34 years and counting!

"Grow old along with me

the best is yet to be

when our time has come
we will be as one

God bless our love,

God bless our love.

Grow old along with me

two branches of one tree

face the setting sun

when the day is done

God bless our love,

God bless our love.

Spending our lives together

man and wife together

world with end,

world without end.

Grow old along with me

whatever fate decrees

we will see it through

For our love is true

God bless our love,

God bless our love."

(John Lennon)

Happy Anniversary today, my love.

top picture: Spring 1976

bottom picture: Fall 2007

Bluebonnet time in Texas!

Spring has finally come to Texas after a record breaking cold winter ( just our luck!) which means the Bluebonnets are blooming! Along with some beautiful Indian paint brush, evening primrose and the neighborhood azaleas have been stunning!
Did you know the bluebonnet is the Texas state flower? well, now you do. Never know, it might be a final Jeopardy question someday.......
My good friend Karen came from Utah to help me unpack; man-o-man, she was a real slave driver (LOL!) but we got a lot done and then had time to go play and of course, do some quilt shop hopping.
As with all of our visitors, we took her to Galveston so she could do some wading in the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see, Rio loves these trips!

She and I also took a day trip northwest to Brenham and on the way got the above wildflower picture and not only did we find a cute quilt shop there, we could not pass up the chance to tour the Blue Bell Creamery, home of Blue Bell ice cream. Yummy stuff!!! If you know me, anytime there is ice cream involved, it is a good day!
Many, many thanks for coming KK!

March

MARCH brought us:

a Mission Call for Alex to the California Roseville Mission; he reports to the MTC on May 5th and it goes without saying that we are super proud of him. He opened his call, laughed and said, "I'm goin' home!!" His mission extends from the north side of Sacramento almost to the Oregon border, east almost to the Nevada border, and west to the edge of the Central Valley.

some Adventurin'! We took a long weekend drive (1100 mi) to Pensacola Florida on one of the main highway arteries of the South - Interstate 10. On our way there we detoured a hour north for some bird watching in Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas near the Louisiana border. The scenery was beautiful; the bird watching wasn't so good as we seemed cursed with a family of small noisy children that mysteriously seemed to choose the same trails we did. We stopped for the night in Louisiana and OMHeck do those good folks know how to cook!!!! We just waddled out the door of "Guidrey's Reef". Catfish, shrimp, crab (all fried, of course) and seriously the best seafood gumbo I've ever eaten - well, except, it does give you pause when your first spoonful has small crab claws in it. LOL! The little tuft of meat on them was yummy though! and we just couldn't pass up dessert, right? Peach cobbler and bread pudding with praline topping. My mouth is watering just remembering this! Onward to the East through those two little toes of Alabama and Mississippi - wow, you almost blink and you are in another state! We made another detour; this time south of Mobile to the Gulf of Mexico and out to Dauphin Island for.....? You guessed it, more bird watching! Roy is trying to turn me into a birder. I do enjoy it, especially the walking; can't decide if I'm serious enough to start a birds-sighted list though....... whereas it is Roy's other passion (fly fishing being #1) and his list is quite extensive.
Unfortunately our time in Florida was brief as we passed our extra washer and dryer to Mary and Stuart and enjoyed an all too quick visit with Zach and Gracie.

Roy fished on the Guadalupe River; as you can see he had a really fun day!

Alex is working full time at Joe's Crab Shack and had a quiet 19th birthday celebration by himself as we were "adventurin" not to mention, he had to work a double shift that day.













and last but not least, a new Home. We have purchased a house nearby in our same northern suburb; so it is looking like Texas will be our home base for a good long while, I hope because I am thoroughly sick of packing and unpacking!!! Looking forward to hanging our pictures and unpacking all the books. More about that later as we move this coming week!

Reviews

On this quiet Sunday morning I thought I might share some book and movie reviews.

In the Young Adult department I enjoyed "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale but had to fight my way through most of "Goose Girl" by the same author. I just felt so sorry for Princess Isi- everything seem to go badly for her so much of the book but I was happy in the end. Did I just give it away? This is the first in the Books of Bayern trilogy; I will most likely read the next one now that I got started.

For a true story:

I enjoyed "Dewey, the Small-town Library Cat who touched the World" by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. A cute story about a kitten adopted by a library in rural Iowa. I know the book store cats I have met are very soothing.
Maybe more libraries need cats?

I also read "Julie and Julia: My year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell. I did enjoy Julie writing about all the cooking which was amazing for someone who works full time! Some of it sounded so good and very fattening, other recipes, well, let's just say, didn't appeal to me but most were just too much work for this semi-lazy cook. I was proud of her though for finishing what she set out to do. Warning: in my humble opinion, the language in this book is atrocious! Do people really talk like that in real life? Not in my small world . I also got very tired of Julie whining in both the book and the movie. I just wanted to slap her! There is very little about Julia Child in this book I should also warn you- they added a lot more in the movie. I did enjoy the movie,`Julie and Julia -well, at least the Julia parts - didn't Meryl Streep do such a great job as Julia Child?! Stanley Tucci was a wonderful Paul Child. If you want to read more about Julia Child, try "My Life in France" by Julia Child. She had an amazing life!

One of my top ten favorite books of all time is "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. I haven't liked his others since then but I asked for his newest "Have a Little Faith" for Christmas (thank you Mary!) and enjoyed it very much.

