Mothers Rock!

 HELLO!!!  What a glorious Mother's Day it was!!  

I even took a nap!

My Daughter-in-law and Aggie made me some stepping stones for my garden!  We need to glaze them in something to seal them, but I'll research that in a bit.

Aren't they cute?

Ryan gave Jen and I both the lilies!

The bouquet and vase on the left were for Jen from Maddy & Matthew. Maddy made the vase!

The bouquet and vase on the right were for me from Maddy & Matthew. They took a class in glass etching and made the vase!

Up close!  It says Happy Mothers day in one of the ovals and Love Maddy & Matthew and the grandpups in another!  I love it!

Meri gave me a hydrangea bush and a fern for the porch!

I'm still trying to decide where to plant it but oh I will!!!!

The kids made a brunch for lunch!  Caramel french toast casserole, hardboiled egg/spinach dip with bagels, deviled eggs, bacon and mimosas!  perfect...

And during a coffee on the porch this morning, we caught a bird feeding a worm to her young!  Tiny little hungry beaks facing up to her for more worms.  SO cute!  I didn't get a good shot because they kept popping their heads down.

Anyway, on Saturday I replaced the fuel filter on my mower and it works like a CHAMP now!  And then Sunday, I got an afternoon nap after all the festivities!  whew!  I woke up feeling like it was a 3 day weekend.

I'm ready for another one!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there!

Mother's Day weekend!

 Happy (belated) Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!

I had a great weekend.  No cleaning, no cooking, no hobbies.

Although looking back now, I should have worked on some things... Oh well.

On Saturday, Maddy, Meri, Aggie and I went to lunch with my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law. We had a wonderful time and great conversation!

On the drive there, Aggie was playing with her little red pokey ball and eventually fell asleep.

Upon arriving, Maddy asked, "Hey - what's with the dots on Aggie's face?" wha??!!

Oh my goodness!  MEASLES in only 45 minutes!  And only on half her face!!!

It was the ball.  Agnes had fallen asleep with that as a pillow. :)

Here she is on a late afternoon walk on Friday.  If she'd had a steering wheel, it would have been perfect.

Leon had a concert last week and Meri, (bf) Ryan and I were able to attend.  If you can guess, he doesn't really like to have his picture taken anymore.  Ah to be young and stubborn...

But I am NOT young, yet stubborn.  Here is Leon on his birthday lunch in February.  I gave him $20 and he used it ALL up for his lunch. It's kind of a tradition now.  "Um, you can't have that one thing, because it will put you over $20."  When the girl at the register heard he had a limit, she gave him a coupon and then he even got a smidge of change back!  

And while I was stubborn about the limit, so was he with the annual photo I took of him with his haul.

Wow!  That pic of me tho!  I was almost 30 pounds heavier than I am right now.  It'll be two months on the health plan on 5/19 and with any luck, I'll be totally 30 pounds lighter.  Whew!

So glad it's gone!

Anyway, back to Mother's Day!  The plans for Mother's Day lunch changed as much as the weather in May.  We ended up on a picnic lunch at the park.  Meri had planned out the meal and packed a suitcase with all the goodies.  Sandwiches with all the fixings and sides.  Amazing at such a short notice! 

She even planned for my plan and I was able to enjoy a homemade "Un-wich" with huge lettuce leaves. :)  Except for Leon, who was feeling ill, all Robb and my descendants were there.  

I got some beautiful flowers and a bucket of huge Yardzee dice!  We played a game of it at the park. I did NOT win, but it was a lot of fun and quite the workout.

YOU try shaking a bucket of dice and continually pick them up!

Jen had a very nice Mother's Day too and took lots of videos and pics of Aggie playing on the playground equipment.  I need to ask her for some photos.

Anyway, back to work!  Enjoy your week!!

Weekend in the Rearview

wOW.  Whatta weekend!

Started out with our car's recalls not getting done by the time we left town, so we got to the take loaner to the zoo!  We got Leon and his brother along with my MIL and headed to Omaha to the Henry Doorly zoo.

I love that zoo!  Leon had been there twice.  Once while gestating, so he didn't see much, and then when he was around 2 years old.

But on Friday, Robb's cousin put us up at a fancy schmanzy hotel in a very nice room.  The boys loved it!  

The first thing the boys did was to go behind the curtain and ooh and ahh at all the cars nine floors below.  The view was beautiful!

Plus, said cousin tried to buy their love by loading up one of the beds with tons of snacks, candy and pop before we got there.  It worked.  Leon and Finn both think they're being adopted by him.

and back to the windows in the morning.

On Saturday, Frank and his family already had made other plans so they didn't go with us to the zoo.  But we had breakfast with them.  We rented a scooter for my MIL and she tooled around at the zoo and was able to keep up with us just fine.  

We had also rented a wagon for the boys and they were fine if they stayed in it.  

The beauty part about Finn was that he could buckle himself into the wagon but he couldn't unbuckle.  hmm  worked for us!

So much remodeling around the zoo that except for the Lied Jungle 

Finn looks like he just popped out of the nose...

Focus on fruit bats this year!  Yikes!

and the awesome aquarium, 

 it was almost a new zoo to us.

We saw the same gorilla that Leon's dad had been so impressed with when he was his age.

We ate lunch at the King Kong restaurant just outside it and the boys enjoyed hot dogs wrapped in pita bread.  Leon found a new fave way to eat hot dogs!  Then headed back to the hotel.

