the lemonade stand

2012-02-16T15:40:00.004-05:00

Ahhhh, we're moved into our new house and it feels good to be home. Beth Ann and I were riding in the car last week and she said, "I can finally say 'Let's go home,' and it really is my house," which pretty much sums up how we all feel.

I've now got to learn all the new night sounds. And true to form, we move in and two days later, Mark flies off somewhere. So I'm lying there listening to new night noises, not knowing what's normal and what's something I should be worried about.

Valentine's Day has come and gone. My favorite part of it is the day after. I pop into Publix and pick up half price M&M's to bake into yummy cookies. The girls have come to appreciate this little tradtion as well. And even help bake. So's evvverrryybody's happy!

2012-01-22T22:04:00.002-05:00

Yawn, it's getting late and tomorrow is a school day for us, but I'm playing catchup with photos. The girls are settling in, making friends, and Beth Ann brought home her first report card since we left BIS. I'm proud of her, she did well, even after one of her teachers insisted she be tested on everything her class had covered so far this year. Hello she wasn't here when that material was covered.

I've been enjoying the work out room here in the apartment complex. Met some nice folks too while working out. Helps to have someone to talk with while sweating. Makes the time fly by.

2011-12-04T18:07:00.002-05:00

So glad to be back here in the good ole USA. Leaving Germany was bittersweet. Saying goodbye to friends we've made has been hard. Coming home has been a revelation. We see things with "new" eyes. Parking lots and parking spaces seem huge! Throwing away a plastic container in the regular garbage bin is hard; I keep wanting to recycle it. Driving through the Eastern Shore Shopping Center and looking at all the shops and neon seems even more hectic. It'll take some getting used to. I wasn't prepared for that, I thought we'd just slide back in to our old routines, but we haven't so far.

2011-11-05T03:13:00.003-04:00

Guten Morgen, meine blog! Just got back from our first trip to The City of Lights:

Paris

Is it possible to fall in love with a place? If so, I certainly did. We all did. We rented an apartment in Montemare right near the steps of Sacre Coeur. Boy, did I come to hate those steps! We were on the "wrong" side of the hill, ie, the working man's part of Paris, not the touristy side; which turned out to be an awesome part of our French experience. We got to know the neighborhood. My husband quickly become one of the regulars at the local bakery and was on a first name basis with the baker a few days into our stay. I got to chat with the Fromage maker in her shop and ask questions while tasting little snips of heaven. We were quickly smiling and joking with the members of the Pakistani family that ran the fruit and legumes stand near our apartment. All in all, it was an experience I will treasure. We didn't just visit, we were immersed in the life of the city.

2011-10-07T07:23:00.002-04:00

In Love With Munich

Scrapped a LO using photos from Munich. Used a new kit - Wonderful You by Laura Burger and Ravelle Scherer

sold at Pickleberry Pop
Here

2011-09-30T14:39:00.004-04:00

Bonn is expecting quite a crowd this weekend. It is the 20th anniversery of the Unification of Germany and Bonn is hosting this celebration. I've noticed lots of helicopters flying over. That and the tons of traffic.

Here's a LO from our trip to Austria.

I scrapped it using a new kit by Laura Burger, Take a Step Back- Relax, and it's available at Pickleberry Pop. Take a Step Back Relax

2011-09-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

It's a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. I asked a local German if this was typical Fall weather for here. He told me yes and that they even have a saying for this time of year, "Old Lady Summer". Something to do with spider webs in the trees and bushes covered with dew or light frost in the mornings. Reminding you of old ladies with their grey hair and shawls. Very colorful imagery.

Here's my LO using Laura Burger's new kit, They Grow Up 2 Fast, available at Pickleberry Pop.

2011-08-31T15:02:00.004-04:00

Not enough hours in the day to get through my to-do list. This month flew by without a second glance. School started for the girls and that routine is back. With the construction at the school, parking is even tighter. I'm glad we avoid some of that for the year.

Another LO from our trip this summer.
Salzburg Used Laura Burger's kit, Celebration of Life, available at Gotta Pixel.

2011-08-25T13:34:00.001-04:00

A LO using photos from our trip to Austria.

Credit:
Laura Burger and Dancing Princess collab called Boho Dress.

2011-08-23T15:16:00.002-04:00

I'm grinning from ear to ear. Happy as a clam! (Why would a clam be happier than your average Joe, anyhow?) Gotta a wiggle in my walk and a giggle in my talk. Life is full of surprises and I was reminded of that again recently.

2011-03-18T17:16:00.002-04:00

Finished a LO using photos from a trip last week to Brussels. Love that city! Gotta love a place that takes chocolate to an art form, makes lacy pretties, and is world-renowned for it's waffles. I would move there if I could.

My LO uses Laura Burger's new kit, Une Paraite Printemps – A Perfect Spring Day.

Early Morning in Brussels

2011-03-06T15:31:00.002-05:00

Got to see a German Mardi Gras parade today. Quite a few differences between a Strypers parade in downtown Mobile and Bad Godesburg's Karneval parade today. The most noticeable difference was the crowd itself. Most people wore costumes and painted their faces. In fact, the crowd was as interesting to watch as the parade itself. This year's big hits were pirates, clowns (perennial favs), and bumblebees. An entire family of bees stood next to us, Mom, Poppa, fier kinder, Oma and Opa and Tante. I've never seen so much yellow and black so closeup in my entire life before today.
The other difference I noticed right away was what was thrown. Kitchen sponges, packs of tissues, and fresh tulips, along with tons of candy. Bags of potato chips seemed to be the crowd's favorite, but most were happy with whatever sailed their way.

It was a very family-oriented where we stood. Mostly families with kids- very quick, very nimble kinder. I could barely watch the parade for people-watching. I got beaned in the kopf by a very big, very hard, candy bar. Who knew Karneval could be so dangerous?

2011-02-28T15:48:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Poland. What a trip! I think I ate my weight in pierogies. Not to mention got to try some borscht soup. And began my collection of bea-you-tiful Polish pottery. I'm pretty sure I'll need to go back at least one more time.

2011-02-19T08:57:00.002-05:00

Last Wednesday afternoon I did something I never thought I'd do. I spent $5.00 on a box of PopTarts. Amazing what we parents will do to stop our children's blatant begging and pouting.

Every Wednesday after school, a van with food items from the USA and England parks in the International School's parking lot. Judging by the long line of kids waving Euros, it's well worth the company's time to provide this curbside service. And I waded through this sea of Skiddles-starved tikes so that I could haul back a box of over-priced breakfast pastries. Pastries that I personally never cared for, even when I was a kid. Crazy, huh?

2011-01-25T05:01:00.003-05:00

Made a new LO using Laura Burger's new kit, Wintry Bliss. I used photos taken from our balcony. You can see the castle in Bad Godesburg. Enjoyed clustering with all the different snowflakes included in the kit. It makes a kit so much more fun to use if there are different versions of a similar element included in the kit. Laura is very good about doing that which makes her kits a pleasure to scrap with.

Winter Beauty

2011-01-17T05:09:00.002-05:00

I found two new blogs today that I know I'll visit again and again.
The first is Simply Recipes. The braised leeks recipe caught my eye right away. I'd seen the fresh leeks here in the grocery stores, but had been a bit leery to do anything with them. Last Monday, I worked up the nerve to take 3 home and make soup with them. The prep work for them reminds me of turnip greens. Lots of rinsing in the sink with a mound of sand in the bottom between washings.
Here's the link to the Simply Recipes blog:
Simply Recipes

The second blog I found through a post Yolanda made on FaceBook. It's called
Joy Studio. It's a mixture of some creative projects, delicious recipes, and some inspirational chatting about faith and matters of the heart. All together a terrific blog to visit! You can find it here Joy Studio

2010-11-08T08:12:00.002-05:00

I was a little late to my German class this morning. The street crew had me blocked in my driveway by this huge truck parked behind my car. Maybe I've mentioned it, before? No, then allow me a few moments to vent, bitte. See, the city has decided that my neighborhood's sewer and water lines need to be replaced. One day last August I came home to find a letter informing me that workers would be replacing the pipes for my block. This same letter said the whole thing would take about a year! So, now, we're about 4 months into this project and it is awful. Huge pieces of pipes, big, noisy machines ripping up the street, the sidewalk, the driveways. Bulldozers and dumptrucks parked in the road, on the sidewalk and in your driveway. The parking situation on my street has never been ideal, but now it's even worse. And I have the pictures to prove it. See, below.

2010-10-16T08:34:00.003-04:00

I'm exhausted and I haven't even left the house yet. Getting ready for our trip to Rome has me beat. Got a couple of loads of laundry to finish, empty out the fridge, collect the garbage, pack suitcases and we're outta here. I need this break very much.

To prep for this trip, dh suggested we grab a couple of bottles of chianti, kick back and watch all of "The Godfather" movies. I countered that romantic and titillating suggestion with my own, keep the wine, swap Marlon Brando for Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn and Tom Hanks. Pick up a nice antipasta platter at the local Rewe and we'd have a date. In between late loads of laundry, packing, charging camera batteries/cell phones, and looking for missing items, we may actually get to watch a movie.

