Showing posts with label FAMILY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FAMILY. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Birthday, America!

Hope you all have a safe and fun Fourth!




Today is a time for fireworks and fun
But we shouldn't forget it's reason.
                        


This is one of the most important days
of the entire summer season.




Today's the day our nation became free
and the date of the country's birth.



For so many years we have grown to be
one the best countries on earth.



Poem by Sharon Hendricks






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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day


My Mother kept a garden,
a garden of the heart.


She planted all the good things
that gave my life it's start.


She turned me to the sunshine
and encouraged me to dream.


Fostering and nurturing
the seeds of self-esteem...


And when the winds and rain came,
she protected me enough--


But not too much because she knew
I'd need to stand up strong and tough.


Her constant good example
always taught me right from wrong--


Markers for my pathway
that will last a lifetime long.



I am my Mother's garden.
I am her legacy.



And I hope today she feels the love
reflected back from me.


Author Unknown


Happy Mother's Day to all of you who "mother" in any way.  
Whether it be to your own children, family members, 
siblings, nieces, nephews, godchildren, friend's children, etc. 


I hope you all have a wonderful day!








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Sunday, April 1, 2012

Welcoming a new family member and a Birthday!

I'd like to introduce a new member of our family.


Xena

A six-month old Boxer.  
Isn't she beautiful!?


As some of you may remember, we had a sweet, lovable Boxer named Coco who passed away three years ago a week before her fifth birthday. It was sad and sudden. 

Coco
It took a long while to get over loosing Coco. And then not having a dog for a few years made life a little easier.  But, lately, we've been getting the itch for a new four-legged family companion.  


Hubby did lots of looking around online for Boxers.  Even though I was almost on-board with getting a new dog, I really didn't want to go the young puppy route.  I just wasn't sure I had the patience for all that puppy behavior again.


So Hubby found a six month old Boxer puppy from a Boxer family breeder.  We went to check her out last Thursday, and she was a doll!  Obviously, we couldn't leave the breeder's house without her.  


She's a typical, energetic Boxer with sweet disposition.  We're working on house training ~ blech! ~ and leash training, but I have high hopes we'll get that all down hopefully sooner than later.


I guess, in a way, Xena could also be considered a birthday present.  Mine that is.  
Today is my birthday!  
I know, I know . . . April Fool's Day :o)
Today I turned 48 . . . oh, so much closer to 50.  
Funny how, for me anyway, 48 sounds so much older than 47.  
Silly, right?!







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Monday, January 16, 2012

New Wheels


What's usually the first big purchase of a new college graduate who's landed their first salary job?


Why, a su-weet new ride, of course!


Remember your first brand-spankin' new set of wheels? 


It was time for Son No. 1 for sure.  He's old car was beat up.  Over 100,000 miles racked up from almost 5 years worth of trips back and forth from Delaware to North Carolina.  It was used when we got for him when he was a junior in high school, so it was certainly time for something new.

Well, that, and he couldn't let his little bro, Son No. 2, get one up on him.  Remember when I blogged here about Son No. 2 totaling his car ~ The Red Dragon as he fondly referred to his Monte Carlo.  


Last spring he scored himself the Bumblebee Camaro.  If you've seen the Transformers movies, you know what I'm talking about. 


After driving Son No. 2's ride around a bit while home on Thanksgiving break this past fall, Son No. 1 fell in love with the it, and knew he had to have one of his own.


Son No. 2 even found and purchased tire valve stem covers with a Transformer Autobot face on them!

I'll admit, Camaros are fun and exciting to drive.  
I've tooled around in both ;o)

Even Hubby's slightly entertaining the thought of trading in his Cadillac CTS for one.  
We all know what that might be about . . . ;o)  hehe



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Saturday, December 31, 2011

What are you doing New Year's . . .

. . . New Year's Eve?


But before we start on New Year's, I want to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas.  I hope you all had wonderful time visiting with family and friends.  Our's was very nice.  Each year it gets more and more quiet and less bustle y.  Guess that's a result of the boys getting older.  
And maybe of me and Hubby getting older too!



One of my major regrets this past Christmas was I didn't take one photo.  Not a one!  No snaps taken during Hubby's family gathering here for the Christmas Eve Wigilia dinner.  No snaps taken Christmas morning opening gifts.  No snaps taken Christams evening when my family came for desert, cocktails and gifts.



What was wrong with me????  
What a bad mom . . . blogger . . . scrapbooker.  
And here's the kicker ~ I got a new camera for Christmas.  Maybe I was just downright tired.  There was a bit of rush this season to get it all done with Son No. 1's college graduation the weekend before Christmas.  But I am really seriously regretting not taking the time to grab the camera . . . any camera.



I've been in no rush this week to dismantle Christmas.  I like to use the week between Christmas and New Year as a time to relax and enjoy it all without any pressures of baking, shopping, wrapping, etc.  Heck, I'm still listening to Christmas music!


I did pack away my Santas and replaced them with a more wintery-type decor.  Some of my snowpeople can take center stage now for a while.


