Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Bitburg American High School Reunion~40 years later


I have returned from my high school reunion, no worse for wear! I had a wonderful time. There were people there from all over the United States. One person actually came all the way from Switzerland, where she has lived for 20 years. Our reunion was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Why was it there, you may ask. Well, one of our fellow Barons lives there and is an event planner. He told us about Germanfest being there this month, and he planned a mighty fine reunion. He had lots of help, mind you, but he and his wife were the masters of the art of planning in their own town. He had many activities for us that were wonderful. He got us into a very exclusive country club for our first night there: The Wisconsin Club. Then, he planned a night for us at the Germanfest (good food). He also planned a riverboat cruise, complete with fireworks that were put on just for us. We ate at a great German restaurant called Maders, right before the cruise. There were several optional activities that we could do. I went to a wonderful art museum. Some people took a bike ride in the park. Others went on a tour of the brewery there. Milwaukee has many things for people to do. We stayed at the hotel called The Pfister, and it was a wonderful place.  Saturday night, we were supposed to dress "Hippie Chic". This couple was a hoot, Joe and Cathy. You can see Joe in the farewell picture that I posted lower in this post. He brought his long hair and headband with him for the night! I love Cathy's rose colored glasses, too!!



Bitburg American High School was located on the Air Force Base in Bitburg, Germany. I lived in Spangdahlem, Germany on the Air Force Base. Back in those days, the high school was in Bitburg. Nowadays, the Bitburg base is closed, and the Spangdahlem base has a high school. Spangdahlem has the largest runway for the airplanes, so I guess that is why it is the one that is open. "Spang" was always the smaller base of the two. Now, Spang has new housing and several new schools.
Back to the original posting!

Our program...



This is a picture of those of us who arrived at the same time. Denise and I were on the same plane from Atlanta, even though she flew in from Texas!! Renate is from Texas, too.
Here you see Denise Brown (75), Renate Ritchie (74), and ME (73).


A friend of mine started a facebook page for Bitburg Alumni from the graduation years of 1969-1975. She decided that it would be much better for people who actually attended school at the same time to be on a page, rather than those who attended the school from the 1950's up until 2012! We have more in common, being the same age. There is a website for our school, and there are reunions for the whole school, but the age range is VERY WIDE~~ Those of us who joined together this past week remember each other, or we remember who we were, or maybe just remember someone from a yearbook picture, or from afar. Although everyone may not have been best friends, or even acquaintances, back then, we all became good friends at the reunion. It was a Love Fest!! Everyone was so very happy to see each other. I am going to copy my post from our facebook page so that you can understand just why we were all so happy to see each other. You see, military brats hardly EVER get to see each other again in their lifetimes. We all move so much, to so many places, and then retire back to our parents' hometowns, or our parents' last assignment. Anyway, we had FUN!
Here is my post from the Facebook page:

"My bags are actually packed. I'm very ready to go. I'm waitin', and waitin' to leave on a jet plane to-mor-row..."
I'm headed to Milwaukee to a high school reunion with a bunch of my fellow military brats from Bitburg, Germany!! Yippee! I cannot believe that the day is almost here, but it is! Forty-one (41?) years later, and I will be reunited and reacquainted with lots of my high school friends. Who would have ever thought that any of us would ever see each other again? Military brats don't usually cross paths again in their lifetimes, but we will this weekend! This event is going to be truly amazing! Thank you, Dawn, for starting this whole facebook adventure and making it possible for all of us to be together again. Thank you to the entire committee for all of your hard work and committment to this task this past year. We are truly blessed to have you all!
Come on jet plane. Let's go!
Auf Wiedersehen, Savannah! Hallo and Guten Tag, Milwaukee!


This picture is from our farewell brunch. Here you see Christine Clark (75), Joe Martino (71), Dawn Grant (73) my best buddy from 8th grade and the one who started this whole facebook adventure, Gary Clark (73), and ME (73). Yes, Gary and Chris are married. How about that!


