Sunday Dinner

We had Michael's belated birthday meal today...and the Tiramisu turned out excellent!
I guess I won't have to try all 395 recipes on recipezaar to find a good one, since this one tastes just like Bravo's!

This afternoon I decided to organize all my crochet and knitting projects. I am going to use my ball winder to wind all the yarn I own - that will make them easier to store...more compact. I found out that I am in the middle of 10 different projects and I had promised to make the guys new slippers. So I've made a list of all the projects and will work to complete them before gardening weather. Of course I need to start planning the garden too. So many things to do and so little time! I've decided that I'll have to take a break from Farmville during the week and just play on weekends because it is such a time "eater".


We had the neatest "weather event" this morning. In the night we had fog and it is so cold that it made a really neat looking frost on everything. It looked like someone had sprayed flocking on all the pinetrees and bushes. At church Jean told me that it is called hoarfrost...it made everything look awesome this morning.

Goodbye Christmas Decorations!

Today's the day I'm taking down the tree. Monkey bread and banana bread are baking in the oven and the house smells so cozy! I also need to make Michael's tiramisu birthday dessert for tomorrow....we had to postpone his birthday dinner for a week because I came down with a secondary infection from my Christmas virus!!! Quite a different holiday this year.

It is lightly snowing but the sun is shining...a nice day to pack away the decorations...I shouldn't feel too sad on such a pretty day. Well, I need to get at it...Happy Saturday everyone!

Snow in Cincinnati

Well we've had two days of snow and the sun came out today - everything just sparkled! It is so beautiful! I enjoy looking at it and today driving in it wasn't bad at all.

I'm full into my January rush at work, but had a great day today. Got all of the bank accounts balanced and now I can Close December and begin to prepare all the contribution statements that need to be mailed out. I think I'll be able to get everything done on time, if I can keep having productive days like today. It really helps now that I have a private office at work - no distractions or interruptions. But it does get kind of lonesome at times! Also all of my files are in the office with me and handy to get to. They used to be in three different locations in the building.

I always wait until after Michael's birthday (January 3) and Epiphany (Jan 6) to take down the Christmas decorations, so tomorrow seems like a good day to tackle that. My indoor herb garden is growing so quickly, I already need to harvest some of the herbs! I am really enjoying my Aerogarden!

New Year

Well it's a new year and another chance to try to keep this blog up to date. With Facebook helping me keep in touch with everyone, it seems like I have even less motivation to "blog"...but FB isn't a good vehicle to express more than a snippet of a thought. Wanted to share a great quote I read today:

"It is said that for money you can have everything, but you cannot. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; knowledge, but not wisdom; glitter, but not beauty; fun, but not joy; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; leisure, but not peace. You can have the husk of everything, but not the kernel." ~Arne Garborg

A good thought to ponder at the beginning of 2010! Hopefully we will put our energies into the things that truly matter and will advance the Kingdom of God this year.
I am reading a great book called "When Helping Hurts" by Corbett & Fikkert and taking a seminar at our church on Understanding Poverty. We had our first meeting last night and a very good opening discussion. If you have an interest in helping the church help the poor help themselves ... check out www.chalmers.org or pick up this book - it will challenge you!

Customer Service Success Story!

Hurrah! I just got a call from Backyard Gear and my missing part is in the mail! So happy to be able to use my Garden Center! My advice for anyone trying to get in touch with a service department - KEEP TRYING! It pays off to be persistent!
Tooth update: The dentist drilled a hole in the tooth and is letting it "drain" - sounds icky but the pain is letting up! Friday he will finish the root canal and close up the tooth. I can't wait to chew something! Liquid diets get really old fast. However since I have a "weigh-in" next week with my diabetes nurse practitioner - I guess it came at a good time. Surely I've lost some weight!
Thank goodness for Planet Smoothie and their low-carb smoothies!

Customer Service

Well my beautiful Garden Center arrived and John put it together for me, only to find out that we have two right hand doors and no left! I've called the company and of course can only get voice mail. I've emailed them and have no response. So frustrating!
I was so excited about this, it has a sink and all kinds of great organizing space.
I am going to set it up between the greenhouse and my little tool shed...it'll be great for potting and washing out the pots after I transplant. I'm thinking about buying a grill cover to put over it.
It would be so nice if I can only get that door!!
Dentist this afternoon and I'm hoping to get back to normal...these tooth problems have really messed up my week. And now we're going into the 2nd week with them!
Dentures are looking really good!

Root canals

Suffering with a toothache all weekend, called dentist on Monday only to find he was on vacation! But I did get referred to a doctor who saw me on Tuesday and has a root canal scheduled for this morning. That was the quickest I've ever gotten taken care of! I wonder how this health care stuff is going to affect our waiting time? And how will it affect dentists? Right now my dental plan stinks....I only have $1000 coverage per year and once I max that out - nothing, everything else comes out of my pocket. Wish I would have known years ago that I would need to have so much dental work done, I would have put away some money for it. At least we have access to dentists...many countries don't. I can't imagine the pain they have to endure.
Even in our own country, places like Appalachia do not have easy access to dentists. So instead of complaining, I should be thankful.

Little things mean alot

We received the sweetest card from our vet today. His words were comforting, reassuring and gave us much peace. What a kind thing to do for us!
And a phone call from a friend, the one who originally found Shadow and gave him to us...she shared some special memories that she had of Shadow when he first came to her house. Emails and facebook comments keep coming in and help to heal our hurting hearts as we receive many understanding and comforting comments from friends far away.
A scripture that was shared with us was Romans 8:19-21:
"For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
A reminder that the whole creation will be restored one day.

Life goes on

We couldn't sleep much last night...so many memories going through our minds. This morning Ranger scratched at our door...usually Shadow did this every morning. We opened the door and Ranger jumped up on the bed and gave us lots of love and attention. We really soaked it in! Here's a picture of Muffin and Ranger keeping us company on the bed.















It's been a difficult day, with alot of soul-searching questions of "Should we have noticed a problem with Shadow sooner"? "Could things have been different?"
But we have to rest in God's sovereignty....He is sovereign over all of His creation, all of His creatures. Doesn't Matthew 10:29 tell us Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father."

Mourning Shadow's Death

If you aren't a pet owner, this post will probably seem silly to you...but I am grieving tonight the loss of one of my three cats. He was the first cat I've had since I was a little girl. We adopted him 8 years ago when he had wandered into a friend's garage. She already had 2 cats, and they didn't get along well with this new one, so I agreed to take him. We named him Shadow...a beautiful grey long haired cat. He was so striking that I couldn't believe he was a stray. His fur was silken and he was very proud...I would call him "King Cat" because he always acted as if he were royalty. So loving at times of his choosing, but aloof and independent too.


He was so smart, if we were asleep and he wanted to go out, he would stand on the dresser and push the bottles of my perfume off, one by one to get our attention. Or he would go over to the answering machine and press the button to make it beep until we got up and let him outside.


I know it will take some time for the sadness I feel to subside...he was a good friend. When we would pull into the driveway, he'd roll over on his back and stretch out...showing us he was happy we were home. In the wintertime, he always would keep our feet warm in bed.





I miss him...Sleep peacefully tonight Shadow without pain!

Quick Friday Update

Here's a great thought: "We should choose life goals that are centered in God: to know Him better, to love Him with all our being, to do His will at any cost, to glorify Him and to please Him" From Ruth Myers' 31 Days of Praise. For any of you that want to discuss this book...a group of us are reading through it again during August and meeting a couple of times to discuss. Jodean came up with the idea and I think it's a good one, since we don't have bible study this month. I've been using the book everyday for the last 3 months...it is a great addition to your quiet time.