On to New Years Eve . . .


We'll be spending a very quiet, very low-key New Year's Eve with my brother and his wife at their new home a couple hours away in New Jersey.  They used to live right behind us.  Their daughter, my newly-engaged neice ~ Congrats Rachie!!! ~ still lives there.  She's pretty much taken over the house, so, although they've moved away, I'm quite sure we'll see them a lot!


My hopes for the New Year are pretty much the same as every other new year.  I wouldn't call them resolutions per se, but more like goals.

  • Get my home more organized.
  • Purge more unneeded stuff.
  • Eat better.  Don't necessarily need work on the whole diet and exercise thing since I've done well with my weightloss from the spring, and exercise is always a priority.  But more of just trying to eat generally healthier.
  • Spend more time being creative.
  • Finish many of the unfinished projects looming overhead.
  • Be a better mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, and just a better person to all the people so important in my life.


I'm wishing a fun, safe and reflective New Year's Eve to all.  
Whatever your plans are for tonight, or goals for the New Year, I wish you well.  



See you all in 2012!




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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

This 'n That

Been pretty busy this past week

I've been working on some things for the Thanksgiving table using the items you see below.  
More on the finished product in a later post.



Also have been doing some Christmas decorating.


My house is suffering from a split personality disorder right about now.  The back of the house ~ family room and kitchen ~ is showing the signs of the harvest season, Thanksgiving.  While the front of the house ~ living room/dining room, foyer ~ is decked out for Christmas.

You see, I'm loosing a weekend in December to travel to North Carolina for Son No. 1's college graduation.  Which is certainly exciting, but not very time-convenient being the weekend before Christmas.  So I'm trying to get as much done as possible before Thanksgiving without totally transforming the house into Christmas mode. 

Speaking of Son No. 1, he flies home tonight for Turkey Day.  He'll be here only until Sunday, but then he'll be home for good in about three weeks.  I can't believe his college days are coming to an end.  Where on earth has the past four-plus years gone???


Oh, I got a new toy!!! :o)  


Well, it's not really all mine, although Hubby did set it up to read "Carla's Kindle" when it's powering up.  Frankly, I don't know how much I'll use it.  I simply don't sit around enough to play around on a tablet-thingy like this.  


I did purchase my first mag subscription, though.  At a $1.65 a month, it was a pretty good deal!   I'm not a very gadgety-type person, but I will admit this thing is pretty cool.




On Sunday I finally started painting the kitchen chairs.  I know, I know . . . I blogged weeks, months, ago about starting this project.  Needless to say I've been procrastinating.  That and the original spray gun we bought wasn't working properly.


the chair before
I've got two chairs primed and painted and one primed ready to be painted.  That leaves three more chairs and the table to do.  I'll most likely blog more about this project when it's nearly finished.  But let me tell you, using that spray gun attached to the air-compressor is the sweetest thing going for painting furniture.  The spray was perfectly fine and covered so nicely.  It was actually pretty fun to use!

Once painted, I really want to accent the chairs with glaze, but Hubby doesn't think so.  He thinks I should leave them as is.  The color is not quite white.  It's really a great color, actually, called Malted Milk.  Guess I'll wait about the whole glaze thing until I get them all done.

I may not (well, I know for pretty sure I will not!) get all the chairs and table painted by T'giving, but I don't think my family will mind sitting on a few white and a few stained chairs . . . as long as there's plenty of turkey and 'taters'! ;o)




The chairs you see above are a fairly new purchase.  I bought four of these chairs from Walmart's online store.  They're in the BH&G line (they come in black too).  Partial assembly was required, which was very easy, and  they're quite sturdy and well made.  And the best part was the price -  $38 each!  And if you have them shipped to the store for pick-up, there's no shipping cost.


I bought these chairs for a table I bought a few years back from a resale shop.  It's a double gate-leg table that is in need of refinishing.  Of course this projects been on the to-do list for a quite a while too.  My plans are to paint the legs and apron in my fave paint right now, Malted Milk, accented with glaze, and restain the top.  


It's a pretty sturdy table that can sit four comfortably, or six a little snugly.  It was a good price at $65.  Not sure if it's an "antique".  The workmanship seems good, and it doesn't really have that look of being mass produced.




I've also been playing nurse to Son No. 2 since Friday.  He had surgery to shorten a ligament on the side of his knee.  Apparently they go in and fold over the ligament to get it back to the proper length.  He has to keep that leg immobile wearing a long leg brace for three weeks, and it's been a pretty painful recovery so far.  

As for my back, it's getting better and better every week.  Perhaps my disc compression wasn't as severe as I suspected.  After eight weeks, I'm still getting twinges of pain and numbness down my leg, with occasional lower back pain on days when I'm on my feet a lot, but I'm slowly regaining strength and range of movement with each week.  Not quite back to 100% with my workouts, but I'm getting there.
Good thing!  
With the Holidays here and being extra busy, I don't know what I would have done if I was in the shape I was six weeks ago. 



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