A lazy Saturday afternoon...

The M&M's woke up from their naps, and I gave them each a "tweetie." You should have seen them, girlfriends, they were so excited, Maggie was just hopping and skipping thru the air, she was so thrilled. Here they sit, both of them munching on their goodies.

It's those simple things, gets me every time....

A couple of pages for you to look at..

I've been having a great time playing with my scrapbooking.

This first page is for Ryan. I took these pictures of him last weekend, and added a storyline.

You can access the page HERE.


And I made this page for John and Tonia last night. This picture was taken last fall, and the archway is an edited photograph from a house they are restoring in Heavensville.

You can access this page HERE.

You can also go directly to MillyScraps and access these pages from the Family section of the Index.

Wowza...

This Cheesy Garlic bread looks amazing. I thought you all might want to check it out for your Super Bowl Sunday.

I posted the recipe over on the Jan Can Cook Board.

Here's the CLICK...

Ker-choo......

I've done really well this wintter, so far, no major bugs, but poor Hooterville is miserable right now, and I talked to Cousin Phyllis last night, and she is battling strep throat and a sinus infection.

I read about a home remedy a few weeks ago that said if you put Vicks Salve on your feet, and put on socks, it will control your coughing. Now, that makes no sense, I know, but people swear by it. Of course I'm intrigued by this, probably because I don't have feet to smear it on...

Could I talk either one of them into trying it, of course not. Both of them detest the smell of Vicks because they were all greased up by their Mothers' when they were kids. Well, I too, wore the detested flannel rag on my Vicks smeared chest, but for some reason I find the smell comforting, not nauseating....

Surely SOME of you don't mind the smell, and will try this next time you are having a coughing fit, and if, by chance, it actually WORKS, let me know....

~ jan

LC and the girls, watching the debate....

I'm having such a good time....

It's winter, I'm all tucked in with hubby and my sweet little M&M's, the fireplace is warming the sun room, it's spitting snow outside, and I'm scrapping. I've been working a lot in my recipe sections, redoing my individual indexes, and today I scrapped the recipe for the Cranberry Bliss Bars that Lindsay loves so much. It turned out pretty cute, so click on my Bars & Cookies Index, then click on the Cranberry Bliss Bars, and give it a look... Oh, that great butterscotch brownie recipe is right there, too. A lot more coming soon, I'm really enjoying this. ~ jan

Here's the CLICK...

If you haven't visited Milly Scraps, you can access the entire site HERE!!!

YouTube

I'm a YouTube addict, I spend hours, mostly midnight hours watching old clips and laughing at the great old shows...

Check out this Adorn Commercial - I posted it on GirlTalk - oh I remember that commercial, and tried to duplicate that style!!!

Here's the CLICK...

Vintage Goldie

One Ringy Dingy....

We're having W-E-A-T-H-E-R!!!

A rainy night in Georgia, such a rainy night in Georgia

Lord, I believe it's rainin' all over the world

I feel like it's rainin' all over the world

I don't know about Georgia, but Jeez Louise, has it ever been storming in Heavensville... Everybody threw such a hissy a few weeks back when I took the M&M's to the car in the garage during a storm, that I didn't do that again.

Instead we sat in the bathroom, Maggie shaking on my lap, Munchie whining on the floor. Oh, it was a really good time.... There I sat, on the throne, with my flashlight in hand, just waiting for the lights to go off and us to blow away....

But we didn't, and we didn't lose power, but Hooterville did... Thank goodness for cellphones, and communicating with friends...

It wasn't a fun night, sports fans...

The Spaghetti Sauce Recipe I promised....

I scrapped a page using the recipe for that great spaghetti sauce we had Sunday. You can access it by going to millyscraps.com, then clicking on recipes, then clicking on sauces and stews, and finally clicking on Christine's Original Spaghetti Sauce Recipe.

Or, if you're lazy - here's the CLICK...

~ jan

Here's how it turned out....

It was really good. I'll post the recipe tomorrow.....

What did I do????

I didn't get into the garlic, really I didn't... What makes you think I did??? Do you know something I don't know????

Update., it's pasta now....

Ummmmmm, good...

We are well on our way to eating the best pasta sauce we've ever made.