Many of us did not get to actually graduate from Bitburg, because our fathers were either transferred back to the states, or they retired (like my dad). Some had to leave DURING their senior years, even! Can you imagine!! Some left the summer before their senior year. I left the summer before my junior year. Others were only able to attend their freshman year. Some were there the first part of high school, while others were there the last part of high school. Some were even lucky enough to be there all four years, but that number is very few.

I have a Bitburg Diploma now, too, so I scanned it for this post! I'm a Bitburg graduate after all!!

SO, we all have the same thing in common - We LOVED our time in Germany, and the friends we made there are very, very special. For some reason, everyone says that their time in Germany was the best and most memorable time in their lives. There is something about being a military brat that is just amazing and like family.


One of the events scheduled for us was to attend the Germanfest that is held in Milwukee every year. Here is a picture of me and Kay Langford at the Germanfest. Notice our t-shirts and buttons! They were made for our reunion. The buttons had our senior pictures on them, or pictures from other years that were in the yearbooks.

In Germany, we all lived in big apartment buildings. There were three different stairwells and four floors. We lived in the C stairwell. Two of the people at the reunion lived in the A stairwell of my building, Denise and Cheryl Brown. Here is a picture of them together at the Germanfest.
Denise Brown (75) and Cheryl Brown (72).


By the way, the numbers in parentheses are the graduating years for us! I hope you have enjoyed my brief review of the reunion. While I was posting, I had to stop and buy more google storage for pictures. I had let my larger coverage lapse, and it caught up with me!! Enjoy the rest of your day!!







 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

My bags are packed. I'm ready to go. I'm leaving on a jet plane to go my high school reunion!! I cannot believe that the actual event is so close! Everyone is very excited. We have a Nostalgia page on Facebook where we have all reconnected. My friend started this whole thing, and now we will all be together again. I haven't seen these people in 41 years!! I have to get up really early, in order to get to the airport in time for my flight. I was dreading the early rising time, but now I am anxious for it to get here!  I also cannot believe that I am all packed and ready to go. My personal stylist made a house call yesterday, and she got all of my outfits together for me. I'm talking about my wonderful daughter, of course!  I was going to keep everything hanging, since I have ironed all of the clothes, but I finally decided to just pack them and be done with that. I have been much calmer about the whole trip, today, since I packed the stuff. I got all of my medicines, toiletries, shoes, clothes, and other stuff all ready. Now tomorrow, I have to back to the dentist to have my tooth repaired again. The front part of it came off again, so I hope this new one will last until Sunday night, at least!!
Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel where we will all be staying. The pictures look really fancy...la de da!!  I'm excited! I will probably not post anything until next week, after I return home. Have a great week, everyone!!

This picture is of the hotel. As you can see, there is a tower section. This part is the newest part of the hotel. The main part is the historical section, where my room is supposed to be located. I hope so, anyway!

I will post more things when I return!



Lobby

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Morning Coffee in the Stillness of the Day

Right now, it is so peaceful, quiet, and calm that I almost don't know what to do with myself!! Ha!
I'm drinking my morning coffee and enjoying the stillness of the morning. I hear the occasional car riding by outside and the roar of the attic fan, but that is all that is going on right now. I like this time of the morning, before the world gets hectic and rambunctious. I can enjoy a cup of coffee and a couple slices of sharp cheddar cheese, before the responsibilities of the day are upon me. Oh my, summer will soon be over and the agonies of work, as well as all other responsibilities, will be quickly over me. Those thoughts, my friends, are for other days. Right now, I'm enjoying the peace and the calm of a nice, summer, Southern Sunday morning. Since I let the newspaper subscription lapse, I do not have that to worry about anymore, either. The news of the day isn't always very appealing or calming, to say the least. With today's world of constant and instant news, the newspaper is outdated before it even arrives at your doorstep (or curb, or yard, or street, as the case may be when you have a lousy delivery person like we've had!).

