Friday, October 31, 2008

The Great Pumpkin

Charlie Brown has nothing on me. I just figured out I'm addicted to pumpkin.
I have a can in the frig.
I put it into my oatmeal every morning.
I put it into my progressive Chicken soup. It thickens it and gives it that nutty pumpkin flavor.
I put it on my baked potato last night. Tasty!
I have stopped at Dunkin Doughnut in the morning $2.08 for a small pumpkin coffee, even though I make regular coffee at work.
I don't eat ice cream, but on vacation I had a pumpkin pie blizzard AND a pumpkin shake (from my favorite fast food joint - Jack in the Box - LOVE them tacos).
Sharen bought me some pumpkin flavored coffee mate at Jewel cause Meijer, where I shop didn't have it, so I can take it to work when I drink regular coffee.

People think I'm tan from vacation, but I think it's from eating all this pumpkin. I'm turning orange!!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Tag

Okay - I can play this game.


Me and Bryan with the quilt I made him 20 some quilts ago.

7 things about me.

1. I cannot spell. Don't ask me to spell anything. I still cringed when I see a dictionary and I think spell check is the greatest thing ever invented.

2. Along those lines - Big words scare me. I like to hear people use them as long as they don't care if I ask them to explain the meaning to me.

3. I have to have the thermostat set to an even number. In the house and in the car. 68, 72, never 69 or 71.

4. Lots of tattoos on people freak me out. Yes - I have a tattoo, but it cannot be seen unless I show it to you. Hidden tattoos are OK.

5. I have a plastic joint in my big toe. Doctors said it would only last 15 to 20 years - I'm going on 22. I hope I didn't just jinx myself.

6. I have been watching "All My Children" for 31 years. Yes everyday. I tape it!! I got hooked on it when I was pregnant with Bryan.

7. I took all the Art classes offered in High School and was good at it. I won a grand prize at the state fair with one of my drawings on perspective.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

We're Back!

Vacation was just what it should of been. We got to visit with Mike's sister Kathy and brother Jack. Here they are at the AZ state fair.

You know that commercial with the guys reflection turning them into kids. Well that is what Jack & Mike did. The fun that was on their faces was contagious.


They started out racing down the big slide in true brother fashion trying to beat each other - as you can see Mike won. Then Kathy bought tickets for the highest & scariest ride and dared them to go on it. It had to be 200 ft in the air and you rolled around. Of course they couldn't back down.

Me I was in search of a homemade tamale. They were NO WHERE to be found. I vowed to find one before my vacation was over.

On Monday we headed on down to Green Valley, south of Tuscon to visit with Mike's old co-worker and his wife.
Bobby has been dragged down by the dessert virus, valley fever, but we did manage to visit the Titan Missile, a cooper mine, and drove over to Tombstone to sight see and have lunch (NO Tamales). I'm sure Bobby needed rest after our 3 day visit.


On to the reason for our trip to AZ. Mike's softball tourney.

After spending the afternoon of Thurs. by the pool Friday morning the guys are ready to play some softball. Turns out moving up in class from AA to AAA spoils the fun. The teams on Fri. were from New Mexico and California (all yr round teams) and one from Michigan that was place 1st in the bracket. Lost them all.
We still had hopes for Saturday. Nope - lost to teams from Washington and Idaho. Mike played really well batting .875 for the weekend, 1000 on Sat.
The guys still had a good time. I had fun too catching some rays watching. The bleachers were made outa cement built into hills around the fields. Cold at 7:00 AM and HOT at 4:00 PM.
Here is picture of the guys waiting in between innings sitting on the cement bleachers.

I realize that is one place that I could not live full time. It's no secret that I hate air conditioning. I would HAVE to use it down there. I did enjoy the sun and warmth, but I don't know if I would like dealing with it everyday. Everywhere people were in search of shade.
One thing I found odd was everyone talks distance down there in miles. How far is the airport? 16 miles. Where is your work? 5 miles. I have no idea how far I travel to work, I just know it takes 15 minutes and the airport from our house is 30 to 45 minutes away.
After the tourney on Sunday we head back to Kathy's and guess what she found. YES!!! a place that makes homemade tamales. I finally got my tamales.

