mother's day

I just dropped the hubs off at the airport so he can go work in N'Awlins for a couple of days, and the french press, some cheese toast and I have settled down to try to get caught up. The past week has been the sort where a few important things have slipped through the cracks... like forgetting to email a friend back to say 'yes, please call anytime!' (that's for you, J.R.!), or to check the court date for my speeding ticket (it's TOMORROW. 4p. glad I checked.) The stack of things to wade through on my desk here isn't friendly.

It's been a full last few days. M and I got up before the crack of dawn Thursday and drove to Dallas to work, he at Panavision, me down the road at the studio in Grapevine Mills and then over in Richardson. I worked until 11:45 that night, and by the time the poor man got us back to the hotel and into bed it was 12:30ish. Then we hopped out of bed early to come back home, so he could get back to work after lunch. Friday night we had a plate of stuffed shell pasta and broccoli and passed out. Scratch that - I passed out. I'm pretty sure he stayed awake waging war on the mosquitoes.

Oh yes, we have the mosquitoes. They breed under the damp house, we think, and come in through cracks and crevices. They make M crazy, because he is their favorite feast. I *just* started getting bitten, so my kind mother-in-law let me bring home the Don't Bug Me Insect Balm I gave her last year. I LOVE this stuff, even if M says it makes me smell like a hippie. A lady who lives in Calvert, Texas makes it, and she used to sell it along with her other products in a little coffee shop there on Hwy 6. I bought some one day passing through on my way to Hico to see my parents, and got totally hooked. The shop closed at some point and I was afraid I'd never find it again, but she has a website! whew. her soaps are wonderful, too.

Saturday was chock full of activity. We got up early to go to the church and get breakfast ready for members of the finance team, the elders, and the admin team. As they began noshing, I had to bug out to go to a reading of an animated movie I'm a part of. The movie's called The Last Flight of the Champion, and I'm voicing Kitka, a Russian cat. Very Boris and Natasha-esque. My accent needs some work. FPU class was in the afternoon - next week is our last class! It's been such a great experience. We went home for a few hours and then over to our friends' house for a birthday dinner. It was so fun to hang out with that group of people and eat such fine food. Who knew foie gras was flipping delectable?!

Mother's Day this year was really nice. My mom and dad were actually in town earlier in the week, so I went shopping and gave my mom her present then and asked her to take back gifts for my grandmothers. I sometimes send corsages for them all to wear to church on Sunday, but this year I wanted to do something different. One of the best was the green purse I got for Yaya... it was a wonderful shade of green, woven and with a wooden handle, and it looked really fresh and summery to me. She's a stylish lady, and I could see her carrying it. Turns out, she was looking for a green purse on her own! Cosmic connection there. I'm happy to end her search and so glad she likes it. The knit shirt I got Grandma fit, and I got her some Aveeno moisturizer/sunblock, too, since she WILL go out and work in the yard!

Can I just tell you how much I love Marshall's? Because I do. I find treasures in that store, and I love coming in at or under my budget.

We went to church with M's mom and family. They traditionally ask moms to stand and be honored, and give them a gift. This year's I thought was awesome - a little kitchen wisk and three gift certificates for meals at nice restaurants around town! They also do something else that I think is very cool - they ask those who want to have children, want to adopt, whatever, to stand and be prayed for. Families are invited to stand with them, or people can stand in honor of someone else and intercede for them. It's a very sweet moment. M and I chose to stand, and while we prayed the names of my dear friends who yearn to have babies kept playing like a record in my head, along with those who're currently pregnant and excitedly planning and those with little precious munchkins who bring us so much enjoyment. Blessings for all of you, ladies.

Here's our Mother's Day table... we decided to serve the food over on the buffet and put out pictures of the women in our lives to look at.

These are plates that my mother-in-law found while canvassing various Salvation Armies and whatnot looking for plates for our wedding dinner.  I LOVE them.  I kept about 15-20 plates from all of the ones we collected, and donated the rest back after the wedding.

Banana cake from the Betty Crocker cookbook with strawberries and Whipped-Cream Icing from the Good Housekeeping cookbook (that's Yaya's cakestand, too).  flowers courtesy of our backyard and the church's rosebush.:

 

L.B. with two of her boys.

love to everyone.  

-m.y.