Saturday morning, 4:51am

well good morning or afternoon or evening to anyone who happens to stop in to this post and look into a little corner of my small moments in life. well, Christmas is over, the small pile of wrapping paper in our house is in a plastic bag in the trash can, and the huge prime rib that John bought is almost all gone. We never set up a tree this year, cus we were busy with other stuff that HAD to be done, so I dont have to take it down. Thats ok, we had a poinsetta plant that was givin to us and that is what we used as our tree. This year, for the first time in I dont know how long, john told me what he really wanted. We each had a budget of the same amount, and guess what, he got everything he wanted and i stayed in my budget for the first time. I only wanted one thing, and i got that too. I was happy and so is john. Job well done to both of us.

I know that sounds like a quick little wrap up of the holiday, and it was, but that is pretty much how it went. it was different this year for us. none of our kids were home, so that whole big celebration thing we have had in the past just didnt happen this year. we are still enjoying our holiday, just in a quieter way. I baked. I made cookies and brought them to work. then i got home and made some more for the lady i drive to work with. I also made those nanaimo bars that Carol put on her page. I will never like them, cus coconut just isnt a part of the food list that I eat. I gave more than half the bars to my friend also, and her family loved them. John says they are a little rich, a once a year thing. thats good with me. gag, coconut. but he is happy.

 I felt a little like the luckyness of Em shopping when i found one of the items i bought for john on sale for 15.00 less. I took the receipt back, with the intention of getting my stud a stud finder for the next project we take on. well guess what, when they rang it up, it was the exact amount, down to the penny of the difference in the receipt return. How cool was that.

Do I have a little more of your time? its been so long since i was on here, i have some updating to do. Alex is joining the AirForce. He has run out of money from his student loans, due to retaking classes he failed to pass the first time around. We offered to help him so he could stay there, but he didnt want any more more of our help, he wants to fix this on his own. so, since he had intended to join anyway, he is just going to join earlier, and let the AF finish paying for it. that is a good thing for him to do. Im actually happy he decided to take on more responsibility in this matter. I have to look at it like a growing thing. and for him, an opportunity to see more and grow to be a more fulfilled person and adult. So he will be coming home the beginning of february until they take him the end of march. I will get to see him a little. Once again, my children are growing up.

Well, before you mistake this for an autobiography from me, I better go. But wait, one minute. I have a question. have any of you noticed a few changes in multiply. I no longer get all the notices telling me you and every other person on here has posted something. I dont necessarily need to know about all your friends posts, but i would still like to see if you have put up something new. I dont even get told if my page has been posted on. I better go check to see what my settings are on.

ok, so now i really am gonna change my font and size and get on with the day. we are leaving town this morning to go to the coast. we will be spending time with johns family and returning tomorrow. so have a great day and see ya all later.

Alex's Quilt and the book

there is only one pic of the front of this quilt. I have the back pinned to it riught now, but i still have to finish it. I really love how it turned out. I think i may try it again with another color scheme. also, there is ther christmas card i made for my co worker. i love how it turned out.

busy busy busy

Its been a while since i have been here. we still dont have our tree up, but i have been so busy, even if john took it down, I dont know if I could decorate it. I keep thinking Im gonna do this or that, and I have to do something else before i can do what ever else needs to get done. so this is what i have been trying to complete.

alex's quilt. I finally got the front done and I am so happy with it. i wasnt sure how the colors would work together, but they really turned out nice. I bought a solid dark blue fleece for the back, and i still have to finish that part of it. I dont usually use a solid color, but in this case, I think im gonna like it. My goal was for the quilt to be all warm n fuzzy. I think when it is done, i may have to cuddle up in it for a while before I ship it off. I have to make sure its as warm as it needs to be.

also, at work we are doing an ornament exchange. it could cost as much as 5.00 and you had to make your own card. no store bought cards. gasp. that one stuck me. what the heck was i gonna do. well, not everyone chose to do the exchange, so that made it a little better, it gave me a better chance of knowing the person better. I was pretty happy when i picked the person out of the hat. it was a blind drawing. so I snagged a  couple pics from her myspace page and made my own card for her. Im pretty proud of it, you can see it in a new photo album im trying to load. i was able to find a really cool ornament for half the price at the fabric store, so now they are both in a bag and ready to go. i am really excited about giving it to her, that will be thursday night.

i got my christmas cards written and this morning I got them to the post office. I just keep trying to play catch up and i dont think it gonna happen this year. I dont know if you have heard, but its freezing cold here and we are finally getting some rain down here and snow up in the mountains where it is needed. I just hope it continues long enough to fill up some of the empty lakes and resorvours.

Ok, i gotta get goin. need to get some sleep today too. i will come back and check in with you all later on. I havent even been able to open my lappy latley. well, hope your not stressin this season.

I

We Won the lottery, kinda

for the last year or so, a group of us at work have put in 20 dollARS a month for the california lottery. we each chose quick pick numbers when we started, which would be used for each months new picks. one person, the one who keeps us going, buys the tickets each month and keeps track of the winnings. we trust her. if we win a few dollars, she reinvests it to the megamillions and we hope n pray for a winning ticket.

well, i think it was tuesday night, the lady, I will call her karen, came in and said oh, I owe you ten dollars, we won the lottery! and she handed me the cash. you would have thought she handed me a million bucks instead of ten. I was so happy, we high fived, did the happy dance i pocketed my big money and went on my merry way. a little while later, i was teling another coworker about the winning, whn i found out she was also in the lottery group. right at thagt moment, karen walked in the room and gave her her winnings. she hugged her and celebrated.

ok, so throughout the night, as i reached into my hot pocket for my pen, i would feel the ten dolloar bill right next to it. it made me happy every time i felt it. not greedy happy, just giddy happy. silly happy, to have won it. i wasnt thinking about what i would spend it on, it was only ten dollors, what could you buy with ten dollars, so I figured i would use it for coffee at work. two buck a day, a week of coffee. ok.

then, as the night went on, i realised i hadnt given to the toys for tots drive yet. so i decided i had enough money for coffee, i would go to big lots after work and see what i could get for ten dollars. even if it was jsut one toy, it was one toy for one kid, it would help. So after work, I went home, took a shower and and headed off to Big lots. I figured i could get the most bang for my buck there. I matched the ten in winnings from my pocket for good measure and was able to get about six small gifts. I got two cars, two barbie like dolls, and two other small gifts. I felt great. I also found one of Johns requests at big lots for 50.00. he wanted a four foot ladder, and poof, there it was, so into my cart it went.

So guess what I did? I am so proud of myself. i wasnt overly tired so I headed off to sears. Once there, i got a prime parking spot near the door. I dont care if i have to walk, but not if i have to carry a shop vac. so i walked into sears, and found out they have shopping carts. things were getting better. I know this is getting long, but im almsot done. anyway, i walked into the store, and started on my mission. I looked around and found some sweatshirts for john, then asked for directions to the shop vacs. I found them, decicded on which one I wanted ans also found one more thing john wanted. into the cart they both went. woo hoo! i was shopping, and it wasnt crowded and i was good! So I paid for my bundle of goodies and went out to my car. I was happy.

So when i got home, I happened to look in just the right spot in the garage, and i saw my tree. Johns gonna get it for me this weekend. things are looking up. YIPPEE!

YES LISA, THERE WILL BE A CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!

Christmas Shopping??? When

OK, its December 9, and all i have done is send out checks to my two babies.  John keeps adding things to the short list of things he would like me to get him. he will get them all, i dont care. I just have to find the time to get out there and buy them. we still havent dragged that little tree out of the garage from last year and I dont know where my wrapping paper is. I am not prepared this year for Christmas.

this weekend we were gonna go get more champaigne and restock our wine supply. that will take a whole day. I have to finish alexes quilt, which he may not get till after christmas. so maybe i will have to go shopping on sunday. I only have to get a few things.  he wants a Rigid Shop Vac, a short ladder for making home repairs and not having to stand on a chair and some new sweatshirts for the winter. see, not a long list at all.

