Thursday, October 29, 2009

Maybe it passed us!

I got the following email from my brother today. He lives just outside of Denver Colorado in Highlands Ranch.

"Terrie, Got you beat on the snow for today. We have gotten at least 18-20" since yesterday. Here a shot looking out from the back door. Some snow drifts are 4 feet. I got stuck backing out of the driveway so I stayed home from work. Julie made it with the 4Runner. Our neighbors Fire station crew came by this morning in the big fire unit and got stuck. So did the garbage truck. I helped him get out with the shovel. "

Well Rick, I just hope it blew passed us and over to you and not the other way around. It's freezing here though so I expect it any day now.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Say it isn't so!

This is what I am seeing right now as I look out my office window!



Oh, say it isn't so. I know it's only a skiff but we haven't had enough of the pretty fall colors yet. I am not ready for the cold winter!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

A great photographer

My grandson Jase just loves taking pictures. He's almost 2 1/2 years old and has figures out how to turn on my camera. He knows to take off the lense cap and where the picture taker button is too. He's such a smarty pants that he even knows how to unlock his mom's cell phone and take pics with her cell camera.

Friday night, Jenny, Jase and their dog Harley spent the night while Matt was out of town. Jase, of course is all over the house on his own, playing and getting into things. He came up to where Jenny and I were and he had my camera in his hands. It's a bigger camera, not just a little pocket one and it has some weight to it so Jenny jumped to grab it, afraid Jase would drop it. Luckily, all was OK and Jase was ready to pose. He sat right in front of me, smiled, I snapped a pic, he changed positions, I snapped again and so on. At one point, he got so close to the camera as I was taking the picture, this is the result.



Here are a few more of the poses:



Yesterday as I was loading my pictures from my camera onto my computer, I noticed that he'd taken a few pictures of his own. They were of my office. I didn't save these because it only showed what a mess it is down here right now.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Just a little "online" humor.

'Daddy, how was I born?' The father answers, 'Well, son, I guess one day you will ne ed to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe. We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other. There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

"You've got Male"

Monday, October 12, 2009

Holland - March 19th and 20th 1999

Wednesday March 19th
Today we went to Rotterdam. For the most part, we saw the big city. A modern City in with shopping malls and all. Most of the older part of the town was bombed in WWII. While in the city, mom, Rick and Hans had their herring sandwiches (ewe, gross). We walked to the end of the main road to the harbor. All I wanted to do was sit and absorb the beauty of the old building along the harbor. Then off to see where Hans, Ron Ed and Linda were born. The Birthing house was no loner there but we did find their apartment they lived in. #20 Landman Straat. Mom said this used to be a nice area.
Back to Harlem, we visited with my cousin Fritz. Fritz is 7 years younger than mom so she would go to his house quite often. They were more like brother and sister than nephew and aunt. (19 years age difference from mom to her brother Jan). Fritz grew up in this house. It was over 100 years old. Mom said it sure seemed a lot bigger back then.

Thursday March 20th
We started the day today expecting to see the flower auction. This is where all the growers go to sell their flowers. We got there too late. The auction started at 6:30 and went until all the flowers were purchased by the vendors.

We headed off to Delft where, of course a lot of the pottery is made. I was surprised to learn there is an actual town called Delft. I loved this town. Every part about it seemed to be picture perfect. We toured one of the facilities there and everyone purchased a few pieces. I only bought what I could take home in my suit case. Rick and Glen purchased some larger plates and had them shipped home. After the tour, we stopped at a little roadside diner. Glen said this was one thing on his list to do. "Eat at a roadside diner". Rick coming out of the diner.

On our way out of town, we saw a big beautiful church. Michelle and my mom wanted to see what it was all about so we parked and while they went into the church, the rest of us walked around the market. There were some awesome shops (I love knick knack shops) and an open market. I bought 2 lbs of Dutch licorice but I think it really ended up being about 5 pounds. It cost me only 5 guilders, which I would pay 10 times that here. I also found this real unique store that sold pewter so I bought two pewter shot glasses. The Church, Michelle told us, is where all of the Royalty of the "House of Orange" are buried. Hans and Penny

It was getting late in the day but we wanted to make a couple more stops on our way back to our bungalow. We went to Kinderdijk. This is a stip along a canal that has windmills on both sides. People still live in these windmills too. Legend has it that the area is named because after a flood, a baby and cat were washed up on shore. (Kinder=child). Just me and the horse

Finally, we went to the beach in Scheveningen. They were having a sand sculpture contest. Each sculpture was about half a mile from each other so we only saw a couple of them but they were amazing. It was getting too late to try to see the others. We had dinner at one of the many restaurants that they have along the beach and by the time we got back to our bungalow, it was 11:30 pm. What a long day but oh so fun.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Snuggie?



