Alive and well ....

.... in Memphis ....

OMG ... has it really been a month since my last update ?? Life has been pretty crazy around Casa Jackson so today is the day to play catch-up ...


Jere arrive back in the Mid-South at the 17:00 minute mark of an amazing hockey game against Peoria - the reigning 1st place team (our boys won that one 8-3).  After losing the following night in a very close match-up again against Peoria, the Kings placed 4th in the regular season standings.  The first round pitted them against the Pensacola Ice Flyers who were the defending champions of the President's Cup for the past 2 years.  With Pensacola placing 3rd, they had "Home Ice Advantage" so the 1st game was played in their barn.  It was a hard fought game and our boys came out on top with a final score of 3-2 with the winning goal coming with 3:49 remaining it the 2nd overtime period.  Back in Southaven on Friday, they fell short 2-1 when an Ice Flyer scored against Peter at the 8:08 mark in overtime.  After a long bus ride back to Pensacola, our guys were amazing maintaining a 2-1 lead.  With 8.01 seconds remaining in the 3rd period, there was a pile-up in the King's net and Peter ended up under several players.  When the strap on his mask came loose, he reached up, took his mask off to re-position and secure it and was charged with a penalty !!!! (total bullshit IMHO) ...

Pensacola was awarded a penalty shot (total BULLSHIT) and of course sent their top scoring player out to take it.  WELL..... Corey Banfield took it and went to the goalie's backhand, but Peter gobbled it up with his glove to preserve the RiverKings win, 2-1. My favorite thing I guess of the entire season was when, after saving that goal, Peter skated to the right and tossed that gloved puck to the side with an "IN YOUR FACE" attitude.

In the other SPHL match-ups of the 6 top teams ALL 3 top seeded teams were eliminated in the 1st round.  With Mississippi finishing the regular season in 4th place that placed them top seed for the 2nd round which gave them a bye...

With the 1st round win, the Kings advanced to the finals which SHOULD HAVE given them home ice advantage but alas, NO HOME ICE... deja vu all over again.  THE CIRCUS took precedence over THE ONLY PERMANENT RESIDENT OF LANDERS CENTER.  (more BULLSHIT - or rather Elephant Shit).

That meant everyone had to pack up and head 7 hours away to Knoxville for finals. 

While we had a great trip and enjoyed hanging with the guys and some of their family at the hotel, watching practices and being welcomed and treated well by the Ice Bear's fans, the outcome wasn't what we had planned for or wanted.  The Kings fell to second place with Thursday's loss of 3-2 and Saturday's loss of 4-2. 

Saturday night after the game we went to Applebee's to decompressed.

Peter & Christine







And later, Peter, as promised, shed himself of that awful beard !!

Look at that baby face !

It was a great season all in all and being the Sponsor Family of Peter Anthoni Di Salvo made this season the absolute best for me and Jere !!!

For weeks, our friend Kent had been talking about his excitement for the spring weather to get good enough to get out on his motorcycle. 

Frankie & Kent enjoying the game!



On March 24th while riding up Austin Peay, a lady - in a Mercedes - TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE - pulled out of a shopping center and sent him FLYING.  When he arrived at the Trauma Center he had (among other injuries) a broken lumbar vertebra,  several broken ribs which caused 2 collapsed lungs, a completely crushes right leg, right arm broken in several places, left ankle and left wrist broken.  To me, it is amazing they were able to revive him at the scene.

OH and BTW, according to the accident report the woman had no liability insurance.  Shouldn't she be sitting in jail the entire time Kent is in the hospital ?????

Well, it has been a month and thank God, Kent survived, been patched up and hopes to be released soon to a skilled facility to continue healing and rehabbing.  Oh, he has sworn off motorcycles ....

This last week, the weather has been BEAUTIFUL !!! I spent 2 days in the back yard cleaning and planting. 

(I do like the painted version of the turquoise pot! )

Lemongrass (aka Mosquito grass) & Dianthus (aka Pink Clownfish)


The window boxes on the front of the house....

Aquilegia (aka Columbine) & Japanese Painted Fern

Sassy (the dirty car) with new Boston Ferns

The evil Cacti - repotted

The window boxes on the back of the house.



Lithadora. Salvia & Impatients

 ..... On tap for next week is the flower beds in the front of the house and refinishing the Adirondack chairs. 


Now that I've got MY HALF of the patio cleaned up and pretty ..... it's Jere's turn to clean up this mess !!!

Lizzie the '65 Mustang undercover

Today we're going to the Albro Farm for a "Farewell" party.  Peter is heading to Australia for a month of hockey on Tuesday before going home to Canada for the summer ..... 

One last picture of him holding one of the baby goats!

Sure gonna miss this guy !!

Till Next time,

Cindi

4.25.2015



Being a Widow for 2 weeks ....

... has been rather strange!

The Mr. left 2 weeks ago for a work trip up to the frozen tundra (Winnipeg) ... The morning after he left I woke up and rolled over to look at my clock.  I actually had to get up, rub my eyes a few times and really look at it to see what was wrong....

It was running ass backwards ... I mean the second had was turning counter clockwise, and the minute hand and hour hand were following stupidly along on it's misadventure. 

