Birthday and a break

 

(Good Housekeeping, November, 1960)

It's my birthday Friday.  I was born on November 24, 1960 which means I'm getting old!
I got a paper in a birthday card this week with statistics about what was going on the week and year I was born.  I thought it was interesting and have a few things from it to share.

Top Headlines this week:
Nov 24 - Wilt Chamberlain pulls down 55 rebounds in a game (NBA record)   Nov 25 - "Amos 'n' Andy" made its last broadcast on CBS radio   Nov 25 - CBS ends last 4 radio soap operas (Ma Perkins, Right to Happiness,   Nov 25 - Young Dr Malone & 2nd Mrs Burton) & cancels 4 other series   Nov 25 - 1st atomic reactor for research & development, Richland Wa   Nov 26 - 48th CFL Grey Cup: Ottawa Rough Riders defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 16-6  

Top songs in 1960:
Running Bear - Johnny Preston
Stuck on You - Elvis Presley
It's Now or Never - Elvis Presley
Save the Last Dance for Me - the Drifters
Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley
Teen Angel - Mark Dining
Cathy's Clown - Everly Brothers

Prices in November 1960: Bread: 20 cents a loaf Milk: $1.04 a gallon Eggs: 90 cents a dozen Car: $2,275 Gas: 31 cents a gallon House: $18,500 Stamp: 4 cents each Average yearly income: $6,227 Minimum wage: $1 an hour On TV in 1960 Gunsmoke The Flintstones I Love Lucy Alfred Hitchcock Presents Perry Mason The Twilight Zone Andy Griffith Bonanza Leave it to Beaver Isn't that fun? I'm going to be absent from blogland next week.  I have some projects I'm trying to finish before Christmas and it's going to take all my spare time.  We'll see what I can get done. See you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

What's Bob been working on?

I have to share with you something Bob's been working on for a while. He started doing some work on our garage last summer, but had to quit in the winter; Michigan winters aren't conducive to working in an unheated space!
So this summer he was back at it and it's all done now.

He had built some cabinets, one in the back corner...

And he built more cabinets in the other back corner.

He put up drywall all around the garage, added trim and painted.  On the far wall he hung some old tools he found in my Dad's barn and an old seed spreader from his Dad.

On the wall with the door into the house, he put up this shiplap.

We got a new light to put up by the entry door.

And here's the finished wall.  The garage looks much nicer and has lots of storage too!  Good job, Bob!

Making a Christmas Village

Saturday was a fun day at our house!  Alaina and Ruby came over for the day. We had big plans for the day and they were so excited.
My friend Catherine, from My Home and My Garden, had sent some kits for making card stock houses for the girls to make.
Catherine lives in France, and when she posted some of these little houses she made, I wondered if they could be found in the states. She's so sweet and a few days later, I got an email that she was sending some our way.  
Alaina and Ruby thought it was so special that someone would send them something from France!

Here's all the things she sent - 2 packages of Kraft houses, some sample black houses, and also some Christmas card making supplies.

We put on Christmas music to be in the spirit while we did these Christmas things!  And the girls started by making some cards. They wanted to thank Catherine and they had fun picking out different things to put on their cards for her.  Bob joined them for a while, he was working on a carving.

Then they started on the houses.  They came one to a sheet and were perforated and pre-folded.  It came with white chalk makers to decorate with.  You can see the details Alaina is adding to hers.

 

Here's Ruby, punching all the windows and doors out of one of her houses.
After they each got two houses done, it was time to take a break for lunch.

We had macaroni and cheese for lunch.  They had to help make it and said it was so good!

After lunch, they got back to it and did the next two houses. It was fun seeing how they each decorated their houses in their own unique way.

While waiting for the glue to dry on them we played Mantis, which is a fun card game they love.

Here's Ruby with her finished village.  I forgot to mention that there were cars, snowmen and trees included!

Here's Alaina with hers! You can see we put vellum in some of the houses.

Here they are together.  I got little fairy lights to put in them when they got them home. They were so excited to show their Dad and Mom what they made.
Thank you again Catherine.  You made them so happy!

Friday Funny

 

Cooking Thursday

 This recipe is full of a lot of my favorite things!  It's a crock pot meal, southwest flavor, with chicken, black beans, a little spice and cheese.  Yum! And it goes together easily which makes it a winner!
This isn't the best picture because I didn't let the cheese melt before I took it, you'll just have to trust me that it's good.

Southwest Chicken and Rice

4 chicken breasts
1/2 onion, diced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon taco seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
3 cups cooked white rice
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Stir together the soup and milk in crock pot and place chicken in it. Top with beans, corn, rotel, paprika, taco seasoning and pepper.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Remove chicken, shred it and return to crock pot.
Stir in the cooked rice and 1 cup of shredded cheese.
Allow cheese to melt - about 5 minutes.
When serving, sprinkle remaining cheese over top.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

The leaves are mostly on the ground,

but there's still beauty to be found!

 

Grandkids are the best!

We had some fun times with our granddaughters last week,
One evening we had Andrew, Heather and Cassie over. We had great fun playing with Cassie.

Reading with Grandpa.  She loves books.

Showing me how this pin toy works.

She discovered Uncle Andy's old matchbox cars.

We were in the family room downstairs where my treadmill is, and she showed me how to use it correctly!

She had lots of fun on this ball.

We also celebrated Alaina and Ruby's birthday.  Alaina turned 12 and Ruby turned 9.  I can't even believe that!

We went out for supper and then to their house.

