Congested

Knock wood, I have never been plagued by allergies and such. Never been one to get sick. Maybe this getting old stuff ain't what it's cracked up to be! I have been soooo congested the past few days. The pine trees are blooming, leaving their yellow pollen on every.thing. It's the only thing I can attribute my stuffiness to. All I'm doing is blowing my nose and wiping my watery eyes. I bought some Claritin D and am taking it, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

I'm working on a couple of CTMH swaps but I won't be able to share them until after they are completed and sent to the hostess because she reads my blog. Debbie! And I don't give my hostesses sneak peaks on swaps! I had to order more supplies and they won't be here til Friday, so I've been doing "busy" work on the swaps, making my photo mats (and getting a blister on the tip of my pointer finger from the bone folder!) and planning and re-planning what my layouts are gonna look like.

John's been working 18+ hour days since Christmas. Thankfully he's got the next two days off, so hopefully he can get caught up on his sleep. He's working New Years Day, but it's no big deal for us. We don't do anything on New Year's Eve since it's "Amateur Night." All the idiots that don't normally go out and drink, do because they feel like they get a free pass to. We're supposed to have some rainy weather here starting New Years Eve day, so all the more reason for us to stay home! He'll probably be in bed at early-thirty anyway! Then by the middle of next week, we are supposed to see temps in the low 30's for a couple of days. Just a couple, then we'll warm up again!

Also want to give a shout-out to Rhonda. She's doing much better since she got out of the hospital. She is slowly weaning herself off the pain meds. The Dr told her she can once again mush up solid food and eat that instead of the straight liquid diet she's been on. You keep improving my friend! We're continuing to pray for you.

half century

I am now officially able to join AARP! I do not feel 50, but I am. Scary.

I've gotten some pretty good gifts today, and even before today. It started Sunday when Kathy, Jan and mom presented me with a Chris Still painting. Chris is an old friend of the family. He and Kathy have known each other since Elementary school. I used to give him rides home from high school. He has murals in the FL House of Representatives. He has painted the offical portrait of the FL Governor for the past 3 or 4 Governors. He has a mural in Tampa International Airport. He has pieces commissioned for the next five years. But he's still the same Chris he's always been. Here's a link to view his art. Christopherstill.com - Fine artist known for his paintings and murals of Flori If you scroll down, my painting is "The Spring of Life." I still haven't decided where in the house I'm gonna put it, so it's keeping me company for now in my scraproom.

John has a "rule" about my birthday not being mentioned on Christmas. My birthday is NOT the 25th, it's the 26th. Yesterday, he broke his rule! He knew what kind of day he was gonna have today, so he asked me if I'd mind if he gave me my birthday gifts last night. He did a "theme" birthday for me. All Tim Holtz. All the time! I got a Tim Holtz carrying case for Crackle Paint that I can alter. I got two of his distressing books that John had sent to him and he signed them. I also got his two DVD's that are also signed.

JoAnn and Bill gave me a gift card to Michaels that I've already used today! I'd been eyeing a book for a while but was too cheap to buy it, so I used my gc for it!

Rhonda and her crew sent birthday wishes as did Debbie and her dh and son. Chris called me to wish me happy birthday. That was special!

I've been working on a few swaps today. Just spending a lazy day, not doing too much at all. After busting my hump all last week, I figure I deserve a day of do-nothingness!

Christmas part duex

Today the in laws came here. I was up at 4 AM to get the 24 lb bird in the oven so he would get done so I could get the sides done for dinner at 1:00. Course I made stuffing using mil's recipe. Thats a week and a half project in and of itself! I also get the largest 1/2 shank end Honey Baked ham I can get so mom and dad, JoAnn and Bill go home with leftovers and we have some too. I do a relish tray and shrimp tray for noshing before and after the meal and mom brings her deviled eggs. I do green bean casserole, corn pudding, mashed potatoes and gravy, monkey bread, cranberry sauce. Then for dessert, which everyone takes home I make Nana Sara's Sour Cream coffee cake and this year I made Apricot Honey muffins.

John checks out his new Robot! Food's ready, lets eat. Mom and Dad. Mom, dad, Bill and JoAnn. Mom, dad, John and Sue.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

My coolest gift....

...so far anyway! From sister Kathy. She couldn't have found anything more perfect! How dad-gummed cute is that??!!

Christmas part one

Sunday we celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. The kids loved their gifts. The food was excellent and too much. The Bucs lost. And we sat and watched the whole ugly thing!

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure! In the chow line. The whole family. John and I.

Now I'm off to do my baking for tomorrow. The last load of laundry is in the washer now. John got the wheel on my Rainbow fixed yesterday, so I can finish cleaning the house. Need to also work on Thank You cards sometime today. I'll go ahead and get them made, then will just have to fill in the blanks after tomorrow!

More Christmas stuff!

This time for my mother-in-law! I made her some "Oriental" style cards to send to her friends and family back in Japan and here in the States over the summer. She loved them and blew through them like nobody's business. So I've just finished making another bunch to use. Thought I'd share a few.

