Happy Easter Everyone!

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter the way I did.  I got especially lucky, in that I was off both Thursday (my birthday) and Friday (Good Friday), plus the weekend.  A four day weekend is a marvelous thing, indeed!

For Easter Jon had the kids, but was really kind in asking me to join in for Easter dinner.  As usual, he didn’t disappoint in the food department, though I know he had some amazing help in the kitchen this year.  Joe made a scrumptious rib roast that turned out perfectly.  Dad would have been over the moon to see him make that!  He also made cheddar biscuits which were also delish.  Jocelyn made Jon’s family’s famous no bake cheesecake which was to die for.  It had been a long time since I had it, and it was even better than I remembered.

We had fun chatting, and talking about East and all the other stuff going on, coming up on the calendar etc.  When the kids and I got home, they had more Easter eggs to find and a little basket from me.

It was such a good day that the only picture I got was of the prime rib that Joseph made.  Which is funny, because Dad did that a lot, too, took pictures of his food.  I ended up not taking any pictures of the kids, or me, in our festive Easter clothes, but not to worry, I’ll get them sometime soon!

I hope you all had a beautiful day, no matter the weather in your area, and that you enjoyed your time with family and friends.

Happy Easter!

April 1, 2018

Happy Independence Day!

Oh, wait, am I a little late on that?  Sorry!  I have been slowly editing some of my more recent photos and decided to start here for July 4th.

Last year we spent the 4th at my cousin's house, she lives right on the parade route, in Lebanon, Indiana.  I love doing the 4th there.  It's an idyllic time.  Everyone wears red, white, and blue.  They drive around in decorated golf carts, the floats are original, and the parade always has lots of columbines and characters galore.

The family usually gathers and in days past had Uncle Perk's homemade ice cream, which is the most delicious ice cream ever!  Everyone chips in and brings the favorites like pulled pork, banana pudding, bean salad, etc.  The food is delish!

Originally, we had planned on travelling from Chicago down to Lebanon for the 4th, meeting my Mom there and then driving back up, with her, to our house.  We found out that our town has a pretty great parade, too, that literally comes as close as just a couple of houses away from us, so...we decided to stay and see what it was all about.  I still did miss Lebanon, though.

It was a fantastic parade, made even better that our house was so close.  It seems our parade is used to being shot at with water guns, and so when the watches spray them...they spray back.  We will definitely have to have our water guns ready for next year.  The kids had fun and it was a blast seeing neighbors we know and meeting new people from our area.

After the parade and a short walk home, we met our good friends for a July 4th BBQ.  The kids swam and met new friends.  We shot off little fireworks and the kids had sparklers.  And, again, it was fun meeting new people.

It was a great day to celebrate our Independence!

July 4th, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Thanksgiving was quite different for us.  It was quiet and understated, and just perfect.  Normally, we have lots of family or friends for dinner.  It's usually a hectic day, and at some point I freak out and get overwhelmed, usually with some tears.  This year, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in my pajama bottoms, blue flannel with snowflakes on them.  Everyone hung out and relaxed, the kids and I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade all the way through and LIVE.  Football was on the rest of the day.  Jon got to take a nap, Joe finished painting his volcano, and Jocelyn wrote a mystery novel.

Later, Joe set the table and it looked just lovely.  He also helped me put all the food on the table.  At dinner, we all talked about what we are thankful for.  Joe was thankful for his family and friends.  Joci was thankful for the whole world.  I was thankful for a husband that works hard to provide for his family, and for children that are so awesome.  Jon was thankful for the food on the table, the roof over our heads and his family.  We all agreed we were thankful for our Jarvis who, in turn, was thankful for all the turkey he got!  We are so blessed.

I did miss my family and thought about Dad a lot.  He would have liked to have had ham, and we didn't, we stuck with turkey this year.  Although, I made a booboo and forgot to take out the neck giblets, oops.

After all that, and to my grateful heart, Jon and the kids cleared the table and did the dishes, while I changed out the laundry.  Then we all gathered and watched Cause for Paws and talked about how happy we were that we rescued Jarvis.

It was the most chill Thanksgiving we have ever had and I really loved every minute of it.  So chill, in fact, that I didn't get any pictures, oh well.  I'll share these pictures, though, of last year's Thanksgiving.  I didn't blog about it as it was right after Dad passed and I was not in the mood for blogging.  But we did have a lovely Thanksgiving all together, which he would have really loved.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving as well.

Thanksgiving, 2014

Family Photos

Before we left Arizona we had a quick opportunity for a few family photos.  To be honest, we had kind of put off taking the pictures, day after day seeming to never have the right time.  Then it was time to leave and we suddenly realized that we hadn't taken any good pictures of the kids and my parents together.  I love these photos of them.  They show such a deep, genuine love, so apparent in all their faces.

Grandma and Joci painted their nails the same before we left.

January 2013

Let's Talk About Halloween in the UK

Halloween Past:

Sleeping Beauty and Harry Potter, 2009

Coaches from the past, 2009

Black Eye Pea, Deviled Egg, Luke Skywalker, and Ariel, 2010

Adorable little Bunny and a scary Spider, 2008

So I have to admit that I have been really homesick lately. I miss my parents, and I miss my country and all of our customs and way of life, especially now that the holidays are coming around.

In the past we have done BIG Halloweens. We always dress up, we always make it fun and special for the kids, and we always have a great time pretty much for the entire month of October. We go to Schnepf farms, we go to or have parties, we always go Trick or Treating. Typically on Halloween night, we have a firepit, an outdoor movie, our house is completely decorated out front, and we hand out GOOD candy.

So that pretty much doesn't happen here. We were invited to a party, but Jon is out of town in Bulgaria until just one day before Halloween. There are many people that just don't do Halloween at all. Most of them think it's an over-commercialized American holiday, and they're right. But, I say, who cares? It's about having fun, it's a necessarily a true holiday, just an excuse to have fun. There are zero outdoor decorations, and there is very little to buy in the stores. What there is to buy is very...cheesy, kind of like what you would find at Walgreens. We live in a neighborhood with a ton of kids, so we have been told that there is lots of Trick or Treating and we have been told not much, so we aren't really sure what to expect there. I did buy some candy, but again, not nearly like the candy that we would hand out at our house in Arizona. So, I bought good Christmas candy, chocolates, etc.

Here, we've gotten lots of comments about the kids' costumes. Joe is going as his new obsession, Dr. Who. Joci is going as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Typically, when people hear what Joci is, they make a comment about it not being scary at all. From what I've seen in the stores, most of their costumes are of the scary variety, and more traditional, witches, zombies, etc., lots of blood and gore and fake limbs.

So we are adapting. We aren't doing many decorations, except for a few little arts and crafts inside the house. The kids are still dressing up and going Trick or Treating, and I hope it works out and they have a good time. We are going to a little amusement park that is having a haunted Halloween party, and I am letting the kids wear their costumes to that as well. We have already bought our pumpkins, and so we will also carve those. We bought the biggest ones we could find, which still seem like a medium to small size in the states. We will absolutely still make roasted pumpkin seeds...yum.

So, we will still have a lot of fun, just different. We're bringing some of ours, and taking part of some of theirs, and meeting in the middle. Hopefully, it will help with the homesickness and with Thanksgiving around the corner, we can find our groove with the holidays.

Leigh-On-Sea

In August we rode up with Jon on one of his work training to Maldon. We had a very interesting stay there as they were renovating, but still had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. That night I started planning where I wanted to take the kids the next day while Jon was working. Joe has wanted and wanted to go to the beach and since we were closer to the shore, I tried to find something 'close' and desirable.

The next day when we arrived it rained and rained and rained some more, but even though it rained the kids had the time of their lives. They went in the paddling pool, we did a little shopping, and had lunch at a nice cozy restaurant. After the tide came in we found some shells and lots of sea glass.

Easter 2011

We spent Easter at my parent's house this year as our house was torn aport getting ready for our move.

Why isn't there anything in this egg?
A new Magic Treehouse book for Joe.














Joe in Grandpa's garage.