Go Green

Every time you turned around on Thursday, the newspaper, the TV, even at the flower shop at Meijers, everybody says to go green. It is Earth day for pity sake.

That's what we did - I called Feldco (recommended by all the inspectors we know - wink, wink) and ordered new windows. We get a $1500 tax credit and I get new windows to wash. The windows we have now if they are not falling out of the frame they are falling apart.

It is no secret that I love to wash windows and cannot wait (even though it takes 4 to 6 weeks) to have the new windows installed. I'm getting 11 news windows to wash. Yipee!!!!!

Mower

It's been a year since I was released from my duties at the paper. I still have some duties here at home. I'm not sure when I considered myself the keeper of the yard, but I would spend my Friday's off riding around on Mike's tractor mowing.

Every Friday's, I would get my house work started and then get out and pick up sticks and mow the lawn, so Mike wouldn't have to worry about it over the weekend. I would put my ipod on and spend a mindless hour riding around the yard making sure I had straight lines that Roger Bossard would be proud of.

Now we both have every day off with plenty of time to do what we want. I still do all the planting and weeding of the flower beds, but my mowing duty has been turned back over to Mike.
Even though the weather in Chicago yesterday was 48, out in the burbs the temperature was 68 and sunny, a beautiful day to mow the lawns. Yes, I said lawns with a "s". Mike not only mowed our lawn, but with the neighbors still in FL he mowed theirs too. I admit I was a bit jealous.
Picking up the sticks










Mowing the neighbors side yard

Mary is Showered

The first of the wedding festivities was Friday night.
To say that I was excited would be more than true.
After the quilt show I got home got cleaned up and started to wrap the gifts, hoping that Mary will like them (You never can tell with homemade gifts). I bought cookies cutters to tie on the present with ribbon, but they were too sharp for the ribbon I had, so I head on over to Walgreens to buy some stronger stuff and see that the parking lot at the Sears Center is "not full". With this rebate thing going on, Mike and I decide to stop in and get a new dishwasher. OK I decided, but Mike was with me so he went too. 20 minutes later we have a new stainless steel dishwasher to be installed later in May.

Get home, wrap the gifts, grab the champagne, make sure I have the article that was in our paper with Mary's byline and head out the door with out my camera. NO pictures - what kind of Mother-in-law will I be. Michelle, Mary Ellen, and Nancy promised me some pictures.

I wasn't surprised by all the friends of Mary's that came.
I wasn't surprised by the good food and the array of drinks available.
I wasn't surprised by the awesome presents she opened.
I wasn't surprised by all the kind words that were said to and about Mary.

What I was surprised by was
The way I felt, when I realized that these presents were for Bryan too.
The fact that these girls were friends of Bryan's too.
The warm comments made to me about the great guy my Bryan is.
And just how emotional this summer is going to be for me.

Quilt show 2010

Sharen and I headed out to our annual trip to the Spring Quilt Show in Rosemont. We stopped and split breakfast. Does anyone else think that breakfast is the biggest meal served in restaurants?

We get there, get our tickets, and walk into the biggest, baddest quilt show we have ever been to. Our first trip down each isle took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to see everything.

We weren't really looking for anything in particular, just ideas, but that's when you finds things you must have. I bought a beautiful quilted blouse - I have a few parties to go to this summer. :)

When a booth with novelty chenille (I had to buy some) caught our eye we wander in and started talking with the ladies and they told us that this is the last year here in Rosemont.
NOOOOO!!!!!
They are moving the show to Cincinnati.

No wonder the place was so big and crowded. We decide to make one more sweep though it all and enjoy our last quilt show. Good thing because I found some cute buttons for a project I'm working on and Sharen bought a quilters license plate holder for the gal she works with.

It was a beautiful sunny but sad day for us as we left the Stephen Center for our 7th and last Quilt Show.
Maybe there is a road trip in our future.

SHOT!!!!!

Pronounced "Shaaaaaat"!!!!
At bowling if one of our teammates would leave a split we would shout out Shot! and if they picked it up one of us would buy them a shot. Simple enough game.

Last Thursday several splits were thrown in the first 5 frames with no pickups. Michelle said F** it and bought a round of shots. Deanna's (she can't drink) shot sat in the middle of the table. I had this bright idea to give it to the next person who actually threw a split. (didn't have to pick it up, just throw one). I wasn't worried I had just thrown a third strike and had a clean game going.

It wasn't me, it was Cheryl who threw the next split. She thought it would be fun to continue this game for the rest of the night and goes and buys a shot to replace the one she drank.

