Friday, April 25, 2008

... and Baby Makes Four!


Remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about DD having a surprise for me? Well, here it is! I'm going to have a 4th grandchild!! How wild is that???!!! I'm VERY excited!

Yesterday they did a 3-d ultrasound and here's what he/she looks like:

For those of you who are ultrasound -challenged, I'll map it out a bit. The head is on the left. the hand closest to us is in its mouth, the other one is pointing toward the umbilical cord. On the right side you see waht looks like a little finger poking up.. that's the right leg. The left leg is hidden by the umbilical cord (that enormous thing close to its leg).

Ok, all together now, "AAAAaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww!"

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Microwaved tea vs Boiled on the Stove & steeped

I love hot tea. For a l-o-n-g time now I've been preparing it by filling a mug with water, adding a tea bag, & nuking it for a couple of minutes. It had been forever (think years) since I'd actually boiled water on the stove & poured it over the bag in the old tried and true fashion.

Well, last weekend DH was working on the kitchen & had the microwave moved out to the back 40 somewhere so I resorted to boiling water to make the tea. Guess what? It tastes different!

When I lived in England the importance of starting with cold water, & bringing it to a rolling boil was really stressed. I couldn't really taste a difference when I started with warm water just to see what would happen (wild and crazy 18 year old that I was).

Several years after I moved back to the States my friend Peggy made me a cup of tea using the microwave. Since it was so quick and easy I started making it that way too, and have continued to do so ever since.

What I discovered on Saturday is that when boiling water is poured over the tea bag it really brings the flavor out. Earl Gray tastes like Earl Gray instead of Lipton's. English Breakfast Tea tastes like English Breakfast Tea instead of Lipton's... you get the drift!

Does this mean I'm abandoning microwave tea? Nope, as a matter of fact just this morning I nuked my tea. What it DOES mean is that if I have a special tea and want to see how it REALLY tastes, you'll find me huddled over the stove waiting for the water to boil in its slow, old-fashioned way! Now, where did I put that whistling tea kettle?

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Good Times!

Didn't want to go to bed leaving you with the semi-depressing blog I wrote a minute ago, so here's a more positive thought:

This time next week I'll be visiting one of my very favorite people in the world! He also happens to be one of my children. What a blessing having offspring you love so much and enjoy being around! So many parents can't, but my kids have grown up to be the type of people that I choose to have as friends, not just relatives.
:-)
:-D

Friday, April 11, 2008

Morning: make cinnamon rolls; Afternoon: die.

This morning my friend Wanda's co-worker went to her job as a cook at an educational camp for children. She made cinnamon rolls, did all the usual stuff, and left at lunchtime. A couple of hours later Wanda got a phone call - her co-worker had died!

She was in her late 30's & appeared to be healthy. We don't yet know what happened. The worst part is that she has a son who's a senior in high school; his dad died 1 1/2 years ago.

The boy is such a private person that when he returned to school after his dad's death, he told those who asked that he'd been at Cedar Point (amusement park) with his mom. He didn't tell any of his fellow students that his dad had died.

He's a good kid and the principal is offering to let him stay with him until the school year ends. He has no relatives in the area, and has pretty much kept to himself.

Why am I telling you all this? Because it has just been going through my mind over & over & I'm hoping that by writing it down it will no longer dominate my thoughts. It's such a sad situation, so hard to understand why something like this has to happen.

DH said "well, it just shows how unpredictable life can be - you never know when it might end." Kind of freaked me out because that's about the third time in the last few days that somebody has said that to me.

Think somebody's trying to tell me something? (Not that I think I'm about to die, just that maybe I need to make some big changes.) Only problem with that is that it would involve moving 400 miles, not very practical.

Is Organizing a Hobby?

Ok, went into my scrapping room tonight with every intention of making some pages but could NOT decide which pictures to use. I think I just have WAY too many photos! Anyway, instead of scrapping I ended up taking photos out of an old album and dividing them up by subject. (I'm going to do some subject albums instead of chronological ones.)

This is all fine and dandy except that I've spent SO much more time organizing than scrapping! Maybe I'm exhibiting signs of OCD... or maybe my real hobby isn't scrapping, it's organizing! Hmmm...

Monday, April 7, 2008

oh my!

Isn't it interesting how the most unexpected things sometime happen. Wow! That's all for the moment, just wow!

Nah, it's not really all.. you know I have to say more than THAT! LOL Well, DD gave us some news and you could've pretty much knocked me over with a feather! It's a joyous thing, just odd circumstances.

Anyway, I'm going to go with the joyous part of it instead of freaking out about the rest. :-)

I'm having a blast with her & the 3 girls right now. The middle one went to work with me today & worked her little heart out, stapling, stamping, highlighting, and just generally having a ball (she loves to play office). :-)

Tucked them into beds about an hour ago (an early night) and am about to go there myself (well not to the SAME beds but you know what I mean).

Good night everybody! (Prayers for DD wouldn't be a bad idea.)