Is this a new hobby for me?

So, I have been looking around alot on line about digital scrapbooking. In years past I have been a huge lover of the craft and have a room full of supplies that are not getting used at all. Shameful, yes I know. I always think about all of the pictures I take and nothing happens to them anymore. They just stay on this computer and I don't make beautiful creations anymore. I downloaded photoshop elements 7.0 just the trial version to see how I liked it, more for the photo editing aspects but the digitial scrapbooking was a definate draw! I have 28 more days left to decide if I want to purchase the full version at 99$. We will see what happens in these 28 days.

I have been trying to do a layout since last night and it took me that long to really get a hang on things and then I merged it together and forgot to put in drop shadows and things to make it look realistic! Argh! Oh well, it is only my first try.

Here it is, This is my cute nephew Andrew when he was out here a few months ago! I know there are tons of things I could improve on this... but for a first try.. it probably isnt' too bad!

Rain, Rain go away

I know, I should just shut up about the weather. First I complain about the snow and the cold wind. Now, I am going to talk about the rain, the snow melt and the warm wind. Did I just say warm wind? Yep... it is nearly sixty today. What is going on in the world. Is this the effects of global warming? Strange winter storms that produce snow, snow and more snow and then turn around and warm it up to melt it all and cause massive flooding. Last night the fog was so thick, the visibility was about 3 feet. Think about that the next time you are driving down the road, imagine only being able to see 3 feet in front of you.

Haley and I did a little after christmas shopping yesterday. I was really suprised by the lack of crowds. I could get down the sale aisles in Target WITH a cart yesterday. I couldn't believe it. My goal every year is to buy things that can be used throughout the year. I came away with some towels, a few rugs and some electrosol dishwashing detergent that was 50% off because it had holiday packaging! WoOHOO!

I will leave you today with a couple of pictures from my sister's house on Christmas Day.

More snow, what gives??

Ok, I realize that I live in Illinois, home of weather that changes so fast you can't even shake a stick at it. But this is ridiculous! It is snowing again? It has been doing something of the white precipitation persuasion every day for the past week. And the wind, enough is enough already! You don't need to blow so hard that you create 10 foot drifts, that is overly dramatic don't you think Mother Nature.

I live about 8 miles north of a small town and about 25 miles from a decent size town. I work in this said town. I live close to a major interstate and right now, I can't see it. Just to clarify, normally I can see but not hear it. Everything has turned into a sea of thick heavy white FoNow. If you don't know what FoNow is, then you really haven't experienced winter yet. FoNow is a mixture of Fog and Snow. It makes driving conditions from already ice covered roads really terrible. It kind of stinks, when you know you are driving on a sheet of ice but you can't see it. Oh how I love winter in Illinois NOT! The only thing worse is that we can't seem to elect a governor that isn't a CROOK, with a capital C.

I would love to be able to tell you that we have such and such inches of snow on the ground... but unfortunately, I can't tell because it is covered up with drifts varying in sizes from 2 foot to 10 foot. Right now, judging from the view out my window it looks like our neighbors truck is about to be engulfed in one fo these said drifts. HA! Sorry, I guess it isn't really that funny.. lol yes it is!

So, Christmas is just about upon us, I am just about done shopping. Just a couple of gift cards to pick up and some stocking stuffers and this year is complete. I am ready for it to be over. Ready to see what the new year will bring. Hopefully we can make it through this year without someone close to us passing on, that will be something that hasn't happened in at least 3 years now. I am hopeful that Jim will be called back to work soon and I am also hopeful for Haley to continue down the road of respect for others and most importantly herself.

Ugh, more snow... and then wind

It is supposed to get bitterly cold here with the wind chill of -25 tomorrow. Let me tell you, too damn cold for me! Especially when I still have some Christmas shopping to do!

Right now our power just came back on after being off for about 30 minutes. The wind is blowing about 25 to 30 mph and with the ice on the lines from this past Thursday's ice storm it is likely it will go out again. Already this winter is CRAZY! We haven't had this much snow in December since I don't know when.

I am hoping that our power will stay on through the night so we don't wake up to a freezing house! I hate the cold and there is nothing worse then cold in the morning!

Tomorrow is our Walters' family Christmas lunch, we host this each year for Jim's side of the family. We are having lunch this year. I just can't get into the spirit, one day I am there and then the next it is gone. I am already thinking of taking down the Christmas decorations. LOL if you know me, then you know that is totally not like me. Some years I leave them up until the end of January because I just love the festiveness of them.

