Birthday Boys!

June is a month full of birthday's in the Meeks and Haden families. June 6th was Mr. Meeks (Nic's dad) 56th birthday so we had all of his family over for dinner. Last year we did more of a seated/formal dinner but since we've finished the patio we wanted to incorporate every inch of it, so... this year was backyard BBQ style!

Nic woke up at 5am the Saturday morning of the party to put ribs and a pork shoulder (?) on the smoker. We had a huge spread of your typical backyard BBQ style foods. Nic doesn't like anything out of a can or bag so he had to make his version/homemade EVERYTHING from the BBQ sauce to the baked beans. We had pulled pork, ribs, coleslaw, baked beans (kidney beans and all kinds of random kinds-DELISH), hash brown casserole and grilled corn. Desert consisted of homemade ice-cream (I haven't had this in YEARS) and a German Chocolate cake. Needless to say-everyone left SUPER full. Nothing about this meal was healthy except that he used splenda in the ice-cream instead of real sugar! ha.

 

Can't entertain without my wonderful Chef Nic!

 

McKenzie & Logan

 

 

 

 

 My sister in law LOVES to clean..She gets invited to everything=)

 The Birthday Boy

Nic loves history and collects all kinds of books on WWII,  military stuff, aircrafts, etc-EVERY TIME our nephew Tyler comes over-he has to pull ALL of these books off the shelves and look at every single picture. For a 7 year old, this child knows so much about the civil war, military losses, famous generals, etc. He is a very intelligent child-going to be just like his uncle, Nic Nic! (hope our kids get his brains too!!)

BIRTHDAY # 2

This past weekend was my dads 54th birthday, my grandmothers 83rd birthday and of course, Fathers Day so we invited my family over to celebrate! Nic prepared fried tomato sandwiches and crispy zucchini/potato skillet cakes (like crab cakes) for appetizers and steak and chicken kabobs, hash brown casserole and a wonderful spinach strawberry pecan salad for the main course. Desert consisted of  strawberry cake and homemade vanilla ice cream. I helped make the ice cream & cake=)

 

Steak kabobs with fresh grown vegetables

I love fresh pineapple!

   

Chicken Kabobs

 My contribution was the baking-something I LOVE to do! (really I just love using the mixer and licking the bowl!)

                                         Preparing the zucchini/potato cakes

 

Fried tomato sandwiches (these aren't fried and they aren't sandwiches- don't really know where that name came from) 

 zucchini/potato cakes-WONDERFUL!!

  

  

Beer napkins for my dad=)

 

Fresh flowers for a birthday party,a must!

 

                                      Carb-loaded hash brown casserole-Very tasty!

                                       Spinach strawberry pecan salad

 

My grandparents! I love that there is a beer in front of my grandmother-she is B-A-P-T-I-S-T, not a fan of alcohol =)

 

I guess since she wouldn't let them have beer growing up-they just love it now=)

                                                                    Debbie & Ken

 

Mom & Heidi

Happy Happy Birthday!

 

Happy Fathers Day!

 

My sister ALWAYS finds the funniest cards-not always the most appropriate though!

 My sister always gives my dad old records and realized that his record player broke so she surprised him with a brand new one!

My grandmother got a beautiful bird house and jewelry (she's very hard to buy for) and dad got clothes and more records! 

Another card from Heidi! 

Billy Goat Yard Dog

Friday morning I had a few property inspections in Kosciusko. While I was waiting on the owner @ one of the facilities to arrive, I walked around, snapping pictures of the property.. Just to fill you in some-this facility was a towing/recovery company-this always seem to be interesting places! . Some of you may have seen the "beware of dog" signs on fences around towing yards or even pawn shop yards. Well... in the insurance world, that's a big NO NO because of the liability.(the actual dog, not the sign)

While I was walking around the property, I saw the "beware of dog" sign"-so when the owner arrived-I asked him about this dog and he assured me that the "dog" they had "wouldn't hurt nobody". He took me to the back of the facility and started yelling, "here, Billy Billy Billy" In my 4 years of doing this-I've NEVER come across a place quite like this one. We heard something banging around and when I looked up, there was a  billy goat standing on the top of a metal storage building staring at me.