After another marathon session of prepping for a trip, I once again ask myself, "Why do I wait to the last minute to get so much of it done?" Good question, and I have no answer, no answer that makes much sense. Invariably we end up running to a pharmacy for some last minute items we forgot, toothpaste, bandaids, Tylenol, something I didn't pack the last trip. And then dh wonders why my suitcase is 10 pounds over the limit... cause it's got all those little extras stowed in there. And the pattern repeats itself, each and every vacation.

2010-10-02T06:07:00.005-04:00

A big wave and "Hello" to Mona, Philip, Hannah and Sammy. Hugs to Sammy for being brave! Hope he feels better soon.

Tell Mark to squeeze as much of our shopping list into his suitcase as possible! We need that stuff, can't find it here in Germany! And Beth Ann said to say Hello to Hannah!

Life's been busy in little stops and starts around here. One day drags by, and the next is gone in a blink. Grace went to The Hague this weekend to play in a volleyball game. I still can't get used to my little girl going off like this. I have mixed feelings about it. Yeah, yeah, it's a great opportunity, but... I worry, cause that's a mom's job, right?

Finally having time to scrap again. Made a quick little hybrid album for myself. Isn't it cute?

Cover of Album, digital graphics "Sweet Memories" by Laura Burger

Back of Sweet Memories Album

One of the pages from this summer

2010-08-18T05:46:00.003-04:00

We went to the orientation program at Bonn International School this morning. It was very well organized. It was nice that the girls could meet their teachers, learn their way around the school, and ask questions. I've been very impressed with the staff and facilities. Looking forward to a good school year.

I finally got pics from our Heidelberg trip emailed to family. Here's a look if you missed them.

The castle has a tower section that has fallen. You can see that behind the girls.

Beth Ann enjoying her ice cream.

2010-08-09T09:10:00.003-04:00

It's been a long, busy summer. Getting settled in the new house has kept us running. Phone lines and internet were sporadic at best. Hopefully, we've connected things together so that they'll stay together more than a day or two. It'd be nice if life hummed along for a while without us needing to throw time, elbow grease and/or big chunks of cash at the sundry problems that seem to be popping up lately.

Sunday night we got back from a few days in Heidelberg. It's a lovely city on a river with a big schloss (castle) at the top of a hill. You can walk up the very steep hill for free and then pay for admittance to the castle or you can do like we did: buy the combo ticket that shoots you up the mountain in a tram and then includes walking thru the castle as a free bonus. Not exactly a head thunker for us, but you'd be surprised how many people we passed trudging up while we were walking back down to the car.

2010-06-21T13:07:00.002-04:00

Meet our friendliest new neighbor. Whenever we grill or eat outside she shows up double quick. According to Beth Ann, the cat has "dibs" on the little wrinkled nibs at the end of her bratwursts. No small wonder the cat's adopted us.
Which brings me to the German word for the day - gegrillt, which means grilled. Used in a sentence like this, we gegrillt brats for dinner and the cat got one too.

2010-06-20T04:35:00.006-04:00

Dh made chocolate pancakes for us this morning. It being Father's Day, that seems backwards, but he insisted and the girls were only to happy to oblige. He's talking about a new hedge trimmer as his Father's Day gift. The house has quite a few hedges and borders that will need to be kept back along the walkways. So we're giving him a voucher good for one hedge trimmer to be bought later.

I'm posting a couple of more pics from our recent trip to Amsterdam. The flower market was beautiful. Stalls and stalls of flowers in a rainbow of colors. Grace took this picture.

I leaned out the window during the boat ride to take this photo. In the picture, notice the deck of the houseboat. It's just past the bridge over the canal. Some of the houseboats were dilapidated and others were sumptious. Many used potted plants as means of privacy. What an interesting lifestyle that must be!

I like this pic of Grace. She's seated in front of a mural in the cafe we ate lunch. We ate on the second floor of this funky little cafe. It had a great view of the neighborhood with big wrap around windows.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there who've been a part of our lives. We miss you and hope you'll come visit us!

The girls pointed out to me that I'd missed a few days doing my German Word of the Day, so I'll pick that back up. Today's word is wunderschön. It means beautiful - as in, "Have a wunderschon day." Since I don't have a German keyboard, I don't have the convenience of easily typed umlaut accent marks (two small dots over a letter) and this makes some of the German words incorrect. I'll try to remember the coding for Windows to include the umlaut, but the colon following the vowel is much easier for me. So if you see that, remember that this will be my lazy way of denoting the umlaut here on my blog.

2010-06-18T04:27:00.006-04:00

So far it's been a dreary cold morning. We'll be lucky to see it hit 70 degrees. Not a pretty day to go do anything.

Here's a few more pics from our trip to Amsterdam.

We ate breakfast at the hotel. It was a well stocked buffet and the best part was the self loading cappuchino machines for guests. The girls liked the poffertjes (miniature pancakes) and loved the chocolate flakes (called chocoladevlokken). Then we'd head out to a museum or tourist site. We'd come out, pick out an interesting place for lunch and eat nearby. Then more sightseeing with a stop at a local grocery store on the way back to our hotel room. Dinners were fresh fruit, local specialities (such as Edam and Gouda cheeses, ham, fresh bread) in our hotel room or a picnic at the nearby park, Vondelpark.

For lunch one day we had pannenkoeken (pancakes). I had spekdik (a Northern variant with bacon and cheese) while the rest of the crew had a sweet pancake with fruit or chocolate and whipped cream. Beth Ann had bananas and chocolate, Mark had gooseberries and Grace had chocolate and ice cream. We were all rolling out the door with smiles on our faces.

2010-06-17T14:56:00.005-04:00

Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Amsterdam. We had the most gorgeous weather during our stay. Blue skies, 72 degrees, and sunshine most of the time. One morning was cloudy and drizzly, but we spent that in the Van Gogh Museum, so the rain wasn't a problem. And when we came out, it had blown over leaving us with a nice, although windy afternoon.

We drove from our short-term rental house through the The Netherlands to reach Amsterdam later that afternoon. The traffic around Dusseldorf was horrible. If it weren't for that, the drive would have been short and sweet. About halfway to Amsterdam, we saw a sight that made Beth Ann yell out - the Golden Arches. Since we wanted a quick lunch, I admit that we ate there. It was faster than any other food place I've been to in all of Europe. I felt guilty eating at Mickey D's with all the gourmet wonders nearby, but ya can't beat quick and cheap.

Amsterdam is an easy city to visit. Many of the people speak English. And more importantly, are willing to attempt it. The hotel's tv even had stations in English. I'd not realized how much we all missed our dearly loved Boob Tube. We loved any program that they aired, even ones we would have skipped a month ago. Does that mean we've been Boobless? Or Tubeless? And will this dry spell raise our IQ's? Or are they permenently stunted by the years and years of tv watching back home? Time will tell.

We hit the Anne Frank house first. I think I was the most excited to see it. I can remember reading the book as a little girl and impressed that a girl my own age and like me in a few ways, had been through so much, and had touched so many lives.

We were going to skip the canal boat ride. It seemed like such a hokey, touristy thing to do. But Mark and Grace had wanted to ride a double decker bus one afternoon while Beth Ann and I did something else. So Mark had bought some combo ticket that included the boat ride. They missed the last boat of the day, by only a minute or two. So we all went back the next morning, bought two more tickets, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hokey or not, it was fun! And I didn't expect to be taken out into the main harbor as part of the boat tour.

2010-06-12T15:34:00.002-04:00

Today we went to the school for International Day. Parent volunteers set up stands and prepared examples of their native country's cuisine. Tickets are sold and you buy items based on the number of tickets it's worth.

In spite of the drizzle, there was a good sized crowd. Several booths caught my eye. Beth Ann bought her meal from the USA booth. I think her picky palate motivated her more than her sense of patriotism. The American stand was selling hot dogs, bags of chips and Dr Pepper in cans. It was the first time the girls had seen Dr Pepper over here and they jumped on it immediately.

My favorite was the Australian booth with skewered shrimp on the barbie and cold glasses of white wine to go with it. The German brats that were grilling at the Deutsch booth smelled good too. It was a nice way to meet people and learn more about their culture. Mark and I already planning our contribution to next year's USA booth.

2010-06-11T16:39:00.002-04:00

We spent the afternoon shopping in Siegberg. We found a bookstore that carries a small section of books in English, so the girls each picked out a book. Then we ate dinner at a little outdoor cafe. Dh had pan-grilled trout. I had sauteed veggies, covered with a layer of farmer's cheese and popped under the broiler long enough to get the cheese toasted to bubbly perfection. Sitting on top of all this yummy goodness was a fried egg, with the yolk cooked to just the right point- not runny, but not rubbery either.

After dinner we stopped at the grocery store. It was crazy. The first game of the World Cup is tonight and people were in a hurry to load up for the weekend and see the game. On top of the usual housefraus were folks not normally in the grocery store - clumps of rowdy young men. They seemed to be buying mostly beer, brats, and bread. And more beer. It reminded me of Mardi Gras.

Right now, neighbors near us have been tooting these World Cup horns that are for sale all over the place. It's funny seeing these groups of people walking along and every so often out blats this loud sound that's a mix between an untuned trombone and the Bronx raspberry. It's after 11 PM and we still hear one every so often. A little piece of me is hoping Germany goes out early, if only so I can get some sleep before midnight this week.

