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CiCi/GinGin/Ann Margaret/Fontana (CGAMF):  Mommy put some pictures on here...put some of those really cute ones of us...just put some pictures on here, heck just put something on here.
Me: Okay...here goes

This what the weather looked like last night when David and I celebrated a very exciting NYE...yep Wal Mart, movie--True Grit which was quite good by the way and then an elegant meal at the Waffle House...ahh the joy of simple southern living.

A very very cute picture of Fontana taking a nap...

The 7 wild monkeys using their fingers to tell you what number they are in the line up of Gkids.  We took all of them to breakfast at McDonald's this past Sunday and I had them all line up by age at the counter to tell the lady what they wanted, except for 7, PapPaw held him and he nodded yes to a sausage and biscuit.  You should have seen all the smiles we got.

Isn't Ann Margaret cute?  She looks like a little mouse...

All my babies...Fontana has his pink cast on in this picture.

I bought this sugar cube holder at the auction last month of $2.50..I think I may put the body cream that I made in it....the recipe is here http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/2009/11/say-goodbye-to-expensive-department.html

 

Another auction buy..chip and dip?  Does it look like it might be mid century?\

And I bought theses gorgeous linen napkins one dozen at the auction for $2.50.  I sent them to the cleaners and they turned out divine.  I will use them at my next book club.

More stuff later..Happy New Year !!!!!

A Long Story Made As Short As Possible

I have been away for awhile.  I haven't been in an asylum, rehab or on a desert island...let me explain...
(and I am not lamenting--I'm just explaining what all has happened)
Not long after my last post  early on a Saturday morning, Fontana was running around on the bed, missed the steps, fell off and broke his little foot.  The vet put a  on a cast (pink---sigh) that he wore for 3 weeks. He quickly learned how to get around with the cast on his little foot.
The following Sunday morning at 3 AM, the nursing home called and my sweet uncle John had passed away in his sleep.  We had his grave side services on Wednesday.  It was quite beautiful...the military played taps and presented me with the flag.  And a family friend that he had taught how to play the guitar, played Amazing Grace on the fiddle (yes fiddle, not violin).  All and all it was a wonderful tribute to a simple man who found great pleasure in simple things.
The following Saturday, I woke up and knew something was wrong.  Went to the ED and sure enough I had a large kidney stone that was too large to pass and was blocking my kidney...this bought me a trip to a large medical center and lithotripsy the following Monday.
I came home Monday after the lithotripsy and then of course Thanksgiving was Thursday.  So between passing the "sand" from the stone, running fever, cleaning and cooking......well enough of that.
Back to work.........then last Wednesday went to the urologist for a check up and....have two more stones that are small enough to pass sigh......feeling okay but on the way home started running fever......missed more days of work.
Oh and during this time my lap-top is at the computer doctor....I have been reading your posts on my iPhone, but I haven't been making comments.
Now I'm propped up here in the bed in my semi-decorated house...
Me:  David this is not all of my Santa Claus figurines
David:  Well, I got all the boxes down.
Me:  Can't be...
David: Is to.
Me: Is not.
David: Is to.
Me Is not.
Most all of the gifts are bought, but none are wrapped.
Fontana's puppy foot is fine. Priscilla, Ginger and Ann Margaret are fine.
I miss my uncle, but I know he is in Heaven playing "Rubber Dolly", "Carroll County Blues" and "My Bucket's Got A Hole In It" on the fiddle (yes fiddle-not violin).
Our kids are fine,
All the Grand Kids are fine,
David is fine,
I am fine.
Life is good.
And let my Heavenly Father be praised. 

Things I Bought At The Auction IV

The only thing that I really do for just myself and the only time I ever leave the house messy on a Saturday is the first Saturday of every month.  That is the day of the local auction.  I only miss it when we are out of town or I am sick.
I check out the website before I go and look at the pictures.  That is the time I decide on the things that are coming home with me.  No matter what. I do have my set point...but if it is a certain thing that I need it is most definitely coming home with me.
Case in point. The glasses that match my every day china are Fostoria Virgina in the color brown. I have 8 but that of course is not enough at Thanksgiving or any other family get together.  And we wind up drinking out of plastic cups--which is just not right.  I have been trying to complete the set now for a couple of years.  I find them on eBay and have found some pretty reasonable prices...but the shipping is always prohibitive.  So imagine my joy/excitement/etc. when I saw 16---yep count 'em 16 on the auction website.
Long story short--I got 'em for 20 bucks!!! Whoopie! Yeah! And so on. Now I have 24.  That's right 24.  I probably could have waited until the auctioneer went down to $15.00 or maybe even $10.00, but sometimes that starts a bidding war.......nobody but me bid on them.  So I figure I did really well.  I got about $160.00 worth of glasses for $20.00. I will be patting myself on the back for the next few days.

The other thing that made me happy was this almost complete set of Oneidacraft stainless set--Lasting Rose.  It is service for 12, 3 of the knives are missing and a couple of the forks, but everything else is there--the serving pieces-butter knife, sugar spoon, pickle fork, cold meat fork--you name it.  All in the original plastic holder.  Now here's the thing, flatware is like socks around here--it just disappears and I always run out at Thanksgiving.  So I bought it for $10.00.  A good run through the dishwasher and it is as good as new and now resides in the china cabinet awaiting the next family get together.
And I bought a small box of silver plate flatware for $5.00 that had 4 serving pieces, 4 forks, 4 salad forks, 12 teaspoons, a butter knife, a sugar spoon, a pickle fork and a few other pieces that went from this...

to this with a little silver polish.......

the patina is very pretty...these pieces too now reside in the silver drawer of my china cabinet...I've decided that I will continue to buy random pieces of silver plate...for you know when I entertain here in rural MS...
Oh and I really didn't mean to have a theme...but I bought these two gorgeous coffee table cookbooks.  And the recipes are wonderful as well......I wonder if I could sale 'em on eBay.........

