2021 Blue Jeans Week 19

We had a good week.  So grateful for all the amazing women in our lives who do so much for us--Mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, friends.  They definitely need to be honored and remembered!  Miss E started her summer job.  Mr J earned some serious awards at the band banquet and was able to get his first COVIC vaccine shot.  YEAH!  So happy about that!  It was a good week, take a look....

Happy Mother's day!  Today really is to honor all the amazing women in our world who do so much!  I am so grateful to be the mom of these two and the ones who are missing.  Sure love them all!  So grateful to be their mom!

This amazing girl started her summer job today!  She is working in the lab at the hospital.  

Date night this week.  We were going to play frisbee golf, but it started raining, so we went on a walk and talked in the rain.  By the time we were done, it had stopped raining, so we were still able to play frisbee golf.  Sure love this guy and our weekly dates!

Impressive haul Mr J got at his end of the year band banquet!  Way to go!  He works very hard on his music, and he has an amazing band teacher too!

Yeah!  Look who got his first COVID shot!  So grateful 12-15 year olds were allowed to start getting it this week! What a huge blessing!

Happy Mother's day to me!  Miss O sent me Crumbl cookies as a mother's day gift.  She knows me well!  They were sooooo good!

Miss E wanted to make my DeeDee's (my grandma, her great grandma) caramel popcorn recipe.  My DeeDee is 95, still lives at home and still makes cookies, caramel popcorn and all kinds of other yummy things for my kids at college.  We made her recipe today, and it was so good!  Thank you DeeDee for your amazing recipes and the love you put into them!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you all had a great week! Stay safe and healthy!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 18

We had a wonderful week.  It is so nice to have Miss E home for the summer.  She had this week off to enjoy before she starts her summer job.  It was her birthday and we did some fun things for that.  Had my last COVID vaccine clinic that I helped with which has been a wonderful thing.  Take a look at our week....

Our Sunday evening game was Ticket to Ride at Miss E's request.  Love that game.  Haven't played it in a while.

Monday evening we had a picnic, roasted hot dogs, had smores and enjoyed paddle boards at a small lake near our house.  Lots of fun!

This is a truly great group of people!  Together we have volunteered over 2100 hours to help get people in our community vaccinated.  I made so many new friends!  We all loved working together over the last 4 months to do something to help end this crazy we have been in over a year.  Love these good people!

Miss E decided she wanted to make bread this week, and it was soooo good!  Recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe (of course) here

National Day of Prayer was this week, and Ben's work asked if he would be willing to say a few words and offer a prayer on that day.  Miss E and I joined them.  It was very touching.  He did a great job!

Date night this week---we went plant and flower shopping to get our outside planters done.  Excited!

Miss E's birthday cake.  She requested a chocolate banana peanut butter cake, and it was so good!  Those stripes are the buttercream--chocolate and peanut butter.  Yummy!  Recipe from Cake by Courtney here

A Very Happy Birthday to this amazing girl!  So happy to have her home!  She has had quite the year with COVID ending her senior year early and a so not normal first year of college, but she survived and did amazing!  Looking forward to having her home for the summer!

Miss E requested a family fun day for her birthday.  We took our bikes to the city and did a 16 mile bike ride on a beautiful trail.  Then we had a picnic lunch and did some birthday shopping for Miss E.  It was a great day!

For Miss E's birthday dinner, she found an Indian restaurant that she wanted to go to.  This was a first for us, and it did not disappoint!  So yummy!  Looking forward to going back soon!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week and Mother's Day weekend!  Stay safe and well!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 17

What a great week!  We had everyone home last week!  They all finished their semesters and are out for the summer!  So we got them home for a week before internships and summer jobs started.  It was a blessed week.  Take a look...

Mr J had a piano recital and I loved seeing this whole row full of my family!!!  They are here!  And Mr J did an awesome job on his recital!

Love this shot of the kids with Ben. We were just missing Mr A. 

Got this girl her first COVID vaccine shot the day after she got here.  Glad we could get that done!  All the others got their first shots at school and will get their 2nd when they get back, but Miss E is staying with us this summer, so she needed to get both here.  Excited to have her home this summer!  She has a great summer job lined up in the hospital lab.

Loved hanging out with these kids of mine!

We went to a local lake and did some kayaking.  It was fun!

Mr A had some meetings with some people in another part of the state one day, so we dropped him off and took the girls on this awesome hiking trail we did back in October. 

Sure love these people!  And the beautiful views on the hike!  Missing Mr A and Mr J!

These girls decided to make homemade pasta one day while they were home.  So yummy!

