So Much To Do, So Little Time!

I'm feeling a little frustrated. I should be in bed right now (it's after midnight), but I have to stay up late to get everything done that I want to do. Maybe I have too many hobbies. But I don't want to give any of them up. Or maybe I'm just a little too anal about keeping my house clean. But I wouldn't be able to relax and feel good about myself if I didn't keep it clean. Maybe I don't manage my time efficiently. But I think I'm pretty good at planning my day out and prioritizing. And then there's the laundry, the grocery shopping, our business (the real job that makes the money), the husband that feels like he needs attention, grandchildren I like to have visit, and the list goes on. So I try to take care of all the "have to's" before I can justify my "want to's". I also love to garden if it's nice out. I like to cook and make two meals a day at least 5 days a week. Since my Bob works from home I make a sit down lunch as well as dinner. Now let me make it clear, I'm not complaining. I have a nice life and I'm very fortunate in many ways. I love being a domestic goddess and trophy wife --- HA! HA! HA!, but it takes up a lot of my knitting, quilting, writing, reading time. Sometimes I wish I didn't have to sleep at all and I just can imagine so much more that I could accomplish. No, I am not complaining at all. I'm just trying to figure out a schedule for myself.
Well, I am getting tired now, so I'll turn on my little book light and read for a while, then I'll lay there and contemplate my schedule for tomorrow.

Not Your Typical Wedding

Saturday evening, some very good friends of ours got married. This is the first marriage for them both and they are 40 years old. We are so happy for them. The wedding took place in Pittsburgh, which is about 100 miles south of us. We were supposed to spend the night Saturday night after the wedding at the Hampton close to where the wedding was held, but my Bob decided he'd rather drive back home and wake up in his own bed in his own home. My parents were also with us. I have to say, I was happy for that decision on Sunday morning. He's right. It feels good to sleep in your own bed.

So back to the wedding --- Staci, the bride, started out as my interior decorater whom I purchased a lot of my furniture from and she's given me many good decorating ideas. Over the years she has become a very good friend of ours. She just turned 40 and was convinced that she would just never marry. Then she met Frank. Frank is very wealthy from an inheritance of a gas drilling company and his job is playing golf. Hey, good for him! He had asked Staci to decorate his condo for him and the rest is history. (she signed a pre-nup) Now they are in the process of building a new home in Punxsutawney.

The Happy Couple

Back to the wedding --- This was the most unusual wedding I had ever attended. Very artsy-fartsy. I loved it. Staci's brother has a photography studio/winery in an old Fire House in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. This is where the wedding was. The ceremony with their 100 guests was held on the top floor of the building. This is the photography studio. Staci's brother (Doug) is a very accomplished photographer and does most of the photographs for the Steelers and the Pirates. He also owns all the Roberto Clemente memorabilia and has the Roberto Clemente Museum in part of the top floor. The basement level is a winery and Doug's wine is wonderful.

Staci had decorated with grape vines on arbors, with candles hanging from the arbors. After the short ceremony, the reception was held on the main floor, which used to be the garage for the fire trucks. Several of the guests slid down the fire pole to enter the reception room. There was a singer/guitarist to start, then a DJ. Wine was tapped and poured straight from the barrel. And they had flown in a professional magician from Atlanta that walked around from table to table doing magic tricks. He was good! This could have been kinda cheesy, but it wasn't because he was so good.

This was definitely not your typical church wedding, but I loved it!

Me and my Bob

Thanks For the Tag!

Life is a Meme-ingful Experience!I have been MEME tagged by http://mzzlily.blogspot.com/ and http://charmine-myfavorites.blogspot.com Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 6 people, more or less. And here we go . . .
What are your current obsessions? knitting, quilting, spending time with grandchildren and family, gardening, cleaning, decorating and organizing, blogging, reading.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often? sweats

Last dream you had? That something happened to my son. I don't want to talk about it.

