What I Buy Wednesday

I didn't do any shopping while we were on our trip. I am such an impulse shopper--and I don't need anything, so I'm better off staying out of the stores. 

But, there's one thing I have to buy---my Starbucks mug! I've collected them from every state I visit (or country).

It was really easy this time as our first resort had a Starbucks in it!

And then there's what I didn't buy.

While we were gone, Mitchell and Emily had some house problems and needed a place to stay while they were dealing with repairs. Of course they could stay here. 

When we got home on Sunday, we found this basket full of goodies and very sweet notes from Mitchell AND Emily!

They gave us a couple pints of homemade spaghetti sauce, two types of pasta, a garlic spread mix and a bottle of Jameson that they brought back from Ireland. 

PS The spaghetti sauce is delicious!! Thanks you two!

Travel Tuesday

We were in Hawaii last week for our family vacation. To say we had a great time is a bit of an understatement. We did so much and had plenty of new experiences. There was a lot of hiking, sightseeing, the young boys surfed, lots of sun and pool time, kayaking and snorkeling. 

And the food--plenty of that and new things too. I had ramen for the first time amidst the locals. We stopped for shaved ice on the walk back--another first for me. It was so delicious. Okay, I have to share a couple pictures!

They were so huge--we shared. Steph and Nicky got the strawberry/banana.

I don't even remember what ours had. Nicky asked--on my behalf--since that's what I always do--"Which is the most popular?" Butch and I got that. I don't remember the flavor, but it was called "Seas the Day!" It was delish--we couldn't even finish it all. 

The Hyatt Resort in Maui was so beautiful--we were all upgraded to huge rooms overlooking the ocean. It's one of the nicest resorts we've ever been to. It didn't hurt that there were many exotic animals right in the hotel--penguins, huge koi and other fish, assorted parrots, feral cats and mute swans--even a black one. The grands and I did the nature walk which was so interesting and pretty. I do love a good tour (Pearl Harbor was our favorite).

All in all another memorable trip.

Here is a sampling of family pictures.

But then, as with just about all of our trips lately, the airline nearly ruined it. I think everyone's flights went smoothly--except ours! We already had a long day to look forward to: flying from Maui to LA to Atlanta and then to Nashville. All went smoothly up until the end. We were due to arrive home in Nashville at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday (after leaving Maui on Saturday at noon--left the resort at 9 a.m.). We thought we were in the clear when we took off on time from Atlanta. Instead, we get all the way to Nashville and are then informed that we couldn't land due to heavy fog. I did not understand that as I had a window seat and the ground was perfectly clear. Next, they made the announcement that we would have to go to Chattanooga to refuel. What?? Airplanes do not travel with a full tank of gas? Atlanta to Nashville is less than an hour. How could they be out of gas? I was not happy. 

We finally made it to the house around 12:30 p.m. I am seriously thinking that I am DONE with long flights. Well, except for the trips we already have planned for next year. Costa Rica isn't all that far--maybe closer than LA. I am going with my girlfriends on the Queen Mary 2--NYC to Southhampton, England (London). That's going to be 7 days traveling! But we'll be in luxury! Still, we will have the long flight home from there. 

We'll see how I feel in a year. As for now, I am done!

Monday Mystery

Somewhere in the middle of the summer, we noticed that we had a little frog in our pond. I have never actually seen it, but whenever I walk near the pond, you can hear it jump in the water. Butch has seen it once. I pictured a tiny little thing. He said it's about the size of half dollar. There's no way we can get a picture of the frog, but here's one of the pond.

The mystery is where the heck did the frog come from? And will it survive the winter? I guess we'll have to wait and see about that. 

On another note, we have several baby goldfish. Now it's no mystery as to how they got there. Reproduction is not a mystery to us!

More on Hummingbirds

After my last post about the birds in our yard, Mindy sent me this email:

hummingbirds. I told Justin that at some point I want a tiny tattoo of a hummingbird (not sure when or where I’d get it). In the meantime, here are some fun facts about hummingbirds:

I saw your post about the birds and that you and Dad like the hummingbirds! Justin and I love hummingbirds. I told Justin that at some point I want a tiny tattoo of a hummingbird (not sure when or where I’d get it). In the meantime, here are some fun facts about hummingbirds:

-they cannot walk- they can only perch or fly (their legs are too weak for walking)

-their tongues wrap around their eye sockets and brain (they have such long tongues to get nectar from flowers)

-a group of hummingbirds is called a “charm”

-they are the only type of bird that can fly backwards

-the smallest bird in the world is a species of hummingbird in Cuba that weighs less than a penny!

