My Friday

Well I haven't made it to any of the scrapbook crops yet but I did get out & have some fun today! I got together with a couple of my friends who I hadn't seen since October. We went to an Indian restaurant that was WONDERFUL! I forget the name... it's Bombay something... anyway, we had a lot of fun there laughing & catching up on things.

We had planned to play Scrabble afterwards but ended up just visiting instead. One of the girls had to go home early so the other one (Jan) and I went to her house for a while. Her granddaughter was there. She just graduated from college in December & is a really nice girl, so I enjoyed talking with her and Jan's husband as well as Jan.

When I got home I watched the season premier of Lost which I'd taped Wed. night. It was good but not as good as I'd hoped. Afterwards I was chatting on-line with one of my former students whose mother Betsy was one of my best friends before I moved up here. We met in 1995 when her son was in my first kindergarten class. I was new in town & she was the first person who befriended me. She is so funny and has a heart of gold.

Well, turns out she has stage 4 colon cancer which has spread to her liver. I'm still in shock. Her daughter gave me her cell phone # so I called her at the hospital & we talked for about 20 minutes. She sounded pretty drugged up. She had surgery several weeks ago but has had all sorts of problems & complications so she's still in the hospital. Anyway, if you'd like to say a prayer for Betsy I know she'd appreciate it.

Scrapbooking Friends

I think I need to get out & make more friends locally. In the winter I tend to be a bit of a hermit which isn't really good.

I'm thinking about going to a crop at our local scrapbooking store. Whenever I'm in there everyone seems very nice & now that they've moved they're a LOT closer to my house. :-) It would be nice to have friends with common interests who live reasonably close, don't you think? I have some wonderful friends on the scrapbooking forum but they all live too far away for us to be able to scrap together. So... we'll see if I actually make it to a crop. I wish my sister was here - we could go to it together & that would be fun.

Maya Angelou on Getting Older

Today in an e-mail I received these quotes that I want to remember. Some I'd heard before and some I hadn't. They're just a few of the answers Maya Angelou gave to Oprah Winfrey when Oprah asked what she had learned during her 70 years.

'I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.'

'I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.'

'I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back..'

'I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.'

Beware the Cookie Dough!

My granddaughters were selling cookie dough in November so, being a good Nana & Papaw, we ordered a tub from each of them. They delivered it during Christmas break and OMGosh it is SO dangerous to have that stuff in the house! It should come with a warning: The Surgeon General has determined that dough could be hazardous to your waistline.

The dough is all mixed & ready to go. All you have to do is bake it... or get yourself a spoonful and eat it like a lollipop! Yes, I know it has raw egg in it. No, that doesn't stop me from doing it!

It is SO yummy, both raw and when baked into a cookie.It' SO quick & easy & readily available - it's very much like having a tray of margaritas sitting on an alcoholic's coffee table, or a big bowl of Vicodin by an addict's bed.

It's there for the taking - and boy have we ever been taking it!

We've done more cookie baking in the 2 weeks since the dough delivery than we have the whole time we've been married! If DH isn't baking a batch then I am! It's just nuts (and so so yummy and so so addictive). Stop the madness! Somebody, please come take the tub away!!

Oh, hey, not really! Give that back to me now! NOW!! And remember: Baker Joe's Cookie Dough - watch for it! Coming soon to the elementary school near you.

A Lazy Start to the New Year

Today has been a totally lazy day here at my house. DH & I have just been hanging out - only time we've been outside was when the dogs needed to go. It's bitterly cold outside. We enjoyed watching the Red Wings beat the Chicago Blackhawks this afternoon & watched part of the "48 Hours" marathon (which is pretty funny since neither of us is a fan of the show).

I did a little laundry but other than that nothing productive. It has been nice, a good way to end Christmas break. Weboth go back to work tomorrow but that won't be bad since the next day is Saturday. I can definitely handle a one-day work-week!

I hope you & your family are having a good start to 2009! Happy New Year!