What You Don't Know About Me

If you've read my blog for any amount of time, there are several things you should already know about me:
Pink is my favorite color---it's mostly what I wear. If I have  choice, I choose pink.
I'm a tea lover---loose, not bagged.
I'm smitten with Britain and the Royal Family---love those guys.
I'm a storyteller.
I love to read.
I love to stitch.

But one thing you might not know about me is:
I can fall asleep anywhere. Yep, and by anywhere, I mean anywhere. If you make me be still and close my eyes, I'm probably out within 30 seconds. Really! I don't have any trouble falling asleep at night. When I rest during the day, I read first---until I get drowsy. Then I nap---usually about 20-30 minutes (enough to revive me)---sometimes up to an hour. Sleeping is easy for me.

Movies---forget about it. If the movie isn't action-packed or doesn't start by 12:30, you can pretty much bet I'll fall asleep. It's dark and quiet. The perfect recipe for a nap.

Because I fall asleep so easily, I stopped getting facials years ago. Turns, out, I was sleeping through the whole experience. Don't ask me how I could sleep through someone massaging skin care products in to my face, the steam machine and hot towel. I can sleep through it all.

I'm the only person I know who can sleep through a root canal. In this case, that's a good thing. Except the doctor kept nudging me to wake me up as when I drifted off, my mouth would go slack. I guess that's why dental work doesn't scare me. I'll just sleep through it.

Falling asleep easily is why I  could never meditate. It's a fine line there---between meditating and sleep!

Well, on Thursday, I had a brand new falling asleep experience. I went to get eyelash extensions---and slept through that too!! I bought a Groupon for cheap and thought I would give it a try before the wedding. I arrived and the aesthetician asked me what look I was going for---there are 3---sexy, dramatic, or full. I requested "natural." I always want something different than offered! I laid down on the bed. She examined me and said, "I cannot glue the extensions to skin---only your eyelashes."

"Okay",  I thought, "that's fine." Except it wasn't. Turns out I only have about 12 eyelashes. Anyway, as she proceeded, I fell asleep right away. I didn't snort or snore, but made some weird sound that woke me up. I apologized---after all, it is embarrassing. I just cannot be still and close my eyes without falling asleep. When we finished, I was happy with the result---you can barely tell, but my lashes do look a bit fuller. I won't be going again---it's $100 a month to maintain them. That would be one expensive nap!

And now you know one more thing about me.

Birthday Wrap Up

My birthday celebration continued through the week. I had lunch with Sally on Wednesday. We've been friends for about 25 years now---from St. Matthew's woman's club. We really bonded when we went through the Master Gardening program together. We used to get together every week for tea or a glass of wine while we strolled each other's gardens. We've traveled together too. Now we only get together a couple times a year, but it's always fun. She is working on something for me for Mindy's wedding. She is a talented artist and has a flare for the dramatic. Her Christmas tree is the most magnificent tree I've every seen---although I haven't seen it in a few years. I'm inviting myself next year. Anyway, she gave me this necklace:

This is made by a company that focuses on empowering women. We're all about supporting small businesses.

 These earrings were a gift from Karolyn. They look like summer to me.

 Sirius radio gave me a birthday present too. I could not believe that I was thinking about how my favorite Rolling Stones song was Beast of Burden. All of a sudden, it came on! I can't remember the last time I heard it. Amazing how things like that happen. Happy birthday to me!

 My sister-in-law, Chris sent me this Brighton travel jewelry holder. I love Brighton.

We celebrated with the family on Friday night. Mindy and Justin gave me this awesome shell votive candle holder for one of our beach houses. The seafoam colored candles smell like the beach!

Stephanie and Nicky gave me this winter, snowflake wine glass for my collection with some snowflake napkins. The bottle is actually a sparkling wine. I have it chilling. Maybe I'll drink it next Friday night.

We went to the Bonefish Grill for dinner. The food is always good. They have the best Sangria---and that says a lot since I'm not normally a sangria drinker. We had a great time.

It was a wonderful birthday week. I'm truly blessed to have so many fabulous people in my life. I'm so thankful!

