happily ever after: April 2008

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Thankful List

It's Saturday, and I got to sleep in.

My boys coming in and snuggling with me while I watched HGTV in bed.

Fun lovin' banter with my Sweetie this morning.

Blueberry pancakes & coffee out on the deck for breakfast.

Chore day. Or Slave day, depending on who you are in the family. :o)

The boys get to go to a big birthday party for the second half of the day, which means, Sweetie and I have half a day of alone-ness.

A phone call from a friend this morning, just to tell me that she loved me.

Hope you have a great blessing of a weekend.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Directions

I'm a goober when it comes to blogging. I won't post anything for days and then BLAM! I'll do two or three posts on one day. SO make sure you're scrolling all the way down. Wouldn't want you to miss something profound I might have said. Your welcome. :o)

Today's 'To-Do' List

1. Wake up with hubby, make him breakfast & coffee, send him off for his day of work. Go meet the neighbor for our morning walk, where we solve the world's problems and laugh at our attempts at being the 'perfect' woman.

2. Home to make breakfast for the boys and start them on their chores and schoolwork. Have profound talk about the importance of a work ethic.

3. Walk through and clean up the house and start a load of laundry. Okay restart the load of laundry.

4. Get the chicken out to thaw for dinner tonight. Find the recipe I had decided to use and start talking myself into how much I enjoy cooking these days.

5. Sit at desk and completely fall apart for all the things I have to do in the office today....

** Set up website for company.

** Call and order this year's advertising in phone books.

** Continue and finalize getting quotes for company insurance coverage.

** Continue and finalize getting quotes for family insurance coverage.

6. Promised boys waffles for lunch. But know that if I make them waffles, that salad and leftover greens I had saved myself for lunch, is SO NOT going to be sounding so good anymore.

7. Library books are due today, so that means, I'll actually have to get dressed and make myself 'not scary' looking and go into town. UGH!

8. Maybe (hopefully) be able to go to the Pastor's study tonight at the new church we're trying out. But with all the sneezing and hacking going on here, probably not going to happen.

9. Clean up dead and half eaten bird that the dog decided to leave in the garage floor for me. Yes, I realize this is something that the cat was suppose to do for us, but no, our dog is very confused and thinks it's his role to kill small innocent animals....don't get my started on the bunny he had one day (sorry mama).

10. Transfer laundry so it doesn't get all yucky smelling. And won't have to run it through the washer a fourth time. (Yes, the same load has been in there since Saturday!)

11. Do a Blog Post so I don't get any nasty emails, just kidding girls, you know I love it. This is a complete waste of time, but much more enjoyable than all the other things on the office to do list.

12. Oh, yeah, and homeschool the boys. Who am I kidding, they school themselves! I like calling myself a homeschooling mom because it makes me sound very busy and important when really it's just something I say so that my sister-in-law doesn't accuse me of laying on the couch and eating bon-bons all day.

Note to self: add bon bons to grocery list, we are out.

I better get started and those waffles aren't going to make themselves. And all that syrup will give me a sugar rush and help me get my stuff done today. Yes, I'm aware that I've probably bitten off more than I can chew with this list. What's on your 'to-do' list today?

Happenings

Spring is definately here. I can tell by all the sneezing going on in my house. And the countless kleenex boxes around the rooms. Not to mention the big piles of 'snot rags' laying on all the surfaces. (WHY CAN'T THEY SEEM TO THROW THEM AWAY? IT'S LIKE THEY ARE COMPETING TO SEE WHO CAN HAVE THE BIGGEST PILE AT THE END OF THE DAY!) But what we ARE enjoying about spring is all of this....


our grass is greener, the forest is filling in with leaves, and the world has an overall 'green' shade to it.

the azaelas pop

the iris blooms

"HERB" the froggy guards my "HERB" garden

the pine tree pollen has FINALLY stopped dropping, so we could clean and prep the porch for dining.

It's been raining a lot, and a little chilly. But tomorrow it's suppose to be 80 degrees. Hope y'all have a good week.

Monday, April 14, 2008

For Auntie

So last fall my sister came to visit us for a few days. (so much fun) On one morning, she banished me to my room to get ready and informed me SHE would be making the boys breakfast, and I was NOT to interfere. (sp?) Yeah, like that's hard. Go for it, sister, make me have some quiet time to myself. What torture. But then I found out what she was feeding the little spawns for breakfast, you know, the most important meal of the day....yep, pie and ice cream. Now, I'm one of those moms that doesn't like sugar cereal, Honey Nut Cheerios is pretty much pushing it for me, hello, honey is sugar. Even the waffles I make are from scratch, don't have any added sugar and are loaded with oatmeal, whole grains, flax seed and walnuts. (I know, my family is lucky to have me!) And I get the 100% maple syrup. SO coming out to the kitchen to find them slurping down ice cream and pie at 7:30 in the morning, not good, mind you, not good. But the looks of glee on all their faces, that was worth it. And the fact that they think Auntie hangs the moon, well, all the better.

SO....Auntie....this one's for you!



Yep, I get Mom of the Year award today. That's peach pie and ice cream and it's 8am!!!! :o)

The boys have had a little vacation from school for about 2 weeks. With testing and Calvin's trip to CA with Dad, we've just had a lot of time off. So I had informed the boys last night that we were starting back to it this morning. Oh, the downward faces, the depression set in fast. The poor things, but I, of all people, know that the greatest cure for depression is yummy homemade pie and ice cream. Yep, sure enough, their school books were greeted this morning with smiles.

