Me, Me, Me!

I figured it was time to give my faithful readers a bit of the real and now. I've been going on and on about the good old days - my high school and when i was a kid and on and on. Well today I took some more photos, of me! My favorite subject it seems. My husband and I were going to a luncheon with our transplant support group. Usually we do a potluck, but this month the venue was busy, so we opted to have the group meet at a restaurant.

I decided that since I usually dress in jeans and a t-shirt for the potlucks - I might as well get dressed up for a real restaurant! So I did. I put on my red and black flowered shirt that has all of these sparklies on it. It's pretty, but a bit wild lol I put on some lovely black dress pants, too. I curled my hair a little and put on some make up.
I thought since I had gone this far in the getting gussied up routine, I might as well grab the camera and get some self portraits. The funny thing about me and self portraits is that more than half the time my eyes are half closed. I think it is a natural state of my eye lids - either that or I'm really really sleepy.

I probably took about 30 - 40 pictures...all of them in my bathroom. I love the color of the walls in there and the lighting is the best in the house. I can also use the large mirror to "see" the viewing screen on my camera to make sure my pretty mug is actually centered in the square before I click.

So these are the two keepers from my photo shoot today. I've sent the smirky smile one off to a few friends. It's been fun.

Ya know, I never used to have my picture taken, but ever since I started blogging I've actually enjoyed it. Not to mention, with a digital camera, it's no big deal to click 40 times!

Go ahead, take your picture!
Kristin

Burger King

My Grandparents owned a Burger King franchise when I was growing up and it just made sense for me to work there. What I didn't realize was how much I would love being there. I worked in the Lansing Mall Burger King in Lansing, MI. I worked there before we had a food court. I worked there when a Whopper and a large Coke was $3.00. We even had a salad bar at one point. We had one of the best stores, ever!


This is a photo of a few of us that went to the same school. We were placing a Burger King ad in the school yearbook, so we included this picture (or one like it) - I'm the short one. The very short one! Those uniforms were the brown ones with the orangy-yellow stripe. They were polyester and form fitting. I actually looked halfway decent in mine.

This is a picture of me on my 16th birthday. The guy I'm standing next to was the only guy that I ever went out with that I met while at work. (Yes, he has a mustache. LOL I just realized what you all might be seeing.) I remember, he wrote his name and phone number on a tray liner. I was just going on my shift so I asked to be placed in the dining room for a little bit so I could chat with him a bit more. He was just the nicest guy. I found this photo (or rather, it was a photocopy of the original photo - which is still MIA) yesterday in the boxes. I had to post it. We only dated for a few months, but this is by far one of my favorite pictures of all times.

So I was a Burger King gal. I worked there from the age of 14 until I was 18. There was a whole group of us that all worked there for that long. Most of the kids were honor students, too. It was such a different time in the fast food industry. It was one of my favorite jobs ever - and I was a great cashier. I was only put on the other stations if it was an emergency. I was slow as can be. Chatting with the customer and getting the order was my specialty.

Hold the pickle, Hold the lettuce, Special orders don't upset us, All we ask is that you let us, Have it your way.

Kristin

PS - I actually started this post at 11:11! It was a total fluke.

Looking for photos

I have been looking for my yearbooks from high school and cannot seem to locate them. It is just driving me nuts. Today I spent some time in a garage that we own - it's a few miles away from us at a condo that we rent out. We needed to garage space for storage, so it's quite nice. Not terribly handy but great to have. I thought for sure that the box that had the yearbooks was in the back of that garage. So I hauled everything all over the place to get to the back and it wasn't there. I looked at the tag on every box (or so I thought) and nothing made any mention of yearbooks. I finally grabbed a couple of computer printers that my husband wanted, the two boxes for Christmas ornament storage that I need to get the Christmas stuff down and out of the house and box that said "Paper (Can be long term storage)" I don't think I need to store paper long term - what was I thinking???



We have a closet storage area on the first floor in the condo where we live. I thought maybe I might find that elusive box there. So off I go. I find the Mary Kay brand mascara that I've been looking for...(once again, why is it is in a storage closet??) and my winter gloves and scarves that I wanted to take with me to Michigan in December. I also found this plastic box that was just full of paper. Turns out if was full of photographs and paper.