What I Do For Fun

Like spending the whole day at the Apple Store! I love that place, but really, not the whole day! Here's the story:

I was having problems with my computer. It was so slow and not responding like it should. It would think forever, the mail wouldn't throw away and end up back in my inbox. Sometimes I couldn't get applications to quit. Anyway, I made an appointment at the genius bar. They don't call those guys geniuses for nothin'!

I made my appointment for the day after Christmas for 10 a.m---first appointment of the day. Then I remembered---IT WAS THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS!!! What was I thinking? Okay, I just decided to revise my plan. I've been messing around with this computer for months now since I was laid up and couldn't really deal with it (remember the "expert" I had out to the house that messed it up more?). So, I made a plan. I left the house at 8:30---thinking it could take me an hour to find a decent parking place with all the "after Christmas shoppers." I had my book with me, so I'm never worried about sitting around with nothing to do.

I arrived at the mall and was able to pull right in to my favorite, best kept secret, parking space. I sat there and read for about 45 minutes. I decided to go in about a half hour early in case they could take me early. Well, that was a good idea. I got right in. Turns out that all of my problems stemmed from my most recent update to El Capitan. Apparently, Apple had not worked out all of the bugs. I was told that if I left my computer for 2 hours, they could have me all fixed up. Okay, that was fine with me. Rather than leave and come back, I decided to just stay put with my book.

I decided to have lunch at 5th and Pine in Nordstrom's. They have this diet black cherry soda that I love. They also have my favorite salad in the world---Shrimp and Crab Louie. Imagine my disappointment when I was told they didn't have either one on the menu any more. Turns out, it had been over a year. Yeah, I don't go to the mall much.

After a second rate salad, I walked the lower level of the mall. I need to start building my strength for our upcoming trips. I checked back with the Apple store---not quite ready yet. At about 12:30, I met with a different genius. He said they were unable to do what they needed to do so they wanted to try something else. It would take another hour. Okay, I'm here now, why not. I sat outside with my book for another hour and a half. I was then told by, yet another genius that there was not enough memory to complete that idea. My choices at this point were basically to erase a lot of stuff on my computer or buy another with more memory. The upgrade to El Capitan took all of my remaining memory. I didn't really have enough stuff to remove to make a difference.

I decided to just go ahead and get another computer with more memory. I always replace my computers every five years so this one was due. And, I get a nice little inheritance every January from my mom's IRA, so I could justify the money. Last spring, I had spent $300 replacing the logic board which made this computer brand new. In fact, two of the genius' couldn't believe the pristine condition of my 5 year old computer---nary a scratch. I baby my computer. I was told that I could easily sell my old computer for a really good price.

Once I made up my mind, they asked me if I wanted to erase the old computer---as long as it was backed up. I'd need all of my information to re-load on the new computer. Yes, of course, my computer was backed up---10:25 the night before to be exact. I waited another hour while they erased the old computer.

Finally, when I got home, it was 4:00 p.m. I'd spent the whole day!!

My first task was to get the new computer up an running. When I went to load my information from my time capsule, everything showed up just like it should. But when I clicked on "Barbara's Macbook Air"---I got a message, "data not found." What!???!!! Oh. My. Gosh! I tried to stay calm. I didn't freak. I told myself, "okay, it is what it is." I lost just about everything. Probably what I was most worried about were my photos---but luckily, I have ALL of the old ones on my desktop computer, so that wasn't the end of the world. And, since I'm pretty faithful about printing out my photos, I was in good shape there.

Next, I was worried about losing my calendar. There would be no way I could remember all of that.  I was afraid that all of my contacts and internet bookmarks and Bloglovin' information would be gone. But, thank God for the Cloud. ALL of that information was there immediately.

The most important and valuable information that I lost was ALL of the wedding information. Luckily I'm old---and I NEVER say that with regards to myself. But in this instance it's true. I had printed out all of the contracts with the wedding vendors. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have even been able to remember half of them. If I were young, I would have never printed this information out. They mostly live in a paperless world. Still, it was quite a setback as I had done most of the work already. Not the end of the world.

Here she is in all of her glory---slightly smaller---about an inch---than the old one.

