The blowout

We did it. Bethany's graduation party was a great success. We had at least a hundred people come through our home Saturday to give congratulations to her, to visit with us and eat a plate of pulled pork and potato salad. Most of the teenagers ended up in the pool or in our garage, playing ping pong. Our whole yard was wet, as well as the patio. I think they had a cannon ball jumping contest or something.

Some of our dear friends from our former town came by. Three different families who have moved to Phoenix and settled in locations all over the valley. It was so fun to see them. My family who live in town were all here. And the rest were church members. I even caught myself saying (out loud) that I should do this again at the holidays, so we could have the church members over. It was either sun exposure and dehydration or I really did enjoy all of this!

Thank you to all who dropped by. We were blessed that you came to visit us in our home and that you honored our daughter's accomplishment.

God bless you, Bethany. We are so proud of you and we know that God has wonderful plans for you. We can't wait to see them start to unfold!

Wordless Wednesday: Ice Lake, Colorado

My brother in law walking a mountain ridge above tree line at Ice Lake outside Silverton, Colorado.


***To see more entries or to join in and do your own, go to Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom.***

Senior pictures

When my oldest was graduating from high school three years ago, we decided to avoid the huge expense of professional senior pictures. Hannah grabbed her changes of clothing, I grabbed the camera, and we headed out into the woods. Click here to see her picture.

It turned out great, even though my mother wanted a 'professional' one. She's over it by now, so Bethany and I went out the other afternoon and took her senior pictures. Sorry Mom....it's just what we do! I went to Walmart today and got 40 wallet sized pictures made of it to put in her announcements and spent $5.96. It beats 'professional' prices any day and it turned out pretty cute!

DespairWear

Click the picture to actually read the shirts.

I can't get enough of despair.com. It is hilarious. They now have T-shirts, although I could never wear one....I'm way too happy. The only person who doesn't think I look happy is the woman who works the afternoon shift at my local Curves. Almost every time I walk in the door, she tells me to cheer up and smile. It makes me want to pinch her, but I just smile and think to myself, "Perhaps I look like this because I am about to pummel myself for the next 30 minutes to old 80's music with a disco beat running through it. Hmmm?"

Thinking of who I could buy a T-shirt for though.....that is pretty entertaining. (in a nice way....usually)

Step back and no one gets hurt....

Tonight we came out of church after the closing AWANA session and there was a fire department pick up truck, a police car and a moving van in the parking lot. Someone went to check it out and got the information.

It turns out that down the street, a man was at a gas station and noticed a woman about to get into a moving van and drive away. But she was totally impaired by alcohol or drugs, so he charged over to help her to reconsider.

She would not.

What would you do?

He grabbed her keys, jumped into HER moving truck and drove away, pulling into our church parking lot while he called police! He stole her truck so she wouldn't get on the rode and hurt anyone! Vigilante justice is sometimes a very cool thing. When I drove away, the man had given his report and gone home, the woman was sitting in the back of the police car, and the policeman and fireman were trying to get the moving truck......moved.

Interesting.....

What would you do??

Wordless Wednesday: Electric daisy

***To see more entries or to join in and do your own, go to Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom.***

Kudos

I got an award! It's nothing astronomical, but to have a friend and fellow blogger award you because they enjoy what you have to say is a great honor. Thank you to Michele, of laundromat. I only wish I could give it back to. She has a truly excellent blog. She is a true and pure observer and conveyor of significance in every day life.


I would like to pass this award on to some excellent bloggers I read:

Hannah, my dear college aged daughter writes about books, politics and humanity at Who I am Becoming.

Charles, my dear husband and also my pastor, writes about the Bible, the church and spiritual things at Veritas.

Megan, a dear friend from our days in New Jersey, blogs about family life with 4 little kids and living in Alaska at Nutmeggmama.

And one of my dear friends from northern Arizona, Sally, at Ash Fork painter who writes about the simple life there in the country, about cows breaking in to their land, her dogs, her family and working on their home that she and her husband Allen built from the ground up.

Um, ouch.....

It is hard to write an entry here without coming to what is really on my mind. When something is on your mind day and night for 8 days straight, it's hard to concentrate on anything else.

I'm in pain.

Last Monday I woke up with extreme pain in my lower back and it has gradually gotten a smidgeon better and now taken a turn for the worse again the past 2 days. I have awakened before with back pain, but this time it is unlike anything I've ever experienced. So after missing 3 days now of work and taking countless ibuprofen tablets, I made a doctor's appointment. I expect it will be some kind of disk problem, but it is definitely something. And it is not getting better on it's own.

There is no comfortable position except lying flat on my back. But if I do that for more than 15 minutes, my lower back stiffens and when I get up it feels like a muscle spasm in my right hip and back. When I sit, there is a feeling that my spine is squishing all the nerves in my back between the vertebrae. When I walk around it does not exactly hurt, but the pressure in my back feels like it is becoming a black hole, sucking in all matter, or at least all my muscles into it's extremely tight hold. If I am too mobile, there are shooting pains and strange nerve distress feelings of twinges, twangs and throbs all over my lower body and legs.

And now that I have written about what is on my mind, I probably won't mention it again, but your prayers are so very welcome. Thanks! And I do have a doctor appointment on Wednesday at 3pm.

Side note:

I am addicted to that cat video from my last entry now. I have watched it dozens of times in the past few days. It makes me feel happily sleepy.....and a little cheeky.

Nope, nope, nope

If you would promise me a cat would be this entertaining and talk sassy to me like this, I would have one.

But you can't promise me that, can you? (watch this, it's cute!)

I found it over at cuteoverload.com.

More ideas on enchilada making

I got a comment from my friend KQ and have to share it because it sounds great! Here are her words:

"Hi. Just making my mark here to say I'm reading you... but now I can't resist commenting about your tortilla trick and enchilada shortcuts - because I have some too! Wanna hear them? (Well, too bad....)

My fastest enchilada shortcut is to take frozen taquitos, put them in a baking dish, cover them with (we could totally be the same person) Las Palmas green, sprinkle with cheese, and bake in the oven. My tortilla shortcut is not only effective for softening them for rolling, but also adds zero calories: I get out my no-stick skillet and heat it up. One at a time, I place a tortilla in the pan, heat it just until soft and pliable, and then slide it out onto the work surface for stuffing/rolling while the next tortilla heats up. It only takes a couple of seconds to heat each one, doesn't get too hot, and - yeah - zero extra calories. (More cheese, please!)"

Thanks KQ.
I love the idea of using taquitos!! I am going to try it soon! Las Palmas is the best green sauce, isn't it? =)