Dreary Wonderful Day

The temperature is way too warm for December 16th, and the skies are gray and dreary, however, this is that day God set aside for us to come together as Christians and worship as a church. Therefore it is a wonderful day. I haven't been able to be in services for a while, so getting to go this morning was absolutely wonderful. I was even able to stay for class. I have really missed being in worship services. Our lesson this morning was about passion. I realize I am not terribly passionate about anything in particular. Hopefully, I'll find my passion again. We should be most passionate about our love for the one who died for us as He was passionate about us. Have a great day and love each other.

It's Been Forever

It's been forever since I've posted. Probably should get back on track to posting on a regular basis. My last post was June, 2011, so it has been 18 months. My grandchildren are growing. They are all in school now. One is a 3rd grader, 2 are second graders and one is in kindergarden. I also have one in high school and is a tenth grader. I am still working for the local University, and will probably never get to retire. Not unless I win the lottery. My family are all healthy, and happy and looking forward to Christmas. I hope if anyone reads this post they are having a great day, and are all being good to each other.

Copper Pennies!

Have you ever eaten Copper Pennies? They are sooooo good. Actually they aren't really copper nor are they pennies, discuss amongst yourselves.

Here is the recipe:

COPPER PENNY SALAD

2 lb. carrots, cleaned and sliced -- or baby carrots
1 lg. green pepper, diced
1 lg. onion, sliced
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can tomato soup
1/2 c. oil
3/4 c. vinegar
1 c. sugar or ½ cup splenda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
Boil sliced carrots for 10 minutes; drain. Put in bowl with green pepper, onion, and celery. Mix soup, oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Pour over vegetables. Marinate overnight.

This recipe came from www.cooks.com

Wish I had a picture, but it didn't last long enough.

Hope you are having a great day. Love one another.

A Wise Old Man---

This was posted on someone's facebook page. Can't remember who, would love to attribute it to my bff, but I just can't remember if she posted it or not. I think this is going to be my mantra from now on.

A wise old man once said, "There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living."

I hope you are having a great day. Love one another.

The Garden is Growing!

The tomatoes are loaded. They just need to get ripe. There are 15 tomatoes of the good eating and canning varities. There are 3 Roma tomatoes. They are shaped like little pears. Someone told my sister-in-law they were especially good for salsa. The radishes to the left are huge and have gone to seed. To the left of them is the row of cucumbers. Pickles--YUM! You can(if you look close)see the three hills of pumpkins coming up. This is the second time he planted them.
The poor corn took quite a beating when the wind blew really hard yesterday. We had wind in excess of 50MPH.
Again the corn, but you can also see one of the sprinklers my brother built from pvc pipe and a sprinkler head. Fun to play in.
We've already had a 'mess' of green beans. Quite tasty.
The okra is growing. After all the rain, some had to be replanted. It will be so good when it starts bearing.
This is a conglomerate of things. There's squash(squishy squash as The Banty Hen says), bell, and hot peppers, sad cilantro(again due to the water)and a row of dill. My brother put 100 lbs of chicken litter on the garden a few days ago. I'm hoping it wasn't too much
This is the Banty Hen ready to go to school this morning. We planted some flower seeds last Tuesday. When we got up the next morning, she wanted to go out and see the pretty flowers. They are up now, and she can't wait to see them bloom. I also planted more cilantro, so maybe we'll be able to make salsa yet.

I hope you are having a wonderful day. Please be kind to everyone.

List is Growing Shorter!

I started these dresses last year. As I got them near completion, I realized they were too big for the girls. So I put them away to finish for this year. I finally finished them, and the girls wore them for the first time yesterday.

The other thing I finished was the squares made of orange and lime green satin. There were 6 15" squares of each color, and there were 12 12" squares made from the rest of both. That ended up being 36 squares. I cut them and serged them. They were delivered this morning. These will be used in a wedding reception. The wedding and reception are both tropical themed, and these squares will be used on the tables with either a fish bowl or an arrangement of some type on them. I wish the bride and groom a wonderful life.

I need to make one tablecloth for a friend who has a bbq wagon. Next is a dress for my youngest granddaughter that I smocked quite some time ago, and have the smocking finished, but need to sew it up.

Tomorrow, I plan to have some pictures of the garden. I can't call it mine, because my brother has done all the work, however, it is in my yard and I flip the switch to turn on the pump to water. I have the hard work to do, right???

I hope everyone is having a great Monday. Love one another.

My Little Pony, My Little Pony

We had a problem finding anyone to make The Banty Hen's birthday cake. She wanted a My Little Pony cake so I decided I would make it. I used a page from one of her coloring books to get a pattern, and make the cake.

