Category Archives: brother(s)

Jan8

My little brother Ken turns 43 today

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This was a ‘video capture’. Now that we have a HD, I’m going to redo this set for Flickr to get out the lines, etc.

Mom and brother Ken

He was such a cute little kid. He must have been absorbing amazing qualities from people around him, namely our uncle because he practically redid his entire home by himself. Of course his sweet wife Colleen was by his side every step of the way. And you know how much I love my nephew and niece. Definitely warm fuzzies time. Thanks to mom for having a baby at 36 and me being 7, could practice my motherly skills on him. He has a nice smile in big part because of me. And he also doesn’t mind cooking and cleaning up… I could go on. He was suppose to be a girl, but I really don’t mind now-lol. If I could have at least a granddaughter someday…
Happy Birthday Ken!

Dec9

A little decorating underway

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Feather tree in family room, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Wow-I haven’t blogged since last Friday?!
Well I’ve busy! My brother moved on Saturday-in the rain and then snow. We were asked to finish cleaning out one bedroom. Bri and Sean moved an entertainment center, an end table and the top of a hutch (yep in a small bedroom) while I gathered up what was left. I wiped down the windowsills, helped mom clean the floors and moved what wasn’t too heavy. My brother wasn’t finally all moved in until Sunday night. He brought a Dalmation and a tuxedo kitty with him. Now there are 3 pets in the house. Mom’s been cooking a bit again too. The kitty went missing for a day and he was under a bed in a room next to my mom’s. They have a lot to go through and some appliances need fixing too.
Sean and I have been shopping too. I do most of my shopping online, but go to the nearby store to pick out clothes for my niece and nephew. I got some great prices! Also got myself two pairs of corduroys for $8.40 each and they fit perfectly!
We went to Delaware yesterday for the boring gifts-lol. Today the oven got fixed. We are questioning why they stuck $20 to the bill when they were getting like $144 for the labor. They guy was here 10 minutes. Same place that I had bank issues with as the tech ran my debit card through 3 times. Today I wrote a check! Hope we get that back.
I’m cleaning up the area for the tree that we will put up on Friday. The little feather tree is the same on I have put in our family room for a few years. Hope to make at least one ornament to add. I have one I started last year. I know stitchers who have enough ornaments for a big tree! I am decorating the fireplace mantel with my grandfather Alan’s manger set. I think it’s at least 60 years old. On the other side is my collection of nutcrackers. I just added a new small one to the collection. A few of the older ones needed a little gluing! Brian’s late mom gave most of them to us. I’ll be doing more decorating tomorrow-stay tuned!
And good luck to Sean on his interview tomorrow. It may be an internship, but let’s hope it pays.

Nov30

Cyber Monday

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How I enjoy shopping on the computer! The weather was chilly and dreary and I got to snuggle up on the sofa to shop-pure bliss. I have to be really selective this year and I found a place that has neat things and bargains-Lake*side Collection.com. I think I ordered 16 things (a few for me) and it was just over $100. Can’t beat that. I then need to get some things at good old Wally World and then get a few gift cards. I asked for a Cuttlebug-the machine that embosses and cuts paper. The above company has that cheaper than Wally World. I used a few gift cards I got for my birthday to get 25% or free shipping. I could go to those stores, but the one item I ordered is exclusive to the online place.
I was pleased as punch as I also got Sean things from his Ama*zon wishlist. Then Mr. May*tag repairman showed up…
Yes, I do need a element-$200 buck-a-roos. No he wouldn’t take a deposit, needed the entire amount. Why I didn’t write a check-but pulled out the debit card and out he went to his truck. In a few minutes he came in and said it was declined. Hello airhead, it’s Cyber Monday and people are going to town with the debit/credit cards! Out he goes again. I thought I was saying good-bye to $200 and it turned out to be $600! After he left, I checked out my bank account online and there it was, 3 debits in a row-apparently it did go through! I have an email and a phone call into our very local bank (11 offices) to hope this mess can be cleared up in a few days. I just mailed off a ton of bills and as I told you, did a bit of shopping. Why does cr@p like this happen to me?

By the way, didn’t talk to my mom today(she hung up on me Sunday) and the other person in the fiasco is very depressed. Maybe the silent treatment will get her thinking about how nice things could be.

