Special Friends

Recently our dear friends Jim and Judy came to west Texas for a visit. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and making memories.


Judy and I almost always exchange “Happies” when we see each other. It’s just a fun way for us to express our love for each other. It’s usually just something fun or sentimental. This visit Judy brought me a wonderful bottle of balsamic vinaigrette. It is really special and you will know why when you see it.

Always nice to have something with your name on it.
It’s not often that God blesses our lives with people who aren’t relatives but are definitely family. Our friends Jim and Judy are such people. In 1995 my husband Tim and I went to Lafayette LA to spend a weekend away. We were at the tourist information center when we ran across a brochure for some of the cutest little cottages I’ve ever seen. I asked Tim if we could just ride over and see what it looked like in person for future reference. He agreed and we went out to Country Oakes in Breaux Bridge, LA.

Interestingly there was a cottage available for the weekend. We decided to book it and spend our weekend there. As we were leaving our cottage for dinner the owners(Jim and Judy no longer own Country Oakes B&B)invited us to join them for lunch the next day. We accepted and that was the beginning of our relationship. Jim and Judy adopted us that day as well. They have shown constant care and concern for our entire family. It was so special to me this visit to observe the way they both inquired and showed genuine interest in our daughter Bethany and her upcoming wedding. They sat and listened with undivided attention as she shared every detail. They were here when Bethany’s wedding dress arrived and based on the level of excitement they showed you would have thought she was there daughter.


I thank the Lord for putting them in our lives. When we moved to Texas almost twelve years ago, I was concerned about how we would maintain our relationship with so much distance between us. I should have known. Jim and Judy have made every effort to stay in touch as well as come for regular visits. It is rare for us to go to LA for a visit without including them in our itinerary. Every time we visit their love and care for us is apparent. Their passion for the Lord and each other is contagious. I thank God that He so sovereignly crossed our paths all those years ago. I’m not sure who we would be today without their influence and love in our lives. Thank you Jim and Judy for Making Memories with us.

We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to Edie Sanders! You are the winner of the Sacred Influence Book! Thank you all so much for signing my book and keep reading because we will have more drawings coming soon. Edie, I will put the book in the mail to you right away.
Making Memories, Maime

Lawn Mower Cupcakes

I’m sure all of you have already thought up a wonderful treat for your Fathers this Fathers day but just in case you haven’t, I thought I would share a cute idea from Family Fun Magazine’s June/July issue. Mary, Julia and I spent an evening making these sweet lawn mower cupcakes. We had a great time! They tasted wonderful and are simple to make.

For each, mix a handful of flaked coconut with a few drops of green food coloring. Press a chocolate-frosted cupcake into the coconut to cover. The mower is made with a dark chocolate Hershey’s Nuggets body, brown M&M’s wheels, and a red M&M’s engine, held in place with dabs of frosting. Shape the handle from a piece of black licorice lace, then insert the ends into the cupcake.

Julia really enjoyed the licorice

Things started getting a bit messy

Time to put the bib on

We had a great time but...

All good things must come to an end. Julia definitely knows what all done means.
Making Memories, Maime

Sacred Influence

Thank all of you who have signed my guest book. It’s so fun to get to see your beautiful faces! Let me share a little bit about the book “Sacred Influence by Gary Thomas.” The subtitle is “How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands” which was revised in a more recent printing to “What a Man Needs From His Wife To Be The Husband She Wants.”
Here is an excerpt from Gary’s introduction:

I believe God has heard your prayers, and I know he sees your pain. I further believe that, since he designed marriage, you should look first to him about how you can best encourage inspire, challenge, and appropriately influence the man you married. God wants you to feel loved, to be noticed, and to be cherished. He didn’t create you and cast you adrift on a sea of happenstance, catching the tear you might be shedding this very moment at the thought of a God so involved in your life that he put your thoughts on paper for you to read.
But be forewarned! Your husband isn’t the only imperfect person in your relationship. You also contribute sin every day. We are all sinners, and you can be sure that God desires to work on your own heart every bit as much as he desires to have greater influence in your husband’s life. In keeping with this perspective, this book will present some serious challenges for you to be moved as well – closer to God and closer to your husband.

I recently completed a seventeen week study of this book with seven young women and I believe all of our lives were impacted in some way by the Biblical Truth Gary Thomas brought to us.

I know all of you can’t win a copy so if you don’t win the drawing, be sure to get the book and read it anyway. You will be challenged. I will share more about how the book challenged me personally very soon at Grace-Works (elainerusso.blogspot.com). Don’t forget to sign my guest book so I can enter your name in the drawing on June 22!

Making Memories, Maime


Here are a few pictures from the Bar-B-Q we had with our families at the end of our book study!

