This Just in........

Amanda just sent these pictures....of Caleb, Hannah and Austin....they are all just so cute!








I am so happy to see my grand babies, thanks, Amanda, bet Preston loved getting these pictures too.

Look it's the Red Baron

"Here I come to save the daaaaaaaaaay!", said, the notorious, Garret, the Red Baron of Decatur!
Look at me, I'm dining out at Applebees...
Mommy says, that we are going to see daddy at work......weeeeeee!
Yeahhhhh, mom's getting me some smashed potatoes!
Look, I can make lots of different faces.....

"Ok, I'm getting tired of saving the day.......and this car seat sucks!"
Grandma is always talking....yap, yap, yap!.....she makes funny faces though and I like that!
Here I am with my pretty great grandma! *hugs*
My pretty mom and me with a crooked grin.
We were all really tired at the end of the day, but had a great time..

Become an M and M

Ok, you know I'm bored when I am on the M and M website making cartoon characters of myself..just click the link below and you too, can become and m and m.

MandM me

Genkota winery, Mt. Vernon, IL

Bill and I drove to Mt. Vernon and had a long leisurely lunch at Chili's. I had mango iced tea, grilled pepper chicken with romaine lettuce topped with fresh grated Parmesan cheese on pita bread....OMG.....it was just wonderful. Then we went to the winery (Genkota winery) and tasted wines for quite a while, good thing I had lots of food in my stomach. We talked to the ladies that run the place and they also make the wine. The grapes are actually grown there, the vineyard is in front of the building. The building has a wrap around porch where they have parties in the summertime. The business is owned by a local chiropractor that just makes the wine as a hobby. Last year they won -over even the California wines - with a wine they call "Three Dog White", it is made of three different kinds of white grapes. The day the fermentation was completed and they were ready to bottle it, they still didn' t have a name, they happened to be listening to "Three Dog Night"...and then it hit them "Three Dog white".....true story....anyway, they won some kind of national wine competition and came in first place over all wines...The contest itself was in California. Most people don't know this, but there are hundreds of wineries in Illinois. That concludes my travelogue for today...

Red Hatters Whoop it up at local pizza joint

Our january meeting was held at Pizza Hut in Salem. It was good to see Louise again, ' Hi, Louise"!...*waving*Rhae read the history of the Red Hat Society. I didn't realize it had only been since 2000 that it was an official society. There are thousands of chapers all over the U.S. and beyond, just goes to show you that girls everywhere just want to have fun!.
Judy looking mighty spiffy in her pillbox hat.
We were sitting at several tables.....Left to right...Louise, Wilma, Beverly, Christy, and Bonita.
Linda and mom. Aw, ain't they purdy.
Me and my new crazy hat and birthday present....
Doh!
Hi, Velvet........I see you......
Had to get a picture of Janet and half of Velvet.....sorry Velvet.....
Here we are in our usual group picture, ladies all the way!.(laugh, snort, laugh)

Here we are as we REALLY are....hee hee...

Teresa, my buddy!

I had a great time with my buddy, Teresa today. We have kind of lost touch since she got a different job and such. However, we caught up today, with some Mocha lattes from the coffee shoppe, where we had lunch with Patty. We then hit all of the thrift shops and craft shops around town......it really doesn't matter what we do, it is always fun...Tuh, I have missed you bunches .

WHAT KILLED KING TUT?

The national Geographic Channel had a new forensics type show on tonight about what killed King Tut.....The scientists did an MRI and then created a three dimensional computerized image of King Tutankhamen's entire body and head. They spent much time going through every strange break, marking, etc. to discover what killed him at the young age of 19. Not only that, but a life size three dimensional sculpture was made of his head. This part I found the most fascinating, as the artist added the customary eye liner, and lip make up worn at that time. It was amazing. The above picture is an actor, but his face looks very close to the artist's final work.

After much examination, the scientists found that king Tut's left leg had been broken, not just fractured, but completely broken along with his knee cap which must have been destroyed in this leg injury. So, the final deduction was that King Tut died from infection from the open wound that was caused when his leg was broken. All the speculation of murder, poisoning, or some kind of degenerative illness was laid to rest...once again, it was the bacteria.......just like in The War of the Worlds.......most always truth is stranger than fiction...

