S.M.I.L.E

This week was Secretary, or assistant if you prefer, week. So my sweet second boss(Jack) gave me the cute cup that says thanks. That's thanks for working with him on Tuesday nights at the office...and thanks for not working with him during the week everyday! (just kidding)....I don't really think I do that much to deserve fresh flowers but hey, I love flowers and free gifts anytime! Thanks Jack...I do enjoy our Tuesday dates at the office and I haven't killed anyone yet or set the office on fire...so that's a good thing! On Monday I had a Primary pres. meeting with the Stake and our first counselor Betty had the spiritual thought. She used 2Ne. 9:39...the last part of the verse inspired her to give us all smile mugs with flowers...too cute. Remember...Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal...S.M.I.L.E!

Springtime Saturday

Today, like the past 2 days was absolutely gorgeous! The temp was 70 and the sky was blue. Jack had put the new mower blades on for me and got it all ready to rumble...so I joyfully went out and did the first mow of the season. In the beginning of the week we had much rain...much rain. I managed to bog the mower in a very soggy part of our lawn. I preceded to have mower hate because the zero degree mowers don't do well on wet grass. But as muddy as this was, even our old tractor mower wouldn't have made it out! Thanks to the super strength of Jack and Jordan, I was able to finish the lawn. Don't my rows look straight and nice??? (that's a joke by the way) But my lilacs are budding, and my magnolia tree is blooming and I was able to wash the car and even give Eddy his favorite drink...hose water! I noticed my hostas are really coming to the surface and my daylilies are all up and getting very bushy. So even tho this winter seemed never ending, spring has sprung at the Pines. I need to wish all my married sons a happy anniversary...Jack and Steph, Craig and Amy, Phil and Amanda...thanks for keeping them all in April!

Family Ties

Craig is such a good Dad! I love watching all my guys with their little ones. They have much more patience than we did!

I have a pic of Zeb with Eddy on the other post, so here's his cousin Henry with Eddy...Hmmm, a book called the adventures of Zeb, Eddy and Henry could be fun! Here's a shot of Donna's delish chicken salad that fed the thousands! Katie was showing me here scary look. I think she needs to not smile so much if she wants scary.

Friday afternoon I got Anthony, Summer, Driana and Cameron to spend some time with their cousins. Here they are being very creative! Anthony and Taylor hit it off really well. It was sure fun to have them all together!

Whew! What a Weekend of Fun!

The weekend started on Thursday when Craig, Amy and the kiddos arrived. It was a looonnnggg drive, just ask Taylor. It was so fun to see little Sophie and how big she's gotten since we saw her last. We just hung out on a very wet Friday, but thankfully Sat. arrived bright and sunny. A bit chilly for the South Carolina crew, but that didn't stop them from heading down to Amish country with Leisy, Laney and all their crew. We really enjoyed having Amy's family here and they were so much fun and wonderful guests...we really hope to see them again! Eddy the dog behaved fairly well. I was worried about how he would handle all the kids. They loved him and he loved them. He was acting a bit weird today and I think he just missed all the people! We had a campfire on Sat. night and roasted hot dogs and made 'smores. Again a bit chilly but still good fun. We were not without food, that's for sure. I really must say a big Thank You to Donna Starkey for her fabulous chicken salad. (I have a pic of it somewhere I'll just have to post later)

Sorry about the double pic here, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to delete it! Zeb sure enjoyed the dog and loved running in the back yard with him and playing ball.

As I mentioned, we had plenty of food on Easter Sunday and after everyone ate we had our traditional egg hunt for all the kids. Even tho Driana is a teenager now, she still enjoyed hunting for some eggs!

Here's Craig looking at his basket bounty on Sat. morning when all the baskets were found.

We had a great time with everyone and miss them already. I came down with some kind of bug on Sunday night but I'm feeling a bit better now and looking forward to another fun time with family soon....well maybe not real soon, but soon!

I'm Dreaming of a White?.....

EASTER??? No way!! We went to Chicago this weekend and Friday, Sat. and Sunday( until 5pm), we had very nice weather. Then this happened! We woke up this morning and got ready to leave and it looked like Christmas. In fact, I think this was more snow than we had when we visited last Christmas! On the drive home I expected to see cars with Christmas trees attached on top! Well, we had a good drive home and although we had snow blowing all around us, our grass was still green when we arrived home. Tomorrow it may look like this when we wake up. Hmmm, Easter egg hunt in the snow perhaps? Actually it's suppose to warm up and be sunny for next weekend. Let's all pray for that!

Speaking of Easter egg hunts, we stopped by and watched Brooke, Midge's granddaughter, have a fun time in their neighborhood. After the egg hunt all the kiddos saw the bunny guy and received a really nice basket of goodies!

I stopped at the head quarters of the Joint Commission. Anyone in health care knows that they are the pain in the (you know what) with all the regulations and stupid stuff we have to adhere too. It's only a mile down the road from Mom's so I decided to pay a visit. I was tempted to do more than that, but I restrained myself, it's Easter almost...must behave!

We baked up a couple of batches of Greek Easter breads. The fun part was dying those eggs! We went to a Greek deli that sold the special dye to get the eggs really red...Midge now has the pinkest hands around! I brought some dye home, but I'll use good ol' surgical gloves to avoid the same fate. The bread was delish by the way. We also made dolmades. Mom gave us lesson in how to roll the grape leaves properly. She's still the greatest cook I know! Mom, you're the bomb!

I thought she looked so cute in purple and her white jeans. She cooked with us all day with her pearls on! Way to go June Cleaver.

We stopped at Billy and Laura's and saw Andrew. He's a cutie for sure! He wasn't so keen on us though. He was very sleepy and not too smiley, but very sweet and chunky! It was a fun weekend and it was really great to spend time to learn some new Greek recipes, go to my fav shopping center, OakBrook, and just hang out and see everyone. When we got home I forgot only one thing at Mom's. All our dirty laundry. Sorry Mom, you really don't have to wash it, just pack it in a box and mail it to us. ( Just put toxic sticker sign on the outside!)

Happy Birthday Jordan!!

Where has the time gone? My youngest turned 25 today. It's amazing how our kids age, but we stay young. I love showing photos on their birthday because it gives a little glimpse into who they really are and also it gives me the chance to think...what the heck happened to them, they started out so cute?...only kidding!

Jord was a really good baby, happy kiddo and alot of fun growing up. (We'll forget about those teenage years.) Happy birthday!
He's only a year in this photo above, already tall for his age and eager to be like his bros!

The caption uder this photo said "Why am I standing here with only half my clothes on?" Beats me..



His brothers were always good with him. Even when they wanted to kill him!