our trip back home went great. we got in some great r&r with my family while trying to dodge the tornados. my mom made the best roasts i've ever eaten! mom, i want your pans someday when you are done with them. everything tastes better coming from your pans!!! we got to play cards with my sisters and brothers-in-law. it was so much fun and a much needed break. we enjoyed being with bret's family and seeing aunt carolyn. aunt carolyn always sends our children birthday and christmas gifts and she has never even met them face to face. she also sends bret and i a very nice christmas gift each year. she is so generous. i'm so glad my children got to meet her. she hosted a bridal luncheon for my niece, erin while we were there. it went very well. we celebrated the girls' birthdays at pizza inn. they got way too many gifts, but they really loved them. it was fun. thank you everyone for the sweet gifts. the kids got to play quite a bit. especially micah and carson. we got to see our reidland family too, for the first time in a while. many of them are just as close as real family. it was so nice to see everyone. it was a bit hard for micah to say good-bye, but once we got on the road, he was great. at first he did not want to come home to our dallas home, but now he likes it again. the kids got to try on thier wedding clothes that nancy has gotten them for erin's wedding. they looked amazing. it's going to be so sweet. Jeff also did our taxes for us while we were in paducah. that is a load off our shoulders having it done. i think the best part of the trip for me was being with bret and having meaningful conversation along the way. i discover so much about myself and him when we get opportunities to talk like that. he is so wonderful! the dvd player made it all possible.

tuesday was a good day. it was ladies bible study and back home. we went shopping to buy bret some shoes when he got home from work that night. i also let anna and bekah spend a little of their birthday money. we found anna a lee middleton doll at ross for $9.99. bekah got a little doll that played a lullaby. she just kept loving on it. then i went out by myself and did some shopping for an easter frock. i found something i love. wednesday i went to the grocery store finally for the month. we are having some people over for easter lunch so i was planning for our easeter lunch. we are having a smoked picnic ham, green beans, some starch (i.e pasta salad, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes or potato casserole), salad, rolls, strawberry pretzel salad, and chess cake. tea and lemonade of course, too. i am trying to figure it allout though because i will have to do it all saturday night because i have to be at church sunday morning by 7:30 which means leaving no later than 7 and we will not just be throwing on any clothes, it will be easter clothes so that translates into more time than usual needed for getting ready on sunday morning. we will be at church until around noon. i am going to leave early so i can get home and get the last preparations done before everyone gets there. but it needs to be ready when they get there because it is going to be late. my only question is how i can do potatoes (which everyone really wants) and have them in time and warm and good???????? got any suggestions?
yesterday, the kids and i went to the zoo with our friends the hawkins. it was such a beautiful day for the zoo. all the scholls in the metro plex agreed with us because there were at least 50 buses of children there on fieldtrip too. it made for an exciting day. we had lunch at the "zoo" Mcdonalds. it is next door to the zoo and decorated like a zoo in the play area. that was probably their highlight of the day!!! both micah and anna concluded the day with prayers of thanksgiving to God for his creation of all the animals.
i get to start synthroid today. this is the day i've been waiting for for a while. maybe i will be back to my "normal" self in no time (whatever that looks like!!! hehehehe)
hope you all are enjoying your day. love you all and enjoyed seeingyou so much. i will get to my tag responsibilities next time!!! i promise since i've been tagged three times now! love you all,
summer
p.s. i hope to have some great pictures to post after saturday. we are going to the arboretum with ourp"photographer", ryan (and lesli--congratulations!!!!!! and john and crysty and scott and tricia too!!!). hopefully we will get some good stuff!