It's My Birthday

Today is my birthday and here are some of the cards I've received so far,

 these are just the hand made cards, I have some other pretty cute ones too!

 I'm working today and taking a computer class in the evening. 

 So it's just another day.

This is a BUSY week for me. I hope to post a bit about it later. Hope you have a fantastic week!

It Was a Great Day, It Was a Horrible Day

These are my 2 beautiful granddaughters, love those smiles!!!

This is after the dance recital, that's why they have the bouquets of flowers and are wearing their robes. I wish I could get photos of them in the dance costumes, but the only time I seem them is during the recital and flash photos are not allowed. My camera is a small point and shoot so I don't even try to take pictures. We sat through 2 hours of dances.  I love watching the girls perform. The choreography is excellent!!! The music ranged from rap to traditional ballet and the moves were just as varied. The little ones are soooo adorable and the older ones are fantastic. I'm rather partial to the faster moving tap dances.

I thought I had tickets for sunday, but I was mistaken so I had to make a last minute call to my grandson's parents to say I was picking him up a day early. Thankfully I gave myself extra time for the 100 mile drive so the extra stops we made didn't make us late. When I got to J's house his little brother was crying and J was not happy. I guess he had a bad week (at home) and had to go home that evening instead of spending the night at our house. He has the same defiance disorder that many of his male relatives have so he doesn't like to do it NOW. He gets very angry and says nasty things to his mom, I guess. So everyone yells at everyone else. He is taking an anger management class, he's only had one so far. I told mom I think the family should go for family counseling. We had many of the same issues with his dad when he was growing up and I understand how difficult it can be. I wish I had a magic potion for everyone....but I don't.

Jalen was really grumpy when we left his house and didn't want to talk about it, so I let it go. I always tell him he can talk to me anytime and about anything and it can stay just between the 2 of us. He was not liking his life or family. Once he was over his bad mood we started talking. We have ALWAYS had intelligent conversations. He was telling me how he was channel surfing one night and came across a 'show about Jesus, so I watched it'. He was telling me about the program and couldn't think of the right word, he's explaining and I'm guessing. Finally I come up with confession. "Yeah, the Sacrament of Confession", he says. We are Lutheran and don't have confession and I don't know how often he hears the term sacrament so I was impressed.

He sat through 2 hours of dancing......kinda chatty, kinda bored....but he knew he'd get to play with my 10 year old granddaughter, whom he just loves! After the dance he picked out the flowers for the girls and rushed through the crowd to find A and give her them......I had to scurry to keep up with him. Afterwards we went to Culver's for ice cream, we always go out for treats after the recital. He voluntarily helped my older grandson bring birthday gifts in from my car. I think my 13 year old grandson liked the shorts and t-shirt I gave him because he went into the bathroom and changed into them.  When J asked my daughter, again, if we could please go to her place to play with A, my daughter said (no) that they had to go to bed early, etc. It had been a very hectic week for them and she was exhausted. J just broke down and cried, and cried, and cried.

It was so hard for me, I understood, but that was all he was looking forward sooooooooooo much to playing with A. He was heartbroken and I was too (for him). I was trying to think of something (free) that we could do to try to salvage the day. If we stopped at the toy store he'd want me to buy him at toy. After about 45 minutes he was a little better and was singing again. We stopped at a Goodwill store and he looked at all the toys and put 2 things in the cart and put one back after he decided which one he wanted - $1.99  mini-marshmallow shooter. He walked around with me and we looked at other things too. Whew! things are on the upswing. When we got back to the car I suggested we read the devotional books he brought along. Yes,      my grandson grabbed the devotionals and said 'we should bring these along too'. I was surprised by that, but I knew it was going to be a long ride and books are good. I read the Portals of Prayer and he read the children's devotion.

By the time he got home an hour later he was fine. I was so relieved to drop him off at home in a good state of mind. Unfortunately I'm not able to communicate with J's parents very easily so I don't know if his attitude improved and if they were able to enjoy some family fun time outside in the 70 degree weather we had today.

my daughter and her family, my first teenaged grandson

About noon I walked outside and it was WARM so my plans changed and I spent the afternoon outside.

