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Just The 10 Of Us

What a week! I have so much to be thankful for. My brother and his family blessed my heart, just by being here. And, boy did we have fun! Here's a list of our activities:

*Made another "Boys Are Back" video with all 6 boys
*Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts
*Made peanut butter kiss cookies
*Went to the graveyard and waterfall and hiked the mountain
*Had a bonfire in the woods and roasted marshmallows
*Celebrated Christmas together
*Went to see "Four Christmases" with Heather
*Photo shoot at White Oak Park - and we played freeze tag
*My nephew Jack lost his 2nd front tooth - all he wants for Christmas is...his "2 Front Teeth"
*Drove through the lights at Lake Lanier and went to the carnival and Santa's workshop
*Read books
*Watched Christmas movies

I love having a house FULL of family. Blow up mattresses on the floors upstairs, kids in each room playing, the sounds of family warm my heart like nothing else. My brother shares my passion for music and he kept the Christmas music playing the entire time. He totally hooked me up too. I have a million Christmas songs in my itunes now. They left this afternoon and the house is much quieter. I just cried watching them pull out of the driveway. There's little traces of them...the fingerprints on my back door, a drawing that Evan made me on the fridge, and PICTURES! OH THE PICTURES!!! My brother is always seen with a camera in his hand. So he caught every moment of our time together. Enjoy!

We're ready!!!

My brother called, they're almost here! My boys are freaking OUT! Trees are lit. Candles are going. Lamps are glowing. Fire is blazing. The welcome basket on the guest bed says "Welcome to Georgia"! It's complete with some Andes mints by the way. Ha! It's gonna be a crazy week with 6 boys in this house. Bring it on!!!

Indulgence

Oh, yes, it's written right on the package. Creme de menthe...Indulgence. Wal-mart put these babies out this past weekend and I have already bought 3 bags. Well, my coupon was for $1.50 off of 3, so I HAD to buy them! If you know me, you know I'm all about presentation. Well, Ande's...my hat's off to you. The packaging A+. Each individually wrapped Ande's mint has a bow molded into the chocolate. So each time I have one, it's like a little gift to myself. They are bigger than the original Andes mints. I do have to say I like the really thin ones better. And don't let the individual packaging fool you. I thought maybe I wouldn't eat as many, because it's not like a bowl of m&m's where you just reach in and grab a handful. There are 4 wrappers next to my computer right now. How on earth did that happen???

My brother and sister n law, and their 4 boys, Sutton, Jack, Evan and Max, are coming tomorrow night for Thanksgiving. This is my favorite picture of their beautiful family.These little goodies will be in their welcome basket.Could these be any cuter? Cokes in the shape of ornaments! Again, A+ for presentation!!! I normally don't let my kids drink coke, but I couldn't pass these up. Under these are the "grow in a pot" Christmas trees! So cute. Comes with the soil and seeds, just water and watch them grow. Locals, these are at Target in the $1.00 section.
I can't wait to see my family!!! Here is a picture of my Christmas tree...Okay, so I'm kidding. This is obviously not my tree, see the people mosey-ing around in the background. This is a Coke tree at Lake Lanier. I so WISH I could do a tree like this, but I'm sure it costs a trillion dollars. Here's some more favorites...This is just the tree topper, you can only imagine what the whole thing looked like. Oh, if I had a little girl. This tree would drive all the boys in my house crazy. BUT I LOVE IT!!!

Sorry this post got to be so long! I got a little carried away, must be the sugar in all these Andes mints. Easy, Angela....Easyyyyyy!

These Lovely Ladies

These are the Apples of Gold. These women have been mentoring and teaching young women for years. They teach us how to cook, keep a home, set a table, love our husbands and God. I was honored to have been in Apples of Gold for the 6 week course. I felt SO LOVED while I was there. Today we had an Apples of Gold reunion and ornament swap. Well, it was MUCH more than that. Crafts galore! Sugar cookies! Peanut Butter Balls! Ornament swap! FOOD! I learned how to do a 'blanket stitch' today. We met at an old country house called the Nebo house. I wish I had a picture to show. But here are some from our day together.

This verse sums them up!

Titus 2:3-5 "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored."

Our New Thanksgiving Tradition

A few years ago, we ordered our Thanksgiving dinner from Cracker Barrel. I thought I was doing my family a dis-service by not making the whole meal, with fixin's and such. But it turned out to be the best most ingenious idea EVER! Now, we do this every year. You can go to the CRACKER BARREL SITE and order your Thanksgiving meal to go. Bring it home, put it on all your pretty dishes and voila! Don't get me wrong I love to cook on Easter, Christmas, etc, but when my family is here, I like to spend time with them instead of in the kitchen. I go to Cracker Barrel about 45 minutes before we are going to eat, pick it up, come home and the table is set, candles lit, and we're ready! It's a hard tradition to break out of (cooking the turkey and all), but it is our new Richardson family Thanksgiving tradition!While we are decorating our Christmas Tree today, we will be watching Christmas Vacation. CLASSIC! My favorite part is when Clark Griswold is at the lingerie counter in the department store and he gets all nervous and tongue tied talking to the gorgeous lady behind the counter. "I'm just blousing...uh, browsing". Hilarious!

