The Return of The Green Dress

Now how on earth did it get to be Saturday and I haven't posted since Monday? Where did the rest of the week go? I think it went to work. It was awesome having Monday off, and a short week... but man... it was way busy because of that and it was what we call "Newsletter week" which is an extra job I do 1 week out of the month that takes at least an additional 6 hrs or more. BUT - I got it all done, and was able to have my day at home on Thursday too so that was good.

Well as you can see, we have been to a wedding today. My co-worker and very good friend Kay, her daughter got married today. It was a beautiful wedding. They had several really cool, special things. For the ring bearer and flower girl, they had several nieces and nephews so the 2 oldest walked together and then two of the other boys pulled the 2 youngest ones in a wagon down the aisle. They did awesome and it was sooooo cute! Then during the ceremony, the father's of the bride/groom came up and each one welcomed the new son/daughter into the family and then said a prayer for them. I loved that.











At the reception, they had beautiful pink peonys as centerpieces on all of the tables and they were all arranged in old ball canning jars. I loved that! I guess they have been keeping the peonys in the fridge for weeks. There was some way to do it where you wrapped them in newspaper and it kept them until they were ready for them for the wedding. Instead of a wedding cake, they had tons of different cupcakes, plus one huge cupcake for the bride and groom. So cute! They also had wedding pictures displayed from their parents and grandparents and other family members. I thought that was a great idea!











Here you go Kurt... Yes.. you made the blog. This is our good friends Kurt and Lori. We got to sit with them at the wedding and reception and Kurt asked me to take their picture. Aren't they cute? They matched and everything. Then he said maybe they'd make the blog so I couldn't disappoint him could I? Ha! When we got home, Darrel and I got to goofing around with the camera and took some pictures of ourselves. Now how could I not share those right?



















I got out my new (remember from Easter) green dress again for the wedding except this time I decided to go with the brown. I had some shoes I wanted to wear... more about that in a minute. Not too bad of a picture huh?



















I liked this one ok too. We were having some trouble getting the camera set up and then landing ourselves in the center of the frame! Ha. He said I kept turning towards him too much... now how am I supposed to help doing that? Doesn't he know he comes near... I have to be close? Ha. Kidding.



















I thought this was sweet. Kind of a hugging picture... I also am liking how the colors in our yard were matching our outfits....do guys wear outfits? Then Darrel set the camera and was hugging me and looking at me and we got this one. Can I just say I like the way my husband looks at me?



















We figured we were done at that point but then got inside and Darrel took a picture for his facebook profile here... and then that got us goofing around and having fun with the camera again.



















And from that we got these couple. Aren't his new glasses cute?



















My arm is too short so I always end up cutting off some part of someone's head... in this case... mine! I decided I like that though because then I have less face the quick easy way! See Darrel has a much longer arm so then his try at the picture produced this one...













I thought that was very cute because we were just laughing and joking and hugging and having fun. Not too bad for us old married people...soon to be 22 years!! wow! Then for some reason Darrel decided he needed this picture of me.














Not too bad I guess. I can tell I've been getting some sun now from my walking. Hard to believe since my new best thing seems to be walking in the rain! Ha.

OK so let me tell you about date night. We got off to a not so great start. I hurried allllll day on Friday to get off work by 4 so we could hurry and get to the big city so Darrel could keep an eye appt. for new glasses/contacts. I had a heck of a time getting done at work. Why are Fridays always like that?? 92 things seem to come up and it just never goes quietly or smoothly. Finally got done and got home and we got to the eye DR. Well after all that by the time they do his exam, etc. then they tell us "oh we are sorry...they've already shut off the machines today, we can't make your glasses tonight..." GRRRRR Then they tell us we can pick them up an hour after they open tomorrow. Well hello----there was still an hour till they closed so why the heck didn't they trot back there and turn on the machine and make the stinkin' glasses? Makes sense to me. Now we had to make another 45 min drive back (one way....) to get them today! NOT happy about that. Then we had to hurry to another store Darrel needed before it closed and then finally we got to go to dinner. Now have I mentioned patience is um NOT my best thing. So by the time we got thru all the eye DR stuff I was a little annoyed..... Well we regrouped and headed to dinner and things got better from there. We had some time after that and decided to go to the mall. LOOK what I found...














