Words of Wisdom

These are so sensible! 

Tuesday Thoughts

I never actually said these things to my girls, but I hope they know that they can always come home!! Or, they can come to us with any problem! 

Our family is everything to us!!

Me on Monday

This apparent piece of junk mail came last week. When I turned it over, I saw this:

Now, this little Catholic girl was told in grade school by the nuns, that you can keep anything that comes in the mail if you didn't ask for it. Meaning that if something came you didn't order, you are under no obligation to either pay for it or return it. Nothing was ever said about money, but I think it works the same way. 

Then, when I opened it to get that crisp dollar bill, instead, I discovered two!! Jackpot!

It's from the Nielson rating people. It's not addressed to me but to: Brentwood Area Household. So they won't even know who it is who kept the money and didn't do the survey. That made me feel a little guilty, so I thought I should probably do it. How in the world can they afford to hand out $2.00 to god knows how many people?

I also thought it might be fun to participate in the survey. But, as I read further, you have to go online to do it. Also, if you do, you will get an additional $5.00 in the form of a gift card or cash to PayPal or Venmo. 

Okay, I'm not gonna' lie. That makes me a little suspicious. Obviously they would have to get information from me that I don't think I want to give. Yeah, I'm not gonna' do it. I'm just gonna pocket the money. 

Does that make me a bad person?

Something for Sunday

1. On Thursday, we left for Atlanta to spend a couple days with Sandy and Greg. Our first stop is always Starbucks. 

They were giving out free sleeves in honor of the World Cup. I sent this picture to the girls. 

I swear within 30 minutes, Mindy sent hers! She's not one to miss out on any special treats!

2. On Memorial weekend, Jeanne made this fruit flat for our family party. 

We caught little Theo just eating the marshmallows!! Great idea for the 4th of July coming up!

3. This past week, we got our yellow pages in the mail. Yes, you heard that correctly--in the mail! We usually get it dropped at the front door.

It's really kind of ridiculous--and a complete waste of money. It's about 1/2" thick. Ours went straight in the recycling bin. Everyone uses the internet to find anything they want. I don't know who is paying for this, but I'm sure it's us in some way shape or form. 

4. We stopped at Taco Bell for lunch on the way to Sandy's. Look what they have again!!

Although I have asked for a taco salad many times, they told me it had been discontinued years ago. Now they have a mini version--it was really good! But, I could easily have eaten another--just a bit too small.

5. I came across this sign on our Route 66 trip. To this I respond...

..."Well, okay, but I really only need 2!" 

Seriously. I'm sure they are trying to limit the number of napkins people take. It seems to me, that it would have made more sense to just say, "Please limit your napkins to 2 per meal!" Or 5 if they are really serious about people taking 5!! 

Scrapbook Saturday

In honor of finishing the project of getting Janet's layouts put in albums, I thought I would share the unfinished layouts that I finished for her.

Friday Frustrations & Friday Funnies

I could call this a "Me on Monday" post, because it's basically about me and my computer. I love my computer. I know a lot about it. I've taken classes and watched tutorials. I can figure out most things. But lately, I'm stymied about something. It's a little something that can turn in to a BIG thing if I forget!

I know how to create groups within my contacts. I have several and have been using them for years. Then, something happened. I don't know how, but it's so frustrating. All of a sudden, one person was left out of my "Book Club" group. I've had this group going for darn near 20 years--for sure. I don't know if it's something that happened when I got my new computer or what.

Anyway, here's the situation. I tried adding our newest member, Kathleen to my group. It just wouldn't take--no matter what I did or how many times I tried. Okay, I wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out to no avail. Finally I just told myself that I would just have to remember to add her address manually every time I sent an email to the group. It's bad enough I have to remember that, but after the first couple times, I kind of have it in my mind now. Okay, not that big of a deal. But then, it happened again--this time, leaving someone out who has been on the list for many years with no problems. Here's what happened.

Stephanie is our "Recorder of the Books and Ratings." I just made up that title for her. After our last book club, she pointed out that the email I sent the group with all the current info: recap of our meeting, who was hosting next, the books, and when--that one of our members had been left off the list. I don't even know how she noticed that. I never look at who is included in a group email. 

