My Dandelion Wishes

Jars for my ribbons and what nots and the Peace letters I plan to alter with Christmas paper. The Blue glitter is not me.

I stepped outside my comfort zone and entered a Christmas card contest at Happy N Scrappin, an online internet store in Mesa. Thanks to family and friends who rallied behind me and voted I won! I have tried to put a pic of the card on here but somehow I can't get it to post. Thank you everyone for your votes! AND THE WINNERS ARE: 1st Place: Sherry Bamsey!! 2nd Place: Tracy Steinbach 3rd Place: Shelly Scott

Christmas 2005 was a very special Christmas for us. It is the first Christmas for Jennifer and John as a married family. We had so much fun, not only with the gifts, but playing games all afternoon. The POM Martinis were a hit. Of course John being a former bar tender had them down to a fine art. Modeling Sadera's knitted scarf and hat she made me. Great pic TJ I look very old! Jennifer sampling John's pom martini TJ helping Anthony with his dinosauer Sadera in her new reading chair

Merry Christmas family and friends. I hope this is a wonderful day for all of you. I know I'm blessed as TJ, Jennifer, John and kids will be with me today. I was shocked to receive my Christmas present from TJ on Christmas Eve. A new Gateway computer with all the latest and greatest bells and whistles. To say I'm thankful is a big understatement as my old computer was just about dead yesterday. It kept going into system error blah blah blah. Thankfully TJ was able to get 8 discs of pics and documents off it and transferred to the new one. I have video!!! I can make movies, slideshows and on and on. He was even able to load my Adobe Elements. Yipee. Okay now to get ready for dinner. TJ and I can't wait to try Colleens rum cake, pomagrant martinis and of course all the prime rib, ham and on and on. Pics to come later

Anthony at his soccer game Saturday. I couldn't go due to a nasty cold. Anthony's 5th BD cake. Dinosauer of course what else could it be. Practice run decorating for Christmas dinner Slowly getting things organized and done for Christmas. Key word is slowly New dinner plates and chargers. The chargers are a deep purple and the color in the pics doesn't do it justice.

We broke with tradition and held a Christmas lunch for the staff today. TJ found a new caterer and the food was yummy. Green chili chicken lasgna, chicken alfredo, stuffed spinach mushrooms ummmmm good!It was great to sit and eat and visit with everyone. Claudia Stuffed mushrooms with spinach and cheese Merry & Dr Letarte Peggy & Dr Letarte TJ, Kathy, Roxy Delia, Kathy Niki Delia, Anita, Merry, Irma Claudia, Warren, and 1/2 me good pic TJ

A Starbucks weekend. Not one but two Starbucks for me. Did you ever notice that there is a Starbucks on every corner? Love that Latte. It sure makes shopping enjoyable. Almost finished shopping. Have my folks, Jenn & John. Kids done except for Sadera and I have looked online as well as in the stores for the Vtech Nitro Notebook. Help!!!! No one seems to have it. Guess I will put TJ on it tomorrow. Haven't even gotten to play with my new toy MM Tag Maker. Maybe I need to get it out and play and some great inspiration will come to me so I can finish this project. Five days and counting till I need to mail gifts. Pressure is on. Off to play...

What a great day with two great friends and shopping. What more could one ask for. Yes I accomplished a little bit more. Found some unique gifts for my Office Manager, SW and Dietician. Sadera and Anthony got a couple more gifts! The rule is to downsize this year and not go overboard. I think I need to remember that. My sister's gift is ordered and in the mail as we speak gee I think I did better than I thought. Colleen gave me a Christmas gift and wow was it neat. She added to my perfume bottle collection, beautiful old plates for Christmas dessert, and a great book on Altered Books. I appreciate it so much Thanks Colleen. By the way 56 lb weight loss since Oct 13th you go girl!!!! 2 new perfume bottles to add to my collection. The new ones are on the right Decorative tablespoon from Colleen

Well... Saturday has finally arrived and the week end is here! No big plans except for SHOPPING. Need to get that Christmas shopping started and finished as I have gifts to mail. Of course breakfast at TC's with Beth and Colleen should give us a good start. It seems like I'm in a slump with my scrapbooking and I have lots to finish. No creative ideas. Goal finish something this weekend. One of my goals for 2006 is to step outside my box and submit something to a contest, magazine or forum. To that end I am submitting one of my Christmas cards to a contest. I have no great expectations or hopes but it is a small baby step towards my goal. On the news last nite they did a piece on how shopping is addictive and people receive a high from it just like drugs. Yeap that is me. Love to shop. So off to eat and shop...........

