Thankful Thursday

1. For my parents - who celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. Wow.

2. That this is the last week of Summer workouts for the Coach and the athletes at school. No more leaving at 5:45 a.m.! Just trying not to think about practice starting on the 12th.

3. School clothes (or at least most of them) are ordered!

4. For Daughter (#2) and my niece who finished putting the last year's pictures in albums on Tuesday. All caught up! Yeah!

5. For A/C that is working well on these HOT days - especially the days that reach 100 or higher!

Makes me miss that cool Colorado weather!

6. For family and friends who have POOLS!

7. For the surprise visit from the Bride and Groom today! What fun!

8. For date nights - the Coach has been so sweet to make sure we get away by ourselves once a week. Reminds me why I love him so much!

Be sure and leave me a comment and tell me what YOU are thankful for today!

Happy Thursday!

Wanted:

Someone to follow Baby Boy around the house and make sure the bathroom door is SHUT and he doesn't get in the trashcan, climb up on the dining room table, or destroy Lego creations that took hours of precious Summer days to build.
Please hurry.

And OH the food!

Last week I told you about the FUN Bridal Luncheon that Daughter (#2) and I hosted for our Sweet Sitter.
And I mentioned my lack of attentiveness in taking pictures of the pretty FOOD that we made for it.

Well, someone else DID!

The bride's sweet photographer friend took wonderful photos of the whole event!

Menu:

Chicken Salad with Red Grapes

Broccoli Salad

Fresh fruit

(cantaloupe, strawberries and blueberries)

Croissant

And then Dessert:

Red Raspberry Sherbet

with Flower shaped Lemon Petit Fours,

garnished with a mint leaf.

Just remembering it is fun - we had such a delightful time.

Happy Sunday!

Happy, Happy - Chapter #3

The Big Day

With the bride and her sister before hair and make-up doing

(that's Daughter (#2) on the left)

Three girls ready for pictures!

With one of our other sweet sitters

(sister of the bride)

One littlest girl who can't resist climbing and skipping

IN SPITE OF the fancy dress, hair and flower bracelet

AND there was a BABY there - it doesn't get any better!

Pictures outside


And with the beautiful bride

All of the girls


What a happy day!

Happy, Happy! - Chapter #2

The Rehearsal

Daughters (#6, #7, #5) practicing walking down the aisle.


Standing in front of the bridesmaids

The Happy Couple

All of the girls

They each stood with a "friend"

The Bride giving them butterfly necklaces for the BIG DAY!

Helping the girls put their necklaces on

Happy, Happy! - Chapter #1

If the wilted flowers, leftover luncheon salad, and chocolate stained flower-girl dresses are any indication, we had a FUN wedding week!

Starting with the Bridal Luncheon that Daughter (#2) and I hosted. On Thursday.

This is table #2 - the Bridal Party.

Here is the sweet Bride with Daughter (#2)

The flowers were SO pretty!

The Bride and I with our other sweet sitters (sisters) and Daughter (#2)

Table #1 - Mothers, Grandmothers and family

No - not at MY house. At my Mom's. It's cleaner there.
And as usual, I forgot something.
To take pictures of the food! Yum!

Man of the Hour

Happy Birthday, Coach!

We love you ~

Q & A Shout Out!

Feel free to go back and post on Fabulous Friday Favorites and add your link. I don't want the fact that I'm posting before another week has passed to throw you off!

There have been some questions in the comments section here at Mrs. Troop and it has occurred to me that maybe I should answer some of them.

And besides that, even though I have many other posts in the works, I'm not in the mood right now.

Too tired.

SOOOOOOO. . .

I've come up with a few questions that you have asked that haven't been answered (nothing earth shattering, mind you), but before I get to it first thing tomorrow (are you laughing, yet?), I thought I'd give you a chance to add to the list before I tackle it.

Just don't ask my anything too hard, OK? I'm a tired momma of eight and I have my limits.

For instance, "Can I have another Popsicle?" is NOT acceptable.

Nor is, "Where are my tan shorts?"

And don't even try the "Can we go to our cousins to play?" - unless your bed is made, your laundry is put away, you've cleared your breakfast mess off the table AND brushed your teeth. Then, maybe I'll consider it.

SO fire away, Friends.

And as soon as I make my bed and brush my teeth and . . .

I'll get right to it.

Fabulous Friday Favorites

Hello there, Friends!

There has been some discussion that
1) I've gone completely insane or
2) I'm hiding out or (possibly)
3) we've been taken over by sickness at the Troops.

