THE SISTER'S PHOTOS

All these years whenever the sisters got together we had to have a "sister's photo". These are a couple of the better ones. Don't you love those glasses? Remember the matching nightgown photo? I will have to find that one! Yesterday I finally got around to scanning photos that Bev loaned to me for the Family Tree. If anyone has some photos they would like included you can email them to me. I am still experimenting on the best way to add them to the FT web page. Some of the old ones scan showing a lot of red color in them. All I have for a photo editing software now that I have Vista is Piccassa, which is okay but they recently changed it and I have not quite figured out the new way of doing things. Was that one taken at my house? I kinda remember those drapes and that funny lamp.....it seems so long ago. If it was not at my house I have to say the drapes are lovely and I LOVE the lamp.

 

 

Christmas is over

We had a nice Christmas Day talking to family on the phone and watching Christmas Movies on TV. Of course the big favorite is Christmas Story. Dept 56 came out with a Christmas Story line of lighted houses this year. Ralphie's House, Ralphie wearing pink bunny pajamas, a theatre and other buildings. Then Lenny got a bad thing on his computer called MS anti-spyware 2009....It is NOT anti-spyware!!! The spyware things I have on that laptop could find it but not remove it. It wasn't hard to find because it was in my face begging me to buy it in order to get rid of it??!!! Finally managed to download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware although the pesky ant-spyware kept popping up with no way to click out of it. I managed to run the malwarebytes thing and it did the job!!!! Found more than one trojan (it said) and seems to have removed the bad one. Now I am running it again (the deep cleaning scan that will probably take two hours)..so far it hasn't found anything bad. The Malwarebytes thing is free, although there is a version for $25. I may install the free one on my laptop too because it seems to be a good thing. Its raining again. Supposed to be in the 50's here tomorrow. Back to Cream of Wheat, or maybe oatmeal this morning. Those caramel rolls were so good but shouldn't eat anymore. We have great leftovers too...ham. Lenny wants pea soup. I can do that! We loved our video of Kass and Erin singing. The big slurpy kiss from the dog was almost like being there. I have the cutest grandchildren and Granddogs!

Christmas Eve

We had our Christmas Eve dinner of tomato soup and Italian bread. We ventured out in the pouring rain this morning and ended up at Panera Bread for lunch so we were not real hungry tonight. A lot of the streets were like lakes with the rain and melting snow. I made a pumpkin pie for tomorrow and a pan of caramel rolls for breakfast tomorrow morning. We will have ham, mashed potatoes and corn tomorrow too. My sweet little granddaughter "hates" mashed potatoes and corn so it has become kind of a family joke. We really like both. I got a very pretty silver necklace for my birthday. I took a picture of it for when it is stolen I will have it for insurance purposes. I sent my list of stolen items off to State Farm a couple days ago...so will see what I get out of that. Those caramel rolls smell great. I am really into baking bread. I was looking at the King Arthur catalog and decided to send off for some sourdough starter and try making sour dough bread. Can also make pancakes, waffles etc.with the sourdough. I make awful pancakes, which is okay because I beleive it is the only thing Lenny cooks (to my knowledge anyway). Oh yeah, he does french toast too. Having tomato soup for Christmas Eve dinner reminds me of when we had Christmas Eve dinner at the Flying J truck stop in Durham, North Carolina. Lenny had just gotten out of the hospital after being very sick with Ecoli and we needed propane for the motorhome so we wouldn't freeze so we just decided to eat there. It wasn't all that bad and there was a lot of people eating there. Another year we had Thanksgiving dinner at Shoney's in Charlotte, North Carolina. That was really good. Oh well!!! My wish is for everyone to have a wonderful time.

New York, we aren't coming!

We were up at 1:30 and got to Toledo. Got to the Train station on time, but the train didn't. The train was in Chicago and NOT coming. We sat around and got to know the rest of the "wanabe" travelers. Lenny went out and helped an old guy who was stuck in the snow/ice. A lot of people were laying around sleeping. They announced the train might leave Chicago at 5 a.m. and get to Toledo maybe around 10:30 a.m.. That would make our arrival in NY with luck about 11:30 p.m. The car rental place closes at 6 p.m. So we would have to sit in that train station until tomorrow morning when the snow, freezing rain was supposed to be under way. We decided to cash in the tickets and come home. We can fly there after the New Year. Lenny's mom had made me a cake and a blueberry pie for Lenny. They had made a big pan of Fleleshke, a Checkoslavakian dish that tastes really good. I know thats spelled wrong. They were wondering what they would do with it all. Now it is snowing here. We went to get groceries and cars were running in ditches etc. We will just stay home. I got a half ham for Christmas dinner. If the weather looks better we may go out for dinner tonight, but got a pizza. I am making a loaf of Italian bread. I should go unpack my bags. Now we know that trains are no better than planes.

New York, here we come!

