Meowy Christmas!

MEOWY CHRISTMAS! - May you have a purrfect Christmas that is pawsitively wonderful in every way.  Love:

Blackie

Callie-Jo

Captain Cuddles

Miss Dottie

Harley (He hated this)

Snickers

Scatterbrain tales

Yesterday was "One of those days"...Here I was busily working away at addressing Christmas cards when the phone rang.  It was hubby, we chatted for a few and then I went back to working on my card.  Shortly after the phone rings again and I'm thinking, "Geez, I'm never going to get anything done."  I answer the phone and it's the Dentist office calling wondering why I'm not at my appointment.  Seems I was suppose to be there at 9:40 but I wrote down 10:40 and here it was almost 10:00 and I'm 20 minutes late!  I dashed off to the Dentist without brushing my teeth and just after taking my medications without eating.  - More on that in later.

I get there and a car is trying to back out so I'm trying to be patient while they back out so I can pull in.  I wave at the driver as I drive past them and pull into the parking space.  The car then turns around and heads back towards me.  I'm wondering if I did something to upset them as the driver rolls down the window.  Then she speaks to me, "Hey aren't you even going to wave at me?" - Turns out the driver is my niece!!
I told her I was already 20 minutes late and she is laughing at me as I head off for my appointment.

Thankfully the procedure didn't take long and I didn't get sick from not eating before I left. It was close though as the meds had started to kick in just before I headed home and quickly fixed a sandwich to ward off the nausea that was starting.



The fun didn't stop there though as when I got back home I addressed a Christmas card, sealed it up and then realized that I'd sent a card to that same person the day before. I had to take it out, put a piece of card stock over the writing so I could use it for someone else.  Later at the Post Office I can't find my driver's license (they let it slide this time) and I went and sat on a bench while going through my entire purse before discovering that it had gotten stuck to the back of another card in my purse.

I get home and am tying to clean up some of the kitchen.  I'm emptying a bunch of old Chili into a garbage back when the bag shifts and PLOP onto the floor goes all the Chili.  One big mess to clean up.

Will the fun never end! - That's what some of my days are like lately.  Do you ever have those type of days.  Feel free to share.  It will make me feel better!

Rambling Thoughts

You know I was thinking today (yes, I sometimes actually put my brain to work) about how we often pass by the "little" things in life waiting for the BIG moments to happen before we comment on them.  What a shame as sometimes those little moments are often the ones we remember the most later in life. 

For example:  About a week ago one day for lunch I was eating a Mexican TV Dinner and it had gotten a bit cold since I eat and look at e-mails at the same time.  So I went in to re-heat it.  While I was in the kitchen I noticed the dish of cat food that I had brought in from outside so that it could thaw out.  - We feed neighborhood strays and basically any cat who wants to come out for a snack.  With the freezing temps the soft food had frozen so I brought it in to thaw it out and give it to our cats inside.
I chomped it up and put it out on plates for them to eat and then went and got my food out of the micro-wave.  I picked up my spoon and decided to lick it off before I stirred my food again. 

Now can you tell where this is leading yet....As soon as I licked the spoon off I realized what had happened. It was "icky" CAT FOOD on the spoon.  I was trying so hard not to gag and grabbed up a cup of water to quickly rinse my mouth out (several times) all the while still trying not to gag as that stuff tasted horrible.  I even had to go rinse with Listerine just to be able to finish eating my lunch.  To make matters worse I decided to call hubby and tell him about it.  He about died laughing.  So now since the story is out he and our daughter start "meowing" at me when they see me with a spoon or the cat food cans.  Lots of jokes come from dumb things like that.  I have to admit it was funny (and gross at the same time).  I'll be sure to check my spoon from now on before I lick it off!

So let's not forget to share even those "little" moments that make up our lives.

Sweet Coleen, and a little bit of Nature

I didn't want Fall to come and go without showing you the "Annual" trip to the Pumpkin Patch photo.  This is my favorite of all the pictures that I took.  Isn't that outfit Fun! (Grandma) got it for her.  She even wore it to school the other day even though Halloween has come and gone.

These next photos are pictures of a little Squirrel that I've been feeding lately.  The first one shows the squirrel eating from a Sunflower plant that the back neighbors grew this summer.  The next photo is (maybe the same squirrel) with some peanuts that I've been leaving out.  Check out how many peanuts it was trying to stuff in it's mouth!

Hubby made me a feeder which we put out on the fence today.  So far I have not been able to get pictures of the squirrel in the feeder but I did get one of our "Squirrely" cats in the feeder before we put it outside!

Lastly I want to share Coleen's School picture because we just think it's so CUTE!

Back again this week with a few other photo's I'd like to share.

Dinner is Served

So I'm at the dentist the other day and saw a recipe in the Better Homes & Garden magazine there.  It sounded good so I had them make me a copy of the recipe.

Here it is:

Slow Cooker Indian Stew.

2lbs. Skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cute into 1-inch pieces.

