Transformations

Life would be a whole lot simpler if everything I posted on Instagram and Facebook would automatically post to my blog. Then it would look like I'm actually keeping up!  Sounds like something one of the tech geeks needs to figure out.

Sooooo, the last time I posted (about a month ago) I was all puffed up with pride over my attempts at gardening. Unfortunately things are already beginning to go south. Look at the transformation of the hanging basket on the left. So sad.

And the climbing vine ... well, it's beginning to climb but the flowers all fell off and I currently only see one bloom.  Whether or not it opens remains to be seed.

I did add this flower and it seems to be holding its color well :) 
It would really help if it would just STOP RAINING! For once I don't have to worry if the plants will get enough water. Now I'm worried they're getting TOO much and not enough sunlight.

Sigh. I just can't win.

Photos for Mother

I'm experiencing excruciating pain and frustration trying to show my mother some photos. Between her problems navigating Facebook, my iphone's sudden inability to email photos right-side up, and fighting with Windows 8 (which I hate with every fiber of my being), I am resorting to posting the photos on my blog in hopes that she will finally be able to see them.  For those of you who've already seen them on FB, sorry!!

Here ya go Mom!

Just in case you're wondering why I'm all giddy about these photos, I am NOT a plant person. My thumb is much closer to brown than green so it's a miracle in itself that I am attempting to grow something this year. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that everything survives. 

And while I'm at it, I'll just go ahead and let it be known that the one thing that would secure success for my garden would be a great big ol' Beyonce chicken. Gosh I'd give just about anything for one of those crazy things. If anyone sees one give me a shout out, ok?

Graduation!

For the third year in a row we traveled to Knoxville Tennessee on the first weekend of May. The event? Graduation! 

This was the year for our youngest son to graduate from Johnson University and oh what a graduation it was. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and was inducted into Delta Epsilon Chi Honor Society.  

Graduation celebrations actually started the week before when the Junior/Senior Banquet was held and Senior Superlatives were awarded. Andrew came home with a few: Most Huggable, Best to take home to Mom and Dad, and the second part of Should Have Been a Couple. Here's a photo of him and some of his fellow awardees  (Andew is second on the left)

Upon arriving on campus Friday afternoon we attended the annual tea at the White House that was hosted by Dr Weedman and his wife. Dale took a panoramic photo of the table spread (first time using this feature on his phone) 

Here's our graduate cooling off with a little punch  
I was NOT dressed for the day. when we left home it was raining and COLD. Up in Tennessee it was still sunny and hot!

Dale wasn't dressed for it either ... and I stink at taking photos, they're squinting because they're facing the sun. 
Andrew and his friend Jacob. "seriously Mom, go away!"

Dale took some outside shots - they look a lot like they did the previous year!
     

On to Graduation Night. This year the event was held at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. Gathering outside, getting a little anxious to get the show on the road.
 
in the front here is Ben, Andrew's roommate for the last three years.


Last year when we met Ben's parents his mom told me that Andrew was the brother Ben never had. Awww, sweet!

We were lucky to get there early enough to get seats fairly close to the front. Ian had to work but made it just before they started. Of course we had to find our boy's name on the roster 

Andrew's boss, mentor, and friend, Dr Cook got a photo of him crossing the stage to receive his diploma


Dr Weedman presents his diploma 

Now let the fun begin. Celebrating with friends

After graduation roomies! Andrew, Cody, Ben, Austin, and Tyler

Big group shot 

Gretchen, Andrew and Maria

The Brainiacs - Sam, Austin, and Andrew. They have so much to be proud of!

Andrew and Alex

Devon and Andrew

Dr  Steve Cook and Andrew

and family, the proud parents and big brother.  

 Mom is so proud of both her sons, she can't stop talking about it ... even to get her picture taken.

Dad and Ian remember this time last year ....

It took forever to leave. It's hard when suddenly you realize that all these people you just spent the last four years living, learning, and growing with are suddenly moving on to the next step. But, for Andrew it won't be quite as hard. His plans for after graduation include moving into an apartment with four of his friends (see photo near the top) and he has procured a job working in the Registrars Office at the University.  He's so excited and I'm excited for him even through my sadness knowing my nest really is officially EMPTY.

As our sons are moving on to new phases in their lives, Dale and I are finding ourselves doing so also. None of us is sure of what the future holds but we are certain of one thing - no matter how much distance separates us - we will always be bound by the love, admiration, and devotion we hold for each other. Family ... it's what life is all about.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to modern technology - Skype, Facetime, and text messaging - we're all just a click away! Woohoo!!

In case you were wondering. Probably not, but just in case ....

So, it's pretty obvious I've fallen off the blogging wagon. I've tried several times to "get back on the bicycle" and ride again but to no avail. To be perfectly honest I've got so much going on physically, mentally, and emotionally, that I just haven't felt the call to share my life with the blogging world.

