Merry Christmas - 2010

Here are my belated wishes for a Merry Christmas to everyone who stops by my blog. We had a really nice day and were joined by two Medaille students from China. Bella spent Thanksgiving with us this year and was able to join us for Christmas. She is a delightful young lady and we really enjoy spending time with her.
Here are Bella and Jon who joined us for the first time. Jon was very interested in Norm's book collection and ended up borrowing a number of books and DVD's. We had a combined Chinese and American meal. Ham for us traditionalists and some Chinese food (don't get excited, it was take-out) for Alexa, Jon and Bella.
I never get into my pictures so I thought I'd include these with me and the kids.
Both seemed to enjoy the tree and the decorations. Santa brought them both a gift and stockings. Jon loved Christmas Peeps! Alexa was happy with her Juicy charm bracelet and charm, Norm liked his customized Browns jersey, I was ecstatic over my Vagabond and 'Hip, Hip, Jorge!' t-shirt, but the winner this year was Joyce's hubcap for her 1996 Chevy Geo!


My day after was made even better by a win by the Patriots, unfortunately at the expense of the Bills, to secure a first round bye and home field advantage for the playoffs.

Scrambled Eggs...

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I rarely watch Jimmy Fallon, but I couldn't resist when I saw the promos for the show a day or two ago. Fallon was all googly about having McCartney on the show. You could just see it in his eyes, he was like every 15 yr. old kid that got a ticket to a Beatles concert back in the 60's.

So check out this video of Sir Paul and Jimmy singing Scrambled Eggs - you'll recognize the tune as soon as they start. According to Paul this is how he remembered the melody to this song that we all know by another name.

Spa Thursday...

Not for me mind you, for Abby! Yes, my cocker spaniel gets a 'spa day' and I don't.

When Abby has to go to the groomer, we call it her spa day. She gets to go and hang out with other dogs, loves her groomer, er, stylist and comes home looking extra beautiful and sweet smelling!

Me, I get a dog free day! Now, I LOVE my puppy girl but I cannot go anywhere in the house without her dogging (pardon the pun) my heels. She follows me everywhere and if I sit down, she's in my lap. So today after I check my mail, news and blogs, I'm going down to the basement to do laundry and work on my stamp/scrap cabinet that needs to be stained and finished. It's raining and miserable out so today is the perfect day.

Two for Tuesday...

Well, so much for posting everyday. This week I thought I'd start on Tuesday and see what happens.

1. This is one of my new viewing pleasures. I love 'American Pickers' and I'm starting to get into 'Pawn Stars'. A new show started tonight, 'American Restoration'. I'm REALLLY looking forward to watching this.

2. My next guilty pleasure is tied this web site. Several of the girls at work are really into going to estate sales, flea markets and antique stores. If you've ever been in Buffalo Stamps and Stuff you know Sharon loves old cameras and antique items. They are all over the store and they are a wonderful background for all the stamps, papers, and supplies we sell.

Much to my daughter's dismay I've taken to going to the occasional estate sale. She thinks it's weird that I'd want anything that is old. Since I'm old it doesn't bother me at all!

Mixed Marriage...

Did you know Norm and I started out our marriage as a mixed marriage? Yes, he was a Yankee fan and I was a Met fan. It was enough to make our early years fraught with tension. To make matters worse, we lived in Boston, Massachusetts the home of the dreaded Red Sox.

I got my love of sports from my Mom. She'd watch anything and everything. My Dad, not so much Army vs. Navy was about it and not so much at that. Golf, tennis, ice skating, car racing, football and baseball. Remember the Pro Bowler's League on Saturday afternoons with Chris Schenkel? Watched it every weekend, ABC's Wide World of Sports - everything from cliff diving in Acapulco to curling in Canada. The only sports we didn't watch were hockey and basketball, but I knew about them!

Once I married Norm he and the Yankees slowly corroded my ability to follow the Mets. The only time I was able to keep true was the 1986 Mets. I had support from the guys at work. But I have to tell you, they almost killed me!

We moved to Kentucky in 1992 and it almost killed baseball for both of us. No Yankees or Mets in Louisville. No baseball in Louisville - at least no pro ball. We finally moved back to NY or baseball civilization as Norman would call it and all was well with his world. I have to admit I may be responsible for a portion of my current status as I bought Norm Saturday season tickets to the Yankees when we lived in New Jesey. That's how I came to know the Yankees and only the Yankees.

So today I have (in the words of a avowed Red Sox fan) turned to the 'dark side'. After 34 years of marriage I am a solid Yankee fan and have been typing this because I can't bear to watch tonight's game. We were doing OK then we lost Texiera and Texas scored like five runs! It's the old 'if I don't watch, they'll do good!" - I hope...

I do the same with football - now that's another story!

Monday Morning with Grover...