Yesterday, Rachel and some coworkers gave a baby shower for a young lady with whom I've also worked. Tiffany and Rachel worked together at their first job at a middle school here in town. They both quit that crazy school, and they were lucky enough to get jobs in other schools the next year. Rachel went to work where she is now, and Tiffany went to work at my school. Two years ago, Tiffany transferred to Rachel's present school, and they worked together again, so we have all become good friends. For a while, Tiffany was selling Premier Jewelry, too, and we gave her lots of business!  Tiffany is pregnant now, with a little boy, and she is due in September. She has decided not to go back to work, so she and Rachel will not be seeing each other every day. Some girls at their school hosted a Southern Belle baby shower yesterday at the Tea Room downtown. They all wore big hats, and they had a great time. I was asked to make the cake, and I was happy to do it.

Tiffany's baby theme is sailboats, so I made my first sailboat cake. I googled sailboat cakes, and found a couple of examples. Both sites showed how to make either a square cake or a rectangular cake and cut it into the shapes to use for making a sailboat. I felt like the Cake Boss when I was cutting the cake! On that show, they always make a regular kind of cake, and then they cut it all up and shape it like whatever they are making. So, you can call me the Mini Cake Boss, now!! HA! 

I enjoyed making the cake.  The thing I need to learn, though, is how to get icing to stick to the sides of the cake once it is cut. If you ice a regular cake, you have the 'crust' to ice. When you cut a cake, you have the 'inside' of the cake to ice, and the soft inside doesn't like the icing to stick to it. There must be a trick to this. I iced it, in what they call a crumb coat, and then I iced it again with a final layer. This type of work makes for lots of icing on a cake!! I suppose this is what the professionals do, too, though. They also put fondant on top of the icing. I like regular icing, although I do like to work with fondant, too. Some people do not like the taste of fondant, so I am apprehensive about using it on a whole cake. I did form the mast pole and the flag out of fondant for the sailboat, but the rest was buttercream icing. Rachel cut out a small "K", and we put that on the flag. The baby's name begins with a 'K', although the name is being kept secret. Rachel and Don kept Dora's name a secret, and I think that is just fine. There are always too many people offering too many opinions about names, so I think that keeping the name just between mamma and daddy is a nice thing.

I made white sails and a blue boat. For the port holes, I used the blue and green candy pieces from the candy necklaces that I have. I put swirls of blue on the sails to make it look like the wind and the ocean. Then, I mixed more white icing in with the blue to make a sea foamy color of icing. I piped some waves onto the bottom of the boat, even having some reach up to the top of the bottom of the boat like breaking waves.




Tiffany told Rachel that she liked the cake, so I hope she really did. Oh yes, I also put white foamy, wavy trim around the sails. One of the hostesses asked to have, Ahoy Little Mate, written on the cake. I wrote it on the cake board, and I think it turned out justfine.

I must learn more tricks of the trade, though. I put the cake together before icing it, and it was kind of difficult to get icing down on the inside of the bottom of the cake after that. Oh well, you live and learn. Everything I make is an experiment anyway. I try to make all of my own designs, after looking at samples. I did make an exact copy of  a watermelon cake last week, though, that I found on the Wilton site.

Here are a couple of pictures of Dora with her Great Uncle Dewey, cousin Julia, and cousin Dewey that I took yesterday. They left the beach early Sunday to go to Bible School, so I didn't have pictures of them on the other post about our beach day.




Have a great Sunday!!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Superwoman I'm not, but I am a good Grandma!!

When will I ever learn not to try and take in a ton of groceries at one time? I thought that because I had a new "gadget" for carrying things, that I could put them all in it and carry them at once! What I forgot was that they were still HEAVY!  I have a new 31 tote that all of my bags fit in today. I thought that I would carry them all in and only make one trip. Stupid idea...... My back is killing me now. I am not sure why I thought that I was wonderwoman, or that the heaviness would somehow vanish within the carrier. Crazy me. AND I already told my massage therapist that I can't come this week. I have been going to a young lady to try and get my back pain to go away, or at least to be manageable. It has been working, but now I've reinjured the whole back. Oh well...I guess I will have to just deal with it.

