Easter

Easter has been and will always be my favorite day.  Trumps Christmas and Valentines ... even my birthday.  And, we all know how I love my birthday.

Our day was quiet.  Just us.  Which is how I am liking it lately.  I think I am on the verge of turning into a hermit.  I attribute it to the fact that we leave the house at 6:30 in the morning and most nights don't get home until 5:00 at the earliest.  I love what I do, but when I am home, I don't want to leave.

But, enough about my hermitish tendencies lately.  Easter.  Love it.  Every thing about it.  Except this year I took ONE picture.  No pictures of fancy clothes.  No picture of the festive meatloaf I made for lunch.  (For real. Meatloaf.  And, it just might become a new tradition ... because Dean, Torrey and Gram love my meatloaf!)  No pictures of us just being family.  None.

But, I did take a picture of Torrey's Easter basket bucket.  Only because I take one every year.  Needless to say, I am a bit in love with her Easter basket bucket.

Happy Easter!  He is risen.  He is risen indeed!

Easter in Pinehurst

We drove to Linda and Paul's for a family Easter today.  With everyone's schedules it was just easier ... it being the real day didn't matter.  We just wanted to be together.

 Because, wouldn't you want to spend the day with this cuteness?

 And she really is this cute in person ... well, perhaps cuter, because on the blog she is silent.  In real life she is not.  At all.

 Gram came with us ... which was a treat for all of us.  She had surgery on her eye and is still sporting a broken elbow, but she came.  She is a trooper.

 We started our fun in the pool.  Linda sent us temperature readings throughout the week.  It is still a little cold for me ... but not for these two!

 Or this one ... who has turned into a fish.  And, clearly cuteness runs in the family. All three are darlin'!

 We spent our time eating, catching up and laughing ... what we always do.  There was a ton of delicious food.  And not a picture for proof.  Oh well.

 When Torrey heard there was going to be an egg hunt she declared the three littles were "...going down.  I've got the eyes of a fox!"  She really is nice ... I promise!  Mikie decided to put her to the challenge and hid eggs in the house for her ... he was almost able to disprove her "fox-eyes" theory!

 More chatting ... actually waiting for the BIG egg hunt.  Does it look like she is ready to go?

 Clearly she didn't think she was cute enough and had to add an accessory to cutify herself!

 And they are off!  There were a ton of eggs and three littles determined to find them all.

 Her basket wasn't quite full enough ... on to find more eggs!

 So cute ... she ran past about 30 eggs trying to catch up with the bigger kids.

 Taking a break ... with three eggs in her basket.

 Linda, aka Neeni, making sure to not miss a moment!

 Cheese ... and then ready to get back into the action.

 Disaster on aisle 3 ... someone fell on a run down the hill and spilled eggs everywhere.  I promise he is OK ... just sad for the moment.

 Happiness returns ... his sister helps him pick up his loot and announces that we are "going to pause" ... as in the egg hunt.  She is a hoot.

 Picture time.  As a mom of one I have never experienced this before .... but how do you get a good picture of three little ones?  They are all looking a different place!

 Back to the pool ... and a game of throw the ball and splash your mother.  Oh, I loved it.  Not.

And our Easter celebration day was complete with an appearance by the Easter beagle.

Thanks, Linda and Paul, for a great day.  So glad your pool is open ... but, you may be sick of us by the end of the summer (insert evil laugh here)!

And She's Off!

I am still traumatized over taking Torrey to Kindergarten back in August of 2001.  So, what has transpired this week has left me looking for a therapist.  Because I am not ready for little girl to grow up!

This week IT happened.  Torrey started drivers ed.  Boo.  But, Thursday will go down as the worst day of the week ... because she took her test to get her permit.  And passed.  

Which led to today's fun adventure ...

 Her first official time behind the wheel for a driving lesson with her dad.  Oh, sure she was all smiles as they were leaving the driveway.

Dean?  Not so much!  I sent him with the camera (picture of the day ... remember?)  When I looked as soon as they got home, he had it set to open on this picture first.  Hilarious!

Not sure how either one of them felt about the first time on the road ... fortunately we have a lot of time to practice before she gets her license!

Wash Your Feet Day

I teach at a Christian school.  Which brings me joy.  I have taught at several different Christian schools, but this one is different in that we go to Bible as one of our specials.  There are teachers in our Lower School who only teach Bible.  Do I even need to say that they make it real and relevant to the children?

As we begin the Easter story, our Kindergarten Bible teacher tells the children the story of the Last Supper and how Jesus washed the disciples feet.  And then she washes their feet.  We simply call it "Wash Your Feet Day" ... and I look forward to it like a Kindergartner looks forward to Christmas.

The first time I witnessed "Wash Your Feet Day", I was not prepared ... at all.  They started by putting out one foot ...

 And, criminitely, how cute are Kindergarten feet? But, wait ... it doesn't stop there ...

Because then sweet Mrs. Jennings goes around and washes their feet and whispers prayers over the children.  And, all the while the child whose foot she is washing is listening and grinning and knowing that they are loved.  

My first year she whispered to one little girl, "Jesus loves you so much" ... and the joy on that sweet ones face is a look I will never forget.  Because that little one NEEDED to hear those words.  She NEEDED to know that she is desperately loved by our Savior.  

And what am I doing while all this is going on?  Taking it all in ... with tears streaming down my face.  Every year I pray that my children will be changed by our Bible class ... and I know that I will be changed too.

Burgers, Snow Cones, Strawberries ... Oh My!

