I know, I know....

I'm a bad blogger lately, BUT not because of any fault of mine. My computer finally died and Rich has kindly lent me his laptop, until I can get a new one. The bad news is that all your comments sent to that email are gone, but the good news is that I can post again... right?? ;)

Anyhoo.... I won a giveaway! The very lovely and oh-so-fabulous Tracie at My Petite Maison sent me all of this....

All I was looking for was the fabulous cookbook, but in her very sweet style she wrapped up a slew of other goodies. Go ahead and click on her name and pay a visit to one of my favorite people in all of Blogland! Love you Tracie :)
I don't have much to share besides that for now, but I have things in the works. However... this weekend while my neighbors take care of PB & J Cottage we are headed back "here". Yes, I know, but I do love that man of mine ;)

So for now, I'll leave you with a giggle at my expense and don my new crown....

hehehehe... I'll be back Monday :)

hugs and love,

rue

A sweet and not so sweet surprise

Not so sweet? Yep. We had a back up in the kitchen sink that actually turned out to be a good thing when the plumber discovered a pipe that was about to burst. It was ugly… see what I mean?

Anyway, that was last weekend’s drama. Aside from that my laptop has been shutting down on me every 30 minutes, so it’s going to have to go to the doctor. I haven’t had a chance to visit too many of you because of it and I apologize. Hopefully I can get it taken care of soon. I better get this post finished before it does it again, huh? ;)

The sweet surprise? Well that came in the form of gift. I had mentioned to ‘M’ of Tales from an OC cottage that I didn’t have a crown (long story) and she asked for my address. Then, after I returned from Arizona, I received a package. When opening it up, the first thing that I found was this cuteness…. and the next thing I found was this darling frame with a sweet title for me….

and the next was this sweetly wrapped gift…. that held this beautiful hanky…. and at the bottom of the package was my very beautiful crown….

and that’s when I got all blubbery. Thank you sweet ‘M’ I am overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity. Actually, I am always amazed by Blogland and all of my sweet friends that I’ve met, but when out of the blue one of you send me something for no reason at all, it throws me for a loop. It’s amazing to me, completely amazing, especially since I had considered calling it a day and ending the blog. Yep, that’s right. I had actually thought about giving this up, because I lost track of why I started it in the first place.

I began to feel a lot of the pressure of trying to keep up and come up with something worthy of the time that you take to come over here. So, when I opened this package from a friend, that was once a complete stranger to me, but is now a dear friend for over a year, it made me think about the fact that without this blog all of us would have never ‘met’ and that my sweet friends would be a tragedy. M’s gift was a reminder of the gift of all your friendships that mean so much to me and I have decided to keep going. I may not be able to get around Blogland as much as I would like, but I will keep going in hopes that you will keep coming by to read about this life that I love here in Mayberry Jr.

hugs and love,

rue

I’m still here…

but I had to go out of town, which is part of the reason for my blog break. Before I get into why, let me show you what I bought at Lidy’s online shop The French Garden House with the gift certificate I won from Brenda at Cozy Little House…..

Beautifully packed in this box was …..

  this darling Ironstone children’s tea set…. As soon as I found it on Lidy’s site I had to have it….

and it fits perfectly on great-grandma’s hutch :)Thank you so much Brenda for your generous giveaway and Lidy for having such gorgeous items in your online shop!! Visit both these ladies for a real treat by clicking on their names :)

As for the reason I had to go out of town, my mom had her back surgery that I had mentioned a while ago. It was a week of stress and worry, but my mom is doing very well now. My brother and his family are taking care of her right now, so I’ve left her in great hands.

While we were there, Annie and her cousin had a great time getting to know each other again…. We also got to see some of my mom’s new friends…. Aren’t they cute?!  They don’t even care if we’re outside with them! Anyway, the time spent there ended too soon and as always, we were sad to leave, but it’s good to be home and nice to see trees instead of cacti again LOL I want to thank all of you for your sweet comments on my last post. I have a lot of catching up to do and I will as soon as I get rid of the horrendous sunburn that I got while my mom was taking a 3 hour nap…. yikes! It was all I could do to sit here and type this out ;)

I’ve missed you!!

hugs and love,

rue

Scenes from a quiet Sunday

For children of the 70s and 80s, it’s been a rough few days. So, after spending most of the weekend in front of the TV in shock, we had heard enough and went outside Sunday to spend some time doing everyday things. After a while I brought George (my camera) out to play and celebrate “normal” for us and scenes from our quiet Sunday…..

Mowing the lawn…. Glimpses of our yard….     

   and the neighbor’s yard…

The reflection in our front door….

and our flag blowing in the breeze…. 

