Anniversary Lunch

The blue birds are flying around the place every morning.  I need to get them some meal worms!!  

For lunch I took Baylor to York to meet up with Mom and Dad at my cousin Lauren's pop up restaurant La La's Slightly Sicilian.  She comes from a Sicilian Dad who has a restaurant in Boiling Springs but won't let her take it over because he as three sons by his second wife and he wants one of them to have it.  Go figure.  So she is setting out on her own.  She was steered towards a Taste Test Cafe program in York that is working to revitalize York and applied.  She made it this far and we were so happy to be able to support her.  Her mom, sister and plenty of cousins were there helping to cook, serve and clean for the days and nights she was open.    

We arrived early and poor Baylor was not allowed to play on the tablet while we waited and I talked to the family.  

But he did get to play in the fireplace! 

And take selfies with me. 

And he Snapchatted on the couch while we waited for our food. There were three appetizers and three sandwiches so we ordered one of each and shared.  Lauren made everything, the bread, the breadcrumbs, the tomato sauce.  The asparagus patties were amazing, Mom had those.  Dad had the chicken patty, and I had the meatball.  It was all YUMMY.  Baylor had a grilled cheese, the only option for kids.  He ate the bread I scooped out of my roll to make the meatball fit.  It was a nice meal!  We wish her luck and hope to have some more of her wonderful food!  

Happy Anniversary!  Mom and Dad liked their gifts too.  

When we got home Baylor was invited to Landon's so I took the opportunity to work on the garden that received no time last year.  It took many hours to rake, sort of weed and haul away but it was 100% more than I got done last year.

It took six trips of the wheelbarrow filled to overflowing to get it all hauled away but I am glad it is done.  

Anniversary Prep

Mom and Dad had their 52nd wedding anniversary on March 20th, the first day of Spring!! They went to VA for a long weekend so we sent them a Snap to tell them we love them! 

Aww, the young ones 52 years ago. 

Wednesday I did my monthly volunteer hour in which I wrote out the morning script for Molly to read over the loudspeaker with the date, lunch menu, and cycle day.  And I cut six inch pieces of waxed paper for an art project they are going to do. Then I got to eat lunch with this guy!  He is so much fun. I am glad I get to do these things with him.  

It was time to change my Jack into an Easter egg (thank you Tara)  I started by not covering his eyes but after three pieces of tape he looked like a ninja pumpkin.  I found some packing stickers at my desk and covered his eyes and he ended up much better.  

The other day after day care when Baylor, Caden, Gavin, their dad, and I were having a snowball fight Caden nailed Baylor in the face with a hard snowball.  After the initial shock wore off Baylor was still crying and was being a butt about not telling me what what still wrong.  I got mad and acted like a butt too.  It took Gloria to get out of him that he was mad at me because I had said Caden can throw better because he plays baseball.  Well, that hurt his feelings apparently and he needed me to apologize.  I apologized that his feelings got hurt, but that it was true Caden had more practice throwing and was better.  All he heard was I am sorry and he was better with me.  But then Gloria said she would take him out to practice throwing and he enjoyed their lesson. He threw at the fence.   

And at Gloria.  

He did pretty good.  Now if he would continue to practice, I am sure the would be even better, but I believe this will be the last practice he has.  

I want to paint a picture for my parents for their anniversary and I asked Baylor if he would help.  He was into it and I thought the branches would be a good way to contribute.  After his drawing, I had to rethink that.  

We decided to paint the sky and fill in the branches later and he was OK with that.  

Friday morning I woke up well before the sun and could not fall asleep.  And since I had the slow cooker working its magic on the chicken stock, the house smelled amazing.  So I got up and made chicken pot pie. Seems reasonable but what else do you do at 4 in the morning when you cannot sleep? 

We went out to dinner Friday night because it was Gloria's Mother's Day, the anniversary of the adoption.  We went to everyone's favorite Tokyo Diner and sat next to a lovely 7 year old girl and her mom.  It is nice when the table companions are friendly and outgoing.  

Grimm is a treat beggar and he was determined to get this last one stuck between the chair back.  He went behind it and worked on it until he could eat it. 

In the mail I received a handwritten thank you car from the judge who's jury I was on.  I thought that was pretty classy!  

Baylor and I worked on the tree together.  I did the main branches and he worked on the trunk and added the moss.

And then I did the rest.  I think they will like it.  

St Patrick's Day 2017

I started the day off with green pancakes to which Baylor suggested next time I should make a shamrock.  

