Category Archives: family

May20

Life is blooming

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Life is blooming Collage Card, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I really look forward to ‘life blooming’ this time of year. From looking out the window at bleak and brown in the winter to green and growing in the spring just makes me happier! We haven’t had the sunniest of weeks this week. I did very little gardening, but also got to do a few tasks around the house.
I think on Sunday I’ll dig around the basement for a few ‘fairy garden’ props. Really tiny props for really tiny gardens…you’ll see.
So I got a bug punch and wanted to use some, hence this card. I also was making a bug related card to swap with a friend-it’s all hand drawn and I’ll share when she says she got it-it’s nice to get a surprise, don’t you think.
I’ll be taking my camera to the wedding tomorrow-it should be beautiful!
BTW-my allergies seem better, but still achy, but more isolated, so maybe the old medicine was causing more issues.

May13

Goodreads

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I want to recommend the above link as I’ve gotten more into reading this last year. I’m trying to remember all the books I’ve enjoyed over the years and am up to 45 or so. I know I’ve read lots more. You can link to your friends and see what they are reading and bookmark some you want to read. Pretty neat. I’ve read almost every book by Amy Tan, John Irving and Nicholas Sparks. : )
We had really gorgeous weather this week-not too hot or cold. Today was really the first day it was a bit cloudy and it took the sun forever to peek out in the afternoon. I’ve been doing a little of this and that. I was inside more today with the clothes sorting business-that twice a year drudgery! I make myself fill up a trash bag to donate. I seem to get ‘pets’ clothes I keep for many, many years. I finally stuck an old gray sweater in the donate bag. I have 5 Hefty storage bags of just tops and a few sweaters. I pack lightly, whereas Sean jams his bags full. Bri never does his clothes without help and his armoire is a sight-jammed packed. I have lots of tops in mine, but they are mostly color coordinated and nicely folded. I have the pants and jammies to do. The whole house suffers when big mama is digging in the flower beds!
We have a luncheon for a baby christening to attend on Sunday which is about an hour away. I asked the mom if we could skip the christening itself. When Sean was baptized all those years ago, we had a luncheon and lots of people just went to that. I am still waiting on the address to the place as the invite got lost in the mail. I got little Eleanor (Nora) Rosemarie some cute outfits and I did take photos to share. I also have outside photos to share too. It’s suppose to rain off and on over the weekend.
Wallflower
Two-toned Wallflowers!
New Glazing Ball and Fuchsia Millions of Bells
New Glazing Ball and Millions of Bells

Apr9

Dianne and birthday girl Tori

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Dianne and Tori, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

It was nice spending some time with my only niece tonight and our family. I can’t believe Tori is 12 yrs old already!
Her mom made her a beautiful 4 layer chocolate cake, plus she had a BBQ, her choice of dinner. I like to take photos of ‘the next generation’ when all 5 of them are together.
I gave her a silver heart necklace with interchangeable hearts-like turquoise and pink quartz, etc.; an Aeropostale t-shirt and an assortment of antibacterial lotions from Bath and Beyond. She liked them.
Singing happy birthday
Tori opening gifts from us
Mom and Dianne
My mom's grandchildren

Mar23

Thumbs up!

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A few hours ago, I went back to the eye doctor and a young man (not sure if he was a doctor or assistant) not much older than Sean looked at my optic nerves with a fancy machine. I had to stare at a green star twice while an infrared line went down the screen for 5 seconds. He said everything looked fine, no glaucoma! I feel truly blessed, but also feel for my mom who just had her umpteenth needle in her eye yesterday. She still drives and plans to come out here on Friday. Unfortunately most of us will get cataracts and glaucoma sometime down the road.

Happy 15th to my third nephew Kenny! He’s a talented guitarist, artist and now ‘remodeling’ an old Ford Falcon and doing a great job with that. All that talent started to shine when he was just a little tyke.
Sad to hear of the passing of Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. She said she lived her life to the fullest when she was well. She sure did after having 7 husbands! She was a beautiful woman with her violet color eyes and perfect face. I thought ‘National Velvet’ was one of her best movies.
Speaking of movies, my favorite two were named ‘Best in Film’ on ABC last night. ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’. : ) They were both made in 1939, 20 yrs before I was born.

