Category Archives: family

Best mom

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My life is weird. Well, maybe weird isn’t the right word but it’s definitely not normal. I am sure I’d get no arguments on that.

But last year? Last year was weird.

Last year turned my life around and dumped me on my head.  And that’s not a bad thing, it’s just that everything that had been put into place is no longer in that place and everything is different.

Two of the awesome things that happened last year were the weddings of our two boys.

Related: one of the weird things that happened last year is that I was the best man at one of those weddings. Best mom?

We were all preparing to move to Saudi Arabia for the new opportunity that the guys were embarking on. Geoff and Nikki wanted to be married but in order for Nikki to be able to go to Saudi, they were going to have to be married pretty quickly which didn’t allow much time for planning.

So they decided to get married, in her church, with her pastor and just one person to witness the wedding for each of them. Then they would have a “real” wedding that they began to plan for December 2nd.

I did not want to be left out. It’s my son’s wedding even if it’s not a big production. Since Geoff had recently been working in Canada and was in Florida before that, most of his friends were elsewhere so he said I could stand up for him.

Nikki’s sister, Sarah, was going to stand up for her. And so it was set.

I felt weird that Nikki’s parents wouldn’t be there and I guess she did too, because at the last minute, she called them and invited them to be there. Her mom, Debbie, and her stepmom, Gina, were able to be there but her dad couldn’t get off work at the last minute. David was in Saudi so that was our happy little wedding party.

It was great. I cried just like I did at Brandon’s wedding even though it was a small production. This was my youngest child promising his heart to the girl he loved, forever.

After the wedding, we went to lunch and that was it.

Plans continued for the big wedding on December 2nd and we all prepared to go to Saudi.

At the wedding in December, Geoff would have all of his best friends standing up for him. Five groomsmen. A dress was purchased, venues arranged.

And then, a couple of months later,  Nikki found out she was pregnant. She called me crying.

Oh.

Half of me was doing the Glammie Happy Dance, while the other half of me was telling her Geoff won’t be mad, don’t cry, babies are a blessing.

And so plans for the wedding were undone and plans for little Aniston Lee began.

It wasn’t meant for me to be the best man but, in the end, that’s the way it turned out. And I’m honored to have been able to do such a weird thing for my son. LOL!

They say that being normal is overrated and I’m going to guess that’s true since I can’t speak from experience. 🙂

Everything’s better in chocolate

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I’ve been making chocolate popcorn for a lot of years. I usually make it at Christmastime and give it as gifts but it gets made here and there through the year for special occasions, too.

It’s delicious and it’s easy to make!

We’re getting ready for the baby shower for our first granddaughter, Aniston. The theme is light pink and leopard so I’ve been making pink and brown goodies to serve.

Today, I made pink popcorn that Nikki found on Pinterest.

It’s not light pink by any stretch of the imagination.  I used fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid because I thought that Pink Lemonade (my only other pink choice) might be an odd flavor for popcorn.

I just finished up the chocolate popcorn that I will serve with the pink popcorn. I’m planning to serve them together in a big glass canister unless I come up with a better serving idea.

Here’s the recipe for you:

Chocolate Popcorn

12 cups popped popcorn

1/4 cup butter or margarine

2 cups (11-1/2 oz bag) semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup corn syrup

Place popcorn in a large roasting pan. In a separate large heavy saucepan, combine chocolate chips, corn syrup and butter. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils, stirring constantly. Pour over popcorn, toss well to coat.

Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for 45 minutes stirring frequently.

Cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

Coastering

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One of the very first things I pinned on Pinterest was this:

I’m not a crafty person but I looked at that and thought, “I can do that!”. And, the beauty of it was, if it didn’t turn out it wasn’t going to be like I wasted a ton of money on it. It was a pretty economical project.

I decided I would make the coasters for the kids for Christmas using Brandon and Vanessa’s wedding logo and the design theme of Nikki and Geoff’s house. I gathered all of the things I needed to make the coasters and then I froze.

I was so afraid of making a mistake. But finally I got my courage up by telling myself that it’s no big deal if I DO make a mistake because they aren’t expecting the coasters and if I mess up, it will be okay.

So I cut the artwork out and started the modge podging. Is that a verb? 🙂

And it looked good!

I got all of the coasters created and put the felt circles on the back.

And then I was stuck. How to package them?

I went back to Hobby Lobby and wandered around looking for something I could put the coasters in. I eventually found these:

I thought all the way home about what I would do to them. I was clueless.

I painted the boxes black.

But that didn’t seem like enough.

