It seems like I've been gone forever! Let's start with July 4th. It was an awful day, it rained the whole day! Luckily, we didn't have any outdoor plans for that day. Although, the fireworks got postponed until the 5th. We did have burgers and hot dogs on the grill. I made potato salad and fruit salad. Heather made deviled eggs and pasta salad. And I threw this together for dessert. It's a pound cake that I cut in half horizontally, put some strawberries on the bottom half then put some cool whip on top then added the top part of the cake put some cool whip on top and then added blueberries and strawberries on the top. It was really good. On Sunday, the 5th we went down to Fairbanks Park. They had music playing and we sat there and listened to it and they had vendors you could get food and drinks from. Brianna got this balloon hat, it has two dogs on the top of it kissing. She also got an ice cream cone, as you can see.

There ended up being a lot of people that showed up. They had some people dressed up in the olden days that walked around and talked to people and had there picture taken with them.

Then when it got dark the fireworks started and they lasted for a good half hour to 40 minutes. Here is one of the pics of them.

My brother, Kevin was driving back home to Texas from Connecticut via Plattsburgh, NY and then through Montreal, Canada. Him and his daughter, Emily, stopped here on their way through and stayed the night. Every time I see him he asks me if I will make some whoopie pies. I usually don't have the recipe with me so this time I made him some and he loved them. If you haven't ever had one, they are like Drakes devil dogs. He was soooo happy!

This is Emily and Brianna. They were playing with the Nintendo DS's. They had fun together.

The next morning I got up made coffee and biscuits and gravy, also scrambled eggs and bacon. Brianna came over and had breakfast with us. I took a few pics before they left. It was good to see them.

Here they are getting on his bike. They were headed towards Memphis and were going to stop at Graceland. You can see all the dirt in the background. We are trying to find the leak in our water line. What a mess!!

That's all I have for now. I hope everyone is having a great week. Stay safe!

Hugs,

Kathy

Happy 4th!

Just wanted to stop in and say I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July!
"God Bless America!"

Kathy

R.I.P. Snowball

The last post I did I talked about Coco and Snowball. And now, it is with a heavy heart that I have to say Snowball got hit by a car this morning. :( I've been really sad and crying off and on all day. Before my husband left for work this morning he took her outside to do her business. Her collar was loose and she got her head out of it and took off running. She was such a pretty dog. I miss her.
I hope everyone is having a better week than I am having.
Hugs,
Kathy

Coco and Snowball

Hey everyone,

Not much going on around here. Brianna had a 'sleepover' as she calls it, on Thursday with us. We watched Wallace and Gromit. That was a cute movie. We had some orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream from the Schwan man. It was really good! Here's a pic of Brianna and Coco, our mini yorkie.

This is our other baby, Snowball. She's an American Eskimo. She's pretty but she's a handful. :)

Here is another pic of Coco with her little princess tiara on. Isn't she cute? Sorry, the pic is a little fuzzy.

Maybe tomorrow I'll start some sewing.

I hope all the dads out there have a Happy Father's Day!

Hugs, Kathy

Giveaway at Lipstick Ranch

KC Willis over at Lipstick Ranch, http://www.kcwillis.blogspot.com/ and www.mixedmediamania.ning.com is having a giveaway. This lovely flag will be given away on June 15th. Isn't it beautiful! Go on over and check it out, you don't have much time to enter.Best of luck to everyone who enters.
Hugs, Kathy

PS Could someone tell me how to link words to someone else's blog, please? Thank you in advance.

