Amazon Rocks

Amazon announced yesterday that they are dropping the price of the Kindle by $40. I wondered if they had any sort of policy like many other places do that if the price drops within a certain period of time you could get a refund. I went to my Kindle site and found several discussions regarding the price drop and it seemed as though if you contacted Amazon with 30 days of the item being shipped they would refund the money. My Kindle shipped on 4/30/08, so I knew I was right on the edge, so I didn't want to mess around! I called Customer Service and spoke with a lovely woman named Kate and within two minutes she confirmed that we would receive a $40 credit on our next credit card statement. Amazon rocks!

(So does Blogger, by the way....my electricity went off for two hours just as I was finishing this post, and I hadn't saved it. Good 'ole Blogger and its autosave feature saved the day...I was dreading the thought of having to re-do this post, and here it was all here ready and waiting for me to finish! Woo-hoo! I know, I'm pathetic!!)

Iced Tea

Many of us have those wonderful iced tea brewing machines; for years, that was what I used to make my iced tea. Lipton came out with a much easier way a couple of years ago, and it's a whole lot easier than the process of brewing tea with the iced tea maker. As seen below, put cold water in a pitcher (I love my pampered chef one), add three big iced tea bags, let steep for about 10-15 minutes, take out tea bags, and there you have it....ICED TEA! I leave the tea plain, and serve lemon wedges and sweet-n-low/sugar on the side, so people can make their tea any way they choose. It's so fast and easy....anyone can do it!




Oh, and p.s....here's my new toaster oven:

On Strawberries

When you're a blogger, you look for anything and everything to blog about. Today's subject is strawberries! I'm making strawberry shortcake for dessert tonite and found these gigantic strawberries at Redner's last night. My concern with nice big looking ones is that they look delicious, but sometimes taste like nothing. These were winners on both accounts! You can see how I usually slice my strawberries, but these were soooo big they didn't fit in the egg slicer!

Miscellaneous

A group honoring Civil War veterans marks Memorial Day weekend with ceremonies at historic cemeteries throughout the Northampton area, carrying on an 88-year-old tradition. Every year, members of ''M'' Company of the Sons of Veterans Reserve of the Civil War honor the fallen soldiers by dressing in period uniforms and carrying out military drills. This group has come to our church every year since we have been members. This picture was taken this morning in our cemetery. Note the trumpet player off in the distance to the right, who played taps after the Gettysburg Address had been recited.

Just neat!

Adam's new bike

Talking Cat

Happy 74th Birthday, Nani!

Do Not.....I repeat....Do Not, enlarge the last picture...LOL!

Go David!!

Ok, so guess my 15 votes last night for David Archuleta didn't help, huh?!!?!? David Cook won 56% of the votes to David Archuleta's 44%. Oh, well, I like David Cook, too.....

Congrats David Cook, America's New Idol!

Go David!!

Before tonight's finale, I didn't really care either way which David won American Idol tomorrow night. But after watching them each sing three songs, I clearly believe David Archuleta blew David Cook away! I think Randy, Paula and Simon found him the clear winner tonight, as well.

Gotta go...have to keep calling to vote...two down, many more to go!

GO ARCHULETA!!

Happy Birthday To Me!

If you read one of my previous posts, I kind of bought my own birthday present this year....a Kindle! I have had it for about three weeks and love it! I have only bought one book at the moment, as I am trying to finish a 'real' book before I start doing my reading on the Kindle. You can read samples of books, which downloads two chapters onto the Kindle, and then at the end of the last chapter, it gives you the choice to buy the book if you want. Now what other books can you do that on?!?!? I also downloaded a trial blog subscription, which you can try free for 14 days. In addition, I downloaded Amazon's daily blog, which is free. I ended up cancelling both of them, because I found myself only reading them and was afraid I wouldn't end up reading the books on the wireless reader.

Today I was showing the Kindle to my office manager and the doc who was in the office must have been eavesdropping, because he asked me to show it to him, that he's been debating whether to get one for his wife or not!

In addition to my Kindle, I received a beautiful basket of flowers today from Kurt. I love getting flowers at work! Aren't they just beautiful?!?!?

Now off to Red Lobster for a birthday dinner with Kurt and the kids.....

