To Alaska, with love

I miss my mom and dad!

They are in Alaska. And have been since June 1. And will be until the middle of September.

(Mom and Dad, I'm still holding you to your word that you are coming home in the middle of September...)

If you want to see what they've been up to, check out their blog (Litwiller Travels) that is chock-full of wonderful pictures...a few of which are below.


Mom and Dad, I miss you and can't wait to see you again.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere

Wednesday night Taylor was over for supper and I sent her, Meredith and Jesse out to the garden to pick lettuce for salads. Apparently while they were out there Meredith went missing.


Where was she? In my mom's garden picking flowers.

And flowers.

And more flowers.

(Yes, there are 10 little "vases" with flowers in them!)


When they came inside, Meredith got all these little glasses out of my china cabinet and separated and arranged all the flowers in the glasses. All by herself. I didn't even have to tell her which ones she could use.

Mom, I figured you wouldn't mind. Considering you won't be in your garden again until September!

Christmas Cinnamon Rolls

A while ago my mom and I made a cinnamon roll tea ring for our family Christmas breakfast. My mom was in charge of keeping Jesse occupied, and Meredith and I were in charge of making the tea ring.

I took the easy route this year and made dough in my bread machine. I now regret this time-saving decision since the rolls were not nearly as good as the ones that my mom makes. But I guess I'll know for next time...


Yummy butter, sugar, and cinnamon goodness!


Shaping the ring.
Just pretend you don't see my daughter eating raw dough!

It was nice to have my mom there to tell me what to do - this was the first time that I had made a tea ring instead of just making regular rolls.
Not exactly the finished product, but I forgot to take a final picture. So just imagine that these are baked, frosted, sprinkled with red and green sugar, and ready to eat.

9 filled hospital waiting room chairs, 2 McDonalds' drive-throughs, 1 ruptured disc repaired, and a partridge in a pear tree

Yesterday my mom had back surgery in the morning to fix a ruptured disc. Thankfully everything went well, and she is on her way to recovery. She was hoping that she would be able to come home yesterday afternoon or evening, but she wasn't able to. So this afternoon she will be discharged (we think) and will come home to a house full of her children and their families.

We're not really sure how she will feel, but we do know that she won't be able to do anything for the next few weeks while she is recovering. (The "doing nothing" will include no bending or lifting.)

While we certainly aren't happy that mom had to have surgery, we are so very grateful that her pain was something that could be taken care of...that surgery went as well as was expected...that she is able to come home and be with her family...that everyone will be together for Christmas except for my niece who is in service in Sweden...and that we can celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Get well soon, Mom!