If I Only Had a Brain…

(Scarecrow)
I could wile away the hours
Conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain
And my head I’d be scratchin’
While my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain

I’d unravel any riddle
For any individ’le
In trouble or in pain

(Dorothy)
With the thoughts you’d be thinkin’
You could be another Lincoln
If you only had a brain

(Scarecrow)
Oh, I would tell you why
The ocean’s near the shore
I could think of things I never thunk before
And then I’d sit and think some more

I would not be just a nuffin’
My head all full of stuffin’
My heart all full of pain
I would dance and be merry
Life would be a ding-a-derry
If I only had a brain

This pretty much covers how I’m feeling today! We got in at 11:00 last night after a day of working our buns off and getting everything wrapped up in Washington. It will take me a little bit to get back to “me old self”. Have a wonderful last day of September everyone. May Fall truly be felt here in Southern California!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Ruby Tuesday ~ Washington State

My Ruby Tuesday Collage is from the State of Washington. I’m flying home from Seattle in a couple hours and decided to post something from my weekend here.

 

For more Ruby Tuesday visit Maryt at Work of the Poet.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Fun in Seattle!

Our short time in Seattle has been filled to the brim with activity, work, and just plain fun. On Friday night after a day of working in the basement and around the house we went out to our favorite Mexican Restaurant with all of our kids except for Dan. (He was in Colorado Elk hunting). It’s fun to go to a restaurant where the staff knows us and comes over and wants to know how long we’ll be in town this time. :0)

 

On Saturday Lana G. and I went to our favorite shopping place…the Goodwill! We have a tradition that whoever spends the most on these shopping trips has to treat for lunch. We had some very good finds at Goodwill and Lana managed to spend the most so lunch was on her. (Oh I’ll be showing my goodies later this week) We have always been intrigued with Burgermaster but never stopped in before. Saturday was the day and it was a load of fun. It’s a drive in and dine in your car place. The staff comes up to your car window to take the order and they deliver it there, too. Lana and I had a great time. Our server was very happy to have his photo taken! After dropping our goodies off at home we zipped over to Ste Michelle and Columbia wineries to pick up some wine and to take some photos of fall color.

 

We came home and our kids made dinner for us to celebrate Dear’s belated birthday. Dan made it home from Colorado just in time for dinner and it was so nice to all be together for this meal. In the collage Columbia Winery is in the top right photo and Ste Michelle Winery is in the bottom left. They are across the road from each other. Lana G., her husband Steve, and Katie’s boyfriend Ben joined us for dinner. Oh and that is Lana donning the pirate garb!

Yikes we fly back to L.A. on Monday evening and we still have a mile long list of things we want to do before we leave. I’ll be back to visiting my bloggy friends on Tuesday. Have a great week everyone…

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

Blue Monday ~ Beatrix Potter

 

I never get tired of sharing my sweet Beatrix Potter collection and I hope you aren’t tired of seeing them. These are the animals in my collection that have a lot of blue on them. I started my collection in 1973 when I was in England and added to them over a few years.

For more Blue or to join in the fun visit Sally our kind hostess here.

Today is a travel day for me so if I don’t get by today I’ll swing by tomorrow to see your blue.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Love Constrained to Obedience ~ Hymn

Love constrained to Obedience

No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toll’d the precept to obey,
But toil’d without success.

Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.

Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.

“What shall I do,” was then the word,
“That I may worthier grow?”
“What shall I render to the Lord?”
Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfilled
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.

~ William Cowper

Just In Case…

So I wasn’t playing Pink Saturday today but I noticed my link up at Beverly’s this morning so I wanted to have something Pink here if you happen to visit!

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I’m busy at my home in Washington this weekend and I’ll be back to my condo in California on Monday night.

If you want to see some real Pink Saturday Posts visit our kind hostess Beverly.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Breakfast Lasagna

 

Breakfast Lasagna

(This recipe yields 8 servings)  

~ 

1 bag frozen hash browns
1 1/2 pounds Canadian Bacon — sliced
1 onion — chopped
1 green pepper — chopped
1 yellow pepper — chopped
1 cups mushrooms — sliced (1 to 2)
5 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sharp cheese — grated (1 1/2 to 2)
salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees (F). Layer frozen hash browns in a 9 x 11-inch lasagna pan; season very well with salt and pepper. Layer green, yellow pepper and onions over hash browns; layer mushroom slices on top.

Cook bacon until crispy; place over mushroom layer. Beat eggs and milk and salt. Pour egg mixture over bacon; spread grated cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes.

I sauteed the onion, peppers and mushrooms then drained the excess liquid off and just layered them over the hash browns. I also used chopped ham instead of canadian bacon. I used a 9×13 baking dish. This had great flavors and was very tasty but it seemed to get runny as it sat. I’ll try it again just as the recipe reads and see if it’s still runny. :0)

ht: Mr. Breakfast

Fridays Fave Five

First off I’m so excited about everyone’s suggestions for San Francisco. Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me about your favorite experiences there!

This week I’m going to share my 1 favorite thing from this week and 4 of my many favorite things about Fall.

1. Top of my list this week is flying on Thursday to our Home outside Seattle, Washington to do a little work around the house and get it ready for the fall months ahead. Of course the best part of the long weekend will be spending some time with our kids.

Now for 4 Favorites about Fall I’m looking forward to.

2. Enjoying the Fall colors!

 

3. I’m a Christian who happens to love Halloween. I don’t worship evil on this day, I get to see many children and adults from my neighborhood that I don’t normally see and give out candy which makes my heart glad! It’s a form of hospitality on a large scale in my mind…

 

4. Lots of good hot soup and bread never tastes as good as it does in the Fall!

 

5. Thanksgiving has to be at the very top of the Favorite Fall Celebration. This photo was taken way back in 2004 before I was blogging and before I thought to take a photo before we ate instead of after. :0)

 

For more Fave Five on Friday visit our hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Before and After ~

Like BooMama I had high hopes to show you some before and after photos from the big project at our house…the basement. But alas we aren’t anywhere near the “after” stage yet so I defaulted to this smaller project that I’m working on.

 

These are some of my many tablecloths. This type of storage makes them hard to get to, to see, and to stay wrinkle free. I’ve been wanting to change this for a long time.

Now this is much better. I can see them more easily and they don’t get wrinkled. I’m still in process. I have lots of tablecloths. The next stage to this process is to arrange them in sizes. My table has 6 leaves so I use several different tablecloth sizes depending on how many people will be seated around my table.

I’m going to leave you with a photo of the stage our basement is in even though I’m not the one working on this project. My involvement includes feeding the crew and keeping them hydrated. Once in a while I have to make a mad dash to the Home Depot for a needed item. :0)

 

For more Before and After click on BooMama above…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!