Loves this too much not to pass it on............

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time.

You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone
you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every
sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Don't be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin.

Wonder....

I wonder, how many burdens is Jesus carrying for us that we know nothing about? We're aware of some. He carries our sin. He carries our shame. He carries our eternal debt. But are there others? Has He lifted fears before we felt them? . . . Those times when we have been surprised by our own sense of peace? Could it be that Jesus has lifted our own anxiety onto His shoulders and placed a yoke of kindness on ours? ~ Max Lucado~

Take my yoke upon you. . .
and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:29

Okay....

Here I am....I am busy with my new baby.....she is requiring most of my evenings. Who would have known!

Anyhow, not much happening - well actually there is a lot happening....a death in the family, a wedding, soccer practice started, ER visit in the midst of dealing with the SODL....

I have something still up my sleeve - actually two things - not all that exciting but, well, anything is exciting if it is new right?

As I have said before this blog was started as a vent for me and somewhere to share my excitement....these past few months I have been debating about what to do and the people closest to me want me to keep going with it, they say I write good and sometimes actually make them smile! Some of my family reads it though I have not invited my entire family to read along but I do have some changes up my sleeve and you could possibly receive something via e-mail. There is news I have been wanting to document but i don't want the whole world reading my news......some people just don't need to know all about my life.....

I am going to be making some changes in my own personal life and could possibly "disappear" for awhile....who knows what is in my bag of tricks....but the thing is, it is all good! My heart is yearning for betterness for me, my family and my friends! I truly cherish my friends and you are engraved in my heart - I just do that with my loved ones - I cherish you!

I am drained with some things that have went on in my life and it is zapping my strength and is no longer worth me fighting for or wondering about....things have definitely changed for me over the past few months and again, it is good!

I have searched my soul more than once and questioned things and asked my loved ones why and all to no avail....no answers to my questions, no solutions we can see.....I don't like the unanswered things in life as most people don't but life is good! Friends are good. If you have friendships cherish them, write those people deep in your heart - if you lose them it hurts like hell but it was worth the memories and the bumps along the way!

I don't seem to have a whole lot of spare times lately, between waiting for incoming calls, calls that you don't want and spending time with family the 24 hours in a day just can't seem to be stretched to fit all the things I want to do - if you have felt neglected by me I am sorry but know I love you and probably always did. Running a child to soccer practice and soccer games is just hitting for the Spring time rush as well as running a child to chess club and spending time doing homework just takes a lot of time - not that every minute isn't a gift to spend with him because WOW they grow up so fast!

I am not complaining at all just wanting you to know how important my family and true friendships are to me.....I am delicate and I don't like to be bruised by gossip.....I will just stop here because it is safe.

In the meantime think on this one:

Trusting God means thinking and acting according to God's Word in spite of circumstances, feelings, or consequences. The object of our faith is GOD - not our feelings, not faith itself, but almighty God. ~Warren W. Wiersbe~

We walk by faith, not by sight. ~2 Corinthians 5:7~

......Stay tuned.....

More recollection of last weeks events....

I forgot to mention that Miss K and her momma brought me the 2nd book in the Twilight series last Friday and a lovely little gift from Starbucks.....one of my many addictions! EW-lala....thank you chickies - I know Miss K was on her way to get a new pair of shoes - you know a woman can NEVER have to many shoes! heehee! She has 2 top teeth coming in and boy are they cute! I just love baby teeth and how they look coming in - so cute - though I feel for the pain they endure to get those teeth in - OUCH!

Over the past couple of weeks my SIL had shared with me that she was coming to town with her sister from the Seattle area to surprise their parents. They came on Sunday and I guess the surprise was a hit and they had a great time! I am so glad all went as planned. I had been SWORN to secrecy which I took care of very well. My SIL wanted to know if my mom needed a bag of Parrot food for her parrots and so I had to skirt around that issue with my mom - trying to figure out if she needed some or not - she said no but my SIL brought a 20 lb bag in her suitcase. She surprised my parents yesterday showing up by having her sister drop her off down the road and walking in to the driveway rolling a suitcase behind her. I guess my mom was freaking out because she thought it was some kind of sales person - my SIL even peaked in their front window and my mom still didn't recognize her and was freaking out still. She was lucky she didn't get shot by my mom - you know she tends to get a little carried away when she is pissed off - vulgarities flying freely! Anyhow, my SIL finally made it to the door and surprised them. It was a good thing and funny!

