Chi-Town Part 2

As I posted earlier, we went to Chicago for a first Communion of my Great-niece, Ella,  and her Dad, Eric, who just joined the Catholic Church.   The weather was not great with snow that fell on Saturday.  My sister was hoping for good weather as the luncheon after Mass was at Mom's and supposed to be on the deck outside.  Mom's house isn't super big but it turned out good anyway.  I swear, that house has walls that just expand to welcome any who enter!  Sunday turned out to be a sunny day but only about 40de so eating outdoors wasn't an option.  The food was great and seeing everyone was great too.  Mom's right knee was bothering her but she forged on like she always does.

Standing in the kitchen, doing whatever she can manage.

Ella looked so pretty.

It was sweet that her Daddy, Eric, had his first communion too.  That's a memory they will both cherish.

Her mom is my niece Amy.  She's a nurse and Eric is a fireman....Ella has heroes for parents!

The cake wasn't just beautiful, it was really delicious!

Mom and Ella  have always had a  special bond.   Even though the weather was weird and driving home today was a bit of a challenge, I'm glad we made the trip and saw everyone and spent time with Mom and Midge.  We did have some good laughs too! Jack's a good sport to put up with all of my crazy family!  It's good to be home though and hopefully Chicago and us will get warm weather as May enters the picture.  Good bye April!

Spring In Chicago

We're taking a quick trip to Chi-town to see Mom and go to my great-neice's first communion. We arrived with lovely sunshine.

Mom was looking lovely also!

Then we heard the winter storm warning...what??!!

This morning..

Tonight...exp expecting 4-7in. of heavy, wet snow.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Easter Weekend

This day is almost over and I find myself hurrying to get a post in before I hit the hay.  I feel like I've been on the run all week with a crazy work schedule and getting ready to host about 15 for Easter dinner.  On top of that, a our good friend's daughter was getting married on Friday at the Columbus, Ohio Temple.   We fought the rain and traffic but had a lovely morning in the Temple with this sweet young couple.  That same afternoon we trooped over to the reception hall and helped decorate for their reception on Saturday.  Saturday morning was filled with shopping and preparing for Easter Sunday and then we had the reception in the afternoon. 

Congrats Kayla and Sterling!   We  had a great time and we wish them well.   Sunday we had family over after Church to celebrate my favorite holiday.  I love this time of  year and I love Easter.  I found this old family pic of my siblings and I from an Easter many years ago.

I love how my sister Midge has her arm around my little brother James...we need to reenact this one! Of course it's missing my youngest brother, Rick.  I don't think he was born yet.  We could let him in a renewal pic though!   Our Easter celebration today was filled with all the usual things we do but love none the less.  After dinner all the kiddos went outdoors for the traditional egg hunt. 

Rae heading toward the creek.

Cameron staying closer to the house.  He was the first one finished!

Lexi making her usual leap to the high branches but it was an egg Rae spotted but couldn't reach.  It took Lexi the longest to find her eggs today.

Checking out the loot they found.  The littlest kiddo in this pic is Lex and Rae's little half sibling that we whole love...Aria.  Their Mom and future step dad came today too.  Even though my son Phil and their Mom are divorced, everyone gets along great and at our home all are welcome.  Maybe strange to some but it works....happiness is all that really matters when it come to kids.

Summer and Brett and little Happy always make us smile.  Summer graduates in 2 weeks from Ashland University...she's super ready to be done and get on with her life!

Evelyn and Jackie...they just got back from Vacation and I was happy they could all make it.  Anthony was here too and Jordan and Phil but I didn't get pics of them...can't believe I missed those characters!  So I'll end with these 2 weirdos:

Happy Easter everyone!

I 

A Fashion Mindset

Friday night I attended an event that our Granddaughter Summer was involved in with Ashland University.  She'll graduate May 4th with a BS in fashion merchandising and marketing.  She's work very hard in her college life working full-time and getting her degree in 3yrs.  She's paid for her college herself along with earning scholarships.  As a final event she had to design and put together 2 outfits.  She's not a sewing gal but has learned along the way and with the help of her other Grandma, Kaye, and Gayle, a good friend of ours, she made it.  The theme of the fashion show was "Nature's Palette".

