Miscellaneous Monday

Happy Monday to you! Once a year farmers from the Palisade region on Colorado come down to the plains bringing their bounty of Peaches. Last Thursday hubby and I went to my favorite nursery in Fort Collins, where the farmer that I've bought peaches from in the past had set up a tent. I have found that one full box just isn't enough, so I got two this year. Although I used to can in California and 40-50 lbs of fruit was nothing compared to what I'd buy there, I am no longer canning, but simply slice them and put them in freezer bags. Although it sounds like a huge amount of fruit, it really isn't. So on Thursday, I made four peach-blueberry cobblers, three of which I gave away. On Friday, I started slicing them and putting them in freezer bags-I got 9 quart bags. I love freezing them because all winter I have them for baking or just dessert. Palisade Peaches are the best peaches I've ever had; in fact, I cut one up for my cereal today. I got 9 quart size bags out of the batch I cut up. Yesterday I made about 10 more quart bags to freeze. I still have more peaches, though I gave our next door neighbor some.

Thursday night our town had it's summer concert and it was fun. It was a beautiful summer evening and the band was so good.

The clouds and sky were incredible; we left when it started to rain.

I'm off to walk this morning and then I'm sure will have errands to run.
I hope you have a fantastic day-it's the last day of July; where has the summer gone!
Blessings,
Noreen

It's Thankful Thursday and I'm so thankful for the many, many blessings in my life. First of all for His grace and mercy who saved me. Also for family, love and for sight. These two pics I saw this morning while walking. As I've gotten older, my sight has declined(like it does for most of us)and I'm thankful for glasses that give me the ability to see. Don't know what this plant is, but it is so pretty.

I'm thankful for you dear friends who make life's journey so much sweeter.
Blessings to you and yours.
Noreen

The Love of Family

HAPPY WEDNESDAY TO YOU! As you know, last weekend my brother and sister of my heart were here for a visit. We had such an incredible time and Saturday our girls hosted a bbq for them. Look at this food, it was so good.

My brother with our youngest grandson.          Such precious memories were made for everyone.

The greatest Aunt and Uncle ever  held a contest for all the kiddos-they sent them boxes to decorate.
There were two categories-most creative and most unique(I think that is what the categories were).
One grand from each family won a $25.00 gift certificate to Chick fil A.  Boy was everyone excited.
Our time together always passes too quickly, but they'll be out in February to celebrate their 50th Anniversary.  We can't wait.
Hope you have a great day!
Joy to you.
Noreen

Butterflies

Happy Tuesday to you. On Sunday we were thrilled to see more butterflies in our yard than we've ever seen. We have several Purple Coneflower(Echinacea) and Black Eyed Susan plants which were drawing them. We only had a couple of Swallowtails, but tons of the other variety-which I'm not sure about. I loved seeing them and hope they continue to feed off the nectar in these plants.

I am heading to the pool this morning for time with the family; enjoying every last bit of summer.
Hope you have a great day.
Hugs,
Noreen

The Love of Family

Happy Monday to you all. We had the most fantastic weekend ever with our family. My brother and sister of my heart were out for a visit and we had such a relaxing, wonderful time with them. On Saturday evening we gathered at Carrie's house for a dinner prepared by Carrie and her hubby and Kim and her hubby. There will be more pics to follow, but Sue(sil)emailed me this yesterday. They left yesterday mid day to head home to Ca. and it is always so sad when we part. Life is precious and we cherish every minute we all get to spend together.

