Sweetie

My sweetie is super patient.

Today, he spent the afternoon drilling Shek's spelling words...if he wasn't already patient, he would have developed it today.  We spent most of yesterday afternoon cleaning the house, we both looked at each other and said, a clean house makes me feel so happy. If he wasn't already patient, he would have developed it quickly because the house is not always tidy.

 I am thanking GOD for sending my sweetie to me all those years ago. Karl you're the best, thanks for being mine, being patient, loving and easy going. WE all love you!

Red White and Blue

Today is the 4th of July...and Shek came down bright and early dressed in his patriotic colors. I put him in charge of setting the table. He cut a few hydrangea to put on the table, and placed all the paper products in a pattern...and then smiled for the camera.

We had bbq grilled chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli salad, and hebrew beef hotdogs...and mom's new Healthy Homemade ice cream.

3 eggs separated

28 oz low fat sweetened condensed milk

12 oz fat free evaporated milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

8 oz sucralose no calorie sweetener

16 cups plain unsweetened almond milk

 

instructions

separate eggs

beat egg whites until stiff.

add condensed milk, sucralose, evaporated milk, vanilla, salt. blend ingredients together.

Pour into freezer.  Add almond milk to fill line on freezer.  Freeze according to freezer directions.  My freezer is a 5 quart one so this recipe was designed for it.  If your freezer is smaller, adjustments to ingredients will be required.

Some friends of ours invited us over to swim in their pool while they were out of the town. When the kids heard the word POOL they were all in. So after lunch with the whole family minus Zach, (he's away leading worship at a church camp), we went swimming.

Karlie!

Jolie splashes!

Shek loves the floats!

 Laughter is the best medicine!

Woo hoo... I actually caught a jumpin' photo...

Dad teaches Jolie how to load the water gun and 

Splash her big brother.

We had a great 4th...hope you and yours are having fun and making sweet family memories.

22

22 years ago on June 16, 1990, at quarter past 2 o'clock in the afternoon, I married my Prince Charming...no wonder Jolie insists that I am Cinderella, the Princess.

Happy Anniversary to my Sweet BOY! Love you bunches!
I continue to Bless the Lord for blessing me with you.

Happy Birthday, Karl

We've been celebrating Karl's birthday all weekend. We've been to Chattanooga, to Bass Pro Shop, and out to eat several times. Tonight was the Family birthday party. We had Karl's favorite meal, Hamburgers!  He also requested Angel Food Cake with strawberries, because it's not too bad for you.

The Birthday Cake

The official birthday candle lighter, Shek, doing his job.

Blowing out the candles. Jolie is excited about birthdays, she knows hers is next...she wanted to help daddy blow out his candle, but just after supper and before the cake, she rubbed her eyes, looked at daddy and said, "Daddy, I'm sleepy." She crawled up in his lap and went to sleep, and missed out on her favorite part of birthdays, the CAKE.

Fire's out.

Happy Birthday to the sweetest hubby on the planet. Hope it's the best birthday ever.

Spur of the Moment Trip

Karl and I had been talking about taking a quick day trip. We said we were just going to get up one morning load up the kids and not tell them where we were going till we were well on our way. We had wanted to go to Savannah, but there was a tropical storm brewing and we decided to go  the other direction and went to Chattanooga instead. Karl had a coupon for his birthday at his favorite BBQ place in Chattanooga. We did load up this morning and take off, but we did give the heads up to the kids last night. Everyone was excited.

Karl enjoyed his free birthday ribs...and the rest of us enjoyed a splurge too.
We enjoy walking around the downtown area of Chattanooga and always end up at the riverfront.

Jolie and Shek were anxious to wade in the water...

Look at my sweeties. Aren't they cute?

Someone was leaning over my shoulder while I was scrolling through the photos, so I snagged our photo while she was hugging me.

Someone had wet feet, and big bro. didn't want to get those wet feet on his shirt...so this is why he's holding her at an arms length.

