Thankful for Guests...

Why, you ask, am I so thankful for guests?? Because it forces me to clean. our. house.  No, seriously, there are times that Luke and I invite friends over simply because we need to force ourselves to get our house out of the grips of the every day tornado it lives in!

So, anyway, I had our Ladies Class over for lunch on Tuesday after our final Bible study before summer. Luke's mom, Kathy, and I hosted the ladies here for lunch, and she helped me get the food together.  Luke was a tremendous help as well! Not only did it get a fire under our rear ends to clean house, but it also motivated me to finally bite the bullet and decorate!  Monday night before we went to bed Luke made some comment about "you'd think the president was coming for lunch."  The next day after lunch, he sent me a text asking if "Michelle (Obama) enjoyed her visit."  Hehehe, soooo funny! :-)

We did have a fabulous time, and I am thankful for those women whom I've gotten to know and learn from!  And, a quick bonus to the cleaning/decorating spree....finally hung some things above our bed...

hard to tell from this pic, but we're going with the

grey, teal, gold look...the non-matching frames are fabric!

the boys couldn't stand the cleanliness, and

they did this in about 2.8 seconds after our guests left!

The weather this week has been gorgeous, and we've tried to take advantage of it!  Several trips to the pond to feed the ducks & fish as well as several visits to various playgrounds.  Our own back yard is pretty great, too, when we're feeling lazy!

Some days it looks like his hair is just levitating over his head...

no wonder people stop us EVERY day to talk about it and touch it!

I don't know why, but I do love these next 2 pics of Miles.

Pretty handsome fella if you ask Momma!

Elijah's favorite stump...we jump off every time we go feed the ducks

This boy still asks for "popelate" milk DAILY...I usually oblige :-)

And, Grandma D provides the Cheetos...Miles' first taste of this nutritional gem!

Today, I tried to squeeze in a quick trip to Target on the way home from the playground.  I was literally in the store for 10 minutes, and this is what I found halfway through the baby food aisle...

Elijah was sound asleep! Gives a whole new meaning to "shop til ya drop!"

Late this afternoon I went out to check the mail, and I spotted this huge turtle at the end of our driveway! Luke had gotten home maybe 30 minutes before, and he hadn't seen it when he pulled in.  We have no idea how it got there! Anyway, we brought the boys out to take a look, and within 5 minutes (seriously, I am not kidding!) the entire crew of neighborhood kids had flocked our yard! I thought we were in the midst of a flash mob!  The sequence went something like this...

1 minute: "Oh, cool, a turtle in our yard!"

2 minutes: Elijah says, "Oooh, he's hiding."

3 minutes: still waiting on the turtle to show his face

4 minutes: "Tuuuurrrrrtttllllleeee"

5 minutes: Elijah says, "C'mon guys, it's just a turtle! Give me my

juice...I am way too cool for this!"

Honestly, it was hilarious seeing & hearing those kids so excited about a mere box turtle!  This conversation also took place during the excitement...

Girl in teal: "Wow, that turtle is so cool!"

Girl in red whips out phone to take pic

Girl in teal: "What, you have your own phone?"

Girl in navy: "Do you have At&T or Verizon...I can't stand AT&T!" 

Seriously, these kids couldn't have been more than 12, and they were talking about cell phone service!  Also, they informed us that the land our houses were built on used to be a zoo, and that they had to catch 3 bobcats that had been released.  And, there are a few peacocks still around apparently!  I will have to do a little research on this one, but all the kids swore it was true!  I'll let ya know what I find out!

And, to all of you mommas out there, Happy Mother's Day this Sunday! What a rewarding, wonderful, frustrating, challenging, joyous, hilarious, exhausting job it is...and I am so thankful that I can celebrate this day with my boys and also remember my wonderful Mom who I think of and miss every day.  Thankful for the cherished memories I have of her. 

Happy Friday!