This is not about football.

One way to lose readers of your blog is to talk about football.  I have found this to be the case. This post is about football but in a very round about way, stay with me here.  :o)
Saturday morning we left to fly to Boston to be in town for the Pats game this weekend.  There was work involved but also time for some fun things too.  Flying out of here can be challenging at best so we often are on small planes that I refer to as puddle hoppers.  I’m used to it now but at first I felt like I was on a kite.
We took off without a problem and we all were doing our crossword puzzles, using Ipads, dozing, you know, all the things you do on a flight.  About 45 minutes in the air one of the pilots came back and said there were weather issues in Boston so we would have to land in Providence Rhode Island.  Okay, that’s not too bad, about an hours drive back to Boston.
A few minutes later he came back again and said we were going to have to land in Portsmouth New Hampshire as there was a possible problem with the landing gear freezing up.  Immediately my overly active imagination was showing the runway being foamed by airport personnel so that we could glide in like a sled!
We landed without a hitch and went into the small terminal to wait for another plane to be readied for the rest of the trip.
You can see that the visibility was not good in this picture.
Well we waited and waited and finally one of the pilots came out and said that there was just one guy on to deal with this stuff and that it would be a while.  The plows were out cleaning the runway and hopefully putting some sand down.
Waiting is not one of Hubs and Sons strong points so they decided they would rent a car and we would drive the rest of the way to Boston which in good weather would be a couple of hours.
Adding one more thing to the mix was that Miss T and I were going to fly back home the next morning as she had a travel team basketball game that she really didn’t want to miss and the rest were going to stay for the game and meet with some clients.
Well we hashed that over for a while and decided that if the weather was still good in Bangor we would head back home in case we couldn’t get home in time the next day.  The pilots assured us things were still fine in Bangor and they were headed back there so we hopped on and went with them.  The terminal people looked at us rather strangely as we came in as we had just left that morning!
The next day we went to her game and they won by four points which was nice as they had only won one other game all season.


We came home and did some baking and made homemade ice cream. Peanut butter ice cream with mini peanut butter cups in it.  Oh my aching hips!
The Pats won and there was a lot of celebrating down on the field with my family right in the middle of it.  Next thing I know I get an e-mail from Son with a picture of Mr. D in it! You’ve got to love technology.  A friend of ours in Atlanta was watching the game, saw D in the midst of that huge crowd (he was sitting on Son’s shoulders to keep from being trampled) had his DVR on so stopped it and took a picture of the tv screen with his Blackberry, sent it to Sons Blackberry in Foxboro who in turn sent it to me in Maine!  Is that cool or what?!





Everyone got home safely that night, the weather had cleared so all was well! :o)


Hey Dickiebo I can't get onto your site!

Can I help with the homework?

 

Here is Miss T with her kitty Penelope.  They are like two peas in a pod even when it comes to homework time.  She sits there patiently waiting for T to get finished.  She even came to spend the night here last weekend when Miss T spend the night.  Noodles liked the company but Munchkin was in a snit and hid the whole time.

Miss T loves all cats.  In fact she loves all animals and has a tender heart towards them.  She was playing with my Ipad the other night and Noodles was a good subject to shoot.

 

She also took pictures of her Miss Matched socks.  I guess they are all the rage now with the younger set, mismatched socks on purpose, they even come this way.  We got these at the Miss Matched store at Universal in the fall.

I’ve been continuing to take down my Christmas decorations.  It looks awfully bare without the lights and greenery on the shelf in the sunroom.  I may put up some strands of little white lights all along the shelf if I can do it without them being seen.

 

We made little apple tarts and Miss T made her own crust from scratch.  I’m going to put together a little binder with all the different recipes she has made for her.  That girl loves to cook!

 

These rolls came out much better then my hockey puck debacle of Christmas Day!

It’s a few days later and I still haven’t gotten this posted yet.  I just came home from having a nice lunch with two horsey friends over town.  It was nice, we sat there for three hours!  When we came out one friend had a ticket on her car………she was not happy.  Then as I was driving home she called and said that it was a courtesy ticket.  I had never heard of that, I thought a ticket was a ticket but guess not.  Maybe it’s like a warning. She was happy!

