Category Archives: family

Mar10

Photo hunt-architecture

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Church in rural PA

This was taken about 1991-92 when we went up to near Penn State for the wedding of Brian’s cousin. Brian’s mom was still with us (she passed on in ’96) and this was a little church behind the cemetery where most of Brian’s maternal relatives rest (including his mom now). Brian believes his mom went to church here, way out in the sticks.  I think because of taking this photo, I got an interest in the design and architecture of other churches, thus taking photos of them in my travels. This is such a simple, but beautiful place and I wonder if it’s still standing.

Mar3

Mom stuff

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Did you feel the earth move today? I hopped in the van about 11:30 and went down to my mom’s to do a few things for her. Things that I feel bad that she couldn’t do for herself. One was putting the handle on her new vacuum cleaner. It took me a few minutes (remember I don’t read directions), but I got it. She got one of those bagless ones which is not good for someone like me with allergies. I donned a dust mask and went to town-after spraying all over with Lysol and Febreze. I had to empty it about 6 times as it had been a while since the place was vacuumed. She also wanted me to hang up a new phone, but a connector piece was missing. Both the wall plate and the phone only had spaces for those little snap in pieces. I put a slipcover on a chair and then had to leave. I had brought her half of a lobster salad sandwich. I had gotten baby lobster tails for Christmastime and never cooked them until yesterday. It was good! I think she enjoyed it. I also brought her a 8 oz can of coke which seemed to brighten her up a bit-sugar overload. I got to talk to my Uncle Don too which made me feel better. He sounds okay, a little tired but more like I expect him to sound. And mom really liked my Art Trading cards, especially the one I made for her. She said she can see why I like doing them. She showed me all the little watercolors she’s been doing from her watercolor a day calendar. I can see her getting better each day. I was glad to see her being creative.

I dropped by my brother’s on the way home with Roald Dahl books for Tori and a few other things I found in the room I am trying to turn into a craft area. I told them mom didn’t look good and her appetite was terrible. My nephew Kenny who is almost 11 is as tall as me now! Tori was cute and gave me several hugs.

When I got home, we went to church, picked up disgustingly big burgers (am feeling that!) and settled in for the night.

I talked to mom and she said she had cleaned off her end tables in the living room after her shower. I sure hope she gets her strength up so she can go to the Philly Flower Show sometime this week. That’s a lot of walking! Brian’s dad isn’t well either. So much to worry about.

No photo for ‘salty’ as call I could think of was pretzels and my jar of sea salt. Sorry!

Feb20

Cape May, NJ and other beaches, etc.

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The crusty snow is still around us. I keep taking trips down ‘memory lane’ and today it’s ventured to the beach. I’m having sinus problems now (especially on the right where I had the new crown inserted), so I wish I was taking a deep breath of fresh salt air. We are experiencing warmer temps today, so that means the heat won’t run as much! Yeah!

When you live in suburban Philadelphia, taking summer trips to the New Jersey shore is just something that you do almost every year. If you don’t go just one year, you miss it!

I love Cape May where the streets are lined with Victorian houses. We stayed in one only once-Poor Richard’s Inn– (the room we stayed in on the second floor has been redone since 1999).

Poor Richard’s Inn, Cape May, NJ

The parking is horrible, but to sit on the porch on the second floor and watch the people go by at night was pretty neat. So was using the bathroom down the narrow, winding staircase (reminded me of a cover of a Nancy Drew book). The beach was a stone’s throw away.

Sean and me a long time ago

Lately we’ve headed to the beaches of Delaware and Maryland for a change of pace. We live about an hour closer. My brother and his family go to Ocean City, MD every year. It’s a huge place and you hardly feel crowded out while sunbathing and enjoying the ocean. Unfortunately, the Jersey beaches tend to get crowded-well Wildwood has such a wide beach, so not so much. The boardwalks are usually crowded at night. People walking off sunburns and eating fattening foods like salt and vinegar fries or huge ice cream cones seem to be in a happy, but tired daze. I love to look out on the dark expanse of beach and to hear the waves crashing on shore. Sometimes there are bands on the beach and that’s a cool experience to stand in the dark watching the lit up stage. I also love to walk by the outdoor restaurants and check out what people are noshing on.

