The girls have that same Broadway music station on cable TV again this morning and are doing art work at the kitchen table.  I’m trying to enjoy the music, but what I hear is more like sounds of AR-guing than AR-twork!

My sister-in-law came through her hernia surgery okay and went home last night.  Gosh they rush people in and out of surgical procedures so quickly these days.  Even my cat, who was neutered, spent the night at the vet’s office!  My father-in-law came through his hernia surgery well.  He and my sil had surgery within hours of each other!  But, he will stay a few days in the hospital.  He has Alzheimer’s and other unhealthy issues and surgery is more of a risk for him.

Jesse is tossing around the idea of going to see his dad (with his brother) on Friday.  Then, when his sister (the one who also had hernia surgery last night) comes in a few weeks from WA, she wants to go see their dad.  I told him to call his step-mother and see if she thinks things are rocky with his dad’s health and he & his brother should come immediately, or if his dad is stable, then Jesse and his sister can come in a couple of weeks.  So hard to know what to do – especially when your parents are in ill health.

I talked for a long time to Nikki last night (daughter #2).  Talked with Jaiden first who is so grown up sounding at 3 1/2yo.  Nikki and I talked a lot about Jesse’s mom’s and dad’s deteriorating health and how to handle things when you live far away with no money to travel.  It was a good conversation.  I don’t talk to Nikki very often at all, but always enjoy our talks when we get the chance.  Stephanie called while I was on the phone with Nikki, so I had to call HER back after Nikki’s call.  It was around 11:30 when I got in bed.  I had forgotten to take my medication, at 7pm, but was pleased that I fell asleep quickly and slept all night.  Chirper slept all cuddled up against me.  Sweet little boy!

Despite the recent showers of rain, the lawns are dying up and so is the mowing business for Jesse.  It’s a scary time as bills go up and income goes down.  We know it will be alright, it always is as God cares for us year after year, but those little doubts have a sneaky way of creeping into our thoughts.  We aren’t dumb and believing we will enjoy a wealthy winter, and we are watching the news reports about the economy and praying for wisdom to make the most wise decisions regarding our finances.  I was telling Nikki, last night, that we are making voluntary changes in our way of eating and our eating-out budget.  It’s much easier to voluntarily give things up than a mandate be placed where you are suddenly having things taken away from you!  Doing without is doing without – no matter how you cut the cake; but, psychologically it’s more pleasant when the idea is your own!!!

JanaLyn will be here for a bit this afternoon AND I must make a decision about dinner tonight.  Everything is frozen and we are NOT going out to eat.  We are trying to cut that back to twice a month  – maybe on a Sunday after church.  That includes no more 99 cent double cheese burgers from McDonald’s for lunch for the girls and I!

Invest in Oscar Mayer.  I have a feeling our bologna purchases this next year may cause stock values to rise!!!  Peter Pan would be another good investment for you!!!!!

Have a blessed day!

I’m so Xanga savvy, aren’t I (BIG sigh)!

She writes beautifully!

She’s already got me beat with a beautiful banner at the top of her site.  I still have no idea how y’all are getting those neat banners.  I just continue to plug away in my beginner class level of Xangaism!

I felt for sure I had talked about my younger years in musical theater and the fact I received my social security card at age 13 in order to be paid and to unable me to join the actor’s union.   I re-read my profile just now and I guess I only eluded to the fact I was in theater by the fact under “MUSIC” I stated I was a “walking repertoire” meaning I had been involved in choir or theater most of my life (choir since age 6 and theater since age 8).  Then there was the question under “MOVIES” about my friend turned professional – and I said “any movie directed by Kenny Ortega.”  And I also, under TV SHOWS, mentioned my passion for American Idol – just because I root for talented people and want to see their dreams come true.

I was pretty elusive now that I re-read my profile.  I’m not big on dropping names to influence people because I’ve been around so many “BIG NAMES” in my life.   They’re just “people.”  Being in a professional theater, during rehearsal times, also gave me the opportunity to see “BIG NAME ATTRACTIONS” who were performing at the same theater in between plays that were also shown. 

Names are in bold OUT OF RESPECT *not* to impress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess meeting Jimmy Durante was a highlight.  He was such a big personality on TV but in person a very short man with a H-U-G-E nose that had more wrinkles in it than I’ve ever seen in my life.  The wrinkles in his nose looked like a road map.

He was traveling with Alan King – a guy that used to perform with a cane and top hat.  I can’t speak of his personality, but his stage presence left me in awe as a young child.  A great entertainer.  Really commanded the audience’s attention and owned the stage when he performed.

Let’s see, who else was someone I remember . . .

While in drama class at same said theater, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gormet (sp? that doesn’t look right) were performers.   She didn’t want to mess with talking to a “bunch of kids” but Steve Lawrence came to our front row seats where class was being conducted and apologized for his “tired wife” and stood for what seemed forever answering questions and being an all around nice guy!  I really felt bad when their son died some 10+ years ago.

Betsy Palmer – “South Pacific”  Met her, wasn’t in the play.  Really nice lady. 

Jane Powell – “Unsinkable Molly Brown”  She’s now doing Polident commercials!  She was the sweetest thing.  Itty bitty and full of voice, energy, and talent.  I really liked her.  Either she or Betsy Palmer let me babysit their two toy poodles backstage.

Shelly Winters – A complainer or maybe what is called today a true DIVA.  No other comment.  An example of what I NEVER wanted to become.

Robert Goulet – OH MY GOSH!!!  Gorgeous.  Beautiful singer.  Nice – Nice – Nice!  Backstage, he accidentally blew cigar smoke in my face, causing me to cough.  He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it and said, “Are you alright, sweetheart?”  I remember coming home and putting my arm in a sling vowing to never wash my hand or his kiss off of it – not EVER!  I was maybe, 11 or 12yo???  Truly smitten!

I’m sure there were many others who slip my mind at the moment (something that happens far too often these days!).

Kenny Ortega and I took tap dancing lessons from the same teacher.  I never met Kenny then.  I think we met in high school when one school would host a “Summer Music Drama Workshop” for all of the district’s high schools and give class credits, and God knew I needed every extra credit I could get!  A good student – I was NOT!  I was friends with Kenny and his sister Debbie.  Kenny began to produce and direct local theater plays in which I was involved.  I don’t know how many plays we did together.  He had a dry sense of humor and his sister Debbie was a hoot. 

A funny story about Kenny when we were in “The King & I” together.  He played the Kralahom (sp??) top servant to the king.  Anna had a line as he was coming off of a large ship that had arrived from England and he chose dress rehearsal to set us on our sides laughing until we cried.

Anna:  (said with a proper British accent)  Any news from abroad?

Kralahom (Kenny): (dipping into his best Groucho Marks posture with imaginary cigar) No.  But your father sent a letter!

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when my Mom called to tell me he had done the choreography for the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Dirty Dancing.”  Then I saw some Las Vega special on TV with Cher’ (I didn’t name myself after her, really I didn’t!) and the dancing looked so familiar to what I had done under the direction of Kenny Ortega.  Guess what?  He’d choreographed that show, too.  Then, Mom told me he was directing “High School Musical,” a show I had little interest in.  Anyway, sure enough, on the DVD there is a section where you see him talking and dancing.  Same voice, same Kenny – just a little less hair and wearing glasses.  I don’t know if he’d remember me or not.  I think his sister might because when we were in “Mame” we shared a dressing room space and I made her hair BIG before show time and again at intermission.  She played the part of (larger than life) Vera that Beatrice Arthur had played on Broadway.  She was so much fun.

Pittsburgh Steelers player Lynn Swan and I DID take tap dancing at the same school and eventually ended up in some of the same classes.  Piece of Cherylyn trivia here . . . I hated my birth name (Lynn) ever since I could remember and when the dance teacher said, “Lynn, would you step forward and show the combination of steps I just taught,” this skinny black boy and skinny white girl would step forward, look at each other, and hang our heads embarrassed that I had a boy’s name or he had a girl’s name!!!!  I don’t know if that left as much of an impression on him as it did on me, but I feel sure that if I stood before Lynn Swan today (a 100 years later) and did the “Finale” (a dance the whole school sang and tapped to, year after year at the end of all dance recitals) he might have some recollection.  Yes, I still remember the dance steps to that one song.  How could I forget?  I did it for 6 or so years EVERY SINGLE YEAR!!!!  Our dance teacher, Les Williams, retired from dancing and became an attorney!  I eventually changed my name to “Cherylyn” pronounced like Carolyn or Marilyn.  I speak or write to Les Williams occasionally to this day so many years later!