Anyway, I went back and looked and sure enough, Nina was left out of the email even though she is still listed in the group in my contacts. So frustrating. 

I took the time to try to delete her and add her again. That didn't work. 

I created a whole new group and deleted the old one. That didn't work.

It didn't work for Kathleen's email either. 

Next, I restarted my computer. That didn't work.

I'm at a loss. Now I have to remember to manually include TWO people to my emails. This is not looking good for me. My memory just isn't what it used to be!

Okay, I just thought of one more thing. I'm going to try AI to see if that has an answer. Hold on while I give it a try.

10 minutes later:

Here is the question I posed:

When I send an email from a group I set up in my contacts, not all of the emails appear when I email the group. Why?

This is the answer I got:

When you email a contact group and some addresses disappear, it usually happens because the group name or label is hiding the individual addresses, the missing contacts are missing valid email addresses, or your email client is grouping duplicates.

What? Okay, that didn't help me at all. I have no idea what all that means. I continued reading and it said that a "gmail" address might be the culprit.

Well, now there's an answer. Both Kathleen and Nina have a gmail address. But I don't understand--at least in Nina's case--why it just stopped working? I'm certain it has something to do with my new computer. I can still email them individually, but not in a group email. Hhhhhh! (Frustrated sigh)!

So, I've wasted a whole bunch of time messing with this to get no solution. I'm going to have to rely on my own pea brain to remember. Sheesh!

Okay, I cannot leave you with a frustration. I have to lighten the mood with a funny!

Ten Things Thursday

Considering we're just a couple weeks from the 4th of July, I thought I would share some beautiful red, white and blue tables. This way, you might get some ideas and actually have time to put them together.

All of these are pretty nice, but I have to say that I think #3 is my favorite. I'm sure you can guess why! That floral arrangement!!! Swoon!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday!

There are some really good ideas here. I personally do #7, 11, 17, on the right side: 7, 9, don't know about 14, 16 and part of 20. 

Not very many--I need to work on this!!

Travel Tuesday

As you read this, I will be on my way home from a short, but very productive couple of days in St. Louis. 

The purpose of the trip was to finish the work of putting Janet's scrapbooks together. You might recall that my trip a couple months ago was for Jeanne and me to start cleaning out her scrapbook room. That's when we discovered 273 double-page layouts that needed to be put in scrapbooks. We started that instead. It took 8 hours to sort the pages in to categories and get 6 books put together. By my estimation, we were going to have approximately 21 books.

Here's how it landed:

All tolled, we had 15.5 hours in to the project---times 2 (since there were two of us working) for a total of 31 hours. My approximation on the albums was off by 3--we had 24 scrapbooks when we were finished. Plus, we took a little time to organize a few things like putting all adhesives together, all extra scrapbooks and pages, the trimmers and a few other things. There is so much to be done.

Jackie took some of the albums home the last time we were here. But here's how they stack up today!

This was the second time I've ever dealt with top-loading albums. But, I had never dealt with adding the extenders. Jeanne told me it was hard. She came prepared. She has this rubber finger "thingie." I was like, "What's up with this?How do you even have this?" At that point, Jackie overheard us as she was working in Janet's office. She came out and tossed these on to the table:

What? Is this a "thing?" They look like rubber thimbles! I didn't know that this was something people used nor have I seen them for sale in a store. Jeanne said she used them in her work. Not really sure why. Anyway, they certainly helped hold the screw in place as we were tightening it from the other side! Jackie mentioned that her mom had many more of these. Apparently they must come in handy to have them around the house. I can still learn new things every day!!

So, the albums were the main reason I went to St. Louis. But of course, I make the most of my trips to by visiting as much family as possible. I got to see Evie and Josie while we were at Janet's working on the albums. The girls were there--going through some things they might want to keep that belonged to their Gram. We discussed "Camp Aunt Barb" for this year--they'll be down to Nashville in a little over 2 weeks. I'm excited about that!

At one point, Josie came and laid down next to where I was working.

