The Best Birthday EVER!

My sneaky kids went and met at Jen's studio one night last week and surprised me with a bunch of family photos Jen took. They are making a book for me and are letting me pick my favorite one to do in a framed 24x36 over the fireplace. I was so touched I cried like a baby! Gosh, I love them kids...and ya gotta admit, they are ONE ADORABLE BUNCH. Now I have to make a decision by tomorrow so she can place the order. These are just a few of them...I swear there's 20 to pick from.

45 years young

How on earth did this happen? I still think of myself as a young mom. I was telling a friend after church today that "I'm halfway to 50!" What the heck is wrong with me? Not only am I getting OLD, I'm getting STUPID too! Okay, what I meant was in the terms of THIS decade (40th year), I'm halfway to 50. Oh, whatever...I knew what I meant.

I'm in pursuit of happiness and joy. I'll letcha know if I get there. In the meantime, I'm trying to be optimistic that one day I'll find it. Going to go sort tomatoes and fulfill my motherly obligations. (more laundry, cooking, and and cleaning.)

Sittin' back and enjoying the Weather

What a beautiful week it has been here in Michigan. I am thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous weather and feeling a bit more productive despite this nasty chest cold I've had.

Yesterday I got Jennifer's old room cleaned out... Jordy tried it for a week (room is bigger than hers) but she missed her childhood bedroom and moved back into it. She still has a few things in there, but for the most part, it's empty. And echoey. Before I move up all the bins from my sewing room that have been in storage, I think I'm going to attempt putting up some closet organizers first. (or maybe I'll have "the Man" help me out.) I'm sew excited. (oh man, that was baaaaad.) Actually this is going to be a sewing/craft/scrapbooking room with a spare bed in it.

Let's see how long it takes me to get it done. I have other priorities first. Like painting my bathroom. Like stripping wallpaper out of my half bathroom. Like painting the trim in my hallway and painting my stairway and finishing painting my bedroom and...well, let's just say I've got a lotta work to do.

Better get busy.

But first I need to do some laundry.

and dishes.

and dust.

and vacuum.

and make dinner.

and...

My crazy Girls

My girls know how to make me laugh. These pictures almost look like they are mirror images of each other. Everyone asks if they're twins...yes, twins two years apart! Jordy was having fun with her new mac-book.

I'm still feelin' pretty sick today even though I canned another double batch of pear sauce this afternoon. I didn't get to make my salsa over the weekend cuz I was having a hard time breathing. I'm on an antibiotic right now and hope to be feeling better by morning. I have several hair appointments later in the day so I have to feel better...I'm hoping to at least blanche and skin the tomatoes in the morning and perhaps around 3:00 I can do my canning before my 6:30 haircut. I'm heading to bed, I'm exhausted.

Under the Weather

Josh is in action (in blue) fending off #44 who wants to get to the ball.

The four captains of the team after practice looking pretty mean. Garrett, Murphy, Josh, and Ryan. Their eyes are on Ford Field for the 3rd time. Can they make it a 3-peat for a State Championship? Stay tuned through November.

This photo exemplifies how I've been feeling the past two days. I feel like a horse is standing on my chest and has squished nearly all of the air out of my lungs. My head is stuffed up, yet I have a runny nose and a fever. At first I just thought it was seasonal allergies, because I was sneezing like a fool...until the fever came.

Of course NOTHING can stop this mom from watching her boys play football. Josh had a big game last night against a very tough Detroit Catholic School. We won 20-7. There was a feature picture of him and an article about the game in our local newspaper this morning (giving him accolades). I'm not gonna lie...it brought tears to my eyes with pride... Especially knowing everything that kid has been through this past year.

He was voted on Homecoming Court this week and gets to wear a tux ($100 bux at our expense). Hey, it's all about the threads with the guys. Needless to say, it's been a good week for him.

Then this morning we left at 10 am to head to Detroit for the JV game. Jake played his heart out and was devastated to lose this game. He left everything he had on the field and was quite emotional afterwards. He plays with such intensity just like his older brothers. Brother Ryan is his O-Line coach and inspires and motivates Jake on the sidelines. It's pretty "tight" (as Jake would say) to have his big "bro" coaching him. Poor Jake is just shaking this "creeping crud" sickness that I recently came down with. It looks like it's going to be a long week for me. I'm only on day two of the "sickness" and he's had it for over a week and still "horking up loogies".

(does anyone know where I can find a teenager dictionary?)

A fun little project

Johanna Kriesel prints.

The other night I went over to Jordanne's (future) house to help re-cover some dining room chairs her and Dustin inherited from his grandma. She ordered an Amy Butler print from Fabric.com (love that website!). What a fun day. I took Jen and Jordy out to lunch at TGI Fridays and we just sat there long after our meal just gabbing away, laughing and bein' silly. Jen had to go but me and Jordy ventured on to her house. We found some old velcro rollers from Dust's grandmas things and had some fun.

Okay pay no attention to my incredibly sweaty face...It was hotter than heck in there! I can't believe I even posted this picture but some day when I'm dead and gone...my kids might remember that I was a nut once in awhile. (Woo Hoo! Jordy and I shared a Mojito...now that's livin' dangerously.)

here's the chair in it's BEFORE state:

and now...the AFTER!

