Lisa Ann Writes

It has been some time since I have written on my blog. I think I will make it a goal to try harder at this. I enjoy doing it- it is just finding the time. Since I started to work in sales I have been keeping very busy. I love the job! That is surprising to me! I am good at it and I love helping people with things they need. It may sound silly- but when someone comes into the store and hasn’t been able to find jeans that fit and I can help them, or an outfit that makes them look great for a special event they will be attending- I just love it. There are those occasional people that are cranky or hard to deal with- but I can just let them go out of my mind as soon as they are out of the store. Keep moving forward. I have been putting in more hours than when I first started because I was promoted to sales lead or part time assistant manager. Which ever one you want to call it. I love learning new things and it has been fun for me to learn the ins and outs for retail. Like today- I learned the outs…..how to take out so many boxes I filled the dumpster. All very exciting.

I have still had time to look forward to book club coming up. We will be talking about The Hunger Games this time around. Everyone in the group seems very excited about this meeting. I really enjoyed the book and have read the second in the series. Catching Fire. I loved them so much I bought my son a set of his own and mailed them off. He texted me to say he read them both and really loved them.

I also have a quilt to finish up! Remember back in April I posted about a friendship quilt- I have mine all done- the goal was to finish them be the first weekend of October- I just need to put the binding on. I need to check in with my three other friends to see where they are with theirs and hope for pictures to post soon.

I have been enjoying work and spending time with family and just keeping busy.

This past weekend was Camper’s first birthday! That grandbaby of mine is just growing so fast. I can’t believe how fast the time goes by when you have little ones around. It never seemed like that when I was the mom taking care of the “little ones.”

I think that is all I can think to write about right now. I really hope to do better with this blog of mine!

So, I was just thinking how sometimes life gets so busy that I forget to blog about what is going on when it is going on. So this is sorta a list of things I forgot to blog about last week.

1. I went to my book club meeting and had a great time! The book we read was  The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas.  I really loved this  book. I got to sorta “run the meeting” . I tried really hard to keep the group on topic and think I did an ok job. We also had yummy goodies to eat after. (Thanks Robin!)

2. I have been having weird and or scary dreams for weeks now. I don’t know why, but if it isn’t some weird dream about someone random becoming the Bishop in our church ward then it is just scary hard to describe dreams. Which ever the case I am not feeling rested when I wake up. I some think I need a sleep number bed or something.

3.  I finished reading the next book for book club- The Hunger Games….loved it. Can’t wait for the next one to get here. One of the sweetest things my husband did for me….he saw my list of books for the rest of the year for book club and went to the bookstore with me and we got them all! (Thanks Erin for finding them so fast for me!)

4. I keep saying I will work on my quilt but don’t get to it. I just have to put on the binding. I want to finish this one so that I can start my next one!

5. I looked up when the next shop hop will be! Paulette get ready! Oct 18th (I think) that few days around there anyways.

6. Everyday I want to write about the amazing things that my Grandbaby does. He is so amazing. I love seeing him growing and getting big! He is talking more and reminds me of his mom when she was a baby- the way he takes in everything around him- and my son when he was a baby- the way he loves to laugh and play. I wonder what my daughters husband was like as a baby- but I do see a lot of his dad in him. In fact, one of my favorite things is to watch the baby get so happy and excited when dadadadada comes into the room! He sure loves his dad.

7. My husband is officially in the Bishopric of our ward. He was called to serve as the second counselor. He is really excited – except for the wearing of the suit thing. LOL

I can’t think of much else. This week is about over and the only things I can think to write about is that finally we are having nice weather, I am enjoying my job and get to meet with the Regional Manager on Friday to see  about being an assistant manager. I haven’t been there long and to already be asked if I would be interested in the job is excitingI think this is a pretty good update for right now. I am gonna go look for something to read.

What I would do with two million dollars?

I would love to have two million dollars- first I would just look at them (all two million) cuz I have never seen that kind of money. Then I would take it up to the people who are selling the 300 areas of land on the mountain that we love- and give it to them so we could open a B & B-  add hookup to the rv park that is there- blaze a few hiking trails- open a quilting barn and have all my family close by helping “run the place.” With that much land Jim could mow the grass all day every day. He would be in heaven! But I do not have two million dollars so someone that does will buy the place and I just really really hope they do not cut down all the trees to put up “resort condos”- that would be sad.

I think tomorrow I will put the finishing touches on the quilt that I have been working on. I have the day off, so it will be a good time to catch up on laundry and sewing.

Today I miss my son. I miss how he  always makes me laugh and how fun he is to be around. I hope he will come home to visit sometime. Hope he is eating his vegies. (that would be a first!)

And oh yah- I am sorry I spit on you today John, but thanks for saving my life. LOL

Also, if any of you are wondering- I still have the cutest grandbaby in all the world!

I haven’t been feelin much like writing these past few weeks. I have been really busy getting used to my new job and not really paying much attention to my blog. Oh ya, good news- I got a new job. I had a job- but my hours were so cut back so I thought I should look around. I found a retail job that I am enjoying. I started just a few weeks ago as a sales associate and have been asked to take the position of assistant manager. I am training for that to see if it is something I want to do.  It keeps me busy-

What else is new? Well- I have FINALLY decided to admit that I can no longer eat ice cream. Sad as that is. I went to dinner tonight with my sweetie pie and had a wee little ice cream for dessert and by the time I got home I was feeling sick. I have been in my room for a couple of hours trying to get rid of the the feeling that I am sick. I know I could take those pills before I eat the IC but I just don’t want to NEED them. Sorta like I would rather push my glasses up on my forehead instead of admit I NEED bifocals. Getting old bites.