Oh and I bought a cool old trunk too, but it's still in the trunk of my car....all and all it was a great day.

Meet The Newest Members Of Our Family

David and I had been thinking about a new puppy for awhile now.
We contacted CiCi and GinGin's breeder Loretta and long story short we went to Birmingham and picked up a brother and sister.

T

That is Fontana Eastwood McCaulla on the left and Ann-Margaret McCaulla on the right-asleep in my arms.

I love this shot of the back of their heads.....Fontana's ears are big....I'm sure that he will grow to them.

Avery holding Ann-Margaret on the way home.

I love this picture of Avery giving them kisses.  Avery, Loretta and I understand that they are more than just puppies...they are real.
CiCi and GinGin have adapted pretty well to having a little competition for attention.  We make sure that all are given attention and love.  Our friends think we are  crazy because we now have 4 dogs in the house.  But we have 4 times the love and puppy snuggles.
Oh and D. J.Fontana was Elvis' drummer and of course Ann-Margaret was a girl friend and long time friend of Elvis.  They too will have nicknames....BayBro for Baby Brother and Maggie for Ann-Margaret.
Sigh....

Mommy, Why Are Our Neices

and nephews dressed up in crazy outfits?

We know that you always call them Wild Monkeys...so why are the dressed up as....

a pirate?

a cat? (of all things...a CAT!!!!)

and is that a Dragon Slayer?  an Alien? a Genie? (isn't there supposed to be a bottle somewhere?) and a Diva?  a Diva?
Why didn't we get costumes?  We never get costumes...and we never ever get candy.  Never.  Not even if one of them drop some of their loot...yawl grab it up before we even get half a chance to nab it and run under the bed...
Just wait till next year...we going as...Priscilla Presley and Ginger Alden......yeah that's right....our names sakes....

Mommy, You Haven't

posted anything in a long time again.  Quite frankly we don't like it.  And we are kinda sad because we like to read the comments from your clogger friends.  Because sometimes they say how cute we are.  And you know we like that kind of attention.....and besides you got some cool stuff from the talkshon that you went to. I know they would like to see it..
Me:  Okay, I really don't have a good excuse except that.....well whatever.  And once again it's blogger, not clogger.  Oh and it's auction not talkshon.

I kept my eye on this vase until it was brought up--well I'm actually close friends with one of the runners and he put it up for me so that I wouldn't have to wait in anxiety for the entire auction.  Nobody but me wanted it and it was mine for $2.50.  It looks like it is hand blown glass, but what do I know?  I just know that it makes me swoon every time I look at it.  It is about 12 inches tall.....and it's purple....and it has a special place on top of my kitchen cabinets.  Oh and it has that twisty stuff in the stem....sigh....if any of you glass people think that it might indeed be hand blown, please advise.

The other thing that I bought for $2.50 is this candy dish. It is pink with purple grapes and is about 14 inches long by about 6 inches wide.  I have no idea why it appealed so to me.  But I had to have it.  It now resides on my fireplace hearth.  (Till I find out where it is suppose to reside)

Another thing that came home with me is this jug.  I love it.  It is a gallon jug that has one half of the original cork in it.  The auctioneer held it up and said "It even has the original cork in it."  And proceed to try to pull it out and broke it off.  I have the other half and I think I'm going to put it back together with a long needle to hold the two pieces together.  The runner you see in the back ground is the one I bought for 25 cents at the Salvation Army.  And that is tatted lace on the edge. It is on a chair that I bought at an estate sale. I cleaned the chair up and it is a catch all at the back door.  I think I had to pony up $7.50 for the jug, but I wanted it very badly.  It was the highest thing I bought.

When I look around my house, I realize that it is decorated with auction/estate/Salvation Army/thrift store/flea market finds.  But every single thing makes me smile.  So my decor  is eclectic junktique...
Oh and here is one more picture that makes me smile...Avery GBaby #4 and Ginger.  Like me, Avery is the only other person in the family that knows the puppies are more than just puppies.  They are real.  They are puppy girls.

Mommy, Why Haven't You

been playing with your laptop thing...you know tapping your fingers on it...and putting pictures of us on your clog thing...so that all of your cloggy friends will know what we are doing?
Me:  I don't know, I keep thinking about all these things that I want to blog about--it's blog not clog,  but I just can't seem to get around to it.
CiCi and GinGin: Oh blog..okay.  Well go ahead tell them what has been rattling around in your head.
Me: Okay, here you go...
I went here the other day, because there was something there that wanted me, and whatever it was...was calling to me.

For those of you that read my blog will know that I have posted about shoes at the Salvation Army before. Check it out here
For some reason, I'm drawn to the shoes there and (no I'm not crazy) and think about what are the little stories behind them..so here goes.

These are Ferragamo pumps with "Made in Italy" stamped inside.  Ferragamo is embossed in gold on the buckles.  My cousin Annette says they are from the 80s.   It's hard for me to imagine these shoes on someone deep in the Mississippi Delta...they remind me of  Krystle Carrington...somehow she must have made her way through here while filming Dynasty.

These are Chrissy.. from Three's Company.

These are Alexis Carrington.....hmmm they were both here. I wonder if they got in a cat fight while dining at Lusco's...

And here are the twins Ann Landers and Abigail VanBuren...

And last but not least they are still here......to the anonymous bridesmaid.....always a bridesmaid...never a bride.....
Disclaimer: One of the rules of my little game, is that I can't touch the shoes, only photograph them.  And the thing is, nobody in the Salvation Army pays the least bit of attention to me while I'm doing this.