Happy New Year!:)

Well, I almost stopped blogging here this past year, but then just couldn't quite say good-bye to this little blog:)
So, here's wishing you a Happy New Year!

and I had fun on Facebook compiling the 'year in pictures' and 'the year in status updates', so thought I'd share them here:

The Best of my 2010 Status Updates on Facebook:

and The Best of the Year in Pictures from Facebook:

Had a Lovely Christmas, hope you did,too:)

Tony and I received a beautiful photo blanket from Ben and Emma :)
and, as I said on my other blog  Woot! Books

and we shared the day with family members dropping by!

On Christmas Eve day at work, I had gotten my arm walloped by an elevator door just before the end of my shift, so I spent Christmas Eve going to the E.R. instead of candlelight service....but,nothing was broken, and although my arm was still sore, I was able to enjoy Christmas Day.

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!

Wishing all a Merry Christmas!

Back from Hawaii:)

Tony and I just got back from beautiful Oahu, where we went to celebrate the wedding of his son, Dustin, to a lovely girl :)
The link for wedding pictures is  Here
and the link for random other pictures is  Here

and now, we're home....and it's snowing! :)

Christmas Caroling memories

Growing up in  Parchment,MI  in the late 1960's, early '70's, I remember that a large group of us neighborhood kids used to get together and go around to houses in the neighborhood and go Christmas caroling.

I'm not talking about a local church organizing the singing, I'm talking just a bunch of kids from the neighborhood would get together and go around singing. We all went to different churches, and, at least in my own case,lol....weren't necessarily in the choirs at our churches or schools. We just liked singing Christmas carols, I guess?

I can't remember who started it, why we started, or how many years we did it...but I do know that my little sister (10 years younger) says she still remembers going with us. I remember that there was always a lady at one house who would insist that we have divinity candy when we were done singing, which I despised then and still do to this day, but always took a piece to be polite.

Thought about that today, so went on a YouTube search for some of the songs we used to sing....a capella, of course, since that's how we used to sing:) bundled up against the cold, and I don't remember us having sheet music to read, either, we just sang the Christmas carols by heart, because we all knew them.

So, here's a short set of Christmas carols for you to enjoy:)

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Joy to the World

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

and ending with, always my favorite
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

(and a pic of two of my siblings on the back porch of our house'back in the day')

(Update: my sis mentioned in the comments the Christmas play we did, so I'm adding the picture for that,too)

we made our own costumes, and did a version of the Christmas story at a local nursing home, I believe.

Uncle Ken's retirement party

Went to  Ken's surprise retirement dinner last night, it was a lovely night of family and friends all joining together.
It would be nice to see pictures, wouldn't it?
However, since the batteries in the camera were 'exhausted' before Ken ever arrived,
and since the batteries I had brought just in case that happened Didn't Work,either!
I'm left sharing a nice picture of the table, at the place where we ate

(actually, Kyle and April took some pics with their cell phones, after my camera batteries tanked....I'm just...Ahem!....waiting for them to Send them to me,hint!)

Kevin and Brian both said some very nice things about, and to, their Dad.
One of the things they both mentioned was how much their Dad's example of how to Be a father, and a Christian, had affected Them.

And it occurred to me, sitting there later when we were laughing at old family favorites "one hen, two ducks.." and "in the little red schoolhouse"...etc.

That it went back to Grandad

and all the stories I had heard about how 'silly' he could be, and yet also all of his children have always talked about what a good father, and Christian, he was....and so many of the qualities that the 'boys' were mentioning about their father, were passed down from Grandad.

And that made me wonder what Grandad's father had been like? because, I'll be honest,when I look at This picture I have of my great-grandparents? the word 'goofy and silly' doesn't spring to mind, when you look at my great-grandfather,lol.

and yet.....he shaped what Grandad became, just as Grandad shaped the man Ken became, the man we were helping to celebrate welcoming the next phase of his life last evening :)

and so, come to think of it...it's kind of cool, to have that picture of the long table stretching out....kind of an analogy of the links to our past, and our future, all sitting together at that table last night.

Enjoy your retirement,Ken!

Decorating finished:)

yes, we even decorated the dogs,lol....as you can see, they were less than thrilled.

starting to get the Christmas spirit!!:)

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas:)

While we're decorating today, wanted to share one of my favorite Christmas songs.....

