Have a lovely springy Easter today.
Here’s a cute share-when Sean was about 3 we were dying Easter eggs in the kitchen. He was really getting into it. His dad was videotaping him too. One time he touched the hot egg to his little chin-ouch. But what stands out about that day is that when I held up a dyed egg to show him he said ‘I’m so proud of you.’ He said prowd. That is one of our sweetest Easter memories.

I have most of the living room rearranged for the kitchen cabinet delivery and yes, I did it by myself. Brian will be taking down the dining room table tomorrow night. I asked Bri to get me a few more booze boxes before he went over to see his dad Saturday and he couldn’t get the small ones, just these big egg boxes from the grocery store-I don’t need biggie ones. I tossed most of them on the back patio.
I had to get out of the house Saturday-just to the yard and I was raking leaves from way under the heavenly scented viburnum bush and ‘ouch’ I yet again did a number on my tummy muscles. I know it’s probably mostly from bailing water from the pond. So I had to ice myself and use the heating pad but it’s still hurting. I did use the shovel to dig up some bleeding hearts that have been hiding under an azalea. I’ve been wanting to move it for years. I actually separated it into about 6 plants. Sean dug 4 of the new holes for them in my woodland garden. I can proudly say that most of the plants in that bed came from around the yard.
I got a few rose bushes for $2.50 each and decided to plant them. I like roses, but most of them don’t like me. They actually look good this year as we had a mild winter. Come to think of it, all 4 waterlilies made it too. I was giving all the plants a dose of MiracleGro for good measure.
Friday I cooked a turkey breast (that was a freebie) and some potatoes (for potato salad) so Bri could take his dad some. I really don’t want to go over to his house because he is so touchy after that episode in December. He called here and left a message thanking me for the food and telling me I was welcome to come over anytime. So when was I not welcome?
Bri was upset because his dad told him his car was running funny. Brian went to investigate, and it was out of power steering fluid. A lightbulb in a ceiling fan blew out and when Bri was there his dad touched a wire to metal and tripped the circuit breaker! He could have gotten a good shock…or worse.
We were going to church tonight and got there and there was no 5:00 mass, so we have to go tomorrow morning. We decided to eat at an Italian restaurant where we use to go all the time and they were closed down! We headed for Ruby Tuesdays and then Kmart. I got some pansies for my mom, seeds and a few bulbs.
Mom called when we got home and said her boarder Jim threw away all her Easter goodies for the grandkids! All the bags were gone. She is very upset. We are going down in that area to give Tori her belated birthday gifts and give the kids Easter stuff from us. Mom doesn’t want us to come over. She called here twice about the mishap, so is she trying to bum me out for Easter?
Crossing fingers for a good week-the BIG week coming up. I can’t believe it’s finally here.

22 yrs ago I was a nervous Nelly, thinking of getting married and ‘settling down’. No, I was not a wild girl, Brian was my first real boyfriend. I had crushes on guys, dated a few, but no one came close to Brian. And we are still together after almost 24 yrs. He was my beacon in the night. I thank God for him and I need to always appreciate what he has done for me.

We just got back from an early anniversary dinner at the same place where we ate for Valentine’s Day. I had a craving for a mushroom burger, so we went there. Our 22nd anniversary is tomorrow, but it’s still Lent, so we ate out tonight. We used the camera phone again:

I am getting excited about the kitchen! I just want everything to run smoothly. I have a feeling they aren’t going to like the way the basement looks. I did a lot of moving stuff around down there last month, and I need to do yard work this month.

I have the pond and the waterlily garden up and running as we had ‘Florida weather’ today.

They was a bit mucky and the pump wouldn’t work at first, but I got the pond working. There were tons of mosquito critters in both. I am anxiously awaiting the dark so I can see if my various solar items will light up.
My mom has a cyst or something in the palm of her right hand. She was at the doctor today for a check-up and she needs to get steroid shots there so her middle finger doesn’t completely bend toward her palm like is starting to do now. She is a leftie, so she doesn’t know why she got the cyst there. She is happy that she weighs 120! Man, did you see her in the photo below? I bet she weighed under 100 there. I did not inherit her skinny gene.

Mom-my always thin ma.

Mom-mom Ruth (who helped raise the 4 of us) and Pop-pop Alan (who passed away when I was 6 weeks old).

Having a John Deere mower sitting in my shed made me go look at his bio on the web. It doesn’t mention about him having a brother, but maybe two sisters (births seem not to be registered at that time).
The old family story went like this-that John’s brother (my gr, gr uncle supposedly) went to see him and that he was not interested in getting into the business and became disowned by John. I forget the name of the so-called brother, but William is standing out in my head, and that was John’s father, so why couldn’t he have a William, Jr. ? All I know is that my great grandmother was Lillian Deere and they decided to pronounce it ‘Da-ray’ like the Europeans. Gr grandmom was born in 1871, so that makes sense as the elder Deeres were born in around the 1840s. My relatives never had any big bucks either.

That’s the amount of leaves my husband said he cleaned up in the fall. No way! I was just out there cleaning up more-it seems to never end! I was waiting on Brian’s new ‘toy’, a John Deere riding mower. Too bad I am not ‘in’ with my long lost family. (My gr, gr uncle was John Deere and that was my gr grandmom’s maiden name). It’s a snazzy looking mower. The guy had trouble getting it out of the cage and started it up with no gas in it. Now we have 3 riding mowers, the other two are Sears mowers bought back in ’89. One use to belong to Bri’s dad. How do you dispose of old mowers?
My tummy muscles seem so weak this year. I guess it’s basically moving stuff now stop since December. And now the yard clean up. I so hoped for a flat tummy-but that’s not going to happen.
Off to get my hair done in a few. Man, it needs it.

Thanks to Karin for this:

German rabbit breeder Karl Szmolinsky presents his giant male breeding rabbit ‘Robert’ in Eberswalde, eastern Germany, February 2006. In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit.(AFP/File/Michael Urban)

I could not believe my eyes when Bri and I went into the local Big Lots store last night and there was a huge display of discounted books-mostly hardbacks-nice books-like cross stitch books-and all for $3-5!! There was only a few of each, so I got the ones I didn’t think I had. Most are Kooler Studio-fun designs for all seasons and Christmas ones. I think I found one Marie Barber book also. I have a ribbon embroidery book for mom and a thank you book for a friend who sent me some nice Easter gifts. I am excited because the only bookstore around here is almost half an hour away. We do have a resale book shop in the next town, but they moved and I would have to tackle lots of traffic and a tight parking lot to go there.
Bri just left to look at riding mowers as it’s the last day for the no payment for a year promo at the Home Depot. He was not happy to find this out as he is the #1 procrastinator in the family. I am still after him to get a new digital camera with a better zoom. Look how long I had to wait for the kitchen!
Late last night I was proofreading Sean’s stem cell research paper. It needed some defining and he was not happy that I was suggesting these at midnight. I told him I wanted to see my TLC shows first.
Not much else is new. We now have the microwave set up in the dining room. We’ll probably take down the table (a small round one) next weekend and move the love seat in the family room.
Off to the grocery store in a few hours.