2010-06-06T10:05:00.003-04:00

German beds are different. For starters, there are no boxsprings, just a frame with a mattress on it. The mattress rests on slatted bars held to together by belted webbing strips. It reminds me of a waterbed, the way the mattress sets inside the wooden bedframe. I washed the mattress covers and hung them outside over the children's playbars to dry. The drying rack can't handle the weight of the wet covers. Even the mattress covers are different. The entire mattress fits inside it, like a letter inside an envelope.

When we first got here, I thought the sheets weren't clean, so I asked Dh to wash them, but the funky smell persisted. Yesterday, I flipped the mattress over to find a huge vomit stain. No wonder I kept smelling something gross, even with the new clean sheets.

So today we hosed off the mattress itself, the cover is washed and new sheets are going on. Hopefully the funky smell is history!

We just barely managed to get the covers off the kids' play equipment when this afternoon's rain storm passed through. It blew tons of cottonwood pollen into the house. Big tufts and wads of cottonwood seeds are all over the place. The closest comparison I can think of would be the clumps of oak pollen that covered our gutters when the oak trees were in that season. But this is lighter and fluffier, so it floats down the street or all over the room. Beth Ann has been chasing tufts around the house.

This brings me to my German word for the day. In fact, I have two words today, because of all that's happened recently. First, "ver kehrt" which means wrong -upside down - inside out. As in, I discovered a nasty surprise when the mattress was ver kehrt.
Second, "ver greifen" which means to lay hands on. As in, I would dearly love to ver greifen whomever is responsible for the nasty surprise on the mattress and simply flipped it over to avoid dealing with it.

2010-06-05T12:07:00.003-04:00

My Deutsch word for the day is Kugelschreiber, which is a writing pen. I needed one today and couldn't find it. I also needed one at the airport and didn't have a Kugelschreiber handy. After a long search through my Super-Sized Purse, I ended up borrowing a stranger's Kugelschreiber.

It's been another stunningly beautiful day. It warmed up to about 84 degrees, a regular heat wave, which required a visit to a local indoor/outdoor shopping center to acquire a floor fan. My Facher is blowing on me as I type this. It feels good (gut).

Tonight's dinner is an assortment of frozen pizzas from the local grocery store, along with a small salad. Not very good for you, but I still need to figure out how the washing machine/dryer works. I've got a mountain of dirty laundry to tackle.

2010-06-04T16:36:00.003-04:00

Today is my birthday! Dh and I dropped the girls off at their new school this morning. This way they could get an idea of what to expect next August. Then we visited our house while it was being remodeled. Still looks a long way from finished!
Today I also learned about garbage here and what we do with our garbage. More to follow on this topic later... it's late, Beth Ann wants on, and garbage in Germany is complicated.

2010-06-03T12:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday it was late and I had jet lag. I forgot to wish my sweet girl happy birthday. Or as they say over here, Hast Geburtstag Alle Guten Wunsche!

Dh was thoughtful and picked up some exotic chocolate concoction from the grocery store, along with candles. We grilled brats outside and sat on the patio to enjoy our birthday feast. With twilight not coming til after 10 PM, it was a pleasant evening to sit and celebrate quietly.

Tonight, Dh is grilling hamburger patties and I've roasted potatoes in the oven. It's even warmer today, so we can sit out without a quilt wrapped around us. In fact, today was gorgeous. And a state holiday, so we walked along the Rhine River this afternoon and stopped for wine and fresh strawberry cake at a local cafe.

The riverside was crowded with bike riders and sunbathers. There was tons to see and do. So far, I'm loving what I've seen of the summers here!

2010-06-02T16:30:00.002-04:00

We made it to Germany and are in the temporary house. The flight is long, but flying Business Class makes all the difference in the world as far as comfort. Being served mimosas before take-off and being able to put your feet up on the foot rest are such nice touches. But I'll bet you can see the negative after effect of this experience... yep,
the girls and I never want to fly economy class again. Snort...

Frankfurt Airport must have been designed by Three Stooges, Inc.
To get from the International Concourse to the rest of the gates is a long and difficult process. Then to add to the difficulty, some lame-brained muckety muck decided that travelers do not need the use of the baggage carts. Huh? You should have seen all of us trying to sling 14 pieces of luggage into the monorail before it left the station. I almost left a child, but did get all the bags in before the doors automatically close. Then there's about 8 sets of escalators we had to navigate with all this luggage piled up on carts we procured on the other end of the monorail ride. All in all, it was quite an adventure, with me ending up on the bottom of one escalator almost being crushed by a pile of bags, people, carts and God knows what else. This promises to be an interesting summer as we learn our way around.

2010-05-07T11:40:00.004-04:00

Hurrah! We've found a place to live in Germany. I knew the moment I saw the listing that it was the right place for us. I told dh to go ahead and sign the contract. Don't bother to send photos, just get it. It's nice. Hardwood floors, a wrap-around balcony on the second floor, pretty view, good neighborhood, a full cellar, a garage, and a dishwasher.

For a long time I've been wanting an E-Reader, and I finally got one. I love it.
It's the Nook put out by Barnes and Noble. I compared it to the Kindle and decided this was the one for me. I considered an IPad but those things are scarcer than hen's teeth. The Nook will do me just fine.

My New Baby

2010-04-28T22:46:00.002-04:00

I'm happy to say that my friend, Debbie, is now selling her digital designs at Digital Scrap Cafe That's a little sample of her kit, "Cosmic Swirl" in my blog header. Ain't it something?! Love the textures and detail put into her work!

2010-03-30T10:02:00.001-04:00

Beth Ann and I have been enjoying our last days of homeschooling by doing some classwork outside on pretty days. I took this pic while we were reviewing botany terms on the pear tree's blossoms. She remembered the terms stamen, pistil and sepal, making her momma proud!

2010-03-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

We pick up Dh from the airport later today. I'm glad to have him home, but I've gotten used to him not being here. That situation has it's perks too. For example, I now sleep slapdab in the middle of the bed. And I cook what I want for dinner, and often, don't cook at all. The girls and I are fine with soup/salad combos or salad/sandwich combos, which makes my life easier. Dh would squwak like a chicken if I served that as dinner.

2010-03-18T20:03:00.003-04:00

What a dilemma! Dh's asked me to pick where we spend our summer vacation this year. My top choices are Florence, Venice, Paris, Rome or London. I was leaning heavily in favor of a Venice/Florence combo, but friends and family think Rome is the obvious choice. I borrowed my mom's books on Rome and am getting more and more excited over the idea of seeing this beautiful city. It's a tough choice for me, though. I want to see them all! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

2010-03-14T13:04:00.003-04:00

Sometimes something extraordinary happens in another person's life and it touches your own. This morning I had this happen. Our subdivision is named "Lakeland." It was the first neighborhood on this county road to be named that. Within the last 5-6 years, at least two other developers built subdivisions next to this one and for some strange reason, named those "Lakeland something or other." This morning, this pointless redundacy may have cost a man his life.

I'm sitting here watching ambulances, police cars, fire trucks and other emergency response vehicles fly by with sirens blaring. Evidently, more than one has responded because of confusion and uncertainty over the location of the emergency. Why? Cause of the address's name. That is so pointless.

I thank God that this wasn't a 911 call made from my own home. The "What if's..." are still playing through my head. I'm glad I have my alarm system and private home security company monitoring for our safety.

After dealing with the paint crew's thievery, I've realized that in all likelihood, if they return yet again, I may have to deal with them before the police can get here. This morning's confusion has cleared any lingering doubts. I am prepared to do whatever needs to be done to protect my children and my home.

2010-03-10T22:36:00.002-05:00

Another warm Spring day. Makes me want to spend the day planting flower bulbs.
This card reflects how I feel:

2010-03-08T20:32:00.001-05:00

Today was gorgeous! Blue skies, light breeze, sunshine and warm. I am ready for Spring! It's been a long, chilly winter, and I've got the power bill to prove it. Looking forward to our last Spring here in south Alabama for a good long while.

2010-03-07T22:01:00.002-05:00

Spare time has been a rare commodity around here. After being sick for so long, it was nice to sit down and scrap today. I haven't done that in forever.

2010-02-17T19:56:00.002-05:00

I've been craving Yakitori. Delicious bites of marinated chicken that's been skewered and grilled. My first time to try it was a little mom and pop place at the foot of the Fremont Bridge in Seattle. I'd walk there from my duplex. The shop was tiny, about the size of my current walk-in closet. You'd smell the chicken grilling from the intersection. I'd order my dinner, lean against the brick wall and check out the choppers parked at the curb, waiting for their owners inside the bar next door. On nice warm evenings (a rarity for much of the year) I'd walk down to the ship canal and sit and eat while watching the boat traffic that was headed to the locks, spilling soft steamed white rice down my shirtfront, but not caring a bit.

Yeah, I definitely want me some yakitori, with a side of waterfront view.

2010-02-13T19:00:00.004-05:00

Gong Xl Fatt Ca!

The new Chinese lunar year began and I'm celebrating by eating a moon cake and pot stickers. Yum!