I can truthfully say all of the above.

But not to worry! It's only been ONE WEEK since my last post. And it's SUMMER. And have I mentioned before that we have EIGHT CHILDREN here at the Troops?

I have?

Oh.

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You probably didn't know that's it National "Make everything out of Perler Beads" Week. Been doing a lot of ironing around here.

Which is not a bad thing. Except I haven't ironed any CLOTHES.

And the Perler Beads - love them. Except when they are on the floor. And I step on them. And they stick to the bottom of my feet.

Children are creative, though, I must say. When the attitudes (brought on by extreme fatigue, I'm sure) went South and the TV and computer were taken away, out came the Legos and Perler Beads.

Lots of little pieces.

The TV is easier to clean up.

Well, maybe not.

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In the meantime, I've been working on a Bridal Luncheon for our Sweet Sitter who is getting married next week! Yeah! More about that later. They have a wonderful story that I've been wanting to share with you!

Truly, the vacation pics are coming. They just take forever to load. And since I've been ironing perler beads and rocking a sick (yes, again) Baby Boy, I haven't had time to wait for them.

Really, it's time for another "How the Coach Won My Heart" post. I've been working on it - in my head - while I've been ironing, unloading the dishwasher, scubbing the bathtubs and folding laundry. If only I could type at the same time!

So you can see that my lack of posts is not for lack of material!

But for NOW - here's my Favorite for today:

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The Coach, he has big goals. And he's disciplined. Seriously. The man rises early EVERY DAY. Even if I've been up with the baby all night.

And runs. With the consistency of how the sun rises and sets.

Me, I'm lucky to get a shower on some days.

And even though the Coach's Biay study is awesome, it's more than I can aspire to. At least until the children are all grown.

Several years ago, I purchased this two-year Bible. It's just my speed. Each day you read an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, and there are also little devotionals.

And since I'm all about keepin' it real, here, I will be honest and say I have taken more than two years to read through it. During BSF years I just used it on days I didn't have my questions to work on. Just being honest.

And for more honesty, I opted out of BSF this year to stay home with Baby Boy. Because he's our baby. And he's growing so fast! And given the chance to stay home with him or go to a Bible Study, I chose him. You can tell him that, later, when he's 15.

If you want to jump in and post a favorite today, go for it! I know I haven't been consistent with FFF this Summer, so you may not be in the mood. That's OK! Let's be honest - you'll have a few days to work on it while I try to get my act together and post, again!

But if nothing else, please let this post be a reminder to you that no matter how chaotic your life may be (mine certainly is), stay in the Word!

Even if you need (as I do), an easy, short, passage organized FOR you so you don't have to think about it.

Happy Friday!

New Feature!

Happy July 4th!

The fact that the Coach is home and we are basically unpacked from our trip, has left me working on the computer, again. Something I rarely have time for!

I get a lot of questions about information and products that I use and like. You've seen many of them on Faboulous Friday Favorites.

Don't you love it when someone saves you the time of hunting for, searching and researching, trying to find JUST what you need?

Well, I'm going to try to save YOU some time. Over at the right, you'll see a new feature titled, "Things I recommend." This will give me a place to say, "HEY! Here's something I love and I want you to know about it."

It will include products, but also places you can get information. On child training, movie reviews, vitamins, sermons online, books and materials, etc. I hope you love these as much as I do!

And don't worry, no one has paid me for my opinion. My opinion isn't worth anything!

Happy Friday!

We're enjoying the abundance of Oxygen

We've been back in great Oklahoma almost 24 hours.

I'm almost done unpacking. With the volume of STUFF we take with us each year, you'd think we were traveling to the remote regions of the world, instead of an extremely nice condo in Colorado.

Baby Boy is doing great. Something about being able to breathe has really cheered him up. We left the oxygen tank in Colorado. Here he is in the car on the way home yesterday. Happy as a clam. (Are clams REALLY happy?)


That's Daughter (#5) beside him watching a movie. Probably Princess something or other. The four older kids rode with my parents in their van, so with the three little girls and Baby Boy there was a lot of singing and princesses going on.

Thank you all for your prayers for Baby Boy and your kind comments. What a blessing to have the resources for and availability of a doctor. I don't think that's the case in the remote regions of the world. But we would have had enough STUFF!

I have lots of fun pictures of cousins and mountains and snow and streams. As soon as I re-install the kitchen sink I'll get them posted for you.

Home is nice.

Happy Thursday!