Some new things!

I've been so engrossed in so many things the past couple of months that I kept putting off taking some pictures of some of my favorite stuff -things I've finished embroidering!

I have an album on my Facebook page that had about 9 items in it that I had embroidered between April and June but since then, although I have done a few things along those lines, I just kept procrastinating taking photos of the stuff and posting it here on my blog.

But tonight -I finally broke down and got pictures taken of all the rest of the stuff I've completed since June through tonight!

So, if you're ready -here goes with a string of pictures for your viewing pleasure -or at least I hope it's a pleasure for you to take a peek at these items. Some of these things will go this weekend to our church for sale at the crafts table at our annual Fall Bazaar while the rest will be here at the house, waiting patiently for someone to come along and decide they really like, really need this or that particular item!

 This first item -and the last item shown in this listing -is a tablerunner -about 44x14 inches. My apologies in that my background on these two pictures and two other pictures of another tablerunner doesn't do much in the way of showing the design very well because I have a red table cover on my dining room table right now. Oh well, such is my luck, ya know -and timing too! LOL

 This is the second tablerunner -Christmas floral design -and also is about 44x14 inches in size.

 The next three items -six or seven photos though -are each tabletoppers -about 32x32 inches in dimension. All are done in cross stitch. The first one is really a very pretty, rather dainty floral display.

 This one I really thought was cute and I liked it much better than a similar Christmas tree tabletopper I did last year -because this one the trees are smaller and the colors are more muted -makes for a very pretty cloth.

 Here's candles and tree ornaments shown with an evergreen spray background -also 32x32 inches.

 Next up -Terry cloth hand towel sets -here's some strawberries for a cheery little towel.

 Maybe some pretty little lavender colored flowers?

 Like cats? How about a pair of 'em?

 A pretty Christmas wreath to trim your kitchen maybe?

 O how about some holly berries too?

 Angels -always a great thing to have hanging around your house!

 And this is a set of three terry cloth hand towels each in a different Christmas design.

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 Want a neat pillowcase on which to rest your weary head and have some whimsical dreams on whimsical pillowcases then?

 And, finally -the full view of the Christmas church in snow scene of the first photo at the top!

And that's what I've been doing this summer in addition to spending roughly two months that I normally would have been doing other embroidery projects but I took that break in order to compile the cookbook for our church women's group!

And surprise, surprise -our cookbooks arrived today and so I even have a photo or two that I can share here -in a "Sneak preview" of the cookbook we will be selling starting this Saturday at our Fall Bazaar at our church (at Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lanse, PA -starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, November 5, 2012!) The cookbook sells for $12.00 per book and shipping charges run an additional $4.95 for 1 book -multiple orders have a higher price of course, for shipping but it also reduces the per book price too. (A package of 2-4 books will cost $10.95 shipping and a box of 5 or  6 cookbooks will cost $14.95 in shipping fees.) Overall, it really is a decent price though for a great book, full of all kinds of different recipes from old Swedish traditional things to even some great Slovak traditional foods and a whole lot of other stuff in between -to the tune of 586 recipes in all! And I love it! It's gorgeous!

And, here's what the cover to our three-ring binder cookbook looks like too!

If you see anything of the above craft items I have pictured here that you're interested in purchasing, drop me an e-mail and let me know and I'll post prices on items then. Same goes for the cookbook  -so if you would like to order one of them or a bunch of 'em for Christmas gifts or a birthday present or just a nice cookbook for yourself -e-mail me and I'll tell you who to make the check out to (WELCA) and where to send it -to me -and I'll pass the check along to our treasurer and will ship your cookbook out within 1-2 days of receiving the check by first class, priority mail!

And now -I should go to bed but want to try to write yet another post tonight -if I can stay awake that long, that is.

On second thought -I think I'll go to bed!

Peace!

Nut Space for a Nut Case?

Almost eight years ago now, my son decided to move back home.

Initially, he stayed here with us in the "family homestead" but that summer, he purchased an old house up on top of the hill here in the village. The house itself is definitely nothing fancy, does need a lot of work done to it in terms of remodeling, and he's been doing a few things to improve it -at least somewhat- on the inside of the place.

He's actually been very lucky with respect to some of the upgrades and changes he's made as a lot of people simply gave him things that they no longer had any use for -including even kitchen cabinets and counter top that he used which did a lot to improve the kitchen of this old place.

I don't remember now when the garage came into being at his place, but that too was something that came about quite inexpensively. A neighbor of his had also purchased an old house up on the hill and lived in it while building himself a nice, new split-level place and once he moved into his new place, he wanted the old house torn down and in spreading the word around town about that, he offered that anyone who tore the old place down could have whatever lumber was still usable at now charge- a token of his appreciation, if you will, for getting the old place razed.

At that point in time, my former son-in-law was still functioning fairly reasonably and he thought it would be a great way to get materials that he and my son could use to build a garage at my son's place without having to go get a big loan for the lumber and stuff. So the SIL took on the chore of pulling the old place apart and also, he and my son then designed a garage that the SIL then built too behind my son's house.

The garage itself is nothing fancy either but it is stable and workable but there's just one slight problem with it right now.

Seems my son needs just a bit more room -more space -in the garage so he can then put his non-running vehicles that he plans to work on -someday -and get them operational -plus he needs extra room to be able to store his old, but functioning, pickup truck because it's not a good vehicle to use during the winter months. Plus, Sonny-Boy doesn't want to have that truck sit out in the weather over the winter months and possibly begin to rust out or some such like that as it is a bit of a collector's item. It's a 1971 Chevy pickup, painted a bright yellow, very low to the ground (which according to my son, makes it even more valuable, at least to him I guess. I have no clue about things like that.)

Unfortunately, at this stage of the game, there's no old houses around waiting to be torn down that he could scrounge for the needed lumber to add on to his garage and there's definitely no extra funds available in his budget to allow for purchasing the material or even for trying to erect a metal building that could be attached to the garage he already has.

Now, normally something like this would be of little to no interest to me except that right now I really wish he did have a nice, decent sized out-building up there, and it would be outstanding if it just so happened to have a solid floor in it -like concrete maybe?

Now I suppose you're probably thinking why in blazes would I be interested in a garage type building with a concrete floor to boot, aren't you?

Well, my reason is actually quite simple.

You see, yesterday Mandy's boyfriend went down over the mountain to some place he knows about where there are loads and loads of black walnut trees and those trees just happen to have oodles and oodles of black walnuts just laying around on the ground  -free for the pick-up and taking of 'em! So, he loaded up -so far -two big 10 gallon containers filled to the brim, each one, with black walnuts!  Brought them up here and parked them out in my front yard now too, he did!

