Merry Christmas!!!!

We're home and wishing all a Merry Christmas!!!!!
We are settled in to watch 24 hours of classic Sherlock Holmes and I love Basil Rathbone!

Snow

Tree limbs down and heavy snow. Perfect for building a snowman.

Just some photos from yesterday. Still no electricity at home but we are keeping our fingers crossed and praying that it will be back sooner than the have predicted.

Peppermint Dreams

I love peppermint. I love it in all forms. The smell lifts my mood and the taste makes me happy. I have two new favorites to enjoy. The first is this tea. I am not a big green tea drinker but with peppermint has changed. I love this tea!

My second new thrill are Peppermint Snowball Cookies. The recipe is a Sandra Lee recipe and is super easy. It has some bad reviews on site and I do not understand it. Sure they didn't look anything like the photos when I baked them but the taste is peppermint bliss. They flattened out when baked and I believe it's because I put a generous amount of crushed peppermint in them. The kids ate them as fast as I baked them and dusted them with more crushed peppermint. Unfortunately, Food Network Channel is freezing up on me everytime I try to get on it today so I haven't the link I wanted to post. I can't even tell you how easy these are. They have ready-made sugar cookie dough as the base with three additional ingrediants mixed in and bake. Yummy!

Cold

No heat in my office for two days! Need I say more?

I love Etsy

I love Etsy. It's my favorite place to shop. My newest purchase is this beauty and it's all mine. It came in the mail over the weekend and I love it. I don't believe there is any way you can go wrong with a Santa playing the bagpipes!

I have so many photos to get taken and posted but I'm back to work tomorrow. I hope the mission gets a new secretary soon and gets our office back into shape.

Rainbows

I have lived in this house for 11 years and have never seen a rainbow outside my front door until this evening. I have had such a long week this past week with lots of work and lots of stress and then I get to see this.

This was to the north and my view to the south was just as beautiful.

I was standing in the most beautiful golden light outside and all my stress melted.

My other stress reliever has been a little snuggle kitten. Lucy has had her name changed to Alice but she answers to nothing at all. Not even Kitty. She loves to sleep and climb

under blankets and place her paws on your face. We find her everywhere in this house sleeping. Quilts are her favorite sleeping spots but she also loves my thyme plant in it's big pot in the morning sun.

I'm back to work. If I get enough finished tonight I'll get to breathe alittle easier.

Quilting

I'm hand quilting this week and my fingers are aching. I usually quilt with a leather thimble but I'm down to my last one and it's wearing through in spots. Every so often, I am puncturing myself and bleeding so I've tossed it until I get a new one tonight. I like quilting without it but my fingers do not. I'm working on my baby quilts. I had at first decided that tacking would be fine but now I'm going back and hand quilting. I feel like all babies need something special and in my eyes a quilt is about as special as it gets. I worked months on my girls' quilts. Poor Hannah was nearly one before hers was finished because it is appliqued with a rocking horse and it's huge. Kate's is hand-embroidered blocks and not as large. I am a bit upset because I can't find them and something tells me they may be stored at my mother's home in Kentucky. I have several things there including my wedding dress to Husband #1. I wonder if it qualifies as vintage now? I'd love to stick that that dress on etsy. I'll pray over it first. I don't want another bride's groom deciding he's gay after a few years of marriage. What would you ask for a 20 something year old gown in satin, a 10 foot train and bad history? The cost to mail it?

I'm ready to get back to my quilting. I have a camera but the batteries are dead. That's probably why it's here and not at the high school with the other one. I'm past getting angry on the camera thing now.

It's A Cocoa Night

A Quiet Week And Then....

I had to start watching the news again and see what happened at Fort Hood. I couldn't stop watching the updates last night. I can't begin to imagine why this man did what he did. I know that taking another person's life is wrong and my heart is breaking for all involved. The media will feed on this for who knows how long and I am pulled back into watching something that depresses me. When is information too much information?

We had a quiet week this past week. Grades came home yesterday. Nothing to worry about there. Someone is stealing gas in our neighborhood and lost their wallet doing it so the police are on that. I worked on an applique quilt top, sorted through a desk full of papers my Ex has never moved to his home and "cleaned" files from both computers. The remainder of my week has been homemaking. Fairly boring and pretty nice.

