Rooster Party Time!

Hello everyone. I hope I'm not too late for the rooster party. This is the first party I've done and I'm so glad Barb at Bella Vista is hosting this. I started my love and collection of roosters about two years ago quite by happen-stance. My 91 and 92 year old grandparents were moving into an Assisted Living home and my son was buying their home of almost 50 years. So in the process of cleaning out Grandma's things, there were several items that I wanted just because they reminded me of her and the warm, cozy and inviting home that she had created. The first item I asked for was this ceramic rooster/cookie jar that she never used as a cookie jar, but sat up on a shelf above her stove and refrigerator. Every time you would walk into her kitchen you would see this rooster. This was the start for me. I placed this precious memory in the little corner nook behind my kitchen faucet and thought, "Well, isn't that cute, and the colors go with my already grape/fruit theme."

Then in going through her knick knacks, many of which were packed away and hidden in drawers and cupboards I found this rooster figurine. I snatched that up, too. This sits on my desk (where I'm sitting right now) in the corner of my kitchen. He looks right at home beside my fruit lamp, doesn't he?
In Grandma's kitchen drawer we found these cork hot pads. They look to be very 1950-ish. They now have a home in my towel and hot pad drawer. And I do use them.

Well, by now I'm on a roll. I found this kitchen floor mat at Lowe's and thought it was perfect. My kitchen and dining room and my house in general has a European/Tuscan theme to it, so now this mat ties the two themes together.

Then I found pot holders and dish towels at Wal-Mart.

My latest rooster find was this table runner for my kitchen table. I also have placemats that coordinate, but they don't have the roosters on them. And, again, the colors are perfect. I like the muted reds, greens, golds, and purples. Nothing too bright and shiny or in the primary color scheme.

I love my roosters, old and new. The old especially hold so many memories for me and that feeling is just like a warm hug from Grandma. So I will continue with my rooster collection, but it always has to "feel" right. Not just any old rooster will do.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour of my kitchen and memory lane. Thank you Brenda!

I Think There's a Ghost in My House!!

Sometimes I really worry about myself. I hope some of you can relate, because if I'm the only one that does things like this then my husband is right and I probably need to be committed.

I have a nightly routine before I go to bed of making sure all the doors and windows are locked, pulling the chains on the cuckoo clocks, letting the dogs out to pee, turning out all my cute little lamps that My Bob calls my "light show", and getting the coffee ready in my coffee maker so I can get up in the morning and just switch the button to "ON". O.K., so my OCD is showing, but if I don't go through this routine I wouldn't be able to sleep.

Here's the scary part. Either a ghost turned on my coffee pot for me sometime in the middle of the night, or I'm going nuts. Both scary thoughts. I got awake about 5:30 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I finally decided to just get up, turn on my coffee, watch the sun rise and do a little bit of knitting. I walked into the dark kitchen and there was the little red light on the coffee maker with a full pot of hot coffee. The good part of that was that I didn't have to wait for it to brew, but how did that get turned on?

It's a good thing I got up so early before My Bob or he'd be yelling that I could have burned the house down and then he would have made my reservation at the Assisted Living Home. So I never said a word. I have another thought, though, that he got up shortly before me and turned it on just to see if I would mention it. But I didn't want to fall for that, just in case. Besides, I don't think he would have done that so early. So that only leaves the other two scenarios: 1) there's a ghost in my house, or 2) I'm going nuts and can't remember things that I do. Either one is scaring me. I must have automatically turned it on after I got it all prepared last night. I DON'T REMEMBER!

So this is just my little secret that I'm sharing with you, but don't tell My Bob, or I'll be writing from my room at The Assisted Living Home. He's threatened this before and I just tell him to be sure I have my computer, sewing machine, and knitting and I'll be happy. And he tells me that's fine, he'll bring my 22 year old daughter in to visit. (I don't have a daughter). Oh, he thinks he's so funny!

In the meantime, I better start looking for a more high tech. coffee maker that has an automatic timer and automatic shut off.

Spokane, At Last

Are we there yet? Almost.

We're still on Tuesday and left Hill City. Went through Deadwood. Did you know this is known for the grave site of Wild Bill Hickok? Into Wyoming and the Big Horn Mountains. The only thing we saw at all in Wyoming were rolling hills, cattle and mountains. Pretty, but a little boring.

Then as we crossed into Montana, I remembered that a friend of mine, Vicki, and her husband, Mike, moved from three doors down from us in Pennsylvania to outside of Billings about four years ago. We were going to be outside of Billings real soon. So I called a friend back home that I knew would have their phone number and I called Vicki. (What did we do before cell phones? Try to find a phone booth, I guess) She said she was home and they lived in Hardin. We were about twenty minutes away. We got directions and said we would stop but that we couldn't stay long because we had some time to make up. It was about 6:00 p.m. We did a lot of sightseeing and stopping already that day, but I couldn't be this close and not visit. When would I ever be back this way again? Never is my guess.

We were so glad we stopped. Vicki and Mike had cheese, crackers, fruit and wine waiting for us. We talked and talked and so much enjoyed their home and company. It's funny that Bob never was in their house that was practically next door to us, but now that they live half way across the country, he find that he really enjoys them. The location and home are just beautiful. They built a log home on 60 acres with the Big Horn River as their back yard. They have 5 horses, 4 goats, 3 cats, 2 lamas, and 2 dogs. Their furniture was all handmade out of logs and wood and leather. It felt so peaceful and calm. They are actually on the edge of the Crowe Indian Reservation. They love it. Mike says he can't even get Vicki off the reservation. I wouldn't leave either!

