Happy Holidays!!!! - Remembering the last 6 months

Wow, it's been since June since I last posted???? Where has the time gone?

Well I'll tell ya, three days later Mark and I were on a plane to California for niece's graduation and my nephews wedding :-)

Then that week Mark and I took my sister, brother-in-law and mom to Yosemite for a couple of days. We stayed at a B&B which had a small cottage that Kenny Chesney and Renee Zelwigger stayed in (so they said)! Yosemite was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was my sister's first time there and she was just in awe as the rest of us. It was cloudy but that still couldn't take away from the beauty of that place. I just love going there, if you ever get a chance GO!!!

We saw deer that were just hanging out at Yosemite Falls and then our way out of the park we saw a few bears feeding on grass and berries in a meadow. It was so cool!!! My sister and I got yelled at by the park ranger for being in the woods looking at the bears. What was really funny about it is that I was video taping it and you can hear the ranger yell "Folks get out of the woods"! We scrambled back to the car all the while the camera was rolling, it's pretty funny!

After Yosemite we came back to town and met up with some friends we hadn't seen in a while, both Mark and I. I'm glad we did that, it was a long time over due!

The weekend came fast and then we were on a plane back to Missouri! That was June..............

July, we went out to the cabin a couple of times and on the 4th of July I caught a whopper of a fish!!!!! Pics to come!

August, we lost our beloved Charlie :-( Mark was home with him and went downstairs to play video games and Charlie followed suit. Mark said that he did his normal rub up against his leg and then went a laid down and just passed away! Unfortunately I was not home and got a call from Mark saying I needed to get home but he wouldn't tell me why. The only thing he said when I asked him if it was his family or my family he said it was "our family"! I held Charlie in my arms when I got home for the longest time, it was such an empty feeling knowing I didn't get to say goodbye! Of course Mark didn't know he was going to pass but at least he was with him. The last two kitties (Chuck and Callie) we've made the decision to put them down because of their age so we got that last goodbye. I'll never forget Charlie, he was a very special kitty in his own way. Ok, I can't see the screen because I'm crying too much so I'm moving on...................

August continued.............That following Friday I went away for the weekend with my girlfriends to a scrapbook crop. Mark said it was OK for me to go and my friends were very supportive. My friend Donna brought me a mini rose bush (which surprisingly enough is still green). Later in August I went to the annual Stampathon in Washington, MO with my girlfriends. That was fun we had a great time and I actually got a lot done!

September.........I turned 41 - yeah! For the life of me I can't remember anything else???

October.......Our semi-annual Cabin Crop out at our cabin. This year it was me, Donna, Carol & Vicki. Unfortunately Bev and Michelle could not make it :-( We had fun as usual with the exception of Vicki almost choking because she was laughing so hard while we were watching Jackass The Movie (the 1st one).

November.................Mark turned the BIG 40 Nov 13th!!! There was no big party (he didn't want one, or at least that's what he told me) so I planned a weekend getaway to a 10,000 sq ft B&B log cabin on Table Rock Lake. OMG it was fabulous!!! I think he had a really good time, the husband owns his own guide service so I bought Mark a 4hr fishing guide which he said he had a wonderful time, caught almost 40 fish in 4hrs! Wow! I stayed at the cabin and scrapbooked and made cards for the owners as a Thank You for such a wonderful weekend. We almost thought about staying another day but I'm glad we didn't because we beat the rain home! Had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our friends Jim and Mary and Mary's parents and son. It felt like home, the joking, the laughing, the food, etc.. I'm very thankful that they thought to invite us, we are very blessed with such good friends.

December is upon us and I've already traveled to California for my sister, Trina's, 50th birthday party, surprise birthday party that is! We all pulled it off!!!! She had no clue, she was soooooooo surprised! I flew out the 4th, the party was on the 5th and I was scheduled to go home the 8th but my flight was cancelled out of Oakland so I got to stay another day. It was whirl-winded trip, we were trying to count how many times we got in and out of the car the whole time we were there and I think we stopped counting at 50 :-) Busy, busy, busy, but it was fun being with the family especially around the holidays.

Well that's it so far for this year, I'm hoping that this blog posting becomes more than just every 6 months, I have some ideas on how to get myself motivated to fit into my Kid Rock Fan Club t-shirt that is a 2XL and looks like it would barely fit my niece Kelsey or Brianna as they are both sticks!!! :-) More to come.........................