My girls sitting by the river.

My crew sitting by the river in the hot boiling sun...everyone needs shades.

Standing by the river's edge, Shek was a little nervous.

My two oldest...only 3 years apart in age...

The kids love to visit Chattanooga cupcakes before coming back home. Shek had the domino cupcake, the girls got key lime cupcakes. I just had a taste of their cupcakes.

I think Shek's photo could make a great advertisement for Chattanooga cupcakes.

We thought the mellow mushroom sign was really cute.

 Here's a photo of me and the KARL...

Jolie really loves flowers and we saw these beautiful pots of flowers along the sidewalks of the downtown area. Maybe she will have a green thumb, and help us grow beautiful flowers like these.

TODAY was a really pleasant day for a spur of the moment trip...

An interview with the hubs!

I thought I'd do an interview with the hubs today. The kids always want to be the 'star' on the blog post, and Karl gets kind of left out sometimes. SO now it's his turn to be the blog star.

What do you do for a living?
"I look at computers all day...computer programmer/web developer."

So will you fancify my blog with all of your web computer knowledge? " Yea, just, get in line!" lol

What is your hobby?
"I would fish if I had time. I love to be in our boat at the lake."

What's your favorite meal?  "I do like a good hamburger, I like shrimp, oysters, steak, french fries, and baked potatoes, and oh, I like advocare shakes."


I know you like music A LOT, what's your favorites bands, songs, etc.? " I like third day, Mercy Me, the Band Perry, Rascal Flats, Switchfoot,  and of course, ZachBerryMusic.


So what's you're favorite color? I knew he would say this he always does..."I don't have one."


If you could pick a car color what would you pick. "I like Black and White cars best."

 What about my red truck don't you like my red truck? "That's your truck not my truck." BUT you bought it red. He answered,  "Because that's what you wanted, a red truck." Isn't he a sweetie getting me a RED truck!

So what's my favorite color? RED

What's a word  you would use to describe you?  With a mischievous grin he said,"Awesome" I agree. He's pretty awesome.

When you were a little boy what did you like to do for fun? I didn't do anything fun because I worked on the farm, gardening, loading hay, bush-hogging and such...oh I went hunting some, that was fun.

What's your dream car? "audi "
I guess that would be a black or white one?

Marriage? "I've been married to you for 22 years an it only feels like 2. Why does it feel like just 2 years? Cause we're still having a honeymoon...;)

Tell me about your kids. "Got 4 of them, 2 boys 2 girls...they're all awesome.

What's your thoughts on adoption?

"As a Christian I've been adopted, and I am so happy that I could adopt. It gives me the full picture of what God has done for me.  Our adoption of Jolie was a journey of a lifetime, I am so glad we adopted her."

Tell me some thoughts about your family and faith.
"I love my family each and everyone. I think it's important to leave a legacy for my family for them to be proud of their dad and that they would grow and mature in their Christian faith and lead their families in the way of the LORD."


The tables turn and he says to me,  "What are you doing over there anyway? I said I am interviewing you for my blog. In which he jokingly replies, "I thought you knew me!" 




Is  there anything else you want to say before we close this blog interview down?
"I love my wife."
 and I said, "AWWWW!"

Karl! You're the man...you are leaving a wonderful Christian legacy for your family. Your family loves and appreciates you.  And as the pastor says, Keep living for Jesus!

fav photo monday

Dad had the day off, big bro was at school, big sis on a retreat and baby girl said she wanted ham for lunch. everyone loves dad including this momma...I snagged this photo w my phone!

Heart day Ramblings

Yesterday was Valentines day. I have always loved Valentine's Day. I remember that Valentines Day was always the best in elementary school. BECAUSE we made those sweet little Valentine mail boxes, we had a valentine party at the end of the day and everyone would bring their teacher a valentine heart wrapped in red cellophane.

 AND we'd munch on those little candy hearts with the messages on them. I would lay awake the night before in anticipation for the Valentine's school party.