Computer, Brianna and a lot more

I finally got my laptop back. :) Inside my monitor was cracked. I never knew that could happen. I have a 17 inch laptop and it cost me $400 to fix it. I couldn't believe it and the darn thing isn't even a year old yet! Of course, it wasn't covered under the warranty. Why do they give you a year warranty and when something happens to it, they say it's not covered!? Oh well, at least I have it back now. Brianna's last day of school was June 5th. She had five A's and one B. Her average grade for the whole year in every subject was all A's. We are so proud of her. I will be watching her most of the summer. This coming week she is going to camp. I will miss her all day! She had her water slide up one day this past week. She loves riding her four wheeler around in the yard. It's a good thing the yard is all flat. They have a big back yard for her to ride. She's only aloud to ride it when either mommy or daddy is around. That girl is not afraid of anything. We took her to the fair around Memorial Day and she rides all the rides. She met up with a friend of hers that was in preschool with her and they rode alot of rides together. Her friend was afraid to drive the bumper cars so Brianna drove and she rode. It was so cute. Here are some pics of her. Kids are so funny. They make friends so easily. The dark haired girl that is on the ship ride she didn't even know but they rode one ride together and then kept riding other rides together. They just grow up way too fast!
We were outside sitting on the swing one day and this little chipmunk came out of nowhere. He was out with us for the longest time and he came so close to us, I was surprised. Then we would make noise and he would take off again and go sit on the bricks on the house. We had some cherry pits on the driveway and he picked one of them up and put it in his mouth. After that we didn't see him at all.

Isn't he cute? But, I have to say we were getting a little scared when he came so close to us. Look at his claws! I had a little video of him but for some reason it won't let me put it on here. Here is a picture of some new stuff I got. The tree, the saltbox house and the little bench. I just love the way it looks. The little house has lights in it and it looks so nice when it's lit up. I hope everyone is having a great weekend! It's a rainy day here in Terre Haute. I need to go check on my brownies. They should be done.

Hugs, Kathy

Computer problems

Hi,
I just wanted to let eveyone know I had to send my computer out to be fixed. Hopefully, I will get it back in a week or so. I'm having withdrawals already!
Have a great week!
Hugs,
Kathy

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. It was a pretty nice weekend here until today. It started raining early this morning. It's a good thing we had our cookout yesterday.

I forgot to post this on my Mother's Day post. My hubby bought me 2 of these for Mother's Day. Aren't they beautiful?

These are the beautiful Iris' that Heather planted a few years ago. Purple is my favorite color! I love looking at these. I just wished they would bloom longer.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers.

Update on the birds nest. They are getting bigger. Pretty soon they will be flying away. The mother watches us any time we are back there. At first, we thought there was 3 in there but there is 4.

Brianna on her swingset. They put the swimming pool up this week, so she's been spending alot of time in it.

I had a friend come down from Michigan for the weekend. She got here Thursday night. Friday I had a Dr. appt. and then we stopped at Sam's to pick up some things we needed. We went and picked up Pizza from Pizza Hut. Mmmmm, that was yummy! We watched alot of movies this weekend. I made a sour cream coffee cake for breakfast Saturday morning and then I made lasagna for supper that night. Yesterday we had our cookout which consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, deviled eggs and sliced tomatoes. I made some chocolate chip cookies last night and then we sat and finished watching our movies. We watched The Secret Life of Bees, The Messengers, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, The Mall Cop and Milk.

I hope everyone has a safe week.

Hugs,

Kathy :)

Flowers & Bird Nest

Hello, Today was such a beautiful day. It was in the 70's with a light breeze. It was comfortable outside, not hot, not cold, it was just right, like the baby bear would say about his porridge. :) So, I had to get the camera out and start taking pictures. This is a purple iris that grows next door in my daughter's yard. I had to take two pictures of course. :)

Here is something else that is growing in her yard. Some kind of bush with pink flowers on it. I don't know what kind it is, but it sure is beautiful!

I noticed this the other day so while I had my camera out I decided to take a picture. The momma bird made this nest on top of the light that is outside by the back door. There are 3 little birds in there and they don't even have there feathers yet.

You can see in this next picture just where she built it. It amazes me how these little birds can build something like this. They are always in a nice circle and almost perfect little nest.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. And, I hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday.

Hugs,

Kathy

Recipes

Someone wanted me to post a couple recipes for them so here they are.

Stuffed Green Peppers

1 pound ground beef

1/3 C. finely chopped onion

2 cans(8oz.ea.) tomato sauce

1/4 C. water

3 Tbs. grated parmesan cheese

1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

1/2 C. instant rice

4 medium green peppers

Brown beef and onion until done. Drain fat. Stir in 1 can tomato sauce, water, 1 Tbsp. cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in rice. Let cook for about 3 min.