They are so excited about the new critter in their house.  It was their birthday present.  A gecko!  They had watched a classroom gecko over summer break and thought it was so fun.  Laura is a better person than me - I was not a pet loving mom and certainly not reptiles.  :)

Opening presents.

And we played this game called Wicked Wombats.  We had to close our eyes and try to build a tower, but one person draws a card and is a wicked wombat and is trying to take them down.  (Bob was the wicked one).  As you can see, we were having lots of fun!

We love our girls - and they are growing up too fast!

Sisters Shopping Trip

Every year I go on a Christmas shopping trip with my sisters Terri and Cheri.  (We get teased about our rhyming names - Mari, Terri and Cheri)  Anyway, we've been doing this for at least 30 years.
We shop all day, stay in a hotel at night and sometimes end up doing a little more on Saturday.  We have a great time together, it's a good time to catch up and there is never a shortage of laughter!

This year we started with something a little different.  I'm getting to the point of finishing a lot of my Dad's things, as far as being a trustee of his estate.  He left money to a few places; the schools we attended and his church.  We thought it would be nice to deliver those checks in person.  It was a touching thing to do together.
After we made those stops, we started shopping. 
By 11:30, we stopped for lunch.

Here's Terri and Cheri at City BBQ where we has some really good salads.

Then it was back to shopping.

By 4:45 we thought we were doing pretty good and stopped for supper.
We went to Olive Garden - always good!
Then we checked into our hotel.

We haul our packages up to the room, so we can sort them and check things off the list.  We remarked that our packages are much smaller than they used to be when we were going to Toy's R Us and buying kids toys!

Here's Terri and Cheri, going over their lists and checking things off.
As happens quite often, we found things on there that we had forgotten.  So, we headed back out again!

We came back, talked, laughed and ate our take out dessert.

Terri had plans the next day, but Cheri and I headed to Rockford, about 30 minutes from us.  They were having a special Christmas event in town.

We checked out the dam.  They didn't make the picture but there were 4 guys fishing, just below the dam.

There was a big craft show that we wandered around in.

They had a "Polar Express" train was driving around giving kids rides.

The center of town was all decorated, it felt like a Hallmark movie!

We had lunch in a restaurant called The Toasted Pickle.  It was in a cool old building.

After that is was time to head home.
We had so much fun!  And my shopping is done for the most part, but the wrapping is just beginning!

Be right back!

The goat's just there for cuteness!

I'm away from my blog for a few days.  My sisters and I are going on our annual shopping trip together.  We're sure to have fun, and hopefully will get our Christmas shopping almost done.
See you next week!

Cooking Thursday

 I've been keeping my eyes open for recipes for Bob to make when I'm working and he's home.  Here's one he made last week. He said I was stretching him with this one, but really, it was pretty easy.  We liked it!

Taco Chili Pie

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1 envelope taco seasoning
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 can corn, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can refrigerated biscuits (8 total)
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Stir ground beef, taco seasoning and tomato sauce together. Stir in corn and kidney beans.
Spray pie pan with cooking spray.
Open biscuit can and separate them.  Flatten each biscuit into a 3 1/2 inch circle.  Place 6 flattened biscuits around edge of pie pan, and 2 in the middle. Press biscuits together, leaving edges scalloped around edge.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese over biscuits, then spread meat mix over cheese.
Place in oven for 25 minutes, then sprinkle the remaining 1 cup cheese over top.  Place back in oven for 5 more minutes or until cheese is melted.
Take out of oven, let sit for 5 minutes before cutting.

Wordless Wednesday

 

(In the middle of this picture, you can see a bunch of things lined up at the edge of the field.  Those are big round bales of hay, stacked and ready to use this winter.)

A Day in my Life; November

 Happy November?  Can that be true?  October just buzzed on by!
Here's how the first day of the month went for me:

My work hours have changed just a little. One of our nurses retired and she always came in early to open the office and answer any calls that came into the on call center.  They asked me to do that on the days I work, so now I'm leaving a little earlier in the morning. Since we had been snowed on the day before, and they said the back roads were slippery, I left a little after 7 am. The roads weren't too bad, just a couple of bad spots and I arrived at work at 7:40 am.

Here's what the edge of the parking lot looked like with snow in the dark.  I thought it was kind of an alien landscape.  :)

I let myself into the office, got everything opened up and got things set up for the day. My co-workers arrived 30 minutes later.

This is my corner cubicle.  It's a new spot for me, in the corner with windows around me which is so nice.
My job on this day involved dealing with faxes from all the facilities our doctors oversee; they send us notification of falls, med concerns, skin issues, patient and family questions and assorted other things.  We write up a telephone encounter, send it to the Dr who responds. We then write up any new orders, send them to the facility and notify the patient or family.  We also have a lot of calls come in that we deal with.  Every day is different and we are never bored!

  

The sun came up and the scene outside my windows was beautiful!

As the day progressed, the temps came up and the snow melted.
This is a scene I saw on the way home. As you can see, most of the leaves have come down.

It was a beautiful drive home.

Even with less leaves, the color is beautiful.

I saw a deer along the way, but he ran off before I could get his picture.  Then I saw this long horn steer who wasn't a bit worried about me.

I got home and had some leftovers for supper.  Bob had a meeting at church so he was gone for awhile.

I did a little work on my current Bible study.  Who would have thought the little book of Habakkuk would have so much good stuff in it?

Wednesday night is Survivor night.  Are any of you fans?  I've enjoyed this one for years and enjoyed it again on this night.
It was another good day.  Welcome November!