Oh My

So....I've dropped off the face of the Earth yet again.....

What have I been up to...let's see...

Last time I posted I was about to go see the Drama Teen's Encore Performance of School House Rock. It was AWESOME!! Better than the first time.

here are a few pics:

We worked on more Banners for Church:

Went to Lunch with the Church Ladies:

Rescued the Co-ed in Fayetteville when her car broke down...she was on her way back from Spring Break in Charleston. I arranged a tow for her over the phone from here and drove the 3 hours to get to her. She spent the weekend at home and then I took her back to Va Tech. We had lunch together at Cafe de Bangkok. She ordered Drunken Noodles and I had that my old standby, Masaman. Then we ordered some Banana Fritters for Dessert. YUMMMM:

The Commander went on Deployment for a few weeks...he flew in from the ship early so they could fly him out to San Diego for a conference. He was Home less than 24 hours. He's back now though , for a couple of weeks. Woo Hoo.

and we've gotten a little more done on Operation House. We started stripping the Wallpaper in the Kitchen right before the Commander Deployed. He wasn't quite able to get it all down before leaving so I finished and I primed the walls and got a little paint up. We still need to finish. I did remember to get a few 'before" pics this time though:

Before:

During:

I'll post more when I have some afters.

We also bought some Marble Tile to redo our entry :

And that about sums it up...I'm sure there was a ton more that has happened but I just can't remember it all. I probably wouldn't have remembered all this, had it not been for the pictures I took. LOL

Tonight.........

I'm off to see the Drama Teen in the Encore production of School House Rock Jr. They are being judged tonight for adjudication. If they score high enough they may get to perform at Nationals this summer.


No new news on Father Richardson. He is resting comfortably they tell us. He is still on the Ventilator and Sedated. As far as we can tell he is not on the Ventilator for 'life support"....he is only on it to help with his breathing...and give him the chance to recover from the pneumonia. He is still unable to have visitors in his room. Please keep him in your prayers.

Prayers

Last week I mentioned that our Priest was Hospitalized with Pneumonia. When we saw him on Friday he looked pretty good...tired...having a hard time breathing but he looked good and things looked up...We visited again on Saturday and he had been moved to ICU .But things still looked 'up"....they mainly moved him so they could monitor him better. Everyone was still very optomistic. Then Sunday or Monday he was moved to a Germ Free room ..meaning he could have no visitors, not even his sister. Yesterday he was placed on a Ventilator. Things are not looking so good now. Everyone is still hopeful that he will pull thru and you never know....he seems to have a direct line to God and miracles happen where he's concerned. I'm asking that you say a little Prayer for Father Richardson if you could.

Our Valentines

We did go out to visit with Father at the Hospital. It was a really nice visit...he looked very good and was in great spirits. He really seemed to enjoy us being there. We got to visit with his Sister who is here to help him as he gets better. They are planning to keep him in the hospital at least thru the weekend, just to keep an eye on him, make sure he rests and give his lungs a chance to clear. I really enjoy spending time with him, he has seen so much and experienced so much. He's a wealth of information. He's LIVED History!

Afterwards the Commander took me to Dinner. He wanted to take me to this really great Italian Place he had been to called G No's Pizza( it's supposed to be WAY more than a Pizzeria..he'd had a 5 course meal when he went). We passed it on the way to the hospital. But when we got there he didn't think it was the same place. It looked different than the one he'd been to , so we went to Warriors Grill Mongolian Barbeque instead.

for My Valentine

The Cheater's way to make Blueberry Cheesecake..........

It's pretty self explanatory............

And then there's this little somethin' somethin'...just a small gift bag with the Commander's Favorites.....Reeses...the card sings "I Have Been Blessed" by Martina McBride

This is......

