Mystery of Life and Love

When I came home from work today I found these lovely flowers sitting on the table with a card that said they were for me! Pretty! Thanks Honey! Today is our 37th wedding anniversary...and Jack knows I love fresh flowers...and a pretty bowl to go with them...perfect!

Now, all I have is one question:
How did we go from this:
To this? In only 37yrs...it's a mystery! Well, Happy Anniversary Babe!

Weekend In Review

This weekend was gone in a flash. We worked outside, had friends over for dinner on Sunday, watched a Grandkiddo play football, shopped, cleaned..all the usual things. For some reason I was tired this morning. I just felt like I needed more sleep, but work awaited me and I headed out. Lucky for me I was able to leave work a little early and when I got home I sat down and konked out for about an hour and a half! Whew..now I feel great! I wasn't too tired to notice what a beautiful sunrise we were having this morning though. Here's a peek just coming over the pines...
Friday morning started out cool and foggy. I'm not sure if taking pics while driving is smart...but I went slow and couldn't resist the view. On one of the blogs I follow she calls these shots: drive by shootings...very clever.
The fog on these cool mornings is amazing..then I hit town near the hospital..all clear.
This pic is a bit out of order..it didn't happen this weekend, it was Jack's birthday request dish. I make it every Father's Day and for his birthday. Shrimp creole..he loves it and it's pretty easy to make. This one was a real hit...according to Jack anyway!
We were able to see Anthony's first football game of the season this weekend. He's in 4th grade and I laughed when I saw all those kiddos with the pads, and big helmets..I think the helmets were as big as their bodies! They even have little cheerleaders who did a cute dance number at half time. Very fun!
Anthony, are you sure you're only 9? You did great in the game! They won by a ton..good job!
Since I started out with a sunrise, I'll close with this sunset...I like to think the rays are prayers being sent up to a listening and loving God.

Birth Day

Tuesday my niece Amy and her husband Eric welcomed little Ella. This is their first baby and she's a cutie! Congrats to my Sister for her 6th Grandkiddo and also to my Mom....this makes 24 Great Grandkiddos for her!
Another Birth Day was celebrated today...it's my hubby's birthday! Happy Birthday Jack!
You may have started out as a cute little kiddo with curls galore...
But now you're:
A good story reader to the Grandkiddos.
Will go the nursery and follow me around while I take all day to find the best flowers.
Will build a super campfire in the wink of an eye!
A good sled carrier when grandkiddos are too tired to get it up the hill.
And my best friend who can always make me laugh...Happy Birthday Jack! (And you still have cute curls galore!)

School Bells Are Ringing

The school bells might be ringing here in Ashland this week, but we had a jump start in an old one room schoolhouse this past weekend. A lovely lady I used to work with turned 70 and her children had a surprise party for her. Her Son-in-law's family bought this old one room school and fixed it up and use it for family get togethers all year. I think they have just started renting it out to non family also. It's been restored, but updated nicely. We had fun celebrating with Deb and her family and friends.

Happy Birthday Deb! We had a good time catching up with her and her family and enjoying a nice meal too! I was having fun taking pics of the schoolhouse..come along for the tour!
Inside the building they have kept many of the schoolhouse features..like the blackboard, desk chairs that were found in the basement..and that step off the front could cause some problems during functions, but a great place for a stage and the teacher's desk.
Look up..I think that would have been where the bell was located, on the top of the building.
I think the stone work around the foundation is just beautiful.
How many little ones came out here to get a drink?
I could just imagine little kiddos out here for recess.
Hmmm...could this building possibly be the former outhouse? Thankfully, there is indoor plumbing in there now.

Now for something completely different!
I made homemade spaghetti sauce over the weekend using tomatoes from our garden..it was very tastie! I invited Phil and Addy and Alexis over for dinner to test it out..although Jack had declared it very good already!
Addy likes her pudding with "cream"..
Lexi enjoyed her spaghetti dinner and chocolate pudding for dessert..
Those jello commercials have it all wrong..This is pudding face!

You Say Tomato...I Say Yum!

Whew, this week flew by! I haven't blogged since last week but I've kept busy with work, family, and gardening. I think our tomatoes are looking good! Here's a nice batch along with a few peppers and if you look behind them you will see a few jars of my latest jelly making. We have elderberries that grow wild up by the creepy woods. I braved the bugs and picked what I could. I got just enough for one batch of jelly. It looks like grape but has it's own distinct flavor. We opened a jar and tried it. I don't want to toot my own horn, but heck, it's good! If you've ever picked elderberries you know how they grow. Up high and then just getting all the little berries off the stems, cleaning them, mashing them, straining them..well, I'll be pretty picky about using those few pints of jelly! Plus, I don't think I'll pick more. That would mean a buggy, poison ivy, weedy trek deeper into the woods. No thanks, I'm not that crazy!
I finally got this area weeded. I know it won't last forever and I should get it mulched, but I feel good just being able to make out some plants that are suppose to be there!
Along with weeding we have these little buggers to contend with. Web worms. I blogged about them last summer. We don't have them as bad as last year but they are creepy looking. If you blow up the image you can see the little squirmies in their fuzzy sack. Yuck! I just need to get out in the spring and spray the trees with a special solution that keeps them off. I don't think they like pine trees because I've never seen one on ours yet. But they seem to really like our crabapple trees. One way to get rid of them it to burn them off. Hmmmm..why does that sound like a bad idea to me?
I have a few different routes home from work that I take. I like to change up the scenery every now and then. This pretty pond is one of my fav drive bys. It looks so inviting. I used to think I'd like a pond here at the Pines, but watching out for the Grandkiddos and the work it takes to make it look this pretty would probably do me in! So I'll have to have "pond envy" and just enjoy this one. It would be fun to sit at the picnic table and enjoy the view though. However, the owners might have something to say about that.
I guess I'll just be happy looking at a sunset over the soybean field across my road!

