Tomorrow ....

I have taken the day off work, as I will be going to sit with my sister in the hospital, while her significant other (who we consider to be a very important part of our family) undergoes a very serious surgery. Tomorrow will be a very long day, and I will spend it chatting with my sister and her guy's mom, and hopefully keeping their spirits up.

There are so many things in life at this moment that are pointing to me to make sure I don't take anything for granted, and to live as much of life as I can, and try to do it in a way that I am happy, thankful and not only feel loved but to love life.

Want to send out a thankful thought to all of you:
Thank you for being a part of my life, in any small way you are ~ friends, family, or even online aquaintances all add to my day. Thank you.

A heartbreaking time .....

My friend Tammy Brownlee is going through a heartbreaking time right now,

Part of her status line on facebook:
"Tammy is grateful to have had the chance to have meet her baby boy Paul Matthew Nicholas Brownlee, born and passed on Nov. 21,2007."

She recently wrote a touching and heart wrenching note (on facebook) about the loss of her precious one, it was not only a beautiful tribute to her love, joy and sorrow connected with their little one, but it was a learning note for the rest of us. As a whole it is hard sometimes to know how to care for and act with grieving family members, and she is amazing in how she put all this across ~ and has said she wants us to grieve with her, not to be afraid or hesitate to talk and share, and not to forget how much this child meant to her and her family, and always will. I am incredibly thankful to have this beautiful woman in my life and to call her a friend, and have an incredible sorrow in my heart for her and her families loss.

To the little angel Paul Mathew Nicolas ~ you are loved.

An inspiring moment ....

I wanted to share. :-)

My friend Mona has taken some inspiration from another friend of hers to write down 7 things weekly on her blog that she is thankful for. Her lists are touching and inspiring, and have inspired me to start a little project of my own. On the weekend, I took a note pad that I have at home and decorated it up a bit, the title on the book is "My Book of Thanks". I have decided to sit at the beginning of my day and over my coffee just list one thought a day ~ my thankful thought for the day ~ haha not saying I won't think of more at the same time, but just list one a day ~ to start my day off this way.

I am in the planning stages of a plan to change some things in my life, and I thought this would be a strong positive way to get started ~ so thank you my friend Mona ~ thanks for the inspiration. :-)

Life has been full of ups and downs ......

Life is definitely full lately ` and surprisingly I am feeling very much at peace with my surroundings of late. First of all my uncle passed away last Tuesday, Oct 30 ~ and while it was sad that he had such a fight and that he was dealt a rough hand, he is peace now and the long battle (this last one lasting 3 1/2 years) has come to a close, and he is at rest. We are actually having his memorial this coming Sunday, and if it does not sound too morbid I am looking forward to it. I believe it will be a wonderful celebration of his life, and a family healing time. My Aunt has stated quite clearly "no sad", no sad anymore ~ celebrate his life, celebrate our lives. We are going to play Jazz music, laugh alot and be together ~ I think it is a fitting tribute to the man my Uncle was, and I am happy to be here and to be a part of that.

On to other parts of life I had my big 40 birthday supper on Sunday, and though I had been in a turmoil of turning 40 ~ I found once the day came and we were all there having supper ~ I was very happy. I had a bit of a time even deciding on what I wanted to do, and then who I wanted to be with me. In the end I found it to be the best evening, I had a bit of a different group around me than in years past, I mixed it up ~ all family ~ work family, friends family and family family. It felt good to have this group around me, and we enjoyed our evening at the Japanese Village ~ yum yum yum ~ it was awesome.

Looking forward to the crops this month ~ Scrapalicious is this Saturday and in a couple weeks we are heading back to the Urban for a night of laughing, eating and shopping ~ gotta love it haha. I am so enjoying this Circle Journal idea also, in two of them at the moment ~ really that is enough haha ~ and the groups are pretty laid back and easy going, and we are passing off versus mailing ~ so it has been some fun. And alot of the girls, well most ~ that I crop with at different times of the month are in them so that is so much fun.

Well I am starving off to lunch time here at work haha ~ my computer at home is once again gone on the fritz so all updating has to be done from work, good thing I have a job where I can do that ~ or I would feel so out of touch.

Hope you all have an excellent rest of the week!
Take care
Sherri

The weekend ....