Hope you had a good weekend and that your week is off to a great start!

Thoughts on Thursday

As usual just a few random thoughts that pop into my head:

• My fingernails are actually growing, all of them. Yes, one is still deformed and sometimes I break one, but .....I have fingernails. And I THINK it may be because of the avocados I have been eating, that's the only thing I'm doing differently. I don't eat massive amounts, about one per week, but I have fallen in love with avocados. Usually I just add some to a sandwich. I have a couple of recipes I want to try but that's not really easy because hubby is a very picky eater and I don't think he's ever had avocado......we'll see.....
• I'm looking forward to watching 2 of my grand daughters dance recital on sunday afternoon. I'll warn you now - there will most likely be photos posted in a couple of days.  
• I am not going to argue with my 8 year old grandson anymore when he says it "isn't so" and I say it is. I am the type of person that if I am right I have to prove I am right. He's 8 and if he says his older brother did not dress up as hot dog for Halloween and I know he did, I going to walk away.....does it really matter? I think he has some kind of defiance disorder and stuff like that is not worth arguing about anymore. right??? I keep telling myself that.
• trivia question: What is the longest word, commonly used, in the English language that has all the letters that in alphabetical order?  (answer at the end of this post - now I have to think of more thursday thoughts)
• Family relationships are sooooooooo complicated. I will I could fix the relationships between all of my children, but I can't do it.  One thing I'd say is "Talk to each other once in awhile. Remember you share a history that NO ONE ELSE has."
• if you are a praying person I'd appreciate prayers for a good friend of mine.
• The good news is my sister and her boyfriend will be moving into their 'new' house next month. God sent Jack to Sandy so she wouldn't be alone after our mother passed away. He also gave her Oliver (mom's cat) so when her cat died she'd have another furry friend to love. 

the answer to my trivia question is almost

Thrifty Tuesday

That's what the radio announcer said "It's thrifty tuesday" and I was wondering what kind of tips he was going to give out or who the special guest was going to be. I'm always interested in cheap, frugal, different ideas. It was an advertisement for a local bakery. Natural Ovens is located just a couple of miles from where I work. Their outlet store was selling bread as buy one, get one. That's the only kind of bread that I buy and I needed some so I decided to drive over to the store at noon and pick some up. Natural Ovens uses natural ingredients and no preservatives. It's a very healthy bread, even the white bread is unlike any other white bread you find in the store. It's good, filling, and a rather 'heavy' bread, I love it. They ship bread, bagels,cookies, buns all over the country.

When I opened the car door I got a whiff of fresh bread........oh so good! Fresh bread from the oven is a good smell. If you're about my age you may remember your mother or grandmother baking bread from scratch.....doesn't thinking about how good it smelled make you hungry??? I got 2 loaves of bread and a bag of buns for $2. You can't go wrong with that!

On a totally different subject - many of my Red Hat friends are at the National Red Hat day (the official date is the 25th) banquet tonight: eating good food, being entertained, and maybe even bringing home a prize. I just decided not to attend this year. I don't really know why, guess I am feeling  a bit anti-social? I am sure someone will have photos and tell me all about it. Hope they had fun!

Tomorrow is hump day! Enjoy!

It Was Unanimous

Last night was our book club meeting at Lisa's beautiful home. It's large, spotless, and beautifully decorated, we all loved it! There were 7 ladies there and everyone brought something to eat. We had slush, stuffed strawberries (that were to die for), veggies, cheesecake bars, an awesome salad, veggie pizza, chips, etc. Good food and good conversation; a nice night. All 7 of us agreed that we didn't like the book THE TEAHOUSE FIRE. Only 2 gals finished it. Everyone agreed that it was hard to follow because of the Japanese names and it seemed to drag on. 

I did not even make it 1/2 way through the book .....every time I thought I should read I just didn't feel like picking it up. I enjoyed it in the beginning and really wanted to read but then it slowed down...and down. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. One woman said she is going to finish it. Not me, I returned my book, and several others, to the library today.