Kim, far left, Carrie, hubby and myself.  It was a wonderful evening and we all had a fantastic meal of bbq'd steak and mushroom kabobs, grilled squash from Kim's garden, roasted potatoes, kale salad, watermelon and Peach Cobbler with ice cream for dessert.  All 11 grands played until dusk when  they almost dropped and I have to say my dear brother brought a jelly bean game-you may have seen it....everyone gets to spin the dial and then take the jelly bean it lands on. The only issue is that the jelly bean can have one of two flavors-a good one or a awful one(I.e-Coconut or Spoiled Milk).  It was funny to see the expressions of everyone.  I have to say I got the dead fish one and I don't think I'll ever eat another jelly bean; so if you are addicted to them and want to quit, this game is for you. I am not sure how Jelly Belly got the flavors, but we had several people almost lose their cookies, if you know what I mean.
  Today is another special family day-18 years ago our oldest daughter Carrie married the man of her dreams.  We love Brent as if he were a son and he is an incredible husband, father, brother, man of God and son to us. Happy Anniversary Brent and Carrie!
What a blessing to have such a close family, who all get along splendidly and enjoy being together.
I am blessed beyond measure.
Have a fantastic Monday.
Noreen

Nutro Kitchen Classic Review

As a #Chewy Influencer, each month we receive a product to sample. Hunter loved Cesar's wet food last month, so we thought we'd try another canned food. I will say we've used other Nutro products before and he has enjoyed them. Chewy sent us 6 cans, three chicken and three other lamb. As you may recall, Hunter is a very picky eater. I was thrilled when he liked Cesar's food because it makes life a bit easier if I have some wet food as backup.

He's waiting for his dinner.

Hunter had to be enticed to try the food and after trying it for three meals, I have to say he'll eat it if he's really hungry but doesn't gobble it down.  I did notice some loose stools after feeding it to him.

What we like about the Nutro food is that Nutro is made here in the U.S.-something that is paramount to any food we buy for Hunter.  There are no artificial flavors, corn, soy, preservatives, or chicken by-products in the food.  The cans are a great size for a bigger dog, but for Hunter it just takes him a week to finish one can, so we prefer the smaller quantities.

Chewy provided us with this product free of charge.  No review, positive, negative or otherwise was required; all opinions are my own.
You can find incredible products for your pet at Chewy~chewy.com
Thank you Chewy and Miss Natalie for such a wonderful program.
Noreen and Hunter

Happy Wednesday to you!  I hope you've had a good week so far and that the rest will just sail by.
Yesterday was a good day, filled with sunshine and water-which always makes it fun.  Today, I will be going to watch grands at their swim lessons and then coming home.  It's going to be really hot here today, high 90's.  The house is already shut down and the a/c on 78; I imagine it won't turn on until later, maybe around lunch time.  I have a group of three other gals whom I walk with and we decided that we just wanted to celebrate our birthdays by doing a lunch once a year.  Of course, there are little gifts that are shared on each person's birthday...but we didn't want to make a huge ordeal out of it.
So today, we are going to my favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch.  My birthday is in March, one in July and one in August, plus one in November.  It should be a lot of fun; the food is great and the prices good~what more could  you ask for.  This afternoon will find hubby and I grocery shopping; we are Mother Hubbard's Cupboard and have friends coming over tomorrow for pizza and my brother and sister of my heart coming on Friday.  WE already started cleaning so that is checked off the list.  My brother and sil will only be here for 2 1/2 days, so not much to do. I wish it was a longer visit, but  they have a wonderful fur-baby at home they will need to get back for.
I hope your day is sunshine, lollipops and all the things that make you smile. In case you don't recognize that line, it was from a song in the 60-70's.
Joy to you.
Noreen

Family Fun

When you have a large family like we do, it seems that birthdays come almost every month. Yesterday hubby and Mr. B, our second grandson celebrated their birthdays. However, we had a party on Sunday for Mr. B. It was so much fun! Here is the birthday guy with his dad.

Our youngest grand with the oldest family dog~Lily.  Lily is 9 years old and starting to act like an old lady.

We had a great lunch and then presents, with some jokes as well. I wrapped B's presents in a Chewy box and even threw in some treats for the dogs, everyone got a laugh out of it~Lily's birthday was this weekend too.

It was a beautiful, hot day and the kids all enjoyed water balloons.  Our oldest grandson, now 16, even got involved and ended up having the girls surround him with the balloons and hose.  He was dripping wet.  Such a good sport!

