So Very Thankful

Today is my birthday and I just want to take a moment to say thanks to all of you for helping me to have an awesome year. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to have a full life with a loving family and wonderful friends to share it with!

Happy Fall Yall

It's soup weather

Yes, it's soup weather. It was only 40 degrees this morning--brrrr!!! Broke down and turned the heat on, hate that. It's going to warm up again next week but I know it's only short lived warm. Winter is headed in and if the summer weather we've had is any indication, it's going to be a bad one. Not looking forward to it because even though I love snow, I don't like cold.

Of course, not all bad things come with cold weather. I love cold weather food, soups, meatloaf, crockpot meals or chili--mmm mmm good!

I made a big pot of homemade potato soup today and it was quite yummy if I do say so myself. Had requests for the recipe so I'll share it.

It's supposed to be Rafferty's Potato Soup recipe and it does taste quite a bit like it. Nothing compares to the real stuff though. Since they've raised their prices yet again it may be the only kind I get for a while. I'm sure they've left out an ingredient but it's as close to the real one as I have.

Potato Soup

7-8 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 to 3/4 stick of butter
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can of Cream of Celery soup
1 medium finely chopped onion
1-1/2 cup of milk
1 tsp of garlic salt
1 eight ounce pkg of cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste

shredded cheese, green onions and bacon bits if desired

In a large saucepan or stockpot, cook potatoes and onion in just enough water to cover on medium heat until tender but not mushy.

Add cubes of cream cheese. Remove from heat and stir until cheese is melted.

Add soups mixed with milk; spices and butter and stir well.

Add the cheese, onions and/or bacon if desired and serve hot.

Hope you enjoy. And if you have any great recipes you'd like to share with me I'd sure love to have them.

Happy October

October 1st--what a beautiful morning. The air is downright nippy right now, 50 degrees at 9 a.m. It's just going to be 71 all day so it's time to dig out the Fall clothing. Can't quite put up the summer stuff yet because you never know in Kentucky, it could be 95 tomorrow.

I do love Fall though. It's my favorite season. The crisp mornings are just so fresh. I love sweaters too so that's a plus. The colors during the season are just gorgeous as the leaves prepare to fall. Scarecrows and pumpkins are beginning to sprout up all over town and what's not to love about a scarecrow! Downtown Greenville is having a Fall event this weekend and they've placed tons of pumpkins and gourds all over town square and I really need to take my camera and take a photo. If you get a chance to go to the festival Saturday maybe I'll see you there. They're going to have arts and crafts set up in the alley too. Should be fun.

The layout above is of our dog Nikita that I did a couple of years ago on a Fall morning. She's 16 years old now and her arthritis is acting up more every day. Her vision is declining as is her hearing. Although she can still hear a wrapper being opened from the other end of the house! She was Mom's baby and it's hard to believe she's still going after all these years. I'm sure this will be her last Fall season. She loves the crisp air as much as I do, can't handle the heat with all that fur and as much as she loves to jump in the snow, she doesn't want to stay out for long on those cold winter mornings. Fall days, she'd stay outside all day--if I stayed with her.

I've put up the Fall wreaths and added a pumpkin to the porch but I'm not going to go all out and decorate the house like I used to when Jeremy was little. Halloween, thanks to the many evil people out there, isn't fun anymore. When he was little we had graves, skeletons and huge spiders and stuff all over the yard and it was so much fun. I'd tie little spiders onto fishing line and hang them here and there to "greet" unsuspecting visitors. Knowing Randy has a fear of spiders this really was cruel so sometimes I'd let him know where they were. Admittedly I scared myself more than once when I forgot they were there, LOL.

One year we also had a dummy that we stuffed and put on the front porch. It had one of those old man faces with wild black hair. Every day we'd change him up a little bit. He'd have a newspaper one day, an umbrella on rainy days and even a cup of "coffee" in his hand when the kids would get off the school bus. On Halloween night, Jeremy unstuffed the dummy and put the shirt, jeans and mask on himself and sat on the porch. When the kids came, he would jump up and scare them--so fun.

