Day 2 and 3 of my NJ trip

Day 2: Megan and I slept in a little bit, I guess because of the long drive the day before. Then we went to visit my niece, Devyn at the little place she works at called the Sprinkle Shack. Cute name! We had some breakfast there. Drove back to Mom and Dad's visited with my sister, Sue for a bit. She stopped by my parents and had breakfast with Megan and I. Then Megan and I left for Sarah's and Sally's house. Well really Sally's house-she is my best friend in NJ. Sarah is Sally's daughter, who happened to be visiting with her 4 month old son-they live in Texas now. The baby (Zachary) is soooooo cute! Megan and I had lunch at Sally's house. 2 other school friends joined us and one of the girls mothers did too! What a lovely reunion we all had! Then I came back to my Mom's. Dad, Mom and I had dinner together and then Mom and I went to the VanHeusen Store. I love the fact that NJ doesn't have sales tax on clothes!!


Here is my Dad on his 87 yr. old Fordson Tractor. He was so happy he got it started. He has taken quite a few years to restore it, but it looks gorgeous and he had so much fun driving it!


Here is a little closer view of it.


After Dad got done driving the tractor around he parked it just down from his barn. You can just see it from the road. He had it in the pasture before but the cows wouldn't leave it alone. They would lick it and they tried to eat some of it. I think it is safer just where it is!


Dad's 3 steer where delivered the morning after we arrived in NJ-perfect timing! I named them Racetrack around the eyeballs, Minnie and Howard. My Dad just laughed at the names! I think he will keep them though. They don't usually name them but this year he made an exception.



Here is little Minnie standing in the holding pen. She is so cute. She has such large eyes and curly eyelashes! When Dad let the 3 steer out of the holding pen they ran and kicked up their heels-it was a sight to behold!


Here's Megan with Zachary! What a good baby-he only cried once and it really was just a whimper-he was hungry.


This is Sarah, Zachary and Me. We had a wonderful, wonderful visit!

Day 3:

I woke up early and chatted with Mom and Dad for just a bit and then headed to Lafayette, NJ (which is only 12 mins. from my parents house) to have breakfast at the Millside Cafe with my neighbors that live in Branchville, NJ.


NJ has had alot of rain this Spring. This is the stream along side the Millside Cafe. I forgot to take a picture of the Cafe, but it is an old General Store. Really neat!


Sweet Peas Antiques store is one of my favorite shops. They have really pretty antiques, always a beautiful collection of things.


This is the Lafayette Antique Mill. It is a group of many vendors in an old lumber and coal store. I love walking around there-the floor boards creak as you go from room to room and there are many treasures there too!


There is a store called The Chocolate Goat next door to the Millside Cafe and this is the statue the owner had carved out of wood-a goat connected to a cart!



The stream runs along side an antique shop on the other side of the street.

That's it for Day 2 and 3-hope you enjoyed the trip!

Day One of my NJ trip

Hi Everyone! I finally got all my NJ trip pictures downloaded from my camera. I will share Day One with you.





Why are they always working on the roads in Pennsylvania and NJ? Well here they are working on the roads in Warren County, NJ.


I love this Christmas tree farm in Warren County, NJ. Everyone thinks NJ is like Newark or Jersey City, well where I grew up it looked like this!

There are some beautiful old barns in both Warren and Sussex County, NJ. Here are a few Megan and I passed.










Sussex County has alot of really rich soil, so the farming is great! This field is all plowed and ready to go!


Megan and I knew we only had about 30 mins. to go to get to my parents house once we hit the Welcome to Sussex County sign! YAY-12 hours in the car was definitely long enough!!


We were greeted by the lovely cows in this field! The grass is so green and lush. What a beautiful sight to behold!


Here is Mom and Dad's driveway! It was so good to be driving up to the house-we had enough of the car!




This is what you see when you look down the lower part of Mom and Dad's driveway.


This is a small section of Mom and Dad's backyard. Wouldn't you like to wake up to this every day! We would eat breakfast and look out at this!


This was another view of Mom and Dad's backyard. You can see part of my Mom's flower garden. Not much was blooming because it has been so cold up there.

Well that is it for now. Tomorrow I'll post the pics of my Dad's infamous Fordson Tractor and a little town called Lafayette, NJ. Hope you enjoyed the first day!

Sorry no pictures yet!

I know I told everyone I would have pictures on my blog a few nights ago and I started downloading them from my camera. I found out I had 168 pictures on there!! Holy Cow!! I have been editing them and getting them ready for my blog. I am pretty sure I will have them all done and start putting them on here Friday night. Life just has a way of getting in the way! Thanks for your patience!!

