Humorous Stories

I was reading the 'little book of conversations' that I have written over the last eight years for the girls. It is a book of comical and sometimes serious conversations I have had with them or other family members have had with them. It is priceless moments that I want to remember when I am 85 or so.  Today I will write about two of them that still make me laugh. One day Emma had earned  a dollar from her daddy to buy an 'Ice Age' toy at Burger King. When they arrived to buy it, the one Emma wanted wasn't available and those that were, she already had. She was very disappointed to come home empty handed. As she and daddy were on their way home a song came on the radio by Rosie Greer. He sang 'Don't worry, be happy, everything is gonna be alright.'  After a few minutes Emma said to daddy "That song is not making me feel any better.'  (sorry Rosie)  :)
Another time, I had made Emma a 'toad house' out of a flower pot for her garden and gave it to her as a gift. She called me a few days later and said, 'Grandma, a toad moved into my frog house. Maybe when you come again we could build a deck on it to make the  house more interesting for him.'  (and we did)  :)

If you want to have a joyful day, spend it with a child and listen to them as they talk to you about ordinary, every day life. Take the opportunity to see life through their eyes. It is good for the heart. :)

Sweet Fairy Princess Chloe

One of my favorite photos of my grand-daughter Chloe.

Sabbath Morning

It will be a quick post today as Mike just got up. I need to go and have coffee with him and see how his work went last night. It is a beautiful sunny day, still cold, but the sun makes all the difference to me.
This morning I was studying in the book of  2 Corinthians 4 (whole chapter) and the verse in Philippians 2:5 that reads in the Amplified version:

'Let this same attitude and purpose and (humble) mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: (Let Him be your example in humility.)'

If  I were to only use one word (even though there are many more) to describe His attitude and purpose and humble mind,  it would be the word love...pure love...because that is who He is: Love.  I could expound further but will save it for another day on my other blog 'Heart to Heart...where my soul finds rest.'
Wishing each of you a peaceful and blessed day.

A Couple of My Favorite Photos

 A lily from the garden and the view of the pond behind my house.

What a Day

I am very glad today is here...all brand new. I do hope today is better than yesterday. :) I got Mike off to work like I normally do. I then settled in to do some crafting (I am working on Ellen's new gift for swap). The phone rings and it is a number that I don't recognize but this time I answer it. (I normally don't pick up the phone on numbers I don't know.) It was Mike saying that his car broke down on his way to work and he had to walk to a farm to use the phone. He had to walk and it was 17 degrees below zero...how did that happen? :(   He asked if I could come and get him?  Of course I can but it is going to take awhile as the car is frozen in the snowbank. (we have no garage so the cars sit out in the elements) I quick changed clothes and put on my many layers of winter garb. I hate layering  because when I am done I can't move let alone drive. I started the car, praying that it would hum right along. Thank you Lord, it did. Oh my, there was sooo much ice on everything. I was getting a little frantic by then as even the windshield wipers were frozen solidly to the glass. I thought where is the ice scraper?? I looked everywhere in the car and could not find it. Okay then what can I use? I went back into the house and got a wide pancake turner. Hey, I use what I have when I need to jump into action. I scraped and used the broom to try and move the frozen snow. Everything on me, even with layers is getting cold. I keep scraping the windows and my makeshift ice scraper broke off and I was left with the top portion of about 3 inches to try and scrap the rest. Well, I thought, that has to be good enough as I need to get going. I went back into the house to get my wallet  and as I turn to go out again to the car....there is Mike. I was so happy to see him. He said a neighbor gal from down the street was coming home from the next town over and seen him standing in the bitter cold and asked if he needed a ride. Of course he took her up on the offer.
Now what do we do? Mike called into work and that did not go well. So he went down to the local mechanic shop to see what he could do to help. He was busy with other cars until 4:00.  I knew that meant Mike would be pacing the floor until 4:00 arrived. Sure enough...I was right...walk around in circles. (he does not like his vehicle sitting along a lonely roadside) Finally at 3:45 he decided to see if the mechanic was done with his other jobs. They left a few minutes later with a truck and trailer to bring the car home. One hour later they are back with the car and bad news that the timing belt is shot and the cost to fix it isn't cheap. :(   Oh the joys of maintaining 2 vehicles and older ones at that. Today has to be a better day and I am going to be looking for the sun to arrive. I haven't been able to get out much to walk as it has been so icy on the sidewalks. Because of that I am starting to get "spring fever" sooner than I normally do and that is not good. I think later today, I need to post a photo of some flowers from this past year's flower bed. Come back later and visit. :)

