These I love

In no particular order:

Cuddles and kisses from little Jeff.
Cuddles and kisses from big Jeff.
The blogs of my kids.
Comments on my blog.
Fruit and nut Toblerone.
Sunny days.
Brightly coloured spring flowers.
Piano students.
Hot chocolate in the morning.

Walking to church.
Slabs of butter between two graham crackers.
Gathering with friends.
A good poem.
Any chocolate by Lindt.
Mozart.
Chopin.
Jamie Cullum.
Digital cameras.
My house.
Facebook.
Kangaroos and koalas.
Children singing.
Riding my bike.
Outdoor concerts.
Holidays.
Protest rallies.
America.

Ain't life grand?
I could go on, but you would find it tedious.
Feel free to add your own list.
In the comments section.

This and That

I've been feeling a little bored again lately.
And boring.
I think it's the empty nest. As much as I love having a house that stays clean and the luxury of not HAVING to be busy if I choose not to be, I miss my peeps.

In a couple of months we will have a full house again. Mum is coming for four months, starting in the middle of April. Then Annie arrives for a month, Charlie for probably three weeks of leave, and Edwin will also be here for a week. So for at least a month I can cook and entertain to my heart's content. I will hug Charlie to death, put Edwin to work (he's such a handy soul), make smoothies for Annie, and try to fatten Mum up. Then, by the time Mum leaves in August, I will appreciate my empty house once again. Variety is definitely the spice of my life.
So here are a couple of things I've been doing to relieve the boredom this week.

I know I promised a fascinating idea for Valentines Day, but it was a bit of a bust. I found this website, where you can upload photos, set them to music, and make your own video. It seemed like a fantastic idea. You can make a 30 second video for free, so I made one and tried to embed it here, but I couldn't get the embedding to work. However, the process seems sound, and you can make full-length videos for only $3, so I may try it out again at a later date.

Yesterday, Jeff and I went to the Yard, Garden and Patio Show at the Convention Center in Portland. A friend gave me tickets, so it was a bargain. Only $6 for parking. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering the aisles, wondering at times what some of the booths had to do with the subject of the show. Socks? Really? Trivets? Dip mixes? I suppose you can do almost anything on a patio that you can do inside the house, but some of the connections were tenuous at best.
I found some lovely glass necklaces (see preceding thought) and Jeff was happy to let me get one for Valentines Day. Yeah, like he had any choice, right? But he is always gracious about my purchases, he says it's my reward for sticking with him all these years. And this lovely, um, thing, for holding flowers. Maybe my arrangements will finally look like ikebana. Right.

If you want to see some truly beautiful ikebana arrangements, go here. And yes, my daffodils are blooming. Spring is almost here.

Friday night, I got together with a few friends and we canned chicken. It's a surprisingly easy process, although I am quite fearful of pressure cookers. Go see Kellene's instructions if you want to give it a try. I love this woman more and more.
Six little jars of chicken breasts.

Today, I tried cjane's recipe for a crock-pot chocolate cake. It's very similar to my favourite recipe, it just uses a little more liquid. I've never tried baking a cake in a crock pot, but it worked wonderfully. I used a Triple Chocolate Fudge mix and added dark Dove promises. I think the Promises were a little too bitter after being cooked, so I will use milk chocolate next time.
Here's the recipe:

1 box of cake mix
1 c sour cream
1 c chocolate chips (or other chocolate treats)
4 eggs
1 small chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 c oil
1 c water

Mix by hand.

Spray crock pot with non-stick spray, put batter in the pot.

Cover, cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 3 to 4 hours.

Eat hot with vanilla ice cream.

We took it over to Jon and Jenny's place.
Jeff loved his.
Thomy said, "I don't like chocolate cake."
Sigh.

Speaking of Charlie...

...he has started a blog. You can catch his ruminations in my blog list at The Life of Oz.

Warning: I cannot vouch for content on his blog. He is 19 and a Marine. His idea of language and idioms that are acceptable for polite society do not always coincide with his mother's. So read at your own risk.

However, I am sure that he will narrate some interesting adventures, so the risk may be warranted.

Funny, I used to call Jeff "Oz". I can't even remember when I quit doing it. His Uncle Al has always been Oz as well. It seems like one male in each generation ends up with the moniker. I am often asked by people if we are related to Ozzie Osborne. Isn't that name a redundancy? I am ever so happy and relieved to tell them "No." Although his daughter spent some time at the addiction rehab facility just down the road from us. So I reluctantly admit to a slight connection to the family.

I'm working on something for Valentines Day. I hope to get it posted soon enough that you can utilize it for your own needs, if you so choose.
Keep an eye out.
Right here.

Now, I must be off to Freddies.
Jon called to tell me that their Rugers are on sale.
Woohoo!
Armament serendipity.

Charlie update, updated

Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable. Plato.

