Auctioning Off An Era

Today was a long day for my family. My grandparents are no longer able to live by themselves, so they live in adult foster care in Webberville. Since there's no possibility of their returning to their home, we had an auction today and sold everything. It was a long day, and it was tough to see everything they had be carted away, mostly by strangers. But we made the best of it, and Grandma was a real trooper. She watched it all, and I was amazed at how strong she was through the whole day. Here are some pictures of the day.

This is Randy, my dad Glenn, and my Uncle Larry.

Here's Grandma and her good friend and former neighbor, Pam. Grandma was so happy to see Pam again.

Here's my Aunt Darla and my mom Shirley. I call her Squirrely. From an old country song that Dad used to sing, and somehow it's stuck in my brain forever.

Aunt Darla's BFF Gwen (hiding behind the card) and Aunt Darla.

Aunt Vickie and Uncle Larry.

Handsome, handsome man. I wonder if he's taken.

Grrrrrrr.

Me and Squirrely.

We had great weather for March, but that mud was something else.

This picture looks sad, with Grandma looking out the window at everything, but actually she stayed in good spirits all day.

Me bidding.

What I won. I was determined to get that orange phone.

It was hard to watch all the stuff get carted away at the end of the auction.

Scooter

My niece Kelsey (my favorite child) brought her new puppy, Scooter, to Easter dinner. Have you ever seen such a cute little girl and puppy???

Awareness Test

See if you can get the correct answer....

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Happy Easter!

Working From Home

I'm working from home today, something I do just as often as I can. I love it. I get a lot done, and I can wear sweat pants all day with no makeup. Love it love it love it!

Randy's home today. He's got a holiday today for Good Friday. At about 10:30 he came upstairs, and here's how our conversation went:

Randy: "It's so strange to see you working."

Lori: "Why do people think that when you work from home that you really just take naps and watch TV?"

Randy: "No, I mean it's strange that you actually have things to do. We all think HR people just chit chat on the phone all day and have fun."

Lori: "So far today I've answered a ton of e-mail, reviewed a proposed reorg of the Michigan management structure, lead a conference call, helped a recruiter with a communication that needs to go out, finalized two job titles, processed a few layoffs, spent 30 minutes on the phone discussing our performance review process with an HR person in Texas, and now I'm reviewing a corporate manager newsletter before they send it out. I've done that for just over two hours today. Do you think that sounds like I've been chit chatting on the phone?"

Randy: "I guess you just have one of those jobs that no one understands."

I think he's right. No one can ever remember where I work or what I do. Think of it this way.... I'm a problem solver. I help when people break the rules, when they stink at their job, when they can't get along with others, when they have a family problem that takes them off work, when they have a personal issue that distracts them, when they need help understanding a process or policy.....I'm the woman with the answers. If I don't know it, I can find it. I'm here to help, and I don't mean like how the IRS is here to help. I try to make things easier for everyone in my region by giving them support, answers, and direction on how to get out of that hole they dug for themselves. I get a lot of calls from people saying, "I hate to tell you what I've done, but I need your help getting out of it."

And now, I need to get back to work.... Happy Good Friday!

Side Dishes

So, we get home, and we're talking about what we're going to eat for dinner. We have quite a few leftovers in the fridge, and Randy begins to list them so I can pick what I want.

Randy: "We have leftover pork roast."

Lori: "That sounds good, but I'm too lazy to make a side dish."

Randy: "Have a sloppy joe on the side."

Lori: silence

Lori: "Do you really think a sloppy joe is a side dish?"

Randy: "Well, I'd have have it as a side dish."


Men.

Willett Wednesday

Exciting night at the Willett household. I'm making Easter treats to take to work tomorrow. It's kind of hard to see, but they're boxes made of printed paper, with ribbon handles, and the bunny face made from different punches. Inside are York peppermint patties decorated to match the box. I hope they like them.

I'm also catching up on laundry. I went downstairs and was talking with Randy as I folded clothes. He has been putting a lot of thought and planning into what he wants to do with the yard this year. He went to the garden show last weekend and got all fired up about building tiered flower beds and things like that. I can't wait to see what he does.

Anyway, last weekend after the show he went out in the yard and took a few pictures, so he can look at the yard as he plans. Being the computer guy he is, he has software that takes several pictures and melts them together to form one huge panoramic picture. That's what he did.

He showed me the picture and said, "Do you see anything strange in this picture?" Then we both died laughing.

I can't post the picture because it's too big, so I had him put it on a website. Now, before you go there, please read this: This is a panoramic picture, and it's huge. It takes a minute to load. Once it's loaded, click on the picture, and a scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click on that scroll bar, and see if you, too, can see what's strange about this picture.

Here's the link: DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON THE PICTURE ONCE IT LOADS!!!

http://www.mmrn.com/yard2.jpg

From Mr. Love

Randy sent this to me....... I do believe this video is the absolute truth....at least in our house.

Another Week, Another Crop

Where did last week go??? Randy got sick, so he was out of it for a couple of days. He's better now, but only after I force fed him cold medicine. What is it about men and their refusal to take anything? I'd make him take it and then send him to work with more, and he'd come home with it in his pocket, saying he didn't feel well. Hmmmm...wonder why. He did actually stay home from work one day, so I guess it finally sunk in that he needed some rest.

I headed to Okemos again on Friday for another crop. Of course, I took everything I owned. I wish I could come in with a couple of things and just be happy with that, but I don't know how else to do it. When we went to Houghton Lake, I brought a lot less stuff, and I kept thinking, "Boy, I wish I had this...or that...." The bad thing is now I have to spend tonight unpacking. But it's our last crop for a while, so at least once I get unpacked it will stay in place for a while.