What can I say? High heel, brown patent leather, ON SALE, new mary jane shoes... How cute are these? I think something in the current weight loss journey has reawakened my former love for cute shoes. I lost that somewhere along the way over the last 10-20 years.... I am definitely enjoying trying on new shoes like this and they fit! It had gotten to where things like this never fit because they were never wide enough and just hurt. So what do you do? Get used to everything that is wide, flat and comfortable. Um high heel patent leather is wayyyyy more fun! Ha!












PLUS these were marked $89 and were marked down to $26! I would not have given them a second look for $89 but I was all over the $26! So I wore them to the wedding today with my dress and loved them. They even have a platform......I am quickly learning I like that!

So twice or maybe 3 times this week I have walked in the rain.. On Thursday, I checked the weather radar since rain has been in the forcast like every day... and it showed no rain in my town for the rest of the afternoon. So I head out and 1/2 way thru my walk the rain starts spitting..... so I'm like OK I'll head for the car. By the time I get to the car its raining pretty good and I am pretty soaked. I've got my ipod stuffed in my shirt trying to protect it! Ha. So I get in my car and decide to see if the rain might pass quickly and I can finish my walk. Now a year ago I would have been like "oh darn.. started to rain.. guess I can't walk any more today..." And secretly been happy about that. Now, I was like annoyed I couldn't finish! So I texted Darrel and waited for a little bit and hoped it would stop. I was just sure if I went ahead home, soon as I did, it would clear up and I'd be mad I had not waited. So I took a short drive thru the campground and now its sunny and raining... I'm like what is up with that?! I am impatient people... I want it to stop raining so I can finish my walk. Finally it slows down to where its just spitting and I figured since I was already wet, I'd head back out. I walked the 1/2 of my route I had missed and got to a fork in the road where one side took me right back to the car and the other side took me up two big hills and then I'd have to walk back a bit to the car... so I'm thinking and said to myself that the next weight loss mark I am trying to get to is that way.... which would be the way with the 2 big hills and that was the way I went. Then today I went to walk and again, about 2/3 of the way thru, the rain started. Today I knew it was coming so I was much closer to the car when the rain came. However, it was a light rain and I was still feeling pretty good and had energy and didn't want to quit. I had walked 2 loops of this private camp area and then thought I'd do the loop by the beach at least. Even though the rain picked up I walked the loop by the beach like 5-6 more times to get to my total time/distance. I love that. That is SO different for me. Darrel keeps asking me "what happened to you" because that is sooo NOT what I was like before. Walking..... who knew?! Ha!

So a busy weekend/week so far and now next week, starting Monday is Vacation Bible School week. LOVE VBS week.. but man it is ALL CONSUMING. It will wipe you out, but is so worth it. Hope we at least have a quiet day tomorrow to get prepared. Blessings!

It's The New Zoo Review................................ Coming Right At You...

OK, someone else please tell me you can remember that show.... The New Zoo Review.... it did exist but I am sure I am dating myself... We made it to the zoo today and I keep hearing the opening of that song in my head... I know... I must have some kind of tv trivia sickness that I remember these things...

So Day 4! Usually on about day 4 of 5 days off aren't you really wishin' it was like um day 2? Well I am. BUT we had a good day 4. We started off at church. Since I work at the church, it can be very difficult to go to church and not be at work. So when you are trying to have some time off, not an easy thing. To try to do the best I could to NOT work today, we waited to get to church till right when it was time for service to start. Then... if you can believe it... we parked in the back parking lot and I used my key so we could come in the back sanctuary door and headed straight for our seats. Is that a bad thing? I swear I almost felt guilty. I mean I feel like I should feel guilty or that was a bad thing or something but I just don't know what else to do sometimes. It's hard because I LOVE my job and I want to serve and help people, just sometimes I need a break and I'd like to just have church. Service was good and we had a nice tribute to our loved ones that have passed away with a memorial day video slide show one of the men from our church put together. It was emotional but good! Glad we did not miss it. I ended up having to do one or 2 things after church, but as soon as we could, we headed out to start the rest of our day. The picture up top there is from lunch. I believe I have mentioned our new favorite place is La Carreta and we had a YUMMY lunch there today. LOVE their food and I think they are going to know us by name soon! Ha!

