January is a hard month....

Today I mourned the passing of my sweet friend, Michael. We went to junior high and high school together in Silverdale, Washington. We met when I was in 7th grade - he was in 8th. After he graduated he joined the Marines and married before heading off to boot camp. His unit was deployed to Saudi Arabia and we all wrote him letters and sent pictures and packages. In late January of 1991 I received a call from my best friend to let me know know that Michael had been killed in action in Desert Storm. It's been 16 years and I cry every January for him. I cry for his wife - we have no idea what happened to her as she did not want to keep in touch with his friends - I cry for his young life that ended at age 19, I cry for a dear friend that was lost. I pray that I will NEVER see a resolution again like this with the name of a loved one in it.

So today - this is for Michael - I love you and I miss you.

SENATE RESOLUTION

1991-8608

By Senators Craswell, Owen, Oke, Rasmussen, Johnson and Skratek

WHEREAS, Marine Lance Corporal Michael E. Linderman, Jr., formerly of Silverdale, Washington, died an American hero on the sands of Saudi Arabia on January 29, 1991; and

WHEREAS, Michael fell in battle, fighting to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: Peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law; and

WHEREAS, Michael believed that America has a unique responsibility to do the hard work of freedom, and that he, in turn, had a duty to do that work on behalf of his country; and

WHEREAS, Michael lived a short, rich life, that ended at age nineteen. He loved books, he loved the rain, and he loved his friends and family;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Washington State Senate hereby honors Michael E. Linderman, Jr. and prays that his family will find some solace in his heroism and sacrifice in the service of his country; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Senate hereby expresses its unequivocal support for United States military personnel in the Middle East and prays for their personal safety and their families' peace of mind; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the family of Michael Linderman, Jr. and to the President of the United States, The Honorable George Bush.

I, Gordon A. Golob, Secretary of the Senate, do hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of Senate Resolution 1991-8608, adopted by the Senate February 1, 1991.

GORDON A. GOLOB

Secretary of the Senate

And for another dear one - to my sweet John - my high school sweetheart - who died on January 22, 1992. Your death still affects me so much. I wonder who I would be today if you had lived. John loved Metallica, though he learned to also love Paul McCartney after we met:)

So, John, this one's for you -

A Few Observations and a Few Thank Yous

I've made these observations today:
1. If I have known you for five years and you still don't know my name, you are a putz.
2. If you have one big dog and two little dogs, but there seems to be shortage of little dog poo in the backyard, you have a problem...note to self - do not kiss the big dog on the lips for a while.
3. I do not think Crocs (and you know I love them) are appropriate footwear for a grown man to wear to church.

And now for the good stuff:
Tomorrow (January 29) is my brother, Ian's, birthday. He will be 29 - so pop on over to his blog and wish him happy birthday:) He also has some fabulous pictures posted of Iraq and the people there.
Miss S's after school class made these cards for Ian - they are on there way to Iraq as we speak:)

I received my Valentine Altered CD from the swap I did with Swap-Bot - look at this beauty that I received:)


This is from the talented Miss Beth - I love that she decorated both sides - I've never even thought to do that. It is hanging in the front room as my first official Valentine's decoration for this year.

And here is what I made for the same swap:

As you can see I've made a few extras...which will be appearing in random mailboxes between now and Valentine's Day:)

MaryAnn sent me some really cool Japenese stationery and Seattle playing cards from her recent trip - she also sent me these beautiful JOY cards for Christmas - I can't remember if I've posted them yet. And the intial cards are from Kelli. Thank you ladies for making me feel so loved:)

Lastly - I received my embroidered patches from Faun's swap - the flower patch is from Kristin but the other two did not have names on them:( If you recognize them, please let me know. All three patches are so beautiful and I love the variety in styles. Faun sent me a little packet of iron on's as a thank you - I haven't decided what I will use them on yet.

Happy Saturday!

I had hoped to sleep in today, but Hubby had to be to work at 7:30 so I got up at about 6:45 with him. I had already completed a full day's worth of tasks by 10am!

MaryAnn and I did a pink/red themed swap for January and her box to me arrived yesterday - it was jam packed full of goodies! Miss S is modeling one of the matching aprons that she made for us:)

Here's the rest of the goodies:
A beautiful pink scarf, fun paper goods, heart stamps, rhinestone R, candy jar with suckers, ribbon, pink earrings, makeup goodies for Miss S and lots of other good stuff! Thank you MaryAnn! Your package will be on its way on Monday.