Rice Krispie treats-yum.

I love that the cousins have such fun together.  I love that our family all lives nearby and that we can have so many fun family days.
Off to the pool today with the group-to watch swim lessons and then enjoy the pool.  Hope you have a great day!
Hugs,
Noreen

Up, Up and Away

Happy Monday to you! I hope you all had a great weekend; we certainly did and while I hoped to have pics to share from our sleepover, I am having issues with them....but will try tomorrow. So yesterday morning I was getting the newspaper from the driveway and heard the unmistakable sound of a hot air balloon. Low and behold there was one hovering above the street a block over.

WE also had a historical demonstration of WWII planes for the entire weekend; we loved seeing them.

On the bottom photo you can see the writing on the front of the plane with it's name.

We had a family birthday party yesterday and I took hubby out for dinner for his birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE, YOU ARE AN AMAZING HUSBAND AND DAD AND I'M SO THANKFUL FOR YOU!
This week will be so busy and full; not sure when I'll be around, but I'll do my best.
Hope you have a fantastic day!
Noreen

Happy Thursday to you!  Today I've been busy as usual-walked my 3 fast miles with my neighbors this morning, took grands to swimming lessons and hung out for lunch and in a little bit will go get my hair cut.
It's been a good week with lots of sewing, reading and quilting plus running around a lot.  Hubby is off to get his driver's license renewed; we are at that magic age where we have to go in to the office for an eye test.  Tomorrow he goes in to our eye doctor for a check up.  Tomorrow night we've got 7, possibly 8 granddaughters coming for a sleepover; we love it!  They will bring movies, but they also want to watch our recorded American Ninja Warrior and I'm hoping they'll want to watch Homestead Rescue about the Rainy family helping homesteaders out.  I really want the boys to watch it so they can log in some important information about building, but the girls could also learn about building a chicken coop or livestock pen.  Now that the oldest girls have been working on installing the wood floor at our daughter's house and become quite adept at it, I thought this demonstration on the show would be good for them to watch.  You never know which grand or grands will end up on a ranch and need to do the work themselves.
Sunday we are celebrating our grandson's birthday, which is Monday the same day as my hubby's.  It should be a lot of fun.
Well I'm off to the fabric store before my hair cut, so I will bid adieu.
Noreen

A Fun Day for Kiddos

Happy Wednesday! Yesterday was such a fun day for our grands; when you are a kid and can dress up to get a free lunch, it's a good day. I choose not to participate(I was actually out of construction paper), but enjoyed seeing the kiddos and my girls reap the rewards of dressing up. What a great restaurant/chain to offer this once a year special; I can tell you that they were packed. I even saw men who were wearing signs and cow masks so they could get their lunch. One sil is out of town and forgot about this yearly even; he needed someplace quiet to go prep for a meeting-thankfully Carrie reminded him that Chick-fil-A would not be a great place to prep in.

As if it weren't enough to get a free lunch, yesterday was 7-11 and Seven Eleven was giving away free Slurpies. You can still see their cow-spots. The girls and I don't drink sugar laced drinks, so just the kiddos got them. You can see the oldest two grands both got two drinks. I think it made it great for all of them.

The afternoon was quiet and I enjoyed more time downstairs.  I've never sewn so much in the summer as I have this one; my mini group has truly made a difference in my life with encouraging me to sew all year round.
Off to the pool this morning for grands lessons and then we stay for lunch.  Not sure what this afternoon will hold.  Hope you are having a great day!
Joy to you!
Noreen

Fun and Quick

Good Morning Friends, I wanted to share the easy placemats and runner I made for the month of July-specifically for the 4th, but they will stay out all summer. With my new machine I was able to practice some new stitches and while hand quilting will still be my passion, I had a blast making these.

