Good morning,,, I had a wonderful trip but like they say There is No Place Like HOME! It is amazing I thought I would take off the rest of the week in the shop and just get things done and spend some time with Laurie and the boys, however it is already Sat. and I haven't even seen them yet. Well I did work out with Laurie but haven't seen the boys! It is amazing how quickly one gets back into the rat race.

The thrilling activities that have kept me busy for the last week sound a little like this,,, laundry, looking for misplaced things ( I think I might have misplaced my memory somewhere too) prep for this card workshop today, and finally the most time consuming thing was talking on the phone! HOLY Cow... I have spent a ton of time on the phone since I got back,,, mostly clients calling since I told them all not to call until after the 18th. I also worked about 10 hours the first day,,, holy cow my body forgot how to react to cement. I was sooo sore... if I had been an old rocking chair I would have creaked at every slight movement.

Today is going to be a fun day of playing with paper... whaa whoo,,, first this morning I'm teaching a card making class.. we will be making 32 cards in a morning/afternoon. Then this evening I'm hosting a crop at Scraptowners Clubhouse, focusing on techniques... I LOVE techniquey stuff! I'll post the cards and page we will be making this evening later. :)

Ohhh and I'm still oops there is the phone... gotta run.... let the race begin...

The party is over...

Well today was my last day here,,, I fly out tomorrow at 4:40, which means we have to leave here about 11:30. Yesterday was fun, got up and spent the day with Jordan, Vern's daughter down in Beatrice (be at tris) where I ate 2 of the most wonderful meals.. one was the evening we got there which was Fri. evening at the Back Alley Eatery, I had a pulled pork sandwich that was to die for... as a matter of fact I even bought some BBQ sauce to bring home... good lord I packed it already and I hope it doesn't spoil before I get home tomorrow. OYY! OHh well.. anyhow... it was great... and then I ate at a Runza, which is a name of a restaurant with a sandwhich well more like a stromboli if you ask me... very very good... ground beef and cabbage and I had cheese on mine but they come in regular, cheese, and swiss and mushroom. They also had the best onion rings with the best sauce...mmmmmmm loved it! It was made of sour cream, cream cheese and some dressing. I can't remember what though. hummm... The other great thing about Runza is the fact that they have diet Mt. Dew fountain pop. I was so in heaven! I was great. Runza's are only in NE and a couple other states out here... I have photos to post but they are still in the camera, I'll do that from home.

Today Vern hubby made us a great brunch of fluffly belgian waffles with sausage and then for dinner we had homemade deep dish Chicago pizza, I did get the recipe. MMM it was awesome! I can imagine this as a vege pizza... but his was great... I so enjoyed it, other than eating her hubby's great cooking,,, I packed and repacked and shifted and weighted my luggage OYY! I did get it down to the suit cases I brought and a priority mail box that we have to mail in the morning before heading out. I just had a smidge too much stuff to take back. I could have gotten it in however it would have put me over the limit so I'll just mail it!

I have had an awesome trip with great people! Although I am missing my husband dearly and can't wait to see him tomorrow evening. I land in Pitts. at 9:40 something. I'm so happy!!!

I'll post a photo of all the stuff I brought back sometime Wed. :) as I will be going to see my sweet little nephew's on Tue, and going to the gym and spending the evening with Don. Whaa whoo... I can't wait to see him!

More on Wed.!

So we got back last night

Vacation is Exhausting...

But Super Fabulous.... You can't believe how much fun I'm having! I have seen sooo much awesome stuff! I have had a great time with Vern. Apparently I have been really busy since I haven't posted since Tue. Goodness... lets see,, this is Friday,,, goodness... Hard to remember back to Wed. Goodness... lets see......

Well we got up Wed morning... and left Hot Springs Nebraska, which was really cool to see steam coming off the creek that ran through town. It was only something like 31 degrees up in those mountains... haha OK they were the Black Hills! (they do look a lot like our mountains back here... LOL) I didn't have any cell service there.




It didn't take long before we were out of those "hills" and back to the flat rolling wide open spaces and on our way to Chimney Rock...which was a long drive... LOL I lost count of the hours between stuff. Anyhow, it is truly amazing when you are driving up on it. I kept trying to imagine how the settlers felt as they approached this majestic monument, (gosh I need a thesaurus).



