Are You a Morning or Night Person?

I have lunch with the greatest bunch of women.  We talk, we laugh, we have 3 conversations going at once and then somehow mix them up and get rowdy with laughter.  I'm grinning like a fool just writing this!!  I love my Lunch Bunch!!


Recently we were talking about whether we were morning or night persons.  You see, I'm DEFINITELY a morning person.  I wake up, my eyes are wide open, I get right out of bed and start my day.  It might be just having a cup of tea and reading a few blogs or catching up on some vlogs or TedTalks, but I get my day going right away.  Try to get me to function after 9 p.m. without caffeine and it's a major ordeal!

I realized that even in my picture taking, I'm a morning person.  I will stop my car in the middle of the street to take a picture of a sunrise.  Okay, not a busy street, and I do watch for cars behind me, but I will stop. 

Yeah, those telephone poles ARE pretty ugly! 
But all I could see was the sunrise.

Just before I walked into work, this is the sight I saw one morning.
Aaahhhhhh!!!!

I looked thru my picture folders for sunset pics and, I know I have a few but I can't find where I filed them.   

Sunrises, however, just tell me that a new day is starting, it's a clean slate, it's all this beauty in front of me.  Yep, I'll take a sunrise any day!!

It's A Green Kind o' Week!!

Okay, I need to ease into this return to blogging, I guess.  This is a crazy time of year for me in my job, but I still need to take some time to relax and blog, so I'm gonna try!!

The weather in the Chicagoland area has been so warm this week that I regularly let my Texas Sister know that I was confused on where I was because it sure did feel like Texas in March!

I had the wonderful opportunity to see our school's production of The Wizard of Oz, and I must say, our students are pretty talented.  To add to my enjoyment, my 4 1/2 year old grandson and his mommy came with.  He's very familiar with the story and was a little concerned that the wicked witch would be scary.  But he loved it.  It's always so fun to enjoy it thru a child's perspective. 

 

Well, still wasn't enamored with the Wicked Witch. 
Note the eyes looking elsewhere.





He met "Toto" too.


Made my heart happy when before the performance was even over, he asked if he could come to another one of "my" plays. 

And today, we celebrate his little sister's 2nd birthday.  It's a green theme (day after St. Paddy's, of course).  So I made these brownies in a cup,

And I'll make some shamrock shakes to go with them. 

Recipe and picture courtesy of http://www.sheknows.com/

I may alter the recipe slightly, so I'll let you know how it goes!

And I should have some birthday celebration pictures to post later this week.  We've got just this week left before spring break begins at school.  Unfortunately, I'm working for most of the week of spring break! :( 

Let's hope the weather stays as beautiful as it has been, giving us just enough rain to help those tulips come up. 

Hope your week brings you peace and balance!

Back in the Land of the Living

Well, I know I don't have a ton of readers who wonder if I fell off the earth, but those I do have have already pinged me about my whereabouts.  I can't believe a month flew by without me posting anything.  And to tell the truth, I haven't been to a whole lot of blogs lately.  This weekend will change that.  Time to catch up!!

So what have I been doing?  Well, last weekend was spent with my sister and her friend, scrapping at her friend, Jean's house.  We left Friday midday and it takes about 2 1/2 hours to cross the state to Elizabeth, which is just east of Galena.  No snow near Chicago when we left.  That changed big time during our trip. 

Long to short here: Driveway is long and steep, sister has front wheel drive vehicle, snow was very wet and huge flakes, we got stuck.  No boots, no traction on my gym shoes to allow me to get out and push.  We made some ruts.  Once we got into the house, there was no leaving for the weekend. (Not that there were any plans to...after all, it was a scrapping weekend.)


Not yet stuck, tracks heading up the driveway



Stuck...one of a few places

Friday night sunset was stunning.  I'm seeing it as reward for us getting the vehicle up to the garage.

 Saturday was a dreary day outside, so it allowed me to concentrate on getting some pages done.  Here's some that are complete:

And some that need a little work:



Yeah, first born girl always gets the photo package from Van Gogh!!
Sorry, Colleen!

 And then there's some I can't show you yet. 

Jean knows how to build a fire.  Another bonus!!

And Sunday, we were blessed with a most beautiful sunrise. 

And later that morning, a beautiful panoramic view of snow-covered farmland. 

Wow...this is the upside to trees losing their leaves.  You get a different view of the beauty of nature. 

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to visit my #2 grandson's school for a Pre-K School Sing.  After they sang, I went back to the classroom to meet his teacher and to enjoy all the things his classroom offers him.  I left with a very happy heart!!

Things have been pretty busy at work, and it looks like the next 2-3 months will be all that and more.  I am truly blessed to have a great boss and to work with a lot of great people.  And as we play musical chairs in my little work world, it should be interesting to see how things wash out. 

But my PG and I are heading out see Jeanne Robertson tonight.  I first found out about her through my Texas Sisters.  A former Miss Congeniality at the Miss America pageant.  Humor based on real life.  My kinda speaker!!  Here's a short youTube that shows you her stuff. 

I've been working on some mindfulness exercises offered by Lisa Wilson through her Wild Elephant Project over at LifeUnity.  I know I'm not alone in needing to be reminded to be mindful in everything I do.  And yes, it's difficult.  But just going thru her exercises is a great reminder. 

Okay, I've rambled on enough.  Time for me to put away all my scrapbook stuff from last weekend, visit some blogs, cut my PG's hair so he looks purty for tonight, and get some laundry folded and put away. 

I promise to work harder at getting a post in every few days.