Category Archives: Mom

Jan14

A different blogging approach

Posted on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 by Dianne

(Post renamed and edited)

I think I’ll just be posting here mostly with the help of memes-to supplement blah days. I’m having more fun on Facebook and Flickr lately and it’s hard to talk about my trials and tribulations and keep people interested. I’ll still check out my pals’ blogs to see what they are up too, but blogging is getting old to me, and I need a fresher approach. I don’t have the time to read more than a few blogs a day either. I have so much on my plate with the internet. I want to do more organizing in my house and more art projects. Many of my blogger pals aren’t updating that frequently. I’m not on a bunch of specific boards, so my comments here are limited. I worked two hours on this post-not one comment. Ever since then I question why I do this. I thought I had some neat photos to reshow. On the above mentioned places, I get almost immediate feedback, a big plus in my opinion. I’m lucky to get one comment here, unless I do a meme. I guess my blog is too personal? Why do other people get 50 comments about a photo of food and a recipe. I don’t get it? So here’s probably some personal stuff that I may not be including in the future:
I may have to take my mom to the doctor today as she is still sick, though moving around. I don’t like her raspy cough.
I got my tooth fixed yesterday and it’s still in, knock wood.
Maybe I’ll have more to share when the weather gets nicer. : )
Update-I went to my mom’s for a few hours and she looks pretty blah and has an occasional raspy cough. I don’t know if that’s a good thing-I think she needs to use the expectorant I gave her. I made her soup and tuna salad, started her car and took her trash down. I left and ran into Trader Joe’s for dinner-got Mandarin orange chicken and Indonesian rice-good!
Thanks for your comments. I know who my friends are. Though I’d like new ones, I don’t know who you are unless you comment.

Jan12

Typical Monday

Posted on Monday, January 12, 2009 by Dianne

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I am in total agreement with The Carpenters who sang-‘rainy day and Mondays always get me down’.
I got up really early thinking the dentist opened at 8:30 and they would call me then. Seems they do, but they don’t take calls until 9. I called them at 9:30 and got in at 11. Ugh. Too much too soon. And I have to get a crown. Dr. B took too much of my cracked tooth off and the temp popped off at dinner tonight. He said I needed to come back if that happened. I think I’m getting Fixadent! I have to put up with that until the 29th? I’ll be eating pudding and mashed potatoes by then-or going bonkers. And I have so much dental work on the bottom left (the new tooth will go on the upper right), that the food is getting between the gums there. And I won’t discuss the price. I think all my crowns added up would have almost paid for Sean’s used car by now. Funny, one of the dentists has an awesome vintage car he is restoring. I know I helped pay for that.
After I ate soup-which I am hoping didn’t loosen the glue, I sorted out the Christmas lights. Anybody need any? I think I have as many as they do at Longwood Gardens! I then put on my dust mask and worked an hour on my ‘rearranging of the holiday deco on the shelves’ project. Trouble-the dust kept getting in my eyes. Bri knocked a wall down next to the shelves last year (who would build a wall in front of 12 feet of shelves) and just let the dry wall dust go all over my stuff. I didn’t want to touch it, but now I have to as it’s driving me crazy. I managed to irritate my left boo boo ankle and could barely put weight on it when I came upstairs. I have it wrapped up and it’s better tonight.
So, I’m hoping for a better Tuesday! Send me good vibes!
My mom has a terrible chest cold and I feel like I should be doctoring her. All her cold stuff is outdated. She buys 150 pairs of socks, and doesn’t keep her cold meds up to date. I really don’t need a chest cold with a tooth that could pop out at any second. I look like I did at age 8!

Dec31

2008 in a nutshell by Dianne

Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Dianne

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Want to play along? Kelli over at ‘There is no place like home’ is hosting a meme. You take your first blog sentence for each month of 2008 and add a favorite photo from that month too. Be aware that most of my ‘first’ sentences have nothing to do with the photos. :O)
January-

That’s my life for the last few days.(I had been sick and so had Brian)

February-

Let’s start off February with a fun event thanks to Lisa/Oceandreamer’s 2nd time around hosting it.(One World, One Heart blog giveaways)

March-
This is my mom’s birthday last year and my youngest brother is giving her the cupcakes that I made to blow out the candles.(for a Photo Hunt)

April-
It’s 70 degrees outside!!! I’m inside and wearing a sweater though.

May-
Thanks to Scrappy Jessi for hosting this fun event.(showing our childhood toys)

June-
Like I did last night!

July-
I really did see a camel! (a place on our road had several exotic pets or boarders)

Strasberg, PA 7-30-08, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

August-
Today I’m sharing my baby book.

September-
I can’t believe it’s September already!

