Monday, March 26, 2012

Pancakes and Old School Mates

Good Morning!
Yesterday I went to Roberts, IL, for a pancake breakfast put on by the fire protection district where my brother is a volunteer fireman and an EMT (emergency medical technician). They have a pancake breakfast every year at this time and a chili lunch in December to raise money for various things. My family used to live in Roberts for many years where we farmed. I was in the last class that graduated from Roberts-Thawville High School in 1974.

The pancakes were awesome, as were the scrambled eggs. I don't eat sausage very often....it doesn't always behave.....it sometimes gives me some wicked heart burn, and I didn't need that yesterday. I also talked with a few people I went to school with for quite a while. I don't see them very often, even though I could go to the pancake breakfast every year, I don't. So, they have all changed quite a bit, and some I had problems recognizing after not seeing them for 2 or 3 years. We've all put a bit of "wisdom" (weight) on ourselves and gathered a few more grey hairs. I definitely had fun.

On the way home, I went past the house where we lived when I was a kid and quite a few of the buildings are gone, and the metal pole barn should be gone! It was in bad shape. The pasture where we had milk cows grazing has been plowed up for raising crops. I hope they fixed the drainage problem where the pasture used to be.....it used to flood in one spot. In the winter time, all 5 of us kids used it as a skating pond, if the water hadn't drained off before it froze.....we didn't have skates, but our boots did just fine. The water/ice wasn't but about 4 inches deep anyway. We all either played our form of hockey or the 4 of us girls would pretend we were figure skaters in the Ice Capades or the Olympics. Sadly the Ice Capades are no more, but we do have Holiday on Ice.

A bit of nostalgic trivia....both the Summer and Winter Olympics used to be held in the same year, and always on leap year. The split Olympics started after the 1992 Olympics. The Winter Olympics were held in 1994, and the Summer Olympics were held in 1996. It's been split ever since. The Summer Olympics start with the opening ceremony on July 27th in London this year and ends with the closing ceremony on August 12th. Marking those dates on my calendar!! Though I'm not too keen on the track and field events, I do like watching the swimming and diving events and the opening and closing ceremonies.

Tomorrow I head for Alabama with my sister and hopefully I can share some goodies either before I leave, or after I get there. Today I'm sharing the Orange papers, which also tend toward the yellows.
Here are a couple of samples of what's in the file.





Here is the 4Shared link for the papers and frames. If you have problems with the link, please leave me a not in the comments and I'll fix it.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/FUNI7UTB/file.html
Have a Great week!!
Enjoy!




Saturday, March 24, 2012

Stormy (?) Saturday

Good Morning! It may be a little stormy today, or so the weather people say anyway. We got some rain late yesterday afternoon, and I'm glad that I had my computer unplugged!! We had one huge flash of lightning and then a deafening crack of thunder not even 2 seconds later.....lightning is not good for computers. Yep, the lightning was pretty darned close! Surge protectors only go so far in protecting the electronics, and after what I spent on my computer last year, lightning is NOT going to fry it if I can help it. If I would have been in the basement and not on the porch, I probably would have seen the lightning light up a good portion of the basement the lightning was that bright. And since they are calling for scattered thunderstorms again today, I'll be shutting down my computer and unplugging it after I post this.

My sister from Alabama got here last night about 10. She was tired after her 11 hour drive. I know how she feels! Been there, done that....I didn't bother to get the T-shirt! I'll be taking a mosey on over to my parent's house later. Her youngest daughter and family will be here later this morning, we didn't know they were coming....SURPRISE!! A GOOD surprise for all of us.

After all of the storms passed, I was playing on my Paint Shop Pro creating some more goodies to share with you....but not today!! Today are the yellow papers and frames, some are more orange than yellow. Here are a few samples:



Here is the 4Shared link for these goodies. If you have any problems with the links, please leave me a note in the comments.

Have an Awesome Weekend!
Enjoy!

Friday, March 23, 2012

TGIF!

My grand kids start their spring break later today and they are excited! My next to youngest sister drives a school bus for a school system in Alabama, and she will be on spring break later today, too! She'll be here sometime Saturday evening. I haven't seen her since last June when she came to help me sort and clean at my late in-law's house. I'm glad she was there. There were a couple of times that I had a mini melt down....one time in WalMart. The first couple of weeks in Oklahoma were not a good time for me. She was my "comic relief" for the 10 days she was there and a good "therapist".....my saving grace and my temporary sanity. Tuesday, I'll be going to Alabama with her to help her sort and pack for a few days for her move back to Illinois in late July. I'll also be helping her pack the U-Haul and move in July, too. I've been a real traveling woman for the last year! Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Yesterday, I took a break from cleaning as my hubby was home and we had some stuff to do for the sale of the house in Oklahoma via UPS. We close on house on the 27th of March. One less stress for me!! So yesterday, while waiting on the paperwork to get here, I was working on some pretty interesting and quirky things to share later. I skipped yesterday in sharing my paper and frame creations, so today it's the Reds, which vary from dark red to pink. Here are a couple of samples of what's in the file.