We learned these facts when we went on a tour in Costa Rica, but my favorite “hummingbird interaction” was when we were in Jamaica…

As the story goes, apparently an elderly woman living on a mountain spent years patiently waiting with tiny bottles of sugar water for the hummingbirds to come to her. Finally they did. Now it’s a hummingbird sanctuary and tourists (like us) can go there. I think it was $20 and they give you little “airplane bottles” that are filled with sugar water and the hummingbirds will perch on your finger to drink it! One of the coolest experiences ever! See pics/video attached.

Well, I cannot figure out how to add a video to my blog. The video is of Justin feeding the hummingbird--live! Oh well. 

Thanks, Mindy, for these fun facts and picture.

Me on Monday

I cannot remember the last time I wore out a pair of tennis shoes. Of course, considering I have quite a few pairs, it's taken a long time. 

On one of my recent walks, I walked through a puddle and immediately felt that my "footie" was wet. I was pretty surprised by that. When I got home and took off my shoes, I saw this:

OMGosh! When did this happen? I realize that I never look at the bottom of my shoes. I had no idea that I had worn part of the sole away! And that hole! This was a pretty substantial sole at one time. Now worn clear through.

So I went upstairs to get a pair I'd been wearing on the treadmill. After only one wear outside, this happened:

I wore a hole in the top of the shoe! I'm thinking that these were probably dry-rotted. 2 pairs gone in two days.

Never fear, I have at least 4 more pairs!! 

Something for Sunday

Earlier in the week, we got some good news! Big family news!

Mitchell and Emily are getting married!

Emily's family own a home in Ireland, so that's where they are. I was a little confused as to what was going on as we had just seen them along with Sandy and Greg the weekend before. Mitchell was telling us how he wasn't going to be able to go to Ireland this year because of school. So I didn't know where they were in this picture. Turns out, he surprised her (she went with her family). 

The ring is beautiful!

It belonged to Emily's grandmother. I just love the vintage look of it. 

This picture added to my confusion. 

This is Lainey, Mitchell and Emily's dog. But it is clearly, Sandy's house. So, I thought they were down in Georgia and Mitchell had proposed to her there. When I found out they were in Ireland, I realized that Mitchell had taken the dog to Sandy. But then I wondered how Sandy got this scarf so fast. Considering Mitchell and Emily have been together for a few years now, Sandy could have bought this at any time. 

We are all excited for another chapter of our family. I don't have any wedding details yet, but will keep you posted. 

In the meantime, I hope they have a great time in Ireland. And Emily, you are now officially part of the family!! 

Scrapbook Saturday

As you are reading this (as of 3:30 a.m.) we are on our way to Hawaii for our family vacation. I may or may not have time to do any blog posts from there, so I have prepared a few in advance. 

I thought I would share a few things I've been up to lately.

About 6 weeks ago, I had my friends over for a sleepover. When I did a search to find my post about that, I came across this one from 2014! It's kinda' cute if I do say so myself! 

Here is the most recent one in case you missed it!

Anyway, I have started planning for our upcoming scrapbook retreat. I cut a few titles for the layout I'm going to do about our sleepover. Now that I look at this, I'm thinking I might prefer to use the "old-fashioned" term of "pajama party." I'm going to see what I can find for that.

Not sure yet which of these I might use.

A few years ago, I got rid of my entire Quickutz die cut system. I gave it to my good friend, Susan. She's part of our AYM group. This year, out them is "Memories by the Month." She reminded me of this die. 

She even went further and cut them for me. These are for the title page otherwise our album. You'll have to wait to see what I did with them after our scrapbook retreat. We're going to do the pages then.

I have started on Jordan and Robbie's wedding album. They are getting married in January. 

This is just a little "sneak peak" of an embellishment that I made. I can't wait to share the whole album. It'll be awhile!

It's been a busy month. This is the only actual page that I did.

This was our close friend who recently died. It's still hard to believe that he's gone.

Okay, that's it for this week.

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

Let's talk books!

The library didn't look like this when we lived in Kansas City. Now I want to go back to see it! I tried to see if I have read any of them, but can't make out all of them. Of the ones I can see, I haven't read.

I've seen this decorating trend more and more--either cover your books with neutral colored cloth like muslin or linen. Or, turn your books backwards. Although I think it's pretty nice to look at, to me it just means that these people don't actually read their books. That makes me sad. On the other hand, I think it might be cool to turn them backwards when you read a book. That would be an incentive to read more. The only problem, you would never be able to find books easily.

Isn't this the cutest book nook? The only thing missing is a throw. Oh, and a cup of tea on the table!

This is the most darling bookmobile I've ever seen. I didn't know that bookmobiles still existed. When I was growing up, the book mobile came to St. Aloysius once a month. That was the most fun, to climb in and pick out your books!

More linen covered books. I like the dark green bookcase, but not that huge, ugly couch and coffee table. 

What I Buy Wednesday

When I'm out walking, I listen to podcasts. One of them is all about scrapbooking. This week, I learned about a new discount store that I had never heard of before. So, I asked my friend, Nancy to go with me. 