....what we woke up to this morning........................

school was delayed 2 hours for this........LOL

Father Richardson

Our priest Father Richardson turned 89 years old on Ash Wednesday. Last Sunday we had a Birthday Celebration for him after Mass... our Womens' Group presented him with a special Banner the Chapel. "Lead Me Lord" is one of his Favorite Hymns. We sing it at Mass often.





















Unfortunately on Tuesday he was Rushed to VA Beach General Hospital. He had been under the weather all last week with a cold and a cough. Turns out he has pneumonia. They say he is doing well. Please keep him in your Prayers. The Commander thought it would be nice if we went to see him tonight.. what better way to spend Valentine's than with a man whose whole congregation adores him. He is the nicest , sweetest, person I've ever known. I was touched that the Commander wanted us to go tonight and couldn't think of a better gift for us and for Father. The Commander has also offered to take me to Dinner afterwards...

Monks' Meals

Last night was our First Friday in Lent. As I posted about earlier, the choir was responsible for this weeks meal. Each week a different Group at church sponsors it. Next week will be the Knights of Columbus( ie the men) another week will be our Womens' Group. CCD teachers. Chapel staff etc. etc.



Do not be fooled by various pics of the Commander appearing to be engaging in Domestic Activities in my posts.....these are very rare incidences indeed.. which is why I feel the need to document them.........LOL






We had a good crowd( for OUR Church..we are a pretty small congregation)... Everyone enjoyed a good meal of Clam Chowder, Vegetable Soup, Cheddar Soup, an assortment of breads, Lemonaid, Water, Wine, and Coffee.












Afterwards we all particpated in the Stations of the Cross Service. I look forward to these Fridays in Lent. I really enjoy them.

How Cool

I just checked my blog...and noticed my counter was at 4444...just thought That was cool...LOL

Lunch Date at K & T's Cafe

Had Lunch with friends from church today. We had a great time and were there for hours. This Cafe just recently opened up so they don't have much business yet. We were the only one's in there for the last hour or so..LOL......but we had a blast. We can talk for hours......

I had an awesome Crabcake Sandwich and potato salad. It's Lent ...no meat on Fridays.

The best part is we all get to Dine together again tonight at church as we'll be having a Monk' s Meal before Stations of the Cross tonight. The Choir is in charge of tonight's meal. I am making Clam chowder( the cheater's version) Big Crockpot, Chunky's Clam chowder soup, two cans of Diced Potatos, two cans of Canned Corn, 3 cups of Milk. Voila Maggii's Clam Chowder!

if I'd have had more time I'd have made more of an effort to make it from scratch( ie.used real potatoes, peeled and chopped, maybe even gone so far as making my own Chowder Soup from scratch( scald the milk add flour, and fresh clams and frozen corn etc etc ) . But it was after 2:30 pm by the time we left Lunch and I still had to shop for the soup ingredients, so easy peasy it was.

Walls Walls Walls

Just to give you an idea of what I meant in the post before.


This first one is a small snippet of my living room walls. Two walls are painted this barn red type color...and two walls are wood paneling ( which I hate but the Commander LOVES..@@)




































This is my front entry. The front door is to the right of this wall. This is my favortie area of the whole house. I LOVE this color.










This is my upstairs hallway. I couldn't quite capture the color. It's a light aqua, but looks brighter than this in real life.




















This is my Oldest son's room( the Genious..I'll have to explain that one of these days, I've never posted about it)
NO he didn't choose that color.... this was his little sisters room eons ago. When he moved back home this was his only option and he doesn't care enough to make us change it.







This is the Drama Teens room. Her favorite color is Purple. I should have taken pics of her furniture( which is all painted BRIGHT PINK) and her carpet(Leopard Print) . This room is too cool and the one room the Realtor said we should keep just for fun.













Here is my laundry room...I LOVE this color as well but the Commander thinks it's hideous! I told him, hey, "I'm" the one who has to spend my time in there doing laundry day in and day out, and "I" LIKE it . It makes it a nice 'cheery" room.
I think it's Green Apple.












