ABBY

Abby is Mom and Dad's new dog. Well, kind of new. She is about 1.5 years old. Abby is very smart. She can shake hands, count, sit up, roll over, say her prayers, walk through legs, and jump through hoops. Oh, and she is really good at barking and spinning. She's very cute, but a little crazy too.

A new update with plenty of pics!

I decided to post my pictures here on this (almost forgotten) blog.  I thought it would be easier for you to see the pictures here than in an email.  And maybe (just maybe) Andrea will be happy with me for doing this!!

Easter

We went to a nice buffet for Easter.  It was at a banquet hall where they have weddings.  The place had 4 rooms filled with people.  Although all the food was good, the best part was the dessert with so many choices.  My favorites were chocolate mousse, lemon squares, and mini eclairs.

The fawn

Look what we saw in our hosta bed one evening.  And the little guy was still there in the morning.  When Mark walked past him to get to his car, he got scared, jumped up, stared at us for a minute, they galloped off to find his mother.

Container garden.

Mother's Day is the average time of year for planting flowers in the Chicago area without too much danger of a freeze.  So we decided to get pots and flowers for the yard.  Two are framing the sliding doors on the patio, and the other pot is at the corner of the patio.  There are 3 colors of geraniums, Mexican heather, ivy and a spike plant in each pot.  All three are the same.  So far I have managed to keep them alive, and the pots have filled out nicely.

Toby and UGA

  Library book sale - score!

I got great deals at the last library book sale.  Look at all the great cookbooks I got.  And a few cute, old children's books.

I can't promise the next time I will make a post.  Maybe I will try to take my camera along with me more often.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!!

Congratulations to you both on your 49th wedding anniversary! Thank you for being wonderful parents. You have shown, by example, the importance of love, family, perseverance, forgiveness and committment. We wish you many more years of love and happiness!

The Groovy Room and the Basement

I thought I would show off all my hard work that I did in the Groovy Room. This room was completely packed, floor to ceiling, wall to wall. You could only step into the room and step back out. I organized boxes and now you can walk into the room. YAY! But.....
... this is what happened to the rest of the basement. It's ok. Most of this will be repacked and stored in the Groovy Room. There's still plenty of space in there. And, if I fill the room up again, you won't be able to see how ugly it is.

Another 3-day weekend

I love having 3 day weekends. I could get used to this. I have 10 Fridays off in the summer for my new job. Friday was busy for me. I had to make tons of phone calls and appointments. Bruce had to go to the vet for his annual vaccinations. He got his nails trimmed and he cried. I was sad for him. His nails were so long we called him Mr. Clickety. He made a lot of noise on the bare floors. This is better now.

Justin made a second batch of homemade macoroni salad. Many years ago he put his own recipe on the internet. The recipe was copied/imported into many cooking websites. You can google his name and find many versions of his recipe with reviews. He doesn't like that the websites have changed the recipe from the original.
We also had "Pudding Delight" for dessert again. Justin invented this too. A very quick instant dessert. And super yummy. It's just like pie.

Saturday and Sunday I worked on the "groovy room". We took all the boxes out of the room, organized and sorted them, and put them back. We really made more of a mess than we did cleaning up. The room was so full you could just step into the doorway. It was solid boxes and stuff. Now you can walk in and see stacks of boxes against the walls. We still have a lot of boxes to sort and repack.

I also did grocery shopping and laundry. I got to talk to the family alot on the phone. Andrea also shared some of her wedding ideas with me. Mark and Justin cut down another tree and trimmed many branches on others. It looks so much better now.

I'm wondering when we will get caught up and be able to do something fun. Or do nothing at all, which is fun too!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today is my Dad's birthday. I wish I could be there to have birthday cake (or pie, or brownies, or rice krispy treats....) with him to celebrate. Just think, on your next birthday you won't even have to go to work. Dad, we are thinking of you and hope you have a great birthday!

A Box-O-Meat

Well you will soon find out (if you didn't know already) that much of our life revolves around food. You know that I love cookbooks and cookbooklets. But do I ever cook from them? Rarely. But it's still fun to read and look at the pictures. And the Food Network! This is one of the top cable tv channels. Fun stuff!

Yesterday I went to Costco to stock up. I went hungry, which was not good because I bought a lot of stuff. They had samples, but I only tried one thing. Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets. I do not recommend this. I am an expert at all things chicken nuggets and tenders and these nuggets were gross. I guess if I was in kindergarten they would be wonderful.

Of course I stocked up on my meat. Hamburger, sirloin steak, roast beef, and pork chops. I have to divide and freeze everything now and it should last a while.

My new Costco has different stuff than my old Costco. This will take some getting used to. A big jug of peanut butter pretzels, and cases of black olives, pasta, pudding, and water.

I tried a new chip. BBQ Pop Chips. They are similar to potato chips, but very light like rice chips. I like them, but not too many at a time. I think I liked the sesame/sea salt rice chips better. I don't think Costco sells the rice chips anymore. I couldn't find them at the old or new Costco. That's why I decided to try these BBQ Pop Chips.

Justin has been wanting english muffin pizzas for a long time. I had sausage, black olive, and mozzarella on mine. Mark and Justin also added ricotta, onion, and mushroom. This was a nice treat. Very yummy!

And Justin made dessert...

Crumbled chocolate chip cookies, with chocolate pudding, sour gummy worms and whipped cream. I wanted seconds!