Pie Anyone?

Mmmm.  This is a Caramel Pecan Apple Pie.  Yum, yum, YUM!

Would you like a piece?  You can buy one for only $3 a slice tomorrow (Saturday) at the Olympia Bakers Guild's Pie Fest!  It's going on from 1:00 to 3:30 at The Olympia Center.

All the proceeds from the pies go to the Thurston County Food Bank and the Senior Nutrition Program.  Come on down and choose from a large variety of pies and support a great cause at the same time!!

Your Coming and Going

One more step towards independence was taken today.  And I am having very, very mixed feelings about all of this.

Because somewhere in my mind, when I picture my son driving, I picture this:

And yet the reality is he looks like this:

Some lady, who I'm sure is very nice and thoroughly qualified, drove with my son for about 7 minutes and determined that he is ready to be out and about among all of us as a licensed driver! 

Here's the nice lady inspecting my son's ability to use hand signals.

And here is my son showing off his parallel parking skills.  Points deducted for hitting the curb during this parking job.  And points deducted for hitting the curb when he backed around the corner.  The lesson here?  If you see this car backing around a corner, keep well away from the curb.  And, yes, I was the crazy mother standing in the window taking pictures of this.  And I just may have said out loud, "Oooh, turn sharper!  Ooh!  YES!"  And complete strangers may have smiled and asked if this was my first time with a child taking a driving test.

Once the handsome picture was taken and we were back outside, with keys in hand my son informed me that since he was now a licensed driver, I was officially now just a passenger and no longer an instructor.  Uh, no.  We cleared that one up pretty quickly.

So, Mr. 90%-Passed-On-My-First-Try, be careful out there.  Be wise.  Another milestone, another reality check for your momma that you are racing towards independence.  Very appropriate, and I'm glad for it.  But remember to be gentle with me in this season.

And always, always remember:

"The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:7-8

I am praying this for you, that He will watch over your coming and going.  You do your part, let Him do His. 

Congratulations!  (I think.)  And I love you.  (I know!!)

My Valentine

Three minutes is all I have to spread a little love to my Valentine...just in case you wander in here looking for a little love...

Just some recycled pictures, but behind these is all my love for you.  You are my love, and you know that so well. 

See you at 9:00 tonight, and I'll take it.  I'd rather have an hour with you today than 24 hours with any other.

Happy Valentine's Day!
xo

Simply Good

Today was one of those rare days when we actually had no plans!  It felt so good to have the luxury of doing nothing or doing something.  It was so pretty, we needed to be out in it, so after reading the paper and drinking the coffee, we headed out to walk around the lake.

Alex ran to the lake, Brenna biked behind him, but the rest of us rode in the car. 

Wait, I have to go back to the drinking the coffee portion of the day:

Okay, really now?  I just think that's about the cutest cup Starbucks has gifted us.  I think it totally rivals their iconic red Christmas cup.

OH!  And then yesterday, my man loved me so well with this:

Heart-shaped, cream-filled, chocolate-covered looooove!

One of the great joys of a long marriage is getting to a place of knowing how to make the other's heart skip a beat.  And he knows how to make my heart happy.  When I got up Saturday morning and saw that Brad had already made a trip to Lattin's and bought me this?  Oh, I do love the way that man loves me.

Anyway, back to today.  I finally, after over a year of watching this scene, captured a picture of one of the things I love:

Alex runs a lot of miles.  Especially last summer.  Most of them he runs with his cross country team.  But there are a lot of long runs that he needs to do, and he does not like to do those by himself.  So Brenna has put a lot of miles on the bike, with a backpack carrying her brother's water and an occasional house flyer they find on their run, and some money to stop in someplace and get a treat.  They are cute together, and it's one of those pictures in my mind of this season of life that makes me smile.  Brenna will start running with him some this summer getting ready for a little cross country season of her own, so this is a sight with numbered days.  Glad I got a picture of it!