I finished my document duvets for the In Stitches Sew Along - the closures are supposed to be grommets and ribbon but I can't find my grommet tool so I chose to use button and twine enclosures instead. I like how they turned out. The fabric is decorator fabric from the $2 a yard table at Walmart. I have about 4 more yards left:)


I finished this baby blanket for my sister in law this morning. I started it last night during the commercial breaks during Monk and Psych and finished it up today. The top is random patchwork, with a chenille backing. Very warm and cuddly for Miss River who is due to arrive in about two weeks: )


I also finished this apron this morning - this is a close up of the pocket detail. This is for a swap-bot package that went missing so I'm sending another one out. Hopefully this one will make it to Oklahoma City this time!!

Belated Christmas Thank Yous

I have several belated thank yous that I am trying to catch up on...which I hope to do by the end of the month.

This awesome box of goodies is from my sweet friend, Nikki - cool Yellow Submarine pajama pants for me, a Yellow Submarine t-shirt for Sydney, a fun sign, and three awesome postcards - from left to right they read - "It's so involved being me" "...and then she realized: they WERE all alike!" "Let's ignore our mothers' well-meant advice" - Hilarious!!! All these goodies were packed in this Asian decoupaged box. Thank you Nikki! I love everything:):)

Have you seen this?

I fell in LOVE with this stamp today! Isn't it awesome???

Creativity strikes!!

You may recall that one of my goals for this year was to create an altered book. I've participated in now two "tip-in" swaps on Swap-Bot, where you create a page that will then be pasted into your altered book. The first one's theme was "red" and the most recent theme was "green" - here's my green page - I am quite happy with it:)

I thought this was hilarious - after hearing it on the radio yesterday, Miss S walked around all day singing Cat Scratch Fever by Ted Nugent. Please don't tell her what the rest of the lyrics are until she is at least 30:) They even make me blush:) (which actually is not hard to do at all)

Let's see, I had a fabulous lunchtime run today to Thrift Town. Here's the goodies I bought for $19.09. Yes, you do see more zippers. I am hopelessly addicted to those things:)

That big black blob in the corner is a pair of boots for Miss S, a bunch of Little Golden books for a craft project I have in mind:) , MS Food, a vintage gloves and mittens pattern book (hiding under the zippers)

An organdy apron for only .99!, two vintage patterns and a little pink pitcher - just right for a swap package I am working on :)

I actually made time to sew this weekend!! I finished 8 tissue holders, 8 coasters, two document duvets from In Stitches, and started on the baby quilt for my sister in law. Pictures of all coming soon - the light in the office at 11pm is horrible:) I also made some atcs and my green tip-in pages. It was so nice to have some time to be creative: )

Am I really that weird???

I had a wonderful evening with my gal pals for our monthly girls game night. We played the Pirates of the Caribbean (sp?) DVD which was very fun (especially after I figured out how to work the DVD remote). We do a little themed gift exchange each month too and this rubber stamp was part of my gift -


VERY appropriate for the rest of this post:)

I've been tagged by the fabulous Amy to post 6 Weird Things About Me. I have posted weird things about myself before so I wanted to come up with something other that what I've told you already. As I've been sitting here thinking, I've come up with A LOT more than 6:( Am I really that weird?? Quirky??? Unusual?? Dancing to the beat of my own drum??? I'm happy to report that I am a little bit of all these things:) So here goes....

1. I have at least 6 boxes (from dress shirt gift box size to grocery store produce box size) of almost every single note, card, letter ever written to me by anyone. Here's one bit of proof - a note from my beaner dated December 13, 1989!


2. I always have cold hands and cold feet. (I hope it's true that cold hands equal a warm heart:)) I wear socks to bed pretty much every single night.

3. I am a closet country music fan....I love Randy Travis, The Dixie Chicks (though they are borderline country), George Strait, Faith Hill and Kenny Chesney. However, I have a severely bizarre hatred of Shania Twain. I can't stand to listen to her, look at her, or hear about her. OH add Celine Dion and Rene Zellweger and occassionally Sandra Bullock to that bizarre hatred list.

