Happenings

Life is wonderfully....normal!

Having a working son means we are adjusting to his schedules and his available times to help with household duties.  He is loving his paycheck every week and with Dads help, managing his finances, paying some of his own bills, and saving for the future.

Amy tried out a new cookie recipe the other day.  She found it on Pinterest (haha, that's where we find everything!).  Its a soft iced lemon cookie.  And its large!  Just a little smaller than a dessert plate.  The recipe made about 10 cookies.  Next time, she is going to use less dough for each cookie to make them a little smaller.  But the first time she followed the recipe, exactly.  The Tapleys already approved of the cookies.  I know Mom and Brenda will like them too.

We added to our family a couple of weeks ago....Rosie!  She is a 17 week old black lab/boxer mix.  Some church friends of ours were moving and couldn't take her to the new home.  Its funny to watch her with the Chihuahuas, she doesn't realize that she isn't one and tries to do what they do and run where they run.  Doesn't work out too well for her.  Amy is having fun training her and walking ~ although sometimes Rosie is stubborn about the walking part.  And Rosie loves to swim in the pool! 

I've taken my quilt out of the quilting frame upstairs and carried it down to the den with my quilting hoop, thread and needles.  I am determined to get it done ~ and brought it downstairs to stare at me, be in the way, and annoy me till its finished.  Unfortunately when I took it out of the frame, I saw that I had not finished what I thought I had.  Oh well, whats another 4 - 12 squares?  But it will get done.  I should have thought of this last winter and brought it down instead of waiting till summertime and the Mississippi heat.  This could very well be the last queen size quilt I ever do. 

Greg cooked for us all weekend!  He has perfected his homemade fried rice and we did stir fry last night.  On Sat. he grilled us some awesome hamburgers and we ate by the pool (thanks to our Citronella candle that tried to keep the skeeters away).  And on the 4th we had ribs, corn on the cob, and baked beans.  Yum!

Our house projects included building a chain link fence dog run for Miss Rosie (her own little area away from the other dogs).  Its a giant Rosie sized playpen for when she gets a little to rambunctious for the other dogs!  And Sat. Greg and Will installed a new garage door opener.  Ours bit the dust,  had a minor explosion and billowing smoke.....all clear indications that we needed to replace it.  Its done and the new one is so quiet! 

While they were installing, I decided to look through old pictures.  Wow!  Have all my kids changed!  My walk down Memory Lane was bittersweet...it was great to see how the kids have changed and grown/matured ~ but sad that they aren't still as close to either us or each other. 

My fridge has pictures in magnetized clear acrylic frames and I am going to change them out and put some of the ones I found in them. 

I could get very used to 4 days weekends!  We got lots done and had our fair share of time just floating in the pool, reading books, and watching a little tv.!