Snow again?

Yeah, right!

Snow showers are predicted for tomorrow and Thursday. I'll believe that when I see them. Although we did get a dusting the other night. So maybe we'll get a bit of the white stuff this time as well.

It's been raining very hard since last night. And the sun porch was quite warm this morning when I went out there, albeit dampish. No leaks, just damp.

Did I mention that I put the car refrigerator -- we bought a pretty hefty size portable for the van back when we went out west -- on the porch and plugged it in. I always need extra refrigerator space this time of year, and I can't count on the weather being cold enough for the back porch to be that extra cooler. That little fridge has been such a blessing for me this year. The Thanksgiving left overs all went into that box -- extra bread, extra cookies, etc.

I have a new post at Runnemede Remembered today. I received an e-mail from an old friend from the church in Runnemede who had read some of the older BLOG stories and was enjoying and recalling some of the things I had written about.

I know my 50th high school graduation reunion is coming up in September and that two-day event will be here sooner than I know it. Alan and I are staying at the hotel which will be 50th year central. I can't believe that school is now an OLD school. It was brand new when I was a freshman, which means the school is over 50 years old. The school across the street from me is a real antique.

Have I rambled enough for today? Does my sister know that I am alive and well? That's one of the reasons I try to write something even if it is gibber-jabber. So, sis, I hope you have a good day and enjoyed the little snippets and thoughts of today.

One more thing before I stop. I just read a book entitled "Almost Heaven". It was quite a good book. I don't know whether it was fiction or not. I think it was a story based on fact. Anyway, it had some really good points in it on what it means to be a Christian. Can't recall the author.

So, that is definitely ttfn.

Thanksgiving/Christmas

Well, Thanksgiving is over and Alan and I enjoyed a great meal with our friend, Tamara. We had a feast, actually. All of us ate too much, I think.

I had baked three pies. And the apple pie was the best received. We all had a piece for dinner on Thanksgiving, and then Alan and I enjoyed it for another meal. That left one rather large piece. Alan ate the whole thing. Didn't even ask if I wanted a bite, which I did, of course. It was a really, really good apple pie. And, I don't brag about my baking abilities, because they aren't good, I'll readily admit that. But that pie, was really, really good.

So, now that you know that the pie was really, really good, you should know that all my snowmen are out. We had out "first snow" -- it was just a little dusting -- on Thanksgiving night into the early morning. I saw the flakes coming down around 11:30 p.m. and it was snowing quite heavily at that time, but it was still warm on the ground, I suppose, since it had been almost 60 degrees earlier in the day.

I admit that having my snowmen all around the house is a tradition for me, and I love those little rascals. I have skiing snowmen, skating snowmen, fluffy snowmen, skinny snowmen. I could go on. However, one of the boxes is missing. It has to be, because I know I didn't get rid of 35 snowmen over the course of the year. I don't give away my snowmen.

Sort of like Toy Story 3 -- they get put in the attic, but I, unlike the boy in TS3 do NOT give them away.

Finally, it's Monday, almost December, and I can't believe it's almost the end of another year. Where did the time this year go? Seems like it was just Christmas a few weeks ago, yet our last vacation seems to have disappeared ages ago, and that was a little over a month ago.

I think the highlight of this year will be our great return to Runnemede in May. What a blast that was. I wonder what will be the best thing for next year. All the days are good, because they are God-given.

I have read my daily BLOGs, after four days of being off-line. And, I have almost all my Christmas decorations up, as have those BLOGgers whose BLOGs I read. It must have been one of those weekend when we all did the same thing. Except...I did NOT go to any stores the entire weekend.

Hope you shoppers had fun freezing in line to get a few items at good prices. Not my cup of tea any more. I used to do that when we lived in New York City and I would go to the Macy's annual white sale. Now that was a "take your life in your hands" sale. Never again will I do that. At my age, I fear falling, and I just know that someone would bump into me and I'd be on the ground waiting for the paramedics to come pick me up. From past experience I know that it takes two strong men to get me up off the ground if I can't do it myself. And mostly I can't.

