Weekend of Smiles

Jacqueline had an appointment in town this past Friday morning, so she and the grands came down Thursday afternoon. And the weekend flew by ...

 

 

 

 

These kids LOVE baking!

So this weekend I had a "Tiger Cookie" mix to try something different ...

 

and they were YUMMY!

{pay no attention to the man in the gray shirt -- he surely wouldn't be sneaking any of that dark chocolate drizzle... would he???}

 



 

Lucy and Jacqueline had a birthday party to go to Saturday afternoon. So, Dan & I got to hang out with Tag ...

When did this little guy become a little boy???

He loves hanging out with his Grandad -- can you tell?  I found his Ocean Pacific shorts (actually they're swim trunks) and his Starter Athletics t-shirt on sale Saturday morning. He LOVED them!

 

As we waited on "his girls" to get home, Tag made us pizzas!  He loves pizza sauce & turkey pepperoni ... and Go Veggie! lactose-free cheese (aka... "Tag's cheese" or "rice shreds" or "the only cheese Tag can eat since he has a dairy allergy").

Lucy eats her pizza with just crust & cheese (no sauce and no pepperoni --

she had acid reflux as a baby so cannot tolerate spicy foods). 

PS ... it's a good thing Granny forgot to pre-heat the oven! When Tag saw that I was making pizzas, he insisted that he NEEDED to put the pepperoni and cheese on them!

 

Church this morning at the movie theater!  We have 3 physical campuses plus an online campus. We actually live in between the church building campus and the movie theater campus. The little ones love going to the theater campus and we do too! We have friends at all 3 campuses, but this is our "home".

 

 

And then lunch before they hit the road back to their house.  Lucy shared her tiara hair clip with her Mommy ...

 



 

and then with Grandad!  He's always a good sport --

even outside of the busy sandwich shop! 

Dan absolutely loves these grandkids --

and they love him just as much!

 

relationships are worth every moment of sacrifice ...

relationships are worth every moment of effort ...

relationships are worth every moment...

 

Have a blessed week, my friends!



Bittersweet August

August is a bittersweet month for my family.  Several birthdays to celebrate --

my dad, my uncle, cousins, mine ...

 and my Aunt Hilda's birthday ...

 

A few years ago I wrote a series of posts about my silent milestone "48"... here's the links:

 A Silent Milestone ... Remembering ... Reflection ... Revealing

 

 

The morning of August 15, 1980 ... my Aunt Jacqueline "Hilda" had taken her youngest daughter to shop for clothes to start high school.  Coming back home on the wet 2 lane country road -- the semi truck had been swerving and going across the solid yellow line.  In the straight stretch about 12 miles or so from home ... the semi driver was across the yellow line again --- this time he smashed into the car going in the opposite direction ...

my Aunt & cousin.
He was driving drunk.

 

Sometimes I can remember that day like it was yesterday. One of my cousins came to pick me up early and seeing her drive up to the band building, I told my band director that something was wrong and that I had to leave.  (I returned 2 weeks later.)

 

{I won't go into detail right now but sometime in the future I do want to write it all down for my future generations to know what an awesome Aunt we lost that day.}

 

The days that followed were vivid but yet a blur as well.  I was 15 years old at the time.

One of my uncles birthday is August 16 ...

 

The evening of August 17, 1980 was the visitation at our small home church. About two miles from our homeplace. I have never seen so many people from our little community in one place than that night!

 

The date on pic is prior to but this was the size in 1980.

 

Everyone was devastated ...

especially my Granny {Lucy}

 

The rainy day of August 18, 1980 ... we said our final good-byes to my

Aunt Jacqueline "Hilda" on her 48th birthday.

 

August 20 is my Daddy's birthday ( he will be 77 this year -- and still working)

 

August 24 is my birthday. 

I turned 16 just nine days after "the wreck" ... this year I'll turn 51.

 

Not a day has gone by that I haven't thought of my Aunt Hilda ...

and I know that one day I will see her again.

 

 Heaven certainly gained a special angel 35 years ago ...

and her legacy lives on through her namesake --

our daughter Jacqueline.

 

 

No Laptop ... More Painting

I have missed my blogging friends!  I'm still waiting on my laptop to be repaired & returned, so I am still "borrowing" Dan's when he's at the office (or at church meetings such as right now).  I know that laptops are laptops ... but he has an extra monitor,  a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse all hooked to the laptop. This laptop also serves as his home office computer so it's hooked into his office server (and all that comes along with that).  It can be rather intimidating to this Granny ...

 

 

 

Long story short .... I know -- TOO LATE! -- I miss my own laptop!

And I miss my blogging friends!  I really do need to learn how to manage my time better and set aside a block of time each day to write or create or just pick up a hobby.

 

But, here's a little glimpse into what's been going on in my house lately ...

Yes ... more painting!  Our Home Depot has little sample paints that can be mixed to any color swatch -- and also transparency sheets that you paint on and then peel & stick to the wall to see what the finished product will look like!

 

                   

 

 

Since we were changing the color in the entry foyer, we wanted to update the light fixture. I sent Dan this picture and told him that I really wanted it -- he didn't buy it from me nor from Lowe's!  {By the way, it takes 18 bulbs!}

 

But, I do like the one we got {it was the first one we saw} -- my husband knows me all too well!

 



 

So ... my next project is the stairway wall and the small upstairs hallway.  Dan's already taped it off for me, so I'm ready to prepare the walls for painting.  It doesn't show very well in the pictures, but the entry is now a "Dew" color -- almost like a soft pewter ... the stairway/hall will be "Candlewick" -- a very soft yellow.  The little ones say that we're "coloring the walls" ... and we agree.

 

As I'm waiting on my laptop ... and painting and painting and painting ...

I have a couple of questions ---

 

How do you manage your time?

What do you do for you?

{hobbies, creativity, ministries, etc}

 

Hope to catch up with you again soon!

Have a blessed week, my friends