1 Medium onion, chopped.
3 Cloves Garlic (I only used 2) minced.
5 tsp. Curry Powder
2 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper and or cayenne pepper.
2 15-oz. cans Garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained.  (I used reduced sodium beans).
2 14.5-oz. cans diced tomatoes, undrained.
1 Cup Chicken brother (again I used reduced sodium broth).
1 Bay Leaf
2 Tbsp. Lime Juice (I used fresh lime juice)
1 9-oz. pkg. fresh spinach - Optional
Hot Cooked Rice - Optional.

Lightly coat a 6-quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray or oil.  Add chicken, onion, and garlic to the slow cooker.  Add Curry powder, ginger, salt, and pepper to the slow cooker.  Toss to coat.  Stir in drained beans, undrained tomatoes, broth, and bay leaf.  Cover and cook on high-heat setting 4-5 hours or low-heat setting 8-10 hours.  I used the low heat setting on our cooker.

Just before serving stir in the Lime Juice and add spinach to the pot.  Let stand 2-3 minutes to wilt spinach.  Serve with rice.
Yields Approx. 8 - 1.5 Cup servings.

Halloween Tricks n Treats

Well here it is November 1st already! - Yes, Halloween is past now but I want to pay tribute to all those kids out there who dressed up for some Halloween fun.

First is Coleen and her teacher after school on Friday.  Mommy had forgot about sending her in her regular costume so Grandma had to rush home and get something for her to dress up in as she had a "mini-melt down" when she saw all the kids wearing the costumes that morning and she didn't have one on.  Thank goodness we had the Princess dress "Granny" (my mom) made her and a crown.

Next is our local Downtown Halloween celebration which was held Friday evening.

Coleen getting candy from the Madhatter.

A Mummy on the street (didn't know the kid but liked his costume).

Coleen and .... Can you guess what this is?  If you are a native to Walla Walla or lived here for very long you will recognize this as a "Walla Walla Sweet" for our famous sweet onions!

Coleen under a large scary cat.

My favorite from the downtown pics....Do you know what these two were dressed as.  I knew it was something that I was familiar with but couldn't quite place my finger on it.  At dinner I showed Mike the picture and he recogized it to but just couldn't figure it out.  Then it hit me so I had to do a "Google" search.  This is none other then:
"Spy vs Spy" from Mad Magazine.

From Halloween night, Coleen and my great-nephew Andrew.

Also my brother sent a photo of my other great-nephew Timothy that I had to share as well as he just looks so doggone adorable as a pirate.


Till next year....HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Across Sleepyhollow

I'm at the store tonight when I spot the "Headless Horseman" in the parking lot.  Where is my camera when I need it!  I rush home, pick up Coleen and head back to the store.  Thank goodness he was still there (or rather as it turned out, "she" was still there) and I got some photo's.  They even let Coleen climb aboard.

This horse is a Friesian.  Isn't it gorgeous! Now I must admit I've long been a little leery and even frightened by horses but I actually petted this beauty.  Boy was it huge!

So here's a picture of Grandma and Coleen with the Headless Horseman.

All I want for Christmas...

Is one of my front teeth!  Yep,  She finally lost a tooth.  It's been loose for about 2 weeks but she didn't want anyone messing around in her mouth.  Yesterday after school her mom, Grandma and Granny (aka Great-grandma) all took turns trying to pull the tooth.  No such luck.  Mommy tried the string trick which didn't work at all.  Grandma tried pulling it but she was fussing so badly it was upsetting me.  Granny was the most successful getting it loose enough to bleed but not all the way out as when it started bleeding Coleen got scared and wouldn't let us touch her tooth anymore.

Last night I got a phone call from one very excited little girl.  She was talking a mile a minute but was just thrilled that her tooth had come out.  She told me, "It just popped out on my tongue and I didn't swallow it!"  I asked her if it hurt and she said, "Not one bit Grandma!"  She had to call Granny too as she was just busting with excitement.

Of course the "Tooth Fairy" visited last night and left a good sum of money (Grandma donated $5 to the fund.) So here is the result from last night's visit from the Tooth Fairy.

She told us she's going to save this money until her next tooth comes out (yeah, right).  Hopefully the next one won't scare her about pulling it out.  She told Granny this morning that the next time she's going to just keep, wiggling, wiggling, wiggling the tooth until it pops out.

One last shot (Sorry for the poor photo quality.  Sometimes my camera just doesn't cooperate.)

Cat Photo of the week and Bowling Scores

Couldn't resist taking this photo (wish I would have had the camera on Auto) because this was just to cute to pass up.  So what is Captain Cuddles doing?  Did you guess,  "Taking a bath?" -  Wrong.  Would you believe he's actually Sleeping!  What a strange position to sleep in.  Cat's are so weird.

Okay for this weeks Bowling Scores:  167 - 149 - 164  I felt good after bowling this week.

That's it for now. 

A Star is Born

Coleen came home from school the other day and started singing this song.  I thought it was so cute that I ended up taking a video of her singing.  Enjoy.  If this is so small an image or doesn't play well for you here is a link to the same video on YouTube: 

A Day at the Fair

elcome! - Today I'm sharing photo's from the Fair.  Normally I don't attend the local Fair but since Greta had to work on Friday and it was "Kids Day" at the Fair Grandma had the pleasure of taking Coleen to the Fair.  We were there 4 hours and some of it in the HOT sun.  Don't know who's feet hurt more by the time we got home but I'm thinking it was Grandma's hands down.  We had fun though and that's what counts.  Later she spent another 3-4 hours that night there with her mom.