4. I cut my dryer sheets in half. This was a tip I read about a long time ago in The Tightwad Gazette and is one of the few that I actually put into practice in my life after reading that book.

5. I am a cryer. I cry at sad movies, happy movies, action movies (well pretty much every kind of movie), songs on the radio make me cry, goodies I get in the mail make me cry, commercials make me cry, writing this post is making me cry...I cried this week at work because my boss is unimaginably cruel and belittling. I wear my emotions pinned to my shirt like a big flashing neon sign for all to see.

6. I secretly wish I could call in sick to work.....every day:)

I tag
MaryAnn
Mary Ann
Vallen
Monica
And anyone else who wants to participate:) - if you do, leave me a comment so I can read all about how weird you are too:)

Hello, Petunia!!

I found a new blog today that I fell in love with - Meet Miss Marilyn. And she's even in New Mexico so I'm hoping I can meet her in real person someday:) She had this cute little "what Flower Are You" questionnaire posted that I rushed to try:)

I am a Petunia What Flower Are You?

Where did this week go??

This week just flew by!! I have two trials coming up at work so I have been busy with trial prep - I really like that as it makes the days go by REALLY fast:)

I have been doing so well on my goals and working on my "organizing, reducing clutter" goal. Today I deep cleaned Miss S's room and took two and a half garbage bags to Goodwill, one garbage bag to the trash, and one and a half garbage bags to take to the resale shop next week. I'm going to tackle the computer room/office for a few hours tonight:) Do I dare show you a before picture??? I probably should:)

The little portion of clean desk is my husband's side:):) I have a full Dr. Pepper all ready and three hours until Hubby gets home from work....I hope to make some progress.

Some wonderful goodies arrived in the mail this week. I received a lovely thank you card from MaryAnn for some goodies that I sent her...it was one of those cards that just makes you want to send a thank you card thanking her for the thank you card:)

Miss Vallen sent me this lovely clutch made from a repurposed sweater with a lovely brooch on it, a cool article about a chocolate shop in Santa Fe, and a sweet card. What a lovely New Year's surprise!


Here's the inside - Vallen is so creative! I love everything she makes:)


My January Fat Quarter Swap package arrived (the flickr group I am part of - here's the link). My partner this month was Mac Villiku and all I can say is WOW!!! She included three fat quarters, and TONS of extra goodies. Here we have two tissue holders, a card holder, two hair clips for Miss S, green earrings, a watermelon key ring (the other side is a flower), some Hello Kitty ribbon and a beautiful floral pin that I already have on my brown jacket. I'm going to use the card holder to hold several gift cards I still have to spend from Christmas, Miss S wore the hair clips today and I can't wait to use the rest of these goodies:)


These are the three fat quarters and three extra pieces of fabric that she included. Thank you so much!! I am going to make a little baby quilt for my sister in law who is due next month and I think all six of these will be cut up into squares to go in that quilt since I wanted to make it mostly purple:)


These two atcs arrived from Miss Heather - her contribution for the Art Giveaway Meme. I am so completely addicted to atcs:):) Thank you Heather!


Hopefully I will have really nice "after" photos of the computer room to show you tomorrow:)

Christmas Cards

I've mentioned before that I LOVE Christmas cards....I REALLY REALLY love them. Family newsletters and pictures are my favorite. I love reading about what everyone has been up too, catching up with relatives I don't get to see very often, and seeing how much everyone has changed, or grown since last Christmas.

I just have to share my awesome system I have come up with for storing my Christmas cards. It is SO awesome...it may just be the coolest system you have ever seen....you will be amazed at my creativity....you've been warned......

JK!!! Really, is this not the most boring, lamest way to keep these precious bits of memories???? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me with some clever and beautiful ideas for what to do with my Christmas cards. I have a bag like this for just about every year we have been married. I tried one year to cut them up and make gift tags for next year (after cutting out and saving any handwritten messages inside) and while the tags were cute, I really missed my cards after I did that to them:( So all you wonderfully creative ladies, what do you do with your Christmas cards???? I usually receive about 60 cards a year and I just really want to do something with them that is nicer than a gallon size ziploc bag.