Do I need one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" necklaces? Probably.

ttfn

Just checkin' in

It's been a few days since I last posted anything on my BLOGs. I am okay, for those of you who care, and I know there are a few of you out there.

I have been in "sleep mode" for the past few days. Meaning that I sleep and sleep and sleep, all day long and all night long. I think "sleep mode" is over for a few days, though, since I'm wide awake and it's just about 5 a.m. Seems I do my best thinking at night, then I get up because I've had a bright idea and by the time I walk to the front of the house to get on my computer I forget what I thought was such a wonderful idea for a post.

No such wonderful thoughts for today, though. Just wide awake.

I'm feeling well, walking okay, cooking poor dinners (last night we had hot dogs and mac and cheese -- from the blue box -- spiked). Tonight, I hope to make a delicious meal of something, don't know what yet. The possibilities are endless I suppose. We did have delicious ravioli the other night. Great sauce for the four-cheese ravioli. And no, while I made the sauce (gravy) I didn't make the ravioli. I bought them in the speciality department at Krogers.

I think I mentioned that I have one tree up. Today is the day! Today I get out the snowmen. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, so I suppose it's time to get them out. Poor Alan, he'll hate it.

I think I'll put them on the porch this year. I decided not to light up the back since no one can see it except me and my neighbor to the north. I think I'll just put the snowmen out there, at least most of them. Some, I must have inside. And then I have the one tree for the front window, facing the street, and the other tree will be in the back in the living room.

Yes, my living room is in the back of the house. It's big enough for several trees and I usually put at least four trees in the room -- of course three of them are only 3 feet high. The other one is a charlie brown tree, six feet tall, which I love. I have a ten foot ceiling in my living room, so I could have a gigantic tree, I suppose, but I do love my Charlie Brown tree. I need to take a picture of it.

This weekend will be special for me and my grandson, David. He's coming over to bake with me. I've printed out several recipes for him to follow. We'll make two pies each (he can take home a pumpkin pie and an apple pie), and we'll make some chocolate chip cookies, some macaroons, and some fruit cake cookies, a family favorite.

So, now I can stop rambling for the time being. But I'll probably be very busy this weekend with the community Thanksgiving dinner and my dear grandson.

ttfn

I don't know what I'd do without...

This is Becky. Wonderful daughter number 1.

I have a wonderful daughter. I actually have two wonderful daughters, but I just want to talk about one of them today. She is helpful, kind, considerate, merciful, and a servant at heart. We went out to spend the day with her and her family yesterday (Sunday) and had a wonderful time. Becky is a beautiful woman and I think she gets prettier the older she gets. She also has an inner God-given beauty that can't be duplicated.

Her daughters, Grace and Annie are also beautiful girls and they get more and more beautiful each time I see them. Dan is going to be a very handsome man, just like his daddy.

Dan and Alan and Quinn (Beck's husband) played a game while I retaught Annie how to knit and Grace played the guitar for me. She is getting very good on that instrument. She was too shy to sing, which she does in church. She has a really nice voice.

Then, I must continue with I don't know what I'd do without my personal assistant. We've been on a cleaning/purging/organizing binge and she doesn't nag about throwing things away, but I think secretly she is praying about items as they pass before me and Alan, that we'll get rid of them.

I have ditched so many things I haven't used for years, and my rooms and closets are getting so organized. I love it. Alan has even given up several items from the garage, if you can believe that. He says the car fits in the garage, you just cant get out of it. So, more purging will be required of him in the days to come. We are determined to get the car into the garage before the first real snow.

So, as Christmas approaches and I have Christmas central disrupting my office, I am still so very pleased with what we have accomplished in the past few weeks.

And I so appreciate my PA's assistance (Tamara is her name). She's such an uplifter. She can cheer me up if I'm hurting just by her attitude -- always positive. I love it.

