Category Archives: family

Apr12

Lots to do

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We have to get serious about getting our summer clothes out and ready for our trip in 3 weeks. I have a few new pieces, but I need my old, kick around in stuff too. Sean is really excited about this trip and I pray things will run smoothly. I am feeling really guilty about leaving the cat here by himself for almost 4 days. I can’t count on anyone to watch him either. I have a food dispenser, so he won’t starve. He has a window perch which is nicely padded. I will turn on a battery radio for his listening pleasure. He will be lonely, but he isn’t lonely that often. He was an outdoor boy when we first adopted him, so he should be use to being independent.
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I was so thrilled my niece Tori, pictured below loved her gifts from me. She even got her own tv and chair from her mom and dad and was happy about them, but went right back to the dolls. I got her these mini-dolls called ‘Shorties‘ and she played with them the entire time I was there and ignored the other toys. I’m wondering if she is playing with them today? They reminded me of ‘Little Kiddles’ from my childhood and they were really popular. I also gave her the little fairy and bunny cross stitch I turned into my first quilt square. Everyone was impressed by it. The quilt part was so-so, at least it looks handmade.
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We stopped by my mom’s house first and it looked like clothes had exploded in her living room! My brother is helping her clean out some bedrooms and I think she is quickly moving clothes so he won’t toss them. I could not believe how many clothes one person had. Now I know where a lot of her moola went. I like clothes too, but I have donated tons of them to charity within the last few years.
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Not only did we see the fox the other day, but we saw some gorgeous swans on the way to Brian’s dad’s house on Sunday. I would love to have a huge pond with swans-they are so elegant.
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Brian and I celebrate our 21st wedding anniversary on Thursday. We can’t believe it’s been that long. Goes to show you how quickly the years pass by.

Mar31

The clean up begins….and a unexpected phone call

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Yes, you did feel the earth move today!! We were out cleaning out the flowerbeds of leaves and twigs today as it was nice and around 60 degrees. I got both fellas to help me in a few places. I wish one of them would blow the leaves out of the beds in the autumn. It would make a lot less work in the spring. I was around all those damp leaves and mold and so far the only reaction I’ve had was after dinner when I sneezed about 6 times in a row. There’s a ton more to do, the little pond is loaded with leaves on the bottom. I’m wondering if I have any ‘pet’ tadspoles in there. The spring peepers (Sean hates it when I call them that) are really ‘chirping’ lately. A nice ‘find’ was a bunch of crocuses under the chestnut tree. I must have gotten some as an Easter gift from years past and they got dumped there, so they were popping up in purples and white.
I’ve been in a dilemma since last night. Colleen, my sister-in-law was looking for a picture of her daughter Tori from her 1st birthday (needed it for a school scrapbook). She couldn’t find any! So I started to look, and then I looked some more. Finally, I came to the last stack thinking they were newer photos and there were the 1st birthday photos! Colleen didn’t take many shots I guess as she was in most of the ones I had! So I hope they were able to save the ones I sent through email.
While I was looking through the photos, I ran across one of our friend Kathy from Tennessee. About 3 hours later, out of the blue she called to wish Brian a belated Happy Birthday. Kathy shares the same birthday as me. It was nice to chat with her. She asked me if I was going to ever get my BS degree now that Sean was getting one, and I told her that I didn’t want to be a teacher and was happy with what I was doing now. Some career woman sure don’t understand us domestic goddesses!

Mar28

Interesting Easter

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It was the first time in many months that my two brothers, me and our families were together in one room. The blue eyes in that room were blinding! Out of 11 people, I have hazel eyes, Brian has green eyes and my brother Ken has brown eyes. So you see what the dominant gene is in this family.
Before we went to my brother’s house, we went to ‘brunch’ at a local restaurant that we had never eaten in. As soon as I walked in the door my throat became itchy and was that way the entire 45 minutes we were there. Seems the bar was open on Easter Sunday. That is tacky in my opinion. Along with a bar comes cigarette smoke. That was my problem. Brian and I thought we were going to a buffet.It clearly stated on the newspaper flyer that it was a ‘brunch’, so they had about 15 things on the menu. We all picked omelettes. When we got the food, I was a bit repelled by the smell of the onions in the overcooked red skin potatoes. There were mostly skins and I didn’t want to eat them. The omelettes had a ‘gas’ taste from the stove. It’s very hard to mess up a meal like this, but they did. No butter for the toast either. They won’t see us back and I feel like complaining about their lousy food.
We went to my younger brother’s house. It had been his son Kenny’s birthday on the 23rd and I had gifts for him and Easter things for him and his sister Tori. My older brother and his family stopped by too. My older brother has let his hair go almost completely white and I was a bit shocked when I saw him. Sean enjoyed hanging out with his cousins. I was always so happy that at least he saw them once in a while.
We dropped by my mom’s and Dave and his family came over there too. I threw Dave some ‘bait’ and he started teasing me like he has done all our lives. Like, saying ‘you can eat a hoagie in the rain’, etc. What really peeved me was him putting down Universal Studios saying it was a ‘glorified Great Adventure’ when he’s never been there. I think he is just jealous we are going to Florida. That’s a brother for you.