No wait, I take that back. I have thought about sharing it, I'm just not sure the world is ready to hear what I have to say.

But, today

I am contemplating giving it one more try. If I do, it will have an entirely different "ring" to it though. Sooo, if it comes to fruition I might just have to start a whole new blog site. I've already come up with a new name just in case ... it will be titled: SAIDFRAZ - Mid-life Crisis - Are We There Yet?

What do you think? Should I go for it? Or, should I crawl back under my rock and slip away into oblivion?

While you ponder that I will give you a couple of quick updates.

1. For the first time in my life (at least that I can remember) I do not have a cat living in my home. On April 13th my beloved Spunky was attacked in our backyard. It was right in front of my husband and happened in a flash. Her injuries were such that we had to make the difficult decision to have her put to sleep. I love cats but I'm here to say if I ever, EVER get the chance I will capture that stupid %^&# ninja cat and take him to be put down. He doesn't deserve to go humanely but if I told you I would kill him myself you'd hate me. 
2. My youngest son graduates from college this week. He's graduating with honors and we are so proud of him. 
3. Same son has made the decision to stay in Knoxville after graduation and will be working for the university. They sorta created a position just for him. He's that good!
4. Oldest son, still living in Knoxville will be moving into a house with new roommates. In anticipation of his move he's already acquired a cat - my first grandchild! Unfortunately his move has been postponed a couple of months and he cannot keep the cat with him at his current apartment. So, mom and dad to the rescue. Lyra will be coming home with us this weekend. Oldest son better hope Mom doesn't get too attached to his little girl, otherwise he'll be in the market for a new one. 
5. Two sons, both living in Tennessee. Two parents, living in an empty nest in Georgia. What can I say? Maybe it's time to think about relocation??

Oh yeah, the catkins are back and once again my dear, darling, light-of-my-life husband keeps tracking them into the house.  

Pray for me that this season passes before I go postal!

According to Eddie these trees at school


smell like

goose poop,

dead fish, 

and 

rotten food!

For once I'm glad that my allergies have my nose all stopped up. What I want to know is, how can something so beautiful smell so bad?

Happy Spring!

Spring break and we're all under one roof

Scenario: Andrew is home for spring break and Ian blew in Tuesday night for a surprise three day visit. Mom and Dad are in hog heaven, it's beyond wonderful to have both our sons home at the same time.

Ian came bearing gifts - he never forgets his mom's once a year craving

Peeps! It wouldn't be Easter without them. 

While we're all having a great time being together - talking, laughing, guys watching basketball, eating and let's not forget basket upon basket of dirty laundry - yesterday was an exercise in ... something. I can't come up with a good word for it so I will just tell the story. I actually wrote this last night so if the "time frame" seems a bit off that's why. 

Since Ian has to go back to Tennessee tomorrow I was determined to fix him a “good” home cooked meal. He cooked for us the night before so I figured it was only right for me to return the favor. There was an issue though - what should I fix? Most of our usual standby favorites had already been eaten earlier in the week and the only thing left was Italian. Spaghetti was out since Andrew and Dale aren't real fans of it and I didn't want pizza. What was left? How about lasagna? Hmm, well why not, especially since I make a pretty good lasagna (oops, excuse the boasting).

I must tell you, I have a hard time calling it lasagna because my grandmother, God rest her soul, always referred to it as BASAGNA!

So, basagna it is! I didn't have any of the ingredients on hand and would have to stop at Kroger on the way home from picking up Eddie. I usually avoid taking him grocery shopping with me because ... well he totally distracts me (and for the record it's not just him that I don't like taking grocery shopping, husband and sons drive me crazy at the grocery store too,) and he comments on every single item that I buy. Shopping with Eddie makes me feel like I'm being scrutinized and judged for my food choices. I'm not sure why I let an eleven year old make me feel guilty for buying Cheetos and wine, I guess I might have issues. Annnyway, sometimes I just have to grit my teeth and do what needs to be done. This was one of those times.

I'll go ahead and admit that I had a goal in mind for this meal. A) it had to wow my guys and convince them  that mommy really can cook and B) I needed to at least match, if not surpass, my own son's gourmet cooking skills. (He cooked for us the night before and it was delicious. I'll admit he didn't get his cooking skills from me, it's from watching all those cooking shows over the years. Is it sad that I was making it into a competition with my own kid? Wow, maybe I really do have ISSUES!)  Anyway, regular old lasagna wasn't going to win it for me, I needed to ramp it up a notch to get the desired results. So, I picked up several little extras to give my meal a little oomph. Extras such as adding Italian sausage to the ground beef, saute'd mushrooms as a topping, a whole loaf of hot, buttery garlic bread instead of our usual Texas toast, and the icing on the cake … err, that would be pie. Yes! I was serving dessert. Key lime pie. Yum!

