TOO MUCH FUN!

I have loved this cruise.   It has been incredible.   I have so many pictures to share and so many stories.   It is really expensive to be on the internet on the ship so, I find internet cafes.   Today I am in Copenhagen.   I decided to leave the group to find *my* internet cafe.   Well...I asked for lots of help to get to this place.   OH MY!   I am out in the sticks.   But, people have been very kind but it was scary getting on a bus, usually it was the wrong bus...thank goodness I had found a wonderful woman from London to help me out!   Now, I have to find my way back.   I am a little scared!   The woman left me instructionsto return...I just HOPE I get off at the RIGHT stop.  I have stories to tell and pictures to share.   BUT, I think I will have to wait until I get home.   

I'M HERE

In January, I was told about this great web site called Travel Zoo. We have been trying to decide what we want to do for our 25th. Looking at this wonderful website and I saw this cruise. It was round ticket from NY and 2 week cruise in the Baltic. It was also under $2500 per person. WE could not pass this up! So we got booked on the Celebrity Cruise line. Sandy’s mom loves to travel so her and sister wanted to come with us! (It’s a family thing!) As the trip came closer, the dry rot constantly on our minds, we welcomed the upcoming trip! BUT…another problem! Harry, what about Harry.

We decided to stay in NYC for a day and half. The first day we got in and a stream pipe blew up right on the street our Hotel was on. (Thank God our flight was 2 hours late!) Grand Central Station was closed, the street closed down, NO TRAFFIC could get in or out. I was thankful we got to the hotel but every one was very cautions expecting more pipes to exploding! The next day we got up to ride the site seeing bus. I HAD to go to Canal Street to do some “behind closed doors” Christmas shopping! I got great gifts. Canal Street is a great place to get great knock-off purses, glasses, clothing, etc. I had spent all my money before I left NYC! J That night we went to the show called “Wicked!” What a great performance. I was so happy to see this show!

WHAT ABOUT HARRY!

How was I going to get the last book? OMG! I had to have Harry! So I told everyone in the family, that in Frankfurt, I was running off the airplane and getting this BOOK! NO MATTER WHAT! But…our plane was a little late getting off the runway. I am still thinking of Harry! The flight went as well as any 6+ hours flight could go! It was hard leaving in the States in the AM and arriving abroad in the AM. We got no sleep and the time change is about 6-7 hours different. I got off the plane, mind you not much time between flights, ran to the airport bookstore t buy a copy. Oh MY, was I hoping for an English copy of the book! I got it! At this point, I start my love affair with Harry! (Picture is a little out of focus!)

A BIG SHOUT OUT!

I love my banner. Michelle Weaver aka "Princess Matilda loves to Stamp" created this banner for me! I met her doing a "one on one" swap with Technique junkies! She has been a great friend and has touched my heart with so much love. Thank you so much Michelle for being my friend, my teacher, and my sister. To take a look at Michelle's blog click here.

Big story of the DAY! My House

We have great neighbors. We spend most holidays, birthdays, andy reason to celebrate days together. Since they moved in we have seen their family grow from 2 to 5! :)

One day in May, they came over to inform us they were moving. We have always talked about how we wanted to buy their house. So, today was our big day. We told they we would like to buy their house contingent on the sale of ours. (Our house is 2 levels, lots of storage, big front yard-really tooo much front yard, and a pool in the back. Yes, we only use the pool 2 months a year! LOL!) So in 2 weeks, we moved out all our stuff - you know what I mean by stuff! Took lots of clothes, kitchen stuff, yard supplies, etc to the rummage sale and moved the rest of our keeper stuff into the garage! Yes, our garage if full!!! Really full! So, lots of people looked but no one gave us an offer. With our neighbors, we set a price and it wasn't going to move due to the fact they bought a really big and expensive home! Soooo, we dropped our price and still lots of people looking but no offers. YES, dropped the price again and we got an offer...way lower than our price. So we accepted this offer contingent on the inspection of our house. They offered on a Wednesday, inspection on Thursday, they leave for a 10 day vacation on Friday! We were so excited we could hardly stand it. I was getting the home of my dreams...great kitchen, porch with a swing, and a claw tooth bathtub. I could pull my Grandmother's table out of the attic...no dining room in the current house...I was in heaven!

The inspector found this...carpenter ants that were having a party in this window sill. First, we are shocked. We haven't ever seen ants, except around the pool. Then we found out that the people interested in the house didn't want the house due to this fact! I cried for 2 days...my house just went through my finger tips. We were also was concerned that we could have sold this house without knowing we had carpenter ants!

As you know, selling a house is really stressful! Keeping it clean when you are living in it keeps you on the edge. Our realitor call the "interested" people on vacation and asked them if we fixed the problems would they still be interested. Our contingience was over on Monday and that was the day the people were coming home from vacation. So, needless to say, we lost the house. YES, I cried some more!

Another look at the dry rot. As you know when you start digging, you find more. Our deck and weight bearing beam were all rotten! OMG! We were devastated! It just kept getting bigger. Our deck, bedroom, door frame, all had to be gutted! I was thinking of drinking to spend a little time in la la land!

Thank God for Kelly! He has been great! He is a hard worker, he knows his dry rot, and he doesn't cut corners. He worked over a week just to get out the rot from the deck. I feel blessed to have him in my life!

This is a different picture of the NEW weight bearing beam! So, we still haven't gotten to the window sill.

I know you understand living in the mess of construction. The house is sooo dirty. (mind you, we showed our house with this contruction going on! We had to fulfill our contract with the neighbors. Neighbors came over one day to have the kids swim in the pool...they didn't KNOW the problem was this big!)

So, my stamp room looks out at the "neighbors house or the house I want" and we see the for sale sign up. On Sunday, they had 29 people who went through. Needless to say, I wasn't in a very good mood! It's hard when you want something so badly and it doesn't work out! It's also hard for me to hear "Something better is waiting for you!" I am so happy for the neighbors but really sad for myself!

The only reason we were selling our house was to buy the neighbors home. Otherwise, we wouldn't be thinking about moving quiet yet!

Thank God vacation is right around the corner and I can get my stress level down!

The window sill....another story!

Welcome to my BLOG!

I am so happy to finally launch my blog. I have been in the works for months. Trying to figure out how to create this blog has been a challenge. I have spent many LATE LATE nights trying to figure out how to get this to work! AND...look at me now! I am hoping that down the road this will be easier for me! :)

To introduce myself...first you need to met my babies! I have 4 cats that I could not live without! I am an animal nut that loves to talk about my babies! The two cats in the picture are important men in my life! Arty is the oldest at about 18 years. Zues is the dominate one! OK, OK, enough about the cats.

Please check out my SU website. Feel free to leave any comments that you have about my site and thanks for stopping by!

Another favorite of mine!!!!

I am in love with hippos! Oh My! I can't tell you how happy I was to see SU come out with this stamp set. It's called Bundled in love!

I don't know how I got into hippos but I have been drawn to them from a very early age.

If you walked into my house, you would see lots of knick knacks. One of the most precious hippos I ever received was from a student. She gave me this great hippo book and this wonderfully soft blue stuffed hippo!

Getting together with my friend Donna

This is a card Donna and I made. We decided we would use the Baroque Motifs. We used Chocolate chip as our bottom and a strip behind the Brocade background designer paper. We both loved the big swirl in this set and wanted it to look like it was coming out the back. So we stamped the swirl in River rock ink on River rock paper. Then stamped "kind" in Chocolate chip at the bottom and put on Aged Copper from the hodgepodge hardware.