Category Archives: pals

Nov16

It’s just like I saw him yesterday

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We were all waiting with great anticipation to see Sean today for the first time in almost 3 months. I made a big pot of stew early in the day and some ‘easy’ empanadas later on. I put on some makeup to look good-ha!

Around 2:15 he called and said he was in Lancaster where his bud and him stopped at Burger King, but didn’t go shopping. At 3:30, I was waiting for James Taylor’s appearance on Ellen and I heard the door open and I almost flew off the sofa to the living room! There was my handsome son with a big smile on his face. And as I said above, it was like all those lost days melted away and I had just seen him! He was tired, but said he liked the way down better than the way up (we didn’t do that right in August). He just ate dinner about 6:30 and went to get some videos and said he’d get one for me.

I didn’t cry….then. What touched me was the slideshow that the webmistress from ‘Make A Child Smile’ sent to share of her late beloved pooch Buddy. My friend Karin sent me the sweetest birthday card and said I was more like family then a friend. She’s the lady whose wedding we went to in NYC. It’s been a nice Friday.

Oct25

What a great idea!

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Child with chick

Like me, you probably get tons of catalogs before the holidays. I really like to look through them for unusual items, especially for people on my list who seem to have everything. The heading on one catalog really caught my attention: The Most Important Gift Catalog in the World-Heifer International. What’s this you may ask? An org that assists 140,000 families (last year) with the gifts of animals and training and passing on the gift. What you can give is a flock of chicks to a needy family for $20 or a ‘share’ in a water buffalo-$25 toward the $250 full price. Now what would be a better way to teach kids about giving? The kids are so happy in the photos. I am definitely giving some chicks! There are bunnies, heifers, goats, etc. If you love animals, you know the gift of one is extra special. If you like this idea, feel free to post the link on your page. The link is :www.heifer.org/catalog

Sean had a low key birthday but enjoyed some emails from friends and did pick up his package (which I bet had been sitting in the mailroom for a few days), so that brightened him up. He has a few things here he ordered-the Phillies championship shirt and a cafepress.com shirt. Speaking of cafepress.com, I added some new photos to some of my items. I’m still waiting for some sales. I may do a few vintage things for t-shirts, etc.

The mam slam went ok. She questioned why I said I was sore, but I explained it was mostly my pecs and upper back which are much better. She called the doctor to make sure! She noted that I had strained myself lifting books. Geez.

Dreary weather here! I plan to do a bunch of crafty stuff and the laundry tomorrow. I have a craving for nachos! My appetite hasn’t been great this week-thinking about today and of course my pal’s mom. I ordered her 32 mini-roses in assorted colors which were suppose to be delivered yesterday. I hope they were pretty.

Hey cookbook fans! Molly Coddled is giving away a doozie of a cookbook filled with Taste of Home recipes. Go check it out-you only have one more day to leave a comment.

Oct23

Friend update

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My friend’s mom passed on Sunday night at 6:25 west coast time. She did thank me for calling her and said it was an ‘angel kiss’ to her which I thought was so sweet. She sounds pretty good considering in the brief but sweet note she sent, but I know grief has it’s different stages and she’s at the ‘surreal’ one as she says so herself. I had just sent her the little Art trading card as pictured below and she got it and liked it a bunch. She’ll be getting a book sometime soon too.
I can’t be on the computer too long as my upper back and front pectorals are bothering me, like burning. I think I hurt them lifting all those books a few weeks ago and if I do any other lifting (a big  rectangular box of shoes yesterday and lots of bending over) I stir up the inflammation again. A few years back it was more in my arms when I was moving the same books around. Plus I have another issue that would make me hurt a bit. Now tomorrow I may be fine and I sure hope I am on Thursday when I get squeezed. It’s fun being a girl! ; )

Oct21

Lousy timing

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 Made for my friendTonight I decided to call my friend in California as her mom hasn’t been well and I just wanted to hear her voice and give her a few words of encouragement. I have never spoken to her before and she had just given our group (the people I do art projects with plus a few other pals) her #. The first time it rang and rang and I left a message. I wanted to hear her voice again, so I hit redial and she answered it crying hysterically. Seems I picked the time when she was at the hospital because the end was near for her dear mom! I was in shock that she answered and then to hear her say what was going in in bits and pieces-I was very shook up. I guess I took too big of a chance. She did say ‘pray for me’ which I have been doing. Her mom’s been in the hospital for almost a month. She has a fatal disease, so I guess they’ve been walking on pins and needles for almost 2 yrs now. She just said her mom was set up in the living room in a hospital bed because she couldn’t climb the steps to her bedroom. That happened to my grandmom too, who basically passed on in the dining room back in 2000.

We all feel like we know Gs mom by now and we’re feeling so bad for her as they were very close like my mom and me. Keep G in your thoughts.

Sep16

Say it ain’t so

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That I am still pulling weeds in the middle of September! Usually by now I say the heck with it. I have to admit that I did the front area where people look as they pass the house. I filled up two garden carts with weeds, mostly those long grasses. Now my pretty blue and peach salvia are making a nice show. I promise a photo. I gave up weeding after an hour as my back was hurting. I am also pleased with my ‘trash grabs’; remember when Sean and I went to the nursery a few months back and the lady gave me plants she was tossing? They both are blooming-pink and white trumpet flowers-one is the Mandevilla and the other is very similar, but the leaves are a bit different.

When I came in I decided to make the gown for my ‘Mommy paper doll’. My friend gave me the body template and I used the photo of my mom when she was about 20. I assembled the body with brads and painted it too. The dress is made from some of the scrap paper I got in the mail yesterday. Her belt and shoes were made from a band from a candy box. Her belt and bag have butterfly accents. I think she looks like she is ready to go to the Emmys (you all are getting a sneak peek)!