When we got there we realized it was Veteran's day and the visitors center was closed, but we still got lots of photos and we even drove up to the look out point and there was a cemetery there with dates on the headstones dating back in the late 1800's I can only imagine how many people buried loved ones there and moved on because they had no choice. The really sad thing about this is most of those were of children under the age of 2 or so.



We then went on to see Courthouse Rock which is another rock formation about 4 miles from Chimney rock,, we could see it off in a distance. Right next to it is the rock they called Jail Rock I guess you were convicted at the courthouse and sent



to the jail right next door... LOL




OHHh wait,, before we went to see the rocks we stopped and at a little attraction called Carhenge well here you see... really sorta a fun thing to visit!




After these things we headed down to St. Paul, NE to spend the night with Veronica's Mother In Law who is quite the cool lady! I enjoyed her company, and she was just recuperating from a terrible chest cold. Thank goodness she was on the mend. I also got to meet her brother in law, Jerry, too... a really nice guy! He made the very best peanut butter, chocochip oatmeal or something cookies... ohh They were to die for! Here we are.... Me, Leona, and Veronica, thanks to Jerry taking a photo for us!



So we left there about 1:45 and headed back to Norfolk to relax a bit and get ready to leave this morning.

Today we left about 9:30 and drove to Lincoln, which by the way is the state capital, and the home of her sister Vanessa, who is a really cool person too... she owns this little boutique which is just darling! We had lunch when we got here at Valentino's, which is an Italian buffet with great food! MMMMM Here we are....



Finally Vanessa needed some help with decorating her little boutique which Veronica asked if I minded and I was like... OHH gosh you girls have at it... I need to catch up with my blog and family and such.... She was like well then here is a cool little coffee place called the mill that has wi-fi and is a cool atmosphere... so here I sit in my glory just enjoying the coffee,, which is super yummy and getting to get a better look at some of the photos I have been snapping like a wild woman who has never seen a camera before! Sometimes Vern just looks at me and shakes her head at the things I have taken photos of... and sometimes she say... Look UP.... when I'm either looking at the dog or something with my camera when something cool comes along...

I'm sure people are wondering at me sitting here smiling at my computer...I'm listening to a great country music station on my mp3 player and enjoying the down time not in the car and just getting to get all the stuff out of my head. I don't want to forget a min. of my trip here. It has been so great. :)

How many hours were we in that car???

****OK,,, so I am on my little computer and haven't installed my photo software so I can't resize the images i want to put in this entry. Bummer... so I'll have to do that when I have time to download some software.*******

Today we left Norfolk ( pronounced Nor Fork), NE and headed west and north to end up in Hot Springs, SD. Along the way I got to see some "wide Open" spaces... was really neat! We first stopped at a Cabela's store which was neat... this is just some of the taxidermy on display...




Next we went to see... The Bad Lands.. which was very awe inspiring... there is nothing like this anywhere else... some places are depressions into the ground and some of these plataues are high up in the air like small mountains... they have red bands in them. Very neat...




Then we went to a place called Wall Drug... I was like,, what??? It is a really cool place,, in SD... that started out a small drug store and now it is a block long... really neat... I bought some souvenirs there. I guess it is packed in the summer. Here is what some of it looks like...



Next it was arrive at Mt. Rushmore it was getting to dark so I did some shopping there and then took some photos when the lights came on. It was really awesome to see. This is one of my best ones....




Finally we arrived in Hot Springs to spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express and couldn't find the hotel... so Vern called her hubby and he helped get us there. They really need to mark this better. OYY!!


So it was an all day thing in the car, and tomorrow will be the same! We will be off to see more sites tomorrow!

I wish I could remember....

my history! I can't remember what Lewis and Clark did other than the fact they were explorers and I haven't had the time to research. Anyhow we went to a state park along the Missouri River.. was really neat to see,,, and there were signs about Lewis and Clark. Here are some photos I took while we were there today....

When we stopped at the office to get our day pass... yes you have to pay 4 dollars to drive around and spend anytime in this state park... anyhow... the guy asked us if we were counting the deer,,, I was like,, uhmmm not yet? Well... we got into the park and there were 4 of them close to the road that were just eating and watching us... I took a ton of photos.. and guess what... uhhmm DUH no card in my camera... how stupid can I be?! So I put the card in it and got a few more good shots but man those were close and beautiful... a great big doe and 2 smaller ones. We saw all total something like 32 I think it was. They were so beautiful. This whole state park was beautiful and was up on a hill (big hill) over looking the Missouri river. I took lots of shots with the hopes of being able to weld them into a big panoramic.