Hopefully this weather stops and we can get back to our normal lives... Have a nice night y'all!

Hot Cocoa and Homemade Marshmellows

WOW! I just made my own marshmellows from a recipe found on The Homesteading Housewife. I love her blog!! She is pretty funny and she shares good thoughts and stories! I was very unsure of this marshmellow recipe... I thought no way! Marshmellows have to be inflated with air some how, well at least the highly processed ones. These are definately a new Yum Yum for us. Even the uber critical and picky Haley thinks they are good!

The recipe for the hot cocoa is here!

And

The recipe for the marshmellow's are here.

Plus while you are there... read some of her blog! You will enjoy it!

On a side note, Haley got her first contacts today... She is already complaining about them... You would have thought I forced her to get them. Ha! I was more then happy with getting her glasses, she had to have them... LOL You can betch she is gonna wear them if I have to poke them in her eyes myself! :) hehe

Mama needs a new blog design

I found this on another blog and Boy do I ever want to win this :) Click the picture to go to her site and sign up yourself.

I think it might finally be happening!

I think I am finally getting into the Christmas spirit! Our holiday party for work is tonight so that is exciting! To watch all the plans come together is the most fun! I hope the band is good and I think everyone is going to like the door prizes.

Over the past month, I have been struggling with alot of emotions and I think over the past few days I have just been able to let go and let God take care of it. I can't keep wondering about why my brother made the choices he did. He just did. I can't change the course of events now and it would have been doubtful that I could have if I had lived closer to them. I just have to have faith that he is in a better place and the Lord has healed his wounds and made him whole again.

I am going to start baking some cookies today and tomorrow and go shopping for those last minute decorations. Speaking of last minute. This year my shopping is completely last minute. I have bought 3 gifts, of those three gifts 1 of them I still need to have pictures taken for, devolped and put in. LOL needless to say, I am so far behind. Oh well, It will all come together I am sure! Right now, I need to go eat some lunch, jump on the Wii Fit for a half hour (the best invention ever!) and then get in the shower and get baking and then get ready for tonight. I hope that I have some good pictures for everyone tomorrow!

One long and crazy week

I haven't been able to blog all week because work has been consuming almost all of my time. I don't think that I have gotten home until way past dark all 5 days this week. It really messes with your internal clock when you go to work and it is dark and when you come home and it is dark.

The inevitable happened this week, Jim was layed off. We knew it was coming. He works in an industry that requires people to want to spend money on things like new windows for their homes, so with the economy the way it is, people don't really want to spend their money on things like that now. I think we will be ok. My job is stable, even if the steel industry keeps going down the toilet my job is secure as long as they don't close our plant. Even then I believe I would be offered a transfer so I think we would just make some changes in our lifestyles.

But, we will have to really buckle down now and make sure all of our bills still get paid and then try and stash anything that is left over for a rainy day! Right now we are talking about what we can do to conserve. We already keep our thermostat down to freezing. I already do most of our cooking from scratch. I think it will be at the max 3 months before Jim goes back to work full time, I think he will work off and on between then and now... so hopefully things will go well. One thing I have learned is not to rely on our credit cards during times like this. Just pay cash and muddle through.

One more day then back to work

Well, one more day and I am back to work after having quite some time off for my travels. I am not dreading it, but I know that it will be a very long week, with inventory next weekend. But after next weekend it will be smooth sailing for a while! Thankfully!!

Yesterday I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family. Since we were gone on Thursday we didn't have a chance to have a dinner together for the holidays. After dinner we pulled out all of my Christmas decorations and started getting them put together. I have alot of Christmas treas and I love me some decorating! I was able to get the small white tree decorated with the gold decorations, and today I am going to decorate the green trea with all of my country and wood decorations and then also try to get to the big white tree with all of the silver and blue decorations. I also have alot of those animated characters and animals to get set out but that requires me to pack away our normal decorations so we will see how far I get. I also have a set of 3 pine trees ( the skinny trees) that I will need to find a home for this year! How exciting

I haven't started my christmas shopping yet but I am about to start looking online for some good deals! I want to do the majority of my shopping online and since we are being very low key this year it shouldn't take long to do that.

I will leave you with a few of the pictures I took yesterday of my daughter and her two cousins.

A couple more pictures of the scenery where I was raised

I keep thinking that I should just move back down here... We went by our old house last week, wow, did that bring back memories. My reference points were all so much smaller in real life then they were in the picture that my mind had drawn in my head. Our yard was much smaller then I remembered, it was just amazing how being away for 27 years has changed things, some good, some bad.

