final weekend together in our much loved home

so, tonight begins our final weekend together in our home of nearly 20 years.  

several years ago the youngest girls started a campaign for us to move 

because they had never lived anywhere else. 

 the boys did not agree and mary-catherine was fairly impartial.

well, here we are.  not sure how we all feel.  mixed feelings to say the least.  

taylor and mary-catherine are flying into houston this evening, late.  

i decided a few weeks ago that we all needed this.......a final weekend to mourn the loss of this house and celebrate our new beginning together.

i want it to go so well.  don't want to stress anyone, though.  because that is not fun and i have a tendency to do that.  in anticipation of this weekend i found someone online to paint this for me.  and i have a copy for each of the kids.  

cannot get this to rotate!  sorry.

the only concern i have now for the weekend is that we will repeat the scene when we moved in here.  zack is on an oil spill in galveston and may not be able to get away....ugh.  makes me so sad, but this is the story of our lives.  

poor zack really.  he is going to to be so sad. 

 i'm going to pray.  

final sleepover-part 1

one of the things the girls have requested before we move from our beloved home is to have a final sleepover with all their friends who have enjoyed time with us here.  

after much debate over who would get the "last" available time, it was decided that emma and lily would have their's tonight.  

lily promptly wrote out invitations and passed them out to her friends the next day.  she had four sweet little friends able to come join us for our "last"

--jill, emily, sarah, and caroline.  

emma procrastinated the invites and ended up only having 2 great friends able to participate.  she was a little sad and couldn't quite understand why they wouldn't/couldn't change their plans for her last sleepover in our house!  after all, it was the LAST one!  :)   in our house!  but she was so happy to have aliana and abbie, who have been such wonderful friends to her and our family.  

both girls were super excited that the new movie, divergent, was coming out tonight and they were planning to see it with their friends.....dressing up and all.  but, a couple of the girls lily invited were not allowed to go, so like a good hostess, she changed plans and we went to Prien Lake Park while emma and friends were at the movies.  we had a great time.  it was beautiful out, a little crispy.  there was a horse drawn cinderella carriage parked and ready for a bride we could see in the distance finishing up a ceremony with her groom and guests.  so exciting for little girls.  we waited and played around on the islands around the streams that run through the park.  reminds me that lily is still a little girl and needs to play.  she seems so mature so often and is surrounded by older girls that we often forget that she is only 11 and treat her older, too.  so fun.  filled my heart with love for these sweet girls and for our time here.  

emma was consumed with excitement for divergent, the movie.  she and lily have for several weeks been relating everything around them to these books.  colors remind them of the different groups.  phrases remind them of what someone said in the book.  if they aren't quoting and retelling sections of this book, they are doing the same with the harry potter books.  they are definitely hooked on reading and specifically a few series.  so, of course, emma and friends had to dress to fit in one of the groups.  emma wore all black including a black leather jacket and black combat boots.  abbie wore gray and drew tatoos all over her.  emma had a few, too.  all in the dress up mode, of course!  haha..  

we picked up the girls from the movies and came home for some treats and a dance party.  then the little girls settled in watching frozen in the living room and the big girls watched in emma's room on the lap top.  

fun "last"......... 

sarah beth is next.....

the abbey...........

Oh, what a fan of Downton Abbey I have become.  I love the characters.  I love the accents.  I love the civil way they discuss delicate subject, for the most part.  I love the clothing.  And now I have to watch reruns, for the 3rd time, or wait 10 months for the new season.  That is the way it always was when I was growing up, but now it seems like there are new seasons twice, sometimes 3, times a year.  Interesting.

And Mathew died.  Why must they do this?  I know that the actor didn't want to return for another season.  Didn't he know that when he was cast as the heir that he would be in this for a while?  I can't understand why he would want to leave anyway.  I guess if he was leaving then they did it the best they could.  With Mathew and Mary still loving each other.  And with a new heir.

