He had nothing to do, so...

... he cut down a tree...

See those three trunks, right in the middle of the photo?

Well, you won't see the left one of the three anymore.

It's cut down for next year's firewood...

That's me, walking toward him, out on the lake. It was REALLY slippery out on the ice!

After 65+ degrees on Friday, the temperature dropped to 20+ degrees yesterday, and it was 17 degrees when we got up this morning. The water that was melted on the surface of the lake froze solid, and VERY smooth, so it was great for ice skating.
IF you ice skate.
Which I don't.
The ice is about 16"-18" thick, so it's safe to be out on the ice, but I admit I was surprised when that tree came down it didn't even make a dent or a crack in the surface of the ice...

My Scraproom

Finally, photos of my scraproom -

If you stand in the door to the spare room, this is what you see on the opposite wall.  The green fabric drawers contain either embellishments, stamps, or flowers.  You'll get a peek into one of them later on.  I modified Stacy Julian's organizing by color idea to fit me, and when I did it, I found it SO much easier to create a page.  I tend to choose the photos first, the background paper next, then the embellishments, and then I create a title and journal.  So being able to decide what paper I want by color, to match or contrast or enhance the photo, and then do the same with embellishments - that works for me!

To the right, against the front wall of the room/house, I have a Clip It Up, 2 tiers high, with 1/2 of my alphabets on it.  This was a HUGE breakthrough for me!  Seeing them in front of me makes it easy for me to use them.  I would love to have a room decorated perfectly with closed storage, but I'd never accomplish anything.  I've learned I'm a visual learner as well as a visual doer!  Below the spinning rack is a Polaroid printer I got 6 years ago for $5.  You heard right - $5.  No offense, Polaroid, but it's worth $5.  The colors don't print true and you can't adjust them, so I'm thinking I'll give it away on Craigslist or something later on - I wouldn't even be able to take money for it - I'd feel I was robbing the customer!  That brown horizontal box has photos in it, and the dark basket on top is "stuff" that needs to find a home.  The white wire cubes have, in order from left to right, top to bottom:  stamps, my art journaling supplies (paint, gesso, paper, brushes), that wicker basket will go in one of the bottom cubes (it contains paper I can use as background, books I don't mind tearing up), and that blue folder has assorted photos in it.

This is my tiny desk.  I was happy to get it (it's the first piece of furniture J ever built and he used it for a kitchen table/desk when he bought his first house after his divorce), but now it's simply too small.  I can't even keep my tool spinner on it - that has to stay on top of those wire racks!  In the back is another wooden rack with my Distress Inks in alphabetical order.  That works better for me - I know their names so it's easier to grab Barn Door from the B than go looking for red paints and inks...  Those two piles of "stuff" need to be put away.  That black unit all the way to the right is a rolling rack that I gotfor $25 (originally $89.95 at AC Moore).  It came with a fabric cover.  The next photo shows what's on it...

I took the cover off - there's plenty of room here I'm not using yet.  The hanging files have gallon freezer bags with scraps sorted by color.  The basket on the top shelf on the right contains photo CDs.  I'm a bit worried that they'll become obsolete so when I retire in a few years, that will be my 1st project - be sure the files are on my external hard drive.  If they're not, copy and organize them.  THEN I won't worry that the CDs will go the way of cassettes and 8-tracks...  Plus, there are probably photos on them that I haven't scrapped yet!!!  The shelves on the right side of the unit are empty, except for one project I'm working on, a painted Christmas canvas project from Donna Downey.  The two drawers have my journal, my P-touch, a small photo trimmer...

This is my favorite part of the room.  That wooden unit is a Murphy Bed that J built so that I could use the room but if we have guests, there's a full bed that can be pulled down.  On either side are floor to ceiling shelves that I use for storage.  I was worried about the sun fading my paper so I went to Walmart, spent $4 on a flat sheet (BH&G brand), cut it in half and trimmed it.  I sewed the pocket rod, but used iron-on hemming tape to finish the long edges and the bottom.  Easy!  (Thanks, G, for the idea of using a sheet!)  My ribbons are all sorted by color:  red/pink/white/black, yellow/orange/brown, green, blue/purple.  The shelf at the top is miscellaneous "stuff" right now - a white shelf that needs to be hung up, an altered paint can I'll get rid of soon, and two boxes of fibers I have to sort into my color bins.