She only wanted to go on 1 ride but that didn't last long once she discovered how much fun she was having. 

Enjoy these fun photo's.

First up we have, "Flying High" as she enjoys an Airplane Ride.

How's this for, "Biker Chick!"

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Heading Down the Slide - You should have seen the look on her face her first trip down.  She actually went on this one more then once!

This is the Slide from the House of Mirrors - She loved this one and went through it 3 times.

Her favorite ride, The Dragon Roller coaster.

She got to have her picture taken with the Fair Court or the "Cowgirls" as she calls them.  She was excited about that.

Next to a very large Stuffed Tiger. 

"Yo, there Goes Elvis!" This is Roy Dodd who obviously does Elvis Impersonations.  I wanted to go listen and get a picture.  Coleen not so much.  In fact she said,  "I don't want to go listen to Alvin" - Guess she had him mixed up with the Chipmunks!

See ya later this week with some other Fair Related stuff.

First Day of Kindergarten

Well it's official...Coleen has grown up.  She started Kindergarten today. This is her waiting in anticipation prior to walking off to school this morning.  It's not a fabulous photo because for some odd reason she refused to smile normally this morning.   Why is it that when kids are younger (say 2-3) they are big camera lovers and will pose all day for the cutest of photo's if asked.  Once they get to be closer to 5-6 years of age they suddenly develop camera shyness or the refusal to cooperate for a decent photo!  This is the outfit Great-Grandma (aka Granny) made for her to wear for the first day of school.    Her mom bought her a pair of sparkly pink sneakers which Coleen begged her to buy.  Big problem though, they wouldn't stay on her feet so she ended up having to wear her Black Dress shoes instead.  We'll have to figure out some way for the shoes to stay on her feet as they are really to cute not to wear.

 Since I had made a card for her to celebrate her first day of school and made the shoes sparkly pink I had to get her picture wearing them.     This is a picture of Coleen and her teacher, Ms. Jacky taken after we got to school.  I should have had my camera on a different setting but at least it's a picture of her and her teacher.

She only went 1/2 day today (8:00-12:00) and then has tomorrow off.  She'll go back on Monday or a full day (8:00-2:40) and then off on Tuesday. Back on Wednesday and Thursday. Off for the local Fair on Friday and Monday for Labor Day.  Then it's back to the regular Full day schedule.  This is done to acclimate the Kindergartners into school so they aren't overwhelmed.

So far she is loving school.  We'll see how long that lasts.  It's all really new and exciting for her right now but there are days when I'm sure that's she'll be a bit bored or just not want to go but hopefully that won't be to often.

Vegetarian Cats

One HOT July afternoon (check out those Thunder Clouds) a group of kids and instructors got together for a friendly game of soccer - Well not exactly full blown soccer but they were kicking soccer balls so that counts. 

The plan was for the instructors to be cats and the kids were mice guarding their cheese, (aka - the soccer ball) and if the cats woke up you had to get your cheese away from them as quickly as you could.  Sounds pretty simple right?  Well not if you are Coleen who had to pipe up with,  "Don't cats eat mice?"!  Good thing the teachers were on their toes as they explained to her that they were, "Vegetarian Cats!"  Never a dull moment when Coleen is around for sure.  Can you believe those kids played for an hour in temperatures close to 100 degrees.  Ah to be young again and able to withstand the heat.  Grandma sat in what shade there was and drank ice water but I was more then happy when it was time to return home to a nice air conditioned house.

The 4th or rather the day after...

Hello!  Did you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend?  We celebrated a bit differently this year.  Mike had to work on Sunday so we planned our festivities for Monday instead.  We did take in the fireworks on Sunday night and enjoyed them.
Coleen had a few of those "Poppers" that shoot out confetti streamers and make a popping sound.  Here is a picture of her shooting one.

There was also a gorgeous sunset that night and I managed to get a picture of it.

Monday we packed up a picnic lunch and met up with my middle brother, Richard and his family for a fun time at a park up the South Fork of the Walla Walla River.  The park is called, Harris Park.

We had a really fun time eating, visiting and relaxing.

Coleen and Greta played some badminton (sort of) and I got a great shot of Coleen enjoying playing.

Mike played a short game of Horseshoe's by himself so I snapped a picture while he was tossing the shoes. 

 It was rather "cool" up there so people were walking around wrapped up in blankets if they weren't moving around to keep warm.  Talk about weird weather...I mean it was barely in the 70's and down to around 56 on the night of the 4th and now a few days later it's almost 100 degrees...Good Grief!

Here is a picture of my brother Richard leaning up against a sign posted at the park

Then a picture of my mom and I taken in the trunk of a tree on the grounds.

The tree was rather odd looking so I'm including a picture of the trunk

Finally a couple of pictures of some wildlife that we saw in the yard of one of the many homes on the drive up to the park.