My Family Blog~The Patchwork Quilt

Happy Birthday,April :)

2012-01-21T13:58:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to daughter April!

Another Batch of Postcrossing Postcards

2012-01-18T17:54:00.002-05:00

The last few days I've received some more postcards via the Postcrossing website postcard exchange.

from Belarus

from the Netherlands

and from Poland.

It is so much fun, to receive postcards from all over the world :)

Paul Franklin: Guy travels the world and shoots one second of foo...

2012-01-06T08:16:00.000-05:00

Paul Franklin: Guy travels the world and shoots one second of foo...

cool:)

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

2012-01-06T07:59:00.001-05:00

HAPPY 49TH BIRTHDAY,TONY!!!!!

Merry Christmas! from our Home to Yours

2011-12-24T08:39:00.001-05:00

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

Hoping for a better week,lol

2011-12-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

Last week was interesting, hoping this week will be Less so, ha ha.

First of all, while leaving my work Christmas dinner last week, which my daughter attended with me, I fell down out front on the sidewalk.

How did this happen, you ask? (or, you would ask that if you didn't know me, lol, and know that I'm a dork :)

I was walking, and talking, and trying to get my keys out of my purse at the same time, basically. And my left foot landed half on the sidewalk and half in the mulch next to the walkway, and Boom! down I went.I landed on my right knee and hand, which I'm happy about because that's better than landing on my face!

Daughter April says "are you all right?" and then starts laughing before I can even answer,I'm pretty sure it looked hilarious when I went down. She later texts her Dad, who replies "Is she all right?" and then Actually texted "As I Start Laughing". This is my family,LOL.

The second interesting thing that happened last week was ...ordering out for food.Which seems like it would be fairly simple and straightforward, doesn't it? And yet....

When I called in the order, they told me it would be about an hour for delivery. Seemed fair, I was calling right during dinner time. However, it ended up being an Hour and a Half, and it's that last half hour that provided the (later, not at the time) laughter :)

about an hour and ten minutes after I'd ordered, the delivery man calls and says he's having trouble finding our house. I describe it, and then decide to go outside and see if I can see him. I Do see him, down on a cross-street at the end of our street, driving back and forth. He's in the 700 numbers of the block and we're in the 400's, so he's Never going to find us that way. I call back to the food place and while I'm trying to explain to them how to tell their delivery guy to find me? he actually drives up at the end of our driveway! and I am jumping up and down and waving my arms and yelling "this is the house! this is the address!" and I can Hear him thru the open window on his van tell the person at the restaurant that he 'still can't find the address"!!!!AS HE TURNS AROUND AND DRIVES OFF UP THE STREET!!...with me still in the front yard shouting, waving and jumping. (which you would think would have been hard to miss,lol,I didn't see any Other house on the block that had 'plump,screaming, jumping Grandma' out in the front yard at exactly that time)

Well, he eventually found our house, and I expressed my Extreme displeasure,and I do not foresee ever ordering from them again.

Later in the evening, when I described it briefly on Facebook, my friends and family started a comment thread about the whole thing that was pretty hilarious, and also helped me to see the funnier side of this story.

And so, that was my week last week in a nutshell....as I said, hoping this last week heading towards Christmas is a lot better! and also hoping that the week goes well for all of You :)

Reprise: Christmas Caroling Memories

2011-12-14T09:25:00.004-05:00

Went on a YouTube search last night for my favorite Christmas Carol, God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman....and came to the conclusion that the version I found last year is still the one I like the best..which led me to decide to repost from last year my Christmas Caroling Memories

Hope you enjoy!

(oh, and almost forgot to add the link to daughter's 2007 Church Solo :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T19:25:00.000-05:00

Comments by ZingerBug.com

Happy Thanksgiving! to all my family and friends..I'm so Thankful for each of you!

Latest Postcard Received

2011-11-17T18:03:00.000-05:00

the latest postcard I've received using a the Postcrossing website, comes from the southern part of Brazil !

Another Postcard :)

2011-11-16T09:28:00.000-05:00

The latest postcard I received is from the Czech Republic, very cool. I need to get some kind of album or scrapbook, to keep all these postcards in!!

How life comes around in circles..I remember years ago in Girl Scouts, I collected postcards for a specific project, and placed them in an album. Interestingly enough, I received a postcard from where I now live, which of course I had no idea at the time I would eventually live here.

But anyway, thinking that I needed something to keep my current postcards in reminded me of that old album, and I have no idea whatever happened to it .

If you like sending and receiving postcards? Remember to check out Postcrossing !!

