THE OUTLETS

Continuing on with our vacation...

Joe was taking a nap when I went back to our room.  I woke him up and told him that Marion, Elaine and I were going to the outlets for a little bit and would be back in time for dinner.  He nodded and went back to sleep.

Marion was nice enough to drive and we headed out to Rockvale Mall.  Rockvale is a huge outlet mall but we always seem to go to the same places.  This day we went to only two because we were pressed for time.  First we went to my favorite store Reading China and Glass.

Reading sells all kinds of kitchen and dining products.  I took some pictures of the inside to show you.  And this is just a small fraction of what they have.

I might have to go back and get this cute cupcake holder.  I bought the water pitcher last year and I love it.

We all loved these little milk bottle and mason jar glasses.

Isn't this cute?  It has a chalkboard label where you could write someone's name if you were having party or having guests over so everyone would know whose glass it was.

I always go overboard in that store.  I tried to rein myself in, but still spent quite a bit.

I was looking for a new griddle.  We had an 11 inch square pan but ours had warped.  I found this one which was perfect.  I also got a kitchen towel that is so cute, a new basting brush (mine bit the dust), some K-cups for Joe, sparkling sanding sugar for my Christmas cookies, stove top cleaner and a small measuring cup.

 Then we headed over to Lenox.  We usually get some good buys there.  When we got there we found that it was Fill a Bag Day.  Woo hoo!

Not a good picture but this is the Butterfly Meadow dishes.  I love them.

Lots of Disney figures.

Aren't these mugs cute, but I do not need another mug in this house so I didn't get them.

I loved these pumpkins.  They looked like wood but were ceramic.  Again, I loved them but I have more fall decorations than I can use.

There were lots of people around so I didn't take many pictures in there.  Here's what I got:

Not much.  We put all of our things together to fill the bag and get our discount.  I got these pretty Christmas towels although I think the green one can be used at other times as well.  They had loose silverware.  I needed some serving spoons for my every day use so I got three of them.  And a ring/jewelry holder for the bathroom to keep our things safe and in one place when we take our showers.

By now it was getting late so we hurried back to the hotel to get ready for Elaine's birthday dinner.

More tomorrow.

Kathy

HEADING OUT

We are back from vacation.  A short one but we packed a lot into it.  I took close to 100 pictures and videos.  Too much to put together in one post, so I'm breaking it up into several days.  Hope you follow along.  I was driving, so not a lot of scenery pictures, but if you've been following me for any length of time you know what Lancaster County looks like.

Thursday was my sister Elaine's birthday.  She traveled from her home in northern New Jersey to my house.  That's about a two hour drive.  Then it was another two hour or so drive out to Lancaster County.  I know she must have been tired of being in a car by the time we got there.

We left around 11 a.m.  I didn't take the short cut I usually do because I would have to go through center city and it was a mess with the Democratic Convention going on.  So I took the old way out.

I knew there was going to be a storm, but I was hoping to miss it. No such luck.  We got pretty far.  We had already gone through Philadelphia, Montgomery and Chester Counties when it hit.  A few drops on the windshield.  Then more.  I turned on my lights and the wipers.  Then it got darker and the rain got heavier.  Finally it was a downpour like I've never seen before.  I could not see a thing in front of me.  I saw the car before me put on his flashers and so did I.  Besides those tail lights all I could see was rain hitting the windshield.  The roads were flooded too.  You know I slowed down.  Way down.  At one point I pulled off the road and let all the people behind me pass.  I was going to sit there awhile, but decided to not take a chance of someone losing control of their car and plowing into me.  Elaine, Joe and I were all praying.  It was BAD.

As we drove on we saw many cars pulled over on the shoulder of the road.  But most of the road I was driving on did not have a shoulder.  It was the road and corn fields or tobacco fields.  That's it.  So I drove on.

And then as suddenly as it had started, it ended.  We drove into bright sunshine.  The roads were wet and you could tell it had rained, but no rain coming down.

By this time it was after noon so we decided to stop and get something to eat.  My girlfriend had recommended the Gap Diner so we pulled in there to get some sandwiches.  We didn't want to eat a lot because we knew we were having dinner in a few hours.

