Ahhh... Things are Blooming

Spring is coming and I can feel it. The sun is out and things are blooming around here. I have been waiting since Christmas for this flower to open. Looks like it will be a Valentines present for us.



But take a look at what else is blooming around here...



This is grandchild #2.
My daughter and son-in-law aren't going to find out if it's a boy or girl. This drives me crazy! So I'm calling it David. No, I don't know either. Just want to have a little fun. We won't know until the end of August!! That is a long wait for me!



So, for now I will wait and watch things grow bigger and bigger around here.

And I should probably go and wash a few windows while I wait.

Coffee Filters Ideas

Coffee filters ..who knew! And you can buy 1,000 at the Dollar Tree for almost nothing. COFFEE FILTERS: Not just for making coffee....

1. Cover bowls or dishes when cooking in the microwave. Coffee filters make excellent covers.

2. Clean windows and mirrors. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling.

3. Protect China - Separate your good dishes by putting a coffee filter between each dish.

4. Filter broken cork from wine. If you break the cork when opening a wine bottle, filter the wine through a coffee filter.

5. Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

6. Apply shoe polish. Ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

7. Recycle frying oil. After frying, strain oil through a sieve lined with a coffee filter.

8. Weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.

9. Hold tacos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.

10. Keep in the bathroom. They make great "razor nick fixers."

11. Prevent a Popsicle from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.

12. Do you think we used expensive strips to wax eyebrows? Use strips of coffee filters.

13. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, French fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. Soaks out all the grease.

14. Stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.

Thanks Stephanie (daughter-in-law) for these great ideas.
Love Ya MA!

Sunday Morning

I went for a early morning walk this morning and just got back. It was dark, cold and very quiet. When I looked up at the streetlights, I could see it was snowing. Not much, just little flakes. The perfect time to be by myself.
I take with me my cell phone, house key and pepper spray. This morning I poured a cup of hot coffee and sipped on it.
My walks take about an hour and I usually walk about 4 miles, but today (with coffee in hand) I went at a slower pace. I have a regular route that I walk. When I walk this early in the morning, I walk right down the middle of the road. I like to check on all the houses that I see regularly. I see who's up making breakfast, see if a house is still for sale, which house decorates for special occasions. One of my favorite things to do, is to think how I would fix up a certain house or change or add something. And I never miss walking by my favorite homes.

Today I did something I haven't done in a long time. I started out backwards and ended up the way I usually start. I saw things quiet differently.

So with that said, I want to leave you with this quote that I read last night.

"We were discussing the philosophy of 'Live each day as though it were your last'. "Well," said the sweet old lady of the group,"that's a fine saying, but for 20 years I've been using a philosophy that's a little different. It's this: Treat all the people you see each day as though it were their last day on earth.

Have a great Sunday!

I Was Tickled Pink

I Won! I Won! I Won! And now I'm tickled PINK!

Deb over at http://hummadeedledee.blogspot.com/ had a contest and she picked my number, lucky number 7. Look at all the wonder pinkness.

Deb called it a "plethora of pink" and yes it is! I hit the motherload alright!

Thank you Deb!

I love Pink!

It's Off to Work I Go...

I decided to take you along to see where I spend my weekdays from 6:15 AM to 3:00PM.







This is where I work. I work at a high school. I started out volunteering in 1999, when our children started school here. Then got a part time job as an Office Assistant (I copied paper for the staff). After our two children graduated, I applied for my full time job, as the Attendance Secretary. It has been quite an experience.


I have always wanted to be a teacher. It has been a passion of mine to teach since 4th grade. Now, I teach but it's in my office. And this is my office.

I didn't clean it up for you. I just wanted you to see it in the "natural" state. I look out a window that the students walk up and get permission to either go to class or to leave school. I usually have two T.A's who help me.

Our school is very big. It has almost 2,000 students. My job is to know where each one is. They are either in class or not. Sounds easy but it's very grueling. By the end of the day I have received 150 calls and seen about 200 students, for a variety reason.