Rachel asked me to spend the night with her Monday, so that I could babysit on Tuesday, and I obliged. We went to the Olive Garden for supper (my favorite place) where I totally overate, and then we went to Target -- Rachel's favorite place!  We put Dora in her stroller without the carseat, and she FIT!! She is growing like a weed. These pictures are showing how she fit into the stroller as a "big girl"!!!!!!




I got to babysit Dora Tuesday, while Rachel was out doing yardwork. Her father in law, little brother in law, and little sister in law all came over to help. Rachel and Katie pulled weeds. Randy did the trimming, and Matthew mowed. Good teamwork! After all of this, Rachel, Dora, and I went back to the beach to visit our cousins!!

I managed to snap some pictures of my little darling Dora while they were outside. Dora was wearing her outfit that I gave to her. It says, "Grandma Says I'm Sweet". She usually manages to mess up this outfit as soon as Rachel puts it on her. Luckily, the outfit stayed clean and pretty all day long, even on our trip to the beach. It is a good thing, too, because Dora is just about to outgrow it!!




     I have a few extra pictures that I took of some more little ones with Dora. Kendall and Margaret left before the pictures on Sunday, so I got pictures of them when we went back to the beach on Tuesday.

                                                 Kendall, Dora, and Rachel


Margaret, Kendall, and Dora


 While going through some old Christmas items, Amy found this Santa hat and put it on Dora!
                                              


                                               Amelia, Kendall, Dora, and Rachel
                                              with the Tybee Lighthouse in the background


                                            
I heard a comedienne the other day say that everyone in the South calls their friends and cousins, Aunt. Mina is my first cousin, but she is Aunt Mina to all the little ones!!
                                       
                                                  Great Aunt Mina and Dora

          

If we can call all of our lady relatives "Aunt", then we can call our gentleman cousins "Uncle".

Here is a picture of Great Uncle Marvin and Great Aunt Arlene in Mina's backyard Tuesday night.


One more week before my trip to Milwaukee!. I cannot believe I am actually going to see people that I never in this world imagined that I would see again in my lifetime! As a military brat, you usually do not meet up with people again that you knew as a child or a teenager. Through the wonders of facebook, many of us have renewed friendships, made new friendships, and have had a grand old time catching up.  We will be staying at the Pfister Hotel, a very old and historical place. We will also be having events at the Wisconsin Country Club Thursday night. All week long there will be a German Festival in Milwaukee, so we can go in and out of that while we are there. One night, we will have a fireworks cruise. One night is a dinner at Mader's German restaurant. All in all, we will be having fun. Some people will tour the brewery that was made famous with the Laverne and Shirley sitcom from the 70's. I am going to find the art museum, I hope. There is also a Harley museum, but I am not really into that kind of thing. We are having a church service Sunday morning, and I have been asked to be a part of that with the music. We have a nice brunch Sunday morning, and then everyone will be heading out.  People are coming from all across the United States. One couple from Texas will actually be on the flight with me out of Atlanta! How about that!! There are several people from different places who are going to be on flights together headed to Milwaukee. Isn't it interesting how that has happened!

My friend Heidi has returned from China and is in Rhode Island with her TWO sons. She is posting pictures on facebook. They look so sweet together. The older one asked his mamma to cut his hair short, so that he could look like his brother! Heidi is still blogging about her adventures, in case you would like to read about this sweet family. I have her blog listed on my blog roll. It is called, "Journey to Evan".

Have a great night!!!!

Monday, July 16, 2012

The beach, family, and a lot of pictures

Today, I am going to post some of the pictures that I took yesterday at the beach. I must warn you, though, I just kind of snapped the camera a lot at the "posed" pictures, hoping to get something that would look great. I will just put them on here, and then maybe I can write about them.  Our cousins were all in town for the weekend. Some are staying all week, but some were only here for the weekend. We had a great time together, as always. We are getting to be a really big family, with lots of new grandchildren for my generation!! I tried to get a picture with each person holding Dora. I know that I didn't get everyone, but these are the ones I have. Enjoy!