We are alone this weekend! No children! I have no idea what we will do but I'm so excited to be childless for two days. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Baking A Cake

Hannah wants a bakery made birthday cake for her party on Friday. Could my unfortunate problems with Katherine's cake last month have colored her opinion of my abilities? Here's my problem with her request. She is particular and that is why I have always baked her cakes. They can only be Duncan Hines cake mix. I've tried homemade and Betty Crocker and she says the texture is weird. She has lots of texture issues...LOTS. She doesn't like colored icing. It tastes funny. She likes butter cream icing and uncolored. God help our bakery. She has told me if I get it from there then she will eat it. So, here is the request she wants made for her cake - Two Tiered, White Cake and Icing and Spider Man on top. Yeah, that's my dear seventeen year old girl. She loves super heroes. Iron Man and Spider Man are her favorites. Let's hope they have a plastic something they can place on top and pray for the best. I know what you are thinking...she'll starve when she leaves home but I what I fear most is that she will never leave home!

Our Seventeen Year Old Girl

Hannah turned 17 this morning around 2:50 am. I used to wake here up at that precise time every year but she informed me she hated that about 3 years ago. I had figured I should get at least 27 years to do it since that's the number of hours she put me through Hell with labor! Sadly, she doesn't agree with me. I'm waiting until she has her first and we'll see how she feels about the tradition then.

Teaching Tolerance

I do gripe about the teenagers and their attitudes but they aren't all "bad". I've managed to raise girls that speak up for themselves and not cower in corners and I'm proud of it. While Hannah made the biggest change in speaking up for herself, it is Kate that has become a self-appointed defender of the weak or the Devil's Advocate when she feels the need. I'm big on teaching tolerance and I believe I was a bit stronger in teaching it because my Ex's family are some of the most prejudice people I know. Luckily, my Ex is not but the girls do spend every other weekend around his family and the ex will not say anything to his family about their comments. My girls are big enough now to deal on their own and they do most of the time trying to not be disrespectful.

I bring this up because Kate has been in two arguments in the last week dealing with religion. I haven't been called into the school yet but I foresee at least one trip this year for a conference for her outspoken ways. I don't mind to be honest but I think teachers do not expect girls to be so vocal. They expect it from boys but not girls. Kate took on a boy's comments about several different religions not going to Heaven because they weren't members of his church. His quoting scripture to back the comments up was what put Kate over the edge. She said she "tore" into him and told him he was misinterpreting the Bible to make his views right and that was wrong. She admitted it got ugly and their history teacher just let the debate go on for a good portion of class. Kate and the boy have known each other since they were very small and now they aren't speaking. Kate feels bad but she said she couldn't handle him saying who could and couldn't go to heaven and she knew he made several people in the class feel bad. Now he's going around calling her bad names and saying she isn't a Christian. She's hurt over that comment. We had a bad experience at our old church and she's never gotten over it completely. She's told me if this is how Christians are going act she is never going back to church. It's tearing me up to hear this but I know not all is lost. Yesterday, Kate was asked to give a description of Jesus in History class and she said "He's my Lord and Savior, the Son of God and He died for all of us so we can go to Heaven". This wasn't the answer the teacher wanted and she didn't get the answer correct. She didn't care and she says she'll be putting on the exam today too. She's given me some hard times lately but I'm proud of my girl. I really don't believe she'll be throwing me into a nursing home as soon as I hit 60 now...even though she says she's going to.

The Cake Club

Our ninth graders have joined the Cake Club at school. Has anyone heard of this club before? What is it? It's all about cake. They eat cake! They eat cake several times a month and different kinds of cake! What I want to know now is why this club did not exist at my high school when I was their age and why I can't have access to one now?! I would have forgone French Club and Library Club for Cake Club! The cost is very reasonable as well at $1.00 a month and the initiation is to carry a piece of cake for an entire school day and not eat it. Yes, I would fail the initiation but I think I could make it until maybe..... 10am if we started at 9:45. Maybe. These girls have no idea how lucky they are. Sigh.....

Falling In

I think West Virginia is at her prettiest in the Fall.

Ugh.... Horror...

I liked ScareFest. It was fun. Kate and Hannah loved it. Kate said it was better than a day at Universal's theme park in Orlando and that's all I needed to hear. Now, I have to admit something. I have not seen a scary movie since "Alien". That's right, I am a chicken. So, I was a bit overwhelmed by the horror part of the convention. Lots of horror inspired items for sale that scared the crap out of me. Some of the things were down right sacrilege and I know God is watching those people a little closer than they would want to believe. There were famous actors, actresses, and writers there and I didn't know any of them except an actress from "E.T." who was also in "The Howling". I didn't see the "Howling" but she played the mother in "E.T." and she looked just the same. The girls knew everyone. How? I had no idea they had seen so many movies of that genre. They must be seeing the older films with their father. I had really thought they would be more into the paranormal part of the event but I was wrong.

