It's my youngest son's birthday today. I wish I had a picture collage of all his birthdays, time moves so quickly. Gone is that little boy who always wanted a Tunnel of Fudge Cake every.single.year.
Now he has a a wife and children of his own, and they celebrate with him. Happy times for his sweet family.
Happy Birthday, Ry, you will always be my little boy. Love, Mom...
I stayed up unit midnight last night to order the new Gold iPhone, only to be told that I had to wait until 3am, because they weren't selling them until 12am Pacific Time, darned time zones anyway! Arughhhhh, so I went to bed, set my alarm for 2:55 am, it went off, I called Verizon, surprisingly didn't have to wait for a rep, I got thru immediately and ordered the phone.
I'm reading online this morning that it sold out in thirty minutes, so I'm a happy camper that I got up and placed my order. I had read they were in short supply, and sure enough, they were all snapped up immediately. I still have to wait until October 14th for delivery, but that's okay, I love it when UPS and FedEx comes to the door, it's almost like they're bringing you presents. Well, until you get the credit card bill. ;o)
It's the thrill of the chase, peeps, the thrill of the chase…
Did you ever drool over a catalog and wonder how they set up the shot. I subscribe to Soft Surroundings Catalog on Facebook, and they posted this link. It's everything I love, French reproduction furniture, vintage inspired decor, and a rooster, a live rooster. Oh, so clever, and I thought you might enjoy the video.
My buddy V introduced me to Soft Surroundings a few years ago. Their clothes are lovely, Pioneer Woman has been wearing their tops on her show this season, and the home furnishings are drool worthy.
Here's the catalog link, so you can go drool...
I'm totally hooked on Milo's Splenda Sweet Tea. If you read me regularly you already know this, but I do have more info to pass along. I'm an information junkie, I want to know all there is to know about a product, so I called Milo's to enquire how they can put 0 carbs on the Nutritional Information Panel when it is extremely sweet, since Splenda has carbs.
Dale, this nice man in their quality control department, explained to me that they use liquid Splenda, which isn't as concentrated as those little yellow packs that are 1 carb per packet, and that they test regularly and he assured me that there were no carbs in a glass of their tea. Then I asked him why it lasts so long if there are no preservatives. We all know that if we brew a pitcher of tea, and refrigerate it overnight it has a funky taste, but Milo's tastes fresh for weeks. Apparently it's due to the pasteurization, the tea is bacteria free, and stays fresh. He did tell me not to leave it sit out and get warm, or the quality won't be as good. Also, it' s fresh for 10 days to two weeks beyond the expiration date.
This stuff is too good to be true, it tastes just like the old fashioned tea of my childhood, one sip and you would swear you were drinking fully leaded sweet tea. In fact, our friends Rich and V visited last week, I gave Rich a glass and he "thought" he was drinking sugar sweetened tea.
So, if you're lucky enough to have this tea in the refrigerator case of your local market, hotfoot it down there and buy a jug. It's very inexpensive, I pay $2.64 for a gallon, and it is positively addictive, it's so good.
Want to know if it's available in your area? Click here for a store locator...
Years ago, I had a neighbor in her early seventies, they had just built a new home, and she called it her "pastel" time in life, as all of her rooms were painted in soft colors. I was so young, I didn't get it, and remember thinking her house was really bland, but now I understand, she just wanted soft surroundings. I thought of her this morning, I was eating breakfast, a low carb muffin that I had forgotten to put Splenda in, blecht, but anyway, Sam Champion was doing the weather, he is so bulked up he looks like he' going to pop out of his suit, then they have some country singer on. OMG, he looked like the Michelin Tire Guy, and he was twanging and screeching, it was just annoying as hell! Just give me Smooth Jazz and Sirius Escape Radio any day, it's so mellow.
