Wanted: Young Blood

Faster than a speeding bullet, or an Illinois plated car on vacation is the Bentley Girls. Now I realize that I may push my luck with this blog as sometimes when folks realize that talents may have been exploited they decide "well I'm not doing that anymore", I will take my chances. It's true, in a blink of an eye or perhaps just more glass of wine, these two women can clean up a kitchen so fast that you would think you were in a life fast forwarded. They are defiantly old school, taught by their moms that you always pick up after a meal, and MO ONE does it better.
When I was a kid the task was taught early, my cousins and I were in our early teens and while the Aunties and Grandma enjoyed an extra cup of coffee the younger chicks cleaned. It's happening to me instead of a cup of coffee it may be another cocktail, but what about these girls? Who will replace them in the clean up area? Danny is good at it, but he has "things to do". The kiddie in the pic, well lets say he's opting for a management position. Like the art of tatting, the cleanup girls are going away, paper plates anyone?????????

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful.......

I know the quality of this picture is, well, less than award winning I am sure you can get the idea. The handrail is not wearing jewelry, that's ice. In Shelbyville we get lots and lots of ice. Last Tuesday I had to scrape1/4 inch off the windshield 4 times in one day, good gosh why oh why can't we just get snow. Today we are to get yet another " weather maker" ( that's what the local weather guys call it). We are to have one of the bigger days in flower delivery land and oh yeah it's gonna be slippery. I missed my walk this morning as my walking partner called and said it was colder today than yesterday, I believed her and hit the snooze button a few times only to check for myself and find out that it is 18 degrees warmer today. LESSON check yourself, because the fact is that some folks just aren't as hardy as we Nortlanders are. Now my dogs are bummed as they will miss another morning. Tonight however I will take them to the "secret garden" for a run. That is after I finish my last bit of shopping, after I work, and did I tell you I have yet another dental appointment. Falalalalalala. There is one good thing about holiday dental trips - my mouth is too sore to nosh on holiday treats. Oh yeah it is a good life.
Yesterday was Dennis and my 15th wedding anniversary, yes we are still together in wedded bliss, we think we'll make it to a 25th (that's for the party). We spent it as we always do, apart.
Dennis, in his truck somewhere west and me at home. My walking buddy asked me did you get anything for a gift, I replied, I don't need any gifts, Dennis shows me he loves me every tine he gets into that big truck and pulls out. It's funny how our wants and needs change as we mature.
What we thought of as necessary no longer is and appreciation for the unseen is seen. Wouldn't it be nice to have that insight in your twenties. Till tomorrow, Teri

Flat on his Face, But still Glows

Frosty seen here pretty much sums up the Holiday season for me. He tipped over in one of our big wind storms on sunday night then got froze in buy rain. The ghost of Christmas past visits me every year. I Love Christmas, everything about it, the music, lights, and the presents. My Family up north Bid Dan's family was huge. My Mom in Law, BIL Butch and my sis Laura own a busy flower shop in Hayward ( Just like us, but bigger). Every year I would prepare for the holidays doing everything from shopping, decorating, baking, wrapping gifts with extra blig (move over Martha). The shop family called me Teri Christmas. Bonnie (MOM in Law) would always be tired and it seemed hard to get her excited about the holidays. Could not figure out why she couldn't get as excited. On Christmas day she would rather stay home for dinner, she was too tired even tho she still in my opinion makes the best turkey in the world. Good segue to Christmas present.
I GET IT, and I am sorry I was such a pain in the hiney. I am tired, always behind, and have given up many of the things I thought of as Christmas essentials. The tree took a week to get up, but it is. I have bought a few gifts but gift cards are looking good and I haven't baked since Janet Musser went into business. I haven't resorted to giving gifts in bags tho. That practice still drives me nuts. But after all It's A Wonderful Life.......and I'm still glowing.