We both wore green for the day, well we are both part Irish.  That is his serious face, not an unhappy one.  

FB memories can be a lot of fun!  

At the daycare they have a huge snow pile and we had a snowball fight there when I picked him up.  He loved it and I loved playing with him! 

Mom and Dad had left in the morning for a road trip to VA to celebrate their anniversary and I sent Mom this when she texted she was there in the hotel, safe and sound. 

Saturday was our road trip to Chambersburg.  But before we got ready Baylor was enjoying a cuddle with his main cat.  He really does love Grimm and Grimm is much more tolerant of Baylor than he was when we first brought him home.  

We sent this to Gloria because she was not able to join us for lunch.  I told Julie and Amy if Gloria ever kicks it, I am moving in with them.  We have such a good time and Julie and I both said if we both had not gone to Aldi before I arrived, she went to hers and I went to mine, we would both be in jammies all day!   

After eating we went out to the couch and watched Amy play some game on Playstation. I did try to help her with her missions.  And I played with the kids and the phone, because all of them love a good selfie. 

Nice one Baylor.  

Nothing like these boys!!  

Wicket did not want to feel left out either.  

We stayed until around 7:15 and Baylor fell asleep half way home. He was a zombie when we got home but he was able to walk in the house and into bed!  

And then we have Grimm. How you doin? 

Sunday I made another corned beef, they are soo good and the either family likes is that one is not enough.  I am sure by the end of the week we will not feel the same but right now, we are loving it.  Baylor spent the day at Ryder's and had dinner there so I did not see him from 10 until 7!  I would like to say I used my time wisely, but sadly, I did not.  I was just not motivated to do anything extreme.  I did take down the St. Patrick's decorations and start putting up the Easter but I did not even finish that.  I did finish the laundry and that was good enough! 

Stella Arrived with a lot of Snow

For most of Monday, all day long, the forecasters were calling for a heavy snow starting Monday late night and ending Tuesday evening.  It was enough that school was cancelled Monday evening for Tuesday.  When I woke up at 5:30 the snow was high enough that the door made tracks when I opened it. I knew Baylor would be excited because he has been waiting for a good snow all winter!! 

The view from my dining room office.  One nice thing about my job is I can work from home. One bad thing about my job is I can work from home.  No free day for me.  

The cars were buried very quickly by noon.  There was no trying to clear it out before later in the day because it was just coming down so fast.   

But eventually Gloria and Dave went out to shovel so I got dressed and went out to help. 

So glad Gloria was home to run the snowblower, it was almost up to my knees!  I have shoveled the entire driveway many times but this would have been pushing my limits.  

This girl is on fire!  

I saw my back windows were cracked open from Monday's drive home.  Opps.  

I measured once before the end and it was around 17.5.  I doubt we got too much more afterwards but that was plenty.  

The afternoon was more snow but it was fat and heavy.  I am surprised we did not lose any branches. 

Zayden's mom messaged me about him wanting to come over.  I said the alley was not plowed but it would be OK if they can make it.  She was home but not working and her husband had to go to Harrisburg to plow a driveway so he dropped of Z to spend the afternoon.  The dug a fort under the picnic table.  

And we walked through the snow to go to the hill to sled.  

They went down once and Z declared he was bored so we walked back to the house.  

The did not get any further than this but they were not interested in trying to make a track.  They gave up. 

The huge snow piles were way more alluring.   

Baylor slid down in a poof of snow and looked all frosted over.  

And he went back for another slide. 

After the snow was done and Z was picked up, we went out to check on the mail box.  Mr Doug had kindly did most of the work clearing the front of the mail box so we could get mail when they were out again.  I just cleared the slop away so it would not be icy, crunchy and said the heck with clearing the trash platform.  That would have to melt first.  

Monday night I filled the bird feeder and there were always birds there pecking away.  No one told them it was going to snow and I wanted to make sure they had their food. 

The front door looked like this every time we came inside.  Then I would gather it all up and dry the wet stuff and hang it up when it was warm and dry.  

Wednesday was cancelled again so I made pretzel foot long hot dogs which Baylor ate most of them. He always says he does not like hot dogs but apparently he does not like naked dogs.  Wrap it in a bun or pretzel and he is on them.  

I took advantage of the extra day at home to make a Irish Cream butter cake for Friday at work.  It gave the cake extra time to absorb the amazing boozy glaze!  

Thursday was just a two hour delay so we were pretty much back to normal, other than a lot of snow piled up everywhere.  Grimm decided he needed to explore this grocery bag and looked too cute not to capture.