Thanks to all for your prayers for Alan and me and our health problems. We are working to improve, but realize it's part of aging and God is in control -- that's the best part, knowing who controls our lives.

ttfn

Busy-ness

It just never stops. I thought retirement would be a time of R&R. Not so. Oh, yes, I have the benefit of not having to get up at 5:30 a.m. So why am I up at 5:30 a.m. so many mornings? Habit? I don't know, but I do know that after a few days of the early rise, I spend a long time in bed sleeping. Like yesterday.

Alan and I had several errands to run -- see? no rest there. And one of them was having the car serviced. Most times this takes about 1/2 hour. Well, yesterday it took a bit longer, and no matter how hard I tried, I keep falling asleep in the "wait" room. Good thing Alan and I were the only ones there. Snoring is embarrassing, unless it's in front of only your spouse.

When we left the auto servicing center, it was a short 4-mile drive home. I made Alan talk to me about anything and everything to keep me awake. When I got home I went to bed, intending to get up around 5:30 p.m. to make sure Alan had some dinner before the community Board meeting. He, bless his heart, didn't even wake me to tell me he was leaving for the meeting. I woke up around 7:30 pm, but only for a little bit. He got home around 7:45 and I gave him his supper (another sandwich, so glad he likes sandwiches), and then I went back to bed. I turned the light off at 9:30 -- only because I kept falling asleep while trying to read. I supposed all that sleep yesterday and overnight is why I'm up, once again, at 5:30 a.m.

Back to busy-ness. What is it that makes me so busy? I really don't know. I don't consider that I do so much, but I'm always busy, and I think -- "ah, tomorrow, there's nothing going on" and bam! there it is, some little tweak in the "nothing going on" schedule and I'm busy again.

I did get some Christmas shopping done with my PA on Monday -- got a new pre-lit tree for the front bedroom to put in the window. So, I'll have two larger trees this year and four small ones. I arranged Christmas balls in a tall vase with lights for the landing of the steps. All I have to do now is plug it in. I only hope the lights still work. I seem to have a problem with Christmas lights. They work one day, and the next, they are no longer functioning, and no matter how many fuses I replace, the lights still don't work. And yes, I have lights that stay on even if one or more is burnt out.

Oh, dear, lights are out, run to dollar store to pick up some more lights -- you see? Busyness.

'Tis the season for busyness, though, and I love it. Really I do. I love the lights, the getting the house decorated, the food, the smell of fresh baked goods, the breakfast with my girls, the get together with the whole family during Christmas week. All those enjoyments take preparation -- busy-ness.

My once very cleaned up office (that lasted about a week) is now Christmas central, so I have a bunch of bags on the floor all with either a Christmas present or more in it, or some sort of decoration. I allow myself two big purchases in that department each year, and several smaller purchases. I spend no more than $100 total on decorations/wrapping paper/cards. Speaking of which...

I have lots of Christmas cards to address. Oh, my. I'm not looking forward to that chore. But that will give me more floor space, because right now the storage box with the Christmas cards in it is staring at me, saying: "Please write out your cards so I can be put back where I belong."

Busyness. I wonder what today will hold in that department.

ttfn

Check out Runnemede Remembered Recipes

Check out Runnemede Remembered Recipes (November 7, 2010) for todays posting and update on our lives.

http://www.runnemederememberedrecipes.blogspot.com


ttfn

Snow. Already?

Well, I didn't see any, but we were supposed to get snow mixed with rain, or was it rain mixed with snow, this morning. I got up at 7:30 and looked, nothing. I stayed awake until around 10, and then fell asleep waiting for my pills to take effect. Didn't see any snow. And I still don't see any snow.

I wish the weather people wouldn't get my hopes up with those predictions that "we might see snow mixed with rain" or "we might see rain mixed with snow" in the morning. "Little to no covering is expected." I don't care about the covering. I just like to see those snowflakes falling to the ground.

So, I have to ask, is it time to get out my 110 snowmen? I asked Alan. He got a very sick look on his face, turned green, and then said, "I would appreciate it if you would at least wait until Thanksgiving."

Don't know whether I'll wait that long, but I will wait a little longer.

ttfn