We really did have a wintry mix!

Last night on my way home from work the snow was coming down and there was sleet mixed with it. It was sticking to the ground because it was cold. We only ended up having about 1" but it sure does look pretty! John took some pictures while he was walking Teddy and then I took one of the bird feeder in the courtyard. Everything looks so clean and fresh right now. Here are some of the pics! Enjoy!


The bird feeder looked so pretty with the little dusting of snow on it.


John took this picture as he and Teddy were heading out the front door. It still was snowing/sleeting when he headed out the door.


All the townhouses look like sugar houses at Christmas time!





This is the driveway behind all the townhouses. John took Teddy off his leash and let him run around and that he did!

Took the Day off from Work

Not much going on around our house today. I decided after my horrible day at work yesterday to take the day off. We found out yesterday we will all be getting our salary cut. That's right all the work I do there and they think they shouldn't have to pay us so much. That statement made me really hot under the collar. They feel other people who have been let go by the company are making less so maybe they are paying us too much! Well they are wrong. I am really so sick of corporate America! It just makes me want to move to Wyoming, live in a log house, raising cattle and growing my own vegetables! Oh well. I have updated my resume and I've sent a few inquiries. Lets see what that brings. What a wonderful year this is turning out to be!!

Happy 29th Birthday to Megan!

Today our oldest daughter, Megan turns 29! I thought I would post a few pictures of Megan through the years. I haven't unpacked any of the albums with the baby pictures in it so I'm sorry to say there aren't any of those pictures. Megan you are a wonderful young woman and a wonderful daughter. You have accomplished so many things in your life and you have brightened all the lives you have touched. Happy Birthday sweetie! Love, Mom and Dad xxoo


Here is Megan (7 yrs. old) and Jenny (almot 5 yrs. old) on Easter Morning 1988! Look how cute you two were in your Easter outfits!


In 1990 Megan and Jenny were hunting for Easter eggs! I always loved Megan in that dress. She loved her dresses then and she still loves to dress up! Glam Girl!!


Here is Megan and Jenny with their Penquin friend at Sea World in 1990. Love those sunglasses girls!!



Megan and Jenny recently (2009). You two are always inseparable, what a great bond you two have! This picture is one of my favorites! Love you girls!



A blast from the past! John, Megan and Jenny volunteered many times for the Christian Outreach Program. This picture was taken on Sunrise Mountain in Stokes State Park in Frankford, NJ. I don't know the year but the kids were in high school.


This picture was taken of Megan, Jenny and I a few years ago. What fun we have!


Megan and Ken were married in April of 2008! What a wonderful wedding that was! Look at you Megan all grown up!


Megan with her wedding girls! Megan, you have always had a large group of friends even when you were little. What wonderful friendships you've made along your path in life!


Last but not least is Megan dancing at her wedding with her Dad!


Happy Birthday Megan! Enjoy your day!

"Bird" Saturday

I was walking through the house today and noticed I had alot of "bird" things decorating my house. I love birds, especially bluebirds, cardinals and swans. I started clicking pictures of some of the birds I had around the house and I'll share them with you.


This wooden swan was bought about 20 yrs. ago. I bought it at a craft show. There was a gentleman who carved birds of all types for a living.


Here is another swan I have. This is much larger than the first one. I bought this swan when we were in Maine on vacation. We loved that vacation so this swan means alot to me. I love its graceful neck!


Last summer when John, Jenny, Kevin and I went to this antique place near where Jenny and Kevin live I spotted this little iron, rusty birdbath. Now I like rusty iron things but I felt it would look better if I sprayed it a creamy white color. This little bird along with the other little bird on this birdbath is just so cute!


I love the drawings of Marjolein Bastin. This was a little picture I picked up to frame. I haven't found the perfect frame for it yet so I just propped it up on the mantel.


Jenny and Kevin bought this little bird votive holder for me for Christmas this year. They always buy me some little bird item for in my garden. I have it inside right now but will take it out when it gets warmer.


I have a whole collection of Lenox birds. This little house finch is so cute-I love the coloring. When Megan was little I came into the living room and saw Megan standing on a chair with the little chickadee in one hand and the bluebird in the other and she was smashing them together. When she heard me come into the room she said, "look Mommy the birds are fighting"! YIKES, she had my coveted Lenox birds and were smashing them together. I told her that the little birds liked each other and they didn't like to fight. She put them down and I inspected them. The little chickadee has a small chip in the tip of one wing but the bluebird was perfect! I guess the bluebird won-LOL!! It is amazing that both birds weren't smashed to pieces!



