hopefully Helpful tips o;-p

Seeings how I REALLY need to get to the checkbook and bills today, but yet I did promise to be more faithful about posting regularly, I decided to share this email I got from my Aunt Carol this morning. I hope it brings smiles to you as well ;-p

AMAZINGLY SIMPLE HOME REMEDIES:

1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES, BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.

2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT, BY USING THE SINK. 

3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.

4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.

5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.

6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.  While using this methodology on children is not recommended, I've 'heard' it's highly effective. o;-p

7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.  Or, you could try Brian's dad's method of getting a bigger hammer. ;-p

I'm stil here -

   I thought I should take a quick minute and let all of you know that yes, I am still here. Things have been very busy, which around here also always (for what ever reason) equals rather crazy, but I am happy to report that I seem to have survived. I'm feeling it this morning, but not near as bad as I feared I would be.  Thankfully, seeings how our kids are now all adults, I get to live the life of leisure, which means I got to sleep in and in a bit I'll go back to bed, to help insure I am physically able to help with the cleaning up and hauling home tonight.
    I have ever so many things to tell all of you about. And seeings how the only other 'must do' item on my list this week, is the checkbook and bills, I might actually get around to sharing a lot of them with you. ;->
    I have pictures and recipes from the food we served at our open house style reception for Brent and Kayla yesterday. And tales about our two adorable(!) grand children. And laughs with our 'kids'. And doing the food for our church's annual men's ministries fall kick off breakfast this past Saturday morning. And I still have things to tell you about from two weekends ago, when Kayla's family did their party for Brent and Kayla. And no, I have not forgotten that I didn't finish doing all of the postings about the wedding itself. I have got to get Kayla's little camera from her so I can download the before pictures of her dress from it. (A 'detail' that kept getting forgotten).
     Over the last couple of weeks, I have also 'found' a couple more areas of our house. o;-p
    So yup, I have LOTS to tell you about. And honest, I will try really hard to be more consistent about doing so! But my eyes are getting heavy again, so I'm gonna head back upstairs as soon as I scan through Face-book. I got up, ate some dry Cheerios(R) while watching a recorded episode of  Blue Bloods (Tom Selleck! ;->). Then just 'had' to see what Ree had cooked up on her show this week. I then may or may not have added a couple of items to this weeks grocery list ( o;->).
     good night friends... I mean... I hope your day contains some wonderful memory making smiles!

another really funny "timing" tale ;-p

   Numerous times I have shared tales with you, about God displaying his sense of humor via timing in our life's. Well, I have another such tale to share. And it's a good one. But this time, it wasn't us it happened to. It was Brian's parents. Oh, and for the record, NO, these are not "Tall Tales"! Gee-sh! o;-p

     Brian's parents were here for a bit this past Saturday, and his Dad told us about a funny incident that had happened to them not too long ago. They had stopped at a store or shop in a different town. By the time they got back in their car to leave, it was really raining. Dad had checked all of his mirrors and then slowly started backing up. (Trust me when I say, that I can absolutely guarantee he had hardly touched the gas to do so! ;-b)  According to him, they had only backed up about an inch, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there was this HUGE, LOUD, BLARING, horn sound. (He made the type of noise for us. Brian's mom said "Yup, just like that!" Then went back to chuckling. I knew this was going to be a wonderful story!)
     Dad said he had SLAMMED on the brakes (Mom very quickly rocked forward in our rocking chair, while kind of snapping her head forward and then back again, as though to demonstrate. This is not A-typical story accompanying by Brian's mom, so I was even more convinced this was quite the story.). He double checked all the mirrors, asked mom if she spotted anything, then started backing up again. Instantly(!), there was the same type of a horn blast. Dad said that he again slammed on the brakes, so hard in-fact, he was now worried about the condition of the floor boards. ;-p
    With his hand against his chest, he demonstrated how hard his heart had been pounding at the time. He told how his mind kept reminding him that there hadn't been any trucks of any kind in the parking lot, or on the street, when they'd gotten in their car. "For the life of me, I could not figure out what was going on!!!"
     Then suddenly, as they were sitting there in their barely backed up car, they hear the sound a third time. But this time, it was immediately followed by the sound of a train's whistle.
    The edge of the stores parking lot was just shy of the edge of a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, were the train tracks. Once they heard the trains whistle, they remembered having seen it (the tracks) earlier.
    Mom said she had laughed the whole way home. Dad said that it took his heart till they were half way home (a 45 minute drive) to even start slowing down. Figured at the rate it had been going, he'd gotten his exercise for a month! ;-p

    Like I've shared before, I love witnessing God's amazing sense of timing and displays of irony and humor in our lives. HE cracks me up!!!

