A different kind of Mother's Day Present

Mother's Day is always hard for me. I am thankful for my wonderful mother but I always have that time in the evening after I have spent the day with my mom where I feel sad. I was always going to have 6 kids and here I am 30 with none for many reasons. My only chance for kids was a miscarriage many years ago. I got the best Mother's Day gift I could have ever gotten by a phone call from Christian. The Friday before Mother's Day there were really bad storms in the Harrison area. The Tornado Sirens went off 8 times and from what I hear it was really bad. I was in Rogers at my cousins house which was also having bad weather. (She just moved out the this house in the country and didn't have cable tv and we couldn't find her radio so it was scary.) Christian called to make sure I was watching the weather to make sure I knew what was going on and to be safe. We talked for a couple of minutes. . . and then the storm that we had in Rogers was hitting Harrison. He also called me later to let me know they were all ok. To him, I know it was nothing he would normally call his dad but Scott was out of town. To me it meant a lot. Half the time I feel as though they don't care, don't listen and could care less what I think but for him to call and check on me let me know that I am thought of as family. His kindness helped make this Mother's Day seam not as bad.

The Drummer Boy

I had a very busy week while Scott was gone out of town. Not near the relaxing week I had planned. I got a phone call from Christian on Wednesday while I was in a class in Fayetteville that he had his spring band concert on Thursday night. My mom attended the event with me and it was great. It was the best the band has sounded. They changed up the stage from the last time and every drummer had a chance to be upfront for their family to see them. Christian played 3 different kinds of drums and only during one song could I not see him well.

These huge drums on the other side of the stage were so cool. I don't know what they are called but I could tell every note Christian played.

He had a head itch in the middle of the song and scratched with the drum stick. It almost looked like it was part of the performance.

4-wheeler fun

Tiger and Jerry spent the night with Christian the night of Linda's retirement party. They talked their parents into riding the 4-wheelers in the back yard the next day and had a blast. It was really cold. I can't believe they were out there.

Christian has been working on his wheelies. This was the beginning of his practice. He is getting really good.

Scott made it to New Mexico

Scott left for New Mexico around 8:00 last night (Sunday). He made it to New Mexico sometime around 1:00 this afternoon. He told me it took him around a hour to travel down the road to his camping spot because he stopped and took so many pictures. Here are a few he took with his phone on his trip down. I absolutely love this photo. As you can tell he drove my truck and pulled his new pop up camper. I knew when he went to look at it on Saturday he would buy it for the trip.

I can't wait to see all his photos. I hope he has some Big Foot activity to tell us about.

LINDA is RETIRED!

Friday night we had a retirement party at our house for Scott's mom Linda. Everything turned out good. I think we had a total of 23 people including us at our house. It was so funny Linda is never early and she was a few minutes early and drove up in the back where we had everyone else park. We made her drive around to the front and surprised her there. I am so glad she didn't find out what we had planned. I think it was a huge surprise and everyone had a blast.

Emma and Kim made this great banner!

I was so pleased that all my food turned out good that I had to take a few photos. The blue punch (a combination of 2 recipes) turned out really good.

The beef ball a new recipe for me. I love trying new things and it turned out really good. There was only a few bites left.

The pasta salad a last minute throw together dish was also good. I love vegetables so it had all kinds of stuff in it.

Quick and easy appetizers. This was a idea that just came to me out of the blue and I will definitely make these again. I failed to get a photo of all Scott's hard work on the hamburgers and hot dogs. My new recipe for Bacon Ranch Potato Salad was great. However, my pictures turned out not so good. I don't know why I love food photos so much. Guess because I love to eat. Unfortantly, I didn't get very many pictures of the party. I was too busy trying to be a good hostess which I am not.

Linda will be taking her first road trip in a few weeks. I hope the visa card and atlas will be very helpful.