FINALLY got them to take a nap before Frank called to see if they wanted to go swimming.  

It was 54 degrees outside and so was the pool, but we went anyway.  Well, myself and the boys did along with Frank's kids.  The water was heated so as long as you kept down in it, it was no problem.  The kids had a blast until AJ bit his tongue.  Apparently the daughter had brought candy into the pool and they were snacking while they swam around.  I'd already gone back to the room when this happened so I missed all the blood.

That night, we ate at the hotel restaurant and then hung out.  

Heading home after breakfast on Sunday.  Got home mid afternoon and Robb organized a really nice Mother's Day meal for that evening.  And I got an Instant Pot!!!  I can't wait to try out  all these recipes that defy the laws of physics!

Each of my kids gave me either plants or flowers this year!  LOVED them all!  Meri's hanging plant is on the porch and the rest grace the dining room table. A lovely bouquet from Maddy and Matthew and an adorable aloe vera plant from Ryan and Jen.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day and feel as loved as you loved your kids.

Mothers on Retreat

My BIL has been here a couple days to help his son move out of the dorms.  

He leaves today, then Maddy and Matthew arrive tonight.  I'll see them a total of 5 minutes, then they'll head out to a late movie with Meri.    I'll see them in the morning though so that will be good.  We'll have to plan a nice breakfast for them. :)  They're taking off again right after lunch.

THEN my SIL will be here that afternoon for a couple days.  

What a wild and woolly B&B we have here...

Leon has a field trip at preschool today so I'm going to work from the car while he's looking at tadpoles and poison ivy in the woods.  They have a plethora of chaperons today and I can't really take off from work this week.  

Too much going on there as well.

So I just want to say, I hope all you mothers out there get treated well on Sunday as well as any other day of course.  

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Heart Stopping Days!

So yesterday was Mother's Day in America!  Every mother was able to sleep in, get flowers, gifts,etc. 

I got a text... 

at 5:30am to be precise.

Meri texted me, "Come up"

I texted back and asked "Why?"  Peculiar, since I would have to "come down"...

Then Robb reminded me that it's Mother's Day and I'm most likely getting breakfast in bed and that text wasn't intended for me...  oops!

It wasn't.  Meri had realized her mistake, but by the time Maddy came up to help her, Meri was ready to serve to me!  For my breakfast, I got scrambled eggs, eggs sunny side up, an omelet, toast, bacon & milk!  Good thing I wasn't getting my cholesterol counted yesterday! 

 

This photo was actually my Mother's Day breakfast from 2010.  I forgot to take pictures yesterday!

They brought up presents for me to unwrap too!  Meri had made me buy without my knowledge, a collage photo frame that held a bunch of various pictures of our family in it.  SO sweet!  Maddy had taken a deck of cards and on each card, written something she loves about me as her mother.  SO thoughtful!  However I didn't realize that "You take a lot of time to make me dresses" was a good thing...

This morning, I heard the pots and pans gently moving around in the kitchen again.  I called Meri to wake her up at 6am and she sounded groggy.  I told her to get in the shower and she muttered, ok...  Well, the noise in the kitchen wasn't her.

Or was it?

Two minutes later, she came into our bedroom with breakfast for both us!  Scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and milk! 

Oh yeah!!! It's Robb and my wedding anniversary today!!!  Happy anniversary to my dear Sweetheart!  I can't believe it's been 24 years already!

Checking the calendar closely to see if there are any other holidays this week that deserve breakfast in bed, because at this rate I'll need Richard Simmons by the weeks end.

As if I didn't already... :)

Mother's Day

Sunday evening, Meri and I went and hung out at the park.

Random Monday Mentionables

It's been a weird weekend. I hope you all had a great Mother's Day! Mine was fairly comparable to the tv show, The Middle's Mother Day episode... But Saturday was great! I spent the whole morning sewing with no one home. Well, my son was, but he didn't wake up until noon. Spent the afternoon lounging with my favorite mag, napped an hour or so, watched the Quiet Man with Meri and then went on to dinner with my hubby!

I got a skirt done that I wore to church on Sunday, then found out that I'd blown off a church ladies meeting on Saturday morning... I was WONDERING why I hadn't planned on going to my daughter's band thing...

I DID get breakfast in bed on Mother's Day and think my family is trying to fatten me up for something... The meal was huge. 15 courses... Son just lay at the foot of the bed being tired and the girls just helped me out a little with it all. I think I ate most of it myself! Is that bad?
At night when I'm trying to go to sleep, all of the sudden my heart starts racing. What's up with that?! If I have to give up salt... I don't KNOW what!! Maybe it's just stress from last week and the weekend.

Watched some classic Father Ted this weekend and can't stop giggling over one bit.
Episode name, Night of the Nearly Dead. Situation: A young man who has his own tv show and is adored by elderly women everywhere is leaving a building and is suddenly mobbed by 100s of them. He backs towards the door saying, "Stay away! I don't want to catch the menopause!" LOL! I didn't know it was catching!

What is the average age to "catch" menopause? And what are the symptoms? Racing hearts at bedtime? Hmm.. That would be a great title for a movie, huh? But it's probably not what you'd think.

I went and shared my career with my 4th graders class this morning. I don't think any of them want to do what I do. There were too many glassed over blank stares. One child asked how much I make! After being flabbergasted for just a moment, a teacher clarified... Salaried or hourly? Whew! I didn't want the kids laughing at me...

I hope you all had a marvelous Mother's Day and didn't have to lift a finger on your special day!