Charles in Charge

This is one of my favorite Charlie faces. Sometimes he does it because he's upset, but he also does it to make people laugh. One night this week, my dad told him, "Don't furrow your brow!" Charlie goes, "Don't furrow brow!" It was hilarious. It's so funny to hear him say sentences. Now, every time he makes that face he'll go, "Don't furrow!"

Here's the newest addition to the John Flynn fam:

This car is replacing (sniff) the Vibe. I LOVED that car. Unfortunately, a month ago some guy was standing in the middle of the freeway directing traffic. Some luggage had fallen off his car, so he was trying to pick it up. Well, this lead to a lot people braking suddenly, and John ran into one of those people. I don't really want to talk about this, because I'm still bitter about it. I did not like using that car. But our new car drives way better and it's an '08 with not many miles on it. Not to mention our car payments are $100 less now, so it turned out well in the end. I guess.

This week was really crazy. The main thing that happened was I helped out with a birthday party for Donna Blackburn. She is seriously the most kind, sweet and fun person ever. I have never heard a negative word come from her mouth. For the past year and a half, her husband has been serving as Branch President in a tiny branch in South Pittsburgh (which is an hour away). Even though they are technically still in our branch, she never gets to see anyone. My mom had the idea to throw her a birthday party so she could see everyone. Since I'm her visiting teacher, I made most of the food. I made a huge chicken salad and cupcakes. Chicken salad is usually served with a rolls, but my mom, of course, didn't want to do that. She always has to do something different . . . good thing I didn't inherit that (um, that was sarcasm if you couldn't tell!) So I had the idea to serve the chicken salad with toasted bread (EVOO, salt and pepper on both sides for 7-8 minutes at 400 degrees), sort of like a bruschetta. It was definitely a hit. Here's the recipe, although I would suggest leaving out the water chestnuts. There's plenty of crunch with the almonds and celery. I'm just a water chestnut hater--they taste like nothing! Another tip: for amazing vanilla cupcakes, add one teaspoon of almond extract (the real stuff, no imitation) to one box of cake mix. Then, add a tiny bit to the frosting (I've only done this with homemade frosting, so I'm not sure if it'll work with canned). Unfortunately, I couldn't eat any of the stuff I made, but I heard it was good!

So this is a giant card I made for Donna. I apologize for this picture. I look like a total dork. John took the picture and he always makes me nervous, so I wind up making stupid faces. He's really bossy when he has a camera! It's like he thinks he's a professional photographer or something . . . Just ignore my stupid face and look at the cute card!

Donna was so excited about this party and I think she had a great time. I got the Primary, Youth and RS to sign the big card and I think she was more excited about that than anything. It's always such a pleasure to serve someone who you know needs it, and appreciates it. Opportunities like this are rare, so I'm glad I got to participate in this one.

Oh, and to all you former Signal Mountain people, if you didn't already hear, Hannah Collins (formerly Blackburn) is having a baby! She looks so cute with a baby bump. I didn't ask for a picture, because I remember how self-conscious I was when I was pregnant. I didn't want any pictures of me pregnant. But somehow, someone coerced me into taking some . . . Amber! Grrr . . . Anyway, that will be the cutest baby ever, I swear . . .

And for some glorious news: Charlie has gone 3 days without a bottle! This is a miracle, for sure. I know he's super old for that . . . but it's been rough. We had him almost off it four months ago, then he was just sick off and on since then. Really, it wasn't just him that needed weaning . . . John and I needed it just as much! It's just so much easier to stick a bottle in his mouth to get him to go to sleep. Plus, he was very attached to it. I couldn't breastfeed him (medical reason - don't judge me), so the bottle is all he knew. But, he's been very cooperative this week. I think he's just growing up. We had our first real meal out together today. We all went to Chick-fil-a, and Charlie had chicken nuggets and fries. It was so cute to watch him feed himself.

Move over, Puxatawney Phil, General Beauregard Lee (the South's groundhog--as if you couldn't tell from the name) has spoken! The South is getting an early spring. It was in the 60s yesterday, today and it's supposed to be all week. Spring, glorious, Spring in the South! Guess we'll be hitting the playground hard this week . . .