Fat Lip!!

Wouldn't you know Jerzie got her first fat lip at Grandma's! She toppled over face first! Click to enlarge and you can see two red marks on her upper lip and some blood(!!) on her shirt. She spent a lot of time sleeping today. She went to her cousin's birthday party at the park yesterday and really played hard. I couldn't resist this pic of her sleeping with her doggy.
Well, I finally gave in and mowed my lawn after J. left. It really needed it. I would have had a hard time if I had waited any longer. It'll probably need it again in a couple days. Nothing like a fresh mowed lawn!
I'm planning on expanding the flower bed in the middle this year. The foxgloves have already gone out into the lawn.
My shade garden is in this corner and the day lillies go the length of the lawn on the left.
The garden on the left of the shed is bushes. A hydrangea and an azalea to name a couple. My bird bath goes in there too. The ladder has a clematis growing on it. The spot on the right has iris, fever few and Indian Summer to name a few. I just put the wheel barrow in last fall. It came from our friends camp and has a metal wheel. Sweet peas are going to grow over it.
The maple trees are budding. Isn't the sky beautiful?
I took all these pics from my deck.

Weeds and blooms

It's beautiful here today. Sunny and 60. I've been working at putting my deck together. I got out the hose today and washed it down. Yesterday I scrubbed the rug. I'm changing it from this.. to this. I covered all the cushions and just need to get a few things to finish it off. I'll show you when it's done except for plants, of course. Around here we don't plant much until after Memorial Day.
I walked around the yard and found a few things blooming.
The bleeding heart is beginning.
There are lots of forget-me-nots all over. I let them bloom and then pull them out.
Several of my primroses are blooming besides the white and blue ones I showed you here.

Naturally I saw some of these
and this
and these.
Isn't it nice that all the weeds are in bloom! I really need to mow the lawn but it is still pretty wet. At least that's what I told myself when I decided to work on the deck instead!

Wind Chimes

I've already shown you this wind chime when I showed you out back of my house. It was given to me and it is much more pleasing to look at than to listen to.

When my Grandparents lived in Florida wind chimes made out of pipe were all the rage. I bought this wind chime in Florida about 25 years ago. It's made from real pieces of pipe. You can buy all kinds of pipe chimes now but I love my old rusty ones. I have restrung them many times and they don't look so nice anymore but they have a beautiful tone.They may drive some people nuts, but they are comforting to me. I painted this chime a few years ago.
It is 3 sided with a different picture on each side.
I love how they look but they don't have as nice a sound.
I enjoyed painting the chime so much I even painted some pins with the same design.
I just bought this wind chime at the craft show last weekend. It made me smile and matches all the old kitchen stuff I have in my garden. It has a pretty nice sound and when ever the sun shines again I will put it on a shepherds hook in my garden.
Do you like wind chimes or are you one of those people who would hate to be my neighbor?

The Clan

This is a picture of my Grandfather's family reunion in June of 1925. Thankfully someone in the family listed every name, married and maiden, on an extra sheet of paper. There are several people I've never heard of but I do recognize my Grandpa's 3 brothers and their wives. My Grandpa is the third from the right in the back row. He is holding my Mom and my Grandma is on the left. Mom's older brother is the forth from the left in the front row. He's wearing a sailor type shirt. Her younger brother wasn't born for a few more years.

The tiny woman sitting in the middle in the second row is Grandpa's Grandmother Julania. She is the person that made the quilt in this post. The older man behind her is her son Herbert, my Grandpa's father.
Family history is the Great Grandpa S. was still working in the woods in his 80's. He was told by the Dr that he had the body of a 50 year old. They say he would eat anything that "would go down his shirt collar" He ate the rind from cheese and ham and salted everything. He loved peppermint patties and would eat a whole bag if they didn't watch him. He broke his hip at 96 and just gave up. He never got over my Father dying at such a young age. He said it should have been him. I remember him a little. He loved to hold my baby cousins. He would sit for hours holding them out in front of him and rocking them up and down.

I know that I am very fortunate to have such strong family roots.

Aunt Elsie and Uncle Gurd

Aunt Elsie was one of my Dad's sisters. She and Uncle Gurd lived on a dairy farm on a mountain in Pennsylvania. My brother and I would stay with them once in awhile when we were young. They had 3 daughters and like the other cousins they were all older than us. Our parents were married 7 years before they had my brother and my Dad was the baby of the family.
This picture is of John and I with 6 of our cousins.

