Long Overdue Weekend Wrap-Up: Sisters' Weekend

Yes, I realize that I went on my Sisters' Weekend almost 2 months ago. Yikes! Where does the time go?
As always, it was a really good weekend. It was different without Mama being there, and there were times when we all had tears in our eyes, but it wasn't a big "cry-fest". One of my sisters made sure there was plenty of  tissue in the house, but we didn't need it. It was more of a happy time...a time for us to talk about memories with Mama. I think I had a couple of conversations that I wouldn't have had if Mama had been there, but they were good conversations.
First, the cabin. We went to a resort that is not far from a sister's house.

 The outside:

And some of the inside:

It was quite nice: 4 bedrooms (3 upstairs & 1 downstairs), 3.5 baths.
As usual, when we got there on Friday, we picked bedrooms, unpacked, and then sat on the porch with a beverage of choice. Two of my SIL & myself fixed dinner & dessert. We went with easy: taco bar with pie for dessert.
For breakfast on Saturday, everybody brought an ingredient (their choice...no restrictions!) and we set it out on the counter. We all threw out ideas on what to do with everything. One of my sisters brought Daddy's leftover birthday cake from that Thursday night and had that in the mix. So...we had ham with birthday cake glaze (it turned out to be blue), eggs with sausage & mushroom sauce, bagels, bread with tomatoes, and fruit.

A closeup of the ham:

After breakfast, it was time for the Spa!

We had our choice of what we wanted to do. I think most of us chose pedis & a massage. The nail room was gorgeous. It was like sitting in a tree! So calming. (I didn't take a picture of it...I didn't want to be too weird!) This massage was only my 2nd one, and my 1st one by a male. We ended up talking the whole time after we realized we had quite a bit in common.

After/during our Spa time, the UT football game was on, so we watched the game.

Before supper, we had a little visitor:

My niece was taking care of a co-worker's baby pig for the weekend. It was the sweetest little thing! Apparently the owner thought she was getting one of the little pigs, but this is a real pig! He's going to be a whopper when he's full grown!
For supper that night, we each brought something to grill (steak or chicken). One of my sisters made tomato pie that was to die for. We also had green beans from another sisters' garden, deviled eggs, and bread.

One of my sisters found some "Ski" Soda, and brought one for my SILs.

(My maiden name ends in "ski", so if you didn't already know that, the "Ski soda" will make sense now!)

The Texas A&M game (Gig 'Em!) took  forever to get started. I was trying to skype or google hangout with my sister who is working toward her Ph.D. at A&M, but she was in the stadium and couldn't get reception. We were able to text and send pictures back & forth, though. This is a picture she sent of her with 3 of our cousins:

Sunday morning came way too quickly. We packed up, cleaned up, and headed to The Apple Barn. We usually take a group picture at the cabin, but we forgot this time. One of my SILs wasn't feeling well that morning, so my brother drove up and picked her up, so we couldn't take one at the restaurant. We did get a picture of the rest of us:

Before we went in, one of my SILs spied this:

Pigeon Forge has a lot of car shows; in fact, it seems like there's one just about every weekend in the fall! My speech blog is called "Old School Speech", so I had to get a picture of the bus! 

All in all, a wonderful weekend. Mama's passing was still pretty fresh, but we needed that weekend for us. 

I mentioned Daddy's birthday...the night before we went on our weekend, the family gathered at my house for cake & ice cream to celebrate Daddy's 89th birthday. 

 The blue icing on the cake turned everybody's tongues blue:

 Lips, too!

That takes care of Sisters' Weekend...and it only took me 2 months to take care of it!

Hodgepodge Thursday

It's just after 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday night, and I'm sitting here posting on a blog.  WHY?  I usually blog at night, revise after I've slept on it, then post first thing in the morning.  I can't help  it; I'm obsessive a perfectionist that way.  It's been a busy week, and it's just Wednesday.  Monday was the easy day...no after school activities.  MS did have a soccer game, but it was an away game, and it was quite a distance away, so I chose not to go.  So, what did he do?  He scored his 2nd goal of the season.  And I missed it...again.  Tuesday night was a Reunion Meeting.  What a blast it was to look through old pictures and realize that I either didn't go on the senior field trip, or I completely don't remember it.  I'm pretty sure  I didn't go, although I have no reason why.  One of my friends said if she hadn't been in the pictures she wouldn't have believed it!
Tuesday morning I took a Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake (Thanks, Paula..as in Deen!)  to school for the teachers in celebration of the end of TCAPS.  It must've been okay...it was all gone by 9:30!

If you've ever tried that cake, you know it's "Slap your grandma" good!  When I got to my room, this beautiful sight was waiting on me:

My heat/air is finally fixed!  HOORAY!  It only took 5 months, but it finally got fixed!  I had a meeting during the day, and, y'all, the view outside of the principal's window is amazing.  There's just a big ole hill with trees all over it.  I had to snap this shot as I was leaving school Tuesday afternoon:

