Lots of not so little things…..

It’s a little after 3 and I have had a full day by my usual standards. I woke up to some great news. My son James got an awesome email from the U of Washington. He was awarded a partial scholarship from the Engineering department for his Senior year. He worked with his counselor and through a few minor changes (like moving out of moms house) he now qualifies for more grants and a higher level of subsidized loan. After all is said and done, he will have his senior year covered by a combination of scholarship, grant, and loan. And some say there isn’t a God……. This mama is sighing in relief and is very grateful for one less thing to guilt trip over.

I spent a few hours working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Redmond this morning. It was great working side by side with the single mom who will be living in the townhouse I was painting and cleaning. It was fun watching her take such loving care as she polished and vacuumed her future home. I did so little in retrospect but I have full intention to get more involved with the program in the future. One thing I know to be true is service work for others reduce my own tendency to throw outrageous pity parties for myself.


Last thing for today is showing a layout I just finished. It has been really hard to keep up on the scrapping and I think my mojo might be lost forever….. however this one was way to quick and easy…..




I hope to be back again tomorrow with another post. I have a burning desire to jump up on my soapbox and talk a bit about something affecting every American…..

PS - had to add this video for my Pastors wife Jodie. This awesome woman in doing a half Iron man in Boise as we speak. Her theme song is one of my favorite U2 song. I am going to play it this afternoon several times in her honor. I am pretty sure that right now she is doing the bike portion..... Go Jodie you Rock star you! By the way a link to her blog is on my sidebar to the right. Jodie Howerton. Just click on her name......

wonderful wanderings over the weekend....

Jennifer and I went to Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island for some sun and conversation.

Later we met up with Megan who took us to lunch where we sat out on the patio and relaxed a bit before walking through downtown Issaquah....

I am a bit depressed today as I had a job rejection last week and another one yesterday. I guess I should be thankful that I at least had interviews....... but interviews don't pay the bills. Tomorrow is another day and I pray for better spirits!

One awesome thing to celebrate is James was informed last night he received a scholarship from the Chemical Engineering Department. He will have half of his tuition paid for his final year at the U of W....... I am really proud of him.

additional post:

I have just learned from a friend that a family I know is in extreme crises. Both husband and wife, parents of small children, are taking a nose dive straight to their individual bottoms due to addiction. This family would make TLC's Jon and Kate count their blessings.....

It breaks my heart to see this happen but driving home tonight, I reflected about it. This has helped me put things in proper perspective. While I might be unemployed and in financial crises, I at least have my health. Who cares where I live, who cares if I have to start over again. I am healthy!

Thank you God for revealing what I needed to see.......

jimmy johnson in the house......

YouTube Fun tonight....

If this does not choke you up I just don't know......





My favorite volunteer effort has been to usher for concerts held at Overlake. I had the pleasure to work for Mercy Me a few years ago and follow them on Twitter and subsequently found their blog tonight. It's been so much fun to check out their blogposts and videos.... I hope you enjoyed their song.

I have heard of father-son triatholon story before but can't find any details to share now. It is so inspirational but I can't help but to feel a bit sad that my own 2 children have not known the true Love of a Father.

On second thought, they do have the Love of a Father. Just not the one that they thought.....

I hope they both know how much their Momma loves them too! xoxoxoxo

don't let the virus get you down....

I am back after a short computer breakdown due to famous facebook virus seen on 60 minutes this week...... I will be back with more but leaving you this morning with some fun pics of James and Megan at Disneyland over the weekend!

You are never too old to have fun at Disneyland right? See you later on - have a great one!

Blessed Blog affirmations.....

a.k.a. OMG! Stacy Julian read my blog!!!!!!!! and better yet- even left me a comment!!!
a.k.a. recipient of wonderful affirmation from Studio Calico "hope to call girlfriends" too.
Blown away by it all but extremely energized by the comments left. Thank you so much.

There is one comment from Scrappyoga (love that name) that brought me smiles today. As I took pics of the last canvas art I was aware of the background and made a mental note to talk about my lunchbox sometime soon. So I was so delighted when scrappy sister called it out.....

I love this lunchbox and am so grateful for a mother with the art background and the foresight to store this little box away so I can recover it later on (after her passing).

