New year of adventures!

What's up?- Where to start...a lot of life goes by in 2 months! The only sucky thing that I can think of is that my camera broke. I still need to get it in to try to get it fixed. I've been trying to get used to my new camera phone - no luck there - so I went a bought a pocket camera that I'm still trying to figure out. Everything is chugging along so nicely, I'm just enjoying life as it comes. I've been busy lately getting ready for the holidays of course...and planning my winter vacations! Steve and I will be hitting the road on Christmas Eve to spent some time with Nolan, Jenny and our new grandson Caiden. The family is getting together at Sadie and Mike's for Christmas morning brunch. Pajama attire is encouraged at this event so, needless to say, it's pretty laid back. The rest of Christmas day will be spent in Princeton visiting my Mom and Dad. There will be a big crowd of us at the AmericInn...POOL PARTY! My goal for the week is to stay stress free and enjoy the company of all the people I love!
Activity- While out shopping, I bought myself a pair of snowshoes. I've used them a couple of time and enjoyed myself. With all the recent snow in Barnum, I'm looking forward to going out and enjoying a walk in the woods. It's really beautiful but there are a lot of animal tracks. Mostly deer but I've seen some others also, maybe wolves or cougar, both of which makes me a little nervous. I could start treking around with my gun but that seems a bit much even for me!
Laughter- Having "The Tanner Show" in my livingroom everyday is my kind of entertainment!
Kindness- Tis the season! I never pass a Salvation Army kettle without putting in a little something!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

ABC's to live by.

What's up?- Long time, no blog! Well, "What have I been up to?", you ask. Where to start? I finished up my 50th year celebration with a surprise party for the whole gang of 50ish friends - Hubby Steve, myself, and friends - Patty, Craig, Dan, Wayne. Many family and friends were there and it was so nice of the party planners to put it together for us! Steve and I have moved into his parents house for the winter. Steve's folks go to Arizona for the winter so we have until April to figure out where we will camp out next...will the new house be ready in time? I doubt it so I'm thinking we'll have one more summer at the lake and hopefully be move in ready next fall. In the meantime we continue to plug along with construction projects. The windows and doors are nearly in and the electrical and plumbing will be next on the list. One of the fun things I did since Iv'e last blogged was my roadtrip-in-a-jar. It was a blast and I'll post some pic's on it when I get some extra time - sorry for the delay. My camera battery went out and I haven't been "to town" yet to get it replaced.
Appreciation- hot showers, a flush toilet, TV- Thanks to the inlaws for letting us stay in their house while they're away. With our constructuion project right next door, we are hoping to make great strides this winter!
Laughs- TOOOOOO MANY to count! It's really been a fabulous last few weeks.
Kindness- Nola gave me one last gift for my birthday - I know you may be thinking... ENOUGH ALREADY ABOUT YOUR STUPID BIRTHDAY!!! She found the perfect gift and I love it! It's a marble looking plaque that contains these words words :
Abandon doubt Be adventurous Call Dance Eat cake Forgive easily Give joy Hope Initiate romance Just say yes Kiss discriminately Love passionately Make out more Not in public Open your heart Play Quench desire Reciprocate Save yourself Touch Upset convention Vary technique Wear very fine lingerie X-rate often Yearn Zip

if fun was illegal...I'd be in for life!

