fa la la la la

I love listening to Christmas music. I have been known to listen to it during the off-season and not just because my iPod hasn't been updated in four years, but because that is how much I like it.

However, I am finding that the commercials this holiday season are ruining Christmas songs. There is one retailer in particular which historically has had clever marketing in their commercials. Instead they've chosen the annoying route and it's ruining my favorite type of music.

I just thought I'd share. 'Tis the season.

here's what's in store...

for the weekend.

Starting tomorrow evening, we'll be having Heather O. over for dinner. On the menu: Hamburgers (cheese optional), homemade baked beans (the beans are soaking now), homemade potato chips, and strawberry shortcake.

Saturday, Heather W. will be coming for her traditional Memorial weekend visit. We have sandwich fixin's for lunch. For dinner we'll be having either steaks or ribs and whatever else we feel like eating. Then Sunday night dinner will be whichever meat is left over.

Extras include; corn dip, potato salad, onion rings, homemade biscuits, apple pie, and Bill's big Sunday breakfast. 

Oh yeah, we have salad fixin's too. 

And there will be ice cream!!!

Have a safe and fun weekend!

Happy Mom's day

Happy better-late-then-never Mother's Day to our mom's and all of our friends who are brave, courageous and strong enough to be moms. We admire you and love you. And wish everyday could be full of thank yous, flowers and love as you received today.

Life in the Midwest

If you're not from the Midwest or have never had the pleasure of visiting our beautiful section of the country, you should know we are pretty friendly here. 

Neighbors help neighbors (I've borrowed sugar, our neighbor has borrowed Baking Powder, they've cleaned the snow off our driveway both when we've been home and out of town, we share plants, food and lots of laughter).

We say hi on our walks. Dogs and kids use everyone's yard as their own.

Today was no exception when a woman driving her car stopped to ask us directions. Glenn, Bill and I actually had no idea where she was going, so I ran inside and grabbed the iPad. I looked up the address she was searching for and went back to tell her how to get there. She was pretty close, but needed a dead-end street that she probably would not have found (and for whatever reason she didn't have a cell phone with her). 

Then, as I was walking over to D.d.'s, a man was out with his adorable little hound. He didn't have the dog on a leash (very common around here), but the dog wasn't listening. As I passed the man I said, "it looks like a game..." because the dog would stop and wait for the man to get about ten feet away, and then he (the dog) would take off running down the sidewalk. The problem I had with this is the dog kept crossing the streets that were perpendicular to the street we were walking along. It's a pretty busy street. I was so afraid the dog was going to turn and run out into that street. I was walking faster than the owner, so I caught up to the dog. He came running right over to me, so I let him sniff me and gave him a little scratch on the ears as I reached for his collar. The owner caught up and put the leash on him. That made me feel much better.

As for Cinco de Mayo, yes, we will be celebrating. No matter that we have no Mexican or even Spanish in our blood. It's basically an excuse to eat food that likely has nothing to do with that culture anyway. I'm making skillet tostados. I'm sure they're going to be delicious.

See? We even like to share holidays. 

have a wonderful 4th of July...

Because it's Independence Day.

Because Savannah is an old city and seems to be the epitome of a holiday such as this.



Because we hung a ceiling fan without incident.

Because it is a gorgeous day outside.

Because it is summer.

Because it is my brother-in-law's birthday (which I should now point out, only because I just realized it, both of my brothers-in-law have holiday birthdays! Shawn's is St. Patrick's Day and Jerry's is today, cool).

Because we watched fireworks in South Haven last night.

Because it's time to go take a ride in the Corvette.

Because today is a great day for a cook-out.

Because we are a free country.

Because men and women have fought for our freedom.

not the holiday fireworks

We decided we would watch the fireworks tonight. We are lame. We don't want to watch them tomorrow night because they won't start until 10:30p and we both have to get up the next morning. I think we're going to enjoy them tonight because we're going to go to South Haven to watch them. It's going to be Pure Michigan craziness, but what's the 4th of July without some crazy?

