And March Isn't Even Over Yet...

TWO MONTHS! TWO MONTHS have gone by and I swear to you the Super Bowl was just last week...okay, maybe two weeks ago, but not over a month ago. With that being said, WAY TO GO BENGALS! They may have lost, but what camaraderie they have brought back to a city desperately needing it. Being from Cincinnati (both Bill and I), we watched the slow disintegration of Bengal fans become onlookers then almost non-existent. Don't get me wrong, there were always the tailgaters, but in all honesty, I believe it was just an excuse to get together and party for most. Albeit, there were the die hard fans, the ones who watched faithfully every week, wore the jerseys, blamed the officials, etc. etc. But long gone were the days of Kenny Anderson...even Boomer or Chris Collinsworth...UNTIL NOW! Our son, the one who knows stats, history, biographies 🤦🏻‍♀️, and does all that fantasy football stuff, LOVES the Bengals. He always tries to talk to us about football/Bengals, but we basically blow it off because, well I'm not going to pretend here, but we haven't been on board with what professional sports has turned into and/or what they seem to stand for. Granted, there are players, good, kind, normal, not in trouble with the law, patriotic players in all sports, but the ones getting all the media attention...well, it's honestly doesn't seem to be for the right reasons. So, to get back to the Bengals, Bill and I (mainly me!) turned on the Bengal vs. Kansas City game a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl. You have to understand...I/we KNOW no one on the team...not even the coach! So imagine the conversations between the two of us as we are watching the game unfold...which by the way we tuned in at half time so the Bengals were down. First came the "what's the quarterback's name again?" Then came the, "holy crap, that's the quarterback? What's he, 18 years old?" then, "Wow, he looks like Macaulay Culkin...or maybe an extremely young Tom Brady..." watch a little more...then..."THAT'S THE KICKER? HOLY MOTHER OF GOD IS HE 12?"..."That's not the head coach...that's the head coach??? Guess he's 25...Is anyone close to 25 years old on this team????" Never mind that the game was extremely good and the Bengals were really holding their own, but the players were so young...maybe it's been so long since we've watched these games that to put it in perspective, we were young and the players were just older. Now, as Bill kindly reminded me, the players are our kids' ages...making more individually than our three combined in a lifetime will probably make🤦🏻‍♀️ When the game ended I found myself clapping for a team I hadn't been interested in for so long. I started looking into the young gentlemen taking the city to the Super Bowl and calling my son, texting him pictures of Macauley Caulkin, only to get replies like, "where have you been? That's been floating around for a couple years now mom..." Next thing you know, I'm following the kicker's mom on facebook, watching all the Bengals paraphernalia go on sale, crafters getting all crafty with Bengals this or that, old Bengal jerseys being worn-searching high and low for the ONE jersey I had that was given to me by my son that I can't find, and then the price of tickets to the Super Bowl going viral with the unbelievable inflated cost! But the city of Cincinnati was at an all time HIGH! The city was lit up in orange, people were buzzing to see the Bengals practice or send them off to LA. Reports were coming in that although they were stamped the underdogs, 3/4 of the US were rooting them on! Why? Because they were just good kids. There was no arrogance to their character or their playing skills. It was like you just got a bunch of kids who still had a 'love of the game', living their childhood dream, and enjoying every minute of it. And if you watched the Super Bowl, you may have even noticed the kicker sitting on the bench watching the half time show instead of being in the locker room with his team! Hahaha why would he want to miss a concert of music he grew up with, right? When you see a team take a loss as big as this and still hold their heads up, who wouldn't be proud? So cheers to the 2021 Bengals! I'm actually excited to watch you this next season🐅🏈

Since Bill and I decided to keep our Super Bowl party low key this year (just the two of us) we decided to try our hand at a homemade pizza...well, mainly because every pizza joint in town was going to have an incredible wait time, but I also have been wanting to do this for some time. Being that Bill was once a (PHD) Pizza Hut Dude back in the day, I was pretty sure we would be able to pull it off. We went for that Detroit style, rectangular thick crust kind and I have to admit, it was pretty tasty especially paired with our version of the Talbot Tavern's Bourbon Honey Pot!

I should have known that February was going to be anything but dull with the start of the Bengals. Bill and I celebrated another Valentine's Day together and although it fell on a Monday, I decided to keep the weekend party going! Made a little after dinner surprise under that glass lid above, but dinner also consisted of some slow cooked ribs, a delicious salad, and homemade FROM SCRATCH sour dough artisan bread (with a heart on it!) Oh and of course let's not forget more of those bourbon honey pots...in champagne glasses☺️

I can't lie, those ribs are one of our favorite ways to cook them! I'll put the recipe under the recipe tab after I post this blog! And the bread! This girl is really working on that sour dough, let me tell ya! A couple weeks ago I decided to try my hand at a very simple sandwich style sour dough bread. I made one with whole wheat and the other regular. We both loved it! I think I pretty much shocked myself that it tasted pretty good! And I'm liking that we don't have to buy bread anymore! I even made english muffins with the sour dough starter and they turned out great!