This is what I look out on. The girls were very shy.


I don't have an outside window but I do have a tree. Yes, we have trees up and down the inside of our hall way.


















I love my job. Actually, it's not the job, it's the students and the staff. The students keep me young at heart. And the staff is like family. We all support each other. On any give night you can see a sporting event, listen to a concert or watch a play. In the audience is a handful of staff members cheering the students on.



This weekend I will be at our school's theater watching one of my T.A's preform in a play. Tonight, my husband and I will take our regular seats in the gym and watch a basketball game.

Then after the rah, rah, rah, my husband promised me ice cream.


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If you ever get bored and can't think of what to do, go and support your local high school.
You can't beat the price!

Day -O- Beauty

The phrase Day-O-Beauty started in our family when we went down south to visit our really good friends for Christmas and New Years Eve, of 2000. All the girls wanted to put a big bleach streak in their hair. Not to be left out, the guys want haircuts. So Jeff Bob got out the old but famous, Flowbee hair clipper and started "styling" hair. Do you remember the Flowbee? A vacuum attached to hair clippers. We laughed so hard and giggled the whole day. And ever since then, when ever any of us wants a beauty treatment, we call it Day-O-Beauty.

This is our granddaughter getting her first Day-O-Beauty. Her mom polished her little toes with bright red polish. She was thrilled! So the tradition of Day-O-Beauty continues with the next generation.


Look who's next...... Lucy!

Giving Blood

I gave blood the other night. It was about 7:00PM. I was tired and ready to settle in. Right about then my husband asked me out on a date. I thought he was kidding.

"I'll take you out for dessert", were his actual words. It ended up that we had cookies and juice!

Really good story...

Giving Blood
Giving Blood many years ago, when I worked as a transfusion volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liza who was suffering from a disease and needed blood from her five-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save Liza."
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?"

Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give her all his blood.

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Question...How would you spend an extra $100?

I received my new REAL SIMPLE magazine yesterday. I love looking and reading magazines. And I'm real picky about which ones I read and which ones I'll buy. Real Simple is one of my favorites. I always learn something new. In this issue I came across the question, How would you spend an extra $100. 00? In the article it told of a retired grandmother who was asked this question and told how she would spend her money. This got me thinking. What would I do?

Food comes to mind. I feel strongly about feeding others. So, I would give $50.00 to our local food bank. Next, I would give $25.00 to Joyce Meyers. Joyce is a Bible teacher on TV, who I watch regularly. The last $25.00, I would take my husband to a movie of his choice and eat popcorn. My husband loves to watch movies with popcorn. I'm not big on theaters or theater popcorn. So this would be a stretch for me.

How would you spend an extra $100.00?

The Potter

I read this today and thought it was a great way to end the week.


There was a couple who took a trip to England to shop in a beautiful antique store to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially teacups. Spotting an exceptional cup, they asked “May we see that? We’ve never seen a cup quite so beautiful.”

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke, “You don’t understand. I have not always been a teacup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me pounded and patted me over and over and I yelled out, ‘Don’t do that.’ ‘I don’t like it!’ ‘Let me alone,’ but He only smiled, and gently said, ‘Not yet!’
Then WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. ‘Stop it! I’m getting so dizzy! I’m going to be sick!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, ‘Not yet.’

He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit Himself and then He put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. ‘Help! Get me out of here!’ I could see him through the opening and I could read His lips as He shook His head from side to side, ‘Not yet.’

When I thought I couldn’t bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! ‘Ah, this is much better,’ I thought. But, after I cooled He picked me up and He brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Oh, please, Stop it, Stop,’ I cried. He only shook his head and said, ‘Not yet.’

Then suddenly He put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and He took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited and waited, wondering, ‘What’s He going to do to me next?’

An hour later He handed me a mirror and said, ‘Look at yourself.’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful!!!’

