Category Archives: Sean

Aug9

Big box heaven

Posted on by
Standard

I never saw a guy get so excited about big boxes of food like Sean was in BJs Wholesale Club today! He loves that place. ☺

Since we have a small family, we don’t shop there that often. He was looking for snacks and meals he could have in his dorm room. He got lots of soup-the noodle kind and Healthy Choice, Chex mix, dried milk, lots of little boxes of cereal, Starbursts(!) and a few other things. He also got a ‘safe’ made especially for his laptop with a combination lock on it and a wire that loops around something for added security. He also got a Penn State folding chair. His room has a microwave/frig combo. He’s been using a lot of his work pay this summer to buy the things he needed. He helped today with BJs too.

I did buy myself a few things. Two scrapbooking books-called Instant Memories-Travel and Love editions. They have vintage images on nice card stock, but you also get a CD with all the images in the book. I saw them on Amazon with a bunch of other editions for under $6 each (used and new), half of what I paid. I also bought a faux scrapbook by Cicely Mary Barker, the flower fairy illustrator. It has little envelopes you can open up, one of which may have what is suppose to be a butterfly wing. That is also a good price at Amazon.

So Sean is all set!

We went to Bertucci’s, a brick oven pizza/Italian food restaurant. Mom had fettucini with asparagus and shrimp while Sean and I shared a Shrimp Bella Venezia pizza. Best pizza I have tasted for a while.

Going to my mom’s still makes me anxious as there is a lot going on there, mostly things that need cleaning. Her yard needs attention around the house. I guess the first cooler day I’ll have to go weed wack down there. And the inside is crazy. She tries to go through too many boxes at once. Plus instead of going to the department stores, she is now going shopping at the Goodwill! She bought a nice glider rocker that was new (Sean loved it) and a small wing back chair with a saggy seat. She thinks it is comfortable and more so then a leather chair I bought for her many years ago at a nice department store. I’m thinking about bringing the white leather chair home. I like it. It has big arms and you can curl up in it and read or stitch. We have a recliner that is a good make (Lane), but I have never liked it and it’s Bri’s chair. He said he’ll have to check out the leather chair.

We had to drive home tonight in the pouring rain and had to get the stuff in between raindrops. Bri is complaining about his new job already. Says that when he drove around a lot, it helped with his salary. He’s not driving that much, but he has more ads. We’ll have to see how it works out.

For Zoey, are you watching ‘The Parker’ about the Palm Springs hotel on Bravo? Just wondering.

Guess I’ll play with my new books tomorrow.

Aug8

Squashed it is!

Posted on by
Standard

The green beans, my little zinnias, mini sunflowers and most of my squash are gone. : (

However, I did pick 6 more squash, so the count is still growing. I will check again in a few days, but there are so many fallen apples, I’m a bit afraid that the stinging critters will go after them. Mr. Groundhog should be in hog heaven if he ventures out to that part of the yard. When I retrieved the squash, I had to walk on the big, thick stems of those plants. It breaks my heart to see it that way. I wonder if I could replant and get an early fall harvest? We have nice weather until the end of September or beginning of October a lot of times. That of course would mean doing a big clean up and we are going to the beach next week for a few days and the following week is the drive to PSU.

Both guys went out to cut more branches down after a spaghetti dinner, so they were pretty full. When they came in, they got a banana/pineapple/guava smoothie in a new smoothie maker! Sean gets 20% off at work, so he picked one up for us.

I’m in a cleaning mood still (gasp) and did half the family room before doing a few baskets of laundry. I seem to put off the book end of this room all the time. I just start sorting out my books and end up reading them.

Hopefully we can see my mom tomorrow and maybe go to BJs so Sean can get a few large items he needs for college. The time is growing so near now.

Jul31

Run around

Posted on by
Standard

Hello little yellow sunflower!Not much new here. Sean had to get his license renewed early as he won’t be home in October when his actual birthday rolls around. We headed 15 miles down to Oxford and now Sean has an official ‘legal’ license instead of a junior’s license as he’s almost 21. We took a drive through the town to see if we wanted to stop anywhere and passed Brian on the road who had just had his last day in that office. Bri turned around and followed us to a grocery store parking lot and we chatted a little and then took off, Bri to Kennett and us to Jennersville where we hit both Blockbuster and Dairy Queen. I told Sean he and his pals should be hanging out at that DQ because of all the young ladies there. He bought the second Pirates of the Carribean movie and the Illusionist at BB.

For dinner I made a few ham steaks, fresh green beans and Parmesan couscous, the left over squash souffle and biscuits (that had been frozen). It was a quick dinner, the best kind.