There's been quite a bit going on lately. In January we hired a contractor to paint the living room, foyer, dining room ceiling, staircase and part of the upstairs hallway. Instead, we turned into an unofficial WalMart for the sticky-fingered band of crooks. It's amazing what all they took! One of the women, Gayle, has ties to the home schooling community, and she even took some of our books and curriculum. It's bad enough to have things stolen. But to add insult to injury, everything she painted looked like a 55 year old alcoholic who didn't want to be here, had painted it.

Janet, the forewoman of the crew, took Beth Ann's new coat that was a Christmas gift. In fact, that's one reason the pickings were so plum here - it was right after Christmas. While the woman was working, the nutjob mentioned she took 5 times the normal dosage of Welbutrin. Now I see why. It would a ton of drugs to knock out a rhino, if my conscience had that kind of thievery to wipe out, to get a decent night of sleep. Her relative, the elementary school teacher, who received all my children's hardbound books, has no idea that the stuff her aunt gives her for her classroom, is stolen, I'll bet. Or maybe she does, after all, some of the books were autographed/dedicated to my girls, with their names in them. Who in their right mind gives away an autographed Jan Brett book? And what kind of teacher takes it under such fishy circumstances?

Big Ricky, who's wife has recently left him - was the muscle for the gang. It was Ricky who came out to the garage that Thursday afternoon to beat the snot out of Beth Ann and me if I'd noticed all the loot in the back of their vehicles before I came in the house. It still gives me shivers at night, to think of what he was prepared to do, if I'd confronted them about what was missing.

Al, the slick, greasy Elmer Gantry of the bunch, told whoppers involving his being given money by strangers whom he befriended. While his "Pay It Forward" stories had the strong stench of BS, they were entertaining to hear. And I hope he's right, I hope some higher power out there does indeed, pay it forward to what he (and the rest of the crew) deserves.

Moral to the story:
Listen to that little voice that whispers to you. When someone gives you that icky feeling when you're around them, listen to your gut.

2010-01-05T23:08:00.002-05:00

2010 is going to be an exciting year for us. Big changes coming with this new year. With prayer, patience, and positive attitudes I think we can ride it out and learn a thing or two along the way. Plan, anticipate problems and be ready to roll with the punches, that's my motto for 2010!

2009-12-26T21:43:00.003-05:00

My family and I enjoyed a peaceful Christmas dinner. The menu included things that all of us enjoy. We had a small roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus with a balsamic vinegar reduction, and I even made gravy. Lumpy gravy, but it got eaten.
For dessert I'd made an apple and pear tart with home made whipped cream. We used our antique silverware and our crystal stemware. If I decide to take it with us when we move, I've resolved to use it more often.

The day served as a reminder of why I am thankful for my husband and children. It's such a joy to spend time with people who love each other. I'm lucky to have that.

If I find the time, I'll post my recipe for the apple-pear freeform tart I made.

2009-12-20T23:04:00.002-05:00

Packing, sorting, culling, it's all gotten tiresome. I've had to make a ton of decisions for a mountain of objects. Keep it? Trash it? Give it away? Give it to whom? At this point, my main goal is to remove it from these premises.

I almost lost my temper at a Christmas party earlier this week. One of my hubby's co workers kept needling me about the move to Germany. Honestly, my first thought was and still is that he is jealous. I didn't want to make other people uncomfortable during the party, so I held my tongue but what I wanted to say to the mealy mouthed little pinhead was to give him my unadulterated opinion of his social skills, his petty insecurities, and his really bad haircut. And if he'd stuck around long enough, then I'd like to point out that he or his wife have atrocious taste in men's ties.

2009-12-19T22:22:00.003-05:00

I finally got a refund from Zynga. It took longer than I expected it would, but I'm glad to get my money back.

We went to several Christmas parties this week. Lots to do this time of year. It's fun, but can get hectic. The girls spent the day with my mother, shopping. The youngest refused to get clothes, even though I'd told Mom that's what she needed more than anything. I suppose the new jeans can go in a box under the tree.

2009-12-11T19:06:00.003-05:00

I've been playing a few of the games on Facebook. I wasn't interested at first, but I'd accept an invitation from a friend who played Yoville or another friend who liked Farmville. But like crabgrass, the game invites multiply and I've discovered that they can eat up your spare time and sometimes your money.
Evidently I'm not the only person who finds the games attractive. Read this:
Zynga Games 130 MILLION!

So, while I may not be the only adult squandering a few spare moments playing computer games, I'm seeing an uglier side to them as well. I'm talking about the temptation to spend real money on a virtual doll house, like Yoville.
At first it didn't seem like much, spending $10 to purchase special items for a pretend apartment, but with all the RL things we need I decided not to throw any more money down that bottomless pit. That and the fact that the items seem to disappear from my Yoville inventory after I've purchased them.
The Zynga customer service has been less than stellar as well. I'll bet it won't be long before someone files a formal complaint to their state AG against them. The complaint form on the Zynga website is a PITA and the latest response I've gotten back from them has been out and out wrong. Not morally wrong, mind you, but factually wrong - as in, stating incorrect information that contradicts screen shots and transactions on the website.
So someone can take my name off the list of suckers. Lesson learned. And while I admit to buying $10.00 worth of virtual junk, I can at least tell myself that I haven't ever played the poker, gambling games. And from now on, I'll do my part to help spread Christmas cheer the old fashioned way. I'll go to my nearest mall and buy a real reindeer's antlers hat instead of a virtual one.

2009-12-09T16:42:00.003-05:00

Top Ten Countdown of Teenage Head Butters

Silly me! Just when I think I have this parenting thing under control, something unexpected comes along to clear my head of such foolish notions. A few moments ago, my oldest dd asked to go on the computer. Her father and I decided it would be best if the downstairs computer's access was password protected. Three guesses who has figured out the password over 3 weeks ago? You guessed it!

I'm finding the teenage years as difficult to navigate as everyone said they'd be. My oldest and I bump heads on a regular basis on a wide variety of topics. The main ones seem to stay consistent, however. In my head, I'm hearing Casey Kasim relaying a countdown of top ten head butters that dd engages in with practiced ease:
"Coming in at number 10 is the irritating habit of not answering me when I call her.
Number 9 is a sure fire winner. I'm talking about not doing the few chores she's responsible for. Sing a few stanzas of "I didn't unload the dishwasher" or "the clean clothes are not folded and are still setting on the loveseat."
The next big hit, Number 8, is an oldie but a goodie - waiting to do a school project until the last possible moment.
Coming in at Number 7 is turning up her MP3 Player too loudly and making no attempt to take the ear buds out when it is clear I am trying to communicate with her.
Number 6 is a steady winner here in the CountDown, keeping her room messy. The floor of her room is a rare, almost extinct entity. Rumors of it's existence abound, but sightings are next to impossible.
Rounding us out at Number 5 is the ugly habit of getting on the computer when she's been told to do something else first. (Instigating the need for the password mentioned hereto earlier.)
Coming in at Number 4 is answering a question with sarcasm. (No idea where she gets that tendency!)
Number 3 is coming up fast. It's a fairly new tune to these parts, but is becoming a regular fast. I'm talking about "Picking a fight with your sister over something silly and unimportant."
Coming in fast and furious at Number 2 is the habit of responding to a question with a question.
And Number 1.... big drumroll.... answering me with the tone of voice indicating that she thinks her mother is a drooling idiot who needs fresh Depends.

2009-12-05T23:56:00.005-05:00

To help me scale back and have less to move, I'm putting my cookbook collection in storage and making recipe pages of my favorites.
Here's my Shrimp Creole that I like to make.

2009-12-04T10:37:00.002-05:00

Whoa! A minute ago, the house just shook hard. I think the Navy is at it again. Testing some new bright shiny military thingamabob. That's the third time in about 2 weeks that I've felt the house shake like that.

2009-12-01T12:44:00.004-05:00

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus. Right down Santa Claus Lane. Tum tee ta tum tum, tummm tee ta ta tum tum, rest of the lyrics I've forgotten today.

I can't believe it's December 1st. November zipped by me before I'd blinked twice. Bet December's going to be remarkably similar. Dd and I are going to make Christmas cards this afternoon. I've got some metallic watercolors I can't wait to play with.

I barely got my second recipe page sent in time for the deadline at a digital scrap site. I wasn't going to participate at first. I'd quit reading the message boards there and didn't even know about the swap til about a week ago. When I saw the swap thread, I was interested because I collect old cookbooks and this recipe exchange fed into that interest in a roundabout way. I'm glad I did it now. I've looked over the list of recipes others sent in, and nearly all sound good, and some will be new to me.

Once I started making my recipe pages, I got caught up into it. I'm thinking of making more and having the book printed eventually. Could even make a personalized page at the front and get it printed as a gift. Something to definitely keep in mind.

Below is one of the recipe pages I turned in for the swap.

2009-11-23T23:34:00.004-05:00

What a terrific week I've had! Gotten so much done and made a dent in the to-do list.

I made a matchbook album using photos from last year's Christmas. I used Laura Burger's new kit "Holiday Magic."

2009-11-15T23:24:00.004-05:00

I have whittled down our home library and tomorrow night I am taking 6 boxes of assorted books to give to other home schoolers. I am so glad to be able to do this, because I can now see my dining room floor. Before tonight it was a maze of book stacks, but now it looks like a dining room. Who knows? We may even get to eat a meal in there. Wonders never cease.