Last thing you bought? New placements and runner for kitchen table

What are you listening to? The Ellen Degeneres show

Favorite holiday spots? Key West, Florida; Tuscany and Vienna; Carmel, California

Reading right now? Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone" - excellent!

Four words to describe yourself. loving, sensitive, creative, and a little obsessive/compulsive

Guilty pleasure? knit or sew during the day when I have work to do

Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak? My girlfriend, Francy, and her mother, Dorothy

Best spring thing to do? Clean up my yard and garden, if it's warm enough out

Favorite drink? Cappuccino in the winter and iced tea in the summer

Dream vacation? Any of the above vacation spots, but with no time limit and let alone to relax the whole time

Favorite ever film? That one with Richard Chamberlain - can't think of the name

Care to share some wisdom? Everything always works out for the best.

Something you are looking forward to? My new grand baby being born within the next month.

What is the strangest thing you have ever eaten? Pig's blood while I was in Spain. It was cooked or fried and is a delicacy there, but I thought it was disgusting.

One wish? That everyone in my family always be free of stress, worry, and any unhappiness.

Favorite TV Show? American Idol

And now I am tagging:
http://askgrandmaj.blogspot.com
http://cozylittlehouse.blogspot.com
http://melissasheartandhome.blogspot.com
http://romantichome.blogspot.com
http://snootyprimadona.blogspot.com
http://marphilback.blogspot.com

And anyone else that may enjoy participating. It's kinda fun!

Am I Getting Lazy, Sick, or Just Old?

It seemed to be a busy week and I feel so tired. I just want a whole day to spend alone without having to go anywhere. But in looking back, it was a good week. I think the thing that is affecting me is my grandparents. I went in twice this week to help Grandma with eating and other needs and it's so sad and emotionally wearing. She's 92 and when she tells you she wishes she would die it breaks your heart. More on that another time.
My parents had visitors this week from Vienna, Austria. Mom and Dad lived there for five years before my Dad retired back here in PA. Hans and Michelle were in the U.S.A. to visit their son who is attending Temple University in Philadelphia and so being so close to Mom and Dad (4 hours west of Philadelphia) they came to visit and expand their view of Pennsylvania. Bob and I also had met Hans and Michelle and their son, Mathias, about twelve years ago when we were visiting Mom and Dad in Vienna. They are a wonderful family and speak German, French and English fluently, along with a little bit of Italian and some others. I don't know how they do it.

Mathias thinks of "Groundhog Day", the movie, when he thinks of PA. He and his friends in Austria have rented this movie and watched it over and over. When we told him that we only lived 25 minutes from Punxsutawney he was so excited. So Thursday morning, off we went, six of us crammed into my parents' Jeep Cherokee, (probably not legal) for a sight seeing tour of Western Pennsylvania.

Mathias and his parents totally enjoyed Punxsutawney. We saw the real Punxy Phil groundhog behind his glass front den. Punxy also has groundhog painted statues all over town and then a souvenir shop. They took dozens of pictures. It's amazing what we take for granted since we live here and it was so much fun to see it through new and excited eyes.


Our tour continued about 20 more miles south into Amish country of Western PA. Through hills and back country into Smicksburg. Again, we just don't realize that Austrian's have only ever read about and seen movies about Amish and they just couldn't believe that these people are real and actually live the way they do. Amish are a quite interesting study. Why would people today choose no electric, no indoor bathrooms, no cars, etc. is very hard to imagine. When you drive through this community you feel as though you have just been transported back in time about 100 years. You become the out of place entity in your car and strange clothes. We tried to get several pictures for our Austrian friends, but Amish do not like their picture taken, so it makes it a little difficult. We managed some.

This is a little boy and his mother in front of their house. By the way, all their houses are white with white plain cotton curtains pulled back in every window. You can always spot an Amish house. There is a little something serene and cozy about this.