Well I haven't had internet service at home for the last week, it's been quite the withdrawl believe me, so the computer has not been on as much lately. On the weekend I needed it to do some work for my CJ's which I am working hard on haha, wink wink well I am trying, and when I brought it up on Sunday ~ low and behold my internet was back! I did find it much easier to tear myself away and continue on with my work that day, so maybe a break at home is what I needed to cut that umbilical cord to my computer. It was enjoyable to work on something light and creative this weekend, kept my mood up as well as a visit from my Calgary friend Kelly-Ann that was a real treat. I was in no mood to go out to any event this weekend, not depressed or anything, just not in the mood for the bars and stuff, was happy to be at home. She was down to go out for a friends birthday, so went out both nights ~ but came and spent Saturday afternoon, and then back again Saturday evening before she went out. It was nice to just chill on the couch, eat popcorn, and chat. Greatly gave me some friend time to help with the soul ~ and she will be driving down again this coming up weekend for my 40th birthday dinner.

Yikes 40, I don't know where the time has gone ~ really, and on we go.
I want to wish everyone a safe and happy week, and if you have little ghouls out on Wednesday ~ here is hoping you have an awesome Halloween!

Very good to watch ...

this was sent to me by a good friend today ~ it is a really good watch, so please click on the link and take a few moments out of your day, it may change your day. It's a clip from an Oprah Winfrey show ~ shown on Youtube, honestly you won't regret taking some time from your day to watch this ~ I was so glad she thought of me when she saw it herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0aO64aKqek

hugs to you all

The sun is out yet ....

I am in a bit of a sad mood, it's a hard time for our family right now ~ and though I try and laugh, and create, and work and basically go through life as always ~ I find a bit of a subdued sadness in behind the scenes all the time. I know a few of my friends know that my Uncle, after going through cancer when he was in his early 30's, and it going into remission for almost 20 years, has now has been fighting the last 4-5 years again. And now he has come to the end of the fight, he has been made comfortable, my mom and aunt are with him, and will pass peacefully soon. He is not suffering at the moment, they have made it so he is out of pain ~ and this is one small mercy. Not much more to say right at this moment, I mean the world keeps going, and will. I will say from my heart, "We love you Uncle Harry, and we know you will be an awesome angel watching us, we wish you peace now."

And I thank all my friends that have given condolences, you all mean the world to me ~ I trully know we all face similar situations in many of our families, and love you all.

And life ticks on .....

I have been jumping in and reading blogs ~ thank you so much for those of you who have updated in the last century haha, some of us don't update till something major happens, or just have let their blogs go entirely. I don't always have time to sign in and comment, but I really enjoy taking a quick read about how things are going.

It was great to read all the success stories from Trisha's Cropping for Kids event in West Edmonton Mall this last weekend. She and all her many helpers did a fine job, I have heard some great comments about it, and glad that all her hard work and the work of her friends and co workers paid off. Way to go!

Okay now this gal here is going through a bit of a mini meltdown haha, and I am surprised at myself actually ~ I am turning 40 in a couple weeks and though I keep saying it's no big deal it's only a number etc etc. I find myself having little mini meltdowns lately, and it has put me into a deep think more than once, thinking about where I am in life, how my family and friend relationships are developing and growing, and where I want to be going in life.

I am so pleased that I started joining some friends on a regular monthly basis to do a little scrapbooking together, though our Friday night crops seem to be more full of food, laughter and chatting, it is very very good for my soul ~ I feel very blessed to have these wonderful people in my life, and look forward to spending more time with them in the future. I so enjoyed Andrea joining us at the last Urban crop evening, she is a hoot ~ and fits in very nicely with our laugh more than cut group haha.

I am starting back to my Simply Suppers sessions - to find out more about what that go to www.simplysupper.ca so I am really looking forward to that also. I need some help in the supper creativity department and this fits the bill nicely.

I so enjoy my little get outs and visits with my friend Dawn, though I wouldn't want to get too mushy about it haha ~ those hours I can steal her away from her hubby and little guy are so looked forward to. We lose track of time, and never seem to run out of convo ~ and really that time is special and precious to me. I haven't always had good coffee friends, and it has only been a handful of years that I have been scrapbooking ~ and I can't say enough that some of the ladies I have met through this hobby we call art ~ are very important parts of my day, and I feel blessed.

As you can see my age is also making me thoughtful haha, already starting to drift off into reminicing hee hee. Honestly tonight is Friday, it is the night of our crop at the Urban ~ and I can't think of anywhere I would rather be than sitting among this group of ladies and sharing our days, laughing at everything, and refilling our souls up to get back at it.

And Laura ~ I do hope we can figure a time for you to come and join us soon, maybe out to a Saturday crop in Sherwood Park (the free one that has started up again) hee hee - You would so enjoy yourself, and I would love to meet you face to face!

Take care all and have a great weekend!
hugs