2009-11-14T15:32:00.005-05:00

We tried to have a yard sale today. I say, "tried", because to succeed at it, we'd need more than 10 customers, which we did not have. I think it didn't help that it was cold this morning. And a football weekend. Plus the fact that we didn't call the ad into the Saturday paper til late Friday afternoon. So our loss, was Goodwill's gain. It was much easier to take all the junk, and walk a few steps up the driveway to load it into the van. It was not coming back into the house, that's for sure.

Honestly, we started giving stuff away after about an hour. It was that bad.

See? Who doesn't need a slightly worn Mardi Gras parade costume?

Or a used foot bath with massage? Evidently no one!

2009-11-13T20:52:00.003-05:00

What's that sound? Hmmm....
why, that's, silence!

Both girls are spending the night with friends, so hubby and I have the house to ourselves. This is a freak occurrence that you'd think we'd take advantage of. (Ignore that dangling preposition. It's a figment of your imagination.)
Be wild! Swing from the chandeliers!
Chase each other with spatulas. (thinking of a scene from an old Bill Murray movie, "Stripes")

But, sadly, no. I'm upstairs blogging away and surfing the internet while hubby is downstairs watching "Mad Max" on tv.
And now that I'm done with this entry, I'm off to gawp at how young Mel Gibson was when he made that movie. And how "B" the cheesie special effects were. I may talk dh into a foot rub, I'm sure the topic of chandeilers may come up as an enticement for the foot massage. We'll see.

2009-11-07T11:21:00.002-05:00

Achtung

Do not read this blog entry if you don't want to hear me whine.

Today, the whole weekend, is a shoppingpalooza called International Digital Scrapbooking Day. Mostly, I shop, I visit a few blogs for freebies to download, and once in a blue moon I go to a site chat. I'm in one now, and all it's doing is reminding me why I don't like online chats.

See, I type slow, abysmally slow, in fact. So there will be prizes up for grabs at these chats. I know I'm going in handicapped. The faster typists have me smoked. And there's always one or two who must type for a living cause they have flying fingers. Okay, fine, but what makes me grind my teeth is how FlyinFingers will type multiple guesses to the game. And then win. Ummm, duh, yeah, she typed 6 answers to everyone else's one answer.

Pardon me for sounding like a sulky second grader on the playground, but it's not fair. Chat hosts need to say one guess per person, then enforce it. That's never gonna happen, I know. Cause I've hosted my share of chats and it's hard to keep up with everything. Much less be the Prize Policeman. But still, it stinks that the fastest typist in the chat room wins, and wins unfairly IMO.

2009-11-02T15:14:00.005-05:00

When the weather turns cooler I like to bake bread. There's something about a chill in the air that makes me want to smell bread rising and watch it bake.

I make life easier for myself by starting the dough in my breadmaker. It's too convenient not to. And interesting things happen when I've got a little more free time.
Take this loaf for example,

because it started in the machine, that gave me time to shell a few pistachios, chop up a little fresh parsley and throw those in the dough when it was time to knead and shape the loaf. (The FUN part) That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't used my machine to start the loaf. And since the bread machine is not as messy as me, that makes clean up easier, which makes me use it more, which makes me bake more often, which makes me....
you see where this is going?

So technology is my friend, and I'm going to make the most of it. What counts in the long run is that my family enjoyed a loaf of home made bread, crunchy on the outside,
soft and tender on the inside.

2009-11-01T13:55:00.001-05:00

Here in our neighborhood Halloween is a big deal. A really big deal. Because we live in a rural farming community, our subdivision is one of the few larger ones in the area with sidewalks. Because of those sidewalks and the street lights, parents like it. It seems safe for their kids to come and trick or treat. So they do, by the carloads, by the busloads, by the tractor pulling, hay-filled trailer beds full. It's nice, but it's got its down side.

This year, I didn't have candy duty, which was nice. My first year off in over 6 years. Our oldest stayed home and passed out the candy, and was it an eye opener for her! She was under the impression that on Halloween, I stayed home, watched TV and occasionally got up to hand out candy to polite little children who were thankful for what they received from us. HA!

First, and foremost, candy duty is hard work. You don't sit down. Not if you don't want the front door kicked in, opened or the doorbell jabbed and held down like it's a slow elevator button. No, you have to be Johnny-on-the-spot. Get that door open within three seconds or the most sugar-deprived tot on your porch will begin to push that doorbell like it's a hole in a dyke in Holland about to give way.

Second, you cannot be miserly with the candy. My own firm rule is no one digs in my candy bowl but me. You'd be surprised how many kids see the bowl, flex their fingers and begin to pop fingerjoint ligaments to loosen up in preperation of a huge hand grab. Nope, not here. With a head count of over 300 trick or treaters in a time span of 2 hours, I dole it out. I give good candy, but I don't let you grab a fistful of it and dash off. I do portion control so that my stash will last at least an hour. This year I went to Sam's. I bought the following:
5 lbs of Jolly Ranchers
4.5 lbs of Super Bubble bubble gum
3.09 lbs of Laffy Taffy
3.125 lbs of Warheads (these did not come from Sam's)
And I went through this stash of almost 16 pounds of candy in about 100 minutes. Didn't quite make the two-hour mark that had been our goal. That's enough sugar to keep every dentist in the county employed for a good long while.

Third, have your act together. This evening is approached with efficient military logic by your guests. They seem to operate under the following guidelines: cover as much of the target area as quickly as possible. Seek and collect from all target-rich collection points. No time for "thank yous" no time for silly questions from grandmotherly home owners on their front porch such as "who are you?" The question is moot. You are a fur-clad, fake-blood spattered, candy-collecting machine. Hand over the goods, Grandma, and let me move on.

Fourth, a new point my dd learned. When friends come, they expect extra. In a stage whisper that could be heard from our driveway, she was informed that it was someone she knew. Which was actually a pleasant surprise, since we had no idea who approximately 80% of the kids who rang our doorbell were.

I hear some people observe Halloween where we'll be next year. But I'll bet you a dozen Krispy Kremes they don't do it like this!

2009-10-29T17:02:00.002-04:00

It's official! We're moving to Germany next year. I'm looking forward to living somewhere new. It means lots of change, chaos and stress in our lives right now, but it's so very worth the inconveniences.

I've run through a gamut of emotions- excitement, panic, joy, apprehension. Yeah, I've covered all the bases. It'll be a while before I can take it all in. And there is so much to do between now and then! Where to start?

I took my youngest to get a swine flu shot this morning. We got there about an hour before it began and were near the front of the line, first 20 or so. But within 15 minutes, there was a line of over a hundred people. We got in and out quickly and easily once the health dept opened the doors. I'm thankful that my dd got this. From what I've read, it's the children who are most vulnerable to this strain of influenza.

2009-10-28T22:04:00.004-04:00

Another pic from the trip. I'm about done with that though. Other fish to fry and all that. Come see us if you want to see the rest!! Hint, hint...

This is dd with her hand picked candy from the Gummi bear factory. I still can't believe we got all that candy through customs with no problems.

2009-10-26T19:12:00.002-04:00

A family member asked for some more photos from our trip. So in my lightning fast way, I'm complying. Fast if you're a snail, right?

This photo is my oldest on the balcony overlooking the Rhine. It was a beautiful Fall day with a light breeze.

Photo Credits:
Me, DanaFrantz bkgrd, Berna Datma frame overlay

2009-10-24T08:36:00.000-04:00

At the request of family, I'm posting a few more photos from our recent trip to Germany.

This shot of the fuchsia against the castle's background was my little attempt at being artsy. Or to be bluntly honest, it was my cover to avoid yet another set of long and winding stone stairs that Europeans love to make us out of shape Americans climb. Wheezing and whining between landings.

Photo Credits:
Me, Berna Datma frame overlay

2009-10-18T12:42:00.001-04:00

I'd classify this article in my mental file cabinet under For What It's Worth
NIH director's faith gets him labelled as delusional

Over the last ten years, I've watched a steady progression of mainstream media targeting Christians for ridicule. I have to admit, I chuckled through my share of SNL skits featuring The Church Lady, but the trend seems to be building steam with less humor and more finger pointing. In some circles, admitting you subscribe to a particular faith and that it affects your daily decision-making makes you a lunatic. And I'm supposed to consider this labelling impartial and fair? I don't think so.

2009-10-05T23:08:00.003-04:00

Another photo from our recent trip. The girls on a balcony of the castle.

2009-10-02T11:45:00.002-04:00

This morning I found a blog I like and wanted to share it. She's crafty, good with instructions and real. In the past, I'd watch Martha Stewart and get frustrated, but this blog writer sounds like a girlfriend who lives up the street and stopped by to drink a cup of coffee and watch while I piddle with a project. An occasional smartass remark thrown in with some helpful advice. I like that. I can do that.
She's got some nice freebies that I might really use; as opposed to cluttering up my hard drive with cute projects that I know I'll never have the time to make.
Cottage Industrialist
I found her blog while looking around Spoonflower. A site that prints custom fabric. I've got a few ideas bumping around in my attic and need to find the time, mojo, and money to implement.

