Sunday, April 08, 2007

Easter preparations...

Don and I had a wonderful ride over to Dennis and Sheila's. Out on St. Rt. 100, heading North, we saw two wild turkeys! I'm talking "big boy's"; very, big and ever so pretty. You really have to have your eyes open on this stretch of road, as we've seen a lot of wildlife in the area --- namely deer. I mean herds of them. Do they say "herd" for a group of deer? Anyways, we enjoy watching them when we have the time to slow down and watch. A lot of the homes along this road have ponds, and there is a rather large stream that runs along the back sides of many of these homes before it winds and curves to who knows where. You can only see sections of it as you travel along it but the scenery, especially in Spring and Summer is breath-taking!

When we arrived, Sheila was cleaning a glass lampshade in her living room. She had these tabletop glass shades on brass lamps and during a conversation, I'd mentioned having a floor lamp in the attic. Several of the glass pieces in the shade had long since gotten broken {it belonged to Don and his ex-wife}, so I asked him about giving it to her. When Dennis and Sheila had came down a week or so ago --- when we took Sheila to see her mom at Riverside, we got that lamp out of the attic and gave it to Dennis to take home along with some Barkeeper's Friend to clean it up with. Since Sheila has been busy with her mom, she'd totally forgotten about the lamp so when she remember, she immediately set out to get it cleaned up and replaced the broken shade with one from her table top lamp. I was on the telephone with her when she was about to get started, and she was thrilled beyond measure to discover it was a 3-way touch on style! {Something I wasn't aware of..} Anyways, the lamp now looks brand new! You'd never have known it was stored in our attic for the past 8 years and the with her shade on it, it is beautiful! While Sheila continued replacing the glass pieces she'd washed, Don and I unloaded the food for Easter dinner. I found an opportunity to sneak back out to grab the Easter figurine I'd purchased for her. You should have heard the squeals of delight as I presented it to her telling her I purchased it for her to cheer her up. She was ecstatic! Oh, and those little white tulip scented candles for the votive; man, did those ever smell good and burn slow! I made a mental note to pick myself up some on our next visit.

Shortly afterwards, her kitchen was a flurry of activity. We chatted as we started peeling potatoes, rinsing, and placing them into some salt water as I diced up some of the ham and cheese. And the best part, was everything went so smoothly. I don't know my way around her kitchen very well, but all I had to say was I needed this, that, and the other and it magically seemed to appear. After preparing to make the cheese sauce, we set to work on the pineapple upside down cakes. I'd taken my two 9" round Wilton cake pans and my cake pedestal over so we intended to utilize them. As Sheila removed the stems from the marschino cherries, I prepared the cake pans and arranged the pineapple slices within them. Soon, we we're whipping up the cake batter. Sheila pulled out a large griddle to cook up some cheeseburgers for all of us, which worked out well as it kept the stove top and oven area available for cooking and baking. We chatted about this, that, and the other, laughing and making jokes while we worked. Frequent breaks were taken, just to sit for a moment with a hot cup of coffee. Both of us know our way around a kitchen, so it wasn't too long before we were tag-teaming the dishes, sitting down to enjoy our cheeseburgers, and preparing to cook up the cheese sauce. After eating, Don and Dennis joined us in the kitchen, chatting and livening up the kitchen a bit more. They were even sweet enough to run up to the store for a few purchases of things like foil and Saran wrap that we'd be needing. While the "boys" were gone we got the ham and scalloped potatoes done and ready for baking today, while the cake was in the oven baking. Now it was time to rest and relax.

Shortly afterwards, BJ and Miranda arrived with Sheila's two grandson's: Zachary and Logan. BJ is Sheila's oldest boy, and Miranda, well, she's such a sweetheart and a very good mommy. You can tell she loves her children, and especially being so young, spends a lot of time with them. Zachery is now two and is the happiest, rambunctious little boy you've ever met. He's always very polite asking please, saying "Thank you" and "You're welcome." It's darling to hear him in that soft, little voice. Logan, is now 6 months old and the apple of every one's eye. He's growing like a weed and is so comical as Sheila touches his chin and says, "Give it to me." and he sticks out his little tongue. It's too precious, I tell you. Miranda and I chatted while all the adults played with the grand kids for a bit before she went off to search for Zachary as he played with toys in his "bedroom at Grandma's".... affectionately known as "Zachary's room" Sheila had recently seen the banner I'd created for Alexxis and had asked me to create Zachary and Logan one. Zachary is big time into his cartoons and Logan, well anything child themed would work. One day, I'd like to get started on them and prefer to make them out of fabric. We'll see... how that goes. As Sheila prepared to color Easter eggs with Zachary, Don and I decided it was a good time as any to skip out and make the trek back home. It was a wonderful evening filled with laughter and shared with "family" and friends.

We'll head back over there today around noon-ish, whip up some more side dishes and chocolate pies while the scalloped potatoes are baking. See, I was getting all worried and shook up over nothing... Sheila's mood was great; her mom, Helen's doing fine, having spent her day surrounded by some of her other 12 brother's and sister's. We did check in with Barbara before I left to be sure that someone would be there with her in the upcoming days while Sheila returns to work. I had offered to go down and spend a couple days with her, if was needed to, but the family has it covered. Sheila and I may go down on Thursday and Friday and spend the night with her. I'd told her we could take our Jeep so that Dennis and Don would both have their trucks. With the cost of rising gasoline prices, you gotta do whatever works and as inexpensively as possible. This allows time and money for sharing days and holidays just like this!

I hope whatever you're doing today to celebrate the Easter holiday, that you find some time for family and friends. There's nothing more heart-warming than that! Happy Easter to all! {...until next time, *waves*}

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