This first picture is of all of the little children that we could muster up. I kept snapping pictures hoping to get a good one. This is the best one I have of everyone "kind of" looking straight ahead! Dewey's hand is in the picture, though. I think it is a good one. We took a picture like this many years ago of a bunch of little cousins, when our great matriarch, Granna, was here. The picture was in the same location. In this picture, Mina is our Matriarch!!

(front row) Kendall, Allison, Mina, Sarah, Gabby
(back row) Dewey, Lauren, Julia, Douglas, Rebecca, Dora


Sarah and Dora


Great Aunt Amy G. and Dora


Pretty Cousin Amelia and Dora


My beach cake and watermelon cake
I melted candy into molds for the shells, fish, seahorses, etc. I used light brown sugar for the "sand". The watermelon cake is a white cake with red food coloring and tiny chocolate chips. The "rind" is green fondant.


Cousin Marvin and Dora! After he put me down, I looked way up asking for another hug!



My cousin William FINALLY held me!! This is the first time he has held me. I think he liked it. Look at his dimples!




Cousin Aaron got me right away!! Allison is waiting for her turn!



 Waiting on the cakes to be cut. They all wanted a piece of the beach cake. I didn't have to worry about bringing home any cake today!! This is Kendall, Douglas, Allison, and Sarah.

All the little girls with Dora!
Kendall, Sarah, Dora, Gabby, and Allison



Beach time and Watermelon, What a combination!


My Great Aunt Amy H. finally got a hold of me last night!


I finally got to meet my Cousin Arlene! Yippee!!



Cousin Barbara and Me!



                                           Cousins Gabby, Dora, Lauren, and Allison



Cousin Allison has me now!!
    
                                                 

                           Cousin Gabby waited very patiently for her turn to hold me!

                                            

                                 I have my mamma's love for books. Let me read that thing!!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

A calmer day, but not without a bit of drama

It is Saturday, and the day has been very nice. Thankfully, I woke up feeling much better than I felt yesterday. I went over to Daddy's house, because we were going to go 'to town'. I put a cough drop in my mouth and BAM, the front of one of my teeth came off! It is the second tooth in my five tooth bridge, that covers an empty spot. So much for smiling pretty for pictures this weekend!!  This summer has been a rather expensive one so far. The car, the car, the car, the dentist in June, the dogs and cats, and now the dentist again. I hope the dentist can fit me in Monday, so that I won't have to go around very long with a missing tooth!!

My trip to Milwaukee was supposed to be the only thing that I was spending money on this summer, but the powers that be seem to have had other plans for me. Besides having a missing tooth, I have had a wonderful day.

Rachel and Dora came over this morning to meet me. We went to Sam's, where we found some cute little outfits for Dora. Grandma says I'm PURRfect, with little cats and pink leopard like leggings. Mamma's little Cupcake, with leggings, and Daddy's Little Girl, with flower power leggings. We also found a cute yellow sunsuit and a yellow dress, and we got a pretty rainbow dress. Sam's has really inexpensive outfits. These were between 4.91 and 7.98. Go check 'em out!
I finally found something that I have been wanting for about five years, too. It is a rolling cart with multicolored drawers in it that I can use for cake things, or for scrapbook things, or just for THINGS. I bought TWO!! I've been looking for this for so long, that I just had to buy two before they ran out of them. Michael's has advertised these carts before, but when I get there none can be found.

We went downtown to the Jepson Center and had lunch. The Jepson Center is an art museum downtown, and there is a nice restaurant/cafe there. I had a big salad called the Kitchen Sink, and Rachel had a Chicken Salad sandwich. The atmosphere and food was great, but the waiter was not very attentive.


Ice cream was on the dessert menu, but we opted to go to the grocery store for that! I had to go to Publix for powdered sugar and cake mixes, and I forgot to buy the ice cream! So, we went to Red and White and I got some ice cream and hot fudge sauce (along with my favorite Blue Bell fudge bars) Yummy. We called Daddy and told him that Dora was inviting him over for a chocolate ice cream hot fudge sundae. He came, because Dora requested his presence!