Swap Gift Pic

fabric brooch and matching hair clips for my grand-daughters

Swap Gift

Good morning to all. Hope you had a good night. I have so much to do today but before I start working on projects, I want to show you what I received from my swap friend Ellen. She has her own business called About A Bride. She is a wedding planner and she just started creating and selling wedding accessories too. (on Etsy) I love her spunk and her creative heart. I am always amazed at the things she accomplishes as she has a little boy Eliel that keeps her very busy. (I think she said her secret was staying up into the wee hours of the morning.) She is comical and I love reading her blog because I always get a laugh when she tells "the story". You can find her here at www.etsy.com/shop/aboutabride and at www.shimmerandtulle.blogspot.com. 
Well I am off to get Mike up, feed him breakfast and see what the day brings. The beautiful sun is out so it has to be good. Have a blessed day all. :)

Chiseled Brownie Bits

chiseled brownie bits and some sweet treats

Bible Study Treats

Last night I decided not to wait until today to make treats for my Bible study. So I found my recipe and decided to make Brownie 7-Layer Bars. I had all the ingredients for them. I knew they would be very rich and very sweet, but good. I whipped them up and put them into the oven until they were done. They had a brownie layer, unsweetened coconut layer (because I personally don't like sweetened coconut), chocolate chip layer, mixed nut layer, and sweetened condensed milk layer.  I know that I only listed 6 layers but I was out of butterscotch chips, so I added extra chocolate chips. The recipe said to let the bars cool thoroughly before cutting. I can do that. :)  So I put them in the refrigerator until cool, then I cut them. Cutting them after they were cool wasn't an easy task but so far so good. I put them back in the refrigerator. Let's fast forward to today...I took them out of the fridge so that I could place them on my very pretty party plate. Oh my goodness...they were stuck tight to the pan. I tried running a knife around the edges, I tried prying them up with a metal spatula (that eventually bent) and I even came up with a few other tools, short of a screw driver to try to get them out. So much for letting them cool in the pan. :(  I was so frustrated and mind you I needed to get finished before my study started. Yep, good way to start a Bible study, grumpy and frustrated. I said, "Well Lord, now what do I do?" I don't usually talk to God about my cooking abilities or ask His instruction regarding my cooking but today I DID. I heard that "still small voice" say, "put them in the oven." Why would I want to put them in the oven? Again, I heard "put them in the oven." Okay, in the oven they go. I set my oven for 250 degrees and then put them in for 3 minutes. Then out of the pan they came!! Yes!!! The 7 layer brownies are out of the pan! I know by now you are probably rolling your eyes at me...but don't do it. Tee Hee. I figured that the Lord could help me feed 5, especially since He fed 5 thousand with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. It's not as if I was asking Him to multiply the brownies, just help me, please, get them out of the pan. :) Anyway I decided to use the chiseled crumbs (from the first 4 bars I tried to get out of the pan) to put on ice cream. Yum. :)  All was well and everyone loved the bars. :)

Tomorrow I am going to post a pic of the wonderful swap gift that was sent to me from my friend Ellen in Canada. Hope you all have a great evening. :)

Finally Finished the Bookmarks

I finally finished Emma's bookmarks for her class. I did 30 of them. She was satisfied with the end result, so that is what is important. I used a Martha Stewart  border punch, some stickers and foam hearts from WalMart, and some various Hero Arts stamps. I love making things for the girls and I like it that they can give away some handmade things instead of store bought. (easier on daddy's pocket book too.) Now I will have to come up with something for Chloe to give her classmates and she has already told me she did NOT want book marks. She said, "Grandma, I want roses and teal ribbon on my Valentine cards." Okay Chloe grandma will see what I can come up with. :)
It was very quiet today as Mike went back to work this afternoon. I miss him, but I did get more done than I have in the last 4 days.I got my Bible study finished up for tomorrow. I have to do some baking for my "study" girls....maybe some pecan brownies. Hope you all have a good night.
By the way, check out my friend Ellen's blog at Shimmer and Tulle. (link provided on the side) She has a lot of fun things going on, including an "online swap." Go visit and read what it is all about. It sounds like fun  :)

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days where I didn't feel very productive. It is Mike's last day off so it was hard for me to get too involved in a project. I worked on Emma's bookmarks and I decorated a glass bottle. The bottle took
 longer than I thought it would. At first I was going to layer 4 pieces of paper around it.They were so pretty too, but I just could not get them glued around the jar straight no matter how hard I tried. (and I tried more than once.) So I finally put 2 layers and it was a little better but I still wasn't that pleased. I finished that project and then decided to watch a movie with Mike in the middle of the afternoon. I never watch movies in the middle of the afternoon, but we had to get it back to the rental place. Actually it was last night's movie that we didn't get to watch because the Viking/Saints game was being played and it went into overtime. I got tired and went to bed and Mike stayed up to watch all the sports talk afterwards. Tomorrow I need to get some things done including finishing up my Bible study for Wednesday when the girls come over. Have a good night.

