She gets it from her mother....

We will always come out on top!  Because, we can!  

Another graduation.....

 Somewhere in a box of photos is more photos of Adam, Taylor and Gavin passing through the school phases with ease. 

 There are more photographs of school programs, plays, and marching band competitions. 

 Even more there are college graduations, and births of new babies... but my heart can't handle all of that tonight. 

 No one tells you the hardest part about becoming a parent... the letting go at all these milestone rites of passage. 

 You know it is a natural process that you are going to teach your child to leave and stand on their own.

 And it is both blissful and heart wrenching at the exact same time. 

 The kids are fine!  And they are thriving! 

 However my time with them is escaping me, and it is like losing air. 

 While I am thankful for one less Woodrow Wilson event.  And while I know that it continues with our grand babies...

 I've got at least one more graduation to get through...

 Middle school is done!  And where the hell did all that time go...

Oh my heart is so with you kids!  A tear drop here for yet another tearing away to the person you are beautifully growing into.  Your futures are so bright!  

Adam, Taylor, Gavin and Macey

you make us so proud!  

You are what we keep going for always!   

Love Pops and Mimi

Aspiring to be the Special Cooker

Cooking has never been my strong suite, so when Paul P showed up with all his culinary talents my world got 100 times better, actually I got spoiled!  Of all the things he brought to the table, including his appliances... it was his cooking that mesmerized me and all of my family, as far away as Maine!  Mamoo, and his grandma taught the Payne boys how to cook!  I could hardly make mac and cheese from a box.

Something that is 2nd nature to him, is a struggle for me. When we started going out I could make a lasagna... it took hours, it dirtied all the dishes... and I made it for him once on one of our first dates.  He ate it, had seconds, and even helped me clean up all the mess.

We use to joke, kind of, that if something happen to him... I would lose my shit in the grocery store.  This was way more true than I wanted it to be!  A few years back we found ourselves in a rut, living in two different house-holds in the same town.  I would call him in the market...asking were to find certain ingredients, and wanting instruction on what some ingredients even were?

I still don't always like to cook... but on the same note I have found that there is something very therapeutic in following a recipe that turns out right and feeds ones soul and body!  So many things in life that you have no control of... but at the stove/oven... you get to adjust and add all the ingredients.

Sometimes we cook together, and recently I find we are competing.

Happy couples are fatter!

Today I roasted my first chicken!  Took three tries!  He helped a little!

It was a good day!

Just waiting for Myrt to step up to the plate...

Game on..

Love that dinner is still an event in the Payne house.

xoxox Sunset Avenue