I'll be honest here and tell you I had never before seen black walnuts! I also had not a clue either as to what is involved in getting these things opened and getting down to the nut meats deep inside them either. So, to improve my knowledge base a bit, a Google search was necessary.

Seems that getting the top cover -if you will -off these nuts and getting down to the shell that then must be cracked to reach the nut meats is quite the laborious project! Indeed it is!

Just to get the top layer off these nuts -which by the way, in their current state they are roughly about the size of golf balls. (My estimation there.) And it says that one needs heavy-duty yellow rubber work gloves, plus a wire brush and a very hard surface on which to place the nuts and then, you either take a sledge hammer or some such equipment to 'em or, you can also drive a vehicle over them in order to break the top layer open!

Now, I do have a nice big parking pull-off in front of our house here however, it is not cemented or paved with macadam -just the dirt with a bit of gravel over top of that which would not make for the kind of hard surface needed to open these darned nuts!

Plus, once the top layer is cleared off, there are certain methods one must use to dispose of that substance or else, some elements in that stuff can poison the ground wherever it happens to get dumped! That, plus the fact that once you do get down to the shell itself, those things are rock-solid -or damned near, according to what I read about these nuts, and it takes a hammer or chisel or somethings along those lines in order to open the inner shell then. And after that, the nuts apparently have to be "cured" (so-to-speak) which is a process that takes roughly 6-8 weeks before the danged nuts are actually really usable!

The way things are shaping up here now with these two big old containers filled with those black walnut balls, I definitely understand completely why the price of black walnuts is so expensive!

Now, if only Ken could find something else that is free for the taking and that would be good to have, useful, etc., and not requiring major construction to use or major labor to get to the substance, I sure would appreciate that.

A nice winning lottery ticket would fill the bill for me!

Halloween Party!

This past Sunday -the 23rd - Mandy took both kids up to a Halloween Party at our local Moose.

This was the first time both of them had a chance to go to something like that and they had a blast! Even got to go on a Hayride too!

I had to go over to Walmart on Saturday though to pick up a long-sleeved shirt -in black -for Maya as well as a pair of tights (black) that she could wear under her costume. She looked so doggone cute all dressed up for this event! (I was thinking that sure would have been wild if I'd been able to find her some really sexy bodystockings to wear with her costume but she doesn't quite have the figure to fill out anything like these, at least not just yet!)

But anyway, here's Maya yesterday ready to head up to the Moose for the first of what I'm sure will be many Halloween parties in the years to come!

Doesn't she look great though? I think Mandy did a fantastic job with the face painting on her and Maya was really pleased and very excited over her "new" look!

She's definitely quite the little ham, isn't she? Now, this coming Friday, we get to get both of them decked out again for the school's Halloween program too and that should be a fun event!

Helping Hand

A little over a month ago, a young lady and her husband -both are friends of mine and Mandy's -had her fourth child. They had three little boys -ages about 7, 5 and not quite 2 and now, this beautiful little girl! She had posted on Facebook about two weeks ago that she was looking for a stroller that would hold two little ones -used, in decent enough condition and at a reasonable price.

I mentioned this to Mandy referencing a dual-type stroller that Carrie had brought up here and put out at our yard sale this summer that maybe our friend would be interested in that piece of equipment. So Mandy contacted her and a couple days later, Bets and her husband -along with the two younger kids -came down and checked the stroller out and when they left here, the stroller went with them!

It's not a Bob stroller but it is very similar in design and though it is used, it is in very good condition. Needless to say, they were very happy with this piece and Mandy and I were also very pleased to have found a new home for it -one where it will get put to lots and lots of good usage too and make Bets' life a whole lot easier to manage going different places with a little baby and a toddler in tow!

Makes me feel good -really good -to be able to help someone out like that!

And the best part of the whole deal was that we both got to see the new baby as well as their youngest little guy -and THAT really made my day and Mandy's too!

Lost Things; Found Things!

Strange things happening here this evening!

Beginning with earlier in the day -late afternoon, it was -and I went into the bathroom where, what did I find but a sight I am still not sure of what was going on there but there was Kurtis, standing by the commode, holding a hand towel and one whole end of said towel was dripping wet!

Although I did ask him initially what he was doing with that towel, I didn't get a real answer from him on that question. I did however then ask him if he had that towel in the commode and he did answer that question with a somewhat meek "yes."

At that point, I grabbed the towel from him and tossed it into the dirty clothes pile. I asked no further questions as to why he had the towel and had been, obviously, dipping it in the commode water mainly because I was a bit afraid of what his answer to that question might have been.

It is true you know -especially with small children -that the less you know, the better!

Shortly after that episode, I decided I'd best run up to the grocery store and get another package of the generic cold tablets to try to alleviate some of my head-sinus-nasal misery (stop the flow as it were, ya know) and also, to pick up some milk too since we didn't have enough milk in the house to last the night out if Kurtis should happen to have a night consisting of several wake-ups which only some chocolate milk can possibly sooth him back to sleep. So off I went.

Enroute, it dawned on me that it probably would be a wise idea if I would also pick up another container of tooth powder glue -that is, figuring on the off chance I might want to eat supper, I'd probably need to replenish my supply of that product.

I was actually quite well-behaved, spending wise, at the store as I got the items I had on my mind to purchase and only splurged on two other things. First I got a nice bag of fresh oranges because my mind said "Oh, oranges! Vitamin C! Good to have to deal with head colds! Buy it! And after that, I saw the store also had 10-pound bags of onions on sale -nice sized onions, not huge, just nice sized -and although we weren't in dire need of onions, I figured at that price, 10 pounds for $3.99, compared to the prices I've been paying of 2-pounds for a whopping $1.89 -well, I could easily store this many onions in a cool area of the cellar and they would keep nicely there until I needed them and it just made me feel much better knowing I was only paying 39 cents a pound for those babies, compared to the usual price of 95 cents per pound!

Back at home, I emptied the bags of my few purchases and began to finish fixing supper. About mid-way into the cooking routine, I thought about that packet of cold tablets I'd bought and that perhaps it would be a good idea if I open that and took one of those capsules. Sounded like a good game plan in my mind anyway.

And, in theory it was a good plan but there was just one small problem with doing that.

I couldn't find where I'd put the container of tooth powder and the package of cold tablets!!!

