Mother's Day Weekend in Review

Warning: This is a bit of a long post - skim if you must!

Random photo of my mom from Alex's wedding - cuz everything is better with my mom's beautiful smile!

We had a great weekend full of yard improvements and family time. So often it seems by the time I get to Sunday night I can hardly remember what we did on Friday! I think last Friday night was mostly hanging out at home. Tony had to work SUPER late on a very rainy day. I told him to call me when he was finally on his way home, and I would run around the corner to the Chinese take-out and get us some dinner. So we executed the plan. After I placed our order I was waiting at the one table in the restaurant perusing the Apartment Guide booklet, and this guy walks in the door. It took me a second to realize it was my own dear hubby with a big smile on his face!! I jumped up and gave him a big smooch and hug! Why is it that seeing your loved one in an unexpected place is always so thrilling?? Thanks for keeping me happy and continuing to surprise me in the best ways, sweetheart.

Thursday evening we had gone shopping together at the new Super Wal-Mart (along with just about every hick East of the Mississippi! Where do these people come from?!?!) Anyway... it is good to know that low, low prices are now available on food in the Philly suburbs. I think I still prefer my Giant grocery store, but for stocking up maybe Super Wal-Mart will be the place. Apparently, there were no Super Wal-Marts in the Philly area since the grocery unions are very strong and somehow had something against a store that sold Wal-mart-type-stuff AND groceries. We still don't have any SuperTargets!!

Another random Mom smile from last Christmas. Sorry for the angle, Mom, but of course I was lucky enough to be sitting next to you!

Saturday mornings Tony almost always gets all the laundry done before I barely even squeeze open my left eye! What a husband! We headed over to Home Depot and made some grand purchases that we had been planning for a while. We got a new shed for Mr. Tony to replace his 30-year-old falling-apart one in the backyard. I'm so excited for him to get this set up! It's sturdy metal and as he will tell you (or anyone that flinches, let alone inquires) the way to preserve this lovely shed is "So simple! I don't know why I didn't think of it before!!" Apply car wax. That's it! Can you believe it? We'll let you know how it goes. He plans to thoroughly wax each piece before setting it up.

We're still clearing away space in the back of the yard and Tony is finalizing where the new shed will sit - but pictures will be forthcoming once it gets up and we demolish the old one. Tonight we cleared away three huge piles of branches, weeds and other detritus from the hedges along the back of the yard and the insidious vines that have killed more than one bush back there. We both had some injuries from one of the vines that had THORNS! These were the kind that slid easily into skin and stayed there, unhindered by shirts, jeans or gloves. Yipes!

The front walk - post-floral-improvements. I love how green everything is at this time of year!

We also finally (after weeks of sitting in every patio set in every store we entered - often multiple times) decided upon a nice table and chairs to replace our old white plastic less-than-sturdy patio set. This is exciting because neither one of us has ever owned a nice patio set. Tony had a GRAND time putting the chairs together. He swears that the Chinese are going to conquer America one crazy-screw-placement at a time! But man, can they pack a lot into one box!

Our house. Can you tell that there is beauty all around???

We also got some Boston ferns to hang along our porch and I love them! Someone told me that is what they used to do in the old days (possibly around the time our house was actually built). The green ferns against the white house just look so breezy and pretty. Plus - I hope they are hardier than the flowers we've had the last two year since I pretty much forget to water for days at a time (sorry, Honey!). We also got some lovely flowers to plant along our front walk. Getting all of this stuff home was the tough part! We had to make two trips with the Jeep.

Don't they look proud of their accomplishments? This was apparently their first gardening experience.

The sister missionaries came over Saturday afternoon to help plant the flowers in the front. While I worked with them, Tony was fighting the Battle of the Chairs in the backyard. I made dinner while they all finished and we inaugurated the new patio set with yummy grilled sausages on rolls (turkey sausage for the girls, pork for the boy that refuses to eat turkey in any form other than one recognizable as turkey) and corn on the cob. We had fruit for dessert and everything was perfect... except for one tiny exception. We were getting everything put out on the table (condiments, salad, etc) and once we sat down to eat, one of the sisters realized that a bird had let her plate have it! Yep, poop on the plate. So, Tony ran inside and washed it - gallantly switching his plates for hers even after it was washed clean. The Sisters shared a message with us after dinner about the stripling warriors and how they were strengthened by the testimony of their mothers. All in all, it was a great day.

Hard workers ready to sit down for dinner! As you can see, the battle over hunger was won before the battle over the new chairs.

Sunday was a nice day. We both went to church and then visited Tony's mother's and grandmother's grave, leaving the flowers we had received at church. Tony did some more yard work and I reheated the leftover Chinese for lunch. We had a fun time sitting together on the completed patio set and lunching together. We went to a Mother's Day get-together with Tony's family hosted by young Celeste. It is amazing how quickly a fantastic meal can be pulled together by these women! Celeste even had favors for all of the women consisting of cute pink gardening gloves, a yummy-smelling candle and a scratch-n-play lotto ticket (one of us one $2, but not me). She made these fantastic little cannoli for dessert. Wow. They were good.

I made one faux pas at dinner, unbeknownst to me. One of the group is having a baby in a couple of months, and I was invited to the baby shower. I can't go so I wanted to let her know that I had her present shipped to her house so she would know to watch for it. I just casually mentioned this, and garnered quite a different reaction than I had expected. Apparently, in this part of the world, baby showers are SURPRISES! Who knew?? I've been to tons of baby showers, but no surprise baby showers... So yep, I blew the surprise... but she still doesn't know WHEN it is. So that is a relief :) Just imagine if I'd said, "Hey, Jen, at such-and-such a day and at such-and-such a time when it will be your BABY SHOWER, I cant' make it." That really would have put me on the baddy list :) I hope the shower is wonderful whenever it is!

Me and Sister H with a view of our neighbors' yards over our shoulders.

The sister missionaries visited us again for Sunday dinner, which was grilled cheeseburgers and were pretty yummy if I do say so myself. It was fun talking to each of them in a less formal setting as we made dinnner etc. They used our den to talk with their mothers and family, and it was sweet to see how excited they were after hearing voices that they hadn't heard for months. I remember how special it was to hear the news directly from your family members, instead of via letters. I think Sister H had the better deal that night since she spoke first while Sister M helped me make dinner. And then, she sat down to eat with us while Sister M spoke with her family. We had to pack up Sister M's meal so she could take it home and eat since we ran out of time!

My gorgeous mom holding me at the only point in my life when I could have been called scrawny - a few weeks old!

I got Tony off to bed and then finally got in touch with my own dear, sweet mother and we had a nice long talk. What a wonderful woman. I told her that I had wanted to blog a lovely post dedicated to her, but I had run out of time. And then in typical Mom-style, she said she hadn't had time to read a blog post anyway! This lady is always taking care of family or students or friends or tracking down her ancestors! What a great example of wisdom, love and faith. She inspires me and makes me want to be a better person.

Me and Mom in the faculty procession at graduation. It's so fun working with my mom! She just had her 100th graduate! Wow!!

I love you, Mom!!!