Days of My Life

Mitch Rapp

2012-02-17T21:18:00.003-06:00

If any of Vince Flynn's books become movies....I was trying to figure out who could play Mitch Rapp. I ran across this fella on Pinterest. He might work. Either him or some one that hasn't been discovered yet. His latest book seems to go into more detail about his black hair and black eyes...so I don't know of many famous actors that have those features.

And....I really wish I had never ran across Pinterest. I know my daughter warned me it was a huge time waster....but..I never knew how much time I would waste looking at stuff...I will never own....or food I will never make...or well..all of it. But it is a good way to just veg-out if you can limit the time spent there.

MRI

2012-02-16T19:59:00.003-06:00

photo from How Things Work site

Today I went in for an MRI on my right knee. It was not unpleasant at all. It took about 30 minutes or more, but they give you a warm blankie, a panic button to hold, earplugs, and headphones with music choices from Pandora. I choose Adele, but only heard 2 of her songs. If I have another one...I think I may ask for Gregorian Chants or maybe some Enya. At one point...something about one of the songs caused me to tear up (I have been doing that a lot lately) and I realized I could not wipe the tears away because you can't move. While I was lying there I thought about writing a poem...but after it was all over...I forgot what ever it was that I was thinking about. I have been suffering lately with panic attacks again....and wondered if I would be able to get through this..but I did...and it was fine. No attacks. Whew. I am hoping the MRI will tell us what is wrong with the knee...and that it can be fixed.. so that I can start exercising a little more again. As it is right now...if I stand on it for more than an hour it swells up and is very painful. Sometimes, I have trouble sleeping because I can't find a comfortable position.

I still have not heard about my blood tests that I had a couple of weeks ago. It usually doesn't take this long for the results...so I will have to call the office and see what happened. I went to the nurse practitioner for my annual checkup this time...and she gives me the feeling she has a fear of touching people. It is just not what I am used to. When she places the stethoscope on me...I can not feel it touching me. Maybe she has dog hearing. Also when she touched my ankles...I could not feel her touch. Very strange. Maybe she just "thought" the results to me and I didn't catch the vibes.... Ok...I know I am being a smart ass....so forgive me....I am just practicing how to speak more directly...and not hold things inside. My self diagnosis of my panic attacks...is that I don't verbalize my feelings in the right way. Also...negativity from the news...etc. tends to tighten my muscles up...and before I know it...my body is in a ball of tight knots. I am hoping to get away for a few days so that I can just chill out and do some meditating. I have been searching on line for some silent retreats. I think those are usually done with a group...but I am just looking for myself...and have not found any place that is just for a single person for a couple of days. Off to do some more searching....

If anyone reads this post...let me know if you have trouble reading it with this template. I am wondering if that background is too distracting.

Man Flu...who knew???

2012-02-15T14:52:00.001-06:00

I never browse around on You Tube, and the only time I see things there.. are when I have been directed there... through someone else. I saw this on Dana's blog the other night...and laughed hysterically. You know how sometimes...when you have been kinda bummed out or just not feeling all that chipper and then all of a sudden....something hits your funny bone...and you just can't stop the hysterical laughing....well...that was me the other night when I saw this.

I just had to add that my husband rarely.. if ever gets sick and if he does he goes about his business as usual . He has never missed work...that I remember.. or any other activity or commitment because of illness. I on the other hand....have had this man flu...even though they Say women can't catch it. I caught it somewhere.....

Happy Birthday Bob

2012-02-15T11:06:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was Bob's birthday and we had our little family here to celebrate.

I had baked the cakes earlier and let them cool.

Maddie and Kayla helped Mom ice them and decorate them.

All other photos of the evening...were very...non-posed. Little Kayla was not feeling well. It sounds like her croup is back.

I know that Bob appreciates his family being with him on his Birthday and holidays...more than big parties and presents. Bob and Bobby and Brian watched hockey. Couldn't tell you if they won or not...but I over heard a lot of guy talk about hockey...

BEST GRAMMY AWARD SHOW EVER...

2012-02-12T23:01:00.002-06:00

Wow...I can not believe how much I enjoyed the Grammy's this year. There were so many performers that are from my youth. I felt like I was having a party at the nursing home and rocking out with Sir Paul at the end. Wow...wow.....WOW!

Tony Bennett can still sing as good as he did when he was young. How can that be?? I thought singers lost their ability to sing certain notes as they aged. Maybe that is more for the singers who hit a lot of notes...like the very talented Adele..who was "Rolling in The Deep" with Awards.

The Beach Boys singing with Adam Levine was a real treat also. I can still remember listening to them in my room as a teen. Their songs seem kind of corny by today's standards, but I still love them.
I was really hoping that Stevie Wonder would have kept going with his harmonica. And the commercials were really creative! There were just a few parts of the show that I could have done without...but now I have to see how I can get a copy of it. And enjoy it all again! Great show.

Arch

2012-02-12T14:24:00.001-06:00

Bob and I went to Barnes and Noble for coffee and some browsing. Boy...was it ever crowded! The first store we went to was so crowded we had to leave. Books stores are still very popular here...in spite of the closings of some stores. We relocated over to the Chesterfield store and were able to sit at a nice comfy table. I have been wanting to go to the St. Louis Anselm Parish for awhile now, because Bob had gone a few times and told me about the architecture. I thought it was really beautiful. It was a different experience for me. The inside was a circle...with the altar in the middle. The arches let in a lot of natural light. Bob reminded me of how many of our structures have arches...aside from the obvious one. The St. Louis Arch.

These photos were taken by Bob during prior visits.

Our old Busch Memorial Stadium had arches at the top to compliment our Gateway to The West Arch.

The photo below is of Lambert Airport. I got the photo from Wiki Commons. Look at the older cars. This was taken in the 70's or early 80's.

The picture below is a Monastery in Portugal.

I found a few more interesting photos of arches around the world..but blogger is not cooperating right now...so maybe another time. Also...my little kitty keeps trying to put her 2 cents in by playing with the keyboard and mouse....

Shades of Grey

2012-02-10T15:39:00.001-06:00

We have grey skies here is Missouri today. Rainy and cool. I have stayed at home for the most part doing some mailings for charity this morning and watching TV. I watched CNN and the CPAC coverage. It is so hard for me...at my age..to listen to anyone running for office with a naive mind...and rally behind them with excitement. Candidates get built up... just to go into office and get knocked down. Their hair turns gray in a matter of months...they look unhealthy. But...I guess somebody has to do it. After I finished watching that...I browsed through my facebook account and saw an interview with Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer who are both nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in "The Help". I think I saw things in that movie that most people just didn't see. Or at least I wonder...if anyone else saw it the way I did. I read the book and watched the movie... feeling like the story was more about relationships and the way we treat each other. Yes... the story is set in the early 60's , a time that I lived in, and remember. I remember the prejudice and separations of the races and the injustices that were done. If I had my way....those things never would have been allowed...but they were. But...that being said...many women through the ages have been "The Help". They have been White, Black, Chinese, Mexican, German, Irish, etc...etc. My Mom used to take in ironing, and clean homes. So did I. I remember during my early 20's I went with a friend to polish silver at a very wealthy and well known family here in St. Louis. My friend cleaned weekly for them and they needed extra help with the silver. I wanted to go with her because I was nosy and wanted to see the big mansion. As soon as I got there...I was treated like a piece of crap. My friends employer. talked to my friend about me...as if I were not there. She started telling Lucy...SHE is not allowed to touch..this..this..and that.....blah blah blah. I don't really remember what all she said...too long ago. But you get the picture. There are plenty of "Hilly Holbrooks" in the world. And....boy did I find out some dirt on the way this well known wealthy family lived. Not scandalous things...but just the way they treated people and what they left around for The Help to pick up after their lazy asses.
I think I just got side tracked about what I was going to originally write about today....and that is...my views (political) (moral) whatever are not always either Black or White. I see things in shades of grey. There is usually a circumstance, event, reason, whatever...that just doesn't always fall into the either/or category. Just my opinion...and my style I guess.
I leave you with my latest photo, taken by my daughter, of our grayish kitten. Have a great weekend!

Happy Dance!!!

2012-02-06T12:36:00.002-06:00

Thank you...thank you...thank you...Kat for explaining how to trim cat's nails. I went out and got some clippers and the whole thing took about 1 minute and she was so good about it. I am sooooo excited to have found out how EASY this was. No declawing for our little girl! Kat...you rock!

Waterpool

2012-02-05T19:54:00.000-06:00

Our little kitty is adapting pretty well. We still keep her upstairs for the most part...but there are plenty of places for her to explore, play and rest. She is being spoiled...by me...with a new toy whenever I go out to the store. She still has her claws, but I made an appointment for her Friday to get her front ones out. I still wonder if I am doing the right thing...but she has really left some painful scratches on me. I know she doesn't mean to and she is just being affectionate...but with my aging skin being so thin and sensitive....I feel like I may have to. She has scratching post and most people think those should be enough...but those thumbs. (?) ..those are really sharp and long.
After the fight with the neighbors about the cats...I decided to call animal control and go ahead and trap the others that were outside. I left the two that she owns for her to deal with. Animal control works with them and if they are able to tame them...finds them homes with the help of the Humane Society and Pet Finders...maybe a few more organizations. I know we bought our last dog, Clifford, through Pet Finders. He was pretty much a perfect dog for us for many years. A real member of our family. His lose was very very hard on me. I really did not want another pet to become attached to at our age....but...this little kitten stole my heart once again. Something I really did not consider though...is that she could live 20 years and in 20 years we will be 80. Well.....that is a depressing thought...but we never really know what the next day will bring us...much less the next 20 years. Que Sera Sera.....
Waterpool seems to love everyone though. If you pet her gently she is in heaven....
Superbowl day....blah. Don't care for football. But I know there are lots of people who do! So hope your team wins!
PS...still working on my election for President. Ha

Health Insurance

2012-01-30T19:39:00.002-06:00

I have been one of the lucky ones to have had decent insurance for the past 35 years. Something has changed in the past couple of years and it is making me want to find out why. I have been covered under my husband's employer for most of our marriage, but he has had to pay for my coverage for the past several years. I think for most of the years it was pretty reasonable....under $300 a month. This past year, they were going to charge around $800 a month for my coverage. I decided to search around for a cheaper plan. I found one, Aetna, that charges $358 a month. They have a very impressive web site that is really good at trying to simplify the process. I was a little afraid to apply, because of my age...not so much my health issues. I did not get the plan I wanted though...which was a lower deductible ($2500). They would only give me the $5000 deductible policy. Their reason for this...was not my age...surprising to me. It was because I am not the correct weight for my height, reflux disease(Prilosec), hernia, sleep disorder (low dose medication), High Blood pressure (requires no medication), Mental or Nervous Disorder (anti-depressant). I go to my regular Dr. once a year for an annual checkup. I did have the Barrett's esophagas diagnosed about 6 years ago with a follow up endoscopy that found no further damage since the last diagnosis.   He blew up my stomach while doing the procedure because he suspected an ulcer or something in my stomach. His diagnosis was acute gastritis and a hiatus hernia. The only treatment for the gastritis was for him to double and maybe triple the dose of prilosec. If that didn't help...he said surgery. What kind...I don't know. I didn't ask. I don't like him and wasn't going back to him anyway. The sleep disorder was because I was taking a low dosage of Xanax for a good nights sleep. And I have been taking an antidepressant for anxiety. The high blood pressure is just at a level that goes up and down and does not require medication. All in all....I think my health is not bad for a 60 year old.
So...I started using the new insurance this past week. I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prilosec that the Dr. gave me a refill for 90 days. The pharmacist clerk said it was $360 and the antidepressant was going to be $250. That is over $500 for meds to last 3 months. The insurance refused to pay for it because it was for twice a day.   I refused to buy it. First of all...what in the devil is in this medicine to cause it to be so damn expensive. I can get prilosec at the store for $156 for three months...but the pharmacy wants to charge $350 for it? Also...I am reconsidering if it even pays to have insurance at all. I found out today that my insurance does not cover specialist at all...until you have met your $5000 deductible. If we pay $358 a month...that totals to $4296 a year...plus the $5000 deductible. If I had a paying job...that would take up most of what my pay would be. Does that make sense?? Not to me. Something is very wrong with the insurance companies. I think they are totally ripping people off....and have been for a very long time. And I am mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore! The stupid nonsense legal crap that our government has gotten by with for so long needs to come to a halt also. The bills that get passed are so long and complicated with legal mumbo jumbo....I just don't understand how they get away with all this. So....I have decided to run for President. I promise to rewrite most of the laws so that they are in a very simple Granny style language. I don't want any body guards...and I don't want to live in the White House. The White House can just be for touring purposes. I refuse to hob nob with other countries. I don't want their expensive gifts and I don't want to pay for their visits here. I don't want to visit them either. I have too much work to do here... trying to focus on our country. All prisons will be working prisons, where they earn their keep. They will all be given a stray cat and asked to tame it in 3 months. The love they will receive from doing this will reform their hearts and souls and they may go back into society at a quicker rate. If anyone in Congress tries to pull a fast one on me or disrespects, deceives, lies, cheats or steals....they will be go to prison and be locked up with 20 stray cats that are hungry thirsty and mad. AND...this is the best one.....all Moms that want to stay at home with their children and raise them until they go off to college, will be paid an annual salary of $70,000. After all they may be birthing and raising our next President and right now his salary is $400,000 with all kinds of extras that go into the millions. I will not require that high of a salary. I only want to be paid for my accomplishments. They will be rated at a package price per accomplishment. The list of what I would like to change is very long.....and if you have managed to get down this far on this very long rant...you must have too much time on your hands. I will be surprised if this gets one comment.....he haw....signing out now......Granny K...
PS   I am too tired to proofread this right now. Corrections to follow later.

And the winner is.......

