That's what happened

You may be wondering what happened to me yesterday...no blog post and all. Then again you may not have noticed the lack of post and didn't care, which is fine, mostly, really it's OK, I will only cry a little if that's the case.


But if you were wondering why there was no post, I will tell you. This is exactly what happened, or approximately what happened. It's possible this story will be exaggerated, but then again maybe not.


Anyway, I ran to Target yesterday morning to purchase some body wash. We were out. Clearly I missed that on my last shopping list. Either that or the family is overly concerned with being clean and everyone has been showering way too much lately. Since I do prefer the family be clean, I won't complain about excess showering, unless it becomes obsessive. I will buy cheaper body wash however!


While at Target I had to get a Starbucks Mocha. You probably knew that. 


I grabbed the body wash and while waiting in the checkout line, I saw it. The Special Collector's Issue of People! Guess who the special issue was about. That's right William and Catherine.


The issue is a 72-page Royal Wedding Album!

From hats to what the Royals wore and photos of Kate's lovely Party gown.


I bought the magazine. Drove straight home. Sat on the couch with my special issue and my mocha and devoured them both...until the girls got home from school and wanted to see it too.


They had to pry it from my hands!


They didn't want to give it back!


But they had to go to school today and once again, it's all mine!


The Husband may have to hide it from me so I get something done next week!


Christine

What's your favorite...

 I do not like any sentence that begins...what's your favorite...


My desperate desire when someone begins to ask me that question is to point into the distance behind my interrogator and shout "what is that?" and bolt while they are looking the other way!


It isn't that I am not willing to share about myself, I am, clearly or I would not blog. It's just that I don't really have that many absolute favorite things.


Off the top of my head I can say that, for sure, my favorite perfume is Chanel N˚5 and my favorite coffee beverage is a Starbucks Mocha. Yep, that's it. Those two things are favorites. But no one asks "what's your favorite perfume?"


People ask "what's your favorite color?"


That's when my brain starts to flail around for an answer.


My favorite color is...


Pink! Just like the pink of the blooms on a William Baffin climbing rose.

Wait! No, it's orange! Like these begonias.

Nope! It's blue! The blue of the Husband's and the Sofibug's eyes.

Or actually...brown! Chocolate brown, like Emma bean's eyes.

How is a person to decide? They're all my favorites!


The question, what is your favorite food, is no easier.


My Mom's chili is my favorite! YUM!

Except...my Grandma's Beef Stroganoff. That's my favorite! It makes my mouth water just to think about it.

Wait! I also really like...


See why this is a problem?


Whether the question is favorite color, food, book or movie, I simply cannot choose just one "favorite". It is not possible. Am I really the only one with this problem?


I'm always amazed and frankly impressed by people who can, with conviction, give a simple, single answer. Blue is my favorite color. My mouth drops open in astonishment! How do they do that?


I only bring this up because my oldest Miss Sofibug, has in the last few weeks, been pummeling me with what's your favorite, questions.


At first I sputtered and tried to change the subject. Could I tell her the truth, that her Mom was fickle and did not have many absolute favorites? Would she be satisfied with, one of my favorites is...


At first she was determined to try to get me to pick just one favorite.


It made my head hurt!


Finally, she has accepted her Mother's inability to choose. She still asks about my favorites, but now she allows me to share a list, sometimes long lists and it leads to nice conversations about things each of us likes. 


I have come to see that my girl just wants to learn more about her Mother. I love her for it! 


Now I'm glad I can't choose just one thing as favorite because then these conversations would be much too short.


Christine

Odd dog

This is some heavy duty chops lickin'!

What could possibly cause this much intense lip smackin?

Snausages dog treats? Lilo's favorite...but No!


Beef flavored rawhides? Nope!


This kind of lip smackin', chop lickin' only happens when I start peeling and cutting up...carrots.

That's right, our little pooch loves her carrots.


Once I have all of the carrots cut up for the family, she comes running with her treat ball.

I fill it up with the remaining carrot ends, the bits I would normally discard...

...and Lilo is a happy camper for the rest of the day until she has eaten all of her carrots.

She's an odd dog...healthy, but odd.


Christine

To market to market!

One of the sure signs of spring is the return of the farmers market downtown St. Paul. 


The farmers market is absolutely one of my favorite things!


I knew that there would not be much in the way of produce to purchase, but that didn't matter, it was the first market of the season and I wanted to be there.


Like I said the market didn't have any carrots, zucchini, or tomatoes yet, but there were plenty of spring Pussy Willow...blooms? Are they called blooms? I never thought about it before. Whatever they're called, there were lots of them and they were very pretty.

We also found flats of lettuce seedlings. I can't wait to eat my first garden fresh salad.

As always the market had honey, golden and delicious.

We even made some new friends.

There weren't many, but the market did have a few flowering plants.


I know I should have waited, because the weather is still so cold here and it continues to snow in between bouts of rain, but I could not resist purchasing a couple of these gorgeous Begonias.

Now I'm going to have to nurse them and protect them and hope they make it until the weather is warmer so I can put them in my planter on the porch.


I really should have waited! But they are sooo pretty, I couldn't help myself.


