Wow, thanks Kathi, I especially like the 2 parts butter!

HASH BROWN POTATO CASSEROLE BY Kathi

1 (26 oz)thawed shredded hash brown potatoes 1/2 stick melted butter
1 (15 oz)can cream of chicken soup 1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 (8 oz) sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Melt butter, add soup,sour cream, onion; mix well.
2. Add Hash Browns and stir into soup mixture.
3. Add cheese, saving some for the top.
4. Put into greased 13x9 baking dish.
5. Top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake at 350, uncovrd 45 minuts to 1 hour....until golden brown.

Adapt to however you want...different cheeses, salsa,chopped onion.. etc.

Yum , can I have your recipe, I'll make some for Easter breakfast at church. I'm already scheduled for a quiche.

Sorry Pat, I actually missed the waitressing route. I did go to the AW to eat but not to work. It used to be a busy place.
Multitasking...sometimes...not lately!
Karen, hope your weather warms up...we are rainy, I think you sent that this way. It rained so hard tonight before supper...huge huge puddles outback..good thing we have the drainage in the basement! Have fun with your sister. I am sure you will find something fun to do together!
I have school tomorrow...sigh...we are having a staff breakfast before school, so I had Neil help me mix up some HashBrown Casserole...everybody likes it and wants me to make it everytime....so, I'll bake that in the morning and it'll be hot for the breakfast.
Wishing everyone a fun weekend!

I am definitely not a multitasker. I can't even concentrate on my exercises at Curves if someone talks to me. And everyone knows not to talk to me in the kitchen. Either I'm talking or I'm doing something else, not both at once.

Oddly enough I have always enjoyed waitressing. don't ask me why, and I think I was good at it and could be again. However, the new restaurant opening is delayed so I don't think I'll be taking a job if offered since my availability in the summer is so sketchy. I'm bummed.

I remember our A&W days fondly don't you Lori and Karen and Karen. Kathi did you work their too my memory isn't real clear on that. We ate so much stuff free whether we were supposed to or not! I didn't like it when it was raining though. they had these ugly, heavy brown coats for us to wear. I even met some guys while I was working that I dated. Just another car-hop tart!

Today was terrific here. After class I stop and applied for a waitress job on the way home and then at the superintendents office for substituting. The afternoon was warm and I raked in the garden freeing up some iris. Then I enjoyed a cold HIPA in the sun. Now we're going to have a burger and rice for supper. A quiet evening home.

Pretty funny Lori!!! April Fool's Day entertainment...kids didn't know the difference between fooling someone and scaring them...
I made a mushroom, onion and rice soup tonight for dinner...it was pretty tasty. Of course, I took dinner over to my neighbor...(along with some leftovers)...now I am wanting chocolate pudding....which I won't make.
Nothing much new here....it was damp, raw and rainy here today...but temps tomorrow are suppose to be close to 60. That is what we are waiting for!!
Hope all is well with my friends...

Hi you guys. I'm mad at all of you...........April Fool's! (Okay, okay, I know that's pretty lame, but I couldn't think of anything better.)

Kathi, you are definitely very nice, but I can also definitely understand how tiring that can be! That lady is lucky she has you for a neighbor. I have a 97-year-old neighbor, but her unmarried sixty-something-year old son lives with her and takes care of her. Doesn't seem like he has much of a life. I feel guilty most of the time that I barely go over to see her--though I've written a few poems about her! (Does that count for anything?!). Last time I saw her, it didn't seem like she really knew who I was anyway.

Patti, I don't know if the readjusting gets easier because I fly a lot. It just seems that when I'm away for a shorter time, it's easier to get back into things here.

My gosh Kathi, after all that she was released. I can well imagine her daughter was mad. They're going to have to figure out something other than having you watch out for her. That's quite a responsibility. I know it's not in you to just let her monitor herself. Her family really needs to step it up here.

Do you ever get tired of being "nice"???? Its not that I don't want to be nice but it can get to be exhausting. We are having all these budget issues like I've told you...and some want to talk all the time to be about it....with me....Saturday, my elderly neighbor, whom I adore...came over while I was outside reading in the sun, chatted for a while and then walked back to her house. I watched her get there safely..and a few minutes later she is on her steps ringing this bell on the side of her door and waving...so I go over, and she is in the middle of a stroke. I get her to the hospital, call her daughter who lives 2 hours away....wait there at the hospital with her until she comes...a little traumatic for us both...yesterday, I go and visit with her at the hospital for a couple of hours...today, I come home for a few minutes before going up to visit her, call her hospital room to see if she needs anything brought up only to find out they released her a couple of hours before..so I call her at home...she is out feeding the birds...sigh...so I go over and make her go into the house...make her supper and call her daughter who had no idea that they had released her....she had talked to her twice during the day and nothing was said to the daughter about releasing her...so she is upset...and I feel like I have to check on her until they figure out the arrangements of care for her. She seems to think its fine to stay alone....luckily, it is only her speech that has been effected....I am sure she will be fine, I just don't want that responsibility of making sure she is. Anyways, I guess I will still be nice....We had talked about her helping me clean because I couldn't scrub things..to which she had responded no, I don't think so....so I told her...next time, she didn't have to be so dramatic and just say no!