Flowers!..for teeth :)

2011-11-07T18:31:00.000-05:00

The beautiful flowers my husband brought me this evening, after I had two teeth pulled today :)

(he brought me flowers after my recent surgery also, but unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them before the cats attacked them..flowers don't last long in our house! but it's still nice to get them :)

Snow!

2011-10-29T14:03:00.000-04:00

Well, we got our first winter storm for the year, the above pic is taken from the back deck, the neighbor's tree collapsed from the weight of snow/ice that started last night. More pictures Here for my non-Facebook friends and family.

Happy Birthday to .. Me :)

2011-10-18T14:31:00.000-04:00

the best husband in the world just surprised me with a cake! :)

3 More Postcards received :)

2011-10-18T12:37:00.000-04:00

This week, I've received 3 more postcards from around the world thru Postcrossing

from Taiwan

Brazil

and Finland

Received a Lovely Gift :)

2011-09-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Received a lovely Caregifting gift from my Mom,Dad, brother and sisters and their families :)
Thanks,guys! what a beautiful gift!!

Another Postcard received :)

2011-09-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

This one from Portugal

Cool Photography Websites

2011-09-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

From a story a few weeks ago in the Washington Post, I learned of these different websites, thought you might like to check them out, interesting :)
Looking into the past

Shorpy Historical Photo archive

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Awkward Family Photos

Dear Photograph

Why I love the Internet :)

2011-09-13T19:58:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be having some surgery this coming Friday the 16th, and as I emailed people today to start letting them know that I'd probably be incommunicado online for awhile....I was overwhelmed with the responses coming back saying 'we'll be praying for you", "you'll be in our thoughts", "wishing you a speedy recovery"

I know I Shouldn't have been overwhelmed, as some of these people I've 'known' online for 6 years or longer, some I've met in person even :) and I know a great many of them are 'praying' folks, and compassionate and supportive folks.

But I can't tell you how much of a relief it felt, to know that I'll be surrounded by such a 'net' of prayers and good wishes..my surgery was originally scheduled for the 29th, but because of some problems that arose with me the past few days, it got bumped up to this Friday. still a little startled by that, the doc gives you a surgery date and you plan a lot of things around that date..like I had really wanted to tell the residents on my floor that I'd be going out for a month or more of recovery after my surgery..these are folks that I care for, along with a great team of co-workers, to (I hope) the best of my ability 40 hours or more every week, and I also care About each and every one of them,too, and also care about my coworkers. I know that so many of my residents were like 'we missed you!' when I was gone for a week's vacation on the camping trip in July..
and so I just wanted to extend them that courtesy and reassurance 'hey, I'll be gone for some surgery and recovery,I'll miss you guys, but I'll be back"...

but instead, I ended up leaving work kind of quickly yesterday, and barely had a chance to say anything to Anyone..and then came to the realization today after talking to my doctor again that I wouldn't be able to make it back in to work again before the surgery on Friday.

so, that's that. Life just happens like that sometimes, and your plans get changed suddenly... I actually think I will feel So much better After this surgery is behind me..... but it lifted my spirits so much, to know that so many caring friends and family will be keeping me in their thoughts and prayers!

Thanks, everyone :) hugs and love and hope to be back soon!!

Yay! A second postcard received!

2011-09-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

from the Netherlands !

Yay! Received my first postcard today :)

2011-09-08T16:56:00.000-04:00

From Latvia ! :)

Postcrossing

2011-09-04T06:29:00.003-04:00

My longtime online friend Guido has been using Postcrossing for several months , and recently I was finally inspired to join myself...Postcrossing is "a project that allows anyone to receive real postcards from random places in the world".

I'm excited because the first two of the 5 recent postcards I've sent have been received, which means that my name is now in the line-up for Me to receive some postcards (you have to send to receive, in a nutshell :)

The above pic is from a Fall drive Tony and I took in 2008, and I found a great deal on Vistaprint to get my own postcards printed (I'd used them before for address labels for Soldiers Angels mail) and so the above is my postcard!

A friend of mine was inspired to join Postcrossing even before I did, from a link I posted on Facebook, and she has come up with the wonderful idea of using a website to log pics of both her 'sent' and 'received' postcards, the website is Remembering Letters and Postcards

There is also a Postcrossing Blog

and this is the First postcard that I sent out

Newest Grandson Logan

2011-09-04T06:11:00.000-04:00

I have been remiss in not ever posting a picture of our newest grandson, Logan Ryan, born July 22 to Dustin and Mari.

(I've posted plenty of pics on Facebook, but some of my friends aren't on Facebook, sorry it took me so long to post this here!)