All together in the dining room. Don'tcha just love the orange? Isn't this a typical artist's house?

Now...can't you just imagine those prints matted and framed (at the beginning of the post) hanging on this bare orange wall? Well Jordy will have to wait because they are a Christmas present. (ain't I a bugger?)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun/ Cyndi Lauper

I AM A FAILURE and other hateful things

This is not easy to say since I usually think "I'm kind of big deal" (a household joke, people...I really don't think this!!!) ...BUT the truth be known...that BEAUTIFUL plum jelly I made the other day???? It is Plum HONEY. Yes, it's the consistency of honey which, still tastes delicious and will be wonderful on fresh Belgian waffles or pancakes or drizzled over vanilla ice cream...but what a messy peanut butter sandwich!

In hindsight...I think my Pectin was out of date. I bought it on clearance at TARGET oh, several years ago...and thought it would still be good. (there was no expiration date on it!) Really, do jello boxes go bad? Isn't this kind of the same stuff ?

I have made jams and jellies before and have had great success...all the other canning endeavors I've ever done have yielded great results. With exception to this (did I say beautiful?) plum jelly. I AM A FAILURE! ...and it hurts so much to say it because I was really impressed with the crystal clear clarity (thanks to cheesecloth).

Well let this be known: I'm jumping back into the saddle. I'm going back to pick some more plums and I'm going to do it again. This time, I'm buying fresh certo and using every single 7 1/2 cups of sugar the recipe calls for. If it works this time, I'll post the recipe for those inquiring minds who want to know. I CAN DO THIS!

Okay...on to other things. First let me start off by saying that by no means do I have anything against living in a trailer park. Early in our married life, we lived in a trailer...on a street with other trailers around. (not necessarily a "park", but I digress.) Anyways...my intention is not to offend anyone where they live. I truly don't care where you live. But there seems to be a "mentality" that suggests that trashy people live in trailer parks, which is ludicrous. Trashy people can live in hoity toity subdivisions and decent neighborhoods too.

That being said...we have been noticing that a certain "mindset" of people seem to be moving into our neighborhood. It's hard to explain... but they are disrespectful to the rights of others around them... they don't care if they're disruptive...they are renters. (and we were renters for our first 9 years of our married life, but we always respected our neighbors.)

At midnight last night, the people on the "Compound" were shooting off fireworks. ON A FRIGGIN" TUESDAY NIGHT! I realize that Mr. Compound man doesn't have a job to get up for, but please respect the sleep of those who do. The fireworks set off a series of barks from those neighbors who leave their dogs out all night. (which happen to live next door to me.)

Well, those neighbors (also renters) were out partying late last night and decided to pull their truck on our grass (between our properties) at, oh 2:00 am this morning. (which set off another series of barks.) Not only did the dogs, the lights and the diesel engine noise wake me from a dead sleep, it was the "guys" discussing loudly how "f#*$'ed up" they were and how badly they needed to "take a (pee)". By this time I was looking out the window to see what the heck woke me up...and I watched one of the figures walk over to our white vinyl fencing and "relieve himself" while shouting about how wasted he was. NICE.

This would probably be the owner of the black truck who has a VULGAR quip emblazoned in large white vinyl lettering across the back window of his truck:

MOTHER MADEM

MOTHER F#*KEM

Yes...VERY NICE. I did call the township on that one since we are a family oriented neighborhood and some of us nice folks with kids are still trying to "Live the dream", but I was told something about "freedom of expression". Yeah, whatever.

Anyways...after a quick beer on the front lawn, Mr. Mother hater decided to lock up his truck (7 or 8 times which set off a series of car horn beeps, which in turn set off a series of barks.) You know, you can never be too sure of your neighbors...ya never know who might be sitting in a bush waiting for you to park your VULGAR unlocked truck so they could steal your pack of Camels off your dash.

YUCK. I had all I could do from hafefully yelling out my bedroom window, "Hey, Motherhater! Why don't you take it back to the trailer park where you came from!"

...of course, I didn't say that...I did what every respectful neighbor would do...I grumbled under my breath and tried to fall back asleep.

So needless to say, I didn't have much sleep last night...and then I got a call at 8 am from the gym my son has a membership at. I called yesterday disputing a change in the membership dues (which we had to sign a year contract for). I felt they should honor the year contract terms of service and were in violation by changing the terms. I got a snot-nosed disrespectful young woman with a huge chip on her shoulder spouting that "the economy is so bad that we had to raise the prices to cover our costs!"

Wait one minute here, toots...I am very aware of the rising prices around us, but last I checked...a contract was a binding deal that you were held to...on BOTH sides. I said, "Then can I cancel my membership?" ... she gave me a resounding "hell no". (okay, just a firm NO) She proceeded to tell me that my son agreed that the "surcharges" could change at any time within our contract. Now I ask you, who on earth would sign a contract with stipulations like that? All I got was a snotty "there's nothing I can do to change it" answer.

I shot back with a "well that's no way to get repeat customers...I guarantee you I won't be referring anyone to your gym...thank you for your time"...click.

(*music of the day: RESPECT / Aretha Franklin)

See what happens when people don't RESPECT their neighbors?