Collage of 2010 Christmas

Here are some brief moments in time of the Holiday Season 2010,

~~

Katlin, Dallas, Ariel.

Ariel's 25th birthday dinner at Cafe Trio

~

Mom's grave..dad really enjoys sending mom our love

...via setting balloons free.

~

Celebrating Juana's b-day in December.

~

The traditional puzzle

(This year, one of Park City, Utah)

(We missed Katlin helping on this one.)

~

Great afternoon snowshoeing with two men I love.

(the swede & brother Reed)

~

The family on Christmas Eve.

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DeVry women at our Christmas lunch

(look how young they are!)

(Harvest restaurant Thanksgiving Point)

~

Shopping at "The Gateway"...(Sur La Table)

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Four years with these fun and interesting women.

(Bookends -Book Group)

~

Joy To The World

Christmas is about the Saviour and his great gift to

the world, his life and his mission and perfect

example of love to all man kind.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

My Little Friend

Her name is Zarriah

She is Justina's daughter (my co-heart at work).

I have known Zarriah for over a year now and she is

such a cute child and very inquisitive.

She came with her parents to the Halloween "Defright Night"

at my home,

she was..

Neytieri from the Avatar Movie.

I let the children pick their very own pumpkin from my pumpkin patch

and she seemed to have loved that experience.

This week I got call from Zarriah (unbeknown est by her mom) asking me if

I had a..."Christmas tree patch?"

I had to smile...I told her that I did not, but that the

swede and I would work on that next spring...

(maybe we could plant a few pines in the side yard.)

Zarriah, I invite you to be the very first person

to cut a Christmas tree from my "patch"!!!

You are my favorite friend!

Dallas is BACK!!

(Dallas is far right)

She 's Back...

..the almost 16 year old returns home after having a 3 month respite in Houston

from her crazy parents and rehabilitation from soccer injury.

1.She is amazed how cold it is in Utah

2. So happy to be with her friends.

3. missed her grammy.

4. cna't wait to drive again

5. loves her new La Roca Soccer wear.

6. plans for moving in the basement and creating a new bedroom.

Sabuda Pop up Card

Here is your very own to make....Robert Sabuda Reindeer Card!!

Click here for three great templates and instructions. Aren't you excited to make your very first pop up card at "Martha" Holiday Central.

Let the count down begin...

10 days until Christmas!!

Burrowing in...

..for the winter of 2010.

One of the ways I have found to embrace the cold white winters of Utah is to...

have a space where I can go and

be creative, listen to music and do

things that I would normally not do during the spring and summer months.

The" swede "becomes my HANDYMAN!!

Hey girls, gather round

Listen to what I'm

putting down

Whoo baby, He's

my handyman

He's not the kind to use a pencil or rule

he is handy with

love and I'm no fool

He fixed my broken heart,

I know that he truly can..

If your broken heart should need repair

Than he is the

man to

see

He'll whisper sweet things, you tell all your

friends

They'll come

runnin' to him.

Here is the main

thing he wants to say...

I'm busy 2

4 hours a day

I fix broken hearts, I know that I truly can

Come-a, come-a, come-a, come-a, come, come

Yeah, yeah, yeah

Come-a, come-a, come-a, come-a,

come, come,

They'll come runnin' to me.....

(James Taylor)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This year he put up peg boards so that all my tools

have an organized place to go, when I am finished using them.

He replaced all the old fashoined christmas light with LED

ones so we could say that we are trying to go GREEN!

Energy burning ones on the left and the LED "Green" lights on the right.

....on to other holiday projects!

The Girl Effect

No Matter if you are Right handed or Left Handed...

Become aware of your fellow world citizens.

Click here to see how you can learn more...

Here is the link to get you started.

Please take 1o mins of your time and go these links to

read and spread the word.

Click here to check out all the bloggers talking about "The Girl Effect"

(don't you want to be a part of this powerful movement)?

Palin & Me

Only one thing in common with Sarah.....

(well, beside being a wife, mother, grandmother,

love of the outdoors, no political views or affiliation)

check this out

Watch D

ec

9 on ABC

Barbara Walter

s-

“10 most Fasinating People”

Times magazine cover story about Sarah Palin:

Less well known was the Palin

who agitated for more access to the media

(other than KatieCouric), who was seen more than once

passed out on her hotel bed half-buried in

briefing books and index cards and whose

thriftiness when it came to her wardrobe was

so obvious that one senior strategist clucked of the Palins,

“These people shop at Dillards!”

Here is

another quote from the same time magazine aricle that

I found in the blog: SLATE

"There's another woman profiled in the Times

this week whose branding

sometimes contradicts itself and who

is described by

a fan-turned-staffer as "the most ordinary person."

