It’s been a LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG LONG TIME!!

On two separate ocassions now, I have been sent “blog awards” ~ but I have no idea how to download them, or upload them, or WHATEVER, so you do not see them on my blog. Here’s my question, is there a blog award for the person who goes the longest without updating their blog?? Cuz if so, it’s mine!! Where do I start? I guess I will start where I left off but first let me say- to your left, one of the incredibley GREAT new SALEABRATION sets……wanna have a workshop and get tons of free stamps? CONTACT ME!!! 🙂 Okay, so I left off in November, and here we are in January……PATHETIC BLOGGER AWARD, I am the proud recipient. I left off telling you how God was giving us the blessing of two extra weeks with our kids, Jen, Davis and their precious offspring, our grand daughters, Tovah and Lami. WELL, two weeks stretched in to FOUR, and somehow – that added time made it a little easier to let go….not sure why, but those last four weeks were precious. I think we did every thing we said we were going to do and then some….in those last four weeks. My most precious memory was Keith and I taking the two girls to the Cincinnatti Zoo, just the 4 of us, so mommy and daddy could pack. We were at the zoo for about NINE HOURS…..and those girls were adorable. My favorite memory of things kids say, from Tovah, when we were riding the train after dark and Christmas music was playing and we were each holding one and snuggling with them, Tovah looked up at me and said, “Gramma can we PALEEEEEZE come back here tomorrow?” and then Lami, when I told her in her ear, “I love you little Lami Lou, ” she took my face in her little hands and said, “Gramma, I can’t dop yoving you.” Okay, on to a less tearful subject, I’m gonna have to dry the keyboard out here. So ~ Dec 7th they departed for Kenya…..where they wait to see if it’s safe to enter the Congo in 4 months. Please keep that war torn country in your prayers, and our kids as well if you so desire. 🙂 Two weeks after they left, our Christmas company started arriving, and we had all three of our other kids here and their families. So that meant, 3 more grand daughters to keep us smiling. Layla was here 2 entire WEEKS…….(and her parents came too!) and then we got to spend some quality time with Madyson(Maddy and I even squeezed in some guitar lessons) and Chloe, which was awesome!! What fun we had, seeing ballet recital after ballet recital in our living room. Maddy and Chloe were so good with Layla, and Layla amused us with the old dvd videos Mike and Jenna brought of her when she wasnt’ amusing us in person. 🙂 What a blessed, happy, wonderful Christmas. 12 people and 3 dogs in our house for many many days – and it was all good!! We even got to SKYPE with Jen, Davis and the girls. The holidays were ones to remember, with all of this company staying right through New Years Day!! 🙂 My mom also came from New Hampshire (like only weeks after breaking a vertabrae – she was determined!!)and a good time was had by all!! FAST FORWARD to LEADERSHIP, what an AWESOME time we had this year!! My favorite part of Leadership is always seeing my friends, and this year was no different. Some of my closest friends did not make it this year, and what a sad Leadership to miss!! Stampin’Up! said they knew we had all made financial sacrifices to be there in this economy, so they really poured on the great times!! For Manager’s Reception we went to Universal Studios, they SHUT DOWN A WHOLE SECTION FOR SU ONLY!! Tina and I rode the Hulk ROLLER COASTER 3 times, this other “thing” that flew you way up to the sky and then dropped you and your stomach like dropped out the bottom, 3 times, and then this spiderman ride which Tina like screamed into my shoulder the entire ride, it was 3D and pretty freaky. I don’t know which one of us decided first that enough was enough, I think it was me, but shortly thereafter we were both moaning and groaning all the way home and thru the night…….hard to admit you aren’t 16 anymore sometimes, but let me tell you we proved it to ourselves THAT night……..but if I had to do it all over again I would ride the same rides!! Tina and me – one night we are having in depth talks lamenting menopause and all the rotten “stuff” it brings with it, and then the next night we are trying to prove we are still teenagers………MORE precious memories…….have I mentioned before that the best thing about Stampin’Up is the deep, deep, deep friendships that have come along with it?? Well I can’t wait until Convention now!! 