John is lucky, he only has to get one thing. All I want is a new full sized food processor. I gave away a small one that was of almost no use to me. it wouldnt hold enough of anything to make any recipe i had. I won one last year that was a little bigger, but still wont do for what i want. I think i want a Kitchen Aid, but i havent done my research to find out which one I want. really, that is all I want. I cant even think of something frivolous. pitiful.

We dont buy gifts for every member of our families. It seems a little silly to me to run out and stress myself over shopping for a bunch of people we see maybe two or three times a year. Not that i done love them, but i dont feel obligated to do that. i mentioned in the last post that i printed copies of a family shot and framed them for my sisters. this was a small thing, but they will like it, and i am not obligated to them either. I just like doing things for them, anytime. it just happens to be the holiday season.

I just reread that last paragraph and it reads a little selfish. Oh well. I wish it could be christmas every day so i wouldnt feel the stress to go shopping and try to get just the right thing. I cant seem to get that thing right, memories of last year come rolling back through my mind. i even bought the stuff that people said they wanted, and some of it still just sits. if it were christmas every day, i could shop when it was less stressfull, take more time, make sure it is really what they want, and surprise them for no apparrent reason. that is so much more fun to me.

So, back to Christmas shopping. maybe friday after work. maybe sunday. maybe stopping on my way home from work. I couldnt even imagine having to shop for a bunch of people. OH, i forgot to tell you. I really hate to shop. HATE IT.  it stresses me like nothing else. even if its shopping for me, i have to phyche myself up for it. did i spell tht right. once again, oh well.

ok, if you have stayed with me through this whine fest, thank you. and sorry at the same time. it may be our new found freedom of doing what we want for the first time in many many years, but i suppose i will find the time to go do this for John. ok, I am gonna stop this for now. i will let you know when i get my shopping done.

sigh. big. heavy. sigh.

Alex's Quilt

this quilt is called Jacobs Ladder. I bought the fabric on friday, and have gotten this far, this quick. I think its gonna be pretty nice. I impressed myself with this one. lol

This weeks Update

I tried writing this earlier. I got into the second paragraph, hit some button on my keyboard and it just disappeared. not all of it, but most so i just shut down and went to bed. I will try and start this over again. What i was saying was that i dont have a lot to say, but i will say what i know for right now. So, here I go, one more time.

My youngest son called me yesterday morning at 645 am. I was still at work, and didnt hear it ring. Its really loud out there on the floor. So I called him when I saw that he called. He realised he knew what he wanted for Christmas. So, I told him he is getting a check, the same thing his brother is getting. I spent so much time last year buying gifts I thought were great, only to have them all returned. He said he wanted new sheets, so I said i could order them for m costco and have them sent to him there, or i could send him a check and he could buy what he wanted. He chose the latter. He also wants a new warm quilt and a new pillow. The one his gran made him was wearing out. So, this morning i looked in my books and found two patterns, had him choose one, so I went out and bought the fabric. I did pretty good on that. I got all but one fabric for 50% off and the other one was 30 % off. yea me. Our fabric store has a 50% off table and I got three of the fabrics from that table. Now all of it is cut, and just have to start sewing.

When i went to my sisters party a few weeks ago, i took a bunch of pictures. My sister likes to have pictures to hold in her hand, in a book, so i had them printed and put them in a book. I also had a group shot of my sisters printed out for  each of them and framed them. I figured I could give each of my sisters a picture. So i woke up thursday night and John told me my sister dropped by and left me a prezzie from my oldest sister. Guess what it was? a framed picture with me in it of my sisters plus some individual shots. how funny huh? Now i have five framed copies of almost the same shot that im sure my big sister also has for my other sisters. talk about great minds thinking alike.

Things are slowing down at work. we havnet had that happen in our department since shortly after i started working there. its usually our department that is running till almost time to start up again, but this week it is already shut down. I didnt have to work last night, i had to go, but i came right back home. I couldnt get to sleep, so i stayed up and watched tv till my eyes shut. i only slept about four hours, so now im tired again, and its only 530. crap.

anyway, it looks like i am out of things to write about, so until next time, have a great wekend.

Giving Back

I keep thnking Im gonna tell you all a few easy ways to give back to your communities without costing a whole lot, but i dont know how to start that conversation. So, since it is the giving season and I have so much to be thankful for, i have to share how I do it, and then you can share how you do it, if you want. I bet most of you give back without even knowing it.

I usually give blood every 59 days, but last year I had a bone transpalnt for some dental work I had done. Just so you know, bone transplants will stop you from being able to donate. I didnt know this, so i told my dentist and I wont let this happen again to me. I cant donate until April of 09. I am waiting for the call though. that is a very important one, and it cost you nothing but time.

School box tops. You will find these little tags on the tops of different items you buy. its is a picture of a pencil in a rectange. it literally says School box tops on it. If you see these on any packaing you have, tear them off and start a collection. Call your local school, or ask one of the kids in your neighborhood if thye are saving them. When they are turned in from the schools, the schools get computer supplies. free. I save them for a lady I work with. her kids save them and take them to school. Her kids love me. and it costs me nothing to.

Pink tops from Yoplait Yogurt. If you eat yogurt, and i do every day, save the pink tops. you will only see them between October and December. When you send the pink Yoplait tops back to the adddress on the lable, they send 10 cents for every top to breast cancer research. I figure i have already bought the yogurt, how much can it hurt to return the tops, not a lot. and ya never know, one day the research may help you or someone you love. easy and costing very little, just postage.

I also save the small soaps and shampoos I get from our hotel stays. I have learned to bring my own soap, cus the stuff inthe hotel is too harsh for me. I may use one of the shampoos if I dont remember to bring my own. But for every night we stay in the hotel, i snag all the soaps, shampoo, cream rince, lotions. When we get home, i unload all of it into a ziplock bag or small box. I just keep saving these and then when i have enough to make a difference, i give it to a homeless shelter of some other place. One of the ladies I work with is going to take them to the womens shelter for me. I started saving these a few years ago when a friends daughter was collecting for a school project. easy and cheap.

OK, so do you give back to your community? I bet you do. its easier than you think. I didnt even realise i was doing it until it was a habit for me. I really like the school box tops thing. I was surprised to find out how many different items have the little picture on them. that one everyone can do.

so that is all i have to say for now. I was gonna tell you a little more about our bragg tripp, and i may still do it, just not today. I have to go take a little nap before i go to work tonight. im gettin sleepy. see ya all later.

More Pics from Fort Bragg

I took 132 pics, but i only put in a few. Most of you have seen fort bragg last year, so i didnt want to put all of them here.

Long Weekend in Fort Bragg

This weekend Johns brother and sister n law was supposed to come over. we were gonna take them winetasting in Lodi. We keep telling them how much better our wine is than that overpriced Napa crap. I took sunday off so we could make sure to rest before i had to go back. I had a feeling it was gonna be a tiring weekend. well guess what? they flaked on us and called and said they had too much to do at home and couldnt come over. That was ok, we had a feeling it was gonna happen, so we made alternate plans.

Thursday morning I called the hotel we wanted to stay in to see if they a room available. Yes, they did. it was 179.00 a night. OUCH! that hurt a little, but it had a fireplace, jacuzzi and private balcony with a view of the ocean. its not like we do this every weekend. So we took the room, happy knowing we got to get out of dodge for a night.

Friday morning we got out of town around ten. it is along drive, about five hours, and leaving any later would get us here after dark. there was christmas music on the radio, and i was trying to guess the artist before it was announced. i was getting them right except for the newer ones. the one i was the most proud of getting right was a song from Natilie Cole. that took up about an hour of the ride until the station got lost. Car entertainment. John tried to get them, but he only knows a few names. it was fun.

We finally pulled into forte bragg around three. it really is a long drive. we went to check into our hotel, and the lobby had a nice fireplace, a covered tray of cookies, displays of jackets you could purchace. it was very nice. the guy behind the counter starts telling us about the room. there is a robe for you to use, its 80.00 if you take it home. in the fridge you will find some treats that are made daily in our own kitchen. I asked if we would get charged extra if we ate them. NO, they are yours as part of the room. there are wine and champaige glasses in the room along with a corkscrew. they showed us the menu for the restraunt and told us they would call in our order if we decided to dine there. we were blown away. then we went to check out our room and it was better than we have ever stayed in. i will post the pics i took.

