DO YOU BELIEVE IN SIGNS?

Sorry, this is a long one!

I have a wonderful relationship with God. I know that people hear Him speak to them but for me it has always been with signs or what I call Godincidences. An example would be when I happened to have a few handkerchiefs in my trunk (this was before my For Your Tears Ministry), they were embroidered flower ones that I use to pick up at Penney's.

One day a woman came into the Hallmark store I was working at and I could see she was hurting. I have never been afraid to go up to someone and ask them what happened. She was buying a frame to put a picture in of her child and a child who had just passed away, wanting to give it to the child's mother. I ran out to my car to get her a handkerchief and told her that it was for her tears. I normally didn't have them in my car but hadn't taken them out when I had purchased them. See to me that is a sign that God knew before I did!

So on Tuesday after bowling my daughter and I went out to run some errands. She needed to pick up her tax form at Hallmark where she worked for six weeks as Christmas help and I needed to get some Valentines Day cards. (as a side note someone just left the store and she has now been hired as a regular employee, she starts on the 6th) So when we were there I found a couple of Willow Tree pieces that I wanted to buy and I had $20.00 in Hallmark money that they had sent to me. One of the pieces was something that I wouldn't normally buy for myself but I thought I would get it and give it to my husband to give to me for Valentines Day. The piece is called Je T'aime which is French for I Love You.

So later that evening my husband came into my office and sat down next to me on the sofa. He had something to tell me. He just found out on that day that he is going to the UK for 20 days in June. Around the 20th he is flying to Paris and he invited me to go with him. OMG! I could go with him for the whole trip but it won't be until Paris that he would actually have time to spend with me. Then it hit me, how did I happen to buy this Willow Tree piece today with the French wording on it for him to give to me on the same day he was told he was going to Paris! Was this a sign? I believe it is. Our anniversary is the 24th of June which means we would be in Paris to celebrate it. "Joyeux anniversaire"

Well that is not the end of the story. See I am not crazy about flying, how do I handle a long flight like that all by myself. (I am not afraid to die but I am afraid to die in a plane crash) I have a trip to Florida on the 16th of February and I have had sleepless night ever since the trip was booked. I do know that my trip to Florida is important. I will be able to see my brother for 5 full days and my dad will have the opportunity to have all three of his children together in one place at the same time. I would have to say that this hasn't happened in probably 18 years! I am staying for an additional 12 days after my brother goes back to Milwaukee, WI. My husband is coming for last three days before I leave so he can spend some time with my dad too. (my sister and her family are there too)

So what do I do? I was in shock when he asked me, I didn't know what to say, I was overwhelmed with fear. Not only flying but being in a place where I do not know the language. That was before I realized the connection and the sign from God. I am feeling a little less overwhelmed but I haven't made my mind up yet.

This is where the Social Security card and Birth Certificate come in to play. I am going to need a passport! So I ordered my Birth Certificate and it arrived on Friday. I am going to the Social Security office on Tuesday to get the replacement card so when I get home from Florida I can get going on my passport. That doesn't mean I am going but at least I will have the passport ready if I decide to go. Isn't it amazing that at 59 I haven't needed these forms of identification? I had even worked in the school district about 20 years ago, you would think they would have wanted to see my Social Security card!

So do you think this was a sign from God?

Do you think I should bite the bullet and go?

Speaking of biting the bullet I had to get a mouth guard to use during the day because I am clenching my teeth, I guess that is how my stress is coming out. I was clenching my teeth before my Chicago trip too! I do enjoy flying and love when I get to my destination! It's the time before I leave and actually board the plane that I stress about it.

THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

Look at what I got: THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD

Beverly over at The Beverly Buzz Ramblings of a Self-Proclaimed Queen Bee (Sounds like me!) gave me this awesome award. Thank you so much Beverly. Go over and meet Beverly for yourself and read her seven things about herself.

Rules for accepting this award:
Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post.
Tell us seven things about yourself.
As you know by now I do not pass my awards on because it just stresses me out.

Feel free to take it and put it on your blog.

You all mean the world to me :)

1. I have an older brother and sister so I am the baby in the family at 59!


2. I a 100% Bohemian. Bohemian as a nationality would probably appear in some old records as that is what people from that area were once called. Today they are no longer called that since today it's part of the Czech Republic, but I still say I'm Bohemian.


