Birthday Party at Chuck eeeeeeeee Cheese

The sweetest little girl turned one yesterday and I took my grandchildren to the party.  The kids were really having fun judging by the screams.  It is snowing again today and usually by now the flowers would be in bloom.  Maybe Autumn will last longer...like maybe through Winter.
Culver's for lunch had fish sandwich...they are very good.  And of course had to have some ice cream too.
Spring cleaned the 'Spring Garden Room' today aka Hali's bedroom.  Would rather be outside.  Have plans to turn sun porch into sleeping porch...naps are good LOL.

Hello

they say we have 45 inches of snow sofar this winter and about three to five inches expected overnight.  It doesn't all stay at once some of it melts.  The last snow storm was called Nemo I think.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you
Happy Valentines Day

It's been almost a year since I posted last.  That darn Facebook and it's games. 

they have this great play area at the mall for the kids so I snapped a picture when they were playing.

As I sit here I can hear the snow plow going back and forth.  I'm sure dumping mountains of snow at the base of my driveway hahaha.   I had lunch with the grands at their school today.  It sure is a nice school with some great people...lunch ladies and gentlemen, teachers, secretaries and custodians to name just a few.  Did a little rummaging after but got nothing...that was a surprise.  Winter is so much easier since I'm retired as I can decide to go out or stay in.  I like to try to get outside everyday though but it's a lot different than getting up at five thirty to rush off to work at the hospital.

Valentines Day this month and I've done some decorating and crafting.  Made heart wreaths out of fairy wings and heart shapes with kids and they gave them to their teachers for a little gift.

A Patch of Old Snow

There's a patch of old snow in a corner
That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I've forgotten --
If I ever read it.

Robert Frost

Chrystal

That's the name given to our third snowstorm due here tomorrow evening.  They say six inches of blowing and drifting snow. 
Looking for an old card table and a better chair for Owen's room.  Curb shopping lOL. 
Went to doc today, he says I have pleuresy...it's always something isn't it.  It only hurts when I breathe deep.  Kids didn't come for supper tonight and their dad didn't call so I called and it turns out they have strep.  I think I'll take an eight o clock bedtime tonight and read. 
I found out that you can get free books from Amazon.com, you just need the Kindle ap and that's free too.  Also the library has free ones.
I got my monthly gift today.  It's a Kodak printer, copier, etc.  It's not set up yet.  It's wireless so that shouldn't be a problem. 
My cat CC has fallen for a cat on a blanket.  She snuggles up to it every chance she gets...so cute.
Let me go look to see if I have any pictures to add.

Summer at Kmart on the little merry go round

I chose this one because she has on a Justin Bieber shirt and today is his eighteenth birthday.

Winter picnic

Bob

The second named snow storm of the winter.  Usually by this time we are already up to the K's for a name.  Anyway, we didn't get any snow it was almost all rain and not even freezing rain as the temperature was above freezing.  So that's good for the people that have to be out and about.  Happily retired, had enough slush driving in my life time. 
Filled six garbage bags with trash yesterday and today that will go out with the garbage tomorrow.  So next week I get to fill six garbage bags with things for the thrift store.  Slowly I'm winding down.
Having some problems with my blog.  It doesn't show up like it used to and the sentences are getting cut off.  Not sure why.  I tried to fix it but couldn't.
I think I'll add a couple pictures today...

This is the chair I sewed on the grandkids stuffed animals...they love it, especially Owen as all the white ones were from when he was a baby.

Here we are at The School House.  We stopped there to get some posters so we can learn new things...star chart, list of presidents, and the element chart.

They have free crafts on Saturday mornings for the kids and this Saturday it was making pop up books.  They enjoyed doing that and got to take them home.

Owen and Hali enjoying their green eggs and ham to celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday.  His birthday is Friday and we'll be going to see the movie The lorax.

