Family Dinner for Lynne’s Birthday

I keep thinking back to the evening of The Birthday Dinner with so much contentment and happiness.  I dearly love that our family enjoys being in each other’s company so much.  We laugh and tease and my cheeks hurt by the time the evening ends!

A few pictures to share…..

 

We got to the restaurant first and opted to wait in the truck.  Next came the Birthday Girl and she climbed into the back seat to chat.  The Boy (how she often refers to her boyfriend when talking to us) was next to arrive and joined us.  We decided since it was a Kodak moment we’d test out the timer feature on the camera.

 

Lynne’, aka Birthday Girl, and little Miss B while we waited for our order to arrive.  I’m not sure what Brooklyn was telling Lynne’ in this picture, but from the look on Lynne’s face she’s not buying it!

 

After dinner she opened her gifts and Miss B was quite interested in this, though she wasn’t really all that impressed with anything that Lynne’ got.

 

Keith and I being silly with the “hold your camera out at arm’s length in front of you” self-portrait.

 

Everything I read about photography says not to do staged photos.  Phooey on them - I will enjoy looking back at the group that met this night!  Standing between Lynne’ and Keith is Alicia, one of Lynne’s roommates.  This photo took several tries with the camera self-timer….. and with people entering the restaurant through the door behind us!

 

I had told Keith on the way to the restaurant that I was going to start a new tradition and get a photo of me and The Birthday Person every year.  He did tell me it can’t be a tradition on the first night you think it up, but I didn’t worry much about that.  Note to self for future pictures – set the purses aside.  ;)   Other than that I love this picture of my daughter and I.

This was truly one of those moments in time that warms a mother’s heart.

Saturday Pedi With My Daughter–OPI Polish

Today Keith had to work (praising God for work blessings…even if it meant the two of us didn’t get to play today!) so I called Lynne’ and asked if she’d like to meet for a pedicure. I got a resounding YES and a time was set.

The place we go is so much fun!  In addition to the regular pedicure and polish they also slather ‘stuff’ on your calves, wrap in plastic wrap and then a hot towel.  I always get the Milk and Honey and Lynne’ changes hers up, but got the Strawberry Margarita today.  They let us sit for a while and then come back for a wonderful leg and foot massage.  Worth every penny I tell you!

I won’t shock anybody with pictures of our feet, but I am going to share our polish colors.  Partly for my own benefit and partly because I just know that everybody is on the edge of their seats wanting to know!

 

This is what I got – Be A Dahlia Won’t You!  It doesn’t show up great in the photo but it’s even got some glittery sparkles in it!  When I chose this color Lynne’ told me this is absolutely the most perfect for me color I’ve ever gotten. 

 

This is Lynne’s color – Congeniality Is My Middle Name!  Very pretty and would be a choice I’d make for fall.  Her toes were happy too! 

 

We had a great time sitting next to each other and chatting.  This was followed up by some light shopping and then lunch at Corner Bakery.  It really was one of the best mother/daughter days we’ve had in a very long day.  Very special!

A mother's love for her child is like
nothing else in the world. It knows no
law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes
down remorselessly all that stands in its path.
~ Agatha Christie

She’s 25 Today!

Today my daughter turns 25!  The photo above was taken Sunday after church when Lynne’ (on the right) arrived at our house with her roommate Alicia (left) before going out to lunch with the family.

 

Our family tradition for as long as I can remember is that the birthday person gets to choose where we go out to eat.  And while everybody was still living at home the birthday person got to choose what meal mom cooked for their “birthday eve” dinner the night before their birthday.  Lynne’ has long been a fan of Olive Garden and used to choose it every year.  This year she said she wanted it again as it is “an oldie but a goodie.”

 

Of course the Little Toot was in fine form to be with everybody.  She’s got the cheesy grin down pat I do believe.

 

After lunch we came back to the house where Loni had made a pumpkin roll for Lynne’s birthday.  The guys went out to do something on one of the trucks and all the girls sat around the kitchen table talking and laughing.  Truly there are few things I enjoy more than sitting around the table with those I love.

 

And then……    Lynne’ noticed an angel in her slice of pumpkin roll!  Do you see it?  Loni tried and tried to get Lynne’ to stop eating it so we could put it on eBay and make our fortune.  ;)

 

It then turned into a game of I Spy with the pumpkin roll.  This slice has a cat with a tail that loops around.  Why is it that I feel like this will also become a family tradition?  :)

We had a wonderful time together and I love the woman my daughter has become.  What a great excuse for a celebration!

DWTS – For the Last Time

One of my absolute favorite things to do with my daughter (24) is to sit on the couch while doing our crochet/knitting and watch Dancing With The Stars.  We started doing this at the beginning of the season and we enjoy so much watching all the dancing and commenting on the wonderful dancing outfits…and the not so wonderful ones.  It’s been a great time to be together.

