Sunshine and Bananas!

My DH brought these home the other day (mind you, this isn't ALL of them!). FOUR grocery bags FULL of the wonderful browning bananas!!! I giggled like a little school girl! Why? Well, because of THESE:

I love making banana nut muffins! I have used my grandmother's recipe for years and it is always perfect! My SIL, Dana, told me a few things she adds to her banana nut muffins and I hope to get her recipe from her soon so I can test it out! She adds Cardamom and soaks raisins in a warm pan of dark rum or cider as an optional ingredient! Oh, I am so excited to try it! I will have to call her and ask for the recipe. Especially after the reaction from DH and Mr. Chef when I told them!

Anyway, here's a funny. My kids get home from school around 4PM. My DH was home early yesterday...about 4PM. I had fresh warm muffins on my kitchen table...about 4PM! Lol! Can you see where this is going? My husband rounded the corner of the house just before the kids. He raced up the stairs, looked back and said, "She's got warm banana muffins on the table!", then ran into the kitchen! My 18 y/o, Mr. Chef, jumped up the stairs, turned around and playfully (and gently) backed his brothers DOWN the stairs, shut the storm door and LOCKED IT! Lol! He then ran into the kitchen! My husband had a muffin in his hand by that time and waltzed to the front door to let the younger boys in, who proceeded to dump their stuff in their room and race to the kitchen table! Within 15 minutes they ate 8 muffins!!! These are gourmet size/Texas size muffins! Lol! I think they like my muffins...although this is a tame reaction compared to previous "Muffin Day" occurances!

And to end the post...Grandpap had successful pacemaker surgery on Tuesday! He is on antibiotics to ward off possible infection since the first pacemaker had to come out because of that. After visiting with him this morning, and thinking I was going to get to bring him home early and surprise Grandma with him walking in the door, alas, he has to stay until at least this evening because the doctors opted to give him three doses of liquid antibiotic at the hospital so he can be monitored just to be safe. I am thrilled everything is going well! It brightened my overcast day...so here is a bit of my sunshine for you!

A Day Late but...

Matt!

My photographs...

I was asked in a comment on my "Textures" post about my camera. Nicola (side note: you all have to go look at that adorable boy of hers!), honestly, I am just a newbie/hobbyist! I have a point and shoot that just happens to do macro!

I have a Canon S3 IS. I have had it for two years and love it. I would love to update it but it works just fine and I don't really need to spend the money on a new camera for me just yet.

My 10 y/o, however, is hoping to earn a new camera with his grades (he has to keep straight A's or A/B honor roll for me to think about it...first C and it waits for next year...) so that is what I am shopping for right now since he only has one more report card to go and he will have earned it! He's got a good eye and with him wanting to study paleontology (and a new budding interest in archeology) it goes hand-in-hand.

As for my equipment, I have three tripods of different sizes, a monopod, a white poster board that I cover in silver tone/gold tone emergency blankets (camping section!) depending on what light I need, and a desktop photo studio...

So, that's what I have. Not the wish list I have in my head but more than enough to somewhat sate my budding hobby.

Paint.NET

They don't look like much but I have been playing with my editing program (it's FREE, people!) in the hopes of learning how to create web banners for the top of my blogs. I am still figuring it out, though. They look NOTHING like Aunt Martha's but I will get there.

Greetings!

Happy Easter! Our Easter got off to a slow start this year. Things ran late Saturday so the boys didn't get to color eggs before bed. I boiled them up and they were ready for this morning, though. After getting the food started for lunch, I got the coloring kits ready. We had the traditional single-color eggs but, since we also gave the kids rubber gloves for one hand to keep colored fingers to a minimum, I started playing around with the colors. This is what I came up with. Just dip a finger and paint it on the egg, wipe off with a paper towel and go again! The youngest even made one!

My 10 y/o still loves his camera! Hopefully, you can see "HI" that he wrote on his egg with a wax crayon after coloring it blue but before he dipped it in the red to create purple!

Now, one of the photos I promised I would post (a day late, I know). Mr. Rebel (becoming Mr. Photog) was messing with his camera and realized it had a "negative" setting that allowed him to do this! He and his little brother played for well over an hour with this! Despite my migraine, I loved listening to the giggles and being shown the "cool" video!

And for my nephews in New York! I love you! I waited and waited and waited for you to come see the Christmas tree but then Daddy had his accident and, well, he can't go much anywhere right now! So, here it is! Your cousin took this photo before I took the tree down (lucky him because it came down the next day!).

(A bit of history for everyone else, I put this tree up the day before Christmas with my DH sick on the couch...I took it down the day before EASTER! LOL! No lights...the angel isn't even plugged in...and my favorite garland - wood beads!)

I let my kids play...

...with my mini photo studio kit, today. My 10 y/o had gotten out his camera because his brother wanted to take pictures of their cars. They had lined them up on the kitchen table and, despite my migraine, I just couldn't let them continue like that! Those pictures would have been sadly lacking in what they wanted. So, I grabbed my kit, set it up on the table, plugged in and set up the lights, played with a little tub of eraser caps to show them how to set up their stuff, then walked away!

This is what I did. I will post their's tomorrow. They had a blast! It kept them busy on their first day of spring break for well over an hour! They even did a little video of the cars crashing into each other! Sound effects and everything!

A late Christmas gift...

I made this for my MIL (a truly beautiful woman...). I had hoped to give it to her for Christmas but time, kids, and the flu bug were against me. Well, it's DONE!!! YAY, ME!!!

Today is also my niece's 7th birthday and we are gathering for her party this evening. I will be taking this with me to give to my MIL as a belated gift. I know she will be thrilled! How do I know? Well, she watched my kids Friday since I had to travel to Buffalo, NY, where my brother was after he had a horrible accident on his bicycle (yes, I said bicycle). He had surgery to basically rebuild his right knee (a plate and two pins, if I am remembering correctly). So, my MIL was wonderful in coming over to be at my home when the kids got off of school and to stay with them while DH was at a meeting that night. While there, she poked around to see if she could find her blanket to see how much was done! Hahaha! She didn't look under the pile of clean laundry in my bedroom! LOL!

When laying flat, and measuring only the fabric not the ties, it is 2-3/4 yards long and 1-almost 1/4 yard wide. This was made to fit the length of her queen-sized bed on her side. It also runs from the front edge of my entertainment stand to the far edge of my couch! That is 3/4 the length of my living room! I tiptoed around the blanket just to get out of the room!

The Gs

Yesterday, Grandma had eye surgery. The surgeon said that the cataract so bad that he likened its density to that of a diamond. Today, well, she's in pain and on her way back to the doctor to get another checkup. We'll see how it goes.

The other 'G'...it's report card day here. For the younger two, at least. They messed around at the beginning of the grading period despite my constant prodding and reminding them that they can't play with their grades. Hopefully, the turn around that happened mid-grading period will help. So, pray for them. And me. The weather has been wonky and I got hit with a migraine (they've been getting even worse and morphing into something I hardly recognize anymore...but that's a whole other post). I can't take my meds until this evening because Mr. Chef has to go to work and DH can't guarantee what time he will be getting home...so, no meds for me until then.