A Big Big Smile

I have a big, big smile today! I am so happy to say Jim RETIRED as of June 1st!!! It is so nice!!! This guy had worked so hard for so many years I just couldn't be happier!! He is loving every minute of it, too!!! Now for me to find a way for me to retire and life could be beautiful.

I actually knew last post that he had retired but I wanted to wait until he told his employer. He was on vacation that week and didn't go back until this past Tuesday. I know I am old fashioned but I am. We were all concerned that he would not like it because he is one that has to be busy, but he loves it and finds so much to do. He also would like to do volunteer work so that may be in the future, also. He loves the nursing homes so that may also be an option. Time will tell, but right now, we are both extremely happy campers!

Haven't really done anything worth blogging about. Just adjusting to me working and him not. But my house hasn't looked this good in a couple years. With my strength at a minimum I haven't been able to clean like I like. Jim has always said to tell him what I want done and he will do it, but I was not about to tell him I wanted floors or walls scrubbed after he had been on his feet for over eight hours. Now he does all that and I am loving that, too!! Wow. Such side benefits!!! LOL

I had this blog written and it blew away so I had to start over. If I would just listen to my friend, Serene, and copy as I go...anyway, Brian S. has been down from New Jersey this week. Yes, I said Brian "S". He ALWAYS uses the "S" in his name, for Scott. He even signs our cards Brian S. Yes, he is as strange as Jim and I. But when you excel at something...do it!! In fact, if his mail doesn't come Brian S. he throws it out. He says anything that is important will have the "S". :) Really did a great job with Brian...don't you think!!!  Anyway, the point of all this was to say he was down. He is on his way to see his friend, Doug, in Fort Lauderdale and take a continuing education course for his massage therapy. He needs so many new credits every four years. He also got to stop and visit some friends on the way here and to go to two stained glass factories. He does beautiful stained glass.

He made his dad a beautiful lighted aquarium stained glass scene, about 3-1/2 feet by 3. Just beautiful!! He has done commissioned work for people. Did a complete window for someone that shipped to California. He is quite good.

So we got to celebrate his birthday. He even brought his own birthday cake. A three layer home made carrot cake. It ended up about 10 or 11 inches high!!! Oh my!! It is delicious. I say is...because we are STILL eating on it. LOL He is also an accomplished cook/baker. He even travels with his pans and often mixer etc. because everyone  wants him to cook for them...and he HAS to have the right "tools" LOL LOL He is a real hoot!!!

I did finish a scrap page...LO...LOL this week, even with Brian S here. It is of Braisen Cole, Nancy's youngest. We went to the Strawberry Festival and he had to have his ice cream. He was so into this cone!! He was just eating away and enjoying watching everyone around him. He is ADORABLE!!! I love him so much. He is one of those kidders you could squeeze the stuffing out of!!

So that is it for now. Got to get some organizing done, and someone from Designer Digitals is walking me through backing up my ACDSee that I use to store my stash. So I want to try that. Then I am not sure what is going on. That is yet to be seen. So I am off and running anyway.

Hope you all have enjoyed the weekend so far and will make use of the rest of it. Till next time....

I really hate to mention it

after I complained all winter about how cold it was, but the heat is awful here already!! It is only 3:30 in the afternoon and the temp is 90 with a heat index of 102! Now normally that is plenty hot, but after the oh so cold winter, it is VERY hot. The humidity is awful. I was in the warehouse making my afternoon instant Starbucks...I say this as I am bowing...and sat for a few minutes and talked to one of the guys and my clothes were stuck to me!!! Thank goodness MY office is air conditioned.

This has been a fast week with only four days. It has been a busy one so it even went faster. The bad part was that Jim was on vacation and I wasn't. In case you missed my news, quite a while ago the boss pulled back all vacation and all sick days. I guess we are to work forever without a break. But anyhow, I wished that I was home with him.

Jim planted a plumeria tree this week. These are beautiful full sunshine trees known also by the name Frangipani or Hawaiian Lei plant. They have beautiful flowers in so many colors and they flowers are what they make the Hawaiian lies out of...that was a hard one! The fragrance is beautiful. The odd part is that after they loose their leaves they look like sticks in the ground. Very odd looking. But their beauty at the other times is worth it. Let me see if I can get a picture.

Aren't they beautiful? I love them. I don't know what color we have. We bought it at the flea market. He told us but I don't remember because I don't care. Just so I have one!! LOL and each one has it's own fragrance. They all smell different!

OK. Now that the boss came in and turned the air so it is getting hot in here. Why do they do that? They set their office where they want. He comes in here from the HOT warehouse and thinks it is frigid. Hang on. Going to go reset it!

Aw. It was OK. He didn't do much if anything to it. I think I was being harassed!! LOL My turn. I do it to him all the time!! But I didn't waste the trip. I took a break, too!!

I did a LO yesterday of Nancy's doggy! It is Shiloh. I love this picture. I about laughed myself silly when I first saw it and wanted to scrap it. Not my normal scrap style but I love it. I love the eyeballs on the super spy letters!!! LOL Click on it and you probably can see them better!