Quietly He spoke, ‘I want you to remember, then,’ He said, ‘I know it hurt to be rolled and pounded and patted, but had I just left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you.’”

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He’s doing for each of us. He is the Potter, and we are His clay. He will mold us and make us and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to “stink,” try this – brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then, have a little talk with the Potter.

Victoria Magizines

Yesterday I said good-by to all of my Victoria Magazines that I have collected for so many years. But I'm not sad. I am pleased and happy. I fell in love with the magazine when it first came out. I was probably one of the first subscriptions. Years went by and I kept them hidden at the top of my closet.

Fast forward to November. My husband and I made a decision to have our pregnant daughter, son-in-law and 21 month old granddaughter, come and live with us because of a job lay off. We needed to make room. I purged so many things but I couldn't just toss or Goodwill these babies.

I have been reading blogs for sometime now and one of my favorites is http://hummadeedledee.blogspot.com/. Deb is wonderfully unique. I knew she would love them as much as I had. So I emailed Deb and she was taken back with the offer. We met yesterday at a park and ride near by my house.

Wow! She is as warm as she comes across in her blog and emails. I felt so excited about meeting her. And she didn't let me down. Cute, warm, excited, happy and so nice. Yes, it was a good decision to give my magazines to her. If you go to her web site you'll see what a great job she did displaying her "new" magazines.

Thanks Deb for taking good care of these babies.

What is it about Hair?

I'm so excited. This week I am getting my hair cut and colored. It has been about three months since my last appointment. This is not unusual for me. I'm not one to set an appointment for every 6 weeks. I go when I can't stand it anymore.

I find it hard to spend the money and find the time. It's always cut to short. The color is wrong. The price was way to much. The style wasn't what I explained. I've even had my children cut my hair. I am never happy.

I've had the same style since high school. I get high lights and a bob cut. Sometimes I grow the bob out an inch or two longer, thinking I've change the style. But haven't fooled anyone.

This past year I grew out my bangs. It has taken six long months for them to reach my ears. I still wear a headband because I can't stand them around my face. Growing them out has been my biggest hair change in years!

So this Thursday, I will go to my hairstylest and ask for something new and different. Come home with my same style and color, paid to much and not satisfied with the way it looks.

Oh well, I comb my hair once a day and I don't see myself the rest of the day. So why do I get soooo excited about going to get my hair done?

Update on my hair. I didn't get as much cut off this time so it is a bit longer and the color is the same. But I like it! Who knew? Must be something about blogging. Getting my feelings out. This is progress.

Sunday Morning

Sunday mornings you will find me watching this T.V. show. My husband and I sip our coffee and watch. This is one T.V. show I tune into regularly. The stories are current. The opinions are interesting and the flow is smooth. If I am busy, getting ready for my day, I can look at the teasers and come back to watch the story that intrigued me. I always come away with some sort of new knowledge about a subject they had told.

But the very first thing I do on Sunday morning is read my Bible. Right now I'm reading the book of Matthew. And today was the parable of the mustard seed. Which is just what I needed to hear again. For today, we are going to see our son and daughter-in-law. They live in Tacoma, which is about 50 miles door to door from us. I'm going to prepare the soil.

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
– Matthew 13:31–2

Friendship

Tonight I'm going to meet my girlfriend whom I have known since I've was four and she was three. We went to kindergarden together, were in each others weddings, became Moms together. We have laughed, cried and everything in between.

Last night I spent the evening talking and laughing with another special girlfriend. All of my friends are different and unique. Some of my friends I've had for years. Some of my friends have moved on and I don't see them anymore. Everyone of them have given me special moments that have formed me, helped me and made me a better person. I have the best friends who really care about me and I am so thankful for each one of them.

Here's to friendship!

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival." - C. S. Lewis

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe unto him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." ~ The Bible: Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

Humming Birds

I have a passion for my Humming Birds. Actually, I like all kind of birds but with two dogs, I can't get any birds to stay around, except for Humming Birds.