 

This animal is more like a cat than a dog. He jumped from the metal building to the hood of a pickup truck and then jumped onto the back of this wrecker truck.I've never seen anything like it. I was laughing so hard and the guy just kept yelling "here, Billy Billy Billy"

I've got to write this report today and I'm a stunned on how to explain this yard dog. I HATE to recommend they get rid of him (like we would have to recommend if it were a dog) He was just soo soo cute and I doubt he'd hurt anyone. Ah....what to do, what to do?!?! 

Happy Monday! 

"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always"-Mom

This morning I woke up to an email from my mom that read :

GOOOOOD MORNING TO YOU!
GOOOD MORNING TO YOU!
GOOOOD MORNING, GOOOD MORNING...
HAVE A GREAT DAY.....
I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was running late for work so I didn't bother responding.  While I'm in route to work, I get a phone call and of course its MOM-calling to ask if I got the email and why I didn't respond. Heavens lady-some of us have places to be.....before I could even explain myself, she started singing exactly what the email read. I would like to share the tune with you but honestly, I don't there was a "tune"---she just made up her own, BEAUTIFUL version.

 

After she finished with her song, she started reading letters to me. I was soo lost until she got to the closings of the letters and they were all signed, "love, bug:" or "sincerely, the "good" child! ha. I knew what she was reading at this point---letters from ME! The more she read, we both laughed so hard- many of my letters turned into poems...I tried my hardest to rhyme as a child but none of the words that rhymed together made ANY sense, ha!

 

My mom used to write us letters all the time growing up-we would have letters in our lunch boxes, notes under our pillows at night,  little notes on our napkins (in our lunch boxes) and sometimes she would even draw her hand and crazy stuff on the outside of our brown lunch sacks. It used to bother me (especially when I was sitting in the senior lunch room and my brown lunch bag has a big smiley face on it or my moms hand she traced with "I love you" in the center-) but then I started thinking how sweet it was--at least my mom took the time each morning to make my lunch-

Then when I went off to college, the letters continued. I have a box of (literally) 100's of cards that my mom sent me when I was at Mississippi State. When I lived in the Phi Mu house-it was like a joke/game every week to see how many cards & packages I got and what was in them. Several of the girls that lived in the rooms next to me would come to my room while I was opening them just to see what crazy stuff she had sent! She would send me pictures of my dogs & family, sometimes she would send me newspaper articles-she would mail me packages  with chocolate & candy and other junk. Basically she treated me like I was off at camp without many resources, ha! 

 

One time,she took a picture of herself holding up a "come home bug" sign with an instant Polaroid Camera  and attached the picture to the front of a card she mailed me----not long after this my friend across the hall, Katie, started a "wall of shame"-it was a huge bulletin board that we put crazy pictures of people on. Sorry mom but a few of your pics made the wall!!!  

 Back to the title of this post.....

When i was little, I had a wicker rocking chair in my bedroom and EVERY night before my mom put me to bed, we would rock in this chair and she would read one book to me. Never failed, one of us would grab "Love You Forever". It was and still is one of our most favorite books. For those of you who haven't read it-each page ends with-"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be"

MANY MANY of my emails/cards/letters have said this very verse over the years-For lack of things to say, my mom makes up a song or quotes a book!

Other fun facts about my mom:

All through college and still to this day-When I go home-there are fresh flowers in a vase next to my bed (in my old bedroom) and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the kitchen counter.  The only problem now is, when I go home, Nic is usually with me and he seems to think the cookies are for him-which they clearly aren't!!

Anyone that knows my mom knows that she has a HUGE heart-she is very giving and will do ANYTHING for ANYBODY. My mom takes care of (dresses, cooks for & runs errands for ) my grandmother, my great uncle (Fr Donnie-he's in a nursing home), her new friend Lucy (also in a nursing home) and 5 neices and nephews. 