I realized that having my sisters and mother so close is a blessing. Mike had to say goodbye to his sister and brother and doesn't know when he will get to see, visit, play or hug them again.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Vacation List

Mike and I are headed to sunny and hot AZ tomorrow for 10 days of family, friends and fun(softball). I made my "to do before vacation" list.
Friday morning while clothes are in the wash and the dishwasher is running I head out to pick up the sticks so I can mow the lawn.
There are frickin leaves everywhere. Thoughts of being little and raking the oak leaves in our backyard with Dad slow me down. Sharen and I would take our I spy magnifying glasses - the kind you get in cereal boxes - and lay in the dry leaves and burn holes in them. No time for that today I had things I needed to do.
I get distracted again when I realize that most of these leaves will be down by the time we get back, so I grab my camera (no surprise there) and head on out to the back acreage behind us. The burned house has been bulldozed so it's wide open space.








I'm acually gonna miss the colored leaves. Arizona is soooo brown. Catch me later!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Injun Summer

Saturday Bryan & Mary came out to the burbs to visit a pumpkin farm and do the corn maze. I asked them if they wanted to go on a hayride with me & Mike. At Donley's Wild West they were having "Injun Summer" hayrides.
If you have dinner at the steakhouse you get a discount on the ride. So we decided to have dinner there too. I heard that they have great steaks. Bryan had Prime Rib, Mary had fried shrimp and Mike had the rib eye. I really don't care too much for beef, but they talked me into ordering the pot roast. "Sorry - we are all out!" I got my old standard - chicken wrap. After dinner we head out back to wait for the hayride. We had red tickets for the 7:30 ride. Mike and Mary passed the time roasting marshmallows.
The weather was perfect "God's spotlight" (aka.moon) was shining down. The hay wagon was pulled by an old tractor. It took you back in the cornfields and they stopped and reenacted the story of "Injun Summer" while someone read it over a loud speaker. Way Cool!

After the ride Mary talked Bryan into posing for a picture here.

Can I just say that I like the Bryan that hangs around with Mary!

So after the ride we decide to take a little detour home and swing by Stacy's and Kory's house. Bryan and Mary hadn't seen the new house yet.

They did run into an old friend from Grace though. He wanted to let all the people back in the city to know that he is doing good and had found a new home in Kory's "man garage". He gets paid alot of attention and is enjoying his new lease on life.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

I Miss Bryan

When I was at the Pumpkin Patch this weekend I was looking through the squash and the farms owner asked me if he could help me find something. Yeah - I'm looking for something sweet. I had a regular acorn squash and a yellow acorn squash already.
He hands me a "red Hubbard" and told me to try this. I asked him how much and he said take it - if you like it come back and buy another one.
Well last night I tried it. Yummmy! I cooked it in the steamer bags. (I LOVE THEM BAGS) It was the size of a volleyball and I knew I was not going to eat it all. Mike would rather eat dirt!
Where is my Bryan? - He would of shared it with me and loved it.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Decorating Contest

Apparently the word is out that I like to decorate.
In our sales meeting the boss announced that he is going to have a "decorate your desk" contest for Christmas to help kick off the Christmas Advertising Season. Nancy groaned and said we might as well give the day off and the dinner for 2 to Karen nobody is going to beat her. Yeah - You got that right...
Right now my desk is decorated with Bears. Maybe a Beary Christmas? We'll see.
My first stop in the morning is the coffee pots to make the coffee - okay they are 3 feet from my desk and I don't even have to get up from my chair to get a cup, but I thought I would start to intimate them all this afternoon and decorate the bulletin board hanging over the pots with a preprint that was in the paper today. The lizard drinking out of a CN cup.




Gotta love the Geico lizard.

Decorating

I love the fall decorations!
I jumped into the little red pickup and headed over to the Pumpkin Patch to pick up my outside decorations. The father and mother of the owners were there and they used to have a pickup truck just like little red.
I wasn't going to get too much this year since we are going on vacation for 10 days and the animals love eat and spread pumpkin goop all over.
There was soooo many pumpkins and gourds to choose from!



I thought why the hell not the squirrel have got to eat too and here is what I got to decorate the front yard.

They've Landed

Sharen & Dup are off on a wedding cruise. Their nephew is getting married. I got caught this morning at work tracking their flight. They are headed to Florida to witness the wedding in Key West then boarding a cruise to Mexico. (Cheryl and Craig are going too)
FlyteComm.com tell you all you need to know about any flight. I know there are some other sites that can let you know the status of flights, but this is my favorite. Shows how fast - altitude - how much time is left - kind of airplane - and has a map of where the plane is going.
Next time you know someone flying somewhere check this site out. FUN!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Attention Bowlers

When someone's ball gets stuck in the ball return and you can see it, but it's not moving.
DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS IN THERE AND TRY TO GET IT OUT.
Your fingers will get sucked in and hurt real bad.
And, if it does happen, tell your teammates right away and STOP BOWLING!!!!! Especially if it's on your bowling finger.
It could look like this and still be hurting the next day.