I've been chasing dust and cat hair bunnies around the house for 2 days now trying to get ready for the in-laws coming here on Christmas Day. I finally got to the point earlier today where I could drag the vacuum out. I have a Rainbow. I LOVE my Rainbow! It was expensive to start with, but 13 years later, it's never given me a lick of trouble. Until today. It has 4 wheels on the bottom. I broke one of the wheels. And I don't think it can be fixed. And I am not gonna lug that heavy beast 3 feet, vacuum, 3 more feet, vacuum. Not. gonna. happen! So I think I will pick me up a cheapie wand/stick style at Wal*Mart tomorrow when I go to pick up the honey-baked ham. It won't do the job of the Rainbow, but at least it will be done. Then after Christmas, we can figure out what we need to do to get me 4 functioning wheels on my vacuum. Cuz we all know how much I love to vacuum. NOT!

Out with the old. In with the new!

My old chair had seen better days. The seat kept migrating south, which caused the back to slip down, causing me to feel like I was being sucked into the Black Hole. So we bought me a new chair. An "old lady" chair as John is calling it. My old one was not a recliner. New one is. Old chair didn't swivel. New one does. I think I'm in love!

I Robot

THIS is the gift I'm most excited to give John this year! His eyes got as big as saucers when they announced they were selling the FoxSports Robot. I was beginning to think "Rocky" (so named by me because of the "Pound the Rock" slogan) wasn't going to make it for Christmas when I rec'd notice that he was on his way. And because I am a meanie, it will be the gift he opens last!

You too can get one for the kid (or overgrown kid) in your life here:

Fox Sports Robot

Winter...Florida style!

We had our first round of "Winter" the last couple of days. The beautiful thing about Florida is, Winter comes in small doses and we quickly revert to warmer temps. It's probably in the low 20's this morning. We have frost on the roof and in the grass. It "crunches" whan you walk on it. The warm up starts today and by the end of the week, our highs will again be approaching the 80's. Ahhh, Christmas in Florida...Let's go to the beach!!

Tornado!

In Florida! About 10 miles southeast of us as the crow flies! Holy cow!!

We do occasionally get tornado's in FL. Usually in the winter or early spring when a strong front comes thru. That's what happened yesterday morning about 5:30 AM. We'd been told all last week that we stood a chance of nasty weather late Sat night into Sun morning. And they were right. They are usually minimal in the wind speed, an F1 on the scale.

We had no damage here at the house whatsoever. Very few leaves even blew off the trees. We did get 3.5" of much needed rain. The ground hungrily soaked up every bit of it.

Here's a link to our local news with quite a few different links you can click and see stories and video of the storm damage. MyFox Tampa Bay Fox 13 News WTVT

More Christmas gifts!

I ordered these picture frames from Oriental Trading over the summer to alter for Christmas gifts for my sisters, mom and I. Decided I'd best get them done! I used CTMH Simple Pleasures paper and the stamp set from the Serendipity paper pack set. I really like how they turned out. Mine's not done yet because I don't know what paper pack I'm gonna use. I had made up my mind I was gonna use the Serendipity but then I got the new Silhouette paper pack yesterday for a swap and it's even more beautiful in person than in the catalog. So now I can't decide! But since it's for me, I'll wait til I decided what picture I want to put in it and then make the papers match. What a concept!!

More Serendipity

I played with the Serendipity papers again yesterday. I bought purse-size calendars for each of my sisters, mom and myself for Christmas and re-covered the front of them. And since my current addiction is to this special paper pack, I decided to use it.

And one of my boy! My clean boy, that is! He was getting that male musky smell that I hate so much, so yesterday he got a bath. We used to bathe both of them once a month, but the vet said it's not good to bathe cats that often. It tends to dry their skin out too much and then they start having other problems. So now we bathe on an "as needed" basis. Savannah will get hers this weekend when John is here. She tends to be a biter with me when it's bath time, but notsomuch with him. So he gets to bathe her. Orleans is laying on top of a pile of old Scrapbooking magazines that I'm gonna give to my friend Lorraine the next time I see her. They were in a box, but I needed it to mail a package, so now I gotta find another box!

And as a final note. I "talked" to Rhonda this morning on the computer. She was having quite a bit of pain but is very greatful to be home with her dh and boys. And it's good knowing you ARE back home, my friend. Now we just need to work on that pain and get it under control. Sending you hugs {{{Rhonda}}}

Rhonda update

I spoke to Rhonda's dh on the phone earlier today. She is finally back home from the hospital, but still in quite a bit of pain. She had an appt with the Dr later today to try and figure out why she continues to be in so much pain, even with the pain meds.

They are hoping at this point to have her well enough to be able to enjoy Christmas with her family.

You're in my daily thoughts and prayers, girlfriend. I just wish there was more that I could do. {{{Rhonda}}}

Proud!

Last night, our oldest nephew Kyle attained the rank of Eagle Scout. He is the 76th member of his Troop to become an Eagle in 74 years. He was one of three Scouts to reach Eagle Scout last night and five total for his Troop in 2007.

