Birthday weekend!

Happy birthday to me!!  This past week I was going to blog everyday my favorite foods and I can't for the life of me figure out why I think and say I am going to do that!  I can barely find enough time to blog once a week, let alone every day!  So, of course, I baked my favorite foods but never blogged them.  Sorry to all of you who were sitting on the edge of your seat waiting!  hee hee

So, aside from that I wanted to share with you my birthday weekend.  What a fun-filled blessed one it has been!

I started out the weekend by running a 5K with a group of

friends.  Our team name was "When Pigs Fly".  I'd

like to say we "flew" but don't think I will go as far

to say we were "pigs!" :) What a fun time we had!!

This is my second 5K this year and I LOVE them! 

I suppose I should set my sights on something

a little more "challenging" but for now

I am content.  Maybe next year I will try

a half marathon!!  Who knows?!?

This is me before the race started.

Notice how "white and fresh" I look.  In all the pics

after the race I am "red and not fresh" looking!  haha

This is my cheering section!!

I LOVE this picture!!  What encouragement

they are to me as I am running and ready to collapse!

Ok, here I am after the race!  My official time

was 32.04- Almost  6 minutes faster then

my last run a couple of months ago!!!

Carrie and I

She and I ran the race together and is also

one of the girls I run with at 5 am!!

Linda, H and I

Linda was the one who organized our

team and it was her birthday too! 

Great job Linda and happy birthday!!!

After the race, we went home and I got ready

to go out for brunch and a shopping trip

with my friends!!  What a fun day!!!

During our shopping, we stopped in a store

that sold massage chairs.  As you can see,

I am really enjoying my massage... in a $3500 chair!!

Now, there's a good birthday present idea.

Chad, are you reading this?!?!?

Just what I needed after my 5k!

A good massage!!

So, that was my saturday.  The first day to my birthday celebration weekend!!



Sunday morning started out perfectly with the sound of light rain falling outside, Chad saying "happy birthday" and H calling my name from her bed.  "mommy, mommy!"  After I got up, V went in the kitchen and made me my birthday breakfast.  I felt so loved and blessed and couldn't think of a more perfect way to start out my birthday!

 

Chad told me at 8:15 he was leaving for church at 8:30

because our SS teacher, Robert, asked him to start the class

since he was going to be 15 minutes late.  I said ok

and Chad asked me to be there to write down prayer

requests.  Funny he should ask that of me (because when

I am coming with just H I am always late). I walked in

and everyone was sitting there watching me walk in-

Robert said happy birthday and I realized what Chad really did! 

My dear hubby and daughter had been at the store

picking up my cupcake cake (not starting SS class)!!

What a wonderful surprise- thank you Chad and V!!!

They even got me a balloon.  Aww!! :)

This is after I just walked in and I was so

shocked, embarrassed and surprised!!

What a delicious cupcake cake it was!!
V walked around and handed the cupcakes

out to everyone.  I am soo blessed!!

After church, Chad surprised me again and took us out to Olive Garden!!

We had a wonderful, fun and delicious birthday lunch!
Thank you Chad, V and H for all the wonderful

surprises I had today!!  I truly had a happy happy birthday.



Banana Snack Cake

I LOVE sweets. 
I wish I didn't love sweets as much as I do because they sure love my hips a little too much!!  Anyway, my husband always likes to have something sweet in the house (ok, I admit it's not always him) and I like to keep him happy.  :)  So the latest treat I made was one of my favorites and I thought I would share it with you.

Banana Snack Cake
1/2 c. shortening
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. mashed ripe bananas (2-3 medium)
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2 c. buttermilk
FROSTING
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. butter
6 T. milk
2 1/2 -3 c. powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugars.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in bananas and vanilla.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.
Pour into a greased 13x9 and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. 
For frosting:
Combine the brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium heat; boil and stir for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency. 
Frost the cooled cake and enjoy!!!

Mothers Day

I know I am two days late in getting this blog out but I figure mothers are just as important whatever day of the week it is!!
I am blessed to have had a wonderful godly grandma, mother and sister and I thank God for each of them with all of my heart.