Needless to say, about an hour after we got in our room, we decided to stay one more night. when we were here last year at this time, it was cold, raining, windy, general crappy weather. this time around, it si so hot. we havnet even put on our coats. the sun is out, we have taken walks, had lunch, stayed outside. watched the water and took some really cool pics. We will be coming back here for my birthday. yep, this is my destination for the next one. I am lovin it here!

I better get going. this is a little long again. i will put up some of the pics. Hope your dinners were great.

Thankful Thursday 13

I usually ask my sons what they are thankful for on thanksgiving. this year my kids are in their own homes, doing their own things, so i am going to list 13 things I am thankful for. I  dont usually do thirteens cus i cant think of thirteen anything. Hopefully this will be easy, so let me start at

1. I am thankful for a husband that loves me.

2. I am thankful for my family. I have 11 brothers and sisters, and I am greatful to all of them for one thing or another.

3. I am thankful for my two sons. I have had horrible thoughts, and thinking of them makes me happy again. They make the bad thoughts go away.

4. I am thankful for the home I live in. Too many right now dont have one.

5. On that thought, I am very thankful we took a fixed rate loan so many years ago.

6. I am so very thankful for the job that I have. I know it can be gone tomorrow, but today I still have it.

7. I am thankful for the insurance the job that I have provides.

8. I am thankful that John, my husband, has a very strong work ethic.

9. I am thankful for my fairly good health and that of my husband and sons. I dont know how it happened, but we are fairly healthy.

10. I am thankful for my friends that help me through the day. Yes that includes you if you are reading this. We all need each other in one way or another.

11. I am thankful i have a good car to get me from one place to another. The fact that it is paid in full makes it better, and it is my first car in my name only and i picked it out and i still love it makes it even better.

12. I am thankful for the life I have been privileged to have up to now. i am not special in any way, but all in all, i think I have lived a pretty good life.

13. I am especially thankful for our military, past and present, that have allowed all of this to happen. they have fought to keep our freedom, and to keep the bad guys at bay. If you are or were military, thank you. every day, thank you.

there, i did it. I think that is my second complete thursday thirteen. have a great Thanksgiving Dinner.

finished work of Art plus our new vanity

see how big those towels are, they are bath sheets.

Here is the finished pictures of the Bathroom. i love the clear shower doors, it makes the small bathroom look so much bigger.

24 and another potluck

I am sitting here at 11:00 am, wanting to go to bed, but i cant. again we are having a potluck at work, and guess waht i signed up for? turky. no, i didnt just call you a turky, that is what i am doing right now, waiting for it to finish cooking. I was gonna do the whole stuffing thing, but after i paid 21.00 for the turkey, i said to hell with that. the house smells good though. john will be surprised when he comes home for lunch. i hope it tastes as good as it smells. hold on a minute, i need to go baste n check it. brb. ok, i bet you didnt even notice i was gone. lol. next year im making green bean casarole. five minutes and it tastes like you worked real hard, to some.

we are finally done completly with the bathroom. we installed the vanity mirror, towel rack and tp holder. then i headed off to costco to buy some matching towels and a new rug for the floor. you dont want to land on the floor when you step out of the shower. I bought a cream colored rug and two cream colored bath sheets. i also bought two of a darker colored towels along with the hand towels and bath towels. i have never bought bath sheets before, but i really love them. they wrap all around you, with no surprise sneak peaks. some of us with more robust buns have this issue with regular towels. they feel fab and make the bathroom look finished. i dont have a finished picture right now, but i will soon enough and when i do, i will show you. its a very small bathroom so its kinda hard to get good pics. but i will.

are any of you fans of Jack Bauer? notice i capitolised his name? YES! HE IS FINALLY BACK!!!!!! i just watched redemption and LOVED IT! the series doesnt start till january and its gonna kill me to wait that long for him to come back. I got john watching it a couple years ago and he is waiting for it too. I CANT WAIT FOR 24 TO START ALL OVER AGAIN. YIPPEE! Jack could rescue me any time he wants to, or feels a need to, or thinks im in imminent danger and has to shoot up or blow up everything around me to save me. ohhhh yessssss. sometimes i crack myself up. like now.

i have decided to write a thursday thirteen on guess when, thursday. whoda thunk it? i am going to write thirteen things im thankfull for. i usually ask my kids to tell me what they are thankfull for, and they used to act like it was so difficult. i think i could come up with 13 things pretty easy. i am very fortunate, i better be thankful for what i have. as we all know, it can be gone tomorrow.

i think its supposed to rain today and tonight. if you are getting a massive amount of any kind of wet stuff can you please do a dance to send it our way. we could really use it. lots n lots n lots of it.

i think thats all i have for now. hmmmm strange, oh well. i will see you thursday. i have to go baste again. hopefully i can go to bed soon. snooooore.yawn

So Much and yet so Little

has been going on with me latley. that seems to be the way it goes with me. I either have a lot of free time, or none at all. right now i am in the none at all catagory. or it seems that way to me.

we are almost done with the bathroom. today we have to go buy a vanity mirror and install the towel rack and tp holder. yesterday as i was cleaning the bathroom and running water, i discovered the sink was leaking. that thing is driveing john nuts. it didnt line up correctly with the pipes that came out of the wall so he had to figure out how to fix that problem. the sink has been the only real issue. we got the new shower doors and they are beautiful. i cleaned them yesterday with barkeepers friend and now they are crystal clear. that stuff is very good. it took off all the fingerprints and marks from the installer. i think i will try it on  my car windows.

I had to stand in the showeer to take that.

last weekend we went to my sisters birthday party. i actually didnt know it was her birthday, the card said a party for carol, but i dont know their birthdays, so i just figured it was a party. anyway, we had a blast. i got to see my sisters i havent seen for way too long. we laughed, danced, visited, ate, then laughed and danced some more. her daughters put it together and they thought of everything. they bought these blow up guitars and a saxaphone. i have pics of all my family doing the rockstar thing with a blow up guitar. i know it sounds funny, but it was fun. someone got cutout images of elvis and marilyn monrow. so we were taking pics with them also. now elvis is in my garage with a gold blow up guitar around his neck.

My neice found these glowing margerita glasses on line. they are plastic and you have to bend the stem to activate the glowing stuff in them. that is what we drank out of all night. well, i did anyway. everyone else had wine glasses or shot glasses on beads around our necks. my brother tied all the ballons towards the end of the party to one of the glasses to try and launch it, but it was just too heavy and would only float up a bit then come back down. Thats my sister with the balloons. we had fun with that thing too.

this thing seems like its getting kinda long and i dont want to loose you to my ramblings so i will go for now. that is john in the background and my other sisters at that table. hmm, i just noticed that. well, i need to go try real hard to get caught up on what is going on with all of you. crap, loose a week and it takes a whole day to catch up.

see ya all later

Spring, Summer, Fall, Potluck, Winter

There really is 5 seasons. the missing one is Potluck. it happens at workplaces across the country around this time of year, there are many taking place every day for a multiple of reasons. This is how it happens. someone finds a reason to have one. the choices go on forever, birthday, baby, the many holidays, a team member leaving. then a type of meal is decided on and a sign up sheet is distributed around the workplace. As the actual date comes closer, the original organisers talk and make sure everything is coming together. then the day arrives and the food is brought in, people eat massive amounts, are happy and then have to bring home leftovers.

this happened last night with us on third shift. One of the managers that everyone thinks very highly of is leaving us and going to first shift. We will still see him, but he wont be working with us. he is one of those special people that goes out of his way to help where ever he is needed. so we had a potluck for him to wish him a fond farewell. we gave the folks a choice of donating 5.00  or bringing in a dish. the 5.00 was to buy meat to bbq. We worried about not having enough side dishes, but as usual, the was more than enough food to feed a few armies. I brought carrot cake, potato salad and an empty crock pot. I brought home half the potato salad and crock pot full of baked beans.

