Treadmill small work station

Today I am grateful I was able to complete this small work station for the new treadmill. Simple and no additional cost. I took it for a spin walking (no running) and realized I can browse through facebook, look at blogs, read the news and do a bit of simple typing while I walk, but found a few times I needed to turn it off so I could lean in to closely look at ceramic beads. Curse you bead porn!

That is our cat Pickles ready to give it a go. She will be 19 years old in April!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for my new (used) treadmill. The time has come to improve my health and drop a few pounds. My heart and knees with love me for it. We are fortunate to have a Play it Again Sports shop close by. They let me plug in and try out the treadmills to choose one and even though it is used it comes with a one year guarantee. I'm sure you have heard "sitting is the new smoking" so I'm also planning on equipping it with a work station, this will be especially useful for me as I'll most likely be walking, not running. I'll let know know if I write a blog post from there! Pictures to follow when complete.

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for Friday evenings. Our 3 kids are out of high school and in college right now (one will graduate this spring from NCSU). This frees up so much of our time that was before spent doing school related functions with our kids. Those were really wonderful times and I wouldn't trade them for anything - but - I'm liking this freedom of time we have now also. We try to do something fun on Friday evenings before the weekend chores set it. So far - so good!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for Google Docs. Actually, I really like Gmail also. And Blogger (though I don't use all the bells and whistles so I'm sure I'm not using it to it's full potential). And Google Sites - which I have used for personal, business and volunteer mom reasons. And I just started uploading all our family photos to Picasa. I don't use Google+, but I'm getting tempted by the lure of online conferencing with video. And I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I get a bit emotional when I see the new Chrome commercial. Ack!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful that blogger has a function that allows me to put any date I desire on my posts. Without this I would be better at posting each day, which would more match my "intentions", but this function allows the flexibly to miss a day or two and still go back and write a post for each date. So, needless to say - I use this function and am happy to do so.

What are you grateful for today?

Grape vines

Today I am grateful to learn that my younger brother has taken interest in rejuvenating our parent's grape vines. We transplanted most of these vines from a relative's land in the early 70's. I wasn't so happy about it at the time. To transplant these grape plants, my dad dug up the individual plants in a manner that allowed vines of neighboring plants to stay tangled together - so we basically had a row of 4 foot tall plants (with roots hanging down and vines holding them together) to move about 1.5 miles. What better way to move this string of big plants than have your daughters and their friend carry them draped over their shoulders, walking down the roads, that 1.5 miles. Can you tell I'm from a small town? Where else would this not hold up traffic? Anyway, my brother and dad have started the process of pruning and clearing the way for the grape vines to become productive again. Thanks Mike and Dad!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for my husband's truck. It is way to big for me to comfortably drive, I need about 3 parking spaces worth of asphalt to park it with any type of dignity and it gets about the worst gas mileage you can imagine. But, it is sooooo handy to have for those times we need to move stuff around. Today was a good example. Our youngest son needed to move a drum set about 6 blocks, from one campus theater to another campus theater. Sure, we could have used a typical car - but it all fit in one trip with the truck. Done and ready to move on - thanks to a truck with nearly 250,000 miles on it.

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful that people are starting to recognize and appreciate "Generation Z". This article from our local news paper: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/02/05/1828787/as-long-job-dies-let-gen-z-lead.html does a good job describing this group of people. This age range fits my three children and all 6 of my nieces and nephews. All 9 of these "kids" know how to work, are willing to learn and want to make a difference in their communities and in the world. There is not one in the group who is just sitting around waiting for the world to lay goods at their feet - they know how to get up and get their own goods. I don't understand the label "generation Z", but who cares - lets give these people the respect they deserve and watch them catch the world on fire!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am once again grateful for my extremely handy man husband, Mark. He installed a new toilet today and it is working in tip top shape. Thanks Mark!

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful that we have a $2.00 cinema near us, Blue Ridge 14. We went to see Real Steel - I'd recommend it to anyone. Wonderful way to end a work week and start a weekend.

What are you grateful for today?

Today I am grateful for The Daily Show. If you go to the website you can see more than what is shown on the nightly show - have some fun!

What are you grateful for today?

Monocraft Initial display

Today I am grateful for this beautiful old display box. The metal plate says Monocraft Initials. My dad gave me this in August, and it didn't occur to me until this evening to store my letter beads in it. A couple of the drawers have broken slats from years of use by my dad and probably others before him. You may be able to see in the picture that it has 2 sections for "M" and none for "X". I have no idea why, but all the drawers are that way. I'm looking forward to using this in my display at my next trunk show, March 16th and 17th at Ornamentea. Hope to see you there!

What are you grateful for today?