Saturday, December 30, 2006

One less evil in our world today!

Adios to Saddam!

(Now with that being said)Its been a busy past couple of days. On wednesday night, Mom spent the night and she brought her new book that I got her for Christmas. Its Bernie Berlin's new ATC book. It has alot of great ATC techniques in it. We had fun playing with several different techniques.
Here is a pic of Mom hard at work on hers!


She was trying the technique of painting on paper towels with Lumineir paints. They make very pretty background papers for ATCs.
The next day I took Mom out to visit with her sisters and they exchanged Christmas presents. My Aunts are very wonderful women. My Aunt Doll has been a survivor of breast cancer for over 20 years now. She is 84, and still going strong, she lost her husband 2 years ago, she told me on Thursday that Christmas wasn't the same without him, they had been married 66 years.
My Aunt Addie(Adelaide), is 87 and her health has deteriorated this past year. Her children wanted to go into an assisted living apartment, but she is stubborn and said "no way", lol.
She can not see very well due to macular degeneration. Mom made both of them a cute little book with cartoons of the YaYa sisters. Aunt Addie couldn't read it very well so I ran to Wallys and bought both of the Aunts the magnifying glasses that you use to do cross stitching , they hang around your neck giving your hands free to hold books or cross stitching, etc...
Aunt Addie called me yesterday to tell me how much she loved hers. She is such a sweetie. Every time I go to her house she always gives me some jewelry that she has saved for me. This time she gave me some gold earrings that was my grandmothers. Here is a pic of all three of them opening their presents.




My Aunt Doll is on the left, then Mother, and then Aunt Addie. Aren't they precious? I am so proud to have such wonderful, strong, women to look up too. They have always been very close. The picture below is of them when they were young women with their sweet Mother.
Mom's on the left with that sharp black and white dress, their Mother, Aunt Doll, and Aunt Addie. I love this pic!
Yesterday I went out on a picture taking spree with the new toy. I went down the back roads that I always come home on every day after work. Its all farm land and the river runs along the back side of the land and you can see the bluffs on the other side.


This shot of the bluff is made with my optical zoom. I am very far away from the bluffs, you can barely see them from where I was standing. Thats why I do love my toy SO MUCH! Thank you Santa Daniel for the toy!
When I got home I could see the moon up in the pretty blue sky,,so I just had to see if I could zoom in on it too.

I think it turned out quite well. I managed to get a tree branch in the shot, but look how close that moon looks. Did I say I just LOVE my new toy,,lol?
Today I am taking down my Christmas tree and decorations. I know your suppose to wait till after New Years, but I never do, I am ready to have my regular surroundings back.
And last of all I just want to say "GOOD BYE AND GOOD RIDANCE to another evil leader" Now that Saddam is dead, we just need Bin Laden, I hope they keep the noose ready for his Evil towel head.



Now, with my political and moral opinions expressed. Let me be the first to say "Happy New Years to all of my wonderful friends!!!"

Tuesday, December 26, 2006


Today has been another mellow day. I sure could get use to having mellow days like this all the time. It has been to cold to go out and it has looked like it could snow all day, but it didn't. I really wanted some snow so I could take some pics of it with the new toy.
So I decided it was time to clean up the art room. I packed away all of my Christmas stamps, papers, stickers, and all ephemera. I only had 2 full boxes of it,lol. I did keep out all of my snow stamps and anything wintery.

After I cleaned it all and could walk around the room, lol, I got to work on some deco books that I have had for a week. The picture above is a page that I did for one deco for a Round Robin I am participating in. This is for Shoshanah's book. A cute little snow angel.
The next picture is for the one I did in Judi's deco book.
The next picture was for Debrynda's deco book.
These are just fun little books to work in. It really got me in a snow mood. I also finished up 4 chunky pages for another group that I am in.
So this is what I did today. Just played all day. Tomorrow is suppose to be warmer and I will get out for a bit. I want to get some rechargable batteries and a charger for my new toy. I am also going to get some "healthy" food to stock the kitchen with. All the Christmas goodies are gone. I have been good today and have ate alot of fruit and veggies and some tuna. I gained way too much weight during the holidays. I also walked 15 min. on the treadmill. I am going to stay motivated,,yes I am ,,lol.
I hope every one else is having a nice, mellow , day after Christmas.

