GiddyUP!!!!

Could he BE cuter????

Church ladies

We were church ladies tonight. The good kind of church ladies, not the fake, haughty, cliche that has caused the over-use of this descriptor. No way! We were just smilewearing, eager to eat good Baptist food, happy to be there church ladies. Our church hosted a mother/daughter dinner this evening, and my girls and I dressed our little selves up and went to the event. I am so glad that we attended, and I'm even more glad to be a part of our church. Being at church tonight, with my kids, friends, familiar faces that I see on Sunday and some I didn't even know at all reminded me of one of the reasons that I go to church. It's the people, and tonight it was specifically the ladies. Nine of my fellow church ladies gave a short testimony that went along with the 9 fruit of the Spirit. Each one of them was prepared, eloquent, practical and genuine. I learned something from all of them; I was blessed by all of them. Present in the room was great music, prizes, laughter, tears, delicious food, great service by the men and so much Christian love that it gave a girl goose bumps. There was a sort of vintage yet modern feel in the place - something for every generation. A special story and gift were given just for the young girls. Throughout the night, God was lifted up and made relevant to every girl there. Personally, I felt like the most blessed mama in the world to be taking my daughters to a mother/daughter dinner. They all 3 exclaimed about how much they enjoyed the night (even though Meredith was bummed that she wasn't going to be eating mac and cheese). There wasn't another place that I would have rather been tonight. What a great start to Mother's Day weekend.

Dip cone mania

Last night, we took the kids out to Dairy Queen for a special treat.  For the past week, I have limited Maddie's milk intake , trying to figure out some head and stomach issues.  My promise last week to her was that we would give it a week.  She didn't hesitate to remind me yesterday that it had been a week.  She was a pretty good sport considering that ( in her words - with a tinny, whiney tone) "Everything I love has milk in it!  So, our outing last night was partly for her and partly because I just wanted to do something special with everybody. There's nothing like the first DQ dip cone of the season.  Yummmmmmm... the kids all agreed as did half of Fort Collins because the line was out the door!  The temperature has been warm, almost hot, the last couple of days and the city has summer fever.  I love going on little surprise outings with the family; my dad used to surprise us kids from time to time when we were coming home from church or something and he would pull into the Hardees drive thru for cones; when we were really little, we would go to A&W.  I like carrying on his tradition of ice cream surprises with my own family. I'm never disappointed with their reactions with last night being no different.  From the time that I told them that we were going until we actually ordered,the kids were all talking about which flavor of dip cone they were going to get. There was one child, who shall remain nameless, who pulled a "Heather"(only an Oman will get that) and order a shake rather than a dip cone - payback is the pits!!  It was the perfect end to our Wednesday -  a simple way to make the day extra special  and a good reminder that summer is a comin'!!!