Has it been that long?

Mama mentioned that I hadn't put anything new on my blog and when I looked, I said, OMG, has it been that long?

So let's catch up....

My three "grandchildren" are healthy and growing quickly - Jackson is now 2, Molly Kathryn is 7 months old and Isabella is 4 months old. There is a new grand-baby in the making - Stella Reese Stoehr is expected September 9th or there abouts. So I have been working away on baby things for all my beautiful grand-babies!

February, first, I got my new car for the next 3 years - Town & Country van with a bunch of bells and whistles (2 DVD players, Bluetooth, Navigation system, etc). Tim and I drove it when we went to Hilton Head to visit with Mother and Tina and Mary-Ruth and Peter were there one day with us also. Tina had brought her Wii so I got to try it out and now I have one of my own which I use at least 3 times a week.

March we flew down to Florida for a long weekend to celebrate Mike 's (Tim's Brother) 60th birthday but the afternoon we arrived, he went into the hospital with a possible heart attack so we had to party without him. Luckily no heart attack, but some blockage so he had to have a stint inserted. Doing fine now.

Kathy (Tim's sister) and her hubbie David came up the end of March for the DC tour at the perfect time for the cherry blossoms. It was great to visit.

The end of March and early April were taken up with activities for the Ladies 9 Holers - I'm now the Treasurer as well as the secretary. I played duplicate bridge 3 times with my friend Rosemary and been playing Mah Jongg just about every week.

May has started out busy as well. I'm on the Social committee at the Country Club - and we are starting a Ladies social group called the LILIES - Ladies Involved with Like Interests, Efforts, and Specialties - I worked really hard for that acronym! So I have been working very hard on getting that started (I was named the Committee chair) - getting a list of topics for the gatherings (I don't want to call them meetings) and then finding speakers or experts to talk about the topics. Our first gathering is June 22nd!

Lastly, on the catchup scene, I went to the doctor about my back again, and I have been sent to the Pain Management specialist. Next week I will be starting some special injections into my back to try to relieve the near constant pain in my back. Keep your fingers crossed for me and a few prayers might help.

Needless to say, I have been reading all along, and currently have read 42 books for 2011. If you are interested in what I read, check out my book blog at Cheli's Shelves.

I'll try to do better from now on keeping up with what's happening.

What else do I do?

I had a friend come back into my life after she had been out of the country for several years. We were trying to catch up on what we had been doing, and she asked me what else I had been doing other than reading (most of my blogging activity takes place on my book blog Chèli's Shelves.) I had to think for a minute but then started the whole list of activities.

1) I have 3 different groups of ladies that I play MahJongg with - the Tuesday night group plays twice a month, the Wednesday night group plays once a month and a Monday afternoon group plays twice a month.

2)I have three different groups that I play bridge with - Friday night group plays twice a month, Wednesday night group I sub in, and the Sunday afternoon group (I am the coordinator) plays twice a month at the Country Club. If the club is busy on the days we are to play, then Tim and I host at our house. We've been trying to grow this group so we've actually been teaching bridge and I have been developing little training manuals for the beginners.

3) I am also a member of the Ladies 9 Holers at Montgomery CC. Tim signed me up 2 years ago, and though I don't play well or often, I really enjoy the ladies there. I was elected Secretary of the group last year and also serve as the Invitational Chairman. We are holding an invitational in July so I am busy with Budgets and menu planning and door prizes and sponsorships. It's nice to know that I can still organize events.

4) Tim and I belong to the Montgomery CC Wine Club where we get together once a month and have an event - dinner or wine tastings - and I have been working with the event coordinator to come up with new ideas for our events.

Those are my outside activities - (and Tim was worried that when I retired I wouldn't get out of the house!).

All these activities leave me little time to concentrate on my village and my needlework when I add in my reading. But I'm a happy little housewife/homemaker/retiree and that's all that counts!

Blogiversary passed by and I didn't notice!