My Super Spy!!! I know our animals hate it but it is so much fun to dress them up. Zoe, our dog starts to be really close to Jim at Christmas because I have a Santa hat I love on her. She hates it. I love it. So Jim tries to keep her close so I will forget about it. I try to get her Halloween costumes but never have the money at the right time. And they are expensive, especially for that chow hound!!

Well, it is getting time to wind stuff up around here. Have nothing at all planned for the weekend. It is supposed to be hot and a few showers. Will find something to do. Gotta get Jim out of the house. He gets bad cabin fever. Me, I could stay in for months.

Have a great weekend. Do something fun!!!

A Real Nice One!

For Jim having to work yesterday, it has been a very nice weekend. I hate it when he pulls a Saturday!! I could go on and on why, but it wouldn't change the company's ideas so I will spare you all. But at least they let him come home when he got back to the shop. Usually, even if you have finished all they have sent you to do, you still have to sit there till 4:30. How stupid is that?? Oh well, I said I would spare you and I sure don't need to work myself up again over things that won't change.

So he got home early and we had the late afternoon to relax and then went out to do just a couple of errands. Came home and had a nice quiet evening. Now me...guess what I did most of the day? I know. Why ask. I scrapped of course. Now give me a break, I did a few other things, but...

Today, he computered and I of course scrapped. I did a page for a friend. I have all these people who want pages done and I try to work them in, but somehow I don't do that very well, I end up scrapping for myself. And then...Joe...at work who wants me to scrap his dog...when I do a LO and give it to him he greets me with..."Only one?"  Really helps you want to do more, right?? It takes time to do these and he thinks I can whip them out like a guppy giving birth to newborn. Ugh! I should add that Joe and I are very good friends and pick on each other that way all the time. He was only kidding!! LOL (I hope!)

Then we got going and went to Sears to exchange some things he got, and went to a free festival in a town near Clearwater. As it turned out...a bummer. So, as payment for the disappointment we just happened to cruise past, well, not past but in, to Krispy Kreme...Jim's biggest weakness...and had donuts!!! He has SUCH a sweet tooth. Me...it's fats and salts. I could look at sweets forever and never touch them. BUT since we had not eaten...I did touch.

Thank goodness for Jim, we DO NOT have a Krispy Kreme near us!!

Then it was on to Clearwater Beach. Of course, we knew this was a big mistake but we are not too smart anyway so we went. Bad traffic. Only drove through. Seemed like hours. Note to Gloria...if you haven't seen the beach for a while, you wouldn't recognize it. I will send pics. Beautiful, not functional.

So that is about it for this weekend so far. Nothing planned for tomorrow. Same ole, same ole. Side note, that is ole as in old...not Spanish like Ole!!!! Well, I guess it COULD be ole like Spanish...however...I don't really think so. Sitting at the computer and watching TV doesn't quite qualify for an Ole!!! Know what I mean?? But...thinking on it...we are old...er older...so it might just...nah...

Going to post the two scrap pages I did yesterday and today. I don't think I am caught up from last week but I am going on from here.

Hope you all will have a great tomorrow. Spend time with your family. They're everything. Relax and have fun.

This is an Okapi, a relative of my love, giraffes, not the zebra, at the zoo in Tampa. He does have a longer neck as you can sort of see in the bottom picture. He was so cute. Could have taken this baby home with me.

This is baby Jesslyn. Isn't she adorable?? But really, they can have her. As sweet as she is, I served my term...er I mean, been there done that...er I'm past that...what I mean is...never again!!! Thank you very much. It was great while we were there, I just couldn't handle it anymore!!! LOL As my mother always said, God knew what he was doing when he gave you kids while you were young. True, mother, so, so true. I could never keep up anymore!

I keep saying "What?" to everyone...

and then they point to their ear!! What is with this? Those earpieces that everyone...well, it seems like everyone...wears in their ears so they don't have to hold their cell phone up to their ears are driving me crazy!! It used to be that if someone's mouth was moving or you heard them talking to what seemed to be no one...they were the crazy one. Now...they act like I am the crazy one because I forget to check their ear before asking them what they said!!!

I think it is probably time we start ear implants so you don't have to have those things that look like a very overgrown boil or wart growing out of your ear! I do agree that they are probably safer than holding a cell phone and trying to drive, but I am not even sure about that!

I do all the driving in our family and if I get a call, Jim puts it on speaker. I find that I am not nearly as connected to driving while I am talking on the phone even though I have nothing to do but talk. And I am just doing idle chit chat. So I can only imagine what concentration loss there is on driving when salespeople and businesspeople are trying to talk about projects and so forth while driving. Just not a good thing.

I guess I just have not gotten hip yet, but oh well, I would like to think about safety first. I know all of us have had close calls or jerky drivers near us only to see their first priority was talking on the cell phone.

Wow, Feel so much better. LOL I am sure I have changed so many people's thought on this!!! By the way...forget making a law about it. Who has time or manpower to enforce it?  We just need to use common sense.

It has been a fun week. Another one of Jim's cousins he had lost contact with has found us thanks to Ancestry.com. We are starting to catch up on all the things in their life. That has been really nice.

