Gracie's 12th Birthday

  Gracie turned 12 yesterday!

 I wanted to take a few pictures of her yesterday, now that she's 12.  She paused her show and ran outside so I could snap a few.  I thought she looked like she kept squinting her eyes, so I kept telling her to open her eyes and quit squinting.  Which she didn't think she was.  Then I had Dan take a few of us, and I am squinting in every single one.  I guess we are just natural squinters.  But since squinting is all we got, I decided that I'm just going to be thankful for them anyways.  :)

We had a very quiet, low key day.  We asked Gracie if she wanted to go out for breakfast.  She said she'd rather have her Dad make her some french toast, since she thinks his is the best anyways.  Then after Church we asked if she wanted to go to lunch and she said she just wanted to stay home.  Which works for me, since we were just out of town visiting Dan's parents and now have a busy week ahead of us.  Home is a nice place to be!  :)

 

So thankful for this child of mine.  She's got the biggest heart and is always teaching and challenging me.  I love you Gracie May! 

Summer sunsets

  Dan and I were watching a movie a few nights ago and the sunset was just so pretty, so I stepped out onto the front yard to snap a couple pictures.  I love our summer sunsets!

In the top picture, down at the bottom you can see just a hint of my Grandpa's old barn and shop.

The quality of the pictures aren't the best.  I was hurrying to get back inside for my movie... which wasn't any good.  I'm thinking I should have had a chair and just sat outside watching the sunset instead.  

The Brides of Wishmore

I read "The Brides of Wishmore" series a couple weeks ago.  They are written by Cathy Maxwell and  were a fun couple of books to read.  A little naughtier than what I usually try to read, but they were fun.   :)

The Bride Says No, was the first book in this series.  It was good, not my favorite by any means... but good.  It's a book of 2 sisters and 1 man.  One sister is engaged to a man that she doesn't want, but her sister does want him, and he wants her as well.  But pride is strong in these characters and they will have to make a choice on what they can afford to lose and what they can't.
                                   

The Bride Says Maybe, was the 2nd book in the series and I liked it even better than the first one.  I really liked the characters in this one.  It also had a lot of awkward tension.  Where you want to laugh out loud and maybe hide under the covers because you are embarrassed or nervous for them.  This book starts off with her father telling her that he is broke and the only way she can save him and herself is to marry a man that he has arranged for her, and that this man will be here in an hour and she will marry him.  Can you imagine?  I won't give you anymore information on this one, because I don't want to spoil it.  You could definitely read the 2nd one without having read the 1st book, but if you are wanting some of the history behind book 2, I'd definitely recommend reading them in order.

Party

  I had a Pampered Chef party last night at my house.  I am not a natural when it comes to hosting parties.  Maybe because I tend to be a worrier.  What's there to be worried about, right?!  I pulled it all off and had everything set up in the front yard.  We had a table for snacks and drinks and we had a table for the nice lady to set up her Pampered Chef items.  Anyway, the lady, my friend Melissa and I went into the house to grab a couple of last minute items before the guests started to arrive.  We were just in there for a minute and we look out the window and I see one of my dogs had gotten out of the back yard and is out front.  Both dogs dug underneath their gate and have decided to join the party.  I get them and put them in the garage, because I can't have two big dogs wrecking my party.  Go back out to check damage control... and yes they've eaten all the crackers that I had lined up along one half of a plate of dip.  Nice!  I thought this kind of thing only happens in movies.  You know like Homeward Bound, or Beethoven.  Not real life.  In real life dogs don't sneak out of the backyard and eat food off your tables 5 minutes before guests arrive, or maybe they do!  I put my head down in shame, carry my tray of dog eaten food inside and show the nice lady and Melissa what my dogs have done.  Then we laugh... because again, who does this happen to!!!  What's a girl to do, so we scraped off the side of the dip that was on the side they had gotten to.  Rearranged new crackers and had it on the table in time for my guests to arrive.  Thankfully I had other snacks that my dogs didn't get into that my guests could munch on, just in case they didn't want to partake in the dog dip.

 Here are the mugshots of the 2 culprits.  

Roxy Age 4

Lucy Age 3

 Both guilty as charged!  ;)

Redemption Series

    I had started a page on this blog, that I've called book reviews.  I was hoping to write my thoughts on the books that I've read this year.  Well... I have done awful at getting them written down.  I have read tons of books.  So instead of just dumping them out all on one post, I thought I'll try and write about one a week until I get caught up, except these ones.  Since they are in a series I'll post them all here.

  The first book that I had written about was called Redemption.  I liked it a lot and ended up reading the rest these in the series.

Remember #2

  

 Return #3

 

 Rejoice #4

 

Reunion #5

 

I'm not going to write about each of these books in the series, because I feel that if you read the first book and liked it, you will want to read the rest of these 4 as well.  I feel that all 4 of these are written just as good as the first.  Karen Kinsbury really pulls you into the books and makes you feel for each of these characters and the different trials that they all face.  The nice part about this series is that if you have a favorite character in one of the books, you get to revisit that character through out all of these books.  The only draw back to these books for me, would be the fact that they stressed me out too much.  :)  I had to read them all to have closure and peace of mind. 

Friday Evening

  Friday evening, Dan and I left my Mom in charge of the kids and we went into town to a new outdoor bar and grill.  They were having a soft opening and had sent out a few private invites through out the community.  I've never been to something like this, but it was fun.  It was a chance for them to test the waters and see what they needed to change or fix before they open their doors to the public.

  When we got there, we were handed a menu and I was soooo surprised and excited to see that they didn't have any fried food.  In our little community there are only a handful of little bar/restaurant's and most have the same kind of menu.  You can get your burger, fries, appetizer platters...  Which on some days is just fine, because who doesn't like a cheese burger and fries, or jalapeno poppers and cheese sticks.  But some days... you just want something different.

  Thankfully, different has arrived!  :)  This is the skewer appetizer that we ordered.  Very light and yummy.  

I ordered a panini which was really good.

And I can't remember what they called this that Dan ordered but it was really good as well.  Usually when we go out to eat somewhere different we will both order and plan to split the food between us. And that's what we did here.  It's fun because we get to try more than one thing.  We'll definitely be going back again once they open.