While supper cooked, I hunted all over the kitchen, in the dining room, in the living room too but to no avail. Couldn't locate those two items! Periodically, after supper, I would go on another search and destroy mission, checking out all my potential hiding places -you know, those areas where in a hurry you will stash something just to put it up so you will know later where you have it -and still, no luck in finding those damned things!

By 8 p.m. I asked Ken to do a walk-around the kitchen, dining room, living room too figuring maybe a fresh set of eyes --not ones that are all red and blurred from the ravages of a head cold -maybe those items would just sort of "jump out" at him and they'd be found. But that plan didn't reveal any wayward cold tablets or tooth powder either!

By 9 p.m. I was really getting very frustrated, very confused too, as to where on earth I could possibly have placed the darned things so I decided to sit down at the old computer and write a little post here about my searching skills that I also seemed to have misplaced too. As I sat down, and glanced up at the monitor, something caught my eye!

There, behind the monitor, sitting neatly stacked on a stack of floppy discs which in turn were neatly placed atop a couple cookbooks from my time for over two months of typing in recipe after recipes for our cookbook project, there were those two items I'd spent by then well over 4 hours searching for the darned things!

So, thankfully now, the mystery of the missing tooth powder and the cold tablets has been solved! Much to my relief, I must add!

And it reminded me of how, years back when my ex and I were still married and the kids were pretty small, I was always putting things "up" -the higher up the better to keep little fingers from getting into whatever things I felt I needed to keep away from them, and my logic then was that I was putting these things up so that I would then know where I had 'em when I actually would need them.

And to that logic my ex would say, "Well, let me know two years from now where the hell they were when you do find 'em!"

Beyond Fixing?

It really was a very nice, extremely pleasant surprise I got last week when a check arrived -one I'd been anticipating its arrival since early September -and just a small token payment for allowing people to have  access to the property behind mine, which mine abuts. I do wish there would be checks like this every month -oh heck, even once a year would be great too -but I know that's not going to be the case. Just still basking in the light right now that says I can pay my normal monthly bills this month as well as making some payments on my way overdue medical expenses too!

It would be nice to be able to get things on a decent equilibrium and maybe get some credit repair finally at least a bit under way here.

After doing my regular blog readings this morning, I got to thinking about various things while Sam and I went for a little walk. We only walked a little less than a mile, round-trip, and it was a bit on the futile side too as all he was interested in doing was checking out every leaf, blade of grass, tree truck, rock -you name it -to do a bit of watering but apparently had no inclination whatsoever into making any deposits of a fertilizing variety. Rats! That means that sometime again today either Mandy or I will have to venture out into the cold, raw air -with a fine mist falling too -in hopes he will get the right idea and leave something of substance behind so as not to have to feel the need to drop those goodies late tonight either in the bathroom, on the floor directly in front of the commode or -worst case scenario -put a deposit on the carpet in my bedroom for me to unwittingly run the risk of stepping in when I go to bed tonight. I don't mind surprises, mind you, but those kind of surprises are the kind I most definitely can do with out!

But anyway, my friend Bud at Older Eyes was talking today about what things we seem to be adept at doing and wanted to know what we, his readers, thought our skills might be that may surprise other people.

I mentioned that this past week, after my older daughter and her fiance had brought up a base telephone and a cordless unit to go with it (that they no longer need since they no longer have a "land-line") and they were tired of trying to carry on conversations with me on the phone I had here which was at the point that very rarely could I hear conversations on it without the chat being peppered with me asking people to repeat, then repeat again and again, what had been said. The volume on that phone was absolutely atrocious and that, added to the fact that I do have a few hearing problems to begin with, well it was a maddening thing for sure!

But over the weekend, I couldn't get anyone to hook the new phone up for me so Monday morning I decided to try to tackle the project myself. I disconnected the old phone very carefully, noting where  each wire had to go and then, finally disentangled the wires from all the other wires behind the computer and got the new phone system hooked in and voila -it was working!

My kids are not accustomed to my doing things like that! Anything involving wires and computers -although I am and have been a pc user at home for 12 years now and have worked around and on computers for well over 40 years -off and on -the thing is, I never had to work with actually hooking anything up! Friends and neighbors here who don't often understand about computers and stuff, and who have known me for many, many moons tend to think because my experience goes back that far in time that I also have lots and lots of expertise in the computer field. They don't realize that all I really know how to do with a computer is to turn one on, turn it off too to get things to reset themselves at times, and to type! I can use several different computer programs but that is merely utilizing software, not necessarily understanding how the system itself works!

But needless to say, in thinking about things I can do that maybe are surprising to others the aspect of my connecting the "new-to-me" telephone is one thing I'm happy I gave it a shot and that I got it done without irritating any family members to get them to do that minor job for me! It also got me thinking about how, for a good many years after my kids and I moved into this big old house that had been my grandparents home, then my Mom's and now mine, how when I was a kid, things would go awry in the house and around the place and somehow my Mom always managed to get things fixed. Not by hiring someone to come in and do the work for her, but rather, she frequently would do many of the needed repairs around here by herself! It used to really irritate me greatly to realize how many varied things that woman could and would do and how the heck did she ever learn those skills anyway?

My Mom would tackle anything -well almost anything -the exception being anything involving electricity as she was scared s******s about messing with that, but she could and did do carpentry, plumbing, masonry and landscaping stuff, gardening too, right up there with the best of 'em! Knowing that she had known how to handle these various types of tasks and I knew nothing about any of them, it gave me a very inferiority complex for many years until my one aunt told me one day that my problem was simply that I had never had the luck of having three brothers who each knew a great deal about those things and who could and would and did frequently explain how to go about doing these things to my Mom and what she would need, etc., and then, she would set out to do the work herself!

So, if anyone would like to take on the unpaid job of being my quasi older (or younger) brother -which I never had -and try to show me how to tackle some of the many repair jobs needed around this old house, feel free to list your abilities and when you'd be able to show up and give instructions! Keep in mind, I don't follow written directions very well as I am much more of a visual, hands-on, kind of learner.

Or perhaps at this stage of the game, I'm not quite up to the task of becoming a do-it-yourself kind of person!

Sneeze, sneeze! Cough, Cough!

It's been over a year since this last happened to me and I was beginning to feel pretty darned self-assured, downright cocky, you might say because I had managed to evade a head cold for that long!

Sad to say, that little bit of a record came to an end Sunday evening when I began to notice the familiar kind of tickly-pain starting in the back of my throat. Nah, can't be a cold I told myself -just those stinking seasonal allergies, that's all it is.