After dinner I did some mail art for the ATC cards I’ll send to three of my friends. The ATCs are calling cards. I like the way they turned out! The mailart (the envelopes) were decorated with images, places and wording from a Brandywine Valley tourist book from 2000. The envelopes are in my flickr album if you want to see!
Calling Cards ATCs

I went through my cross stitch stash and want to do a Christmas ornament for the blog I joined and haven’t followed along with- getting an ornament a month made (I think that’s it!) I settled on a The Prairie Schooler design of two cardinals in a evergreen tree. I want to do a few more cardinals that I have in my stash anyway. I did get to the post office (thanks again to Sean) and mailed off Veronica’s NRR to her daughter Helen for safe keeping. The mail clerk handed me a rather small mailer and said that’s what they are using for Global priority now. I told Helen she may want to open it and give it a nice press for her mum. The clerk was a little grumpy and I asked her if she wanted squash and she took two of them.

Don’t forget to play the ‘guess the squash’ game! I will make you a special prize if you win! I am hoping to have more than two comments when the harvest is done. I don’t know if it’s my blogs name, what I talk about or what, but I just don’t get a bunch of comments and never have. I do have a handful of special pals (thanks so much) that drop by to read my ramblings. If I had anything about just stitching, cooking or photography in my title, I’d probably get more hits, but that’s not my main intention. I have this as an informational blog for myself too. Also a place to add my photos and anything special I want to read about in the future. I will have my three year blog anniversary soon. Can’t believe it!

Jul28

Photo Hunt-Creative

Posted on by
Standard

Creative-meaning ‘turn into being’

I try to be a creative person in so many ways. It makes me feel satisfied to look at a garden I planned in my mind and made a reality. Same with the Art Trading Cards. I can take a bunch of scraps and make something pleasing to the eye. So my best creation:

PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

Sean-a work of art
Sean of course!

Jul25

Aye Carumba!

Posted on by
Standard

Yeah, mom is still here and no surprise, she is mad at me! It’s so juvenile I know. So I learned not to take a compulsive shopper shopping and then tell her to put things back. And I learned that two days is really enough time for a friendly visit, after that it’s downhill. Sean and I were going to take her home yesterday and on the way have a nice lunch at Ruby’s Diner. Mom figured that since her car also needs brakes, she’d hang around a few more days. We did go to the Olive Garden last night and have a nice dinner. The mistake was going to Kohl’s (and later Barnes and Noble) where they have those 60-75% off sale racks. I went to look for swimsuits as mine are old as the hills. They hardly had any left and they were still pricey. I go to find mom and she has an arm full of clothes. You can have discussions galore with people like her and she just wants to spend. I also see her personality change in a store, even a crappy store like a Dollar Store. She had two of the same tops in different sizes, two pairs of slacks, a jacket and another top that was the same as the two she already had but in pink. I made her try the jacket on at the checkout (as it was the most pricey item) which she said was embarrassing and it was too big all over for her. She ended up saving about $30. Now she had just bought things in Peebles the day before. She said I can’t take her to stores and not expect her to buy things when Sean and I were. I guess, but she had just borrowed money from me and there she was wanting to spend a chunk of it on clothes she doesn’t need. She has 4 bedrooms in her house and all of the closets except two contain clothing. And that’s not even mentioning the Rubbermaid containers of clothing.

So today she is ignoring me and I have to go to the dentist in a few hours. This makes me a bit anxious. I had a 10:40 appointment, but Dr. B figures he’ll need more time with me, so I got bumped to 2:40. I probably would have taken mom home.

Thanks for lending an ear. I guess some people just can’t stand hearing the truth. I’ll keep you posted.

And thanks to Su for the adorable house fob she sent my way yesterday. It’s in a place of honor on my special cross stitch tree.

Update-I had to get a filling in the bothersome tooth and was gone from 2:30-4:00. I came in and my mom didn’t ask what was wrong. She came to the doorway of the family room where I was numb to the gills and announced she wanted to go home after dinner. Things kinda blew up and I went out to make a nice dinner. She got on the phone and started crying to my brother and then he wanted to talk to me. To make a long story short, Sean had to take her home with no dinner in his belly and just ate it at 7:00. So I don’t know what to do about her and she doesn’t remember things and makes them ten times as worse in her brain.  Yes, company and fish stink after 3 days, thanks Vonna and Ben!

Jul19

Scenes from a wedding

Posted on by
Standard

My bride pal Karin sent me links to her wedding photos which are terrific! I can’t show you the proofs, but I can show you a few taken by Michael’s family …

Before the wedding

Talking with the bride

Raising glasses
Those are Michael’s co-workers and pals from North Carolina.

Yeah I look all giddy, but I was so tired! I had like 2 hours of sleep that night.

When I get my copy of the wedding photos, then I will share them with you.

