A look back at my wedding

In looking for information for a family tree project, I came across some of our wedding receipts and my handwritten notes regarding the vows and music selection.  We were married in 1975, a time when writing your own vows and selecting a lot of your own music was the thing to do. There was secular music also, but I didn't find links to those passages. A nun sang some of the songs. She was in a long pink dress, similar to my bridesmaids. Some of Bill's single friends were very interested, then very disappointed to find out that she wasn't my sister, but a Sister.

These photos don't really go with the music links. The music was from the church ceremony, I added photos that I had already scanned and stored on my hard drive.

Entrance music:  To Fill the World With Love  and   Love Story Theme
Processional: The Wedding Song

Music between readings: Day By Day
Music during candle lighting ceremony: Color My World

Offertory music: If
And if a picture does paint a thousand words, what does this one say?  (Actually it says that Bill's buddies were trying to help him keep his white tux clean)

During communion: Let There Be Peace on Earth
Recessional Music: We've Only Just Begun   and   I Can't Help Falling in Love With You

At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I can't believe how much everything has gone up in price, even if we are talking 35 years!  Receptions here in the SE Michigan area were typically at Knights of Columbus or Amvet halls. Our wedding guest list had 100 people, with approximately 80 in attendance that evening.

The cost of the hall, food, liquor and table decorations was $600.90
The cake was chocolate with butter cream icing: $65.71
Invitations: $43.11
Church flowers, bouquets, boutonnieres and 100 feet of white runner for church aisle: $107.64
The band played from 9 PM - 1 AM: $180.00

I don't have the receipt for the photographer, but I think that bill was $150 and we have a large album plus all the proofs in two smaller albums. My dress had been a display model in a bridal store, but I bought it in a bridal resale shop. With the photographer and my dress we still came in under our budget of $1500 which felt like a lot of money back then!

I think my son and daughter-in-law's wedding is going to be a wee bit more expensive.
If they're as happy in 35 years, whatever their wedding costs, it will be worth every penny.

I feel so honored!

Sandie from Chatty Crone bestowed this honor on 10 of her followers including yours truly. I am so happy to have found Sandie and her blog. Often when I am reading her blog I think "wow, so I'm not the only one who feels this way" and I always enjoy her humor and her celebrity bios on their birthdays.

The rules that go with this award state that you are to say something nice about the person who gave you the award, copy and paste the award to your blog, and pass the award on to 10 people after you've revealed ten things about yourself that others may not know. 

10 you may not know about me:

1.  I am addicted to coffee yogurt. I would be addicted to coffee ice cream too, but I only allow that as a special treat. I justify my daily Dannon fix by saying that yogurt is healthy and good for me. 

2.  I am good at remembering trivia but can't tell you how much is in the check book an hour after writing a check. 

3.  I was so happy and excited at my wedding that I didn't realize we were running a little late once inside the church. I didn't cry at my wedding, but have teared up at every wedding since.

4.  I've been to a few psychics over the years, always with an open mind but thinking of the readings as entertainment. There was never anything frightening about the readings, nothing that made me change my life but many things have happened as described, even predictions I'd forgotten about!

5.  I like to try new foods. The only thing I've tried and wouldn't care to eat again is calamari. 

6.  I think the world would be better if we learned about and respected our differences but concentrated on what makes us alike. I've left churches and other organizations who are so hard line about their beliefs or political platforms that they left no room for others to coexist.

7.  Modern sitcoms where the lead characters never learn from their mistakes annoy me, but I love I Love Lucy and the Roadrunner cartoons. That is a big contradiction!

8. My life is simple. In matters that were within my control, I only have one regret. I threw away a big tin of buttons that were my mom's and grandmother's, all because I hated how cluttered the closet was becoming. The buttons held many memories. It isn't bad to have only one regret though.

9.  Sometimes I look at my husband and feel like I am falling in love all over again. He is such a good man and from what others say, I know it isn't just my bias saying that. I am lucky that I showed up at a bar 38 years ago to hear a friend sing and turned around in the parking lot to hear the lame pick up line that Bill was delivering. 

10. I was a late bloomer. I only had one long lasting friendship as a child (she is still in my life since kindergarten days 50+ years ago!) but now have many wonderful friends around my home, at the cottage, through work and through marriage. My sister-in-law Beth and I have been friends through thick and thin. Or thin, thicker and thickest if we're talking about our waists! And the biggest surprise to me in this past decade has been internet friends.  I may never meet most of you, but I know more about many of you than some women know about long standing next door neighbors. 

And now for the rule that I couldn't follow...I couldn't name 10 bloggers upon which to share this award. Many of my favorite bloggers are blog and tag free now, and I respect their wishes. Please feel free to adopt this award as your own. It is a fun challenge to write 10 things about yourself. Whether you play along or not, if you've never visited Chatty Crone please visit Sandie and make yourself a new friend.

Things to Ponder

I had an idea for a blog post, but the sound isn't working on my computer (this story of computer woe is never ending, isn't it?) so that is tabled for a while. I don't think I have ever needed links to music in a post before. Why now? Am I subliminally doing this?