I'll dig around in the cupboard and find some nice cold tablets I ALWAYS keep on hand for just these kind of emergencies and by Monday afternoon, this will be all gone. History, ya know!

Well all I found was a packet of Mucinex DM tablets -an over the counter medication that normally I swear by but this time, these tablets did nothing for me!

By Tuesday afternoon, my nose was running like a broken water faucet! My eyes -let's just say that reddish, puffy eyes don't look all that great, definitely not a good feature, ya know! Mandy did find some other cold tablets -the regular kind -and I started to take them but they barely seemed to scratch the surface of this cold!

And, to make matters worse, of course the weather also decided to make a change so if the watery effects I was seeing through my blurry vision inside the house wasn't enough, the outside world was one that also was very wet! And according to the weather reports tonight, it's going to get even wetter before a little dry spell takes place!

Wonnerful, wonnerful -as good old Lawrence Welk would have said!

Not even close, is what I have to say about this whole thing to which I quote Bill Bendix in the old Life of Riley series from the 50s -"What a revolting development this is!"

Heat It Up!

I think it's going to be a long, hard winter ahead!

I've got not scientific reasoning behind that statement other than the price of fuel oil is still ridiculously high and Mandy's going to be cracking the whip around here to keep the temperature in the house as low as possible without freezing icicles off our noses. All of which points to the fact that my bedroom -which is the coldest room in the house too, I must add -I share with Miss Maya, my granddaughter.

Granted we have several nice heavy quilts to cover up with when we go to bed, but it's just that initial shock of crawling into a cold, cold bed that gets to me. Don't like that feeling one bit!

A friend of mine suggested that I get a nice heated blanket for one of our covers and that would keep Maya and me all snuggly warm while we sleep.  And you know, that is a nice thought alright. However, I think I'd rather have a heated mattress pad that would provide some really nice warmth along those creaky old bones in my back and maybe keep a few of the joints and limbs from being so stiff and sore when I get up and try to begin moving around.

Then again, maybe that wouldn't be that great an idea either though as nice and comfy as I think that would possibly be, I might never want to get up and out of bed again!

Just Around the Bend!

It's coming, folks! Just around the bend, the next corner, breathing hard down on us!

What's coming, you ask?

WINTER!

Don't bother asking me if I'm impressed because, well I'm not!  However, I don't have much choice in the matter but to sit back and accept whatever it may be that Mother Nature decides to drop on us, do I?

The weather forecast tonight was down right depressing -from my point of view anyway. Seems the forecasters think there's a darned good possibility that we may see some of the lovely white stuff arriving tomorrow night or by Thursday some time. No word on how much there will be so I'm hoping if we do get some snow it will be like what we had on Sunday, October 2nd, when we got a little over an inch of snow on the ground.

But I know too there are folks around this neck of the woods that will be wanting to get ready for the outdoor snow fun-activities they enjoy -cleaning off the ice skates, polishing up the Black Diamond Z-poles, tuning up the sno-mobiles and such.

To that I say, knock yourself out.

All I care about is where the heck our snow shovel might be hiding! And, hoping too that Ken's snow plow holds up fine and dandy once again too!

A Couple of Hams!

Tuesdays are always a wild and crazy day here for us.

For openers, Maya's TSS is usually here to work with her and also, Tuesday is when Miss Randi, the therapist who works with both Maya and Kurtis, is also here. Makes for a lot of activity to say the least with and for the kids! And a lot of fun for Mandy and for me too as both of the therapists are a lot of fun to have around as they work with and observe the kids and also, for the side conversations that often take place between all of us too.

Maya's therapist had picked up a pizza for us for our supper tonight since she would have to drive right past the Pizza Hut on her way here so Mandy ordered it and she delivered it then to us. Mandy had asked Maya what kind of pizza she wanted for her birthday supper (since she had said before leaving for school she wanted pizza for her birthday meal) and she had said she wanted pepperoni pizza but then she added "You better get a cheese pizza too for Kurtis because he doesn't like pepperoni!"

Nice, but also a bit scary when Maya starts showing concern for her little brother and his taste buds though!

So anyway, we had pepperoni pizza which Kurtis promptly picked off the pieces of pepperoni from his slice. Miss Randi tried to get him to eat the pepperoni -just to taste it, try it -so to try to bribe him, they suggested he try it by dipping it in a bit of ranch dressing. (Now, I'm not so sure that I would like pepperoni dipped in ranch dressing but Kurt's tastebuds and mine often don't agree and he seems to at least be willing to do a taste test sometimes if offered some ranch dressing to dip in.) Well he did that and ended up deciding he still didn't want, didn't like pepperoni because in his opinion, it tasted "sour." Go figure!

But today, Miss Randi had brought a treat with her in honor of Maya's birthday. (Boy the celebration of this event just goes on and on, doesn't it?)

Anyway, she had made some homemade chocolate cupcakes and iced them with a really thick, creamy pink frosting. She had used oversized muffin pans so these cupcakes were humungous! They were so large that there was no way to take a bit of the cupcake without getting icing all over your face and mouth in the process as you can see from the pictures of the kids munching on these cupcakes -and Kurtis, being the total clown in the process too!

Don't you think if the kids each had on a pair of Bolle sunglasses they would have really shown off what a couple of hams -future stars, maybe -they are?

They're both definitely ready for clown stardom, in my opinon!

Little Star!

Yesterday was actually Maya's 8th birthday although we had the party celebration for the big event on Sunday.

She's been totally wound up for some time leading up to Sunday and although we were a bit concerned as to how things would go -because with her and Kurtis too, things can change in a heartbeat, ya know. That worm can really turn at the speed of light and what one second was a fantastic mood and attitude can do a flip faster than all get out.

But thankfully, nothing like that happened at the party and for the most part, things have been relatively smooth for the past two days as well. Oh, a few little snags here and there, but nothing major - no huge meltdowns -and that's always good to be able to have days like that!

Tuesday morning, Miss Maya was all slicked up to go to school in her leopard print skirt, a cream colored top and black shrug over that. To polish off her outfit, she had on the new black boots Momma had found and got her for her birthday so she really did look slick! The only thing she could have added to the mix might have been if she had a pair if Black diamond earrings (tiny post ones, ya know) to really set everything off completely!

Don't believe me? Check out this picture of her and see for yourself!

Monday was a bit of a rough day for Kurtis though. He got home from school and within about 15 minutes after he got home, this is what he was doing.

Yeah, he did a major "Crash and burn" in the recliner but then considering what he'd been doing Sunday night and Monday morning, it's no wonder he was wiped out.

