Salt shakers

A few months ago our church started a supper club called "Salt Shakers." Anyone who wants to participate signs up and the Church places you with a few other couples. It is a great way to meet people in the church who you normally would not know or hang out with. The host family provides the main dish and each couple brings something to go with it. We were very excited because we knew the host couple, Rhett and Farrah because they are in our small group. One of the other couples Mr. and Mrs. McLean were in our last salt shakers group. We enjoyed meeting Ashely and Shawn, who are also our age. It was a fabulous evening and the food was wonderful!! Although the evening was great, it had a rough start.

We were in charge of desert. I found a recipe for a yummy Brownie Pudding that I thought would be great. Well... I had 20 minutes to make it AND be ready to walk out the door as we had been at the hospital all day. Things never go like planned especially when you are making something for the first time. The recipe calls for a chocolate sauce to pour over the brownie mix and the recipe didn't say what size dish to bake it in. When I poured the sauce over the mix, I soon realized that it was not all going to fit in the dish. I had to dip our the sauce and put it in another bowl to take with us. At this point I am thinking that maybe we should call it quits and just buy something at the Bi-Lo which I hate to do. But I am determined to try this recipe. So off we go to the Hughes', LATE another thing I hate to do! We arrive to find that we are not late, the other couple isn't there either. YES, there is time to bake the pudding while we are eating!! Only half of the sauce which I couldn't dip out had spilled on my nice WHITE cloth in my basket! That's ok there is still some sauce in the bowl to pour over. So while the brownie pudding was baking, we enjoyed the wonderful chicken parm that Rhett and Farrah made, the yummy broccoli salad the McLean's made and some very yummy pasta that Ashley and Shawn made. The timer went off and it was time for our Brownie Pudding and ice cream. Not really sure how it would be, I told them they didn't have to eat it if they didn't want to, we could always serve just the ice cream. Boy was I wrong. It was gooie (sp), hot, the ice cream melted on it and it was super scrumptious. I will certainly be making it again as I think everyone really enjoyed it. My hard work paid off, which is always nice! :-)

As my momma always says "a bad start always has a good ending." And looking back on the night, I think she was right! :-)

The gift of Easter

Jack

It's amazing the things you can learn from a 6 year old. We were keeping our cousins Jack and Grace a few weeks before Christmas. Jack and I were talking on the way home when he said something that really caught my attention. He said "Well Rita Christmas is very special because it was the day Jesus was born. But you know Easter is more important because that is the day Jesus came back to life to take away our troubles." I thought for a second. I didn't say a whole lot because I had never really thought about it like that. But Jack's right! Jesus died a sinners death so that we may live a life filled with love and forgiveness from someone who was perfect. What a gift! What a blessing to know that we are loved that much!

This Easter was very special. We have so much to be thankful for. God has blessed us with wonderful friends and family. We wanted our Easter celebration to reflect the joy and gratitude of the great gifts we have been blessed with. My mom spent last night with us, went to Church with us and helped prepare a wonderful Easter lunch. We invited our friends Chris, Charissa and Catherine to enjoy the meal with us. The meal was wonderful, thanks to Mom's help, and we had very few left overs.

The Easter bunny brought Mom a beautiful Easter Lilly and filled our Easter baskets with goodies.

Us

Mom and I

Working on lunch

The Canfield's

Catherine's first Easter

We rested this afternoon and then we enjoyed another great meal with our family. It was so nice to relax with everyone. It was great to see Mrs. Susan out today. She really looks good! God has truly blessed her during this recovery time. Before our meal, Grace performed a few of her piano pieces for us. She does so well. After dinner we went out to see Grace's new puppy stranger. He is such a cute little fellow and loves Grace to pieces. We were very blessed to have a very special guest with us this Easter, Papaw. Papaw lives in Oregon and is here for the month of March. He is such a sweet and loving gentleman. We wish we could talk him in to moving here!

