HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYE

Let me tell you about her first day with us. My daughter and I drove to San Diego to visit with a breeder who had some Cairn Terriers that were ready to go home. This was almost a two hour drive each way. The breeder was wonderful and we got to meet Skye along with her brothers and sisters. Of course her name wasn't Skye yet! We fell in love with her, she was the one. So we drive back home and after being home for 45 minutes we got back into the car and drove to LA for about a two hour drive since we also went over to pick up our daughter and son-in-law on the way. We had plans to see my son and his best girl to celebrate her birthday. We didn't tell them about buying Skye that day, we wanted to surprise them. This was on March 21, 2009. It was an extremely busy day for our little girl and she was fantastic.

She has been a wonderful addition to our family. She is very smart and funny. She was easy to train and brings pleasure into our lives each day.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY SKYE

This is one of Skye's favorite pastimes. She loves to play with two toys at a time. So what do you think, is she playing hockey or polo?

She had her picture in our local paper with our grand puppy Charlie. Also, most of our dogs have turned their nose up at alcohol. Not Skye, when you take a drink from your wine glass she is in your face, at your lips, trying to kiss the wine out of you!! She loves all of it.....so if you come over for a drink hold onto your glass.

If you want to see a few posts about her you can visit some of these, they are very short with some cute pictures ~ T.P. ~ Too Cute ~ Her New Pool ~ My Puppy is Stoned~ On the Seventh Day She Rested~ Cute as a Button~ The Big Bed ~ Graduation ~ Skye on Vacation ~ Waiting For The Magic Ice ~ Helping With The Bed ~ and of course The Eve of Christmas.

Yes this is what you do when the kids have left the nest.

YEAR END SURVEY 2009

Kat over at Heart 2 Heart recently did this survey and I remember seeing it over at Tami's blog Hearts Make Families too but never got around to doing it. Of course I also saw it at Amy's blog Keeping up with the Schultz Family. These are dear blog friends of mine so head on over and check out their answers. Since I am just resting I thought that maybe I would give it a try too!

1.What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Started to blog

2.Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No I don't usually do that

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
None

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More determination to get organized

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
4/9 & 6/21 the start days of my blogs ~ they gave me my life back

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
For Your Tears

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not doing enough for my family

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Continued struggle with living with severe asthma

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our puppy Skye

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Our daughter growth within herself

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Tiger Woods just to name one!

14. Where did most of your money go?
Treating others

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
My birthday at Disneyland

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas ~ I love where it says we will all be together if the fates allow ~ I want this song at my memorial service reminding everyone that we will all be together again and always love Christmas! It's my song this year because of all the loss I have seen and I want everyone to know that they will be together with their loved ones in eternity.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
happier ~ same ~ same

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Visited with friends ~ I've been missing in action....

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Being a bitch!

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Home with our children

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes, I fell more in love with my family.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
I have many. Big Brother is always #1 each year.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you did not hate this time last year?
I don't like to hate.

24. What was the best book you read?
I didn't read enough to have a good answer. Must do more this year!!!

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I enjoyed the music from Hairspray.

26. What did you want and get?
Puppy

27. What did you want and not get?
I can't complain about this one.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Hangover ~ you must see it!

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to Disneyland and turned 58 years young

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Better health, I am very limited in what I can do.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Lots of PJ's ~ Capri stretch jeans and blouses

32. What kept you sane?
Having Skye and a great husband.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one I can think of.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I won't go there.

35. Who did you miss?
My family out of town.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
You

**37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
"I Am Thankful For All" Go on over and read this post if you haven't yet!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"And I think to myself, what a wonderful world"

** (more to #37)I have read so many tragic stories this year and my heart is heavy with sorrow for everyone who has lost a loved one this year. It hasn't gotten me down, it has given me hope and has strengthened my faith in God. It has also given me a great appreciation for each day we have with our loved ones. I can sit here and feel sorry for myself because I have severe asthma but I won't. I have life and it is so very precious, each second is a gift from God. I see a very small glimpse of the tears that are falling around our world each day. We can live in our own little world and not be effected at all. I was so naive and I will never be that way again. When my children would come home from school and say something to the effect about how their teacher was mean today I would say to them, "you don't know what is going on in their life today, they may be very sad about something". I never realized how profound those words were. Life is hard, appreciate each day and trust in God. ALL MY LOVE, DEBBY

KEEPING YOU INFORMED

Wanted to let you know that I am getting better. Went to the doctor yesterday, actually had a well visit scheduled to get my yearly mail in prescriptions. He gave me Zithromax which usually helps. (Hospital only gave me Amocicillin which isn't strong enough for my needs) Even though I want to get busy I am forcing myself to rest :( Didn't go to bowling today either :( I hate the fact that I lost a week but I am thankful to be feeling better. Also want to send kisses to my husband who took me to my appointment yesterday and did all the laundry on Sunday after we came home from the ER.