3. My grandmother always told me to stay close to her or the Gypsies would get me!


4. I refuse to be a Virgo when I have been a Libra my whole life.


5. I use to be able to handle several balls in the air, so to speak, but I can't anymore. Now I'm lucky to handle one at a time.


6. I lost my Social Security card about 35 years ago and haven't needed one until now. (story to come soon)


7. I also do not have a original birth certificate from the county I was born in. I only have the cute paper copy that the hospitals use to give out with our footprints on them. I don't know how I got by all these years without these items.

Click here to visit with Beverly

P.S. There is a new post over at DEBBY'S TREE.

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Push the button and join Joyce for her Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Will you watch the Super Bowl? If so who will you root for? If you are outside the USA what is the 'big deal sporting event' in your own country?
Yes I will watch the Super Bowl. (love the commercials!) I would have loved to be cheering for the Bears but since I can't I will be cheering for Green Bay.

2. Is ignorance bliss?
Probably!

3. Which of the seven dwarfs are you? (and just in case your Disney is a little bit rusty, here they are-Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy)
Most days I am Grumpy with a touch of Bashful.

4. When you are riding in the car with another couple how do you organize the seating? (Men up front? Women up front? Couples sit together?) And thanks to Lori at Mountain Woman at Heart for the question! Everyone go say hi to Lori.
We usually sit as couples but I'm okay if the guys want to sit together. It really doesn't happen often for us.

5. What is beauty?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? This is a tough one because I see beauty in so many things.

6. If someone asks you to bring an appetizer or a dessert to a party in their home, which would you choose?
I would most likely bring a dessert.

7. What is your crowd pleasing go-to appetizer?
I make a dip with a layer of cream cheese, layer of chili and a layer of cheese. Heat it in the oven until warm a bubbly and serve with tortilla chips.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

If I only had a brain that was working I would put some great thought here. It's not cold in California but my brain is in a frozen state right now. Can't seem to come up with anything to even post about!

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEKEND

We went to The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens on Saturday. It is in San Marino, CA which is near Pasadena. Everyone knows about Pasadena and the Rose Bowl Parade, right? We knew we were going to meet for dinner but wanted to do something before that so we could spend more time together celebrating Adam's birthday. So we meet here which was about 1/2 way for each of us to drive. We had about 3 hours to walk around. Didn't get to see everything but what we saw we loved and the weather was absolutely beautiful.

When I saw the line up of statues I said "I bet this is where they filmed that scene from The Wedding Planner." Well I just looked it up and guess what, it is! (don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Some unusual things in the greenhouse.

The Cherry blossoms were beautiful.

Camellia flowers were in bloom.

Love the peaceful settings with the benches.

Just look at the size of those bamboo stalks!

Oriental Gardens


We got to see one of Andy Warhol's pieces.
Loved the Frank Lloyd Wright furniture.
I love his home designs and was actually in one when I was in
High School, we were excited to see the chair from Riverside, IL.
That is were the house was that I have been in, a HS friend lived in one.
The armed chair was from Highland Park, IL.
Loved the dining room set and the
stained glass window too. I love mission style furniture.


A few statues and painting that I liked. I never got the names!

Then it was on to our pizza dinner at Casa Bianca Pizza Pie! It was delicious and we had a wonderful time enjoying each others company. They don't open until 4pm but they do take reservations. So Tristen called and made one for 4pm, they kind of laughed at her saying you do know we open at four indicating that she probably wouldn't need one. Well we got there at 4:10 and I think our table which was waiting for us was the only open table. When we left there was a long line of people who were waiting outside to get tables. So that tells you how good it was!

P.S. My Christmas decorations are offically put away!

I'M NOT HERE......

and you can't find me! Go ahead and try..........do you see me? Well guess what I'm doing today. I know you want to know!

Okay, I'm just being silly. I'm in my family room taking the 800+ ornaments off my tree and packing them away for approximately 307 days. Yes siree bob, that is how many days it is until Thanksgiving in 2011.

All my decorations got packed up last weekend, including my snowman trees and have been put away for safe keeping. I've been meaning to do the tree all week but when dusk hits and I turn the lights on all I want to do is stare at its beauty.

What was different this year is that when I put up my decorations it seemed to just drag on. I just couldn't seem to get organized and done. In packing these things up it was a breeze. Every little thing just packed up so easily, each container was so neat and organized. It was actually kind of strange. Usually I struggle getting everything to fit and it was like each item had a place just waiting for it.

