Made a few new Scrapbook Pages

Before I show off my scrapbook pages, I'd like to tell you about my Sunday.

I had been intermittently attending services at the Richland Lutheran Church.  I finally decided to make the commitment to join the congregation on a permanent basis. I attended two Sunday morning sessions about the church and how they differ from other Lutheran churches. That didn't make a lot of difference to me since I had been attending Sunday services there for over 5 years now, just not very regular and I was quite happy with myself being there. Then on the 23rd of February at the 11 Am service, the Pastor called the new members to come forward and be welcomed us into his flock.  Then at the end of the morning service we went to the large meeting room and were served Luncheon by some of the older members. It was quite nice to get acquainted with the couple who will be my "Shepherds" in the upcoming weeks and years.

We sat around the table with another new couple who were missing their shepherds but they just joined in with us. I had worn my military pin on it's red/white/blue ribbon which caught the attention of the gentleman across from me and he asked if I had a son in the Navy. I replied, "No sons but I served 20 years myself". It was a bit of a surprise to him but he handled it quite well. My "Shepherd" said I would be added to his listing of former and current military members. Then he asked if I knew of any who were currently deployed and I gave him a better resource than I am.

This conversation gave me the opportunity to tell all about my favorite organization. "TOR" Time of Remembrance is an organization who holds/sponsors a retreat the last weekend in September for the families of the "fallen heroes". We book a hotel and pay for them to stay from Friday evening to Sunday morning. There are counseling sessions for them, in both dealing with the financial aspects of their loss and also dealing with the tremendous loss of their family member. On Saturday night we have a candle light vigil at the Veteran's Memorial with a speaker and a singer. It's a time to involve the public to come out and show their support. On Sunday morning is a Memorial Service at one of the local parks with a guest speaker, (past speakers have included the Governor of our state, a few Generals of both Army and Marines and I think I remember an admiral. At this service, the names (that we are aware of and it numbers in the hundreds) are read off in a solemn reading.

Sunday evening was watching the closing ceremonies at the Olympics. I got dizzy and a headache from all the flashing lights and trying to make out what was really going on. United States came in 2nd behind Russia in the medal count but that didn't mean much to me. I enjoyed the watching. I saw the "Super G" and I held my breath a lot. Just hoping no one was going to crash. I saw some skiers miss gates and then just slowly ski down the side, out of the competition. What a disappointment it must have been for them. But they gave it their best effort and you can't ask for anymore than that!

Now to get on with the new scrapbook pages. I scanned in some old photo's to copy over to my daughter's computer and then I decided to play with some new scrapbook kits and some of the old ones.

Three of my Grandchildren in Alabama in the 90's

Daughters Charlie & Denise in Yokosuka, Japan

Daughters Charlie * Denise and Gr-Granddaughter Olivia playing around

Daughter Charlie w friend Terri and her niece Krista, who is stationed in South Korea

Daughter Charlie in the 80's when she attended Barbizon Modeling school

Great Granddaughter Olivia in 2007 about 3 1/2 yrs old

I think I've rambled on enough for today. I hope everyone looking in will enjoy the pictures and have a nice day! We almost got some snow last night. There was a dusting of snow this morning when I got up at 6:30 Am but it's already gone! Bummer!

P.S. If you don't want to comment here, I have added a box on the left side of the blog to drop in a quick comment if you wish.

A Night on the Town

Thursday night is our usual "Thursday Nite Pot Luck" but this week it was a little special. Charlie had a stack of tickets to a band called "Cold Hard Cash - A Tribute to Johnny Cash" so since the significant others all had to work on Friday we made it a "Ladies Night out". We were joined by a couple members of the band "Black Water". The lead singer and the guitar player come to Thursday Nite also so Tiphony was already with the ladies. P.S. I forgot to include Bob "Animal" who also joined us at our table!

This is one awesome band who are internationally known. They've been on the David Letterman Show and are all over the place. I so did enjoy myself and even got to dance a little bit. I had asked them to play "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and the singer told me that they usually put it towards the very end of their show. That worked out great, since some of the people, (a lot of them) had already thought the show was over and they left. Bad on them!  Since the place was pretty much empty I decided to get closer to the stage when they were singing Ghost Riders. I joined in but they couldn't hear me since it's a smallish room and they were pretty loud. Most of the evening I was pretty far back because the music was so loud. I really enjoyed it and I was just tapping the table to the beat and tapping my toes under the table.