Last night I got to go out and hoot it up with her too. Ya, the big L-town on a Monday night at 7:30 - we started to go to Arby's because we were just going to grab a drink and visit and she was going to show me pics on her computer. Well about the time we hit the parking lot there it started downpouring....now she is not afraid of the rain because she is a Portlandite and they get plenty of the wet stuff, I on the other hand was afraid to step out in the torrential rain and end up soaked. So I had a grand idea to hit the 4-10 and sit in the car and visit while we sipped on a drink - even though I have got spiders in my drinks from there before....I was willing to eat another spider for her. Guess what people - they were closed already - what is that all about? She saw A&W on the way and said a rootbeer float sounded good so I went to A&W and guess what people...A&W in Clarkston is no more - it is apparently going to be a Taco Johns....gut bombs - ugghhh! 3-strikes we were out - so I headed to DQ and we got pops and sat in the parking lot until 10:00 while we visited about everything under the sun and then I had to take her home where we ended up visiting some more. It was good to just be away for a little bit and visit 1 on 1 - it has been sooo long for us to be able to do that....when I am there we are busy running and when she is here her family is usually with her! It was good! Heck we used to have some marathon shopping trips in Portland - up at the break of dawn and hit the malls and were gone until they closed.....we have some great memories of that....the clerk barking at me "WHAT SIZE ARE YOU?" from the back of the store while I was standing at the front of the store - um ya.....let me yell that back at you - NOT! Eating Chinese in the mall and then going to the pet shop and me saying "I gotta go" and WHOOSH I was gone! The Toys R Us incident and the Ross store - I could still almost make myself sick about that - I will never understand how someone can leave their gifts in the toilet and not flush - PUKE! All the trouble we would get in after it was agreed upon we were shopping all day and then we would get home and no one would talk to us because they were all pissed off at us...um ya - memories - like the corner of my mind, misty water colored memories......Oh ya! Just think of the places we could find soo much easier with the GPS systems now.....no shop would ever be unfindable.

So I came home after that and watched True Beauty.....I haven't been a die hard fan but watch it only because Billy was on it. It actually makes me kind of sick the attitudes and insides of these beautiful people and how they truly interact with others. Sometimes that is not so good.

I ended the perfectly good day by reading a few pages in the Twilight series book....I am still trying to figure out what all the hoopla is about - it is okay but I am not HOH (head over heels) on this book - it is a love story, not true and I am having a hard time in this fantasy love thing! I like true grit, true stories, local history.....whatever that means! The book I bought even has the poster in the back of it - I will sell it to the highest bidder - I can part with it....

OP Challenge 2009......

I decided it would be fun to be a part of an on-line challenge this weekend - the requirement was to use your OP (orange pile) stash of fabric. I started dicing & splicing last night about 7:30 p.m.

I made 3 of each of these blocks for a total of 9.....

I finished ironing the last one at 8:00 tonight! I am excited to see how this will all come together....

I did do other tasks today....did some errands, weeded through some papers on my desk and spent a couple hours this afternoon visiting with a friend from California who I was in church youth group with about 30 years ago! It was nice to touch base with her. Her mother died of cancer about 20 years ago - she was a great lady & friend of mine! It was so heartbreaking for me to be with her the last few weeks of her life - she knew it was only a matter of time and so did I ~ it was so hard for me to watch such a wonderful lady die so young and miss out on her kids lives as they grew up! Joyce you were a wonderful woman and I was blessed and am honored to have had y0u in my life!

Woe - didn't know that was coming! Maybe I should name this quilt "My Joyce Quilt"!

He graduated.....

I had to make the trek out last night for new shoes for Ang. What we thought would be a task of simplicity turned out to take much longer. We started at Tri-State Outfitters and they had 2 pairs of shoes that were his "new" size as we were informed that when you go from a 6 to a 7 that most shoes go in to men's sizes. Nike does have 7 youth but of course, they don't order very many of them in because they aren't big sellers. Off we went to Famous Footwear. No luck there either - they could order them in but that would take a week and we waited too long as it was to get new shoes for him. I won't even tell you when he got his last pair of shoes but it was a trip we took last spring to Portland. Joe was getting frustrated by the time we hit Famous Footwear. The two workers were visiting and I thought he was going to blow a cork as he wanted service - funny thing! So, once I asked him not to be a smart A&* to the workers and to please be calm because that would set the whole mood for encounter there. Anyhow, the sweetest girl helped us and spent way tooo much time and energy trying to fit him with a man's shoe. I think we tried EVERY shoe they had in a men's size 7. Ang finally found a pair that he liked - they were bad....solid white...thick soled.....not to cool in my eyes and I was thinking if the kids saw him with these on he would be targeted for harassing. I whispered "NO" to the worker and she steered him on to something else. They were bad - like something an older person would wear - I mean older when I say older! Solid WHITE....SOLID WHITE! Anyhow, we finally ended at 7:30 with a pair of Nikes.....I won't even give you the price on those puppies! Hopefully they will last a long time though like the last pair! They look so BIG on my baby. His pants are shrinking too - they are getting too short so that will be our next adventure!

