I'd love to help clean your room for Mother's Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.
Mine was very good.  I still never fail to realize how lucky I am to have these two girls.  Even now, when they are all teenager-y and sassy...
I also never fail to remember my mom.  I didn't get to keep her long enough... But she was a great mom while I had her.

This morning when I went to wake up Kellie for church, this is what I found

She was asleep on her floor next to a tray she had gotten ready to bring me breakfast in bed

How sweet is that? 

 It made my day!  Even though I didn't get that breakfast in bed. 

I told her she could bring me a snack in bed or dinner in bed...

Mike and the girls took me out for Mexican food after church.

and I rounded out the celebration with Katie cleaning her room

If you are missing any clothes they might be in that pile.

I know mine were.

She managed to get rid of two big bags full even though she told me she didn't have anything she needed to give away before she started...

I helped by sitting in the floor folding clothes and hanging up clothes with her for over an hour.

But, I did ask her to clean her room for my mother's day gift.  I knew I would end up helping and that's OK.  If only she' let me clean out her drawers!

I love being their mom.

All I need is a reason

You know cooking for people is my love language.
If if you are from Mississippi this is in born.... Wait, I just remembered my sister who will only make you brownies from a mix and then only for certain occasions and realized that if you're a good Mississippi girl you have this trait... 

Last week one of my good friends had a little surgery and I've used that as a reason to take her a couple of meals. 

Tonight with the Chicken Spaghetti I took for dinner, I took a Black Eyed Pea Corn Relish and a bag of fresh chips....
I am not a huge black eyed pea fan but knew that she is. 

and forgot how much I liked the black eyed peas in this...

Black Eyed Pea and Corn Salsa

1 lb. Frozen sweet corn kernels

1  can Black eyed peas, rinsed and drained

2 lg Tomatoes, diced

1 Avocado diced

1/2 Red Onion, diced

1 jalapeno, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

3 tbsp chopped Cilantro

1 lime, juiced

Tabasco to taste

Salt to taste

Thaw corn and drain well.  Combine all ingredients in a lg bowl and mix well. 

I never made it to the Chicken Spaghetti...



Lemon brownies, I could eat them all

May always seems like the busiest month.  We have something almost every night.
Last week we had a birthday, dance practices, theater practices, a dance recital and NJHS induction...
Katie has also added a part time job to the mix... a couple of more months and she'll be driving there without me.  As nice as that will be, you know that makes me sad...
She's working part time at a florist and gift shop that just opened.  I told her only working two hours it day it's going to take her forever to earn enough for a tank of gas...

I did some cooking so I could take dinner to friend.  I decided while I was cooking to make some treats to share with the neighbor and take to Bible study tonight...
If you like lemon you need to try these.  They are that good....

Gooey Lemon Brownies

1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
10 tbsp butter melted
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
zest of one lemon
Mix all ingredients thoroughly, pour into 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for approx. 20 minutes till toothpick comes out clean with inserted. 

Remove from oven and cool slightly before glazing.

Glaze:
Mix one cup powdered sugar, 3 plus tbsp lemon juice, and zest of one lemon.  Add extra lemon juice or small amount of water till glaze is thin enough to pour.  Pour over cooled brownies.






A warning though, if after the brownies are done you find your melted butter still in the microwave go ahead and start over.  It is a key ingredient I found...

Her first broken heart

This week was pom tryout's for Katie.
She was on JV Pom last year.
This year she made the first cut, she worked so hard every night, and the dance looked perfect.
And she didn't make either squad.
And it's the worse thing I've been though yet with one of the girls.
I know it's just Pom.
But listening to how mortified she was not to have made JV again has been awful.
Her best friend made varsity.
She is sick about not being part of the the pom group that had quickly turned into her friend base.
She is embarrassed she didn't make it.
And she kept crying that the judges "forgot me".

I was not prepared for how it would tear my heart apart to see her that miserable.
We just hadn't had anything like this before.

But as I laid in bed praying all night instead of sleeping I realized how thankful I am that I've never had a more serious issue with the girls that made my heart feel like that. 
It's hard, I think Mike and I are just as sad as she is. 
But it's just pom.  And she will be ok.  I pray that there are bigger things in store for her this year!

