A new Aunt again x2

A little early to arrive, my sister Stephanie went into labor on Sat. and was hospitalized with the hope that labor could be delayed. This was not successful and she delivered 2 little boys Sat. night about 10:30 pm.

Welcome Hawthorne and Ethan!
We are so excited you are with us!

Hawthorne Edwin. Weighs 2 lbs. 4 oz. 14 ins. long and Ethan Eoghan (Celtic for Eugene) and weighs 2 lbs.14ins long.

They will be in neo-natal for a few months. Prognosis is good but guarded. They were both big for being 26 1/2 weeks which doctors feels is a plus for them.

Congratulations Stephanie and Todd!
We Love and Miss you Both!

Thunder over Louisville.....

Derby festivities begin with a bang......we were in town for a soccer tournament!



While watching the games on Saturday we were entertained by different mini-airshows, they were practicing for later that evening. And always the little kid, I had to stop and point out the stealth bomber to the girls - they really weren't excited.



The weekend wasn't much thunder for the girls on the field, but they enjoyed themselves it was a good bonding weekend. The weather was beautiful and a good friend and co-developer of mine joined us Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, she was just needing a reason to sit outside, I provided!

We stayed in on Saturday and allowed the to eat pizza, swim and bond. With all the crowds downtown, it was a good thing....though I really, really wanted to be a the fireworks, did I mention, I love fireworks!

It's a Deere!

Dad finally got himself a John Deere Tractor, he is so excited.......

We won't mention he still has a full size 1940 something Farmall H sitting in the garage next door, but it's a little big to do the lawn with!!!!!

Congrats Dad!
And welcome to your 2nd Retirement, it's about time!

Prom Dresses and Where is Spring?

It has been a cold, windy awful weather week. Tough for all those spring breakers coming back. My plants I got into the ground a couple of weeks ago are still struggling, but alive. Soccer has pretty much been canceled all week due to either cold or the fields being to wet to play on.

Kelsey's friend Shae (one of my 2nd daughters) stayed with us this weekend with her parents out of town attending a wedding. The girls had both originally planned to go to Bloomington early before their games to check out Prom dresses. Games canceled, we went ahead down. I have to note, I love Shae especially when she calls us on her cell phone from the bathroom downstairs to let us know she needs TP - these kids have truly embraced technology to the hilt!

We had fun with them modeling several dresses and joining in on a bride to be's decision on her dress. It was a family atmosphere and we enjoyed the shop owners. Here are the girls trying on dresses.

Shae fell in love with the green Flash dress, Kelsey love the deep purple one. We will need to return to get them altered - on Kelsey, they were all way to long and a little wide around the waist/bust. But at least we do not have to go to a dozen more stores, I am so relieved.

Alex spent the day with friends and stayed over night at Ashleigh's. I got out later that night, the first time in several weeks, almost forcing myself to go - by the time I got out, it was snowing making me want to snuggle at home. But, glad I went out and enjoyed the opening of a friend's new bar and another friend's birthday, slide show is on myspace.

Dying Eggs

The girls made it home, I was still out shopping, they weren't happy I wasn't there to welcome them home, but I think I made it up. I dropped the bomb on them my decision to switch their bedrooms putting Alex into the bigger room and Kelsey in the smaller one. It is a decision based on effective space use since Alex is here and usually with anywhere between 2-5 friends crammed into her small room. Kelsey sleeps and does homework. Her first comment, great you are already moving me out the door! Being fair, Kelsey will get to repaint and buy a few new pieces of furniture, that smoothed it over a bit.

Jarrod joined us for the rest of the day and being Easter is tomorrow we cannot forgo the season favorite activity of Dying Easter Eggs, Jarrod had never done it before - We were amazed - he delved in and throughly enjoyed himself and so did we.


I am making Easter dinner for tomorrow and bringing it over to my brother's, with race season and a new baby, time for family dinners are at a minimum. Deviled Eggs of course will be on the menu - yum!

Happy Easter All!

Keeneland and Snow?

Sensible shoes and dress were the words of the day. I took a day off to travel south for opening day of Keeneland and to enjoy some old friends. It's about a 3 hour drive and I arrived to a welcome of wine, cheese and cold weather. Cold weather, this is opening day of Keeneland, we are supposed to be in spring dresses, enjoying bright sunshine and a warm spring breeze.

What we got was overcast snow and cold. Fortunately for me, I left my ugly old Dickie's thermal jacket in the car, it wasn't pretty but it was warm. As we got into the track, laughing at ourselves, we began laughing at all the young girls forsaking their coats, dressed in high heels and slinky dresses all in the name of 'looking good'. Silly girls, they will learn on a day like this warm and 'sensible shoes' are the only way to go.


We all enjoyed the day catching up, betting the ponies, trying to stay warm and of course drinking. I managed to make a few good hits on some races leaving me pretty much even for the day....it's been to long ladies, we need to do this again when Keeneland opens in October, hopefully it will be a much prettier day.