I woke up early today and thought about getting up......but the next thing I knew it was after 9. It's nice to sleep in once in awhile and that was quite late for me. I put some lowlights in my new 'muss & go' hair and was on my way.  Earlier this week I got my hair cut. It was getting too long for me, when it gets that way I start to look at bit like I'm stuck in 80's. I was fortunate to have some gift certificates so I had a  more expensive stylist cut my hair. I told her to do whatever she wanted. She was good and asked me questions but I think maybe I wasted my money. My hair has a natural wave and it seems like anyone who cuts it does the same thing. It certainly is nice to curl it just a bit and take advantage of the natural curl now. It's a good summer style for me.

As usual we don't have any weekend plans. The sun is going to shine tomorrow so I'll be lovin' that!

Have a great weekend!!!

Odds n' Ends

We had 2 lovely days and now it is back to gloom and doom, rain and snow, cold and gray....ok, I'm sure you get the picture. I am very thankful that what we are experiencing is 'normal', nothing catastrophic. No floods, no snowstorms, no explosions. I hate to turn on the radio in the morning ..........now what tragedy am I going to hear about??? My heart goes out to those who were in Boston and ready to celebrate the day and then some mentally deranged person performs such an horrific act to purposefully harm people. And there's the explosion in Texas.....there are no words to say.

It's pretty gloomy outside today, but I have some color in our yard....if you can see the finches and robin (who have finally found my birdfeeder). I can't believe the squirrels haven't been around yet.

I made the cucumber sandwiches for book club. I just had a hankerin' for them

Original recipe makes 15 servings

• 1 (8 ounce) package whipped cream cheese
• 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix

• 1 (1 pound) loaf cocktail rye bread
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced

Today I was off but I had to go into work for a couple of hours,  2 days is just barely enough for me to get my work done. I was swamped with extra work so needed the additional time. It feels good to know that I am caught up now.

Tomorrow I have errands to run, which may or may not get done.........it just depends if I feel like staying home and tackling the never ending craft room organization or not. Well, I'm off to my book club tonight!

Old, I Mean Old Postcards

A couple of weeks ago hubby went to an auction (he likes old junk too) and he brought me these 2 very old postcards. For lack of a better description I will say they are 3 dimensional plastic. This Thanksgiving one has pink fake fur in the background. The box behind it is what it was mailed in...for .02. The auctioneer said it's from 1904, but who knows for sure, we could not find a date.

Look at the neat handwriting, no one writes like that anymore...hardly anyone writes anymore. Email is nice.........but so is a real, live card or letter that you can hold in your hand, agree?

This postcard states that it was made in Germany. This pretty box was not used but there are greetings written on the inside. 

I collect postcards, mainly from places I have lived or visited. I've never seen any like these, so I guess that is why hubby purchased them for me. ....very different and I like them!

Got Some Cheese.....

.....go to with my whine???? Actually, right this very minute, the sun is shining....haven't see it for days ....the sun makes me happy! The sky is full of dark clouds so the sun will be gone by the time I finish this paragraph, but I'll revel in it now while I can! According to weather.com we are not suppose to see it until next saturday. I'm sorry if I talk about the weather so often, but when you live in Wi and have had the LONG winter we've had, one can't help it. It's the middle of April and we've had snow, sleet, ice, rain....over and over. Here, next to Lake Michigan, we've only had rain, we've been lucky!

I've been crabby! Life's not fair! I still have a bit of a cough/cold but am much better now. I've been busy, remember I'm an introvert and homebody so I need my alone time too! (along with sunshine). Thursday, my day off, I had lunch with my 2 grandsons at their school. I had a bunch of errands to run and coupons to use so took care of that before I came home. When I got home I made some yummy ham and potato soup. No sooner than I finished eating and my DIL called to see if I was taking the boys to Family Math night at school. Both mom and dad were off so why couldn't one of them go??? I really didn't want to drive the 15 minutes back to their school, but after mom's 3 calls I said yes. I looked like crap b/c I was out in the rain and wind while running errands and I just wanted to stay home and do dishes and laundry. But I felt guilty b/c grandson J was crying and I do feel it's important to get involved with the school activities. ....so.....