I found this picture of my sister Alison and I. We went to a BeatleFest event in Chicago. It was 1988 I do believe. We had no idea what to do. she was still in highschool and I was clueless as to the coolness of Chicago, so when we got bored with the BeatleFest people we did the craziest thing --- we boarded the hotel shuttle and went to the airport!

How totally crazy is that??

Well, the best thing that happened at the airport was that we got this picture taken. I just love it. That's my sister, Alison on the left and me, Kristin on the right. Can you believe that there is a 6 year age difference between us? I looked so young then. Now I can believe there's an age difference lol I got old somewhere along the line.

So, I may not have found my high school yearbooks but I did find a lot of really fun photos. Be prepared for some stories and some goofy photos. I've got prom pictures circa 1984 coming in the next few days. It's hysterical.

Have a fabulous day!
Kristin

Super Concentrated

This week Shannon is talking about keepsake boxes for her own Works For Me Wednesday post of the new year. Shannon, at Rocks in my Dryer, hosts this tips carnival, where hundreds of folks give fabulous tips on Kids, parenting, cleaning, grocery shopping and who knows what! We took a month off from WFMW and I am so pleased to have it back again. Please read through my tip this week, leave a comment, then head on over to Rocks in my Dryer for more fabulous ideas.

Have you seen this bottle before? Mine is the fragrance free variety, but it's the newest bottle of Clorox 2. It is smaller, leaner and more concentrated than it's previous incarnation. In fact, the last change they made was an even smaller version than the one before. The thing that doesn't get well publicized is that the CAP is the same size as it was before.


Do you see those little tiny green lines in the green cap? Yep, SO easy to see. I decided to help you all out and put in black dots and black numbers to help you see the lines.

The bottle of Clorox 2 says that it contains "33 uses when measured to line 1." (That's the very first line at the very bottom of the cap.)

The next set of instructions say: "Fill cap to line 2 for extra dirty or large loads, OR fill to line 1 for the HE (High Efficiency) machines or for regular loads. "

I looked all over the bottle for a reason to fill up to the line 3 mark. There isn't a reason. Well, there isn't a stated reason! The reason the line 3 mark is there, is so that you will fill it all the way to the top of the cap. You use more product, you have to buy more often.

I filled it all the way up to the 3rd line the very first time I used this new bottle - I just wasn't paying attention. When I actually looked at the back of the bottle is when I realized that I probably used about 5 loads of product for one load of regular soiled clothing. I knew immediately that this was going to be my tip for the new year.

Don't do as I did and just fill 'er up! The containers are getting smaller and the amount of product we need to use is getting smaller. This is also true when it comes to laundry soaps and powders. Read the back of the box to see how much you are really supposed to be using. For my powdered laundry soap, I actually use half of what they recommend and then I also use the Clorox 2. My clothes look and feel and smell great.

Here's to a great new year!
Enjoy!
Kristin

Bad Bad Orbitz

I had a vacation coming, of sorts. In approx 40 muinutes from right now, I was supposed to take my husband to the airport and have an entire week to myself. Last night he discovered that he never got a confirmation on his flight. He got confirmations on his hotel stay and his rental car, but no airline flights.

He's not going.

Orbitz, who was supposed to book the flight, told him that they could indeed get him on that flight for $1100. Like that's gonna happen.

He spent two hours on the phone trying to get everything straightened out.

Orbitz, who never booked his flight, is now charging my husband $140 for the hotel stay because he didn't cancel his reservation before the 14 day cancelation period. I think there was a similar cancelation fee for the rental car, but somewhere along the lines they got that fee waived.

I totally blame my husband for this whole debacle. He should have known back in December that he didn't get his flight when Orbitz didn't send his itinerary. I pace the floor waiting for my confirmation email. He obviously doesn't. However, Orbitz should have done something, anything to remedy the situation better than they did.

The Orbitz customer satisfaction scale is at an all time low. I'd give them a big fat ZERO for still charging my husband for a hotel room he can't use because they never booked his flight. Real bad form folks. Real bad. The only thing the person on the other end of the phone kept saying was, I regret you are not happy. I regret that I must charge you $140 for your hotel stay.

