It’s been another busy week…welcome to another random chapter of my crazy existence!
1. A Cutie. While digging through old photos looking for a picture of my paternal grandparents (I didn’t find it), I found this gem from early 1963. That’s me a few months before I turned two (no cat’s eye glasses yet!).
 2. A Cake. We’re big fans of the Food Network and TLC at our house…we especially love watching cake shows like Cake Boss, and The Next Great Baker. One of the cakes we see a lot is Red Velvet Cake…Hope wanted desperately to try it! On Friday night, she went on the Internet, and printed out a recipe (Google it…I don’t know which one we used!). The recipe called for two tablespoons of red food colouring…we didn’t have quite that much, but it still came out very nicely. The cream cheese icing makes it though! The only drawback is having to find space in the fridge for the cake.
3. Cars. I told you earlier about Jim’s issue last week with our Toyota Corolla. Well, the news from the transmission place wasn’t good…with almost 300,000 kilometres on it, spending another $1500+ to repair the car wouldn’t be very smart.  We just forked over $1500 to fix our van. So…we’ve got a “new to us” car, a 2005 Mazda 6. Jim is very happy…he likes sporty cars (I’d be happier if it was automatic!). When Kaylee and Scott found out we weren’t going to keep the Toyota, they offered to buy it. Scott’s Acura Integra isn’t a very practical family car, and he’s capable of doing a lot of the work on the Toyota himself.  Jim sold it to him for the cost of the winter tires we just put on last fall. Win-win for everybody!
4. Cousins. I also found this picture of me and some of my cousins (ca. 1982) while looking through photos.
These last two didn’t come along until later:
My mom was the second of four sisters…each sister had a girl and a boy. My cousin, Barb, was nine months younger than I was…we used to spend hours playing in her toy-filled bedroom. She had more Barbie dolls and clothing than I’d ever seen! Barb’s younger brother, Darin, was nine months younger than my little brother, Jeff…Darin was into cars and trucks with sirens.  When we stayed at Barb and Darin’s house, I remember having chocolate ice cream for breakfast on more than one occasion…we loved going to visit them! My cousin, Larry, was ten months older than I was…it was he that I had the famous Iced-Tea Chugging Contest with.  His sister, Sandy, was three years older than I was…she had a major crush on Bobby Sherman when we were teenagers. We six cousins had a wonderful time playing water volleyball in my Aunt Judy‘s back yard swimming pool!
My cousins Caryn and Ron were considerably younger than we were (their mom is my mom’s youngest sister). My Grandma had a bed on the living room floor where she spent her days…her spine had deteriorated due to osteoarthris.  I remember Caryn when she was three years old sitting beside Grandma…that little girl was the perkiest kid I’d ever run across…she was always talking! The last time I saw Ron, he was about 15 months old…he was running around the pool wearing a dripping disposable diaper which had swollen to three times its original size with water, and was threatening to come off any minute! It didn’t bother him a bit…he just kept going! It still makes me giggle thinking about it!
Today, all my cousins (except Ron – he’s only 25) have kids of their own. I’ve only met a couple of them, but have enjoyed getting to know “the second generation” on Facebook…very talented bunch!
My family is currently planning a family reunion, which I won’t be able to attend due to time and distance…I miss them all and wish I could be there! I’m hoping they take lots of pictures!
5. Confusion. We were eating supper on Sunday night when Anna asked, “Is the Super Bowl live?” My children have led sheltered lives, at least when it comes to major league sports…
What yummy pictures!
Thanks, Duke! Wendy
The cake looks so good! I also lead a sheltered life when it comes to major league sports- by choice 😉 Keep up the great work on here! Please come visit me on my blog as well!
Thanks for stopping by, Gemma…will come and visit soon! Wendy
That cake looks great…I think I’m going to make Red Velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s Day!
Yummy…that sounds good, Melissa! Thanks for stopping by! Wendy
The cake looks wonderful! Cream cheese frosting is my favorite. I was going to tell you the other day that the two of us would have looked like twins in our cat eye glasses. I will have to find a picture to show you what I mean.
Love your sporty new to you Mazda 6. We’ve sold a few of them and haven’t had any come back issues for repairs. I’m with you on the manual vs automatic transmission. Just not enough hands to drink my coffee while I drive and shift. Have a great afternoon! Jeanne
Looking forward to seeing that photo, Jeanne. Thanks for the “inside info” on the car – that’s very reassuring! Wendy
I love the question about the Super Bowl being live–hysterical! Also, the cake looks amazing! I’m a bit of a carb/sweet freak! Makes me hungry——–
hugs from Haiti,
Kathy
As soon as the question about the Super Bowl was out of Anna’s mouth, I said, “That’s going in the blog!” The cake was awesome, Kathy!
Hugs, Wendy
sweet post–and the slice of cake was just right–I am not too full…
I find that whenever I pull out our trunk of photos looking for one in particular, that I lose a day–in a good way…just lost to memories and nostalgia…
blessings!
jane
Thanks, Jane! Cyber-cake is the least fattening kind. I’ll probably be posting a few more of the photos I found…easier now that I have a decent scanner! Hugs, Wendy
A walk down memory lane…love it! Red Velvet perfect for Valentines! My daughter and I adore those.
Lord–I had a perm too–straight out of the “Lilt’ box. Hadn’t thought about Bobby Sherman in eons!
