Okay, my friday raviolis.  Here is a cute video re-do of the Iron Man movie trailer featuring the creator's baby girl. I know the Aurora raviolis will enjoy this one. 

Let's all send safe prayers to the raviolis who are traveling by air today to return home to New York. We are so excited to have them back home with all of us. Love to all my raviolis, wherever they are.  Grandma-ma

Meet Cloud - Kung Fu Bear

Everyone loves Kung Fu Bear.  He lives at the Hiroshima zoo and his name is Cloud.  He likes to play with this large stick and has learned to spin in like a Kung Fu fighter.  Grandma-ma thinks he is very sweet and very talented in the Kung Fu arts.

Let's watch Cloud do some Kung Fu fighting.  Love to all my raviolis.  Grandma-ma

Word of the week Wednesday

Hello my "wordy" raviolis. It's word of the week Wednesday and today's word is:

"treasure"

Grandma-ma received a package from Canada yesterday and inside was a pretty box and a card from a blog friend of grandma-ma's.  The card said thank you to grandma-ma for sending her a surprise package from my other blog.  She liked what I sent so much that she wanted to send me some "treasure" too.  Let's see what she sent.

A pretty box that says New York on it and a lovely thank you card.

Inside were so many things.  This truly is a "treasure" box.  Below are some of my favorite things in the "treasure" box. 

 A pair of pretty bird magnets for my refrigerator.

A pretty necklace of a Japanese wood cut print of a fish.

A stack full of gift tags so I can send "treasure" to other people.

Finding "treasure" is a lot of fun.  So let's use the word "treasure" in three sentences today.  Here is grandma-ma's first sentence:

My raviolis are grandma-ma's greatest treasure.  Hugs and kisses to you all. Grandma-ma

My Peeps

Good morning, my raviolis.  Well, the "peeps" are here.  Momma Robin has kept the pretty blue eggs nice and warm and sometime in the last few days they hatched and we now have two baby robins demanding fat crickets and juicy worms.

Momma Robin is looking at me.  She is always worred that I may disturb here babies.  She knows that I would never do that.  Grampy and I do not sit out on the deck now because she gets nervous.  We will have to wait a few more weeks before we can enjoy the deck.

Look closely.   Can you see the little "peep" with its mouth open?  It is a hungry baby and waiting for a fresh worm from Momma.  They peeps are lucky to have a good mommy to take care of them.  I know you are very happy that you have a good mommy to take care of you too.  Hugs and kisses grandma-ma.

Word of the Week Wednesday

Hello my word of the week raviolis. Today's word is a big one.  It is:

"furminator"

What is a furminator you say?  Well, a furminator is a special brushing comb that removes the excess shedding hair from your pet. 

While Aunt Renee is on business travel, I take care of her "pudds" as the kitties are known at the house.  Miss Peaches loves to be Furminated, especially in the summer time when it is hot and sticky.  She will sit on the tile floor in the kitchen and allow me to brush her. She will purr so loudly that she will sound like a buzz saw. I furminated her last evening and combed a bag full of angel soft fur from her and she purred and purred.

Miss Peaches before she was furminated.

Now this will be a difficult word to put into three sentences, but have fun with it and they will pop right out of your mouth.  Here is grandma-ma first sentence:

If you don't keep your hair clean, neat and combed, I'm going to take the furminator to you.

Love to all my Wednesday raviolis.  Grandma-ma

The house began to pitch, the kitchen to slitch

No, we didn't have a twister or a wicked witch flying around on a broom with a flying monkey.

What grandma-ma and grampy had was a big thunder and lightning storm and the winds shook the trees so hard that the big tree in the front yard broke in half and fell on our roof.

Missed our windows and the neighbor's house by inches.

What a mess.

Two big limbs came crashing down.  We hope we can save the tree.

Grampy and I are very busy trying to find a tree service that will take care of this for us now.  Once this is cleaned up we can then put the new roof on the house.  Have a wonderful day my ravs.  Grandma-ma

Guess who has a birthday today?