The table runner wasn't planned and I just utilized the scraps from the placemats. O.k. so here is the disclaimer-it is the right length for the island, but too long for the corner star square. I didn't have enough fabric to make it wider, so left it like this. If I happen across fabric I love, I will probably make another one, but for now it works just fine. I also want to look for some sort of patriotic centerpiece that will help offset it being out of proportion.

Since I bought my new machine, I have made more things in one month than I ever had. It is so fun! After I finished it, I started working on the blocks for my fall table runner. Simple blocks, but I'm hoping to use another decorative stitch on it. Today I will be watching grands in swim lessons and then we will all head to Chick-fil-A dressed as cows(not sure whether I'll participate, but even my daughter's do)for a free entree. I may even just put a sign on with some black circles. Should be fun! This afternoon I will be downstairs sewing away.  I know the Chick-fil-A sounds pretty silly, but every year all of the family(except hubby and I)go-so thought I'd join the fun. I'll be sure to take photos.
Have a fantastic summer day!
Noreen

Dark Deception by Nancy Mehl and a Giveaway

Nancy Mehl has once again spun a riveting, suspenseful tale of intrigue.  If you like mysteries and thrillers plus faith interwoven together, this is a book you'll love.
Centering around Katie O'Brien attack by a  serial killer and the murder of her twin sister, we watch her life in the Witness Protection Program.  After settling into life in a small town, evidence comes to light freeing the killer.  The deputy Marshall whose protected her throughout the trial and ordeal, steps back in to escort her to a new trial.  It seems that it will not be that easy to escape the past and the murderer.  Will this beautiful woman ever escape the past and find a normal life?  While this had me on the edge of my seat, I also found it hopeful and couldn't put it down. I will say that if my hubby had been away, I would have waited to read this book.
Here is a synopsis from the publisher:

"Kate O'Brien's quiet life in small-town Shelter Cove, Arkansas is shaken when her past suddenly comes roaring back to life. Four years ago, she and her twin sister were attacked by an elusive serial killer. Only Kate survived, and she's been in witness protection ever since.

When new evidence arises to suggest the convicted man wasn't the murderer, she's subpoenaed to testify in the new trial. Afraid to go back into that world, Kate only agrees if Tony DeLuca, the deputy Marshal who protected her during the original trial, escorts her to St. Louis. 

Tony readily takes on the assignment; Kate's beauty and inner strength made more of an impression on him than he expected. But when Kate's safety is threatened, Tony must race against the clock to keep her alive and put this ugly case to rest before anyone else gets killed."

If you would like to read this book, leave me a comment~you must be a blogger and a follower of mine.  I will randomly choose a person on Wednesday 7/12/2017 and will happily send this book off to you.

Disclaimer:

As part of Bethany House blogger program, I received this free copy.  No review, positive or otherwise, was required; all opinions are my own.  Thank you Bethany House for this program.

Noreen

Happy Sunday to you.  It's a warm 94 today and we are inside enjoying the difference in the temp.  Our A/C has not kicked on yet, but the house is so much cooler.  Friday night we had a blast with the grandsons; they all arrived at 5:00 and the Mr. B was making his famous hamburgers.  Little Man was so excited to be at Nana and Papa's for his first sleepover that he didn't even flinch when the rest of his family left.  We had a great dinner, complete with excellent burgers, french fries and watermelon.
After dinner, we headed downstairs because there was a total of 6 movies to choose from.  Kim had told us that Little Man would be tired and probably just fall asleep on the couch.  The boys choose Indiana Jones(with clear play that edits out inappropriate language and scenes); I'm glad that Little Man fell asleep during it because I had forgotten many details-like all the snakes.  We watched it and then the older boys put in Rogue 1.  We had given Kim's oldest this movie for her birthday, so the little guy had seen it before.  Of course he woke up in the middle of it and stayed awake until it was over at 10:15.  There are times when Kim's kiddos are allowed to stay up and watch movies on the weekend, but that is still pretty late for a  5 year old.  The boys dusted off three bags of popcorn(I blame it on being teenagers).  I was impressed because when hubby and I got up, the older boys were awake but the little guy was still sound asleep.  I will tell you that the older boys rock!!!!  WE were so impressed in how they paid attention to everything their cousin had to say and were very thoughtful with him.  In a world where we hear so many negatives, it was so wonderful to see their character.
I was tired yesterday though~when we have kiddos spending the night, I just don't sleep well. Next Friday we will have 7 of 8 granddaughters spending the night.
Today  after I got home from church, I fed some plants  outside and hope to get downstairs to work on my autumn table runner; it was a challenge I threw out to our mini group and I need to get it done before our September meeting. Mind you I'm still quilting at night and have another quilt to work on when I finish my granddaughter's.  I also have several patterns I got in South Dakota that I want to make; add in some Christmas presents too and you know where you can find me.
So I hope you having a fabulous Sunday filled with blessings from above.
Joy to you!
Noreen

