Tuesday, September 18, 2012

I can finally relax....

We have had quite a busy schedule the last few days. But as of now, our calendar looks empty for the rest of the week.

Last Friday we had our grandson Dylan's surprise 16th birthday party. Our daughter Lori had it all set up at the local bowling alley where they love to go eat, bowl and play video games. It's a nice family place to spend an evening. And they have the best pizzas. Dylan had a great time with several of his friends. This party will probably be his last chance to see most of those friends for a long time, since Lori and the kids have moved to Michigan where Lori's new husband Mike lives and works.

Saturday was spent catching up on some things around the house and getting laundry done.

Sunday we had 2 different parties to go to. The first one was my cousin's retirement party. Several of my family was there and it was great to see them and talk.

The second party was another surprise party for my brother-in-law Michael, my sister's husband. It could have been a pool party, but it turned too cold, so we all sat on the deck around the pool, ate lots of good food, and talked to that side of my family. By the time we got home that evening, I was stuffed, sun-burnt, and tired. But we had a good day.

Yesterday, we went to our daughter Teresa's house to help our girls out. Lori and Teresa are in the last week of school, taking all their finals, but Lori still needed 2 more people to do a massage on and get evaluations to turn in. Bob and I let her work on our stiff backs. :) It felt so good. Of course we gave her good evaluations. Both of our girls have such a wonderful touch and have done so well in their pursuits of this new career, Bob and I are so proud of them. They are both going into therapeutic massage, working in a hospital or chiropractor's office. 

Lori is staying this week with Teresa until they finish their finals, then Lori will be going back to Michigan until graduation day on the 30th. Her new home is only 3 hrs. away, but with my husband, who doesn't like to travel on busy highways, Lori might as well be a thousand miles away. At least her husband Mike said they will come down once a month for our family dinners, so I'll get to see her and the kids then.

Then today we met up with Bob's brother Jack and his wife Elaine for a very long lunch. We hadn't seen them in a long time, so when we do get together, that lunch hour could last 2, and it did. We always have so much to catch up on.

When we got home I had to finish a load of laundry and then I sat down to relax. We both did. The busy weekend, and all the miles we spent in the car has finally caught up with us. I think we're just getting old.

Bob called his brother Rick this afternoon to see how Pam was doing, Rick's wife. She had pneumonia so bad, she couldn't breath. But she's getting better. She's still in ICU. They took the breathing tube out of her for a couple hours today and she was able to breath on her own. They'll do that again tomorrow to see if she can do better. What a horrible way to spend her birthday. Maybe by the end of the week they'll be able to move her out of ICU. As soon as Rick can leave her, he's flying back to Arizona to clean out their house, put it in the hands of a realtor, and drive a truck back here with the things they want to keep. They're staying in Ohio. This winter is going to be hard on both of them. They've been living in TX and AZ for the last 11 years.

Quote to Live By:  “A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are for what you have.”

Take care & God bless.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

September 11th... 11 yrs. later

Today is the 11th anniversary of that horrible day when our enemies attacked us. It was such a horrible day that will always stick in our minds. I can remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard the news.

I worked as a secretary in a real estate office. One of our clients came through the door so fast she scared me. She had tears in her eyes and told me to turn on the TV, "something horrible has happened". I had no idea what she was referring to, but I did as she said. We stood horrified, watching the first tower burn, the news man hardly able to talk, he was crying, and trying to make sense of the whole thing.

We listened to the reporter say an airplane had 'accidentally' hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center. It was then that the cameras caught the second plane come flying straight into the second tower. My knees buckled. I had to sit down. This wasn't happening. This wasn't an 'accident'. We were under attack!

I called my husband right away to tell him. He turned on our TV at home and we stayed on the line, watching what was happening. Neither one of us could talk. It was like something out of a horror movie.

I know the events of that day with the reports of 2 additional planes, one into the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Pennsylvania, will always stick in our minds. It has changed us, as Americans. At least I would like to think it changed us as a nation. So many people came together as a whole, leaving behind family and friends, to help the victims and find as many survivors as they could. We watched the news for the next several days, hoping for more GOOD news. There wasn't much. It was all tragedy to the highest proportion.

I like to think that this day, 11 years ago, did change us. If anything, it proved that America is not indispensable. God bless us all.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Beautiful Sunday


Today is going to be another nice day. The temperature is suppose to be around 72° with lots of sunshine and beautiful white clouds. Our night time temperatures though are getting very cool... down to 49°. That requires a sweatshirt or light jacket. But, after all, it is September.

