Stargazing and Nature Walking

The weather has been unseasonably warm. Not that I'm complaining but I'm afraid if I make this post, it may snow.

Anyway, I marked a couple more squares off my Winter bingo card. I went for a walk around our neighborhood nature trail. I had to fight the geese for the walkway but I made it around.

Then I decided to add a few more steps to my already high step count for the day and walk the neighborhood one more time to look at the stars (and pick up my mail). I only have a few more squares to fill before blacking out my card and it's funny that I only have one Bingo!! 

Pearl Daisy Turns One Year Old

I can't believe Pearl is one year old.

Seems like yesterday I was traveling to St Luke's Hospital to spend the evening with Melissa holding Pearl. Or maybe it's just become routine!

Having a name like Pearl Daisy makes decorating rather easy. It's hard to see in this picture but I've got on a "Pearl" necklace with a "Daisy" shirt. I was told brown paper banners were in style right now so Violet made Pearl's First Birthday banner.

Pearl wasn't very interested in her cake or maybe she's just too ladylike to smash into it. My guess is she's going to be more like Goldie and assert her place in line as not being the youngest but being the boss. That will be a fight worth watching.

Happy Birthday Pearl Daisy. May you always be the sweet loving girl you are!

Valentine's Day and First Steps

Valentine's Day...the day when you give up on receiving chocolates and roses. But this Valentine's Day I was remembered. 

My friend in Vegas sent me a bouquet of flowers and the Taylor's gave me a box of Crumbl cookies. When Jamie brought the cookies by we had a video chat with Melissa. I refuse to post that picture. We all look like we just drug ourselves out of bed. By the way, Michele, you can mark video chat off my Winter bingo card!!!

Pearl has been taking small steps for the past week and today Melissa got video proof of the steps. I can't post the video but I took a screen shot of the steps.

This was just the day before her first birthday and in tradition Melissa fashion, she has to have a picture of the last day of your birthday day year. Tomorrow we celebrate Pearl's first birthday. I wonder what kind of cake will be all over her face!

Vegas Super Bowl Party

I did my annual visit to Vegas to attend a Super Bowl party at the Red Rock Hotel & Casino. Such a beautiful place. Red Rock is actually west of the Las Vegas strip but close enough.

It was weird being at a Super Bowl party without the Chiefs playing. This year is was the Seattle Seahawks vs the New England Patriots. While I really didn't car which team won, Seattle blew New England away. And I only know that because I go for the food and party atmosphere, not the game. Besides the game was BORING! Hopefully the Chiefs will be back next year! 

"Book Club" Monthly Challenge

Michele found this challenge where you read a different "type" of book each month. 

And by "type" I mean....well you can see the list. 

Luckily for January I was reading "Nightshade" by Michael Connelly. While Nightshade is stretching it on the color, I'm assured that Nightshade is a color in a 152 box of crayola crayons. Nightshade is the first in a new series featuring a Los Angeles Detective who is exiled to Catalina Island. The plot follows Detective Stilwell as he investigates a murder in the Catalina harbor. While much the same as Harry Bosch, the half brother of Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) Connelly's most famous character, I thought the book was good considering I've been to Catalina Island. Other than being there, I just like Michael Connelly.

February is read a book with the first letter of your name in the title. Well I thought I was screwed on that one..."J"???? How many books have a "J" in the title. Ta-Da!!! My favorite author, John Grisham, has a book I haven't read called The Judge's List. What a lucky find. And I thought I'd read everything John Grisham had ever written. I should get an extra point for having a "J" in the title of the book and the author! The Judge's List is about a serial killer who happens to be a sitting judge in Pensacola, Florida. He's murdered people who have done him wrong in the past 20 years. The daughter of one of his victims has been stalking him for at least that long. I'm sure he will be caught but I haven't finished the book yet. Stay tuned for March. I've found a good one....I hope!

Snowstorm Aftermath Birthday

She was born during a snowstorm and tonight we celebrated her 43rd birthday in the aftermath of Snowstorm Fern which didn't leave as much snow as anticipated but the temperatures are ridiculously low....-5* this morning and 18* this evening with wind.

