Coffee Klatch

Thanks Nines. They are cute but the FB soap ladies went crazy over them

Back to real life! The rafting trip was a blast. Youngest daughter had a great time with my best friends daughter. They did lots of hiking, even hiked up a waterfall and went down a natural rock water slide. The lodges were fantastic. The only hitch was when we came off the river the last day. The shuttle van was parked with the hood up and a part on the drivers seat. Not a good place for a vehicle breakdown. No cell service or stores in the area. Made the best of it though - found a really nice couple that hooked up the trailer with all of our gear and hauled us all the the lodge they were staying at. The lodge had a cabin we could rent and included dinner and breakfast the next morning. So we had an extra day. :)

Flava - those soaps are super cute...perfect for a baby shower. You have some serious talent!

TB - hope the move is going well and you have internet soon.

Nine's - Glad to hear things are a bit better. Losing a furry family member is tough.

Thanks SO
Your trip sounds awesome. I love rafting

Well the shower went well and now we are all cleaned up and back to normal. It was a big hit and so was the soap.

That was a lot of work!

We already knew it would go well and everyone would love the soap. No one could not love the adorable little things. It must have been exhausting work with all the detail, drying them just right, getting the babies on without marking the soap, and all involved. Hope you can get a chance to relax now...for a while. I know something or someone will be calling for your attention soon though. 8)

SO, good to hear you enjoyed your trip. Sounds like it might have been a little tense there for a while. LOL. As long as you're all safe though, that's what matters, even if it was an inconvenient thing that happened and probably made you do a quick countryside scan seeing how you'd survive if you were stuck there a while. HAHAHAHA.

You've probably already seen this, but if you haven't, thought you'd be interested. A link is at the bottom to hear the entire thing. It's also on you tube:

[link to www.oregonlive.com]

Heading to Missouri tomorrow. Told the local family to have bail money ready for me...lol. Looks like baby daddy has decided this just isn't working out for him but doesn't want my daughter to leave the state. Daughter has an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow. We will either head for Oregon or move her back into her old apartment. Depends on what the lawyer advises. No custody order is in place so she technically has full custody, but Missouri has the strictest laws in the country when it comes to removing a child from state. She could get back here and be told the child has to return to Missouri in a few months. I won't know if we go with plan A or B till I get there. Always told my girls no matter what, if you call and say you need me to pick you up I will be there. So I will fly out tomorrow not not knowing which plan we are going with. We are hoping for a quick resolution and the green light to go, but planning for 6 months of lawyer bills.

Well that sucks sort of. I hope she can come home to Oregon with you but I am sorry to hear that it could be trouble. Is your daughter working now? Maybe that can be the catalyst, that if he can provide for her and the baby there (outside his home) she needs to go back to where she can make a living. You can say she has employment waiting with your company. Make it a mgmt. position that she wouldn't be able to get in Missouri so that the court is on her side. Divorced people get to leave the state all the time due to employment so why shouldn't she.

She just started back to work last week. She does love her job and the pay is much higher than here ($19 and hour on base). But it is a 1 year contract and when the last contract was up it took 5 months to get another one. Worst case we have to wait a bit longer. Most custody cases take six months. And if that fails we have plan C. Plan C is she talked with her "husband", yes they are still married, he still has her on his orders to move just outside of Las Vegas come June or July. He is a great guy and said he will help wherever the can. They still have a good friendship even though they didn't work as a married couple. I don't think anyone can fight a military order, plus Vegas is half the distance as Missouri. She will get home, it's just a matter of how and when.

I am glad you have a plan C

You home yet, SO? Needing bail money yet?LOL. Hope everything is ok and "really" hope you're home. Wouldn't want to fly, wouldn't want to rent a car. You know how to ride a motorcycle? How bout horseback? Might not have as many viruses. J/K. Stay safe.

Hope you're doing ok Flav, and Mama too. Think of you guys often. And TB. Lordy, lordy do I think of her. Going to have to charge my cell so she can get in touch if she needs an escape plan.

Gosh, too focused on escape for everyone. Guess I better shut up. Stay safe everyone.

LOL escape to the woods seems like the thing to do with all this ebola news the past few days. I am fine, I had my birthday this week and friends were in from NY staying at a Disney timeshare so we went over for a few days. Not to the parks, just to the condo to have fun with old friends. This morning I took my daughter to garage sales for baby stuff and we hit the mother load. I think I turned her into a garage sale lover, lol.

She saved so much money on stuff we looked at babies are us just last week! She got a brand new with tags on stroller, the umbrella cheap ones, but just last week they were 40 bucks and she paid 5 with the tags still on and it wasn't even out of the packaging! She got several other nearly new items and I got a swing for grandmas house so we are in pretty good shape for stuff now.

Hope everyone is staying safe

Awwww, Flav, Happy belated Birthday. SO sorry I forgot. 8(

It sounds like a fun one and it must have been great to see friends again.

Glad you hit the motherlode and bet DD was happy too! Babies outgrow things so fast when they are little that it's a waste to buy every outfit new when they get so little use when they're tiny. Very happy for you! Might not be much longer til you won't want to buy from someone's home. Hope I'm wrong on that one!