Our weekend plans were cancelled. This was our Hot Air Balloon Festival and we were suppose to go out to the fairgrounds to see the balloons lift off. But due to the weather conditions, we stayed home. They launched Sat. morning at 6:30, but I was still sleeping. :) The launch Sat. evening was suddenly cancelled because of a strong wind that kicked up at launch time. They waited 2 hrs., hoping to still take off, but it didn't happen. They did, however, do the 'night glow' last night, but we didn't feel like going out just for that. A night glow is when the balloon operators light up their burners but they don't lift off.
A friend of mine took this picture:

Since I had lots of free time yesterday, I got back to my projects. I'm making slideshows for each of our grandchildren (7 of them). I'm putting together pictures and videos of them from birth to today, watching how they've grown, complete with background music. Four of them runs through a span of 14 to 20 years. Twenty years!! My gosh, that's hard to believe. Our oldest, and the only grand-daughter, is 20 yrs. old already! I feel so old. But when I look at her baby pictures, it seems like just yesterday. I've also included pictures of us, Bob and I, plus other members of their family hoping when we're gone, our grandchildren will watch them and say, "There's my Grandma and she made this for me way back in 2012".


I've got a roast cooking in the crock pot for supper and it's smelling so good. I haven't decided what to fix with it yet. I think I'll just do some veggies. Our #3 grandson, age 10, has a football game this afternoon and I'm trying to talk Bob into going up to watch Ian play, but I may have to go alone because he says he doesn't feel like going. We'll see.

Quote for today... "A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are for what you have.” -- Author Unknown


Saturday, September 8, 2012

Government Spending

I received this from a friend in an email, so I'm not sure of its validity. But let's say this is all true. It shows an example of some of our government's wild spending.

Here is a list of CUTS the new Republican House has proposed in the budget that our president has failed to pass numerous times. Have you ever heard of these programs? 

    This needs to be brought to the attention of every voter you know.
    Notice Social Security and the military are NOT on this list. Thank goodness.

    "These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.
    * Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy -- $445 million annual savings.
    * Save America 's Treasures Program -- $25 million annual savings.
    * International Fund for Ireland -- $17 million annual savings.
    * Legal Services Corporation -- $420 million annual savings.
    * National Endowment for the Arts -- $167.5 million annual savings.
    * National Endowment for the Humanities -- $167.5 million annual savings.
    * Hope VI Program -- $250 million annual savings.
    * Amtrak Subsidies -- $1.565 billion annual savings.
    * Eliminate duplicating education programs -- H.R. 2274 (in last Congress),
authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 programs at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
    * U.S. Trade Development Agency -- $55 million annual savings.
    * Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy -- $20 million annual savings.
    * Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding -- $47 million annual savings.
    * John C. Stennis Center Subsidy -- $430,000 annual savings.
    * Community Development Fund -- $4.5 billion annual savings.
    * Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid -- $24 million annual savings.
    * Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half -- $7.5 billion annual savings
    * Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20% -- $600 million annual savings.
    * Essential Air Service -- $150 million annual savings.
    * Technology Innovation Program -- $70 million annual savings.
    * Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program -- $125 million annual savings.
    * Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization -- $530 million annual savings.
    * Beach Replenishment -- $95 million annual savings.
    * New Starts Transit -- $2 billion annual savings.
    * Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading
Partners in Massachusetts -- $9 million annual savings
    * Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants -- $2.5 billion annual savings.
    * Title X Family Planning -- $318 million annual savings.
    * Appalachian Regional Commission -- $76 million annual savings.
    * Economic Development Administration -- $293 million annual savings.
    * Programs under the National and Community Services Act -- $1.15 billion annual savings.
    * Applied Research at Department of Energy -- $1.27 billion annual savings.
    * Freedom CAR and Fuel Partnership -- $200 million annual savings.
    * Energy Star Program -- $52 million annual savings.
    * Economic Assistance to Egypt -- $250 million annually.
    * U.S. Agency for International Development -- $1.39 billion annual savings.
    * General Assistance to District of Columbia -- $210 million annual savings.
    * Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority -- $150 million annual savings.
    * Presidential Campaign Fund -- $775 million savings over ten years.
    * No funding for federal office space acquisition -- $864 million annual savings.
    * End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
    * Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act -- More than $1 billion annually.
    * IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers
(such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of
allowing it to remain as part of its budget -- $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
    * Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees -- $1 billion total savings. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT ABOUT?
    * Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees -- $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
    * Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of -- $15 billion total savings.
    * Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.WHAT???
    * Eliminate Mohair Subsidies -- $1 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change --
$12.5 million annual savings WELL ISN'T THAT SPECIAL
    * Eliminate Market Access Program -- $200 million annual savings.
    * USDA Sugar Program -- $14 million annual savings.
    * Subsidy to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -- $93 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program -- $56.2 million annual savings.
    * Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs -- $900 million savings.
    * Ready to Learn TV Program -- $27 million savings.. WHY?????
    * HUD Ph.D. Program.
    * Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
    * TOTAL SAVINGS = $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years "

    My question is... what is all this crap doing in the budget in the first place?

