Family Celebrations.....

 It's been a week since I posted and I don't think I've ever been this slow!

I have been so busy with life that I haven't had the time or even the energy to document it as I love to do. I opened my country diary to write for the first time in days and found it has been over a week since I wrote in that! And to top it all off - I had not even kept up with the days on my kitchen planner!So now I shall catch up and hope to never get this behind again!

Last Saturday was Levi's high school graduation party and it was a lot of fun.

Jesse and Rachel had cooked up a feast of Mexican food - all made from scratch!

Pulled pork as well as chicken fajitas, Spanish rice, refried beans, guacamole, chips, salsa, and pico de gallo! 

There were lots of family there to celebrate as well as friends.

Rachel's mom, Margaret, was there with her grands and she and I had a nice visit together.

Margaret and Nita worked together at Haynie's Grocery Store - a family store owned by Nita and her husband, Bob. It was good to catch up and what a blessing to already have the framework of friendship already there.

I didn't take many pictures since I was so busy visiting with everyone.

Some of the granddaughters, daughters, and Margaret had already left by the time it dawned on me I needed a photo!

Here are some of the guys...

Mike, Louis Dean, Levi, Harrison, Sam and front and center, my oldest son!

He is such a blessing to all of us!

The party started at 5:00 and, of course, we were late but we still arrived home before dark.

The sun had set but it wasn't dark dark.

Last Sunday I thought about my earthly father and am so grateful to my Kansas City siblings for their grace and acceptance as they told me about Leo Everet Gage.

For the last five years I have celebrated my father in my heart and look forward to meeting him in heaven....along with a brother who died in infancy and a sister that had already left for heaven by the time I connected with the family.

Amber and Mike brought the kids over Sunday evening to spend a couple of days with us.

I've been watering Stephanie's garden and she said I could gather the produce that ripened.

Sunday I was drinking alcohol free Chardonnay and it was pretty good.

I may be adding that to my regular wine to cut down the calories as well as the alcohol.

Amber brought her dad roses for Father's Day!

They both love roses and gift them to each other regularly.

May 31 was the quads 13th birthday and they were in Hawaii at the time.

I gave them their cards and I love how they love cards.

I had two chicken pot pies all hot from the oven and we ate and visited and played Nuts and watched Hawaii Five 0 on TV.

No real agenda - just hanging out!

They are still weaning themselves off of Hawaii time so I cried uncle and went to bed to read for awhile. One by one, the girls came in with their journal, prayer book or devotional reading.

This was one of the magical moments of their visit and I will treasure it forever.

I went to sleep and they went out to the den to watch a program that features Hawaii.

As they walked back and forth to the kitchen, they watched the possums.

They love strawberries!

Love their little hands!

Monday morning coffee and Logan was the first one to wake up!

I got up at 8:00 because I didn't want to miss a minute of their time here.

Logan and I went out to my prayer corner and had some one on one time.

I made a good breakfast!

Tortilla browned in an iron skillet and topped with eggs, cream, cheese, onions, and whatever I could find. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes and serve with salsa and sour cream.

This was served closer to lunch than breakfast.

In the afternoon, Kailey whipped up a large bowl of her guacamole!

YUM!

At 4:00 we started working on dinner.

Logan and Harrison peeled potatoes while Logan put the green beans on to cook.

I forgot what Trystan did but we were all in the kitchen.

Harrison grilled a dozen pork chops to perfection!!!

His first time to grill anything other than hot dogs!

We  took dinner over to Pam who is recovering from a hip replacement.

Grilled chop, scalloped potatoes, garlic green beans, garlic toast and chips and salsa.

We all ate dinner in the dining room after we got home from Pam's and then the fun and games began.

We played NUTS every chance we got!

No schedule but the kids did help me do a good many things.

Kailey put the fancy self cleaning cat litter box together and Logan helped me load up and take out trash. Trystan did food prep and they all did what they could to make it easier on me - which was their goal. They each spent quality time with their granddad as well as with me.

Our kitties are now five years old and, as I write tonight, Tabitha is outside and I am trying not to worry about her!

Tuesday morning I was up early for my yearly medical checkup with Dr. Abraham.

Everyone was still asleep as I slipped out of the house but all were awake by the time I got home.

My labs came back good and except for high blood pressure (for which I am already taking medication) and tweaking another prescription I am good to go! I'd even lost 5 pounds! Win! WIN!!

The girls had fixed their own coffee and we ate a bit of breakfast and then met up with Brenda to hunt for Tuesday Treasures 

We all found a few things.......

I love signage!

COTTON is now hanging under the eave next to FARMHOUSE outside the den windows.

Two new books to add to the dozens I already have!

What can I say?

One is never lonely or bored if they have a good book!