We originally thought we were going to get to meet him in October, but now I'm going to be having some surgery done at the end of September, and my recovery time will use up all my available vacation/ sick time, so don't know When we'll meet him now...I know All grandmothers always say this, lol, but isn't he the most beautiful baby ever??!! (hmm, I recall saying that about first grandson, Aiden,too!)

Being a grandparent rocks !

Happy Birthday,Aiden!

2011-08-24T10:10:00.000-04:00

Happy 5th birthday, to Aiden!! :)

Summer went by too quickly!!

2011-08-24T09:53:00.000-04:00

and it's almost time for April to be going back to college...time flew this summer.

(and now her cousin is also going off to college,which somehow makes me feel even older,lol, as I just came across a picture the other day, of the two of them together as toddlers.)

It's been a lovely summer,though, starting with the Memorial day picnic we had

and the camping trip in July

the birth of newest grandson Logan on July 22 (and we'll get to meet him in Oct, yay!:)

Tony finally going to a Redskins fan appreciation day!

and going on a helicopter ride at the fair last weekend!

and, of course, I knew that summer was Really winding down when oldest grandson Aiden started school last week!

We'll be having a Labor day weekend picnic, I think, to bid good-bye to summer officially..but summer, you went by Way too fast this year!

Aug.8--How Nixon's resignation led to a treasured memory for me..

2011-08-07T07:20:00.000-04:00

I've posted about this before ,but wanted to post it again:

The year was 1974, and I was a 14 year old on a 'primitive camping' trip with the Girl Scouts, through Camp Merrie Woode out of Plainwell,MI.

Normally I went camping At Camp Merrie Woode but for 'primitive camping' we campers and two counselors went out to someone's farm, on their 'back 40',so to speak, and set up a camp from scratch.....yes, dug our own latrine, set up our tents, fire pit, and I remember lashing together a table of sticks to use for our meals. I also remember using some kind of tablets to treat our water that we got from a stream on the farm, which tasted 'ew',lol.

The folks who owned the farm drove out on Aug.8,1974 to tell us that the President was resigning and they wanted to bring us in to watch it on TV, as they thought it was an historical moment that we should not miss. The counselors agreed, so we all piled into the back of their truck and went in to their big old farmhouse to sit on the floor in their living room and watch Richard Nixon's resignation speech.

Indicative of a 14 year old mind,lol, I recall nothing of the speech and I'm not sure I understood at the time what a huge deal this was. All I have is a snapshot memory in my head of the President talking on the screen of a wood floor model TV (this Was '74,guys:) and I think it was a black and white TV,too.

It was what We said while we were there that led to one of my favorite memories. Someone mentioned the mosquitoes that were at our camp, and the folks who owned the farm in the next few days after that came out and sprayed around where we were camping to try and get rid of them. (what did they spray? no idea.)

Unfortunately, their good intentions went awry, and it seemed that they only managed to drive even More mosquitoes into our camp.So much so that, after getting bitten unmercifully all day, we decided to abandon our camp for the last night we were there, and take our sleeping bags out into the middle of a huge field that was nearby. (we were camping in the woods.)

Only we hardly slept. We just so happened to have chosen a night that the Perseid meteor shower was occurring (didn't know that was what it was Then, found out later.) We had set up our sleeping bags and were lying in them idly chatting, when we saw the first meteor shooting across the sky...and then another, and another.

All these years later, every August that memory transports me back to a Michigan summer night when I unexpectedly saw the most beautiful celestial show I've ever seen, lying in a field and gazing up at a clear sky filled with heavenly fireworks.

I've never seen the meteor shower as clearly again, and maybe the magic of that memory was that it wasn't planned, it was just a happy accident that we decided to sleep in that field on that night.

But it still remains one of my most treasured memories....

Burgundy and Gold!

2011-08-07T07:01:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows us knows that my husband Tony is The penultimate Redskins fan :) One thing he'd always wanted to do was to attend the Washington Redskins Fan Appreciation Day ..so yesterday, we finally Did that, and had a great time!

It was a very hot day, even though it was overcast, and I have No idea at the size of the crowd,lol ("a Lot of people" :) I tried several times to take pics of the crowd to try and give an idea of how vast the sea of 'Burgundy and Gold" was, but looking at the pictures later, unless I would have done a panorama, I don't think it captured it.

Let's just say that I overheard one Fan make the comment to another Fan as they were walking by "I'm kind of freaked out, actually, by all the burgundy and gold in one place, and I'm a fan!"

Old to young, and tall to small, the fans were all there.....one thing I've learned over the years about Redskins fans (my Uncle is Also a fan:) is that they Love their team!!

