Your pages are wonderful - so colorful and happy! Makes me happy just reading your blog and seeing your work.

Nice picture. All our plants are under snow... so maybe I need to do snow pictures.

5 things I learned from my Dad's example: 1) Find work you love and do it well (and do it well even if you don't love it) 2) Always find time for family and faith 3) Be honest and straight-forward 4) Keep trying, especially when things don't come easy (he spent hours pitching softballs to me, and I was never good at it - learned years later that I just cannot track a ball, hence being so poor at that sort of sport) 5) Be grateful for all that I have, not always wishing for things that I don't have.

Things we do when visitors come: Well, first of all, we live in a very small town in a non-touristy part of Vacationland, so we don't have many overnight visitors. But we do invite friends for dinner now and then. That said, when company comes: 1) A flurry of cleaning and picking up before they arrive (mostly there are other things I'd rather do than housework...) 2) Dinner guests always seem to gather in the kitchen, even though there is no seating, while dinner is prepared; time to visit and make them feel at home. 3) Rare overnight guests get Mike's blueberry muffins or crumb cake for breakfast - he's a great cook. 4) Mostly we just chat and relax with friends; take them to the lake in summer.

The first 10 things that come to mind when I say I love... 1) Mike (husband) 2) Matt & Greg (sons) 3) Ethan & Bryan (grandsons) 4) Molly & Bill (siblings) 5) Debbie & Dawn (in-laws, who fit right in) 6) travel (new sights and photo ops) 7) quiet time with a good book 8) Gilcroft (traditional summer cottage at Sebec Lake) 9) Sint Maarten (the best vacation spot ever) 10) time spent with friends

I did this for a page in the album about our trip to Hawaii several years ago. I took photos of the orchid leis, all laid close together on the bed, thinking I'd use it blown up as a background paper. In the end, I did a mosaic page, using these flower pictures to surround a magazine article telling about the leis. Used a similar technique with photos of the ship's wake around cruise pictures. I love Mosaic!!

Memories of my childhood home: 1. We moved there when I was a baby and the family still lived there when I got married and had babies. After my much younger siblings were out on their own, my parents moved to a smaller house at the end of the same dead-end street. 2. The house was attached to the business my parents owned, a flower shop and greenhouse. I remember re-potting plant cuttings as they grew and cutting the stems on the flowers from the wholesaler before they went into water in the cooler. 3. The basement, where we cut the flowers, was damp and chilly. The washer/dryer were down there as well. Dad put preservative on wooden flats in the spring - it smelled awful, but it was always a sign that my birthday was coming soon. 4. It was a small town, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, and there were lots of other kids in the neighborhood. We rode bikes all over town, roller skated on the sidewalks, played baseball or basketball until dark and were able to walk to the other end of town to the library unsupervised. 5. The neighbor across the street had a small hill behind his house - great for sledding, or just rolling down in the grass. 6. There were blue spruce trees in our side yard to play under. 7. I shared a bedroom with my sister, 8 years younger, and my brother had his own room. Eventually, part of the front porch and the office nook end of the dining room were turned into a bedroom and bath for my parents and my sister moved into their old room upstairs. 8. Between our rooms upstairs was the attic, a great place to hide and explore. 9. We didn't have a TV until I was in third grade, a big old b/w that was a regular piece of furniture with a comparatively small screen and only three channels to watch. Our cat at the time used to climb on a chair and pat his paws the people on the screen. 10. We had a fireplace in the den alcove off the living room - great to sit by and read on a cold winter night and for hanging Christmas stockings.

5 favorite tips: 1. When cooking, lay out all the ingredients before you start so you know you have everything. 2. The same applies for doing a scrapbook page, pictures, embellishments, etc. 3. When I travel by air, I just rely on shampoo etc. provided by the hotel – cuts weight for checked bag. 4. Always use sunscreen!! 5. Keep bug spray in the car, just in case.

Five shared moments in my life (actually, 7): 1. November 22, 1963 - a date shared with my geometry class, the country and the world; everyone remembers where they were when they heard that JFK had been shot. 2. August 29, 1970 - wedding day shared with my husband and our families and friends. 3. August 10, 1975 and September 4, 1977 - again with family and friends - the births of our two sons. 4. October 17, 1998 and March 28, 2006 - births of our two wonderful grandsons, celebrated by family and friends. Isn't being a grandparent the best fun? 5. September 11, 2001 - shared with people at a conference when we were all stranded in Montana, and with family who all worried how we would get home.

