Riding the Rails !

Denise and Judy and Linda and I took the day and played hookie ! We met at the light rail in Mesa and went for a ride. Denise was the only "seasoned" traveler so she showed us the ropes and we went downtown Phx. on the train. We went a ways past our destination to another spot Pane Bianco, it's a little hole in the wall place that is known for their great food on Central. We just stopped in as the rail has a stop off near there and each bought some bread to take home, course we had to nibble just a bit on the fresh bread while we walked ! Here is Denise with her treasure ! We felt like tourists out of town walking in "downtown Phoenix" like we'd never been there ! So off we went on the train then to another little hole in the wall on Jefferson and 8th street. Mrs. White Golden Rule. Both these restaurants look like places you might not really stop to eat at unless you know about them !

So it's southern FRIED everything. Denise and I had fried chicken and Linda tried the catfish...fried. Judy tried the pork chop...fried. It was all yummy and had more salt than we'd eat in a month ! But ohhhh so tastey ! Came with corn bread that had butter ladeled over it ! Amazing. Each of the entrees comes with 2 sides, I tried green beans and potatoes...that was one thing ! Then I tried the sweet potatoes, others tried the greens and the cabbage. What fun to try all this fried southern cooking ! So we were all full and it's a good thing we don't eat like that normally !

The train ride back was fun and eventful, at least we had to walk a few blocks back to the station after eating that kind of food ! The police came on the cars at the station and were checking tickets, I wondered how they did that since no one takes your ticket when you enter, no turnstile, nothing, now we know. One man didn't have a ticket and he was told to get off at the next stop and they accompanied him and wrote that ticket...I was hearing $300-$500 fine. So if you ride the light rail, they do check ! Next stop a group of red hat ladies got on, they started singing christmas carols ! Then they didn't know where they were going but wanted to go shopping, so some nice man gave them directions and bus numbers to get to Tempe Marketplace, it was all quite entertaining !

We all ended up at Denise's house , had some wonderful chocolate cake and some great gifts to share, what a fun day we had ! Now to pretend like I cooked dinner, Ken can have the leftover chicken :-) ! What a fun day !

Thornberry Christmas Party

My quilting group had their Christmas party yesterday, it was at my house and I had fun getting ready for it ! We had wonderful appetizers that everyone brought, I made a Christmas cheer punch and some Hot Apple Cider. We had a blast with the games, Sue brought ideas for a couple new ones, this one you rolled dice in a pie pan and passed it around fast while the timer ticked off, when you got doubles you grabbed a wrapped gift or stole it from someone. We did a white elephant exchange and another one with cards that when your card was chosen you picked a wrapped gift or stole it. There was alot of stealing going on and alot of laughing ! We played CLR with Fat Quarters...and another round with spools of thread ! These quilters are in to OUR kind of gambling ! I won the fat quarters and Judy won the thread ! What alot of fun !

We had a great dinner, everyone brought such fantastic dishes ! We realized we've been together doing this for 10 years. The 2nd friday of every month is reserved for Thornberry meetings which we take turns hosting.

We exchange names each year and this year I gave this table runner, napkin set and candle to Mindy.

Here are Barb and Judy with the holiday/birthday mat and glass she gave to Barb.

Lorene made this bag for Judy, it has a matching notebook in it !

Barb made this for Lorene, she loved it.

Terry P. gave this to me, I love it !!! You should see the details on it, cute little snowman everywhere ! I can't wait to put it up ! She had Louise quilt it so that means it's amazing !

Lousie gave this to Bobbi, darling little applique.

And Sue gave this to Louise, such tiny blocks, Louise was enchanted to say the least !

Isn't this a cute runner that Mindy made Sue !

What a fun evening, we are waiting for Mindy to send us the names we get for next year so we can start planning. What a fun group of gals, we sure keep each other inspired !

Very BIG NEWS !!!!

I've just been given permission by the happy couple to tell the world......we have a NEW BABY ON THE WAY !!!!! Yes Chris and MB are expecting ! Here is the happy couple in Oct. the day they told us the wonderful news ! They are both very excited and we all can't wait until late June to meet this newest member of our family !!!! After alot of screams, cheering, tears of joy we are sooooo excited for you guys !

Ethan and I went visiting

Ethan and I went and did a little visiting during preschool this week. It's much easier these days to just get him out of there as he's figured out preschool is more fun than what he's doing and wants to be right where the kids are ! And he's just a little to short yet ! So we went to see my folks, the toys came out and he had a fun time, ate his little snack I'd brought. My Mom and Dad had fun watching him play, he was in a rare quiet mode and sat on my lap at first while he checked things out! He had fun running down the hallway seeing what was what !

It was a great morning to stay in your jammies so you are warm as it was quite frosty out, don't we all wish we could go running like that !!!!

Apple Dumplings

Here is a fast yummy dessert to make. I had them first up at Bear Cabin and I made them for my work holiday party. Jamie called me one day and told me she had made the same thing for their Thanksgiving dinner. The recipe is on a couple of our favorite web sites/blogs and their pictures are much better, but if you havn't seen it here is the recipe....

Apple Dumplings

2 granny smith apples
1 can crescent rolls
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 stick butter melted
6 oz. mountain dew

Peel, core and cut apples in quarters, Roll each quarter in a crescent roll, pinching to seal. Place Dumplings in a baking dish sprayed with pam. Mix sugar, cinnamon and melted butter, glop over all rolls. Pour mountain dew over all. Bake 375 degrees, 30-40 minutes ( I found mine were done around 35 minutes, when I took the first trial out at 30 minutes I felt they were more doughy on the bottom.)

here they are before you bake them....swimming in the mountain dew !

They are so good warm and served with vanilla ice cream.

