This and That!!

Hi Everyone!! The weather here in Ohio has been so beautiful for days now. Sunny days and cooler nights. It has been gorgeous!!! I've been busy with lots of things. We are finally getting somewhere on our backyard project, all the pavers are here and ready to go and I am looking at having a pergola put up to get a little shade during the day. We get direct sun in the backyard so it would be great to have a little shade. I also planted some Mums and cleaned up the front yard. So here's some photos of the grandkids over the past few weeks. Every week my Dad takes all his girls out to lunch one day and breakfast one day and we always go to Frisch's for breakfast. I think breakfast is Maddie's favorite thing to do, she loves to get cupcakes(pancakes)!! So I took her photo with the Frisch's Big Boy. LOL

I think Maddie actually took this photo of Sydney one day at the Zip Dip(creamy whip ice cream). It makes me sad the Zip Dip will be closing for the season soon!!! :-(

And these are a bit blurry but here's Cameron playing in a pine tree. It's always amazing to me that a little kid can have so much fun even with a pine tree!!! Hey I'm on a roll here, two posts in a week!! LOL Happy Thursday!!!

A Little of This and That

I've been waking up early everyday this week. Not sure what is going on but was able to sleep in late today and didn't get up until 430am. :-) Hey one morning I was up at 2am and never did fall back to sleep so 430am seems like sleeping in. I sure hope this stops soon. Anyway, I am still in my Picnik collage state of mind. I went to a beautiful cemetery here in Cincinnati on Saturday and took a few pics. Click on the photo to see it better. In the top middle photo is a picture of two geese with their baby in the middle of them. It's kind of hard to see because the baby blends in with the water and this was as close as they were going to let me come. Boy are these guys vocal when you come near their babies, I really thought I might be attacked by one of them. I guess they thought I was the paparazzi and they were Brad and Angelina and their baby was Shiloh. Anyway, it's weird but I love taking photos of old cemeteries.

And this is just something I thought was interesting about our eyes and blinking. I seen this in a magazine and had to share. Click on it to read the whole thing, blogger wouldn't let me make it any bigger so click on it so you can read the full article. I think it's kind of fun and interesting trivia.

Not much going on at the home front these days, been working in the yard planting flowers and going to the gym with my hubby. My hubby does personal training on the side and I have resisted doing weights and workouts for so long so I have decided to let him train me and here's the funny thing. I totally like it! Shocking because I didn't think I would. I find the hardest part is just driving to the gym, once I am there and doing the workout, it's great. So I am sore today but it's not a bad sore and I am looking forward to our next session. It's funny because the dynamics of my husband training me is so different than if some stranger was training me. I am also finding out that I LOVE the elliptical machine. I really do! I am just hoping that I keep it up! My hubby is a good teacher and I am grateful he is helping me! So that's it for me today. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

A Little of This and That

So this weekend was the start of the "backyard project." A project that has grown and taken on a life of it's own. This is my nephew Nick with a sledgehammer tearing down the old wooden fence. It was more work then they thought it would be. I watched from the house. LOL
So the fence is down and the two tier deck will be coming down next. And a paver patio will be put in place of the decks. I am so hoping to have a little fountain /pond with fish in it. This project will probably be done in stages since it is bigger then we originally thought.
Here's the new fence that was put in today. It looks like wrought iron but it is really aluminum. I LOVE it. It has nice clean lines and looks so much better then that old wooden thing that was falling down. Ignore all the debris on the pool cover, it is from when hurricane Ike paid us a visit last month. We will eventually landscape around the pool but have not decided what to put there yet. I really want some tall grasses or something with privacy.

And look who came visiting in my neighborhood early Saturday morning. We hardly ever see deer around in our yard anymore so I was surprise to see these two eating apples from our neighbor's apple tree. Don't they look like they are posing for me?

