40 and feeling fine...

That's not bugs on my windshield. That is SNOW! Mark wisked me away for an overnighter to Payson for my birthday. He even arranged for a substitute to teach my young women's class. Boy did we ever need the get away, even for only one night.He thought it was funny to lock me out of the car while it was snowing. get out of the car quick, teeth chatter, take a picture, get back in the car with the seat warmers on.


We stopped in at Kholls Ranch to warm up by the fire and check out their cabin rates for future reference.

On top on the rim...it was very cold, snowy and windy as you can tell from my hair.

Mark scaring the heck out of me by playing around on the edge.
We are both 40 years old now and have decided that we are not over the hill.... We are sitting on top of the hill and the view is spectacular! There is so much to do, so much to look forward to. Pretty exciting!
It was so cold the waterfalls froze. It was 31 degrees up there. It looked pretty cool. I have decided that I really like to SEE the snow, but I do not like to be cold. Let me look at it while sitting someplace warm.

On the way down the mountain coming home we stopped to see the wild flowers. I love them so much! It was like 50 degrees there, but still windy and cold.

We pulled into the driveway to find a special treat left for me by the young women and the other leaders. The sign says "40 reasons "Y" we love you Sister George. Happy Birthday!" There were 40 Easter eggs scattered all over the front yard.
They also left this way cute gardening angel which I love with a card that they all wrote the sweetest things in. Made me cry!
Inside all the Easter eggs were starburst with strips of paper that listed the 40 reasons they love me. I can honestly say, they made me feel very loved and special. I appreciate and love them all so much!

There will be more to come on my next post. Shopping was involved. Nothing extravagant or expensive. Just things that make me smile. It's now 1:16 a.m and I'm exhausted. My birthday was wonderful!!! :o)

Going camping...

Let me apologise in advance for the typo's. I just put on a new set of nails today because I couldn't take the ugly nails any longer and apparently I have forgotten how to type with them.

Well I got a new church calling. Let me rephrase that. I got an additional church calling. I still have my regular one in young women's. I am now the stake young women's camp craft director as well. Basically that means that I need to come up with a craft for 100 girls to do, make them into kits so it can easily be completed by them in less than an hour. Camp is 5 days long and I will teach the craft projects a couple times a day to small groups of girls. I also need to have smaller craft projects available for girls who want to come make something on their free time. Another big part of my job is camp decor. This years theme is "Like a Star", so I have to make things that go along with that to decorate the stage in the amphitheater, the walls in the lodge as well as table cloths and centerpieces in the lodge. (16+ tables) Plus each of the camp sites (which are groupings of TENTS) all need a little something to tie in the theme. I haven't been to girls camp in 25 years and it was in cabins then. I'm really not nervous about my responsibilities. It's a lot of work and I know I can handle that part. Actually I'm excited to see what I come up with. It's the camping part however, I am worried about. Can't you just picture me....a 40 year old woman with 80 year old body parts camping for 5 days and only being able to shower ONE time. Yup! Only ONE! Also keep in mind I live in Arizona and camp is June 30th-July 4th. I may not survive. PLUS I snore....loud! I have restless leg syndrome and I whine all night in pain while sleeping in a good bed. Who would want to sleep by me? I don't even like sleeping by me. After you're done laughing, could you please offer me some suggestions on how to get through this. And I don't blame you for laughing...I laughed when they asked me to do this too. I'm going to have to get myself in good shape between now and then and pray for strength. Trying to stay positive. I do feel lucky. I seem to be the winner of the Irish AND British National Lotteries several times a day.

Oh wait.....you get those emails too???? Sheesh! :o)

Our 22nd anniversary

On our anniversary we went out to breakfast with 3 other couples. We all started out on motorcycles, but ours started making bad noises, so we had to go get our car. Kind of stinks. It's going into the shop to get looked at on Thursday. Hopefully it will not be too expensive to repair. After breakfast 4 of us went up to Goldfield Mining Camp for a few hours. There is a gorgeous view of the superstition mountains from there. Everything is so green now with wild flowers blooming as well. I love it!Marks drinking an old fashioned rootbeer (he's so cute!)

I'm always amazed how big the cactus get.

I loved taking pictures of all the old things everywhere.

I took this picture for my outhouse bathroom. I bought a rustic frame with hinges. It looks great!

Yes, we did indulge in some ice-cream in homemade waffle cones.

There is so many cool rusted pieces of equipment. I took way more pictures than I'm sharing.