Here is the 4Shared link for these papers and frames. If you have any problem with the link, please leave me a note in the comments.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/xAdL29Qk/file.html
Have an Awesome Weekend!
Enjoy!

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Off To Work Quick Page

Not much going on....NOT! Today my hubby and I get to wait for the UPS truck to get here with the papers he needs to sign so that his late parent's house in Oklahoma can be sold. Our daughter-in-law called the cable people yesterday, so we're waiting for the cable people to get here today to check out and fix a "signal leak" in our system.....plus....hubby and I finally get an HD box for our HD TV!! YEA!! The picture will hopefully be a lot clearer than it has been. The picture is rather "pixelly"!

I also have to go figure out what's wrong with my mom's computer today. Not sure what is up with the 4's on her screen when she turns it on, but I've got to figure that out. Probably something simple like the 4 key is stuck.....or it could be something else. If it's the something else, then I'll have to call my computer guru and ask him what to do about it. Hope it isn't something I have to take it in to get it taken care of!!

I LOVE ding fonts and preset shapes. I was playing around with some last night and did a quick page I called "Off To Work". I didn't put it in a zip/rar file, so you won't have to open one after you download it to your computer. It's 800x800 in size. If you left click on the image below, it will bring up the QP, then right click and choose "Save image as" and you can save it that way. But the link is below for those who want to download it from 4Shared.
Here is the 4Shared link for this quick page. If you have any problems with the links, please leave me a note in the comments.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Welcome to Spring!

Well, today is the second day of Spring, and some are getting much needed rain, but it is coming too much, too fast. Parts of the south/south central part of the U. S. have been getting drenched in lots of rain the last few days, which is causing flooding. There have also been tornadoes, hail and strong winds with these storms. People from the Rocky Mountains to the west coast are seeing rain and lots of snow in areas. Please say prayers for the people in these areas who are without homes, may have lost loved ones, or may have been injured in these weather events. Wacky, wacky weather!!

My grandson is doing very well and came home from the hospital yesterday. He is sore and a little slower to move than his usual fast pace, but that's to be expected after surgery. He'll be staying home the rest of the week, and has next week off for spring break. He'll be ready for school by the time spring break is over with!!

Today I have papers and frames that are bundled in color families. I'm starting with the Blue papers and frames today. The frames are unembellished so you can add whatever elements you wish.

Here are a couple of samples of what's in the file:







Here is the 4Shared link for the papers and frames. If you have any problems with the link, please leave me a note in the comments.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/sLnRabf9/file.html
Enjoy!



Monday, March 19, 2012

Allergies & Appendectomies

Good Morning...I think. Hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's day!

I woke up this morning with what feels like a cold, but I'm suspecting I've developed allergies to something as I've had this feeling that I'm catching a cold since September of last year. Nose running, coughing, sneezing, itchy eyes, and that weird sensation at the back of the throat. It's not fun for me at all, and since I can't take most OTC meds for it, I just have to suffer through it all. I've even tried the neti pot and that didn't do me much good either.

My 8 1/2 year old grandson went to the emergency room late Saturday night with stomach pains and vomiting. He had been complaining of a tummy ache that didn't feel like his usual tummy ache. So his mom took him to the ER to have him checked out. They tried to give him some contrast dye over the period of a few hours so that they could do a CT scan, but what he drank didn't stay down for very long, though some of it did, it was not really enough to get a good scan. Well, to make the long story short.....yesterday morning at 9, they took him to surgery to remove his appendix. Poor little guy looked as miserable as he felt after his surgery. He also has numbness in his thumb, index and middle fingers of his right hand. Not sure why he would have numbness in those 3 fingers, but he was moving them around and rubbing them against each other as he was watching a Garfield movie on TV.  We are hoping that this helped his tummy problems, as he's periodically had sharp pain and vomiting on and off for several months, and he's been checked out at the doctor every time. He's even gone to a gastroenterologist. But he'll be up and running around soon. Poor kid is going to have a lot of homework to make up over spring break next week.

Today's goodies for you are some more brads and buttons.
Here is the 4Shared link for these pretties. If you have any problems with the links, please leave a note in the comment section.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/nJzt8Sx8/More_Brads__Buttons.html
Enjoy!