--- AUTHOR UNKNOWN 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Busy days...

Labor Day! The last official holiday of the summer. It's September already. The summer went by too fast. The kids are all back in school and our weather forecasters are predicting a taste of autumn by the end of the week. I'm not ready for cold weather yet. I hate the thoughts of getting out the coats, gloves and boots.

The last several days have been so busy. Our youngest daughter had surgery last week (hysterectomy) so we spent a whole day at the hospital. It's amazing how things have advanced so much in the last years. When I had my surgery, I was in the hospital 3 days. Our daughter went home that evening. I stayed and helped her out with the kids and the house work. Her husband is no good at that stuff. Today she had her follow-up doctor appointment and she's doing well. She can drive now so she went back to school tonight.

We had our usual family dinner with all the kids Sunday. Our 3 daughters, their husbands and 6 of our 7 grandchildren were here. The missing grandson had to work. Everyone had a good time and we all ate too much food, as usual. We do potluck and the girls bring covered dishes or desserts. We always have way too much food but they love to take home my left-overs.

Our county fair is going on this week out at the fairgrounds. When everyone left here Sunday, they all went out to the fair to walk around and see some old friends. At least the girls didn't have to feed the boys. We didn't go out with them and I won't be going out at all this year. My husband doesn't want to, he can't take the heat and humidity. So I won't be getting my yearly elephant ear. :(

My sister's husband had a heart attack Friday, but he's doing very well. The surgeon removed the blockage and Mike says he feels better than he has for awhile. Thank God.

Next weekend will be our annual hot air balloon festival. There are hundreds of them coming from all over the country. My cousin and his wife are going to renew their wedding vows in the air in one of the balloons. I'm hoping to get lots of pictures. To me, this festival is more exciting than the fair. I love to watch all those balloons take off.

Take care.
God bless.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A Quiet Wednesday...

Nothing much to write about tonight. It's been a quiet day. The weather was beautiful, again. It got up to 83° with lots of sunshine.

I took care of a couple chores this morning, then came back into my office to work some more on my current project. I finished transferring our last VHS tape onto DVD. It was a collection of video clips of our #4 grandson who is now 10 yrs. old. I'm getting some really nice disk copies. I'm glad I'm doing this because some of these old tapes were sticky and wouldn't move on the reels. We had to gently get them to move free before I could put them in the VCR to play without breaking. I held my breathe on a few of them. But now those memories are not lost; they're still available to see.

Next, I hooked up our DVD player to the little recorder and I'm making a copy of the disk to give to our daughter. This is working out great and I'm having such a good time.

I'm a 'tech freak'. I love electronic gadgets. My family just laughs at me. When I told my youngest on the phone last week that I "got a new toy" she just asked.... "what kind of electronic did you get this time?"

Well, that's about it. I've had a good day. I hope you have too.God bless.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Cleaning Monday

Today's top priority was cleaning. I've finished the laundry, mopped the kitchen and bath, so now I get a break until it's time to head back to the kitchen to fix supper.

My project the last couple weeks has been converting all of our old VHS tapes onto DVD disks. I got the neatest gadget to do this. It's a Sony DVDirect. It's made the task so easy and quick.
Sony DVDirect

I just previewed a tape from 1989 of our twin daughter's graduation from high school plus another one of their 22nd birthday in 1992 with our grand-daughter when she was an infant. It's so much fun to see these young faces again. Bob managed to get the tapes loose so they would run through the VCR. I'm transferring one of them to disk right now. That's why we invested in the DVDirect so we could save all of the many tapes we have before they're ruined by old age. Needless to say, I have been reminiscing a lot but it's been so much fun.

I still haven't heard anything from Multiply about them keeping the site alive. I heard some friends got a message from them about it. I hope, in a way, that they do keep it going, but will there be any support? They had said earlier that they would not support the site any longer. I'm learning my way around this site a bit more each day, so I don't know what's going to happen. We'll see.

For those of you who don't know me.... I'm a "government watcher". Even more so since the 2008 Presidential election. I'm registered as a Republican but I never considered myself a staunch Republican. I vote for the person, not the party. But since 2008, all has changed. I've watched this person in our White House get away with lies and plans to destroy our great country. And I get so riled up when something new surfaces. Some days I have to deliberately stay away from the news (which is all biased in his favor anyways) so my emotions can get a rest. This is just a forewarning that like my blog title says... some days could be my rants and ramblings. I never felt comfortable on my other blog site to voice my opinions about our government.

Well, I better get to the kitchen and peel the potatoes. We're having ham, scalloped potatoes and green veggies. Care to join us? I always make plenty.

Have a good evening. God bless.

-- Carol