Pray for me as I set my goals for the fall this weekend...that they would be centered in God. I'll be teaching "Knowing God" by JI Packer as one of the women's bible study offerings. Pray that my preparation would be God-centered also.

Off to snap beans and then work! Happy Friday!

Consolidating

I've decided that I need to consolidate all my blogs into one - since I barely have time for it! This will mean that those of you who only want to read about my hobbies, will have to wade through to find which ones talk about that. I'll try to indicate in the subject line what I'm writing about - but sometimes it might be all my interests, thoughts and day to day stuff jumbled together. This winter I may have time to figure something better out.

So I've taken Kathy's Kogitations and Mommoboy's Hobbies "off the air"
I am still going to have a website - probably Kathy's Korner. And for now I'll mention prayer requests on this blog. Trying to streamline my life! Getting ready for my busiest months at work, harvest time in the garden, canning, and I'll be teaching women's bible study beginning Sept 10th - so I'll need to streamline everything.

My little saying I found is even more apropos now: "I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think,all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." - John Burrough

Kind of rainy here today, but I need to try to get my walk in and then check on the garden. If the rain holds off - a cloudy day is actually a good time to garden! I know I need to pick beans, corn and tomatoes. But if it rains, I have a bunch of housework to do too! Well, here is what I want to leave you with today from Psalm 86:11
"Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name."

In this day of fast-paced EVERYTHING - it is more important than ever to guard our hearts from being divided. My prayer for all of us today is that we would keep God first in all we do.

Vacations, family and getting back to a routine

We had a very nice vacation in Hamburg, NY last week, visiting my mom, Jacque and NOW Lisa & children have moved there! Making my visiting very fun, as I get to see all my nephews and my niece in one place. Lisa's new house is adorable and I think she'll like settling in there.

We had rainy weather most of the time, so I didn't get to enjoy Jacque's pool much. My nephew Cole taught me how to play guitar hero! And Georgia flew up from Texas, so it was like a mini-family reunion! Great to see everyone and catch up on each other's lives.

Now I'm trying to get back into a routine and not feel overwhelmed with all there is to accomplish during August! I need to finish writing the study guide for the bible study I am teaching in September on J.I. Packer's book "Knowing God". The garden is demanding alot of attention and August is my month for all the annual doctor appointments. Plus it is the last month of the fiscal year at church, so I'm busy wrapping things up and getting ready with the new budget. Note to self: One thing at a time!! Let me leave you with this thought
You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God.
You're blessed when you follow his directions,
doing your best to find him.
That's right—you don't go off on your own;
you walk straight along the road he set.
You, God, prescribed the right way to live;
now you expect us to live it.
Oh, that my steps might be steady,
keeping to the course you set;
Then I'd never have any regrets
in comparing my life with your counsel.
I thank you for speaking straight from your heart;
I learn the pattern of your righteous ways.
I'm going to do what you tell me to do;
don't ever walk off and leave me.
That's Psalm 119:1-8 from The Message translation. I find that the more I have to do, the more time I need to spend with God - in prayer and in His Word. Then things fall into place. So during this busy time, pray for me to be diligent in getting up early and being consistent with my time with God.

Garden update

Well I thought it would be a good idea to do a garden update.
My Kale, Peas, carrots and onions are peaking through the soil. I have transplanted into larger pots my cabbage, broccoli,lettuce, strawberries. My tomato plants have sprouted under the lights in the basement. Spinach is starting to sprout.

Michael bought me two flats of pansies for my birthday and I was able to plant some of them in my big cement planters today. I finished clearing out the front flower bed and really enjoyed smelling the hyacinths as I worked. The daffadils are also blooming and the tulips are beginning to bud. I have enough pansies to do the two deck planters and make the three Easter basket planters for the shepherd's hooks in front of the house.

I love Spring!!!

Tuesday planting

Today I planted 9 Yukon Gold potatos and 18 red potatos. I also put in all my red onion starts (about 50) Plus I tested all my soil in my raised beds so I can adjust the Ph or the nutrients in each bed, depending on what I plan to plant in them.
I cleared out two flower beds, getting all the old dead stuff trimmed down. I also worked on my herb bed. We are going to get rain tonight, so I didn't water anything.

Seed update

Okay - here's what I planted over the weekend outside:
More carrots, spinach, kale, swiss chard, beets, lettuce in my cold frame
Inside I've started tomatos (early girls, cherry, brandywine & roma)
3 more kinds of peppers (jalapeno, hungarian & banana)
My potatos are ready to be planted tomorrow (red & yukon gold)
It's going to be beautiful here tomorrow so I hope my mouth will settle down and I can be outside all day (I had a post put in today with a crown and right now it's hurting) But my garden will be the best remedy! I really need to get some flowers started.
Oh and the daffadils are blooming....my mom is coming to visit in a few weeks - I hope the bulbs will still be blooming. Here's a picture of the daffs - don't they just make you smile?

Gardening and Basketball

My favorite time of year! The NCAA tournament and springtime, not to mention that March is my birthday month and the birthday month for many of my friends. How can you not LOVE March!

Okay, I have been terrible at posting! But I'm still trying. It'll get even harder now with the garden. But I'll at least try to post up what I'm planting.

On St Pat's day it was 72 degrees! We (John and I) got the pea trellis up and I planted 150 pea seeds - 3 varieties Misty, a snow pea and a few experimental variety the seed store gave me.

In the basement under the lights I have up and with their true leaves out, red & green cabbage, broccoli and buttercruch lettuce. Also a flat of celery and bell peppers up with just their first set of leaves. Today I am starting more and will update tomorrow what I actually got done. It's questionable because the games start today....but I can listen on my radio, while I work.

That's it for today - Happy, Happy Spring tomorrow to all of us! Hurray, winter is over! My crocuses are blooming, daffs & tulips up and getting ready and the hyanciths are peeking up.

February!!!!

I lived through January!! Now it's time for seed catalogs and garden planning.
Oh and Go Steelers!

Christmas shopping

Well I thought that I could quickly finish my Christmas shopping when I got off work today - but everyone else had the same idea! I wonder why we all wait until the last minute? Anyway I think next year I'm going to do all my shopping online....but there will always be those little things that you need for the stockings or the meals.
And last year I finally got things wrapped before Christmas eve - but this year?? I keep meaning to wrap things as I get them....but it's easier to hide them in the closet and not wrap them right away.
It will all get done somehow.
Hang in there and remember who we are celebrating!

Light up the darkness

Yesterday was a rather dark and gloomy day - the way so many are this time of year. As I was finishing the Christmas decorating, I was really struck by how the lights pierced through the gloom and made everything so much more hopeful. And that is exactly what Christ has done - He brought light to a dark and hopeless world - and has given us hope again. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined."
As you enjoy all the lights this Christmas season - think of our great light Christ!

Twas the week before Christmas

Is it just me, or has Christmas come quickly this year? We are trying to slow it down and enjoy each activity - even as our days and evenings are filling up. Andrew will be able to come home this weekend and will be here for his birthday next Sunday.
Thursday evening is our Women's Christmas party and I am doing the devotional...I am praying that God will show me what to share. Tomorrow is my day off work and I hope to finally get some Christmas cookies baked... it's supposed to snow in the morning, so it should be a fun day to bake!

Update for Wednesday

I hope all of you are enjoying this Advent season, taking time to reflect on the amazing truth of Christ's incarnation! I've been putting up decorations, slowly, and just really enjoying the season. We even have had a little snow in Cincinnati last weekend, which was delightful as we attended our first of the season Christmas party!

