Where did April go???

Hello, Hello Friends! Oh my gosh - I've gotten SO FAR BEHIND on blogging. So sorry to any of you who try to check in and read up on what's going on. I don't know what my problem is . . . I guess I've had a serious case of writer's block. I promise (again) I'll try to do better and will attempt to add in some posts about our quick Spring Break trip to Disney soon. The castle never disappoints!

But first, since I have a few photos from Easter, that's what we're doing. We had brunch at my son's house. I made 2 quiches and blueberry muffins! I am the designated Quiche Queen! Although the blueberry muffins were a big hit, I really love chocolate chip muffins more. But it's true, they can be messy especially with little hands, so I saved all the chocolate chip muffins for Maddie to take back to her dorm. Ok, I admit it, I kept a couple chocolate chip muffins at home for me!

Look at how adorable my own kiddos are -- they are really not kiddos anymore and even Maddie is out of the teen years! All three are so sweet and helpful - I just love them so.

AND -- look at the whole fam. Rickster was home recovering from surgery, so missed the photo op. He's feeling much better. Look at Philip's tribe! And now there are 6 kiddos. I guess I can't really call them The Littles anymore. Jane is almost as tall as me. Some say she's taller and that I was on my tiptoes, but there is no proof, so let's say I'm still taller. She is 12 and the oldest and little baby Helen will turn 1 at the end of May. They are so much fun! Dorothy (now 6) attempted to teach me how to play chess. Total fail on my part. I suggested checkers instead -- that's more my speed! No matter, we were so happy to get to spend a chilly and windy Easter with them! Hope yours was special too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends! I just love a new year, especially when it's an even number! I know, I know, the last even-numbered one was a bit wonky with the pandemic starting and all, but I have confidence that the year will turn out to be a good one!

How were your holidays? Ours were good and fun and the weather on Christmas was super good and warmish! I hate to jinx it, but we've had the best late fall/early winter! And, of course, you know that the cooler temps and low humidity are good friends to my hair -- which is always uppermost in my list of worries -- how's my hair look???

It's been SO wonderful to have Maddie at home for an extended visit as her classes don't start again until January 24! She had a very good semester -- even with an insane amount of work in an English class being taught by a grad student. OY!!! I can't even explain how awful that class was for her and such confusing and WEIRD assignments for an English Comp 102 class. PTL - it's over! Grad students should never teach classes without a real instructor overseeing them. Reviews of her on "rate my professor" are not going to be good.

Miss Maddie turned 20 on December 20! What a fabulous girl! I love her so! We went out to a breakfast place called Good Evans for a birthday lunch!And we had cookies with the Chick-Fil-A logo! LOVE that place! We had a good time out at Philip and Catherine's celebrating on Christmas Eve. It was a "breakfast for dinner" theme. I do love that as not much beats french toast casserole and my famous quiche! The next day we celebrated at home with just Connor and Maddie and had Olive Garden- YUM!

In other big news, the Rickster retired - so that made our December rather busy as we tried to get rid of 25 years worth of stuff out of the office and either shredded, moved to storage or to his home office -- here at home. Good thing no family events coming up as there is no room in the dining room for anything -- just saying -- we should have gotten rid of more stuff. I told him that! :) He has a few cases he will continue to work on. My temporary gig at his office went on for 7 years (after 32 years at my old office), so I must admit I am tired of the law (that's putting it nicely). I'm still in charge of checking phone messages, printing stuff off and other assorted duties. Yes, I am a saint! I would show you a photo of all the stuff - but it would scare you -- yep - it scares me. This is gonna take a while (a long while) to get through. The job never ends!

I also worked as a part-time gift wrapper. I LOVE that job. Such a wonderful group of mostly old ladies. One lady is 86 and has been gift wrapping for 18 years! She said she hopes to make it to 20 years -- hope I can do it that long too. It hasn't been as busy since the pandemic and all, but gets crazy the closer you get to Christmas. One guy brought in 25 gifts to be wrapped! Couple days later, he brought in 20 more! We gift wrappers like to be busy, so we were good with that.

In case you're wondering, I'm just putting in Photos here and there because I've had trouble with formatting the blog and the only way to not have it end up ONE LONG PARAGRAPH is to Insert photos.

Also, our attempt at Christmas photos was a bust. I thought I looked ok -- you know I am getting older -- but the photographer freaked me out when we told me I had a fake smile and needed to try harder. UMMM -- well, that actually made it even more difficult and every photo was awful. Mads and Rickster looked good, of course. Now, I ask you -- is that a fake smile?? Yep I guess that was, but believe me, the photos she took were bad -- very bad. <

That's my report for now. Hope you are enjoying a warmish January. Let's get this month over with and on to Spring!!