10 not on the 10th of February, but on the 19th of April!

I found this really old-- February 10 on the 10th-- that I never answered. Even though I'm not linking up, I'm going to answer now. It was saved as a draft! I actually did start answering the questions back on February 11 but life intervened evidently.

1. I would rather have potato chips dipped in chip dip . . .but of those two, I would rather have potato chips dipped in chocolate. I actually think I went to a party where they had Pringles dipped in chocolate!

2. My significant other would roll his eyes at either one but I would recite a poem probably.

3. I think Dolly Parton would be a cool dinner companion. I would like to hear about her books for kids program.

4. I'm going to choose one rose in a color I love -- pink!

5. I'm going to wear the red with orange hearts!

6. I don't even have to ponder this answer! I would love to go for a carriage ride in the Scottish Highlands. Scotland is on our places to visit!!

7. This was not an option, but Shemar Moore from Criminal Minds could deliver my pizza hahaha!

8. I think I would rather sleep on flannel sheets with teddy bears (since this was back in February). I've never slept on silk sheets. I'm not sure I would like them. I am a little bit of a sheet snob!!

9. What a choice - chocolates with least favorite filling or flowers to which I am allergic! I'm going with chocolates and I can give them away!

10. A surprise date is always fun!

Life Lately . . .maybe a tad out of order

Our good friends and neighbors and traveling buddies have a gorgeous outdoor dining area with a fireplace and pergola. Dave worked his last day during the first week of April and was so excited about retiring! On HIS VERY FIRST DAY OF RETIREMENT, he was changing out decorative lights and he was standing on this four foot platform. On THE VERY LAST LIGHT (isn't that the way it always is?), he stepped back and there was no platform! Off to the ER they went. He broke his pelvis/hip in two places but not the ball and socket so there is no surgery involved. He has been hanging out in their house using a walker and taking medicine to control the pain. Last week, Mark took lunch to him almost every day. What a way to start retirement!!

Mark and I have been driving back and forth to our daughter's house. I realized that I have driven back and forth at least once each week, usually spending at least one night, for the last six weeks. I went down last Friday and held new baby all day. Big sister never changed out of her pj's!

This is me - no make up at all - exhausted but holding sweet baby girl! I held her so much that my arm is still sore hahaha!

Isn't this the sweetest face! She looks so much like her sister and so much like her Uncle Glenn. Uncle Glenn is her mommy's twin brother.

One reason I was so tired is the night before I drove to visit, we had tickets to see "On Golden Pond" at our local community theater. We met friends for dinner at Soho Taco which is literally next door to the theater PLUS you can get a margarita to go to take with you! They serve wine and beer and bottled water at the play, but a margarita is just so much better :-). The theater is owned by someone in our church and so we have season tickets for opening night ALONG with quite a few other church people. It is always funny when we go in. It feels a little like Cheers when Norm entered and everyone shouted, "Norm"!

A large number of the shows have been sold out. This one was very well done and it was directed by a close friend.

Did I already mention this? I should go back and check, but I'm not going to do so. I packed up the Easter supplies and made Easter letters for the sides and top of the tubs for easy attic identification. I want to get the tubs out one or two at a time and clean them out, organize, and relabel.

In order to make those labels, I used my silhouette. It sits on top of this chest all of the time and last time, I moved it over to my tiny desk. This worked much better. I think my laptop was on an overturned plastic crate hahaha!

I went to a tea for the son and future daughter-in-law of another friend from church. It was lovely.

This past Saturday night, we went to supper club with our 20+ year group. Terrie made chicken fajitas and I made homemade guacamole. Phella made Alabama Caviar (bean and corn dip). This is not her recipe, but it is probably something like this. Laura made a frozen lemon/lime dessert with tequila - sort of a frozen margarita pie. I didn't eat any but Mark enjoyed. The piggy below was on her screen porch. He is so cute!

Fun Hodgepodge!

It is time for the weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge!! Thanks to Joyce for the questions. She comes up with new questions every single week!!

1. What's a skill you think everyone should have? I think everyone should be able to sew on a button! I also think everyone should be able to look people in the eye and introduce themselves. I know that someone who is on the Autism spectrum might not be able to do this. I totally understand in that situation. I do think, if at all possible, parents should teach their children how to greet others. 

2. Do you have a special place or organizational system for gift wrapping? Do you still buy 'real' cards to send for birthdays, anniversaries, get-well, etc? I store wrapping paper in our hall closet outside the powder room. Speaking of skills, I have pretty good wrapping skills! I actually love real cards. Mark, being a retired CFO, thinks cards cost way too much. I do agree. I just think a card in the mail brightens someone's day and makes them feel loved.

This is a metal corner "shelf" and it is
inside a coat/storage closet outside
the powder room. I have wrapping
supplies stored here. Pre-fire, I had
TONS of wrapping supplies and they
were organized differently than this. Post-fire,
I don't have that many supplies.

