Oh Sir Walter Wally

I decided to take a walk downtown during lunch today to check out the big Groundhog Day celebration.  We have our own version of Punxsutawney Phil known as Sir Walter Wally.   It was a big deal and there was a huge crowd.  I had to push some little kids out of the way to get a better view (not really, but I thought about it).  I took a couple of pictures with my cheap little phone just so you could get an idea of what it was like.  Sorry the photography isn't that great, but you get the idea, right?  Can you see Wally there being held up in the air? 

The crowd was getting a little anxious because we had to wait until high noon for Wally to strut about and check for his shadow.  We waited patiently as groundhog poems were read, the history of groundhog day was explained, we learned about groundhog life and there was even a groundhog song!  Good grief!  I just needed to know if he was going to see his shadow because I'm getting kind of tired of winter.  (I really should be ashamed to say that because we had one of our crazy 70 degree days again today.)    Anyway he finally got to come out and do whatever it is he does and then we were told that Sir Walter Wally saw his stinking shadow!!!  Nooooo!  Oh Sir Walter Wally how could you do this to us - six more weeks of winter?!?!  The crowd booed.  I left disappointed.

  

(Poor Wally hiding his face from the crowd.)

I heard that Punxsutawney Phil predicted the complete opposite but he had to be dug out of a blizzard to make his prediction.  Supposedly Sir Walter Wally has a accuracy rating of 70%.  That's pretty darn good for a groundhog, but I hope he's wrong this time. 

Chili Halloween

Another busy week.  Lots of meetings after work and a chili cook off at Little Girl's school.  It was fun being part of the competition.  We didn't place but had  requests for our recipe.  The school went all out for a good cause.  This is one of their big fundraisers for Relay for Life (cancer research). 

 There was even a real cowboy band there.  They played lots of good cowboy and christian music.  Everyone dresses as  a cowboy for this shindig. 

We had our Trunk or Treat at church last night.  Our theme was Horton Hears a Who!   I thought you might get a laugh from this picture.  We counted 220 kids that got treats from our trunk.  We saw lots of princesses, spidermen, wolverines, iron men, and fairies.  There were even the traditional ghosts, vampires, and scary monsters.  There will be trick or treating at the house tonight and I can hardly wait.  I love to see all of the little kids dressed up and I have to make a comment on every body's costume.  I usually get a smile or a giggle.  Hope you have a safe and happy halloween.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads and " like a dad" men out there.  We have been having a good day and making the day special for Hubby.  We had a family meal last night and made ice-cream - yum!  This morning we cooked a special breakfast, went to church and have spent the afternoon lounging.  Tonight I will cook on the grill to give Hubby a break from grilling.  All in all it has been a good day with lots of relaxing.

Grand Baby's fishing tackle box so she can go fishing with Hubby when she gets a little older.

 Beer glasses with "old school" Ed Hardy tattoo prints.  Very cool. 

Hope you are having a nice day and enjoying family.

Happy Father's Day,

especially to those in heaven.

Celebrating Memorial Day

We celebrated Memorial Day over the weekend. 

We went to the island and had a great time. 

 While we were there we...

 

...drank Margaritas while sitting in the sun,

 

enjoyed a pig picking,

 

did a little shagging,

  

 

ate yummy desserts,

 

did a little fishing,

  

 

 and of course there was knitting. 

Another great weekend with beautiful weather. 

How blessed we are to live in the land of the free

and to have the opportunities that we do. 

 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Happy Memorial Day!

Remembering those who have

and are currently serving our country.

God bless you all!

Thank you for our freedom!

May God bless our country.

A Toast...

...to baby brother.

Happy Birthday!

What a Nice Day

What a nice day!  Hubby fixed breakfast and Little Girl is cooking supper. Friday night we had a combination Birthday / Mother's Day celebration.  My birthday was earlier this week so we decided we would have Big Girl and her family over for supper and enjoy our time together.  This was a way to keep Big Girl from having to travel to both grandmother's today and actually get to enjoy her very 1st Mother's Day.  We had a great time.  That Grand Baby is too sweet.

Look at those sweet feet printed on a flower pot. 

So sweet.

My favorite smell good from Hubby and Little Girl.

This is how I spent a good portion of the day - knitting and supervising hubby brewing.  He was concerned that I might not want him to brew on Mother's day, but I insisted.  After all, I drink as much of his home brew as he does and our supply is running low. 

