212/365 - Reading

This is a very common sight these days. Even on Friday nights at Grandma's. I guess I can't complain; she comes from a long line of passionate readers.

211/365 - Such a good Mama

Mama and baby bird outside my kitchen window. I couldn't take too many pictures because I took the screen off the window to get the picture and Izzy was VERY curious.

210/365 - Worms in dirt

Tonight we had a fun snack in Prims. Worms in dirt. Chocolate pudding cup. Crushed oreos on top. Gummy worms placed in the pudding, looking like they were crawling out. The girls loved them (be advised, very messy when making them with 16 girls)!!

209/365 - Rose of Sharon flower

This is a flower from my Rose of Sharon bush. I wanted to take a picture of the whole bush, but I waited too long and it is past its peak. There are still some pretty flowers on it though.

208/365 - Covered bridge

I know this is cheating! I had wanted to post this picture of me and Paul in the covered bridge in Grafton on Sunday, but I also wanted to post the picture of the Grafton quote so I will post the bridge picture today! This covered bridge was right outside the Grafton Village Cheese Company. Right in front of the bridge was a picnic table where we had cheese and crackers. I thought it would be fun to take a "timer" picture of us in the bridge. I missed having dinner with the family, but it was also nice to relax and go for a ride.

207/365 - Apple pie without some cheese

Today we went to Grafton, Vt. to the Grafton Village Cheese Company. While we were in the store I saw a sign on the wall. My mother-in-law used to say this almost every time we had apple pie. I was so used to the saying that I was surprised to find that it was not familiar to most people. Her middle name was Grafton (an old family name), and this sign was in Grafton, Vt. Maybe there is a connection, who knows!

206/365 - Old transcription system

I know this is not a good picture, but I wanted to document this. If you have been reading the Twitter Updates on my blog, you know that we are in the midst of learning a new software system at my work. We have also had to work on cleaning out the transcription on the old system. Today I worked overtime to try and finish it up. This picture shows the last job on the old system. Wa Hoo! Now we can really concentrate on keeping up with the new system (I really am getting too old for all this new technology!)

Mason's First Bath at Grandma's

Mason had his first bath at Grandma's tonight. He loved it. He just sat there and let Janelle soap him all up, staring at all of us staring at him. Is he just the cutest thing? I just wish Marley had been there to see it (see Project 365).

205/365 - Friday night

This was a different Friday night. Last Sunday Mark mentioned that since he had to work the next Sunday that they might come over on Friday night. I thought it would work out good for Marley and also Big Baba. Well, it turned out that Marley went to the camper with her other grandparents for the weekend and Big Baba went away for the day. Kris and Toby, along with Mark, Janelle and Mason came for dinner; steaks and chicken on the grill. It was a fun night and Mark said that they might make it a regular on the weekends he has to work on Sunday. I told him that he would have to eat cerael though. That is what Marley always requests for Friday nights!

204/365 - Lido's

This picture of Lido's restaurant shows the top part of the building. I have always wondered what that was used for. Tonight Paul asked the owner about it. He said there were apartments up there and Lido's also has an office up there. It was a kind of boring answer, not too exciting. Maybe someday when it is not so busy in there we can get him talking about the "old days" of Lido's.

I have also talked about Lido's in Debbie's Blog, on the May 21, 2009 post if anyone is interested.

203/365 - Sunny Man

Meet Sunny, aka Sunny Man. He belongs to Kristen, Toby and Marley. Kristen was showing me some new clothes that she had just bought for Marley and, of course, Sunny had to jump right in the middle of them, in pure cat fashion.

You have now met all of my family's cats - my cat Izzy, Kris and Toby's cat Sunny, Mark and Janelle's cat Remy, my aunt Dot's cat Zeuss. That is every cat but one - Big Baba's cat Cel (short for cellar cat; that is a story for another day). But you probably won't ever see her. She hides whenever we go over there. I think I have only seen her once - under the bed.

202/365 - James Bond

We reserved a Redbox movie on line tonight, James Bond Quantum of Solace.

201/365 - Queen Anne's Lace

The Queen Anne's Lace are out in full force. This was one of my mother-in-law Priscilla's favorite flowers. Seeing them always reminds me of her.

200/365 - Mason's New Favorite Position

This is Mason's new favorite position. Whenever he is fussy, this seems to calm him down. So cute!

199/365 - The Sprinkler

Today was the first time Marley has played in the sprinkler this year at Grandma's. She can still occupy herself with a little bit of water for hours!

198/365 - Up

Paul, Marley and I went to see the movie "Up" tonight. It was funny (hysterical at times), sweet, sad, and scary all at once. We LOVED it!! We give it 4 stars.

197/365 - Crazy Izzy

We had a thunderstorm tonight and Izzy could hear the rain pinging on the air conditioner. She sat on top of the games and looked up at the air conditioner for the longest time. She even tried to get her paw in there. She does the craziest things!

Throwback Thursday - Steiger's and Forbes Department Store

These are pictures of Albert Steiger and Forbes & Wallace taken from a 1950 phone book at the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum at the Quadrangle in Springfield. Steiger's and Forbes were favorite places to shop when I was young. Dot and I used to go downtown on Thursday nights for her to shop. I could never understand how she could try so many things on and buy nothing. Now I completely understand. My high school friend Cheryl Walker and I use to spend so much time downtown, mostly window shopping (although she had quite a clothes allowance, so she did more actual shopping).

196/365 - So small...

When I was leaving to go to work this morning, this baby bird was on my front sidewalk. He was so small and didn't even move while I was taking his picture (there was quite a racket coming from the tree nearby though).

Stuff the shirt

Tonight in Prims we play a game; stuff the shirt. Two teams, two X-large t-shirts, same amount of balloons for each team. The first team to stuff all their balloons under the t-shirt wins. The girls loved it!

195/365 - Priscilla's Daylilies

I have been wanting to weed and clean up around Priscilla's grave, and also see how the daylilies were doing. We went there today. I was so happy to see that the flowers were doing beautifully.

These daylilies originally came from Priscilla's grandmother's house in Plymouth, where she and her sister and brothers had spent their childhood summers. Priscilla always said that these daylilies were special because they had a double flower on each of them instead of the more common single flower daylily. She planted them at her house at 30 Kay St., and when they moved to Agawam, I planted some of them at her new house on Yale Ave. I also decided that I needed some of them at my own house. Now they have made it to her grave.

Such a long journey for these beautiful flowers!

194/365 - Posterized

Playing around with Photoshop Elements. I like myself posterized!

193/365 - Mason at 5 weeks

How cute is he? Mason will be five weeks old tomorrow!

A day at the salon

These are some pictures of Marley after her visit to Daisy Doos, a salon for girls. She went to a birthday party there today. They had their hair and nails done, and also had a fashion show. Quite the pampering going on!

192/365 - Daisy Doos

Marley went to a birthday party today at Daisy Doos, a salon for girls. They had their hair and nails done. Ooh la la!!

191/365 - Friday Night

Friday night. Big Baba and Marley.

190/365 - A bunny visitor

This is what we saw when we pulled into our driveway tonight. We sat in the car for awhile watching him (I think he was playing dead; he didn't move a muscle). I love having bunnies in the yard. I probably wouldn't if I had a garden, but they are just so cute!

189/365 - The first daylilies of the year

Today was the first day that my daylilies bloomed. The first ones are always so exciting to see!

188/365 - Grandma and Mason

Kristen, Marley and I went over to visit Janelle and Mason tonight. Janelle wasn't feeling well and we were more than happy to "help out" by playing with Mason. He is 4 weeks old already!