Unexpected Visitors

It's a rare treat to have visitors from my side of the family here in Georgia.  My cousin, Steven Dewey and his wife Penny paid us a visit last week and it was so good to see them!  They came to Georgia for a week to spend time with their son, Thomas and his wife Jesi and their grandson Grayson who are living in Georgia while they go to medical school. In the eighteen plus years that I have lived in Georgia I have never had a family visitor from my extended family.  We had a little lunch and a little chatting and they were on their way. It was a short but definitely sweet visit and I loved getting caught up on family and their life!

Hanging Out

I love this part of my Sunday.  This is the best part of the day because my Provo kids Skype with us after their Sunday dinner.  What a blessing modern technology is in our lives.  We get to see our talking and and laughing.  We just kind of hangout for an hour or so and that helps us not feel so far apart.  Love my kids....love my family!

For Three Please

 Dinner at our favorite little Mexican place was a real treat Saturday night.  There were three of us...Easton, Stephen and I.  We all wanted to order fajitas.  The menu had single serving fajitas and then fajitas for two.  Stephen asked the server if they could do fajitas for three and the server said she would go into the kitchen and check.  YES!  They were able to make us a platter of fajitas for all three of us.  It was huge and we didn't even put a dent in it.  It was so yummy!

 Cheese dip is devoured along with the salsa.

 Love this guy!

Love this guy too!

Off To the Mall

It happens so rarely that Easton will ever mutter the words, "Can we go to the mall?"  He is my child that just really loathes going shopping.....unless it's for him and it's for something specifically that he wants.  Last night the "something that he specifically wants" was a new pair of sneakers and Sunday suit.  He had asked all week and I told him we could head out after my piano lessons at 5:00 on Friday.  Stephen joined us as we ventured to the mall.  We were on the hunt for a "cool" blue suit, brown Sunday shoes, and Nikes.

Guess what we came home from the mall with?  NOTHING!  It was a big fat shopping failure of an evening.  We hunted and hunted.  Easton is in that strange shoe size, the one that simply doesn't exist.  He's at that interesting time of life where his foot size is caught between being a kid or being an adult and it just can't decide which it wants to be.   Oh, and that size does not exist.  It just isn't carried anywhere!  We needed a 6.5, 7, or 7.5 depending on the shoe and it was never available in stores.  The nice little shoe man would say they don't get very many of that size in stock.  WHAT?!  I remember the having same problem when Dallin and Landon's feet were that size.  What a challenge it was to find cool shoes that would fit.  How can it be that they just don't carry that size?  Are these young adolescents supposed to just magically never happen to be a size 7?  I don't get it.

So Easton and Stephen bonded while looking at the laptop late into the evening doing Internet shopping for Nikes.  Such a guy thing.  I went to bed....

And this is Stephen walking in front of us across the expanse of the parking lot.  We needed to go the covered parking on the top on the corner.  It was windy and cold and the store closest to our parking area was closed and locked down for the evening.  Somebody (Stephen) kept getting distracted while walking through the mall at the lovely window displays and the mall closed on us!  What a great night with my guys!

Rack It Up!

Stephen asked me over and over this year what I wanted for Christmas and I reminded him over and over that I wanted a bike rack for the back of my car.  He didn't want to get it for me and thought it was a weird present.  Well, I got the bike rack that I wanted!  It's taken a while for the weather to warm up so that I could put the rack to good use.  The last couple of weeks it has been all springy and the weather has finally cooperated so that I could pack up my bike and hit the trails with my friend.  And I tell you, there was definitely a learning curve to getting my bike put on this silly thing.  It was awkward and my bike didn't want to cooperate and sit in the designated areas so that I could strap it in.  After about ten minutes of finagling I finally got it in place.  I took a picture so I had a reference the next time I went biking.  It worked fabulous and the bike ride was fabulous too!

Happy Birthday!

 Another year older.....yay Stephen!  51 years!  Can you even believe it?  We had a low-key celebration by going to Stephen's favorite restaurant, Longhorn.  You'd think we would get tired of that place, but we don't.  We just love their steak.

Stephen got the Chocolate Stampede for dessert which has three different layers of chocolate mousse and fudge accompanied by vanilla ice cream.  It's so huge that it's pretty much impossible for one person to eat.  Good thing the server brought three spoons and Easton and I were able to help the birthday boy!

Good Times

I was looking through the computer today and came upon this little gem.  Janelle had been visiting us in Georgia....looks like Landon is probably 10ish.  This is a classic moment of Janelle singing and going a little crazy!  I love little Easton's comment at the end.....you STINK!

Sing It Again

I love attending choral concerts, especially if one of my children is singing.  Easton had a combined concert with his middle school choir and the North Gwinnett high school choirs.  The concert was held at the high school where the students performed their musical numbers that they will be sharing at their Large Group Performance Evaluations that are coming up soon.  They have worked hard.  It was impressive to see these young people sing and share their musical talents.  The guy choral groups are always small in numbers but they have heart, commitment, and passion for their singing.

Easton sings like a professional!

A Blissful Day

 

 It's a glorious 72 degrees this beautiful Sunday afternoon.  I was invigerated as I took a walk with Charlie and just simply breathed the warm, fresh air.  My flower beds are filling with sunny, cheery daffodils and it really just made me happy.  We set our clocks forward last night, another sign that Spring is just around the corner.  I can't wait!

Moving Up

 Congratulations to Easton for receiving his Star award at his last scout court of honor!  He is moving along in the scouting program.  He also added two merit badges to his collection.  We are proud of him for progressing.  We are one step closer to getting that coveted Eagle award!  We need the rank of Life and then Eagle!  Woohoo!  We can do this!  Oh, and we need more merit badges too...nine more to be exact.

And the Skies Turned White

This is such an unusual sight here in Georgia.....the weather forecasters go crazy on the news when this happens.  We have "breaking news" reports for a couple of days leading up to the big event and the grocery store shelves are cleared of milk, bread, and eggs!  This is our big snow storm of the winter and it was fun.  It snowed for a couple of hours off and on and then it turned to rain.  The snow melted and it was over for us.  I guess that's a good way to have snow.  We enjoyed the beauty for a few hours and then back to our snowless winter reality.  The forecasters say it's going to be 70 degrees on Wednesday.....can't wait!