Momof3gurlz

Aww what a sweetie! No wonder you’ve all fallen in love with her.

Well like it or not, you’ve gotten a lot of responses! I am sorry for the loss of your dear friend and the heartless way you learned about it. But I really wanted to comment on your thoughts about the upcoming birthday. I turned 65 in March of 2022 and it honestly didn’t phase me. I’ve always felt and thought “it’s just a number”. But 66 was a little harder this year. I seem to have to keep reminding myself that it’s just a number. ( I suspect it has something to do with the fact that my Mom passed away at age 67.) So I (and some others here) know how you feel about those big numbers!

@ReneeFLL beautiful orchid photos Renee. I wish I had a green thumb but unfortunately mine is more of a black thumb, I kill pretty much everything. Do you have a specific room for yours or can they be kept around the house? @dani negreanu thank you for sharing the cheesecake recipe! I love the idea of Greek yogurt to make it lighter and also the pistachio topping. We’ve been busy getting the yard and pool area ready for summer. My big project was to recover some patio cushions that had seen better days. We shopped around at Lowe’s, Home Depot, the local porch and patio store as well as Wayfair and could mir find any we liked in the right size. The interior’s cushion was still in good shape so because I have a sewing machine and some skills I took on the challenge. I found some outdoor fabric at Joann Fabrics. I successfully recovered a chair about 10 years ago so figured, how hard could this be? Well let me tell you, the next time these cushions need recovering we will just buy a new patio set LOL. They were an absolute b*%#*.

Trying to catch up a little before a busy weekend coming up. @Sea Dog I hope your internet issues are resolved or will be soon. That has to be so frustrating. @Arzeena best wishes to you and RJ in your new home. May you have many many happy years there. Congrats to the athletes, Owen @A&L_Ont and @h20skibum grandson on their winning seasons. @George C have a great trip to NY, Weather in the Northeast looks spectacular for the next several days. @jmh2006 enjoy your visit to Baton Rouge and safe travels! We have our granite being installed today on the new island and then it’s complete. Andy opened the pool earlier this week, just in time for a stretch of really nice weather coming up. (I expect to see some beach pics @Ocean Boy) I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend whatever your plans are!

For the readers here, I have a new recommendation. I joined a FB book club which I don’t participate in at all, I just follow it to see what books people suggest and what the various comments and opinions are. Anyway, one kept coming up that I would never have picked up on my own but it was excellent. It’s called West With Giraffes by Linda Rutledge. I’d describe it as historical fiction but it’s based on the true story of two giraffes shipped to the US from Africa. They arrived on the east coast in the middle of the 1938 hurricane. The story tells of their journey across the US to the San Diego Zoo. But the fictional story is so much more than that.

Whether you have the money or not, that’s just insane. We had the kids here for dinner Friday night. Jess & Ali were stalking last minute ticket prices that were dropping rapidly the closer it got to the concert start time. From over $ 1,000 at around 6 pm, some were down to the $ 400 range by 8 pm. They cooked up a plan to try again last night. Cristina was supposed to drive up today to be in RI for work meetings all week, but they convinced her to drive up yesterday instead to join their quest. So the three of them headed to Gillette Stadium around 6:30 pm, hoping for the best. They didn’t end up getting tickets because they had all agreed $500 was their max, each. Tickets did drop some last night but adding in fees, etc brought the cost well over their budgets. But they had parked and walked, so they got as close as possible and ended up at Patriot Place (shopping & dining venue attached to the stadium) where they heard the whole concert, even if they couldn’t see her. Looks like a lot of folks did the same. The girls spent their money on t-shirts and sweatshirts instead and said they had a blast.

Congratulations to Erin! Today certainly looks like a much better day for graduation than yesterday was. We went out to dinner with friends last night, down near the beaches (when we made these plans we didn’t count on monsoon type weather). There were several large parties celebrating commencement weekend at URI, some of the new graduates still wearing their robes. I felt bad they had such a terrible weather day for their big event.

