No air, no banana bread, no sister time, no stitching!

Naked ladies are everywhere!  These were standing on the side of the street at my Mom's neighbor's house.  I love them, they are so delicate and they are PINK!  I have been having fun with the Professor's (which I have gained control of) camera. 

Lovely hibiscus reaching for the morning sky, it is so pretty. 

I have loved the hibiscus since we lived in Hawaii.  They are the perfect girlish accoutrement to a girly girl's hair. 

This morning my sister Princess Jujubead and I were going to have a sister love in which turned into everybody in the family showing up at Cracker Barrel.  So much for the sisterly bonding time.  I took my new camera and played with the "showing motion" setting.  It is SO cool. 

Here sits the Professor in the front seat of Mom's Honda as we buzz down the highway.  He asked the Paparazzi not to take photos but as per usual the Paparazzi did NOT honor his wishes.  Everyone enjoyed their breakfast and the sister bonding between Juju and I. 

And don't you love the Cracker Barrel shop?  They had the cutest Halloween things but I contained myself.  I went and sat outside in a rocker and this young gal was playing with this bubble gun.  The Professor thought it would be perfect for Princess Wiggle Wiggle who unfortunately wasn't able to join us because she is with her "Mother".  Since they were 25% off, Professor Softie went and got it AND batteries.  Yes we will have GREAT pictures to share when she is presented with it.

Like all good celebrities they know when to use the Paparazzi! Professor came out of the bedroom dressed to the nines and wanted a photo taken. He does look handsome when he goes to church.

Friday nights Professor likes to go downtown and sit and watch the trains. Downtown in the evenings does have a nice ambiance with the people, the traffic and the bands. After I get off work I meet my Professor down there and we sit for a bit, it is a very cozy and intimate outing. Friday night there was the best band we have heard all summer.




No, I have never met Pat Metheny, he graduated 2 years before I did. I understand he was a music geek in high school and his older brother was good friends with an old co-worker's son. Pat and the outlaw, Cole Younger, are the only 2 famous/infamous people to call Lee's Summit home, at least to my knowledge.

So I played more with my/our camera with a night setting while we were sitting at the train station.  I love the night pictures it took! 

I told Professor there was a train coming and he told me I was hearing something else.  Two minutes later this long Union Pacific train came rumbling by.  It is really cool being 5 feet from the immense power of these machines. 

I threw my last Thrift Shop find, the purse, in with our laundry to get the stain out.  I started playing with my hair flowers and pins and realized I can have fun creating girlish embellishments on it. 

At breakfast this morning Princess Jujubead commented how cute my hand bag was.  I smiled and told her $3.50 !  I was doing a little bragging since the Princess loves expensive handbags!

I received my Hoffman media Halloween special edition in the mail and I adore it.  There are only a couple of designs I couldn't picture myself stitching but other then that it is full of fab designs.

Our air conditioner is out and we are blessed because it isn't as hot as it could be.  Oh yes, I bought a nice loaf of Amish-made Banana Nut bread.  I sliced off 3 pieces for my Mom and brought the rest home.  I just went to get a piece and it was no where to be found.  Professor ate the whole blasted thing in less then 24 hours! If I didn't love him so much I would hate him!  Oh well, my saying feed the hungry also includes him, but he is a bottomless pit!

I think I have rambled on long enough.  I hope your day is blessed and stay cool!  God Bless Us Everyone.

Each moment a single frame in a movie called "A Life"

This weekend went by entirely too quickly and it seems as though nothing was truly accomplished except enjoying a wonderful weekend with the Professor.  I had every intention of working on my Happy Room!  Nope that didn't happen, not on Saturday nor Sunday.

I took Professor to church and came back to the Lilac Thicket and putzed about.  I went up and picked up Professor to bring him home.  He laid down to nap, I went to the grocery to pick up a couple of items to make the above pictured Easy Chicken Enchiladas. Then it was off to Hobby Lobby to buy DMC needed for the Elegant Pumpkin design in the Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine.  

Back home I made Pineapple jello with cream cheese whipped in and a can of crushed pineapple for good measure.  I shredded chicken for the above Easy Chicken Enchiladas and sat to watch the Ghost Hunters I recorded.  When Professor got up we dined and I have to say it was GOOD!  Even my picky Prof would agree...he went back for seconds!

Sunday, Professor figured out how to load photos from our Flickr account into U'verse and we enjoyed a slide show of pictures we have taken over the past 5 months.  

We went over to my mother's and met Brother 2, Dear-Sister-in-law and Princess Wiggle Wiggle.  Brother 2 presented Professor and I with a beautiful handmade mantle clock (pictured above).  It is made out of walnut, gorgeous and I love it.