The computer tech spent at least 90 minutes with me yesterday on the phone and using GoToMeeting (dot) com in attempts to fix things left hanging when he returned the computer earlier this week. A few were simple fixes, but the sound driver problem has yet to be resolved. Have you ever used Go To Meeting? He set it up, I signed on, entered my info and the meeting ID he provided and then I gave him permission to view my screen and take over my keyboard and mouse. We've done this before but it still amazes and amuses me to see my screen changing at someone else's command.

I am still catching up on work that I had piled up during my computer's absence. I don't feel retired at all at the moment! Our oldest son, also known as Colton's daddy, is researching family trees for all four of Colton's grandparents. Colton doesn't seem to care yet, but he may someday when he is older than 8 weeks (today is that milestone!) old. Going through the info that I've collected has kept me busy the past few days and I've wandered down many memory lanes looking at photos and thinking about events long forgotten.

Hopefully Monday will bring resolution to the sound driver issue and I can get on with what I was going to post. Meanwhile, this came in an email and made me smile.


Here are some things to ponder....
  
1.  I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
 
2.  Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
 
3.  I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
 
4.  There is great need for a sarcasm font.
 
5.  How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
 
6.  Was learning cursive really necessary?
 
7.  Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5.  I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
 
8.  Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
 
9.  I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
 
10.  Bad decisions make good stories.
 
11.  You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
 
12.  Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray?   I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
 
13.  I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
 
14.  "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.
 
15.  I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Darn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
 
16.  I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
 
17.  I keep some people's phone numbers in my pho ne just so I know not to answer when they call.
 
18.  My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the heck do I respond to that?
 
19.  I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
 
20.  I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

My computer is back!

Life is good, but the computer is not perfect yet. It has no sound and the technician needs to install a link to my email on the desktop again. Our email goes through Microsoft Web Exchange and without the link, I can access the emails but not arrange things the way I like to view them.

I'd like to pass on some advice based on a lesson learned the hard way. Save your favorites or bookmarks often. I had saved a file of bookmarks but it had not been updated in a long time. To rid my computer of the virus, data was transferred to a temporary drive and my C drive was wiped clean. Programs have been restored, a few required re-installation and I am happy to have my data, but I miss my newer bookmarks.

The one that really hurts so far, is the missing bookmark for a test forum I had. I am one of the administrators on a small private forum for a group of long time friends. I created a test forum where I experiment with changes before implementing them on the working forum. I also have a test blog and I bet many of you have one too. I have many website addresses written in a notebook but I never wrote the name of my test forum. I relied on my bookmark to take me there. The part of the name that I created is remembered, but I am doing something wrong with the letter/number combination that precedes that name and was issued by the forum hosts. I've contacted the support team to see if they can look it up for me, but they are swamped in problems right now.

The forum is free of cost which is good. To defray expenses, there are banner ads that run at the bottom or top of the screen. They aren't necessarily bad, they are screened for objectionable content, but apparently some ads have been compromised  with a virus. Not all of the forum members have gotten warnings, but one quarter of them have. Messages on the support board for the hosts show that are other forums are experiencing the same problem and the hosts are now working with Google to resolve the issue.

This leads to my second piece of advice. I am guessing everyone on the internet knows to run an antivirus program, but that may not be enough. If your program doesn't specify that it scans and blocks spyware, you should consider running anti-malware (spyware) also. I had the free version of Malwarebytes and scanned with that often. It is an easy program to download and run and has been very helpful. The last virus I had ensconced itself so deeply into my operating system, Malwarebytes could not delete or quarantine it. After two episodes of that in less than two years, I paid for the upgraded version of Malwarebytes which runs continuously now.

I'm behind in blog reading, commenting and writing but I hope to catch up soon. May everyone and their computer be virus free!

I survived and now I'm organized!

The problem with having more than one craft addiction is the supplies and tools multiply when you aren't looking.

Last week I thought I would organize the small embellishments (stickers, brads, colored staples, etc) that are used in paper crafts. I began this task the day before trash pickup, knowing that some things would be tossed and some would be removed from packaging to fit better in new storage containers. That goal was met as far as the trash deadline was concerned. The reorganizing soon extended to include all the craft supplies, tools, patterns and books that were on open shelves and sprawling on the counter.

I don't have a before picture of my mess but trust me, it was bad. The room that is my craft/sewing room was a bedroom once upon a time. After remodeling the house and moving all the bedrooms upstairs, kitchen cabinets and Formica counters were installed on two walls, and bookcases on a third. The remaining wall has bifold doors that hide storage bins of fabric, yarn, my sewing machine and anything else to large too fit inside the cabinets.

The sorting started with small items. The binders in this photo hold patterns and general directions for projects saved from old magazines and discarded books. They would become thicker before this process ended.

 Adjacent to the counter shown above is a matching desk high counter where I sit when sewing or other crafting. Silly me...I thought I could confine the sorting to that area. I even had Windex ready to clean off the counter tops when I was done!

