lunch break

...Cadbury Cream Eggs and Clemintines, please...

Are you a seasonal food lover? I am. I look forward to that first really ripe cantaloupe. And in the summer I eat cheese and tomato sandwiches ummm, pretty much every day. But there are two really special seasonal food items in my life.

The first is Cadbury Cream Eggs. Do you remember your first? I do. It seems as though each year they appear earlier and earlier. I fully expect to see Easter candy on December 26th this year. When I was younger (and before they started appearing in January), I would go to the drugstore the day after Easter and buy the ENTIRE box at 50% off. I would then put them in my parent's freezer. And every Sunday, I would go to the basement freezer and pull an egg out for myself. Remember this, mom and dad? Sometimes I would wait for it to thaw. Sometimes I would eat it immediately. But I'm pretty sure I never shared.

The other item I look forward to all year is clemintines. The first good batch (they come out in Octoberish, but around here those are full of seeds and really bitter). I got my first good batch last week. You know the kind, easy to peel, no seeds, sweet with just a hint of bitter. Yummy. I remember eating them before, during and after skating practice. I remember eating them at halftime of our basketball games. Love them.

Hope you have a seasonal food you are enjoying now...Egg nog anyone?

XOXO

...The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

...Ho Ho Ho!

...Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours.  XOXO

...Home

This is the house I grew up in...My parents sold it shortly after we got married and moved to Oklahoma ...It's different.  Darker, more grass, less trees.  The trees and vines I remember swinging from are gone.  The area that my parents told me could never be cleared for a swimming pool is cleared and holds not one, but two swingsets.

Different.

It still feels weird to go home and not come to this house.  I think a part of me will always miss it.  A part of me wants to throw my car into park in the extra parking space, take the steps two at a time while running my fingers along the paneling, run through the foyer and slide into the family room on the hardwood floors.

It's a funky looking house from the outside, but the inside was warm and cozy.  See the room on the left side with the tall windows? That was the living room, and I would wait in there with my mom for dates.  I'd see the lights of my date's car creeping up the street and pull in the driveway.

The window on the far right was my room.  There used to be a REALLY tall tree there and at night I would hear it creaking, swaying back and forth.  My childhood mind formed escape roots for the night I knew the tree would crash into the house...It never did.

I hope I have home that my kiddos will feel the same way about when they are old and married.

Safe travels to everyone this week.
XOXO

...cool

So a nice lady named Minda left a comment on my blog this weekend...She and a group of friends get together to scrapbook, and, as she said: "We reviewed a dozen or so of your layouts to get a feel for your style, then set a timer to 20 minutes and with a limited supply of LK type product we set out to make it work."

What a great idea...And This was so neat to see...

Thanks, Minda! Now, if only I could accomplish anything in 20 minutes, let alone a layout. :)

Hope everyone has a great week...Let the Christmas shopping begin!!!

XOXO

...proud new owners of

An autographed "Man of the Year" poster. :)

Where this gigundo poster will fit, I'm not sure...I "won" it at a work auction on Friday.  I was the only bidder.  Haha. This movie is funny and I think Robin Williams is probably one of the most talented comedians in the world.

They were playing Christmas carols in the grocery store yesterday...Does it seem like every year the Christmas season gets earlier and earlier? 

Here's Charmy, chilling in the yard this morning...Sorry for such a tilted picture.  She was actually only chilling for a second and as soon as the shutter went off, she was off after a squirrel.