Getting ready for summer !!!!!

Yes, it's almost summer time!!!! We had a mini cookout today. Coy cooked and the girls had friends over. My girls are so blessed. They have good, quality friends. They pretty much wiped out a half gallon of bluebell!!!!(In their defense there were 5 of them!)

Ok, confession time....I have started watching Pawn Stars and American Pickers on television. I just can't believe some of the things these people bring in and actually want money for. It's a guilty pleasure....but I figure it's better than watching other things on television. You have to admit it IS interesting and better than watching those extreme couponers and feeling guilty when I go to the grocery store (even though I know I do not have 6-8 hours to devote to EVERY trip to the grocery store.)

I am almost finished at work.....almost!!!!  Wednesday should be my last day if I get everything done. It'll be close ... and I will try.....we'll just have to see!!! I am starting to get excited. I love summers. I walk more, get to see friends I don't normally get to see, and try  new recipes. I'm thinking about trying to let JoGail pick and try a dessert recipe every week. I don't know if she's quite ready for that yet--planning, making a list, etc. We'll probably try it and see how it turns out. Last summer the girls learned how to do their own laundry-and do most weeks. That has been such a blessing! I'm not sure what their life lesson will be this summer. Any suggestions???

It's been a year since we learned about Grace's illness. She's come so far! She is sleeping through the night now and is mostly having very good days. She absolutely can't miss her meds and we still have to remind her every night to take them, but we're making improvements. She hasn't had any side effects, which is a true blessing. She has summer workouts, finishing up spring league volleyball, and church camp this summer. Her church camp is M Fuge which focuses on mission activities.

JoGail is signed up for Pre AP classes next year. We have to let her try and you know, she is always one who performs when she is expected to, so we'll see. I'm suspecting it will be challenging but that's ok. I just can't believe my BABY is going to the middle school!!!!!!!  Friday will be her last day at her beloved intermediate school!!!! She has volleyball camp and Fish Camp (Church camp) this summer. She absolutely loves church camp and feels like she is a pro at going! She's also going to do part of the summer workouts (the agility parts). She also gets to spend a few days with Jaci in a couple of weeks and she is SOOOO looking forward to that!

Coy has a lot to do this summer. He still doesn't know what the state legislature will do for its part of funding Eustace ISD, he's still in a holding pattern for completing his budget. That's one of the big things he accomplishes in the summer, so I know that's frustrating to him. He and I always talk about how he does more in the summer than the rest of the school year!!!!

We are going to celebrate our 17th anniversary in a couple of weeks. That just seems unbelievable to me. What seems even more unbelievable is that I love him more today than when we got married. Just amazing!!!!!

Blessings Are All Around Me

Yes, all around me in little old Eustace Texas! Let's see.....I got to see JoGail perform in a talent show this morning...Alyssa sang and she did her version of sign langauge to the song "Mine" by Taylor Swift. In addition to seeing her perform I got to see and catch up a little with the best teachers in the state of Texas! Some of my dearest and best friends are still teaching there. I love how they make every kid feel important every day. Then I got to type some more reports! Now I finally realized that the blessing in this is that I got another one finished!!! I am slowly and I mean slowly eating the elephant called initial referral reports. Another blessing is that I am beginning to feel like the end of the school year is near. It's a good feeling. Then I was blessed by having a room full of friends to work with today! Almost every spot was taken by someone! We were all little worker bees, though. Not much chit chat today. A surprise blessing was Jayme making dips, cheese balls,. etc and bringing them to work! I love her corn dip....love, love , love it! Then I was blessed to be able to come home and cook supper (it's been awhile since we have been busy). They ate just about every bite, too....even more blessed to cook squash and zucchini from our garden! Coy blessed me with spending time with me. I cherish every minute we have alone and truly enjoy catching up with him.  I had a headache coming, so I went outside and was blessed by the sunshine. I pulled weeds in the front flower bed....my blessing there was that they sure are easier to pull when the get tall and it has rained! Then I came in and JoGail wanted to cook. So we found a new recipe in a new cookbook from my Secret Sister at church -Philadelphia cream cheese recipes--and made cherries in the snow. It's sweet but good!!!! Now it's my turn to bless.....I 'm going to surprise Coy and get his attire ready for graduation on Saturday. Trust me, he'll be surprised it's done before Saturday morning! :)


Cherries in the Snow
from Philadelphia Cream Cheese Recipe Book
1 brick cream cheese room temperature-or microwave a little
1/2 cup sugar
1 small tub cool whip (Grace ate a bowl full of this, so I actually used a little less and it turned out ok)
1 can cherry pie filling--you can use others but you will have to change the name!

