Saying Goodbye To 2017 and Hello To 2018

 It is time to say goodbye to 2017 and ring in a brand new year. Happy New Year to everyone! I really hope that 2018 brings you health, happiness and love and a very good year ahead.

 These are the last of the scrap pages done in 2017. Today I will close this folder and upload it to my external hard drive and open a new one for 2018. I actually have several that I need to close and make new folders for. I had a lot of fun making these pages and I hope that you enjoy them as well.

 I have my phone back on, but only for a little while. As soon as we can, Karyn and I are going to get off of that girls family plan and get our own. No sense in paying someone else's bill when sometimes it is hard enough for us to pay our own. I told my daughter last year that we needed to get off the plan. So we are in agreement of getting our own. I hope that I can keep my number as I have so many doctor's that I would have to notify and that is such a pain to do. Now days tho it is pretty simple to keep your phone number.

 I came down with a slight cold. I hope that it stays that way, but just didn't have the energy to do much of anything. But I did want to update my blog and this is the last chance before tomorrow to do so. 

 I am going to try and do something different here and share an article from the History Channel. I do not remember these vending machines but I bet a lot of people do. Sometimes I really think that progress isn't one of the greatest things as I would have loved to have seen or used this....

A whisky vending machine? Those were the days! This particular machine is from a vending machine trade fair and the woman in the images, is about to enjoy a whisky and soda. The vending machine was in its heyday in the early 1960s and you could buy a surprising number of items by putting your change in the slot. Fruit, both fresh and canned, could be purchased this way as well as nylons, potatoes, clocks, and soup were some of the items on offer. This particular machine mixed whisky, water and soda when a person inserted 2 shillings and sixpence. How much is that now? Around £5.78 or $7.81. An interesting fact about this machine? It complied with local liquor laws and had a time switch which locked it automatically to conform with licensing hours.

 This is pretty awesome don't you think? Maybe not for the liquor but for other things. I remember here growing up we had such crazy Blue Laws. If you needed a pair of new stockings for Church on Sunday, then you had better buy them on Saturday because it was against the law here in Texas to sell Nylons on Sunday! Now isn't that crazy? And there was a whole lot of them as well. 

 Today we still have them but they are not enforced the way they were in the 70's. 

 Anyway just sharing a bit of history. I hope you enjoy the article.

 I am going to try and make a Black Eyed Pea salad for tomorrow. I shared a recipe on FB but I make mine a bit different. Instead of the vinegar and such I just use a bottle of Italian dressing. It gives it a good flavor. 

 Everyone I know has come down with this wicked flu. I have been exposed to it and sure hope that the sniffles I have is just the sniffles. I have already had my flu shot and the flu this year. I got the flu but it was a different strain than the one I had the shot for so let me hope that what ever is going around this time is what I have had in my flu shot and it passes me by.

 My sister Sharon is very sick, my son Matthew is much better thankfully but he was really sick. My friend Patsy, her husband, 2 sons and granddaughter have all been ill with it. 

 I have been taking my vitamins and extra vitamin C so I am hoping that it passes me by. I am also a big believer in keeping my hands washed too. 

 I slept really late today. It was almost 2:00pm when I got up. I know that it is my new medication that is doing this to me. It will take time for my body to get adjusted to it. But that is really too much sleep. I did wake up at 6:30 this morning, I got up and went to the bathroom. Started to make coffee but Cisco was wanting up in bed with me so I picked him up and laid down for a quick cuddle and the both of us went back to sleep. 

 My son Jonathan said that he came in to wake me up but we looked so peaceful spooned and curled up around each other that he didn't have the heart to wake us up. Tonight I am going to cut the new meds in half so that perhaps I don't sleep as long. 

 Jonathan and I are in the need of going to the grocery store so I will talk to you again next year... in 2018... Have an awesome evening to all and please be careful if you are out celebrating this evening.... Hugs to all.... BB

My Phone Is Not Working

 Christmas Party!!

 Edna, thank you for the Quick page. I left it simple as it is perfect the way that it is. My sister's Susie on the left, Linda in the middle and me on the end. We are missing a sister! My sister Sharon was on a cruise to Peru and Chili.

 Well a nasty surprise this morning. My phone is not working. We are on a family plan with one of Karyn's friends. Obviously she did not pay her portion of the bill. This  is not the first time that this has happened to us. 

 Karyn and I are going to get off her plan as Karyn is the one paying most of the bill every month and we have discussed that we will just get off of her plan the beginning of the year, which is now! I am sure that she will pay it once she realizes that SHE cannot make a call. And today I need my phone! 

 It is time for an upgrade anyway so I think that Karyn and I will go phone shopping when she gets home. 

 Miss Edna I will call you when I have service again..... :(

The Boys are at work Halleluiah...... Finally a day without the tv blasting some crazy show, a day without Nathan's guitar blaring, a day of quiet! 

 I love my boys of course but they can be quiet noisy at times. Actually Nathan. Jonathan is the quiet one. Still it is nice to have a day with just me and Cisco! 