Mark's holding the camera :o)

He said he's ready for 22 more years of marital jail. LOL!

Another picture courtesy of Mark.

They have horseback riding available as well as jeep trail rides and underground mine tours. Oh...and a cute little train tour too. I love the train.

Mark got me Indian jewelery from there also. One set was tigers eye and the other was a pretty purple stone. I don't know what it's called. It will look pretty with my Easter dress.

After that, Mark had to go do one job, so sent me to get the making memories desktop carousel that I've been wanting for a long time. Who am I to argue with that?! I love how organized it is. I know where everything is and I can find it quickly. I love it!

It replaced this...I know these are popular, but it really didn't work for me. I will find another use for it.I also got the desktop organizer to keep my kits in as well as in progress projects. I put my trimmer, chalk, and poker mat in there too.

After Mark was done we met up for lunch, then went and sat on different bikes to see which ones fit my whole hiney comfortably. (this stop was for Mark more than me) He is always happy when he's looking at motorcycles. Then I got to feeling really sick. It was bad. We called it an early day and went home. I was in bed the rest of the day and all day Sunday too. I'm not feeling sick today, but my back is way out so I'll be heading to the chiropractor on Wednesday. I'd love to be able to stand up straight and take a breath without pain. Sheesh...it's always something, huh?! :o) I'll be 40 years old on Sunday and several parts of my body feels 80. That can't be a good thing. I've gotta get in shape. I shouldn't be feeling this bad at this age. Worries me.

Happy belated birthday to Pam!!! She shares her birthday with our anniversary. I hope you had a wonderful day!

Nail Salon and getting to know you cards

Okay....so as you know I went to the nail salon for pedicures with my sisters. I sat there relaxing while my back was being massaged by the chair. Felt good at the time...just what my tired body needed. NOW, it feels like someones been using my body as a punching bag. Seriously, like I've taken some pretty bad shots in the ring from Rocky Balboa. Everywhere those roller balls touched me feels sore and bruised. It's my fault really because I didn't drink any water while I was there. If I drink plenty of water, I won't hurt afterwards. Totally skipped my mind and I'm paying for it now. I will never forget that important step again. My regular salon always gives me a bottle of water when I walk in. This was a different one in town.

My friend September told me about this little video on you tube. I thought this was cute about nail salons. Take a look at it here. It made me giggle.

front

back

I made this simple "getting to know you" card for Heather D White. She asked her blog readers to send her a 4X6 card with a picture of them and some information about them. I loved this idea, so I wanted to do the same thing.

I've been blogging now for just over 2 years and I've made a lot of friends...and lurkers who just like to read. I truly do cherish all of you. To date I've had just over 119, 900 visitors. I average between 200-250 a day. On weekends it's more like 140-170. I think that's a lot (for me) Miss Heather gets 4 times the amount of visitors I do. She is very popular because she is so amazing. :o) Anyways, I have visitors from most all the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Argentina, Egypt, New Zealand, Europe, Japan, Germany, Australia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ireland, Scotland, China, Turkey, Netherlands, Bermuda, Ecuador, Venezuela, South Africa, Spain, Malaysia, Thailand, Nigeria, Poland, Turkey, Seria, Peru, Italy, France, Mexico, Sweeden and more that I can't think of now. It's pretty cool to think about. I obviously have far more visitors than I do commenter's. (we all do) What is strange is that all of you readers know more about what's going on in my life and in my heart than my in real life friends because I share more here. You have all been a great source of strength and support to me and I appreciate it so much. I would really love it if ALL of you...lurkers, new friends, old friends, family, everybody would please send me a 4X6 card about themselves. It doesn't have to be fancy or "scrapbook style", but it CAN be. Make it cute, make it plain. It's all good as long a it's 4X6 in size. I want you to include a picture of yourself or your family or both. (On my card I just cut up one of my Christmas card pictures and used those because I was lazy and didn't want to print one.) It only took me like 10 minutes, so I'm not asking for a big time commitment from you. Also include personal information. It can be done on the computer or hand written. I want to know more about you. Your name, birthday, about your family, the food you like,favorite color, hobbies, collections, occupation-if any, fun facts, how you found my blog (if you even remember) as well as contact info. address, phone, email, blog, etc. I promise you that info will never be shared with others. It's just for me. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know you can trust me. I'm an honest girl. I just want to know about you. I will share pictures of the fronts of your cards as they start coming in. Put contact info on the back so it won't be seen in the picture, or create a pocket with it inside. If you want more ideas, take a peek at Heather's blog. She's had several cards come in already. I will give you all 1 month to get them in. (April 7th deadline) To make it fun, I will pick a winner out of the cards I receive to win a fabulous prize put together by me. It will be good...honest!

