Weekend Reflection # 24

Another week in our lives has come and gone. I always enjoy writing about my week since it helps me to recollect all of the things I have to be thankful for! This week is no exception.

Last Sunday we attended worship and afterwards visited my BIL in the hospital. He recently started dialysis, which has helped him feel much better. Last weekend he was admitted to the hospital due to some blood count levels being low. We sat with him on Sunday for a few hours to keep him from being so bored. He wasn't sick but the doctor wanted to be extra cautious and so decided to keep him in the hospital all weekend. I think he appreciated the company since there's nothing to do while you're in the hospital besides watch tv. He was released the next morning and is doing wonderfully!

Logan had been gone to my grandma's and then to my mom's since Friday. She returned on Monday evening and we were glad to have her back! She had fun in Virginia with my grandma for a couple of nights and then went to West Virginia to stay with my mom for a few nights. They had fun visiting with each other and just taking it easy.

On Wednesday evening, we invited Jeff's parents over for supper. I made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, soup beans, cornbread, and salad. My MIL brought her famous mac-n-cheese. I'm convinced that NO ONE in the world makes mac-n-cheese as good as this woman does. We had a wonderful meal together and an even better time relaxing and chatting. Since they've been so tied up with helping my BIL while he's been sick, we've not had alot of time to just spend with them and focus on them. We tried to do that with this meal and I think it worked. After supper we headed outside to build a fire in our new outdoor chimney that my mom brought to me last week. We ate strawberry delight for dessert and the kids roasted a few marshmallows. It was the most fun, relaxing night I'd had in a long time. The in-laws enjoyed themselves too because they called the next day to rave over the meatloaf I'd made! It really was a good recipe! Thanks Kraft Foods!

On Thursday the girls and I did our normal errand running and took Caroline to piano lessons. When we came home, our house felt like a sauna. It was bad. After a little investigating, I determined the heat pump was messed up. I called Jeff at work to let him know and we tried to figure out what to do. We couldn't get in touch with the regular repair guys so we did without air for the night.

Friday brought a new day and the first order of business was heat pump repair. I decided I'd flip it on to see what would happen before I called the repair guys. I was speechless when cold air started blowing and the fan on the heat pump was going like a charm! How's that for answered prayer! It's been working ever since! Not sure what the problem was and it still may break but for now we're chillin'! Friday night we took the kids to Books-A-Million for the midnight release of the last Harry Potter book. I had fun sniffing, I mean looking at all the books I wanted to buy! I even came home with one called The Same Sweet Girls. It was on the clearance table for $3 so my hubby was kind enough to get it for me! I wanted to buy Mr. Darcy's Diary but just couldn't bring myself to pay $14.95 for it, even though hubby offered to buy it for me! He's such a swell guy! Anyway, the girls had a blast waiting to get their copy of the book. BAM was packed and that made it all the more fun. I was amazed at the adults who are so crazy about HP. They were dressed up like characters from the book/movie so our eyes were busy looking at all that. I forgot to mention that before going to BAM, we took the kids to Chili's. We ordered chocolate molten cake for dessert and shared it. This is a big deal for me because I love me some chocolate molten cake. I like to have my own chocolate molten cake...all to myself. You get the picture. It was hard to share all of the warm, chocolaty goodness but I did it!

Saturday we were invited to have supper with our friends, the O's. We showed up at their house around 5:30 and were greeted by the wonderful smell of homemade Carolina pulled pork bbq. I love me some bbq! Mr. O had smoked it on his grill and I mean this stuff was the best bbq that anyone has ever served me! It was restaurant quality. We also enjoyed grilled corn, homemade salsa (yummy), baked beans, and caesar salad. Mrs. O served waffle cones filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with chopped up Snickers bars and Reese cups on top for dessert. This young wife sure knows the way to my heart...waffle cones and chocolate! This was one of the best meals I've ever had! After the meal, Jeff, Caroline, and myself enjoyed whipping up on Logan and the O's during our game of Pictionary. We had a blast and called it a night around 9:45. We came home and put the kiddos to bed and Jeff and I watched Pursuit of Happyness. We liked it pretty well although Jeff thought it wasn't much to write home about. It got a "just ok" from him. I liked it because it was based on a true story and I love to see someone triumph after such hardships.

A few things I'm thankful for this week are:

• a wonderful church family and pastors who teach me so much week after week
• a thoughtful husband who constantly does things that cause my love for him to grow more and more each day
• two beautiful daughters who are loving and obedient to their parents
• my friend Jenny, who constantly makes me laugh or inspires me (go visit her on the 28th and help her raise money during blogathon)
• answered prayer concerning our heat pump
• the abundance of cucumbers I'm pulling from our garden
• wonderful people I've met in the blogosphere
• the cool new outdoor fireplace thingy my mom gave us

I hope you've had a good week and that the coming one proves profitable. I'll leave you with a few photos:

A few garden crops:

Outdoor fireplace given to us by my wonderful mother:

Another one of my favorite man-kitty, Tumnus:

Have a great day!