A Little Getaway

Ken and I just had a little getaway to Flagstaff. We took the day off work and went up to Flagstaff to Bob and Brenda's home in the mountains. What a pretty drive up, still snow on San Fransisco peaks ( sorry for the yucky photo thru the truck window) It was wonderful to see the pine trees again !Brenda and I had great plans to scrapbook in her special room built off the side of their home. It really was Bob's workshop but it somehow got converted to this grand scrapbooking room !
Here is Brenda hard at work ! This was taken before we messed it all up ! She got alot done on her grand baby Gunther's pages, he is soooo cute ! I was hard at work on a Christmas album, my other one fell apart this last year so I"m converting it into a 12x12 album, I got 16 pages done, from Christmas 2002 to 2008, still have the journaling to do yet on the computer but got alot of cutting and gluing done.
Here is Ken and Brenda while she was busy cooking us a wonderful dinner. The guys had just come back from hitting golf balls on tuesday afternoon when we got there.

Here is Bob pouring us some wine.

Here are the guys this morning ready to go to the golf tournament. Brenda and I had a blast scrapbooking while they had fun golfing. The weather was interesting with the cool air, a bit of rain and a bit of sleet. It was cold out in the 40's !

Time for us to head back home ...

We had some sprinkles on the way home, magnificent clouds and this awesome rainbow which didn't photograph so well thru the truck window either, but that rainbow went clear to the ground.
So what a fun overnight, always goes far to fast, but so much fun with such special friends ! Thanks Bob and Brenda for being such grand hosts !

Happy Birthday Jamie !

Today is Jamie's special day !

Here are she and Jeremy enjoying their time here for Christmas. Jamie we love your sweet smile and gentle ways ! Happy Birthday ! Can't wait to have our skyping birthday party !

Beautiful Quilt !

I got to see a wonderful quilt yesterday at my parents home. I wish now we'd have spread it out for a better picture. A distant cousin gave it to my parents so it would stay in the family as she was afraid her children would not appreciate it ! It was made by my Great-Great Grandmother on my Dad's side and given to this cousin. My Great great Grandmother was born in 1858 and Imigrated from England and passed on in 1931, so I'm thinking it was made sometime in the 20's or earlier. Machine pieced and hand quilted. I thought it was in wonderful shape, one place on the binding is worn and there are a few little stains but it's amazing how wonderful it looks. She wrote on the back corner of it like a label in pen. What a gem ! I'm so glad that she realized what sentimental value it would have to keep it with those that would appreciate it.

Graduation

It's been my privilege to get to press the graduation gowns each year for Amy's preschool graduation ! This year Garrett is graduating ( they all graduate each year). So yesterday I got all these cute little robes and collars pressed so they are ready to go for graduation day ! They are so cute, only about 3 feet in length ! Amy and I made these years ago her first year teaching and they've seen many a little person graduate and move on to bigger things !

A lovely day for Mothers Day

What a lovely day for Mothers day....some favorite memories of my day... a walk and muffin and coffee outside at Paradise Bakery with Ken...Visiting with my Mom on the phone reminiscing about our enjoyment of the day before...beautiful gifts from Ken...a phone call from Amy...going to a nice champagne brunch at the golf course with Ken....Chris and MB enjoying it with us...MB looking so lovely with just 6 weeks until she gives us our new Grandson...letting me feel him kicking ....a gift of my own car seat base to match theirs so that he can go on Grammy adventures with me...good feelings in my heart knowing they want me to be near him...
visiting with Ken's Mom and Dad...enjoying Debbie and Dan there and catching up with them around the dinner table...A wonderful call from Jeremy in transit...A lovely call from Jamie with lots to chat about...What a lovely day with family around to enjoy it with !

Happy Mothers Day !

I got to enjoy a lovely Mothers day luncheon with My Mom today at their Church. Mom invited Marcy and I to join her for a lovely lunch (prepped and served by the men). There were cute little welcome cards with tiny birdhouse pins that someone had made out of little wooden pieces and painted...very cute...and a nice program !We had time at their house first for a few little gifts and pictures before my Dad had to go do his duties for setting up.

He was in charge of the ice tea and water ! Everything was so cheery, all in pretty pastels.

There were about 100 ladies there, they had a nice speaker and also a wonderful man who entertained us with his guitar and voice. What a nice time to enjoy together !

The Little Boys

The little boys got to come and spend the morning with me yesterday. What a fun day off work ! It was nice enough out that we played outside first, new sand toys were fun.We had otter pops and rice krispie treats on the picnic table, it was Ethans first year to be big enough to join in and sit at the picnic table for a snack. He enjoyed the swing for a bit and then we decided it was nice enough to go out front....

And ride bikes.

Garrett has grown so much he can ride the big bike and he even was strong enough to give his brother a ride in the trailer.
We came in and Garrett helped make lunch. Mac and cheese and popcorn chicken and strawberries ! They spied the donuts I bought too at the store that morning so that was our snack for before they went home.
We had time for a few stories and some hard work at the play dough. Ethan had a very determined look on his face doing all the big boy things with the play dough toys ! What a fun day !

