More birthday fun & presents...

My mom and 2 of my sisters took me out for my birthday. We went to lunch at the farmhouse in Gilbert. Such a cute little area. We ate outside because the sun was shining and it was beautiful! We were all commenting on what a nice day it was, THEN we suddenly got massive winds. The wind was blowing so hard, we had to change tables to get a little bit out of it's path. It's hard to try to eat lurch and not eat your own hair as it's blowing into your mouth. :o) Across the path is the brownie connection that have a large variety of yummy brownies...so good! (but very rich) I couldn't eat a whole one. Julie and Coleen, I am NOT posting the pictures we took of ourselves...they were BAD! You'll thank we later.If you look closely you can see a little boy through the railing of the fence. During lunch he beat the heck out of a piece of lattice that had fallen over in the wind with an aluminum bat. I think he's the grandson of the owner. We couldn't believe he was doing it. I had to take a picture for proof of what REALLY happened to it....LOL! For those of you still covered with snow, I thought some beautiful spring time flowers might help. Hopefully spring will come to you soon.

Mark and I ate my birthday dinner at Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert. I love this place. My favorite thing it the loaded baked potato with pulled pork on top. So good and very filling all by itself.
They have this John Deere Tractor inside. I have always wanted a tractor. Old, new, I don't care. I love them!



Friday night and Saturday on Main Street in Mesa they had tons of old cars. They were beautiful! Everyone was allowed to "cruise" main street just like the good old days. Stuff like this make me grin from ear to ear. So fun! I wish they did this every weekend, or at least once a month.


This cute Sunday outfit complete with shoes and purse was a gift from my sisters. I love it and can't wait to wear it. Thanks girls!


I got a new set of salt and pepper shakers to add to my collection. They remind me of kindergarten because we did an art project and we had to draw and color grapes. The kids in my class thought my grapes were the best. (weird what things you remember)


This picture is dark. It's a frame that looks like bark with 2 black bears on the sides. When we re-take family pictures I will put one in there for my front room, but until then I plan to make a sign in it for girls camp. It will say...
"Warning...Grizzly bear sleeping here.
Complimentary ear plugs.
Trust me...you want them.
Sincerely, the Bear"

(thanks for the idea Wendy)


These I got at my favorite store on Main Street, Vintage Charm. Such cute things in there. If I keep them in the front room I will fill them with little pine cones. If I move them to another room I will fill them with lemons, nuts, or something...who knows yet.





This pine swag I got in Payson. It has little pine cones and a rusty metal bow. It look great above the window in the front room.


Mark also got me a hand mixer. Remember I burnt up the motor on my old one when I was making sunshine cookies. I also got a new electric can opener. Mark threw mine away before we moved here because it rarely worked right.Finally the red milk can. We got this in Payson too at an antique shop. I have forever wanted a milk can, but they were always too expensive. This one was really cheap, so I was thrilled to find it.

See what I mean about a bunch of presents that are not extravagant, but make me smile.

Gotta fly. I have a house that needs my attention. It's feeling and looking neglected.

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)