Wonderful Easter Sunday

 I was up at 3:15 am and the roasts in the oven at 3:30 am. Of course I went straight back to sleep and slept until 6:30 am. After downing a cup of coffee woke Mark, grabbed my shower and by 7:05 we were in the car heading to the fellowship hall for the Easter breakfast and service. I didn't record any of the service but should have as it was not recorded and was the most unusual Easter service. The Easter story was told in song, from the cross to the death to the tomb and then the empty tomb. From there we drove to church where Mike Kaisner had the Easter message there. Click HERE to watch that. Church was pretty full so after the service there was much visiting to do. We didn't get home until 11:45 am. I went right to work on pulling the roasts out, getting them sliced, bbq sauce applied and under the broiler. The potatoes were set to boil in the juices of the roast. By 12:45 pm all was done and taken over to the barn. Ruth and Fedi butchered a lamb then roasted it. They brought that ready to slice.

Fedi went right to work slicing it. They had also brought garlic sauce to drip onto the meat. Andrew had the prayer so he and Faith got to go first.

All of the food was amazing.

Gertie brought a fabulous blueberry jello salad. 

The dessert table was laden with delicious sweets.

I'm pretty sure that is one of Bethany and Bill's daughter climbing the pole.

The feast today was well appreciated and so enjoyed.

After supper Berlica took all the children over to the horses and gave rides on Cookie. Joan took Nancy fishing and she came back thrilled with her catch.

No one was in a big hurry to leave except those that had to go to another Easter supper. Lots of visiting went on between the cousins. The last of the families are leaving now.

We got an email from the lady that owns Sheena's very first foal by Valiant. This foal was born May 4th, 2015 and is now 11 years old. His owner writes he is living the best life.

He is pictured below right after birth.

It really was a wonderful Easter Sunday! 

Glad To Be Home

 Mark checked the rain gauge this morning, we had 3 inches of water in that from the last 2 days. The drives really will need to be graded but today everything was just too wet and muddy. I went over to mom's around 8:00 am and had a nice visit then over to the apartment to make sure there were no dead Asian beetles or stink bugs on the floor. I was glad I checked there were a few. The heat was turned up and then it was time to get breakfast cooked. About that time the picture below arrived of a Maderia x Evan colt now grown up.

Below he is just a few weeks old.

He turned out gorgeous! Aldi was next on the list to get some food in our fridge for this next week. Diane sent the picture below just as I was finishing up at Aldi.

I drove straight to mom's to find lots of vans parked. 

They were just about finishing up when I arrived.

Joan and the kids had blown out the eggs and used that for their breakfast casserole this morning. Below are the decorated blown out egg shells.

This way nothing is wasted. I slipped my shoes on and started walking back to the car when I realized the shoes I had on were WAY to loose, looked down and was wearing someone else's tennis shoes. They were Jacob's shoes. No wonder they were too big. My excuse was they are blue and so is mine.

I drove home, put the groceries away, then it was over to the barn to restock and check bathrooms. I found 2 caterpillars on the gym floor that had been stepped on so had to get some cleaning supplies to clean up caterpillar guts. Nasty sticky stuff that turns black if not cleaned up. Mike helped put Disco and Roseberry into the stall barn. The family that are buying Disco booked the foaling apartment to spend time with him. He hasn't been stalled since before weaning but once he is at his new barn will need to be in a stall. Disco was put in one stall then Roseberry was put in the stall across the aisle so they could see each other. They were both given a handful of grain, plenty of hay and just a half of a bucket of water. They were checked on when I got back down to the house. They were both standing quietly.

The family buying him arrived abought 10 minutes later so I went up to show them where he was and how to handle him. They did very well with him but I did check on them through the camera. I was really pleased with how well he behaved and how well they did with him. It is an excellent match.

Then it was time to get to work on the desserts for our Easter lunch. I am just making the roasts, potatoes and one of the desserts. I decided since I have no chocolate Easter candy here to make Reeses chocolate peanut butter eggs. They didn't look as beautiful as the picture of the recipe but they tasted ok.

I made 4 dozen of those.

I had left over almond bark and pretzels so made a batch of those too.

The roasts were taken out of the fridge, seasoned and wrapped well. I have 5 of these 

nice size roasts that will be cooked tomorrow.

Below they are in the fridge and hopefully will be put in the oven at 225 degrees around 4:30 am.

We are eating our meal at 1:00 pm and I want them to cook very very slowly.

This evening the kids brought the supper to the barn. Nolan had smoked 20 pounds of fresh pork roast and had lots of pulled pork with a four different sauces to go with that. The pork was so tender and delicious it didn't need any but I did put a little on some just to try and that was also delicious. They had lots of side dishes to go with the pork. I think we all ate a little too much. I still need to clean up the kitchen before going to bed. Today was cold, windy and damp. Such a change from Gulf Shores but I'm glad to be home. 