Friday night we had our downline meeting at the hotel. I have three people I've recruited into Stampin' Up, and we've been getting together once a month. This was our regular meeting. Deb and I had booked a suite, so we had lots of room. It was funny to me that the hotel was booked, so all we could get was a smoking room or a suite, and they were the same price. No brainer...we got the suite and it was sweet. Yes, I'm witty.

Here are pictures from the downline meeting.









My name got drawn at the crop, so I was Queen for a while. I got to wear the lovely jewels and sit in a comfy chair.



And, as usual, I have to brag about my wonderful husband. He showed up Friday night with blueberry muffins for us. He had just made them and brought them over. Then, on Saturday, he showed up with his famous pretzels covered in caramel and chocolate. I'm not exaggerating one bit to tell you that within 2 minutes, there were only three pretzels left. Those things are melt in your mouth delicious. Then, he ended up coming back later Saturday night so he and I could sit in the hot tub together. And, of course, come Sunday, he was there to pack me up and haul it all home, where he brought it all in the house for me. And you know what else? I came home to a spotless house, and dinner was baking in the oven.

You know, I'm sure my mother had all but given up on me when I turned 40 and wasn't married. But I think we all agree that my Mr. Love was worth the wait. I am one lucky wife, and I know it.

Mission Accomplished!

It took all day and even meant I worked after we got home from dinner tonight, but I finally have my room put back together. I'm so happy. Now the rest of the house is in order because I don't have crap ooops I mean craft stuff everywhere.

Here are pictures of the same places I took pictures of this morning:









It's hard to keep the house in order when it's scrapbook season. My boss laughed at me when I told her there really was a season. There's a group of us that goes to a lot of things together, and my friend Deb and I also go to some others. We didn't have a place to go all fall, so now we're making up for it, going all of the time. It probably wasn't great timing on my part to try to reorganize my craft room right now, but it all worked out, and I'm glad it's done.

Good night!!!

Progress Check

Things are getting done around here today. My room is coming together, and Randy installed a shelving unit he built for me last weekend. It's going to hold all of my punches. They were stored in one of those plastic drawers, and it got so heavy I could barely open and close it. This will work so much better, and look a lot nicer.

I took time out from cleaning and organizing to make this. It will hold a bottle of wine. We're going to dinner at our friend Cara and Doug's house tonight, so this is what we will take for them.

Saturday = Work Day

Randy and I are doing chores today. First we played around with our new camera (can you say "chore avoidance?"). Our old camera is on its last legs. That thing has sure taken a lot of pictures for us, so we can't complain about it dying on us. We're heading out on vacation next month, so we wanted to get a camera now so we can get used to it before we go. We got one that's waterproof and drop-proof. We're always outside with the camera, and I worry about sand and dirt in it. This one is supposed to be all right on the beach and under water.

With all of my cropping lately, and also having two back-to-back Stampin' Up workshops, not to mention a reorganization of my crop room, I've got stuff EVERYWHERE in this house, and my room is a mess. Today my priority is getting things put away so I can actually have a clean house again. Randy's dedicated himself to working on my friend Carol's wedding video, which although is taking forever to get done, I think is going to be quite beautiful.

Here's what I'm starting with today:












Our new camera has some weird settings that we were messing with this morning. One of the settings is called "Behind Glass." I was trying to get a picture of my adorable husband, and he did this, saying "Here's your 'behind glass!'"

Another Cropy Weekend

I was in Houghton Lake this past weekend, scrapbooking with the girls again. We should have known we were in trouble when it took us over three hours to get there Friday morning due to snow. It's a two-hour drive at the most, normally. There was only one lane open on the freeway, and I hate passing when the left lane is covered with snow. So it was slow going.

It was the first time we went to a crop at that location (Quality Inn), and boy was it nasty. The food was bad, the hotel was smokey....just not a good setup at all. Our room and bathroom seemed clean, but I wouldn't want one of those Dateline crews to come through with the black lights to see what was really on the carpet and bedding.

But we did have a lot of fun scrapbooking, and I got a lot done. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

I brought WAAAAAY less this time, only a couple of totes and a couple of paper holders and a few smaller items. With the smaller vehicle, I had to cut back. I kept telling myself, "You're going away for a weekend. You're not moving." It's just so hard to only bring a little!




This was the view of the room from my seat. It was a wide open space, located between the pool and the lobby. Although there was no smoking in the crop room, there WAS smoking in the pool and lobby, so we would get waves of it. Nasty. And then we'd have people cutting through the room going to and coming from the pool. I kept waiting for one of the darling children to drip on my $3,000 worth of paper, but it never happened.



This was dinner Friday night. Meatballs and tiny, tiny wraps that we thought were chicken ceaser. Wrong. It was cut up chicken, lettuce, and gobs of mayo in a tiny, tiny wrap. Yuk. For some reason they didn't think we needed normal plates, so they brought us coffee cup saucers. It was fun watching everyone trying to balance about 7 of them at a time just to get enough food for one meal.




Deb won this... I can't remember what she did to win it. Probably sang a song or something. That Deb, you just can't stop her from singing if there's a microphone around (kidding..she'll kill me for that!).



Do you like my paper necktie? It was a total accident. I was cutting paper for a layout, and when I looked at what I had left, it was that. I made Deb take a picture of me so you could see it since I'm sure it's so interesting.