A day of prizes...

I got a bonus half-day with the grandkids today. I was the lucky one to be home when Tori arrived with her "BIG PRIZE". The school is doing a fund raising project, and she won this singing dog, whose ears flop up and down as he sings...hilarious! Also, she won (earned) a good part in an upcoming performance of The Nutcracker! She'll be one of the children at the Christmas party around the tree in the ballet. Very exciting!

Its hard to catch her in a serious moment. Here she is phoning mom.

W is off to Saginaw Valley State University, to film the Chargers this weekend. Every time he goes, he earns lots of money and has very interesting experiences. It was difficult to find photos of this school. I think it is not a huge well funded school. It is a State school, kind of reminds me of the looks of Central Washington state University.

Most of the photos had snow piled up all around!

W also won a prize today. He won a jar of pear marmalade (made by his professor) for writing the BEST Latin sentence in his Latin class!

Why Monday is my favorite day...

Monday is the day I get little Wyatt all to myself! kiss - squeeze - hug... Wyatt is starting to reach for the camera! c'mon smile for grandma!

He looks a little like he feels abandoned here, but trust me, he loves his little seat and tray. My camera ran out of juice, so I didn't have as many photos to choose from today. He changes so much week to week! And for sure, his eyes are BROWN! I gotta get in more visits during the week!

That is why Monday is my favorite day. Wyatt all to myself, a couple of visits with his daddy, a visit with his mommy too.

End of a nice weekend

Such a nice weekend, with lots of time do do all kinds of things. One of my plans was to just have fun with a couple of art journal pages. These next two pages are supposed to symbolize the retreat to Poulsbo with the Rubbermaid ladies... It's fun to put it all together, but there are some symbolic things in this page too: The two cards add up to 11 - the number of ladies that attended; and they are clubs (get it?). The yellow butterfly is of a picture of the house we stayed in...the orange-y butterfly and the flower is the cute bag from a bead shop we went into and I purchased a few things...

The second page has an underlayment of a Brahms Lullaby. Kind of a joke because no one slept that well the first night; my camera for obvious reasons, and all the ladies in nightgowns. Of course we didn't wear nightgowns like that! We wore modern jammies.

And today finally I returned my art supplies to their proper places. I put this Wal-mart shoe holder on my studio door to hold supplies. It is so great to see things easily and where to put them back. It has already saved me lots of time and definitely encourages me to put things back where they belong so I can find them when I want them.

And today I reorganized my lace, ribbons, and glittery yarn supplies. I am especially happy with my lace organization. I wrapped my lace around coffee sleeves! It's very neat and tidy. And I decided what stuff I would never use and bagged it up for goodwill!

We finished off the weekend watching Moneyball at the theater. I usually wouldn't go to a sports theme movie, but I had seen the previews and it looked pretty good. Brad Pitt always looks pretty good. But there was lots of tobacco chewing and spitting and eating great mouthfuls of food in addition to the baseball scenes. But all in all I'm glad I went. Not a chick flick, but worth seeing.

One thing leads to another...

This morning when I got up, I saw my pile of onions on the counter and a bag of red potatoes on the floor next to a bag of russets. hmmm...where can I put this stuff??? I decided my goodwill picnic hamper would be a good spot to store those guys - dark, but airy, on the floor of my pantry. But of course there was no room on the floor, I had to clear that out, I had to clean the floor (gack!) and then find places for everything that was down there. It was silly just to do the bottom so I went crazy and reorganized and threw things out and got out my label-maker! There really wasn't room to put anything else in the pantry - look at it now! (sorry there is no before photo, but really you'd think less of me if you saw it!) . I found several gadgets I had totally forgotten I had in there too.

When I was getting dressed I was watching the food network, and I saw the Pioneer Woman program. I've never seen it before, although her blog is in my favorites. She made the yummiest looking blackberry cobbler. I remembered the four last peaches in my fridge. Use 'em or lose 'em. I made Lee's blackberry cobbler with peaches!

It was just as easy as she said it would be. And I think mine is just as pretty. It reminds me of a "clafouti" I made once, but this was BETTER! (probably more butter and sugar!).

It made a great lunch after all that hard work! Phil was busy too - I inspired him to get busy and he was doing stuff up on the roof and cleaning the woodstove and polishing all the doorknobs! Second Day of Fall Syndrome I guess. (notice the sky/cloud reflection in the tabletop? pretty day)

And it seemed like a good day to harvest apples. These are the ones I could reach, standing on a chair (Phil had the ladder). It's possible they should stay on the tree a little longer, but eventually the critters climb up and get them so we like to beat them to it. These apples make great pie and applesauce.