I threw out the salad, it had been sitting out all night. i dont know what i am going to do with a crockpot full of beans. there was such good food there last night. i wish i could have eaten more, but then i couldnt work. i think if you make something, you should also bring in the recipe, that way if it is really good, you can have it again. In a few weeks we will have the thanksgiving potluck, then a christmas one. its time to eat for every occasion. I love this season. do you?

its almost done!!!!

John worked so hard this weekend. he pained the bathroom, put in the floor and reinstalled the toilet. It didnt happen that fast. I wish it did. poor guy is exhausted. Now the last big thing is the sink/vanity. He has to do the light bar and accessories, but we can do that on tuesday or next weekend. the hardest part is done though and it looks great. Can you see the color of the walls? I am so thrilled with how this is turning out. and guess what, we get to return one box of flooring we never opened. tomorrow the guy will come out to measure for the new shower doors. this is going to be nice. i may just take loonger showers when it is done, just so I can look at it. on e of my friends dropped by to tell me something and i showd her the bathroom. she thought the floor was real stone. yep, john did an excellent job. we keep getting better and better at this renovation stuff. this is our third big project.

Im off to bed now. gotta bet to work at 8 tonight.

Another Early morning blog

the amazing happened to me yesterday. I went to Lowes and spent only 68.00. then I went next door and into Costco. here is the really strange thing, i walked out of that building under 100.00. this NEVER happens to me. I find something to spend my hard earned cash on. the thing was though, i went in there sleepy. that never helps. i didnt even bring in a list. i did forget one thing, not a critical thing so i dont have to go back.

today we will be painting the bathroom and hopefully putting down the floor. in my mind, it shouldnt take that long. im sure it will take longer than i want though. and hopefully by tomorrow we can at least reinstall the toilet. I am so used to heading straight for our bathroom, i find myself still doing that. i cant wait for this to be done. it really will be nice.

i was asked the other night if i wanted to work on vetereans day. i had to think for a second. i would get triple time, which the government would quickly snatch most of that away before i even get to look at it. if i didnt work i would still get 8 hours and that really was the better deal for me. so i will go in 4 hours early on sunday, get monday off then work three more days. i will come out ahead on this paycheck and not have to work so hard. good for me.

I got a couple pics sent to me from my son. get this. he has been talking to this girl online since he was a sophmore in highschool. they have talked on the phone, webcammed, and chatted on line. this week he and her met in person for the first time. sound familiar to anyone. he said it was so strange but he is having  a great time. he flew to Philly and sent me a pic of the liberty bell

then to washington and sent me a pic of the capitol at night.

These were both taken with his cell phone. pretty cool huh!  he has plans to keep seeing that part of our country until sunday when he has to fly back home. I am juast happy he gets to do this.

ok im out of anything else to say right now. hope you have something fun planned for your weekend.

New Beginnings

That is probably what most of us are thinking right about now. some are way too happy. some are sad and wondering what the future holds for them. I know, its only the changing of our guard, and it hasnt even really happened yet. it wont happen till next year. In the meantime, we can try to get an idea of whats in store by trying to predict the outcome by who he brings on board for his new cabinet. I will leave that particular task to those in more of the know than me.

While I was watching the huge celebration last night, and listening to the many comments i kept hearing the same thing, over and over. "Never in MY lifetime did I expect to see this. " I must have been a little nieve about this. I kept thinking this was about the persons views and values and goals of what he wanted to accomplish. I am happy we finally crossed the color line. that is not the issue for me. never was. it is his views, values, and goals he wants to accomplish.

so i am going to move on. try to anyway. what choice do I have, none. I am not the only person feeling like this. I would imagine quite a few of us with the R in front of our political standing are feeling the same way. I was able to gain a bit of respect for Clinton, so maybe i can do the same for obama. Im sure he is a nice guy. I just dont agree with his views, values and goals.

so this is me trying to accept and move on. Hopefully, our paychecks wont completley disappear, along with our savings and any other account we may have our retirement in. I can just keep trying to have my new beginning.

Our bathroom redo

These are some of the pics i took of the work in progress. I cant wait to see it all put back together.

John is starting

This morning we got up early, i made waffles, John made the bacon, we had breakfast and John started in on the bathroom. He took out the toilet first.

Water went all over the floor, but that didnt matter, that was gonna get torn up also. then he started on the tiles on the wall of the sink. A few of them came off clean, but we also have a couple big holes in the wall. John will patch those with that patch stuff. We also decided to replace the mirror/cabinet that that was put on the side of the wall. I dont know who's bright idea that was to put the medicine cabinet on the side wall. But now that is in the trash too. John didnt want to replace it at first, but he chipped the corner glass. Out it goes. woo hooooo. I hated that thing.

The next thing we have to do is paint. I am leaning toward the darker color. I think it is gonna look really nice, sorta rich. We looked at shower doors yesterday, and i really liked this dark brushed metal with clear glass. the clear will make the small bathroom look larger and the doors should stay cleaner. We will have to squeegie the doors after we use the shower, but it will look nice. John will start doing the plaster tomorrow. I think this may go faster than we figured. It is gonna look nice. it is costing more than we figured on, but its not like we will do this once a year. We probably wont do it again. But bathrooms and kitchens add price to the home value.

OK, thats it for now.

One Down, how many more to go

halloween has come and gone. We didnt get a whole lot of kids last nite. I had 104 bags of puffs and 48 chedder flavored ruffles. I dont know how many more i have left over, but i will give them away to neighbors. they have kids and will happily eat them. I just dont want them here.

yesterday i went and got my hair cut again. this is the shortest its ever been. I had it cut around my ears. it looks cute. I dont have a pic to show yet, but next time i fix it, i will try to get john to snap one. pretty much it is wash and wear. I can curl the top or even spike it if I want. the sides are short though.

So next up is election day. I dont know how to say how much i cant wait for this one to be over. i am sick to death of all the commercials and ads for the many different politicians and  propositions to vote for. I wish  there was some way to eliminate the ads from my viewing since i have already voted. why should i have to continue to hear this crap. This should be one of the hightest voter turnouts in recent history, and that is great. its about freakin time people took notice of the issues going on around them and added their voice to the mix. Here in california, two of the items we are voting on same sex marriage, which is a biggie and how big the cages are for some farm animals. I just wish it was over.

after that is thanksgiving then christmas. i wont go into those things yet. i love both holidays, they just make me feel good.

Today we are going to look at new shower doors for the bathroom. that is the last big item we need to buy for the redo. pictures to come on that one.

It rained thursday for the first time this season. thunder, lightening, the works. I slept through the whole thing. its supposed to rain today and tomorrow too. with lightening and thunder again. woo hoo.

ok, i think that is it for now. i need to get int he shower and do a little housework before it gets too late in tha day. i dont want to spend the whole day cleaning. hope you have some fun planned for the weekend. see ya all later.

Do you Beleive?

I do. Its getting to be Halloween. when we think of halloween, we think of ghosts, goblins, witches and scary stuff like that. We buy pumkins and carve them up, clean out the insides and light it with a candle. Then we display these carved up scary heads in our windows and yards. As it gets dark, our own little children dress up in disguises and beg from door to door for treats. I know it sounds like i dont like halloween, i do. i  just wanted to preface what i am going to tell you with that. it really has nothing to do with what im gonna talk about, but i felt like it.

anyway, back to what i was asking. do you beleive in ghosts? Some call them spirits. that is what i prefer to call them. its not like i see spirits all over, i dont. I only see or rather feel them sometimes. I cant really see them the way that you would see a person standing in the room with you. the only way i know to say this is to say I feel them with me.

when we moved here, there was a presence. My five year old son refused to go into the room we were going to set up his bed. he said he wasnt going to sleep in that room. He demanded we moved his bed. i didnt  usually give in to his demands at that time, but i did that time. i figured it was just a room.

then, as time went on, i started feeling like i wasnt alone, when i was. there were certain parts of the house this was stronger. Every time i would go into the garage, i just knew there was someone there with me. I couldnt wait to get back in the house. i was scared to turn my back out there, but what was i turning my back to, i was alone.

