Happy Birthday X2

Wanted to wish my precious little great niece, Maddie, a Very Happy Birthday. Isn't she just the cutest thing? As for the "X2", it looks like she will be sharing her birthday with another great niece. My niece Danielle went into labor last night. I talked to my sister this morning and Danielle had actually gotten some sleep last night but this morning they will be giving her something to speed up her labor so I'm expecting little Abbigale will make her appearance sometime today. Will keep you posted as soon as I know anything.

On a sad note

My mother-in-law's sister, our Aunt Lu, passed away yesterday. She was in her 80's but still sharp as a tack. While it was very unexpected, she did go quietly in her sleep. She grew up in Germany during the war and I'm sure she experienced many things that we can't even imagine. I have a necklace that was given to her by her husband just before he left for the war (he never returned) and passed down to my MIL when she left Germany and then to me which has always had much sentimental value for all of us. Here she is with my MIL at Viscaya in Miami which was the first time I got to meet her.

She was a wonderful, wonderful person. She will be missed by us, by her sister and mostly by her daughter, son in law and granddaughter.

Happy Birthday Honey

Just wanted to send a big shout out to the love of my life, my best friend, my husband ~ whose birthday is today! We've been through some pretty rough times and we've had many more wonderful times. There's no one I would have rather shared it all with. As long as we are together, we can do anything! He'll have a long weekend birthday as tonight we will order pizza, tomorrow night we will actually have a birthday "date" and Saturday night his mom is coming up so we can all celebrate together and Sunday will be a relaxing day at the beach!

Here he is as a baby with his dad..

And as a handsome young boy with his mom...













And here is the love of my life just the other day Just can't tell you how much I love this man! So, Happy Birthday Honey ~ I love you!

Memorial Day Weekend

I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday weekend and got to do something fun. We started off our weekend looking at furniture... specifically dining room sets. We are not ready to buy just yet, but want to be "ready" when we are. Here's our top contender at the moment. It looks a little small in the picture but its one of the new square tables and seats 8 quite comfortably. I, of course, also fell in love with the matching sideboard/hutch Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?
Richard & Nathaniel found some furniture they like too... And Nathaniel had fun playing with the "props" on the table
Saturday we set out to check out Sebastian Inlet but by the time we got there it was pouring. We did find a little bar/restaurant to get ripped off err... eat in. Even had this lone one man band playing. He actually wasn't bad. Played some Buffett and some reggae. The bar had lots of locals My only issue was that our lunch bill came to $30! This wouldn't be that much of a problem except that I had a $3.00 hot dog and Richard had a $6.00 hamburger (both were tasty). Julianne had fries and Nathaniel had nachos. I think were we got taken was in our soda's. No free refills here and Julianne spilled her first one all over Richard (who was fortunately wearing swim trunks). Here she is in a much better (goofier) mood once she ate.
After that we started back North towards home and the weather just got nicer and nicer. We finally stopped in Cocoa Beach and stayed for a few hours at the beach until I noticed a big black cloud headed our way. By the time we got the kids out of the water, packed up our stuff and headed to the car, the heavens opened up. Boy you should have seen people scattering when that first clap of thunder rolled in. Next we headed over to the new house to check out the perimeter and pick up some stuff that had blown out of someone else's recycle bin. I ended up knocking Nathaniel into the pool and without much hesitation Julianne jumped in. We probably shouldn't have but we let them swim for a few minutes and then headed home. Nate has this new thing of having his head out of the window to feel the wind blow through his ever growing hair. I personally think it's his dog genes but isn't he so beautiful?
The rest of this weekend has been spent dropping off children here and picking them up there. Nathaniel spent the night Sunday with his friend Bryan and is leaving for the beach with his friend Jacob in just a little bit. Julianne spent the night last night with her friend Sarah and is currently at a birthday party for her friend Devon. Richard and I, meanwhile have thoroughly enjoyed the moments of peace and quiet.

I've been negligent

I have been very negligent on my blog so here's a few shout outs I have failed to mention...
Monday was my BFF Mary Ann's birthday. Happy birthday Honey!
My Dad and wife Claire celebrated their anniversary on Tuesday. Happy 8th you two!

Also, my friend Deb from Tampa (who is coming to see me in a couple of weeks) celebrated her birthday on Thursday
And last but most certainly not least Paul's wife Shannon had a birthday yesterday. Didn't she make a beautiful bride?
More birthdays to come next week including that of my darling husband so stay tuned! In the meantime ....

Has it really been a week?

