Blog it!

Phil's night to cook! Such a gourmet. I asked what the bits on top were, and he didn't know. "Whatever the special was!" Nice not to cook, and bonus - enough left for tomorrow night too! I went to Rubbermaids today, and Claudia had this photo of Alan, Carissa and Angela at the beach. How adorable! We had many many fun times at the ocean when the kids were growing up.

I can't believe I got such a horrible picture of this really nice object. But I still wanted to share it. Claudia framed the paperdolls I made for her (one for each chemo session) so you could see the back sides as well. They have notes and dates on the back. If you look closely you can see my reflection and Claudia's too, and my car behind it!

While I was out being artsy, retired husband was out on the target range. He was happy with these hits so I told him I'd blog it!

Signs of Spring I had a treat today - my mom and dad took me to lunch at the Tumwater Valley Restaurant.

This weekend I'm working on more sewing - quilts, doll clothes, baby stuff... I'm liking this Snowman quilt. All my mom's fabric - collected over the years for her great-grandchildren's Christmas Quilts.

Taken in the parking lot at Tumwater Valley.

Aren't they cute?

We had a nice time.

Ambition!

Vicki and I haven't been to lunch in several weeks, due to one thing and another, mostly busy schedules. Today we finally got together at our favorite spot to talk and eat - Panda Express. We never get tired of it!

So much going on with families and jobs. Her two children are heading out to New York and San Salvador (?) for Spring Break. "W" is going to Arkansas. We are enjoying the vicarious thrill of their planning and adventures, from our places here at home.

On my way home I decided I needed to get a cup of coffee, with my Starbucks gift card I got for Christmas. Lucky me, today was buy coffee between 2-5 p.m. and get a free "tiny bite" dessert!

I chose this mini red velvet whooppee pie bite.

Need I say it was DELICIOUS!!!

I think they are showing off their new logo (above). The coffee was perfect too. Now I have the ambition to hit some projects this evening!

Its Raining, Its Pouring...

It really feels like March now - wind, rain, temperatures in the 50's.

Lots of birds singing and chirping in the distance. And today I spotted my first crocuses!

I saw them in several places around town,

along with the lovely purple and white heather in bloom.

Very pretty.

Holding hands.

We love celebrating birthdays! Today is daughter-in-law Sara's birthday. We had them over for Sunday Brunch.

I brought out my fishbowl of scrabble tiles and Tori was inspired!

I was a little late in taking this photo, but we had Carissa's Farmer's Casserole, croissants with butter and raspberry jam, apple slices and grapes, orange juice and ginger ale, and an oven-pancake. Well, not really birthday cake, but it was good.

Victoria holding hands with baby Wyatt!

Friday Night - a date night

Phil and I met at the theater for a Friday matinee. We went to see The Adjustment Bureau, using a Christmas gift card. After the initial SHOCK of the theater speakers being way too loud during the pre-preview period, the movie got rolling and we really enjoyed it. It wasn't anything like what we had expected, it was even better. I highly recommend it.
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The only bad thing was my cell phone alarm went off THREE times during the movie! I didn't know they would continue to "alarm" even if the phone was turned OFF! Luckily, the background sound effects sounded a lot like my alarm, so we didn't get thrown out. I didn't look around to see if we were getting any dirty looks!

After the movie we went to Thai Garden for an early dinner. Delicious as always. We always want their red curry, but I decided to try something a little different - I had the Penang curry. It looked just like the red curry, but had a peanutty taste and it had eggplant in it. They serve so much, I brought half of mine home for lunch.
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A very nice date night.

Domino Effect.

Ok, now that I have a new dishwasher and my kitchen counters are getting de-cluttered, I have been looking at some of my kitchen tools. Sad sad. I would be much more likely to buy my children some new item than to replace my old junk! But, I got inspired yesterday... New kitchen shears! You wouldn't believe what I have been making do with. I actually took a picture but it came out blurry so I took it as a sign that I shouldn't confess with photos...

And a new cheese grater! Would you believe I have been using a flat one size cheese grater? I got these at Ross. A great place for reasonable prices, and Tuesdays are "grandma days" when everything is 10% off if you are age 55 or older! (OK, they have a different name for it, gold club or something like that). hmmm, I'm thinking of a few more things I should replace...

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And, at the same time, I am reading a book by Judith Levine called "Not Buying it". Its a book about the author's year of 'not buying anything that is not a necessity'. It's very interesting. She has lots of stories about what the marketing companies are doing to make us want to buy things, the psychology of purchasing things you "want" and stories that come up along the way of things she doesn't want to do without, but does. I'm only into the first 1/8 of it. I don't think it will be life changing, but already when I went out shopping, I thought twice about every purchase, and didn't buy a couple of things I was tempted by.

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