some easter time fun

okay, kids, here is some easter fun for you!
today we shall do an easter mad lib with the lyrics to "here comes peter cottontail." so put on your thinking caps, this is going to be FUN! just use the hints to fill in ANY word you wish!
let's go!


Here comes a fictional rabbit in the works of Thornton Burgess

Movin’ quickly from one place to another down the bunny trail,

Hippity hoppity, Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ ‘s on its way;

Bringing every a youthful female person and a youthful male person

A the quantity contained in a basket of Easter joy;

Things to make your Easter emitting or reflecting light readily and someone who practices homosexuality

He's got a type of confectionery that comes in many different flavors in a bean shape for Tommy;

Colored oval reproductive body of a fowl for sister Sue;

There's an any epiphytic plant of the family Orchidaceae, usually having showy flowers

for your informal for female person who has borne children

And an Easter a hat, usually tying under the chin and often framing the face too. Oh!

Here comes noun Slang: Vulgar. penis. Cottontail;

Hoppin' down the informal. a rabbit, esp. a small or young one. trail;

Hippity hoppity Happy Easter Day.

as an added bonus, you may click on the image to print out and color !

grateful:

1. that i finally got this posted (it was a lotta work!)

2. that ...........i don't know, i'm too tired to think.....

3. that's it, i'm just grateful!

just horsin' around in the hood

gorgeous!!
no, not me, silly, the weather! yes, it is still breezy but so clear and blue and sunshiney and warmish that t.willie and i just had to take a walk! we like to bring carrots to our favorite NEIGH-bor! he lives around the corner from us. we don't know this friendly horse's name, but he does appreciate our visits and comes over to the fence as soon as we stop.

now, i do not have any kind of history or background with horses. but i do like them and, though i'm not scared of them, they are BIG and i do have a healthy respect for the creatures! i think t.w. feels the same, he loves this big sweetie!

i like how far back t.w. has to look to see the horse!

i wish you could see how timidly i am feeding the carrots to him! but, unfortunately, i can't do that and take a picture at the same time! i'm going to be gutsy and show you this pic of myself...looking not so gorgeous!

here is one last shot, it doesn't need any explanation!





hope you're having a great day!

grateful for:
1. days like today
2. friendly animals
3. a 2 1/2 yr old who is not afraid of animals

march- in like a lion...

...and out like a tiger!
or some other equally wild animal...yeah, this has been no "out like a lamb" weather. what we have had is WIND- rain and wind, sun and wind, wind and wind! i am not a fan of windy weather. we are NOT buddies. (however, i have been known to break wind at times!) (just kidding!) (no i'm not!)
so, that age-old expression had gotten me thinking; why a lion and a lamb? why did they use animals? why, indeed! so i made a list of some other possibilities to describe the typical march weather.

MARCH-in like a grizzly, out like a duck
MARCH-in like a bull, out like a kitten
MARCH- in like a barracuda, out like a guppy

and why use animals? here are other ideas:
MARCH- in like a freight train, out like a volkswagen
MARCH- in like a monsoon, out like a shower
MARCH- in like a cactus, out like a dandelion
MARCH- in like a belly dance, out like a box step
MARCH- in like a jalopeno, out like a cucumber







well, there you are, some alternatives to the famous adage. i hope you like them and i encourage you to come up with a few of your own. post them to the comments, i'd love to read them!!
happy spring!

grateful for:
1. cereal and milk for supper (no dishes, no clean-up)
2. forsythia
3. blue eyed, blonde haired boys

NEWSFLASH!

hello dear readers! back on march 16th, i asked for some suggestions of topics, as i was having a bout of "blogger's block" that night. five or six of you responded and i've compiled a list of your suggestions. they are as follows:

a) microquasars in relation to astrophysics of black holes
b) anything but ants
c) eliminating a herd of tiny mice
d) the beach
e) snacking-sweet vs salty (?! really?!)
f) how to age gracefully
g) smiling when you don't mean it ( i am a whiz at that one!)
h) southern charm vs jersey charm
i) what happens when you talk politics with others ( me personally??)
j) what part of mars are they from, really (again, me personally??)

stand back! because in this one amazing blog post, i will attempt to satisfy all your propositions.

ahem...here goes...

