wonders of the world

well, maybe not the world but my mom rather.

Dear Mom, 

DId you find the "best" way to cook each and everything? 

 Just when i think i have a handle on things.... I volunteer to make the lemon squares for a big party....i know????  i am NOT a baker, while i do cook atleast once a day Usually- i lean the way of buying my sweets.... no reason...well, maybe it takes too long??  Anyway, since mom is not just a phone call away i was feeling LOST.... So i ran to her books and notes.....

this is ONE tenth of mom's cooking recipes, notes, lessons, etc.  

Running low on time and patience i turned to the ole' box labeled LEMON SQUARES

Lesson #1. DO NOT use the boxed mix its NEVER as good.

do you cook?  

Do you have a cast-iron skillet?  is it rightfully seasoned?  Mine is new to the mix so i have a feeling it is FAR from seasoned.. and i have a better feeling that my mom's would be worth some major money considering the years she put into it.....

 the pictures look rather current to me! what about you? it was fun to see the ads and pictures and think of what that scene would be now-a-days....

i can assure you my boys would not be leaning over my cooked meal smiling and not shoving one another out of the way trying to see the whos and whats. oh yeah, its just a picture but my hair would not be in a perfect bun either if you are taking bets.

and if you ARE a betting reader, you can bet my mom searched the front, back, middle and sides of the newspaper.....

my mom knew the tricks of the trade no dout.  So back to me SLAVING on my pre-boxed lemon squares....

tool to make them perfectly even

a helper

a disaster waiting to happen

and a distraction....

and then when you don't have all the ingredients, you send your beloved first born to fetch them for you.... AND HE DOES IT, no questions ask and then returns it when finished....

i am NOT a baker....YET... well, i may not even go there.... i will keep you posted but i just don't love to do it as i do cooking...who knows!  But as i am receiving bunches and bunches of cards and sweet emails about my mom: the main memory people recall is the one of my mom always taking people in.... Eating over at our house for breakfast on weekends, and dinner many nights out of the week.... a big group of girls shared dinner from mom before preforming at football games and before dance practice or gymnastics..... My mom welcomed and cooked for All who wanted some no matter what time or day and SHE LOVED IT!!!  Thanks mom, you made an impact on so many people who remembered how you loved to host them and caretake and feed....

And thanks to my sorority sisters i do NOT have to cook tonight and i have some beautiful flowers to enjoy! thanks girls.  

alas!

a home for MANY things.....

a home for my strawberries, blackberries, & MIA blueberries.... I know what you are thinking daddyc,

 but at a mere 4 inches wide, these are the cutest things ever!!!

a TENT, a home for my little wild indians....finally!!!!

Dear Mom, 

while i know its nothing on the tent you and big daddy found in Highlands that summer, 

it was also NOT near that expensive but i am still in search of that nice one for my monkey's room.

i miss you, 

Amy

and a home for their little fanny's when we do "time out" outside.....kidding, only kidding!  but i couldn't resist these.

the red chairs... are they not the cutest? thank you. i thought so too!

And our 4th child, SpiderMan blends right in.... 

Oh and a new love of mine is these shoes.... Thats right, my hornet and littlest lamb ACTUALLY got their OWN shoes this season.... i tell no lie. its true!  

and a HOME for our bats, lacrosse sticks, tennis rackets, & random outdoor toys.....

i know, i have a thing for baskets....

Dear Daddyc,

i know we had the wire basket but in my defense if i had to look at the sticks/bats poking out of the sides of that wire MESS, i think i may have done some true DAMAGE..... so looking at it that way, and i hope you will, i saved the toys and maybe a small child by buying this ADOrABLE basket to store them in....AND the wire one works great with all our balls.... Agree?  I knew you would understand.

love,

Amy

do you have little ones? does your back porch look like this?  The answer to my face is YES!

And i am giving my littlest lamb ANOTHER chance at eating at his little table, by bringing it back inside, and hoping he will NOT climbing ON TOP of the table and dump all plates over..... i will keep you posted and i will not set expectations too high either! so far so good.

And i don't know about your family but mine are all wiped out in the afternoons from great summer weather and too much action..... We are summer lovin' for sure!

Oh. and if you can possibly scout out the blown up fish in the wire basket (its green)...

that is SO BIG!

although; it was in the midst of my last week with mom at the hospital, therefore i didn't get a chance to explain how very BIG DEAL the fish and note on our mailbox was to my monkey.....And by the time i got home, i was emotionally drained and didn't have it in me.... And my monkey and daddyc had riped that thing down faster than it was put up...... Yes, we are the only BIG FISH from monkey's school that doesn't have it STiLL up on our mailbox celebrating the big move.....

long story kinda short....