And...da da. I have met up with friends that used to be our closest friends in Ohio. In fact, we even came to Florida together with our families. It was a hoot. Four adults, six kids. We would go into restaurants and adults at one table, kids at another. We had a system. We told the waiters and waitresses to make two bills, one a "C" bill and one a "H" bill. The kids would tell them what bill they went on!!! LOL We had a great time.

So now, we, too, can get to know each other all over again. It really has been a great week.

Gloria, my old friend...well not old...as in age...oh no! She is my age...and that IS NOT old, but old as in knew a long time...asked me what LO meant. So, it is short for layout, which is a scrapbook page. I forget that others don't know that, so I will have to mention it from time to time.

I finished a "LO" LOL today so I am going to post it tonight. It is our granddaughter , our DD's middle child.

Hope you enjoy it. Remember you can click on it to enlarge it here or go to my gallery by clicking on the link at the right side of the blog. Credits are there. I don't post credits on my blog. You know how I HATE to do credits.

Have to run. Lots to do tonight. Everyone have a great weekend.  Be creative and enjoy your family.

Humm. Just Wondering

Just sitting here, doing my normal afternoon stare out the window while I backup, and I notice something. The girl across the street that was running and pumping her arms out in front of her is there again today. But, oddly, the girl that was doing all those climbs up the deck is missing in action!! Do you suppose...that she is in a bed somewhere so sore she is on the disabled list??? Could it be that she over did it just a tad??? We will never know but my legs hurt for her over the weekend. See...all pain and no gain for all the grunting and groaning I did for her!! LOL

I had a wonderful weekend. Saturday, did nothing. Did not even get dressed!!! Wore my lounger all day and it was so nice just to do nothing. Well, I did something! I hemmed pants, potted around at house things and listen...did FIVE LO's!  I have never done five LO's...even in a week!! I think I am beginning to get the hang of this digi thing! Now I need to keep it up. To heck with the organizing!! Jim is no help! He says...you can never keep caught up on that anyway! Please, I don't need help ignoring it!!! LOL

I don't know, I must have used the tablespoon instead of teaspoon when I took my Geritol or Jim slipped me some extra in my morning coffee!! But it was a very fun weekend, except for not winning the lottery. Bummer.

Did a quick tutorial today on how to remove power lines etc. from a picture. Good thing, because I went to start a  LO and sure enough, it was one outdoors, and there on both sides of the person's head...you got it...power lines!! So that really paid off. I am really surprised at how good I did. (Patting myself on the back!!) Wish I had time just to sit and do tutorials. I love doing those. I love learning. I could be a professional student.

Well, I want to wind things up around here so everything is ready when it is time to leave so I had better start by winding it up here first.

Let's see, I want to post a LO and don't know which one I want to do. Humm. Guess I will do Brian while he was shark diving. Silly boy. Don't know why he does that. He says it scares him to death but he is an adrenalin junkie!! Right. If I want an adrenalin rush I will step on the scales!! Perhaps he is missing a chip or two. But to each his own!! I would rather scrap!! So let me go find this LO and I will post it and be out of here. Hope you enjoy it!!

Later taters!

What A Beautiful Day!!!

It has been a gorgeous day here today!! But, I have spent it inside all day and enjoyed it immensely. Have scrapped, talked to my kidders, hemmed pants, done a bunch of little things and watched a bunch of movies. Just finished watching Ghostbusters!! It was great to see that again! Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Annie Potts! What a cast!! So now I thought I would blog a bit before starting supper.

One of the regular visitors to this blog, Ben (He Stamps), is on his way to Florida today. Sadly, his partner's sister has leukemia and has gone home under the care of Hospice. They are coming down to spend some quality time with her. Please keep her, Eileen, and them in your prayers as they go through this difficult time. David, Ben's partner, just lost his mother this past fall, so this is really coming at a very bad time for him.

Not much else going on today. Do want to finish the LO I am on and start on one that I am itching to do. Got some great pictures of Princess, our kitty. They are so cute I am wanting to get going on them. It is not too often I have a backlog of LO's I want to do. I thought I would have to do some scanning of my old pictures this weekend, but it can wait a couple of days.

Here is the LO I finished today. It is of Oliver. Oliver is a little boy I know through Nancy. He almost drowned a year ago and they didn't know if he would even live. Well, here he is, at his 2nd birthday party! He, too needs a lot of prayer. He has come so far and is improving but the doctors are not real promising about his future. But...I am a believer in miracles and to me that holds no water. So I continue to pray for Oliver and his family.

I hope you enjoy it! It makes me smile when I see it! He is a beautiful boy!! God has blessed him and will continue to do so!

Isn't he just adorable?? I love him!!

This blog certainly has not gone where I thought it would go, but when I blog I just start typing like I would be talking, and it ended up with this...so I guess this is where it was meant to go! 

As always...have a great night...and enjoy your family!! They are a blessing we too often take for granted!

Very Nice Day!!

It has been a really nice day today. Couldn't have had an easier day at work. One guy and me here and the other guy left on and off and now for good!! Nothing going on and it was nice to have a day of ease for a change!! Just phones and I like them. I can talk to anyone all day!! But you would never guess I hate to talk on the phone. When I get home, I am very picky who I talk to, so you know if I talk with you...you are indeed special!!