Chopping Liver and Making Pate'

The lady in red is my sister LeAnn. I am lucky that she too makes the trek south from Madison every Thanksgiving too. During yesterday's blog entry I flat ran out of time to post this picture, and alas I made her feel kinda bad. I am sorry. My pictures are in several different files and it takes me a while to find them and THEN I forget where they were. LeAnn aka Sissy or Sistor lives in Madison WI. She moved there after my beloved Bro in Law died over 10 years ago. Since she has been on her own she has conquered many things that the "Man" of the house usually handles one of her best talents is " Mistress of the Snowblower". Last year Madison had a record snow fall and she totally rocked in snow removal. My ma worked all the time when I was a pup and it was Sissy's job to take care of my Bro Kevin and I. She went from that to raising her own family and now is doing things for herself. Recently saw Neil Diamond in concert. Neil Diamond is kind of a Hotty, anyway I thought so when I was younger. He was the kind of guy that made you feel odd, later when I grew up I realized the odd feeling was turned on. Probably how Elvis made way older girls feel, and now well I'm not sure of a young singer that is that, that HOT. Sissy embraces her new life as noted in her virtual name miturn. SHe does a bit of traveling, works for an orthodontist and drives a caddy. In her free time she visits the grandkids and does estate sales ( getting some cool stuff ). Have more on my sistor however I have got to get ready to go to work. 6 funerals this week. Tata T

Waiting on a Turkey

Once again our kids from Hayward made the trek south to spend Thanksgiving with us. We are so fortunate that they come down here for a few reasons one being that the shop is so busy and 2 that Tim brings down my wreaths for Christmas. In the pic is Cole, Tim, Haylen, Poppy and Audi. We are waiting for dinner to finish and playing Left, Right, Center. It is a age friendly gambling game where you shake 3 die and have the opportunity to win lots of quarters. We had lots of fun, ate a bit too much and time went by entirely too quick. I tried like a trooper to get pictures of Cole ( my grandson) but for some reason he decided that on this trip there would be hardly any evidence of his visit. Haylen ( my Granddaughter) does like her picture taken and I will post them when I find them in some voodoo file. The million dollar picture I did NOT get was one of Tim's truck LOADED three feet over the top of the sides with evergreens from up nort. I forgot when I ordered the greens that he had an itty bitty truck bed. Now what I don't get is what is the reason for having a truck if not to carry lots of stuff????? He tied it all down and it made the trip without incident. Imagine however, if you will the look on his face when he saw the size of my order. .........................................

Long Time No Write

Well it's been a long absence for me and I have missed it. There are several reasons why I haven't been back. 1) Katies Visit. We had a whirlwind visit with Kate before she left for downunder. We did it all, ate, drank shopped and played ROCKBAND. We formed our own family group and it was well.............lots of fun. She had a long but safe flight and we are glad she made it. Kate now has new things to get accustomed to including riding her bike on the opposite site of the road. She had a nasty cold but now is fully recovered. Before Kate left she moved this old bat even farther into the new age by showing me how to download podcasts, utilize my new photostick thingy to print my pictures and a Web cam. Holycow that's a lot to take in, I have most of it with exception to remembering how to sign into my blogger account. REASON 2 I Need Aricept, well with the influx of all the new info out went some old................too much data storage in my head I guess. I forgot my password and could NOT remember it. After several attempts to set up a new one finally I hit paydirt and have a new one. Yahoooooooo now I have loads of material enough to keep me going for a long long time.