Speaking of rain...we had a great time at the market (we were only a little disappointed that our favorite brat vender wasn't there so we could have our first brat of the market season, actually I prefer a chili dog...I'm just sayin! Next time) and only had to deal with a few light sprinkles, until we headed back to the car which was a couple of blocks away, at which time the wind and rain really began to pick up.

Yep, we got soaked! 


I don't think the family appreciated my need to document that part of our outing with a photo, but again I couldn't help myself. I may need to work on that.


Christine

Wedding day

Yes, I was up at 5:00 am to watch the Royal Wedding.


I wasn't sure if I was going to get up. I wanted to, but that is really early! 


When Sofibug said she wanted to get up to watch the wedding coverage too and asked me to please wake her up in time, my mind was made up and I set the alarm.


The Royal couple was lovely!

The ceremony was beautiful! It was very fun to feel a part of the whole wonderful affair.


I was so engrossed in fact that I totally forgot, until I was half way through my corn Chex, that yesterday the husband had come home with some farm fresh eggs a coworker brought in, from her dad's chickens, to share with everyone. The eggs are gorgeous! I was planning to have an omelet for breakfast. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to continue to celebrate the royal wedding with the first cocktails-on-the-porch, of the season with the neighbors.


Actually cocktails on the porch have nothing to do with the Royal wedding. It's just been a long, long time since we were able to sit outside with the neighbors for drinks and it just so happens that the weather has finally cooperated and we are taking advantage. 


I do plan to wear my new hat though!

Not that anyone cares. I'm sure everyone is still watching the Royal wedding footage.


I could probably make this whole blog...blah blah blah and no one would notice.


That's OK. It's their day and I hope they have many years of wedded bliss!


Christine

Perfect timing

My favorite scented candles were pumpkin spice candles that smelled like fall and pumpkin pie and warm sunshine and all of the things that are pleasant about fall. I really liked those candles. Sadly I can no longer get them. The company stopped making them. I know...bummer! I kinda took it personally.


Oh well, there are other candles I like and I can still enjoy the way a lit candle makes a room feel warm and cozy without the delicious pumpkin pie aroma. 


You do have to keep and eye on a lit candle though or they do this.

Yeah that's a line of wax that dripped down the side of the candlestick, and it's not coming off. Unless there's something I don't know about. Please feel free to share if you know how to remove candle wax, because all I've got right now is the turn-the-drip-side-to-the-wall trick. It's not a perfect solution, but it works.


As much as I like candles, I have found something better. That's right...better!


It's flameless candles!

Have you seen them? 


They're one of my favorite things!

For spring I placed this one in a glass hurricane, surrounded it with moss and little decorative mushrooms, and had no worries that the candle was too hot for the moss. How great is that?


I thought it was a very clever decorating idea...thank you Pottery Barn!


And these flameless candles have a lovely vanilla scent. My new favorite!


The thing I like most about these flameless candles is that I can turn them on and off whenever I want or they can, by the flip of a switch, be set on a timer. With the timer set they will automatically turn on at the same time every day and turn off four hours later. Cool!

I like entering a room in the evening that is already aglow with warm candle light. And when it is time to turn in for the night, the candle light automatically goes out. It's fabulous!

Can you tell it makes me giddy? Oh and I almost forgot...You can buy these at Target! One of my favorite stores! Woohoo!



Or, if you have a friend, who is hosting a party for her friend, who sells flameless candles, you can buy them from her while enjoying and evening with some wonderful ladies and wine. This weekend...I can't wait!


The only downside to flameless candles with a timer is that I didn't think to explain to the girls that the candles are set on a timer and that turning the candles off and back on again really quickly in the middle of the timer cycle does not keep the candles on the originally set timer.


It's great that I don't have to worry that the girls might get burned by these candles, but they are not a toy! When the girls play with them they throw off my flameless candle timer groove! It takes me weeks to remember to turn the timers back on at the right time again.


I highly recommend getting some flameless scented candles! Just be sure to tell everyone...hands off the timer! 


Christine

Irked

I will just start with apologizing. I'm sorry if you came to the blog today to read something uplifting or chipper, you may want to stop right now.


It's not that I'm angry or terribly sad, it's just a crabby, grumbly kinda day.


It rained most of yesterday and began to snow this morning. Really I think it's the snow! I don't mind a rainy day. In fact I tend to like rainy days. But it is the end of April and we are still seeing snow. It IRKS me!


That and the big mess the Maple tree dropped on the driveway that gets tracked into the house.

And the big gouge the plow made in the grass over the winter that we will need to repair.

And the fact that my very beautiful William Baffin climbing rose does not seem to be doing well this spring.

I am afraid that the beetles may have done more damage to it last year than I realized. It should definitely have more leaf buds on it than it does.


It's likely we will have to cut out a lot of dead branches this year and wait a couple of years for it to return to it's usual lovely self.

And how did I end up with a sink full of dishes this morning when we ordered in pizza last night?

Let me just say that I am all too aware that these are trivial little complaints! There are real problems going on in the world and these little annoyances are nothing in comparison. 


So again...I apologize! I really think the snow this morning is to blame!


Perhaps though, you understand...and I am not the only one feeling it.

I'm definitely blaming the snow!


Christine