1st Grade Field Trip

Happy Wednesday, all!  Yesterday I was MIA from blogging because I was chaperoning Aiden’s 1st grade field trip to the zoo.  We had a great day for it, the weather was PERFECT!  I was lucky enough to get to ride in a car with 4 other mom’s, so I didn’t have to suffer through the LOUD and CRAZY bus ride! 

Here are a few fun pictures.

I was so exhausted last night when we finally got home!  I am not a relaxed kind of mom and these trips make me super anxious and uptight.  Each mom is given their own kid plus one more, so I have someone else’s kid’s life in my own hands!! I panic.  So I am constantly reminding Aiden and the other kid to stay with me, stop doing that, don’t stand on this, PLEASE stop yelling, OHMYGOODNESS don’t fall in!  I mean seriously, I am not the fun mom!  But I am so nervous to have that responsibility of bringing another mom’s baby back home to her safe and sound that I go bananas!  Luckily yesterday I had a good kid with me so he was pretty easy to manage.  It was a great day, all in all.

I can’t sign off without mentioning the tragedy that happened in Oklahoma this week.  There are many organizations that are helping the victims of the storms, but one in particular is the Red Cross.  Just text the word RedCross to 90999 and $10 will be charged to your phone account and the money will go to the Red Cross to help those in need. 

See you here tomorrow!

Erin

Weekend

Another fabulous weekend come and gone.  Luckily there’s always another one just around the corner!

We had a busy weekend!  3 graduation parties, our niece’s 13th birthday party, another niece’s dance recital and our 11th wedding anniversary.  Because our anniversary was on Saturday, and your anniversary is rarely on a Saturday, we decided to go out to supper that night. Then the grad party invitations started rolling in.  2 on Saturday at 4:00.  It worked out to hit up both parties on our way to the big city to celebrate our day. In hindsight we should have celebrated our anniversary on another day because the parties both served awesome food, we could have had supper for free!  Oh well, next time we’ll know better. 

So for our anniversary we had planned on going to one restaurant for their bruschetta (the most amazing bruschetta I’ve ever had!), then go to another place for their pizza (our favorite!).  But because we snacked at the parties we decided to skip the appetizer and go straight for the pizza.  After that we ran to the mall for a quick stop, then stopped at the gas station for a drink and a Powerball ticket.  We didn’t win. Not the most glamorous wedding anniversary but it was a fun and we spent the whole day together, which is all we really want.

Sunday we had another graduation party.  They served soft shelled tacos, a great idea for a big party like that!  While there some storms started firing up.  We only got sprinkled on but a lot of people left because they were worried about driving home in the bad weather.  We lucked out and the storms didn’t hit until 10:00 last night.  Strong winds (60 mph), they snapped a bunch of power line poles in half, took down a lot of big limbs and ripped the tin off at least one hog building.  We had our bedroom window open when the line of storms came up, laying in our bed watching the lightning.  All of a sudden the wind really picked up just as it started raining.  It was blowing in the window so Andy jumped up out of bed to shut the window and it was like he got power washed!  I laughed so hard, he was soaked!!!  Then the electricity went out.  It’s always so eerie when the electricity is off!  So that came back on about 1:30, so we reset the alarm clock, then the electricity went back off again until about 4:30, so we reset the alarm AGAIN.  We were lucky, no damage at our house.  We send prayers to those who were hit by tornados down in Oklahoma and Kansas.

I hope you all have a great week!  Next weekend is a long one – yipee!! – so we all have that to look forward to!

Erin

11 Years

Happy 11th Anniversary to my dear, sweet, amazing, loving husband!  11 years, WOW!  It has been the best years of my life!  Here are 11 things I love about my husband, Andy.