October-
….the cataracts are gone! Well, that may be so for my mom in a few hours.(My mom had both her eyes done, and one got an infection, so she had to have a third operation!)

Celebrating after 28 yrs!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

November-
This is from the Philadelphia Flower Show 2006.(We try to go every year since I am so snap happy)

Grant Park and a new beginning!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

December-
I just realized that I was pretty much on the go for over a week, since my birthday on the 19th.
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Dec31

New Year’s Eve

Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 by Dianne

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Don’t forget to leave a comment to try and win my necklace above!

Not much going on…making more cookies as my nerves are bad.

Chocolate Cherry Cordials Thumbprint cookies (made with the same named Hershey Kisses-got half off at Wally World last night too) Tastes like little brownies with a hint of creamy cherry goodness.

Bri’s dad went out this morning to get his hair cut, didn’t call us and we thought the worse when we tried to call him for over an hour. Bri was on his way over there when he called us-finally. We got Bri on the cellphone before he got too far.
My mom woke me up this morning thinking I forgot to call her as her clock said 11 am and it was a bit after 9 am. Yikes!
We plan to get them both ‘Life Alerts’ soon. Too much worrying.
Bri is going to get me some Arbor Mist to toast in the new year. I sure need some!
Update-my Arbor Mist is chilling and Bri also got me some Peach Fuzzy Navel Wine cooler. : )

I had purchased two orchids from a Hawaiian seller at Longwood Gardens in March. One didn’t make it, but lookie here-one is blooming again!

Dec29

Sniffing out sales

Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 by Dianne

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You usually score better at after Christmas sales, the day after the holiday. But we found some decent things, mostly for 50-75% off today. After I got my hair done, we headed to JoAnn’s. Brother #2 had given me a gift card. Most of their Christmas stuff was picked over. I did manage to spend much more than $25 though. I try to be selective, and I know I will be donating most of a box of old holiday stuff this year. I got nicer things at our local Peebles, but I got some crafty things too. Then we went to a local mall. Sean was along too. We ate at Carrabba’s and then went in Macy’s. This was a store with a slim Christmas stock. I did get 4 gorgeous dinner plates that have realistic Christmas plants and flowers on them-with a gold trim too-for $7.99 each, they were priced at $20 each! I’ll use them for New Year’s dinner. I had a Bath and Body Works gift card (thanks to Karin) and got a plug in scent dispenser, one for the van and lotions. We went into Yankee Candle and they had nice things for cheap. I even got Sean a trio of gel scent hang-ups for his car. He is using the Macintosh apple one right now which smells so good!

Finally, we hit a Walgreen’s on the way home. I was looking for pink and purple lights (Easter is coming up) and ended up with a 6.5′ tree for my mom-pre-lit with clear lights for $10 and some little pre-lit pine trees for me-$5. Not sure where I will put them-probably the family room. The bows and wrap were dirt cheap too. Got my brother a Disney tree for $2.50-though it’s really a Minnie Mouse tree-opps-but the little ornies are shaped like the mouse ears. He and his family were just down there a few weeks ago. My brother wore a huge top hat with Mickey bursting through the front of it at our family gathering that he purchased in Florida. I didn’t get the pink or purple lights, maybe I’ll try another Walgreens. : )

My new angel-she’s like a snow globe inside-not bad for $3.25!

Happy but tired.

Dec26

Family gathering

Posted on Friday, December 26, 2008 by Dianne

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My family had a get together tonight so we were all together (ALL brothers too) for a dinner and gift exchanging. I was happy my mom had all her kids and grandchildren together.

Here’s a photo of my 9.5 yr old niece and me:

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and my mom and her oldest grandson, David age 23:

Last night I was wondering if my father-in-law was enjoying the steak dinner I sent over. He usually calls and thanks me for any food I send over. Right before Brian and Sean got back, he called not to thank me for any of the oodles of food I sent, but to say he almost choked on the steak! I felt terrible, but he must have put it in the microwave to reheat and made it tough. I wished I had sent it a bit under cooked now. Then I thought well maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned it because it was Christmas and he was okay. It ruined the rest of my evening. He does have these choking episodes once in a while, was probably starving as it was 7 pm or later. Yikes!
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Please go check out the gorgeous home of Jessi-she must be a decorator for a magazine or something fabulous. I was blown away!

