Tagged by Marsel

Ok, I'm going to do this just to be a good sport.

Four Jobs I've had:

1) Customer service rep.
2)Waitress
3)Medicare Liability Investigator
4)Fiscal Dept for State of Florida

Four Movies I've Watched More Than Once:

1) Pride and Prejudice (the a&e version)
2) Finding Nemo (this was under duress)
3) Gone With The Wind (gotta love Clark Gable)
4) Sense and Sensibility (with Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson)

Four Places I've Lived:

1) Baldwinsville, N.Y.
2) Camillus, N.Y.
3) Coral Springs, Fl
4) Middleburg, F.L.

Four T.V. shows I watch:

1) Lost
2) CSI (the original)
3)Masterpiece
4)Knitty Gritty

Four Places I've Been:

1) England
2) Ireland
3) The Florida Keys
4) Hampton Beach, N.H.

Four People Who E-Mail Me Regularly:

1) Bob The Husband
2)Cindy Minota
3) Leslie Weathersby
4) Papa John's

Four of My Favorite Foods:

1) Popcorn
2)Anything Chocolate
3) clams
4)Crab Legs

Four Places I would like to visit:

1) Alaska (When you live somewhere tropical your vacation priorities change)
2) The Isle of Mann
3) Maine
4) BlueRidge, GA

Four Places I Go Every Week

1) Church
2) Walmart
3) The Red Box video rental
4) The Clay County Public Library (wooohooo)

(I'm going to add one)

Four Things I would like to learn:

1) How to surf
2) How to drive a motorcycle
3) How to make my 2year old mind me, while remaining in a seated position
4) How to get and stay organized so my house isn't always messy

Bob The Builder

This is the chicken coop Bob built for me on Saturday. It isn't finished we need to shingle the roof and paint it. Bob designed and drew the plans and the floor is chicken wire so the "chicken stinky's" go right through the bottom and can be moved to be fertilizer. We had a rather rough time convincing Rylin and Finn that this was not their playhouse and that they needed to come out so the chickens could go in. We put it next to the back garden with a little side door leading right into there so they free range in there and eat the bugs. I am so glad God gave me such a handy man. I'll show more pics once it's finished.

Finn runs toward the coop and yells,"Chickens here I come!" I bet the chickens are grateful for the emergency alert system.

Forcible Upgrade

Yesterday, my trusty washer passed away, mid-cycle leaving me with a wet, soap filled load of laundry and many others waiting for their turn.







This evening, Bob brought home this. It is a front loader that should save us bookoo bucks in water and electricity. It is 4.2 cubic feet so should handle even my king size comforter and cut down on how many loads I do a week. You should've seen the men folk sitting in front of it watching the first load of laundry wash, rinse and spin. Didn't get a pic though.















Of course the best part of getting a new appliance is the box.

My Inheritance

Today I made perogies. Just like Gram Galla used to make. Just like Grandma used to make. It's pretty labor intensive so usually they are made when Carrie is here to visit. She is an extra good tater peeler. The last time I made these was when I flew up to Syracuse in October for the last big family dinner with Grandma. I made perogies, prune buns, nut horns, saurkraut and my Auntie made the honey rice and brown flour peas. So I got to experiment with our old Slovakian family recipes with Grandma there to answer my questions so I could be sure to do it right. I improved a bit as this time they're not the size of salad plates...

Spring's Arrival

Here are some pictures for a very dear friend; the sister of my heart if not my blood, who is under the weather. I figure I can entertain her with my garden pictures as she hasn't been able to do her own yet being farther north.

We have corn, zucchini and squash. If you look closely squash is flowering.







Then we have vidalia onions, asparagus pea, pickling cucumbers and tomatoes.
























Here are the strawberries....

















Beautiful smelling yellow roses....



















The sunflowers are volunteers; I threw the garden rubbish into a pile over there last year



Extra tomato plants; I started them from seeds and was rather skeptical as to how many of them would take. Perhaps, I went a bit overboard.













Well, I'm going to go do some work in the kitchen. I'll post on that later.

The Chicken Mayor

Here's a picture of Finn lording it over the chickens. He points his finger at them and in his 'bossy' voice yells gibberish at them.

Imagine being that tiny only to look up and see a big giant boy yelling at you.

I put up some strawberry jam. The house smelled so wonderful I wish I could've bottled the smell.

Chicks & Monkeys

The Grand Prize winner of the "sock monkey" contest is... Franklin. Actually, I gave it to him because this will probably be the last time he asks for anything like this, not a toy but a toy to love and squeeze made by Mama. I finished him yesterday while sitting outside in the sun.

Today we went to the Waldo Flea Market. We bought a flat of strawberries, crook neck squash, bananas, tomatoes and fresh cajun roasted peanuts. Oh and five Rhode Island Red chickens. We were walking along and Bob said,"Why don't you go get your chickens." I of course thought he was teasing and he said, "No seriously. Go get them." Frankie and I went to get them quick before Bob changed his mind. The kids are each naming one, I think they should be named Krystals, Popeyes, Bojangles, Crunchy McChicken and KFC. The kids don't think thats funny and I reminded them that they may be pets for now but eventually they will be dinner. I was going to get four but got five instead in case one is a rooster.