This is the bookshelf on the left side of the bed.  Top shelf:  extra empty photo albums.  Next shelf:  a basket of projects to do when I'm bored (HA!), an empty cookie tin that I thought I could use for storage of something, and a couple of albums I put together with pages I got in a scrapping swap, two sorted by 2 pages/month, and one sorted by a theme/holiday for each month.  Next shelf:  plastic drawers with borders in the top one, punched out faces of family and friends from pictures that weren't so great, but their expressions were, and then an empty drawer (except for a few cut-out words from paper or magazined.  Next shelf:  paper storage using Cropper Hoppers, and this shelf includes an envelope of transparencies.  Next shelf:  the green and white bin contains 6"x6" and 8"x8' paper, and there's a stack of notebooks to the right.  Bottom shelf:  the orange and white bin contains alterable "stuff", and to the left of it are some chipboard albums, magazines I'm saving to scrap, and a pink box of letters from my best friend from college.  Okay, some people save love letters...  LOL!

 This is the set of shelves to the left of the bed.  Top shelf:  all but empty, with just an expanding folder with a few photos in it that have to be moved into photo storage. Next shelf:  my idea binder (a project I did online with Wendy Smedley, I believe), card storage for my homemade cards and for store-bought cards.  There's also a photo album of pictures of this house being built that has to be completed and moved out to the sitting room with the other scrapbooks.   Next shelf:  Cropper Hoppers with 8.5"x11" Stampin' Up paper, and horizontal files with my patterned paper in ROYGBIV order.  Next shelf:  the remaining ROYGBIV patterned paper shelves and some page protectors.

I had to take a separate photo of the last two shelves because of the rolling cart, which admittedly, I could have simply rolled away...  Next shelf:  storage bags and a file of magazine clippings for decorating my house.  Bottom shelf:  Sizzix Big Shot, Sizzix alphabets, and assorted other miscellaneous "stuff" to be sorted through and put away someday...

This rolling cart has a project in each plastic box.  From the top down:  a book I'm making for my stepdaughter about her boyfriend/fiance/soon-to-be-someday husband, a vacation album, a home album, and three Christmas boxes (yes, I love Christmas, so what?!?!).  My Cricut lives on top, with the various Cricut doo-dads on the shelf immediately to the right of the machine, just below the ribbons you'll see in the next photo.

Those ribbon storage boxes came from Walmart, and they work but I wish they were closer to my other ribbons.  Oh, well...  Those plastic drawers contain my Bazzil paper, some 1/2 sheets of mulberry paper, and some pads of Bazzill.  There's a jar of binder rings I use for mini-books, a plastic box of mini-books that will move to the sitting room soon, alcohol inks and blender solution, adhesive-backed ribbons, and a whole punch on top of the plastic drawers.  The Stampin' Up craft inks will go somewhere else when I figure out where I'm going to store my Stampin' Up ink pads...

Each of the green drawers contain, for the most part, embellishments sorted by color.  There's a little mini white plastic basket in each to corral the small "stuff", quart ziploc bags for some of the embellishments I picked up at the EK Success warehouse sales they used to have here in NJ, borders, adhesive- backed/themed felt ribbon borders, etc.  For instance, if it's green and it isn't an alpha set, paper, ink or paint, it pretty much gets tossed into this drawer.  Each drawer has a ribbon tied on the handle to indicate what color "stuff" is in it:  green, blue, pink/red, yellow/orange, gold/silver/bronze metallic, purple, black, white, multicolored (where I couldn't decide what the predominant color was).  There are a couple of drawers that aren't color specific:  one of adhesives and tape refills, one of Christmas embellishments, one of my flowers, and one of stamps.

When you look at the white cubbies/ green drawers in the first photo, you'll notice several cubbies without any drawers.  They contain, in no particular order:

• paper tagger
• Crop-o-dile
• a fabric tote with journaling spots
• a wooden bowl with scrap-decorated tags I've either gotten in a tag swap or created myself
• embossing supplies
• markers in a mini 3-drawer unit, paints, and pastels
• stamps in two or three cubbies (some Stampin' Up and other vendors, too)
• boxes with buttons (sorted by color) and other mini embellishments (similar to fishing tackle boxes)
• chipboard shapes
• two metal bins with my punches tossed in them (I don't have a lot of punches)
• blank card/envelopes
• quote books/title books

There's one empty wall on your left when you walk into the room (opposite my desk).  I have a poster to be hung up there, and there's a card table there now with a few boxes on it - boxes of some supplies that need to be stored away, and two boxes of supplies I'm looking to get rid of/donate.  There's also a clothing closet with cardboard, albums, storage containers and TONS'o'photos that I've started sorting according to Stacy Julian's Library of Memories program...

Hope you liked the mini tour - thought I'd do a video, too, but I want to practice that a bit before I actually post it here for you all to see!!!

Not much of anything...

So I have to decide whether to take all of tomorrow off, or only 1/2 of tomorrow.  I WANT to take all of tomorrow, and I'm hoping my baby sister will take a couple of hours to join Mom and me for breakfast and a quick trip to Trader Joe's...  If she can't take the time, I'm not sure...  I might still do it...  Hmm, let's call Mom and ask her what SHE thinks - just hang out for a second...

