Brave

Today we took Aileen to see "Brave" Disney's new movie and it was awesome!!  Aileen really enjoyed it.  Only cuddled up close to me a couple of times when she was nervous, otherwise she was smiling, rocking, or just watching intently! 

Aileen is the bravest person I know, so it was fitting that she would enjoy a movie about a brave young woman who wants to make her own destiny!!

It was a great date Aileen!! Dad and I loved going with you!! Thank you!

I Love Rock N Roll......

Rebecca Albright called me tonight to see if we could go out for our Birthdays!!  Mine is in June, hers is in August, and we always try to go out together sometime between June and August.....so tonight we went to "Rock of Ages".  Now the best thing about this Movie was rockin' out to the music in the movie theater and we did and were not even embarrassed by our raised hands and fists and rockin head banger kind of movements!!  But I'm not going to lie there were a few moments of "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe they just showed that" so beware!!

Then we went for a wonderful steak dinner at "Outback" which I have been craving for the past few weeks, so it was really nice of Rebecca to choose that Restaurant!!  Could not have picked better my self!!  Happy Birthday to Rebecca...... I love you sweetie!!  And Happy Birthday to Me.  I really loved getting to catch up!!  I always feel like there is so much more to talk about....but then I'm a talker, and you'd never get any sleep, if it was left up to me!!  It was a good night!!  Thank you!

Happy Father's Day!!

With today being Father's day I wanted to do something special for My husband of course but also my Dad.  So I had everyone over for dinner and it was great.  My Brother George and his two boys came, Elizabeth and Art, Dad & Barbara and us (Alan, Aileen, me).  I made a yummy pot roast with potatoes, carrots, gravy, and other fixing's of a fruit salad, rolls, and green beans like Razoo's make.  Even my nephews told me how good dinner was and what a good cook I was......and we were all together visiting and enjoying each other's company and not one picture was taken......Except for the cupcakes that Elizabeth brought!!  They are gourmet cupcakes and so very yummy and I just knew I had to have a picture of them before we devoured them!!  I guess we know what our priorities are.....not one single picture of family...but we got one of the cupcakes!! That just kind of makes me laugh!!  So here you go!!  Thanks Elizabeth for bringing something so "out of this world good" that we had to take a picture!!

Elizabeth went all the way to Frisco, Tx to get them from a company named "Dimples".  Let me break it down for you - Banana pudding cupcakes; Lemon cupcakes; red velvet cupcakes; wedding cake cupcakes; cookies and cream cupcakes; chocolate cupcakes; and chocolate velvet cupcakes!!  They were Divine!!

Happy Birthday to me!!

Oh, it was a great birthday!! Thanks to everyone who made it so special.  I think this was the best one yet....and I think I say that every year....but hey when you are 53, that's saying something!!

Things important to tell you about that are not pictured:
My Mother-in-law always sends the most awesome cards that I know she spends hours over so they say just the right thing and the traditional $50.00.  Not going to lie I always look forward to that.  Alan took me out on a date for dinner and a movie and that is one of my most favorite things to do so I loved that!! 

I loved all the happy birthday posts from facebook friends....I know I'm silly that way but I do love them.  My sister Elizabeth and her husband bought me some Kindle books which I was really excited about and have read already -- yes all of them by the time I am making this post!  My sister-in-law MaryAnn sent me a beautiful card that I love the sentiment behind and meant a great deal to get.  My previous boss here in Texas, Karen Vanderwerken, has remembered my birthday ever since my Mom has died with some really cute and clever card and that means a lot to me. She was/is always very thoughtful with things like that.  My friend Bessie Treber(who I was also her Counselor when she was RS President) sent me a great card and Sister Betts called to wish me a happy birthday!  All of these things were so surprising and so very much appreciated!!

Now for the pictorial part of my birthday gifts!!

Barbara and Dad called me on my cell phone and sang Happy Birthday to me then brought me over cake and ice cream and a neat card (cake is in the red container).  My Visiting Teachers came over and brought me the beautiful plant/flowers and Central Market chocolate, chocolate chip cookies!  They were melt in your mouth good!!  I did share, but it was a close thing!!

From the Doctor and his wife I got this Pandora type necklace from Brighton's which I love especially the charms they picked out for me.  My initial, a musical note that says I love music, and a cell phone!!  It will be fun if others (meaning my husband) add to it on other occasions!!  I bet they have a car.....for my car accident and getting a new car!! lol!  Cute birthday card and packaging!

And they got me a cupcake!!

And the best present of all is that my children called and wished me a happy day!!  It definitely was!!

What a difference a few rugs make!!!