He called the hotel and they said they'd waive the fee. So we'll see how Orbitz handles this today.

I've never had trouble with Orbitz before, but after dealing with Customer No-Service for a few hours last night, I don't think we will be using them again unless they are the last business on earth that can book our flight.

I am so dissapointed. Not only because I lost my week long vacation from my husband, but because he had a seminar to attend and he was going to go skiing. He was going to take a little time off for himself, too.

I'll post a little something more later in the day that isn't so dismal.
Kristin

An Affirmation

On the last day of the year of 2008 my page-a-day calendar had on it, what it called, an affirmation for the rest of your life.

I'm all about affirmations. (Funny thing is though, I still haven't gotten down to a svelte 140 and I've had that a part of my affirmation for years!) but still - I love affirmations.

So here is (according to the Secret) the affirmation for a lifetime:

"In the new picture of the coming years, I see my life growing and expanding in everything: in health, youth, and unlimited energy at all times and in all circumstances. I see myself in complete freedom. I see unlimited growth in my personal capacity, mental power, and intellectual brilliancy. I see constant improvements in all the elements of my personality and my body. I see daily growth in my wisdom, understanding, insight, and realization. I see myself in peace, harmony, love, and joy, and I see my character expanding to be stronger and more beautiful. I see the never-ending betterment of friends, associations, and environments. I see myself in everlasting joy and infinite bliss."

That is a pretty great affirmation if you ask me.
Kristin

I cleaned my room

I cleaned my bedroom today. I cleaned the walls, the ceiling, floors, baseboards, under the bed, dressers, ceiling fan, duvet cover, sheets - everything.

For the past 10 years or so I have been a stickler for not allowing anything into the bedroom that doesn't belong there. Baskets of laundry only get to come in if I'm putting it away. If the living room is cluttered and I need to put stuff away quickly (stash and dash) it cannot, will not and won't go into my bedroom.

My bedroom is my sanctuary.

When I walk into the room in the middle of the night, there is nothing to trip over. No shoes, no clothing, nothing on the floor. I love it that way.

Dusting, however, was a totally different story.

We keep a ceiling fan running most of the time, so the tops of things seem to accumulate kitty fur. Even the fan blades had been ignored for a few months (although I do those fairly often.) Today however, I got out the vacuum and started pulling things out from the walls, vacuuming behind them, the corners where the walls and ceiling meet, the tops of picture frames and even the doorframes. I dusted and vacuumed and washed and mopped.

It was a very productive few hours and hopefully my stuffed up nose will appreciate it tomorrow!

Now my bedroom really is a sanctuary. Tide Clean!

The look of stainless

Here is the second edition of Make-Do Mondays hosted by Ann Kroeker. She talks about how a little duct tape has made their dining room table functional for years now. you can read all about it here.


I was changing the trashcan liner in my kitchen today (otherwise known as taking out the trash!) I reached into my cabinet for a bag and immediately knew what I was going to post today. Here's the set up...

I was so tired of looking at the bright yellow box that my favorite trash bags came in, so I took a roll of stainless steel "looking" contact paper and covered the box. I like to keep the trash bags in the original sized box because, well, because they fit! I took the top off the box, so it makes it a breeze to add in new trash bags. I tried a cute basket, a little pail, even a small tray, but the box worked best.
I got the roll of contact paper at Home Depot, but that was only because I was there. I'm sure anyplace where you find contact paper will have this product. You can use any kind of contact paper to cover the box as long as it isn't see-through. The whole goal is to not see the original packaging.

I consider this a Make-Do because it turns something unattractive into something nice looking in a matter of minutes. I have plans to use the remaining contact paper for other box covering projects.

Have a great day!
Kristin

The Carriage Ride

Here are some more pictures from our little 4 day jaunt on the cruise ship before Christmas.



This was one of the tug boats that was docked at Nassau, Bahamas. I loved all of the ropes, the colors, the frayed ends - the whole thing. (You can click on the picture to get a larger view)


Tom was all excited when we arrived in Nassau. He wanted to get off the boat and seemed to have a trick up his sleeve. He was kind of giggly.