I want to paint a picture because I'm not adding that video to any public showings. I am a 74 year old lady (even if I am a 20 year Sailor, I'm still a lady), with white hair, walks with a cane, and carries an oxygen bottle in a bag on my shoulder. The music was bringing back memories that I had long forgotten. I got up and danced which was made easy with the cane. Charlie joined me before I completely ran out of air. And Shelly took a video of it which we will enjoy in the family. And did I say Charlie had my camera and took a lot of pictures.

I must acknowledge my friend Kyra. I had downloaded one of her kits named "Memories d'antan" and it worked right in with the evenings fun! Here's what I've done with some of the pictures I made with her kit.

I can't remember which kit I used for the last picture. I acknowledge that it isn't mine, (I can't even do those thing) but I thank whomever it was.

Have a great Saturday and God Bless!

Where do I come From?

I have had a fascinating morning playing in the family tree. I found some new records for some of the ghosts in my father's branch. I have traced my father's Shirley Roots back to an immigrant named James Shirley, born in 1649. I can't find if he was born in Scotland and went to Ireland to Escape the religious persecution in England or maybe it was his grand parents who left the UK for greener pastures. My Shirley ancestors were strict Puritans, (which if they saw the family now they would be horrified), but must have relaxed a little after a couple hundred years. Now they are a good mix in the Eastern United States.

My father's Mom was from a marriage of Parkers & Westervelts. It's the Westervelts that surprised me this morning. I found a Baptismal record for one of the Westervelt men, who was Christened 19 May 1754 in the Dutch Reformed Church, Schraalenburg, Bergen, New Jersey. I'm not saying that Westervelt is Dutch but I'm thinking it might be.   Gerred Westervelt & Marijtie Brouwer Westervelt's daughter, Dirkie Westervelt was Christened in that same church in 1750. There has to be a good sized population of either Dutch or German citizens in the area of Bergen & Hackensack, New Jersey. I'm still searching. It's a never ending process. One ghost leads to another ghost and more records are to be found.

And I found a record that proves one of the Westervelts fought in the Revolution in 1776. Good for them. I've served 20 years and my father served in Germany during the final days of that nasty war. He got to ride into parts of Germany in a tank! Which I think would be a great experience. I was in the Navy but they didn't allow me on any of the ships. I had the important job of doing the tons of paperwork involved in getting the ships under way, or typing the evaluations of my fellow sailors.

Enough about the ghosts.  here's a picture I made last night of my youngest daughter in 1971 or so when we lived on Guam. She's a cutie.

This second page is my handsome Grandson David in the fall of 2001. This is one of his Graduation pics and his beloved dog Howard. I still have some editing to do before I send it to him but it's good for here.

Everyone have a great day and God Bless you.

What's going on?

A lot is going on...I spent Wednesday doing errands. Shopped at Walmart, then down to the dollar store for Valentine decorations. Dollar Tree had helium filled Valentine balloons for #1.00 each and the weighted "doo hicky" to tie them to so they wouldn't fly away. I'm going to take a  picture of them and then make a scrapbook page to show them off!! I do love making pages.

Thursday morning I had an appointment at the VA Clinic where I go for a 'Shingles Shot'. It was an oppressive day outside and by the time I had walked the parking lot with my cane and made the long trek up the ramp into the Federal Building, I was pretty winded. I'm sure the sore throat/cold I'm fighting didn't help either.  I got myself to the 2nd floor clinic and the nurse got me into a room and noticed how winded I was. She started asking questions...are you short of breath (that was fairly obvious. Do you have any sharp pains...answered truthfully (big mistake) not right now but last night I did.  I guess that was a red flag or something...they immediately hooked me up for an EKG. Then the doctor looked at it and said to send her to the ER. I'm sure now that the whole incident could have been avoided if I'd just sat down in the lobby and used the rescue inhaler that is in my O2 case around my neck. But that brilliant thought never made it to my pea brain.  So they called my daughter at her meeting and said I had refused transport to the ER. I had said I'd wait for Charlie (youngest daughter.) She showed up all in a panic and crying (love her to death and wouldn't do anything to scare her if I'd had my wits about me). After Charlie came in the room with a giant Security Guard and started telling me that refusing transport just to save an ambulance bill was foolish (actually it wasn't at all...she got to the ER waiting room long before I did in that ambulance.

