Concert at City HALL. The As Is Band

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On Sunday Caroline, Wendy the grandkids and I went to another free concert at Warren city hall. We saw the As Is Band for the second time since last year, and they Rocked THE HOUSE! They are THAT GOOD! There wasn't a song we didnt know. Sorry if the sound is a little garbled, as we were sitting front row in front of the giant loudspeakers. We thank the city for all the great entertainment we are getting from them.

The city has a big fountain with jets of water that shoot out of the floor in sequences and the grandkids had fun running through the waters before the show. So much fun for them! We cant wait to see what they have scheduled next. I promised the kids that I would take them to the city pool during the week when its not too busy because they have a playscape a regular pool, a hot tub thats huge, and a water slide and tubing in a flowing river in it..!

check out the band's website at : http://www.theasisband.com/news/

My Tree's Fallen and Cant get up! I got a Boo Boo! And Friday Night Concert in the City Hall

As you can see, our trees have been leaning for years at a 45 degree angle towards our neighbor's yard, but now with the rain the one tree is leaning on top of the neighbor's swing. The roots of the trees are coming out of the ground. We are waiting for our tree guy to come and cut them out for us. None the less, when we called our insurance company they told us that the neighbors insurance should take care of it for her, but, since she called the city, we are facing a fine if we dont remove it. Luckily, our insurance did reconcider and made us a check for the cost to remove both trees. THANK GOD!

This is the base of the trunks showing the roots coming out of the ground. I hear from the tree man that Box Elder trees do this quite often.

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I got a boo boo! My dog, Bunny has a tendency to guard the area near our desk and doesn't like anyone to approach the area. I was serving dinner to my hubby on Wednesday and got a little close, and Bunny came at me with teeth showing. I stood my ground, and was going to tap her on the side like the Dog Wisperer does, to calm her down. Well.... she caught me on the hand with her canine tooth and ripped my skin open. Like Caroline says, she spend 5 hours in her hospital with me getting two stitches and antibiotic shots to make sure I dont get an infection. I dont know why she does this protection. She is great otherwise. She is food agressive when she has a bone she's protecting. But she is not agressive otherwise.

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One Friday Caroline, Amber , and I went to a free concert at City hall again. We saw a band called "Stewart Franke and Band" . We liked the band, but they played more jazzy /rock type music and didnt play any songs that we knew well. We are looking forward to some great bands coming up this summer, we hope!

Father's Day Picnic

Barlow wanted a picnic for Fathers Day and we headed to Stoney Creek again.
Here's Caroline and Me .






Darin, Frank, Amber and Caroline, cooking.



Barlow, and Amber waiting, Caroline is cooking

Barlow with our dog, Bunny

This is Knight, the "Bad"dog.

Happy Birthday CAROLINE AND BARLOW

Today is my Husband, Barlow, and my Daughter Caroline's Bithday. Caroline is 39 today and Barlow is 62! What a birthday present I gave him! Lets hope they have many more! I'll never forget the day after I gave birth to her he came to visit me in the hospital and he commented that he had to celebrate his birthday all by himself. THATS when I realized that I gave him the best birthday present of them all! All during the pregnancy we didnt realize how close it was going to be to his birthday! My husband is the only son in his family, he has SIX SISTERS!

Much happiness to both of you!

the old days

This is my Husband, Barlow with his sister Grace at about 19-20 years of age. This is just before I met him while cruising drive-ins with my girlfriend. We stopped at a drive-in restaurant called " WOODS" in Detroit one day, because my girlfriend used to live in Detroit and knew the area. Barlow parked next to us and started talking to us He had a big Chrysler car with a automatic record player under the dash, and Barlow let us choose the 45 records to play. Later we all pulled over to parking lot next door and played music and danced until late in the night! Barlow looked a lot like John Travolta at this stage of his life, and I WAS IMPRESSED! He had BIG arms from working for his brother-in-law as a brick layer and cement layer . He asked one night, who wanted to go with him to the Roostertail one evening, and of course, I said I do! That was our first date. One of many more.

This is my graduation picture, in 1967, which is just before I met Barlow. I was almost 19 when I met him in the fall of 1968. I had hair to the middle of my back then, I dont know why I went to a hairdresser and had it put up so high. Actually, she had put it higher, but I squished it down some! TEE HEE!