[One minute later...] No answer at Mom's house.  She's either (a) "washing her hair," or (b) at a doctor's appointment she didn't mention she had this morning...  Guess I'll ask her later...

We're going to the lake tomorrow - for the weekend.  The whole weekend.  Including Monday, when we have off.  For Presidents' Day.  YAY!  We haven't been to the lake for the weekend since Christmas, what with the holidays, me getting sick, Jack getting sick, snow, bad weather, more snow, Mom coming home, more bad weather, a funeral...  just to mention a few of the things that got in the way...  We did take a few day trips up there just to check on the house and so that Jack could do a bit of work on my closet in the basement...  But a relaxing weekend with nothing to do but read and scrap and shop?  Not in wwwaaayyy too long!!!

Which reminds me, we have sort of decided to change the design of the summer kitchen and the pantry down there.  Instead of putting open shelves in the corner near the pump at the bottom of the stairs, I think we're going to go with a full-length pantry from Ikea (yay for Ikea!).  It's better for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that it will be closed in so when he's working in the main room and making a mess, the sawdust or sheetrock dust will, for the most part, stay off whatever is in the pantry.  (Mama didn't birth no fool - I KNOW there will still be some dust inside the pantry, but it will be a heck of a lot less than on open shelves!)  The opposite corner will be some coat hooks for our every day jackets, against the wall of the new coat closet he built me in the family room.  Someday, when I can use one of those floor plan sites, I'll include a floor plan of the house and show you what we've already modified...  maybe that will be my assignment this weekend...  hmmm...

[21 minutes later] Mom called - she's all for TJ's tomorrow, and yes, she was at the doctor's office.  Now we have to convince my sister, who said that Fridays are her worst day - she might do TJ, but possibly/probably not breakfast...  I'm going to try to convince her...

This was a very productive week at work - I got loads done, including a 2 hour meeting in the middle of Wednesday, an hour of yoga immediately following, and some brief visits to my blogroll and Facebook whenever I needed a break.  I would love to stay on this roll for the next few weeks, catch up on everything that is on my desk, including what's been there for months but not handled (!), and leave on vacation and go to sales conference (end of April/beginning of May) with a clean desk, with only current work sitting there, waiting for my return.

A woman can dream, can't she?!?

Anyway, this was my break for this morning...  More "not much of anything" later!

Breakfast...

My favorite breakfast (when I'm not in a restaurant that offers biscuits and gravy) is scrambled eggs with pepperjack cheese, on a wrap, with some hot sauce to dip into...

So today, even though it's 2 days before my WW meeting, I decided to have a real breakfast instead of, oh, more weight-friendly fruit or water with a grape or two floating in it...  So I ordered my eggs and pepperjack on a wrap, picked up the little plastic cup and its matching lid, and reached for the Tabasco sauce...

Which wasn't there.

After the initial panic, I asked the grill guy for some hot sauce.

"Oh, sorry, we don't have any today.  We went through a whole case these past 2 weeks."

"Oh, sorry, we don't have any today. We went through a whole case these past 2 weeks."????????????????

For real?  I'm supposed to just accept that?  Why would you think I care how much hot sauce OTHER people were lucky enough to consume with their breakfasts or lunches when THERE.ISN'T.ANY.HERE.FOR.MY.EGGS???!!!???

So today's ephiphany is:  yes, eggs and pepperjack on a wrap IS my favorite breakfast, as long as there is hot sauce to dip into.

No hot sauce?

Waffles and maple syrup...

No, Stevie, you're NOT the only one!!!

'Real Books Mean Wandering Around the Store'


"I'm actually not so crazy about reading books on the iPad.... This became clear when I decided to buy my favorite book this season, As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, as well as another treat, In Tearing Haste: Letters Between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor. That's the moment I realized the iPad was wrong for book reading. I just couldn't bear to read these electronically. I needed to go to a beautiful bookstore and buy the hard copy and hold it and admire the type and the feel of it. Real books mean wandering around the store, talking to the owner about what's new and great, reading a few pages, buying it, carrying it with me. My iPad works hard enough for me that it doesn't need to download books. Friends love their Kindles and Kobos and I understand, but my heart leaps with the actual book, not the virtual one. And surely I'm not the only one."

--Stevie Cameron, author of On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women, in the Toronto Globe & Mail.

'How You Read Not as Important as Will You Read?'

from Shelf Awareness, Monday, February 7, 2011, Volume 2, Issue 1385

"The new immigrants don't shoot the old inhabitants when they come in. One technology tends to supplement rather than supplant. How you read is not as important as: will you read? And will you read something that's a book--the sustained train of thought of one person speaking to another? Search techniques are embedded in e-books that invite people to dabble rather than follow a full train of thought. This is part of a general cultural problem."