And about that bulked up look, It's such a huge thing, these guys pumping iron until their muscles bulge. I swear they remind me of Jethro Bodine. My old(er) woman mentality equates body builders with less than bright guys, back in my day it was farm boys and definitely not the brainiac types that were bulked up.
Nobody does physical labor anymore, instead they go to the gym to get that ripped look. But you know what I've realized over the years, It doesn't work long term. You can work out until you drop, but you're still going to get old! And old muscles aren't pretty, no matter how dedicated you are.
But seeing is believing, here are a couple of visuals for you.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, then, and now...
I don't think younger people really get it, though, they're in denial of the aging process, and if you try to hang on, this is what happens.
Yep, you guessed it, Jethro Bodine, aka Max Baer, Jr. still trying to hold on. Doesn't work, does it...
Poor hubby, even though I've always loved my kitchen, which he designed and built when we built the condo, I've always hated the fact that we have a bar that is unusable. The cabinets were in the way, if you sat at the bar, you had to peer underneath to see whoever was in the kitchen, nobody ever used it, and so I whined, for years I complained! I told him I would like to do a whole redo, combining the kitchen and dining room into one big room with a long bar down the middle so people could gather round'. Well, that wasn't going to happen and I knew it because the cost would have been hideous, entailing purchasing more cabinetry and new granite, so I just sucked it up, but I whined, often!
So a few weeks ago, we were in the car, on our way to Lexington to visit our youngest son Ryan, and his family , poor hubby was my captive audience, as he couldn't get away from me, and once again I started complaining about the kitchen and how non-functional it was for our lifestyle. When people are over, where do they congregate? The kitchen, of course, and it was so crowded we were always packed in there like a bunch of sardines. So once again, I talked to him about ripping out some of the cabinetry, and I guess I got him at a weak moment, because he was actually considering it. I stressed that at our age, functionality and practicality was more important than the way it looked.
And in the meantime, as we were driving along, my cellphone rang. It was John, our oldest son, the timing was perfect, and I posed the question to him. I said, "Johnno, what do you think about us ripping out some of the cabinets in the kitchen to open it up?" And to my surprise he said, "That's the best idea you've ever had, that kitchen is positively claustrophobic," Well hot damn, this was progress, somebody agreed with me! FINALLY!!! So when we got to Ryan's, I talked to him about it, and his response was "Go for it."
So by now, hubby was getting excited, well as excited as somebody can get when he has a big job ahead of him, but he was seriously onboard. So we came home on Sunday, and Monday morning he started ripping the heck outta the cabinets. Those things were heavy, so he had his friend Juzar come over to help take them down, they removed three cabinets, and then they put back up the end cabinet as it had the decorative roping.
And this is the result. I love it, I seriously love it. Even hubby is a fan. Now people can actually sit around the bar, the kitchen is so open, it's wonderful. So then we moved on to the dining room, taking out the sideboard, moving it to the living room, opening up the table, so it isn't so crowded. This was the best thing we've done in years! And the best part, the cost. Nothing, nada, zilch, el zippo. It cost nothing to do this, just labor. Well, I did buy a couple more bar stools, and a shelf for the dining room wall, but that was it.
And I have to show you one of my favorite things, my big fat market pig. I love French Pigs, I have several of them and this one is my fave. I even like pigs more than I like roosters. And I'm a big rooster fan as well.
This is the sideboard that was in the dining room, I ditched the sofa table and replaced it with this sideboard. Yes, I know it has a lot of "stuff" on it.
This is the way the dining room looks now. People can actually walk around the table, my family will be thrilled, they always gave me grief about how crowded it was every time we sat down to eat. Well, the table still has to be dismantled to eat, but they will have to continue to deal with it, I'm not gonna give up tablescapes. :o) I'm a nester, I like lots of "things." Works for me...
So I'm a happy old(er) girl these days, I got what I wanted, my poor long suffering hubby won't have to listen to me whine anymore, and everybody can gather 'round the bar. Why didn't we do this years ago???
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