1. Sunshine and warm days after days of cool and rain. 2. A new computer that works the way it is supposed to. 3. Friends to scrap with - did some second pages from the CKC technique workshop this week. And I really liked Julie's idea for sorting photos to scrap - now if I could just get organized to get them printed... 4. Grandsons who always manage to make me laugh - at 6 and 13 the viewpoints are certainly an exercise in contrast. :)

My grandmother did a lot of canning, but I don't remember my mother having time for much of that. She froze things. The year I got married, we still had one more year of college to finish and a very limited budget, so I spent the summer helping (a little) with the garden and canned all sorts of things to have during that year - corn, beans, tomatoes, fiddleheads, pickles (which it turned out neither of us liked much...). Then when we had a young family we did do quite a bit of 'putting by', veggies, fruits, jam, tomato sauce - both canned and frozen - even dried shell beans. Now it is mostly tomato sauce that we can, and my husband and elder son do most of it; Matt, our son, experimented with several kinds of pickles last fall. The jars all look so nice lined up on the shelves - and the violet jelly I did one year was especially pretty.

I have been to Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts with my husband when we lived in MA and again when we took our school age boys. What I love about it: 1. The way it takes you back in time. 2. The costumes and the way they speak as if it were that era. 3. Watching demonstrations: pottery, the blacksmith shop, cooking... That was a long time ago, at least 25 years, so maybe it is time to go again, refresh my memory, and take pictures with grid paper in mind. :)

Best Friends - hard to choose just one, children can be so fickle... 1. There was Lorinda, daughter of family friends. We played together a lot as small children, but developed different circles of friends later on. We do still stay in touch as adults. 2. Susan, we called her bushy-tail because her last name was Bush. She moved away during third grade and I cried when she left, but we were too young to maintain contact. 3. Then there was Gail, also daughter of close family friends. Her mother used to call her Princess and I was Queenie. They moved from Maine to Oregon after the fifth grade. We did stay in touch for a long time, but have since lost contact. 4. There was a group, Nancy & Sudie from the neighborhood, and Anne, daughter of another family friend. We were able to play outside - 'just be home before dark' - and we rode bikes all over town or went swimming at the lake. I lost contact with Sudie, but still have occasional contact with Nancy and Anne. 5. Gini moved to town when I was in junior high and we met at vacation bible school, becoming fast friends. When her father was transferred to NH, we visited back and forth for several years and still exchange Christmas letters. 6. Celeste and I became friends in grade school and by sixth grade had added Sheila as our third musketeer. We did about everything together through high school and while we live in different parts of a large state, we do still stay in contact. Growing up in a small town meant that everyone knew everyone else, families tended to stay for generations, so through family connections we stay connected into adulthood and many moves.

I am naturally: 1. a talker - I'll talk with anyone 2. a list maker 3. a pack rat (I still have fabric scraps from 30-odd years ago and now save small paper pieces that I 'might use someday') 4. someone who likes to work with my hands, but consider myself only reasonably creative - a paint-by-number sort (think counted cross-stitch and scrap-lifting) 5. serious 6. caring 7. honest 8. loyal

I'm not generally very adventurous, either. I have done a few of the things on Tami's list plus a couple of others: 1. I rode to the top of the St. Louis Arch. 2. I rode the Maid of the Mist at Niagra Falls. 3. In high school I would snow ski and water ski regularly, depending on the season. 4. I did flips on a trampoline. 5. I hiked a waterfall. 6. I crossed a suspension bridge and along a cliff walk 270 feet over a river, and walked through a treetops adventure this spring in Vancouver. (I am afraid of heights and get woozy on a step ladder...) 7. I rode my one and only roller coaster at the Harry Potter park in FL. 8. I took a helicopter tour in Hawaii. 9. I climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower (the elevator was out of order...)

