Anniversary Tulips

Yeah, This Pretty Sums It Up!

Dinner On Sarah

Sarah gave Allison and I a gift card to Applebees for Christmas. We met there early enough today to get half price appetizers. What a deal! One I'm sure Sarah would love :)

So, not only did Allison get a Pomegranate Margarita and I a Perfect Margarita, we also had Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Boneless Buffalo Wings, Chicken Quesadillas and Cheeseburger Sliders, we got $18.18 left on our card. Enough for a couple more Perfect Margaritas!

PERFECT!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my 37th wedding anniversary. I wish Jim were here to celebrate with me. We had our trials and tribulations over the years but ended with a good, solid marriage. What I wouldn't give to have those days back.
*sigh*

Creatures of Habit

This is what I have for breakfast every morning.

A toasted onion bagel, swiss cheese, Canadian bacon and a fried egg. Plus a Coke. Stella always gets a Dingo. Nothing like being in a rut.

Gunsmoke Rust

Is the color of Mom's new chair and ottoman. The sofa and loveseat match and they have red, orange and rust striped throw pillows to add a splash of color. It's sure fun to spend someone else's money :)
For a change :)

DONE!

I took my Mom shopping for furniture today. We found a sofa, loveseat, chair, ottoman and a dining room table and chairs that she loves. By looking at the floorplan of her apartment, it looks like everything will fit beautifully. I'm sure glad to have that chore out of the way. And I got a free lunch at Homesteaders for my gas and time :)

SOLD!

My Mom listed her house Tuesday morning. It went on multiple listing Wednesday morning. She had four parties look at it Wednesday afternoon and we got a full price offer late Wednesday night :)
Now all we have to do is pack everything up, sell off a bunch of furniture and buy new and get it all moved to her new luxury apartment. She's very excited about the change.

Burying The Hatchet

My youngest sister, who I haven't talked to in years (long story) was here with her husband for the weekend. We decided life was too short to continue ignoring each other.
We had a fun, busy weekend and I'm glad we're friends again :)

Gift From A Friend

I got this as a gift from a close friend last night. If my grandsons couldn't read, I'd put it in my curio cabinet.

Dinner at Mom's

I made dinner for Allison, Karter, Jameson, Gage, my Mom, Babs and his son, Sam tonight. On the menu was pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted carrots and biscuits. And if I hadn't had a late hair appointment, I would've made dessert.
However, I don't think anyone went away hungry and if they did, they can eat the meals I fixed for them to take to work tomorrow.

Stella and I are both pooped :)

Shower Pictures

Hair Today...

Gone tomorrow.

I'm sorry, Sarah but your pretty boy crush shaved his head, along with the rest of his bowling team when they lost the state tournament.

Yes, I Know I'm Crazy!

I was dressed and at the grocery store at 6:59 this morning...
for a package of fresh mushrooms. No, they weren't for an omlette either. I bought a package of mushrooms on Thursday and forgot to get the cream cheese I needed to make the mushroom pate to bring to the wedding shower today. So, I ran back to the store last night at 8:00PM for the cream cheese so I could make the pate before I went to bed. I pulled out the recipe and I needed TWO packages of fresh mushrooms.
Hence the early morning shopping trip. UGH!
The pate has been in the frig since 9:00AM so the flavors have a chance to marry before the shower.
And the funny part of all of this is that I hate mushrooms and wouldn't eat one if you paid me! My friends better appreciate the effort (and the gas it took for three grocery runs)!!

All Dressed and Ready to Go

I'm calling these Pink Lemonade Cookies. Kristin's colors are bright pink and black so I'm putting them on a shiny black tray. I used my standard sugar cookie frosting recipe except I omitted the vanilla and milk and used fresh squeezed lemon juice instead. They are YUMMY!!

Sugar Cookie Frosting
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup solid Crisco (not butter flavored)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
*Beat together, adding 2-4 tablespoons milk until desired consistency.

P.S. Her fiance's name is James and Julia is her soon to be step daughter.

Nine Dozen Naked Cookies

I just finished baking seven dozen average and 2 dozen small, rolled out, heart shaped sugar cookies. They're for Kristin's wedding shower tomorrow. I will be dressing them later with several shades of bright pink frosting.
I love them with my homemade buttercream frosting but I think I love them plain the best. Thanks to Kathy Farstad who shared her recipe with me many years ago.
Of course I had to eat a few to make the count even ;)


Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
*Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Add all dry ingredients gradually. Chill dough 3-4 hours. Roll out and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 degrees until just starting to brown lightly around the edges.

One-eyed Monster

Yes, he's five and shouldn't be crawling under restaurant tables but you have to admit, he is cute.
And eeeewwww, I didn't realize how filthy it was under there until I uploaded the picture. Wonder how clean the kitchen is. I may not be back there very soon.