Currently reading.......

Currently reading.......Midnight in Chattanooga: The game, the team and the dream behind the rise of JMU football by James Irwin

Also, went to the library today looking for:

13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson & James Kwak

(because my brother recommends it)....but, they didn't have that one  yet, the recession is even hitting the new book purchases by the libraries,sigh.

Changed my mind,lol.......

I know I said I wasn't going to post any longer on my family blog, but I changed my mind today.

There are some days that are just too ridiculous to condense into a status update on Facebook,lol, and I  wanted to share the absurdity:)

Tony and I got up this morning to go visit daughter April at her college, and decided to stop and eat at McDonald's for breakfast before we left town.  We were driving two cars.....April's car,because Dustin had been using it while he was home on leave

(he left Weds....bye,Dustin,we'll miss you!)

and my car.  We went into Micky D's, which was extremely busy, and I ordered hot cakes, since we were going to eat there.  Thought that they automatically put syrup on the tray when you got hotcakes? but found out I was wrong....fought my way back thru the crowd to catch someone's eye and ask for it....went back to where the drinks,napkins,etc are and discovered that apparently the plastic fork thievery has become such an issue for McDonald's that they daren't put them out where they are easily accessible? (or possibly it's a cost cutting measure ? how much could a box of plastic forks cost,really?)

Got my fork, and went back to the table,took one bite of my hotcakes......and they were stone cold.

This.....is when I started to get a bad feeling about the day.

After getting hotcakes that were actually....hot, we finished eating and walked out to the parking lot.Tony looked at my back tire on my car and said "hmmmm".....which ended up meaning "I just noticed a wire sticking out of your tire".

My bad feeling got worse.

After checking out two tire places and deciding that we wouldn't fool around getting the tire taken care of today, we came back home to switch to taking the truck and April's car on our trip. When we pulled into the driveway, Tony said ' I just noticed April's heater isn't working.'  So, we decided we weren't going to leave her a car with something wrong with it.......we changed our plans to, let's just drive down and visit like we were going to, and we'll take her car down after Tony has a chance to fix it.

I walk into the house to heat up my coffee before we take off, and I walked into......Fluff World!!!! fluff, and foam, spread All Over the Living Room floor......fluff and foam that came from the loveseat, apparently Brownie had decided while we were gone to show Riggo just how much fun it is, to pull foam out of the cushion and fluff out of the side of the loveseat, and then spread it all over the room and play with it.

I began to wonder if possibly God was trying to send us a message not to go today?

Being unsure if that was the message,lol, and  knowing April wanted us to visit, and we also wanted to go see her, we hit the road....by this point,laughing because the day just kept getting more and more ridiculous. Tony made the comment "what Else could possibly happen today?"

You should Never, Never say that!

About an hour down the road, the police car in the median turns on it's flashing lights right as we are going by......me to Tony "is that for us,do you think?"

Tony "don't know"long pause......"yes, it's for us."

So, when the officer walks up, we are both sitting there laughing our heads off. NOW, we knew what else could happen today!!
------------------
We did after that make it to visit April, and had a nice visit, and made it home without anything else happening......

that was our day......how was yours? :)

Last post on my family blog........

Since my blogging here has greatly diminished, and my family is connected with each other now on Facebook, I've decided it's time to say good-bye to my family blog. 

I'll still be blogging over at my troop support blog

Mail Call! Supporting the Troops

Stop by sometime over there and say hello! :)

Happy Birthday! to....

Ben,Dustin, and Sue, as usual for July 23,LOL.......I appreciate that so many people in the same family were born on the same day, makes remembering birthdays much easier :)

Camping trip:)

Just got back on Sunday from a short camping trip over the weekend,very enjoyable and relaxing:)
the rest of the pictures from the trip can be found  HERE  on Facebook.

my Mom finds the coolest stuff :)

Links that my Mom sent:

Nick Vujicic: Attitude is Altitude: No Arms,No Legs, No Worries

Message with a Bottle

Weather Underground: World View


thanks, Mom:)

from UCB Comedy....."BP Spills Coffee"

http://www.ucbcomedy.com/videos/play/6472/bp-spills-coffee

My Redskins' fan:)

Tony's  Father's Day gift arrived,lol, this man is definitely the ultimate Redskins fan!!

