2010 Do not buy list

DVDs
Home telephone service
External hard drives
Smartphone
Compact digital cameras
Newspaper subscriptions
CDs
New college textbooks
Gas-guzzling cars
Energy-inefficient homes and appliances

Festival of Trees 2010

You really need to watch this video to get in the mood
but it is 2010
and I have gotten my festival of trees call
and signed up for another year!
I will be doing inventory and decorations again
seems the FORKLIFT driver was a huge hit and demands a repeat performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPViKJRHyZo

thanks RaeElla - this thought keeps me going

Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. “But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. “No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, in this life or the next, Sunday will come.”
Joseph B. Wirthlin

Do it

Saturday morning and the pool is calling but I am trying to warm up in front of the fire place reading blogs. I read this and was touched,
"a new chapter is being written for a lot of people. A lot of people like you, good, decent, responsible people, through no fault of their own, find themselves having to do things they've never done before. If you have to do it, do it.
Well, here I am still homeless and unemployeed and doing what I can to change the situation. Picking out new things for the home has certainly lost it's charm and no one wants to be looking for a job in this market place. There are jobs but you have to take a step down and what makes it worse is I can make more on unemployment than 90% of the jobs offered out there. So I have to take a cut in pay to work?, I don't think so.
I am not worried and realized months ago that I was certainly not in charge and I am a passenger on this ride called life. I am just trying to enjoy the ride but it really has too many hairpin turns and the ups and downs are too extreme for my liking. Still we are still so VERY blessed so I have just chosen to HANG ON!
We are already looking back and laughing. And when we finally see the BIG picture I know we will realize how truly loved and watched over we have been.

Book list-- ask me about one?

Here is our book club list since we started in 2000
I have tried to let you know the good ones that everyone should read
0- do not read, 1-not a good read, 2-poor read 3 - neutral 4- good book 5- must read books

The Bluest Eye 5

Tuesdays With Morrie 2

Gap Creek 0

House of Sand and Fog 0

One Fine Day 3

Persian Pickle Club 5

Harry Potter 3

Stolen Lives 3

Killer Angels 3

Suzanne’s Diary For Nicholas 4

Deck The Halls 2

Seat of the Soul 2

Blackbird 5

When I’m An Old Woman,

I Shall Wear Purple 0

That Camden Summer 3

More Than You Know 3

Let’s Fix The Kids 5
Icy Sparks 3

The Pilot’s Wife 2

Little Green Apples 4

Watership Down 0

The Lovely Bones 4

A Lesson Before Dying 3

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon 5

The Secret Life of Bees 5

The Waiting Child 3

The Red Tent 5

Step, Ball, Change 3

The Wedding 3

The DaVinci Code 5

The Midwives 3

The Good Earth 2

Girl W/A Pearl Earring 1

Bleachers 4

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 2

Angels and Demons 3

Left Behind #1 (series) 5

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency 3

Memoirs of a Geisha 2

Nobody Don’t Love Nobody 2

Left Behind #2 5

For Whom The Bell Tolls 2

The Peace Giver 2

Beyond Tuesday Morning 2

Great and Terrible Series: “Prologue,The Brothers,” and “Where Angels Fall”5

One For The Money 2

Rachel & Leah 5

Rebecca 5

Sara 5

The Kite Runner 5

The Reading Group 5

First Love, Second Chance 3

Cane River 2

The Third Secret 2

The Amber Room 2

Read It & Eat Cookbook 3

The Book Club Cookbook 3

A Woman of Destiny (aka Saints) 5

My Sister’s Keeper 5

Hot and Bothered 3

Alas, Babylon 4

Eve and The Choice Made in Heaven 5

Eve and The Mortal Journey 5

Kristin Lavrans daughter 3

The Bridal Wreath 3

Wish You Well 3

A Train To Potevka 2

Twilight 4

Water For Elephants 2

A Girl Named Zippy 2

The Other Boleyn Girl 5

Hadassah, One Night W/The King 4

Final Gifts 2

The Boleyn Inheritance 5

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow The Bible as Literally 1

The Shell Seekers 2

Shadowland Series Includes: Shadowland, Ninth Key, Reunion, Darkest Hour, Haunted, Twilight)2

Marley & Me 2

The Glass Castle: A Memoir 3

Women Of The Silk 4

The Book Thief 4

Pillars of The Earth 1

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan 1

The Shack 5

The Brief History of the Dead 1

Cry, The Beloved Country 1

My Enemy’s Cradle 2

These Is My Words 2

A Child’s Journey Out of Autism 4

The Hunger Games 3

A Spy Too Close 3

Having Hope, Finding Faith 3

Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West 3

Catching Fire 3

Sarah’s Key 5

Another fun play date

Thanks Ambree and Lily for taking pictures

Book Club

Here are my book club friends. We have been meeting together for about 10 years and read and reviewed over 120 books!
Some friends have come and gone but the core group of readers remains the same. We are all very different but so much a like in many ways. Besides the good and bad books, the good and bad restaurants, you can always get help and the therapy you need to go on for another day

Special thanks to Lily for coming to book club and taking these cute photos for me!

