Happy New Year!

I just stopped in to wish all of you the very happiest of new years, and the most exciting and rewarding year to come.

May your blessings be too abundant to count...

Thank you for being here,

God bless you!
Jan

My brother, Daniel, 51 years ago.  Wasn't he cute?

"Pinging" in the New Year...

Earlier in the holiday season, Andy announced that the New Year Eve party woud be at his house this year...AND...the celebration would include a Ping Pong Tournament!  Everyone brought food.  I made pork and sauerkraut which must have been pretty good - I saw people eating it all night long!

By time I got there, the compeition was in full swing!

That's my daughter-in-law, Catherine, showing off her skills while Tony eats, Morgan, Brandy and TJ are obviously in awe!?!

Michael looks like he was studying the competition...

Wonder what Jamie was thinking?

There goes Andy...

Andy is such a good doggie dad, he bought Helga Jean a new bed just for the party...

Hey, that's not Helga!  Where is Helga? 

 There she is...guess we know who rules THAT roost,

don't we? 

In the mean time, the competition continues.  Tony had his brackets all figured out and they posted them on the chalk board...

We had two classes, women and men...

The finalists for the women were Vicky and Heather (Morgan's mom).

Heather won!  Vicky didn't jump over the net to congratulate her, but she was a good sport...

Tony presented Heather with her trophy...

Of course we had trophies...we are first class pongers!

Andy and Tony were the finalists for the men.  I know, they are always the finalists...

Tony managed to win, but we think it was because he looked so intimidating with his wrist bands...

I presented him with his trophy...

And of  course, Vicky had to congratulate him...

He was pretty excited..

The clock struck 12, there was a ton of huggin' and shoutin' going on, even Helga got her ears scratched!

everyone stopped to eat,

but the ping pong went on and on...long after I remembered I was an old woman and went home to get some rest!

~Sigh~

Although I'm not a party person, I always love New Year's Eve.  It just feels like a clean slate for me, time to change things, start over, even learn to write a new number when you write checks.  It's a good thing, even if it means letting go of old things....

But there are always memories....and those are precious.  This New Year, memories are very precious, and some are just darn funny....like New Years, 1964, when we dressed my darling baby brother as the New Year's Baby....

Love ya, bro!

Now it's a snowy Friday, go out and be a blessing to someone and come back soon.  I know you are curious about the

 Frigid Five Miler....

I'm so glad YOU stopped by to share my life.  God bless you!

Love,

Jan

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Stop the clock!  I have just enough time to wish my little brother,

Daniel, a very happy 49th birthday.  Hope your day was special.

 I look forward to seeing you on Monday.  

I love you, bro!

Good, better and crappy...

The day certainly started out great...breakfast with my friends, Deb and Lori.  We've been meeting almost nearly monthly at 9:11 AM at a local restaurant for about five years for a real breakfast and current event session...current events meaning what's going on in our lives. 

Deb's kids went all the way through school with my boys and Lori's daughter graduated from high school with Tony and lives right next door to me.  I always enjoy getting together with my friends and one fine day I might even remember to take a camera so you can see the three of us. 

Speaking of cameras, I realized my memory card was getting full and decided to download the photos to my laptop.  I got a kick out of them...check out these from Christmas Eve at my mom's house:

I guess the thought of a Phillies' Santa scares the ??? out of Michael?

Vicky's hubby, Jamie...I'm not sure what the Panda is telling him...

 Sophie, my newest grand-dogger, thanks to Michael and Catherine.

 Most of us...

Vicky and Jamie (He doesn't always dress like this, the shirt was a (gag) gift).

 Do I really have to tell you who this adorable little fella is?

My brother, Daniel, and his beautiful bride, Leslie!

There's more but I'll save them for another day.

Now for the crappy:  The washer needs a new pump, which was under warranty, but is something that must be ordered from Erie.  ETA:  Monday.  That sure stinks, and so will we if I don't get to the laundromat in the morning!

Hey, I'm outta here!  Sweet dreams and God bless!

J

May Day! May Day!

Yes, we've almost come a full circle. Can you believe it? See all that you missed last year? Now we're down to just a few months and we'll be all caught up. Funny thing, it feels as thought it happened just as quickly as it did here on my blog. Time flies by!

So let's talk about May, one of my favorite months of the year:

First things first. When you think of May, don't you think of spring cleaning? We do! Everyone helps. Here's Linda, doing what she does best...cleaning the windows! Of course, Bill has two skills, looking dumb and looking dumber. Here he's doing both!
After we got our chores done...what am I talking about? There is no end to the chores!

Before we could put the jet ski in the water for the summer, we had to put the jet ski dock in. We bought a new one this year, so we had to do some prep work.

Next they had to put it in the water and tow it to the dock with the jet ski. For some reason, Mark let Andy do it.

It was a little tricky getting into it's spot, but they did it!

The first person to get a ride this year was my mother. Tony asked and she just jumped on!

But May was not all play! When you live in a very old house, chances are, you have some very old trees around. I know we do. In the six years we've been here, we lost three of them. It breaks my heart every time. Here is number 3. Two years ago they told me it was in sad shape. This year it was obvious that it had to go. We hired a man to bring it down, but the clean up was left to us.

Andy and Tony pitched right in! All they had to do was lift those logs and bring them to where my brother was running the splitter.And do it all over again...Andy thought he could train Bill to carry logs...Bill said no!
Linda doesn't talk much...but made her opinion to yard work known...
I think the guys felt the same way after two days of hauling wood.
After five or six or twenty of these...
Winnie put on her life jacket and said it was time to head for the river!
When we got there, the sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky...but there was...But that didn't stop my family...no way! Soon there was a crowd on the dock...

Including, Max, my grand-dog...who very quickly...
So my son-in-law had to...But...
Yes, all was well!

It was still pretty cold, especially on the water...
I'm not sure if it was the cold air, or just plain brain farts, but some of us just dare Stacy and Clinton (from TLC's "What Not to Wear" for those who have no cable) to come and get us!She wasn't the only one who thought it was cold...
But some braved the late spring frigid temperatures, like Andy...

And Michael...
And Kailyn. You can't keep her out. She was ready to knee board on Christmas Day. I was afraid we'd have to cut a hole in the ice to let her try her new 'board!But it was much warmer and almost as much fun hitting those golf balls off the dock!
We didn't spend the entire month at the river, though...there were things to do at home, like bath the dogs...When your dog is as big as a small pony, you don't pick them up and put them in the bath tub, even if it makes the dog unhappy...

Tony went to a baseball game on fireworks night...We decided it was time to let the Honda go...After 6 years and 218,000 miles, it's now living across town, a first car for a young high school boy. The buyer's mechanic, who gave the car a once over, told Mark it was pretty much a 'brand new car with 200,000 miles on it.' Mark hated to see it go!

Winnie got Bill all tied up...

Whew! What a month! Good thing we rested up all winter! Guess what? Tomorrow is June, that catches us up! I told you I would do it! Come back tomorrow and we'll do June together!

Until then...
Jan!