Now, time to fire up the grill!! :)

Happy Father's Day!

Comments by ZingerBug.com

To all the great Dad's in my family, and all Dad's:)
Enjoy your Day!

w00t! Class of 2010!! :)

Congratulations!! to our Graduate:)
(Mom and Dad and brother Kyle in the pic:)

and the link to the rest of the pictures is  HERE

Congratulations! Graduate:)

Our daughter April graduates from high school tomorrow!!:)

I am still astonished at how quickly this baby girl



turned into this young woman




Congratulations,April!!

Collage

Put together this collage to send to Dustin (which is why he's not in it,lol).....I like Picasa, but I sure miss the photo editing program I had on the old computer, which was an extra that came with a camera my oldest son had purchased  in probably 2004? or 2005?......I could make those online cards with it, and also play around with 'layering' pictures,etc......maybe I haven't done enough research yet? but I don't seem to have found a comparable program (and of course, it would have to be 'freeware',lol....that's just how I roll!:)

The Pool Episode :) another 'dorky' adventure

This is our pool.....looks harmless,doesn't it? and yet, Sunday at our cookout, I believe the pool tried to kill me,LOL.

perhaps my first mistake was saying 'yes,let's!' when someone said 'let's make a whirlpool.'.....so, there I was along with my son, daughter, and my husband's nephew, and we're all walking around the pool in a circle as fast as we can, to get the whirlpool started.....

then we all grabbed floats, so we could float around in the whirlpool, I think most of y'all have probably done this (although possibly not when you're almost 50,lol)

we're floating around the pool in our 'whirlpool', and I'm floating behind my daughter as we head around toward the side of the pool that is next to the fence....as she's heading around, she thinks she's about to hit the fence, so she sticks her legs out to keep from smashing into the fence.

I,of course, slam right into the back of her, and the next thing I know, I'm falling over the side of the pool along with gallons of water, and Blam! hit the ground.

at this point, I am laughing so hard that I can hardly breathe, let alone speak......so when everyone starts calling out 'are you all right?" because I'm on the side of the pool where they can't see me, I am choking so hard with laughter that it takes me several minutes to gasp out 'I'm fine, I'm fine, I just can't stop laughing!"

my husband had been filming with the camera before the pool episode occurred, and sadly, had just turned the camera off , or otherwise, I'm pretty sure we'd have had a shot at the prize money on America's Funniest Home videos :)

and how was Your weekend? :)

Virginia State Parks

Nice, saw in the newspaper today there was a new website for Virginia State Parks

check it out and enjoy:)

Happy Mother's Day

Comments by ZingerBug.com


Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's in my family, and all the Mom's who read this:)

Nice blog....."Outside My Window"

My Mom (of course:) passed this story on from NorthJersey.com
Wyckoff teen hopes her Internet innovation brings us all a bit closer

and here's her blog link

Outside My Window

Enjoy!

New Dog:)

Not Our new dog......this is Dustin's new dog, "Trouble". Isn't he a beauty? :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone!

The picture is the first time we've tried making colored deviled eggs, which I think turned out very well:) it was a joint effort, Tony made his usual delicious deviled eggs and I had the idea of checking to see if you could color them......we just used Cold water and food coloring and a TBSP of vinegar for the coloring process.

why do I ....

always get Viagra spam in gmail?
this really weirds me out,lol.

what kind of spam do y'all get?

Interesting things that have been said in my house.....

"I thought the green beans were pork chops" (this was said by me today, because I didn't pay attention to what was in the Tupperware container...which is what started me on this train of thought.)

"so when do I pour the Jello into the boiling water?" (one of the kids, learning to cook)

"don't worry,Mom, the fire's out" (my oldest son, when he was 12, at the beginning of a phone call to me at work)

"does the clock go up? or down?" (one of the kids, referring to the daylight savings time change)

"I would do it myself if I knew how, but I don't know how,so I can't do it" (Tony, several years ago.....I think he married into the right family:)

there's more......which I remembered until, of course, I sat down to write this. If I know my Mom? she'll think of some goofy things I said when I was younger, in the comment section!

what interesting things have been said in Your house?

