So My friend Shannon's blog reminded me of how old I am getting! Seriously, the four of us got to out Friday night and I am sporting one of those white icy hot sicky pads on my back. I have been wearing these more and more lately and when my husband first caught a glimps on one peeking out from above my pants he thought it was underwear! seriously he was a little worried my Mormon friends had influenced me a little too much. I think he was relieved it wasn't underwear, just his wife reeking of menthol from her removable icy hot pad. So I have been hobbling around with an arthritic back and aching knees this week and how old am I? Oh yeah back to the hot Friday night. So I am sporty my icy hot pad and we go back to Dave and Shannon's after dinner to play games. Ah like the good old days when we lived next door and would put the kids to bed, set up the intercom in the kids room and sneak over next door to play games late into the night. Well, this time I lasted till about 9:00pm thinking it was 11:00pm. I could barely focus so needless to say we were able to get the kids to bed at a decent time. Oh man - what it happening to me?! :-)

WOW - I actually had to be told to go look at a thread someone posted about me. Erin, fellow Garage Girl just blew me away. Me an inspiration really?? And what is so odd about this is that I have been thinking that I am a "Jonathan" to a lot of "Davids". If you are not familiar with the Bible - Jonathan and David were best buds but Jonathan was more in the background to David. David had all the drama in his life and all the attention but Jonathan was just kind of there being a good friend, a good support and a cheerleader for David. He believed in him and was so loyal. So a lot of the time I feel like a Jonathan. Yeah I may have some talents but I never really am great at one thing. I have been blessed to have people around me that are really great but I always feel I am "off" just a tad - not quite making it there. I try not to get too frustrated by it. It's good to be a cheerleader right? Another friend told me not too long ago they would "pay to have a little of the talent I have" and I was thinking what? Are you crazy - I am just good at figuring things out and doing what I can. But she was talented too just not in the ways I am. And that is the point. Everyone has a talent to share and everyone needs to have that encouragement. I would never want anyone to feel that they are not good enough or nothing is special about them or what they can do. Sometimes in the wacky scrapbooking world this happens. People aren't "in" or "known". I think that is why I subconsciously do not remember "who is who" in the scrapbooking world. I think everyone has something to offer that is awesome even if they aren't in magazines or in the spotlight. If I get any recognition, I just want to turn it into encouraging others to create and be happy with what they can do and not compare themselves to others. I better get off my soapbox now. See what you started Erin! :-)

Time to change out the calendar to February and I pulled out an old Garage Girl layout I did - thought it looked Valentinish. So far so good with the chipboard dates. Here is a pic of the first socks I finished for those of my knitting friends who wanted to see them. I had heard that once you wear knitted socks you will never go back to regular ones. Not sure if I agree with that or at least with this pair. They are nice but I knitted them on bigger needles so I can "feel" the stitches when I walk. But that hasn't stopped me from starting another pair! Here is the new pair I am working on and it will take me a skein per sock - yikes!! I thought I could get two out of one but it doesn't look like that will happen and I broke the cardinal rule of not buying enough the first time and the store is out so I am sure I can find it online.

New layouts for the Garage. We had taken a long break over the holiday so it was nice to get back into doing layouts again. It seems it's easier for me to get them done when I have a deadline!

So I was a proud Mommy last Friday when I found out both our boys won ribbons at school. Timmy's was for Academic Achievement and Tyler's was for Most Improved. We had known that Tyler was going to get one but Timmy thought the note that was being sent home was a report card so he didn't tell us. I was proud anyway and we had to celebrate with ice cream at Baskin N Robbins.

Oh and an update to the friend in the hospital- he was released last Friday so he and his wife are getting back to normal life.

I wasn't sure what to type as an update to my blog so here goes! I went to my church's women's retreat last weekend with my friend Susan (and also Julie was supposed to go but that will be explained later). It was up in the the Santa Cruz Mtns (Boulder Creek for those of you who know where that is). I think I was expecting some profound spiritual thing to happen but really it was just a nice time which some weird incidents thrown in. Susan, Julie and were supposed to all drive up there together but Rob (who is our friend and my husband's boss) had to work late so Susan and I left and Julie was supposed to meet us. That turned into her meeting us Saturday morning instead but then she got a call from her husband who was sick with the "stomach flu" and so she had to turn around and go back home. Meanwhile Susan and I got to play some great tennis on a beautiful day at the Boulder Creek Country club which their version of a country club is a bar - no joke. Since my phone wouldn't work in the Mtns, I decided to give Julie a call on my way home on Sunday. She answers the phone crying and they are in the hospital. Rob's stomach flu was an appendicitis which later infected his whole insides. I'll spare you the gory details but I picked up their boys and we had a slumber party Sunday night and we have been making treks to the hospital in Gilroy visiting them (he probably will be there a total of 5 days or more). So that just goes to show you never know what life will throw you. Also it goes to show that some friends you have known so long that they are like family and so when things like this happen you do drop everything and try to help with whatever they need. Rob and Matt have known each other since the early 90s when they met and decided to form a band. Rob came out from Arkansas and has been here ever since. Then I came along shortly after and all three of us have known each other forever with a whole lot of history inbetween. His wife Julie and I have become close to it makes the circle complete. I know that they would do the same for us if we were in their situation and it is good to know you have friends like that.

Wow - the Willow Glen Elem PTA sure knows how to throw a Part-tay! It took us a while to finally decide that we were going and I was shocked that the place was packed and full of stuff to do (would not have had this at the boy's old school). There were carnival type games, contests like limbo and pie eating, snacks and even a mother and son dance. What was most interesting is how both my boys reacted.

Timmy - well he will just about do anything with no hesitation. He did ALL the contests and tried to get me to do the pie eating contest but I just could not bring myself to do it. He even danced with me - which he has a long way to go but it was very sweet. He even danced by himself and I can totally see him being the life of the party. He has this confidence to try new things that I wish I had more of.

Tyler - I so can relate to Tyler. He likes the party but more from a sideline view. He didn't want to do any of the contests and made quick trips to the snack table nervously eating snacks. He did get into playing air hockey once he figured out how not to get passed up in line. He would not dance with me - way to embarrassing for him. We did have fun playing foosball together and he had fun as well. It lasted 2 hours and they had to kick us all out. I am glad we decided to go.

We all had fun and it actually really touched me. Seeing both my boys in that kind of situation really made it clear to me their differences and how I need to be sensitive to both and what I need to to do encourage both of them in totally different ways.