My brother’s gift is an egg separator! (see below). You crack the egg into his head and the whites run out the nose area! The lady at the shop says it works great. My brother was always the one who liked to talk about gross stuff, so that gift had his name written all over it! I also got him a nice blus ceramic business card holder and a plug-in aromatic thingie.

Crossing fingers for tomorrow!

Nov19

My life at 50

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That’s right, 50 yrs ago, yours truly floated into the world in a rather fast labor and delivery-one hour to be exact. Yours truly was the loudest baby in the nursery too. My mom said she heard me over the other babies and got up to comfort me and was ushered back to bed. I was welcomed home by my older brother David, age 5. Three months later, my mom got pregnant again and was also coping with a troubled marriage. My father was to leave us all in 1972 (by that time there were 4 kids, Ken came along in 1967) to go back to his home state of Oregon where he would pass on alone in Feb. ’08.
Though I’ve had a rough childhood, I think we still had many blessings and I’ve tried to hold on to family traditions with my own son. Mom always outdid herself on birthdays, Halloween and Christmas and we had so much fun. I don’t remember wearing a store bought costume. In fact one year, she cut up her wedding dress for a 1st grader. It felt a bit odd wearing it, but I’m sure I felt pretty special. My birthday was usually shared with my year younger brother Don. We had the best one when we were about 6 and 7 when we had a house full of neighbors and cousins. Christmases were special, down to the overstuffed stockings that would always hang on the stair railing. One year my mom and grandmom(she was my second mom) sold some evergreen trees that my late grandfather had planted to have money for gifts.
Here’s me as a newborn babe-with my mouth open:

I turned out to be a stay at home (mostly, I’ve had a few jobs) wife and mom, though I went to college to be an Early Childhood Education teacher and came very close to doing so. I have been an aide to many children over the years. I think I would love to do art projects with little ones now. Sean always enjoyed doing projects from making paper to painting wooden plaques.
I think I’ve been a good wife, sister, aunt and mom. I’ve been there for people. I look forward to this part of my life when I hope, things will get easier soon. It’s hard to believe only 10 yrs ago I had a son entering his teens and now he’s a young man. He’s been my best gift ever. And he was almost my birthday gift back in 1986.
And lastly, thanks to Brian for being there for me through thick and thin. He’s been a great husband and best friend. I hope when we are 80, we have scooters to toot around Longwood Gardens on.

Nov1

Snaps from cellphones

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I don’t think these are too bad for cellphones. I did lighten or enhance the color in PSP7 just to make them more visually appealing:
Longwood3
Enhanced with Abode.
This is right near Longwood Gardens. I wanted to capture the burnt umber of the corn/wheat fields against the dark orange fall leaves:
Longwood4
And our dinner at Chili’s last week for Sean’s birthday:
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Those salsa and chips are so good! And they are a bottomless bowl!
BriDi
The first few were my camera. This is Sean’s camera (more $) and I had to tweak it a lot more!
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Halloween didn’t feel much like Halloween until we saw some trick or treaters in my mom’s hometown on the way home. It’s the first year I didn’t see my niece and nephew as they were with their friends.
Working at my mom’s was very draining. It was a rainy day, but in the low 70s, so humid. She says she does things, like go through slacks she stuffed in a big black bag. I had to take every pair out and hold them up and read the size and most of them she discarded! I think we loaded up three of those bags. She loves jackets and says she has about 70! She said she would pick the 20 or so she likes best. It’s so hard to do this. My brother was running across tons of old family photos and sent them home with me to scan. Brian came along and we set up our old dining room table and we all could sit together for a change and share pizza. Brian and Don need to hang a mirror in mom’s room and hang a ceiling fan in the dining room. I have to go and work in mom’s room next.
I’ll be scanning the photos over the next few weeks. Need to make some chili for dinner soon for Sean’s arrival from Penn State.

Oct28

Family Ties-part 2

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I’ve had this project put aside for a few months with the papers selected, many of which were given to me. The ‘canvas’ was a piece of wall art I found at Big*Lots for $2.00. It use to have sketchy looking toiletries on it. This was taken in the summer of 1967 as my younger brother was an infant. It was one of those Polaroids that was deteriorating and my face had a lot of damage. I used a photo effect to soften it and it doesn’t look bad. I am #2 in the line-up and only girl.