Like Tony in this pic

they were all happy and smiling.

oh sure, I heard some of them razzing various players, and the coach, at different times(hollering at players to 'make that catch!'and yelling at Coach Shanahan"Year Two,Coach! let's see some results this year!")....but it was all done in fun, and in a lighthearted way....done in 'love of the team', I guess you'd say? lol.

We met a grandmother who was a lifelong fan, she wore the cutest 'Skins cap, and when I asked her about it? she said it was handmade.."but I need to make another one, this one got a little faded because it accidentally went through the washer and dryer, and normally I hand-wash and air dry it"...(THAT's a Fan!)

and there were high school football players from around the area up in DC,

there was a very friendly family who sat behind us (and had me cracking up sometimes at some of their comments I overheard as they watched the team practice)

and there were the two ladies who wandered by with sheets of paper in their hands and had downloaded a bunch of info about each of the players and were figuring out who was who out on the field, and critiquing them (that's dedication! :)

All in all, it was just a great day....like one big happy family on a giant picnic. You could strike up a conversation instantly with anyone sitting near you, because everyone was there for the same reason..they're fans, and they love their team! (or, like in my case, they love someone who loves the team, and so I guess I'm kind of a 'fan by default'? lol )

The rest of our pics are HERE

down Memory Lane,via the Radio

2011-08-01T11:10:00.001-04:00

there are a few songs that when I hear them on the radio, I'm instantly transported back to a specific time and place ...heard one of them coming home from work the other day, which prompted this post.

Whenever I hear either of these songs, I'm back in 1996, on the biggest vacation I ever as a single mom took my 3 kids on, to Florida for Thanksgiving that year. Both of these songs came on while I was in the middle of a 10 hour drive (which I hadn't realized would take that long!) to get to a particular Holiday Inn on the way back home, for our last night on the road....the kids and I all joined in singing along with both of these, and this memory always makes me smile ...(and,lol, I asked one of my son's before I posted this if he remembered any of this and he said 'nope', which just goes to show ya..one of my fave memories, and who else recalls it but me? :)

(and the second song, I can't embed...but here's the link to The Village People:Y.M.C.A. )

------------------

The other two songs are from when my daughter and I were traveling back to Virginia from MN in 2001, and were stuck in a traffic jam on the outskirts of Chicago. Hearing either one of these takes me back to singing along to them with my daughter...

(yes, we have eclectic music tastes, lol....everything from hip hop to bluegrass, and all points in between..except Opera)

What songs take You back ?

Random,LOL

2011-07-24T13:02:00.000-04:00

So I wake up this morning and walk in the bathroom and don't see my hairbrush..I'm 50 years old,lol, and This is the song that immediately starts running through my head..

the other day, the folks next door had hung a small line to hang some towels on their porch..when I took the dogs out in the back yard, Riggo

startled by something new,lol, starts Barking at the laundry on their line..what a Goof!! :)

lastly..we all got new phones with our latest upgrade, and I discover what a Dork I am once again

it actually took me about TWO days to successfully start using the touchscreen, ha ha, without randomly flipping the screen to something I didn't even want..can you say 'tech-challenged'?

have a great day!

New Grandson arrived, and Happy Birthday to half the family ,lol.

2011-07-23T08:03:00.000-04:00

New grandson arrived July 22nd, yay! No pics yet, I'll withhold details and announcements until the young family gets home and sends more info :)

and today, July 23, three in our family share a birthday (possibly I exaggerated when I said 'half the family'? nah, I would never exaggerate,lol)

so, Happy Birthday! to sister Sue, and to sons Ben and Dustin!!

Had a Great time camping :)

2011-07-18T09:23:00.000-04:00

Had a great time camping again this year in Natural Chimneys Park

We actually ended up camping for Five days, which was a nice surprise! Tony decided to add an extra day, as the way my days off fell, he decided we'd go out a day early.

Set up the campground Weds afternoon and woke up Thursday morning to a gorgeous day and tried to capture the sun rise coming through the trees, the rest of our pictures are HERE

While Tony and a friend went fishing at a trout farm, I stayed behind to read and also to catch up on some letter writing to the troops...was sitting on the lawn chair, with a light breeze blowing, and even though I could faintly hear bluegrass, the Grateful Dead and Iron Butterfly all at the same time from various campsite's..it was still very peaceful and quiet.