1. On a really nice, pretty, amazing day he’ll say “It’s really Erin out today”
2. He calls me sweet nicknames, like Flower, because he says I’m like one – fragile, pretty, need handled gently and with care
3. He is always thinking of me, and sends me texts saying so
4. He always spends his first 5 minutes when he gets home with me, and tells the boys he will play with them when he’s done “flirting with your mom”
5. The boy can make me laugh like no other, and he kind of gets my jokes.  If he doesn’t get them he laughs anyway because they are so off the wall!
6. I have more fun with Andy than with any other person in the world
7. He can’t keep his hands off me, which makes me feel beautiful and wanted
8. He lets me pick the music to listen to in the car, which is most often oldies, and doesn’t complain when I sing along (badly) to every.single.song
9. He agrees to go to whatever restaurant I want to eat at, even if it’s pizza – again – for the millionth time
10. He works hard so I don’t have to – meaning he goes to work every day while I get to stay home and play house, then he brings me home a Mt Dew when I call him whining that the boys are driving me nuts
11. He reaches over to play with my hair while we’re driving down the road

Thank you, dear husband of mine, for an amazing 11 years of marriage!  Never a dull moment, always a house full of laughter and fun.  Growing old and gray with you is FUN!!!

Erin, a.k.a. Flower

Thirsty Thursday Link Up

Hey!!  Is this week flying by or dragging on, I can’t decide!  Either way it’s been a good week, but I’m really looking forward to our weekend, lots going on!

Today I am linking up with one of my new favorite bloggers, Brew Mama, for her Thirsty Thursday Link Up.  Now, I am not much of a drinker, but I do have a couple of go-to drinks for those rare times I have a drink (ahem, St Louis). 

Drink #1 – Amaretto Stone Sour.  This is like an Amaretto Sour, but the ‘Stone’ part is adding in Orange Juice.  I don’t like Amaretto Sours but I do like this drink.

Drink #2 – Shirley Temple.  This is a 7-Up with Grenadine added.  And don’t jip me my Grenadine, or I will send it back and ask for more!  Who wants a diluted drink?

Drink #3 – My old stand by: MT DEW!!!  Ha ha, how could I do a drink link up without mentioning my favorite drink of all?!? 

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I am going to tell you something that is a little nuts but I just have to share anyway (because you already think I’m bonkers since my dinosaur revelation was shared!).  I like to spend time in cemeteries.  For instance, when I worked at the bank in a small town I used to eat my lunch in the cemetery there.  The one park in town didn’t have any shade trees to park under, plus there were always people walking through there.  One day I thought I’d go check out the cemetery, found shade trees to park under and it was QUIET, no one to bother me!  So I started going there to eat my lunch! 

This week, after Andy and I met for lunch, we hopped in the car for a quick drive around town, something we do often.  All of a sudden I see an entrance to an old cemetery that is planted way back in a field.  Of course I decided to drive back there!  It was so perfect and quaint!  If it wasn’t for that other car that came back there we’d have sat there and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a little while. 

And last night we went for a walk, right to the cemetery here in town.  It’s so peaceful back there!  There’s a cattle pasture right next to it, so it smells good and it’s fun to watch the cows.  I also love looking at the different headstones, the rich farmers spend their money on nice stones for their loved ones, with family pictures carved into them, or pictures of their farms.  They are really neat!

So, as you can see, I do not enjoy cemeteries in a morbid, mean way.  I enjoy them with appreciation for their beauty and peacefulness.

See you back here tomorrow!  I have a special post planned so stop back by and check it out!

Erin

They Say It’s Your Birthday (Party)

Happy Tuesday!  It’s a beautiful day in my neighborhood, sunny and going to hit 90 degrees today!  Holy smokes!  Because of the beautiful weather Brennan’s class is having a ‘pool party’ for their last day of preschool this year.  He was so darn excited, he got to wear swim trunks to school today!

I am linking up with some fun, crazy, amazing ladies today for their birthday link up. 