Lasagna is not a meal that can be prepared in twenty minutes, it takes a lot of time so we rushed home from Kroger so could I began fixing dinner right away. It's not like there's only a small window of time that we're allowed to eat in but Andrew is used to eating in the cafeteria at school around 5pm. It's always hard for him to come home and have to wait for mom and dad's 6:30 to 7 dinner hour, so when he and his brother are home I try to have dinner ready earlier than usual. So far this week I've failed miserable at this but I figured tonight, if I could stay focused and stick to my plan, I'd actually might be able to pull it off.

Well, you know what they say about what we want and what actually happens. Midway through the meal prep things started going south ...

First the phone rings and it's my mother. I almost didn't take the call because she rarely calls me unless she's having troubles with her computer. I'm the go to guy for computer and tv problems which really aren't earth shattering problems and I figured the call could wait til after dinner. But something told me I better answer anyway. Good call. It was worse than a computer problem, she's lost her purse. She was trying not to panic but I could hear it in her voice, she was close to the edge.

I tried to calm her down, asked questions and encouraged her to keep looking, all while I'm finishing up browning meat and mixing the sauce. I'm getting close to the point where I need two hands to start assembling the dish. I'm trying to figure out how to get off the phone without upsetting her more when I look up and see the cat dipping her paw into the can where I just poured the grease from the frying pan. Second later Eddie comes in and wants to heat up his food in the microwave. No! You CANNOT put a metal thermos in the microwave and no, I don't have time to explain why. Yikes! Everybody STOP and let me cook. Please! I finally disconnected from the phone call, got the kid fed and shooed the cat away. Hopefully this will be the last of the distractions. If not, all bets are off that we'll manage to eat before nine o'clock.

Fortunately everything else came together just fine and despite the hectic-ness (that is so not a word but I'm using it anyway) dinner turned out great. We all stuffed ourselves and still had enough left over for another meal. But now, I have a stomach ache. I'm not sure if it's from the rich and spicy food. Or, it might be from overeating, or maybe the stress of trying to pull it all together. It's probably a combination of all of the above. I hate when I put so much unnecessary stress on myself by trying to make things perfect.

These days our family times together are few and far between. I need to learn to relax and make the most of what time we do have. I need to remember what's most important is not so much what we eat or what we do but simply being together.

I'm glad to report that my mother found her missing purse (and for the record it wasn't lost it was just misplaced), the cat did not throw up from eating grease, I've got a four day weekend coming up, AND tomorrow my husband and I celebrate 26 years of marriage. Yay for us!

Darn it all, I didn't take one photo of my perfect meal. Boo! But, here's what Ian served us the night before. Doesn't it look good?

After graduation Andrew can join us with a glass of wine, 35 days and counting.
Actually, after graduating two sons I think Dale and I deserve a bottle of champagne!

This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home

Time for a confession ... I just ate the most unhealthiest of lunches. And it was soooo good!

My usual lunch fare is a turkey or roast beef sandwich on toasted, swiss-cheese-topped hoagie bread. Sounds yummy, huh? Well, it is. It's also full of calories.

Lately it's been impossible to hide that fact that my mid-section has become quite

... how shall I put it?

Fluffy?

Oh, who am I kidding - I'm fat! But, living this life of fluffy-fattness isn't making me very happy so I've decided to make a few changes, starting with my lunch fare. I purposely didn't buy any deli meat at the grocery store this weekend. Also gone is the white hoagie bread buns.

So, what does one turn to for lunch options when the mainstay has been eliminated? Well, how about leftovers from the previous night's dinner? That's great when you're eating leftover veggies and such but dinners at my house aren't always on the right side of healthy. Sometimes I go for easy, yummy, and I-don't-care-how-many-calories-I'm-eating dinners. Last night was one of those nights. We had Brinner (that's breakfast served as dinner for the uninitiated) which consisted of waffles (sugar free syrup for the hubs, of course), scrambled eggs, bacon, and grits.

Fortunately or not, depending on what you think about day-old rubbery eggs and hockey-puck-hard grits, the only leftover was bacon. 

Whenever I cook bacon I always fix way more than we can eat at one sitting. I then refrigerate it for later use in salads, as a topping on a casserole, seasoning in green beans, etc. Today however, I decided to toss tradition to the wind and reheated the bacon for my lunch. Thirty seconds in the microwave and it was as good as the night before. Apparently the cat agreed because as soon as I pulled it from the microwave she was stuck to my side like glue. (And yes, I shared my bacon with the little princess.)

So, let me tell you ... that bacon was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! It was so good that the original four pieces I reheated morphed into seven. Nom, nom, nom, yummy-in-my-tummy good. I'm pretty sure though, that I will pay for my indulgence later in the day. All that grease two days in a row can't be good for me and I'm pretty sure I didn't save any calories by switching out bacon for bread.