Orlando -- take it or leave it

Orlanda was a nice place to visit but I certainly would not want to live there. I was trying to travel light and did not take my camera to Epcot and could not find any books or post cards that had pictures so when I went to down town disney, I took my camera. This was my favorite place. Everything was built with Legos. It was pretty cool to see. Epcot was too big and expensive where down town disney was just right.
Everyday I got up late, read in my room, went to breakfast and after breakfast hit the pool till three and then hopped on the bus for a local site. My feet will take weeks to recover as I have blisters everywhere. On Monday, I finally said "uncle" and got a message. It was sweet. Since it was winter in Orlando, there was limited sun and the wind was always blowing. I had a hard time keeping my tan lines. Rob worked most of the time so I was a loner but never minded it. I just did everything at my own pace. I was surprised that Disney was exactly the same as California.

Orlando Florida

Well , I am headed to Orlando tomorrow and Rob will be right behind me on Saturday. It would seem I made a small mistake with my reservation and booked a day early and it was cheaper to get a room than to cancel or change the airline tickets. Luckily, I have a few good books and have made all the decisions I need to make for the house. Now if the weather will behave, we will have a great time. I am anxious to use my free ticket to Disney world.

teaching my dad about blogging

I was finally about to have my daddy daughter date for my dad's birthday this week. It had been planned for the Monday after our house caught fire. After dinner we spend some quality time on the computer updating, deleting, cleaning up and a short lesson on blogging. It was fun!

Friday Play date

Amy had mentioned that Ambree had wanted to start a play date with Lily and I decided I wanted to have a play date too.
So here is the whole crew coming over after school on Friday. We had lunch in the lobby and then a swim. It was so fun that even grandpa came over from work to watch. We had the whole pool to ourselves.
Kyler was practicing his Mayan dives and about gave me a heart attach.
We played Simon says and motor boat and Hunter was practicing his karate kicks on me. After swimming it is a little crazy and we ran out of cookies but the maid showed up and you would have never known anyone had been here
I hope they all come next week!!!

please volunteer

Disney is giving away free one day passes if you volunteer. Since I have been stock piling soaps, shampoos, conditioners and mouth wash here at the hotel, it seemed a perfect idea to make hygiene kits. Just a little stop at the dollar store to pick up a few things and we were done. It was easy and fun.

Here's what happens when mom won't let you go swimming

My favorite Rachelle Story

After having my forth boy, it became apparent that I was not going to get any girls so my Beautiful niece became the daughter and although most of the time she wanted boy toys like race tracks, scooter and such, I was able to sneak some girl stuff in there for her. One of those things was my wedding dress. I had worn it. My friends are worn it and after the last possible user, I did not want to pay $100.00 to get it clean so I passed it on to her.
She loved it
Then that Christmas Ric called early that morning pledging for me to talk to Rachie. It would seem she wanted to wear the wedding dress to my parents house for Christmas day. Of course, my first response was -- Why not? Sadly, I could not support him as it seemed perfectly okay to me that a 3 or 4 year old would want to wear the wedding dress. Ric must have done some fast talking as she did not wear it but I hear later on that the dress was in the car. I think Ric told she could change and hoped that once she got there she would forget. She did but I still love the child who would have wanted to wear it !
Ric apartment caught on fire a few years later and the wedding dress was one of the few survivors.

Tongue twister

Years ago I was teaching cake decorating at the community center and had a student who came in with a hysterical tongue twister.
We had so much fun with it
that weekend we were going to a movie with our best friends Mark and Debbie
Mark loved the tongue twister and had been practicing all night at dinner
as we are standing in line, he gets confident and goes over to three young girls
and says listen to this
( of course he messed up on the first line)-- and returned back to us to continue practicing
we were laughing till we pee'd our pants
So here it is
One smart feller, he felt smart
two smart fellers, they both felt smart
three smart fellers, they all felt smart

try it-- fast

Kids say the darnest things

Here is a quote from my sister's e-mail

At family home evening on Monday night we were talking about what had happened in 2009 and the goals and things that everyone wanted to do in 2010. Jessica's were (Go to YW/Temple, go to Jr. High, etc.) Ryan's were (turn 8, get baptized, become a scout, etc.) Brooklyn's #1 was to move into and live in a hotel just like her Aunt Debbi. She must have been pretty impressed by your hotel!!

Here I am sometimes feeling bad for myself and the hotel life and then I get an e-mail like this and realize just how lucky I am

New Years Eve Fun

Banging pots and pans at the hotel

Girls day out