2012-01-28T18:19:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading The Help and really loved it. I have the film on order from Netflix and can't wait to see it. I have seen the list of the nominees for the Oscars this year and don't know anything about the other films, but I hope this film wins. I was shocked to find out that this was Kathryn Stockett's first published book. It took her five years to write it...but I thought it was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I read mostly novels, and I read one after another. The ones that are really good...in my opinion... are the ones that leave me thinking about them for days afterwards. I usually enjoy watching Award Shows. I like the red carpet part the best. Just to see all the dresses, etc. I started watching the Golden Globes a few weeks ago...but tired of it after about an hour. Sometimes I think it depends on who is hosting the show. The last one that I really enjoyed was when Hugh Jackman hosted in 2009. I thought that one was done with an old Broadway theme style. I had no idea that he had so much talent in dancing and singing... along with Anne Hathaway. I would like to see more of those kinds of award shows.
And.....I am excited that spring is 7 weeks away! (Thanks Rudee...I had 3 weeks written earlier) But...with our peculiar weather...that doesn't mean all that much! Still....we can say it is spring.

Not Feeling The Love....

2012-01-21T14:29:00.001-06:00

Well....I finally lost it with two of my neighbors the other night! She comes over the other night....yet AGAIN...for the I HAVE LOST COUNT....time. She wanted to warn me that her neighbor was going to trap all of the cats. She said MY cats are a nuisance to the neighborhood and all of the neighbors are upset with them. I asked her specifically Who is upset? Her neighbor...the one that wants to trap them. She said MY CATS are at her house all the time. I told her that couldn't be true because HER cats are always at our house. I have photos to prove it. She started needling me about whether or not I have had ALL of them fixed. I finally lost it. I started screaming at her..that she has done nothing but complain ever since she moved here. It truly has been one thing right after another. She seems to know more about our business than we do. You could tell that she is very used to arguing with everyone she talks to...because she did not blink an eye when I started screaming at her. I think she actually enjoyed seeing me get upset. I opened the door and told her to GET out! I was so upset...I marched down to the man next to her and asked him if he had a problem with the cats. He said....Yes...they are tearing everything up and getting into his trash. A LIE. He has no trash outside...and if he does he shouldn't have. The squirrels and birds could be getting into it also...if that were the case. I told him if he traps them and harms them....I would see him in court. Well....that was just the hot headed anger talking. It makes very little sense to go to court over outside cats...and I know it. I was just so angry...I wanted to sock him in the face. He is another one that has been a pain in the butt. Several years ago he caught Bob as Bob was leaving for work to tell him that he was going to have someone digging in our back yard to put pipes in to drain his yard into ours because we have a sewer drain. Bob said..."No you're not And I am on my way to work." He said "Oh I thought you were retired". So retired people don't care if you announce you are going to dig up your yard one day....in his mind. I could rant on and on about these two...but I think I have finally let myself calm down about it. I just feel terrible when I LOSE it like that. Right in front of the grand kids... no less. In other ways...I am not sorry about it... because those two needed to be put in their place. I wish I weren't such a hot head though...and could calmly tell people what I think. Yesterday I talked to one of our neighbors that had his house built the same time as us. He said that lots of the neighbors feed the strays around here. Others don't like it...but I have already alerted Animal Control that we have a big problem and have trapped 5 cats and kittens for them. They have come out a couple of times and left cages and picked them up also. This just takes a lot of time to get them all. We now have Waterpool the little female that I took to the Humane Society to get spayed and shots inside living with us. I had her mom spayed through Sterile Feral and have tried to get others on the days they have the service available. It really sucks when you have to live next door to people like these two. This summer should be fun out in the yard... when they are out there. I think I will just tell them both that if they have an emergency and need help...I will help them or get them help. But as far as being friendly....no thanks.

For my penance of uncontrolled anger.....I accidentally (or stupidly) super glued my fingers together today, trying to fix a clock that Waterpool broke at 4 am this morning. The end.

Poetry

2012-01-19T10:51:00.001-06:00

The photo above is of our cats sleeping and holding paws. Not the best photo...but I think it is memorable.

While cleaning and shredding papers...I found some poetry I wrote in 1977. I can hardly believe I am going to post these....but here goes. Don't laugh....

I Now Have Even More Reasons Why I Don't Want To Go On A Cruise

2012-01-17T19:06:00.000-06:00

I saw the headline about this ship going down, but I have not read all of the stories about it yet. I have never wanted to go on a cruise. When I was a little girl, I saw the 1953 version of The Titanic and had nightmares forever about it. I couldn't swim then. I can swim now. But....still have no desire to go on a cruise. The weird thing is....that I love to ride in... or drive.. a speed boat. On a Lake. During the day. The photo above just looks like a nightmare.
Our weather has been super crazy. Yesterday, it was in the 50's...warm and nice. I turned the heat off. During the night, tornado sirens went off, and we had hail and storms. No damage that I heard of. An earthquake hit southern Illinois also. Today it was 8 degrees....super windy,,,,and miserable. So I am left wondering....could this be the end of the world that we have been told about since we were born. I personally don't think so...but the weather and the news and so many other things about life can make you wonder. Reading about our history reassures me that life has always been difficult and in turmoil for many people.
We have been super busy and more than a little tired...moving things in the house. I think I mentioned that before. I have also been spending a fair amount of time on ancestry.com. I have met a few other people researching the same relatives. I doubt if we will ever meet....but who knows.

First Snow Day

2012-01-12T10:38:00.000-06:00

It is almost the middle of January and this is our first day for bad roads. We were forecast to have 1-3 inches, and when we awoke it looked like about one inch to me. I think the problem was the frigid temperatures of 19 degrees that caused the problems. Icy roads and lots and lots of accidents. Oddly enough...the kids school did not close but just about every other school was closed. We were supposed to have a handyman service come by and look at some siding that blew off, but that got cancelled. We paid a thousand dollars 3 years ago for someone to come and fix the same thing. They replaced the rotten wood and everything....telling us that the builders did not install it all correctly...but they would. Three years later...we have the same problem. It seems as if very little is going our way lately as far as the home maintenance goes. About two or three years ago we had our shower replaced because we had a leak coming down into the ceiling in the living room. The ceiling is wet again. My vote...when and if we sell this home...is to just rent something and let someone else shell out the money for these problems. Or maybe just travel light and see the world. Just dreaming....I am awake now.

I recently knitted this twirly scarf. I got the pattern.. free.. off of the internet. It was really really easy to do. I think it should have been a little wider...but if I make another one I will just add some more rows.
We now have new carpet and no mold in our basement...so that is good news. Katy and Brian and the girls will live down there and Bob will relocate his office to the bedroom upstairs...and I will get my sewing room back in the other bedroom. I have a quilt that is calling my name to finish. AND....I booked a room for the Paducah Quilt Show this year in April. I am so excited to get to go because I missed the last two years. I am looking forward to a trip to Chicago with Bob when the weather gets better to tour some of Frank Lloyd Wright homes. A little of my grouchiness is starting to leave.
One thing more to add.....I have been having a lot of knee pain for some time now. The pain is in the back of the knee. A few years ago I went in to see if I had arthritis... and he took x-rays and said that I don't have arthritis. Which is really good for a 60 year old broad. His recommendation was to have some physical therapy... which I never followed through on. In the past few months I have a lot of tightness and swelling and pain. I looked on the internet for... symptoms of pain behind the knee. Bakers cyst... is what came up. One site I looked at said that.... sometimes the Doctor can throw a heavy book at the cyst and try to bust it... instead of having surgery. I wish so much that I had bookmarked that site now...because that was the funniest thing I think I have ever heard of for a treatment. Today I have tried to find it and can't....so I am wondering if I just dreamed it. I can just picture a Dr. having a heavy book and whacking the back of my leg and saying..."Okay mam that will be $300. Pay up front please."

Grouch

2012-01-07T18:30:00.001-06:00

Yep....that would be me. I have been unusually grouchy so far this year. Well....maybe even the last few months also. No reasons..... in particular. When I am in these moods...I don't like to talk.... any more than I have to. Just leave me with my computer...books...and angry birds game for awhile....and eventually I will snap out of it. So...until then I may not be blogging much. I will visit blogs though....so see ya around.

New Year 2012

2012-01-01T15:17:00.001-06:00

Fireworks are pretty when they are done by professionals. I really do not like them at all when people that live in subdivisions blast them off for 20 minutes non stop in the middle of the night. Can't subdivision people celebrate without scaring the animals everywhere and making people that don't use them feel like they are being bombed. The 2 holidays I dread the most are Fourth of July and New Years Eve...just because of the fireworks. I haven't been sleeping all that well the past two nights and I am a little on the grouchy side. I have sufferd from gastritis for the past 6 months or so...and while I used to be the type that did not think it was proper to talk about such things to anyone other than the Dr. .....I now see some humor in it. I was wondering last night... if I could just record some of my gas sounds and sell it to the neighbors for their next party.
Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T19:34:00.002-06:00

Here is our tree this year. I bought a 4 foot artificial tree for Maddie and Kayla to decorate. We made some snowflakes, and paper chains and they enjoyed taking the ornaments off and on with no fear of Grandma telling them.. to not touch the breakable ornaments. The gifts and our celebration with them will have to wait until Tuesday night when they come home from Cleveland.

I did buy one breakable ornament.

A ballet dancer.

This was Maddie's favorite ornament.

I bought it for her because she started taking dance lessons this year.

I let her take it down from the top to look at it and it did get broken.

She cried and cried, but I used super glue and you can't even tell it was broken.

A couple of weeks ago....I bought a Frank Lloyd Wright puzzle at Barnes and Noble. It is a Peacock Rug that was designed by Wright for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo that he designed. Here is the only thing I could find out about it on the internet.

This geometrically abstract peacock image was created by Frank Lloyd Wright as a carpet for the banquet hall of Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, which Wright was commissioned to redesign in 1919. (Wright's version of the hotel was demolished in 1968.) Alas, the hall's carpets never arrived from the manufacturer. Fortunately, Wright's design survived and is beautifully reproduced on this difficult, 1,000-piece puzzle. Measuring 25"x25" when complete, this cool jigsaw puzzle makes a great gift for artistically minded puzzlers who aren't afraid of a challenge!

Okay....I bought this for myself...all the while knowing that my husband can't pass by in a room where a zigsaw puzzle is in the works......without trying to find a "few pieces" that fit. He started off pretty good the first 2 days. I struggled with the border off and on for 2 days. Finally I caved...and welcomed him to join me. He managed to assemble it in less than 8 hours. The man is a puzzle genius!

We both admire Wrights work.... even though the man had some issues in his personal life. His work is amazing! I hope to get to go to Chicago with Bob in the near future to see the homes he did in Oak Park. I would probably rather see some of his buildings... or even Falling Water...but Chicago is closer.

I tried to encourage Bob to sit down and play the piano for me.

He put some effort in it...just for me..

He used to play really well. Maybe when he retires he will have more time for it.

Tomorrow our son will spend the day with us. We plan on watching some baseball highlights from our World Series win. An annual tradition for both of them is to look through the most current Topps baseball card factory set. I have no idea how Santa Claus got on that box.

Vacation Update

2011-12-23T13:59:00.000-06:00

Let's see....what have we done this week on our vacation. Monday....can't remember. Tuesday...went to 8:15 Mass. Later that evening we went to our annual Knights of Columbus Christmas Caroling at the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood. They have a beautiful candlelight Novena that starts at 7 pm. The sisters sing like angels....and I am not exaggerating one little bit. They truly do make you feel like you are experiencing a little piece of what heaven must be like. After the Novena we all gather for some old fashioned caroling along with the Sisters. We bring cookies and soda to serve to them. It was so cute. One of the sisters arrived late and came over to the table to see what we had. She said..."Umm...I am looking for some peanut clusters. They are my favorite." I told I didn't think we had any. She said...."No...I don't think you do."...sounding a little disappointed. Next year she is getting peanut clusters. They are all so sweet, and they are doing well as they age. I am afraid there are not very many women going into that vocation any more. Too bad. We have 2 sisters at our parish that are the dearest women that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Other than that....we really haven't done much except hang around the house and read, work a very complicated jigsaw puzzle and watch a little TV. I have slept late everyday and have been very lazy....but isn't that what vacations are all about...

Merry Christmas to everyone reading my blog right now. I hope your Christmas is wonderful!

Vacation Week

2011-12-17T21:36:00.000-06:00

Today we went down on Main St and wanted to eat at Lewis and Clark's for some of their famous White Chili...but there was a two hour wait. So we went over to Friday's not far from us. Bob took a couple of photos while we were in there. Kayla and Maddie are getting along so well lately. They can really play together now that Kayla has gotten older. Today we had a dance show, and a music show....and each of us took turns being the "teacher". The "teacher" reads a book to the other students. They are both getting a lot better at coloring, and Santa will be giving them lots of coloring books.

Me getting to kiss my Kayla girl. Maddie was hugging me a lot today also They left today to go spend Christmas with Brian's family. I miss them already. We will have our gathering a little late this year...when they get back. I am glad they have Brian's family because he has a very big family. It is too bad they live so far away though because the kids only get to see them a couple of times a year. Most of his family lives in Cleveland, and his brother in Detroit. We had about 300 people attend their wedding 7 years ago and probably well over half of them were his family. Bob's side of the family is pretty large when they all get together. My side is not big at all I just have a couple of cousins I still stay in contact with. My brothers are still living but we aren't all that close...and they all have a lot of health problems. Bob is taking off of work this week. We have some things we need to get done around the house...but I hope we will be able to get out and have a little fun also.