Fast Girl, sad Ma, TT go BY-BY

Introducing Kate (Katie) Ross. My first born and #5 in our combined family. Kate is the product achieved when you mix fierce independence with a healthy dose of goal setting. Kate was the most pretty baby in the world ( sorry Leah). Dark skinned (jaundice) and a mouth her Dad I think described as like little rose buds. Fun to dress up like little girls at least until she became more mobile. It was then the frilly little dresses went away and were replaced with sweat suits ( at least they were pink). When she started crawling the skirt of the dress would catch in her legs and she would pull so hard to remove the dress hated it. BY-BY girly stuff. Loved water. For Katie the sound of running water any running water meant " Bath Time" and she would strip herself naked in anticipation. Now mind you running water could mean the washer, hose or kitchen sink for dishes. Frustrating at times but mostly just funny. Katie's first bike was a Big Wheel, well actually she had 2 of them, she wore one out. Now she rides a mac daddy bike that costs more than my cars combined, you see she is now a professional rider. Friday night she will fly into St.Louis and drive to Shelbyville to visit for a few days before she heads out on a her biggest adventure yet...........Australia for 2 WHOLE MONTHS. Even though I haven't seen her for a while I already miss her so much. So for a few days I will have her here, a chance to hold her and smell her for a few days. It will have to be enough for me to go through the holidays. I think we will watch Christmas Vacation early this year. I will have to balance healthy foods for her perennial favorites. Stop at the liquor store and pick up some of her favorite libations. And for about 4 days it will be all about Kate. More on Kate later......

The Dennis File #2

As I said earlier Dennis (Poppy) bought me this amazing camera for my BD. We started walking on our new trail 3 Sundays ago for many reasons but one is to take pictures. While going through the shots I found one thing in common.........Dennis' fav shirt, a very raggy Bears sweat shirt that Danny bought him for Christmas 1996. It has washed down to a most comfortable weight ( I know this as I have worn it about the house, inside out OF COURSE). But sadly the cuffs and collar is nearly off and while it is fine for home he insists on wearing it out. In public!!!!

Now practically everyone I know has a favorite article of clothing. Thin, thread bare and a bit tattered. But most people reserve these pieces for lounging about the house. Not my Poppy. For instance. When we began dating Poppy had 2 unsomes a winter and a summer. The cold weather getup was a you guessed it Bears sweat pants a bit small, faded but in sweat pant land very,very short. Completing the look was a black and orange LP sweatshirt and sandals. While Poppy is a very handsome man the look did not match him whatsoever. He would proudly wear this down town Hayward in and out of stores OMG.....The summer look included old tank tops. You'll remember these, they were screen printed with that iron on stuff that eventually peeled away.....He bought them in 1968 or so after he returned from Viet Nam. I think he said they were3 for 5.oo. Can't remember the shorts all though to give ya'll a hint, he doesn't like the "new shorts" b/c they are too long, so are you getting the idea.......After a proper courting time had lapsed I brought up these clothes and their possible retirement, no go....they are my favorites and have special meaning....I get that, however, stop wearing them in public. It's a total nogo. What is a girl to do? We have teenage kids that are embarrassed enough with parents.... The big problem was how does one get their hands on these pieces? Poppy had his laundry done for him so the idea of having them disappear in the wash was out.....so patiently I waited until I was able to do his laundry for him, then like a stealth bomber, one by one they went away to sock land, ( that place somewhere between the washer and dryer that all missing socks go) never to be seen again.....................

Veteran's Day Cont......

OK, I have no idea what I did, I had written a much longer story but I lost It, lets just see if I can get it back. Dennis did a tour in Viet Nam, it was the 60's and I was about 7 or so. ( Yes, there is quite an age difference). I really didn't know much about the war except for my neighbor girls big brother was killed. Most of my knowledge base comes from the barrage of films made in the 80's. The last movie I saw was Hamburger Hill and after that I just couldn't do it any longer. Dennis does talk of that time unlike manyother guys, at least he does give some details. One day in December most of his group was killed in a recon mission. Dennis still carries the srappnel, has a purple heart and can not have a MRI. His toes are a mess because his feet were wet for days maybe weeks, he lost several teeth b/c of the water but came home. There is a memorial at the park with the boots gun and helmet placed near each other, I had seen this in the movies and asked if that is what they did to mark a death, but Dennis said mostly they were flown away and that was it. This is serious stuff. There are LOTS of funny stories about this guy but not even I can poke fun at him today. Thank You Dennis.

Thank A Vet

Today is Veteran's Day. I am very thankful for all of the veteran's and service men. Here is my favorite Vet. It's my hubbie Dennis USMC.

