In July 1987, I turned 18, and this is a gift my mom gave me for my birthday.  I had just graduated from high school, and was eagerly anticipating my freshman year at BYU, where I had plans to live in Heritage Halls with my cousin (for those of you not well-versed in the BYU Freshman Experience, Heritage Halls are the apartment-like dorms that have their own kitchens).  Since I was going to be doing my own cooking, my mom had gone through her recipe files and typed a bunch of my favorites on 3x5 cards, then organized them in this little blue box.

Nearly 26 years later (wait--can that be right?  Whoa!), this little blue recipe box is still my go-to for my favorites.  I've added to it over the years (usually with recipes from Mom), but it is still  full of these little, 26 year-old typed cards.  Every time I pull one out, I imagine my mom at the desk in our den, carefully rolling these little cards into her old wheezing beast of an electric typewriter, figuring out the spacing (a magnificent feat, in my book), and typing away.  A couple of cards have White-Out on them--those always make me smile.

You can see that in the 26 years since I got this, I've used it a lot.  There are remnants of cooking successes and failures all over the outside of this grubby little box (and several of the cards), and the lid has long since become its own entity.  But, somehow I can't seem to make myself clean it up or--heaven forbid!--replace it.  Someday, when I die, somebody is going to find this little box in my cupboard, just as it is, or probably even more grimy.  If nothing else, it will be proof that I did cook once in a while. 

Or, more importantly, that my Mommy loved me.

Something I am really loving about springtime in Texas is all the wild flowers growing randomly in the fields.

Seriously, is there anything more romantic?

(As an added bonus, I got not one, but TWO, drive-by cat-calls when I was by the side of the road taking these photos.  Officially, I'm offended, but if we're being honest...well...*giggle*.)

Question:  Is there anything better than watching the smarmy TV character you love to hate fall down the stairs in a tantrumy huff?

Answer:  No there is not.  Thank you Mad Men for totally making my night.

Watch Pete Campbell take his tumble here.

WARNING:  This is going to be a Mama-Brag post.

Today at Lukie's T-ball game, he earned the MVP award because he got all three outs in one inning,  He was playing third, and twice he caught the hit and tagged his base, and once he caught the hit and tagged the runner.  Let me remind you that THIS HAPPENED IN A T-BALL GAME, and T-ball is the sport in which it is most common for both teams to score the five-run limit before they end the inning.  In other words, there are almost never any outs.  And Lukie GOT THREE IN ONE INNING.

Yeah.  It was amazing.

Last night after work, Brad was feeling kind of blue.  Nothing major, just a case of the Mid-week Blahs.  So, he spent a good part of the evening on the iPad, dinking around the internet and just sort of indulging in whatever struck his fancy.

When he came to bed, he handed me the iPad so I could plug it into the charger.  That is when I saw the last site he'd been fantasizing about:

 Oh, how I love this man.

Apparently, pride goeth before the fall.

After my smug post yesterday about the beautiful Texas weather, we had a cold front move in today--cold enough that all the kids' sports practices were cancelled.

So, we stayed home, had pancakes for supper, and roasted marshmallows.

Also awesome.

I understand that it snowed today in Utah.

How sad.