Now, the important part of the day and the reason we stood in a line for nearly one hour and a half was "Ghost Adventures". We were in a long line and in a panic that they would close the line before we got to them. Just when we were about to give up, Zak comes out to the line filming us and promising to get us all in. The guys stayed past the cutoff time and were wonderful to everyone. All three of them were gorgeous and the girls were giddy by the time it was their turn. The guys hugged them and chatted and Kate smiled from ear to ear the rest of the day. Our next stop was with Chip Coffey and he was a sweetheart too. He's going to be in West Virginia next weekend at Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and Zak and the guys will be at the same place next month.

We walked around for hours before heading home to hangout with Poppaw and watch Al finish planting irises. We talked about taking in a movie or two at the drive-in but four horror movies were showing and I backed out. I'd had more than my share of horror for the day or perhaps year. I'm good until we go back to ScareFest next year.

ScareFest!!!

We leave for Kentucky tonight. Kate has been waiting to go to ScarFest for weeks now and she can't get there fast enough. I'm watching Ghost Adventures Twitter posts from Lexington. ScareFest is the Convention for Horror and Paranormal and it's being held at the Convention Center in downtown Lexington starting tonight. It is crazy. There will be anything and anyone involved with horror or the paranormal there. Kate is in love with Zak from Ghost Adventures. She watches the show every Friday night. I have to admit he is hot even to my nearly 50 year old self. So, we are off to my old stomping grounds in Winchester, KY - just minutes from Lexington. I'm taking the girls to the convention and Al is planting hundreds of irises for my mother because he's that kind of son-in-law. Want to know more about it? Go to http://www.thescarefest.com/. If you are in driving range, join us there! Couples an get married there. Not really feeling that idea. There are classic horror films being shown every night at the nearby theater. It sounds like a dream to Kate so it had better be all it's supposed to be. She's is wanting to meet Chip Coffey too so I'm hoping we catch him for an autograph. She watches Paranormal State (another paranormal show) and Chip is on there fairly often. He's a medium and she can't wait to meet him. Now, I know you are thinking "Cathy, what are you doing encouraging this child?" The answer is that I know there are ghosts. I have seen ghosts. I know there is evil such as demons. The Bible backs that up. Kate believes in God. She gave her life to Christ years ago but.....she finds the paranormal fascinating. I believe in encouraging my kids and if that means me going to a crazy convention then okay. It's only two hours away and I get to see my parents and friends.

By the way, it was hard to pick just one photo of Zak! He is that cute! I love all three of the guys from the show but I'm with Kate on Zak being the hottest! If you have never seen the show then you need to check it out on the Travel Channel at 9pm and 10 pm on Friday nights. There are reruns on tonight but the new season will start soon. Yay!

Children Do Remember

My girls and I talked yesterday about the importance of today's date. They remember things from a child's point of view and now years later they still feel much of the same emotions from that day. The three of us were at the elementary school. Their day had just started and then stopped. They remember teachers in the hallways and the televisions being turned on and then off. They saw teachers cry, unable to function, and watched them pull themselves together. They watched as their classmates were pulled out of class one by one by frantic parents. They weren't told what was happening. I was glad. We made the decision to leave them in school that day. Their day was very low key for the most part after lunch. The teachers didn't feel like teaching and I could see they knew nothing would be the same again. The children seemed to know that it was not a day to push their teacher's buttons.
Our girls were told later about what had happened. I can't remember how many months they slept with us after that day. It wasn't just for them. We couldn't bear to be far from them. I think I volunteered nearly every day at the school for the remainder of the year. If I wasn't there for some reason, my girls were afraid. I drove them to and from school after that. Our morning and afternoon talks changed to more serious topics than usual. Every American citizen changed because of that day. My little first grader and third grader were never more proud to say the Pledge of Allegiance after that day. The terrorists have ensured that we now have a new generation of Patriots. A new generation that wants to strengthen their homeland and take nothing for granted.

A New Member

It's been hard since Tiger Lilly passed away. She had rubbed my legs and talked to me nearly every morning for 12 years. She was a big, fat lap cat with eyes worthy of oriental watercolors. It's just hard to even discuss for all of us. I'm tearing up trying to write this and I see I'll have to try again later. Here is a photo of her cuddling Coconut with Baby Girl close behind. Tiger was Coconut's mother and they loved each other deeply.

