Just another weekend dump...

Thanks to Monday being a holiday, I will spend the rest of this week wondering what day it is.  

The kids were out of school on Friday and Dan returned home from Ireland Friday night.  The boys did yard work on Saturday while I did house work and made a blueberry pie.  And Sarah started her in-car driving!  Here's a picture I took of her driving out of our driveway:

She had a two hour session on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and is now officially done with Driver's Ed.  Her birthday is June 4th and she can go anytime on that day or after to test for her permit! 

On Monday we had a cookout with my brother and mom and Jennifer's family.  I took zero pictures but we had a great time! 

Dan grilled burgers, my mom made twice baked potatoes, and I made a creamy cucumber salad, a fresh corn and tomato salad and Paula Deen's banana pudding recipe. (If you like banana pudding then you will love her recipe! I always make it in a trifle bowl so it looks mo' fancy.) I also made a baked pimento cheese dip that was delicious.  I will be making that one again.

And yesterday was Monday/Tuesday which meant grocery shopping and swim team practice has started.  And today is Tuesday/Wednesday and I had a doctor's appointment and Sarah has an orthodontist appointment and more swim practice and I guess tomorrow will be Wednesday/Thursday and where is this week going??

I finally abandoned my old neurologist, Dr. Jeffrey.  A couple of years ago he moved from the Winston-Salem area to Lake Norman to semi-retire and I had been faithfully driving over an hour each way twice a year for my appointment.  I finally got tired of that and asked him for a recommendation here and today was my appointment with the MS specialist he recommended.  I really like her and I'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner. 

And now you are all caught up with my life.  Maybe one of these days I will write a post with some substance and not bore you all with my "what we did this weekend" dumps. 

Or maybe not.  I used to write about the kids all the time and now every time I even take a picture they scream "you're not putting that on your blog are you?"     If I wrote about them in detail on here and they found out they would kill me.

Have a great Tuesday/Wednesday!

Rest In Peace, Wally.

Wally is no longer with us.  We found him yesterday and believe that he was hit by a car.  We are all so very sad and will miss him greatly. He truly was one of a kind.

This was the first picture I took of Wally shortly after he showed up at our house.

Another weekend in the books.

We are just cruising right along here.  May is usually very crazy for everyone with school-aged kids but this year, our May has been manageable.  Dare I say almost calm?  I guess it's because no one is receiving first communion or being confirmed or graduating to a different school..  It's pretty much been business as usual around here this May and I'm okay with that!

On Friday evening we attended Fine Arts Day at school.  It's a day long event but parents come in the evening to listen to see what all of the art and music students have been up to all year. 

There was a food truck so we grabbed dinner and brought our chairs and watched the performances in the courtyard. The weather was perfect and we had a lovely evening.

Peter's intermediate guitar ensemble performed several Queen songs and I managed to get this one recorded!

Saturday was yard mowing and house cleaning and cake making for Sunday dessert.  On Saturday evening we went shopping for football cleats for Peter and then went out to dinner. 

Sunday was Mass and lunch at mom's where we celebrated my Uncle's 84th birthday.  I made a chocolate chip cookie cake that had cream cheese frosting between the layers and was covered in a chocolate ganache.  It was so good!

It looks like a hot mess on the inside but it was sooooooo good!  This is the recipe I used. (The only this I did differently from the recipe was to double the ganache and pour it over the entire cake so it looked like it was frosted. )

And now we are already at Tuesday.  Dan is currently in Ireland.  The kids are out of school this Friday and next Monday.  It is always at this point in the year that I wish Christmas and Easter breaks were a little shorter and that we started a little earlier in August so that we could be done this week and not have to go back after Memorial Day. 

Now you are caught up!

A lovely weekend.

Our weekend was pretty calm and that's just the way I like 'em!

Saturday was supposed to be rainy so Dan did all the yard work on Friday evening.  On Saturday, we ran errands, did a few chores around the house, picked up Sarah from a sleepover in Kernersville, and then headed to Mass.

After Mass we went to dinner at the Porch.  Yum!  This was my Mother's Day meal out!  The food there is yummy, the atmosphere is casual, and the queso is delicious! 

On Sunday, I woke up to cards and presents at the coffee maker.  My family knows that the coffee maker is my first stop of the day!

We hosted lunch as a Mother's Day treat to my mom.  She, my uncle, and my brother came over and we had lasagna, salad, green beans and bread.  I've linked all the recipes I've used because they were they were delicious!  Even my picky brother enjoyed everything and that's saying a lot!
**Please note - if you made the salad dressing, please watch the video for the correct recipe.  The video and the written recipe don't match up.  I made it following the amounts in the video and it was perfect!""

My mom made her famous chocolate cake for dessert and it was so good.  Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of anyone (or the food) when they were here.  I really should try to remember to take more pictures. 

On Sunday evening, Dan took me out for drinks.  It's always nice to spend time with just him even if it's only for an hour or so.

And then, just like that, it was Monday again.

Peter has decided to give football a try this year and spring workouts start today so I'm back to picking up Sarah after school.  But I don't mind.  It's always nice to catch up with her in the car on the way home. She starts the in-car portion of her driver's ed class in a couple of weeks and that means a year from now I won't have anyone to drive anywhere so I'm going to enjoy my last year of chauffeuring!