Eating in the wild

Yesterday I picked Amanda up from work again and she suggested we go to lunch. She picked a place called Lorie's Wildridge Restaurant.

Amanda took a few pics for me because my phone has been taking horrible pictures.

It has a rustic, log cabin feel to it and there are wild animals all over the place. Thankfully none are alive and begging for food. Amanda chose a Reuben sandwich and french onion soup and I had a fish sandwich and fries. It was totally yummy and it's always nice to spend time with Amanda

Refuelling

It seems that every couple weeks I have one day where I come home from work and just crash and burn. Yesterday was that day. I got home, sat on the couch and I was done for. You wouldn't have thought it would happen so soon after having a long weekend. You can't fight it though, when it happens you just have to go with the flow. 

Gibbs always hates those day.

The things I do

I've mentioned in the past (I think) that Gibbs can't have free run of the house. He needs to be confined to the room I'm in. So long as I'm watching him, he does fine. It's when he wanders that he does bad things.

My solution, if I'm upstairs in the computer/craft room, I block the door so he can't get out. If I'm in the living room or kitchen I close the basement door and have a piece of plastic that I prop up across the steps to keep him from going upstairs.
When I pulled out a couple of large Easter bunnies the other day I said to Amanda that I would have to find a place to put them because if I just left them sitting on the floor Gibbs would end up lifting his leg on them. I decided to set them on the steps. At first I had one on the bottom step and the other behind it a couple steps up. Then I decided to replace the plastic with the bunnies and see if that would keep him from going up.

Saturday night, all day Sunday and part of Monday he would not go past these two. Monday night all of a sudden he must have wanted upstairs bad because he shot right through the middle and on up the steps. I moved the little bag in the girl bunnies hand to the middle and now it hangs down low enough that he again won't go through. This is at least a cute solution until Easter. After that it'll be back to the plastic. I suppose I could buy a gate but I'm the only one who sees it so I go the cheap route.

Bday report

I know I've already talked about my birthday but it's worth one more post.

On my birthday a girl from the meat room made me cupcakes

The deli manager gave me some cute stuff to put out in my yard and a candy bar

Amanda brought me a cake and pajamas, a cute little owl and candy bar which is gone already

Then on Saturday when everyone was over I got yet another cake, this time an ice cream cake, and we had pizza.
Brad, Brit and Presley gave me a super soft throw.

Last but not least was the box of candy from sweet blog friend Grace.

That should just about cover it for birthday until next year.

What did I do

So what did I do those 4 days I was off and not blogging? Not a whole lot. 

Friday I had planned on going out and doing some shopping. I haven't done that in a long time so I thought I would go to Erie, walk the mall, the craft stores and a maybe hit a few other places to walk around. I got up started out leisurely with coffee and then about 8 I got dressed. I went downstairs and was going to head out when I saw that it was snowing out. YUCK. Now I didn't want to go. I waited. About noonish I decided to go. I hit the highway and my low tire pressure light came on again. No biggie, get off at the next exit and put some air in the tires. When I did I found a little piece of metal sticking out of the side of my back tire. I was too chicken to push my luck so I headed home. Talked to Amanda and told her what happened so her and Rob came to look at the tire. He pulls the little piece of metal right out and says just something you picked up, no big deal. REALLY!!!

Saturday I picked Amanda up at work then we went to Walmart and lunch. Later that day Amanda, Rob, Brad, Brit and this little cutie

came over to celebrate my birthday. Sorry but no good pictures of her. My cell phone isn't taking very good pictures and she was a busy little baby.

Sunday I finally had my window shopping day then it was home to lounge around doing nothing.

Monday, the final day, I cleaned up the kitchen, repotted a plant that needed taken care of and paid some bills. 

That about sums up my long weekend. Oh but I live an exciting life.

A fast four days

The past 4 days have gone by far too fast like I knew they would. It's back to work today and as you can see, back to blogging as well. My break wasn't because I was feeling down. I just didn't feel much like writing a post and quite frankly, there's not much to write about.

Yesterday I was reading Anni's post and she mentioned cleaning out computer files because she had an overload of useless photos. It occured to me that my files are loaded with useless photos. I imagine that when Anni calls her photos useless, they don't even come close to being this bad.

I don't know why this wasn't deleted. I seem to have a problem withgetting rid of photos that have no value whatsoever. I'm even worse with photos that might include a person or animal but the quality if so far gone that it's not good for anything.

Maybe one of these days I'll start going through all the folders on my computer and dumping the pictures that look like the one above.

Taking a break

I've decided to take a break for a day or so. Be back soon

Behind

I want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes yesterday. If I didn't get to your blog yesterday morning before I went to work then I'll catch up with you either today or tomorrow. Taking off from the computer last night I'm a little behind now.
It was a nice day. Even though I had to work one of the girls brought in cupcakes and another girl gave me a really cute birdhouse, yard ornament and candy bar. Last night Amanda and Rob came over with a gift and a cake.
Today I think I might just go out and do some window shopping and do whatever.

57

Time sure does fly. How did I get so old so quick? Today is my 57th birthday.