We gave in and went to the local shelter Saturday morning. We told ourselves it was all for Hannah but later admitted it was a trip for all of us. We had a hard time making a choice but Hannah didn't. She held her new kitten (the first one she touched) and that was that. She hasn't a name yet because Hannah says it has to be perfect. She's right. This new feline is following in Tiger Lilly's paw prints.

This Morning.......

I woke up wishing for another place and time. I just wanted to be there.

ChiChi, My LapTop And Sunday Dinner

We love our animals in this house - human, canine and feline. I have a big soft spot for Hannah's dog ChiChi. He is a big mess mentally but a big cuddler too. Hannah bought him while I was in Cleveland Clinic for my surgery. He was at a shelter near my parent's home in Kentucky and she fell for him pretty hard when she saw him. ChiChi had been abused and was skiddish and pitiful. Hannah is just like her mother and thinks she must save the world. ChiChi became a member of our family from then on.

My first encounter with ChiChi was my first day home from the hospital and he peed all over me. It took us well over a year to get him to calm down and stop doing that. He has seizures and we have no idea why but we deal with them. He has become my baby. All of our dogs are my babies but Chi is my CuddleBug. This is not really a tribute to Chi but more of a lead in because he was number two dog on my list for a few hours this weekend. Chi is jealous of the laptop. He tries to lay on it, jump on it, get between it and whomever is on it. He's bad about it. Saturday, I left it sitting on my bed and he threw up all over it. He had an entire bed at his disposal but he chose the keyboard of the laptop. It wasn't even a real kinda sick it was clear like he made himself do it. Am I imagining this? Could he have done this on purpose? Luckily, we just need to replace the keyboard but he is a bad boy and he seems to have no remorse whatsoever. Sigh...

I decided Sunday morning that we would take a road trip to Kentucky to eat Sunday dinner at a diner I had seen on "Diners, Drive ins, and Dives". Al and were I excited to go there and the girls graced us with their lovely selves begrudgingly. It took a little over an hour to get there and we were starving. It was crowded but not standing room only. It was a hole in the wall but it was clean. The menu looked good. We all found something we wanted and ordered. We sat there for over an hour before Al walked over to inquire on our food. People were being served all around us and we had our drinks and nothing more. Our waitress literally kept disappearing and when our food finally came to the table it was....well a 3 on the 1-10 scale at best. Most everything tasted as if it had come straight from a can or had been cooked until there wasn't any flavor left. The only reason and I do mean ONLY reason I gave it a 3 was because after the bad dinner I ordered the pie that the show had mentioned. That one piece of pie was pure heaven. It was homemade with a flaky crust. The filling and topping to die for. Sadly, that pie was there only saving grace and we told them so. I felt bad for ever suggesting we go there. How would I have known it would be so bad?

Shame on you Guy! I am not sure I can believe you when you "toot your horn" about a place any longer. Unless.....it's about their pie!

Friday SkyWatch

We had rain, rain, and rain and then this beautiful blue.

Good Honest Scrap

My friend Rachel at http://kyfarmlife.blogspot.com/ has given me an award called "Good Honest Scrap" and I'm to tell you ten things about myself that you may not know. This award is given for those how speak honestly from the heart on their blog!
If you receive this award, you are to credit the person who bestowed it, bestow it on 10 blogs (letting them know of the award) and tell your readers 10 things about yourself that they don't know.

1. I hate gossip. I have stopped being friends with people just because of this one thing. It's a long story but I have a good reason for being this way.

2. I get nervous around things that are animated such as those wire deer that move their heads. Everyone around here puts them on their lawns at Christmas time and they give me the willies.

3. I have fought an actual forest fire right along side firemen and held my own. Afterwards, I discovered that I liked breathing pure oxygen.

4. I am a very good shot. I like target practice and I would love to shoot all the animated deer I mentioned in number 2.

5. I have this thing about white cars. It's not normal. I can't explain without sounding like a total lunatic so just take my word on this. I don't like them.

6. I love to watch shows about the paranormal. I believe in ghosts. I have seen and heard them in the past. Here's where I'd like to thank my parents for having creepy homes for us to grow up in. My present home is less than 30 years old and there is a reason for that AND I did ask if anyone had died in it. Just had to make sure. It does have a bad history of divorce. Every couple that has lived here has divorced. Talk about bad energy.

7. If you read my blog then you know I am horrible about punctuation. I loved Math class when I was in school not English.