So, I know that I have owned this home for 2 yrs now, and I didn't really think it mattered that I couldn't find the rugs I wanted to go in the home to compliment things....but guess what?  I can't believe how much homier our home feels now, and how much more I love my home now when I walk into it, and I feel that even though it took awhile I'm glad that I got the perfect rugs finally!!

Even Alan, who you know is a man, so they don't always appreciate that you need to have things like rugs in a home, said, "It really does make a difference in the feel of our home".  And how nice it is that I was able to get them right before our Memorial Day Weekend company!!

 love how it matches the drapes that my Mom made, and how it keeps that country antique feel that my home has.

The importance of these kitchen rugs is...... With Alan being unemployed we have not been able to update the kitchen floor as we had hoped as soon as we had hoped.....and these floors have dents, tears, holes in the linoleum that everyone says that they cannot see......but I think they are being kind, because no matter how much you scrub a floor a tears and holes do not go away, and to me it looks like they are always dirty, even when not...... so I love that these additions make me not mind the kitchen floor so much....and everything just flows from the living room, to the dining area, to the kitchen area and even though not exactly the same.....they blend and flow!!  Gotta love that!!

Happy birthday to me!!

Definitely my view of things......

My son-in-law found this funny for me, knowing that this was totally my view on this particular subject!!  It's so great when you kids know you so well!!

Friendship, Friendship, it's a perfect blendship......

I love my friends and feel very fortunate to have so many in all the different places that we have lived and from where I grew up!!  I have 2 high school friends that we still get together when we can and keep track of each other via phone, email, facebook etc...  I also have college room mates that I still have contact with and have gotten together for lunches, and I was so excited when I saw them because they came to Allison's Utah Wedding Reception!  I have friends that I was able to meet up with at BYU Graduation, I have many friends that on the day that we had 15 tornado's in one day in the Ft.Worth/Dallas area called to see if we were o.k.  Some of most precious friends are my Seminary students that I taught while they were in High School and now they are married with families of their own!!  I have friends that I consider as dear to me as my own siblings and my children call them Aunt & Uncle.  I have friends who when they had babies, had their babies call me Auntie Lois, a title that I do not take lightly.  I of course consider my family some of my dearest friends. I could go on and on, so I won't, I will get to my point.  But we all know that nothing takes the place of the friends that you have close by and in person right now, right where you are in your life, and right where you live.  When I first moved to Texas, one of the first friends I made was with the sun shiniest happiest person you could ever meet!  Rebecca Albright............and all those who know her, know exactly what I am talking about!!

Recently her son got married see this post and I volunteered to help in anyway that I could to help make her Son's Wedding Open House wonderful!  The main thing I offered was to be the girl in the kitchen that kept things filled, and going throughout the night so she and her mother didn't have to worry and #1 dish washer and cleaner uper, but I also helped decorated and blow up some beautiful pictures that MaryAnn Stephens took at the Temple the day they were married!!

It's so hard to do nice things for her because I always feel like I am the one receiving and never the friend that is giving......and one of those reasons is because she always does something wonderful for you the minute you do anything nice for her at all, so you never feel like you have really made the wonderful sacrifice of service that friends do for each other!!  I hope when I grow up I am more like her.....

Point in case:  Here is the beautiful necklace that she gave to me with the fun thank you card for helping with the Wedding Open House!!  I love it, I adore it, I will be honored to wear it, and it will always have special meaning behind it for me!!  When I first saw it I thought, "Oh, those are my 3 peas in a pod - AnneMarie, Aileen, and Allison" then another one of our friends that got one said she will always think of Rebecca as a "Sweet Pea" and I loved that as well.....because she is!!  And because MaryAnn Stephens and I were Rebecca's VT for a long time I also think of it as MaryAnn, Rebecca, and Lois!! 

Anyway.....I love my dear friend, we even worked together in an office setting for 5 years and are still amazing good friends, that will test a friendship if anything will.............and I do believe we have the perfect blendship........we both know that we would be there for each other and that is all you can ever ask for!!  Thank You Rebecca!!  Love you!!

It's a guy thing........

Indeed it is a guy thing to have to take a new car, and by new I mean new to us but not new, on the road to see how it runs!!  So, we loaded up the car with Aileen in tow and headed for Lubbock, TX.  Having never been there we were curious as to what that side of Texas held, but mainly we wanted to see the Temple!  And it was gorgeous!!!  we got a little lost and frustrated trying to find the Temple, but once we did we recovered and the trip was wonderful!!  Aileen loved seeing the temple and when we went into the stake center to use the restroom, they were having a baptism and singing 'I Am a Child of God' and Aileen really was in heaven then, her favorite place to be, the Temple, and then hearing her favorite song!!  It was a good day!