My older son confided in me one day. there was a small ghost child that would tease him as he got ready for school. he would dart in and out of the room, just out of eyesite before my son could get a good look at him. he knew he was there.

John has told me things, on his own, when i never told him what i saw or heard or felt. Alex and Andy told me things the same way. I couldnt go into the whole detail of this in this post, it would take too long. I no longer have these issues with these spirits. I had to ask them to leave.

Now, after reading this you may think i am just a little on the looney side, but im not. really. my life doesnt revolve around this stuff, but its been on my mind latley. probably because of halloween. there are a few other things that I have experienced, but i dont talk about them. I got tired of the strange looks when i did.

so now i ask again. do you beleive or have you ever experienced a bit of the paranormal? would it scare you if you did. im just wondering. you dont have to say, i am just curious.

Like draggin around the floor

Ok, she barley moved tonight and carry anns comment was right on. i think the total 15 score she got was too much. Last week we lost toni Braxton, and she is still here. she sucks. please go and vote, but not for her. it is now insulting to the other dancers i my opinion. they havent done hip hop yet, but i hate to see what she is going to not do. please, dont vote for cloris leachman.

Another Busy weekend

Hi Everyone! How ya doin? i finally get to sit down and relax a bit. Now i would like to fall asleep, but it s only 5:45 PM. too early still. That is about what time i woke up for the last time this morning. I woke up all night too. So I am struggleing to stay awake today. but I am going to maek it to 9 if i hav eto stick toothpicks in my eyeballs. ugh. can you even imagine that.

yesterday when i got home from work, instead of heading straight fo rthe shower, i headed for a saok in the tub. I lit a candle and put it in there, grabbed a nice glas of wine, poured in the last of my pretty smellin bubblebath and sank as deep as I could get into the hot water. when i got off work, it was one of those days that just made me hurt all over and the shower wasnt gonna do it for me. half way through my soak, the water got cool, so i drained part of it and ran more hot. I was in there for about an hour n a half. it was great.

this morning I got up and worked on my neices quilt. She is due to have a baby on the 27th of October. it is jsut a baby quilt so it doesnt take long to make. this is waht it looks like. that is the front folded over the back. it measures about 40" by a little less than a yard and half. Just right for a baby.

half way through it, i had to stop and clena the floors while John went to the store. when he got home, we went to Lowes and bought the rest of the stuff for the redo on the bathroom. we got new flooring, towel and tp fixtures and new lighting strip. it is gonna be so pretty. I think next weekend we are gonna look for new shower doors. I just cant wait to get it done. really, that bathroom is so ugly witha capitol U!

When we gotr back from lowes, i went stright in the sewing room to finsh that quilt. it is done and now i can send it off to my neice. I think it turned out really cute.

Well, dinner is ready. steak, shrimp, baked taters, bisuits, and wine. i made the biscuits and john did the rest.

ok, see ya later. and dont for get o not vote for cloris leachman on monday night.

WHAT THE HECK???????????????

Every week i have been watching DWTS and voting. this is the first year i have voted since the beginning. I never, never have voted for cloris leachman. she barley moves. she doesnt kick. she cant even move her shoulders, then she strolls around the floor after the dance like she is some kind of diva. it just drives me nuts. this is a dance competition for cryin out loud. Now, the second couple saved to dance, well fake it for her, next week is cloris leachman. who the hell is voting for her??/ is it the entire senior community in the us and canada??? this has to stop. we are getting to the end of this. not really quite yet actually. there are still eight couples left. 7 after tonight.  i dont know who got voted off yet, cus i wont go online or look at postings till after the show. i want to find out the same way the people on the east coast do, just like it was live. she has to stick her face in everything. cant we please come to a decision and start voting properly. cloris doesnt even compare. if i didnt like watching the other dancers so much, i would stop watching till she was gone.

can you believe this. i blog in the middle of the week cus cloris leachman is still on dwts. i am usually too tired, but now im frustrated so i am going on a campaign to get rid of cloris leachman. all you have to do is not vote for her. vote for anyone else on the show, you must vote. but not for her. if i knew how to put an x across her face and put it on here i would.

ok, thats it for now. nothing else is going on.

Weekend Ramblings

Hi again. just stopping in for my once a week chat. it seems it has come down to that point. I cant seem to stay awake during the week lately, so this weekend thing will have to do for me. I will try to remember this next time so I dont repeat myself again.

I know i mentioned earlier that we are going to redo the master bath in our house. I have price checked so many sink assemblies, and most of them are really nice. what i discovered is that the counter top of the sink is sold separately from the bottom cabinet. the signs may say 350.00, but that never included the top. that was an additional 200 to 250.00. So yesterday while we were at Costco, we bought the sink, along with the counter top and back splash for 400.00.  We also bought the faucet assembly. Next we will get the flooring, paint and other fixtures. I will take before and after shots, along with the work in progress. it should look nice when it is all done.  This is the sink we got, except it is a single.

Last night john and i went to a murder mystery dinner with my best friend at work. she was one of the first people to talk to me when i started there, and we have been friends ever since. she is one of those few people that dont want anything special from anyone. If you like her and are true and honest, she is the best friend you can have.  we have spent many many hours having breakfast, talking, and just enjoying each others company. last night was no different. as soon as we got to the dinner, everyone was suspect. who was gonna die, and who killed them. we took lots of notes, noticed everyone walking in and out of the room, and eavesdropped in every conversation we could. it was fun. Poor john, he just didnt understand how spazzy we got over this. In the end, i should have trusted my instincts. the last time we did this, i won a prize for picking the correct murderer. this time i went with rosas pick. i picked wrong.  the person i thought was the person who was the murderer. but dinner was good, the company was good, and we had fun. that was all that mattered.

we had a case sale at work this week. i went and picked up some chips for halloween since it is on a friday this year. i picked up a case of small bag puffs, and what i thought was regular ruffles turned out to be cheese ruffles. i only like regular ruffles, but so what. I intend to pass them out for trick or treat. I also bought a case of what i thought was bbq stax. it turns out the case was mixed. salt n vinegar and one other kind. we will probably end up giving these to someone also. i hate it when i make those mistakes. it was only 8.00 a case, so i cant really complain.

well, i better wrap this up. its getting kinda long. i need to go do some research and find out how to get the tile off the wall without tearing the wall apart. it would be better if we didnt have to replace drywall this time. so have a great week and  dont work too hard. see ya all later

Delema again

I havent been here for awhile again. its not that I am so busy, its that I am so tired. i dont know whats causing all this tiredness, but it is keeping me from doing much more than read emails and log off. I will at least try and post here once a week so my friends dont forget me.

anyway, i have a delema and i dont know what to do. we were invited by johns cousin who we havent seen in years, and years to here daughters wedding. it is a black tie event, which means we will have to go purchase new clothes, possible a new suit for john and definatly something for me. I wouldnt know these people if i passed them on the street. It is only the reception, but it is out of town and we would also have to rent a room, which they have arranged to have discounted room rates for the guests. we also have to buy the gift.

On the same day, my sister is having a party at her home just the next town over. all my family will be there, who i know, love, and havent seen for two years. we both would know any of them if we saw them on the street. I really dont want to go to johns family function for someone i dont know. I didnt mind though until i was told my sister was having a party on the same day. I just wonder how bad john really wants to go to that function. I suppose i should ask john and we could discuss it from there.

we are going to my sister n laws moms 80th birthday today. I do want to go to that, even though its two hours away. I adore that woman and would do anything for her. It should be fun. I am even putting on a skirt for her. I think it looks nice, but i will have to bring a different pair of shoes for later on. I think i will take a bunch of pics, have them developed and put them in an album for her. I bet she would like that. I did it for my sister before my mom passed, and she really liked it.

I have a feeling Im forgetting something, but I have to get going.

