You are a Rose:

You are creative, sensual, passionate, and bold.
You pour your heart into everything that you
do. Alluring and gifted with strong sex appeal,
you very easily draw people in with your animal
magnetism.

Symbolsim: The rose has always been a flower
heavily loaded with symbolism. In general it
symbolizes desire, passion, beauty, and
enchantment.


Which Flower are You?
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"The purchase of this Poinsettia through the South Bend Symphony Orchestra League is contributing to the Educational Programs provided by the SBSOL to the children of our community"

A sweet gift from Harriet. The largest Poinsettia I ever recieved. ThanK you Harriet. Merry Christmas!! your so on
the ball!

Tom and I went shopping for Tom yesterday. He will be so handsome Saturday night for the Renaissance Auction. I on the other hand purchased royal blue mascara to go with my dress that was made for me for Ron and Corrine's wedding. I think it back in style..... ? But at least it fits again, that is enough motivation for me not to purchase anything and go cheaply.

Thanksgiving weekend was a nice long four day holiday for us. plenty of time in our PJ's for days and movies about love and christmas.

Meeting with our family uneventful. conversation was limited to anything but the pregnancy. Any indication of it and the subject was changed or newspaper ads were raised. That's the Brethren way!
I'm sure you didn't like that last comment Annie.

Life has been very good for this family. Just a little busy this week. Ron and Corrine are moving back to town after their one year sabatical. Welcome back my friend.

~Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel there is something in them. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your won. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.--Christian D. Larsen

Today is My Birthday. I am 45. My mind is still young and vital....18 at least. My body is feeling much older than my age due to a lack of attention. When will that happen? Their are so many articles of women in their 50's who are the fittest they have ever been in their lives. That just doen't seem right. But it does have a practical air to it when it come's to being in good health in order to enjoy your 'retirement' . Speaking of retirement. Tom could actually retire in five years with full benefits if we didn't have two kids who needed to go to college and 10 more years left on our mortgage payments and a slight debt that doesnt' seem to change any in its balance over the past year. Isn't this the life though? And it is so good.

~"Old age: A great sense of calm and freedom. When the passions have relaxed their hold, you may have escaped, not from one master but from many.
Plato~"



Year at a glance in 1960's

The first debate for a presidential election was televised. It was between Senator John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Nikon seemed nervous, but Kennedy stood tall. The debate on TV changed many people's minds about Kennedy.
This year NASA sent up ECHO, the first communications satellite to be seen with the naked eye.
American "U2" spy plane shot down over the USSR.
The Olympic Games were held in Rome and Wilma Rudolf won three gold medals.


Event:
French National Meeting decide to build own nuclear weapons

War:

The 1960's decade began, and so did the Vietnam War. Debate between politicians began as well, almost as bad as the war itself. White House records and transcripts show that the U.S. military leaders usually voted for the use of nuclear bombs, while Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy wanted not to get into those weapons. The Vietnam War did start in the 60's, but there had been trouble in Vietnam before that.

Fashion:

1960-1962 - At this time, there was a carry over from the 50's, including the "bouffant" look. A "bouffant" look is a dress where the top part is tight and the skirt of the dress puffs out. The popular hairstyle was a beehive, where they tease their hair and piled it high on their head. Another look during this time was the beatnik. The beat look included black berets, black slacks (tight for women) and dark glasses. Women wore float shoes while men wore sandals. Women wore dark eye makeup.

Well, it is done.!! The wrapped beads were fun to make. I think I can crack walnuts with my forefinger and thumbs now!!!!!
I hope this might drum up some business. I plan on getting back to chain maille again.

OKay, I spent way too much time on this shoe. But maybe it will win us a free dinner at the LaSalle Grille. It was fun and now it's done. Time to move on to the Necklace for the Auction. I am having so much fun doing this stuff.

The leaf work this weekend lasted two days. Rain and a few days of 30+ mph wind helped push things along. Tom and I are so tired and very sore.

Church has been calling again. I think I will write a letter to Harriett and let her know where we are in our lives so they can stop worring about weather or not we are coming back. The answer is no. The last service I attended had a sermon that cinched it for me. Why should we continue to be a side line christian? Either your in or your out. no need to go through the motions if your heart isn't there. why waste your time and bring false hope? Now, granted it wasn't put exactly that way in the sermon but, it was the sum of it. The guilt to continue with full force...or why bother putting yourselves through the paces and being unhappy?

Happy we are! Our sanctuary is our home. Our need to reach out into the community is being fullfilled through our soical lives and the girls' school. It has always been there and we are satisfied.

~What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family.--Mother Theresa

An "Exspearience" is the name used by Spearhead supporters for a Spearhead show. A Spearhead concert is part, booty shaking funk jam session, part soul deliverance, part cosmic transformation, and part social activism assembly, all rolled into one sweaty, sexy, raucus good time.