My mom is coping pretty well with the loss of her oldest son. She made a comment to me today that she should not have outlived any of her children. I told her that she can only raise her children, she can't force them as adults to live a clean and sober lifestyle. My brother made choices in his life that ultimately lead to the end of his life. That was god's will for making poor choices, I guess. At 49, I would still like to be living an active, vibrant life doting on my child and any children that she might have at that time. With God's will, I hope that my dream will come true.

Here are a few more of the scenic pictures I took of the lake I grew up on:

I wish it wouldn't have been hazy that day.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and thanks for the well wishes with my brother.

Kenneth Rettko Jr. 1-59 to 11-08

Rest in Peace, my brother and give Daddy a hug for me.

I have arrived

I have arrived in Texas
Here is what I saw when I got here:

I think I am home.. I have arrived.

meaning of life

Last Tuesday I received a phone call from my brother telling me that one of my other brother's was really ill and in the hospital in ICU. My brother Kenny lives in Texas and is an alcoholic. I am not ashamed that he is an alcoholic, I know that it is a fact of life that some people have this addiction. I want to back up a bit to give myself a chance to reflect on the history. Some time ago, four years or so, Kenny was very ill, this illness was brought on by his alcoholism. The very thing that he loved and maybe hated more then anything nearly took his life. He recovered, with the admonishment that he never touch the stuff again or it is going to kill him.

Fast forward two years in August of 2006. My father died suddenly and Kenny and my second oldest brother and a cousin made the trip up here for the funeral and to lend support to my mother. During this visit, Kenny started drinking again. This time not to stop.

Another fast forward to this past week on Tuesday. This time, his liver is complete done for. No option for repair and maintenance this time. He needs a new liver. Unfortutely to his family and friends, alcoholics are not typically eligible for transplants until they can prove sobriety. In his case he must remain sober for 5 months before he will even be placed on the list. It is doubtful my brother will live long enough to reach that level of sobriety.

He is really going through detox right now and is so very hurtful and angry to his wife, it tears me up. I have been absent for blogging over the past few days because I have been dealing with my own feelings about this and wondering just how I could make this any better. I still haven't come to the conclusion and I am hoping that writing this down will make it easier for me to deal with 1200 miles away.

I am going to try and go to Texas next week and visit and see if I can be of any help. I really truly hope that I can find peace with it and move on. All things happen for a reason.

Please pray for my brother and his family.

new camera and not so mad photography skillz

Well, there is definatley a learning curve with this new camera. My Kodak Z1012 IS is wonderful and really isn't hard to learn but I guess I am not camera inclined anymore.

Example.. tonight my husband was burning a bunch of wood and things he brought home from the shop. I took this picture of us, try to look past the no make up and bad camera angle on myself and then look at how nicely I cut off his head :) Then you can notice the effect that the fire has on us.. we look like we are on fire as well. In my defense this is one of those one handed hope you get everyone's face in it photos... probably not to bad?

This weekend I hope to have some time to figure out this camera and all of the things I can do with it. :) I also hope to finish up a scarf I am knitting for a special present! :) Both of these things will probably not happen.

I have recently gotten back in touch with my best girlfriend from High School. It has been nice to have a little bit of time here and there to chat with her. :)

No, this is not poor photoshop skills, yet another victim of the flames:

New Camera.. I am such an impulse shopper!!

I have many faults but one of my biggest ones is that I am a very impulsive shopper. If I want something I normally just buy it without regard.





I chose this camera.. mostly because it really resembled my current camera, same brand of camera. And, I totally loved my previous camera! It was the best I had ever!!





This new camera is a 10.0 MP with a 60X zoom..The true test was tonight at the basketball game.. It took good pictures in that dark crummy gym!!!





Here is my new baby:

Bad Camera, no cookie!

Argh.. I am so upset at my camera. The pictures are coming out so cruddy... I know I know.. it is probably the photographer you say... To that I say pish posh... two months ago it was taking fine pictures... and now that I am trying to take pictures in a cruddy ole dark gym... it isn't working out well.





I need advice on what new camera to get. My budget is $300 for a new camera and I really would like to stick with my budget!!





What to get get, what to get... It takes fine pictures outside, just this gym... this gym is my nemesis... I must be doing something wrong... phooey!





Yes, I drive and take pictures at the same time. Safe? I think not!