Chewin' on, Chewin' on broken glass

A local restaurant serves my favorite Cheddar Broccoli soup, with a roll, perfect for tearing apart and dipping. Yesterday, I went with a friend to get a bowl. Ahhh. Cold day, we had soup and coffee. I normally eat my soup with the bread, just dipping, but if I run out of bread, I'll use my spoon to eat the rest. Well, I went to take a bite with my spoon and YE---OUCH! I crunched down on GLASS! There was glass in my soup!!! My top gum started bleeding and I realized there was a little shard of glass stuck up there. And, my back tooth was really hurting. I had to spit out everything in my mouth, in front of my friend. I was so embarrassed. She urged me to go say something. Now, I'm normally not a "complainer", but this was waaaaaay different. Here's the problem, I ended up acting so nervous telling them, and my mouth was still hurting, I actually APOLOGIZED to THEM! I told my mom about this last night and she was like, you WHAT? I was like..."I'm sorry to tell you this, but here's what happened....I'm sorry...etc." Now, they were very apologetic to me too, I must say. A sweet girl Lauren from our church works there and gave me and my friend a free dessert and coffee. I had to fill out a claims form and write out the details of the "incident". I have to go to my dentist on Monday, I think my top tooth is chipped. Good grief. Any advice ladies? I know the company will call me this week. I mean, I started thinking...what if this had been my child? Or what if I swallowed it? Yikes. There might have been more at the bottom of my bowl, I didn't take the time to look.
Here's the picture, taken with my phone. The smallest piece is the one I pulled out of my gum. I gave all 3 pieces to the staff, and the bowl. They wrapped them up.

I was just thinking, it's a little ironic...Crumbs in my butter.....Glass in my soup.

And another thing, don't feel bad if you read this and find yourself laughing a little. That just means you're a kindred spirit. Chances are I would be doing the same thing if I read it about someone else. But deep down, I know you care! :)

Home at last!

After a delayed flight and an extra day of being apart, my man made it home! The boys made welcome signs for him. When we got home he was surprised to see I had put our lighted garland up around the front door, Christmas wreath and twinkle lights in the trees in the front yard. The boys are on the sofa watching Kung Fu Panda with daddy. We're getting ready to have some pumpkin pie and coffee. Ahhhh. I'm so happy. Thank you to those of you who prayed for him and the rest of the guys. It was a great trip. Go to everyonebelongs to read about it.

Africa and my embarrassing oil story

Okay, so the word is out. My husband has been in Africa for almost 8 days. He's leaving to come home tomorrow! I have been trying to keep it a secret from my blog, but it's all over facebook and blogging. I was nervous about this at first, but then I have had so many people email or facebook me and tell me that they were praying for these men and for our family. Thank you so much for your prayers. Click here to read Paul's latest entry, I know this trip has been emotionally draining for him and all these guys.

I did something. Something really stupid. My oil light came on in the car and so without Paul being here, I thought, I am gonna go take care of this. I am a 31 year old WOMAN for crying out loud. I take my car to a "car place" (the names have been omitted to save them from embarrassment) I told the guy I needed oil. So he suggests I get a certain type of oil for the mileage on my car. 173,065 miles to be exact. Oldie, but a goodie. The oil I ended up purchasing was $17.49 a bottle. I needed 3 of them because my car was bone dry. Did I have any idea that oil normally costs about $3.99 a quart? No! I'm a sucker. There went my grocery money, down the drain, well, no, in my engine. But I will say, my engine is purring like a kitten now. Oh man, wait til Paul finds out about this. The REALLY sad part is that this morning I went out in our garage and saw 2 quarts of oil sitting on the shelf. Ooops!

The Boys are BACK!

The boys were playing today (Will, Cobe and Wesley) in the backyard. They wanted to re-create the junk yard scene from High School Musical 3. We pulled hubcaps out of the garage and an old tire. I drew "graffiti" on the treehouse "The Boys Are Back" and "Boy's Only", and "Boys Rule!". This was boy heaven today. I used 4 extension cords to pipe the soundtrack all the way into our woods. I WISH you could have seen them when I first pressed play! They were FREAKING OUT! They used sticks instead of tail pipes and wrenches. Cobe is SO into character. He even has the plaid shirt, with white shirt underneath and jeans. I made them a movie in my "imovie" (Mac lovers will appreciate that). I wanted them to feel special, so I surprised them with this movie. They think they are going to be famous now. I love it. You gotta love boys.

