Plains Georgia

We drove up to Plains Georgia today. We didn't get to see President Carter, but the visit to this little town made me think how living here must keep things real for him. Even though you live in a compound with secret service agents, the rest of the town is just as normal as can be. We went into this little store that had great peanut ice cream. Ray bought all sorts of peanut souvenirs. Every time we come down here we do something different.

Christmas

We had a fun Christmas. Nick and Nicole got Ray a shop vac which he really was excited about getting. Wyatt cleaned up as always. He has as many toys at our house as he does at home. We bought him several things that were supposed to go home, but so far they haven't made it there yet.

Stuff on New Years Eve

Ray and I are sitting in Andrew's living room watching a movie. Andrew has gone over to a friends house for New Years Eve. We are going to just hang around and watch TV like the old folks we are. These are pictures of the gifts Cara, my Secret Santa sent me. The ornament is a glass treasure box she made. I had never understood what these looked like when everyone was talking about making them. I am really thankful to have received this pretty gift. I got lots of other great gifts and candy too.

Two days on the road

We got to Valdosta this evening. We left home yesterday at 6:30. We spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi and finally got here about 6:00 this evening. This is a long drive and we have done it three times in the last year. It is a good thing we like in here even if Andrew wasn't living here. The weather is in the 70's, a whole lot better than what we have going on at home.

The Sleepy Chair

It is a given that when Ray settles into his recliner for the evening he will be asleep in less than half an hour. The chair had not had the same effect on Wyatt until the other night. He and Papa had been playing with trucks and other toys until Papa couldn't play any more. Ray convinced Wyatt to sit for a while and both of them were asleep almost immediately. It made for a quiet evening.

Still not 100%

The worst part of the bug is over. But, I haven't been able to talk for two days now. Yesterday was better than today. Fortunately, the crummy weather has cut down the people calling and coming in. I hope this is over soon. I can only whine so much.

Sick Day

I am sick today. I have that nasty little flu bug that makes you all feverish and chilled at the same time. I started feeling bad at work yesterday, but tried to ignore it. The flu always wins. I slept from seven last night till one today. Then I have dragged around the rest of the time. I think I will go back to bed shortly.

What really irritates me is that you have a whole day off from work when you are sick. What do you do? Nothing, you are sick.

Friends at Christmas

JoEtta

High Tea

My friends from when I worked at Bank IV got together for our annual Christmas High Tea at Cup N Saucer. We have a lot of fun and we invite family members. This year I asked Nicole to come along. Ray went once, but tea isn't what is in his cup. Wendy's daughter was surprised to learn that cucumber sandwiches were quite tasty.

On Monday night, my INTRUST friends went to Carrabas for our annual Christmas Dinner. JoEtta was posing for me, so I decided that I needed to post her picture. She doesn't do that very often on her blog.

It was so warm last night, I didn't wear my coat into the restaurant. Tonight, it is icy and in the teens. What a turnaround in such a few hours.

Christmas Tree

Wyatt was looking at all the decorations on the tree the other evening. However, the second the camera comes out, we are posing like a professional.

Black Friday

Well, another Black Friday has come and gone. Read Steve's blog for a hilarious experience of shopping at Walmart today. I learned a long time ago that I don't have the fortitude to shop at Walmart on this day.

The BX on the other hand is more my speed. They have good things for sale, but in typical military manner, we line up and wait our turn to buy our tv's and other electronics. I do not get up early and the BX waits until 6:00 to open. We decided to buy an LCD TV for our Christmas gift this year. I waited patiently for an hour and was rewarded.

It was a bit more difficult to get my purchase home. I had driven up in my car and a large TV would not fit in my Sebring. I drove back home, drove the Vue back to McConnell. Guess what! The TV wouldn't fit in it either. So I call my sister out in Augusta to borrow her pickup. We go back to the base and at last the TV fit. I was beginning to wonder for a while there.

Ray is working tomorrow, so it will be tomorrow night or Sunday before we can get it set up. Surely you didn't think that we would wait till Christmas did you?

Thanksgiving Evening

We are sitting around this evening watching "A Christmas Story". Wyatt comes to me and tells me to take his picture. Nothing will do, he is very persistent. So I have taken pictures of him sitting in front of the fire place, then we did some of us together. I am not pleased with myself altogether. I am getting older and my complexion suffers next to Wyatt's clear little boy skin. But we don't get all that many pictures together. My Dad and Stepmother came for Dinner, we are just waiting for the food to settle before snacking again. Nicole just came by and reminded me she has already eaten again. But I am not ready to eat again.