The snow is gone today, replaced with rain and cloudy weather....which makes the Christmas lights really stand out and reminds me of how we need to light up the darkness!

I now have two herniated discs in my neck and am getting cortisone injections by way of the fluroscope (that they use for angiograms) and the doctor uses an epidural procedure to put the steriod in the right spot, hopefully to reduce the inflammation. Of course the steriod makes my blood sugar go crazy - so I have to take special medicine to counteract that. The worst part is having to lay flat for 24 hours afterward, to avoid a spinal headache. The good part is that in 4-5 days I get some relief from the pain. So I'm off to the hospital this afternoon, I have sloppy joes in the crockpot for dinner and that's my Wednesday update!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope yours was as nice as ours - we enjoyed having all three sons home for the weekend with lots of eating and talking! Today all of the guys helped their dad & I outside. We've had a spell of cold and wet weather and never got our backyard, deck and porch closed down for the season. So since today was sunny and going to be the highest temp in the next few weeks (49) we took advantage of it and have accomplished alot! I even got my winter rye sown!
The guys were so much help - and doing it together, made it easier on all of us.

Making Changes

Hi everyone!
Well I am in the middle of making website changes to hopefully consolidate some of them and make it easier for me to keep up with. So over the next weeks, there will be some sites that go down and others that will have new sections. The first one I'll be working on is to combine my prayer page with the Kathy Kogitations page.
Hang in there with me as I try to get my websites to a manageable size. I hope all of you are planning to vote on Tuesday - we need everyone to make their voice known!

Car problems in New York

Yesterday at my mom's I went to back my car up, so she could move her car out of the garage. And when I tried to turn my car off - it wouldn't turn off! The key was stuck in the on position. I tried everything and even my brother-in-law who works on cars couldn't figure out how to get it out....but he did know how to get the engine to turn off. With my new saturn I have roadside assistance and they came and towed the car off to a Saturn dealer, however due to some New York law - they couldn't take it to the one that is here in town, because the service dept was closed (although the sales was open) And had to take it to one over an hour away...but no one can look at it until Monday.
I'm supposed to drive home Monday. Well - you know that Scripture tells us that we should aways say "If God wills....I will do such and such tomorrow" And here is a great example of having to put my plans in His hands. I don't know if He is keeping me safe from an accident, or having this happen while I'm still at my mom's instead of halfway home - at a rest stop or something - but I do know that I'm glad to have my sovereign Lord in charge of things. So my plans are delayed, but I am not dismayed.

World cardmaking Day

Well today is World Cardmaking Day! My mom and I are working on Halloween cards for her grandchildren (my niece and nephews) I am enjoying beautiful Fall weather in Western New York this weekend. Have a great weekend!

Made it to Hamburg

I had a pretty good drive although went through about 30 minutes of a downpour in Cleveland. Great to see my mom - we are enjoying getting caught up. Rained all night and this morning, but the sun has come out now and it is pretty but cool. We're going to work on cards in the sunroom.

Heading off to Hamburg

One more day of work, a dentist appointment, last minute packing and I'm off to Hamburg to visit my mom and sister! I did most of my packing today - because tomorrow will be so busy....but on Tuesday I'm free as a bird! Looking forward to a wonderful week with lots of time to visit! Prayers for safety on the road will be much appreciated - this is one of the first times I've driven up by myself...but I love driving my Saturn Ion - so I'm looking forward to the trip.
I'll post some pictures when I get there!

Busy weekend

Still canning - salsa and pizza sauce this weekend. I think I've finally figured out how to get the church's accounting software to work correctly - so there is hope that we can finally start our new ministry year on the right foot. My cell phone finally died after 8 years! So I have a new red samsung. Is it just me, or do you just hate having to learn how to work a new phone? It will take awhile to get used to - but it does have features that my "dinosaur" didn't have.
Still cleaning up tree limbs from last week's wind storm - but at least our electricity is back on...5 days without it was beginning to get old quickly! We are pretty spoiled!
Heroes starts back up tomorrow and of course right at the same time as Dancing with the Stars....I think I'll watch Heroes.
Have a great week everyone!

Toothache

Owwwww! Getting closer to the end of my tooth dilemma but not quite done. Long 3 hour appt with dentist on Tuesday - yesterday wasn't too bad - but last night and today I am really hurting - the dentist warned me that he was bruising alot of my gums.
So, hopefully this is the last day of pain. My new crown won't be ready for 3 weeks.
It is so tender that I still cannot chew anything. I'm getting really tired of yogurt.
Well, we are having more beautiful fall weather so I'd better take some tylenol and get outside.
Here's a picture of One of my flowers:

Busy....Busy

The end of August is the end of our fiscal year at work - so as you can imagine - I've been very busy closing the books and getting the new budget in place...right as my tomatoes are needing lots of attention! So not much time for computer stuff. But thought I'd better check in with everyone. Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend and have gotten the little ones back in school. It's strange to not be getting anyone ready for school - no lunches to pack - hard to believe that stage of life is over!
One of these days I'm going to get my vacation pictures posted, but looks like it'll be a few more weeks.
Here's one more for you:

Bear Story

In Yellowstone the traffic always stops for wildlife to have the right of way...it also stops when someone spots a "picture moment" alongside the road. We were stopped in a long line of traffic and I could see a bunch of people out of their cars with their cameras, taking pictures of something. We were about 5 cars back, so I said to John, "I'm going to get out and take a picture" So I jogged up to the spot, not really noticing that everyone else was on the other side of the road! A little girl started to cross over near me and a father shouted for her to stop....at that point I turned to my right to see that I was face to face with a black bear! About 5 feet away from me. I slowly raised my camera and got just two shots before it dawned on me that I was way too close! I slowly backed away, but the bear was more interested in the berries than me! Thank goodness! So that was my close encounter with a black bear. We also had buffalo walking along right next to the car. It was great!

Tomato Day

Well, I'll postpone the bear story for a few more days because I have another story: On Tuesday I had a bad experience with an ear of corn - I broke off my front tooth!
Needless to say I've had a few painful days and still have quite a few dentist appts to get through. That was one expensive ear of corn!

I got out in the garden early this morning to find LOTS of red tomatoes! So I picked them and more peppers and have put up 6 pints of diced tomatoes and 6 pints of quartered tomatoes. I've prepared a big batch of black bean & corn salsa, but won't get that into the jars until after dinner. We're having stuffed peppers tonight! So it's been a great garden day all around.
I just love harvest time and seeing all my mason jars with pretty vegetables in them lined up on the counter.

Starting to get back to normal!

I don't know if we were just invigorated by the high altitude or we just exhausted ourselves and didn't realize it until we got home - but we have been so tired all week!
I just came in from the garden with a basketful of tomatoes. We enjoyed our first eggplant this weekend in eggplant parmesan (one of our favs) and also celebrated the tomatoes and cucumbers with our annual falafel dinner. For those of you who don't know what that is - it is a middle eastern dish that I learned to make while living in Israel. And it was GOOD!
Our weather is still quite moderate for August - I hope we get a little heat so my tomatoes ripen.
Still swamped with bookkeeping work at church as we end our ministry year and get ready for a new one September 1st! New budget, statements to send out, books to close. And more doctor appts this week. I'll give everyone a full health update at the beginning of Sept when all the tests are back. I feel great though! Walking every day and gardening helps.
Well, time to get ready for work....more soon. Here's another greatly requested for picture from Yellowstone.....the black bear! I'll tell you the story tomorrow.

