Spring has Sprung

Well, last night as I was sitting and working on the computer all of a sudden I hear someone knocking at the door. Well when I get there and peek out what do I see. It sure was not anyone but instead this brandy sniffer full of the wonderful Daffodils. (As today I found out that the culprit had parked on the street and ran back there before I could get to the door)It took me a few moments, but I figured out who let them. Yes my WONDERFUL friend Renee. Once again I am remind to live in the moment and not in the PAST or FUTURE. This is one of those gifts that keep on giving. Tonight when I walked into the house tonight after work it was filled with the smell of these wonderful flowers,

Through My Daughters Eyes

Yes it is Spring Break Week here in the south. Since the boss is out of town I can't take the whole week off but I did take some time yesterday to go with Stephenie, Emily and Nathalie to do one of their favorite things. SHOP!! They all went to the zoo for a few hours until I could get out of the office. After the nightmare of trying to get them picked at the zoo. You would have thought that they were giving the animals for free with all the traffic there. We took the new car for a mini road trip to the Factory Outlet Mall in Tunica, MS. Since they shut ours down in Lakeland. So I had a great trip with the windows down and listening to the music, as all my passengers in the car were asleep. Boy they came to life when I mentioned food, so after a little snack we hit the stores. We had a dual mission today. The first being to find the girls some great looking clothes for the summer and yes that included several pairs of flip flops in a variety of colors. When you shop with these 3 we all must go into the same dressing room as we all need to see how the clothes fit. Since they will be passed around the group. Now on to the second part of the mission to get Mom some cute clothes. This is where through my daughters eyes comes in to play. As I am trying on clothes and look in the mirror I see a fat, middle age, very unattractive person with clothes that are cute. As my WONDERFUL, SWEET daughter says "Mom hush you are cute, pretty and not fat". So after I try and hold back the tears. I am thinking why can't I see ME as she sees ME. I love that kid.

BTW-She and the girls did do a good job on getting me cute clothes!

Car Discovery

Okay I have discovered many things while looking for a car. The first is that if you want an American car you can get a steal. If you want a foreign car they are not wanting to deal. I did a lot of reading and research on the Internet and narrowed it down to 5 cars. The Toyota Camry, Corella or Prius and Honda Accord or Civic. I really wanted to get a hybrid, but the insurance and prices were a little much for right now. Then once I test drove the cars I ruled out the Camry and Accord as they felt like big cars and I wanted something a little more sporty. (Some day I will get the car I really want) After going to several Toyota dealerships and being treated like a second class citizen, stupid woman and some one that only buys a car because she looks good in it. One of the salesmen even had enough nerve to tell me that I need to bring my husband in to see if I could qualify for the car. So after the stupidness at the Toyota dealerships I went to the Honda dealership and was treated like a human. The next discovery was that their are salesman who will treat a woman like they have a brain and could actually buy a car with out a man. I also found out that there are cars out there that are not white and gray. The next dicovery was that I could do the negation process, credit process and choice process by myself. SO I AM( and Stpehenie too, only when I am in the car) NOW A PROUD OF A RED 2009 HONDA CIVIC.

Now if I could just find a road that had no cops on it so that I could see what it can do. I know one thing I will have to watch it. I am having trouble not speeding in it. The last discovery was that I am a stronger person than I thought I was and I handled all the nervousness, concerns and sleepless by my self. Yes there were sleepless nights and many days of nerves over this purchase.

Read the Palm

I must admit that at times having a creative mind can make you get excited over some of the strangest things in others eyes. My sister gave me some really nice brown leather gloves for Christmas. But when I pulled out the cool card board hand I saw the Gypsy plate from Artistic Outpost. I painted the hand with gold, stamped the back ground images with brown stazon, then stamped the Gypsy in red and aged her with distress inks add a feather and pearl and to finish it off I add her to the hand with pop dots. This plate was in the last release from AO and I love it from the first time I saw it. Go here and see all of their great plates. BTW new releases will be out next week, so check back to see what they have in stored next.

Dave's Visit

This is my friend Dave Kemp from Portland, OR. He runs DST which is our software provider for most of the Johnstones. So when the regional meeting was held in Memphis this past week I was able to show him around a bit. Not to mention that I got a day out of the office to enjoy a wonderful spring like day. Well when most people come to Memphis you show them the usual, Graceland, Beale ST, Gibson Guitar, Fed Ex Forum, Mississippi River, etc.... Well I decided to do a little something different for Dave, he is really not that kind of guy. He and his wife have the most precious and wonderful English Springer Spaniels that they show and raise. (You can see his dogs(should I say second set of children here)here. So I took is upon myself to take him somewhere that would mean more to him. So off to the National Bird Dog Museum. It only takes about an hour to get there. It was worth the drive. When we got there one of the first things we saw was a bronze statue that the artist did 300 smaller replicas and Dave got on of the first one made. So I got his picture by it. Clue number one that I made a good choice. Then once we got inside he saw the picture of the lady that sold him his first dog and saw some of the ancestors of his dogs that have won the field trails. He also got to see some of the country side of the South and in this region of the south there is a lot of history about the Civil War so along the way I filled him in on some of it. We went through Lagrange Tn and Ame's Plantation. He did get to see some of the local sites in Memphis too. We had ribs at the Rendezvous,(Thanks Dave) Beale Street, Fed Ex Forum, Gibson Guitar (someday I will have to hear you play) and some of Main St. Well, I didn't have to show him the Peabody has there is where the meetings were be held and they were staying there.

What a diffence a week makes

Last weekend we had one of our BIGGEST snows in years. It started Saturday afternoon and continued most of the night. On Sunday we woke up to this peaceful winter wonder land. There is just something about the snow that fills my soul with HAPPINESS and PEACE. So I spent the day cooking. Even though I love the snow I think the good Lord didn't put where is snows a lot due to the fact I would be as big as the house due to the cooking fever that takes over me when the wonderful white stuff is on the ground. This did not last long as this weekend we have the most incredible SPRING weather. It has been in the low 70's since Thursday. So the car shopping I put off last weekend happened on Saturday.