Christmas Projects

I will be leading a class next week at Scrapbook Garden making these different gift boxes, cards and tags. They are all made with Basic Gray and there are several pieces that I really like. I am still undecided about my Christmas Cards this year and one of these may work yet.

I'm not going!

This isn't a good picture, but it is a funny one. Wyatt is going through a stage right now where he has decided that he does not live with his parents. He lives with Papa and Grandma. He spent the evening with us last night. We went out for hamburgers and just generally hung around. When his mother came to bring him home, he was not going to cooperate. The last effort involved hiding behind the pew. Ray called me to come take a picture. Wyatt being the ham he is couldn't resist. He came out, Nicole captured him and carried him home.

Another picture from Taos

Ray took this picture of me outside at the Old Taos Guesthouse. The whole property was a photo opportunity. I told Ray to get a picture of me with the Mountains in the background. It sort of worked.

This was a busy weekend for me. I worked the Customer Appreciation Day at Scrapbook Garden and Ray worked. After church today, we did some Christmas Shopping and went to the commissary. We are actually getting some of our shopping done earlier this year. I have no idea why, but I am not complaining. There are a few things I want to order on line and that will make things easier too. I still have to decide what I am going to make for the people at work.

Snow

We did enjoy the snow going over Raton Pass and in Raton when we got back into town. Maybe it it because we haven't had winter really move in at home that the snow was fun. I know for a fact that in January, we won't be as gleeful when the white stuff comes down.

Taos

I have been trying to take a great photo of San Francisco de Asis church for as long as we have been going to Taos. Artists have be creating images of this church for years. I don't pretend to be an artist, but I want to keep trying. Georgia O'Keefe I will never be.

Weekend in New Mexico

The Hearts Desire Bed & Breakfast in Raton, New Mexico

The Old Taos InnGuesthouse in Taos

Lunch on the train

Ray and I just got back from a long weekend in New Mexico. We took the train to Raton. We really like taking the train. It takes about the same amount of time as driving, but it is so much more relaxing. We got off the train in Raton and drove to Taos. We stayed at the Old Taos Guesthouse bed and breakfast. It is an old adobe hacienda overlooking Taos. The hosts and the food were fantastic. We could have stayed there the whole time. Our room was beautiful with a fireplace. Very romantic. We looked around the galleries and ate at Doc Martins. Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Raton and stayed at The Hearts Desire which is a Victorian bed and breakfast. The meals were fantastic at both places. We went up to Trinidad Colorado and got snowed on very heavily going over the Raton Pass. Both of us liked that, but Ray didn't want to drive too long in the snow. Luckily it stopped by late afternoon, before we had to catch the train back home.

The food on the train isn't that bad either. The staff are very friendly and you can get up an move around. I really do like it better than flying.

There will be change

Barack Obama won the presidency last night. It is an unquestioned win which had been one of my concerns. The Democrats have a majority, and are faced with a lot of ugly business. What I am praying for is that the political process can bring both parties together to solve the troubles our country is facing without becoming buried in the tit for tat the public has suffered for years.

Trick or Treat

We don't get many trick or treaters on our street. Wyatt the Pirate showed up though and made off with a haul of candy. I went with him to the neighbors. He really is getting into the whole thing this year. He says trick or treat nice and loud and always says thank you. It was lots of fun for the old folks.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween, I will have photos to post tomorrow. Wyatt is going to be a pirate, so hopefully there will be cute ones to share.

Decaffeinated Coffee

I always swore that I would never drink decaffeinated coffee. It had no taste, no zip, no KICK! However, I like a cup of coffee in the evening after dinner and regular coffee will keep me up a lot later than I want. The result is that I now drink decaf. I really think that decaf may just be a lot better than it used to be. We have a Senseo coffee maker and the coffee made with it really tastes like regular coffee. Since it is a pressure machine, it even has a little crema on the top like espresso. What more can a person ask for? When we first got the Senseo I was skeptical of the cost per cup, but since we don't use it all the time, the cost isn't bad.
Plus, it makes good decaf coffee.