How does my garden grow?

Michael took good care of my flowers and garden. Everything is growing well except the spaghetti squash - it died. Can't tell why as the other squash in that bed are doing well.
Looks like I'll be canning alot of tomato sauce this year! I'll have to get out there with a camera soon. Besides going into work extra this week to catch up - I've got a bunch of annual doctor appts. No fun! Anyway, I'm heading to sleep soon as I need to be downtown and in the endocrinologist's office by 8 am! Not looking forward to I71 during morning rush hour.
Here's one more picture for you:

On our way to Yellowstone we stopped in Coralville Iowa and Andrew treated us to an anniversary lunch at the Mongolian Grill. Here's a picture of him with his motorcycle.

Back Home - Back to Work!

We made it home! It's a long drive to Wyoming! Got home last night at 6 pm - unpacked, went through the mail, Michael bought dinner for us at Noodles & Co. - what a treat to not have to cook after driving all day!
Well I meant to get some more up on the blog today - but I had to work and now I'm too tired to do much. I did manage to get some posted to Facebook - so you can check those out until I get more on here.
www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006017&l=e2b37&id=1180077531

Hello from Wyoming!

Well we finally found an internet connection. Sorry for those of you who were hoping to follow our trip...but we took alot of pictures that we will post along with a recap of our WONDERFUL trip! It has been amazing...sights that took our breath away and made us Praise our Creator for making such a marvelous world. Until yesterday we have had perfect weather and enjoyed hiking 5 miles each day in Yellowstone and seeing a good bit of the famous sights. Our trip out was LONG - it is quite a drive to make in 2 days. Omaha was HOT! And our first night in the tent had us wishing we had purchased that little battery-operated tent fan. As I lay awake, I thought and prayed for our missionaries, the Crestingers, who are in Africa and having to adjust to the heat and lack of electricity to run fans.

The second night was glorious - camped right next to the Snake River in Wyoming. And it got down to 45 that night - what a contrast! We marveled at the number of stars we could see in the sky!

Then we picked up our little motorhome and parked it at Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone. It was wonderful to have a "base camp" and the ability to bake in the oven. We appreciated the bathroom as well. One thing I learned this trip is that the long walk to a camp bathroom at 3 am is not as easy as it used to be!

Friday morning we had to turn in the RV and then planned to drive as far as possible before stopping to tent camp. We decided to take 3 days to drive home. As we neared our planned stop - we went through a bad thunderstorm - pea-sized hail. Storms really can roar across the wide expanses out here. It hit while we were driving through the Great Divide Basin - so there was nothing to slow down the wind! We had to pull off the road for awhile. We decided to treat ourselves to a night at the Cheyenne La Quinta! Boy, did that hot shower in a "huge" bathroom feel good. We couldn't believe how big the room seemed after living in the little RV for 4 days! Anyhow - we had wireless internet with the room - so we wanted to give all of you a little update. We hope to camp tonight near the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois.
More to come after we get home!

Packing!

Well vacation is almost here. My first peppers are harvested, chopped and frozen. Most of my garden can just grow while I'm gone. It's supposed to be HOT - so Michael may have to water a bit. All the meals planned, groceries have been purchased, now we just need to pack the car! If we can't fit everything in the Ion - we'll take John's truck - but we're packing light because it will be much cheaper to drive the Ion -better mileage.
Until my first "on the road" update I'll leave you with a picture of Yellowstone.

One week away!

The countdown has begun to our big 30th Wedding Anniversary Trip to Yellowstone!
I'm getting sooooo excited. I have the whole first part of the trip planned. Today we've been checking out the camping gear to see if we need to replace anything.

This morning I took a great card class at Archiver's - we made 4 cards using Acetate paper. It was a really good way to learn how to use this popular technique.

We're going to take the computer and I hope to post updates and pictures. Believe it or not most of the campgrounds have internet access available! We'll see how it goes.

I've got a busy week with getting everything ready at work for me to be gone 10 days...but this time next week we will be in Omaha Nebraska!

Tomorrow's "Reveal" Day

Extreme Home Makeover is in our neighborhood helping a family who has two daughters with SMA - they are both in wheelchairs and were unable to get around inside their house. The community has been great with supporting this project. Tomorrow is the big finale....but I don't think I want to stand in line for several hours to go see it - I'll just wait for the show to air this fall. It is very hot here and we've had a smog alert today and another one for tomorrow. So standing outside with thousands of people doesn't sound too good. When they announce the date the show will air - I'll let everyone know - we are all very happy for the family!

Back Home Again in Indiana

Michael and I got to take a quick trip to Indiana this weekend! A big "shout-out" to all of my relatives! It was so great to visit with you-if only briefly. We so enjoyed seeing everyone and reminisce about the good old days when we all lived close and got to share in each other's lives on a regular basis. I miss those days.
We were so excited to see my cousin David and get to meet his bride, Lori! And what a treat to see all the children that have grown into young adults! I promised my uncles that I would try to keep this blog up to date more - since I know they enjoy checking in on us.
Today is a beautiful day in Cincinnati - but the heat is supposed to be on it's way to us tomorrow and the rest of the week...so I'd better get out to the garden today. Of course before I can do that - I have to do my work for Deaf Ministries - I always make deposits for them on the 15th and the 25th....so I need to work a bit before I can play outside!
So - off to work now and I'll be sure to make more effort to post regularly!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all of you moms have a great day tomorrow. My Mother's Day has already started ... my oldest son took me out for breakfast at Panara's this morning (try their new little quiches - they are delicious) Then he took me shopping for flowers. He bought me enough flowers to do 8 hanging baskets and 6 planters! And I bought my pepper plants, cabbage and broccoli plants - since I didn't start those from seed this year. After planting everything - Michael helped me start 10 lilac slips, a maple tree, 3 little bushes that have sweet smelling white flowers and berries (I'll have to find out the name of the bush) We also dug up some perennials and re=planted them in different places. It's great when your yard starts producing enough things that you can propagate your own bushes and plants!
Well...it's been a great day! I'm a lucky mom!

Another week gone by

We've had some beautiful weather lately - which took us outside to begin to get the garden ready. John has all my beds tilled. My first group of tomatoes had to be transplanted into bigger pots on Saturday...they are looking good. Also got more seeds started. However I have battled all weekend with terrible neck pain - I don't think it was from working outside - because I was very careful and took lots of breaks. I first noticed it Friday afternoon at work when I was turning to one side - it sounded like my neck popped. Saturday I woke up and was unable to turn my head to the side. I've done ice treatments and muscle relaxers and today it is a little better. John wants me to see the doctor if it is still bad tomorrow. At times like this, I wonder if I made the right decision about NOT having surgery. I guess time will tell.
Lots of DMI work today and no time to play with my new stamp set but hopefully I'll be able to post up some new cards soon. I have found some wonderful blogs with tons of ideas and I'm anxious to get started on some.

Earthquakes in the MidWest

Yes we do have them! But I've lived here for 18 years and this is the first one I remember. I thought John was putting the garage door up - our bedroom is just above the garage and the door often gets stuck and just shakes...but I looked at the clock and it was 5:30 and John leaves for work at 4:30 - so I thought I was dreaming. Then I found out - it was an earthquake! And not only did we feel it in Cincinnati - Andrew said they felt it in Cedar Rapids too! Quite a memorable day!
In other news: we have a new mailbox! My neighbor did us a great favor by bumping our old dilapidated one with her mower...she felt so bad - but I told her that my mom had purchased a beautiful new one last fall and it was sitting in the garage just waiting for a good reason to be put up. So thank you Mom and now you can feel safe about the mail!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN!

