Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Go Here!! Please?

Please, please, please go visit Ellie HERE today.  She has finally put up a blog post ... it's short but sweet.  You will love her!  Marissa (my 10-yr old grand-angel) helps her with her blog.

Well, the Christmas village remains up because...

good news...

Jasper will be here Friday with his brother Jake and the girls will be here as well.  The train will be going round the tracks with all kinds of play!  Ho-Ho-Ho!!

I love having the grandkids here and I really have been missing Jasper.

Stay warm and Stay tuned...


Sunday, January 28, 2018

Didn't Happen

I was waiting on our little guy Jasper to make it back down from his now home in WV to play with the train and the Christmas village, but here we are going into February next week...  and it didn't happen. 

*insert a sad face here*  

Oh well.  Still, the village needs to come down now.  





Say goodbye to Christmas, Gracie.


Not a problem.  Goodbye Christmas.  Farewell.  See ya later alligator.  Glad to see ya go ... umm.. I mean sorry to see ya go.  


Tuesday, January 23, 2018

See Ya Next Year


Dear November,

Sorry I didn't pay a lot of attention to you, but time change and I do not agree with one another.


Not a fan of shorter days, I kinda glazed through the month's events without making too much of a fuss.


Now here we are on the downside of January, or as I like to call it, a prelude to spring...


So to make it up to you, I will share some Thanksgiving pictures on my blog.


I realize I went through the entire month of November without a post.


 No excuses.  Just life-busy.


If all goes well, I'll see ya next year, November.  


And if all goes well, God willing, Gracie will too.


Saturday, January 20, 2018

Sorry, winter

Have you noticed days being longer?  I don't know about you, but my mood is better come spring, summer and fall.  Winter is merely a season to get through.  Though it's got it's good points too...  I can't really think of any that would trump those of spring, summer and fall.  Sorry, winter.  

The audiobook, "Gracie's Diary, a Memoir" is just weeks away from completion.  I'm excited!  The narrator did an excellent job and oh... BTW Samson, she tried to hook Gracie up with her sweet boy Tye-Dye but Gracie was firm in her commitment to her handsome finance' from California!  Though Tye is a real looker and a great catch,  Gracie still loves only you, Samson and she let that be known!  

In other news...

wait...

there is no other news.  Not much happening here.  Just winter.  


Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Still, A Problem

 ...with blogger.  I suppose I need to really sit down and take a day to understand what is happening with it all...  It seems hours are not enough.  Everything is either gone or hiding somewhere.  I don't know where.

Hmmm

I have tried changing templates and rearranging the layout, etc.  but it seems there are a lot of things missing that I cannot find.  Not giving up though...

Just bare with me while I try to find you...

Throwback Thursday

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Leaving Blogger... OK MAYBE NOT

I am so angry with blogger.  I have lost all of my blogs that I follow.. well, the list that I visit anyway.  I will be leaving blogger to go somewhere else... but unfortunately, I do not have a list of the blogs I follow.  Will try to find...

Blogger has wiped away half of my information and page. ..  and I am tired of trying to work to get it back.  

Sorry.

Blogger is not working for me anymore.

UPDATE:

OKAY...  GOT IT FIXED.  I THINK.  I WILL STAY... LOL

SORRY.




Goodbye X-mas


Dear Xmas,

Well, there you were again this year showing up at my house same time as last year...  I suspect you have been cheating because it seems as though I just put you away from 2016 and there you were again!  

Life layers are shedding way too fast.  Time, not a friend of mine.  Where have the years gone?

Xmas, where is the joy you once brought each year?  The innocence?  The magic?  The anticipation and the celebration?  It seems that each year passing brings change, and it's not always good.

Oh sure, you still show up with your flickering lights and promises of Christmas Joy, but you have not delivered such joy for a very long time.  When you come you bring with you memories of Christmas past,  when all was right in the world.  Before death.  Before divorce.  Before separations.  Before the loss of innocence.
  
You are supposed to bring good tidings and great joy, but it seems you've been showing up empty-handed.  Nothing to offer but stress, work, guilt, and burdens almost impossible to bear to 'be ready for Xmas day'.    Why, Xmas, why?  Why did you become such a load to carry when you were once such sheer joy?

You do not speak, yet your lights flicker and shine and smile back at me the same way as always, seeming to taunt.  Telling me that it is me at fault and not you.

Time has swept away my years and the many wonderful memories now seem to sting.  The past and the present war within my soul.  Present, reminding me that past cannot be relived.   Past memories do not allow for handing my mom a plate of chocolate chip cookies.  Past memories do not let me talk to my sister about Xmas preparations or bake my brother cookies and see the smile on his face when I give them to him.  Past memories do not allow for hugs.  Physical, heartfelt, joy filled hugs when you can actually be with those loved ones who are no longer a part of this world.  Past memories do not bring back the innocence and wonder you once felt as a child waiting for Santa.   They remind us that we can't go back.  They are but a stepping stone to get to the present.   

What's that you say?  I need to leave the sting of those memories in the past, it is where they belong?  

Wait.

Is that you, Christmas?

I remember seeing you on Christmas Eve night.  You brought Joy in the form of two barefoot angels who sang of Your birth.  We lit candles that night as you reminded me to "go-light-my-world".  Thank You Christmas... for reminding me also that it's not Xmas that is to blame.   


Oh Xmas, I am so sorry for blaming you for so many years.  It's not your fault.  I fell right into the hustle bustle of the season and the buy-buy-buy trap that is set for so many of us.  My joy has subsided because I have become indifferent to the materialism brought on by a false celebration of gifts.    

 Xmas, let's make amends.  Let's just relax and enjoy each moment next year for Xmas, you do indeed make my world brighter.  

But....

Christmas, IS my world!  

So, for another year I say goodbye.... and ask you to rest well this spring, summer, and fall.  If God will, I shall see you again next year and we (you and I) will live in the moment while we appreciate with heartfelt joy the stepping stones that brought us to where we are.  Let's then bury that aX and live the Christmas of giving, innocence, love, joy, peace, hope, and magic that was...  

once upon a Christmas.

Your friend,

Bobbi


Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Happy New Year!

I always enjoy that period of time between Christmas and New Years where I close down the office.  No worries.

But.  It's back to work for me.

I have proclaimed 2018 as a year for slowing down.  Not retiring,  can't afford to do that just yet.  But slowing down for sure...  I do not plan on working as hard.  Enter my new hire/daughter Lindsey.  Yep, I now have a part time employee.  Excuse me  now while I go take a nap...

HaHa!

In other news, remember the book I had published several years back, Gracie's Diary a Memoir?  Well, a very talented narrator has offered to make it into an Audiobook.  How cool is that?!  She is doing a beautiful job!  I just finished corrections for a better part of the book and am waiting for her to send me the rest.  And the great thing about it is that she has agreed to get paid for all of her work by royalty alone, once the audiobook goes on sale.

Gracie was supposed to be groomed yesterday but a water break at her place of grooming has canceled her appointment until further notice.  She is a shaggy, wonderful mess and she is loving being outside in the single digit temps - of course she is - with that thick warm coat of hers!!

No New Years resolutions here.  Just hoping to hang tight till spring, and then summer and fall...  and God willing we'll do this all over again next year.

Happy New Year All!

Stay Warm!