WANNA SEE MY NEW STUFF??

When we were on vacation last month we were shopping and I told Darren I wanted a little china tea pot and sugar/creamer set to put in my little curio. I don't have much in there now, so I just wanted a little something. As we were looking around he asked me how many people were in my bunko group. I tell him 12. The next thing I know he's up at the register asking the sales clerk if they have 12 saucer/dessert plates. They didn't, but they found them at other stores and shipped them to us. So my wonderful husband bought me not only the tea pot, sugar, and creamer, but 12 sets of dessert dishes. According to Royal Dutton, this pattern is THE most popular, so you may recognize it.

Last weekend it was my turn to host bunko, so instead of the usual three games, we played two games and then we had tea and dessert!! Here's a picture of the group enjoying my gift! It was really fun. This was the first bunko I hosted since our remodel, so the theme was kitchen. I had everybody bring a recipe and while we enjoyed tea and dessert we exchanged recipes. I can't wait to try them all!




Here's a close up - the plate is pretty small, not even big enough for a piece of pie, but I guess when you are drinking from a tea cup - holding up your pinky of course - you are to eat lemon scones in small bite sizes! You could go hungry being all proper!! :o)

Then last night Darren bought me a new car!! I didn't ask for it - in fact, it was tough giving up my Mazda. I loved my little blue Mazda. But Darren got a deal he just couldn't pass up. Now that he works for Polk, we don't have to only drive Nissan, Suzuki is a client of his, so that's what we got! Since they are a client, Polk employees get a discount on their vehicles on top of whatever sale they may be having. So we took advantage of it. It had 10 miles on it when we drove it out of the lot. And it has that yummy new car smell!! No McDonald's french fries in this baby!! It seats seven, so now I can tote lots of peeps around!



It has a sun/moon roof - I've never had that before, kind of fun! Let me know if you know where a drive in theater is - perfect for a drive-in!! It has a navigation system already built in and a year of free satellite radio. So now I can drive anywhere without getting lost - I have a horrible sense of direction. In St. Louis I always just looked up until I saw the arch, then I knew where I was. Unfortunately, L.A. has yet to build me a big monument to help guide me!! But now they don't have to!

Isn't it pretty?

Darren took it to work today. I have to drive over to Burbank this morning and I didn't want to drive it in traffic just yet. I'd like to have a better feel of it first. Plus, Darren is learning all the bells and whistles, where things are and I need an orientation before I start driving it!!

I love new stuff!! :o)

HOW CUTE ARE MY NIECES???

It was homecoming this past weekend in my little town of DuQuoin, Illinois. I used to love homecoming in high school. The week leading up to homecoming was filled with building our big floats, parties, cruising from the Dairy Queen to Food Park about 100 times, TP'ing, bon fires, and just hanging out with friends!! So fun! Back then teachers wouldn't give homework so we could enjoy Spirit Week and be out every night! I can't remember if it was my junior or senior year but my bestest friend Margaret and I sang "Oh Mickey You're So Fine," until we were practically hoarse!! I'm pretty sure we were obnoxious about it, but at the time we probably thought we were just so cool!!


This is my niece Kayla - she is 16 and my sister's daughter. She has a lot of my characteristics - poor girl! She has my laugh, my smart mouth, and sense of humor. My sister's always telling me things she says and does that are me! I think the dress is a bit short and a bit low cut, but she does look pretty.


This is my brother's second - the middle child!! Sophie is so quick witted that it's hard to keep up with her. Her and I just badger each other when we are together, but we have so much fun. Even with me and my dad together trying to out wit her - we just can't do it!! How cute is she?!


This is MacKenzie, my brother's oldest. She's also 16 and very much a girl's girl!! Her myspace is filled with lots of pictures of herself posing and being all cute!!


Here are the two sisters together!!

