Bittersweet Goodbye

These past few days have been so rushed and crazy. If you read my last post I am proud to report...I found my JCPenny receipt! And today I almost forgot to stop by and buy fresh bread for tonight but remembered at the last minute to stop by and get it. And...I am ashamed to admit it, I may have just had to go in a liquor store with Lena to buy a case of coke for tonight. I didn't want to make two stops and the liquor store was right next door to the place I was getting the fresh bread. Anyway, I got it all and the evening was a success!
Yesterday I kept Nic's children while he worked. I took them to McDonald's to play. They are so sweet!
And for dinner I made my Beef Fried Rice. This time I left out the fresh asparagus and added frozen broccoli and peas and water chestnuts...It is sooooo good!!

I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies today and I know Abdelkrim loves cookies so I made him a huge batch. When he was working at the NIH many years ago I would bake cookies and mail them to him! I was kinda frustrated today trying to buy chocolate chips. There are so many different types, cinnamon chips, dark chocolate chips, semi-sweet, caramel, etc. I remember when there were only chocolate chips....oh well. I took home Hershey's chocolate chips.

The recipe on the back called these "Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies." And this was no lie...they were THE BEST cookies I ever made/tasted/baked!! I'm sure the cup of butter had nothing to do with that!!

My pan is old and used...but it holds so many memories. Good ones, bad ones, sad ones... I think I take lots of my frustration out baking! haha!!

Lena and I ended up visiting our stores this afternoon. One store was so swamped it took us an hour before we could visit the manager so we wasted some time in Bath and Body Works. They have amazing deals!! When we walked in Lena said, "Mom, how much do you want to bet we walk out with a bag?" And she was right, we sure did!! How we got it inside without Papa Bear seeing was pretty funny! We never expected him to have both locks locked and he had to open the door for us. Oops #1! So CC walked to the kitchen to try to hide it in the cabinets and he followed her in there to make some water for himself. Opps#2! You should have seen how CC awkwardly hid it by placing her purse in front of it and pretended to do something with her water bottle.

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Anyway, tomorrow is Abdelkrim's last day here. He leaves around lunch time. As always when he comes to visit Papa Bear made lamb shishkebobs for him. It's kind of their tradition. Hence, why I needed coke (for Ab) and fresh bread for our dinner.

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Again we all held hand and said what we are thankful for. This time Ab's camera was working so we were able to record it all! Here are he and and Emil discussing something interesting.

Papa Bear, Abdelkrim and Mommy

Mommy and CC

I realized I didn't have any photos of me and Abdelkrim..so as they were walking out I managed to grab a couple. Please excuse my appearance. I had been running non-stop and now my throat hurts and by the red on my cheeks it looks like my fever was starting!

I just love the look on my Papa Bear's face. He reminds me of my brother...always having to be silly! It always so sad when Ab leaves. We miss him so much. Papa Bear and I want to go visit him this summer.

My sweet little Lena has been saving her money to buy Just Dance. They bought Just Dance 2 a couple of weeks ago but liked the song on Just Dance 1 too, so we loaded us up and went to Wal-Mart to get it. I left my cell phone at home but had my camera in my purse... doesn't she just look thrilled to be taking a picture in Wal-Mart next to the Wii games?

On the way in to Wal-Mart there was this young boy playing the guitar and harmonica and singing. CC thought he was too cute and I told her she was going to take a picture with him...don't you just love when I have my camera with me??? This was her reaction.

And this was Lena's when she saw me take my camera out....

His name is Wilson Donovan and his YouTube (thetruthwasinthere) page is here.

So now we are home and Igor and Stas are here, Lena is in bed, CC is cleaning and I am blogging. I am so ready to go to bed. I can't believe there are only two more days left in this year....time flies by too fast!