FIRSTS!

FIRSTS! I saw this over at Valerie's at It's a Wonderful Life. Check out her blog, she says it like it is and I love it. I always enjoy stopping by, never a dull moment. Sparky, I stole it first. LOL

So here are some Firsts about me, read on and enjoy and laugh or not, just don't fall asleep please. If you feel so inclined copy and do a post yourself.

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? Dave Lucido. I was a Sophomore and he was a Junior and it was his Junior Prom.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? Heck NO, I hear he is still a little stuck on me still so it is better to stay in hiding.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? a California Cooler, I was 18.

4. What was your FIRST job? I worked at Hilson's Clothing store wrapping purchases at Christmas time.

5. What was your FIRST car? A red Toyota Corolla that was handed down from my brother. My first stick shift. I didn't know how to drive it so my brother took me to San Francisco and parked on a hill, told me to get in the driver's seat and said, "Let's go!" SCARY......But I did it and I was proud of myself.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? Nobody texted me, I feel so unloved.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? Me...Lol I am selfish I know. But I did think of my hubby next. :)))))

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Mrs. Crawford. She was very old as was all my teachers I think.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? I went to Minnesota in the winter with my husband to a funeral. I have a very big fear of flying but I do it anyway. Getting easier each time.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Donna, we met when we were 5 and not really anymore but not for a lack of trying on my part. Just part of growing apart as we grow up. But still in touch with her mom and rest of family. We have tea parties together. Her mom is in the pictures of my sister Janeen's tea of last Saturday actually.

11. What was your FIRST sport played? I ran Track my Freshman year and won Most Valuable thank you very much!

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? My same friend Donna's house.

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? Gerry my hubby.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? My friend Robin. We went to Junior High together, worked together, married the same year and we each had a girl first and then a boy.

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Hugged my cat who has gone back to sleeping at the foot of my bed.

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? Kenny Loggins! It was great.

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? Got my ears pierced when I was 15. I have always wanted a tattoo but I am just to scared. I hear it hurts too damned much plus I would be afraid it would start sagging somewhere on me lol.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? Mexico, drove in and drove out. I was to paranoid to get out of the car. lol

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? I am taking way too much time on this one so it must mean I am squeaky clean.

20. When was your FIRST detention? I KNOW I had detention once in my life I just can't remember for what or when. ha ha It was probably for something really lame.

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? California and only California

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? Nathan Wallace. I had a mad crush on him in grade school and I could never get him to notice me. When I happened to go to a new church one day and he was in my Sunday school class I was in heaven but then one of us stopped going to that church. Go figure.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate? I didn't have a roommate. I lived at home until got married. So technically, my husband is my first roomate.

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? To the Church to get married!

25. Where did you go on your FIRST date with your husband? To the movies to see Al Pachino in Scarface. It was a great movie.

Newest family member

Ladies, this lovely young lady to my left is Alicia. She is the newest addition to our family. By that, I mean she is carrying my grand child. Although you can't tell, she is four months along and has quite a little pouch. With her love to hate probably size 1 body (yes, I am jealous) you can only really tell when she stands sideways LOLOL. She hasn't had a stitch of morning sickness either. SOOOO not fair.

Anyway, Alicia is currently going to college getting her classes out of the way so she can become a nurse. She'd like to be a Neonatal, Delivery room, or Emergency room nurse. She hasn't quite made the choice yet but she has time. Isn't she a beautiful girl, she is so photogenic! Nick sure has good taste. This reminds me that I need to take a picture of the two of them together. You can see a picture of Nick in my post below. This picture was taken at my sister Janeen's Pink Champagne and Tea party yesterday, please stop over to her place chachaneen and check out all the pictures it was a great time!

I've been tagged!

I have been tagged by Fern over at Ferns Lake! I stopped by her post last night and saw my name. When ever I see my name in someone else's post I get a moment of panic. LOL It's like, "Aaaah what did I do now". I got in trouble alot when I was a kid. hahaha

The instruction is to go into my photo collection, take the fourth folder and the fourth picture in that folder and explain it. Then tag four more bloggers to do the same. But since those instructions sent me to Tiggers folder and she has dominated my blog of late. SO I went to another folder and chose from that and here we are:

This photo is of my nephew John, my daughter Jackie and my youngest son Nick (soon to be a dad). This picture was taken at Jackie's UC Davis graduation party last June of 08. John is 21 I believe, Jackie is 22 and Nick is 20. They have all grown up together and have a great relationship. They might not see each other as often now but when they do they just pick up from where they left off. It's great to see. John is named after my father, Jackie is sort of named after my husbands mother, but I had already picked this name years before it just so happens to be my MIL too lol and Nick was my choice and when he was born and the doctor asked what his name was I yelled out Nicholas before my husband could say "Skip". The doctor said to my husband, Nicholas huh? and husband says, "I guess so". Can you honestly look into a baby's face and say "hiya there Skip"? It's not a bad name, it's just not going to be attached to anyone in MY family. LOL No offense to any blogger named Skip. Nick loves to tell this story.