Happy St. Patrick's Day:)

Comments by ZingerBug.com

How NOT to start your day:)

So my husband leaves early this morning to go out of town for a class for work, and takes the car and I'll be driving the truck.
I go out to start the truck, placing my purse and lunchbag inside, and then pick up the newspaper from the driveway, shut the truck door and take the newspaper inside the house.

Coming back out of the house, I pull the front door shut behind me and head to the truck to realize.......I had locked the door when I shut it. I head back to the front door, thinking there might be a spare key to the truck inside(although I have a suspicion that the only other truck key is on my husband's key ring and about an hour on the road away from me).....and this is when I realize I had locked the front door before I shut it.

If I had my cell? I could call April to wake her up to let me in....but my cell is inside the locked, running truck. I ring the doorbell and knock, which of course sets the dog barking......I'm sure the neighbors love me for this,lol......April opens the door and I discover, yes I was right....there's no spare truck key in the house.

I decide that what I need to do is climb onto the truck bed and open that Really Tiny Window on the back window of the truck, and see if I can get my arm through it to either reach my keys, or one of the door locks.

Since my arm just waves around in airspace once I insert it through the window, I decide that I will have to attempt to insert both my arm and part of my upper body into the Really Tiny Window. Amazingly, I'm able to do that, by rotating my shoulder as I'm squinching myself through the window(think 'birth')......I'm able by stretching to reach the passenger lock and unlock the truck.....but now, I need to 'un-birth' myself out of the Really Tiny Window.

As I pull backwards, I think 'this isn't going to work as well as it did to get myself Into this space'.....there's a moment of slight (ok, Major) panic where I picture April having to call the fire department to extricate me....and then I take a deep breath and and rotate my shoulder down again as I'm twisting myself back out of the Really Tiny Window.......scraping only about a third of my right upper body and arm as I make it back out the window.

I sit back onto the truck bed and breath a sigh of thanks that I have managed to unlock the truck and not involve the fire department and provide a 3 ring circus for the neighbors, also noting during this time that the woman who was walking her dog by just then now knows how to break into the truck, should she or anyone else watching wish to do so.......get into the truck, and drive off to work.....actually still making it on time:)

Don't try this at home.

sigh....too many 'senior moments' or "gee, I'm a slacker!"

well, after being on the ball and remembering son Kyle's birthday on the 15th? I Totally dropped the ball, and blanked out on my DAD's birthday on the 17th, and my nephew's birthday on the 16th!!
so.....no excuses.....sorry, Dad and Jake! and

BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES!!!



Comments by ZingerBug.com

Happy Birthday,Kyle! :)

Happy Birthday,Son :)

Comments by ZingerBug.com

not again! augghh...enough with the snow already,lol

I'm so glad we got the walkway and driveway cleared so that we could do this....ALL OVER AGAIN!!

they're calling for 6 to 12 inches starting Tues morning thru Weds evening. looks like I'll possibly be camping out at work the next few days....the joys of nursing:)

ok, that's it....I'm officially tired of Winter now,lol.

"Snowmageddon" 2010 Feb.

the Dec.'09 snowstorm we had was referred to by many as 'Snowpocolypse" and then this most recent storm was referred to by the media and others as 'Snowmageddon"......the only thing is,we've got possibly Another storm coming our way on Tues.....I think they might have run out of names,lol.

the pic is a 'teaser' , the link to my snowstorm photos up on Facebook is HERE

I love this pic, Brownie has been having an absolute blast in all this, she's been great fun to watch:)

Words from the Bro Again

Got a Google alert for an MSNBC interview with my brother......interview is HERE .....always worth listening to Kirby, a very intelligent man whom I greatly admire, and not just 'cause he's family :)

The dog ate....Kafka,lol.

Once again, the cats conspired to get the dog in trouble, by knocking April's copy of The Metamorphosis by Kafka onto the floor....which, apparently, Brownie takes to mean "oh,look, someone's given me a present to chew up!"

I forgot to mention last month that Brownie did the same thing to my work ID, which cost me $ to replace,dang it.

Happy Birthday!

Happy,happy Birthday to April!:)

Jan 6th, Happy Birthday,Tony!:)

Happy Birthday on Wednesday,to my wonderful husband:)