I said, "OMGosh Josie, how can you be laying on that stinkin' dog bed!" She replied that, "Smoky didn't use it and Izzy didn't use it so it's MY dog bed!" I thought that was pretty hilarious! 

We visited my sister, Janice both days for a couple hours each day. She's in a nursing home and is right where she needs to be. She's content and calm. She still knows us and can make sense now and then.

We visited Jeanne's grands: Travis and Nathan and discussed Camp Aunt Barb with them. I bought a coupon thing Travis was selling for his football team. Then I coughed up a few bucks for Jeanne to take all 4 kids to go to 5 Below (a higher end dollar store!) and lunch afterward. 

Then we went to Johnny and Adrea's to see their kiddos--Logan, Rosie and Theo. Darn, I didn't think to take any pictures.

We had great St. Louis food! We met Matt and Sharon at Donatelli's for happy hour. And, of course I had to go to Freddy's for their burgers and a turtle frozen custard sundae. 

Even though it was a whirlwind trip, we got a lot accomplished and I got my "family" fix. Butch and I have another trip planned for the end of July. I'm looking forward to that already!

Okeedokee. That's it for now. 

Me on Monday

This post isn't exactly about me, but indirectly. 

My granddaughter, Elizabeth is a hair stylist in Atlanta. She knows all of my woes regarding my own quest to find a good stylist. I have super fine, limp hair. I use every thickening product known to man. They do help--but not much. 

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, she sent me this text: 

She got this 5 star review from someone who shares my plight!!! Wow! Congrats to her. Not many people take the time to give good reviews--mostly when they are unhappy! Elizabeth must have really impressed her! Now I just need to find out what she did!! 

I love this girl and her enthusiasm! I wished she lived a little closer. Hmm, maybe I should just plan on going down there to see her every six weeks. But here's the dilemma. If it doesn't quite work out for me, how do you "fire" your granddaughter??

See, this post is about me after all!

Something for Sunday

Well, I'm heading back to St. Louis to visit with family and to do some more work putting Janet's scrapbooks together with my sister, Jeanne. I'm looking forward to some good Italian food too!

In the meantime, here's some good advice:

Scrapbook Saturday

These pages are a little difficult to see since I photographed them with the page protectors on. Not th best quality. These are from 2015 when our AYM theme was about "lists"!

Friday Funnies AND Friday Frustrations!

You're only getting one "funny" today because this one is personal!!

For years, I have complained that Butch leaves doors open. He leaves the door open when he feeds the fish in our little pond. He leaves the door open to the garage. He has left the front door open when he gets the mail. He doesn't leave these doors open all the time, but often enough to drive me crazy! And the pantry! OMGosh, now that's a door he leaves open way more than he closes it. 

When I call him out about leaving doors open, he'll swear he doesn't! From now on, I'm going to take pictures. This is really the only proof I have:

While on our Route 66 trip, he left the door open while he went back in the fast food place to get some napkins. This one is really serious. He leaves the car door open occasionally--when he pumps gas, but often when he's geo-caching! 

The reasons I don't like it:

1. Either the heat or air gets out making it either hot or cold inside.

2. Bugs get in!

3. Smells get in. 

Yeah, it's a frustration for sure! Sort of funny--but not very.

Ten Things Thursday

How about some house renovations?

1. I don't particularly like dark houses. But I do like how this turned out. I like the blue door and the landscaping.

2. I love this one and the porch. I am partial to white. There could definitely be more landscaping and pots overflowing with colorful flowers on the porch.

3. This one seems kind of odd. Why was the front door offset to begin with. The after is definitely nice. Love the flower boxes.

4. The added gables really make a difference in this one. 

5. Again, love the white!

6. Nice porch.

7. The before photo looks almost exactly like my grandmother's house. The after looks amazing. The additions definitely make it look more inviting.

8. Omgosh--love the railing. It's a pretty shade of green, but a bit too dark for my taste.

9. This mansion almost looks like the White House.

10. This looks like the easiest renovation of all. Nice porch.

I think I choose #7 is my favorite. It looks like a cute little cozy bungalow.