OK, OK I know it's Tuesday already....

Even though I am not really sure what day it is unless I think about it for a minute. After much running around today, I have my Sparks permit to serve alcohol, and I will work my own shift tonight, yeah! However, I talked to Raym today and he told me he was waiting for pictures, and I admitted I did a have bit of blogging guilt, but yesterday, sleep was the priority. Today, I am better after sleeping well yesterday, and in the daytime world of work hours, it is only like 11pm for me, so I am right on schedule. I made a quick pass at the photos and these are the ones that jumped out at me...they are not loaded in order of occurrence.

Friday night at Mom's birthday dinner....

The food on Saturday... yummy and beautiful!






Lot's of picture taking....


We got Mom a lemon meringue pie instead of cake...in fact I think there might be some left....

Parker, Elizabeth and Miranda made Mom a banner birthday card, and Parker is here explaining it to Mom, too cute!

It was nice to see the living room get used...

Kathleen's toes were color coordinated to Jade's bathroom....

The ultimate pillow head, but her pajamas matched Jade's sheets.

Sunday we had pancake breakfast while we watched the girls get brave enough to pet Odin.


Which led to the following Kodak moment...

..and finally happy petting all around.


More later, it's 12:30 for me now and I have to get up at 3 to not miss dinner! I'll post the cast of characters next time.

I have to go to bed....

...But, before I do I wanted to say, I finally trained my first night last night. I was a bit embarrassed about getting this job at first. Kinda of like "Is this the only job I can get? How pathetic?", yet something is better than nothing and I can't, absolutely cannot turn it down, right. But after last night, I am thinking this could turn out to be a good little gig. The time just flew by, it was much busier than I expected, but no where near overwhelming. I am more encouraged than ever that I can make decent money, certainly enough to live on while I accomplish my Sparks goals, (finish school & my book). The atmosphere is comprised of all regulars (and really nice, good tipping people too) who like to have fun. I will not have to think about it once I am off duty, and I can guarantee you I will never forget NOT to take on too much responsibility. The chance of me being interested in managing a place like this, zero. Actually, I am getting exactly what I had hoped for with Western Village only better - no uniform.

I want to talk more about everything and post pictures of the weekend, but I must sleep now. I am going back tonight at midnight. Goodnight.

Life is Good

I can't find my camera at the moment, so no pictures...yet, there will be plenty to come, trust me. This day has been really spectacular in so many ways. The party was amazing. The house looked beautiful, the food was delicious, the company was ...well, there are no words to describe the incredible energy we share when we are together, and while it was bittersweet for me without Joshua and Raymond, the magnification of the love in a group, this group, was just simply beautiful to experience. The infusion of love running through my body at the moment is welcome and I intend to savor every delectable moment of it.

Josh and Raym, your absence was deeply felt. Your names came up over and over all day as everyone, both family who loves you and people who wanted to meet you, mentioned that they wished you both were here. Next time, you will be, these times are few and far between and far to wonderful to miss. You belong here with your family when we gather like this. We did pick a weekend for a road trip to LA for Jeremy's and my birthday in September.

Parker, Miranda and Elizabeth, some day when you are reading all the old blogs and laughing at how goofy we all are, you will come across this entry and know that the time I spent with the three of you today was precious to me. I will always be able to say, remember when we swam in Uncle David's little pool till our eyes burned from the chlorine and our fingers shriveled up like raisins! Remember how it was scary at first and then it was so fun we did not want to get out; how much we laughed as you jumped and splashed and went under water; remember how Elizabeth and Miranda pretended one was the baby and one was the mommy and the baby swam to the mommy to get a big hug and told "I love you very much", and how seamlessly they switched the roles; remember Parker running to the countdown area and running back as fast as he could run; remember how Cory and his friends were so nice, and Parker got to be one of the big boys and ride in the wagon in the rain. I'll tell you how fast you've grown and how grateful I am to have had these times with you for my treasure box of memories, how you have woven even more love into my life than I thought I had room for. You will read this some day and know Aunt Lori really loves you.

The woman who was supposed to train me tonight called in sick, and the new girl was working her shift, so they sent me home till tomorrow, score! I was all rested from my little nap and pumped up to work, so I went down to Western Village to see if Mom, Ginny, Amber, Kevin, Jenn and Jeremy were still partying it up. I just missed most of them, but Mom, Ginny and Jeremy were still hitting the machines. Jeremy was on a cool down and left shortly after I arrived. No big dollars for me tonight, but, Mom and Gin, the pleasure of watching you play and be in Western Village is priceless. I think it's funny that I am trying as hard as I can to go to work, but this weekend, I just got a few extra hours with you, and that is my idea of a jackpot. Thanks for being so much fun.

I was supposed to work till four, now I gambled and blogged till three, I am going to sign off for now and take my extra hour of sleep. I just had to get down a word or two about the day before this Sparks experience was even the least bit diluted.

Really looking forward to tomorrow...or I guess I mean today...such will be the time challenges of working graveyard, so good morning, good evening and good night!

Company! Yea!

The big weekend is finally here. I picked Kathleen up at the airport at 1:30 and I was so happy to see her. We went over to Jeremy and Maryke's house to visit for awhile and had a grand time.