Tonight was no exception, except that it was a tad bittersweet.  We’ve had the last year together and now Lynne’ is moving out with one of her friends.  The two girls spent the day Saturday looking at apartments and found one that they are giddy about, so she’ll be leaving. 

Really I know it’s the best thing for her, but I sure will miss her.

And tonight after she and her dad laughed at one of my comments I did point out that she won’t have as much fun watching this show with anybody else.  She agreed, still giggling.

Now for some show notes, straight from my daughter and I!

• My classic “DOH” moment tonight was when Evan and Anna danced the Argentine Tango.  I said, foolishly, that dance really didn’t do anything for me….and they got a perfect score.  DOH!
• We adore watching Niecy!  That girl would be the most fun to go to a lunch with and laugh.  And she has come so far in her dancing and looks so sure of herself.
• Then when Pamela Anderson was doing the waltz I mentioned how much I loved her dress and how “flowey” it was as she danced.  Yes, more chuckles from the family on that one.  I promised my daughter that I would text her next week if I saw a great flowey dress.  ;)

Honestly it doesn’t matter what you’re doing as long as you’re doing it with somebody you love.  Maybe I’ll watch the show next week and shower my daughter with text messages?  Or maybe I’ll let her be and we’ll just chat about the show later.  :)

** An aside – the blanket she’s crocheting above is for one of her friends that is pregnant.  Isn’t it awesome?

Happy 1st Day of 2009

What a wonderful way to start the year.  Lynne' invited us to her house tonight for dinner and as always I'm so impressed with what a good cook she is.  We had ribs and seasoned fries that were so good!  After dinner we played some Uno and lots of talking.  Such a nice way to spend the evening.  And you know they say that whatever you do on New Year's Day you'll be doing all year long.  I hope she does a lot of grocery shopping......     ;)

Good times.....

Sunday Dinner

Tonight was so special to us - Lynne' invited us to her apartment and cooked dinner for us for the first time. Not only was the meal delicious, it was good to see our daughter so happy in her new apartment. It is decorated so cute and so totally her.

Dinner was stuffed peppers (she found the recipe online), rice and green beans. Absolutely perfect!

And then we brought out the Uno cards and played for a couple of hours. Actually we played a bit when we first got there while dinner finished cooking, then played some more after we ate.

Games in our family are always a fun thing because we get rather competitive. We laughed and laughed and had such a nice time. We've decided that this something we need to do more often - have dinner at her place. I think she really enjoyed being hostess.

Stuffed Peppers
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1 cup water
6 green bell peppers (she used a mixture of colors)
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t onion powder
1 t Italian seasoning
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place the rice and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and cook 20 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef until evenly browned.

Remove and discard the tops, seeds and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward - slice the bottoms of the pppers if necessary so that they will stand upright (or Lynne' placed wadded up foil around the bottoms to keep them upright).

In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a bowl and pour over the stuffed peppers.

Bake 1 hour in a preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender.

Indy How I Love Thee!

Throwing in a random thought here because my blog titled reminded me of it. Yes we did go on opening weekend to see the new Indiana Jones movie and yes I thoroughly enjoyed it. When they first played the famous theme music I couldn't help but smile and settle in to enjoy the ride.















Now on to the real reason for the title - last night was the Bombardier Learjet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway and we had a blast. Love this picture of Keith and Lynne' that I took right after we got there. :) None of us had ever been to an Indy race before and it was absolutely mind blowing how fast these cars go.

But before the race we had another thrill watching Captain Robbie Knievel jumping over 21 Hummers and setting a new world record. I know there's probably some of you rolling you eyes abot now, but it was honestly rather a thrilling thing to watch.

We've been to many Nascar races out at TMS and one of the things that was really cool about the Indy race was that during driver introductions the drivers walk down THROUGH THE STANDS and out to their cars! This is how close we were to E.J. Viso and that was awesome. And after the race they actually open the fence and let all the fans down in the pit/garage area to walk around and see the cars. Unfortunately it was already very late and Lynne' had to be at work early this morning, so we left. The good part about that is now we've saved something to look forward to next time. :)

And of course, the crowd favorite, Danica Patrick. This was the clearest picture I got of her car and it's during the race as she was going in for a pit stop. Again, these cars go fast and by the time your brain registers that they are in front of you they are already around on the back stretch. Anyway, one thing that struck me about the Danica fans was that there were lots of younger girls that cheered any time she did anything. I wonder if Danica has any idea how much inspiration she is to the Hannah Montana fan base? Lynne' and I got a kick out of watching these young girls jumping and screaming for Danica. :)

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I just went back to proofread what I typed and when I looked at the picture of Lynne' and Keith I realized that I hadn't blogged about this event from last weekend. Lynne' went in and got her hair cut off for Locks of Love! Not only am I enormously proud of her for doing this, I really think it's C.U.T.E. on her!