Getting back into the swing of things

I haven't posted since before Easter!!! What the heck?

I have let my job stress me out and keep me from doing some of the things I love!!

No crafting, no blogging make me a crazy girl!!!!!

I haven't even kept up on checking in on my favorite bloggers!!! Nor have I made any effort in the arrangements for the quickly approaching October 9th wedding!!!!

I can say that the big project at work is coming to an end!!! The stress should go way down by the end of the month!!!

Tonight I perused a few of my favorite blogs and this is what I found!

My friend Emily is back up over at Bunch of Scrap! Glad to see her back!

I also had to print out recipes that I must try from Crafty Sisters (Apple Toffee French toast bake, Blueberry Pecan french toast bake and Breakfast Egg Casserole) and Lick the Bowl Good (Chewy lime coconut sugar cookies)!

And I see my friend Julia at Julia Luvs 2 Stamp is making some great cards!!!

Hope you have been having a great summer!!! I am loving these cool evenings!!!

Hope to get back to you soon with some recipe reviews and some wedding favor creations!!!

Be back soon!

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, it has been nearly a month since I have posted. Not that I haven't had things to blog about. I have tried new candy recipes, made a couple of rag quilt purses and have been quite busy. But I just couldn't seem to bring myself to sit down and blog about any of it!!! For that matter I rarely use my computer at home anymore. It wasn't until about a week ago that the light bulb went on and I figured out why I don't want to use the computer at home anymore.

WORK!!!! My job has become so computer intensive that when I get home I don't even want to look at the computer!! I didn't even figure this out on my own. One of my coworkers commented on our new "program" at work and how we have to spend so much more time on it now, that he never goes on the the computer at home anymore!!! That was when it hit me and I realized why I don't like to go mine either!

That being said, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!!!! Hope you are baking, having fun with your family and friends and enjoying every day of the Christmas season!!!!

I do hope to develop a balance on my computer use sometime in the near future so I can get back to blogging about fun stuff again!!!

Just a little catching up...

It is so hard for me to believe that my daughter will be entering her 4th year of college in August. Even harder to believe that my baby boy started the 7th grade this last Tuesday. Here is my handsome young son on his first day of school. Seems like just yesterday my daughter was starting 7th grade! Wow! I planted 4 pumpkin plants a couple of months ago. This is what they looked like a month or so ago. This is what they look like today! WOW!!! I think I am going to have lots of pumpkins!!! It has been so much fun to water them and watch them grow!!!! I can't wait for the harvest! Pumpkin pie anyone?

I just love the blooms! I sure hope I get some nice big pumpkins this fall!
Other than school starting and watching pumpkins grow, I have lots of irons in the fire.

Still working on my parents 50th Anniversary cruise in February. And although, we aren't officially planning our small wedding until after that, I have been doing some internet surfing and have found some cool wedding cupcake tiers, some cool favors and have found the style of wedding dress I want. Just saving the info for later.

Thanks for stopping by! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of weeks.

I have 2 crafting dates scheduled for August so I promise to do a couple of crafts posts soon!

Random Stuff -parties, shoes, trees

This week is just kind of getting away from me. Figured I could find some random "stuff" to share with you before more time gets away from me!

Sunday is my neice Shelby's 16th birthday. Her dad is having a party for her and I offered to make favors and have an ice cream sundae bar. There are going to be lots of guests so I chose something inexpensive for the favors. These are the small size York peppermint patties. Scrapbooking paper and 2 different sized scallop circle punches and a small round punch were used to make these Sweet 16 favors. I already had this cute plate thingie (I know it has a real name, but can't think of it at the moment).

I love black and white! As you can see here! I love my new converse shoes too!!! I would like a pair of red and navy blue ones too. Can a girl ever have too many of any kind of shoes?? I think not!!!!

I took this photo last Saturday. Good thing! Because today after all the wind and rain, most of these lovely petals are on my lawn and driveway! I don't know the actual name of this tree, but I call it my lovely tulip tree.

I have a busy weekend ahead, watching John's band play friday night, serving at a crab feed saturday, and helping with the Sweet 16 party on Sunday. It is going to be a busy weekend! Busy but FUN!

I hope you are having a good week, and I hope you too have some fun things planned for the weekend, or maybe not, and just get to relax for a bit!!! Those relaxing weekends are often times much needed and welcomed!