Monday, December 25, 2006

My Wonderful Christmas fun!(LONG POST-grab some Hot Coco!

What a wonderful Christmas it has been. I hope every one has had a blessed Christmas Day. We started ours on Saturday with my family all gathering at my Moms. There was some of the family that couldn't make it but we had fun and missed them. Mother made a great lunch and we all brought a dish too. The weather was perfect, nice and warm, and we could sit out on her deck too.

This is my brother Rick, his granddaughter, Sernity and me. We all gathered around the table for a great lunch.
We all gathered in the den to open our presents and have fun!
And below is a cute picture of my baby brother Tony and his wife and their new "baby", taking a nice nap after a good meal and opening presents!
Next is a pic of me and my sweet Mommy! Merry Christmas Mom!
After we got home from Mom's I went to my bedroom and on my pillow was a 1 G memory card. Well I had been hinting to Santa Daniel for the past few months about how I really wanted a new camera. When I saw that on my pillow, I knew my sneaky hub had a wonderful surprise for me. He is really fun how he wraps presents, always in different boxes so I can't guess whats in them. He had wrapped the camera in a big heater box, so I didn't have a clue that a camera was in it.
We went out in the sunroom and proceeded to open our presents. Here is a pic of me tearing into the camera box,,lol.


Next picture is of him taking a pic of me taking a pic of him. The picture of me is from our old camera,,see how badly I needed my deluxo brand new Cannon Powershot with 12x optical zoom? lol.
Now this camera is so much fun. The pictures it takes are excellent. It has alot more "bells and whistles" than my old one had. I really want to learn how to use all of the great settings it has on it. I have been finding tutorial sites online on how to use all of the different features that it has. So,,,,you know that I will be posting ALOT OF PICTURES for the next year, just be prepared,,lol. I guess I got the love of photography from my dear sweet father. He was an excellent photographer and I have many wonderful photographs that he had taken.
Tonite, 20 years ago, my dear, strong, funny, and wonderful Daddy, passed away. And I wish I could talk to him and ask him how to use my new toy. I also think about how much he would have loved the world of Digital Photography and the World Wide Web. He passed away of Leukemia and it was a long, miserable death for him. I stayed with him and so did my brother Ricky. I was pregnant with his last Grandbaby, my daughter Kalyn. I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU DADDY!!


Dad's name was Charles, but every one called him "Charlie".

Yesterday was a really nice day. Very relaxed and did not have alot to do. Just Daniel and I, hanging around the house. The weather was very warm and sunny most of the day. Of course my favorite Football team , my beloved Tennessee Titans, were playing Buffalo at noon.(We won)
Most of the morning I was just cleaning and straightening up. Then I proceeded to play with my new toy. Its going to take me forever to really learn what I want to know about it, but I must experiment in order to learn. So here are a few pictures from my awesome new toy! The zoom is incredible. I stood in my sun room and took these pictures of the birds at our bird feeders in the back yard. It was like being right next to them, just remember I am not a expert yet,,lol.




I Love to make "macro" shots of my beautiful flowers. The next picture is one I took of my winter pansys.
Now isn't that cool pic? Did I say "I Love my new toy?"
Later in the day I re-potted some new plants that I had recieved for my anniversary in Nov. and my "blue" poinsetta that Daniel bought me a few weeks ago. So, Daniel decided to try the new "toy" out, and proceeded to snap some shots of me playing in the dirt (I miss doing that this time of year.)