Mar14

Sorting the hoarding

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I guess that’s what I can call what I am doing to all the paper stuff I’ve accumulated over the last 4 yrs. It took getting a new desk to get serious about going through the stuff. I’m moving along and when working on an ATC yesterday, I knew where the paper was that I wanted to use and found some neat metal strips that I used that were buried in a bag. When I finish the scraps, I will move on to stickers. They were separated nicely in plastic folders with pockets, but one is bulging, so I have to divide that. Unfortunately my back is complaining from sitting on the floor too long. I can’t see to learn my lesson in that respect.
Tomorrow I do the liquid diet. To tell you the truth, if my back is too bad, I don’t know how I can go through that or the procedure. Sometimes my back greatly improves in one day, so that’s what I’m hoping for as I postponed the procedure twice now. Last night we ran down to the store and I got the ‘yummy’ jello and beef broth for tomorrow.
Does daylight savings bother you at all? I do prefer catching a few more winks than losing them.
Brian’s dad sent home a few things he found that he didn’t want anymore-most are things that we had given them for gifts that they never took out of the box to use. I hate that. I do like the pink glass bowl, so glad to get that back. Then he emptied out the remaining jewelry in her dresser-lots of loose earrings and broken chains. We kind of wish he’d do the garage. That will require a dumpster and at almost 88, he waited too long to do it by himself. My cousin is in the process of cleaning out my uncle’s house. She sent stuff home with my brother, most of which they tossed (expired cans of food!) and cassette tapes. Mom wanted her brother’s pipes and an owl picture he painted which she got. She also got the cap he use to wear all the time. Mom thinks that C. hasn’t even gotten to stuff in the rec room, many are probably old family things. I do have two carved birds and a painting Uncle Don made and gave me, so that is nice.
I better take it easy today and if I sort, spread it out on the dining room table. ; )

Mar12

Happy Birthday JT

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Couldn’t let the day go back without wishing my lifelong favorite singer a happy 63rd!



President Barack Obama presenting the National Medal of Arts to James for his outstanding achievements and support of the arts (along with 9 others). The medal was presented by the president in the East Room ceremony at the White House. Mrs. Michelle Obama was in attendance. The National Medal of Arts is a White House initiative managed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Each year, the NEA organizes and oversees the National Medal of Arts nomination process and notifies the artists of their selection to receive a medal, the nation’s highest honor for artistic excellence.
Jenn arriving at her party
I had a nice time at the bridal shower of Brian’s ‘2nd cousin’ (I guess), his first cousin Kathi’s daughter who graduated the year ahead of Sean from high school, though they are only 3 months apart. The day Jenn was born, Brian and I were taking the tour of the maternity ward. There was Kathi laying on a gurney all blissful from having her Jennifer. Hard to believe she’ll be a married woman at the end of May. I took some photos, but many are dark and I have to fix them. She loved the apron I bought her from etsy.com (colors go with her dishes) and the glass beverage dispenser (two glass jars that hold 17 cups each). The ‘theme’ of the shower was suppose to be bbq or party. A few gave her some wine. I thought my gifts looked pretty to match the wedding colors.
Collins Cousin Bridal Shower gifts
Pretty bride and bridesmaid. Her sister is in white and her cousin is next to her sister.
Jenn and the bridal party
We had some yummy quiche, tea sandwiches and ambrosia. Kathi lives right down off our or road, yet we don’t see them that often and we are the same age. She works outside the home and I don’t.
Love Cake
Fireplace mantel in kitchen
Kathi loves to decorate her mantel and home.
Mike and Jenn got engaged in front of the ‘Love’ sculpture in Philadelphia, hence the “Love” cake.
Jenn in the apron I gave her
Jenn in the apron I gave her.
I’m waiting on Brian and Sean to come back from church.