--James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress, in a Newsweek poll of "some literary brains on the future of reading."

In this instance, I disagree.  The search techniques are a bonus - IF you are already a reader.  You will read no matter what.  Your reading will not change if you're in a book or on an e-reader.  You will not "dabble rather than follow a full train of thought."  The thoughts are there and you will read them.

My fear is the potential loss of a generation of readers, per se, the loss of a love of books, the loss of a love of reading, when books on an e-reader become a reference tool, as the internet is now, rather than the gift of time lost in another world created by someone's blood, sweat, tears and imagination...  I am afraid people will view books on an e-reader like they look at the internet:  bits and bobs, one-liners, fragments of information like that commercial about how you jump from topic to topic when using a search engine: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMt6saTqq4

I'm just not convinced that you are sucked into a book, lost in that world, on an e-reader the way you are when those bound pages are in your hot little hands.  I've read books on an e-reader.  I'm not speaking without the experience.  But in my case, one will NEVER take the place of the other.  Admittedly there are circumstances when an e-reader will be beneficial to me - when I have to pay for every piece of luggage I take on vacation by the pound and one suitcase is filled with new hardcovers to read that week?  Uh-huh, an e-reader would be better.  BUT I wouldn't (and don't) enjoy the reading as much on the e-reader.

Perhaps that's my objection - not the tool itself, but the fact that I don't enjoy the activity using that tool as much as I do holding the book and turning the pages.   I have the Nook app, the Kindle app, AND an e-reader app on my iPod Touch.  I've had the iPod Touch since mid-December, and have yet to finish a book/story on it.  I have read 8 books since then...  I play games on the Touch, I read email on it, I listen to music on it, I check the weather at home and in St. Charles (where one of my best friends lices) on it.  But I don't read books on it.  I have Ayn Rand's Anthem on it, one of my all-time favorite stories.  Nope.  I have a freebie version of a Winnie the Pooh story on it.  Read about 3 pages.  Little Women is on one of the apps, too - another personal favorite (I always wanted to be Jo when I grew up!), but no, haven't read more than the intro.  And didn't enjoy it. 

I know part of it is the size; the small screen only allows you to read a sentence or two at a time and I'm such a fast reader that I can't "turn the pages" fast enough; maybe on a bigger screen I might be less angry every time I try to read one...  Although I have the apps on my desktop too and it never even crosses my mind when I'm on the PC to read on it...

Oh well, just another one of my humble opinions...

Happy 100th, Mr. Reagan!!!

You would have been 100 today.  You were one of our greatest presidents, in my humble opinion, at least one of our greatest contemporary presidents.  You were a patriot, dedicated to your country, you had faith and valued your faith above all else, allowing it to guide you in all your actions.  You were funny - and your one-liners reminded me of my dad's humor, delivered with a straight face and followed up with a smile once you knew we all "got it."  Oh, how I wish you were still President!!!  Those are some mighty big shoes to fill...

R.I.P., Kazia

P had to put her beautiful Kazia to sleep yesterday.  She has been suffering these past two months from spontaneous pneumothoraces, so bad that she couldn't sit, sleep, was coughing, panting, losing air into her body cavity from her lungs - basically bulla on the surfaces of her lungs would burst and leak air into her chest cavity.  So she would be panting and panting and not able to get enough air.

Kazia brought P such joy in her 10 years (she just turned 10 on January 26th) and my heart is broken.  How I wish I'd been able to be there, with P for this awful time, but also to love Kazia just a little bit more before it was her time.  She just didn't deserve to suffer, not after the loving and wonderful life she shared with P.

I know this is one of the hardest things that P has ever had to do, and I ask you to send some healing thoughts her way.  Thank you.

We'll miss you Kazia!

It's Friday...

... and I can't wait for the day to be over.  It's 9:39am and yes, I should be working instead of blogging, but sometimes when you can't concentrate, it's better to just take a break and then buckle down later.  I can't seem to focus on my work this morning ---

FOCUS.  I'm wearing my necklace.  Perhaps I just need to use my little touchstone and try to apply myself.  Give me a minute...

Oh!  I responded to an email!  (Stop laughing!  It's a start!)

Talked to G this morning.  Her mom's back in the hospital, for the past week or so.  It's so hard on her, but with her mom suffering from congestive heart failure, it's pretty much par for the course.  G is taking a lot on herself, blaming herself for M not having much of a life, and certainly not much of a marriage.  I jumped on her for that.  If the situation were reversed and it was M's mom they had to care for, they'd be doing exactly the same thing that they are now.  Yes, their lives revolve around caring for G's mom.  Yes, they can't go away or even out to dinner very often.  Yes, G is exhausted and tired and perhaps not great company for M.

