wedding shower

the bride and future sister in law the happy bride

st charles heritage park

built in 1857 by Lawrence Cribbin now Heritage museum trunk used by German immigrants on their journey to St Charles, held all their earthly possessions butt baskets because of their shape. This museum is new, opened in August 2010, visited one afternoon on my way home from work

signs of spring

gifts from California

unusual tea spoon sitting on my Bailey Irish Cream teacup my bff, C just got back from a visit to San Diego California and brought me these gifts. Post cards for my postcrossings friends; a couple of San Diego calendars, lavendar sachets, fresh picked oranges and lemons and my cool spoon. Thanks a bunch CB

Happy 17

we celebrated bren's birthday this weekend. can't believe he is 17 already. tyson hates to be left out of the excitement

dennis, bren, kim, bren's aunt and uncle as well as his godparents.

an apple a day muffins

they're not very pretty, but they sure are good. recipe is from davita.com a website for people with diabetes and kidney disease.

12 muffin papers

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose white flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cup raw apple, peeled and cut into small pieces

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sugar

preheat oven to 400 degrees and place muffin papers in a muffin pan

beat eggs in a large bowl. add sugar, oil and water; mix well. add vanilla

in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

stir flour mixture into egg mixture. batter will be lumpy. fold in apple pieces

fill muffin cups 3/4 full. mix remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon sugar. sprinkle on top of muffins

bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

calories: 162

protein: 3g

carbohydrate: 15 g

fat: 10 g

cholesterol: 35mg

bye bye

snow that was like this last week, is now almost gone! Yaaaaaaaaaaaa! today we had temps of

65 degress, warming wind and bright sun. the car washes were busy and everyone seemed to be out and about, no more cabin fever

cousins adventures resume

watch your nose!

mesmerize

the boys loved riding the handcars the cousins and grandmas went to the train show. someone spent alot of time working on this diorama. the boys thought this was really cool.

no no no

no talking on the phone while driving no no no texting while driving!!!!

winter sunrise

"We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise

if we have waited in the darkness" author unknown

enough already!!!

got this in a email. first, how clever, second i have everything raised for no more snow, snow predicted south of us tonight, and for us sunday night into monday 2-4 inches; and more on wednesday. sunday is super bowl sunday so this snow might ruin some parties. i'm thinking we have made God and mother nature mad!

there is talk of flooding this spring and that was before the snow this week going to be another interesting weather year.

riverfront geese

went to the riverfront the other days to get some shots and came upon these geese that can't read, though technically i guess they weren't swimming or wading

crooked tree coffee

after viewing the ice carving, t and i stopped to have a cuppa and blueberry scone at the Crooked tree coffee house we got there at opening, these tables filled up fast not sure, but i think this is a coffee machine or press. Loved this place and will visit again

Fete de Glace 2

this is the carving that was shown in the video earlier almost finished

update on "historic snow storm"

where i live we had about 1/2 inch of sleet/ice/freezing rain, then about 3 inches of snow. just 25 miles north of o'fallon they had 1 1/2 feet of snow. tonight is below zero temps and wind. everyone stayed home yesterday following the government's advice and some today like me! i have stripped wall paper and painted ceiling, back to work tomorrow