Our church, as others do, hosts a fun event for Halloween now and everyone enjoys it but I sure miss seeing the children come door to door in their costumes. This year, our church is hosting their event on the Friday night before Halloween. I'm not sure why but it may mean that kids will be trick or treating on the whole day Saturday instead, who knows.

Maybe I'll get out a few more decorations for the house after all. They make me happy and happy is a nice feeling.

What a busy month!

Okay, I lied. I said I would do more frequent updates and haven't. It's not that I meant to not update, just haven't had time because I've been so busy this month! Work has been horrible. We've had really heavy case loads (and I do mean heavy!) and the patient level of care has not been what we are used to. We've had several nursing home patients, confused patients and just downright beligerent ones. Totally wearing me out week after week. I'm praying it's just a bad phase and it will get better. My body won't hold up to a lot more.

Finally got the new doors installed on my house and that story is a trip in itself! Also got a new storage building to replace one damaged by the ice storm, still haven't moved the stuff over, but at least it is in the yard.

Jackson's soccer games started up so I've been able to watch him play on most Saturday and Sundays. He's playing so much better this year. Can't say his team is winning but they're having fun.

Saturday before last I got to help volunteer on an Extreme Homemaker that the TV show did near Owensboro. It was so much fun but a lot of work. I volunteered for 12 hours but there were hundreds there that volunteered the whole week. I think they had about 2,000 volunteers totally.

The family of four that was given the new home used to live in this 700 square foot trailer. He was a volunteer fireman that was hit by a car while directing traffic. He's had numerous surgeries already, still has pain and has some memory lapses due to a brain injury. His youngest daughter (10) has juvenile arthritis and the oldest (12) just had to have her ACL repaired. The wife is trying to work two jobs just to keep the roof over their head. They both were big volunteers in the area and were always helping others. They had bought the land and were saving to build before the accident, which, of course depleted all the cash. It was so great to be able to help them achieve their dream home.


Ty, Michael and Didi were all there along with Clint Black and a rapper named Xhibit (may have that spelled wrong) and I even got a spontaneous hug from Didi when I told her I knew how to use a nail gun and could help with the shingling of the dog houses. Didi is actually tinier than me! I got to help unload the trucks to load the house. Of course, I also got to help load the trucks up when they changed their mind about an item and then at least twice unload the same item back again when they changed it again.

I pretty much just did anything that needed doing, from holding the ladder for the painters after they changed their mind about the shade of blue for the shingles on the house to watering the front lawn. A whole lot of work and my muscles let me know about it the next day, LOL.


Thompson Homes built the house and it is gorgeous. More importantly it's a house that the family can live in and, thanks to the generousity of the community, afford. They wouldn't build one of the monstrous homes that you see on TV. Don't get me wrong, this one is a mansion compared to the trailer that they had, but it's just a really nice home. The back patio in this photo is the size of the previous trailer.


I will say that I have a new understanding of the show. We did the move that bus so many times that we were hoarse before they even brought the family back home. They film the crowd over and over pretending to see the bus, pretending that the family is there, etc. When the family actually arrives the cameras are all on them.
Not sure if I'll be on the TV show when it comes on or not, doesn't matter to me. I know I was filmed doing several things and almost fell over the camera guy once because I didn't realize he was so close. I was just happy to help and can't wait for the show to air, I'll let you know as soon as I do so you can watch.


This past weekend, my friend Diane and I went to Scrapfest in Minnesota. Not just anywhere in Minnesota either--in The Mall of America! We had a great time despite me being sick as a dog. The lines were way too long for the make and takes but the products that we got were awesome. They didn't have a vendor faire so the only place to buy from was Archivers. I did get some stuff that I'd never seen before but honestly spent as much on food as I did scrap supplies. Didn't have the energy to really shop in the mall though. I had wanted to do some Christmas shopping. Of course, with the luggage costing so much to put on the plane it's probably better that I didn't.