Think if I leave it be I'll eventually be 30 again ??

Then last Friday a huge box was delivered from Prince Sports.  (The man strings racquets and supplied various other racquetball paraphernalia) ... Inside was this:

Yep ... That's right.  Its a box of LEFT shoes ... Now mind you, Jere and I both still are in possession of BOTH our left AND RIGHT feet...plus they are all different sizes ....

The mystery was solved when I called Prince Sports and found they were supposed to be shipped to a JEROME Jackson and not JEREMIAH Jackson.  I am awaiting a return call from said Prince about UPS picking this box a junk and forwarding it to the correct recipient .. They did email me a shipping label, but UPS wanted $10 to pick it up... I DON'T THINK SO ...

So ... Other than a bassackward clock, a box of left shoes AND losing Molly & Hershey for a little while (only in the house & back yard) this has been otherwise a pretty normal couple of weeks for me.

I do need to regress a bit though. 

I finally got a call from the GeekSquad about my laptop and it had to be resigned to computer heaven (or hell --whatever)  They decided to replace it with another of equal value so on the night of the biggest snow and ice storm this year the man and I ventured to Best Buy, getting there just before they announced they were closing early due to inclement weather.  NOT before I get my replacement computer, thank you very much.....

Actually the weather turned out to be a good thing.  I selected a Toshiba "Flip-and-Fold" which cost exactly what I was given credit for and because the streets got really bad (well bad for our area) the man's office was closed for the next 2 days and he was able to get all the software loaded and my email account moved over from the antique I had been using ... YAY !!!

Back to the weird and wacky week.

While the cats away, the mice will play and play I did (other than dealing with the weirdness of the clock and shoes)

Casa Jackson was hopping with activity for the watch parties.  Friday night the entire Albro Clan, Wynn Clan and Lee Clan joined me for the first of a 3 game series against Fayetteville.  Friday nights fare was BarbQue, with Kent providing a delish crock pot full of pulled pork.  I made potato salad and Reba and Anisha brought the buns, chips and desert.  GOOD FOOD, GOOD FRIENDS and a 4-1 WIN!!

Saturday was "bring your favorite frozen pizza" and salad.  Reba manned the oven while the boys brought in another victory of 3-1 against those pesky Antz.

Then Sunday afternoon we had a appitizer spread !!! My famous Meaty Cheese dip, BarBQue Meat balls, Chicken Wings, and lots of left over salad and potato salad along with 4 desserts !! 

Sunday's Spread

Cinnamon and Lemon Monkey Bread, Chocolate Souffle and Chocolate Angel Surprise

And the guys brought home the 3rd win of the weekend 2-1 to close out the SEASON SWEEP of the Fayetteville FireAntz!

The hockey family, in these pics don't look very excited, but it was a very exciting weekend.  (I think I snapped them while everyone was in a food coma)

Anisha & RJ

Reba & John

Kent & Frankie





On Monday, I gathered Peter 

at his apartment and we ventured to Downtown Memphis for dinner before collecting his sister, Jenna at the airport.  We went to Kooky Kanuck's ...

I took this from the inside sitting at our table !

on 2nd for some yummy burgers and something I had never tried before:

Poutine !! And it was delish !!! It is a Canadian dish made of fries, cheese curds and gravy ... oh my, was it GOOD !!! 

Afterwards, we ventured down a slightly scary ally  to Maggy Moo's for some home made Ice Cream!! 

Sprinkles are for winners! 

 Mine was Red Velvet Cake ice cream in a chocolate/nut dipped waffle cone and it melted faster than I could eat it !!! 

After ice cream we went and hung out at Memphis International until Jenna's plane arrived (30 minutes early !!)

Wednesday Sam (Elizabeth Ann) came & stayed the night & we worked on our quilt squares for the group quilt our Thursday morning group is making to donate to the church that has been allowing us to use a room for our classes.  She made Mexican Pizza's with some refried beans, cheese, tomatoes and black olives on some of Reba's home made tortillas !!! 

Here is one of her squares !!

She is doing so good !!! 

Then on Thursday we took all our squares to class and put them together !!!

This is going to be a beautiful quilt and hopefully a successful fundraiser for the church.

After class we picked up Peter and Jenna and went to the Albro Farm for a lunch of Loaded Baked Potatoes and Salad .... Peter and Jenna had fun playing with the goats after lunch!

While in Canada, Jere had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with the father of one of out hockey players.  Maurice Ciarelli ...

... treated him to a lot of Italian hospitality and good ole home cooked food AND hockey.  He spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Ciarelli compound....

 .....eating and watching our team play 3 great WINNING games against Fayetteville then on Thursday he was treated to his first NHL game where the Winnipeg Jets beat the St Louis Blues in a shoot out.

 

And FRIDAY .... it's finally FRIDAY ... Jere willbe home and hopefully all the weirdness of the 2 weeks will 






.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
END!

Till next time,

Cindi
3.20.2015

 



Technology is great .....AND Quilts LOTS of Quilts!