The sky is bright and I'm seeing more and more of peoples yards now. I'm looking forward to seeing what might be growing in the raised beds here. I've seen signs of Iris I believe.

Lori are you feeling like you're back to your CA routine again? Since you make the trip so often is is more difficult or does it get easier to just get back to the day to day?

I'm off to a birthday party cookout today and then knitting in Orono at Fiberphilia.

beautiful spring rain today

It's nice that you can appreciate the sunshine after all the bad things going on! I don't have a black car, but my son Rafi does, so I'll have to let him know about that. So the farmers have to get their cows to stop farting?!!

Dead hens...pretty funny, huh....
I am sitting here and Neil has the news on....after watching Glen Beck's show and now the news, I am so tired of it all...Lori, I hope you don't have a black car in CA...as of 2013 they will be illegal (so the news said) because it will use much more air conditioning to cool it down making the emissions more. Dairy and small farmers watch out too....cows are producing too much gas...got to tax the cows...Karen, are you going to host a tea party on April 15th??? You could have Glen at your home...I told Neil that's what he should do....
We are in such a turmoil here in Springfield with the budget not passing the first time, the superintendent has sent pink slips to 60 teachers...including eliminating all music and art programs...it is a "threating tactic" or will/can he really reduce the staff that much IF the budget doesn't pass this next week??? Makes it such a joy to go and try to teach children...So, of course, everyone is edgy...plus we are making up days on the next 2 Saturdays...
Good news is my hand works really well...although I am still not twisting and lifting on the elbow...Someone gave me a bottle of vitamin E to rub into the scars..seems to be working really well...so there is my medical advice of the day...use vitamin E oil on scars....
We had the most beautiful day here today..65 degrees!!! So so nice. I am sure the rain from Karen later this weekend...but for now the sunshine is heavenly.
Happy weekend everybody!!

Exercise is the last thing I get back into when I come home from a trip. My goal is to get back to Curves next week. That's nice that you have a group of friends at the gym to go to lunch with after you exercise! So we're hens now? What comes after that?!

Thanks, Patti. I'm glad you're getting something out of them. As for resting up, I haven't done much of that since I got back--just jumped right back in to laundry, bills, buying groceries, etc. etc. So different from being on vacation! It usually takes me a week to get back into things here. I don't know why it's going faster this time, but I'm not complaining.

Welcome home Lori, I found more of your poems today. Such a pleasure to enjoy them. Rest up.

Hi. I've been catching up on everyone's news. I got back from Israel this morning. I'm too tired to write much now. It was a good visit. Short and sweet. I had quality time with my family and saw my friends at the end of the visit. Two friends are going through difficult times with their kids. One friend's son suffered some kind of trauma in the army a few years ago. He was doing okay for a while cuz he had a girlfriend, but now she broke up with him, so he's really falling apart. Another friend's daughter was hospitalized for some kind of mental breakdown. Life seems so bittersweet sometimes. So much suffering--but also a lot of happy times....

Kathy, I'm amazed you can teach with all the construction going on. Just driving by Union St School looks as though the whole school is in a bubble of construction plastic and portable rooms. Sorry you have to make up days on the weekends. They used to build extra days in. This IS Vermont afterall.
Pat, your class sounds interesting. It's a whole lot different going back to school at this age, you actually learn cuz you want to and can find it interesting. The teacher also makes a big difference.
My Celtic Woman concert was awsome. There voices are so angelic. Even my son-in law enjoyed it. Course he had a few beers too. Sheila (my middle daughter)lives in Dunbarton NH just outside of Manchester.
I haven't seen my granddaughters for a while now. Lily is in Florida for 10 days and my little one was sick this weekend.
So we did a lot of yard work this weekend taking cae of trees Ron cut down. What a mess. Beautiful weekend tho. I can see 1/4 of my yard. Still alot of snow to go.

Hi Kathi, we have the same rule in the County as you do for 1/2 days. If we stay in the building until 12 it counts as a whole day. They move the lunch times around so that all the kids eat before we get them onto the buses. I haven't heard yet if they are going to have to do extra days. We did last year but I don't think we had nearly the same outage as you.