8. I love the United States but I want to live in the UK. It's a very simple dream and as much as I love my family, I would relocate and not feel bad at all.

9. I sleep with a hand carved rolling pin under my side of the bed. I have slept with something under my bed for years because when I was about 10 we had a "peeping tom" in our little town. I was afraid and started keeping something in the bedroom from then on.

10. I have saved a life. It was a little girl. I'd like to say a big "Thank You" to Girl Scouts for making me take the Red Cross CPR class. I thought it was stupid at the time. I was wrong for thinking that it was useless. I have used information from their first aid training classes more than I would like to admit.

That's it. I am supposed to pass this on to 10 people but I am opening it up to anyone who wants the award.

Sewing and Midsomer Murders

I have been lazy again as far as posting. I have spent hours sewing and watching Midsomer Murders. 

Today is the day our teenagers return! I've been missing them. I had two calls on Friday and that was it for the entire 7 days. My feelings were hurt but I need to come to grips with the fact they are growing up and don't need to talk to their mother every day. They were having a good time and staying out of trouble.

Banana Pie

The title is misleading. Banana Pie is Hannah's nickname and this about my number one girl. Yesterday, we had our long awaited (6 months) appointment with the dermatologist for Hannah. The doctor was amazing and Hannah loved her. Score one for our family doctor in finding this woman for us. Hannah has Alopecia Areata. She has been dealing with this for a year not knowing anything and now to have a real diagnosis is such a relief. We may be on the end the hair loss as some of the bald patches grew back but are very short and stopped at about an inch. Now, this is all right on the top of her head - bald spots. Hannah has super curly hair so having curls around the bald areas helped to disguise a lot of it and we are not going to be cutting her hair any time soon as that's her saving grace so to speak. She is going the aggressive route to treat it as she's 16 and appearances are big in high school. I'm proud of her going through this past year of school with bald spots and making it without a breakdown or insisting on homeschooling. If the treatment works, we have to wait and see, then it will still take months for her hair to come back. She is a wonder. She takes photos of her self all the time and doesn't let this hair thing stop her from being a normal girl. I know it's not easy. Can you hear all the pride in this post? It's overflowing.

New Class and Journal Cover

I'm taking a class from Kara over on http://oldladyinateenager.blogspot.com/. I'm a day behind already and it started yesterday. This is just the cover work. It has a gessoed spine, papered front and back, and an antique doily sewn on that unbuttons in the front for access inside. I love this idea but I really hate sewing thru paper. So far so good. I used a doily that was stained and knew I'd never actually use it out on anything. It's a piece of art now and I'm pretty proud of it.

Lizzie is a Sweetie Pie! I love her blog .http://mygenericmedium.blogspot.com/. She nominated me for this award! I had to take some real quality time to figure out transferring the picture and the text. Why? Because sometimes the simple things escape me. So here goes....And thank you Sweet Lizzie!

When accepting this award you have to deliver it to eight other people and include the following text with the award on your site -:
"These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends, and they're not interested in self aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers".

I have some lovely ladies to pass this on to....as follows:

1. Beth at http://pleasemomdontsing.blogspot.com/

2. Rachel at http://rachelcox.blogspot.com/

3. Susan at http://stonyriverfarm.blogspot.com/

4. Rae at http://kyfarmlife.blogspot.com/

5. Welsh Girl at http://notmarriedandnotbothered.blogspot.com/

6. Susannah at http://grannysu.blogspot.com/

7. Millie at http://milliesquilting.blogspot.com/

8. and last but not least the very funny Amy at http://insidethemcmind.blogspot.com/

Please check out their blogs. They are all special women.

The Farm and Family Time

will- clothes are optional at the Farm

relaxin

watchin the sweaty, sexy guys cut hay.... yes, I was phoned by this one to tell me she LOVED it there!

My girls have very few cousins. Five in all. When I was growing up, I had tons of family to spend summers and holidays with. I feel like they are missing out on so much but what can I do to change things? People used to be closer to their family's. My cousins are spread out all over the country so I never see anyone I grew up with unless there is a funeral or wedding. I hate how families have grown apart and I feel it's this society. I see younger couples in their 20's trying to change this lack of "family". I hope they do it. I hope they manage to pull families back together and we get away from this "self " centered world. My girls will always remember this time they spent with my niece and nephews in Lewisburg. They always remember our family times and rarely remember much of their numerous trips to Disney World. Don't get me wrong, they LOVE Disney but it can't hold a candle to time with Nanny, Poppaw, Maggie, Jimmy and Will.