Here were some really pretty ones. We saw mainly does because the bucks were skittish and didn't want to be photographed... LOL.... as did see 2 of them.. but never got a pic. The vista was awesome on top of that hill... Just amazing! I was so keyed on the way home after seeing all those deer!

I know I told you about the crop but here are a couple photos... this one is of Vern by the sign of this awesome little restaurant/coffee place... Way yummy coffee!

The theme of the crop was Hollywood and TV... one of the owners of the store there that was putting the crop on was kind enough to take our photo! So here we are being Crop Stars!!!




Tomorrow is an early morning as we are heading out to see the black hills and Mt. Rushmore and some other sites. Whaa whooo,,, I had better get to sleep! 6:30 is going to come very quickly!!

More tomororw!

What time did you say it was???

I am having a great time at the crop. So far I have taken 4 of my classes and one more tomorrow morning. I am really enjoying it. I have finished 6 pages and I am looking forward to tomorrow to see if I can get a few others done tomorrow. I took a photo from the front of the room and it was amazing to see all the red t-shirts. Here in Nebraska they are really big into Husker Football, which by the way is college football. If you weren't wearing the t-shirts from the crop which were red and lots of people, we are taking women here people... wearing red Huskers shirts. It was amazing how many people went home or someplace to watch the game. It was really good actually and I enjoyed listening to it, I got in the scrapping zone and got some good work done,, which must have made me feel right at home listening to football while I scrap, since Don usually walks away and leaves the games on on Sundays while I scrap. So it looked like a sea of red.



I have met some really great people here... most of which are Vern's friends here at the crop. Jenny, who is a sweet girl who is having a baby in 4 days, well that is what the doc says. She was sooo cute and I enjoyed chatting with her while I scrapped today. Then there was Lori who works with Vern and she spent the night with us,,, we giggled like little girls on a sleep over. So it was fun the few hours we spent here! We got here about 1:30 AM and left by 9:20 AM. The people here are really nice and I have liked seeing the different lay of the land. Really different from home. The hills roll here.

Well tomorrow is another day of scrapping at the crop untill about 5 I think so we will be heading back to Norfolk,,, which by the way is pronounced Norfork. A very interesting story how the name of the town became that,,, A postal auditor came to inspect the post office and whatnot and he thought that the name of the town was spelled wrong as North Fork which was the place that it was called. It was called this because of a river that ran through here and the area was just referred to as as Norfork, since the auditor didn't recognize this as the name, being that he was from out of town he changed the r to an l and it became Norfolk. Every time Vern would say the name of the town I thought it was her accent that made it sound like Norfork and not Norfolk. So now I know the secret of Norfork, oops Norfolk NE!

On that note I will try to get some photos post tomorrow. It is 2:30 AM here and I have a class at 10:30 tomorrow morning,,, so I need to get some sleep but I wanted to catch everyone up on what has been going on!

We are still at the crop as I speak. I am hopefully cutting the last of the snowflakes for the first layout I started today at the first class. I'm hoping this should finish this layout! It is really cute I'll post the photo later when it is finished.

On the drive up today I got some cool photos of typical Nebraska farmland, rolling fields... it is sooo pretty. I'll be posting those later too... but it was a nice drive up.

I got a photo of me in the Omaha airport.. this isn't the luggage carousel I got my luggage from but it was a good photo op without a bunch of people in it.

Gotta remember I'm tired, sore from carrying that heavy computer bag and now have a big suitcase to drag along too... OYY! I look for 11 PM! I know why when people travel they need a day to recoup. LOL It was a good trip but it seemed like a long time!

My snowflakes are almost done cutting so I am going to get back to scrapping and will post from the motel if I don't pass out. :)

Hi family I miss and love you!!!

Off to the crop!

OK this morning it was off the crop. Who would have guessed they have wi-fi here! Whaa whoo... I'll be posting later this evening so stop back and check out what I have done today!

Ok this is Pittsburgh airport here I go... And I'm off....


This is the board at the gate for my first flight. First time in my life I was on time.



Up Up and Away!!! Into the wild Blue Yonger... awesome views of the clouds.

