Our Eyes

I've got to look a person in the eye. Especially when they are
important to me, personally or professionally. Even in this fast
paced web-world there is no way I'd go into business or endorse
the Mail-order Brides/Grooms without that important eye-to-eye
contact. I think looking someone straight in the eye is a way
to show honesty and sincerity. Our eyes tell people alot about
us. Our moods, our engage-ability, ourselves. I think there
are lots of things about people that we don't see or can't tell
until we meet face-to-face. We can tell if they are shy, arrogant,
charismatic.

It's the apes that are threatened by the eyes. Being starred
down by their "opponents". But people, we need that inter-
change. I need that interchange!!



“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look

through each other's eyes for an instant?” - Henry David Thoreau

Just a little thing

I went in to Ben Franklins today. I got a birthday card and some reading glasses, now that I know my over the counter prescription. I find that when I want to read in bed and I'm all snuggly and I have left my glasses in my purse or at the computer.
So hopefully this fun pair will solve that dilema.

After I paid for my purchase and I'm putting the change and the bills back in my wallet, I'm so aware of all the people behind me waiting to check out that I either don't put my money away then or I'm holding up the line when I do.

The nice saleslady told me not to hurry! I didn't know I was obviously rushing and
it just really made me feel good that she even noticed.




Kudos to considerate sales people!! Yeah! Yeah!

Curtains?

I'd really like to make my own curtains, because then I can make
them the way I want. Plus, it's fun! But, for the life of me I
can't find some decent fabric that looks like either one of the
two swatches below.

If anyone knows where I can either get some material or just BUY
some that look like these. Let me know, I'd sure appreciate it!

P.S. I think even good 100% cotton quilting fabric will work. The curtains
don't have to be made from the thicker tapestry fabric.

Freshman no-more

Wow has this year flown by! I've missed Brad alot! I'm so glad
he's home. He had a good 1st year of college. He joined a Fraternity,
and later even got voted to be the Communications guy. He is good
about remembering stuff and letting people know of changes and events,
so this was a natural move for him.

He kept his job teaching swim lessons 4 days a week.
He still has his sweet gf.

He was home for 15 minutes when the guitar playing started.
Man, I forgot how noisy he can be sometimes.

But it sure is nice to have him home!

Work In Progress

I love IKEA
this store is amazing. It’s about 3 times larger than Sams.
I love the functionality of their products and their color
style and sense.

You see, my house has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a kitchen, study and family room. Since I moved in back in 1998 I have painted every room with the exception of the half bath and the Master Bedroom. I am scarred to death to decorate the Master Bedroom: "what if Mark doesn't like it", "what if I don't like it", "what if it's too expensive to really get the look I want?". On and on for almost 10 years I've been listening to this rant in my head. Well Enough! I'm a do-it-yourself type of person. I love being able to put things together myself, to achieve the look I want. I just run out of time. My mission this month (possibly thru May) is to keep on working on my bedroom. I plan on painting the walls. That will sure give the rest of the room a face lift.. When it’s done I’ll post pictures of the finished product. But for now, you get to see my room as it is. Still a Work In Progress.

Working on a new header! Boy, is there a lot to learn out there about html. It may take awhile.

Totally Hilarious Site

Now, I'm all for Chrismtas decorating but you have to see this site.
It's got some great pictures of houses that are lets say a little
"too much". It's all in fun. One picture was even self-submitted.

My 2 favorites are: "Party till the break of Dawn" and "Paul Bunyon"

All in good fun! Try not to laugh too loud, it will be hard!

Tacky Christmas Yards

The Big Day

First, grab your wrapping paper, your scizzors and your presents.
Then sit down for a marathon wrapping session. Don't forget the tape!
And lock the door!

We (well Michelle and company) did a little Holiday baking! First

chocolate covered pretzels, then Gingerbread cookies decorated

with gobs and gobs of icing! Gotta love the colors!

Invited Sara over for Christmas Eve!

