March 31 is Ritzywife's birthday....... I spent the day getting up late. going to Lowe's to purchase ceramic tiles for my kitchen countertops and eating dinner at my niece's house after church.
She called earlier just as I was beginning to assemble pizzas for supper and told me to STOP!  She then told me that she was having enchiladas and cake and ice cream for me at her house after church.  We all had a good time visiting and watching the kiddos play.
I am waiting on my new sink and faucet to arrive so I can start laying the tiles in the kitchen.
It has been really nice weather in Oklahoma this week.  Sure has been windy tho.  Didn't know if the warmer weather was ever going to get here.  I hope it is here to stay............
I sure am tempted to plant some flowers, but am holding off for that last frost of the season.    The potatoes and onions are growing good in the garden.  I sure hope they don't get "bit". 
Will be planting some beans, tomatoes, okra and cucumbers as soon as the frost danger passes.
I am in the process of hanging new blinds in the windows.  I have always had mini blinds, but last fall I ordered 2-in blinds that look like wood.  Have the ones in the kitchen finished.  Still have to hang blinds  in the dining room, living room, utility room and bath room.
Ritzy informed me that this was "my" project and he was staying out of it, hahaha!!!!
Not much else going on around here.......I am also waiting for the water to warm up so I can go fishing for crappie.  Unless we get a lot of rain that will raise the lake so that I am unable to get to the fishing spot, I should start in a couple of weeks, if the temps stay as warm as they have been.  But we all know how quickly that can change around here.
Ritzywife is out for now................

Well, Spring started out strange.  It started with a Winter Storm that gave us 8 or more inches of snow and temps in the 30's and wind chill in the teens.  I was going to upload a picture but our internet has been so slow the past couple of weeks.  It was 70 degrees the day before the storm and 70 degrees a couple of days after. 
About the internet, I am so disgusted with our satellite service.  They say that if a customer uses more bandwith than their plan allows , they will slow you down.  The son and I were trying to figure out what in the world we had done to exceed our limits.  It does no good to call cause they will always say it is something we done.  I believe this is only a way to rip us off and not provide our service.  We pay for  the highest plan available and it is supposed to be very hard to exceed your limits.  Anyways, I am ticked off.  I am thinking about going with mobile broadband with my cellular company. 
Last week one of my nephews and his wife had their first baby, a little girl.  This is my youngest sister's grandbaby.  It is now official.  My two sisters and brother are grand-parents, and Ritzy and I are still waiting.........
I have been making some deer jerky in between baking all that bread.  It turned out pretty good, so I hear.  (Would post a picture of that if the internet was normal.)  I just loaded both dehydrators and am waiting on more to be done. 
I have been hungry for tamales.  I have made them once before.  They require a little work but they are certainly worth it.  I bought the ingredients to make them last night, so in the next few days we will have homemade tamales for dinner. YUMMMMMY!!!!
We have potatoes and onions planted in the garden.  I just hope it stays dry enough to plant the rest.  This week looks wet tho. 
After all that snow melting, the yard is a big waterhole.  We live at the bottom of a little hill, and get all the runoff. 
It is hard to believe that next Wednesday, I will be 51.  Don't have anything planned, yet.  May tell Ritzy that I am not going to cook on my birthday and if he wants to eat, it will be out.....hahaha!!!!
That's about all I have for now..................Ritzywife out..........................
                     

Ritzywife's kitchen has been pretty busy this past week.  My sourdough starter finally got to the point where I could start baking with it.  I  cooked sourdough bread and pancakes.  The pancakes  were wonderful.  We have already finished 2 loaves of bread.  Also in the picture is a loaf of Norwegian Rye Bread.  I have always been "afraid" to try bagels and english muffins, but as you can see I have "conquered" that fear as of today.  The family loved them.........which is a big deal to Ritzywife.
Made plain bagels and blueberry bagels.  I have always loved baking bread.  Ritzy asked tonite when I was going to stop, and I told him to shhhh, haha!!!!  He better take it while he can get it.......
Before baking all of this I was researching anything and everything on the internet to learn all I could.  My poor brain was about to go on "overload".  I finally just picked a recipe for each one of these baked goods and said, Here we go.........surprisingly everything turned out great the first time.  Hope I can keep up the sucess........
The daughter has also been asking for dehydrated apples, so, as you can see I did that also.  I dehydrated some bananas while I had the dehydrator going.  I will be making some deer jerky this week.  Who knows what I will come up with next.......
This is the eve before Daylight Savings starts.  I always hate losing that hour.  It seems like it takes forever to adjust to the time change.  I do like that extra daylight in the evening tho.  
Ritzywife is out.......................hopefully to get rested up for tomorrow after losing that hour of sleep.

Today started out well enough I guess. While we were eating lunch at Granny's the phone rang and it was my mom's youngest sister (my aunt) calling to say that another aunt, my mom's brother's wife, was not doing well at all.
Last October she found out she had cancer.  They immediately started treating her.  Only 5 months later and she is gone.....
I told Mom I would go to the hospital with her.  We got there and there were a few people gathered around.  After only 2 1/2 hours of watching her labor to breath .....the breathing stopped....it just stopped...
During this time I observed how different people handle.......death..........Some refuse to accept it, some can't believe it will ever happen to their loved ones, and others know it is just a part of life.
As for myself, it's hard to explain.  I usually don't show much emotion at the time, but later grieve in my own way.  I have always been this way and always thought there was something wrong with me.  I don't believe that anymore, though.  What I beleive is that each person knows how they can best deal with the situation and they act accordingly.
It was hard watching my cousin (her daughter) and uncle (her husband) watch their mother and wife slip away.  Although she is not here physically, she will always be here in our hearts.  She is in a place now where there is no more pain or sadness.  she is home.........
I will always remember how the room lit up when she walked in.  She was always happy and showed it.  She always kidded my uncle and gave him a hard time in fun.  You could not help but smile and be happy with her around.  She could always find something to laugh about.  Somehow, I think the way  a person survives this life without losing their mind is finding something to laugh about, even if it is yourself.  God gave us laughter for a reason.........and he gave us tears for a reason.......to grieve.
We will all miss her and grieve for her, but the best thing we can all do for our families and loved ones is make sure we are ready to go when the time comes.
After watching others tell her good-bye, Ritzywife walked over and gave her a kiss on the hand, told her I loved her, and thanked God for the pleasure of being her neice.
With that, Ritzywife is out.......................

