Friday, January 9, 2009

TGIF, and a friday off at that




This morning has been less than productive. I had so many things to do and catch up on but I slept 11 hours straight and I'm sipping on a cup of coffee to get me going..........and its noon.

Is this what retirement will be like????? LOL


I popped on the TV to get the latest headlines in world news for a few and they announced that the inaugral parties will cost $50 million dollars. Ok, then they go on to talk about the next organization that is requesting a bailout from the financial mess we are in this year. Something is just not right about that. Think about all the security measures we could put in place in this country with 50 million dollars. This shows me that the elite of America (which does not include me) can really find money when it needs to, such a paradox to what the other stories of the media are telling us. Gosh, and I was feeling a little bit guilty for my Walmart expenditures yesterday.....Geez!

Oh well, none of this influences the fact I have tons, I mean tons of laundry to do, and a house to clean today. Yeah, and stitching. I found a great frame for only 3 bucks at Walmart yesterday and I think it will work for the sampler "Home is where you hang your needlework". Now I just have to learn how to do that stretching and matting. Boy, I could save alot of money if I could just learn how to frame my own stuff. That is one of my goals this year.

I'm getting nervous about my knitting class tomorrow. While I was at Walmart yesterday I looked through alot of magazines and books and the knitting projects looked amazing, new sweaters, scarves, beautiful throws........but gosh it looks hard!

I was hoping the electrician could come put in my outlet in my "sewing nook" ie. closet, so I could try my machine out again but I don't think he will make it this week.
One thing I absolutely MUST do is call my friend Dot and catch up. She was sick during the holidays that she stayed in about 10 days and didn't get to enjoy them at all. She is my bestest of friend and mentor. If I ever need some advice or words of wisdom, I just ask Dot. She is in her 70's and is pretty seasoned about things. When she is not sick, she has the carisma of a 30 year old and will tell you pretty quick that she doesnt feel her age at all. She is always positive about stuff and just fun to be around.
Hope everyone has a great day.......
Jennifer

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Is this March yet?

Well, it could have fooled me today if it was March. The winds and the cold was gruesome as I headed over to run some errands. I had a great day off. After running some errands today, I ate at my favorite restaurant, IHOP. The coffee and pancakes for lunch were great especially on a cold windy day. Then I perused over to the North Ga. Premium Outlets to use a gift certificate I received at Christmas and then to Walmart. I love Walmart. Got me some new hiking boots and some new walking sneakers so I'm ready for a nice warm day to start our walking in the evenings again......or snow........that would be fun, too! We haven't had any snow this year, yet.....hoping it snows a big one for several days, at least enough to stay home and play in.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Rain, Rain and stuff we do when it rains.......







Well, the rain continues to flood today and now the winds are quite "windy" with tornado watches out until 11pm for our areas. The temperatures are cooling off a bit but still warmer than usual for this time of year. It was just cool enough in the house to build a fire.




I plan to work on my stitching and hope to be finished with the motifs on this one by the weekend. I have my "Beginners Knitting" class on Saturday which was one of my Christmas gifts from Phil. I have looked at some books about knitting and it looks complicated to me but we'll see ;)
I also added a "bookshelf" to my blog and put the books on it that I am reading. Wally Lamb is the author of both of them and I'm about 3/4 's of the way through the first one and actually bought the 2nd one, "The Hour I First Believed" right before Christmas. As it is 700 pages, looks pretty long but interesting and definitely makes good reading.
I found out through one of the commentators here that The Velveteen Rabbit is actually going to come out Feb 20th, 2009 in movie format and I watched the trailer. Looks like it is going to be good. I also reviewed some other books and plan to add them to my bookshelf soon. There are two commentary books on The Velveteen "Principles" published 2006 and 2007, hardback and I found them both on Amazon.com for 3.80, ordered them.
Here is the website that is most interesting about the authors books. She is a psychotherapist in New York evidently and has written one of them especially for women, 2007. It expands on "the becoming real" process for women and addresses many women's issues in one book and basic principles in the other. I hope to read the books and be able to use them as references at work as well (learn from it myself as well). The website is definitely worth checking out.
It's amazing to me that the original child's book was written in 1922 and still has applications throughout life and these two books look great for adults. I think there was mentioned by several reviewers that they are reference books in college for some psychology classes.
Oh well, time to get busy doing laundry. I think I've put it aside way too long! There are some folks that actually love to do laundry....I mean for real, I know people who LOVE laundry but that is one of my least favorite things to do :(
Jennifer







Sunday, January 4, 2009

Did I smell eggs and toast this morning?


Ruby is on the left, Raven on the right. Rarely does Raven put her ears up. Raven loves me and Ruby loves Phil. They are sweet sisters and about 3.5 years old now. Raven has been through quite a few things since we have had her including a snakebite and a car accident in which both she brushed death. But she is now good as ever and you wouldn't even know it unless we told you. Raven thinks she is still a 10 lb puppy and will try to jump in your lap to be held. I think she weighs about 80 lbs so that is a shock! But sometimes we get on the chaise on the porch and let her jump up to be held like a baby.
Now these girls are adventurous. They bring anything and everything home as prizes for us including used baby diapers, deer carcus, toys, dog toys, any baseballs or golfballs. Ruby even got jealous of the neighbor dog's new Orvus bed cushion and brought it home!
We have a lake down below the house and they love, absolutely love, to chase geese. Since the geese are not there right now, they spend their days lounging around and sleeping.





Weekend Entertainment

Well, today looks a bit better; however, the days of misty rain is getting quite depressing. Ready to see the sun again.


Yesterday I spent hours and hours looking at online TV websites. I guess I'm a little behind in technology but I had heard about that but I really found it yesterday and with the rain falling~~~~sometimes heavy, sometimes light~~~ plus a nice fire and my laptop, I watched hour after hour of old episodes of Bewitched, Gilligans Island, Love Boat (I know LOL), and my favorite soap I haven't seen in a long time, The Young and the Restless. I watched the entire last week of episodes, with some older ones too. I can't believe Victor and Mrs. Chancellor are still on there and even look the same. Then after hours of that I cruised over to my Jane Austen novels which are totally all online in books to read by pdf. and I read until about 2am.
A most productive day, don't ya think?
Thomas found his way into the back porch and curled in a chair for hours yesterday afternoon and slept so hard. Ren had his usual sleeping, eating, outside, sleeping, evening anxiety, holding, etc. He is now whining for his breakfast. I gave him some home made macaroni and cheese yesterday and he loved it.
I should have gone to church today but I guess I got too lazy, stayed up too late watching all those old TV shows, and well, just plain lazy this weekend.
January is just one of those months. Christmas is over and its a new beginning.
I read in yesterdays news that the oldest women in history died Friday. She was 115! Gosh, can you imagine 70 years in menopause? I wonder what her secrets were?