Friday Frivolity

New year, new planner that I won't use. I have eternal optimism that I'll get my act together and actually use a planner for more than a week.

This year I went with the blogger-endorsed Erin Condren planner.

Look how cute it is!

Do y'all have the ION Television channel? It's my late-at-night-can't-sleep-due-to-snoring-husband-and/or-crowding-cats channel. They show reruns of some of my favorite crime dramas and they just started Cold Case from the beginning. I loved Lilly Rush and her band of homicide detectives solving open cases - some as old as 1919, some more recent. I miss that show.

I didn't share this next bit of news in my year-end post because I wasn't sure if it was public yet, but now it is and I can announce that our niece Jackie got engaged on Christmas! For those who aren't on my personal Facebook page, here's the family photo, including her fiancé Dameon (far left).

I haven't posted a karaoke playlist in a while, but rest assured, I'm still singing! Here's what I sang Tuesday night.






Finally, Happy Birthday to my friend Amy. Aaron has three best friends from high school and fortunately all the wives are friends as well. I'm so happy that Amy and Mike now live here in Columbus (a mere 10-minute walk away)!

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

What better way to celebrate my 300th post?

Hello friends! I've been crazy busy lately, which has taken a toll on my blogging but I couldn't let today go by without acknowledging our niece's 21st birthday! 21 on the 21st! You can read a little more about her (and see pictures of her through the years) in this post that I did a couple years ago. You can also read about the time Aaron and I took her to Disney World.

Jacqueline / Jackie / MzJ is a super talented artist. We have a lot of her artwork hanging in our house. She's about to start her 4th year in college, where she's majoring in animation. And as you know, she recently spent a little over a week with us. I've so enjoyed watching her grow into a beautiful young woman and I love her to pieces.

When I started to write this post I realized that it's my 300th post! How perfect!

Girl Time!

I mentioned on Friday that our niece Jackie is in town. We had some lovely girl time together over the weekend. Friday I had a hair appointment for a cut and color. I go to a salon that specializes in curly hair. Jackie has naturally curly hair but she often straightens it. She also loves to experiment with color and she loves wigs (that picture in Friday's post was a wig). My stylist agreed to color my hair and use my cutting time to cut Jackie's hair. Here's the result:

Friday night we all went to Mike and Amy's house for dinner, where Jackie immediately pulled up a chair to the koi pond and started drawing.

Saturday we went to the movies. I haven't been there all summer, so I finally got to see 22 Jump Street. Loved it, very funny. Then we shopped till we dropped, for real. When we got home, we both took short naps, then watched Mean Girls and Lizzie Borden Took An Ax (Christina Ricci was suitably creepy). Aaron was out, so Jackie and I ate charcuterie which we had purchased from Grandpa's Cheese Barn. Why is it that when you say "I had cheese and crackers for dinner" it sounds so bad but change it to "I had charcuterie" and then it's all good?

Sunday was L-A-Z-Y for all three of us. We did venture out to Ethyl & Tank for brunch, then went back home where Aaron hung out on the couch watching various sporting events, Jackie retreated to the FROG room to draw and then nap, and I went to the bedroom and napped, read and napped some more.

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Let's play catch up

Here's what's been going on the last week:

Sunday we had a family reunion on Aaron's side. We were at his sister Cynthia's house, where they have a pond with zipline, a pavilion with picnic tables and a firepit, and lots of land.

Taken from the deck of the house

The kids were just the best. I love it when kids who may not have ever met each other become besties in about 2 minutes. They did a scavenger hunt before the lure of the pond hooked them for the rest of the day.

All girls, except for little Cohen, being held by our niece Lauren

Kate, Julia and Lauren

Zip line!

As you probably know, we have a community garden next to our house. This is our last year for that and there will be houses there soon (living through construction should be fun). Anyway, one of our neighbors planted a sunflower this year and it finally bloomed!

I took this from our second floor window. I love that it
faces the house so I see it whenever I walk past and
it makes me smile.

I started the longer-than-I-want-it-to-be process of reorganizing/purging/decluttering the bathroom shelves. I need some suggestions on organizing. I don't like the wicker baskets that are so big and I can't see anything in there and definitely can't find anything. Here's the before pic:

Here's the recipe for the Blackberry Lemon Trifle I made last week. I got the recipe from The Fake Gourmet.

