Miss Lori

This is my friend, Lori. We met while I was a social worker with the Pre-K program in Georgia. We quickly became friends. She is the sweetest, kindest, most southern girl in the world. If she met you, you would feel like you had known her your whole life.

We quickly bonded over our dogs and went on long walks together. We took our dogs to puppy training classes. The stories from those classes are hilarious. We had a blast. Her dog, Zoey, was a star student. Willie got uhhh....most improved.

She recently met her Prince Charming. I haven't met him yet and I hate that. But everyone that met him thinks he's perfect for her.

She asked me to be in her wedding March. I can't wait and I'm so honored. She knows everyone in Troup County, so it's a big deal for me to be included in the wedding.

I'm so happy for her. Her fiance is such a lucky guy.

Morning breath

(this is an older picture of them, but it's still cute)

My kids love to snuggle in the morning. Patrick, Maggie and Steven were all snuggled up in bed and they were pretending to be asleep, which is one of Patrick's favorite "jokes". He snores and giggles.

This game involved snoring, giggling, squealing and starting all over again.

Patrick had a serious case of morning, milk breath.

Steven said, "Patrick has stinky morning breath." They all giggled.

Maggie repeated it, "Patrick has stinky morning breath." Silence.

Patrick piped up, "no, Maggie".

He was offended that Maggie thought he had stinky breath and blamed it on Maggie's breath instead.

I think they all needed a breath mint.

On the menu this week....

I don't think this will really interest anyone, but I thought this would be the best place for me to plan out menus with website links. My mom and Mr. Tom are going on vacation this week, so I actually have to cook and plan menus. So here's my ideas for the week:

Monday: Tomato Basil Soup

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/rich-and-creamy-tomato-basil-soup/detail.aspx

Tuesday: Green Beans and Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf --I will put them in a cupcake pan for individual meatloafs. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/bacon-cheeseburger-meatloaf-recipe/index.html

Wednesday: Taco Salad

http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/taco_salad.html

Thursday: No noodle Lasagna

http://www.dashingdish.com/2011/01/no-noodles-about-it-the-best-low-carb-lasagna/

Friday: Grilled Hamburgers and Roasted Broccoli

http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2008/11/the_best_brocco.html

The final reasons....

30. He made all of our family's Halloween costumes last year. He sewed them and designed the iron on patches. Then, he created a trunk for our trunk or treat contest at church.

31. He can go anywhere and find someone that he knows. Or someone that he has a connection to. It is kinda of weird. I mean, we will be in the middle of nowhere and he can find a connection to the person next to us.

32. He is passionate about his job and ministry. One time I asked him what he would do with his free time if he won the lottery. He said that he would still be a pastor, but just wouldn't take a salary.

33. He has an extreme love for hair metal bands. We always play a game where I try to guess what band it is if we hear a hair metal band song. My guess is always "white snake". Unbelieveably, I get it right a lot of the time.

34. If we see a car with an out of state license, one of us says "I guess they are a long way away from home." The other person says "or maybe they are just borrowing a friend's car". It's an old joke that we started when we were dating. It's not really funny. We just say it out of habit now and laugh cause we are dorks.

35. When I was pregnant, he would paint my toenails for me. He even learned how to do a french manicure on them.

36. I haven't loaded up luggage into our car for a trip in over 11 years. I lay out the clothes and stuff I want to pack and he puts it in the suitcases and then loads it up. Then, when we are leaving, he does the same thing. He also checks the hotel about 4 or 5 times to make sure we haven't left anything behind and checks under the bed there.

37. He made a playhouse in the backyard for the kids.

38. From Maggie: He gives us a lot of kisses and hugs.

39. He loves Jesus. He leads our family to love Jesus, too.

Happy birthday, Steven. I love you.

I love him some more

25. He knew my brother first. He was the new youth minister at the church that Jonathan attended. Jonathan brought him over to our house on Sunday afternoon. My computer was acting up and he tried to fix it for me. He is still fixing my computer and phone for me 11 years later.

26. Last year, he lost 60 pounds. It took a lot of work and breaking addictions to overeating. This was an amazing accomplishment. I'm so proud of him. He looks great and he did it so that he can be around a long time for our family.

27. He has run 2 marathons.

28. Now, he is helping me to train to walk a half marathon. We get up early every morning before the kids get going and walk together. I love spending this time with him and I get in some exercise.

29. He hasn't cut me off of his Amazon account yet. He just rolls his eyes when I order cases of peanut butter. I keep expecting him to change the password on me.

A few more reasons

20. He coached Maggie's soccer team. It was a group of 5 and 6 year old little girls. The team was called the puppies. I don't think he really enjoyed this very much, but he did it.

21. This one is courtesy of Maggie. She said that her favorite thing about Steven is his scratchy moustache.

22. He has taught himself how to play the piano. He just sat down earlier this year and taught himself how to play.

23. Almost every night, I leave the living room and go to bed. I say, "hey, don't you want to come to bed?". He will say, "yeah, I'll be there in just a minute" and then he comes to bed like at 4 a.m. This scene replays almost every night. It used to bother me when we first got married. Now, I just think it's funny that we do this every night and expect different results. He wants to just do "one more thing" before he comes to bed.

24. I like the way that he gets down on the floor and wrestles and plays with Maggie and Patrick.

9 more reasons

10. He will fix anything. He likes to fix things on his own. It is very rare for us to pay for someone to fix something. He loves to work on stuff.

11. He is fine with my parents living with us. Enough said. :)

12. He loves history. He loves to hear stories about the past and his favorite channel is the History channel.

13. He is completely addicted to pistachios. It reminds me of my dad. My dad used to eat them a lot, too. His were dyed this red color. Steven eats the natural ones and we need to buy them in bulk.

14. He understands my need to be somewhere early or at least on time. From a man who was chronically late, this is a big deal. This caused a lot of our early marriage fights. But, now, he doesn't get mad that I want to be somewhere on time. He has actually adapted to more of an early person.

15. He values how flexible my job schedule is and encourages me to keep with it. I could make a lot more money with a full time job, but he sees the value in me being at home and being there for our family.

16.He is extremely loyal. If you are his friend, you are his friend for life.

17. He is a really good golfer. I wish he more time and money to play more often.

18. (facebook just sent me a reminder about what I wrote in 2010 and this popped up. thanks, facebook lol) We are watching top 100 songs of the 90s and we are singing along to Beck and Weezer. Celine Dion's "my heart will go on" comes on and we both groan and reach for the remote!

19. He left for a trip last weekend and had to leave super early. Before he left, he cleaned up the living room. It reduced my stress level tremendously!