Now they come in a few colors---the standard silver, gold and this one---a bronze-ish brown. I love it! I've already re-organized all of my fonts into their respective folders (lost the nearly 1000 that I had). A sign of the times---5 years ago when I went through my fonts, there were maybe 30 foreign ones. This time there were equally half as many foreign fonts as English ones. I guess most of the third world countries now have computers---and Macs at that!

Anyway, I'm back in business. Justin is the recipient of my old/new computer. He's happy since he didn't have one---just his iPhone.

It's been a period of adjustment as I get used to the new. Although I had Pages for years, I never used it---just Word. Now I only have Pages. That's really taking some getting used to. I'm not happy with Photo (they took away the "i") as I really liked the format of the old program. Plus, I learned that now, when I delete photos from my phone, they delete from my computer. Ugh! Not happy about that. Maybe it's a setting. I'll have to find out. What the heck. I'll just spend another day of fun at the Apple Store.

Friday Funnies

I'm One Lucky Girl!

It was a great birthday indeed! Sandy called while I was getting ready. I left the house about ten to 8. I was surprised to discover this:

15 degrees---that's like our coldest temperature in 5 years! No wonder I was so cold. I did notice that my windshield was partially defrosted, but didn't give it a moments thought. It was freezing and I was too lazy to go back in the house for gloves. Plus, I was still on the phone with Sandy.

My first stop was Starbucks for my free birthday treat. I had a cranberry scone and my regular ventiicedblackteashakenwiththreeequalsplease.  From there, I dropped a package in the mail at the post office, took a return back to Lowe's, another return to Hobby Lobby and purchased two lamps for Morgan's room. That was all the way in Franklin, but there was really no other time this week that I could get there. 

Now I was really ready to start my birthday---well, after one quick drive-through the bank. I met Connie at Venetian for our monthly pedicure---our first since last August before my surgery. I always enjoy that as it give us time to catch up with each other. I'll admit, now that she's retired, we see each other a lot more, but any excuse is A-okay with me!!

We met Karolyn and Nancy at Cheeseburger Charley's for a quick lunch before our Movie Monday. Connie picked it---The Hateful 8. It's a Quentin Tarantino film. His films are "out there." I knew that I had seen a few of his movies, but only Pulp Fiction came to mind. So, I looked him up. He's made over 25 films. Mitchell gives me a movie every year at Christmas and part of the gift is watching it late at night together. A few years ago, he gave me Django. The best one I've seen is Inglorious Bastards. Anyway, that's about it with my experience of QT films. 

The Hateful 8 was certainly weird---and long. Connie professes that she's never picking another movie. We all pick some that aren't so great. And when you try to go every week, you are bound to hit a few bummers. We have hopes for next Monday when we're seeing Revenant with Leonardo DiCaprio. He just won the Golden Globe for best actor for this one. I don't really know anything about it, but I saw him on a talk show so it piqued my interest. I hope it's good. 

I didn't get home until nearly 4 p.m. I walked in the house to this:

The picture does not do the roses justice. They are the palest, peachy, most beautiful pink I've ever seen. I called to Butch that I loved them---and he even arranged them. Doing the grocery shopping is gift enough! 

He then asked me if I'd noticed that he'd heated up my car. Then I remembered about the partially defrosted windshield. But the car was not warm at all, so I didn't really notice that. Considering it was 15 degrees, it didn't have much time to warm up. My remote start only goes for 10 minutes. At 15 degrees it would get cold pretty quick even if it had started to warm up.

My birthday present from Connie were these darling little antique chairs. She knows I have a "thing" for chairs. I'll have to find the perfect place for them. Plus she gave me the first three seasons of one of her favorite shows---Major Crimes. She's been talking about it for a long time. I finally found it and set it to record. I've only watched 4 episodes but like it already. I'm glad to start at the beginning and see the relationships develop. You can jump in any time and won't feel like you don't know what's going on. Still, I like watching from the beginning. Once I finish Justified  in my scrapbook room, this will be next.

I should back up a little. My birthday actually began last week. Madelyn and Mary Jo took me to lunch on Friday. Madelyn made me a loaf of her famous banana bread. I've put it in the freezer for when the family is here in just two and a half weeks. Mary Jo gave me the most aromatic candle I think I've ever had. I could smell it through the wrapping. I left the box on the counter for a couple days because it smelled so good. I'll start using it next when the one I have going now is finished. I'm looking forward to it.