Diamond Chain maille

Diamond Chain maille
Originally uploaded by merelyhere.

This is where all my down time has gone to. I have anotherr necklace in the process to be put up for auction for the Renaissance Campaign at Holy Cross. This will be my first sterling silver project. wish me luck. I'm a litlle nervous working with sometthing I couldn't possibly waste a bit of. $$$$$!!

There is also a St. Nicholas Night Art Contest, where an old worn out shoe gets transformed into a piece of art. If selected, it could be auctioned off as well. Sounds like fun. I am almost done with it!!! photos later.

kelsey ghost

kelsey ghost
Originally uploaded by merelyhere.

I guess we should take the ghost down now. We were able to get the yard done in 3.5 hours. thats a record for us. Tom and I can't believe how quick of a job it was. Having two grown children to help makes all the difference.

have to make the leaf work fun.

have to make the leaf work fun.
Originally uploaded by merelyhere.

Amy has her own unique way of making leaf pick up somewhat enjoyable. Besides jumping and hiding in the leaves that are on the tarp for dad to drag to the back, she scoops the leaves with two large frizbees instead of using a rake.

lovely

lovely
Originally uploaded by merelyhere.

We dug up this sweet little double trunk maple tree from the back of the woods to bring height to the north side of the garden. With so many red and white oaks with their rusy colored leaves, the bright yellow really stands out. The burning bushes never become as brillant red as they should do to location and lack of light. But the color they do bring is a lovely pink/red like the dogwoods. I'm happy for any color I get besides the oaks.

Last nights 30 mile an hour winds have covered the yard in a thick carpet of leaves. This is when the driveway can be really hard to find for the novice visitor. The poor Rody Corrine gave me several years ago has been the continued victim of those vehicles.

Went to goodwill yesterday to purchase a $25.00 volleyball for $6.00 for Amy and walked away with $40.00 worth of clothes! I only made it half way through all the racks. It can be very overwhelming. I wish I had known the 50% off sale was this saturday before I went, then it would have been an awesome bargin but well picked over I'm sure. Plus I don't want to deal with the onslaught of people.
Man do I love the goodwill. While going through the racks I was thinking that I should call Kim and make a goodwill date with her. We must go back!!!!!!


~"Bargain... anything a customer thinks a store is losing money on."
Kin Hubbard~

Pinhook

Pinhook
Originally uploaded by merelyhere.

I had to bring along the camera this morning while taking the girls to school. The trees along Pinhook and the St. Joseph are amazing when first light comes over the tree tops from the east. The mighty red oaks speak for themselves this year along with the Maples and the Hickorys.

Wacking down the back forty this week in order to have a place for all the leaves in our yard this year. I refuse to burn. In a few short years we'll have some amazing hummus. That space was going to the blackberry vines anyway.

Going to a party saturday night at Elaines. I feel a need to buy a new outfit just to feel like I fit in
[ Oh Hell ]. All these artsy people I don't know with their cha- cha clothes and their expensive colonges and up to date hair styles. Who can keep up? I'll just hang out at the bar. I hope there's a bar........ "Mannie please!" Burrrap! Oh?! was that me? sorry."

I went to visit my brother Mark last Saturday. He called to say that he has bags of clothes for the girls if I was interested. I haven't seen Mark in a couple of years. I showed up at their house that should be condemned and burned to the ground. Its amazing what filth people will live in. Where did he get that from anyway? And with that said, I rummaged through five bags of BRAND named clothing. Stuff I could never afford nor want to purchase. But it was free and in mint condition. I did leave behind all the attitude t-shirts. Who needs those when you have a mom like me? "more coffee please!"

My brother Mark quit smoking three years ago and has gained a very dangerous amount of weight. I couldn't beleive that was him sitting in that lazyboy chair. "345" he says, like he's amazed or somewhat proud to have managed that weight. It scared me to no end seeing him like that. I hope he finds a way back before health matters start taking over.
It amazes me how my family has filled just about every unhealthy category ones life could have. From alcoholism, obesity, marital affairs, divorces, drugs,smoking, suicides, jail time, losing all their teeth before 30, and the KKK.

Tom voiced his concern about going to Thanksgiving at the inlaws because of Samantha's pregancy. He feels that the girls don't even know where babys come from yet and that it will open up to 'those' questions too early and that our hand are being forced to have "the conversation "[which, it is time for kelsey].
Kelsey has expressed a concern about going and seeing her cousin. I don't think our verbal opposition in this helped any in her comcerns.
We are going..............with great trepedation but we are going. THE WHOLE family will be there. Mom sent an e-mail asking us if we were OK about going. Weird. that must means conversations are being had at our lack of response to the invite. Great! we're pegged. we'll get there and be the only ones who feel the way we do and that their is something wrong with us. Oh well. I hope there's Cool Whip.