Bob is going to build me a nesting coop, when he was a kid he used to have a chicken named Fred and his Dad built him one so he seems to know what is needed.

Can you even guess how soft they are? They're two weeks old right now. Finn has named his "Duck", he insists they're ducks.

Naughty boys and Monkeys.

This morning while I was vacuuming the floors Finn decided to sneak into my room and play in my makeup. He put my mascara on and around his eyes. When I caught him and went to clean him up I realized I had just traded in my winter mascara for my summer mascara which is waterproof. I used baby oil to get it off his cheeks, but short of scrubbing his eye I couldn't get it off his eye lashes. So for today he looks like one of those beauty pagent girls.

This morning before leaving for school one of the boys - my suspicions point to Gage affixed the sock monkey to the fridge. He must be looking for a snack. I'm so glad I have a house full of Practical Jokers. The monkey is not finished by the way, he is lacking eyes and nose. He should be finished by the end of the weekend.

Carrie's Family

Mother e-mailed me some pictures taken yesterday of Carrie's family. I love the hat Hannah's wearing and baby Ellie is so sweet and small and perfect. My little sister look very content. I've been aching to be there with her as sisters should be but seeing her look so relaxed and confident (this is after all her third baby) let's me know that all will be alright. She will be going home from the hospital today and beginning the full on experience of life with three children... three children in diapers, by the way. I'll be thinking of her; and smirking just a little of course. I wonder who dressed the girls, Hannah is wearing a tank top and Cadence has some sort of bear costume on, I think. Oh, Carrie said St. Joseph's no longer uses receiving blankets they put the babies in these little blanket sleepers that have a strap across the middle to make them feel snuggled instead. Pretty cool. The times are changing. Come to think of it. Carrie and I were born at St. Joe's, all my boys but Finn were born at St. Joe's and all Carrie's girls have been born there. Hannah and Rylin even spent time in the same NICU. If I hadn't moved away Finn and Hannah would've been in the NICU there at the same time. We will always have the legacy of the St. Joe's maternity ward. Perhaps we should donate a rocker or something.

Finishing up.

Here are some things I've recently finished lest you think I've just been relaxing and doing nothing. Okay, in all honestly I did get sidetracked be a couple books in the last month, books make for boring bloggage though so we won't dwell on that. The Quilter's Apprentice and The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini if you're interested.

Just in time for summer I finished a pair of WOOL socks for Rylin. Yes, he has been wearing them. If you're five wool sock go stunningly with shorts.

I also finished a wall quilt for Finn's room. It was a kit called "Movers and Shakers", it's a Keepsake Quilting Kit I believe. It is about as far from perfect as you can get. It was however my first attempt at machine free motion quilting. I really do hope that I improve this skill with practice before the quilt police come and take my machine, fabric, etc. away. Don't try to tell me theres no quilt police, I know they're out there and they're watching... always watching. Or worse, what if something happened to me, Bob's new wife would be here going through my things and would say something like,"If you truly loved your poor dead wife you would have told her how awful her workmanship was and wouldn't have let her keep on, embarrassing herself like that." My works in life would be judged by this horrible 'practice' quilt. Should something happen to me I pray that you as my friends would dispose of items such as these post haste before my replacement comes to pick through my stuff. I'm counting on you!

I'm currently working on a quilt for baby Ellie, it's already late as Ellie arrived today and the quilt did not. I'm also knitting a tote bag/purse it's supposed to be knitted huge and then felted down to the size you like. We'll see. The kids and I have also been building a sock monkey, you know the ones that have been around for 100 years made from red heeled socks. The kids are excited about him and are already bickering over who gets to be the owner. If I had any idea a monkey made from socks would be so in demand I'd have bought more of the socks.

Note to kids: Whichever of you is the most helpful, least naughty and gives Mommy a headache the least amount of times wins the monkey. Stop arguing and start sucking up. Don't say,"Nobody likes a suck up." Mommy does. Mommy likes it alot.

New Arrival!

Carrie's baby was born at 7:42am, weighing in a 7lbs 6oz. Her name is Elizabeth Margaret Morrison. Both mother & baby are doing fine. I relayed the news to my grandfather and he sounded quite touched that she is named after Grandma.

Corner Kid

Have you ever seen those dolls they sell that looks like a kid standing in the corner? I got one for the diningroom.





Actually, Finn looked right at me while he dumped a cup of someone's juice right onto the floor while I was telling him no. He ran right to the corner. He has never actually been sent to the corner but he's seen others spending time there. Perhaps, he has chosen the punishment he feels will be most effective.

Looks fully cooked to me...

Tomorrow Carrie goes into the hospital for her c-section scheduled for 7:15am. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers... I will post baby pics as soon as I get them.

Oh, and let's hope Carrie doesn't find out that the pictures made it to the blog. (Mother that means you.)