let’s get together
let there be no tears or fears
let’s just sit and ponder
our life in yonder
our time together seems
like a lifetime ago
yet when we’re together
it’s like no time
has passed at all
distance and miles have not
separated our souls
so let’s get together
over dinner
laugh and remember
all the years gone by
share our hopes and dreams
for children and family
and hope for a little more time together
to share a bond that was formed
a lifetime ago
by momwhearingloss
Driving the boys to school the other day and came across these two heads. My son took this picture with his I-Pad.
In the post “Bye, Bye, Great Pumpkin” I talked about getting rid of our orange family room. I hired a painter and re-painted the room a calm and soothing grey. Took me a while to put the room back together because once I removed everything from the room, I didn’t want to put it all back. Several years ago my husband won this big picture of Bobby Orr. It is a nice picture but how do you decorate around Bobby Orr. Now, now ladies if you’re saying get rid of Bobby Orr you have to remember that it’s not all about us. Our hubbies have decorating preferences too – even if you don’t agree with your man’s taste he does have preferences. My husband loves his Bobby Orr picture, so being a hockey family we decided to put the picture in our family room. One night while looking through blogs, I came across Micheline’s blog and really liked her art work. Why I don’t know, I e-mailed Micheline to ask her if she would consider painting a hockey picture of my children. I sent the above picture of the boys, but I wasn’t really sure what I wanted or expected. Micheline politely said “thank you, but no thanks.” Part of her reluctance was she thought I wanted a portrait and I assured her I wanted something abstract. The painting took about two months as she had other commission work to complete. I had no idea what artistic brilliance Micheline would come up with and other than telling her what number jerseys the boys wear, and a few other tidbits of information, I left the professional part of painting up to the expert. I guess you can say that this project was a leap of faith for both artist and client. Glad to say we are both happy with the results. I love the picture and Micheline took on something out of her comfort zone. Thanks Micheline for helping me complete my decorating project, the picture looks awesome in our family room and compliments Bobby! Below is the awesome pic Micheline came up with – I love it -hubbie is still warming up to it!
I’ve added a new category to momwhearingloss. Friday’s phlog – simple concept really and I like simple. I post a picture every Friday and everyone can let me know if they like it or not! Some phloggers follow themes and post pictures with that theme in mind. I’m not really a theme person, plus if I pick a theme then I’ll have to drive around to look for a particular picture to fit that theme. I’m more of a random person, when the mood strikes I post or shoot. Yesterday morning I was out walking my early morning walk and turned onto a street I hadn’t been on before. I came around a corner and ran into this beautiful pink Chevrolet. I cursed to myself because I had no camera. This morning I was out for my walk bright and early and this time I packed my camera. Something about the era of the 50’s and 60’s I love. Clothes were cool, cars were cool, music was cool, Elvis was cool, Beatles were cool – ok I’ll stop there because I could go on and on – here’s the focus of this phlog and what a beautie she is:
Yesterday I received a nomination for “lovely blog award” from terry1954. As always I’m thrilled, honoured, humbled and somewhat shy when someone says – hey I like your work. Thank you Terry for the award. For those of you who don’t know Terry, she is an amazing lady who cares for her ill brother. Even though she is one busy lady she always has time to stop by blogs and offer encouraging words.
It’s here that I’m supposed to tell you a little something about myself:
I love a good laugh especially with my children and husband
I love spending quality time with my family as life is so busy quality time seems rare these days
I like to eat – everything – there is nothing I don’t like
I like seeing happy people – you know the ones with big smiles on their faces
I like to walk with nature
I like to watch movies that make me cry
I love the innocence of children
I have a bad temper that over years of practice I’ve learned to control
If I want something done I want it done yesterday
I have no patience except when it comes to my children and when I’m driving, I don’t suffer road rage
favourite quote:
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr. Seuss
I probably have 100 favourite quotes – here’s another:
“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you” Winnie the Pooh
and the nominees are:
Now to all you nominees – the whole point of these blog awards is to pay it forward..
There was a time
when
I would fall asleep
to the sweet lullabies
of
frogs and crickets
the songs of these creatures would
lull me into a dream state
and in the morning I would awake
to the beautiful melodies
of my
feathered friends
each morning I would stir
in my sleep and pull the covers
over my head
as my feathered friends were persistent and
aroused me from my dream state
much to early
now when I go to sleep
there are no sweet lullabies
of the frogs or the crickets
that beautiful sound has been replaced
by a freight train running through my
head
replaced by the terrible racket called tinnitus
that loves to cause ringing in my head
and is especially loud
when all the world is quiet
and in the morning
I now
awake to the sounds
of
swishing, ringing and banging
how I miss
the beautiful lullabies of the frogs and the crickets
and the beautiful melodies
of my
feathered friends
momwhearingloss
I thought this was beautiful. Double click below:
My favourite picture with the boys – oh my where has the time gone! Can’t forget grandmothers, after all that’s where it all started. Below two very different woman but both have been a huge influence in all of our lives and helped shaped us into the type of people that we are today. Same goes for the boys, I could not teach my children in a lifetime what their Grandmothers have taught them. Happy Mother’s day to all mothers and grandmothers – enjoy your precious gems!