 

Ever have those days when you just can’t think of anything interesting to write? I’m having one of those days.  The End.

Your ham might cook a bit faster if you turned the crockpot on…..

I write notes to myself all the time.  Sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t, like yesterday when I left myself a note to put a big ham in the crockpot for dinner that night.

I know sometimes when I get up in the morning I have 50 things to get done so I leave a note on the kitchen bar to remind me to do things.  Sure enough when I got up I didn’t even get downstairs until 9 AM by the time I made the bed, picked up the bathroom and bedroom, sorted laundry, showered, did hair etc etc so when I came down and saw the note I scurried around getting the ham out, washing it, getting it in the Crock pot with some water etc etc

About 10:30 I thought to myself, I don’t smell the ham cooking yet.  Guess what?  I didn’t turn the crockpot on, just plugged it in!  Good grief.  Sooooooooo I turned it up on high and hoped for the best.  It did cook nicely the way I like it with the meat falling away from the bones but it would have been very disappointing to have the Hubs come in for dinner and the ham still cold in the crockpot.  Please tell me that you do things like that too!!!!

I did make custard and it came out fine.  It’s so easy to make and my family loves it.

Best Baked Custard

6 eggs slightly beaten

2/3 cup sugar

Dash of salt

2 teaspoons real vanilla

5 cups milk scalded (I do this in the microwave)

Nutmeg

Heat oven 350*. Blend eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla.  Gradually stir in scalded milk. Pour into 6 oz. custards cups and sprinkle with nutmeg. Place cups in a baking pan and pour very hot water into pan within 1/2 inch of top of cups.

Bake 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in center of custard comes out clean. Remove cups from hot water and serve either hot or cold.  (We like cold.)  You can find this recipe in the old red Betty Crocker cookbook on page 184.  YUMMY!

We went to Mr. D’s first basketball game Saturday morning.  That’s him in the green shorts making a shot!

We missed Miss T’s game, that’s her in the middle in the black uniform with her hands in the air.  She made that shot so was very happy.  Son takes pictures for us if we can’t be there which isn’t very often.  They won this game 26 to 10, it was their first win.

We lost a dear friend last week, he passed away at the age of 81.  His name is Lee Lamson and he was one of my most favorite people around.  His sense of humor was incredible and he could have us in tears laughing so hard over a good story or joke.  He was a kind man.  Many years ago when I was still doing hairdressing I got a call from the funeral home that a family had requested me to come in and do the woman’s hair that used to be one of my clients.  I was floored.  I had never done that before and wasn’t sure how I would react to being in the prep room with dead people being prepared for their funerals.  I was a wimp.

I called Lee who worked in the funeral business at times and said I just don’t think I can do this.  He said yes you can, I will go with you!  Get your stuff ready and I will pick you up so that you don’t even have to drive, I guess he could tell my voice was shaky.

So he did.  And it was fine.  He was cracking jokes with some of the other funeral staff and I began to relax and did the hair without keeling over!  I will never forget his kindness in taking his afternoon to help me through that job.  We joked about it many times through the years since but I sure needed someone that day!

I’m happy to know that I will see him again someday, it is comforting.  He loved the Lord with all his heart.  He is also Funsize’s Grampa so please keep her and the rest of the family in your thoughts and prayers.  We miss him.

Miss T is getting off the bus here after school as Mr. D has a follow up check up at the pediatrician’s office.  He is doing well since his bout with pneumonia.

Quite a few of you asked what a Sound Pipe is.  It is a speaker system that hooks onto your ATV so that while you are out in the woods on the trails you can listen to the music that you have on your Ipod.  The white parts are the speakers.  You can also use it working out in the woods on the trails by running it off the battery as long as you don’t use it that way too long and run the battery down.  It was a fun goofy gift that I knew he wouldn’t be expecting as he is hard to buy for. :o)

Christmas 2011

We started out Christmas Eve Day having a Patriot’s party here on the ole range.  We all like to watch the game so decided it would be fun to watch it together before the Christmas festivities began.  Even Noodles got into the fun with Miss T.

