Love my Family & Friends!

Just became overwhelmed with love for everyone I know!!People in my life have no idea what they do for me and how I feel about them. Sometimes I think back to times before and know in my heart that every single person has come into my life for a specific reason and tho I did not see it at the time, I know it was good! Thank you to EVERYONE who has ever stepped into this life of mine!Know that you are loved and cherished! I LOVE YOU!

Lazy Sundays

Today was one of those Sundays where I just didn't get up and motivated until it was too late to go to Church!! Hate when I do that but Mark was the same way too, both of us snoring away the morning! But I guess we just needed it!
I am embarking on a new thing. One of my customers works at a cancer care place not far from the bookstore and she came in while I was having lunch and making yet another hat. We got to talking and I told her I am a survivor and we (the seniors & I) had made hats for chemo patients and I was always making some for friends & family and she asked if I was willing to show how to her people. Well of course I said Yes, why not share my gift with others? I plan on leaving a bunch of yarn and some looms so someone else can do hats too, who knows maybe I will go back after the first time. I am pleased to be clean from cancer for almost 9 years now so why shouldn't I pay it back? Wish me luck!

New Years Resolution

OK this year I vow
To read my scriptures EVERYDAY,
Not go to town on all my days off,
Finish all the hats on looms waiting to be done,
Not to buy anymore yarn till I empty at least one basket,
Give away at least one hat a week.
Tell my hubby I love him more often,
Talk to my children more often,
& be a better person everyday!

Things I cannot live without!

1:My dear sweet loving HUSBAND Mark
2: FAMILY
3: Honda Ridgeline
4: Knitting!!
5: Friends
6:REQUIP!!!!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year 2010, so is it two thousand ten or twenty ten? Either way I had certainly hoped for my hover car by now or maybe my automatic kitchen, ask for something and, blam, it's in front of us!! What about the room which turns into different experiences?? So much for the "FUTURE" Here it is and well, lets see, i do have that microwave that makes popcorn in a couple minutes or heats my hot cocoa in a min!! And how many times have I stood in front of it and thought, come on hurry!!
Anyway,,,,It started off a great year, we had Crista & Jr here overnight and celebrated Midnight New York time! Works for me and it worked for them too!! We took off in the morning for the craft store and got "stuff" to do, Painted, crafted and talked all afternoon, I love my grand kids! they are so creative and interesting. And as a BONUS, I now have multicolored bird house for Grandpa to hang up!! I think we used just about every color in the rainbow! And I do believe the trees are now big enough to actually hold a birdhouse! Ya for us.
This year has got to be better than last year, I am blessed still with a job, 3 days a week at the bookstore. Love the place! Mark's business has tanked a bit but he is always picking up work along the way, sometimes paid, sometimes bartered for something we need.too often as a favor. But we are surviving by the Grace of God! We love each other and have a paid for roof over our heads!! We try to keep the bills to a minimum and will survive!! Food Storage Is GOOD!! Thank you President Hinkley for drilling that into my head!!
Don't know if anyone ever reads these blogs, but they are merely for my own self,if no one else! Happy New Year 2010!!

Things about Mark & I

Mark and I met May 16th 1996 at Blueberry Hill restaurant, I had picked him out of a book at a dating agency, he ok'd the pick and we met! Spent 7 hours in the diner and talked about EVERYTHING!! I had no idea he had to travel home 45 mins and then turn around a few hours later to go to work at 6 am! Our next date was shorter but great and our third date was the movies Mission Impossible, with David and applebees after. Things rushed along and we were married on July 27, 1996~727, an airplane so he can remember. We have had our ups and downs but all in all its been so far a great ride!! We have blended the families and have 4 grand children.
Mark's business has slowed down but he has been finding work everywhere and is keeping busy, I am pleased that he is so handy and able to support our little family! I am working at Amber Unicorn books 3 days a week and am crazy busy on the weekends(wish that would stop) Mark is the Elder's Quorum President and I have just been released from the Relief society presidency( YAAAA) He is still looking forward to camping a few more times this winter, don't quite understand camping in the freezing cold, but he loves the solitary time, tho the last time he went he said he wished I was with him all alone in the mountains, aww I loved that thought! I am still hooked on yarn and am always knifty knitting hats!! Did some craft shows and made some $, enough to keep my addiction going!! We are a comfortable married couple that enjoy each others company most of the time!! We keep "things" alive too but that's too personal!! I love my life here in Goodsprings with the best guy around!!

