We missed the fireworks?

This having the summer off, as good as it is, I completely loose track of days... 

especially when Kellie is gone and I'm hanging out by myself most of the time

 

 

 

Just FYI...

On Tuesday Jennifer and Kellie came home

 

I think her sister even missed her...

 

she had a great time but the majority of pictures Jennifer sent me looked like this.  She should be all caught up on her rest

On the way home they stopped and bought sparklers because my kids are sheltered and have never done any fireworks...(because I am a fun sucker I believe is how they described me)

On the 4th we went to a movie

 

and we went to lunch where Katie works

look at the nice girl waiting on us

now look at the angry girl waiting on her sister

we headed out to watch fireworks... we sat just down the street from where we usually watch them

There were tons of other people around us

 

luckily there were a few fireworks around us

But.  We waited and waited for the big show.  Waited till everyone started leaving.  Apparently moving just down the street wasn't a good idea. 

We never saw the fireworks

But someone bought sparklers

and saved the day

 

 

An evening of mystery and wonder?

We have finally gotten the leak repairs finished! 

I spent the a lot of the weekend moving things back down there and getting the Christmas stuff down to the closet.  I was glad to get the trees out of the house before valentine's day.

After all the moving, cleaning, and fun I decided to enjoy the basement. 

Who knew that the teens would want to hang out with me, watch "The Help" and ask to learn to crochet. 

But, they did.

We were enjoying a cozy night in the basement when the younger one and her two friends come in and try the "proposal" idea again. 

Here is the latest....

Was your weekend spent partying at the "I Hop"?
The girls did not get to party at the I Hop.  I did agree to drive them to the donut store that stays open all night only to find out that they no longer stay open all night. When did that happen?
But you know who stays open all night?  Walmart, they do and they have donuts... Not the "hot and fresh" donuts but the best I could do.
God did bless me with a house full of girls for the weekend.
I hope I didn't ruin their memory of MLK weekend forever denying them the mystery and wonder of pancakes.

It was just like I dreamed it would be

The new year is starting off as fast as last year seemed to go!  I kind of wish it would slow down just a bit...

On New Year's day I came home from a very good shopping trip to Dillard's extra 50% off sale to 6 girls waiting on me...
They had a "proposal" for me...
I was scared.

The sat me down and this is what I got... a slide show of sorts...

They had called a hotel to see how much it would be, pooled their money, thrown in a random gift card and had a very detailed plan which included the sisters "getting along" and the olders playing with the youngers, etc...

I had no plans and I think they were absolutely shocked when I agreed... who can refuse good hospitality?

But, I had a few conditions....

We were going that day, on the 1st rather than the 2nd.

I got to pick the hotel. 

They HAD to get along.

They HAD to be quiet in their hotel room.

They had to actually give me the money they promised.

And basically had to agree to be my slave after we got home...

Let me tell you that I think we'll be doing this again...It was a fun treat for everyone.

The hotel had a very good happy hour and breakfast.

They are old enough I didn't have to be with them every minute.

They were very good. 

They all got along. 

I was in the room next door. 

ALONE.  (I've dreamed of this!!!)

With magazines.

And black out drapes.

This may be what the rooms and beds in heaven will be like...

I would get an occasional text that said something like "oh sorry, didn't mean to be loud, we'll be quieter"....

A friend of mine came for breakfast. 

It was a good start to the new year!

But then I came home to the house that is under construction from the flood...and is still under construction but should be done soon.  Maybe.

We are back in full swing with construction, school, church, and have added dieting and working out...

Hope your New Year is full of wonderful things! 

If not, go to the hotel for a night.  It will change your life.

I don't know what to say, except it's Christmas and we're all in misery

We headed to Dallas Sat. morning for the annual Christmas get together with Mike's family.
It was the longest 36 hours ever. 
Not because of the family get together but because of my kids, 10 hours in the car, bad weather and the little old people from the wreck we stopped at.

