My Wonderful Husband

I woke up Wednesday to Sam's alarm. He turned on the t.v to hear a repeat of Tuesday so he looked out the window and crawled back in bed for another 1 1/2 hrs. then he rolled out and started another work from home day. I get up, look outside and say yippie, more exercise shoveling. It wasn't as FUN as Tuesday and I had a feeling my neighbor would be over to plow us out so instead I went to shovel Lilah another few paths as they too had blown in and got completely covered. When finished it looked like a runway. I went back out front and while shoveling, Dave, the neighbor yells over he's going to be plowing when it gets done snowing. I yell back alright you can finish what I don't. He is a great guy, he mowed for us when we weren't here yet full-time, and plowed our driveway when we weren't living here yet full-time. It was a true blessing to come from out of town and find the driveway or yard taken care of. When I came in the door Sam asked if I wanted breakfast and of course I said YES. This time he made me blueberry pancakes. THEN he did the dishes. I can really get used to this work from home stuff. Thank-You dear.

Be Careful of What You Hope For

Because you just might get too much! OK, so it was nearing the end of January and the kids had not had any snow to play in and I know growing up in Erie, PA was a ton of fun playing in that STUFF. Tuesday we got three inches when I woke up. I wanted some snow to take Blake out and have a good time, 3" is ample to do that. I shoveled the driveway, (which I as a matter of fact enjoy doing as long as it's not the heavy wet stuff or the end of driveway) Sam chose to work from his home office vs going the 1 hr drive each way in what the news crews were stating was a mess, schools were all cancelled, even some businesses were. When I came in after the driveay was done, Sam asked if I wanted some breakfast. He fried me up a couple eggs (just like my mom used to make 'em, a tiny bit crispy around the edges and yolk a little runny, in other words PERFECT) toast and turkey bacon. He even started to do the dishes, but I told him I'd handle it so he could get back to work.

then add this red measurement to the next day

Jennifer came over after work and Blake and I went out to play. He absolutely is addicted to this Little Tyke car my friend Lisa GAVE me a couple years ago. He plays with it everytime he is outside at our house. He only had 1/2 the driveway to ride and asked me to shovel the sidewalk so he could drive, he wanted me to shovel 4 houses length. I settled for "our part".














Here is another picture below of me taking him
sledding. He said "gramma, this is funnn!"and I said "I knew you would like this!"




















He saw the girls go far so he pointed out he wanted me to put the sled RIGHT HERE, like the girls so "I can go far" another time he watched them stand up and go, he asked if he could and I said that wouldn't be safe, so instead he went belly first. (like that is safe too). Blake is so independant he didn't need me to go with him, altho he asked me once if I wanted to ride with him and so I did, and he insisted on pulling the sled back up the hill all by himself. So after that I just guided him in the right direction and he came back up by himself. My kinda boy!

How Yummy

I'm getting hungry and hunting through pictures for an upcoming post made me want to share this hot dog that Tim made for his mother-in-law. Looks good to me.

Lori, Pandas & Ruskin

So here is my first attempt at posting on our blog.

Lori really, NO REALLY, loves panda bears and as you can see she even has to have them on our calendar. You can't see too well the picture to the left behind her but that was a gift from Jennifer and family of our Thanksgiving trip to FL (VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!) If you click on the picture you can see more detail and then you can see many of the pictures of the great time we had. We really enjoyed our time together and I hope we get to do that again... and soon. As for our next trip we will be going to San Diego to the zoo which will be the second place in the US where you can see live panda bears. That leaves Atlanta and DC (already went to Memphis.) Course then the only other real place to see live panda bears is in China where they are from. Lori thinks that is why I want her to get her passport but I'm not sure we are ready for a trip to China.

You can also tell she likes to get her picture taken and smiles :) for the camera. I like to take pictures, sometimes too many she tells me but hey they are digital and if you don't want them delete them. You don't know when you might get a great shot that you keep forever. Posted by Sam, her husband.

Jayde

This picture says: "I need a nose wipe". Only thing left is for her to get the "blowing" part down. Jayde is 15 months in the picture. She is such the button pusher, anything with a button she wants to push it. Sam gave her the remote to the VCR and she was thrilled. Little did she know the VCR was not plugged in. Haha.