This little bluebird we found in a potter's shop in East Boothbay Maine. We were on vacation and saw this shop. I love pottery and so does John so we went in. She had alot of little birds made out of porcelain. I bought my Mom a chickadee, 2 sparrows for my sisters and the little bluebird for us.

So as you can see I am a birdlover, just like my paternal grandmother. She taught me so much about birds and I feed them year round just so I can see them everyday! Thanks for joining me on the "bird" walk around my house! Everyone enjoy your day!

"24"

I have to admit I am addicted to the show "24" starring Kieffer Sutherland! I have always liked drama/crime solving shows and was mesmerized by CSI: Miami, NY and Las Vegas when they first came on. I think this is the 8th season for "24" and I'm not tired of it yet. I missed the 2 two-hour season premieres this past Sunday and Monday. I have been catching up with the episodes on www.hulu.com. Thank goodness for hulu!! Jack Bauer has been a very busy man this season so far! John and I have Episode 4 to watch tonight and then we'll be all caught up and just in time for Episode 5 on Sunday!

The weather here has been wonderful!

I feel like a warm breathe of Spring has arrived in Charlotte! The weather has been wonderful (accept for some rain on Sunday afternoon). I haven't been wearing a coat and I've ditched the sweaters for a little while. I saw some red buds on my peony tree that I have in a container in the courtyard. It is also staying lighter later (well just a little bit)at night. This is great weather to take walks after work-Teddy will love that!! I know that Winter isn't over but it has been a wonder respite for the last few days! I'm goint to enjoy it while I can!

Saturday's Happenings and Miscellaneous

Last night my parents arrived around 5:00 and my Mom, Dad and I went to Applebees for dinner. Today was our son-n-law Kevin's 29th birthday. Jenny, Kevin, Megan and Ken (plus my parents, John and I) all had lunch here. I made hamburgers, macaroni salad and deviled eggs. Jenny made the birthday cake. She did a great job, considering cooking and baking isn't her forte! YAY Jenny!! We all had a nice visit. Jenny and Kevin then left to go to a movie across the stree. Mom, Dad, Megan and Ken all left at the same time, which was around 3:30. My parents were going to get into Virginia and then stop for the night. Tomorrow they will drive the rest of the way home to NJ. After everyone left about 45 mins. later John left for work. I made myself a cup of tea and grabbed my book for some much needed relaxation!! Tomorrow John will have to work too and I have a custom jewelry order I need to finish so it can be mailed out on Monday. I've taken some pictures of today's celebration and visit. I also took some Valentine's Day decorating I started. I brought my lemon tree in the house when it started to get cold this Fall and now it is loaded with blossoms! I hope I get some lemons and yes, I will make lemonade-LOL!!!


Jenny made a cake for Kevin. She did a good job!



Dad, Mom and Megan at the table waiting for their cake.


It's a little dark but I think you can see the lemon tree. I keep it in this corner of the dining room where it is a little protected from foot traffic.


I was trying out different shots with my new camera. I thought this one came out really great!


I put the red and off white check handwoven runner on the kitchen table. I also thought the two little sparrow dish would look great with the silver candlesticks.



I left the cutwork velvet runner that I use for Christmas on the dining room table and added the wrought iron and glass tray with all the lovely little flower pots. I have some more decorating to do but it's a start especially with company this weekend.

Thanks for joining me on my little tour!

TGIF!!!!!!!

I think this picture says it all! Everyone have a good one!

The South is starting to come out of the deep freeze!/Haiti Earthquake

It is so much warmer today! When I walked out of the house to go to work I didn't gasp for breathe! It is suppose to be in the 40's today-YAY!! By the weekend it should be in the mid-50's and only dropping to the high 20's at night. I have the start of a cold and I really didn't need that bitter cold with the wind at all.

On another note: My prayers go out to the people of Haiti. What devastation has come to their country. Our minister's wife, Pam was in Haiti when the earthquake came. She is ok, but doesn't know when she will be able to get back home. We have a sister church in Haiti and one of our Church families is hosting a young man while he goes to college here in Charlotte. I'm sure he is extremely worried about his family. Everyone please keep Haiti in your thoughts and prayers!