Friday, March 16, 2012

Home At Last

I got home yesterday about 4:30 PM from Oklahoma. I was tired, and stressed out. I started my day at 4, not because I wanted to be up at that time, but I couldn't get back to sleep. So my trip started out at 5 AM instead of 6 AM from Pawnee, OK. It was DARK out, and the cloud cover was not helping the situation any. Some of the trip was on two lane roads that were hilly and curvy.....one stretch of road somewhere north-ish from Tulsa, was REALLY curvy....and scary!! Not only was it very curvy, but also very hilly and you could see some 4 lane road down below on the left. It was not a road I would have chosen to drive on, but I was dealing with the GPS, or as I call it the Ditzy B....H in a box. OMG!! I was wondering if I was EVER going to see Interstate 44 and get HOME!! The road was someone's nightmare construction project. AND....I was driving all of this 2 lane part of the trip in the dark, and it made the unfamiliarity with the roads just that much scarier for me. If I would have started out in Seminole, or even Wewoka, it would have been much easier because I was quite familiar with those roads. I know that the people that regularly traveled that road were thinking, "Why can't this person drive more than 35 mph!!" That's OK!! I wanted to get home in ONE piece and ALIVE!!
So, besides the fuel pump going out at mile marker 295 west bound on I-44 about 9 miles west of Vinita, OK, being towed, having to spend the night and part of Tuesday in Vinita at a very reasonably priced older motel with all of the amenities of home, spending $600 for the fuel pump, at the beginning of my trip, I had to deal with someone's nightmare of a road construction project going back home. Thank the Divine Powers that be the truck ran like a charm, and the truck and I had no problems. I even "treated" the truck to some premium gas a couple of times on the way home. I figured the truck deserved it.
The sale of the house may take a couple of more weeks because the gentleman buying the property and his attorney are both busy....the gentleman buying the property travels for his company a lot, and the attorney is also the attorney for several large banks in Oklahoma, and the banks take precedence over a house sale. But our attorney is going to do a little prodding to get the situation a done deal within the next couple of weeks.
The Department of Interior/Bureau of Indian Affairs hearing for my late mother-in-law's Kiowa land that she inherited from her parents went rather quickly, and rather well! It took about 10-15 minutes. The judge was rather surprised that someone showed up because my husband lives in Illinois. So, he asked me a couple of questions, and our attorney asked the judge a question about the land, which is a trust for the Native Americans from the U. S. government....so it actually belongs to the government, the Native Americans get the benefits.....tax free. No property tax and no taxation of what they earn off of it either by mineral leases, or from the farming and sale of the crops from it. To make a long story short of this.....since my husband is his mother's only child, and there are no other claimants on her inherited land, it was pretty cut and dried and a done deal before the attorney and I left the little court room. No waiting 2-4 years for the probate to be done like happened for the rest of the family that has passed on. There aren't several relatives/claimants for the properties in question. That was a relief for my hubby when I told him. So we will hear from the judge in about 2-3 weeks with all of the paperwork. YEA!!
Ok, all of those trip tales are told, it is now time for your goodies for today. Today there are a lot of different frames. I'll share a couple of previews of what's in the file.







Here is the 4Shared link for these goodies. If you have any problems with the links, please leave me a note in the comments.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/rGE57Lmm/Frames_by_Dragon_Wytch_3.html
Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ooops....Murphy is at it AGAIN!

I'm sorry everyone, but Murphy's Law and I are having some major issues with each other this week. Between the truck Monday, and trying to post to my blog this morning, I accidentally deleted last night's post trying to delete a botched post this morning, I'm really fed up with Murphy and his Law that what CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong!! It has, several times. I must be really tempting the Fates this week. I think I need to make some major offerings to the Fates and ask for their favors.
Here is the download from last night:




Here is the link for these:



Here is today's post of Diamond buttons:





Here is the link for the Diamond buttons. IF you have any problems with the links, please leave me a post in the comments.
 

Enjoy!!


Friday, March 9, 2012

Friday is Here!

It is finally Friday! Doing my laundry for the week, and getting all of my stuff together for my trip to Oklahoma next week....including all of the goodies I'll be sharing with you while I'm in Oklahoma. I'm not going to forget to share.

The time change is this weekend!! Don't forget to change your clocks! Not fond of the spring time change. Losing an hour of sleep is not cool, especially since it's the day before I leave for Oklahoma. But, I've got my two 5 hour energy drinks I'm taking along, so it won't be as bad as if I was tired and didn't have them. I don't like the long drive and the 11 1/2 hours it actually takes me to get there is rather tedious. I just want to get there and get the driving over with, but I do have to stop to walk around for a few minutes, take a potty break and fill the truck with gas. Wish it ran on air!! It would be a LOT cheaper!!! Gas is almost $4 a gallon, like it was last summer, and the truck only gets 18 mpg max. But getting a car with way better gas mileage is not in the near future.