But you know what M said to us at dinner a couple of weeks ago?  He said that he'd been reading about caregivers and how their own health and mental state suffer - even in the midst of it, he's worried about G.  And that's the way it's supposed to be.  Of course he misses his wife and the marriage they used to have.   When she retired it was to take care of her mom; wouldn't both of them have liked it to be so they could spend more time together?  Sure.  But this is what it is, for now, and the alternative sucks.  M is worried about G - when her mom finally gives up the fight, and we know she's fighting now, it will be the all time worst thing G has had to deal with, bar none.  And M knows that.  And is already worried.

I took advantage of the opening and told her she.needs.to.bring.someone.in.to.help.  Period.  End of discussion.  If not every day, all day, then at least for part of the day, several times a week, so that G could rest, take a shower, food shop, have dinner with M...  Surprise him at lunch one day...  Go away for a short weekend to recharge...  Or just sit down.  And watch a TV show with her husband.  Or take a nap.

She agreed that she needs to do something soon.  I have to encourage her - she needs a break.  It's not that I don't understand taking the responsibility on yourself:  if I'm late giving her her pills, if I forget to check the oxygen tank, if I close my eyes for one minute...  But G needs a break.  And she needs it before SHE collapses and has a heart attack and winds up in a bed next to her mom.  THEN what?!?!?

I'll mention to J that I talked to her so he can mention it to M.  Perhaps now's a good time for him to encourage her to do something like that.  She seemed more receptive to it, less likely to blow it off...

Well, breaktime is over, and it's back to work...

Photos and Words...

So there she is, beautiful E!!!  I haven't seen her since the Tuesday after Christmas, what with me being sick, J being sick, then the family traveling and our Monday nights going on hold...

Since I saw her last, she's gotten 2 teeth, eaten chocolate icing for the first time (and loved it!), and grown like a weed!!!  Here she is with her Daddy!!!

Here she is in her walker.  IN.HER.WALKER.  I missed that, too!  She has the cutest pink glitter sneakers to give her some traction.  She's not all over the kitchen yet, but it's just a matter of time!  She likes pounding on the noisemakers on the walker and turning the steering wheel!

More chocolate, Mommy!!!

This is the house next to us at the lake.  They pushed the snow down the road into this pile, right in front of our house, but at least they left us room to park!  Can't say the same thing for the neighbors' parking area!

Went shopping at Stein Mart.  Tried on some things, but only got a purple sweater with a little heather grey trim...  None of these items looked good on me, so they went back on the rack.

[I just can't, for the life of me, figure out why I can't left justify the comments for the second photo.  Blogger sometimes drives me NUTS!]

It really isn't that bad...

There's this blog I read called because I said so, written by the VERY talented Dawn Meehan.  Dawn is mom to 6, recently divorced, and on her own with apparently no help from her ex...  6 kids - I can't imagine it - but one thing that comes across in her writing is that she had a great attitude about it all...  No matter how bad it gets, and it can get pretty bad, she loves her kids and values her kids and the life they have together.  The proof is in her writing - take 2 minutes and read this one blog entry...
http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/2011/01/tale-of-due-pities.html

It's all in how you look at things...  Thanks, Dawn, for reminding me that as bad it might appear now, at this minute, you can always choose to see the silver lining...

Mom's Home!!!

You probably didn't notice, but a couple of posts ago, I was talking about Jack going to shovel out Mrs. D's house and Mom's, too, and how I asked her to give him some lunch...  Such a casual mention of MOM BEING HOME!

She got in on Tuesday evening, at 4:38pm.  I went to pick her up and the announcement board said her train was arriving on Track 1.  So I went to Track 1.  And I waited on Track 1.

Then she called me and said it was too cold on the platform so she was waiting in the Waiting Room.  Mom was home.  And Mom wasn't where she was supposed to be so things got back to normal really fast.  I started yelling at her that I was IN the Waiting Room and she wasn't there, where was she, the train hasn't even come in yet...

The train came in on Track 2.  Mom was in the Waiting Room.  On Track 2.

So although I was waiting with camera-in-hand on Track 1, I put it away quickly and ran down the stairs then up the escalator to get Mom from Track 2.  And I never took a photo of her arrival!

But I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOO glad she's home!

Of course, it can't be without some sort of trauma:  her luggage didn't come in with her.  In fact, her luggage didn't come in until yesterday, Friday, 3 days later!  We picked it all up this morning at Penn Station in Newark.

Last night we had Christmas with Mom.  She came for dinner, which has traditionally been a full turkey dinner, but this year, with the snow and people's schedules, and all the rushing around we all had to do, I picked up two pizzas from Costco and someone sent us tamales.  MMMMMMM, they were yummy!!!  So it was a bit of a pot luck dinner, and Sister C brought some candy for dessert...