FORGOT TO POST THIS BACK ON DECEMBER 30TH

For those of you who don't know this my husband and I were avid movie goers. He use to work from home and I worked part time at Hallmark so it was very convenient for us to go to the movies. We would go at least once a week and often more than that. Since he hasn't worked from home for several years now we have kind of gotten away from going. (We don't like crowds, we only liked the almost private matinees)I keep telling myself that I should go once a week but then here I sit at my computer.

When I was young my father was the manager of a movie theatre. That's how I grew up, went to the movies all the time. Academy Award night was a big deal and it was pizza night! I have carried that tradition on with my children. Most years in the past I was prepared for that night but the last few years I have barely seen any of the movies. Now don't get me wrong, we still watch lots of movies only we see them at home with NetFlix. Academy Award night is still one of my most favorite days of the year. I CAN'T WAIT!

So we actually went twice to the movies over the holidays and it was so much fun. We saw 2012 and Avatar. Both very good with constant action. Had some wonderful popcorn too!!!

Also, for those of you that are huge TWILIGHT fans, and I know from reading the blogs over the last few months that many of your are, I finally saw Twilight. Actually my husband watched it with me at we are very close to seeing New Moon in the theatre!!! How do you like those apples?

IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES

As you know my friend Kristie at Kristie's Notes has been posting updates on her blog about her friend Amanda and her tragic story. There is a poem that Kristie has posted that Amanda had read at the funeral for her family. If you have time today, go on over and read it. Each day is a precious gift from God.

I'LL BE BACK

It is not unusual for me to get sick during the holidays. I overextend myself and end up getting to a point where I just can't breathe. I have to start steroids and start using my breathing machine (nebulizer). I fight it off telling myself this isn't happening but it does and it did. This is the first time I have turned on my computer since New Year's Eve. I only turned it on to tell you that I've been down and out. Down because I get depressed when I get ill and out because I haven't been able to move off the sofa for 3 days. Finally broke down and went to the ER this morning because I just couldn't take it anymore. Had some more breathing treatments which helped a little bit. Chest x-ray didn't show anything bad so that was good! Got a prescription for antibiotics and have to rest. Just wanted to let you all know that hopefully I will be able to get over and read your blog soon. I need to catch up on my emails too. (to tell you the truth this is why my decorations stay up late each year because this happened to me) So hopefully you will hear from me in a few days.

Some days it's impossible to Just Breathe!

WITH ALL MY HEART

Thank you to Tami over at Hearts Make Families who gave me two awards back in December around the 12th. I always wanted the Lemonade Stand Award! (I guess it's because I drink lemonade all the time) This was the first time I had seen the Sugar Doll Award. I really appreciate getting awards, they make me feel loved. So I am passing this LOVE to you.....

I worked on this post for hours. (then I started over) I had listed 10 people, then 10 more and before you know it I realized that I needed to give these awards to everyone who comes over to read this post. Please take these awards and show them proudly on your blogs. I have gotten upset in the past when people post "take this award" and not do all the work involved. I did the work (deleted it) and realized that as my list got longer that at some point I was going to leave someone off and hurt their feelings if they were not part of my list. I have so many regular commenter's, you know who you are and I really want you to take these awards. Thank you to everyone for being my blog friend. I look forward to reading everyone of you in 2010.

POST IT NOTE TUESDAY

Head on over and join us.

I WAS GIVEN A STAR

When I was a young child I woke up one night and was drawn to the window. It was winter back home in North Riverside, IL where I grew up. I think that I may have been seven or eight at the time, I really don't remember. I also know that I had never shared this with anyone and to this day I don't know why. Maybe it wasn't meant to be shared, maybe it was just between God & I. I went to the window and saw a star in the sky but it wasn't just any old star, it looked just like the star we envision the shepherd's seeing on the night Christ was born. That is all I remember of that evening 50 years ago. The above picture is exactly the photo my mind took so many years ago, minus the shepherds.

I have thought about that very night several times in my life and especially around Christmas. I would tell myself that maybe, just maybe, God has chosen me for something special. Something to be noticed for but not something to be famous for.

When I wrote my post on New Year's Eve I have to tell you what happened to me when I saw the handkerchief I mailed to Amanda Buckland. There it was on the table next to her in the interview she did on her local Fox station. I burst out crying. When I think about the fact that I could touch the heart of this woman who lost her family in a tragic fire I had to get down on my knees and thank God for blessing me. In my mind I figured that she would be so overwhelmed with sadness and receiving so much mail that it would be months before she saw the handkerchief that I sent to her. I know that when people are grieving they often will stay away from the cards they receive because it hurts too much to read them. But she had the handkerchief right next to her and it hit me real hard.

So I went right to my blogs and posted about this. I thought that I had to share this with all my friends, I wanted them to know how my heart felt. But what I realized is that this is between God and I. He knows my heart and that is all that matters, it was personal just like my STAR.

MAY GODS BLESSING SURROUND YOU DURING THE NEW YEAR

If you have time please go over and visit Theta Mom and read her post. It's short and sweet and I wish I had thought to do it. (it is my favorite movie)

"It's A Wonderful Life"