After lunch our friend Alicen was having a graduation party so we wanted to stop in there before heading to the big city. We had a little time before the party started so we stopped in Kohl's to look around a bit. I found two cute tops 1/2 price and um are you ready for this.... they were another size SMALLER! YAY!! Sorry, can't help myself... when that happens I am ready to shout it from the mountain tops you know. After that we headed for the party. You should have seen it! My friend Lori (Ali's Mom) had it decorated so cool! Alicen loves polka dots so she had polka dots on the tables and ballons and all the decorations. It was adorable. She also had great photo boards displayed, plus her scrapbooks of Alicen's growing up and they were amazing! So enjoyed looking at those. The party was at Zander's, another favorite place and they had little scoops of ice cream in little bright colored cups out too and I am hating that I did not get a picture of that because it was so cute (and yummy). We didn't get to stay very long, but it was important to us to go for what time we could. So glad it worked out.












From there it was onward to the zoo. For whatever reason I was sooo wanting to go to the zoo. It's been years since we have been to one. We used to live near the Chicago area and one of our first dates was to the Brookfield Zoo. Since we moved here 7 years ago we have wanted to visit Evansville's Mesker Park Zoo but this was the first time we made it there! It was raining the whole drive there but we figured we didn't care. We had the day, we wanted to go and we had an umbrella or two in the car! Ha!












We started out at Amazonia which I think is their newest exhibit. It was really pretty and reminded me of a similar exhibit at Brookfield. Isn't that waterfall pretty? And um Darrel ain't too bad either is he? Ha. Ha. ha. Look I even let him take my picture..













Not too shabby for walking around in rain and humidity.... Just don't look to closely at my rapidly approaching flat hair... Ha! It was really a pretty good day to visit the zoo because there were no crowds. It was relatively quiet. Loved that.












They also had some beautiful plants and flowers. I took this shot. Love it! I think the next thing we saw was the peacocks! So pretty!! There were two right on the path as we were walking by. They didn't have their feathers open but I love this shot with the one in front and the one further back on the left. Cool! Can you see the second one?



















After that we walked on ahead and found the Giraffes.













With the way the enclosure was built um Mr Girafffe (or maybe it was Mrs.) could have leaned right over and licked me on the nose! It was cool to see them so close up but um very happy he did not lick me on the nose. I told Darrel if that had happened I would have had to scream like a girl... trust me.













Right in with the Giraffe and zebra were more peacocks and Darrel caught this one with his feathers open. How pretty! Evidently this Mr. Peacock was quite proud of himself because he had his feathers like this the whole time we were in this area. Last I saw of him, I would guess he is probably still this way! Is that like a guy thing?














We only found 1 lion but she was very pretty. We did not see any elephants or gorilla or now that I think of it bears. I always liked seeing the polar bears oh and the dolphins at Brookfield Zoo. For a small zoo and for the few hours we had, it was good and we enjoyed it. I would like to maybe try the Indy zoo sometime this summer though to see how many more animals they have. Anyone been to the Indy zoo? OK and if you go to Mesker Zoo... let me warn you.... there are HILLS! Good stinking thing I have been walking hills on a pretty much daily basis because MAN some of their hills are like ladders! Straight up and down. I had on my sandals and was wishing I had my walking shoes. I was happy for the walking and the hills though. These days I actually like it when I can combine a fun activity with getting some walking in.... Man what happened to me...Ha! So after walking around for 2-1/2 hours in the rain and HUMIDITY and climbing some major hills... then of course we decide to take our picture. Even though we were a bit wilted by that point, not a bad picture huh?











We decided to end our day with dinner at Turoni's Pizza which was GOOD. We really enjoyed it. I also love that this is a 12" pizza and we had left overs. We used to order at least a 14" piece and not always on the left overs. It's cool how we have both changed.










So one more day off and I hope to milk it for all I can. I think Darrel is wanting to make steak on the grill tomorrow. Sounds great to me! Maybe I will print some of my zoo pics and scrapbook a bit. I was thinking it would be fun to make a mini book with that LYB baby safari kit I bought from scrap supply for NSD. Remember? Wouldn't that be perfect? I am also excited to scrap with this new Noel Mignon kit I ordered yesterday. Doesn't it look packed full of awesome stuff? Hope you are having an awesome holiday weekend. Blessings!

Her name is Carly...