Last night we sat together to watch the animated movie "Tangled" which was great. Professor then took Rose for a short stroll.  We climbed into bed and I fell asleep with my arm draped over my dear husband.

I was thinking about the pictures we've taken. Each picture representing a moment in time, good times, where laughing, smiles and love accompany each single moment.  Those moments in themselves are so small and forgettable yet they are sewn together with an invisible golden cord to form this short, temporary existence called a life.  Each moment by itself is unexceptional and yet they make up this incredibly rich life.  All of these little, seemingly, mundane moments grow into this wonderful crazy patch quilt life. A moment is like a musical note, and each fits together perfectly to complete a song, God's song of our life.

Seeing the Professor's life turn into something he has prayed for, a home, a family, friends fills me with great joy. Witnessing it reflected in our pictures, fills me with overflowing gratitude.

I watched Princess Wiggle Wiggle walk over and hug her "Uncle Professor" yesterday, it was the first of many hugs awaiting him.  It is the small points of time, my gentle readers, the small, insignificant moments that clutter up my mundane little life that makes my limited time here precious.

Can you hear the song God plays for your life?  Be still my gentle readers, you can hear it.  God Bless Us Everyone!

PI Professor and his new investigative tool

I had come back to the bedroom from the kitchen with a Diet Pepsi and a granola bar.  I glanced out the window and saw two squad cars pull up in front of our neighbors.  I said to the neighborhood watch Professor laying in my bed "the cops are here".  His Bible study session came to a sudden and complete halt and he reversed his position and was trying to peer out the 5" crack of the open bedroom window.  "Why don't you just open the window?", asked I.  The answer...he didn't want anyone to see him being inquisitive!  I walked over and threw open the window and blinds and we watched the 2 police officers walk a few houses past where they parked their cars.  Not surprisingly enough he said he wanted to talk Rose for a walk.

So rush hour began on our sidewalk as it became littered with people walking their dogs or going for their morning strolls.  I didn't get a picture of the traffic jam, I didn't grab my camera soon enough.  You can see in the center of the picture the Professor and Rose on the neighborhood watch stroll. He was so eager to get out of the house he didn't even pull on his 4th pair of shorts.  Yes my gentle readers, he wears 4 pairs of shorts at one time, briefs, boxers, cotton jersey and then jean shorts.  I have no clue why, I think he is into feeling safe and secure and nothing makes one feel safe and secure like 4 pairs of shorts on a 110° day!  Is that TMI?

So the Professor makes it back to tell me that he thinks that it was a dispute with his next door neighbors.  I told him that I think this "complainant" is in the middle of a lot of issues in the neighborhood, and I am glad we don't live next door to him.  I can't wait to move our Lilac Thicket. 

I was off work yesterday and it was a lovely day.  We went to Borders to see what bargains we could find.  We did get the Professor a nice pair of reading glasses for $6.oo.  His last pair from Dollar Tree were bent and he had lost one of the plastic lens out of them.  It was actually quite amusing watching him try to read with them on.  I will miss that cheap amusement here in the Thicket. 

We went to eat lunch at Bob Evans and then went to our beloved Thrift Shop.  I was browsing in the books when my bow-legged husband struts over in the above pictured trench coat and it looked darn good on him.  The tag said $10 but I told him I thought the blue tagged items were 25% off.  The next thing I know the Professor comes back and tells me that he paid 25¢ for the trench coat.  He had told the elderly lady she had charged him wrong and she showed him the sign, indeed blue tag items....25¢!  It has a fleece zip out liner, I can't believe this bargain.

I found several books and a purse at the Thrift Shop.  My buys were nothing like the Professor's but I am happy with them. 

I got this puzzle at Borders for $3.00 and think it will be an excellent activity when the weather is cold outside.

Well my lovely and faithful readers it is time for me to get ready for work and leave my Lilac Thicket for the craziness of the world outside.  I will alert you if you see a tall thin black man in a trench coat walking an orange and white britney in your neck of the woods, tell him to call home, he took a wrong turn somewhere in his snooping adventure.  God Bless Us Everyone.

And they finally came, but took the wrong thing!

Hello dear readers!  I wanted my first picture to be a spiffy picture because when I link this missive to Facebook it picks up on the first photo in the entry.  I did get a new Scentsy lamp and I think it is mighty cute.  I put it on the dining room table to delight my nose as I sliced and diced onions for my tomato dish.  It was raining and the scent I selected to diffuse was "Thunderstorm".  Am I clever or what?