Has anyone been watching the Olympics.  When they first started, I wasn't much interested, but now I am watching every night.  Watched the ladies figure skating tonite and they put on quite a show.  Ritzy went to bed and I just stayed in the living room to watch the sports.  (Hey, isn't that supposed to be the other way around, anyways....)
 I was about ready to go to bed  after watching tv  and realized the son needed something fixed to go with the chicken for his lunch tomorrow.  So.......here I am in my kitchen cooking Rice-A-Roni at 11:30pm.  Nobody but a Mom would understand.....
Now, here I am thinking and writing...........a dangerous combo....
Ritzy said he is soooooo tired of this cold weather.  A couple of weeks ago I would have said I want more cold and snow, but after the kind-of decent weather we have had I am ready for Spring!!!!!!!
Starting to think about the garden and what to plant.  It's gonna have to stop raining or we will have to "mud" everything in ;-)
I love planting and watching things grow.  I hope we have a good growing season.  Last year it took forever to warm up enough for the plants to grow.  Hoping it's not that way again.  Hard to believe in just a few weeks it will be time to start mowing the grass. 
The whole crew is in bed right now (which is where I should be)  but ever since Ritzy was on his deployment in 2007-2008 my sleeping pattern has gone haywire.  You would think that after Ritzy's being back for a little more than a year things would be back to normal, but nooooooo.   he still goes to bed way earlier than I do, & he has a hard time falling to sleep too.  Hope I don't wake him when I go in there in a little while. 
 I have plenty to do tomorrow so I should be in there resting. 
I visited my neice  and her kids today.  The oldest ( her son) was at school, but the three girls were at home.  The baby ( who is 5 months old)  was crying and I couldn't take it so I got her out of her swing.  Well, her older sister who is a little over a year old thought I needed to be holding her to.  I sure had a lapful.  But they are so cute I couldn't turn them down.  After a little while the baby's mama fed her and I put the other one to sleep.
The 4 year old was seeing how much trouble she could get into.  I gotta hand it to her,  she is doing a great job.  this is the same neice who had brain surgery and delivered a baby on the same day last September. She  is now finished with her radiation but still taking her cancer drugs once a month.  I keep her and her family always in my prayers!!!!!!!!

Ritzywife is out......................................

I don't quite know what to think....  Today after lunch at Mom & Dad's, Ritzy came up to me and asked if I noticed anything different.  I looked at him wondering what the heck he was talking about, then he showed me his left hand.  His wedding ring was gone.  I just got this sad/mad look on my face and couldn't say anything. He said he was afraid to tell me last night and that he was waiting till I was in a "good" mood. ( What is that supposed to mean - that Ritzywife is moody????) He explained that it must have come off while he was cutting wood yesterday.  He always wears gloves and it must have come off with the glove sometime during the day.  He said he already looked in his truck, and in the gloves.  We even drove to where he was cutting to see if we could see it, all the while knowing it was a long shot.
You see, Ritzy lost his original ring after having it for only about a year, while mixing concrete for my parent's sidewalk.  I let that go for a while and bought him another one, after a little while he lost that one too.  It had been a while and last Christmas (2008) after he returned from Iraq I bought him another one.  Well, he had this one for 13 months I recon.  What does a girl do, keep buying or just say to heck with it.  I told him I was going to make him have one tatooed on his finger, or put it thru his nose,,,,,, ouch ;-)
You might say "Buy a smaller one"   but I can't because he needs the size I get to get it on his finger.  It makes me sad, but I will get over it.
On to other things, I tried to take a nap this afternoon, but Ritzy and the son saw to it that didn't happen.  Every time I would start to doze off, one of them would come in the kitchen or living room and make just enough noise to wake me.  I was not a happy camper.  I have since gotten over that too.....
I sit here waiting on more snow, YIPPEE!
Ritzywife is out for now............................

That's what I am.  My neice had a follow-up appointment to discuss her latest MRI today and the Dr. told her he was very impressed with what he saw.  No tumor growth. It will take a while for all the swelling to go down from her sugery and radiation and she will keep getting MRI's taken every couple of months.  I am so thankful for her and her family.  She is always in my prayers.
I had a Dr.'s appointment  today also.  My yearly exam.  Everything went well and for that I am thankful  also ...and the fact that it will be another year before I have to go thru it again, haha!!
I hear we are supposed to be getting some more winter weather in the coming days and weeks.  Ritzy was telling me this evening that he was disgusted with all the winter weather we have had so far. (16 inches of snow)  He has not been able to cut wood since before Christmas, and has people waiting to buy wood.  Looks like it will be a while before we dry out in this part of Oklahoma. 
Everyone (those young adults)  waited til tonight to do their laundry and I am up to make sure the last load gets in the dryer. 
One of my nephews' and his wife are expecting their first child in about 3 weeks.  My youngest sister (the grandmother) can't hardly wait.  When that baby is born I (the oldest of 4) will be the only one with NO grandchildren.  C'mon kids....get with it!!!!
Like I have said before, they aren't even close........
That's about all I have for now.......Ritzywife out..........