Yellow Week- Day 1

The challenge to myself is to post YELLOW pics this week! I'll try to do it from today until Saturday. I'm just biting off a small piece. I know there are people who challenge themselves to post one pic a day, or one pic a month to their blogs and this really INSPIRES me. But ..... I am me and have my doubts if I'll be able to accept those types of challenges.

So, I've just made my own little "personal challenge". You are more than welcome to play along. I'd love to see what you do, so please leave a link here.

This pic was taken in Indianapolis this weekend at the Applebees in Castleton while I was waiting for my meal. I loved their Oriental Grilled Chicken Salad so much that I ordered it

three nights in a row. While waiting at the "Carside ToGo" spot I noticed their beautiful daffodils along the entire side of their restaurant. Since I just came from a swim meet I had my

good camera with me so I ran out and snatched a few pics. My DD had peanut butter and jelly, can you believe it. (But hey, she's old enough to know what she wants to eat while she's competing.)

*DEB Graphic Frames BrushSet from Scrapgirls.com

One Little Word Challenge

I did this for a little challenge at a neat place I just found on the web http://onelittleword.typepad.com/ . They've got alot going on over there. Lots of
creativity and cool artwork. Check them out if you get a chance.
The products used for this Layout are all from http://www.scrapgirls.com. Another
place I hang out and learn a ton from.

Happy Feet

Victoria Secret panties

How do you return underwear? Have you ever returned defective underwear?

I wore these panties twice and laundered them twice and look. The cotton

is breaking away from the band. This is really bad quality control on VS's part.

I love to buy my panties from VS, because they have the prettiest patterns and I ALWAYS KNOW HOW THEY WILL FIT, no surprises! Granted a couple yrs ago they decided to shorten the string bikini and not give us as much material. Hence they thought we must want to show more skin! Not me! I was very happy with the previous style. So I switched to the Hi-leg brief, or something like that.

Now look! I might as well buy my undies at JCPenney if this is going to happen!

I'm sure that it is made somewhere outside of the US and of course how will they ever know they have faulty underwear unless we can return, or complain or something!

I get those free coupons all the time for underwear and next time I go in I have to ask about their return policy. I love the way they sell there panties for 5/$25 such a deal!

But not when you can't wear them.

Any suggestions???

Happy Memorial Day

Master Bedroom

After 10 years in this house, I finally decided what I wanted to do. I had to make it acceptable to my masculine half (DH) as well! We both love water and my parents spent many days, hours,

even lived on their sailboat. It was a no-brainer once I discovered http://www.sxc.hu/profile/stockxchng . So, I just downloaded a bunch of cool Nautical pictures. I put them in Photoshop and cropped them to the size I wanted. I made them 300
dpi and uploaded the finished pics to Walgreens or Scrapbooks to share. I bought two 16x20
frames, four 10x13, three 12x12, six 8x10 frames. The hardest part was putting them on
the wall in the layout I wanted. I ended up making templates the exact size of the pictures and
moving those around before I hammered in the first nail. All in all, I only had to repeat one hole.

Also, special thanks to Bon and Sara (my teenage interior decorator).

Now, I've just brought a little piece of Florida into our mid-western home!

Kentucky Derby 134

Saturday May 3rd, 2008 the 7th race is the Derby race. Usually happens around 6pm, with about an hour of build-up.

Here are the contenders:

1-Cool Coal Man 20-1

2-Tale of Ekati 15-1

3-Anak Naka 30-1

4-Court Vision 20-1

5-Eight Belles 20-1

6-Z Fortune 15-1

7-Big Truck 50-1

8-Visionaire 20-1

9-Pyro 6-1

10-Colonel John 4-1

11-Z Humor 30-1

12-Smooth Air 20-1

13-Bob Black Jack 20-1

14-Monba 15-1

15-Adriano 15-1

16-Denis of Cork 20-1

17-Cowboy Cal 20-1

18-Recapturetheglory 20-1

19-Gayego 15-1

20-Big Brown 3-1

I think I'll put my money on Colonel John to Show.

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!