A couple weeks ago my biggest baby who is 4 years old...sniff sniff.. got invited by our school director to be included in the 5k program.... the big fish....while he should be ONLY moving onto 4k and going 4 days a week, this means he will be going FIVE days a week, read that and weep as me and daddyc did.    While we are so proud of him and we both LOVE his future teacher, and have been over in FINE detail what all he will learn, experience, etc.  And find out our public schools have adopted Mrs. Francis' know-hows this year... Impressive!  NO NO he will NOT skip kindergarten by any means just get a wonderful year with mrs. francis-  There will be TWO teachers, 6 boys, and 3 girls in his class.... Lots of field trips and all the subjects and extras, like chapel you would do in "big" school plus some due to the church part of it.   We have been to meet the teacher and ask all our questions and been to our first of many open houses.   word on the street this is  A BIG DEAL  (no one would be more excited than my monkey's lolly......she would be taking him for superman icecream and buying him something fun for sure!)  This being my oldest baby, i don't exactly know the big dealness to it....but we have a ceremony next week to graduate him from mothers day out to the big fish class, 5k.  
Anywho, i find this is times i really hurt for my mom..... I do in fact think she was my monkey's BIGGEST fan.   She was proud of him when he brought her a worm....i can't imagine the smile and tears she is shedding now...... She did tell me last month her heart was TRULY broken at how "big" charlie was- all four years of himself..... Have i informed my readers how much our lolly LOVED her grandbabies..... We miss you lolly!  And last night during prayers my monkey said...

"mom, i love you to Heaven and back....well, Mom, I think i love you all the way to Lolly and then back.... thats a whole lot, isn't it?"  And if lolly is involved yes, its always a lot.....

And these are reasons i should NOT be allowed to leave the house..... are these not so so so stinkn' cute?  I had to scoop them up for future use.... 

The bags. perfect if you are having a family cookout gathering and want to feed the kids earlier you could have everyone a sack lunch packed in their OWN (very important to little ones) sacks adorned with the cutest cookout art.  I know.... i thought they were a "must-buy" too.

And the little favor boxes....How did these things find their way to the "clearance" rack??  I just had to save them.... What a fun little box to put something in!  i can't wait!!!!

is anyone still there??? I had to snap some fun shots of daddyc's lunch break and a good peek into my window at some normal activity around my parts.

one playing baseball, one beating the life out of my plants...i won't name any names.  to each their own, right?

we managed to use all angles, little brothers make it hard.....rinse and repeat.

And we gave our furry brothers a bath too and created yet another little furry THING.... No wonder they want to stay inside....

And just like that my little hornet took himself back inside and climbs to heights to draw on MY JUST made place-cards for our big bash tomorrow night.... 

Don't ever ask me why we "blog" named him hornet.... There is NO NEED!!! There is a need for time-out, spankings, and any other suggestions though so feel free to send..... Kinda kidding!  Hope your day was filled with fun like ours.

Leftovers....

And thats about par for the pictures too....they are LEFTOVERS for sure....
Note:  My monkey was with his big daddy and Uncle Chris, Aunt Holly, & Baby Caroline

Dear Uncle Chris,

Charlie ask me to have you over ALL DAY EVERYDAY and will ask "is this a day i can camp out with Chris" and i reply "no, sweetie Uncle Chris is a daddy too, he has to work during the week and honestly mommy isn't ready for you to sleep outside yet" his response "PUHLEASE mom, we are going to camp at the PLAYGROUND and plus, i am very brave" i changed the subject but i don't know if he will ever understand Uncle Chris is NOT FOUR years old believe it or not!

He is YOUr biggest fan,

Amy

notice the fireman the little hornet had to bring.... And i tell NO LIE when i say this little terror, hornet-like of an angel is SCARED of the animals he LOVES.... Daddyc did not put him down once-  He can take on 10 children his age AT ONCE, and climb mt. everst at ease but don't dare let a duck or sea lion come close.....  Come on Sam-i-am!

 i can hear my angel saying this animal's name right now

ALLA GADE ORRRR

And the littlest lamb was just that.  I don't know if he saw any animals or if he cared, he enjoyed his juice and the STROLL around the zoo no less.  He had it made in the shade!

yup, scared of the flamingos too

and of the birds....

we saved the BEST for last..... our hornet saw it from a mile away..... A PPOOOONNNNYYY mama! A PPPOOONNNYY dad dee!!

And some goats...

"babee goats mommy"

Yes, i see Sam, Do you want to go pet them

"EEESSSS want to pet them"

well, you just never know when a goat is going to charge you so he decided NOT to get down and pet them..... we were shocked. wink wink. 

Dear Daddyc, were you even looking at the goats?  having fun?  

And what about here.  Sam is keeping tabs on those killer sheep while DaddyC seems to be checking out the oh so fabulous Barn door that i NEED for somewhere, give me a day and i will find a good spot.  

And i almost threw up thinking that i let my first born play in this "stuff"

and he was only a mere tot at the time.....do you think babies tee tee in there? spit up? throw up? 'cause you know they are sweating.....And i feel for sure if he ask again to get in, i would give in and look the other way..... No rhyme or reason why but that just completely grosses me OUT!!

family ties

our weekend was a good one... Full of family time....well, a full smaller family filled weekend anyway.  We lost our biggest baby to his big daddy.... He called his big daddy friday afternoon

"um, big daddy, i was wondering...can you come get me, i want to go with you to the lake? oh and we need to do some work and burn some stuff, right?"