You know, as I sit at my desk, across the six lanes of highway there is a women's correctional halfway house. I sit everyday and watch these girls walk and walk and do jumping jacks. Yesterday I watched on girl step up onto a deck about a foot or foot and a half off the ground. Then she would step back down and step up starting with the other foot. She did this for I am not kidding...a good 15 mins rested about 3 mins and did it again for 15 or so mins. That is work! Especially in the 90 degree heat. 

But my point...I watch them do this stuff every day and I grunt and groan with them and I have not lost an ounce. Now what is with that? If I am exerting the muscles in my head with each one they are and grunting and groaning with them, it should count for SOMETHING!!! What a bummer. Oh good grief. Now one girl is walking at a nice pace and as she walks is punching one arm then the other out in front of her. (Do they need to do this in the hottest part of the day??) I think if I were the house moms or whatever, I might be a little concerned letting them build their muscles up so good!! LOL Just kidding. LOL

Anywho...oh my golly, there is the deck stepper upper!! She is at it again. Must be some kind of addiction thing I don't know about. Don't know if I want that addiction any more than any other!!! LOL

I am going to post the LO I did last night. It is funny. It is about what is in your purse. It was a challenge on Designer Digitals that I somehow missed, but it sounded like fun so I did it anyway.

I just started a LO of a little boy of a friend of Nancy's. He had been critically injured when he fell into a pool when someone was watching him while his parents went away for a weekend. He has come so far but there are questions about his future. Please pray for little Oliver. I eventually want to document his journey to recovery, but not now. But I am doing his second birthday picture!! Not sure where it is going, but I hope to finish it tonight.

You all have a great evening and keep the home fires burning...or I guess I should say the air conditioning on!!

Back later.

It's Blogging Time

Hi everyone. I am back after a time off. Have been really busy, with just fun stuff. Been scrapping a lot and working on my ancestry. I am having so much fun finding Jim and my relatives.

I have connected with a lost cousin of Jim's. That has been a lot of fun. We are finding out about both sides of our families. I felt bad. He had tried to keep family reunions on Jim's side going. Sorry to say we never responded. Out of the area and at times really not into reunions. Now I would go. But he said the last one no one came. I felt bad for him.

I ask for prayer for him and his wife. He (Bill) was to have surgery for breast cancer (he is 67) and canceled it so his wife (Sue) could get a pace maker. So they sure could use our prayers.

I have been cooking supper the past few nights giving poor Jim a break. I can't stand that long so I just keep a chair handy and work a little and the rest. I can do most anything it just takes doing it a little differently. I think he has enjoyed having some of his favorite dishes. Some he had forgotten about but he sure did renew his memory quickly!

I will be back in a second. I need to see what the last LO was I posted. Don't leave!! OK. I am going to play catch up and post my LO's up to today.

This one is Vita di Amore. Life of Love. That is what I think of when I think of my Mom and Dad. They were so in love and so committed to each other.

My favorite part of this is the bird carrying the heart to them. I think of it dropping it off on them and flying on!

This one is of Jim and his Mom. Those two were a pair. He was the only son with three sisters and was very close to his mom. I remember once when she was kneeling down to scrape dog food out of a can to feed the dog and he walked by and gently pushed her shoulder and she sat right down on her tush!! She got up and took off her wedgie shoe and chased him through the house clear out into the street where they both looked at each other an laughed!! Family fun is the best kind, isn't it?? You seem to remember them forever! Hope you enjoy this one...it was fun to do.

BTW, she was a great mother-in-law!! Never said much about how you were raising your family, but if she did, you knew you needed to listen, because she was very concerned!!

And this last one I really like. I think because of the embossed paper. I used it on the rectangle and then "clipped" it to the heart to give it texture, too. Clipping for you hands on people is like gluing paper onto something like chipboard.

So that is what I have been up to!

Now I need to get busy again and scrap. Have to organize. That has been on hold not to mention other things. I am sort of tense right now so stuff I don't like I am not doing. That is my new strategy. Well, sort of. Some things, like bills, I don't like doing but am still doing that. I guess I mean stuff that can be put off WILL be put off!! LOL

Got to go wrap up the cooking. Ummm Pork chops and rice pilaf!! 

Enjoy you evening!!

Been A Fun Weekend

Boy since Friday I have been having so much fun. I have been scrapping, of course. But I just found another past time that is so, so much fun for me.

I have never been a biggie on family ties, but for some reason, probably because I have seen so many heritage LO's on Designer Digitals that are fantastic, I have become interested in heritage.

So I subscribed to Ancestry.com and started tracking the family. I am telling you, to me, at least, it is so addictive. I would even go as far as to say it is about as addictive as scrapping, and I thought scrapping held a category of it's own on addiction.

I started briefly on Thursday. Then Friday everyone was gone at work and I really hit it. I am really into this and having a blast. I only had a free 14 day subscription, but DS, bless him, offered to get it for me. I am totally excited. 