Sophie is a freshman and MacKenzie (and Kayla) is a junior. Man how time flies. I remember when each of them were born. It's amazing how fast they've grown up. It was strange the first time I had an 'adult' conversation with them. I can't wait to see them when I'm home next!!

LOVIN' THESE COOL EVENINGS AND NICE BREEZES IN THE DAY!!

HOPE IT RAINS AND GETS EVEN COLDER - I'M READY FOR A POT OF CHILI!!!

That's all...just that!!!

AIN'T WE FANCY??!!

Last weekend our friends, the Cherryholmes, hosted an engagement party at our house for their daughter Rhonda and her fiance Daniel. I love doing these kinds of things - in fact, if you took my 'get to know me quiz' you learned that as an adult I would love to be a chef and cater fancy parties for rich people (because they have the big houses and cool kitchens)!!! Unfortunately I can't cook like a chef and I don't have the creativity, but I like to try!! Pam let me get pretty involved in planning and I even convinced them to cater only part of the food and let met cook up the rest. Our friend Wendy helped, and Pam and me we outcooked the caterers! We got more compliments on our items!! Yes, it was fun going, "oh, that one was me!!" :o) How snotty am I?! Pretty snotty!!

Anyway, the pictures below are some highlights - they are out of order and I got frustrated trying to maneuver them around, so excuse the poor display!


Okay, so the picture is of Rhonda and Daniel, but we had a dessert spread laid out on our coffee table in the family room - check out the baby bundts. Pam and I searched the world over for baby bundt pans, because we wanted pretty little bundts! We could only do four or six at a time, then we decorated them, I shaved carrots to line the platter for the carrot cake ones, we decorated with raspberries and would you believe only about three or four were eaten. Cheesecake - everybody wanted cheesecake. We kept having to clean the platters, reload more cheesecake and decorate again and again (Greg Cherryholmes is quite the artist!!). It was fun, but darn it, I wanted someone to eat a bundt cake!!


Here is one of the pictures of our back yard. We hung white lights and it looked great with the Tiffany colored tableclothes and white roses!


This is the front food table. We put some of our appetizers on this one. I don't know if you can see the frames, but I put in the frames what meal Rhonda and Daniel shared on their first date and the night they got engaged. Kind of fun food facts about them!




The two above pictures were taken aftewards. That's me in the kitchen, I'm working on something there - or I'm crying from exhaustion!!! :o) The table with all the left over items - what belongs to who?! I was hoping one of the crystal vases would get 'accidentally' left behind, but no such luck!


Since the party wasn't really about me I should include a picture of the happy couple!! This is the end of the evening and they are opening up their gifts and cards. By the smile on their faces I'd say they liked the cash!!


Okay, this one is for fun! I know that Dave looks at my blog every once in a while and so do his girls, Lori and Michelle - but look at his plate - apparently the dessert/salad sized plates just weren't big enough!!!


Another view of outside - wish we had better pictures - it really was a romantic feeling evening!!

My Lucy is in Kitty Heaven now.



This is Simon's mommy Lucy. I just wrote about Lucy and Simon a couple of posts ago. For the last few weeks Lucy hadn't been eating and became very lethargic. Lucy lives with Darren's parents back home in Missouri. So Grandpa Williams took her to the vet and there was nothing they could do for her. She was put down this morning. She used to follow Grandpa around all the time and liked hanging out with him at his shop - which is a big garage that Darren's dad piddles in - see my birdhouse in a previous post!! So Lucy was taken home and buried next to the shop. She turned ten in May, so being an outdoor cat who had a huge yard - acres - to roam, she actually lived a long time.

Lucy was a petite little cat who is just beautiful with cool markings. I'm surprised at how I have reacted to her death. Darren told me this morning before he left for work - as I was putting on my make up - and I burst into tears. I've been weepy all day. Even though Lucy has not lived with us for several years now, I'm still incredibly sad.