He was up several time during the night Sunday night. One time, he woke up and had a bit of a hissy fit because he needed a Kleenex and insisted on waking Mandy up to tell her that. (She wasn't very impressed by his request.) Then about a hour later, he came downstairs, peeking around the door at the foot of the stairs, he very politely informed me that he was "very, very thirsty" which meant "Gram, go get me a cup of chocolate milk" because ya know, chocolate milk cures everything (or almost) in his book! (That was about 3 a.m. -shortly before I went to bed.)

Then, sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m., I woke up and had to go back to the bathroom. On the way past the staircase, I noticed a couple things laying on the floor at the foot of the steps but didn't pay that much attention to them as I entered the bathroom. But when I came back out, I glanced up the steps and saw there were several different types of things, ranging from some toys, to papers, even some socks and underwear on the steps plus, at the landing at the top of the steps, there was a big box parked right in the middle of the landing filled with clothes hangers and papers and junk! What the heck? Then I heard the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the hall and there was Kurtis, leaning over the handrail with this big silly grin on his face.

I just stood at the foot of the steps and glared at him, watching his smile change to a look of slight alarm as I think it registered to him that maybe the stuff in the box and the things tossed around on the steps hadn't been one of his finest moves. I asked him then what the heck he was doing throwing things around like that and also, why was he up at that hour anyway.

His answer to me was priceless!

"I be house cleaning, Gram!"

Now how in blazes can you stay angry at a comment like that anyway?

Telling Time?

A couple weeks ago, I saw this item on sale in a recent Avon book and it struck my fancy for several reasons. (Sorry -no photo available.)

It was a neat little wristwatch -available in a choice of three colors -white, black or red -and there was no metal involved in the watchband or the face of the watch! The band is a bit like a wide and sort of thick rubber band which is ideal for me because I have a problem with metals of most any kind used in jewelry in that I am allergic to the stuff and I end up with contact dermititis. So, since my dear daughter here is now also an Avon Lady, I ordered one of these puppies from her!

I really do like this little watch and have no issues being caused to make my wrist break out from any part of it touching my skin since there is NO METAL involved with it. However, one thing about it is a problem for me and that is the buttons on the back of the face that you have to use to set the darned thing are so small that my fat little fingers can't work them properly. As a result, I have to have someone else set the thing for me.

Now, you'd think that when the watch is set, initially, that takes care of the issue but apparently somehow or other, I must have bumped on or both of the buttons that are used to set the time and date while taking the watch off or putting it back on because now, those things are all messed up and I can't get it reset!

Bummer! At least I'm hoping that's all that is wrong with it! When Maya's TSS, Miss Britt, returns here this week to work with Maya, I'll have her try to reset the thing again for me as she's the one who figured out how to work with those buttons in the first place and she has a lot more finger dexterity than I do to work with it too.

It that doesn't work though maybe I'll have to consider looking at some other brands to see if anyone else carries something in a material like this that I could get and be able to wear and use without it causing me to itch like crazy then!

Ah, the silly trials and tribulations of life with these darned little allergies, ya know!

Great Party!

Yesterday, we celebrated Maya's 8th birthday with a big party at the Social Hall at our church in Lanse. Mandy had a theme of an Ice Cream Sundae Social for Maya and many of her friends and classmates and boy, it all worked out great!

There were balloons galore all over the hall and the kids had a great time grabbing at the cords to them and seeing how many they could each collect.

Here's Kurtis, Emmy Jo, Hunter and Maya capturing some balloons early on at the party!

Here's the guest of honor standing in front of her "self-portrait" as the kids all got a chance to play "Pin the Bow" on Maya -a little remake of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey!"

Then there was a hectic game of Musical Chairs and Maya and Abby -the little girl in the print dress -were the last two contestants. On the last round though, Abby came out the winner!

This was followed by a Limbo contest and you can see there were some good contortionists present yesterday.

Here's Kurtis doing his interpretation of the "Limbo Swim" as he insisted he had to lie down on the floor -regardless of how how (or low) that pole was, and then, "swim" under the stick!

After the games, came the cupcakes and "make-your-own" ice cream sundaes! Here's Mandy and Maya's TSS, Miss Britt, scooping out ice cream and helping the kids put their choice of toppings on their ice cream then.

Here's Jessika, Khandace and Maya lining up to get their cake and ice cream. The kids really did seem to enjoy the opportunity to experiment with their toppings on the ice cream a bit. (There were no complaints so that's how I came to that conclusion!)

Here's Maya and several of her girlfriends enjoying their cake and ice cream -Jaden, Sydney, Jessika, Tayla, Maya and Khandace.

Some of the guests at the party....

Cousin Alex (my older grandson), Maya's big half-sister, Kate, Uncle Clayton and his girlfriend, Elizabeth.

This is Aunt Kathy, helping Ashlyn and Carlea with their treats.

Anyone need a therapist? We had three there -Miss Randi and her little guy, Mason, Miss Dawn (who is Kurt's TSS) and Miss Renee (who Kurtis long ago nicknamed "Trouble") all came to help Maya celebrate the occasion too!

Then, it was time for the presents and here's Kurtis, supervising Maya as she opened her gifts.

The tie-die kit got a little extra interest from Maya's TSS, Miss Britt, as they did some tie-dying of shirts one day this summer for an indoor activity -one that met with lots of approval from Maya and she's keen on the idea of doing more of that again!

From books, to cds and dvds -music, movies -plus cool toys for the "artist" side of Maya,a fashion doll,  clothes, some fancy boots, and a snazzy bag, even an IPod Shuffle,  there was also this -from the four therapists! (Mandy's not sure if they got that for Maya to enjoy or for her to curse them once she gets it going and doing the Karaoke thing! Earplugs will be a new item on the "to purchase" list, I think!)

But the main theme of the party was that everyone was to bring a food item, non-perishable things, and those things would all be taken and donated to the local Food Bank.

Judging by the amount of food items given, I'd say that there was a darned good bit of merchant financing that took place! This morning, Mandy and Ken took the food to the Food Bank and the stuff filled a cart to almost overflowing, causing the attendant there to comment "You got all this from a birthday party?"

Yep, we sure enough did! How nice it was that people who came brought those food donations and for Maya to learn there is a very good gift that comes from giving, not just receiving!

Here's all the guests -except for Hunter and his little sister, Mikayla (who had to leave before we got a picture of the group). From left to right, there's Ashlyn, Carlea, Khandace, Sydney, Tayla, Maya, Jaden, Ana, Jessika, Abby and Bradley and there's little brother, Kurtis, seated on the floor in front of Maya.