2009-10-01T17:05:00.001-04:00

Did this as a challenge at a digital scrapping site, It's a photo of Dragonfels, a tourist spot we visited while in Germany. Since summer was over, the beer garden was closed, but the flowers were blooming and it was a nice hike. Rather steep in spots, but a beautiful day.

2009-09-30T11:31:00.004-04:00

It's a gorgeous Fall day. My favorite time of year.

We've got a date later this afternoon with friends, playing in the park and catching up on each other's lives. Looking forward to it!

I made Chicken Cacciatore in the crock pot yesterday. Here's a pic of how it looked at the beginning. That unappetizing green stuff scattered across the top is actually pesto. And it's what takes my version of this dish up a notch to incredibly good.

I'd love to show you a picture of how good it looked when it was done, but cannot. You see, this group of ravenously hungry people fell on it and devoured it like a pack of hungry wolves. Lots of licking and slurping was involved. At least on my end of the table.

2009-09-29T09:42:00.004-04:00

I got a LO made using pics from our trip to Germany. I used Laura Burger's kit "In the Name of Romance."

We were eating dinner in Koln, after walking along the Rhine River. The house speciality was roasted pig knuckle and dh suggested I order it. I did the nose wrinkle thing and chose something else. As usual, his was the better entree. The hock came out looking succulent, crispy skin covering tender moist meat surrounded by roasted potato slices. Good thing I'd made the most of the chocolate fountain at the Chocolate Museum. There's a silver lining to every unhappy occasion, right?

Cafe on the Rhine

2009-09-23T11:01:00.004-04:00

I've got a new mantra. Embrace the curveball.
Take what comes at me and wait. Wait to see what happens. Wait to see what doesn't happen. Sometimes that's more difficult for us pessimests. It's not that we like bad things. Or that we like to be able to say, "I told you so." No, it's about the illusion of control. Thinking that if we can anticipate what comes next, we can prepare for it.

So throw me your best curveball. I wanna see what happens. I might not hurl it right back at'cha (wicked grin). I just might catch it, or let it go by without batting an eye.

2009-09-22T11:50:00.004-04:00

I've been helping my neighbor with her business math classwork. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about Oehler circuits and transportation grids. The textbook is badly written. And I'm pretty much at my limits, mathwise. I think I was more help with test taking tips.
Statistics are coming up soon. Good thing I actually enjoyed my stat class long ago. It'll be interesting seeing what I remember.

Last night I had pumpkin soup, filet of pike poached in Reisling with grapes. Accompanying dinner we had a very nice Reisling. It was a wonderful evening. Good company, interesting conversation, excellent food, and a stunning view. Ahhhh, life is good!

2009-09-17T10:17:00.003-04:00

I like to collect recipes. If you do as well, you should visit the Recipe Card Train Blog that the CT ladies of Digital Scrap Cafe are giving away. Very Nice! and useful!
What I like most about it, was that they were thoughtful and included a blank card for users to print so that we can add to our recipe collections.

You can pick up the recipe card train blog here:
Debbie's Blog

2009-09-15T21:31:00.007-04:00

Pink Elephants.
I have this odd facet to my personality. I see pink elephants. I seem to spot them when no one else does. Or maybe they just don't ever say they do? See, I've been blog hopping for a couple of evenings. Popping in anonymously and peeking into other people's lives. Or at least the life they chose to portray online. And I've decided that I am clearly NOT using my blog correctly. Blogs are for whining. At least, that's what I've read a good deal of lately. Whining about your kids, whining about your neighbors, whining about your neighbors' kids, whining about your laundry, whining about whining (in this, my blog post).

There's this one blog that I've read semi-regularly for over a year at "Blogher" - a network of blogs. These women all blog through one network and meet periodically at conventions to compare their blog stats, collect "gifts" from corporate ad sponsors who seem to spend a fair amount of energy monitoring who reads them, how often and when.

This one blog I like to read is usually written in a humorous style, self-effacing, with good photos (mostly of her assortment of cute kids). But a recent entry made me sit back and think about it for a good while after I'd read it. She was complaining with that wry sense of humor she uses so well, about the children in a family that live in her neighborhood. Without going into details, how these kids have come into her home on at least 2 occasions and helped themselves to Popsicles in her freezer. Pretty nervy, right? She then goes on to share how some of her own children's belongings have gone missing. And how she caught one of the kids using one of the missing items with more humor thrown in throughout the recitation.

But my mind kept coming back to the raiding of her freezer. Just couldn't shake that off. And the thought that kept coming back to me was, "Why is your house unlocked when no one is home?" And why, when you knew someone had been in your home once before, would you leave it unlocked again? And why in the world would you blog about this on the www, advertising the fact that you have a habit of leaving your home unlocked when no one is home?
Then I thought of several other alternate endings for that blog entry. Maybe I've watched too much CNN lately. But that story of the couple that kidnapped the girl and kept her as a slave in their own backyard kept popping into my head. I don't see the Boogeyman around every corner, but I don't expect everyone who crosses my path to automatically do the morally right thing either.

Then I did something I don't normally do. I left a comment on this woman's blog. And I asked her why her house was unlocked, especially after the first time. Since she moderates her blog comments, I was not terribly surprised to see that she chose to not publish my comment/question. No, no big surprise there. But another 20 fans of her blog continued to all post in the same vein.... OMG, those kids..... wonder what their parents are teaching them....

So I'm sitting here wondering, am I really the only other person who would see this point? I hope not. But it's never going to be considered "nice" to rattle the cage, to ask the pointed question, to talk about the pink elephant standing in the middle of the room.

2009-08-27T15:35:00.002-04:00

I've enjoyed my August guest CT spot with Laura Burger. I was slow to get back into the swing of things, but got lots done once I got busy. I will miss the lively chatter and camaraderie with the ladies.

Hopefully, when RL calms down I can come and stay for a longer spell.

Lookie, cookie, what I made with Laura's Classic Collection #3.

A star album!

2009-08-24T22:44:00.001-04:00

A new LO made using Laura Burger's new kit, Classic Collection 3. I like this line of coordinating kits. The elements are timeless with great attention to detail. I picked the first Classic Collection to do a special project - a star album.

Here's the LO:

That's a rain spout on the corner of one of the many buildings in the Ming Tombs complex.

2009-08-21T23:24:00.001-04:00

Look what I had for lunch today- crab fried rice. DD wrinkled up her nose and said "no thanks!" That's okay, more for me!

2009-08-07T20:15:00.002-04:00

Look what showed up at my door bright and early at 6:59 am.

The long awaited loveseat that goes with the rest of my new furniture. The furniture that was delivered back on April 22nd. The rush order replacement cause the seat cushions did NOT match any other furniture I purchased from them. THAT was their idea of rush?

I'm glad it's here. And I'm glad that this time the seat cushions look like they come from the same line of furniture.

2009-07-31T21:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was what my dd calls an "Alexander" day. If you've read the book, then you know what I mean. One nasty surprise after another. Around 9 PM, I took 2 Tylenol and went to bed. Today's been better.

We got crafty and made candles today. My youngest thoroughly enjoyed it. She enjoyed watching the gel melt and getting to swirl together 2 different colors. It was pretty neat!

2009-07-29T12:56:00.007-04:00

I was making dinner the other night and started peeling potatoes from a bag I'd bought that day at Allegri's when I noticed quite a few oddly shaped taters coming out of the bag. As I peeled, the potatoes coming out of the bag kept getting weirder and weirder.

Here's the first one:

Then this one came out of the bag:

And the last one was:

Now these are just too weird, but imagine yanking them out of the bag one right after the other. Someone at the potato bagging plant certainly has a sense of humor.

Wonder what I'll find in my bag of cucumbers?!

2009-07-10T13:28:00.004-04:00

We got back from Cincinnati and I've got tons to do. How come the work before and after a vacation seems almost as long as the vacation itself?

We had such a good time. We went to an outdoor concert and listened to "Huey Lewis and the News." Love his harmonica playing!
Saw the most fantastic fireworks I've ever seen in my life. The show lasted much longer than I'd ever seen one go on. It was at least 30 minutes long. With lots of my favorite type of fireworks, the one that "blooms" like a Chrysanthemum and then twinkles as it fades out.

Got to do a little shopping in a fun store - Ikea. Love to look around there! We almost bought dd a new bed there, but saw the same model in the clearance section. Dh turned his Super Engineer Powers on it and looked it over closely. He decided that the bed wouldn't hold up to dd's abuse. It had this terrific cubby hole storage under the bed, but I agreed with Dh that she would be stuffing so much in there that she'd "blow out" the back of it. It was just a piece of 1/16 chipboard. She'd have poked a hole through that in no time. Are you listening, Ikea designers?

Here's the bed we almost bought:

Found a half price book store, so I got dd the last two of the Twilight books as part of her birthday. The first in the series was supposed to be part of her birthday as well, but she finished all her reading on the car ride up, so she got to read that one in the car.

All in all, it was a good trip, but I'm glad to be home.

2009-06-28T20:56:00.003-04:00

This summer is flying by. It seems as if these blue-skyed June days melted away like ice cream on a hot afternoon playground. July is barreling down on me. There's so much I meant to do this summer and still haven't gotten done.

Doesn't that look delicious?