Grandma-ma...that' who.

Today is grandma-ma's birthday and she is 56 today.

\

I thought this was a pretty birthday cake.  I love the bright colors, don't you.

If you put 56 candles on my cake and light it, I think this is what will happen. 

Love to all my raviolis and remember grandma-ma loves 56 times more then ever!

Meet Zaxby

Good morning my friday raviolis.  I want you to meet a friend of Aunt Renee's.    She eats her lunch in the park near where she works several times a week.  Aunt Renee says it is a beautiful park and sooooo peaceful.  She loves it.  Yesterday, she was having a Zaxby's salad and when she opened her salad box she saw that it came with two large hunks of Texas toast.  So Aunt Renee decided to give her Texas Toast to the critters at the park.  She tossed all of the toast out on the grass near the edge of the woods.  About 20 minutes later, a big, fat squirrel comes running out of the woods, grabbed the bread and ran up a tree. Aunt Renee watched him nibble the entire thing.

If you look carefully at the picture you can see "Zaxby" the fat squirrel with a big piece of toast in his hands nibbling away.  Click on the picture as it will enlarge so you can see Zaxby eating his lunch.

Aunt Renee said that he was a very happy squirrel and would probably fall into a nice, carbo snooze after eating all of that bread.  I hope Aunt Renee takes more pictures of the critters at her park. Don't you?  Have a wonderful day my ravs. Grandma-ma 

Daddy's Home

Good morning my ravioilis.  Great news.  Daddy's home!  Yes, he is back in Italy with Kerry and the Italian raviolis and there are lots of hugs and kisses and love being passed around.  Jason has returned from Afghanistan and will soon be returning with his family to New York where they will be stateside for a few years.

Whoo hooooo!  That means visits will be coming for everyone.  Grandma-ma cannot wait until the Aurora raviolis meet up with the New York raviolis.  What fun.  Hugs and kisses to everyone and thank you heavenly Father for returning Jason home safely to the loving arms of his family and family members scattered all over the world. Grandma-ma

Momma on her nest

Good Morning, my Monday raviolis. Earlier this week I shared with you the next building that has been going on around our deck area.  Well, momma Robin finally laid some eggs and now she is busy sitting on her nest keeping those eggs nice and warm.

Can you see her high up in her nest?

Here is a closer picture of her.  Why she chose such a busy part of our deck to place her nest makes me wonder?  Every time we walk outside she leaves the nest and sits on the deck edge until she feels we will not harm her.  She is not frightened of us, but she is cautious.

Momma sitting on the edge of the deck until she is comfortable that we will not hurt her eggs.  Grandma-ma sat and read on the deck yesterday and the Robin was sitting on her nest so I think we may get some hatching soon.  When the eggs hatch I will take pictures of the hungry babies for you.  Have a wonderful Monday my happy ravs. Grandma-ma

Guess who has a birthday today?

We have a birthday today and I bet our 4-cheese ravioli knows whose birthday today is.    Why it is Grandpa in New York.  Grandpa Ed Smith is married to Grandma Lynn and they are Kerry Waynes parents which makes Kaitlyn his granddaugther. 

Grandpa has spent many years with the fire department so we want to celebarate with special cakes. 

I like this cake of a burning building with all of the fireman working hard.

This is a nifty cake of a firetruck.

Doesn't this look like a real helmet?  Well it is a cake.

Let's wish Grandpa Ed a very happy birthday.  You can leave him a comment on this post and he can read it later.  Love to all. Grandma-ma

Can you see it?

Can you see what grandma-ma saw when she pulled into her parking lot this morning.  Look very, very closely.  Can you see them?

Look between the two big trees, you will see two white.....

DUCKS!

Yes,  a pair of white, domesticated ducks found a nice patch of dewey grass to sit in and watch the rest of us pull into work.

These are happy ducks but then I would be happy if I could sit in the nice cool, morning grass and watch everyone else go to work to. 