Is she not the cutest thing ever? PLUS she is just like her mother. Same coloring... same personality....I swear she acts just like Gracie. That must be why I already love her right? She quickly became my fav and yep, now I've gone and named her.....Probably not good planning when it comes time to find new homes for the little ones. I am thinking little cute Carly here may have already found that home... good thing Darrel doesn't disagree. He said he had it figured out a few days before I named her because she was the one I went to and picked up first all the time. He must know me or something. Remember the picture of Gracie and Tanner where Gracie was on her back all upside down and backwards? Well this little one does the same thing! She rolls around way more than the others and especially when you are petting her. PLUS Gracie is a huge purrer (is that a word?) and I have already heard Carly trying to purr... It is the cutest noise ever. Here she is rolling around by Gracie. All together now... Awwwwwww













The 4 of them are so sweet and they just make you happy to watch them because they are so cute and funny. All 4 are trying to walk around now but they are very wobbly... They are also sitting up (as you can see above) but even that they don't do so good. Darrel said one of the gray ones was sitting up earlier and all the sudden just fell over. Too funny.









So now that you have today's kitten report.. Should we move on to the Date night report? We had an awesome date night. Darrel got to leave work early and that was a good thing. However, I had been out walking and got pretty hot and kind of overheated again, plus was having some issues with something that was making me kind of emotional... Then I had a work call and an issue there and by the time I got past all that, we were leaving the house about 2 hours later than we intended. I was thinking the date night outlook was not so fab... But, we had a nice ride to the big city and the first place Darrel stopped was at Sugarbakers. We had never been here before and thought it was just like a home interiors place. Turns out they have a HUGE selection of Vera stuff! I was in heaven. They even had the pink umbrella... believe it or not I did NOT buy it. Are you amazed? I just couldn't convince myself that I should pay $28 for an umbrella... I will probably regret that right? Even though I didn't buy anything there, I loved looking at all the selection they had. I will definitely be back there.

Next we headed to the woodworking store for some stuff Darrel needed. He has a cool idea for some gifts for something coming up so I got to help him pick out a few things. That was fun! So after that we needed Dinner. The Drive In movie started at 9:15 and we needed 1/2 hour to drive there plus wanted to be there at least 1/2 hour early. That left about 1-1/2 hours for dinner. We decided to try The Longhorn Steakhouse. We had never been there before, but since we were on the early side of the dinner hour we thought maybe we could get a table without having to wait. We were correct and oh my gosh am I glad we went. We had such a nice dinner and it was SO GOOD. They give you this really yummy honey oat bread (here is Darrel slicing it.... )













plus, great salad and the steak was excellent. I had a small sirloin and shrimp scampi. YUM. Really good food and really nice restaurant/atmosphere. It was NOT cheap, so it would definitely be a once in awhile kind of place but I think I might pick going there over Outback and that is saying something. Darrel had prime rib which was also very good. Plus my steak, I ordered medium well... it was cooked perfectly. That like never happens. Well because of my not so great early part of the day I had not eaten anything except a granola bar (2 pts) so I had lots of points and appetite for dinner and um can you say dessert? LOOK












They call this a chocolate stampede (except the waitress kept pronouncing it like stampedEEE too funny). It was GOOD. It was for the 2 of us to share. I didn't eat the ice cream. I wasn't really wanting it and why waste the calories/points right? I loved the mousse part of the cake stuff. Soooooo good. Um I looked it up on the web site and that whole plate there.... 54 points. FIFTY FOUR... oh my gosh... that is almost 2 days worth for me. So glad I did not eat the ice cream and only ate part of my piece. What I ate was probably about 1/4 of the whole thing so that took the points for me to about 13.. still a lot but much better and for a once in a while vacation treat... .worth it.













So next it was onward to the Drive In. It was such a cool place. They had 5 screens. When we pulled up we were 35 minutes early and were surprised at the line of cars already. I was starting to worry we wouldn't get in to the movie we wanted (Terminator) since it was a brand new release yesterday.













No worries though, we got in just fine and it looked like they had room to spare. It wasn't a bad price. $8 each for 2 movies. Better than the theatre. We were wondering if we would have issues with the bugs (like those stinking biting gnat/noseeum things.... )but there was not a bug in sight. They must have sprayed or something. Where can I buy some of that stuff?