I love cards, especially for me.  Lots of love being shared.

A ground hog decided to give us a Mother's Day visit

and raced through the neighborhood.

I hope you have enjoyed your day as much as I have.

Happy Mother's Day

Sometimes

Sometimes I think God grew tired of making

thunder and mountains and dawn redly breaking;

weary of fashioning gorges and seas,

weary of planting great forest of trees.

Sometimes I think God grew tired of heating

the earth with the sun and of fully completing

the whole of the world!

God grew tired,

and so He took just a bit of the soft afterglow,

He took just a petal or two from a flower

and took a songbird from a sweet scented bower.

The dewdrops He took from the heart of a rose

and added the freshness of each breeze that blows.

Across long green meadows He took all the love

left over from making His heaven above.

His kind fingers mixed them -

God's hand and no other -

and made, for the first time, the soul of a mother.

Margaret E. Sangster

Happy Mothers' Day -

especially to those in heaven.

Spring Break

Over spring break we took some extra time and stayed at our favorite place for few days.  It was wonderful.  The weather was perfect and the time away from the real world couldn't have been better.  The whole family went, including Grand Baby.  It was a great time.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could stay on vacation all the time and  have no worries.  Some people say we would get bored with it, but I would like to give it a try.  Even though we've been home for over a week now I wanted to share some of what we did on our time off with you.

We colored eggs.

Hid and found eggs.

Found eggs that belonged to others.

Spent a lot of time relaxing by the water.

Got a stupid sunburn.  I'm told this is what happens when you

enjoy too many adult beverages while relaxing by the water.

This sweet boy stayed in trouble a lot over spring break. 

He belongs to some friends across the way. 

I had to take this picture of his guilty, pitiful face.  (It made me smile.)

Regretted the stupid sunburn the next day.  I sat by the water

covered up and wrapped my feet in a towel. 

I didn't care though, it was great to be by the water.

Enjoyed Grand Baby's first Easter and first beach trip.

Oh how I wish I were there.

Happy Easter

Wishing you a joyous, beautiful Easter!

I hope you find joy in the season and can spend time with those you love.

 

John 14:6

Shower Surprises

Can you believe this beautiful baby quilt a very dear friend made for Grand Baby?!  She invested so much time and care in making it.  Big Girl was so surprised and absolutely loves it!  This is one of those baby gifts that almost makes you cry.  It is just so sweet and thoughtful.  I love the colors and design.  It is an absolute treasure. 

I finished the brown sweater in time for the shower.  In fact I got up extra early on Sunday morning to be sure it was ready and wrapped before going to church that morning.  It turned out pretty nice.  I had a tough time with it Saturday and had to pull some of it out (several times) and try again.  I don't know why I had such a hard time.  Maybe the pressure I put on myself caused me to panic a little bit.  There are a couple of stitch flaws and of course when I look at it that is all I see.  No one else seemed to notice.  I don't know if they were being kind or really couldn't see my mistakes.  It doesn't really matter anyway because Big Girl was very appreciative of it. Below is a picture of the full sweater. 

So far it has been a busy week.  I am thinking about what I will make for the Dutch Sisters swap.  I have lots of things running around in my head.  It will be so much fun.

Hope your week has started out well.  Keep in touch!

Gingerbread House versus The Vans

Thank goodness they're here!  The Vans finally arrived.  We have been trying to order these shoes since Christmas and have had numerous issues with our order.  We finally had to go directly to Vans and placed the order a week or so ago.  They arrived yesterday and Little Girl is soooo happy.  They really are cute, purple and pewter checked with mismatched laces.

 

So I know you're asking, what the heck do these shoes have to do with a gingerbread house?  Well this is the story. 

 

We traditionally put together a gingerbread house (from a kit) each year a week or so before Christmas.  Each year it is a challenge and we laugh because it can be more frustrating than enjoyable.  But it is one of our traditions.

 

After all we had been through ordering these shoes, the orders being cancelled electronically, problems with the gift card, etc., Little Girl declared that Christmas would not be over until she got her shoes.  Well to her dismay, I got up early one morning and cleaned up from the holidays.  When she woke up (that afternoon) she was very upset because Christmas was done.  The tree was put away along with all other traces of the holiday, except the gingerbread house.  I left it for her to dispose of in the woods behind the house for the critters to enjoy.   Little Girl then made a new declaration, that the gingerbread house would stay until her Vans arrived.  We have abided by this decree.