Hating on Dirty Clothes

You'd think I'd have to haul it down to the river, beat it against the rocks and then haul it back home, dripping wet to hang on a clothesline.
No, I've got a main floor laundry room, with my linen closet in it and my bedroom is just steps away. I should count my blessings.
No, I still hate it! And just so it knows how much I hate it, I'm putting bleach in every load today :)

Alarm Clock

Stella wakes me up every morning at 6:00. I have no reason to get up that early so I wander around like a zombie for the next several hours. The kicker is that some days it's an hour or more before she goes outside after so rudely insisting I get out of bed. So, she isn't waking me up because she has to pee. And invariably as soon as I sit down to read the paper, she goes back to bed. I'm think the little shit is just kicking me out so she can have the bed to herself. Zzzzzzzzzzz...

Starbase

Matthew graduated from Starbase today. It's a program for fifth graders at the Air Force base that they go to for the day once a week for 6 weeks. They got to tour the base, launch rockets and use a flight simulator among other things. Handsome kid, huh? He takes after his (favorite) aunt!

My Busy Day

Stella and I were up and on our way out to Allison's at 8:30 this morning. We hauled in a ton of supplies and got busy making breakfast. We had:

Blueberry/cream cheese butter braid
Scrambled eggs with cheese
Sausages
Hash Browns

Allison did the dishes while I made the stuffing for the turkey. As soon as it was in the oven, it was time to leave for church.

After church, Jameson and I picked up Stella and went to visit my Dad and Grandma at the nursing home. Gage and Allison had naps. After the nursing home, we stopped at my house, dropped off Stella and I changed my clothes. Then it was back to Allisons to finish preparing Easter dinner. My nephew, my Mom, and my brother and his wife joined us. We had:

Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Cornbread stuffing
Green beans with cheese sauce
Taffy apple salad
My Mom's homemade buns
Olives and cranberries
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Boston cream pie

Karter and Allison did all the dishes while the rest of us visited. Paul took the boys for a bike ride and they later came to get Ellen to take her to see the ball diamonds. I snuck out while they were gone but ran into them coming home. Pretty cute, the boys were both walking and Paul and Ellen were wheeling their bikes home. Guess the kids were as tired out as their Grandma is :)
And sadly, I took no pictures :(

Note To Self :(

Do Not listen to a Righteous Brothers CD that has "You're My Soul and My Heart's Inpiration" and "Unchained Melody" on it when you're feeling lonely.
In fact, get rid of all Righteous Brothers CDs.
That's all :(

BTW

The picture of Babs with Jameson and Gage was taken with my new Canon camera. So far, I'm very pleased with the results I'm getting with it. I love having a pocket camera so I can get impromptu pictures but I hate when they do a poor job.

I Hate Funerals

My Aunt Joan, my Dad's sister died this week. My brothers, my Mom and I drove to Bottineau (about 90 miles from here) for the funeral yesterday. We weren't close to my Dad's side of the family at all but ever since Jim's funeral I normally fall apart at funerals. I actually made it through the whole thing without even crying, even when they sang Amazing Grace. I still hate them though.

Three Amigos

Gage, Babs, Jameson

Bill Pay AGAIN!

OK, so I've had problems with Bill Pay since last December first when I was at Sarah's. Every month since then, they won't let me log on. I call my credit union and they give me a temporary password, I get on and pay my bills and then the next time I go to use it, I can't log on again. It's frustrating! I called last week and the CU Gal called the company and called me back. She wondered if I had a virus scan that automatically deleted cookies every so often and if I had put Bill Pay in my trusted sites file.

After much looking around I determined that no, I didn't have a scan that deleted cookies and I put it in my trusted sites file. I still couldn't log on. So, then I went ahead and deleted all the cookies just to clean up my computer a bit.

I stopped into the CU today and asked the Gal if they could just close out my current account and open a new one. She is going to call the company, find out and call me back.

I had to pay my bills by hand the other day and it hurt my feelings. I love Bill Pay when it works.
I wonder if there's another company that I could have for Bill Pay and have them run it through my credit union account? Anyone know?

Eeewwwwww!

Snow looks so pretty when it's white and fresh and fluffy. And I do I love the sun in the spring, but this is what you have left of those enormous mounds of snow. Yuck! This is the view from my front door and kitchen window.

My, Grandma, What Big...

slippers you have!

Gage insisted on trying on my slippers today while we were watching Ben-Ten and snuggling.

Newest Addition

I came across a picture of me holding Thomas shortly after he was born and added it to my wall of fame.