Pumpkins, Packers and pooches oh my......

Sunday's walk on the Dacey Trail, Really pretty

Amy and Dan in the pumpkin surgical suite. Dan is instructing Amy to be careful.....

Dan posing as HE-Man...........................

Well Halloween was another success. The pumpkin carving was just as predicted with only two revisions. ! the music chosen was a real Rockband tour of our favorite songs. My fav being Green Grass and High Tides by the Outlaws, you can hear this on youtube. We scored over 300,00 on this one and I love it. Oh how I can digress. The 2nd revision was that my friend Amy joined us. Amy had never cleaned and carved a pumpkin, yes it's true she's fourtysomething and Thursday night was her first. Therefor her kids haven't carved pumpkins and you know it the story continues. But her grandbaby was here at the end and with a little bit of luck we have broken the evil chain.

The Packers lost in overtime. Now for my opinion. That whole overtime ruling gives me a big case of redhinnie. Flipping a coin and letting the first score win is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, never mind that football has become an excuse me sport ( pass interference calls.....we stop this action so that the receiver can catch the ball, then oh yeah now it's ok to tackle them) why not just stand at the center of the field save a whole lot of time and whom ever wins the toss gets the win. Really, play for another quarter, I can not believe how much this pisses me off.

Big investment tip........................From my brother-in-law Ben, Watch exon and when it gets to 57ish a barrel buy it. It's projected to go over 300 a barrel in 2010. Read his blog about it at Thefarnsworthfile.blogspot.com If this isn't right call me and I'll find the right one, believe me when I say this man really knows stuff.

The shop is going crazy right now. These days have been full of sadness and it will continue through the next few days. Friday I met with a couple that lost infant twin girls. Then on sat am a 17 yo boy was killed in and accident. I have to go in and start as soon as I finish writing . It is really some ruff stuff and can be pretty hard to deal with. It will be a waterproof mascara day as I cry when they cry. I am blessed to have my family and thank God for their health. See you later.....................

Trick or Treat

2 days till Halloween and we have 5 mondo pumpkins sitting on our front steps waiting for the knife. I have carved pumpkins every year can't remember a single on when I haven't. In the past few years they have been sculpted with accuracy using a pumpkin masters pattern, each one taking about and hour or so, never minding the time it took. The kids would long be finished with theirs as I continued to " saw" out the intricate pieces. I'm not using a pumpkin master pattern this year. Danny will be over on Thursday night to assist in the ritual. I can't wait because for a few hours the kitchen will be a magical spot. How does this look?, Do you think we can roast these seeds? The eye broke out Mom how do I fix it? I reach into the cabinet and pullout the trusty toothpicks and all is well. The back ground music will be some kind of thumping rap, BUT it's all good. Just as long as it takes a long time so that I can hold on to the moment. But sometimes pumpkin carving can take on a whole different twist.....STORY.......Several years ago 17 or so Kate was 10 and Danny was 6. Dennis and I were dating and he was invited over for Carving Night. After dinner we cleared the table and covered it with newspaper, pulled out the markers and knives and began the task of cleaning out the pumpkins. Everyone knows it takes a bit of time to complete a pumpkin. Well, Dennis is usually all about getting the job done fast. He excuses himself and says he needs to go home and get something. Moments later he returns with a jig saw. The kids eyes got big and when they saw how fast and easy the carving could take place they were delighted, each wanting a turn at the electric power tool. After that night the jig saw was a part of Carving night. For me, and this year there will be no jig saw I want our night to last as long as I can.

No football...what's a girl to do?

This is Iris, a very charmed Irish Setter we rescued. When we walk in the mornings she will go out of her way to avoid a puddle, BUT toss a rock in the lake and she's all about getting it.