Beat cream cheese and sugar. Stir in cool whip. Place a little in a bowl and top with the pie filling.


Laurie

Saturday night!!!

Today I feel.....very proud. Proud to be a BULLDOG!!!!!  Just got in from the sports banquet. It was awesome watching the kids all dressed up.

I am thankful......I got a nap in today. Not sure what I am going to do next week when we have a teacher workday on Saturday!    :(

Tomorrow I am....going to church and hopefully taking the MSAN (Mandatory Sunday afternoon nap)! Of course I have a gajillion other things to do, but church and the MSAN come first! :)



I am wearing..my marcy ladybug shirt!    No shoes!!!!



I wish......it would just rain and rain and rain. No storms, though. Just rain! Unfortunately we have had storms lately. We came home from volleyball last night to the electricty being out due to storms. I went on to bed. Grace downloaded a flashlight app for her phone, so she stayed up awhile. JoGail had the crank flashlight and played with toys. It sure was dark! Made me really think about the days when there was no electricity. No tv. No fans. No lights. Just darkness. It was a good time to just BE STILL.




My schedule this week includes..one more banquet (the Top Ten Banquet....I know I'll cry at this one!), more volleyball, a school board meeting for Coy, Baccalaurate, and more volleyball. Oh and a workday at school on Saturday. Makes for a long week, but it is what it is....


I am reading.....another Lauraine Snelling book. This is a book of four Christiam romances back at the turn of the century in the Dakotas. The grasshoppes keep eating all their crops!

I laughed today....oh gosh, which time? Coy provides me with a reason to laugh amlost daily. His personality isn't wuite as straight and stiff as some people like to believe. He is full of one liners and keeps us girls laughing.


I am working on.....or rather should be working on......reports for work. So many to complete and so little time. I got quite a bit done this past week and hope this coming week is just as productive.
God really kept my distractions to a minimum and gave me the words to type.
Yesterday I.....celebrated Boss's week with the best friends anyone could ask for at work. We are truly a family in our department. We finally got to explain what CODFISH meant to our fearless leader!We had so much fun teasing her with clues all week. I am still impressed that we all kept it a secret all week!


I am hoping..that my girls know how much I love them. Yes, I love their accomplsihments, but even more I am proud of the personalities and love for God. Yes, Grace had the highest GPA and was selected as best all around girl.in her class.  And JoGail won the sack race at field day. But even without this, I would love them as much as I do. They are precious!

I bet you didn't know..it's rare for me to be awake at 10 p.m. Acutally 9 p.m. I have always been a person who needed sleep and still am. I don't like to get up either. Just ask Coy. So I am neither a late night person or an early morning person. I have been that way as long as I can remember, too.

Have a good week!

Mama's Breakfast

I generally take my breakfast to work and eat it there. I usually get there around 7:40 so I have time before 8:00. Since I am not a 'morning person', this gives me a little more time to wake up and get going before I eat. I have been making my own version of egg mcmuffins and taking them. Make a little egg omelet, take 1 piece of cheese and some ham. Sandwich between an egg muffin and microwave. Pretty good. But alas, I am tired of eating that. I am not my husband who has probably eaten the same thing for three years in a row, pretty much every morning. So I decided to try and make a recipe my mom used to make when we were growing up and travelling. She would make these things up and we would just eat them from the bag. I have no idea where she got the recipe. Take a package of sausage and brown it. While still in the pan, add in a jar of Old English Cheese. Stir til melted and well blended. Spoon onto English muffins. Refrigerate until ready to eat. She would cut them into small bite size pieces. So I went to the store to get the ingredients. Sausage-check, muffins-check. Old English was $3.84 a jar!!!!!! And that's that little itty bitty jar!!!!! So I opted for the $1.57 jar of cheese whiz......we'll see how they turn out! I told Coy it's amazing how the price of groceries has gone up. Just a simple box of spaghetti has gone from 89 cents a box to over two dollars a box! I am not a Wal-Mart fan.....at all.....but I am I am hoping I can save us some money this summer by ad comping. Maybe if I start in the summer when I have more free time I can get in the swing of it. I have tried couponing but there aren't many coupons for the things we use on a routine basis......turkey ground meat, spaghetti, ranch style beans, hungry jack biscuits, english muffins, etc....if you have any suggestions or tips, please feel free to leave me a comment. I need organizational tips.....any advice is appreciated!