Have a wonderful day my ducky raviolies.  Love Grandma-ma

Word of the week Wednesday

Hello my raviolis.  It's word of the week wednesday and today's word is a word that will make you hold your nose.  It is

"stinky"

Yes, "stinky" is the word of the week because this week a foul-smelling, aptly named "corpse flower" at Western Illinois University has bloomed, releasing a powerful and stinky aroma of rotting meat. 

The flower is a rare example of the Indonesian Titan Arum plant. It evolved its horrendous odor to attract carrion beetles and flesh flies, which normally feed on rotting flesh.  It also attracts the sweat bees in the jungle who cross pollinate the flower.

This is a huge flower and they say the smell from this plant is so stinky that it is hard to get close.  Below is a video of this big, stinky plant in its natural habitat.

  So today you must use the word "stinky" in three sentences.  Here is grandma-ma's first sentence, "I'm glad that the flowers I grow are not stinky".

Love to you all my stinky little raviolis.  Grandma-ma  (nah, you're not really stinky)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Anyone?

Hello my raviolis.  Today, grandma-ma is feeling very grilled cheesy.  Sometimes, you just feel like eating a certain food and today I'm wanting a nice grilled cheese sandwich.

Now, doesn't that look tasty?  Hot, melted cheese on fresh bread. 

Grandma-ma likes to use marble rye bread when she makes her grilled cheese sandwiches.

I like the taste but I mostly like the swirlyy colors of dark brown to light white.  I think it makes a pretty grilled cheese sandwich.

Did you know that Jason and Aaron used to make Micro-wave grilled cheese sandwiches?  When we lived in Reno, Nevada, a neighbor boy showed them how to make micro-wave grilled cheese sandwiches. If I remember correctly, you toast two pieces of bread, put a little butter on each slice and then put cheese between the two slices and microwave for about 30 seconds.  There, you have a quick grilled cheese sandwich.

Have a wonderful day my raviolis and a special shout out to the 4-cheese ravioli in Vicenza who is waiting for her daddy to come home.  Hugs and kisses to all of you. 

Digitial Hamster

Hello my raviolis.  Grandma-ma came across this cute digital hamster and thought you might like to play with him or her.  The hamster likes to run on his wheel and drink water from the water spout but if you click anywhere on the picture it will drop a food pellet and the hamster will leave the wheel to eat it. 

Isn't he cute?  If you want him to get back ont he wheel, you click the center of the wheel and off he runs again.  Have fun feeding your digtial hamster and making him run. 

Grandma-ma likes hamsters and when Jason and Aaron were very little, we used to go to this silly little webpage called Hamster Dance. 

It was a single page of dancing hamsters to the theme from Robin Hood.  We loved it.

Love to you all, Grandma-ma

What is all this mess?

What is this mess? 

Where did all of this straw and twigs and Kota fur and pieces of thread come from? Why is it all over my deck?  Can you guess?  Do you know what brought this mess to grandma-ma's desk?  Why, it isn't a mess at all.  It's .....

a bird nest, tucked under a warm outdoor lamp an a rain gutter.  Grandma-ma should have know that some Robins were looking to build a nest.  Early, this week when grandma-ma came home for lunch there was a bird flying around the house.  Grandma-ma had to open the screen door all of the way to let the frightened bird out.  Grandma-ma also noticed that in her beak (it was a female robin) were tufts of Kota's fur.  Birds like to use animal hair to line their nests to keep their babies toasty and warm.  This momma robin probably saw some of Kota's fur along the edge of the door way and hopped over to get some and found her way inside of the house by mistake.  So now she and her mate have been very busy building a nest.  When they start sitting on the nest and when the baby peeps arrive, I will try and get more pictures for you.

Kota will have to stay inside while the babies are hatched because the birds will nose dive him like a bombadier.  For now, though, he can still go out and play.  Wishing you a happy Saturday my raviolis.  Grandma-ma