I have found a copy of my great grandfather's WW1 registration card AND my other grandfather's draft card. To be able to see these is awesome. Their actual signatures and all. Anyway. It is special to me. I haven't even really gotten into tracing events. I am still trying to get the family located. I have even received messages from family members. Do any of you trace your ancestry?

This is all I needed. One more thing to volley time for. My poor organizing is going to go on the burner. I can tell. Ugh. That is not a good thing!

But I did get another LO done.This is of Jim's father. We really don't have many pictures of him. I was thrilled to find these among our pics. He really was good at hiding from the camera!! I struggled with this one. Not that it was hard. But time consuming. I used a template, because I like the frame placement. But I totally redid it. Changed the print behind the pics from summer words to snapshots. Then had to recolor them all. Cut and pasted another frame so I would have seven frames.Changed all the ribbons from summer theme and colors. So it was just a lot of work. But I am happy with how it turned out. And being that this is probably the only one I will do of him, I wanted it to make me happy.

Got my car cleaned this weekend. Didn't wash it but got it all swept out and all the windows done. I have never seen a harder place to wash any kind of windows that in Florida.  I guess it is because the glass is so hot the cleaner dries too fast. Then any little smear shows up so dog gone good in this sunshine. But I did pretty good if I must say so myself. I swear. The windows were so fogged inside it looked like we smoke, and we don't. What in the world causes that? The only thing I can think of is that it pulls smoke in from keeping the air on outside air and when you stop next to cars that have smokers it pulls it inside. I mean these windows were almost impossible to see out of!! So now I am back in business. I hate a dirty car. (Thanks, Dad, for that pet peeve!!)

So, it is back to the grist mill tomorrow. How much fun is THAT??!! Aw, I guess that is what makes the weekends so dang much fun!! Here is the LO. Not posting it anywhere else till Monday. You are the first this time. Hope you enjoy.

Quiet Here

Quiet and somber feeling here. It is Joe's father's funeral in a couple hours and everyone has left. A sad time for us all.

I am taking this time while it is quiet to get my new LO up. It doesn't take long but it is still confusing to me if there is noise around. I do love the silence when everyone is gone!!! Wonderful.

Nice and sunny here. Only about 70 but very pleasant. No humidity at all. We are not used to that!!!

I have a couple things I need to get finished here so I guess I won't linger. I will post my LO and get out of here.

Hope you enjoy. This is the last LO of the meeting I had with my cyber friend, Lynn. She gave me some candy from London' in Ohio.  It is one of two candy companies in North Canton, Ohio. Outstanding chocolate!!! Ummmm.

I love to scrap. Could do it all day!!!

Going to get busy with real work!!! LOL See you later!

Has It Been That Long??

Golly! Has it really been over a week since I blogged? I can't believe it!! Didn't mean to get sidetracked.

Have had a nice but brisk day here at work today but got everything done and now it is time to play!! Yeah!!! 

I don't look for a lot to go on the rest of the week. Joe's father passed on the 14th of this month and the funeral is tomorrow. So most everyone...well, everyone but me, is going to the funeral. It is hard to believe that it took till the 29th before they could get a time at the military cemetery to have the burial. I had no idea they were that busy there.

Then he will go to Michigan on the 15th of April for a memorial. That is a long time not to have closure. I feel badly for him. His mother died about a year and a half ago.

Melissa sent a blogger's award to me. Thanks Melissa. Now I have to do what I am supposed to do with it and send it on its way to others who brighten my day with their blogs!! I need to get on that!!

I have done two new LO's since Sunday. I got the mojo flowing and it does feel good!! So I don't want to stop its flow!!!

I met one of my Designer Digital friends Saturday in Tampa and we had a blast!! It is so much fun to meet the people in person that you have gotten to know over the years. It is great to put a real live face and voice with them!! And it is so cool that when you meet it is like you have known each other for years...which you really have! So I am documenting that meeting. I still have one more to do and then back to doing heritage.

Hope you enjoy the LO's. Some have seen them already on Memory Makers forum and Designer Digital's gallery. 

After seeing my wonderful wrinkles in this pic I felt like running it through Photoshop!! That thing is wonderful!! But I decided against it. First of all, how would I explain all those wrinkles to the next friend I met in person!!! But I created another LO just to make me laugh at them!!

I don't know if I like this new blogger or not. I think I just have to get used to the way it works. Just a little different than I am used to. Gosh. I hate to end a sentence with a preposition...but what's a girl to do when it sound wrong any other way??? OK. I guess I could have said...Just a little different that I am used to working with...Nope that won't work either. Ahah. Just a little different than I am used to using. I think that is OK. If not...move on and forget it!!

Gotta run. We are closed and things are still open. Finally. I am getting ready to go home as soon as DH is here...and that should be momentarily!! Have a great night.

Came back to add one more thing. If you want to see the credits for any of my LO's go to my Designer Digitals gallery with the link to the right. I am tired of listing these credits everywhere. I think also, there will be a bigger view, but you should be able to click on the pic here and enlarge it. I haven't tried it since the upgrade. OK. I'm out of here!!

Happy Sunday to You!