                  Found picture on line HERE

~ ~ ;-p ~ ~ ;-p ~ ~ ;-p ~ ~ ;-p ~ ~ ;-p ~ ~ ;-p
you can find other such timing tales under the category 'Brian and I'

Whit and Wisdom's from Brian -

It's once again time for "Whit and Wisdom" from Brian, which has been copied and pasted here from his Facebook page -

He had posted this one on July 9th -

       "Because of God's grace, failure is never final."


this one was then posted on August 20th -

     "Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossip, Mary was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sarah was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Balam needed to get chewed out by a donkey, Abraham was old and Lazarus was dead. Now..... what's YOUR reason for thinking God won't use you?"


I think the two go together. Don't you?

A Cottage ;-)

   For a 'few' (o;-p) years now, "my" Kate and I have been adding various cottages to our imaginary portfolio. Oh the wondrous times we have had together at these places! The warm laughter we have shared, while sitting out on our decks over lunch, drinking our Pepsi's and eating something 'good for us', so that there would be less guilt when we sat in front of the fire place that evening, reading our books and devouring wonderful chocolate recipes we had had such fun experimenting with and making, in our cute kitchens earlier in the evening.
    Well, "my" dear Kate, this morning I added yet another one to our portfolio. In this one, there is only one thing in the pictures which I knew instantly I did not like and thus would want to change. It is the chandelier hanging in the room with a fireplace with a couch and chairs in front of it.
    We have always said that we will host "girl nights", "chick flick nights", "afternoon teas" etc, to which all of our girl friends will of course be invited. We shall do the same at this place too! As you will see, the place does have five bedrooms, and more than one bathroom. What fun we look forward to having while you, our girlfriends, are there visiting with us! I think it might be wise though, to again voice a word of caution concerning such gatherings. Please learn from dear sweet Anne and Diane's example and go easy when you partake of our blackberry wine.  (o;-p)

     Here is the link so that you too may view our most recently 'acquired' cottage. Didn't Kristie Alley do a great job in preparing it for us?

    [ I found our new cottage via this posting.]

Wedding Weekend - Saturday - Part 4 - the decorated church

     First off, as I'm pretty sure I must have mentioned (o;-p), our 'out-of-town-kids' came to town for the whole weekend of the wedding. :-D I L-O-V-E having all of our kids together! Yes, it gets a bit crazy at times, but I still cherish it! And as I also might have mentioned (a hundred times? o:-p) I L O V E LOVE, being a grandma! Oh yeah! So, with out further ado, I would like to show you a picture of our 2 year old grand daughter Analyse (pronounced Auna-lease), "helping" at the church on Friday night when we went to set things up and decorate.

    In THIS posting, I had commented about how, "God provided something wonderful to use - maybe on the table the unity candle will be sitting on. Definitely on the food table for the reception we will be hosting in a few weeks. Picked them up at a Goodwill store..."
    What I was ever so thrilled (!!!) to find and nabbed, was two sets of curtains. The black and white one laying across the middle of the longer table in the picture below, is one of a set of insulated, regular curtain rod styled, drapes. The pattern on it, totally matches the pattern that Kayla had used around the boarder of her wedding invites. The solid black one across the table in front, which holds the unity candle, is one of two tab topped type of curtains. I had gotten the black and white ones for $4.00 each and the plain black ones were $4.00 for the pair. Total, they were cheaper than the cheap single solid table cloth I had found at a 'regular' store.  I love it when God supplies my 'wants' too!!! ;->

    You can see a storage tub in the right hand corner of the above picture. My sister-in-law Karen as well as my friend Julie E. had loaned and/or given us stuff to decorate with. THANKS girls!!!

