Anticipation!

That's my word for the first part of this week! On Wednesday I'm off to meet 4 women that I consider good friends but have yet to meet in real life. I will be travelling to the opposite coast to meet these women, share some wonderful scrapping time and make memories that I know will last a lifetime. Our love of scrapping has brought us together but I know that our love of being together to laugh, share family stories and take a break from our crazy lives is what will keep us together. I feel like a kid at Christmas time waiting for the morning of December 25th to get here only for me it is the morning of March 29th when I will land at the airport and meet my friends! I LOVE VACATIONS!

Spring Has Sprung!

The rannuculas have been put out in pots. . .



The herb seedlings have been transferred from the house to the outside and . . .


Mark is mowing the lawn!

All telltale signs from my little corner of the world that spring is definitely right around the corner. From the looks of things it should arrive on time next week. My apologies to friends on the East Coast who are sitting amongst many inches of snow right now. This is actually the time of year when I look forward to yard work, however this euphoria doesn't last long. Due to our long growing season and a little things called WEEDS, I get bored with this endeavor rather quickly. For now though I think I'll go out and enjoy my yard, maybe even have a green beer to mark the day of my ancestors! Luck of the Irish to you all!

Mortality

It's something we all need to face. Others do it easier than others. My family is a great one for not thinking about it until it's almost too late. I was forced to face it today by my own mother. She worries constantly that she will be a burden to someone, mostly me because I am her closest living relative. In actuality I've been very lucky because at 84 years old she still lives by herself, has a wonderful and supportive group of friends and does quite well managing for herself. Today, though she asked me to help her prepare a living will and a power of attorney for health care and financial decisions. This is something I don't take lightly but have immense respect for the fact that my mom is considerate enough of my feelings to put this down in writing. All too often when tragedy strikes we make lousy decisions because we don't have the time or energy to think clearly. I know I'm lucky that I haven't needed these things from my mom any earlier but the way I look at it at least she got it done before it was too late. The lesson I will take from this is to have this conversation with my own immediate family and make sure they know what I want should one of them have to make a decision on my behalf.

My Perfect Friday!

O.K. so ignore the hair (it was a little windy). This has to be one of the best perks about where I call home. Enjoying any Friday with some of my favorite gal pals is a treat I always love but to be able to do it with such awesome scenery around is such a great perk. I hope I never take for granted the beautiful water, the awesome view and the fact that it's the beginning of March and I'm enjoying all of this in my shirt sleeves. In less than 3 weeks I will be on the opposite coast where I hope to take in some equally wonderful coast line views. I'm pretty sure I won't be in shirt sleeves but I'll be with some new gal pals which I know will make the view even that much more awesome. Here's to the view where you are. Where ever it is may it bring you joy, mine certainly does!

Once an Alpha Chi . . .

As I was standing in line at my local Michael’s today I was behind a young girl buying red and green cardstock, duct tape and ribbons. I must admit my first thought was this was an odd time of the year to have such blatantly Christmas colors. Even the clerk trying to be friendly remarked:
“don’t you realize that Christmas is long over?”
The girl just smiled and got her wallet out to pay for the items. At that moment I caught a glimpse of her sweatshirt that emblazoned with the letters “AXΩ” and I realized that wasn’t just any red and green but the scarlet and olive of my beloved college sorority. I asked the girl who by now was just trying to get on her way,
“where are your carnations?”
She smiled and knew immediately that I knew she was a part of the sisterhood of Alpha Chi Omega, however she looked at me and asked
“how do you know about carnations?”
I replied
“I am a member of Alpha Chi.”
“Really, do you know our advisor, Stephanie?”
Guessing by my experience with collegiate advisors I imagined that “Stephanie” was probably not even 40 yet, which probably means we weren’t acquainted so I asked:
“How old is she?”
This perky young member of my sisterhood answered:
“Oh, really old.”
I thought it best at this point to smile and walk away and hope that “really old” was way more than 51!

One Woman's "Junk" . . .

is another husband's nightmare. Somehow the topic at our house of organization came up tonight. When I mentioned our garage which he considers his domain I was informed that all is in the order that he needs it in. Witness our garage:
There are individuals in this house that can't seem let go of anything. For example when I mentioned that I was planning on using the DVR tonight to record a DVD copy of one of my favorite movies, "The Best Years of Our Lives", the comment was made "we have it in on VHS". The whole VHS/DVD argument is beyond the technology of the minds I share my household with so suffice it to say my reply was "I sold all the VHS tapes in our last garage sale". More grumbling ensued to which I heard "you wouldn't need to make a new one if you'd just saved the old VHS tape but of course, you probably would have lost it in your scrap room". I'm not sure how the status of my scrap room entered into the discussion but questions came forth as to how I could possibly find anything in this mess? This is the current status of my scrap room. I know where everything I need is. Off to set the DVR . . .

Here Goes! Hold on It Will Be Quite a Ride!

I am sitting at my computer contemplating the jump to the world of blogging. What am I doing? There's more to life than sitting here typing my random thoughts for anyone to see, yet I feel compelled to join this age of blogging to have some sort of record that among the 6+billion people on the planet to say "I was here". And they say the generation of 20 somethings that my generation spawned is the "Me Generation". Not hard to see where they learned it from. I will not go quietly into that good night as evidenced by most favorite quote for the moment:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand, strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO-What a Ride!"

At the moment I'm wondering if I fell short somewhere in my "mother college" education. Whenever one of my kids ask me where I learned something like how to get chocolate stains out of a white t-shirt or the proper way to make the toilet plunger work, my standard response has always been "learned it in mother college". That worked well when they were children but as they've grown the questions get harder and I seem to be at a loss for answers. If anyone knows where the course catalog is for mother college let me know. I definitely need a refresher course.