Life Is Good

Sometimes it takes something big in someone else's life for me to stop, look at my life and say Thank you God for the blessings that surround me. I just need to realize it more often than I do.

On an off note, J.R. and I are going kidless to Vegas for 5 days starting today. We need this time together desperately. I am really looking forward to it.

OUCH!

Ella had her first real sports injury. There is a reason why they require shin guards. I would have hated to see what it would have looked like without a shin guard. Poor girl.



Speaking of sports, the team they played were something else. The kids were cussing like sailors, and also the parents and coaches. It was really sad to hear them. They were up 5-3 at one point and a mom from our team could hear two of their players saying something about kicking our asses. We ended up tieing them 6-6. Our kids played a great game, were good sports and showed that team how to be dignified. I was very proud of not only our kids, but the parents. Go TIGERS!

Easter with the fam!

The Buckners


The Smith cousins


My pretty girls


The Buckner cousins

Passion = Lemons

Awww such simple beauty

Nellie and Joe's My FAVORITE lemon juice if not from the real thing

And the favorite lemon bar itself...

I love lemons. It is probably no wonder that my favorite color is yellow. A few years ago, while pregnant with Coryn, I found heaven. We were at a family church retreat and I had just gotten through the worst of my morning sickness. For the first three months I could not eat anything sweet. The thought made me nauseous. We were asked, at this retreat, to bring a snack to share with everyone. I have no clue what I brought, but I can easily tell you what Mary Ann Adkins brought. She brought lemon bars. Not just any lemon bars, but the most heavenly lemon bars to ever grace my taste buds. It was the very first thing that I could eat that contained sugar while pregnant with Miss C. So I visited the snack table a few times that first night. I noticed others were doing the same thing and that the lemon bars were disappearing quickly. SOOOO I did what any self respecting, lemon loving woman would do....I stole the entire pan of them back to my room where I gorged myself on them. Share them, no way. I also asked for the recipe. I am no dummy. I have never made them for anyone who hasn't asked for the recipe. In fact I had someone tell me once that the Betty Crocker Lemon bars were awesome and I had to laugh, because they obviously haven't had a REAL lemon bar. I am going to share with you that recipe. Mind you, this is NO Weight Watcher Recipe. I am sure one bar is like 15 points or something.

Lemon Bars
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
2 C flour
2 Sticks of butter
4 Eggs
2 Cups Sugar
1/3 Cup lemon juice (Nellie and Joes)
1/4 Cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
and some more powdered sugar for the topping.

Sift powdered sugar and flour together. Cut in 2 sticks of butter. Press into lightly greased pan(9x13). Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Beat eggs, sugar and lemon juice together very well. Stir in flour and baking powder. Pour over baked crust and bake another 25 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over it and cut into tiny bars.

Enjoy and if you make them, please tell me how you like them :)

What?

My email was misspelled at the top....how embarassing. The English teacher in me is cringing.

Fantastic!

Parenting is essential to keep your head deflated.

I am thinking I might need a new bra after the interaction I had with Coryn today...

As I was walking her to her bed for naptime she cupped my boob (which lately she is completely fascinated by) and said "Mommy, I hold your boobie up". She kept her hand there the entire time we walked upstairs to her bed.

Yeah good for the spirit, she is.

Matt Logelin

If you have never read Matt's blog before, he is amazing. His story is amazing and so very sad. He is in my blogroll over to the right. Read him. Also I want to plug that he will be on Oprah this Monday. Watch!

Have you thanked a teacher lately

I used to teach. That was my career. I have a great appreciation for teachers and especially teachers I know that go that extra step above and beyond what they are expected to do and also paid so handsomely for. Sorry I couldn't resist the last part as we all know teachers don't make near enough.

We moved into the district we are currently enrolled in last spring. We were all a little anxious about the girls starting a new school. I figured Ella would have a difficult time as she is slower to warm up to new things. I couldn't have been more wrong. She has shone this year. She has just blossomed. We couldn't be happier about it. Tara had a rougher go, which quite frankly was a little bit surprising to us, as she is our social bug. Luckily she was blessed with an amazing, inspiring, loving, compassionate, awesome, intelligent...I could go on...teacher. We could not have asked for someone as great as Miss Parker. Everything she does is awesome. So it was no surprise when I got this email from her this week about Take your Child to Work Day:

Dear Parents,

Thursday April 23rd is take your child to work day. A note is going home about this today. I wanted to let you know my background on this day. I think it is a wonderful chance for kids to learn about careers and see what their parents do. That being said I wanted to let you know that if you child does not have a place to go please send them to work with ME. As a child of two teachers I was never allowed to go with my parents (although the older I got I tried to go with my dad since he was a boys pe teacher J) So I try to make this a super special day for the kids that come to school. I bring donuts and juice and we have a faculty meeting in the morning, then we make teacher name badges just like mine. The whole day is full of science experiments, math games, and other fun.

So every kid that day should have a wonderful career experience. I hope that your child is able to go with you, but if not please know it will be a day they remember!!

Thanks Julie Parker

Really! That is awesome. She is awesome. We are SO lucky to have her and I am sad that the year is almost over.

I responded to her email with a quick thank you. Please do the same to a teacher you love. It really does mean the world to us.

Terrariums

I was watching the Morning Show on CBS this morning and caught a segment on Terrariums. I think I am going to give one a shot. I love the look of the miniature greenhouse looking one. I think it was the third picture in the series. My kids would love to help put something like this together.

Here is the link to the author, Tovah Martin, of the Terrarium book who appeared on the show:

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/04/06/earlyshow/leisure/books/photoessay4922807.shtml?source=search_photo

Athleta

I have a new favorite company. Sometimes amongst all the many catalogs I receive, one just pops out at me and I fall in love. Which is exactly what happened when I opened up the Athleta catalog. Swimsuits that are actually stylish but can fit the D-cup girl that I am! Woohoo. They had me at hello. They actually have a lot of really great stuff other than swimsuits. Check them out.

www.athleta.com

Just a sidenote, in a search for an Athleta image I found TONS of other blogs, blogging about them. I must get out from my rock a little more often.

Sleeping Angels

So precious...now get out of my bed!

Good Friends

I love a chance to catch up with good friends. J.R. and I had the opportunity to catch up with several of these friends last night at Jill Mabie's surprise birthday party.

Jill is a longtime friend of both J.R. and I. She and Chuck went on a cruise with us back in 2003 that was "memorable" in many ways, probably the most exciting part was the fact that the ship exploded. That is a whole other story though.

We have raised our children together, with playgroups and parties, Jill and J.R. were boyfriend/girlfriend years ago in playground days. She broke up with him because he tried to hold her hand. She got over her boy aversion finally though ;) I always love seeing them and last night was no different. I wish our lives weren't so crazy and we could spend more time together. I love you two!