Mail them to

Jolene George

P.O. Box 40512

Mesa, Arizona, 85274

(that's our business P.O. Box)

Thanks in advance to all those who are willing to participate. I'm so excited!

P.S. Guess what??? Tomorrow (Saturday) is mine and Mark's 22nd wedding anniversary. YAY! I love that man of mine! :o)

Happy Birthday Julie!

Today is my sister Julie's birthday. Rene' had to work so Coleen and I took her out to Applebee's for lunch. Yum!Since it was her birthday we ordered the triple chocolate meltdown. Boy howdy was that rich..and GOOD! I'd love to show you a picture of how pretty it was but we devoured it. I did take a picture of the one from the menu, but it was blurry. Trust me...you can't go wrong with chocolate cake, and a hot moulten center with vanilla ice-cream and hot fudge drizzle. Takes me to my happy place just thinking about it. I'm just going to tell you right now...I have no guilt from eating that. I really should, but I don't.

I would however like to lodge a complaint. The apple chimi cheesecake is no longer on the dessert menu!!! What the heck?!?! I go there FOR that! Makes me so mad. That was some serious goodness. After lunch we had to run and drop off Coleen's foster care papers, then headed over to the nail salon for some french pedicures.Julie...aka, the birthday girl

Coleen...who had to turn her whole body for this picture because she can't turn her neck.

Me... yes I am that white...it's not all flash



Proof of just how white I am. I glow next to Julie's tan legs. I really need to pull out the good ol' tan in a can.
Pretty french toes. What? you can see them? Is that better? :o)

I like a day when 3 girls get pampered for one girls birthday.

win...win...win!!!

I got home just in time to go to young women's, then came home to a nice little surprise in the mail from making memories!!! (remember the contest I won a few weeks ago) I got my jar of embellishments from the noteworthy line!!! YAY! I can't wait to use them! Love it!

I'm off to get in my jammies and hop in bed. I recorded American Idol and Big Brother. It seems I'm never home when they are on, so I play catch up. I have forgotten to record the past two Thursday nights, so I missed seeing who got booted.

What a great day! Night all!

Happy Birthday Cody!

My Cody boy is 15 today! I dropped him off 2 large pizza's for him and a few friends for lunch. He was so happy! He called me later to say thank you and to tell me that his girl friend surprised him with a birthday cake she baked for him. He was so excited! We had already taken him shopping for his presents because this year he wanted to pick them out. He got a watch, spiderman 3 video game, an electric razor, a couple of shirts and some smelly stuff. (when boys are teenagers, mom's rarely put up a fight if they want something to make them smell good) Tonight I will make one of his favorite dinners. Cody has been a happier boy the longer we live out here. He's had the same sweet girl friend for a real long time (as far as teenagers go), he's making more friends, and participating more in youth activities. He smiles more, he is trying harder in school, he gives me a hug every single day and tells me he loves me. It's been really nice having a happier boy and I'm grateful for him.

I LOVE YOU CODY!

Random stuff...

• Almost went on a scrapbook retreat this past weekend. I REALLY REALLY wanted to go. It just didn't work out. I will for sure attend the next one.
• We ate at Sizzler...don't laugh...I like it.
• I really enjoy motorcycle rides when there is a large group of them together...so cool!
• Kyle XY is on tonight. I love that show.
• My downstairs bathroom STILL isn't finished being painted.
• My sister Coleen and her family MIGHT move out here. YAY! We've been looking at houses. I love looking at houses!
• I am loving all the colorful wild flowers along side the highway on the way to town. They make me smile!
• Cole got student of the month for academic effort at school. So proud of him!
• We spent half a day picking weeds out in the front yard 3 weeks ago. Today there is 3-4 times the amount of what we picked. I bought round up weed killer...that will teach them to multiply on me!
• Chad will be home in less than a month...yippee!!!
  