 

Joe got a reuben sandwich, Elaine grilled cheese and I got a BLT.  The food was good, but it was just an OK diner.  I guess we expected a lot more.  I would go back again, though.

We drove through some more rain, but not like it was.  Even though it was a little early, we went to the hotel and asked if our rooms were ready.  They were, so we checked in.

After we got settled, I went next door to see Elaine's room.  The hotel had given her a basket with a birthday card, bottle of sparking cider, two glasses, two whoopie pies, and a bunch of Hershey's chocolate.

I took a video of her room too.

Our friend, Marion came from Bensalem to spend Elaine's birthday with her.  It was a long drive for her, too.  She gave Elaine a gift.  I love the covered cup.

We decided to go to the outlets before dinner.  But that's another story for another day.

Kathy

I CAN'T BELIEVE TOMORROW IS MY VACATION

You know how time sneaks up on you?  Well, it did on me.  How is it time to go away already?  How is it my sister's birthday?  I am no where near ready.  But then again I never am.  There's always one more thing to do.

Joe and I ran a couple of errands today.  One of them was to fill the car with gas for our road trip.

My sister Elaine is coming in the morning and we will take our car out to Lancaster County.  Her birthday is tomorrow and we are celebrating.  As I mentioned before we are not able to do a Sisters Week this year.  But at least we can get away for a day.

It is almost midnight and I still have to hang the wash in the basement.  Then I think I will call it a night and get up early to finish what I have to do.  I'm beat.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Kathy

 

I'M SO BUSY -- I'LL NEVER GET DONE

And so it begins.  For the next month I will be running with everything going on.  I just hope I can keep it up.

Monday was another beautiful day.  But hot.  Really, really hot!  Up to 99*F (37*C) and felt like 108*F (42*C).  Joe and I had to meet one of the men from Grace Bible Fellowship Church at our church.  There is a group from this fellowship who are coming to help us with some work projects around the church and parsonage.  They do this every year and we are so thankful for them.

We met Jeff around 2 p.m. right at the height of the heat.  We were standing outside and I just couldn't take it.  So I suggested we go inside the church and put the air conditioning on in the basement area.  What a good idea!  I got something cold to drink from the fridge.  I was hot!  I was so hot I thought I was going to pass out.  The guys didn't seem to mind it.  Hmm....

They went over to the parsonage to look around and I stayed in the a/c.  You can tell it was hot by what I was wearing.  I don't usually wear a tank top out of the house.  But I just didn't care.

They took so long that I finally went over.  They couldn't open either the front or back door.  Joe tried every key he had and nothing worked.  Jeff tried.  I tried.  Nothing.  It was so hot I just couldn't stay out there so I went back in.  Finally we just gave up for the day.  Joe told Jeff he would get the measurements of the rooms this week so that he would know how much paint to buy.

Finally Monday night we had a huge thunderstorm.  It was pouring!  But we really needed the rain.  And it cooled off a little for Tuesday.

Don't get me wrong, it was NOT cool.  But it went into the mid 90s instead of the high 90s.  And the humidity was better.

I took Joe to the doctor's today for a follow-up.  I did not go in with him this time because overnight I had thrown out my back.  Yes indeed.  I was in terrible pain.  I had to lay flat on my back in bed not moving until I felt my back slip into place.  Then it was sore all day but thank God it wasn't days going back.  That has happened before too.  So I sat quietly in the waiting room with my back against the back of the chair reading my book on Napoleon.  It's really interesting but taking a lot longer to read than I thought it would.

After we were finished at the doctor's office I suggested we go to lunch.  Joe was all for that so we headed to the Country Club.  We got there around 3 p.m. so they had the early bird specials.  I got a burger and fries and Joe got a broiled half chicken with veggies.  We ate lunch so late that we decided not to have dinner.  We were full.

On the way home, we stopped at the parsonage.  I had gotten an email from our Executive Director telling me where the keys to the back door were.  Sure enough, they were there and Joe was able to open the door.