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I made this one a few days ago. I was looking through a gardening catalog and ran across the peas.
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Now the waiting game begins. I use to think after a few days I was fine, but I learned differently a few years ago. I give myself a week now. The ultrasound took a while. I had drank too much water and was asked to go to the bathroom in the middle of it too. If the doctor thinks I can have the embolization, I will probably go for it and hopefully feel better, do more and lose weight. Crossing fingers.

Jul4

A Booming 4th!

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Looks like a gorgeous, though breezy day out today for Independence Day! I haven’t ventured out yet as I was making Italian pasta salad and Strawberry ice cream cone cupcakes for a picnic we were invited too. We haven’t been to a picnic in ages!
~~I want to wish my brother Dave a Happy Birthday!!!!~~~~
Here is a desktop I made a few years ago-we are using it now. Enjoy your day and evening!
4thJulyCol

Here’s the link to Flickr for the full size version.

May4

Rainy day #2

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Map I made for my husband’s newspaper client, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
My map made the paper! The client wasn’t happy with some aspect (I’m sure it wasn’t the map) of the ad and they dropped the paper-hey-I’m giving them free publicity!
It’s so wet here, making my spirits a bit down. My one brother called and still wants me to help mom with her clothes, which I plan to do. I feel like he was putting me down for being a homemaker and not helping Bri over the years. After I hung up, I forget to add that besides eBay-almost 10 yrs, I’ve worked as a sub aide for the school district and stenciled about 600 ‘Welcome’ slates in the past for a local businesswoman. I told him I’m trying to figure out what would be sellers on etsy-I’m thinking practical things instead of tchotchkes that we all have enough of.
I got the new entrees that Julia Louis Dreyfuss is selling-the potstickers in particular- that she has hanging out of her mouth in the tv ad-so spicy! My mouth was burning for a while and now my tummy is. So cool ’em down Healthy C-the box doesn’t say it’s spicy. I’m having trouble with spicy Chinese stuff lately.
I’ll probably go to my mom’s tomorrow and do some clothes sorting-lucky me. She has a procedure on Wed-needle in the eye for her Mac Deg and she has to be still for 3 hours. It’s the same kind of medicine they use on cancer patients.
Wish her well.

Apr22

Happenings & Happy Earth Day!

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Finally got down to my hometown yesterday and my hair looks pretty again-thanks C! Also yesterday, Mom was at the eye doctor who works on the internal regions and she has swelling and a leakage in her left eye. He says it’s probably due to her being borderline diabetic and she needs an office laser procedure to repair that. That will be her 4th procedure in 8 months! Mom needs to be more serious about her eating, especially eating candy and sugared drinks. She is going to her doctor tomorrow for bloodwork and to see if she needs to be on medication. In February her blood sugar wasn’t bad (when she had thrush). The doctor yesterday said the thrush was probably from her diabetes. While there we went out to dinner. The restaurant up the road from her was always a favorite and was bought by two handsome Greek guys. They remodeled it and renamed it. This was our first time there and it was good. I got 1/2 rack of ribs-I like when the meat falls off the bones-these really didn’t. Mom had pork chops which she liked. They also give you a little pitcher of whatever you are drinking.
We went back to Mom’s and my brother Don was there playing with the puppy. I ‘fixed’ both of her vacuums-they were just all stuffed to the gills with paper, etc. that Kelsey had shredded.
I’m suffering with my upper back-think I have a nerve issue-from gardening on Saturday (leaning over a gazillion times) and then walking the dog and lifting the heavy vacuum didn’t help. I’ll be using the heating pad a few times.
I got this is my email-

Thanks for following! love, yoko IMAGINE PEACE: Think PEACE, Act PEACE, Spread PEACE http://www.IMAGINEPEACE.com
Yoko Ono / yokoono

I saw that Yoko Ono was on Twitter and it said ‘personal message’-so how cool is that! They can reply on their cells or computers.
Twitter is pretty neat!
I added a widget on the left with my Twitter updates.