Good afternoon...golly, I didn't realize it is so late! Happy Sunday to you and yours. Hope it is sunny and nice where you are at. Here...rain, but I love rain and we need it so I guess we are all happy. And the kids finishing up spring break at the beach are totally unaware it is raining!! Can't wait for about another week when we re-inherit the beach are back again!!

I have been working a heritage LO. Thus the reason I didn't know it was so late! Time just flies when I am creating. One of the most wonderful things there is to do!! I will post it, but of course no credits because I am posting here first. So you are among the privileged...if that is how you consider it!! LOL

Need to go to the store  but sure am not going out in this rain. Should break a little soon, so will duck out and get soap for laundry and probably something to grill.

Speaking of soap, have you tried the new three in one by Purex? Now DH does the laundry here and he is not one to change ANYTHING very easily. Very set in his ways kind of person. But when DD speaks he is fast to listen because she is usually right!! (side note. Why doesn't he do that with me? Point to ponder later.)

Anyway, she said to try these things; they are really great. So he did. They have the soap, fabric softener and anti-static stuff on on one sheet. You pull them out of the case. Throw it in the washer. Transfer it to the dryer with your wet clothes. They are GREAT!!! They can be kept in a nice little case but...not necessary. Give them a try. Remember, DD says they are great...so....!!

Got so much done this week. Two LO's, organizing my digi files, changed over the household files...alright...so I was a tad slow on that...big deal...put some clutter away...pretty good for me. I'm pleased.

Now I would like to hem two more pairs of my pants that I have had ready for about a month. Sounds like a good thing to do while watching a movie. Can you tell I am a tad laid back??? When I get to it...it is always there. Never once has something I needed to do gone away before I got to it.

OK. Got to run. Jim is about to take the dog out. When that happens...this is funny...as soon as the cat hears him get the leash, then the door closing, she comes a runnin'!! That is when she demands I get her brush and brush her. Is that called bonding time. Well, sometimes it ranks. It is usually when I am in "the  moment" of a great scrap idea and have to stop to brush the silly little runt!!! That's OK really. She is about the only cat I have ever really loved. So what am I to do?? She loves it.

OK. Here is my latest. It is of my mom and her parents. I need to dig some more and see if I can come up with more pics of our families. I am really loving seeing these. Must have to do with age!!! Hope you enjoy.

FRIDAY!!!

OK I had told you that my blogger wasn't working right and won't put the paragraphs where they belong. I have tried six time to get it to do it and it won't. So...add the paragraphs in your head today!! Boy, that bothers me!!!

It is finally here! FRIDAY! It just has been a long week. But, alas, it is over!!

Had a very quiet day at work. The guys, of course, had places they HAD to go and cleared out of here about noon. Did you know, Fridays are always a very busy day around here? Why, everyone just has appointment after appointment! Hope they sell, sell, sell, too!! LOL

But, anyway, at least I had peace and quiet. I scrapped all day and got a LO done of my dad and me. It is different for me, but I like it. Seemed to go together easily. That is novel, for sure.

Tomorrow, probably scrap and pot around the house. Like I said, Jim will be working, so I don't have any plans. I sure have enough computer organizing I could do!! I am still pouring through that. But making good headway!

I am really hungry. Ate lunch early and now I am regretting it. But I was really hungry early!! What's a girl to do? I would have a piece of peanut butter bread only I gave my bread to Joe today to make his sandwich because he forgot his bread. Jim always puts bread in my cooler. Don't know why. I think he said he likes me to have it to take my meds with. But I always forget to do it!! But my meds say to eat before I take them! Oops!

So I am going to post my LO and get ready to get out of here. Don't think it will be too long. He still had three stops left when I talked to him a bit ago. Then back to the shop then here. So...who knows!

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Hope you have a nice sunny weekend. By all means have some fun!!

Friday Eve!!

Great news, right. Well, sort of. Jim has to work Saturday. The weekend I hate. But, the weekend just the same.

Not much going on and I sure can handle that well. I like it smooth and easy.

It hasn't been great emotionally. DGD has been sick and it has taken them since Sunday with two visits to hospitals and a gastroenterologist to determine that she has gall stones. Poor baby. She has been in so much pain. But at last we know what is wrong and can proceed from here. Please keep prayers running for her. Her name is Siana.

I did finish another LO today. DD hates it, because it is of her, of course. Really, she hates this picture and mother loves this picture. She said if I want, go ahead. It is my LO. So I want and here it is. Really. You will LOVE it. She is beautiful, I think!

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I think it is pretty cool, don't you!! Sorry Nancy. But that is fact!! LOL

I am having trouble with my blogger. It is adding big spaces between paragraphs. So if I miss finding and fixing one, you will know why.

Going to run. Got to start closing this place down.

Back again later. Have a great day!

Hello Mojo!!

I laugh at this. You wouldn't. The one guy's phone here at work used to say, "Hello Moto" when it rang. This reminded me of it. I must have heard that thousands of times till he finally changed companies.

The mojo started to work again and I finished the LO of my Mom and Dad. This is the pic that I started with.

I LOVE this pic so much. It is Mom and Dad that I remember, the one I went home to every night.