I love nice, calm days, and today has been one of those. Goodness knows - I needed it.  Rachel and Dora have gone home now, only to return in the morning for breakfast. I told her that I will make pancakes for them! Then, we are all going to Mina's beach house tomorrow to visit our cousins who will be in town for the week. We are anxious to see them all and meet the newest little ones who have been born in the last couple of years. Mina is having a low country boil for us all to get together and enjoy each other's company. I'm going to try and make a nice, big cake for the party... I'm thinking a beach cake with shells and sand!

Talk to you all later. Have a great rest of the weekend!!!!!!

Friday, July 13, 2012

What a Day! An Unexpected Day

Today started off with me thinking that I knew exactly what was going on. WRONG! Well, I went to Daddy's for breakfast and ate with him and William. I knew that he had a doctor's appointment today, so I was ready for that. I came home and showered and started getting ready. I typed on my blog while waiting for my hair to dry and for the appointment time to arrive. I thought I had plenty of time.

 A friend called me with sad news of a friend of ours who had a massive heart attack, and is in a coma in serious condition. Then, the phone kept buzzing in with that awful call waiting thing. It was my brother, but I couldn't answer it. I have never mastered the art of answering a call waiting 'call'. So, I continued talking with my friend. I looked out of the window and sure enough, by daddy and brother had already gone! They left me!

They went mighty early, I thought. The appointment WAS at 11 like I thought, not at 11:30 as Daddy had said this morning at breakfast. Then, I got buzzed in again with call waiting. This time, it was Rachel. I didn't answer it, so she called my cell phone, too.

"I'm at the front door," she says.

So, I tell my friend that I have to go with my dad to the doctor and that they have already left me. We hung up, and I answered the door. There is Rachel and Dora.  Don left this morning to go to Mississippi with his mom to take care of some of his grandfather's things and to attend a church reunion. So, Rachel was coming by for the day. We were also going to try to get to Tampa this weekend, since it is the only weekend Adam is off this month, AND I am going on a trip at the end of the month, AND things are just piling up and piling up, and I cannot get out of town to Tampa. SO, Rachel came in and I tried to brush my still wet hair, I got dressed quickly, and I rushed out to meet Daddy and William at the doctor's office, apologizing profusely to Rachel for leaving her as soon as she got here!!

 We saw the PA, who was really nice. She talked to Daddy and has scheduled some things for him. I think he feels better just from going to the office. When I got home, Susan and Kate were here. We visited a while and then went to Chick Filet for lunch, at the mall. Dewey called us while we were eating and told us that he needed someone to babysit while he goes to the doctor. Apparently, Ellen has gone to Columbia, SC to help her son and his wife move into their new house. He has been stationed at the Army base there as a Drill Sergeant! After three tours to the Middle East, we are all glad that he is stateside for a while!!

Since Dewey really needed us, and we were not really in the mood to shop, we came on home and right away - in came the little ones!! Now, there is me, Rachel, Susan, Kate, and we had the two munchkins with us, and Dora, The house was FULL!! I love a full house, but I surely didn't know that all of this was going to happen today!! 

I have a small box of pictures and things that my cousin gave me that belonged to my Aunt Saramina, so we went through it. This box had a few things in it that my mom had given to Saramina, so William gave us this little box.

We found a treasure for my brother, Dewey. It was a letter that my mamma wrote to her sister, Saramina, when Dewey was born! How about that! I found a treasure like that a couple of years ago when we were visiting my cousins in Clayton, GA. I found a letter my mamma had written to my Daddy's sister, Aunt Bernice, when I was born.

Also in the box, was a Stars and Stripes newspaper article from when I went to Berlin to a Fine Arts Music Festival, when I was in high school. This find was a treasure for me. This festival has always been in my memory, but I surely did not know that this newspaper article was around. My aunt kept so many wonderful, memorable, special things for everyone. There is a need for people to keep things special like that in this world. People today just want to throw out everything and keep nothing. We need to be more like my mamma and aunt's generation and realize that things are special!!