Winter is winding down

A Little Dutch Garden

By Hattie Whitney

I PASSED by a garden, a little Dutch garden, Where useful and pretty things grew,— Heart’s-ease and tomatoes, and pinks and potatoes, And lilies and onions and rue. I saw in that garden, that little Dutch garden, 5 A chubby Dutch man with a spade, And a rosy Dutch frau with a shoe like a scow, And a flaxen haired little Dutch maid. There grew in that garden, that little Dutch garden, Blue flag flowers lovely and tall, 10 And early blush roses, and little pink posies, But Gretchen was fairer than all. My heart ’s in that garden, that little Dutch garden,— It tumbled right in as I passed, Mid wildering mazes of spinach and daisies, 15 And Gretchen is holding it fast. We've had an incredibly mild winter this year with almost no snow.  Later this week our second snowstorm is predicted.   It's called snowstorm Bob...the first one was snowstorm Angela.   I wonder if the next one will be snowstorm Cathy.  Seems to be following the names of my siblings.  I've grown apart from them this year, never thought that would happen.  I've made a lot of new friends though, which is very nice.  My health isn't too bad, lots of pain involved with getting older though.  I've been playing games on Facebook.  I like Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and one I forgot the name of which is my favorite.  I'm on level 104.  Woohoo  kind of funny.   I feel fortunate that I enjoy reading and have a supply of interesting books so that when I need to rest  I can read.  I also don't do mornings much  unless I have something involved with the grandchildren.  I see buds are on the Magnolias and the Dogwoods  and a couple little shoots peeking through in the  annual garden.  I guess I'm going to garden again this year.  I've been reading up on container gardening.. .it seems a lot easier. I bought a trampoline with a handle to hold onto  while I bounce.  It's fun and I lead myself to believe  I'm getting exercise.  The kids have fun on it too.  I haven't done much 'tweeting' lately...but I do enjoy  reading what Joy Behar, George Stephanopolous and Mrs. Gates have to say sometimes.  Well going to sign off.   I hope everyone is well and happy. Janice

christmas cookies

I made Christmas cookies today and Owen and Hali came after school to decorate them.  I frosted Owens and he decorated.  Hali did both, she enjoyed eating them as well as did Owen.
Hali wants a doll for Christmas and some pink stuff.  Owen just wants a mouth guard for when he plays football next year.  He has his cleats and shoulder pads already.  He wants to PLAY FOOTBALL and I want to be there to watch.
Winter Solstice will be here in about three days and it's almost Christmas.  The kids will be with their mother and her family this year and that makes Dan cry.  He's trying to get their mother to let them be here overnight Christmas Eve. 
The cookies break easily LOL but they all look so festive.

St. Nick comes tonight

Backward, turn backward, O Time in thy flight
                  Make me a child again, just for tonight
                  Mother, come back from the echo less shore
                  Take me again to your heart as of yore.


                  Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care
                  Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair
                  Over my slumber your loving watch keep, ---
                  Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep

                  Over my heart in days that are flown
                  No love like mother love ever was shown
                  No other worship abides and endures
                  Faithful unselfish and patient like yours

                  None like a mother can charm away pain
                  From the sick soul and the world weary brain
                  Slumber soft love ore my heavy lids creep
                  Rock me to sleep mother rock me to sleep

                  Mother dear mother the years have been long
                  Since I last hushed to your lullaby song
                  Sing them and unto my sole it shall seep
                  Womanhood’s years have been only a dream

                  Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace
                  With your light lashes just sweeping my face
                  Never here after to wake or to weep
                  Rock me to sleep mother rock me to sleep

First snowfall last evening

First Snow-Fall. THE sun that dim November day Had failed to kiss the clouds away From quiet Nature's furrowed face, Where autumn tears had left their trace. And, by and by, on fields of brown The feathered flakes came floating down From Heaven to this world of ours, Like spirits of departed flowers. And fast and faster through the night, Till Morn arose on meadows white, And o'er the landscape lightly stepped Where tired Nature, smiling, slept. __Albert Bigelow Paine.

A Poem

“You think I am dead,”
The apple tree said,
“Because I have never a leaf to show–
Because I stoop,
And my branches droop,
And the dull gray mosses over me grow!
But I’m still alive in trunk and shoot;
The buds of next May
I fold away–
But I pity the withered grass at my root.”
“You think I am dead,”
The quick grass said,
“Because I have parted with stem and blade!
But under the ground
I am safe and sound
With the snow’s thick blanket over me laid.
I’m all alive, and ready to shoot,
Should the spring of the year
Come dancing here–
But I pity the flower without branch or root.”
“You think I am dead,”
A soft voice said,
“Because not a branch or root I own.
I never have died,
But close I hide
In a plumy seed that the wind has sown.
Patient I wait through the long winter hours;
You will see me again–
I shall laugh at you then,
Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.”
Edith M. Thomas.