And I didn't take any photos of Xmas in January, either.  (For someone committing to taking more photos, I'm not doing so well!)

Today we picked Mom up to go get her luggage and stopped at the Lyndhurst Shop-Rite for breakfast, so I took a photo of her there, wearing her new hat and scarf that Santa brought her from C last night...  (It's not the Rat Hat!!!  Private family joke, sorry!)

And tonight we had a 19th b'day party for my niece, who made me swear not to post any videos or photos on Facebook or on YouTube, but since she knows nothing about this blog, and the only people who read this blog will never rat me out to her, here's a photo of my gorgeous niece and nephew!!!  (The photo seems a bit grainy - I'll have to check my camera battery...)

Well, that's it for now...  Once I get caught up on my scrapping projects, I'll post some photos...  I'm doing three of them at once, one quite actively, and two, well, not so much...

FOCUS - My One Little Word

I'm taking an online class from Ali Edwards called One Little Word.

We had to choose a word to be "our word" for 2011.

I thought about "create," "try," "faith," "healthy," and so many more.  Then I realized what they all had in common was that what I wanted to do was "focus" on my creativity, on my faith, on trying to whatever, on eating more healthily and working out a little more...

So I chose "focus."  It sort of covers it all.

So I treated myself to a necklace from Lisa Leonard, personalized with my One Little Word.  Here's a photo:

It's going to be my anchor, my reminder, my touchstone...

We've Almost Broken a Snow Record...

The view of the Hudson River from my office window, yesterday, during the morning snow "shower"

I tried to get a close-up of the ice in the Hudson

Another view of the snow shower that dropped about 2-3" on Hoboken, BEFORE the actual storm that was scheduled to dump 5-8" 6-12" 9-15" of snow on us in the evening

Here's what it looked like out my front door this morning - we got well over the 15" that was the high of the prediction.  Jack went outside to shovel a little over 7am, and at 9:30 he had 1/2 the driveway and his car shoveled out, the front steps, and our sidewalk and driveway apron.  He left to go to Mrs. D's house, and to my mom's.  I called Mom and asked her to just hand him a cup of soup or a chicken leg or something when he eventually gets there 'cause all he ate today is a banana.  A banana.  ONE banana.  He wouldn't even come in and have a bowl of oatmeal or cold cereal before he left, or pack a cheese sandwich.  When he was leaving he said, "See you around 3 o'clock."

This is the view looking down the street (the one above was looking up the street).  The sun is out which makes it LOOK beautiful, but J said the snow is REALLY heavy.  He's not 30 anymore - I'm a little worried, but he's in good health...

 Here's the view looking at the front windshield of my car, and my neighbor's yard.

Cold and snow...

We drove up to the lake house to check out the snow and the cold...  I was up there last Saturday and had to climb through the snow that was there then in my sneakers and couldn't find a snow shovel.  That's 'cause it's not where it was all summer long, in the first floor shower where we stood it to let the snow melt last winter!  (Don't judge me - we don't use that shower since we added the second floor and the shower curtain stays closed...)  It turns out that sometime in the fall Jack decided to put it where it belongs - in the shed in the backyard.  Where the snow was even deeper...

-

Went inside the house and checked our weather station.  It was so cold the LED read-out was dim.  But it was visible enough to show that the temperature inside was  49 degrees and outside it was 26 degrees.

Then I ran to the thermostat to check the heaters, to be sure that the heat was working the way it was supposed to, and it was.  We have the heat set to 46 degrees, warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing.  It's amazing how warm 46 degrees can feel when it's in single digits outside first thing in the morning!

I walked out on the deck and yes, the lake is officially frozen.  Out on the lake there was a tent for one of the ice fishermen, and another one had a deck chair, an ATV and a grill.  We were too busy (and frankly, it was too darn cold!!) to take a walk on the lake but we'll  probably do it next weekend, if it's just a tiny bit warmer.  The wind is cold to begin with, but when it blows across the frozen lake - DANG!  It's just too darn cold!!!

Here's what the front of the house looked like from the front door - I really do love snow!!!

Last Week's Crop

On January 15 I spent the day at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Rockaway, scrapping away with the Scrap Addicts Unlimited Meet Up group.  Not, perhaps, my most productive day, but I did catch up on E's baby album, worked a bit on my picture files on the computer, and started a couple of other pages.

Last month my friend E spent the day with me; this month I was on my own, but had a great time with my scrapping friends!  Here's a view of the room, from my seat at the back.  I was the last table in the middle, at the back end of the room.  You can see there was another double row of tables against the windows, one behind me, and than against the wall you can't see (outside the right side of the photo) was a single row of vendor tables. 