8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 container whipped topping
1/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/4 cup water
6 cups fresh blackberries, washed (or frozen, thawed)
1 jar (10 oz) blackberry jam
1 pound cake, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Combine cream cheese and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
Add condensed milk and mix again.
Fold in whipped topping. Set aside.

Combine lemonade and water.

Line the bottom of a trifle bowl (or whatever bowl you want to use) with pound cake. Brush on the lemonade mixture (I spooned it on) and if you're patient, wait a few minutes for it to soak in.

Spoon blackberry jam over the pound cake.

Spread whipped topping mixture over the jam layer, then put blackberries over the whipped topping layer.

Repeat.

Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

My bowl was way too big! But this is delicious and easy!

Have a great weekend! I know I will because I have my niece Jackie visiting. Look how gorgeous she is!

The Happiest Gwensday

As I mentioned, yesterday I saw the plastic surgeon. I did indeed get those blasted drains removed and I was so happy I could have danced. Except that would have hurt, so I didn't. My new boobs (or "toobs" - boobs made from tummy tissue) are doing great. My stomach incision, not so much. Part of it has separated, which is not uncommon, but it freaked me out. Fortunately it's not infected, but we need to keep it packed with gauze and change said gauze daily. And by "we" I mean "Aaron" and he is oh, so excited about it. This is true love, friends. I go back to see the surgeon in three weeks.

Today I got the best news of all! I saw the breast surgeon. We talked about the fact that there was indeed more DCIS (stage zero cancer) in the right breast and how thankful we are that the mammogram led to the finding of 3 mm calcifications which then led to the realization that there was really 7 centimeters of cancer in that bitch. Since it was all non-invasive and because we took off both breasts, there is no need for chemo and no need even for any hormone therapy or additional treatment of any kind. This is amazing, wonderful news! He doesn't want to see me for another six months.

Last night our niece Jackie posted another of her fabulous drawings of me. For those of you not on Facebook who haven't seen it:

Nice rack, right? She's just awesome.

Again, I can't thank you all enough for all the support and kind words over the last few months.

Friday Faves

Enough cancer talk for now. Let's lighten things up with things that made me happy this week.

1. We spent Easter with framily members and I took a couple selfies with two of my favorite young friends:

2. I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and I remain a Pittsburgh/Penn State sports fan, but I'm totally pulling for the Blue Jackets against the Penguins. The games so far have been nuts! And a couple weeks ago, on Chicago PD, one of the characters was undercover as a tourist and she was wearing CBJ gear!

Let's go Jackets!
#WeAreThe5thLine

3. I got a new iPad cover:

Did you expect anything else?

4. Our niece Jackie did it again! Check out her latest drawing of me:

5. I record Jimmy Fallon every night and watch it the next day. If you haven't seen the latest version of “Brian Williams raps,” you must watch this!

But what might be even funnier is the interview afterward, in which BriWi gives Jimmy shit. Hilarious!

Part 1

Part 2

Have a great weekend!

So Much Thanks

You guys! I'm so overwhelmed by the support and love following Thursday's post. My phone, email, Facebook all blew up with good wishes. Thursday night I went to choir rehearsal as usual and everyone was wearing these ribbons:

Thank you Molly, for making this happen!

Like I said, overwhelming.

Everything went very well on Friday. I arrived at the hospital at 7:45 and was home by 2:00. The whole weekend was a combination of napping and watching TV and movies. Sunday I was allowed to shower, which was both refreshing and exhausting.

Our niece Jackie drew a new picture of me. She's just the best!

I got flowers, chocolate-covered strawberries (thanks, Marla and Steph!) and these pralines from a mystery gifter. Anyone wanna 'fess up? There was no note and my investigative skills have been fruitless.

Today I'm still taking it easy but the beauty of working from home is that I can still be somewhat productive while healing. I'm sore but as long as I don't do anything silly like try to change my shirt without thinking, I'm OK. I should have pathology results this week, so fingers crossed that it is indeed the stage zero cancer.

Birthday Weekend Windup

Thank you to everyone for the Facebook messages, texts and tweets for my birthday! Aaron is always amazed by how many FB birthday greetings I receive, and he found the perfect birthday card for me:

Inside: "Which automatically makes this paper card
from me all the more special!"