Fun with Aiden

I got to pick Aiden up at school on my day off this week. He chose to go to sonic so we got to sit outside on their tables and order our treat. I had a coupon for a creamsicle so he got that, lime of course, but I think he thought it'd be green, he said it was good but next time he'd get the pink one in the picture! He scarfed down a whole little thing of their popcorn chicken and then we headed to Uncle Chris's park. We even got to stop in to say Hi to Uncle Chris and Aiden helped him with his pool,dumping the skimmer basket. Won't be long until we can swim ! Sure was fun catching up with you Aiden !

Chocolate Trifle

Marcy asked me to post this recipe, I took it to MB's for brunch, I got it from Denise a few years back and have made it several times....so here you are....

Chocolate Trifle

1 pkg. chocolate fudge cake mix

1 package 6 oz instant chocolate pudding mix

1/2 cup strong coffee

1 carton 12 oz frozen whipped topping, thawed

6 heath bars crushed

Bake cake according to package directions. Cool. Prepare pudding according to package directions, set aside. Cut cake into small square crumbling it, reserve 1/2 cup. Place half of the remaining cake crumbs in the bottom of a 5 qt. trifle dish or decorative glass bowl. Layer with half of the coffee, half of the pudding, half of the whipped topping and half of the crushed candy bars. Repeat the layers of the cake, coffee, pudding and whipped topping. Combine remaining crushed candy bars with reserved cake crumbs, sprinkle over top. Refrigerate 4-5 hours before serving. Serves 8-10

Now I have done this several ways and sometimes do the top different, on Sunday I just decorated it with fresh strawberries. Also have made a berry trifle using pound cake mixed from a box mix, and vanilla pudding and cool whip and then layering in fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries, very pretty too. Serve by scooping out with a big spoon. This works well made the night before you serve it too. I found my trifle bowl at Ross, very inexpensive, but makes such a pretty presentation on it's stand. Enjoy !

Indian Food !!!

Well, this was a first for me tonight ! I went out for authentic Indian food ! Sarah and Denise and I met after work at this little restaurant called Dhaba in Tempe.
We entrusted Sarah with the ordering as Denise and I had never experienced this before.
They brought out this wonderful very thin cracker kind of bread first with 3 sauces, I loved the plum sauce, the other 2 were good, hot and spicey but good. The cracker bread was to die for, it looked like a big tortilla but very very thin. you could poke it with your finger and it'd break apart.
We had this chicken dish along with this puffy bread. And this other chick pea saucy stuff that was to die for ! I could have taken that whole little pot of the saucy chick pea stuff and spooned it down !
Next came out another chicken dish in this thick red sauce that was so good ! And 3 more kinds of bread that you just pulled apart, so yummy to sop up all the good sauce with !
By the time we tried all this we were stuffed, I think it's all the bread ! Oh but I'd order all that same stuff again, altho we lacked any veggies come to think of it, a few onions and peppers on the chicken kabob was it. Everything was so freshly made. The people working there were very quiet and reserved and polite, they packaged up the leftovers very quickly and quietly and even brought us newbies cards to fill out so we'd remember what we ate and liked and menus to bring home to remember all the strange names ! What a fun meal to get to try. I do believe you have to experience this sort of thing with someone who knows what they are doing, so we had Sarah or we'd have not had a clue what to order and whether it'd be good or to spicey etc. So Yea for Indian food, I did it ! And now I get home and realize I only took pictures of food again and none of my dear friends ! We've been trying to meet for dinner once a month so who knows what next month will bring, but maybe I"ll try to get people in a picture then !

Ladies Brunch

MB hosted us at her house today for a wonderful ladies brunch, a pre-mothers day event ! How fun and relaxing to have a few hours together to just sit and visit.

Here are my Mom and MB next to all the wonderful food. We all brought a dish to share.

Aren't these scones and fruit to die for !!!!

Here are MB and her sister Kim.

Amy and MB's sister Melissa.

My sister, and my Mom and me.

Here are my Mom, me, Amy, MB, Alissa and Marcy.

We had a couple unexpected visitors....... Beans....

And a C17 flew over, how nice of the airforce to do a fly by !

( only our family would notice it was a c17 !!!!)

MB got to show everyone the babies new room. We got to peek in the closet and try out her wonderful new chair !

All is ready for baby boy !!!

What a lovely afternoon MB, thanks for hosting such a special day to remember !

Scorpion hunters...

Just a bit of an update on the scorpion hunting team of T&K. We have a new record tonight ....11 Kills ! I never thought we'd beat the night we got 9, most nights have been 3 maybe 5. Tonight seemed to be the night tho. New batteries in the black light and Ken only had the torch so our neighborhood is minus 11 tonight ! One was only about an inch long, not good, where are it's siblings??? We hadn't hunted for about 3 nights and now Ken is wishing we'd have kept a score card from when we started! SICK isn't it !