Jul17

Out and about

Posted on by
Standard

Sean and I went down to Hockessin to a little coffee and sandwich shop called ‘The Perfect Cup Cafe’ for lunch-a rather pricey lunch, but we don’t go there that often. He was off today. He had a veggie wrap and I had a chicken salad with swiss that was grilled-not bad. I asked if we could go a few blocks down to the Gateway Garden Nursery as I needed a few plants for an interesting urn I just purchased at JoAnns. I bought one (for about $7), but I’m thinking three would look neat tucked under my hedges out front. You can either hang the urn or it lays flat. Lucky for me the nursery had a 50% off annual sale and I got quite a few plants for under $20. I got my 9th variety of coleus-lime green and white (it’s a good year for it and of course I plan to save some for my experiment!). I also bought another licorice plant (like a variegated one) for the urn so it hangs over its edge). I got some yellow pinwheels zinnias and a couple of variety of ferns (which I like up there on my list with coleus). At the check out, a lady who works there, probably the owner or manager, asked if we had a cat and I said yes, so she handed me a cute little tin that came with cat grass-for free (from the sale table)! A few minutes later as we were putting the plants in Sean’s trunk, I noticed she had a wagon of plants she was tossing. I asked if ‘anything was worth saving (HA) and she handed me a mandevilla, another viney plant and a gardenia-for free. When she went to back to the nursery yard, I snagged some blue lobelia out of the trash too. Don’t ya love when stuff like that happens?

My mom is still trying to work out her problems but she is really using me as a sounding board. I was really stressed tonight and blame myself for not taking charge of her bills and not giving her an allowance. She use to have my uncle to help her, but he’s probably in the nursing home for good now. She doesn’t talk to him that often, but I know he has no appetite and only weighs about 138 lbs (and he’s 5’10”). I haven’t been out to see him either as it’s a trip and he’s so down all the time. I know that sounds awful, but maybe he needs people who don’t know and love him as much as us to talk to. Hopefully things will get better soon.

Locally-so the Phillies lost their 10,000th  game in their over 100 year history beating out all other teams for that honor. So what? I can’t tell you how good a summer and fall that team gave us all in 1980 when they won the World Series and again in ’93 when they tried again. I got to meet Tug McGraw, the relief pitcher in person. He and Mike Schmidt (3rd base) lived in my hometown and I had seen Mike’s house several times. So many fans have good memories like that.

Jul16

More travelin’

Posted on by
Standard

We decided to help Sean move into his dorm next month. We originally were going to take a run up there at the end of this month and then he was going to fly solo in August. I just couldn’t see him doing all that, though we’ll have two cars heading there instead of one. When I moved in the dorm way back when, I had my mom and grandmom to help me. So he went to book a hotel room on campus and couldn’t get one. We have to drive 12 more miles and stay in a Holiday Inn in a small town up there. I’m glad we got that room!

And next month we are headed back to Fenwick Island, DE for a few days at this quiet beach community. I may bring along my mom if she is able to travel. She’s gotten herself in a BIG stew and I sure hope she can get out of it with the help of her kids and the friend that lives with her. I still think she needs to think about selling her house and moving into an assisted living place. They seem to be sprouting up all over the place. There are 4 nice ones I can think of within an hour of mom’s house. Her car is also on the blink. She was driving it with a bum air conditoner compressor and my brother the mechanic (who was away all last week) said it could have caught fire! She is also getting a new frig, and I plan to go on Wednesday to see what I can move out of the way so the delivery guy has room to breeze in and out of there quickly

I actually picked up the Nicholas Sparks book I put down months ago. I think it’s a bit wordy, but now that there is a new conflict, think I’ll finish it up. So many books, so little eye power. My brain is foggy and my eyes hurt today. Brian cut the grass over the weekend and all those catkin flowers from the chestnut trees are breaking down and I know they are getting to Bri and my sinuses.

I went outside to check out the tomatoes and pulled some weeds. I gave that up quickly as the humidity was making me sweat bullets. My coleus experiment is still going on. I have now planted 4 baby coleus in my one shade garden. I’m curious to see how well they do. To me they are plants that like pots, like geraniums.

Rory, from the Next Food Network Star show has me on her mailing list and I got an email to ask me to vote for her. I checked out how many people she sent it too-there must be 100s-I sure hope I don’t start getting lots of undesirable mail. Speaking of ‘that’ show-I can’t believe what happened last night. It’s Jag and Rory as the final two. Then they find out that Jag lied about being a culinary school graduate and serving in Afghanistan. He withdraws and now it’s Amy and Rory! I read where Rory is being compared to Rachael Ray- I can see that. Amy’s more like the Barefoot Contessa. I think both stand a fair chance of winning. I didn’t even know Susie the judge was expecting (she had a big belly last night!)

