Look Who"s 8

 Gwen had a houseful to help celebrate her birthday:  Great Grandma and Grandpa Redlich, Grandpa Gault, Grandma and Grandpa Shultz, Mom and Dad, Aunt Allison and her much loved cousin Kylie.  Gwen loves playing with Kylie and always looks out for her.  She was happy that Ky could be there for her big day.

 Gwen and Great Grandpa Redlich often spend time in the basement "mining" the buckets.  Accessorized with her petzel headlamp, they head down to check out the various specimens and select good ones for her rock and mineral collection.  Grandpa faceted a new amethyst stone which will be a beautiful necklace, and he and Grandma bought her an interesting book on rocks and minerals.

When Gwen opens Kylie's gift, she oohs and aaahs, but she has no idea what the item is.  She didn't realize it was a pretty terrycloth coverup for her bathing suit.  Ky thought that was pretty darn funny.

 Gwen mentioned to me that she wanted an outfit to match an outfit of her American Girl doll.  I bought them both a cute sun dress.  Gwen was really tickled with it which makes me happy.  Oy vey, the cost of that stuff is astronomical!

 Kera baked the cupcakes inside the ice cream cone.  I never heard of such a thing, but it was way cool.  Gwennie has quite a sweet tooth, so pairing up the cupcakes with some sweedish fish ice from Rita's put her in dessert heaven.

 Everyone is party mode, including the clan elders, Grandpa Gault and Kylie.

It was quite a nice little party.  I can't believe that she is 8 years old.   I just don't know where the time has gone.  Happy Birthday, Gwenniepoo!

Rock and Mineral Show

Under my Dad's tutelege, Gwen has developed quite an interest in rocks and minerals.  Now and then Gwen stays with my folks while Kera is at work.  This is a really special time for my folks.  They really enjoy having that time with Gwen.  My Dad takes her down to the basement where the "mine" the gazillions of buckets of rocks and material Dad has found in many rock hunting adventures.  Gwen has quite a collection of specimens that she has "mined" from Dad's collection.

When the annual Rock and Mineral show rolled around his year we decided that we should all go along.  This is a pretty big show, taking up two full rooms and the large entranceway.

Gwen found a beautiful specimen of pink calcite.  "Grandpa, I have calcite in my collection don't I?"  "Yes," replied my Dad.  "I don't have pink calcite though do I, Grandpa."  Dad responded, "Nope."  Gwen decided then and there that she needed to have that specimen.  As we wandered through the other exhibits, she fretted about whether someone else would sneak in there and buy her specimen.  We finally gave up and went back and she used her own money to buy the pretty pin calcite.

They also sell lots of jewelry there.  Gwen found a pair of earrings she liked.  Kera had promised her she could get a pair of earrings.  It didn't take Gwen long to find something she just had to have!

This show is really a great learning experience for kids.  Thee are hands on lectues in other rooms, special badge programs for he scouts, and even a sandbox with tumbled treasures for the kids.

The good thing about going with my Dad is that practically no matter what questions you have, he knows the ansswers.  It makes it much more interesting.  I think Dad was really tickled that Gwen was interested enough to want to go to this show. 

A Good Neighbor

Several years ago we had a tree rremoved from our backyard.  Unfortunately the people we paid to do the job didn't do a very good job with the stump and some of the outlying roots in the yard.  I've been complaining for some time about getting this taken care of but it pretty much fell on deaf ears.

Until one morning I was getting ready for work and thought I heard the sound of machinery somewhere in the vicinity of my back yard.  When I cam downstairs I went looking for the noise.  Low and behold, it was in my backyard where Loren Barish was grinding down the stump and roots.  What an awesome neighbor!

Wow!  A little raking to level things out now and some grass seed in the spring and it will be so much better.  Thanks neighbor!



Christina and Chad Palmer

In September we attended the wedding of my friend Chrissy Steele and Chad Palmer.  Chrissy looked beautiful and her daughter Jacinda was cute as a button.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful bride.  I'm just sorry my picture doesn't do her justice.

I wish you the very best of luck, my friend.

Back in Time - 2011 Thanksgiving

Ok, it is a little embarassing to be going back so far in time.  I'm such a slacker!  But, I want to clean up 2011 before I move on to 2012.

