45 Things Life Taught Me

This was posted on one of my Yahoo groups and I thought I would share with everyone.

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It
is the most-requested column I've ever written.

My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey
is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never
blinks.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up
to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an
answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't
save it for a special occasion, today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow..

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will
this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or
didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd
grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Family Trip

These are just a few pictures from our family trip to New York State. My parents live there so we flew up for almost 2 weeks. It was Thomas's first flight and he did very well. And, it was James's first trip to NY and he enjoyed it. We stayed in a 2 bedroom cottage right on the lake. It was so beautiful this time of the year because the leaves were changing. We did some sightseeing which is where some of these pictures are from. We went to Taughannock Falls, Niagara Falls, Palmyra, and farther east where my uncle and cousins live. Overall, we had a great time, and a restful time. I also got to see some high school friends I haven't seen in about 15 years. We used to hang out together. We got together one night and had pizza and just hung out and caught up with life. Then I also got to see college friends who are married to each other and all 9 of their kids. Have not seen them in about 13 years. Enjoyed catching up with them too.

On another note, as my high school friends and I were talking, we realized we have not had a reunion in like forever. A friend and I planned the 10 year one and people seemed to enjoy it. Well, we are going to plan the 30th one, too. It will be in 2013 which will give us plenty of time to find everyone and organize something nice. I am looking forward to this.

Just a quick note

This card is a faux metal card. I was not sure if I ever posted this one. This is one of my favorite techniques. I just used 4 layers of embossong powder, heating it in between. After the last layer, while the embossong powder iss till hot, you just stamp your stamp in there. You do not have to ink it.

Another fun technique and I don't have a picture is to make a faux leather. You just buy a foam sheet whatever color you want. Pick out your stamp and ink it up so it is ready to use. Heat your foam with your heat gun then stamp the image. Basically it looks like it si set in the foam....almost like a brand....cool technique.

Okay, now for some info from the home front. Life for me has been very trying or maybe I should say interesting. A little over a week ago, went to the doctor because I twisted my ankle....no broken bones or fractures. I messed up tendons and ligaments. I had to have a cast that I could not get wet anda walking boot. But since we caughtt it early, I was out of all that in a little over a week. Lst week went back to the hand doctor for my follow-up visit since surgery at the end of April. I have no more numbness and pain in my fingers but I am still having pain in my wrist especially when I move my wrist. He x-rayed my wrist and found a problem. My ulna bone is a little shorter than it should bea nd instead of being smoot on top, it is jagged. So, I guess every time I move my wrist, I am "stabbing" myself. So, I am in a removable cast(removed only for showers) for 2 weeks....no lifting either. So, I am at work but I can't change diapers and lift the babies. Then when I go back, we will see from there. He talked about possible surgery which I won't be able to do until Nov. or Dec.

Thomas starts school on Monday. I need to finish laundry and get his bag packed for tomorrow. He hs been spending most of the summer with grandma....he would go there Tues.-Fri. then home on weekends. Life will now be abck to normal.

James has been working alot of overtime because they are short-handed. That extra money will come in handy come vacation time.

Well, I better go work on the room. I am making progress but am sort of at a standstill until we have the bigger storage and can move alot of this big stuff out of here.

Time for an update

Today I am going to work on my ATC's for an exchange. I only have to do 4 of them. Hopefully, I will remember to get pictures of them so I can post here.

Dinner is already in the crock-pot. We are having spaghetti so all we will ahve to cook is the spaghetti and garlic bread. I put the sauce in the crock-pot this morning with sausage and it will cook all day. Even though it is jarred sauce from the store, I am finding that I like it much better done in the crock-pot and I addd a few spices and just let it cook all day on low. Love the taste so much better. And, the smell in the house is awesome. Love my crock-pots.

I just got news yesterday that we will have someone moving in Sept. 1. My mother in law is moving back in with us. We made this decision last night because of where she is living now is not a good situation. So this month, I will need to get busy and clean out the spare room(master bedroom) so we can move in there and give her the other bedroom. I was in the process of setting up the extra room as a craft room and other room so now it will be a Master bedroom/craft room. We also are going to get a bigger storage shed and put some stuff in there that we don't need right now. So, for the next month, I will be BUSY!!! And James, too because he will need to help me clean this place up.

Two more weeks and Thomas will be back at school. Boy, the summer sure went by fast. Before I know it, it will be Christmas!!!! LOL.

October 1-13, we will be flying to NY to visit my family. I am really looking forward to the trip and showing my hubby and son where I grew up and the beauty of NY State....and that it is more than New York City!!!!!

Have a great day everyone!

Thinking of You card

Here is the card I did for the exchange. This is my prototype one and is not perfect so I keep it as a sample. Basically, what I did was stamp the image on vellum then turned it over and colored with markers from the backside. Then attached it to the card by using the corner punch. Such an easy technique with nice results.

Enjoy!

(Oops...just noticed that you will see the writing backwards and it is small. To see it bigger, just click on image. Sorry about that!)

My weekend

This weekend has been very interesting...I guess you can say that! LOL Usually on Saturdays, we try to do something with Thomas and as a family. Let me first explain that my husband likes to get in the car and just drive....sometimes for 2-3 hours!! It is a good thing we have a Garmin because it helps when he is "not sure" where he is at. So back to yesterday. We did a few things then around 1:30 headed out to lunch at Zaxby's(I love their salads) then went to get gas at Sam's. A mishap there: I went to step over gas line that was in the car's gas tank so I could get back in the car while James continued to get gas. My one leg went over, next one did not and I sort of twisted my ankle and almost fell to the ground. It is now swollen and painful....not just in the ankle but also lower leg. I will give it a few days and see what happens.

Then we start on our "road trip" and drove for 2 hours. We went to Tuskegee National Forest and drove around. That actually was nice. Didn't see any wildlife, though. And, we drove on some other roads then used the Garmin to find our way home. That was when the funs tarted: Garmin took us on these narrow, dirt roads and gravel roads and little bridges where you had to stay in ruts to go over....just to get to a main road...LOL. And went from dirt road to paved road to gravel road to dirt road, etc. etc. It actually was neat to see these type of roads still exist!!

Today, I am just taking it easy and trying to stay off the foot as it is sore. I am going to finish off my Thinking of You cards for an exchange and then work on some ATC's for an exchange. Hopefully, I will remember to post some pictures of all this.

Everyone have a great day and thanks for reading my blog.

Today

New York, Here We Come!!!

Our flights have been confirmed for our trip to NY. We are going Oct. 1-13. We will be in the Finger Lakes area where my parents live. I am so excited. And, this will be James and Thomas's first trip up there. Called the airlines today to arrange for some special needs for Thomas. Our best option was to ask for a wheelchair. We will see how that works out. Now to schedule all the sightseeing, visiting family and friends I haven't seen in a while. Luckily, I will have 1 day off when I come back to rest from my vacation!!! LOL