Here is the latest crew of our cats. Waterpool (on the left) has official tags. I took her in to the vet at the Humane Society and got all her shots. The day after Christmas she goes in to get spayed. So she is OURS. Even though she will be an outside cat. Smokey, next to her is her brother and has just recently been letting me pet him a little. He will probably be next to get fixed. The cat next to him is Pink Foot. He will not let me get very close to him. A new arrival is the little kitten Maddie calls Figaro. It looks like these four are ours for now. Sterile Feral only does spay and neuter once a month, so one by one I will get them all in somehow. I have trapped about 5 cats and kittens in the past 2 months and taken them to the shelter where they tell me they will not put them to sleep. Waterpool is a really affectionate little cat. She LOVES to be petted and she has really soft silky fur. This is an insulated dog house they are in. I hope it keeps them warm for our winter. If not I am sure they will find a place to survive. I love watching them from the window while they climb all of our big trees in the back yard and wrestle with each other. If they were in our house.....I cannot even imagine where all they would try to climb. We have several pine trees in the back and they love to sleep under those. I don't blame them. I love the smell of fresh pine. Maybe next year we should buy a real Christmas tree just for the smell!

The Litigators...spoiler alert.

2011-12-13T17:39:00.002-06:00

If you plan on reading this book don't read my review. It is loaded with spoilers.
I finished this book about a week ago, and it was pretty good. I think I have read all but one or two of his books. This book kind of stayed with me a little while after reading it because the final law suit...one of the lawyers goes after... is a toy company that had lead levels so high on some of their toys (made in china) that they caused severe brain damage and early death in the children. I found myself looking at all the toys while shopping this year for the grand kids and putting back all the ones made in china. Both of them still put things in their mouth occasionally and it just scares me to think that a toy could ruin so many lives. The first part of the book is about the lawyers going after a drug company that released a drug for high cholesterol that could be causing deaths but will hard to prove because the people that take it are overweight and not in the best of health anyway. The drug company had bigger and better lawyers than the three lawyers going after them...so they don't win that one..but fortunately they do get compensation for the lead poisoning case. Too little too late though. The young boy died not long after the settlement. I have a feeling this book will become a movie. I am now reading Zero Day by David Baldacci. It is pretty good. Some time before New Years Day...I am going to add up all of the books I have read this year. Almost all of my books are now read on my e-reader...so we are accumulating fewer books. I still buy magazines and we visit Barnes and Noble almost every weekend. We buy religious books in paperback or hardback occasionally. I would be really sad if all the book stores closed up because we all read only e-books so we are doing as much as possible to support them. And... of course we buy lots of books for the grand kids!

Family Tree not looking so good....

2011-12-07T15:22:00.001-06:00

I have been meeting some other family members through my research and unfortunately found out that I may be related to this hillbilly version of the mafia. One researcher claims that somewhere along the way we married into the Hatfield clan. I am not so sure I am ready to believe this yet. Would you want to be related to these people? They look possessed or something....especially some of those kids. Oh dear.....why couldn't I have found out that my ancestors were some uppity social elite group of people. One thing I have found out is that it seems that both sides of my family members have been in this country since the 1700's. I have been able to go back this far with some. And most all of the males members have been in the wars. I haven't seen any from the civil war yet. Someone was in the war of 1812, and both Grandparents were in World War I along with all my Dad's uncles. Every time I look at the photo above I feel sorry for myself. Maybe I will stop this family research.......oh dear.

Getting Into the Christmas Spirit!

2011-12-04T15:39:00.001-06:00

Bob and I went down to Main St. yesterday and had coffee at one of our favorite coffee houses. Then we strolled down Main Street to take in the festivities of Christmas. It is a magical place during the Christmas season. They have characters dressed up that speak with accents and carry on conversations with all the people strolling around. There are several Santas from around the world. I didn't hear where this one was from.

It is hard to get a decent photo....or one that doesn't have another person in it. This young lady is very pretty and makes a beautiful angel. This photo is actually not very flattering of her. She is a lot prettier than this.

The carolers are really great!

Someday we may take a ride in this carriage....but then we would be in everyone's photos.

Never mind....

I think this was Mother Goose....but I have no idea how she is connected with Christmas????
She was telling this young lady that she loves rhymes....and was reciting Mother Goose type things.

I think this Santa said he was from England.

I am not sure who these two are. I think beggars?

Thought this was cute.

And today I worked on my wreaths. I made two of these. I may add a little more to it. I wanted advent colors. The forecast tonight and tomorrow is for.... snow. I think I am ready.

Update on my exciting life.....

2011-11-29T17:34:00.001-06:00

Our Thanksgiving was fine. None of my food turned out very good this year, but we went to some relatives.. on Bob's side of the family on Sunday, and their food was fabulous! I had some free time and started to go back into researching my family tree. So now I have a new obsessive hobby going on. I have so many photos from my Mom and Dad and I have no clue whatsoever who the people are......I feel like plastering them all over the internet and asking if anyone knows who these people are. I really think they are related somehow...but I really don't know for sure. One interesting thing I found out today was that all of my Dad's uncles were in World War I. I think there were 6 of them. Families were very large back then. The weird part about me doing all of this research is that I am not very close to any of my living relatives. I talk to my brothers and cousins just a few times a year. I wonder how many other families are the same way.

Just when I think I have seen everything....

2011-11-23T17:11:00.001-06:00

Yesterday the internet and the news was talking about a mom who had gone to the bathroom and came out to find her 2 young boys had emptied a 5 pound bag of flour all over the house. I told my daughter I thought she had just done it on purpose to try and attract attention to herself. My daughter said..."Mom...why would anyone do that to their home". Well...if you have ever seen Funniest Home Videos (which are not funny to me at all) I say people will film just about anything to get attention. I still don't know if the flour incident was real or what....but today while taking care of the grand kids I found this ritz (whole) cracker in the connect four thing. I had to take a photo, because I don't think you could do that again if you tried. Maddie said Kayla did it. Kayla is 18 months. I turned the thing over and a whole cracker came out. I thought there was only room for the little coins to go in there...but apparently I was wrong.
These two never cease to amaze me. Maddie was rubbing her eyes today and I asked her if she was okay. She said..."Yes....it is just my eyetacts bothering me." They help me see better, but they bother me sometimes.

The Green Thing

2011-11-23T08:50:00.001-06:00

Got this in my email today and I could relate to a lot of it.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older

woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags

weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing

back in my earlier days."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not

care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to

the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and

sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.

So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in

our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store

and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb

into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But

she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the

throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling

machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our

clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their

brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady

is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every

room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember

them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen,

we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines

to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the

mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or

plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn

gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human

power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club

to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right. We

didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or

a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing

pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor

blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because

the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their

bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour

taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank

of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a

computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000

miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old

folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson

in conservation from a smartaleck young person.

Remember: Don't make old people mad.

WE DON'T LIKE BEING OLD IN THE FIRST PLACE, SO IT DOESN'T TAKE MUCH TO

TICK US OFF.

Fall of Giants

2011-11-22T16:31:00.001-06:00

I am down to the last 100 pages of this book. I just now found out that this is the first of a trilogy. I read the Pillars of the Earth and saw the mini-series. I loved both books and the movie. Then I read World Without End...which was a follow up of Pillars of the Earth. They are releasing a movie sometime in 2012 about that. I can' t wait to see it. However....Fall of the Giants has been a small struggle to get through. I am not sure if I am struggling through it because it is about World War I or what. I know so little about that war. The photo below is of my Mom's father who was in World War I. I really want to learn more about this war just because he was in it. The next book after this one is going to be about World War II and the depression. I think I will be able to identify a lot more about that book because I heard so many stories from my Mom and Aunts and Grandma about the depression. As much as I hate wars of any kind..they are a part of our history and even if I can't agree with them or understand them...I still want to learn about them.

Today is a day I remember every year because 33 years ago today our first born sons were born. They were identical twins that had Twin Transfusion Syndrome. Our first son, Nathaniel, died within the first hour, and our Nicholas died at 9 days old. I think about them often and wonder what our lives would be like...had they been healthy and a part of our family. I know that was not the plan though. I hope to reconnect with their spirits when my body has finished with this world. I am very grateful to have the two beautiful children we have and our two beautiful grand children.

Fun With Maddie and Kayla

2011-11-19T14:50:00.001-06:00

Today Katy had to do some continuing education training all day
so Bob and I had the kiddos.
Kayla had a long nap after lunch so we did some

coloring and hidden pictures

and these magnetic shaped patterns with Maddie.

I wanted to take some pictures for her scrap book,

and she wanted to take some pictures of us.

She gave us instructions on how to pose.

A few of them actually turned out ok.

Good thing she can't read yet.

Because she is getting a child's camera for Christmas.

Desperate People....

2011-11-17T14:31:00.001-06:00

If you came here hoping for a feel good story...this isn't going to be one. I really don't even like blogging about these things, but for some reason I feel like I just have to vent it out of my system. The news in my area has just been one awful report after another. It has probably been about a month ago now when a little baby disappeared from her parents home who live in Kansas City, Missouri. The last time I read anything about that...it just sounds so confusing, I couldn't make any sense of it. I read that the parents and the police don't get along and something about a step child the mother has??? I just couldn't piece the story together. The little baby has not been found though. And now just this week, we had a young woman call the police mid morning saying that her 11 month old had disappeared. By the end of the day the baby was found dead near the home and the mother is now charged with 2nd degree murder. Later in the evening 2 babies were wandering the streets in diapers. A one year old and a two year old. The parents were at a meeting and said they had left them with a babysitter, The children are okay...but were out in freezing weather with no clothes on. The babies have been taken away from the parents. If all of this is not enough....I went grocery shopping today and when I went into the store there were 2 police cars there. I smelled something burning so I thought maybe there had been a fire. When I was checking out, I asked the cashier if there had been a fire because of seeing the police. She said no...the police were there because of robberies. Purse snatchers. She said hold on tight to your purse and have your keys in your hand ready to get in your car. We have had so many reports of people holding knives at people trying to get in their cars for them to hand over their money. Even our church lots have had car break ins while we are at church. I can't remember having this much horrible news all the time. I am so glad I am already on anti-depressants. If I weren't...this would be enough to send me to the Dr.
Will try to come up with some good things to write about tomorrow...........

Food Coma Day

2011-11-09T15:33:00.001-06:00

I am just now trying to think about holiday cooking....and I just have to say...it is hard to get my thoughts and feelings geared up for it. I found a couple of old photos of the food from a couple of years ago. Katy and her family won't be here for Christmas this year...so I really should try and make the best of Thanksgiving. I have to keep telling myself....do it for the grands. Maddie is at an age where she loves to help in the kitchen, so I think that will be one way to push my thoughts in the right direction. I gave up trying to feed large crowds of family a few years ago, so I don't need to cook for anyone but us. Katy and I had talked about just going to Bob Evans for a meal....and I haven't completely ruled that out yet. I am pretty sure they would have just about everything I would prepare anyway. We could come back and watch National Lampoon Christmas Vacation if we thought we were missing out on large amounts of family. I wonder how many of us actually have an "Eddie" in our family. I do...but I don't think I have ever spent the holidays with them. Yes...there are more than a couple of Eddie's in my family.

Kids....

2011-11-06T15:42:00.000-06:00

Katy and I had a craving for a nice breakfast yesterday and never made it out in time. So this morning we were determined to go. We were all starving and on Sunday morning it is crowded. We had no wait as far as getting seated went...but getting our food seemed to take forever. The kids started out being really nice and just sitting there coloring. The longer it took...Kayla started eating the crayons and we had to take them away and then of course crying was the result. Trying to entertain her with songs and other activities only lasted a minute or so. Maddie became restless and started crawling under the table looking for food. (We think) Mom did come prepared with snacks to hold them over...but they were gone pretty quickly. After we convinced Maddie that the floor was pretty creepy she started playing the drums with the straws. (Notice the happy couple sitting next to us.)

Then Kayla started taking her shirt off.

Why....why can't I take my shirt off.... there's nothing else to do here. ?!

By the time we got the food...they weren't all that hungry and kept wanting to put salt and pepper on their french toast. I told Katy on the way home....now I remember why I always cooked every meal at home.

Grandparents Cards

2011-11-04T13:53:00.001-05:00

While cleaning up a little bit... I stumbled upon these cards that I have used a few times for something to talk about. I like to think that maybe this blog will be something our grand kids may be interested in reading someday. Maybe...Maybe not. We'll see. A lot of these questions I think I will never really answer...but this one caught my eye today.

What do kids know more about than adults?

I think that kids know a lot more about innocence than adults do. Bob and I notice this so much more from our grand children than from our own children. Children who are three and half and one and a half just don't understand that walking around naked is not something people do. They think there is nothing wrong with it at all. People would poke their eyes out if they saw us running around naked. Or that following you in the bathroom is any different than us helping them in the bathroom. We keep telling them...we don't need any help. (Except maybe from Mylanta or Ex-lax occasionally.) We have been going potty for 58 years all by ourselves. I can't really remember the last time I felt innocent. It may have been when I was around 4 or 5 and just playing outside...looking at the clouds while laying on the grass. There is so much more to learn when you are so young. They ask questions daily. Even little Kayla is now asking "Why" It is tough sometimes to come up with just the right answers for them. . I told Maddie the other day I had to go pay the bills. She wanted to know what bills were. Isn't that great! To be so young that you have no idea what paying bills is all about. I started by telling her Bills were what we owe someone....like the electric company for our electricity. " What's electricity?" she says. It is what we use to turn the lights on and the washing machine and the stove...etc. "Why do you have to pay for it?" Well...you get the picture. About two days later after attempting to answer all of the questions...I paid the bills. Just kidding.
Occasionally I have a southern accent that sneaks in my language. My Mom and Dad were from Southeast Missouri and had a certain twang or style or whatever you call it. I was sitting outside one evening and came back inside and told everyone there was a mosqita on my arm. Maddie said..."Is that how you say mosquito in Spanish?" Bob said....no that's how you say it in Dexter.
They also have a wonderful imagination that knows no boundaries. If only we could bottle... just those two qualities in childhood The only time I use my imagination is when I read books. I think that is why I love to read so much.

Changes for the Cardinals

2011-10-31T14:01:00.001-05:00

We stayed home yesterday and did not try to go down to the parade. We went out for another fall drive, but did not see all that much color. Only in Wildwood where David Freese is from, was there some bright yellows and reds and a few orange colors. We drove through there not really with the intention of going through his area...it was just on the way back from where we had been. He seems so young to have captured so much attention and recognition. He seemed pretty embarrassed by all the attention to me. I think that is an admirable quality. The parade looked like it was great. As you can see from the photo below...it was very very crowded. I don't do crowds very well. So I was happy to just view in on TV at home.