Two ladies were walking by our campsite and they said hello, and remarked on the beautiful day, and how relaxed I look and how nice our campsite looked..and as they started to walk on, one of them turned and said 'there's only one thing wrong with your campsite,though'..and I started laughing because I already knew what she was going to say 'the Redskins stuff',lol..yup, she was a Dallas fan :)

All in all, a lovely relaxing and renewing trip :)

Woot! Almost Time for Camping Again! :)

2011-07-10T08:05:00.000-04:00

Next week is our yearly 4 day camping trip, yay! :)

Summer Blogging is Light

2011-07-10T07:41:00.000-04:00

Because I'm spending as much time as I can here :)

Enjoy these summer days,everyone!

Planting flowers:) and..pool's open!

2011-05-16T19:56:00.000-04:00

so, due to a sale on some plants from someone closing a small greenhouse, we are now 'planters' :)

we started out with 5 gardenia plants and an aloe plant, and then of course had to get topsoil, according to my husband, who Has actually planted stuff before..myself? I'm known for previously killing an air fern (which is supposed to be indestructible) and then, we had to get More plants..

tomato plants are in the back row..I wouldn't Know they were tomato plants, lol, except someone else told me they were. I spent my early years always finding a reason to be gone when gardeners around me got to gardening,lol.

I also got 2 hanging pots with flowers, too, for the lower deck.

and then Tony got ahold of a Michigan Bulb company catalog, so possibly I've created a monster..

April and I went to see Bridesmaids (which was Hilarious, by the way:) and came home to Tony saying 'um, I ordered some bulbs"..lol, and that's how it starts!!

oh, and by the way...pool's open!

we went for the first swim on Saturday!! :)

Young Woman Missing:Update:FOUND!

2011-05-14T10:30:00.002-04:00

UPDATE: Katalina has contacted her family and says she's safe, although she's not home yet, according to this news story:

http://www2.madison-news.com/news/2011/may/16/katalina-phones-home-still-missing-ar-1042974/

Thanks be to God.

Thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Katalina Mikitarian, 21, missing since May 9th. Today, her family and others are traveling to the Charlottesville,Virginia area to hand out missing fliers.

This is the unimaginable 'worst nightmare' for any of parent...your child is missing.

There is a Facebook page to help spread the word, and this blogger D.L. Diener has a badge code that you can post on your blog to spread the word,too. Here is a downloadable PDF file with a flyer.

Here's an article from the Charlottesville Daily Progress
Missing woman may have come through Charlottesville

If you have information? some phone numbers are listed on this flyer

Bittersweet..

2011-05-07T17:20:00.000-04:00

It will be a bittersweet Mother's Day this year, as my husband and his family just laid his mother to rest this morning. Rest in Peace, Louise.

It'll soon be time..

2011-04-25T11:04:00.000-04:00

to break out the pool, baby :) supposed to be in the 80's today!!

can't wait!!

Had to Work on Easter, but it was fun:)

2011-04-25T10:41:00.000-04:00

One of my fellow nurses had an extra set of bunny ears that she lent me to wear, so we both were 'Bunny nurses',lol, and I think our resident's really enjoyed it!

mmm..I love food:)

2011-04-06T14:18:00.000-04:00

I've been following The Amish Cook feature in our newspaper for years,today there was a post on the editor's blog with a Molasses Cookie recipe
(I love Molasses cookies:)

and if you like cupcakes? check out the daughter-in-law's blog
Cupcakes & Sweets

(here's a pic of the 'cupcake tower' from their wedding :)

Don't forget the cats:)

2011-04-06T13:59:00.000-04:00

Ma mere questioned if we still had cats, yes indeed! we do, so I figured I'd post a pic of Tiger and Ginger,
Tiger is the 'grande dame' of the place, the gray and white cat on the right,
and Ginger is the 'tortie' on the left in the pic below :)

Our other ridiculous dog,lol

2011-04-04T18:56:00.000-04:00

Riggo (who by the way has gotten Huge, hasn't he? )

(look at Riggo and Brownie together, and yikes! Riggo isn't even a year old yet!:)

anyway, the other day Tony attached Riggo's rabies tag onto Riggo's collar, right before we took them outside..and Riggo started trying to attack and bit his tag,lol, twisting his neck around in all these impossible positions, and at one point, even doing a complete backflip while trying to catch ahold of the tag.

would have been a great video, but we were both laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes, because it just looked so ridiulous, and neither one of us wanted to run upstairs and grab the camera.

Life is never dull, is it? when you have pets :) especially when they are such Goofs!