Turns out, they mostly had paper. Okay, well, why not? The prices were crazy cheap! 

The pads were $1.99 each!  These 7 pads represent 418 sheets of paper--some with gold foil, some with stickers and die cuts. Paper costs anywhere from 59 cents to $1.99 per sheet! Or even the cost of paper pads are $20, but you can sometimes get them for half price. Even at that price, we're talking $70.00. So you can see that this was quite a bargain for $14.00!!! 

I also picked up some Nutrogena make-up remover wipes. They were also quite a bargain! Kroger sells them for $6.49 per package. The drugstores sell them for $6.99, Walmart has them for $5.67. I've been getting them from Amazon for $5.00 per package. These were $3.99!!! Wow! That's quite a savings! 

And then there's the Irish Spring soap. I got 3 bars for $2.99. This was actually the same price as Walmart but I could have gotten 12 bars for $8.99 at Kroger. Just goes to show that you have to shop around. Which, I am not going to do. So, I'm perfectly happy with a bar of soap for a buck!!

My total for the day was $40.25. Did I need all of this stuff? Well, as my friend Nancy E. says, "Need has nothing to do with it!"

I still enjoy getting a bargain! 

Now you might want to know what store this is. It's called Ollies. I had never heard of it before the podcast. When I told Butch, he knew all about it--as he'd seen a commercial. This store is right up his alley. They have tons of stuff--but we didn't really look at everything. 

As for me, it's not really the kind of store I like. It was not organized well. There is just random stuff all mixed together. 

Still we had fun and then went to Cinco de Mayo for lunch. Afterwards, Nancy said she wanted to go to Shelbyville, TN which is 60 miles away to buy some sort of special donuts that are only sold at some festival that is happening right now. I debated on going with her because she is my friend that will do anything I want to do! I want to return that sentiment, but I told her I would do anything she wants to do--as long as it's in the morning!! 

I can't help it. I get up by 4 a.m. I start winding down in the afternoon!!

Let me know if you've found any good bargains recently.

PS There are 3 Ollies in the St. Louis area with one being in St. Peters. Jeanne and Janet, you'll need to report back to me if they have any better scrapbook supplies than we have. I just might have to go when I'm there in September. 

Tuesday Thoughts About...

...BIRDS! 

I know, I've done several other posts about birds over the years. We really like birds--and we've had quite a lot of them in our yard. 

Mindy and Justin gave Butch a "Bird Buddy" for Father's Day last year. 

It took a year before we finally got it hooked up. It has a camera, so you can watch the birds close-up anytime you want. And, you get an alert whenever a bird visits the feeder. I was so excited to see the variety of birds we have--especially that cedar waxwing that flew into the sunroom window and expired. I was looking forward to see it up close. It didn't quite work out that way.

We have just a few regulars at the feeder. We have tufted titmouse (lots of these), Northern cardinals (so ugly up close), and one chickadee. The "birds" we have the most are squirrels!!! OMGosh! So annoying. And we're bored with the tufted titmouse.

About the same time we had the "Bird Buddy" up and running, my sister, Jeanne told me about an app that our other sister, Joyce told her about. I got all excited until I actually downloaded the app. It works by "hearing" the birds in your yard and showing you what they are--sort of like my flower identifier app or font identifier app--except it works by sound. Well, that doesn't work for us. Whenever we are outside, we are playing music though our sound system. That means, the app cannot pickup the bird calls. 

Well, at least we still have our very entertaining hummingbirds!

Me on Monday

In June 2025, Justin told me about one of his events that sounded like so much fun. Once a month, he is hosting a “Boozy Bingo” at the Nashville City Club. I got a group of us together: Pam, Nancy, Madelyn and me. It didn’t cost anything except your food and drink. It starts out with regular bingo and then moves in to “musical trivia” bingo—three different genres. The music portion is so much fun as everyone sings along—sometimes pre-empting Justin to let us finish! Mindy works as his “helper” which is a bonus for me.It was so much fun that we knew we wanted to do it again. It helped that Justin “comped” the parking! 

In July, there were going to be 8 of us: me, Stephanie, Madelyn, Pam, Nancy, Karolyn, Connie and Amanda. We planned for Butch and Nicky to drive us down so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking AND we could have some cocktails. Well, Butch derailed our plans with his TGA (Transient Global Amnesia). Instead, Stephanie and I spent the evening in the Emergency room. Although Butch and I had to spend the night in the hospital, Karolyn and Pam stopped by to check in. They told us how much fun “Boozy Bingo” was—again (Karolyn’s first time)! It looks like this could become a regular thing!!