We loved to go to the farm. They had a big old farm house with lots of rooms and there was always something to do. One thing that really fascinated us was their telephone. As I said the farm was on a mountain. There were 2 other families with farms up there. Because all three families would not agree to get a phone, the phone company would not put phone lines up the mountain. The families didn't think they all needed a phone as long as someone had one! These 3 families communicated with each other with the old crank phone system. This was in the late 1950's and early 1960's when everyone had a telephone. They had no way to call anyone off the mountain.

Another thing we loved was riding in the milk truck. The milk was put into milk cans and loaded unto an old pick up type truck and driven down the mountain. Everything had to be done on time because the school bus wouldn't pick up the kids. Every morning during school, the girls would meet the bus at the bottom of the mountain in the milk truck.

As we got older we didn't see much of Uncle Gurd and Aunt Elsie and eventually they could no longer farm. We went to a party at there house for their 50th wedding anniversary several years ago. My uncle had become quite a collector. He had actually built an extra room around 3 sides of the old farm house to hold his collections. He had little collections of all kinds of things from farm tools to, well, bowling alleys! My other uncle, Uncle Elmer, told me that one time when they were visiting he was telling Uncle Gurd that my Aunt Sig wanted a butcher block island for the kitchen. Uncle Elmer said he wasn't sure what to make it out of and Uncle Gurd said he might have an idea. He took Uncle Elmer out to the barn and showed him an entire bowling lane! Aunt Sig ended up with a beautiful butcher block island made from a section of a bowling lane.

The picture on the top is Aunt Elsie and Uncle Gurd on their 50th. They are in the last addition that was built. Aunt Elsie died shortly after that but Uncle Gurd is still living. Although I haven's seen him in 10 years I will certainly never forget the time I spent with them as a child.

Typical spring.

It's a typical spring day here today. It's been raining all day. Just a nice steady rain. As I look out the back window I'm amazed at how much everything has grown with all the sunshine we've had. The grass is a beautiful bright green and some of the perennials are up 6 to 8 inches. They will grow even faster after the rain. Once it dries I'm sure I'll have to start mowing the lawn.I realized this morning that I hadn't hung my spring wreath yet. Of course, my daughter made this for me.
Can you see the door knocker under the wreath? I found it in a little shop last year when my girl friend and I went to lunch for my birthday. I had to have it!
I'm anxious to get my deck set up and have been checking it out every day so this doesn't happen again! have a great day!

Another Jerzie Day

I had Jerzie today because of going to Erie yesterday. I don't normally leave home when I have her but I had some errands I had to do. She was an absolute angel! We went to Walmart and Aunt Laurie showed her off to some of her coworkers. Then to the bank, beauty supply store and to pick up my new glasses. She was happy and smiled at everyone. I bought this at the craft show Buffalo. You bought the shelf and the letters separately and you could add any extras from a huge selection. The shelf has a groove that the letters fit into. I know I won't be able to find things with her name so I had to have this! Her room is the original Poo so it's done in pastels. Her Daddy and I sponged on some bees and butterflies so the flowers, butterfly and dragon fly were perfect. They sparkle too and every little girl likes a little "bling"!
Doesn't she look cute in her new jogging suit I bought yesterday? I love the color.

Shopping marathon!

Laurie had to go to the Dr in Erie today so of course I had to go with her. I needed to keep her entertained so she wouldn't think about the dreaded "annual exam" all the way there! Luckily there is a plaza close to the Dr's so I could get started shopping. We left home at 8:15 and this is what the car looked like when we got home around 7:00.
These are only the stores I bought stuff in!
I am so excited about this! I have a wicker couch on my deck and I wanted to change the look but can't afford to have new cushion covers made. I found this wonderful upholstery fabric at Value City for $9.99 for three yards. I'm not sure how I'll make it work but I'll figure something out. The black iron thing in the front is a hose guard so the hose doesn't run over the plants. I told Laurie to remind me that I didn't need any more gardening things and you can see how well she did at that!
Jerzie's Mom said she needed some long sleeve tops but we couldn't find too many. Mom loved the tan bib shorts I got last year so I had to find her another pair. Every little girl with a rottweiler needs a dog bone onsie(top right), don't you think? A girl can never have too many shoes!
I even got myself a new spring purse and tee shirt. I'm always on the look out for pj's since I'm so fussy about them. When I find what I like I have to buy them.