Wyatt & Papa

This page has been on my table for two weeks waiting for the little bit of journaling I was going to write. I really like the colors and of course the pictures. We didn't spend all that much time picking the pumpkins, but Wyatt gets so much pleasure from these adventures, it is a great memory.

Some People are happy when birthdays come around

Yesterday was Wyatt's third birthday. He had a party with several of his friends and by his account it was a great success. We were fortunate that we had a beautiful fall day, and the party was held on the new porch Nick has been building. Wyatt was just ecstatic when everyone sang happy birthday. He enjoyed blowing the candles out he had to do it twice.

The theme of the party was pirates and all the children were wearing pirate hats, hooks and eye patches when we got there. The cake had pirates on it as well.

The new play set Nick built was put to work as well. I think it is going to get a lot of use over the next few years.

Winnie the Pooh

We all went with Wyatt to see Winnie the Pooh on Friday night. Obviously we would not have gone to this program if Wyatt were not going. I know I went to watch Wyatt which is what I did. The program is cute and obviously geared towards small children. Wyatt was dancing and waving along with all the other little children. One of the cutest unintentional moments of the program was when a little girl about two years old got away from her parents and wandered up on to the stage with all the characters. Her father was trying how to get her back down without going up on the stage himself when one of the actors escorted her back. She was in heaven walking around with Pooh, Tigger and everyone else. There was not a toddler in the place who would not have done the same thing.

You cannot take photos of anything during the show that turn out and the prices for everything else were outrageous. Ten dollars for popcorn, eighteen dollars for a cheap little light toy. Even Ray was able to control his spending on the grandchild at those prices. The photo kiosk was just as overpriced, so Papa and Wyatt stood by the Winnie the Pooh statue and I took this picture for free. I know Disney knows how to turn a profit on everything, but this was too much for me.

It is getting to be Fall, no matter what I want.

On the weather last night, Merrill Teller our local fixture weatherman informed us that we will be having rain today and following that the lucky folks out in western Kansas will be blessed with snow. My mind screams No, No, No! The older I get, the less I like cold weather. I have photos from our cruise last spring of me on the beach at Cozumel on my computer and that is where I want to be. That probably won't happen any time soon, so I will have to be glad we have lots of firewood for the fireplace.

Ray, on the other hand loves the Fall and cold weather. I don't understand it, but since that is a very minor difference, I don't worry too much. I tend to be the one who has to put on the sweater when it is cold; God forbid that he would be too warm. However, I can justify it though on energy conservation reasons.

I taught a Scrapbook Basics class last night. I enjoyed it as usual. I knew one of the ladies, I thought it was from the store, but we had belonged to a monthly challenge group together a couple of years ago. Eileen is a tremendously funny and talented lady. She knows more about scrapping than I do, and took the class 1. because it is free right now and 2. she completed the SDU program and is now a graduate. She is interested in taking Masters Classes. SDU is offering a couple of new Masters Classes that I am going to take as well. Now just to find time.

Wyatt is coming to spend the evening. He normally comes on Tuesday, but we changed nights since I was teaching last night. He is so much fun. He will be three on Saturday, I need to go out and find him a gift. We helped pay for the play set his father built, but every boy needs a truck or some other toy on his birthday.

Life is dull, dull is good.

Life isn't really dull, but uneventful. I did a wedding on Saturday night. I will post a few photos in a couple of days. I don't like to look at what I did too soon after shooting. The wedding was at the Twentieth Century Center which is a beautiful venue.

Wyatt will be three on Saturday. He is having a birthday party with little children. Ray and I will enjoy seeing that.

Another great weekend over!

Me, Cyn, Angie, Barb, Taunja

I got home last night from my crop weekend in Denton with my friends. We all had a great time; we ate a lot, laughed even more and did quite a bit of scrapping. We took this picture Saturday night at Fera's, a really good little Italian restaurant near the college campus. Every Sunday afternoon we procrastinate as much as possible in getting ready to go home, this time it was four o'clock. I didn't want to leave, but it did get me home late.

I don't suffer any guilt over leaving Ray home by himself. He did a lot of fun stuff while I was gone. It is nice to know he is more than capable of entertaining himself after all these years.

We get together again the first week of April next year. I can't wait.

Pumpkin Patch

We went out to Bergmann's farm to get pumpkins for Halloween last night. Ray and Wyatt spent some time looking at all the different sizes. Wyatt mostly ran from one stack to another, but he thought it was all exciting. They ended up choosing one large, one medium and two small. Ray is going to carve one and paint one. I think he is more excited about this than Wyatt.

