Mid-Life Bliss

The most WONDERFUL news in the world is.......

Our Sergeant is HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jennie called when he was 10 minutes out from landing and then she called again to say she got to see him for about 5 minutes.  She won't be able to see him for a couple of hours.  I could hear it in her voice how happy she is to have him home.

It is so hard to believe that after being separated with a deployment for 1 year and 42 days this couple will finally be together again.  It's been a long hard road for them.  Our Daughter-in-law toughed it out at Jakes home post alone away from all her family.  To keep busy during the long days alone, Jennie worked in her Nursing field on post, trained for a half marathon and even went back to school to finish her Bachelors of Science in Nursing.  Sometimes, times were good, and sometimes, times were down right bad. 

Jake's life during deployment wasn't easy either.  Being newly married and away from your bride is very hard and to top it off your country is counting on you to do your job.

He's home now so life can move forward for these two.  Jakes tour with the Army will end soon and life will be theirs to do as they see fit together.

Welcome home Jake!  We love you and we are very very PROUD of you, and Dad and I will see you soon.

 

My prayers have been answered that he come back to us safe and sound.  Please don't forget those brave soldiers that are still away from home.

Judy

It's Growing!

Remember the lettuce I bought the other day?  Well it's starting to grow.  I planted it and it's looking pretty good.  I have it sitting on my window sill above my kitchen sink where it gets the morning sun.  I'm not sure how long to let it grow before I can pick the lettuce off.  Maybe a trip back to the grocery store to have a chat with the produce man is in order.

As I was looking out the window I spied what I think was a mama bird feeding her young.  I couldn't quite tell because they moved away before I could get a better picture.  But viewing the picture closer I'm thinking that I'm right in my thinking.

I finally filled the bird feeders up.  One feeder I haven't yet as there was a Wasp's nest under the lid.  When I went to go fill it up about 5-6 Wasps flew out.  I ran away as fast as a 46 year old could.  I'm not fond of getting stung.  We seem to have an abundance of Wasp nests around this year.

Yesterday I tackled my kitchen counters that were piled high with papers and mail that seems to pile up on a regular daily basis.  That sure felt good.  Most of it was JUNK MAIL.  We seem to get a lot of it these days.  So in it went into the circular file, only ours isn't circular, ours is rectangular.

Well, I probably won't be posting for awhile as we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning.  Sadie heads to the kennel tonight.  I'm starting to get used to that.  She was very excited to see us last time which I worried about.

Oh, and still stayed tuned for the wonderful news. 

You all have a wonderful day and a super weekend.

Judy

It's the middle of the week

I haven't been taking pictures lately so I will share with you some flowers from my garden and from on a walk that we took.  I picked these two because it seems like very time I go to take a picture of a flower there is some kind of bug on it.  I guess the bugs like the best flowers like I do.

 

Not much going on other than now I need to get packing for our trip up north.  On my list is to call the kennel today to see if we can bring Sadie there Thursday night.  We plan to leave bright and early Friday morning.

It's been pretty quiet around here with Lauren gone.  The 3 adults living here are gone to work during the day, so it's just me in the house with the occasional entry of Jim and Josh coming to get something.  Erin likes her new job and is pretty tired when she gets home at 5:30.

Remember there is some wonderful news coming soon....and no Diane I am NOT pregnant  (LOL).  That one had my sister laughing.

You all have a great day today.

Judy

ABC Wednesday~Zebra Mussels

Today is the letter Z for ABC Wednesday over at Mrs Nesbitt's Place.  Head on over for more Z posts.

Zebra Mussels have invaded the Great Lakes and many other bodies of water.  Click on the two links to read more on the Zebra Mussels. 

Here are the Zebra Mussels in our area.

Here you can see the sand.

Now here the sand is getting less visible.

Now there is nothing but Zebra Mussel shells. 

Zebra Mussels are invading the Midwest, and can be quite devastating. Looking at these pictures you can really see the results of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

How fast can you type?