First reason I love this box is that I know my father carried this lunchbox (in its original form) every day to work and he was my life example of hard work ethics. Everyone who knows me knows that my father is to date my favorite man in life and I have learned much from him. Secondly my mother took this lunchbox from him and painted it for me when I started freshman year in high school. One end has my name and the other has RHS '75. yeh yeh yeh I'm an old fart. So what, I'm a cool old fart. My mom would be horrified to have this as a published example of her art but it remains a cherished reminder of my youth and one of my favorites today.

so thank you art and scrap world! I love you and am inspired by you daily!!!!

see you tomorrow with my sunday inspiration post.......

Ho Ho Holidays......

It isn't that I don't have anything to share right now......

It is more that I don't have the time to put my thoughts to blog.....

I am going to have my family home for the holidays and I am not ready. Not finished shopping & wrapping, and haven't even begun to do cleaning so panic is beginning to brew....


I did laugh the other night at my pharmacy, I mean my bedside table.....God I am getting old!

long time no post

I am back from my short break. Mostly I was gone because I had absolutely nothing to say. Growing up I remember hearing Baba & mom say "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." I guess I am keeping true to my teachings because I have kind of been in a funk lately. A little depressed over the incoming job rejections and constant barrage of negative economic news. Packed with the knowledge that "This too shall pass" I am taking a break from a lot of the news programs I usually watch and am focusing on the positive.

To a group of friends and me, November is known as Gratitude month. So I have been writing a list of things to be grateful for and getting together with friends to share our experiences, strength and hope for a better day. Getting together and listening to one another, I am reminded that I can work through any of my issues. It also helps me keep my issues in perspective and be constantly grateful for what I have accomplished thus far in my life.

I was certainly grateful for AAA this week. After finishing a meeting at Costco Wednesday I discovered a very flat tire. All those years paying for AAA I finally got to use it for a rescue tire change. And boy am I grateful to my good friend Todd, a self professed car geek who LOVES to do investagative work. I now know what tires to buy and where the best deal in town is for those tires, alignment & minor mechanical work. It is such a guy thing and this single lady is very grateful to have a guy around to keep me from doing something dumb like pay too much for possibly the wrong product......

I am excited to see another new baby in the family. It must be the year of the girls around here and our little Avery Elizabeth is so darling..... I haven't gotten through to sister Sue yet because I think she has not been home very much (would you be home if you could be next door holding a baby?) oh the memory of baby smells is so strong in me..... puts me in a wonderful state of mind...

I have been busy cleaning up the back garden, winterizing the beds and filling all my compost bins to the brim@! I have also been working on a few Christmas craft projects I will begin sharing soon.... I hope to be back later today with a few layouts I have completed over the past several weeks.... here is one for starters....

See you later today or this weekend.... Have a good day!

pretend this is friday......

Happy Birthday Sarina!!!!! I know I'm a couple of days late, but I had to wait until I got my mojo back. This mornings walk with Connor and the dry sunny day got me going though.... I love you lots!

sunday part one

I have been working on the house lately leaving little time left over for crafting. Honestly I think I may be in a little creative dry spell. I am sure it won't last long and I am taking this time to learn more about some photoshop features.... just playing around with some grids....




I am heading back out to move more things to the garage..... cleaning out James room since he is here very little anymore (he stays in Seattle with friends). Moving the high school memories to permanant storage in attic; after all he is now a junior at UW.

closing with some photos taken this morning when Connor and I were outside playing.....

simple saturday night

Yesterday I was playing around with the camera and took photos of my surroundings. These photos are bits and pieces of larger pieces created by my mom. My mom taught tole and canvas painting for many years in our home. So I have been surrounded by art my entire life. Even though I spent hours down with the "paint ladies" my incentive then was to hear the off color jokes the ladies would share. I sure wish now that I would have picked up a brush more often!

I haven't always appreciated the art that has surrounded me but I am looking at it with fresh eyes lately. As I grow in my own creative experience I now can appreciate the love and passion that she enjoyed through her art. Oh, I forgot to mention that she was also self taught but quite good at floral arrangements (both fresh and dried)..........

So last night I had a great Saturday evening complete with a cup of creamy hot chocolate and a chick flick on Hallmark station. I got down to business .....

It was a nice evening... excercising my right to vote in the comfy of my own home.....

Have a great day today! Off to make Stuffed Peppers & Zucchini; another family recipe that I haven't made in years. Explanation: gotta use up that bag of peppers bought at Costco! LOL.

Using the voice God gave me....