Andrea Bocelli

Once again I won tickets from the KDWN radio station and Heidi Harris show! This time to see Andrea Bocelli!! Decided it was a good idea to take friend Karen because our freindship had waned lately and needed to be renewed!! Found out a few things about her too, but that's another story,,, Karen drove as my Requip makes me unable to drive after 8pm, the time of the concert! We left here at 6:15 pm and got gas, dropped Sarah at her friend's and hit the freeway, Oh my goodness!! Backed up on the exit ramp, backed up on Tropicana and it took 35 mins to go 2 miles,because everyone had to be in our lane to turn into the MGM and they were all in the wrong lane, Karen is as bad as me in no patience with jerks on the road and the so called 'nice' cars that let the fools in our lane!!! Anyway then had to park on the 5th level as the valet was full, the escalaters were broken and it was already 8:30!! Walked about 2 miles thru the casino, shops and hallways,,,finally got to the arena and there is crowds filing in , all late like us!! Funny lady takes our ticket saying, Andrea Bocelli didn't wait for you, Ha Ha! finally found our seats, some guy is in one of our seats goes oopps and moves,settle in for an AMAZING CONCERT!! Cried at various parts but it was GREAT!! We figured out during the intermission that karen and I have gone to more concerts together than with anyone else!! We saw Davey Jones,FREE I won tix,Chigago, Karen got freebies, Engelbert Humperdink, Karen's freebies, but was cancelled after we got in our seats, he was sick, and the this concert!! I have also won Bette Midler tix last summer and took Myrna.
Ok so we are on the way out of the arena like a herd of cattle, slow moving and only 2 sets of doors out!! took 35 mins to even get out of the shuffling madness, needless to say my meds make me weird on regular nights but here it is 11 pm and I am loopy by now!! We got ice cream at Haggen Daz~$16 bucks for 2 sundaes, walking out to the car I got all woozy and nauseas, that passed when we sat in the car, It took 5 mins to get to the freeway!YAA But on the way home I had her pull over and lost my sundae!! Darn,$8 bucks tossed on the side of the road! Karen is a great friend to have put up with me!!We had a great time cept for the traffic, herding and puking!! Hope I can win more concert tickets soon!!

Craft Fairs!

I have done very well at the craft fairs with my addictions!! At the PinkPeas openhouse/craft fair i sold a ton of hats and this past weekend at the Sandy Valley Culturati Craft Fair I sold hats, Fleece blankets and neck rests!! Made more than enough money to pay myself back for supplies and to continue the addiction!! A friend on FB said she added it all up and has 27 MILES of yarn and I do believe I have more than she has!! I just can't help myself!!! If I see the sale I have to have!!and have to have in all the colors!! Thrift stores are wonderful for yarn!! After spraying it all down with Lysol, I wind up balls and get to work, I am almost never without a project on the loom, There is one in the truck, one at work and 2 or 3 at home too!! At least this is a legal addiction!! Pat said our senior group needs more men's hats for the homeless so here is another opportunity for me to give back!! I am even knitting now ehile on the internet!! Cna't stand to wait for my dial-up to go from page to page!! Love to knit!!!

Are You?

Is anyone paying attention? Have we all lost our minds? I am having a tough time believing what is going on lately.It needs to stop!

Fall is finally here

The temp was on the cool side these past few nights, which means Autumn is here. Wish the trees would change but they don't do that here in Nevada, just one day you go outside and all the leaves have dropped off the trees! I miss the New York Autumns but not the rest of the year there!! And I miss my friends so much too.