I don't know if I have ever shared this with you but one year after Christmas I had gotten ill. All the hustle and bustle can really wear me down. So that year I didn't get my tree down until February 6th. So that is always my goal each year, no tree should ever be standing in my house after that day! Last year everything was down and packed away by the 23rd of January (yes I do mark it down on my calendar) so I am right on target and should be done with time to spare.

I also got my calendars done, transferring all the birthday information and important dates into the new ones. (one for my purse) I always buy Suzy's Zoo each year, they just make me smile!

There is a new post today at Debby's Tree.

P.S. I want to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes yesterday for my son Adam :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM

Our son Adam is 32 today! (So that means I am getting pretty old!) We love you Adam and we couldn't be more proud of you. If you want to see some pictures of Adam as a baby you can go over to my post from his birthday last year. He never ceases to amaze us and always keeps us laughing. He has the best sense of humor.

We are celebrating his birthday on Saturday. Now if I gave you one guess I bet you would be right as to what we are eating! We are actually going to a restaurant near Pasadena for pizza. I told you we are a pizza family. He has been there before and wants us to try it, he thinks we are really going to like it. We are pretty tough judges when it comes to pizza after growing up in the Chicago area.

This picture is from a few years ago, Adam is with his sister Amber. It's one of my favorites! (and since I posted a picture of them at Christmas, which I normally don't do, I thought I may as well put one here.)

Look at them next to this picture of my mom & dad, can't you just see the family resemblance? They do have features from both families but when I posted this picture last Friday I thought they looked a lot like my parents.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday Adam.

With all my love, Mom

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Head on over to Joyce's blog and join in the fun.
Just click on the button!

1. Do you like your name? Were you named after someone? If you have children how did you settle on their names?
Yes I have always liked my name. No I was not named after anyone. My husband always liked the name Adam. I can't remember how I came up with Amber but I love the name especially with her middle name Rae.

2. How do you define success?
I am thinking of success as, in.a.job, and I think if you love your job then that is success. It is not always about making a lot of money, it's about being happy with your life.

3. Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy?
I don't watch either but I've seen them and I choose Jeopardy.

4. If you could own any single object that you don't have now, what would that object be?
A nice cabin in the mountains.

5. What is something that inspires you?
The fact that there is always Hope!

6. Meatloaf-yea or nay? If its a yea how do you make yours?
Well growing up it was a nay, I never liked when my mother made it. As an adult it's a yea and one of my families favorites. I use the recipe from Fannie Farmer. I love the cookbook, it has always been my go to cookbook and I love to give it as a shower gift.

7. Which is more admirable-the ability to organize and be methodical or the ability to adapt and make do?
Well I looked up methodical to make sure I knew what it meant. But the opposite of methodical is messy. So here is what I think, having the ability to adapt in all situations, to me, is admirable.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
My Mother-in-law who lives in Texas is having a birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom!

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A Nut in a Nutshell

STYLISH BLOGGER AWARD

I am so blessed! I received the Stylish Blogger Award from three people last week. I feel like Sally Field who said "You like me, you really like me," in 1985, accepting her second Oscar in five years.

I received the first one from Katina at Peaceful Divas whose blog is awesome and dedicated to helping women navigate life's necessary, yet not so glamorous, tasks with style and the realization of God's Grace!

The second one I received from Jamie at Forget-me-not, Oh Lord! which was actually given to me on my For Your Tears blog. (I decided to do one post here) Jamie is a born again Christian, the mother of an adorable toddler and also the mother of an angel in Heaven.

The third one is from Joanna from Pregnancy, Miscarriage & Life with Chronic Pain. She also has a baby in Heaven and has been suffering with chronic pain for almost a decade. She could certainly use and appreciate your prayers. This was also given to me on For Your Tears.

Thank you Katina, Jamie and Joanna, I appreciate you thinking of me when you passed this award forward.

The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Thank & link back to the person who awarded you this.
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pay it forward to 10-15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award.

1. Even though I am pretty lazy around the house I definitely have OCD when it comes to blogging. I am looking for balance but haven't found it yet. We just might have our Christmas decorations up all year because of this thing called blogging!


2. I have two beautiful grown children who are both in love and that just makes me so happy. Our daughter is married almost 9 years to our wonderful son-in-law and our son lives with the love of his life. (we love her too! )


3. We have no other relatives in Southern California so we are really lucky that we like each other, or should I say that we are blessed to have children who actually like hanging with their parents.