All the grandkids were over this afternoon so I thought it would be fun to try and get a photo of all of them with Grandma and Papa by the big pumpkin. WRONG LOL Maddie was not happy at first but the second try was a little better. Ignore how messy I look, I'm holding little Cameron and Sydney is sitting in the little chair in front of us.
And look who flew directly over my house today while we were out trying to get the grandkids pumpkin photo. Click on this last photo and you'll recognize the plane. Yes, that is Air Force One. The President was in town. We live directly on the flight path to the Cincinnati airport, in fact we've seen our home quite a few times when we have come in for a landing. We knew something was up when it got real quiet and no planes were landing. The only time that has ever happen before was 9/11, it's weird when you are so used to planes landing all the time and then we heard a plane and it was the President and so I took this photo. I have a super zoom on one of my cameras and I seen him waving to me. :-) Anyway, that's it for me today, off to bed. Have a good one.

This and That

This umbrella bag was in our paper this morning. This is called the Brella Bag and their website says it is a hands free nylon bag design that holds an umbrella giving you the ability to do things that would be hard while trying to hold a regular umbrella like walking the dog, carrying your baby, groceries or for people who need to use a walker etc.. What do you guys think? Would you use something like this? Or would you just use this pretty pink umbrella from Vera Bradley without the bag? But seriously I think for people with disabilities this would be a great idea. I just wonder if it would throw you off balance at all. It looks like it also carries stuff in the nylon bag. I'm just not sure I would like something around my neck.
I also got this new phone(the red one) this week. I've never had a Blackberry before and it was a little intimidating at first but my daughter Christina has one so she showed me how to set it all up. Still trying to figure it all out. I think I'll like it when I get used to it but I kept my pretty little pink phone just in case. It's suppose to keep me more organized with working from home. I get about fifty(or more) emails a day that are work related, most are from tour companies telling me what their latest deals are so I did figure out real fast how to turn off the sound for when emails come in. But it also helps me to respond back to my customers right away even when I'm out and about. I also like the full size keyboard. Oh well that's it for me today, really boring post but not much going on around the old casa today. I have been walking around three miles everyday this week so I want to keep it going. We are leaving for Hilton Head in a few weeks and thinking of this body in a bathing suit on the beach, well.......a little scary! LOL

This and That Wednesday

For some reason I have been waking up at 530am this week and cannot go back to sleep. I do not have to get up at 530am so it's kind of frustrating to just lay there wide awake. So I have been getting some work done around the house before I meet my sister June to go walking. This morning there was quite a show in the sky with the sunrise so of course I had to grab my camera and take a few photos of the sunrise. Usually when the sky is that orange it means it's going to be a hot day in Cincy and the weather guys are telling me it's going to be in the 90's. Stay cool if you are in this heat and have a great day!!


If you click on this top one you can see a bird in between the wires.
Okay, here's a question for you. Has anyone ever heard of a Hummingbird moth? Look at the photo below. On the left hand side off to the side of the flowers you can see a creature hovering(click on it to make it bigger). I was in Indiana on Monday hanging with my good buddy Vickie and making some jewelry when she showed me these guys. At first I thought they were regular hummingbirds but they are smaller. But they are fast and zoom around like hummingbirds do, so it was really hard to get a photo of one. So has anyone heard of these guys before? And are they bugs or birds? Okay, I know I'm a city gal but I really never seen one before and they were all over her garden out in the country.

And just because I thought this last one was funny and reminds me of myself sometimes. Did you ever stop to think and then forget to start again? The dog cracks me up everytime. Have a great day!!

