Boring Questions

Today I am asked...
"What does Fall feel like where you live?"
Wet, that's how it feels, Wet. Could we please have a few days of beautiful, sunny, Fall weather before winter is upon us?

Next question...
What are you watching?
Rosewood. Just kind of paying attention to it in the background while I write this. When I'm finished, I'm going to watch something I want to really pay attention to.

And finally...
What's on your Fall bucket list?
To go to Apple Hill with Megan, Mike and the boys and buy some yummy Apple donuts.......and eat them.

I know this is an impossibly boring post and that none of you care in the least about the answers, but I just wanted to write SOMETHING before the day was over.

Where is he anyway?

Here I am at another birthday party.
This time for Levi. We celebrated him turning two. Megan put on a fabulous party, as usual, this one with a Mickey Mouse theme. She goes all out and always does such a great job.  The decorations are fabulous and even the food always matches the theme. For this party for instance, we had things like Hot Diggity Dogs, "Club" Sandwiches, Goofy's Grapes, etc. She made cupcakes that had Oreo cookie ears, Oreo cookies dipped halfway in red and with added white buttons, and my personal favorite, Rice Krispy treats cut out with a Mickey cookie cutter. I could go on and on and will be posting a few pictures later. I told her today that I hope she knows that she is giving those boys an awesome childhood. They are truly blessed to have her as a mom.

Anyway, once again I thought I'd take a moment while I'm here to write my post for the day.

My prompt asks me what I need, and I will tell you.....I need my new rich boyfriend to hurry up and find me.
Some of you may have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, whenever I really want something (something that is pretty much a pipe dream for me) I have a habit of telling everyone that my new rich boyfriend is going to get it for me. I have been saying it for years now, and he still hasn't shown his face. :(  I'm tellin you, his list is very long and it just keeps on growing, so he really needs to get a move on! If any of you run into him out there, please send him my way. Im getting rather impatient!

I was at a scrapbooking weekend with my friend Tamra a while back and she made this little guy for me.

Since I figure that realistically, he's probably going to be the only one I get, I'd better hang on to him. He now sits on my desk and keeps me company while I work, but I can't say he's done too well at fulfilling my wish list. I really do need him to start emptying those pockets!

Hmmmm

Well, I know this will probably make you all really, really jealous, but I have the pleasure of being at my grand daughter's 10th birthday party. There are 40, yes I said 40, kids of that age here for the event, most of whom are screaming girls. Shoot me, shoot me now! Why don't I exit the mayhem you might ask? I have to give Mike and Landon a ride home. I'm seriously thinking about going home and having them call me when they're ready. If that's not pretty soon, I think I may.

Anyway, I thought I'd take this down time (Down time?) to write a post.

So what prompt do I come up with?
I'm told to describe my best qualities.

Are you kidding me? If you know me at all you might know that this is not an easy task for me. Now my failings or worst qualities...I could write a small novel. Well, at least a short story.
I'm thinking....Hmmmm...
Insert the Jeopardy sound here. You know. The one they play while they're writing their final answers. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just insert some snoring.

1/I guess I'm mildly creative.
2/I can often figure out how to recreate something by looking at the picture.
3/I think I'm a pretty good grandma.
4/I have a decent decorating sense. I worked as an assistant to a very talented interior designer once, and she thought I was pretty good. She said I had a great sense of balance.
5/Do I really have to do anymore?
   This is really hard!
Let's say this is enough.
   Maybe you should ask someone else.

I'll tell you something that does not go on this list.
Patience with vast amounts of running, screaming, yelling girls.

Is it time to go home yet?  Pleeeease

And yes...it is a slumber party.

You couldn't pay me to stay here tonight. 

Well, it would have to be a lot...a whole lot. 

Let's try a million. 

A million dollars. 

The Most Frightening Thing

Well, I'm finally sitting down to relax after a very long day and I find I'm actually in the mood to write a little something.

The prompt for this post tells me to write about something that frightened me.

I think one of the most frightening things of all is when you can't find your kids.
I've gotten a little jolt a few times when you turn around and they just aren't there briefly, but I was truly in a panic once when Megan was in grade school. I had my business at the time and it was right up the street from her school, so she would just walk there. I was always aware of the time and when she should be there. Once though, I was trying to wait on a customer, and getting more nervous by the minute cause it was past time. Eventually I just told her I had to go, completely abandoned my store and took off down the street to search. No Megan. There was a house on the way of someone she knew, so I knocked to see if she were there. No Megan. I was in a panic. Finally in the end when I got back to the little mall where my store was, I heard someone say there was a little girl crying in the bathroom. I was so relieved. There she was. She'd been there all along, but believe me she was told to never do that again. Come to mommy first. No matter what.

