Getting on my bad side with my bad side?

So here I am, helping Jack and waiting on him and doing his chores and what does he do? He gets the camera and takes these lovely photos of me working in my p.j.'s!! He needed something out of our coat closet which led to me purging the closet! .. he thinks I sit funny - - I think I sit just fine...hey at least I can sit and he can't these days!!

I'd chase him out of the house with a broom if he could only run.

(He starts physical therapy tomorrow but meanwhile, he gets up to walk around the house a bit then the pain gets so bad, he heads back to bed.)

New Peace Flag

I got a new Peace Flag. Mine had been blown to shreds. I found this on e-Bay and couldn't pass it up.

I Know Jack's Hurtin' When...

...I reach for the LAVA instead of the liquid soap;

... when there are no dishes in the sink;
...when I'm the one bringing in the firewood;

...when the newspapers start to stack up;

...and when you can actually count his socks on the line.

Today has been a very rough day for him, sadly enough. I have his assurances that he will call the doctor tomorrow and make an appointment.

For My "Chicken" Family and Friends

Okay, this is for all of you who check in on my blog anonymously and don't take the time to leave me a "comment".

Quit being so elusive. Go to: http://www.blogger.com/ and sign up for an account. Trust me, Blogger does NOT send you unwanted e-mails or advertisements. This is just an "open diary" that y'all seem to peek into every now and then. I leave the key in the lock just for you.

So get yourself an "I.D." or an account and make it "official"! You can then leave me little comments... (but be nice, okay, Ray/Annette/Pat/Danette/Kari/Sandy/Judy/Missi/Betz, etc.....?)

You will sign on with your User ID and Password then go to my blog as usual.

Or else, go to my blog as usual, then leave a comment and login.

You don't need to create a blog of your own, okay?No one needs to peek into your diaries! (Heaven forbid!)

It will just be so you can leave me notes now and then.

I'd love it. Actually, I need it.

I blog so I can have connections with you....my family and my friends.

If you don't comment, how can we connect? It's a ONE WAY relationship and that isn't fair.

If Mom can log on and leave comments, so can the rest of you! (You, go, Mom!)

I love y'all and am looking forward to hearing from you now and again.

XOXOXOXOXOXO

mEE

Literature of a Patient

I can't help but giggle when I see what Jack is reading these days. He has finished all his WWII and WWI books and started on these. He has tagged several recipes from the cookbook which Joseph gave him and tries his best to read the instructions to me. (What?! I want to learn how to make a roux while I'm putting his socks on his feet? NOT!)

There is a plan rolling around in my brain... or should I say there is a plan afoot! (haha)

I am going to sit with Jack, (okay, I'll sit and he will stand), and organize our combined recipes that we have saved. Then we shall have a challenge going - we won't make the same thing twice in one year. And yes, I can post our progress.

Years ago, to prove a point to all my meat-eating friends, I made a different vegetarian meal for dinner every night for one year. Of course, this was before they perfected a lot of the tofu, soy products, etc. and recipes were a bit harder to locate. Kari and Danette accused me of feeding them dog food on several occasions, but they lived to tell about it!

I'll let y'all know what Jack thinks of my idea.

OMg....How'd I do That???

Since I've been home all week, I thought I better get my row done on the recent Anties/Grandma Baby Quilt. (Chrystal is having a baby. I started a tradition where my 3 SILs, my sis and I make a row on a baby quilt then the one who is the Grandma puts it all together.) So Grandma Annette calls and tells me it will be in blues, dark browns and off white and she would send a color sample. My problem was I was going into town the next day. I chanced it and bought some fabrics, making mine more aqua than blue. Color swatches arrived and I had chosen perfectly!

Then I chose the pattern so that's what I did this week while I was being nurse maid to Jack. Check out how close I got to having enough background fabric. I was sweating it right down to the very last piece! Paper piecing takes more fabric than one would think and it's hard to estimate just how much you will use.

The row actually has 5 blocks and will look something like this. (The blocks are not sewn together yet.)

So my blocks are in the mail today!!

Mystery Solved

I know now why girls play with dolls when they are young. Being a product of the 40's / 50's, I always thought it was because of some inborn need to mother. I know this is not necessarily true. In fact, it may be to prepare those of us with hubbies/partners/loved ones, etc... for the possible day that we need to help dress those whom we love so much.

Yup, Jack's back blew out, (for lack of a better term). The poor guy had to call me at work today and say, "Sandee come home, I can't move." I was in the midst of administering state tests to a group of 24 kids so I had to finish up the testing then pass all my duties over to someone else.

I swear, putting socks on someone else with a bad back must be one of the hardest thing to do. I hate to pull too hard or tweak a foot the wrong way - and I've done that before. Socks off - easier. Socks on - not so easy.

Then I put his sweats on backwards and had to start over.

Note to self: give him pain pills prior to administering socks!

Tightwad or Stupid?

Confession time: 20 years ago, when Danette went off to college, she packed everything she could fit into her Mustang. She gave a ton of stuff away and tossed stuff too. One of the items she tossed was the brown eyeshadow you see at the top. I snagged it out of the bathroom trash and have used it for 20 years.