The Impact of the Washing Machine

2011-04-04T18:14:00.000-04:00

This was pretty cool, via Friluftsliv:Log Blog Connection

Still 'walking Sydney streets"

2011-03-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Alan Waddell passed away in 2008 but his sons continue to update the website with pictures from his walks.
Since this is probably the closest I will ever come to visiting Australia ? it's a pleasure to continue to be able to 'walk with Alan' in spirit. I followed his website for years.

UMM..Maple Syrup :)

2011-03-28T11:27:00.000-04:00

I haven't updated since we visited the Highland County Maple Festival on March 19th ,too busy enjoying March Madness (Yay! VCU ! way to go so far :)

We went with my husband's brother and his family, first to Eagle's Sugar Camp , as we usually do, and of course got some Maple doughnuts..the glazed kind, maple fudge, and Maple Syrup..which I had over my French toast this morning,yum!

and then headed back to the Sugar Tree Country store which is where we always get

maple cream, maple candy, apple butter, and yet another kind of maple donuts.

Highland county is so beautiful,as you can see in these pictures, taken in the parking lot near the Sugar Tree store, located in McDowell,VA.

and then we headed on over to Monterey,VA, which is the hub of the Maple Festival. this pic below is looking Toward downtown Monterey.

and this picture below is looking back towards the mountains we'd just come over to get there.

I neglected to take any pictures of all the craft booths in downtown Monterey, was too busy wandering through the booths and enjoying looking at all the crafts..and did I mention that we also stopped to eat maple funnel cakes ?

Oddly, although the Maple festival is also famous for buckwheat pancakes, I've never eaten them there in all these years, as my husband is not a pancake lover, and the lines are usually extremely long to wait to get pancakes.

One of the pleasures, for me, of traveling over every year is also that once we get into the mountains, we listen to Alleghany Mountain Radio They have a mixed playlist, from bluegrass to 50's and 60's,etc. and there are lots of 'oldies' to sing along with as you're traveling thru the mountains (my family suffered thru this part of the trip,lol, as I cannot carry a tune at all!)

I found a nice write-up of the festival on the blog of an area blogger/reporter, Lynn Mitchell, HERE
which you might also enjoy reading.

and that's my round-up of our visit to the Maple festival for this year:)

Our Neurotic Dog:)

2011-03-13T20:42:00.000-04:00

So we took Brownie (above) and Riggo to a park with a creek running through it the other week, and that was when we learned that Brownie is Terrified of ..bridges,lol.
We approached the first bridge and she started pulling backwards on the leash, but we were finally able to coax (ok,'drag') her over..but when we came to another bridge, she just came to a complete stop and absolutely refused to go over!
Finally, Tony spotted another bridge further down where there was no traffic crossing, so he took her down there and Picked Her Up and Carried Her halfway across the bridge..while Riggo and I approached from the other end, and we were finally able to persuade Brownie to finish crossing the bridge, with Riggo alongside her.
Hilarious :)

Woot! It's March..that means Maple Sugar festival time :)

2011-03-05T09:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's once again the month when thousands of folks descend upon a little town in Highland County,Virginia to celebrate the annual Highland Maple Festival
We'll be going again this year:)

Celebrating Three Years!

2011-02-28T09:34:00.000-05:00

Celebrating Three Years today of being married to the most wonderful man in the world :)

February 28, 2008

February 2009

2010

2011

Happy,Happy Anniversary to the Man I Love! :)

What Valentine's Day was like in our house:)

2011-02-18T21:50:00.000-05:00

This story really starts on a day I was shopping by myself, and thought to myself how efficient it would of me to buy Kyle's birthday card, and Valentine's cards for Tony and for April, and then I also found the Perfect Anniversary card for Tony while doing so, so efficiently bought that,too.

I took them efficiently home, and then proceeded to forget about them,lol... until the night I was having the dinner for Kyle's birthday and someone walked in with a card for him, and I was like 'oh crap, I forgot all about my card!" and raced upstairs to find it. I wrote 'Kyle" on the front of an envelope and then rapidly looked through the cards and grabbed his birthday card and Thought I put it in the envelope I'd just signed.

Fast forward to Valentine's day, when I got up and walked right by the giant heart -shaped box of candy and card from Tony for me, that were right in the middle of the kicthen... not once, but Twice! before I saw them and said 'oh my god it's Valentine's Day!' and ran back upstairs to get Tony's card.

by this time, I had totally forgotten that I'd also bought an anniversary card, so while pulling out the cards, I was like 'hmm, I must've bought him Two cards" and so I signed two cards and stuffed them in envelopes and ran back downstairs and said "Happy Valentine's Day!" to my husband......who opened the first one and said "this is a really nice card, but why are you giving me an anniversary card Today?" and then proceeded to pick up the second card and say "um..is this card supposed to be for me? because it says 'Kyle' on the front"

at that point, he was laughing..and I just threw my hands up in the air and said "you know what, I'm not doing Anything else this morning until I go get a cup of Coffee! and also, I will Never again buy a bunch of cards ahead of time to try to be efficient!!"

later that day, I sent Tony a Valentine's e-card.

when I got home from work the next day, the reply email for the card said "really liked this card....if it was supposed to have been for me??"

and thus, another peek into our life :)

Happy Birthday,Dad!