It started about a year ago. I bought a humming bird feeder. I found the recipe for the nectar and that was all I needed. Last summer I had a family of Humming Birds call my feeder home.

It was fun to have them buzz around while I worked in my yard. Sometimes they would just hover and watch what I was doing. Every morning I would get up and look out our kitchen window, waiting for the first sighting. All day long I'd see them. Sometimes they'd sit on a branch close by. That is when I got the binoculars out and study them. They also rested in the cedar tree in our neighbor's yard.

I had heard that you could keep the birds through the winter if you kept the feeder clean and full. So I just had to try. When the temperature went down to 28 degrees, I would bring in the feeder inside at night. And then the snow came. I would put on my boots and brush off the snow every hour. I even made my daughter and son-in-law go out and brush the snow off the feeder. You'd think I was a crazy lady. But I still have the Humming Birds! I now call them Tiny and Teeny. The male is Tiny and his mate is Teeny.

Nectar Recipe:
1 Part Sugar 4 Parts Water Boil 1-2 Minutes Cool & Store In Refrigerator
Never use honey or artificial sweeteners! Honey ferments easily, and can cause sores in a hummers mouth. Artificial sweeteners have no food value. DO NOT use red food coloring in your solution, as this could be harmful to your hummers. No testing has been done on the effects dye has on birds. Most feeders have red on them and that should be enough.

Some day...

Someday I want to visit Paris.
Someday I want to visit San Francisco
Someday I want to visit Cannon Beach
Someday I want to visit Portland

Each of these cities I have been to. Each of these cities has special memories for me. And someday I want to see and visit them all, again!

Thoughts

I just visited all the wonderful blogs that I have on my list.

I don't know where to start. Do I talk about my day? Do I talk about my family? Do I talk about my work?

Sometimes I just want to be heard so, I will talk about all of the above. It's hard to have what I call an inspirational piece for a blog. When I decorate a room, I usually start with an inspirational piece, like a picture. I take all the colors and the feel from the painting. Then it's easy for me to crate.

But a Blog? What is my inspirational piece? Is it my title? It must be. I should write about my views. My Vista View.

So here comes Vista Woman.

Back to Work

Snow and more snow!

It was nice to get back to work at the high school today. We started our Christmas break with three days off because of snow. Then the two weeks for our regular winter break.

And it started to snow again last night. Three more inches . Nothing like starting and ending the vacation with snow.

Actually, school started an hour late because of the snow. So that puts more work on my plate. The morning saw cars sliding and slipping. A delivery truck got stuck at the enterance to school and held up two school busses with about 20 cars behind them. All these students came to my window to be excused. There must have been 100 of them! And then the calls from parents was endless. It was not your typical day. I'm tried.

It was good to see the students. Some gave me hugs and told me they had missed me. Isn't that nice? I also recieved the Christmas gifts that couldn't get handed out because of the three snow days. My family enjoyed the cookies before and after dinner tonight.

Some teachers had their "war" stories about how they were house bound. The students told me that they slepted most of the their time off. I just listened. It wasn't hard to do. I find that people love to talk about themselves. They didn't ask about me. I didn't care, I was way to busy to have a conversation. A few nods from my head and a grunt or two was all they needed.

Well, I'm going to go and prepare for tomorrow. I like to pick out what I'm wearing and get it ready for my day the night before. Tomorrow is Pink Tuesday. So what ever I wear has to be pink.

Pink Tuesday started when I want to somehow celebrate the birth of our first granddaughter, Lulu . She was born on a Tuesday and the pink, well you know...

You wouldn't believe how many others have started wearing pink on Tuesdays. It's always fun to see who participates.

Well, off to put together my pink outfit. (Sure hope is doesn't snow).

Sunday

Our Deepest Fear
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."~ Marianne Williamson - from "A Return To Love" ~

My First Entry - Jan. 3, 2009

This is my first blog entry and I'm excited! I have lurked around
(read) blogs for about two years and now I have joined the fun. Let's see how I do....