On the left is me at 18. The one on the right I'm not sure how old.

This one is first or second grade.

I would end with a current picture but all of them make me look like a 57 year old person and my mind keeps telling me that can't be right.

It's my birthday and I can pretend I'm still 25 if I want to. 

Something to crow about

I saw a bunch of crows out in the back yard the other day and instantly thought of all the times Wade told me about the crows he would feed at work. I heard the same story over and over again. I would say I know, you told me this already and he would continue on any way. When I saw those crows I said "There's your crows Wade, remember how you used to feed them?" Then I went for my camera and of course most of them were gone when I got back. I did spot just one up in the top of the dead tree

Then I just started to take pictures of the sky because, well, I like to take pictures of the sky.

A day divided

I didn't spend my day off doing just one thing. I started off leisurely with coffee and blog reading. After that I moved on to a few household chores that needed done. I think I need a new broom.

I put away the St. Patrick's day stuff I had out and pulled out a few Easter things.

I also spent some time lounging on the couch playing a couple of my favorite games on my tablet.

June's Journey is probably my favorite. It's a hidden object game and I've been playing this one for over  a year now.

The other is one I just recently downloaded. It's a color by number app.

It's back to work today but it's a short week. My birthday is this week and even though I'll be working on my birthday I took vacation days Friday and next Sunday so that I could have a 4 day weekend. I'm not sure what I'll do yet but I was ready for a little time off.

Not everything is as it appears

Looks can be deceiving. Even though it looked like a warm day the temperature was at 32 degrees. The sunshine and beautiful blue sky made up for the fact that it was cold and windy.

On my way back home I couldn't help snapping a picture or two. This one I just held the phone up and snapped without looking at what I was getting.

The next two I was stopped at a red light while I snapped.

See. I even have a picture of the traffic light showing that it is red.

Happy St. Patricks Day

I'm a wee bit Irish so I thought I had better do a post for St. Patrick's Day.

Why should you never iron a 4 leaf clover?
Because you don't want to press your luck.

Going back in time a bit I bring you Duke and the green St. Patrick's Day carnation.

For those of you who are newer here, Duke was my wonderful westie that I had before Gibbs.

How are awesome blog pals like all of you like a 4 leaf clover?
They are hard to find and lucky to have.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

A taste of spring

We had a couple of really nice days. On Wednesday the temperature was in the mid 50's and it felt like heaven. On Thursday it got even better with a high of 72. I actually opened my kitchen widow for a bit to let in some fresh air.

Mother nature is a tease though. Friday it was back down in the 30s and the forecast for the next 4 days is about the same. At least I know that spring isn't too far off.

According to the file information this picture was created in March of 2017. I had to dig in the files for a spring like picture since it still doesn't look springlike here yet.

With a splash of coffee

 The other day I worked on making some Easter cards  using free cricut cut files.

This one I added little gems to the centers of 3 of the flowers

On this one I used glitter pens to add a little something to the eggs.

Oh and those stains on each of them are the coffee stains that Gibbs felt could only enhance the look. I disagreed with him.

Just a cake

All I have today is another cake that I made at work. I did this one Sunday and it was for a baby shower. They just asked for blue flowers but I threw in the little duckies because I happen to think they are cute.

That name is really different and had they not asked for blue I wouldn't have known if it was a boy or a girl. I'm not sure how you pronounce it but it makes me think of the dishes.

Little Golden

Did you read Little Golden books when you were growing up? I remember having lots of them when I was a kid and then later buying them for my children.

Recently, while in Walmart, I saw a display of Little Golden books and thought I would pick one up for my granddaughter. WHAT? Are they kidding with that price?

I did a little search for Little Golden books and found out that they first came out in 1942. According to THIS WEBSITE, when they were first published they were sold for .25 cents.

The original 12 titles published were:
Three Little Kittens
Bedtime Stories
The Alphabet A - Z
Mother Goose
Prayers for Children
The Little Red Hen
Nursery Songs
The Poky Little Puppy
The Golden Book of Fairy Tales
Baby's Book
The Animals of Farmer Jones
This Little Piggy

One less thing to procrastinate over

Wade always did our taxes. Between my divorce and the time I married Wade, I did do my own online but this time around I was afraid I might forget something so I decided to go to H&R Block. They are right down the street from me so it was convenient. I've had all the stuff I thought I needed ready to go but I kept forgetting to make the phone call. Finally I called yesterday morning and they were able to get me in that afternoon.

My taxes are filed finally. Yeah!!!!

If I had done them myself I could have avoided the $99 fee but with my luck I would have screwed something up.

A kiddley divey too

I made a cake at work yesterday. If you aren't sure, it's supposed to be a lamb.

And it made me think of this song.

Spring ahead sucks

I've never been fond of the spring time change where we lose an hour. It's even worse now that I work on Sunday morning and that is the one day that I start work an hour earlier than normal. Sunday I get to work at 4:30 am. With the time change it's like going to work at 3:30.

