Sunday, February 1, 2009

WOW...What a weekend!!


FRIDAY - Girls Night Out
On Friday night a bunch of us went out to dinner and a movie: Kerry, Shannon, Erin, Jamie, Sonja (Zack's girlfriend), Jordan, Mallory, Julie (our "other" sister) and her friend Karen. We ate at Macayo's out by Arizona Mills...yummy! Then we went and saw a late showing of Taken. We originally wanted to see The Uninvited, but Shannon thought it looked too scary. It worked out okay though becaue Taken is an awesome movie and I highly recommend it. As always, we had a blast hanging out together and just being goofy. Sonja got a taste of how crazy we are and I think she still likes us! Love you girls!!!

SATURDAY - Craft Day!
Kerry, Erin and I got together today and started working on some new crafts. We have come up with some new frames we are doing and some cute little stuffed animals/monsters/things. We also talked about some other ideas we are going to be working on. Keep an eye on our website (http://www.mysassysisters.com/) and I'll hopefully have some new things on there in the next week or so. We're looking forward to our next craft show the first weekend of March. Always fun hanging with my sisters and being creative!!

















SATURDAY NIGHT- Lion King
I bought my mom tickets for Lion King for Christmas. I saw it a few years ago with Natalie and loved it and knew my mom would really enjoy it...and she did! We had pretty good seats in the lower tier and really enjoyed the performance.


SUNDAY - Super Bowl
I actually watched the Super Bowl this year and it was a great game. I really thought the Cardinals were going to be Super Bowl champs, but unfortunately the Steelers came back in the last couple of minutes and scored. The Cardinals played a great game though and Arizona should be very proud of them.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Memorial for Sandy

Today Shannon, Erin and I (we missed you Kerry) drove up to Jerome with our mom and Aunt Chris to attend a memorial for our Aunt Sandy. Her best friend Candy and some other friends had put it together to honor her life. It was very nice. A couple of the women had written songs about her and performed them. Candy put together a beautiful video montage of Sandy's life and it was so great to see all the pictures of her throughout her life. She was so beautiful! They also did a prayer circle for her and then everyone shared memories and stories. It was nice hearing other people talk about what they remembered most about her, but it always boiled down to what a caring and loving individual she was. I love you Sandy and thank you for touching my life!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve found us all at the Swartouts for one of our famous game nights. We were joined by some newbies: our new friends Leann and Ron Welton and Zach's friend Sonja. We can get a little rowdy, so hopefully they'll come back again! Julie, our "other sister", was there also but she's used to the rowdiness and actually contributes to it quite a bit!! We played Scattergories, Catch Phrase and Pictionary. It was lots of fun and a great way to ring in the new year. I look forward to many more game night get togethers in 2009.

Side note...I need to remember to bring my camera to these things. I always forget and then don't have pictures to post and my sisters are really slow in remembering to email me the pictures they took (hint hint). Just kidding...I love ya'all!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Wrap Up of 2008

It's only been 6 weeks since I started this blog and entered my first and only posting. What do you want...I'm a busy woman! Anyhow, here it is the first day of 2009 and one of my resolutions is to blog once a week. I really do think it's a great idea and a fun way to keep up with friends and family in our busy, busy lives. And it's a lot more fun than writing in a journal, which I must confess I have not done for many years.


Well 2008 was an interesting year. February found my beautiful daughter, Natalie, and her very handsome husband, Harold, being transferred from New York to San Antonio, Texas. Yea!! They made a stop in Arizona on their way to Texas and we were able to spend some time with Harold and then had Natalie with us for a few weeks while he waited for housing in Texas. I had the opportunity to drive to San Antonio with Natalie and spend a few days and had a great time. We are so very thankful that Harold returned safely from Iraq in October of '07. Our family is so proud of you!!


A big event was me and my sisters starting our little craft venture called My Sassy Sisters. We've always loved decorating and making crafts and decided to turn it into a little business. We did two craft shows which we considered pretty successful. It not only exposed us to the world of having a craft business, but we met lots of other crafters and made some new friends. One in particular, Leann Welton, has become another "other sister" in our family (Julie, don't worry...you're not being replaced). The craft shows were a blast and we had so much fun just spending time together and laughing like we always do. And the icing on the cake is that we even made a little money! We will continue to work on the business in 2009 and are planning on participating in more shows. Our BIG dream is to one day have a little store in downtown Glendale called "A Little Bit of Everything" - and Kerry I like your additional subtext of "From My Sassy Sisters and Friends". KEEP THE DREAM ALIVE!!


Our family experienced a couple of sad events in 2008 as well. Our grandmother, Grandma Ruth, had to have her leg amputated due to it receiving no circulation. She is in a care facility now and just taking things one day at a time. She has days when she's our funny little grandma that makes silly comments and makes us laugh and has bad days too. We love you Grandma!


Then on December 6th our beautiful aunt Sandy passed away...


Dedication to Sandra Sue Strong

Sandy was my mother's sister and our loving and caring aunt. I have such wonderful memories of spending time with her when I was a young girl. There were a couple of summers when she lived in Jerome and Cottonwood that I would go up and stay with her for a couple of weeks and had such great times. She taught me how to macrame, make candles and do glass cutting. She was one of the most talented people I have ever known and I think she could have done anything she put her mind to. She even owned a pizza parlor in Jerome with her friend Nicci and helped her friend Candy build a house. She was also one of the most caring people I have ever known. She genuinely loved others, especially her family and close friends. She loved the kids and so enjoyed the holidays when she could do whatever she could to make them smile. Easter was especially fun. She would go to the dollar store and buy all kinds of toys, stuffed animals and goodies for the kids. I think her favorite part was after the kids had found all the plastic eggs and she would have them open the eggs up and see what number they had. Then she would hand out the corresponding gifts. I think it was last Easter that it seemed to drag on forever, but what a joy to see how happy it made both her and the kids.


Sandy, you will always be in my heart and I take comfort in knowing you are now in a better place and with other family members that have passed on. I just hope you and Grandpa don't cause too much havoc up there! Thank you for being you and for sharing your life with us. I love you and look forward to the day when we will meet again.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

My Garden


Well, here's my first attempt at creating a blog!

I finally planted my fall garden last weekend...stocks, pansies, violas, Gerbera daisies, and some other flowers I can't remember the name of. I love looking out my back windows and seeing the beauty that God has created for us. It's a great stress reliever.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoy my garden!