You have to look past the wires, but the view from this school just takes my breath away!  The clouds are incredible.
Which brings me to Wednesday.  I get a text from my intern...she can't find her keys.  She thinks maybe she locked them in her car, and she doesn't have a spare.  After a while she texts me again...still can't find them.  I tell her it's no big deal, just take her time.  I'll get started on the kids and she can jump in when she gets to school.   I finally get a text from her after I get to school:  she found them...in her bathrobe.  She wasn't very late, but I think she felt badly about it.
It's the lovely time of the year when we're running around, trying to get IEPs done  before school's out.  Another meeting Wednesday afternoon, but it didn't take very long.  As I'm leaving  the school, I get a text from MS:  I need to make baklava for him for school tomorrow...a school project.  Great.  I've never made baklava in my life.  My nephew's  wife makes a mean baklava, but I don't have her recipe.  So, when I get home, I look it up on the 'net, and print off the recipe.  When I asked MS why he waited until the last minute, he said that he didn't think I had anything else to do!  HA!  Guess what...I had a band booster budget meeting at 6:30.  And, I still needed to go by Home Depot to see if I could find a couple of ceiling fans I liked.  (More on that in a future post.)  The meeting lasted until 9:10...we closed Panera down.  Then, off to Home Depot for the quest for ceiling fans.  As I'm going in, I get a call from MS saying he's changed his mind...Persian Raisin Cookies would be easier and faster.  I tell him that I'll call  him when I go into the grocery store so he can tell me what we I need to get.  Find a couple of fans I like, then off to Kroger.  That's one scary place at 10:00 at night, let me tell you.  There was a high school boy who was harassing   asking the bag boy where he went to high school, then proceeded to tell him that one of the city schools  was better.  Then, the high school boy looks at me and asks which one I like better.  I tell him I went to the other city school (which is a huge rival  of his school.).  As I'm getting in my car, I look at the car parked next to me...bad mistake.  Really weird looking people.  Not that I have anything against people who look different...I  just don't want to cross their paths at 10:15 at night in a dark parking lot when I'm alone.
I finally make it home, make the cookies (in all fairness, MS did help), and now here I am.  Can barely keep my eyes open, but I'm going to finish this post!  5:30 is going to come awfully early.  I don't think the cookies turned out exactly like they're suppose to; I don't think they were suppose to flatten out like they did.  But they're done.  And I don't care what they taste like.

And now it's Thurs. morning, and, yep, I was right:  5:30 did com awfully early this morning.
Oh, and:  Happy Earth Day!  In South Carolina, the town we lived in had a huge Earthday Celebration at the museum (it was a small museum, but it was a pretty good one!).  I don't think they do anything like that here.  Anyway, here's a fact from my "Little White Book":  The first Earth Day was celebrated in San Francisco, which is named after St. Francis, who is the patron saint of ecology.

Friday's Fave Fives

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes for Middle Son!  I think he had a good day.  He had soccer practice, then he and his girlfriend went to a concert.  We usually don't let him go out on a school night, but, it was his 18th birthday and it was Drew & Ellie, we made an exception.  He had seen this band on a Young Life Weekend and really liked them.  He was so excited that they were going to be in "the big town"! He was jazzed when he came home last night.  He said his girlfriend went in thinking she wasn't going to like it (she thought they were country singers), but she really liked them!   He actually was there when this video was made:





Now for the real reason for the post:
This is the first time I'm participating in this Meme...looks like a good one!

1.  I'm going to start off with Easter Sunday Mass at our old parish in SC.  This church started as a mission church to the African American community, so the singing is outstanding!  I've been singing the "Glory" all week.  You can feel the love in that church!

2.  A day off!  Actually, I had 2 days off this week, but Thursday was spent with YS' high school band at a a band festival, so I'm not sure if that really counts!  And, it was an absolute gorgeous day.

3.  The Blind Side.  We finally got around to watching it.  What an exceptional movie!  Sandra Bullock was very believable as the mom, but, in my opinion, Quinton Aaron was amazing.  He had me feeling sorry for him and tearing up from the beginning of the movie.

4.  YS' high school band participated in a concert band festival, and they received straight 2's (including a 2+)!  If you know anything about band, you may be thinking, "why is she excited about a 2?"  If you do know anything about band festivals/contests, you know that a '1' is the highest mark you can get.  Well, our little band went to the same festival last year, and got all 3's.  They are really improving.  I was able to watch them perform, and, the whole time I sat there thinking how much they've improved the 5 years YS has been involved in band.  When we moved here, there were only about 19 people in the band.  6 years later, there are around 50.  The band director was straight out of college our first year here, so he's young and enthusiastic.  I'm sure I'll be writing more about the band in the future!

5.  This actually happened last Thursday, but  my  favorite coworker in the whole world made sure the staff ordered in last Thursday since 1) I was there (or so she gave that as the reason...I totally believed her!) and 2) we didn't have school on Friday due to it being Good Friday.  It was nice not having to make sure I had a lunch ready to go that morning!

And, on the same day, my other favorite coworker in the whole world (especially when she brings goodies to school on Tues. or Thurs.!) brought this Orange Cake to school.   She also brought the chocolate chip pie last month. The Orange Cake was so moist and delicious, and she said that it took her no time at all to mix up and get into the oven!  I borrowed her picture:

and her recipe:

Preheat oven to 325

1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 pkg. lemon pudding mix
3/4 C. orange juice
1/2 C. vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 t. lemon extract

1/3 C. orange juice
2/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. butter

Mix cake mix, pudding mix, 3/4 c. OJ, oil, eggs, and lemon extract. Pour into a greased bundt pan. Bake for 50-60 mins. (I baked mine 50 mins.)  Let cool.

In a saucepan, cook 1/3 c. OJ, sugar, and butter for 2 minutes. Drizzle over cake. (I punched holes first using a toothpick)

 Okay, everybody, click on the link below and join in the fun!

                       http://susannesspace.blogspot.com/2008/09/hello-and-welcome-to-fridays-fave-five.html