The 4th

A band...

some shade...

a gathering...

of friends...

some GOOD food...

AND 105 degrees in the shade!!!

a 2 mile drive home that took 45 minutes that normally takes 5....

what a GREAT 4th!!

Take a break Miss Liberty!!

Whew! What a weekend~~

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day and I was going to do this post because my sister told me to, but the more I thought about what to blog the more it came to light...


She said I should blog today because it's a holiday and I'm not certain what she meant...

1) I should have more time because it's a holiday or

2) It's a special holiday and I should blog about it. It could be some other reason, but the later reason has made me think.

Spending today doing chores that have needed to be done, running errands, catching those things on sale this weekend, picking up groceries that we were short on for the week.

But, everywhere you look there are the reminders of the holiday.

Memorial Day= to remember those who have sacrificed their life, their time, their love ones for the freedom of every American.

We even hung Old Glory out as a reminder of the day....never forget, never overlook the cost of that freedom.

The freedom of speech and life and all that goes with it.
And as I pulled into the local grocery store this was in the parking lot

It just seem so fitting to me that without the loss of those who have gone on before us this would not be possible...

Of course a lot of the words on this van are not a promotion of war but of peace and who doesn't want peace.




But as we continue on today and everyday, I hope we all are grateful for those who are making the sacrifice for our freedom.

Happy New Year!

This inspired me....hopefully it will inspire you too!

Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses.

Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes.

Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears.

Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself.

(Author Unknown)

Christmas House Decor

There were several home tours on different blogs showing the Christmas decor of different homes. Well, this is mine.....if you were to come in our back patio door these two reindeer would gladly greet you. Inside the kitchen the kitchen window is decorated with holiday greeting cards from many of our friends....some we see everyday and some from years gone by. It's always fun to receive these cards each year and being the pack rat that I am I usually keep them from Christmas to Christmas.

This is a side table or actually a trunk that belonged to my grandfather. It has our collection of Christmas books.....something for everyone, from hard cardboard books for babies to the Politically correct version of Christmas stories book. I love flipping through them every year, but I have to keep my eyes on them as sometimes my children or siblings try to reclaim books from the past.

This year we put out three little trees (brand new in the box garage sale for $9!! woo hoo!!) I really didn't even miss the big tree as much as I thought I might. And when it packs up and away so much faster than the big one I may love it even more.

I should have taken a shot of the fireplace the night before as we had a nice roaring fire and it really was picture perfect.

Here's a little something I did with the letter "H"....just strung it up with some ribbon and added some red Christmas balls and there you have it.

This is new this year....I won this funky Santa Christmas Tree at a Bingo game. Thanks Susan!

Here a picture with all the Christmas loot! We must have really been nice this year!

Here's another shot of the fireplace that really needs a fire.

Now, it's time to start thinking about putting this all away...

My Christmas Grandgirls

What a pretty, pretty girl!! She selected her outfits from top to bottom for each day of celebration this Christmas. She seems to have been bitten by the fashion bug. Her Auntie is all too happy to see this gal go foo foo for fashion.


And then there's this little girl (our granddogger) all decked out for Christmas too. And guess who's responsible for her new outfit? Her Auntie Fashion Queen

Christmas Lights PART II

A week or so after Thanksgiving on a cold windy night.... My favorite son-in-law and second son let me treat them to dinner and then came over....
And put up our Christmas lights!!

What you can't see in these pictures (and no somehow I didn't catch it in photos) was their Dad /Dad-in-law running around below barking out instructions.

It seems year to year we forget how we put things up.....therefore dear ole Dad has each strand labeled....NW corner, SW corner, Front peak etc....

This year since we had limited help we just went with a simple strand of lights around the edge of the house.

I picked these candy canes up at a garage sale this year for a couple of dollars.

And hung my trusty reindeer on the front porch post....

So here are a few shots of the lights on the house....the ones below look as if they are on fire. Must be something with the camera or the operator..

These are not good photos but here's a shot of the neighbors down the street.

And then our neighbor's directly across the street really lit their house up nicely.

So until next year this is it for our Christmas lights outside.....until we find innocent soul to help take them down....how 'bout it boys??

Christmas Lights

I took these photos so the next year when it was time to put up the Christmas lights we wouldn't forget how they were hung.
And a shot of the tree inside the house as if I'd ever forget how to put this one together. And yes, my darling daughter there are dozens of strings of lights to give this tree it's glowing charm.



And a good photo of the Christmas trees in the yard....(it took a certain someone a lot of time to figure out how to put these together and up!)
Here's a parting shot of the whole yard....and stay tune until tomorrow and you'll see what this year's decorations looked like. OH! you didn't think we did all of this this year with two knee replacements and a couple of extra hospital stays under our belt did you???

Catching up!

Well, SURPRISE I'm back! Shout out to Mandi who has memorized the garland blog by now. I've missed it but just haven't had the energy to put anything together.

I'm not sure how good this will be but I'm going to give it a try. I have a month or more worth of blog information and my head is swimming with ideas so if I ramble please be patient.

I think I'll start with before Christmas and then bring things up to date....so this is a crazy idea I've done for my grand kids for the last couple of years. Similar to or as an advent calendar. I wrap a small gift for each child for each day before Christmas. Like a count down. Each gift has a number attached to match with the day they will be opening that gift. And YES, that is 25 gifts for each child (4) = 100 gifts...it was a lot easier than it sounds and fun too~

I lucked out last year and got most of this years gifts at clearance (75% off or more). This is the exact time you need to be out looking if you want to do one for next year. There were all types of gifts....pens, cups with candy, toys, hot cocoa mix, books, gum and about anything else you run across or can think of.

I made this contraption the year before out of wire coat hangers wrapped with ribbon. They made it through this year but I'm not certain they will hold up for next year.

It looks like a tangled mess doesn't it?? Some of the gifts were really too big and heavy for this....I kind of over did it...

Hear are the lovely little darlings with things from the 9th day...I believe these were magnets...the kind you can stick on your car, refrigerator or file cabinet. They don't looked too thrilled, maybe they were acting silly. It was sweet of their parents to seen me this photo.

THE Garland

This is my attempt at the garland over at Nesting Place. I thought mine was pretty big but it almost looks wimpy in these photos. Pardon the blur....I'm still on pain medication and it looked fine to me.


I took two cheap ($2.98 then 60%off) Christmas garlands and added a small garland of English ivy, grape ivy and some other greenery. Then added some pine cones, ornaments of snowmen and reindeer's, a strand of rice lights and a little garland of wooden stars.

Whattayathunk? It may just have inspired me to finish decorating the house for Christmas!