As we got closer he said "Let's go on a carriage ride!"

Now, this was rather confusing to me.

I'm allergic to horses. Really allergic. It's my main allergy.
and I forgot to bring my allergy tablets on the ship. So I asked him...

"These carriages - they aren't being pulled by horses, are they?"

Yep, sure are!

Well, I agreed to the 30 minute ride instead of the 60 minute ride. It was a foolish decision on my part, but after the ride we went to the pharmacy and I bought some allergy tablets to help me for the next few days. They weren't my prescription tablets, but they helped. I say it was foolish because I could have gotten quite ill, but I managed pretty well. I started sneezing the last 5 minutes of the ride and found a bathroom and washed up after we got out. We got a cute picture though - and a real nice ride in a carriage, which I have never done before and Tom got to go through with his secret little plan to do a romantic gesture.

PDFs for MACs and Calendars.

I just found this today and have already used it twice - I love it!! If you own a MAC, then you should know about this...It is SO easy!

How can I turn a web page into a PDF? Just Ask Dave Taylor!

Then here's the other stuff I wanted to tell you about...

Calendars!

Have you been thinking about getting a little calendar for your table, or child's room? Here are some really cute free printables.

Zakka Life - miniature community calendar There are twelve little scenes that when put together look like a little community with trees and houses and a Ferris Wheel.

From the Canon website... It's a cow. (I copied off just the first page and put the cow on my bulletin board.) At the bottom of the page are a few other styles, too. But I like the cow best. It prints on 7 pages and is real easy to cut out and tape together.

Schlosser Designs had this as their tutorial for Tuesday - Hexagon Happy. (this is on the side of my fridge right now.) There are two calendars on each 8x11 page. One is is more muted tones and the other has brighter colors. So you can give one to a friend!


I was totally inspired by this persons journal on Flickr - TracyU

Go take a look.

Click on all of the months, go ahead, I'll wait.

I have this large spiral sketch book that has been in my office for a few years, unused, untouched. I usually just look at it and sigh. I WANT to use it!

I've been looking for a calendar for the kitchen for over a month. Nothing clicked. I didn't want anything that I saw. Some were too big to fit on the fridge, others were just too small to write on. Some were so cutesy that I just couldn't look at it all year. So I decided two days ago to use that sketch book, even though it is giant. It's 14 x 11. I think the journal that TracyU uses is 8 x 11. She uses 2" post-its , but all I had were the 3" square ones. So I had to modify Wednesdays. I'll get smaller post-its for next month if this works out for us.

So here is my attempt to make a TracyU inspired calendar.



This is the completed page. Well, sort of - the page will get filled in and will have more fun stuff added - so I guess I should say, this is the beginning of the January calendar.



I placed Post-its on the page, then used just two of my stamp pads and marked all of the white space around each post-it. Since I had used such large post-its, I didn't have enough space for Jan 1,2 & 3 - so I used post-it page markers for those dates. If this works out (and I hope it does), then I'll get smaller post-its so they will all fit on the two pages.

On this last photo you can click on it to give you a larger version.


I'm excited to see if this calendar works for us. It doesn't fit on the fridge, obviously, but it does fit on the countertop that I cleaned off a few weeks ago. That countertop is near the phone, the pen cup (sharpies, too) the post-its and other assorted note taking items. It might just be perfect.

I'll let you know.

So, there's a little random stuff for you today. Enjoy!!

Kristin

Life and death

World's oldest person dies at 115

A Portuguese woman who held the title of oldest living person for just five weeks has died at the age of 115.

Maria de Jesus died on 2 January, 2009. One of her six children told a Portugal news agency that her mother never "fell ill, nor took any medication".

Mrs de Jesus had topped the table of people aged 110 or older collated by the Gerontology Research Group after Edna Parker died on 26 November, 2008.

American Gertrude Baines, born 6 April, 1894, is now the oldest living person.

According to AFP news agency, Mrs De Jesus was born in central Portugal.

She started working in agriculture at the age of 12 and never went to school. She could not read or write.

This was taken from the BBC News website....