All and all we had a very fun and productive day and we didn't pay full price for anything we bought. Now I need to go put my feet up. Jerzie comes tomorrow.

Prom dress

I wasn't sure if I was going to do this or not but what the heck! Beemoosie is having a drawing for anyone who will show their prom picture. When I was going thru my pictures this winter I threw out my prom pictures. Some friends of mine were getting married the day after graduation and I was in the wedding. The groom was in the Navy but he got a leave for prom. A friend that was to be in the wedding came home with him and he was my date. The year was 1967!

My ex and I decided to get married in September of 1968. We didn't have any money so we had a very small wedding. My aunt cut off my prom dress and made me a veil. My girl friend had a dress of hers cut off too. Another aunt made the wedding cake and snap shots were taken. Some different than todays weddings!

The best man did own a cool car though, a candy apple red 57 Chevy!
Does this count, Beemoosie?

Church pew

It's another beautiful spring day! Sunny and almost 70. I could get used to this!
I've had this church pew on my deck for several years and decided I was tired of it there.
This park bench outside my beauty shop door is really rotting so I decided to bring the pew down here. I didn't realize just how heavy it was but once I make up my mind to do something there is no stopping me!
I really like it down here and gives me a lot more room on the deck. Notice I also put away the snow shovel that was in the last pic!
The daffodils are blooming and everything is getting green! Look at that blue sky!

Hospital visit.

On Wednesday my daughter-in-law called to tell me she and Jerzie were in the emergency room. Daddy was still at work and had a dentist appointment right after. Jerzie hadn't felt well for a couple days and her sitter finally had to call Mommy at work because all J. did was cry. I made a bottle because it was dinner time for little J.and went over to the hospital. This is what I found! Can you believe that hospital gown they had on her? After taking her temp, checking her ears and doing a throat culture they said she needed some blood tests. They gave her this popsicle while we waited. I'm feeding it to her and her Mommy took this picture with her phone. It was aweful watching them take 3+ vials of blood from her little arm. Boy was she mad! Three of us held her down and 2 took the blood. They also had to get some urine. Thankfully, it was nothing too serious. She has a double ear infection and a slight upper respitory infection. She's feeling much better now. I can't imagine some of the things parents have to go thru with really sick kids, just this little trip was enough for me!

Spring is back!

Well, it's looking like spring here again! Sunny and 55 right now. These is the tiny daffodils I showed you here. They had almost 2 feet of snow on them last week. I was sure they would be gone when the snow melted.This hyacinth didn't do so well. Two of the blooms are bent over but the smell is still heavenly.
I don't know where these white violets came from but there are a lot of them!
This poor turtle has been out all winter. I'll bet the sun feels good to him!
If you would enjoy planting a spring garden just click on the link, http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

Click your mouse on the black area and move it around.

Garden Scrapbook 2

Here's the last half of my scrapbook.I love black eyed Susan's but Laurie and I are both begging people to take them about every other year. I customer gave me these pink lilies-of-the-valley. I love them!
These two pages just work so well together. The paper Laurie picked is perfect!
Just a few colors of my primroses and sweet peas that grow on some lattice.
This is another favorite page. I love the tile look of my garden "extras". Chris helped with this page. This clematis grows up the support to the deck.

The foxgloves were especially nice that year. I'm afraid I lost the beautiful yellow lupin.
Gotta have cone flowers! I have other colors now, too. Don't you love the button flowers at the bottom?

Garden Scrapbook

A few years ago my daughter and her husband came over to my house when I wasn't home and took pictures of my garden. She surprised me on my birthday with this scrapbook.

I had to take pictures because the book is 12x12 and won't fit in my scanner. Sorry for the glare but they didn't turn out without the flash.

Laurie made the fence and the pots filled with flowers.

There was a double page about my fountain.
This is a climbing roses and jack-in-a-pulpit. She took some of the extra pictures from an old scrapbook I got at a sale. She made some excuse to get it from me.
The columbine was wild, I have planted some since. The moon flower is in a pot on the deck. The bees, dragon flies and butterflies are paper punches.
Rain lilies from my Grandmothers home in Florida. I don't know the real name but they are bulbs and I bring them into the basement, pot and all, every winter.
My hydrangea has pink, blue and a lavender mix flowers. The cleome are annual but sometimes reseed.
Solomon's seal is one of my favorites. The azalea is in the front of the house. Laurie made this boy and girl by paper piecing.
I'll show you the rest tomorrow.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my favorite (and only!) Son-in-law!I wasn't real sure of this guy at first and it wasn't because of this
(Taken at a carnival we put on)

but more about the red ponytail and the earrings! I know, I shouldn't judge and believe me I have certainly changed my opinion of that kind of stuff! In fact, I talked him out of cutting his hair for the wedding just to please other people.

