Splitcoast Stampers

I absolutely love this site and haven't been able to post to it in such a long time (since we upgraded our computer and now the scanner isn't compatible with it) but I took a few photos and uploaded that way instead. Man I wish I had a scanner, I just can't seem to photograph them in a way that makes them look as good as they really do. You can't see the layers or subtle patterns that some of them have... guess I need a new method.

Hiding Spots

Every couple of weeks Sunny decides on a new spot to call home. Maybe on top of the entertainment center, or in his kitty bed, on the couch we never use, in a laundry basket... and he keeps that spot as his own for about two weeks then moves on to find a new spot, occasionally he'll move back to old spots and reclaim them as a new spot. I couldn't find him the other day, and then he meowed...like he was playing hide-and-seek with me or something and was giving me a "hint". Well, this is his new spot.
You can see printed on the top that it's not a very big box, only 14 inches long and 4 and a half tall, but he managed to get himself in there under the flaps and curl up for a nap. Cats...

Not really an evil cat...

Poor Sunny, he yawned right as I was trying to take the picture of him sleeping and squirming and looking so cute! He looks like some back-alley cat that could give you rabies or something.

One last look at things...

I stopped back at Meg's on my way home from class today and took a few photos to send her. She said she was feeling homesick so I wanted to help her feel a little closer to home. Took one last walk through the yard snapping pictures of her garden, orchard, and barns (oh, and her cat).
I picked a quart baggie of currants. I think there are probably at least this many more still to be picked, I just can't get at them. They're so tart, I think I'll put them with blueberries and make more jam.I'll come back and check on things again in a few days just to make sure all is well. I know this is hard on her.

An Overnight Adventure

So, Meg has asked me to check in on things every so often and I have a class in Mansfield today and tomorrow so I decided to camp out here tonight to lessen my commute.

The day actually turned out to be beautiful! The weatherman was mostly right I suppose. I opened up windows and shut off the air because it is only 70 outside and there is an amazing breeze. Man if only the whole summer could feel like this.

I decided to spend a majority of the afternoon and evening outside and was able to work up a sweat. I pulled weeds and picked currants and walked through the yard. When it started to get dark I went out and gathered the weeds to throw out and startled deer that were in the yard. I watched them bound off for a minute.Finally I went in and decided to get out my craft tote (I hardly go anywhere without it). I could have watched tv, but I never have figured out how to use their insane remote. So I crafted several cards instead.I figure this could mean "happy _______" fill in the blank... birthday, anniversary, heck even Easter. Versatility is the key!This one is really shimmery and would make a great anniversary or wedding card.Our school colors are royal blue and gray so this will make the perfect card for one of the graduating seniors next year. Those kids will make me feel old. I started teaching them when they were in first grade and now they're graduating. They gave me fits, but I loved those kids, and I got to teach some of them 2 or 3 times during those 12 years. It's amazing how time flies...

What weather!

After the terrible weather we had yesterday I made sure to check the forecast before heading out this morning. I was told it was "clear and sunny" with a 0% chance for precipitation. Yippee! Then I got in my car and was maybe 5 miles from home when...

After the Storm

It stormed like crazy today, all day! The roof leaked, the power went out, and at the very end the sky did this crazy thing where it kept changing colors coloring everything else in weird tints. It went from green to yellow to orange to purple, then finally to this brilliant reddish sunset. It was beautiful. made me almost forget what a yucky day it had been.

Making Jam

I stopped at Meg's today to check on things...never got to see Merlin, but I did get to pick a few raspberries and some currants. I'll have to come back soon for the rest of the currants, they're ripe but being overgrown by weeds, so they're difficult to get to. I decided to make some jam... 2 jars, one for me and one for her. Yum!

A Friends' Night Out

Today was a great day. Brandi kept Preston so we could all go out for the night. We started the evening by meeting Elizabeth at the West Side Market in Cleveland. I'd love to go back again sometime earlier in the day. Many shops were closed or closing, but it was still a great experience. We bought some fudge and some beef jerky (Michael Simon's favorite). Then we found some amazing dried fruits and vegetables. Let me tell you dried green beans are wonderful!We had quite awhile to wait between the time the market closed and our dinner reservation, so we wandered over to Great Lakes Brewing Company for some drinks. We went down into the cellar and sat near the fermentation tanks. Their website describes it as The Beer Cellar: a beautiful turn-of-the-century “rathskeller” complete with stone walls, brick floors, fermentation tanks and a wooden bar. Beautiful doesn't quite describe it... it's a pretty awesome place with great beer and an amazing artichoke dip that I could have eaten on anything!So we got to Momocho a bit early, it was a nice walk from the brewery, and our table was ready for us. Dinner was amazing. We started with the guacamole sampler - smoked trout and bacon, spicy pineapple with habanero peppers, and tomato with goat cheese. Wow, were they good (in fact even their plain old tomato salsa was wonderful!) Then we ordered amazing taquitos. Dustin and I each got one that had been featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. He tried the coffee crusted brisket and I got the duck confit. Both were amazing. We especially loved the green sauce that they simply call their "salsa verde", but is so much more than salsa verde that you've had anywhere else. Dustin even got a cucumber margarita that we all had to sample (so yummy!). We decided since we don't get to do something like this every night we'd go all out and we even got dessert, 2 in fact. Their gingersnap and jalapeno bread pudding was the most amazing desert I've ever eaten (don't forget I have an addiction to bread). But everyone else thought the horchata rice pudding with almond brittle was the best. I think we made two very good choices!

