Enjoying the Summer

Summer is not even here yet and it is already over 90 degrees. It will be this way until October. I already hate the heat. This morning I went to the pool for water exercises and it was already way to hot. I don't know how the people spend then entire afternoon out there. Me I just want to stay inside from noon until dark. Anyone else feel this way.

I played bridge yesterday and we did pretty well. 2nd in the section and 4th overall. Not bad for me since I have not been playing much but home to get more time in at the bridge table. This Saturday I'm playing in a special game which should be fun.

I'm been scrapping with friends so I have a lot of pages to post. I'll get caught up with that over the next week. Been having fun with some Tim Holtz techniques and that has been a hoot.

My recipe for the heat. Stay inside in the air conditioning.

Let Summer Begin

Memorial Day traditionally is the start of summer but here in Florida I think we started about a month ago. You can now wear white shoes and carry a white handbag and wear all those bright colors. I love summer but I hate the heat. Can't we have summer with temps in the high 70's and then it would be absolutely perfect. I know I am dreaming.

Had a great holiday weekend. Barbecued, played cards, did a little scrapbooking with friends and even saw a movie. I even snuck in a nap. What a way to celebrate the holiday. Catching up on posting my layouts.

Trip To Ikea Tday

Jackie and I drove up to Tampa today to check out the new IKEA store. I have been in one since I left Chicago. But let me say Chicago has nothing on the crowds. It was an absolute mob today when we left. We were lucky and got there before it opened so we had a leisurely breakfast and started our tour before the crowds. By the time we left you could not even move in the isles. My only purchase was a 72 inch frame shelf. Can't wait to hang it in my scrap room. Once it is up I'll post a photo.

I want to remember my dad today who spent the majority of his adult life in the Army. I applaud everyone in uniform for keep us safe. Those that have come before us and those who have their feet on the ground today. I pray that you are safe. My flag waves proudly today in your honor.

One Year Today

Today marks one year that I have not seen my grandchildren. I was able to talk to them up until late June. Many of you have asked me if I've had any contact with them and the answer is no. A price has been put on their beautiful little heads. Pay the money or you can no longer see your grandchildren. If you pay it all will be forgiven. What type of parent puts a price on their children. Jim's son Bob told me that if I wrote a check for our entire IRA then I could see our grandchildren. He did not want out home or our car, he said I could keep these two things. But the IRA was to be given to him. I could not give away all of the money that Jim and I worked for and that he wanted me to have. He was very specific about this and had taken care of it legally.

I miss these three little boys so much. Jack, Josh and Lucas I love you and no matter what your parents tell you I love you and want to see you so badly. Someday when you are old enough to find this blog on the Internet you will know that I love you and did not abandon you. You can always call me and I will be there for you. I have sent you cards and letters but in the beginning they were sent back to me so I have saved them for you. I have no idea about the others.

I have put away many of your grandfathers things and someday I'll give them to you. Just know you are always in my thoughts. The last time I talked to you Jack you were crying your eyes out because I could not come see you. This broke my heart and I wanted to hug you so badly. Then the phone was taken from you. I know you hurt to and someday we will be together and I can give you that hug.

More Taxpayer Money

The next three days of training were about the same. Our two leaders had never trained before so they would do one page and then call the office for more instructions. There was no real training just reading from the manual (which we could have done on our own.) Each day was 10 hours long which meant a lot more overtime for each of us. Plus we get mileage for driving to and from the training session. This is unreal. What industry out there pays you for your commute and your mileage. Now remember the commute home is overtime pay. Yeah more money for us and less for the taxpayer. We did a lot of sitting around and not really doing anything. This is the government at its finest. The Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department. I did learn that. Chow, more layouts tomorrow and the rest of the story.

Wasted taxpayer dollars.