Yesterday John turned 52!! Monday night the boys took us to Applebee's for dinner and last night I took John to Outback (don't you love any occasion that you can go out to eat??) The weather this week has been very finicky - several frost warnings and nights down to the 20's and days in the 60's....I think Spring is finally going to win out by this weekend though. That's good because I am tired of covering up things and hauling hanging baskets in and out!

Battlestar - Finally

First of all - I loved the movie "becoming Jane" An excellent movie, great acting and interesting background on Jane Austen's life.
Tonight I watched Across the Universe....a musical using Beetles' songs ... about the late 60's, vietnam, etc. I liked it but note that it deals with adult subject matter and has some graphic scenes. I thought it was unique and of course loved the music.

Well tonight is the season premiere of the last season of Battlestar Galactica on the Sci Fi channel. This is one of the few times I wish I had cable. But hopefully we'll be able to watch it online tomorrow.

Happy Weekend everyone!

April Showers

seem to be bringing more headaches than flowers right now! I have not planted many seeds this year - but will do the tomatoes today. I am thinking of growing more flowers than vegetables this year...but maybe as the weather warms up, I'll get more motivated. Today with a headache I just feel like a movie. I'm going to watch "Becoming Jane" the movie about Jane Austin. I'll let you know how is was tomorrow.

Facebook Rocks!

Thanks to my son Andrew, I've discovered Facebook! And I'm having a great time finding old friends and re-connecting! I really meant to keep up with my friends over the years and then I let the all the "busy-ness" of children and home and work crowd out something I wish I had made time to do. So before I lose any more time, I'm going to try to re-kindle some of those friendships. Relationships are the really important part of life. At our small group tonight, we all realized that even though we meet on a regular basis - we still could pick up the phone through the week and stay more connected than we do. God has put us in communities for very good reasons - One is that we NEED each other! We are not meant to go through life alone.
Well, that's my thought for tonight - hope to do some more updating tomorrow. I need to get my gardening blog up and running again for the Spring and tomorrow is Opening Day in Cincinnati so - GO REDS!

What a nice Birthday!

Had a great 51st yesterday! Lots of sweet smelling,pampering products from my sweet sister, Jacque! John gave me matching earrings to the necklace he gave me for Christmas. Another bath-time goodie from Monie - Lime Coconut Body wash - it smells yummy! Michael got me a gift card to Archivers (Yippee!) and Andrew gave me one from Caribou! I just love gift cards!! Lots of beautiful cards - everyone must have spent alot of time picking them out - they are on my mantel, cheering up the family room! My dear Mommy sent a check - which I will have fun deciding what to get with! John took me to TGIF for steak. The boys treated me on Wednesday night to lobster at Longhorn's!!!
And Daniel, who works at Blockbuster, brought me a movie that hasn't been released yet but I've been wanting to see. Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp! It was a perfect day!

Highway construction brings unexpected results

We got to spend an extra day with Andrew! Due to a horrible traffic jam and construction - he was unable to make his flight yesterday. So we ended up with everyone home last night - so guess what the boys did? They took John and I to Longhorn steakhouse for an early birthday dinner! So wonderful because on my actual birthday only John and Michael will be home in the evening. I had delicious lobster! And we came home and watched "Enchanted" which was a very cute and well-done disney film. Andrew flew out this morning and we just got a call that he's arrived back in Cedar Rapids to more snow.

Monday

Hope everyone had a nice Easter! Ours was very nice with all three sons around the dinner table. And it was a great Round One and Two of the NCAA tourney. At work I'm in third place with my bracket. Some interesting upsets. Glad that Xavier is hanging in there - on to the Sweet Sixteen. My big surprise of the day was my package arrived with my Stampin' Up order from my cousin! I am so glad tomorrow is my day off so I can play with my new stamps and markers! Check out my recipe blog for this week's new recipe - Corn Casserole! It was a hit with us.

Happy Easter Weekend!

We had a very nice Good Friday service yesterday at noon with each of our pastors and church planters speaking briefly on one of the last words of Christ from the cross. I was able to attend as we closed the office during the service.
Looking forward to a busy day getting ready for Easter - low-key celebration. Can you believe I still have Valentine decorations up? It seems like all the holidays have merged together this year...leaving very little time in between to get ready for the next holiday. Anyway, I'll probably just decorate the table. Andrew will arrive by dinner-time - so I'll also need to quickly convert the card-making room into a bedroom again.
Happy Easter everyone!

Updates

New posts on my Recipe Blog, Works in Progress and Prayer Page. Scroll down to links to these on the sidebar.

Snowing again in Cincy

Well after many days of rain and flooding in our area - it is snowing tonight! Hard to believe tomorrow is the first day of spring!
Not much news today - worked an extra hour at the church getting some 3rd quarter budgets out to the ministry leaders. I am excited about my day off tomorrow - it is the first time in many, many years that I haven't had to work on the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament! So Daniel and I are ordering a pizza and watching basketball all afternoon! Guess I'll also spend some time figuring out meals for the weekend.

Anyone still out there?

Well I'm going to giving "blogging" one more try. I'll probably have to email everyone to let you know I'm posting again, because I'm sure you've all given up on me. I think I'm going to work on just keeping up with this one blog for awhile and figure out what to do with my specialty ones. Just so little time anymore for being on the computer.

What have I been doing, you ask? Well - working lots of overtime at my bookkeeping job for the church, and also transferring all the Deaf Ministries data into a brand new program has taken many hours. Then my other new passion is card-making and I've spent many hours reading and learning how to do rubber stamping and card-making. My cousin Mary has a great blog on her card-making and is a big inspiration to me. If you are interested check it out: www.creativejuicesbymary.blogspot.com

My health has been up and down. I am really struggling getting all my medications co-ordinated and staying on track with my diabetes. Been trying to attend water aerobics classes as I can. Sometimes just getting out of bed is a chore.

Ranger, our cat, is having a spell of bad health also. He has an enlarged heart and we are trying to treat that...but this morning he got chilled out in a rain-storm and has been shaking all afternoon. We've been holding him wrapped in a blanket and trying to raise his temperature.

It's March Madness, so I've set up a bracket challenge group over at ESPN for all of us basketball fans at work. It's NCCC Hoops - if you want to check it out. Can't believe Easter is this Sunday - I am definitely not ready for it and haven't even thought of food! But AJ is coming home, so I'd better think of something!

Well, that's it for tonight...I'll try to post again tomorrow. Here's a picture of my latest card creation (borrowed the idea from my cousin Mary)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We want to wish all of our friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving!
"Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen."
From the Book of Common Prayer

Gardening Season ending

Well I guess it's high time to get back to the blog or at least to decide if I want to continue my blog. Do you think that blogging is beginning to be passe or am I just too busy to find time to sit and write? Our garden hung in there despite extreme drought conditions and we actually had a good tomato crop....but everything else, grass, etc is burnt to a crisp! Now this week we have finally gotten rain. There's no predicting what the winter will bring to Cincinnati.
My mom has arrived from Buffalo and we are all thrilled to have her again. We are catching up on everything and beginning to plan what we want to do during her visit. The boys are especially excited to have Grammee here for Thanksgiving this year. It's been 10 years since she had Thanksgiving in Cincinnati!

Sunday is Grandparent's Day

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

My first BRAND NEW car!

They brought me into the showroom and there was my car under a big red silk cover! The salesman pulled the cover off and here's what I saw: My deep blue 2007 Saturn Ion 4 door sedan with a sunroof! I am so EXCITED!

