Mixing It Up!

I am going to share some favorite pink for Beverly and the Pink gang! Make sure you visit! It is fun to check out what everyone loves!

I need to have my mail delivered here! How about you?

A pink cake for a special occasion! I have one of those milestone birthdays to contend with this December! Will someone please send this cake my way?

Make sure to visit today!

Even I can be this crafty! Such a simple and sweet arrangement of pretty blue hydrangeas set in Ball jars! Simply darling for a baby boy shower or even a bridal shower where the bride loves blue! Come join Sally and all the Blue Crew for a fun Monday filled with your favorite blues!

Isn't this just a cool blue book? I wonder what the title is? That feather is a sweet touch.

We travel to Kansas where Nick attends college. I often give my honey a hand squeeze because he drives us all the way, a whole nine hours! I want to make sure he stays wide awake and with the help of large iced coffee from McDonald's he does a wonderful job! He will squeeze my hand when we travel by plane! I hate watching all the passengers board as I tend to get claustrophobic! Soo he always eases my tension by squeezing my hand! I hope you stop by Marydon's nd share your favorite Love is....

I thought this verse would fit into my share with Charlotte and all the encouraging folks at the wonderful meme of Spiritual Sunday! I like this verse because it reminds me to keep my language pure and in today's world Yikes! Often I will hear young people cursing up a storm! I have always admitted it I struggle with this! It is so easy to get angry and spew inappropriate words! Words that you can never take back! So I pray about this a lot! My parents were excellent role models and never uttered "bad" language! Never, not once in my life can I recall them using curse words! As a young woman I worked for a CPA. He was a grumpy ole cowboy and he could spew bad words like you say Good Morning to someone! I accept my short comings about language but others don't! They think it is just part of life. In today's world it is difficult not to lose ones temper!

The bible is correct to remind us that we need to trust the Lord and not men! I think Mark Twain was right when he said:

It is always hard to live by the Golden Rule. It is difficult to take people as they are. We have to continue to trust the Lord and pray. He will see us through any difficult situation. He is always there for us. I hope you will visit Charlotte and the other folks who share their faith. Have a beautiful week.

J is for Jeremy

Today I am writing my Alphabe Thursday post about my oldest son Jeremy! This was his college graduation 2012. I am very proud of him. He worked long and hard and graduated with good grades and went into a new job at an insurance co. He has done very well and hopefully will be getting a promotion very soon. He is always pitching in at work and he likes what he is doing.

Look at him today! Actually this was in May 2013 at Rebekah's graduation from college! He has been dieting and he is looking so wonderful! He is serious aobut his healthy lifestyle and he eats right and exercises and works! He said they were passing out drumsticks and Klondike bars at work yesterday! They were laughing saying he was the only one there who did not want one! Instead they gave him a fruit juice bar!

Here he is with his friend Nicolette. They attended high school together and as you can see, she is tiny! They were named the loudest boy and girl in their senior class and they have remained friends since their graduation. She is married to a good friend of his from parochial school and they will all celebrate their 10 year class reunion this summer!

Do you know Bonnie Blair? She won gold in the 1988 Olympics and she visited Jeremy's workplace! He was tickled to take a photo with her and she let him hold the gold!

Here he is with his little brother Nick and nephew Colton (blue hair)! These guys always have great fun .

"Oh The Goat!" This goat happens to be in Las Vegas where Jeremy will spend his 28th birthday with some buddies next month!

Here is his graduation photo from the kindergarten!  Oh gosh, those days where wonderful! I have so many wonderful memories!

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A photo with little sister Rebekah, a long time ago! I thought I would reminisce with you for my visit today with Ms. Jenny
 I hope you have enjoyed my "J"! He is a jolly fellow with a great sense of humor. He has a kind heart and when he was a child he always reached out to the kids who looked lonely. As a teen he made sure no kid was left to sit alone at lunch! He has a soft heart for pets and owns Bandit,Smokey and Stella! He loves his Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets and Colorado Rockies! He is a good I.T. guy and people line up so he can help with their computer problems! He has a great love of history and is a walking wealth of information regarding our U.S. History. He is a good writer and will always lend you a hand. He loves the Beatles and the Temptations and has a huge music library.
Jeremy Edward I am proud to be your mom!

Happy Birthday to The Wonderful Men In My Life

Although he has been gone since 1985, I miss my dear daddy like I lost him yesterday! He always loved celebrating his birthday and today would have been his birthday! This undated photo of my handsome father holding a baby, probably my oldest sis Pat. We lost her in 2001. Such good folks and such sad losses. So today I say Happy Birthday to my dad in Heaven!

Here is my Sweets with our youngest son Nick. It is my honey's birthday today too! I loved that he shared my dad's birthday. He had the day off and spent it running errands. He is a good man, a great husband and wonderful father.