4. For those of you who are newer to my blog I am my husbands first & third wife!


5. I watch movies that I love over & over again. I have many favorites and will concentrate on several at a time. If it is a favorite I just can't get enough of it! I guess it's kind of like those of you with little children who have to watch Cars or Toy Story a million times a day. By the way, those are favorites of mine too! Am I in my second childhood?


6. I ended up buying the "for dummies" book for my Canon Rebel since I am just not liking the pictures I take with it. Can you really teach an old dog new tricks? I certainly hope so!


7. I have a exercise glider in my office that I never use but it does a wonderful job at collecting dust!

So if you know me well you will know that I am not passing this award on because I just don't like having to make a choice, it's like picking people to play on your team in gym, it's just too much pressure for me. I love everyone who follows me and appreciate the fact that you actually come back for more!

ROUND ROBIN

I am joining my friend Amy at Keeping Up with the Schultz Family in her monthly Round Robin.

Playing a little catch-up here with some pictures:

This is what happens when we get rain in the Winter. We get to look at the beautiful snow capped mountains from our backyard.

This is what Miss Skye B did on her birthday. If you remember the post I did about her called "Nobody puts Skye in the corner" she is still pulling her bed out to the middle of the family room!

Here she is with her haircut that she got on Wednesday. If you missed her birthday post where I talked about her needing a haircut you can see it at "Miss Skye B is two."

Here she is outside enjoying the sunshine yesterday!

For those of you who are visiting from Round Robin I wanted to show you my Christmas tree. You can see the whole post "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" here.

Just want to say Happy Birthday to my Mother Dorothy. She has been in Heaven for almost 29 years. She would be 84 today. Here she is with my Father Ray who will be 88 this year. (I think I may be visiting him in February in Florida) I was thinking that this picture looks like a prom photo but then I saw the beer bottles behind them so I am guessing they were at a wedding.

New post at Debby's Tree: I LOVE LUCY

P.S. I just got off the phone with friend in Minnesota. He said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping below zero and the north wind is increasing. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in! (hehe)

Julie if you are reading this I almost called you to see how your family was after reading this email from Mark!

WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Push on the button, visit with Joyce and join in!

1. Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to mis-use, over-use or just general uselessness and they receive over 1000 nominations. Here are the fourteen words/phrases they'd like to see banished in 2011-viral, epic, fail, wow factor, a-ha moment, back story, BFF, man up, refudiate, Mama Grizzlies, The American People, facebook/google when used as verbs, I'm just sayin', and Live life to the fullest.
What word or phrase would you like to see banished from our everyday vocabulary in 2011? You can choose one from the 'official list' or you can get creative and come up with your own.
Well in the world of blogging I would like to see Word Verification removed!

2. Do you consider opportunity something that comes to you or something you create for yourself?
I think it can be a little of each. Like being in the right place at the right now.

3. Since we're all eating healthy this month, ahem, what's included in your favorite salad? Is there dressing?
Usually romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, feta cheese, sliced red peppers, tomatoes if I have them and a can of chicken. I like Ranch dressing.

4. The fourth Monday in January is said to be Blue Monday...aka the most depressing day of the year. The date was calculated using many factors including weather, debt level, time since Christmas, time since we've failed at our new year resolutions, low motivation and feeling a need to take action. Do you get the blues this time of year and if so what is something you do to lift your spirits?

I can have the blues any day of the week/year. I know that most people are down after Christmas, we put a lot of work into making our families happy. I lift my spirits by shopping online for great deals.

5. Do you wear a watch? Any other everyday jewelry essentials?
Yes I wear a watch but only when I leave the house. I always have on my wedding ring and earrings. I do have a ring that Mark bought me two years ago for Christmas I put on when I go out.

6. What is something useful you learned in high school?

I know I didn't learn much in drivers education when we sat and drove on simulated machines. It was like playing videos! Actually I didn't learn much in HS, really I never worked hard and really only graduated because the teachers liked me. Something I didn't know about HS at the time is that you can make friends and still have them 42 years later.

7. Do you use an accountant when completing and filing your income tax returns or do you attempt to muddle through all by yourself?
My husband does them. At times we have used an accountant but mainly when he worked from home.

8. Insert your own random thought here.
These were hard ones for me to answer!!!

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