And now for a close up of our plants in their new pots. Isn't the Blue poinsetta pretty? It had glitter on it too. Only the top leaves are blue, the new growth is the natural green. I baby my poinsetta all the way through winter, and then in the spring after the last frost, I plant it in my garden. They get hugh! I don't dig them up and bring them in as I have never been able to follow the routine of how they must have darkness for a certain amount of hours in order to turn red again. I just get a new one each Christmas,lol. The other plants are calancheos that have little orangish blooms and also some english ivy mixed in with them. Daniel gave me those in a hugh candle arrangement for our anniversary last month.
They all look so much happier in their new pots. After we played gardners, Daniel cooked us a wonderful Lamb roast, complete with fresh rosemary from my herb bed. So far the frost has not killed it. We had the Lamb, and some new baby red potatoes with herbs, and some fresh asparagus,,,yum!
Today when we woke up, it was raining very hard, just a very nasty day. I was so glad that we didn't have to go any where. It was a nice lazy, morning. Then around noon my children, Kyle and Kalyn came over to celebrate Christmas with us.
This year, Kalyn has worked at Macy's department store part-time while she has been going to college. She came in with alot of beautiful packages for us! The is the first time that she has been able to buy some nice presents for her family with her own, hard-earned money. You could tell she was so proud to bring those to her family. She is such a sweet girl, and growing up to be a awesome young lady!
Kyle is wearing sunglasses in all of his pictures because of his eye injury.
The week-end before Thanksgiving, a very strung out, transient, man at the bus station that Kyle was a Armed Guard at, tried to poke his eye out.
His eye is much better now, he is going to a specialist, but they said it will take at least 6 months to heal completely. It bugs him because he thinks it still looks bad, thus he is wearing his sunglasses, he's really not a "gangsta",,lol. He is my big old baby boy. I am so proud of both of my "babies", and loved being with them today!!
They were acting silly in this picture,,they are both clowns,,great sense of humor, and big hearts!

Next pic is of me and my Babies! I LOVE YOU BOTH, K & K !!!


I sure hope everyone forgives me for such a long post. But just had to blog about my Christmas fun! Tonight they are predicting that the rain will turn to a little snow. I sure hope so, as tomorrow I will take the new "toy" out to take some wintery pics. Thanks for letting me share.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my wonderful friends and family!

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends!!!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Vacation time!!!!

Yes,,I am officially on winter vacation now. I will be until Jan.8th. I am so glad. Now I am really going to try to get into the Christmas spirit. I have really been having the blahs this week, but I am determined to snap out of it.
Today is the Hubby's birthday! We usually eat out, but its a pretty nasty night, raining hard. He is going to stop and get us some Applebees,,he loves that place. I would have cooked for him, but thats what he wanted, so be it. I have him a nice shirt and a couple of cds that he wanted. We will listen to his cds tonight, play a little cribbage, and have a nice cozy night.
Guess I should be glad that I am not flying to Colorado tonight,,but I would love to see some snow for Christmas. I could handle sitting in a warm chalet in front of a fire watching it snow like crazy. Or sitting on the deck of a chalet in a hot tub watching it snow,,lol. But instead we get what we usually get, a nice cold rain. yuck!
Tomorrow morning I will go to the children's great-grandmothers funeral. Its going to be sad. A hard time of the year for this to happen.
I do have plans next week to do alot of artsy stuff. Now for a few more pics for Christmas. I hope everyone are doing good and ready for Christmas!


Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Yesterday's sadness!

Yesterday my sweet children lost their Great Grandmother. She was 90 years old. Her and their Great-Grandfather kept them for us when they were little while we worked. They spoiled them but were also wonderful to them. This is their father's grandmother. She was a feisty little lady, but a very smart woman too. She also was a wonderful Christian too!
My daughter stayed in the room with everyone last night when she took her last breathe. Afterwards she called me crying telling me how hard it was to watch her "sweet Mammer" leave this earth. It is hard at 20 years old to lose someone you have known and loved all of your life. My son just couldn't handle it although he did visit with her yesterday. It tore him up to see her like that, on a ventilator and hooked up to numerous machines.
She was very poor growing up, with alot of brothers and sisters. Her husband has been dead for over 10 years and I know that she was ready to go be with him.
I stayed at the hospital for a while yesterday. I will go to the funeral home today and the funeral tomorrow. Although though their daddy and I have been divorced for many years, we still get along and I love his wife too, she has been a great step-mother to my children. This was his mother's mother and she is taking it very hard. This is so hard to deal with right at Christmas, I went through it with my daddy on Christmas day. I don't know why some spirits choose the holidays to leave and go home to their maker, but it happens alot. Now I just have to help my children deal with their lost of a wonderful, loving, woman .



My baby son Kyle and his great grandparents, Mammer and Poppa, he was their first great-grandchild.



Kyle, Kalyn and their Mammer, when Kalyn was new to this earth.

Rest In Peace, Sweet Mammer!

Sunday, December 17, 2006

My Babies and Santa!







