Mom's 75th birthday.

Mommy has a birthday.

I know. I am running a little behind here. Last week-end Jennifer, Denise and I took our Mom to Eureka Springs for her Birthday. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and Saturday we went on a Sweet Treats tour of 11 B&B's to sample their Christmas Cookies. We each got two cookies and recipes at each stop. We walked to some, took the trolley to others, and finally drove to the last few. It wasn't quite what we envisioned, but it gave us a nice look at the town. We went to a Christmas Chorale that evening. Sunday, after an enormous and delicious breakfast, we headed for St. Elizabeths for Mass, only to find out that I had picked a non-existent Mass to attend. We walked down to the church and were able to go in as Mass ended.

It is a very cute church, entered through the Bell Tower. We proceeded to the downtown, where Mom and Jennifer had mineral baths and a eucalyptus steam before we all proceeded next door for our facials. Once again, not exactly what we were expecting, but relaxing anyway. We then went back to the B & B and parked the car and waited for our trustworthy Trolley Man to pick us up and take us back downtown to shop. I did most of the buying somehow. Not sure how that worked out. We had wonderful meals and and enjoyable time, though Denise and Mom worried a bit about the nasty weather coming in Monday morning. We made it home fine and I had no trouble till it came time to pull onto Mom's street. Kind of slid past it and had to take the next one. Slid a bit there also. I didn't hit anything though, and we were glad to park the car.

Jon was there to greet us. Mom wanted Mini-meatloafs and bread pudding for her birthday dinner, so we went shopping and Jeff and his family came over to celebrate. Jeff made the home-made ice cream.

Happy 75th Mom!!

Honey the Calico Cat

Mom and I took Gabriel for a walk Sunday, before Mason's party. We hadn't gotten far before I saw a pretty calico cat headed our way. I called to her and she sauntered right up to me. Mom picked up Gabriel because he usually wants to eat cats that are out and about. She followed us for awhile, galloping ahead and then waiting for us. We finally left her behind, but she showed up on our way back to the house. Mom called a neighbor, to see if she belonged to the house with a dozen cats, and was told that they were trying to get rid of her. Uh oh.

I went out a little later and she came up and we sat on the porch, communing a bit. Mom looked outside and said "Bring her in." I did. She started exploring the house and Gabriel just trailed behind wherever she went. She mostly ignored him. Finally Mom sent me out for the fixin's, litter box, litter, food and flea treatment. When I got back we set her up in the laundry room and closed the sliding door and left for Jeff's.

Mom told everyone she had a new cat, so of course James and Denise had to stop by to meet her after the party. When we get home, the laundry door has been opened about 4 inches and no little cat is to be found. I figured if she didn't come running to meet us, it was because she had gone out the doggy door. I went a couple of house down and sure enough she comes running out to meet me!

The laundry door does have a latch, so Mom will just have to be sure it is secure before she leaves, because she definitely doesn't want her outside anymore. She is one smart cookie. She and Gabriel share Moms lap. She has swiped at him when he is too excited, but I trimmed her claws so no real harm done. He keeps coming back for more.

She is very oriental looking with long legs and a pointy face. She talks whenever people are out of sight, calling for company. Very sweet.

CVS- Mom and Denise

I got a phone call yesterday after Mom and Denise got home from their shopping. Denise was pretty proud of herself, because she got $99 worth of stuff for $6. Of course, those are CVS prices, and we frugal folks would never spend that much in the first place, but still, it was a great trip for them and I think enough of a kick to keep them at it. Denise used up some of her ECB's to buy some allergy meds for James, and Mom used up some of hers buying a hairdryer, but she has plenty left over for next weeks deals. They both finished out the June free with ECB deals and made good use of the last day for the 5 off of 15 coupon. I am down to $19 ECB's, so need to do some configuratin' myself!

Yikes, one week later.

Ok, see, it was going to be Memorial Day weekend, so I took Friday and Tuesday off and had a 5 day week-end, so I went to see my Mommy in Springfield, MO. And I didn't blog while I was gone, and now, all of a sudden it has been a week. How the heck did that happen?



I left here Friday morning and got to Moms by about 1:30 so we rushed out to lunch at some tea house she was checking out for one of her lunch groups. I had Chicken Salad and it was good. Then I made her take me by Springfield's single CVS so I could decide if it was worthwhile getting her started. Oh My Goodness. Oh My Goodness. Again. They have the largest drugstore in the Nation. Uh Huh. I am now very jealous. Here it was, the end of the month and they still had all the monthly deals fully stocked.

Denise and James came over to drop off Angel, their little black poodle, and we had dinner and I talked up CVS. I had bought 6 of the ALL YOU magazines with the free Adidas deoderant coupons, so they all would get to start off with $9.98 in ECB's. Off we went. James and Denise each did 3 purchases, because they were going to be gone the rest of the week-end, and Mom did 2, ending up with $9.38 ECB's.

We went back the next day and grew her ECB's to around $26 with about a $5 oop so she made over $12 and got all the stuff below. She is going back today to use some of her ECB's to buy a small travel hairdryer, because the one she has at home is too bulky. She is picking up Denise and they are going to spend all of James' ECB's and let his card go, and just keep Denise going. Good for her!

Angel was very well behaved for us, and slept with Mom at night. She knew this was a doggy bed, even if Gabriel thinks it is a toy box. She just scratched around until she had a spot big enough for her! Cute!

Cinnamon and Honey

My mom sent me an email about the health benefits of Cinnamon and Honey. Since I have been having more and more problems with my knees, I decided I will give it a try. She tried the mixture in a hot tea but had problems with the cinnamon settling. I will give it a try on toast. I am starting today, so we will see how I feel next month!


It is a beautiful day today, supposed to get up in the 70's, but down to the 50's for a high tomorrow and chance of snow on Tuesday. What a winter this has been. The University has been closed three days so far for the ice storms, which hasn't happened in a long time!



My kittens are almost 8 months old and I actually caught Sassy snuggled up with Jean-Claude the other day, which is a first, other than photo shoots I arranged!