It got me to thinking --- I'm 42 right now. Sometimes I feel absolutely ancient and other times I feel young as can be. If I were to live to be just 100 years old, I have almost 60 years to live. 60 years! Do you know how much fun I can have in 60 years? How many blog posts I can write? lol I can meet thousands more people, have millions more experiences, have 60 more Christmases and 60 more New Years...If I had had children I would be a Great Great Grandmother I'm sure. I guess I'll just have to settle being a Great Great Aunt.

I am not even through half of my life!

Today has been full of Life and Death today.

I got a phone call that my tenant, Richard, was in surgery. He was finally getting a liver transplant. He's been renting a condo from me for a year now and waiting to get the call that a donor liver was just perfect for him. My husband's transplant came Dec 23rd, 2005. Richard and his family were hoping to share that date with us, since it hadn't arrived sooner. Blessings be, they got the call yesterday. A whole new life begins for them starting today.

A whole new life for the donor family began yesterday. I believe that the donor family feels the blessings in the life they gave for the rest of their lives. I think it increases their love. I know that as the wife of a recipient, it increased my love to both.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston lost their son, Jett, this morning. He was 15 or 16 years old. My prayers go out to them as well.

We don't know if we have 115 years or just 15.
We don't know if we be fortunate enough to gain life because of the donation from another.
We don't know a lot about our future lives.
We do know though that every day matters.

I absolutely love to be alone. I love to watch TV, movies, read, write, look stuff up on the internet, watch my cat sleep and then take naps myself. I doubt if it is really contributing to world peace or anything, but I do know that times like today, when I am asked if I can run someone to the airport - I can say Yes! and get in the car. Maybe I will have 60 more years of being me. I think that would be great. I look forward to more days of helping out people, laughing and hopefully helping solve peace in my household if nothing more.

I wish that more people could give the gift of life when they are grieving the loss of a loved one. It is such a tough decision at such an emotional time. I'm a diabetic, as I've mentioned before, and I wonder if being a diabetic has harmed my chances of being an organ donor. I think about how my health affects me, but ever since 2005, I think about how my health could possibly affect my chances of helping someone else. I'm certainly not living my life so I can be a perfect organ donor, but it crosses my mind every so often.

The new year brings on so many thoughts of life and death. My friend sent me a picture of her new baby. Life. She would be 60 when I turn 100!!

Have a very blessed day.
Kristin

I'm a Finalist!

I submitted my photo to Dr. Cason's Friday Focus Photo challenge a few weeks ago. I blogged about it here. I thought, what the heck! It's a real nice photo.

Once a month, she gathers all the submissions from the month prior and has people vote on their favorites and I'm a finalist.

Me!! I'm a finalist!!

That is just sooooo cool!

If you'd like to see the contest and vote for your favorite, please go see Dr. Cason's site. The Friday Focus December Finalists is here.

Have a great day!
Kristin

Notepaper & Envelopes tutorial

I really like to write notes to people. I write out cards and sometimes I write long messages and other times I just write - "I'm thinking of you!" and mail it off.

I used to have piles and piles of cards. Boxes of cards in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Thank You cards, blank cards and birthday cards. The past few years I have watching my money a lot more than I have in the past. I still make impulse purchases, but a lot fewer. I haven't purchased a box of cards this entire year (2008!) and my card collection has been whittled down to nearly nothing! My sister gave me some cards for Christmas, cards that she made, so I'm reluctant to use those right away lol

This is all leading up to this... I wanted some cards, paper, envelopes - something. The few that I had left had seen better days and I wanted something new.

I was cleaning out my computer room when I came across the DWR catalogs...2 of them.

They have so many lovely pictures.

Lots of white space.

I have used magazine pages before as writing paper, but only occasionally. These particularly wonderful pages tend to have a beautiful picture on one side and then the other side has just a few pictures and plenty of space to write. So I spent about a half hour carefully tearing apart the Design Within Reach Catalogs. I used the full size page and then tucked all of those pages into a large folder.

Those pages are going to be my new notepaper or envelopes.

Envelopes are very easy to make. You can find envelope templates online for free (here and here) or you can purchase templates like I have. I keep them in a folder in my filing cabinet. It keeps them from being scattered all over the place.