My handsome nephew John is going to San Francisco State, not sure what he is studying, I am sure he told me but I have since forgot.... but he'll do great what ever it is, we are all very proud of him. He is the most loving and sweet young man. I kinda think he looks like Prince William with more hair ... lol .

Jackie now works for The Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, working on a plan to help make sure all the states have a food safety disaster plan ready and in place in case of any sort of attack on our food and animals. She is also getting married to Brian in October this year.

Last is my youngest son Nick. He is currently a Loss Prevention Agent for a large circle of Grocery stores that covers four cities so beware because he can KICK YOUR BUTT! He was a Varsity Wrestler for 5 years and can take down someone two to three times his size. He and Alicia are going to be parents in August of this year and are preparing for that big life changing step!

Whew, I didn't know I was going to come up with all that from this picture, lol . I am supposed to tag four people and so here they are:

Janeen over at chachaneen

Debbie at Debbies English Treasures

Cynthia at Cynthias Cottage Designs

Barbara at Ramblings From An English Garden

Stop by and visit this wonder blogs you will so enjoy yourself. :)

Tigger

I have been away on a long weekend without Internet but I have been checking my email on my cell phone and I want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers on our girly girl cat Tigger. (Kids named her Tigger before we knew she was a girl, lol) My wonderful sister and her two children have been Tigger babysitting so to speak twice a day this weekend making sure she gets outside for some exercise and has food and water. For all accounts, Tigger girl has returned to her normal self. She is going in and out the dog door on her own, which is where she is right now, in the back yard. The pictures you will see here are the only ones I could get tonight because she kept running away from me. As my sister said, she is drinking buckets of water! Crazy, and she has gone back to eating her regular food. The only thing she has not figured out, is WHERE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!!!!!! THAT is why I have had to have a cat sitter......So until she starts going outside on a regular basis she is on WATCH. Hubby put a fresh cat litter in the bathroom tonight and she balked at it.....she had that "try and make me" look to her, it was funny. Update alert!!!! While on the phone with sis a few moments ago I was looking for Tigger and found her on the counter eating her food! Meaning...she jumped up HIGH! YA.

Here she is trying to hide from me!

She thinks I am gone.....NOT!

I don't know if you can tell but she has totally gained weight!
Oh my, she was so NOT happy about posing for this picture. When I was done she took off running.
Tigger says thank you. :)

Stay tuned as I have won two giveaways and will be posting these lovely items this week. I'd write more but Tigger has decided she wants to bond right now and is not letting me type. lol

Additional Tigger Update

Sorry to do another Tigger update but she has gone PSYCHO, LOL! I didn't think it was possible but yes. I think she has gotten some of not all of her sight back and it is freaking her out! Last night she was sitting on my lap and Nicks girlfriend Alicia tossed a pair of black socks across the room onto the couch and the cat watched the whole motion. Hubby and I were like Whaaaaaaat? Hurry, do it again we said. Alicia did it two more times and she followed each one. THEN here is the crazy part. She started getting spooked through out the night for no reason. It was like this invisible creature was after her or something. She would just start backing up really fast like something was after her. I picked her up to calm her down and after about 30 seconds she starts backing up in my arms so fast and FLYS like Superman up over me onto the bar counter top behind me and I am like. What the hell?! I go into the kitchen and she is on the counter. So again, I pick her up and sit on the other couch and try to calm her and then she does it again! This time she FLYS over me off the couch and races down the hall and around the corner up half a flight of stairs! Two days prior she was this little love muffin, limp biscuit, who would just cuddle and now she doesn't want to be picked up and is hiding under the dining room table. Maybe she is PMS....lol She has to be able to see to make moves like that.. Oh! and I have this garden statue in my dining room that I placed in her path and she would back up and go around it. Did that 4-5 times. This means something I am sure. I can't find anything about "temporary" blindness in cats anywhere so this is just so weird and now her Psycho behavior!

I have resorted to a glass of wine to calm my nerves. LOL I had one last night too! I may need to buy a few more bottles hahaha

Tigger update :)

Tigger just jumped up on the couch!!! This is BIG news as she has not tried to jump since she went blind. YAY! I was sitting there on the end of the couch and saw her extending her body up the side of the couch and I got all excited. I picked her up and put her on the floor in front of the couch and helped her do it a few times by putting her paws on the couch and lifting her back legs. Then all by herself she did it! Of course she took my spot and as I write this she is STILL IN IT IN THIS SAME POSITION. I don't think she knows what to do now. lol Also, earlier today she stared giving me kisses and purring and snuggling with me. She is getting her "mojo" back. Look at these beautiful green eyes.

