Adrian:

As hard as you try to not concentrate on a date, it still creeps in.  Today would have been Adrian's 28th birthday.  Such a beautiful girl.  After fifteen years it's still hard to grasp this terrible tragedy in our lives.

Adrian Brouk

March 12, 1985 - February 5, 1998
A life cut short, a little girl with such a bright future.
Adrian was an intelligent girl. She wrote beautiful poems, excelled in her school work and just at the beginning of her teen life in another month. Such a tragedy.
There are no words to describe the loss of Adrian's life.
Remembering you with love.

Janet:

My friend Janet who passed away in 2011 birthday would be tomorrow.  I wanted to go down on her birthday to put flowers on.  While shopping in Jefferson City Saturday, I ran across these cute little pinwheels that happened to be in the same exact colors of the dresses we wore in Janet's wedding years ago.  Janet's was blue and this same shade and mine was the mint green, also this same shade of green.  What an appropriate way to remember Janet.  Dwayne is working out of town this week so I had him go with me Saturday evening to the cemetery.  (Good thing as will all the rain, there is no way we could have made it across the field in the mud).  This cemetery is in the middle of a field without a road going across.  You just drive in the middle of the field the best way you can.  I also don't want to go by myself as it's very isolated and kind of creepy.
April and I went there one summer evening a few years ago to see our neighbor's sons new tombstone and it was the eeriest feeling while there.  In one are of the cemetery we kept smelling a strong flower smell.  We searched everywhere but could not find any living flowers or vines.  We only smelled it in one section.  Along with it being dusk and the middle of nowhere it felt very eery.  We never could figure out where the strong flower/perfume smell was coming from.
I visited with Janet's Mom and Dad a couple weeks ago and they seem to be doing pretty good.  Bev is able to talk about Janet some now.  Charles and Bev have both been in poor health this winter.  I think the tulips Mom sent cheered her up some.

I am grateful to have know Janet for a childhood friend.

Weekend:

Friday:
We started off the evening by watching my great nephew, Kaleb while his Mommy and brother went to a basketball game with Ashlyne and Zach.  He was very good until April and Mike came by for a visit.  Then he was into everything!!  I don't know if we weren't paying enough attention to him or what.
Saturday:
Dwayne, Chad and Todd went to St. Elizabeth to get some hay from Mike's dad.  The drought last summer depleted our pasture and hay.
I went to St. Elizabeth and April and I spent the day shopping in Jefferson City.  My big expenditure for the day was a new door knob for the front door.  Our bit the dust after twenty-seven years. Not too bad for lasting that long.  I had spent A LOT of time refinishing our door a few years ago and now will have to find stain to touch up to get it to match as the pieces don't fit the same as the old one.  Bummer!  lol
Sunday:
I've not been sleeping well the past couple months so when I actually slept good during the night I didn't go to church as I kept dozing off.  Not a good habit to get into.
We went to Mom and Dad's for the afternoon as she had cake and ice cream for the March birthdays.
Nice to visit with the ones that showed up.
Zach and Ashlyne came home with us for the evening.  They are growing up so fast, sixteen and almost fifteen!!  Judy came over and picked them up before I got "their" pizza done.  I'll have to fix them one another time.
Dwayne went to bed early as he had to leave for Cape Girardeau early Monday morning.  The job he's supposed to start on has been delayed due to the weather so rather than being off for several more weeks, he opted to stay out of town Monday through Thursday and get to work.  At least it's not five days a week.

I am grateful for the times spent with family.

Nonna's Boys:

Nathan and Nonna

(I may or may not have let Nathan have a few sips of my Sun Drop..........)

lol

Nathan with Dwayne's hat

B

"Blake the Bullrider"

on

Zach, the "bull"

Ashlyne, Nonna & Nathan

Tuesday evening I picked Zach up after track practice and then Ashlyne came over to the house to pick him up.  We invited them to eat supper with us and go over to Kenny and Shelley's to see their new house.  Zach and Ashlyne have both been around Blake and Nathan quite a bit and were looking forward to seeing them.
We hadn't been to see the house since they moved in so we were excited to see the finished product.
The house turned out great and the rooms and decor all flows nicely.  I love the size of Shelley's kitchen and dining room.  I could use that size for our family dinners.