About half-way into our long walk, we met back up with them at the lake...

Brenna had to take care of her itchy feet, so Beth hopped on the bike and those two headed off to Wagners to buy a treat for after the run. 

And the walk was so perfectly peaceful.  We endured enjoyed a photo shoot, we saw some fun creatures enjoying their beautiful day, had one-on-one time with each of our girls, and got to talk and laugh and hold hands.  A simply good day.

This heron was hanging out just off the path.

There were group of these sweet little baby ducks all over the lake today.  They would dive down underwater, completely disappear for about 20 seconds, then one-by-one pop back up, catch their breath and dive back down.  They looked like synchronized swimmers!

This mister and his little lady were having a little private time while the babies played nearby.  Aren't they cute?

Then the mister took his little lady out (or down) for some fine dining!

Brenna tried to take our picture, but she took a sweet forever getting it just right and we couldn't take the brightness!  After a few more failed attempts, we settled for this:

That's better.

Then the photographer wanted a shot of us with the Capitol Building behind us.  We didn't realize she meant literally behind us.  If you lean in and squint, you can see the very top point of it on top of my head.

A little repositioning and she got her shot.  Phew.

A sweet day with my sweet family.  Thankful, deeply thankful, for it.

Friday Smiles

Last night the girls were looking through old pictures, working on a project for school.  We found so many that we laughed over.  But none more than these:

I have no words to add to these pictures.  But they sure make me smile!

Boredom Is Forcing Me To Stop At 8

It feels like a make-a-list kind of Sunday.  So I'm makin' a list!

1.  The glorious weather this weekend was...well, glorious!  The blueness of the sky, the warmth of the sun, the chirpiness of the birds?  A gift!  Brad and I had a lot of alone time this weekend, and we spent part of that time walking to Starbucks in the warm sunshine and having our first iced drink in quite a long time.  4 miles of holding hands and talking without interruption and dessert through a straw?  Loved it.

2.  I saw this quote on Pinterest and it spoke volumes to me:

Nothing quite like biting into a good-lookin' chocolate chip cookie only to discover it's raisins.  Ewwww!

3.  Today we ate Ugli fruit for the first time.  We like to buy "weird" things and experience them together, things that the kids are curious about.  So today we experienced Ugli fruit.  They are indeed ugly on the outside, but very yummy on the inside.  They are a cross between grapefruit, tangelos and something else and they grow in Jamaica.  They remind me of a very sweet grapefruit, very very juicy.  The lesson here kids?  Don't judge a fruit by its skin. 

4.  My dear friend played a 109-point word this weekend.  I felt an undeniable motherly-type pride.  And then I felt challenged.  I think she's got me in a corner on this one, but I'm proud of her.

5.  As part of our alone time this weekend, we talked through a lot of vacation options for taking the trip Brad won.  We haven't arrived on a final decision, but we are creeping oh-so-close.  And it will involve warm water.  And sand.  And sun.  And maybe even a beverage with a cute little umbrella in it.

6.  I watched one of my top 5 favorite movies this weekend:

I love this movie.  The whole ranting about indecisive people ordering coffee?  Love it.  The Shop Around the Corner makes me want to hang out in a bookstore.  And it makes me want to read Pride and Prejudice and buy a bouquet of daisies.

7.  The baking bug is working its way back into me.  That's a good sign for me.

8.  I played with the minds of my high-level 4th grade reading group on Friday and loved every minute.  These are kids that are in the habit of knowing all the answers and wanting to get everything right.  So for their test on Friday, I added a bonus question and asked them what color shirt I was wearing the day before.  Oh, my.  The look of panic that crossed their faces was priceless!  You could see their wheels spinning, "What if we don't know???  How many points is that worth???  What happens if we guess wrong???"  It's good for them to be thrown off a bit, and I had fun watching it.

I was going to do 10 things but I'm bored already and want to be done.  So 8 it is!