Cookies!

This is our first year selling cookies with Miss S's junior troop - last year we started the troop right about the time cookie sales started so we opted out of selling last year. The girls have been so excited about it and have sold a TON of cookies! Almost 2000 boxes to be exact:) Saturday we did our first booth sale at the grocery store by the house - they were such good little saleswomen:)

Winners and Prayers

I suppose it's about time I announced the winners of my two recent little giveaways:)

The proud new owners of my Valentine's ATC are:

Dawn and Afectionknit!!!!

Woohoo!!!! Afectionknit will you please email me your address at raeshadrz at yahoo dot com. Thanks!!

And the proud new owner of my zipper brooch is:

Tammy who said... oooh! so pretty and fun! I'm so thrilled for Tammy cause guess what?? I won the brooch that she was giving away! Isn't that cool???!!!!!!

Congratulations ladies!!

Now for the prayers. My step-sister Jenny is extremely ill and in the hospital fighting for her life. She is fighting double pneumonia with severe complications. The doctors have told my step-mom they are taking it hour by hour. Holy cow that's scary. Please remember Jenny in your prayers.

Jenny just celebrated her 32nd birthday in January...I wanted to include a picture so you can picture her in your mind during your prayers. Thank you!

My Guthrie Boys

I love folk music....something about is just speaks to my soul....I know I post a lot about music but I am so influenced and inspired by so many different types of music. Woody Guthrie and his son Arlo Guthrie are two of my favorite folk artists. I was able to see Arlo in concert about 17 years ago and it was amazing night.



One of my favorite songs from Arlo: (I LOVE Alice's Restaurant but it would take forever to post those lyrics:))

Ridin' on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday mornin' rail
15 cars & 15 restless riders
Three conductors, 25 sacks of mail

All along the southbound odyssey the train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms & fields
Passin' graves that have no name, freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles

Good mornin' America, how are you?
Don't you know me? I'm your native son!
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score
Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
And feel the wheels rumblin' neath the floor

And the sons of Pullman porters & the sons of engineers
Ride their fathers' magic carpets made of steel
Mothers with their babes asleep, rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good mornin' America, how are you?
Say don't you know me? I'm your native son!
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done.

Night time on the City of New Orleans
Changin' cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, we'll be there by mornin'
Thru the Mississippi darkness rollin' down to the sea

But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
"The passengers will please refrain:
This train got the disappea rin' railroad blues

Good night America, how are you?
Say don't you know me? I'm your native son!
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done

I read the autobiography of Woody Guthrie many many years ago - "Bound for Glory" and it was such a beautiful and moving book. His life was amazing. I only wish he had lived longer. I had a hard time choosing a favorite song by Woody - they are all my favorites. So this is just one of them....

Christ for President

Let's have Christ our President

Let us have him for our king

Cast your vote for the Carpenter

That you call the Nazarene

The only way we can ever beat

These crooked politician men

Is to run the money changers out of the temple

Put the Carpenter in

O It's Jesus Christ our President

God above our king

With a job and a pension for young and old

We will make hallelujah ring

Every year we waste enough

To feed the ones who starve

We build our civilization up

And we shoot it down with wars

But with the Carpenter on the seat

Way up in the Capital town

The USA would be on the way

Prosperity Bound!

In My Daughter's Eyes

In my daughter's eyes
I am a hero
I am strong and wise and
I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I want to be
In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes
Everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light
And the world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me
Gives me strength when I'm weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about

It's hangin' on when your heart
Has had enough
It's givin' more when you feel like givin' up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes
I can see the future
A reflection of who I am
And what we'll be
And though she'll grow
and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone
I hope you'll see
How happy she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

To Do List - updated!!

I had a very productive weekend - still didn't make it all the way through my to do list but made a serious dent on a lot of things. Most importantly I now have functioning brakes in my car again - woohoo!!!

I have always been and always will be a list maker - I have various lists in various stages of completion all through my house, in my planner, in my purse, in various notebooks...it's an addiction but I love it:) I love marking things off and nice little check marks when things get completed.

Weekend Plans

I'm taking advantage of a fairly commitment free weekend to get to work on my to do list:)

Check back Sunday night for an update on how far I made it through this list:)

My New Motto

I LOVE this. I have decided this is going to be my new motto in life.

Disneyland!!

So where was I during my recent blog break?? Miss S and I snuck off to CA for a week and met my best friend and her girl friend for some girl time! Anaheim was beautiful and sunny all week. It was amazing leaving NM at 5 degrees and arriving in sunny CA at 70 degrees. Our bodies soaked up the sun! We spent three days in Disneyland - one with Tammy and Josie and two with my mom. Enjoy the pics!

Brooch Giveaway

I'm participating in Creative Kismet's Handmade Brooch Swap and she encouraged us to make an extra and participate in her brooch giveaway. I was really excited at how cute my brooches turned out.

These are the brooches that I made for the swap:


I used vintage zippers and vintage buttons I had in my stash (surprisingly this did not even make a dent in my zipper stash).