The Clydesdale's are always amazing to watch. They are such beautiful horses.

We woke up this morning to hear that Tony La Russa announced his retirement. I am not sure what that will mean for the Cardinals. He is 67 and I can see why he would want to retire. I wake up everyday and wish that Bob and I were retired and free to go where we want and do what we want. I would say he chose a perfect day to announce it. The day after the celebration. We also don't really know if Albert will stay here or not. Whatever develops over the next few months will be interesting. I am just happy that we won the Series this year for a few reasons. One of course...is because my son and husband are such big fans. And the other was because Stan Musial is going to be 91 next month and he is looking very frail. The photo below is a picture of my husband when he was a little boy standing there waiting to get Stan's autograph. He was unable to get it that day. A few years ago I took the photo in and had it blown up to poster size and had Stan Musial sign it. I am so glad that I did because I think his health went down not long after that.
Well...tonight is Halloween and the kids will have some fun...I hope. The weather here isn't too bad. I feel bad for the Eastern part of the country that got so much snow and power outages. I guess we had better prepare for another crazy winter.

What A GAME!!!!!

2011-10-28T09:27:00.002-05:00

Game 6 was without a doubt a roller coaster ride of a lifetime! We were down...the Rangers were up......we tied it......went into extra innings and WON!!! Man...the emotions were all over the place. W H A T A G A M E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Sports

2011-10-27T13:46:00.003-05:00

I have some free time today, and time to blog....and I don't have all that much to say. Bummer. Well, baseball is pretty hot here in St. Louis tonight so I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth. I went to the dentist today and of course he asked if I was excited about the game and I told him I was. I told him I was very pleased this year because the teams seem to get along. The Rangers don't seem to be anything like the Brewers, with their mouthy attitude about the Cardinals. Maybe not all of the Brewers...just the ones that made the headlines. Anyway...so far the games seem to be pleasant to watch... exciting....yet not as much ANGER stirring around as some games have been. It is not only the players that get angry, it is the managers, the umpires, the fans in the stadium and then all of us folks at home....screaming at the TV screen. Then it even goes further and spills into friendships. I find myself being a little defensive about my home teams.....and I am not by a long shot...A Sports Fan. I really only know as much as I do because my husband is a big baseball and hockey fan along with our son. So I have listened to countless conversations between them and have watched a lot of games over the past 34 years. I was just searching around on the internet for baseball fights and ran across a few blogs that are just about baseball. One blog I was reading said that he lost a life long friendship because they did not like the same team. I suppose we can now add sports to the list of things to NOT talk at the dinner table. It seems we can only safely talk about religion, politics, and sports if we are all on the same team. Debates.. rarely win you over to the other side...if you really don't want to go there.

I hope I have not jinked myself with this post.

Watch tonight's game have the worse fight ever.......geez.

Flu Shots

2011-10-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

I have never had a flu shot before. But I am thinking this year I may try one. I have had a stomach bug twice in the past month. I don't think I was completely over the first one and then got another one. I have heard that they don't help stomach bugs though. Even one day... minus an illness is worth it. I am usually way to busy to be sick. Yesterday Katy had a day off and I was able to stay in bed. Maddie came in with her Popsicle stick to "check me out". Dr. Maddie asked for my insurance card first and accepted a photo of herself as a pretend card. She filed it away...which took at least 20 minutes just like going to a real doctor. After looking down my throat with her stick...she said the problem was that a spider got on my sandwich and put a worm down my throat. Just the image of that in my brain made me want to run for the bathroom. But I had to admire her creativity. I could use some of that if I want to explore writing. No worries about what people may think or say...just a totally free journey of expression.
I felt too bad to watch the game...but now know the outcome. Oh well...this just makes it more exciting. Hope they do well tonight!

2011-10-16T18:26:00.000-05:00

Today we took a nice day long drive up to Alton, Illinois along the Scenic Hwy that borders the Mississippi River and the Bluffs and then a little further to Pere Marquette State Park There were lots of boaters our today and the wind was right for sailing. It is a very peaceful scenic drive.

The colors were not that pretty this year. Probably because of the dry weather we had this summer.

The river and bluffs are always pretty here though. I never really think of rivers are being very pretty but for some reason this particular area with all of it's pretty boats in the water makes it feel more like a man made lake instead of a river.

We stopped for awhile a a lookout area and let the girls get out and play. They were really good in the car.

Some of the trees had some color. I really wasn't expecting a lot of bold colors this year, so I was pleasantly surprised to see what we did.

Kayla running in the leaves.

Maddie loving the sound of the crunch they made.

We are getting ready to watch the game tonight. Brian's brother lives in Detroit so I guess it would have been interesting if they had won and then we win tonight. We also have friends that live in Texas, but they are from St. Louis and are still big Cardinal fans. Let the best team win tonight!

Our Daughters Photography

2011-10-11T18:25:00.003-05:00

http://katyhessphotography.com/

Katy started a photography business and we are really excited for her. She has a talent and I am glad she is pursuing it. I hope that she will try and sell some of her prints from some of her trips overseas and in the States.

Knitted Blanket Complete

2011-10-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

Finally....I finished the blanket I started....well, it has been so long I can't remember. Now both girls will have a blanket that I knitted. They may not be perfect....but Grandma made them, so hopefully someday they will treasure them. Even if they don't...I enjoyed making them. They both already have a blankie that was given to them by someone on Brain's side of the family and they are really attached to them. But Maddie saw me working on the two I made and likes them just because she was anxious to see them finished. Now I need to finish the quilt I started for her a couple of years ago. My next knitting project will be socks. I have yet to complete a pair of socks. I may change my mind and do a poncho for each girl. Wish I was a super fast knitter!
The garage door broke yesterday. Two springs had to be replaced. UGGGG... And there is a nasty bug going around...with stomach problems and an itchy itchy rash that goes with it. So far we all have had it except for Bob.
Hope our luck turns around and we win the game tonight and the next time they play. And then go all the way to the World Series and win that. I always hope for a World Series win....mainly because my husband and son are such loyal fans.

New Washer and Dryer

2011-10-08T19:28:00.000-05:00

My new Whirlpool Cabrio! My washer broke on Thursday just as it started to drain. It stopped draining and started making a very loud noise. At first I called to have it repaired on Friday, but after thinking about it decided to just buy a new one. The old one was 7 years old and had enough wear and tear on it to have been a 10-15 years old one. It had the agitator in it and when we washed the towels and aprons after Fish Fries at church, the strings from the aprons and the old rags would wind themselves around the agitator and drive me crazy. After awhile I just refused to wash the aprons with strings. Other clothes with thin straps would also get all tangled up...so it wasn't just the fish fry stuff. I am never real thrilled about having to buy something we have to make payments on...but as much as we use the washer and dryer...I can't say I am sorry to have bought both this time. The dryer was still working....but would not dry well..at all. Hopefully we will save on electricity with the new one because I would have to dry things twice. Thursday I had to try and wring out the wet clothes that were still in the washer and take them to the laundromat. I have not been to the laundromat for almost 35 years. Did you know it cost $4.25 to wash one large load??? I didn't use the dryers so I don't know how much that would have cost. I sat there wondering why so many people still use the laundromat. Payments for washers and dryers have to be less than what you spend there. One lady had 7 washers going. That was close to $30....and who knows what the dryers would have been. I know you could make payments on that. I am guessing that they live somewhere where you can't have a washer or dryer. If I think back far enough I will remember that all too well. I lived in lots of apartments before I got married that did not have washers and dryers. I think it cost 25 cents back then to do a load of clothes.
Today, after they installed them, Katy told me that I could reverse the dryer door, so that it would be easier to get to. That ended up taking me all day. It was not an easy thing to do...for me..anyway. I was really frustrated and tired, but finally we got it working. Oh well.....now that they are here and finally set up...I am so happy to have them. I just wanted to do a post to remember when I bought them.

By the way...if you are confused by this new template...click on the classic view. I have been trying to figure out how to make it stay on there....but haven't figured it out yet.

Des Moines State Capitol Building

2011-10-06T09:27:00.003-05:00

I was able to complete the Quilt Show in just 2 hours, so we had the rest of the day to look around. We drove over to the State Capitol Building. We were so glad that we did. It was really impressive.

I won't try to tell any history about the building because you can easily look it up on the internet.

A beautiful staircase.

I hope this is displayed in all of our Capitol Buildings.

Remember having to memorize it in Jr. High?

The Law Library was really impressive!

I think I would still like to take that course in Paralegal.

Don't think anyone would hire me at my age...but it would be interesting.

The Supreme Court Room.

I read that they rarely use this room.

They use the Supreme Court Building.

Looking straight up into the dome.

This was only the second State Capitol that I have visited. Makes me want to visit more. I would also like to visit more Presidential Libraries. I have only visited Clinton's and Truman's. Someday I hope to make a trip to DC also.

Iowa Quilt Show

2011-10-01T20:08:00.004-05:00

The Quilt Show was really nice. They had some quilts that were really well done.

My favorites are always the hand quilted ones.

The machine quilted ones are hard to do also...but I just prefer hand quilted ones myself.

Most of my pictures did not turn out very well.

I think there may have been too much over head lighting for my camera.

Sometimes I can fix them when I get home...but couldn't with these.

We just got home a couple of hours ago, and I have not found my show book yet.

When I do...I will try to come here and say something about each of these quilts.

I had forgotten how much I miss sewing and quilting until I went to the show and saw all of the creativity that goes into these cut up pieces of fabric.

My favorites are also the applique ones..in the photo below.

So much patience has to go into those.

This one had so much stippling in it AND applique....

I can't even imagine how long this must have taken.

Tomorrow I hope to find some time to do a post about the Capital Building we toured.

It was really beautiful!

Alpacas are Not Nice....

2011-09-28T19:22:00.005-05:00

Bob had a vacation day today so we took the kids to the Zoo. We went to the Children's Zoo first and I got a little too close to this Alpaca and it spat at me and scared the crap out of me. I screamed and the kids got upset. I have heard that camels will spit at you...but I have never had it happen to me before. I think I may have frightened it because I need a haircut and have a bushy headed look right now. Maybe I looked like a scary beast. The spittle of whatever he hailed at me was really smelly.

Next time maybe I will sport a hairdo like this spiky haired penguin. It may think I am a porcupine.

This big black bear looks like it is laughing at me. Ha ha....the Alpaca got you didn't it??!? Hehehhe

Maybe Maddie can befriend this Ape and scare it for me.

If not....maybe this Amur Tiger will take care of it.

While we were at the area where they have little houses and rakes and wheel barrels...

Maddie started shouting...

QUICK......EVERYONE RUN FOR COVER....THERE IS A CHICKEN STORM COMING!!!!

Harvesting some food for the next chicken storm.

BAAHHH....

Don't worry Grandma....these don't look like they spit.

Life is Good

2011-09-26T13:33:00.002-05:00

Nothing much going on lately to write about. I went to a Mosaic Festival last weekend and then yesterday I went to an Oktoberfest with Katy and the kids. Neither event was worth talking about really. The kids had a lot of fun painting pumpkins and doing other activities with Mom and friends. I walked around and found a booth that had Apple Funnel Cakes. It was really good the first few bites and half way through I started to get sick. Too much and too rich...but very tasty. Thursday we are going to Des Moines for a Quilt Show. I am really looking forward to it because I missed the spring show in Paducah. I bought a book about creative writing and hope to read some of it on our trip. I thought about taking a class or some classes at the Community College...but never got around to looking into it. Maybe I can pick up some tips from this book and try to actually write something...a novel...poem...something. This blog has become very b o r i n g.........zzzzzzzzz....

Privacy?

2011-09-20T10:00:00.003-05:00

Well...I finally went to the Dr. last week about my shoulder pain and my Dr. said to go to an Orthopedist because he would just be guessing that it was either bursitis or tendonitis or osteoarthritis. I did call and make an appointment, but cancelled it yesterday because all of a sudden the pain got a lot better. I was having a really hard time lifting the kids, especially trying to get them in their car seats. The weird thing was the pain had been there for a few months ..everyday. Usually when it hangs around that long, I figure it is worth getting checked out. I still may have to go back at some point, but right now I just can't see piling up the costs of x-rays and specialist fees. We are still recovering from the high cost of my endoscopy. All I can say is that I am very thankful that so far Bob and I don't have a lot of health problems. Knock on wood. The cost of it all can deplete your money so fast. I just don't know how others survive with major illnesses. While I was at the Dr. the receptionist asked me if I would sign up for My Chart. I guess it is a way to communicate via internet. I signed up for it...but now I wonder if I really want all my medical info on the internet. I think it is ...already ..because all the doctors use internet now instead of a written chart like they used to use. I guess we are just stuck with this new technology...no turning back. It probably has so many good parts to it ....but I see some... not so good parts also. I think our privacy rights really went out the window several years ago. With the smart phones...you can snap a photo very easily without being noticed and some people abuse this for their own gains. I have heard they can watch you key in your pin numbers or whatever. I try not to pay very much attention to the news...so depressing sometimes. I guess desperate people do desperate things. I am reading a book right now by Ken Follett called "World Without End" It is a follow up to his book called "The Pillars of Earth". These books are about the "Middle Ages". Wow! Some really brutal things happened during those times. His books are really interesting. Reading about history though just shows you that we have never lived in a perfect world. Unless you believe that those of us that grew up in the 50's...lived like "Leave It To Beaver". Ha!

Debates

2011-09-13T08:51:00.001-05:00

For some unknown reason I decided to watch the debates last night. All I can say is Please Please....American people....don't vote Perry in. I have a bad feeling about this guy. I was just happy to see that Sarah Palin was not up there...or Glenn Beck. The ones with the biggest "Personalities" almost seem to attract the most attention.....
It's going to be a long year....

