Weekend Reflection # 22

Another week has come and gone and this one was just as full as ever!

Last Sunday we attended worship and afterwards, Jeff left for Valle Crucis, NC. The girls and I came home and relaxed all evening and watched Jump In together.

Monday, we got up early and by lunch time we were on the road to Greeneville, TN (one hour away) to meet up with some friends, the P's, at their house. Mrs. P and I did some t-shirt painting with the kids and talked, alot. They have four children so the girls enjoyed an entire day of playing with them. They were kind enough to ask us to stay for dinner and fed us the "ideal" hotdog (thanks to Mike!) and some wonderful homemade salsa. Yum-O! We had a blast and didn't make it home until about 11:15 that night. Thanks for having us you guys! We were also able to stop by the Amish store in Greeneville before meeting the P's. This is my favorite little store! It has all sorts of Amish baked goods and yummy dried fruit!! The dried pineapples and craisins are a big hit in our house and I stocked up on these!

Tuesday, Logan went to "babysit" for a friend (her kids are 11 and 9 so it's not really babysitting). She came home around lunch time and about 3:00, we drove Caroline to a sleep over at her ballet teacher's house. Logan and I rented Mansfield Park and came home and watched it that night. We had already seen it but, like all of Jane Austen's work, we love it!

Wednesday was a fun day. My FIL showed up around 9am to help me paint shutters and get them back on the house. We finished up around 3:00 and the house looks great! It was such a relief to finish it up so that we can finally take a little break from home improvement projects! I forgot to mention that about 10am, I had to sneak off to pick up Caroline from the sleep over. She had a blast! The birthday party had a spa theme and the ballet teacher (also mom to the birthday girl) gave them all foot scrub treatments. Apparently a neighbor brought over some sparklers for all of the little girls at the party the night before. Caroline, who hates to wear shoes as much as I do, wasn't wearing shoes and stepped on a sparkler ash that burned a blister on her foot. Needless to say, the ballet teacher was horrified and was extremely worried about telling me. It really wasn't a big deal though because it was such a small blister. After we talked for a few minutes, I found out that she dislikes the use of fireworks as much as I do. They just scare me. I'm always afraid that someone is going to lose a finger or an eye. Jeff sometimes buys sparklers for the girls and I tell ya, I can't watch. I'm afraid they'll set their hair on fire so I go inside while they do it! Speaking of fireworks, we didn't go out to see any because the traffic around here just gets mad. We stood outside about 10:30pm and watched our neighbors shoot off some pretty impressive ones though! It was fun and the girls thought it was cool!

Thursday was Logan's 13th birthday! Wow! A teenager! It's so funny because I feel so young! LOL! We spent the morning tidying up the house while anticipating the arrival of a couple of Logan's friends. They were dropped off about 12:15 and the girls decided to play Sorry for awhile. About 1:30, we loaded up and went to CiCi's for Logan's annual birthday treat. Afterwards, we headed to the movie theatre to see Nancy Drew. The girls had a good time and afterwards, we went back to the house for a few hours. We enjoyed some birthday cake, courtesy of my favorite Aunt Kat! She and my uncle drove all the way over from Dryden, VA to deliver this birthday cake! They dropped it off about 10:30 and stayed for about an hour. They hurried off though because they knew we had plans for pizza and the movie with Logan's friends. Anyway, after we had cake and opened gifts, we took the friends home. Thanks C and L for the wonderful gifts you gave Logan! Thanks Aunt Kat and Uncle Elb for the beautiful cake, card, 20Q, Ruby Tuesday gift card, and the cash! You are such thoughtful people! And Brooke, thanks for stopping your mom from buying the really "uncool" ball she wanted to buy Logan! LOL! Just kidding Kat!

Friday Jeff got home around 3pm. We all missed him like mad and were glad he made it home safely. He learned alot while he was away and was very tired. We stayed in for the night and actually went to bed by midnight! For those of you who know us, this is a huge deal! Our regular bedtime is about 2am on most nights!

Saturday we enjoyed a wonderful evening cookout with my MIL, FIL, BIL, two nephews (who brought a friend and a girlfriend), and our new neighbor, Sunday. We grilled 18 hamburgers and many smoked sausages. My MIL made her famous mac-n-cheese and Sunday was very sad that it was all gone before she got seconds! We also had cowboy beans, chips, grilled onions and green peppers, and birthday cake with ice cream. The guys of our family played some fine bluegrass music while we tried to digest our food! It was a great way to finish out the week!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from Thursday. Sadly, I didn't snap a photo of my aunt and uncle while they were here but I did take one of their gifts and the cake they brought over. In no particular order, here they are:

I hope you had a great weekend! Enjoy the new one that is upon us!