This is of course, former Vice Presidential candidate, and potential

future Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Palin is very

far from ordinary, despite some of

her more relatable trappings

(a McCain strategist once said of Sarah and Todd,

"These people shop at Dillards!"

I bought my dress 3 weeks ago at Dillard's (before I saw this interview)

for a wedding of one of my co-workers. It is an Antonio Melani (size 4).

OK...e..nouff! :)

Holiday Happiness

This week I have been thinking a bit about Thanksgiving, Christmas

and wondering what magic will occur in the next several weeks.

I have a few recipes that I will attempt to cook, bake and freeze.

(hint...a variety of culinary methods of creating gastronomical delights.)

Here a few vintage ideas

______________________________________________

It is amazing that Christmas is even on my mind,

the fact that it is just 6 weeks away...

I'm bringing out the cookbooks and will be

baking up some "sugar plum sweets"!

You can never be..

...too...safe....

My recommendation for staying

healthy during the cold season.

Believe It or NOT....

The Left-Handed Whopper:

Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.). However, the left-handed whopper had "all condiments rotated 180 degrees, thereby redistributing the weight of the sandwich so that the bulk of the condiments will skew to the left, thereby reducing the amount of lettuce and other toppings from spilling out the right side of the burger."

Jim Watkins, senior vice president for marketing at Burger King, was quoted as saying that the new sandwich was the "ultimate 'HAVE IT YOUR WAY' for our left-handed customers." The advertisement then noted that the left-handed Whopper would initially only be available in the United States, but that the company was "considering plans to roll it out to other countries with large left-handed populations." The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

Here are some funny Hamburger jokes..

How do you insult a hamburger patty? Call it a meatball!

How do you make a cheeseburger sad? Make it with blue cheese!

Bon appetite!

A week in Time

Last week I traveled to Chicago, IL to do a 5 day training

for my position at DeVry University.

I spent 5 days training with 17 other OSC's at

DeVry's home office

in Oak Brook IL.

It was a week to remember...

Food:

This is deep dish pizza

Train Ride:

..into "Downtown"

Fun Times:

..at Navy Pier

Learning:

Fellow OSC (operations support coordinator's)

from all over the country. aka- "the learning" environment.

Beautiful home office entrance

Graduation certification

"Hygge"

One of the cornerstones of cultural life in the tiny

country of Denmark is something Danes call

"hygge."

It has no exact English translation; the best

approximation is "cozy," or "socially comforting."

It refers to that feeling of being with close friends, having a sincere

conversation over food and drink, perhaps listening to good music.

I am going to SLC today to experience hygge.

Maybe I will post pic's tomorrow.

Halloween in Houston

I live vicariously via text photo, Facebook post and skype.

Tonight via blackberry, Aubry sent me these pic's of the

fun that I was missing out on.

Earlier this week...playing at the pumpkin patch.

I think this picture describes my grand kids personalities by their costumes.

Dallas the Cat-Thrilla and her princess lady bug.

Until next year....

BOO!

More Robert Sabuda

When did this obsession start???

His name is Robert(Sabuda)

He is talented beyond belief

I have many..many of his creations (these are just a few)

Lets take a look...

Here is a web page

that would make me really happy,

if I could take the time to make all of these pop-up cards.

The site says; "The basics....???

I can't imagine doing just the basics of paper engineering.

Mathew Reinhardt is another talented Paper engineer, together

these two men have creative extraordinary pop up books.

Take a look at a short video of how a pop up book

is made. Click here

Twas The Night before......eek!

I really love this night of kids, costumes, food, and scary things.

These blogs will give you a smile and maybe a fright!

A Fanciful Twist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OWLSORTS

deseando ... fantasma, duendes y cosas que dan miedo!

DeFright Night

DeVry University staff De Fright Night Party

I was the only adult child to dress up...the children all came in costume.

We ate, danced, ate, made

frightening science experiments

and mummified the parents.

This family won!

I brought out my

" illuminating" spooky crystal ball

and gave future predictions to the kids.

Stage two: turn on the black lights..

Wow, what a fun party, the only thing missing....

the swede!

Erieeee Silhouette Plates

I like to make use of the decor around my

home when I decorate for any season.

Years ago my very creative mom gave me

a awesome collection of white plates.

I have had this plates somewhere in

my home wherever I have lived in her honor.

This is what I did with them this year for

Halloween.

close up

close up

I tired to find silhouettes that were from the same circa.

Then enlarged or reduced, copied and cut out with a very

small pair of scissors.

I felt with this silhouette I was seeking revenge for

all the little mice that appear around my house this time of the year.

(my cat has not brought me any surprises yet.)

Need I say MORE.....?????