Sharing the Love Award

I’ve been tagged for the Sharing the Love award!!!

The rules of this award are to tag bloggers who make your day, make you laugh and/or smile as you read their blogs, and who leave uplifting comments on your own blog. You also include a link to this post, where the award originated, and ask the people you tag to do the same thing.

Here are the blogs that I read every time they update. I have them in my google reader so I don’t miss anything.

Daily Dwelling by Monica who is a DSP friend and the one who tagged me with this award. Through her, I was reconnected with a friend that I taught with about five years ago. The amazing thing is that Monica is in Germany. When my friend Stephanie, who is now in France, went to visit Monica, my name was brought up and Stephanie knew me! It really is a small world!

Creative Triplet Mom who also does digital scrapbooking and I’m so impressed with all that she does even though she has triplets. I really think she is superwoman.

Ordinary Days by Glynis who is a DSP friend and is one of two others that I share the responsibility for doing the DSP scrapbooking prompts. She always seems so self assured and happy.

Pictures, Prose and (Scrapbook) Pages by Meg. She does awesome scrapbook pages and has the neatest family. Even though her son is autistic, Meg is a very positive person and makes sure that both of her children get their share of attention. I’ve learned a lot as a teacher from reading some of the challenges she faces with her son.

Personalized Creations by Tammy who is another DSP friend. She lives in Florida and has a wonderful husband as well as a wonderful home. She is so in love that you can’t help but smile when she writes about her husband.

Stephani’s Serendipity by Stephani who is another DSP friend. She lives in Wyoming and I love reading about what she is doing there. She has faced some hardships and is so brave about facing her fears and problems that I truly admire her.

Tink’s Tribulations by Tink who is another DSP scrapbooking friend. She is really into astronomy and doing beautiful scrapbook pages of her wonderful family. Glynis, Tink, and I share the responsibilitiy for doing the DSP scrapbooking prompts.

photo credit: A Mother's Love by nailbender

Visiting Grace

Finally got a photo of the shawl that I made and sent to my friend Grace. I forgot to take a picture before I sent it. I was in Washington DC when Grace's daughter emailed me to let me know that Grace had a heart attack and was in rehab. Since we were only 2 1/2 hours away, I talked my wonderful hubby into driving to NJ to see her. We met Grace and her husband about 9 years ago on a cruise and we've been friends ever since. Have you ever met people that you hit it off with right away and knew you would be good friends? It doesn't matter about the age difference (Grace is 84 now and Jerry turned 90 last year)because we have the same interests and values which makes them so easy to talk to. We didn't call first because I wanted to make sure we could get a hotel room before we called. Then it had gotten late so we decided to just show up at the rehab place. When we got to Grace's room, she was asleep but the shawl I had made for her was covering her (you can see it in the picture). It made me feel so good that she was using it and liked it enough to have it with her. We had a wonderful visit and sat with her while she had dinner. Even though her body was wearing out, her mind was as sharp as a tack and we had a great discussion about politics and presidential candidates. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long but I was so glad I got to visit her. Her daughter hopes that she will return home this weekend so I will try to call her later. We missed Jerry because he had already gone home so I hope we will get to see him on our next visit. It is so hard to find good friends you trust, so when you get them, you want to cherish them as much as you can!

Here is Grace with the shawl I made:


Here we all were on a cruise in Italy a few years ago:

Guy Fawkes Party 2007

Every years we celebrate this day for our friends from the UK. We used to hold this in the backyard of one house until the day the fire department and police department arrived. I guess the bonfire was a little too large for the subdivision to handle. So we moved it to my friend Helen's "farm" where there are acres and acres of land. Plus there is a huge lake in case the fire gets out of hand. Before the burning, Peter usually writes up a poem that we all recite together and then ol' Guy is lit and fireworks are set off. It is a wonderful reason to get together with friends!