Dinner was at Jose Peppers. Jamie refused to spend another "kid" birthday at Fun House Pizza. Teresa brought the cake and the food was great.

Happy Birthday Melissa. Times sure have changed from 7 years ago when we let Harrah's provide our buffet dinners!

Another Bingo Bucket List Item - Walk 100 Miles in 30 Days

I completed another Bingo bucket list item. I not only walked 100 miles in 30 days - I walked it in 22 days.

I knew I was close when I left the house this morning so I kept checking my watch to see when I hit 100 miles. I was at the grocery store so I took a quick picture of my feet. I wasn't about to ask someone in the store to take my picture walking down the grocery aisle! 

Plant Indoor Seeds

I keep seeing pictures on my Instagram feed for Midnight Blue Hostas.

In fact, the people posting the pics indicated they're starting them from seeds. Since "Plant Indoor Seeds" is on my Bingo card bucket list, I decided to get some hosta seeds and plant them.

I'm quite the overachiever so I not only planted seeds but I got the planter with the dome lid, humidity controller and watched a YouTube video on how to start seeds. There's 12 spaces in this planter and if you figure each grown hosta plant costs at least $25, I could be saving a fortune this Spring. Otherwise, there's about $15 down the drain.

Monkey Bread

I tried to start my diet today for another bucket list item but monkey bread kept calling my name.

I'll have to start the diet another day. This bread turned out so well. After eating this, I'll need that diet.

A Puzzle for my Bingo Bucketlist Card

I completed putting together a puzzle for my Bingo bucket list card. This gives me 9 out of 25 things to do before April 1.

I tend to pick puzzles where every piece looks the same. This time a jumble of candy. I'm going a step further with this and going to Michael's to get some puzzle glue. This is going on my garage wall. I worked too hard to just take it apart and put it back in the box. 

Volleyball - Lawrence

Violet's volleyball team had another tournament in Lawrence. I don't mind traveling to out of town locations but Lawrence is about an hour away and Teresa picks me up around 6:30 in order to make the 8:00 game. Plus we try to get a parking spot close to the building. Makes for a long day.

It's hard to say whether Violet's team won or lost. These tournaments are for seeding for Power League. I can't go any further with an explanation because I'm not sure what this means. I usually just nod my head. I tried to get a picture of her in action (she's really pretty good) but my camera skills are terrible.

I was so embarrassed because I wore my pink volleyball shirt. Just a generic shirt with volleyball on it but 2 of the teams Violet played wore pink and Violet's team colors are white and navy blue. I think I'll check Amazon for another shirt.

Reflection, Vision Board & Resolutions

After 8 months I'm finally getting back to my blog. It might be hard to follow since I'm going forward plus trying to catch up on all the stuff that happened in 2025.

2025 wasn't a very good year for me with having both knees replaced and a 15 day hospital stay (not related to my knees). I kind of lost the zest to keep up my blog. But with this being Pearl's first year, I feel I must reflect back on the year and catch up with milestones.

Michele is always looking for ways to stay occupied during the winter months. Me, I'm perfectly fine sitting in my house and watching the months fly by. She created a Bingo card with activities to get us moving and out of the house. The competitive side of me can't resist a good challenge. You can see I've already checked off a few boxes and trying hard to find ways to complete my card.

I'm constantly reading so that was a no brainer. My goal for 2026 is to walk 4,000,000 steps so I created a playlist with songs that are good to walk to. My most fun accomplishment (which checked off "Take on Online Class" and "Create a Vision Board") was, you guessed it - create a vision board. I took a class or rather watched a YouTube video leaning how to use Canva to create a vision board.

This morning I got up and walked the neighborhood to catch the sunrise. I'm not fond of walking in the cold but the temperature was above freezing - actually in the 40's - and we're supposed to have either freezing rain and snow this weekend. With Missouri weather no telling when the temperatures will cooperate to complete this task.

If I had to make resolutions for 2026, my biggest one would be not to procrastinate. It might have taken me 7 days into the new year to start my blog again but I'm trying hard to stay focused and make this a good year. Maybe we need a bingo card for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.