I hate saying one birthday story is my favorite because I love all of my birthday’s (just not the getting older part).  BUT!  One that sticks out in my mind is my 7th grade/13th birthday party.  I had a HUGE crush on a boy name Steve.  Cute cute cute, he was!  My mom rented the pool at the Y for me to have a big party with a bunch of my friends.  We swam and had a great time. Then it was time to open presents.  My one friend, also named Erin, got me a carpet square rug.  Now that in itself is NOT a good gift for a 13 yr. old!  BUT, she told me that Steve was at her house because her parents were friends with his, and he stepped on this rug!!!  I freaked out!  I had that rug in my room until I was 15!  Ha ha!  Dumb story!  Dumb thing to get excited about!  But for a newly minted, hormone raging teenager I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!  No pics of that birthday to share, I can’t find them. Buried in some box I have yet to unpack since we moved almost 2 years ago.  I think I need to get on that!

Instead, I will share these two pictures.

I was OBSESSED with My Little Ponies when I was 3 and 4, so my grandma (our family cake maker) made me a cake with a MLP on it!

This was my 6th birthday.  My aunt gave me a tent for my Cabbage Patch doll!  I loved that tent, I played with and in it all the time!  And yes, that’s my CP doll in there.  Her birth certificate name is Joyce, after my grandma (suck up!), but I don’t think I ever called her that.

Two weeks from today is Aiden’s last day of school. I need to get my ducks in a row and get some things planned for us.  Aiden has a busy June with a few camps he’s attending and swim lessons.  After that, it’s 2 months of free time, eek!

Welp, it’s way too beautiful of a day to be sitting in the house.  I’m heading out to weed some flower beds and soak up the sun!  Talk soon!

Erin

Wilson Phillips!

Wow, what a weekend!  I’m exhausted today, which is always a sign of a good weekend! 

Mother’s Day was wonderful, the boys and Andy spoiled me rotten.  Breakfast in bed!  Mt Dew!  Flowers!  Family time!  I couldn’t have asked for more!

Saturday was a great day, too.  Spent all day with Andy and the boys, then had a girls night out!  First supper, then we went to a Wilson Phillips concert!  OMG, I was so excited to see them in concert!  There were 5 of us that went together. 

They only had a few hits so they sang some of their dad’s songs (their dad’s were in The Mamas and The Papas and The Beach Boys).  Then they asked if there were any dancers in the crowd.  Uh, YES!!!  So three of us ran up and got on stage with the band!  We danced to two ABBA songs, on stage, with Wilson Philips!!!  We were on such a high! 

The gal with her hand up is Chyna Phillips.

The Australian guitar player, Molly and Heather.

Carnie!!!

Wendi!

It was a fun night!  So glad I went!

Another exciting thing about this weekend – morel mushrooms!  I love morel mushrooms and you only have about a 2 week window every spring to have them.  Andy’s brother loves to hunt for them but doesn’t like to eat them, so he was kind enough to share some with us.  Morel mushrooms are very expensive, they go for upwards of $20 a pound!  So, to get some given to us is a big blessing!  And they were delicious yesterday when I fried them up!  A few at a time to make them go farther, so I will make some again tonight with supper!

I’ll leave with a picture of my mom and boys on the 4-wheeler yesterday.  She’s a great mom and a wonderful grandma!  (And don’t mind the weird get-up she has on, they were out mowing just before we got there!)

Have a great week!

Erin

Mom Makeover

Hey there! This will be a quick post.  I wanted to share the pictures from my Mother’s Day Makeover that Aiden gave me yesterday at school. 

Aiden painting my toenails.

My hair and nails are all done!  Me and my handsome guy.

I snooped through Aiden’s desk and found his journal.  With is permission I read some of it. The reply to Mrs. Hahn’s question cracked me up.  He wrote longer answers with all the other entries.

And my little bug, Brennie.  He couldn’t wait till Sunday to give me my gift! 

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mommies and mommies to be out there!  I hope you get spoiled rotten!

Erin