The Crown Plaza hotel that we stayed at had a shuttle to the mall and airport so we didn't get a rental car. They had a huge Ikea store nearby that I would have loved to have visited and there was a Z-Coil store (shoes) down the strip that I wanted to go to but the hotel shuttle didn't go to either place and I just didn't have the energy to go anyway. If I go back again, I'll get a rental car if not drive. Randy and Jeremy and I drove up years ago and it was a nice trip, took the whole week and just enjoyed the stuff along the way. The drive is just 13 hours so not to bad, of course a direct flight is just 2 hours! The airline was just too stressful. We didn't get a direct flight and the changeovers were exhausting trying to get from one end of the airport to the other. The screenings took a while, had to take our shoes off, etc. and Diane and I both got busted for trying to take a dreaded water bottle through the screening point. Had to be pulled off to the side and have stuff rescanned along with getting a lecture about following the rules. The flights were good though and we were able to pay $2.49 for another water bottle right away.

We had to fly out early Thursday morning. I worked Wednesday night and stayed awake until 4 p.m. so I could sleep until 1 a.m. get up shower and get to Diane's house in time to leave for the airport. Everything was going great until 4:30 p.m. when I woke up vomiting. I hadn't felt great the whole week, sinus drainage, change of season allergies, etc. but hadn't been "sick" so it was quite a surprise. I got a fever of 101.7 and continued to vomit until around 10:30. The fever broke then and the vomiting stopped. I went to sleep and got up at 12:30 feeling AWFUL! Randy didn't want me going but I'd already paid for the flight and sure couldn't let Diane go alone so off I went with puke bucket in tow, which thankfully I didn't need.

The coughing got worse and my nose was running so I took over the counter cold meds. Started to feel better around mid-day Thursday but couldn't knock the cough/nose. Friday night my nose was getting sore, raw from blowing it so often, didn't have any vaseline so I used a little lotion from the hotel and realized that it was swelling. I made a make-do ice pack and that's when the fun really began. I swear, I woke up Saturday morning with a nose almost as big as my head. I looked like Carl Malden! It was red with really nasty black scabby looking stuff all over the front. It never bled, couldn't figure out how it scabbed. I thought I might have had a reaction to the lotion but it didn't bother my hands so then I thought maybe I'd created a chemical burn with the ice too. (Doesn't pay to be a nurse when it comes to diagnosing yourself.) The nose kept getting worse. I seriously considered not going back to Scrapfest on Saturday--but I did. Have to say, people were really nice, no one laughed at me (that I could see).

We flew back home on Sunday and I went to the doctor on Monday. She decided the nose was a staph infection and it probably occured when I used the toilet paper from a bathroom to blow my nose. Said that bacteria in the bathroom will land on the paper, since my nose had dry areas from irritation it sucked it right in. Of course, as a nurse, I'm sure I have the staph infection colonized somewhere just from being around it so much. Have to say, I'm going to be more careful with toilet paper from now on and shutter to think where else that nasty stuff could have spread! I now have oral and ointment antibiotics to take but am not contagious, no drainage from the scabs (which are healing) so I was able to work.

I really shouldn't have though. The decongestants dried me up, caused a urinary tract infection and I just have felt tired and weak all week. Should have stayed home but since I was able to go the MOA I didn't think the boss would be so understanding about me not coming in to work. I will say that I didn't have the weakness there, UTI didn't hit until Monday afternoon. The antibiotics are working though and my nose will eventually heal. I'm totally exhausted, my voice is gone and if I talk more than a few sentences I start coughing again. Aren't you glad you don't live here?

Whew, are you still with me? Well thanks for reading all my ramblings and sorry if I bored you. I'll be bringing the make and takes to the next scrapbook night at church to show so if you're local come on by on the first Friday night of the month surely I'll be well by then.

What a quick Summer

Seems like the Summer just started and here it already is over. The air was really crisp yesterday and I actually got chilly around 11 a.m. yesterday during Jackson's soccer game. I left the windows open last night instead of having the air running and it was so nice but evidently I need to monitor the screens a little better though because a swarm of mosquitoes spent the night feasting on me. Shame the little turtle in the photo is just a pond accent.