    Some of you have commented about how I never include pictures of myself in postings. A lot of it has to do with how I do not like the size I have become and how it shows up in pictures. The picture below is not the most flattering one of the ones that Benson took of us mom's lighting our candles, but it is the one which shows off some of the other decorations the best, so I'm using it. (I'm the one in the black dress. you can also see that I had forgotten to take my pearl earrings out of my pants pocket and put them in my ears. "details" 8-/)

    [Reminder, you can click on the individual pictures to see them larger, then use the 'go back button' in the upper left hand corner of your screen to come straight back to this page.]
     Brent and Kayla had purchased three crystal candle holders. One pedestal type for their unity candle, two candle sticks for the mother's candles. When they unwrapped them at the church that Friday evening, the pedestal one was broken. :-[!!! So I did what I seem to do best (or at the least, most often), I winged it. In one of the church kitchen cupboards, I found a smaller size flower vase with  broad base, which I turned upside down and sat the unity candle on. "Love it when a plan comes together" ;-p
    See the flower arrangement up on the left hand side? Their was one on each back corner of the stage. We took two wooden stools, draped white table cloths around them, put a single red linen napkin on top of that (that part was Kayla's idea ;->), and a vase of flowers sitting on the top of those.
    As you can see by the picture, the 'vases' were actually clear glass water pitchers out of the church's kitchen. In the picture, you can see the handles. From the audience seats, you couldn't! ;->
    The pitcher on one side held a bouquet of a dozen white silk roses with three red roses added in, and the other stool held the exact opposite.

     Here is a picture of the two flower girls starting up the aisle. this picture also shows how we decorated the middle aisle.

    The picture below includes the other two little side 'tables' which contained decorations on the platform. What they actually are, are two little carpeted steps which sometimes gt used with the stage, stood on their sides, wrapped with white table cloths, topped with a red linen napkin and topped with a glass hurricane globe, a candle and roses laying on either side. Simple. Yet effective.

     And this picture shows you both the flower ball that Kayla's sister carried {I had mentioned it in the posting about the wedding flowers), as well as the lights the guys hung around the outside of the auditorium.

     It also gives you (another) sneak peek into the postings I am going to do about the wedding dress and the one about the beautiful bride. ;->

;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~ ;-> ~ ~   
You might also enjoy these postings -
- - Part 1 - the cake('s)

- - Part 2 - the tux's

- - Part 3 - the flowers  

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:

(Sunday)
 ~ "the simple things", are hosted by Rebecca, at 'simple as that' (http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/). 
  ~ "Amaze Me Monday('s)", are hosted by Carrie, at 'Dittle Dattle' (http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)'  (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Soli Deo Gloria" (Latin = "For the Glory of God Alone"), is hosted by Jen, at 'Finding Heaven One Step At A Time' (http://findingheaventoday.blogspot.com/).
   ~ "walk with Him Wednesdays", are hosted by Ann, at 'A Holy Experience' (http://www.aholyexperience.com/).
~  "Coffee Talk Friday('s)", hosted by Vic, at 'For The Love Of Blogs' (http://forblogs.blogspot.com).
  ~ "Inspiration Friday('s)", are hosted by Vanessa and Heather, 'At The Picket Fence' (http://www.atthepicketfence.com/).

and then nest spring -
 ~ "To Have and To Hold, Wedding Blog Party", hosted every June by Stephanie, at 'Angelic Accents' (http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com). 

Wedding Weekend - Saturday - Part 3 - the flowers

    Back HERE, I had talked about changes that were being made concerning Brent and Kayla's wedding. I had also mentioned "I need to start making the corsages and boutonnieres." Then in THIS posting, I had stated how they were all now "DONE!" and talked about having burnt my finger. I think the healing process has now got it down, to only the two inner most blisters being left. 8-/  Hopefully, they too will be gone soon! Gracious!
    I had ended the part about the flowers in that second posting, with this statement, " Yes, of course I 'plan' on doing a posting showing you the flower things I did up. ;->" This then is that promised posting. :->

     First up - the brides bouquet. Kayla LOVES pearls! So I incorporated them into her bouquet as well. Along the leaves at the bottom of the bouquet. And then spiraled down around the stems, over the red ribbon.
     Here's a close up of the bouquet -

     And here it is while Kayla was holding it standing in front of the preacher -
     (You can also see Brent's boutonniere in this shot)

   After the ceremony, I heard her explaining to my step mom, that her bouquet had been custom designed and made by Cheryl. Heart warming moment that! ;-)

    Here's a close up of Brent's boutonniere -

    Here's Kayla's mom's wrist corsage -

    Kayla's dad's boutonniere -

    My wrist corsage and Brian's boutonniere -

    The one's for Brian's parents -

    The one's for My dad and Joan -

    The one for Kayla's grandma - Actually, I can't seem to find one of that in our pictures. But I HAD made her one! Hummm

    Adam's (the best man's) boutonniere was very similar to Kayla's dad's, here's a picture with it pinned on Adam, while he's starting down the aisle with Kayla's sister (Hanna). Hanna was carrying a floral ball Kayla had purchased. Didn't intentionally crop it from the picture - it just wasn't in there.

