So much has been going on around the hacienda, I cannot even begin to catch you up on everything, so I will just highlight the important stuff …

Chrisi is getting married in less than 8 weeks.

Richard is back home, not for a visit, but permanately … I can not tell you how happy that makes his wife.

Mini no longer lives with us, she has a new home and we wish her well.

Our new pastor is not quite right, but we love him and his family.

My computer is still not working, I have hijacked Anna’s but it won’t read my camera card, thus no pictures for now.

Last weekend Richard and I took an unplanned, last minute road trip to see Thad & family in Tennessee.  We had a great time.  It was a short visit but so worth the drive.  We had not seen them since March and I was in need of an Emma Joy fix. 

Emma Joy is the proud new owner of a chihuahua puppy.  She calls the puppy her shhawaawaa, I love it, hearing her say that makes me smile.  Her shhawaawaa’s official name is Cookie Ostrich.  No clue why, but that’s the name she picked so that’s the pups name.

But the funniest thing Emma Joy said this weekend was this … she is 100% convinced that her Nana Joy, my mom, is Dolly Parton.  If you didn’t know my mom, you probably won’t think that is the least bit funny, if you did know her, you probably just either laughed out loud or spit drink on your computer.  There is a logical reason for her thinking Dolly is her Nana.  Each month every child under the age of (I think this is right) 5 receives a free book in the mail from a foundation that Dolly Parton supports called Imagination Library.  They are really nice books and they all have a small, itty bitty, picture of Dolly on the inside cover.  Over the past few years Emma Joy has heard endless tales of how much her Nana loved to read and if she were still here on earth with us, she would buy her books and read to her every single day.  Thus, in the 3 year old brain logic, Emma Joy equates books to Nana and to Dolly, thus … Nana must be Dolly.  Makes complete sense to me!  I do however get tickled every time I think about my mom being confused with Dolly.

I am off to bake some chiken enchiladas for our new contemporary worship service at Mt. Wesley, it’s called Flood and it starts at 5:00 this evening with dinner to follow.  If you aren’t busy, come on out an join us, we’d love to have ya.

me.

me.

more to come … stay tuned!

In retrospect it may not have been the best idea ever to purchase Anna a new cell phone with the internet and apps.  Somehow I am fairly certain that you will not be receiving any grandfather or uncle of the year awards from any parenting organization.  Please note that any future purchases should not involve the option of downloading free applications to her phone that are named …

* Bleep button (used to bleep out any information her mother may be chattering about that she may not find interesting, useful or informational).

* Bar code reading app (everything in our house with a bar code has now been sufficiently scanned).

* Horn machine (an air horn blasting in my ear at 11 pm is not exactly my idea of her letting me know she is home safefly for the night).

* Hot pink flash light app (used in conjunction with air horn app, just in case I am now deaf and can’t hear that she has arrived home, I can at least be blinded by her new pink light … nice).

* Chuck Norris joke app. (why?)

and let us not forget my personal favorite …

* The super handy dandy all important fart machine. (which my husband is much more fond of than I would like to discuss).

In conclusion, if uncle elf feels the need to encourage this new fascination of downloading crazy apps to her phone, I may be filing a complaint with the North Pole in the near future.  I feel certain that Bapa Santa may move uncle elf’s name to the naughty list right beside of Anna’s name.

Sincerely,

me.

We are so proud of you.  Welcome to the real world of being a working woman.  I have no doubt that you will be an incredible teacher, you have already taught me more than you will ever know.  I hope you know how much you are loved and how much we look forward to seeing what the future holds for you now as you start this new journey in your life.  God has blessed you with many talents and it is my hope that you will use each of them to be the best teacher and person you can be.  Always remember that you are never to grown up too learn new lessons.  Always remember that life will present obstacles and victories … how you handle each of those will ultimately determine your happiness.  Always remember to be kind and honest, to work hard and set high expectations for yourself, never settle.  Always remember to live each day to the fullest, to enjoy the ride and smile a lot and laugh every chance you get, even if it’s at yourself.  Always remember that the front door to home is wide open but never be afraid to reach as far and wide as you possibly can. 

Always remember … that your dreams are our dreams for you. 

we love you.

mom.

and just for fun … here are a couple of the pictures of your graduation day that we didn’t exactly make it to.  oh well, it turned out to be the perfect day anyway!