A few photos to share. A few sweet memories. My Sweets will have a chocolate cream pie for his birthday/ He is not a cake person! Today is bittersweet for him because three years ago today he lost his mom.I am so sorry I am so disorganized and can not find the photos I have stored here for the two of them.

Blue Monday

I am really late with my Blue Monday so I hope you have visited Sally and all the Blue Crew! I cheated just a little tonight. I am sharing some blue because you probably know by now that the new royal baby is a boy. A sweet little fellow probably very handsome because his parents are so lovely! I wanted to share the good news again and hope you have a wonderfully blue-ti-ful week!

A Day of Remembrance

I know each one by their name! I see their faces and know I can never forget. Well the rest of the world goes by today we honor those who lost their lives and those who are surviving from the worst theater  shooting in Colorado! Aurora is a few miles from my home. About 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic. This, like Columbine, hit very close to home! I find it difficult to think of these wonderful people who had so much to give to society. They were good, decent, honest folks. Just out for a night at the movies with friends and loved ones.

Their stories are everywhere. A J Boik, buried in purple, his favorite color and the family asking everyone to wear purple to his celebration of life, one year ago. His mom and girlfriend shared a moment at his grave recently. As the two of them walked away, A.J.'s mom said "He is going home with me now, you can have him later." His girlfriend shared their favorite spot, one where A.J. had proposed, a few weeks earlier. They had their life planned out. They were going to be together always. In that dark theater A.J. shielded her from the gunmans bullets. He died as she watched! I talk a lot about A.J. He is the same age as my own son Nick..They both graduated in the class of 2012. A.J. from Gateway HS in Aurora, my Nick from Thornton HS in Thornton , Co. Nick finished his first year of college, making us proud. A.J. died before he had that chance. So we remember him as he was. The night of the shooting I prayed for all those families but I felt drawn to A.J. because he was so similar to my own son. I have prayed many prayers for the family and his beautiful girlfriend.  They are always with me. Matt McQuinn took a bullet so his girlfriend would live. He was, as his family says, "A Super Hero". He had plans to move back to Ohio just a few weeks shy of the shooting. His dad loves to tell the story of Matt wanting to put a V8 engine in his dodge Avenger! His dad kept telling Matt, it would not work, yet Matt had a dream, a plan of his own! Matt would celebrate his 28th birthday this year, just like my son Jeremy. His life, as brief as it was, was a good one. A kind heart, taken away too soon.

 Veronica Moser-Sullivan was 6! She was always smiling and had learned how to swim. Having a celebration with a movie, took her young life and paralyzed her mother Ashley who also suffered a miscarriage. Ian Sullivan, the father of Veronica has set a goal. He is going to climb all the Colorado Fourteeners! A Fourteener is a mountain peak that is higher than 14,000 feet! Colorado has fifty three of them! Ian has a lot of climbing to do! He says it is the one place where he feels totally at peace and can remember his young daughter.

 Alex Sullivan was "Sully" to family and friends. He was a big guy with a huge heart. He was celebrating his 27th birthday when he was murdered. He would have celebrated his first wedding anniversary  Sunday, July 21, 2012! He was also the same age as my oldest son. The morning after the shooting his father held his photo up desperate to know if anyone had seen him! A tragedy to lose a happy go lucky guy who loved movies and enjoyed life to the fullest.

 Jesse Childress was 29 the night he lost his life. His family has been the most private but he was a young man with a good heart. He was in the Army before he joined the  Air Force Reserves. He loved sports and participated in many including flag football, where my son Jeremy knew him. He loved sports but he hated running! He died protecting a fellow reservist, a gal he was attending the movie with. Two of his friends begged him to sneak in to theater 8 and watch a different movie with them but he choose to stay with his friend in theater 9! He died a hero . He had a dream to visit all the Division 1 football stadiums

. Jessica Ghawi had a love for life. One month before her untimely death she was eating at a food court in Toronto. Moments after she left someone started shooting and she looked at life differently her mother said. She felt that each day needed to be lived with gusto. Her mother said Jessica was like lightning and when she came home for a visit she would walk in and cause chaos by the amount of energy she brought into a room! Her love of sports and her huge Texas heart brought her to Denver for a new job. Alex Teves was a good guy. His dad said if only one word could be used to describe him it would be "good". He had a heart of gold and everyone loved him. He had a Masters degree in Psychology and was going to be a Physical Therapist. He was born and raised in Arizona and his family has suffered a tremendous loss. I imagine you may have figured it out already, but Alex saved his girlfriends life and gave his own in that theater.

Rebecca Wingo was a linguist and single mother of two. A friend convinced her to come out that fateful night and enjoy a movie! Her life too was taken too soon and she is loved and missed by many. I can not imagine how her young children must feel to be without the mother that they  loved. Jon Blunk was a Navy man and father of two. He also died protecting the friend he was sharing his movie night with! He leaves a wife and two young children.