For real we are. Chef Ry is in the kitchen, so far it's KILLER...



We're making fresh pasta, this pix is of it "resting." We'll be cutting it into fettucine strips in a few....

Garlic cheese bread and this awesome sauce, and I have barely eaten today. How good is this????

Update later, and recipe.....


See what I mean, doesn't this look awesome. You should smell it, ladies, DI-VINE....

My friend, Mary Lee sent me this tonight, I thought you all might enjoy...

Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?
I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important
things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and
understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.


I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

Doesn't this sound like something a man would say??? It does, doesn't it, can't you just hear them... Stupid men....

THE MIRACLE OF TOILET PAPER
Fresh from my shower, I stand in front of the mirror complaining to my
husband that my breasts are too small. Instead of characteristically
telling me it's not so, he uncharacteristically comes up with a
suggestion.

"If you want your breasts to grow, then every day take a piece of toilet
paper and rub it between them for a few seconds." Willing to try
anything, I fetch a piece of toilet paper and stand in front of the
mirror, rubbing it between my breasts. How long will this take?" I
asked. "They will grow larger over a period of years," my husband
replies. I stopped. "Do you really think rubbing a piece of toilet paper
between my breasts every day will make my breasts larger over the
years?" Without missing a beat he says, "Worked for your butt, didn't
it?" He's still alive, and with a great deal of therapy, he may even
walk again, stupid, stupid man.

I just had to blog about this....

Lindsay and Ryan are in for the weekend. We all decided it was a movie night, since LC wasn't working, and Linds and I had been wanting to see Atonement for like FOREVER, and the guys could have cared less about seeing it, they wanted to see Rambo.

So we were off to the movies, the girls to see Atonement, the guys to see an aging Sylvester Stallone with steroid infused muscles. We settled in with our popcorn and our diet cokes, thrilled to be seeing a great love story, it started a bit lame, we kept waiting for it to get better, and waiting, and waiting... It never did. It was literally the worst piece of shit movie we have both ever seen in our lives. It was totally discombobulated, it jumped around all over the place, it was TOTALLY dark, TOTALLY depressing. Oh, don't waste your time on this stinker, girlfriends, the only, and I mean the ONLY good part of the movie was Keira Knightley's green dress and her good eye makeup. That's pretty bad, when that's the only good thing you can say about a movie...

After we got out of the show, I was waiting for Linds to come out of the ladies room, and these four older people were coming out of the show headed straight toward me, and so I said to them, "What did you think of that movie?" And this old geezer said he thought it was delightful, so intelligent. And his wife said, I'm not sure I liked that movie." And me, I said to that old fart, "Well, I thought it was just STUPID." Pompous old man, trying to impress that couple they were with, guys are such idiots.... That movie was a dud, I'm tellin' ya, a DUD!!!

But of course we couldn't tell the guys that. Of course not, we couldn't let them know what a stinker we picked, so after we got out of the movie, they said that Rambo was, okay, they would give it about a 4, since our family rates EVERYTHING on a 1-10 basis. Lindsay said that our movie was "emotional" and the guys wouldn't have "understood" it... I said I would give Atonement a 10, Linds said she would give it an 8, what we DIDN'T tell them, was that I gave it a 10, with the 10 being the worst review possible, she soft pedaled it with the 8!

So here I am blogging about it, and you better read this fast, because I can feel the DELETE key on this entry happening tomorrow before the guys decide to read my blog...

Oh, it was so bad, so bad, so bad, it was just such a waste, you have no idea..... STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE!!!!!

It's not a real good idea to take a dog thru a carwash....

Poor little Maggie, today was grooming day - I spent HOURS, detangling, bathing, blow drying, and giving her bits of cheese to keep her happy. Then for a "special treat" she got to go in the car with us to do errands after the torture was finished.

AND, hubby, despite my saying it wasn't a good idea, just HAD to go thru the carwash. HAD TO... That car couldn't wait another day. OMG, it was awful, my poor little dog was terrified, and I was so pissed. Men just don't have that sensitive gene, it is just missing!!!! He STILL doesn't think it was a big deal... It wasn't a good trip, if you get my drift.

Men Schmen!!!!