My Clean sewing room

I wish it would look like this all the time. when i start sewing though, it just gets out of control. see all the different sewing baskets on the shelves now, they all have stuff in them.

My filthy sewing room, before

this is the before video of my sewing room. the end is kinda messed up cus I thought I turned off the camera, but i didnt. that room was a mess.

Cleaned room and rain finally

I spent yesterday cleaning off and on in the sewing room. I threw away so much stuff that at one time I just couldnt part with. I had family circle magazines and a stack of martha stewart magazines that at one time i had to have. gone. I emptied three boxes of fabric into the drawers, kept one box of scraps in the box cus at one time they were being readied to make potholders. Im sure I will end up tossing them also unless carol wants them. I will have to call my sisters and see if they were working on this with mom. I dont know how to assemble them, so until then, there they sit. I also refilled one box with some items from my moms stuff that i cant yet part with, so until that day arrives, there it will stay. I also had a ton of those gift bags we get prezzies in. christmas, birhtday, friend, what ever. I checked to see if someone committed the crime of actually wriing on the bag or that little attached card. if it had writing on it, toss, if not, keep it but it went into the biggest bag. I now have a big bag og gift bags with no names on them. i wont be buying gift bags for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were some things I had no other place to put, so they have to stay in the sewing room. I can live with that. I tried to do a video to show you, but it took too long to download. Ok, so those are the before, and this is the after. I now know I have three unfinshed projects I have to do to get them out of the way, so I will try to do those first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You cant tell so much from this  shot, but it really is much better. monday morning the ablounger will be back in the middle of the floor, but the floor will be clean at least.

This morning we woke up to rain. finally. it wont last long, but at least its a start. hopefully it was enough to get Haleys well running again. We used to be on a well, it sucks to have to watch the water in these very dry times. for those of you that did a happy rain dance for us, can you turn the record on again and keep it going for a while. 

I woke up this morning with the worst migrane. I havent had one of those, that intense, in i dont know how long. I think of lu when this happens cus we share the same pain in that respect. I took two migrane meds, sat in the shower until I ran out of hot water, then went back to bed. I am drained now. Lu knows what i speak of here. after one of those, you are drained. I think i will go work on that headless doll. it doesnt take much brain work and i can go as slow or as fast as I want. hope your having a great weeknd. see ya all later.

time for the sewing room.

I was gonna tear apart my sewing room last week, but i got tired. So today or this weekend i am gonna do the sewing room. a long time ago i posted this really cool blog, with pictures and everything about all the stuff i have in there. it was so organised and neat. I could get to anything by just reaching. I knew where all the books were, all my rulers, all my stuff. If you walk in there now, you are greeted by the vacuum, the ablounger, scraps all over the floor and a bag of batting pieces. it is a mess. under my cutting table I have boxes and boxes of fabric i brought home from my moms stash. I also have about six or seven sewing boxes. some of them are old, some are new, but all of them have stuff in them. I also have another sewing machine and a serger. there is a ton of stuff crammed into that room.

I think what i want to do is clear off the shelves that are currently holding a bunch of collected crap and arrange the sewing boxes on it. on of the boxes if a tin plaid box. i think it may have belonged to my granny or my aunti mable, both now passed on. since my mom is also passed, i cant ask her. maybe one of my sisters would know who originally owned it.

 I think i will put all the fabric from the boxes into the drawers of the dresser in there. I have gone through this fabric before, and even thrown some out believe it or not. this should nt be that difficult, but its still my moms fabric and well, you know how i was with my mom. most of you anyway.

anyway, that is my agenda for this weekend. I must get that room cleaned. maybe if I start with the fabric and work towards the shelves, i will have empty boxes to put some of the crap on my shelves into. I will be taking before n after photos just so I can be sure and guilt myself into getting it done. So Im off. here i go. im gonna post this, turn one Aretha franklin and get to work. see ya all later when the room is clean.

bar makeover

before and after pics of part of our collection of alchoholic beverages.

two more down

I went out to feed the fish this morning and couldnt see two of them. So i unplugged the filter and picked it up out of the water. there they were. dead and for some reason stuck to the filter. ewwww. I got them off with the net and decided they should now feed my garden. the other big fish are getting really pretty but I have decided not to get all attached to them. it would be nice if they grow bigger, but i aint stressin over it.

last night when i opened th garage to go to work, i noticed up in the sky and there was this strange white stuff floating up there. I recall seeing it there in the past, so I didnt worry about it. then, this morning as I left the building, i saw it again. I also could small that smell when water hits hot concrete. its the smell of rain, but that hasnt happened here since too long ago. then, on the way home, I looked on my broken windshield and water droplets were landing on it from out of the sky. strange. it wasnt enough water droplets to have to use my wipers, just enough to streak the dirt on my broken windshield.

I took before and after pictures of my old and new bar arragement. I really like how it looks now and I think I want to buy another shelf unit and extend it out with some wine glasses and our collection of shot glasses. the shelves were only 19.00, so its is an easy decision. and yes, that is the only thing we collect. so what i wanted to do was post the before and after pics here. do we still have to post them to flicker of photobucket then use the code to post them here. or can I make a private file of picturs I want to put on here and somehow tranfer them to the blog. I know lu and jan are always putting pictures in their posts, and it seems like it would take to long to do it that way. if there is an easy and fast way to do it, i would sure like to know.

one last thing. for some reasson i went back and read my last post about our trip to vegas. it sure sounded like i was trying to jsut get it out of the way and not talk about it again. that wasnt it at all. we had the best time with amber and chris. it seemed like we had known each other for so long and meeting in person was an extra bonus. john and chris made fast friends with each other and im sure they will remain that way for years to come. we are looking forward to their visit next year and john is already talking about things we can do and what he wants to bbq while they are here. I really shouldnt have made so little of our visit, but taht is just how i was feeling that day.

ok, thats it for now. but let me leave you with this one request. if you watch dancing with the stars, please vote but not for cloris leachman. she has a place on tv and in comedy, but not on that show. lets not let really good dancers get the boot.

ok, really, see ya ll later. have a good one. but not two. lol

Wooooo hopoooooo! i saw how to pictures in and i actually did it!

Chile Egg Puff

Description:
this dish is baked in the oven and makes your house smell yummy. I have had it for dinner also. The recipe calls for Jack cheese, but I use Pepperjack. It spices it up a bit more. You can also fry bacon crispy and mix it in before baking for a different flavor. I also line the bottom of the baking pan with whole chiles laid out flat.

Ingredients:
10 Eggs
1/2 cup Flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
16 oz small curd cottage cheese
1 lb jack cheese
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cans diced green chiles(the small cans, or one large can)

Directions:
Beat eggs in bowl. (I use my kitchen Aid mixer for everything to really mix good) add flour, salt and baking powder.
grate cheese and add with melted butter and cottage cheese. add chiles
bake in a 9 x 13 dish at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes until brown and done.

Another productive weekend

Yesterday i wrote in a very long post(at least for me) about cleaning my room n living room. I couldnt beleive what a difference that made in how we both slept last night. its not that our room was filthy, it wasnt. it jsut gets dusty in places you cant just get to and you have to tear it apart to get it. Our bed is too heavy to slide from one place to another, so I am forced to take it apart. the room did smell good though after. By the time i sat down, i wasnt gonna do anything else.

This morning i woke up at 5 am. I had told john i would make chile egg puff for breakfast, so i got up and put that together. I really need to put that recipe on my recipe spot, OMG it is so good. after that went into the oven, I cut the pineapple, cantelope and watermelon for our lunches this week. the cantelope n pineapple have been a part of our meals for the last few weeks. it really is a tasty combination. then I made johns cookies. I make him cookies about every two weeks. I really dont mind, maybe i should put up that recipe too.

So i was done with waht i was gonna do

 

 

 

 

 

oops, did anyone notice that big ole gap in the post. John just brought me breakfast so I had to stop n eat. I was hungry and it was goooood.

so back to where I was. I was done, then John got up and asked if I would go to target with him to get a light for his bike that he as finally decided to ride to work. I said sure, and took my shower and we left. I found a set of shelves to put our extended bar on. I am getting real tired of the current set up. at first, it was ok, but now its out of control. There are bottles and other alcholic parafanalia on our floor in the corner of our livingroom. now it just looks tacky.