Glad you liked it, RITY! I wish I could say I did my own perm, but I paid big bucks (for me) at the salon four times a year…glad those days are over! Wendy
We have thousands of pictures and every time I look I lose time because I just dig in.
And you know where to send the kids if they have questions about how to understand the Super Bowl without watching 🙂
I just wish I could find the photos I was looking for, Clay! That question was probably the first and last time the kids will ever ask me anything about football! Wendy
The cake looks great, but your photo is much sweeter. I am an old photo nut (as you can imagine).
Thanks, Renée…I love old photos too! Wendy
Oh no! I don’t like reading that a fellow Corolla has fallen!
With any luck, it will drive again, with our son-in-law at the wheel…it was a great car for us, Joey! Wendy
Don’t worry, Joey @ Big Teeth & Clouds. The Corolla will rise again. I have no fear of high mileage ‘yotas. 🙂
Now “high mileage Yodas” scare me…LOL! Wendy
Your baby photo is just too cute. You won’t have to find room in the refrigerator if you eat the whole cake. Just a thought!
Thanks, Hippie…I made the cake last weekend…it’s long gone! Wendy
Um…. IS the superbowl live? I forget…. 😉
Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane. If only you could go to the reunion… what stories you could tell afterwards!
I really wish I could go, Koreen…it will be 20 years this summer since I’ve been in Ohio…haven’t seen most of my relatives since my brother’s wedding in 1993…sigh… Hugs, Wendy
A great jaunt through your week as always Wendy!
A cutie is right!! And still retains her charm I might add 🙂 Would love to see more pictures.
That cake looks absolutely yummy. Congratulations on the new wheels…looking very cool! And those childhood memories…precious. That description of your cousin Ron running around in a dripping diaper…I see that often…with Ishaan 😀 Hilarious 😀
Hugs, H.
Thanks, Harsha…diapers are way more absorbent now than they were 25 years ago…the poor kid might be so weighed down, he could hardly move!!! Hugs, Wendy
Lovely post, as always, Wendy! What a cute little girl you were, and thanks for sharing the other photos of you and your cousins. I too had perms – what were we thinking?
Yum yum – the cake looks incredibly delicious and so professional. I am, again, hugely impressed.
Sunshine xx
Thanks, Sunshine! Perms…the cure for fine, straight hair! The cake was good…not sure about “professional” though… Hugs, Wendy
Wendy, the last perm I had was in 1996 and I vowed never again! My younger son, who was six at the time, looked up at me, thought long and hard before saying to me, “Mommy, is your hair going to stay like that?” I rest my case … 🙂
Sunshine xx
I think I was “cured” before that, Sunshine…I don’t remember having any once Anna was born in 1994…
That’s a good-looking cake, Wendy, although I still can’t figure out why there are so many TV shows about cake baking.
Thanks, Todd! I’m guessing there are a lot of people out there like me, who wish we were as talented as the bakers on those shows! Wendy
Congratulations on Jim’s new baby. It’s a beauty! Love the picture of you as a toddler and that red velvet cake, well, what can I say…yummy, that’s what I’ll say. Hugs, Diane
Thanks, Diane…Jim’s pretty happy with it! The cake was delicious… Hugs, Wendy
I love your family photos, Wendy. You were a darling two-year-old.
Congrats on Jim’s new smooth ride! May you have many safe adventures in that car.
Thanks, Maura…the photo of the cousins was taken in my Aunt Jerry’s old back yard in Hilliard, Ohio.
Hugs, Wendy
Great pics! As far as the last one from the 80s I’ve always wondered if the colors change over time or if that’s the way they always looked and our color sense has changed. Even with older movies and TV shows the colors always seem a little out of adjustment. Worst are pics from the 70s, but I think the clothes contribute to that!
Thanks, Tom! I think the colours are pretty good in that photo from the ’80’s (keeping in mind that it’s scanned). I’ve definitely noticed a loss of colour in photos from the ’60’s and ’70’s too.
Wendy
Oh, that cake…Looks. So. Wonderfully. Good!
Thanks for sharing your memories old and new. Anna’s comment sounds like something my daughter would say 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, Amanda…trying to figure out what to bake this weekend… Wendy
There is such a familiarity to generational photos. I feel like I’m looking at myself.
I’ll have to claim lame on the blog style award. I did so many of those when I first started blogging that I can’s come up with anything new about me. And I am up to my yellow cake with writing about Uranium mining in VA right now. I actually am so immersed that I thought of “yellow cake” when I looked at your first cake picture!
That’s okay, Colleen…I just like letting people know about other bloggers I admire! I hope you manage to keep the miners out! Years ago, I wrote about efforts to keep Orimulsion (a fuel almost as dirty as coal) from powering one of our electricity generating stations…unfortunately, they lost! Wendy
Those are great pictures, Wendy! And, I’m on a diet, so wasn’t real happy seeing the delicious looking cake..lol..Have a great weekend!
Vickie
Thanks, Vickie…I’m a bit food-addicted! Hope you have a wonderful weekend too! Wendy
That cake looks YUMMY, liked your blog!
Thanks for stopping by, Short Poems…glad you enjoyed it! Wendy
You were such an adorable toddler! I could pinch those cheeks. But I’m a sap for vintage photos. Isn’t it nice to know that photos of our youth are vintage now? Didn’t feel like it then, though. We were the happening generation! 🙂
Thanks, Monica…glad you liked the post! Thanks for subscribing too! Wendy