Karolyn gave me a pretty pair of earrings. I forgot to take a picture of them---I'll do it later. I have another package waiting to be opened from my sister-in-law, Chris. Stephanie and Mindy are coming for dinner tonight since we're working on a few wedding things. I'll open it then. 

I got 4 cards in the mail (okay, so one's from the bank and another from the Dominican Campus---but I'm counting them---the other two are from my cousins, Chrissy and Judy), 11 birthday texts (all 5 of my grandchildren sent me the sweetest texts), 4 phone calls and about 50 Facebook birthday greetings. And, it's not over yet! I'm having lunch with Sally on Wednesday. Plus, we're going to the Bonefish Grill on Friday night when Justin can be with us for my birthday dinner. 

I love week long birthdays, don't you? 

I am one lucky girl!

PS Mindy called and started with "Mom, I don't want to take away from your birthday, but I got a promotion and nice raise today!" I told her that was the best birthday present of all! Her new title is Senior Application Lead. She's very excited. What a way to start her new life!

Only Mindy would think you shouldn't steal someone's thunder on their birthday! More to the point---she wouldn't want anyone stealing her thunder on her birthday! I'm sure she'll feel differently when she's 64. 

OMGosh, I just realized I've reached that age. You know, the one in the Beatles song---When I'm 64 ---"when I get older, losing my hair, many years from now..." Who knew it would get her so fast!

Another Birthday

Today is my 64th birthday. Where has the time gone? I have never been affected by my birthdays or age. It has never bothered me. But, I must say, as I get closer to 70---that seems really old. I remember when my grandmother turned 85, I asked her what it felt like to be 85. She said, "honey, I'm still that same 18 year old girl inside." I totally get that. I feel exactly the same. The only thing I can say about getting older is that I do not like the limitations. Like, ever since I broke my ankle, I have really forced myself to slow down. It makes me feel a little bit like an old lady, but I certainly do not want another fall. I'm not quite over the last one!

Enough of the doom and gloom. I'm already having a good birthday. My friends Mary Jo and Madelyn took me to lunch on Friday. And that's just the beginning!

Besides getting ready for the wedding, I have a lot of other things going on. Stephanie has asked me to decorate the girls rooms. She gave me a budget that I was pretty sure was impossible. But, I'm really good at decorating on a dime. I spent the week visiting all of my favorite places. Yesterday, we hauled my full car over to unload and do a few things. It won't be until this weekend that I'll have both rooms put together. I can't wait to share the photos. Until then....

It's been awhile since I've shared a few layouts.

 This is the last layout I did for AYM.---"It takes a heck of a lot of FOOD to feed this family"

 I created a little fold-out to accommodate my journaling and some hand written recipes by my mom.

"home alone" is a layout about where we've lived and how I've always enjoyed having the house to myself. I like being "home alone!"

"when there's a chill in the air, it's time for chili!" This layout is about how I love my crockpots. The envelope on the right, contains my secret chili recipe.

I have a busy week---but as always, it's almost all fun stuff!
Later....

Recipe Share

So I made the 7-Up Biscuits for New Years Eve. This time I used 7-Up rather than Sprite. I'm admitting it here---and apologizing to Butch for my little rant on Christmas---it didn't make a bit of difference. Although to me, Sprite and 7-Up have completely different tastes, for the purpose of biscuit making, it made no difference. These biscuits are easy and oh, so good!

7-Up Biscuits
2 cups Bisquick (I used the store brand baking mix)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-Up
1/4 cup melted butter

Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up. Makes a very soft dough. Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board and pat dough out. Melt 1/4 cup butter in 9" square pan. Place biscuits in pan an bake at 450 until golden brown.

What I did:
I doubled the recipe and melted a stick of butter in a 9x13 pan. I put some dry biscuit mix in the palm of my hand and scooped about a meatball size glob of dough. I just patted it in my hand and placed it in the pan. I set the timer to bake for 10 minutes. You'll just have to watch them since there was no time given in the recipe. Mine took longer than 10 minutes, but I don't know exactly how long.