I got home about 9 that night, I had places I should of been but tired and still recovering, I went to bed. This morning I woke to a text message that my daughter's would be arriving home today....guess I need to go grocery shopping - uh, it dawned on me Easter is tomorrow and I haven't done a thing!

And their gone....

I managed to make it through the week, slowly recovering but still not 100% which still leaves me a little weak after awhile I just need to lay down.

Alex's birthday was on Monday, we took her for dinner, but we still needed to have her party, the only day that everyone was available was Thursday before spring break began. So Thursday after work, her and I were off to the store to pick up party supplies and her cake, it was to be a little more laid-back affair this year. We tried several other options, but timing and friends availability did not allow any of those to happen. She had 8 girls over to hang and celebrate, 4 of them ended up sleeping over. They were both pleasure, amusement and pain sometimes. One kept insisting she was going to TP me while I slept, I informed her she wouldn't be living after that and then the lighter seen below needed to be confiscated after they decided to burn things, cake, plates, etc....Ahh kids, don't 'ya love them. They finally congregated in Alex's room chatting, IMing other friends and playing DDR.

Early Friday morning, Alex still needed to pack and I had 4 girls to get on their way home and myself into work. We managed with Kelsey taking Ashleigh home so she could see Jarrod before she left. I past their dad on his way to the house in the RV on my way into work. They are headed to St. Augustine, though Alex truly wanted to go to St. Pete.

The house was not to bad and some early morning picking up while the girls were slowly waking up, I managed to make it look decent again.

After a day of work, no kids and the house to myself, guess what I was ready for....party!!! Uh no, BED!!! and that is exactly what I did. By 6pm, I was in bed, cell phone off and no communication...rest was in order.

I woke up early Saturday, hmmm wonder if it was the 6pm bedtime? Still slow and walking like a pregnant woman whose belly hurts, I began working getting the rest of the house done. After almost 2 weeks down for the count a few things have gotten out of hand. It was a good day, storms ran throughout the day, some quite strong and the lightening hitting close, I had the windows open, I do love a good storm. In between cleaning and laundry, I rested, still getting my energy about me. Though I am hungry, it generally hurts after I eat, so I have been waiting until I can't stand it. I know, not smart, but hey you deal with the aches & pain I have. And yes, I know, what about the dr., been there, same story, pain relief, heat and time.....don't they know I am not a patient person and have things to do? I stuck close to home all day and went to bed early again, but at least my house was clean and I was feeling good about that. I am not a neat freak, but I do like some order and when chaos prevails, it truly throws me off balance, this would explain why I keep Alex's door shut -lol.

Today was a truly beautiful day, sun, light breeze and wispy clouds. My neighbor trumped me again by mowing his lawn early, this left mine looking about 2 feet to high. I know he is excited about his new 42" deck mower, but come on, at least one more week? It was time to mow, dad, you would be proud of me, I cleaned the mower deck, check the spark plug and added oil. One pull and it was running, this much to the chagrin of my other two neighbors who were attempting to start their own mowers, they weren't having much luck. Off and mowing, I like to mow, it gives me a sense of being done with something...but...problems; as I mowed a straight line from the front to the back, the water became deeper and deeper. Opps, the backyard is a moat, guess it will have to wait. I continued on with the front, finished and rested.

This is my Bradford Pear, they are all over in our neighborhood which is called Bradford Place, think there is a connection? This tree was all but dead 2 years ago. Mine and two neighbors were lost from some boring beetle. Mine started to re-generate from the base and now has come back as this beautiful flowering display.

Not to keep me down when I am on a roll, it was time to plant all those beautiful plants I picked up at the garden show before they died in their pots. Evaluating, moving and watching the sun patterns (most like partial shade) I decided most of them would do best in my big side garden, the planting began. They are all now happily resting in their new homes with expectations of rain this evening to give them a boost, if not, I will water them tomorrow after I get a new hose, mine didn't make it through the winter - I got soaked finding this out.

This is a Japanese Pieris, I fell in love with the tiny hanging rows of cockle shells when it bloomed and its an evergreen. Seeking information with my mom's help on where to plant and to know a little more about it, we discovered there is an American version called Andromeda or Moutain Fetterbush and guess what, it's highly toxic....oh well, need to tell my kids no Yule Gibbons acts on this plant...like they would even know who he is...

Once done, I rested again dozing while a wonderful breeze flowed through my windows only to be suddenly awoken by incessant ringing of my doorbell. My neighbor, the one who mowed to early, we swap equipment all the time and he was needing my spreader, for this, he took his new bad-ass mower and took care of my backyard saving me the headache and backache (the grass grows even taller & thicker back there). So laundry almost done, the house cleaned with no expectations of it getting messy this week and my yard ready for Spring, I feel I did get something done despite my slowness.....hopefully this week will be a continued recovery so I can be back to my old self, on the move, getting things done.