2011-02-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

Happy 72,Dad!!:)

Happy Quarter of a Century:)

2011-02-15T05:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday! to son Kyle :)

woot! Best Valentine/Anniversary gift ever from...

2011-02-10T20:16:00.000-05:00

Best Husband in the world,of course :)

I posted about it over on my other blog HERE

(and I'm too sleepy to re-post ,lol, so please just click the link:)

Happy Birthday,Dear Daughter:)

2011-01-21T05:20:00.002-05:00

Slideshow generated with Smilebox

Love from Mom and Dad!

Cupcakes:)

2011-01-20T05:23:00.000-05:00

If you are in Oahu and need cupcakes? you might want to check out our daughter-in-law's website here
cupcakes & sweets

I can attest to the fact that they are out of this world Delicious!!! :)

Happy Birthday,Tony:)

2011-01-06T08:53:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday, to a wonderful husband and father, and my best friend :)

Update on my Brother, and Thank You!

2011-01-06T08:52:00.000-05:00

The news from Kirby is good, he is healing and resting, and may be able to go home soon....Thank you So much, for the prayers and good thoughts!! Bless all of you:)

Requesting Prayers for my Brother

2011-01-05T11:50:00.000-05:00

I'm home today with some kind of stomach virus (blech) but of more concern to me is that my brother, Kirby, is in the hospital with pneumonia........requesting prayers and good thoughts for him, please, and thank you, for thinking of him for me.

Yet another reason I love my husband:) Happy(early) Birthday to April!

2011-01-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

I had the idea while we were packing April up for college and going through her clothes...she had T-shirts going all the way back to middle school, from drama productions or musicals she's been in, to youth group and volunteer activities that she participated in and got a shirt from.....why not make them into some kind of patchwork quilt?

so we saved them, and I eventually found some directions online for how to make just a 'square block' quilt, but since I've never quilted, wasn't quite sure how to do the quilting part....so Tony brought up the idea of tying fleece on as the backing....and then, he just took the whole thing and ran with it, sewed it all together in one day, and we just finished tying the fleece backing on today, so we gave it to April today:)

Happy New Year!:)

2010-12-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

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:)

2010-12-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

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!

2010-12-20T21:13:00.000-05:00

Back from Hawaii:)

2010-12-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-28T17:35:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-27T22:01:00.000-05:00

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:)

2010-11-27T21:30:00.000-05:00

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:)

2010-11-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

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

Currently reading.......

2010-10-01T20:44:00.000-04:00

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.......

2010-09-18T19:27:00.000-04:00

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........

2010-08-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

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....

2010-07-23T18:48:00.000-04:00

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:)

2010-07-19T21:46:00.000-04:00

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 :)

2010-06-26T08:12:00.000-04:00

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"

2010-06-26T07:44:00.000-04:00

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

My Redskins' fan:)

2010-06-23T09:38:00.000-04:00

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!

2010-06-20T04:49:00.000-04:00

Comments by ZingerBug.com

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

w00t! Class of 2010!! :)

2010-06-13T10:04:00.001-04:00

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:)

2010-06-11T10:28:00.000-04:00

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

2010-06-04T19:41:00.000-04:00

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

2010-05-31T20:06:00.005-04:00

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

2010-05-27T17:14:00.003-04:00

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

check it out and enjoy:)

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

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"

2010-04-13T18:09:00.003-04:00

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:)

2010-04-12T11:13:00.002-04:00

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

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T08:36:00.003-04:00

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 ....

2010-04-02T20:11:00.001-04:00

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.....

2010-03-27T17:20:00.002-04:00

"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:)

2010-03-17T04:35:00.001-04:00

Comments by ZingerBug.com

How NOT to start your day:)

2010-03-10T17:05:00.002-05:00

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!"

2010-02-19T20:27:00.002-05:00

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! :)

2010-02-15T07:28:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday,Son :)

Comments by ZingerBug.com

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

2010-02-08T19:33:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-02-07T06:37:00.003-05:00

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

2010-02-04T17:48:00.001-05:00

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.

2010-02-01T12:40:00.001-05:00

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!