This is a really cool lighting thingy in the tunnel under the runways in Ohare airport,,, it would light and got out it was cool....





And finally I arrived in Omaha and this cool clock was in a restaurant on the way to the baggage claim of course it was closed by then. So I'm here and am having a great time. I hope you all enjoy the photos!

How did I get this much SBing Stuff???

Is what Veronica is thinking this morning, well afternoon I have no concept of time. I'm really far behind... it seems.... I don't think it would have been so bad had we not just done the daylight savings time thing,,, ohh and I slept late after getting in at about 2 AM.

I forgot to tell you about when we were decending to land in Chicago the lights of the city looked like someone laid white rope lights down in a squiggly pattern and then laid a blanket of white lights on the ground. So it was primarily red and white... I thought it was sooooo beautiful.. and then the air port had blue lights on the runways. It was really cool.


The flight from Ohare to Omaha was good,,, since I already mentioned the fun in the airport I sat next to a nice guy I thought was young but I think only a bit younger... not real young. I think I have not a clue... cute... and young-looking... hummm and very tired. I read my book and kept looking down and seeing the same thing... small areas of lights very neat flying at night.

It was sooo great... I called Vern from the plane and she said,, what you do mean you landed already...???? She had gotten caught in some construction so she said she would meet me at the baggage claim.... which she did... it was too funny,,, the first thing out of her mouth was.... Are you moving here??? As I stood there looking rather touristy... (her word) trying to grab multiple bags.... 2 HUGE Bags one being all scrapbooking stuff.... She was like Holy crap! Too funny,,, it was great to see her though and we huged like long lost buddies! I'm sure everyone there heard us... "AAAAAAAAA"""" It was great... I knew her in an instant... Thank God for web cams! She made me this cute map of Nebraska that said Welcome to Nebraska... it is such pretty country out here.. now that have seen it in day light.

So we chatted for the 2 hours it took to get here and then crashed. I was beat and sore from carrying my computer bag... yeah,, bringing my big laptop was both good and bad... I love having it though.

It seems that we have been friends forever... and are just enjoying not having to hold phone to talk,,, She makes me feel so at home here... and the coffee is great!!! Perfect!

Well we are off to get some prints made then jazzercise and allergry medicine... not in that order,,, I'll load some more pics from the plane later.

That's all for now folks!

Waiting...............................................

At Gate 18 for flight 639 United airbus 316? I think,,, departing O'hare at 9:15 begins boarding 8:15! Headache still there... man i wish I would have put a couple ibruprofin in my wallet... LOL Vern is bringing me some. Boarding now begins in 13 min. according to the nice informative big TV here in the area.

This flight takes about an hour and a half??? I can't remember. LOL It looks like we will have a full plane... and I hope who sits next to me is skinny...LOL I really need to lose some mass before I fly again! LOL

well signing off for now till I get to Verns!

Help I'm lost in O'Hare and I can't find my Gate!!!

Well I had hoped to upload some photos but it seems this little computer is illequiped to resize them sooo I will have to do that from Verns....

My day started really early like 6:45 AM and I ran to the lab at the hospital for routine bloodwork and to get little guy while Laurie had a quick test so I met her there and brought him home with me to suck up some snuggles before I left.

After he left I finished up the little bit of stuff I had to do to finish getting ready and to shower and do my hair... sooo got that done and was ready to leave at a few min after noon when hubby came to take me to the airport.

Got to the airport in Pitts got all checked in and like I have said I'm not afraid of flying it is the airports I'm afraid of... LOL got through security and it was good... then got to my gate and had time to gawk like a real tourist. The planes facinate me! So I enjoyed the whole window scene. Got to see my plane come in unloade and load... it was really cool.

So the flight was neat,,, I had a window seat and enjoyed not having someone sit next to me. There was a guy two seats over on the isle who worked for Prudue flying home to Indiana. He was nice. I did enjoy a diet coke and the view it was a great time a little bumpy going through the clouds but not bad.

