This and That...

 

     I hadn't shown you Zoe in a while...she is now officially the most spoiled dog ever. She is 20 months old. She can tell time (snack time 10:00 a.m. and dinner at 5:00 p.m.) and will certainly let you know if you are 10 minutes late. She is very good getting her weekly bath, but still tries to escape when she sees me bring in the towels. She talks...a little whimper cry and she is trying to tell you she wants out, needs water or has a biscuit stuck in her mouth! She also chews every shoe she can get near, gets in my purse and takes things out and will grab a towel off the kitchen counter and run with it. Nothing is really safe...I hope she eventually tires of that "game".

 

     We had two nests this year and this little one eventually ended up in the back yard for a few days. At first we thought she was injured, but she was just trying her wings. I love watching them go from egg to baby to out on their own.

 

     I hope that some of you had a nice holiday weekend. Illinois has turned into a rain forest this year. It rained every day of the weekend and is still rainy today. We had no time outdoors at all, no patio, no sitting near the fire pit...it didn't feel like a holiday weekend at all. We are having a garage sale next Saturday, so we did get things ready for that. Of course, it is supposed to rain all week and most of next weekend too, so that may be a really fun garage sale.

 

    For those of you of my generation that were fans of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty has a new album out today that I bought immediately. He has taken many familiar songs and redone them as duets with friends and artists he admires. I already love it. Wrote a Song for Everyone, has Proud Mary with Jennifer Hudson, Fortunate Son with the Foo Fighters, Bad Moon Rising with the Zac Brown Band and so many more great pairings. This wasn't a requested review, just an album I knew I'd like and I do. I bought this one myself.

     A few weeks ago I won a prize from Jacqueline @ Purple Chocolate Home for my cheesecake recipe using Sara Lee Pound Cake. Jacqueline (who is a fabulous cook) honored me by making my recipe and putting it on her blog today. She changed it up by topping it with chocolate instead my usual fruit topping...either way, it is a killer cheesecake if I do say so myself. Stop by Purple Chocolate Home for the recipe.

 

     So, what is happening in your part of the world this week? I hope you have sunshine and are enjoying being outside!

    

 

This and That

     I want to thank everyone for their kinds words and thoughts about the loss of our much loved Nike last week. It has been very different at our house without her. After 16 years of stepping out of the shower to find her waiting outside the bathroom door for me, it seems so odd not to have her there. Many of you have asked if Zoe has shown signs of missing Nike. I can only say that she looked for her the first few hours and then she started to "party, party" with the excitement of having the house to herself. She is a wild one and we just keep hoping that between the classes she will have in July and a bit of maturing she will settle down a bit.

     We didn't have any plans for the holiday weekend, which was nice because it was so hot here that I was glad I got to spend the heat of the day indoors. We spent Saturday looking for new carpet for the living room and the three bedrooms on the main floor of our house. We haven't shopped for carpet in a dozen years, so I had to do some research to even know what I might want. The past several months with a failing dog had sealed the deal on having to recarpet the house, so we have known that as soon as we lost her, carpet would be an immediate purchase. I had a bit of "sticker shock" when I saw the prices and I had lots of confusion about what material and brand to buy after reading reviews online. We finally decided on something that we both liked (at least in the sample) and now we just wait and hope that we like it when it covers so much of our house! There will certainly be pictures in a few weeks.

     While my husband was working on outdoor projects, I finally went through some old pictures and magazines that I have collected over the years. Some of the pictures my father-in-law gave me before he died, others I had picked up at garage sales. I had way too many and finally decided that all those craft projects I thought I would do with them, weren't going to happen. I put a few things so far on Ebay and still have the postcards and sheet music to get listed. I hadn't tried Ebay for quite a while even though I should do it more often. I have to push myself to list things. Once I get started though, I tend to stick with it for at least a few listings.

     We were talking over the weekend about a Memorial Day weekend a few years back when we went to visit my in-laws, who were living in Marion, IL at the time. I looked up the date and realized that today is the 30th anniversary of that day. On that afternoon, as we drove into Marion, the sky was dark and the weather looked ominous. As I told my husband yesterday, "the me I was back then, was very uncomfortable". The "me I am today, would have been screaming and yelling until he turned the car around"! You see, we drove into what we didn't know was a tornado. As we pulled into town, we saw many emergency vehicles and assumed there must be a large fire or wreck. We soon learned that there had been a massive tornado just minutes before we arrived in town. What I learned yesterday when I looked up the date of May 29th, 1982...was that it was a Category 4 tornado. As we pulled into town that day, we still had no idea of what we would see next. We noticed some damage and figured out it was a bad storm. We arrived at my in-laws to learn it was a tornado. We soon learned that the damage was extensive and that 10 people died and many more were injured. I wanted to head for home and the officials wouldn't let anyone in or out of town. It was frightening, but I was too young to realize just how lucky we were. Yesterday I read that a car on the interstate that we were on, exploded from the storm. I couldn't believe as I read yesterday just how unaware I was at what we drove into and how lucky we all were.

I hope you all had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend.

I will be getting around and visiting

your blogs in the next day or two!

    

This and That

     When I had my plate ready for dinner last night, I knew I had to share it with all of you. It was a simple turkey sandwich, a salad of baby greens, beets, goat cheese and a sprinkle of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and roasted asparagus. However, the bread really made the plate. We bought it at our local grocery store on Sunday and it was still warm when we bought it-rainbow bread, so pretty!