It is very difficult to get Kit Kat to look right at me for a photo - so I had to blog this and share. She likes to help us when we're working outside.

Its only 3:30 and I'm still feeling a little ambitious...just what to tackle next...

work, walk, eat...

I got up extremely ambitious this morning! I think I had been dreaming about housework. I changed the sheets on the bed, did a load of laundry, cleaned both bathrooms, vacuumed the downstairs. Then I tackled the fridge... The beets have been piling up. I do like them, just not EVERY night! So I did a little research yesterday and discovered I can cook them up, dice them, freeze them, and eat them at my leisure...so I cooked 7 BIG beets this morning. . .

I diced them up. They filled my biggest mixing bowl. And my hands were RED! I cooled them and put them in freezer bags, it didn't look like nearly as much when they were laid out flat. But, that job is done now!


So, what should I do with all these onions? Probably I can just store them and they'll be good for a long time. Or, I might caramelize them and freeze them for future recipes. I'm going to do something with them tomorrow!

Once I got all that stuff done, we went for a walk. Phil and I each injured ourselves slightly during the summer and we haven't been for a hike/walk in a long time. We started at Marathon park at Capital Lake...

This is the first time I've seen a train on these tracks in a long long time! Then we wanted to see what was new over at Percival Landing. They have been renovating the boardwalk for some time and we hadn't seen what they did yet.

It was beautiful. There were lots of sculptures, the boardwalk is now concrete, there are two beautiful roofed areas to hide from the sun or the rain, and a big new community center building. It looks extremely extravagant. A great tourist area now.

We liked this sculpture. Phil recognized all the tools that were used for this. It's hard to see in my photo, but there are three little men made of railroad spikes holding it all up.

And another one we liked. There were several more. Pretty modern artsy but interesting to look at. That was quite a walk, a couple of miles I think. It made us very hungry, so we went to a Mexican Restaurant for lunch... Tacos?

And to round out our physical day, we went to Winco to try grocery shopping there. If you've been there you know what I mean - its big! We must have walked another mile. We did like it. Its pretty far from our regular routes, but we did have fun pushing the shopping cart around and trying to remember the prices for stuff we usually buy.

One more stop at the used paperback store. We must have been getting tired because Phil didn't find anything he wanted and I only found one book - .50.

An exotic dinner, and a trip to Painesville...

I found this recipe on LITTLE BIRDIE SECRETS (see sidebar). It is delicious!
Chicken Tikka Masala
It is basically chicken, tomato sauce, plain yogurt, seasonings (lots of them). Served over jasmine rice. I love finding a new favorite recipe!

On another subject, Walker will be spending next weekend filming at Lake Erie College

in Painesville, Ohio

...30 miles East of Cleveland, Ohio.

This college started out as a female seminary. It is about the size of Hillsdale, with 12oo students. The thing that is interesting is it is famous for its equine studies, and along with tuition, books, room and board, the students can pay by the semester to have their horse boarded at school!

I'll be interested to hear what Walker thinks of Lake Erie College. I'm enjoying checking out these places he visits. Sometimes he isn't even sure what State he's in! (Mom knows!)

A belated trip to Glacier, Montana...

This is one of the projects I was working on at the Poulsbo retreat. I made a nice photo album with our photos from the Glacier trip, but I also had some memorabilia and personal notes I took, that I wanted to put into a travel journal. I started this a year ago, and finally finished it (mostly) over the weekend. Just a few peeks into my travel journal...

...starting with the beginning train trip...

and some of the things we did...

I made the above flower with map pieces...

...and the final page, showing the snow that fell two days after we left.

I also attached an envelope that has my actual notes from the trip and some special postcards I bought that I couldn't fit into the album or the journal.

Poulsbo Rubbermaids Retreat

Welcome to Poulsbo -this is the darling house 11 women rented for our crafting retreat this past weekend... It was roomy, close to town, and oh so cutely decorated...quilts everywhere...on the beds, on the walls, pictures of quilts, quilting books...

This is the room Claudia and I shared: The Lilac Room.

I couldn't resist a self-portrait.

I was enchanted with the dining room chandelier...

The kitchen was roomy and totally outfitted. We had SO much food! We ate out for dinner one night, but otherwise we brought enough food to last the weekend.

We ate at JJ's Fish House one night. Delicious Fish and Chips.

Afterwards, a few of us went exploring and got some shots of this 1900's Lutheran Church. It had beautiful bells on the hour.