The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore

I just finished reading The Glassblower of Murano and really liked that. I was left wit the wonderful task of picking a new book to read. I loved reading about Venice and wanted to keep reading a book about another country so I chose The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore. I started to read and I think this is going to be another good one! I am a gardener and always have been so I was drawn to the cover of this book. There is a woman standing in a field with a very distant village ahead of her. The village is very blurry so you can see that she is quite far from it. Around her though are glorious flowers, lots of flowers! From what I can see in the slightly disorted picture the flowers are poppies, petunias, dahlias, lavender and roses. The woman on the cover is wearing a very bright orange colored dress with her back to us. Should be a very interesting book! I'll keep you informed. Everyone have a very beautiful day!

The weekend was a lovely as I thought it would be!

Hi Everyone! It is still really cold here in Charlotte but it is suppose to warm up-by Friday it is suppose to be 55 degrees and rainy. We'll see if the weather fibbers can get it right. I did truly have a wonderful weekend! I made some jewelry, read alot, relaxed, had some quality time with John, caught up with friends at breakfast on Saturday and just took it easy! It felt wonderful to be able to do that after such a rough, stressful 2 1/2 weeks at work! I almost finished reading The Glassblower of Murano-thoroughly enjoying that book. I'm trying to decide what book to read next! The parents are on there way down from NJ to here. They were suppose to be here at 5 pm tonight but they got stuck sitting on Route 81 for 2 hours because of an accident that involved a car fire! They won't be here until about 10 pm. They will be leaving at 6 a.m. tomorrow! They also said they wouldn't be stopping on their way back from Florida this time. Oh well!

I hope everyone is staying warm and cozy these past few days! Everyone have a lovely evening also. Talk to y'all tomorrow!

I have a lovely weekend ahead of me!!

Did you ever have a weekend you were so looking forward too? Well this is my weekend! After a very long week at work I accomplished all the LEED stuff for a project I was working on and now I can enjoy my weekend without any worries of how many points I can get for my company!

First thing tomorrow John and I are meeting our dear friend for breakfast. Roxanne and Melvin lived in the neighborhood we used to live in. It should be a really nice time.

Next some time during the day Jenny and Kevin are going to visit for a little while. They were initially coming down to buy a flat screen TV at Best Buy and use John's employee discount but they found a really good buy tonight up by their house so they bought it! It will be nice to visit or go out to a late lunch with them.

Next I'm going to make some more jewelry or sparklies as I like to call them for my blog. I made a few pairs of earrings the other night for Valentine's Day but I was only able to get one of the pairs of earrings to upload to my etsy site. Hopefully I'll have better luck tomorrow!

I also plan on drinking lots of wonderful Madacasgar Vanilla Red Tea, read my book, listen to my other book and just plain enjoy myself!! Another good thing is John will be home all weekend-he has off!!

Everyone have a wonderful weekend and enjoy!

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My Dad's having cataract surgery today

UPDATE ON MY DAD: My Dad came through with flying colors and can see pretty good already. He was a little tired from the medicine they gave him but other than that he said it was a breeze! Thanks for all the prayers and concerns!




My Dad is having his cataract surgery today. As most of you know he has Lupus and sometimes they just don't know how he is going to react to surgery, medications, etc. He is having one eye done and when that one heals he will have the other eye done. Please keep him in your prayers today! Everyone keep warm and have a wonderful day!

Baby it's cold outside!!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr, is it cold here today! I think the thermometer read something like 5 this morning!!! It isn't suppose to be that cold here in Charlotte, NC!! I feel like I'm back in NJ! I know it is colder there than here and so is most of the country. I am ready for the temps to get back to normal but the weatherfibber said the whole week is going to be like this. I guess Duke Energy and Piedmont Gas will be really happy-more people having their gas and electric on to keep warm.

On another note, I would like to thank everyone for all your prayers and kind words about Jenny's miscarriage. Tomorrow she goes to the Dr. and hopefully she and Kevin will finally get some answers.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm day!

Not a very good start to 2010

I'm sorry to say that Jenny lost the baby on New Year's Day. She and Kevin are doing ok, but it is still heartbreaking for them and our family. She will be seeing her Dr. on Tuesday and they are going to try and figure out why she keeps having miscarriages. Please keep them in your prayers.