Three hours later....
We no sooner sat down at Red Lobster when I looked up and saw the couple who introduced Kurt and I about 25 years ago walk in to eat with their two kids. I was like, "Kurt, there's Lynn and Al! I wonder what they are doing here?!?!" As I was saying that, I remembered that today is Lynn's birthday, too!! Here they had chosen to eat at Red Lobster to celebrate her birthday, too. I worked with Lynn in the ICU many years ago, and Kurt worked (and still works) with Al at his office. Lynn proudly tells people how she played matchmaker for several couples back in the '80's. We were one of those couples and actually survived that blind date!! Even though Kurt sees Al almost on a daily basis, I haven't seen Lynn in probably 5-6 years.

ROY G BIV

(FYI: Even more brilliant if enlarged)

Short, But Funny

The things you can catch when no one's looking:

Lazy Cat

It's a shame the stuff we have to do so the cat can relax....LOL!!

Sunset

What The Heck!

PHONE CALL THIS AFTERNOON FROM ADAM:

"Mom, you'll never guess what just happened?!?!?!"

"What happened, Adam? Are you OK???" (He's a new driver...that's the first thing that jumps into my head...something happened with him or the car...)

"Alyssa and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking about Spanish. Alyssa was heating pizza up in the toaster oven and you'll NEVER guess what happened??"

"I don't know, Adam....tell me...."

"The glass shattered on the toaster oven!!!"

WHAT THE HECK? IS MY HOUSE POSSESSED??


**I have him blog-trained well, he got a picture for me without me even telling him to...LOL!!

Random

Flowers we sponsored in church today for Adam's confirmation (We gave them to Grandma for Mother's Day)

Jen and Alyssa at church

So how many of you can touch your nose to the top of the doorway?!!?!

Affirmation of Baptism

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20 (NRSV)


Adam was confirmed today after a two year catechetical program. It is called the affirmation of baptism in the Lutheran church because he was making public affirmation the vows that were made for him at the time of his baptism. Those include living among God's faithful people, hearing his Word and sharing in his supper, proclaiming the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, and serving all people and striving for justice and peace in all the earth.

Jason, Adam and Jesus (er, I mean Richard...LOL!)

The guys (Somehow I missed the girl's pics)

Adam, Jason and Alex

Adam and Greg

The whole class with the pastors (We have professional pics coming)

Adam reading the first lesson from Acts

Pastor Barry, Adam and Pastor Elizabeth

Alyssa and Adam (Isn't he just so handsome all dressed up?!??!)

Us with Adam

The whole family

All of us with Mom

The Great Chase

Long Time

It's been a long time since one of our kids fell asleep at the table!!

I have no idea what is on the bench in the background; some Chemistry experiment Mr. Einstein is doing, he's waiting for them to evaporate.

Guesses Anyone?

Anyone care to venture a guess as to what these are? We saw them at Ye Olde Saylor's Inne on Friday night when we were there to eat.

This One's For You!

Our nephew with his new dirt bike. He is a faithful reader of my blog, so this one's for you Kieran!

Welcome Little One!

(With enthusiastic permission of the family to post this on my blog...LOL!)

Kurt's brother and his wife, Chris and Fiona, with their two kids, Kieran and Conor, recently traveled to China to adopt their new little boy, Colm (kinda pronounced Column). He lived in an orphanage for his first three years and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth. He had never walked. Prior to them finalizing the adoption, they had all his medical records sent here to America, which were reviewed by specialists in Philadelphia. Since his arrival here in the United States, they have had him examined by physicians in and near Philadelphia. I'm not certain if the diagnosis remains cerebral palsy or not. He has been fitted with braces and is going to physical therapy on a regular basis. They have high hopes that at some point, he will be able to walk. They have noticed him getting stronger day by day. He is such a pleasant boy...every time we have seen him, he has the widest smile on his face! He manages to scoot around on the floor and get somewhere faster than what I could probably do...LOL!!! He's learning to speak English very quickly, too. Congrats to the family and welcome to America and our family, Colm!

Great Wall of China

Great Wall

The boys: Kieran, Colm, Conor & Daddy, Chris

Colm & his Mummy, Fiona

Fiona's little Irish boy on St. Patty's Day :)

Kieran, Colm & Conor

What a sweet, adorable smile