 With the holidays over maybe we can get some quiet!. I need it. Last night my son in law stopped over and he and Nathan get into these conversations that always end up in some kind of argument. I got up to tell them to lower their tones but of course was dismissed but when they woke Jonathan up then they decided to finish their debate/argument in whispers.... Good Gosh A Mighty! Who cares who thinks the earth is flat? Who cares about what controversy they each seem to have a huge opinion over? 

 As a result it was after 2:00 am before I could go back to sleep. Nathan is going to be exhausted at work today. Oh well, that is on him. He should have said, "I have to work tomorrow so good night." But no... he is a night owl like me and he will be tired today. 

 Ohhh and Matt came over the other night to get me. I took one look at him and said... "Go home and go to bed." He is sick.... Running a fever. He said he felt bad but he didn't think that he had a fever. Ummm yes he did. I gave him some Tylenol and sent him home. So we didn't go out. I told him that we would go another time but he needed to get some rest so he can recover.

 The next day Patsy called me with some incredible news. Her granddaughter Tati has been signing up for some modeling jobs with 2 agency's and one of them called her for an audition in Hollywood for a T.V. commercial. Not exactly modeling and we don't know if she got the job or not but she had a lot of fun.

 Since they were fairly close to her family, she and Tati went to visit her mom and family. The first night that she was there she called and said she wasn't feeling good. She text me last night, fever of over 102 degrees, and is sick! So she will go to the base today and see a doctor, that is if she didn't end up going to the ER last night. 

 It is flu season and even tho I have had my shot, I don't need to be exposed to it and I am afraid that is just what Matthew has. He said he felt bad but that was all. I told him he was flushed and he said it was just because he worked out in the cold all day. I said I was going to take his temp and yeah he had a fever. Not as high as Patsy but 101 degrees. I sent him home with orders to go to bed and drink lots of fluids. 

 I seriously cannot get that crap again. When I get it, I land on my butt hard.... It puts me down and I am just now getting back to my regular self. 

 I got up early this morning because I had some calls to make. Well since the phone is not working I can't make those calls, so I am going to head back to bed for what I hope is a nice sleep for a couple of hours....

 Have an awesome day to all and I will post again later... BB

Meet Belle

Hello Everyone,

 It is the evening of the day after Christmas. I haven't had a chance today to stop and do what I have wanted to do. It is beginning to look like a busy time for me with some things I have been putting off and I have to get them done in order for things not to get out of hand or a small job made bigger because I put it off 

 I did take a couple of photos to share today.  This is Belle. Isn't she pretty? 

Thank you Miss Edna for making her for me. I am so proud of her. I can't tell you all what it means to me, because there is not enough words to express in my heart what this doll means to me.

 I took another photo as well today. This one is of my Baby! 

 He loves his blanket Miss Edna made for him. Now if it looks like it is too small for him, it isn't. He is laying on it and wouldn't get up so I could cover him with it until after the photo was taken, naturally... And he has his toys. The yellow one is from Miss Edna and Pogo. 

 It was incredibly late. Like 1:30 am. Or incredibly early, however you want to look at it. I was awake but he was looking at me like, can we go to bed now Mama. He is so sleepy here. 

 Well we had a big day so no wonder he was tired. He is like me, slowing down, but he sleeps a lot. He is sleeping now. This time around he has all of his blankets and toys jumbled into a ball and is laying on top of them with his nose tucked into the corner. He was laying at my feet but when I got up he moved. I almost stepped on him so we both have to be careful. 

 I kept myself busy today by trying to take care of a few things. I sorted my pantry, wiped down the shelves, went thru some of my plastic bowls that somehow have lost their covers...  (My daughter Karyn no doubt) and made sure that my meds were put in the right order in my bathroom. Some are a month's supply and some is a 3 month supply, so when a bottle of the 3 month supply is empty I want to make sure that I get the next bottle in the order it is marked. It makes it a lot easier for me to do that when it comes time to refill them. 

 But no matter what I still have a lot to do to get caught up on some things. The house is busy still with the boys. Nathan goes back to work Thursday and Jonathan tomorrow. I will be ready to have the house to myself for a day or so because it is just busy.

 My son Matthew is on his way his to pick me up and we are just going out to have some fun and do nothing probably but spend time together and that is just fine with me... Have an awesome day....  BB

Merry Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas,

 Hello to all, I really hope that your Christmas Holidays were wonderful. If you do not celebrate, then I hope that your time was wonderful as well. 

 Here on this end, it is a beautiful Christmas morning. Opening gifts, and a phone call to Miss Edna seems to have hit the spot just perfect. Today we will have our Christmas with just the boys.

 Miss Edna sent me some wonderful gifts so Cisco had a wonderful time with the Terrebone that he received, and soon I hope that he will crawl into his bed with the beautiful blanket she made for him with his new toy so I can take pictures. Maybe today I can take some pictures for my blog tomorrow.

 Yesterday I forgot that this was a new blog and I didn't introduce myself.  I am the mother of 5 wonderful kids, 3 boys and 2 girls. I have 12 grandchildren all together. 7 of them are my biological grand children and 5 are combined in our family. They are all on the west coast. Nevada and California so it is a busy family and sometimes hard to keep up with, but I do wish they lived closer to me so I could spoil them rotten. 