Ready for a vacation.........

2011-09-12T13:35:00.001-05:00

Oh jeez......they just changed the way blogger works. I dislike learning new things. Oh well...anyway....just posting my weekly post about how much I am looking forward to going to Des Moines for a Quilt Show in a couple of weeks. (Why did spell check just tell me Moines is misspelled??) Me and the hubby. What a guy! He has been going with me to Quilt Shows for years now. I keep saying that I will one day join a Quilt Guild and go with the ladies....but so far I haven't made the time for that. The quilt above is applique. Something I was learning about the time I stopped quilting some years ago. I think this photo was taken at the last show I went to...but I am not sure.

We managed to get through the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Bob had to fly to New Orleans for business yesterday morning and I really really did not want him to go. He arrived fine and had no problems that I know of yet. We were pulled over by the police as we were entering the airport. Apparently he was in the wrong lane or something....we never could figure out what was going on. The officer yelled at us to stop. We did. She said pop the trunk. We did. She said "What's in the box." Bob said "Tee shirts" She said "Have a nice day" and we pulled away. I came home and watched a live news cast from that awful day 10 years ago. It is still really hard to believe that something that horrible really happened.

On the up side of life....Kayla is now cracking us up because she is talking like a beatnik. She started calling Katy "Mommy-o" over the weekend...and Daddy.....Daddy-o. Then she started saying a lot of her words that way. She reminds me of Maynard G Krebs in Dobie Gillis.

Shoe be do..do..ba...do.....yeah!

Labor Day

2011-09-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

We spent Labor Day with Family at Bob's niece's lake at the back of their home. As you can see Miss Kayla is enjoying herself. I wasn't able to catch a good photo of Maddie or anyone else...but thought this one of Kayla was cute. We have all had colds and flus and just have not been up to par lately. It seems to want to hang on longer than the average cold. I have been in a low key type mood....not depressed or anything...just really exhausted and not feeling like talking much or doing any blogging. Hope I snap out of it soon......

Sterile Feral

2011-08-31T18:55:00.002-05:00

Headlock

Twins?

Choke Hold

Mama cat's last litter. I took her in a couple of weeks ago to get Fixed at Sterile Feral through the Humane Society. I could not believe how many people were in line there with stray cats. Most were saying the same thing I did. "I had no idea how many strays there were in our area until I put food out for the kittens." So far I spayed one and our neighbor sprayed and neutered two. I may try and take some of these kittens in when I can. The feral sterile program is all volunteers. So nice to see how many people really love animals...even when they don't live in our homes.
I wanted to add from Rudee's comment that... the fee is $20 per animal and they spay or neuter and also give a 3 year rabies shot. You have to provide the cage and after care. You bring them in at 9 am and usually pick them up in the early afternoon. You are suppose to try and keep them in the cage for 24 hours and give them small amounts of water and food after 8 hours. Our cat escaped after 8 hours when I tried to give her water and food. I thought she may not survive...but she showed up a few days later with her kittens and seemed very healthy. Her appetite is better than ever and she looks healthier. She always used to make sure her litter had food before she would eat....even though she was nursing 5. We can not own any animals because of allergies that our grand daughter has. The outside cats just show up whenever.....so I don't really feel like they are mine. I just feed them if they show up at the door looking hungry. I think cats are really pretty...but there is one that we have seen come through the yard that scares the bejeebies out of me. All black and very long hair and just looks scary.....yikes! Who can resist a little kitten though. I love to watch them wrestle and play outside.

How Our Minds Imagine When We Don't Have All The Facts..........

2011-08-30T10:23:00.000-05:00

This photo is a scene from one of my favorite movies called "Twelve Angry Men" . The story I wanted to talk about today reminded me of a jury I was on once where a lot of my fellow jurors were just trying to imagine what could have happened instead of dealing with the evidence that we DID have. Which was very little....

A couple of weeks ago we noticed a house that just looked so odd ..with destruction... we just had to imagine what could have possibly happened to it. The tree in the back yard was all sawed to pieces in a very strange way. The back porch was all torn up. The windows were all smashed in. The garage door was busted in pieces. There was no sign of smoke damage anywhere that we could see. At first I thought it was an explosion from a meth house, or just a gas tank or leak somewhere...but that would have left some type of smoke evidence...I thought. We kept trying to drive by it when we had time and the only thing we could think of was that the home had been foreclosed on and the previous owners went berserk and smashed it to pieces. I could find nothing about it on the news and thought that in itself was strange because our news media stations are always out searching for a story. There sure looked like there was a story here. Finally last night while Bob was at a church meeting, someone that lives in that subdivision told the story about it. The subdivision entrance was on a hill where it was very difficult to get out of or into safely. The neighbors complained enough to get the city to try and fix the problem. The only solution they could come up with was to tear down the house we saw damaged and redo the entrance, so that the entrance would not be on a hill with limited view of oncoming cars. They allowed a SWAT Team to practice on the house before they tore it down. It turns out the couple had been trying to sell the house for some time and the city bought it so they were happy. I can't tell you how happy I was to hear the whole story behind this mystery. With crime being what it is today I was just really spooked out about this house. Now we know...it was just the good guys trying to find better ways to catch the bad guys.

A Trip to the Zoo

2011-08-26T09:10:00.001-05:00

Katy was off yesterday and we took the girls to the zoo.

The hippo area is probably one my least favorite places...but Maddie likes it.

We have some photos of her last year posing here.

It is the one place where you can be sure to see the animal because it is enclosed in glass.

We didn't spend a lot of time there yesterday, but I still like playing with my camera.

It has a pretty good zoom for an inexpensive camera.

Here is a wild boar.

A couple of spotted hyenas.

We only saw one elephant.

We recently had a baby elephant born at the zoo.

It is still too young for viewing.

We took a train ride.

Kayla hugging Maddie.

Trip to the City

2011-08-19T16:59:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took a trip to the city...something we don't do very often. City life is so different from county living. I have never lived in a city and sometimes wonder what it would be like. We wanted to go visit St. Louis University Museum of Art mainly because they have a floor that has a Collection of the Western Jesuit Missions. Our daughter and son-in-law both graduated from St. Louis University and married at St. Francis Xavier College Church. We really enjoyed just getting out and doing something different.

The building itself is pretty interesting...especially the interior. I found some history about the building on this site.

The Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA) originally was built in 1900 as the home of the St. Louis Club at a cost of $320,000. The St. Louis Club dated from 1886, when it was organized in a building at Locust Street and Ewing Avenue. It was probably the most exclusive club of its time and the Lindell building was expensively equipped. An architectural competition in 1896 determined the designer and style of the building, with Arthur Dillon of the New York firm Friedlander and Dillon chosen to be the principal architect.
The architects designed the building in the Beaux Arts style, which was used for prominent urban structures around the turn of the twentieth century. The building has a raised basement of rusticated limestone and a high-pitched mansard roof. The front fa?de has a tripartite organization (the central projecting block displays Ionic columns) and a corbelled entablature. Flanking sections have tall casement windows with limestone surrounds and ornamental wall dormers.The idea for the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair is said to have surfaced at a dinner at the St. Louis Club, and much of the planning took place there. The club then purchased 14 paintings from among those exhibited at the World's Fair. These formed the nucleus of a collection that became one of the best-regarded private collections in the city.
For its first quarter century, the building located at 3663 Lindell Blvd. was the center of St. Louis social life and was visited by a number of U.S. presidents, including Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson and Harding. Herbert Hoover was entertained there while he served as Secretary of Commerce. During their visits to St. Louis, Taft, Wilson and Hoover were lodged in a suite on the third floor of the building.
A fire in 1925 led to the end of the St. Louis Club era on Lindell. Despite only minor damage, the building was sold. The building was used by a succession of companies over the years, until the University purchased the building in 1992 from Saint Louis University alumnus, Francis E. O'Donnell Jr., M.D. The building was the home of the SLU Graduate School and the School of Public Health and was known as O'Donnell Hall. The building was named the Doris O'Donnell Hall in honor of Dr. O'Donnell's mother, a long-time employee and director of alumni relations at the University. Designated as a historic landmark, the structure is distinguished for its architectural character, features and rich detail.

The stairway in the entry is really interesting.

A nice flower area that has survived our triple digit heat this summer. Refreshing to see. Most of our lawns and trees and flowers have the.... desert look...unless one owns an automatic sprinkler.... and they don't mind the big water bill.

The Old Court House (another place I have not seen on the inside yet) with a little view of the Arch. I went up in the Arch one time. I don't handle tight places very well. When I went in...it was like crawling into a dryer with a couple of seats. Too scary for me...but millions of people probably don't have a problem with it.

We ate lunch at Mike Shannon's. I have been wanting to go there for so long...so I was excited to finally get there. I was expecting a very laid back atmosphere.... but found that it is a very classy place. The decor and the service and the food were top notch. I used to watch baseball for a few years and have listened to games just because Bob and Bobby have them on. Mike Shannon was my favorite announcer. Jack Buck was really great...but I just loved Shannon's way of interpreting the game and his unique style of phrases. Like... "This big standing room only crowd is settling into their seats."

We sat in the Chase Corner. Kelly Chase was famous for his fights in hockey. I think he is now an announcer also like ...Mike Shannon. Several former sports players have restaurants around St. Louis. Brett Hull used to have one, but I am not sure if he still does. Albert Pujols has one. Ozzie Smith, and I think a few more. We used to have a restaurant at Union Station called Dierdorf and Hart back when we had the St. Louis Cardinals Football team here.

I was facing this photo of some fools with their pants down showing their Blue undies...I guess. Well...everything else was really classy. Ha...

A refreshing relaxing day!

A Trip to the Mall

2011-08-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

I got brave one day this week and took the kids to the mall. I don't usually like to go very many places with them by myself because they can out run me. Look at the dare devil Miss Maddie here on this jumping thing. The child is only 3 1/2 and she thinks jumping up and down 2 stories high is the best thing ever.

Kayla would too if she were allowed to go on it. She is even more adventurous that her big sister. She was content in the little play area. While we there I saw a man carrying a naked mannequin around the mall. What the heck?!?!? Maybe she was out for some repairs or something. But I couldn't help wondering why he wouldn't have been carrying her through a back door somewhere instead of through the mall. Oh well...who I am to judge about crazy looking things occurring here and there. I walked in late for church last Sunday (I am usually 30 minutes early). I was just going to go to the adoration chapel and stay there because the parking lot was packed and I didn't think I could get a seat without making a scene. I forgot that the chapel is now open and sat down and found myself looking out at everyone in the church, and they were looking at me. Our chapel used to be enclosed before the remodeling. I have never felt so foolish. After the homily I walked out and back in the front door. I thought standing would be better than being so exposed right behind the altar. So embarrassing...

Major Cleaning

2011-08-08T13:56:00.000-05:00

The past couple of weeks we have been exhausting ourselves with some major cleaning of junk removal. Well...not all junk, just things that we probably won't ever use, even though we fool ourselves into thinking we will...someday. We are going to have some new flooring put in the basement and are somewhat embarrassed at the amount of stuff that will have to be moved in order to do this. Even though change is necessary sometimes...it is physically and emotionally draining to throw out so much stuff. I am exhausted. Also the last post I did wasn't finished but oh well...all you nice people read it anyway and left a comment. I have limited myself to maybe 5 minutes to talk about what is going on around here. Thanks for reading this dribble...

Still Young

2011-08-07T16:13:00.000-05:00

Our youngest turned 28 last week and we had a short Birthday celebration. I say short because his roommate called as soon as we started to eat and said the hot water heater was shooting out sparks. The electricity went off and I told them to come back here if the complex owners didn't fix it soon, because we have been having 100 degree days with the lows in the mid 70's. I did not hear back from him, so I assume they fixed it. I know he had to get up and work at 6 am the next day. We usually see him once a week on whatever day he has off.

Family Fun

2011-08-02T09:05:00.001-05:00

Sunday we all got together at our house. Brian's parents were in town, Lou and Eileen. Bob and Lou grilled some meat outside and Maddie wanted to go out and join them. Kayla does not like being left out of anything. She tried to open the door to go out but thank goodness she can't quite do that yet. Well...neither can Maddie. Here is Maddie looking at Kayla... telling her she is too little to come out side right now.

And then giving her a kiss.

Maddie is explaining to her Grandpas that the Momma cat has lots of boobs to feed all of her kittens

She is quite a chatter box and I am sure there were lots of other topics that came up...but I have to get Bob to fill in on that.

This is the Momma that Maddie was talking about. She looks up at me as if to say "Help!" Help is coming, hopefully for this Mom. I am trying to get her in to get spayed in a couple of weeks. And possible find homes for the kitties if there is room at the shelter. I have really enjoyed watching the little kitties play, etc. and I have taken lots of photos of them. So sad that there aren't enough homes for all of these strays. Most of the strays around here seem to do okay. This mom though just looks like she has had enough. I hope I can get her to go in the cage so the volunteer vets can fix her.

Howdy Neighbor!

2011-07-31T15:53:00.000-05:00

Dear God,

Please help me to be a good and decent Christian...one that you can smile down upon and feel proud of. I beg for your assistance at this time, Dear Lord, because my thoughts and feelings are not in sync with what I know they should be. You see....we have this neighbor who moved in a couple of years ago, that I just can't seem to get along with. She complains about everything, and somehow even after... just a few short conversations with her.... here and there...she has managed to suck all the goodness out of me and turn me into a mean spirited witch. When I first met her she complained about all of MY rabbits in the back yard. I don't own rabbits. Then she went on to complain about all of the water in her yard that won't drain, and her first attempt at fixing her problem was to point a large drainage pipe aimed right at our yard. We quietly accepted the rudeness of it all, and said nothing to her. Then she went on and on about how we had the mess in the back by the city sewer drain and told us repeatedly that we needed to fill it in or do something about it. The reason our yard looked the way it did... was because of all the water flowing from her yard and her neighbor's yard....drowning our yard. Finally we decided to work with them both and install a $6,000 french drain system so that they could get their yards to flow into ours and everyone would be happy. Right??? Wrong!!! She did nothing but complain about how the tractors tore up HER yard bringing in our rock and drains. All she wanted was a little hand dug area for her pipes. Again....everything is all our fault...somehow...in her selfish mind. She is now watering our yard because we don't seem to care enough to do it. She just asked me to water her yard next week. I told her if I were home and was able to I would be happy to....but I couldn't guarantee that I would. I asked her to please just not concern herself with our yard. We will handle it when we want to and have the time. As you can see Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all the of the saints in heaven....I need your assistance here. I am trying very hard not to sock her a good one. Perhaps I need to wear a straight jacket when I talk to her.