Just Dreaming

I've got a germ of an idea in my brain.
I'm thinking of going in with Karter's best friend and building a new place in Burlington.
For those that don't know, Burlington is a small town 8 miles from here. Karter and Allison live there and the boys go to school there. On the main street are a restaurant, a bar, the post office, and a gas station/convenience store. I belong to the Lutheran church there and so do Allison and Karter. Karter's also on the Volunteer Fire Department.
It'd be a twin home. I'd buy one side and Babs, (Karter's friend, it's a nickname) would buy the other. I'll only do it if it's a lateral move, and they both seem to think that's possible. However, I love my place now and it's paid for. We'll see.
It would be nice to be closer to the kids so we can more easily help each other out while the boys are still little.
Then, when I'm old and finally let my hair go grey, they can wait on me hand and foot. All four of them :)
At least I'd be saving them gas money ;)
I'd be able to have a fenced in back yard for Stella :)
And if that happens, she just may get a little brother :)
Don't you think she'd love to have a baby brother to play with and boss around? Kinda like me and Joe ;)
Maybe she could teach him to play fetch :)
Hmmmm...Frank and Stella, don't you think that has a nice ring to it :)
Like I said, just dreaming. Gotta have dreams, right?

And I want to add, I like the three periods thingy that I don't know what it's called. Do you?

Stella and I

had a rousing game of hide and seek. She thought she was going to teach me how to fetch her ladybug.
She hid it under my bed and then kept trying to herd me into the bedroom to fetch it. When I refused to fall for that trick, she gave up and dropped it at my feet. She's now sprawled out in the hall, having a nap.
Dr. Thunshelle told me the day after I got her that she has attitude and boy was he right! Guess we'll see who's got the stronger will.
She's going to lose, (you can verify that with Sarah and Allison) but it's sure fun watching her try to take charge :)

Ever notice how much I like the word, however?
And parentheses :)
And commas.
Oh, and I also love the strikeout that Sarah taught me . Thanks, Scizz!

Funniest Home Videos

Jameson: (on the way into town to have breakfast and then visit Mommy at work after church with Gage, Daddy and Grandma.) Yeah, I know, but I had to set the stage :)
"Daddy always touches Mommy's front privates. I saw him with his hands under her shirt."

Poor Karter. What do you say to your Mother-in-Law, who is riding in the pickup right beside you? I wish I would've had a video camera to capture the look on his face.
PRICELESS!!! :)

And since...

I've already established that yes,

I am "that woman." Yeah, you know, the Dog Woman of North Hill?? Here are today's offerings. I haven't taught Stella many tricks (not because she isn't smart enough, I'm just too lazy) however, she's a master at "sit and wait" and "look at Mama." But only when I pull out the camera or I have a treat for her :)

Click on the bottom picture to see her incredible eyes. You can see the exact color of her unique eyes if you click on the wet dog picture from yesterday.

Changes

Thomas James was finally added to my wall of fame :) He makes a handsome addition if you ask me. That's him on the top left.
And yeah, I know, I need to go and straighten out the way it's hanging but you get the general idea.

Bath Day

Stella's groomer is on maternity leave so I had to take matters into my own hands. But she'll be fluffy and sweet smelling once she dries and I get her brushed. She runs 100 mph after a bath so this was a hard shot to get. And no, I didn't attempt to trim her.

Stelly

Doesn't much like it when I make the bed. I've learned to make it with her in it :) It's a real riot when I change sheets :) She gets stuck under the covers a lot.

My cleaning lady shuts her out of the bedroom when she makes my bed. Poor woman, she hasn't mastered making a bed with a dog in it. Stelly loves her anyway :)

Spring Has Sprung :(

I looked out my kitchen window this afternoon and wanted to puke. My nosy neighbors across the street are back for the summer from Arizona. No tulips, daffodils or crocus for me, the true sign of spring is their return. BARF!

The Pleasure Of Your Company...

Patty, Kristin and I spent one evening last week and two this week making the invitations for Kristin's wedding. Kristin left with a box full of completed invitations. I've had such a fun time working eating and drinking and visiting with the two of them. I love my friends!

P.S.

The word of the day is thereafter.

Is It Only 3:00PM?

I got cleaned up early this morning because the cleaning lady was coming at 9:00AM. Gage arrived shortly thereafter to spend the morning with me. We took Stella to Grandma Phyllis' house so that we could do errands. We went to Miracle Mart, K-Mart, Purfect Pets and stopped at Subway before going back to collect Stella. Allison came to get Gage around 12:30PM and left about an hour later. I sat down and did the printing on the wedding invitations I'm helping a friend's daughter make and just finished cleaning up my mess. I'm pooped and I think the stuff in the car is going to stay there until I feel like hauling it all in. I'm going to spend the rest of my afternoon in a recliner staring out the window. The bride and her Mom will be coming to do some more work on the invitations after dinner.