After three days in Disneyland (can you say Mickey Mouse), my husband and I were ready for something different. Before heading to California I pre-booked a 4 day pass to Disneyland and a one day pass to Universal Studios. We lost one day because of car problems in San Francisco and our hotel reservations were up in Anaheim. We decided to spend the day at Universal Studios and then head to Arizona and Nevada to see the Grand Canyon, good old Las Vegas and back to Anaheim for one day on our way back home. I’ve never been to Universal Studios before and I had no expectations. The studio is approximately 35 or 40 miles from Anaheim but it took us forever to get there – there’s never a quick or easy route when driving in LA. So here we are at Universal Studios. I really enjoyed the park, more than I thought I would. We took the studio tour, you can’t possibly go to Universal Studios without taking the tour. There’s plenty to do in the park but we couldn’t do everything in one day, especially since we wanted to head back to our hotel before the traffic was out of control. The Jurassic park ride looked awesome but my youngest did not want to go on it, said it looked to S-C-A-R-Y. We opted out for the studio tours and Shrek 4- 3D. We saw Shrek 4 – 3D first and it was very cool – kids loved it. The studio tours were a blast, I really enjoyed all the effects. You can check all the fun below by double clicking on one of the pictures in the gallery:
While in California Park, I bought my youngest son the flight hat and goggles you see him wearing consistently throughout these pictures. Donkey from Shrek, as seen here, was priceless. He kept saying to my son – “What kind-a pilot are you, where’s your plane?” “You can’t call yourself a pilot, you got no plane.” Had my son in stitches as you can tell by this picture.
We saw plane crashes, a flash flood, old western town,Norman Bates, Whoville, Desperate Housewives, Jaws, Jurassic Park, exploding cars and so much more. All very entertaining and worth the price tag. My batteries died in my camera but we toured through some of the housing where the actors in the 50’s use to live while they were filming. Old 50’s bungalows, actors were kept there during filming – during the era when the studio controlled every aspect of the actors lives. Next post I bring you the Grand Canyon….
Fast forward our trip to California and we’ve arrived in Anaheim. Boys were so excited all the way from San Francisco, they could not wait to meet Mickey. As I’ve chronicled in “happiest place on earth” and “left my heart in San Francisco,” we finally arrived to our key destination. We were booked in Anaheim for five days and we stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The Crowne Plaza is a beautiful hotel, however I don’t think I would stay there again. I would look for something with a kitchenette so we could prepare food at the hotel. Unfortunately, because of our car problems in San Francisco we lost one night at the Crowne Plaza, cost us a bit of money. Not much we could do about that and since we we’re in the happiest place on earth it was time to move on. Funny how things work out because it turns out the day we were supposed to arrive in Anaheim it was President’s Day. We ran into a few people we knew who arrived the day before and said Disneyland was a complete zoo. Apparently the line-ups were hours and hours long and to think we missed all of that! Double click on one of the pictures in the gallery below to view all of the fun…
Highs: Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Screamer (boys talked me into joining them, I swear I had an out of body experience up there), Big Thunder Roller coaster, Tower of Terror(at least that what the boys and my husband said – I was too chicken to ride it),haunted house(classic but a goody), California Soarin and the list goes on. Lows: Ferris Wheel in California Park – I was terrified! Space Mountain – if I live to be a 100, I will never go on that ride again. If you look through the gallery above you will see a picture of the family on the space mountain ride, there appears to be only three of us, my youngest son is behind me ducking low in the car holding on for his life. Funniest statement – my youngest son would go on the haunted house ride during the day but no way could we get him to ride it at night, when asked why “because it’s haunted mom!” Next post – Universal Studios…..
Who can argue with chocolate. I just made these little gems – delicious
Back to Basics Brownies
1 stick butter
12 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
In a small saucepan, melt butter, cocoa and oil. Let cool. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, sugar and salt together until thick and fluffy in texture. Add in cooled chocolate mixture and flour. Pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch baking pan (or you can line it with foil that has been greased for easy clean up). Bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 25 minutes until set. I start checking at 20 minutes. If you prefer your brownies to be more cake-like in consistency, bake in a 9 x 9-inch pan. Enjoy!
