VGNO - Happy Easter!

It's that time again! Time for Virtual Girls Night Out, hosted by the wonderful Ann at Ann Again... and Again. It is a night full of pj wearing, blog hopping, new friend meeting, blog buddy chatting, game playing fun! And DON"T FORGET to head over to JAM's for even more fun, its an all around good time! =)

Tonight we have a question:

What Easter candy do you just have to have?Reese's Eggs....OH MAN...I LOVE them! Me and Peanut Butter and Chocolate, well, we are like THIS (crosses fingers).

Now its time to head on over to JAM's for her "virtual" dessert party! Mmmm....more yummy goodies! I think I will have it all, since it is "virtual" you know, NO CALORIES! =D

And don't forget, JAM is having her first giveaway, so check out how to win this awesome necklace here.

Happy VGNO, have a wonderful weekend and Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Tree

Since my Oma (Grandma) is full German, my mom passed on a lot of German holiday traditions. One of them was the Easter Egg Tree. She and Oma each made one every year. So this year I decided I would do it. They always used blooming Forsythia or Pussy Willow branches, but since my Forsythias are just getting started, and I don't have a Pussy Willow yet, I had to use Maple. Soo....

Here is my Easter Tree. I was a little late putting it together, but I am so glad it is finished. I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to go as far as design/style for decorating the eggs, so I did a plethora of styles. Maybe next year I will go all in one direction or even paint/dye the entire egg, we'll see.All I did was cut 3 small branches from a big fallen Maple branch, then I tied a ribbon around them to keep them together. I stuck them in in my rectangular vase with river rocks in the bottom and green moss on top.

For the eggs, I had started collecting them a couple weeks ago. I just poked holes in both ends with a pin and blew them out for Jimmy's scrambled eggs. I then rinsed the shells and let them dry. Then I pulled the ribbon through with a piece of wire - loop at the top and tied a knot on the bottom. Then I painted them. Easy as pie!

I just found out about the Round Robin event over at "Keeping Up With The Schultz Family"

so I thought I would add this post. So head over and check out all the other blogs!

Please say a prayer...

Hello my friends. I just received a prayer request from a friend. Her good friend has been struggling with cancer for a long time and she just told me he is probably in his last days. He will be leaving behind a wife and 2 young children, so PLEASE pray for them, that they will have comfort and peace in this very hard time in their lives. I know a lot of you are great prayer warriors, so please pray for this family. Thank you so much, I will share updates as I receive them.

Thankful Thursday - Grandparents

I am Thankful for my grandparents. My paternal grandparents came over to visit today, and I talked to my Oma (my mom's mom, she is full German) for a long time tonight, so I thought I would post about them.

I am so thankful for my grandparents. They are so wise and I am so glad that they are still around for me to talk to and spend time with. They are a wealth of knowledge and it is wonderful to be able to hear about the "good ole days." I am a very old fashioned girl in many senses, and I definitely have an old fashioned mindset when it comes to many life issues. And to be able to talk to someone who has lived frugally, through "the war" and share the same viewpoints is just awesome to me! I love my grandparents so very much and I hope they will be around for many years to come.

Grammy and Oma have been so wonderful to me since my mom passed away, it really is kind of like having a real mom a lot of the time. Especially with Oma, since she is my mom's mother, I really feel that connection there. My Opa (mom's dad) passed away the Thanksgiving before my mom, so Oma is alone most of the time. I try to take Jimmy over to visit a lot, we will try even harder this spring and summer. Oma has so many wonderful stories about being a young "war bride", moving to the states from Germany, raising 4 babies, gardening, learning to cook and SO much more....I just love her to pieces! I always learn something new from her. We can talk for hours too, tonight we talked for over an hour on the phone, just about flowers and gardening and a German book she is reading (its in German and I only took 2 years of it in Jr High, so I can't read it, poo!), and about my uncles and her cat and Jimmy and all kinds of things, things that I imagine I would talk to my mom about. It was so nice.

And Grammy, she always surprises me with stories of raising my dad, her oldest of 4 and starting their family in their little bitty house and moving throughout the years. I was over at her and Grampa's house a few weeks ago, looking at a photo album of when my dad was little, and there was a pic of a desk she had decorated to look like a fireplace for Christmas so they had somewhere to hang their stockings! I had no idea she was so creative! She also helped my make a bridesmaid dress for my cousin's wedding a few summers ago, it turned out gorgeous! It was the first dress I made actually following a pattern! Before that, I had just used an old "slinky" dress to base my prom dresses, etc. off of.

Grampa, he is so funny! He has always been a big tease. He loves their little Bichon Frise, Breezy, to pieces, it is so cute! She is totally spoiled. When they were here today, he had a Reese Cup and she just sat there looking at him, begging with her eyes and he talked to her and she just knew exactly what he was saying (I think she got a little of the peanut butter lol). They are so adorable how they communicate! She just turns her head and yips, "talking back" sometimes. Anyways....

I could go on and on, but I would be here forever. Thanks for stopping by and as always, if you have something YOU are Thankful for, please link up!

JAM's First Giveaway!

My lovely friend JAM is hosting her very first giveaway in celebration of her more than 100 followers!
She is giving away this SWEET necklace:

Head over to her blog to enter. You have until April 14th at 11:59 pm PST. Go on, git!