 

We have had a gingerbread house sitting on our kitchen table since sometime mid December.  We have had to explain to visitors why we still have it.  It is all but petrified now.  Little Girl will take it to the woods today and maybe some beavers will come up from the pond to chew on it a while.  I think they would be the only critters with strong enough teeth to manage it at this point.  

 

So that is the story of the gingerbread house versus the Vans.  I will be glad to see the house leave, even though it has been fun to hang on to a little bit of Christmas this late.

 

Hope you have a great Saturday.  We will be attending baby showers this weekend for Big Girl.  The time is getting closer for Grand Baby to come.  I can hardly wait!

Time Flies

Why does time go so fast?  It seems the older I get the faster time goes.  We recently celebrated our Little Girl's birthday.  This was a big one for her.  She is now old enough to drive.  I feel so old.  I can't believe my Big Girl is getting ready to have her first child and my Little Girl is old enough to drive.  For those who don't know there is 8/12 years between our girls.  Sometimes that is a good thing and other times not so good.  Anyway, Little Girl had a great birthday and seemed happy all day long.   Getting her permit was a very big deal and after going for a celebratory hotdog, Hubby let her drive around town for a while.  When I got home I took her to the gas station and taught her how to pump gas.  She made it clear to me that this was another reason women had husbands.  I hope she finds a good man when she is old enough.  It will take someone special to handle all of her "this is why you have a husband" chores.  It was a special day and one of those steps in a young person's life when they get a little closer to adulthood.  Things change in a big way for them.  The same is true for parents.  Our world has changed.  Little by little we are loosing control and the say so we once had for our Little Girl as she grows and matures.  We can only pray that we have done our best and instilled all of the good things that every parent wants for their child.   It won't be long and she'll be off to college, on her own and we will be left hoping we raised her right.  But in the mean time, we will keep working on it, fighting the parent vs. teenager battles, and pray for the best. 

Don't waste your time, it is the most precious gift you have.  Once you give it away, it is gone forever and you can never get it back.  Be happy with the time you have and use it to the fullest.

Great Vacation

No doubt the holidays are over. I had to go back to work yesterday after twelve wonderful consecutive days of no work. Bummer! My vacation time was great. I did pretty much what I wanted to and a little of what I had to do. I didn't accomplish much from my "things to do while I'm off" list because none of that stuff was fun. Who wants to clean and organize on their vacation? Not me. I don't even like to do it when I'm suppose to or should. While I was on vacation I pretty much knitted my guts out. It was great. I finished a couple of small projects and a sweater for grand baby. I looked at a lot of crafty sites on-line and jotted down a list of things I would like to do. I thought a lot and am still thinking about a craft show. I watched a ton of cartoons. I LOVE cartoons, especially Sponge Bob, Chowder, Penguins of Madagascar, and The Misadventures of Flapjack (my favorite right now). I did a lot of day dreaming and planning and just enjoying myself. I didn't dwell much on my troubles and truly enjoyed my family and time away from work.

Beginning stages of baby sweater...


As soon as I can find the camera (again) I'll post a picture of the finished project.

I hope you take time to do what you want and not always what you should. It's good for you every once in a while.

Over so soon?

Well, it's official, the holidays are done at our house. I have taken down all of the decorations, packed it all away and cleaned it all up. This is always a sad time for me. I love the holidays. I love the excitement, anticipation, preparing and giving that goes into it all. I love the feeling of the house when you walk in from a long day and see a sparkly tree and gifts and goodies all about. I love the feeling that the season gives. I love how people are different during the Christmas season. People seem to be happy and have an air of excitement about them. People are friendlier and tend to laugh more. I don't understand why we can't keep that feeling year round. Why we can't keep that spirit in our hearts and carry it everyday. Maybe we do and it just bubbles to the surface during the Christmas season. Or maybe it's just something special that happens only at Christmas. Maybe if we all tried really hard and made a true effort to keep that spirit we could hang on to a little bit of it throughout the whole year. What do you think, want to give it a shot? I will if you will.

Here are a few pictures of some of our holiday fun. Enjoy.