My Mom’s 80th Birthday Celebration!

Warning! Warning! Warning!

Many pictures ahead! My whole  family (we were missing my nephew, Seth, stationed in Hawaii)finally got together to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday after being postponed twice due to snow. We also included my dad’s 84th and my nephew’s 36th, Ben’s 30th, Maegan's 20th and Zack’s 7th “heart” birthday, and Jim’s 58th! We just kept adding blessings as we went though the prayer!

We kept those cameras going and although we posed for many pictures, some of my favorites include the goofing around ones while we were getting situated! But as you can see, we didn’t lack for hugs!

My mom with her 3 great granddaughters! There is a great grandson in the “oven.”

Amanda (daughter-in-law) and Linda, my nephew’s wife.

My mom with all of her granddaughters (including greats and in-laws)

Me and Jim with my parents!

 

My mom and dad with the grandsons! Tipp will be here next time!

This is those guys goofing off before the “real” picture! Gotta love it!

My nephew Phil and his love Maegan! I feel the love!

The master chef aka hubby!

Sister-in-law Terry serves cake after our ghetto birthday candle!

Me and my brother goofing off!

My mom and dad with my son, their youngest grandchild!

Jenni (and Tipp) and Ben with mom and dad!

Feeling the love from my sister-in-law, Terry!

Mom and granddaughter, Allie getting a big hug!

Me and two of my best friends, Deb and Michele……….going on 25 years!

My two sisters-in-law, Linda and Terry. Do they match or clash?

My dad and my brother, David contemplating the fun…………..or maybe the food?

Mom and the BIG cake!

Mom and dad with Zack and Amanda!

Nephew, Sterling looking like he was up to something!

Mom and dad opening gifts!

Group hug!

New Old Lamps!

So what do you do when you repaint the living room yellow and your silver lamps just don’t match anymore???

You buy a couple cans of spray paint and wait for a warm, spring day and throw down a tarp over the deck and PAINT ‘em!

Beach Snow 2010

We woke up to 2-3 inches of snow at North Myrtle Beach on Saturday morning. The temp was 32 but the roads were totally fine. Here are a few pics!

Me being silly!

Snow on the dunes!

My son-in-law, Ben made a snow monkey!

A sad beach flag!

Snow on the dunes and fence!

How ironic! A snow covered palm tree!

The bush by the pool. Swimming anyone?

Mine (right) and my brother’s (left) townhouses! Thanks big bro for setting me straight!

Snow……………again, but at the beach???

We came down to our beach house on Thursday evening for a long Valentine’s day weekend. Mid-week, the weather report called for a lot of sun and highs in the high 40’s to low 50’s. Hey that works for me in February! Nothing like a lot of sunshine to chase away the winter blues.

Well that all changed to a little snow expected, then 1-3 inches and then 3-5 inches! I have no idea how much we’ll really get and I don’t think the roads will be bad. But I can’t wait to take pictures!

Here’s the forecast for the area!

Treadmill Running!

Honestly, I have never run on a treadmill as I have always run outdoors. Quite a few friends talked about “running 3 miles last night” so I finally figured out what they were doing. My first thought was that they were cheating!

But, I decided it was a pretty good idea. That way, if I couldn’t get my run done during the day, I could do it at night………………or in the morning…………………….nah…………………….I don’t do mornings!

Jenni recommended Sears and sure enough I got a good deal at $200 off. I always think my car is bigger than it really is, but that box was not fitting in my car. Zack and Amanda met us at Sears the next day with their Envoy and brought it home. They even put it together for us! Thanks ya’ll!

 

Unique Candle

I like candles and Jim saw this in a Wind and Weather Catalogue and bought it for me for Christmas last year. This year he bought some Christmas scented beeswax refill!

We had it fired up just in case we lost power during the snow. The ambiance was nice!

Homemade Soup?

I love to make soup! Maybe I love it because it’s only one pot and one bowl and you can put all kind of stuff in it. You can make it on the stove or you can make it in the crockpot. I think I like it because you can simmer it, and walk away and add a salad and then poof, it’s a meal!

I like homemade soup the best, although, I do like Progresso Soups and have eaten my fair share for lunch at work. But I have discovered Bear Creek Soups. They are so easy, yet taste so good. One envelope plus 8 cups of water make a half gallon. It’s homemade when I add chicken and peas and corn, right??

 

The Potato Soup is my favorite and the first one I tried. It’s especially good with a bag of frozen peas or corn or carrots. Then I tried the Vegetable Beef. It needs some meat and a few veggies, but the base is really tasty! Next I tried the Chicken Noodle. I added chicken and peas……………..yum!

Homemade?  Yeah………………………………..I made it at HOME!

The Christmas Card that wasn’t!

I like to take a picture of the whole family for my Christmas card that used to be a letter. Got too lazy! Then I decided to go green and email a letter. Did that last year!

Took the picture this year but never did the letter! Never decided on the picture!

This?

or this?

Soup!

I don’t know what it is but whenever it snows I want to cook bean soup! Maybe because it’s a warm stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal!

In the crockpot, before!

On the table, after!

Going, Going, Gone!

 

Jim and I had a date……………………with the shovels and ice blade thingies today. It was a fun snow but I really need to get to work tomorrow!

In the beginning……….

Working in sections, we had to chop the ice!

A few clear spots!

I see black asphalt!

Slide it to the side!

Clear, at least a path for me to get out!

My runway!

This isn’t ice; it’s salt from the water softener so the water running across the driveway won’t freeze tonight!

Jim hard at work to keep the ice at bay!