My rib finally healed after about four weeks. I missed almost two weeks of work and had to really watch it for another week when it came to pulling and tugging on the patients. Thankfully my coworkers helped me tremendously. I still catch myself favoring that side when I pull on something. Let me tell you I really hope you never get a rib fracture--it hurts!!!

Fourth of July came and went with a marvelous fireworks display by the county. Randy scheduled himself to work because he's a nice guy and so many of his employees wanted the night off. With him at work I had to do the fireworks by myself. Well that isn't really true, friends invited me to come over but I wanted to try out the camera Jeremy bought me for Christmas on the fireworks. I took tons of shots but was pleased with my results. Still haven't scrapped them though.

We redid the bathroom finally! It was long overdue. Of course redoing it made the hallway floor look bad which goes into the kitchen and we'll have to replace it. The utility room also needs an upgrade and we still haven't bought a new building to replace the one damaged by the storm. The outside doors also are falling apart and the whole outside trim needs painting. The list goes on and on!!!

We got to meet some of Kate's family when we went up to Lexington to help her move into a new apartment. We met Kate's Mom and brother and their dog. Really sweet people and it's not hard to see where Kate gets her personality and charm. Believe it or not, Kate's younger brother (in the photo and I mention that because others have thought that was J in the middle) is taller than Jeremy! I told them when they get married and have kids, they'll be amazons!!

Moving means Kate is no longer "the girl next door" to Jeremy. She moved about 1/2 mile or so away into a nice apartment complex that is dog friendly. Gracie (her dog) misses the big fenced in yard but is quite happy for Kate to take her on a road trip to visit Jeremy's yard.

I decided that Jackson might like to learn to play golf so Randy, Bob and I took him out this summer to teach him the basics. I think he did great. He used an old set of Randy's clubs which were way too long for him but he hit it solid and seemed to catch on really quick.

Jackson was so funny. He wouldn't do very well on one shot, get in the cart and say "I don't know why you thought I could play this game, I'm a terrible golfer." The next shot, he'd knock the fire out of the ball, get in the cart with a huge smile saying, "wow, I am a good golfer!"


Jeremy took Randy to Arizona to play golf this summer too. It was a combination Father's Day, Happy 50th Birthday present. They had a great time even though the temperatures were over 100 degrees, Randy said Kentucky's humidity makes it feel hotter here. They had a gorgeous room at the hotel overlooking a golf course that they didn't play at. They played on several championship golf courses and had a great time.

We also golfed as a family in the charity golf tournament that Jeremy's pharmacy class hosts every year in honor of his friend Phillip that was killed in a car accident right after their first year. Team Creager played pretty good this year, no temper tantrums by Jeremy either so that was a bonus. The weather was gorgeous so that made it even better. The guys raised a lot of money and that was the icing on the cake. Phillip's parents were there and couldn't have been more appreciative. The scholarship that they fund is set up at his old high school and it serves to keep his memory alive to folks that didn't know how special he was. I was going to post a photo but for some reason can't find any. I know they're saved somewhere but figure you've probably seen enough of us to last you for a while anyway!

I guess that pretty much sums up what I've been doing over the last couple of months. For those that like to read my ramblings, sorry again for not updating. With the daily updating on Facebook I didn't think there was much need for the blogging. It does give me a good diary so to speak to keep track of what is going on so I'll try and do better in the future. Thanks for reading it and for encouraging me!

Still Alive--I think

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I'm still alive--I think. I've just been so busy lately and really haven't taken the time to update. Since I've had some notes from a few people, that evidently like reading my ramblings, expressing concern that I haven't updated lately (which I think is just super sweet!) I figured I'd better post something. I'll do a good update tomorrow and fill you in on what I've been doing this summer. It's not anything earth shattering so don't cancel any activities to stay home and read it, LOL.

Summertime, birthdays and cracked ribs

Summer arrived in full force. We had temps in the 100's last week. Thankfully it has dropped back down into the 80's this week and the humidity has dropped even lower. There is a nice wind too so that makes it even better.

