My Fortenberry Four Necklace

Look what I got from the  The Vintage Pearl!  It is a scrabble piece necklace to commemorate The Fortenberry Four.  Doesn't get any cheesier than that, does it?  I love it, though.

10 Things I Learned From My Aunt Judy

Today would have been my Aunt Judy's 72nd birthday.  She died on November 22, 2010.  We all miss her so much. She was the kindest and most gentle person in our family.

Here are ten things that I learned from my Aunt Judy:

10. Live everyday with a happy heart.

9. Have a Christlike love for everyone around you.

8. Forgive easily.

7. Laugh.

6. Be thankful for everything you've been given.

5. Love those great-nieces and nephews like they are your grandkids-- lots of love and memories will be made!

4. Save everything.  You never know when you might need it.

3. Be courageous and endure to the end.

2. Sisters always have your back.

1. Elvis is still the King.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Judy!  We love you and miss you everyday!

I Love Apple Music... A Lot!

I am completely addicted to Apple Music.  When I received my email for the free trial, I was very hesitant.  Now, I love it so much.  I can't stop listening to it.  The Playlists are my favorite thing in the entire world.  Right now, I'm listening to a Sawyer Brown playlist.  Why would they even make one of those?  I didn't even remember that I loved that group!  Fred even took me to see them at the KSCS Country Fair in some long ago year like 1992.  Now, I need to know where they've been for the last 20 years!  Seriously!

So, here is the thing about Fred.  He hates to have music going in the background. However, I would rather have music on than the TV.  Fred only listens to music while he drives.  He isn't a big country music fan, while I love it.  Although, he is a closet Garth Brooks fan (me... not so much).  He also loves Ray Stevens who sang country comedy songs in the '80s.  It is so weird to me that he likes Ray Stevens, since he doesn't really like country music.  Last night, I found this "Funny Country Songs" playlist.  Fred started singing along with Ray Stevens' The Streak.  And, he wasn't just singing along.  He was doing all the funny voices and he new every single word.  I was laughing so hard that I thought I was going to wet my pants.

I guess Fred could always look for work as a country comedy singer, if his day job doesn't work out for him!

CFA Cow Appreciation Day

So... some friends talk you in to doing stupid things.  Usually, that is my friend Angela.  However, when it comes to Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, that would be my co-workers.  They look forward to their free food and dressing up all year long.  I don't know how I get talked into this crazy day, but I go... every single time.  All for a free meal.

Party Bus

Friday night we drove ourselves to San Antonio, so that we could be at Trinity University bright and early to pick these cuties up from EFY.  Let me tell you, it was like herding cats trying to get them rounded up.  I thought Ethan was just going to stay in San Antonio.  

Paris and I decided to ban any talk of COWs (crush of the week).  That is all the boys could talk about.  We pretty much were over it after about an hour.  

We stopped off at my Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe's house and went to breakfast.  We had a great morning.  I got the prize for having the coolest aunt.  Paris and I posed with our Texas shirts.  We are pretty proud of our home state and we didn't even plan our outfits!

We hit the road where we had DJ Ethan or DJ EJ (I forget what he calls himself) spinning tunes for us all the way home.  He said he was taking over for Big Mama (our friend Rod who DJs the church dances).  I guess Rod better watch out, because Ethan's got it going on.

We partied all the way to Buc-Ees where we obtained gas and some Beaver Nuggets.  Those things will make your eyes roll back in your head they are so sweet.   It's a small world, because we missed my cousin by 40 or 45 minutes.  He rolled through the same Buc-Ees 40 minutes after we did.  Too bad we didn't hit it at the same time.  We could have had a family reunion and some Beaver Nuggets.

We had so much fun with those three kiddos!  We heard all about each of their EFY Companies, Ethan and Jonathan's COWs and all about how Jonathan had to shave (apparently Jonathan's mustache fuzz violated the "no facial hair" policy).

If you're ever looking for a good time, call for the Fortenberry Party Bus rates.  We're pretty cheap!

Dollar Tree Steak Night, It's a Thing

About a week ago, Fred and I stopped off at the Dollar Tree for some assorted goodies that you can only buy at the Dollar Tree-- candy for a Sunday School class and poppers for Angela.

We were walking into the store and Fred caught sight of this sign that said Ribeye Steaks, $1.  I can't even tell you how much this tickled my funny bone.  I texted Angela and let her know that we would bring the poppers and some steak.  

We laughed and laughed over this $1 steak.  While we were at Dave and Angela's, we talked about it some more.  Fred, who knows a lot about these things, mentioned that we should look at the portion size.  Sure enough, we zoomed into my picture of the signage and found that the pre-cooked, frozen weight of each steak is 3.5 ounces.  One of the guys started laughing and said, "That's an ice cube!"  That started us laughing all over again.

Well, now, Fred sees these frozen 3.5 oz ribeye steaks as a challenge.  It's like he's Gordon Ramsey and he has to buy these steaks just to show what he can create with them.  He keeps mentioning that he wants to pick up some steaks from the Dollar Tree.  Please help me, because I see Dollar Tree steak night in my future.  Come on over, if you want to join me.