Chris has been a super son-in-law (not just because he helps me with my computer, although that helps!). He takes great care of my daughter and has made her very happy and that's all a mother can ask.
Happy Birthday to a great son, brother-in-law, uncle and husband!

Love ya!

Mom
If you would like to wish him a Happy Birthday click here.

The winner!

Jerzie is excited and saying"Yeah!!" to the winner of

this and
this!

So without further ado!

Out of hundreds, tens, okay, 7 guesses as to the number of buttons in the jar

one person was only 9 under!

There are 331 buttons in the jar!

The winner with a guess of 322 is

PEA!

E-mail me your address

and I will send it out to you.

Future heirlooms

My Uncle was a carpenter, largely trained by my Grandpa. Since his retirement he has taken up woodworking. Fortunately for me, he has given me some of his pieces for my grandchildren. I have had these for a couple years now and Jerzie has started playing with some of them.I love this cradle! He also made a real sized one for our family and my brother's grandchildren (6 of them) and Jerzie have all used it when they came home from the hospital.
My Aunt made the blanket and pillow.
Jerzie likes these nesting boxes and has a set of her own at her house.
I like the bright colors.
I taught my Aunt how to paint and she painted these boxes and the box below.
This box is so much fun. All the kids want to play with these when they come over. It's a box of all different sized blocks. Great for the imagination!
I love that my Aunt and Uncle both took part in making these for me. I'm sure that kids in our family will be playing with them for many years to come.

Being a grownup.

My niece and her husband have 4 well behaved but energetic children from 2 to 8. There is always a funny story about at least one of their kids circulating the family. The pic above is their third, and most strong willed child, Becca, holding Jerzie at Christmas. The other day they were getting ready to go somewhere and Becca was told to put on a certain pair of shoes which, of course, were not the shoes she wanted to wear. After a short discussion her Mom asked her why when they were going to have a fun day together she had to argue about her shoes. After turning her back to her Mom Becca was heard to mutter "Why do you need to be so bossy!" Mom said it was a good thing her back was turned because it was hard to keep a straight face!

Later Becca was overheard telling her dolls "When I grow up and get big boobies and put black stuff on my eyes and white stuff under my arms then I'll get to be the boss!"

I'm afraid Becca will spend a lot of time in the "time out chair" before that happens, don't you?

I don't usually pick my daffodils but these were all laying face down when the snow melted so I thought I'd bring them inside and warm them up!

Today is the last day to guess the number of buttons in the canning jar!

Check below.

The pin!

Here is the pin I will be giving away with the jar of buttons on yesterday's post. It is made entirely of buttons. It is black and silver. It is hard to tell what it really looks like from the picture. This is a house board I made my son and daughter-in-law when they got married. It had weathered a little so I had to sand and polyurethane it so I thought I would show it to you. I've done this picture on other house boards and on a picnic basket.
Don't forget to guess how many buttons are in the jar!

My 193rd Post!

So what does that mean? Nothing much actually! That just happens to be what number I was on when I decided to have a give away! What am I giving away? This canning jar of mostly vintage buttons.This is a wide mouth Ball jar and it is about 4 3/4 inches tall.
It is filled with large buttons,
shiny buttons,
and tiny buttons.
All you need to do is leave a comment and guess how many buttons are in the jar. The winner will be the person with the closest guess, either higher or lower. You have until Saturday night, the 14th. I will announce the winner on Sunday. The winner will also get one of my one-of-a-kind button pins. (My camera doesn't take good closeups so I'll have to get my daughter to take a picture.) What's your guess?

