Have a great one!!!!!!

All the credit goes to "Red Couch" for the great idea!   These were so easy to make!  I had to bake for the United Way Bake Sale here at work and I thought I would "fancy it up" a little.  Still had 24 cupcakes waiting at home to frost!

Anni, I've know her since 1986

Bert, Eileen, Anni, Diane, Samra

Margret, I've know her since 1986

Diane (know her since '95, she graduated from Law School in May) and Pat (I've known her since she moved to Vegas, maybe 1988, we worked together at IBM)

Bert and Pat

Girlfriends............old friends, new friends, 

can't live without them.  Even if it's just a simple phone call, a coffee date, a scrapbooking or day of quilting, we as woman have to have that.

Part of my trip was to visit with girlfriends too.  It had been 4 years since I had seen some of these gals.  Dear Cindy and Jim hosted a barbeque for me on Sunday at their home, which was very yummy!  It was a great gathering where I could see everyone in one space and time, so much easier when time is limited!  After Chef Jim finished dinner he left to go see the game with buddies, we girlfriends continued on.  

It was a great evening, boy, do I miss those guys, lots of history together. 

I was in Vegas this weekend but didn't want to put it on my blog since I wanted to surprise my mom.  The original intent of this trip was to celebrate Anita's birthday by seeing "Cher" (more on that later) so we planned a quick girlfriend's get-away. 

On Sunday morning I called mom and asked her what she was doing and she said she was getting ready to have a bowl of cereal, so I asked her if she wanted to go to breakfast and she laughed and I said "seriously, do you want to go to breakfast", she started to laugh again and then said "where are you?", then I told her where I was and to get dressed we were going out.  She was happy beyond words.  I took her out to a favorite spot, "Mimi's" and had a nice breakfast and gave her her 80th birthday present (actual day is Nov.5th), she loved it!  I bought a hammered sterling silver customized open disk that said "aged to perfection" and our names were hammered on the back and her birthday, so she would remember she got it for her 80th.  If anyone is interested Sarah Jane Nelson does a great job, she is an actor, entertainer and a fabulous singer here in Ashland and her husband is an actor here at the Festival.  She has an "Etsy" (http://www.etsy.com/ ) store that is named "Life is Rosey".

Spent part of the morning and rest of day with mom.  Cindy and Jim were throwing a barbecue for all of our friends and I took mom along.  We had a great time, too many tears (I get worse with age)!  It was very hard leaving on Monday morning. 

Happy Birthday to girlfriend, Anita Charters!  and many more!!!!

So sorry, bad blogger.........today I worked off-sight - lol! 

 I went shopping with the Members' Lounge supervisor, Cathy, to find new furniture for the Members' Lounge.  We have a little budget so we have to be creative and of course shopping here in the Valley is limited.  We left around 11ish and headed into Medford, finally got home around 5:30pm. 

Results:  Ashley's had a big sale and we had great help from "Harriet", now Cathy will take back the measurements and see how everything will work.  Lots of great ideas and help.  Wish we had more money there is so much that needs to be re-done in that space but we will have to wait until 2011 to continue the re-do.

I will be leaving on a weekend trip with gf, Anita and her daughter, Samra, when I get back I will share and have lots of photos, promise!

Bulbs, bulbs, bulbs!!!

That's what I did this weekend, plant 75 bulbs (my tulips are not pictured and the bearded iris' will have to wait another weekend, also they are not all in this bed)! 

Also, had to take advantage that it was the 3rd weekend of the month.  Our Animal Shelter will clip nails for $5.00 and Annie really needed a little clipping.  She was not too happy about the whole deal and was a little traumatized, she wouldn't even take a treat!

She survived and I guess we'll have to be seeing them more often so she can get accustomed to it. 

Also, decided to get out my "Cooking Light" cookbook and try a few new recipes.  Not too bad, even found one that Rocky enjoyed, so I think that one is a "keeper".  The other was a Greek Flank Steak, stuffed with spinach and a couple of other goodies, Pete and I enjoyed that.  All in all it was a productive weekend.  I didn't get much done inside the house but I sure got a lot done outside...........

