Quilling

Oooooooo, I still really like quilling...a lot. Right now I'm in the process of quilling shapes for a drawing Bill is working on for me. So far, it looks like it will be about 12"x16". I can't wait to get started on it! After that, I might get started on the quilling for next years Christmas cards. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, you'll like next years even more!

I LOVE this woman's work;

Her name is Yulia Brodskaya.

Breaking the rule

Really? Only one person could venture a guess as to what all the below words have in common?

And a few of my readers are teachers!

Well, give up? They all break the i before e except after c rule. And there are a lot more words that break that rule. So what's the point of the rule???

I've heard it said that English is the hardest language to learn. No wonder! We have rules that don't even apply.

This morning while we were watching the news, a picture of our state seal came up. Bill had to pause it so he could check it out. I guess he's never seen it. I see it every day, several times.

Anyway, he had several comments;

1. what is that animal?

2. what's with the guy by the trees?

3. is that a mountain? in Indiana?

To be fair, it wasn't a very good picture. It did sort of look like a cross between a lamb and a lion. It's a buffalo.

And the guy by the tree is holding an ax.

And, um, yeah, it does look like a mountain but it's supposed to be a hill.

It's not the dorkiest state seal out there. You can find them all here;

http://www.netstate.com/states/symb/seals/al_seal.htm

It was fun to look at.

What do you think...

What do these words have in common? I'll give a couple days to think about it.

ceiling, efficient, receive, seize, weird, caffeine, eight, feisty, protein, height,
sovereignty, neither, vein, species, kaleidoscope, weight, being, neighbor,
their, foreign, ancient, deceive

WHAT time is it????

When is it too early or too late to get up or go to bed? What exactly is an uncivilized hour for you?

When I was a teen, sleeping late meant 11:00 am or noon.
And staying up late meant 4:00 am. Or sometimes, the next morning!
That all ends when you have kids.

Now, sleeping late means 7:30 am. Even when I don't have to tend to the dogs, I still get up early. And staying up late is midnight ~ and sometimes that's a struggle.

Some people come into work at 6:30 or 7:00. I think that's uncivilized. I get up at 6:20, to be at work by 8:15. But if I didn't have to commute downtown, I would absolutely be staying in bed longer.

This morning I woke up at 3:45 am. That's when my husbands alarm went off. See, he was assigned the task of taking Mom to the airport. She needed to be there by 5:ish. I made him do it because he could come home and go back to bed. If I did it, I would have to stay up. So much for my plans! So, it's 3:45...no biggie, I can go back to sleep. Except he came back in several times to get his clothes, etc. And he wasn't very quiet about it either. I think he was subconsciously getting back at me for having to get up. Just when I started to doze back off, they put Bud (Mom's dog) in our bedroom and left for the airport. Well, poor Bud has separation anxiety. Yeah, after 20 minutes of trying to calm him down I decided I was too awake to go back to sleep and we all got up. I like Bud though...he plays with Pepper and he looooooves Greta. But damn! It's going to be a L*O*N*G day for me. It's 9:45 right now and I've been up for 6 hours already! That's just not right.

Thank heavens it's Friday. I'm not cooking when I get home - I'm taking a nap :-)

think about it...

Today on Daily Steals, they're giving away, that's right, FREE, electric potato peelers.


Call me master of the obvious but I'm pretty sure I know why these didn't sell.

the past is just a good-bye...

Things change all the time.

30 years ago, it was seriously uncool to have a tattoo if you were a female.
Then they started to show up ankles, which was kind of cool. Now, they're everywhere! It still limits your opportunities in life, (I love mine though) but now people don't look at you like you're trash. Same for men. (unless you're Jesse James)

20 years ago, no one in their right mind would have gotten their tongue pierced! Why would you even think of doing that? Same for belly buttons and eyebrows and nipples. Not so uncommon now.

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm not "longing" for the good ol days. There's plenty not to like about the times we live in, but there are plenty of things that are pretty great.

I was just thinking today though...when did this or that change? Not necessarily about the big things either. Take Lifesavers for instance. Do you remember those Storybook Lifesavers you used to get at Christmas? I loved those. Except for the Pep o mint and Spear o mint flavors. Butter Rum was my favorite. Anyway, they used to look like this;

Now they look like this;
You only get one side now. That's 6 less rolls! What a rip.
And while they got rid of the minty flavors, which is okay with millions of kids, they also got rid of Butter Rum. Phooey!

humph!

