Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day Potato Salad Recipe

This is Papa Richards' fave recipe.  We are going to our 2nd annual Memorial Day BBQ tonite and for the 2nd year in a row I am making this recipe.  It is from the Peach Tree in FBG.

10 cups peeled boiled potatoes (about 5 lbs.)
8 boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
10 ribs celery, diced
10 green onions, chopped
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cups good quality mayonnaise (3 to 4 cups)
1/2 cup chopped pickled jalapenos
2 T. juice form jalapenos
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 t. comino or cumin
1 T. black pepper
1 T. salt

Directions:
In large bowl, combine potatoes, celery and both onions. Combine remaining ingredients and add to potato mixture. Mix well and chill several hours or overnight. Serves 24.

feeding the seagulls

Beachtime was limited on this trip.  We spent most of the morning our first day at the beach, but I did not take my camera b/c I knew we would be there 5 days, and I thought I would have plenty opporunities to take pictures.  It was very windy, and lots of seaweed as I said.  The waves were really rough, so on the last morning we tried once again and decided to at least feed the gulls our bag of white bread.  The girls became quite the bread-throwing experts and this ended up being one of their favorite times on the beach.

Texas State Aquarium

We spent the day at the Aquarium in Corpus, and had a blast. Mommy was even included in the birds of prey show and had a hawk land right above my head. There are so many things to do and touch at the aquarium, the girls loved it. Bella's favorite part of the aquarim was all of it and Landry's fave part was the dolphin show.


**special tip print your coupons offline to save $4 per person.

Landry's

We ate at the "best restaurant" according to Landry. We found a Landry's in Corpus and she was on cloud 9 to have a restaurant named after her.  She ordered pizza, so could not get any better in her eyes.  We ate on the water and even saw a boat in the marina from my hometown.  The food at the beach is always so hit and miss, but we had a great meal of stuffed crab, stuffed mushrooms, tilapia, and shrimp this evening.

One of my favorite childhood memories at the beach is riding the ferry to Port Aransas.  This was Bella's very part of the trip too.  We even got to see dolphins in the channel. 

day 1 beach trip

For Mother's Day, Ben and the girls took me to Mustang Island. We had the best time, even though the beach did not cooperate.  There was a lot of seaweed on the beach, so we spent much of our time at the pool.  It was a great pool area, with 4 pools including one pool that was only 2 1/2 feet deep, so it was perfect for the girls.  There was only like 7 or 8 families in the entire complex, so most of the time we had the pool all to ourselves.

Grandpa Harry

This is Gigi's stepdad, Grandpa Harry.  Her mom passed away before Bella was born, so we have not seen Grandpa Harry in awhile.  He was a pilot in WWII, Korean and Vietnam Wars.  I used to love to listen to his stories, and we enjoyed hearing a couple during our recent visit.  He is the reason we got our dachsunds, Duncan and Chloe.  He had a round dachsund named Max, that we loved.  He was still his vicarious self, and it was agreat visit.

Coach Dan's soccer clinic

  We enrolled the girls in Coach Dan's soccer clinic this past month.  The girls really seemed to enjoy the drills much more than the actual game, so we thought some one-on-one coaching might help.  They loved it.  It is just what they needed to boost their confidence, not to mention special attention from their beloved Coach Dan.  We may not do the organized league again for a couple of years, but instead focus on these clinics.  They really enjoy themselves and they are not quite as competitive as their Mama so would perfer that to not be learned, for a few more years at least.

anyone?

Found this on the easel, anyone care to take a guess at who it could be?

the sign of a good Landry-Bella Day

Every Friday is Landry-Bella Day.  I try to not make any plans that the girls cannot be involved in.  This week we had a playdate with Anna and Abby Lu at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast.  1:00 - Soccer Clinic with Coach Dan, then onto playscape with friends from the gym, 2:40 - late picnic lunch in the front yard.  Bicycle riding and roly-poly hunting in the driveway.  4:30 - "Mommy, can we take a rest?" PRICELESS

letter from a parent

My boss just forwarded a letter from a parent she recieved...

Dear T,

I wanted to drop you a note thanking you, again, for the quality staff that you have selected to serve and teach my children. A is in Miss Kristi's class and has shown wonderful growth this past school year. Since Kristi has come on board, A has learned to walk in line, eat when it's lunch time, and talk-out his problems rather than crying or hitting. These things were so important to me at the beginning of the year and he has achieved these goals! As an added perk, A can read many words, he knows the months of the year, can count way past 100, and recites the Pledge of Allegiance completely by memory. AND HE'S ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD!!! A has professed his love for Miss Kristi and we are looking forward to another great year with her. I thank you for allowing Kristi to fill Ms. G's position. We are most grateful.

Sincerely,
"Mom"

changing our blog name

I never thought the day would come when I would have to change the name of our blog.  Well, I never thought that it would have to be done b/c we were expanding our family in this way, but surprise, and yes it is a surprise to us all, but we will be Richards Family Five this December. 

I am sorry some of you are finding out via blog, but it has not been something I have wanted to talk about.  I have had a hard time coming to reality that I will be giving birth at the age of 36.  I had big plans for this year and being nauseous, a growing belly and mood swings were not in my plan.  I can honestly say it was not until experiencing this moment yesterday, was being a mom to an infant something I was remotely interested in.  I had plans, but God's are bigger and I am trying to learn to trust again.  Knowing He knows what is best for our family and this is the way he wanted to expand our family and the time He wanted it to happen.  Once again, I am sorry I have not told more of you, or shared the experience with you, it is just something I am working through.

Remember Antonio?

I told you about Antonio a few months back.  He was hoping to find some work mowing or in construction.  A couple of months ago I saw him when I was serving dinner at the ARCH and he was wearing a button-up shirt and khakis.  It almost brought me to tears.  He was in the student-work program and had been at class.  This morning, Antonio brought me his tassle and diploma, he graduated from ACC last night.  It was the most special moment to date for me to see his accomplishments.  I cannot wait to see what God has in store for him now.

sad day

Today is a sad day for us in the RFF, our friends the Calfy's are officially on their way to Missouri.  We have known Brian and Jane since before we had children.  The kids have spent the past 4 1/2 years together.  I know this is the best thing for their family, but we are so sad to see them go.  We pray the Lord to bless you & keep you!  We love you and cannot wait to come visit.

9 lives?

Just when I thought there was no room left on my plate, my neighbor calls to tell me something is wrong with "our" cat.  In case you do not know "our" cat was banished from indoors around week 2 of living in this home.  She went crazy one weekend while we were gone and instantly became an outdoors cat.  Since then our neighbor has fed her, provided her a bed complete with bedwarmer and recently let us know she had been letting the cat sleep in her garage at night.  In other words, she was taking better care of the cat than we were, in return the cat wanted nothing to do with us, so we did not really mind.  Until last week she fell and broke her leg in two places.  Our cat-loving neighbor took her to the vet (and would not let us pay her back), but did ask us to please take the cat indoors until she was better (she has an indoor cat that does not get along with Mitten).  So, Mitten is now liking us again, cuddles with the girls, but is going stir-crazy with her bright pink cast.  Me, well, I am getting used to it, guess I can squish this helping over to one side of my plate for the time being.

paid in full!!

Tonight, we paid my 60-month car loan off in just 25 months!!  YAHOOO!!  Only one debt left!!