Being Present

Working at a bookstore, I don't exactly get to read...just skim books so when someone has a semi-vague idea of a book they are looking for,I can have a semi-vague idea of which book it is. Anyway I had a book being processed today and opened it to a section talking about "being Present in the Moment" How many of us show up but aren't really "there"?? Everyone raise your hand!

We go to work, sit at our desk and do things by rote, checking the clock for when lunch time is, then show back up to the desk and watch for the go home time. Do we LOVE our jobs? So many can't say Yes! ( I LOVE my job!!thank goodness)

Do we LOVE our Families?? Can you say you are overjoyed to drive up the driveway and get home? When you hear the door open, do you stop what you are doing to greet your kids or spouse?

Lets try to make our lives lived

'IN THE MOMENT!!

LOVE EVERYTHING YOU DO OR DON'T DO IT!!

*Ice Candles*

Take a clean milk carton, the square waxy paper kind. Let it dry after cleaning it. tie a long wick onto a pencil and place onto the top of the container. Melt wax in a double boiler, use a pan you dont want anymore, melt wax, leftover candle butts etc. while wax is melting fill carton with ice, pack it in there!Center the wick OK Heres the fun part....put this ice filled container on spread out papers to protect your counter , carefully but quickly add the wax to the ice, fill it up to the top. wait about 10 mins. pour out the water and let candle rest for about an hour. Peel off the container from the candle and admire your excellent creation! Clip off the pencil and enjoy the candle, remember to burn it on a plate so no wax melts onto counter!

Waste Not~Want Not

What happened to me? I remember my parents reusing EVERYTHING!! We would use milk cartons for Ice Candles* Reusing Foil by washing it and smoothing it out, Carefully folding up paper bags to save for lots of craft projects from balloon paper mache stuff to covering our school books. I remember saving soda bottles to take to the store where we got a few cents off the next few bottles of soda we bought! AND these sodas were few and far between too! I drink somedays 5 sodas a day now,UGH! When my oldest son was little we would save cans to take to the A&P and stick them in a machine that ground them up and gave him a nickle each! If they brought those machines back we could probably recycle every can in the US.
Gramma had the tinyest little garbage can in her kitchen, the size of my wastebasket in the bathroom... and she only emptied it a couple times a week! All the veggie peelings went to the garden, all the paper from the meat went to the sink or formed into a small bag for the peelings and then dug into the ground to feed the plants, most liquids came in bottles, milk was delivered in the early morning a couple times a week and if it was winter, we got the cream all frozen for breakfast!!What a treat!! Hersheys syrup from a can poured over the frozen cream, OH MY GOODNESS!!
During the summer, the ice cream man came by everyday and we got popsicles and saved the sticks so we could make little snowflakes in the winter, glitter and glue and some time, boy was that fun! Now we go to walmart and buy the sticks in a bag or , worse buy the homemade snowflakes at a craft fair!! again UGH!
What happened to us?? Let us all decide today to save stuff, reuses stuff and try to make just a little less garbage this week!

Blast from the Past

This past week was exciting! I got a message that someone on Classmates had left me a note. Well of course I go to read it and its a puzzle....What did Lincold do for the slaves? Made them Freeman...Which is the name of the street I grew up on. It is signed Michael J (won't finish to protect his privacy till I ask him) Ok so I am curious, I really don't remember this guy so I send a note back,"who are you?" He writes back that we had dated for 2 months and I dumped him before new years back in 1978! Still no recollection! Have all my old brain cells died?? So I ask a bunch of questions relating to guys I dated back in those days,,,,well none of them are him(EMBARRASSING!!) Mark thinks it's funny that i cannot remember him. Ok another email comes from Mike with his CB handle the Professor!! AH HA Now I know who it is!! Whoo Hoo I am not totally brain dead!! Memories flood back and I remember but am still fuzzy. Anyway he's doing ok and is married, for 30 years !! 4 kids and 1 grandchild!! I give him all my catch-up info about my wonderful Mark and the kids and grandkids and there ya go. We shared some good, special time together but I was a young, single mother, selfish with my time and struggling to find my way and broke his heart right before the New Year celebration. I sometimes dislike the person I was but know it has made me the person I am. I hope to keep a dialog going with Mike and get to know his family too!! It sure is fun to go back in time!