Gordon Cowden was enjoying the movie with his kids. He was a quiet man, a gentleman who took two of his daughters to that fateful movie and earlier had taught them to country dance to the two step! His older daughter remembers the last words she heard her father say "I love you, I love you both"! Gordon was 51 years old.

Micayla Medek was attending Aurora Community College. She told all her friends and family that she was a sandwich artist because she worked for Subway! She had a kind heart and worked hard at her job and with her studies. She was 23, a life lost too soon.

John Larimer was 27 and the youngest of five children. His girlfriend said when the shooting started John threw himself on her to save her from the barrage of bullets.  He died a hero. He was a Navy man and was getting ready to deploy. He loved his country and wanted to protect and serve those who live here.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. John 16:33

All the stories I have heard from the Aurora Shooting do not currently have happy endings but many have counted on their strong faith to see them through the difficult days. There were 70 other people injured, many critically and their stories have a long way to travel. Many are traveling a journey they would not have choosen. But they are survivors as are the families of those loved ones lost.  I am hopeful that I will be able to relay many of the stories of the survivors. Everyday people enjoying a night at the movies when their world was shattered. I hope you will never forget them.

*my photos are courtesy of the DenverPost newspaper Agency and AP.

Cupcakes!

These no calorie cupcakes are my favorite! They are made from recycled sweaters! A sweet gal I know in California makes these darling cupcakes but I borrowed a google image or two or three  today!

Tell me you don't just love these?

Lots of sweet cupcakes to choose from! Say hello to Beverly and visit a pinkie or two. I have found some of the newer pinkies are delightful to know! I think the Pink Saturday posts are amazing but I think some people don't like to share with others and you will always find me speaking my mind! I love all the sweet folks who visit me primarily from Sally's Blue Monday crew and Jenny's Alphabe Thursday gang!  I see the same faithful folks making a comment and making me smile. I just think it is such a nice courtesy to visit and at least say hi! I know there are folks who don't like recipes and cooking. Others don't have pets! Some prefer to keep their phamilies under wraps! But being courteous is a really nice thing. So I enjoy those that comment back to me when I comment to them! Thank you for making my day brighter! A lesson in manners and courtesy for the many pinkies who don't like visiting!

With all the changes around blog world it is hard to catch up with everyone. I have taken to handwriting my favorites in a notebook and one of these days I am going to visit these super crafty gals like Julie a super cool friend who has multi talent when it comes to creating beauty things with phamily pics and design a cover for my notebook! I am proud of all the wonderful friendships I have formed. If you know someone that needs to visit a few blogs whether they are a pinkie or not just tell them to:

 

"I"is for Icing on the Cake

My oldest daughter Noelle made this delicious triple layer red velvet cake! We can only assume it was a delicious because their dog "Trek" ate the icing on the cake and the cake too!  He appears to have a slight addiction to cakes as he took a huge bite out of my grandson Colton's birthday cake last month!

Here is the innocent dog Trek. He is wearing his favorite "babushka" on his head! He is quite a character!

While Trek waits out his punishment for eating cake and licking that icing from his chops, solitary confinement, please visit Ms. Jenny and share your favorite I with all of us!

Love is.../Blue Monday

Laugh Out Loud! This is usually not our style ! We constantly have things to do! Life moves so quickly and we try to catch up with it! Late in the evening you might find us like this! Tomorrow we are taking a day off so maybe, just maybe, we will look like this! Sigh!

I am going to host a tea party in August. When I do  I will wear my blue hat! It is similar to this one but a different shade of blue with a lovely bow on it!

I like to buy my hats from the Berkley Hat Co. in Berkley, California.

Please visit Marydon and share your Love is...with us. Then give Sally a reason to be blue Monday! I hope you will visit all the blues too!

VAIL, COLORADO SUNSET

Here is the setting sun at Vail, Colorado. Our son Jeremy has a friend who owns a property here and we are on their list for a weekend getaway. We had hoped to take Nick on a mini vacation before he returns to Kansas for college. So say a prayer and hope we can go! The cost is so absolutely reasonable it is amazing! I have seen properties going for thousands of dollars for a week getaway! This is a beautiful three bedroom house with all the amenities! We are hoping it is available during the Thanksgiving weekend. There is nothing like relaxing from a long hard work week and enjoying some of the most beautiful views in our state!

Here is a more upscale place! This one was one the market! It is located in Edwards, Colorado 17 minutes from Vail! Love the sky!

Rifle Falls State Park. I love my home state and I love living here, I always will. I hope you enjoyed my little tour and will visit Beverly and join all the Pinkies who share their pink goodness! Have a beautiful weekend!