Our Family Weekend!

 I'll start off tonight's journal entry of our weekend with a pic from 2011....

10 years ago!

My two daughters.....Amber and Summer.....22 years apart.

I had Summer when I was 15 years old and Amber when I was 36....the age Amber will be this June.

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

God blessed us with such a wonderful weekend!

First of all, Summer came home on Friday!!

She flew home along with a long time friend from childhood, Jimmy.

He had flown out to Puerto Rico right after all that ice and snow we had.

Summer and Sabrina hosted him and showed him the sights, sounds, and tastes of the island.

He had the vacation of a lifetime!

They got an Uber from the airport and we had a social distance visit right there on our driveway!

Kimmy and June stopped by just as Summer and Jimmy arrived!

Talk about perfect timing!!

We had so much fun seeing everyone and Summer and Louis Dean acted all crazy and made us laugh even more! I guess the visit didn't last much more than an hour - and Kimmy and June left even sooner.

Summer was exhausted and was happy to see her van again. She went on to Rowlett and Jimmy took another Uber home.

And just like that - everyone was gone.

Louis Dean and I had a glass of wine out on the driveway like old times.

I went to bed early Friday night - 9:00 - and read for about an hour before going to sleep.

That's a far cry from the late nights/wee hours of the morning that we used to stay up!

We were drinking coffee in the living room on Saturday morning when Dean and Sherry called.

They were on their way to our house where daughter, Crystal, would meet up with them.

How exciting to see all three for a few minutes before they went off to celebrate Crystal's birthday!

I wasn't thinking and didn't take a single photo!

Shortly after they left, we headed over to the Stars Center to watch the Bell Quads play back to back hockey games!

Kailey took this pic of us.......

and a whole lot of other ones I found on my phone!!

It's a tradition they take pictures for me to find later!

Logan and Harrison played the first game - and they WON!!!

They celebrate by creating a big pile up of all the players!

This is another pic Kailey took - this time using her mommy's fancy phone!

She is showing great interest in photography.

Before the first game ended, Amber was doing her Hockey Mom routine and strapping tape and lacing up Trystan's skates! Another pic from Kailey.

Now it was Trystan and Kailey's turn to play a game.

Which gave Amber and Mike a chance to be spectators.

He was over in the coaching area for the first game.

They both are so active in supporting the kids in this sport.

I am still amazed that all FOUR love hockey!!

After we left the rink, I took Louis Dean to Home Depot for some more plumbing supplies.

I forgot to say that when Sherry and Crystal were here that morning, I was outside showing them the new decks and, as we walked around the back pond, Sherry noticed the faucet pipe was cracked and shooting out a pin hole spray of water. So after they left, Louis Dean fixed that pipe again - for the 5th time! Since I was there, I bought some plants to replace the ones the cold weather killed.

Later we will have to dig up huge scrubs and bushes and do some re-landscaping.

Finally, I went in to a Mexican grocery store here in Irving on O'Connor Road.

It's always like a party when you shop there on the weekend!

Music and laughter and everyone seems like they are having such a good time!

I love that place!

Home and, once again, I was in bed by 9:00!

What's up with this??

This Sunday morning, I was up first, and rightly so since I went to bed so early!

I listened to Fellowship Church online and then cooked a good breakfast.

Ham, egg and cheese sandwich with fresh fruit and a pumpkin muffin.

I never think about getting my hair cut on a Sunday but when I called Yulisa earlier this week, she said she wouldn't be in until today so I booked a noon appointment!

She is amazing and always does such an excellent job in making my hair look so much better!

I left the salon and was sitting in my car thinking about Logan......they are going on a ski trip soon and Logan had asked me to help her make a llama pillow from a sewing kit she got at Christmas.

We are going to the ranch this week so the time to help her was closing in.

I sent Amber a text asking if I could pick Logan up a little later and we could have some one-on-one time together.

I did and we had the best time!

The first thing she wanted to make was tea!

I make concoctions that are seldom ever duplicated.

Today I chose some Lavender Chamomile while Logan added a few bags of Cherry along with some green tea and a couple of teabags of black. Then Logan picked some mint sprigs and we brewed all that up. We chose long stemmed glasses and added our ice, a few blueberries and a strawberry, a slice of lemon and more mint plus a few drops of sweetner. We made a big pitcher full and it was delicious!!!

We settled down to the sewing project at hand.

Logan is such a natural and I've taught her how to use my Bernina sewing machine.

The directions were all for hand sewing but we opted to do as much by machine as possible.

We needed to get this done and done TODAY!

It turned out so CUTE!!!!

We both got a laugh as we were reading the instructions.

I pointed out one sentance that said, "Do not use this as a pillow."

**Source**

And it was a PILLOW kit!!

I told her it would be fine to use since it was all well sewn and the back side is a nice silky fabric.

She will put that side to her face.

On to baking a cake!

She used Aunt Summer's recipe for a sour cream pound cake.

I love that she dated and signed the recipe.

While the cake was in the oven.....

we made taco soup together.

I opened the cans and she stirred the pot.

Logan also cooked the ground beef, onions and green pepper in a big skillet.

I held the skillet up and she scooped it into the soup pot and then stirred that as it heated through.

The cake turned out great!!

I cut slices to send home with her for all the family.

Plus I sent a jar of the best tea ever - according to Logan!

I have to agree with her!

And now it is close to midnight so my 9:00 bedtime is not happening tonight!

Just a quick update on Lonnie:

Michele is looking for a rehab facility once he is strong enough to go.

There are so many decicsions to make and she has so much on her heart and mind right now.

It will be a long hard road back to health for Lonnie but we are all going to help him as much as we can.

Once again......