  She picked mountains and waterfalls as her design choice.  It wasn't your usual fashion show but it was fun to see all the ways the designers thought of to go with nature...snowfall, clouds, ice, etc.  Here are her models:

The man's outfit gave her fits as there were no pants included in the pattern so she had to use a woman's pant pattern.  Well, the problem was the crotch area...as her model said: "Summer, I'm not a girl and I'm black"...(come to your own conclusion there folks!)  Well, they came off good and we had a fun time.

Donna joined us as my guest along with Lexi:

Jack didn't go.  He said he'd rather get poked in the eye with a stick than attend a fashion show.  Her other Grandpa came but I could tell by the look on his face that this wasn't his idea of fun either!

The venue was wonderful...Bella Bleu's is the name of the place and I managed to get a nice sunset shot.  The food was really good too.  She also invited 4 buyers from Joanne's Fabric to come and they all attended and told Summer she could use them as reference for an interview with the company.   Way to go Summie! You are a super hero in my book. Looking forward to graduation day!  Just as a quick weather note here: Today we've had torrential rain, sun, 70de, thunderstorms, tornado warnings with the tornado siren going off as I'm typing this...and tonight it's suppose to snow.  Geez Mother Nature...this was not in the fashion show! Bye all!

Music Therapy

 When we were bought out by University Hospitals it was a real transition for our small, rural hospital.  We were used to getting what supplies we wanted, having good doctors that lived in our community and generally having a good working organization.  After the buyout many of the department heads took early retirement and jumped ship.  They knew what was going to happen.  Corporate medicine is all about numbers and money.  We get it, we understand "bottom lines".  We just were naive to think we wouldn't change that much.  But LPNS were let go, staffing cut short and the "bottom line" became stress and over work on many days.  The last straw was getting rid of our old uniforms.  Sounds silly to say we were not happy about a scrub change.  But now we match the big house up north and if this color and the style is yucky..well, just deal with it. We're not "Greys' Anatomy".   Our boss decided to have a mandatory staff meeting on Friday.  After a little in service on some new IV tubing,  we were introduced to the new music therapist group.  In came drums, tambourines, rain sticks, cow bells and a very upbeat young man.  He was facing a group of not so happy nurses at 6:30am who were about to bang the drum slowly and be expected to be happy about it.   Music does have a way of getting into your soul if you let it.  We grabbed our drums and other things and followed his lead;

We played along and soon there was more than drumming going on...there was laughter and participation.

Notice the green scrubs? Music couldn't cure them!

Can you find my BFF, Donna? She was having fun! Can you spot the nurse on her dang phone? She was a traveler that had her last day on Friday. She spent more time on her phone than doing work..but that's another blog for another day.  Maybe it was the music therapy, or just plain luck but we had a really good work day after that.  Never underestimate the power of music.  I don't think the music had much to do with making our weather for the weekend as perfect as it was.  But you never know!  I got out and started cleaning out the flower beds:

You never know what you'll find hidden in there:

From Halloween perhaps?

Arnie was not a big help.

He spent most of the time looking at the back door hoping to go in for a treat.

Many of my daffodils are springing up! Love them!

Since Church was broadcast from Salt Lake City this weekend we had a brunch type meal this morning before it started on TV at noon.  Steak, hashbrowns, french toast anyone? (Good old Ohio maple syrup too!)

Things are still pretty brown in the woods...no leaves yet but it made this guy stand out. His music is also a kind of therapy.  Now let's have a good week!

April..Finally!

I was happy to flip the calendar to a new month.  April will hopefully bring in Spring weather.  The snow from the previous post has melted and today was sunny and 56de.  The daffodils are up and almost ready to bloom.  Easter is on the horizon and I'm planning my menu and activities.  However, we had a little holiday on Monday that had folks getting pranked.   One of my co-workers brought in this for the staff:

Maybe it's the same where you work or had worked...food like this is always a hit.  But when the box was opened:

A few of the Docs were very disappointed.  (Ok, many of the nurses were too!)  Yes, doctors should push for healthy foods, but believe me most will practically kill for a doughnut.   If that box had been doughnuts it would  have been empty by 10am. Most of the veggies were still there when I left at 3pm.   Go figure.  Hope your April Fools' day was fun!