Funny Faces

Sam bought a new camera and this is Blake and me making some funny faces for the camera. I have no idea why but this camera does not work WITH me because most the time my eyes are closed and I never have had that problem, ever! If I try real hard to keep em open, the picture looks way un-natural.

Great Old Friends

I told you earlier in the month my "original friend" yano original means first one, right? OK, so then my "original" friend, Donna found me at the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert, we hadn't seen each other for many, many years. She was my very first friend I met when we moved to Ohio in 1990. You can find more on us on my post dated January 11th. Anyway, we made plans to meet up. We were going to do lunch and then a movie. She wanted to stop at Ikea before the movie and I met up with her there. We talked about Applebee's for lunch but she left it open for me to decide if I wanted to eat at Ikea or anywhere else. I said why not try Ikea. Last time I was there I had breakfast with my sister. I laugh, "last time" (it was my only other time there other than Monday). We met at their cafeteria and I was unsure what was good so I followed her food choice..Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy and some nasty cranberry stuff. I had my eyes set on their Almond cake. That was totally delicious! I'm getting everything I just said next time, course I guess that will be dinner at the rate I am going. Here we are leaving the store. I had to get a shot since the movies would be too dark for a photo. The balloon in the plant was from her over 16 years ago...Yip that's not a typo guess they don't make em like they used to:-)

Skating-NOT

Jayde is feeling left out so I wanted to make it up to her with her own post. She is still working diligently on walking and running so we thought it best not to confuse her more by adding wheels to her shoes a.k.a. roller skates. Next time Jaydie Girl, but for now here she is with her daddy and then mommy.

"Now Blow"

This picture says: "I need a nose wipe". Now, if she could just get the "blowing" part down.

Rollerskating!

Our church had a rollerskating party on Sunday. Blake had a great time. He did pretty good for a 4 year old as he has gone skating other times, plus he has his own skates so he gets to practice now and then. Here are some pictures of him. In attempt to fix his red eyes, his eyes looked too large so here he is...red eyes and daddy!

TAKE A PICTURE RIGHT NOW

1) Take a picture of yourself right NOW!

2) DON'T change your clothes; DON'T fix your hair... Just take a picture.

3) Post that picture with NO editing.

4) Post these instructions with your picture.TAG

Bargain shopping AGAIN...

Sunday we went to Kroger. I needed eggs and of course they come in Styrofoam so I won't touch the carton, therefore, Sam got to see how well I do this coupon shopping task.

The toilet paper were both FREE

veggies 50 cents each

Kashi cereal 1.00 EACH

Danactive 1.00 EACH

Activia 1.00 EACH

00p cost: $6.06

my TOTAL SAVINGS were $17.51

Bargain Grocery Shopping

Last Saturday I went to Meijer and stocked up on some stuff I had coupons for and that was on sale. How do you like my haul?

I got:

1Bisquick (99 cents)

3 loaves of bread(bog2f)

1Chex Mix (I just made umteen batches to take to Erie for Christmas gifts and we didn't go yet due to too much snow fall) (FREE)

1Turkey bacon (not on sale)

1 Green Giant veggies (FREE)

2 Fiber One poptarts (FREE)

6 Fiber One bars (I hope they're good) (1.00/box)

12 yogurt (39 cents EACH)

2 boxes of potatoes (20 cents each)

1 pouch of potatoes(9 cents)

2 boxes of snackers (1.00 EACH)

2 pizza rolls (FREE)

2 pepperoni packs

1 Hunts spaghetti sauce

1 can of pudding (FREE)

1 Snapple drink (29 cents)

3 biscuits (FREE)

4 cans of soup (not sure but I had coupons and Sam was needing soup)

2 Yoplait drinkables because Blake enjoys these (50 cents each)

I paid $29.78 for it all. But I saved $60.67!