 While they were here, Mr J had two track meets, so he had a big cheering section for him at those this week.  Awesome for his sisters and brother in law to see him run!  He did not disappoint!

My cake this week.  It was for Miss O's birthday.  She requested a dark chocolate orange cake.  It was yummy!

So fun to have this girl home for her birthday!  That hasn't happened in several years!  We sure love you Miss O!!!!

Great, great week!  Huge blessing to have everyone home and healthy!!  Thanks for visiting!  Hope you have a great week and stay healthy and safe!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 16

Hello!  Hope you have had a good week!  I have all my kids home this week which is wonderful!!  Soaking it all up!  Last week was a good one.  Ben and I got to the city for a day date which was fun.  Take a look at our week...

Our Sunday evening game was the Catan dice game.  We love the regular Catan game, but when you don't have as much time, the dice game is perfect!

School pictures for this kid. Sure love him!

And talk about weird weather, we had snow!  It didn't last the day, but it was sure pretty with big flakes coming down.

Ben took the afternoon off one day last week, and we headed to the city to do some shopping and went to dinner at one of our favorite burger places.  So enjoy being with this cute guy!

Track meet for the week was in a town that had a big hill that we hiked up to and could see for miles.  It was a long track meet, and Mr J ran the first race and the 2nd to last, so we have hours to kill.  It was pretty when we walked,.

By the end of the meet it was raining and cold.  Mr J rocking his 2 mile race in the rain, wind and cold.  Gotta love track season!

And these kids are on their way here!  They drove and arrived late Saturday night.  So excited to have them home!!!!!  They are finished with their school year and are ready for a break and then summer internships and jobs here they come!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are safe and healthy!  Have a great week!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 15

It was a good week.  Enjoying the spring weather.  Love spring.  Big pre-state track meet which had miserable weather, but other than that, it was a good week.  Take a look...

Our Sunday afternoon walks on the trails are one of my favorite things.  I look forward to them all week!  Loving all the green and sure love these two guys too!

Family game time is another thing I love.  Mr J picked the game this week--Bold.  It is a fun one.

Walking on the trails with a great friend this week and soaking up the sun!

Made a cake this week.  This was for a colleague's birthday at Ben's work.  It was a vanilla cake with a cream cheese filling and a vanilla drip.  It has vanilla bean frosting that is so good!  Yummy!

And this is the disaster that is my kitchen after I make a cake.....yeah, for me, it is a messy process, but so much fun too--expect for the clean up....

Pre-state track meet for Mr J two days this week.  He is running the first leg of their 4x800 relay which they ended up getting 4th which was awesome.  Mr J also ran the 2 mile and improved his time.  It was cold, windy and raining at this meet and so not fun to be at or run in, but he did a great job!  Here is hoping that the actual state track meet is much nicer weather!!!

I love when we can read a book out loud together.  This is just a short one Ben's parents sent to us.  It is called The Mourning Dove by Larry Barkdull.  

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you are safe and healthy where you are!  Have a great week!

2021 Blue Jeans Week 14

Spring is here! I have loved seeing my daffodils.  I have three different kinds.  Got some pictures of my spring flowers this week.  Track meets have started.  Mr J had two this week.  So fun to see him run after not having anything last year.  Another Covid vaccine clinic for me and we did some painting in our family room this week.  Take a look at our week...

One of my 3 different kinds of daffodils that I have.  Pale yellow petals with a white center.

Variety #2  white petals with a bright yellow/orange center

Variety #3 yellow petals with an orange center.

The blossoms on the pear trees in my front yard.  So pretty!

My purple creeping phlox is so pretty right now!

Track meet #1 of the season and of the week.  Mr J ran the 4x800 and got first and also ran the 2 mile and got first!  This was a JV meet and his first high school meet ever since no track season last year.  He did awesome!  Looking forward to varsity meets for the rest of the season now the coach said.

Working my weekly Covid vaccine clinic.  So grateful I can do this and help!

Track meet #2 for the week.  This was a big varsity meet, and Mr J ran the 4x800 relay, and they got 3rd.  He also ran the 2 mile race and improved his time by 30 seconds from the meet earlier this week and got 3rd place also!  Woohoo!  It is going to be a fun track season!

We decided our family room needed a new look.  Mr J found some cool fireplace ideas online and he did most of the work painting the brick.  It is looking cool!

A "before" of our family room fireplace wall

A pretty awesome after!  We painted the whole room a light gray--the lightest brick color of gray on the fireplace is the wall color.  So happy with how it turned out!

Thanks for visiting!  Hope you had a great week!  Stay safe and healthy!