We Will Never Forget–Remembering 9/11/01

Catching Up…

It’s been over a month since I last posted.  Time has just flown and we are simply living our daily lives with lots of sweet moments mixed in with the every day, ordinary stuff.  Sometimes I get caught up in the ordinary and forget to enjoy the simple moments that make life extraordinary.

Since I got back from Texas in May, it seems there has been so much going on at work and I had about one week where I actually felt like I had things done… caught up.  But, that didn’t last long.  We are currently working on changing up our Wednesday night kid’s program and I have been really absorbed with getting everything done that needs to be done.  We start in about two weeks.

Since I last posted, my sister went back home to Washington state.  She was able to stay for a month and I have to say that I got really spoiled having her here.  She moved out to go to college when she wasn’t yet 18, and when we moved from California to Arkansas she was in college so we left her behind.  She later married and moved to Washington and we haven’t been able to travel back and forth near enough. So having all my sisters close for a month was pretty special for me.  I spent as much time as I could up and my mom and dad’s while she was here and before she left, we went for a girl’s day… lunch, a haircut, and pedis.  Fun!

Now that I’ve covered work and my sister’s visit… pretty much everything else revolves around my family…

I picked this little gem up one day from day care and took her to see “Rango”.

We made a couple of trips to my mom and dad’s.  Mads (like all the other grands) loves my Dad’s golf cart that he gets around his place with.

We had a family movie night – “Bambi”…

…enjoyed a cool morning in the back yard…

… a couple of girl’s days…

…and found some pretty sweet slippers…

All in all, life is good!

Family Movie Night

I ordered "Bambi" for Maddie and it came in today. She was SO excited.  So after supper, all five of us sat down with her for family movie night. She's usually all about Mémère, but today she was Papa Dave's girl. (There sure was a lot of shootin’ going on in that movie!)

LOVED this!! God Bless America!

Quite Possibly The Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Seen…

Tyler and Daisy showed me this video last night.  (This is “their” song and today marks the day one year ago that they started “talking” to each other.)

These kids are adorable and I love how they put God in the center of this special moment…

2011–4th of July Cookout at the Goulets

My sister (Cathy #1) is in from Washington State. She hasn’t been here since my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary in 2006. So after Kale and Kayla left on Sunday, Dave and I headed up to my parent’s for a family get-together… there were 46 Goulets in attendance!

We got a couple pictures with all the Goulet girls together, since that is such a rarity. Do you think we look alike??

I am so blessed to be a part of a big family.
I’m blessed to have my sweet, little family.  I looked out on the porch this morning and this is what I saw:

I’m also blessed to have been born in this great nation.
I love this Country…  thank you, thank you, thank you to all the men and women who have fought and are defending Her today! God Bless America!

Happy Independence Day!

2011 - 4th of July Weekend with All My Chicks

It’s hard to believe it’s the 4th of July again.  Kayla hadn’t been “home” since last 4th of July… we were so glad to get her back up here for a visit even though we didn’t have much time together.  They got here Thursday evening and had to leave today after church.

We started off on Thursday night by visiting Ms. Charlsie.  Tyler came home late from work, but showed up while we were at Charlsie’s.  After our visit, we headed to eat pizza and then the boys took David to Lowe’s and surprised him with a belated birthday/Father’s day gift – a new grill.

Friday, Kale’s friend came up from Conway and he and Kale and Tyler all went golfing while Kayla-girl and I headed to Branson.  We left late in the day and made a short day of it, but it was the first time in forever that we’ve been able to spend a day together.  (I MISS YOU, KAYLA!)

We met the guys for supper at Cadron Creek Catfish House… Kayla’s one request for food while she was here.

Yesterday was SO hot… we spent part of the day indoors and later that afternoon we loaded up and went to our farm.  Tyler had made plans for all of us to fish out of the pond with Dave’s sister and her daughter (and granddaughter).  It got overcast just as we got there, so I think it was a bit cooler than it had been all day.  It was a lot of (hot) fun, though.

The boys

The girls

David

Mémère brought along a spray bottle to 1) keep Maddie cool 2) keep Maddie occupied

So cute!

My niece, Lindsey, and her daughter, Rylee – and David’s sister, Carla

Kayla might have got her line caught in the tree

For supper, Kale grilled some burgers (his special recipe) on the new grill and then we had s’mores in the backyard. 

It was a nice, family day.

Today came all too soon and after church and lunch… we had to say goodbye.  I still cry every single time I see them leave (or I leave them).  But, it gives me something to look forward to when we get to see them again!!

