Twenty-Nine Years!!

Today makes 29 years of wedded bliss.... :)  We've had our problems like any other couple, but we have weathered the storms!  We were married by a justice of the peace with only 2 witnesses that stood by us.  I was so happy to finally be his "Mrs" lol.   I remember it was a beautiful, sunny day!  God could not have given me a more patient, tolerant man than my husband.  He has a big heart, and is a thoughtful, kind human being.  He's just perfect for me!!!

Our daughter is making a special dinner for us all tonight.   I think it will be chicken cutlets.  That is her specialty! :)  She has done this for years now, since she was about 14yrs old.  We have always been a family that believes in celebrating the important events in life. :)  One year when she was younger she set the table and lit some candles in the center.  She has a creative flair so she likes to go all out when she does something lol...... So sweet!!

I'M BACK!!!

Blogging again!!!  It will be one year in November since I started this blog.  I can't say I posted everyday, but when I had something of interest I tried to blog about it.  I hope I can keep up as things happen in life and post pictures, and talk about it.  If anything, my daughter will have my thoughts, and events of my life after I die!!   I know, I know Jenn ...so morbid haha.  You will have my MEMOIRES!!!  :)

I can't believe it is only a couple of weeks away until it's officially fall.  This is my favorite time of year.  The smells of fall in the evening, and the leaves...ahhhh, I can't wait.  

Our town has a art festival every year on Columbus Day weekend, and this year I will go with the family.  Last year I stayed home, because of the crowds.  People are usually wall to wall lol.   I don't relish getting pushed and shoved.  :)  The small village usually has lots of people who have yard sales, which I love.  I guess I have to stop being a fuddy-duddy and live a little!! haha.  

My daughter bought my husband an atari set and 45 games off of ebay.  It was a Christmas present for my husband.  WAS is the key word!!!  It became an early Christmas present.  lol  It was in great shape, and actually works and the games work too.  She only paid $35.00 for it so if it didn't work she wouldn't be heartbroken.  :)

Her dad was in nostalgia heaven!  Oh, the memories.....we used to play it when we had our first apartment together.  Frogger was a favorite game of mine.  He loved asteroids.  Funny how we come so far with technology and the man wanted to go back 30 years. lol

Have a good weekend!!

Enjoy it.....

Computer Died :(

Funeral services are being held for my Compaq......  It is quite a surprise that this has happened, since I was not having any problems with it!  It is only 2 yrs old.   Jenn spent over an hour and a half on the phone with someone from India.  Reading from their script and absolutely no help at all.   What happened was,  when I started it up yesterday morning, it was fine.  I ran my disk clean-up and when I opened my browser everything froze.  I couldn't even move the mouse.  I had to shut down by the shut off button.  Well, that was the end!!!  When I tried restarting it it kept making a beep sound.  Nothing we tried would make this computer start up.

After talking to support from Compaq, Jenn called a local repair guy.  He said that the computers that are being made today are made with the cheapest parts and are designed not to last but a few years.  He said that the best way to go is to build your own.  Expensive to have done, but worth it he says.

The diagnosis is either the motherboard, or a chip in the RAM.  Something like that lol.  I don't feel I want to invest any money into a 2 yr old computer.  What it would cost to repair, I can practically buy a new one.  It won't be for a couple of months.   So, in the mean time my husband is so generously allowing me to share his laptop.  :)       I put only a few programs on it, so not to clutter his up. :)  At least I can access my blog, and read emails.  I did lose all my pictures I had taken since January 2010... I am so sick about that.   I also lost a lot of graphics, and gifs I had been collecting for a long time.  Along with all my incredimail stationary's.   *sigh*  

Jenn asked the guy if my information could be retrieved off of the old hard drive.  He said yes, but did  not quote a price.  Lord only knows how much it will cost.  If it is too much I won't bother.  Jenn is checking into seeing if it is something she can do herself.  We shall see!     

  

Have a good week!! :) 

Pray for One Another.....