Then Junior high came and the fun was just zapped right out of the holiday...gone was the day of sweet little Valentines for everyone in the class...no it was time for student council to sell carnations, white for friendship, pink for secret admirer and red for love...and this went on thru high school..and then there were the serious couples, the guy would send huge floral arrangements with balloons to the school office for his girl...depressing, simply depressing for the rest of us girls..lol

So in my memory...elementary valentines were the bomb...upper school not so much.

But once I was in college and had a love interest....you know that guy sitting across from me in this living room, well,  Valentines Day finally became special again because I would get flowers and  mushy stuff like that, it was no longer the single awareness day that so many people call it today.

retro us

I remember once when we were first married, it was Valentines Day and my doorbell rang, I looked out the window and what did I see, a florist, standing on my stoop with a beautiful vase of roses...my heart skipped a beat...I couldn't believe he had sent roses, delivered flowers back then would have been way to extravangant...so I yanked open the door and would you believe it, he had the wrong house, he was asking for directions, yep those flowers were for my next door neighbor. LOL...talking about disappointing!

Anyway, little presents/gifts are really not my love language. I did tell my hubby though that even though little presents are not my love language there are a few times during the year, that a little something is nice, Valentines being one of them, and yesterday, actually the day before yesterday he surprised me with tulips, my favorite...and then yesterday with a card too..

My tulips

The kids got a variety of goodies and candy, and have enjoyed the abundance of chocolate in the house.

I hope everyone reading my heart day rambles had a very happy valentines day this year.

a pinch and a pinch and it's 'ober'

Karlie and I have been talking to Jolie about getting some earrings. She had been saying yes she wanted some earrings. And for weeks, I've been saying we would have to go get them pierced so the earrings would stay in. I would put my fingers on her little earlobe and say it's a pinch and a pinch and it's over. She would see other little girls' with their ears pierced with cute little earrings and I think she was ready. So I told her on Saturday we would go.  After breakfast  on Saturday, I told dad that we wanted to go and get Jolie's ears pierced. He raised his eyebrows and said to Jolie are you sure you want to go do that in which she replied in a COMPLETE sentence no less, Uh huh...it's a pinch and a pinch and it's ober, and she said that twice and threw up her hands as if to say no big deal. Dad said I don't think I want to go watch that. I reminded him that sometimes, she wants him when I'm brushing the tangles out of her hair, and that he might need to come just to help me. In case the pinch and the pinch was more than she was expecting. He asked her, Jolie do you want me to go with you to get your ears pierced? She said yes!  Actually, the whole family went, all 6 of is. Some of the sibs got a little squeamish about seeing it, and they decided to look at the stuff in the store.

 Getting ready to go...excited that Daddy is going too.

Sitting in the earring chair...I have a sucker ready. I read about the lollipop trick from hoot's momma. As soon as we sat her in the chair, the waterworks turned on. I had to give her the lollipop earlier than I anticipated. 

She got to pick her earrings. Back in the 1900's when I had mine pierced, it was gold little studs no other choice. She picked the Hello Kitty earrings. Aren't they precious?

There's the waterworks, just after picking the earrings...I am trying to assure her that all will be fine.

Daddy holds her hand.

Daddy holds her hand, and her blanket, mine, is not too far away either.

 The Manager came to put the dots on Jolie's ears. She said she was very particular about getting them straight and she actually wiped them off twice and did it again to get it just right. Notice, Jolie is already having a lollipop and we have not even got to the piercing yet.

 That eye on the poster is rather eerie. 

Waa Laa...the dots are even.

 ready set go...

One big pinch and 

 it's ober

 She liked her sticker...

 cute little hello kitty earrings...

All happy now...

Then we went to grab a bite to eat.

My gorgeous Karlie poses at the lunch table.

two bros..

WE had a fun family Saturday. Ear piercing, lunch grabbing, just hanging out as a family...it was a good day.