Grace Practicing
Grace and Stranger

Us with Papaw Lucky for me, I don't have work tomorrow! But I hope everyone had a great Easter and a wonderful start to the work week! :-)

Camping with the family

We were invited to spend a few days camping with my brother and his family. The place they were staying is the place where we hope to store our camper. So we wanted to check the place out and see what all there was to it. We both had Friday off from work so we headed to the beach. The weather was perfect! It got a little chilly at night but that made the camp fire so much more enjoyable. We roasted hot dogs and grilled hamburgers. Alston and I decided we wanted to roast marshmallows for desert. We didn't roast too long as it got too cold even for the camp fire. Bob made us a wonderful breakfast on Saturday morning. The food is one of the things I love most about camping. It's so much fun to prepare everything outside and there is very little that has to be cleaned on the inside.

We loved the resort and can't wait until our camper is ready to use. There is a beautiful pond with a paved trail around it which is great for walking or riding a bike, even a golf cart if you get lazy!!! They have a wonderful nature trail, which Alston and I were able to enjoy on the Easter Egg hay ride. We enjoyed every minute of it and really appreciate Bob and Jessica inviting us to join them.

A view of the lake...

Alston loved going for a ride on his bike. Aunt Rita had a hard time keeping up with him. I think he was just too fast, because I know that I am not out of shape!

Emma and Aunt Rita enjoying a ride on the golf cart.

Poor Jake has been so sick but he still had a good time. (I just love the hat!)

There is nothing better than a great camp fire.

A little leson on the true meaning of Easter

We've spent a lot of time looking at the true meaning of Easter as it is approaching rather quickly this year. Our pastor preached an amazing sermon this past Sunday on what Jesus really did when he died on the cross for us. He said "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Imagine a love that strong for someone, a heart so forgiving. His body was "broken" for us and his blood was "shed" for us.

It wasn't until this past Sunday that I truly took the time to really think about what he did for ME! I have participated in communion many times but never really thought about just how much Jesus' body was broken for me and his blood was shed for me. And yet I still take my life for granted, forgetting what a gift I have been given. As Sunday quickly approaches, I pray that I will think about what Jesus did and what a gift he has given me and continues to give each day. May this Easter be a reminder of God's love!

Happy 1st Birthday Wilson

The real fun started last night around 9:30 when I went to Daniel and Claire's house (Wilson's parents) to help them get ready for the party. (As many of you know, it was already 30 minutes past my bedtime!) Claire had some of the cutest ideas for the party and needed just a little help putting the finishing touches on the items. Mom and I helped Claire in the kitchen while Andy helped Daniel in the den. We had a lot of fun! It was such a treat getting to spend some "fun" down time with Daniel and Claire!

I was hot gluing labels to juice boxes that said "Happy Birthday Wilson" while Claire was making a birthday banner. I thought I had a picture of the banner but I don't. I will have to try to get one because it was so cute!

Mom was cutting out circles for the birthday banner.

Daniel and Andy trying to assemble the Radio Flyer car.

We finished everything around 11:30 and I was in bed shortly after 12. It was worth every minute! Thanks Daniel and Claire for asking us over! We really did have a great time! :-)

Wilson's party was perfect. Although, he did not seem to be interested in opening presents or eating his cake. We were excited to be able to be with him to celebrate his first year. He is a great little boy!

We are almost ready to be real campers...

My wonderful brother Bob spent his day helping us get our camper ready to begin camping. We had to peel away the old caulk (SP) on the roof, which took about two hours and then reseal with new caulk. The only problem was that we didn't have enough caulk to finish the job. The good news is that it will not take long at all to finish. We hope to be ready to camp by May. We are so excited and can't wait for our very first adventure!

Bob

Andy

Andy backing the camper in place with a little help from my brother. This is the first time Andy has pulled the camper let along backed it into place. I was so proud of him!!

Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my 27th birthday on Tuesday. Andy and I enjoyed a great Mexican dinner and watched a movie at home. It is hard to believe that I am 27. I don't feel any older so I guess that is a good thing.

Between February and March, we have 4 birthdays in my family. We were able to celebrate those birthdays tonight at Mom's. We gathered for hamburgers and FRIED french fries. (Not sure how many weight watcher points that was... but boy were they good!) It was nice to know that Andy and I could enjoy spending time with my family and not have to rush back home.