Mother's Day This Year...

Mother's Day has come and gone but the memory of the day is still close in my thoughts.  It was a good day that began with breakfast in bed, compliments of Abigail and Annah with a little help from their dad. :) 

After breakfast I got some awesome and funny cards from the kids.  My favorite was probably the one that said,

"Good moms let their kids lick the beaters. 

Great moms turn the mixer off first." 

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

After cards I got some gifts -- chocolate, some "flowers" that were actually snack cakes in the shape of flowers (surely picked out by the kids so they could eat them in my honor!) and the biggest surprise was this.... (I have to post a picture of it because I don't know what to call it!)

I fell in love with it when I had taken the girls shopping on Saturday afternoon.  I told them on our way out of the store, "You can tell dad that I want that!"  When I said it I wasn't thinking for Mother's Day but apparently they were.  That evening the girls went to the store with Tim for milk and they delivered the message and he drove them to the store we were at earlier that day and they showed him where it was and WALLAH....it is mine. :)

  

I had visions of it living on the fireplace mantle but it turned out that it was too tall and blocked the big family picture that hangs on that wall. (Funny that it didn't seem that big in the store!) I suggested we raise the family picture up but that was met with a frown from Tim.  My memory began to come back to me on what it took to hang that picture some years ago -- it is so heavy and needed special reinforcements to be able to hang it and not have it fall and kill someone. I guess moving the picture is not an option after all. Eventually I will figure out where my new "sticks" will live.

A few weeks before Mother's Day I also got this for my big day......

A beautiful bird bath for the front of the house!

Tim was surprised that I liked it and even hesitated before suggesting it be a Mother's Day present... Eventually he said, "Maybe it will grow on me."  BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!  Yeah, maybe. :P  It didn't have to grow on me...I love the punch of color it adds to the front of the house! :) (We've been doing a little landscaping...more on that in a future post.) 

So, back to actual Mother's Day.... after the cards, candy and gifts we made our way out the door to church.  We had to leave early from our meetings in order to be able to call Jordan in Brazil at the appointed time.  There is always some anxiety that comes with the phone call because you just never know if the connection will go through or how good it will be.  When you can only talk to your missionary son twice a year there is a lot riding on those phone calls!

So, right at 1:00 pm our time (2:00 pm in Belo Horizonte, Brazil) we placed the call. It went right through and Jordan answered the phone! YAY! 

The excitement quickly turned to anxiety when it was clear that he couldn't hear us very well at all but we could hear him. We decided to hang up and try again... same thing happened. He tried wiggling the cord and even changing phones but it would only help for a minute than the connection (on his end) would be bad again. He finally gave us a cell number to call him on and when we tried it said it wasn't a working number!  We called back the original number and continued to have problems.  He gave us a second cell phone number to try and when we did that number it finally worked! WHEW! We talked to him for an hour -- 20 minutes longer than his allotted 40 minutes but with all the trouble we had we felt entitled to those extra minutes! :) It was good to hear his voice and to hear how much his voice sounds like his Uncle Jeff -- Tim's brother.  We have long heard him have the same laugh that Jeff has but this time the tone of his voice sounds so much like Jeff too. :) 

At the end of the phone call Jordan told us that he wanted us to know that he had a testimony of the work he was doing.  He was very emotional as he spoke but the spirit was strong and bore witness to us of the truth he spoke. We are so proud of him for taking two years of his life to serve a mission.  He is changing people's lives and they are changing his.  In 6 short months he will be home and beginning the next chapter in his young life.  We are anxious to see where his life will lead him.

After the phone call the girls announced that it was time for me to go take a nap! I wondered what they were up to...since when do they decide it's okay for me to nap? Hmmm.....  I didn't put up much of a fight though. :) While I napped the girls were busy in the kitchen making these for me....  

I loved it!  They even thought of it all on their own!  They brought them into the room while I was talking to young Tim who had called from Arizona. :) 

I did have to question them on what they used to make the heart shape when I found a bag of old cookie cutters sitting on the counter that they used ages ago for play dough! I recognized the bag and knew it had come from the craft cupboard, not the kitchen! They assured me that they did wash the cookie cutter before they used it. Oh good. :)

Cards, gifts, cookies, phone calls....

It was a good Mother's Day.  A good Mother's Day, indeed. :)