It seems in our house we are always trying to save some type of injured animal, bug, rodent etc....  My husband comes into the house the other day and is holding a butterfly.  He was on the ground and my husband picked him up to show him to us.  Not knowing that he might be injured, and that is why he didn't fly away from him. lol   My husband insisted that he wasn't injured, but I put him on a plant outside on our table and the next morning he was still there.  I watched him struggle as he went  round and round  on the table and couldn't fly.  I went online to see what I could do to help the poor little guy.  I found that butterflies only live 2 weeks after they reach adulthood!  So, he may be at the end of his life.  I cut a milk jug, threw some grass in it, and put sugar water on a q-tip for him.  All you can do is try to make them comfortable.   :) 

Of course he passed on into butterfly heaven a few hours later.  

It seems so many people are dealing with tragic or bad things happening in their lives right now.  My mom called  last Friday to say that she had been in a car accident. She was pulling into McDonald's and her foot hit the gas instead of the break.  She went forward and hit a corner of a wall that they had in front.  Thankfully she was not injured or hurt in anyway!  Her car though is another story.  The fluids all came out of it and it wouldn't start.  It was towed to her mechanics where it now sits.

The manager of McDonald's told her she was lucky that the wall was there to stop her or else she would of gone into a main road with heavy traffic and could of been seriously hurt or killed.    She is 76 yrs old now and I wonder if she should be driving at all.  I have talked with her about it and she says that when it's time she believes she will know.  

When she was a child she contracted polio, and her right foot over the years has gotten worse.  She was always falling, and her bad foot would trip her up.  She lost muscle in that foot and it is overturned really bad now as she has gotten older.  They can't rebuild it, because she has diabetes and the Dr. won't operate on her.  So, she got a brace that goes almost to her knee and it seemed to help a lot.  I often questioned whether she had enough strength in that foot to control the break and gas.  She always said she had no problems.    

Come to find out, or as for now the Dr. is thinking she is having mini-strokes.  He told her you don't even know when your having them.  So, that may be the cause of her hitting the gas and going into the wall.  He told her she is absolutely not to drive!  Not that she can anyway, because her car is not running.

She has to have tests done the end of this month on her brain to see what is going on.  

Then I find out this is not the first time something like this has happened.  It happened at her complex one other time and she got hooked up on a parking stone.  She fortunately put the car in reverse and got it off.  She told me she would of gone through the building if it weren't for that stone.  :o

I know losing one's car is also losing their freedom and independence, but I would rather have her safe and not worry that she will hurt herself or someone else.  I live over an hour away from her so I am not able to be there for her like I would like to be.  She has people who are more than happy to take her to her Dr.'s appointments etc. who live near her.  

She called last night at 10:00 p.m. and immediately we thought something happened to her,.....but she  informed us that her pastor's son who is  29  yrs old  had died.  He went to Colorado to hike with some people, and he was found dead.  He had fallen.  He and his wife had 2 very young children.  They had been searching for quite some time with his father's help for a home.  It would of been their first.  The had just put a down payment on it and were approved.    My heart breaks for this young wife and her children, as well as all his family.  If you would pray for the family it would be appreciated.  Here is a link to the article ....

http://newsblog.projo.com/2010/07/rhode-island-man-dies-hiking-i.html

Vacation Time

Summer sure is heating up!!  We hit 102 one day last week.  The humidity is just awful!  If the air was drier it wouldn't be so bad, and we wouldn't drip so much lol.  I would go out early every morning and water the flowers, so they wouldn't wilt and die on me!!  As I watered them I would wet myself down on my arms, legs, face and neck too!  It felt so good....for about 5 minutes lol.   Today is a warm  85 degrees but only 53% humidity.  Much better!! :)

    

My husband was on vacation last week and we were going to do day trips during the week.  The weather made it so that we couldn't plan anything that involved walking around out in the heat.  I had wanted to go to a zoo one day, but that was thrown out lol.  We have a local  aquarium that was also cancelled, due to the fact most of it involved outside walking.  :(   So, we opted for going to places that had air conditioning instead.   That meant shopping!!  The day before the hot weather started we went to a mall in Massachusetts that has all name brand stores.  It is an outlet. You walk up and down a sidewalk and enter from outside.  Not like a regular inside mall.   There is every store imaginable there, with lower prices.  They had a Coach store and there was a long line to get in.  They would only let so many people in at a time.  The line would dwindle down and then right back up again!  People love those purses lol.