So guess what happened. we got into the car on friday evening to go to P Wexfords for dinner. (See Reviews) When I got in on the passenger side I noticed the big ole crack in my windshield. I dont know when it got there, but now we have to pay for a new windshield. that jsut bugs me. Does anyone else notice i consistantly spell jsut wrong?

Oh! a few comments back the Devine One asked about my fish. when we got home from vegas, the house stunk so bad from the tank I couldnt stand it. Then, i looked closely at the tank and saw a bunch of little flying critters above the waterline inside tht tank. That was it. I had had it. the next morning I put all four fish back into the barrells outside. no more stink, no more flying critters. this morning i went out to feed them and check the water level in the barrel, and one more feeder died. now I am down to six. three of each. when they die, that is it. no replacetents here.

I think that is it. I really am trying to get caught up on all the things I want to write about without going on for too long. so see ya all later.

Its been too long(and so is this blog post)

Wow! I just looked at the last post I put up here. it has been a long time. Well, its been a week. I have been so freaking tired though, I couldnt sleep all week. by friday, i figured out what was wrong. It had cooled down to the eightys, it got comfortable. we turned off our AC, no need for it anymore, we thought. Then last week it got hot again. I didnt realise why I was waking up every day at 4. that is about the time it get hottest then starts to cool off. Actually the hottest time is around two or three, but I woke up at 4. by friday i was talking to one of the guys at work. he said he wasnt sleeping either cus it got hot again, he turned his ac off too. i completely forgot we did this. it is supposed to cool off this week, I really hope so. get this, 97 on this past friday, and next friday they are predicting 77. Im gonna have to start wearing a coat again in a week.

Ok, so i really do want to tell you about our last trip to pick up wine and champaigne. We buy the majority of our from one wine maker in Calerveras. He is the owner of Hello Wines and he really does make a very good product. It takes about a little over an hour to get there but it is a nice drive up to the foothills. when we got there, a note on the door instructed visitors to call his cell, as he was in the fields only ten minutes away. So john called and was told he was three minutes away. we relaxed  a second and he pulled up. he was on his way back.

When he got there, he opened the door for us, then opened the large roll up doors to his shop. HIs winery really is just a section of warehouse strip. that is all he needs to make wine. A space to create his product. so inside his space, along with all the barrels of last years wine still sitting in barrels and getting ready for botteling, were covered vats. HUH???? What was this. We were told he was in the middle of the crush. These were tubs about  4 x 4 of grapes starting the process of winemaking. Now you have to understand, he is a small winemaker and this is not how the large wineries process their grapes.

John, winemaker, explained to us the whole process and let us taste the grapes and see the process that was taking place. When the covers were removed from the vats, there was a layer of grapes on top, with Juice on the bottom. he had a long smashing thing he used to mash the grapes down. He showed us the difference in the different variety of grape, petit serah compared to merlot and zin. It was so interesting. Then, I asked him if I could try to do the mash thing he was doing. He was so surprised i wanted to try. he said most people wouldnt even want to, let alone a female wanting to try.

Well, let me tell you, it was hard. the tool he uses to mix the grapes around weighs about ten pounds. You have to push the grapes from the top to the bottom in  a forward motion, come straight up and do it again. I could only do it a couple times, it was hard. he was impressed i even asked, but i felt like a wimp. Thats just me though. the whole process was really interesting. if you ever get to see this, i recommend taking advantage of the opportunity. it lets you appreciate the wine you drink. even if you dont drink it, it is still cool to see.

This morning I got up and tore my room apart, dusted everything, washed all the bedding, including the pillows, had john help me turn the mattress after i vacuumed under the bed. I then started on the living room. I finally finish waht I was gonna do at 2. I was so tired. that is when I opened my lappy to finally give you an update. this has turned out to be very long. I wont do the room like that again for a while, and I promise not to drone on this long again unless I have something really cool to talk about.

so see ya all later.

norton update issues

this morning i updated my norton account. it did a good job for me last year, so I bought it again. also, at costco it had a thing where i could load it onto three computers. I have two in my house, so that was a good deal for me. I may ask my sister if she wants the last download.

anyway, i loaded up the desktop in the spare room and got it cleaned up. it hasnt been covered for over a year, so it really was a mess. it took me a while to get it finished. I did get it done though. it had a virus that looked like microsoft, everthing about it looked like microsoft, but it wasnt.they kept warning us to update our copy cus we had 62 virus's.  it was a fake staged out of russia. I know this cus i bought the thing and got a call from the bank telling me it was bad. ok, lesson learned.

so i went and purchased a new copy of norton to load and clean up these messes. the desktop is fixed now, but john just told me, and i mean just now told me his firefox/mozilla page is gone. it used to have a bunch of stuff on it that he painstakingly im sure put there, and now its gone. just a blank page. I am missing my toolbar on top of my yahoo page. that tool bar has all my book marks. i can still get to my bookmarks, but its a pain.

so this is what happened when i tried to get to multiply. i went the only way i could to my bookmarks, and clicked on my page site thingy. when it showed up, it acted like it didnt know who I was and asked me to sign in. it asked me if i knew who lisa was, what the feck. I know there is some way to get my yahoo toolbar back, but i cant remember what it is. hint here folks.

i want the toolbar that has the little picture things on it. i will keep trying and i will also have to go find johns page that got lost. i sent an email to norton this morning about another issue, i may have to send another one for these two issues.

yesterday we went and picked up our new supply of wine and champaigne. we stayed way too long and i ended up driving home in the dark. i dont really like mountain driving at night, the oncoming lights on dark roads hurt my eyes. we finally got home at nine, and we both just fell into bed and fast asleep. i know it was early, but that is what happens when we spend the day outside all day and drink wine all day. lets not for get that. i realy need to tell you all about that. the one time i really should have had my camera, and i left it at home. i didnt even have my cell phone to snap a shot. that really is another blog i have to write, maybe tuesday cus im too tired on monday.

speaking of champaigne, did you know amber had never had a mimosa till we had breakfast at our hotel together on the day we left. and she liked it i think.

ok, thats it for now. i should probably try to get caught up on what you all have had to say.

What to talk about

I have found that if I dont write about something as soon as it happens, or in a recent time frame, its no longer fun to write about. Im talking about the balance of our trip to vegas. we had an absolute blast, but i didnt finish telling what we did and now I just dont really feel like it. On friday we swam all day in the pool at Ambers hotel. We also drank all day from the bar at the pool at Ambers hotel. it was fun, ok. I could probably go into detail, but i would have to remember it and my brain just cant do that right now.

so I am going to get on with whats happening right now. the weather is finally starting to change here. Just last week we were suffering in extreme heat here in the valley. this week its quite nice in the 80's. this will only last a few weeks here, then one day we will wake up and it will be cold. not freezing cold, no snow. We couldnt get that lucky. but it will be numbingly cold. it will stay that way until may of next year when it will again be sufferingly hot. But thats ok, we know this is how it works here.

The funny part is, just a short drive away, and you get all four seasons for the right amount of time. I am just hoping we get some of that rain all the other states get. This terminal dry spell is getting very old. California is like a dried up sponge. if it ever rains, all your gonna hear is a big ole slurp from the ground beneith our feet here.

the new tv season is finally upon us. or it will be in a few weeks. i am waiting for my favorite dancing with the stars. i have all my faves set to record on my dvr, so i could sleep through most of the season and still catch the new shows. speaking of new shows, last night i watched the new one called fringe. it was a little different but i liked it. i dont know if its dvr worthy yet, ill find out in a few weeks. i know it sounds like i spend hours in front of the tube, but actually there are only a few days a week that there is anything on that i like. there are shows that are on at the same time, and that is when i can watch those shows anytime.