I feel like royalty! The car came with free "On Star" - so I got to sit in the air-conditioned car and talk to my representative to set up my phone & stuff. The car has 21 miles on it :)

This is like a dream! Here are a few more pictures.
And I didn't tell the boys - so when I got home, I called from the car and asked them to come out to help me in the driveway... SURPRISE! Everyone is really excited - especially Daniel who now will no longer worry that his mother will have to drive him to college each day! He will be driving my "old" car (which is really a great little Beretta my mom gave me!) Well, that's my BIG NEWS!

TOMORROW'S THE BIG DAY!

Check back tomorrow evening after 6 PM for the first news!

Get ready for a big announcement!

It's high time for me to get back to my blog and to kick it off I am letting all of you know that I will be posting a special announcement on Thursday! So remember to check back here in two days to hear about my big surprise! You'll be one of the first to know!

Happy President's Day!

Just finished making chicken enchiladas for 15 - Daniel's Robotics Club needs lunch today. Even though school is out - they are meeting as their deadlines for competition end soon. The recipe is a Kathy-designed one, looking at several sources. I will post it to my recipe blog - as it turned out really good! And if you cook the chicken ahead of time in the crockpot - it is quick to put together.
I'm going to put in a few hours at work today, even though our office is closed - just to catch up from being on vacation. With the banks and post offices closed, I can't do much - but I can have everything ready for tomorrow and get a little jump start on the week.
It's still cold, but nothing like the past few days. Right now it's 35 and hopefully we'll hit 40 today. All the ice is beginning to melt. Well, time to get those enchiladas out of the oven and over to the school.

Beauty in Cincinnati

I came home from my 2 weeks in Houston yesterday during a sleet storm. No problems on the flight but once we landed in Dayton it took 2 1/2 hours to drive home - as long as it took me to fly from Texas! What a rude awakening - back to snow and ice. But God is so gracious - He gave us a beautiful sunny day today to ease my homecoming and the beauty of the trees covered in ice cannot be described adequately so here are some pictures

A Picture is worth 1000 words

GALVESTON

CINCINNATI

Wednesday in Houston

We had the opportunity to visit the Houston Holocaust Museum today.

It was similar to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Excellent displays, heart-wrenching pictures and films. Important for everyone to see. They also had a special exhibit about Rwanda. "Through the Eyes of Children" is an exhibition of children's photography from orphans of the Rwandan Genocide. A country roughly the size of Massachusetts and located in central Africa, Rwanda was the site of one of the most horrible events in history. As a result of ethnic clashes between the Hutu and Tutsi populations, the 1994 genocide left nearly 1 million people dead in approximately 100 days and caused the flight of 2 million internally displaced persons and 2 million refugees. I was glad to see that they were working to spread the word about the atrocities that are happening right now during our lifetime.

Another beautiful day here - almost 80 and sunny. The weather is about to turn and they are expecting lower temps by Friday. But with Cincinnati having snow and temps in the teens - I won't complain about 58!

72 today in Houston!

And I know all of you up north wish you were here! It is beautiful. Drove up to College Station and Texas A & M yesterday to visit the Bush Museum. It was very nicely laid out and my mother and I really enjoyed looking at the displays. They have a special section right now of all the famous Texans - so that was very interesting also. My favorite part was a display of every president's picture and a sample of their signature.

Today my Uncle Dick and Aunt Kay are driving up from Mission Texas for a visit. Can't wait to see them. I will try to get some pictures of Georgia & Jim's house loaded up soon. Looks like we might be able to try out the pool if this weather keeps up!

Way to Go Colts!

What a great superbowl! And I was so excited that both the owner and the coach of the Colts were not afraid to give God the glory and declare to the world that they are Christians.
Texas Trip Briefs:
Friday night dinner at Applebee's - great time with Georgia & Jim & my mom!
Saturday: walked around neighborhood with Georgia - they have a neat trail around a waterfall. Good exercise - great conversation! Then Georgia took Mom & I to Old Town Spring and we visited a few shops, made a few purchases and got some sugar-free chocolate at the Dutch store. My aunt has learned that sugarfree chocolate should be eaten in moderation - I'll let it go at that.
We travelled north about an hour to Lovelady where my cousin and her husband live on a little ranch. We were able to celebrate their son's 12th birthday and it was nice to meet Ben and his family. I got to go to the field and meet the cows also! Now I don't just want a farm, a ranch would be even greater!
Sunday: Church in Conroe at the Lord of Life Lutheran Church - really great service. And a driving tour of where Georgia used to live, including a stop at Lake Conroe. Just beautiful and 65 degrees today! Lunch at Cracker Barrel. Georgia and Jim had to work on the pool and I enjoyed sitting in the sun. Made Skyline Chili dip for the superbowl and at halftime Jim had grilled Angus steaks over pecan wood - the best steak I've ever had! Topped off by a Colt's win and I am going to bed one happy girl today!
Tomorrow: Bush Museum!

Arrived in Texas

Despite lightening hitting the airfield at Houston causing us to land in Louisiana and wait for clearance - we arrived safely yesterday only 90 minutes late. My cousin Cammy and her 2 year old Jackson waited patiently at the airport for us. Jackson loved riding the little "train" that runs between terminals, so Cammy assures us it wasn't too much of an inconvenience for her. We are excited to see my aunt Georgia's new home and even though they just moved in - she has it decorated so nicely. Mom and I feel like royalty in our beautiful bedrooms.
I will keep you all updated here on what we are doing. Today we enjoyed a leisurely morning to celebrate our vacation and to recover from our 3 AM wake up call yesterday to catch our plane.
We found out that Dayton airport security is much more strict than Buffalo's and several items that my mom was able to bring through security there didn't make it through at Dayton.
We've had our devotions, breakfast, I tried out my aunt's nordic track trainer, got our showers and are headed out for The Woodlands Market Square - cute shops and a river walk.
More later!

Going to Texas!

Well mom arrived safely yesterday - but not her luggage!! Can you believe on a direct flight they couldn't keep up with one piece of luggage! We've been notified that they have located it and it has arrived in Cincinnati and will be delivered to my house today - SOMETIME between 8 am and 8 pm! Thankfully we scheduled a lay-over here in Cincinnati before our Texas leg of the trip - so we have time for it to get here. It was a pretty hard trip for her to make alone - so I'm glad I'll be with her going to Texas. We are so excited to see Georgia & Jim and their family and Dick and Kay are down there for the winter also - Texas must be the place to be! So we will have a wonderful visit. It's supposed to snow in the morning - so everyone pray that we get to the airport on time, safely and our trip goes off without a hitch. Well, I'd better go finish packing! More later from Texas!

Cooking and cleaning

Since I will be gone for 2 weeks at the beginning of February - I am doing alot of dinners for Daniel's robotics team. Last week I made Lasagna for 35 and last night spaghetti casserole for 35. Tonight I am taking in dessert. Wednesday is my day off and it is a snowy day - so I am going to clean the "grandma" room - getting ready for my mom to come next week and then clean my crafting space in the basement and work on some hand-made cards. Nice inside projects! Mom and I will be heading off to Georgia's new home in Houston Texas on February 1st! I am so excited. I will be there until Feb 13th and mom will stay all month... a good month to be out of Buffalo...and Cincinnati!