Photo from snappygoat.com

Since I'll lose an hour I figured that I would go to bed an hour early Saturday night. Not a bad plan except that for some reason all day Saturday I had the urge to nap on the couch. That means that come bedtime I'm not tired. 

Since I spent Saturday napping I skipped some of the blog reading, email and responding to comments. I may skip it again today because I foresee more napping when I get home from work. 

It's all good now

So my escape is once again a running vehicle thanks to my daughters FIANCE. (I'll explain why that's all in caps at the end)

Thursday night Amanda and Rob picked up a battery for me and then Rob put it in. He was out there after dark in the cold working on it for what seemed like forever.

Amanda was kind enough to go outside and take some pictures with her cell phone so that I had blog material.

It took him a while to get it done because the battery is underneath that plastic strip with the vent in it that you see starting at the bottom right of this picture. You can sort of see the hooded figure working on removing that piece.

So why did I type the word fiance in all capital letters? Well apparently I always type Amanda's boyfriend and the one day I said something about my son and his fiance. Amanda questioned why Britney was my sons fiance but Rob was Amanda's boyfriend? Both couples are engaged. I told her I stand corrected and would make that correction.

Woe is me

I had a little pity party for myself. I guess I'm feeling down over the whole battery issue. I've gone two days now without my vehicle because Wednesday morning it wouldn't start again. I walked to work Wednesday and back home. I had asked my daughter if she could give me a ride Thursday morning and I was glad I did because it was snowing like crazy. I did walk back home after work though. As I type this her and her boyfriend are out hopefully picking up a new battery for me. Everyone had told me to go to a certain place and how good they were and they'll even put the battery in for you. Well that's all well and good except I couldn't get the vehicle started to get it there. I was feeling a bit frustrated and annoyed. I'll get over it and be back to positive happy me soon.

Copy cat

I have a Pinterest board for greeting card inspiration. I occasionally go there and try and copy ones I have saved.
I recently attempted to copy one and it didn't turn out to bad. I wanted to show you the one original one that I was copying but couldn't find a picture of it. I thought I saved it but I apparently saved a different one instead. Any way, this one is similar to what I was copying.

I liked the way they cut out the butterflies and used a patterned paper behind the cutout. This is the one that I made.

Before and after editing

I haven't done any playing around with textures and photo editing in a while. The other day I sat down and decided to play.

I had been working with my camera using the manual mode just to see what I could get. Being cold and rather gloomy the options for subjects are slim.

I took a picture of these leaves laying on my back deck. This is the picture straight off the camera.

This is after making some adjustments and adding some textures.

But if you know me, when I get started on things like this I just keep going. I thought I would try and soften some of it up a bit but maybe make the leaves stand out a little more.

I don't know if I accomplished what I was looking for but I did manage to kill an hour or so playing.

With sympathy

My son's fiance's grandfather recently passed away so I made a sympathy card to send to her.

This was a free cut file in Cricut design space

For the inside I found a sentiment online that I liked and printed it out adding the watercolor flower from some free files I got from creative fabrica.

From Amanda's kitchen.

I got a text message from Amanda yesterday along with a picture to use for today's blog post.


The message read: Here's the recipe for your blogger people. Tell them I hope they enjoy it as much as I do.

Breakfast at Amanda's

Yesterday morning I went to my daughters for breakfast again. She made a yummy casserole type thing in the crock pot.
While I was there I thought I would take some pictures of the grand cats. I could not get both of them to look at me at the same time.

If Ace was looking at me then Fluffy was looking out the window

If Fluffy was looking at me then Ace was looking at the floor.

I had no problem getting them both looking away from me though

Hanging with my bud

After work yesterday I ran to Walmart to get a couple things I was out of. Gibbs was a little upset with me for being late but once I explained that I had to go get him more biscuits he forgave me. Then we spent the rest of the night hanging out together. We had a nice dinner then settled in on the couch for a relaxing evening

The couch is currently covered with a couple fleece blankets because Mr Gibbs always tracks in mud. It's bad enough that I can't keep the floors clean.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

Hello March. And hello to all my wonderful blog pals.

Blogging wouldn't be nearly as fun if I didn't have all of you leaving me comments every day. They range from thoughtful to informative to down right funny.

The other day on my "flying by the seat of my pajama bottoms" post there were a couple that really made me laugh.

SandraFebruary 27, 2019 at 7:59 AM

not bad at all for a fly by the seat of pj's… I like the owl a lot.. that is the kind of photo I love to take... you could show us your pajama bottoms next time. did you have on a top to? you know, details. brahahahah… don't get me riled up about heath insurance, dealing with THEM now

and it must be that Anni's mind was in the same place as Sandra's

Hottin' AnniFebruary 27, 2019 at 5:58 PM

Ok bottoms...okay, hooter come to mind now. That owl must be a subliminal message.

ReplyDelete

Replies

1. 
   Hootin' AnniFebruary 27, 2019 at 5:58 PM

   Hooters

On my Tuesday Talk post

I laughed at the comment from Handmade by Amalia

A cupcake in one hand, a cookie in the other. Didn't someone call that a balanced diet?
Amalia

I could go on but that's it for today