Dave left early this a.m. to go over to Sunday River and ski for the day with some friends from MA. Back tonight.

I'm going to follow your lead right now Kathi and go down to find my Easter goodies.
bye all

Happy Spring!!!!
Sunshine and mud...melting snow! I am sure we will see another storm before the end of April but at least we know that it will melt fast!!! We have 5 snow days to make up plus 2 construction days...so it has been decided we go for two half Saturdays...there has to be 50% of children present to count...so hope parents will want their weekends interrupted. I'm, of course, thrilled to go on a weekend....seems a little off to me that its okay for us to do a half day on a Saturday and have it count as a whole day...why can't we make up snow days like that? If there is a early release day, we have to eat lunch at school to make it count as a whole day...so not quite sure what this difference is.
My hand is doing much better and I can type two handed for a little bit at a time...my elbow is still stiff and sore but healing nicely...did some lefthanded cleaning this morning!
Headed to see my grandbabies tomorrow for the day!!!!!!!!!!! I found lots of Easter treasures leftover from my mother that I am going to share with them.... I will post some pictures over the next few days for your enjoyment...snicker, snicker.

As a matter of fact the base age to attend courses here is 50! It called the Senior College; it's affiliated with the University of Maine. Theresa, a woman I met just after moving here has been a good friend to me and she was going to take the course. She encouraged me to join her. We're pretty sure we're the youngest heads in the room. Interestingly with many of the students our parents' age they remember things that happened in world history that we don't. They'll say "Well in 1956 such and such was going on" We go "Ya sure".

I had my first class in European History today. It was amazing. The professor is really something. Very opinionated and happily so which makes for a lot of laughs.

I'm glad we got the Honda when we did, I'd hate to be using the truck to drive 45 minutes to school. It's a pretty drive along the coast at least.

This weekend we make a strike against our basement mess and really empty boxes and organize down there. I want my bread maker and i know its down there somewhere!

Isn't it amazing that we can all keep in touch with each other no matter where in the world we are! I am so glad that you are enjoying all those special family moments, Lori...Karen, happy that you had a wonderful sister vaccation, though I missed talking to you. Pat, don't you love that new car smell??? I can actually use my right hand lots more after 3 weeks of uselessness....my elbow is still healing, guess the tendion takes longer to heal...so by the end of the day, I know that I have been moving it....plus, I can only type with both hands for a few minutes before it begins to pull, so then I go back to my great one handed style....
I am not sure where all our "guys" are....maybe we do scare them away, although not intentionally! Come back boys!!! (men).....Have a great day everybody!!

Karen, I know what you mean about connection with the family. That's what I needed this time, too. I guess that's what I always need when I come here, but this time the visit is shorter than usual, so I've mostly been going back and forth between the kibbutz where my parents and my sister Amy live and Modi'in where my sister Katie lives. I've only seen one friend so far, but I'm saving a couple days at the end to see my other friends here. I'm really enjoying Katie's kids (ages 7 and 10). They're so cute! I'll be back in L.A. on March 24.

Good to hear from you Lori. It sounds beautiful where you are right now. Please give my regards to your family, it's been so many years. Enjoy.


We've purchased a new Honda CR-V; Royal Blue. Traded in the truck. I'm not a County Girl any longer. We put 400 miles on it this weekend going over to NH for a Mystery dinner Theater. Had a great time.

Hi. I'm at the kibbutz where my parents and my sister Amy and her family live. It's nice to be here in the winter when all the wildflowers are blooming. Usually I'm here in the summer when things are more dry. I've been doing a lot of walking, especially when I was in Tel Aviv with Amy. There's a promenade along the beach in Tel Aviv and a lot of people walking and riding bikes there. Winter here is not like your winters there in Vermont and Maine--though it sounds like you're finally starting to thaw out a little!

I'm thinking not going yo work for not being able to do my hair would probably
not go over well....I think its more the can't grib a pencil or scissors..they are just glad I'm back...Happy Wednesday!!

Hey there, no snow here, high 30s today and 40's tomorrow. melt melt melt melt melt

Sorry you can't do your hair. Should you take more time off?

We are having snow this morning, so a 2 hour delay for school, so far! Gives me time to try to get "ready"! One handed hair doing is not a easy thing...hopefully, today will go better!! Have a good day everybody....I know Karen said she would be away from the computer...just teasing from afar...You getting Snow, Susan or Pat???
Richard or Brian??? Karen??????? Lori?? (lol)

I think I remember Karen saying she'd be off-line while she was away. That would drive me nuts! Its, windy and warm and melting. Come on SPRING............