My mom  "adopted" Lucy,a 92 yr old lady that lives in a local nursing home. Mom met Lucy 2 years ago while my granddaddy was living in the nursing home. She would always check on Lucy when she would visit because Lucy didn't have many family members that visited her. Lucy is "one of a kind", she is absolutely HILARIOUS and in great shape for a 92 yr old.  She just laughs at everything and is always so happy. She always tells my mom how much she loves her and before she says "good bye" she always says-"please come see me again"-hurts my heart that someone could put their mother in a place like that and not even visit her-yes her family lives in the same town.

Mom regularly takes Lucy dinner, sweets and REAL coca cola to stash away in her room. Nursing home foods are a lot like hospital foods-very tasty but they get old after awhile-so...mom bought Lucy a mini refrigerator to put in her room so she can store all the foods she loves-

I'll have to upload a picture of Lucy sometime-she has pictures framed in her room of Nic and I and 1 of her and my mom-how sweet? Just a little side note for those of you who I haven't told this to before--- about a year after my mom "adopted" sweet Lucy-we found out that Lucy is the step, great grandmother of my ex boyfriend-SMALL FREAKING WORLD! I dated this awful guy for nearly 8 years and Little Lucy is his great grandmother?! Guess his family doesn't visit her too much or I would think my framed wedding picture would have been taken down by now, ha! What are the chances, huh?! Again--small world!

 As I've told y'all before, my mom helps take care of my grandmother, Jane. She picks her outfits out every day and takes her dinner every night-

My beautiful mom & grandmother Jane

I share my mom because she's THAT wonderful=) Mattie & Mom @ an Easter Egg Hunt

People always tell me "you look like your mom" or "you act like your mom" and just because I don't know how to take a COMPLIMENT, I usually blow it off but from now on when someone says that-I'll smile and thank them-because clearly that's a WONDERFUL compliment. I sure hope to be patient and be wonderful mother like she is someday!

Annie, Betty, Bat, Ann -I love and appreciate you more than you'll EVER know!!

Where to go...

I've got a week long training coming up that I need to take for work and I can't seem to decide which location would be most fun.. Anywhere, by yourself, is boring for 1 full week. For the fall, its offered in Knoxville TN, Atlanta GA and Denver CO. 

Perks for each...

1.) Knoxville---Its only like 2 1/2 hours from Nashville so I could drive over Thursday evening when I finish and spend the entire weekend with my bestie (Olivia) in Nashville.

 

2.) Atlanta-Good shopping, I'm familiar with the town and surrounding areas PLUS...I could DRIVE there and have my own vehicle for the entire week.

 

3.) Denver- This is kinda my top choice right now-Nic thinks he could get off work so he could fly out there with me and basically spend 1 week doing NOTHING while I'm in "schooling" then we could stay a few extra days and white water raft, visit Georgetown, check out Pike's Peak Country, visit Central City & Black Halk and of course, SKI!

 

Georgetown

Located just 42 miles west of Denver, Georgetown is a delightful Victorian village set in a spectacular mountain valley with 200 restored buildings from the 1870’s. The main street has shops and restaurants and many of the old homes have been turned into antique stores. 

Pikes Peak Country

 Pikes Peak Country is located 60 miles south of Denver and features more than 40 attractions centered around 14,000-foot  high Pikes Peak. Things to see include the Air Force Academy, one of three United States military colleges; the famous Broadmoor Resort with its lake and three golf courses; the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame with its exhibits on this exciting professional sport; and Garden of Gods which has gigantic 500-foot high red sandstone rock monuments at the base of Pikes Peak.

 

Central City & Black Hawk

Once called the “Richest Square Mile on Earth”, Central City & Black Hawk are two historic old mining towns from the 1870’s that have come alive. Located 34 miles west of Denver, the two towns offer more than 30 casinos with over 10,000 slot machines, blackjack tables and poker games.The two cities are also known for having some of the best-preserved Victorian architecture in the West.  

I need to book this asap and the training isn't until October. My fear is that I'll book this wonderful Denver trip and then Nic will get caught up with work and not be able to come. Denver alone=BORING!