Well, Stephanie and I finally made it in August. We went with the plan we had for July—Butch and Nicky dropping us off. This time, it was Stephanie, Jenni, Nancy, Kathleen, me, Karolyn, Pam, Kim and Diane! We had the BEST time!! Justin gave us the back room where we could be as loud as we wanted and get crazy if we needed to! Also in this room were 3 or 4 “cubbies” where people could have a little more privacy. I had no idea that those were in use. Actually, I did see one couple come in and invited them to play, but they didn’t want to—they weren’t staying long. Later, two couples were leaving when the two gals turned around and came back—or maybe it was just one couple—I was seeing double by then! They said we had “made their night!” 

Just goes to show that having fun is infectious!! Oh, and there were 3 winners amongst the 9 of us: Kim, Jenni and ME! And “no” it was “not” rigged because of my favorite son-in-law!

Kim was a winner!

From left--clockwise: Karolyn, Kathleen, Nancy, Diane, me, Pam, Kim, Stephanie and Jenni.

Jenni and I were winners too!

Something for Sunday

Okay, it's been awhile since I've reported on Taylor Swift. My girls are not fans. In fact, Steph has sort of forbidden me to talk about her. So they can just stop reading right now!

When I found out about the big announcement that was going to be on the New Heights podcast--Jason and Travis Kelcey's show--I just had to listen! Honestly, it gave me entertainment for 3 of my morning walks--it was 2 hours long and so much fun!

Of course, the big announcement was the fact that Taylor is releasing a new album on October 3rd. The girl is just unbelievable! She wrote the music while on the Eras tour! What? Yes, as if she wasn't exhausted enough. She did work with a writing partner, but still, it was a lot of work. 

And then this summer, her dad had quadruple by-pass surgery. She spent the whole summer with her family! Kudos to her for putting her family first!

I just had to know what her appearance on the New Heights podcast did for the show. Here are a few facts:

1. Jason and Travis were never going to ask her. 

2. She asked to be on the show to make the big announcement.

3. The podcast broke all YouTube records with 1.3M listeners on the first day it came out.

4. Another record of 18.5M listeners over the next few days.

5. The podcast has the highest number for the entire year so far.

6. New Heights got 400,000 new subscribers--another record. That doesn't even count people like me who listened, but didn't subscribe!

7. This podcast increased female viewership (listenership?) of New Heights by 600%!!!

8. The podcast surpassed 3M followers on Instagram!

A few more facts about the Taylor Swift machine:

1. The Eras tour grossed 2B$--the highest grossing concert of all time by double!

2. The film made 261.6M$--highest revenue of all time for a concert film--surpassing the previous record holder--Michael Jackson.

3. More big news: Taylor was able to buy back her original masters for 360M$.

4. The new album coming out October 3rd will cost $29.99 for vinyl, $19.99 for the cassette and $12.99 for the CD.

5. Pre-sale for the special edition sparkly albums are already sold out!

The girl is magic. Everything she touches turns to gold. I know there are many people waiting to see her fall. I just hope she remains sweet and humble for years to come! I am definitely still a fan!!

PS And just because I wanted to know the status of Taylor Swift's friendship with Blake Lively, I found out this:

Yes, Taylor Swift and Blake Lively are still in communication and are working to mend their friendship after a period of strain caused by Swift being drawn into Lively's legal dispute with director Justin Baldoni in late 2024 and early 2025. While their friendship is not currently the same as it was before the lawsuit, they are reportedly "on good terms" and have taken steps to recover from the incident. 

Scrapbook Saturday

Here are the AYM layouts for the month of July:

Nancy's layout. She's doing a re-cap of the month which includes many pictures of the different activities.

She made a fold-out on the right side page to include more pictures.

Pam's layout. Pam did her layout on their family vacation.

She had a fold out on both sides.

Karolyn is a bit behind. This is her April layout. She does a through the years approach: Easter, Confirmation and First Communions.

Karolyn's May layout is all about graduations.

Susan's June layout. She focused on her garden.

Susan't July layout is all about their family vacations to Hilton Head through the years.

Here's mine. I do a search by month and see what pops up. For me, it was many pictures about my hives. I started getting them in 1999, but these pictures do not go back that far.

Join Us!

Join us in celebrating our 54th anniversary today! 

From this:

August 21, 1971 (19 & 20 years old)

Our 25th anniversary--1996

2021--50 years!

2025--54th anniversary. (73 & 74)

And the ride continues!!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

It's That Time of Year!

Back to school time!!!

I cannot believe that "the littles" are all grown up!!

Josie is in 4th grade this year and Evie is in 8th. She seems too young to be in 8th grade! She's taller than me for sure, but she'll always be that little girl to me. 

And then there's the boys! Travis is also in 8th grade this year. Even though he bleached his hair this summer, he still seems "little" to me. Nathan is in 5th--can you tell how happy he is about that?

They all will remain "the Littles" to me!

I hope the have a great school year!