Last day of 2007

Dog Tired Dog Story


An old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home.He followed me into the house, down the hall, and fell asleep in a corner.
An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out.The next day he was back, resumed his position in the hall, and slept for an hour. This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: 'Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.'The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with ten children -- he's trying to catch up on his sleep. Can I come with him tomorrow?'

Thanks to my friend Alanna for sending this story on to me, it looks just like our Cookie

Today
This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...let it be something good.

unknown

Here's lookin' at you, kid...

What you need to know about the past is that no matter what has happened, it has all worked together to bring you to this very moment. And this is the moment you can choose to make everything new. Right now.

~Author Unknown

Dalmatians....

It is a good year to be a Dalmatian. This year we got 3 calendars, each featuring Dalmatians. The Winery Dogs of BC, which we got before we left BC and the Wine Dogs of the Barossa and Eden Valley of Australia (thanks Laurie and Shane). Evelyne and Richard gave us the Dalmatian Calendar that looks like our Pebbles on the cover.

Every boy should have 2 things, a DOG and a mother willing to let him have one.
Robert Benchley

Golfing on Christmas Eve Day

Evelyne and Richard joined Jim and I golfing on Christmas Eve Day. The weather stayed nice, warm and sunny until about 4:45pm, then a cool wind came up and that was it for me. The real golfers finished off the 18 holes, came home and we had a wonderful Christmas dinner together. After phoning all the family in BC to see how their Christmas Eve festivities were going, we have Pecan Pie with whipped cream for dessert. Then it was our trun to sit around and open our Christmas gifts. It was a very special time to have Ev and Richard here for our first Christmas in our home in Queen Creek. For Christmas today, we had an excellent adventure, travelling the lenght of the Old Apache Trail. We left here at 10:30 with a packed picnic lunch, both dogs and a good map and returned at 4:30, just in time for happy hour drinks.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends, you have been in our thoughts in the different places that you all live.

Happy Holidays to Jeremy & Julie, Laurie & Shane, Brad & Carmen.

To Christa, Cindy and Shannon, I will talk to you soon.

"ONE OF THE SECRETS OF A HAPPY LIFE IS CONTINUOUS SMALL TREATS."
IRIS MURDOCH

Merry Christmas, Emmy Lou

It is hard to tell from this photo how big Emmy Lou is getting, but looking at the size of her feet indicates that this is going to be one big girl.
Thanks Cindy for her new photo and the lovely Vintage post cards, love them......

Ornaments..

These ornaments are from Martha Stewart collection, you can glitter them in different colors and either hang them as ornaments or place them on the cards that they come with. Great project as it is easy to do, and they dry fairly quickly. They would also look good tied to a present. I have almost finished making all the decorations for our small tree, but I am sure there is always room for just one more.

Christmas--that magic blanket that wraps itself about us,
that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.
It may weave a spell of nostalgia...
Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer,
but always it will be a day of remembrance...
a day in which we think of everything we have loved

Augusta Rundel.

Hearts & Stockings...

"The girlies" gave me a new sewing machine early for Christmas so I could make a few things, and hopefully a few stockings for them to hold bones and such.....good thinking girlies. Chenille, felt and ticking are so much fun to sew and look like Christmas.

Glittery.....

This is for my friend Cindy, she and I decided that if we had lived in a former life, we would of been Ravens, attracted to all things glittery, or maybe she just meant ME.....I love Pottery Barn, and these are things that I found on their web-site. So my dear friend Cindy, when you come down in the spring, there are many places that I have checked out for us to see.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That's why we call it the present.

~Babatunde Olatunji

Books...

The weather has been so great the last few days, I took the time to read a couple of books from my growing list. These 2 books were wonderful, so different and each one of them touched me on several different levels. We have a great lending library here are at Solera, so you just pick out a book, read it and take it back, all on the honor system. Sitting in the sun and having the time to read is to me a true luxury, one I love.

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.

~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

"The girlies"

Cookie enjoying her queen sized bed, all wrapped up like a present. And a rare site, Pebbles and Cookie sharing the bed. I believe this is what they meant when they said "creature comfort".

Our laptop is here in the guest room, and so when we are in this room, so are the dogs.

Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in? I think that is how dogs spend their lives.

~Sue Murphy

Snowglobes......

A sure sign that Christmas is closer than you think....have made some of these in the past like the ones in the upper left corner. They make wonderful little presents that you can shake up for years to come and they are easy to make.

Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.

~Kate L. Bosher

Gingerbread Houses...

The ones on the top are from Martha Stewart that are so cute, but the bottom one is the one Christa made with James and Craig, and I think it should take first prize. The boys had so much fun making the Gingerbread train with Grandma.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.

~Norman Vincent Peale

Cookies and Kidlets.....

Christa has still been baking up a storm as well as watching her grandbabies for a few days.... Here she is with baby Ella and James.

My questions is, when will we be seeing some of these cookies here in AZ?....she will have to bring them down personally in the New Year.

What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies. ~

Rudolph Giuliani

Santa baby....

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Calendar 2008....

Started working on the calendars that I make every year, I have 3 to do and got this one for Jeremy and Julie finished last night, and sending it on it's way to Vancouver today...left some pages blank so that they can just add their own photos.

Jim relaxing....

This is how Jim is enjoying his holdiays, just relaxing, reading the paper, playing with the dogs and golfing. He is loving the good life.

Trees....

What kind of trees will decorate your home this holidays. Will you have more than one, and will you have some hand made ornaments on them? I haven't yet decided on what ours will look like yet, as most of our ornaments are still in our BC home, but I have been working on some hand made ones to decorate our tree. Now it is just finding the right tree.

Warmth...

There is little chance that meteorologists can solve the mysteries of weather until they gain an understanding of the mutual attraction of rain and weekends.

~Arnot Sheppard

Something Red...

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.

Frederick Keonig

Shenia

This is Shenia, Cindy's SPCA rescue and trying to fit herself into Miss Emmy Lou's bed. ( the little Black Lab) Cindy said it best," Shenia looks like a 50 lb bag of flour trying to fit into a 5lb sack"....How sweet is this.
Dwight the cat has even been caught napping here.....and I say, who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

Christa's other boys...

Christa has been baking up a storm, she already has a husband, 2 sons, 3 grandsons and a granddaughter and now all of these boys, she has been busy for days. I hope that she saves some of these for when she comes to visit me in the New Year...Happy baking Christa.

What I made today...

Eyeglass case holder, unfinished heart and a needle case.

Inside of needle case

Felt hearts for the tree, still need loops

Handmade from the heart.

It has been fun sitting in the sun today outside in my shorts, hand stitching up some Christmas Ornaments. We never brought any along, so I thought it would be fun to make a few for the small tree we will have. Next year I will bring some of the other handmade ornaments down here from BC. It was a very good day!!!!!

Happy Birthday Brad

Happy Anniversary Layne and Deane.

Today would of been my father's 84th birthday. Hard to believe it was nearly 14 years ago that you passed away. You may be gone, but you surely aren't forgotten. We all still miss you.