Hope you have a great Monday, and if you can, go have some pie!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

American Idol

Okay, it's time I said something! Jay and I are totally hooked on American Idol. I cannot believe it's taken us seven seasons to finally get into it, but we're finally here. Anyway, can I just say that cutie-patootie, David Archuletta is so cute, I want to squeeze his little head off and hang it from my review mirror (quote taken from Paula Abdul). Of course, it's the same way I feel about my own David....and he just LOVES it when I say that! Tatoo girl, Carly, is way good, but her husband scares me, and I love it that they are from my home city. San Diego, not Ireland. I love dreads boy, Jason Castro, he could sing me to sleep any night. I don't really care for the little girl, and I'm thinking she's going this week. Sweetie loves, and I mean LOVES, 'si-eesha', (for the life of me I don't know how to spell her name) he thinks she is the best. I keep telling him that he's nuts and the she really isn't singing just for him. Whatever! Australian guy, Michael Johns, is oh my goodness yummy! Brooke White, piano (and now guitar) girl is my favorite. I absolutely love her. Her voice, her personality...she's just perfect. But I have to give credit where credit is due....rocker guy, David Cook is the bomb! The guy should win, seriously win. And if it weren't for my Sweetie sitting at the pnone and voting continuously for his 'eye-eeesha' girl, David Cook might hava a chance. But really, what I wanted to say was that the guy totally reminds me of my cousin. See, I have a famous cousin (and he loves it that we think that). If you're interested at comparing go on over to his sight and see for yourself. www.tobywalters.com, click onto his myspace to hear the music. He writes his own music/lyrics; great worship music. He's so good it gives me chills. Maybe it's because I'm related to him, but I'm moved when I get a glimpse into someone's heart, and it's a heart that is yearning for Jesus. He's the last cousin to be born in our family and thus was the brunt of all our jokes. Poor thing, I think he got over it when he married an absolute angel, Shelley. Anyway, enjoy him. And I can't wait till the next installment of American Idol. Who's your favorite??? (nicknames stolen from my sister and neice)

my hurt finge3r

so I dute3 my finge3r the other night with a knife3. I have this huge bandage on it and it makee s it really hared to type. SO insteaed of going through and fisingx all my mistakes I'm going to just le3t it go. It's kinda like typeing as a kied and spellng like my sister! :o)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

For Shae


Hey Shae, this one is for you. So we took a family day a few weeks back. Ended up walking around a cute old downtown of a city near us. When all of a sudden we happened upon some railroad tracks. Dave, of course, said, "Hey, we should take a picture of this for Shae!" Jay had to put the sick twist on the nice picture. So this is from Dave, because he misses his buddy, Shae. :o)

Hey, Y'all!

So this past weekend my sweetie took me away. Yippee! I love going away! We ended up in Savannah, GA. What a place! I've always wanted to go and it couldn't have been more perfect. We went on trolley tours, we walked our poor little feeties into blisters, we ATE!, we napped, we watched lots of great movies, we talked, we laughed.... it was a perfect weekend.


We stopped on the way to get some nurishment.
(Hey, Heidi, he was talking to your husband here!)

There are these great squares throughout the downtown, that are gorgeous with all the spanish moss hanging from the trees and the azealas were all a'bloomin.




And YES! we went to "The Lady and Sons" restaurant. For those of you that don't know, that's Paula Deen's restaurant. For those of you that don't know her, she's the lady that talks, y'all and laughs and cooks with nothing but butter and mayonaise. My boys think she's funny and looks just like my mama, so we pretty much love her, even though cooking her dishes raises our cholesterol levels.

We waited in line for 2 hours just to get reservations. But I made great friends with the ladies around me. And they fell in love with my sweetie, because he kept walking to the front of the line and assuring us that there weren't people cutting, he got us ice cold water, he took our pictures, and he was very charming. :o)



The food was to die for, literally. The five blocks back to our hotel was excruciating, I couldn't wait to undo my pants and lay down. :o) The restaurant was really cute. It pretty much took up the better part of our day doing this, but my sweetie was SO sweet and willing to do this for me.


This is me with my plate from the buffet, I took a little of everything, and the big blop on top was the macaroni and cheese! It was ALL so good, I had collard greens for the first time, YUMMO! Didn't care for the black eyed peas, loved the limas, the fried chicken was good, but not near as good as my Grandma's, the sweet tea was PERFECT, and the GOOEY BUTTER CAKER was scrumptious. I wouldn't let Jay pass up on his dessert, because I wanted to taste two. OH my goodness, everything was too good.

If you ever have the chance to visit Savannah, go, you won't be disappointed.


This is Sweetie in front of River Street, a great walk on cobble stones, fun restaurants, shops and bars. He got me a pina-colada, and then had to take me into a Tavern so I could eat something, I was having a hard time walking on the cobble stones!


See the fun cobble stone streets? They were all over the place.


And this picture is for Daddy, something about this electrical didn't look right.

Anyway, fun was had by all! The boys got to stay home and be watched by friends, they had so much fun, they didn't want us to come home. Whatever!