I got another issue of my quilting magazine today in the mail. I am not a reading magazine person by nature- but I do love when my quilting magazine comes and I go to my room and read it from cover to cover. I so wish I could afford to buy a long arm and do my own machine quilting. I would hate to put so much money into something and then not know how to use it! Wouldn’t it be great to have one and “rent” the use of it! I could set up my sewing room as a place for people to come and use the machine themselves but pay me for using the machine. Hummmmmmm wonder if that would somehow make getting one worth it??? I wouldn’t even want to make money just pay for the machine. Now I am just thinking with my fingers again.

I like SYFY- Random thought- but the SYFI channel used to be the SCIFI channel- and I like the change. I didn’t at first because I wondered if people would forget that it stands for science fiction- but how could you???? 

Maybe I am more tired than I thought. I think this blog will come to an end. Gonna go suffer from the dessert disease.

Today has been just a regular day- but since it hasn’t rained I feel I need to celebrate! It is also my daughter and son-in-law’s second anniversary. Happy anniversary guys! I was thinking back to my second anninversary- I will have to do some math here- married in 81 that puts the second anniversary in 83 that would mean I had Erin and she was 2 months old- so Jim would have still been deployed- so I guess I had sleepless nights and no hubbie home.  No wonder why I don’t have many “anniversary memories”.  Thinking about our young married life is so weird now. We had NO money Jim was gone all the time. My life was waiting for him to come home or waiting for him to leave. I don’t even really remember the day in and day out stuff- taking care of the kids and the house. It all just became so automatic. Things I would have done differently? I would have tried to figure out that Jim hated to go away as much as I hated for him to go. I thought I was the only horribly sad one.  I should have enjoyed the time we did have together more and not worry so much about when he wasn’t going to be there.  The thing that I have learned most from Jim  is that we need to just always be nice to each other. He goes out of his way to do something for me everyday. Not just something easy- but something that makes life for me easier. He is such a good man. I am lucky.   blessed!

It was one year ago today that I wrote my first blog.  It is amazing that time has gone by so fast! I was thinking of all the things that have happened during this past year. The most amazing was becoming a grandma. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think how great that job is! Camper makes it easy. He is a great baby to hang around.  I think to celebrate I will go and read my old posts. A trip down memory lane…always a good time.

To start off with- if you want a second version (because I may forget all the exciting things that took place) you can check out Erin’s blog. She was there, she knows.

Lets see where to begin- about a month ago (A MONTH AGO) there was a write up in the paper about Tanglewood- For those out of towners, Tanglewood is the “summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra”.  It was announced that on this very night there would be free tickets for Berkshires residents and that they would be having a “petting zoo” where children could go and look at and touch different musical instruments.  I showed this to my daughter who thought that her little boy would enjoy something like that.  So we marked the calendar, and YESTERDAY drove the distance to Tanglewood to pick up the free tickets. While there I asked about the “petting zoo” and the person handing out the tickets said “oh yes, that will be in the visitors center.”

So cut to tonight- we end up with two extra tickets because son-in-law had to go back to school tonight and my hubbie would rather fish. So we invited friends to come with us to use the other two tickets. Off we went… looking forward to some fantastic shots of the grandbaby playing with musical instruments.  We got there handed out tickets to the ticket taker and asked “where is the petting zoo?”  “At the visitors center just that way” was the reply. We walked to the VC went in and all the tours guides were sitting looking like tour guides with nothing to do. My daughter asked about the petting zoo and we were told- ” oh, that isn’t today! That was in the paper by mistake one time-blah blah blah…. I didn’t listen to much after that. I just couldn’t believe this. We drove all the way there for not a thing.  One of my favorite lines of the adventure was from Erin. “So, what you are telling me is that Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, has no musical instruments for my son to look at!” I even would have settled for a comb and piece of wax paper by this time.

Then one of the tour guides offered to take us on a tour- I was sure that a ten month old would love that. But off we went. He yapped on about why it is called Tanglewood, and then told us that he lied about that and didn’t know why. There was a pre-show going on in another building so he hiked over there with us. I am sure Erin will tell this part better so go to Kitegirl on my blog roll and you can get the whole thing.

Lets just say- it was bad. Wet grass- really wet grass- a snotty lady yelling at the tour guide to sit down and bugs. Yah, good times.

Now I know WHY people bring wine to Tanglewood. We don’t drink but the thought crossed my mind.

Finding the car again took longer than we thought- then I got just a mile or so away from my house and just about got a speeding ticket. It was only my stealth like moves that saved me- and advice from a passenger in the car to pull in to the gas station and lose the cop. Phew… I thought that only worked in movies.

EVERY time I have gone to Tanglewood it sucked. I don’t believe I will attend another unorganized event again.

The worst part, I get home and the only junk food I can find is a container of Select Ones California prunes. There is just nothing yummy about that!

so the white house in the background is mine… the tree missed it- but what was really weird is this storm came up really fast. It starting to rain and hail and I was busy going around shutting open windows. Then it was over. It wasn’t until later… hours later that I went out to go to the store and found the tree laying in the yard. We never heard a thing. It went through other trees and took some of their branches off so I think the helped to quiet the fall- also the heavy rain might have made it hard to hear it. The good news is it didn’t hit the house or anything in our yard- the better news is that it is the neighbors tree so they will have the joy of cleaning up- and  nothing of theirs was damaged. All good stuff.   I always worried about that tree anyway so I am glad to have one less thing I think might fall on my house.