       This concludes this edition about Brent and Kayla's wedding. Editions yet to come are:  the decorated church, the altered wedding dress, the beautiful bride, etc..

 All pictures herein were taken by our son Benson ;-)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to: 
 ~ "Saturday Is Crafty Day", hosted by Laura, at 'Along For The Ride' (http://iamalongfortheride.blogspot.com/)
  ~ "Today's Flowers",  is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr., at 'Today's Flowers'  (http://flowersfromtoday.blogspot.com/),
  ~ "Amaze Me Monday('s)", are hosted by Carrie, at 'Dittle Dattle' (http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Homemaker Mondays ... Yours, Mine & Ours", are hosted by Jen, at '11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven'  (http://rtheyallyours.blogspot.com/). 
~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)'  (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).     

and then nest spring -
 ~ "To Have and To Hold, Wedding Blog Party", hosted every June by Stephanie, at 'Angelic Accents' (http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com).  

Wedding Weekend - Saturday - part 2 - The Tux's

    Back on August 4th, I had told you about the awesome deal God had lead us to for the tux's. In THIS posting, I had mentioned how 'so far' only one pair of pants needed hemmed. That particular pair had been Brian's. They needed shortened. No biggie, I could always just tack them up at the seams if the time crunch got that bad. But then Brent had tried his on. Wouldn't you know it - the groom's of all people's, were too short. 8-/ I mean up just above his ankles too short. Yup, we got nervous there for a couple of minutes. I commented on how I could easily turn them into capries.... he didn't seem very amused, so I should have stopped, but couldn't. I then offered to make them into nickers. (chuckle, chuckle). Good thing I was watching his reaction, other wise I might not have been able to dodge that look he sent my direction. o;-p
   Thankfully, once we let the existing hem down, the problem was fixable, but what a time I had, trying to iron the old hem lines crease out of that material!!! It badly wanted to stay put, but I was informing it it needed to leave! ! ! Once we got to the point of a compromise that I hoped wouldn't show too much, I stopped ironing and started pinning it up to sew. That was Saturday morning. After I had finished the cakes. And taken a shower and put curlers in my hair.
    I got one leg of one of the pairs of pants hemmed and it was time to head to the church. Okey-dokie. Sigh.
    Once we got to the church, while others were doing other things, I finished the pants. :-D

    Here's a picture of our four sons in their tux's. They make my heart smile! ;->

    Can you tell that their dad (my husband) was the one taking the picture and that he had said something to make them laugh before snapping the shot?

     Here's Brent with his best friend / best man (Adam) -

      look at their eyes, they were up to something! A-typical for those two! ;-p

    And here's the groom (Brent) with his dad (Brian - my husband) -

      PLEASE do NOT ask what they were doing to one another behind their backs! Crazy guys! ;-p

   Reminder - you can click on each of the pictures to see them larger / clearer, then click on the arrow up in the left corner of your screen, to come back to the posting.

    This concludes this edition of my bragging sessions about Brent and Kayla's wedding. Editions yet to come are: the wedding flowers, the decorated church, the altered wedding dress, the beautiful bride, etc..
    Hope you don't mind. Actually, if you do, please stay away for about a week, while I get all of this out of my system. ;-p

Wedding Weekend - Saturday - part 1 - The cake

   I had told you about most of the events from Friday night. Now I'm (finally - I know o:->) moving on. And yes, I can now include pictures ;->!
   First thing that morning, was decorating the cakes. See, Kayla had wanted my chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, yet she had also wanted it to be a white cake, since it 'was' a wedding cake.... So that's what she got. But making it so, was a multi step project!
   I had baked up the various cake layers on Wed. and then late that evening Brian had sliced them into layers. On Thursday, I had made the choc. frosting and put the layer of it on, for between the layers and stuck them back in the fridge to chill. Then put the layers together and put the choc. frosting around the sides and on top, then returned them to the fridge to set up good. On Friday, I had made the white frosting (butter/cream cheese variety) and started applying that to all of the layers. Turned out to be more of a tricky task then I had thought it would be. But I am quite positive that the high heat and humidities of that day, played huge parts in my challenges!!! It became a, work on it for a bit, put that one back in the fridge and work on another one for a bit, and so on, and so forth... until I got them all done. By then I had run out of time to also do the 'decorating'.  Took a deep breath, left the four cakes sitting in the fridge, put lids on the frosting, and loaded up everything that had to be taken to church for the decorating.
    So Saturday morning I NEEDED to finish those cakes!!! But then I could not find my one decorating tube, and the 'disposable' one had somehow gotten a hole in it, making it past messy and uncooperative... Another deep breath, and a prayer - "Lord, what can I use to make them sort of like the ones that Kayla had liked on-line?". I found something, and it worked... Brian thought I was shooting up with choc. when he came walking into the room. Tempting o;-p

    (yes, I was still wearing a night gown... "get the cakes DONE, take my shower and put the curlers in....")