She was very excited, and seemed very happy with it. I'm keeping her this week while her mother is in training. I figured since my son is working and has Superhero with him, they would be better off if I kept her at night. She continues to attend Discovery Island, which is 5 minutes from my work. I drop her off and pick her up in the afternoon.

Yesterday, we planted flowers in the garden. She said she would see how they looked this afternoon. I explained to her it would be several days before they came up, and I don't know if she will be able to wait. We planted hot pink zinnas that get about 36 inches tall, and mexican sunflowers which get 5 to 6 feet tall. I hope they come up and she can enjoy them.

She has a lot of energy, but has been a very good girl. We painted her fingers and toes last night, took a picture of them with my phone and sent it to her mothr.

I hope you are having a great week. Love one another.

Completed Projects?????

I promised that while I was off last week, I was going to finish some projects and post pictures.

Well, that didn't happen. I got almost zilch done. I mostly just chilled out. Not very productive, right? I hope to do better, just don't know when.

Hope you had a great holiday weekend. Love one another.

More Lovely Weather

What's up with this weather? Today, we here in Arkansas, specifically NE Arkansas, are under a Severe Weather Alert. We are expecting super cells with tornados embedded in them. We are all watching the sky and the radar to see what happens. Hopefully nothing, however we are all prepared. Some area schools have already let out and are taking the children home. Word is that the storms will develop from 3:00p.m. on, and the schools don't want to have busloads of students on the roads during this time.

My oldest daughter picked up her son and they have headed to Mississippi where there is no severe alerts. My younger daughter and her family are heading to her in-laws where they have a storm cellar.

I'm not sure what my son and his family will do. They have a safe area in their house(that's not to say a bonifide safe room), but it should keep them as safe as anything could, except being underground.

Then there's me. I don't like storm cellars, and often tell the kids that I need to stay on top to tell the emergency people where to dig them out. I think my fear of being trapped and no one finding me is worse than taking chances with the storm. I'd much rather be at home, but after seeing the homes in Joplin, Mo, I'm not too sure home would be very safe. We have a computer room here that has 1 foot thick walls reinforced with re-bar, and the roof is the same. The only thing is they cut corners by putting in glass doors rather than the heavy ones they should have. Still, that's probably a safer place than my house. I just don't want to stay here until 10p.m. That's when the storm threat should be over.

Hopefully the storms won't develop and I can go home and watch the ballgame.

I hope you are having a great day. Love each other.

To Do List!

I'm going to be off for a couple of days the end of the week, and I have a To-Do list. I'm thinking if I put what I need to get done in a list, I will be more likely to make it a To Done list. I'm going to start with the oldest things first, since these things have obviously been sitting there the longest.

1. I made two sundresses last year for the oldest two granddaughters. Unfortunately, they were too big, so rather than redo them, I put them back to finish this spring. Here's what they need.
A. Buttons and buttonholes for the straps.
B. A bit of embroidery work on the collars.
C. Button and holes where the collars attach.
D. A tuck near the bottom to make them just a touch shorter.
All this could be done in a couple of hours.

2. I smocked a front for a dress for The Banty Hen earlier in the spring. It got laid aside while I did Easter dresses. Here's what it needs.
A. Trace off the pattern and cut it out.
B. Sew up the dress.
Now this will take a bit longer, but should be accomplished easily in a day. It's a simple dress smocked from the shoulder not rocket science.

3. My dil's mother and step-father have one of those mobile BBQ wagons, and they asked me to make a couple of tablecloths with elastic around them for their picnic table, which I did, but with the rest of the material, they wanted one that would go over their square chest deep freezer. That requires.
A. Cutting the fabric using the measurements given.
B. Running it through the serger.
C. Attaching the elastic.
I'm allowing 2 hours from start to finish on this one.

4. A friend whose daughter is getting married asked me to serge around the edges of a couple of pieces of fabric--note the word couple. When she brought it to me, she wants 2- 15" squares out of two pieces of satin - one green, the other peach. Then she would like as many 12" inch squares as I can get out of the rest. That's 4 15" squares, and I don't know how many 12" squares. So, here's what has to be done to those.
A. Measure both pieces.
B. Mark and cut 4 15" pieces, being careful not to waste any.
C. Serge all of the pieces.
This I'm allowing at least 4 hours.

I believe my two days off are full. This weekend is also our family reunion. I've been asked to make potato salad, and I'm possibly going to attempt to make a watermelon cake. That's Saturday used up.

At some point I have to go get the hamburger meat, hotdogs and a few other things. The reunion is Sunday afternoon.

I'm hoping there are enough left overs that I won't have to cook on Monday, and with a little luck, I won't see anyone all day.