Gretchen didn't want to miss a thing! Didn't budge as the paper went flying all around her.

The kids were so secretive about this present. They spent 30 minutes a couple days before Christmas wrapping this present up in a huge box. With promises from me that I wouldn't come downstairs.

A new tire on a new 07 Mazda, what do you think it cost? Do I hear $100, $150,

no? How about $200? Ok! SOLD for $250 to the lady in the silver CX7! Enjoy!

A couple excited kids on Christmas Eve!

Boy's with their toys!! Christmas was full of helicopters! Spider helo given to Brad, kids gave Mark a sharper image small helo, Brad got a Dragonfly aerodynamic thingy from Sara's family!! Fun Flights!

A little bit of snow on NEW YEARS DAY!!!

Even though we couldn't be together! We think of

you all the time and hoped you had a very

Merry Christmas!

And here's to wishing you a Great 2008!!

Old Movies

I have always loved this movie! I used to watch it

every time it came out as a little girl. But I never

finished it. This was on last night and I was

able to "stay up late" and watch the entire film.

It's silly, sad, funny, romantic, corny and just a great 'ole Love Story.

p.s. Has great footage too! That Austrian Alp mountain scene! OMG!

Making a list....

Well, this isn't Santa's list. It's my own....there is a really cool challenge/site. 101 things to do in 1001 days, you dan find it http://community.livejournal.com/mission101/ here. That's

2.75 years. So, if I start this on Jan 1, 2008 one-thousand-and-one days later is September 28, 2010. Yikes!

I'm in the process of doing this now, and I only have 65 items. It's a lot harder than I thought.

I'm going to leave a couple blank to fill in as the year goes by.

I'm so visual, I really need to be reminded of my list. I'll take whatever I can get.

And I think I'll be checking it at least twice, too! hahahaha

One week away!!!

These are some of my favorite ornaments and Christmas decorations. I wish I could take credit for all these pictures but I have a daughter who's got a great camera eye. She just grabs the
camera and off she goes. Thank God for digital!

I love, love, love Santa's and Snowmen (as you can tell). But
the tree is pretty overloaded. I have to slow down my ornament shopping.
I've always enjoyed buying the kids ornaments of their own and someday
it'll be fun for them to decorate their own tree with the ones they've gotten
over the years. Their grandmother is awesome at picking out the best
ornaments for them each year. She even got our dog an ornament to
commemorate the day she had an encounter with a skunk!!! We almost had
to vacate the house because of it!! For three weeks she still had "that smell".
I heard the scent can be carried in her eyes! Eeewww!

It's beginning to look a lot....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! And it

sure feels alot like it too! I've pulled out more sweaters and have

even worn my long tail hat. As a matter of fact, I wore my hat

out to take the two lower pictures at the local Light Display the

other night.

Snow would sure be nice to go along with all the Christmas displays.

That Christmas Spirit

I'm getting there! Started my Christmas shopping, made my list. But I'm sure
there will be edits to it as the weeks go by. Brad usually fills me in on something he "really wants" about a week before Christmas. You know, when I've already shopped for him and I'm running around tying up loose ends. Getting those last minute "oh I forgot" items. The kids are at least getting into better stuff, it's not so junky like it used to be. Some of the toys they wanted were made so cheaply.
Yep, probably made in China too!

I'd like to go back to the park I took these pictures of above in the evening and take these same shots at night. I wonder how much I'll have to fuss with the
settings to get the pictures "just right". Still learning and playing with my DSLR. I love, love, love it!

Happy Turkey Day

A life in Pictures

This was my March-April project this year. Since my oldest was graduating from high school, I wanted to do something "out of the ordinary" for a graduation present for him.