Busy time of year

Most of the church's year-end statements have been finished and mailed out. I've spent all day today preparing the DMI's year-end statements. I will probably finish getting them in their envelopes and ready to mail by Monday. I will be so glad to have these huge jobs finished. Soon it will be time to start planning the garden and getting my seeds ready to plant. We've hit a real rainy spell but no snow yet. Possibly next week we'll finally get some. I hope it gets cold enough to kill off all the insects - or I'll have a real fight on my hands this spring & summer.

Happy Birthday Michael!

My oldest son, Michael, is 26 today. I cannot tell you how quickly the years have flown by - I treasure every precious memory of the joys and sorrows of raising my three sons! The Lord has blessed John and I so much - we have had so many, many wonderful joys as we have participated in their lives and very few times of tragedy. When a trial - illness, injury, accident - has come - God has been right there, seeing us through. It is with grateful hearts that we celebrate Michael's birth today. We are blessed yet again as all three boys are here together with us to enjoy Michael's choice of Southern Chicken Pie for dinner, followed by Mrs. B's wonderful Chocolate Share Cake (known to others as Texas sheet cake or Mississippi Mud Cake) - by whatever name it is a rich fudge cake that my guys love!
I heard today that our new windows will be installed next Wednesday - so I have extra encouragement to take down the Christmas decorations. We plan to do most of it on Saturday - which is Epiphany (or Kings' day). Thankfully we have had very little cold weather yet - so the windows are coming just in time.
One other thing I wanted to mention is one of my New Year's projects - I've gathered together a list of websites that one can use to have their quiet time. The first is a one-year bible site and you can either read the day's portion or choose to listen to it. If you are interested in the group of sites I plan to use each day I am posting the information here:
www.mommoboysprayerpage.zoomshare.com/1.shtml
I hope that having everything opening in tabs and being right at my fingertips will help me with a consistent quiet time.

New Year's Eve

The last day of 2006 - sometimes it is hard to believe that we've already lived through 7 years of the new millennium. The end of the year has had it's surprises - the death of Jerry Ford & the very quick hanging of Saddam Hussein. As we've watched the national funeral for Ford, John and I are struck by how much HISTORY has happened in our lifetime. And just how many more "icons" we will watch pass away in our lifetime. Today I am still trying to get over a bad head cold - but I do want to spend some time today to begin to plan 2007's garden. And hopefully I'll be able to fix the boys' favorite New Year's Eve snacks for tonight. Happy New Year everyone!

Thursday - Back to Work

Well the holidays are over and it's back to work. I actually worked a few hours on Tuesday doing the deposit, but no one else was there so it didn't count. Today - back to regular hours. For those of you who do not know - I've changed my hours at the church AGAIN! Now I work Monday and Friday from 7:30 am to 12:30 and Tuesday & Thursday from 10 am to 3 PM. Hopefully the two early days will enable me to concentrate more on the financials without alot of distraction. I will continue to do Deaf Ministries bookkeeping at home - my preferred way of working. Michael had to go back to work yesterday...he said there were not many children there though.

I took some time to begin to look through the seed catalogs yesterday. So many new varieties - I wish I could grow them all! I need to spend some time figuring out how to lay out a few new flower beds.

More later!!!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day! I wonder how many other 49 year old women out there were excited to get a flash drive in their stocking and a stick of ram for their laptop??? But that wasn't the only surprize - the boys got me something that I've wanted for decades!! A cobalt blue kitchen-aid stand mixer! I'm getting ready to try it out right now! My arthritis has been really keeping me from doing alot of the baking I like to do because it hurts my hands so much to stir and knead, etc. But now the mixer will take care of it for me. The boys said it was a partially selfish gift - as they were looking forward to lots of food being made.


Well, just a short note for now - gotta go make our ham dinner fixin's. Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve!

We enjoyed a breakfast of Ambrosia, Sausage-Egg Casserole, Cheese Grits, coffee and juice. So nice to get out the special Christmas dishes and gather around the table with all three boys! Of course the conversation centered on computers and who wanted to switch which parts around. I just smile and nod! We listened to the Cambridge broadcast of Nine Lessons & Carols, that I mentioned in yesterday's blog. Then we did our stockings. Everyone was pleased with what "Saint Nicholas" had left. There were several surprizes in my stocking, that I didn't know about! Next we will enjoy a leisurely day, the boys are all on their computers, Daniel still has to wrap gifts, but the rest of ours are done and under the tree. I'm fixing a pork tenderloin, asparagus casserole, & potatoes for lunch today and then we will have our traditional Swiss Cheese fondue and Shrimp cocktails tonight while we watch the Bengals play. Then off to the candlelight service at 10:30 PM....should be a wonderful day. Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

It's Saturday - the day before Christmas Eve and all the boys are home! So the celebration starts today. John and I are enjoying a quiet morning with coffee and bagels while listening to Weekend Edition, while I plan out my baking for today. The gifts are wrapped and under the tree and all the groceries are in the house - so we are ready. We are looking forward to lots of visiting, watching movies together and of course as is usual in this household - lots of computer talk, fixing, tweeking, etc. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May you have a special time of worship this holy day. Our church is having our traditional Christmas Eve Candlelight service of Lessons and Carols - patterned after the one in Cambridge England at King's College. You can probably find out when your own public radio station is broadcasting it - ours will be LIVE on Sunday morning at 10 AM. If you are interested in the history behind this service - check out the website
www.wguc.org/events/nine_index.asp

Where has Kathy been?

Not on the computer! Well here it is almost Thanksgiving and I haven't blogged for over a month! Mom was here in October and we kept pretty busy so I didn't have alot of computer time - but we had a wonderful month! We did so many special things and enjoyed each other's company so much! Then more recently I have been quite busy with work, yard, getting ready for holidays and recovering from a concussion received from a fall here at home. I'm fine now - but it did cut down on my leizure time activities (like blogging).
Okay - how to catch you up -
John is working days now and all of us love it! Family dinners & devotions again!

Daniel is keeping busy with school and Robotics Club and Skills USA (a leadership club). He just went to the fall conference for Skills USA in Columbus. He serves as the parlimentarian for his chapter. His senior year is going well and he is also active in the youth group at church and attended the Fall Retreat in Kentucky the first weekend in November.

Andrew is home for Fall Break and already has been hard at work helping John clean out the gutters and fixing all our computer problems.

Michael has had a rough Fall so far healthwise...several colds and sinus infections. I guess it's a side effect of teaching two year olds.

We are all looking forward to a great Thanksgiving week, filled with alot of cooking, eating, football, movies and visiting! Because of work schedules we are unable to join the Harris Family in Hamburg - but they will all be together at Jacque's and will be in our thoughts.

Still Gardening

We've had glorious weather for October and it's hard to believe that the gardening season is drawing to a close. I am definitely trying some cold frame growing this year and some winter sowing. Gardening is just too much fun to give up for a few months.
Still being so blessed with my mom's visit. I can't explain how special it is to be able to sit in the evenings and chat with her, watch a show together, even just sit quietly while we both read. I'm so happy to have these memories to store up and treasure.
Took down the lettuce bed, corn bed and part of the bean bed today. I want to ammend the soil and then plant my winter rye (green manure). Chopped a big kettle of tomatillas tonight for salsa verde. We're getting excited to see Andrew later this week on his fall break.

Welcome October!

Well it will be a wonderful October this year...my mom is here in Cincinnati for her birthday month! We've already had a great start to the month with a Birthday Celebration on the 3rd for mom's 72nd birthday! It was so fun to have her here on her special day to treat - it's been quite a few years since we've been together for her birthday.
Then yesterday we went to Tall Stacks
- a Cincinnati Festival that happens only every 3 or 4 years. This year 18 steamboats have come and docked along the riverbank. The day was a balmy 85 degrees. We got to hear many of the music groups perform, including The Real McCoys - an Irish group who sang one of my dad's favorite songs, "Loch Lomand". We are off to a good start to a fun month!