What a great bunch of kids they were! Played together so nicely, and from the squeals of laughter, a good time was enjoyed by all. Many thanks to the parents who brought these children to share the occasion with Maya and her family -for all the gifts and especially for the donations to the Food Bank too!

All very much appreciated!

Homework Tantrums!

This evening proved to be quite interesting here for quite a while tonight!

Notice I said it was "interesting" but didn't say it was all really enjoyable though, did I?

That's because one small child here decided to be not just a little bit but VERY contrary and refused to do her homework.


Her homework assignment consisted of reading a book for a minimum of twenty minutes -nothing more to the assignment than that -and usually she's fine with that kind of homework. But tonight? Not so much!

Mandy, Maya's TSS (her support aide) and I all tried our level best to find ways to redirect her, to get her attitude to change and "loosen" up a bit about her refusal to sit down and read but all was to no avail. You can not imagine the amount of whining, wailing, a good bit of screaming and even the throwing of a book or two around the living room as she refused, flat out, to sit and read!

Finally, Mandy's patience level had peaked out with trying to be reasonable with Maya and she told her she'd best go upstairs, go to bed and in the morning, Mandy would send a note in her backpack, as well as make a call to her teacher too, to explain why Maya's homework was coming back, unsigned, which means it was not done!

Well, then she started having a hissy fit about how she couldn't go to school without her homework being done and she would get an "infraction" then (part of the school's disciplinary methodology) and well, that just wouldn't fly.

Her reaction to Mandy's order to go up to her room and go to bed was almost like she had just turned on a reverse osmosis system as her attitude changed so quickly then it really made my head spin!

Mandy let her suffer a bit with the thought that she would have to go to school in the morning without having her homework finished till after supper was over and done with before she relented and told her again then to go do her homework and this time, she followed those instructions quite nicely!

If you'd seen her in action with the tantrum before supper and then seen her afterward, when she went and picked up her book, sat down and read it -along with another book she had here -you'd have thought you were watching a totally different child!

This type of behavior from her used to be almost an everyday type of event but thankfully -for Mandy's and my nerves as well as for our hearing systems too -they don't happen all that frequently any more. Still need to see a lot fewer of these meltdowns but I'm just thankful they don't come about on a daily basis anymore!

Maybe Something New?

I have two new jobs these days now. Neither of them pays a penny but I'm looking forward to how things will turn out with both of them.

One has to do with my high school graduating class and the fact that next year, our class will be having our 50th Class reunion! Hard for me to believe some days that next spring it will be 50 years since the old high school days ended and reality set in for me. And believe me, those years have flown by -like the proverbial "speeding bullet" ya know!

When the girls from my class and I had our regular monthly lunch get-together the end of September, we changed things around a bit and invited some of the guys from our class who also live in this area and who we knew generally are interested in seeing to it that we have a good class reunion every five years. We did this with the intent to get feedback from them as well as the potential of assistance in the planning of our upcoming reunion next year some time.

Some how, Classmate -Carol -and I were selected to be the two chair persons to organize information and try to keep things focused, centered, etc., and with the help from the others at our lunch as well as several who are scattered across this country today but who volunteered to help any way they can, we did come to one decision. Well sort of anyway! Tentatively, we decided to work towards having our reunion on September 8, 2012!

Now, all we have to do next is get information on various places in our region where we could, perhaps, hold our reunion and try to make a decision on that as soon as possible.

I've been working on trying to check out all the addresses we had for our classmates and to verify as to the correctness of everyone's snail mail address, their phone numbers and where possible, get e-mail addresses for them as well. It's been fun for me to do this because it's given me an opportunity to speak with several of my classmates, some whom I haven't seen in darned near 50 years! A couple members of our class are proving more than a tad difficult to locate though and trying to go through the 411 White Pages directory to locate some folks is a bit -to me anyway -like surfing through a free dating online site!  That would be the kind that gives a name that sounds interesting but has no photo for you to get a bit of clarification if it's the best choice ya know.

Right now, I have three girls from our class who I have no current address for any of them! So if per chance anyone reading this post knows someone by the following maiden names and where they are currently living - Gloria Vallimont, Judy Thomas or Genevieve Wirries -please let me know! These three seem to have gone underground as I can't find diddly squat for any of them!

The other "job" if you care to think of it in that vein is that I decided -after a whole lot of hard thinking about this -that I would accept the position to serve as President of our Women's Group at the church where my family and I are members.  Initially, I had begged off taking that post simply because I really wasn't sure I could handle a lot of the tasks involved in that job. I'm not organized at all, very prone to procrastination too (as I have mentioned/admitted to on numerous occasions before in my postings) and I'm also often quite forgetful as well. None of these traits really bode well, in my opinion, to do justice to our Women's Group. But after talking about a lot of my concerns the other night with Pastor Carrie, I thought about this more on my drive home and decided if I could get Mandy to agree to help me keep myself on track -meetings, projects, phone calls needed, and various other things -that maybe I could handle the responsibility of this job after all!

So, here I am and I'm gonna give it a try -my best shot, as it were! So say a whole bunch of prayers for me that I'm able to carry it all off okay!

Next month, on November 5th, our Group will be having our Fall Bazaar which always involves preparation of lasagne, pies, cookies, and such for the meals we will be offering that day plus, getting other donations too of home baked good -especially of the great Swedish breads many of the women of our church are so well known for in this area, along with all kinds of other baked goods, crafted items that people might want to donate for us to sell, homemade candies that are absolutely awesome too for our "Candy Shoppe" we run there and this year, if things work out okay, we will have a lady from an adjacent town and her son coming to demonstrate how they make woven rugs and they hope to be able to set up a table to even sell some of their wares too!

And of course, the big event of the Bazaar this year will be that we will -we should -(we better) have our cookbook by that date and will be able then to begin selling it too then! So if you're interested in purchasing a copy of that cookbook -"A Bountiful Legacy" -(A history of Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church Through Food) -please drop me a note either in a comment here or on Facebook or e-mail me and I'll be sure to hold a book back for you. The selling price for this book will be $12.00 and it will be a beautiful hard bound book with a padded, washable cover and 3-ring binder! The sale price does not include shipping charges which I believe will run about $5.00. The book will contain 586 recipes in the standard cookbook categories with a very nice selection of ethnic recipes from the Swedish and Slovak members of our community! It would make for a fantastic gift for anyone who has the least bit of interest in cooking and especially if you know someone who is originally from this area, it would really make for an extra special remembrance gift for them with the selections of ethnic recipes we have garnered for this book!

