redpoll

Yes, spring is on its way. No skunk cabbage showing its bright, yellow head yet, but the Canadian Geese have made their appearance on the Wetlands and I saw one lone Pussy Willow tree in bloom. We've also had a lot of bird activity, including these Redpolls that descended upon Juneau this past week on their way north. Thousands of them! Redpolls aren't native to this area which makes it even more amazing. According to our local paper, it's a bird phenomenon known as an irruption. Thousands of these tiny finches have been cleaning out bird feeders as fast as we can fill them and then they'll move on to the next food source further up north. Way cute!

abingdon

Isn't this a precious vase with the little flower bouquet wrapped in a ribbon? I have two of them. On the bottom it reads Abingdon USA 520. I spent the last couple days looking up some of my vintage heirlooms on the internet to find out more about them, and found this vase selling on eBay. I haven't always cared much for it because of the bright gold trim; it just isn't "me." But it's one of the few heirlooms that I have of my grandma, my dad's mother, so will forever hang on to it. It's about 8" tall.

It's one day closer to spring! Have a great day! Nancy

just waiting

I'm still here.

Just sitting...

and waiting.

For spring.

it's sunday

What is your favorite day of the weekn? Even though I'm retired, I still get giddy over Fridays and the anticipation of the weekend. Silly ha? We usually get all our errands done during the week when most people are working and the lines aren't so long and just putter around the house on the weekends. Still, Fridays are my favorite day of the week.

Yesterday I mentioned how I love organizing things and working with details. This is my project this week. It's all the nursery signs, pricing tags, and other stuff from the nursery where I work in the summers. What a disorganized mess it was so I brought it home for a winter project. I finally got it finished and had to remove it from the dining table otherwise I would have continued puttering around with it; fine tuning it; changing it. My guess is in a year's time, everything will be back to the way it was originally....

Do you ever watch the Paula Deen show on the Food Network channel? She's one of my most favorite TV cook show hosts. I love her down home ways, her simple home cooking, and even the way she greets you! Do all southerners say "y'all"? I try a lot of her recipes and have never been disappointed. Yesterday I made some cookies I had been eyeing in her Cooking with paula deen magazine since March 2006. Paula's Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies. The recipe is too long to put in here but if you like oatmeal recipes (with icing!), click here. This was a good reward for getting my sign project done! Yummy!

It's snowing this morning. Just a light dusting as if God is up there with a sifter, gently swooshing it back and forth over his land. It's a delicate, dainty look for this morning. Sorry, I deflected for a moment....

Have you visited the blog, Modern Country? Beautiful. Beautiful pictures. We go alllllll the way to Norway and she does put English as a second language, but you don't need words to read at this blog. Just pictures. Lovely lovely pictures.

Hope you're having a great weekend! Nancy

tagged....

Farmchick, from Fresh From The Farm, has tagged me to share seven random, and weird, facts about myself. This ought to be fun!

1. I love organizing things! Anything that requires details! Parties. Paper work. Committees.


2. Okay, if you get grossed out by gross things.... skip to number three! Seriously. I'm not kidding you. Last chance.... Go, now! Please! Okay.... hope you won't regret sticking around.... Here ya go.... I love crawfish. I love sucking the "contents" (I'll leave it to your imagination here....) out of crawfish. I love eating the white layer of fat lining the cavity. I love eating the little piece of meat behind the eyeball. To me, eating crawfish is the ultimate treat! Okay, you can continue to number three.


3. I find way too much joy in simple things. Like finding shapes in clouds; seeing a bald eagle for the zillionth time; finding a rusty old fishing lure on the beach; seeing a float plane fly overhead.


4. I've eaten an authentic German dinner in a castle, in Germany, AND came this close to having snuff (yes, snuff! like in tobacco) flung in my nostrils. Some kind of German custom I guess. My saving grace was I was pregnant!


5. I was about 28 when I got my driver's license. Never drove prior.


6. I love to dance. With or without a partner. Singing AND dancing together is even better. (Neither of which I do well, I might add.....)


7. I love almost all types of music but the music that digs deep into my soul is piano music; boogie woogie, honky tonk, bluesy, piano music.

There you have it! Now, according to the rules, I'm to tag 7 other people. I hope they don't mind....

Beehind Thyme
Kathy's Cottage
Pretty Petals
Bailiwick Designs
Modern Country
Mabel's House
Folded Gingham

Here's the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So there you have it. It's a beautiful day in our neighborhood. Gives you the hope that spring is around the bend. Have a great weekend! Nancy

spring.... not quite here....

