Commute thinking.....

I commute an hour to work every day. Lots of people ask me why I just don’t move to the city where I work instead of commuting every day. You know what, I kind of like the commute. It gives me 2 hours every day, to myself, where I can do whatever I want (well whatever I want while driving!!) I can think about things, I can listen to whatever music I want, or I can just cruise along and enjoy the scenery. Lots of times I think about all kinds of things.
The last couple of days I have been thinking about my weekend away with my girlfriends. Getting together with good friends is probably the best thing to do....ever!
It is great to just get away, be yourself, hang out, let your hair down and just have a great time. I have the opportunity to do this every spring and fall. Sometimes more throughout the year, but for sure every spring and every fall. My best friend Vicki and I met through Stampin’ Up! (to which I will be forever grateful), and now we make a point of getting together in the spring at her house and in the fall at my house for a weekend of fun, stamping, eating, laughing and whatever else happens to come up!
The past October we celebrated our 10th get-together. The attendees of our get-togethers vary from year to year, but Vicki and I have remained a constant for all of the events. One year Vicki was unable to come, but just one! So, at the get together in the fall, the girls presented me with a little tiara and a wand!!! (I think it might have had something to do with the fact that Vicki said I looked like a gerbil when I was eating my chips and she started calling me Princess Gerbila!!) Anyhow…here is a picture of me with my little tiara and my wand.

I often think about my friends and think about how blessed I am to have ones that are so awesome. I have re-connected with a few of the friends I had in high school through the phenomenon of Facebook (or better know as Facecrack!). It’s interesting to look at their pictures of their children and see the similarities between them. It’s also nice to catch up and see what they have been doing for their lives since high school. Some days high school seems like it was just yesterday, and then I turn around and look at my daughter and realize that she is now in high school and I wonder where oh where did the time go. How is it possible that I was in high school yesterday and today I have a daughter in high school? Some days, when the kids are getting on my last nerve, I think to myself, “if I was even a tiny bit like this when I was their age, it’s a wonder my mom and dad didn’t thump me!” I need to remind myself to say “I’m sorry” to my parents each time I see them. They say what goes around, comes around….and well I think mines comin’ around!
And then other days I think about my Granny and how strong of a woman she is. I look at her face, and think how beautiful she is. If I tell her she is beautiful she just gives me an “oh come on”, and tells me I am crazy. She says look at this wrinkly old face. Well I don’t care if there are wrinkles on it. Those are her life lines and to me they are beautiful. My Poppa passed away in 1997 and I was very worried about her when he died. She never got her licence and she always had him to do things for her, but she totally surprised me. She stayed in the house and lived on her own until a couple of years ago. She is now in the nursing home, but she is doing great. She will be 90 in April of this year! She still has all of her faculties, which I am so happy about. I used to work at the nursing home and I felt so sorry for the family members who came into visit their loved ones who were suffering from some sort of dementia and they did not even know who they were. It was heart breaking. So even though Granny is in a wheel chair right now, I am so very thankful that she is still Granny and she still makes all her little comments and still has all her little quirks that make her unique and my special Granny Grunt! When I see Granny and her sister Mabel together I often wonder if that is what Diana and I will look like when we get to be in our 80’s. Every once in a while I will send an email to my sister and call her Mabel just to make her laugh!

I’m really not even sure how I got on this topic. Just got off on a tangent I guess!
I was reading my email yesterday and someone sent me a joke and this picture was attached. I figure this is what I will look like when I am celebrating another stamping get-together when I am 80!!!

Thanks for stopping in today,

Chow for now,

Jacqui