🙂 So, after all of these wonderful events, life is settling down now and returning to “normal”. This morning I got up to get ready for work, and came downstairs to our basement flooded for the FOURTH time, yes, FOURTH time since we moved here. Twice it was nature and once it was plumbing, and this time it was that darn hose that needs to stay in the washtub when you do a load of wash…….when I called my husband he said, Oh my gosh Karen I took that hose OUT when I was cleaning the roller after painting your stamp room…..and he just felt, well, you know how you feel when you do something, dare I say DUMB?? Hey, I was thinking but you PAINTED my STAMP ROOM, how could I be upset??? And I was thinking how neat it is to love someone so much that you just truly feel in your heart, well I’m not upset because it JUST as EASILY could have been ME the one not putting the hose in there and YOU the one home when the basement floods,,,,,ya know what I mean? And besides, whenever we have some “catastrophe” I get the urge to clean, and I really, really, really, really needed that urge, and I have been scrubbin all day and my basement is lookin good!! 🙂 I was just thinking what a horrendous mess it was last night and thinking gee, where do I START????? You know when a space gets that messy?? Maybe you don’t, but I sure do. My house actually has 4 stories, I love it – lots of living space but most people only see the main floor so it’s just a manageable space to keep looking nice, and no one knows what “lurks” below……..happy to say I will sleep well tonite cuz it’s gonna shine!! 🙂 And even though my plans completely changed today, I have a sneaky suspicion I would have stamped the day away after I got home from 4 hours of work, so I am really kinda glad I had a major mess to clean up. 🙂 Am I weird? Don’t answer that. I am always amazed at my husband’s grace in situations like this – when the shoe is on the other foot and I caused some thing to make HIM work extra hard…..he is always so full of grace. It was nice to have it be him for once and be able to repay him for all the sweet grace he has shown me. 🙂 Well my son in law Jon and I have a contest going……for losing those holiday pounds. I have 10 to lose and he has 15, but I say I deserve a handicap cuz men and young people lose weight faster then women and old folks…….(I’m getting there….)so we agreed that he has to lose 15 and I have to lose 10, WE STARTED THIS AT CHRISTMAS AND I HAVE LOST 6 BUT HE HAD PUT ON WEIGHT, (he has actually gained more weight in Bekah’s pregnancy then she has….harhar) but yesterday he tells me he wants us to “start over” – okay, I still have 10 to reach my goal, and he has to lose 15. The prize? It took us ages to agree on this, but the loser owes the winner 10 hours of slave labor plus one hour for every pound the loser has not lost yet when the winner wins……..and I tried to say he also had to eat guacamole for me but he nixed that……(Jon doesn’t eat anything green, but especially not guacamole) but if I tell him his LABOR is to HELP ME EAT SOME GUACAMOLE….HMMMMM…… because listen with Jon one must fight fire with fire!! He texts me 2 minutes after we agree on the prize and says, I am gonna tell Bekah we will stop cleaning our toilets immediately……….. to which I replied, Oh, YEH???? WELL, I am gonna tell Keith we will stop picking up dog poo poo in the back yard NOW…….and after you LOSE and pick up 8 tons of dog poop in my back yard, you’ll have to go home and clean your own gross toilets but it won’t count toward your hours!!!! We are going all out with this, the race is ON……..and folks, I do have one advantage, Jon does not like to eat anything that even remotely resembles anything healthy,,,,,so I figure I have the edge there…….I will keep you all posted on who gets the dirtiest job…….but those coffee smoothies Tangie and I get on Fridays? They are on HOLD folks, and I am living on SMART ONES from the freezer section, and fruit. And I am dreamin up long lists of labor for my son in law, too bad the contest didnt’ end today cuz I could have put him to work mopping up water……but he’s home painting a baby’s room so I will leave him alone today. 🙂 By the next time I blog, if I wait as long as I did this time, we may have lost the weight and regained it!! 🙂 But I will try to be better this time. If I didn’t blab on and on and on and on, I could blog

more often,,,,but each blog session is liking writing a book! Well I have wasted enough time here and it’s high time I got back to work. The rest of this basement is not gonna clean itself. I love cleaning my own house when you get right down to it. If you offered me a cook OR a cleaning lady, I would take the cook anyday. Only thing, it’s not that much work to throw a Smart One in the microwave……but then I could eat GOOD healthy stuff, give me a cook anyday over a cleaning lady- take all my fun away! I HATE to cook, and I cannot remember the last meal I cooked, except for Smart Ones……..now how can you get mad at a husband who cooks?? You tell me! I count my blessings!! I know a good thing when I see one!! Until next time, the race is on, and may your basements stay dry!!