Picnic and Butterflies!

  Spring is really here finally!  Today's sunny weather was just perfect for today's picnic!
  I went to a picnic for lunch today and it was wonderful!  Today's picnic was the" annual spring picnic" that my cousin's daughter's elementary school hosts each spring.
  This picnic had a couple of clowns walking around entertaining the kids, along with some game booths with prizes.  They had water balloon games, three legged races, potato sack races etc... They also had a couple of clowns making balloon animals, also they had great BBQ! 
  My cousin's daughter is in kindergarten and her name is Emily (she's adorable if I do say so myself)!  With the variety of things to do there, Emily was fixated on one thing only!  She just "had to have" a balloon animal!  Nothing else would do!  The lines for the balloon animals were so long, my cousin Julie and I tried everything to change her mind, neither of us wanted to wait that long in line with her. 
  Julie went with Emily first hoping the line only looked long but would move quickly, it was moving, but very slowly.  Julie waited until she needed to sit and get a drink, but Emily would not budge!  I took over the line duties with Emily.
  The line took almost an hour in total wait time.  We get up to the balloon animal making clown and Emily decides she doesn't want an animal!  Emily shyly & sweetly tells the clown she wants "butterfly wings".  The clown thinks for minute and says "butterfly wings it is"!  i've never seen a child's eyes light up the way Emily's did that minute!
  A few twists and squeaks of the balloons later, the clown turns Emily around and carefully pulls her arms through a couple of balloons, and before you know it she's got 2 big "butterfly wings" strapped to her back!
  Emily then took off running with her arms flapping as fast as she could flap them!  She went running for her mom Julie and told her "mommy, my wings aren't working!  I still can't fly like a butterfly!" 
  Emily warned everyone that came near her to be careful around her butterfly wings she didin't want them to "get broken" .  After a while one wing did pop on it's own, but it didn't stop Emily from believing she could fly like a butterfly!

  I just love a child's imagination!

Things I Love/ Favorite Things: Day 3 (My Blanket)

  My "magical" blanket was bought by me at a arts and wine festival 15 years ago.  It's a wonderful hand woven, richly colored, sun and moon reversible (blue on one side and gold on the other) blanket.  I remember I bought it directly from the weaver that made it, which in my mind makes it even more special.  I had a sun and moon decor in my bedroom then, from the sun and moon wallpaper border to the little, blue star shaped candles on my desk.

  The blanket was proudly featured on my bed each day.  I spent many nights snuggled underneath my blanket dreaming, sleeping, watching T.V, studying, talking on the phone, crying my way through heartbreak every now and then.  My blanket has always been there to provide warmth and comfort.
  My "magical" blanket (I call it magical because it's always "magically" had a way to soothe me).  The first time I woke up in Jason's (my husband) arms, we were snuggled underneath this wonderful blanket, and realized I was I falling in love with him!
  The first time I heard Jason say the words "I love you", I was sitting by a fire wrapped in this blanket.  When I moved in with Jason, my blanket was the first thing I moved to his place, and laid it on the bed.
  In our house, the blanket is always lovingly draped on our living room sofa.  I still snuggle under it quite often.  It's my favorite companion when I'm reading, quietly listening to music, or watching snow fall outside during the winter months.  Jason likes to cover himself with it while he lies on the sofa listening to his favorite CD's, and eventually falls asleep (never fails, he always fall asleep under it!) lol!
  My blanket will never lose it's "magic"

Working hard

  I've been gone the past couple of days, but for good reason.  I've mentioned my older brother Mark in past posts, and he is the reason I have been absent.  No, he isn't here visiting (he says not even a sister can bring a "California boy" to some place named "Ohio"!), unfortunatle he'll probably never "grace" me with his presence out here, I love him though! 
  My brother has given me a gift.  The gift is a job!  He has owned his own company since 1981 (he works out of his house), anyway he has just hired me as his "executive officer"/ "webmaster" of sorts.  My first order of business is to completely redisign his company's website!
  I have absolutely no experience in web design, yet when he offered me the position I jumped at it and said "yes" immediately without realizing what I got myself into! OMG!
  In a way it's the perfect situation for me, I can work from home and set my own hours.  I get paid for the time I spend building and maintaining the site, and get a portion of profits made from the site.  Sounds great!
  The past 2 days, visions of colors, codes, templates, fonts, logos, products etc... have been swimming around in my head like fish in an aquarium.  My head is spinning!  I am making head way though! Yeah!
  I just keep thinking that working from home is perfect for me, and who knows, maybe I can start my own web design business!  It definitely doesn't hurt to learn a new skill, and I always like a challenge.  But, right now the sun is shining and while the day is young, I'm going to take advantage!  The computer will be waiting for me when Lilly and I get back from the dog park!

Another resolution: Continue "page turning"

One thing that was a common sight during my childhood was that of my mother reading a book. My mother was and still is a voracious reader. She would spend many weekend and vacation days lying in the California sun reading. At night while my dad, older brother and I watched T.V, you could find her curled up on couch reading. She is the only person I know of that actually brings a book to read when at a major league baseball game! My mom recently told me she normally finishes a book in a week. I don't read as much as I should (even though I do enjoy reading)I always seem to find an excuse for not reading such as "don't have time" etc... at my age, my mother was a married woman with 2 kids and a full time job outside the home. What I admire was that she either found or made time to do something that she loves! Well no more excuses for me! So here I go!
 