I have started my list of goals - eventually I want to do a layout like Moki did featuring my goals, but for now I am content to have them written on a little post it note. So far I have -

1. Organize
2. Reduce Clutter
3. Complete one altered book
4. Complete one fat book
5. Complete at least one WIP each month

I am working right now on 1 and 2 - my goal for this week is to put away/go through at least 10 things a night. Tonight hubby and I filled a garbage bag with at least 10 pairs of shoes that Miss S has outgrown, I listed 5 books to sell on Amazon.com and I have two Cottage Living issues that I mailing out to a friend tomorrow. I think I have successfully completed my 10 things for tonite:)

A Lot of Unrelated Stuff:):)

First up - finally a crafty pic:) This is the scarf I mentioned that I made after being inspired by one that Moki made for her daughter. I made mine really colorful so that it matches lots of different outfits:) I'm such a matchy matchy dork. (There is pink in it just in case you thought it didn't match my pink sweater)

I joined Maryann's Valentine's ATC swap and these are the 4 different atcs I came up with. I am very pleased with them and they all have a wonderfully vintage feel to them.

Another Christmas goodie - this was one of my gifts from our best buds, Lisa and Mike. We spent the day with them in Tijeras yesterday (about 15 miles from Albuquerque) opening gifts, watching movies, and just generally being lazy:) I was so excited to get this scrapbook goodie basket as I have been eyeing it at Sam's Club the last month or so:) Lisa and Mike both know me so well:) I've known Lisa since I was 19 and Mike since I was 15. They met while I was living in DC for 6 months back in 1991 and have been happily married since:) In fact, going to their wedding in 1992 was mine and Hubby's probably third or fourth date:):)

Thrifty goodness - I FINALLY was able to do a little thrifting this week!! My favorite find were these real Crocs - I have a pair of Target knock offs but have really been wanting a real pair - at $4.99 they were quite the bargain!! I'm on the hunt for a pair of Mary Jane ones - any color - size M - so please keep your eye out for some for me:)


And lastly, a shot of our two pug butts - Gammy and Yuki. Yuki loves to snuggle into the crook of Gammy's leg and I just couldn't resist sharing this picture. That's Bree the boxers brown butt in the bottom of the picture. I'll have to try to catch a shot of their favorite way to sleep - with Bree in the middle and a pug all snuggled up on each side of her:)

Two Christmas Goodies

Did I tell you I was really spoiled this year??? And to think...I only bought and wrapped two things for myself:) (Some years I have NO surprises) but this year was AWESOME!!!

These are two of my favorite gifts:

From my beaner, Tammy, - the new Beatles CD - OH MY GOSH!!! FABULOUS!!!!! I can't wait until I get to Vegas to see the Cirque de Soleil show.


From Hubby and Miss S - Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens) new album....I have loved Cat Stevens every since I discovered my mom's Tea for the Tillerman album when I was a child. This album is great - beautiful lyrics, beautiful melodies - it is definitely a must have for any Cat Stevens fan.

Absolute Laziness

I have a to do list a mile long, and no desire to do anything on it. Instead I have been crafting - I started my atcs for Mary Ann's Valentines swap, finished my atcs for next Saturday's atc group trade, joined two swaps on swap-bot (a tip-in page swap and an altered CD swap), made a scarf from a design I outright stole after I saw one that Moki made for her daughter, and scrounged around till I found a sweater just right for felting after I decided I have had enough of frozen ears this last week. It is in the washing machine right now:) It's cream cashmere and if it turns out night enough I just might wear it to work tomorrow:)

I don't have any pictures of any of it yet since it's already dark and we all know how extra horrible my pictures are at night time:):)

There is still a TON of snow on the ground. The kids were supposed to go back to school tomorrow but school has been cancelled until Monday so that all the side streets and school grounds can be cleared of all the snow. Miss S was bummed as she has been so anxious to go back to school.

These are the icicles on the next door neighbor's house - the longest one is about two feet long!

I spent my morning at the Santa Fe National Cemetery for the service for my dear friend, Lisa's, mom - Alma. After the service we had a nice lunch and visit before I had to head back to work. Lisa brought a photo album of pictures of her mom growing up (she was 79) and it was so cool to look at the old pictures. I met Lisa when I was 19 (Alma was 60 at that time) so I had never seen her without white hair:) We have plans to spend the day on Saturday with Lisa and her family - they have a fantastic house up in the mountains and a hot tub:)(always a big hit with my Hubby). He begs for a hot tub for at least a month after every time we go up there:)