Thank your Lord...for your many blessings. I know you are not finished "fine tuning" me yet.

My Vacation Week

2011-07-29T17:12:00.000-05:00

I had a week off this week. Bob and I had planned on taking a little trip out east, but something came up at work and he couldn't take off. So that left me with a week to do stuff on my own. I had planned on maybe swimming and reading and just doing whatever I felt like doing at the moment. Here are the events of my week.
First...the photo above is of our back yard that has had a drainage problem for some time. We signed a contract with an erosion company to fix it, about a month ago. They have been working on it off and on for a few weeks and have pushed to get it finished this week. Swimming was difficult because they were right there when I would have wanted to go in. Fortunately they took long lunch hours and there were 2 days that I did get out there.

This is pretty much what it looked like when they finished. There is a long story about this whole neighborhood drainage problem....that would take too long to go into right now. This was just one of the things that occurred on vacation week.

The past two days..I went out shopping trying to buy a couple of relatively inexpensive things to help me feel better about the decor of the house. Not wanting to purchase new curtains...I switched the two that are in the dining room and living room. The dining room was a little too green and I moved the rust curtains in there.

The colors we chose for the living room were Begonia for one wall, here on the piano wall.

And white dogwood for the other walls. The white dogwood turned out looking light pink with a tint of purple. I have been too busy to think about it all that much... for the past couple of years...but now with a week off, I decided to try and do something with it. I looked on the internet searching, for colors that would play down the pink color. The only thing I could find was that green was the complimentary color for pink. I was thinking maybe some tans and peaches might play it down, so I bought the pillows on the couch. The couch is covered with a quilt because it desperately needs to be reupholstered. It is a Chippendale sofa that we bought about 30 years ago, and the 2 dogs that we had... ruined the white fabric. When we chose white....we had no plans for dogs...trust me. We are not sure about getting it spruced up...because we don't know where we are going to retire yet...and don't know what kind of furniture we will have room for. So I have just been trying to make due with what we have, so that it doesn't look too bad when we have people come over to visit. We have 2 Rousseau prints. The one over the couch has the lighter matting and the other has a darker green matting. I can't decide which one looks better over the couch. I have a feeling the darker matted one may win.

I also bought a couple of skinny vases with some color for the entry and the dining room.

I had recovered these kitchen chairs about a week ago, but now they don't go with the kitchen curtains.

Aside from all this stuff...I have been having some pretty intensively painful stomach problems. After an endoscopy I had done a few months ago, I was diagnosed with acute gastritis and a hernia that were caused from having Barrett's esophagus. I finally called my doctor yesterday and he is going to increase the meds for 2 weeks and then if it isn't better in 2 weeks...triple them...and if that doesn't help....surgery. I have tried to follow the gerds diet....but nothing seems to be helping. I hope the increase in meds will. Not looking forward to another surgery.

A plate that I bought that I like.

And last but not least....I have started to take some action on getting the cats in to a Sterile Feral program. We have an appointment for the middle of August for one of them. The mommy that is on her second liter. She has had a total of 7 in the past year that we know of. One of her kitties lounging on the head rest of the lounge chair outside. I was wondering why it wouldn't stay up at the top like it is suppose to!

Hot

2011-07-21T16:44:00.000-05:00

110 degrees

28% humidity

121 degrees heat index

I can't remember when it was this hot. But I just looked it up. On July 14, 1954 it was 115 degrees. I was 3 years old and had just been in St. Louis for one year, having been born in Evansville, Indiana...which I have no memory of. Stay cool blogger friends....

The Little Old Lady From Pasadena

2011-07-18T17:43:00.001-05:00

This morning I took Bob's car into the dealership to have some maintenance work done. While waiting, an elderly lady drove up in a 30 plus year old Mustang. Fancy hub caps and all. I told her she had a nice car when she came in to sit down. She said that every where she goes she usually has someone ask her if she wants to sell it. She said she has had it for 30 years and just had power brakes installed. I had to think for a minute because I am pretty sure cars had power brakes 30 years ago. Her car looked a little like a race car. I know nothing about race cars. I do remember learning how to drive with cars that did not have power anything and no automatics...only stick shifts. That was more like 40 years ago though. Anyway..this little old lady was a doll. She was super friendly and the dealership treated her like she was a queen. There was a TV in the waiting room, which I always find annoying because I would prefer to read a book and the TV is always a distraction. They had the channel on a local News Show. We just had "U2" here last night, and the nice little lady said they were a great group but she didn't think she would stand outside in the heat to see them. I don't even know who they are...how lame is that?!??! I have heard of their name before, but could not tell you any of their music. She seemed to know a lot about them. They appeared at our Busch Stadium and it took them a week to set up for the band. They removed all of the grass on the field. Why...I don't know. I heard it will take another week to put sod down and get it ready for the next game at home. We are having a heat advisory for this week. Today it was 97 real temp. Feels like....150. Well...not quite, but my clothes were wet just getting in and out of the car today. I haven't stepped outside since I returned home.
While I was driving home and thinking about the lady at the dealership...I thought about this song. She was nothing like a crazy driver or anything...that I know of....she just looked a little odd in a souped up car.

In the Good Old Summer Time

2011-07-14T09:31:00.001-05:00

I went to the store one day this week and bought a cheap bird feeder. I could not believe they sell glass bird seeders that look very pretty. In Missouri. We have tornadoes and high winds on a fairly regular basis. Where would one put a fancy glass bird feeder? I managed to capture a female cardinal and her little one on the cheap feeder. Taking photos through the window does not make for a real great photo...but it satisfies my memories of the summer time here at our home.

I swear this is the same bird that got caught in our fireplace a few months ago. Perhaps it came back to say ...Thank You...I am now free and I promise to never fly into your fireplace again.

Oops...maybe I showed this one already.

Mr. Squirrel is feasting on all of the over spill from the wobbly bird feeder.

Mama cat visiting and taking a snooze on the grass.

One of mama cats kittens. We don't see them for weeks and then all of a sudden they show up again. I guess they survive somehow.
Other than observing scenes out the window....I have been spending most days with Katy and Maddie and Kayla. Some stress issues related to my brothers, that I rarely talk about on my blog have been weighing on me...but I am trying to keep my chin up and simply talk to God about it all.

Give Me Those Leads!!!

2011-07-08T20:20:00.001-05:00

I watched a movie last night called "Glengarry Glen Ross" made in 1992 that I had ordered from Netflix. It was packed with some big name movie stars like Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris and Jonathan Pryce. I wanted to watch it because I had a job a long time ago where I was the "Lead Person". This movie brought back so many memories of that awful job. I was actually hired to be the receptionist. Answer the phone, greet people, run errands... like get the boss an ice cream down the road when he had a craving...go get lunch, bring in bagels and donuts for Monday morning sales meetings. The longer I stayed at this company (which wasn't long) the more Mr. Sinclair the boss... liked me and disliked his personal secretary. He never did like her because no one could replace the first secretary he had....and he let everyone know it...especially her replacement, LuLu. This tended to put Lulu in a very foul mood most of the time. The office had 5 women working in the same room. All of us had our specific jobs to do to help run the place. Lulu was really upset when Mr. Sinclair asked me to take over the "Leads". I did a fairly decent job except for once....I sent an agent to a very bad neighborhood. Part of my job was to go sit in a closet and listen to a recording that Mr. Sinclair had recorded that called out to people that were over 50 trying to convince them why they needed his life insurance. He had a very convincing message (telling them that social security would not cover their expenses, and may not even be available when they retired) along with a strong and trusting voice to go with the message. He would ask them to leave their name, address and telephone number and someone would come out to help them. You would not believe how many people actually left their information! I wrote it all down on 3 x 5 cards and filed them into territories to hand out to the agents. There were also the Glengarry leads that Mr. Sinclair had to pay a lot of money for. Where he got this information...I never found out. But those leads were saved for the top agents...and they even had to pay for them. This movie was so much like this job I had it was had to believe. The big difference between my job and the movie was the language. There was one woman that talked pretty much just like the men in the movie and almost everyone was scared of her. The boss liked her because she had been there from the start of the company and because she never talked like that around him. I finally had to leave that job when I realized I was never going to get along with 2 of the women in the office. The foul mouthed one was a bully and I can't tolerate bullies. And Lulu made a mistake on my paycheck and wouldn't fix it because she didn't want Mr. Sinclair to know she had messed up. She said she would buy me something from Office Depot and Mr. Sinclair would never know. I told her I didn't want anything from Office Depot. She just kept ignoring me when I asked her if she corrected my check, and I told her I was going to have to tell Mr. Sinclair if she didn't fix it. I did tell him and she got in trouble and almost fired. From then on she was going to make all of my days there a living hell...so I quit. I have had a few jobs like this one that were just miserable. I am so proud of my daughter for getting a degree and working in a respectable field of work. It must be extremely difficult to work and have young children and never have time for yourself...but she does it. She is a great Mom and a hard worker. I am so glad she didn't have to work for weirdo's like I have had to work with and for. Well...maybe she does but she hasn't told me about any. Lulu and Mr. Sinclair were not the real names of people I worked with by the way. The story was all true (even if it was somewhat boring) I could have spiced it up a bit, but some of it would have been R rated.

Mind Weeding

2011-07-07T15:37:00.000-05:00

Today's mind weeding is about socializing. Something I don't do very often or very well. If it were up to me, I would probably rarely go out and mix and mingle with anyone. Most of the things I really enjoy doing are easily done all by my lonesome. Reading. I used to think going to one of those book discussion groups would be fun. My problem is that I don't see anyone wanting to discuss the books I like to read. Quilting. I have taken classes and go to quilt shows, but I have never joined a Quilt Guild or group. It would be helpful to be amongst a group of women who know more than I do and could share their knowledge with me. But....I just haven't advanced towards actually doing that. Knitting. I like to knit and watch TV. I can not just sit and watch TV. I never could. I have to be doing something else. I could use some help on the knitting though...so that is another "should do someday" thing for me. I think the reason I have been mulling this socializing thing over in my mind is because of all of the internet social networks out there now. I have just been sitting back and kind of.... observing. On Facebook for instance, I have so many news posts that come through. At first I really liked them because I got a short glib of a headline story. Then I made the mistake of clicking on the comments people would leave about that particular news item. Arguing... back and forth... back and forth. So many opinions....all so different. Then they start insulting each other. I can see blood pressures rising just reading this stuff. At least Twitter only allows so many characters per tweet. No long rants on there. Blogging is something I really enjoy. I just don't have as much time for it as I would like to. I have only collected a few nice people... over the past 3 years who read my blog... and leave comments on a regular basis. I am sure if I had more time to spend visiting other blogs I could meet more people and maybe...just maybe..some of them would have some things in common with me.
I just went in today to get a pedi and mani at a different place that isn't very far from me. I really liked the place better than any of the others that I have been to, but now I feel like I sort of locked myself into the lady that gave the manicures, and her and I just didn't have all that much in common. She was very good at what she does, so maybe we don't have to talk much. Or maybe I should learn how to socialize with others a little better. Sometimes I just think it is a real pain to try and find people I really like and really enjoy being with. I have had a few friends through the years that I was excited to get together with....but it just seems as I age...my alone time is just.... comfortable. If I don't change my attitude soon....I may be sorry someday. Now I am threatening myself...and talking to myself. Oh well...that is what mind weeding is all about for me.......

July 4th 2011

2011-07-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

This morning we went to the parade on Main Street for the 4th. Bob is in the parade as a Color Corps for the Knights of Columbus. They usually start off the parade with a group of Veterans and they usually get the most applause. The photo above is of World War II Vets. They have to be in their 90's. I wonder if the lady was a young nurse during the war. I watched an interesting documentary a few months ago called Top Secret Rosies: Female Computers of World War II. I dislike wars of any kind...but I still watch historical documentaries and some movies about wars. The other night I watched "The Hurt Locker". I was amazed at how realistic the film was. And the insanity of the people around the world (suicide bombers, etc.) that roam our earth doing so much destruction. Most of the time though it seems that the men and women that are serving our country are just babies. Their lives are just beginning, 18, 19 and early 20's.

Bob is on the left.

Here is our little Kayla at her first July Fourth Event. She got a flag and a blue lollypop.

Katy and Brian Maddie and Kayla came down.

It rained and we got a little wet, but it was nice anyway.

Yesterday we had an awesome supper prepared by my awesome son-in-law for my birthday. He tried to put 60 candles on the cake and Maddie helped me blow them out. Bobby was standing near by with the fire extinguisher. No one was injured except for Brian, who received some singed arm hairs from trying to light the candles. I am now looking forward to my 64th Birthday so I can hear this song.

The Fixer

2011-06-28T14:58:00.001-05:00

This photo has nothing to do with what I am going to talk about, but sometimes things just sort of blend together whether you mean for them to or not. We will see. I have about 10 minutes to do a blog post and the only thing I could think of to talk about was what I just witnessed at the grocery store. I was getting ready to head to the checkout lane and saw a lady carrying a little boy around maybe 3 years old and she was running to the Pharmacist to tell them she needed help. It looked like the little boy was having a seizure possibly and had then passed out. I wanted to run over to see if I could help. Seriously. I have no medical training. What did I think I was going to do??? I have this character defect that fools even me... into thinking I can actually fix things for everyone. My skills about almost everything are very limited, so I haven't a clue as to why I think I can actually help other people. I would never have made a very good nurse or doctor nor good with emergency situations. Or at least I don't think I would have. I get way too emotional. I observed how calm the Pharmacist was when responding to the lady with the little boy. And I was so happy when I heard the emergency crew sirens coming into the grocery store parking lot, even before I got my groceries in the car. They responded so quickly and I am already a little calmer knowing that he was going to get the best help he probably could have. Whew....so glad that I do not have to deal with emergencies like that.
Now what does that story have to do with the photo above. I think this time maybe a big nothing. Just the first one I pulled off of the files from our trip to the gardens.

