Wishing you a Happy Happy Birthday!!

Its my girls birthday!! And I am not there to sing in person--- But I know she knows I wish I was.... She's 23!!! Can you beleive it? I looked through pictures to make this post and I can remember each and every one of them like it was yesterday. I remember the little girl who refused to go to kindergarten because they wouldn't teach her to read... the little girl who had tea partys in the front yard with baby dolls, the little girl who had a shower curtain under her dinner seat practically til she started dating-- and the little girl who fell head over heals with a boy in her typing class --that same little girl who wanted to come home from college after just one day and the little girl who made me so proud when she graduated from college and got a job so far away... I remember it all and I hope she will remember just how much I love her...

Soap box for the day

When you don't know what to do,
do the work in front of you
Calvin Cooledge

I saw this somewhere on-line this morning.. and my first thought was how true-- there is always something that needs to be done no matter how big or small. Whether you are at work or at home.
Many times it seems those "things" are just not what we want to do.

Then I started to think about Calvin Cooledge, and the fact other than he was president I didn't know much about him.. A quick Google search brought up this where I read this:

The political genius of President Coolidge, Walter Lippmann pointed out in 1926, was his talent for effectively doing nothing: "This active inactivity suits the mood and certain of the needs of the country admirably. It suits all the business interests which want to be let alone.... And it suits all those who have become convinced that government in this country has become dangerously complicated and top-heavy...."

Very interesting huh? So now with that quote in mind it brought me full circle to our current president.. Its no secret that I think he is trying to tackle too much. So does this quote apply to him... does he not know what he should do so he is just jumping in everytime he has an opinion?? Certainly they gave him a manual when he was elected that told him that while the world around him was crumbling it wasn't his job to address EVERYTHING-- delegate --- Case in point-- should he really be discussing small town police departments? Isn't there something on a more global platform that needs his attention... Alittle too much BIG GOVERNMENT for me...

Maybe he should be working on explaining to us hard working Americans why we have to provide health insurance for people who CHOOSE not to work. Or worse yet those that are not citizens... I am all for shoring up the gaps in our health system-- people who get up every day and work to feed their families deserve good medical care at an affordable price. Seniors who put in their time and now get to enjoy retirement shouldn't have to worry about health insurance. But those who refuse to work--should not get the benefits --I mean really isn't their prime benefit the ability to sleep in everyday??? We all make choices

just alittle ribbon

Sometimes its just alittle ribbon that finishes off a package, a scrapbook page, even a basket--- Maizy might not agree though... I cleaned out a junk drawer that had some older ribbon in it and thought Maizy might like to be BEAUUUTIFULLLLL.. I was wrong... she wasn't happy at all about wearing a ribbon. Even though I thought it brought out all sorts of cuteness... She was so unhappy that she slept in her dog bed!!! ALL NIGHT--- my kind of unhappiness... Me thinks me gonna find just alittle more ribbon for her to wear if she it keeps her off my bed and in hers!

Are they red yet?

Its been all about reorganizing again this week.. one would think there is nothing left.. but taking babysteps seems to be working and it keeps me on track. I actually did a clean sweep of one side of the room and the desk just so I could figure it all out (thanks to my buddy Jo in TX for pushing me forward on that one) ... and today I finished up measuring furniture.. I know it would be a shocker if I actually bought a piece of furniture instead of repurposing-- who knows... stranger things have happened. Although I was informed this morning that tires are on the gotta buy list for this month....

Moving on, Kristy and Mike came over for dinner last night- Seems they too have been bite by the tomato bug and spend their evenings admiring their veggies growing in pots just like we do. I am thinking we all have too much time on our hands that we can admire veggies every night. We are finally getting some red tomato's slowly but surely. And we plucked our first green pepper this week....
And of course Maizy likes veggies... hahaha it wouldn't be a post without her right???

All American-Eagle weekend.

We scooted back down to the lake this weekend because Christopher overslept last weekend and didn't go and it seems it was on his mind all week.... Despite the fact that we went for him we really didn't see much of him or his buddy he brought... They got up to fish "second shift" as they called it--5:30am was too early when Mike went out..Came home and then hopped on Heathers boat for the rest of the day ....they did come home long enough to eat dinner, shower and change and then the girls came back for them... Mike and I picked them up Sunday morning when we took the boat to get gas...

I have noticed a trend-- when we are there by ourselves (which we essentially were this weekend) we spend more time on the boat then we do on land... Saturday and Sunday we spent most of the day trolling around visiting our favorite haunts on the lake. Enjoying the sun and jamming to our favorite radio station (ok the one and only good station down there!)

Saturday night before dinner we did get a nice surprise when we were sitting on the dock-- We saw an eagle swoop in with a fish in his claws. 45 minutes later and about 100 pictures he finally flew off. We see alot of eagles at the lake but never one perched in our cove-- great entertainment.

Of course Maizy wasn't entertained at all... she decided bird watching was best left to us and she snuck a nap in.

progress

Remember last week? The spray painting-- well thats how it turned out... Originally before the project I have always had the two bulletin boards together over my work space.. but now with the paint and new bold fabric it seemed a bit much... so I worked on changing it up a bit... moved one of the boards next to the desk and added a bit of ribbon to it... so now we have one plain and one with alittle bling...

Relaxed

Relaxing weekend.. We had spring like weather on Friday- Hot summer temps on Saturday and overcast and rain on Sunday---A perfect progression if you ask me. Lots of relaxing-- of course the boys had their projects... we have a new railing to keep the dogs from rolling off the deck, alittle chicken wire fence to keep the dogs from escaping through the pine trees and they did some sort of electrical project. >

We made it to the fireworks again this year-- the boat seemed surprisingly empty without the kids. We were happy that Brian and Krista arrived Saturday-- with engagement news no less! Its always nice to add new people to the weekend--keeps the conversation lively-- and Brian was great at telling us all sorts of funny stories from his time spent at Gitmo-

I did a poor job of taking pictures because the one picture that should be here was my fantastic pie-- (read: it looked good--but tasted bland) Toni had mentioned she had alot of Apples left from her mission trip and she was bringing them with strict orders that we would EAT them all-- I mistakenly mentioned a quick fix for that would be an apple pie--- shame on me... not only did Robin tease me all weekend until I finally broke down to make the darn thing-- but as it turns out we had no flour to make a crust.... (Cue Mike to volunteer a trip to the store!--always a bad idea)... once we had crust-- pie making was quick work-- too bad it they weren't pie baking apples--- oh well-- I was off the hook and bonus--ALL the apples are gone!

Mike actually fished twice this weekend... and Maizy got to kiss another fish... hmm there might have been an attempt to nibble... she will learn!

Back to reality tomorrow!