I won my first giveaway ever several weeks ago! I was jumping up and down, I was so excited. And the best part of it is that I won it from one of my favorite bloggy friends, Queenie Jeannie.
This petty little pink bracelet came in its own dainty see through bag. My first thought was of how versatile it is. I could see me wearing it, then I thought my daughters would like it, and then could envision my granddaughters begging me to give it to them. Then I looked at the enclosed business card. Well color me pink! The card says “A Girl’s First Gems, Specializing in Bracelets for Girls of All ages!” So if you want well made, fun, jewelry, go to A Girl's First Gems. You will be glad you did.
But wait. There is more. Did you notice the pretty card? In case you can’t read it, it says “friend to friend”. On the inside is a sweet personal note from Jeannie. It came to me over the weekend just in time for Easter. And I love it. Jeannie always knows how to put a smile on my face.
You can order cards, bookmarks and all sorts of things from her at her card boutique. She also sells StampIn Up products (I think I spelled that wrong), if you want to start making your own cards. Anyway, the next time you need special occasion cards, check out Jeannie’s selection before you head to the store. I think you will be very surprised just how much money you can actually save when buying personalized cards from her. And you don’t even have to put make up on, or get dressed for that matter… just click and save and get the prettiest cards ever.
Jeannie, you are a gem. A big thank you to you from me.I know….
Pictures of my kids and grandkids get old…
But I cannot help myself!
We all got together for Easter. Everyone except one grandson made it. A lunch of ham, deviled eggs, salad, and on and on, followed by dessert of apple and cherry pies and lemon bars, followed by an Easter egg hunt. And the grandkids played of course. In between eating and hunting. It was a great day. So. Here goes!
We lined them up like a chain gang. But they refused to take us serious. Well, except Reagan. I think she was unhappy about being the lead mongrel.
Tessa is our oldest child. Don’t let her know I told you, but she turned 36 last week. Shhhhh, that’s our secret. She and her hubby, Bill, have the precious four of Emily, James, Anna, and Cara.
Greg and his wife Alicia have two great kids, Reagan and Allen. Aren’t they just the cutest?
Julie and her husband, Doug, have four boys. Unfortunately, their son, Cody, was not with them this Easter. These three handsome guys are Travis, Dakota and Austin.
I know. It is a terrible picture of us. But it is all I have!
This picture makes me wish I was young again.
A million dollar smile.
Reagan is trying to figure it all out while her mom picks up spilled jelly beans.
Dakota is on a mission.
James braving the mean ol’ tree limbs.
I cannot get enough of Anna’s grin.
I do love my family.
The ditzometer was running pretty low this week. That’s a good thing.
But I’m not the only ditzy one in this world, so I’m going to include a few on others, along with myself, in this posting.
-----------------------------------------------
As most of you know, I am a “church lady”, working part time in our church office. So here are a couple of church funnies:
One afternoon our deacon stopped in, just to chit chat. I asked him if he had scheduled the Baptism Class yet that I had asked for. He snapped his fingers and said, “I knew there was a reason I was avoiding you!”
My biggest fear is one day showing up in the Church Bulletin Bloopers. No matter how hard I try not to, I make lots of mistakes. Mistakes like, for Catholic Center, I typed Cathaholic Center. Fortunately, I’ve caught the worst of them (so far…)
We have one guy who lovesd to point out each and every above mentioned mistake to me. One Sunday morning, I had my fill of his good intentions. I calmly took his bulletin from him, crossed through the mistake with my trusty little pen, and handed it back to him and said, “There ya go, it’s fixed”.
One of our parishioners called me at home. I answered the phone. She said (and I quote) “Oh, I didn’t expect you to be there!” A line from the movie Pretty Woman immediately came to mind: “Well then stop calling me!”
----------------------------------------------
I received an email from my friend, Rita the other day. Since I’d seen it before, I read it, smiled and went on my way.
But now, since I’ve gone back to re-read it three or four time, just so I could smile again, I decided I needed to make you smile too!
It is sunny and supposed to be warm here today. God is good! Life is good! So, get out there and enjoy life!!!!
1. Try everything twice.
On one woman's tombstone she said she wanted this epitaph:
"Tried everything twice - loved it both times!"
2. Keep only cheerful friends.
The grouches pull you down.
(Keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches!)
3. Keep learning:
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever...
Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud.
Laugh until you gasp for breath.
And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,
spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.
6. The tears happen:
Endure, grieve, and move on.
The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves.