Don't you hate it when you wake up in a bad mood ~ for no reason? Actually, I have about 100 reasons but none of them stand out as that ONE reason. I'm sure I'll get over it but still, it's a crappy way to start the day.

Apparently our little winter warm up was just enough to soften up the ground...that STUPID FRICKIN mole is back! There are ridges ALL OVER our front yard. It really puts a damper on wanting to look forward to Spring and gardening. Seriously, how do we get rid of it? Grrrrrrr. I don't even feel bad about wanting it to die. Moles aren't even cute. Oh sure I know...all God's creatures...but come on! Enough already. Hmmm...I think that little rant made me feel better. I might have to come back and rant some more today!

Happy New Year!

Lets all welcome the new year, full of things that have never been! (That was on my ME calendar on Saturday)

Here's to good health, weight loss, better eating habits, positive attitudes, vacations and LESS STRESS!
I feel like Miss America when I say this but...I wish for a cure for cancer. (you thought I was gonna say world peace huh?!)

Have any of you seen the latest doomsday prediction? According to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40885541/ns/us_news-life/?gt1=43001
the world is going to end on May 21st...this year. Well, that's not entirely true. All believers will be raptured on May 21st and the non-believers will be left to suffer. I guess they decided to overlooked the part in Revelations that says,
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. [33] Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. [34] It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch." Mark 13:32-34

That part seems like a pretty big deal too! Hmmmmm
People are funny. Interpretation is an interesting thing. You can make up anything you want and just call it your interpretation. Isn't that lying?

Oh! And I finally got a spare key made :-) Two in fact. I'm not taking any chances this time!

Oh brother

So...
remember earlier in the year when I locked my keys in my car? and I said I don't have a spare and asked if YOU had a spare?
I never did get around to having that spare made. Guess what? I locked my keys in my car last night. *sigh* Okay, really, honest, THIS WEEKEND I'm getting a spare made!!!!

My honey bunch is still getting a little better every day. He's starting to get a little frustrated about not feeling A LOT better though. I suspected that would happen. The next 3 weeks could be much longer than he's like. But I'll do my best to clap and cheer :-)

Oh! We had an earthquake this morning. 4.2! That's pretty big for our area. Being from California, we knew right away what it was. Lots of folks wondered though. It was kind of like a sonic boom. If you live in Cali, you know just what I'm talking about.

We're ending our below average cold and above average snow December with a 55 degree day. tomorrow. Weird. Now it's just going to be muddy and ugly. Rats

So nice

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas filled with smiles and love and joy. I did! I bet you could have guessed that though :-) We even got a little more snow. But the big storm dodged us. I guess that's alright. But it's going to be in the low 50's by the end of the week. Rats!

Bill told the kids Christmas day, about the big ugly word. They both took it well. Mostly because he started out with "I'm okay". That softened it quite a bit. Now he's feeling pretty good to have that off his chest. Other than that, I think he's doing a little better every day. He says he sorta still feels the same, but I can see that he's moving around better and his face seems a little more relaxed.

My brothers step-son had a baby Christmas morning...now he's a grandpa!!! hahahahahahahaha. He said he's too young to be a grandpa. I think it's great! His daughters think that being an Aunt is cool and the baby is best thing that's EVER happened! So sweet.

It was fantastic to have 4 days off but now it's back to the grind stone.

The nicest thing happened to me this morning. One of the supervisors here at work (one of them I don't do much for as a matter of fact) came over to my cube this morning and said she thought of me over Christmas break...she and her husband went to a local candy store last week, looking for candy canes that were made in the U.S. They were chatting with the owners and discovered that a little further off the beaten path, was a honey farm. So they went to check it out. It's called Hunter's Honey Farm. Anyway, they had tee shirts...tee shirts that said...can you guess?
Bee Happy! So she bought one for me. Wow. How thoughtful was that?! I'll bee smiling all day about that :-)

Best gift EVER!

A cancer free pathology test!!!

Yesssssssssssss!