Well, two weeks ago was the anniversary of this blog and somehow or other I was so busy that it just slipped right by me. I set up this blog to let my friends and family keep track of what I was doing and what was keeping me busy. So, I've decided that an update is in order.

Since I originally started out, I have made a design change and I hope everyone likes the look. So on to the update.

1) My diet has been placed on hold. (I joke about having given it up for Lent) I'm having a bit of stress related issues (will explain later on) and I need either comfort food or I'll have to go back to smoking. I figure comfort food is better.

2) My freelance job for Tim's office has been put on hold so I'm watching my pennies again. Hopefully, they will realize how valuable my services were and get me back on the payroll.

3) My golf skills have not improved (maybe because my back has flared up again and so I'm back in Physical Therapy). I still meet with the Ladies 9 holers (in fact, I was elected secretary for the group as well as the coordinator of the lady 9 holers invitationals), so I have to make sure that I get enough ladies to play at the other golf courses on the event days. This year we are hosting an Invitational, and as the event chairperson, I am delegating decoration design and goodie bag development while I handle invitations, name tags, place cards, and menu. So even though I'm not playing golf on a regular basis, I'm still involved with the group and having a great time!

4) Tim and I are still working diligently to get the Montgomery Country Club Bridge Group growing. With the new members that we recruited last year and additional members that we are finding along the way, we are now playing twice month. When the Club has events and no room for us we play at our house.

5) On the home front, last October a "friend" who had lost his job over a year ago and his home in September moved in for what was supposed to be a short period of time. However, as of this writing he is still here and driving me CRAZY! It seems that our hospitality is being stretched to the max. So here in lies my STRESS! The doctor told me that I need to have him move out, and I asked him for a prescription for that! He laughed, I was serious.

6) I'm currently in the middle of the demolition of Derry town. Tim rushed me last year and I didn't get the inventory updated so now I'm updating the photographs and inventory listing. Since that was delayed last year I put off the home inventory which I'm hoping to get done this summer working room to room updating the info on the rest of the house. Eventually I would like to burn a CD of that listing with pictures and give it to State Farm for safekeeping.While I’m working on the home inventory, I will also be working on making my will current (the last one was 15 years ago) so if anyone has something they would like to be heir to, let me know. If that’s not enough I also have the 5000+ photographs from the Bill Derry’s that I agreed to scan into my computer and burn CDs for everyone. (I haven’t forgotten.)

7) I would also like to get some work done on the two books that I am writing. The first is a novel that I started in 1993 and would like to eventually finish. The second is a children’s book that I am writing for my “grandson” Jackson. (Those that know me, also know that having had no children, it would be hard for me to have a grandson. However, when our nephew Christopher and his beautiful bride, Melanie, were expecting, Ellen (Christopher’s Mom – my sister-in-law) and Melanie’s Mom, Gloria, said that I could be Nonna – the Italian grandmother – they are sharing their grandson with me and I feel so blessed by their generosity. ) Hopefully, I will make some progress on both of these projects soon.

8) We were part of the "fortunate" area of the country that received the double blizzard in February - all tolled in less than a week we received nearly 40" of snow. Tim even had to stay home from work one day - can you believe it!

9) For my relaxation time, I have been reading and stitching. As of this day, I have read 38 books in 2010 and my goal is 120 books for the entire year. (2009 I read 162.) I have joined LIBRARYTHING (LT for short) and I have met so many nice people who share my love of reading. I have joined into a number of challenges/groups which drive the need to read those 120 books.

a) the Main Challenge is the 101020Challenge. Here each person chooses 10 categories and 10 books in each category = 100 books but I added a bonus category of 20 books for overflow.

b) Chunskter Challenge is to read 6 books of over 450 pages - this one I've already finished!

c) Supplement to the 101020 Challenge are the 75 and BOYS (Books off your Shelves) Challenges which are basically the same books.

