Wrapping up A Great Week and Starting a Brand New One.....

 The Book Fair was a big success and I enjoyed every single minute of it!

This photo was taken at lunch on Tuesday.

Amber ordered Chick Fil A and the kids were allowed to come outside in the front of the school so we could all eat lunch together. Parents still are not allowed in the lunchroom due to Covid concerns.

It was such a beautiful day! 

Preview days were Monday - Wednesday and these proved to be a great thing as when the kids came in to shop on Thursday, they knew just exactly what they wanted!

I manned one of the check out registers and had so much fun with the kids.

When they handed me their items, I asked, "Did you find everything you were looking for today?"

Then I would give them their receipt and/or change and say something like, 

"Thank you for shopping the Book Fair with us!" or "It's a pleasure to do business with you!"

They got such a kick out of shopping just like their parents do 'in a REAL store!'

One special moment I will always treasure is when Bella, one of the quads classmates whose home burned down the week before - remember when I talked about that?

She is such a sweet little girl and was getting some books for her baby sister. I think she has one or two other siblings in school as well. Her teacher introduced her to me (her purchases were taken care of through the Scholastic Dollars program) and the first thing I said was, "I have been praying for you."

She smiled but you could tell she was sad and scared about the fire.

I told her my house had burned once, too, and asked if she had been home when the fire happened.

She said no and I told her it was a scary thing and I was scared when my house burned and I cried a lot and had a bad headache for a long time. She said she has one, too. We visited for a few minutes and I think it did her good to talk to someone who has gone through the same thing.

How like God to put me right there in front of her that day.

Kailey stopped by one day to say hello as she was going from one class to another.

All four of them enjoyed seeing us and I even let Logan check out a teacher on the last day after school let out. Speaking of Logan, she LOVED shopping and was buying pencils to give her siblings for Valentines. She would go through the line and check out - one pencil at a time - and always MY line!

I loved that!

A fun memory of this time 10 years ago.

Back then I was scared for my daughter and all she would be going through to give birth to four tiny babies at the same time. Shortly at this photo was taken, she was put on total bed rest until April 8th when she went to the hospital and stayed there for 52 days before giving birth at 29 weeks 5 days.

And now just look at how healthy and thriving these 'tiny babies' are now!!

It was a challenge getting up at 5:20 every morning for 5 days in a row!

I got what a call a 'Mother tired backache' from bending over the cash register.

On Thursday I went behind the book area and laid flat out on the floor. It felt so GOOD!

I told Amber, "This is corpse pose - my favorite yogurt position!!"

Hahahahaha!! Has it been that long since I've practiced yoga??

And it was a challenge for me to leave Louis Dean home alone and unsupervised!

The first day he decided to go to Bass Pro Shop - which is close to our church in Grapevine.

He got lost and went to the airport twice! So then he decided to just go buy groceries.....and bought 10 more pounds of potatoes to go with the last 10 pound bag we still had.

He cooked with oil every day except one. One day he cooked up sausage patties - using oil - and then cooked some hamburgers. Two bags of oily patties and he got confused about which was which! So he made a hamburger with the sausage! Something funny happened every day and we laughed and laughed!

Wednesday I came home and the laundry hamper was gone. He had taken it to the music room looking for his wallet by going through all his overalls. The next day he thanked me for finding it - but I hadn't. It was right there on the table beside his bed where he had put it the day before when he was going to take a nap.

I out the cats in the guest room every morning before I left for school - just so he wouldn't have to worry about them getting out! Friday afternoon he called me and asked, "Linda, have you done something with the cats??? " He had got lonely and let them out of the guest room and then inadvertently left the front door open so, of course, BOTH cats got out!

 They like to run under the truck so he went out there and started that diesel engine up and they shot out like lightning and went straight in the house where he ran them into the guest room and shut the door.

Except that Tabitha had run right back out of the guest room and out the front door - again!

She'd been out a good hour or more when I drove up in the driveway and, as I was getting out of the car, I saw her waltzing along in front of the house. Louis Dean had no idea she was outside all that time. She must have been tired because she ran in and went straight to the guest room - probably tired and thirsty after all her adventures!

One night I made us a simple salad and baked potato supper and we ate that while watching Bones.