A Little of This and That

Remember in my last post how I had pink champagne as one of my favorite beverages. Well, no pink champagne this weekend. No, I was down and out for the count drinking Pepto Bismol. A fast moving intestinal bug got most of my family over the weekend. First my granddaughter Maddie came down with it, then her Daddy had it and then Mommy got it until it finally came my way. Papa has apparently dodge the bullet for now. Maddie, Mommy and Daddy were feeling better by yesterday afternoon to make it to the Red's game and Sydney stayed with Papa and I. I did the supervising from my death bed (bit of a drama queen) and Papa took very good care of Sassy Sis. Her Mom has given her the nickname Sas(it's her initials). But the funny thing is this little girl is about as laid back as she can be, she's such a good little thing. So I laid on the couch while they were at the baseball game and let Papa take care of Sydney and even made my sweetie watch Enchanted with me. Cute movie! So I still have a little of the nasty bug in me and haven't eaten much in two days. At least when I weigh into Weight Watchers this week I should have a loss. :-) So the only pink drink I'm drinking around my house or I should say gagging as I drink it is Pepto Bismol. I'm sure by tomorrow it'll just be a nasty memory. LOL

Here's a photo of Maddie at the Red's game. I finally found her and Sydney a tee shirt that says Red's on it. She only lasted a few innings at the game but she really does love watching baseball and going to the games. The whole time she is yelling ball, ball........ LOL Okay so I am totally switching subjects here now. I do that alot on my blog because I'm like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. I bounce from subject to subject but I just have to share with you my outing with my daughter Christina. We went to see Jersey Boys last week and I absolutely loved it. It was so much fun. If you ever have the chance to go and see it, just do it, you will not be disappointed. We went to a matinee and then we got a bite to eat at the bar/restaurant where my son works and then we decided to go window shopping at Tiffany's. So we had a great day. Okay, okay, just one more subject. LOL Did anyone watch Lost's season finale?? I never stay up that late but it started at 9pm and I just couldn't stop watching it until it was over. Any Lost fans out there? What did you think? Okay that whole moving of the island thing was a little out there, but hey that's just Lost. They are always pushing the button. Well if you made it all the way down to the bottom of this long rambling post, good for you. LOL I'm off for another swig of that pink stuff and I'm not talking pink champagne.

The Highs and Lows of the Weekend

Every Friday my sisters and I meet our Dad for lunch and on Friday we went to one of our favorite places on the River. It is an outdoor restaurant that is only opened from April to September so it's alot of fun. Maddie joins us most of the time along with various other nieces and nephews when school allows them to. One of these days I will get a photo of the whole crew because sometimes there are quite a lot of us there. Anyway, Maddie loved this place with it's fake colored palm trees. She thought it was lots of fun!

She was also very fascinated by ice from her glass that fell on the deck of where we were eating. She spent more time trying to squish the ice and pick it up then she did eating. LOL

And Great Grams came in town for a funeral of an old family friend(that was the low of our weekend) and she met her great grandson for the first time. He didn't want to wake up and show her his beautiful eyes. :-)
And my sweetie decided to do a closeup of me holding Cameron. I'm not a big fan of closeup but Cameron looks cute. He is going to meet my Dad tomorrow so you know I'll have lots of photos of that.

And the rest of the weekend, I could not put this book down. I finished it in twenty four hours. No kidding, it is that good. The faith of the families involved in this book is amazing. You have probably read about this story, the two college girls in an accident and one lives and one dies. One family believes their daughter is dead and the other takes care of a young girl they think is theirs only to find out five weeks later that it is not their daughter. This is a true story and one I won't forget for a long time. They had a blog and it looks like it ended in August of 2006. Go here if you want to see the archives. My sister Judy gave me this book to read and she told me I wouldn't be able to put it down and she was so right. The whole book honors God and sings His praises through everything.

Not much else going on this Monday. It's time once again for my six week get the gray out of my hair appointment. Last time I went, the stuff she put on my hair caused it to burn and itch my scalp. It stopped at soon as she washed off the stuff. She told me it had that reaction on everyone she used it on. I was a bit puzzled as to why they still were using it if it felt like it was burning and itching on everyone. When I left I had told her I really liked the color and she said if I could stand it the next time she would put the same stuff on. Now I don't know about you but I'm not a big fan of an itchy and burning scalp, so is there some reason they would still use this? Hey I'll do alot to look decent but if it involves pain, I'm outta here. LOL Okay I rambled on too much this morning. One more thing, HBO's John Adams series ended last night and it was so good. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. They both died on the 4th of July exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I'm sure many of you already knew this but I found the whole series so interesting. Okay I'm done now. LOL Have a good one!