I dont have any new projects in the works right now as far as quilts go. My neice is having a baby due Oct 30, so I think i am gonna make a baby blanket for her. I may make one for a lady at work for her daughter also. she isnt due for quite a while though, so I can wait on that one. I like making them though. its fun watching them come together and then finally giving them away. that really is the best part.

ok, i think in done for today. nothing else is popping into my head that wants to come out, lucky you.  see ya all later.

Pancakes n syrup

Description:
really freaking good. these are the same cakes my gran made for my mom and my mom made for me and i made for my kids n grand kids

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 TBS baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs, seperated
milk to desired thickness
a dash of vanilla flavoring I just started doing this. it makes them better

Directions:
mix dry ingredientd in a bowl and set aside. mix wet ingredients in a seperate bowl. I use a 2 cup measuring cup. I use a whisk to mix all the wet together. then add to dry ingredients.
beat the eggwhites till fluffy and fold into batter.
cook on a hot griddle n enjoy

Luck Be A lady water show

this is so cool. the water dances to luck be a lady by frank sinatra. i had to load it twice. it only loaded 5 seconds before. hope you enjoy it.

a short video of us in front of the belagio on the strip

we were waiting for the water show here. i finally figured out how to use ther movie maker on my camera. this is sorta funny.

Pics from Vegas

this is right after we saw each other

here are some of the pics i took in vegas. i will have to go back and add a few more. i took over 100. we had such agreat time.

Ive been to Vegas Baby!

i dont know where to start. our flight down to vegas, which should have taken us a few hours, was delayed due to fog in san francisco and we ended up getting to our hotel room at 830 pm. we should have gotten there at 3 something in the afternoon. talk about being exhausted. we then had to go to the imperial palace to pick up the free hotel voucher, then grabbed a cab to our hotel. really, it was 830 when i called amber at her hotel and told her we were there. there was a message at the desk to call her, with a correct number. I had tried to call her room from our house, but was told they hadnt checked in. talk about being just a little confused. now what were we gonna do.

ok, so we agreed to meet at the tropicana in the morning about 11. the next morning, john n i got up, went for breakfast at the hotel. we hadnt eaten since french fries at the bar in sf the day before. we were really hungry. the waitress told us about the bus, buy a day pass and take it all over. we could catch it right across the street, 5 dollars each for the day. so that was the plan. we ended up walking so much cus we didnt realise all the little shortcuts and over paths. we did find all the right buses, and finally got to the tropicana.

we stood out in front, we were really early. got there about ten 15 or 30. i just kept looking around at all the faces waiting to see if the bateman family was there and i missed them. all of a sudden, i hear this familiar voice say hello lisa! it was coming from the car door of an open cab that just pulled up. i was running across to meet amber, chris and brandon and i dont think my feet touched the ground. i think i screamed, or screeched or made some sound, but i really dont remember. i do remember  amber telling me to breath a few times. all i could do was hug her and try to breath. i have a few pics of the first meeting. it was really exciting.

anyway, after the initial meeting thing, we decided to walk the strip and see what was there. do you know how big that place is?????? we talked, walked, laughed a whole bunch and took a whole lot of pics of each other. it seemed so strange to finally meet. we both felt like it wasnt really real. when i think back on those two full days, now it seems like it was more than just two days. we fit so much into that time. we went to the top of the eiffel tower, had lunch in margeritaville, made reservations for dinner at pampas inside the miracle mile of planet hollywood, walked the miracle mile, which took forever it seemed. it was really strange walking around there. it was like going to a different place, or state or country at every casino.

I didnt realise it at the time, and i really feel bad about this, we just about walked the batemans to a frazzle. the heat didnt bother us cus it was about the same as it is here. they are not used to the heat though, and we just kept walking, not realizing they wanted to stop for a bit . we finally found an outside bar where we could all sit. Brandon is only seven and not meeting the age requirements just yet. That is where chris tasted coronna for the first time and i think likes it. its my beer of choice. We sat there for a while and relaxed.

I dont want to go on and on in only one blog, so i will end it here. i took a video of the belagio water show and i am trying to load it, but its not really working. I think multiply is going to force everyone to go with the premium package if we want to load our vids on here. i wasnt able to load one earlier either. so now i will put on some pics. maybe tomorrow i will finish our two days and crappy trip home.

if you live in the path of hanna or now ike, i hope you are ok. we watched some of the devastation on the news there and i worried about all those folks. and everyone always says california is going to fall off into the ocean.

I had a very productive weekend

I did it! I finished Lindas quilt. I think it turned out quite nicely if I say so myself. I added the pics to the Just quilts album. It is on the very end. I still dont know how much to charge for making it. I was thinking 100 or 150 plus the charge for materials. I know that may not sound like a lot, or to some it may sound like OMG, its a freaking quilt who do you think you are????? But that is what quilts go for. They actually go for a lot more, but I cant bring myself to ask for more. Anyway, I think that is a fair asking price. It turned out good, and I worked my fanny off on it. I will be giving it to her tonight at work. Im gonna bring my camera and take a picture of her with it.

Yesterday was the fifth annual vfw post 3199 chili cook off. John worked it all day. I didnt go until noon, I was working on the quilt. I went though and took a bunch of pics. this is what I do. I go to their events with John and take pics while he does what he wants to do. then I burn them to a disk and hand them over to them. I have been doing this for a few years. Its a good thing cus when the building burned down(was torched by two juveniles)all that was lost also. I was able to burn what i have on both of my puters and give them something new to start with.

John bought a bunch of raffle tickets and put my name on all of them. So, I won a dvd player, six pack cooler, t shirt and a huge dog pillow which we donated back. we dont have a dog, so we dont need it. the dvd player will probably turn into a christmas gift. John will have the tshirt, it says "freedom isnt free". I dont wear message shirts, even good ones. and the cooler may turn into my new lunch bag, if it will hold my lunch.

Now, today i made the decision I am tired of messing with the wine barrells for my fish. I went out and bought an aquarium to put my fish in. I have it set up in my living room and found a really nice surprise. It makes a really nice fountain sound that I didnt expect. Now the water is in it and trying to declorinate. I will let it sit over night and clear itself out. In the morning, I will catch the fish and put them in a plastic bag and float that in the tank for 30 minutes then have them in the house. I wont have to worry about jumping or water draining out or anything. And even better, I will be able to see them from my favorite spot on the couch. I will add plantlife a littel later, but for now, I have a tank. (Insert smiley face here)

Ok, in two more days we will be heading to vegas baby to meet Amber, Chris and Brandon. I am so excited. My next quest will be to meet Em either on her side of the states, or over here on mine. she has a bunch of people to meet over here, and I already have a day trip planned for us. OK, this is for the future.

So I am done now. I will take a few pics of the new tank for you all to see. Have a great week All.

Monster Quest

When we were in tulsa and sitting in our hotel room waiting for  alex to get off work or for something, John found a new show he liked, Monster Quest. Its on the history channel. We watched quite a few of those mostly because I had to force john to leave sometimes. I wont get into that right now. Anyway, when we got home, john said he tried to find it to set it up to record. He said he couldnt fine it, and would i please try. So of cource i did, and I found it and now it is set to record on both tv's. Now here is the thing. I think this is so funny.

They go out on these travels looking for giant birds, big foot, strange blood sucking monsters, Creatures from the deep and also man eating snakes. They set up real realy expensive cameras, night vision cameras and underwater cameras. these real grown up guys go out and act all serious about finding these creatures. It always seems someone had a picture from half a mile away. the picture is always blurry too, with nothing close by to compare it to.

I have watched about five of these. They all have the same ending though, they never get to catch a real whatever it is they are looking for. One time a lady had the bones of a chupacabre. or maybe it was a dog that was deformed. Bigfoot is a very popular hunt on this show. there are so many different names for big foot. one of the shows was about a large black catlike creature found running around parts of england. Those poor people, they dont know what a leopard looks like.

I dont know why i am writing about this. it was just on my brain for a minute. I am so sleepy, and that is what is falling off my fingers here. so this is where i am  ending this. hope you all have a great weekend.