Kat Bryan's Corner

Yesterday (Monday) was a day of ups and downs emotionally. To begin with, it was the one year anniversary of my sister Pam's death. It certainly doesn't seem like she's been gone that long as she's in my thoughts often. We're both night owls and she was the one who used to holler at me on Messenger late at night. Sometimes if that wasn't enough, she would say, "Can I call you?" We'd talk until one of us realized just how late it was and then reluctantly, hang up. I miss you Pam.

I don't go to town very often with the price of gas and no real need but yesterday I made the rounds. Yesterday was also my younger sister Anne's, birthday. I won't say how old but let's just say she's a little bit 'over the hill'. LOL She had taken yesterday off and was spending part of it babysitting with her twin grandsons. This gave their mom a break and her some time with the boys. I tracked her down to deliver a card, balloon and a large bag of M&Ms. I figured she could stretch the chocolate over a few days, right?

From there I went to my brother's. Larry's my computer guru and always ready to help me out. He had given me an all-in-one printer but didn't have the software. I have a VERY slow dial up internet connection so he downloaded the drivers onto my flash drive so I could install them later.(I still couldn't get it to work but that's another story.) Larry was busy helping his wife Sue are busy make some beautiful quilts. They were happy to show me what they'd been working on and the fabric choices they made are so pretty. I can't wait to see the finished products. Sue is also making one featuring Larry's barn drawings which is definitely one-of-a-kind. I suggested showing it at this year's Covered Bridge Festival Quilt Show. You can check out some of Larry and Sue's work by visiting his blog here or his website. Winterset is the home of Marrianne Fons and Liz Porter who have a quilting show on PBS, a quilting magazine, and there's a local shop that features their fabrics so quilting is really popular here.

Leaving Larry's, I stopped by Mom's. I hadn't visited with here in quite a while and she wanted me to look at her jewelry. She LOVES jewelry and had bought some nice pieces over the years. She has decided to let us girls pick out some things we like and have them now instead of 'fighting' over them later. I think that's very nice of her and so far it has worked out well. She gave me a beautiful necklace and earrings that are tanzanite and diamonds, a pair of sterling silver earrings that have a small round top with a slightly larger round drop, and 2 gorgeous CZ rings that are set in 14k gold. One of the rings has a 3 carat marquis middle stone with 4 round stones and 2 baguettes on each side. It's really beautiful. I love jewelry almost as much as Mom so I'm very happy.

By then it was time to meet my girlfriends for supper. There are 4 of us who used to bowl on the same team, Jo Ann, Nancy, Dee, and myself. Nancy is the only one still bowling but we try and get together at least once a month to catch up. These ladies are all very special to me and I hope they know it. I've known them all for years (Jo since the 60s!!). We can share so much together whether it's family news, chat about television shows, or just the latest jokes. We've been giving the local restaurants some business and it's fun to try something new. We've had pizza, Mexican, and Chinese lately and next month we're going to the Country Club. Meals sometimes stretch into 3-hour gabfests which my hubby just doesn't understand, but with these gals it's easy. I'm looking forward to next month already.

************************************************************************************
I got another win notice today. I won a sweatshirt from "Win with Loacker's All Natural Products" sweeps. I even got to choose the size which is a big plus. Usually with clothing wins they just send whatever and it doesn't fit.

*************************************************************************************
Jim does all the shopping for us (another LONG story) and last night he brought home a 10# roll of ground beef. This was a great buy at only $1.79/lb. I spent a few minutes today dividing it up into 1# packages and I made some into quarter pound patties. I froze it all in quart-size baggies which I'll put into larger freezer bags after it's frozen and I put wax paper between the individual patties so it will be easy to use them later. I bought a cast iron grill pan a few weeks ago and it works great for burgers.