I am currently reading "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis because I enjoyed the movie so much. Loved it in fact! No offense to Mr. Lewis but I have to admit I have skipped several chapters that are completely about football; I'm more into the incredible story about Michael Oher and the wonderful Tuohy family. I'm not a huge Sandra Bullock fan but she does a great job as the indomitable Leigh Anne Tuohy.

Last but not least, Mary brought me Stuart's copy of Dan Brown's newest "The Lost Symbol" while she was here. Ok, I have to say that this: like all Brown's books, this is a real page turner, and I really enjoyed all the trivia about Washington DC but the bad guy is really bad, borderline just plain evil, and that got to me after a while. I was reading it one evening and Roy walked into the room - I jumped a mile! Roy said, "no more reading that book after dark!"

What else is on my book shelf? hmmmm..... a couple of long overdue classics: Persuasion by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas in time for Easter and Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. This was recommended to me as well as a gift by a wonderful Aussie friend - thank you Adele!

Fun with Mary, Gracie and Zach

As previously mentioned, Mary, Gracie and Zach came for a visit this month and of course we had a great time!
We enjoyed playing with our Wii, watching the Olympics, playing with Play Dough and Disney movies with Gracie as well as watching Zach perfect his walking skills. His favorite toy became an empty milk jug of all things and he was fascinated by our garbage can - it has a lid! Thankfully we quickly discovered he was putting things in there; unfortunately we lost his sippy cup and probaby some kitchen magnets first. Thank you Papa - as they insist on calling Roy - for putting it up on a large box much to Zach's dismay!



















The weather cooperated somewhat and we were able to enjoy a day at the Zoo and a very fun evening at the Children's museum.














Good dog Rio again put up with more grandchildren crawling all over him; he drew the line at Gracie chasing him with the baby doll stroller though and retreated to hide upstairs.















We did our best to turn Gracie into a Texan.
I managed to sew the binding on Gracie's quilt so she could take it home with her.
We were glad to able to celebrate Gracie's 3rd birthday with her one day early. Ice cream, a cherry and a balloon = one happy little girl.




























Mary is a great cook and always trying new recipes; she made us this new cookie and man-o-man, it is wonderful! I decided I had to share it ya'll. (a Texan favorite term). Enjoy!

Mary and Paula Deen’s Monster Cookies
3 eggs
1 ¼ C brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla
1 12 oz. Peanut Butter – crunchy or creamy
1 stick butter
½ C chocolate candies (M&M’s)
½ C chocolate chips
¼ C raisins (optional)
2 tsp. baking soda
4 ½ C quick cooking oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350*. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or non stick baking mats OR spray cookie sheets with non stick spray.

Combine and mix well:
Eggs and sugars

Add:
Salt, vanilla, peanut butter and butter
Mix well.

Stir in:
Baking soda, Chocolate chips, candy, raisins and oatmeal

Drop by Tbsp. onto cookie sheets.
Bake 8 – 10 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE!
Let stand 3 minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

Some Winter thoughts.......

We talked to our oldest daughter, Becky, who lives in Northern Virginia last Saturday (Feb 6th, in the middle of the first storm); this is a picture out her front door she had just sent me.
So I've been thinking......
I like snow when:
- I can watch it fall from inside a warm living room with a fireplace crackling and a mug of hot chocolate in my hands.
- I tromped through fresh new snow in my warm Sorrel boots or snowshoes with Rio, ( who loves snow anytime! ) in the fields and woods behind our house in Wisconsin or walked Deny (our beloved old yellow Lab) up to the lake in New Hampshire. It's so quiet and beautiful.
- I can cross country ski in it. Thank you again Feltus and Ruth Ann for teaching me to CC ski in New Hampshire. I would like to do more of that sometime.
I do not like snow when:
- you have to shovel or use the snowblower to clear driveways and sidewalks.
- having to drive in it.
- having to walk on slippery icy sidewalks and parking lots.
- the cleared roads that freeze overnight and you worry about black ice.
- after several days and it's all dirty and slushy.
- the snowplow roars down your street and buries the bottom of your freshly cleared driveway with heavy wet snow that you have to shovel by hand because it clogs the snowblower.
Do we miss it? The beauty? Yes. The shoveling? heck NO!!
It has been unseasonably chilly here in Houston the last several weeks but last Saturday was a beautiful day here; sunny and down right warm. So after we talked to Becky we took Mary and the grandkids down to Galveston to the beach. Needless to say, we had a great time! Ok, so it wasn't exactly swimsuit weather - note the sweatshirts but the kids got their feet wet and Zach especially loved it. Of course Rio probably had the best time of anyone. Anytime there is water and a tennis ball, he is the happiest of Labs.
Quite a difference from the first picture. LOL! I know, I know; I'll be singing a different tune come July and August. But last Sat. we were glad to be living in the Southern part of the US.

January projects

How do you like our new look? Mary is here for a visit (more about that later) and has been helping me find all these fun free backgrounds.
January was quiet after the holidays and down right chilly outside so I thought - what a great time for another jigsaw puzzle - and we've had this one kicking around for awhile....... now I know why! This was the hardest puzzle we've ever done! 1000 pieces. Our 2nd granddaughter Gracie has a birthday in February so I needed to get busy on her big-girl bed quilt if I was going to be able to send it home with her after their visit. Found some great fabric on our San Antonio trip so in between the puzzle and teaching Young Women's, (the 12 year old girls in our Church's youth group) I managed to get this done. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.













Will be making another quilt for Isaak next month; I feel bad; his will be a little tardy for his also February birthday. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait as I designed it myself to include a lot of his favorite things.