The Thicket got a thorough soaking yesterday as we had several rounds of rain move through. I was twirling in delight as my U'verse TV stayed on which is decidedly different then with DTV which lost it's signal in rain storms.  The miracle of fiber optic television!

The Mums were enjoying the rain coming down.  They got a good soaking and they look so pretty and cheerful even in the greyness of an overcast day. You know we paid $4.50 for these Mums on Tuesday and on Wednesday they were on sale for 3 for $10!  I was not happy when I saw that in the ad.

As I previously stated I was slicing and dicing vegetables for Hip Hop Dot's recipe for tomato relish.  Heirloom tomatoes from my mother's neighbor, onion, cucumber, banana pepper and Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing.  Oh it is so yummy and the Professor loves it.  I took some over to Mom's when we dropped off the pretty Mum we got for her.

Easy Pasta Salad is what I whipped up for the Professor and I yesterday evening.  It was pretty good although the next time I want to use grilled chicken rather then pan cooked chicken.  Professor really liked this and it was easy to make.  There is plenty left over for him to eat this weekend while I work.


 Easy Pasta Salad

• 1 package chicken tenders
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 package (12 oz.) fettuccine pasta, uncooked
• 1 package (16 oz.) frozen vegetable mix
• ¹/2 cup bottled Caesar or Italian dressing
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ¹/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper

1. In large skillet, saute chicken in vegetable oil over medium heat until done. (Insert instant-read meat thermometer in thickest part of chicken. Temperature should read 170 degrees F). Cook pasta according to directions.
2. Add vegetables to pasta last 5 minutes of cook time. Drain pasta and vegetables and mix with chicken, dressing and basil.

Mix well; cook until heated through. Add cheese; toss to coat pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh bread, if desired. Serves: 4

I received my Just Cross Stitch magazine in the mail.  I love several of the Halloween ornaments in this issue and NO the Applebee's card did not come with it.  I just wanted to cover my mailing address.  Deb of Tempting Tangles has a delightful Halloween design in there.  Love her stuff.  What really caught my eye was....

this design of 4 pumpkins designed by Marie Barber.  I love this and will have to get the floss and fabric!

The Professor and I ran up Price Chopper to get some ground beef for the hamburger stroganoff I made and brought to work today.  Well I found a jade plant that I could replace in the pot with the dead ivy.  Maybe I can do a good job of killing this.

Remember in March when I was campaigning for a visit from the underpants gnomes to come steal the dirt in my corners?  Well they came but they didn't take the dirt in the corners.  "Honey...have you seen my green and my red briefs?  Could we have left them at the laundromat?"  Well none of my clothing is missing, or my underpants so....then I had an epiphany...notice the color scheme in the above pic of the underpants gnomes and now I have no doubts about what happened to the Professor's red and green underpants.  Those darned boogers paid us a visit! 

Yes, yes dears, it is time once again to close.  I know it is painful and unpleasant but you are made of tough stuff.  Oh and if anyone sees the gnomes dragging a pair of green and a pair of red men's briefs, they belong to the Professor and he would be glad to get them back.  God Bless Us Everyone!

Ketchup... the other food group!

A misty overcast morning, what a delight! 

Are those rain drops on the wind shield?  It  has been such a long time since I have seen a rain drop I must rub my eyes!

By Jobe I do believe it is rain that is visiting us.  Remarkably my Mother who lives 2 miles away did not get a drop.  Craziness reigns with the weather, there is tropical storm Emily careening thru the Gulf and droughts in Texas, fires, flooding, 115° in Wichita Kansas...does anyone doubt the Lord is trying to get our attention? 

I am going to make a tomato dish that is delicious, even the picky Professor loves Hip Hop Dot's recipe.  Dice up tomatoes, onions, burp less cucumbers and banana peppers, add raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing and let it sit a few hours in the frig before enjoying.  It really is wonderful.

I have been working in my Happy Room gentle readers and more treasures are being unearthed.  I love self published or fund raising cookbooks!  This is one I bought at The Thrift Shop and I don't remember purchasing it. 

I also found a kit purse for knitting fabric strips that I started.  It's pink and that is all I need to be attracted to something. 

An old crochet magazine and another thin cook book was discovered. 

My Happy Room archaeological excavation also found green velvet trims, green and white lace and tiny blue rick rack in addition to buttons. 

I am making awesome progress and my next day off, now since everything is off the floor, is to work around the walls getting rid of plastic crates and smaller book cases.  After that, all surfaces will be cleaned off and then I can get my old kitchen table in there, get my lap top off the dining room table and really iron something on my ironing board, not to mention getting my sewing machine set up. 