Check out the colors on this tree. Absolutely stunning. We saw this tree on a walk around a new trail in the area ( no football remember) . It is an oak, we only have maples in our yard so it is nice to see some of the dark reds. The best part of this is no raking up these bad boys. I really missed no football yesterday, I like everything about it, the hits, scores and the sounds. It's funny how we evolve as we grow up. It should be no surprise that when I was younger I didn't care much for the game. Grew up with football playing in the bar. Didn't like it, remember my little bro had an electric football game with small helmets, and I do recall hearing great players names ( Bart Starr .....) I did have the opportunity to attend a Packer game at Lambeau with Big Dan. What a shame I did not get the game at that time Holy Cow there's a regret. This is what I remember of that game IT WAS FLIPPING COLD. My drink froze in the cup, and after making a trip down to the bathroom ( to warm up) I didn't pay close attention to our seat location and as I stood at the bottom of the stands searching through the crowd for Dan a nice, helpful worker asked if he could help when I replied I'm looking for my husband.....he's wearing blaze orange. The well meaning kid gives me a look that definitely said dumb blond as he pointed out the crowd (over 50% wearing blaze orange). Well I did find him, the Packers lost and at midnight my thighs were still red from the cold. Years later Dennis figured out how to get me to like football....with gambling. yup a simple football board and the chance to win hundreds taught me how to score and anticipate what was needed to be done so I could win. ( I did win 500 on my first game only to have the fridge die the very next day). I'm sorry about that Dan, I wished I would have like football. BUT the best part of that trip was going to a theatre and seeing for the first time Christmas Vacation, we own it and watch it every Christmas eve.

It's good to be a cheesehead

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh another wonderful fall sunday in cornland. It's been a good day here. The weather is fantastic, the leaves are turning and falling like crazy. When I lived up north I longed for any tree but a pine tree. ( If you don't have them then you don't know that grass will never grow under them....., most are too tall to put christmas lights on them and they just dont drop colorful leaves on the ground) Now where we live we have a bunch o hardwoods and this is what we have......tons of leaves ( what do you do with them?), can't really burn them as they make neighbors mad, and sometimes when you burn them they start mini fires....STORY....One day years ago on or about our first fall I head out to the back yard all reved up and commenced to yard clean up....raked up a big pile of leaves and proceeded to set them on fire. Yup I carefully checked to see that I was far enough from the house as not to catch this 112 yo barn on fire. It was a beautiful day, bit windy but I had a handle on it, I watched it carefully and when my pile had burned to ashes I noted there was still smoke.......There on the other side of the fence was a fire FIRE my brain screamed, the fence was on fire.......I ran to get the hose and crap I had disconnected it, quick I thought what do I do......And in the corner if the yard with what I thought was a beem of light about it was............the dog water, quickly I ran over and got it, ran back and threw it with every thing I had. It's now out with exception to smoke....but it's really out. Now my next problem....how do I hide it from my beloved????? I just kicked leaves over the charred area forgetting all about it till next spring during clean up when I heard Teriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii what happenened to.... More on leaves another day

Another wonderful day in cornland......

Wow if your reading this diddy it means I have finally entered the modern age. We here at 607 have never been with the times, as a matter of fact we just just got a DVD player 2 years ago. In our defense really, the VCR worked just fine. Our computer is 6+ years old, has a new hard drive and yea it works just fine. (slow) but fine. BUT I have a brand new mack daddy digital camera and after paying a comp wiz to load the stuff in I am now ready to show ya'll my fam. I hope to update on monday nights. TV stinks. It will be a challenge for me as I have to balance my time between this, TV, Tiger Woods and my new best toy........ROCK BAND. Ok so much for uploading pictures. It was supposed to be a pic of Dennis and the girls (for future ref....Iris and Rosie our dogs). This girl is our granddaughter Tess. Doing some kinda I'ma hot chick pose. What you can't see here is the trully magical girl she is with a good soul. And cute toboot. Ok for another shot at a pic. And there you have it.......in the wrong spot and totally weird it's our girl Rosie. She's a rescue pooh and she is the sweetest girl ever. I'll work on this, promise ado Teri