I created an Easter kit to share. WOW!! My second kit. There are 41 elements and 25 different papers in the kit, and not all of the papers are shown in the sample. I included a sampling of each of the different papers in 5 colors. The beads you can use as centers of the flowers or bows.


Here is the 4Shared link for the kit. If you have any problems with the links, please leave me a note in the comment section.

Enjoy!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Happy Thursday!

Two more days until the weekend, and four more days until I'm on my way to Oklahoma for doing more of my late mother-in-law's legal business. It is interesting that not only was there a personal probate for her for the state of Oklahoma, but there is another probate for the land that she inherited from her Native American parents through the Dept. of the Interior/Bureau of Indian Affairs as well. Her personal probate for Oklahoma is done. That took 8 1/2 months to get done. The DI/BIA will take anywhere from 2-4 years. The federal government runs a bit slower. Her dad's DI/BIA probate took 4 years and her 3 brothers took 2-3 years to get done. So there will be more trips to Oklahoma for legal business over the next few years until this is done.
It is the full moon, we're getting rain, and there is some sun activity going on today, too!! No wonder the crew here was in a foul mood yesterday!! And I don't care what scientists and medical people say, there are definite affects of the full moon on people, I live with it every month! And the weather changing is adding to the foul mood affects here at home....especially with the grandkids!!
I have some corners for you today.






Here is the 4shared link for these pretties. If you have any problems with the links, please leave a note in the comments.
http://www.4shared.com/rar/ZlY0391l/Nice_Corners.html
Enjoy!



Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Ooops!

I apologize for not putting the information on my kit yesterday that it is tagger sized. I totally forgot and that was my mistake.
It is very windy here! I had to go pick up my husband so that he could go to his doctor's appointment. He drives a semi, and parking at the doctor's office is not something that's advisable. WOW! The wind was blowing from the south and almost blowing us off the road the whole trip. There were reports of wind gusts over 50 miles per hour in McLean County. I would believe it!! We are also supposed to have rain and possibly some severe thunderstorms later tonight. YEA!! Not! The weather has been very interesting this winter to say the least, and has me wondering what this summer is going to be like here in Central Illinois.
Today I've got some Oriental motifs to share with you today. Here is a little sample of what's in the file for you to use.





Here is the link for these pretties!



Enjoy!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Kit

I actually put together my first kit! I'm taking baby steps, and I'll gradually get to doing more of them. I'm not quite adept at the scripts, but I'll get there. I've got to learn to do the basic steps before I can do the major marathon! It was fun doing the shamrock papers....tedious, but fun!!
There are 4 frames, 23 elements, and 15 papers. Here is a preview of the whole kit:





Here is the 4Shared link for the kit:
http://www.4shared.com/rar/3XDNhN4F/St_Patricks_Day_Kit.html
Enjoy!!

Monday, March 5, 2012

It snowed a little!

WOW! It snowed a little yesterday!! We got somewhere around an inch and it is about 19 degrees this morning. Brrrrr! Which also means the roads are going to be slick. I looked out the window earlier and there's not much snow on the roads, but I know that is very deceptive.

Still sending prayers to those who were affected by the devastating storms of the last few days.  Some are now experiencing cold and snow after the tornadoes went through their areas.

I did a lot of sleeping yesterday, and though my cold is a lot better, I'm still feeling a little rough around the edges. I do hope I'm over this when I have to go to Oklahoma for most of next week to deal with some more legal stuff for my late mother-in-law. I will be posting on my blog while I'm there. My laptop is definitely going with me, and I'll put my goodies to share on a flash drive.
Here are some square buttons for everyone to use.








If you have any problems with the links, please leave me a note in the comments.



http://www.4shared.com/rar/0S57AsYu/Square_Buttons.html
Enjoy!!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Sending prayers

I'm sending prayers to those who have lost loved ones, to those who are injured, and to those who have lost their homes in the horrible storms in the last few days. I pray that they stay strong in their faith and in each other to get through this terrible time in their lives.
I have a nasty cold, but I'm not blaming it on my grandson.....I'm blaming it on letting myself get run down. Been doing a little too much for everybody else, and not enough for myself. Not a bright thing to do!! The changing weather isn't helping any either. It's been in the 50's, 60's, then in the 30's and 40's. The weather has been like a yo yo....up and down, so it's hard to know what to wear from one day or even one moment to the next. Spring and fall are always like this, and 90% of the time I get a nasty cold that just beats me down.
I'm sharing some mixed goodies today....swirls and more brads. Here are some samples of what's in the file:




If you have any problems with the 4Shared links, please leave me a note in the comments.
Here is the link for these elements:

Enjoy!