Steve was called Wednesday evening with the news that he was being offered a position at Nvidia. They told him that his offer would be sent by FED EX and that he would receive it this morning. Sure enough it arrived at ten and we have been pouring over the medical, dental and life insurance stuff. This is so much fun I want to do this everyday, not. He will be starting on the tenth and flying to work if the weather permits.
A woman's famous last words I am sure. My dear sisters-in-law and I have been trying to nail down a get together time to Christmas shop per our annual tradition and nothing is working out. Weekends are booked already and time is getting short. We may only be able to swing a long dinner this time. I thought for sure once our kids grew up we would have more time but that hasn't proven to be the case. Instead we are busier than ever with grownup things. So much happens between the times we get together now that it seems to take forever to catch up. Why is always the question I ask but then I look at my calender and I am just as guilty as the rest. I am so behind this year with Christmas cards, shopping and just general stuff. So I am taking a deep breath and digging in...
I have had back spasms for almost a week now. It started last Sunday and it is just getting worse so it looks like a visit to the doctor will be on my list of things to do this week. It used to be that when I got these I would just take some over the counter pain meds and use the heating pad and that would take care of it. But as I have gotten older it now takes stronger pain medication and muscle relaxers to get me out of the vicious cycle. I remember my grandmother saying that the rush to get older doesn't give that big of rewards. She said I would someday live to regret wanting to be older, and she was right. Darn it...
Grandma Lucille has lived a very full life. Born Lucille Bahl in Hays, Kansas married Frank Weissbeck on Julie 9, 1935 and gave birth to six children. She became a world traveler after retiring from her job as a nurse's aide at the state hospital. She is very proud of her family and proclaims their growing numbers, which now boasts fourteen grandchildren and sixteen great grandchildren.
This is the weekend that my scrapping friends usually meet at First Christian Church to scrap but this month we have decided to do a coast trip. So sometime this afternoon Camille will be driving out to pick me up and drive over to Lincoln City. Sarah is driving with Janet and will be her navigator, heaven help them both. I really shouldn't make fun of Sarah as she got her "abilities" from me. As I swear I could get lost in a paper bag sometimes. :) Don't worry Camille I did a 'Google' map...
She would have been 101 yesterday if she were still alive. She has been gone eighteen years now and I swear I can still remember the sound of her voice. Funny how memories can seem at times so real and as if they had just happened. She loved living in the United States but never got around to becoming a citizen. She kept her visa up to date and traveled to Mexico when ever she felt the need to but all of her family lived here in the US. She had ten children survive and live to adulthood of those only four are still with us. My mom is now the oldest at 78 and the youngest my Uncle Louie is 67. Mom was the fifth child and my uncle was the ninth. My Aunt Carmen, grandma's oldest child would have been 86 today. I remember thinking as a child that we, especially my parents and grandparents, would live forever. But the Lord didn't give us these bodies to last that long, as is evident by the morning aches and pains I now experience. I am grateful that Grandma doesn't have to deal with these things but I am still a bit selfish and wish I could have some more time with her. Extra time to take her to lunch, give her hugs and kisses, and time to spend with her wonderful great granddaughters...
Not only did all of my class kits get purchased by class time today I already have four people signed up for next month and I don't even have my samples done yet. This is such a boost to my self esteem as I have constantly worried that my cards were just okay. I took the Holiday Explosion Box sample in yesterday and I just heard tonight that I have four people signed up for that class too! I am feeling really good about doing these classes. But at the same time my housework is slipping. So I will finish my card samples hopefully tonight and then concentrate on my housework tomorrow...
I must have been extra tired from the whole Holiday box thing because I slept a full six hours last night and still didn't feel like getting out of bed. So I have had a late start to my day. Need to run a couple of errands for Steve and go to the grocery store. I am teaching my card class tonight and then will be actually making my samples for next months class. I have an idea on what I want to do just haven't started working on them yet. It will take a couple of days to make the samples, write up the class description, class instructions and then take the pictures of the cards to submit them to our web "guy" so he can post them on the stores website. I will be dreaming about making cards after this for the next couple of days...
