Country girls

Today the girls did a very interesting thing that they can certainly say they have never done before. They shelled speckled butter beans. My father-in-law is from the country and he took a trip this past weekend. He came back with a HUGE bag of what I thought were sugar snap peas or something related to them. He said that they were speckled butter beans and that they had to be removed from the pods in order to cook them. Usually he brings them from the Farmers Market all packed in pound sized bags already shelled and cleaned. Let's just say that 2 1/2 hours of manual labor yielded about 1 3/4 pounds of beans. I helped a little until my fingertips were sore. It is kinda fun and the girls enjoyed doing it. We explained to them that a lot of people in the country grow their own produce and have to do all the cleaning and sorting. I thought they would have moaned and groaned and asked why we can't just go to the store to buy some. They really had fun doing it. What they found to be really cool was that the shells that looked all brown and yucky gave you beans of the most gorgeous purple shades. It's great that my kids are content with doing such simple things with no complaints. I guess I could learn a thing or two from them huh?

I HATE BLOGGER

I really hate Blogger. My blog is not looking the way it is supposed to. I do not know what happened. Please excuse it for now and hopefully I can get it fixed soon.

On another note, Chardie comes home tonight. Briahnna has big plans for her sister. She wants ME to cook (on my day off) some pasta Alfredo with shrimp, make a dessert, and buy a few of her favorite snacks to welcome her home. What a generous sister huh? So needless to say, I will be busy preparing all of this. We also plan for her best friend to greet her as she walks off the bus. I know Chardie will be very surprised and happy to be home. Who am I kidding, she probably enjoyed being away from home!

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!

Sad day, Happy day

Our Chardonnay left yesterday morning for her end of the year school trip to Washington DC. She will be gone until Friday evening. I had plenty of time (the entire school year) to prepare mentally. I think we barely slept Sunday night anticipating seeing our daughter off on her first very big trip away from home. Briahnna cried so badly on Sunday and said she will really miss her sister. I had to hold it together so I would not break down and make it worse for little sis.

I snapped this photo right before we left the house to drop our big girl off to where the tour buses were waiting.

Here's the crew saying "see ya later" to Chardie. Dwayne always asks me why I am never in any photos. Well, perhaps because I am always the one taking them?! Chardie's eyes suddenly turned red and some big tears dropped down her face. All the other families were "awwing" because no other child expressed that type of emotion. We all held it together and encouraged her to have the time of her life. (As long as you she followed my 1001 rules that I made her a hard copy of to take and study...kidding!)

I told another parent, "when that bus takes off, the tears will have dried up". Here's her bus driver. He was so sweet and assured us that their days are so jam packed with tours and events that they will be too worn out to get into any trouble.
We got a call at 10:15 last night from her thanking us for letting her go on this trip and that she was indeed having the time of her life. I am so excited that she is getting to have this experience. We can't wait to hear all the details when she gets home. I really miss her, but I'm so happy for her at the same time.