Where to begin...

First, a little history...
When we lived in Michigan over 7 years ago, we lived down town over a small flower shop named Blossom Land, it was a great loft apartment. Our neighbors were some of the owners of the shops downtown. One of the shops Green Wellies was our favorite to visit because of the wonderful pond and beautiful plants in the courtyard of the shop during the summer growing season. Over the years of living there we started having "after Hours" in the summer with the shop owner Leisa, Heidi and Ruthie from the travel agency two doors down and it was great weekly tradition. We would take turns bringing wonderful food and drinks after the shop closed and we would sit by the pond and talk about life, what happened that week, share old stories and laugh, laugh, laugh. It was a little break from work, life, the kids and men.

Leisa had mentioned that she would like to have an "after hours" for Heidi on her 40th birthday and the rest is now history. I found a great price on airline tickets and that was all it took.

Leisa and I started cooking for the event on Thursday. We both love to cook and thought an event like Heidi turning 40 required good food.

Here is Heidi enjoying her fresh, homemade food.

The menu included:
Black eye pea salad


Couscous with homemade citrus-ginger dressing goat cheese and garden fresh peas


Cucumbers in sushi vinegar


Fresh greenhouse tomatoes


Salt-top Rye from Bit of swiss


Boursin


Baked Artichoke dip* (*Photo missing, substituted photo of spinach dip from another night)


Olive Focaccia


Cream Cheese Pound Cake with fresh Michigan Strawberries


Assorted drinks in the appropreiate colors


Cake was served, Happy Birthday was poorly sung


GIfts were given


Friends gathered


Fish calmed...


...and Heidi turned 40. Happy birthday Heidi, Just wait until your 50!

I am back!

I am back and going to take a long nap! I will start my updating this evening or tomorrow. See you then.

I am away

I went on a surprise trip to see My friend who turned 40! It was a last minute thing and I did not have time to post before I left and could not give away the surprise by blogging about it. I have not had access to a computer and will not be able to post again until Monday the 23 of June.

I have lots of photos and stories to tell, so I will see you all in a week back here in blog land.

Where am I?

This is a nice view. What body of water is it?



Where are my feet?



I love the beach, what beach is this?



Hello from here!



Kids jump from here?



This flower cart has been here for years, where is it?



Where can I find some Salt top Rye?



Where are these?



Aren't these cute!



Where is this Parked?



Who lives on this street?



Where am I now?

Babies, babies, beautiful babies!

I love babies! Shelley and the twins are doing well. I thought I would share some of the wonderful photos taken by Jennifer Soltren of Soltren Photography.


I am so glad that they decided to get professional photos taken of Jessa and Davis they turned out so nice! Lucky babies to have their first days recorded so beautifully.


Jennifer does both outdoor natural light portrait sessions along with full in home mobile studio sessions. If you live in central Florida your in luck because she works in the entire central Florida area.


I love the beach photos she took of Shelley. You can find out more about Jennifer at soltrenphotography.com and also at her blog . I love to see the updates at her blog it is nice to see her current work as well as her gallery on her website.

Favorite photo of the weekend

Mission STS-124

Here is Mission Information for the launch yesterday. I thought you might find it interesting. My little lens did a pretty good job of catching the fuel tanks coming off. You can see it if you enlarge the photo. If only I had a bigger lens...


You can click Launch Coverage to find more information on the launch, and just for fun you all can see that I have been hiding my talents, do a search in the NASA search box using my name. It will not be a secret anymore, I am a rocket scientist.

3... 2.... 1... Lift Off

It was another wonderful day at the beach!


We tried to get there early so we could get into jetty park to watch the launch today but the park filled up very quick today.


We ended up on the beach with about 150,000 people. This was the first launch on the weekend in a long time and a ton of people were here to get in the way of my great shot, I mean to see the launch. We were lucky that our drive was just a little over an hour.


We were lucky enough to drag KT along for the day again. It is so much better for Paige when she has a friend along for the day and she does not have to sit and listen to her parents all day. Thanks KT for saving her!

Love this Flower

I dont recall what this is but I bought it last spring. I thought I had killed it when our sprinkler system broke and it dried up, but I kept it in a pot in the back by a sprinkler head once it was fixed and look at the wonderful flowers it has now. The tips on the hot pink flowers are a wonderful bright green. Looks a little fiberoptic. Glad I did not give up on this little plant.

And they said off with her hair!

It was time to make a change, two weeks ago I went for a hair cut and got 6 - 8 inches cut off. Well it was too short for a pony tail and was driving me crazy on my neck. I thought I would try a short hair cut before I grow it back into a pony tail and never get it cut again. Well I think I will keep it short for awhile. I love it, and as you can see, I love it enough to put a photo of myself on the blog which does not happen often. Thank you Charlie Montgomery. This is the best hair cut I have had in years and years.

She loves to wash the car...

Just look at her enthusiasm! You would think she was watching golf. When I was her age I loved washing the cars with my dad or brother it was a blast. How did my parents do that, making us think that was fun? We really loved washing the cars.

On a different note I would like to take this time to have you look behind Paige at my beautiful lawn. Mr. Hygiene uses his grooming skills outside too. Not a hair... I mean blade out of place, not a blemish... oh I mean a weed in site. Mowed and trimmed by Mr. Hygiene himself, no lawn service here. Notice our neighbors lawn, large brown spots and they have lawn guys come every week. I should put out a sign "Lawn manicured by Mr. Hygiene." Kudos to you Mr. Hygiene for giving the lawn the spa treatment! Sorry Honey I just could not resist.