My file folder of envelope templates is one of the few things that I can put my hands on even if I don't use them for months. The filing cabinet is a great place sometimes lol

OK, so pick a template and then pick a magazine page that you'd like to see on your envelope. I liked this one because it had a lot of white area, that I could use as the front of the envelope and then it also had something very unique that would be great for the envelope flap.


My favorite envelope template is the one I used below, because it has such a large area for the flap. It means that you can have one large image - rather than a regular envelope where the back is divided into a small piece and a larger piece.I place the template over the top of the page and move it around before I trace around the outside. In this case, I have the template upside down - the flap part is on the bottom. Then I cut out the outside and fold the sides in and crease the edges with your finger - or use a bone folder. If the paper is thin enough you really don't need to use a bone folder.

Fold the edges and tape the bottom corners. I've made the mistake of taping the folded over part to the inside of the envelope - there's no way to keep the contents in the envelope if you do that -- so do as I say and not as I do lol


The front of the envelope looks like this. I love the shadow on the wall. I didn't notice as much in the big picture, but it really stands out now on the front of the envelope. The back of the envelope is the airstream trailer. I love how perfectly it fits. This is going to make a great envelope.

This is an example of how I'd address the front. I don't have any plain white labels, so these are small post-its. I'd use a bit of packing tape to secure the label to the envelope. Just make sure the address stands out from whatever the background is, so that your recipient actually receives the letter.

Also make sure that the back of the envelope is secured. I've used a glue stick before, but not all of them went through the mail and arrived still stuck - so once again, I'd use a bit of tape to seal the back flap.

If you want to reduce, reuse, recycle - this really is a fun way to do that.

The catalogs I used came from this company

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. If you would like to read more about how others are Making Do with what they have - head on over to Ann Kroeker's site. She's having a special Make Do Mondays carnival. I wasn't prepared on Monday, so I'm blogging about this today LOL

Have a wonderful New Year!
Kristin

Monthly Links

• ► December (41)

• ► November (43)

• ► October (41)

• ► September (34)

• ► August (40)

• ► July (35)

• ► June (40)

• ► May (42)

• ► April (48)

• ► March (21)

• ► February (16)

• ► January (12)

December Links

This is a list of all of my blog posts for the month of December. Just an easy way to find what you are looking for - and for me to find what I'm looking for!


December Links
Journaling
The Class Photo
The Takeaways
My Movie
The story of my snowman stocking
Funny & interesting
Secret Scrolls
Secret Stocking Swap
Magic of the Season
Guests for Dinner
Formal Night photos
Towel animals
Fun Day at Sea
Nassau, Bahamas
Freeport, Bahamas
I got a Goat for Christmas
Happy Happy Happy
Triangle Cat
It's Here!! My SSS gift arrived!
Dr. Visit
Keys in Trees
Twelve Giveaways
Photo Challenge
The Ornament Swap part II
Technology & kids
Eye Exam
Fried and Toast
Paying a toll
Stella and Zora
Make Me Cocoa
Gift Ideas - again
Stocking Swap
Secret Ornament Swap
Christmas Paper and Tags
Vacation wrap up
Snow falls in Michigan
Working on photos
Sweet 16
Gifts in the Mail!

Journaling

I did it.

I purchased a journal at the end of last year. I think I mentioned it here once or twice (here) - this journal is just so cool because it only has 4 lines per day to fill in. If you need more space there are extras available you just go to the Extras section and write to your hearts content & then write down the page number at the end of your 4 lines. (There's a special little spot just for that page number, too

This journal was a big committment. It wasn't just a year, it is an 11 year journal. 2008 - 2018, which looks like ten years, but it's actually 11 written years. This is one of the things that used to screw me up when it came to math. How can it be both 10 and 11??? but I digress.

I have to be honest and tell you that I didn't always write in the journal each day - sometimes I saved up a few days and filled them in all at once. When I went on vacations I didn't take the journal with me, but I always kept a little post-it with some fun facts to put in the journal for when I returned. However, I have something written in every single day of 2008. It was one of my 101 Things To Do in 1001 Days projects.