Well my job is over for now. The Census Bureau is done for now. They will probably call us back in the fall. It was fun but very hot to be outside everyday. We identified everywhere people can live and now they can make up their address list. The Census is definitely wasting our money. They are the most disorganized organization I have ever seen. The training was like a comedy show. Neither of our trainers had any idea what they were doing. The first day we filled out 16 forms. So much for the Paper Reduction Act. Then we were fingerprinted. Now this took 4 hours for 17 of us. They had no idea how to do it and kept have to repeat the tests. But they coined a phrase "don't worry you are getting paid" that we would hear a lot in the coming weeks. While they were fingerprinting we wondered outside, read a book and just chatted. WE had to be there at 8:00 but were paid from the time we left our house. Then at 5:00 we were told we had homework to do. They could have told us this at 12:30 and we could have done it while we were sitting around all afternoon. We were told we would be paid 1 hour for the homework time. We left and we were paid for driving home. So we were paid for 10 and a half hours. Two and a half hours of this was at overtime pay. Who thinks we were wasting taxpayer dollars on just this one day. Throughout Sarasota they were training 300 people. That is a lot of wasted taxpayer dollars. But remember, you are getting paid.

2 Layouts

I haven't posted any layouts for awhile so it's time I share some of my creations. The water zone is from Josh's birthday and was done as a scrap and dash at K2 a couple of weeks ago. Love how it turned out. The second one is a glimpse of what Misty and I see when we are out for a walk. A little sunshine and a little wildlife. She only chases rodents so these feather friends don't even faze her.

It's been a long week of work. As the days get hotter here it is harder to stay outside for six plus hours. The work is winding done and we may be done tomorrow, Monday at the latest. Back to the unemployed.

Saturday is National Scrapbook Day so I am spending most of the weekend at our local scrapbook store. Lots of fun in store for the weekend. Have a great weekend everyone.

Remembering Jim

Today I spent a lot of time thinking about Jim and our life together. It was a hard day remembering how happy we were and all the plans we had for our retirement that were not to be. But today was a day for honoring Jim and all he meant to me. I had dinner at my sister's and Mom brought me a rose to commemorate the day and Jackie brought me Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory truffles. Jim always got these for me on special occasions. We talked about Jim and it was special.

Last night I could not sleep. I tossed and turned and sleep was not to be. The last time I looked at the clock was 12:28 and then I drifted off to sleep. That is the exact moment I lost Jim a year ago. To Jim's family, I know most of you said a prayer for Jim today and I know we share this moment together even though we are no longer share our lives.

I Miss You So Much

At this time last year I was praying Jim was going to make it home and then he was gone. I miss him everyday. But he walks beside me and he is always in my heart. Jim I love you and I know you knew that. We said it all and we felt it all.

You were right about so many things but someday . . .

Your memory lives in my heart.

OK It has Been Awhile

I have really been a bad blogger lately. As many of you know I am working right now and it is taking everything out of me. I come home and litterly fall into bed. I am outside the entire day and the heat really takes it out of me. Luckily I have Jim's cart and do not have to walk to all of these houses. Next week I am on Siesta Key and that will be a challenge. More on that later.

Today I want to celebrate my friend Jan. Jan is one of our snowbirds and is leaving tomorrow to go back to Illinois and then Rockford and then Wisconsin. She is a really good friend and in November when she arrived back in Sarasota she got me out of my bridge sabbatical. I had not played bridge since Jim died. She is a wonderful partner and we had a very successful season of bridge. In the six months we played I think we did not come in only twice which is a true feat. The last three times we played we were first in our section and placed in the overalls. Jan is a joy to play with and I will really miss her while she is gone. Have a good time up north Jan and I'll see you in November. I'll make sure to practice while you are gone.

Layouts from Last Month's Boot Camp

Bad Blogger is Back

So what has been happening in the last week. For one thing it has gotten cold again. I am really tired of this since I was going back to the pool for my exercises and all of a sudden that had to stop again. My right knee has been killing me and only the exercises in the pool helps with this problem. The doctor sent me for x-rays on Monday to see if there is a problem that I don't know about but I haven't gotten any results on this. So for the past two weeks I have been hobbling around and even using a cane several times because it was so sore.

These layouts are some that I finished in the last week. My pledge is to finish the things I have started and not start any new projects until these are completed. Jim always told me that I start so many things and I don't always complete them before I start a new project. Last night I gave my sister the SISTER album I started about three months ago. Great, another project finished.

Last week I went to St. Petersburg and had dinner with my friends Kathy and Jack and then we played in a team game at the St. Pete club. I played with Nancy and had a great time. We even made a date for next week to do it again.

Friday night I went to Scrap Therapy and this is where I completed the album. There were about 20 of us and the noise level was off the chart and everyone was having a great time. We took time out to see Venus. Venus was right next to the moon and it was so bright. The astronomers said this was one of the best sightings of Venus.