Fun in The Snow

Good Morning

Good Morning to all. Mike is still sleeping as we didn't get to bed until late. We had freezing rain last night and now it is just snowing. It looks very slippery outside and not much for traffic on the road. The trees look absolutely beautiful with the snow ice on them. I love days like this when I can just stay inside and watch the beauty from my living room window. I'm sure today will be a quiet one. Mike wants to watch some football  (to see who goes to the Super Bowl) and I will work on finishing Emma and Chloe's cards and bookmarks. I may even get a household chore done. :) First I am going to work on my women's bible study for Wednesday. It seems like there is always something to do and even though I like to stay busy, it is nice sometimes to just sit, get quiet, and just breath. It seems I do more of that when Mike is home for the day. I try hard to stop" being busy" and spend time with him. So, what are your plans for the day?  I hope your day is joyful. :)

A Good Day

Today was a good Sabbath day. Mike is home and we just hung out together. Tonight we are having movie night. (as soon as I am done posting) I made some bookmarks today for Emma to take to school to give her classmates. They turned out cute. I have some work left to do on them and then I start Chloe's. I love to do things for them. They are such treasures to Mike and I and having them for our grand-daughters make our lives extra special. :) I thank God for them every day. We all have so many blessings in life. We do not have to look very far to see them either. I see the pictures of the people of Haiti (especially the children) and I think, those parents love their children as much as I love mine. They have gone through so much and have so little. Tonight I get to crawl into my warm bed with comfy pillows next to the one I love. The horror and tragedy of Haiti is beyond words. God loves them and He cares about what happens to each and every one of them.We should care too. There are many ways to donate in order to help them and we can pray that the donations sent, will reach all in need. Hope you have a blessed evening.  By the way, did you notice my new and improved blog header? My friend Ellen designed it for me and I love it. She is so talented and very sweet in giving  me the gift of her precious time. :)

Finally

Finally I can sit down and write a post for today. My husband Mike is off from work so we went shopping for groceries and a few other things. We also stopped at the public library to get my stash of books for the next 3 weeks. We love that place. I usually check out a book there to see if I like it and then if I do and want it in my own home library, then I buy it. We didn't get home until late this afternoon and we had a great time. We always have fun when we shop together. First we went to a store that has a little cafe in it. They serve great coffee and the best bread pudding we have ever had. After we ate and visited, I went shopping  and he sat and read his book and drank coffee. It is a win-win situation because I don't feel rushed and he is taking time to relax, which he does not do often. I found the new Hero Arts coffee cup stamp that I wanted for card making. It is soooo cute. I can't wait to use it. I also found some really cute paper to make a new swap gift for my friend Ellen (from Canada). I haven't told her yet but we are going to do another swap. ( she asked if I wanted to do one for Feb.) The last one was so much fun and I enjoy having Ellen as a friend. (wished she lived closer) :) Any way maybe this weekend I will start that project. The weather for the weekend isn't supposed to be very good and so Mike and I will hibernate in, as he is off until Tuesday. (I'm doing my happy dance.) I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and stay warm. :)

Day Two of Learning to Blog

Well, here I am at day two of learning to blog. I decided today, to learn how to post a lovely photo of Annie, my Maine Coon cat. I am reading a book by Tara Frey called "Blogging for Bliss." The first thing I read this morning was not to overdo posting animal pics on your blog...hmmm. Okay then, just one photo today. I only decided to write about Annie because of the way she greets me in the morning. I come down the stairs and lovingly say to her, "Good Morning Ann. How are you doing?" She talks back in loving way too. I call it "cat speak" and it is very hard to translate into English what she says to me. It sounds something like this...awowwhatwhat. I know it doesn't make much sense to anyone but me, but that's okay. As you can see by the photo, Annie has a quite beautiful face that greets me each morning. Am I a cat nut? Not really, but I sure love this cat and her company. :)

Well, I did it! I started a second blog to post "creative" every day things that I am thinking about or am working on. I may even post some of my favorite recipes, pics of the grand-kids and other fun stuff. I am one that learns as I go along so it may be trial and error at first, but I am excited to start. :) So...I welcome you to join me when you can. :)