Home James

 We were up at 4:00 am, packed and on our way home by 5:30 am.  This trip went much better than the trip coming down. We pulled in at our house at 10:01 pm just 16.5 hours after leaving Gulf Shores. Mark named his car Fred so instead of saying "Home James" we really should say "Home Fred." Fred did very well taking us home until we got near our house. For some reason Fred wants to take us all the way back to Hanna City.

Another Perfect

 Mark went out early to walk but instead of walking I sat down by the pool to finish the book I've been reading. 

The title really should have been when religion kills It really did open my eyes and brain to why religion without the truth goes so very wrong. Jesus really did turn the world upside down. Christians are the only ones who are to pray for their enemies and as they are being killed can pray, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." If you want to be great in GOD'S kingdom you really do need to learn to be a servant. This book is written by a self proclaimed atheist yet even he admits to praying to God when in trouble and also admits when he sees amazing beauty in creation his heart wonders. The sun broke through the clouds just as I finished the book.

We made arrangements with David and Stephanie to borrow their children for lunch. Israel had been wanting to go to the Throwed Rolls Restaurant (Lamberts) so we left at 11:00 am to go for lunch so we wouldn't have to wait in a line. We got right in, ordered quickly and about then the rolls started flying.

Elisabet caught her's too. She decided to wrap it up and take it home.

The food came pretty quickly. I had ordered the special which was smoked chicken for $18.00.

Before I even took one bite the pass-a-rounds started coming and they put a a big spoon full of fried potatoes and onions next to the coleslaw and yes we each got a roll and had some molasses dripped on it. The kids each ordered a child's meal, Elisabet the chicken fingers and Israel a cheese burger. Those also came with 2 sides and both ordered fries and peaches. Kids meals are $10.00 each and also come with a drink. Mark just ordered a side salad. Our bill including tax and tip was $59.00 for the 4 of us and we brought home enough for 2 more meals. As we were getting ready to leave the rolls started flying again so each child caught another, wrapped them up in a napkin and carried them out to the car. As soon as we got home we changed into our suits and walked back over to the beach. Israel joined his baseball friends and they went first to the pool while Elisabet played on the beach until Anna and Kattie took her to the pool to play with Kattie's girls. They soon were back on the beach. Israel was skim boarding with a friend.

Elisabet and Bexley were busy catching live shells and carrying water back to watch them open.

Israel's group put down the skim boards, grabbed the boogie boards and were back in the water boogie boarding.

They were catching some great rides all the way in to the beach. It just seemed like another perfect day. We are leaving for home tomorrow morning so I went back to the condo and am getting all of the laundry and packing done tonight. Mark took the car to the Warf and got it all charged up for our trip.

Mike went to Middle Grove and brought back Cookie and Star. He sent back the picture below.

Spring Break

 Mark was up before 4:00 am and I tried to sleep in but finally got up at 4:30 and started the coffee. I don't have a view of the sunrise nor the sunset in this condo but could tell when the the sky started to light up. 

David and Elisabet walked over to the beach to watch the sunrise. David sent back the 2 pictures below:

I walked over to Diane's condo bringing a few supplies over for later. Her condo is perfectly suited for a family that loves the beach and the pool.

Above I am sitting on her deck looking out toward the beach and below I turned the camera over to the pool area.

Phil and Anna arrived around 8:00 am after driving all night so Mark and I gave them our condo and we moved over to Diane's until they were able to check into theirs. Soon everyone ended up on the beach. The waves were great for boogie boarding and we watched the kids do that for hours. 

Mark and I decided to go into town for lunch and decided to try the food truck 'Rouses had outside their store. We were kind of hoping for fish but they were selling pulled pork or some kind of southern sausage with rice and beans. Each dinner cost $5.50 so we decided to try.

Below Mark is ordering,.

We took it into Rouse's to eat in their diner.

The rice and beans were bland but the sausage was spicy enough, if mixed it was ok. We wasted a lot of the rice and beans but went home no longer hungry. We stopped at Walmart to pick up potato salad for our dinner tonight. At 3:00 pm I started the dinner. Mark was going to grill steaks and those needed to be seasoned. The onions sliced and sauteed, the mushrooms also sauteed in butter, the salad mixed up then everything packed in the cooler we keep in the car. We drove to David and Stephanie's condo as the grill at that condo association worked well last night. David helped carry the food over to Phil and Anna's condo where they had plenty of room for us to eat inside and even had enough silverware that we each got a steak knife, fork and spoon. Ours and David's is sorely lacking in that department. Why I'm pretty sure at David's they only have 3 spoons. Phil rented at Island Royale and ended up on the very top floor. After a delicious supper we adults went out on the balcony to watch the kids playing ball on the beach.

They were much to far down for us to be able to see what they were doing.

I zoomed all the way in.

News from home is Zion caught a huge bass in the pond at their new house.

Rhoda took Zeek for a walk in the woods and he found treasure!

I'm sure glad everyone is having a good time on Spring break both home and in Alabama. Today was such a nice day.