On to the floor to sort stickers by category. If you sort like this and you're on a chair on wheels, remember NOT to back up quickly and roll over stickers!

Stickers, rub-ons and small embellishments were grouped into 11 categories and were stored in plastic holders designed to hold scrapbooking papers or finished pages. These holders went into a rigid plastic case with a lid. I labeled each section and hopefully a year from now I will remember the logic I used when deciding where something belonged.

Most of the storage containers on the bookshelves were already here but needed to be organized, labeled and sometimes needed additional containers. This whole section relates to paper crafts, from papers down to rubber stamps and Sizzix dies on the bottom shelf. The yellow smiley doll doesn't usually stay there, but he is apropos... he giggles and says "that's funny"...something often suited to what I do in that room.

The next section of bookshelves holds my favorite fiction novels on the top two shelves, knitting books and lots of sock yarn on the 3rd, sewing, quilting and cross stitch books come next, then beading supplies and pattern books, and finally, six binders of patterns, the sticker holder I described above, and an accordion file of decorative 12 x 12 sheets of scrapbook papers. There is a glass block and a string of lights waiting to be used and a concrete looking butler who will go outside soon to hold my drink while on the porch.

Across from the bookshelves is this wall of cabinets and counter. Except for out of season dishes in the upper cabinets, most of what lurks behind the doors and in drawers are craft supplies. The wooden tool box holds more rubber stamps and my covered tray of watercolors and some watercolor paper is on top. In front of the box are projects in progress.

The boxes on the floor are things I hope to get to soon. I need to prioritize and find a home for them rather than sitting out on the floor. I hope.

The current project taking up so much time is a sweater that I began as a way to use up yarn in my stash. I am 2/3 done with the front and worried that I won't have enough yarn to make the sleeves and finish the neckline. The store where I bought the yarn went out of business. I can still get it online, but the dye lot may be different. There are 4 skeins of the yarn on the counter. Cross your fingers for me!  Here is the completed back.

I'd end with a word of advice on not hanging on to so much stuff, to not have so many hobbies, or on not letting things get away from you but I can't do that. When the mess happens again, and it will, I wouldn't want to eat those words.

Getting organized

Where does it all come from? Whether we're talking Tupperware lids, books, craft supplies or dust bunnies, haven't we all wondered if things multiply overnight?

For years now, it seems that the mood to reorganize hits me in January. That didn't happen this year, probably because we were inundated with office supplies including moving the computer that used to be in Bill's office at work into MY SPACE here at home. Geez.....I love the guy and all, but I used to have 6 feet of counter behind me that could be a work space for whatever. Now it holds his computer, printer, rolodex, etc and our chairs sometimes bump into each other.

Oops, I just got off track.

The clutter phenomenon begins when one item doesn't get put away properly. The lid doesn't fit with the other lids or maybe the craft supply serves more than one hobby and you can't decide whether to put it with paint related items or beading supplies. The item in question is left out on the counter or shoved into a spot where it fits just for right now...and months later it has buddies residing with it, or has relatives who have branched out and are living in neighboring communities within your otherwise clean and organized home.

Trash pick up is on Wednesdays in my neighborhood. On Tuesday I thought it would be a good idea to organize my scrapbooking supplies and toss out a few things in this week's pickup. I don't even scrapbook much, but I do use the papers, embellishments, inks, etc for cardmaking and other paper crafts. It is now Thursday morning and I am still organizing this crap all of these precious items.

My goal is to be done by the end of the day. I am currently deciding if all seasonal and holiday embellishments can go in one folder or if Christmas and Halloween deserve their own because I have so many of each. The craft room is looking scary right now, but I am seeing light and I don't think it is a train headed my way.

If I'm not back here within a few days, please send a rescue team, preferably someone not interested in scrapbook supplies. I'd hate to be buried alive and hear distracted rescuers exclaiming "this would be perfect for the page I am doing on Aunt Martha and the elephant incident!" or wondering "what on earth was she thinking when she put witches next to Santa elves?!"

As for the dust bunnies multiplying, that isn't my fault at all. They are shameless, wanton and promiscuous! They should control their lust to propagate with a hobby. Hey! I wonder if dust bunnies scrapbook?

New week, new conversations

Yes, I've been playing with the blog layout again. What do you think? Working on the laptop gave me such a different view and I can't say that I liked the old layout on this screen. I've been playing around with photos too, but that will have to wait for another day.

Meanwhile, here is my grandson having a conversation with his daddy (my son).


We tried to get him to talk to us last night but neither set of grandparents were on his frequency. What a little stinker! His parents, other grands and Bill were all in the kitchen when I took him into Kim's parent's living room during a fussy spell. He paid attention while I quietly sang The People On The Bus and didn't seem to mind how badly I sang. Of course he is only 6 weeks old and hasn't been exposed to much music yet. The dog that lives there is 11 and knows better. She got up and went into the kitchen when I started singing. Her name is Molly, but I now think of her as Simon (Simone?) Cowell.