Weather is changing

It has been so warm and sunny I hate to see it end.  It rained today and they say it's getting colder and more fall like now.  I have my yard work finished except I may still prune a couple bushes but maybe not as the flowers are probably set for the spring already. 
Time to tackle a little more housework and do a little fall decorating with witches and goblins.  Mostly have the 'potting shed' turned back into a garage.  Still have the hose and grill out though. 
Looking forward to farmers market on saturday to stock up on veggies to use for crock pot meals. 
Tomorrow is library day and I see they are having another used book sale this weekend so I may go to that.
That's about all I've got for today.

Packers won today

Rainy day.  Owen was here cause he didn't want to go with his Mom and sister to take Ethin back to Michigan.  He tried on his football stuff and had me take a few pictures.  Then, when he want home he put on his Packer jacket from last year.  He's gotten taller so it was kind of short in the sleeves.   He wanted to wear it though.  Kids are having their pictures taken tomorrow so I hope they have cute expressions.
Not much else going on.  Didn't get any of my jobs done today.

You are somebodies reason to smile

So sorry to have wasted today.   The only thing I accomplished was the wash and I didn't get it finished.
Somedays I just catch up.  Was cold and sunny.

wash day

“Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

So tired praying for the energy to do some yard work.
Almost time to remove flowers.
Cloudy day.
Have four good books to read.  The first one is Betty White's book, If You Ask Me
I put out the recycle bin last night but it isn't recycle day.  Debating if I should sneak out there and bring it back in.
I ate Hostess powdered sugar donettes for breakfast...yum
Enough dilly dallying, time to get to work.

Sunny Day

...sweeping the clouds away, on my way to where the air is sweet, can you tell me how to get, how to get to seseme street
There was a time when my sibs were loving and caring but now they suck.

cold and sunny

Enjoyed the day with my grandchildren. 

Laundry Day

also exercise day cause I have to go up and down so many flights of stairs.  I wanted a single story house, kids wanted an upstairs...got an upstairs, kids moved on and I am still here trudging up and down all these steps.  On the plus side, it's good exercise.
Still working in yard.  Things grew so tall but don't know what they are, not flowers, not trees, must be weeds.  I wish I had a weed book so I could name them LOL.
Planning to go apple picking with kids on Saturday.  Always a fun thing to do.  They have a hay wagon, and lots of animals and  a little park.  Hoping for a nice day.

A Fun Day

Met my old drinking buddies for lunch and did some shopping.  We had lunch at Frank and Pats Pizza place.  Haven't been there in years.  The pizza was still as good as I remember it was after the bars closed.  I always enjoy our once a month dinner dates.  We have a lot of fun together.
Did some sewing this evening and watched a little TV.  Have a new book to start called The House of Stairs.  I'm attracted to weird titles, hope it's a good book.
Forgot to take pictures, I meant to.

BOATLIFT, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience

It was asthma season

and all the ER rooms were occupied mostly with kids having problems with their breathing.  The only room left was the small specials room.  The boy was with his parents and I was giving him a breathing treatment.  A nurse came in and said there's been a plane accident in New York on one of the skyscrapers.  By the time I finished the treatment and was ready to head upstairs to the Respiratory Department, the accident was already on the news.  They said that a plane hit a building and smoke was coming out of it.  It was live on TV, I don't know what channel.  As we were all watching a plane came into view and headed right for another building and crashed it...someone said that must be the World Trade Center.  I left and went upstairs.  We were doing testing on the machines that day.
The TV was on in the break room and they were saying that another plane had hit in Washington DC and they thought there were one or two more that had been hijacked.  I got through the rest of the work day and went home.  I assured that my children were safe and at home.  I remember I was shaking pretty bad.  It was the worst of days so filled with horror.
When the jets fly over on game day I have to prepare myself for them, wait for them, while the game is starting so I know what they are here for.  This last summer the Air Force jets scrambled twice and afterward they announced that it was a practice run each time.  I guess they got so many inquiries that they finally said what it was.   The Spring after that horrible day, Bellin Hospital was building a tunnel under the road by their hospital and they hauled the dirt to the trainyard less than a block away from me.  The trucks would empty out the dirt and then slam the back of the truck box a couple times to get all the clay, etc. out.  It would start at 5 in the morning so it would wake me up.  I woke up screaming almost every day thinking we were being attacked again.  I never got used to it and it lasted over two months.  I finally got up the nerve to call the administrator at Bellin and told him what was going on.  Bless his little pea pickin heart they moved the dump site to a non-residential area.  My house is under a flight pattern so the planes fly over every day.  They look like the same kind of planes.  I still think of that day every time I see them.  It affected everyone in some way.
God Bless America.