i read in the news recently, that scientists who study microquasars in relation to the astrophysics of black holes have found that the resultant blasts of radio-emitting gases are shown to obliterate both ants and herds of tiny mice! now i find that to be quite useful information. not because i still have ants despite the best efforts of my ex-hero justin-the-exterminator, ( i'm not going to talk about that), but because, on the northern part of mars where i was born, we have herds of large, mice-sized ants! yes, the possibilities are astounding!

now, as i sat on the beach pondering this new bit of scientific data, my ice cream fell into my bag of pretzels. "sonofabitch!! ", i uttered, which is an expression more indicative of my jersey upbringing than of the southern state in which i currently find myself. but, as a test, i decided to just taste the salty-sweet mixture. "well, i swan!!, i demurely stated. that is a pretty tasty snack!

i continued reading while scooping up ice cream with pretzel after pretzel, and there, in bold print, was the headline-

"doctors find eating diets high in salty-sweet foods halts the signs of aging!"

"HOLY MOTHER OF ELVIS!!!" what a providential discovery, considering my new favorite snack food.

ta da!!!!!!
and i bet you thought i couldn't do it!!!
what? what's that, you say? i forgot the part about discussing politics??
uh, no i didn't. if you know anything about me at all, you'd know this...



I DON"T DISCUSS POLITICS!!! (she says while smiling)

(above image courtesy of the international space art network)

grateful today that i managed to fit all that into one post! :)

snapshots of my day

the coffee










the cat









the dishes











the bucket of kid











the laundry











the snake in the dishdrainer
(okay, it wasn't real!)







the lunch








the dog








the tent








the end..........i'm pooped!








i know, this was kinda lame, but stay tuned, tomorrow's post will be a doozy!!

grateful:
1. for soft, spinning desk chairs-weeeeeeeee!
2. for sun after rain, and then more sun after more rain, etc.
3. t.willie has his "pop" back home for a few days

bye bye bear bear

back in the bad old days when kaye was pregnant, she started receiving gifts for the baby-to-be. at a family baby shower in new jersey, she was given a cute musical bear by one of her cousins. after t.willie was born, the bear hung from a spot on his bassinet where he could see it and hear it's music. the bear eventually moved into t.w's crib and he grew to love it more than any of his other toys. whenever t.w went to sleep, he made sure the bear was tucked under his arm. of course, as all favorite bears do, this bear was given a name- "bear bear." real original, i know!

as t.w grew, bear bear became more and more a part of his life. bear bear was dragged around when t.willie learned to crawl. bear bear spent time in the car whenever we went somewhere, once or twice being dropped in the driveway on our way out. he traveled to great granma's (g.g's), spent much time riding around in a cart at wal-mart and went just about anywhere t.w went. oh, there were a couple harried trips to the emergency room and also a trip in an ambulance...exciting!!

lucky bear bear even accompanied the entire family on two trips to the jersey shore. he enjoyed the sights and sounds of the beach and eating at the local pizza joint. what a full and interesting life bear bear has had. through it all, he has been a fierce and loyal pal to t.willie.

( i know what you're thinking...don't judge!)

but, alas, two and a half years of intense loving by a child had left bear bear tired and haggard. at the point where i realized that t.w might possibly pull out one of the bear's eyes and choke on it, bear bear underwent some extreme eye surgery. yes, an eye-ectomy was performed and the empty sockets were stitched up. and all the many trips through the washer and dryer finally took a toll on his vocal chords; the music stopped.

so, recently, when i was taking the ole bear out of the dryer once more, i thought he was looking quite done in. t.willie had taken to sleeping with a plush white hand-me-down cat he was given by one of his cousins. sometimes not even noticing if bear bear was in his crib at all. yes, it seemed time that bear bear retired and moved on to his final resting place.

however, when t.willie noticed that the bear did not come back in with the laundry, he did ask about him. i told a wee little fib and said that poor old bear bear had fallen apart in the dryer. t.w said, "gammie fix him?" and, oh, gammie was tempted but knew that the kid had lots of other creatures to sleep with and that he was pretty much done with the bear. so i held fast and just said that he was too far gone and had been thrown out with the trash. harsh, i know, but really, t.w didn't seem too upset. now, a week or so later, he has stopped looking for him whenever i bring a load of wash in.

so, this, dear friends, is good bye for ole bear bear. he was a great and loving companion. he will be missed.