Mary Francis Crosby (Bing Crosby’s daughter) and I took ballet lessons at the same school.  We were both half awake during our Saturday morning (I wonder to this day if she is like me, still not a morning person!!!) classes with Mr. Gibson, whom I liked a whole lot more than the weekday teacher – a French lady who beat our fingers with her time-keeping stick when our hands looked like “claws! claws!” (she shrieked those words in a thick French accent) instead of relaxed hands!!!!  Mary Francis and I would wait downstairs by a drugstore’s door to be picked up after class.  Sometimes her mother (Catherine) picked her up and sometimes the “butler???” who reminded me of a Mr. French kind of guy from that show with the children and Brian Keith – forget the name of the show – but the little girl had a doll named Mrs. Beasley!  Anyway, Mary Francis was “normal” and so was her VERY nice mother.  VERY unpretentious and down to earth.   Sometimes we would sneak into the drugstore to buy candy (one of us stayed outside as a look-out) and we’d share our loot with each other.  Oddly enough, she rarely had money, but you should have seen the house they lived in in Hillsborough – same place Patty Hearst’s family lived.

I closed in a show, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” on a Saturday night and then moved here to Oklahoma the next day in August of 1972 driving from California to Oklahoma in a 1972 Ford Pinto with no a/c.  The Mojave dessert was 103 at 2am and there was a dust storm, so I had to close the vents that were at least circulating the hot air.  What a trip!  When I moved out for the first time, I didn’t move 20 miles away, I moved closer to 2000 and I was only 19 years old.  Such guts, had I!!!!

I did a beauty pageant or two the next spring and never performed or did much again.  I taught ballet, tap and jazz for a while when Stephanie was in grade school.  I had dance instructions from an older man, Gene Stockwell, who had taught Rita Hayworth and Ann Miller – he always said I had Ann Miller’s dance style, but I’m not sure I’ve seen her enough to know what that means.  I performed only one year on stage, but felt rather silly at my age, although no one else thought so.

I had done some photo modeling in California, so had a portfolio, and went to the ONE (and ONLY)  modeling agency at the time here in Oklahoma City.  They tried to tell me I’d have to pay for lessons after they saw me that first day.  Then two days later, I was called to do lunch room modeling and I worked steadily ever since that first day for extra income, while I held an Emergency Room job from 3-11pm.

I ended up working for a man here in Oklahoma that was very (VERY!) wealthy in the oil and gas business.  His vision was for natural gas to be the clean fuel of the future.  Methane gas was an unlimited resource.  He lobbied in Washington D.C. and was friends with all the “famous people” we hear of in world politics and dated those in the entertainment business.  He was . . . “interesting” . . . to work for.  There’s that word again!  Temperamental, but still someone I admired because of his drive and ability to convince people to think bigger than they thought possible.  I remembered he had me call a “friend” (a famous piano player) in New York who was hosting a party for the then Russian Premier Gorbachev and wanted me to get him invited to the dinner.  I almost died.  I can’t imagine calling someone to see if you can get invited to a dinner because you have business/political interests in mind.  If I recall, my attempt failed!

He ended up in a relationship for a long time with Rita Hayworth’s daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan – a delightfully sweet woman and sooooo refined and classy.  She pioneered the research and foundation of the group for Alzheimers because her mother (Rita) was suffering from the disease.  She had a NYC apartment next door to her mother’s and saw to her mother’s care and had round the clock help for her mother.  A VERY devoted daughter.  That romance eventually fizzled, like so many of the others before.

I’ll tell you the worst thing I ever did for selfish gain by my using people.  Stefanie Powers (whom my first daughter is named after) saw some pictures of same said boss in an equine magazine.  He had race horses in KY.  Anyway, her secretary, Jan, called me to tell me Stefanie was interested in meeting my boss.  At the time, Stefanie was doing the show “Hart to Hart” with ROBERT WAGNER – MY heart throb since “It Takes a Thief” days in junior high.   My scheming mind thought, “A ha!  If I can hook them up, she’ll come here. Then, I’ll get to meet her AND ask her if she would introduce me to Robert Wagner.”  Ah, yes!  Devious me!!!  I went to my boss personally behind closed doors with Stefanie’s message and he informed me he had no idea who she was . . . and went back to reading.  I persisted (something you DIDN’T do with my boss when he dismissed you).  I convinced him he was missing someone fantastic and so he agreed to call her back.  I left his office with the closed fist jerk down saying, “Yessssss!” to myself!!!!   I called Jan and told her it was thumbs up, and soon they were calling each other AND dating.  I WAS *SOOOOO* CLOSE TO MY GOAL!!!!!!  Then he jilted her (one of his bad traits) and my heart fell.  I just knew I’d get to meet Robert Wagner!!!  Ends up my boss owned property in Aspen, CO that backed up to John Denver’s house (I didn’t care about him!) and Jill St. John’s house.  And . . . GUESS WHO *she* was dating????  Robert Wagner!!!  I immediately tried to become chummy with Jill St. John whenever the opportunity presented itself.  I hate to end my story on a “downer” but my meeting Robert Wagner never happened.  Maybe I would have been disappointed, anyway.  How’s that for sour grapes???!!!! LOL