And this is the extra I made for the giveaway:


For your chance to win this little beauty just leave a comment (please include your email address in your comment) and I will choose a winner on Friday morning! Good luck:)

I Love It:!

One of our goals is to spend this year working on little projects around the house. In March we will have been in our house for 11 years and we need to do a little sprucing up. We started with new kitchen flooring.

Here's the before - everything in the kitchen is moved into the living room - what a mess!!! I took advantage of the time moving everything out and back in to go through everything - ended up with several more garbage bags to go to Goodwill - woohoo!! Hubby also painted the kitchen - nothing fancy - just a new coat of white. He's really into white kitchens. BORING!! But he only has a few things that he's really picky about so I gave in:)

During - you can still see a slight sliver of the boring plain Jane linoleum we are covering.

And after - beautiful!!! I love it!


Up next - laundry room redo - we are installing this same flooring in there, getting a new stack-able washer and dryer set and putting in a laundry sink.

Adult Truths

My friend at work sent this to me and I almost peed my pants laughing. ENJOY!!

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

9. Bad decisions make good stories.

10. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

11. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

12. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

13. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

14. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

15. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

16. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

17. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

18. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a damn word they said?

19. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

20. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

21. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Wowza!! ATC Giveaway

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy and incredibly fun!! I can't wait to update you on all the happenings in the DZ household the last few weeks. But before Valentine's Day goes and passes us up I've been meaning to post this little giveaway. I participated in a fabulous Valentine's ATC swap hosted by the ever lovely Mary Ann - I made three extras to give away to my dear readers. If you would like the chance to win one please leave a comment and I will pick three winners towards the end of the week:)

This is My Mad Face

I got a call from my sister on my way to work this morning...."Uh I think your email account has been hacked into"....why yes, yes it had. Every contact in my address book got a sob story about me and my family being stuck in Scotland and needing money to get home. I spent most of the morning fiddling around with Yahoo regaining access to my accounts and changing passwords. What really sucks is that all my contacts are gone and the entire contents of my in bin are gone. I had over 2000 emails in my in bin that were all patiently waiting for replies or some sort of other action on my part. Oh well - I've been wanting to clean out my in bin forever so now that's taken care of:) If you had emailed me recently and really were needing a reply about something please email me again.

I apologize if you were one that got an email from me this morning....I'm sure it caused some mini heart attacks across the country. I got calls, texts and Facebook messages all day making sure we really were okay and confirming that it was just a scam. It's kind of nice to know so many of you took the time to make sure I was okay:) I appreciate that:):)

This is my mad face for you stinking hackers pretending to be Raesha. I'm gonna come beat you up.


And this is an outtake of another shot while trying to get a good "mad face". It's a little more Incredible Hulk than mad.

Teach Me Tuesday

I've blogged about it before....but I just love this site so much!!! Feed Your Soul - The Free Art Project is a fantastic site where you can download and print amazing art prints each month.

From their site:

" ...art is important for your soul. It helps rejuvenate, it’s thought-provoking, offers inspiration and can generally brighten an otherwise dreary day among other things."


So come on friends, "seize the day" and hop on over there and print up some art.

I'm all about the free printables these days - what are some of your favorites freebie sites??

Sacred Sunday - a Day Late

Had a busy busy busy weekend. Lots of running around, lots of fun stuff - but not much rest other than the time I spent at church yesterday. Our choir sang a beautiful arrangement of Abide With Me 'Tis Eventide and Abide With Me. I love the lyrics of these two hymns.

ABIDE WITH ME 'TIS EVENTIDE

Abide with me; 'tis eventide;

The day is past and gone;

The shadows of the evening fall;

The night is coming on.

Within my heart a welcome guest,

Within my home abide.

O Savior, stay this night with me;

Behold, 'tis eventide.

O Savior, stay this night with me;

Behold, 'tis eventide.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide.

Thy walk today with me

Has made my heart within me burn,

As I communed with thee.

Thy earnest words have filled my soul

And kept me near thy side.

O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.

Abide with me; 'tis eventide,

And lone will be the night

If I cannot commune with thee

Nor find in thee my light.

The darkness of the world, I fear,

Would in my home abide.

O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.

ABIDE WITH ME

Abide with me;

fast falls the eventide;

the darkness deepens;

Lord, with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless,

O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;

earth's joys grow dim;

its glories pass away;

change and decay in all around I see;

O thou who changest not,

abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour.

What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power?

Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;

ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness.

Where is death's sting?

Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes;

shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.

Heaven's morning breaks,

and earth's vain shadows flee;

in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

JFK

Though I was not born until 9 years after his assasination, I have always held a special place in my heart for President Kennedy. Today marks the 50th anniversary of his inaugural address....

"Let every nation know... that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

"All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

"...let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Funny Faces

Inspired by THIS post....I took these pics of my darling Miss S and her bestie, who now matter what I said seemed to keep making the same face:) Love these girls!!

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Beautiful words from a beautiful leader.

January 11, 2011

I really have nothing to say today....just thought that I should somehow mark the occasion of 1/11/11 :)