Power Ranger came for a visit ~!

Power Ranger came to my house last night Trick or Treating.. He gave me a big kiss and hug ~ When he gave me a kiss he lifted his mask.. It was Ben~!~!  I was so excited..
He showed me some of his prizes that he had picked up on the way to my house.. He had a rubbery eyeball that if you threw it it stuck to the wall and then flattened out and then reshaped itself and fell to the floor.. Oh Ben thought that was so cool~!  I gave him some small candy bars.. He loves dark chocolate.. He says it's more healthy for you... :)
       Today on Facebook someone had this recipe for Crockpot Apple Crisp... MMMMMM~! I made it right away and it was really good this evening with our supper..  I made ham and beans soup and apple crisp~ just hit the spot.
Here is the recipe:

Crockpot Apple Crisp
4-5 cups apples, sliced
1 cup of oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup regular sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup butter
Spray Crock-Pot with nonstick spray. Line with apples. Melt butter and mix with all remaining ingredients.  Pour mixture over apples.
Cook on high for 3 hours or low for 4 hours..

Tomorrow is Character Parade Day at school. the children dress like their favorite book character. they have to have a book to show what character they are.. Ben is going as a Power Ranger .  I asked his dad if he had the book.. He said "NO". I told him no problem I'll run into Marion Library and see if they have one.. (I called before I left the house). They had 4 ~~ so I chose one and called Cory and told him I found the power ranger book and he could stop by the house and pick it up in the morning when he took Ben to school.. What would parents do without Grandparents.  It's a good thing and I don't mind helping out..  It's so important to our grandchildren ~!  Ben is all set now for Character Day at school.. The parade will be in the morning and their fall party will be in the afternoon. No calling the party Halloween...it is fall party.. how things have changed..
        Well you all have a great and Tiggeriffic Day....ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Happy Halloween~!

 Here is my grandaughter, Emily who is dressed up like a genius.. She doesn't really have to dress up like a genius because she already is one.. She is such a sweetie ~!  She is coming to my house for Christmas break and for Spring break.. We always have a great time. She goes with me to Springville school to volunteer with me with the 2nd graders.. They just lover her.. Someday I can see that she will be a teacher and a good one.  She is a remarkable young Christain Lady...~!  

This is Sophia...she is my grandaughter also...she is dressed up like a Vampire Queen.. Vampire seems to be the theme this year for girls.. There are a lot of girls saying they are going to be vampires in the 2nd grade where I volunteer.. The boys are going to be zombies.. yikes~!  
Sophia is a beautiful young girl who likes to ride her bike a lot with the kids in her neighborhood.. It's so fun to watch her when we go to their house and see how entertaining she is with her friends.. She is in 3rd grade this year....and loves stuffed animals...
       This morning in my devotions it was titled: Stop Comparing Yourself To Others.
       One definition of success is: "gaining wealth and fame."
Should you pick an arbitrary target? Should you compare yourself to others?  What if you have decided to devote yourself to raising children of character, or serving your church and your community?  Does that mean you are less successful?  No..Success is doing the best you can, with what you have, wherever you are in life.  The Bible warns , "When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." When you play the comparison game you are like the two cows that saw the milk truck go by with a sign , "Pasteurized, homogenized, Vitamin A added." One cow said to the other, "Makes you feel sort of inadequate, doesn't it ?"  God will help you be all that you can be, but He will never help you be someone else.  When you focus your attention on who you aren't by comparing yourself with someone else, you lose sight of who you need to become.  Ever heard of the eighteen/forty/sixty rule? When you're eighteen, you worry about what everybody's thinking about you. When you're forty, you realize that it doesn't really matter what they think about you.  When you're sixty, it dawns on you most of them weren't thinking about you at all~!  Paul's life changed dramatically with one question: "Lord, what do You want me to do?" (Act 9:6) Only when you ask that question, will you discover who you are and what God's calling you to be..
    Boy isn't this so true.. I don't worry what people think about me..I just do what I think I want to do and don't worry about what people think.. This worrying about what people think is a paranoia, fear, and gets your mind to over working and makes the problem bigger.. Really who cares what people think~ if you are asking God "What do You want me to do?" you will discover who you are and what God's calling you to be..
       Have a Tiggeriffic Day~!  ta ta for now from Iowa:)
       