My Dad

My Dad's parents came from Sweden and like all good Swedes, changed their name to Carlson. They had 4 children with my Dad being the youngest. When Dad was two, his mother died.Not knowing how to care for his 4 young children, my Grandfather gave them to family members. Two of my Aunts stayed in the Corning, NY area and my Dad and his sister (next to the youngest) were given to a couple in the Jamestown area, about 150 miles away.
Mary and Aaron were cousins, who had remained childless after several years of marriage. They were more than happy to be blessed with a son and a daughter.
Without any legal documentation, they changed the children's last name to theirs and raised them as their own. My Aunt used to speak about their real father so they did know him to some extent when they were older.
What amazes me is that the sisters and brother never lost touch. One of the older girls parents didn't want her to have contact with her sister but since they lived in the same area they remained close. My brother and I were fortunate to know and spend time with our Aunts after our father passed away when we were 4 and 6. Our Aunts could have told us a lot about our heritage but we saw them the most when we were young and didn't care. The 2 Aunts that lived the longest both had Alzheimer's by the time we cared to ask questions.
I didn't know any of my Grandparents on my Fathers side but do know that his Mother lived in the same home as my Mom and Dad until she died. Luckily we had great Grandparents on my Mom's side of the family. I got most of these pictures from my Aunt's family after she passed away and I treasure them.

A day late.

I had to work yesterday and the kids had to go to the in-laws this year so we had Easter dinner today. We all love a basic ham dinner and this is really just an excuse. I used my Mom's china today. It isn't what I would buy but I just couldn't let it go. I use it a couple times a year.She got it through the Jewel Tea man. He came to the door and sold cleaning products and groceries. This china was made by Hall and is called Mount Vernon. Autumn Leaves is the most popular sold by The Jewel Tea Company and is very collectable.
Jerzie wore her Easter dress .I gave her a small basket. Her Mommy and Daddy found out that she doesn't like the grass in the basket. She wouldn't touch her stuff until I took out the grass!
I bought her this hat for when she helps me in the garden. She kept in on for quite awhile so we'll see how she does in the summer.

Happy Easter!


I hope you have a super day filled with friends and family!
Taken by Uncle Chris and Aunt Laurie.

Easters past

This is a picture of my brother and I with our cousin in 1955. I was 5 and my brother had just turned 8. I always had braids but I don't know what was up with those curly bangs!

Here we are 2 years later. My aunt made us these matching suits. They were a small blue and gray plaid. Notice the daffodils on our jackets. We are standing on the patio of our Grandparents house that Grandpa built.

I think this is the same year. It's not actually Easter but it is spring and I thought you'd get a kick out of our matching dresses. These are 4 of our cousins. There ended up being 4 more girls in the family and no more boys. My brother was the oldest and the only boy of 10 grandchildren. My same aunt made these dresses for us. Her 2 girls are on the left. They are all different colored gingham checks.

The girl in the middle on my lap ended up being one of the first children to have open heart surgery in Buffalo Children's Hospital. A hole was discovered in her heart when she was 4 or 5. She lives in Florida now and has 2 grown children. The fireplace is the one you see the brick chimney for in the last picture. Grandpa found all the stones for it and his father hewed down a barn beam for the mantle when he was in his 80's.
I felt bad when the house left the family but I don't need the house to remember all the great family times we had there.

Happy spring?!!

I know I promised no more snow pictures so if you want to see what it looks like here today check this out! We had 7 inches over night and 12 to 15 since Wed

We haven't had such a snowy winter since 1999.

When I was out shoveling this morning a neighbor stopped by and said someone had been going through cars that were left unlocked. Like a lot of people that don't dare lock their cars in the winter in case they freeze, my friend across the street had her car rummaged through. Nothing was taken and I'm sure they were just looking for money. The neighbor followed the tracks in the road but only got as far as the hospital parking lot and there were so many foot prints he lost the trail. I keep mine locked and it's in the driveway so it wasn't touched. I heard they caught a couple guys a few streets away. I sure hope so. This kind of stuff makes me so mad! Doesn't matter what neighborhood you live in.

Remember Spring is right around the corner!

ALL I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE I LEARNED FROM THE EASTER BUNNY

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket

Walk softly and carry a big carrot

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears

There's no such thing as too much candy

All work and no play can make you a basket case

A cute little tail attracts a lot of attention

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits

Some body parts should be floppy

Keep your paws off other people's jellybeans

Good things come in small sugarcoated packages

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket

An Easter bonnet can tame even the wildest hare

To show your true colors you have to come out of your shell

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey

Birds & Blooms

As you can see, I've (with my awesome son-in-laws help, of course!) switched to my spring and summer look (even tho we have at least 5 inches of snow and the temp is 20). I'm going to think spring if it kills me!