2010-01-21T04:45:00.002-05:00

Happy,happy Birthday to April!:)

Jan 6th, Happy Birthday,Tony!:)

2010-01-05T22:14:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday on Wednesday,to my wonderful husband:)

Happy New Year:)

2009-12-31T07:28:00.002-05:00

Woke up to a light dusting of snow this morning, which will apparently turn to rain later, and then instead of magical powdery stuff, I guess it will just be....yuck.

Thanks to a gift certificate:) I finally got one of the books that has been on my Amazon.com wishlist for a couple of years

Mysteries and Histories: Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes by Wes Oleszewski

having grown up in Michigan, and also living there the year the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, which I've never forgotten....I've just always been interested since then in stories about shipping on the Lakes....yes, I am That much of a geek :)

My book came yesterday, Woo Hoo! and I'm almost done with it.

of course, at the same time, I'm still reading The Sandbox , which has been really cool......a lot of the blog posts that are featured in there I remember reading 'back in the day', and it's like revisiting old friends.

Well, mainly just wanted to wish everyone "Happy New Year"

we have felt so very blessed in 2009, and want to wish everyone a safe, happy, healthy and blessed 2010!

Christian Glitter by www.christianglitter.com

The Balloon lives on.......

2009-12-27T07:40:00.002-05:00

Remember the Balloon I bought for Tony back in October while he was recovering from his heart surgery?
Well, it's still hanging around.....(although the cats have destroyed the ribbon that was attached to it.)
It's been floating in a corner of our living room all these months, until the other day I noticed that, as more helium has been slowly leaking out of it, it was starting to drift across the room towards the Christmas tree.

So, I moved it to our bedroom.....forgetting that we run a fan at night.

The result of that was at about 3 a.m. the next morning? we were suddenly awakened by the noise of something Caught in the fan....and when Tony yelled 'what the heck?!' and threw his arm out as he sat up?

His arm hit the balloon and it started singing "Don't worry,Be Happy"

Heck of a way to wake up........still Laughing :)

My Family Blog~The Patchwork Quilt

Happy Birthday,April :)

Another Batch of Postcrossing Postcards

More Postcrossing Postcards

Paul Franklin: Guy travels the world and shoots one second of foo...

Happy Birthday to my Husband!

Merry Christmas! from our Home to Yours

Hoping for a better week,lol

Reprise: Christmas Caroling Memories

Happy Thanksgiving!

Latest Postcard Received

Another Postcard :)

More Postcards

Flowers!..for teeth :)

Snow!

Happy Birthday to .. Me :)

3 More Postcards received :)

More Postcrossing Postcards

Received a Lovely Gift :)

Another Postcard received :)

Cool Photography Websites

More Postcards :)

Why I love the Internet :)

Yay! A second postcard received!

Yay! Received my first postcard today :)

Postcrossing

Newest Grandson Logan

Happy Birthday,Aiden!

Summer went by too quickly!!

Aug.8--How Nixon's resignation led to a treasured memory for me..

Burgundy and Gold!

down Memory Lane,via the Radio

Random,LOL

New Grandson arrived, and Happy Birthday to half the family ,lol.

Had a Great time camping :)

Woot! Almost Time for Camping Again! :)

Summer Blogging is Light

Planting flowers:) and..pool's open!

Young Woman Missing:Update:FOUND!

Bittersweet..

It'll soon be time..

Had to Work on Easter, but it was fun:)

mmm..I love food:)

Don't forget the cats:)

Our other ridiculous dog,lol

The Impact of the Washing Machine

Still 'walking Sydney streets"

UMM..Maple Syrup :)

Our Neurotic Dog:)

Woot! It's March..that means Maple Sugar festival time :)

Celebrating Three Years!

What Valentine's Day was like in our house:)

Happy Birthday,Dad!

Happy Quarter of a Century:)

woot! Best Valentine/Anniversary gift ever from...

Happy Birthday,Dear Daughter:)

Cupcakes:)

Happy Birthday,Tony:)

Update on my Brother, and Thank You!

Requesting Prayers for my Brother

Yet another reason I love my husband:) Happy(early) Birthday to April!

Happy New Year!:)

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

Wishing all a Merry Christmas!

Back from Hawaii:)

Christmas Caroling memories

Uncle Ken's retirement party

Decorating finished:)

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

Currently reading.......

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

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

Happy Birthday! to....

Camping trip:)

my Mom finds the coolest stuff :)

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

My Redskins' fan:)

Happy Father's Day!

w00t! Class of 2010!! :)

Congratulations! Graduate:)