Below is a link to a short video from the show.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/tut/index.html

Ben Ownby and Shaun Hornbeck found alive in Missouri

This is such an amazing and bizaare story I wanted to post it here, even though I am sure we will never forget it. On October 5, 2002, Shaun Hornbeck,( on left) then 11 years old disappeared from his home town and was never heard from again....... until today. His parents have been on a crusade to find him and have dedicated their lives to helping others with missing children........fast forward to Monday, January 8, 2007, Ben Ownby was walking from the school bus to his home and disappeared also. One of Ben's friends, who always rides the bus with him, Mitchell, 15, happened to notice a battered white toyota pick up truck driving iratically down the road. When Ben's parents called him he told them about the truck and Ben's parents notified the police. Two policemen on a routine call to arrest a different person, spotted a white toyota truck with some distinctive markings as described by Mitchell. It turns out the these police men know the man, Michael Devlin, that the truck belonged to, as he worked at the local Imo's Pizza. One thing led to another and the FBI came to the location, and inside they found not only Ben , but Shaun, now 15 years old......this is only the basic details, but it is truly amazing. Since there there has beena whirl-wind of media and personal appearances by the two boys and their families. I know they have much healing to do, so our prayers are with them.......stay tuned.....

It was a woo hoo day for us.

Mom and I had a great day today. The doctor was pleased and amazed that mom looked and felt great and he said he could not tell that anything had been wrong with her. I could tell he was genuinely happy. Mom was very happy too .
So we went to celebrate at Bob Evans. We had a Border Scramble Burrito....and,yes l could feel my arteries getting smaller with every bite!...it was so yummy we couldn't eat it all.

Then mom bought me some birthday presents. She bought me two new scrapbooks. One of them has papers, stickers, etc, with it, the other one is for the red hat meetings, she also bought me some red hat stuff, a pen and a red blinky heart. Then I bought myself this wild looking hat to wear to the Red Hat meetings. I can't even describe it, but it looks like something from Edward Scissor-hands, or How the Grinch stole Christmas...you will just have to wait and I will take pictures. I just couldn't help myself it is hilarious.

So it was a fun day and a happy day for the family. She has to have surgery the end of this month, it is just precuationary, but necessary, after that we should be able to breathe easier and enjoy ourselves again.

A visit to historic Alton, Illinois

This is an arial view of the Mississippi and the bridge from Alton, Illinois Since we missed New Year's Eve and have more or less been housebound for the past week, we decided to take a drive somewhere, anywhere to see some different scenery. It was a beautiful warm day for January. Our first stop was Starbucks in Effingham where we had white chocolate mocha lattés and listened to John Lennon while sitting in soft comfy chairs in the morning sunshine. What's next? Bill asked me, I hadn't a clue. So he suggested we go towards Alton, Illinois, an old historic town along the Mississippi River. The drive was very enjoyable and it didn't seem to take long at all, even though it was over 2 hours. We drove through the many narrow and hilly streets until we reach the waterfront. We sat a while and watched the people and then we took a walk and watched the sun set on the river. There are many antiques shops, bed and breakfasts, historical monuments and tourist attractions. Alton is the most haunted city in Illinois, but to take the haunted tours, or haunted boat rides, you have to call ahead, as they are always booked up. Since this was a spur of the moment trip, we couldn't take part in these fun adventures that will be for another day. Also, I didn't take my camera, but wish that I would have. The downtown area, only a block from the Mississippi, is still an "old time" town square, with original buildings, tall, ornate and all clumped together tightly. It is just beautiful. We drove home listening to Irish music and eating ice cream, could you ask for a better day?

Happy New Year

So, another year has come to an end and a new one is ahead of us. Bill and I usually ring in the new year by dancing and having a little champagne, or, maybe a lot of champagne...but this year the "flu fairy" came to visit Bill and we had to stay home. I think this is only the 3rd time we have stayed home since we met, but it was ok, we watched a Marx-brothers-a-thon and some really bad horror movies and snacked all evening. So here's to another year, and let's hope it is a better one than 2006!