Sand Forest

What a great day at the beach, way more people than we are use to having on "our" beach. Where did all the people come from? I guess we have never been there on a summer holiday before. I think we all got a little red today. We really did not think about sun screen, oh well. Hope you all had a great weekend, we sure did. Anytime we can spend the day together is a good day!

Pfffftttffhhhht. Pfht. Pfft

Hey Paige lets take a few photos in your new dress at the beach...Pffftttthhhhhhhht. Pftht. Pfffttta. Some sand blew up in her face. This is not exactly what I had in mind. Poor Paige.


It was really too windy to get a good photo, when you have to try to control your hair, dress and people walking in your shot.

A Dog's Life

"What do you mean that Most dogs have to sit on the ground?" Yes Pearl it's true. "Wont they get bit by red ants? Yes Pearl they will. "Why don't they have a chair? Pearl, your a special dog, and your people don't think of you as an animal. "What do you mean animal? Dogs are animals?"

Marinated Flank Steak with Honey-Chipotle Glaze

This is great!

GLAZE
2 T Honey
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T Hoisin sauce
1 T Fresh lime juice
2 t Minced canned chipotle
1 lg Garlic clove, minced

STEAK
3 T Olive oil
3 T Fresh lime juice
1 lg Garlic clove, minced
1 t Ground cumin
1 1/2 lb Flank steak
Lime wedges


FOR GLAZE: Mix honey, mustard, hoisin sauce, lime juice, chipotles and garlic in bowl until well blended. (Glaze can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

FOR STEAK: Combine first 4 ingredients in glass baking dish. Add steak; turn to coat. Cover; marinate at least 1 hour or up to 4 hours, turning occasionally. Prepare barbecue (high heat). Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper. Set aside 1 tablespoon glaze. Brush remaining glaze over both sides of steak. Grill steak to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Let steak stand 5 minutes. Cut crosswise into thin diagonal slices. Drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon glaze. Serve with lime wedges.

Bon Appetit/July 1997

17 years and counting...

Every year I say the same thing to Stacy...

I think we shoud be able to count the 3 years we dated, that would make this year 20 years together. If you count the 5 years I stalked you it would be 25.

Any way you look at it I am still lucky.

Good by Chalazion!

Paige is getting her Chalazion Removed tomorrow morning. We tried to have it removed a few weeks ago but Paige did not have luck with local anesthesia. She goes in tomorrow to have the Chalazion removed while under general anesthesia. The surgery should only take a half hour but Paige will miss a day of school. She is not happy about that. We will update you on her surgery and I am sure that we will have photos.

Emma Louise & Ethan Michael - Aug '08

This is the new collection of fabric, Emma Louise & Ethan Michael designed by my friend Sheri Seibold for Lyndhurst Studio.


I have wanted to see this fabric for a while now, finally we have photos. This fabric is being shown at the Portland Quilt Market this week.


I wish I could go and stand by the bolts of fabric and say my friend designed this, isn't it cool.


This would make the cutest baby's room, makes me sad that I don't have a baby's room to decorate.


I love the bugs, it is nice to see things other than bears and bows for babies.


There are 12 total designs in the Emma Louis fabric and the same in the Ethan Michael collection. There is even a nice sized panel that would be a great center for a quilt.


This is a 30" Panel that goes with the girls fabric.


This is a 30" Panel that goes with the boys fabric.

Officially prepared

We are now officially ready for hurricane season. Okay not completely prepared but getting closer. This grill is one of Consumer Reports best picks for overall quality, reliability and price. It makes it much easier to pick out something when you have the experts doing all the research for you. Our testing last night showed great results on the grill's part and room for improvement on the cook's part. No one died yet from food poisoning, that is a plus and the kids came back for more.

We had some of Paige's Novice rowers come over for a quick grill test and some quality bonding with the Wii. (No, not ours, we are still kickin' it old school with the Atari.) It was a good night and can you believe I did not take one photo. Stacy and I spent most of the night in the driveway sitting in our lawn chairs watching the TV that is in the garage, avoiding the noise level of a house full of kids and getting ready for our old age retirement here in Florida.

Shelley likes to share...

This is our friend Shelley and her new little girl Jessa. This week was a busy one for Shelley and Jerry. The birthday was Wednesday, Jessa Louise was borne at 3:46 pm and she was 6 pounds 1 ounce.



Oh, did I mention how nice Shelley is and how she is a nice giving person who loves to share the wonderful things in her life?



Well, Shelley was nice enough to have twins so she could share one baby even if she was holding one. This is Davis Mathew, Jessa's brother. He was born one minute before his sister making him the big brother. He was 5 pounds 12 ounces.

All are doing well, Shelley is starting to feel better after a day of recovery from her c-section. Way to go Shelley and Jerry, very cute babies.

Red Dragonfly?

I am happy to say that I have seen something I have never seen before. This beautiful red dragonfly was at the regatta on Sunday and I was fortunate enough to see it and have my camera. I did a little looking on the net to find what it was, but came up with different dragonflies that looked close but not exactly the same. I will do a little more research and see what I come up with.

Maybe it is a Scarlet Skimmer.