I'll have pictures next week of what I finish on my To Do list, and if the cake turns out, I'll have a picture of it. I'm trying to polish up my limited decorating skills since the next weekend I'm making a My Little Pony cake for The Banty Hen. That girl lives and breathes My Little Pony.

I guess this sounds like I'm complaining--I'm not really. I love making things for my grandchildren, and doing for others. Besides, I get paid for the tablecloths in BBQ, and boy is it good.

I'll keep you posted on how things progress.

I hope you are having a great day. Love each other.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

We here in the mid south(namely Arkansas) continue to have rain. Along with that rain comes thunder, lightening, sometimes hail and tornados. It stormed about every hour last night, nothing major, just enough to wake me from my needed rest.

I'm not complaining mind you, I still have a roof over my head, unlike those unfortunate folks in Joplin, Mo, and other places. My heart hurts for them, especially those who lost loved ones.

As I looked at the pictures on the internet of the destruction, the 1968 tornado came to my mind. It was also a troublesome year for bad weather, and a good piece of Jonesboro was stripped from it's earthly bearings. 35 lives were lost, many severly injured. I very well remember all the chaos during that time. It's been 43 years since that tornado had it's way with Jonesboro, and if you drive through those areas now, you see very little to remind you of what happened that night in mid May, but it is still very vivid in the minds of those who lived through it.

Please remember all those who have been affected by these storms.

Hope you have a good day. Love each other.

Diva Horse

What is that song from Mr. Ed, something about a horse is a horse of course of course, and something about unless it's Mr. Ed. Well, there is another type of horse for a school program. It's a Diva Horse. Princess #1 has turned into a diva of sorts, and last night she was a horse. When I commented about not having ever seen a horse with pink finger and toe hooves, she informed me hers were pink because she was a diva horse. It's kinda hard to tell, but in the first pic here, you can see her ears and mane made of knitting yarn. The second pic is a side view and shows her tail.


We are so pleased with the school that 3 of my grandchildren attend. The kids are happy going there and they are always involved in something. A couple of months ago, Princess #2, and her cousin Superhero were in a program where everyone was bugs. They allow the parents to come up with a costume(nothing elaborate) and it's such fun to see what some of them look like. P#2 was a ladybug, and Superhero was a lightening bug(firefly if you aren't from the South).

P#1 was in last nights program, and it was called, 'The Cheese Stands Along', based on the song, 'The Farmer in the Dell'. There was the farmer, his wife, the nurse, the child, the dog, the cat, the rat and of course the longsuffering Cheese.

Some of the children were dressed as cheese from all over the world. The cutest one was string cheese. The rest of the kids were divided up into farm hands(cowboy hats, plaid shirts, etc) and various farm animals. They all sang, some had lines, and everyone did a great joy. The director introduced the different groups and they were given the opportunity to take a bow. Having this opportunity to be in the spotlight and being praised for a job well done is such a wonderful way to build self-esteem in these young children. I was not only proud of my granddaughter, but of everyone's grandchildren on the stage.

Hope the sun is smiling on your face today. Love one another.

The Flood of Ought 11

This year's flood through the Mississippi River Delta will go down in history along with the 27 and 37 overflows. The levee system is much better now than it was then. In fact, I doubt there were any levees back then. When the river overflowed, it just meandered wherever it found a low spot.


I live in a small town on the banks of the Kahlua colored St. Francis River(pictured here). It's always this muddy, thus the name Kahlua colored. This picture shows how close to the top of the levee the water came. Just below the bridge in this picture, the levee had to have some reinforcement to keep it from overflowing. I have heard that if that had indeed happened, plans were in place to evacuate us.

The St. Francis River has it's head waters in Missouri. We feed out of Lake Wappella. However, we do feed into the Mississippi, just quite a good ways on down the river.

I live about 3 blocks from the river. This picture shows my yard, even though that isn't my house. The water came up to my house, but didn't get in. I have a crawl space, so it would have taken quite a bit of water to actually get in. Thankfully, I didn't have to find out just how much it would require.

We fared so much better than so many during this trying time. I was never without basic necessities, I don't have to file insurance reports on any damage(other than we considered asking for government assistance for the garden). It looked pretty sad for a while, and we lost a few things, but not so much that we'll go hungry this winter.

I was able to get to work each day with only minimal worry about what I might find when I got home. Fortunately, one of my neighbor/friends called and gave me updates from time to time so I wouldn't worry. All in all I really wasn't inconvenienced in any way by the flood.