The past week was also a very social time. The annual Strawberry social was on Thursday and then on Sunday was the ice cream social. Needless to say that at my doctor appointment on Monday my sugar level was a bit high. Bingo was not in the numbers for me last night but my sister did win $60 when she yelled bingo. Today I have Scrap and Dash and that is always fun to see what creation Kim has come up with.

Lots of things to get done this month before I start my job. So I'm off to get started . . .

It's Been a Great Week

So far this week it has been really great. Tonight I won $90 at Bingo. Yes I won 2 bingo's one for $20 and the other for $70. Yeah. Next it was warm enough today to go to the pool and work on my knee that has been killing me. The cold has really been bad on the old knees. The last really good news is that I finally have gotten a job. I start work next month with the Census. All those tests have finally paid off. I guess now I really do have to get all those things done around the house now that I will be a working woman. Yeah me. The other great news is that Misty is finally out of heat. What a pain that is. I guess I will have to think about getting her fixed. I had wanted to have puppies but now I am not sure.

These four layouts are from the last two weeks of Scrap and Dash. Everything else is going along fine.

Prayers go out to Uncle Chester. I've been thinking about you and hope all is going well for you.

Scrapbook Boot Camp

Yesterday seven of us attended Nikki's scrapbook Boot Camp. This is seven hours of intense scrapbooking. We made 20 layouts. Not all of them are completely done. We still have most of the pictures to put in and some final embellishments. But we created the entire layout ready for pictures. To put this in perspective for all of my non scrapbooking friends, on a normal two day crop we may finish 5 to 6 layouts. We putter and talk and munch away on goodies and generally just have a good time. So to make 20 layouts in seven hours is intense. Yes we still talked and munched but there was no puttering.

Once I get the layouts entirely done I will post them here. Off to work on those pages.

Some Layouts

Here are a couple of layouts from earlier in the month. A little behind posting these. I spent last week playing bridge so I forgot to post these. More on the tournament in another post.

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From This to This

It has been so cold out lately that Misty has not been able to have a bath. She hates the blow dryer so that is out. The best it the warm sunshine and a towel to roll in. So today it was in the 70's and so Misty got a bath. I even tried my hand at trimming her face hair. I didn't do to badly but once the cold weather has passed it's off to the groomer for her.

I hope the sun shines down on everyone this week.

This is a First

This morning I was watching the new and the weather reporter came on. It was 43 degrees in Sarasota. But guess what it was 45 degrees in Chicago. This has got to be the first time for me that it was warmer in Chicago then it was here in Sarasota. But to all my friends coming down for the Sarasota/Bradenton Regional Bridge Tournament next week plan on the weather being in the mid 70's. Just for all of you we will have the perfect Florida weather. Looking forward to seeing everyone. Come sit with me on the beach.

Thanks Terry for a fun night last night even if I only got one page done. It was a lot of laughs ladies.

Saw this on my friend Stacy's blog. Loved It.

Rainy Days and Monday

Always get you down. (Rained all day.) But not me. I was up all day. Got up early and decided to get some things done and then I went and played bridge. We came in 5th and were happy with that. Jan it was great. Next week is the Sarasota/Bradenton Regional and am really looking forward to playing all week. Gina is coming from Arkansas and Ann is coming from out West. Should be a great "girl" week.

This is a photo of my tomatoes I am growing. They are really getting big fast. I planted the very small plants (2 of them) at the beginning of December.

Have a great week. I'm off to pick up Jackie from the airport. She was in Ohio all weekend with no electricity. That must have been fun.

Happy Birthday Kathy

Happy Birthday Kathy. Hope you have a "super" day. It was great fun to spend the day with Kathy yesterday in St. Pete. We did lunch and then played in the St. Pete Sectional. Didn't have a great result but we did have a good time. After the game we went out to dinner and the waiters sang happy birthday to Kathy. I then had to come home and go over that "darn" bridge. There was very little traffic at that time so it wasn't too bad.

The first and last layouts are from the past two week's Scrap and Dash. The one of Jackie is a hybrid layout. That means that much of it was done on the computer with the pictures and a few embellishments added afterward. The Birthday party layout uses the new die cut from Creative Cafe. It was perfect to highlight Rick's 30th birthday.

Thanks Mom for making dinner tonight. It was great. Always love it when someone else cooks. Have a great week everyone.