Sometimes I think I'm amish....😂 and then I cuss...and am reminded I'm not amish...

So as we march on through February, Bill and I finally finished our masterbath! Well, it's almost done...he still has a table to build, but that shouldn't take long once I order what we need😉 I've been dying to share the end result! First, here's a pic of the black granite tile vanity counter that we both were very much done with...

To save my life I thought I had a pic of the vanity after I painted it white, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, we both liked the idea of taking out the granite and going with wood! I found two granite vessel bowls on FB Marketplace that went great with the slate tile and we both agreed that wood would look pretty nice. It's more our style to have a rustic vibe. And thank goodness I'm married to a plumber and a man of many construction talents! I think he did amazing and I couldn't wait to put some decorating touches on it!

The little stool is getting a new cover and don't you love the remote control candles? He gets up so much earlier than me and just having the soft light is enough for him to get ready in the morning since you can see the lights are very bright and the wall with the mirror is a partition wall not going all the way to the ceiling. The lights penetrate over that wall as well as the entrance to this area which is our bedroom...and my face is staring right at this area. Off to the side is the "toilet closet" that also needed an EXTENSIVE update. Keeping with the natural theme, I decided to do some wall papering, buy a couple pieces at a yard sale and marketplace, and turned it into this ⤵️

Yes, I know...we have a urinal...every man's dream😂 But one thing I think I'm the most excited about was adding this little motion light right above the toilet paper! It's absolutely perfect for the middle of the night visits and honestly, I don't know what took me so long to add it!

So I have been on cloud nine knowing that this project is out of the way and we can move onto flooring for the master bedroom and the rest of the second floor. But right when we were getting ready to order the flooring...this happens!

Our oldest daughter called us and told us that she and her boyfriend have decided to get married!! And my reply was, "OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO EXCITING, YAY!!!!! When are you both thinking?" And her reply..." In 7 days.." PLOT TWIST!!😂 These two can't stand to have EYES on them and being the center of attention. It gives them major anxiety and they just decided that they wanted to have a small courthouse wedding with just their immediate family. We couldn't have been more excited. She wanted a dinner afterwards, a little cake, and some flowers. And in all honesty, it was the smoothest planing ever and the whole day went without a glitch! We are overjoyed to welcome our new son-in-love, and was so excited to have our youngest daughter, who had already planned to be in town that particular weekend, home to celebrate with their brother as well. The hardest part of the whole thing was not saying a word to anyone! I didn't tell my best friends, I didn't even tell my own parents! It's what they wanted and we were happy to oblige!

They do plan to have a big reception this summer so we look forward to that!

And if that's not enough, the season I've been waiting for has been fast approaching! It's time to get those seeds started (indoors), but first I had to do some dahlia house keeping!

I brought up last year's dahlia tubers that we store in the basement over the winter. After going through what made it through winter, I put them in my indoor greenhouse that I moved to our "cozy room". It has 2 large windows facing the south/southeast and the room is quite warm which is what the dahlias need to 'wake up.' After a couple of weeks, eyes were popping on some of the dahlias. Some are still taking their sweet time which is why I started this early. I want them strong and flourishing by the time we put them in the ground. Some of the clumps of tubers were quite large so once I started seeing more eyes, I was able to cut the tubers apart, making more plants for me! I have also been watching videos from seasoned dahlia growers like Santa Cruz Dahlias and other professionals on how they use dahlia clippings to start new plants. I wanted to give this a try and see how well it works. If it's successful, I will have more dahlia plants and by the end of the growing season, I'll have even more tubers to divide for next year! These were some sprouts that were big enough to get started on their own.

Now I just have to wait for the other dahlias I ordered to come in and get them started! In the mean time, it was time to get some seeds going! I started our different lettuces, a few varieties of beets, I'm even doing two varieties of carrots (in hopes that I'll one day like carrots)! I started some spinach, snap peas, some green beans, zucchini, cucumbers, and arugula. I've had my eye on a few new flowers that I hope to add to the bouquets I like to make so I bought some seeds for those. Oh and some herbs, not many but a few! This year my son decided he wanted blue berry bushes...he doesn't live here, but he wants us to grow them 🤦🏻‍♀️, so he bought THREE!🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ I told him I really want elderberry bushes so he decided to buy one of those, too. But, elderberry bushes need to have two plants for cross pollination so I ended up having to buy one as well.🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Now I have to figure out where exactly we are going to plant 5 berry bushes...and hope the deer don't kill them!

And I have to mention our two birthdays (actually 3) this month! Bill celebrated another year around the sun🌞 and our youngest Irish twin celebrated one as well just yesterday!🍀 And the third just happens to be our youngest of our two fur babies...I won't even dive into all words that describe this fur creature, but just know she is extremely loved!

Here's wishing you all a HAPPY SPRING! Remember, March winds bring April showers...☔️