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

When I wrote my first post of March I said March came in like a goat...not horrible but not lambish, (Lambish is not a word..just in case you're wondering)  Well, March is not leaving lambish either.  Not sure what I'd call it.  Yesterday it was in the 50's and rained all day.  We woke up to this today:

Winter wonderland...

Pretty, yes?  Icy under that snow? Yes.  But the roads cleared fairly quick and although it snowed off and on all day, it wasn't too bad.  Tomorrow will be in the 40's and sunny and all this will be just good blog worthy weather reporting.

Of course tomorrow is April 1st...maybe Mother Nature will fool us again.  This afternoon Jack called me up from my comfy place in the basement family room to show me we had visitors.

Oh deer...they were munching on some green grass they found near the pine trees.

When I spotted this one nibbling on the blueberry bushes I smacked my hand on the window and they moved on.

Yes deer...I mean YOU!  You need to lay off the berry bushes and head to the creepy woods! In other activities of the weekend, Jack and I went up to Akron to a place called "The Tangiers". If you're from Ohio you've probably heard of it or been there for the many entertainers or perhaps a wedding reception.   It's been in operation since 1948 and has hosted singers and entertainers like  Tina Turner, Chubby Checker, James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis and many others.  As we walked down the hall to the ballroom where our event was happening, the walls were lined with the famous from over the years.

It has a very "old world" appearance.  I kept thinking the Godfather would walk by any minute.

Not this Godfather!

It's fun to look at all the photos and billboards.  We had a fun time with friends and enjoyed the food, music and dancing.  In another room there was a "Pink Floyd" tribute band!  I don't think we would have fit in too well there! Even though we didn't have the best weather this weekend we had a good couple of days to have fun and rest up for this week.  We even had the kids over today for a birthday celebration for our youngest son, Jordan.  His birthday is Tuesday and he'll be 35....holy cow time flies! I took no pics however since I was busy with food prep and just sitting and enjoying the company.  It was a full day and now my hot cocoa is gone and Arnie is snoring at my feet so I guess it's time to head to bed. Have a good Monday everyone!

The End

March Madness...Not Really That Crazy Around Here.

A few weeks ago...my birthday week...I was hit with the crud.  I don't think it was the actual flu and frankly it doesn't matter.  It was not a fun week.  Well, I got hit with a portion of it again this week.  I think I mentioned I'm hardly ever sick with colds or flu so now I can't say that anymore...until at least a few years pass!  This time around I went to work, wore a mask and tried not to contaminate anyone. We're short staffed so staying home wasn't an option.  Today I'm feeling much better but I can tell you that having a runny nose is the worst thing for surgical nurse.  Wearing a mask is great but there's no way to blow that runny nose.  Draw your own conclusions.  But life goes on and this is what was happening in our world:

New carpet.  I know it's a stupid pic and you can't really even see the color.  I like it, it smells very new and the only reason I mention it is because when I try and remember how old the carpet is I can look back at my blog and say: "It was March of 2019!"  That's the reason I mention the redone front porch, the new outbuilding, new furnace, new roof, etc...when we go to sell one day I have the dates on record! This carpet has a 30yr warranty...it will out live me!

Arnie's not that impressed.

We put Spring flowers at the cemetery.  Saturday the temps were 50de and sunny and it felt like Spring.  Last night there was a possibility of seeing the northern lights here in Ohio.  We went outside a few times until we hit the hay and no luck.  I remember seeing them here many years ago and hoped to catch a glimpse and photo.  Not this time!

I have a friend at work that makes wreaths and I like this one.  Yep, we've rescued a couple of dogs and they all were the best...we miss our little Chubbs and we have good memories of Ferris the wonder dog. Arnie is a good guy too with his own crazy personality!  Adopt, don't shop.  Many animals in shelters need a "furever" home.

Today I got some granola that the kids in my Sunday school class were selling for a fund raiser.  This is an Ashland company started by a stay at home Mom.  Truthfully I'm not that fond of it but many folks think it's really good.  I applaud anyone who runs a small, successful business.  I also try and help out with fund raisers.  If you come across this in your store try it and maybe you'll love it.  Read the back page:

Crazy Monkey Baking Company.  You never know what will be a winner in business!  That's all I've got.  Tomorrow starts the last week of March.  The folks out East and many in the middle of the country are hoping this Winter weather is over and Spring will finally arrive.  I saw some of my daffodils poking up through the ground.  I'm ready!