We really liked the 1st movie, Terminator Salvation. It was good and we liked how they really tied it in well with the first Terminator movie. PLUS we had heard Arnold was NOT in this one... Well I don't want to spoil anything for ya but um.... let's just say he at least has a "cameo." Right away we both were like "I thought he wasn't supposed to be in this one!" We liked it and for the most part there wasn't any language or other stuff that I didn't want to see/hear. The second movie was Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It was so/so. Kind of funny in spots, but way to much on the innuendo/talk if you know what I mean. Definitely NOT a family type movie. It was PG-13 (we don't usually go to R ratings anymore) though so it was more subject/talk without anything being shown or foul language. I was glad I hadn't paid just to see it though.


















So for today we've had a lazy day at home. Darrel went and walked with me and man, once again it was HOT.. Plus, we left and got started walking and then realized we hadn't put on anything to keep the bugs away. DUH... So we stopped and drove back home and doused ourselves with vanilla so the stupid gnat things wouldn't carry us away. I got bit bad by those things last year and ended up at the DR because of it so I have been way careful this year. Plus those bites itch terrible and they swell way up too. This year, as long as I spray myself down with vanilla they leave me alone. Thank you Lord. I went out just to hang 3 shirts on the clothesline yesterday and man I could see those things coming at me. I walked back over to the porch where my spray bottle of vanilla was and sparyed my arms/legs.. went back over to the clothesline and was not bothered by 1 bug. Love it! After walking, we watched a pay per view movie (The Day The Earth Stood Still) and then Darrel grilled us some dinner. It was YUMMY. He is a good grill chef. The movie though.. um not so good. I'd pass if I were you.

So now I am going to get back to my book. I am enjoying Vanishing Acts. Just had one theme pop up in the book that I am not wild about but of course, usually by the time you discover these things you are into the story and want to know what happens... I hate that... Still need to get in some scrapbooking... but hey I have 2 more days right? We are still trying to figure out if we can fit in a trip to the zoo too... I guess we could always do another weekend if not right? Hope you are having an awesome holiday weekend. Blessings.

Vacation Day 1

So I was reading Ali E's blog the other day and she did a challenge to document your weekend here. Since I have often enjoyed Ali's challenges... and they have often resulted in some of my favorite layouts and projects I decided what more perfect weekend to document then my long vacation weekend. Plus I love these fun every day type pictures of stuff like my omelete! HA! Too funny I know.. but unless you are working on your restaurant's menu photos or something for what other reason would a person take a picture of their breakfast/lunch?! Well scrapbooking of course! Ha! There is a problem though when you take a picture of food. It can make you hungry! It is currently 2:47 AM (I am a night owl remember and um don't have to be up for work in the AM) and that omelet is looking pretty good... Maybe I'll wait till breakfast and make another one tomorrow. PLUS before you judge me too harshly... that was my breakfast and lunch (slept in and went walking before eating) and it only adds up to 9 total points. Not to bad huh? Ham was 2 pts, 3 eggs = 6 pts and frozen hashbrowns are just 1 pt for 1-1/4 cups. Throw in some green onion, green pepper and some jalapenos which are no points and you have a yummy and filling meal.












As mentioned the first thing I did today was head out to walk. Since I had time I had planned on walking further than my normal 3-1/2 miles. However it was pretty warm out in the sun and I got over hot which makes me nauseous.... headed home... which wasn't easy when you still have to walk back and still ended up with 3.68 miles! Yay me. Not to shabby huh? I had my brunch and decided if I felt up to it, I'd take a walk to the library later to get in a little more time/distance. I mentioned this to Darrel in an e-mail and he volunteered to pick me up on his way home from work. Isn't he sweet? I know... we knew that. So, after a bit and some relaxing time at home in the afternoon I walked the 1.2 miles to the library. So again... Yay me!













Now, did I need books? Um Nope. Lots of books at home waiting to be read. I just like going to the library. I miss how it was in Illinois where we lived. I had 4 libraries within 5-15 minutes of us and I would go to all of them, often on my lunch hour. I used to LOVE their summer reading program and really miss that! My boss/friend and I did it one summer and were racing each other to see who would earn their mug and totebag first. I still love my library mug and totebag too and they remind of my sweet friend who has since passed away..... I have never read Jodi Picoult. I usually stick pretty much with Christian Fiction. I have heard good things about her books though and decided to give this one a try. It's called Vanishing Acts. I am liking it so far and have read about 130 pages this evening.