Well time had not done anything for our looks, the gray hair, the extra fat that we put on, has not done us justice over the years. Just thought someone would like to see some of the old days pics.

Here is Barlow and Darin recently at a picnic.

A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

Yesterday I was invited to my Caroline's house for a Birthday dinner and arrived to find THIS when I arrived. My Granddaughter AMBER and her girlfriend decorated the front door with this sign and balloons! If you notice, one of the balloon signs on the poster say " DANG your OLD" ( LOL) Darin met me at the door when we arrived. Caroline made us pot roast, carrots, and boiled potatoes. It was YUMMY!

Caroline even decorated the house on the inside for me. I was really surprized!

Here is Caroline and my Hubby, Barlow who is petting the dogs.

Amber here with her girlfriend from school who helped her with the outside sign and the balloons.

Here is my CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY CAKE with Amber trying to take a LICK! LOL!

After dinner and cake Amber invited us to go to a Talent Show at her school, it was really fun, and they had some very nice talent in it. Amber's friend Uribi did a wonderful rendition of OVER The RAINBOW in the show.

Lots of Celebrations this month!

Well, May is a busy month for me. On May 1st was our 39th wedding anniversary. Where did time fly? We didn'd do anything special to celebrate it. My daughter Caroline gave me a beautiful card to show me she remembered.



On May 7th, this coming Thursday will be my 60 th birthday! My daughter Caroline has invited us for dinner at her house on my birthday and shes making me a cake too! THANK YOU CAROLINE! I cant believe how fast the years have past. I still have the mind of a 30 year old, but, with all the illnesses I have had over the past 5 years since my stroke, my body feels like a 80 year old. Artheritis had wracked my hips and ankles, causing me to waddle like a duck to walk! LOL! The sore on my hip is still being treated by home care nurses. And since last September, I have had what my eye doctor says was a stroke in my right eye. It causes a gray haze inside my vision. The eye doctor has
given me 3 Laser treatments, and says that he has stopped the bleeding inside the eye, but it will take 4-5 months for my body to absorb the blood and hopefully clear up my vision. Fingers crossed!

Both my husband and I have really slowed down and cant do nearly as much as we used to do. Old age has not been kind to us! LOL!



On the 10th of May is Mothers Day and we dont have much planned for that day either. We want to get some new flowers for the flower beds in the front yard, budget permitting this month. ( and weather permitting) My hubby killed a bunch of bushes and flowers in my flower beds last summer, in trying to kill the weeds that were growing around them. Remember, that Grass and Weed killer kills EVERYTHING it falls on!!! He said he didnt know that! LOL!



HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN BLOG WORLD AND TO MY TWO DAUGHTERS! Being a mother and a grandma has been the highlight of my life, and I wouldnt trade being a Mother for anything else.

OOOPS I DID IT AGAIN!

YES, FRIENDS, I SPENT THE LAST WEEK AGAIN IN THE HOSPITAL FOR ANOTHER INFECTION ON MY BODY NEAR MY RIGHT hip THIS TIME! I got another abcess on my belly near the right hip bone. I spent from Sunday, April 5th to Monday April 13th in the hospital on IV antibiotics to heal this one. I missed Easter Sunday and I know that my Hubby missed me a lot. He came to see me at the hospital each day, but he only had the dogs for company during the day and nights. This infection grew from a quarter size to 11 inches long in 3 days flat! I saw my regular doctor on Saterday the 4th and he prescribed oral antibiotics to take until I could see the surgeon on Monday, but I could not make it till then and went in on Sunday the 5th. Im doing fine now and again have home nurses coming to help pack and bandage the wound for me. They say that the diabetes I have can make such infections blow up fast and to see my doctor as soon as I notice such a thing again. My sugar reading I have been monitoring, but just because I have diabetes the infections can multiply quickly within me. So I have to monitor them well.

On the other hand we did not celebrate with the kids, Caroline and her family left last Saturday on her vacation to see her sick Mother-in-law and wish her the best with her treatment. I know that sickness stresses both my girls and I dont mean to to that to them.

What A BAD BOY! Saved by Oxy Clean!