When Charlie was a child, he had beautiful hair. I remember the first few times I cut it, before he was maybe two, I would have to chase him around the garden with the scissors. He had lovely white-blond hair with little curls. As he got older his hair darkened up, as did the hair of all of our kids. For a long time I gave him bowl cuts. They were kind of awful, but I think he looked cute. And don't you see how silky his hair was? Ah, but I wax sentimental.
Now, my Marine wears his hair in a buzz-cut. Strictly military. It's so short that you can see all of the scars that he accumulated on his head in his childhood. Not attractive at all.

I thought you might be interested in an update on Charlie's life. As it turns out, to my relief and his dismay, he will not be seeing any combat this deployment. It being the Marines, we're not supposed to say too much, but they have mostly been on board a Navy ship doing training and security work in several different countries. He spent Christmas day snowboarding in Dubai. Nice life if you can get it!
Someone posted this photo on Facebook so I stole it. It's the only photo we have of him since he left.

We expect him home in April, all things being equal.
However, this is the Marines, so we remain flexible above all else.

P.S. I found this photo on Charlie's facebook album. I'm not sure if it's from his days at Camp Pendleton or his deployment, but it depicts the new Charlie a little better than the small photo.

Home Improvement in Spring Lake

While I was fairly idle at Annie's house, I did manage to get a few things done. And if you know me at all, you know I count my worth in the number of things I get done in a day.
So here is the photographic record of "Stuff that Nana did at Annie's house."

Bought a new curtain rod so that the living room curtains will look elegant.
And coerced Edwin into putting up the rod.

Cooked up a bunch of ground beef into spaghetti sauce and shepherd's pie meat.

Bought a new 400 thread count sheet set, including four pillow cases, for their bed. I love good sheets and figured it's where Annie spends most of her time lately. Also bought two co-ordinating cushions for the bed. What would we do without Ross and Marshalls and their ilk? Then HAND-SEWED a duvet cover for the feather comforter out of two sheets. Yes, my friends, hand sewed. It took me about four hours of fairly small back-stitch. No sewing machine, don't you know? Annie loves it. The lump in the bed is she. She had a migraine the day I left so I told her just to hunker down while I took the photo.

Talked Annie into buying these pretty sheers at TJMaxx to replace Edwin's ugly old faded blue curtains. Sorry Edwin, it had to be done!

Finally, some pictures of the happy couple.
And Roxy.

Lists

Things That Make Annie Throw Up:
Dog smell
Lumps of meat
Chocolate chip cookies
Citrus
Talking on the phone
Sitting at the computer
Dairy products
Water
Mystery smells in the carpet
Ice cream
Car travel
Moving around
Smoothies (sometimes)

Things That Don't Make Annie Throw Up:
Fish
Smoothies (usually)
Sleeping
Bagels
Air freshener smell
Cheesecake Factory's Godiva chocolate cheesecake
Mashed potatoes
Lemon juice in water
Watching TV
Bananas
Sierra Mist soda
Shopping
Edwin

Do you see my dilemma?

Edwin's last line of defense.
A carton of Breyers Triple chocolate icecream.
To which he has, fortuitously, sole proprietorship.
(See above lists.)

Nana's new pal

I'm in North Carolina.
Which I probably couldn't find on a map.
But here I am.
Annie and Edwin live outside of Spring Lake, a few miles from Fort Bragg, which is where Edwin works every day. Lately, he has been working excruciatingly long hours, rigging and packing supplies for Haiti. We're proud of our boy.
Annie is about ten weeks pregnant and doing the family thing, throwing up all the time. I managed to coax her out for some shopping on Thursday. I had to, you see, because I threw out their non-stick pots. They were in sad condition and probably very unhealthy. We hit Ross and TJMaxx in Fayetteville and found some nice stainless steel pots with thick layered bottoms. I love a good pot.
Earlier that day I took Roxy for a walk. It was a balmy day, almost like summer. Roxy is a Labrador/German Shepherd mix and is a sweetie, but she is not leash trained. Me, I have never owned a dog. Needless to say, our first walk was interesting. I spent most of the time spinning in circles, trying to untangle myself from the leash as she wrapped it around me. Then, as soon as we headed for home, I could hardly keep up with her.

Ellen gave me some tips, so I tried again on Friday. Every time Roxy pulled on the leash, I either turned around and walked in the other direction, or stopped and pulled up on the leash. We made slow, slow progress. Even Roxy was starting to look up at me like I was crazy, so who knows what the neighbourhood thought.

I think that by the time we got home, she was starting to get the idea.
Today, my shoulder feels wrenched.
Thanks Roxy.

For some reason, now she loves me best of all. Last night, Annie called her to go back to the bedroom when she went to bed and Roxy wanted to stay with me.
Ha!
Smart dog.
She knows what all my grandkids have learned.
Nana loves her best!

I was hoping to get out and continue our walks today, but we woke up to snow covered with ice. A strangely inconsiderate turn of the weather, especially since the warmest thing I brought with me was my raincoat.
I sometimes think that I would like to have a dog.
But then I remember three things.
Dog smell.
Dog poop.
Dog hair.
And I think maybe I'll just be Nana and come visit.