Chatbug Karen

My son and his wife are so sweet. They bought me a wonderful mother’s day gift. Now, I am not complaining because they really should not have bought me anything but they waited forever to give it to me! I am not good at waiting but this was worth it. Aren’t these pretty?

I was looking through pictures and found one I had taken while visiting our son and his wife in St. Louis.
I have been thinking how time goes by so quickly. One minute we are ordering baptism invitations from invitationbox.com and the next we are watching our son practice law. It sounds melancholy but my friends who have graduating seniors, really need to give their kids big hugs. They do grow up quickly!

There is a tradition being made in our family. Our son has always been a fashion connoisseur of sorts. When he was 3, he insisted on wearing his black cowboy boots to church. I didn’t mind but he got some strange looks since it was summer and he was wearing shorts. You know, “pick your battles”. When Greg was in high school, he was very clothes conscious and liked to dress up. Whenever there was a special occasion, whether required or not, he wore a suit. He was especially fond of shirts that required cuff links. We have checked out superhero cuff links, fraternity cufflinks and others but my favorite cufflinks are the ones we found in Washington DC to commemorate his internship with Senator Bayh. Just recently, my husband and I sent Greg a pair of Indian head penny cufflinks to commemorate his internship coming up this summer. It is fun to know that Greg likes cufflinks as much as we enjoy finding unique ones to celebrate his accomplishments.

If you haven’t noticed, our dogs rule the roost around our house. I have been bugging my husband by telling him we need to buy a motorhome. Hubby likes to travel and while I also like to travel, I don’t want to leave our dogs at home or put them up at the doggie hotel. Hubby thinks we have to pay for a motorhome! Why is there always a roadblock?

Take a look at this picture. It looks as if they are saying, “what? You want us to write a pronexin review? Do we get bacon for that? Does it require us to move?

When the kids are visiting, any healthy eating goes out the window. I refuse to listen to hemo rage reviews and read information about diet supplements! Life is to be enjoyed and when my family gets together, we entertain around the dinner table. Last Tuesday was my birthday and so, my daughter and I decided to make a cake. I recommended cherry chip because that is her favorite birthday cake and since we didn’t get to celebrate with her in January, we could eat her cake now. My favorite dessert is cheesecake. We put the two together and came up with this recipe. We were in the grocery store looking up recipes on her iPhone. I love being able to do that. Too bad I am too cheap to get a phone like that for myself. My son has web access on his phone too and was able to make us dinner reservations while en route to the restaurant. It was fun being seated ahead of the crowd of people lined up at the door.

Cheese cake recipe
from halfhourmeals.com
2-8oz packages cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
9in graham cracker crust
chop up cherries
Beat ingredients together, mix in cherries, bake at 350 for 30 min. Add desired topping, bake 10mins, til center is set.

My daughter, the culinary guru, sent me pictures she had taken last Tuesday. She attended a culinary show in Orlando. Yes, my lucky daughter, who loves snow, lives in sunny Florida. She does not deal in cctv cameras, she deals in food. All types of food. She loves to cook! Eeew!

I had to share her version of an interesting frog display:

and then I have my version:

I finally received a link to look at my nephews wedding pictures. I seems like it takes a long time for photographers to get photos together even these days with digital being the most productive way to get pictures available for purchase.

I enjoyed looking at the pictures and it brought back memories of the entire day. Before the wedding date, my future niece was very anxious about the weather. She talked about getting wedding insurance or at least wedding cancellation insurance because the wedding was to be held outdoors. I never heard whether she invested in the wedding insurance but I think I would have. Wedding cancellation insurance can cover a number of things and can be customized to fit the needs of each couple. Supplier deposits and rentals can be very expensive and one never knows when something like illness or rain will happen. Luckily, the day was beautiful in every way. The only glitch was when a train came through and drowned out the bride’s portion of their vows. I’m not sure that even wedding insurance could have kept that from happening. Everyone laughed and it broke the tension. I noticed that the photographer got pictures of the train as it traveled down the tracks that were right next to the wedding location. It was so funny.

Yesterday, in an effort to avoid yard work, my husband decided we would hit the road. He only planned to go down highway 29. We invited both of our moms to go and they enthusiastically accepted the invite. They always love it when they can ride without having to decide what time to be somewhere and how to get there. I do too!

We were told there would be a test. We had to remember the names of all the little towns we went through. Ha! I don’t think my husband could remember the names himself. It was fun looking at the beautiful farmhouses. The flower beds are at their peak right now and have beautiful blooms and huge sunflowers.

One sight that we happened upon that surprised us was hundreds of cigars with fans that were popping out of the ground near Reynolds, Indiana. I am not exaggerating when I say there were hundreds of windmills all across the country side. As far as our eyes could see, there were these majestic towers with their huge blades turning in the wind. They produce electricity.

I read in our local paper just last week, farmers in our area are being approached to see if they would agree to have windmills placed on their land. There are pros and cons to having these giant monstrosities placed near ones home. I have heard that they are loud but then other people who have them near their homes say they are not noticeable. I think we will see more of them across the flat land here in Indiana. Do you have them where you live?

For a year, I had a “save the date” magnet on my refrigerator announcing that my nephew and his fiance had set the date of their wedding. That day arrived this past weekend and we all had a wonderful time.

The wedding and reception were both held at the Mavris Arts & Event Center in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It was an evening wedding so we were treated to an exceptional view of the skyline. The ceremony was held outdoors and we were treated to a train blowing its whistle during the bride’s portion of the vows. It broke the tension and was very funny.

We all moved indoors for the reception. The building was a restored warehouse so the ambiance was beautiful with soft lighting, brick walls and wood floors. We enjoyed horsdoeuvres and drinks and helped ourselves to slices of a beautiful wedding cake. Dancing ensued along with the traditional throwing of the bouquet and garter.

The bride and groom make a good fit, in my opinion, and are happily honeymooning in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado.

My husband likes to look nice when wearing casual clothes but he never likes to take the time to shop. A few weekends I gently prodded him to the men’s department of JC Penney and helped him pick out a new suit. We are going to a wedding tomorrow. He found some nice navy slacks and a beige blazer that will look nice. He also bought a new shirt and tie. He does need new socks but we forgot about them. He will have to wear his old ones and hope no one looks hard at them. LOL

I was shocked when he picked out a pair of shorts. He has worn them every day after he takes off his work clothes. He even had me wash them and dry them so he could put them back on! I decided he needed more than one pair so I checked out the codes for online coupons and ordered him two more pair plus a pair of docker type shoes to go with. He is stylin’!

Sometimes, a wife just has to push a little.