Now let me tell you about the ambulance...I appreciate that they are doing their job but when it comes to me and IV's from them I tend to balk! My veins are pretty little and like to roll around. One fireman sitting on the wrong side of the truck for a lefty was really having a tough time getting a needle into my hand and I had already told him to use the smallest needle that had and it still wasn't working for him. He had a "kibitzer' looking over his shoulder and telling him "you missed it, I can see from here it's to your left". which did nothing for my nerves. So then another fireman on the other side of me takes my left arm and he proceeded  to start another one. First thing I said before he started was where the alcohol swab for that hand. He said right behind me...laid down his pkg with the needle in it and gets the swab and washes the back of my left hand. So if you can picture this: I'm lying on a gurney with both arms out to the side and these two firemen are trying to see who's going to get the needle in first. I said in a very calm voice, "I am taking names you know". They had already been told my nickname is Sarge so they weren't surprised at all. The onlooker at the back door rattles off two names and then smiles but his buddy gave it away. He said they'd both retired so I still don't know the names of the two poking me. And then glory be...The guy on the left says I'm in! like he was going to get a cupie doll or something. The guy on the right arm pulled his needle out and put a wad of gauze on the spot but not before I saw a very large bubble show up that he was taping down.

The three block ride was very uneventful. No sirens or anything like that. But now we come to the adventure in the ER! I'm in this room and Charlie finally finds me. I was sure glad to see her. She took over telling them what the problems were going to be. "She has very small veins and they roll!" So for about 20 mins we watched a student nurse put tourniquet on the arm and poke with his finger to see which vein he was going to try and stick me in. First arm didn't show much promise so he wheels him self around the foot of the bed and does the same thing again. He made 4 little joy rides around the bed to check one arm or another and finally he disappeared. Then a more seasoned person in the shape of a good sized male nurse came in and when he saw the vials still on the shelf and nothing in them, Charlie explained to him how much the student had tried and just couldn't find a vein. Big nurse jumps on the little stool and proceeds to check the left arm and not happy with what he saw so he takes the joy ride around the bed and goes for the right arm. He managed to get a needle into the vein at the wrist (the one that you might slice if you wanted to leave the earthly realm), but he just wanted to put a needle in it and then fill up 5 vials. He did it and I have the large bruise to show for that one also.! And they did it again at 11 Pm, and at 2 Am, and again at 5:30 Am. I slept through them...they are good about not letting you wake up all the way, just enough to say they woke me and then they draw blood.

The trip to X-ray was uneventful and then they wheeled me over to the EDU (evaluation decision unit). That's where I spent the night. Tried to watch the Olympics with Charlie before she had to get back to the house and be the hostess for the Thursday night pot luck. They are like the Mail people...neither rain, nor sleet...etc will stop them from a good pot luck! God love them! I do love them and I'm sorry I missed the Valentines one. Charlie says we'll do Valentines again next Thursday.

Friday was Valentine's Day but I was in the Nuclear Med wing getting some pictures of my heart. I'd forgotten how much I dislike the Cardiac Stress Test...it had been 2 years since I'd done one and I tend to forget things. It came back in a flash though. The put something Nuclear in my veins so they could get pictures of it. That stuff gives you a flush but it doesn't last long.Lay still for 8.5 mins while the two x-ray plates rotate around your body. And I'm claustrophobic so that wasn't real easy for me. my arms had to be up over my head so she put a pillow on my forehead (had me worried for a second...but it wasn't my face) and then my arms had someplace to lay and the pillow case covered my eyes so I couldn't see that horrible machine moving at that slow pace. Then they helped my arms down since by now they are going to stay put unless you help them move. Next came the stresser! The pictures were a before and after, so my mind is saying we have to do that scary part again.

We go into another room and I'm laid down on a little more comfortable bed than the first one...a nurse practitioner comes into the room, logs onto the computer and then takes my hand and tells me that it just a simple procedure.The tech is going to inject three different types of medicine into the iv and it will stress the heart, the third one will bring it back down. It's the equivalent of half an hour on the treadmill, which I can't do because of the Osteo Penia in the right hip. Some day I'll need a new hip, I guess, but that can wait till I'm 90 and instead they can just put a placer in there and give me one of those electric chairs with a joy stick. Then it was back to the hard bed with my arms over my head again...felt really dizzy and almost fell out of the chair but she helped me into the bed so I couldn't fall down...Not on her watch anyway! Don't move for 8.5 mins again and then she wants to do a lookey at the back so I'm on my stomach now and can't move for 5 mins.

I finally made it back to the room at about 12:30 Pm. Charlie was there waiting for me. They brought me a Cardiac liquid diet until they got the test results back. Thursday night's dinner was a Cardiac dinner also. I ordered a Cheeseburger and chocolate ice cream, and a Diet. Root Beer! Burger had white cheese on it and the ice cream lacked cream so I'm not sure what it was. But Charlie finally got me out of there about 1 Pm and got me back home.