The little things in life

I had become so overwhelmed with all the "things" I needed to get done at home that I didn't know where to begin. I think the funky weather wasn't helping either.
Luckily we have had several days of sunshine here in Lodi CA!
As I finally got to my yard work, I found a few of these perfect gardenias in my front yard! I had to cut a couple of them. Something so small yet so beautiful.
I am thankful for the sunshine and for the beautiful flowers that it brings.
I was also able to get to the other chores that were burdening my mind. My garage looks lovely!
I am so thankful for the days of sunshine we have had. My weekend was not all work though, John and I went out to dinner on Valentines day. That was wonderful too! So I can say I had a productive and fun weekend.
I am home again today because my son is sick. So I will stay in to keep an eye on him. Hope work isn't too horrible when I go back tomorrow! :(

Did you get a chance to get out and absorb some Vitamin K this weekend? I sure hope you did!

I love every other Friday!

I am on a work schedule that allows me every other Friday off (and every weekend). Today is my Friday off! So I get to act like a stay at home mom and make pancakes for breakfast. I know I have said this before, but it is these little things in life that make it so worthwhile!
Now if I can muster up the energy I need to clean house and run errands, life would be Grand!!!!!
I have just had a lack of energy for the last couple of weeks. It sucks!!!! I haven't even crafted in over 2 weeks! What is up with that? So to you my few blog peeps, I apologize for the lack of creativity on my blog. I hope to come up with something soon! In the meantime enjoy your day, have a great weekend and stop by to visit again soon.

If I could just win the lotto!

I often dream of winning the lottery, especially when I am on vacation or on the weekends. Why you ask?? Well, let me begin by telling you that I was able to sleep in until 7:30 the last 2 days. I got up to a quiet house and had a cup of Constant Comment Tea and a Medi Fast Peanut Butter Bar! Yum! I then went for a nice long bike ride on my cool cruiser bike!!!! Then I was ready to face the day! Housework, yardwork, errands, my son's football game! All good!!!

If it had been a work day I would be up at 5:30 am at the latest and out the door at 6:30, no time for tea or a bike ride. I guess I just love my little bit of solitude in the mornings.

Secondly, I am on vacation this week because my son is on break. We are headed to Monterey to visit my daughter Val who is going to college there. We will hit the beach and aquarium. I love Monterey!!!!! Wish I was going to college there haha!!!!

Thursday I am off to the Bay Area for a 9 mile hike with my Mom and her friends. Hope I can keep up with them!

Friday John and I will be taking our kids to the San Francisco Zoo and Pier 39. It may not be a trip to Hawaii, but this is going to be a good week!!!! If I could only win the lottery I could have my tea and bike ride everyday! And make nice little mini trips like this whenever I wanted to!!! And of course there would be many trips to Hawaii and many other wonderful places!!!

A girls gotta dream!
Monterey!

Smooth Criminals!

I really need to vent today. But I promise to leave you on a happy note!

Last Friday was payday, I paid some bills, was feeling good and decided to treat myself to a long overdue pedicure after work. Life is good, paying bills, getting toes done and it is the weekend!

But when I get home my daughter tells me the bank called and I am to call them back. I do and am asked if I wrote a check in Texas for $2600.00. WHAT??? I said "Hell no". To make this long story short, somehow, someway, someone got access to my name address and checking account number and mailed a bogus check with my return address in Lodi, from New York NY, to someone in Allen Texas and that someone walked into Chase Bank in Plano Texas and tried to cash the check for $2600.00. Luckily the assistant manager thought something was wrong and the check was not cashed. She was able to get a copy of the postmarked envelope the check came in and a fingerprint of the person who tried to cash it.

After getting all my banking squared away and opening a new account I took the information the bank gave me to the Lodi Police department this morning and filed a complaint. All the information was forwarded to the Plano Texas police department and I sure hope they act on this to prevent this from happening to someone else! What a nightmare!!!! How do these criminals sleep at night, how do they get the information?? I am just perplexed and angry as well!!!! Thanks for letting me vent! I feel better! :)

Now I will finish on that happy note I promised. I still have lots of ideas for more and more Halloween/Fall crafty stuff!!!! I made the pocket folds last year and I still like them so they are on the list again this year. These are very very simple to make. The candy and the embellishments are the big hits in these.




Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have no more negative venting to do for a long long time.

Blog Heaven and Song Lyrics for you!

I am having so much fun "detailing" my new blog site! I just need to figure out how to get text in my shabby blog header and I am set!!! I am so glad I moved! I just love the look of my new blog! What do you think? Do you like it?

And on another note (no pun intented :) I just love music! Some song lyrics just touch me and can bring me to tears. So today for you I have some lyrics to live by. I hope you enjoy and remember to dance! Have a great day!

I hope you dance by Leanne Womack

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,May you never take one single breath for granted,GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens,Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.I hope you dance....I hope you dance.I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,Never settle for the path of least resistanceLivin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin',Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.I hope you dance....I hope you dance.I hope you dance....I hope you dance.(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance, And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance. Dance....I hope you dance. I hope you dance....I hope you dance. I hope you dance....I hope you dance.. (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)