Didn't do much last week because of the heat. Randy and Jeremy went on a golf trip to Arizona and they had a blast. He got back home really late last night, exhausted but happy. He took some great photos of the courses, scenery and even a few jack rabbits, a meercat and some roadrunners. I'll have to upload them at a later time.

My excitement for the weekend came with Austin's 5th birthday party on Sunday. He had it at Bouncing B's and nothing would do except I had to get on the stuff with the kids. The photo above has me, Austin and Morgan about to "race" to the bottom. We let Austin win.

I went down the slide one time with another child and she landed on me instead of the base. Would have been fine except she caught my ribcage. Yep, a little crack and a lot of pain! Wasn't I so "lucky" to have Michelle snap a photo right before impact!

I went to the care center to get an X-ray after the party because the pain kept getting worse. I have it wrapped now and am on no lifting restrictions until it "doesn't pull" however long that is. It has been "fun" trying to sleep let me tell you. I finally found a small pillow that I could position just perfectly to support my right side and I went to sleep last night for longer than the 30 minutes at a time that happened Sunday night. The thought of having a week off of work when the temperature is better sounds good but when you can't do anything it takes the fun right out. I went outside this morning but have trouble just sitting and with the weeds taking over the garden I came back inside so I wouldn't have to see them and I wouldn't be tempted to pull on them. I really think I should be diagnosed with ADD because I just can't sit still, drives me batty and wears me out. Oh well, my rib will heal and the weeds will still be there. Daytime TV is the pits too!!!! How is it possible that every episode of Cold Case and Law and Order that has been on is one I've already seen?


Back to Austin's party. He had a blast. He really is the most appreciative child, totally tickled with everything he got. Squealed over every card and with every present would yell out, "oh it's just what I wanted." It was a Speed Racer theme per his choice. I guess since he's 5 now and the Mach 5 is Speed's car, it was very appropriate. I found a Speed Racer helmet that he wanted in Evansville a couple of weeks ago and Michelle has had trouble getting it off his head since then. It has sounds in it (like pit crew talking to him or the engine racing) and is probably driving the whole family crazy.

So funny that he likes it so well now. Our brother David was an original Speed Racer fanatic when we were kids. That 30 minute cartoon was just about the only quiet time we had every day because he was glued to the set.


Michelle got him a new bike for his birthday. He picked it out himself but didn't know she had purchased it when they went to the store a few days ago. He was so upset to find it gone. Evidently he got to thinking about who must have bought it because he told his babysitter last week that he was getting it. He's just too sharp.



Hard to believe that he's already 5 years old. He'll start kindergarten in the Fall and until Jeremy has kids he'll be the last "baby" in the family. Time sure is flying by.

Today is already the last day of June and it seems like it just started yesterday. July will bring more heat I'm sure. It'll also bring birthdays for Randy and Jeremy and who knows what more excitement.

Hopefully it will be an injury free month for all.

So from the new edition of Speed Racer, be safe and have a great day!

Hi All

Did a little bit of scrapping this week. Created this layout of the granddogs after seeing the design on a layout on 2P's. Finally did some cleaning around my scrap area. I need to do some more too let me tell you. I have way too much stuff for such a small area!



Also did this layout for my nephew Austin's Preschool Graduation. Doesn't he look so cute? He was quite excited about the whole thing.

Can't believe they do the whole cap and gown thing at every level now. Guess they like it and they are darling, but it sure doesn't leave any excitement for wearing it at high school graduation if you've already worn one three or four times. Oh well who am I to question.






Not a lot of anything else going on. The ballgames are finished for the season. Work was pretty rough this week. The nurse aide that we hired quit so we're short staffed again and we had some heavy load patients this week. Add to that driving in the torrential rain Thursday night and pulling a muscle or something in my neck after hydroplaning, I'm not sure I have a single body part that isn't in pain. Oh well, again, what you gonna do? I'm still in a lot better shape than a lot of others so shouldn't complain.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Long Time No Post

It's been a while since I've updated, sorry for the folks that actually enjoy reading my ramblings. I've just been really busy. Alright, I admit I also have gotten hooked on Farmtown on Facebook and have been playing it for the last couple of weeks. For those that are on it, you'll understand. For those that aren't, it's fun but SO addicting. You plant crops, hire "people" to harvest them and then plant some more and while building up points. Sounds silly but it's fun.