When I saw the smile on his face I was glad I agreed to take him, his brother didn't want to go. We had a nice time and he won a prize. And guess what? When he go into my car he tells me he can come back home with me for while.....mom was going to be at the laundromat near our house and would pick him up later. No one asked me about that, not that I minded....but..... I made him a very late dinner (I didn't know he hadn't eaten) and he got his reading done for school.

After lunch today I'm picking both boys up for the Wacky Weekend art project at the Rahr West museum. We try to get there several times a year. And then J will spend the night and part of Sunday. Unfortunately he is getting to be so demanding and bossy......I went through that with his dad and it is so stressful. He wants me to play with him....I don't mind some times....but I enjoy it when my grands can play alone for a while.  He is going to attend an anger management class and is excited about it. I wish the whole family could attending parenting classes.  *sigh*  I could go on and on but it just gets me too angry. I need to let it go and not impose my thoughts and ideas. I need to move at least 100 miles away!

As I said earlier it has been cold and dreary here and my bff is in sunny Fl...........not fair! I really need some peace and quiet and time to do what I want and sun!

My birthday is later this month and my calendar is filled with other family & friend birthdays too. One of the birthday perks I received was a coupon for $10 off any purchase over $10 at Younkers.....here are the earrings I got for $2. Happy Birthday to me! I don't need any earrings......and shopping didn't really lift my spirits ......and I suppose underwear would have been more practical to spend my money one....but for $2 I really liked them.

Ok, I've wasted my time on the computer once again.............Maybe I better get dressed and pretty myself  up for the day.

Send sunshine PLEASE!!!

It's a Slow Friday Night

After a hectic, dreary, crabby week........more about that later..........I am just watching TV....channel surfing.........and on QVC (click on link to see what she has-neat stuff) shopping channel Jill Martin is debuting her closet organization.  I love this rotating hexagonal closet organizer.

Her first tip is to remove everything from your closet and get rid of 75% of everything you have...yes 75%, because if you can't see it you won't wear it. I really need to follow her advice because I seem to belong to the school of more is better. Too bad I packed away most of my winter sweaters.............I need to purge! Remind me in fall that I said that!

Have you heard of her? read her book? What closet organization ideas do you have?

Let's Go Shopping......

Shopping puts everyone in a better mood, right? .....maybe..... if you don't overspend..... So I guess I'll just look. It's still cold, rainy, and gray here....we aren't expecting to see any sun until saturday....we even have flood warnings.......so what else is there to do???

I like this necklace, or maybe something not quite so dramatic might work better for me. I should be shopping for others, April starts our big birthday season.

But I also need this garden cart, I could put a couple of big pots in here and haul 'em around, or remove the garden waste in one trip.

I adore this magnetic bulletin board. 

I bought a shelf for above my washer & dryer. It's a small room so I MIGHT be able to spiff it up without a huge amount of effort. 

I love lace tanks....not sure if it would look good one me, but it looks great on her!

I could use this clip & spin organizer from Hobby Lobby!

OF COURSE, I want an ipad.....who doesn't?

Well, I'm all shopped out and I didn't find anything for anyone else...........sorry......... I don't buy a lot of things online, especially if it's something I am going to wear. I'm old fashioned and still like to hold it in my hand and touch it before I buy. 

I've actually been staying out of the stores lately....I have to! In fact today I dropped a few things off at the consignment shop, making $20 is better than spending $20. 

Come back later and see what I do buy!

Crappy, Gloomy, Gray Day

I've been thinking about whether or not I should continue this blog. I don't feel that I've found my niche nor do I have any life changing information to share. Is this just another time waster? Not everyone loves my grandkids as much as I do. My grandson is becoming such a challenge and I'm getting so stressed. It seems like I'm always crabby and complaining about something, who wants to read that kind of stuff??? I have been sick for over a week, I didn't have any ambition and felt like I was living in some kind of fog. I'm starting to feel a bit better and had a list of errands to take care of today.....in the rain, the cold rain. We've had a LONG winter.............  We need sunshine and 50 degrees soooooooooooo badly!!!

Obviously I am still not myself......I had free $ to spend at a department store today and I couldn't even find anything to spend it on. How sad! maybe next week I'll find something. 

Before I came home I picked up a few things at the grocery store, including some brownies ....and I ate over 1/2 of them :-(  Sometimes I just  feel like "no one else cares, why should I?" 