The total cost for a pan of these brownies is $2.30. You can get a box mix for cheaper – but they won’t be nearly as good! These also make a fantastic frozen treat: Let brownies cool completely in pan. Top with your favorite ice cream and freeze until hard. Cut into squares and dip in melted chocolate. Freeze until firm. Enjoy!
I made some brownies today for my son who also happens to be a certified chocoholic. He has figured out if he does his chores without being told or grumbling, I am more likely to make some of his favorite treats! I like this recipe because it calls for cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate – something I don’t usually have on hand. They are chewy and moist – just a like a brownie should be. You can add anything you want to the batter, chocolate chips, marshmallows, m& m’s, nuts, even peanut butter. Feel free to jazz them up any way you want! This recipe was adapted from the Joy of Cooking cookbook.
Back to Basics Brownies
1 stick butter
12 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
In a small saucepan, melt…
View original post 176 more words
After our travels through Oregon and Yreka California, we arrived in San Francisco. GPS is such an incredible invention – just plug in where you want to go and it takes you there. One problem, sometimes it takes you on routes that aren’t exactly the best way. We wanted to cross Golden Gate Bridge but ended up going over Oakland Bay Bridge. Not a good choice as we ended up in a parking lot, literally. I could not get over the amount of cars going over that bridge. I felt like this tiny ant trying to get through the entire colony only to find space where I could lay my head down. To add to the stress, our car was giving us problems and we were worried the car would die right there in the middle of that insane traffic! I pre-booked our hotel in San Mateo, a little place called Stone Villa. The place was decent, clean and cheap as we were only supposed to stay one night and move on to Disneyland. If you’re looking for a place with a view this is not your hotel as the hotel faces an industrial area. We arrived in San Mateo on a Saturday with car problems and decided that we wouldn’t head to Disneyland without getting the car checked out. Unbelievable to me that in a city the size of San Francisco there were no mechanics working Sunday . We were stuck without a car in San Mateo! Rather than waste the day we took public transportation to the heart of San Francisco and spent the day at Fisherman’s Wharf. It was a wonderful day and we saw so much and talked to so many local people because we used public transportation. Doubt we would have seen that much in our car. Next day our car was fixed and we were on our way to see Mickey Mouse. Here’s a few shots of our day in San Fran, I absolutely loved San Francisco and want to go back and spend a few more days. Double click on one of the shots in the gallery below to see a close-up view!
Waiting for the bus to San Francisco – notice the boys and my husband are wearing team Canada hats and T’s. Remember we were visiting the USA during the Olympics – just had to show our patriotism!
In February 2010, Vancouver, BC hosted the Olympics. Most schools closed for two weeks to accommodate the momentous event. Our family being sports fans, you think we would have hung out here in Vancouver! Hell no we decided it was the perfect time to jump in the car and take a road trip to California and that is just what we did. I booked the trip from here to Disneyland but after Disneyland we played it by ear and booked hotels while we were on the move using our lap top. Equipped with a GPS and maps we had a ball. Wish I was blogging then because it would have been a great blog – thought I’d recreate it through pictures. We were on the road for two weeks with an 8 and 10-year-old. We started out through Oregon and stayed in Ashland the first night. I remember arriving at the motel after 11:00 pm, couldn’t see a thing and surprised by the landscape pictured through our window the next morning. That morning we arrived at Yreka, CA and stopped to have breakfast at Grandmas house. If you’re ever in Yreka and you need a good breakie – Grandma’s House is the place to go. The trip was a long road trip – too long to put in one blog – next blog I’ll take you to San Francisco!
Heavy cream, butter, cheese, garlic – easy on the waistband – hell no – who cares – go for it!
This might be my all-time favorite comfort food – it’s a twist on the classic mac and cheese. Perfectly tender ravioli smothered in a alfredo type cheese sauce with a hint of garlic. Rich, satisfying and did I say yummy?! This dish is best reserved for special occasions – it’s not exactly healthy! I used cheese ravioli today, but it is quite good with mushroom, spinach or even chicken stuffed ravioli. I use this same sauce for Fettuccine Alfredo – it’s the easiest recipe for a basic Alfredo sauce I’ve seen.
Baked Ravioli Al Forno
1 quart heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 – 2 cups grated pecorino romano cheese (you can use parmesan here, but I am partial to romano)
48 ounces frozen cheese ravioli
In a large saucepan, heat cream, butter and garlic until mixture comes to a simmer. Slowly whisk in…
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The Art of Silence in a Noisy World 