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!