I heard about a really cool program on Komando.com called AndreaMosaic. You can download the program for free. The program will prompt you to create a "Library" of your digital photos. You'll need at least a couple hundred depending on the desired size of your finished product. You can adjust how often you want a picture repeated, the amount of tiles between the same picture and the amount your willing to let the program "distort" the original image. By distortion it may put a tint on a few photos to enhance the "back-up" view of the finished picture or it will crop the image or even rotate the image. (This will not distort your image on your hard drive only the "copied" image in the mosaic library)

You'll want to play around with the settings to see what you like. But remember once it does it's work, and you like the finished product you'll want to save it because it won't pull in the exact same tiles in the exact same way again. Very random!

Very fun and intriguing program for those that like a challenge and like to tinker
with things. There is a messageboard on this site that will answer a few questions to help you get started.

Here's the link to the webpage.http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/


Enjoy!

Color Grid

I have seen this type of color/photo grid at other sites and I thought it

was so cool. I created this myself using all of my own pictures and

Photoshop Elements 4.0. This was super fun to make. Most of these pictures were taken at an area nursery. The two pictures of the tree with the blue sky are of my tree in the backyard. Both are of the same tree taken just one day apart. Amazing color change :)

Boo!

I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. We had a really "fattening" Halloween Lunch at work. We have some really good cooks amongst us. Not I , however. Last week I gave a "goblin bag" anonymously to Amanda. What a sweetie!!! I gave her the Dove milk chocolate with carmal filling, Yum!! She then goblin'd Brenda, who goblin'd Gene, who goblin'd Juanita, who goblin'd Mandy. Then I totally lost track.

Dropped my swimmer off at practice at 3:30, an hour later, she was done.

Only about 2 hours early! What a nice coach to give them a bit of a break and let them have some Halloween fun. Of course, it was all because my swimmer picked a "treat" and it was a "get-out" swim. And the challenge was met!

Swimmers Take Your Mark

.....and she's off!!! First meet of the season, at home
thank goodness. She was able to sleep in her own bed, do her own thing and we saved travel and hotel expenses. She had a decent meet considering how brokendown she is from training. After 9 practices a week the child has no problem sleeping at night. It's back to school tomorrow morning after being off since the 17th for a little Fall Break.

Her High School is requiring try-outs for the swim team this year. So, add another activity on to her plate tomorrow.

Dennis Prager Happiness Hour

I 've had my RIO mp3 player for almost 3 yrs and I use it just about everyday. It's a great way for me to keep up with my favorite talk shows.

Dennis Prager (DP) has a Happiness Hour which is his 2nd hour every Friday. If you're able to listen live it would be at 1 pm EST.

This week DP talked about the Destructive Nature of Envy. You cannot be happy if you envy people. Envy is one of our most human of frailities. But we must fight it. He equates envy to the "missing tile" syndrome. Which is like having a thousand tiles on the ceiling and one is missing, we tend to focus on that missing tile. Failing to see that the other 999 tiles are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing and are what we wanted.

There is always something someone has that we don't. But we forget that we also have things that others will envy us for.

A lady, Juanita called up and said that when she was younger she was often jealous and envious of others. Girls that had nicer clothes, pretty barrettes, etc. Then in her 20's she realized that the pain of feeling envy was much worse than not having that material "something" that she wanted. So, she made a conscious effort to stop being envious. It just wasn't worth it.

I love Dennis Pragers' wisdom and insight. I get a real kick out of him. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but 95% of what he does say is just right on with me.

You can download his shows from the following website: http://www.patriotunderground.com/

Remember your Family & Friends

I stumbled upon this blog of Ray Blakes a while back. He calls it "working on me". I haven't commented on many blogs before but I felt compelled to comment on this one. He was writing about keeping in touch with others. He established a system where he will reming himself to
contact a person on his list by 1) phone call 2) letter 3) email 4) face-to-face. You can find what
he says here:
http://workingonme.squarespace.com/journal/a-system-to-keep-in-touch-with-people.html#comments

So, I need to figure out a few things:
1- Who will be on my list
2- Names of those I've lost touch with and ideas how to get their current addy's
3- How I will respond
4- What system will I use to record these actions