One last interesting person I will talk about his George Stephanopolis  (again sp??).  My boss became “friends” with him at the beginning of the Clinton campaign when George was working for the campaign and still had a goofy look with thick black plastic glasses.  My boss wanted to be “friends” with whoever was going to be in the White House so he could push his natural gas beliefs in Washington.  Notice  how I’m beginning to use the word “friend” as a tongue in cheek word?  Who would have thought George would rise to what he has become today???!!!!

I tell these things not because I want anyone to be impressed with whom I’ve rubbed elbows.  That doesn’t really matter.  I was mostly impressed by the facts of what I learned.  When you are jilted – no matter what a big “star” you are – it hurts.  When your mother has Alzheimer’s Disease, all the money in the world can’t keep your heart from breaking as she dies before you.  When you have yachts and political connections and private jets, and people clamor after you for your autograph . . .

When you are a famous choreographer and your Aunt Shirley dies (the person who was there at everyone of your early teen performances) – it kills you that death, indeed, is so final.

You still are susceptible to the flu and vomiting.  You can catch bronchitis, pneumonia, AIDS, or break a bone. 

You can have children that are distant to you because you’ve been so busy and ignored them all their life. 

You are still lonely when you walk around your large expanse of a home with indoor pool and marble floors hearing your footsteps echo and realizing you are in fact – ALONE. 

How horrible when you can’t know who you can really trust, who your friends are, or who just wants you for your money or your influential position to exploit you.

It’s a tragedy when there’s no security in anything except your power and fame, which are forever fleeting . . . . 
Especially, when you don’t need God because you can buy almost anything . . .

To any of you who have ever wanted more than what God has given you in life – think again.  Grieving while vacationing on the Riviera beaches is just as heartbreaking as grieving in your own kitchen.  God made people the same: emotional people with feelings, whether we like it or not.  That’s why we are not to build up our treasures here on earth. 

God knows what He’s talking about when He speaks of those things rotting. 

They do. 

And they will.

We have no appointments scheduled for today.  It rained last night (YAAAAAAAAAAY!) and it’s still wet outside with a chance of more rain this afternoon.  Most of the laundry is done.  I’m actually looking for things to wash today since currently the temperature is 83 degrees with a heat index of 87 degrees AND it’s getting close to noon.  The house is remarkably cooler – thanks to the air conditioner units being cleaned off and the cooler temps today.

Actually, this is a welcomed slow and dismal day.  I’m enjoying every minute of having not much to do!  Everyone is sitting or snoozing in various places around the house.  This week-end I discovered a You Tube video of Andrea McArdle (the girl who played Annie on Broadway 100 years ago) and who sings on the CD of “Annie.”  She is singing “On My Own” from Les Miz on this You Tube site and the girls LOVED her.  The girls are fascinated with Broadway shows and I’m reluctantly and carefully introducing them to the world of Broadway musicals.  That is what I grew up doing as a child (performing in professional musical theater) and I’m not sure I want my children involved.  Without being raised as a Christian (we attended almost every church ever invented), I was a child with a self-imposed high moral standard and didn’t participate in much of what goes on in the scummy life of theater people.  That was also during the Haight Ashbury days in San Francisco and the height of the love-ins and hippies and LOTS of drugs.  God surely had his hand on me with a different purpose in mind because I never got involved with the rebelling hippie groups..

Anyway, my girls have found a cable musical station with Broadway musical songs, and they are in love!  I must admit, I have quite a memory for most of the older show tunes and it *does* bring back many pleasant memories of who I worked with and who my friends were.  One of the nicest men was Bonnie Raitt’s father, John Raitt.  Did “Carousel” with him.  He was such a concerned father figure of the young children in the cast.  I didn’t know this, but he was a practicing Quaker.  He insisted all children’s scenes be rehearsed first so they could leave and get home at a decent hour.  In theater, even children are sometimes required to stay until 2 in the morning, even though it’s against the children’s laws of the actor’s guild.  He also required every adult to hold their tongue with no rude stories or curse words used when children were in their presence.  He left a big impression.

