cyber-knife Monday

No internet shopping for me today... I'll be at the hospital for my VATS procedure this morning. Say a little prayer for me and my supportive family.
After arriving at 5:30 am, I'll be going back to sleep, they'll be up with worry. I know this is hard on all of us, not just me.
I'll catch up with all of you in a few days.

pie in the sky

before

and after... pumpkin pie for dessert

and onion pie, an Italian family tradition appetizer

Happy Thanksgiving
have a blessed day!

my Christmas present has arrived!

I wanted and needed a place to store my good china to free-up some of my kitchen cabinets. Our dining room set is from 1979, and I guess after 31 years of marriage I've accumulated a few more pieces of china along the way.
I've been shopping for a china cabinet or a sideboard for months now and just wasn't finding the right piece.
This week I found it! A sideboard large enough with enough room to store my china, sterling and linens. And although I won't have the "display" space of a china cabinet, I will have a surface to use as a server, for desserts and whatever else I need to put out.

And of course I did "need" the two new buffet lamps you see here too. I love the red lampshades! A steal of a deal at 50% off at Hobby Lobby!

All ready, set, go for the holidays! In fact I hosted dinner here last night. Tortellini soup for the family, 11 of us. A kick off to the holidays with many more family dinners to come!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

showing gratitude

Melissa at The Inspired Room, always a great read, posted a list today of 20 Little Attitudes of Gratitude. She is in a different place in her life with young children, so I've highlighted the ones that hit home for me. My top "Remember to thank God for blessings each day".

1. Mind your manners. Say please, thank you and excuse me.
2. Smile when you see your family. Turn your frown upside down.
3. Pick up after yourself and for someone else too. Be happy you have someone to pick up after!
4. Notice when others do kind things for you, show gratitude by action or words.
5. Say I love you before you leave in the morning and before bed at night.
6. Give hugs daily.
7. Don't worry about tomorrow. Focus on what you are happy about today.
8. Create gratitude journals to keep track of daily blessings.
9. Show thankfulness for even the little things others do for you.
10. Leave love notes in unexpected places like lunch boxes and under pillows.
11. Encourage someone with a compliment.
12. Verbalize what you are grateful for when you feel like complaining about life.
13. Keep a basket of small slips of paper on the table. Write notes of thankfulness during the week and read them to each other during a family meal.
14. Remember to thank God for blessings each day.
15. Surprise your family (or friends) with little gifts or treats to show you thought of them.
16. No grumbling about minor annoyances around the house.
17. Do special things to cherish time with your family. You never know what tomorrow will bring.
18. Reflect on happy memories regularly. Make inspiration boards or photo walls of special times.
19. Help someone out without them having to ask you. Watch for someone in need.
20. When you are doing household chores, be grateful you have a home to clean.

by Melissa Michaels

Thanks Melissa! That last one, #20, is especially true today, with unemployment and recession in our midst. So as I vacuum and dust my house this morning, getting ready for family to visit, I'll be counting my blessings, and enjoying every minute!

Happy Thanksgiving!

redecorating... done!

The blue, a color I loved, is from when the room was my daughter's bedroom. Now the room is my husband's office and I felt it needed a facelift to make it his.

We decided on "New Chestnut" by Behr.

Done painting with the furniture back in place...

and pictures all hung over our new "Lubi bed" from CB2so there it is, my husband's new office!
With an extra place for guests to sleep over, just in case everyone decides to come all at once.

simple gift tags...

a craft anyone can do, in fact you "crafters" out there will think this is a no-brainer.
Take a trip to Hobby Lobby, my fave craft store, and pick up some blank tags or paper, a cute stamp and a punch.

Tie these cute tags to your gift packages with some holiday ribbon and voila, soooo simple but homemade with love!

stop by The Inspired Room every Friday for great holiday ideas!

the planner in me is relieved

Who likes the unknown, anybody?! I for one am a planner and I like to know what's going on next.

I have a date set for my thoracic surgery... November 30. It's a good date, I think... after Thanksgiving but enough before Christmas that I'll be okay.
I now have 10 days to decorate for Christmas... but not really because tomorrow I'm painting my husband's office, so that leaves 9 days, but not really because next Tuesday I have to pick up my Mom at the airport and have the family over for dinner, so that leaves 8... (I already took the day off for Thanksgiving), but somehow it will all come together and be festive and beautiful.
The "roller coaster" is riding level, not up or down, but straight ahead. Somehow I feel blessed.

DIY Beadboard Headboard

One half sheet of beadboard stained and trimmed out with molding and voila... a DIY headboard!