Out and About Today

2011-06-25T21:31:00.003-05:00

Today was our 34th wedding anniversary. We decided to go somewhere where we could take photos, and one of the best places for that is our Missouri Botanical Gardens. The show of lilies there today was just beautiful! We have some lilies at our house but I wanted to take lots of photos of these today as a reminder to plant some of these someday.

Several other couples were at the gardens today getting married

and I couldn't resist snapping a few photos.

There was an exhibit of photos in the entry with some really beautiful shots of St Louis Architecture. I found out later after we got home that they are in a book. And guess who will be buying it. Bob and I both really love to admire buildings and churches and the history behind them.

Bob is observing one of the weddings.

They have been working on this building called

The Linnean House

the last few times we have been to the gardens.

Today it was finished. Isn't it beautiful!

This glass ornament on the gate has been there for several years now

and I can't help wondering how it has held up through all of our terrible storms this year.

I wonder if they remove it at the end of the day.

Doesn't the gate look strange from this angle. A little eye trickery.

Hungry koi.

We don't always walk down this way, but we did today.

This cute little house is just a tower to climb up and get a little better view.

There is a maze garden right next to it, but it was very overgrown.

I wondered why...because it is very attractive when it is trimmed.

And they do a great job of keeping the gardens beautiful at all times of the year.

Except maybe in the winter. I am not sure if it is even open in the winter.

I sometimes look at the base of trees and observe how oddly shaped they are.

I know they do a lot of pruning at the gardens...

much more so than most of us

trim our trees at our homes,

so I am not sure

if this has anything to do

with the shape at the bases or not.

Bob didn't know I was snapping photos of him today.

I love this one of him walking through the English Garden.

The day went by way too fast...........

I have never seen a frog this small.....

2011-06-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Bob and I took a drive to 2 family cemeteries. One is in Waterloo, Illinois where his Mother's side of the family lived, attended church, and many family members are buried there right by the church they attended. I happened to look down and see this micro tiny frog. I don't think I have ever seen one this small before. I wasn't even sure if it could be seen on a photo...but you can see it is about the size of the clover. Later we went to the cemetery where Bob's Mom and Dad, 2 sisters, one nephew and our twins are buried. Some day we need to move our twins or buy more plots nearby there. We have put it off for 32 years. We haven't made our final resting place decisions yet. I don't know why we haven't. We sure need to.

On to a nicer topic. This is the sunflower that Maddie and I planted from seed. We were excited to see it blooming out the first day.

The second day it was all fanned out. I have only bought one plant...no... two so far this year. One I have forgotten what it is called. It has purple flowers and is suppose to attract butterflies. It is not doing well enough for a photo yet and I have not seen any butterflies around it. The other plant is a calla lily and it blooms here and there. Our weather is not good.....rain.. storms...just not all that great. We have a wash out area in the back that we have been trying to figure out what to do with. We have had 2 bids on it and it will not be cheap. A few thousand dollars. I wish I had confidence that after it was done it would look good...but I am skeptical, because of the amount of wash off we get from everyone else s land. I have been really tired lately and would love to do nothing but there aren't very many days like that. I think that is why on weekends ....when it is possible we jump in the car and get out of here because there is so much work to do all the time. A vacation is being planned for the end of July though. Looking forward to that!

Dreaming of Retirement

2011-06-14T09:26:00.001-05:00

Our discussion the other day was about whether or not it is possible for us to retire in about 2 years. If the housing market could improve and we could sell our home...we might be able to do it. We would have to live with a lot less money. Only the absolute necessities could be bought. But on the plus side we have so many books already to read and can always go to the library and book fares. And reading all day is what I have in mind for retirement. Also going around taking photos of simple things you can find just about anywhere. It is amazing how much time I can fritter away just doing these 2 things. The photo below is one of three leaves that I found in our back yard that spiders and another very tiny bug were eating away at. What was left was a very beautiful lacy looking delicate leaf. I brought them in and scanned them in the printer and them took it over to picnik and did some techniques...that I can't even remember right now. I just had fun sitting there and experimenting what I could do with it. I imagine that neither one of us would ever have a boring day in retirement...it is just a matter of what we could survive on as far as money goes.

2011-06-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

A poem I read today and liked very much.

The Touch Of The Master’s Hand by Myra Brooks Welch

‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer

Thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But held it up with a smile.

“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,

“Who’ll start the bidding for me?”

“A dollar, a dollar. Then two! Only two?

Two dollars, and who’ll make it three?”

“Three dollars, once; three dollars, twice;

Going for three…” But no,

From the room, far back, a grey-haired man

Came forward and picked up the bow;

Then wiping the dust from the old violin,

And tightening the loosened strings,

He played a melody pure and sweet,

As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer,

With a voice that was quiet and low,

Said: “What am I bid for the old violin?”

And he held it up with the bow.

“A thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?

Two thousand! And who’ll make it three?

Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice,

And going and gone,” said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,

“We do not quite understand.

What changed its worth?” Swift came the reply:

“The touch of the Master’s hand.”

And many a man with life out of tune,

And battered and scarred with sin,

Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd

Much like the old violin.

A “mess of pottage,” a glass of wine,

A game — and he travels on.

He is “going” once, and “going” twice,

He’s “going” and almost “gone.”

But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd

Never can quite understand

The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought

By the touch of the Master’s hand.

Cicadas.....

2011-06-08T17:40:00.000-05:00

Someone you tubed this video of what the cicadas sound like. I saw my first one here in my area today. I have been hearing on the news for weeks now about how bad they are this year. If it is going to be like this video....I am going to have to wear ear plugs. WHAT NEXT?!?!??!

Young or Old.....

2011-06-07T18:58:00.001-05:00

I can't decide sometimes if listening to these songs make me feel young or old. I still remember most of the words to all of these songs, so that kind of makes me feel young, and these songs were popular when I was young....but if you are reading this and don't remember these songs....I feel old.
Just kidding...we are only as old as we think we are..right?

Busy Lately....

2011-06-06T13:57:00.001-05:00

Last week was busy and our weekend was full of activities also. Kayla is taking a nap right now and Maddie is eating some ice cream and watching Care Bears. Kayla is getting her molars in and is suffering somewhat off and on from them. Bobby had to get 2 teeth pulled last Friday, but is recovering pretty well from that. He went back to work the next day in fact. He had a wisdom tooth pulled that was not impacted. I thought for sure he would take after me and Katy and have the ones that were really impacted and thus extremely painful to have removed...but he got lucky. I have had 5 stomach surgeries and none of them were as bad as getting 4 impact wisdom teeth removed....with no pain pills afterwards. Maybe that was why I remember it being so bad. If I had been given some pain pills it may have seemed like a breeze.
We celebrated Katy and Brian's birthday with Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake last night. I told them they will probably always have to share their celebration because their birthdays are only 3 days apart. Bob and I have holiday birthdays so we have to share ours with the holiday. Thankfully our weather has been very nice. Our tiger lilies have bloomed and brighten my day with their beautiful colors. I wish they bloomed longer though. I also wish we could swim all year. I got to swim a couple of times last week and I love to swim. It is the best exercise in my opinion. I see an ice cream mess nearby...so better get off the net for now....

Kids are Fun...

2011-06-02T19:34:00.001-05:00

I am still going through old photos and thought I would share a few on here. Here is one of Bobby's friends jumping in our pool on the last day of their 8th grade graduation..., school uniform and all. Even their shoes..I think. I let them have some fun. I think Katy's class built a bon fire and burned their school shoes. I really liked that they had to wear uniforms and the same shoes. No competition or peer pressure with the clothes.

Another one I liked. Playing Battleship together. We used to play a lot of board games. Those were the days....when you had to sit down and play a game with someone else...before computers and Nintendos, etc.

Bobby was usually doing something crazy for a photo opt. Diving over a couch. He didn't get hurt.

And diving onto bean bags.

If I remember this right....Katy had a friend over and they decided to wrap Bobby up to the chair and then took a photo. It looks like toilet paper...earmuffs and google eyes. I think they also toilet papered the dog that night.

Like my new hat Mom??

I love this picture. Wrapping paper rolls with shoes and socks. Very creative.

And when Brian joined our family... he tried to throw Bobby over a wall.

Not really....it is a short ledge.

Oh to be young and carefree again.....

We are finally having some really nice weather....

2011-05-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went down to Main Street again because they had an Irish Festival on the Riverfront. The lot that I parked at had a memorial area that I had never seen before. It is in a place that is quiet...for those who may want to reflect on what Memorial Day is all about. I very much appreciate the freedom we have in our country, but I still do not like wars. I don't even like having arguments or listening to people having arguments. But I also know that some wars have been necessary, when mentally ill leaders of countries use their power to destroy other human beings. It is just too difficult to stand by and allow this sort of treatment to continue. I certainly am in no position to understand any of the wars we have been plagued with...but I do feel that some were most likely necessary. And for that I do give thanks to all who have served.

The only thing I saw at the festival was these big dogs and

the greyhound adoption booth.

There were plenty of food booths and a band at the stage area. Several tents for Irish clothing and jewelry...but it has been very disappointing these past 2 years. I don't know what is going on. It used to be great. I will have to speak to the Mayor about it.

Today I went out and bought an inexpensive grill that Bob put together here. We have done without one for several years. I just decided we needed one today. He put it all together just in time to barbeque some pork steaks. Our son came over and helped us. He has a recipe he came up with where he rubs the pork with olive oil. Then he puts seasoned salt and seasoned pepper and garlic and lets it set for awhile. He puts Sweet Baby Ray's barbeque sauce on while grilling it. It was very good. We had corn on the cob and baked beans and salad. Apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Then we retired to the family room to watch a movie Bobby brought over called "Hereafter" directed by Clint Eastwood. At first I had a hard time getting into it, but halfway through, it all starts to tie together and I thought it was a really good movie. It started to remind me of a lady I used to work with that had this "gift" for sensing spirits. She was starting to freak me out at times. Once she revealed to me that she had this gift.. I always felt like she knew things about me and others we worked with that were just well....creepy. I quit working there about 7 years ago, so I can't remember all the details. She said she didn't like that she had this gift.... but she couldn't help it. Another lady we worked with had a near death experience when she was in an automobile accident. The night of the accident, a young woman was trying to kill herself by driving over to the other side of the highway and hit head on to this ladies van. Her husband and children were in the van and had minor injuries, but this lady somehow ended up underneath the van, with the weight of the van on her. She said she remembered dying and seeing the lady who killed herself. The police had come to the hospital to take her statement when she got better, and she told them about seeing a lady there and described the clothes she was wearing and what she looked like. No one knew how she could have seen her because she was unconscious, and the lady that died had been taken away from the scene before she regained consciousness. I have read books and heard other stories from people who have had near death experiences. I think it is really interesting. I don't have the "gift" of spirits, but I do get these feelings that are very strong about something that is either happening or is about to happen. Sometimes I am right on with it...but others times not. So I don't really know what to make of all of these things.
I have been spending all of my spare time going through old photos that I scanned in the computer, and I am having a hard time organizing them into folders. Some...I may just share on my blog and at least I will know they are somewhere on the blog. Like the ones of our kids doing silly things. Just hope they aren't reading my blog when I decide to do a post about them.

My Super Fun Day....

2011-05-27T17:37:00.000-05:00

Today the weather was PERFECT for a change. I headed out to go grocery shopping and changed my mind. I grabbed my camera and headed down to Main Street. I strolled around just enjoying the scenery. I ate a light ..quiet lunch all by myself at Braddens. I won't comment on all the photos below. I just wanted to remember this very relaxing day I had today. Take a break from stress and worries and have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

TV Finales...

2011-05-26T09:12:00.000-05:00

This year I watched a new show called Chicago Code and got hooked on it. It came on right after House...one of my favorite shows I thought Chicago Code was a very good show and thought it would be successful...but I just read that they cancelled it after the first year. I can't imagine why. It followed a successful show...it was an interesting show. Too bad...I was looking forward to the next season.

House had me going this year. He fell in love and kicked the Vicodin addiction. I thought they were really going somewhere with his character. Then his relationship ended and he went back on Vicodin and the season finale was not good. But...I have a feeling that he really did not drive his car into Cuddy's house. I think it was just a dream. This show has been renewed. I think the thing that intrigues me about the show House is the research team. Always trying to figure out things about patients that are difficult to diagnose. I think the some of the illnesses are too far out to be believable... but it is still entertaining. I admire Hugh Laurie's character because he hides his English accent so well, and because I heard he used to be a comedian...and is now doing a very serious character. I am not sure why I did this post today...I think I just wanted to talk about something other than the disastrous weather we have had. Yesterday the granddaughters and I spent most of the day in and out of the basement because of tonado warnings. I did not misspell tornadoes....Maddie calls them tonados...and well..it is cute when she says it.

Devastation in Joplin

2011-05-24T14:18:00.000-05:00

It is so hard to imagine what this must be like for those who were affected by this tornado. So many deaths and people unaccounted for. They have asked for only trained volunteers to go there. The news in our country has just been overwhelmed with disasters everywhere, due to tornadoes and flooding. It makes me feel guilty when I have little gripes here and there. And I do have them...daily. Body aches and pains and being tired too often and being overweight are among my biggest ones. These disasters are just awful. My heart really goes out to all those affected by them....in so many ways.