I got my mama hooked on the show when she was here at Christmas.  She loves it now, too.  We were discussing the show last night and talked about how so much was made of dinner.  So many people worked so hard for so long to get the dinner made, served, cleaned.  And there were so many rules about how it all went, too.  Seems a bit overkill for our day, but we have so much we can learn.  We make no deal about spending that precious time together as a family.  We forget how important it is to have traditions and schedules.  The family would never have dreamed of missing dinner.  Of course, it is all made so convenient when you don't have to cook.  But, you did have to dress.  I would rather cook!  haha.  Makes me wonder how the queen and Prince Philip eat and dress today.  I would really like to know that.

Mama suggested that having all this formality was an effort to civilize a people who previously were not so refined.  The rules and standards the king set were passed down through the ranks and learned by most.  These rules and expectations are good for people.  We should be expected to behave a certain way, and have a little social pressure to do so.  I love Mrs. Hughes.  She expected people to behave properly and allowed consequences to them when they didn't, but she exacted those consequences with such kindness and concern.

Such an interesting time period.  We know where the changes are going, and it seems all a little sad to lose what they had.

See you in 2014..................

HELLO!

Well, both of the BIG girls have started blogging and are getting on to me for slacking on mine.  I love blogs so much and don't know why I don't do it more.  If I could post on my phone I might be more willing to do it.  I just don't have much time at the computer and fooling with the picture download is infuriating!  But, they want me to, and I want to do it, too.  So.....I guess I might be back:)

I have been journaling for several months, though.  I got a recipe box and put in 365 note cards dated with every day of the year.  No year or day of the week, just the month and day.  Every day I write two lines of what I did, learned, or observed that day.  I love it.  No pressure to be a great writer, no pressure to be witty.  Just a little reminder of what we did.  I may use some of those reminders to go back and do a little writing.

I have been  printing Taylor's letters that people have written him on his mission.  I love email, but one of the drawbacks is that he doesn't have time to go back and read what people have written him. So, I got on his email (which is super fun!) with his permission and am painstakingly going through and printing them all out, then putting them in sheet protectors and sending them to add to his binder.

So check out my girls' blogs.  itsmcat.blogspot.com    sb3th.blogspot.com  They are so awesome.  We will see where this all leads!!

Lily's first plane ride! She was so excited and kept wanting to make sure she did everything right. When she got to her seat I heard her say to the flight attendant, "Excuse me....." very sweetly. "Do I need to put this up there?". When she got her answer she softly said, "Ok, thank you:)"

Kentucky Derby Party

We have never been horse fans. I knew pretty little about horse races except to have heard of Secretariat, but who hasn't.

But, Lily has loved horses her whole life. She has been collecting them for many years, has several beautiful books about horses, and this year started horseback riding lessons! She is in love.

So last week I was watching the TODAY show and they talked about the Kentucky Derby coming up that weekend. I was inspired! We should have a Kentucky Derby party.

To GOOGLE I went. Most of the parties were for adults and involved mint juleps. But we were able to come up with our own ingredients for a fun fun fun Kentucky Derby party!! Big hats, included!!

Go, Lily, Go

Lily, Emma, and Sarah Beth went on a bike ride today.  They were so excited and headed off in the direction of Mrs. Gwen's house.  Lily was really motivated!  :)

When they headed home they were paying close attention and soon it started to rain....hard.  I didn't realize it was raining until Emma came bursting in the door....soaking wet.  She had left Sarah Beth and Lily in an effort to get home quickly.  She thought they yelled for her, but she wasn't sure and she wasn't stopping!  We waited and watched for her sisters and then started calling to see where they were.  Soon we saw them come into view out at Maplewood Drive.  Sarah Beth got inside first and was totally soaked.  She said Lily kept stopping and crying for Mama.  :(  Then Lily came in and was drenched.  She came to me for a hug and I told her how proud I was that she kept going and that she did it!!!  Now go get a bath.

After her bath, Lily came in for a hug and whispered that she had told herself while they were riding that she could do this.  "Actually, I told myself, I won't be a wimp!", she said.

No wimps in this house!  haha.