I've also been doing the real planting stuff. I've worked hard on my yard this year, after letting it go last year. The window boxes look really pretty. I was quite annoyed yesterday when the neighbors cat knocked one not just off the hook but his/her weight pulled the darn hook right out of the window sill. Thankfully it didn't hurt the plants too much. Hoping it scared the cat bad enough to keep it out in the future.

I've also been over at Aunt Joyce's working on her yard. She lost a huge oak tree to the ice storm which left the side of her yard looking pretty bare. We made a large flower bed using 85 of the concrete retaining wall blocks. Her neighbors and my sister helped too. When you're moving that many blocks and that much dirt you need a lot of hands. I added a small amount of impatients but most of the plants are perennials. Aunt Joyce and Uncle Charlie are both quite happy with it. Once it fills in, it should really be gorgeous.

Both of my nephews are still playing ball twice a week. Have to say they both keep getting better. Shame the season is almost over, they both might turn out to be great players if they had another month. Not sure what I'll do with my Friday nights in a few weeks.

I also had two nieces graduate last week. My niece Abby (brother's youngest) graduated 5th grade from Greenville Elementary. She's so smart, had great grades and we're quite proud of her. I expect great things to happen with this young lady. She has drive, personality and she's cute as a bug. Yes, I expect great things, doubt she'll disappoint me either. I love this photo of her and her big brother Andrew. She actually is already taller than he is (he's not happy about that either so maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it) but she is standing on the bleacher seat in this photo so she's really not that much taller. He's looking forward to her coming to the Middle School next year. He'll be in the 8th grade and as he says "running the place" with the other "top dogs" at the school. I think she'll give him a run for his money.
Megan, my brother's oldest daughter, (and the closest I've ever had of having my own daughter) graduated from Muhlenberg South High School. I'm also very proud of her. She's a beautiful girl (even though she doesn't think so) and her smile just warms my heart. I don't see it enough though. She kept her grades up and received several scholarships for college while working and paying most of her own way the last couple of years.Right now she's thinking the nursing program but she may change her mind after she gets her basics. Whatever she chooses I have faith that she'll succeed and she knows that I'll always be right behind her all the way.

Her graduation was not only sad for me because of her growing up so quickly but it was also the last class to come out of MSHS. They're consolidating the school system next year. I can't say I don't like change because change is quite often good. I think I'm remembering graduating in my small class, where we had the individual attention. I knew my teachers would not just call my Mom, they'd go to my house if I misbehaved! I just hate that there will be so many kids in the same building. I remember so well the problems that were created when they consolidated the seven original high schools into two, luckily most of those problems were worked out by the time my son went to MSHS but my younger sister had to deal with them.

While consolidating into two schools will bring many new opportunities that they wouldn't get in a smaller environment, it is also going to cause the students to miss out on so many others. Kids that could have been in the top 10 of their Senior Class will now have to compete with the kids from the other school that is consolidating. Sport's teams will lose kids that may not have the best talent but have the best heart for the game. Can't even imagine how long the graduation ceremony will be next year when my brother's stepdaughter Amber graduates.

Changing the curriculum would be hard enough without teachers being reassigned to classes they haven't taught in years and can only imagine that this will add to the difficulties the first couple of years will bring to the students. The school board has also brought in educators from other areas, taking jobs from local teachers and counselors which has caused so many hard feelings. I actually feel sorry for the people that are coming in, they are probably going to have a rough time too and it's not their fault at all. But, I don't have kids in the school system. My opinion doesn't count. They've done it, I pray it works out and the kids in our area thrive. Our county desperately needs our youth to succeed. They are our future.

Monday morning ramblings

May is over half gone already, wow! Hard to believe but I guess the calendar doesn't lie. The weather here in Kentucky continues to jump all over the place. It was in the low 60's yesterday and dropped down to 40 last night. Today the sun is shining again and it's back into the 70's. At least we haven't had rain in the last 48 hours.