We passed all of our dishes for everyone to sample, we passed our phones so everyone could get pictures of food and friends, and it was just a perfect evening. We could go back and have another amazing dinner, but it wouldn't be the same as the first time shared with wonderful friends.This isn't the best picture ever, but it will be a great reminder of that evening.

Game Night

Well Dave couldn't make it, but Brandi got to visit. Lemon Chicken for dinner was amazing - I'll have to get the recipe (And it was served with mashed potatoes - does she know me or what?) We played a pile of games and I have these bits of advice to pass along...
1. Resist the chocolate wine - it's not as good an idea as it sounds
2. Don't play as my partner in Euchre - apparently I have a curse against winning
3. Video games are a bad idea - avoid them especially after drinking


Preston loves this toy airplane, and played with it constantly. They can't wait till he can push himself around while riding it.
He is fascinated with the cats and Dustin. He especially likes pulling leg hair.
No Kitty, my blankie. Jasper is digging in hoping Preston will give up, but Preston wins and the blanket is back with its rightful owner...poor Jasper.

A visit with the Beery's

This weekend we have big plans! They start with heading to Tony and Sammi's today. We'll visit and eat (and drink) and hopefully play some games. It sounds like Dave might even be able to make it. We haven't seen Dave and Elizabeth in forever! It will be great to catch up.

Another driving adventure

If I've said it once I've said it a million (ok, maybe 3) times... A drive can take you amazing places.

On the way back from fishing Mom said something about, "That's the woods where you girls grew up." My mom and Jim built a house in the woods when I was just a baby and we lived there until I was 11. It was an amazing house and I have so many memories there (that I'll share another time). Dad said, "Wanna drive by?". I was sure Mom wouldn't want to because I'm sure it doesn't hold nearly as many good memories for her as it does for Laura and I. But she said sure. So we turned down Galvin road and took a quick trip down Memory Lane.

First house on the street used to be a house trailer in a woods. We weren't allowed to go there very often, but when we could get away with it we loved it! They had a real woods, the kind you could almost get lost in, and as kids this was just the type of off-limits place where we were dying to play. The trailer is gone, and it's a house now, but the woods looks the same. What memories.

On the other side of the woods was the Snyder house. We got to play here a little more often than the woods. Leigh would sometimes invite us over to her house to play video games in her living room (and by video games I mean Atari) and sometimes we'd go play in the barns - completely against the rules. Sometimes her cousin Kristi would come play too.

Now there's a new house on that side of the street that wasn't there before. It looked odd, out of place.

Next came Troy White's house. He lived on the same side of the street that we did. We weren't supposed to play with him, but I'm not sure why. he had a big Doberman and he liked to ride a dirt bike. He was a rebel I guess.

After the big cornfield was our house. It's grown up quite a bit since I lived there. Often when you go back to a place you knew as a kid it seems so much smaller, because you were so much smaller... but this seemed so much bigger. I couldn't see a lot of the places where I made so many memories, but I could see the front porch where Mom took "first-day-of-school pictures before I got on the bus, and the front yard where we played kickball (great thing having a big family - enough for kickball teams) - "Across the road is a homerun!" I tried to snap a picture as we drove, but it was a blur - metaphorically so I suppose. I'll probably go back someday to take some pictures that do it justice, that help me retell more of the story of my childhood.

Last house on the block, the Wolfram's. This one I did get a picture of.I remember many things about Bob and Barbara Wolfram. Barbara was my fifth grade math teacher. Bob tended a giant strawberry patch and let us come and pick buckets full. (Hey, I wonder how he kept the rabbits out? Maybe he had so many strawberries that a few rabbits didn't matter.) The Wolfram's took care of our pets when they wandered over into their yard (or house). The Wolfram boys put up with us throwing mudpies from our playhouse at them as they mowed the lawn. They were a special kind of neighbor, the kind I don't think exists much anymore.

See that tree in front? I toilet-papered that tree during a birthday party. Fun story. My mom finally let me have a birthday party sleepover. I invited all of my friends - 10 maybe. But someone else decided to have a sleepover on the same night so I think only 2 girls came. I was disappointed, but we made the best of it. I even let Laura pretend to be one of my friends for the night.

