Sad & Happy New Year

Hello 2008. I don't know what's in store for this new year, but I have a feeling it will be a good one. This past holiday season seemed to be pretty hectic for some reason, but it was still a good one. Then again it was a sad one because we lost a couple good friends. Right before Thanksgiving a good friend and neighbor, Ronnie passed away on November 11th. It wasn't really unexpected since he suffered from dementia and his health went down hill after that. Poor Ronnie, he hated being in the condition he was and it was just as hard for Jean and Barb. Now he's in a better place and life goes on. We'll miss you Ronnie.

On the Friday right before Christmas our dear friend Larry died unexpectedly. What a shock! We last saw him on Wednesday at the Eagles Christmas party, alive and well. He was suppose to stop by our house the next day for a care package after he was done at Angela's. When he didn't show up at his daughters house on Thursday, she went to his house and found him on the floor. He was rushed to the hospital where they found out he was in pretty bad shape. By Friday they were going to do surgery on him, but I guess it was too late, he didn't want to hang on for that. He had a lot of health issues in the last few years, but never thought it was life threatening. Well that was Larry. He would tell you when the doctors said he was doing good,yet he would never tell you when he was feeling poorly. Shame on you Larry!

At least I know one thing for sure. The last hours of Larry's Life were happy ones. That Wednesday at the Eagles Christmas party, Mike and I won an Ohio State Buckeyes leather jacket. Mike is not a football fan and I'm not either. We didn't even discuss anything about who would wear the jacket. We both knew that we would give it to Larry. Oh, he was sooo happy! He almost started to leak*. You see, Larry was the one who use to give and do nice things for his friends all the time. Though in recent years because of his health and financial situation he hasn't been able to do those kind of things anymore.

Larry was so proud to have that jacket not because it was one of his favorite football teams but because his two good friends that knew he should have it. One of the last words to his daughter was "Look what the Boy** and Caroline give me"
Larry, I'm sure up in Heaven there with Little Mommy proudly strutting around your new coat. I believe my last words to you were and to this post are:

LUV

My dear friend Larry

October 15, 1942 - December 21, 2007

* Larry's term for sheddin a tear or two
** Larry always called Mike "the Boy"

I Hate When That Happens

I think it was Saturday when Mike said that he thought the waterbed had a small leak in it. Something else must have come up because the subject was soon forgotten. So Monday evening Mike was in the bedroom changing into his fat boy pants when he mentioned the waterbed leak again. It was a leak alright. The carpet was soaked almost up to the door. Oh Great!
Mike said that he would drain it in the morning before he left for work. Then a little later he goes to bed....... in the leaky waterbed! Well there was no way I was gonna sleep in that bed. Flashbacks of my drunk late brother in law slashing his friends waterbed with a knife went racing through my mind. Water everywhere. (true story) Since I didn't have any scuba gear or a snorkel I slept on the couch.
Now we have to re-do the whole bedroom. The carpet has to be removed, the walls painted, the waterbed must be destroyed. I want to get a real bed. He's had this bed since the late 1970's and I think it's time to move forward to the 21st century.
Now I have to clean out the other bedroom so we can sleep in there until we get the other room fixed up. Which means I better get busy and wrap all these Christmas presents, coz that room is full of them.
This was a bad time for this to happen but I'll be glad to have a real bed to sleep on when this project is done.

Giving Thanks

I'll have to say that this Thanksgiving was one of the best I've had in a long time. Heather, the girls and I took a road trip to Virginia to Yvonne and Keith's new house for Thanksgiving. The drive there was not too bad considering that we have a 6 year old and a 5 year old along with us. Within about 15 minutes on the road it started,

" Are we at Leah's house yet?"

"I'm hungry"

"Can we go to McDonald's?"

"Shut up Bryanna"

"Are we at Leah's house yet"

"I want to watch Strawberry Shortcake"

Ok so we stop at McDonalds and after we ate I told Heather to set the DVD player up and put that damn Strawberry shortcake movie in. Bryanna could watch that movie all day and everyday if you let her. I am so glad I bought that DVD player because it was a life saver. After that the trip was smooth thanks to my nag-igator, Heather. who needs a Tom-Tom anyhow

We arrived at their house right before dark which is good coz I don't like driving in the dark in unfamiliar places. It was great to see Yvonne, Keith, and girls. I haven't seen my granddaughters since June and it seems they've grown a foot since then. Must be that good ol Virginia fresh air.