This is the girls Bathroom. The color is Carnation Pink.They now share it with the Genious, but he didn't live here when we painted it. At that time it was just the girls who used this bathroom.

This is our Music/Computer room. I can't remember the name of this color ..but it looks like a nice blood red ..don't you think?

The Commander had this idea that he would make this room a sound studio and produce CD's for the Drama Teen..She's written a ton of her own songs and he has all the equipment to do it. Just hasn't found the time to actually sit down and mix a CD for her.

and this is a view in my older daughter's room ( the Co-ed) The red( almost the same blood red from the music room but not quite) is her main bedroom.... the Blue is a loft bed her father built for her over her walkin closet which is the green. That blue is the same blue from my entrance and the green is the green from the laundry room. I passed my love of color on to her.LOL

This is part of an addition the Commander added on to our house a couple years ago. He added on a 2 car Garage with living space above it. Half became the Co-ed's room and the other half is my crafting space right now.

Here is a shot of some of my yarn stash in the Craft room. This yellow room is not to be confused with the Yellow area you see right out side the Genious's room. That other room at the the other end of the house and is just a small sitting room where the kids play video games.

I took this to show the view from my craft room thru the music room,thru the hallway,where you can see the pale aqua of the hall and part of the entry which extends to the second floor...if you go thru the dark blue arch there. and turn left you will be in the other yellow video games room and if you turn right after that you'll be in Genious's room.

As you can see I am NOT afraid of COLOR!! At least that is what Our Realtor said when he did the Walk thru a while back. Most of this will all have to repainted in pale neutral colors for Operation House. At first I was upset...but then again I've actually been wanting to go to a more neutral calm decor. Just don't tell the Commander. I don't want him to know I actually LIKE these changes...I want him to think it's a real hardship for me so I can score some sympathy points from him...LOL...this way he 'might' let me have my way with other things...LOL

almost an after....

but not quite.....I still need to mop the floors and move the china Cabinet back into place and figure out how I'm going to arrange things in it again. I've gotten rid of some of the things I was displaying in it..and I've decided to start using some of it as my everyday stuff....so....now I need to come up with a whole new 'display" inside the cabinet, and don't know exactly what I want to do.

I had a hard time capturing the true color or should I say lack of color..LOL on these walls...if you look closely the bottom is slightly darker than the top....we are trying to go with pale neutral colors to appeal to buyer of all kinds. At first I kindof balked( ok sortof threw a fit) at going soooo pale.( although Dh wanted all WHITE and I finally talked him into a softer IVORY) You'd have to see the rest of my walls to understand.....but......now I'm kindof liking the pale and don't tell the Commander, but I had been secretly wanting to go pale for a while anyway...I think I just argued for the sake of arguing...LOL

The tile floor we did a LONG time ago when we first moved into the house.. it was our first real project .

meetmark. by Avon....my latest Aquisitions

Got my Order in yesterday! Woo Hoo....I LOVE getting mark. mail.......had a little bit of a snafu with the delivery though......I knew my package was set to arrive today....but it dawned on me that the doorbell never rang? they always ring the bell and leave the package ..walking off before I even get to the door. I went to check and sure enough there was my package...or so I thought...it was about the right size and looked like most of my other packages ..so I tore right into it....Right away something looked off.....mark. packing slips are always pink.....and this one wasn't ....upon closer inspection the packing slip was for some Microwave Plate co. hmmmnn no mark. isn't into microwaves......upon closer inspection that wasn't MY name on the invoice...but my neighbors.....