We are so busy at work that I have been working a few hours OT every day. Usually in the morning because I am a morning person but last night, I stayed late too. My cats begin to feel neglected when I ignore them. Taz usually will come and stay with me in my office. Last night, he had been scooching this box all over the floor, trying to fit inside it. Finally, this is where he ended up. Right next to my chair.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

October 3rd

I turned 50 years old last Saturday. I've always been told that I don't look my age. My job requies me to be on the phone a lot and sometimes you get to know the people you call on a regular basis and they too are shocked to learn that I have grandchildren. They say, "I pictured you to be in your mid 20's". There's no point to the comment above. It was just a way to start out this post.

The day started at 7:30 am. This is sleeping in for me as I am usually up by 5. Brent and I went to Breakfast, then we met the kids and grandkids at the bowling alley. The rest of the afternoon I was on my own, searching fabric stores near and far (far being about 10 miles away)for a particular fabric. I couldn't find it. I can't remember where I bought it so I had to shop all the stores to look for it again. When I got home about 3 hours later, Brent decided we needed to go out to dinner. We both love Texas RoadHouse so that's where I picked. Dinner was delicious as usual. After dinner, a friend from California was in town so she came to visit. I had a wonderful day.

What I got:


Brent bought me a brand new pair of bowling shoes. I didn't need a new pair but I saw them and just had to have them. My daughter said they look as though they were made just for me.

Homemade cards from my daughter Jenny and from my grandkids Zach and Aubrey. Both made cards with pictures of us bowling together. Kim gave me a singing card to the toon of "Bye Bye Love" It has a bunch of old ladies on it and says "Bye-Bye youth, Bye-Bye Memory, Bye-Bye spicy food, I think it's time to cry...)


Zach, Aubrey and Mollie gave me this Snuggli. It's great for those chilly days at my desk in this cold office of mine. Kim and her husband and Jenny, her husband Matt and my grandson Jase gave me money to buy another American Girl doll. This will be number 5.


I bought this for myself. It's a high definition, full 1080p digital video camera with 10 mega pixel camera. It's about the size of my cell phone. Now I can take video and put it on my blog. (If I can figure it out)

Weekly bowling scores

I have been forgetting to post my weekly bowling scores. But, we have joined a league so we'll see if my scores improve or get better. I never was into the competition thing. I've always hated sports so I am a little nervous that being on a league will make me feel too much pressure and I'll choke. Our first week, my average was 135 and Brent's was 145. Last week, (the second week)we forgot to write it down but I think it was pretty close to the same.

So, I just may post averages now, unless of course, either one of us gets above a 200 because that's worth bragging about.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Another Linda update

Bob just called. Linda is finally out of surgery, in recovery and coherent. He said the doc removed about 50 more of those little nodules. The doc thinks it was fluid from the tumor she had removed so many years ago. There doesn't appear to be any muscle or nerve damage.

EVERYTHING IS LOOKING VERY GOOD!

Bob said "Thanks for all your prayers".

Linda update

I just heard from Bob, Linda's husband. It's NOT cancer!!!!!!!

They took out the nodules that were near the surface and also took a sample of the gland and it's all ok but there are about 30-40 more nodules under the gland they have to get out. They have to disect the nerve to get to them. I am not sure what that will affect but Bob sounded cheerful. She is still in surgery and he will call me once she is out and awake.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Haarlem

Journal entry for Monday May 17th, 1999:
We started the day with a buffet at the hotel restaurant. Abit of scrambled eggs, bacon, flaa and lots of bread with applestroop and hagel slaag. Ummm, my favorite. (Applestroop is an apple jam with a very tart flavor and hagel slaag are little chocolate sprinkles that look just like the cake or cookie sprinkles. On bread or toast with butter, mmmmm, delicious!).
Today, our main goal was to tour around Haarlem, to see where mom was born and grew up. We stopped along one of the larger canals called the Spaarne. If I am not mistaken, this is the main canal in Haarlem.
We also saw the Amsterdamze Poort.. This structure was built in 1274 and used to keep the enemy out of the town. Obviously, there must have been either a wall to either side for it's purpose to be effective but that is gone now.
Next, we went to the open market. I loved going to the open markets in the towns we visited and I sure wish we had them here (I guess we do but call them swap meets, never been to one here).In the middle of the town center was the town hall. This is where Mom and Dad were married. There was a wedding going on and mom told us that back then, if you were rich, you were married on the right side of the building, if you were poor, you were married on the left side. The were married on the left side.
After spending money at the market, Mom wanted to show us the house she grew up in. We drove around for over an hour trying to find it. Finally, we asked for directions. 72 Voor Zorg Straat. She didn't recognize it because the street leading up to the house used to have a canal running through it. During the winter it would freeze up and she would go ice skating there. The canal was gone, now a paved street. On the corner of the street used to be a catholic school. That had been converted to an apartment building. The front of the house had been updated too with new windows and doors.
We had to be checked into our bungalow in Zaandfort, a little tourist town located close to the beach before it got too late. I was sad to see our day end so quickly but was glad to be able to have the time to explore the shops in the little area we were staying in before they closed. Everything closes early in Holland. I don't think anything is open past 6pm.