When Mel lived in Seattle and worked at Brooks in Bothell she would drop off Katie to spend the days with me. So we saw each other daily and had plenty of time for conversation. We occasionally had moments with relationship overload but now that she has moved to Oakland I really miss our conversations about social issues. Between the two of us we could find a variety of causes to discuss. Good thing I’m blogging now because all this stuff keeps rattling around in my old noggin……

Did you know that 1 of 2 men and 1 of 3 women in the US will be diagnosed with some form of cancer?

I hope you all got to see the fantastic show recently broadcast on 3 networks known as Stand up to Cancer. I received an email update and went on the website and started checking out what has happened since the show. With Barack encouraging us all to get involved fueled by my disappointment with the current administration & congress I went directly to the tab “get involved” and found email congress. I figure that if I am going to complain about congress for not supporting issues I find important, then I better make sure they know what I want first. By entering in my full zip code, it directed me to the appropriate email addresses for my area. It also supplied a sample letter format that you could fully edit to make personal. Most organizations I support have this feature and I have used it often for environmental issues (WE). So I sent my 3 out yesterday and have only received a reply from one of my Senators so far. I am looking forward to their reply to see what they have done to support the cause of finding a cure for cancer. If anyone is interested in the cause I have provided a link below. Play around on the site as I have learned a lot from it…..

find site here

Returning full circle and back to Mel. I will leave you with a layout done of their first home bought. They have it decorated very Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware style….. Gorgeous!





Thanks for reading.....

a few photos of mom

These 2 photos were in the stack my sister gave me a few weeks ago. I love getting new old photos to play with... first one is of mom when she was 5 years old and on her toes. She was a dancer with the Portland city Ballet until she broke her leg playing on the stairs.... there are some real doozies around with her in some pretty interesting costumes. (calling all jpegs from relatives)


This next one is a photo of mom with one of her best friends Helen Maul. Helen and mom were the garden club mavens in Ridgefield, taking care of the towns gardens & pots for years. I love that mom is in her "Paint Sweater". Here they are setting up for the yearly garden club plant sale.

My heart and prayers go out to Helen right now as she battles colon cancer. I have so many happy memories of her. She was way beyond cool when I was growing up and I really love her. I even planted a vine maple in my back yard when I first moved in "just like Helens".

do as I say not as I do

I always thought mammograms were so scary and yukky that I convinced myself to ignore the standard practise of annual screenings. I had one in my late 30's so I knew what to expect and didn't much like it. I visited my family practitioner yearly and would always get that little referral slip and I would tuck it in my day timer and try hard not to think about it again......skip ahead 14 years (yeah yeah save your lectures, just go get a mammogram). But last December my Dr. felt something that bugged her on my left breast and urged me to get a mammogram. Something in our conversation told me to do it and I made the appt the following day. There starts my roller coaster ride marking my 50th year. A winter filled with weekly trips to the Breast Center at Evergreen Hospital for mammograms, ultrasounds & MRI's. During one of these early visits they found another suspicious lump on the right side. WOO HOO - I got to learn the term Bi Lateral! After the battery of tests, the decision was made to surgically remove and biopsy both sides. You see, since I had no prior mammograms to compare to, they just couldn't be sure if these were my normal changes or something to worry about. My story has a happy ending and I am not afraid of getting mammograms any more. They aren't fun but they are nothing compared to the other tests & I want to believe that most Breast centers are filled with the same care taking angels of empathy that took care of me. So do as I say not as I do: please have regular mammograms. Key word - Regular.

This morning Dr. Susan Love (Avon Foundation) is launching a new campaign called Army of Women. Dr Love is creating a network of women across America for the purpose she explains below:


"To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all."

"To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women."


You can read more about this movement and how you can get involved here:

http://www.armyofwomen.org/

I have joined cause and hope you do to. How incredible would it be to have a tiny little hand in the cause by joining the Army to find a Cure for Cancer.

We have to do this..... Find a Cure......We have to do it for our little ones.

We have to do it for little Nora who we welcomed to our family this week......

My brothers 3rd grandchild and first little girl..... so very pretty.

I WANT ONE aka "ME TOO"

Happy Birthday Sister Sue!

MY 10 favorite memories about my OLDER sister Sue:

1. Going for rides on the back of the Honda - I think I fell off once didn't I?

2. Spending hours in your room at night - having you put my hair up in those old hard brush curlers. The hairdryer cap & hose thing, & the combing, ratting, styling DO's we would create.