The new house is really cool, big but not too big. The kitchen-family room area is to die for. It's open, airy, with lots of windows to let in the morning light. aaahhh! The fireplace is adds a touch of coziness to the family room too. I think the finished basement started out to be Keith's "Man Cave" with the wide screen TV and the big comfy chair. It looks more like giant Princess play room if you ask me. Which is where all the girls spent most of their time when they weren't outside playing in the dirt pile in the backyard.

Yvonne prepared a wonderful feast of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and so many other tasty treats. They invited some friends of theirs who brought some kind of garlic mozzarella salad, mmmm garlic. Oh, I can't forget the cranberry sauce. It was the best I've ever tasted. my mouth is watering just thinking about it

Best of all, I am very thankful that God has blessed me with my two daughters who gave me four precious grandaughters and also blessed me with loving family and lots good friends.

You Might Be A Dumb Ass If............

We all do stupid or funny things unintentionally now and then. What I did hasn't happened in a long time. Just about every night I'm on the computer playing online games and sometimes I stay up too late. Monday night, I knew I had to get up early Tuesday, so I set my alarm for 6 AM. I go to bed around 12:30 knowing I'm not going to get much sleep. It seemed like a few minutes later that stupid alarm goes off, ugh, bad memories of getting up for work flash through my mind. So I get my ass out of bed, go in the kitchen,turn the TV on and try to collect my thoughts. I don't know why, because, there were no thoughts at that time.

Mike gets up, which is not unusual since he always goes to bed real early. He looks at me with a funny look on his face, which is not unusual since he always has a funny look on his face and he says "You're up awful early this morning"

I say "Well yeah, I gotta take Granny shopping for windows in a couple hours"

Duh, everyone knows I have to sit and drink my coffee before I can even function for the day.



He still has that look on his face.



Finally he says "You know it's 3 o'clock in the morning?"



"What?!"



I turn around to look at the clock. Yup, he's right, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. Alrighty then maybe I'll go back to bed. Who in their right mind wants to be up earlier than you have to except Mike.

What happened was Mike has a new alarm clock and I'm not use to the sound of the new alarm. I use the alarm on my cell phone which I'm not use to either. So there you go. I don't plan on this ever happening again.

Things I Love

I love my Salad Spinner! One of my favorite dishes is my taco salad dip. It's something I've been making for well over 20 years now and everyone seems to love it. It's great for cookouts, holiday get togethers or whatever. The only thing I didn't like about making it was the lettuce. I would wash the lettuce in the colander and then pat it dry on paper towels. That was not only time consuming, but a real pain in the ass. You see if the lettuce is wet it makes the dip runny and we don't like that. A couple years ago I bought a salad spinner. Yay! Now when I make the taco salad dip I don't dread washing the lettuce. So here's to you Mr. or Ms. Salad Spinner Inventor for making my life in the kitchen easier.

Taco Salad Dip
This recipe I make in a 9x13 inch pan. If you want to make a smaller batch, you can cut the recipe in half.

1 large can refried beans
1-2 Tbsp taco seasoning
1 large container of sour cream
1 envelope Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing
1 cup of salsa or picante sauce
shredded lettuce
cheddar cheese
chopped green onions
shopped tomatoes
sliced black olives

tortilla chips (Tostito Scoops are really good to use)

Mix beans and taco seasoning. If the beans are too thick, add a little bit of salsa. Spread onto bottom of pan. Next spread the salsa over the bean layer. In a medium bowl, mix together sour cream and ranch dressing. Dollop the sour cream mixture evenly over bean and salsa layer and spread carefully so you don't have pink sour cream. If you don't care then go for it. Layer remaining ingredients except for the tortilla chips ( those are for scooping the dip.......duh) Refrigerate for several hours or until chilled. Then dig in.

Socks

I Love these socks! Heather made them for me back in the summer but I haven't worn them until it started to get chilly outside. The other day I thought I should take a picture of them to post so I could tell Heather how much I liked them. After several pictures trying to get evetything right it dawned on me that this would be a good subject for my photo assignment. I've been taking a digital photo class for SLR cameras since last june and I love it. Last weeks class was about depth of field, motion control, etc. One of the pictures for the depth of field was to have the foreground in focus and the background blurred and the other with the background in focus and the foreground blurred. I had to take at least 50 or so pictures just to get a few that turned out half way decent. That's the great thing about digital, no film to waste, and if you don't like the shot you can delete it.

Back to the socks. Today I'm wearing the pink and white ones she made for me. Very comfy. I'm thinking I might have to put in a few more sock orders since I threw out all my old work socks. Hmmm might be a good Christmas present for ol Mom, ya think?

Pretty Flowers

The garden is lookin pretty good now. Some of this stuff will come up next year, I hope. Eventually it'll have mostly perennials there.