@dani negreanu the photos of your getaway to Marrakech and Madrid are beautiful. Do you have any other travel plans in the near future? Andy keeps saying he ‘needs a vacation’. We have two big trips coming up. First is our big family trip to Disney in August. This includes us taking the two oldest grandsons on a 3 nighter on Independence of the Seas immediately before the family meets up in WDW. Then in September we have our Med cruise with additional days in Venice, Rome and Barcelona. We’re also not keen on big vacations during the summer months when we have the beaches here in RI and our own pool to enjoy. So to satisfy his itch to go somewhere, and for his birthday next month, it looks like one of the following: a) staycation (ie: do nothing lol) b) Atlantic City (we have up to 3 free nights at Harrah’s from his casino status) which would include spending days at Ocean City and Cape May. c) trip to Cleveland to visit the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. This one may win out since the Red Sox will be playing there on the days we’d likely go. What travel plans do “all y’all” have coming up in the next few months?

Great gift idea, well done Linda! Wishing you a very Happy Birthday Greg 🎂

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mom’s. We all had a nice brunch today at daughter Jessica’s, along with her in-laws. All the men did the cooking and cleaning. Then Andy and I went to the garden center and bought ten 4ft tall arborvitae to plant as a hedge to conceal the pool heater, filter and the AC unit along the back of the house. I woke up to these this morning from Andy. He’s a keeper. (Ignore my temporary plywood countertop)

Really beautiful piece!

I’m back from my grandson-sitting gig in PA and finally rested up from that gig. Those are three busy, active boys. The running, jumping, falling and thumping noises don’t stop until bedtime. Nor does the non-stop eating. But I loved being with them for 6 days & nights. Which ties into our retirement plan. When we were young, we always talked about retiring somewhere down south, either Florida or South Carolina. We both hate the cold weather and winter and we both love living close to beaches. That idea went out the window when we became grandparents. We just don’t want to be that far from our grandkids, or even our daughters and SIL’s. Being a 5 hour drive from our oldest and her family is hard enough, for us anyway. RI isn’t very tax friendly for retirees, but many things in life are a trade-off and we’re happy with our choice (maybe not so much in February lol). The old kitchen island is gone and Andy has starting installing the new one. I’ll post before & after pictures when it’s done. @dani negreanu I want to add my thoughts and prayers for the continued safety of you and your family 🙏.

Mmmm, I love those grilled tomatoes.

Happy happy and hope you’re having a great cruise.

Enjoy all those activities and watching your grandchildren participate!

Safe travels Bonnie and I hope you have a wonderful visit with your family!

Hope you’re back to 100% very soon Debbie.

I didn’t watch any coverage of the coronation, just reading about it online. This may be a silly question, but why does it appear that Queen Camilla’s crown is larger than King Charles’?

Happy Anniversary l! Such joy on your faces, truly the look of love.

My new kitchen island cabinetry is in and is sitting in the garage. We sold the old island on Marketplace and stipulated that the buyer had to remove it from the house, which eliminates the need for Andy to organize people to help him do it. The buyer and three other guys will pick it up Thursday, then my ‘contractor’ (Andy) can get to work installing the new one. I’ll have a plywood countertop until they can measure for the granite and it comes in.

It looks great George! Lots of storage in that pantry.

Gorgeous weather day here in PA. I took these two to a local park & playground and miracle of miracles, they actually got along and played together. They’re normally like oil & water. My oldest grandson went to ‘the shore’ overnight with his BFF and family. The boys are looking forward to watching the Kentucky Derby later and we’ve each made our pick for the winner (based solely on the names we like lol)

Exciting times for him! I always referred to this as a double edged sword. On the one hand, it’s a relief when they can finally drive themselves to all the places they need to be; on the other hand, they’re driving themselves!

@A&L_Ont adding our wishes for a Happy 16th Birthday to Owen!

I’m down in PA babysitting the grandsons while oldest DD Cristina & her DH are off to her 40th birthday trip, an AI in Mexico. Andy’s wrapping up a bathroom tile project this weekend so he’ll take the train down Monday to join me. DD & SIL get home Tuesday and we’re taking them & the boys to Flemings for dinner, her choice. In a last minute change of plans this morning, I ended up having to drive Andy’s truck down as my suv appeared to be leaking some kind of fluid. His truck drives very nice, not truck like at all, it’s just so da*n big! But I made it, albeit driving quite a bit slower than I’d drive my own. Also, I can’t park it to save my life. Here’s a shot at the service area I stopped at for a coffee & restroom break 😂. I doubt others trying to park there found it as funny as I did.