I am half packed. We will be up around 2 a.m. tomorrow I suppose to go to Toledo. Our train leaves around 4 a.m. Our weather is good today and supposed to be okay tomorrow. Our last train ride was on the dinner train in Stillwater. That ride is about 3 hours long and you are served a wonderful 5 course meal. A group dressed in 1940's clothing including army uniforms stroll through the dining car and sing world war II songs. Very nice and entertaining. I heard that they went out of business but may have started up again. Anyway, I don't think we will be serenaded on this trip, but the food in the dining car may be very (expensive) good. There is a cafe car too with sandwiches etc served all day.We will decide tomorrow where we will dine. I am packing trail mix and granola bars for emmergency use. I think those trains can plow through a lot of snow, but you never know. I am just glad we are not driving. We still have an hour or so drive from Albany to Afton. Got extra batteries for my solitare game...my IPOD is charged..got my book and a spare in case I finish it so we are ready! May everyone have a Happy Christmas!

Another snow storm! Looks like Christmas!

Dept 56 Snow Village

I took some pictures of my Snow Village, If someone breaks in and steals them all I will have photos for insurance purposes. I am totally worried about theft of my possessions these days! Our village (Monroe) looks kind of like this today because we got about 4 inches of snow last night. More forecast for tonight. Its pretty but required removal in our long drive-way and was slippery in spots driving this morning. I am baking a loaf of plain white bread so smells great. I have not bought a loaf of bread in maybe 5 months. Someone around here seems to prefer wheat bread because he thinks its healthier..kinda cancels out the ice cream! I know! This is pretty boring so I will quit and do something else.

Macy's Christmas

We took the light rail from MOA to downtown MSP to see the Macy's Christmas display. It is "A Day in The Life Of An Elf" this year. It was wonderful and Erin was so excited. She was busy looking out for Daddy's Police car on the train trip. She got a big gingerbread man cookie which she ate the head off first. Four year (almost five) olds are so much fun. She jabbers non-stop and has lots of questions. We will really miss her now that we are back in Michigan. Today I visited jewelry stores in our mall to get prices on my stolen jewels. A lot of it was gifts purchased a long time ago by people who are now dead...how do you put a price on Mom's wedding ring from 1937? It was a precious connection to my wonderful parents. Someone suggested I look at Ebay and Craig's List as they may be on there. We don,t even know for sure when it was stolen. Oh well, have to get over it although I don't feel very safe in my own home anymore.

Back home!

We made it home about 3 p.m. yesterday. Drove through snow all the way through Iowa. We stayed overnight in Peru, Illinois, Made it through the Chicago traffic mess easily. Traffic was not bad. Weather was okay. We didn;t see a snow flake until we got off the freeway in Monroe. We walked in the house to find we had had a break-in. The back sliding door had been forced open. They broke the lock and the board we used to doubloe lock it. Then they broke the door into the 4 season porch from the first porch. Okay we got two porches! Anyway they bashed that door to smithereens. The frame work was laying on the floor so we realized something was wrong right away! My dresser drawers were half open just like in the movies. They pretty much took all my jewelry that I was not wearing. So we spent a couple hours with the Police. They took fingerprints and photos. They said they had just arrested a guy a couple days ago, but I am sure some drug dealer is wearing my jewelry right now. I am afraid they will come back. Lenny will be fixing doors. I think I will go buy timers for lights. I just keep getting more upset as time goes on. We probably have not discovered everything that is missing yet. Luckily I had our two laptops with us. The rest of our TV's and electronic stuff is older and not worth much. Today it is 40 and raining. Will all freeze tonight. We went grocery shopping so can hibernate until weather is good again. I am going to put up my snow village, if they didn't steal it all. I will put a photo of whats left later!

School is over!

Today was last day of Lenny's school. He had a final test today and came out of the whole thing with an A. He sure studied enough to deserve it. We are thinking we will take off Sunday morning for Michigan. Tomorrow I am going downtown with "the girls" on the light rail to see Macy's Christmas display. I haven't done that in many years. Back when it was Dayton's. It was always wonderful. Saturday is Christmas celebration in downtown Lakeville, I am sure Erin will love that. By then she will be up to 6 different Santas. She thinks they are just "helper Santas" and you never know which one is the real one. Tonight we are going to Teresa's for dinner with Lauren, Jade and Celeste. Kerry and Kass may show up too.

Snow and cold

Actually its a nice day, although a bit slippery driving this morning. I just kind of stayed at home except to drive to car dealers to pick someone up and then take him back to pick up his car later. Tomorrow I am off to MOA to finish shopping. Our days in Minnesota are growing to a close. Friday is last day we HAVE to be here and we will be off to Michigan when weather looks like it will be good for driving. I will miss the shopping here..and Cub foods. We don't have good shopping in Michigan near us. I save money though with Kmart and Walmart the main stores. We DO have a Kohl's but not much else. Enough whining!