See, it wasn't so bad! Right!!! I'm watching my diet more and like Shelly said...before you take that walk up the ramp into the Fed Bld. use the rescue inhaler and you might not have all this trouble. Except I still have the sore throat and some sort of cold/bronchitis. If it gets any worse I'll go back into the VA Clinic and get some anti-biotics.
Here's my Valentine to everyone, a day late but here non the less!

The picture went around facebook a couple of times and I liked it so I made it into a scrapbook Valentine!

Popped in with a new picture

This is about my Gr-Grand daughter Olivia.  Olivia lived with me for a couple of years and so I have about a few thousand photos of her. These were taken when I lived in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a good time!!

I had quite a problem when working with pictures that I've worked in photo shop. Using items from the kits doesn't always work. Some items in a kit work and some show up as green bars so I can't use them. These were made from several kits I have from Anna Jolanta and I have no idea why the program isn't working properly but the pictures came out great anyway! Here's a link to one of the kits: http://mojscrapblog.blogspot.de/2013/01/new-kit-sweetlove-free.html

It's time for the Olympics!

I must admit, I have been watching the Olympics almost every night, (that's when we get to see them) and we are a day behind. Some of us American's are probably still a day behind. I have been very impressed with the Dutch speed skaters! They are good. Caught one of the races last evening and I'd have to say it's the first time a Country has taken all three medals in an event. And to cap it off, two of the winners were twin brothers! The American's took Gold in both the men and the women's Slope Style Snowboard event.

I have also been playing around with the new Photoshop program I purchased. My original program disappeared when I upgraded the computer to Windows 8 and I had no idea how to retrieve it. So I just bought a new program. My favorite function is the ability to cut someone out of the picture and then drop them into a scrapbook page all by themselves. Here's two examples of what mean.

I forgot to put the credits in the photos: The valentine picture is a kit "The Beauty Within by jelquesScraps. The Sesame street one is from a kit titled Sesame Street but the artist didn't sign either one of the previews so I have no idea who it is.

Good Morning & Happy Friday!

Another week has just flown by and last night's Pot Luck was in honor of Connie's Birthday. We won't mention how old the dear lady is because that's not done is polite society! Not that the Thursday night group is Polite Society but we're working on it. lol

I watched the Olympics after they all left to continue the party at Dax's (a local pub). The Snow Board competition was great. Since it's the first time in the Olympic repertoire, I think they did very well. The Canadian's seem to be dominating the event but there's still time before the finals on Saturday.

Then came the Ladies Down Hill Moguls. Which looks to me to be an exercise in bouncing and speed on skis. I should think they'd have an upset tummy by the time they get down the hill and then they have to do tricks in the air and land on the skis again and get more bouncing done before they get to the bottom.

There was a little of the Team Figure Skating which is always fun to watch. Although doing it a a team instead of individual event only is also new this year.  The same people get to compete again for themselves beside adding their points to a team event. It's going to make the next 2 weeks very interesting which is great since the Hollywood writers haven't come up with much new in last few years except much mayhem and alien intrusion.

Here are a couple of the pictures I've done with some new kits by Anna Jolanta. She is good and I enjoy the colors and themes she is doing. I'm pretty sure this is Anna's Blog: http://mojscrapblog.blogspot.de/

And then there is the weather. I'm from Pennsylvania, (at least the first 20 years of my life) so I'm used to what is going on on the East Coast just not as bad as it has been this year. Growing up in the NW corner of Pennsylvania made sure we had plenty of snow, some times starting on Halloween and staying until mid March. I learned how to drive a stick shift in that much snow. Yesterday was the first snow here in the Mid Columbia Basin except for some fog that got too cold and looked like snow. Here's a picture from last night and this morning. We are expecting some more snow today in the evening hours they say.

i estimate 2 to 3 inches. That's not very much by some standards but for the people here in the desert of SW Washington State, it's a lot. There were accidents all over the place last night.

Monday's Child is Fair of Face.

I just want those having a birthday today to know they are "Pretty".

The Super Bow is over, even though those Sports Pundits are still beleaguering some of the plays and everyone is still on Sherman's case for his little outburst at the end of the Playoff game. I guess it's what they do to earn money.

I made several neat pages and they came from several different kits by multiple designers. I thank all of the designers who make kits and then give them away. I really appreciate your work.

This is my Gr-Grandson Aayden who is 2 yrs & 4 mos. And such a beautiful face he has. He does enjoy sports even though he's still too young.

The two little ones in the middle are my Gr-grandkids enjoying the game with a Grandma & an Auntie.

My Grandson David at the Super Bowl party he threw with his Father-in-law. There were on opposite sides of this Super Bowl as you can see by the shirts. 

Well I'm off to get some sorting done in my room and pack up some things for my sister. Enjoy the pictures.