We had planned to go last night to the Kentwood fireworks, but ended up having too good of a time at the cook-out (thanks Chandra and Jason!) and Bill whined his way out of going. We would have been able to see them just fine had there not been trees in the way. We thought about cutting them down, but they were in the neighbors yard and that would have taken too much time (and I'm joking; I posted this link on my facebook page yesterday, you can call me a tree hugger or whatever, I don't care what you call me, I like earth and Mother Nature). So we didn't see any fireworks last night.

Whatever you do, whether it's a parade, fireworks, a cook-out or something else; enjoy your freedom. We can do what we want because of our Independence. Happy 4th of July!!!

face full of dirt

It's Memorial Day and we fly our flags and thank those who have served our country (and are serving right now) and we remember those who have left this life, most of us cook out on the back deck, garden and enjoy the unofficial beginning of summer.

Bill and I are no exception. As mentioned, our friend Heather W. comes to visit and we spend the majority of the weekend working in the garden. Yesterday we got rained out, so this morning after pancakes, we headed out to get some trimming done and the rest of the yard work wrapped up. Heather left after lunch and Bill and I still had a smaller pile of mulch to move. I was working in the back along the property line and he was filling in the spot where the swing goes. As I was filling in with mulch I was also pulling out the maple and red bud trees that have sprouted everywhere. One of the maple trees was more of a sapling than just a sprout so I had to get my trowel to remove it. As I was digging, lifting and pulling the roots came loose and I'm not quite sure what exactly happened because I managed to close my eyes as I got a face full of dirt. I shook it off, and walked over to Bill, laughing and asked if I had any bugs on me. He said no and then helped rinse me off.

I'm sure there are worse things than a face full of dirt, and that our veterans and soldiers experience much worse every day of their service. I hope we remember the hard work they do and remember to say thank you.

Sundays, ice cream, and Star Trek

Bill was working on breakfast when I got home from church. It was fantastic as usual. Once the dishes were washed, Heather and I headed out to the garden behind the garage to sort out the mulch/weeds/flowers/path. It took us about two hours with one lemonade break. The storm was headed our way (for those of you who have sunshine, we are in the midst of a thunder storm) and we finished just as the rain started. We sat on the front porch for a short while. Then Heather and I decided it was time for ice cream. We had perfect timing, open parking a very short line and a place to sit under a covered porch. Once we finished our ice cream we came back home to find Bill watching "Star Trek Nemesis". The storm continues and it's supposed to get stronger. We may have a new risotto for dinner tonight or just popcorn. We haven't taken a consensus yet and it's only 4:15pm. How long is this movie?

holiday weekend checklist

1) house vacuumed - check

2) house dusted - check

3) bathroom cleaned - check

4) laundry - in process

5) slept in - check

6) ready to garden - check

7) typical Michigan weather - check

I am ready for the weekend. I would prefer a bit more sunshine and slightly warmer temps, but they're saying it's going to be in the 90's on Monday. I also heard a high of 85, so I prefer the 85, but won't complain about the damp chill that it in the air today. I'm going to go plant my tomato plants now!

It's Easter, time to cook!

Any major or minor holiday has become a reason for me to cook. Who am I kidding? Any day that ends in "y" is a reason for me to cook. This is why Bill and I walk two miles every week day. Add in my cooking and summer ice cream runs, and I better keep doing yoga every day too!

I found a strata recipe and I asked Bill if I could make it for breakfast this morning (I am not stupid, I must ask permission to skip Big Breakfast Sunday, I don't want to piss off the cook) and he said sure (I'm sure he doesn't mind the break). I assembled it yesterday. It has artichoke hearts, cubed ham and cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Oh and some bread.

I'll be honest, after assembling this dish and doing dishes for the third time last night, I hoped and prayed that this dish would be worth it because I was close to exhausted. Of course when we got home from church the strata still had to bake for an hour... so we waited. Bill was close to whining and then I reminded him how long it took to assemble and that it would be worth it (my fingers were crossed). Before the timer even went off, our house was filled with this glorious smell. It was like the artichoke dip I make with the addition of ham... It was worth the wait. This may be an Easter breakfast tradition.

Later, I'll be making the mustard bacon wrapped pork roast, risotto and deviled eggs. We will also have more cake for dessert (like we'll need it). Maybe we should take a walk today...