Darrel made us a yummy homemade pizza for dinner. He said I was on vacation and should go sit down. Um not hating that. I told you he was sweet. He is a good cook too! We have plans for tomorrow that should be fun! Hopefully Darrel will have a short work day and then we plan to head to "the big city." We need to hit a few stores and plan on having dinner. After that we are headed here for some movies! We hope to get in for screen 2 as my husband is a definite Terminator fan. I remember seeing the first one together probably when we were dating? Can't remember if we were married yet. I know it was the 80's. I know... I'm getting old. Ok I just looked it up. The original terminator came out in Oct 1984... we had just started "going steady" in August 84. wow...

During my time off so far I've found some fun stuff online... thought I'd share some links..










Have you seen these Vera Umbrella's? I love it! The last few stores I've checked in have been sold out! Tempted to order one online here. I am also liking this belt bag...









Now wouldn't that be cute for shopping, trips, even walking? I have been hearing good things about Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher Stapler... Anyone have this? I am just about convinced I need one. They say it's excellent for ribbon. I hadn't thought of that. I could see why. Sometimes the regular size staples are too big for my ribbons and they pull thru.... see... I must need one of these new ones. Ha! Was reading Wendy Vecchi's blog and she mentioned her new line of studio 490 stamps. These are very cool and I love Wendy's work and style of stamping.. These are definitely on my wish list. Love how she layers the inks and stamping. Did you hear Basic Grey has 2 new releases? Check them out here. Love the colors. Especially the lemonade... I wonder why? Hmmm puzzling... Ha! I love looking at people's scraproom's and Jennifer McGuire has an awesome one. She has a great tour posted here. Where do I get sign up to get a room like that?

Hope you have an awesome holiday weekend! I'll be sure to have the weekly date night report for you on Saturday.. I know your week won't be complete without it... Bwa ha ha ha Blessings!!

Is That The Cutest Little Face Ever?

2 weeks old today! Aren't they adorable? It is so fun seeing how they are changing. All of them have their eyes open now and the last few days, they have started sitting up some, trying to stand, and trying to walk.













Look at this little one trying to walk. She made it around the whole perimeter of the box. She can't quite get her legs all the way straightened out and she shakes and wobbles a lot... it is soooo cute! They are also spending more time awake now and they aren't always crying when they are awake. The first 2 weeks, if they were awake they were either crying or eating.














They still very much like togetherness. Can you tell? We have been leaving the garage door open now when we are home so Gracie can go out for a bit. Last night at bedtime she was not back and we needed to find her. We called her but she has been coming a bit reluctantly because she doesn't want to be confined. So, I went in the garage and picked up all 4 babies and walked back out on the porch and called her again. It is amazing how quickly she showed up once the babies started calling for her. It was too cute!














I took another short video clip while we were with them this evening. I thought it would be fun to show you how wobbly they are. I love the little tri color one that is waving her paws in the air... I may have already named her... this is probably not a good thing when it comes time to give them up.... what do you think?
So now... Wednesday night... and guess what? My 5 days off are officially here! Yay!!!! I am so ready for our little mini vacation! Darrel and I have been planning some us time for Memorial Day weekend every since our vacation that was right after Christmas. We don't have any big specific plans but just some down time together and maybe go do some fun stuff like the drive in, zoo, or maybe to the BBQ place in KY. I've really been looking forward to this and I think needing some time....I've gotten to that I'm just crabby and I don't care who knows stage here lately... NOT a good thing. So for tonight, I've got some shows to watch on the DVR, got my pretzel sticks, got my pretty pink laptop, some books and mags I haven't read yet... I am all set. I could even go scrap if I want and just stay up as long as I like.... hmmmm another good idea... I think I'll get started now... Blessings!

The Hot Dog Roast Report

Now after my previous sharing of my views on hot dog and marshmallow roasting.... can you guess who roasted the marshmallows for these yummy smores? Anyone? Oh - and as a side note I am thinking once you put the smore together, it would be especially yummy to dip the whole thing in some melted chocolate.... But I digress.... Here is the marshmallow roaster...













Now looking at this picture of my sweet husband roasting 2 marshmallows (one for each of us), I am noticing and wondering why Melissa there was roasting um like what 19? Ha! I am thinking they had a whole smore assembly line thing going on... See now they were thinking! Ha! (another side note... turns out a smore has only like um 3 pts! Good to know!)

We had an awesome time at the family cookout. It was sooooo good to see Darrel's family because we don't see them very often. Especially Uncle Robert. He lives in Arizona and it's been several years since we've gotten to visit with him. Love this picture of Darrel with his Uncle.