Drawing

Be a star in my show, and sign my guest book. If you put your picture on the big screen before June 22nd I will enter your name in a drawing for the book " Sacred Influence" by Gary Thomas. I will blog later about the book.
Making Memories Maime

Experiences

I had two first time experiences today:
My first was a Mountain Dew. Yes, that's right, I don't remember ever drinking an entire Mountain Dew before (I don't really care for the taste) and boy, have I missed out! I realize now why some people sip on them constantly. I felt like someone hooked me up to an electrical outlet and I just couldn't find the off switch! That's why I'm still up this evening. I had more energy today than the energizer bunny! It was great because I got quite a bit done but honestly I don't think me or my family could handle this energy level on a regular basis. If I ever decide to drink one of those energy drinks that I see people downing all the time, I bet I would just fly right on up to Jesus!

My second new experience was the sweetest, tightest hug from Julia when she awoke from her nap. Today was the first time that I really knew that I was special to her. The timing was perfect. When Tim and I kept her for Benj and Mary's date night this week, she cried when Tim left the room. I thought it was a coincidence so I made him leave again and she cried again until he came back. Well, she hasn't ever cried when I left the room. Anyway, I was feeling a bit of competition. The whole "she loves me best" kind of stuff. Well, needless to say, Julia has enough love for all of us. Yesterday, I was at her house when she awoke from her nap and when I went in the room and picked her up out of her crib, she gave me the biggest smile that said "I love you Maime" and the longest tightest hug that said " I'm so glad you are here". Now that was a first for me and boy did it make my day! And don't you think for one minute that I imagined it because I was under the influence of Mountain Dew.
Making Memories,
Maime


Don't you just want to kiss those chubby cheeks?

Annual Family Camping (Cabining)Trip

May has been an exceptionally busy month and somehow we managed to squeeze in a family vacation. I read years ago that if you want to bond with your family, you should spend time camping. Tim and I started camping with our girls when they were very young. Some of our first camping adventures have left indelible marks in my memory. Truly, each trip holds its own when it comes to memories. There are myriad choices when planning a family vacation but by far camping has been the most restful and memory making experience for our family. This year Tim and I chose Lake Brownwood State Park as our destination. Though most of our camping has either been by tent or RV, this year we chose the Fisherman’s Lodge. Ironically, it was available (It books up a year in advance). The reason we chose a lodge was because of our new granddaughter, Julia. The West Texas heat would not be a pleasant experience for an eight month old with out a cool place to retreat to. I might add that her Maime loved using her as an excuse to stay inside. You would not believe the chore it is to get the schedules of eight adults synchronized! Once that is out of the way, everything else is a breeze. During our respite, when one of my daughters thanked me for all the hard work that went into the weekend, I realized that it wasn’t hard at all. My mind reeled back to the days of packing camping gear, linens, food, clothes and everything else for a family of six for three or four days away from home. I remember being exhausted by the time we got where we were going, only to be faced with setting up camp and preparing meals for everyone. Camping trips for me in those days were quite the chore. I would arrive home after our “vacation” really needing a vacation. Everything has changed so much! My family has grown to the point where everyone packs for themselves and pitches in with everything else. I am only responsible for communicating the details to everyone; the menu and whatever goes along with preparing meals including grocery shopping; a few fun activities; and of course getting a “Happy” for everyone.” This year we all took turns preparing meals and cleaning up after. There is much to be said about adding son-in-laws to the mix. Benjamin and our soon to be son-in-law John Ryan sure did make things a lot easier for Tim. It’s so nice that he doesn’t have to do all the blue jobs alone anymore. I would have to say that this particular camping trip was by far one of my favorites. I’m not sure why, but I have speculated that having adult children who take so much responsibility for what goes on around them has made my role much easier and less motherly. I enjoyed so much having conversation with the girls in the morning, in my pajamas, while drinking coffee on the porch; the sweet smile of Julia as she greets the new day; doing whatever, whenever; laughing my head off at the male humor and male sounds in such large doses; and just being with my family without interruption.Camping (or cabining as we have decided to call it) is definitely a bonding experience.


Playing Horseshoes, I wonder who won?



Just taking it easy....



Julia sitting on Aunt Beka in her swimsuit without a diaper. Oops! What happened?



Keeping the little Boogie Bear out of the sun!



Bringing home the fish!



Bethany and John Ryan preparing a delicious meal!



Mary and her preoccupation with smores



Rusky and Ju-G fighting over the hat guess who won?


And the winner is.........



Cooking up the cakes!



Movie under the stars! WE ARE MARSHAL



The winning picture for Julia's funny faces!

I thought it might be beneficial to some of you younger moms to have copies of my schedule, menu, and fun activities. Why reinvent the wheel? If you are interested just email me and I will be happy to share all the details with you.
Making Memories, Maime