This is downtown Poulsbo. See the Lutheran Church above it all? Our house was across the street. You can see how close we were to town (and the AMAZING Sluy's Bakery!)...

This is the huge room filled with tables that we did our "work" in. It was great! We worked, and talked, and ate and worked some more...

...still working...

One of the little projects I did. I also completed my year old project of a travel journal from our trip to Glacier Montana last September.

It was nice to get home this afternoon, but the memories from this trip will last a long long time.

Monkeying around on Thursday

Tori posing with her "Coach" back-pack given to her by a friend of the family... Little Wyatt looking charming as usual...

These photos are Wyatt trying out several new skills. In the first one, he is grabbing the little duck by the feet, pulling it so hard that it extends, and then it ratchety backs up, with him holding on tight. He loved that game! The second one is him taking a spin in a johnny-jump-up. He bounced around and really enjoyed the new sensations...

I'll be off at a crafting retreat for a few days, with lots of photos to share on my return.

Celebrations...

Today was Tori's birthday. She wanted to have dinner at Fujiama Steak House! She had many loving attendees... She perfected eating with chopsticks!

...and enjoyed a LOUD musical delivery of her birthday cake (see first photo)...

Very fun ... 9 years old ... the kid party is Saturday night.

Something juicy?

I haven't posted anything for a few days. I've been pondering several subjects, but what I most like to write about is just what is happening with me and my family. I guess reading my blog is kind of like noticing someone's DIARY lying about and opening it and READING it...maybe something juicy will show up!
We have had a lot of fun keeping up with Walker's activities at school. Yes, he is working, filming the football team. Walker, who never watched a football game in his life before this job, suddenly knows what is going on, and enjoying it! His team (the Hillsdale Chargers) won their first game! Against the toughest team in their league. He films practices on Wednesdays and the Saturday Football games, home and away.

The first week of school, the annual NAVAL BATTLE IN THE ARBORETUM takes place. Walker has participated every year so far. They start building cardboard ships as soon as school starts. They find people to donate money to purchase duct tape to seal them all up with. There are two teams, the British and the Spanish (or the British and the Pirates). The idea is to paddle their boat to one side of the pond and back, before it disintegrates! Walker doesn't go out in the boats (only freshmen are that dumb!). It is a great fun activity to launch off the school year.

This year is W's first year in his own apartment too. I hoped to have photos of that, but they are still locked inside his cell phone, but someday...

Don't think all he does is play. He works hard too. His class schedule is:

Beginning Greek

Roman Civilization

Literature - Roman Republic

Greek Literature Translation

American Literature: Life and all Writings of Robert Frost

Class Guitar lessons

Private Guitar lessons

Personally I don't know how he does it all! He is also helping grade school students with their reading, participating in the mu alpha fraternity - serenades, head of the bass singing group.

Anyway, enough about Walker at school for now... radical subject switch!

...cause when the cat's away.... This is what I made for dinner tonight. potato-beetgreen-garlic mash... I made it tonight because I have been wanting to try it, and I KNOW Phil hubby would not be impressed. It is DELICIOUS!!! Potatoes boiled, beet greens in 2" slices thrown in with the potatoes the last ten minutes...Put a garlic clove, minced, some butter, some half & half or milk, mash it all together - add salt. I could eat this every day! The stems of the beet greens put a delicate bite in the mashed potatoes - the flavors blend beautifully. It reminds me a little of my granddaughter's Irish Potato dish with cabbage in it.

World's Longest Beach...

Taking advantage of this weather, we drove to Long Beach today. We didn't really have a plan, wander around town and go out to lunch.

We visited a few antique stores...

Phil nicely posed in front of this one.

This store actually had something I BOUGHT!

Very tiny and flat. I'll post it tomorrow.

There was a hot rod show going on! I don't really know if Phil knew about it -- he denied any knowledge. I like taking photos of brightly painted cars with interesting expressions.

This one was a beaut!

a portrait of Phil and I.

Phil wishes he had bought this corvette when he test drove it 40 years ago - it was only $1200.

This is where we went to lunch - The Shelburn House.

It was recommended by one of the antique shop owners.

Fish and chips on the deck in a lovely garden. Wonderful!

Inside was very comfortable too. We may have to stay here some time.

Beautiful stained glass.

While we were eating lunch, the fog rolled in.

This is the only view of the ocean.

We could hear it, but no visibility.

And it was very windy - 60 degrees.

As we headed home, the temperatures went up up up.