Well in the past few months our Knight, the 11 month old black lab pup has been trying us at every turn. He's chewed up a bunch of plastic statues we left out for the winter in the pond area in the back yard, hes chewed up big holes in my Husband' s tee shirt and socks. Knight has destroyed over 10 rubber toys. He has tried to grind his teeth on my new dining room chairs. He's gouged up a 4 inch section of wall in our pool table room either with his teeth or his claws and ate the plaster! This week he got a hold of a plastic ink pen, somehow stealing it from my purse, and chewed it up to pieces and left a couple of big blue stain on my almost new blue carpet in the family room!!!!!

This little boy is heading for a quick trip to the human society if he doesn't get smarter and quit the chewing on everything! Its not like he doesn't have snacks galor. My Hubby buys all kinds of Milk bones, chewy sticks, and rawhide bones and he rewards the both of them after every trip they make outdoors to relieve themselves.

We tried Tide, hairspray, multipurpose cleaners, even gasoline, and could not get the stains out of the carpet. Caroline reminded me to check online for what the do. All the attempts to clean it just spread it further and just made it worse. Online I read about using OXY CLEAN laundry detergent mixed with 70% rubbing alcohol and a little warm water, and to apply it and let it stand for about 5-10 minutes on the stain. Later we rinsed it with some warm water on a rag and Glory BE!!! It did take the stain out! Let me tell you, that I had bought some Oxy Clean years ago and used it for an additive to my laundry, but I never noticed a big difference in my laundry, but NOW I am convinced that it does remove stains. If I didn't try looking it up on the inter net, I may have never found the solution to my problem.

I guess Knight has a reprieve for right now. but he is really testing our nerves and our patience.

UPDATE:

Last night we discovered that KNIGHT ate two big mouth sized chunks of material off the bottom of my Husband's new winter COAT!!!! While he was sleeping the dog decided to munch on the coat for exercize. We found only small remnants of pieces of material laying on the floor below the coat that was hanging on the back of our dining room chair. !!! This little boy is heading for the dog pound really fast at this rate! WHAT ELSE ARE WE TO DO????

Boomers Great Adventure

I wrote this story for my grandkids back in 2004
and I was inspired by the story about their missing hampster they had. I envisioned this story happening to him. I thought that some of my readers would like to see it again. Someday I want to have a printer print this up into a real book form as a memory for my grandkids.

BOOMERS GREAT ADVENTURE! (a children's story)
by Paula Bagnasco

DEDICATED TO MY GRANDCHILDREN:DARIN, AMBER, SARAH, AND Matthew

COPYWRITE 9/15/2004

Illustrations copywrite September 2004 to January 2005

Boomer and Nicky were two fat and happy little hampsters who live in a habitrail cage at Darin and Amber's house. They had a carefree life, filling their pouch like mouths with seeds and running around the tunnels. They loved sleeping soundly in their litte upper chamber. When awake, they spent a lot of time chewing long and long on their mouths full of seeds and getting fatter and fatter.Occasionally Darin and Amber would takie them out and play with them, allowing them to run up and down their arms or cuddling by putting their cheeks aganst their soft fur. Boomer especially liked rolling around in his big plastic ball so he could explore more of this outside world. He discovered that it was much bigger and more wonderous the more he explored.He saw huge, strange animals that would occasionally sniff the ball and then dissapear somewhere into another room. It wasthe dogs that lived there who were interested about this strange little creature in the plastic bubble was. They could'nt smell it, whatever it was, so they never bothered trying to get at it. Boomer was glad these strange creatures didn't try to eat him.

Boomer in ball/ Dog

On Saturday, Darin would clean their cage and make sure they had fresh food in their bowl. Boomer was sitting in his upper chamber munching some of his seeds, but when he stood up nice and tall, the lid fell off the top of the chamber. He saw that he could escape and thought, "Gee! I can go out and see some of the world. What an adventure this will be!" So at that, he climbed out and down the table cautiously. Soon he scurried along the floor down the hallway.

