dinner with friends.

good food, good friends. my annual holiday dinner party.
wine
crab rolls
stuffed chicken breasts
sauted green beans
wild rice
popovers
chocolate lava cakes with fresh cream
coffee with grand marnier

published

To reactivate my brain after a day of giggles, fun, and lots of play with my two little ones, I challenge myself to the New York Times crossword puzzle. I don’t always finish it, but I feel as if I’ve gotten my self back.

published in Real Simple, October 2007 "your words". Yikes!
www.realsimple.com/realsimple/content/0,21770,1663787-2,00.html

Mother's Day...or a break from the craziness.

Hmm. I wonder what finally drove the instigation of Mother's Day? I'm sure if I spent a few minutes googling it I could find out the journalistic answer. But truly, honestly what was it that drove that Mother to declare that "today was her day"?? Was it the running into the street, the tossing of food on the floor, the coloring on walls, the picking of every flower in the garden, the raspberries, the running naked through the house and outside, the screeching, the sticky hugs, the "mommy, mommy, mommy" chanting, the slobery kisses? Which one finally pushed to her to decide? I thank her today. For while motherhood is a tricky tough and crazy winding road, it is blessed with those sticky hugs and wet kisses and the knowledge that maybe you can make a difference in the world. One little handprint at a time.

Just blank

What can you say? What has happened to us? Just a big blank day after the events of yesterday. The horror. The shear horror.

The Easter Bunny

Made an appearance this weekend. Now we are loaded down with chocolate eggs, marshmallow bunnies, jelly beans and reece's bunnys. Perfect treates for pre-swimsuit season. Here are some pics of the haul.

Waiting for the Rain

to roll in. Been expecting it all day, but just cloudy skies. So bad forecasts are what weather people are paid for.

Crazy craziness in the world this week. Domestic battery (really attempted murder - but the police don't want to call it that) against my best friend's 88 year old mother-in-law (by her son). What happened to this nice girl from the midwest who married into a nice family? Boy, sometimes life is just looney or the people in it are. We're not really bred to deal with this type of stuff.

Just another random Wednesday

Funny how life turns out.

An early Spring day. Windy, cloudy with a touch of humidity. The flowers are popping up, the trees have that hazy shadow of new buds and the birds are coming back in abundance. Our first yellow Finch happily ate at our feeder yesterday morning.

Sometimes life just happens. The cold gray is swept away and Mother Nature peeks back out brightening our lives.

the search for seashells

The endless search for seashells on Sanibel Island. One of Mother Nature's greatest resources for shell seekers. Many coveted varieties.

No greater satisfaction today than having the tide roll out and finding a beautiful shell just laying on the beach...

a big storm moving in

An intriguing late February storm front. This moved on to wreak havoc in the South spinning off numerous tornados. Hail, heavy rain and lighting and all night non-stop news coverage......no good tv viewing tonight.

things i couldn't live without

20 random things in my life that i couldn't live without...

1. coffee in the morning.
2. hugs from the littles.
3. my camera.
4. post-it notes.
5. mr. clean sponge erasers.
6. lipfusion.
7. eliza b flip flops.
8. color - pink and green and chocolate brown.
9. crossword puzzles.
10. icecream.
11. icy hot patches.
12. target.
13. springtime.
14. oreo cookies.
15. my computer.
16. aquage beyond shine spray.
17. converse slip-ons.
18. land of lakes fat free 1/2 and 1/2.
19. bellinis.
20. raspberries.

just when we needed it

spring is starting to show its ears...literally. 65 lovely degrees today...

Things that don't count on your birthday...

As I was waking myself up with my cup of coffee this morning, I was trying to think of things that don't really count on your birthday...
1. calories - as in eat as much cake and "bad for you" things that you want.

2. rude people.

3. money - new outfits and shoes are a birthday accessory.

4. mother nature - just figures that it's like a blizzard here today. not going to fret. it's my birthday she can do whatever she wants to mr. sun.

5. worrying about getting everything and anything done.

BRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr

A chilly day pre-birthday day here in the midwest. High of 11. Can you really say that is a "HIGH"??? Brings to mind the question once again of why, WHY, do we live here? No mountains, no beaches, no lakes. Hmm. Well the grass is always greener on the other side isn't it? Let's see if I can think of some reasons we do live here in the great midwest....
1. Still thinking.
2. hmmm.
3. Oh yes - Green Spring times
4. Beautiful fall color changes
5. Friends
6. Mostly pleasant (mostly, not all) people
7. Family
8. Easy access out of the airport
9. Affordability (for the most part)
10. BBQ

and here she is....eloise the garden spider.

Weird things about me...

Hmm. I was thinking today after being inspired by a conversation I had today with a friend to identify a list of weird things about me. I'm not putting a limit as I don't know how many I can actually figure out and come up with...let's see...
1. I always put my lid on a napkin while I put the splenda in my coffee at Starbucks...too many germs on that condiment bar for me.

2. I never never ever get out of bed if the clock says :13, I always wait for it to change. No use getting off on the wrong foot.

3. There was a spider in my garden this summer that I befriended. I would check on her everyday and everyday she would be in exactly the same spot - never flinching. This lasted for almost two weeks. Then one morning I went out to see her and she had vanished - the web was gone too. I still wonder where she went. I like to think she wasn't someone's breakfast. And to think, I don't even like spiders. I'll post a picture of her.

4. I still love to watch an episode of Little House on the Prairie. Reminds me of the days when I wanted to be Laura. As a matter of fact, I just recently found my sunbonnet that I got as a kid.

A Cold January day and recurrent back pain

Talk about a bummer - the back pain is back - no kidding. After dealing with tremendous pain 3 years ago and undergoing microdiscetomy surgery, I erroneously thought I had recovered (I subconsciously knew I was kidding myself). Well, I've gone and done something else to my back - shooting pain down the leg and numbness. Back on the cocktail of pain killers. Trying only to take as necessary as I find it hard to function on them. Looking at an MRI next week and potential epidural steriod shots which I definitely want to avoid.

Not to mention it is a balmy 6 degrees here today. Desperately anticipating Spring. Yes, I know it's weeks away, but at least we are almost done with January. After that it seems to speed up.

five things to be happy about today...

1. a pot of hot coffee on a cold day
2. running into a friend at church and getting some encouraging words about working
3. only four more days left in January. The most dreaded month of the year for me. And the end is insight.
4. no more diapers for little one!!!!!! (that should count as 2)
5. baking a chocolate cake to share with friends.