I hear rumors that spring has sprung. We're not quite feeling it here yet.... although it is getting daylight earlier and I do see the little red hat of my garden gnome sticking out through the snow so that's a start! But instead of seeing this when I look out the window:




We're still seeing this:




But soon.... the snow will disappear, the soggy soil will dry up, the little red knobs of rhubarb will peak through the remaining snow and ice. Soon....

Meanwhile, Easter will be on us before we know it (March 23) and I've been busy making mental notes for the menu, decorating ideas, and new craft projects.

I found this cute easter eggs book last year and am excited to try some new ideas this year.



I need to buy some eggs and get them dyed and blown out, and then I can start adding all my pretties. Isn't this ribbon just too precious?


And all these cute little embellishments will be perfect!


To get a finished project like this:


I'd really like to make decorating eggs an annual event, like our cookie decorating party, but we've got a lot going on this time of year so I might have to do it alone.

Have a great day!

13 years today....

Today is my wedding anniversary. Thirteen years. I think..... I always have to look it up because I can never remember how many years or even what year we married. To me, it's as if I've spent my entire life with this man, my husband, and the number of years are really insignificant. And celebrating isn't so very important to me because every day I get to spend with him is a gift. I tried to find a picture of the two of us together but didn't find one.... How sad is that?! But I'm usually the one taking the picture....

Do you believe in soul mates? That one person that you are meant to spend your entire life with? Or do you believe there are many? I believe you can love many in your life time; in different ways. But I believe there's a difference from being in love and being in love.

My first marriage lasted 20 plus years. I'm not saying we were happily married for so many years, I'm just saying the marriage lasted that long.... Most of that time was spent with us growing in different directions. I do believe we were in love; maybe in love with the idea of being in love.... but it just wasn't the right kind of love to sustain the type of marriage I thought I had signed up for.

I first saw my sweetie while he was hanging off the side of our office building, pressure washing it. Head to toe in rain gear, including hard hat! When he wasn't in rain gear, I lusted after him in his Carhart pants and red sweatshirt! A mason from Seattle, he was sent to Juneau to work. The girls who worked in the building were all google eyed over these out -of-town men, but I managed to snag the cream of the crop. Long story short, I won his heart and he won mine and today we're more in love than we were 16 years ago.

When I met Mike, I couldn't believe my good fortune and hardly a day has gone by since we met that I haven't thanked God for bringing him into my life. It didn't have to turn out this way..... After all, statistics prove that you generally get in the same kind of relationship the second time around. Why was I singled out to have a better life? Why didn't I fall so easily back into the same old relationship? Did I change so much from one relationship to the other? I think perhaps, in a way, I did.....

I learned you have no control over others. No matter how much you beg, plead, or cry.... you can't change some one if they don't want to. I've since learned what unconditional love is. Loving your partner regardless.... Loving your children regardless.... Unconditional love is just that: "I will love you today, tomorrow, and always regardless of what you do or don't do." Don't get me wrong. I've had plenty of reasons to expect that my husband should change a behavior. But I've expressed my feelings and that's all I can do. I am willing to spend the rest of my life following him from room to room shutting cupboard doors, putting toilet paper rolls on, and turning off lights because I love him that much regardless.

Course what I love most about him is his deep love for me. Here's a man that would do any single thing at any cost to protect me, to keep me safe, to honor me. There isn't anything Mike wouldn't do for me. He protects me from all dangers. He would run into a burning building to save me. He would climb the highest mountain to retrieve me. He's kind and considerate; his touch makes me shiver. If ever there were two people more content to be with each other, I don't know. Together we are one; separated we are two floundering individuals who can't wait to be together again. I can't imagine my life without Mike. I can't imagine living a day without waking up next to him. He is my soul mate, my forever partner. We laugh. We talk. We still walk hand in hand and cuddle every night before falling asleep. He still opens doors for me. We have the same dreams and the same goals. We are each other's strength and we support each other's decisions whether we like it or not. He treats me with kindness, with respect, with a tenderness that melts my heart. I can stare at him with adoration and my heart will still melt by the sight of him; by his every movement. That is true love.

But life works in mysterious ways. I could have gotten divorced years earlier and probably been remarried by the time Mike came to town and was hanging off the side of the building. In that case, he would never have entered my life. But I honestly believe it was God's intent to keep me in marriage #1 for so many years before giving me the courage to get out, just when the time was right to welcome Mike into my life. When the time was right.... Yes, God works in mysterious ways.

So happy anniversary, sweetie. You are my forever love.