Sneak Peak 2

Sneak Peak...

Sneak peak of something special to come...
This day was spent doing fun stuff...never getting out of my yoga pants and shirt...watching Twilight for the umphteen time, along with some other fav movies and in between laundry and cleaning sporatically, I worked on this little goodie.

Volunteer Service Day

It was a coincidence that my high school Alumni Challenge Basketball game fell during Nat'l Volunteer Week.
So I'm off today performing service for others; the K-6 school where I use to work and of course this evening, the best basketball venue out there.

click here for a quick refresher
and click here for visit to my alumni info

I am fortunate that the company I work for offers 8 hours PAID per year for Volunteer Service. It's a shame that a lot of my co-workers do not take advantage of it.
Give me a kid and a book any day! This love of reading to/with children came from my childhood love of reading and taking on the charachter's accents, mannerisms, etc.
It's where my dream of drama exists. It's why when my own daughter was small, it would not do to just read the words on a page from her favorite story...oh no...I had to BE the charachter, too...no matter how tired I was from the working, cooking, cleaning.
And it was just fine with me.

If you have the day to give, visit this website for ideas on how to serve for
Nat'l Volunteer Week

Have a great service day!

Love dem Old Things....

Had a Fab Fun day today (although the newly arrived heat about did us in) at the Folsom Antique Street Fair.




More later when my feet return to their normal size.

THIS is my Frame of Mind, too...

What makes me giddy?
New background/texture papers....well ya sort of, but GLITTER paper?!!
It makes my heart go pitter patter.
Texture paper you ask...oh yea baby, and dual sided in yummy colors makes my mouth water every time.
Cute little embellishments like brads and mini buckles? can't get enough.
Darling cut outs all matching...I shutter with glee.
Handle holding sponges to keep my fingers ink free? I would like one for every color family thankyouverymuch.
A stamp set with fabulousy cutsie and versatile images and sayings?
I have to add some drawers to hide store them all.

What pray tell is all this?



Ok, need a closer look?

is your mouth watering yet?
do you feel heart palpatations?
lean in close if you dare....
all of this....and directions too? Terri, are ya kiddin me?


Nope! and neither is Close To My Heart. I'm tickled pink that they chose this kit to celebrate National Scrapbooking Month.
It's TICKLED PINK time...available exclusively through me!
click on Create and Celebrate and see how you can celebrate YOU !
(and maybe...just maybe, with all these fabulous products rolled into one kit and adding your freedom of creativity, you may win big!)

And now for your viewing pleasure...

THiS is a definite dream about to happen....
You simply cannot give up no matter the obstacles or appearances.

HoPpY EaStEr!

Good Friday was...GREAT!

I was lucky to get the day off Friday....unexpected and welcome!
(these two things don't always happen where I work, by the way)

Gramie (aka Mom) had told me that my cousin Laurie was coming up for the weekend to celebrate her birthday with friends and extended family and they were going to lunch.
The other fun thing was Laurie had tracked down an Aunt that we lost track of...
sort of.
Aunt Maxine was married to my mom's brother, also brother to my cousin Laurie's father. Clear with the family tree?

So we had a lovely visit, lunch, more visiting....and of course Gramie had to tell us a joke....not just any joke...the infamous chicken joke. This joke normally involves wearing a chicken hat, but thankfully it was out in the coop doing what any American chicken worth it's weight is doing a few days before Easter.

Now if you haven't heard OR seen this joke before, please set down any liquids off to the side else you may spew said liquids all over your computer. The joke involves telling of a dream in the first person...ya know, "I had a dream" (sorry MLK no disrespect)
I had a dream that a chicken wanted to have sex with me...
At this point Aunt Maxine, who is 89 years old and-will-be-90-in-October looks up at Gramie and says, "you mean you still get sex?"
Gramie was perturbed as you can see that she was upstaged.

When my cousin Laurie and I picked ourselves up off the floor and checked our depends, Gramie continued without a pause.

The punch line you understand, involves a cough and feathers flying from the joke-tellers hand.
I wasn't sure how Aunt Maxine would take that......
Well....as you can see, she got quite a laugh out of it!


After we visited some more, we realized it was now dinner time.
So, not because it was her birthday or anything but my cousin Laurie insisted on buying us dinner.
So we headed down the road to Marie Calendar's and had another very lovely meal.

We all agreed that it was the Greatest Good Friday any of us has had in years...
and hopefully we can do it again for no other reason than to just visit and tell jokes!

International Disturbed People's Day

I've mentioned I collect pear-o-bilia, right?

Monday Sadness...

I'm a pretty upbeat person to those who know me and to any bloggers who happened to land here even though I don't know them "face to face". I figure there's enough gloom and doom in the world and we just don't need to read/see it while spending precious spare time blog-hopping.

Once in a while something breaks through my Scarlett O'Hara (I'll worry bout that tommorah) pessimism...

Today was one of those days...
And if you don't have tissues handy, please close this window now.

I'll keep this background part short first.
In 1996 our 18 yr old nephew went missing. Or so we thought. After searching along the Sacramento River for weeks, we found he wasn't just missing. He had been murdered and his body was found at a marina near our home.
It was hard. It was difficult. The subsequent arrest and conviction of an aquaintance of the family made the horror worse.
Even though Nick was not a little boy, he was still a very worthy human being.
A child.
A son.
A brother.
A nephew.
A grandson.
A cousin.

So when we hear in the news that a child (no matter the age) has gone missing...well it doesn't just break my heart, it tears at the inner core of what makes me human.

Recently, an 8 yr old went missing in an area not too far from us and her picture was all over the national news. Scores of volunteers and law enforcement were combing the area. A piece of video from a camera mounted on her home showed her skipping along the driveway.
From the first moment I saw the news reports, I just wanted to scream at the TV..."check any water areas first!"
And the sad thing is...
The authorities found Sandra Cantu about 2 miles from her home today.
In a canal. In a suitcase.

And I am heartbroken that a very worthy human being is no longer with her family.
A child.
A daughter.
A niece.
A grandaughter.
A cousin.

Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers.

We interrupt this Blog.....

We do it every 3 months...
What's it all about?
Trade in our BFG's for this handsome, young , strappin', rugged, young dude?
Nope!
It's the new Summer '09 Close To My Heart Catalog....and I have it AND some See's candies ALL to myself...so I'll be absent for a while...plottingplanning how to get one of every new awesome, trendy, and totally cute thing in it!

and if you want to see this cutie-patootie...one.more.time.....No worries...he'll be visiting you real soon!

My Frame of Mind Lately...

'nuff said.