Mom had us all change into PJs before she went to bed. We stayed up late watching Friday Night Videos (this was before MTV was around), and when the channel went off the air for the night (yes, they used to do that) we put our jean jackets on over our flannel nightgowns and headed out with a package of toilet paper to the Wolfram's. We were sure they would catch us because they had one of those newfangled motion sensor lights that kept going on and off. Oh yeah, back to that tree... I threw a roll of toilet paper up and it got caught in the tree, and instead of just leaving it there I decided I could knock it out if I threw my jean jacket up at it. So then the toilet paper was free and my jean jacket was caught in the tree... kids just never think things through properly do they?

The best part of this story? The Wolfram's paid Laura and I to clean up the toilet paper mess the next morning... I still wonder if they knew it was us.

Fishing is not boring anymore!

Grandpa asked the boys if they wanted to go fishing today. They seemed only mildly excited about the idea. Ethan complained that it is boring because he never catches anything. Grandpa assured them that this would be different because he was taking them somewhere special. We loaded up in the van and took quite a drive. I worried that the boys would get restless as the trip took longer and longer, but they were troopers. (It really wasn't that far, 15 minutes maybe, but with a creek within walking distance I didn't understand why we were going so far away.) But Grandpa was right, this place was different! The pond was so well stocked that you had a fish on the hook before you could even lower it into the water! I think each of the boys caught more than 10 fish. Then Grandpa asked them, "So what do you boys think about fishing?" and Ethan said "Fishing isn't boring here. This is the best vacation ever!"

We discovered it was better for Issac if he didn't fish with bait. He was terrified of the fish once it got reeled in, and nearly went off the side of the dock into the pond several times.

We stayed up past midnight doing what??

So my creative passion is card-making. It started several years ago when some friends invited me to a Stampin' Up! party. I quickly became obsessed and well, the rest is history. But Christina has always been fascinated. As I've said before I don't get to visit my family nearly as often as I'd like, and the visits are never very long. Well Christina has started asking me to bring things to make cards so she can do it with me. So even knowing I was only staying 2 short days and that a lot of the time was spoken for with activities, I still dragged along my gigantic tote of supplies I sometimes take when I'll be away from home for an extended period and need a few creative accessories to help me pass the time.

So after getting home from Girl's Night at 10:30 I asked Christina if she was tired and when she said no I got out the tote and took over Mom's dining room table. Laura and Christina jumped right in, Mom had to be convinced. She didn't join us for about an hour. But we sat making cards together until 12:30. I've never gotten to share this passion of mine with my family except by giving them cards. It was so amazing to sit and be creative with them. Laura made 4-5 cards, Christina made 5 cards (and 6 more today), I made 4 that I left for Christina to give to friends, and Mom made 2. It was the best ending to girl's night I could imagine.

A two-day getaway

So today I am going to get to go visit with my family again. I hardly ever get to see them two times this close together, but Laura's still in town and we have a "girl's night" planned!

Before heading out I decided to check on the strawberries again. It's a lost cause. I don't know what I'm doing and the brown rabbit keeps eating all of them. I've stood at the top of the stairs and looked out the window and watched hem stripping the plant clean. Sometimes he will just take one or two bites out of a big beautiful berry and then leave it there for the ants to finish off - what a nice guy. He even eats the hard green berries that won't be ripe for days. I keep thinking about last year when the plant was in a planter on the porch - all those strawberries. I had so many I made jam, froze some, and just gave some away. Not this year. I'd almost stopped checking... almost. Then I found these two little lovelies, and I do mean little. The small one is smaller than a fingernail, so don't let the picture fool you. But I was able to pick two ripe strawberries, if nothing more than to just keep them away from that darn rabbit.
And then it was time to leave for Mom's. I had to take a detour - and I hate detours. I am not a fan really of driving in unfamiliar places, especially in the middle of the country where winding one lane roads can quickly have you going in the opposite direction of your destination. But as I've said before driving adventures can hold amazing surprises... This road really is beautiful, even if I can't see what's on the other side of the hill.
Are you kidding me? Is that a covered bridge? My detour through the middle of nowhere led to a covered bridge.
Parker Bridge built in 1873 by J.C. Davis - what an amazing adventure this turned out to be!
It had been a completely beautiful day until I got close to Mom's. The closer I got the worse the clouds looked. Then the sky opened up and the wind nearly took me off the road. I (and many others) had to pull off the highway to wait a bit until I had decent visibility and the wind died down a bit. We got reports later of tornadoes and semis being flipped, so I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the worst of it.