Hi Everyone-I'm Back from NJ!!

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know I returned from NJ safe and sound. I had a wonderful trip and tonight I will post some pictures of my NJ adventures! The trip was too short as usual, but there is always next time! I saw alot of people, did alot of things for such a short period of time and spent some quality time with Megan! Talk to y'all later! It is good to be home!

Mother's Day and Miscellaneous Things

What a wonderful Mother's Day I had! I woke up a little later than usual, let Teddy out and then I had a cup of tea and watched HGTV for a little while. John then woke up and I made us a tomato, muenster cheese, basil (from my garden) omelet with sausage patties. It was so good! (John doesn't make really good omelets so I told him I would make them) I then proceeded to take a nap! Then John and I headed over to Megan and Ken's. Jenny and Kevin arrived shortly after we did. We had a lovely dinner that Megan and Ken made. Ken smoked 2 briskets (which were from my Dad's steer) and they were awesome!! Megan made this special macaroni salad with chicken in it, Ken made cucumber salad and we had rolls. Jenny made one of those huge cupcakes. She made it like a little house with a squirrel and hedgehog along the 2 sides-very cute! Jenny and Kevin gave me some cash for the trip North and Ken and Megan gave John and I (it was a Mother's Day/Father's Day gift) a year membership to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden!! The day started out kind of chilly here (it was 58 degrees) and then it warmed up to a no humidity 69-70 degrees-it was absolutely gorgeous! After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed the lovely weather. Megan and Ken have really been working on their garden in the back and their herbs around the patio are huge! The lavendar and rosemary especially. Right before John woke up in the morning I went outside to water the plants in the courtyard and I found another tree frog just like Fernando but smaller. Maybe Fernando has a sweetie!! She has 2 gold dots on her lower back which glitters in the sunlight. Such interesting little creatures! Here are some pictures of my day-enjoy!


These are the flowers I woke up to from John. He also gave me a Mother's Day card.


The girls and I at Megan and Ken's house (Jenny, myself and Megan)


Here is a picture of the delicious brisket Ken smoked in his smoker. It was so tender it just fell apart when you touched it! Wonderful!


I ordered this really cute pink and polka dot tea cup garden stake from my friend Donna. She has an etsy site-check it out http://www.etsy.com/shop/whimsytwo. Donna also has a blog, here is her link: http://donnas-art.blogspot.com/ Donna is such a talented artist. She will also paint your pet and she does a beautiful job! Thanks Donna!


Fernando's little friend hiding in my daylilies.




Fernando's little friend hopped from my daylilies to the gardenia plant to the back of the patio chair. She is hanging on for dear life-I love the toes!


Last but not least, here is the view I have from my reading chair with the new configuration of the living room! It is absolutely wonderful looking out into the courtyard and see my roses and other flowers!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Even if you aren't a mother in the true sense, everyone has mothered someone along the way. We mother our dogs, cats, bird, nieces, nephews, etc., etc. This Mother's Day I will be spending the afternoon with my two girls and their husbands. Should be a wonderful time and I'm really looking forward to it! Megan and Jenny you are great kids and I'm really glad we will be together for Mother's Day! Love you two!!

TGIF is an under statement!!!!!

This week really needs to come to a close and in a big way!! One of the project mgrs. that I have worked with since I came here was let go on Tuesday. At first I thought he was kidding but then I could see he wasn't. I knew sooner or later someone else would have to be let go, but I was surprised management decided to do it when he was starting to build another CVS store and was in the middle of a big project at a nuclear power plant. Now my 2 favorite project mgrs. are taking these projects! It will be good to work with them on these projects. I will be working more also to get everything done.

Next Thursday Megan and I are leaving for NJ at 4 a.m.! We will arrive at my parents around 3:30 p.m. if the trip goes smoothly. I can't wait to get a break from work and just get away period! My Mom said she will be making a cherry pie for Megan and I because our husbands and Jenny, my other daughter doesn't like cherry pie. Thanks Mom!! I will be visiting another couple that we used to live across the street from when we lived in Branchville, NJ. Mike and Heidi are wonderful friends, they are always so happy, helpful and I really miss them as neighbors! They have been here to visit us and I have stopped by to say hello every time I go to NJ. We have alot of catching up to do. Then Megan and I will also be visiting our other friends that lived down the road from our farm. Their daughter, Sarah, who was like another daughter will be visiting from Texas with her baby boy that we haven't seen yet! YAY!

Alot going on, looking forward to things coming up and enjoying Mother's Day with my husband, my girls and my girls husbands-life doesn't get any better than this!! Everyone have a wonderful day!