Kathleen was especially happy to meet Arnold, their furry orange cat. He is a small version of her sweetie Jengo who passed away recently. Arnold is a fairly social cat as cats go and he hung out in the living room with us most of the time. Jeremy, Maryke and Arnold bid us a fond farewell as we dashed off to find Mom at Western Village.(OK, I made them pose for a blog photo, but they will sure be happy when they have this photo later taken on the first house they ever shared together.)

Jeremy then reciprocated the pose demand and took one of Kathleen and me.

Then we left for Western Village to find Mom and Ginny. I had spoken to David and he was meeting us there. For those of you familiar with Mom at Western Village, you know that pretty soon after the hello hugs are exchanged, she plops you down at the machine next to hers, pumps in $20 dollars and tells you to make her some money offering to split the winnings. I was on fire! By the time we took a break because we were all starving, I had $110 dollars on my machine..in nickles, of course.

After dinner, I went back to the same machine after waiting a few minutes for it to open up and on the second push of the button hit a $47 score. Kathleen sat next to me and Mom & Gin were not far away. We sat there till nearly 11pm and I cashed out at $164.75. Kathleen put her(Mom's) $40 back in the machine, but we played all night and had a great time!

When we got home, Monica arrived shortly after, with a tired Cory. Rachel and Matt chatted for a bit then left to go home after a long day. Kathleen, Monica and I kept pretending we were going to bed, but talking the whole time, till we finally forced ourselves to go to our separate rooms and stop talking. I laid down around 1:30. But found myself up at about 6:30 this morning excited for the day to begin. Michael, Rachel and the kids will be here tonight and I can't wait to see them. I am pointedly going to avoid talking about who I won't see to avoid those sad tears that well up everytime I think about it. I love you guys, this blogging weekend is dedicated to both of you

And it Mom's 70th birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Start Date

I found out that my new boss, Trina, is off on Mondays and Tuesdays, so no surprise that I did not hear from her till today. I went in and filled out all the employee paperwork this morning. I will train on Saturday from midnight to 4am, which I guess is really Sunday, then again on Sunday from midnight till 8am, which I guess is really Monday.

I should be on my own after that, or at least that's the goal and then my schedule will be a whole lot of Sunday night for Monday kinda shifts. But I don't care, I will have a real income, I feel hopeful for the first time in a long, long time.

Jade's Room Follow Up

With preparations for the big weekend in full swing, there were a few things Jade needed to take care of in her room, like put away all the stuff she moved out when we painted and left in the guest room till today.

One of the things I noticed was that I did not reattach the air conditioning vent cover. It was in the guest room and I did not see it, unfortunately it was in the guest room without screws, so I am waiting till David gets home to get the right ones.

Jade has alot of hats, so I gave her a temporary idea for a hat rack. We were lucky that Nathan stopped by, because the attachment required reaching the ceiling, which even for me requires a ladder, but Nathan could use the step stool. This was quite handy, because David hangs his ladders from the ceiling in the garage and I cannot get one down without assistance.

We attached a bright colored ribbon to the ceiling and used binder clips to attach the hats.

Jade is happy and the hats are off the floor. Mission accomplished.

The Job Front and other news

So sad, no work today. I am still waiting for a call from Trina to tell me I have the green light from HR. At this point I would be just as happy to start next week. I already told her I could not work on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so there is an outside chance I could work Wednesday, but I am not holding my breath. Corporations are so damn slow, what are you gonna do?

It is the blood clinic this week once again to fill my tank, oh well. The blood clinic has really slowed down and they are pushing people to come in. I told them I wanted a raise, they laughed.

Although I am pretty sad that Josh and Raym will not be here this weekend, I am keeping busy with party prep and getting excited to see everyone else. I plan on stocking up on hugs, so be ready people.

Cornhole Bags

I am sure you were all riveted when I told you about the new game called Cornhole. Well Amber built a set of boards and commissioned me to make the bags. I looked up the official dimensions online and figured I'd better get to it if I wanted to have them ready for play by this weekend. They are 6x6 canvas bags filled with, you guessed it, corn. Amber got it at a local feed store and brought it by this weekend when she came by to build a compost bin...such the green girl, that one!

I am not sure if I have ever sewed something to such precise measurements before. I cut the squares to leave myself some wiggle room and marked the 6' squares in chalk starting from the center point in the fabric.

Sewing the squares was easy enough, leaving one end open to put in the corn.

But the bags required a 1/4" top stitch which had to be done after the bags were filled. I figured that out by trying to top stitch three sides first, then ripping it out because the end would not close properly. Live and learn. It proved to be quite the challenge to keep those pesky pieces of corn out from under the needle while the bag got tighter with each turn of a corner. I know the stitching is not perfectly straight, but hey, too bad. I am pretty sure they will not be used in an official tournament for the American Cornhole Association.

Each bag was required to weigh 14-16 ounces. These weigh 15 ounces each, of that I am sure, (well if the scale is accurate that is, hehehe.)

Here's the finished product ready for play this weekend. I guarantee those white ones will be filthy by Sunday, but hey, I did not choose the colors, I just created the bags.

You can be sure some action shots will be taken and you can look for the update next week.