3. It's National Banana Day...are you a fan? What's your favorite thing to make with bananas or, if you're not a cook, your favorite thing to eat that contains banana? I had a banana at breakfast this morning. I like mine very yellow . . .not brown. I do use brown ones to make a high protein sheet pancake. I used 3 mashed RIPE bananas, 3 beaten eggs, 1 1/2 cups Kodiak Buttermilk pancake mix, a big splash of vanilla, and frozen blueberries. I spray a 9 X 13 metal pan with cooking spray. I mix everything together and pour into the pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. I cut into squares.

these were actually made on a jelly roll
pan so they are thinner and these
also have frozen cherries in
addition to frozen blueberries

4. Do you believe in second chances? Elaborate. Yes! Yes! Yes! I think God is a God of second chances and I'm so very thankful. When it comes to the human level, I want those second chances extended to me BUT if I'm very honest, there are times that I don't want to extend the second chance to others. I'm just being totally honest. As an example, I would have a hard time offering a second chance to a child molestor. 

5. What is your idea of fun? We love hanging out with friends and laughing and eating and talking! Hanging out with our grandkids can be fun, too!! It is fun to go to the lake and ride in the boat and feel the wind in my hair. It is fun to travel and see the world.

6. Insert your own random thought here. During our staff chapel at work, we are doing a wellness series for several weeks. We are talking about emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health. In order to serve others, we need to be healthy in those areas. Is there one area where you struggle the most?

It's time for Sunday Stealing!

 I'm joining up with Bev and all of the thieves this week for Sunday Stealing:

1.    What have you been the most ignorant about in your life? I’m going to answer this with the thing that first popped into my head. I believe I’ve been ignorant about racism. I’m not ignorant about all racism. I’ve been ignorant about the depth or racism. I’m not even sure how to put words to my thoughts. Working on a church staff for 20 years has allowed me to see things I might never have seen before. Also, going back to school at my age has been eye opening. I was born in 1958 and I was in the sixth grade when our school was integrated. I could be wrong, but I feel like there were many things we weren’t taught that are a part of our history. I feel like my eyes have been opened to injustices. I hope to do better. I will do better.

2.    What in the world would you most like to see protected? Are we talking about humans here? If so, I would love to see my family protected. Are we talking about our planet and natural resources? We better get on the ball and protect many things.

3.    How do you waste the biggest chunk of time each day or week? I imagine it would be scrolling on the internet. Some might consider writing blog posts as a waste of time but I don’t. I really want to say that I waste time sleeping. I often feel like if I didn’t need to sleep, I could get it all done!

4.    Who is the scariest person you've ever known? I’ve known several scary folks over the years! I had a few teachers growing up that were pretty scary haha! I did have a professor many years ago who terrified me. He was mean. There was a family member, who is now deceased, and he was a bad and scary man. I doubt I will ever tell that story on my blog. I had a boss at AT&T who could go totally nuts. He would shout and scream. I would go to the bathroom and pray – seriously! It was interesting though because he and I actually had a good working relationship most of the time.

5.    What was the job you enjoyed the least? This is my list of employment and it isn’t that long – I wrapped Christmas and Mother’s Day gifts in a local dry goods store (that was what it was called back then) during my senior year of high school. I went to work for South Central Bell on the morning after I graduated from high school. At one point, we became American Bell briefly and then we became AT&T. When I had our twins, I stayed home a couple of years and then I worked part time for the regional manager at Tambrands (it was the mother company of Tampax!). Then I worked part time at a Crane and Hoist company making cold calls and filing. The guy that owned the company was someone I had worked with at South Central Bell and AT&T. Then I stayed home for quite a few years and I’ve been working on staff at the church for 20 years. I didn’t hate any of those jobs.

6.    What thing about your family are you the most proud of? I can’t really take credit but our kids turned into awesome adults. I’m proud of who they are. I’m proud of Mark and his siblings for keeping their mother at home in her house for as long as they have. It hasn’t been easy for them.

7.    What kind of power do you want most? I’m assuming you don’t mean gas or electric? Haha! I don’t know about power. I’ve seen power abused so often that it makes me nervous. I guess I want power over my own self – to eat right and exercise and be kind.

8.    What's the best piece of advice you ever received?  I’m 65 years old. I’ve received LOTS of advice over the years. I do remember my daddy telling me that there were going to be things I had to do as an adult that I didn’t want to do, but you did them because they were the right thing to do.

9.    What's the thing you know the most about? I know my job and I know it well. I know how to cook and know a lot about cooking (but not at the chef level – just everyday cooking and cooking for a crowd). We use a database at work and I used to be the one over the database. At that time, one of my coworkers called me “the grand poobah of Shelby” because I knew so much.

10.    When were you most moved by a ceremony? I have been to several funerals that were very moving. We went to the swearing in of one of our young adults for her branch of the service.  I didn’t expect to be moved by that service, but I was.

11.    What is the best gift you ever gave to someone? I won a bottle of Pappy van Winkle bourbon and gifted it to my husband. It was a great gift!

12.    What is the cruelest thing you've ever suffered? That is a tough question. I’m not sure I want to answer this one.

13.    What's the single nastiest thing you've ever done to someone? I hope I haven’t done many truly nasty things in my life. I did recently think about writing a post and apologizing to people (not name names) from over the years. An example would be where I made someone feel less than in order to build myself up.