The flowers in front of the house still looked pretty this morning though and the roses survived the dip in temperature. The ones in the photo are a yellowy peachy color (there is probably a real color name but I don't know what it is). They have a delightful scent, not overpowering, actually have to get really close to smell them at all, but still great. I went to Lowe's the other day and they had a small section that I could smell the second I got inside. They were gorgeous red roses but at $50 a piece I think I'll settle for the ones I already have. I really need to get a photo of the red roses, too lazy to do it right now. I dug up a bush from my Mother's home years ago (she was still alive) and it spreads out. I've broken off I can't even remember how many branches to start new ones for family/friends and it's still huge. They don't have any scent though. To be honest, I really think it was a wild rose bush that grew up with one that we planted for Mom. If the weather settles down I need to go tie it to the trellis better.


We did get great weather Tuesday and Friday nights for the boy's baseball games and I was able to go see them play. Jackson's team won both games. He's really been playing this year. Up until now he pretty much just went and we would see him goofing off more than actually trying to play baseball. He's fielding great, even threw the ball from left field to home plate for a play--the other player dropped the ball and the runner was safe but it was close.


Austin is having a blast with T-ball. He gets almost giddy with excitement when you even mention playing. The entire team is between 4-5 years old and they are just too cute. Their first game was hysterical, wish you could have been there (some reading were). Everyone on the team (except Austin) ran for every ball. After the game I asked him why he didn't run and he said it was because the coach told him to stand right there (he was shortstop). He runs now, all the way to first base if necessary. Well I guess you could call it running, not so sure I couldn't skip faster than he runs but the last practice he did better. All I can say is that he is having a blast learning how to play and they don't count runs or outs anyway so it doesn't matter.



Jeremy didn't get to come home for Mother's Day because he had to work but he did come in Tuesday. He and Wrigley actually came in Monday night and stayed until Tuesday night. I had to work Monday but my boss let me take a vacation day for Tuesday night so I was able to spend the day with him. He bought me a gorgeous diamond necklace and a sweet card. We went to Aunt Joyce/Uncle Charlie's home for lunch and let Wrigley run free in their fenced-in yard which made him good and sleepy for the drive home later that night. I took some photos then too but haven't uploaded them yet and am too lazy to go get the camera to do it now. Wrigley's still growing. Not sure why they thought that he was half Beagle and half Bassett Hound because there is no way he has any Bassett in him, maybe Lab. He's almost as big as Gracie (Kate's Lab).

Not a lot of anything else going on. I'm addicted to Farm Town on Facebook and I've spent way too much time on there lately. Am trying to scrap in between harvesting, LOL. Guess I've bored you enough for one day. Hope the rest of the day is great for you!

Celebrity Victim of Swine Flu

Well we knew it would happen sooner or later. We now have the first broadcasted fatality of the Swine Flu...




Reports have him stating as he was going down, "Ms Piggy told me she was clean!"

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. A day set aside eons ago to show appreciation for all the love and care that Moms provide. Something that really should be shown daily but as with other aspects of life we kid ourselves into believing that the person will always be there and that we can do it later. We, as a people, tend to focus on the negative instead of the positive and we often ignore the people that mean the most to us until it's too late.

The commercialism abounds. You can't turn on the television or pick up a magazine or newspaper without seeing the ads on the "perfect" gift. I was on 2P's earlier this morning and saw a thread where a few women were already complaining about the gift that they received. They basically were stating that the gift didn't come with any thought at all, just snatched off the shelf at the last minute because they "had to" get something. Honestly people if you learn nothing else today realize that it's the thought that Moms want!

Today is hard for the people that have lost either their own Mother or a child. Those women will quickly say that they would trade all the presents in the world for just a little more time with their lost loved one. I know, only too well. I've lost both my parents already and wasted an awfully lot of time while they were alive on the petty stuff that I didn't realize at the time wouldn't really matter at all. I'd sure love to have even an afternoon with either one now. So much that should have been said but wasn't. I know they both knew they were loved but am sure not positive they knew how much I appreciated them.

