to all the fabulous moms out there

hope you had a wonderful mother's day. i know i did. we went to the early service at fellowship, then headed out to salina to surprise mom and grandma. with the help of mandy and al, we pulled it off. we showed up just in time for lunch and mom was completely excited to see her grandson. sure, she likes visiting with us, too, but it's all about liam now.

we had a tasty lunch and gave mom her present. now to preface, my mother is an animist. she has a native american religious perspective, and her living room at home is all beautiful native american artwork. back in march, mom gave liam this really cute buffalo hat. colin and i thought it would be hilarious to do a photo shoot of liam in the hat. well, then the idea just grew and here is the finished product:


maybe you need to know our family well to truly appreciate it. we think it's hilarious, and mom immediately went and hung it up on the wall. the print we gave her was the size of a small poster.

the rest of the day was spent lounging outside with mom, mandy, and liam on a blanket looking at the pond. colin and stephen took the little aluminum boat out for the first time in seven years. they had fun paddling around the pond with a broken oar and a shovel. the pond has been dry for years, so it's great to have it back. mom and grandma are talking about stocking it with fish soon. i'm glad that liam will be able to make memories at his grammie's and great granny's house, just like i did.

we stayed in salina for about 4 hours, then headed back to t-town. we stopped and picked up a pizza crust and colin made us vegetarian taco pizza with some TVP. it was better that anything you can get delivered. yum!! the transition to not cooking with meat has been much, much easier than anticipated. also, it's really nice not to have to worry about the germs from handling uncooked meat. colin reports having more energy and sleeping better. i'm finding it easier to cook in general because veggies and their related products cook faster and have similar cooking times. i don't have to worry about anything not being "done" enough. anyway, it's working for us and that's all we care about.

if we come over for dinner, no need to make anything special for us. we are vegetarian for many reasons, but do not want our personal decision to create more work or possible wasted food because of trying to accommodate our choices. our friend bill from fellowship told us that the buddha's view was similar - not to refuse meat when offered by others. it's nice to have some ancient wisdom to back up our feelings. besides, the fried chicken at grandma's sunday was delicious :)