Fun weekend

Friday was Caitlin's school's Spring Fling.  It is their main fundraiser and ended up being a lot of fun.  It was like a huge carnival.

Digging for treasure!

Riding the train!

Happy baby!

Then on Saturday, we went with friends to the zoo.  Man, I love having a membership there!

Love the gibbons!

Friday 5's - on Monday

Okay, I missed the Friday 5's, so I will do the Monday 5's.  My favorite snacks are as follows:

1 - Cadbury Mini Eggs -

And, OMG, while googling for a picture, I just found out they are available to buy online at any time.  This is not a good piece of knowledge because I literally have no self control!!! 

This was always one of my favorite Easter candies and then last year, they came out with the same thing in red, green and white and had them at Christmas time.  Maybe, they will add them at Halloween too in orange and black.  lol

Rusty hates them because they are so crunchy and it annoys him when I eat them, but the crunchiness is what makes them SO yummy.  I could go on and on about how yummy these things are.  Hmm, might have to order some now.

2 - Christie Cookies - these are the BEST cookies ever!  At the mall, they are over a $1 per cookie and worth every penny.  But the best thing is you can buy them frozen at Sysco foods and have these delicious cookies whenever you want.  That's what I do and they much cheaper than $1 each that way!!  My favorites are the chocolate chip and the white chocolate macadamia nut.  The chocolate chip ones have pieces of Heath toffee in them - brilliant!!

3 - Lindor White Chocolate Truffles
Do I even need to explain?  YUMMY!!  My favorite is to put them in the fridge and eat them cold.

4 - Sixlets - this one reminds me of my childhood.  We were all into baseball or softball growing up.  I remember being at my brothers' games and walking to the convenience store nearby for a treat (back when you could do that without getting kidnapped).  This was what I always chose.  Then when I was a teenager, they sold them around Halloween, so that was always something to look forward to.  Now, you can hardly find them, unless you order them online, which I did at Halloween last year.  lol

5 - Peanut Butter and Apples - man, you can find an online image of just about everything, can't you?  This is a delicious snack, and pretty healthy compared to my other ones.

Oops and I almost forgot one.  Chocolate Covered Cashews from The Peanut Shop that is located in the Arcade in downtown Nashville.  These are THE BEST chocolate covered cashews I've ever had.  I seriously think they soak the nuts in butter before covering them with chocolate.  They are SO yummy!!  Giselle gets them for me for presents and I love her each and every time she does!!

Crap, I just saw you can order these online too.  Hmmm, might be ordering some candy today!

Journal Jar

I made this for Rusty's mom for Mother's Day.  I hope she likes it.  It is a journal jar with lots of questions to prompt your journal writing.  I thought it was a great idea.  I never was good about journal writing because seemed like a boring run down of my day.  I liked these questions - it helps your journal be more of a biography than a play-by-play.

Happy Mother's Day

Journal Jar question:  What were your mother's best traits? Her worst? The traits you share?

I think everyone can agree that my mother's best trait is that she is a people pleaser.  She wants everyone to be happy and everything to be peaceful.  This can also be her worst trait because she lets people walk over her sometimes.  One of my siblings, who shall remain nameless Andrew, has coined the term "Linda-ing out."  If you give in to someone or cave in, you have "Linda'd out."  Now it's a joke among our family.

I do think that I inherited more of my father's traits (anal attentive, control freak, etc.) but I do think that I share in the peace making trait.  I want everyone to get along and I do NOT like conflicts.  But I have learned to not let people walk all over me - most of the time.

Since it's Mother's Day, I will share some of my favorite memories of my mom -
-  just the two of us going to Walmart (before it became a crowded place where rude people fight to get cheap stuff) and shopping together
-  every Priesthood Conference when all the guys would go to church for their meeting and we would sneak away for some wonderful ice cream treat and have a girls' night.  This is definitely one I will continue with my girls.
-  going to the Messiah performance every year and listening to her sing the Alto solo - she's awesome!
-  playing Trivial Pursuit with her, even though, we all knew she would win
-  someone telling a corny joke and knowing she would laugh
-  hanging out with her and Heather and laughing until we cry

I love you MOM!!  Hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Flooding in Nashville

As I watch the news and see all of the pictures from the flooding this past weekend, I realize how blessed we were and are! I was so worried about our house but it really had no damage. So many people have lost everything they have and at least 25 people lost their life. It is unreal and so sad, but it is uplifting to see the people in this area pitch in and help out. Here are some pictures of the devastation!

Titans Stadium

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That was a football field!

Opryland Hotel - they said it will be at least until Christmas until they are cleaned up!!

This was the Interstate I take everyday to work!!

 

Our Weekend

Rusty was out of town for a golf weekend and I took Friday off to spend some time with the girls.  We all went to Caitlin's picnic lunch at school.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!

Alaina was a hit with the kids.  As soon as we walked in the classroom, 10 kids surrounded us.  They loved her!

After we picked Caitlin up at school, we headed to the zoo.  We recently became zoo members and now can go whenever we want.  We love that!

One of our favs is the meerkats!

Caitlin LOVES the jungle gym!

Then on Saturday, it started to rain.

And it rained . . .

And rained . . .

And we started to get really nervous, but luckily, it only got in our crawl space and didn't damage anything.  So many other people were not that lucky.  So we are definitely counting our blessings!!

Back to normal the next day!