Unfortunately, there are so many who have been inundated and still have water/mud in their homes and have lost so much. Many have already started rebuilding already, especially along the Black River. I doubt I'll ever see this type of flood again in my lifetime. This is a part of history. Someday our children and grandchildren will watch footage and see pictures on some weather documentary, just as we see pictures of the floods back in 27 and 37. I'm sure they will look just a foreign to our offspring as those pictures do to us. Hopefully, we won't have to deal with it again.

Hope you are having a good day. Love each other.

T-Ball and A Birthday Party

Hello everyone. It's been quite a while since I posted. Don't know why. Just one of those things.

However, I want to tell you about my youngest granddaughter's T-Ball game. I went last night to watch her 'play'. She was fine when it was her turn to hit the ball and run the bases. However, her attention span gets very short when it's time to stand out in the infield waiting on a ball to be hit in your direction.

Most of the time, she wandered around. There was an older gentleman(I'm assuming he was there to help), out on the field near 1st base. She would go over and stand up against him like he was her best friend and talk to him. Her mother said they had never seen him before. She doesn't usually take up with strangers. But then one time while she was on 3rd base, she was showing the coach her belly.

They are all cute. She's almost 4, and I really think some were younger. It was fun watching all of them with caps a little bit too big, trying to keep their gloves on their little hands, and running. They were so adorable.


My next to the oldest grandson turned 14 on the 16th of this month. My how times flies whether you are having fun or not. We bowled, ate pizza and had cake and ice cream. He got Chicago Cubs baseball tickets for his birthday. He told his other granny, it was the best birthday ever.

I hope this post finds everyone having a good day. Be nice to someone.

Where Have I Been and What Have I Been Doing?

Since my trip in September, I have been unable to find the docking station for my camera. I keep thinking the battery is going to die soon, but in the meantime, I have been able to make a few pictures of what I've been up to. This two piece suit has kept me busy for a few days. There are two of them, one for each of the princesses. One a size 6, the other a size 7. I have come to learn to hate making multiples of anything. The first one was no problem, but I had to beat myself over the head to get the second one finished. I purposely left the first one unhemmed so it wouldn't be finished until the other one was as well. It's sad when you have to play mind games with yourself to get things done. I have to tell you a little history about this fabric. The mother of the two princesses was a bride's maid in a wedding 13 years ago. For each function she attended, I made her a new outfit. This is some of the fabric I used to make a suit for her. I have no idea why I would have bought so much, but when I figured it up, I had to have used about 2 yards for her suit, 1 yard each for the girls, making 4 yards, and I have two left. That means I bought about 6 yards of this fabric. I must have gotten a real deal. I have plenty left to make the banty hen a jumper and even a vest for superhero(if his dad will let him wear it.) The jacket is a chanel style that is short. The skirts are pleated like a kilt. I think the girls will wear black turtle necks and leggins.


The other thing I've been doing is working on a rocker. It's one I found out in my storage building. Most of the varnish has long since gone, and the boards in the seat had separated as you can see by the pictures. I got out my mouse sander and worked on it for about two hours one Saturday morning. Since I work full time, that's about the only time I have to work on anything.




I think it's a cute rocker and will look really cute once I get it painted and some cushions made for it. My plan is to stencil something on the back and down the center. Make a cushion for the seat and a roll pillow for the back. But first things first.

I used wood glue to fill in the crack and some wood filler on a few other places that needed some attention. I put clamps on the chair to hold it in place until the glue had time to set. The instructions said overnight. That took up the rest of that weekend. So, finally the next Saturday, I was able to put two coats of primer on it. I'm painting it white by the way, so of course the primer is also white. I don't have any pictures of the chair after priming, but if the weather cooperates, I should have a couple of coats of paint on it this coming weekend. I've got more sanding and smoothing to do as well, but I think it's going to be a really cute chair for a little girl's room.






Sorry to have been away so long. Love one another.

Bloglines.com Going Away!!

If you use Bloglines.com to get to your blogs, you have seen this message:

As you may have heard, we are sorry to share that Bloglines will officially shut down on October 1, 2010.
More detail can be found on the Ask.com blog - http://blog.ask.com.
We want to make it as easy as possible to transport your feeds to another RSS aggregator, so below are some simple instructions:


I'm not talented at using these types of tools, so when I found Bloglines, I thought I had died and gone to blogland heaven(not really, but it's so convenient). I had added the blogs I read each day, and the nice thing about it is that as new posts are done, the blog name shows up in BOLD. That way you only click on the blogs with new information. And as we all know saving key strokes allows for more time to actually read our favorite blogs. Also, I can login to Bloglines.com no matter where I am, and presto, right there before me are all the blogs I need to see.

Therefore,I have a cry for help. If you know a great RSS aggregator, please tell me about it. I just don't think I can make it without this type of service.