We walked around looking at everything.  Since Jeff wanted measurements of the walls to know how much paint to buy, and we didn't have a tape measure with us, I paced off the rooms.  It is a nice house and much larger than ours.  Our house is tiny.  Well, I bought it tiny because it was just me!  I never thought I would get married and have someone else living here.

Joe suggested I take pictures of the rooms since Jeff couldn't get in on Monday and this way he could see what things looked like, where the windows were, the doors, etc.  He asked if I had my camera with me.  What good blogger goes around without a camera?  Of course I had my camera!  So I walked around and took pictures of everything.  I did it quickly, though, because it was really hot in the house.

One thing I thought was pretty was the closet door in the guest room.  Someone had stenciled this verse on it.

Isn't that cool?  I'm thinking about doing something like that on one of my doors.

Well, since it's after 1 a.m. now, I think I'll end.  I'm not sleepy yet, so I'll continue on cleaning the house until I get tired.  I have so much to do.  So much!

Until later...

Kathy

 

IT'S A LOVELY SUNDAY

I

It's still hot here with no end in sight.  At 6 p.m. it was 93*F and felt like 96*F.  There is simply no staying outside to do anything.  I live inside these days.

I couldn't sleep again last night.  I finally dozed off around 4:00 a.m. and woke up 7:30 a.m. to go to church.  Joe was awake and said he hadn't been to sleep at all.  He started to get ready but just couldn't do it.  By the time I was ready to leave he was fast asleep.  I didn't have the heart to wake him.

There were only a few people at church today.  I know of several who stayed home because of the heat and I don't blame them one bit.  I had to open the church, though, so I showed up.  So did Sean, our guest speaker.  Even he had a shorter than usual message.

It was so hot when I got into my car to come home.  I made a little video for you.

There were a few donuts left over from Fellowship Time so I brought them home for Joe.  He said he felt some better after he ate them.  He doesn't eat the way he should.

It is just a few days now until I go on vacation to Ronks, PA in Lancaster County.  I am so looking forward to it.  I was going to say it's been awhile since I've been away, but it really hasn't.  This has been a traveling year for me.

I took a few minutes after church to go out in the yard and see how things were looking

 It is a mess.  But every time I go out to clean things up it is so hot I just can't do it.  It's supposed to cool off next week to the high 80s before going back the following week to the 90s again.  Maybe I can get a little done then.  I'm thinking I need to get out first thing in the morning when it's a little bit cooler and try to do something!

I did my nails last night in a new Julep polish I got.  It's called "Summer".  I like it a lot.  It's sort of hot and spicy like the weather lately.

You saw the silver tassel I was wearing today last week.  I wore it today with a little silver heart that Joe got for me.  Hard to see, but there's a diamond chip in the middle.  It's so pretty.  But then again everything he buys me is pretty.

So now it's time to make dinner.  Fish and chips and corn on the cob.  I make things that don't cook for a long time because it's too hot in the kitchen.  No air conditioning out there.

Until tomorrow...

Kathy

 

A LAZY SATURDAY... WELL, NOT REALLY

I say it's a lazy Saturday because I actually did not leave the house today.  I did do some things but not as much as I expected to.  I did take a nap though.  I sat down for a minute and the next thing I knew it was an hour later.  Ah well, I must have needed it.

I had my Almond Coco Loco yogurt for lunch.  It was even better than I remembered.  I could eat it every day for the rest of my life.  That's how much I love it.

Cleaning up I found the doll that Joe bought me awhile back.  She's a Holly Hobbie type doll.  Isn't she sweet?  Now I have to find somewhere to put her.

It is still very hot here.  This afternoon we got a high of 97*F (36*C) but felt like 109*F (43*C).  Too too hot!  My air conditioner has not stopped running in days.

This was on facebook yesterday:
 

I certainly appreciate him.  Thanks, Willis Carrier! 

I had a load of wash drying on the line outside this afternoon when I suddenly heard a crash of thunder and all these raindrops hitting the windows.  Oh no!  I ran outside and started taking them down.  But the bag I had to put the clean clothes in was full of water.  *sigh*  So not only did the dry clothes get wet, but so did I.  Then it started to hail and I was getting hit with little hailstones.  Ouch!  Joe took them from me and hung them up down the cellar.  The best laid plans...