1st veggies of the year!

1st veggies of the garden-a Roma tomato and a green pepper though Bri said the pepper was on the plant when he bought it (cheater!)

Jul11

Getting together a plan

Posted on by
Standard

Most of you know that my son Sean is moving away from home for the first time next month to start his junior year at PSU. I accept it even though I know it will take a bit of adjustment on my part (darn wet eyes as I type this). So he’s all excited about being able to finally feel like an adult (AKA taking care of himself completely). What am I going to do-not that I didn’t have a choice before-but I want to add to the family income or at least make pocket money until something comes along in the outside world. I was sitting here thinking and looking at blogs and it dawned on me that I could work from home doing things I enjoy and work with the computer, another fun thing-why not? Plan is to craft and sell on etsy.com first. Some divine force ‘made’ me buy all these craft books for a reason-because ‘they’ knew. Get my drift? I can sew, crochet, cross stitch, photograph and edit photos, do paper crafts, draw, etc.. And then there is half.com-for the books I just don’t need anymore. I have sold on there in the past. Sometimes it’s a while between sales. Lastly, my old standby eBay. So maybe my right brain side will be so darn happy!

Trying to cut back on refined sugars and yeasty things. I really think they are the culprit to my crummy tummy problems. Today I was in the grocery store forever! I got some agave sugar substitute. I know there is sugar in almost everything. It’s a start. I had looked up a list of what’s good to eat and believe me it’s mostly meat and veggies-a lot of fruits aren’t good. I was taking that med for a few months and am almost finished with it. It is said to produce lots of yeast! You get med for one problem and it aggravates another one. Six of one, half dozen of another. I did take a acidolphilus tablet to promote healthy bacteria in the gut and it was better today. I may just have to take it everyday.

Lots of rain is expected tonight. I went to the store knowing a storm was on it’s way. I had my Mary Poppins umbrella and it saved me. : )

Jul8

4 day scorcher begins

Posted on by
Standard

I knew we were being spoiled by the cooler days at the beginning of July. I am SO glad I got a lot of my garden work out of the way. About 7:45 last night, I took a break from my almost finished BIG cross stitch piece and the Live Earth concert and headed outside. It was so pleasant, I decided to get the string and tie up the tomatoes. The job isn’t that terrible as I have kept up with it. I have also been pinching the suckers off the joints inside the tomato branches-that’s so the plant will put energy into the fruit and not into making new branches and leaves. It’s paying off! I figure right now, I see 4 tomatoes each, other than the blossoms-times 12-so right now we have at least 50 tomatoes counting the Romas that are low laying and don’t get tied up. The Romas are right on that mulch, so I think I’ll put some paper bags under them. The zucchini and green beans are thriving too! I also have one eggplant in my herb bed near the house. We are getting those downpours followed by sunny days-perfecto for veggies.

I am working on my Art trading cards again. I’ve made quite a few in the last month-6 for tribe.net pals based on the bulletin from St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

ATCs for pals

The others were a few wedding themed cards I put in my friend Karin’s wedding card. I’m finishing up a series of a little Princesses birthday party I snagged from an old children’s reader. I also started ‘minis’-about 1″ x 2″-an alphabet series. Since they are so tiny, they are quick to do. If I like them enough, I may try and sell a series on eBay.

Sean’s working like a full-time employer down at Big Lots these days. Seems a lot of people left or were let go. One girl was a thorn in his side. We feel she took $20 out of his drawer a few times when she subbed for him when he was eating or on break. Since it was brought up to the attention of his manager that he wasn’t the only one using that particular register those days, things seems to have gotten better. He’s either a few cents over or under now. He’s been buying a bunch of stuff for the dorm there as he gets a 20% off discount. Last night he brought home a HP printer for about $28. We were holding our breath that it would work with his laptop, and it did, and it’s not bad either. He’s also bought towels, two desk fans, laundry detergent, to name a few things he needs. I can’t believe the time is finally here when he’ll be taking care of himself-it’s a mixed blessings kind of feeling. I remember wanting to live away from home and lived in a dorm for almost two semesters. Unfortunately I had less than perfect roomies. Sean is trying to get a room by himself, that may be the ticket to his ultimate dorm happiness.

I made a delicious pasta dish last night-I roasted zucchini, red onions, garlic and eggplant. I tossed the pasta with fresh basil, a grated assortment of cheese and some butter. The veggies get tossed in the pasta after roasting for about 40 minutes. I recommend it.

Tonight I am making a turkey breast. I have to have Sean’s dinner on the table pronto as he only has 1/2 hour to eat. I want to make sure he has decent grub.

Well, that’s all that’s new. I’ll sneak out to water a few plants when the sun goes down. Hope you are staying cool and comfortable.