Saturday after the Professor and I ate at Appleby's we went over to my Mom's and Brother 2, Dear Sister in law and Princess Wiggle Wiggle (my great great niece) showed up.  My brother had to model the cute back pack I bought for Princess Wiggle Wiggle.  Brother 2 inherited my sense of humor...oh my! 

I regaled my family with tales of Ketchup and the Professor's chronic use of said food product.  At Appleby's he had purchased an Oriental Chicken Salad and then proceeded to put ketchup on the chicken in the salad.  So Brother 2 had to show solidarity with the Professor and.... 

poured ketchup on a vanilla sandwich cookie and ate it.  I hear the gagging reflex, I hate it when men stick together! 

This is a picture I adore Brother 2 with Princess Wiggle Wiggle.  Princess is Brother 2's great grand daughter and gentle readers, she is a delight to everyone she meets.  Love that little girl.

I have been sharing old pictures of my family and this picture is really my favorite.  It is a picture of my parents when they were dating in maybe 1954 or so, they were married in 1956.  My Mother was so gorgeous, she still is and my Father was so handsome, men in uniform always turn my head.

My paternal Grandmother was so wonderful about notating her pictures with names and dates.  The scan isn't as good as the original picture but it is my Dad in August of 1955.  You can see the black panther tattoo on his left upper arm.  I always loved that tattoo!  In 1955 dad would have been knocking on the door of his 21st birthday which was in December.  I think he is so handsome, but I suppose most girls think their Papa's are the most handsome man in the world.

For Father's Day I gave the Professor a nice electric hair clipper set.  It has saved us a lot of money and he really is pretty good at trimming his own hair.  He came flying out here in his prison striped shorts and bare chest "How does it look?"  I gave him a quizzical look..."I like the bare chest"!  "My hair! How does my hair look?"  Gentle readers, his chain is SO easy to yank!

Oh my devoted readers of this boring and ordinary Lilac Thicket missive, the Professor, Rose, April and myself wish you love and happiness until such time when I once again bore you with naked common-ness we salute you!  God Bless Us Everyone!

Darling decorating diva defies definition

Well my gentle readers the weather forecasts were wrong for yesterday.  We were spared the 108° temperature, it was only 107°!  It is a new all time high here for the date of August 2nd.  Inside the air conditioner is not shutting off at all and in spite of my attempts to educate the Professor on keeping it cooler in the Lilac Thicket, I come home to curtains and shades up, back door open and the ceiling fans off. 

A conversation, "I didn't tell you I came home half dead! I walked into town yesterday."  Me, "I figured you went someplace, your house key was on the sofa."  The Professor, "It was?  You think you are SO smart!"  Me, "Well you ARE incorrect...I know I am smart." Yes, I know that there is a learning curve for the Professor, I do, but let's face it my dear readers, it doesn't take a genius to lay in food crumbs on the sofa and know he has been eating while sitting on it.

So the  picture is of my shame, my bookcases filled with stash which sits in the computer room, soon to be happy room.  Now if this was the only bit of stash pile, you might say that it would take me a jiff to organize, but I have a closet, a couple of brown paper bags, an ironing board, a computer desk and a top of a sewing machine cabinet full of more stash.  Oh yes and two plastic bags full of needlework fabric on the book case.  Is it no wonder I can't find anything I purchased?

Just sharing a couple of Thrift Shop finds that the Professor stumbled across and couldn't live without and now festoon our home.  Can anyone spell, 1970?  Okay, they are rather cute.

And then there is this, a patriotic Raggedy Ann hanging around our front door to frighten welcome visitors.  Doesn't the Professor have impeccable decorating sense?

I also came home to this on the wall of the kitchen.  Yes the Professor found it in a closet and hung it up.  Yes it is a Patricia Andrle design that took me a year to stitch and I love it except for the frame I chose and a mistake that I thought I could live with and went ahead and had it framed and realized I couldn't stand the sight of the mistake. 

Here are a series of photos that my best friend Bodacious Bev and I had taken at our Employee Appreciation Dinner.  I sort of like them.

I love this picture of my maternal Grandparents, Emma and Ed.  This was probably taken in the 40's.  Aren't they a beautiful couple?  I don't ever remember them looking this young and so I adore this image of them out on the town.  Mom's cousins used to say Grandpa looked like Cary Grant.  How I miss 'em.

Now my loyal followers don't start that pouting! I can't sit here forever and have yet to have one reader ask me to move in with them, so until that happens I must get ready for work.  Stay cool, stay blessed and God Bless Us Everyone.