Woo Hoo!

Two more days!! I leave Thursday morning for Denton, Texas for our semi annual First Born Crop. The Texas Ladies get together in between times to do stuff, so this is a big deal for me since I only get to see them at this time.

I have most of my supplies set out. I am going to print pictures tonight. This is the most organized I have ever been. It will be interesting to see if it helps me do more pages.

The way of the industry

I was told Thursday evening that the Scrap booking Store I just started teaching at is closing their east store. It was something of a shock, but given the fact that times are tough in the industry, I could see how it would happen. In this particular instance, it may be a good way to hunker down and weather the storm. The remaining store is on the side of town without any competition except Michael's and Hobby Lobby and will probably keep on going strong. The sad part is that there is a whole great crew of store staff who will be out of a job. That is not good in the times we are living in.

I may or may not have a job. I am the most junior instructor and still have a full time job, which limits my available time more than the other instructors. I hope they keep me on. I enjoy the teaching and I enjoy having money that I don't have to spend on anything more complicated than scrapping supplies if I wish.

However, we will have to wait and see how everything all turns out.

Making Diapers

It has been a quiet week for posting. Work is hectic and not worth talking about anyway. I have been tired and not doing anything in the evenings. I had thought I would take a picture of something, but had no idea of what it would be when Nicole came over with her project.

Nicole had used cloth diapers with Wyatt but they aren't like the old cloth diapers I used with her and her brother. These are shaped with Velcro fasteners and cost a fair amount of money. She likes them; I would rather use disposables despite the damage to the environment. Non the less, she found kits for the diapers on a website and ordered a set to sew herself. I set up the sewing machine and serger in the sewing corner of my new craft room and here she is making diapers for the new little boy or girl who is coming in February.

End of summer

Ray is closing the pool today. Since Wyatt enjoys the water so much, we thought we would use it after Labor Day this year. But, the weather turned so cool for most of September, we didn't get in one time. The leaves are beginning to fall and Ray does not like having to get in the water when it is 60 degrees or less. So now we have to wait for warm weather to swim again.

Basics Class

I taught the Scrapbook Basics class today. It was a lot of fun. I liked talking to people about getting started scrapping, and everyone seemed to enjoy the time they spent with me. I do this class again in a couple of weeks and it should go even smoother.

Hurricane Clouds

Driving home from church today, we noticed the clouds were all in these long streams coming out of the southeast. I cannot recall seeing the clouds formed up like this before. I could be wrong, but I believe this is going to be the primary effect plus mild winds that we are going to see from hurricane Ike. I can't complain.

Thinking about South Texas

It is raining here this morning, and you can't help thinking about the people in south and central Texas who are getting ready for Ike to hit. We were in Galveston in March, after seeing Biloxi this summer, I can easily imagine what can happen there. It is a given the whole island will be underwater. I really don't want those folks to have a hurricane hit that will outdo the one they still talk about that hit a hundred years ago.

The same emotions are there for Houston. We lived there and the idea that flooding would be bad enough to get to the places we lived is mind boggling. I figure it could easily happen to the house in Katy. It was built in what were formerly rice fields.

As a Kansan, I still feel safer dealing with tornadoes than I ever would with a hurricane. I am praying for everyone there.

First one down

I taught my first class at Scrapbook Garden last night. It went as well as I expected it to go. The class was small fortunately and a book class. That meant the people in the class pretty much knew what they were doing and I just answered questions and made suggestions. I was monitored by a more experienced (putting it mildly) instructor named Kay. She made suggestions very subtly and now I understand much better how to present this class. I am rewriting my outline and when I do the class again, it will be much smoother. Either way, I really enjoyed myself.

A memory to keep

There isn't a photo for this. Tonight, Nick, Nicole and Wyatt came over for dinner. We grilled steaks, and had a delicious dinner. After dinner we all went out in the back yard and made s'mores in the chimenea. Wyatt was here and there all over the yard coming back to eat a marshmallow. The adults sat in the darkness, eating gooey treats from our child hoods and enjoying great conversation. Ray and I are blessed to have Nick and Nicole living so close to us. We are also blessed that they like to spend time with us as well. This is my memory to keep.