It was the first time I had ever been there.  So many people I talk to know about this so-called "famous" mall.  Where have I been all these years that I never heard about it????  lol  I guess I am so out of the loop!!!  :)  We had fun and I went away with two  pairs of sketchers sneakers.  One pair was free!!  I got a clog type and a regular style.

Tomorrow my husband goes back to work, and has to get into his normal routine again.  He works in a very hot manufacturing shop and they only have fans.  I feel bad for him.  I remember my days of factory work with no air conditioning.  The heat would get to me so bad, that almost everyday around 2 o'clock I would start to nod off.  Oh my, I can't believe I used to do that!  I would be so tired from getting up at 5 am, that the heat would do me in lol.  A girl who would sit next to me would call my name and wake me.  I would only doze for a few minutes.  (I think!)  I am one of those people who can have a 10 minute power nap and then feel like a million bucks!! :)  Isn't it the Spanish who has siestas??  Sounds like a great idea to me.  :)

Have a great week everyone!!  Stay cool, where ever your at... :)

Honoring Dad's

Today is a special day honoring all dad's.  I love that we have this one day that we  devote to all the men in our lives who are fathers, whether it be our husband or our dad.  For me this day is bittersweet.  I  lost my dad when I was 20 yrs old,  it was December 29, 1981, and it was a Monday.  A day I will always remember as if it were yesterday.  The details of that day are still fresh and vivid in my mind.  He had a massive heart attack at the wheel of his car, as he was only 5 minutes from home.  He was only 49 years old, much too young to die.  That day changed me forever.  I never looked at life the same way after his death.  I would advise others to enjoy life, because we don't know what tomorrow holds.   This is why my signature is "Take time to smell the roses."   Life is short and very fragile.   

My daughter was only 10 months old, so she never got to know him.  He had so many plans for her future, as he wanted to take her to all the places in New Hampshire that he had taken me as a child.   I try not to dwell on the loss, but focus on the years that I did have with him.  I have told my daughter stories of her grandpa since she was young.  I always wanted her to feel as if she did know him. :)  

Every Father's Day there is a twinge of sadness still, but I am always thankful for having him as my dad.  He was a happy person, who was always joking with someone or making someone laugh.  He was always doing odd jobs for people and he wouldn't charge near enough.  He wanted to help others out.  He was fun to be around, I loved going with him to visit many relatives now and then.  Usually it was his aunts who were elderly, who he loved to tease.  He would amuse them and leave them with smiles on their faces.     

His nickname for me when I was growing up was "Doll".   I felt so special!   I am glad that I had 20 years with him!!   Even though he is not with me in the flesh, he will always be with me in my heart.  I long for the day when I get to heaven and  can see him again!!  

I am so glad that my daughter still has her dad, to show him how much she loves him.  She will cook a special steak for him on the grill, and cater to his every need lol.  Good thing for her he's not a demanding guy.  haha  

So, lets celebrate the fathers in our lives today!!  Let them all know how much we love them.  If they are not with us, we always have those cherished memories.  Have a wonderful Sunday!!

Autumn???

       

I can't believe that it is June 9th and we are having temperatures of 58 degrees!  Yesterday was so cool, we had to put on slippers, and sweaters to sit comfortably in the house.  The weather patterns are so crazy now all over the country.    It feels so much like autumn.   I get the feeling that I should be baking an apple pie! :) 

It starting raining around 3:00 o'clock today and I had to run out with my camera, and take a picture of our first rose with water droplets on it lol.  This type has a lemon scent to it and just yesterday was still somewhat closed.  We also have a yellow ever blooming rose bush that doesn't have any buds yet.  I can't wait for those to bloom! 

Last week my daughter and I went on a little shopping trip, to the Christmas Tree Shop to see if they had anything for the patio or the yard.  Get me in that store and I never leave with what I was there for lol.  I have a "thing" for anything birds, or nests etc... So, when I saw this I couldn't resist....

