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.