Something made me look at it and decide it is time to get new eye shadow. I do have a green eye shadow too that I bought when Kari got married 15½ years ago! OMG. What is the matter with me anyway?

One thing is for sure, at the rate that I use makeup, I'll have this new eyeshadow until I die. And look at all those colors! They were even sold according to eye color so these were for green eyes.

Carry me Away

Jack and I had to go into town today. I had two doctors' appointments and tons of errands to run. I manged to make my first doctor then promptly forgot all about going to see the second doc! Hey, that's WHY I went to town in the first place! Unreal. Absolutely unreal.

I just get so carried away.

I think the older I get; the shorter my attention span becomes. Am I reverting back to my childhood already? Heaven help me, if I am! (Although, I did save a lot of my old paper dolls...)

'pretty pathetic, isn't it?

I sat in the car while Jack roamed the hardware store and these balloons caught my eye. I feel like these balloons sometimes. Floating along on the wind yet somehow, I'm still tethered to Earth. You wouldn't know it by today's actions, but tethered I am! For awhile anyway.

Not a Georgia O'keeffe Sky

These are definitely not what I call Georgia O'keeffe clouds, but she could have made some awesome paintings if she were here looking up at these clouds. (These were several days ago...we didn't actually see the sky at all today. Brrrrr, too cold for me these days.)

Sherried Mushroom Chicken Scaloppine

My chef, Jacques!
His masterpiece is from a Sunset Magazine recipe.

Okay, so my pie lattice work was crooked and non-uniform; but Jack's chicken scaloppine was breathless. (I tell you, gals, if you want your partner to cook, put your kitchen on strike for as long as it takes...in our case, it was one year!) Voila! I have my very own chef. (No wonder we RARELY eat in a restaurant!)

I made the asparagus and it too was delicious. My pie was tasty but it did crumble as we served it. I must have needed more flour or something. Who knows?

To answer the burning question: Yes, I gained 3 pounds over this dinner! Guess I'll be hiking the hills today.

Can She Bake a Cherry Pie, Charming Billie?

It's been ages since I've baked a cherry pie and I wondered if I could still do it. Well, I baked one and it sure is strange looking. Not picture perfect by any means...my dough is so soft and fragile because I use butter and not lard or shortening and I use whole wheat flour. The test will certainly be in the tasting. Mmmm, that comes tonight after dinner. We are having company. I wanted to thank my neighbor for burying Buckshot and this is part of his thank you. If it doesn't taste okay, we will at least have ice cream!

(oooOOoo, let's hope I didn't put any of that garlic in the pie...)

Some Like it Hot....Some Like it Cold

Most folks like their beer ICE cold. Me? I like mine right out of the microwave! Seriously, I like warm beer. The only problem: it tends to make a mess when it is opened.

Folks keep telling me I need to go to England where they serve it warm. Mmmmm, 'guess I'll just have to take a trip to Stonehenge and drop in on a local pub.

(I promise to send photos!)

Eyeballs

This is a bulletin board of the kids' eyeballs. We don't have everyone because several photos ended up blurry. It is a cool idea but poorly presented because I was trying to do it in between classes and ran out of supplies and time. I am changing it up some now because these boards tend to hang for a long, long time once they are up!

I wanted to share the idea at least even though it is VERY rough.

We told the kids we would give them a treat if they could tell us where the quote, "Here's looking at you, kid." came from. Not one of them can tell us! (And not one cared enough to look it up so go figure.)

My Spoon Man

When I go to Portland, I try and visit The Spoon Man's booth. He is an artist who uses spoons to create art. He is a fun guy to interact with and you cannot help but purchase something from his booth.

It just so happens that I have my very own Spoon Man right here in my house! Jack's spoon art is in wood, of course. Check these out. Is he talented or what? I do believe he is having fun in his shop these days.

For the Portland Spoon Man, you can visit his website here. Enjoy!

Bird Crazy

Janice and I have been friends for 56 years, (Yikes!) I've always known she is crazy as a loon and if nothing else, this posting should prove it. She makes these cool birds out of gift wrap ribbon. She tried to teach me once but as soon as I got home, I forgot how to do it. How in the heck can she do this anyway?

These were in the mail for me. They are to add to the top of a gift package, stick into a house plant or just about anything you can think of. Thanks, Jan!

Omg...I just found the link on how to make these birds, thanks to June's comment, I went looking for it! Check it out HERE.

Pets!

Everything my cat, Hook, does amuses me. My heart is so wrapped around this ball of fur. Everything he does frustrates Jack because of the fur! I swear, Hook takes five steps and three clumps of cat hair fall where he walked. If there were money in cat hair, we'd have it made.

I give him an old cushion to lay on and a few days later, it looks like a cashmere sweater; it is so thickly covered with hair.

I just bought a cat door that is supposed to open with a magnetic collar around the cat's neck. I have to now get him a collar and hope he doesn't get messed up in the woods because of it. We have a nasty cat visiting inside the garage and spraying things! One thing that Jack and I do agree on is that Hook doesn't spray and that is a good thing. Hopefully, this door will keep all the unwanted critters out of the garage. Time will tell.
Photo: I feed him and make sure he has water, so it rained a snowy rain and Hook went out on the deck and lapped up the ice cold water! What's with that?