I googled decoupage cardboard box and the instructions said that you could use anything to cover a box. Tissue paper, newspaper…ah ha! Newspaper!

Brandon and Vanessa met when they were working at the Tulsa World. So I covered their box with the Tulsa World and modge podge. I love the way it turned out!

For Nikki and Geoff’s box I was a little more stumped and I ended up just painting it with leopard spots.

I then wrapped the coasters in gold (Brandon and Vanessa) and cream (Geoff and Nikki) ribbon and put them in the boxes.

I added black drawer pulls that I attached with shorter screws and voila! I was finished.

I hope the kids like them. I had fun making them and was so happy that my first foray into modge podge without adult supervision turned out so well. 🙂

I hate everything about you

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If you’ve read this blog much at all, you know how much music is a part of my life. There is always music on in the car and I always sing along.

When the kids were small, they’d join in.

Today, I was driving to Tulsa and the song (I Hate) Everything About You by Ugly Kid Joe came on the radio. I love that song. It’s fun. :-)

Now you wouldn’t think a song about hating someone could be fun but the tune is bouncy, the lyrics are catchy, there is maniacal laughter and different sorts of vocal changes in it.

When I hear the song now, I literally laugh out loud.

The reason? The song was popular in 1992. Brandon was 10 and Geoff was 9. We sang it loud, word for word, in the car, on the way to…

church.

OMG!

What kind of a mother was I?

It’s this that makes me laugh. But we had fun. And we didn’t mean it. We just liked the fun.:-)

Pet friendly?

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Let me start out by saying that Boo Boo is the smartest, most well behaved dog we have ever had. He’s not a barker, he’s not a chewer, he’s had one accident in the house (when we first got him). He’s good. He’s good company and he’s a good traveler.

Shortly after we got Boo, we moved to Oklahoma. In his earliest days, he was staying at hotels like a champ. We stayed in La Quintas from Florida to Oklahoma, staying at the one in Tulsa for a week while we got our new house ready to live in.

On a trip to Washington to see my mom in 2008, I decided to book the Motel 6 on the way there since we would just be stopping to sleep. Well…the Motel 6 is a noisy place. We got no sleep because Boo was on alert. At the end of three long days of driving with virtually no sleep at night, we arrived like zombies in Forks, WA. Appropriate, I’m sure. 😉

On the way back from that trip, I booked us, once again, into the La Quintas. On that trip, we stopped one night at the hotel in Caldwell, ID. I was so touched to receive a dog biscuit for Boo along with a little poem saying how welcome he was.

Boo has stayed in the La Quinta in Nashville, TN and, most recently, Lincoln, NE. All good experiences.

When we got back to Little Rock last week, we chose to stay in the Studio Plus because we were going to be there for several days and, because traveling with a dog makes restaurant eating a little difficult, we were happy to have the availability of a kitchen.

The hotel was disgusting. I tried not to complain. As long as Boo and I were inside and didn’t touch too much in the kitchen, it was okay. But I was never so happy to leave a hotel!

When David checked out, the lady at the desk gave him grief about having a dog in the room. What? The hotel website said it was pet friendly.

It made me mad. To my way of thinking, that non-smoking hotel should be more concerned about the woman on the first floor who had taken her screen out of the window and was sitting in it smoking. Or emptying the many overflowing garbage cans (click the word disgusting above for photos) throughout the property.  Or maybe even about the other dogs that were barking endlessly. But Boo Boo? Boo was the least of her concerns.

In the future, we’ll be staying at the La Quinta hotels when we travel with Boo. We know he’s accepted and we like staying at this hotel brand. La Quinta truly is pet friendly. 🙂

Political endorsement

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I love this time of the year. No, not Christmas (although I do love Christmas) but the political season. I’m a junkie. I love to watch it all, listen to it all, see it all. I want to see who the people are that want to run our great country. Try and understand what they are all about.

From the beginning, I was fully on board the Cain Train.  I loved the way he talked about getting our country back on track. I’ve long thought that running the country like a business would be a good idea (i.e. let’s have a budget, dudes).

So the message that Herman Cain was sending was, in his word, resonating with me. Plus, I thought he seemed like a genuinely nice man with a really good heart. I liked that. To say I was disappointed in the way things have turned out is an understatement.

You know, what Lauri wants Lauri gets and in this case, that isn’t going to happen.

So, after much thought and research I have decided who I am endorsing for the 2012 Presidential nomination:

Yes, Boo Boo the Wonderdog is a large breed with a giant personality. He’s honest and smart and dedicated. I think he’ll be an amazing president. 🙂