Tonight was "Girl's Night". Mom, Laura, Kara, Christina, and I (Holly and Becky had last minute changes in plans and couldn't join us) ended up at Golden Corral in Ft. Wayne. The food was so-so, the service was terrible, but the company was amazing - I wouldn't have changed a thing. We discovered we all felt the perfect vacation would be RVing across America (if someone else was going to foot the bill and we could do anything or go anywhere). I guess we're pretty down to Earth...an extravagant vacation might be nice, but we all really like spending time with our families and doing more normal things.

Today's a sad day

Today my friend Meg leaves for Arizona for the summer. She assures me she'll be back, but the "for sale" sign in front of her house haunts me. I will try not to think about it so much. She said I could stop by and sit on the porch with her and drink a cup of coffee before she left this morning, but she was going awfully early, even earlier than I could get there.

As I approached her exit on my way to class this was the cloud I saw looming - I guess the sky felt the same way I did about her leaving.
And then there was breakfast... Yesterday was Starbucks today will be Panara. And of course I could just get a coffee, but why skip all the lovely yummy possibilities for breakfast foods? So I decided on a "new release" - the ham and swiss quiche (more yummy than I can explain) and an iced chai latte. Is this the most perfect breakfast or what?

I wanted to stop at Meg's on the way home - to walk through the empty house and check on Merlin, but I resisted. She only left this morning, things are fine, I'd only make myself sad.

When I got home from class this is what I found! I have some ripe tomatoes, these are the first of the season. This is the symbol of summer, and getting to pluck them off and bring them in made my day!

A Class and a Drive

I started a 2-day workshop today in Mansfield. I have to get up early, leave early, and get there early... so I decided I'd treat myself with Starbucks this morning. I got an iced Cinnamon Dolce and loved every sip. It got me all the way to lunch at which point I tried out The Golden Corral. Wish I had gone somewhere a little closer and cheaper - the food was good, but I had to gobble it down so fast... I wrapped some treats in napkins and stuck them in my purse for later. (And by treats I don't mean desserts, I mean bread! Rolls, cornbread, and a cheddar garlic scone, yummm. Breads are a close second to potatoes when talking about favorite foods I think.)
So after my class let out I decided to drive to Marion to the teacher store that's going out of business. I'll be sad to see it go, but I didn't visit it nearly often enough. The drive from Mansfield to Marion isn't a bad one, about 45 minutes down 309, but I'd never driven it before so it was"an adventure".I passed some familiar landmarks along the way, like this sign for rt 100 which I travel daily, and another for rt 19 which I also travel daily. I drove through some small towns that I'd heard of before but didn't know where they were. And it was beautiful. Nothing so out of the ordinary, fields, and farms, and small towns... but different from the ones I see every day.
And a farmer's market along the side of the road. it seemed very well stocked for this early in the season, but I didn't have time to stop unfortunately, just to snap a quick picture as I passed.

But then... at a stop light just a mile from Marion I glanced over and saw the 2 most amazing words - GOURMET CUPCAKES. Well you better believe I turned around at the first available drive and went back to find out more. Ta Die For - Gourmet Cupcakes was the buried treasure on my drive from Mansfield to Marion. I bought 4 delicious creations : The Alpine (dark chocolate and minty goodness), Just Peachy (a cupcake loaded with fresh peaches and topped with a nutmeg and brown sugar frosting - my favorite of the bunch), Tropical (full of macadamia nuts and coconut and pineapple), and the Buckeye (a chocolate cupcake with a pocket of peanut butter inside). Proving you just never know what you might find when you take a driving adventure.

More from Father's Day

I took about 10 pictures of this event - grandkids on the swing with grandma and papa- and this really was the best one. It's kind of an impossible thing to get 9 children to understand that if we could just get one good picture they'd all be able to go back and play some more. Left to right: Issac, Caleb, Ethan, Lilly, Renee, Adelyn, Ema behind Eliza, and Eva.
Even Laura got involved in the rough and tumble game of kickball. Eric had to attend to the collision in centerfield.
What happened to kids begin hams for the camera? Only Ema was nice enough to smile and not hide behind her drink.
Ah summer... water+cup=happy kid

Father's Day

I took so many pictures today. Some days just are so much more special than others... and when most of my large family can get together to celebrate our dad, it's one of those days. Even Laura and the boys from California were in town - this day was priceless.
This is just part of my beautiful family. Laura with her pregnant belly (little boy number 4 is on the way), Kara halfway between one surgery and another, Christina the baby of the family who's so not a baby anymore, and my wonderful Mama. I am so blessed. (Missing from picture Brad my baby brother, Dad who the day was for, Holly who would get there later, and Tyler who would also get there later) - told you it was a big family.
This is what it's all about! Relaxing in the sun (or shade) shoes off just getting caught up with the people I love.
Issac just wanted to swim... and he didn't care that he still had his clothes on!
If only we could all look this good at 55 and 79!!! Are these the most beautiful women you've ever seen or what?