Jack Chiszar, Joshua Chiszar, Lucas Chiszar

Hi guys. I just wanted to tell you that I am thinking about you. I know it is pretty cold in Chicago this year and I hope you are staying warm. Love you bunches and miss you terribly. Love Grandma.

Jack Chiszar

I love and miss you so much. You can call me anytime you want. I would love to talk to you and give you a big grandma hug. Love you Grandma

Joshua Haley Chiszar

Happy Birthday. Grandma is thinking about you today. In fact I think about you Jack Chiszar and Lucas Chiszar all the time. I am here if you ever need me. I love all of you.

Donald Follmer's College Graduation

Bank of Mom and Dad is now closed.

Saturday was the big day. Donald Graduation from Southern Oregon University. It was a beautiful day in the valley. Partly cloudy and temperatures in the low 70's. There were about 800 graduates.

Ann Curry was the commencement speaker and I got to meet her after the ceremony. Ann is from Ashland and is a hometown girl and returned to share this moment with the graduates.

We got to the stadium about 3 hours early to get a good seat. You'll notice we are in the front row and we had our noisemakers. Notice in this photo the proud mother, grandmother and grandfather. All set for this great day. Behind them is Darnell and Josh. They are Donald's friends from New Jersey and were his graduation present from Mom. Donald wanted his long time friends with him at graduation. We were all so proud of Donald's accomplishment and wanted to be there with him.

With Donald is his girlfriend Kara. Both a delight and so happy together. Those couple of years of study dates paid off.

More on the party tomorrow.

Layouts of Donald Follmer

Oregon Trip and Donald Follmer's Graduation

My trip to Oregon started with a very painful and long trip to the other coast. Having worked first thing in the morning and then the drive to Tampa and then the flight to Oregon and then the drive to Ashland from Portland it ended up that we were up for 24 hours. Ugh. We did get some sleep on the airplane and in the car so that helped. We checked into our hotel about 5:00 am our time but 2:00 west coast time. But we were there.

The first day we had lunch with Donald and his friend Darnell and that was wonderful. After a nap it was off to dinner with Mom, Jackie, Rich (Jackie's ex-husband), Calvin (Donald's grandfather and Darnell. We had the best Carbinerra (Sorry Naomi, yours is actually better). The a first happened. Jackie and Rich were deciding how to split the bill and Donald piped up and said how about he pay the bill. This is a first and I had to document the occasion with a photo.

Mom was cold after dinner and he let mom wear his hockey jersey. I loved the 60 degree weather. So refreshing after our 90 degree weather. Ashland is built on the side of a mountain with parts in the valley but the better part of the town in on a hill. More pictures to come.

I've also want to share some of the layouts I've done of Donald in the past 6 months. I'll put them in another post.

Joshua Haley Chiszar

I've been thinking a lot about blogging lately. Facebook has taken over a lot of our communication but it really does not give us room to really talk about what is important in our lives. Blogging gives us time to explore our feelings, our life and those we love. So I am going to get back to blogging and sharing.

Today I would like to wish Joshua Haley Chiszar happy birthday yesterday. I thought about this all day and did not really know until today what I wanted to say to this sweet adorable little boy. I want to say to you that I love you now and always. Even though your parents will not let me see you because of money that can not stop me from loving you. I miss seeing your sweet face and your very cute smile. I think of you often. I have tried to send you cards and postcards but I am sure your parents have kept these from you and have thrown them away. But know I am always here for you and you can always call me or email me because no matter what anyone says I am still your grandmother and always will be. One of these days you will google yourself and find this message and maybe we will be able to reconnect. So happy birthday and enjoy your summer. Love you.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone and have a really hippitty hoppity day.

Surprise, I'm Back

So it took a little kick from my friends to get back to blogging. Plus the challenge this week from K2 was to photograph something in your home that you love. First I took a photo of my Lladro ballerina wide view. Then I got up close to get a detailed shot. I love the way she sits there all confident and regal. I have had her since the early 80's when my brother in law went to England and bought her for me.

I'll be back more often now and share what is going on in my life. See you soon.

Heather's Album

I have been working on an album for my niece Heather. She wanted me to redo her baby album from a magnetic book to an acid free book. So Heather here is a sneak peak. I'm almost done and Jackie will bring it to you in September.

In February I signed up for a Tim Holtz call and it is finally here. I leave in a couple of hours for Clearwater and the class is tomorrow all day. I am going to spend some time tonight with my great friends Kathy and Jack. Haven't done that in a while and am really looking forward to this time.

Tomorrow I'll get all grudged up for a day of inking, tearing and grinding. Can't wait. I took some classes from Tim during CKU in Chicago and he is very high energy and so the day will really be fun.

Why do weekends go so fast?

We wait all week for the weekend and it is over before we are ready. My weekend started Friday afternoon with a bridge game with my friend June and we were 2nd overall for two sections. Then it was off to scrap therapy and these were the layouts I was able to finish. Yesterday I just hung out and went to a movie last night with my family. We saw Night at the Museum. They forgot to change the plot from the last movie so it was like watching a rerun. Today Misty and I just hung out. I was working on Heather's baby book. Almost finished and I can ship it off to her.

Have a good week.

Jessics Spraque Photo Class Day 9 and 10

Here are two layouts from last week's scraptherapy. I love how the Philly layout uses the Halloween photo plus the photo from the World Series. The photo of Kara and Donald is just fun.

The photo of me in Vegas has a darkened background and a brightened front. The photo of Rick has two texture layers and then the type was added.

This class has been so much fun and we only have 4 days left. I will just have to keep practicing the techniques so that I remember how to do them.

Busy day today. Doctors appointment, bridge and then scraptherapy. Happy weekend everyone.

Lesson's 4, 5 and 6

The class with Jessica has been really fun. Decided to use last year's Vegas photos for these lesson's. Just love how the coke bottle turned out. There are three texture layers on top of that photo. Tried one texture and type in the second photo and drew some stars on the other photo after having given it a vintage feel and a photo border. Didn't do today's class but will get to it tomorrow.

Went and played bingo tonight and I'm $3 plus so that is a good thing. Had my gutters cleaned today because they had trees growing out of them. He even found a snake up there and some worms. Then he trimmed the gum tree in my front yard. That thing grows like a weed. They are now outlawed in Florida. Wish the people who planted that thing had known that.

Jessics Spraque Photo Class

I am taking Jessica's free photo class. Here are the photos from the first three classes. The series started last Monday and I am just catching up. The first photo has a grunge frame around the border. The second one has a brush stamp and a word stamp and we learned to change the color. The third photo has a frame and word art. Fun class. More tomorrow.

Water fun for Jack Chiszar & Josh Chiszar

Summer is in full swing here in Florida and I remember when my Grandchildren came to visit. What fun they had with grandma. "Hey Guys" I miss you.

I had a very quiet Fourth of July. Just wanted to stick close to home and hold Misty while the fireworks were popping all over the neighborhood. She is worn out from barking and pacing the house.

Hope you had a great one.

Jessics Spraque Challenge

Jessica Spraque has just completed her birthday week of challenges. I am already a week behind. I just completed the first challenge layout. Her free class starts next week so I only have a few days to complete her challenges. Watch for the rest later in the week.

Have a great week.