Well, that was a rabbit track I took . . .  (LOL!!!)

Anyway, yesterday was so wearing on us.  The heat was miserable.  Temps were 103 degrees with a hotter heat index.  We went to Luci’s medical doctor appointment, afterwards to Target to see if they had zippered sweat jackets in (they don’t) and then to Wal-Mart (no jackets there, either), stopped at the pharmacy up the street from us and came home.  I felt so tired and achy and like I wanted to cry, which Luci and Rissy were already doing and Annamarie was acting like she was in a daze.  I cleaned the horrible mess in the kitchen and ran the dishwasher.  We had the pot roast that I (THANK YOU GOD!!!!) had started earlier in the day in my Crockpot.    I cut up potatoes (too tired to peel them) and some carrots, boiled them, and then threw them and some brown gravy with cooking wine into the Crockpot with the meat.  It tasted WONDERFUL!!!  But, I was too tired to clean up last night’s dishes.  And . . . It’s *ALL* waiting for me this morning!

I ended up going to bed at 8pm to get off of my feet and told the girls they were all going to bed at 9pm, including Daddy and me.  I took 2 aspirin as I felt so achy and laid on the heating pad, worried I was coming down with a bug of some kind.  I guess I was just exhausted from the heat.  Anyway, I feel fine today and so do the girls.  But, we’re here at home with no plans except to maybe vacuum, dust, and clean some bathrooms.  Nothing major.

My sister-in-law, the one who is supposed to be visiting in a few weeks, is having hernia surgery today in WA at 3pm.  I guess after her Monday appt. it became a necessity to be fixed ASAP.  My father-in-law is ALSO having hernia surgery at 1pm in TX today.  We found out about his surgery last night.    I don’t think hernias run in Jesse’s family, I think it’s sheer coincidence.    Jesse said one of his brothers called and told of a relative (maybe a friend?) who had one leg amputated and the toes of the other foot amputated this week.   Then, his aunt (on their mother’s side) had a sister die of cancer yesterday.  Jesse said he hung up because he had to get back to work, but his brother said there was more news.  Whew!  Things can change quickly, can’t they?

Well, I’m off to find more things I can wash and get myself pulled together.  Rissy and I are the only ones still lounging in our nightgowns.  That’s why there’s no picture of me today.  Lazy sloth that I am!

I laid down on the sofa to watch a movie Jesse had rented AND FELL ASLEEP!!!!  Yes!  Me!  The person who hasn’t been able to sleep during the day since somewhere around age two!  Apparently, the level of new medication my doctor prescribed has me acting and feeling like an average person, which poses the question: What have I been for all of these years????  Yep!  *AB*-normal for 53 years, I guess.  I only slept about 20 minutes and didn’t miss the entire movie.  I don’t sleep everyday, but over the past month have started taking occasional naps for 20 – 30 minutes JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD.  Ahhhh!  “Normal” or “average” feels good!

We had watched “The Buckle List” on Saturday night.  Of course, none of these movies are recommended Christian viewing and you have to skip over the four letter words used in all of them (which is today’s PG-13 standard, I guess).  Last night we watched, “Definitely, Maybe” which wasn’t as good as “The Bucket List” (which I really enjoyed -funny/sad at the same time)  but it DID hold my attention – when I wasn’t sleeping!!!!

Luci has a return appointment with her medical doctor today.  We had a problem with her in church again yesterday morning.  Same thing last week in church.  Not a huge, loud, tantrum, fit; but, sniveling tears  and whiny  complaining.  I told Jesse to spank her this time once they got outside.  They spent an hour in the Suburban with the windows down. He’s used to being in the heat, she isn’t. I’m sure it was unpleasantly hot for her.  When we take her to the car, there is no conversation, no music played or anything else done to make the wait feel shorter.  Jesse had his Bible and read as she sat in the backseat – waiting (in the heat).  The car WAS parked in the shade – so none of you need to think we induced cruel and unusual punishment!  When we went to lunch, I took her to the restroom (which was empty) and told her (AGAIN) what we expected from her.  I believe she has acquired “bad habits” and they are only “habits” at this point and not out of control fits.  She started to cry and tell me she was sorry, but I stopped her and told her I needed to know she was listening to me and to stop crying so she could hear what I needed to tell her.  The tears stopped immediately (so she CAN control them!).  We talked about her turning six years old soon and how this was no longer acceptable behavior – ESPECIALLY since she was on the correct medication, now.   She was VERY “together” for the rest of the day.  I suppose these speeches, from me, will have to be repeated until she understands “not acceptable” means “NOT acceptable – NOT EVER”!