This is Bea.  She's a scrapping friend I met through the Morris County Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Meetup Group that M and D started years ago.  Thet's the first group I joined, and it's a wonderful group of ladies I'm proud to call friends of mine.  Bea lives in Mendham Park and has an absolutely GORGEOUS home.  She hosted a few scrapping meet ups at her house a few years ago, before she lived in remodeling hell while her kitchen and family room were gutted and redone.  (Personally the original was awesome, and I haven't seen the new and improved version, but I'm sure it's stunning!)



And here are a couple of the pages I started.  The one with Mom will eventually get framed.  The one with my gorgeous daughter?  That one will wind up in my family book.  Took that photo at the Kindergarten graduation she ran last year at the after-school program.  We're so proud of her - she did a great job!

February's scrapping day is the 12th, so I'm not sure yet if I'll be there - our long weekend is the weekend after so perhaps we won't celebrate St. Valentine's Day the weekend it actually happens; maybe we'll do something the following weekend. 

Of course, I have to schedule my 1st colonoscopy soon; perhaps that 3-day weekend would be a good choice...  IF the doctor's working that weekend...  (See what happens when you turn 50?!?)

Cocktail dresses

Cocktail dresses by krys72599 Ideas for an April wedding at the beach

Looking for a dress for a wedding in Mexico in April - want something a bit more summery/floral, but at least I started looking!  Now, if only I could count on losing the weight, toning the arms and legs, and finding the perfect dress...

The wedding is at 5:45, with the reception on the beach immediately following.  So I know I won't go with the sequins - a bit too heavy for the beach - but I liked the dress so I included it in my set of photos... perhaps for another occasion...

Photos from this past week...

I was sick for a couple of days - here's me (with and without glasses, AND without having put a comb through my hair for two days!) - not my best look, for sure!

Still trying to find the right color for the hallway and the living room.  Did GREAT with the dining room; hoping I make as good a decision for the next project!  After pulling paint chips from both Lowe's and Home Depot, I grabbed this Martha Stewart brochure and started looking at a rainbow of colors!!!  No luck yet!

Had lunch last Friday with WASCP staff at the Hudson Tavern in town.  The food was pretty good.  Wouldn't mind some of their buffalo wings right about now...

St. Valentine's Church, in Bloomfield, NJ - our parish, since we rejoined in 1995-ish.  Glad I was able to take a shot before Mass, and before too many people saw me with my camera!

One of our usual nights out, en route home from Home Depot, we stopped for a quick burger.  I was already sick, hence the two straws.  Usually we just share...

Spent last week setting up my Project Life, from Becky Higgins.  It comes with all you need to keep track of your year on a week by week basis.  I'm going to give it the ole' college try!

And while I don't have a photo for this, take heed:  do NOT mix up black pepper and cinnamon when making tuna fish salad.  My  husband did, and, well, ewwwww....

Monday the 17th

So I've lost 10 pounds since the beginning of December.  That's a nice start, but I have a way to go.  I'd LOVE to lose another 10 to 15 by the time I go to Mexico in April for my nephew's wedding.  We're going to Cabo.  Yes, Cabo.  Where the stars go to play.  Not that I will see any stars, I'm sure, but it would be nice if I could buy some new clothes for the trip, specifically a new bathing suit.  I have several, one of which I actually wear, but the one will be a bit loose on me, if I can keep this weight off, so I'm going to start shopping once the spring and summer clothes come out...

I have a few sundresses that will be great for the dinners and the breakfasts, and I do need some non-junky shorts and tops for in between.  And of course I need a "dress for the wedding."  So with the help of WW's new Points Plus Program, I'm going to do this.

I have chosen a word for the year:  FOCUS.

I need to FOCUS on weight loss, on saving money, on taking more photos, on being a better all around person, on eating more healthy homemade meals (aside from the weight loss benefits, I/we have some bad habits - we eat out a lot).  I bought myself a necklace to wear every day that includes the word "FOCUS" on it - I'll post a picture of it here when it arrives, along with a link to the supplier.  It's going to be my anchor, a WW thing that I think and hope might work for the rest of my life, not just my weight loss...

We're on our way out the door to Lowe's - PLEASE keep your fingers crossed that I can find a color to paint my hallway and living room - hubby is getting a bit impatient with me.  I know I want a taupe, some sort of taupe, but I don't want the hallway to be too dark so I'm a bit afraid - the ones I like are on the darker side, rather than the lighter side.  I picked one several years ago that's on the wall now:  compared to the white ceiling, it definitely had some color.  UNTIL we painted all the walls with it and it just looks like, well, another shade of white.

I need to FOCUS on paint chips today...

R.I.P., Rich S. 08/30/88 - 01/03/11

22 is just too damn young.  It makes me mad that the world has lost such a sweet, gentle young man.