 Our "New" used car - 2011 Hyundai Elantra - Indigo blue

Soft bunnies!!

Aileen's adult day care had some soft fuzzy bunnies come to visit the other day and the Charge nurse texted me this picture!!  So fun!!

Love this girl!!

Just a little diagram

I was driver #2!! The not guilty driver #2!!

6 Witness, 5 fireman, 4 police officers, 3 shook up family members, 2 wrecked cars, and someone elses smashed up garage

Did you sing "and a Partridge in a pear tree" to that title???  That's what it reminded me of when I posted it.  For today I am just posting pictures....story to come later, but you can know this it was not my fault!!

Blessings and miracles - that both drivers walked away and that it didn't turn into a multiple car smash up because I got pushed across 2 more lanes of traffic before I ended up on this yard and him into the garage with him taking the street sign with him!!

O.k. I'm coming back now to tell a little of the story:

I was going north on McCart in the farthest left of the 3 lanes and the driver of the other car was headed south and turned into the middle lane to try and turn into this residential area and he gunned it to try and beat me the problem was I was right there -- no time to do anything accept say "Holy Crap" I had six witnesses tell police that they couldn't believe that the other driver didn't stop, slow down or anything and that he gunned to go faster and try to beat me......they said it was like watching a crash scene in a movie that you don't believe is really happening.  The other driver's daughter said that he is not suppose to be driving and that she had left to take her daughter somewhere and he took the car while she was gone.  Everyone guessed that I was going 37 - 40 miles/hr (the speed limit) and he was going 50 or so.  He got the ticket "failure to yield to right of way"  No kidding!

Road trip to Tyler, Tx

With John getting the graduate assistant position in Tyler and he has to report to start work on July 30th a road trip to Tyler to scout out apartments for John and Allison was just what was needed!!  Then my sister Elizabeth used her Marriott points and got us a room for the weekend and we were set to go!!  I must say I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked Tyler!  It looks and feels like a great place to live.

Just a couple of pictures.  The High School that John will be doing his Athletic Training at......and Aileen helping us scout out the right place for them to live.  I do have a favorite....but it really is up to them and Heavenly Father!!

Thanks Elizabeth!! It was perfect and in the perfect locataion!!

Nothing could be finer......

then to have your family come to visit for Memorial Weekend!!  Mom (Brown) & Jay came from Ogden, Utah and Kevin & MaryAnn came from Price, Utah.....and Steve & Teresa came from Allen, Tx and we could not have been happier!!  This is the first time that Kevin & MaryAnn have been to see us in Texas and only the 2nd time for Jay, and Mom's 3rd!!  And we had a blast!!

They got in Saturday night and we had hoggie sandwiches with fruit and other good fixin's for dinner waiting for them and then we visited for a little bit.....but then we got down to business and played cards!!  I also did not take any pictures this night at all......for Kevin's sake.....but after that it was fair game!!

Sunday, Steve and Teresa and their cute family came to church with all of us and then stayed for dinner and visiting with everyone!  It was perfect!  Dad and Barbara came over for dinner and visiting as well.  Mom and everyone was happy to meet Barbara for the first time!!  And I will say it was really fun to have so much family visiting to introduce at church......but I forgot they would all be watching me teach Gospel Doctrine, which they have never seen me teach, well, except for Mom, she has seen me teach RS many years ago, but still!!

 Sunday Dinner - Aileen and Uncle Kevin....hey mom don't bug me now I'm eating!!

 Mom and her boys!!

 The girls - Teresa, Mom, MaryAnn and Lois

 Parents from both sides!!

 Grandma Great with Dallin & Miriam.

 Steve and Teresa with their cute family!!

 Playing cards Sunday night after everyone left --- sorry Steve, we should have stopped talking sooner so you could have played before you had to leave!!

 Monday morning - Kevin & Alan went golfing and Aileen and I went to Mom & MaryAnn's motel and had breakfast with them!!

 At the JFK/Book Depository Museum

 The famous grassy knoll

 Kevin & MaryAnn in front of the Book Depository

 At the JFK memorial

 Alan and Jay taking it easy!!

 Mom and Aileen doing the same!

 Gotta love this picture with the Texas flag flying so perfect with the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge by the world famous architect Santiago Calatrava - first time on it headed into Dallas to get to the Temple from the JFK museum.

 In front of the Dallas Temple - they thought it was beautiful!!

 Jay with all the girls!!

 My favorite picture of Aileen and Alan in front of the Temple!!

 Cowboy Stadium

Cousin's BBQ!!  It really was a perfect weekend!!  Thanks for coming ya'll!!