Isn't this the most cutest card.. I took a picture of it and hope I won't get in trouble putting it here.. I just love chickadees and snowmen.. I love the carrot and seeing the big flakes of snow coming down.. Winter is such a magical time... It's just right around the corner here in Iowa... IT's 41 degrees this morning and we are suppose to get a chance of rain today.. 
Getting ready to go to school to volunteer with the 2nd graders.. 23 in the class.. Big class.. I go on Tuesdays and Fridays.. The kids are now used to me being there and when I arrive I can hear them whisper ~ Anne is here, always makes me smile.. 
     Last night while watching the World Series while knitting a pair of slippers for my daughter and son in law ~ I was able to get one slipper completed because the St. Louis Cardinals weren't doing so well.. Dog Gone those boys they should of won last night and the World Series would be won by the Cardinals.. Oh well, off we go to Boston and we get to see our favorite teams play somemore..:)   I decided that today after school I'm going to Marion ,Ia. to buy me some circular needles and when I'm making one slipper I can cast the other slipper onto the needles and make two while I'm making one.. That sounds easy to me..and making two at once would be great.. I know people that do this when making mittens or socks.. I even saw on a knitting website someone making socks one inside the other and making two at the same time.. That would be awesome...~!
        The birds are fed this morning and happy happy.. I saw a Eurasia Morning Dove this morning.. They are not suppose to be in this area.. Sitting next to the Morning Doves that come to my feeder the Eurasia is much much larger... and much lighter grey.. When birds are migrating one can get different birds at their feeders. The white crowned sparrows arrived yesterday.. They are just migrating. I love their bright white stripes next to their heads on either side.. 
         Must get going~~~Have a Tiggeriffic Day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)

Stephen Curtis Chapman Concert~!

Sunday I went to Stephen Curtis Chapman concert at the Paramont Theater in Cedar Rapids, Iowa..  What an awesome concert.. It was so much fun to set in this theater and be so close to the stage.. Not like sitting in the FIve Seasons Center where you can only afford to set in the nose bleed area..  I really like Stephen Curtis Chapman  and his singing.. He has been making albums for 26 years.. It was fun to sing along to some of his old songs.. and his new songs.  It was a great concert.
    Today is Monday and it's windy outside. 45 outside and sunny.. Today I am going to get out the plastic and cover the porch door to keep out the winter breezes and the snow.. Don't know what I was thinking or the carpenter was thinking when he put in the new windows and a new door. I wish I would of thought it all out and told him that storm door needed a inside door to keep out the blustery windy weather.. So until next spring I'll just put plastic over it and keep out the cold cold weather..
Enjoying the World Series~!  Each game has something to add to it's excitement.. Not boring this year... Last nights game was quite a heart sinker.. The Cardinals having a basemen not on base and not being able to get back on base in time..."Your out~!"  says the umpire and that ended the game.. Hope tonights game ends with the Cardinals winning.. All the beards and bad hair these baseball players have is head shaking ....Just hope it's not contagious for High School kids to do for the spring season in their baseball playing...The peach fuzz will be fun to laugh at... I love baseball especially when it comes to the World Series..and especially when the St. Louis Cards are playing...Go Cards~!  Watching the game with my son-in-law is like watching a volcano go off..spewing anger and words all over~!  when the Cards are not doing well.... Lets hope tonight they play up to speed...and win win win~!
         Just had a Honey Crisp Apple.. I love to cut it up with the skins on ~~sprinkle cinnamon on top ~~put it in the Micro Wave for 5 minutes...Oh it's so good...~!  Wish I had some Greek Yogert  I would of put it on top and eat and say "Yum Yum Yum"  ~!  These apples are very expensive but worth having a few on hand now that's it's fall...When the kids were home I used to make them Apple Dumplings..now that is something that is delish with some vanilla ice cream on top...mmmmmm good~!
         Have a great day~!~!  ta ta for now from Iowa:)
        

Let it Snow~!

