Mother's Day!!

Honestly, it's a difficult day when your Mom or Mother-in-law isn't around to share the day with. Rob's Mom has been gone for 23 years. My Mom has been gone for 21 years. It doesn't get easy.

I was thinking today that there are not too many pictures I have with my Mom. So the ones I do have are treasures. That's prompted me to take pictures with my own brood. Not the best photos but that's not the point. They have some pictures with their Mom!!

Tell me, who sped up time?

Every Sunday night we all gather with calendars in hand to go over the upcoming week and activities. Holy nuts!!! May is going to be just wacky, crazy busy!! I can't believe it. Ever since I returned from Utah it has been full speed ahead. Not just for me but for the entire family! It must be that school is coming to an end. It always seems to happen like this.

I will come back and post a few thoughts from my trip to Utah. But first this past weekend was very musical.

David marched in the Oak Harbor Holland Happenings parade.

This is the last time any of our kids will march in this parade.


Part of the cheering squad!


The BEST pooper scoopers in the parade. They were right in front of the band and did a great job keeping the way clear of those land mines.

Later that night Amber had her premier performance in the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra.

Going into the stage door :D


The cheering squad getting fed





Playing with Pearl Django

And Anna Schaad

It was such a fabulous evening and we are so proud of our Amber for her first orchestra performance.

HE'S HOME!!!!!!

No words can express how grateful we all were to have Robert FINALLY home from Iraq.

Lizzie and I arrived at the airport a little early. Hey! We had green lights all the way to the airport. When does THAT ever happen? So we took many, many walks on the moving walkway and escalator to pass the time.

And took silly pictures

And when she saw the "army guy" she knew it must be close to almost seeing her Daddy

The 2 of us had someone take a picture of us.

And then - THERE HE IS!!!!!

Coming down the stairs to us hooting and hollering


SOOOOO happy to be home! And especially holding his little girl.


Carrying his little princess to the car


His medal and awards


We are so proud of our boy! Grateful to our Heavenly Father from watching over him and bringing him back home safe and sound.

THANK YOU ROBERT
FOR YOUR SERVICE!!
WE LOVE YOU!!

We Got the Word!!!

His feet are now on United States soil!!!! A flood of emotion just swept over me and the tears just poured. And I'm not even hugging on him yet. Now we wait to know when he returns to Utah after their processing.

This little one is just sooooooooooooooooooooooo excited. She's packing her backpack to go to Daddy's house and carrying around the penguin he gave her.

She's just too cute. I can't wait to love on her too :D

Pat Benatar ROCKS the house!!!

We have the tickets so LET'S GO!!!!

But first we had to stop at Chocolopolis for a hot chocolate and to hug our darling niece, Heather. Way too short of a visit. But so glad to chat and hug anyway.


And of course had to snap a photo of our chocolate on her shelves. Such an honor!!


Then on to the concert!!!



Always a good show! And fun to be there with Tabitha and her first time seeing Pat Benatar in concert.

Since 2001 and the attack on the US, Pat Benatar sings this song at her concerts in honor of the victims and the heroes that continue to fight for our freedom.


Another song she sings every time is Hell is for Children. A song she wrote the lyrics to when she became aware of the awful crime of abuse on children.


And something we have never seen in her concert - her husband of 28 years playing the piano!

We had a FABULOUS TIME!!!!!

What the..? And Still Waiting!!

We woke up to SNOW!!! Ummmm, talk about FAIL Mr. Weatherman!


Our poor little veggies we just planted in our pots on Saturday.

I hope they survive.

And my mind and heart are still on my soldier!!

Waiting anxiously for his ringtone to play and to hear his voice tell me he's in the USA. I look forward to welcoming home some of our bravest men and women who have so much honor.


Until then, this really rang true to me.

We just want our boy HOME!!!

Okay, I'm going to get political here for a moment. So if you don't want to read it I'm not going to be offended. Just pass on by.

This boy, right here

was supposed to leave Iraq this past Saturday. But guess where he (and his unit) is? STILL sitting in Iraq!!! Waiting to leave! All because of the US Congress and their stupid threats and tactics used to get a budget approved. The threats of a government shutdown (which didn't happen) literally put a hold on ALL transportation for our military personnel.

All I want to do is this

and cry when I see this

Which will happen in opposite order since it's his little Lizzie bug he wants to see the most. As it should be.

I have airplane tickets that will most likely cost money to change. But I can't do that until I KNOW when my boy will be leaving Iraq and place those size 16 feet on USA soil.

Thanks to the US government for messing up the lives of MANY in Robert unit. I'm not a fan.

David's School Project

So in David's Language Arts class (Mr. Hayward for all you LMS alumni) he had to do what is called a "description paper". This is where he had to take items and combine them to make something else. Nothing simple like making chocolate chip cookies, unfortunately. So here is what we, I mean HE came up with.

KITTY LITTER CAKE

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
• 2 (3.5 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 (12 ounce) package vanilla sandwich cookies
• 3 drops green food coloring
• 1 (12 ounce) package tootsie rolls

Directions

1. Prepare cake mixes and bake according to package directions (any size pan).
2. Prepare pudding according to package directions and chill until ready to assemble.
3. Crumble sandwich cookies in small batches in a food processor, scraping often. Set aside all but 1/4 cup. To the 1/4 cup add a few drops of green food coloring and mix.
4. When cakes are cooled to room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with 1/2 of the remaining cookie crumbs, and the chilled pudding. You probably won't need all of the pudding, you want the cake to be just moist, not soggy.

This is a messy part. David wanted nothing to do with this part so he asked me to do it for him.



Of course you have to lick your fingers!

Put cake mixture into box.

1. Put half of the unwrapped tootsie rolls in a microwave safe dish and heat until softened. Shape the ends so that they are no longer blunt, and curve the tootsie rolls slightly. Bury tootsie rolls randomly in the cake and sprinkle with half of the remaining cookie crumbs. Sprinkle a small amount of the green colored cookie crumbs lightly over the top.
2. Heat 3 or 4 of the tootsie rolls in the microwave until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle lightly with some of the green cookie crumbs. Heat the remaining tootsie rolls until pliable and shape as before. Spread all but one randomly over top of cake mixture. Sprinkle with any remaining cookie crumbs. Hang the remaining tootsie roll over side of litter box and sprinkle with a few green cookie crumbs.

Serve with the pooper scooper and just watch peoples reactions.

It's priceless!!

We are still waiting to hear what grade we, I mean HE received!!

Redeeming David's Present!

another Bon Jovi concert!!!

David in his new t-shirt




And we had a BLAST!!!!

Just take a peek at David.


And 3rd time is the charm. He FINALLY sang this song (Amy's Favorite) at one of our concerts

Only a little peek because I have to rock out!

And he doesn't forget about those of us in the cheap seats :D


Next concert coming up? PAT BENATAR with Tabitha!!