Sedona in the late 80's

2011-05-19T18:45:00.001-05:00

I have been going through some of our old photos that I scanned into the computer last year and have been trying to at least give each of them a name.. to make it easier to find, if and when I have time to group them into a folder. I enjoyed some of these that I took sometime in the late 80's (I think)...of Sedona, Arizona when I went to visit a friend that lives in Scottsdale.

At the time I had never been anywhere much... other than our bordering states, and when I first landed in Phoenix and looked around I thought I had landed on Mars or another planet. I had never seen so much bare earth and large mounds of rocky soil. No grass...very little color. It really took me awhile to appreciate this state's beauty.

I had an excellent tour guide, my friend Eva, who not only drove me all around for days, but who also knew so much about each mountain and what it was called along with some history facts.

I cannot relay that information to you in this post because I have forgotten it all. When she drove me up to Sedona...the mountains there... took my breath away. I couldn't believe the beauty I was experiencing. Through my eyes and deep in my soul.

The red rocks were just stunning to me.

The light that came through and hit certain areas... was unbelievably beautiful.

I have heard that it has become very commercialized since these years. Something I know the area did not want to happen. I have not traveled to very many places in my life yet...but so far at 60 years old Sedona is the most beautiful place I have seen.

More Bird Photos and a Birthday Celebration

2011-05-15T17:54:00.000-05:00

My current hobby seems to be watching the cardinals and trying to get a photo of them. It is a challenge because I have to take the photos from inside the house...through a glass window. I am surprised I have gotten them to turn out as good as these did considering I am using the zoom, cropping and the dirty glass window to deal with. Today we celebrated Kayla's first birthday with family and friends. We had planned on having it at a park...but the weather was pretty cool and rainy so we transferred the location to our house. It was a lot of fun. The house was full of little ones and adults. Here are a few photos.

The Birthday Girl. She looks so much like our Katy at one year old.

Caleb sleeping. I didn't get one of him awake. He is really cute with beautiful light blue eyes.

Fisher and Sawyer.

Grandpa and the Birthday Girl.

Lots of friends and family.

Everyone getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.

It was so nice having everyone over.

Cats and Birds and a Black Swan

2011-05-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

I took a photo of a black swan at the zoo the other day. I am not sure if I have ever seen one before.

This is one of the strays that comes around for food. She is the mother of the ones that we have been feeding since they were small kittens living under our steps. They are all cute when they show up. Maybe one of them could be tamed. But I am not sure. We call him Mr. Hungry. When the weather gets better and I have more time to spend outdoors we will see if we can either find them homes or get them fixed.

This year we have a cardinal nest in the wisteria. We always have cardinals here, but I don't think we have ever had a nest this close before.

I have seen some of the babies.. but have never been able to capture a photo of them.

This is the cat we call Mr. Hungry. He is always at the back door waiting to be fed.

He looks a lot like his mother. I really don't know if this is a female or male though.

He or she is long and skinny.

We could call him Stretch.

He looks pretty comfortable here. Or she. This one may be the one that can be tamed. If so...we will claim him and get her/him fixed and live as an outdoor cat.
Our weather has been rain...rain...and rain. Temperatures have dropped down to high 40's. The furnace had to go back on. Just yesterday it was about 80 and very humid. Happy Sunday!

The Day The Blogs Stood Still....

2011-05-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

I haven't heard what went wrong with blogger yesterday...but after doing some blog hopping I realized it wasn't just me. All "blogger" blogs were reporting problems. I tried to start a post but was unable to... so we shall see how this one pans out. We had a Birthday Supper for our little Kayla who turned one yesterday. Today both Grandmas took them to the Zoo and Katy was able to join us in the afternoon.

Maddie wanted to see the monkeys.

Mr. Toucan

We got to see a peacock spread his feathers.

And Mama and baby elephant.

Baby elephant was taking a bath.

This is Eileen, Brian's Mom (and the girls Grandma)

These photos aren't very flattering of us...but it was HOT and humid and... hey....we aren't movie stars...we are Grandmas. And proud of it!

Blackbird....

2011-05-10T09:28:00.002-05:00

This morning I was looking forward to sitting for a few hours... sipping coffee and reading. I was just settled into my comfy chair when a black bird decided to pay me a visit via the fireplace. We have had this happen a few times over the years and it is always black birds that do this. One year we had 2 of them make their way through the chute (that we thought was closed) and plop down below. Trapped and afraid. I waited until he settled down a bit...then opened the doors and screens. I went about my business and it didn't take too long for him to figure out I was offering him a way to get out of the dark sooty mess and fly away. He flew into the kitchen probably because we have tall ceilings and a ledge. I quickly opened the back door and off he went.
A few years ago... when we had 2 black bird visitors it wasn't this easy. They wanted to fly around the house and hang out for hours.....it seemed. I think Bob got the net for the pool and I had a broom and we were chasing them around the house trying to shoo them out the door. About that time our son stopped by for a visit. We were very focused on our goal of chasing them out with our weapons...so we quickly said Hello and he stood there looking at us with a puzzled look. I don't think he saw the birds right away, so he must have thought we had invented a new game called "chase the old man with a broom and catch the old woman with a net". I don't think he wanted to play. Just another day at the nut house.

Mother's Day was Fun and Relaxing...

2011-05-09T13:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I slept a little late and then Bob and I went to Barnes and Noble sometime around mid day. We relaxed at a table with some magazines and books. I had a smoothie and banana nut muffin and Bob had a sandwich and coffee. I splurged on several magazines because I looked through them all and found many interesting articles that I wanted to read later at home.

I also purchased a book called "facebook me!" by Dave Awl. There were three to choose from. Facebook For the Complete Idiot...(I was pretty sure I was a little beyond that one)....Facebook for Dummies...(this one was very good) but I decided on facebook me!, because it seemed to have more about what I was interested in trying to do on facebook. I have found facebook to be a great tool for getting updates about the things that I am interested in. I have most of the local news channels on there and some of the magazines that I bought. Knitting sites and quilting shows....so many organizations are now using facebook. I have National Geographic and Zoo Borns on there to get their newest info. And because I am Catholic, I have a lot of Catholic sites on there. One of my problems recently is how to show certain people things but not everyone on your list. Everyone on my list may not be interested in what I want to show someone else. So... I found out there is way to do this....and when I am finished doing this post I am going to check it out. I hope to learn a lot more about the best way to use facebook after I read this book. I enjoy keeping in touch with family and friends on there...but I use it more for these daily updates about organizations most of the time.

After Katy got back from what she was doing in the morning, we went to

Laumeier Sculpture Park for an Art Fair. Just us Moms. Poor Maddie wanted to go with us, but Brian told her it was girls day out, for a little while. I heard her say..."But I am a girl too!" She is too young to understand that she really would not have enjoyed doing this. It was really hot and sunny also...but I hate to complain about that with all the storms and rain we have had.

This was an interesting booth. An artist named Jeff Easley.

I think my husband would have liked his work.

It reminded me of Kandinsky.

I am glad that I took this photo.. so that if Bob and I ever redecorate we may keep this artist in mind.

Katy liked this artist a lot. And after I looked at her work and read about her, so did I. I really admire this woman for taking a leap of faith and changing her career from being a lawyer to an artist. She is pursuing her dream....and having a lot of fun doing it.

After Katy and I got back... Bobby was at our house and gave me these beautiful roses for Mothers Day. Bob, Bobby and I went out to eat supper and then Bobby went over to babysit for Katy and Brian so that they could go out to eat for their 7th Anniversary. I couldn't have asked for a better day!

Happy Mommy's Day

2011-05-07T13:28:00.002-05:00

My Mom and I .

1977 when Bob and I got married.

This was taken when Katy graduated from High School in 1998. My Dad wasn't in the best of health then.. and she drove by herself (about an hour away) to attend Katy's graduation. She didn't like to smile very much when she got older because she had some teeth missing. But if she wasn't having her photo taken she laughed a lot in spite of a lot of heart aches and stress for one reason or another.
For some reason I miss her a little more this year than I have in past years. I think about things I wish I had asked her when she was still alive. I wished that I would have taken more of an interest in what her dreams were. I think we did have a pretty good relationship, not perfect, but over all...very good. We both liked to sew and quilt and go to Quilt Shows together. We liked to go out to eat when we could, because we both did our share of making home cooked meals...so going out was always fun. We had a few..." laugh until you almost wet your pants moments"...well maybe a little more than almost...as we aged together. She passed away in 2003 when she was 83 and I was 52. I never called her Mommy...but I like Mom or Mommy better than Mother. Mother sounds so formal. Happy Mothers Day or Mom's Day or Mommy's Day.....!

The Gardens

2011-05-03T00:42:00.000-05:00

I finally got a few photos to load on here. I don't think it is blogger. I think it is something on my computer that I haven't figured out yet. This flower is in the Climatron so I know that it is tropical. I don't know what it is called ...but I love it.

There is an herbal garden that has lots of medicinal herbs and plants and some trees. I had Bob take a photo of this lemon thyme because I want to remember to plant some. If you run your hands over it...the oils stay on your hand for awhile...and it smells so good. I love smells like jasmine, orange, pine, eucalyptus, most all of the herbal smells that are sometimes used in handmade soaps. Having the plants around the house would be even better. I have grown some outside in the past, but I think I will try some indoors. I read at the gardens that roses have a lot of medicinal properties to them, and that just smelling them can improve your mood. I love the smell of our peonies when they bloom. They should be blooming in another week or so....depending on the weather.

Here are some glass colored bulbs in the large fountain in front of the Climatron.

The Japanese Gardens.

It will look very pretty in one more week, when all of the azaleas are blooming.

If we lived closer I would visit here as often as I could. It really puts you in a peaceful state of mind.

No Quilt Show this year.....

2011-04-30T15:52:00.003-05:00

I was not able to attend this year's Quilt Show in Kentucky...one that I have tried to go to for the past 20 plus years. The river was too high to have it at the location they usually have it...so they had to spread it out in various locations and I did not think I would be able to get to all of them in one day. It is rare that you can get a hotel room when the show is there. I heard that there were some people flooded out of their homes, so they needed a room more than we did anyway. So Bob and I went to the Botanical Gardens and took our time walking around. I was going to put some photos up but I have been having a lot of trouble loading photos on blogger for the past few weeks. Sometimes they come up but most of the time they don't. The photo that I did get to come up is of our hallway mirror and a reflection of a chair we have had for about 34 years. I watched the news finally as I was catching up on some ironing today. The tornado in Alabama was just awful. And the deaths of over 300 people so sad. The world has sure had some awful disasters from earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes and floods this past year. It makes missing a Quilt Show seem so trivial...

The Ugliest Hats I Have Ever Seen...

2011-04-29T21:35:00.006-05:00

PRINCESS LETIZIA

Not this one of course. This was the only pretty hat I saw from the Royal Wedding. We were gone all day and I came home to take a quick look on the internet so see whatever I could find about the wedding. I think it was on People.com that I saw all of the hats. What were they thinking?!?!?!?! Those things looked dangerous! I guess I just do not have the same taste in fashion as some folks.....

The bride and groom were beautiful!

After Wil's comment I looked for Princess Maxima at the Royal Wedding and found this photo. I hope this is the right one. People.com didn't show all of the hats...apparently. And there were a few others I saw that were pretty. Princess Maxima's hat is beautiful and matches her outfit. I also saw her wedding dress while I was looking and her dress was beautiful. She has very good taste. Thanks Wil for leaving the comment. I always learn things when I visit Wil.

Rain....Floods......road closings..

2011-04-27T18:20:00.001-05:00

I am glad that I got this photo of our dogwood tree before the rain waterlogged it....... and everything else. I look forward to going to a Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky every year. We were going to go on Friday. The Convention Center where it is held is very close to the Ohio River and the water level has risen so much that they are not having it there this year. The show is going to be going on, but it will be spread out in a few different locations. I just don't think I want to go. This weather is really bumming me out.......

Just having some fun...

2011-04-26T19:53:00.000-05:00

I was going to do a blog post about all the beautiful weddings we have attended in the past 7 years....just because of the Royal wedding coming up this Friday....but I was unable to locate my photos. It is unfortunate that I can not find them because Royal wedding or not...we have attended some really beautiful ones. Our daughter and son-in-law's was very beautiful. Now you would think that I would have those wouldn't you? Well....I do... but they are not scanned into my computer....and I am too lazy to locate them right now.

While I was looking for them...I ran across these, About a year ago, I got an iPhone and one of the first apps that I downloaded was one called "Old Photo Booth". The young man on the left is our son at a restaurant. Little did he know that I was going to turn him into the fella on the right. I think that is suppose to be a Godfather gangster look. It is hard sometimes to line the face up with the old photo.

My next subject was our son-in-law...who gladly posed for the photo. I turned him into a hippy professor?

These four are my hubby with various looks. I think my favorite are the bottom two. I crack myself up every time I look at them.

I would like to say that these are from the old photo booth...but they are my high school photos. Dig the white glasses. I think I should let old photo booth use these.

The one on the right is my safari look. Out of Africa. Or maybe Beekeeper?

I have no idea what these are. But the one on the left looks very much like my white glasses look.
The weather has been so lousy here...and I am beyond exhausted...so I just thought I would try and give some of my readers a little laugh.

New Camera

2011-04-23T18:20:00.000-05:00

Japanese Maple

I have been contemplating buying a new camera for a long time now. I have read about what different cameras do and don't do, and asked everyone I know what kind they have and if they like it, etc. I finally became so overwhelmed at trying to pick one...I just went with a Sony Cybershot for around $200.

It has a 25 mm wide angle lens and an optical zoom 10x with a panorama and a HD movie feature.

I went outside and tried it out...while we had a brief moment of dry weather. I am pretty happy with it.

I think one of my favorite features is going to be the zoom. I took the one of the cat in our gully from a distance and I think it turned out great. It also has smart auto, which for me will be a big plus. I used to try to use the different settings on my other cameras and did not have all that much luck with them. Tomorrow I will get to try out the movie part with the babies having their Easter fun. Have a wonderful Easter!