Taken from Vicki and Mike's back deck

Well, you probably guessed already. We spent the night at their home. There was no way we could get back in that truck and keep going after the wine and the sun went down. Best night's sleep we've had.

Wednesday, July 22, and we're back on the road. This is it. We're going to make it to Brandon's by evening. I can't wait. We're getting numb butts by now. The U-Haul is not the smoothest ride.We cross the Continental Divide into Butte, and then finally into the panhandle of Idaho. We're finally into Pacific Time and it's 5:30 p.m. when we stop in a little town called Wallace. It's a historic old mining town and all the shopkeepers dress in old vintage costume from the mining boom years. We thought maybe there was a festival or a celebration of some sort, but we were told they dress like that every day.

We liked Idaho. The small panhandle area was very pretty. I told Bob that I knew there was a lake resort town called Couer d'Alene, right on the border of Idaho and Washington. I saw it listed in our RCI time share catalog. We were going to go right past it so I wanted to check it out. Oh my gosh, was it ever nice. The lake was beautiful and the resort condos sat right on the edge of it. I made a note to myself to check on the possibility of booking one of these condos some time. It would be a great place to stay when we visit Brandon. It's only about 20 miles from his small, two bedroom, apartment.

At 8:30 p.m., we pulled into Brandon't apartment complex. Brandon got home ten minutes after us. We were exhausted. And it was sooo good to see Brandon. The guys unloaded the mattresses from the U-Haul and we crashed.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual trip Cross Country. I know my descriptions and pictures don't do it justice. We live in a beautiful country with a fascinating history that means so much more when you see it for real. We said we would never drive this trip again, but we are so glad we did it once. Everyone should that has the chance.

Cross Country Trip to Spokane, Part 3

Gotta keep movin', not there yet. Now - Tuesday, July 21

We woke up in our little campground in the Badlands to a beautiful morning. The owners of this little place cook up a pancake breakfast and the pancakes are made from a 100 year old starter sourdough. That's what they claimed, anyway. They were very good. I only had a bite. Too early for me to eat. It's now 7:00 am Mountain Time.

We continued the scenic drive through the Badlands back up to 90W, and into a small frontier little town of Wall, South Dakota. Now, we had been seeing signs clear across South Dakota for Wall Drug Store. Billboard after billboard advertising everything Wall Drug Store had to offer. So I told Bob that we just had to stop to see what the big deal is. And it was worth it. The Drug Store took up about the whole little town of Wall. It looked just like an old frontier village. Bob got a South Dakota T-shirt and I got moccasins.

It's only 10:00 am and we're now into Rapid City and Mount Rushmore. This was unbelievable. It was quite amazing that someone could carve that into a mountain. We didn't want to take the time to actually go into the park, but we had a wonderful view from the road.

I just happened to get the flag right in the middle. I didn't even know I did that. Pretty cool, huh?

Outside of Rapid City, on the other side of Mt. Rushmore was another darling little town called Hill City. We ate lunch at the cutest little German looking restaurant called the Alpine Inn. The food was delicious. For desert we had homemade creme brulee, our favoite. Then we ordered a piece of raspberry tort pie to go because it also looked good. (And it was, a few hours later)
This was carved and painted in the wall in the ladies room. I just thought it was neat and had to take a picture. I wanted to remember these words.

We walked around the little shops to use up some calories and Bob bought me a coral and silver ring. I just love him!

This horse was outside the jewelry story and was made out of all types of different metals. Isn't it pretty?

TO BE CONTINUED-----

Bragging Rights

I have to brag a little about my kids. I do that a lot, but I won't apologize for it. When my boys were teenagers we went through some very rough and tough moments. They were good boys, we told them, but they were not always doing good things. Mostly teenage boy stuff, but stuff we didn't like. It didn't matter to us that "everyone else is doing it". We continued to talk, lecture, punish, love and encourage. Now, Austin and Brandon are 28 and almost 27 and we couldn't be more proud of the wonderful men they have become.


A few weeks ago, Austin had worked late and was on his way home from his office. He is an Air Force Recruiter. He goes to work most every day in his dress blue uniform. You know, the one that makes them look so handsome, with all the medals and stripes. This particular day there was a very hard rain and wind storm and he happened to be right behind a young girl that hydroplaned on the wet pavement and did two 360's and wrecked in front of him. He stopped to see what he could do to help her. She was very shaken, but seemed to be OK. He calmed her down, called the police and her grandparents that lived close by. He then stayed with her until all parties showed up and he knew she was in good hands. Then he continued on his way home.


In all the fright and confusion, the only thing that this girl and her grandparents knew about Austin was his last name, as it was on his uniform, where he was from, and that he was a Sergeant in the Air Force.


Well, yesterday, we received a phone call from a lady and my husband had answered the phone. Through the course of the initially confusing conversation, it became known that she was trying to track down Austin in order to thank him and send him a card. She then kept My Bob on the phone for quite a while praising us as his parents for the good job we had done in raising such a fine young man. She even started to cry on the phone.


I told Austin about the phone call and told him how proud we also are of him and how nice that was of him to stop in such a storm and late in the day. He said, "That wasn't being nice, anyone would have stopped for something like that". No, I don't think they would. I would like to think that most people would have stopped as he did, but I don't know. A lot of people don't want to get involved or be bothered and would have just wizzed on by.


Here is Austin and myself at his brother's wedding a year aog. I need to get a picture of Austin in his uniform because he really is so handsome.



Then I just needed to share this Cutey with everyone. This is Brandon's daughter, Riley. We haven't seen her now for three weeks, since we left Spokane. Even though she's bald, she's still beautiful. We hope she gets the strawberry blond hair back that she was born with. But I'll love her with or without hair, I don't care.



Thanks for letting me boast. I just had to.