Tonight for dinner I made rice pilaf. Dh is so proud of his home-grown tomatoes on the back porch. He brought in a handful late this afternoon so that I could include them in the pilaf. I almost took a great big bite out of this plump juicy orange one. (Orange because I ordered heirloom tomato seeds for dh earlier this year.)
Take a look at what I found when I sliced open this sweet-looking orb of juiciness.

I was shocked. There wasn't a single blemish or spot on the outside. So how the heck did the worm get in there?
Made me very glad I'd sliced the other tomatoes into pieces with no signs of "tenants" inside them. At least, I don't think so... hmmm.... what's a little extra protein, after all, I tried to tell myself. But I shudder at the thought and won't be biting into anymore of dh's tomatoes no matter how pretty they look.

2009-06-26T16:01:00.002-04:00

I can't decide. Do we want to vacation at Yellowstone Natl Park or spend the week in the Pacific NW? We'll have to pick soon, to purchase the airline tickets. Truthfully, I'd love to see Paris, but that's not gonna happen.

And dh gets home tonight from another trip to DC. I'm glad. This is getting old....
And, speaking of old, I was shocked to hear that Micheal Jackson had died. Goes to show ya, money and fame don't guarantee happiness.

2009-06-23T13:37:00.003-04:00

I'm off to Sam's for groceries. For dinner tonight, I think I'll make a Shepherd's Pie, only with chicken or turkey instead of beef. Mashed potatoes can hide a lot of veggies that my youngest would normally fuss about.

2009-06-22T11:19:00.002-04:00

Talk about fun...
I had a colonoscopy last week and everything I'd ever heard about the procedure was true. The prep IS worse than the procedure itself. And my usual hinkey charm was in full effect, meaning that something unexpected and odd always pops up. The doctor's nurse emphasized that I get the prep fluid prescription filled ahead of time and like the good little rule-follower I am, I did this. Not that it did me a bit of good.

Bright and early, the day before the procedure I diligently read the directions and pick my flavor. (I opted for citrus-berry from the choices.) I add the water, shake the overgrown, gargantuan-sized jug and feel sticky water spray everywhere. Turns out, somewhere along the way, my jug had been sliced by a boxcutter right across the grooved lip on the side. No way to see it ahead of time, no reason to expect it to be there. So I end up making a mad dash back to the pharmacy for a replacement. After a few rounds of question/answer I get a replacement container and go home to start the prep all over again. (Keep in mind, I'm not allowed to eat anything the entire day, so by the time I leave the Target pharmacy, it's 9:45 am and I am already hungry/irritable.)

The rest of the morning I tell my girls not to eat/cook anything that smells good. This rules out such culinary delights as brownies, popcorn, chocolate in ANY form and basically anything I can smell that makes me drool. By this time, I am definitely not the only miserable person in the house, but misery DOES love company. Or at least in my case, likes someone else in the neighborhood with them.

While the girls munch on grilled cheese sandwiches, I slurp down my yummy bowl of lemon Jello. Since I was still hungry and it was too early for me to start getting nervous about tomorrow's procedure, I decided to eat another item from my "allowed" list, chicken broth. After one swig of the broth, I decided the dog might enjoy this more than me. Since, he had surgery last week also, I figured he'd be an ideal candidate for sympathy. So while he chomped down on his chicken broth-soaked dog food, I gave him my unadulterated opinion of all pre-op medical procedures and life in general. He listened closely as long as the kibbles held out.

The afternoon passed slowly with me drinking tons of apple juice and lemonade while the girls finally went upstairs to their rooms to get away from my charming personality. Discretion IS the better part of valour and a 12 year old is the soul of discretion listening to her MP3 player behind the closed door of her room.

Then 4:00 PM rolled around - the witching hour. The directions say I'm to begin drinking 8 ounces from the mongo-jug every 10 to 15 minutes. If this was a video, I'd fade to black at this point with loud chugging sound effects in the background. It seemed the next few hours were never-ending rounds of trying to choke down the prep liquid and wait for the results. The information pamplet said the "results" would begin within two hours, but not to be surprised if it took longer....It took longer. After throwing up twice and getting myself emptied out, I think I slept maybe two hours that whole night.

The alarm goes off at 5:20 am, so that dh and I can be at the hospital by 7:00 am. I fill out reams of paperwork, get shuffled from point A to point B, back to point A, to Point C and finally into a hospital gown, you know, the kind where your hiney hangs out from behind, but under the circumstances, better for "driving conditions" that day. The nurse slaps on ECG pads and that's interesting cause then I have a 3-D, live with sound effects indication of just how torqued up I am. With a heartrate of +100 and it boinging up to 115 whenever someone wearing scrubs enters the room, there's no way I can act like I'm not nervous. After 3 complete strangers comment on this and tell me to relax, I'm even more nervous. Then without a word, the nurse must have started the valium drip cause my head was spinning and I decided that the whole thing wasn't "really that bad." I remember saying something to the doctor about "drive carefully in there" and then I was out.

When you wake up in the recovery area, the first thing the nurses tell you is to ahem... pass gas, fart, toot, cut one, let 'em rip, cut the cheese, sound the alarm, pull dad's finger.... ( you get the idea.) They don't let you go home til you've done that, so, since I wanted to go home, you better believe I cooperated to the fullest of my ability. To the fullest of my something- anyway.

2009-06-02T23:58:00.003-04:00

We celebrated our youngest dd's birthday this evening. The birthday party is later this week, but tonight we went out to eat at Lulu's, ate tons of seafood. The girls played volleyball while we waited for a table. That place is always so crowded. I couldn't believe the wait tonight was right under 2 hours. We had to park in the overflow lot within eyesight of The Track.
When the band wished dd a happy birthday, she told the guitar player to play her something jazzy cause she's old enough for it now. He cracked up.

After dinner, we played a round of putt putt at the pirate-themed mini golf place.
Dh got a hole in one on hole #14 and Grace got a hole in one on hole #10. I was happy to make par and hit the cup.

So happy birthday to my daughter, who's no longer a little girl.
Where did the time go?

2009-05-27T10:08:00.002-04:00

I found my sunglasses. I thought I'd left them Monday at our friends house. But nope, there they were- squirreled away in the bottom of my beach tote. Figures! Since I'd called and put out an APB on them. They're my favorites. But cheap sunglasses are like a cat with nine lives. They just keep showing up long after you've given up on them.

2009-05-26T15:56:00.003-04:00

Shazaam! Summer is here. Hot, humid, afternoon thunderstorms, A/C running long stretches at a time without turning off, yep it's here alright.

Memorial Day we spent at friends' home, eating delicious BBQ- smoked chicken, pulled pork with a fantastic home made Carolina mustard sauce. When we weren't chowing down on skillfully smoked meats, we were enjoying fresh, boiled sweet corn, red potatoes boiled in a spicy concoction of red pepper flakes, salt, garlic and thyme, along with baked beans, and topped off with fudge ripple ice cream. Yum!

After stuffing ourselves silly the girls and moms managed to roll themselves down the front steps and meander down the road for a slow stroll. This enabled us to come back and find a little room for the afore-mentioned ice cream.

Dh and I spent the rest of the evening learning a new dice game called "dice" or "pigs and chickens." It was fun, but I was abysmally inept at keeping score. Good thing our hostess was a cheerful scorekeeper.

It was a pleasant way to spend a day off and I'm thankful to have good friends to share my holiday with.

2009-05-23T10:14:00.002-04:00

This morning it was raining hard. Looked at the Doppler radar and saw a front moving through with lots of blobs of ugly maroon, that indicate heavy rain. It moved through the area quickly and that is why I'm typing this now.

We've gotta move quick. There's a break between two storm fronts and we've got to take dd's old full sized mattress and boxsprings to the dump, along with some junk that's been sitting in the attic for years. Like the girls old baby bed and tangles of Christmas Lights of the Past. After the dump, we race to Sam's to pick up a new twin set, lash it to the roof of the van, beat the rain home, unload that and then finish emptying the attic for one more run to the dump before it closes at noon.
Ready .... Set ..... GO!

2009-05-10T19:03:00.008-04:00

I am finally getting to scrap. Today, for the first time in weeks. Oh, happy happy Mother's Day to me. (Big, cheesey grin) I am happily typing away on my brand new Dell Quad-Core with tons of memory and a souped-up graphics card and driver. Ahhhhh.... no more CS4 and Illustrator crashes.

It's been a great day! I spent the afternoon organizing files and got sidetracked when I opened my girls' photo folders with baby pics inside. It has inspired me to do a ShutterFly baby book for each of them.

I can smell the steaks on the grill, and the potatoes baking in the oven. Dh ran to the grocery store and I've got to remember to act surprised when lobster tails show up unexpectedly on the dinner table. Course, he didn't take into account the stage whispers of my youngest who had to tell her older sister where Dad had gone earlier this afternoon. Along with grilled asparagus and steamed lemon-garlic broccoli with some form of chocolate to round things out, it promises to be a scrumptious meal. I'm drooling as I type.

So hang on to your hat, drum roll please. After a long break, I have a new LO to post.