 I live in Texas in the U.S. and I live in the Capital City of Austin. I live with 2 of my sons and my dog Cisco who is part beagle and rat terrier. I talk about him a lot because he is my baby. My boys are men so they don't like all of the affection that I can lavish upon Cisco.

 I am 58 and was born in October so I am a Libra. I like my scales balanced and right now that is so hard for me to do. I sometimes just give in and crawl in bed and pull the covers over my head and wait it out. But I have a lot of support from my kids and friends and that keeps me going. When I think I can't I find that I can.

 My daughter Karyn is away this Christmas. She is visiting a friend who has just had a sweet little baby, and a toddler and she was down as her husband is military and was deployed. Enjoy your holiday Karyn and take time to enjoy this time away. Merry Christmas Dear Daughter.

 Two of the boys are here, the other one will be by later. He gave me my presents already as with his work schedule it is not known if he can come or not so we are going to play it by ear. 

 Christmas dinner is simple this year. That is good for me. Just working on a little here and a little there and enjoy the day. We will have Ham and I will make some sides. One thing is English pea salad. That seems to be the one thing that my kids really love and Jonathan requested spinach today. That is easy enough to make as well. 

 I need to get busy... I had to take a mini break so I thought that I would sit down and blog a bit. I might be back but first I want to catch up on some blog posts and then I will head to the kitchen....

 Merry Christmas once again and I will talk to you later on... BB

 

New Year New Start

 Merry Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas to everyone,

 

 I bet that your wondering, hmmm what happened to Beth's old blog so I will tell you.

 Someone hacked me or something and it was suspended for inappropriate material for like 60 days while under review so I chose to delete it and start over. 

 So that is where I am with that. 

 Now I do not post ugly stuff so I am not sure what happened but I was devastated and spent hours trying to fix it and couldn't and so I was totally upset by it all.

 Any way, it is still 2017 but I am going to go ahead and call it a New Year a bit early because I want to be able to blog. I always want to blog but sometime it is not possible for me to do so. I want to and can't then when I finally had some real free time, I found out about this horrible suspension. 

 This has been a hard year for hacking for me. I had been hacked on FB about 5 times this year. So I now change my password frequently. 

 My kids and family that I know of never read my blog so our main way of connecting to family and friends is Facebook. 

 With that being said, I will move on to other things....

 Last Saturday was spent at my sister's house for Christmas. I wanted to make some scrap pages of some pictures but as it stands I have not. But I can share some of my photo's I hope....

Let's start with the beginning of the day. We arrived after searching for some things at the store which was not found, but I picked up a party sized 5 cheese Lasagna, garlic bread, 2 pies and 2 soda's. My contribution.... 

  My sister has a beautiful house, and it is big enough for all of us and not with everyone bumping into one another, but the family is growing lol... One of my nephews and family could not make it but they came in last night from New Orleans. So they will have their Christmas this weekend, or that is the what I understand of their plans. 

 When we walked in the door I saw a baby running down the hall chasing the dog, Mocha. I said "Who's Baby?" My brother in law said "That's Jaxen" and I was like "No Way, that baby is running!" Talk about surprised! I can't believe how much he has grown.

 And not just Jaxen, but all of them. They have all grown and are growing up way to fast.

 Of course it was totally chaotic and it was wonderful... Here is some photos of our Christmas Party.

This is the adult table.... this is wine and Blue Hawaiians.... I loved this set up. One year she did a wine tree that was gorgeous. 

 The Little Rascals.... The little one is Bryce, David in the middle and Kaleb on the end ..... 

 Here are some of them... waiting on grandma and auntie to come to the tree, and not all of the presents are even out yet!!

My sister Linda helping to pass out presents and the one in the black and red sweater with the stockings is my niece Tiffany, mom to Jaylen, Kaleb and Zachary. Hmm speaking of Zachary, I don't think that I got any good photos of him and Jaylen. But you can see Zachary at the edge of this next photo.

 And so it begins... This is my sister Susanne but we call her Susie. She is a lot of fun and loves the kids so that is the kind of person she is.

See this gorgeous scarf... this is what Susie gave me for Christmas plus a whole lot of other things, but this scarf is just gorgeous and my niece Tabitha is modeling it for me to show me the many ways that I can wear it...

And another view...

 The guys are hiding out in the Kitchen/Den/ area.... All but my nephew Eddie and he is the dad of 3 girls and 1 boy so he has his hands full... 

Eddie.... He is such a sweet loving father, son and nephew.... 

 The guys... and one girl.... Roger, David, Lance and Daniel..... Mocha the only girl in their hangout is taking advantage of  baby Jaxen not chasing her... 

 

This is my sister's and I.

 I am wearing my new scarf. I had to grab it quick for the picture so I didn't do a fancy look but I sure do love the way that it feels... 

 So anyway that brings me up to date on last weekend. This weekend we are just going to chill and enjoy today and see what happens. I am hoping for a nap but who knows....  I said I wouldn't but I think that I need to...

 Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Be kind to others and remember the real reason for the season but also enjoy the culture and your loved ones... BB