I bought this sign trusting I would find a place to display it.

I did! This hangs in the guest room. For now.

I am having so much fun decorating the outside walls of the house as well as storage buildings.

This one hangs on the Christmas house across from our bedroom.

All these signs were around $5 each - including this one.

I just liked it and it is still searching for its place here.

It will happen.

The cow canvas was only $3 and now hangs underneath the popcorn sign - with a vintage rolling pin below it that has handles the same cerulean blue as in the cow painting.

What a gorgeous pillow! I could not resist and it looks great in the den.

I scored on these brand new - never been lit - candles!

Logan found some great tops!

She has an eye for nice things.

I found the pretty vase made in Spain from recycled bottles for Amber.

She liked it and it will be great for the bouquets of fresh flowers that she loves so much.

Logan and Trystan found the elephant canvas and will hang it in their room.

The kids are coming back for a couple of days next week and we plan to get my art table set up and they can embellish it and make it their own!

Same with this canvas.

Three little birds for three teenagers.

Logan intends to add color and their names on the birds!

Trystan and Kailey got a shirt or two and these little treasures.

Even Harrison found some things!

He loves the funky frog canvas as well as the over-the-door basketball hoop.

The two stuffed munchkins can be used instead of a basketball.

After our shopping we all went to Chick-fil-A for lunch .

Logan got this delicious chicken salad plus another something.

She got full and then left the leftovers when she went home the next day.

I ate the salad on Wednesday and it was so good!

It was a fun lunch!

Everything we did was fun!

The kids keep measuring their heights as to see who is tallest and in what order it goes.

It's a draw between Kailey and Harrison with Logan coming in third - and Amber swears she grew since Sunday night. Trystan is the shortest but taller than I am and Amber is still a little taller than Trystan!

We played a game with canned whipped cream.

Obviously I did not do well with it!

We took it outside on Wednesday right before they left.

So much fun and such a sweet treat to boot!

Trystan, Kailey, Harrison and Logan are all such fun people and we loved spending time together.

I savored every minute as we made more memories that we will look back on in years to come.

And just like that - the Bells left and all the oxygen had been sucked right out of the air!

They left early afternoon on Wednesday and our dear Sherry came to spend the night since she would be working out of the Irving office the next day. It was late when she arrived and I had already gone to bed but Louis Dean was still up to welcome her.

I was asleep when she got here and still asleep when she left so I was so happy when she called and said she could stay another night. We had a good visit catching up on things. We ate leftovers from the dinner the kids had helped make. We ate and talked and watched Will Trent before we went out and took trash to the curb.

It was a good week as Logan had helped me sack up a black bag of trash from Granddad's room and another black bag from outside in his work area on Monday night. Now on Thursday night Sherry helped me do much the same.

Louis Dean loves to collect trash and seldom throws anything away.

Thank goodness he doesn't remember what he has kept and never notices when it disappears.

Wednesday I began taking out the spring things from the den and bringing in the summer sunflowers.

I can't explain how happy this makes me.

As I go out to the storage building and rummage around in the tubs and bins of debris, it's like meeting old friends again. I had a ball sorting through and separating the sunflowers from the fall things. They were in different tubs but I had to open them all up to see what was in each.

After the fall is over, I will store the sunflowers and such on one side of the storage building and the fall things on the other side.

Thursday and Friday was spent cleaning and decorating and by Saturday morning the den and laundry room were both clean and decorated as is the kitchen table area and the coffee bar.

I am loving the transition.

It makes me smile when I look around at all my pretty things.

This afternoon Louis Dean and I drove over to the Bell's house and rode with Amber and the kids to Mike's hockey game in Richardson.

We love watching the Bell grands play and it is a special blessing to get to watch Mike play!

He scored the first goal! 

The Ragnarock's won 4-1!!

Mike saw me waiting for him and he knew I wanted to take a pic with him!

Mike is a great husband, father, provider, spiritual leader, business man, son, brother, uncle, friend and a son in law to us and we are so enormously proud of him.

I do love and appreciate my dear Son-in-LOVE!

It's well after midnight as I close this long journal entry.

I went to the back bedroom door to see if Tabitha was around and she walked up and came right in.

All is well.

I have been watching The Good Karma Hospital and I will close now and finish episode three.

The kids will be here for a day or two this week and Louis Dean has a doctor appointment Monday afternoon and we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary on Thursday, June 26.

We plan on going to Saltgrass Steakhouse just as we did on our wedding day.

I've decided to go to the ranch on Saturday morning and come home on Monday - in our car.

I think a short visit and in the car where he can't take everything - we will even leave the cats at home.

I'm thinking the shorter visit may work well for Louis Dean and I'll still get my ranch fix where I can rest and recover for a bit.

All of me loves all of Louis Dean!