This is the finished LO. I like. And that is what counts, I guess. I think they like it, too!

Larger view and credits

I love scrapping. Better yet I love digi! Thanks, Terry. You won me over and I am soooo happy!

I have to go. I need to work!! I will come back at lunch and finish!! Till then, be good!

And That's the Way It Is

I would love to just sit and spend a weekend watching TV. But is seems that all I can find most of the time is infomercials. At least in the mornings when I would love to grab a cup of coffee and sit back and leisurely watch some good TV. But, no, I can only find infomercials until midday.

I just don't get it. I pay the cable company to provide me with television programs and what do I get? Infomercials. So they really get my money and the money from the infomercial companies for buying their time. And boast they do about the number of stations they have, only they are full of paid commercials. Sure is discouraging.

But, that's the way it is, so I just have to record stuff to play on Saturday and Sunday. What's a girl to do?? I doubt that it will ever change. I do wonder if anyone watches those info thingies, though. Do you? I can't stand them.

I have, though, become a real fan of the free on demand movies. Really sorta love those babies. So that helps, too. There is only so much of Andy Griffith I want to watch at one sitting!! LOL

OK. Now. What have you been up to today? I have done a sum total of zilch. Potted around on two LOs I am trying to do and getting nowhere. I know where I want to go with one...it isn't going there. The other one, I have no clue where it wants to go, so it hasn't gone anywhere, either. Every time I woke up last night...not a good night to sleep...I would ponder them...and I suspect that was part of the bad sleep.

Here is the one pic I am using. It is of my Mom and Dad. DD gave it to me last weekend and I wanted to get it scrapped. I was going to do the Designer Digitals Saturday Scraplift with it but that didn't work either.

Isn't that a great pic? My Mom and Dad were so in love. They did everything together. They were great parents, too. Miss them both so much.

So, I will see what I come up with and post it when I get it done. I have no clue, so it will certainly be a surprise to all of us. Stay tuned!!

I did manage to get my shower but I still am not fit to go out. Jim cooked wonderful bacon and eggs today and so we haven't ventured any farther, or is it further, than that. Does anyone really know which word, further or farther, to use? One is distance I think. That doesn't help me. Can't remember which one it is!!! LOL Someone fill me in.

Well, going to go stare at my LOs again and see if any mojo moves me. If not, I will hit the gallery and see what inspiration is there.

You all have a great evening and don't think about tomorrow yet. It will certainly come in due time.

Friday Eve!!

My Aunt Middy told me never to wish my life away...like kids often do...wishing it was Christmas, wishing it was their birthday...and she would be proud of me. I didn't wish this week away, but I sure am glad it is Friday Eve!! I figure we have hump day, that makes it over the hump of the week, then there is Friday Eve and then Friday!! At last. Weekends are just so much more fun than weekdays. Don't you agree??

No one has given me a reason, yet, that I like, why time goes so fast over the weekends and the weekdays seem eternal. They always say something about because they are more fun. That is too easy; can't be the right answer.

My poor bother in Ohio. I talked to him yesterday and he said it was 86. Yesterday or the day before...anyway it was 86. Today it is 43. He said it was to be in the 40's over the weekend. Poor guy. He loves it hot. Would love to move back here.

We have had some really beautiful days and nights. Nice and warm during the day and cool at night. Perfect for me.

I finished a LO today. It is another one of my grinner...son #1. He was in at work and let me grab a pic of him. Those he had sent on the phone were just too hazy. So I added it to the old pics I had and came up with a LO I like pretty well. (See, I am following through getting the kids' pictures scrapped for them!!)

This was about the least amount of supplies I've used on a LO. I just grabbed a template, used it as a jump start and came up with this. I had it done, basically, and sent it off to DD who has her own web design company. She said colors are all off. Ugh. I worked at getting those colors. But I trust her keen eye, that is why I run stuff by her, so I said I would work on it while she exercised. I think I had the best end of THAT deal!!! LOL

So I basically changed all my colors out and bam...I really liked whatI got. She has never given me advise that has not satisfied my heart's desire. Sometimes I go kicking and screaming, but when I listen to her...I always love what I get. When I sent the next one...I got a thumbs up. It really is like having a teacher at my finger tips!! Love that!

So before I get longer winded, I will post and get out of here. Jim and Terry know I have to give details. It is part of my internal system. Them, they don't understand, that, to fully understand something, you need DETAILS. ALL OF THEM!!! Oh, add my DD to that group of "just the facts, ma'am". Brother. Some people just don't get it!

You can of course click here and see a larger view and credits.

That is pretty much it for tonight. Off to organize. Oh what will I do when I am done with it?? Scrap more, I guess.

What A Morning!!

I had the most wonderful start to my morning!! I was watching the news and it said at 6:28 this morning you could see the International Space Station go by for about four minutes and then a few minutes after that, the shuttle would go over the same path.

So out I go, figuring that in the city with the lights I wouldn't be able to see them. Low and behold...clear as a bell. There was the first one. I looked up in the sky and watched as the huge International Space Station went by, carrying people going about their day's work! Cool beans!!! It was awesome!! Bright as could be. I watched for about five minutes.