May 28th - 31st

Cabin Crop Spring 2009 - Pendleton, MO

It was that time of year again for the semi-annual "Cabin Crop" at The Scrap N Fish Resort. This year's attendees were Donna, Carol, Bev, Vicki and my mom, Sonja. I decided to bring my mom when my favorite airline, Southwest, had a 50% off sale. I thought what a great addition to our girls weekend to have my mom join us. So I bought her a ticket and out she flew.

Mom flew out Wednesday evening and we headed out to the cabin Thursday after I got off of work. The car was packed up to the roof!!! We had the linens, tables, my scrapbook stuff, coolers, food and oh yeah we still had to stop at Walmart in Warrenton to get more food!

Finally we got to the cabin and had to unload the car, set up the tables, make sure all beds had linens, set up the coolers, get the fridge loaded and so on and so on!!! Even though my mom is 71 years young she jumped right in and helped with everything. She said jokingly that I only brought her out here so she could help me, maybe some part of that it true LOL.

Vicki was the first one to arrive and then came Donna. Mom and I helped get their cars unloaded and then we all sat down and just relaxed. After a bit of relaxing and a dinner of hot dogs and chips Donna taught us a card game called "Hand and Foot". I kept calling it "Hoof and Mouth" all night and it was just funny (to me) when you started using the lingo from the game - Picking up your foot, Playing Dirty, Playing Clean, Don't keep the 3's, etc.. When the game was being explained I wasn't understanding so we decided to just start playing the game and pretty soon we were all experienced H&F players. Thursday night we went to bed about 1:30am.

Friday came and we had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Bev showed up right as breakfast was being served (I wonder if she planned it that way???). Today was the day to start scrappin and boy did we. Carol got there about 12:30pm - 1pm and so we had all that were coming. The weather on Friday was absolutely beautiful. After hours of scrapping I suggested we all head down to the lake for a cocktail. We all sat around down at the point and enjoyed anything from wine coolers, coconut rum & cranberry and beer. Unfortunately Bev had to leave so after a nice rest down by the lake we headed back up and said goodbye to Bev.

The rest of the time we scrapped and laughed and scrapped and laughed. Carol had brought out a Briskett to cook so she had put that in the oven and we continued to scrap. Vicki made her famous cherry almond cinnamon rolls so the smells in the cabin were just amazing. We took a break and ate our dinner of briskett and potato salad and dessert and then Mom, Vicki, Donna and I played Hand & Foot again. We told Carol to pay attention because Vicki had to leave Saturday and we wanted to make sure we could still play the game. I think we ended the last game around 1:30am and so after that everyone went to bed.

Saturday came and so did the rain, it had rained sometime during the night but I was either REALLY tired or the earplugs really helped because I didn't hear it. Everyone woke up on their own, I had realized at about 1am Saturday morning that I forgot to make the "make ahead" breakfast casserole so I got up later Saturday morning and threw it together. It didn't seem to make a difference that it was put together a couple of hours before it was cooked, everyone seemed to like it. We scrapped some more and then Vicki had to leave to go to her Uncle's 25th Wedding anniversary. Later in the day I BBQ'd hamburgers (my first time on my own) we also had pasta salad to go with it along with chips and guacamole. I have to say I was pretty impressed with my BBQ'ing skills. After dinner we played Hand & Foot with Carol who picked it up after the first go around. Back to scrappin' we went after that and I think bedtime for Saturday was about 1:30am Sunday morning (do you see a pattern here?). Despite the carpenter ants at the A/C unit and the dogs barking at "something" outside I think everyone just passed out.

Sunday came which meant time to go home. Everyone had pretty much packed up the night before so it was a fairly organized pack of supplies, coolers and such. We had decided to make our traditional stop at The Cookery which is at the Flying J Truck Stop. Here we ate french toast, eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuts & gravy, hashbrowns, etc. Oh yeah, Donna had "It Ain't Your Momma's BLT" sandwhich which she shared some with Carol. It was bittersweet that our long weekend was coming to an end but we know come the fall we will be out there again.

I think mom fit in real well with the girls and vice versa. We all had a great time, got a lot of projects done and can't wait to do it all over again! Hopefully with Bev and Michelle coming out for the stay! I think mom wants to come back too!