Darrel's uncle is gentle, kind, tender-hearted and totally in love with his wife and family... sound like anyone else I might have mentioned to you? Yep... my husband is a lot like his Uncle and from things we've been told about Papaw (he died when Darrel was 4) Uncle Robert and Darrel both sound a lot like him too. I love that. Here is Darrel with his Mom. LOVING this picture too.... Lots of photos here just begging for a scrapbook page!














It always touches my heart to watch the sweet and gentle, tender way my husband has with his Mom. So special... Did you know Darrel has a twin sister? Her name is Deanna.. believe it or not! It was great to see her as well. Darrel took this great shot of the two of them.













Usually at these family cookouts we eventually get around to some singing... Love that. Several cookouts ago I remember sitting in the early evening darkness, Darrel's Mom on one side of me, his Auntie on the other side and we were singing. Listening to them singing, to all of us singing, looking out over the rolling Indiana countryside, hearing Phyllis' harmony in my ear... I knew it was one of those moments I would always remember and it has been. Turned out that was our last cookout with Auntie. I thought of her while we were there and rememered that previous night. Darrel got a picture of his cousins playing and singing here













And as an added bonus... A little video clip of the music. Love the sound of the guitar and harmonica together.Isn't that awesome? When I was just listening to it again I realized they were doing Amazing Grace... OK.. Earlier this week I was asked to sing Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) in church today. Darrel and I practiced the song all the way to visit with family again on Saturday. While we were out with family, Uncle Robert happened to be whistling Amazing Grace (he had no idea we were rehearsing it) plus then this morning, after I sang it once, I was asked to sing it again at the close of the service... Is God trying to tell me something with Amazing Grace? There is usually a reason when things repeat like that.

So Friday was the cookout, then we went back on Saturday to have more time with Darrel's parents, sister, Uncle before they had to go back to IL/AZ. Then today, goodness... quite a Sunday. We had praise team, Darrel had a choir solo, I had special music and Darrel sang back up with me(LOVE that), it was grad. Sunday and we had a baptism service, and then after church, I was one of the hostesses for a friend's wedding shower. This was dessert! Have you ever made a Strawberry Pretzel Salad? Now why do they call it salad? Nothing salad about it people unless they mean like jello salad I guess. I had never made one, but it is the bride's favorite so each of us hostesses made one for the shower today. We were getting cracked up that each of us used a different recipe for exactly the same thing and they all turned out a little different! I used our church cookbook and it alone had 3 different versions of the recipe! It's not hard to make.. but a little tedious. Crush pretzels, make the crust, bake, cool.... mix cream cheese, coolwhip, sugar for the filling... put on crust when cool... mix jello, boiling water, frozen strawberries, let start to jell, add on top of filling... Just kind of a lot of steps where you had to wait for something to do something in between... am I making any sense? It turned out good though and I entered the recipe on ww and a piece was only 5 pts. Not too bad for cream cheese, butter, sugar... I thought the red looked pretty on the green plates.

So now back to work time and I am tired... I came home from all that stuff today and made myself go walk because I had to miss on Fri and Sat. Did NOT feel like going but glad I did. I've not slept well for several nights either. NOT helping. But BRIGHT side - I have a vacation day on Friday. Thursday is my normal day off. Monday is a holiday! Add it up - 5, FIVE days off!!! Darrel and I have been planning some time together for this weekend every since our vacation this past December. Sooooo looking forward to it. Maybe I'll actually get to scrapbook again! Haven't touched my stuff, unless unpacking counts, since the last crop. Just looking forward to some down time.

Hope you have an awesome week! Blessings!!

No Kittens Were Harmed In The Making Of This Film

OK so a videographer I am NOT. Regardless... I thought it would be fun to show you Miss Gracie and her babies LIVE! (you probably want to hit stop/pause on the music player below on the right) Ha! Despite what it looks like... I was NOT about to drop a poor little kitty on its head or anything. It's just hard to hold a squirmy yelling kitty in one hand while videoing with your other hand... Videoing... is that a word? How sweet are the babies? Plus today they are starting to open their eyes. So cute! Right now just the two mostly gray ones have one eye open. Kind of like they are winking at us! It was too funny just a minute ago.... I was playing the video clip and Tanner heard the sound of the kittens crying and he is like running all over the place looking for the source of the noise... around my chair, under the table, over by Darrel and then up on the arm of my chair. It was very cute. Here are a couple pics too.