We divided up some pictures of ourselves and had fun reading the letter about Dewey's birth. When Dewey got home to pick up his little ones, I gave him the letter and some pictures of him. The letter described in detail how hard of a labor and delivery she had. She called Dewey a Whopper! He was over 10 pounds, so I guess he was a little whopper! She was so excited and happy to have had a little boy. She had two girls before him, so she must have been surprised!!

Daddy, oh Daddy, where are you? We were all worried about Daddy not feeling well, but he had taken off to the store! He went to Walmart, Sam's, and the BASE. So, he must be feeling a lot better. He has  pep to his step again. Sometimes, just getting to the doctor's office helps. He will have a catscan on Monday, though, to make sure his diverticulitis isn't acting up.

Oh yes, I cannot forget this part. Susan found the letter about Dewey and read it out loud to us. Then, she found a Christmas letter that Mamma wrote one year, and she began reading that out loud. Little Julia wanted us to put a DVD in the tv, and she had been waiting patiently. Finally she walks right up to Susan - right in her face and very politely says, "Aunt Susie. Is your mouth finished talking yet?" HAHAHAHA!! I think that was a nice way to say, "Please be quiet!"

Dewey finally came home and took his little ones home. Rachel decided that she and Dora needed to go home.  Kate left to go out with Kane. Tommy came by and picked up Susan. The house was EMPTY and quiet. Hmmm...What to do, what to do?  I looked outside and saw that Daddy's truck was there, so he was home. I went over there and saw lots of goodies that he had bought. I put up all of his groceries and helped him bring in FOUR ten pound bags of potatoes. Hey, they were only $3.00, he says, so of course he HAD to buy them!  He uses his rolling desk chair to bring heavy things like that in the house, rolling them up his ramp! That wore me out. I am still sick, and that job kind of got me. He also bought four big cans of coffee, carrots, celery, bananas, you name it, he bought it today. He is definitely feeling better about himself this afternoon. He isn't feeling up to normal, but his mindset is MUCH better, and that helps us all tremendously.

So, that was my crazy, daisy, day!!  I wouldn't change it for anything, but it sure was an unexpected day!! Now, I need to try to relax and get to feeling better. Being sick is no fun, especially when it just drags out. I do have my car fixed, I got my student loan situation settled, and now I must start studying. My quarter started Monday, and I haven't done a thing yet! That is a no-no. Hopefully, things are going to settle down within the next few days, and I will be able to calm down and study. I sure did ramble a lot today, but I had to get it out! 

Have a good weekend.

Money, money, money, money, MONEY

More car repairs yesterday...The taillights and brake lights that were 'fixed' were not really fixed. I got pulled over last Friday night for no tail light and driving TOO slowly!  The police asked me for my driver's license and insurance, and I said, "Is it because of my light?" He said, "Yes, and you were driving about 20 or 30 miles BELOW the speed limit." Can you believe that ! I told him that I was driving slowly because of the missing brake light. That is when I found out that the tail light was out, too. I have been afraid to drive around town, much, without a brake light, and I kept waiting on the car place to call me telling me that the part they ordered had come in. They never called. It has been two weeks, so I called yesterday. The guy says, "I remember you. Let me do some research on this." I waited. No call. I called back. "I'm still doing the research, ma'am." So I waited and then called and said, "I'm going to the Jeep place," and I did.   From now on, I will always go to the dealership!  They fixed the lights and some other things. My front tire had two nails in it AND some steel or something. My back left tire had a nail in it a few weeks ago, when all of this craziness started. Anyway, I told them that I had a brand new tire in the spare tire section, and they could put that on my car. Now, I need to go out and get another tire to replace the spare. I wonder what I have been into for both of my left side tires to have big, nails and steel in them!
 Six hundred and something dollars later, I have a fixed car. That was just yesterday's job, too. I guess I'm just out for the 'fix' from two weeks ago. My check engine light has been on for a while, so they fixed the extreme vap leak that caused that. They fixed some other things, too, so I should be okay for now. Whew! This has been an expensive summer for my car. The first problem was right before school was out with my tire and then the overheating and breaking of that stuf, over $400 that time. Gotta have a car, though!