What made me happy this week? 1. My husband who has the patience of a saint. It wasn't a good week all the way around and I got bit testy... 2. Sunshine - after way too many drizzly days. 3. Hugs from my grandson (age 6) at his brother's baseball game. 4. Taking pictures with a camera I hadn't used in a while - digital SLR with telephoto got much better baseball photos that the compact point and shoot I'd used earlier in the week. 5. Getting a reservation made for a week in St. Maarten in November - love to anticipate the time on the beach. 6. Scrap time with my crafting buddies - better than therapy! Guess all that really does outweigh the 9 hours I spent on tech support Tuesday, and the news Wednesday that I need a new laptop.

When we were first married, in college, we had to walk to the store. We used one of those wheeled things that two paper grocery bags would would stand in, with a couple more on top - the lugged it up to the third floor. $20 to spend, so we added it up as we went along and if we ran out of money before picking up a critical item, something optional had to go back. Can you tell how long ago that was??? Now we do some shopping at Sam's Club, 3-4 times per year, to stock up on paper goods and staple items. My husband works right near the grocery store, so he stops in lots of nights on the way home for fresh meat/fish/veggies/milk. Then we go for other staple items every 2-3 weeks. Not a big fan of shopping - or cooking!

L - lovable I - individual B - beautiful (or at least my husband says so...) B - believable Y - young (at heart)

Signs of spring: 1. The bulbs planted or moved in the fall begin to sprout. 2. Mike has a pile of mulch delivered - they dump it on the pavement by the garage, not in the driveway thankfully as it sometimes takes him weeks to find time to put it where he wants it. 3. The ice goes out in the lake across the street. 4. The loons come back to nest on the lake - love to hear the sound of their call. 5. I start taking pictures of the gardens. 6. We begin sorting and setting aside the things that we'll need at the lake where the cottage is located.

Well, it is hard to remember that far back, but I was already married as a college senior, in grad school, then teaching with not so much time to watch tv; mid-late 70s I had small boys which led to entirely different programs. Some of my favorites were: 1. Little House on the Prairie (our son at 2 called it Little Prairie on the House) 2. Happy Days 3. MASH (still my favorite in reruns...) 4. The Love Boat 5. The Muppet Show - loved the double layer of humor, some of which was aimed at the adult not the kids 6.Eight Is Enough 7. Medical Center 8. My Three Sons 9. The Waltons 10. Ironsides I remember lots of the others named, too, but don't remember watching on a regular basis. Some of those old favorites show up on oldies stations and are just as good this time around.

1. phone calls work both ways - telemarketers NO but friends or family YES 3. ads during TV shows - don't you love DVR so you can skip by them? 4. I always like when friends drop by or the UPS guy with a package 5. stopping what you are doing to let the dog out - and it was always when I was busy, back when we still had a dog

I don't remember the first time I went to the circus, but the Shrine Circus came to Bangor each year. My grandfather was a Shriner and they had tickets to sell - he just bought them and gave them to the grandchildren, so it was nearly an annual event. I liked: 1. The music 2. The cotton candy 3. The clowns 4. The lions and tigers 5. The high wire act - even though it was hard to watch because I was afraid of heights (still am...) Then when I was in maybe 4th grade, my parents took me to Boston to see the Ringling Bros. Circus - so much bigger and more impressive than the local circus I was used to - a real adventure!

Spring break memories: 1. visiting overnight with my cousin, sometimes at her house and sometimes at mine. 2. staying up late on a week night 3. sleeping in 4. riding my bike all over town 5. staying overnight with grandparents, the ones in town and the ones away

Guess I was fooled, too. Could see the humor in some of the listed items, Tami. 1. I'm with the boy about daylight savings - pick one and keep it there! 2. I'm behind - another weekend away - so it isn't Sunday anymore. 3. Had to make my own breakfast today (Tuesday) 4. Too much work this week and the auditor comes next week.

Things that make me crazy: 1. Tech support people who barely speak English, I'm frustrated with equipment and the 'fix' is also a frustration 2. People who don't do what they say they will do 3. Clothes dropped in places they don't belong 4. Dust, laundry and dishes - those never ending items... 5. Too many government regulations (I manage housing under USDA and follow some HUD rules as well) 6. Clutter - but even when I get it picked up, I swear it breeds overnight