I know, I'm a slacker but it's been CRAZY here! We are coming up on the last week of school and trying to pack etc. Again proving my point ~ when I have something to blog about, I'm too busy to do it. So, here's a quick recap of the week... Last weekend my friend MaryCatherine came over to sew. Saturday we hit the quilt shops pretty hard although I have to admit I did more damage than she did. We did finally both start work on our Miranda purses We were both using the same line of prequilted fabrics from "Scrap & Sew" in Tampa. I got mine a couple of months ago while I was there but didn't think to look for some coordinating fabrics to go with it. I found lots here that went with it in theory but in real life, not so much. I'm okay with what I have, just not as jazzed. I should have taken a pic of MC's bag. She used the same line only hers is blue/brown with touches of green rather than my green/brown with touches of blue. We found lots and lots of fabric to go with hers. In any case I did work on mine some more this week because despite staying up until after 1:00 am we didn't finish them.
Oh, I also got my hair cut last Friday. I decided with summer coming and the new pool I needed something easier to take care of so here is the new me.. I was on my way out to my first PTO meeting and I'm happy to report that I am now a co-vice president of the PTO. No specific duties but will be doing a lot of computer stuff for them including updating the new PTO place on the school's website. Wish me luck! I'm really liking the other PTO members so that should be fun.
I also finished and mailed out a couple of things. I made this pouch for my niece Danielle who should be giving birth to Abbigale sometime in the next week or so. I put some newborn diapers, travel wipes and butt paste (yes I said butt paste!) in it so she could grab it and go.
I also made this set for my "gift box." I'm trying to make stuff and put it in a box so when I need a gift ASAP I have stuff available without having to stress. I also did an extra wallet & tissue case just like these for an online swap I was participating in. Speaking of that swap ~ Here's the wallet I received.. Isn't it cute? While shopping with MC I actually got a couple of pieces of this line to make myself a purse ~ now I have a wonder wallet to match already!
Richard was off work on Friday so after his massage and my PTO meeting we met the kids for lunch at school. He brought Nathaniel some sushi (all his friends were so impressed) and I forgot to take a pic but I did take a picture of Julz (she got nuggets from Wendy's Yes, dorky child is wearing both mine and Richard's visitors passes and no, I'm not sure what she did to her chin. From what I can gather she scratched it and scratched it until she got this. She's vain enough that it really bothers her though ~ maybe she'll learn.
Well that was our week in a nutshell.

I've been tagged again

I know I've been pretty sporadic about posting and I promise to be better (maybe once school is out and the move is over)... but in the mean time I've been tagged with another meme. This time from Jillytacy at Life with Nature Girl. I actually like this one so I'll play along.


The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Okay, here goes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Ten years ago I was living in Raleigh, NC and working at the "Y". My little guy was about to turn 1 and my big girl was getting ready to graduate from high school. WOW has it been 10 years already?

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
Pack at least 5 more boxes. Get the kids laundry done. Grocery shop. Sew a wonder wallet and tissue case for an on-line swap. Hit the quilt shop to get the fabric to make purse handles and finish the "Miranda" purse that I started this weekend.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
Right now its sugar free puddings, fresh seedless oranges and raspberry fruit & yogurt smoothies from Steak & Shake and just so you know it's not all healthy I have them add hot fudge!

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
First and foremost I would give a lot of it away to family and friends. Pay off bills (of course) and travel a lot. I would definitely look into charities but I don't trust a lot of them. Instead I'd find actually people that are in need and give directly to them (anonymously, of course.)

5. Places I have lived:
Florida (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa & Melbourne) and Raleigh NC

6. Peeps I want to know more about:
Anyone else who wants to play along!


I promise I'll be back with regular posts soon. Until then... How was your day?

Happy Anniversary!

Just a quick shout out to Paul & Shannon who are celebrating their 4th anniversary today. I got a really nice card from them for Mother's day and a call from Paul. They are getting ready to move to Louisville, KY where Paul will start Dental school. Shannon is just finishing up her Master's degree and I assume will continue to teach. They are a wonderful couple and just all around nice people... so once again ~ Happy Anniversary you two crazy kids!

Is it really only Wednesday?