Way to go Kyle! We are so very proud of you!

Christmas tags

The wonderfully fabulous Tim Holtz is doing the 12 Tags of Christmas on his blog. Tim Holtz - Scrapbooking & Rubber Stamping Ideas For Everybody I'm learning all sorts of new techniques and he does each one step by step, just like he were right in the room with you. There's no missing a step. All you have to do is scroll up or down!

I've done a couple of them this morning. This first one is today's tag, Day 9 and the second is Day 8. Course I took some "Artistic License" with them! Can't copy genius!

Breathing a huge sigh of relief!

I just spoke to Rhonda's dh on the phone. She has turned the corner! The kidney's are functioning properly. The pneumonia in her lungs is lessening. They are still treating her with the Coumadin for the blood clots. He says she will be in the hospital until at least Monday and the Dr's will re-evaluate then. He said she is still in quite a bit of pain, but they are staying on top of it and treating as needed.

The prayers are helping. So thank you!

Grrr!

Blogger wouldn't let me post all the pics in one post. Here's the rest

How Do I Love Thee...

I've been working on a special Christmas gift for John. It's a word bloom and the word is LOVE. I decided to use Elizabeth Barret Browning's "How Do I Love Thee" poem and Close To My Heart's new Heart of Winter campaign paper pack and stamp set Serendipity. This paper pack is just gorgeous, blues, creams, browns and comes with textured cardstock and die cuts. It's been great fun coming up with the ideas of this project. I just hope he loves it at much as I do!

Rhonda

So I posted the other day about my friend Rhonda. Yesterday morning I got a most disturbing call from her dh. He had to rush her to the ER Tue night. She could not get a good, deep breath. She has blood clots that have formed, so they admitted her to the hospital and started her on Coumadin to thin her blood and take care of the blood clots. They also ran some other tests to be sure there was nothing else going on. Her dh called me again late Wed afternoon and she is a very sick girl. She has the beginnings of pneumonia and her kidneys are starting to shut down. They have her on a saline drip to try and keep her kidney's flushed out. She's also in quite a bit of pain and on a morphine drip as well. But she can't use the morphine as much because it slows her breathing down too much. So she's enduring a lot of pain before she allows herself to use the morphine.The Doctors don't have a reasson as to why this happened to her. They said sometimes it just does.

If you are the praying type, please say a prayer for Rhonda and her family. I know they would appreciate it.

beer research

I promised last week we'd be doing some more beer research and we have! And the final results are :::insert drumroll here::: we aren't crazy about the Lime Cactus. It's good. But we like the Pomegranate Raspberry better. We will be conduting further studies to insure that we are still liking the Raspberry Pomegranate. Look for it on your beer shelves now!

And I also want to give a shout out to my friend Rhonda in TN! She had some jaw surgery last week and is currently unable to talk. Betcha her dh and boys are loving that! She sent me some pics of her face post surgery and her jaw is currently a loverly shade of yellowish-green. She's on a completely liquid diet and is hoping to be able to skoosh some pasta up and liquidize it so she can "eat" that next week. You're in my thoughts and prayers girlfriend! Love ya!!

Love me some Tim...

...Holtz that is!

My favorite Scrapbook supply store, Ruban Rouge, Ruban Rouge Paper Arts, is having a fabulous sale for Dec. If you buy any Tim Holtz storage case at full price, any Tonic, Ranger, or Inksentials product you can put inside that case, you get for 1/2 price! So John let me go a little crazy yesterday. He enabled, adding even more stuff to my case. And this is what I ended up with! And they had just recieved the new Tim distressing hammer. A hammer with 4 interchangeable heads to distress your GrungeBoard, cardstock, or whatever. AND the fabulous new Fragments! Little clear pieces of plexi-like material that you can glue coordinating or contrasting papers or cardstock to and highlight an area of a layout or card. We got to use these during the Tim classes at RR in Oct, but they were not on the market yet. I'll be using the alcohol inks to decorate my case and will post pics when that is completed!

Scenes from a Craft Show

So it didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I don't think people "got" the whole coaster hanging concept. They'd ask if it wouldn't ruin the coaster if they put their drink on it. Yes, it's made to be a decoration. To hang on your wall. The shakers were a huge hit. People would walk by, shake them over their friends or hubbys or kids heads and generally buy one. I had a couple of these stolen as well, so they must have been liked. The calendars I had a few office workers buy them to use in gift exchanges. The one thing I was going to do and never got around to doing was ornaments for the Christmas tree. I really thought the hangings would go like gang-busters so was concentrating my efforts on them. I had people all day long both days asking about the coasters with kids names on them for ornaments. Oh well, hindsight's always 20/20! It was a good learning experience for me if nothing else.

Fashionista

I found the cutest shirt at Sears the other day. It just screams "Christmas In Florida" to me. So I got it to wear at the Craft Show this weekend. And of course, I had to have my nails done to match yesterday! So here's what I'll be wearing tomorrow.

Edited to add: There are reindeer on my pinky fingers because they are too small for the snowmen!