Monday Ramblings

I had 1 too many Cadbury Eggs this weekend. 
Not too many mind you, just 1 too many. 
How I love those eggs.
Mmmmm.....

When I was a kid my Easter basket was filled with Stefanelli's candy which was a local candy maker in my hometown who's chocolates were as close to European chocolates as I had ever had up to that point.  My basket was filled with an assortment of  chocolate bunnies, marshmellow chicks and black jelly beans.  Both of my mom's would go through the jelly bean bags and take out all the black ones for me and put them in a baggie and that was left in my Easter basket.  My sisters hated the black ones so it wasn't a big deal for them. 

One of my fondest memories about what was in my Easter basket is  driving my sister crazy with the chicks.  I would bite off the head of a yellow marshmellow chick and it would drive her up the wall wailing.  It grossed her out like it was a real chick. Think Ozzie Osbourn and his bat I guess.   It made me laugh so of course I would do it over and over again.  I started this like at age 8. I don't know why I find that funny but I do. It still creeps her out to see these marshmellow chicks and she's 51 yrs old.  

A couple of years ago when I was visiting my family up north for Easter I asked her about it.
I was holding one and I asked her if it was the eyes on the chicks that make her all creeped out.  Like real chicks they will follow you.  Which had my niece howling with laughter at this point.  My sister said some choice words and my father said, "hey hey we just got back from church and you're talking like this? what is wrong with you?"  Which of course ensures more laughter because we are old ladies now getting yelled at.  I again asked her if it was the chicks eyes as I brought it to my mouth to devour.  She just rolled her eyes at me and walked away. That made my niece and I crack up laughing again. I am so immature.

I finally finished the two walk in closets upstairs on the 3rd floor. 
(More photo's to follow this week) 
Man we have been keeping things that we didn't need to keep. 
I was so into the purge mode.  I figured if I haven't used this or that in 2 yrs it's outta here. 
We get calls quartly from some group or another asking for clothing or other things to donate. I thought we had rid ourselves of everything but apparently not. Some things just must be thrown away like old mattress covers etc.  Why do I keep them for heaven's sake? If they are not good enough to use then what makes me think I'll use them later?  I wash them and put them away in a zip bag for storage.  No need to keep them if you ask me.

My husband couldn't believe the stuff I was throwing out.  These 2 closets are both very good size walk in closets.  To not be able to enter these closets is wrong.  So now you can enter them and put your arms out and twirl without hitting anything. 
It felt so good to purge this way. 
I have a beautiful London Fog coat in there that is 4 sizes too small. 
Why do I keep it?  Why when it's time to donate to charity I can't give this up but I have no issues giving other items of clothing?  What is that saying about me?  When I began to gain this weight I put this upstairs in hopes that when they figured out why the weight came on and won't go away I'll wear it again - but will I?  This is the only piece of clothing in there that I have not purged and for the life of me I don't understand why I just can't throw it away. I know it's wrong yet I kept it.  It's a head scratcher for sure. 

Another rambling topic for today is that I am now in a planting stage. Tonight after work I hope to go to my favorite place to buy some flowers and mulch and get busy outside the front of my home. We have so much work to do on our patio that it will wait until late April early May.  Hopefully after the yellow haze is gone off the furniture and floor.  I hose it down and bam - it's all yellow from pollen the next day. So I have not put out the cushions or anything of yet.  I will wait.

Speaking of pollen - I am wheezy girl right now.  Yesterday we walked down a street that had all the cherry blossoms in their full glory it was magnificiant. It was a full block of them. (I know I could leave the burbs and go to the District to see them all in their glory as well but I didn't) 

Both Rick and I at the same time said, "Oh my God doesn't that smell wonderful?"  It smelled so sweet and it looked just as great.  But by the 3rd walk of the day with the dog I was feeling terrible.  I tried to fix that by having another Cadbury egg but that wasn't the cure but I had to find out for sure you know.  I have this head feeling like a basketball, sore throat, sinus burning, sneezing, wheezing, feeling terrible issue for awhile so I have to deal with it. But the blooming sure does look and smell wonderful no matter that I feel like crap while it's happening.

But you know what this weather does bring out for me? Kool-Aid. 
How I love Kool-Aid.  Red Kool Aid.  Not a fan of any other color unless it's Blue Raspberry.
Which is really a red color but for some reason they make it blue.  I have never seen a blue raspberry but I will drink this color. When I was a kid my mom had this strange idea that my sister and I could only have milk for a beverage.  No pop or soda, whatever you call it. 
My mom thought pop was horrible for us so we never had it in our home.  I drank milk unlike what a kid does today.  A snack?  with milk.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner, I had milk.  So in the summer she would allow us to have Kool-Aid every once in awhile.  It was pure sugar but for some reason that was okay for her. Now as an adult if I make it like the directions I find it too sweet so I think she may have only used 1/2 cup of sugar instead of the full cup. None the less that's a lot of sugar for someone who thought Pop was bad for you.  I just love red Kool-Aid and it makes my friends and hubby howl.  Yesterday I had a glass with some gin,  It was Black Cherry Kool-Aid.  I find this funny and don't know why my love of this silly drink.  I don't drink pop to this day.  So obviously my mom had something to do with this.  If I could only drink what I wanted it would be milk, water, wine, kool-aid  and gin.  Pretty basic but not necessarily good for me except the water.

Heres to Kool-Aid bringing in summer on my horizon.  Sure beats shoveling doesn't it?

Cherry Blossom's in D.C.around the Tidal Basin