Eat at Chili's Today and Support Flower Mound/Marcus Hockey

You know you want a good lunch and those crummy leftovers in the fridge just won't do.  And why bother cooking tonight when you can grab an amazing burger at Chili's instead?

Take a day off from cooking and come out to Chili's in Flower Mound (Long Prairie/FM 3040 location only) to support the Flower Mound/Marcus Hockey Club! This is Nicholas' first year to play on their Junior Varsity team and he is loving it.


Chili's will donate 20% of your check between 11am and 9pm TODAY only! If you really want to support the team, you could go out for both lunch AND dinner! Just be sure to tell them you are there to support the FMM Hockey Club!  
We stopped by for lunch today and it was great.  We had to try the Skillet Queso which is a Chili's staple.  It is creamy queso with beef and chili in it.  


The kids both got burgers.  Rachel got the Big Mouth Bites sliders.  It comes with four mini burgers loaded with cheese, bacon, sautéed onions, and homemade ranch sauce.


Nicholas ordered the big honking 1/2 pound Queso burger.  Look at all of that creamy queso oozing out of the burger!  There is also pico and tortilla chips in it!


I tried to order something other than "my usual" but I just couldn't do it.  I ordered the Cajun Chicken Pasta.  My fav!  It comes with penne pasta in a delicious Alfredo sauce topped with grilled chicken, Parmesan, chile spices, tomato, and green onion.


I know I sound like an advertisement for Chili's....and that is my point.  Get off your bottom and head to the FloMo Chili's at Long Prairie and FM 3040 and get yourself some grub.  Be sure to tell your server that you are supporting the Flower Mound/Marcus Hockey team and they will donate 20% of your bill to the team to help out the boys. 


Your belly will thank you and so will the team!

Secret Keeper Girl

Dannah Gresh is the amazing Mom-inventor of Secret Keeper Girl.  The movement began as a book that she wrote called, "Secret Keeper Girl: The Power of Modesty" which is about keeping some special things secret until you find that special man to marry.  Dannah didn't stop with that one book though.  She realized that worldly advertisements and social media were causing anxiety, depression, and even early sexual debut in today's teen girls.  She has since written many more books and even created a live event that tours the country each year to remind girls that they are special and loved by Jesus.


Tonight Rachel and I went to our first Secret Keeper Girl live event.  This year's tour is called Masterpiece. It was an amazing mother-daughter experience.


The event took place at First Denton church and we had to buy tickets in advance.  I took this picture as the show was just starting but soon the seats were pretty full so I would guess that it might have been a sold out event.


The show began with a reading of Genesis and the story of Creation.  The girls were reminded that they are a beautiful creation by a good and loving God.  The theme scripture for the event was Ephesians 2:10 which we recited several times during the night to help us memorize it....sometimes in silly voices, sometimes singing it like an opera singer.


There was some discussion about what a masterpiece is.  We learned about several famous pieces of art, including the Mona Lisa.  We learned how a masterpiece must be protected and preserved because it is special.  The girls were reminded how they are each God's beautiful masterpieces.  It was a powerful message but it was kept fun with lots of singing and dancing.  Many times the girls were allowed to go up on the stage to sing along.


A cute souvenir that many of the girls just "had to have" were the light up flower headbands.  Rachel looked so cute in it that I just couldn't resist getting it for her.  She loves it.


The music performances were great and everyone was singing along.


My favorite part of the night was when they sang "Masterpiece" by Danny Gokey.  It was so perfect for this event and it is one of my favorite songs right now.


We learned about the Truth or Bare Fashion Test that we can use to determine if our clothes are too revealing.  We only covered three of the tests at the event but the website lists several more.  Then we watched a mother-daughter fashion show modeling outfits that were adorable yet modest.

The night ended with an invitation for girls to say a prayer to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  It was such a beautiful event.


If you would like to learn more about Secret Keeper Girl, please check out the Secret Keeper Girl website or follow Secret Keeper Girl on Facebook

Only in Our House

We left the house at 2:00 to head to our weekly park outing with friends.  We came home around 4:30. Nicholas walked into the kitchen and calmly said, "Um, Mom.  The cabinet is on the floor."  I thought surely I misunderstood him.  But no.  


Only in our house could a kitchen cabinet just decide to fall off the wall.  I can't access most of my pictures to find a good one of the cabinet's original position but I was able to find this silly picture with the cabinet in the background.  


It didn't have a lot of weight in it.  It was mostly our food storage containers, some coffee and tea, and our vitamins.  On top of the cabinet was a wine rack which held a few bottles of wine.

Based on the damage, I think the cabinet fell straight down the wall onto the counter top below then fell to the floor.  Amazingly, none of the wine bottles that were on top of the cabinet broke.  None of the glass food storage containers inside the cabinet broke.  None of the glass vitamin bottles inside the cabinet broke.  The main damage was caused when the cabinet hit the countertop and knocked the coffee maker and my new (and oh so perfect) little sugar bowl on to the floor.  They both broke and a few dishes in the sink broke as well.   One side and the back of the cabinet are ruined as well.

How could this have happened?  These cabinets were installed in 2014 as part of the restoration after our Great Flood.  We used a general contractor to do the work and we haven't had many issues with the work that was done.  However, as I looked up at the wall where it had been, I noticed only three screws had been used to hold this cabinet up.  


The two screws in the back wall were screwed into studs but they were not the special cabinet screws that should have been used.  The screw on the side wall was just for show because it was just in the sheet rock and not screwed into a stud at all.  That is useless!  There were no screws anywhere else to hold this cabinet up.  I'm amazed it stayed up as long as it did.  Of course, next we questioned the security of the other hanging cabinets but we can see that they at least have screws going into the wall at both the tops and bottoms of them.

So now we will have to buy a replacement cabinet, find time to install it (ha!), and most importantly, buy a new coffee maker and sugar bowl.  *Sigh*