3. Listening to your music with you and I still think you sound just like Diana Ross.

4. Crashing over the garbage can with the car at the hamburger joint/putt putt golf place (what is the name of it?)

5. Watching you at Lakeshore swim club. You and the older girls in the corner, smearing cocoa butter and baby oil and acting so cool. I couldn't wait to be that age.....

6. The water fights you would get in with Dad. The time you brought the hose into the back door to spray Dad. I remember these as pretty wicked. I loved it - Mom didn't.

7. All of the summer pool parties and family times we had when we both lived in Ridgefield. Nobody was safe from being thrown into the pool. The only chance that one might have of escape is the "No, I've got my good watch on!"

8. I loved your Ridgefield home with the Atrium. It was so big and spacious and beautiful. I loved the HUGE Christmas trees you had each year.

9. The watermelon seed spitting contests we had in the front. How on earth can you spit so far?

10. You helping me when I had my first knee surgery. You were a real blessing to me then just as you are to me now.

I love you sister - Happy Birthday!

leaning left

Even James has leaned left and is supporting Borack Obama this November. It will also be his first time voting for a United States President!

last of summer

Connor and I went to Ellensburg to visit Sue & Cary last week. It was a great weekend and very beautiful drive up over the pass. You can feel in the air the changing of seasons here now and I suppose my next trip over the pass will be a rainy or snowy one. We had a quick lunch. took the dogs for a walk and then I climbed aboard this thing.

Not by myself have you, but with my brother in law. We were down the road on our way to Robinson canyon before I realized my camera was left behind. I had such a blast on this thing except for the part when Cary told me about the rattlesnakes. Me in my pretty city girl sandles with painted toes hanging out there like bright beakons. Oh and these guys around here don't wear helmets.... No public service announcement here!!! After I safely made it back - I took a second to fix my hair before Sue took Connor and I for a drive around Ellensburg to show me the area. Again, no camera and boy was there some good photo ops! Our trip home was an awesome ride into the sunset listening to U2 Its a Beautiful Day crossing back over the pass.....

I did come home with a few more photos from Sue and the Family archive. One of my graduation photos was in the mix..... here you go - me at 17

Have a great day everybody...... Miss T

pickle makin proof

Look! Sarina sent me some proof of our recent pickle making session in Oakland! Her nummy pics from a nummy Nikon D40.

I'll be back later with a post about my "OH so Fun weekend!" Somebody needs to remind me I'm not 30 any more......

Last but certainly not least....

Meet my daughter, Melinda. I love this child and really love the lady she has become. She has moved to the Bay area and I miss the daily contact we used to have. I used to watch her dog Katie during the day when she worked at Brooks. I suppose she is now enjoying her independance since moving south and joining the North Face team. It is so funny how things turn out. My work required me to travel to Asia to work with Furniture factories. Her work in product development has required her to also travel (much more than me) overseas. It is quite a feeling to share mutual life experiences like staying the same hotel in mainland China; and seeing the nighttime sights of Hong Kong from the Peak. Those travels were really amazing to me when I did it, but it's something else when you daughter begins to share those years later. I am incredibly proud of her not only for her career accomplishments, but for her heart and soul.


Today I opened my birthday card she sent and I melted into a weepy mess, AGAIN. Pretty card, on the cover it says.... "I know a woman of strength and beauty. I have watched her for years." CHOKE. She has a funny knack of doing that. sending me cards and saying things that I need to hear at that moment. See right now I'm not feeling strong or beautiful, but stressed out and old & haggard. But this card reminds me that these feelings will pass and I will soon return to my old confident, faithful self. FAITH. It's my word of the year. I should be better at keeping it! I even have reminders to look at everyday! Time for a good dose of Pastor Mike at OCC for encouragement too!

OK this has been a rambling disjointed post. I am a better writer than this, Really I am! I am heading off to listen to this weeks sermon on http://www.occ.org/about/services.asp since I missed church - shhhh don't tell anyone! See you all later!

PS - yes I made the faith banner with Jenni Bowlin product. Love that scrapbooking line...

Meet the Son

Here is a digital LO of my son James HS graduation held at Qwest Field, Home of the Seattle Seahawks. The only time I've been in this stadium. Don't you feel sorry for me and want to take me to a football game? James is now a junior & entering the Chemical Engineering program at the University of Washington. (go Dawgs!) Lord I wish this school thing would end. I have figured it out that I have had at least one child in school for the past 26 years and counting. That is more than half my life! So please excuse me but I am counting my days...








I love him to bits - tj