The birthday explosion box class went really well, though it took the full three hours despite my having prepped some of the kit. It went so well that I decided to do one next month, Christmas theme of course. In less than twenty four hours I have designed and made the box, written the class instructions and taken all the necessary pictures for the kits. I even managed to get a picture off to Bud at Scrapbook Fever so he can post it on their website. As Sarah says, "I rock!". I have my card class tomorrow night and I have started designing my cards for next month. Need to have those done by Wednesday. Whew...
Is the name of the person who made my camera strap that I received as a gift from Sarah. Em is one of Sarah's favorite scrapbook personalities who makes these straps and sells them on her Etsy site. I just got around to posting the picture. I am not to happy with it as it really doesn't show the true colors. Funny how much harder taking a picture of your new camera strap is when you have put it on the camera! I can just see Sarah rolling her eyes at this one. And the "girly" strap didn't deter Steve from borrowing my camera when he flew to Long Beach, Washington yesterday. Though he said he didn't get any time to use it. He recently, found a relative of his Dad's living in Long Beach. After a couple of attempts he was able to reach him. So Steve and his mom flew there to visit and get some family genealogy stuff. Albert will be 89 years old and Steve said he seems to be doing pretty good for his age. Steve came home with some pictures to scan and learned about Albert's military service. Albert hadn't been able to find some of the family stuff that would have been really useful to Steve. Steve's window of time to spend visiting was small since he needed to be back in time to land at Lasarti Field before dark so I am assuming he will be flying back up to see his new "old" man friend.
Today my dear hubby turned 48. Since I have decided to stop having birthdays it only stands to reason he would start catching up, don't you think? If it only worked that way. Getting older was always something you wanted when you were in your teens, once you got there you wondered what the big deal was. Okay, you became of age to drink and vote. You can't use the excuse, that you are too young to know better, to go crazy and get away with it. We are supposed to know better now, whatever...
Karen Russell had a drawing on her blog for add-ons to her Cocoa Daisy kit but she didn't pick me. :( Oh well, disappointment is just part of life and so I need to scrapbook so I can get over it. Yea, any excuse to scrap that's me. Went to a premiere of sorts last night at my local scrapbook store. They were introducing the "Creative Cafe' " by Creative Imaginations. Lots of fun stuff that you can buy by the piece rather than in packages, very cool paper, brads and even envelope kits. They will be doing featured "kits" on a monthly basis, make and takes and Creative Cafe' days so you can sign up and work on pages involving their product. The store is one of two hundred nationwide that were chosen to have this set up in their stores. From everything I saw last night I think it will be a big success for both CI and the store. Mary rode over to the store with me. I got to see Sarah who rode over with Janet. I totally enjoy spending time with my little girl, she is so funny!
It started out with my dear friends Mary and Camille singing happy birthday to me at 5:15 in the morning yesterday. To say the very least they both scared the daylights out of me. I was not expecting that as I had hoped to sneak into the hotel room grab some allergy meds and leave without waking anyone. I received a call from my brother Joe on Saturday evening but I wasn't home and so he had to leave a message. The same thing happened when my Uncle Robert called on Sunday afternoon. My brother Tom called me Sunday morning from work but we were in the middle of taking pictures and I couldn't get to my phone. I had been with a bunch of ladies scrapbooking at the Renaissance Inn in Keizer. Then my Dad and Mom called and we chatted for a bit, that is of course when my phone started making it's low battery sounds. I received a text message from Lisa wishing me a happy birthday and I responded by saying that if she needed to reach me call home as my cell phone battery was almost dead. I sent another text to Sarah saying the same thing and then I called Steve to tell him if he needed to reach me to call Mary's cell. As you can tell by this story I left my charger here at home. Lisa and Sarah invited us out to dinner for our birthdays. So we went to my favorite place, Willamette Noodle for dinner. We took my mother-in-law with us and met the girls and their sweeties at the restaurant. We had a great time laughing and just generally catching up. Lisa gave me a gift set of Warm Vanilla Sugar from Bath and Body Works, Sarah gave me a camera strap for my camera from Emily Falconbridge and Steve gave me a new chair for my computer desk. I also got lots of hugs and kisses from family and friends. So I would say that my birthday was pretty terrific.