It really is a wonderful life :-) I'm so frickin' happy that I don't even care about Christmas anymore and what's done or not done! Oh okay, I'll probably care tomorrow. But today I don't have a care in the world!

Happy Winter!

Today is the first day of winter, officially. It's also the shortest day of the year. That makes me happy ~ the days will just get longer from here on out.

Yea!!! Snow!!! We got more of it last night, lots more. This morning was warm though, 32, so the streets were nice. There was also super light traffic because most schools were on a 2 hour delay. Aaaand it's beautiful out this morning. It was the wet kind of snow that sticks to everything. I love that! Well, except for the dogs. Seriously, it's the weirdest thing ever, all those little snow balls that form on them. WHY does that happen? I had to stick them in the sink and rinse them to get it all off. I hate that. Especially because I was already dressed for work. Needless to say, I had to change. Phooey. I really liked my little red frolicking reindeer top.

In case you have NO idea what I'm talking about, take a look;

Also, last night I decided not to stress out about what's not done. In the grand scheme of things, is it really so important that I don't get to vacuum or clean off the coffee table? Nope. If I have to stuff a couple gifts in bags instead of wrapping them, does it matter? Nope. If I don't get some of the cooking done until Christmas Eve, or even not at all, will it be okay? Yep. I feel so much better now too.

Today is the last catheter day for Bill. He's SO ready! I hope the next phase is easier for him. I have found that I have to remind him that it's only been a couple weeks since he had major surgery and he needs to be more patient with himself :-)

Oh, and Bill totally poo pooed my Santa collecting idea. Duh. He said I should go for the worlds largest Miniature Schnauzer related collection. Hmmmmm. He might have something there.

Only one more day of work for me. Hooray!

Ho ho ho!

Are you ready? Not me! December has been stressful month for us. All of a sudden I feel like I haven't done anything. I didn't decorate as much, I'm not done shopping and I haven't wrapped a single gift.

Bill is feeling A LOT better but he is pretty anxious to get rid of the catheter. He's still behaving and doing what the Dr. told him. He's a little antsy about the lack of mobility though. We still haven't gotten the results back from the pathology report so I thing that's holding him back from being too happy. Maybe it's those rose colored glasses but I don't like to borrow trouble. Also, the girls are just crazy for him right now. Even that rascally Pepper, who doesn't really like Bill, fell asleep on his lap last night. Awwwwww. Greta naps with him during the day too. Dogs are cool.

I did squeeze in a couple more Christmas movies over the weekend...Scrooge, w/Albert Finney. It's the musical version, my favorite. And Home Alone. Yeah, yeah, I've seen it a dozen times. But is there really anything better than slap stick? I laughed till I cried when he was letting the robbers have it! I'm smiling now just thinking about Joe Pesci slipping on the steps. Seriously funny! All that's left now is "White Christmas" and "It's A Wonderful Life" Maybe Thursday while I'm finishing up the house chores.

Speaking of "White Christmas", yep, we're going to have one! Hooray for snow!

my new goal

I want to top this guy!

By Lisa Marsh
TODAYshow.com contributor TODAYshow.com contributor
updated 12/16/2010 2:37:32 PM ET 2010-12-16T19:37:32

Jean-Guy Laquerre, a retired geography teacher, has a Santa Claus collection that contains 25,189 individual pieces. That’s a ho-ho-whole lot of Santas and has earned him a spot in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records for the largest collection of St. Nick memorabilia.
The 74-year-old native of Boucherville in Quebec, Canada, started collecting Santa Claus items in 1988, when he inherited a papier-mache Santa, dating from 1910, from his wife’s aunt. Since that time he has added figurines, cards, postcards, pins, brooches, toys, posters and more all bearing the likeness of the jolly old elf.

It only took him 22 years. I'm pretty sure I could do it in 1/2 that time. Oh the joy! I'm really considering it :-) Hey, don't laugh ~ I'm serious. Now I have a legitimate reason to shop the after Christmas sales!!! Woohoo!

Suzy Toronto

I bet you've seen her art before.


If not, check it out;


http://www.suzytoronto.com/

I love this one...
http://suzytoronto.com/component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.product_details/flypage,shop.flypage/product_id,2264/Itemid,40/
click on the picture to enlarge it, so you can read it.