Boomer escapes

When he reached the living room, he scooted behind the media center and hid for a little bit, then quickly headed for the kitchen. There was some familiar things he had seen from his bubble, but there was also so many nooks and crannies that looked intriging. He was never able to explore there before. He hurriedly ducked into the crack between the stove and cupboards into a strange, dark world he have never seen before. There was tall drawers he climbed into and out of, and he was having a merry old time exploring the new space. In one drawer was a big bag of bird seed, so he packed his cheeks with some, so save for later on in his journey.Upon climbing down the last drawer he explored, Boomer saw movement in the dark and went to see what it could be. It scurried along the wall and Boomer followed. Suddenly there was a little light in the area coming from a small mouse hole in the wall and that's where Boomer met Buddy. Buddy was a Daddy mouse who has been occupying the interior of the wall with his nest of 5 little baby mice. In the corner, Buddy's wife, Sarah guarded the babies who peeked out from behind her. Boomer tried to introduce himself to Buddy. Buddy just stood there looking at him with a strange look on his face. Buddy was wondering just was was this strange animal with the big cheeks was standing before him.Buddy said, "What are you? And what are you doing here?" Boomers stepped up and told him, "I'm Boomer the hampster and I'm out here exploring this new world I found. What are you?" "I'm Buddy and we're a mouse family. We've been living here searching for food to feed my family here." Said Buddy as he motioned behind him. Sarah was in the corner sheltering her babies in the nest and she pressed herself further back into the darkness.

Boomer meets Buddy and Sarah.

Buddy retorted, "We don't like strangers, and we sure don't like stranger that are not like us!""Well!" Boomer said, "I don't want any trouble. I'll just get on with my adventure, and I won't bother you or your family. Nice to meet you Buddy." At that Boomer was sidestepping slowly toward the mouse hole in the wall. Suddenly a much larger, dark figure stepped out of the shadows to block the way.Bart was blocking the exit. "I say IF you go, WHERE you go, and WHEN you GO!" Bart exclaimed. Boomer froze in his steps while the big ferocious King mouse snarled in his face. "How did you get in here, and where were you going?" said Bart. "I just escaped from my home cage and was exploring this new world." shuddered Boomer, gulping. Suddenly Bart grabbed Boomer by the neck and squeezed, forcing a volcano of seed to spew from his cheeks into a pile on the floor. "And what have you got here!", exclaimed Bart.

Bart chokes Boomer

Bart growled angrily, "So your stealing food from us!""Oh no!" cried Boomer, " I just found it up there.." Boomer motioned up to the drawer space he had just climbed down from. " I was just saving it for later, when I get hungry." Boomer sighed meekly. "Any food to be found her is OURS!" choroused Bart and Buddy."You will pay for this!" Bart snarled. "Cheeks like yours might come in handy for hauling a day's meal to us. I'm not letting you go anywhere."For the next three months, Boomer was chained up by the neck in Bart's house under the dryer. Bart only set him free to seach for food while Bart stood in the dark shadows watching and waiting for him to bring a pile for him and the others.

Nightly the dogs of the house were put into their dog crate by the people to sleep. Boomer then would be on the hunt to find anything he could haul back to feed the mice. The more he brought, dog nuggets, bids of food from the cupboards, or any morsal of food from under the table, the more they wanted. The baby mice were getting bigger, and always cried that they were still hungry.Boomer started saving a few scraps of food in his cheeks, and when Bart wasn't looking, Boomer would drop a little extra for the baby mice. Sarah could only smile at Boomer as he went by, while the baby mice would cover the pieces with their bodies so Bart could'nt see.

Boomer knew that Bart was very powerful, and he didn't think he could win a fight against him. Boomer had been a fat, lazy little hampster and never had to fight anything in his life.After searching all night and bringing all he found to the mice, Bart would grab a big armfull of food from the pile Boomer deposited for himself. Then Boomer had to be chained up again and follow Bart back to his bed consisting of a sock under the dryer. Bart would drop a few crumbs in front of Boomer, then crawl up in his nest of dryer lint and sit and glare at him while munching on his goodies. The chain was fastened to a pipe next to Bart's head and any movement make the chain clatter against the pipe. At the slighest jingle on the pipe, Bart would sit up and growl at Boomer.

Boomer longed for the days when he felt so safe in his cage, munching his seeds and playing with his good pal Nicky. "Will I ever see Nicky again? Will Darin and Amber ever hug me, and play with me again?" Boomer wondered.During the day he could hear noises and movement throughout the house, but Boomer was sure that Bart heard it also. Boomer could see Bart's outline in the darkness, sitting and glaring at him.Boomer worked so hard, and Bart and the other mice demanded more and more from him each day.

Little did Boomer know, that his hard work was making him stronger, and was no longer a fat and lazy hampster.