Like I said, I took her out to buy her party decorations.  I did it after the bad church behavior, because she was so well behaved the rest of the day.  I wanted to reward the good, just like we reprimand the bad behavior.  Here’s the theme she has chosen.  She picked ONE crown to be worn by HER – the birthday girl.  (Lori K, – I think she’s a chip off the old “aunt” block!!!!)

I took some quick pictures of the girls in their new clothes and Rissy took mine.  I knelt on the floor to take their pictures and Rissy stood on the sofa to take mine!  We don’t have fancy tripods, just floors and furniture!

I’m off to read about other people’s lives and to eat some of JanaLyn’s leftover rolls or coffee cake.  Tonight it’s pot roast in the Crockpot for dinner.  We had popcorn (everyone except me) for dinner last night.  I wasn’t hungry but made myself eat a small packet of peanut butter cheese crackers.

Saturday morning we had JanaLyn’s breakfast of 3 different kinds of coffee cakes or rolls (cinnamon rolls, cream cheese rolls, and cream cheese & raspberry coffee cake) served with turkey sausage links and scrambled eggs . . . and orange JUICE – one of JanaLyn’s favorite things to drink.

We cleaned up the breakfast dishes (paper plates – Ha! Ha!) and then she opened her gifts.  It seemed an odd way to do things because we normally have an evening meal, THEN gifts, and THEN cake.  I’m such a creature of habit and it’s hard to change my ways; but, she was pleased and that’s what mattered the most.  Stephanie combined her gifts with ours and it made quite an impressive fireplace hearth display of gift boxes and gift bags.  Stephanie had to go to work in the afternoon.  JanaLyn stayed and the girls swam in the pool until a little after noon and then came in for lunch and to watch some children’s movies Jesse had rented.  It’s just been too hot to stay out all day, even if you are in a pool.

I’ll share some of the best birthday pictures.

We came home and I took Luci back out (alone) to shop for her birthday decorations.  Her birthday is August 5th, ten days after JanaLyn’s birthday. 

I think we’ll have popcorn for dinner tonight, as I doubt anyone will be hungry for a real meal.

The girls and I wore some of our new dresses to church.  We’re still dressed and not too unkempt, so I’ll take pictures today and post those tomorrow.  My friend, Tina, is such an excellent seamstress.  She’s never met us but sews like we are standing there next to her sewing machine, trying things on as she goes.  She has been blessed with a talent I can only dream of possessing!

I’m going to snap some pictures of our new clothing and the girls’ new closet.  Then, I’ll enjoy spending time with the family before the grind of the work week starts all over tomorrow!

PoPo, Granny, Annamarie, Rissy, and Luci love you very much and wish you the best birthday you’ve ever had!!!!!  My little “chu-cha”!!!!

THEN WE WENT TO WAL-MART!!!!!!!!!!  LOL

We spent a lot more than I had intended – because Jesse was with me.  I always thought I was a bit on the spending extreme side, but we came home with lots of canned lemonade (4 cases of drinks), movie-size boxes of maybe 10 different kinds of candies . . . the list went on forever!  And the bill was through the roof at the check out stand.  He peeled off two $100 bills and I wrote a check for the rest.  Let’s just say we have a large bottle of olive oil, 2 boxes of strawberries, a package of frozen chicken breasts, and 4 cookies from the bakery that I can remember buying.  I’m not sure where the rest of the money went!!!!

It was blazing hot and we were glad to get home.  I transferred some pictures from my camera to upload today and found Rissy had been “at it” again.  She’s actually getting pretty good and photography might be a hobby of interest to her.  I’m also thinking an inexpensive digital camera might be an idea for a future gift!

First up, the girls and I received new dresses in the mail from our seamstress friend Tina.  Annamarie didn’t wear one of her dresses yesterday, but I took her picture anyway.

RISSY’S PICS:

Stephanie called last night and said she and JanaLyn would like to spend the night, tonight, and then open up JanaLyn’s gifts Saturday morning and have a nice breakfast.  She has to go to work on Saturday from 2:30 – 5:30 and I’ll watch JanaLyn.  After work, she’ll pick her up and take JanaLyn to her (Stephanie’s) Dad’s house (near our house) for a birthday celebration.  So, I guess, no birthday cake here this year.  I’m fine with not having a mess to clean up!

Can’t think of much more to share – so have a blessed week-end if I don’t “see” you again until Monday!