So I land at O'Hare and I get off the plane and I haven't a clue what I was expecting but it wasn't what I thought... LOL a bit overwhelming... and I realized I had no idea what gate my next flight was. By now the fam had gotten my texts that I was landed and were calling me to I told them... help I'm lost in O'hare and I can't find my gate....ohhh wait I haven't a clue what gate I will be using. So like a good confused person I went to United's customer service and asked, they gave me good directions and I found the best sandwich I had ever eated,, maybe I was just hungery... but it was good,, and I learned what a baget is... a mini loaf of bread... I ate half of mine. It was wonderful though. Then I ate a really really good chocolate chip cookie,,, mmmm so I'm standing there talking to Vern when I tell her that now I know what the little loopy on my bag was for.. giggle it is for the other carryon.... uhh duh... I tried to attach mine upside down...ohhh how polish,, and I'm not entirely sure I would have made this public other than the fact I have had 2 glasses of wine... LOL YUM!!! Here's to you Aunt Jane!!!!!!

Now I have to pay my check and head off to the gate. I'm really enjoying this traveling thing!

I will up load those photos when I get to Vern's late tonight... if I'm not sleeping... LOL

So I am headed up into the night sky here in about an hour and 45 min.

More preparations!

Lets see,,, have been off to town got what was on my list and now here is what I have to do for the rest of the day....

Clean my bathroom (just can't leave it go till I get back)
Pack my scrapbooking stuff
do a small load of laundry for clean workout clothes
hem a pair of pants.
charge recharge batteries..
clean off the camera cards
make sure my camera case has nothing sharp in it
empty the litter box
run over to Jill's this evening to print boarding passes and pay for my luggage

Ohh and do about an hour of hair this afternoon too... man I'm tired just reading the list... LOL

Well off to get this stuff done! I'll let ya know how it goes!

Yikes... I fly tomorrow!!!!

Good morning,,, today I am getting the crap I need from town and doing a last min client or two hopefully seeing my little guys one last time and getting the scrapbooking stuff packed,, now that will be the challenge for the day! I got most all the laundry done and the clothes in the suitcase.. just a few more things and I'm ready that way!! OHH I so can't wait... I want to get some snacks for on the plane... since I will probably not get dinner.. although I will have quite the layover at OHare! I never did find the pants I lost... go figure... how did I lose a pair of pants. Giggle maybe they got up and walked away. Well I best get heading to town! Have a great day!!!

2 DAYS!!!!!! I can't believe it!!!

OK this Blog is all about a journey of friendship.... most of you know that I am a member of a scrapbooking community and that I have been looking forward to meeting a friend from this community for a while now. Her name is Veronica, Vern for short... we have been talking on the phone and online for a couple years now and every year she tells me about this really great 3 day scrapbooking event held in a town near her, and every year I joke about coming out to it, well this year I have decided to go!! I'm so excited I can't wait to meet her in person I just can't stand it. I think I am oozing excitement if that is possible.

I will be posting my daily activities and photos of our adventure here so that everyone can see what a great time I'm going to have!

I feel I have already started my journey last week as I began preparations... I bought the plane tickets back on Aug. 23 and got a good deal too. So I guess preparations began back then, however this last week has been the busy time getting ready to go. So far I have been making mental notes of what I need to take and on what I need to buy to take stuff that I need to get for the kitty and household before I go. I got a geocaching Travel Bug back in June and had misplaced it and have been looking for it on and off most of the summer, my goal was to find it and take it with me. Well last night I accomplished this task and have it ready to go along with Don's GPS. Whaa whoo... Another important detail I needed to get taken care of is care for my MIL's colostomy appliance care while I was gone. I change it every 3 or 4 days and I needed to find someone who would be able to take my place and both she and I were comfortable with. I asked my friend Barb who is a RN in the wound clinic if she would do this for me and she agreed and her come to find out she used to teach people right after surgery how to care for them, so we are all really feeling good about this. That is a weight off my shoulders... I took care of my bills for this month so I don't have anything coming due while I'm gone, no worries there. Got my hair cut yesterday and colored this morning. I think I like it! I have located all the pants I wanted to take except for one good pair of black jeans...I know they have to be here somewhere I don't ever remember coming home semi naked! LOL I hope I find them soon! I like those jeans!

The rest of the list that still needs done is....
decide and pack scrapbooking stuff
finish laundry and see what I need to buy to take with me
gather up the stuff I got for Vern.
Pay for my luggage & print boarding passes
the actual putting of stuff in suitcases
see my little nephews before I go
empty all my camera memory cards onto the back up hard drive as I am taking my laptop

That is all I can come up with for now,,, but I'm sure I have other stuff that needs done too!!!
Well off to work away at this list...

More to come later!