Happy Mother's Day, Moms!

You know that you're growing up when you start sending your high school friends Mother's Day cards ... and that's exactly what I did last week. Sending out those cards definitely helped me realize that life is moving forward. So many of our friends and family are entering exciting new lifestages; this time is definitely full of new lessons to learn around every corner.

I never knew how much I valued Mother's Day until 1) we moved away and we no longer are able to shoot down to SA to spend the day with family and 2) until I started to see all that being a mother truly entails. I remember the specific day when I had the "aha" moment and realized how indebted I am to my mom for all she did for me. While nannying for a dear family in Fort Worth, the kids and I spent the day at a water park. We had a blast out in the sun all day and came home for dinner & bedtime. That's when it all hit the fan; suddenly I had 2 angry kids, who were no doubt simply exhausted, break-down at the dinner table. I thought I would never get them calm enough to shower & get into bed, but 2 hours later the daunting task was over and I immediately called my parents. After telling them the whole story I remember them laughing at me, in a gentle manner of course, as I explained how hard parenting really is. They obviously sympathized, but I think secretly they were glad to learn that I was beginning to see the light myself - that raising children is tough. Ever since that moment, the scales have fallen from my eyes to show me that parenting is no simple job and therefore has helped me to truly appreciate Mom's on Mother's Day.
We weren't able to spend Mother's Day in San Antonio, but we did get a nice long chat with my mom on Friday night. My mom loves pictures and so I printed this one and put in a nice frame for her to have always. We're looking forward to a delayed Mother's Day meeting in Fort Worth where we'll hopefully get to go out to eat and spoil her! I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful, caring and serving mom!(This is the only picture I have of Kathy & me on my computer at work. I'm still trying to bring pictures with me so I can blog appropriately.)

We had the best day celebrating Kathy & Mammaw on Sunday. With the pool finished, we headed over for a lazy, family filled day. We put on our suits and the sunscreen and headed outside to enjoy the weather. Thurston (pictured above) had just finished making "bag-o" (it's a fancy washers) and so we played for an hour at least, honing in our tossing skills. It was nice to have all the siblings back in town (sans Natalee) along w/ everyone's new puppies. We relaxed by the pool, spent time together and then ate a delicious dinner with the whole family.

The perfect ending to a great day came when the SPURS capped off the evening with a victory! I now owe zero dollars to my father-in-law (who claims that I actually owe him interest due to my late payments), so we'll just have to wait and see how I fare in the end. For now, we're back to the grind, starting off fresh for another work week. G has two softball games for Crossroads this week and there are two very important SPURS games as well so I'll be sure to post more news as the week progresses!!! Happy Mother's Day mom & Kathy! We love you both dearly.