Now the other day I was expecting a mark. package and it was delivered to my neighbors by accident( same neighbor) ...so I start to wonder about MY package as it WAS supposed to be delivered yesterday as well....I check online and sure enough it shows my package as being 'delivered"....hmmnn I bet neighbor has mine.....so I tape hers back up....and head on over there and sure enough, there's MINE....so I switched and went on back home with mine( first I rang the bell though in case they were home and saw me take the package, thinking I might be walking off with a package of theirs) .......so ...anyway.......here's some of my new loot.....I got this Great Purse in the Pewter Color...it's HUGE...big enough to carry a LOT of stuff in....and I got the Wallet Below in the same Pewter color as the bag...I could only find a pic of it in Bronze. it's pretty cool...the inside has a place for a few IDs...a mirror...a spot for a lipgloss or lipstick....and a large zippered pouch.....the two sides open up to leopard lined pouches...one has more spaces for ID or Credit cards and maybe receipts....the other has a zippered space for change and room for Cash......I really LOVE this wallet I can fit so much in it and it's all very 'organized" ..I already switched out my old wallet....it's also pretty cute on it's own and can be used as a small evening clutch...I got this cute Thermal top for the Drama Teen....she was excited to see it on her bed after school yesterday.....That's what I do...I buy her stuff during the day while she's at school and leave it on her Bed for her to discover when she gets home.....I almost always manage to thrill her...she's so easy...LOL

and these cute Silver hoop Earrings....I bought them for myself Earlier and decided to get her a pair too.....they aren't bad....not the best I've seen from mark. Up close they kind of look cheesy...the material they used to make them looks cheap....but unless you're staring at them close-up ...like two inches away.....they look pretty cute....and who really is going to get THAT close to notice...other than maybe your significant other ..who probably wont care..LOL

And finally this ......I really LOVE these little make-up kits mark. has been putting together.....They call them Flip for Its....It's a little Mirrored Compact...the middle part with the make-up rotates or 'flips"..one side has two eyeshadows and a blush...the other side has two Lipsticks and two Lipglosses...

.they have two other one's in the magalog right now as well...but they are 'unavailable" which ticks me off, seeing as the magalog only went live like two days ago.....how the heck am I supposed to make my customers happy if they can't even order the cute stuff when it is supposed to come out...I was able to get my hands on the other two kits earlier this month...I kept this one and one of the others for myself and gave Drama Teen the third..then I tried to order the other two for her but was only able to get this one.

Oh BTW...Lauren ( as in Lauren's Fave up there) is Lauren Conrad from MTV's The Hills....I guess she's a spokesperson for meetmark. by Avon.

Ash Wednesday

So today was Ash Wednesday and as a Catholic so starts the Lenten season. We are supposed to Fast and Abstain today and on Fridays during Lent. I did fine today. Didn't forget and eat meat. I almost forgot but remembered just in time.

But...we are also supposed to 'give something up" ...and every year I just can never decide what? So here it is the first day of Lent and I haven't come up with anything. Every year I say magazines and every year I just can't hold to it, so I really don't want to say that this year, as I'm sure I'll fail.


I could give up chocolate or something( a common standby)...but I really don't eat it often enough for it to really be a sacrifice...yes I know....that's sacrilege.. a woman who doesn't eat much chocolate....LOL...

I could give up all unnecessary shopping ..but where do I draw the line on that..what exactly would be unnecessary...and how will I buy my really cute Easter Outfit if I can't shop for it during Lent. Or maybe I can make an exception? or buy it on Saturday since Lent supposedly officially ends at noon on the Saturday before Easter.

Or maybe soda...but I rarely drink it anymore anyway annnndddd...I just bought two liters of diet Sprite which no one else will drink..so it will get wasted...the only other family member who would drink it is the Drama Teen who gave up 'soda'..LOL...


I could give up arguing with the Commander..but I have a feeling I'll totally forget all about THAT one by tomorrow..LOL

I think I'm just a REALLY selfish person......oh well......I'll keep thinking about it and maybe by Easter I'll have come up with something.

7 Random Things

Ok...so I' ve been tagged by PonyKnit over at If Ponies could Knit...

Here are the rules, and they must be posted to your blog. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you (see above). List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog and also so they can look at your blog and not tag the same people all over again!