Brrrrrrrr, Baby It's Cold Out There

Oh my goodness, today I woke up to -8 degrees! For some reason I am not as cold today as I was yesterday but yet I have my heat at the same temp setting, weird. I'm glad about that. My hands are not even cold as I type so it can't be I am just getting used to it. Today I have slowly noticed the temp rise to +4 so we're making progress. :-) When we get to San Diego next month and enjoy their average 66 degrees we will be running around in shorts! Well, OK maybe not shorts but 66 will seem like summer compared to weeks like this one. Tomorrow will be 27 and a good day to take the recyclables to the drop off. They're almost over flowing. Here's an Old FAVORITE of Blake and I from December '06. Just perfect for this post.

A Lot Of Unspent Money

I cleaned out my coupon pac, yes it is spelled that way on the front flap and this is what I ended up with.

Happy Birthday Mychele

Today is my niece, Mychele's birthday. She was born in California in 1977. I can always remember that year because that is the bicentennial year of our country. Remember those "drummer boy" quarters they had 1977 on them. She made a big flight when she was 3 months old as she moved to Pennsylvania. Oh, I still remember those days....

I was just 13 when she came back and I would carry her everywhere I could. I hated to go to school because I missed her so much. One day I was carrying her to the back yard and I tripped on the garden hose and to save her, I fell straight down on my knees, OUCH on a blacktop driveway in shorts! I wasn't going to let anything happen to her no matter what. I was totally shook up because of what COULD have happened if I dropped her. On several occasions I would take her for rides in her buggie. I was a paper girl and I would take her to see some of my customers whom I totally adored and talked about her immensely. It was such a joy to show her off.

As she grew a bit older like 4-6 years old she would occasionally get mad at her mom (as all kids do from time to time). I told her she could move in with me when I was big and got my own house. I would tell her that to make her feel better that's the kind of love I had for her. Well needless to say that never happened but it sounded good to both of us (at the time). She was thrilled!

Time passed and eventually they moved to New York and she grew up. She is married to Kip and they have James (their dog). They live in Michigan and we don't see each other too much anymore, but nonetheless, I still love my niece, MYCHELE. Happy 32nd birthday!

"Are You Really Taking ME There!?"

A little over a week ago Sam came up to the computer room while I was on and he wanted to print something. I thought it was a little off his normal routine because *I* was on and he has his OWN home office which contains anything and everything he could possibly need, so why bother me. He gave me a lovely new computer,monitor and printer/scanner/copier for Christmas so maybe he wanted to print off of the new stuff. Who knows.

So now he is hovering over my shoulders typing and doing this and that and I see 3 words that catch my attention, like you could pick out your name in a big sheet of a hundred words, it interest you so it catches your attention. I scream "your really taking me there!" He says he doesn't know what I am talking about and then I tell him what I saw, by now the printer has spit out 2 sheets, he asks me to grab 'em.

Here is what they were!
He gave us two tickets to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, for the very next day! I had minimal wait time and totally enjoyed the show. We had center stage floor seats. They lost power about 25 minutes into it but kept us entertained (we sang a few Christmas songs) while men worked feverishly getting all power restored during the next 15 minutes.

Something else wonderful happened to me that same day:

Before the concert started we were in the concession line and I hear my name being called. I turn around thinking it's for somebody else but what if they're calling ME. To my delight, It was my very first friend I met when we moved here 18 years ago. We had spent numerous hours together while our little girls were growing up, we went on vacation together, movies, sometimes even church, out to eat and a million other things. We had a good 10 minute conversation while in line and an hour long phone call later in the week. We both are eager to meet up again and get reacquainted.

Christmas At Our House

OK, so now I am really late on this post but I've not been interested in updating lately. I wanted to share with you our tree, I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. It's the "pretend kind" and we've had it for several years, we don't put it up every year, once because we were moving in January and I didn't need extra stress. Another year, we decided to celebrate at our new house (the one we live in now) when we were actually still living in Indiana, and we were making weekend trips to our new house till we actuallyMOVED here nearly 4 months later. Another year we vacationed in Alabama during the week of Christmas. This year Blake was helping me to decorate it and asked "gramma is your tree real" I said, "no, it's the pretend kind". Then I said to myself how is he supposed to learn things if I don't call them what they are, so I told him it was actually called artificial. They ALWAYS get a real tree, and he probably noticed it felt different.