It's official

Anniece won't have to set an alarm clock

from now on.

As of 5pm today, her working days are over.

She's worked for the City of Euless

for 30+ years.

That's setting a lot of alarm clocks, I'd say.

Enjoy your retirement!

The niece and the aunt

How exciting for an aunt

to have her niece born on her birthday!

That's exactly what happened in this family.

Happy birthday, Christina.

Happy birthday, Aunt Karen! 

I know you both enjoyed your day!

A wine tasting party

We were invited to one last week.

Even after the two hostesses knew

we are not wine drinkers.

How nice was that?

We were to bring a bottle of wine.

Not just any bottle,

but a big, bold red wine.

Like I said, we're not wine connoisseurs.

So what did I do?

I sent The Runner out to buy a bottle.

What did he buy, you ask?

He bought Freakshow.

(Truth be told,

he went after the name and the label

rather than the "big, bold red.")

Either way, I guess he did pretty good

because at the end of the evening,

the bottle was bone dry.

I brought the bottle home with us.

I was going to try to remove the labels.

I say "try" because I've tried before

and was completely unsuccessful.

I asked a friend her process.

She successfully does this all the time.

Thought about it for a minute

and then remembered something.

Not too long ago, I purchased magazine holders.

The way I removed those price tag labels

was using my heat tool

(like a hair dryer for you non-craft people.)

It worked.

Both labels came off the bottle clean as a whistle.

Why did I want the labels?

Well, to use on thank you cards for the hostesses.

Why else?

Thank you, Toni and Dana!

We had a great time.

(And between the two of us,

we had five glasses of wine.)

Yep - us non-wine drinkers!
Except I'm a cheater.
I don't "do red" so I took
a bottle of white zinfandel.

Happy birthday, Lucy!

Here's hoping she enjoys her day.

I'm sure her son, daughter and grandchildren

will make sure that she does.

Enjoy everything about your day

and happy birthday.

Thank You Cards

A week or so later than I wanted.

But I got them out.

My thoughts are this:

if people are kind enough

and think enough of you to send a gift

then gosh-darnit,

they deserve a thank you note!

Thanks again for making our Christmas special!

Happy day ...

We pulled it off!

We surprised her, didn't we, Krista?

Happy, happy day, Rachel.

The ferris wheel

Morgan celebrated her birthday yesterday.

"The fair

is that historic piece of Americana

that still brings

families together for fun."

My wish for you?
I wish that your car always stops at the top.
Enjoy the view.
Enjoy the ride.

I hope your day was

surrounded by family

and full of fun!

Time to do a little shopping

Birthday shopping, that is.

Go ahead and buy the stores out!

You deserve it.

Happy birthday, Breonna!

My first birthday card for 2017

And it goes to Amie.

Yesterday she celebrated

her beautiful ride through life.

Give it all ya got.

My 17 for twenty seventeen

If you've been around for the past two years,

you will remember my 15 for twenty fifteen

and my 16 for twenty sixteen items.

They're not resolutions or goals.

Instead, they were some things

for me to focus on throughout the years.

Keeping with tradition,

I'm keeping these foremost in my mind.

I still want to focus on all of them.

I am hoping my focus will

make me a better person

and will make others happy.

If you are visiting for the first time,

or if you would like a refresher,

I would love to review them with you:

1.  laugh: make someone, at myself, more, out loud

  2.  friends: make more, be a better one,

reconnect with a lost one, nurture them all

  3.  blogging: post more often, increase readership,

visit more, comment/follow more

  4.  don't stay home so much - get out there

and blow the stink off

  5.  my art: step it up!

  6.  send more thank you cards (a lost art, you know!)

  7.  participate in more RAK (random acts of kindness)

  8.  my heart: give from it, open it, love more

  9.  stay up later than 9pm a little more often

10.  be "in the moment" when it matters most

11.  want/need: learn how to differentiate

12.  time management: watch out for those time-eaters

13.  challenge myself more

14.  volunteer more

15.  be gentle with myself ... I'm doing the best I can

16.  tackle: every day tackle one thing

that I've been neglecting

And my 17 for 2016 is:

17.  tolerance: of others,

of situations, of myself

I will continue to work on each of these

as we go forward this year.

Will you join me?

We have a whole new year ahead of us.

Wouldn't it be wonderful

if we could all be a little more gentle

with each other?

Be more respectful?

Show a little more love toward each other?

Be a little more empathetic?

A little more tolerant?

If we all focused on that,

maybe next year at this time,

we'd like each other a little more.

Help me celebrate the birth of a new year.

This is going to be my year.

Right now I'm going to dust myself off and get started.

The Runner and I would like to wish you a: