Happy New Year (a little late)

Wow, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Shame on me. The month of December was pretty full. Full of Doctor appointments, shopping, and just getting ready for Christmas.

As you can see, it's a pretty white tree with Red & Gold decorations. The Santa's on the book case are a very small selection of my collection (27+) but this house didn't have enough room.

My Christmas Choo Choo had to stay in the house because this house doesn't have any out side electrical outlets. "Stockings were hung on the bookcases with care" and when they got filled they all fell down.

Little Serenity behaved herself the whole time. Didn't go after the ornaments or the decorations on the floor. Pretty proud of her. She didn't like the Christmas sweater but she tolerates us.

These are some of my Snow People. Not all of them fit either.

I have been to the doctors and had more tests done. Besides a couple spots of Asbestos in the lungs, the dysfunction in the heart has progressed a little so I had to give up skiing (just kidding, I don't ski).

But we had a great time getting ready for the holidays and eating lots of great food. Got lots of neat presents, including a toaster oven which I'm absolutely thrilled with since the oven in this house doesn't work at all. 

Thank goodness it's only a rented house. We're making plans to relocate early this year.  I usually don't like moving in the winter but this one is actually necessary. Wall plugs that don't work, circuits blowing if you have 2 items on them and really the house hasn't been electrically refitted for more than 20 plus years so it's really due.Baseboard heaters don't work in 2 of the bedrooms so it's time for the Corbin girls to move on.

Here's the Christmas and New Years pages that I've gotten done. Don't ask what occupies my time 'cause I don't know how the days get gone on me and I haven't accomplished very much (as an English major in school, I didn't pay much attention I guess).

Darling Amyah in a page done with 'Merry Christmas' by Miriam's Scraps

Ashley with Olivia and again with Valerie. Page Christmas with the Countess by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart designs.

Bridgit with her nieces Kaddie & again with Valerie. Page done with 'Home for the Holidays' by Baby Bear designs.

Daughter Charlie holding the New Years Eve sign which I corrected a little. Page done with 'funny New Year' by Butterfly Designs

My niece Consuelo and her grown up son Jonathan. Page done with 'White Christmas' by Miriam Zimmerman.

Sister in-law Joanne and their dog "Bing".  Page done with "Christmas with the Countess' by Kyra @ Russian Dutch Heart designs.

Joanne looking lovely in another page done with 'White Christmas' by Miriam Zimmermin.

I guess I got hung up on that White Christmas by Miriam Z'. This is Olivia at her 11th Birthday party in December so I already the Christmas kit and I used it.

My 3 girls hamming it up, Ashley, Olivia, & Bridgit. Page is "Cup of Cheer' by Raspberry Road designs.

I think I've been showing off for long enough. I'm going to do another one of my college classes. This one is  An introduction to C.S. Lewis: writings and significance. I can highly recommend the online courses from Hillsdale College in MI. If you just want to expand your mind (I'm warding off Dementia by keeping the mind active), I can recommend the Free courses on the Constitution, and a whole lot more. Just go to their web site and sign up, It's free: http://online.hillsdale.edu/dashboard/courses .

Hugs from Sarge!

December is here so our house is looking Christmasy!

Naturally the computer didn't like that word at the end of the title. But what does a computer know anyway..LOL.

I don't really have a lot to say except that we got 2 inches of snow one morning and something melted it all by the next morning. I'm really bummed by this but then I guess if I want snow all the time I have to move further North.  At least I got a picture or two but it wasn't even enough to make a snow man. Maybe later this month.

All the decorations are up inside the house but we can't put anything outside because we can't find a plug to use. And there isn't a porch out side the front so there's no where to hang anything anyway. I could put up the pictures I did from last year when the wind storm took my Santa train off the roof and we had to anchor him down in the Rock Garden.

I'm going to post the last of the pages I made in November even though it's now December.

A picture of my younger sister when her girls were really young. They are all grown up and one has a son in college and the other one has a son thinking about the service. Quite a long time ago. This was one of those Throw Back Thursday pics and I just had to snag it and do something pretty with it.

A picture of my lovely Sister-in-law Joanne with her precious dog Bing.

Joanne will pose for the camera if you ask. But she's so pretty who wouldn't ask!

Beautiful Olivia's 5th grade picture. Can you tell she had her hair dyed Blue & Pink?

We caught her sleeping before the movie they watching was even finished.

As you can see, this was Olivia's sleep over during a vacation period when other parents had to get up the next morning for work. We didn't so it was a fun evening.

That's it for today. I don't have any new pictures and I've been on the internet getting some freebies from the great designers who contributed to a World Wide Christmas train. It's always fun to see the different ways each country celebrates the holiday. We just have a grand time and we'll go the Christmas Eve Mass and one of the churches has a live presentation with horses, camels, sheep and live people.  Then there is the displays that people put up in their yards and some are tuned to music which means the lights are bouncing around and one place out side of town has a good half acre we can drive through and around under the lights and listen to music. They just post which radio station to tune in to and it's really quite a show. I tried to upload one of the videos I made when we were driving around and stopped to watch a house that was really light up and we were listening to the music on our car radio while the lights were just going all over the yard!

That's all for now. HUGs from Grandma Sarge!

Part 2 of Wow! It's November

I guess I forgot to tell you about the Birthday Party that Bridgit put on for me. Since my birthday comes so close to Halloween, the house was decorated in Witches, Ghosts and such. Pumpkins down the front steps all lite up. Instead of a regular cake we had cupcakes that Bridgit decorated so cute. And now I'm 76 years old. Doesn't feel that old today!

Only 3 of my 5 Great Grand kids. David's had some pictures done of his 3 kids and they are growing so fast, one has to take lots of pictures before they fade away.

I guess I used the same picture twice I think. Yes I did, didn't I. This is Kadence, Aayden and Dominic.

A picture of my handsome youngest brother George and his lovely wife Joanne with their dog Bing.

I was playing with the Photoshop program and I took Olivia and Kaddie out of the picture they were in and put them elsewhere. 

Olivia with her doggie Serenity who was a bumble bee for Halloween.

Olivia has a great time with her hair color. Her mother does it for her. This one was blue/Teal in front and purple in the back.

Here's little Serenity all ready for Halloween.

This is what the living room floor looked like while the girls carved their pumpkins. Bridgit got a long table cloth from the 'dollar store', spread it out and this way all we did was pick it up after they were done and roll it up and throw it away. No Mess, No Fuss!

Well that's all the pictures I've done in the last 3 weeks. Now I'm waiting for Thanksgiving which will be here at my house. Funny too! Since the oven on my stove doesn't work, Bridgit has to take the Turkey to her friends house and cook it and then bring it back here. I've decided that sweet potatoes can be done in the slow cooker, and everything else will be cooked on the stove. 

WOW! It's November already!

I feel like the old man who went to sleep and woke up 20 years later! The year has gone by so fast and I don't think I did nearly half of what I expected to do. Now it's not enough time...Guess it'll have to wait for next year.

October was a strange month. Every time I looked on FB another relative of mine was having a birthday so I sent them a Jacquie Lawson card and wished them much happiness. I had 7 family members get a year older, one day I sent a "Souped' card which had recipes inside to 15 friends, and then I posted about 5 Halloween posts with her cards. I just love them.

Halloween was fun time for the younger set. They went out Trick or Treating. I stayed home to give out candy...only had about 4 or 5 kids come around.  Olivia went to her friends house and spent the night,  Ashley and Bridgit went to Alan's annual party. They were dressed as Rosie the Riveter from WWII. I didn't dress up but I gave away candy!

I spent Nov 1 &2 in the critical decision unit. I went in Sunday evening with some pretty intense chest pains so they kept me over night.  I had the chemical Stress test on Monday about 11:00 am and everything looked fine. I'm going to the Cardiologist tomorrow so he can tell me more about the stress test.  And then on Tuesday I get a visit with my Primary Senior doctor!  I'm still working on getting some special medical coverage for the lungs and if the cardio doc can authenticate it as being caused by the overworking of the heart due to the lungs going to pot. And it's all from working in the Nuclear Industry.

Well now it's time to show the pictures of Halloween and I had really enjoyed the beautiful fun kits I picked up from my many talented Graphic designers.

My Great Grandson Aayden really got into the season this year. He was 4 on Oct 1st.

Alan who threw the party and all the adults had to be dressed up. 

Amyah is the cutest little pumpkin who was a Pirate this year. 

I had to play with my Christmas kit that came early. I put little Amyah in a Snow Globe.

I just can't resist when I find a picture of Amyah on the internet. I have to fix it up!

My Grandson and his friend with their daughters. 

This is the two Rosie Riveters! Bridgit and Ashley.

Lorene G. has the prettiest little girls. Ashley is a 'Chef' and Kaddie is growing so fast, I can't keep up. The right hand picture is Kaddie and her sister Mia. 

Bridgit had a great time at the party!

"Z" is playing football this year and his biggest fam is his baby sister!

Christina and her cousin Joci look like sisters. Here they are with "Z" and his little sister ready to go on on Halloween!

"The Country Mercantile"  has a very large Pumpkin Patch and an equally large Corn Field that they  cut into a really neat maze. The kids got to pick their own pumpkins and Daddy got to pay for them. They played around on the Hay Stacks and had a great time.

I'm going to put the rest into another Post.

Sharing a recipe

I spent a lot of time moving around the "Pacific Rim" . I started in California then went to Midway Island with 2 babies and had another while I was there. All girls and they have given me 5 beautiful grand children. Two of those grand children have given me 5 adorable Great Grandchildren.

Second duty station was Guam in the Marianas area. That was a great 2 year tour where I worked as a waitress in one of the establishments in downtown Agana. It was here that I discovered a great tasting sweet and sour sauce. I had asked the cook one night while I was on a break from serving drinks and food for his recipe. He laughed and told me he made it in great big tubs and all he could tell me was what he put in it.  So I made several horrible pots of it but I finally figured it out. I'll share it at the end of this blog.

During my time on Midway Island I was introduced to Lumpias . I must admit that being American some of the ingredients that were used by the Filipino wives weren't palatable for me. So being the resourceful Navy wife, I substituted and made one that my husband and my children really loved and they have kept it going through the two generations of women in my family. The 4 generation isn't old enough to appreciate the fine art of cooking. The oldest is just turned 11 so it might take a little time. But we are going to have a lesson for the lovely Olivia who will be 11 in December.

Japan was an Island for learning Teriyaki Chicken, and won tons. I have noticed that almost every country has a dish that is some sort of meat & ?? in a wrapper and either boiled or fried.

I've learned to cook Pot Stickers and got a sauce recipe from a lady Chef walking around and she wrote it on the back of a sales slip and I've made it several times for pot lucks at Charlie's house.

I haven't learned Pirogi's from scratch but you can find them in the freezer section so I can still have them. Pirogi are something my good friend Peaches introduced me to. Her parents are from Poland and her mom made the best ones and her beet soup was special also. She says she has a recipe to share with me so maybe I'll be trying my hand at that in future.

My sister learned a lot of Mexican dishes when she married her husband Reynaldo! She has come to my house and made tortillas from scratch and left them behind when she left from her visit. She didn't  make any enchiladas but I've got a really neat machine that imprints pics and lines for cutting. I just fill them with cheese, and bacon pieces. Great Grand kids love them, probably because of the neat pictures toasted into them.

As I promised here are the two recipes that my family loves so much. And I'd love to hear about any sort of wrapped food item you want to share with me. Like I can't figure out if there is something like a burrito in France.

Sorry about the noodle at the bottom. When I made this scrapbook page it was for my friend in CA and put my phone number there as a joke. I've also noticed that I forgot to tell you to mix the onion, garlic, salt & pepper to taste as you are cooking the meat. I'm sure you would have figured that out but just in case. It does make for a good sized batch and they do freeze well sealed in small batches.

The added spoon is my attempt to cover my address which I had put there for my friend's info since I have recently moved and I wasn't sure I had given it to him. This young man used to baby sit my girls when he was in HS. They loved him, probably because I think he let them get away with stuff that I wouldn't have. 

The kit I used to make these with was 'Rustic Table' by Raspberry Road Designs. I thought since I didn't have any real cooking pictures to do that a large recipe card would do. 

HUGS Grandma Sarge

My Chakra's are confused

I clicked on one of those quick spots when I was really cruising on the internet (didn't do it on purpose) and ended up filling out a questionnaire but no personal information so I'm safe except for the email address.  Well I answered their questions and today they sent me a report on my Chakra. Some are closed meaning I'm insecure and some are great meaning I'm in charge of my own destiny.  How can I be both in the same body? One of those things that I should never answer and I didn't do it on purpose.

Last night for dinner I made 'Pot stickers' and rice. They were pork pot stickers and they were good but not of the quality that I'm used to serving. They fried up sort of hard but they still tasted OK so I guess it wasn't a complete failure.  This weekend I think I'm going to make some 'Lumpias' and fried rice. If you've ever been around any Military bases and made friends with any of the wives you've probably been introduced to  Lumpias. They are originally a Filipino dish. It's a very thin wrapper about 10" and in the Philippines they fill them with pork, cabbage and onions or whatever the lady has available. My American family likes them with cooked hamburger and cooked shredded potatoes. After bundling them up in the wrappers you fry them in about 2 inches of oil. Very filling.

We will be making a big batch of my sweet and sour recipe.  I used to be a waitress in a restaurant on Guam and I asked the cook how he made the sweet & sour sauce. He couldn't give me exact amounts, he just gave me a list of ingredients. It took me a lot of mistakes until I came up with an edible version of the restaurants. Now I've passed it along to my daughter and grand daughter. And I'm sure we'll indoctrinate the 4th generation this weekend.

Fall is slowly coming around and I've quit watering the yard. I've been keeping the rose bushes watered until it's really cold outside and then they can settle down for the winter. Every one tells me it's going to be a worse one than last year. I remarked some where that we had one morning of light snow and it was gone by dinner. And that was all we had. Granted we had a lot of bitter cold windy days but we survived. I miss the snow. I guess it was too cold to snow last year. We shall see. Some of the East coast of the US has already seen some snow and now they're playing with hurricanes. I wouldn't trade this weather for any of theirs and I grew up in Northern Pennsylvania where we had 2 or 3 feet of snow from October thru February and sometimes into March. But I was only a teen at that time and they have no triggers against cold and snow. We loved making snow forts and snow people and having snow ball wars!

Bridgit and I are coming along on our new house (it's actually from the 50's) and it's still standing. We got a new washing machine from a lady who was moving to Florida and couldn't take it with her. She didn't have a dryer or someone else got her dryer (don't really know) and we can live with just a washer. I went outside on Monday and stretched a wire from one of the back porch/patio pillars to the next and then to the next. Now we just wash clothes and hang them outside. Sort of reminiscent of my youth except in the early 50's the washer had hand cranked rollers to wring out the clothes. That was always my job. Even tried to run my fingers thru it once or twice.

And now for some new scrap book pages.

The young ladies are ready for school. The kit is from Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart designs.

Little Amyah is cute no matter what. Kit is from Miriam's Scraps.

One of my favorite couples, Eddie & Marie. Still using the same kit from Miriam's Scraps

Here's Marie in another one of Kyra's kits. This one is Frederque.

Sandy has a horse so she's the favorite Auntie now! She shares the barn chores with Olivia. And another kit by Kyra.

Olivia really got into braiding Indy's mane. I used a kit from Studio Manu

And another picture of aunt Sandy and Olivia with the Star being Independence aka Indy. This kit is called 'A Crisp Autumn Day' and came from Tooty Pups designs. 

 I'm going to sign up for a course on Winston Chruchill next week and I'm really looking forward to the readings that will go with it.

Meanwhile here's some Hugs from Sarge

Getting back to normal

It's been 6 weeks since we moved into our new house. I'm liking the idea of my own bedroom even if I'm sharing it with a small pooch and a cranky old cat. They are both in bed with me and it's funny because they really don't like each other. The cat, Mrs Beasley, is 13 years old and I guess in kitty years that's 91, which is why she's cranky all the time.  They tolerate each other except when the puppy thinks it's OK to play with her. She will slap puppy silly and I think the pup has figured out that Mrs. Beasley has no claws in the front feet so it doesn't hurt at all.  They make getting up a little bit exciting.

We've settled into our new house just fine. We've been working on the vines in the back coming over the fence and trying to take over the house.  We go out and cut them down and fill up the yard waste recycle bin for pickup every other week. It got emptied yesterday so this weekend we will finish cutting the vines away from the fence and cleaning up the front. I need to put some weed-be-gone on the front yard so the tall weeds won't come back and then I can put some grass seed down to winter over and maybe next year we'll have a grass yard as opposed to several types of weeds.

Going to have a friend of Bridgit's look at the stove and see if he can fix whatever is wrong with it.  Right now the only part working is the top burners. It's a pretty glass top stove and I really like it but I miss not having the oven to make pizzas or bake cakes and cookies.  And I'm not electrical savvy so I can't just jump in and take the panel off and do anything. Probably electrocute my self so I'm not even going to attempt it.

I'm still taking some college courses from Hillsdale College. I've finished 2 courses so far and I'm half way through the 3rd class. This 10 week class is on the Presidency and the Constitution. Learning just what they're doing that they hadn't ought to be doing.  Sadly, it's a lot of stuff that was never allowed in the original founding of this country. It just makes me more aware of what to consider when I get out to vote this year and next.

I have the new software for my scrap booking and Kyra, Mat, Miriam and Manuela B have given me some beautiful things to work with. Here's a few.

Great grand daughter Kadence and her big sister ready for their first day of school. It's a Girl thing is the name of the kit by Arlene at Baby Bear Designs. 

This was a Christmas family picture from 2011. Me in the back, 2 of my daughters on the couch with my Grandson David, his 3 kids and Olivia on Aunt Nene's lap on the far end. The kit is called Coffee by Sunshine scraps.

My two Grandsons that live in Colorado. The kit is 'Seaside Sunset' by Kyra at Russian Dutch Heart designs.

I honestly can't remember how many files I opened to get a piece here and another piece there.  Rest assured I'm not the one who made graphics of the paper, nor the frame.  It's Grand daughter Bridgit playing around on our friends front porch. Looks like she's ready to fly away on that broom. Can you guess that Halloween is one of her favorite times. 

This is me from at least 46 years ago on Midway Island. Husband and a bunch of SeeBees built a cover for the two middle houses in our building on the base. One of the SeeBees lived on the other side of the wall so it was just easy to make it cover both patios. The kit is called 'Celebrate Life by Raspberry Road Designs.

Kadence and her sister Mia in 2010 when Mia got to go to school and Kaddie stayed home. Kaddie was only 3 in this picture. The QP is by Mat from one of Miriam's mini kits which are never very 'mini'.

Olivia went to the Benton County Fair with Uncle Cole and wife Sandy. Bridgit is taking the pictures of the face painting and fake tattoo. Looking at the bottom I see I have typed the name of the kit wrong but it was made by Miriam's Scraps either way.

That's enough for today. Time to take the little dog outside for his duty.

God Bless and have a great evening.

Hugs GrandmaSarge74