I realize that not everyone can spend the day with their Mothers today. People have to work. My own Son is working today too and I'm sure all the people that need their prescriptions filled are more than happy that he is there so I'll sacrifice the day for them. He's called already this morning, actually woke me up to make sure he caught me but that is okay, I'm happy to hear his voice whatever time it is. He'll come home soon and we'll celebrate then. That is fine with me, it's not about a "day" anyway and we both know that. Randy surprised me with fresh flowers, a beautiful thoughtful card and a computer program to make my digital scrapbooking easier. (Okay he may have bought that so he didn't have to listen to me complain about hating PSE 6.0 anymore but it was thoughtful never-the-less.) My nephew Austin made me the flower pot that is in the photo above. Since my Mom is gone and he doesn't have a Grandmother on our side of the family, I get the honor of being his "other Mother" and I sure know how special that is.

I am very blessed to have an Aunt and Uncle that I've always called my "Other Parents" and I'll be spending the afternoon at their home. I've purchased my Aunt a few little things and have made her a couple of others. Little things from the heart carefully thought out to try and find the "perfect" items. Yet I know that I could have not bought a thing and just spent the time instead. They want me, not things. Yes, I'm blessed.

I hope that you have the opportunity to spend time with your loved ones, if not today then very soon. To tell them how much they mean to you. To spend some time, even just sitting on the couch and watching TV, just sharing that time. You'll realize one day, hopefully far far in the future, that the time you had wasn't long enough.

Fun Filled Weekend

This past Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day which we turned into a whole weekend. I had a blast scrapping away and chatting and online cropping with my imaginary friends (that's the term I use for my 2P's Calendar Girls group). My poor den looks like a tornado went through it and I really should be cleaning instead of typing but here I am anyway. Thought I'd share a couple of the layouts that I made this weekend. (Alright, you know I'm just doing this to stall the cleaning!) The layout above uses a photo that I took of me on Saturday. I was organizing my scrap supplies, hadn't had a shower and really shouldn't be taking photos but it was a challenge on the board so I caved. I was able to use some paper that I'd had in my stash for eons so it worked out pretty good despite the funny face in the photo. The tag has hidden journaling about the joy I've found with scrapbooking.

This layout features two of the many great kids in my extended family. Abby and Andrew are two of my brother and his wife's kids. Aren't they just too cute!




I snapped the photos of them while I was over taking photos of their sister Amber for her prom. Haven't done her prom layout yet but love this photo of her and her "grandfather".






My brother's other daughter Megan can't be left out so I'll show you the layout I did of her and my Mother yesterday. One of the challenges on 2P's was to do a layout on Mom/Grandmother. I don't have a lot of photos of my Mother and while I was searching I found these of Megan's first birthday.

BTW, the Cookie Monster cake was made by yours truly. I made one for Jeremy's first birthday too and Nana (my Mom) thought that it would make a cute cake for the new little cookie monster in the family. Sure doesn't seem like it has been 17 years since those photos were taken.




Friday night we had our scrapbooking crop at the church. Since it was the start of NSD weekend I hosted a challenge of my own. I provided everyone the same supplies (slightly differences in colors only) and challenged them to use them to make a project. They didn't have to use all of the supplies but they had to use everything at least in one spot in their project. They had a piece of white 12x12 cardstock, a piece of pastel 12x12 patterned paper, a piece of 8x8 solid cardstock, two white flowers, a piece of white ribbon, one yellow button and one yellow brad. They could also use any of the extra supplies that they had. As you can see from the photo below, their creativity was varied but all awesome.


I hadn't told them what I was going to do ahead of time so several didn't have photos that would match the color schemes so they're going to add them later. Cindy made a card instead of a layout and has enough supplies left over to make several matching if she chooses. Mine is up at the top left and has my cute little nephew Austin in it.

Yes, it was a rainy weekend but thanks to my scrapping it was still fun filled!

Okay I'll start cleaning now.