Friday night we sang for a concert at church. My mom came over for that and spent the night with us, so she was here for some of my birthday. Saturday was Ohio State's last home game, so Aaron and I and Colin and Amy headed to campus to watch the game and partake in some adult beverages.

Birthday selfie; Most trees have lost their leaves, but not this one on our street; Beer tower;
Inside the Ohio State union

I couldn't resist a screenshot at the exact time of my birth.

Let's just say that on Saturday I acted half my age. And on Sunday I felt twice my age.


Our niece Jackie created this for me. I absolutely love it - she is so talented!

It was a fantastic birthday weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Travel Tuesday - Disney!

When I was a kid, my Grandma Tickner and my Aunt Jean moved to Florida and I got my first taste of Disney World. I was able to go several times, including once with my high school choir when we were lucky enough to perform at the Magic Kingdom. In 1997 I arranged a surprise trip for Aaron, who had never been there. On that trip we stayed in one of the resorts and had an amazing time. I could show you pictures from that, and maybe someday I will, but that would involve lots of scanning and (say it with me) ain't nobody got time for that.

Luckily we went back during the digital age. Our niece Jacqueline graduated from high school in 2011 and we started the tradition of taking our nieces and nephews on a trip of their choosing (within reason) as their graduation gift. Disney was the perfect choice for her because she's a fabulous artist, now majoring in animation, and because when she was little she used to pretend that her blanket was a magic carpet that would take us to Disney World.

We left Columbus early Thursday morning and flew to Orlando. By the way, this was Jackie's first time flying. We stayed at the Port Orleans - French Quarter resort. Tip #1: If you're staying at a Disney resort and you're flying, do NOT rent a car. There's a bus that will take you from the airport to the resort and once you're at Disney there are all kinds of ways to get from your resort to any park of your choosing.

We spent Thursday at the Magic Kingdom. One of the highlights was the Hall of Presidents. I had told Aaron and Jackie that we HAD to do it, and I know Jackie was not thrilled, but it ended up being one of her top 5 moments of the trip. One of the cool things about taking her at this age was that she had such an appreciation for how well the attractions are executed. Of course, we also rode Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean and the Mad Tea Party (well, Aaron and Jackie did that; I don't do well with spinning rides).

And of course, It's a Small World:

We went back to the resort to relax for a bit because the Magic Kingdom had "extra magic hours" that night. Or so I thought. Tip #2: If you're a resort guest, you can take advantage of these extra hours. It's a different park each day and sometimes you can get in early, sometimes you can stay late. But pay close attention because I had read "Friday midnight to 3 am" and naturally assumed that meant Friday morning, so that late Thursday night you could extend your time. Wrong. It was Friday into Saturday. Oops.

Friday was spent at Epcot. I think this was the only day we got rained on but it didn't last long. Some of our favorite things here were Soarin', Mission: SPACE (in which I took the "less intense option"), Ellen's Energy Adventure and of course, all the countries. We ate lunch in Italy and dinner in Japan. Tip #3: We did a meal package and while it may have saved us some money, it was a pain to always have to figure out what fit into the plan (you can get a banana with breakfast but if you get apple slices with dipping sauce, that's extra and you don't know it until you're checking out) and then of course we scrambled toward the end to make sure we got all the meals. This probably works well for some people, but I don't think I'd do it again.

Oh, and late Friday night Jackie and I did go back to the Magic Kingdom for extra hours. Totally worth it and very fun. Riding the bus back to the resort, a little boy curled up next to Jackie and fell asleep - so cute!

Saturday we did Animal Kingdom AND Hollywood Studios. At Animal Kingdom we loved the Safari ride and were pleasantly surprised by the Lion King live show. Jackie got her face painted and Aaron tried on a funky wig.

At Hollywood Studios we took a drawing class (mine was horrible) and we loved the Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster as well as the Fantasmic show, which is quite spectacular.

Sunday was our last day and we went back to Epcot. We ate lunch in Morocco and repeated some favorite attractions. As we were leaving we saw this little boy run up to Snow White and it was just so sweet and I think the perfect picture:

We had a fantastic time. Disney is for kids and adults alike. Their attention to detail is incredible. Tip #4: If you can afford it, stay one day longer than you think you should. You'll thank me later.

I think she enjoyed herself!

Stay Tuned,