The Great Candy Heist and Weekend Fun!

This is under the heading "What in the world were they thinking?" A group of thieves were caught in Cincy early Thursday after breaking into this candy store. How did they catch them? They followed the candy wrappers. The thieves threw the wrappers on ground as they made their getaway on foot. The owner of the 103 year old family business said police called her around 1:30am and told her the store had been broken into and the thieves took every kind of candy imaginable, reeces cups, skittles, twizzlers etc.... and that the police also said they couldn't leave the store because they were guarding the Swedish fish (true quote). Forget the Swedish fish, it's those dark chocolate M & M's I would be guarding. :-) Here's the sad part though, one of the thieves was a woman who had a 7 week old baby with her and they used the baby's stroller to put their stash of candy in. What in the world were they thinking????

Anyway, I am so glad it's the weekend. It's been great weather here in Cincy but I hear things are changing this weekend. We are going to see our new little grandson Cameron this weekend. They live about a half hour from us so I don't get see them as much as I liked too. So hopefully I'll get some more photos of the little guy. We are also going out with my granddaughter Maddie and her Mommy. Daddy is going out with the guys. We haven't been out much with Maddie because Melissa(my daughter) has a hard time picking her up(because of being 8 months pregnant) and so do I(because of a bad back) when she decides to do that thing that all toddlers do. All of you Moms know what I am talking about. I am talking about when a little one decides to go completely limp because they want something and you say no. When they do that a 25 pound child suddenly weighs 50 pounds. LOL So my sweetie is coming with us in case of any meltdowns. Have a great weekend!

TGIF

Okay, I don't know if I am this bad before I've had my morning coffee but I thought this was funny.

And I got this for my granddaughter Maddie a few weeks ago. If you can't read it it says, "the Princess knows who's the boss and it's not the King and Queen" I thought it was so cute and true. Click on it to se it better.

Anyway, I am so glad it's the weekend. I don't know where the week goes anymore, it seems to fly by. My new little grandson Cameron came over to visit Grandma yesterday. He had to go to the doctor because he has some baby acid reflux and has had some problems after his feedings. The doctor gave Allison and Jimmy some baby Zantac to give to him and he should outgrow this as he gets bigger but Grandma hates it when her little ones aren't feeling well.

My sweetie and I have a date night tonight. Yea for date nights! I look forward to them all week. I think we are going to see a movie but haven't decided which one to see yet. Any suggestions? We are also going to meet our best buddies Mike and Vickie for dinner one night. It seems like we haven't gotten together with them in ages so I am looking forward to that. That is if we ever quit playing phone tag. We have been buddies with these two since high school and we go on vacations together etc... And I think I am finally going to get some pansies to put on my front porch. It's still to early to plant flowers around Ohio but pansies are hardy little guys and I've been itching to get out there and plant something. LOL Anyway, that's what I'm up to this weekend. Hope you have a wonderful one planned also.

Bouncing Around

I've decided that I am a bouncer like Winnie the Pooh's friend Tigger. I bounce around from subject to subject without a beat in the conversation. Now, I don't consider bouncing a character flaw, rather it does make the person who is listening to me or reading what I'm writing pay more attention. LOL But seriously, I've noticed I am doing this alot more lately and I think it has something to do with the change of life (which I like to blame everything on). But I also think this bounciness ( is bounciness a real word?) is hardwired in me. I just can't help bouncing! So I am sorry if I've bounced a little too much lately and I will try to work on it so I don't totally confuse anyone. :-) And now I am going to "bounce" to the subject of babies!