So that's my two new jobs -both of them for the coming year! I'm looking forward to helping my classmates organize and plan for a really great class reunion next September and also, hopefully being able to fulfill the duties involved in leading our Women's Group forward for the next two years too!

Wish me luck, say plenty of prayers too because my friends, I sure am gonna need 'em!

Warding Off Frostbite!

Did I mention to you before that a week ago this past Sunday we had an unwelcome visitor here? Not just us in this house, but the whole community was greeted that Sunday morning with this white blanket on the ground, that fluffy stuff that a lot of people profess to absolutely LOVE and which I'd be among the first to say it's definitely NOT my favorite thing to see on the ground, especially not as early as October 2nd!

Yeah, we had a snowfall that covered the ground. Granted it only amounted to 1.2 inches of the stuff but this early in the year and as much of a cold snap we had that weekend as well as two weeks earlier when my cousin had come up from warm, very sunny, extremely dry, Texas for her class reunion, Mandy and I were really beginning then to worry about what the heck to expect later this year and in January and February in the way of snowfall and cold temperatures.

Our big worry here of course is how in blazes are we gonna be able to afford to purchase fuel oil to feed the furnace and keep our fannies comfy cozy and warm. Considering how low the temps can sometimes go around here -not quite as low as the folks up in Minnesota or North Dakota generally have to deal with -but low enough, well below zero anyway, and that's when I got to thinking maybe we should invest in some carhartt pants to wear both outside when we have to leave the place and inside, to save burning as much fuel as possible and still stay warm, ya know.

This whole fuel oil situation really irritates me very much though as we had been told last year that this year, we could get on the fuel delivery company's "budget" plan whereby we would pay x-number of (big) bucks per month, rather than having to shell out cold, hard cash on the spot for any deliveries we ordered of fuel oil. However, back in late July, early August when we still hadn't received any information about this lovely budget plan and I inquired of the fuel company about it, I was told that we wouldn't be eligible for it because we weren't on the "budget" plan last year!

Lovely! Those dirty rotten lying S.O.B's! The suckers get you by the short hairs, or so it seems, no matter what a person tries to do these days!

Oh Happy Day!

Today may have looked for all appearances to be another dull, dreary, on-the-verge-of-rainy day at the onset this morning but by 1 p.m., my entire outlook had changed drastically.

It was almost as if I had some kind of rechargeable batteries and charger within my system that had suddenly kicked in and poof, presto magic, I had been turned into a different person.

Well, the truth to be told here is that something did happen that definitely did recharge my system today and actually even made me somewhat (at least) financially solvent. Well, at least for today I am in that status anyway! By tomorrow, I'll probably be back almost in the hole again but for today, thanks to a lovely little windfall check I'd been praying would hurry up and arrive here, I can actually pay off a couple doctor bills, cover the balance we owe the oil company for the 100 gallons of fuel we got about two weeks ago and even have enough left over then too that I can get the exhaust system on my lovely little old jeep fixed as well!

Awesome, isn't it, the feeling of knowing there are adequate funds, if only for the next day or two probably, at the most, to pay off even a couple smallish bills like that!

Needless to say, I am very ecstatic over receiving this absolutely, beautiful, magnificent check today!

Now if only a check like this would arrive a couple times during the course of a year -that would be nice. If one were to materialize like this every month, better yet still, every week, I would definitely be in seventh heaven for sure!

A Deep Hole!

Sometimes, things happen around here that maybe seemed to be a good idea at the onset but then, later on, turn out to be not so great.

Most often these "brilliant" ideas are schemes that have suddenly run through the minds of a certain almost 8-year-old and her not to sharp on these occasions, little brother.

Two nights ago, evidence was discovered when Mandy took Kurtis up to go to bed that one of those not so bright moves had been performed on the wall of Kurt's bedroom-some fancy artwork -all done in markers, no less!

Needless to say, Mandy was far from pleased with their designs. She came downstairs and proceeded to perform a bit of the riot act -anyone who has children is probably familiar with what that means -and she informed Miss Maya that she would be assisting her brother on Wednesday afternoon, when they both got home from school, with cleaning those markings off his bedroom wall.

At one point, Mandy asked Maya what had ever possessed her to do that anyway to which Maya had -of course -tried to place all the blame on Kurtis, saying that it was all his idea. Then Mandy asked Maya why she hadn't tried to talk him out of that, why she had let him lead her astray since she -we thought -understood by now that the ground rules in this house do NOT include freeform art work, done with markers, on any walls, much less their own bedroom walls. As Mandy was commenting to Maya about how she should have known better, that she knows the rules, etc., she was walking away from Maya, towards the kitchen.

It was then that Maya meekly put her head down and I heard her mutter to herself, "I wasn't aware that was part of the rules."

Kids! I know, ya gotta love 'em but dang, sometimes don't you just wish you had some kind of device - some kind of metal blanks that you could have embossed with a warning type insignia or some such, and have that then kind of branded on the kids forearm or hand or someplace that it would/could serve then as a warning/reminder to the child to DO. NOT.DO. THIS!

Just a thought there ya know as I wish I could come up with a solution to ward off any future events that add new but very unwanted trimmings to the old house!

Shameful, Just Shameful

My son, as I have mentioned a time or two before, drives a tractor-trailer for a living. Generally, he's gone from Sunday night until Friday evening -on the road all week. He frequently calls home -tries to call here and talk to his sister or to me once a day anyway, if possible.

Yesterday, when he phoned home, he was telling me about having gone past the scene of a really wicked accident near the 249 Mile Post on the eastbound side of Interstate 80 in which a big rig had gone off the road, down over a very steep embankment and when he went by there, he said there was one heck of investigation going on at the time. He said there were all kinds of vehicles indicating investigators, not emergency personnel. His thoughts at that time about the accident were that most likely, due to the drop there, that the driver most likely had not survived.

Hearing about things like that is unsettling enough to those of us back home because anytime you venture out onto the highways, there is always a risk factor involved and when a family member is on the highway 5 days a week, driving between Pittsburgh and the Allentown region -back and forth -every day, that worry factor is bound to be a bit higher then.

This morning he phoned me and told me that he got a bit of the backstory on the accident that had occurred yesterday and that he had driven by the scene while personnel were investigating the wreckage.

He said that the driver of the rig, somehow, miraculously, had survived the crash and managed to get out of the truck and climbed up the hill to the Interstate Highway. A feat that has to be really amazing in and of itself.