The banner is a picture of one of my gardens. It is visible from the street and all my customers walk right past it. It is right under this.I made the fountain (with my awesome son-in-laws help, of course!) a few years ago. Like a lot of my "stuff", this coffee pot has a lot of memories. When we first started going to camp, this is what we heated water in. It got a little hole so naturally I said I wanted it. I decided to send a picture of it to Birds & Blooms magazine just for fun. They liked the idea and decided to put it in the Oct/Nov. issue in 2002!
This is the page it was on along with some other garden ideas from old stuff. I had a small granite ware collection and didn't display it anymore so decided to use it for a fountain. I knew what I wanted but needed Chris to figure out how to do it.
This is what they wrote about it. I have had a lot of comments on my unique fountain and look forward to putting it out every year (Thank goodness I don't have to ask Chris' help for that). Notice that I did give him the credit due in the article. If anyone is interested in knowing how it is done let me know and I'll take pictures and do a post when I put it out (if it ever stops snowing!!).

Picture Blocks

I talked about this puzzle here and said I would show you all the pictures one day. Today is the day!This is the picture I have up for Easter.

I love all the colors and detail in this one.
For some reason I have a strong memory of this one. As soon as I remembered the puzzle, I remembered this picture. Could be because it is the easiest to put together so I probably did it more.
Another colorful, detailed picture.
This is the picture that I found a funeral fan of that started me looking for this puzzle. My brother had forgotten all about it until I showed him. Just like me, he remembered that ours was in a dark green box. It amazes me how something will trigger a memory that I hadn't thought about in years.

Another spring project.

It's another beautiful day! 72 and sunny! I'm afraid I did hear the s word in the extended forecast tho. That really is to be expected around here in April. As you can see some of my daffodils are in bloom. This bunch is a little different tho.
See how tiny they are compared to my hand. They are the ones you buy in the grocery store when you need some spring in the house. I have a few other clumps of them but these are the only ones in bloom now.

I really trimmed my pussy willow tree this morning. Another job I hate but it has to be done. This garden is the one beside the stairs so it's quite a hill and therefore hard to put a ladder up. I have a tree pruner but that takes a lot longer.
I never realized just how colorful pussy willows going to seed are.
I know it looks really bad right now but I can only trim it once if I want pussy willows the next year. Being a willow it grows several feet in a season. Once the leaves are out it will look fine. I've never trimmed it this early but it was a lot easier than when the garden is all in bloom.
I even had to get out the "big guns"! Yes, that is a chain saw and yes, it's mine. I don't even remember what I bought it for but it's handy to have(just ask the kids). It is electric so it's not too heavy for me to handle.
I love seeing the bright patches of color this time of year, don't you?

Easter treat!

It's 60 and sunny today but there is a strong constant wind so we're staying inside. Jerzie discovered her shadow this morning and was trying to pick up the sunshine. It's hard to get a picture of her doing something like this because as soon as she sees the camera she forgets what she was doing and turns into a big ham!How would you like this little treat in your Easter basket?
These colored plastic eggs were a lot of fun. She just couldn't decide which color she wanted!
Isn't the chick adorable? When you squeeze its tummy it chirps. We had them at work and I wish I'd bought more. They had baby cardinals and bluebirds and they sounded like the real bird. It's for Easter so I haven't really given it to her yet.
They are really fun when you bang them together to make noise!
Mommy took off work a little early so she a Daddy could go play golf so Jerzie will stay for an hour or so longer that usual. I never say no to that!

Cold Pizza anyone?

Happy April Fools Day!

This is the Lenten Rose. Laurie and I bought them together and hers bloomed last year and mine didn't. Do you think she was trying to rub that in by putting it in the calender she made me?

A local dairy farm opened a restaurant in 1975 that made their own ice cream Aldrich Beef and Ice Cream Parlor. Twenty four years ago they were challenged to make an ice cream that tasted like beef gravy. A tradition was born! Every April Fools Day since, they have made an "interesting" new ice cream flavor just for that day. This year they made 50 gallons (the most ever made for April 1st) of Pizza Ice Cream! Some of their flavors have included Pork and Beans, Full of Baloney, Chicken Wing, Spinach Ripple, Sauerkraut,Sufferin' Succatash (corn, lima beans and pimentos) and Popcorn (2006). They even made Peachmint in honor of President Clinton. I must confess, I've never even thought of trying any of these flavors but it is always fun to see what they come up with. How about you, would you give it a try?