     I don't have anything exciting to share with you today, just a few things that have been on my mind lately. You may be bored by my random thoughts.

     I've been reading things about Pinterest and the possible legal problems associated with using it. I'm trying to decide if I want to continue to use the site. It hardly seems worth being sued just to save a few recipes and pretty pictures.

     I am a person with fairly strong political opinions. I choose not to write about them often on my blog. I used to be part of a writing website where we wrote opinon pieces and had major discussions...sometimes I miss that. I will say that the robo calls from Mitt Romney have been coming in at least 5-8 times a day at my house for the past week. I can't imagine that anyone actually gets all these calls and decides to vote because of them. Everyone I know, regardless of their politics finds these calls annoying!

     I've been watching the news about the teenager that was shot by a "neighborhood watch" member in Florida. The teen was "armed" with iced tea and Skittles. He was apparently doing nothing wrong according to the 911 calls. The man who shot him hasn't been arrested or had his gun taken away. I don't get it. 

     As I type this, there has been another 7.6 earthquake in Mexico. It has happened in tourist areas and it is spring break. My thoughts are with those who are involved.

     I've been trying to spend time reading blogs today. The change in the "code words" that we have to type in to some blogs to post comments have become almost impossible for my eyes to read. Am I the only one having this issue?

     Today is my daughter's last day at the Disney resort where she has been working. She has a few days vacation time and then she starts a new project at Disney.  She and a small group of managers from various Disney hotels have been selected to be on the opening team for the new Disney Resort, The Art of Animation. It is opening in phases beginning in May and it is going to be a wonderful Disney experience. It is an honor for my daughter to be a part of this team and she is very excited even though she is in for some very hard work and long hours over the next few months. You can read about the new resort here!

     We are still enjoying summer in March here in Illinois. I hope it is as beautiful where you are!

    



This and That

     We survived our garage sale. It certainly wasn't one of my most successful, but we did get rid of some things and that was most important. We have an area wide sale coming in a couple of weeks and since things are already priced, I think we may just pull them out on the driveway that morning before packing things up and heading to Goodwill. I'm just glad it is over and I had garage sale "let down" when we were done. I had a hard time forcing myself off the couch the rest of the weekend. However, our yearly block party was Saturday night and it is hard to pass up a live band just a few houses away! It was cold enough here that I had to dig out the a sweater, a jacket and boots. By the time we came home, I was ready for gloves! It is supposed to be in the 80's later this week, don't you love this time of year? 

     I was contacted last week by two different sources wanting me to do sponsored giveaways. I don't always say yes, but both of these are fun and things I would like to win. They aren't huge prizes, but one of them you can eat! I'm all about winning yummy things to eat! So stay tuned!       

     I'll leave you with a bit of the nature around me this weekend.

    

This and That

     It is Monday, a day when many of us in Blogland join Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday. We show off our new projects, the changes we have made in our homes or wonderful things we have transformed from ugly to beautiful. Well, unless you want to see pictures of my refrigerator before and after I clean it, the wrinkled clothes before and after I iron them or the dust in the house before and after I attempt to get rid of it...I've got nothing to share. My husband told me to take a picture of the puddles on the deck because WE GOT RAIN yesterday afternoon. It wasn't much, but the sky got dark, the thunder rumbled and the temps dropped 19 degrees very quickly. Bliss! We are heading right back up to dry and dangerous by Wednesday, but it was wonderful!

     We made a final trip to my in-law's house on Saturday. The second auction is coming up this weekend. It will have the household items and the rest of the antiques that we didn't have time to sell at the first auction. This one is combined with another family at their home and we aren't stressing over it. We don't even have to be there (but we probably will go). We took a cutting from my in-law's lilac bush. It is sitting in a bucket of water and we have no idea how to transplant it at our house. Any suggestions? We would love to save it.

     Since we were in "the big city" to check the house, I finally got to a decent Farmer's Market. I was so hot that I can't say I even enjoyed being there. We practically jogged through the aisles, grabbing things as we went. I was complaining, melting and even managed to hug some dirty zucchini against my white t-shirt. However, I have rainbow kale, fresh peapods, beautiful orange beets, purple and white baby carrots and various other goodies to show for the effort.

     I also crossed over to the "dark side" since I had access to a "real" Verizon store and finally had the time to explore my options. I have been an iPhone holdout. I am definitely a gadget person. In fact, I had a hard time getting out of the store with only the phone. Those iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tablets were calling my name. I just hated adding the fee for the data package to my already loaded cell phone bill. I hated the $10 package that I was forced to add with my last phone. We have 3 phones on our package and I already pay enough! Our Verizon salesperson was great and he did some research on our usage habits and found that we were paying for minutes we didn't need. A few tweaks and our bill with the new phone will actually be a little less than it was before. I've been playing with my new toy since I got it and I love it! I'm having a little trouble adjusting to texting with this kind of keyboard, but hopefully it will get easier. I'm obsessed with all the apps available, if you have a favorite let me know!

     I'll leave you with a picture of a store display from our trip to Michigan. Maybe it will inspire you...I could certainly use a little decorative inspiration this summer. How was your weekend?