To some of you, I'm sure you are thinking I have a strange and abnormal attachment to my pets - maybe I do. But I blame that on Darren and I not having children - my mothering/nurturing side has to go somewhere and the only place is my pets. So yes, today I mourn for Lucy, my cat that Darren let me bring home with me while visiting his parents on Father's Day, 1997.

I would like to ask you cat haters out there to please leave your anti-cat comments to yourself this time. :(



A close up shot - isn't she just so pretty with her white mustache!!

GIVE ME A MOMENT TO COMPLAIN.....

Take a look at this picture of the brain - see the little colored area, that's the pituitary gland. If you read a previous post, you know I have a lesion on it which has caused havoc on my body.



Here's where I'm complaining - Can you believe something so little can cause so much trouble!!! I'm sick of it and I'm wondering if I could just make a small incision in my head and laser the lesion/growth off!! I've been taking Parlodel for four months now and I've had some side affects - not sleeping as much, a crazy appetite, I can't get full. I'm hungry all the time. If I don't eat, I get headaches and shakes - it's like I haven't eaten in a week which is why I've gained like 100 pounds in three months! Everything seems to be in overdrive....and I do mean EVERYTHING!! (My husband hasn't complained yet!!) haha!!! Too much info??

Anyway...I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and he put me on another med to try to counter some of these side affects. I took them together last night and today I've been soooooo dizzy, major headache, throwing up, sweating like crazy - even though today is our first wonderfully cool day in a while, and I'm so stinkin' sleepy. I called my doctor and the pharmacist. I'm not supposed to take them together - in fact the pharmacist said, "Oh my gosh - you should NEVER do that," in this frantic tone. I'm supposed to take them at least four hours apart if not more.

So I'm just a little grumpy because I'm tired - I'm tired of dealing with it, I'm tired of taking one med to try and shrink the mass, bring prolactin levels down, and make certain organs/systems work appropriately. Then I take another pill to try to keep side affects from happening so extreme from the first pill.

I will probably be on Parlodel the rest of my life. The lesion/mass could eventually become dormant in my head, but that can take three to ten years. If that ever happens then I can go off the meds. But for now, it looks like I'm in for the long haul of med taking. YUCK!!!!! If I take the Parlodel too late at night and get up early, I'm dizzy and weird feeling all day. I hate this medication - it's running and ruining my life!! Yes, I'm a little dramatic right now - I know, but that's what I'm feeling now. Plus, it makes the blog entry much more interesting, don't you think?!

I know I shouldn't complain. There are people out there who suffer a lot more than I do from things much more serious and life threatening - I'm just having a pity party tonight and thought I'd invite you all in with me!!!

Thanks for coming!!

HOT HOT HOT NIGHT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL

We went to the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night to Movie Night. Every year they host a movie night with a different theme. This year it was the history of Paramount Pictures. The orchestra played theme songs and original music from several of Paramount's biggest movies. While that was going on we were seeing clips of the movies on huge screens. Leonard Nimoy was the host for the evening and since my husband is a geek boy who likes Star Trek, he was very excited about this!!

It was a really fun night, but sooooooooooo hot. At intermission we all stood up to stretch and relax and it was actually pretty gross - we all stunk!!! :-) Thank goodness some people behind us left and we spread out - that actually helped a lot. But it was still an enjoyable evening. I love going to the Bowl - and I love sitting right in the middle and seeing the Hollywood sign right above it on the mountain side!


If you squint, you can see the Hollywood sign at a distance!!


This is us doing the picnic thing before the concert. Lots of people had the same idea, so we found a spot behind one of the buildings on the grounds. We all brought something and contributed to the meal - we had a hodge podge of food - the only way to have a meal!!! :-)

The best (and only way to me) to get to the Bowl is via the shuttles they offer. We made it home in less than an hour - that includes the trip back to the parking long, and the drive home! No traffic, no waiting for the parking lot to empty, etc. We were saying next year we are going to invite as many people as we can and fill a shuttle!! How fun would that be??!!