For dinner tonight I had left over chicken breasts with cheese and ham wrapped around them, wax beans from the farm last week and noodles.  Everything was good.  Snowy begged and begged and so got a lot of the chicken.  It made her little cat heart happy.

Before I go I want to tell you about something I thought I'd try to start.  I'm calling it PICTURE FROM THE PAST.  When I can find one, I will post a photo from this day (or close to it) from the past.  So here is the first one.

This is Philly's Chinatown.  Obviously I was driving and I can see I was at a red light.  But I don't remember where I was going or why.  Hmm....  It was taken July 22, 2013 -- three years ago.  I'm going to have to go back in my blog and see what was going on.

So now I am going to print out the bulletins for church tomorrow and try to do a few things before I go to bed.  Have a great night everyone!

Kathy

A HAIRCUT AND OTHER THINGS

Hi everyone!  Hope you had a great day.  I got a lot done today and I am hurting badly but I refuse to give in and I just keep on going.  I'm going to take some aspirin when I get off of here and I'll feel much better in about a half hour.  It takes down the inflamation.

First of all I want to show you a picture of the great meal I made last night.  It was Fish Fry coated cod fillets with a salad and Italian dressing.  It was so good.

I bought three new tops and two of them came yesterday.  I decided to wear one right away.  I thought I was ordering three tunics, but found there were only two tunics.  The other one was a striped oversized t-shirt.  But I love it and I'm so glad I got it.  I wore it with my new aqua capris and it was very cool.  

I had to wear something cool because it got up to 91*F (33*C).  Of course it felt much hotter than that.  Today it got up to 95*F (35*C) and felt like 109*F (43*C). And there's no end in sight until next Saturday.  Not Saturday tomorrow, Saturday next week.  It will be so great here for the DNC starting Monday.  (That's sarcasm.)  There are already plans being made to help the expected protestors and to take the homeless people to air conditioned shelters.

Because of the heat, I was so glad that I had made an appointment to get my hair cut today.  It felt like a blanket on my neck and back.  So here is a before picture:

And here is after:

I just love it.  I always get a good cut with Deb.  I have another appointment for September 9th to get it trimmed again.

I went and visited my friend Paulette yesterday.  She is cleaning out her house and has a bunch of office supplies which she is donating to the church I attend.  That is so nice of her!  I stayed a couple of hours and we had such a nice talk.  I really have to stop over more often.

I had three cartons and two bags of office supplies in the car and had to get rid of them.  I knew I couldn't move them into the church by myself, so I asked my friend Donna B. if she could help me.  She said sure.  I went and picked her up and we went to church together.  It took us two trips to get everything in there.

When we were finished we went to lunch at Chick-fil-A.  I got grilled chicken nuggets and a large iced tea.  And I drank that iced tea right down.  Even though it was cold in the restaurant, I was so dehydrated.  And no, I did not have fries.  Those were Donna's.  I am being so good on my new way of eating.

After we ate, we headed for Shop Rite to do our weekly food shopping.  I am finding it is much easier on me to do a small shopping once a week rather than a large shopping once a month.  I have so much trouble walking these days that having a short list and getting through things quickly works for me.

The Chobani flips were on sale for 10 for $10.  So I got 10.  Donna wanted to try them and she got 5.  They had my Almond Coco Loco so I got 3 of those!  I got 3 Salted Caramel, 2 Chocolate Hazelnut and 2 Peanut Butter.  This is one happy girl.

I also got 90 calorie cereal bars and a bunch of bananas for my mid afternoon snack.  I don't think I've lost any weight, but Donna looked at me when I picked her up today and asked if I had lost because she said I looked thinner.  I'll take it!

Tonight I made macaroni and cheese for dinner and had some broccoli.  Joe loves my mac and cheese and I think it is pretty good myself.  I use the Pioneer Woman's recipe.  Ever since I began using it, there is never any leftovers.

And now I have to run.  There is so much to do.  Always.  Have a good evening everyone.

Kathy