I also got a few other things,  the prices there are so good, you can't leave empty handed!  My husband always tells me that it's never under a $20.00 bill when I leave. haha

I was raised in a suburban area, never seeing any wild life at all.  Oh, maybe a skunk now and then. Nothing that would actually make me go....AWWWWE!!!  Since we have lived out here (in the country)  I am like a kid at christmas lol.   I was sitting at my desk, and as I always do I was glancing out the window.  My daughter says, "Do you see it?  There is some large animal out there."  I immediately got a little frightened, not sure whether she saw a bear!   A closer look out the window, and this is what we saw.....

A beautiful deer!  She just stared at me what seemed like an eternity,  while my daughter ran to get the camera.  I was so glad we got a few pictures. three actually then she turned, and ran away.  She was so beautiful to watch as she jumped through the woods so gracefully. :)  

Where we lived before, (2 houses up) we used to have a bunny that would come and eat all the clovers in the grass.  For some reason at this house we have none.  I loved coming home and seeing him in the front yard.  He wasn't too afraid of us at all.  I kinda miss him lol.    I guess you can't have it all!!  :)  

Be Blessed.

Flowers!!

Spring planting has begun!  It is so much work, but the beauty that the flowers give make it so worth it. :)   After we had finished the front yard the landlord came and had a truck load of mulch.  He had told us of his plans to go diagonal with the edging and mulch the front.  He said that when he mowed it was a dust storm so this would make his job easier. lol  I actually think it really improves the look of the front yard, so I am happy.  

These are my impatiens that I planted along the back of the house.  They will do well in this shady spot. 

Every year I have a couple of tomato plants in pots.  This year they have full sun so I am expecting better results than last year.

I put mums all around the patio table.  I read online that mosquitoes don't like the smell of them and it will keep them away.  I haven't found this to be true.   I have the welts to prove it haha.

I also made up a hanging pot of impatiens.  I just love how they cascade when they get larger. :)

Just thought I would throw in a picture of my walk to the mailbox...Isn't it pretty lol.

The previous tenants must of put these on the tree lol  There is actually a caterpillar in the right eye :)   My daughter says this guy creeps her out lol.  I think he has character!

This is a before ot the front yard...

And this one also.

After........

We planted petunias along the walkway.  

Needless to say we got a bit of a sunburn.....:)   This bush here on the corner had tons of bees in it.  I couldn't believe how many were all over it!  They were huge yellow-jackets.   I just thank God that they didn't bother us!   It was a fun day even though it was very hot and humid.  

God Bless!   I'll be around visiting you all!  :)

Small World

Last week we had a man come to our door, he was looking for the owner of a cat that comes in our yards.  I was in the kitchen when my husband answered the door, and I heard him talking.  Then my husband calls for me to come.  He says, "you remember this man, he was your old classmate." (My husbands boss is best friends with this man.  So this is how my husband knew him.)  I looked for a minute and I knew he was Russ who I had gone to school with all through the years.  Then the memories flooded back.  He and I sat next to each other in 7th grade homeroom.   I would bring my bible to school with me.  It was a public school and really wasn't  the type of book that you would see a student reading.  :)  One day he said. "hey watchya readin?"  (Our new england accent there lol).   I said the bible, and he didn't make fun of me, just asked a few questions.  If my memory serves me they were probably sarcastic type questions.    Fast forward 36 years and he is now standing at my door.  We found out that he is our next door neighbor.  

I had been a christian since I was 9 yrs old.  I went to church camp every year from 9-17 yrs old.  I was always searching for MORE of God.  I just knew that getting saved couldn't be the end of it all.      I knew there had to be more.  I was determined in my walk at age 12 that I would not be ashamed of  the Lord.  It was very hard at that age to take a stand, but I wanted to be a doer of the word.  

So, as he stood in my living room 36 years later,  I wondered did he remember me reading my bible, or was it just something I remembered?  It got me to thinking..... I don't ever want to be ashamed of my Lord.    Who knows if there was a seed planted! :)

Mark 8:38 - If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will beashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

  

Attitude

ATTITUDE

This is a printout I have on my desk, so it can be a reminder to me.  It is called, “Attitude” by Chuck Swindol.   

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important then appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break a company….a church….a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past….we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude….I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you….we are in charge of our ATTITUDES.”

I am still a work in progress in this area!  :)     One Day at a time.