mom, but in my heart Mother's day is about my mother... I remember one Mother's day, going with my mom to the cemetery where her mother was buried and her just weeping at her grave. It was the only time I remember seeing her cry and I remember it being awful...now I understand.
Sunday morning I was quickly reminded that it was about me by my kids...
My youngest is so sweet... I woke up to her asking Mike to get up and make me breakfast...I couldn't get my eyes open before she was showing me what she had made for me. She made me a lovely picture titled "Cara's Castle" out of markers and some of my scrapbook goodies.
My favorite thing was a bunch of coupons she made. I got coupons for everything you can think of and in case I needed something not on the coupons, one said it was good for anything...also, the instructions say I can use them five times a week. She doesn't realize that she'd be awfully busy if I redeemed all of these!
Katie wrote an essay about me in English and that was my gift from her. It was very sweet and interesting to see what she thinks of when writing about me. Surprisingly, it was all good!
We went to lunch and then to see "Earth" at the movies.
It was a relaxed family day. I managed to not do anything very productive. It was just what I wanted for my day!

We're watching our latest favorite t.v. show, The Big Bang Theory... discussing the nerds on this show has led to Mike telling me a very long story about how he quit the Boy scouts when he was young because his group was a bunch of nerds.... think I'll have to remind him of the mismatched shoes last weekend...he hasn't noticed that I'm not really paying attention... Hope there isn't some important lesson to this story that I have missed.

The longest weekend and an apology to the neighbor

We had Katie's birthday party this weekend. We took 8, 13 year old kids to dinner... Katie picked the restaurant based on the playground outside... go figure. Who knew the 13 year olds would want to spend the evening playing outside. When we left dinner they wanted to con't the fun at a park.

After the 2 boys left, I took the girls "chalking". We visited several friend's houses where they wrote notes on the driveway in sidewalk chalk. They left sweet messages - it was pretty fun and I was crowned "the cool mom" for taking them. They are a great group of kids.... Sat. was spent running to dance events and today we had to go shop with all the gift cards that she got for her birthday.

I feel like this weekend has been 10 days long! And not in the good way, but in the -will it ever end, I'm more tired than when the weekend started, sort of way.

I'm thankful there is no swine flu here but I'm a little jealous of all my Flower Mound friends having this week off from school. I could use a week of unscheduled time!

I finally figured out some digital scrapbooking... It isn't as cute as the real deal but maybe I can keep up a scrapbook this way since I wasn't succeeding otherwise...

On another note - Mike came home today and changed out of jeans and tennis shoes into shorts but failed to remove his white socks. Later I see him taking trash out and standing in the ally talking to a neighbor.

As I am thinking how I wish he had taken off his socks before he put on his crocs, I realize that he has two different shoes on...one black croc and one black sandal type shoe... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

As the big girl said: "mom, they are going to think we're losers because of Dad"....

So, to the neighbors -Sorry, we aren't losers!

the girls wanted to make sure you knew... Mike just has issues with finding two shoes that match. He's been scolded. We hope to not have that fashion faux pas again.