Bo Bunny Album Class at Scrapbook Garden

I am going to be teaching the class for this album at Scrapbook Garden. September 11 at the east store and October 7th at the west store. I really enjoyed making this album. The only problem I had to deal with was setting up a template for cutting the big pieces for the pages. Now that I have that figured out everyone should have a great time making this little book.

At the Plaza

We went to Kansas City for the day yesterday with the Nick, Nicole and Wyatt. We ate barbecue, walked all around the plaza and watched Wyatt throw coins into a fountain. After the first time he wanted to throw coins in all the fountains, then he wanted to go in and get money out. We had so much fun and got to get out of town for the holiday too.

Wedding Pages

Nicole was over scrapping today, she got a mini album done. I did these pages of the wedding Wyatt was a ring bearer for on Saturday night. I really like this layout. The elements and colors all tie into the themes for the wedding and reception, even though there is only one photo of the bride and groom on the two pages. After all it is all about Wyatt.

Isn't he handsome?

Wyatt was a ring bearer in a wedding last night. Andrew Weaver and Tracey Eskew got married. We have known the Weaver family since Andrew was in kindergarten. Wyatt went down the aisle without any problems, swinging the pillow all the way. It was a big incentive that Best Man Daniel Weaver was holding a bag of skittles. The wedding was at a local winery and the setting was really beautiful.

Road Trip

Every since Wyatt got his jeep, he has wanted to drive it to the park. He has finally gotten the steering down, although he likes to spend a certain amount of time driving around in circles. So Tuesday evening we went off to the park. He loved it, he gets thisreally serious look on his face and moves right along. Papa supervised to keep him on the bike path. We don't let him sit in the cars anymore. It would be too easy for him to release the break and roll into the street. In reality, since he got the jeep, he doesn't ask to "drive" the cars any more.
That is a Norwegian flag on the jeep. Wyatt found it in the still cluttered guest bed room along with an Australian flag. They were gifts from exchange students. The flags are simply the red flag and the blue flag.

Back in the Groove

I finished up this layout from July 4th last night. I feel like everything is starting to flow again with my pages. It seems like I lose imagination if I don't scrap regularly and have to start over again and my pages show it. But I like this.

First pages "finished" in my new room

This is the layout I attempted to do while my room was being worked on. I could scrap, but the sense of not having things available to me was really hard. I sat down and finished the pages last night and they are now in Andrew's album. This starts the fourth album I have done for him. Since he is single, I feel it is important to capture things he has done now, so when he finally gets married and has a family they will know what his life was like before. Guys just don't generally keep track of stuff like that.

I also decided to post this since I am now going to be making some income directly related to scrapping. (This is every scrapper's secret dream) I am going to be teaching classes at Scrapbook Garden. This is the largest LSS in Wichita. I took a lot of lessons there when I first learned there was more to scrapbooks than Creative Memories. I have spent a lot of Friday nights cropping there as well. Now that I am in the process of preparing for my first classes, I am very excited. I want to thank my friend Toni for recommending me. I do believe it is going to be fun.

Why it pays to be nice.

I bought these two wing back chairs yesterday at an estate sale. I wanted a comfortable chair for my new scrap room, but usually when I go to sales it is to look for pottery. On Friday, I stopped at a sale on east 21st Street. I looked all around and saw these two chairs in the living room. The were forty five dollars each. I knew that about the best I could do at a store was one hundred ninety nine dollars on sale. These are in wonderful condition, not quite the pattern I had considered, but look at the price. However, I couldn't buy them then, since I was driving my car and had no way to take them with me.

I decided I would go back on Saturday morning and if I was meant to have a chair, they would still be there. I did and they were! I went to pay the lady for one of them and this other lady said she wanted them and would take them both. She got sort of aggressive about it, and I decided that it wasn't worth the strife even though now it was half price day and I could get both of them for forty five dollars.

Then the amazing part started, the other lady insisted that the chairs had been on sale two for forty five dollars the day before and she wanted them for twelve fifty each. Remember I had already said I would pay the asking price. She was not operating from a position of power. The lady running the sale whispered to me to stick around, so I wandered off, found a back up chair and came back. When I came back, the chairs were mine. I loaded them up into the Vue very happy with the way everything worked out.

I got home and Ray helped me get them unloaded. He said we should keep both of them in the living room since they matched. They also go with the walls and carpet. We took the chair that had been in the living room down to my scrap room where is fits perfectly.

Don't you just love it when things work out?