But what happened next is totally mind-boggling!

 The driver had survived, yes. Had gotten up to the highway only to be hit by another tractor-trailer and killed from that impact!

Here's the write-up about the accident that I found this morning on the CCW Local News website.

TRACTOR-TRAILER DRIVER KILLED

Rig driver survives Pa. crash, but killed by truck

NESCOPECK, Pa. (AP) _ Authorities say a tractor-trailer driver

walked away from an early-morning crash in northeastern

Pennsylvania but was then struck and killed by another truck.

State troopers say the tractor-trailer went down a 150-foot

embankment at about 5 a.m. Tuesday in the eastbound lanes of

Interstate 80 in Nescopeck Township.

Rescue chief Josh Legg of the Sugarloaf Volunteer Fire Company

says the driver managed to get out of the rig and walked back up

the embankment to the side of the road. But Legg says he was then

hit by another truck and died at the scene.

Police said the second vehicle did not stop. The victim's name

has not been released.

As you might imagine, this whole scenario has really upset my son -and it upsets me very much too. To think that someone would hit a person -who may have already been seriously injured -who knows? -and then to drive away without stopping, without calling for aid -just sickening, isn't it?

Most truckers I have known over the years are among the most thoughtful, most helpful, people when it comes to assisting at accidents and such but then, there are instances like this that show what must be an extremely callous side to drive away from an accident scene like this. 

Fire Extinguisher, Please!!!

So, I cooked supper tonight.

I sliced up a package of smoked Polish sausages, cooked a little over a dozen pierogies, thawed a bag of homemade applesauce I'd cooked up a couple weeks ago and then to all of that, I also cooked up a sauce for over the pierogies.

Nothing really unusual about that meal as the kids will eat the sausage fixed that way and they love pierogies too so that part of the meal is a double bonus. Add to that the applesauce -which Maya told me is "Awesome good, Gram!" and I figured a nice sauce with sauted onions, green peppers, a little bit of fresh tomatoes thickly sliced and cooked in with that sauce, plus some sliced mushrooms would be even better if I added in a can of chipotle peppers to the mix.

Well, it was a good idea -sort of. However, judging by the way the aroma of the sauce simmering was working on my sinus, I knew not to even think of trying to get the kids to touch this stuff. I even warned Mandy to be very cautious with the sauce too because it was, yes, HOT!

Although Mandy and I both ate some of the sauce over our pierogies and it was good, she also said it felt like her lips and tongue were all numb! The back of my throat was burning -almost made me think of way, way back when I was much more daring than I am today and a bunch of us from the place where I worked in D.C. had gone out drinking after work to celebrate our boss's birthday and we got the bright notion that all of us -males and females alike -would take our celebration up a notch by smoking Montecristo cigars!  We started that idea off by experimenting with a cigarillo or a tiparillo cigar and then some wise acre in the group whipped out one of these other cigars and we all had to try that then too!

Not one of my finer moves back in my younger years for sure but the sensation in the back of my throat tonight after eating this killer sauce I'd just concocted reminded me very much of that cigar smoking incident many years ago!

However, now -as my supper is digesting (and surprisingly enough, I have no heartburn) the taste of that sauce is now quite mellow in the back of my mouth! How can that be?

But I'm thinking now since I have a smallish bowl leftover of the sauce that I betcha it would taste pretty darned good to use to cook some nice big chicken breasts in it!

Yep! I think I just solved a menu dilemma for either Thursday or Friday night's supper now and found a way to probably use up a good bit of that leftover sauce then too!

I can't just throw it out, ya know, as doing that would be downright sinful and very, very wasteful of an excellent substance -once you get your throat accustomed to it, that is!

On a Roll With a Stroll!

Finally I got around to taking Sammy for a walk today!  I have been quite lax -again, or as usual -in doing this but today, the weather is nice albeit it a tad on the gray side but it's not freezing so that qualifies as excellent walking weather to me.


We walked up to check the mail and once again, came back home empty-handed though. Rats! I was really hoping a nice check I've been looking for to arrive would be there but, no luck today. Okay -just play Scarlet O'Hara a bit longer and worry about it all tomorrow then.

However, we didn't come back home completely empty-handed though. I took my camera along and took a couple of snapshots -nothing fancy or anything -of some of the sights along our road here.

These two trees shown above here are two different types of crabapple trees that my good friend and neighbor, Shirley, has in her front yard. I didn't know, until yesterday, what type of trees these were but when I stopped at her place yesterday to show her the latest items I'd completed to add to my embroidery stash, I asked her about them then. They are really so very pretty -and very colorful too -so now I'm wondering if there's any place in my backyard where I could plant a tree like that to enjoy having that as part of my view!

Just a couple doors down from Shirley's place, this pear tree is growing in another neighbor's front yard. I've probably seen this tree there for years and years -and YEARS -and never realized it was a Pear tree! Okay, I don't wear glasses -trifocals, as a matter of fact -for nothing but sheesh, how in blazes could I not have noticed it before? My excuse is not a good one, but it's all I've got and that is that I don't recollect every having seen it bearing any fruit before but boy, this year, that tree is loaded with pears! I have no idea if they are any good or not -and don't know the family well enough to ask if they would mind if I picked some of that fruit either, but maybe I'll just have to get my nerve up and take a chance on that idea. Sounds like a reasonable enough plan to me anyway.

Coming closer to my house, there is this view from the road of the field beside my neighbor Genevieve's house and behind that field, you can see the trees on the back hillside that runs behind all the homes on our street here. This view I do just love though -and especially so at this time of year when the trees are all painted in so many different shades and hues. Such a pretty picture, isn't it?

Almost to my home now there is this view, looking down the street. And once again, so many different colors from reds to oranges, yellows and greens and virtually every shade of the rainbow in between each of those colors too!  The big maple directly in front of my house -not visible in this picture -is now almost completely devoid of any foliage whatsoever. Just a tiny bit of yellow leaves left, hanging on to the branches for dear life, or so it seems. Probably will only take one good gust of wind and they too will be gone, down to the ground, waiting for Mandy and the kids to rake 'em up and build one heck of a good bonfire with them -or what's left of the raked up leaves after Mandy gets through putting a lot of them down on my garden spot to make a bit of cover and fertilizer there and thus, help to replenish the soil a bit.

So there you have it -a view from my street on what appears to be the last nice day now we'll have in a while as the forecasters are calling for rain over the next three days.

Just glad I was able to out and enjoy the warm weather and the pretty sights here along my street today and that I was able also to share those things with you too!