I hope you are having a great day. Pray for our nice weather to continue. Love one another.

#@% BUGS

We were without electricity last night after the power station was hit by lightening. It went out about 8:15 last night, and didn't come back on until 7:40 this morning. Needless to say, I had to open the windows and try to get a cool breeze, which I was able to do.

However, the bugs singing outside my window were terribly annoying. They sang alllllll night long. Then there was the generators that keep the sewer pumping stations going down the street, and the one that keep the water pumping up the street.

Needless to say, I kinda like having to be closed up in my house with the a/c running so I can sleep--peacefully.

But I did think about what it would be like to be blind and have to get around all the time in the dark. How fortunate I am to have my sight.

I hope you have power today. Pray for those in the California gas explosion. Love one another.

My Daughter's Birthday!!

Today is my youngest child's birthday, and even though I remembered the day, I got the age wrong. I commented on her facebook page that she is 31 today when actually she is 32. I just can't catch a break. This first picture is of her at about 6 or 7(I'm sure I'll be corrected, if that's not right).
This picture is of her in senior high.
Thirty two years ago, I was one miserable camper. It was a Saturday, my then husband was golfing, and before he left that morning, he said don't go to the hospital til I get home about 6pm. He got home about 6pm and almost to the minute, my water broke. My beautiful little girl was born about 9pm that night. I didn't believe in prolonged labor.
This last picture is her senior picture. Happy Birthday Daughter#2.

These pictures are courtesy of Princess#1. Saturday she and the rest of the grandchildren were at the house. She asked if she could take some pictures. I said sure as long as none are of me. She took 47, many of which were pictures hanging on the wall(hopefully the spiderwebs don't show up). These are 3 of the ones she took.

I hope you are having a great day. Pray for those in the wildfires out west and those in the flood around Dallas. Love one another.

I Brought No Luck To The Cardinals!!

When we arrived at the ballpark on Saturday, they were doing a photo session with fans. We didn't get there in time for me to get on the field(the number was limited, but we got close enough to get some long(and I mean long)shots of my favorite player, Yadier Molina.
We took a few pictures, went to the Team Store and bought me a shirt, and made our way to our seats.
The rest of these pictures are taken of the stadium from our seats. We were in section 342 which lines up with first base. From where we were sitting, we had a straight line from first to second base.
We had a good view of everything. I missed seeing one play at first, but that was the fellow's head in front of me. I got to see Molina throw Brandon Phillips out at second base. I got to see Dennys Reyes pitch to a couple of batters. He's my favorite relief pitcher. Brenden Ryan played shortstop. He's one of my favorites too. I do miss Ryan Ludwick, but I guess that's all part of the game.
We had been listening on tv to the booing that was being done when Brandon Phillips came out to bat, and it was definitely loud, but it was nothing to how it sounded in person. They booed him every time he came out, and cheered when he missed a ball or was called out on strikes. When Molina threw him out at second, the crowd was on their feet cheering.

It was a fun day. I got to spend time with my brother and SIL, we got to see a good ballgame(even though we didn't win).

I hope you had a great Labor Day. Pray for those in need. Love one another.

Plans for Saturday!!

This weekend is a three game series with Cincinati. So, about a month ago, I asked my brother and sister-in-law about attending a Cardinals game on Sep 4th. My SIL is a Red's fan, and I am a Cards fan. My poor brother isn't a fan of either, and doesn't follow baseball too closely. He's going along to do the driving, and the refereeing(is that a word?). My brother's wife has been my SIL for over 40 years and we've never had a cross word. That statement may not be true after Saturday. If you watch the Cards or the Reds, keep an eye out for a couple of women fighting up above home plate. My poor brother will be in the middle.

My daughter commented, 'What has Uncle Larry gotten himself into?' I told her he didn't get himself into anything, he was dragged in. Katherin and I made plans and told him what we were doing and don't think he was given a choice.

We'll leave about 9am and the game starts at 3:15pm. We'll stop somewhere along the way and have lunch, the game should be over about 6ish, unless they go into extra innings, and we should drag our tired selves in about midnight. But it will be a good day. We have fun when we are together. And truly, I'm not terribly concerned about any fights, unless our seats are surrounded by lots of Card fans, and her Red's shirt causes trouble. In that case, brother and I will be called on to protect her.

The weather should be nice, and it will be a wonderful day. Then on Monday, I'm going to make something for lunch and the kids will be around to eat, and maybe the bro and sil will be there too. Aren't three day weekends wonderful?

I hope you are having a good day and have planned a good weekend for yourself and your family. Pray for safe travel on the roads this weekend. Love one another.