There was lots of yummy food.

We decided to make some gingerbread men.

Can we say ‘calories’?  My hips are expanding just looking at this picture!!!

Lots of presents for good boys and girls.  A signed Patriot’s shirt for Cousin K!

A new rolling pin for Funsize!  Watch out Paul!!!!

Whoops! Caught me having some Coke.  Hey, it could have been the fudge!

Mr. D’s favorite, boxers from Rainforest Cafe.

A necklace for DIL.

All my young people except Funsize who had to leave early for a four hour trip to visit her boyfriends parents up north.

Bringing in the new bikes that were hidden in Mom and Dad’s apartment.

Sons new Sound Pipe!  Thanks Hollie for the suggestion, he really likes it.  Did Colt like his?

A Pogo stick for Miss T.

Hunting clothes for Cousin K.

Fun playing a new game.

I received several special gifts this year.  One was a book made for me by my niece Ashley.  I was very touched by the amount of work she put into it and all the lovely pictures she tracked down.  It is such a great idea if you want to do something special for someone.  She used Shutterfly.  She used every letter of the alphabet but I will put in just a few.

This one proves I CAN make good yeast rolls!

Funsize had a clock made up for me that I love.  It’s me, Miss T and Funsize on the horses one day last summer.  What a unique gift!!! I LOVE it!

My niece Ana did a collage for me with old and new pictures.  I’m sure it took a lot of time putting this together.  It even has my favorite picture of me and the Hubs right in the middle.

I am very blessed to have such wonderful caring nieces and nephews.  Some live quite a distance away but these three live right here in town and I see them often.  Can’t ask for much more then that!!

Welcome 2012

How many times do you write the wrong year when it first changes?  I find myself doing that many times until I finally get it through my head.  Someone told me once that they go through their first month of checks and write the year in on all of them. Sounds like it might be a good idea for me.

We had a nice quiet New Years Eve here at home.  We watched a couple of movies that were on tv.  I had never seen the Jaws movies about the sharks back quite a few years ago so it was interesting although rather gory.  The interesting part was to see the hair styles, clothing styles and the cars that they were driving.  I must Google it and see what year those movies were made.  That was easy, it was 1975.  You’ve got to love Google!

 

The big thing that I noticed was that no one wore a life jacket while boating, water skiing or floating around out on a raft.  Were we really that foolish back then?  I have a hard and fast rule at the camp, NO ONE goes out in the boat without a life vest on.  NO ONE.  I know it’s not ‘cool’ but but that is the way it is.  It doesn’t do you much good if you get thrown into the water and the life vest is under the seat.  I can be such a dictator at times! ha!

Someone sent me a few pictures from long ago that I thought I would share with you.  Yep, that’s me in the middle with the very curly hair, my oldest sister on the right and my next oldest sister on the left.  I think this was taken in from of St. John’s Church here in town.

This one was taken at the beach somewhere, maybe in Canada where some of my cousins live.  Again I am the one with the curly hair, I hated it back then but wish it was still that curly now. My mother was expecting my brother who is the baby of the family.  After four girls I think they were pretty excited to finally have a boy.  We didn’t spoil him or anything……

Here we are all grown up. I was the middle child which explains a lot…….. I would guess this picture was taken about 20 years ago.  Oh to be size 10 again…….waaaaaaaaaaaa!

We went to the lake today to check on the cottage.  The weather was so mild that I could have worked in my flower garden if I had wanted to.  Everything looked fine and the alarm was on.  Sometimes when the power goes out I don’t think it resets itself so we check often.

It was so peaceful there.  The Hubs was working on his IPad and I was puttering around, making the beds up with fresh sheets, Swiffering, checking the food in the cupboards and bringing home things that needed to be eaten before next summer, cleaning the toilets as well water leaves a lovely ring and just plain enjoying myself.  It was the opening day of ice fishing and there isn’t a lick of ice yet!  I can assure you there are some fishermen that are pretty bummed about that.

Son brought over the Christmas pictures and downloaded them onto my computer after we got home so you can bet your boots my next post will be about Christmas.  That’s a warning but I promise to only put in a few……….