I do say so myself, I am so proud of me. I have such a short attention span sometimes that when I wrote down #41 - write in my journal every day - I just assumed that I was not going to finish that task. Then again, I wasn't sure I'd still be blogging daily, either! But I did have hope that writing down the task would create some sort of desire to finish the task.

So this last day in December 2008 I have two successes for sure and that makes me smile so big...I wrote in my journal all year and I continue to write and enjoy blogging. As a matter of fact, I've now successfully completed 2 months of NaBloPoMo, which is a group dedicated to blogging every day. I've joined for January as well.

So have a Very Very Happy New Year! and may you have the best year yet.

I'd like to also at this time wish my dear friend Bob (AKA Jennifer, J.B. and Mrs. Parsont) a very Happy Birthday. I sent her off a little gift...shhhh don't tell her. She never reads my blog anyway lol But still. I hope it arrived today.

Happy New Year!
Kristin

See you in 2009!

The Class Photo

I am on Facebook.

I've been on Facebook for a few years now. I was first introduced to it when I was doing a lot of internet marketing. I was told to get on Facebook, twitter, Second Life, and several other million places. I never got into Second Life. I enjoy twitter, but rarely update it. I mostly look at it and read what others are doing.

Facebook on the other hand has gotten to be a lot of fun the past month or so. I started a Facebook page for my High School graduating class. For quite some time I was about the only member. I think we had over 350 in our graduating class, so having just two or three members was kind of a joke.

and I started it.

I thought it was going to be a great idea and it wasn't looking that way.

sigh

Then all of a sudden people started popping up. One person was telling another person and then they would tell three or four others and my list of friends was no longer people I'd never met before, but they were real life people I'd met, hung out with - or more likely - they were forced to have me as a classmate. I was adding people as fast as Dianne was finding them.

Dianne is a former classmate who has a knack for finding classmates. I just keep searching her friends list to find people I know, too. I found a whole bunch of people on my own today, I was so proud. Dianne was close behind me in added them as friends, so I know she's combing my friends list, too!

So my High School Facebook page is closing in on about 35 members. We've nearly doubled in two weeks. I'm so excited. However, no one is talking in the group page - which is fine -they are updating their profiles, loading in pictures and doing a lot of one on one talking. We are all having fun - but still, I wanted some group discussions.

So I posted the class photos of my 2nd, 3rd & 4th grade classes.

Now that has started some talking!


I mean, who could resist talking about these tiny faces! We are just so cute. I'm in this photo. :)

My kindergarten photo is the top photo. It is my favorite school picture ever.

My grandmother had the large size - what would that be? 8 x 10? Well, she had it in this huge frame and it was on her wall in the living room for as long as I can remember. I now have the photo that was my grandmothers. I really need to get it hung on the wall since it makes me smile.

The class photos started some conversations, but mostly we all got some laughs. It was a good idea.

We have our 25th reunion coming up in 09. No one seems to know who is in charge of it. My hope is that whoever is in charge of it will get on Facebook soon and let us all know!

If you haven't tried Facebook, go ahead and do it. You don't have to check in every day - or even every week. But I reconnected with my best friend from High School and that by far was the best day since I joined. I'd missed her...and now I've got a new way to connect with her.

Can you figure out which kid is me in the class photo?

Have a Wonderful New Year!
Kristin

The Takeaways

Have you seen this video?

It is so funny!

It's just a link to YouTube - go. look. be sure and turn your sound on.

Click Here to learn about the takeaways.

My Movie

Your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are creating the movie of your life. They are invisible forces that exist within you, and together they are creating your life movie, which is screening as your life experiences in the outside world. Your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are under your direction, and you can change all of them. When you do, you will see the movie of your life change immediately.

As we begin another new year and another January through December and another round of the seasons passing this is of course a time to reflect. A time to wonder what we can do differently. A lot of people make New Years Resolutions. I don't think I have ever written out a list of resolutions that I meant to keep for even a day. I knew I'd never do it.

Last year, I did write out my 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days - I started that the middle of January - and that has been going real well. Several things that had a date in 2008 have come and gone and I didn't get to them. I will change the date on those items and get those accomplished this year. However, a Things To Do list doesn't seem as stressful to me as a Resolution list. I kind of think of a resolution as - "I'm resign myself to never having a piece of cake again...sigh" and that kind of talk just isn't positive enough for me.