Sorry, no photo but "he" (#1 son) has screwed up my Internet service, I've been trying to post since Friday.  You see living out here in the boonies it's either dial-up or satellite service.  After a few years of frustration with dial-up we went to "Wild Blue".  Our service only provides limited "streaming" (uploading too) (found this out when we were bumped off and didn't know why), if you've exceeded our contract percentage they bump you off!   Rocky knows this and has done this to us on a few occasions!   He loves to stream movies and past episodes of his fav TV shows.  It usually takes 2 weeks to come back.  I can't tell you how mad we get but.............he's a teen and all they ever think about is themselves.

He vows it won't happen again since he now has his laptop and takes it to school and town when he ventures out there. 

Of course if we paid more we'd get more, but hey, we pay enough!  It's so hard to believe how expensive everything is. 

Since Pete retired he has been the "househusband", and he does all the food shopping and 90% of the cooking (I cook most weekends).  Occasionally when I have something special, I go to the supermarket, oh, my, gosh, things are soooooo high right now.  A couple of months ago I need to buy a package of Knorr's Vegetable Soup, omg, a package was over $3.00!  when did that happen! 

I must admit that Pete does a pretty good job, he shops the circulars, gets rain checks, and stocks up on really good sales. 

Occasionally, he will substitute stuff and that doesn't make me too happy because I can be particular about certain items.  Store brands are good replacements but occasionally I want a particular brand.  Since my trips to the supermarket are far and few between, I am always flabbergasted. 

Some more of my fav layouts before I put them in an album........

The last few weeks I've cut back on my diet, tremendously and that wonderful dinner I had on Friday night at Cucina Biazzi killed my stomach, too much rich food, but oh, it was sooooo good!  So on Saturday I opted to stay home and clean up my piles of layouts that needed to get into albums.  But the first thing I did was run to the quilter's and drop off that quilt I finally completed piecing, hope she gets it back to me quickly.

These are a few of the layouts that I really liked:

Anniversary #27! 

and dinner to our favorite place, Cucina Biazzi, in Ashland.

This was a a couple of days ago, last night I finally put on the last row!!!!!

Tonight the borders and a call to the quilter because I need this done asap!

On Saturday a few of us went to Jenn's house to "scrapbook" or craft in this case.

I saw this project (Advent calendar) on Two Peas In A Bucket's gallery and knew I wanted to make one, of course not in time for Christmas '09.  I made copies and kept it filed. 

Audrey, Lisa and a few others wanted to make one too.  I arrived at Jenn's a little late, actually in time.........Audrey had figured out how to put it together!  Her's came out really cute and I'm still working on mine.  So....... stayed tune for a photo of the finished project in the near future.  I have to finish piecing the quilt I've been working on so I can get it off to the quilters.

Tonight, I'm going to a "Cookie Lee" party at Kristi's!

After much searching, high and low I finally decided on the Dell above from Costco.com!  I reviewed everything and was able to cross out other brands and one of the main reasons I picked Costco is.......... the warranty.  90 days from Dell and 2 years from Costco (included in the price).  After running around town and trying to find a Dell for Rocky in town on Tuesday, we came home and ordered the same one for him!  If I didn't have to get Rocky ready for college I would have been able to get an Apple, oh, what we give up for our kids..........
I know I'm  probably very behind in the times, but a need never came up to get a laptop or the extra $$$$$, after a little settlement from my little accident in April, I decided that I would get 2 laptops for Rocky and I, afterall Pete has had a laptop for years...........
Watch out..................Janie's got a laptop, now!

Last night, Anita and I attended a "Night of Beauty" at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel.  It was hosted by a plastic (& reconstructive) surgeon Dr. Scott Young, who Brandon Atha  (Anita's future son-in law)works for.  It was a nice and very informative event.  Definitely decided I would like to have a "Thermage" treatment (now I'll have to save for that), but guess what, Anita doesn't have to save................she won  the grand prize! and Brandon drew her name!!!!!!!  Lucky dog!  So it looks like I spread my luck to Anita yesterday!