I woke up with a sore throat, low grade fever and already had plans to take Kellie to Shrek the musical.
I slept through a good part of it...
I'm sure she was so proud to have that date with me.

This weekend is sure to get better tomorrow.

Moms and daughters and friends

Katie has a good friend whose mom I've gotten to know recently.
This past weekend we went on a mother daughter trip to Dallas for their 16th birthdays.  And for my Dallas friends, we snuck into town and Jennifer was the only one who knew....
What a treat to have one on one time with Katie and to have a friend for me.

We  checked into our hotel and that was reason enough for some pictures it seems...

We told them we could do that too

There was late night swimming

fun shopping

real shopping

Even though I'm not a huge shopper, since we've moved to Lubbock I can very much appreciate a good mall.

we got dressed up for dinner and a show

Jennifer joined us for dinner but we never got our food.  So, we enjoyed a nice glass of tea with her

and for our dining viewing we had a large crack to keep us entertained

We made it to the musical

 and spent some time with

Lili Whiteass

He/she was very entertaining

we had a midnight snack. 

Our friends are from California and had been missing this place

We slept in Sunday and then drove home. 

 It was a fun fun weekend!

Next weekend I'm making it up to Kellie with a date here in town.

It was good timing for the trip with Katie.  This week is Pom try outs. 

Have I mentioned she gets a little stressed????

A Peaceful weekend

Last week was very uneventful.  It seemed busy, but yet uneventful. 
Having yesterday off was a treat. 
The girl's school district did not have the day off so I was up as usual and getting them to school but then I had the day to myself.  I had coffee with a friend, lunch with Mike and ran several errands.  I would like to have this kind of day once a week please.
I ended the day with some time on a restaurant patio with a good friend.  Great conversation, white queso with crab meat, sangria, and a friend's husband playing and singing made for a wonderful evening. 
And when I checked in on Facebook it posted that the restaurant was in Acapulco. 
It was wonderful but didn't quite feel like I had been to Acapulco...

I came home to find that I was locked out.  Mike was an hour away, neither girl had a key when I called them....I thought I was going to have to go get a small child to go through the dog door but finally found a way in and today getting myself a key is on my list. 
Today holds the promise of a "mostly cloudy" day and nothing on the agenda (except getting a key)...  Just the way I like it.

An old friend was in town seeing her daughter at college and I got to take her senior pictures.

Another friend wanted Easter pictures of her baby

I've loved the chance to do more pictures lately.

Enjoy your weekend!

1 Corinthians 15:3-5

3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

Multi tasking, it's my super power

Last weekend was our Discipleship Now weekend at church.  We hosted freshman girls at our house.  They were so fun and so good.  It seemed odd to not have either of my kids here. 

There was a large assortment of junk food.  I'm very glad it's gone!  I may have eaten more than my share of some caramel, chocolate, pecan gooey bars...That reminds me, I've got to get that recipe!

                                           We spent a little time bowling and playing games....

and a lot of time in worship.

It was wonderful.

It was a busy weekend but I came away with wishing that we got to worship like that more!  Hope the kids felt the same way.

And while we were bowling and playing games I bought a new chair at a silent auction one of the high schools was having there...

I was pretty proud of the bargain I got. 

But more than that....

I kept up on bidding while winning a bowling game...

I think I took multi tasking to a new level.

I was proud.

Katie was dying... she thinks I can never just do one thing and that it was crazy...

      she liked the new chair though, if there was a little more room for Elvis..

Now I've got to get new curtains that match the new chair.

Jennifer posted our text messages during the multi tasking...

I think she was more impressed that I could bowl than the fact that I bought a brand new chair at a bowling alley.

That crazy weekend led into a crazy week where I feel like we never slowed down.

One of our good friends got a new bulldog puppy Friday.

                 and I got to babysit her yesterday so you know that means I had to take some pictures

She is so sweet. 

I also took some pretty sweet girls with me too

What have you been up to?