Dec16

A change in the weather

Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 by Dianne

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Seems like almost everyone in blogland is getting some kind of rain, sleet or snow today. It held off for a while, but the temps are dropping to the 30s. Yesterday it got to 66 degrees! It seems to be bothering my sinuses. Bri says he feels like he has a cold too. I heard general stuffiness all around me in Walgreen’s yesterday. Speaking of Walgreen’s-they have some neat holiday decor-from purple, pink and red/green lights on the string-two for $5 to fun Frosty the Snowman and Peanut comics stand ups. I bought the red and green lights and a set of three light up large Christmas balls then promptly decorated the front edges in anticipation of Sean’s arrival. He got home right when I was wrestling with an outdoor extension cord that was buried under stuff piled in the shed. Bri isn’t one to stack nicely.
Of course I was so happy to see him. He made good time-3 hours, but said the traffic was rough.
Mom has a follow up eye appt today, so I hope she’ll just get rain. We plan to take her to a wholesale club tomorrow or the next day and help her put up her tree. She wasn’t feeling well at all yesterday.
Today I plan to do some gift wrapping. I have almost everything I wanted to get-not a lot this year, but enough. One of Bri’s gifts is on back order, so I may try and find if locally.
Stay warm and dry!
~~Thanks to all who stopped by and looked at my slideshow yesterday~~ I plan to check more out too and leave comments.
~Update-Bri came home and showed me an obituary in the local paper, it was of a teacher from Sean’s elementary school that he had briefly in first grade. She was only 52. I left this condolence-
When we think back on Sean’s time at New Garden, Vicky is definitely a stand-out in our memories. She was so sweet and her niceness was contagious. Sean had her briefly for a teacher, so we always chatted when we saw each other over the years he attended the school and if we ran into her at the store,etc. She touched many lives in a positive way, I’m glad we knew her.

Dec12

The tree is up-the tree is up!

Posted on Friday, December 12, 2008 by Dianne

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Brian got the tree out of the attic and it sets up quickly. I had trouble locating the multi-color lights I planned to use. Over the past few years, I’ve done pink and white, white and blue and red and white, so this is back to our ‘traditional’ look.
I met my mom at the Farmer’s Market, which was crowded and then thinned down. First I stopped at the TD Bank and got $117 for the coins I had. It kept telling me I had a lot of coins-no kidding! I split it up and saved $50 for Bri, but used the rest at the market. What a great feeling! I got mostly stocking stuffers for Sean. I have to watch what my mom picks up, so that makes me a little nervous. Got lots of yummy candies and Amish made salads, etc. for tonight and the weekend. We had pulled pork on rolls with fruit salad tonight. It was so much better than what Ruby’s passes off as pulled pork (I had it last Saturday and it was all dried out on top). Mom bought us half a chocolate cake-yum! I bought a little red poinsettia that looks like it has pink spatters on it and a new Christmas cactus-one of my favorite plants.
While in the end store I saw someone who looked familiar. I asked if she had gone to my high school and she said yes and I asked what year and she said ’77’! It was Lynn my old classmate shopping with her daughter. It’s so ironic as I am friending so many of my old chums on Face Book and Bri and I just went to that get-together last week. : ) I told her to come next time. She was a brain and great tennis player in high school.
I got an ornament exchange from Peggy in NC today-a great surprise! She sent a penguin made out of a light bulb-adorable!

She makes soap and lotion from her goat’s milk, so she sent me some. I’ll have to take photos tomorrow. I have her ornies almost ready to go. I had to make a few too.
Tomorrow I’ll decorate the tree-can’t wait. I hope my back holds up!

Dec8

Now where is that?

Posted on Monday, December 8, 2008 by Dianne

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I spent way too much time looking for things today. I had a rebate offer to complete and looked everywhere except the most obvious place, a little receipt basket I use before the receipts go in to storage. Please don’t ask about the receipts that I was going through last week-ok-well…I gave it up for a while. I’m halfway done though and need a container for the ones I have rubber banded and separated.

I don’t know what I did with the handmade calendar for December that I made last year. I remember taking it down and folding it up-that’s it. And my only Santa cross stitch pieces are MIA. Gotta look harder.

Mom continues to improve, though her eye hurts. She is bummed as she hasn’t done any shopping. I told her to get out some catalogs and shop that way! She seems to need the tactile sensation of handling the merchandise. Once a shopper, always a shopper. I helped Bri to set up a Amazon account and he did pick out things off my wishlist. I already got my new car coat today-a pretty lavender with a chartreuse lining. I tried it outside in our cold weather today and it felt good.

Slowly decorating….hope to get the tree up over the weekend.

I had a little mishap Friday- I tried to climb on a child’s chair I have at a old-fashioned desk to adjust Christmas lights in the front window, slipped and made a 4″ bruise on my right leg and have a groin pull-lucky me. It bothers me enough to make me feel grouchy. I will hang in there.

Bri’s car is in the shop-it needs a major tune-up! So I won’t have a car tomorrow either. He could have taken it for a tune-up months earlier, but had to ‘wait’ until it had a hard time starting. Bummer.