Yep, it was a good day.

me: hi Emma Joy, auntie m is so excited about coming to see you in 2 days.

Emma Joy: is my bapa coming to my house?

me: yes Emma Joy he is … but aren’t you excited that auntie m is coming to play with you at your house?

Emma Joy: I want to play with my bapa.

me: well I am going to spend the night at your house for 3 whole nights, that will be so fun!

Emma Joy: is my bapa spending the night at my house?

me: Yes Emma Joy, bapa is spending the night too.  We can read books and all kinds of fun stuff.

Emma Joy: auntie m? when will my bapa be at my house?

I’m not possitive but I think she kind of sort of maybe likes her bapa a little bit and he may like her a little bit too.

me.

Thank you Lord for your blessings on me!  If you’ve never heard this song before, it’s one of our family’s very favorite.  We are truly blessed today and every day.

me.

Ingredients for a perfect Sunday …

* Combine approximately 30 of your closest relatives … daddy, daughters, husband, aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins in laws, family friends and family dates.

* Add a few games of corn hole (I really hate that name, it just sounds nasty) some NFL football, a NASCAR race and a pool table.

* Mix in a ton of ham, turkey, rolls, potatoes, corn, green beans and other yummy food cooked by your crazy cleaning aunts who can also give Martha Stewart a run for her money in the kitchen.

* Toss in a sunny 70 degree day in mid November.

* And, finish it off with pumpkin pie, red velvet cake, pumpkin roll and warm apple cobbler with whipped cream … all home made.

* Wish you had worn elastic waist band pants because you have now eaten and laughed so hard your tummy hurts. 

I highly recommend this recipe, you should whoop you up a Sunday as soon as possible.

ps: To those of you Bentleys who couldn’t join us, we missed you bunches and talked terribly about you for not being there.  Ok, we didn’t really talk bad about you but we really did miss you.

pss: the above picture was actually taken last Thanksgiving, my battery in my camera bit the dust after the pool shooting pics from yesterday, but in all honesty, they all look just the same this year, not a day older!

me.

This is our barn (do not make fun, we are poor folk and poor folk don’t have big fancy red barns.  Poor folk have converted tobacco barns that serve their purpose just fine). 

Richard and Anna spend lots of time doing barn stuff.  I spend more time doing barn stuff these days than I care to think about.  Chrisi doesn’t do barn stuff … ever.  Until now that is. 

Saturday night, I fixed dinner, she and Jeff came to eat, along with David, Bill and my dad.  After dinner it was time to go feed the animals here at the petting zoo and get Jack all cleaned up and re bandaged for the night.  Anna jokingly asked Chrisi to go help her and Chrisi of course laughed and said “um, no”.  Unbeknownst to miss prissy Chrisi, Jeff really likes horses and was all about going to the barn to help out.  Richard and I kicked back and waited to see just how this was going to play itself out … we knew Jeff would win and Chrisi would be going to the barn, but were very interested in listening to her try to wiggle out of going.  She gave it a great effort, but alas … off the sofa and out the door she went.  I grabbed my camera and out the door the rest of us went.  This is what I walked out to find …

Not only is she now an official barn girl, she goes to the barn in style.  She did put Bentley back in the house so the horses didn’t step on him or mistake him for a fluffy snack.  She and I headed to the pasture and as we walked thru the gate she says “mama, where’s the poop? I don’t wanna step in poop”.  My reply “Christina, sweety, we’re in a pasture, there is poop all over the place and it’s dark out here”.  I was proud, she didn’t go running & screaming back to the house.

Anna put Jeff to work right away.  It took a few more minutes to get Chrisi to come around, but she got there.

Yes, she is holding her nose.  But … she is in a horse stall, near a horse.  We’re making progress.  Before we knew it, her sister had talked her in to actually helping (yet, still holding her nose!) …

I was impressed.  By the way, please note that both of my daughters are extremely fashion conscious, Anna is doing barn work in her pajamas … nice.  Actually, I think those are some pajama bottoms she stole out of Davids camper a couple years back, I bet he won’t want them back now.

Before Chrisi’s night at the barn was over, she literally had the horses eating out of her hand. 