One Evening while searching for more food, he could clearly hear the voices of Darin and Amber sitting in the dark living room laughing at some movie on television. Boomer ventured a little farther than normal in his quest to find food, while Bart stood nearby watching him. Boomer was listening to the kids voices, "I just got to try it!" Boomer exclaimed.In one quick leap, Bart attacked Boomer, trying to grasp Boomer by the neck and raking his claws in Boomer's forehead. "Oh no you don''t!" cried Bert. Boomer easily shook Barts now fat, lazy body off of him, sending Bart sliding across the floor. Boomer ran faster than he had ever run before in the direction of Darin's voice.

Boomer escapes to Darin With one great leap, Boomer was up on the edge of the couch and he scrambled ontoDarin's lap. "Boomer!" shouted Darin. "Where have you been so long?" Darin quickly picked him up and turned on the light to look at him better. "Oh! He's hurt!" yelled Darin. Darin then washed his hampster's sore head and hugged him against his cheek. "We've been looking for you for so long!" Darin murmured.

At that, Darin put Boomer back into the cage with Nicky while he watched them snuggle together at their bowl.After a good meal and a big drink, Nicky and Boomer climbed up together into their chamber and huddled close together for a long nap. "I've had enough adventure for a while, it's good to be home."

THE END

Almost all healed!

Many of you know I have been getting treatment at home from an abcess that the hospital lanced back in January on my upper left thigh.

Well, as of today my nurse said that I will be discharged from them as of this coming Friday! The cut in my leg has healed to the point now that the doctor told me on Monday that they dont need to pack the cut anymore with gauze. Yesterday my nurse said that in the last couple days that the cut has closed a LOT since she saw me on last Friday. Its only a dime sized hole now. It was about 6 inches long and 3 inches deep at first when I left the hospital. Amazing! I am so glad to have this over with.
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This reminds me of when I was in high school, and I THOUGHT that I wanted to go on to be a nurse. In the middle of 11th grade I told my family that I wanted to be a nurse, and took college prep courses in preparation. I even got hired at Nightingale Nursing Home as a nurses aid to get the feel for working in that career. I started as part time.

Let me tell you, I loved working with the poor sickly patients, caring for and feeding and clothing them. I got really close to a lot of them. Some had dementia and many just had ailments that their family could not handle at home. The patients were very nice, and I loved helping to take care of them.

Later, after graduation, I worked there full time and I was transfered to the ward where the patients were worse off. I had a boy, then 18, who hung himself playing cowboy with a rope and cut off the oxygen to his brain. He could not talk, or walk and could barely sit up in his bed. We had a 23 year old woman who got MS after giving birth to her daughter, and could not talk well and could not walk. Her parents had her baby and her husband left her soon after the birth. She used an alphabet on a pad of cardboard to spell out what she needed because her speach was so bad. Later I had many patients die after having cared for them for over a year. I suffered from their loss and later changed my mind about being a nurse.

I went on to work in offices, and loved the interaction with customers and co-workers. I worked for 14 years for Holley Carburetor Co. as a Receiving clerk and later a Traffic Co-ordinater following shipments around the country to our Southern plants. But I was laid off when the company decided to whittle down and then close the plant here in Warren, Michigan.

After that I worked for 16 -1/2 years at Specialty Sealants, in Sterling Heights, MI, selling caulking materials and Waterproofing products to contractors in the area. I was the one and only office manager doing all the ordering, stocking the warehouse, driving the Hi-Lo, and doing all the customer service, recomending the right materials for the jobs.

Now, since my stroke, which was 5 years ago, on my birthday, May 7th, I was forced to retire and have gotten on dissability Social Security. I could no longer do the job I used to do. My job now is to take care of my hubby, Barlow, and together we try to take care of this home. He retired about a year and a half ago due to increased pain from artheritis in his knees.

I spend a lot of time helping my daughter, Caroline, by picking up her kids from school and taking them home on the days that she has to work those hours, and by going to going to Bingo on occasion. Time has slowed down, day by day, but the years keep spinning by so fast its like we're in a whirlwind and cant stop it! I feel like a 20 year old mind in a 80 year old body! How do I make it stop! LOL! (or do I?)

Just For Fun, this is mine. borrowed from my Caroline's blog.

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

THE MOTHER of ALL ICICLES!!!

Like my daughter, Caroline, the family urged me to photograph THIS icicle hanging from the gutter in the back of my kitchen ALL the way to the bottom of my house! It was born from a humongous ice dam coming off the back of my house. I never saw such a huge icicle in all my days! My Grand kids have been anxious to knock this one down, but my hubby said NO! it might knock down the whole gutter and the boards holding it up! ( I hope not!)