Even though

my man didn't win last night, I still have something to celebrate...Today I have reached 10,062 hits on my blog!!! Wahooo! So, someone out there is reading all this nonsense huh? I feel like a walk down memory lane is necessary...This was my post about the title of my blog, back in March, just in case some of you newcomers are thinking, "What in the world is Crumbs In My Butter?" To all of you who have read this blog, thank you for humoring me over the past year. I've met some sweet friends (who I've never technically met, but I call them friends just the same! you know who you are!!!). Crumbs in my butter readers are SIMPLY THE BEST!

What is "Crumbs in my butter?"
And now for the long-awaited reveal of the title of my blog! :) I hoped it teased you a little that I waited until now. Ha! What's it been like only 2 days???

A few years ago Paul and I were preparing for out of town company. A dear friend was coming that we hadn't seen in a while and I went nuts cleaning the house. The day before our guest was to arrive, Paul came home from work to find me in a tizzy. I was stressed out because I had to go shopping and get "guest friendly" food, come up with some type of welcome basket for the guest bedroom, I was even touch-up painting our walls where my five year old (then 3 yr. old) had colored or put his handprints.

Paul asked me why I felt the need to do all of these things? Well, I was outraged! Why do I feel the need??? Because, it's what your SUPPOSE to do when you have company. After all, he should be thankful that I am doing all this, because it makes him look good too. As I was giving him my laundry list of "to-do's" for the day, he sat down at the kitchen counter and just listened...patiently and quietly, until....

A - "And I need to pull the weeds from the front flower bed, put a new bar of soap in the shower, and oh...there's crumbs I need to scrape out of the butter."

P - "Wait, what did you say? There's crumbs in the BUTTER! Angela, seriously, you've got to be kidding me."

A - "No, that's embarrassing, I'm gonna scrape them out!"

Paul had enough. He told me he didn't care if anyone saw the crumbs in our butter in fact he said, let them see the crumbs in our butter! That's who we are! We HAVE CRUMBS IN OUR BUTTER! In fact, he said, I hope Will throws a good 'ol fashioned tantrum while our company is here too, because that's WHO WE ARE!

So, I left the room, upset. But I thought about what he said, (or what he yelled :) I decided to leave the weeds in the flower bed, and yes, I left the crumbs in my butter.

Now, it's not that I won't occasionally scrape those crumbs out for company, and I still do all of the little touches, because that's just me. But, my perspective on why I do these things has changed. Thank goodness for a husband who isn't scared to tell me the truth.

A good friend will see the crumbs in your butter and love you anyway, or love you even more because of them.

But, lesson learned, we ALL have crumbs in our butter!

I just wanna VOTE for crying out loud!

Today I started out early. I have both boys, a stroller, etc. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I wasn't prepared for the run-a-round I got today. I headed to the precinct on my voter registration card. Parked the car, got Wes in the stroller got to the doors, "Um, ma'am, sorry, but you need to go to another precinct". Okay, no big deal. A little frustrating, but whatever it takes. So, we make the little trek to the next stop...they told me I needed to park 150 yards away from the building because I had a campaign bumper sticker on my bumper. (As if my bumper sticker is going to change some undecided voter's mind as they are walking in). I was determined I was going to get my vote cast whatever it took...Got the kids out of the car, Wes in the stroller again wait in line and ....YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT....they told me I still wasn't at the right precinct. You've got to be kidding me! So I get to the last stop, it was the right one and I parked. A security guy came up to my window and said "Ma'am, either you need to remove the sticker off your car or park in the field over there." What???? At this point it was comical to me. I was a little short with the guy (sorry, security guy, it wasn't you, just a long line of events leading up to you). Got, out of my car and tore the sign off the bumper. Whew. "Boys, let's go!" I got right in and voted, a few of the questions stumped me. They use double negatives...For example..."Should the law not be amended to allow..." These confuse me! I hope I voted right for those.

I received my Georgia Voter sticker and the attendant told me that if I went to Chic-fil-a with my sticker on, I would get a free chicken sandwich! Hallelujah! I've earned it at this point right? So that's just what we did. The boys are even excited about watching tonight now because during all our running around today, they got to hear me talking about the election. Will thinks it's unfair that you have to be able to "read and write" to get to vote. Awh, buddy. He wanted to vote sooooo bad.

Oh, and one more thing. One of the places had a sign saying not to talk about the election or the candidates. I HAD to say something to Will outside because if anyone is going to break THAT rule, it's him. He thought we were going to be in serious trouble if we spoke at all, because there were a few policeman around. He was an angel while I voted! ha!

By the way...I love the good 'ol Whitney Houston days. Here's one of my favorites.