The show started in 2005 - the year we married - and we didn't watch the first few seasons.

Louis Dean recorded the pilot episode and Seasons 1 and 2 and we have really enjoyed watching them.

The show ran for 12 seasons so we were tickled at how YOUNG everyone was!

Saturday morning I slept in and loved it before beginning Damage Control.

(He really did pretty good and the damage was on the light side.)

Then Satuurday afternoon the kids had a hockey game and we decided to go watch them play.

Mike's parents came, too! That's his mother's smiling eyes behind me!

They sure do love their Granddad!!!

It sounded like a good idea to all go out for a simple dinner since everyone was so tired.

Chipotle it was!

By now it was dark but I wasn't worried. We were close to the highway and I just needed to get out of the parking lot. That wasn't as easy as I thought and a firetruck was going out one exit so I was looking for another one when I saw the sign.

That's exactly what I was looking for!

Except that I noticed it was a really narrow lane for an exit .....

and then I saw there was a Starbucks window on the right.....

and then I noticed another car at the order place and he was coming my way.

I tried to scoot over but it's not designed for TWO cars!!

Thankfully, the driver of the other car was a kind person and he gave me a thumbs up through his front windshield and then proceeded to back up all the way OUT of the Starbucks lane, allowing me to finally EXIT! I rolled my window down and thanked him profusely!!! Louis Dean and I laughed all the way home!!!

I wish ALL the exit only signs reminded us DO NOT ENTER!!

Later Saturday night I sent Amber a text and told her to remind me to tell her about our adventure getting out of the parking lot!

She sent me back a text......

'I KNOW, Mom! We SAW you do it!!!'

We watched church online Sunday morning as Louis Dean did not get to sleep until 5:00 AM!

No reason....he just couldn't sleep.

Our pretty Samantha discovered a playmate in the mirror!

She was having fun!

It's crazy weather in Texas!

Friday it was nearly 80 degrees!

Than Saturday there snow flurries in the forecast for noon and it started to warm back up some on Sunday!

In pretty weather I leave our bedroom door open and the cats love the sunshine and watching out the screen door. I started packing for the ranch where we were supposed to go today (Monday) but now we're leaving in the morning.

I had been working on my journal entry and had edited all my photos but hadn't put them on the blog yet. 

Louis Dean came in and gave me a calendar and asked if I would paint this for him.

I made a pencil sketch of it using my Ribbet program and asked him if he had a printer cord to go to the laptop so I coule print it off. That's when my perfect Sunday stumbled and fell.

When I plugged it in - somehow it refigured all my drivers and when I tried to connect to the Internet to finish my blog - the printer came up as an Internet option.

After some near weeping and gnashing of teeth......I called Summer in Arkansas and she talked me through restoring the laptop to a previous date. She is so smart!! It took a few hours for the computer to finish that process - so I cleaned up and went next door to a Super Bowl party!

Stephanie and Mark are famous for their back yard parties!

It was just chilly enough to have a blanket around you or sit close by the fire.

I took Pepper Poppers prepared the way Sherry does them and they were so good!!

I love our Stephanie!!!

We have been neighbors for nearly 35 years and she has been there for me at my lowest point and I have been here for her as well. We are friends for life and I love her and Mark and their children like family.

Now in other news.........

Summer and Rayne have been at the Bar J Ranch this past week and had a great time.

Rayne is riding Neigh-ked - doesn't she look pretty???

They are driving back to Texas as I write this.

Guess what Summer learned to do??

Skin a calf! 

I need to get that photo onto my computer so I can show you!

She is learning so much while she's there volunteering her many skills making business cards and brochures and such for the business side of the ranch.

So now I think I am all caught up!

We are all packed up and ready to leave in the morning.

I just have to pack the groceries we will take with us.

One of our bee meetings is tomorrow evening so I want to get there in plenty of time for that.

We will head out by way of Fort Worth so we can see Lillian and take her some Cream Sodas and pizzas! I am averaging seeing her just once a month these days so I am happy she has a nice roommate to keep her company now. Thank y'all for the cards and notes and letters you send her.

She gets such a kick out of getting MAIL!!

Next Journal Entry will be from the COUNTRY!!