Its Friday!!!! Yay!!!

I am soooo glad its Friday! Sam has been working over-time the past two weeks and on Friday he gets off early. We've really missed him! He's been working til 5 everyday instead of getting off at 3 and even though its only two hours, its amazing what a difference that makes! I notice that the kids get restless in between that time and Ailey Grace gets more fussy and when Sam comes home, we are ALL very happy to see him!;) We have had a crazy two weeks and we are in need of some family down time. It has been very rainy here and while I am incredibly grateful for the rain, it has meant that the boys have had to stay cooped up in our motor home quite a bit. I don't know if I will ever want to watch Snow Dogs or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang again! Braden had all the stuffed puppies in a row and was mushing them this morning. Funny. Zekey keeps saying, "Waaaaatch (pause) Chi, Chi, BANG, BANG! (pause) MOMMA!" Braden calls it chippy, chippy bang bang as is just as insistent about watching it over and over and over again. AAAAAAAaaaaahhhhh!!!!!

So, today dawned sunny and you can understand my excitement!:p Maybe they will get to go out and play for a while. I did have them outside playing yesterday even though it was still wet and a bit cool and Zekey decided to take a dip...apparently up to his neck in a mud puddle. So much for mud boots. When I caught him and had him come inside, I could hear the water sloshing in his boots as he walked. Yeah, that "dip" necessitated a full blown shower. Yeah, there was no just rinsing him off. I really shoulda taken the time for a photo shoot. Gotta get better at that..... Anyway, I had to completely undress him outside and have him go straight to the shower. His yucky clothes are still outside waiting for me to determine what on earth I'm going to do about them. Yeah, these are the times I miss having my own washer and dryer. It'll work out. :D

Okay, back to my earlier ramblings. Monday was the only night this week we didn't have something going on. I'm supposed to go to a jewelry party tonight, but I don't know if I'm going to make it. Last night we went to look and pray about a possible church building for the Killeen campus. The main campus is in Temple and the Killeen group currently meets at the convention center and we have to un-pack and pack up all equipment and supplies every Sunday, so the search for our own building has been going on for a bit now and we are hoping that we will see that come to fruition soon. All in God's time. Anyway, while at the meeting, my throat started feeling scratchy and I new a sore throat was coming on. I'm not sick, but my allergies can really give my sinuses a good beating and now I've got drainage and its making my throat really raw. I took immediate action when I got home and gargled with salt water, took my flonase and used my saline spray. I may have to go full nasal rinse...its about time anyway! (Rachel, I know you are loving this portion of my monologue! Mmmwwwaahahahahaha!) This morning at about 6, it dawned on me that an Advil would help immensely with the swelling and irritation, so did that, gargled some more and went back to sleep for a couple of hours til about 8. I'm drinking lemonade, gargling with salt water, taking advil every 6 hours and blowing my nose a bunch. I'm also praying, can't forget the most important thing! I think it'll get better pretty quickly.

I made Maple Pecan Pie the other day and it was pretty tasty. The recipe actually called for bourbon, but I didn't have any on hand, so I just made it with only the maple. Again, got the recipe from the Chickens in the Road blog and here's the link to the recipe. She has a burnt sugar and molasses version as well. Gonna try them all, including the maple with the bourbon. I ain't skeert! Here are pics of the one I made. I actually remembered! Yay!

Pecan pie is one of Sam's favorites (German chocolate cake, cheese cake and carrot cake are the others in that category;) and it has been far too long since I made one for him.

Sam really likes it because he says it has a lighter flavor and isn't as sweet as traditional pecan pie. I think I should have baked it a little longer because it didn't set up as well as I would have liked. Didn't damage the taste, though. MMMMmmmmm.....

AND as requested by Meemaw ;), here are some pics of the kiddos of late:

That's right! Found another use for the Bumbo....Ah, yeah! This thing has been worth every penny!

See, Michawn, turns out I don't need no stinkin' baby bucket tub! Hahaha!:p

I believe Aunt June got her this outfit...isn't she CUTE?!?!

They really do enjoy each other. I love it! Isn't God amazing?!

AND I did my nails again....shiny.....

If you look very closely you can see my tan line from my crocs, shoe of choice most days. It'll have to be pretty cold before I stop wearing those suckers. (Nessa! No foot commercial comments!!!;)