Flowergirls....Bailey & Emma

The girls were in their Aunt Jamie's wedding  and Lori takes wonderful photos.  Here are a few that she took.    Jamie and Emma...

Jamie and Bailey

Congrats Jamie & John!!!

And this last one because I thought it was so sweet of Mike and Emma...

The Diaper Derby and a new Recipe

Today was the Diaper Derby at the fair...Chelsea and Brant entered Bryden because he is a fast crawler!!

This is Brant with Bryden and Becca, his mom and Bryden's other grandmother " "Mimi".Chelsea coaching Bryden...

But, alas, he was a non challant loser.

This is a new green bean cassarole that I made up.  I took 2 Tbs butter and melted it with 3 cloves of garlic.

Then I added 1/4 cup of white wine and let it reduce for 10 minutes, and added a half cup of heavy cream...

I cleaned and cut the beans, salt & peppered them and poured the sauce over....and made a crunchy topping of panko, 2 Tbs melted butter, parmesan cheese and crunched french fried onions. I baked it in a 350* oven for 45 minutes, and it smelled so good!!!  We loved it. If you try it, I hope you like it!!

Fair Fun & Chelsea's Birthday

We needed a little cheering up this weekend and we got it when all the kids came for the Ashland County Fair!! There was hardly a moment that wasn't very entertaining with 4 little people under 3! Bryden was with us while Chelsea was at work. Then Tim and Cooper came with hugs all around.... Sometimes you can catch those special looks and connections....I was lucky today a few times!!

Then Mike, Lori, Bailey & Emma came straight from church....(LOVE the pink bows, girls!...)

And since they were all there, I thought I'd try to catch a nice photo of the 4 of them....Ha!

But I did catch this one!....

The fair was fun for all...even the little ones had fun, while.....

the bigger ones had a blast!!

The horse rides....

Merry-go-round...

and go carts.

Before they started to get tired...

and drop off one by...

one.

In the evening, we celebrated Chelsea's birthday...

Happy Birthday to my "fair" baby!!

We lucked into the best gift at "Once Upon A Child", a consignment shop for children, that had this jogger stroller for less than $50! We took it to the car wash, power washed it and it turned out great!! She loved it!

So did Bryden.

And while Scoobie is missing Sam like we are, he enjoyed a house full of company too.

Videos I liked from the weekend...

A Sweet, Sad Day

This has been a "funny" last couple of days,....from one end of the spectrum to the other. The Starkey women in our family celebrate 3 generations of birthdays this month, Bailey's is on the 5th, Irene's (Larry's mother) is on the 15th and Chelsea's is on the 20th. As we were getting ready to begin the trip to celebrate Irene's we got a call that she had gotten ill the night before and had pneumonia. She was indeed feeling poorly when we saw her. On medication, she's somewhat better today so again, began a trip that had been planned out with the girls.
As I headed out the door in the morning, I let the dogs out and gave them their treats which they relish. Sam (right above), however, sniffed at it, turned up his nose and ran off in the opposite direction! I said "What's up with you??" But he seemed OK so I left on the trip.
We had a marvelous time. Bailey showed me her puzzles and how she puts them all together...

Emma showed her toys too....

and this little grin just made my day!!

Bailey takes gymnastics and can do the balance beam, so showed me how...

and Emma showed...her gums!

As I said before, it was a marvelous day....until late morning when my wonderful dog sitter (she lets our dogs out periodically when we am gone) Laura called. She said that Sam had been sick and offered to make a vet appointment for my return. I thanked her and silently worried. When I got back late afternoon as they were getting ready to close, the vet took x-rays and thought he might have an obstruction. They told me he was very ill and thought he might not make it through the weekend without going to Med Vet in Columbus. The hospital is open 24 hours a day and is a marvelous place. It has specialists of every variety that rivals a human hospital. It can take care of anything!....well, almost, (below, sculptures on the lawn outside). On the ride down, we held him, petted him and reminisced about the day we got him. He was such a sweet little puppy and from the day we got him, he followed me around. He would sit by my feet and keep me company if watching TV. He would hop on a favorite chair and wait patiently until I was finished on the computer always following me down the hall to wherever. He would watch me in the kitchen always careful not to be underfoot. He would be thrilled with a treat or going for a ride or seeing my face come home. Oh, that tail wagging when I came up the stairs! If I said the word "walk" or "boat" he practically did somersaults! He lay next to my bed each night and sighed as he went to sleep, sometimes even snoring....I loved that noise. If I decided to take a nap, he insisted on laying right next to me snuggled up. Larry said his favorite trick was laying on the top two steps in front of Scoobie when he heard his car come down the drive at night. That way he got petted first as he came up the steps. Ha!

When we got to Columbus, they did many tests again. The ultrasound showed a mass on his liver and kidney failure. They would put him in intensive care and watch him until specialists came in the next day to do probable surgery. That would give him a few months.

We felt it was best to make the decision to say good by. Soooo hard!! I was glad I had my camera with me, from the day with the girls because we wanted one last picture of him. Somehow, I really don't have many. He was a good and faithful friend. Most people would like to die the way Sam did. He was well loved, had a good quality of life (14 1/2 years) to the end. As far as we know, he had no pain and was perky till the end. My mom loved this dog almost as much as we did. I like to think she has my little buddy by her side right now....miss you guys...

Sure Signs of Fall

I have just been loving the first signs of fall!! There are trees outside our front door that are starting to turn color just a smidge. I have also been playing with Photoshop and enjoyed enhancing pictures I have taken. It's like morphing them into grown up pictures, here are some of my first attempts. This is the walk up to our front door...

The first puddles of falling leaves are on the sidewalk...

When the weather starts to change, every year I enjoy getting out table decorations to match the season and it puts the house in the mood. When the kids were little, they really noticed and commented.

The pumpkins go from Fall with leaves , to Halloween adding goblins, to Thanksgiving adding Pilgrims!

In the den, I get out blankets to cozy up with while reading or watching TV. Even the dogs like to curl up!

In the bedroom, I get out heavier bed linens and leave the windows open at night....ahhhh!

But the real sign of Fall is getting out beloved sweaters. Here is my favorite that Karen made baby grandson Bryden. Looking forward to Fall stroller walks!