So this weekend I am planning on taking part in an online quilt challenge, it is easy and you are challenged to use your stockpile of ORANGE fabric. I only had a few pieces of orange and I was saving them for a Halloween project. So I ventured out and bought a few slices of orange fabric that is so way cool. The lady who owns the store I went to was helping me out and showing me this fabric and it is like a kaleidoscope if you cut it and put it together a certain way - but that ain't happening so don't expect that from me. It reminded me of some kind of trip you would take on drugs - not that I have ever experienced that but it was really cool looking and exciting to see the effects. She had a double mirror she was showing me with - all I can say is WOW!

That was my THURSDAY night adventure.....my baby graduated to men size shoes.....another step in his little life. It will certainly be interesting to watch him grow and see where those feet and size 7 shoes will take him over the next little bit....prayers that God will keep him protected and safe and help him make wise decisions!

Valentines day.....

As a special request....some want to know WHAT it was I did on Valentine's Day. I had a secret place I went to early Saturday morning and then at 9:00 I hit the quilt store to start my project, I signed up for it months ago and was so looking forward to it. I worked diligently until about 1:00 when suddenly my brain was so boggled with the bazillions of pieces I had to sew back together in a special order that it went on strike. Piecing, pinning, sewing, ironing, sewing, ironing, pinning, piecing.....yadayadayada....it was fun but WOWZER. I got all my blocks done and ready to sew together which is quite the accomplishment considering that some of these pieces were 1.5 x 1.5 inches....uh-ya - that ain't big in case you are wondering! I started questioning as to WHY it was I took perfectly good (expensive too) fabric and diced it all up and was sewing it back together......especially after I had to take one piece off after I sewed the wrong piece on....that is where I was frazzled to the end! It was fun though.....trust me really it was!

I left the quilt store with my creation in hand and headed home where I found a nicely wrapped packages and 2 beautiful cards - one from Ang and one from Joe. I got a Starbucks mug which I love and 2 more pieces of Brighton jewelry - it has bling and is a heart locket - love it! I then got myself beautified for dinner - Joe had made plans for us and another couple to go to the Red Lion Buffet and reserved our table. I had a clam digger to start the night off right - the Red Lion makes awesome clam diggers - just an FYI. It was a very lovely evening and the prime rib was to die for, it was a tie for me between the prime rib and the strawberry/bacon/spinach salad - YUMMMO! At one point we got so tickled in a conversation that we nearly laughed ourselves silly, it is good to laugh like that once in awhile. We topped off the meal with a piece of red velvet cake that we shared. We ran in to another couple at dinner who was seating nearby so we visited with them off and on through the meal. After dinner we decided the evening was still young so we went to dance. It was fun to watch and enjoy all the dancers of all ages, it is nice to run in to friends and acquaintances too. It is so enjoyable just to relax once in awhile.

So there you have it - probably not that wondiferous to some but it was to me and that is all that counts right.....

Sunday I picked up my new glasses and can actually see - SHEESH maybe that would have helped at the quilting??? We did some Costco shopping and of course a quick trip to Joannes to see what I had to see. I ended up running into my aunt and 2nd cousin who is 4 - she is quite the little chicka - she had me cracking up - nothing like having a conversation with a 4-year-old in a fabric store and not knowing what is going to come out of her little mouth - she is adorable. She kept saying "Nana, she is funny!", oh ya....it was great! She had a hot pair of Batman sunglasses that I tried to talk her out of but she would have nothing to do with that business! I mean what better for a wardrobe completer for me than a purple pair of Batman sunglasses. What a cute little bug she is!

After that adventure I came home and crashed for a few hours only to wake up to watch.....yep, you got it.....Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.

So here we are Thursday of the following week - what has been going on in the home office....welllll Daisy has eaten a No2 Pencil - black and orange....I think she was over stressed about all those figures of dog treats in her mind and how she could obtain more for doing less things the proper way. Speaking of which things are a little quiet - she is either ZONKED at her desk or off in lala land extending her 15 minute break beyond the allotted 15 minutes.....I am so going to BUST her in the act of pushing the limits!