I always have to go to the cross stitch shop on 8th and Broadwalk called ‘Salty Yarns’ when we vacation in OC, MD. It’s a pretty decent shop and I always have to get ‘a prize’ to remember my trip to the beach.

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I have some bananas that need to be used or tossed. I figure if I make a cake that will get my mind off my sinuses. I found a recipe for a pineapple/banana cake. Yum! Toto is watching over that piece I just cut!

Pineapple banana cake

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Ice falling off vehicles has been a terrible hazard around these parts! There have been a few people on the news, one of which was a 2 yr old boy-so sad-his lips were all swollen from a hunk of ice that flew off a van (his mom said the size of her windshield) and crashed into their windshield! Mom is 38 weeks pregnant. Was she ever lucky just to have cuts on her face.

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and to end on a happier note (while I hope the music has helped)
Jo, my heART winner received her goodies-they all arrived in New Zealand fine. Thanks for the nice post Jo!

Feb10

Photo Hunt-Broken

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This is a mosaic frame that I made from broken pieces of my grandparents good china as a Christmas gift for my mom. There wasn’t that much left of the china (a few dessert dishes) and I was into mosaics and had this lovely photo of Ruth and Alan.  My grandfather Alan died 6 weeks after I was born, so I only know him through photos like this. He use to write short stories and tried to get a few published, but never did. I know if blogs had been around back then, he would have enjoyed writing in one.

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Mosaic frame I made

Jan23

Aphorisms

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 My Uncle Larry sent these along in an email:

Aphorism (noun) Usually pithy & familiar statement expressing an observation or principle generally accepted as wise or true.

1. The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.
2. Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
3. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.
4. Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.
5. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.
6. How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?
7. Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.
8. Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?
9. Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job.
10. No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car.
11. There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.
12. There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4am. Like this: It could be a right number.
13. Think about this: No one ever says “It’s only a game.” when their team is winning.
14. I’ve reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.
15. Be careful reading the fine print. There’s no way you’re going to like it.
16. The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.
17. Do you realize that in about 40 years, we’ll have thousands of OLD LADIES running around with tattoos? (And RAP music will be the Golden Oldies!)
18. Money can’t buy happiness — but somehow it’s more comfortable to cry in a Corvette than in a Yugo.
19. After 50, if you don’t wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead.

Jan21

Yeah Abigail!

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I was flipping channels after our dinner fiasco last night and found the Critic Choice awards. Abigail Breslin from ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ received an award for ‘Best Young Actress’. The teen who played her brother won for ‘Best Young Actor’. The movie won a few more awards too.

Update 1-23

Looks what 10 yr old is a nominee for a Best Actress Oscar!

Could Abigail pull a Tatum O’Neal and win an Oscar as a child?
Woo hoo!

So after church Sean wanted to go to a new Olive Garden down near Christiana, Delaware. When we got there it was mobbed and there was a hour to an hour and 45 minutes wait. Needless to say, we left. All the three other restaurants we tried were packed. It was cold as heck last night and we thought people would stay in their nice warm houses-wrong!  We finally went into a crowded place at 6:45 which was like diner. Some older man was in line and for some reason said; ‘women don’t want to cook anymore’. I thought that was totally uncalled for. What we had was fair-my turkey was dry around the edges. I have a whole turkey to cook down in the freezer and should get that out and make a yummy hot turkey sammie that I won’t let dry out. Is there any good restaurant food anymore?I’m still working on bags and boxes from the basement. I am going through gift wrap, bows, tags, etc. I got rid of a huge bag of squooshed bows, wrinkled wrap and tissue, you name it! I see a slight improvement.

Jan19

Now what?

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One of those weeks that are not very pleasant for my family. Between me and my teeth, my uncle fracturing his right hip and now my mom getting an ‘abnormal’ electrocardiogram as a pretest for her cataract surgery. The doctor wants to compare this cardio to a previous one and possibly she’ll have to have another one. She was a little scared, but she’s under a lot of stress because of my uncle and of course thinking about her surgery. She took heart meds for over 20 years for an extra heartbeat. She doesn’t complain about chest pain or palpations. Please wish her well.