When we woke up today we had a plan ... which was a first for us this Spring Break. Spring Break for Torrey and I could be called the "Week of the No Plan" ... and it was fantastic.  But, Dean was home and we had a plan ... partly because we had to cram a whole week of fun into one day.  Dern the "Week of the No Plan"!

We started with lunch at Smash Burgers ... a first for us.

 It was OK ... Five Guys is still our fave.  I got a salad ... which Torrey said was my problem.  Perhaps.


There was then a fun for me trip to Pottery Barn.  There are no pictures because it was only fun for me ... the only thing that kept Torrey in the game was knowing that right after we were finished in Pottery Barn we were headed to ...

 Mam's House of Ice.  Oh how we love!  We discovered this little trailer of icy goodness last summer.  It is only open during the warm months (thankfully MOST of the year in Houston) and the only draw back is the almost hour drive to get a snow cone.  Worth the drive.  And the usual half hour or more wait.  This was our first snow cone of the season ... it won't be our last!


After the snow cone goodness, we drove to my favorite farm stand to pick strawberries.  Seriously.  If you visit me in the summer, I guarantee you will get a snow cone and a trip to Frohberg's.  You may not love either as much as me, but just pretend.

 At this point in the post, I want to throw out there that Blogger is being wonky.  It is allowing some pictures, but not others.  Huh?  I may or may not be to blame.  Whatever blogger.


Right before I took this picture, we passed a group of women and one of them exclaimed, "No one told me there would be sweating involved!"  Which caused us to giggle ... and then Dean got a whiff of manure and this picture HAD to be taken!

 Oh field of strawberry goodness ... I would pick every single ripe strawberry if I had three weeks!  The field stretched on and on and on.  Super fun for this city girl.

 Torrey had been wanting to go strawberry picking most of Spring Break.  At some point we decided to wait until Dean could go with us ... neither one of them had been strawberry picking before.  Huh?  She loved it.

 I loved that I didn't have to pick one single strawberry.  Oh, I kid.  I picked about ten.  The only thing my two strawberry pickers did not love were the bees.  There are some things you don't tell people about until you are absolutely certain they can't back out.  

 In the end, one bucket had 4 pounds and the other one had 3 (slacker, Dean) ... which means we now have 7 pounds of strawberries in the fridge.  Um, anyone know what to do with that many strawberries?

When we left the field we spotted this little beauty ... since we were so close to St. Patrick's Day, we got a good giggle.  Because I'm pretty sure this isn't the "pot o gold" everyone thinks of when they think of a rainbow!

In the end it was a glorious day.  Well, it was glorious in the beginning too.  And the middle.  And the ...

Why We are Adding a Few Locks

Spring Break is two days away.  Two.  If you are quiet you can hear the angel's singing.  It has been a long two and half months.  Very long.

We are staying home this year.  Well, half of us are staying home.  Dean will be in Orlando for meetings.  Torrey and I are pretty bitter about it.  He comes home the evening of her 15th birthday ... which only adds salt to the wound.

With or without him we have plans ... none of which involve me going to see that Bieber kid's movie.  Which is totally contrary to Torrey's belief.  I have bigger plans ... cleaning out our closet (AGAIN ... I think it will have to become a bi-annual event!) and adding some locks to the front door.  Mostly because I discovered these on the camera when I got home ...

The past two weeks have been "Interim Term" in high school.  Which basically means for the past two weeks Torrey has been doing fun things.  The first week is all about service ... she served at a homeless mission.  And loved it.  This week has been a little different.  On Monday she went on a walking tour of downtown Houston ... didn't love so much.  Last night she went to see Billy Elliott on Houston's version of Broadway.  Loved.  

Tonight she was headed to see the Blue Man Group.  They have to dress up a bit ... tonight was more casual.  Dean snapped these for me ... mostly because I haven't really seen her since Monday night since she has been out late.

And, seeing these kind of made me cringe.  And, not just because I posted a picture of my girl standing in front of a huge empty wall that needs to be repainted.

No ... I cringed because cuteness is growing up.  When did this happen?  And how? And who gave permission?  

But, I've got no time to sleuth out the answers ... I've got to go add to our lock situation.  I've got a feeling we are going to be needing them soon!

43 Things about Tracy...

As is my annual tradition, each year on February 12^th, the 12^th of February, I “hack” Tracy’s blog to post a birthday wish. Today, 43 things about Tracy...

She loves and trusts God. She loves me. She loves Torrey. She never talks bad about me to her friends. She’s a GREAT Teacher. She likes a good nap. She picks a lane and stays there.  She protects Sophie. She makes me laugh. She is a book worm. She does a terrific Barney Fife impression.  She is smart. She pours a mean Diet Coke. Jesus wants her to be happy. She doesn't like talking on the phone. She hates the smell of fish. She is a blog stalker. She’s addicted to Starbucks, lemon heads and Angry Birds. She has an unusual attraction to frosting.  She’s craftsy. She likes to be home. She always takes the smallest slice. She can always tell when people are full of it. She wishes we got an electric blanket 18 years ago. She is Ben’s birthday buddy. She loves the beach. Easter is her favorite Holiday. She sorts in piles. She has 383 emails in her inbox. She proofreads all my important emails. She doesn’t like change but is always willing to breathe through it. She colors inside the lines. She is shy. She makes delicious rolls. She doesn’t like cold weather. She cries on the last day of school. She is already planning her (Torrey’s) wedding.  She knows a touchdown is worth 6 points. She is sweet to her friends. She is a “little” competitive. She was there when I caught my first firefly. She changed my life for the better when she said, “Where’d you get that?” and then said “Yes.”  She is 29 (again) today!

Happy Birthday, Tracy! Torrey and I both love you very much!

Dean