I was planning to make some cards today, the only time I do is when I go to my friend's Stamp -a-Long, but I just didn't feel like going out in the rain again. I felt like eating brownies and staring at facebook. :-(  The last 2 weeks of yoga I wasn't able to go......and I didn't go tonight either. :-(  I decided to stay home and do some cleaning up because last week I did the bare minimum around here. I know myself-I feel much better if I think I've accomplished something. 

As I was eating lunch a friend called me........not sure why......anyway I told her I was just having a pity party and most likely it was because I am really bad about taking my meds when I am not working....and I am sure that last week I missed more than one day. She reinforced how important is is to take meds every day, as directed! OK, OK!

Later she stopped over with a pretty package for me.....wrapped in the prettiest spring paper...from the thrift store...where else? It wasn't about the little trinkets (that were spring-like and were to remind me that spring IS coming), but it was about friendship. The little plate above was given to Tina in 1993 and I'll return it to the thrift store so someone else can share it with a friend. The card is a keeper though!

My kitchen and living rooms look presentable again, the laundry is done, and I won't have time for anymore pity parties tomorrow (at work). Green grass and 70 degree temps will come....they will, they will! I'll be more consistent with my meds and say 'phooey' to...................

I hope your week is off to a better start than mine was.

MIA

It's been a long time since I've posted...........I was getting ready for Easter...putting up a few decorations.....trying to pin down which family members would be here for dinner.....well, Easter is long gone. The weather hasn't improved much, although the snow has melted considerably and we've seen a bit of the sun.

Good Friday was my friday to work and I worked until early afternoon. Hubby had the day off and we were expecting our 4 year old granddaughter for the weekend. Jessica, Chuck, and M arrived about 4PM, we visited and then went out for fish.

The weekend just continued to get worse. I developed a headache before I left work that afternoon and it was still very present! M and I got ready for bed and I read her a story, turned on the TV (she  insists it stay on all night), and said 'good night'. At last I can go to bed!!!!............but not M, she's quite energetic. Grandpa was watching TV downstairs and she made a couple of trips down to visit him. I finally pretended I was asleep and let him deal with her. I felt like crap!

putting the Easter window clings on

 

 Saturday morning my headache was still there, I was coughing, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Hubby and M left at 8:30 and returned home about 1.....I went right back to bed until about 2. I NEVER sleep during the day! Later in the afternoon grandson J came over and we had things to do. We colored eggs with a new technique that made the neatest tye dye ish eggs.  I had some big packing material bubbles for them to pop. The kids had baths to take..... popcorn to eat, and a movie to watch. He's almost 8 and she's 4-1/2 so they don't agree on everything. They look forward to seeing each other the 2 or 3 times a year they get together.

look at that concentration

 Sunday morning I just did not have the energy to get ready for church so we skipped it. I've been coughing and sneezing, so has M. We both feel nauseous at times. Thank goodness I put my foot down and said I'd make a ham and rolls and everyone else should bring food if they wanted to eat. Ok, I also heated up some frozen veggies and made an apple salad, easy stuff.

pop! pop! pop!

M's parents are coming from out of town, the other 2 families are nearby. I planned dinner for 1PM, allowing time for travel and church. A few minutes after 1 most everyone is here...............the potatoes are here so we eat! I'm feeling kinda cranky because of my cold and because the last family we're expecting is over 1/2 hour late........they live 15 min away. GRRRR  Maybe I was just hungry.....everyone enjoyed the dinner, the kids got along, and I cleaned up right away. Shortly after everyone was gone I went to bed! 

This has been the worst 'cold' I've ever had......to me a cold is a cold, but this time I feel sick, my  face feels like it's going to explode, I can't think, I still have a headache along with the coughing and sneezing and all I want to do is sleep and I did a lot of it.

I worked tuesday and wednesday and that was all I did. 

It's been over a week and I finally feel a little better. Someone told me it takes 10 days to get over and I believe it! I cancelled my dentist appointment for monday morning but I do think I'll be able to get back to 'normal' this week. Wish me luck! I hope you've been able to avoid whatever has been going around here.