Jan16

Sitting here anxious

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I’ve heard nothing about my uncle’s operation. The poor man (he’ll be 84 in June) has been through so much this past year. He’s got a lot of spunk like his mom did.

~Update-My uncle had his operation about 2 this afternoon. Looks like he’ll have to go in the rehab home again which cost him so much. Mom said he sounded ok, but groggy.

I did take a photo of my acquired JoAnn goodies:
jgoodies.JPG
I especially like the trees with the button and spools for bases. They aren’t straight up and down, but that adds to the cuteness of them. The other things are basically natural looking ornaments.

Sean went back to classes today. He only has to get up early 3 days out of 5-smart thinking. His first class is at 1. He’s a little nervous, but he’ll get back in the groove again.

Jan14

Run around

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Sean and I decided to go down to my Mom’s and to also drop off my brother Ken’s birthday gift (his b/d was on the 8th). So we got there and Mom was just beat. She is getting herself in a terrible stew over her impending cataract surgery coming up on the 25th. She isn’t eating well and since her shopping excursion with us on Wednesday, she’s been mainly laying around. So we went over to Ken’s and he liked his amber guitar lamp I got him even though mom said little Kenny already had one. What’s the difference, I was giving it to big Ken! Ken got the family a new Mac computer with a 22″ monitor-wow-it’s big! I like what we have, though I saw on the screen capture of my old blog that my header was too short which I didn’t even know. Ken put on James Taylor music on the stereo for me which I thought was cute.
Mom didn’t want to go to a nearby shopping center, so we bid her adieu and I went to JoAnn’s and Sean went to Circuit City. Here JoAnn’s was having a big sale (looked like you needed a coupon), but I got adorable Northern Woods ornaments (natural looking) for 75% off. Their pink ticket items were further reduced 50% off. I got an embellishment style cross stitch kit of a koi fish pond for only $5. I think I spent $50 on 30 things-so you know I got some decent buys. I believe the sale is on until tomorrow. I hope to photograph some of the goodies I bought.
We had to drop food and medical stuff off at my Uncle’s before dinner, so we drove in a 50 mile circle going through many towns we haven’t been in for a while. There are a lot of new shopping centers and developments going up. We passed the  restaurant where we had our engagement dinner, a seafood place called Bobby’s 24 yrs ago. Now it’s a Japanese restaurant!
My Uncle is doing okay. Sean thought he didn’t look as good as he looked at the end of December. I had saved and froze for him some portions of chili and spaghetti and Colleen sent him a goodie basket of snacks and cookies plus homemade soup.
Tomorrow is my big dental appointment. I hope to get on here later in the afternoon to update ya’ll.

Jan11

Snoring is an issue

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So I could relate to Dr. ‘McDreamy’ not being able to sleep with Meredith because of her snoring on Grey’s Anatomy tonight. Bri says I snore too, but not like he does when the roof sounds like it will cave in. I always wonder if I will trip over a pile of wood in the morning from all the ‘sawing’ that is going on during the night. Unfortunately, we have had trouble sleeping together for a while. I’m hoping we can get over that. I could relate to Meredith when she said that Derrick sleeping somewhere else causes her to have abandonment issues. (She also has a father that left her). I guess these things make the show seem more real to me.

It was a cleaning day here after my mom left around 2. I thought I had packed up the last of the Christmas stuff (I am sorting older things and consolidating them) when I found yet another two bags of stuff. I found adorable Martha Stewart mini jingle bell candy canes and Christmas trees still wired to their packaging. I also found all of Sean’s Disney characters that I use to collect for him when he was little. You should see the trash for tomorrow! I asked Brian to bring up a crate that was haphazardly resting on two stacked chairs (yep it’s that bad in the cave). The crate contains Halloween stuff! So now I’m going in reverse. I don’t plan to save too much of it, but Bri had a laugh when he said a skeleton hand was sticking out from under the lid of the crate. ; )