Yesterday was my grandson's 5th birthday. He is soo big now not our baby. He had soccer practice 1st one, Sadera had dance lessons and so family dinner was out. Anthony decided he wanted to eat at McDonald's for his birthday. Oh yeah according to my daughter one of her favorite places to eat. After Anthony opened his gifts he came up with the following per Jennifer "He said thank you and wants to send a thank you list to you and uncle TJ saying thank you for the wonderful presents and please send more gifts. " Had to explain the point of a thank you was not to ask for more gifts. really cute though...ahh the humor in a child's thinking..... Out of the mouths of babes!

Well slowly I'm getting the tree decorated. I didn't realize when I took the picture the parrot was visiable. He has given me a hard time with the tree. I had to pull his cage away as he was chewing on the tree, ornaments and lites. He is such a shit! At present he is trying to outsing my Christmas CD. Guess I mite as well turn it off as all I hear is his screeching. I'm so glad my son TJ left his parrot for me to have. NOT!!! I was going to get new decorations for the tree but grandkids love my snowmen so guess I will stick with this at least one more year. Off to add more ornaments. Later....

Since my DSL is acting up the past 2 days I have been unable to really post. I did get a couple of pics and then poof I was off line again. Had a great weekend. I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped, but all in all a fun weekend. Saturday with Colleen as usual was a blast. Lots of shopping and why did I buy more paper??? I must have enough to stock a store. I collect paper! Sunday TJ surprised me and showed up so we went shopping. I think he finished his and I started. We called Jenn and her family and I fixed a wildly diverse meal and we had a ball dragging in the tree and putting it up. As usual unable to find the lights so there the tree sits bare as can be till I get lights. Little Anthony ran around putting out some of the decorations and everytime he found a spot for something he would say "Grandma this be perfect" what a doll. I'm very prejudiced. So, I still have Christmas cards to make and send, unfinished projects to complete and of course new projects ...

No decorations and unable to find the lights that I oh so carefully put away so that I could find them this year. Anthony and Sadera decorated my little kitchen tree with my S'More ornaments. Anthony thinks the tree is PERFECT!

I didn't think 3 pm would ever come. I was sooo ready to leave work at 12. I know not to be. Besides being busy with a capital B, it was the end of the month last minute billing issues. Don't ya just love these accountant type billers? Can we say anal retensive?? They make up new rules as they go from month to month. And please don't e-mail me in caps Ms biller!!!! Anyway it is 3:15 and we go to leave and what can it be?? the car is dead!!! So back inside no one has jumper cables. Come on people where is your diaster preparedness we talk about??? So one of the staff (Thank you Warren) goes home, gets cables, jumps car and we are off. I-10 to Phoenix is becoming a real joy with lots of construction traffic, OLD PEOPLE, and plan old idiots on the road. But... I'm home the weekend has begun and I can scrap, make cards, or do what ever I want for 2 whole days. Yippie. Thanks Susan K for the sweet email. To the messy scrap room and seious creating!

I didn't ever think the week-end would come. But yeap it is Friday! Just 8 hours or work and I am free to be creative or not. Thanks to Beth I have a wonderful new toy and can whip out those Christmas cards in record time. Looking forward to a trip to TC's for breakfast and then to check out the new products in scrapbook stores. Colleen & I have Annalis for sure on our list and we mite just make a stop at Devine Memories to see what is new. Off to work.

Wow, it is an early Christmas present from Beth. I'm so pleased and thankful as this will surely make my life so much easier and creating cards should go so much faster. You are such a good friend Beth. THANK YOU. Now I need to get busy and make my Christmas cards.