What The...? Wednesday

*This title was ripped off from Denise at There's Always Room For One More.*

I meant to post last night, but that post is still not ready, and also I was dozing off at 10 pm - even though I had a second cup of coffee at 4 that afternoon. Whoa, this 6 AM wake up is rough...

Anyway, this morning I was over at SITS reading the featured blog which triggered a crazy memory. The Mr, the girls, and I were at a pond a couple of streets over feeding the ducks (and geese). Now, of course, we weren't the only ones there. There were three people congregating about a hundred feet away from us when a police officer pulls up and walks over to them. He kept talking to them and we were trying not to pay attention to them and continued to feed the ducks (and kick the geese away from eating my children).

I had seen out the corner of my eye some seek, black thing pop up out of the water and quickly back into the water. I said to the Mr, "I there is some huge animal under the water, " so we start throwing some food into the water. Soon we see the animal's back cresting the top of the water and then his head pops out to get the food. The Mr said, "I think that's a badger!" We both kind of chuckle, then the "badger" turns to swim away and his tail crests the water. The Mr gasps because that was no badger tail. "What is that," I ask him. "That is a rat!" is his reply. No. Way.

We were talking a bit louder than normal, and I'm noticing that the group with the police officer is glancing over at us, so we walk to another side of the pond about fifty feet from where we saw the "rat-from-you-know-where" to continue to feed the ducks. We toss some food to the ducks who are eagerly awaiting the provisions when we notice a sleek black shadow cresting the water and swimming among all those ducks. The Mr has decided that the badger-rat needs to go see Jenny Craig and avoids throwing any food in its general direction. So, spawn-of-Satan-rat gets mad and jumps toward the pond's edge to try to show us who is bossy boss around there. The Mr yells, I scream and try to save my unsuspecting children from being devoured, and Mr Policeman and posse scurry over to see what's going on. Then the police officer (who, I am certain, must think we are a family of mental patients) starts patrolling the water's edge to get a visual on the target. We soon see the sleek black shadow of Satanrat off in the distance in the water swimming, undoubtedly, back toward his lair, muttering, "I'll get you my pretties! And your little dog, too!"

Monday Memories

I wasn't sure what to write about today, so I just thought I'd share some of my favorite experiences. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but My husband and I had the most fabulous (there's that word again) honeymoon ever. We went to Rome. I really don't know if there is anything that can compare. We would love to find a way to move there. Anyway, here are six of the over four hundred photos we took:


Saint John Lateran. We actually didn't get to see this beautiful church until our last full day. Everytime we were able to get there they had already closed for the evening.



Raphael's Tomb. The artist is buried inside The Pantheon.



Another church, Saint Mary Major. Stunning!! The piazza we are standing in is where I was able to snap the photo of the little boy in my header.



Our first glimpse of Saint Peter's Basilica. There are no words to describe...


The Roman Forum. The history here is amazing. It's so humbling to realize how small we are in the whole span of time.


The botanical gardens. We got some amazing shots here. Even for the beginning of March it was beautiful.


I am trying to scrapbook our memories from this trip, but it's so hard to not include absolutely everything. Right now we have the pictures in two huge albums.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Do remember your favorite toys as a child? Perhaps you still have them packed away somewhere. Perhaps you have no idea what happened to them. Or maybe you played with them so much that they had to be retired to that great toy heaven in the sky... (okay, okay, you know what I mean). For me the toys that really stick out in my mind as toys I had to have when I was a kid fall into two categories: My Little Ponies (my brother and I had tons of these) and these gals:

Kirsten and Molly. I loved those girls. They are still made (as are My Little Ponies), but they just aren't the same. Pleasant Rowland had this really great company, Pleasant Company, that made these gals and the quality was outstanding! Since she sold the company to Mattel the quality has gone down quite a bit, but the prices have stayed pretty much the same so I guess that makes them more accessible for more people. But I'm not here to talk about the history of the American Girls company. I got Molly for Christmas (Kirsten came later). My best friend had Samantha and her cousin had Kirsten. We had American Girl sleepovers with our dolls. We even had the librarian at our school ask us if she could display our dolls and all of their accessories in the library one month.

One thing I didn't have for my girls was their Christmas outfits, but a while back I found the originals on ebay and won the bid for each of them! Now that I have my girls dressed up for Christmas I want to display them somewhere in my house. Aren't they adorable!



So the question is, where could I put them?? If I were my best friend's mom (my best friend now, not the one who had Samantha...) I'd have a whole room dedicated to my doll collection, but she has the room for it, I'm working with 1600 square feet of house here. Right now they are on my sideboard, so I guess they'll just stay there until I can figure out something else to do with them. Any thoughts??

A Tearful Farewell...

This year Thanksgiving was to be at my house. My Grandparents are the traditional hosts of every holiday get-together (getogether?), but, being in their mid eighties, their health isn't so great. My mother's culinary skills leave much to be desired, so I said I'd have it and to just show up. It was not going to be a big deal, just ten people - five of which would be my family. So, I got a menu and all the recipes I was going to need, and went grocery shopping. Then around noon on Wednesday (the day before the big event) I received a call from my mother. No one was coming. The Grands weren't well enough to travel the 75 minute trip to my house and Mom's beau (I hate referring to a 61 year old woman's significant other as a "boyfriend") and his son would be spending Thanksgiving with his family. I was slightly perturbed and told Mother she should be with the Grands so they wouldn't have to be alone. It wasn't so much that they weren't coming as it was the late notice that really bothered me; I mean I had all the food, the fine china, the seating arrangements, and the buffet all set and just waiting.
See my buffet all organized and ready?

So as I started to pack it all away I thought, "No, I am going to use my good china anyway. Why save it for someone else to enjoy?? I've always wanted to use that turkey plate and, by gosh, I'm gonna use it for once!"

I rearranged the seating and put the extra tables away. Then I revamped the menu and cut out several dishes I had planned. We'd have a beautiful Thanksgiving anyway, just with a smaller cast. Thanksgiving morning arrived. The turkey was in the oven by 8:30 and the dressing was in the crock pot by 10:30. Did I mention we were having dinner promptly at 12:30 because my dear husband had to work that day?!?!

Since things were going so smoothly I went for a walk outside with my 4 year old and noticed that my neighbor was home alone, so we decided to invite her to dinner. She arrived at 12:30 and had fun (I think?) entertaining the kids while we got finished preparing everything. The turkey was out cooling, and I was bringing china from the dining room on which to put the food. The only thing that wasn't china was the turkey platter which was a gorgeous crystal wedding present that I had yet to use.
See?


My dear husband thought it would take an act of Congress to get the turkey onto that plate in one piece, but I did it!! And after placing all of the dishes on the sideboard I was ready to take the turkey, but as I started to lift the plate I noticed the was turkey juice all over the kitchen counter. I hadn't thought I had made that much of a mess while transferring the turkey to the platter...


Then I lifted it another in or so when it became apparent that...

the turkey wasn't quite cool enough when I transferred it over so this happened:

Alas, poor Gorham 1831 Fall Traditions turkey platter, I am so sorry for having murdered thee!!