Lori, so glad you are enjoying your vacation with your family. Sounds like you are having a great time. Spring is certainly on its way here...rain and temps in the 40s is melting this snow and turning it into Oh, Lovely Mud!!! I am sure there will still be snow in the future but now it won't last for months! Karen, I know you are having a great time too ...don't they have computers in Florida???

Hi everyone. I arrived in Israel Friday afternoon, and Saturday we all went to a restaurant to celebrate my mother's birthday. It's the kind of place where you don't have to order. You just sit down and they keep bringing more and more food. The food was delicious! Then you go downstairs and sit on the mattresses and pillows they have spread out on the floor, and they serve you coffee, tea, and cake. It's in an Arab village up north (not in the West Bank). I'm at my sister Katie's house right now, waiting for my friend Wendy to come see me. Tomorrow I'm going to the kibbutz where my parents and Amy and her family live. So, as you can see, I'm busy and having fun!

Patti, I'm glad you got a clean bill of health, and, Kathi, I hope you're recovering and your arm is better. Hope you're all having fun. Bye for now...

unless you live in Arizona, you should turn your clocks ahead tonight. Hi Lori where are you?

I noticed this follower thing on the dashboard a couple of days ago. There was a gadget to download so I did and that's when John L showed up as a follower.

Good news, I got a clean bill of health from the clinic. Ta Daaaa

I am finding it very difficult to sit still and not do much...there are only so many tv shows and movies to watch...and books to read. Then Karen has the nerve to go on vacation! lol. Miss chatting! So, tell me what you are all doing to help pass my boredom!!

Celtic Women are Irish singers.
Glad we are all done pretending!
John Laplante are you hiding from us??

Excuse my ignorance, but what kind of music is Celtic Women? In high school I might have pretended to know what you were talking about, but I'm beyond pretending now....

Glad you're doing well, Kathi, and are even managing to appear on the blog!

hey Deb, it's Sunday night at 7 and Celtic Women just came on MPBN..........

Hi Everybody..I am alive and well...my surgery was on Thursday, a little more extensive on my elbow, with the tendion being more damaged then he thought it would be. It was repaired and wrapped from my fingers to halfway past my elbow. It is very sore today so I stayed pretty still...I can wiggle all my fingers. I will be out of school all this next week, so stop by! haha. Doing pretty well typing with one hand. my friends at school have made some meals for us so Neil doesn't have to do all the cooking...I can't do dishes either! Nice to have such good friends. Thanks for asking everybody.

Hello ladies, nice to hear from both of you.

I think it's now 3 days since Kathi surgery. She had said to me that she wondered how or if she'd be able to type. Although she said she was home and the surgery went well I haven't seen hide nor hair of her since.

Deb, no I'm not working yet I have been toying with the idea of doing substituting but then I wonder if perhaps I'd like to volunteer at the Discovery Museum in Bangor. Dave says I should wait to think about work after my health is straightened out. with all the trips I make to Yarmouth to the Women' s health care center there I suppose it would be difficult to hold a full time position at this time. I do volunteer at the library here one day a week. I knit with a wonderful group of ladies I met at church. They're a lot of fun.

Lori I'm glad you're going to be seeing your family again soon. It's great that you are able to travel that far. Your sons have become world travelers as well. I have a hard time bumping mine out of Portland.

Deb I'm anxious to hear how you like the Celtic Women Concert. I really like their music. Where in Nh are you seeing them?

It seems everyone is traveling these days. I envy the ability to get up and go. We're pretty much home-bodies, altho, Ron got us tickets to see the Celtic Woman concert next weekend. It's a favorite of mine and was a great Christmas present. I can't wait. We'll stay with my daughter and son-in-law overnite in NH.
I seem to have caught the bug my Lily had last week and missed 2 days of work. I've still got the sore throat. NOT FUN!!! I was just bragging how healthy I usually am.
Lori, you have such great traditions. What a heritage.
Pat, have you found employment yet or have I missed that? Looks like your keeping pretty busy.

I'm here. It looks like we managed to lose Richard again. Maybe he's yodeling in Switzerland. We had the big family dinner here last night so everyone could say goodbye to Omer. He's leaving tonight to go traveling for a while, starting in Panama. He's going to the youth hostel there that he and Rafi and a friend of theirs went to in December. He'll be working as an assistant bar tender there--for as long as he decides to stay there. Then he'll be off to other countries in Central and South America and will be surfing wherever he can. Surfing is his big love. He's really excited about going, but is also having a hard time saying goodbye to this girl he's been dating for about half a year. He'd like her to come with him, but she can't or doesn't want to. Oh well, I guess whatever is meant to happen between them will happen. I'm leaving for Israel next Thursday for 2 and a half weeks, and my son Rafi is leaving for a month in Spain to study Flamenco guitar. So it will just be Avi and Danit and Darren who are staying put for now.

