I wish that I could say that I remember a lot of things about being a little kid........but the truth is I can't. I do have lots of memories from when I was in High School up until now. Some times I think back on my HS days and miss so many of my friends and the awesome memories and some of the not so awesome memories. I could write a book about those years. But instead I'm going to fast forward to what is happening now.
My life is good. I'm married to a good man,I live in a beautiful part of the USA, the children are all grown, Wayne and I have 7 grandchildren and we live a comfortable life. So life really is good!
Recently, something happened that made my life even better. Are you a Facebook user? I am and so very happy that I am. One night I decided to do a search for 4 young people that I have thought about many times through out the years. I found 3 of them and the fourth who is not on facebook sent me an email. These 4 young people are the long lost family that I have missed very much. Two are my brothers and 2 are my sisters. We do not share the same mother but we do share the same dad. I have not seen them since our fathers funeral. That was June 1st of 1986. Twenty three years is a long time not to see someone that you care very much about. Although we did not see one another more then 3 times in our lives,I did hear how they were doing from our father or their Mom via telephone or through letters. Unfortunately,I lost contact with them soon after our father passed away. In the back of my mind I had always hoped that one day we would meet again. Well we have.... just not in person not yet anyway. I hope one day in the not to distant future we will all get together.
Here are some photos that I found this past weekend and I would like to share them with my family, Friends and anyone who happens to stumble across my blog. I wish I had a lot of them but I don't.
Life is good and I feel truly blessed. Here are a few old photos. They were scanned in and not in the best condition. In person they look better.
Dee Dee, Dolores(their Mom), Cheryl and Mike.
Dad, Robert (brother), Me (the dork) and my sister Edwina.
My brother Roberts Baptism. The little one is me and the young man is Dad.
Uncle Norman, Aunt Kay, Me and our cousin Cathy.
Edward (brother), Robert and Me.
Last but not least......
This is dad and Dolores.
Thanks for walking down memory lane with me Via a few photos. I wish that I had more photos from the past but I feel very fortunate to have these. Maybe if I look harder I just might find some more. I would love to make a scrapbook of my family. keep Smiling. :)
I love the spring season. I love that the snow has melted, that the sun does not go down until 8 PM, the temperatures are warmer and I am able to go outdoors and take my daily walk. There are a lot more reasons why I love spring but it would take me too long to write them all down.
I thought that I would share a photo that for me represents a part of spring. I took this photo today in my side yard. There is a tree that has white blossoms on it and they are lovely. I have no idea what type of tree it is but I can see it from my studio and looking at it from my window makes me smile. When I get time I will put some more spring photos up on my Photography blog .
It is so nice to see the color of green again. What do you love most about the spring? Until next time......keep smiling. :)
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a not a baker. I have always been able to cook up a storm but bake........................no. I can not tell you how many times I have tried through out the years only to fail. This past year though, now that I have to watch my weight and my cholesterol level, I can bake cakes, cookies and pies and not burn them. An even have my newly baked goods come out darn good.
So tonight for New Years Eve I decided that I would bake Peanut butter Blossoms for Wayne and I. I thought that this recipe would take maybe 15 minutes for me to put together and then put in the oven. Then in 8-10 minutes I would have delicious cookies for us to eat. I certainly learned a lesson tonight. If a recipe calls for lots of ingredients with more then two steps to making it then it will not be a quick and easy recipe. By the time I was finished gathering up all of my ingredients, getting my measuring cups and spoons, and then started measuring every thing that needed to go into my bowl I was a little tired. Then the instruction called for each ingredient to be placed into the bowl in steps. Between each step there was a lot of mixing. Then .............................oh, I wont go on if you have ever made these cookies then you know what the next steps are. By the time I was through with the mixing, the placing of each cookie on the cookie sheet and put them in the oven. I stood and stared at the disaster in my kitchen. So now it was onto the clean up. I don't think I was halfway through the clean up when the timer went off letting me know that my cookies were now ready for me to stick a single Hershey kiss in each one. After doing so I had to at least try one cookie. I liked it. But no time to eat, time to clean up. When I was finished with all of the clean up from making the nicely looking cookies I was to darn tired to eat any more of them.
No they are not perfect looking but they really do taste good. However, next New Years Eve, I think I will skip the baking and buy a cake. :)
Happy New Years Day. I hope that 2009 will be a very good year for all of us.
Keep Smiling. :)
"This Is The Face Of Lupus".
I remember when this ad campaign bombarded the TV channels and many of the magazines. That was a few years ago. I'm not sure why it was stopped because it was a very effective way of getting the word "Lupus" out to the public. More then likely it was stopped due to lack of funds.
I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus 14 years ago. However, I was sick off and on for at least 2 years prior to getting that diagnosis. I was lucky because I had a fantastic doctor who had been watching me and had the blood work done on me and badda bing Lupus was my diagnosis.I say that I was lucky because many men and women back then went a lot of years before receiving a proper diagnosis. Lupus was and can be a tricky autoimmune disease to diagnose.
I am also very lucky that my Lupus has attacked my joints so far and not my major organs. My mother had Lupus and everyone of her major organs were attacked. My mother passed away 8 years ago. Although she and I were not as close as I would have liked I miss her very much.
So why am I posting my very first post on my new personal blog about Lupus? Because October is National Lupus Awareness Month. I wanted to get this post up way before now, but as some of you know I fell and hurt myself just enough so that typing was painful for me. As you can see I must be doing better.
Seven years ago I started the NH Lupus Support group in Concord, NH. It was at that time the only Lupus support group available. I met some very beautiful women and I believe that we all learned lots and felt the love and support from one another. A year later I accepted the position of Vice President of the NH Lupus Foundation as well as the publisher of the only NH LFA newsletter. Unfortunately I had to give up all of my positions one year later due to health issues. I'm good now. :) Perhaps I will get back into doing some more volunteer work for the LFA soon. It is unfortunate that the NH Lupus Foundation closed it doors not too long after I became ill. I remember feeling so sad about that. Now our chapter is in Vermont.
I remember that the logo or symbol that we used was the butterfly. I wear a butterfly pendant just about every day in part because of the symbolism . The other reason is that every time I see a butterfly I think of my mother. The support pin and the wrist band are made using purple, one of my favorite colors. If you would like to learn more about Lupus then please visit the Lupus Foundation. You may know someone who has this disease and perhaps knowing more about it will be helpful to you.
Okay,okay enough about Lupus. More then likely I will only be able to update my personal blog once a month. As some of you know I have my stamping/crafting blog It's All About The Journey and my photography blog. My photo blog needs updating and I will do that hopefully this week. The point of my starting a personal blog is to share things about me that do not belong on the other 2 blogs that I have. Like cooking, what books I might be reading, opinions I have, gardening etc... you get the idea. I hope to make this a happy and interesting place to visit.:) If there is any thing that you would like for me to add to this blog I am open to suggestions. I would love to hear your suggestions .
Until the next time Smile on. :)