New York City! I can't even begin to say how much fun I had on my latest trip to NYC! First of all, I went with some of my very best friends- Nola, Brenda, Paula. Nola and Paula had to work from Sunday until Wednesday while Brenda and I spent the day seeing the sights and running into famous people at every corner. On Wednesday night I found out that the ladies had tons of fun planned for me for the remainder of the trip. They would just bring me places and surprise me with all sorts of fun things. Wednesday we went out for pizza and then to the show "Stomp". Loved it - they make all kinds of music with everyday object as they dance around stage - very cool! Met some interesting people from Australia that night. Had I only known I was going to get up at 4:30 AM for the Today Show, I may have gotten to bed before 1 AM! Thursday morning it was off to Rockafeller Plaza...and yes I'm wearing a crown and a sparkly tank top that says, " Queen of been there, drank that". Super classy but we were all in it together.Tina Fay was there too! She's super-duper little in person! We took a short nap before we left for our next adventure to Coney Island -but before we went out the door I was given a very nice purple bra as a gift... unusual to be sure but just roll with it I thought. In fact everyone put on new cute bras....Hmm...more on that later. Throughout our day at Coney, I was given things to do, such as Pole dance with the only palm tree non the beach, do a "happy" dance in the water ( best part is the men in Speedos in the background), talk to someone about their pet. I probably would have gotten more things crossed off my list if we hadn't stopped at "Jeremy's" bar in lower Manhattan. It's a cheap local beer joint who's claim to fame is....women leaving their bras on the ceiling....YEP! It all became clear in the instant it took me to walk in the door. It took several doses of liquid courage for us to finally get them up there, but we did. We had a blast dancing the night away to our favorite juke box tunes. If anyone new came into the bar I greeted them with a big "Thank-you for coming to my birthday party" hug! I think we succeeded in bringing a lot of life to the little hole in the wall! There are so many other adventures and laughs that we had during our days in New York I'm sure I'll post more as I get time to go through the 380 pictures I took! For now, I'm off for another weekend of fun - ROADTRIP-IN-A-JAR!

On the road again...

What's up? - I'm busy tying up some loose ends before I leave tomorrow morning. I'm heading to Sadie and Mike's first to drop off the woodsplitter so they can start stockpiling wood for winter. Then I'm going to do something I've NEVER done before - - get a manicure! There's never been a need when you are a nailbiter like me but I haven't bitten my nails for nearly 3 weeks now. My hands still look like farmer lady hands, with nicks and scrapes from working at the house but when I clean out the dirt from under my nails, they do look a little better. I'll be staying at Jenny and Nolan's on Saturday night. It's been a while since we've hung out and I can't wait to see them. They won't be there until the evening because they have a birthing class all day on Saturday--how exciting for them! I'm going to try to get some sleep on Saturday night because I'm getting picked up by two of my favorite ladies, Nola and Brenda ,at 4 a.m. Sunday for our trip to NEW YORK CITY!! YEAH!! We'll be in New York until next Friday so we'll have plenty of time for fun, fun, fun! A big shout out to Brenda for passing her physical therapy exams!
Appreciation - I'm so very thankful for all my lovely family and friends. Seeing them is what I like best in all the world!
Laughter - The other day I chatted with my sister-in-law, Kelli. She is so funny and always makes me laugh with her of the wall, almost always outrageous statements. I really love her.
Kindness - Carol and George - my inlaws - were over at the house helping me again. They never have to - they just want to! It made my job over there today go much faster and it is kind of them to help us out. Carol offered us their house to live in this winter while they're gone to Arizona. As October quickly approaches, it looks more and more likely that we'll need to take them up on their offer, at least until our house gets livable. (It will be great to have satellite TV when the Twins get to the Series!)

Goodbye rain...Hello sun...goodbye sun!

What's up? - The rain and clouds cleared out just in time for a spectacular sunset. It's so dramatic with all those dark clouds around. I wish all my love's were here to share it with me! The sun is now setting so far to the south that I can't get a good view unless I'm down at the lake. Earlier I went out to the house and took some new photos with the windows installed. We've had the windows since last year when we got a steal of a deal on them. Someone ordered the wrong size and then returned them to Lowe's. We ended up designing the south end of the house around the windows we had. This is the view as you drive up... ...and from the south... ... and from the backyard. There's still a big hole in the front where the door will go. I ordered that door yesterday along with a door for the back porch. All the posts are part of a wrap around porch that will get done eventually. Everything should be shut in by the end of the month. I found out the insulation is arriving tomorrow morning. We are trying a do-it-yourself spray foam product for the exterior walls. I hope it's as easy as the video shows on line.

Activity - I did some yoga today. I think yoga is tricky. It's so controlled compared to other exercising I've done (eg. Turbo Jam, which I also love). It's thoughtful and calming but and I still work up a sweat and I can feel it in my muscles as I sit here typing.

Laughter - I watched "Date Night" last night and I thought it was HILARIOUS! I was in tears from laughing so hard. It's a simple story and sometimes it was hard to see beyond Tina Fay and Steve Carell's television roles but I would definitely recommend it!

Kindness - Our friend Tom is in the hospital with a severe injury so some of his dentist friends are helping by working at his practice for him. That's so kind. Also I went to the Caringbridge website and read some of the kind words people have left in Tom's guestbook.