Life is sweet.

Have I Mentioned That I Love My Mads?

We had a fun weekend.  After we wrapped up VBS and put the church back together I headed for home.  You can’t imagine how just sitting in my quiet car was so relaxing! Ha!  That evening, I asked Maddie if she wanted to go visit Ms. Charlsie with me.  And she did.

Saturday morning, Tyler and Daisy were going on a float trip really early, so they spent the night with us.  Friday night after supper, I explained to her the rule for spending the night with Mémère on a Friday night… “you must sleep in!”  Of course, she wanted to know why, and I just told her that if she didn’t sleep in she’d have to have coffee with Papa Dave in the morning.  She said, “Yuck” to that.

As it turns out, she woke up about 6:30 and Dave kept her entertained until I got up at 7:00.  We set off for our “day date” a few hours later.  I told her earlier in the week that we may go to the library and she was so excited.  About half-way through the drive there, she fell asleep (I think 6:30 must’ve hit her – it was only 10:15!)  When I woke her up she was a little out of sorts, but then we walked in to the library together while I talked to her about having a quiet voice inside.  She was SO good and loved it! It’s a brand new facility and it’s really amazing!  We went to the puppet show that had just started and after about 15 minutes of that she whispered to me, “Let’s go read books.”  So we headed downstairs to the children’s department.  We read several books and then she discovered the puzzles.

After the library we went to eat at McDonalds where she ate her WHOLE nugget Happy Meal – a first!

 

We finished the outing at Walmart – where else?  I had promised her that she could pick out one color of nail polish… she asked for two, but I stuck to my guns. Of course, she picked the sparkliest pink she could find.

After Daisy and Tyler got home we all went to Chili’s for supper.  On our way back home the college was putting on a fireworks show, so we pulled over and let her out of her seat to watch.  Her favorites are the pink ones… of course.

We had a GREAT day and she never gave me a moment of trouble.  Only one (small) fit in a whole day for a three year old is just pretty good in my book.

I can’t wait for our next “date”.

PS. If my nephew (Dominic) happens to see these pics… I just bought a Shark Navigator Lift Away vacuum (per his recommendation and he is a vacuum genius).  I LOVE it, Dom!! It’s great!

Vacation Bible School 2011 and What We’ve Been Up To Lately

Were you wondering about me (again)?  We have been preparing for Vacation Bible School for the last several months, but the month or so before VBS things get pretty crazy.  This year has been no exception, BUT today was Day One at “The Big Apple Adventure” and things went pretty well!

We had a HUGE set on the stage.  A (talented) woman in our church worked for weeks on it… the Preacher built all the support frames, and I’m proud to say Tyler made the “taxis” and the “jumbo-tron”. (The set turned out so big it blocked our big screens, so we made a “Times Square” jumbo-tron and it worked GREAT!) 

Other than that… Tyler and I have been doing a few projects around the house.  We took a HUGE load of stuff to the dump.  We looked like the “Beverly Hillbillies” pulling up, I’m sure.  Most of this was in David’s shed.  He knew we were going to clean it out and he didn’t fuss that we got rid of so much. Ha!

After a full day of work in the yard and cleaning out the shed… we took Maddie on a date at Chili’s. 

I took their picture…

… and then she asked to take ours.  She gave me instructions to move to the other side of the table so she could take a picture of Papa Dave and I together…

She did pretty good!

This girl loves her corn.

I’m turning in early tonight… looking forward to Day Two in “NYC” tomorrow!

Texas Trip #5–Part Two

The day after I got to the K’s (Thursday), they both had to go in to work.  So I had a quiet day to myself … just me and Bosley.

I did a lot of playing with my new “toy”, a little reading, caught up on “American Idol” and sat out on their back patio enjoying the warm weather and reading.

We waited on Kale’s tomatoes to get ripe while I was there, but they waited until I left… and then the squirrels got to them.  Kale is on serious squirrel patrol these days.

I felt so bad for Kayla.  It turned out she had to work every day, but one (Sunday), when I was there (because someone went on vacation)… she even had to work longer hours than normal (11 hour days).

Friday morning, after Kayla left for work, Kale and I headed out to the mall to the Apple store.  I bought a smart cover for my iPad.  It took me forever to decide on a color…

 

… but I finally went with…

We met Kayla for lunch and spent most of the rest of the day hanging out… that’s pretty much what this trip was about.  I was really looking forward to being there and just relaxing and visiting with the kids and I got lots of that!  There’s not much, if anything, I’d rather be doing.