Megan has since had a fright of her own. We were on a camping trip. Landon always sleeps in my tent with me. One morning quite early I woke up and no Landon. I stuck my head out of the tent and hollered over to their tent asking if he were in there. He was not. Begin frantic search. All of us were heading in different directions calling out his name. It wasn't too long thank goodness, before I found him walking along down the middle of one of the campground roads in his footie pajamas. He was gathering sticks and having a marvelous time. He had just unzipped the tent and went on his way. Megan was in tears and hugged him so tightly.

He really wasn't quite sure why she was so upset.

He was able to come along with me on my church's camping trip this year and we for sure had a talk with him about waking grandma up before leaving the tent. I even joked that I was going to attach a leash to him and hold on to the other end. The very first morning I was awakened by "Grandma, I'm awake!" It was so cute.
I love him to pieces!

Okay, time for a little TV and some relaxation. 

Dream Job

Today I am challenged to write about my dream job.

Well I've already had mine. I've mentioned it before, but for a little over 2 years I owned my own business. It was in Arlington Gardens Mall. I loved it and it broke my heart to close it. I guess I was really supposed to make a profit and bring some money home as if I had a job with a paycheck. Who knew?

 After closing the store I had my own bookkeeping service called Pencil Pusher Bookkeeping. Later I was the manager of a scrapbook store, and now I'm a Stampin Up demonstrator and so far have two girls under me.
 (Anyone else interested?)
Something tells me I like to be in charge. Good heavens! When I had jury duty, I was even the jury foreman! Sometimes writing things down like this can give you insights into your own personality.

Okay then. Follow me and let's charge on over to my first annual Card Buffet.
The flyer will be posted later today. I've got to charge on over to Staples and get some printed.

I hope you'll join us!

Momisms

Another day that I find myself too tired to write a long post.
I got the flyer designed for the upcoming Card Buffet. Tomorrow I just have to get it out of my computer, onto the page and get them out to all of you. I've already added the event to my Facebook page and you can sign up and pay there if you're really anxious.

So...being too tired to write made me think of something my mom used to say.
"Let's don't and say we did."
So I'm just going to say I've accomplished my posting goal for today, but really I  haven't.

That's just one of the funny things my mom used to say. For instance, when I was told I couldn't do something that my friends were doing I would of course whine and say that
so-and-so got to do it. That was answered with..."If Marlene Haney jumped off a bridge, would you jump in after her?"

What are some of the momisms you got growing up? I know you have to have some.

Goals

Today I am to write about a step I have taken toward my goals.

A goal of mine is to become a better Stampin Up demonstrator. Especially now that I have 2 downlines. That's right two! How about that?

So....together with them, I am planning my first event. I hope for it to be the first annual "Card Buffet."

It should be a lot of fun and I will be posting all the info here very soon, but for now just save the date of October 1st. 

25 Things

My friend Rae posted this on Facebook and I thought it would do nicely for my challenge today. 

Twenty five things about me

1/Age: 65

2/Biggest Fear: Drowning/Not being able to breathe

3/Current Time: 11:51am

4/Drink you had last : Mr Pibb :(

5/Everyday starts with: Bible Study

6/Favorite song right now:  I can't pick just one.(That was Rae's answer and I can't pick just one either.) 

7/Ghosts, are they real?: No

8/Hometown: Downey, California 

9/Love someone?: yes

10/Jealous of people: I must admit that I sometimes have a problem with envy. 

11/Killed someone: No, of course not, and if I had, why would I say so here?

12/Last time I cried: Watching "Passion of the Christ." Anything about the crucifixion reduses me to tears. 

13/Middle Name: Rae...How funny is that?

14/Number of siblings: 2

15/One wish: The salvation of my family

16/Person you last called: My daughter Megan 

17/Question you are always asked: "Why?" 

My grandson is four. It's the age for that. 

18/Reason to smile: Landon & Levi. 

Never fails. 

19/Song last sang: "Twistin the Night Away"

I have Pandora on playing oldies. 

20/Time you woke up: 7:14....Darn dogs!

21/Worst habit: Snacking 

22/Clothing Color: Black

23/X-rays you had: Teeth 

24/Your favorite food: Mexican & Pizza

25/Zodiac sign: Aries 

That's my answers. More than you ever wanted to know about me. 

Copy and paste and post yours too. 

Three Good Things

My challenge today?

Three Good Things....