1. I spoke French until I was 5 years old..I learned to speak English in school ....unfortunately I've completely lost my French :(

2. I got married ONE week after Graduating High School and am still married to him 25 years later.

3. I talk to myself...like I seriously carry on conversations...LOL

4. I've been to every state except Alaska and North Dakota

5. I LIKE my teen daughters and they LIKE me back( actually one of them isn't a 'teen' anymore ..she's now 20)...we've never had any of that Teen Hormone induced Angst....I can pick out their clothes for them and they actually LIKE them...LOL

6. I can't wink....

7. Until we moved here, 11 years ago....I had never lived anywhere longer 3 years ...the longest I'd ever lived in the same 'home' was 4 years and THAT was in two DIFFERENT states...LOL( it was a mobile home and we took it with us to a new state)My dad was in the AF and I married an AF man who later switched to the Navy...LOL

Ok so who doI tag?

Laura
Kerry
Ashley
Laurie
Elena
Veteran Military Wife
Kelly

Fallen Behind

I've gotten behind in my blogging I have so much that needs to be blogged....starting with.....Laura awarding me with this award:





Aw thanks Laura!!!!



Now I need to award it to my ten bloggers I feel are "Excellent"...Like Laura there are lot ..so let's see if I can Narrow it down....of course I'd award Laura if she hadn't already been awarded...

so here's my list in no particular order because I really like you all for all kinds of different reasons...



1. There's Laurie over at Romance and Roses I like to stop over there from time to time to see how the House is coming along...she lost her home to Katrina and is finally moving in to their newly built home! I have a soft spot for her as My family lives in the same area ( although luckily none lost their homes).



2.and BooMama, I love her blog and have been reading it for awhile....I enjoy her Tour of Homes.



3. Ashley over at Ashley's Closet this girl is HILARIOUS!! You have to go over and read her stuff....better than Dooce IMO. I'm sure she'll appreciate that compliment. LOL I'm sure she'll be excited over getting an AWARD( if you read her site you'll see what I mean) although she'll probably be pissed I didn't list her 1st..LOL



4.then there's Life With Hannah and Lily , I found this one right after the untimely death of her young daughter Hannah and it just tore at my heartstrings. She's come thru it with Strength and Faith and I just find her to be such an inspiration.



5. and also Nitty Gritty who also lost her young daughter in a horrible accident a few years ago..it's inspirational how she has kept her family together thru a crisis. and made it thru with her Faith in God intact.



6. Kerry over at More, More, More. I love her Style and wish I had her life..LOL



7. I've been Readin Posy Gets Cosy for quite a while and think it's awesome how 'famous' Alicia is getting ...I keep seeing her in all my favorite magazines...and think how cool is that...I already knew about her...LOL



8. Lately I've been really into French bloggers...I can't hardly understand most of what they write, but LOVE looking at their blogs and seeing their fashion and decor... this one is my favorite...Lao sur la Colline ....her kids are too adorable.



9. A recent find that I really like is Sustainable Style ..I like the way she thinks although I don't think I could do it..I kinda like my 'McMansion" thank you very much...LOL...I still like the way she thinks though.



10. and Last but not least, I think I've been reading this blogger the longest. and have always liked the way she thinks too. Lisa at Wordy Diva.. I started reading her way back when she was Madame Insane, then she switched to something else ..then seemed to drop off the face of the earth and just recently I found her again at Wordy Diva ....YEAH!!



Actually there are sooooo many more that I lOVE to read and if I have time later maybe I'll add a few Honorable mentions or something...it was so hard to decide which one's to award.



One thing I KNOW I need to do is update my sidebar...all of these bloggers should be over there and at least one should probably be removed...I've always like Homakerang....but as she went private a while back I can't read her anymore..and I have no idea how to contact her to even ask to be invited....last time I was able to read her she was expecting a baby...which she's probably had by now...hopefully everything went ok. If I were still able to read her she probably would have been one of my picks for the Excellence Award.