Dec27

Ahhh…some quiet time here…for a while

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Well the guys went looking for a computer desk and it’s ‘me’ time right now. No cookie baking, cleaning, etc. My time to surf the web and do a little blogging. I am dying to hit a few after Christmas sales, and I may….afterwards.
Christmas Eve and Christmas were nice. Not really hectic. We didn’t have to go out on the 24th until 4 pm. We then went to my mom’s and I basically had to redo the lights on her tree. My hair totally fell out and I had spent like an hour with the steam rollers! Mom’s house was a disaster. She can’t seem to allot time for cleaning much. She only gets moving around 11 or 12 every day. We told her not to worry about gifts and she got me like 6 tops that I really didn’t need. We went out to our favorite local restaurant which is conveniently up the road from my mom’s house. Her boarder and friend Jim came and somehow I got stuck sitting next to him and not my son or husband. He gets really tight wadded and pointed to the children’s hamburger and wanted to order it! Craphead. I think this will be the last year he will come along. His room is a mess and the rest of the place is starting to look bad.
We went over to my brother’s house to see them which was nice. Their house looks beautiful as they did a reversal making the dining room the living room (now the eating area is closer to the kitchen where he knocked down a doorway). My little brother amazes me with his talents. He does tend to get overwhelmed at times and takes it out on my mom, etc. Next he wants to redo his kitchen-just what I want to do next in my house. Bet he beats us to it!
That night we got home at 10:30 and decided to find a midnight mass service to attend. We went to a church in nearby Delaware and it was a nice change. We got to lounge around the next morning instead of running out the door to our church. Christmas was still a bit hectic for me as I made a big roast beef dinner. We gave each other thoughtful gifts, my favorite was an amethyst crucifix from Brian and Elton John’s 4 set DVD from Sean.
Sean and I went over to see my ailing uncle and his wife yesterday. Mom, Ken and his family went too. It was a nice visit and the kids opened their gifts from us over there. Tori went ga ga over a Barbie Swan Lake musicbox I gave her! I love when that happens. I got it for half nothing at a Kohl’s sale last year.
Well, that’s the last few days in a nutshell. Glad it’s over, but miss it already.

Sep28

Throw us a line…there’s a river out there!

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Jeanne strikes havoc in the tri-state area! What a night! It’s been raining pretty steadily since around 2 pm or so. And it’s after 11 in the evening and it’s still raining. We had a little water in the basement. Less than expected, but in different spots. One is near the heater-not good. We have a call to the Amish roofer who put up the roof last year. I sure hope he doesn’t have to go down the basement. It’s still a disaster down there, especially where he needs to look. I doubt he will come in. He’ll probably just seal the flashing again. And the other water was outside our finished room when it was usually in it. We added dirt along that side of the house so maybe that helped a bit. We just swept the water into a hole cut out of the corner of the basement. There’s lots of flooded out roads and a few ‘small’ tornadoes touched down in New Jersey and Delaware. We think the end of our road is flooded out as there is a creek there. There’s 6 inches of rain in Wilmington, about 15 or so miles away.
I made an early dinner of beef stew just in case we lost power. It only flickered a bit. Brian was a little spazzed and was up and down checking things all night. I tried to work on a quilt square and I had one color done in the middle design of a beehive and it wasn’t centered. So that got ripped out along with some lettering. One step forward, two steps back.
My brother and his family made it home safe from Disney World this morning around 2:30 am. They spent the few days they were stuck there in their hotel room eating and watching tv. Both my brother and his wife had to go to work today, but in the afternoon.
Hope all is well in the morning. Sean is waiting for his first delay. As a senior he doesn’t have to make up the missed days.

Aug31

Facts about my hometown of Media, PA

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Thanks to Mindy for giving me this idea
Media is the county seat of Delaware and incorporated as a borough March 10, 1850.The land on which Media is located was bought by settlers from William Penn.It was largely farmland until the courthouse was erected in 1851 and the commercial districts grew around the county offices.
It use to be a famous summer resort for well off Philadelphians. Media grew as a thriving business and governmental area that it is today.
Some famous residences old and new:
abolitionist Lucretta Mott
William Jennings Bryan
President Zachary Taylor and Mrs. Ida McKinley had Media connections
Tug McGraw, Mike Schmidt and Darrin Daulton of the Phillies baseball team all made Media their hometown at one time.
The following famous people went to my high school Penncrest:
Curt Weldon-US House of Reps
Bill Whitaker-Emmy winning CBS-tv news journalist
Elizabeth Ann Crumb-Tony nominated Broadway actress
Todd Robinson-(my class of ’77) Emmy winner for his direction of The Legend of Billy the Kid. Todd also wrote the screen play for the movie White Squall.

And in closing, Media is ‘Everyone’s hometown’ (slogan)