Hats

I have a new passion, Hats made on the Knifty Knitter. I believe I have made at least 100 of them in all different sizes, from Newborn size to adult size. I am now a yarn junkie, I see it on sale, I gotta buy it, I want to hook all my friends too, So far I got Kathy hooked, even gave her some yarn to keep her going!! Hehehe, Thanx to Pat for showing me how to do this and getting my hooked. Here are some Pix, The red & White on is made & modeled by Kathy,Red& Purple by me and the Pink & Fucia made by me and modeled on my granddaughter, Plus all the hats our senior groups made for Chemo patients and newborns!!

I am planning on showing my motherin law and sisters in law how to do these too and get the whole family in on it!! Watch yourself or I will get you addicted too!!

Hunter

Hunter is our fourth grandchild and the nearest one to us. We get to have him over alot which is a true blessing!! This weekend we had him so his mom & dad could go to the races. He is all Grandpa's boy!! I am ok to have around as long as we are alone, but once Grandpa walks in all I get is "NO" Too Cute! Gotta love him!!

Life is GOOD

The weather has been GREAT these past few weeks! Not at all like a regular Las Vegas June!!Windows are open and blankets or on the bed!! I LOVE IT! If someone was to visit here this week they would want to move here! By the time they do mobve it would be August and it would be like HELL here!! But what the heyyy, I live here and love it coz I am adaptable!

We have lost a dear friend who lost his Cancer battle this month. But as I know what a good and true member of the Church he is I know where he has ended up, and I do mean up!! We will miss his person but have his spirit with us always! God bless you Tom Kenney!! See ya!

Mother's Day

I have very mixed emotions about mother's day. I wasn't always the nicest mom to my boys, I wasn't "there" for them, I worked so much and wasn't the nicest person to begin with! I like to think I am a better person and a better mom now tho. I do my best to be a great Gramma and hope my grandchildren have wonderful memories down the road of me! Someone asked me what Mothers day means to me and I could first only think about how it was when I was a kid. My sister and I stripped Mommy's lilac bush almost every Mother's dayto give her big bouquets of flowers and made burnt breakfast for her. Lilacs always remind me of my mom. My boys loved me and gave me cards every mother's day, even burnt breakfast in bed! My mom is gone now but I know she watches over me. Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful women in my life who in any way mothered me!!

What a Day!

What a wonderful day this has been! Our stake had a track meet today and my wonderful husband Mark ran the 5K!! Came in under 42 mins and # 141 out of nearly 500 competitors!! Who woulda thought he had it in him??? I am one proud wifey!!
While there setting up our area in the stands, I see someone I think I know from a way long time ago!! I watch for a few minutes and then go over and holler her name!! Leah?? Oh my goodness,,It is her!!! I haven't seen Leah in over 15 years!! I am so excited and so is she!! She doesn't live here but is visiting her sister Tasha, We all worked together years ago when I first moved to Vegas in Morrow's nut house!!. Neither one of us were members of the Church then but the boss was. I wonder is Sallie Adair knows about the seeds she planted all those years ago! Anyway, we exchanged #s and she wants to move back to vegas area and I cannot wait to get together with her and share whats gone on in the last million years!!! I love this Church and the opportunities it gives me to make and keep freinds, old and new!! Thank you Heavenly Father!!

The age we live in...

Well, in this age of "instant" everything, I have been able to get in touch with people I have not seen in many years! Found my old next door neighbor on Facebook, High school buddies on Myspace and Facebook and I meet the nicest people just talking about computers and blogging. Met a nice woman named Linda when she came into the bookstore to find a book on blogging, Told her to use it as a journal,I do. We got to talking and come to know we have so much in common, both LDS, both wanting to keep in touch with family, both wonderful women!! I love making new friends on the "net" and in person! As someone once told me "I have never met a stranger"