My week in review!

Last Sunday evening we had the boys I used to watch and their parents, along with my parents, over for dinner.  Their Mom told them to put their arm around each other for the picture.  Some things never change!

On Tuesday, I played cards at my parents house.  They play every Tuesday evening.  Growing up, us kids had to stay away from the card table, therefore, we suck at card playing.  But they get desperate sometimes and use my sister or me for a sub.  Tuesday they needed both of us.  Top pic is my sister, Dad, Mom.  Bottom pictures is Uncle John and Vickie.  My Mom's side of the family has played cards forever.  We used to get together on weekends and all of us cousins would play together while our parents would play cards. I miss those days.Oh yeah, you see money on the table because they play for 50 cents a game!

I spent one day getting my beehives ready for winter.  I put entrance reducers on the openings and I'm feeding them some of the honey that didn't pass quality control!  I thought it was too dark and thick.  Apparently a drought can do that.  Not enough moisture in the flowers (nectar)..so I was told.  The reason you make the entrances smaller, as you can see from the pic below, the regular size of the entrance is big enough for a mouse, vole,  mole, chipmunk,  to get in and hide out and eat honey.  Raccoons can stick their arm in a hive and they will eat the honey and the bees. So we have to reduce the size of the entrance in the winter months, to help the bees survive.

I went to a Rotary meeting/luncheon.  These are people I worked with at Purdue.  The guy on the left was the director and the guy on the right was our speaker.  He is an ex-FBI agent.  Very interesting person.  It was so nice to be with these people again.  Us ladies still get together once a month for breakfast.

 My nephew (yes I have a nephew!) came over and helped me pack up the potting shed.  We worked hard all day long.  It was sad for me.  I love my potting shed.  We built it on concrete foundation with the intention of never moving.  I have to leave it behind.  It was kind of nice having his help.  He is so tall (6' 5") that I didn't need to get a ladder to take stuff off the walls!  I spent a lot of hours in that shed.

Dad came over one day and brought me a latte'.  We sat on the porch and enjoyed the view at our new place.

Friday night, as you know, I made slippers at a party at Groovy Girl Yarn.

Saturday, I didn't get any pics, but it was a fun day.  Went out for lunch with family and friends.  Apparently, tenderloins are a mid-western type of food and my cousin had family from the East coast visiting.  There are about three places in Kokomo that have really good tenderloins.  We went to one of them.  Then afterwards the ladies went downtown shopping while the guys went on back home.   After having such a busy week, I was glad to have a relaxing day.  Stay safe John & Elizabeth. That Frankenstorm looks pretty scary!

Cindy Bee

Bright Spots!

Lately, I've been to two farmers markets. I went to the one in our town to look for green beans and I came home with a scone, but no green beans.

On Saturday, I went to a Farmer's Market in another town, and I came home with a scone, and green beans. The scone is gone, the green beans are still in the fridge. {sigh}
I don't know if this is the reason I'm craving scones lately.

or if it's the scone recipe in the back of the book I want to try. But I borrowed this book from the library, and it was due back before I had a chance to try the recipe. So I e-mailed the author.....
who also wrote this book, btw....

and these....and more. (she also has another series out, which I haven't read yet - sorry Laura)

The first book is part of a series about Theodosia, who owns a tea shop, in Charleston, SC. There is always a murder...somewhere...and Theo solves it. Or helps Burt Tidwell (the local cop) solve it. Charleston is one of my favorite vacation spots, which is what got me interested in this series. And I love tea shops. Plus you get some great recipes in the back of the book.

The second book is part of a series about Carmella, who owns a scrapbook store, in New Orleans. She also solves murders. In the back of the books in this series you get scrap booking ideas.

So yesterday, I needed a bright spot, and here it is..... I got an e-mail from THE AUTHOR! Personally... from her! Totally unexpected. Here it is...

----- Original Message -----

Sent:Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:56:05 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:recipes
Is it possible to put the recipes in your books on your web site?

Cindy

********************
In a message dated 8/22/2011 5:43:34 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

writes:
Dear Cindy,
I'm in a writing crunch right now, but I will try to get a few up in a few months
All my best,
Laura Childs

**********************
----- Original Message -----

Sent:Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:01:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject:Re: recipes

OMG! Seriously, YOU...Laura Childs...in the flesh...answered my e-mail personally! AAACCKKK!!!! Can I put this on my blog?

Cindy
***********************
My dear Cindy,
I answer all my emails personally. Seriously. There's just me and my computer (and not a very good one at that!). No assistants, no burning sage, no personal masseuse. Although . . . I do have two lazy dogs who sleep at my feet most days.
I don't know how interesting this all is, but, yes, put it in your blog if you'd like.
All my very best,
Laura Childs

**************

Is this cool or what? And it couldn't have come at a better time. Try her books blogettes. Any author that gives you the time of day, or answers her e-mails personally....she deserves a read don't you think?

The other bright spot. That little 12 year old I spoke of yesterday...his Mom brought him over to see me, so I could give him an embarrassingly way too long hug. I couldn't let him go. Still can't. How do you do it blogettes? Let them go.... {sniff}

Cindy Bee

Faux' Mommy Blogger!

Now THIS is camping! Excuse the dirty stove. Life is getting out of hand busy, but fun. It's just that things like cleaning are not getting done.

On Thursday, I picked up 'the boys' and my niece was still here, so we all went to the Strawberry Festival downtown. We've gone for years.

You see, from the time these boys were babes, until last week, I watched them. I know their dentists, their orthodontists, their teachers, I helped potty train the youngest and teach him to talk. Oh the stories I could tell.

We do family things together. Our family spends some holidays with their family. Their Mom makes the best egg rolls in town! One year for Easter when they couldn't make it my brother said, "she could have at least sent her egg rolls!" The younger one golfs with my Dad, the older one loves to fish in our pond. And they've known this niece since she was a baby. She used to come over and ask, "Where's yours boys at?" when she was first learning to talk.

She used to think that these boys, were MY boys. As a matter of fact, a lot of people used to think they were my boys.

When my Shug and I would take them somewhere, we'd have complete strangers ask us if we adopted children from China!

And one time when I had some Granny Bees over for stitchery, one of them said, "Where are your boys?" I've been so used to hearing that, I just replied that they were in school. Then another one said, "I thought you had three girls, how many kids do you have?" I said, "None. I watch the boys and the girls are my nieces." You see blogettes, sometimes we don't get what we want in life, so we have to make it happen in other ways. It's not what we had in mind, but we can either adjust, or be miserable. It took me years to realize it. People that knew me knew I wanted a lot of children. My husband has two sons....somewhere in this world...that he never sees. I'd rather have none, than have to deal with that kind of pain. And this wasn't the story I sat down to type, but it's the one I'm telling. I'm very fortunate.

But blogettes....they are growing up. They didn't care to see Ronald! I wish you could have seen the look of disdain when I mentioned it! Who knew? They're still little kids to me!
And the only reason they were going to stand in line for the helium balloon was to make their voices squeak. So I said no. And then I heard them say something about taking them home and doing it...so I said NO.

And these two....huuu uhhh...ain't gonna trust them alone for one minute!

They can cook up all kinds of trouble. Can you just see the mischief in their faces?

Yeah...strawberry festivals, planning trouble, and camping-or not-can wear a person out. And being at home we have Dixie to protect us. I feel safer already!

Cindy Bee