That time of year

GARAGE CLEANING DAY! We started early and we are almost done at 7 PM. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of you what a chore this job was! But it's time to begin to put things away for the winter and I wanted to be sure that Henrietta (the Beretta) had a cozy spot to park this year. (I hate to scrap off ice) Anyway we are getting very close to needing a shed for the mower, the chipper, the tiller, etc. So that is on our wish list.
Yesterday was Daniel's birthday, but we are celebrating in stages. Tonight is his special choice dinner and cake... so as soon as John gets home from work, we'll eat.

Red's Game

John was given 4 free tickets for today's game against the Giants. I was hopeful for a win, because they won last night - but they couldn't pull it off. This was the first chance this season to attend a game - so I enjoyed it, even with the loss. We invited Mary Jane and the international student who is staying with her until UC starts. Her English is very good, so we were able to explain the game to her. It wasn't the most exciting game to watch, but actually was played at a pace that was good for someone to learn about baseball.

What's a labrum?

The shoulder joint has a cuff of cartilage called a labrum that forms a cup for the end of the arm bone (humerus) to move within. Well I just found out that I have torn mine. I do not know alot about it at this point, except it does explain the severe pain I have had in my left shoulder and arm for two weeks. I see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday and will let everyone know more then. Guess I've done a little too much yardwork?

Great Weekend!

We had a beautiful break from the heat on Saturday and I was able to spend 11 hours working outside. But yesterday the heat returned and it was not pleasant sleeping last night! We had our small group over for dinner last night - our first "party" on our porch this year! We had a wonderful time, it's been a month since we got together, so lots to catch up on in each other's lives. I had fun giving tours of the garden. Now it's back to the work week with a big agenda! Today I need to do the deposit and get all the reports ready for a big financial meeting tonight. Plus closing July and beginning to enter the budget for next year. Then I need to begin the process of closing the year. At home the big projects are APPLES! I have a bushel that need attention, plus all the daily things like watering and weeding. It's definitely a busy time of year....so I'd better get at it. Have a great week everyone!

Wednesday's Heat

The sixth day of heat emergency here in Cincinnati! I'm up early to get my outside work done as quickly as possible. At 7 AM it is already 78 degrees! Sounds like after today, we will finally get some relief....at least they anticipate a cool front coming through tomorrow. Well, it's off to the garden.

Tomato Time

I will have to note in my gardening records that today was the first day we had ripe tomatoes (other than the cherry ones). Enjoyed one of our favorite meals: falafel....I learned to make it in Israel and we always celebrate the first of the cucumbers and tomatoes with this yummy meal. I will have to post the recipe up this week. The hot and humid weather has turned the garden into a lush jungle. Everything has doubled in size and I see "harvest time" just around the corner. Time to check all my canning and freezing supplies. We are under a heat alert until Wednesday - so looks like I'll be up early checking in on everything and getting the watering done before work tomorrow. Wish I could have jumped in my sister's pool today! John and I watched movies in the air conditioned house while I worked on the DMI newsletter (folding, stuffing, labeling, stamping & sealing) - a perfect job to do while watching movies. Well, time to get to bed so I can beat the heat tomorrow!

Saturday

Another hot, humid day. The cicadas are out and making a racket! I think we are fully into summer now. I know my tomatoes need hot nights to ripen, so I tell myself that this is worth being a little uncomfortable. Today is my day to plan for the next week - so menu planning and grocery shopping are the order of the day. John has things set up so nice for me to be able to work on the porch using the wireless with my laptop...with the ceiling fan going it is comfortable. I think if there is air moving - that always feels better. I also need to work on the DMI newsletter...so not alot of time for gardening today. Maybe tomorrow it will be cooler. I think we'll have our first batch of green beans soon - seems like after a rain everything really grows fast! I've changed my page a little on the sidebar...including the days that I plan to update each blog or website...hopefully that will help anyone who regularly looks at this know which other site to check.

Friday Focus

It's raining again today, so I've spent the morning researching several projects I have in mind. One is to turn our foyer/hallway into a pantry - so I've been measuring and online shopping Home Depot to see if it can be done without having to put up a wall. Now if my brother-in-law John lived closer, I'd pay him to put up a wall and I could do the finishing. The other thing I am working on for Walter is a job description for my work at NCCC. And I've been doing a little online shopping for cars - although it'll be at least a year before I've saved enough money. It has helped me determine what options/models/types I'm interested in.
The rain has not lowered the humidity at all - so we're taking things slow today. I've also been working on plans for a storage shed to be built or bought and put at the back of our driveway. This would enable us to actually use our garage for cars this winter. Lots of projects - always easier to dream about and plan than to actually put into place.

New goals

I've decided to update my blogs weekly on different days to try to be more consistent. For a list of my schedule check out my main page
www.geocities.com/mommoboys
I am trying to organize my time more strictly as the end of the summer nears and things begin to get hectic with the start of the school year and the start of the ministry year at work.
We'll see how it goes. Today is my day off and I've already gotten my 30 minute walk done, as it is going to be a hot one! I'm heading out to the garden with my long list of "to dos" and plan to enjoy this respite from WORK (meaning at NCCC) by "working" outside until the heat gets unbearable. I have some inside jobs in my pocket for the heat of the day. I miss the freedom of vacation and the open feeling each day had - but I intend to make my day off each week be my mini-vacation as much as I can. Will update everyone on my progress tonight on my garden blog.

Goals

One of the things that I took time to do over vacation was to review my goals for this year. We are 6 months into the year and a good time to see how I'm doing and re-assess to see if I still desire these goals. It is a good exercise for me - I sometimes set too many goals for myself and then get depressed because I can't pull everything off. A mid-year reevaluation helps me keep my expectations in line. One thing that I do want to be more committed to is writing. After visiting with my Uncle Joe and being reminded by him of the importance of recording our memories - I want to take more time to do that. So I need to set aside time each day or two to record memories. A blog seems like the perfect place to do that.

Vacation is over

We have had a wonderful vacation and now it is time to return to reality! It was great having some days to "play" in my garden. Then a wonderful time in Indiana and Michigan with our family reunion. We got to visit with my Uncle Dick and Aunt Kay - getting a chance to see my Grandpa's farm and all the hard work that Dick has done there. Time at Posey Chapel, visiting my dad's grave. A great Mexican meal with Uncle Joe and Aunt Pat, Mike & Patty, Dick & Kay! So much fun to have everyone together. Lots of nice visiting time...got to go to the Lake, shopping, our traditional lunch at Carlson's Drive-In, driving by all the old houses. Uncle Joe & Aunt Pat treated us to a wonderful dinner at Ryan's and then we got to look through Joe's scrapbooks from the trip he & Aunt Pat took with my parents to Scotland. Several of us went to see "Pirates" at the late movie. Then John & I drove to Iowa to see Andrew. We had a wonderful time in Cedar Rapids. Andrew took us to see a great garden, where they had every variety of flower and had them all labeled. It was so cool! On Wednesday, Andrew took the day off work and we went to the Amana Colonies. The history at the museum was so interesting. I got to see several old looms, all kinds of farming equipment. We visited Lilly Lake and all the lillies were in bloom. Then we've had several days at home to catch up on everything before going back to work.
Well that's the short summary of 2006's vacation...I'll post pictures as soon as I locate my cable to download them from my camera.
Everyone have a nice week!