Veggie Pizza I really don't have a recipe for my veggie pizza, but here is what I do:

Take one can of refrigerated croissant dough. Divide it in half at the center and place the 2 rolls onto a baking sheet side by side. (I use my Pampered Chef Rectangle Stone). Pinch seams together, then roll out til about 8x12" Bake at 375 about 8 minutes, or til lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool. (or cheat like I did and spread the cold cream cheese onto a warm crust to make it more spreadable)

You can either flavor a block of cream cheese by mixing it with a bit of Italian Salad Dressing, or else do like I do and buy one of the tubs of flavored cream cheese. Today, I used the Spinach and Artichoke. Sundried tomato, or Garden Vegetable are the other choices my store had. Top with chopped fresh veggies of your choice. Mine today has broccoli, carrots and red onion. I've used other veggies, but these 3 are my favorite, and what I had on hand today.

Wow........ I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. Once I found facebook, I haven't been as faithful to blogging. An update. Above, you'll see the jacket I made in a class last month. Well, I started it in a class on Sept. 3, and finished it yesterday. I had a hysterectomy on Sept. 23 and so am off work for a while and was finally able to get into the sewing room yesterday. Today I will venture to Lebanon for the first time on my own. One of my co workers is retiring and today is his last day. Customers have been invited to come and share a little celebration for him, and I don't want to miss it!

My mom came up from SC to help me out for the first few days and I really appreciated her being here. As I've gotten older, it gets harder and harder to say goodbye after we are together. I wish they lived closer. I have been on my own the last few days(well, son is here part of the time and will do any lifting or anything I ask) and I'm getting tired of sitting around and doing nothing. I'm so glad I'm able to be up and around again.

The "Wimming" Pool

Caleb loved playing in the pool I got him. He kept mis pronouncing it and calling it a wimming pool, so Sara would tell him.... "sssssssss", so he'd then say "ssssssssssssswimming pool". It was adorable, of course! He's doing really fantastic on potty training. Had one accident today, but otherwise, he told us every time he had to go. He even made the 2 1/2 hour car ride dry!

Anyone remember punchballs?

Do any of you remember punch balls? They are just large tough balloons with a rubber band attached. I found some today and bought a pack for the kids. Hope you can see what the static did to Grace's hair! It's hilarious.


You can see from this next picture how much she loved the punch ball. They are both great kids and I love spending time with them. Grace has learned to give kisses and she's also starting to say words. So far, she says Uh Oh, Baby, Bye Bye and is trying to say peek a boo. Peek a boo still comes out more like pick pick,but gotta start somewhere!

Weekend with the Grandbabies

Caleb and Grace spent Friday and Saturday night with us and we had a blast. I had to work til 11:30 Saturday, so Papa had them to himself a while. Then we headed to Springfield.

This tractor is just like the one Mark played with as a little boy. Now Caleb has one to play with when he comes to Grandma and Papa's house.

Gracie wants to help him drive it!Giggling at Grandma on the way to Springfield.

Caleb slept most of the way there. He was worn out from playing with Papa all morning.

At the Nature center, they had this "helicopter" where you were a conservationist doing a survey. There is a screen there that you see Mark and Caleb studying.

Grace was just happy to be there!

She was game for anything. This is a "cave" that Caleb would NOT enter at all.

Papa was tickling her with the coon skin.

But when he tried to tickle Caleb with it........well, you can see that didn't happen!

Then we found this stuffed squirrel and Grace LOVED it when we tickled her with it, too.

Was going to buy it for her, til I realized it was a doggy toy and I thought it would look bad to buy my granddaughter a doggy toy!

THEN we spotted the coon skin hats and I knew we could ditch the squirrel as soon as I put it on her head.

She absolutely loved it. I was in tears walking thru the store because she had me laughing so hard.

Of course, Caleb had to have one, too, though I really think if we hadn't made such a big deal out of her wearing one, he would not have allowed this on his head!


And here he models it for Grandma Helen when we stopped by the nursing home to visit her.

Finished Project!!! Actually, finished for the 2nd time! I got the bag done and thought the handles looked funny, and realized I'd put the handles on sideways. So, being me, I ripped them off and re did them. I like it MUCH better now! Also, again, being me, I didn't do the handles the way the instructions said, and I think they turned out just as nice. They had you chain, then do your single crochets to make the handles, then sew them onto the other end. I joined it and worked them in rounds because I thought that would be much stronger than stitching a piece 3 rows wide to the end.

Next I'm going to crochet a couple of covers for my swiffer sweeper. Saw a knitted pattern for them, but since I'm not big into knitting, I thought, why not crochet a couple. They will be washable and save me from having to buy the refills for the swiffer. Will let you know how well they work out. Making them from scrap yarn, so not costing a dime.