On Tuesday it snowed 2 inches.. What a surprise.. I really liked sitting inside here and watching the snow come down in big flakes.. My Grandma always said Big Flakes not a lot of snow..Little snow means you are going to get a lot of snow.. So for our first snow it was nice and melted all away the next day.

Ben really likes Star War Lego's..He built this one in an evening. He is so smart.. I can't believe how he can put it together and knows what the picture is showing.. Every other Thursday the Marion ,Iowa library has Lego Club.. I take him there with his friend Grant.. Their is 2 huge tubs that they have full of lego's and the kids dump them onto the floor and then off they go picking out the legos they want to make their lego project.. Afterwards the library has a built in bookshelf with glass doors.. The kids take their lego project they built and put it on the shelf and put a name tag in front of what they built.. It stays there for 2 weeks and then it all comes back into the room and is dismantled and then the kids make something else... Ben loves going to Lego Club...  This Thursday I took Ben and Grant right after school..the club lasts from 3 to 5p.m.  They got their project done and displayed and then they went back into the room and helped other kids gather parts for the projects they were working on..I thought that was very nice of them to do that..
        Before we left we went over to the library side and the boys got to pick out one book to check out and take home with them..Ben picked out SkippyjonJones book called SkippyjonJones in the DogHouse.. It even had a CD in the back so you could put it in a CD player and listen to the author Judy Schachner read the book.. How fun is that?  Fantastic.  This pun-filled spoof is over-the-top comedy littered with Spanish words....ay caramba mucho fun~!~! all kids right now read about SkippyjonJones who is a siamese cat but wants to be a chihuahua. Ben and Grant just love to read SkippyjonJones~!~!

It snowed last Tuesday ~2 inches~ It was beautiful~!

This is Wednesday morning.. What a beautiful morning. the sun was out and the leaves on the trees showed up so bright and colorful... Noticed that the Junco bird has arrived in Iowa.. This is the first bird that shows up for winter.. on my bird feeders.. They are so pretty... You know winter is here for sure when you see them..
        Had Ben here on Thurday night and all day Friday..(no School on Friday).. We had such a great time.. We played with his Lego's...then we played games,  Battleship and Parcheesi... He loves to play games...When we play battleship I always move my boats to where he calls first..I tell him  "Are you looking at my board ?"  HE smiles and says "No"  I tell him he must be a good guesser.. This helps his self-esteem...I don't do this with every game but I think every chance I get I well try and build his self-esteem up.. Kids need that..
        His Dad picked him up on Friday afternoon. I hated to see him go....but it was time..He will be with his dad for a week before I get to see him again..He will come back to his Mom's next Friday...It will be a long week.. I just love my grandchildren and any chance I get to be with them I jump to the chance.. Grandchildren are a gift from God..
        Getting the itch to knit.. So guess I'll be making my daughter Jodie and her hubby Mark some slippers.. She said the ones I made last year has holes in the heels and they are needing new ones.. IT's that time of year to get the needles out and start click clacking.....
        Have a great Saturday~~~~ta ta for now from Iowa~!

Pumpkin Patch Pizazz~!

 Yesterday Tracie and I took Ben to Monticello to the Pumpkin Patch Pizzazz... Oh he had so much fun~!  There were Sack Races...Wish there had been some kids here so he could race with them..   There were kids there but just not at this spot..GranAnnie can't do the sack race..

I just love this pose I got with him jumping.. (computer is acting up) (can't get it not to underline..)

They had this big plastic bucket ... what a hoot~!  Kids would get inside and walk it one way and then the other way.. It was pretty slippery..  There were a lot of kids there today..even thou it was chilly..  It was a great pumpkin place to take Ben.. 

The birds are busy this morning at the feeder.. Forecast calls for rain/snow..It's that time of year and time to be cold and all the different weather conditions.. Looking out my window here at my desk ~~ I can see the Junco's have arrived.. they are the first bird to come to tell us that winter has arrived.. I'm sure they are thankful for the seed in the birdfeeder.

      picking up Ben today at school so we can go to the library and pick out some books at the Book Fair.. He has become an avid reader and loves books..just like GranAnnie and Aunt Jodie..   Have a great day~! ta ta for now from Iowa:)