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

We had been to the Space Center and seen a replicas of this as it was being built. It was fantastic to have seen what it looks like on the inside and then to see it in orbit functioning.

If you ever get to Florida, be SURE to put the Kennedy Space Center on the agenda. It is memorable.

There is one tour that we took, not as many people take that one, that part of it shows where they launched the first satellites. There was a building a short distance away from where they would set up the rocket, and one person would be a the control board and another at the window. When the flames got to a certain color, the person at the window would tell them to launch!! What a hoot. We have come so far. LOL

Not being silly, but there was a day when we didn't have a wheel or fire...yet here we are putting people in orbit and on other planets. This world is mind boggling!

Anyway, about one minute after the ISS disappeared from site, Jim says, "There it is!" Sure enough. There going the same course was the shuttle they launched on the fourth, I believe it was. I truly was like a kid. It was wonderful!!

NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

So that has been the fun start to my day. I even took time off ALL my work because I just had to post this...I was excited!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day, too.

Happy Easter!!

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!!

Hoping everyone has a glorious Easter day. It is absolutely beautiful here today. Already 72 and beautifully sunny. Just a perfect day for Easter. Seeing the drab of winter turn into the breathtaking sunshine...better yet Sonshine!

Jim is out cleaning out gutters. Totally clogged with all those seed pods from March winds. Now I hear the lawn...or weed...mower! It is terrible looking here right now. It seems...coming from the in-house lawn and pest control man...that, because of the dry cold days we have had, the grass of course went dormant. It has rained and warmed up, but not enough to bring the grass out of its dormancy. But, however, the weeds don't give up. They think this rain and sunshine is great and are rapidly growing...so well that they are killing the dormant grass. The sod and seed companies are smiling, while the lawn and pest people are pulling their hair out because everyone has weeds and they are supposed to be dead!! (Only after 6-8 weeks AFTER you spray them!!) So goes life, right?

But the weeds still need cut. I swear they seem to be a foot high wherever you look...and sooo green. I guess cut down they still look OK. At least they are nice and green!! LOL

I think today I will get my TV working at work. DSIL is going to hook it up for me. I have tried everything...several people have...and can not get that darn converter box to work. Torrey will get it. He seems to be able to do anything techy!! He and Nancy are the ones that totally built this computer I am using. Wish I had just a little of that talent.

Well, I just finished a LO of DS #1. I had these pics of him and while waiting to take a good pic of him when he comes to have lunch with me next week, putting up "cheerfully" with a 'nagging' mommy that wants a great pic for this LO I have in mind, I decided to use them. So that is what I have been doing. Going to post it...give credits later, if ever, and go wrap up a couple things I need to do before I forget. So here it is. Hope you enjoy.

I never remembered having these two pics. The first is at 17 months and the second at 20 months. But he always was a "laugher". To this day he will keep you in stitches.

Enjoy every minute of today...for tomorrow...back to the grindstone!!! (And you WILL love every minute of it. Ya hear!!!)

If You Don't Shoot....

It is really quiet here. One guy left here and he is in his outer office. I love the quiet. It's beautiful. I am sad for those that can't stand silence. You learn so much when things are still and your soul has time to be with God. Probably why he said, "Be still, and know that I am God." Don't' you think??

I was ready to start on a LO of DS. Ended up doing the LO I posted the other day. I was waiting on a pic of him...from him...so I just started playing around with a quote I saw. Then when that got done, I had gotten the pic but remembered Designer Digitals was having a 5th Birthday Card Contest. You could win a $50 gift certificate for supplies in the store. They would draw at random. To enter you had to do a 5th birthday card. Wish them happy 5th birthday, use all Designer Digital supplies and enter by...??? "Oh no," I thought!! I had forgotten to keep track of the deadline.

Went to the forum and couldn't find it. That happens every time I am in a hurry. I can't find anything by search engines!! So I wrote Randy, "THE MAN" at DD's. He quickly replied that is is Saturday morning by 6:00 A.M. (This site is super, by the way. They really take care of their people. Answer email promptly, within minutes, usually...that kind of stuff. You gotta go there if you are digi!!)

So, I had to pull together a card really quickly! I am terrible at digi cards. I don't even do too many hands on. But I have liked the hands on I have done!! LOL But digi...BOO!!!

So I pulled one together. I needed to have an entry. For crying out loud...you might shoot and not score...but it is a sure thing...if you don't shoot you WILL NOT score!!! LOL So I had to come up with something!

So now I can start on the LO of DS who asked this morning if he got to see a sneak peak!! I will let him, I guess, once I get going on it. But he doesn't know that the LO never ends anything like it starts out. Guess it is a good time to let him find that out!!! LOL

Looking forward to this weekend. Jim has had a very long week having started a new route. So I know we will kick back most of the weekend. My week, too, has been long, but not stressful! Thank you, Lord!

Well now, I guess I need to go do the handful of filing I have to do from being so busy this morning.

Hope the weekend is great and relaxing for all of you. Blessed Holy Week to each of you.

Oh...Here is my Designer Digitals 5th Birthday Card. Keep you fingers crossed for me that the random picker is magnetized to mine!!

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