SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!!Then why am I awake before 10:00??Cause my dang dog had a racoon treed,& wouldn't quit barking!I'm one of those people who, once awakened,CAN'T go back to sleep!!grrrrr... ~Ribbon Count~ Taylor~ 2 blue ribbons on field day,ALL A's this last nine weeks,and drumroll please.....300.1 AR points!! She got the silver medal!!(to the non school age kid members AR stands for Accelerated Reader) Brett~ 3 blue ribbons on field day, ALL A's the WHOLE school year, and a Presidential Physical Fittness award (plus T-shirt) Hubby told them that if Taylor gets 450 AR points & Brett gets 150 during the next school year, he would buy them a go-cart next summer. Guess who wants to go to the library right now?? LOL!! ~Basket Status~ Linda~ sent/received Vina~ sent/received Chellflower~sent/received Dan~sent/received April~sent/received ****YAY!!!**** All baskets have reached their destinations!Thanks to everyone who joined this month.See ya over in the June Swap!! later....April

I found the tax shelter in this posting when searching for a gift for my brother. He is a tax preparer and has everything. So I just had to share what I did for him. I took one of those woodcraft houses from Walmart- removed the two screws from the base. I cut a 1" block of wood that fit into the bottom of the house. I glued this block onto the base thus allowing the top of the house to be easily lifted off the base. I cut a 1/2" groove in the center of the block with the table saw so I could set a card of thumb tacks into it. This was hidden in the house until the top was lifted off. I wrote a poem for this & read it to him while my daughter did a Vanna White presentation of the house. Everyone got a good laugh out of this and I finally did a complete craft project! It's been a while. Hope you have as much fun with this as we did. Here's the poem: I drew your name for Christmas It's an honor, don't you know To get my brothers name for Christmas Ah! ashopping I will go. But then I started frettin After searching high and low Whatever will I get 'im (Twas wrong to worry so!) I went into an office shop Maybe something for your desk? I talked to the clerk a lot She tried to aid me in my quest. He could use a tax shelter Is what the lady said It seemed a bit off-kelter But there was nothing left instead. So here's your little shelter All painted so very nice The foundation has been mended The roofs' been polished thrice. The flowers are all blooming In the big pot by the door The bumblebees are buzzing And there's no sawdust on the floor. It seems to be the perfect place I do agree she's right It sure beats a plain old case And your tacks! They're finally safe at night!

I love both of my MILs. My first DH died when he was 45. He was my best friend and a marvelous husband and father. My first MIL stopped talking to me when I remarried but I kept pursuing a relationship with her because of my children. After five years or so she came around and has been part of our lives since. I just visited with her today at the nursing home she is in to make arrangements for her getting her hair done and arranging with her care takers to have her ready to join us for Thanksgiving. She is no longer able to ambulate but my DSIL will be able to get her into their car and fit her wheelchair in and when they get to our house there will be enough young men there to get her in the house. My newest DMIL & DFIL, (18 years with my DH compared to 22 years with my first DH) will also be there as always. They all get along well and my DH knows I will do the same for his parents if they have to go into assisted or skilled nursing care. I count my blessings that I have had the honor of two sets of in laws. WTBS, my son can be a real stinker at the holidays but at least he still comes!

I grew up on a dairy farm and that was operated in the same manner as the Amish do today. Grandmother had an 8ft long coal stove in the kitchen and our idea of running water was whenever one of us boys entered the kitchen Grandma would hand us a 5gal pail and say, "Run out to the spring and get me some water." The next boy in the room got handed the coal bucket to fill, and the next boy had to take a couple 5gal buckets of vegetable timmings out to the hog lot and more often than not during the canning season one of the younger boys got detailed to stay at the house and assist Grandma in the kitchen. As a consequence I began learning how to cook when I was about 5 or 6 years old, and I don't regret a minute of that time. Dissassters? Wow, I could write a book about dissassters I have made in the kitchen but one will always stick out in my mind. At about 13yrs old my cousin & I got the silly idea to make some home made rootbeer. (In those days you could buy Hires Rootbeer Syrup in a tube like a huge toothpaste tube in the spice section of any grocery store for about $1). My cousin and I spent about 3 weeks rounding up empty soda bottles & washing them out, all the while saving our allowance money to get the rootbeer syrup. We finally had enough bottles washed out, got the syrup, set up the bottle capper and commenced to mixing our brew in a huge 5gal crock. First you add the water, then the syrup, then sugar and finally a cube of flieshmans yeast, mix it all up and let it set about 24 hours then you bottle it and let it age 14 days to make the fizz. When it was all done my cousin and I each took a bottle from the basment up to the kitchen to get a bottle opener. I snapped the opener on the bottle cap, started to lift it and WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM, the lid flew off and the rootbeer spurted up out of that bottle so high it hit the ceiling. Talk about a mess...LOL...My cousin tried opening his with exactly the same result. What went wrong we wondered? Then we got to recounting our mixing procedures. It seems that my cousin had not seen me put the yeast in, so without saying a word, he put another cake of yeast in. But as is true of teenagers everywhere, we weren't gonna let a little thing like atomic fizz prevent us from drinking our rootbeer. We just put a dishpan in the sink, then one of us would carefully open the bottle while the other one held a pot upside down over the bottle to catch the spray and let it go into the dishpan, which we then poured in our glasses and enjoyed out rootbeer, even though it did have a rather strong yeasty taste..LOL