And KNOW you all are shocked, big daddy headed RIGHT over, gave a minute to the little boys and the big boys high tailed it to lake martin for yet another fun filled weekend of swimming, see-do riding, boat riding/driving, burning large piles of "stuff" (what is it with boys and burning things???), fishing games with our aunt holly, checkers games, and all kinds of fun things the lake house brings.... THis weekend it also brought our FAMOUS uncle chris, aunt holly, and the best baby EVER baby caroline..... smitten he was with his company!   I was glad to get him back sunday night in my arms; although, i gotta admit....TWO children made for a breezy weekend- that 1:1 ratio of parent/child seems to easy.....
we had some fun of our own staying in town.... an old mill party friday night to which i received an early email

"Amy, you and your counterpart seemed to be having a BLAST last night"  it said other things too and i coulda  read into that with a 

1. what were we doing that was so noticed  

2. did we over serve one another 

3. did anyone else think that

but i didn't read into it AT ALL and replied, "we did, the band was great and it was good to see you too", she too was a dear friend who meant nothing but the sweet offer to bring us dinner one night..... Us, girls, have a way of dissecting anything and EVERYTHING said to us.... MUST NEVEr DO tHAT again....its bad for your health!!  Anyway, so saturday morning i tackled TWO weeks of laundry and ironing with lots of daddyc's help, we breaked to take our little boys to the zoo or lack thereof due to the construction zones involved..... And later that afternoon we took to a friend's family bbq event, great friends, adorable children everywhere and good food. PERFECt!!!  Sunday, we made it to church ON TIME...see miracles DO HAPPEN....  there were a total of 5 GIRLS in our sunday school class (4 year old girls, remember my monkey was out of town) and daddyc and i did NOT know what to do with ourselves.....the quietness, CALMNESS, attention to the craft at hand, intently listening to the lesson, and placing the stickers RIGHT where you ask them too.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A GIRL MAKES?  in my next life i may have all girls but for now, i will enjoy my extremely LOUD, stinky, DIRtY, crazy, WILD, Mama's boys.   Needless to say, we were in awe of the difference in their actions and it was a nice morning to reflect our Lord when normally we can not hear ourselves talk....... so that was my weekend of family ties.... i did take some photos but don't feel like including them, you understand don't you?  i really wanted to pull the CUUVVVAAASSS (thats my middle baby's way of saying covers, so old south he is) back over my head but instead i will funnel this coffee and take to the trails in this muggy weather the day brings.....Not complaining my green grass is a shade of yellow and needs rain.

a good day!

so i am going to have a GOOD day today, not that i have had bad days but just EXTREMELY busy days and nights.  Charles and I (and our sweet boys) hosted our fabulous group of friends for supper-club last night.  Everything went off withOUT a hitch.....I felt like i didn't do much of anything.... A couple EASY appts., a LARGE pot of seafood gumbo, with pot of rice and warm buttered bread.  And the BEST part was the store BOUGHT yummy big cookies..... I know i REALLY outdid myself this round, ha!  But it was simple and good and these friends don't mind a bit, i think i will go low key from now on; however, ONE DAY i want to use the fancy china and crystal i graciously received from getting married, I DID take it out of the bubble wrap last year so maybe just maybe we will have a fancy dinner........wait.  Does that mean i will have to hand wash ALL that silver, crystal, & china??????

you are right, it looks better in the cabinet to me too. scratch that.

And if i had these shoes to wear iT WOULD FOR SURE be a GOOD day!

it would be a oh so grand day if i could be sitting in this kitchen enjoying my coffee RIGHT NOW!

but then i would miss blogging and listening to SPIDER MAN in the background.....maybe i will stick to what i know....

oh and what would NOT be a good day is if i showed up wearing a JUMPER.... 

Can we just leave some clothes for little one's who wear diapers please?  it is HARD to pull this off, granted some girls do, NOT MANY but a hand full..... Be glad i am NOT one of them.

AND for some little boys and girls.... THIS WAS FOR SURE A GOOD DAY!!!!  if aunt katie and MK are involved AND A POLICEMAN its ALWAYS a good day! (mk has the INS on a true live policeman as an uncle....so cool!)

And i have found over this week most  of my dear friends want to help me remember my mom, do things for me constantly, bring me things, talk to me all day etc. etc. etc. And i love you for it! And i could not ask for better friends.....and i DO miss YOU ALL.....but It is a little tricky with three wild boys and their schedules and jumping back into our "normal" events as well.   Excuse me if i have not returned your calls and emails..... I find i am still trying to catch my breath!  

we are old mill garden club Partying tonight.... No, it has NOTHING to do with gardening....just an excuse for girl gatherings and a couple parties sprinkled through the year.... I ADVISE you join in!  Happy Friday i hope for you and yours its a 

GOOD DAY