My grandma was a very special "mother" in my life. 

I love her and will miss her very much.

My mother is the most amazing woman I know.

God has truly blessed me with a mother whom I admire and love very much 

 and consider one of my best friends!

My sister is also one of the most amazing, strong and Godly women I know.

She is also truly my best friend!

I can't thank God enough for my mom and sister!!

And lastly, I can't thank my God enough for making me a mother

and blessing me with the two most beautiful, amazing and precious

daughters.  Being their mom brings me the greatest joy in the world.

For the mother is and must be, whether she knows it or not,

the greatest, strongest and most lasting

teacher her children have.

- Hannah Whitall Smith

What a privilege it is to treasure your mother. 

 -Katie Couric

Women of Joy Conference

Hello y'all!!  It's been forever since I updated my blog and what a busy couple of weeks I have had!
Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to go to the Women of Joy conference in Branson, Missouri.  It was a wonderful time with my precious girlfriends from church but it also was a very very sad time.  My grandma had passed away the night before I left for my trip and when I was halfway to Branson, I received a unexpected phone call from my mother saying the funeral was going to be in 2 days.  I was devastated.  I thought her funeral was going to be at least in the week ahead, not in 3 days after her passing!  But because of some family members making some plane reservations ahead of her passing, they requested that the funeral be as soon as possible. 
Oh my, that made for an extremely emotional and very very sad beginning of what I thought was going to be a fun weekend.  But I didn't see how I could get back home, (although my friends did graciously tell me they would drive me home but that would have made their trip 4 hours longer and I couldn't do that to them!), pack my family up in a couple hours and leave for a 15 hour trip.  I was heartbroken to miss my precious grandmother's funeral.  Thankfully, I had talked to her just a few hours before she passed away and the two days before that I told her I loved her and she told me she loved me.  Also, she mentioned my name that afternoon before she passed away so I just tucked that in my heart and that got me through the weekend.  Oh she was so precious to me but I am soooo thankful I will see her again in heaven!!
So, for this post, I thought I would share a few memories that were created in Branson and I will have a post about my precious dear grandmother in a few days.
After a long drive, we arrived at our hotel, unpacked and were welcomed by our Women's Ministry.  Then we got back in the van and drove to the convention center for the conference.

 This was Lisa, Amanda and Debbie as we were taking a shortcut through the rocks to get to the conference!  Not an easy feat in our flip flops!

Debbie, Amanda, Lisa and Amy

We were waiting for the conference to start!  Charles Billingsly was going to lead the worship

time and Sheri Rose Shepherd was going to be the speaker.

That night the Women's Ministry had planned games for us all to play!

But my group of 5 missed most of the games because we went to Wendy's for

a late night burger run and we got lost on our way back!

  Here is Charles Billingsly leading worship saturday morning!

Liz Curtis Higgs was the speaker for the morning. 

She was AMAZING.  I needed to laugh after being soooo sad about missing my grandma and

her funeral and she was soooo funny!!  She is one amazing speaker!

Lisa and Debbie at Ruby Tuesdays for lunch

Amy and I at Ruby Tuesdays for lunch

We went out for Mexican for dinner and this Indian welcomed us in the lobby.

I thought he looked like he needed to loosen up a bit!  hee hee

And this was our waitress, Jamie.  She was a hoot!!!!

It was quite a quaint little place with delicious food!!

After dinner, we went back for the Casting Crowns concert.

Sorry for the bad pic, we were too far away to get a really good one.

Sunday morning we packed up, ate breakfast and went back for the final speaker-

Lisa Harper.  She is such a wonderful Bible teacher and I really enjoyed her!

We just finished up lunch and are getting ready for our drive home!

It was a emotion filled weekend with lots of fun thrown in there!

Thank you to our Women's Ministry for planning a wonderful weekend, thank

you to Amy for being our driver the whole weekend and a special thanks

to my wonderful husband who made it possible for me to go!