(you may notice, bear bear is covered in the purple fuzz dryer lint blankie)
bear bear
october 2007-march 2010

grateful for:
1. computer photo editing programs
2. bird song
3. babies and their loveys

wash day woes: part deux

all righty, yesterday i explained how my old washing machine likes to travel around my laundry room. today, i would like to talk about LINT. yes, lint.

two weeks ago, i made the mistake of laundering a purple fleece throw blanket. it was used by t.willie this winter when the car took too long to warm up. now, we have a few other fleece throws, and i have not had problems with them. they have been well behaved all around. but, when i opened the lid to the washer that day, i was faced with a horror of purple fuzz like you've never seen! as i gingerly pulled out each item of clothing, i would give it a few vigorous shakes to clear off some of the lint. the floor was soon looking like barney the purple dinosaur had just shed his winter coat! there were several things that i just didn't have the nerve to put in the dryer, feeling that they would leave too much lint themselves. i knew i would be re-washing those and as for the "evil purple blanket", i didn't know if washing it again would help it or cause it to disintegrate completely!

so, after that dryer load came out, i emptied the lint trap. now, i have read about some frugal women who use their dryer lint to fill homemade pillows and such. well let me tell ya, they could have used this batch as a blanket, maybe, or even as a pillow itself! (see photo)

as i started folding the clothes, i realized that the dread purple fuzz was going to be with us for a long time. many items still had lint stubbornly clinging to them. even now, two weeks later, we are still picking up purple fuzz off the carpet and occasionally, off the shirts we are wearing!

here are other photos of the disaster (you may click to enlarge):



this poor shirt here was the targeted victim, i think!

so, just as i am recovering from the fleece blanket incident, i opened the washer yesterday to find that a tissue had apparently "gone off" in there! i don't think i can deal................!

grateful today:
1. that jelly beans are easy to come by
2. that i found an exact match to my chipped microwave turntable at goodwill...for $2.99
3. that t.w is right now napping, allowing me to post this so early in the day!

wash day woes: part one

okay, that title implies that i have but one wash day a week. as in, "this is the way we wash our clothes so early monday morning." maybe in some parallel universe, that would be so, but this is not the case. i do laundry most days in a given week. and, as my washer and dryer are ancient and get so much use, they have seen better days. heck, they've seen 'em, but they're so old, they can't remember them!

this is never so obvious as when i put in a load of wash, and a few minutes later, i am alerted to the tell-tale galloping sound of an unbalanced load. i race out to the laundry room and tripping over all the debris, reach for the knob to stop the spinning cycle. i lean against the machine to catch my breath and notice that "old faithful" has traveled an inch or so.

the above scenario happens pretty often, no matter what i do to place the clothes evenly around the drum. it also doesn't help that elle comes over with her months worth of laundry and totally overloads the washer! i had to explain to her how a washing machine works and that the agitator has to be able to move to actually clean the clothes!

so, one day recently, i had put in a load of bilbo's work clothes and was busy in the other room. i became aware that i was hearing something but i didn't know what it was. i perked my ears and listened for a few seconds and then realized it was the washer again. i went tearing through the house, dashed out to the laundry room and caught sight of "old faithful", moving wildly across the floor and the top part that holds the lid had broken away and was flapping open and closed, kinda chomping at me!!!!! i got to the machine and pushed the knob in. as the spinning and thumping stopped, i saw that this time, it had moved a full 2 1/2 inches forward and about an inch and a half away from the side of the dryer! clearly, a record breaking trip for my trusty ole washer. and yet, it runs...takes a lickin and keeps on tickin!

i wish i didn't have to tax my poor washer so badly, but as long as convention requires mankind to wear clothing, i will be doing laundry...a LOT!

grateful:
1. for the maytag repair man
2. that i can fit a little "exercise" into my day
3. that t.willie enjoys helping with the laundry, even if it's just to use the basket for a stage!

it's all about family...and the food!

as you may know, yesterday was our anniversary. and since our anniversary falls on the day after st. patrick's day(and because of my past life background and all) and since we LOVE corned beef and cabbage, that's how we celebrate it...at home with corned beef and cabbage and a st. patrick's theme. we don't do no fancy schmancy dinner out, we stay home and i boil the crap outta some food!