1/The salvation, grace, and pure joy given me by Jesus, my Lord and Savior, and my very best thing.

2/The Ortega family which includes two rough and tumble little boys that have stolen  my heart.

And 3/ Branches, my church family. 

I could name so many more, but those were the first things that came to mind. 

I'd love to hear your 3 good things. 

Oh Please!

My post today will be short and sweet. Why?
Because the prompt I chose is ridiculous.

Tell your favorite household chore.

Crazy!
If there were things among them to be considered favorites, they wouldn't be called chores.
And that's how I look at them....chores.
If I had to choose one I guess it would be vacuuming. My floor is always littered with paper scraps from me and bits of leaves and drebris carried in by the dogs. When I've had enough I just grab the vacuum and and suck it all up. It's a fairly easy job cause my house is very small. The whole place is vacuumed without even having to change plugs once. Afterward it looks nice and clean which gives me a good feeling.

This sounds all to familar to me.

Unfortunately it only lasts about half an hour before the dogs and I mess it all up again. Like all household chores it needs to be redone over and over and over.

So here's a good plan for you young moms.

Start them early!!

Henny Penny

Okay it's time for my writing challenge for today and here is the topic I've chosen.

Picture of an item in your house you love, and tell the story of where it came from.

 This cute little item is my Henny Penny. 
She's been in my house since about 1970. Back then everyone around me seemed to be collecting things. Owls, elephants unicorns, you name it. I was young and decided I needed to collect something as well. Those of you who know me will know that it turned out to be chickens (roosters too). Henny Penny had been in my mom's house since as far back as I can remember. I loved it, so she gave it to me and she began my collection. Many, many things have been added to my collection since then. At that time you didn't see them everywhere like you do now, so many things were added that weren't even very cute or cool. I just took what I could get pretty much. I think my mom bought me every single thing that she came upon.
Then tragedy struck. I hung a shelf in the kitchen of my first house with Tracy's dad and put a few things on it, including Henny Penny. I apparently didn't anchor it well enough and it and everything on it came crashing to the ground. My beloved Henny Penny, the first of my collection, was broken to pieces. I was heartbroken. As you can see in this next picture, I couldn't bear to part with her, so I gathered up every piece I could find, got out the glue and pieced her back together.

She still looks just as sweet from the front. She's just a little flawed if you look too closely. But aren't we all?

Many things from my collection have been discarded since, when either I was purging the house for a yard sale or as much more wonderful things were found, but not Jenny Penny. She remains with me and is much loved. 

Many years later I opened a little business of my own. I named it the Chicken Coop and many of my chickens went there to live for a while. Here's a shot of my business card.

I loved owning my business and would probably be there still today working hard and free for just the joy of it, but we needed me to bring money home and not just support the business, so sadly it was closed after only a few years. I'm sure there will be more stories about that in the future, but this one is about Henny Penny, So I close.

PS...When Megan was young she made little craft items to sell in my booths and we named her business the Nest Egg. 

Is that cute or what? 

Makeup...What makeup

Today I'm asked to describe my makeup routine. That's a good one! I've never been much of a makeup kind of girl.
If I'm at home, just running an errand, or only around some members of my family, the routine consists of nothing at all. I apologize to all of you who have been subjected to that lovely sight.
If I'm actually trying not to frighten everyone I do put some on. The main thing is my eyes. I have always had dark circles and now that I'm older they are quite red all around. So, a bit of concealer there, slap on some blush and some mascara and that's usually all there is. I have added a couple of new things though. I now put on eyebrow pencil for the first time in my life. Chemo nearly took all of my eyebrows away and didn't give much of them back, so I add a little pencil to help them out. Also, some lipstick. In the past I rarely wore any at all. I always felt like a bit of a clown when donning it, but as previously mentioned, I'm old now. Age seems to have taken the color away from my lips leaving them nearly the same color as my skin, so I now add just a touch of lipstick so that you can tell that I even have lips at all.
We'll, that's about it for the routine I put this old wrinkly face through. Aren't you glad I shared. I'm sure you've all been wishing you could get my beauty secrets.

You're welcome.

Mine says HOPELESS!

(Not really, but it should)

Guess What! Tomorrow I will be sharing about my hairstyles. 

Aren't you excited?

HELP!!!!

I am not happy. Back when I was writing my blog daily before, I had been using something I found which emailed me a prompt everyday. I searched and searched for the same one, but couldn't find it. I finally found one that I didn't like nearly as well, but I was using it. Now I check it this morning and my computer tells me that the doggone blog is no more. Now the only thing I can find with daily prompts is one that just gives you one word to write about each day. That's not what I want, :(  so I'm whining. I'm being forced to search the internet for ideas and I want to just receive one each day. I'll muddle through (How valiant of me), but if any of you know of a good daily one, please let me know and end my suffering.