I like Thanksgiving.  Once Brent and I get da boid in the oven the rest of the day can be taken care of pretty casually.  My folks are always in attendance as are mine brither and Brent's Mom, so I always can pretty much count on those 6.  The last few years neighbors Loren and Deb Barisch have been available to join us.  Travis actually was kind enough to eat two Thanksgiving meals and I really do appreciate it.

I tend to be very traditional.  I love the table cloth that Jayne Zamzes bought for me many years ago.  It's perfect for the Fall and harvest themes.  Out come the gold chargers, the knife rests, the butter molds, and all the other stuff that I use only for the holidays.

Toasts are also a big thing for us.  We take turns and this year Dad was stuck....um I mean Dad was excited abou giving his toast! 



Brent always cleans up da boid and stuffs the sucker after I get the filling made.  Then he does an expert job of carving.  Unfortunately as you can tell from the picture, I forgot to properly finish the darn turkey by browning the skin.  Poopers.  It's not beautiful, but it's darn tasty.

On one hand, the bad thing about Thanksgiving is that you do a lot of work and 30 minutes later it's all over.  The good thing about Thanksgiving is all the leftovers!

An Evening with Friends

You know how difficult it is to find time to do anything these days.  We go from one thing to the next and the next with no time for anything it seems.  Brent was off between Christmas and New Years.  Ah, yes, I remember all those good years at AMP when we were both off during that time.  It was wonderful - even though it was furlough without pay.  Anyway, we took advantage of this time to have Neil and Terri Seis come up for dinner. 

I served a shrimp civeche with champagne as an appetizer.  It was good and pretty easy to make, although it took longer for the lime juice to "cook" the shrimp than I had anticipated.

The salad was our go-to salad these days (because it's easy, it's good and voignier from Pine Ridge is a fantastic match).  We picked up a lovely standing rib roast which Brent did on the grill.  We served that with a yummy new potato recipe I stumbled upon and asparagus wrapped in filo with parmesian.
Terri brought some wonderful Christmas cookies and candies she made - oh man they were yummy.

All in all, a good meal with good friends.

More Christmas Eve

I know it's February and I'm finally getting around to posting these pictures.  But, better late than never!

This Christmas was so wonderful.  Everyone got here in a timely manner.  The snacks were yummylicious.  We changed the way we did gifts this year, with everyone delivering their gifts to others, one at a time.  I loved it!  It took us 2 hours to unwrap everything, but the cool thing was we actually got to see what everyone got.  It was so leisurely, it was a great change.

The girls were beautiful in their Christmas finery.  They both love to dress up and look beautiful.

Some wear fancy clothes, others don their fancy head gear!

While we were waiting for Travis and Kylie to arrive, I suggested to Rick that we should ask Mom if we could do our stockings.  My Mom always does stockings for Rick and I.  It's one of the highlights of Christmas for me.  There are some things that we always expect to find:  Whitman's mini candy sampler, a small tiny bottle of Drambuie, odds and ends Mom has collected over the year.  Some things we have been getting since we were children and it's just another one of those traditions we look forward to reliving.  But, I digress....

Rick agreed we should do our stockings.  I came out into the living room and said, "Mom, Rick wants toknow if we can do our stockings!"  hehehe.  Yeah, some things never change no matter how old you are!

It was coolBrent was psyched.  He had Chris screen print some shirts for the Team Bart clothing line.  Since he and Matt Miller are going to be running the Disney Marathon as a relay team in January, he decided to have some shirts made.  He had some regular shirts done and some good athletic gear made too and he had fun giving them to friends and family.  Of course he had shirts made for the girls too!

Gwen received a private climbing lesson from her Uncle Trav.  Gwen seems very tentative with it so Trav has promised her a special time with just the two of them.  I thought that was a great gift.

Mom gave me not one, but two coats.  One is a snuggly warm jacket and one is a great longer coat that I wanted for the cold blustery walk down the alleyway to work.  But the best part was that Mom knitted me a hat and a scarf.  I love that Mom took the time to make something so wonderful for me.

Mom and Trav enjoy watching the festivities while Kera clowns around with Brent and Dad.  And Kera is.....playing with Chris's ear?!!

Kylie is crazy about horses.  I think this large horse was a big hit! 





Kylie entertains us all by singing Christmas songs.  She's quite the entertainer and just oh so cute.



Brent got me a Panasonic FZ150 camera for Christmas.  I am so thrilled!  Even looking back over this post, you can easily tell which pictures were taken with my new camera and which with the old one.  I can't wait to learn how to use it.  Thanks honey!

Twelve more months until we get to do it all again!