It's been such a busy week already I can't believe it's only half over. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Monday morning was the Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony that I was invited to at the kids school. All I can say is "That's an hour of my life I'll never get back!" I did get a little certificate and a thanks from the principal. Of course Aunt Grace had logged a record number of volunteer hours (well over 1000!). Go Grace.
Monday afternoon we dealt with prank phone calls from dumb girls who I guess don't realize most everyone has caller ID these days and while her name didn't come up her number did and when I called it they thought they'd be clever and not answer so of course, it went to voice mail where it said "Hello you've reached Sam's phone" DUH! It's the kid next door. Her mom got a nice little phone call from me and she got busted. In the mean time I'm trying to talk Charlotte (who was on her way up here) around the fires cause they had closed I95 just south of us again. Had to have her go almost an hour out of the way but she did get here safe and sound and actually the day she went home I95 was open south of us but closed north of us. These fires have been just awful and to think that most of them were set on purpose by some really sick people just makes me even that much more upset. Any way... she got here and we went out to dinner at one of Richard and my favorite places Conch Key Grille and sat outside by the water. It's not fancy food ~ really great sandwiches and such but I don't think my MIL cared for it much. I guess it's not for everybody. Anyhow, Here's Jules sitting on the wall waiting for us to finish up
The next day was Grandparent day at the school. It was a bit unorganized so I ended up taking Charlotte around and showing her the school. We sat with both kids while they ate their lunch (two different times) and then headed for home ~ except we stopped at Pier One and I fell in love with so many many things but proudly I didn't purchase any of them (YET). I can't promise how good I'll be once we move though! Pier One is a very very bad place for me to go in. I love it all. Ginky (Charlotte) Nathaniel & I did some shopping after school ~ Julianne had gone to her friends' house. Nate got some new sneakers, a pair of short and t shirt ~ all Tony Hawk. We didn't forget about Julz though and she got a new pair of shorts and three shirts.
We ended up at this great pizza and pasta place at "The Avenues" which is our outdoor mall and had a great meal. I had white pizza with artichoke hearts and it was delicious. Here's the gang (kids in new clothes) after dinner. Don't ask me what's up with the face Julz is making. She just gets strange sometimes.
I packed away my Baby Lock sewing machine and set up my trusty Kenmore. I may not be able to embroider but I can still sew. My good friend Mary Catherine is coming over for a couple of days and she'll take my baby back to Tampa with her to be repaired. It'll be a good excuse for me to go over there to pick it up! I did find these great fabrics to make a purse for a dress I just got Just have to decide which purse to make ~ any suggestions? Oh and I did accomplish one sewing task. Saw this pattern in a magazine recently and had to try it. It's all done with 2 1/2" squares and all of mine came from my scrap bin ~ GO ME! Isn't he cute?
I did pack up the family room last night and I'm hoping to start on the kids rooms today. I'm trying a new salon here in Melbourne on Friday to get my hair done. I'll let ya know how it goes. Wish me luck! So, How was your day?

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days...

My mother's day started off really great. I had told everyone that from now on, for Mother's day, I would only accept "hand made" gifts. Those really are my favorites and my family really came through this year. On Saturday I got this in the mail from Jen & Jeremy. Jennifer is great at decoupage. Nate painted me this piece and Julianne colored me this wonderful Tinkerbell poster They also made this on my white board
My darling husband burned me a few new CD's with some oldies but goodies including Firefall, Pablo Cruise and Atlanta Rhythm Section. He also made us pancakes and sausages for breakfast and because he is such a cutie ~ he made them all in the shape of hearts. AWWWW! And that's why it was the best of days!
Now for the worst of days.... following my own lead I was going to embroider a towel for my MIL for Mother's day so she would have her own towel when she came up for a swim (we also got her a beach cover up). I called my friend and mentor MC and asked about stabilizers since it had been so long since I'd embroidered a towel. Got all the stuff out ~ but the tubes of stabilizers kept falling out of their cubby and I was just having a time getting out the ones I needed. Then I hooped the stabilizer, got the towel stuck to it and realized it was upside down. Had to redo that then finally wiggled it in under the needle and got it snapped down into place (which was a bear to do) only to realize that I had forgotten to put the embroidery bobbin in SO I had to take the whole thing out and do it again. I finally got everything in place and realized I needed to change the needle in the machine to an embroidery needle (remember this is a labor of love!) and I can't get the damn needle out of the machine. It took me forever fighting the machine and having the needle snap a time or two. Finally with the help of some heavy duty plyers I finally get the needle out ~ YEAH ~ put the new one in and guess what??? In wresting to get the other needle out, I've damaged the needle bar somehow and now needles won't stay in! My machine is wrecked! Can't use a machine without needles. Those of you who sew will understand that this machine is my baby! I'm so very upset. Now I can't embroider the towel and even worse ~ can't sew at all on it! The closest service dealer is in Orlando so there is no easy fix here. I was just really bummed. Well better to remember the beginning of the day and forget the end. So, How was your Mothers Day?