I used a nautical rope molding for the beach themed bedroom

I centered the beadboard on the wall and nailed it directly to the wall, finding the studs, with trim nails. I then nailed the trim to the beadboard, caulked the nail heads with wood filler and dabbed a little stain over them to make them disappear.

Soooo inexpensive... and I love the look!

a busy weekend

The weather the past few days in Atlanta was absolutely gorgeous! We golfed 3 days in a row!

Grad Girl joined us for 18 on Saturday.

We were also pet sitting for my daughter's pups and did a little room re-do at her house in between tee times. Such a productive weekend with time for relaxation and fun too!
We painted and moved her guest room, and touched up the "blue bauble" walls in the soon-to-be nursery. Here's the new guest room:

Next project at their house is Grand Baby's nursery. The same soft color blue. We're planning to build a bookcase along the window wall. Where to start? I'm shopping for unpainted cabinets for the base. The crib and dresser are in and ready to be delivered, but we need to finish the bookcase construction first.
I'll keep you posted on the progress!

my emotions are on a roller coaster

I have no hormones... so it's not that.
One moment I'm up and positive and normal... the next I'm on the brink of sadness and tears.

It's the evil C, damn it. It makes everything up in the air. No planning, just yet, because you don't know what you'll be doing next month. Getting ready for Christmas, planning a baby shower...
or recuperating from surgery.
So it's day by day, and I want to make the most of each day.
Now I know where the "livestrong" slogan came from... with cancer you must be strong and live your life... no sadness, just strength and hope.
And I do have strength and hope... so I'll be okay. Just a low point on the roller coaster... but it goes back up again, right?!

a little golf humor...

So true, right?!

My husband could win a trivia contest with all the useless information that he seems to know. But on the other hand, "attention to detail" is not one of his strong suits. I am a detail oriented person, but "trivia" knowledge is something I don't retain. I guess it's a matter of what's important to us? A man/woman thing? Right brain/left brain?
What do you think?

All I know is... we make a good team... filling in for each others shortcomings, so it works. It's worked for over 31 years.

Visit In the Sandbox a cartoon blog by Vicki Jacoby

beyond cart path golf

Board the Ark! A wee bit wet for golf this morning thanks to Ida.
But Gal Pal lunch is on!

people in our lives...

It's funny how people come into our lives for a reason... a reason we may not even know at the time.
I met my friend Carolyn through my golf group. She's a great golfer and a fun person to be around. She's an upbeat and positive person, a friend that I look forward to seeing every week.
We have a lot in common... and even though I'm 9 years older, it doesn't feel like it. We both have wonderful husbands (who golf of course!), we both have 3 beautiful daughters, come from the Northeast, are avid tennis players and golf gal pals,
and... both of us have had Cancer.
She had breast, I've had sarcoma. A few weeks back she found out that she's had a recurrence, lung nodules showing up for the 2nd time. She's currently undergoing Chemo and she's doing great. Hopefully this will be the treatment to make them disappear for good.
Well... I had my follow up CT scan this past week, to follow nodules they've seen in my lung. After 6 months they've continued to grow and they're now at a size they want to do something about it, coincidentally the same operation that Carolyn had last year. My Oncologist even referred me to her same surgeon.
A "blessing" of a sort to have someone close to you, be able to advise you through an experience they have also shared. Believe me, I wouldn't wish the big C on anyone, but I am grateful for this person in my life to guide me through what to expect. It's a comfort knowing she's been through it and came back strong as ever.
We'll both be back from this strong as ever!
We didn't know we had so much in common when we met, but now I know, we met for a reason. God puts people in our lives... we're here for each other... to comfort, support and help each other.

I have hope and I have faith.
I have a wonderful supportive family, a caring group of friends, and a loving God who I prayerfully ask to see us both through this round.

a Coast Guard wedding

the place

the family

the girls

the guysthe happy couple

Congrats Greg and Tricia!

a sad story and a reminder

I was cleaning up my blog page and scrolled down to a "button" I have on the right hand side:
I hadn't checked on Noah in awhile and wanted to see how he is doing. If you don't know his story, here it is for you to read:
Noah's Road
My heart aches for this family. Such an impatient, unthinking act by their caregiver with such permanent consequences.
Caring for a baby is a huge responsibility. They are totally dependent on you.
I've had a baby with colic, our first baby. They cry and you can't do anything to comfort them... you hold them and walk them and put them back to bed still crying and you feel a bit helpless. But they will be fine, the pain will pass and they will grow out of it.

Never shake a baby

This post linked from Noah's Road offers suggestions to parents about a crying baby:
http://www.dontshake.org/pdf/What-Is-All-That-Crying-About.pdf

Praying for Noah