Only in Colorado

Happy Friday to you.  Yesterday was a very hot day until the afternoon, when it dropped over 25 degrees in an hour and we got high winds, rain and thunder.  I went from wearing shorts and a tank top, to putting on jeans and a 3/4" sleeve top.   The morning was spent at the pool with the girls and their kiddos and then the afternoon was spent getting groceries for tonights sleepover with our two oldest grandsons and our youngest; it will be his first time spending the night with us without his family.  Should be fun and interesting.  Last evening we had a softball game to go to with both son-in-laws playing and the two oldest grandsons.  It was so fun.
Today I'm walking, have a eye appointment and taking two friends to a fun store in town, before getting ready for the sleepover.  I'll be tired tomorrow I'm sure.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Hugs,
Noreen

Why We Love Chewy

As you know it's Thursday and today I'm very thankful for an online company called Chewy.  As a #Chewy Influencer, each month we get to participate in a wonderful blogging program, designed to let you try new products for you pet.  However, we were totally shocked on Monday when a box was delivered to our home and we knew it wasn't our monthly product.  Little did we know that Miss Natalie and the wonderful staff at Chewy had shipped us some goodies for the 4th of July.
We were thrilled to find two bandanas, sunglasses, a Chewy tennis ball, necklaces, a beach ball, a flat and a patriotic Pinwheel, plus lots of red,white & blue streamers.  What can I tell you about this company other than they are simply the best in customer service, product choices and pricing as well as caring representatives like Miss Natalie.  WE rank them a 10 Star rating.
If you haven't checked them out,  you can find them here; you won't be sorry!
https://www.chewy.com

I hope you have a great afternoon.
Noreen and a very happy Hunter

An Junior Chef

Hello Friends, I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and 4th of July. It seems that many businesses were closed and several family members had a four day weekend; but they were all working on major house projects. On Friday evening our granddaughter Miss D(age 8) invited us for dinner. She had set a goal of making dinner for her family this summer and included us(there were 9 of us). We were so honored to be a part of this. Miss D spent most of the day preparing her entree and baking. The menu was Alice Springs Chicken(an Outback Steakhouse dish), Green Beans, Fruit Salad and Sugar Cookies for dessert. Here she is checking her green beans to see if they are done.  Lest you think her mom did the actual cooking and she just helped, it was the opposite.

Sorry this is sideways, but what an incredible meal.  Hubby and I had never had chicken with bacon and cheese before; now that we know how tasty it is, we'll be calling for dinner reservations.

These cookies were made from scratch and were gluten free, plus delicious.

We so enjoyed our dinner; this granddaughter is one of the 7 who come for sleepovers. All 7 girls help with cooking both dinner and breakfast.  Miss D is a delight and we are so proud of her; o.k we are proud of all of them, but especially her thoughtfulness in having us over!
Hubby and I spent two days painting our basement family room this weekend.  It feels so good to have it done, but we still have two bedrooms and a hall downstairs to paint; that will come later in the summer.
Today I am going to be doing some things around the house and tonight have my ladies study.
May your cup overflow with blessings.
Noreen