Lying here in my hammock on this beautiful, warm day..
Perfect! Here's my view.

Just a gorgeous evening tonight, everything is so green after the morning rain..

Why the clams, Bill?

I sent Bill to the store a while back for something, and he also came home with a can of diced clams..just one little can..lol...so because I love a cooking challenge I started looking on Pinterest...and found this stuffed mushroom recipe and I had everything here, so with our herb-crusted lamb chops and Greek salad, we had clam, cheese onion, pepper and garlic stuffed mushrooms cooked in a lake of butter in the oven......SO good! So except for an hour walk in the sunshine, that's actually about all I accomplished today...I hope you all had a good one...sorry no pictures, Bill was waiting at the table with his knife and fork..

Shrimp Sausage Skillet Dinner

We had this delicious shrimp, sausage skillet dinner tonight! It was wonderful! I hope you all have had a good day!

Happy Mother's day to my mom in Heaven

Since it's Mother's Day, and I miss my sweet mama so much, I thought I would share with you things about her that most people don't know. I was looking through some old photos today feeling, nostalgic and sad, but grateful that I had this wonderful woman for my mother and best friend I love her so much, and truly feel the loss of her daily., So here goes: My mom was a trained, professional singer. She traveled with a band called the Reveliers and was their star performer She also performed around the Centralia area (her home town), such as the Band Shell where live entertainment was performed often and of course, sang at church... She was a very private and quiet person most of the time, but had this wonderful sense of humor, and would do anything for a laugh when we were together. She loved Clay Aiken when he was on American Idol, she kept pressuring me to watch him for ages...finally I did, and I became a fan too..We went to many,many live concerts, met other fans, who remain friends to this day, and we used to joke that we were "groupies"... :) She loved the Red Hat ladies, and boy, did she know how to wear a hat! She had two older brothers, Bob and John. She knew how to play the steel guitar. Both my grandma (her mom) and my mom turned prematurely gray at a young age. Most of all she was always beautiful, even as a young child. Best of all, she was the best mom ever to me and my 3 brothers.. If you stayed to read all of this, I appreciate it very much, everyone have a great Mother's Day.

Lunch with the Red Hatters today

I had lunch with my Red Hat sisters today..it's always a great time. In fact, I totally forgot to take our monthly picture, too much talking and laughing. I hope you are all having a great Friday! Also, thanks to our hostess, Joan Bourland-Foltz, we all have a new red hat, a new scarf, or a beautiful handmade hat stand...

Is it the moopocolypse?

It must be a little boring in the cow pasture....I was just walking by and they all gathered at the fence and just stood there...lol..they have such sweet faces..I think I'm being stalked by cows......

Girls day out with my team members at Country Creek Treasures

Shopping at the flea market

Debi trying to ride this bike lawnmower, she had to have help from these gentlemen though...at least she didn't fall off, but she couldn't GET off,  Sally had to help her pull her leg back over the bar..

The Kaskaskia Dragon

Walking among the neanderthals

Lunch at Witt's smokehouse

After some more shopping around town, we stopped for ice cream at Culver's

Last stop the Cross at the Crossroads

A very faint rainbow around the sun

Oops, I forgot the picture of the whole dragon

Had a fun day trip with my team members from Country Creek Treasures today...We went to Vandalia first, hit a couple of flea markets, then had our pictures taken with the Kaskaskia Fire Breathing Dragon, which is listed as one of the unusual tourist attractions in Illinois. After that we drove on to Effingham, IL, and had lunch at Witt's Smokehouse, delicious food! We went to the Country Peddler's where we did some more shopping, and then to Good will, of course. We followed that with ice cream from Culver's and our final stop was the the Cross at the crossroads, a beautiful 200 foot metal cross, surrounded by stone monuments with the ten commandments.......of course, some of us had already been here a few times, but it is always very impressive...all in all it was a fabulous day, with lots of craziness and laughter...I hope you all had a good day on this gorgeous 72 degree, sunny day!

Surprise lunch for Jenny Holsapple

Our classmate and my personal very good friend, Jenny Holsapple and husband, Ed, moved to Florida around Christmas time.  They sold all property, business and moved permanently.  She has been with us for our whole lives and we missed her.  Her daughter, Kelly, contacted me that she would be coming home for the high school prom, because her grand daughter was a queen candidate...so we decided to have a surprise lunch for her...She was truly surprised since she didn't know anything until she walked into Joe's Pizza with her family, and there we all sat waiting for her...so nice to see you and we all enjoyed her visit so much.  As an added surprise to her day, her grand daughter was crowned prom queen! 

Back in 2000 and 2001- old photos

I was moving some photo albums around (remember them?) and I spent a while looking through some of them..since it's Throw Back Thursday , thought I would post a few random photos and a newspaper clipping from way back when. Most of these are from the year 2000-2001, cause yes, I am organized like that...you all know how I feel about documenting everything with photos, constantly...I see many of you rolling your eyes and shaking your heads. :) Have a great day, I have added captions for those of you who want details, I'm all about details too.

Obviously, New Year's Eve, 2000, With my friend, Teresa.

silly, Bill!

Wow, long, long time ago, Salem Jr. Women's Club officers.

Me and my family.

Mom's favorite place was with these kids.

Preston and Tiki did not get along at all!

Darren's birthday, 2001..a day at the mall (Having fun in the Spencer's Gifts store)

A luau we had at our ice cream shop, lucky for me I had these beautiful, fun, smart girls working for me

On our way to a Halloween Party

Yet another Luau at our ice cream shop on the hottest, most humid, miserable day of the summer, Bill is sucha good sport!

Camping in Colorado on Bill's birthday

At Wakita, Ok, at the Twister museum (as in the movie Twister)

A Christmas Party for World Color Press

Me and my old friend, Vickie on New Year's Eve, 2001!   A fun night of dancing and laughs!