So, this coming year I'm not going to make any resolutions. I'm going to continue on my quest to complete my list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days, because it was that list afterall, that inspired me to start blogging in earnest - and that my friends, has been one of the best things that I did this year.

The past few years I have really been monitoring my thoughts and the words I say. I attempt to be as positive as possible but I also know that the negative nellies tend to swish around inside my head and never really get verbalized - so those thoughts of mine are going to be my focus for this year. Keep the thoughts as positive as the spoken word.

I want my life to be a lot different than it is right now and if I'm in charge of the movie of my life, I guess I'm the one thats gonna have to right it! (I meant it as right -- as in correct it.)

I'm not going to resolve to live a better life, I'm just going to do it. What can it hurt? I'd like to have more friends, have more money, eat better, exercise more, get off of insulin, lose weight, have a clutter free home, take more vacations, work a little harder (yep, I would), help transplant patients, keep my condos rented and flip another house or two - but all of that will come about only if I make the movie of life include those things. If I don't get off the couch, none of those things will come true. I don't have to resolve to do those things - I just need the idea and the motion.

I love the concept of making the movie of your life and that you can change it instantly. That is just so wonderful! You don't have to do the same things day after day, you can do something different! To take a quote from a movie I love "...you dare to imagine that you could have a different life." (Jean Stapelton says to Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail)

I love my life, but I don't want to still have this exact same life in 10 years. Zora will be 14 by then and Stella will be 10. (My nieces) They will have changed tremendously, do I want to stay stagnant? Nope!

"The movie of your life will change instantly."

Gotta love a great movie!
Kristin

*The two quotes were taken from "The Secret" page-a-day calendar.

The story of my snowman stocking

My mother commented in the Stocking swap post that she had forgotten that I still had my stocking. I got my stocking this particular Christmas - or so I thought! Here I am, that adorable little blonde headed girl standing on the fireplace hearth at my Grandparents house. I'm thinking that this is the Christmas of 1969 and I'm 3 years old.

I believe that I got the stocking after this event - we just took it home along with all of the gifts -- One of which being those awesome suitcases. I remember using those for years!

so back to the stocking.


This is a close up of the stocking in the photo above. This is the stocking I thought was mine.

This is a picture of the stocking I currently have. They are not the same! I had never noticed that before!



In the photo (the larger one) there is a faint line of red on the other side of the fireplace, so the stocking I have may have been on that side...but I always thought I had a picture of me and my stocking.

Here's another piece of the story.

The stocking I have says "Matt" on the inside. My Uncle Matthew has been married for quite awhile (three of their children have graduated from High School) and for most of those years, I have avoided telling him that I have his stocking. Every year I'd put the stocking up and feel just a tad guilty that I had it. I told his wife, my Aunt Marg and she told me not to worry about it, but I still thought I should ask Matthew. I think it was last year when I finally told him that I had his stocking and this is what he had to say about that!

He said that only three stocking were made. The girls, Judy (my mother), Jane and Gail were the ones who got those stockings. Matthew and his brother Alan had other stockings or shared with the girls - he couldn't quite remember. He said that when his sisters stopped living at home, he put his name in one of the stockings. He never really claimed any of the stockings - so he was more than happy to let me keep the stocking - especially since I've had the darned thing for about 39 years now!

When I look at the back of the stocking, I almost always just see a little weird green snowflake ladder . I rarely think much of it because the back side rarely shows.

Because I was taking pictures of it today, I had it turned sideways and that's when I noticed that the ladder wasn't a ladder at all. The snowflakes spell out the words Merry Christmas! Maybe I have noticed it before, but I forget each year (this is highly likely) but I doubt I will forget again, now that I have it written down and photographed.




I truly love this stocking. It is made from a piece of fabric that was preprinted in the shape of the stocking - it had cut lines and everything. So all someone had to do was cut out the two sides of the stocking and sew it together.

It is by far one of my favorite holiday decorations. It is even better now that I don't have any guilt in owning it! Thanks Matthew!

Have a wonderful week!
Kristin