Proud Mom

Ok, I just had to tell you how proud I am of this little guy, we found out a few weeks ago about a great promotion he'd gotten, in the Air Force the pilots are all grouped in a squadron and the squadron is broken down into Fights. Well Jeremy made Flight Commander. Now that is not such a shock but I was thinking it would be after he'd taught a few years not just 5 months. So now he's in charge of his entire flight of other instructor pilots and all the students. WOW !

So yep, this is Jeremy a very long time ago ! And here is a picture of him at the very beginning, this is the day he came home with his first flight suit, he'd just gotten his pilot slot right before graduation and commisioning at ASU.

Wow you've come a long way Jeremy !!!!!

Zoe's Holiday Party

We had our Zoe's Christmas party this weekend, here is the gang, starting in the back L-R that is me, Denise, Betty, Ellen, Jan, Karen, Front is Lynetta, Roberta, Mary and Ken. 5 of the gang are really just the great people that fill in for us when we get in to panic mode and we couldn't do it without them all ! Mary is the owner and she and Ken are the ones I went to Houston with. Of course quilters are wonderful cooks too, we had some wonderful food, here my plate of desserts, yum ! I made the apple dumplings and will post that recipe when I get a minute, they were a hit !

We had the party at Ken's house again and here he is behind this great flower arrangement he did.

Here are our hosts, Ken and his partner Ron, he's such a good sport to have us all come.

pet beds part 2

OK, awhile back I posted about my scrap "problem" and how none of it gets thrown away. Well here is that final step in the world of scraps. They get put into these old pillow cases, I sew across the end and then it goes in my car to give to Denise !!!! Ha, out of my house and to hers ! She takes them to the animal shelter and they are now a bed !!!!! Between mine, the ones my boss sends home from the quilt shop and Amy's friends sent home a bunch to me, I have 2 beds by the door ready to go in some pets kennel ! Hope they sleep good ! That's Katie checking them out !

The mail makes you SMILE

Here is what was in my mail this week.....is this cute or what !!!!! I heard the boys were writing their letters to santa on Thanksgiving morning, then Aiden assured me the other day while we were having Grammy day that yep they sure did mail them and look what was in my mail box ! It's a good thing he doesn't read my blog cuz I just had to post this ! And yes I had to open it up and peek, so cute ! So it's hiding to save for them, speaking of hiding, I've got to go get those bottles out of the pantry before Ethan comes !!!!

Ethan's Turn

Ethan had a turn to hang out with me today. He was a trooper at the grocery store, he had fun looking at the cows on the wall murals and the christmas decorations all thru the store, he sure noticed them all ! He is so smart, I noticed this the first time I put him in the seat in the shopping car, you don't sit looking forward....that has to be boring ! You sit sideways so you can see where you are going in the front ! We stopped at the park to run around awhile, he had fun chasing the ducks and looking at things that you see when you are 2 feet off the ground !

Aiden had a 1/2 day at school so I got invited to stay for lunch and we all walked to school to get Aiden and then had lunch and it was fun to help him with his homework....F's today. He had made this cute igloo at school so I got to carry it home ! The marshmallows are all on a cup that he had put frosting on so it's all edible ! Fun times....now back to chores !

Kickin off the Season !

My Thursday club had the first party to kick off the Holidays last night . We met at Olive Garden and had a wonderful dinner....ahhh food I didn't prepare !!!! Then we went to Mindy's new house to visit some more and have dessert and exchange our little "goodies" that we do each year. We did a "forgo" on the gifts this year and that was a help to all of us but we all did admit we missed doing it so who knows what next year will bring !

Here is l-r .... Mindy, Me, Kathy, Ann, Judy and Cindy !

Yea for Thursday club for hanging together for about 28 years ! This is the group that started out meeting at our houses on thursday mornings after kids were off to school the babies would play and we'd solve all the problems of the world, do some crafts ( Judy would fold socks) and we'd enjoy lunch and head home for kids to be out of school. So now that we've all gone back to work we are lucky to meet up for dinner for each birthday and holidays but it's fun to know we can stay in touch. So we have Thursday club on tuesday or whenever it works ! This group has seen some major life changes this last year but it's nice to know we can still enjoy each other and celebrate changes or hold each other up if needed !

Cindy made this wonderful pumpkin cheese cake and I forgot to take a picture of it, it was great ! Judy brought us all some hot cidar and Mindy had these cute little favors on her table. So I took pictures so you all can see her great idea ! She hit the dollar store and found these cute holiday glasses, there is a candle in there so it's a candle holder when the goodies are removed.Here is a close up of this cute little cover on the chocolate, she used her cricut to cut out the cute round shape and stapled it all with a red staple !Here is a picture of all the goodies we exchanged this year, my kids used to love me coming home after the thursday club christmas party knowing there were treats to enjoy ! I'm putting the big tin of cookies in the freezer to save for our family gatherings so yep you guys I'm saving them for you !

MMMMMM....

Everyones mouths in these pictures are busy saying MMMMMMMM. I picked Aiden up from school today for a little adventure this afternoon with the "big boys". We stopped at home to get Garrett and away we went, my idea of something fun to do got changed when I saw Aiden and right away he asked what we were doing and if we could go to "SWIRL" ! So of course we had a great time there again, they each tried something new, Aiden had chocolate and vanilla with lots of sprinkles and a worm ...
Garrett tried vanilla and loved the strawberry too, he also spied the fresh blueberries and big blackberries,boy he was in heaven with a few sprinkles on top plus a couple gummy worms ! They have games there so we tried out Connect 4 while we enjoyed the frozen yogurt. Then we went over to "Uncle Chris's Park" and had a fun time swinging in the swings.
It sure was a fun couple hours !!!! And we did our part in keeping Swirl It in business !!!