This is our friend who celebrated a birthday this weekend. We all went out to dinner and here you see the waitress singing happy birthday to him, Marilyn Monroe style! The chefs hat has the word "Husband" on it. That is what his wife calls him and so do others, so we thought that would be funnier to put on his hat than his name! He likes to cook, so the hat started out as a "real" gift, but then I thought it would be hilarious to have the waitress put it on him while he sang, just for the silliness of it! We had a great time. Ate dinner in a cave, embarrassed our friend, then went to see an awesome fireworks display. Good friends, good times......what more could you ask for?

Babysitting...

we are at the kids' house babysitting while they are out having a good time and raising money for a good cause. So far, since we've been here(arrived at 5) we have played a little, then went out to a local fish restaurant and had a good supper. Came home and played a while before Grace was just to tired to go any more. Fed her a bottle and put her to bed. Now, Papa has given Caleb til 10:00 then he goes to bed. Grandma may go too! Been a long day. Was late to bed last night, then a 10:25 phone call scared the unowhat out of me(it was not an emergency). Then had to be at work at 4 am, and work 8 hours. Slept part of the 2 hour drive up here, but still I'm one tired Grandma!

Challenges.. Tuesday night at our quilt guild meeting, we were given the squares and instructions to do a Sudoku puzzle quilt. My neighbor told me hers would be done before mine, so I asked her if that was a challenge. Well, I was not satisfied to just get it done, I added letters to mine! I got the directions from Tonya's

blog tutorial. I think it adds to it! It also keeps it from being a square. This quilt will be donated to hospice.

Crocheting... while at Michaels yesterday, I picked up a free pattern and some yarn. So far, the bag looks like a ruffly mess! But I finally reached a point that I could read ahead on the pattern and figured out how it's going to work out..... Just sitting and watching tv tonight, I've gone thru one of the seven balls of yarn. Will post a pic when mine is done.

New Watch!! I guess my hubby's love of marbles has rubbed off on me. Last week, my watch battery died. It wasn't an expensive watch and Walmart will no longer replace batteries in a watch unless you bought it there, so I decided to make my own. I got the watch face itself at Joann's, and had the marble beads. I thought it needed some neat spacers. I found them today at Michaels and I LOVE the end result! In fact, I liked it so well, I strung up some more and made a matching bracelet.

See how my garden grows!!! We'll be enjoying the fruits(veggies) of our labors soon! The garden is starting to produce, finally! We've had a couple of cucumbers big enough to pick, will be enjoying those today! The top picture shows a zucchini. I'd say it will be big enough to eat in a few days, then below that is a yellow squash! It's so exciting to put seeds in dirt and then be able to eat the results! I can't wait til the tomatoes start producing. We have a couple of tiny tomatoes, but the pictures I took of them didn't turn out. I was rushing when I took pics and didn't realize I didn't get any good ones.

A Wonderful Birthday Celebration

We celebrated my birthday last night by having a bbq. In the rain, Mind you! We had family and good friends here and had a great time. Caleb isn't looking, but I like this picture of him. We were all hanging out under the carport waiting for the rain to pass. Of course, we waited til we were all soaking wet before moving the party around to the carport! The rain passed, though and we migrated back to the backyard where the guys built a fire. I'm not going to caption each picture, let them speak for themselves! I'm the only one who took pictures, so there are none of me.

Happy Mothers Day to me!!

Yesterday, because of the storm, hubby got an unexpected afternoon off. He told me he was going to go to a neighboring town to a flea market. He had seen something there that he thought would go good on our new patio we are making and he was thinking about getting it for me for Mother's day....and asked did I want to go. I declined. I wanted HIM to make the decision..hehe... Anyway, they were closed, but he went back today and was gone when I got home from work. When he got home, he asked if I wanted to see what he'd bought. Well, there was a new pot of flowers in the yard, so I told him I'd already seen it. He asked if I liked it.....I said yes. Then he realized what I was talking about, and said, "Oh, I bought that for Mom......do you want to see what I got YOU?" And proceeded to pull this out of the back of his pick up. Isn't it GORGEOUS? It'll be even better after he sands it down and repaints it. We will put citronella candles in the sconces.

Anyway, he got double brownie points because not only did he score on MY gift, but he bought his mom something without my having to prompt him! (I had tried to call and ask him to pick something up, but he'd left his phone here) WAY TO GO Mark!!

More Flower Pics

This is a neat plant I bought at the greenhouse called a "Joseph's coat". The leaves have a gorgeous shade of pink on them. Can't wait til it bushes out.
These are my iris' that are getting ready to bloom. I may have to thin them out this fall. I'm going to fill this bed with impatiens as well so when the iris' die back, I'll still have gorgeous color all summer.

This bed sits in front of my walkway. You can't tell it very well from this picture, but the leaves on the bushes are green and yellow and stay pretty all year long. I planted impatiens in front of them for some extra color. I need to take a clos up of the driftwood we have between the bushes.