The carpets have needed a good cleaning for some time, but we seem to keep putting it off for one reason or another and I guess now we really need to get them professionally cleaned before Memorial Day since we will be having our annual Memorial Day Weekend bar-b-q with over 20 people attending. The wife would be very unhappy with me if they all were to come over and see the house in such disarray and I don’t think that I could do the job justice with the home carpet cleaner that we have owned for even longer than our dog.

As we were shopping I kept finding things that I thought we should buy and she kept saying “not today, not today, hurry up.” We were actually at the grocery store for two hours shopping, and spent around $400.00. All of the coupons we used saved us over $40, but I was still in shock that we spent as much money as we did. Of course we DID have two shopping carts full of food, so I suppose that I should not have been THAT shocked! But it did give me a greater understanding of just how much money we spend on groceries!

One of the things that I’ve tried to do in regards to holidays like Easter is to reuse and recycle a lot of the “trimmings.” For example, the plastic grass, the plastic eggs, and the baskets themselves can be reused over the years. Just the thought of buying one of those cellophane-wrapped baskets that are intended to be thrown away a week later, filling up the landfills makes me cringe.

That is one of the things that I really admire about my mother, and about my wife; they are so creative and thrifty with their talents to be able to reuse and re-purpose items in such a way that it never looks like they are being “cheap.” In fact, some of the things that they re-purpose have turned into well-loved family heirlooms that will be in the family for-ever. For example, several years ago my wife took an empty plastic cool-whip tub and covered it with batting and fabric and turned it into a beautiful basket that was an Easter Basket one year, but now holds our remote controls in the living room.

Most of the people that I know would rather drink MORE beer, not less! I can’t imagine going to a barbecue picnic and only drinking one beer, it would not seem like a party to limit oneself to only one! After that one beer is gone and you’re thirsty again, then what would you drink? I guess this is the kind of beer one would order at a restaurant where you are only going to be there a short time.

We spent most of our childhood summers playing in that wonderful river water, swimming, diving, boating, fishing, water skiing, tubing, crabbing and any other type of water activity that we could think of. The only problem was the darned jellyfish that would come out towards the end of July, all most every year. Getting stung was a real bummer and we would go to great lengths in order not to get stung, but it was inevitable no matter what we did. The only real way not to get stung was to go to the private pool that my folks paid the hefty membership dues for so that we could be in the nettle free water that we so enjoyed whenever possible.

Back in the real world when we were not down there by the river we would nag our parents endlessly to please buy a pool for us and our friends to use in the back yard, but they were not having anything to do with that idea. They really were not interested in finding and purchasing all of the pool supplies and all of the numerous pool accessories that go along with owning, operating and maintaining your own residential pool, besides the liability issues that kids just don’t understand. Instead of a pool in the area that would have been perfect for a pool we ended up with a garden that kept us busy with all the weeding and all the other hard labor that a good sized vegetable garden requires. At least we learned the value of a home garden full of all kinds of wonderful fruits and veggies that we enjoyed all year round thanks to my mother’s large freezer in the basement that was always over flowing with the fruits of our labor.

For once, I’m not going to have to worry about which pie I’m fixing for our huge  family gathering for Thanksgiving Day. I always wonder about that because my family is all about the pies and I like to make sure that we have no repeats. But instead of doing the normal thing for Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to take my family to see the Thanksgiving Day parade!

It’s something that I’ve thought about doing for a few years now, but I finally decided to just go ahead and do it before the kids get a little older and have other things that they need to do during the Thanksgiving break. I was online a few months ago booking our hotel and everything for it when I ran across some information on getting a hearing aid. That’s also something that I’d been thinking about for a while, so I decided to go ahead and get fitted before the big trip.

I think that we’re going to have so much fun with the parade and I just want to make sure that we’re all ready for the trip and pack everything. It’s going to be a whirlwind of a trip, but I think that it’s going to be amazing!

Yesterday a box arrived on the doorstep – a box full of new seats for the chairs! Seems as if my resourceful wife found a website where she could buy replacement seats and she ordered them, just in time for the family gathering planned for later this week! Now all we have to do is break out a couple of screw drivers and fix them up!

I like to poke around in the gift shop – they change the merchandise out often and there are always plenty of new items to look at and and coo over. Sometimes while waiting for an empty table in the dining room we will sit out on the big front porch and rock in the wood and rattan chairs that they sell.

Birthdays at our house are always a big deal. My husband and I make it a point to make our kids feel very special on their birthdays because our parents did the same growing up. When I was little, my parents let me pick what I wanted for dinner on the night of my birthday and sometimes I got to go out to dinner alone with my parents, which was a treat since I have three younger siblings. My husband’s family goes out to lunch on the Sunday around each family member’s birthday. This year our son will be turning three and after trying to think of something to get him, we decided to Get WildBlue internet so we could do some online research. We found him a really cute tricycle that I think he will really like. He is pretty coordinated, so I think he will have no problems riding it. I can’t wait to see how excited he will be when he opens it. The only problem is I ordered it a week ago and his birthday is in three days and we haven’t gotten it yet. I guess I should probably call the company to make sure it shipped.