I finished with a 214 and was feeling cocky. Second frame in the second game pocket split. Shit! Drank the shot - bought another one. I went straight down hill from there. A 129 with 4 splits my second game. Relax these were just cherry bombs, 1/2 cherry pucker - 1/2 red bull. No MAJOR damage.

I got myself back on track and didn't drink any shots the rest of the night. A few more shots were drank and a fun time was had by all.

What Starts with 7 and Ends with 7?

That would be my golf score from today.
Mike asked if I had plans for the day - He wanted to take me golfing.
My gosh, I haven't been golfing since last year with Reuter, Reuter, and Murphey.
If we could get off early I would go. I had big plans for the afternoon.
I had a 7 on the first hole and a 7 on 18, but I did get a par in between somewhere. The driving was good and the chipping needs help, just like the start of every year.

This afternoon I was the "middle reliever" baby sitter. Carrie had parent-teacher conference and Grandma Sharen couldn't get there until 4:30.

Matthew just wanted to push his wagon around.



And Bailey (after greeting me at the car for some lovin') just wanted to be left alone to lay in the grass.










Matthew is still having a hard time trying to figure this twin grandmas thing out. It didn't take him long though. He knew that the one that can recite brown bear without the book, and the one that can understand his gibberish is Grandma.

I Love spring flowers

All in My Backyard!!!

I want Ice Cream

Mother called me and asked if I would take her to the grocery store to get a few things. I said Sure.
I get to Mom's and the first thing we do is go over her list and coupons.
Mother's eye sight is not so good (OK family stop laughing - her eye sight is horrible) and her handwriting is suspect. She is 87 years old after all.

me - "What is this? Dr. Pepper?"
Mom - "No, I hate Dr. Pepper."
It was green pepper spelled gr pepper.

me - "Kitchen Towels?"
Mom - " Oh yeah, the paper kind"
That would be Bounty.

me - "Cookies, Does Linda know?"
Mom - "Yes, it's OK."
I know it's far from Ok, but I wasn't going to fight that fight.

me - laughing "Mom, do you want ice cream?"
Mom - "Yes, Yes, I need my ice cream."

No kidding it's on the list 4 times.

3 1/2 gallons

I'm a blood donor. I have hit the 3.5 gallon mark.
I don't even think about it, I just go every 8 weeks. That was until Charlotte left the Elgin center. The last 3 visits all I got was a very sore and bruised arm and all they got was Nothing. Seems I have a floater vein.

They would call and I wouldn't answer the phone when I saw caller ID cause I didn't want to go through that again.
I forgot to look when they called last week and I answered the damn phone. I told them I just couldn't go to the Elgin location and do you have one in St. Charles.
They did and I made an appointment.
With my fingers crossed I go in. OMG the place was bigger, cleaner, and the place was not crowded.
The receptionist told me not to worry their girl Stacy was very good.

Stacy has 2 colored hair, a pierced eye brow, tattoos on her neck (I do not like ink on any necks), and a pierced tongue.
I saw all passed that when she got my floater vein the first try and I was outa there in 1/2 hour.
I made another appointment for 8 weeks.

Confirmed

Saturday night my son was confirmed at St. Matthias church in Chicago.

Bryan and Mary in the room where they spent every Tuesday night for the last 7 months.

Mary had us over for dinner before the church service. She made a great ham dinner with her brothers and families, her parents, Bryan's dad and wife, Andy and Michelle (Andy was his sponsor) and of course me and Mike. She had made a red velvet cake, which they both love. Don't be surprised if their wedding cake is red velvet.


The candle lite service was 2 1/2 hours and I enjoyed all of it. The music and chorus was awesome.

Bryan can check another thing off his wedding "to do" list.

Logan's Day

Mike and I had Logan over to spend the day with us for his 8th birthday.

Stacy told us to get him anything for outdoors. Mike found this 3 wheel skateboard called a "sole skate".

It's really cool - It has a button that you have to stand on or it won't go, which is great, cause if you fall off, the skate stops and won't run away from you.

It didn't take Logan long to get the hang of it. It tilts side to side for turning. I got about 3 ft and Mike made it 3/4 down the drive.

We rode our bikes, walked in the woods and along the creek. Mike took him to see "How to Train a Dragon?" in 3d, while I made his favorite, Mosta-cholly. The rest of his family showed up for dinner.
We rarely let the kids into the hot tub, but we made an exception for his birthday. Mike took them all into the tub.


I bought cupcakes instead of a cake - no silverware or plates!!!


Logan gave us both big hugs when he left and told us he had a great day!