    This is what the finished cakes looked like at the dinner reception after the ceremony. Yes, they were all sitting separate on a table... seems the wooden dowels needed, to be able to stack the layers, had been talked about several times, but never written on a list and thus never picked up. 'Details!' 8-/

    The cake was such a hit, that there were only two slices left over to bring home out of the two larger layers, and there wasn't much left on the individual dessert plates to be tossed either! The smallest one went into Brent and Kayla's freezer for their 1st anniversary, and the second smallest had been promised to go home with them, for their eating pleasure.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I 'plan' on linking this particular posting up to:
   ~ "Foodie Wednesday('s)", are hosted by Bibi, at 'Daily Organized Chaos' (http://www.dailyorganizedchaos.com/).  
 ~ "Full Plate Thursday('s)", are hosted by Miz Helen, at 'Miz Helen's Country Cottage' (http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/).  
~ "Foodie Friday('s)" (shall we say # 1?), are hosted by "Gollum" (aka: Michael), at 'Designs by Gollum'  (http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/)
~ "Bake With Bizzy", hosted at 'Bizzy B Bakes' (http://bizzybakesb.blogspot.com/).
 ~ "Sweets For A Saturday", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Sweet As Sugar Cookies' (http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/).

(Sunday)
 ~ "the simple things", are hosted by Rebecca, at 'simple as that' (http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com/).  
~ "Sweet Indulgences", held on Sundays, hosted by Kim, at 'A Well - Seasoned Life' (http://www.wellseasonedlife.com/).
  ~ "Amaze Me Monday('s)", are hosted by Carrie, at 'Dittle Dattle' (http://dittledattle.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Making Your Home Sing Monday('s)", are hosted by Nan, at 'Mom's the Word (I love to hear)'  (http://momstheword--livingforhim.blogspot.com/).
~ "Two Maids A Baking", hosted by Liz, at 'Two Maids a Milking' (http://www.twomaidsamilking.blogspot.com/).
 ~ "Totally Tasty Tuesdays", are hosted by Mandy, at 'Mandy's Recipe Box' (http://www.mandysrecipebox.blogspot.com/).
  ~ "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday('s)", are hosted by Lisa, at 'Blessed with Grace'  (http://www.blessedwithgrace.net/).

and then nest spring -
 ~ "To Have and To Hold, Wedding Blog Party", hosted every June by Stephanie, at 'Angelic Accents' (http://angelicaccents.blogspot.com).

What I'm doing ...

    Just thought I should let you know that yes, I DO still plan on posting about the rest of last weekend. In great detail. o;-p
    But,  we finally nailed down a date for when we are hosting the open house style wedding reception for some of our family and friends. So yesterday I designed the invites for that, but couldn't get the things to actually print. Last evening Brian and I traced that problem down. So today I am printing those off, folding them, addressing envelopes, sticking the invites into said envelopes.... and hopefully going to the post office so I can mail them all out.
     I have also started working on another computer involved project. One which involves a ton of going back and forth, copying this bit here, pasting it it there...  It's something I got inspired to do via somebody else's blog, asked my friend if she would like for me to do it for them, had to get the computer program to use to do so (it was one we wanted to pick up anyways), but then all of it got put on hold while I was restyling a wedding dress, doing wedding flowers, making wedding cakes, etc..  I'll explain all of this in much more detail, once I get the project done and it's been gifted to it's owners.
     So that's what I was/am up to yesterday and today. Then this weekend, what with it being a long weekend due to being a holiday weekend, weather permitting, we hope to re-do the back porch. The boards have been waiting for awhile in the basement. We NEED to get it done before cold fall rains turn into that white accumulating stuff. And we're also hoping to get peoples bedrooms changed around, now that Brent's moved out. That means that I will now have a craft/sewing room / guest room :-D I still question though, whether our smallest room is really adequate for such a place. o;-p
     Well, I best get to those invites.  Hopefully I'll get them done and still have enough eye focus to be able to get back on here and write up the next segment from last weekend, and then post it tomorrow.
     So, that's what I'm up to. What are you up to?