You have to drive very slow and be very careful on the back roads along with the horse and buggys. They have the right of way. Of course, the roads are very scuffed up from the horse shoes and lots of horse poo.

Here is a little school house that is now an antiques shop. Many of the Amish do have gift shops that cater to the curious.

After stopping to eat and browsing some shops we headed back. And thanks to our Austrian friends I have a new appreciation for how beautiful and interesting Western Pennsylvania is. And I'm glad Mathias saw another side of PA. His only view until Thursday was of Philadelphia. That's a wonderful historic city, but very busy, loud, crime, dirty and lots of people. As is the case in certain parts of any big city. But I'm glad they saw another view.

The next morning our friends headed off for New York City, where they will depart from on Sunday to return to Austria. They certainly will have a well rounded picture of the United States in just a few days.

I went back in to help Grandma yesterday. She is just so frail and helpless and she can only talk in a whisper. After coming home from caring for my grandmother, I had my grandchildren for the evening. Talk about extremes, but yet require just as much care. They are busy and noisy. Thank goodness they are normal boys. After dinner, bath and a movie, their mother picked them up about 10:00. I was just exhausted. I don't like being so tired. I probably need to ramp up my exercise program and eat better. I need to stay energized and healthy in order to take care of my family. More sleep would be nice and helpful, too.

We just found out yesterday morning that my great aunt just died at age 93. She was my grandparents' sister-in-law. The viewing was this morning from 10-11, here in town. I should have gone and feel guilty that I didn't, but I just couldn't make it. This afternoon we have a wedding to go to in Pittsburgh. They are very good friends of ours, the first marriage for them both and they are 40 years old. So, time to get moving again and get cleaned up and dressed up. That takes a lot longer than it used to.

Tomorrow's Mother's Day and a perfect day for me would be peace and quiet. The bad news is, I have way too many friends and family in this town. The good news is, I have so many friends and family in this town!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you that nurture.

This 'n That for Today

This was a good day. Any day that I can just "putz" around the house, cleaning, fixing, decorating, blogging, and just doing my thing, is a good day. I didn't have to leave the house to go anywhere. I hate to have to leave the house. The whole day is interrupted and I feel like I don't get anything done. You can't get into any projects and you're always looking at the clock.

I also got caught up on some work. Real work, the kind that helps bring in some money. I work with my husband whose office is in our home.

I cleaned all my floors. We have so much dog hair all over the place now. It's from Layla, my son's dog that is living with us temporarily. She's a Sharpay/Golden Retriever mix. Beautiful dog, but she sheds and is scratching all the time right now with allergies. The dog hair is driving this clean freak crazy.

I was able to finish my new window box project. I've been wanting to get this done since last fall.
I had the window boxes since then, but I needed my very busy husband to put them up for me. And they had to be drilled into brick. So a couple of weeks ago he borrowed the neighbors drill, went to Lowe's and bought special drill bits. It was not an easy job. I got the cutest picture of Layla and Bob at the windows he was working on. Layla misses her "daddy" and clings to "grandpa" as next best thing.





Today I finally had the chance to get flowers into the boxes. Little secret, though. They're not real. They're up so high I'm hoping you can't tell, and if I put real ones in it would have been too difficult to keep watered, then water would have dripped down the bricks. Besides that, I would have had to wait even longer to get real flowers in because annuals just aren't ready here yet.
All the flowers in my gardens are purple and pink.

The purple hydrangeas bloomed last week and are beautiful in front of the house, but unfortunately they don't last long. I think early next week will be the end of them.

I made just a light dinner of tuna sandwiches. I've been eating way too much since winter. I hope it starts getting warmer soon because I won't have the desire so much for the cold weather comfort food.

Then I settled in after a nice bath for American Idol. I'm obsessed with it. I won't plan anything or answer the phone when it's on. This sounds crazy when I actually write about it, but oh well, who cares? My pick is Adam Lambert.

It was a nice day.