Thunderheads

One day this past week, (I can't ever remember which day it was!)I was outside weeding my heart out. I was so enthralled with my work I never looked up to notice that the dark that was coming over me was not because it was getting late. When I finally did look up, the sky was black and the clouds were very weird looking. I ran and got the camera but was a bit disappointed because none of the shots looked as threatening as this sky looked. This one came the closest. Much rain fell and my yard does look as green in August as it did in May...and my roof is still attached. (dang!) I have the feeling that as soon as we get it reroofed then the disaster will strike. Yep, the glass is half empty today.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

In the past I've mentioned how patients will bring my Chiropractor Hubby gifts of food. Just tonight he whipped out a lovely elderberry pie that was given to him today by a thoughtful patient. It was in a lovely white box and it was filled with a beautiful, tastey concoction. Friday I came home from work and another beautiful white box was waiting. Again, a grateful patient delivered it to Jack. What was inside?
Inside that big white box were these beauties. Unless you don't like ribs of course. But we do. I'm not a big fan of pork and rarely make anything else with the "other white meat" except ribs. So this was a fun surprise.
So into the "seal a meal" they went.."seal a meal"..a fun appliance that can entertain you as well as protect your food from freezer burn. That is if your life is as boring as mine.
Into the freezer..don't worry little ribbies...you're in good company. Besides ribs there were individual ham slices and of course, my green whatchamacallits (beans) are there too. See 'ya sometime this year! Now, please pass the "Sweet Baby Ray's".

FOUR...He's A Jolly Good Fella!

Time has a way of just trooping on by and not stopping for us to catch our breath. I can't believe our little Cameron is four already. I bet my Son can't believe his youngest is growing so fast either. Today is Cameron's fourth birthday. Jack and Steph invited over last night to celebrate with them since they were all going to Columbus today to celebrate with his other cousins. I love the song "Time in a Bottle"..but we can't keep it in a bottle. We just need to celebrate all the happy times we can. I'm glad we took the time to be with our son and his family last night. Cameron, all the time, you're a little cutie! Happy Birthday!
Time for some love from PawPaw!
Time for us to say how special you are to us! (Those were his special cakes he picked out!)
Time to blow out the candles little man!
Time to take a big bite!

Time to open some gifts!
Time to play with gifts! Happy Birthday Cameron! Now stop getting older, it makes me look bad.

Back By Popular Demand

Ok, so the word "popular" might just be an exaggeration..and "demand" might also be over stepping the bounds..but any way you spit it, it comes out "Lisa spitting cherries" post. Why? Beats me. Last year I posted a similar video and today, thanks to our stupid computer system, we had down time between cases and Lisa was eating cherries. Get my drift here? Hey, just hang on. When we have time to waste we do it. We can waste time with the pros. So here is Lisa wasting time. Enjoy. Or scroll on by. Sorry.

Life Of A Green Bean

I didn't want to use the word "bean" in the title of my post for today. Why? Well, the last name of the previous owners of this house was "Bean"..and there are so many weird and frustrating things that we've had to fix that they did wrong that I just hate to even mention the name. I'm pretty sure they don't read my blog...anyway, I couldn't call the post "Life of a Green Whatchamacallit"...so here is how my veggie has evolved..

First you must find the little stinkers. Addie had to look under all the leaves and we found a ton hiding there. It wasn't an activity that held held her attention for long. She was more interested in finding little froggies instead.
Snap time! Snapping beans (man, there's that word again) must be as old as time. When I'm snapping them I always have this vision of me sitting on a porch swing with the bowl of beans and me just snapping away. I've never, ever done something like that but I've seen it on the Waltons TV show. I'm a bit obsessed with that show for some reason. I mean it's over 30yrs old..and when I saw a recent pic of all the actors from it I was a bit depressed because they look so old..but then I don't look anything like I did back in 1974. Maybe that's what's really depressing me.
Ouch! Into some boiling water for 3min...Have you ever been in "hot water"?..I have and I'm here to tell you it sure wasn't only 3min. Wait, this isn't a post about the Life Of A Greek Goddess..I mean me.
Splash! Into the ice water to stop the cooking process...brrrrrrr..however, on these hot, muggy days I wouldn't mind a quick dip in some ice water..
Into the freezer bag..air sucked out...into the freezer...I'll see 'ya this winter you green... "whatchamacallits"