My Motto

Today's prompt asks....
"If you had a motto, what would it be?"

At this point in my life I would say
"Trust Him, no matter what".

It took me way too long, but I have finally and forever learned that I can put the entirety of my life in God's loving hands and leave it there. I can trust Him to ALWAYS be working things for my own good and for His glory....even when it doesn't seem like it. I can look back now and see God's plan at work even when I thought things were really bad. I wish I had gotten this into my thick head long ago, since I can totally look back on my life and see where my own choices got me and how often crummy things were just me suffering the consequences of my own actions. Learning to give up that control and just relax in His care has been so freeing. Its a great feeling. So...as of now, I'm here and we'll just see where He takes me.
Soooo...

 So

Explosion

Explosion...that's my prompt for today.

The word brings fireworks to mind for me.
I love them. I get like a little kid when watching them and I just got to see some very recently while at the Aces game with my kids. Here's a picture that I snapped of one of my favorites.

They were super sparkly.

I had a really great time that night but I always do when I'm spending time with those grandkids of mine.

The tallest one is my Matilda and that little grinnin guy up front in green is my little buddy Landon. 

We ended up being there super late waiting outside to get autographs from players. Landon would march right up and say 

"Will you decorate my ball?"

He gives me a smile explosion. 

There...I used it again. 😆

Where Oh Where

Well, I'm back from yesterday's nitrous imposed blissful sleep and ready to reenter the world.
I begin with today's writing prompt...

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Since its anywhere in the WORLD I won't say Alaska, but I REALLY want to go to Alaska!
For this question I will pick Pamplona, Spain which will begin a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This journey is called El Camino de Santiago or The Way of St James made it onto my bucket list a few years after watching a movie called "The Way." It follows the journey of a father along the path. There are many differnt paths to take, but all end up at the Shrine of St James the Great. All travelers wear a seashell signifying all the roads coming together.

I was taken in by the idea of it not as a religious pilgrimage, but by the journey itself. The experiences and the people encountered along the way would make it worth the trip. This post would take forever to tell all about it, but if you're interested at all you can read about it in Wikipedia. Here's a link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago.

It's an item on that bucket list that will obviously not make its way into reality, but I really think it would be awesome. Also, it would probably take me the rest of my life using this old broken down body.
I do however have a souvenir sea shell. My daughter Tracy visited Spain and brought it home to me. It's on my backpack. I guesz I can pretend I actually did it ;)

Goog Night Ladies....

Today's assignment was to write about my most embarrassing moment.

Oh dear! Who could pick the worst? 

I guess I'll just tell on myself today. 

I had to go to the dentist for some work on the ol' choppers. I have a huge irrational fear of the dentist. I have to take anxiety pills  before I go, and then have to have the nitrous gas in order to survive the experience. The insurance covers me for it, but it is a bit embarrasing. To top it off they put me in a kid's room with fun things painted on the walls and cartoons on a TV. Embarrassing? I guess. But if that what it takes to get the job done, I'm just going to take it in stride.

I'm positive that there are many greater and more embarrassing moments in the past, but my brain is too foggy to bring them to memory right now. 

Maybe another day. For now...It's naptime. 

Night  Night. 

Six Words

Today's blog prompt....
Describe your life or current situation in exactly six words.

Totally and joyfully trusting the Lord.

National Dog Day

While checking in on one of the blogs I follow I was horrified to discover that yesterday was National Dog Day and I failed to celebrate it. I make up for it now by sharing  pics of Archie, the newest member of my household, adopted at of all places...an Aces game that I went to not long ago.

Isn't he the cutest?

Peek-a-Boo however is not to be forgotten. 

Here they are together. Was it meant to be or what?

Wanted

Today's prompt tells me I can write about anything at all but it must be in the form of a want ad, so I'll make it about what I need most....TIME!

I never seem to have enough of it. Always something to do and never seeming to get it all done. I must confess though, that I would probably have a ton more if I just used it more wisely. So, maybe I really need time management help. I take that back. That sounds like work. Time.....I'll just ask for more of it, some to waste and some to accomplish more. And speaking of that, my Bible study is calling me to get busy and begin my day so that I can get to the business of making cards for my upcoming Paper Pumpkin workshop. I'm having a tough time with this one so I'll add an ad for some creative brilliance. 

All offers considered.