Look at that little tiny blue eye... awwwwww. From what I've read their eyes will be blue for a couple of weeks before turning to their permanent color. It was so cool to go check on them today and to see little eyes peeking at me.














Here is a new picture of Miss Gracie and her babies. I love how there is one in there upside down and backwards... Too funny!! Gracie is still a very good Mommy, but she is enjoying having some freedom outdoors again. She won't get too close to you if she thinks you are about to put her back in for the night. I don't blame her. She is an outdoor cat and we had to keep her confined for a couple weeks before and after the birth.












While I had my camera outside with me I snapped a couple shots of some pretty flowers in the yard. This is a very small pink rose bush that sits over by our garage/spare room. Mamaw planted it. Now how did she know I'd like to have little pink roses in my yard. Ha!













And this is one of the beautiful irises she planted. There are a ton of them in our flower bed. Aren't they gorgeous? Plus they smell great. Darrel and I do not do such a great job tending to this flower bed and it almost always looks too full of weeds but because it has all these bulbs and things that Mamaw planted I cannot bring myself to get rid of the bed.... That isn't so hard to understand is it?

So tomorrow night, date night, we are going to a family hot dog roast. Should be fun. Darrel's Uncle from Arizona and his parents and twin sister will be there. We haven't seen his Uncle in a couple of years and it's been since October since we saw his parents and last summer for Deanna his sister. Last time we went to one of these I almost brought stuff for smores and then we thought well surely someone will have already done that... wrong... so this time yep, I'm brining stuff for smores. Did you know you can find smore recipes on the Internet? One I saw recommened like using gourmet chcolate. So then I'm thinking ok YUM a godiva chocolate smore? OR then I'm like oh! how about using one of those ghirardelli carmel chocolate squares in your smore. Of course Darrel is now laughing at me and shaking his head.... I am always happy to entertain him. I also read about people putting strawberries, bananas or peanut butter in their smore. Would that be good?

Let's talk about hot dog roasting for a moment shall we... I do not like hot dog roasting... can you guess why? What is needed if one is going to sit and hold a hot dog over a flame? Um can you say patience? It drives me over the edge to sit and hold my hot dog on a stick in just the right place in the fire and um don't get too close to the coals, you'll get ashes on your hot dog and don't get it in the flame, you'll charcoal your hot dog... OH and make sure you spear your hot dog properly on the roasting fork in the first place or it will just clean fall off right in the fire... I would stinking rather eat it cold... Way less stressful to me! Bwa ha ha ha Ha! Maybe I can just microwave my hot dog and take it with me? Sound like a plan? I know, maybe I can just take a skillet.... I bet I'll have them begging me to borrow my skillet when they see how you can just plop your hot dog in and relax..... Ha ha ha ha Then after going thru the hot dog roasting ordeal... you get to repeat the process with a marshmallow...... At least there is the chocolate reward involved in that one! Ha!

Have you seen the latest trend in scrapbooking with the cool pleated layered flowers? Lisa and I were wondering how that is done and I found this cool tutorial over on Studio Calico today! I have got to try that out! I also came across this today. It's paper casting made with TP and a rubber stamp! Can you believe it? Toilet paper? I'd think it would fall apart. Looks like it works though and I like the finished result.

I hit 73 lbs gone this week! Yay!! I feel like satan has been fighting me tooth and nail for every ounce this year, every since I said I'd speak at church. Since I did that this past Sunady, it feels like a burden has been lifted and it is just feeling different and better again. I am sooo glad about that. I've gotten in some serious walking this week. Last night I got completely rained on! I actually liked it. What is up with that. I was about 2/3 of the way thru my route when it started. I made it to the wash house/rest room (at the campground) and stopped for a minute, but unless I was going to hang out inside, I was still getting wet so I figured I'd keep moving. By the time I got close to the car, I was wet, but it had stopped again so I figure might as well finish my route. Of course while I went ahead and did that... yep... started raining again. As I was just making the last loop, here I see Darrel come pulling up behind me. He had stopped to get groceries and got home after I left to walk so he had come to find me and rescue me when he saw the rain. He was worried I was back near the middle of my route which would have put me clear on the other side of the park from the car. Is he the sweetest?

Hope you have an awesome Friday! Blessings!