54 words

Speed test

TBA

Working hard and getting it done

Finally I made it to the flag shop.  I picked up three seasonal flags for my yard.  Here's one of them.  I'm not sure why I didn't take a picture of the other two.

 

Also we finally put in the electric fence.  It took them all day but the guys did it.  We are not going to start training Sadie yet until we get back.  I think starting and stopping would not be good.  It might just confuse her.

I found this growing in between the bricks on our patio.  Petunias sure do pop up in the most unusual places.

This morning was a much better morning starting out.  Phil has moved back home until the wedding.  We'll enjoy having him home again for a few short months. 

I realized with the summer months here I haven't really tried any new recipes.  I did make up a couple of new dishes myself last night though.  Sorry no pictures.  When I get to the end of my menu week before I make a new menu.  I start to lose ideas on what to make.  With Jim and I both trying to eat healthier I was really scrapping the bottom of the barrel in my fridge and pantry.  But....here's what I came up with.

I took chicken breasts and put them in a glass cake pan.  I found some fire roasted peppers in my pantry.  I drained them and layered the peppers over the chicken breast and baked the chicken covered until they were done.  I found the taste fine some may find it very bland.

I also found a bag of seasoned Ore-Ida hashbrowns in my freezer.  My dad bought them but didn't realize they were seasoned (I'm thinking they are a new product) so he gave them to me.

I made cheese-less cheesy potatoes.  At least my version of them.  They were actually very good.  They must have been the pan was empty.

I took the Hashbrowns and added 1/2 container of Fat-Free Sour Cream.  I then melted 1/2 stick of Margarine and stirred it into the hashbrowns and sour cream mixture.  I baked them about a 1/2 hour.

I'm thinking with the potatoes being seasoned that you really didn't need the cheese or anything else.  So those are my recipe shares for the week.

I hope you all have a wonderful day today.

Judy

Frazzled, tired and any other word that might apply

That's what I'm feeling right about now.

Woke up this morning at 5:30 a.m. to a river flowing through my house.  Someone (who will remain nameless) left the hose to my washer hanging out of the laundry tub.  That someone needed to move it to wash his her their hands after working on cars this past weekend and DH who always puts a load of clothes going in the wee morning hours on his way up to the office did not notice that the hose would drain not in the laundry tub but on the floor when the washing machine goes into it's spin and rinse cycle and drain out....sigh. 

Well the good news is I don't have to wash that part of my floor today.  So something good does always come out of something bad.  Even if you have to stretch it a bit. :)

I'm thinking I need to be back here right about now.

Now that I've got that all off my chest. 

This is going to be a very busy week.  Friday we leave for the U.P. and Laurens Confirmation.  There are also a couple of weddings on Saturday that we are thinking of going to.  We'll either stay until Monday or leave back Sunday afternoon for home.  Then....on Saturday we will leave to see Jake who should be home.  We don't plan to get to North Carolina until Sunday night so we are going to have a little stopover in Nashville. YEAH!!!!  My utmost favorite place to visit.  If things go well we'll head out of Nashville towards Knoxville and maybe just maybe I'll get to meet Angie if the timing is right. 

I haven't been taking any pictures lately but I did take this one the other day when we went for our walk.

Today is office day so I'll be off and running.

You all have a great day today and I'll try to too.

Judy

My Favorite Flowers are starting to Bloom

I am so excited.  My utmost favorite flowers are starting to bloom.  Boy do I love this time of year.  I wish these could stay all year.

I know they don't look the best for being the first blooms of the season.  But I don't care.  I still love them.

This one is pretty good.  I can't wait until they are all in bloom.

Sadie loves to run around the yard when I'm weeding and yesterday was no different.  She'll run until she drops.  Of course she had to eat some grass while she was resting.

I sure hope your weekend is going well.  Summer is going by so fast.  I wish we could hang on to it somehow and slow it down. 

You all have a wonderful day today.

Judy

I'm tickled Pink

Julie from Jane's Apron did a mosaic on summer-y flickr photos and one of my pictures is in it.  Go and check it out. :)