Views of our neighbor’s homes….

  and the sunshine making shadows on the lawn…. Watering the new grass…. while watching a lone cloud in the blue blue sky…. Lighting candles on the porch… and playing a game of peek-a-boo…. with our baby girl that’s camera shy….

Normal is just what we all needed.

Maybe it’s our own way of mourning the loss of our childhood icons or maybe it’s our way of dealing with the loss of a beloved pet or maybe it’s both, but after the day came to an end we all felt much better, more relaxed and ready to move on.

I can’t express how much all your kind words meant to us on the loss of our sweet Shiloh, but I want to say thank you, thank you for sharing your stories and understanding the pain in our hearts.

For now though, I am going to take a break from posting until next week, but before I do, I’m going to try and get around to thank all of you personally as well. For those of you that don’t have a blog… Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

hugs and love,

rue

Shiloh....

is gone. Here is his story that I wrote on one of my very first posts...

The story of Shiloh-
Shiloh is a Beagle from Virginia. He used to run around my mother's neighborhood howling and chasing cars all day and night. We listened to it for a couple weeks after my mom first moved in to her new house, but one day we decided to find out where he lived for fear that he would get run over. I put him in my car and my mom and I drove around asking all the neighbors for information.

When we found his owner's house a woman came up to the car and I asked her if she had been missing him. She looked at Shiloh curled up in the backseat, he glanced up at her, but didn't move and she said that he was bought for hunting, but he wasn't any good at it. I asked where he slept, as I looked around and noticed that no fence, no bed and no bowl for water or food was to be found and she said outside. I asked how old he was and she couldn't remember, but narrowed it down to 4 years old. Then she asked if we wanted to keep him. Being the "California bleeding heart for mistreated animals" that I am, I said yes and took him home.

Now we had two. We already had Fluffy who we brought with us from California. She greeted him with great happiness, but Shiloh wasn't all that thrilled. In fact I really just think he puts up with his very annoying sister because he's so happy he has a warm bed and a family that loves him.


I love you Shiloh Biloh.
Rest in peace big boy.

Kitchens

First I want to thank each and every one of you for giving me so much love. I don’t know how to respond except to say that your sweet words made me cry and laugh and that I am so grateful to all of you….. my heart is full. Thank you so very much :)

Now on to my passion (and something to cheer me up!)…

The Kitchen.

Is there any room that can bring a family together more? It’s my favorite room in anyone’s home and it tells the story of the woman that lives there. Does she cook or is it for show? Is it simple but functional? Is it fancy and have all the bells and whistles? Kitchens are the heart of the home to me and when I see one that makes my heart sing I save it in my files. I thought you might like to see what inspires me, so I’m sharing them with you. I think most of them are from magazines, but if any of them are yours, please let me know :)

 

 

     

 

Whew! Wasn’t that fun?!

Now tell me, which one is your favorite??

hugs and love,

rue

Anonymous

I took off my anonymous blogger restriction. Go ahead and say what you need to say to me.

Everyone else I apologize if she is bothering you, please send me her comments, what time it was left and the IP adresses during that time if you can to:
peanutbutterandjellylife@gmail.com

My love to all of you,
rue

Picking

I was picked on a lot growing up. Certain people were able to find the one thing about me that I was sensitive about, like my buck teeth (thank you for the braces mom) or my glasses or a multitude of things that I thought were weird about me, but instead were just normal growing up insecurities. Those pickers were trying to make me feel bad about myself and it worked for a while, but in the long run it actually made me a better person that doesn't take herself too seriously.



It's kind of like the mantel on our fireplace. One day I looked down during a conversation on the phone about the other house and I spied this little chip in the paint.... and I started picking at it. As the conversation grew more frustrating the more I picked....

When I got off the phone, I realized that underneath that layer of paint was an even stronger and more beautiful layer and I had just released it. There is still more work to be done.....

but when I'm finished it will be even more beautiful than it was.

I've thought about this a lot in the past few days and I realized that I'm like that fireplace. All that picking made me a better person than I would have been had I not been picked on at all and that those people that were picking on me were actually frustrated with themselves and were using me to make themselves feel better.

It's also made me more aware of people that are trying to harm me or my family now and I can deal with it by holding them closer to me and telling them that soon it will end and we will be better for it when it's over. That strength comes from my mom. She has always been there for me and now as an adult I am there for my family and when they are being picked on or someone is trying to drive a wedge between us, I know to be strong and take them under my wing. In the end, it makes us a better family, just like all that picking I've been doing to the fireplace, will make it even better than it was.

My apologies to all my sweet anonymous commenters... I have had to take your ability to comment away, because of someone trying to break apart our family. I hope you can forgive me, but they come first.

What God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

Can I get an Amen?

hugs and love,

rue