Which day did Kathi have her surgery?

So Karen is in the sunny south and Kathy is out of keyboarding because of her surgery. I wonder just how quiet this site is going to be for a while? Yo0 Hoo Lori, Deb, are you out there? Has anyone seen Richard?

Travel safely Karen and have a great time while you're down there. We too hope for spring by the time you come home!

I like that cake, Karen!

I can't say yet when I'd be available in the summer. Maybe August. I know I'll be in Israel in July cuz my father is planning another family reunion, this time in Israel, and it will be at the beginning of July. We'll all be together again. The reunion itself will only be for 3 nights this time, but I'm not sure yet how long we'll stay in Israel. But do what's convenient for the majority, and if it works out for me, I'll come.

Well as soon as you world travelers have any idea of when you would be able to get together we can plan more deliberately. Right now we have interest! That's a great thing. Next we need a date but that can wait of course since it's still the dead of winter here. Boo hoo

That sounds like a great idea Kathi!

Maybe if we plan on a NE get together this summer, we can plan something "bigger" for our next time....Sounds like we could have a really fun time!!!

My thought Lori was that maybe since there are more of us "talking" now between facebook and the blog, that we might be able to get together centrally in NE since most of us are somewhere in NE or might be over the course of the summer. You all come back at some point over the summer and so I was hopeful that with a minimum of travel we could spend some time together.

I've never been to Georgia, so a cabin in the mountains or by the lake there sounds exciting. On the other hand, it would probably be easier (more central) for most people if the get-together is somewhere in Vermont or N.H. Either way it sounds fun. Maybe we can actually pull it off!

I'm glad to hear you're going back to church Deb. We've been in and out; with our several moves; of many churches primarily Lutheran. Our campground is owned and operated by the New England Lutheran Synod. With both the church we left behind in Presque Isle, Methodist, and here at our church in Bangor, there are many young families. But I can remember not too many years ago where that was not the case. In my early 30's my family was the young one. There was a time for quite a few years where young families were not "doing" church. I think there is an upswing again and I'm glad. I wonder though why that's not the case in your church though. Sometimes when a church goes through a lot of pastoral upheaval (does that make sense?) it turns current parishoners and potential newcomers away. That can take time to get over.

Pat, in answer to your other question, the community dinner is sponsored by the spfld, area churches. Each church hosts a dinner which is held I think 4 or 5 times a year, it's free to anyone, targetting the low income. This time it was the Congo church. I've just starting getting back into going again, not so regularly tho. Our church has gone through so many upheavals in the past few years as with many churches. Attendance has dwindled and more changes are due. We have an interim pastor still.
It seems amazing to me that so few younger people attend. At my work, we have 13 employees, there are 2 or 3 girls that have never been to church at all.

Well that's pretty exciting Deb. I'd absolutely love to have you all come. I wish there were more of us closer.

Our snow hasn't started yet but it'll be here for sure. I don't think I'll make it to my Dr. appt. tomorrow. Dave has forbidden me to try it. Isn't he cute?

Good luck Pat with your results. Karen, I envy your being able to rake and actually see signs of spring. It's snowing now, Ron said up to 10 inches before tomorrow. YUK.
We have our god daughter who's 12 staying with us for the weekend. I took her snowshoeing which she seemed to enjoy.
What is it with being 50+ that my body reacts so? I've always been quite healthy so having to slow down with shoulder pain is really a pain.(pun intended)
Spfld. is hosting the state bowling tourn. next month so we'll see how our team does then. We don't usually do more than the local tournaments.
I think it's a great idea to get together anytime. NH sounds good, or even Spfld. Karen, it would be great to make the trip to GA too. I'll pass it on to Janice and Linda on Mon. night.
We'll have to get the word out dpending how big a gathering you'all want.

Oh to be outside raking flower beds.....dream, dream, dream....
daffadils, crocus and tulips, oh my....daffadils, crocus and tulips, oh my....
snow drifts, hibernation and snowdays, oh my.....snow drifts, hibernation and snowdays..oh MY!

Calumet is a beautiful campground in Freedom, NH. there's a clean lake and shopping just north in Conway. It's about a 3.5 hour ride for us here in Hampden. It used to be 7 though. I have a camper there that would sleep several.

Sue rock was just saying that she lives not far from thear and goes to a quilting retreat twice a year at Calumet!