A beautiful service for a beautiful woman:-)

Today we held a service in the celebration of Sheila's life. It was a very simple and beautiful service. Joel did such a great job of putting everything together:-) He was nervous all week that something horrible would go wrong....but of course it didn't. It was great to meet a lot of Sheila's friends that I hadn't met before today. Lots of people she worked with showed up along with all of her close family:-) I know that she would be very happy to see the turn out. We will miss her so much! It's really hard to believe that she is gone:-(

You will be missed Sheila!!!!

Last night at 11:55pm my husband lost his mother. She had a brain bleed and has been in the ICU for a week. The doctors told us that she would not recover with any meaningful life...so they decided to withdraw care for her and let her go. It was the saddest thing I have ever had to experience. Everyone says that everything happens for a reason. I question that sometimes:-( Seeing Joel hurt the way he did was awful. I am glad that we are at a good place in our life now that we are sober...secure...and happy. I think all of those things will help him deal with the loss of his Mom. I only knew Sheila for about 4 years...but it sure was long enough to know that she loved Joel and her other boys...Josh and John more than anything. She was soooo happy that Joel and I found each other. She told me one day that she waited for Joel to finally figure himself out and for him to truly be happy and that she could see now that he was truly happy. I am happy to know that she was able to be a part of our life for as long as she could.

I know that it's only the beginning of this whole thing for Joel...but I am 100% confident that he is going to be ok:-) He is a strong man and his Mom will be so proud of what his future holds for him and his family!

We will miss you Miss Sheila:-) Just know that I will always take good care of your son and your beautiful grandchildren. They mean the world to me:-)

Look at the smile in this picture. May 16th 2009. She was sooooo happy that day to have all of her boys together:-)

Fall in Texas

I love Fall in Texas. The weather is awesome...a little rainy...but cool and very relaxing. For some reason this is the time of year that I enjoy cooking the most. I have a few new recipes that I am going to try this weekend. Joel's kids are here and his daughter is a little picky...so I tried to pick out a few recipes that she will enjoy. I know she will at least enjoy helping me prepare them:-) I will post the recipes on my food blog later this weekend.

I also love this time of year because it always seems like a good time to clean out stuff....I know that supposed to be "spring cleaning" and I love the whole "spring cleaning" thing...but in the fall I like to clean "out". I am thinking about re-organizing my closet this weekend....fun fun! How does that darn thing get so full of crap!!! I don't get it...lol.

Oh...and shopping. I am not a big shopper...I really only go shopping when it gets cold and again when it gets hot. I don't enjoy shopping a lot....but when it's start getting cold outside and all you have is flip flops and t-shirts it kind of makes you want to go out and buy a sweater:-) I love wearing a comfy pair of jeans and a nice warm sweater...coooozzzzyyyy!

I end up getting a lot more stuff done around the house when it starts getting cold too...because I am a total weenie and don't like being out in the cold all day....so I end up scrapping more...cooking...cleaning(well...I can't do much of that until my back fully heals...thanks Joel).

Fall also means the holidays are just around the corner:-) .....it brings back so many childhood memories. I hope our kids have as many wonderful holiday childhood memories as I do. Family....food...gifts....more food....oh...and just the smell of Christmas sticks in my mind. You walk outside...it's cold...you can smell wood burning from families fire places....LOVE IT!!!


HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!!!

Thomas 13th B-Day Party!

We did things a little different this year:-) Thomas wanted to take a few of his friends to Screams...little did he know they were all going to go in a HUMMER LIMO!!!! He was sooo surprised! All of the kids had a blast. YES...it was raining....but we all still had fun...and hey...there weren't any lines for the haunted houses...so that rocked! A little mud never hurt anyone. I wasn't able to get many pictures though due to the rain. SORRY:-(

7th grade History Project

Thomas came home to tell me that he dropped his project at school and it broke all over the floor....so....he needed to re-do it at home because they didn't have time to re-do it in class. Great...like I know how to make plaster stuff that will dry hard...he he! I googled it...yes I said I googled it. It worked! He did a great job on his project. I am a proud Mama and wanted to show off a little. Oh...and I now know how to make homemade playdough:-)

7th grade field trip

Thomas's 7th grade class went on a really cool field trip last week. They went to the Dallas World Aquarium...then to Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch and then onto a sculpting place. One of the roon Mom's took this picture of Thomas scultping a peice of limestone. Thomas was so excited when he got home. He said it was the coolest field trip ever. He really loves going to the Dallas world aquarium and the scultping thing was really neat. They sent him home with a HUGE chunk of limestone. Not sure what we will do with it...but Thomas didn't want to get rid of it...so I guess we will hang on to it for a while:-)