To top it all off,  my house now reeks of the smell of the bacon for the second day in a row.

Oh well, it was a good idea at the time and so worth whatever price I may pay later. BUT, I think the next time I have a craving for Brinner I'll suggest we head over to iHop and eliminate the temptation of leftovers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

as a side note, have you noticed lately how BACON is the THE food of choice these days? Everybody's cooking with bacon. My condolences to the piggies of the world. 

One small step

I did it!



I finally painted the kitchen cabinets. The task of taking them from red to white proved to be a lot harder than I anticipated. I was challenged by several things - first, and not entirely unexpected, was the amount of paint it called for. Second, I just don't have the stamina I once had and was forced to spread the work out over a week and a half. And third, mentally I wasn't aware of just how attached I was to my red cabinets and wasn't prepared for how much I would miss them.

I had almost a full gallon of Behr Paint with Primer on hand. The fact that I wasn't going to have to spring for paint (have you priced a gallon of paint lately? Yowsa!) was the deciding factor that tipped the scale in favor of tackling this project. This was going to be a cheap and easy project. Yeah, right.

I took advantage of a Monday with no Eddie to start painting and began in the breakfast area of the kitchen. I figured it was easier to start there where I could knock it out fairly quickly, painting the wainscoting before moving on to the actual cabinets. I wasn't naive enough to think one coat of paint would cover the red, but was really thinking two would do the trick. I was quickly disappointed when the first coat wasn't covering well at all. Imagine my delight (and dismay) when I discovered I was painting with ceiling paint and not wall/trim paint. Doh! It pays to pay attention to what you're doing.

there's wainscoting behind the bench, promise!

 After switching to the right paint I quickly took care of the wainscoting and moved on to the cabinets where I removed all the doors. By this point I was already tired but forced myself to press on. I had to take advantage of my kid-free/husband-free work day. I successfully applied two coats on the outer shells of all the cabinets before calling it quits.

The following day Eddie walked in after school and pointed out the obvious, "hey, you're painting!" He went on to voice his approval and added, "it looks good without the doors, you can see where everything is." I had to chuckle at his diplomatic approach. I think all those lessons his mother has been pounding into his head about making only positive comments is finally sinking in. Either that or he's trying to save me work. The funny thing is, just the night before I had commented to my husband how I would like to try the open cabinet look. But, coming from an eleven year old it suddenly sounded weird not to mention a timely Facebook post by a friend discouraged me further. She claimed it was impossible to keep the dishes clean when they're out in the open like that and we all know how I abhor extra cleaning. What sealed the deal was the look my husband gave me when I initially suggested it. Fine people, rain on my parade!

one of two painting assembly lines. Please excuse the surrounding mess, I *am* painting you know

I didn't attempt any more painting until the weekend. Before putting paint on the doors I had to remove all the hinges and handles. After the painting was complete all that hardware had to be reattached and the doors rehung. I have 19 doors, 5 drawers, and 4 hooks which, when it's all said and done, amounts to removing and reattaching 492 screws (508 if you count the two doors that were put back upside down and had to be fixed).

BEFORE

AFTER

Did I mention that when I started this project I promised my dear husband that I would try to keep the chaos to a minimum and I would do all the work myself? Yes, me and my handy little screwdriver worked ourselves silly. As luck would have it dear husband finally took pity on me and took over, with his handy electric drill, and rehung the last nine doors lickty-split. But by then the damage was done. My fingers, wrist, and elbow felt like they'd been through a meat grinder, and it wasn't just my right arm but both since I'm apparently ambidextrous when it comes to using tools.

Note to self for future home improvement projects - always, ALWAYS check first to see if there is a power tool that can be used to get the job done. And never, NEVER tell your husband you can do the job yourself. ... he might just take you at your word! And speaking of projects ... I failed to mention that I did not have the resources to make a few of the changes I desperately wanted to make. Specifically speaking, I want to change out the hardware! Yes, you read that right. I really, really, REALLY hate the brass hinges and white porcelain and brass handles on my cabinets and one day, as God as my witness, I will change them! Ok, sorry, I got a little over dramatic there but you can bet, next time around, I will use the drill.

Anywho, the painting is done and my kitchen is pretty much back in order. Switching from the red to the white has really brightened things up. I look at it and am pleased with the change but I'm also reminded why I painted them red to begin with ... every tiny imperfection and each and every speck of dirt glaringly stands out. The crisp white of the cabinets also makes the appliances and floor look dingy and worn. We won't even talk about ugly white laminate countertop that screams, "put me out of my misery!"

Sigh.

For now, I'm just going to focus on how bright the kitchen looks and be thankful for tiny improvements. I think my dear husband is pretty happy about it too because he knows I will work hard to keep everything looking clean and fresh (for awhile anyway).

Why ... I might even ramp it up a notch and

mop the floor! How's that for improvement?!