Thursday, May 19, 2016

A Camping We Will Go...

Well! Yesterday I celebrated being 13 years smoke free!! I can't believe it! The hardest biggest achievement I've ever made. So, tootin' my own horn here :)

Tomorrow we take out our new camper for the weekend. Steve and Brandy are coming and Steve is going to attempt to teach Paul and myself how to fish. I mean, I know technically but taking the fish off etc...I'm getting gloves LOL! But, we do need to know because come July we'll be doing a lot of fishing when we take Logan and Emmy for a week to Westbranch.

So, Paul brought home the camper yesterday and we've been loading her up. Here's a pic or two of it in the driveway.





I'll get lots more photos this weekend. If you recall, we had a camper about 5 years ago. It was too big for us. I mean, it was too big for us to PULL. And our Explorer struggled with it and we struggled with a lot of the electrical components and we were NOT happy campers. Flash forward to a few years later and we're looking at all our camping gear just sitting in the basement and wanting to do something fun for the summers for the next 3-4 years before Paul retires and BINGO! So, I think it will be a lot of fun...I'll let ya know :)

I've gotten a couple of postcards in the last couple of days.

Latvia front



Russia front

I will post again after our weekend of camping :)

As always...

Monday, May 16, 2016

Weekend Recap..

I guess that's what you'd call it since it's Monday. Had a great weekend in spite of the cold, windy, sleety weather. I mean wow-seriously? It's May! But then again everyone keeps saying it's May in OHIO! Oh well. Just happy it isn't next weekend since Paul and I are going camping.

Friday I went to Jenn's and took her to the Toledo Eye Clinic (part of the Cleveland Clinic) and she had LASIK eye surgery! Her and Dan both have decided to try and get things done that they've always wanted to BEFORE they have kids. Good thinking guys!! We all know that once a little one comes along they're the whole focus for the next 20 years! Jennifer has been wearing glasses and contacts since she was about 12. The procedure didn't take but about 15-20 minutes and they had a monitor where I could see the whole thing through the glass doors. Pretty impressive I tell ya!

Here she is getting ready to head home...

She's starting to be in pain

When I got her home her eyes were burning something fierce. She went upstairs to get a little nap in and finally the burning subsided. While she was upstairs, I was on the couch with Shelby and MoJo, two of my favorite feline friends...


I decided quite a while ago that I wanted to make the family members who use walkers, these cute little bags to hang on them and carry their "stuff". Well Sue bought Paul's mom a real pretty leopard print one (Dory goes gaga over anything leopard print) so I didn't make her one. But Aunt Donna has had a walker now for a couple of months so I decided to make her one. Here is the pattern I used Walker Tote. I have the material for Aunt Gert's and I'll get started on hers in a day or so. I asked Aunt Donna what her favorite color is and she likes lavender and purple. So here is her bag in progress...




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The D-rings have thrown me for a loop. I followed the directions and for the life of me couldn't figure out how to attach them to the walker without twisting them around. Anyway, I may have to fiddle with the next one I make. Maybe have 2 straps with one having the D-rings.
So here's the completed bag...

The front has 2 big pockets

The back has 3 pockets

Ta-Da!
I'm pretty proud of myself and I think Aunt Donna really likes it.

I noticed over the weekend that the Rhododendrons in the front yard near the door are about to bloom...

I think the buds are gorgeous!
The Peonies we got from Paul's dad are blooming. Bob calls them Norwegian Peonies and Sue found out that they're also called Lacy Leaf Peonies. They aren't as big as a regular nor do they get full of ants...they are simply gorgeous!



So in spite of the cold yesterday, it did stop sleeting so we had a busy day. I put our patio furniture for sale on Facebook and a friend bought it. She couldn't get it in her car so we loaded up Paul's Explorer and my CX-5 and her Encore.
While vegging in the am, I saw 2 Billiard Chairs for sale on Facebook. Of course we NEED those downstairs in the basement! Paul and I drove over to Lorain and picked them up.
Then I also sold Aunt Donna's little hutch so we went over to her house and unloaded it of dishes etc. and then a lady came with a truck and Paul helped her with it. We visited with Aunt Donna for a little while and out her back window came an Indigo Bunting! I don't see many but this one she said comes all the time...




 So, I've taken the week off! Yay! What ever shall I do? Well today started off good. I went for a 3 mile walk at 6am with Lydia and then came home and tried my Beachbody DVD's 21 Day Fix Extreme. I've been doing the regular for a while and I'm a bit bored so I thought, it's time to get serious if I want to lose the flab and weight in time for Jenn's wedding. I felt really good afterwards! Now I just need to concentrate on eating according to the plan and portion control.

As always....

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

WILW..


Good morning! So today is  What I'm Lovin' Wednesday and I have a few things to share with you that I'm lovin'...

1. New postcards from Postcrossing.com

Taiwan



Germany

Lithuania



Germany 2

2. My sweet son Steve. He took me out to dinner for Mother's Day to Olive Garden and we met up with Brandy, her parents and grandma. It was a nice time.


Eric, Jess and the kids sent me a shirt and scarf from my favorite clothing line...Life Is Good :) They're so awesome (both the clothes and the kiddos)! 


Jenn and Dan sent me a book I wanted called "Spark Joy" along with a matching journal. The journal was a sweet surprise. 

3. Nature on my runs...well this time it was a walk but beautiful all the same. 


4. My creative side busting loose! I bought a wooden mermaid back when it was still cold..maybe February or March. I wasn't sure how to hang her in the bathroom without having her look swallowed up by the wall. So, I bought some fish netting from Michaels and some shells. Bev said she has a mermaid she put glitter on so I got my Stickles and a little paint brush and added a bit of sparkle to her scales. I like how she turned out and I may just paint the wall a nice light blueish green..




5. My sister Wendy bought me this cute window decal. Even though she can't stand the Minions, she knows I LOVE them and got it for me. How cute is this?


So what are you loving?? As always...

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Kentucky Derby Party!


First of all, Happy Mothers Day! Steve and Brandy got me some Shari's Berries!! OMG are they good!! LOVE THEM!
Decadent chocolate covered strawberries

Today Paul and I plan on going to the assisted living where his mom lives and having lunch with her. Then Steve is taking me to dinner...I'm still trying to decide where. We'll go early, maybe only have to wait in line an hour instead of 2 or 3.

So yesterday my friend Bev and I had a Derby Party!! Usually she hosts it, and has had it now for 4 years but she mentioned she wanted to invite more people but didn't think she had room at her house. I told her we could have it at my house since mine's a bit bigger. I think total we had 34 ladies. So fun!

The night before I hot glued my hat together. I really got lucky and found some blue and white polka dotted ribbon, which matched perfectly with my top I wore. I bought some horse stickers and glued those on too. For the life of me I could not find a large blue flower!! I used white and turned out ok...

Not the brightest white but oh well


Now Bev's hat, what a HAT!! She won 1st place, rightfully so!
I got to wear my pearls! Haven't done that in a long time.
My good friend Chris
Zaria and Sue arriving


Barbara and Wendy

On to the food. Oh my! When you have a party and 30+ women each bring a dish...I can't even describe...

Brandy won 1st Place for her AMAZING rose cupcakes and horse cookies...delish!!!
This is the person who gives us lessons...remember my cupcakes from a few weeks ago..yep!


I made these Brown Butter & Brown Sugar Pecans (they were yummy)
Now what you don't see clearly are the name displays one of the ladies made! They have the roses and forks..Oh My!




"Get your dream horse with Barbie"

And this little trumpeter did an amazing job! I don't know why it didn't record the whole thing, but you get the gist of it...


As always....