Yes, my laptop is still in the hospital .... HRUMPH .... Apparently they are waiting on a part for the touchscreen (probably the case to the touchscreen).  As the battery had died (and was an internal one at that) it had to be sent into the service center for replacement AND since I paid for the full shebang extended everything warranty and one of my four legged children had pulled it off the table and cracked the case, I decided to go ahead and have that repaired while it was hospitalized.  WELL....apparently they are still waiting on the transplant team to acquire the necessary parts to preform the surgery so I am STILL stuck with this slow IBM model that was I believe built in the early 1700's and the operating system is run by snails.  Therefore, I have been remiss in posting. 

THAT BEING SAID.... It might take me a week to update what I've been up to lately..

A lot has happened in my world in the last 10 days so I won't go into details of everything, but when I left you all on the 9th, I was reflecting .....


One day in early December I joined Cheryl for her quilt class that is being offered at a little church in Hernando.  WELL, let me tell ya, I got inspired.  I came home and started pulling out tubs and totes and this is what I came out with.


WAY BACK in February, 2002 I took a quilting class that was offered at Hobby Lobby.  We had such fun once a week playing with fabric!  The very first quilt we made was called "Hearts & Stars" which is a funky little lap quilt with machine appliqued hearts.  I got the entire quilt top pieced, sandwiched with the batting and backing, machine quilting done and the bias binding sewn on. BUT never got it hand stitched down.

Another lap quilt which I don't know the name for was completed also to the point of hand stitching the binding down. 

And Jere has claimed that one as his own morning warmth!

I got both of these quilts finished this week !!!

The 3rd quilt that ended up being packed away with only the blocks constructed is a BEAUTIFUL "Stained Glass Window" quilt.  I did it in funky bright colors with lots of movement and the backing and border fabric is bright primary color large polka dots with a bright color "wavy" print that will be made into bias binding.

One more a "Maple Leaf" quilt has only the top pieced and the bias binding made.  It will be added into the quilt rotation soon!

The only quilt I did complete at that time is this one.

  I don't remember the name of the pattern, but it is a queen size quilt that I completed and gave to my mother for Christmas in 2003.  When she opened the package you would have thought I had given her a million dollars.  I don't think my mother has loved anything like she did that quilt.  She slept under it every night, took naps snuggled up with her great granddaughter in the afternoons and when she entered the hospital for the final time in in July, 2006 I had to drag her quilt up there.  She passed away wrapped in that quilt on October 28th.  I now have it hanging in my bedroom on a quilt stand and think of her often and how much she love that quilt.




I also found some really cute fabric with cows, chickens, pigs & sheep printed on it as well as 2 packs of plaid flannel fat quarters.  I had such fun putting together this "Log Cabin" quilt which will be gifted to a very special someone soon...I believe this quilt has been featured in a couple of previous posts, but I finally got it completed!

The last quilt I'll bore you with is going to be a baby quilt for my new grandson Wesley (due in May)  I have it pieced and will probably take my "Window" quilt off the hoop today and get it finished up.  

That cute little elephant print will be the backing and I will bind it in a solid blue.

Another thing of interest I found (actually yesterday) in my mother in law's sewing cabinet was a little plastic case with several packages of "between" needles for hand quilting.  

If you look closely you can see this is a pack of 20 needles that sold for 10¢.  That is 1/2¢ each!  Doing a Google search, I found the cheapest a package sells for today is $1.99.  CAN WE SAY INFLATION ??

On the cross stitching front, I have set aside my GP Sleepy Hollow in favor of quilting for a bit, but here is where I stopped.

That Pumpkin head is a bitch to stitch !! 

Tucked into the last 2 weeks was Valentine Day.  While Jere isn't one much for flowers and candy (my blood sugar couldn't handle that) we do usually go to dinner (the NIGHT BEFORE! to avoid the crowds) and this year as it was on Saturday, went to breakfast.  I had the MOST YUMMY big plate of eggs, bacon, sausage & hash browns with Lemon Curd filled Blackberry Crepes.  

As you can see, I didn't like them at all !!!

After breakfast we went to:

Jere was hoping to learn a new trick or two ... LOL ! 

Saturday I got the most pleasant surprise.  I was at the kitchen sink washing my hands after finishing up some appetizers for the watch party at Casa Jackson when there was a knock on the carport door.  There stood a delivery man holding a beautiful vase of spring flowers.  It wasn't my Birthday, or Mother's Day (which my sons usually remember with flowers) so I couldn't imagine! 

They were from Julie, Peter's real mom and look at the sweet note attached!!

Hockey !

Our boys are on a ROLL!!! They have won 8 straight games and 12 of their last 13 !!!  Saturday night 2/21  Peter got his FIRST professional SHUT OUT  with a 3 - 0 win against Huntsville!!! He was, as usual AWESOME !!!! 

Last week we had ice & snow.  Schools were closed, Jere was home from work for 2 days (and quite under foot) and it was COLD.  Again last night we had about an inch of sleet.  

I don't think we will be grilling out tonight ! 

I know around August I will be missing all this "cool" weather when temps are in the upper 90's, I am a puddle of sweat and am longing for my hockey boys return to the ice, but I really long for the boys of summer and ......

Till next time,

Cindi
2.23.2014