Mother's Day

This video doesn't even begin to describe how wonderful my mother is, but at least it is an attempt.

We had my family over for lunch and Andrew's family over for dinner because I am the only non-mother female in both families.  Hopefully that won't be true for too many more Mother's Days!  I was in the kitchen nearly all day yesterday and most of today, but I loved almost every minute of it.  I so enjoy playing hostess.  I am already planning our next big event with our friends.

Cole Family Brunch Menu:

Spinach Quiche

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins

Hashbrown Casserole

Spring Mix Salad

Strawberry Bellinis

Strawberry Shortcake

McAffry Family Dinner Menu:

Spinach Stuffed Pasta Shells

Pepperidge Farm Five Cheese Bread (the absolute best garlic bread)

Salad

Tiramisu (*note-pound cake a good substitute when none of the four grocery stores in Powell have ladyfingers)

Spaghetti and Pop-Ice for the kids

Reality Check

Preacher Bob

Tonight my small group prepared spaghetti for Preacher Bob's service for the homeless downtown.  To be completely honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it.  I have been working extra hours lately, and I really wanted to come home and start getting ready for the Mother's Day extravaganza on Sunday.  Needless to say, the Babylonian mentality of selfishness was taking over.  I seriously considered just preparing the food and letting everyone else deliver and serve it.  

I ended up going though, and I was reminded of something that I think G.W. said a couple of months ago.  If all God ever did for me was send his son to the cross, that would be enough.  He is not bound to provide for me in any other way.  He doesn't have to provide me a home; he doesn't have to provide me clothing; he doesn't have to provide me food.  His grace is sufficient.  How humbling.  As I was wrapping my jacket tighter around me in the cold (by my definition!) rain, I realized that I had a warm, dry home to return to.  Thank you Jesus.  I don't deserve it.  I don't deserve him.  What a reality check.

On a side note, 20 pounds of spaghetti is about twice as much as you need to feed about 70 people!

3 Down, 3 To Go

We are officially halfway through the baby boom in our family. Two healthy babies, Isabella and Sofia, were born in the middle of the night. Oh, how I wish I could be in Denver to hold them today! Cristina is my new hero. I know each member of our family wishes they could go immediately, but we are all trying to spread out our trips to help as much as we can. And how appropriate - they arrived just in time to celebrate Mother's Day with their brand new mom. Congratulations Cristina and Mitch. You will be wonderful parents. I can't wait to see you in action. I don't even know how to describe my relationship to these little ones (second cousins, first cousins once removed???), but I know they are absolutely precious and I love them already. Congratulations to Papaw for being a great-grandfather, Nana for being a great-grandmother, and MamaEse for being a great-great-grandmother!

*Mom, I knew you would beat me to this post, but I got the best picture of them together!

Yet Another Athletic Attempt

I was never very athletic as I was growing up.  My claim to fame was always that when I played for the Orange Crush softball team, I hit one triple (the only time I ever got on base) and I almost got somebody out one time.  I did the whole rec league cheerleading thing too, but I was always the tall, awkward one in the center of the back row.  Oh, and my double-jointed arms proved to be quite a problem as well.  I could never get them straight like my extremely intense coach wanted them to be.  

Then there was the golf that I gave up on after my best friend, who was voted Most Athletic in high school, decided to give it a try.  I couldn't handle the fact that I took lessons for a year and still whiffed the ball about every other time, and she came out and was good immediately.  Finally, after taking several years of tennis lessons, I was pretty consistent with at least making contact with the ball.  

Tonight Andrew decided that he wanted to teach me how to hit a baseball.  Obviously from the pictures above, you can see that it takes a significant amount of focus for me to actually hit the ball.  I'm afraid there seems to be a pattern with the strange look on my face.  Despite my efforts to the contrary, every picture turned out just like that.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed getting instruction from Andrew about how to properly hit a baseball.  I'm afraid he might not agree after I instructed him on how to properly throw the wiffle ball to me.  He is such a good sport.  With this beautiful weather, I find myself making excuses to get outside.

Gettin Crafty

In a moment of temporary insanity, I decided these letters couldn't possibly be difficult or expensive to make, so I would do them myself instead of buying them on ebay.  They are for my soon-to-be-born niece, Emma Grace.  The shower for Melissa is today at 5:30, and I just now finished the letters.  Nothing like a little last minute preparation.  While they weren't necessarily difficult, they were time-consuming and a bit expensive.  You have to buy so many supplies to do them, but if I do them again (for one of the other four babies yet to be born), they won't be nearly as expensive.  I am actually pretty happy with the way they turned out because I have never considered myself to be a creative person.  I even enjoyed the process of making the letters because I just kept thinking about what Emma will be like once she arrives.  I hope she always knows how much she is loved by her Aunt Sarah.

Date Night

I can't even remember the last time Andrew and I went out to eat together.  I really believe it is one of the worst ways to spend money, but tonight we decided to splurge a little - just for dessert.  I cooked stuffed spinach pasta for dinner.  It is a new recipe I was trying out for Mother's Day, and it definitely is a go.  We also had some Pepperidge Farm five cheese garlic bread.  It is absolutely the best garlic bread you can buy.  Then we went to the Melting Pot for dessert.  It did not disappoint.  The dark chocolate fondue with a splash of raspberry liqueur was delightfully decadent.  We finished every bite on the plate.  That included strawberries, bananas, pound cake, marshmallows, brownies, rice krispies treats, and cheesecake.  I ignorantly said when we sat down that we should eat it slowly to make it last - Yeah right!  It was gone in no less than five minutes.  (BTW, our plate was not nearly as full as the picture above.)  We will definitely be returning here in the future.  It is probably best as a special occasion restaurant because it is likely to bust the budget if you eat a full course meal.  

So the big, fat, lazy nap I promised yesterday didn't happen, but the fluffy white blanket is calling my name right now...

A Little Tired

For some reason, this week has been really rough. I can't point to any specific thing, but I am unbelieveably tired. This morning as I walked into school, I noticed I seemed to be limping. Oh well, I thought, I must have hurt myself at Pilates on Tuesday. However, as I made my way to the library, I realized I was in fact wearing two different shoes. Yes, people, two completely different shoes on my feet at work! Girls, you know how when you can't decide between two different shoes, you put them both on and look in the mirror to see which looks best? Note to self, make sure you actually put on the match after deciding which looks better. My lovely husband should be bringing a match shortly. I'm afraid my Friday night is going to consist of a big fat lazy nap on the couch with Milly and my fluffy white blanket.