This is the ice dam that bore such a huge icicle! Lots of weight sitting in those gutters! We are expecting a warm up tomorrow and until at least Monday, and we are hoping that this melts ALL away before it creaps under our new roof and destroys our walls.! GULP!

Here are a few shots of out our front door of the snow drifts in the neighborhood. Most of the snow has compacted into ice mounds at this point, but we're hoping it will melt and go away real soon!

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I'm still healing from the wound that had me in the hospital last month for 5 days. The home care nurses come each day to dress and bandage the cut on my leg and check on my sugars and listen to my heart. They are great ladies, but I will be so glad to be able to not have to have them come anymore. At least I have had no complications so far with it healing, but the healing is going VERY slowly! ( Which I am told is the way the doctors prefer it. Healing from the inside out) They tell me the cut has closed about 1- 1-1'2 centimeters in the last month, still have about a centimeter to go or more. YEAH- UGG!

Yeah! Finally out of the hospital

Just a little post to let you know that I spent 5 days in the hospital for a leg abcess that had to be lanced. It started out a small one a pimple, but since it wouldnt pop open, it kept spreading along the leg till it was 6 inches down my leg. They cut it and drained it, and kept me on antibiotics for the 5 days.

I went in on Monday, 1/5 and came out on Friday 1/9. Thank God that they let me come home on Friday because I was going bonkers, not being able to sleep all night. I would sleep good for a few minutes, then wake and check the clock and it would be only 5 minutes later! This continued all night long! Five to 10 minutes at a time, ALL NIGHT! ( watching the clock go around the dial.) Even when I did get some sleep, someone was coming in waking me for blood pressures, testing sugar, or taking blood ALL NIGHT LONG! I hate hospitals!

The doctors have arranged for a visiting nurse to come daily to change the packing in the wound and bandage it up for me. The cut runs about 5 -6 inches long and 2 inches deep! This sore grew that big in only a couple days and it was deep and really sore. I have two prescriptions for antibiotics to take at home several times a day. I can live with that, as long as I am a home! What really kills me, is that the doctor that called the visiting nurses to come here were supposed to supply to me a bunch of bandages and gauze and give the nurses instructions on what he wanted done. This wasn't the case. I got nothing, and the nurse happened to have some gauzes in her own kit to do the job. She had to order some more sent to my house for this week coming up.

Well things are looking up now that Im home, and the nurse says healing is going well. I sure would'nt want to see anyone else I know have to go through this!

Hope you all are well and happy!

Merry Christmas at Grandma's House!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Well, the family got together tonight to celebrate Christmas and have dinner at Grandma's house. Dinner consisted of Galumpky's ( stuffed cabbage in tomato sauce), Kielbasa, Italian Sausage, Smoked sausage, sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, corn and green beans and a huge lettuce and tomato salad. My Aunt Sally and Uncle Ed came with my cousin Steve and the gang loved the food. I think Ed had a piece of most of the pies and also a piece of cake.

Amber brought a couple of her music CDs and we had fun beebopping to some of the hits on it. Caroline and I really like the new song by PINK, called "SO WHAT". It has a great beat and we were really bopping to that one. After dinner Amber, Darin, Matthew, Sarah and Amanda (my step granddaughter) were sitting around our stereo playing more of her new music. The kids played checkers on the table in our pool table room and were chatting.


Here is Frank and Caroline after they just come in.

Here is Amber, Sarah, Matthew and Amanda playing checkers. This is our pool table room,/play room, we have a pinball game and a shuffel board also in there.

This is Darin by the Buffet counter with the food on it.

Here is Matthew and Sarah. Aren't they getting big? Sarah will be 12 the end of January and Matthew will be 10 the middle of January. How time flies!

How cute! Amber giving Darin a hug!

Caroline, Amber eating with Cousin Steve and Frank.

My Lovely Aunt Sally with her handsome hubby Ed.

My two girls! Caroline and Wendy.

It was my delight to have the whole family together with me tonight and be one together again. With Caroline's work schedule, working her both day and night each week, we always have to check her schedule before we can plan a day like today. I'm just to happy to have all those that I love so much getting together with me for a day. Makes all the work cooking worth it to me.