I've been terribly remiss in sending updates to my blog. So I thought I'd try something new. So far I'm going to try and do a "Monday Morning Message from ?" This can be anything! Words, Pearls, or whatever to start the week. I'm also thinking of borrowing shamelessly from Nora Griffin, "Tuesday's Ten", which will be ten to do's for me or for someone else - that could be interesting...

But today we start with my main man, Grover! Is this guy a stud or what! I think he does a way better job than that other wimpy guy on those Old Spice commercials...

With my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, happy Monday from me to you!

Better late than never...

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of Alexa's first day of school. I know it's getting a little old as she is 13 now and going into 8th grade. But I think she expects it of me! She doesn't complain, she even poses for the pictures. As long as I don't take pictures when the bus actually arrives, I'm cool.

Dad hangs around for the first day too. Lucky too because he looks much better in the morning than I do! Please take note of the matching lunch bag and carry-all. All perfectly coordinated with her top and skirt. Lastly, her toes were polished (by moi) to match her nails and set off with white flip flops! Ahh, the first day of fashion, er school...

Bad Romance...

I've got losts to post but I found this via my Facebook page from Sandy Parmenter and even though I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga, I'm lovin other people doing LG. I'm a 'Gleek' and I loved the version they did on 'Glee' and unlike the guys on the show, these guys have got it goin' on! Enjoy!

Another Sunday night...

It's another Sunday night and I'm watching the Emmys. If they could just eliminate the speeches, it would probably be a decent show. Case in point - Al Pacino - boring!!

ANYWAY...School is almost upon us. Alexa and I managed to do her school supply shopping without spilling any blood, tears or yanked out hair. Believe it or not, as Alexa gets older, the supply list gets shorter! (Except for the $100.00 calculator). I'm not looking forward to any clothes shopping, but luckily she has almost everything she needs for the fall semester, just a couple of pairs of new jeans and we'll be set until the end of October.

Our last challenge will be decorating Alexa's locker. Going into 8th grade (the last before high school!) Alexa still wants me to put up her locker paper and help her set up. This from a child who does not want me to set foot in her school under every other circumstance. We had to buy double sided wrapping paper, pink, of course and she mounted her schedule with pink and sparkle silver paper to be posted on the door. I figure this is the last year. I will gracefully retire from locker decoration at the end of this year and let Alexa do whatever decoration needs to be done in high school.

What I did on my summer vacation...

It's been so long since I posted that I forgot my password! For most of the summer I was the supreme lurker. I've been looking at everyone else, everywhere else. I've been asked if I was OK? Yes. Have I been away?, No. Am I still alive?!? Definitely!
I know I posted much earlier this summer but I've been gone for a while and have just now managed to get some of my pictures downloaded to the computer. Bogspot hasn't been too helpful in letting me move picture so I've been working on this for several days, taking time off so I don't take a sledge hammer to the computer. ANYWAY...here is June, wonderful, creative, Tim's visit June!

One of the cool things we did was arrange personal shoppers for Tim's visit. Everyone got a paddle with a number on it at there placesetting. We had shopping bags to match each paddle up buy all the supplies Tim used in his classes.



Tim would show us something that he did and if you wanted the product you rasied your paddle and one of the salespeople would put that item in your corresponding basket! How cool is that! Some of those bags got very heavy...



We also had to have a picture with Tim with everyone who helped out so in the picture above going clockwise from the upper left hand corner is Laura, Mona, Elisabeth, Mark, Tim, Sharon Marty, Kaitlyn, Jamie, Debbie, Jessica, and me! Mario was our picture taker so he isn't in the shot :(

Here we are again on Sunday, me, Jamie, Mona, Dimitra, Sharon and Debbie. As you can see by the table set up, Tim was incredibly organized and he brough EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE TABLE WITH HIM!!

This is a sample of the Patchwork Pandemonium sample we had. (If you come to the store now there is a framed version done by Dimitra and framed by Debby on display behind the register).

This was one of our welcomes to Tim. Dimitra's vintage typewriter with a welcome note to Tim!

We had a fabulous weekend with Tim Holtz! Four classes, 90 women in each class! Tim was wonderful, a great teacher, funny, and as he says, he's just Tim! Here are some more photos:

Don't you just love the look on his face! Sharon felt a little empowered when she got to use the microphone. Below is a shot of everyone working and below that is a shot with Elisabeth who came all the way from New Jersey, and Debby right next to her. Me and Tim...and yes, I was a blithering idiot most of the time, incapable of a coherent sentence or thought. I hate small talk :(

JULY was another story. Long story short, I spent about four days in the hospital after having a hysterectomy. Not a way I would recommend spending the fourth of July holiday, but the fireworks show outside my window was pretty spectacular! I had only one little minor blip, which my OB/GYN fixed quickly and I was home.

I did pretty good at home I think as my DH told me last night that I "manned up" and didn't whine, complain, make excuses or anything during my recuperation. I guess I did good!

I think I'll do the rest of my saga on another post as I have a couple more things to add and it's still a good 2 plus weeks until school starts - Yeah!!!