I went to the wake yesterday.  I knew it would be difficult.  But I feel almost like I've been trained to "do" wakes, I've had to go to so many of them, and I wanted to say goodbye to Rich. 

But this one was REALLY hard.  Hard because he looked - well, he looked even younger than his 22 years. 

And he looked, well, he looked like Rich.  And that made it that much harder yet.  He had that little stubble  going on, that little smirk on his lips, his hair spiked up in disarray.  He was wearing a white t-shirt, just showing under the unbuttoned top button of his black and grey and white striped dress shirt.  I knelt there by the casket, just waiting to see him take a breath.  I couldn't believe he was gone.

I spent several minutes talking with his mom, who I'd never met before.  Something unrelated to his health happened while he was in the hospital that has her and the rest of the family reeling, something I'm not at liberty to discuss here, but after she talked about that and got it off her chest, she talked about Rich.  How she knew that that situation I referred to very vaguely back there happened because he would give anyone the shirt off his back.  She knew what a genuinely nice person her son was.  She works in a laundry.  Rich would pop in and visit with her and if he saw someone struggling with a large load of laundry, either coming into or out of the building, he'd run to help them with it.  My sister said he always offered to take out the garbage, and 7 out of 10 times she'd have to tell him, "Rich, it's not anywhere near full yet!"  He carried in her grocery bags from the car, while my nephew, her son, watched.  [Edited 01/10/11:  While this doesn't take away from the kind  of young man Rich was, my sister said I'm mistaking him for another young man...  Sorry about that!  I remember being there and watching someone carry in groceries for her, but apparently it wasn't Rich...  It was another of J's friends.]  He bought my mother, my niece's grandmother, a dozen red roses for her birthday this past summer.  He hung a shower curtain in my mom's house 'cause she was too short to reach, then went downstairs and vacuumed her whole entire first floor for her.

His birthday was August 30th.  The same day as my nephew's, his former best friend's.  (My nephew had a bit of an issue with his sister dating his friend and they were a bit estranged - well, J was estranged from Rich.  Rich was still J's friend!)  My sister's boyfriend's son's birthday is the same day, too - we all celebrated the boys' three birthdays together this past August.  I even got Rich and J almost matching T-shirts!

We couldn't have picked a better 1st serious boyfriend for A.  No fake I.D.s, no drinking or drugs, a heart of gold...  His mom said Rich was really, really, really serious about A.  Like possible future serious.  But college for A got in the way - as it should, don't get the wrong idea.  A left for college and as I predicted, she started to pull away from Rich.  But they were still friendly enough to be texting the week before Rich died.  I know she's having a real hard time with this, as you'd expect.  It's horrible when someone dies who's your peer, your age, and even worse, a close friend.  And when you're young, you don't have much experience with loss.  Most of the time, anyway...

Rich, you were in my life for a relatively short period of time, but you will always be remembered.

This guy gets it!

From Shelf Awareness, Friday, January 7, 2011

"Late in the day on Tuesday, a couple came into the store. After browsing a bit, the wife approached the desk. Her husband, she explained, is a voracious reader. So, she got him a Kindle for Christmas. He tried it and didn't like it. So, she returned the Kindle and was at Battenkill Books to apply the same amount of money to a gift certificate for her husband. It made my day!"


--Connie Brooks, owner of Battenkill Books, Cambridge, N.Y.

Why My E-Reader Will Never Replace My Bookshelf, by Amy Preiser, shelterpop

Another article I enjoyed about e-books vs. print books.  There are points to be made on both sides, but it comes down to emotion.
She admits to the benefits of the e-book but will never give up her bookshelf.
Me, either.
I like the geekiness of thee-reader; I'm a techno-dork when no one's looking.
But I won't give up print books either; they will always be my 1st choice, forever and ever, amen.

http://www.shelterpop.com/2011/01/03/e-reader-bookshelf/?icid=main%7Caim%7Cdl3%7Csec1_lnk3%7C193513

Resolutions for the New Year

It would be silly to list all the things I plan to do that I will wind up not doing, so rather than THAT lengthy post, here's the short list of things I truly HOPE to be able to do this year:

1) Be a better wife, mother, sister, aunt, in-law, friend, employee
2) Stick to WW (or at least follow the plan more closely than I have been!)
3) Invite my faith into more of my life than just Sundays - not that it's not there - I just want it to be more front and center!
4) And for that silly, frivolous resolution TOTALLY related to #2 above, find an AWESOME dress for the wedding we're attending in Cabo in April!!!

It's a sad, sad day...

Asking for prayers for my niece, whose ex-boyfriend passed away suddenly today, at the young age of 21 or 22.  We don't have any details yet, but I know she's taking it pretty hard.  She's old enough now, at 18, for it to really hurt...