d) The last challenge is the one that Tina (my sister) and I devised together. The US Presidents’ Challenge is to read the Biographies of all 43 Presidents before the end of the term of our current President. That gives us at least 4 years and possibly 8 to get this reading done. So far, (I’m reading in order) I finished Washington through Tyler in 2009 and I'm up to James Buchanan so far this year. (They say he's the worst but I haven't gotten that far yet.) I’ve been reading background books as well – Gold Rush, Mexican War - those kind of things so that I can get a feel for the time in history that these men occupied. Thanks to all my new friends at LT I have found so many new interests in books. I have been stretching my normal areas of reading to include history, biographies, (these are what led to the Presidents Challenge), Award Winning books/Authors (these are probably books I never would have read), non-fiction, and Classics. That doesn’t mean that I’ve given up on the old standards because I am still reading oodles of mysteries (I currently have 50 series that I follow) and I even made time for some romances this year.

10) I also have my Cross Stitch projects to do. (Molly , our niece and her husband Bryan are expecting in October and as "Nonna" I am doing the birth announcement as well as special Christmas stocking for Jackson. Lastly, I am still spending time travelling to Baltimore to visit with my Mom (she’s doing great) and I need to get working with my sister, Mary-Ruth, trying to finish up the cataloging of my Dad’s stamp collection.

So, Chèli’s Cozy Corner is very busy, but never too busy for the love of her life, TIM. This year we will be celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary and I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without this man who treats me like a princess and always, always, makes me feel loved beyond belief.

So, come in and sit down, anytime you’d like in my cozy little corner of the world. I don't post everyday, but hopefully, my postings are fun! Love to you all!

Rush of Parties

It was quiet at home today. After attending and hosting 3 Christmas parties this weekend, I needed the quiet.

Friday, Tim's office had their annual Christmas party and I had to spend the day at the office typing name tags for the expected guests. Saturday, we woke to snow falling. we got about 4 inches but that didn't stop us from hosting our Bridge group's Christmas dinner/party. If that wasn't enough, Sunday morning (after a very late night) I got up to make a Pumpkin praline cheesecake to take to the Christmas party for my ladies golf group.

I really needed a quiet day.

Busy weekend!

Tim and I had a very busy weekend.

First on Saturday, we got together at his sister's (Mary-ellen) house for a barbecue/crab feast. All the members of Tim's Maryland Terrapin tailgate group were there to kickoff the new season. We ate and drank and enjoyed each others' tales of their summer and what was in the offing. After the tailgaters left, the Derrys planned for our October trip to Myrtle Beach.

Sunday, I met Mary-ellen, John and Ellen at the Country Club for breakfast. Tim, of course, was playing golf. Later, Tim, Mary-ellen , and I played bridge at the club with 4 other couples. A busy weekend, but great fun!

A Day OFF at last!

I finally got a day off. I had everything all caught up when I left the office last night, so Tim said that I could take the entire day off. I had an appointment for my hair and nails already so I wasn't going in until 11AM so I got the afternoon too!

Good thing, because I have a book due tomorrow at the library and I have to finish it today because we have bridge tonight. Off to my reading!

Husband's idea, Wife's work

I would like to know why it is that whenever a husband (mine in particular) comes up with a "great" idea, the wife is the one that ends up doing all the work to make it come to fruition?

About a year ago, Tim said that he wanted to start a bridge group at the Country Club, so he put out the word and mentioned it to a few people and so it was born. Then he comes home and tells me about it. He has given my name and e-mail address as the contact information thus making me the one who has to e-mail and call all the people, set the schedule, work up teaching plans, etc.

So, for the past year I have been doing my best to get our little group to grow into a decent size bridge group and finally, I think that it is coming to pass. In 2008, we averaged about 4 couples for bridge once a month. In March we had 8 couples, and today we are looking at 10-11 couples and we are expanding to twice a month. Finally, all my hard work is paying off, I just wonder who will get the credit?