this is how we have done it for many years now. this is one of our family traditions. now, i know there are some crazy folks out there that don't "get" the irish thing (you know who you are!), don't even like corned beef (ditto!), but we are not those people!

thinking about this tradition makes me feel good, since we don't really have all that many holiday customs. i would like for t.willie to have many family memories about celebrations and gatherings....WAIT! let me add in "happy"- happy memories of happy celebrations and gatherings! because we have all been to some unhappy family gatherings, i'm sure!

but, when ya come right down to it, what would a holiday or special occasion be without those you love? even if/when you drive each other crazy! it would be lonely. it would be boring and uneventful- it would be...just another day! so, yeah, i'll take the bad with the good because the alternative is unacceptable.

eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!

this was t.w's st. patty's day lunch, jealous, aren't ya?!
please be impressed at the lucky rainbow cake i made for dessert!
(click on images for GIANT views!)


grateful today for:
1. those i love
2. spring has sprung!
3. the relationship between t.willie and his "pop"

I DO!

i do remember meeting a cute boy in junior year of high school.

i do remember winking at him on the school bus.

i do remember writing an embarrassingly sappy letter to my sister regarding the boy i was dating, who i was crazy about.

i do remember that boy joining the navy in senior year.

i do remember being mad at him because it meant he would be gone for six long years.

i do remember making up and him asking me to marry him.

i do remember being a navy wife and raising two girls.

i do remember moving our girls and our stuff a few times.

i do remember highs and lows, good times and bad times.

i do believe that after 27 years, i would marry him again.

happy anniversary bilbo baggins!!! "i'm still love you!" (this is not a typo!)

grateful that:
1. i winked at that boy in high school
2. i married that boy
3. the boy and i are now grandparents together

always after me lucky charms

when i was a wee little girl back in dublin, there was nothing i loved more for breakfast than this cereal. but, me mum would not buy it for us very often. with 10 kids, who could blame her!?!

hahaha just kidding! about the dublin part. and the mum part...oh, and the ten kids part. but, i DID love this cereal. so i was thinking about it and i wondered if there were many recipes out there using this wonderful stuff.

was i surprised when i found several yummy looking recipes and some not-so-yummy ones!

at ratty gourmet there is the simplest one that is basically lucky charms, milk and whipped cream. genius!
betty crocker has a recipe using lucky charms in a raspberry smoothie. that sounds interesting.

a great blog called two hearts together has lucky charms treat bars on a stick. call me crazy, but marshmallow treats you can eat without getting sticky are a winner to me!

and over at cooks.com, they have a party mix using lucky charms, peanuts and raisins...simple but yummy.

now, a not-so-yummy one was a recipe for some sort of balsamic dressing that utilizes lucky charms marshmallows. um, ew!!! so, ok, get out there and use those lucky charms or just eat 'em by themselves. you'll be glad ya did!
happy st. patrick's day!

grateful for:
1. t.v. shows online
2. recipes online
3. kid's coloring pages online

i have nothing!

i'm sitting here trying to think of something to write about and it just won't come! nothing! nada! so, here's what i need from you, my possibly 12, readers....IDEAS!! please leave a comment and tell me what you want me to write about. that's all, no big deal! if you don't know how to leave a comment, here's the 5 step process.

1. click on "comments"
2. type your positive, uplifting comment in the box
3. click on "select profile", if you don't have one- hit "name/url"
4. when that box comes up, fill in whatever name you wanna use and then put in ANY url, then hit continue
5. when that box pops up, type in the security word, then hit "post comment"

and then you're done! they sure don't make it simple but i know you can do it! so give me some ideas folks...please!!!

grateful for:
1. post-it notes
2. crock pots
3. t.willie ate everything he was served today

green me up, scotty!

many of you may not know a deep down dirty secret of mine- that i was irish in a past life! oh, ok, maybe not, but i do love all things irish, like:

the dance
the music
the food
ha! just a bit o' the blarney!


the homes
the myths
and the land
what i am not too keen on is the...
yeah, the drinking, although i bet irish pubs are a lotta fun!

anyway, that is a wee bit about me that you might not have known.
so kiss me, i may have been irish!!!

grateful for:
1. all things irish
2. antacids
3. a little boy who says things that crack me up