Summer dinners

Wow! It sure feels like summer already ~ Of course, it's Florida. It always feels like summer. Here's a typical summer dinner at Casa de Albury.

 It's chicken salad with grapes (of course) and fresh tomatoes, some celery and carrots along with blue cheese dressing to which we've added some extra blue cheese chunks (thanks Jen) and chips. We seem to have a lot of these meals... Tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad along with fresh veggies. We all love them here. One of my favorite things to do is make up salads ~ maybe a spring mix of lettuces, chop up lots of different veggies really small, add some type of cheese, some berries for sweetness and nuts for crunch. YUM! The other night I found a new favorite salad though. It's from our local grocery store ~ Publix.

 They have these wonderful recipe cards and a couple of times a day they have someone cook up and serve the recipe. They also have a special place next to the chef where they have all the ingredients you need to buy right there. Makes it pretty darn convenient. You taste it and if you like it ~ here you go.. the recipe and everything you need. Well Rich and I were there the other day and they were serving chicken enchiladas and guacamole salad. I've only recently learned to love avocados but still don't like guacamole so I was a bit hesitant but IT WAS FABULOUS so I'm going to share the recipe with you (I've changed a few things to suite my taste) and I hope if you try it you'll let me know what you think.

Guacamole Salad
10-12 sprigs fresh cilantro 1 fresh jalapeno pepper
2 small tomatoes 1/2 cup diced onions
3 medium avocados 1 lime
1 (8 oz) bag of shredded lettuce
1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp cumin

Chop cilantro coarsely, place in medium bowl. Cut jalapeno pepper in half (remove and discard seeds); chop finely and add to bowl. Chop tomatoes; add to bowl. Stir in onions, salt, pepper & cumin.
Cut avocados into bite size pieces. Stir into mixture until well blended.
Squeeze juice of one half lime (about 2 tsps) onto salad; Gently mix until blended.
Serve over shredded lettuce. Enjoy!

We are looking forward to many more cold salad dinners out by the pool soon ~ Come on over and join us. So, How was your day?

Take me out to the ballgame

Last night was Quest Family Nite at the Ballpark. The Brevard Manatees played the Tampa Yankess. Obviously not a major league game but I actually prefer the smaller games and the smaller ball parks. Makes you feel more involved. Lots of Nate's friends were there and they had a great time. Nate spent a lot of time on the phone with his new gal pal. I haven't met this one yet because she's in a different class but have heard that she's a really nice girl and according to Nathaniel has big brown eyes! Julianne didn't have a lot of friends there (just some of the boys from her class) but her brother and his friends let her hang out with them a lot of the time and she did have a good time. She's paying the price now though cause we got her a bag of peanuts and she proceeded to LICK the salt off all the shells and now her tongue is red and sore! I swear the child would live on salt if she could.
The only bad part of the evening was when one of Nathaniel's classmates, Emily, tripped and fractured her ankle. She was taken away by ambulance (which she loved) but was at the ER until 4:30 in the morning. I called to check on her today and she is doing much better but will be on crutches for quite a while. Poor thing.
Today Nate's friend Jacob is over for a few hours and Julianne seems to be lingering around them more than usual. I think she is realizing that his friends are kinda cute. Oh boy ~ and so it begins! Well that was our day ~ So, how was yours?

I've been tagged by Julie

I've been tagged by Julie and now I'm tagging whoever wants to play.

Your mission - should you choose to accept it - is:

write your memoir in six words or a title or something like that.

Mine is "Adoption is the best thing ever."

History Museum

I know they called it a "wax" museum but it was more of an historical museum. Most of the kids from the 5th grade dressed as historical figures and had memorized a speech telling about their character. They were lined up in the lobby and the halls of the school. It was a great turn out both by the kids and the adults. It was total chaos in the classroom and much ado was made about "Nate" being shirtless (and shoe less) as Squanto. Our class actually had the most participation of all the 5th grade classes. Here are all of ours just before they went out to perform. We had everyone from Paul Revere (without the Raiders) to Betsy Ross and Louisa May Alcott. We do have video of Nate/Squanto giving his speech but my producer (Richard) needs to do some technical work on it first!
The other thing going on at the school was an "Art Fair." Basically it was one piece of Art from each child in a frame that you could buy for $30! Sorry. I love my kids but I can frame their artwork myself for a lot less. Here is Julz' artwork And Nathaniel's If you'll look closely you'll see the fish seems very angry that the turtle is sticking it's tongue out at him. I don't think this scene can end well!
Anyhow that was our day ~ So, how was your day?