Another Halloween Slips Away

Being from a fairly large family, it is funny to me that my one and only child is growing up. 14 years after her birth I find myself wanting to enlarge our family, I have this deep seeded need to either adopt a child or become a foster parent. You see, I really don't want a new born child, that is not saying if the big guy saw fit for us to have another child then I suppose I wouldn't have much choice in the matter. My longing is for a 5 or 6 year old child, even older, I don't mind. Hopefully the opportunity will arise one of these days :)

Anyway... another Halloween has come and gone. This is for sure Haley's last year with dressing up and going out trick or treating, I guess next year will bring high school parties and more teen ager things (boo-hoo). We picked her and her friend up from trick or treating and along with my nephew we took them to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was a good time with alot of laughs and full bellies!





Rachel and Haley have been friends since we moved to this town. Only a couple of fights have seperated them for a bit. My brother works at the Post office and he often says how much they act like sisters when they go to visit him. It is cute.

Mystery eye spot and cheerleading practice

Well, as quick as the mystery eye spot come it left just as quickly... Very odd... I woke up this morning and it was barely noticable! YAY ME!


My job is hectic, I work as an office manager for a steel company. I was just promoted about 2 months ago to this job. Prior to that I worked in Inventory Control. It was interesting. I work with mostly younger folks.

I haven't cooked in 3 days, and I am definately going through withdrawals. Tomorrow I am going to cook something fabulous for dinner. :) I just don't know what that fabulous is yet.


Over the course of the next few days I am going to try and tell you a bit about some of my family. We are going to start with my daughter tonight because well it just seems right! Tonight they had a family cheer practice for their pep rally tomorrow and to make sure they had all of their moves down for their dances. It was really great. Their dance is awesome and she did a great job as always :)

Haley is a very athletic girl and I never expected her to want to be a cheerleader, but last year she definately wanted to be a cheerleader. This year not so much. She was asked by one of her friends to go out for it again and after some resistance she finally gave in. She does a great job so I think she made the right choice!

I took some pictures tonight but wow my camera really stunk it up... not sure what happened? I can't even get the black and white ones to come out anything but grainy!

So, of the 25 pictures I took in that dark and crummy gym... this is the only one that I could get to come out remotely looking like it should!

Time for a new camera... argh the search is on.

What in the Sam Hooey is this???

I woke up this morning to this under my eye??? Even the green cover up doesn't completly cover it. It doesn't itch...it was a little swollen this morning but now it isn't swollen... It looks like someone poked me in the under eye!! It is just a red mark under my eye? Anyone have any ideas what it might be?

It's cold and I married the Thermostat Nazi

It is quite cold here... Too cold for the heat to be set at a miserly 60 degrees. Living in the country we use propane to heat the house. It is mighty expensive at 2.19 a gallon. I see his point but this time of year, every time I look at him I see this :

So, this will officially start my yearly complaining about the weather and how much I hate the cold and winter!! My only solace is that I will soon be able to start decorating for Christmas!! :)

Rockin' the Country

How does one start a off a blog... what goes into the first post? As I sit here we have just finished cleaning up from a dinner of Chicken Fried St eak with white peppered gravy and The Pioneer Woman's Creamy Herbed Potatoes . Now, that was a good dinner. I am sure that my hiney is not going to thank me later!

So, back to how to start off this blog. I guess I could tell you about myself? I am wife and mother of one daughter. Some would ask, why only one child? Well, to that I say, none of your business and I am selfish! No, really, I am selfish.

I came from a family of five children, I was the youngest, my closest sibling in age was my brother and he is 8 years older then I. Most of the time I felt like an only child. And guess what folks, I survived and I liked it! Anyway, more about me. I am an office manager by day and chief cook and bottle washer by night. I also clean the house and do the laundry, most of the time.

We live in the home my husband was raised in. In all it's glory.. it needs alot of work. I hail from the city, well maybe not really a city, but at least it was a town! This transistion into the wild country has been crazy.

I don't know if anyone will ever read this but if they do... leave a comment, so that I can visit your blog as well. It is just what I need, another hobby to help me procrastinate!

So, what do I like to do in my "free" time? I am so glad you asked! I love to cook and to bake, it normally inhabits my mind at least 14.7 hours a day. I have also developed this love of gardening. When I grow up, I dream of being a Market gardener and of spending my days lovingly taking care of my little green babies! I also like to scrapbook, take pictures and ride my scooter, not in any particular order.

I suppose that is enough useless fluff for one day! I must now go and try and figure out how to decorate this blog!