LIVE while you are alive.
7. Surround yourself with what you love:
Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever.
Your home is your refuge.
8. Cherish your health:
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help...
9. Don't take guilt trips.
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county,
to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.
10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.
I love you, my special friends.
11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance...
Remember! Lost time can never be found.
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Many years ago – 20 or so – Maria Von Trapp visited our local High School where hubby was an art teacher. The choir director happened to be a friend of hers. He had invited her to see the school's production of The Sound of Music. The production was based on Maria’s autobiographical book, The Story of the Von Trapp Singers. In visiting with Maria, hubby especially remembers one thing she said.
“You can’t build a view”
You can’t build a view. I don’t know whether she was referring to the breath taking Austrian mountains from where she escaped the Nazi’s during WWII, or the lodge that she eventually built in Vermont. But, those five words have stuck with us throughout our lives. You can’t build a view.
We have a beautiful home, nestled in the middle of 25 acres of woods. It has been home for almost 30 years.
Jim designed the house and, along with one retired builder, built our home. The kids helped. I helped. Over the years brick sidewalks, rock walls, flower beds, and many other very personal touches have been added.
We have barns. We have a separate building for my business. We have memories. Oh my, what memories!
To this day I can’t look at my living room wall without thinking about seeing snow filter through the cracks in the un-caulked walls the year we built our house. We got it under roof just before winter hit. We were all laying on the living room floor on mattresses, too sick to move. The only heat in this unfinished home was the fire place, which was ducted through the house. We were on the living room floor because there were no bedrooms yet. I remember looking at the dying embers of the fireplace, the prone figure of hubby, who also looked like he was dying, my three sick kids, at the snow outside, and then finally at the wall. Realizing I was the only one alive enough to keep the fire going, outside into the snow I went to get wood. Some memories just don’t go away, and I don’t want them to. Things that seemed so difficult at the time are such fond memories today.
I remember Christmases, birthdays, babies crying during the night, children sitting up late doing homework, teenagers coming home late, me coming home late only to find hubby on the roof trying to patch around the chimney where there had been a flu fire just moments before…. This house talks to me. But, yet, it is just a house. The memories will be with me no matter where I am. Right?
I can look at the tall trees and remember Jim’s dad looking up and saying “I’ve never seen such tall trees!” He’s been gone from us for over 13 years now. Or Aunt Madeline looking out the kitchen window at the garage and saying “my you have close neighbors”. And my dear timid mom tiptoeing down the brick sidewalk because it was unconventional and bothered her to walk on the bricks.
I remember love. I remember fights that at the time I wasn’t sure we would recover from. I remember…. I remember so many things!
As I said, our house has undergone many changes over the years, with all sorts of personal touches added, kitchen expansions, rooms changed, buildings added, porches added, and on and on…. The one thing that we’ve never found a way to add, though, is a “water feature”. I’m not talking about water pumped up through pipes and then trickling peacefully over rocks. I’m talking about a WATER FEATURE!
THIS is a water feature! The is the land we looked at yesterday. Acres of land overlooking the Missouri River.
If you look carefully, you can see the railroad box cars chugging along at the base of the trees. Muffled by the cliff above, it was a very peaceful sound.
We walked. And we talked. And we walked some more. The real estate agent let us off at one end of the property and then got into his jeep and drove to the other end to wait for us. He knew the scenery was the selling factor, rather than anything he could say.
Sixty acres of farm land, rented to a farmer who plants corn on it. An acre or so of peach trees. And 30 or so acres of scenery and miscellaneous acreage. What a find!
Maybe we could put a dollar or two on the craps table, or play a little Black Jack, and come up with the money needed. Or feed the slots machines….
Since we don’t gamble, we did the next best thing. We ate… And talked…
I didn’t think we’d ever find a more perfect piece of land…
But we are so comfortable where we are…
This is just what we’ve been looking for…
It is way too expensive…
Yes, but we can rent part of it. Maybe we could even subdivide it into several parcels…
But then we’d have neighbors…
We’d be closer to where Tessa and Greg and their families live…
But we love St. Andrew’s…
We have so many friends there….
We have so many years invested in building our place…
We could never replace the walkways and rock walls…
We wouldn’t be able to move right away…
Do we really want to go back into debt?…
Then we drove to a lookout point and got a taste of the view we would see each night once the scrub trees were cleared away.
Maria Von Trapp was right, “You can’t build a view”.
But, I think the Wizard of Oz’s Dorothy said it best, “There’s no place like home…”