Feb21

Sew Cute

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Sew Cute 4" x 4" Collage Card, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I made this card many days ago and just added the buttons yesterday. It’s not really involved, but I do think it’s ‘sew cool’. I’m anxious for Brian to assemble my new Ikea wall desk

so I can do lots of sorting of my papers and things and get better organized by color and design. It’s crazy the amount of scrapbook paper I have! I do like to create my own backgrounds too.
Sean and I went do to my hometown today as I get my hair done down there every 5 weeks or so. Sean hadn’t seen my mom for over a month and we wanted to treat her to dinner, so we hit ‘The Olive Garden’. Mom enjoyed her steak dinner. Then we went to Borders (I half look at books now, I have such a collection that I want to downsize); Pier One (fell in love with a high back love seat in Paisley brown and blue) Almost $700, I can dream. : )

and finally Macy’s where they are marking down fall and winter clothes for 75-80% off! I am going to go through my armoire and get rid of things I haven’t wore for a while as I think I bought 10 new tops in the last week or so. It’s really the only time I indulge-when the sales are this good. : )
It’s snowing here again-we may get 4-8″-dang it! We took the Mariner there and it was doing good on the snow blown roads. We never had a SUV before. My almost 15 yr old nephew liked it and the interior which is black and beige. I’ll have to take photos of ‘Stroud’ to show you.
I dont’ know if I’ll get to the P.O. tomorrow , Carole, it may be Wednesday. I do know you have a lot of OW-OH mail to look forward to.

Dec18

Photo Hunt-Male

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The young-uns, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I come from a family with lots of males…I have three brothers-the oldest has two sons, I have one son and the youngest has a son…and a daughter…we are the only girls for 40 years!
Here is a shot of most of the guys and that sweet girl there (her mama is down the table more) at a pizza party we had for Sean for his Penn State graduation last year. All the kids in this generation have the sparkling blue eyes.
And right in his house it’s 3 guys and a gal-even the cat is a boy!

Dec17

Just had to get the shopping out of the way

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I dragged Brian to the grocery store and kind of knew this one place would be fairly quiet-I think I saw maybe 5 or so other shoppers. There are a few things I have to pick up at the closer store, but I got our meat for Christmas-prime rib! Yum! And tomorrow I think I’ll make some French onion soup as the first course (or I may do some cookies and then the soup). We had some of the above soup at Brian’s reunion and I forgot how yummy it is. I’ll do some kind of pasta dish for the night before. We’ll be seeing my mom that night and I’ll bring the pot down to share with her and whoever is there to eat it! We’ll drop by my brother’s house too. We have been going to midnight mass at a church nearby. Our own church doesn’t do it-I don’t know why, but to me it welcomes Christmas and it is indeed a special time.
I was cleaning more today and fighting with my sinuses too. I’m not allowed to take Sudafed with the HBP med I am on. That’s not good as now I have to do more than I use to have to do.
I found a photo of Sean, my nephew and Uncle Don taken about 6 years ago. Half the family had gone over to give gifts and to visit Uncle Don and Aunt M as she was still living there at the time. Speaking of Aunt M., she will be 95 tomorrow (in a nursing home). Uncle didn’t look so hot in at old photo. Mom said she misses talking to him on a daily basis. That’s exactly what I missed when my Grandmom got too feeble to answer the phone.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend. I’ll get outside one of these nights for some house shots. It’s just to dang cold!

Dec8

Obit for my uncle

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Written by me as requested my mom-submitted to Delco Times:

Donald A. Stroud, 87, of West Chester, PA passed away at Paoli Hospital, on December 7, 2010. Mr. Stroud was a 13 year survivor of prostate cancer. He was musical and artistic throughout his lifetime. He taught music and was the musical coordinator (at his retirement) at Ridley School District, Delaware County for 36 years. Through that time he influenced many musicians and gained lifelong friendships. When he retired he enjoyed woodworking and carved many intricate and realistic birds. He enjoyed fishing and his self constructed cabin in Delaware. His home was important to him and his yard was always immaculate.

Mr. Stroud is survived by his wife of 51 years, Mildred, two daughters Carol Samuelson and Marjorie Lourdes; a daughter who predeceased him 1-8-10, Dorothy Rogers; 5 grandchildren, great grandchildren, his sister Jeanne S. Knowles and her 4 children along with other family and friends. A loving and special thanks to Dr. Nat Shmuckler and his wife Joanne for all they did for Don over the last few years. Interment and a service are pending.