Hey, I got to spend the day with Rachel, Dora, and Don, so it was good all around. Don came and picked me up from the dealership, since it is out near their house. Dora slept most of the time I was there, but that was okay. She is a sweetie pie, that's for sure!!
Rachel and Don have access to movies, via Netflix, that is hooked up on their computer, so we watched an old movie, "Barefoot in the Park". That movie was really funny! It is SO nice to watch real actors and actresses and listen to real dialogue. Neil Simon wrote this play, which was turned into a movie. His plays were always so funny. It was also neat to see Robert Redford and Jane Fonda as young actors. The movie was made in 1967, 45 years ago!! Wow!! The lady who played the mother was SO funny! I just love the part when she first gets up to their top floor apartment and just FALLS into the door from exhaustion!!!! Real actors don't overdo, they just ACT!!  I LOVE IT!!!!!!

After picking up my car, I drove out past Rincon to another Thirty-One party, at the Zittrouer's house. It was nice being around some old friends from Epworth. Emily was selling some of her bags and things that she has been using, for half price, so that was good. I think we each got one of those items and ordered new things, as well.  Mina is hosting a party soon, too, now that her Christmas tree is down. HA!

I was hoping to get to Tampa to see Adam soon, but it doesn't look like we are going to get there anytime soon. Stuff just happens to stall things sometimes.

Today seems like it is going to be a nice day. The weather is not too hot this morning, and it doesn't feel like rain. I hope it stays nice.  Have a good day!!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Summer Birthdays

Two of our summer birthdays have come and gone. John William is now 16, and Lauren is 12. We still have many birthdays to come this summer, so I have lots of baking to do.  Boys being boys, they don't particularly get all interested in cakes, so I made a kind of plain one for John William. I added lots of sour candy on it to keep it interesting!  I made a large square cake with buttercream icing, and then I bought some sour candy called Extremes to use for the 16. The kids introduced me to Sour  Patch Kids a while back, which I kept calling Cabbage Patch Kids, and I love them. Sour candy has always been a favorite of mine, so I am greatly enjoying having it around for "cakes". HA!
After Lauren saw the sour candy, she put in her birthday cake order...A mountain cake with a trail of sour Extreme candy and sour patch soldiers marching down the trail. So, I used my paisley cake pans for the mountain, made light green icing for the grass, and added the sour candy trails and soldiers. I just HAD to add some PINK to the cake, so I made a light pink color for the trim around the layers. Then, I remembered that I had some candy necklaces that I bought a while back to use on some cake pops that were never made. This candy was like sweet tarts, so more sour candy was added to look like little buttons all around the layers. I took the pink icing to the party, just in case some things came loose on the ride to the party, and Lauren put the icing bag to good use. She added 12's and peace signs to the cake, and she added some writing to the cake board. I had piped, Happy Birthday Lauren, on the side that had less 'trails'. Lauren and Rebecca are interested in cake decorating, and I bought them some beginning 'tools' last summer. I also bought them some little tool boxes to use in order to keep their supplies all together.







Rebecca will be 14 in August, and I'm not quite sure yet what to make for her. Julia has ordered a Tangled Cake, so I am going to try to make that for her sixth birthday. Rachel will be THIRTY this August, so I must figure out something really special for her!!  Thomas will be 27, but he is one of those guys that doesn't get all worked up about a cake. Last year, he requested a simple pound cake, so I obliged with that.  Adam will be 28 in September, Labor Day Weekend, but he is in Tampa. It will be hard to get his cake to him, so I will have to make one the next time I see him! His birthday is the last one for the 'summer', since Labor Day usually represents the end of summer and the beginning of fall. I think that is all of them!

Have a great day!