Meanwhile, cut top off peppers and remove seeds and rinse. Spoon beef-rice filling into each place in baking dish with a lid. Top with remaining sauce and cheese. Heat, covered, at HIGH in microwave 10-12 min or until peppers are tender. Let stand, covered, 5 min. before serving.

I like to add more tomato sauce than is required and you can add more rice if you like also.

Next recipe is for dessert.

Mini-Cheesecakes

12 vanilla wafers

2 8oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1/2 C. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Line muffin tin with foil liners.

Place one vanilla wafer in each liner. Mix cream cheese, vanilla and sugar on medium speed until well-blended. Add eggs. Mix well. Pour over wafers, filling 3/4 full. Bake 25 min. at 325 degrees.

Remove from pan when cool. Chill. Top with fruit, preserves, nut or chocolate.

Enjoy!

My husband is on vacation this week. So, we were busy today. We have a leak in our water line so he was out there digging to try to get to it. Hopefully, he will finish it tomorrow. Our water bill has been twice what it usually is for a few months now.

I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Mother's Day

I had a pretty nice Mother's Day. Jeff had to work. Heather and Brianna came over and we sat outside on the swing and watched Brianna rollerblade. She's getting pretty good at it. So after Jeff got home from work we had ham, mashed potatoes and green beans. And, he bought us some cupcakes with yummy frosting on them for dessert.

Today was so beautiful! There were hardly any clouds in the sky. There was a nice breeze. I think it was a perfect day. It makes me want to spend more time outside.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Hugs

Mothers

Hello,
I want to wish all the mothers a "A Happy Mother's Day".

A Mother's Love
There are times when only a Mother's love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappoints
And calm all of our fears.
There are times when only a Mother's love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we've dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.
There are times when only a Mother's faith
Can help us on life's way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.
For a Mother's heart and a Mother's faith
And a Mother's steadfast love
Were fashioned by the Angels
And sent from God above.
Author Unknown

Goodwill and ebay finds

Hello Ladies,

First, I want to say thank you for inspiring me to clean up my house and to get rid of a lot of junk. I'm one of those people that doesn't like to throw things away. I have a little black plastic piece of something and I keep coming across it and I save it because I might find out what it goes to someday. I'll throw it away soon. hehe Here is a picture of some of my Boyd's bears sitting in the living room in front of the fireplace.

This little rocking horse I found at Goodwill. Isn't he so cute? I didn't even have to do anything to it. I found one of my bears and she looks so cute on it.

Here is cute Boyds bear sitting on a nice little chair I got on ebay and it has some sweet annie hanging on the back of the chair.

I love this little swing! I got it at the Goodwill store. I love finding things like this to put my bears on, they just look so cute on it. Don't they?

This cute little arrangement I picked up on QVC. I couldn't pass it up. You can't see the bear too much but, he has a sleeping cap on and he's holding a little bear. Brianna likes to come over and play with them.

These are a few things I found at Goodwill. They were so cheap! I just had to have them. I'll have to see what I can do with them. Some paint and some sanding and they will look great!

Here are three sconces I found at Goodwill. These will also look good after I get some paint on them and sand them.

This is a cute little box I got at goodwill. This will definitely look better with some new paint on it and some stenciling.

This week has been pretty nice. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain with thunderstorms. I don't mind the rain, it's the thunder that makes me jump. I hope everyone is having a great week!

Hugs,

Kathy

Giveaway at Aunt Ruthie's

One last thing I forgot to mention. Aunt Ruthie over at www.sugarpiefarmhouse.com/blog is giving away 4 items....2 aprons, a beautiful pin and a cookbook from Paula Deen's family. I have the cookbook already, I bought it from QVC. It's a great cookbook! Just one catch, you have to leave a msg or a tip in her new forum area. Go on over and take a look and the more msgs you leave the better your chances. Ok, now I'm really going to bed. Good night!

So, while I was outside watching her play, I took a picture of this beautiful tree in our front yard. I'm not good on knowing tree names. It has little pink flowers and then when the flowers are gone it gets like cranberry looking things on it. If anyone knows, I would love to know what it's called. I guess it's bedtime. Hope everyone has a great week! Hugs, Kathy

So, this was the last present she opened and she loves it! She's been having lots of fun on it with her friends.