Look at these. Are they not the cutest baby shower invitations? They actually stand up. My daughters and I are giving a shower for Jimmy(my son) and Allison's baby boy who is due at the end of March. We found these precious invitations at Hallmark and had to use them.
Look how all of the information is on the side of the "crib".
And they lay flat to be put in the envelope. I just hope the friends and relatives who are being invited realize that the invites stand up to look like a baby's crib. The countdown to the the two new grandbabies begins. My daughter Melissa is due in May and they find out what they are having this week. I'll have to see if they want me to share if it's a boy or girl yet. Anyway, have a great Monday and I'll just be here in good ole' Cincy bouncing around a bit. :-)

A little of this and that

To get you in the Christmas spirit, I thought I'd post a picture of the giant tree that is at Newport on the Levee, which is a nice entertainment, dining and shopping area in Northern Kentucky. My sweetie and I like to go over there and grab a bite to eat and hang out at Barnes and Noble. I know we're really exciting.
And this is how I think I'm getting my hair cut today. That's a picture of Stormie Omaritian, she's a Christian writer. Don't you just love her name? I just don't know what to do with it anymore now that I finally got it long and I seen this picture of Stormie and thought, this is really a cute cut. I am the world's most inept person when it comes to fixing my hair. No I really am, I can never fix it the way they do at the salon or even come close to having it look like when they do it. It always looks like a frizzy mess, so we'll see what my girl says when I go today. I like her alot, she's my hubby's first cousin and I've been going to her for years and she's very honest in telling me what will look good or not. I don't know what I'll do if she ever stops cutting hair. So we'll see if I chicken out or not. LOL I know it's just hair but hey it's something I have to fix and deal with everyday.

And here's a picture of my new stockings I bought from Target this week. I had the same stockings for years and years and for some reason I really like these guys. Even my hubby and son noticed the new stockings on the mantel and they never notice anything when it comes to decorating. The stockings have little crystals with my hubby and my initials on them and our last name initial and by a weird coincidence these are also the initials of all of our kids. I swear we didn't plan it that way when we named them. Anyway, this is the extent of my decorating so far, except for the cute things I bought from Julie at Nunnies Attic, which by the way Julie, my granddaughter loves looking at them. But hopefully we'll get our tree up this weekend, it's sitting out in the front yard with frost all over it as I write. Also another little bloggy business, head on over to Debra's site at The Bunnies Bungalow for a chance to win a great giveaway she's giving in honor of her 100th post. We are going Christmas shopping this weekend and hopefully get it all done. Have a great weekend!

A Little of This and That

WARNING THIS POST IS GOING TO BE ALL OVER THE PLACE! But what's unusual about that? Anyway I had this post all ready telling you guys all about my work's travel show last night and all about my travel friends who went on an African Safari. A trip of a lifetime, so cool. But that'll have to wait for another time. First off go here and visit Kellan at On the Upside and read her story of her and her husband. Start with her November 14th post and work your way up to today. Seriously this girl can write and while your at it, wish her and her hubby Happy Anniversary.


Okay now maybe some of you know how to decipher dreams because last night I had a really weird one. Here's my dream or nightmare. Do you remember the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds? Well, I had a dream last night that these birds were attacking me and I ran behind a big wrought iron fence and for some reason the birds could not fly over the fence to get me or anyone else on my side of the fence (hey it's a dream) so we shut the door and the birds are on the other side and another person(on the wrong side of the fence) comes yelling to me "open the door they are killing me"(don't remember if this person is male or female) and I remember thinking if I open this door the birds will get me and everyone else behind the door but if I don't the birds will get this one person and then I woke up shaking. So what does it all mean? Maybe it means I shouldn't drink caffeine diet drinks at 8pm anymore and take a Tylenol PM because my back was hurting or maybe it's something deeper. Who really knows when it comes to dreams? But either way I thought it was an interesting dream because do you save the one and risk the many or do you not open the door? And you don't have any time to think it through, I would hope I could save everyone but I was spared that decision when I woke up. Too deep for my little brain!
At the very least it should make me rethink my caffeine intake anymore. Have a good weekend!