Flat Jeanne
And here’s her journal with her initials and the first page that I did for her:
Mom’s Journal

Page one
I worked on my ’57 Thunderbird (Love Quilts) while watching the Emmys. It was in ‘the round’ and I felt bad for winners like James Spader who said they were the ‘worst seats he ever had’. I was glad Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy won. It was neat to see some of the cast from ‘Roots’ which was a miniseries 30 yrs ago when I graduated from high school. I didn’t know that Edward Albert, Jr (Butterflies are Free) had passed away last September-the ‘In Memorium’ showed his picture. I looked him up and he was only 55 and had lung cancer. His dad had passed on in ’06 at 96! Eddie Jr took care of his dad for 10 yrs. I liked both of them a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went to church this morning as we thought Father M needed help as the ‘main’ usher was in a car accident last week in Virginia. We had heard he bruised or broke his ribs, but he was in the hospital. We have known Chris and his family for at least 10 years and when we saw him standing there today, well I just had to give him a hug! I think I surprised him! Later he told Bri that the rear axle on his Ford Explorer had broken when he was going about 55 mph! He rolled over at least 2-3 times and doesn’t remember anything except waking up when the paramedics were talking to him. I think he’s one lucky guy!

Aug31

Seeds

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First of all, I want to thank Zoey over at Perennial Passion for the Lynchis Coronaria seeds she sent me recently. Zoey had a flower game-a letter mix-up and I guessed them all and got this awesome prize in a sweet homemade envelope-love it. So in return, I am drying some seeds for her. If anyone else would like purple or lime zinnia seeds, let me know. I’m also trying to get the Autumn Harvest heads on a few of the sunflowers before the birds get to them.

Tonight it dawned on me that I planted saved marigold seeds from last year and hadn’t seen them. The marigolds are in their glory right now, but where were the ones in the circle garden? Here they had fallen over, but they were the yellow marigolds with the big flower heads. I thought they may be the white ones. I’ll save them too.

I’ve been to Big Lots twice today, by myself and then later with Bri. They bought out a local drugstore and the stuff is 30% off. I noticed they had compact flash cards for the camera, so that’s why Bri and I went after dinner. We got a 256 mb one for about $11! They also got some neat scrapbooking stuff in, many items for $1! I was playing with some of the new stuff when Bri wanted to go there.

Sean went to a pep rally for the football team tonight and it was fun. He got to see Coach Joe in person for the 1st time. This has been the slowest week here! It will be a week since we have been to PSU soon.

Aug26

Collages

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I’m still trying to do a few collages a week, but I don’t seem to be able to catch up with my friend Gret. She’s really into collaging lately. We still love doing the Art trading cards. Here is our latest theme-nature inspired. Can you guess what I used?

Nature ATCs

I kept the one on the bottom right. Gret’s is the one that looks like animals on the top left since she loves critters.

Here’s a collage page I recently made:

Love in the mist

The little window opens to a Romeo and Juliet kind of scene. The raspberries are cut out pieces of wallpaper.

College boy update: Sean went to some meetings today and said the people were nice. Not thrilled to hear he ate a chili dog for his Sunday dinner, especially starting classes tomorrow-geez, I told him about that kind of eating. Uh-oh, still being a mommy here!

Aug23

So this is it…

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…Sean’s last day here until Thanksgiving! Wow! I remember when he was looking into dorms back in February and August seemed so far away. Sean got to see his grandmom, uncle, aunt and cousins yesterday. My mom got all weepy when we left which lead me to get weepy in the van. I usually have to be provoked into tears. I want to be cool up at the dorm when the actual separation occurs. Give we strength! Sean’s car is already almost jammed packed. He has a few more things to put in there and he needs to leave room for me. Bri will be following us on the 3+ hour trip. We’ll stay a night in a hotel about 12 miles further away and his move in is 12-8 on Saturday and Bri and I turn around to come home.

This had to be the week when the sun never came out and my sinuses have been awful. I’ve had congestion and post nasal drip. I can’t sneeze I’m so stuffed up! I did a Google search ‘how to sneeze’ and people had tips, even a little English boy on youtube.com who stuck a rolled up piece of tissue up his nose-I think so high it made him cough and then sneeze. I came close last night, but I just can’t sneeze. Today I’ll have to take Claritin or Sudafed which I try to hold off doing as long as possible. ~Update-as I proofread this post, I finally sneezed after 3 days! Yippee!!

Here’s a video about my hometown (my high school pal sent me the link) as a company entered them in a contest sponsored by Ikea which they are currently in 2nd place-they won’t announce the winner for a few weeks. You can see the old Media High School where I went one year to junior high and that my niece and nephew attend/attended as an elementary school. You’ll also see Media Theatre where we use to attend $1 movies.

I received some prints from my friend Karin’s wedding that I personally got to chose. I never had anyone offer to do that with their wedding photos, but she and Michael bought the proofs and set them up online at Kodak-a great idea. I bought a special album for them last night at JoAnn’s (plus a few other goodies). Keep Michael in your thoughts as he needs to get an injection in his back from pain that wakes him up several times a night.

My friend Terri had good news that her mom was still in remission after a bout with cancer and then her mom’s sister passed on a few days ago from a heart attack. The thing that bothered me is that the poor woman went to the ER for terrible indigestion, a red flag for women as it is sometimes means heart problems.

My other friend Joy lost her 51 yr old male cousin from a heart attack too. He had a special title, I’ll have to look up the email again, but he was working to preserve waterways if I remember correctly. The cousins set up a nice slideshow in memory of him on Flickr.

If I don’t post again, I’ll see you in a few days. I also have to tidy up as the parish priest is coming on Monday.

By the way, added some new videos and yes I know, two are James Taylor singing ‘Only a Dream in Rio’ one of my favorite JT songs.