Holy wow on the stroller. How awesome is that. Have heard Mom's say the umbrella ones are really nice to keep in the car because they're so easy to use and handy. Can those be used on newborns, or do they have to be sitting up to use them? She probably won't want to be out and about too much while he/she is real tiny...or maybe that's an old fashioned thing. LOL.

Guess now that I think about it, I've seen some really, really tiny babies in out. One I asked how old it was and it was only two days old! Can you believe that? It's so darn hard to see a baby and not want to touch or hold it. Especially hard when you see a young Mom looking like she's at the end of her rope with a screaming young baby and you want so much to hold the baby and try to comfort it as much for your own selfishness as for helping the Mom. Now you just can't offer. Likely to be arrested or thought a weirdo. TBH, I sure wouldn't let a stranger hold my baby and remember way back when, when someone would ooh and ahh and think they could just reach out and touch my son. Grrrr. LOL.

Your daughter is a very lucky young woman and I know she knows it. Bet you can hardly wait for the little guy/gal.

I'm home. Had to one way fly back. Daughter has to stay till the Missouri court says it's ok to leave the state with her son. Missouri has the strictest custody laws in the country. I should rephrase that, she can leave - but her son has to stay. So, we moved them back into her old apartment and will wait for a judge to sign off. I just want them home.

Thanks Nines
It is a girl. She already has plenty of clothes but I wanted a baby swing, about 130 in the stores and only good for 4-5 months so I wanted a gently used one for my house since that was one of the things I couldn't live without when my kids were small.

She has a regular stroller but the umbrella was to good to pass up and she can save it until the baby is bigger. The other stuff was an infant seat for my house and a mobile and some other baby toys/things like a jumper and a walker. No sense in paying top dollar when these things were like new.

SO.. how long until she goes to court and can leave?

Her lawyer said 6 to 18 months and about $6,000. She moved back into her tiny place so she can afford the lawyer.

OMG. Apologizing again. Going to blame it on a respiratory infection and lack of sleep causing oxygen deprivation leading to senile behavior and lack of brain function. UGH.

HOW could I have said he/she? You told us. You showed us the adorable quilt with a princess, castle, bows, and a little girls dream blankie. You showed us adorable little pink and white soaps with a sweet little pink babies resting on top.
SMH in disgust with myself.

Glad you got extras for your house. Such a hassle to have to lug baby gear, food, formula, diapers, toys, etc. back and forth. What a blessing you are to Mama. Hard enough carrying baby, bag, all the needed things, without adding swings and seats and larger thing. That was a super idea! She's going to be reminded of that each and every time she brings HER over. 8)

Holy wow, SO. Missouri must have really tough custody laws. Wonder if daddy would agree, if she could leave whenever she wanted to....with baby. If he gets transferred, she should hitch along just to get in a different state so she'd be closer and might even have more lenient laws. She needs to be near family for help and support. You'd think the Judge would take that into consideration. Wow. Tough one for her. Tough one for you. Really tough.Hoping it can be resolved before the 6-18 mo. Will keep you guys in my thoughts and prayers.

No worries Nines. With everything going on in the world and our lives its easy to forget. I hope you are feeling better now. I didn't know you were sick.

No, not sick Flav. Just a respiratory thing and feeling oxygen deprived. Can't really use that for an excuse for being forgetful and unthoughtful. LOL. Thank you for your kindness!

Hey I forgot to tell you all one thing that I made that was awesome.

It was asparagus spears, took half a thin slice of procutto or however you spell it, wrapped it around the asparagus, then I took croissant dough from the cans like a biscuits, and cut them into long strips, about 6" long, wrapped them around the asparagus so it looked like the pattern of a candy cane. Then I rolled them in parm cheese and baked them for 20 mins.

They were AMAZING, they looked really great and expensive, added color to the table, tasted amazing, and it took me all of 20 mins to prep up about 120 of them and I did it the day before, pulled them out of the frig and popped them in the oven as guests were arriving. I am going to try them with regular ham next time since the Italian ham is so pricey. Everybody went nuts over them, they really were delicious.

They would make a good holiday dish or appetizer

That sounds delicious and bet they were pretty. Thanks for posting it. I copied and pasted it in my recipes. Will have to try it. You are so creative!

I got it off pinterest and they looked pretty so I ran with it. We needed something with more color on the table and that was a winner.

I am going to make them as a side dish with a steak or chicken dish every once in a while too.

For sure. Would be good for a snack too. Sounded good enough that I trotted out to see if all my asparagus had gone to seed. There's only a couple little spears poking up trying for their last hurrah. Have some frozen,but want fresh, so will wait....or try to wait. LOL.

yes do make them. I think fresh is best, that is what I used.

Sounds yummy and easy for a group gathering. Thanks for sharing. I've done green beans wrapped with bacon - but this sounds way better!

It really was awesome SO. Try it

Sure will make them! Are they firm enough they could be finger food or used in a dip?