14.    What problem do you think is most common among friends your age? We are getting old!!

15.    What is the strongest craving you get? I am not a hugger, but every once in a while, I truly crave a hug. I will ask for a hug. I crave diet pepsis when I don’t have one. Every once in a while, I’ll “crave” an excellent cheeseburger and fries.

Alabama Remodeling Excellence Award

I mentioned that our builder had a professional photographer coming to our house to take photos to enter our house in the Alabama Remodeling Excellence Awards. We were entered in the Insurance Renovation Category and we won! We don't get anything . . .but still! I was hoping they would share all of the photos with me but this is the only one I could snag.

Here is the video of all of the winners. Go to 56:34 to see our house - our portion is about a minute long. Our building, ELM Construction, was and is amazing. Their designer is Liz and she is now one of my favorite people. She was so willing to help us.

 This afternoon, the builder texted and said that a local community magazine has reached out to them and would like to feature our home in a summer edition. I'll keep y'all posted!!

It's a Hodgepodge

 I'm joining up with the Hodgepodge gang! Thanks to Joyce for the questions.

1. Do you complete your own tax returns or hire out? Something you've found taxing lately? Mark is a retired CPA. He was the CFO of a company but he still knows how to do taxes. He has always done our tax returns. Is it possible to find a person taxing? I'm going with yes. There is a person that before I even see them, I dread the interaction. I find him very taxing.

2. It's spring (in the northern hemisphere anyway)...would you rather spend the day hiking in the great outdoors or planting a garden? Do you/will you have a garden this year? Flowers, vegetables, or a bit of both? Since I am allergic to every grass and tree, I don't spend much time outdoors right now and that makes me sad because it is beautiful in Alabama in the spring. We don't have room for a garden, but if I did, I would want some flowers and some veggies!!

3. Do you consider yourself a patient person? In what sort of situation is patience not desirable? Are you happy with the degree of patience you have in your daily life? If not, what can you do to cultivate more of this quality in your life? In my 20's, I prayed for patience. I had a tough boss at AT&T and I needed patience. At 28, not long after I prayed for patience, I found out I was pregnant with twins. I have much more patience now than I did back then. I've always thought that was an interesting turn of events!! One of the areas where I still lack patience is when I'm driving. Other drivers . . . why would you drive 40 on an interstate where the speed limit is 70? I have so many why would you's when I'm driving. I can't wait to read your responses about what sort of situations where patience is not desirable. I need to take big deep breaths when I find myself impatient. If I'm in a line somewhere, I try to pray for the people ahead of me. Sometimes it is successful and sometimes it is not.

4. Do you like the flavor cinnamon? If so what's your favorite something made with cinnamon? I do like cinnamon. I like to bake apples and put a sprinkle of cinnamon on them. 

5. Learn by watching or learn by doing? Elaborate. I prefer to watch a couple of times and then to start doing. I think I learn by both.

6. Insert your own random thought here. I received my grade on my paper and I felt sure it would be at least a C . . . maybe lower. I was pleasantly surprised when I made an A. It is not a high A, but it is an A. I'll take it. 

April's 10 on the 10th!

 

I am joining up with the gang for 10 on the 10th. Here you go . . .Questions are above and my answers are below. I'm publishing tonight so I can answer the Hodgepodge questions tomorrow.

1. I love pink! I have a great pink Jackie dress from Tuckernuck that is awesome. 

2. My birth stone is pearl or alexandrite. I was never fond of alexandrite when I was a kid. I actually love pearls! I have multiple pairs of pearl earrings and several strands of pearls.

3. If I had a space, I would love to grow fresh tomatoes like my daddy grew. Alabama dirt is good for tomato growing!! I would also like to have a flower garden. We have a tiny lot and not enough sunshine in spots where I could plant a tomato plant. I guess I could find a way to plant some flowers in amongst our shrubbery . . .but I probably won't.

4. "This above all: to thine own self be true," is a pretty good quote. Did he also say, "All that glitters is not gold."?

5. I love our earth and I'm so happy to live here and I am trying to take care of it . . . but I probably won't be celebrating Earth Day!

6. We were not in the path of totality but we had only a sliver of light showing. We went outside and shared a few pair of glasses so that everyone got to look. Quite a few years ago (2017?), we had another eclipse and we went onto the front lawn of the church to watch. I've been at work at the church both times!

7. We don't listen to a lot of music around our house. I remember listening to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Hey Jude." We need to listen to more music.

8. I do not have a favorite wife of King Henry. Herman's Hermits sang a song, "I'm Henry the VIII I am . . ." and I remember belting out that song as a kid! The lyrics were silly and it must have been fun to sing.

9. I actually didn't remember that there was such a thing as a birth month flower but I looked it up and mine is a rose or honeysuckle. I think both are very pretty.

10. My first car was a shared vehicle with my older sister. It was a Comet and we called it Vomit the Comet. It was not an attractive car. My first car that I purchased was a Datsun 310GX and I loved that car. We sold it after we got engaged or married. Mark had a company car and I drove his ugly Chevy Citation.