My Dandelion Wishes

My goodness this has been another busy packed weekend that has taken wings and flown right past me. I guess since it is the last weekend before Christmas that is to be expected. My shopping is done except for one small item I need to pick up for the Grand daughter. Now just need to wrap it all:) My Christmas dinner is planned and have almost everything here to make it. A quick trip to the grocery store will finish that off too. Everyone will be here for Christmas and I am so happy we will have a bit of time to relax and just be together! And needless to say after Saturday's baking I have enough sweet treats to last the next 3 months!!! Colleen arrived back in town late late last night or should I say very early this am like 3ish. I had told her I had reservations for her favorite place in the whole world for 11. I am afraid she didn't get much sleep but like the trouper she is she was here and ready to eat. Imagine Colleen's surprise when we got to TC's and there Carol ...

This has been one busy week at work. Still no heat on the home front by my own choosing and no heat at work not by our choosing. The administrative side has no heat and it is a bit chilly! Name of the game this week is dress warm and wrap in a blanket while working on the computer:) Hopefully next week they will have it figured out. Anyway despite the chilly temps I am managing to stay warm. So far this has been quite the busy weekend. Jen and John have been training for 16 weeks and ran a 12K in Gilbert this am. They did it 4 minutes under their goal so they were so pleased. Jen says the next one will be 1/2 a marathon! They will start their training for that soon. While the healthy people were running TJ, Anthony, Sadera and I baked Christmas cookes. Uncle TJ is the best as he lets them eat the dough and actually let them press out the cookies. We made a double batch of spritz. This is one of my favorites and such an easy cookie to make. Despite sugar crystals and flour ...

Let me just start by saying this past weekend and yesterday the start of a new week were not that stellar. In other words bluntly said it sucked!!! This past weekend was a very cold one and add to that no heat. Yeap turned on the heat and nothing but cold air. At one point it was 52 in the house. Needless to say I had multiple layers of clothes on. Now that it is 60 to 63 in my house it seems warm:) No idea when it will be fixed. I spent Sat afternoon running errands and doing a bit of shopping. I think Christmas will be here quicker than I will be ready. Sunday after finishing some special projects I headed to the grocery store. Little did I know till Monday am that somewhere between the store and home my debit card came up missing. Added to no Internet again it was a wonderful weekend So you can see my Monday started off great. Thankfully I have a new account and card and nothing was charged to my old card. Then I get home Monday from work to find the NEW roof continues t...

I know again I have been a bad blogger, but blame it on my internet provider. No internet for four days leaves me very groucht to say the least. Despit the lack of courtsey to return my phone calls or emails, this evening I am on the net. So enough about my dislike of current provider. TJ and I flew into Iowa the Friday before Thanksgiving. All was calm all was bright until we got a phone call from the car rental place. Yeap we were in violation of me not driving. After that little episode was taken care of we headed on our merry way into Iowa. It was a great week filled with good fod, meeting the newest memeber of the Struchen family, catching up with my sister and brothers and spending quality time with my folks. Here are just a few pics of our week. The Struchen brothers and sisters Wednesday nite before Thanksgiving. We were all tired after cooking all day Meet the newest member of the Struchen's Kaiden Mom Dad my sister and I Tuesday we had lunch at Iowa's newes...

Today is officially Jennifer's Birthday. Yesterday was girl time today was a lunch celebration with all of us. TJ drove down from Casa Grande and we had a late lunch at Firebird. Enjoyed visiting. It is unbelievable how quickly time flies by. I can still vividly remember Jennifer as a baby, toddler and oh yes a teenager. She has grown into a wonderful responsible young woman. She is a great Mom. So Happy Happy Birthday Jen and enjoy your 8 mile run this evening. Yuck can't imagine after all we ate to run. The Birthday Girl Anthony and Sadera with their beloved TJ John and Jen So the weekend has been officially declared a success and now it is time to get ready for another work week.

It is amazing that a week ago my world was a mess with multiple problems with the house. One week later my world is calm and oh so positive. While this is a very busy weekend it has been filled to the brim so far with all good things. Today was girls day out in celebration of Jen's BD tomorrow. Us girls Sadera, Jenn and I started our day with a pedi at Rose Nails. This is our favorite place as they do a wonderful pedi and massage while the big comfy massage chair relaxes you and the warm swirling water your feet are soaking in totally gives you peace. As usual our big decision was what nail color or design we wanted. I am a bit more adventurous than Jen and Sadera is way way more gun ho than either of us. Sadera picked her design immediately and then I had mine and oops Jen picked the same one as me. They turned out great. I also had my French manicure so was pampered with a hand and arm massage too.:) Yes Jamie I was thinking about you. After the pampering we headed out for a bit...

So the saga continues. I woke up Saturday positive thinking everything is fixed and life is good. No Internet however and another phone call to India was nonproductive. I talked with TJ and he ran me through many trials to see if we could get it to work to no avail. So we came up with 2 options: switch Internet providers or get an air card. Neither could be accomplished till Monday. Well in the meantime my Island crops are withering, my farm is being neglected , I have no clue what is going on in Internet land. I decided to forget the Internet and spend my time on putting the house together. Had to wash all the throw rugs, vac, and mop all the dirt and basically just clean. Did tons of laundry. Next on the agenda was a shower and head to Anthony's BD party/Halloween party. Anthony's BD is in Dec and it is difficult to get a BD celebration in as most of the kids he invites are swamped with school, church and family gatherings. So he and Jenn cooked up the idea of an early party....