When Nathan started to talk, he called me Nonna and still does.  I was amazed he was so happy to see me when we got there and sat on my lap several times throughout the evening.  I was even MORE AMAZED at how he can do the DSL game (or whatever you call it).  These young kids just take to technology so fast.  I see kids no bigger than toddlers using cell phones, etc.  I just can't seem to get the hang of it.

Blake was so excited to see Ashlyne.  She used to babysit him and he just loves her.  Nathan wanted her to spend the night and babysit.  lol  Actually, he wanted me to spend the night too.  I told him he could go home with me and then immediately realized he's too young to know I was just kidding and was afraid he would take me up on it.  Would have been okay except his daycare isn't on my way to work.  Luckily, he was okay with that.

The boys had Monster Trucks on TV and Dwayne couldn't hardly visit with Kenny for watching TV.  I think we may just have to go see them when they're in St. Louis again, looks pretty exciting.

Blake has always wanted to be a bull rider and Zach played along with him and was his bull.  We had to count each time he rode.  The bull was a little wild and sometimes he didn't make the eight seconds.
They were both worn out when they got done.

We had a great time visiting and I am grateful for this family that came into our life when by chance April started babysitting Blake when he was two years old.  A great friendship has been formed.

Wordless Wednesday:

My nieces in the April's wedding:

Kara 

Ashlyne

Tess

MacKensie

Elizabeth

Goof Ball:

Where, oh where did my glasses go?

I'm such a goof ball.  Ashlyne and Lizzy were over one night and I couldn't find my glasses anywhere.  I searched and searched.  Well, you see it, they were on my head and tangled up in my hair!!  lol  I do that quite often.  I need my glasses for distant vision and push them up on my head when looking up close.  I know I felt on my head and couldn't find them, sure am glad Ashlyne and Lizzy had a good laugh for the night!! Not!!

I am grateful to my Momma for passing along her sense of humor and be able to laugh at myself.

Weekend:

Saturday:
Still not sleeping good so up earlier than I normally like.
I finished up the sealer on the bay window, not too happy with it.  It bubbles up some on the finish.  Dwayne sanded it down once for me so I could put another coat on, he said he would sand it again for me but I think I'm going to call it done.  Hung a couple pictures in the bedroom and some laundry then it was time for April to be there.  We had two baby showers to go to.  I was afraid with the weather like it was there wouldn't be a very good turnout but both showers had alot of people there.  My car is now so muddy from the gravel roads it looks like someone spray painted the lower half of the car with tan paint.  I imagine it will look that way for the rest of Spring.
After the baby showers, we stopped by to visit Mom and Dad.  Dad was in rare form today!!  He always talks alot and tells you quite a bit of history, but today he was in even more of a talkative mode than usual.  Poor Mom, you can barely visit with her for Dad talking. She did get to give April some of her recipes to write down.  One was for home made icing and I had forgot we used to make it like that all the time, so used to now just buying the tub of icing. They both felt really good today and we had a great visit.
After April left, I made a big pot of soup, way too much for Dwayne and I so I planned on taking it over to April's the next day.
Sunday:
Again, waking up way too early.  But I get alot accomplished that way just not used to the early morning hours.  I made a cake before I went to church and then actually made home made icing.  I didn't have any in the cabinet and with Mom refreshing my memory yesterday I made fudge icing.  It does set up better than the bought kind.
After church, Dwayne and I loaded up the truck and headed for April and Mike's.  Chad and Todd were going to go with us but had plans at the last minute.
Dwayne and Chad had installed a new countertop and tiled the backsplash last month. Dwayne still needed to put up a few trim pieces.  It turned out good and certainly looks a lot better than the old white counter top and tile.

                                                                             Before:

After:

I had made copies of Dodie's handwritten instructions for Liverpool Rummy and gave them to April along with three decks of cards.  We spent many Sunday afternoons playing cards with Grandma Dodie and Grandpa Andy.  If you didn't play cards or a board game when you came to visit, Grandma Dodie would get offended.  She loved her games.
After eating the soup and grilled cheese, we played a couple games.  Dwayne and April were the winners and I felt like a sore looser as I did so bad.

We had a nice weekend getting out of the house.  Dwayne has not had any work due to the weather the past few weeks and he is getting a little tired of being inside.

I am grateful for the nicer weather and a weekend of visiting with family and friends.