Friday I had to go to Jury Duty, and put her outside on the back enclosed patio and when I got home around noon she had found her way out into the yard and was soaking wet from the rain. I had to bring her in and give her a bath with Johnson's baby shampoo as that is all I had and then I dried her with the blow dryer all the while she was trying to get away. lol Thought she would hate me for sure on this one. But today she showed me otherwise.

This is Sunday and is a blessed day! :)

My Poor Cat

This is our cat, Tigger, she is about 13 years old. Apparently, she went suddenly blind a couple of days before Christmas. I couldn't figure out why she was not jumping up on the ledge to eat and why she was suddenly just prowling the house. It was driving me crazy watching her walk every solid inch of this place for hours and hours. Then on Christmas Eve she ran smack into the bathtub and hubby said, "she's blind". We did all the tests, and she was not responding. So, on Christmas Eve at 7am, when I am to put a 25 pound turkey in the oven to feed people by 5pm, I was sitting in a Vet hospital. Hubby had to work and so four hours later I find she either has a brain tumor or some kind of disease that you can get after having a cold, (which she had, a cold) that can leave you blind, with out a cure. Well, not wanting to subject her to brain surgery, nor did I have any extra money after the $300 I already just spent to find out if she has the incurable disease. Since all the initial blood tests came back normal, I just brought her home.

She is an indoor/outdoor cat once she found out how to use the doggie door a few years ago. Because I was afraid to put her outside she has been cooped up indoors but that was bad because she wouldn't use the litter box and ya, enough said. I started out walking her at night and on weekends with a cat harness and leash, then last weekend I started putting her in the back yard during the morning and she is doing great. She loves the sun!

She has lost ALOT of weight and she is very bony. She refuses to eat her hard food or drink water so I have been buying canned food with gravy and adding water to it. I mash up the food like grits and she eats it right up. She still won't drink plain water but I make sure she gets it in her food. She pees alot so I know it is working.

The bell around her neck is so that we can find her. lol

She almost lost her balance here, I think I scared her with the camera.

Here we are, just the girls. lol Had a hard time getting her to sit still for this picture. She just wants to be free to roam in sun.

My hubby found this baby fold-n-go on Craig's list and so now she has a place to sleep when she is in the house. We took the padded bottom and put it in between two big garbage bags to protect it and keep it clean. Then we put a fluffy soft fleece blanket she likes over it and she is now "semi" happy. She used to sleep on the bed with us but then she started falling off the bed so we had to protect her from herself and the carpets!!! Stanley Steamer here we come, lol

She didn't like it at first and tried to push herself out but now she is resolved to it. I pick her up each morning at 5am and bring her upstairs to walk around our room while we get ready for work. Then put her back around 6am. My son then takes her outside around 10am when it gets warm and feeds her and she roams the yard or enclosed deck until we get home from work.


The best part, she is back to purring and meowing again!!!. This week actually. I missed that so much. Oh! and I tried to take a picture of her beautiful green eyes, and she blinked, both times. So she can see something if not shadows maybe.

Presents and Other Fine Things

Well I wish I had my camera on me today because my parents took my husband and I out to lunch at a local Tea house for my birthday. It was quite a surprise because my lovely sister Janeen had me thinking she was going to have a tea party at her house. I kept saying, can I invite this person or that person and she'd say, well, I think it would be ok. All the while my parents were going to be footing a bill that was meant for just 4 people. LOL.. Then to top it off, my sister got that nasty cold passed down from her little ones and she couldn't go. My husband thinking he was going to visit with my dad at Janeen's house decided to come at the last minute. I ended up not inviting more people and it was just four of us after all. HAHA. I wanted to share with you the gift I received. Now, for those who don't know me, I totally love the Anne of Green Gables series. My middle name is Anne...(with an "e" hehe) so we are kindred spirits. Anyway, I had this set in VHS but I lent it out to someone YEARS ago and I can't remember who and I never got them back! So I have been wanting the set on DVD for EVER but didn't want to spend the money and guess what!!!!! My parents and sister got it for me! Aren't they just fabulous?!

Second, I stopped over at my friend Laura's, Our Scented Cottage as she has a new on-line Victorian store where I bought myself these lovely, lovely tea light lamps. I put some battery operated flickering tea lights I found at a craft store in them and they are just wonderful. Please check out her blog for some fantastic Victorian lovelies. But be careful because this one purchase put me to redecorating my WHOLE HOUSE, I even put up some new curtains........

I used to have a bunch of Old West photos up here, the kind wear you dress up in costume, but when I got these tea lamps I redecorated and the best part was I already had everything stashed here and there and my wonderful sister who has that decorating eye helped me stage this Victorian look. What do you think?

Here is a close up of the night version, it is so beautiful at night, really.

Can you make out the white and pink? Looks like white clouds in a pink background.

The lovely beade work is pink, white and clear. I just love it.

Here is a better picture of them. My camera doesn't like to focus close up but if you could see it you'd see that the wooden stands have some very detailed carving on them.

These are my Other Fine Things. This is my English Tea Clock as I have named it. It works but I just don't have a battery in it. When I have a tea party I just set the time to what ever time my party starts. Lol

My flash got in the way but it says on the bottom of the clock "By Special Appointment to THE QUEEN" very fitting for my dining room wall. Actually, the Queen is a personal friend of mine and she thought I would like this clock so she gave it to me. I mean she has so many of them anyway what is one less......(and if you believe that....)

This picture was on my dining room wall but I moved it to above my fireplace. Boy, did it change the room. I have very high ceilings and the picture before was just too small. They are not English dogs but the picture reminds me of an English hunting setting.

Last but not least, this is a personal favorite. This is an actual photo of Princess Caroline of Monaco. I was doing a fund raiser years ago and I wrote to her for an autographed photo and she responded and I am happy to say I won the bid!!! Again, because of my flash it's hard to see but the photo came in a beautiful beige matting that she signed in calligraphy pen. Not a reproduction. It also came with a nice card that I keep behind the photo.

Thank you for sharing my presents and other fine things. Have a wonderful weekend!

OH, one last thing....many of you asked when my daughter Jackie is getting married. It will be this October. She has enjoyed reading all the comments on her dress so thank you for making her feel special.

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! :)

Today I turn 46 years old and I thought I'd do something so spontaneous, so out of the realm of my norm, something so totally liberating. I went down and had a birthday cake made of my bust and torso. What do y'all think???

Yes, that's right ladies don't I rock? Ya, I thought so too. Actually the torso was me WAY back in my college days and the boobs are in my dreams. lol I says to my hubby, "hey come look at my birthday cake", and he comes over and says, "where did you get that" , I said, "google images, and I am going to post it on my blog!" he says, "Whaaaaaaat?" The look on his face was priceless, you had to be there. lol Ya just have to have a sense of humor I mean really...........So have a piece of cake and a cup of tea and celebrate with me!

FABULOUS PURSE ORGANIZER!!

So get this, last night my brother Don calls me and says, "When are you going to update your blog?!" Apparently, he keeps tabs on me. lol I have been so busy with work, life etc...that I have not had time to go my blog other than to comment on a few of my blogger friends. I told him that I'd do a birthday blog for us as his birthday is Monday the 26th and mine is the 28th. Pictures and all and he liked that. lol

SOOOO, today dahlings my blog is on a fantastic purse organizer called the VIP or Very Important Pouch made by Tintamar in France. I received one for Christmas from a faaaabulous co-worker who went to France this past December. Oh, I was sooo excited when I opened it. I am one of those persons who buys their purse to accommodate my husband. All I ever here is where are the keys or where is the flashlight. In my purse I say. Then from out of nowhere, PLOP on my lap goes my purse along with hubby saying, "I am NOT going to fish through your purse, YOU find it". LOL It doesn't work to buy a small purse with the mind set that you are only going to carry what you need BECAUSE... in NO TIME and I do mean NO TIME you are stating...I have to get a bigger purse, this is just NOT working!! And....I hate those purse that have that zipper or center divider that gives you two pouches. I want one open center. I want to see what I have all at once NOT shove one side over while half the small stuff on the bottom gets hidden in the fold. So here is my purse. A fake Coach, I don't believe in spending hundreds of dollars on a name when it is going to wear out just as fast as a fake.......

This is one side of the VIP, the zipper holds my change, it has a pocket just above that and one on the side.

This is the other side with 4 pockets.

This is the inside

These are the items that I put in my pouch, pepper spray, glasses in case, pens, make-up pouch, cell phone, money and pads of paper.

Look at this lovely tea pot charm my daughters future MIL made for my cell phone. Isn't it just the cutest thing you ever saw?

The next few pictures show all that stuff put in this fabulous pouch.

Here are the other items in my purse. Wallet, brush, motorcycle wallet (cause I never know when I am going to go two wheeling), flashlight with compass, compact scissors, pocket knife and lovely Lavender soap sheets. I know, you are asking, pocket knife AND pepper spray? Well I work in Oakland, CA (20yrs now) and it is just not a safe place. One must be prepared!

Here is a close up of those Lavender soap sheets I got from The Victorian Trading Co. I haven't used them yet but I am sure they are lovely.

and last but not least....all that stuff in my purse, all organized.
I am telling you, this is THEEE best invention. My purse is so organized know and even my husband will get what he needs because he can see it at a glance. You know, that could be a bad thing, I am going to have to rethink that. LOL I know you can take it from purse to purse but they come in so many different colors that I want to get more but you can only buy them online in french stores. They cost about $35.00 and if you add international shipping on top of that well......is anyone going to France anytime soon?????