Now how cute are they? I love these pictures! I even made an accordian book with all of these pictures in it. These were the fun days. Just a little post for today,,I have been busy, busy, Beth! Christmas Eve is just 7 days away,,oh my!
Just wishing all my friends a wonderful week ahead!!!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Sunshine, Shopping and Santa

I bet you cannot guess who that is on Santa's lap! Oh,, you guessed it! Its just little Beth, letting Santa know what I wanted and how VERY GOOD I was! Now that was when Christmas was fun and carefree, lol. Oh, those were the days! I think I was about 6 years old in that pic, so it would have been 1968. I wish I knew what I wanted for Christmas that year. I know a new doll was on the list, I always wanted the newest, coolest doll each year, lol. But now that I think on it, I do believe that was the year that I got a "Easy bake Oven". Everyone remembers those cool little ovens , they would cook your cake with a light bulb.

I can actually remember making a cake a piece for my parents and brothers, I think Mom let me put some frosting on them, I guess to help make them a little easier to enjoy them when they had to eat them. Oh yeah,,the good old days!

I have had a busy day today. I had to finish up my packages and get to the Post Office before noon. I just have a couple more to mail out on Monday, then P.O runs will be over.
After the P.O., I went up to Moms, her and I did a little more Christmas shopping. It was another beautiful day again. I am getting kind of use to this weather. Our high tomorrow is suppose to break the record for that date. A nice, balmy 72 degrees. Such strange weather.
My in-laws who live up on the Pugent Sound in Washington state had a nasty, stormy, on friday. Oregon and Washington state had some terrible wind and rain. Alot of folks up that way have alot of damage and major power outages. We haven't been able to reach them by phone yet, hoping all is ok for them.
So, I am almost finished with my shopping. Just a few more little things here and there.
Tomorrow I am going to make some chocolate covered pretzels and ritz crackers with Peanut Butter between them, dipped in white chocolate bark. These are so easy to make, so I don't mind making them, I am not "love to cook" girl, so easy is what I like best.

I am going to make some to put in Christmassy containers for my friends at work. The rest will be for our celebrations at home. I am also going to make some "nuts and bolts" to munch on during Christmas, they are easy too, and Daniel and the kids love them.
Oh, and tomorrow I am going to try to post a pic of the beautiful "blue" poinsetta that Daniel gave me today. Its the first time I have seen a blue poinsetta, but it is quite lovely!
I am going to post a few more Christmassy pics. But first I just want to say "have a great Sunday! Only 8 more shopping days left,,yippee!

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Friday, December 15, 2006

Spring again in Tennesse

Yes, this is my Christmas tree this year. Its so pretty, I have had it up for a while but just haven't posted a pic of it. But Wow,,it sure doesn't feel like Christmas here right now. The weather is so nice. We made it up to the mid 60s today. All week has been so nice. I just can't get use to seeing people out Christmas shopping with shorts and sandals on. I have been saying I just can't get into the Christmas mood with this kind of weather. But after doing some Christmas shopping the past few days, its really nice not having to lug a heavy coat around in the stores, or running to your car with arms full of presents while a cold rain is drenching you, lol.
The weather is suppose to stay this way up until Monday, tomorrows high is going to be in the 70s.
I haven't posted since Tuesday, but work has been hectic this week. I just want to come home and do nothing. Its always this way at the end of our semesters. Next week will be a breeze as exams start on Tuesday and we are out of school on Thursday. I don't have to go back to work until next year, Jan 8, 2007. I still can't believe another year has gone by so quickly. But they do seem to go faster the older you get, lol.
I got a early Christmas present tonight from Daniel. He let me open it early. Its Adobe Photoshop 5.0, I have been playing with it tonight. I am more use to Paintshop Pro, but Photoshop is very similiar. There are alot of different techniques that Photoshop has that Paintshop doesn't have. So be looking for some neat pics that I will be posting as I experiment with this fun toy!
Below is a pic I did of my Spoiled brat Terrier, Lady. I used the water color filter on it.
I think that is so neat looking. Yep,,I am going to be have fun with this!
I have a little more shopping to do tomorrow, and then I should be finished. Next comes the wrapping of the presents.
I hope everyone has had a good week and has a GREAT WEEK-END! I am posting a few more pics below of some of my Christmas deco.
Below is a pic of my Santa collection and reindeer collection.


Next pic is of my nativity collection. I have had to slow down on all my collections until I get a bigger house, lol.

And the last pic that I will leave you with is the sunset behind my simple, little house that is decorated with Christmas lights.