Blue & Gold Banquet

The cub scout blue and gold banquet was last night. I've spent the better part of 4 days working on the crossing over bridge, the arrow of light award, then the food. I honestly didn't think it would take up that much of my time, but it all turned out really well, so it was worth it. I painted half the bridge in cub scout colors and the other half in boy scout colors. The arrow of light award I cut out of pine and rounded the top so that it would resemble the shape of the rays of light. Then I sanded it down and painted the whole thing, sealed it, drilled hole to hang the arrow from and attached a saw tooth hanger on the back. The arrow is not one you just buy all finished. It was a kit I had to make, which turned out to me more involved that I thought, but it looks so much better that a shiny store bought one. The arrowhead was made of flint and it was too thick to fit in the notch, so I had to grind it down till it was thin enough to fit, then lash it on. Each piece on the arrow had to be messed with and put on by hand. Then I painted marks all across the arrow for each award he had earned in cub scouts. He had earned quite a bit so it was pretty full. I'm really happy with how it came out.

The theme was Chinese New year and all the cub scouts made paper lanterns that were strung all over the room. It looked so great! For dinner they decided on Hawaiian haystacks but we changed the name to Chinese haystacks for the sake of the theme. Each scout also made a cake with a Chinese theme for the cake contest that doubled as dessert. I made the rice, the gravy and grilled the chicken. All the scouts were assigned to bring the toppings. I also bought Chinese take out boxes and chop sticks for everyone to eat with. Everyone loved it!

All the boys who earned things this past month were presented with their awards, then at the end they presented the Arrow of light award to Adam and had him thank his old leaders and cross over the bridge from a cub scout to a boy scout and sent him into the tent with some boy scouts. They were "building" a new boy scout. We had power tools, like my miter saw, cordless drill, hammer boards etc in there that they were running while Adam changed into his new boy scout uniform. It was loud. People were laughing. Some little kids looked a little worried....probably because Mark would say stuff like you better not be getting any blood in my tent. LOL! Afterwards he emerged from the tent a new boy scout and his new troop and leader welcomed him in. It was great! Afterwards, he came over and gave me flowers and a hug and thanked me for making his award. That was just so sweet and unexpected. I nearly cried right there on the spot. This is Mark's last pack meeting as cub master. They have called a new one to start next month. Even though this was "his"calling, we have both really enjoyed serving in it and will miss it quite a lot. Now he will move on to serve fully on the high council and I'm down to only serving in the young women's. (which I love) When we got home Mark gave me a box a thin mint girl scout cookies that Brek and Brittany sent home for me. They know they are my favorite.

It's just flowers and cookies...sweet simple gestures of kindness at a time when I really needed them. Just like the very sweet and supportive comments for me on my last post. You all made me feel so loved. You really have no idea how much power posting sincere words of encouragement has. It is appreciated more than you can ever know. Thank you! Yesterday was another a hard day with a couple of breakdowns, but I got through it and the day ended on a good note. I'm so glad the weekend is here. I fully intend to enjoy every bit of it. Being happy is the goal with some much needed and long over due me time! :o)

For right now I have to go wash out my eyes. They are itchy and swelling up as I type. Franky jumped up here a little bit a go and rubbed up against my face, so I got cat hair in my eyes and I'm having a not so pretty reaction to it....ick!

Have an awesome weekend!!!

I'm in a mood...

...Not a good one. I'll be back on when I can find my smile. Maybe tomorrow...maybe not. :o(

Okay, so I should probably explain a little better. Have you ever had one of those days that nothing goes right...in fact, everything goes wrong? I'm talking a whole lotta little things, that individually you can handle, but combined is a bit overwhelming. Well that was my day. Then last night I ran up to the store to grab some milk before going to young women's and for some reason I couldn't hold it in anymore. I sat in my car in the crowded parking lot for 30 minutes crying. I was never able to compose myself enough to even go in the store, so I cautiously drove home and went to bed. I let down the girls and the leaders. I feel terrible!

Today is a new day. I'm still not happy, but I have a lot of things I'm responsible for today, so I have to put my feelings and emotions on the back burner and suck it up for the greater good...if that's at all possible.

Happy Anniversary Brek & Brittany

sorry the pictures are so grainy and blurry...sometimes when I reduce the size to blog, they look bad.
Today is Brek and Brittany's second wedding anniversary. So much has happened in the 2 short years that they've been married. I can honestly say that they are good for each other. They truly do love each other and they get along remarkably well. They respect and admire each other and love nothing more than being together. Of course in those 2 short years they were blessed with 2 of the cutest short people I have ever seen and very proud to call my grandsons. I was planning on babysitting the boys so they could go out, but the creep and crud is at their house, so they opted for dinner in with a rented movie. I remember a few anniversaries spent the very same way when our kids were teeny. :o)

Happy Anniversary Brek and Brittany. I'm grateful for you both and those sweet boys. Continue to strive for your eternal goals. I love you guys so much!

(((big squishy hugs!)))