Grateful Sunday

Miles and I with the birthday boy, last night at Pappasito's.

This weekend has been great. Great weather, sunshine, and fun. Today, I'm grateful for:

• Neal, who celebrated 36 yesterday! We had a fun dinner out with his dad, Gail, Jeff & Caroline. It was pretty much the most chaotic restaurant experience ever, but oh man, the fajitas. Neal is wonderful and he is my best friend. I love him more all the time and am so grateful that he chose to marry me. Happy Birthday, Neal!
• our kids, who are fun to be with and easy to take places. A good combination.
• my parents, who spent part of the week with us here in Dallas. 
• all the people who helped me last week. I had friends who picked up my kids from school, friends who lent me a projector, a dad who was my tech support, and a friend who brought me cookies when I was feeling under the weather. Thanks, guys. You made my week so much better!
• a successful presentation at Enrichment on Tuesday night. I did a little "class" on Decorating and though I have no background of any kind, my audience was kind and attentive. It was fun!

We're Texans.

It's Western Day at the elementary school today. Line dancing, chuck wagon races, and lots of hootin' and hollerin'. We love it! Parker really wanted to go all out with his western gear this year. Got a new hat and vest and is feeling pretty spiffy.

Grateful Sunday

Miles and my mom on her knee scooter. As you can see by her orange cast, her left leg is healing from a break which occurred at Christmas time. It didn't stop her from coming to Texas, though!

Today, I'm grateful for:

• my parents being here for the long weekend. We've been relaxing a lot (Audrey is pretty sick, still), but I'm glad they're here, even if we are just lounging.
• all of the nice people that helped Lua Nova and Julianne bring happiness to Brazil.
• good books and good friends. I'm excited to get started on our book club reading for the year. You can see which books we chose here. But I'm starting this book tonight, thanks for the recommendation, Julie!
• a beautiful new H* family calendar, created by Neal's sisters and shipped right to our house. It's so great, thank you ladies!
• a nice dinner with the missionaries last night. They have inspiring stories and smiles on their faces. I love having them in our home.

sick day

Audrey has a sore throat and slight fever today, so she stayed home with me while the boys went to school. Don't tell anybody, but after her ibuprofen kicked in, we went to Hobby Lobby! I love this cozy hat she has, so I made her pose for a photo. It's only 30 degrees outside, we needed hats!

Grateful Sunday

Parker and Audrey with their creations at the Museum on Friday.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• today being over! :) I spoke in church today and had sharing time. Not that I'm complaining, it's just that today was stressful, and I'm happy that it's bedtime.
• our friends who helped us complete lots of temple ordinances this week. People are so kind, we got so much done! Thanks to Elliott, too, for sending me all of the information I needed.
• our health. I'm thinking tomorrow might be a good day for a flu shot, we know so many people who've been sick, I don't want to take any more chances. We've been lucky so far!
• a four-day weekend. The kids had Friday off and tomorrow is a holiday, so we're loving some relaxation and no-obligations days!
• my mom and dad, who are coming to see us on Friday, despite my mom's current handicap. We'll have fun with her knee scooter, though!
• an airplane ticket to visit Natalie in April. I can't wait to go to Virginia to see my long lost friend!

Audrey is amazing!

Audrey got second place in the School Spelling Bee this morning! She did such a great job. The ending rounds of Spelling Bees are such nail-biters. She was so nervous, and so was I, but we are so proud of her! Here is the list of words she was asked to spell, starting in Round 1. She went 16 rounds, the last few of which, there were only two students spelling.

Endless
Wounded
Sashay
Solicit
Dignify
Umbrella
Delicacy
Prejudice
Cistern
Herringbone
Concomitant
Woebegone
Uvula
Biscotti
Variegated
Malleable

Now those might seem doable just reading them, but when you add the pressure of the auditorium, the lights, the microphone, kids failing left and right (and some rude third grade classes whisper cheering when certain kids got out), you are left with an entirely different situation.

Way to go, Audrey! Read her recap on her blog, Rainy Day. She will be available for Skype and telephone congratulations today after 4 pm. :)

kids last weekend

Caroline snapped this cute photo of the kids with her phone. They played all sorts of games while we were in Weatherford, despite the cold temperatures!

Weekend Fun

Neal's brother, Jeff, got tickets for the men (and Caroline) to attend the Cotton Bowl, to see Texas A&M (a precious part of our family history), play LSU. It didn't end well, but they had fun. Here are Shelby, Daddy Jeff, and Neal.

Meanwhile, the little men and the ladies went out for dinner. Here are my kids with Claire! I love that other people have iPhones and take photos with them! Thanks, Jeff & Julie!

Grateful Sunday

The kids being crazy last night at Daddy Jeff's house. Thanks to Jeff for the photo!

We had a great week. We saw a record number of out-of-town family members, which always makes for excitement! Julianne left us for Brazil, Elliott was in town for meetings, Shelby & Julie came in from Amarillo for the big game, and we got to spend time with Jeffie and Caroline in Weatherford. I'd say we lucked out!

Today, I'm grateful for:

• 12:30 church. It's good and bad, but we're enjoying our lazy Sunday mornings. I may still be a little crazy as the time comes to leave for church (Still working out JUST what time we need to leave. 11:55 sneaks up on me! Last week, I left my entire church bag [read Sharing Time] sitting on the garage floor, today I left my daughter in the house. We got about 1/2 a mile away and Parker said, calmly, "Where's Auda?" We turned around, and there she was, standing in the garage with a little pink nose and her scriptures, which she had gone to retrieve. Sorry, Pooj.)
• rain, turning to snow! The kids get so excited when the white stuff starts to fall! Even if it only stuck for a couple of hours, I still have a pile of wet clothes by the back door to prove that it actually happened.
• some time in the temple this past week makes me glad for preschool. Even if, most of the time, I prefer to stay home and hug Miles in his poojies with a book on my lap.

Fun with Joojie.

We had a lot of fun with Julianne visiting. My kids call her "Joojie" rather than Aunt Julianne, which is cute. We went and ate lunch at school with Audrey and Parker on separate days, went armoire shopping, lunched with some lady friends, and in general, completely immersed ourselves in the lifestyle of the Suburban Texas Housewife. It was thrilling, indeed.

Miss you already, Joojie! Hope to see you somehow in June.

Grateful Sunday

This week has been super relaxing and rather stress-filled at the same time. I never really realized how much work and how many hours went into the yearly transition of a Primary until this week. But now that I've done it once, at least I'll kmow what to expect next year. And hopefully, I'll remember not to leave town the last week of the year. That would have made this all nearly impossible.
So today, I'm super, supremely grateful to my secretary, Jill. She put in just as many hours this week as I did. Except that she has a full-time job on the side. She has been remarkable, and I would have fallen apart without her! So I made her a cake tonight, to show just a smidgin of my love for her!
I'm also so grateful that Julianne has stopped here for a couple of days on her way back to Brazil. It's always so fun to have Joojie around, what better companion is there than a sister?
I'm grateful that my family survived their very harrowing Christmas break in Sundance. Though my parents are now both unable to walk normally for a bit, and two of my brothers' families suffered pretty bad illnesses during their stay, they are all recovering and they all got off the mountain. Thanks to the fire marshal and UDOT. For a more full recap, check Julianne's blog. Needless to say, though I adore Sundance, and my family even more, I'm grateful that we stayed in Texas this holiday season.