Credits:
Collab by mgl Scraps (Monica Guerra Leiria) and Studio Ziska (Franziska Altmann) MZ Girl and MZ Boy
Laura Burger Beaded Set 1, Don't String Me Along and
a few doodles and round frame by me

2009-04-30T17:02:00.003-04:00

What a busy, busy month April turned out to be!
We had a wide gamut of activities including a tax day TEA party, a huge yard sale, brand new LR furniture delivered finally, launching dd's new business, planting heirloom tomatoes, harvesting our last batch of snow peas, making home-made ice cream, instigating an allowance system for the girls, visiting with an old friend from college, and finishing a sewing project I've been pecking at for over two years. I hope next month is just as productive and fun!

I'm doing a lot of moaning and groaning around dh, mostly for dramatic effect. It's part of my plan to hurry the arrival of a new Quad 4 computer system. Paring down to one printer/scanner would be nice too. If my gene pool is any indication, then my impressive campaign should produce results soon. I'm thinking Mother's Day, if not that, then I'll double up efforts for my birthday. But I gotta do something, PSCS4 is crashing on me too often.

2009-04-27T23:59:00.002-04:00

We had a yard sale this past Saturday. The neighborhood association sponsered a neighborhood wide sale and paid for the ads, so I figured we should take advantage of that. We've got tons of stuff and need to de clutter.

We made $185.00, which was not bad. It would have been $215.00, but I did something I swore I wouldn't do- I took a check from someone. I know better, but she went through this sincere sounding song and dance and I did ask to see her driver's license. Damn! Next time, I'm gonna be a hard- hearted, cash on the barrel, Mrs. Olsen kinda shop owner and not take anyone's check. No matter what.

2009-04-18T21:25:00.005-04:00

My girls spotted this guy in a Bible story DVD they were watching the other day. It's none other than Aaron Eckhart aka Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight movie. Only in the movie they watched, he's playing Samson, in a very bad wig. I have to admit, I backed it up and checked to be sure more than a few times, but it's him.

Aaron as Samson:

And Mr. Eckhart as Harvey Dent:

I admit, it's hard to tell with all the "Two-Face" makeup effects distracting the eye, but it is him.
Dh and I play this game from time to time. Spot the celebrity in some older work. Recently, I spotted Sharon Stone in an old episode of "Magnum, PI." She looked good, in spite of the 80's hair and wide skirt- big belt fashion look of that time. So, have you spotted any celebs before they made it to the big time? If so, please share via email or through the comments here.

2009-04-10T23:25:00.001-04:00

I'm looking forward to a quiet Easter with my family. It's going to be a relaxed, drama free holiday spent with the people I love.

I plan on vegging out in front of the puter tomorrow, and chatting with friends. Can't wait!

2009-03-31T01:06:00.006-04:00

My poor, poor baby is sick. She started throwing up about an hour ago and I think it's going to be a long night. And now my tummy is making funny noises and trying to do back flips. Not good, not good at all.

I have such crappy neighbors. No, scratch that, they'd have to work up to the level of crappy. Most of the time I can wave and keep moving, or better yet, ignore them. But today they reminded me once again why we avoid them. There's a long and varied history of damage to my property that they, or a contractor they've hired, has caused. But today's totally self absorbed stunt took it to another level.

This afternoon I look out my kitchen window and see a sight that's hard to believe. Beavis and Butthead are perched on this teeny, tiny flat boat that's only got about 2 inches of clearance before it swamps. She's got a rake in one hand and half of one cheek is generously hanging over the lip of the boat. She's issuing orders to her poor schmuck of a husband who's trying to make the boat go in one direction and all it does is keep slamming into our little johnboat. As I watch this silly spectacle, I realize what the witch is doing. She's raking the weeds from in front of her own lot and carefully, consistently, deliberately raking them into the shoreline in front of our house. They do this for about 15 minutes, and I can't believe it as I watch load after load of trash getting relocated by this woman.

I'm trying to make supper, so I send my dd outside and tell her to ask them what they're doing. She walks toward the edge of the water and they both take off for the center of the lake as if the hounds of hell had suddenly appeared. (You know you're doing something really tacky, if having to explain yourself to a 12 year old embarrasses you.)
By now, I'm laughing so hard, I've snorted diet Coke up my nose, because B&B are now sitting in the middle of the lake, she's holding a rake, no one has a fishing pole and they're trying to look nonchalant. "Oh, yes, we just suddenly had a hankering to take a trip out on the lake and this rake, why that's for .... back scratching, yeah, that's it, a back scratcher."

At some point, they must realize they're making a spectacle of themselves cause they come back onshore. Then she proceeds to apathetically poke at things in her yard with her back scratcher....er....rake. She makes raking motions for about 2 minutes and then disappears inside.

When dh got home we told him what we'd seen and honestly, he didn't believe it. He thought it was an early April Fool's joke - til he went out to the waterline and saw the piles of weeds and debris that weren't there yesterday when he cut the grass.
Now dh is HOT. Remember the water mocassins I mentioned earlier? Well, the last thing he wants is the neighbors creating a snake breeding ground 3 feet from where our children and their friends play.

This ended with the neighbor denying he did it on purpose. (Huh? the raking was a figment of my imagination and my dd's?) And him saying he'd go out there and clean it up. It was dark so I have no idea what sort of clean up job he did, but if it's anything like the half-assed job B&B did when they "resodded" our side yard- I won't be surprised. The "sod" was grass clippings and other bits of left over trash that she had raked up from cleaning the yard and that they tossed into the 5 inch deep, 2 feet wide and about 14 feet long double set of gouge marks that their contractor's backhoe left in our lawn.

Sometimes, I have a hard time figuring out how other people's brains work. This is one of those times.
Goes to show, it's never boring around here.

2009-03-28T16:36:00.002-04:00

Thursday, Thursday night, Friday and Friday night were stormy. Several tornadoes touched down nearby and flood warnings were issued. While walking around our lot this morning, we saw two water moccasins curled up in balls in the limbs of the neighbor's popcorn tree on the edge of the lake. Even from a distance, they were wicked, slithery looking things.

It's been a jam-packed month so far, even without torrential rains and tornadoes. Grace had her Guild audition last Monday. She did okay, but not as well as she could have. She'd not memorized all her pieces as well as she should have, and this point was brought home to her when she had to stop playing and restart one of her pieces.

Both girls are attending volleyball clinics again this Spring. I can see marked improvement in Grace's serving and set up abilities. The youngest shows less improvement, but she's having a good time and making friends, so I'm glad we signed up for this.

Waiting seems to be the theme for March. I'm waiting on the girls SAT results to come in the mail. And I'm waiting on my new furniture I ordered to arrive. I'm also waiting for dh's plant start-up to end. He spends long hours working and away from home during a new product line start-up. I've come to dread them.
And I'm waiting for the Quad core processors to drop in price. I desperately need a new computer. Not to mention, I stink at waiting. I've never been a patient person, and I don't see this changing, but I am more patient than I used to be 20 years ago. This month is gonna be tough on me.

2009-03-25T23:53:00.005-04:00

Today my youngest was sharing her philosophical views on life in general from the back seat of my mini-van. She started posing her own version of Would You Rather... as in, would you rather be able to fly like a bird or to be able to swim underwater like a fish? Or would you rather lose your sight or your hearing? Or would you rather be rich and live alone or poor and have lots of friends? You get the gist. I found her choices to her own questions to be the eye-opening part here. It made for some interesting conversation while we waited for her older sister's French lesson to end.
And in case you're wondering - she'd rather fly, I'd rather swim. We both agreed losing our sight would be worse to us. But her answer to the last question surprised me. I opted for poverty with friends. She gravely stated that she believes she could use her wealth to buy herself some friends. When I pointed out that she had to meet the rest of the requirement- live alone- she said, "that's easy -we'll be online friends."

2009-02-21T00:31:00.002-05:00

The new software showed up on our front porch yesterday. This weekend I want to load PSCS4 and Illustrator and take them both out for a spin around the block. I want to upgrade my graphics card too, but that'll have to wait for a while. Can't wait to see how CS4 does!

I'm planning on purging files and taking one of my older EHDs and putting it downstairs on that computer.

The girls and I finished reading "The Hobbit" and as a surprise I ordered a copy of the 70's animated version for us to watch. I got it from a dealer at Amazon, but it took so long to get here- way too long! I ordered it on Feb 3rd and it showed up Tuesday. If it was EBay, I'd leave the guy some negative feedback, since the delivery date quoted at the time of purchase was 3-10 days.

2009-02-06T18:18:00.001-05:00

YIKES!

Is that a Christmas photo in my header?

Time to make a new one! And Laura's got this bee-uu-ti-ful new kit, that would do the job so well!

2009-01-30T23:31:00.003-05:00

I made a gift box using a new kit called "Love Is..." and what a great kit! It's a collab between Laura Burger and Kim Johnson. Boy howdy! These two can cook when they get together and design!
Here's a look at the box I made.

2009-01-02T23:14:00.003-05:00

I think I've already broken all of this year's resolutions! Is that some sort of record?! Less than 24 hours for some of them?
~ exercise daily (nope, not today)
~ drink more water (de nada)
~ take my multi vitamin and fish oil capsules (still in the Wal Mart bag in my closet)
~ declutter my house every day (missed that today too)
~ organize my diggy files ( LOL, I added to the mess today)

Maybe tomorrow will be better?