We are trading our Suburban in and while they are looking for me a new one they gave me a smaller SUV to drive.  I really like it and tried to talk the family into moving down to something that size.  As we  packed up the car for our 1 night trip it was obvious that a Suburban is still in my future.  Those girls like to have some distance between them.  And we were looking a little like the Griswald's with the back so full...
But, this car has seat warmers which I have not had before and did not think I needed.  However, I have discovered my inability to sleep in the car was simply a lack of a warm back side because I turned that baby on and had the best nap ever.
I woke up to see break lights in my face and a truck on it's side in the next lane. 
I hopped out and ran to see if anyone needed any school nurse assistance.  Band aid, ice pack?
Break that windshield out for you?
Pretty quickly, several strong men got the cutest little old people out of truck on it's side.
The hubby was smiling and seemed OK.  But the wife was a little shook up.  Not injured, but really shook up as I would imagine is the normal response to being pulled out of a vehicle on it's side.
We continued on our way but the rest of the weekend I worried about the people.
Where were they going? 
She was dressed up.  Had stockings on and open toe shoes in that cold weather.  For some reason, while we were getting her out and wrapping her up in a blanket my first thought was "man, you should get those hammer toes looked at"....
They had luggage in the back of the truck, we sat her on a nice suitcase.
She had a sewing machine in a box...was that hers?  Was that a gift that is prob. now broken?
What was in those big trash bags?
Where do they take you after you total your truck?  Do you wait on the side of the highway for someone to come get you and your trash bags and sewing machine?
I need to know what happened to the old people....
I know I won't ever know, but I do know that I have prayed for them all weekend. 

We finally made it to Dallas and joined the family fun! 

Better know as 'guys - you watch football till we feed you'

We had fancy Panini fixings most of us enjoyed... I did hear the words "I'd rather have a bologna sandwich on white bread" at one point though...I won't tell you which mother in law said it...

Henry was a new addition to the cousin's house...

our kids are growing up

and one of the London crew had my name... The box this came in is a pretty as the bag.

and we started the trip home with the forecast of snow in Lubbock

But, as I guessed, not enough to cancel school.

Darn.

Thanksgiving

I am very thankful for a Thanksgiving week that was spent with some of my favorite people...

Jennifer came... Which made my sister a little mad... can't spell Thanksgiving without some family issues can you?

Jennifer and I spent Wed. running a few errands, cooking, eating, and cooking some more...

 

I invited a good friend and her family to join us for Thanksgiving. 

We had a discussion about the dressing last week. 

You know, the what do you put in your dressing kind of discussion you have before you commit to Thanksgiving at someone else's house.  We saw eye to eye on the dressing luckily.

But. 

Then I went to buy my cornbread mix.  I usually use one brand and there was none to be found so I substituted another name brand.  This is where the story goes horribly wrong.  It made very, very sand like, dry cornbread.  I did not realize this until I went to make the dressing.  I used enough chicken broth for the whole neighborhood and still couldn't get moist dressing.

Now, to a southern woman having friends over, serving bad dressing is the kiss of death.  We will be judged by our dressing on Thanksgiving after all....

I knew it was awful when Mike told me not to save any of the left overs.  He will eat left over dressing for a week under good dressing conditions.

We had tons of other good food and more importantly a group of friends and family that I love. 

We had football napping guys

and dogs tired from begging

shopping the ads

 and we even fit in a quick Thanksgiving day shopping trip.

Today, there is a fresh pan of dressing so I can keep the hubby happy, drizzling rain outside and relaxed crafty time in new soft PJ's inside.

I am Thankful.

Let's try this again...

Hey - you still out there???  This internet thing still around?

I just thought I was loving the new lap top!  That was, for the hour I used it at my sisters house where the wireless worked so well.  Back home was another story.  Routers and such have kept us living the old fashioned life for the last two weeks.  It wasn't all bad.  We have played lots of games, read, etc and no one fought over the computer.  Now, it wasn't easy, but we did it.  We had a hard time finding movie times and such as we really didn't remember how we did it before the internet....

Christmas was wonderful.  Relaxing.  Not stressful at all this year.  We all got way more than we should have!  Snow and ice was so bad we didn't make it to church Christmas eve, that was weird...

Highlights from the last few weeks:

Snow

Being a small part of a little blessing for another family that is having a very stressful Christmas.

Snow!!!!

Time with family

Did I mention how much we loved the snow!?!