Lazy, Crazy 4th

I just love this time of year.  We had a fun, lazy, crazy 4th of July Weekend.  I'm going to try to summarize it into one post, but it might be kind of hard.  On Thursday, we had a cookout at work AND got off work at 3:00 p.m.  It doesn't get any better than that!  Because, when you think of me, the first word that comes to your mind is brave, I popped over and had my nails done very patriotically.

The nail ladies laughed and laughed at me.  I kept smiling and telling them how much I liked my nails, but they could see the fear in my eyes.  I get to live with these nails for about 3 more weeks.  Lucky me.  Lucky you, because they are very noticeable. We all know how I like to standout.  (That's a joke.  In case, you weren't sure.)

Friday we were invited to go out on  Lake Ray Hubbard with the Moffitts and Palmers.  My cute little Jonathan had the time of his life on the tube.  Jessie was a trooper, but would have rather just stayed on the boat.  The pictures are horrible, but tell quite the story.

Conner would grab Jonathan and pull him back on the tube to make sure that he didn't fall off. 

I guess it pays to have really strong friends.

Jess just put her head down and hung on for dear life.  Seriously, though, the boat was going about 5 mph!  She hated it and was scared to death, but got off smiling!

Given a couple of Excedrin, Conner turns into a stunt man!

Saturday, we attended the Ward Breakfast bright and early at 8:00 a.m.  Who thought that was OK?  I vote that they change it to 9:00 next year.  

(Stole this off of Facebook - this is not my pic as evidenced by the fact that I am in the background!)

We were one of the first ones at the breakfast, because Fred had to prepare for the Flag Ceremony.  He forgot to tell me that he needed to swing by the church for the flags.  I couldn't figure out why I was being rushed out the door at 7:35.  I need to understand these things, because I was planning on leaving at 7:55.

The Young Women were in charge of face painting... again.  We pretty much have the market cornered on face painting.

I scored some sweet art on my arms.  You know you love someone when you let her paint a dragon on your arm.  My goal was to prove my undying love to Jaiden by keeping the dragon on my arm all day, but it was so wet that I kept smearing it on everything.  I finally had to wipe it off with make-up remover towelettes.  Fred suggested Clorox Wipes.  He's hard core!

Katelyn thought I should have a more patriotic star on my other arm.  Maybe the dragon was a bit much?  I'm not sure?

You know you've got skills when you can paint your own face using only the reflective surface of your iPad. 

Later that afternoon, we went to see Terminator Genisys and out to eat.  I tried to take pics of Fred and Jonathan, but they clearly didn't cooperate!  I had never seen any of the Terminators, so I was a bit skeptical, but I watched anyway.  I liked it, but had to ask Fred a few questions afterwards.  Now, he wants me to watch the earlier ones.  I'm not sure if that is necessary.  I thought he could just get me up to speed.

On Sunday, we hit the road for Austin. 

We stopped off at Auntie Jan's and Uncle Joe's to visit with them.  Surprise, surprise... we ran into Mom and Dad there.  We stayed in a sketchy La Quinta. It was quite the adventure.

We dropped our favorite boy off at EFY on Monday!  I am going to miss him.  After we dropped him off, I really wanted to go back and pick him up.  I wasn't allowed to drop him off last year.  This is probably why.

Fred got all the way to Trinity University and we started looking for a restaurant to feed Jonathan.  I started using the GPS to locate eating establishments.  They were all "local favorites." 

We ended up stopping at Burger Boy that was just outside of campus.  Jonathan got the Working Man special.  He thought he had died and gone to Heaven.

On the way home, Fred and I stopped at HEB for some souvenirs...fajita meat and Whataburger ketchup.  I'm serious.  They have the best fajita meat and while we were there we bought some of their Whataburger spicy ketchup and jalapeno ranch dip.  When can we get an HEB?  Can someone please tell me?

By the way, Fred got off the interstate for something.  I think it was for the HEB and he said, "Well, the Whataburger is on the wrong side of the freeway.  There is a McDonald's."  I let him know that I could wait, because he had already fed me McDonald's one too many times.  Now, here is where communication is key!  I should have said I can wait about 15 minutes.  Fred had it in his mind that he was waiting for the optimum Whataburger.  I started noticing that we were passing eating establishments right and left and I heard him mention his dismay over all the Whataburgers being on the wrong side of the road.  Finally, I pointed out a Zaxby's, because I know that he really likes that.  I've never had it, but at this point I would take the McDonald's that I turned down.  He passed the Zaxby's up!  Finally, he found the perfect Whataburger at 3:30 p.m.  I was so HANGRY (hungry/angry) that he ordered me a #1 without even consulting with me.  We ended up throwing away half my sandwich, half my fries and a jug of drink. But, I guess Fred figured that he would rather be safe than sorry, since I was so upset!  

We'll head back to San Antonio on Friday after work so that we can get our boy on Saturday morning.  

Other than our Whataburger incident, we had an exceptional holiday!

The Ladies I Love

I love these crazy ladies so much.

Together, we love and serve the sweet Young Women of our church.  And, together, we have so much fun!

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be inspired by them each week.  They teach me so much and I love their fun and creativity.

On any given night, my phone can start dinging like crazy from group text messages.  They start off innocently enough about a Wednesday night activity.  Before you know it, the comments get out of control.  I had such an great time with them at camp and I am so thankful for the time that we shared.  I wouldn't trade these amazing ladies for anything in the world.  I just love them to pieces!