A busy week!

 The weather! Close the windows, put the AC on. Turn off the AC, open the windows. Repeat, repeat. 

Snakes are up to date! 

We went down to see Eddie before he left for Prom. So handsome!

We all had to get our pix taken with him! That cheetah print shirt!

Even Honey Rose had to get in a picture!

49 years! Wow! So long ago, and yet it seems like last week. My adorable flower girl now has a daughter who just graduated college! 

We went to Texas Roadhouse for our anniversary dinner. We didn't feel like getting dressed up or going to far, and we're always happy with their food. I love their herbed chicken! 

It's supposed to be a cool and rainy weekend for the holiday weekend. 

Hot weekend!

 Hot as in 93 degrees! Yikes! Luckily, we just had the AC people out to give the system it's annual checkup. Not that we couldn't have turned it on before it got checked out.  We haven't turned it on yet, we'll see how it goes. Monday it's only supposed to be in the low 70's.

My roses are still looking good!

Not the best pic, but it's a fruit bowl. There's a new place called Philadelphia Provisions. We first got a chef salad that we got like 5 salads from! Yesterday Ralph got an order of sausage scallopini and I got the fruit bowl. The basis is açaí berry, it's cold and a consistency between water ice and ice cream. It's topped with pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, granola and coconut. I had about a third of it, and the rest is in the freezer.

Another color set done! It's 48 inches wide, which surprised me. And so far, 21 inches long. Today I'll take a break from it and bring the snakes up to date. I try to work on them twice a month, and I'm a little behind. 

I'm up to over 3 miles most days on the bike! Ralph has a clamp in it so I can attach my iPad mini, and read while I ride. I'm re reading the Mercy series by Patricia Briggs. Werewolves, shifters, fae and vampires, oh my! 

So my plan to avoid the heat is to crochet, catch up on some shows,  and read. 

Spring is back!

 Our zone's last freeze date was yesterday, so it's safe to plant. I ordered canna bulbs, and they have been shipped. I also got moonflower seeds, which I shared with Heather. My mom always had moonflowers when we were kids. 

My roses are still looking and smelling so good!

We went to the Salvation Army thrift store, and I got another stack for Julianna!

LOL, when I'm winding yarn into a ball, my watch thinks I'm on the elliptical! It also does not record steps when I'm holding a shopping cart. Silly watch.

Three full color sets done! I wanted to both work on it, and watch some of the zillion shows I have on the DVR. 

I did my 3 miles on the bike this morning. I'm averaging 5-7 times a week to use it, first thing in the morning. Reading while biking helps so much. I put music on, then tune it out. 

Thursday

 Another week zipping by!

My roses are looking so good, and opening more every day!

I didn't add a lot to this while Steph was in, too busy visiting!

Tuesday we made a trip to the thrift store. We hadn't been there since January of last year! These are for Julianna. She told her parents she liked Dystopian books, and they had no idea what that was! They told her to text Aunt Manda and Aunt Steph. She also likes vampires. The Babysitters Coven got me by it's title! 

We ordered a bonus gift for Heather, after Ed said she tends to squish bugs on his walls and mess up the paint. They should arrive next week. Ralph has one and uses it all the time.

We may go to another thrift store today, we had such a good time Tuesday. Ralph came out with bags of stuff!

A wonderful weekend!

 We had such a wonderful long weekend! It being Mother's Day weekend was a side effect, not the main reason.

These two came home! We hadn't seen them since October 2019 when we cruised with them. They got in Thursday night, picked up cheesesteaks, and had a late dinner with us, then headed for their hotel- Steph had lots of hotel points that will be expiring.

Friday, we had brunch with them, then they were off to a get together at Dan's parents, with Dan the surprise to his mom and dad. Saturday they spent the day with friends. 

Sunday, we met them at Heather and Ed's and we spent the day together.

I got to hug the kids maskless! First time in over a year! 

The important men in my life! Missing Ben and Garrett.

Two thirds of our children and children in law! We enjoyed pizza and cupcakes together. Heather considered making food, but they eat vegetarian or vegan, and everything she wanted to make had ingredients one of us is allergic to, so she decided on pizza.

Manda sent me the shirt I'm wearing in the pix, made by her, and mini cupcakes!

Heather gave me the snow globe of Mom, roses, and wrote me a beautiful card. Steph and Dan gave us the gift of their presence, which was the best gift ever!

Monday Steph did our taxes, then we took them out to lunch at Olive Garden. They said OG on the west coast is tasteless. Then they were off to the airport for the long ride home.

While we were having lunch, this girl got braces! She gets cuter by the day! And such a sweetie.

It was a wonderful long weekend.

An exciting day!

 But I'm sworn to secrecy as to why! I can't give out details til Sunday afternoon! 

This week I made oven cooked pineapple, which didn't photograph well. You put brown sugar and cinnamon in a plastic bag, add the pineapple to coat the spears, dot with butter and bake. It was really good and juicy. And Pepperoni and mozzarella Stromboli made with pizza crust in a tube. Last night we went to Applebee's and I had the chicken bowl, which was good. 

I sent this to the little kids, it was on Deals & Steals.

Snakes are 1/3 done and long enough to be wrangled by my cute wrangler.

Apache Tears is moving along. The temp colors make a nice rainbow. 

It's cooler today, high of only 66, so the windows are back closed. I did my 3 miles this morning, then tidied up the kitchen.

Breakfast

 Another week starts! The plan was to go food shopping this morning, but it's dark and cloudy out, so that can be postponed til tomorrow.

Breakfast enchiladas! Easy to make, took about 5 minutes to prep last night, and 45 minutes to bake this morning. This is a half recipe. Stuffed with breakfast sausage and cheese, topped with an egg and half and half mixture and cheese. It got the Ralph seal of approval!

Apache Tears! Probably so named because it drove them to tears til they got it going! I'm still not crazy about the right edge. The counts are correct, but it doesn't look straight. I'm a lefty, so the left edge where I start the rows looks great, the right edge not so much, but that's ok. 

I didn't get my biking in this morning, Ralph was asleep in the guest room. His arthritis has been bad, and when he gets up during the night he moves in there so he doesn't disturb me. He was up for a couple hours last night, so he slept almost til the enchiladas were done. 

Addie La Rue was a bust. I read the first 150 pages, then skipped to the last 50. It was just meh. It needed serious editing for length and rambling on. I'm so glad I got it from the library and didn't pay for it. Oh well. As my late mother in law used to say, that's why there's vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

Happy May!

 May 1 was actually chilly! We had to close the windows and turn the heat back on. It's supposed to be 80 today.

This kid doesn't care! he just bundled up and went out on the jet ski anyway!

His mom and sister went on the boardwalk instead!

Best calendar ever! Heather collected photos from her sisters, and made us all the same calendar.

We went to an early dinner, and brought home so much food! Fill up on salad and bring home most of the entree!

We made a library stop to pick up requests. And we made a stop at the Auction, and got a pretzel.

Ben and Joey's snakes are done thru the end of April! 

And the Apache Tears is moving along. It's going better now that the pattern is established.

And these two met halfway between Seattle and Portland for a sister lunch and gift exchange! 

I've been riding the exercise bike 6-7 times a week, and today I did 3 miles! Ralph rigged up a clamp, and I can read on the iPad mini while I ride, so the time goes by so much better. It took about 20 minutes to do the 3 miles. I do it as soon as I get up, or it won't get done. 

I'm reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue for our Cookie Swap book club. It had been on request for about 2 months, and I finally got it. I'm 100 pages into it, and it's going slowly. Mary Beth hated it, Sarah loved it, and so far I'm meh about it. Hopefully it gets better.