Day 53

I was trying to thing of an interesting poster idea for the tea party. I looked at blogs that had slogan ideas but nothing grabbed me... then this weekend I heard Obama reading Green Eggs and Ham to the Egg Roll kids... Inspiration! I drew Sam-I-Am's body, and then googled an Obama head shot hopefully looking off a little to his right... the first pic was the dangly cigarette one... jackpot!

So here is Obam-I-Am in all his glory. I hope nobody else thought of this!

Day 51 & 52

We had a fun weekend because Auntie Leslee and Cousin Saadia came to visit us from California -- yesterday Nana came over too, and we had Easter Brunch together. Aside from some rain on Friday, the weekend was picture perfect and warm for early April!! The trees are budding already, the earliest in 10 years since we moved here.

My hyacinths are in full bloom and I swear they smell more fragrant than they ever have... man oh man do I love spring!!!

Day 46

This makes my winter-weary eyes light up with joy...

You know when the Linder's tent goes up in Knowlan's parking lot, that winter is nearly behind us. In the next week or so the pansies and primroses will come out and not long after the place will be full of people itching to get their hands in the dirt. Bring on Spring! Love, love, love it!

Day 43

Tonight I watched the General Young Women's Conference broadcast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints online... the theme was on staying strong and fighting the temptations of the world... while the messages were aimed for young women ages 12-18, this older woman got a lot out of the message. Elaine S. Dalton spoke about how we need to realize the way God sees us... something she said inspired this little card I created tonight.

Day 42

They say that a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind. Here is my creativity... permission slips, exercise DVD, laptop, Grocery Game list, handmade card, hairbrush, my one Brighton choker/necklace... this could become an "I Spy with My Little Eye" game...

Days 34, 35, 36, 37

Home is heaven with a baby in it. This is Addi meeting Grandpa for the first time. Shannon, Daren and Addi flew in for a visit.

Shannon got to realize her dream of pushing Addi around Mall of America in the stroller!

So much activity and excitement makes a little girl very tired!

Some quality time with Uncle Matt, and learning all about how to Facebook.

Day 33

It was nearly 60 degrees today! I ditched the pinecones-in-the-bowl-with-balsam-candle centerpiece and replaced it with these lovely primroses from Gerten's... Minnesota is heaven on earth when it's sunny and above 50 degrees.

Day 32

This past week caught me off guard. It got me thinking a lot about being 16 again... back when the Dorothy Hamill haircut was hot. It got me to look at how different my life is (in a good way) than when I was a teenager. An old high school flame tried to reconnect with me this week.

The emotions ran the gamut from startled, surprised, flattered, nervous and finished with uncomfortable. I vascillated back and forth about "it would be nice to see how his life has gone, what's the harm?" to "this was 30 years ago... what's the point?" It took a week of stalling the poor guy until this morning when I finally and cowardly left him a voice message when I knew he wouldn't be in the office... that I didn't think the phone call stuff was a good idea. I appreciated being thought of, but that I've moved light years away from being 16... I have a sweet man who I've been married to for 27 years, 5 great kids and a precious baby granddaughter, and no room in my life for walking down memory lane with old boyfriends. And that I wished him a happy life. I had this whole script of a phone message that I had rehearsed 50 times in my head... but I prayed beforehand that I would say just the right thing... and what came out of my mouth was about 33% of what I had prepared to say. But it was just exactly what needed to be said. I can't believe how relieved I felt after I left that voice mail... cowardly or not.

Happily putting my "almost 50 year old grammie" hat back on. Phew!

Day 30

What is significant about this picture is not so much that Murphy is basking in the light of a sunny window, but that the window is open and letting some lovely fresh air in! The snow is almost completely melted, it's a whopping 50 degrees outside, my tulips are pressing through the soil, and I dragged my languishing geranium out to the front porch where she can get some real sunshine. Spring is coming, Woo Hoo!!!

Day 27

Suffering through my worst sore throat in 30 years... it's strep (my last time was in college!)... my antibiotics haven't kicked in yet, and my sweet son brought me a strawberry shake from Burger King which is about the only thing that can bring me relief right now!

Day 25

But what happened to Day 24? Wellllllll...

I am frustrated with myself because I had really good intentions of taking a photo everyday and writing something snappy about it, but the reality of that is it is hard to do that. Somedays, let's face it... I didn't find anything interesting to photograph (hence the apple and orange picture on Day 17) or have time to sit down and think about it. So my choices are to 1) Bag this or 2) Do my best and not beat myself up about it if I don't get on everyday. I will pick #2. Some journaling will be better than no journaling...

My picture for today wasn't taken today, but I took it! And I kind of like it, so what the heck. Besides, it's my blog, I can do that :-P

Last April, I went on a business trip to Mexico for Friends of the Orphans, where I work... we stayed at a resort that used to be an old sugar plantation that was built in the 1600's, called Hacienda Cocoyoc. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever stayed... very "old world" Mexico. I would love to take my Mom there someday, I know she would love it!

Day 23

Murphy. My old, stinky-breathed, camera-shy retired racing Greyhound. He's 13 and still gets all excited when we come home.

Day 22

Today the St. Paul Stake had Humanitarian Day. Most of the projects were for shelters here in the Twin Cities - there were a few projects, quilts and school bags that went to the Humanitarian Aid Center in Salt Lake City. We all met at the Stake Center in New Brighton - I led a "gift bag decorating station" and these sisters from Twin Cities Third Ward were nice enough to spend a lot of time preparing the bags that would become birthday and Mother's Day bags for women and children at shelters. Other sisters filled the bags, other sisters tied quilts, made fleece quilts, filled boxes for Haiti, other things that I'm sure I'm leaving out - so much good was accomplished in about 3 hours this morning!

Day 20 and 21

These are some cards I am putting on eBay... I have hundreds of cards from swaps when I was a CTMH demonstrator and so many more cards than I will ever use... I love making them, but I need to be more diligent about sending them to people! I'm getting better at that I think... I'm just paring down the massive quantity I have.

I ran to Target tonight for a couple of things and the flowers were so fresh and bright... I can hardly wait for spring!!

Day 19

Being an imperfect person... I just didn't photograph anything interesting. But I did make this nifty placemarker in Photoshop (I'm an extreme beginner in Photoshop!).