I hope however you celebrate the Holidays that everything comes out as great, or greater that what we have had!

Butterfly Award For ME! ?

Well, Caroline nominated me for this award, and I have to nominated her blog also, even if she is my precious daughter, she has amazed me with her wit and humor in portraying to others her life and family in her blog.


I also nominate Mal for this award because he was one of the first to visit and comment on my blog, but he is very interesting in his blog in a Aussie way, lol, and he amazes me with his stories and his children and his band.





I also nominate Momma at Momma's Corner for her humor and wit in portraying her life and times with her family and her animals, she got me beat in her tennacity to get things done. Im amazed with her stories, and she makes me laugh.

I also nominate Naomi the old lady of the hills, for her love of people, nature and her lovely photos of birds, bees, and her lovely flowers.

And Lastly, MISS ZOOT, who I read daily for her humor, her lovely, beautiful kids, and wonderful artistry in producing a great blog read.

Sorry, as of yet, I dont have so many to add, but I'm meeting and hearing from new friends all the time. I reserve the right to nominate others that I find as time goes on.




The rules for this award are:


1. Put the logo on your blog


2. Add a link to the person who awarded you


3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award


4. Add links to those blogs


5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs


6. Give a reason why you consider their blogs cool.

Happy Holidays!

From Our House to yours Seasons Greetings

Sara's First Band Concert

Sarah has been practicing big time for this concert at school, in her first semester of taking band this year in 6th grade. Grandma and Grandpa has signed to pay the rental cost for her so she can be musical. She's doing a great job so far, based on what we heard her playing at our house for Thanksgiving. The school has a very small stage with over 100 Students in band this year! There was very little seating up close for a huge crowd, so we could not see the kids on stage in the far back rows we were behind some big people in front of us. We could hear the band well, but just couldnt see them. We took these pics after the show where we could get some better shots.

I brought her cousin, Amber and a school friend of Amber's who wanted to come along, and Wendy brought Amanda Sarah's 16 year old half sister as well as Matthew, Sarah's little brother.

Here's Sarah tooting her horn

Amanda, Sarah's big sister

Amber and her school friend (left)

Matthew, Sarah's (BIG) Little Bro.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Well, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving together with my girls, the grandkids, my elderly Aunt Sally and Uncle Ed and my Cousin Steve.

Caroline

Caroline came over on Wednesday with her kids and helped chop the vegies and peel the potatoes for dinner, they they all helped clean my floors and wipe the tables and vacuum my house. (Caroline even cleaned the filters for my vacuum cleaner)

I just had to assemble the stuffing and put the turkeys in the oven and baste them, then put the potatoes on to cook. I had two turkeys again, because traditionally we have the kids over again on Friday to help eat up all the leftovers, so we have actually have two dinners each year. The first small turkey was used up on Thursday, plus half of the second one.

On Thursday Caroline came over earlier and made deviled eggs from the eggs i boiled and help me set up the buffet table with cheese and crackers and set out the vegie tray with Ranch dressing. Only Sarah and Wendy came for dinner as Mark and Matthew were feeling poorly from flu symptoms, and at 1pm my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin came.

My Uncle Ed is now 95 (but you would never believe his age by looking at him) and I believe Sally is now about 87 or 88. They are beautiful people and have been a source of love and support for all my life. Sally has been like a second Mother to me since my Mom died several years ago.

Frank and Darin helped drain and mash the potatoes and set it into the trays for the buffet. Everyone feasted and were raving about how good the food was.

After dinner we brought out the pumpkin pies, the jello, the apple pie, the cherry pie and the banana cream pie, Steve even brought me a plate of mixed fruit. Everyone were wanting a nap after such a great meal.

Wendy then wrapped all the left overs and washed the dishes and pans for me and fixed a couple plates to go home to poor Mark and Matthew to saver the feast.

All cleaned up and waiting now for the CHRISTMAS FEAST TO COME! I cant thank my family enough for all their help before and after to make this feast happen, and without which I dont think this old lady could have pulled it off!

I was so busy that day that I didnt even get out my camera to take pics, so with the help of Caroline and her camera, here is a glimpse into out big day..........

Darin and Grandpa chatting in the family room

Caroline, Frank , Darin and Amber

Sweet Aunty Sally

Uncle Ed and Cousin Steve

Cutie Amber

Wendy - Frank in Background

Sarah