In a recent post I mentioned one resolution I made around New Years to become more disciplined. One of my other resolutions is to read more. Towards the end of 2009, I was going to get a jump start on this resolution. I friend of mine invited me to join her book club! I immediately accepted and read the book they were currently reading which was "The secret lives of Bees". The book club would meet at a different member's house once a month to discuss the current book, and a different member would then chose the next book and so on.... The club was a lot of fun, but around the holidays everyone got busy and the club "feel apart". I didn't read anything in January and February (shame on me). This week I started a book called "Carry me home" by Sandra Kring, I'm about 1/4 the way through it, very good story, I will not reveal any details until I'm done.
I thought it would be kind of fun to start my own little book club here. I will keep my blog updated as to which book I'm reading. When I'm done with the book I will discuss it in my post. If anyone wants to read along with me, "the more the merrier!"

Spring is here! Well, almost.

Ahhh, clear blue, sunny sky, temperature is actually above freezing for the first time in months! Birds are chirping in the distance, my pugs Lilly and Lacy are both lying the sun that is shining through the window. The downside of this wonderfulness is there's still snow in our yard that's, I'm not kidding you waist high! We keep joking to each other that it will be July before we see any grass! As I am writing this, my husband is desperately "channel surfing" in search of any spring training major league baseball game that might be on, as if watching a baseball game is going to make spring arrive any faster!
I have to admit, there things about winter that I enjoy and miss during other parts of the year. Christmas is my favorite day of the year and of course it's during winter. I love watching the snowflakes gently fall to the ground, I think an untouched blanket of snow on the ground is beautiful. On the comical side, my husband and I have some seriously hilarious snowball fights in our yard from time to time, and I about fall over laughing when watching my husband try to run in thigh high snow to track down a wayward pug, who has wondered into the neighbor's yard! believe me, what I've just described is a sight to behold! Spring will soon be here and the snow will soon be gone, and the snowball fights will be put on hold for another 7 months. I will welcome spring, but will in some ways miss winter.

Lilly's day at the park

I thought I would take advantage of our mid 70's blue sky, very sunny morning, by taking our pug Lilly to the local dog park! I put a red harness and leash on a very excited Lilly, gathered up a bottle of water for her (she gets thirsty at the park). I thought I might get some cool shots of Lilly soaking up the sun, so I grabbed the digital camera, checked the camera batteries which looked good to go, Lilly jumped into the car and away we went! The park wasn't busy, only one other dog there (perfect!). Lilly excitedly jumps out of car when I open the door, and we quickly head up the path to the dog park gate. All of a sudden what was once an excited Lilly, changes to one that doesn't want to go through the gate! I had "shoo" her through the gate. We finally get through the gate and the other dog (a big tan Boxer puppy)walks up to Lilly and gives her the obligatory doggy "hello" "butt sniff" greeting! The greeting made Lilly's eyes as big as saucers! I just had to laugh! Lilly wasn't scared, she was looking at the other dog like "who are you?!" Lilly was calm, but I thought the look on her face was comical! I started to talk to the other dog's owner and felt a tightening feeling around my lower legs. I looked down and realized that both Lilly and the other dog had been following each other around me, and I was wrapped up so tightly with two leashes that I almost fell over! I started laughing, I just couldn't move an inch! I was quickly "rescued" by the other people and able to move!
Finally a third dog came in, a smaller dog, who ran up to also "greet" Lilly, and for one brief, very cute moment they were nose to nose. I really wanted to capture the "nose to nose" moment so with camera in hand I hurried to snap a shot, only to find out the camera batteries died! Oh no!! Not now!!! Of all times!!
The next thing I now, I look up and the smaller dog, which is about 1/2 the size of Lilly, is up on Lilly's back trying to "hump" her!! OMG!! The smaller dog (named Oscar)'s owner quickly got the dog off Lilly's back, and Lilly ran over to me and stood between my feet. I moved away from Lilly (I don't want her to be really clingy with me all the time). I think she was "plotting her revenge" against the smaller dog "Oscar". Lilly sat and waited until Oscar went to the water bowls near the fence to take a drink. Once oscar started to drink, Lilly walked over and "flipped" the water bowl over while Oscar was drinking out of it! This poor little dog had water all over his head! Lilly then proudly trotted back to me as if she was saying "Ha,ha! Look what I did!" After that Oscar left her alone, so I guess it worked! Everyone who witnessed it was laughing!
a few minutes later we headed home, and now I have a seriously tired, worn out, sleeping Lilly, who is curled up next to her sister Lacy! How sweet!

Nature's beauty

I took a little walk outside today to enjoy the blue sky and soak up a little sunshine! The sunshine has a way of bringing out "nature's beauty". With sunlight beaming down colors are more vibrant! after my walk I quickly grabbed my camera to capture a little of beauty that's around me.


"And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air."

Qoute by Francis Bacon

A little sunshine

Well, my post from yesterday must have done some magic! I told the rain to "go away" and so far today it has! I am also being pleasantly reminded of what the sun looks like (you know, the big round ball of fire in the sky!). There are still many remnants of the recent weather, there are still some puddles, some potholes in the road filled with water, so they deceptively don't look like potholes until you feel and hear a big "thud" when drive over them! Oh yes, there's also the nasty green grass stains that we now get on our white sneakers when we take the dogs out! But thenagain we are left with some positive things also such as, the fact that we won't have to water our lawns for awhile, and I love the way the air smells after a good rain! Things seem "renewed", and I can't wait to see what a little sunshine will add!