Ok, maybe it was more like she just threw the treats at the horses and squealed that they were trying to eat her fingers off …

Anna tried to explain to Chrisi that if you use some horse voodoo they won’t eat your fingers off … I am pretty certain Chrisi didn’t believe her.  I’m also pretty certain some one needed to go wash their hands immediately.  

Who’s child is that anyway?  You’d think she was raised in a barn. 

She doesn’t appear to have suffered any long term damaging affects from her adventure down to the barn.  I think she may have even had a wee little bit of fun … not that she will be volunteering to help anytime in the near future.

me.

just in case you didn’t already know … I’m a bit of a daddy’s girl.  I thought I may grow out of that stage of my life at some point, but at almost 42, I have come to the realization that it’s just simply not going to happen.  He’s stuck with me … forever.  (well, unless you count the fact that he literally had to kick me out of his house and back in to mine a couple years ago, I keep telling him he is going to go to TN one  time too many and when he gets home I’m going to be moved back in). 

So on this day … this daddy’s girl would like to wish the best daddy in the world a very happy birthday.  I promise not sing out loud nor ask him to do any sort of manual labor for me today.  Unless of course some emergency like a broken pipe or something comes up, then I’ll have to ask him to fix it, birthday or not!

love from your most favorite,

me.

My daughters are not right in the head. 

The other night at my Mary Kay party, I was suppose to provide snacks.  Well, we did have snacks, kind of … my thinking was this:  most of my girl friends that were here would not have had time to go home, fix dinner and be at my house by 6:30.  I know I wouldn’t have.  So, I thought, why don’t we just have some fresh sliced deli meats, some fancy bread and so on … and that’s exactly what we had.  But, we also had some homemade chicken salad that yours truly made.  To be honest, I only made it because I had some thawed chicken in the fridge that was going to spoil if I didn’t do something with it and I am far to stingy to throw it out.  I don’t use a recipe for most thinks I cook and chicken salad is no exception … basically I just throw in what I like and if anyone else eats it that’s fine to … if not, more for me. 

After the party, there was some chicken salad left over.  Chrisi invited Jeff up to eat and there was still some left.  I put it in a handy dandy little plastic bowl with a lid that it took me approximately 20 minutes to dig out of my cabinet and stuck it in the fridge.  Chrisi mentions that she would like some to pack for her lunch, Anna chimes in that she wants some for her lunch too.  I didn’t really think a whole lot about it.  Anna made the mistake of going to bed prior to her sister leaving our house with said chicken salad in tow.  Not some chicken salad, all of the chicken salad.  Again, I didn’t think a thing about it. 

The next day around lunch time I was working away at my desk and my cellular mobile device rings and Anna’s name pops up.  I answered and this is what I hear: 

Anna: MOM! what did you do with the chicken salad, it’s not in the fridge! 

me: your sister took it to her compartment to pack for lunch.

Anna: MOM! that is so not fair, why did you let her take it.  What am I suppose to eat for lunch now?  I’m starving and she took all the food.

me: (rolling my eyes, trying not to laugh about the fact that my younger daughter is distraught over some chicken salad and apparently my older daughter is a thief of huge proportion) Anna, there is some deli meat left over.  Ham, turkey and roast beef are all in the fridge, you can eat some of that.

Anna: Mom.  You know I don’t eat roast beef. 

me: um, ok, eat ham or turkey.

Anna:  Mom.  I want chicken salad and you let Chrisi steal it.

me: (previously unaware of the fact that the chicken salad was “stolen”) well Anna, Chrisi is at work, go down to the compartment and steal it back.

Anna: (brain wheels turning, I can hear it in her voice) ok, I will.

30 minutes late she calls me back to inform me that she was successful in her bid to free the kidnapped chicken salad and return it to it’s rightful place, which in my estimation, seemed to be her tummy.

Later that night I get a phone call from guess who?  You guessed it.  Chrisi is torn up that the chicken salad has been not only relocted but ever last bite has been eaten.  Now she will be starving to death cause she doesn’t have any for lunch.  For two seconds I considered telling Chrisi to just beat the crap out of Anna (literally) and she could have the chicken salad back, but upon further review figured that this would either a) instigate actual physical violence or b) confuse Chrisi so I opted to just offer to make her some more chicken salad of her own. 

Thus … last night, I spent my evening making 2 huge big ole cotton pickin’ bowls of chicken salad and now, the world is at peace once again.

me.