Friday, June 24, 2016

NBA CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD!!

Yep, we did it! My city of Cleveland is ecstatic and proud beyond words. Let me explain in the words of Ryan Saridakis's from his Facebook post on Monday...

"Calm down, It's just a game"
To the rest of the country, allow me to explain. You have to be from Cleveland to truly understand how this title transcends far beyond the game of basketball. Anybody from here understands that regardless of race, sexuality, gender, age, religion or political beliefs; the one thing we all share in common is our undying love and loyalty for our sport teams. Even the horrible ones. Winning this championship has brought an entirely new layer to the existing bond that we all currently shared. So many of us have patiently waited 5 decades to witness something that we truly believed may never happen. But we kept our faith, and supported anyways.
Now I've been blessed enough to say that I've traveled to almost every major city in the country. One thing I've always noticed is, whenever two Clevelanders see each other in a different state or airport, there's an instant bond, shout out, handshake, smirk or smile simply because there's a brotherhood type of chemistry that connects us beyond our geographic location. You don't see that when two people from say, South Carolina meet each other in Ohio. That's what makes Cleveland, Ohio so special. The connection and the love we share for our city.
It's because of everything we've been through as a community. Big fires, school shootings, kidnappings, major companies leaving, LTV steel, a major sports franchise skipping town, real estate markets crashing, murder rates rising and businesses folding. Until now, we've only bonded through tragedy. We've taken blow after blow after blow in every area across the board. You name it, we failed at it. It got very scary here from 2008-2012. But In the midst of all of these shortcomings, we rose up and grew from it. This championship, exactly how it happened, showed the entire world that our city CAN, and WILL prevail against all odds, literally. No other city has ever collectively felt the immense amount of love and joy that we did last night, and still do today.
It's really a Cleveland thing. We don't expect you to understand.
I can't believe we won! And most of all, I can't believe how this city handled the win. EVERYONE ran into the streets shouting, hugging, screaming and celebrating and not one negative incident...not one! People were giving the police high fives and hugging, crying and sharing the most magical thing that has happened to Cleveland in 52 years! I'll share some amazing photos of the parade...
1.5 million Clevelanders waiting for the parade

In front of St. John's Cathedral

A couple pics of the parade...
The parade
The parade



4 of Cleveland's finest
Now this is a very cool story, this young man wanted to see Kyrie so bad but was obviously too low to the ground for that to happen, so people lifted him up so he could see! How cool is that??
This Nike commercial released right after the game, captures the anticipation leading up to the final buzzer...




So, I think I've rambled on enough about CLEVELAND WINNING THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP! I did not go to the parade, partly because I had to work (but if anyone had asked me, I would have gone). 
Now I'm getting ready for a garage sale tomorrow. I've some other things I want to share, possibly this weekend. 
As always....

Friday, June 17, 2016

Hello...

Hi,
A lot is happening in the world right now. Two tragedy's in Florida. A gunman shot and killed 50 people at a LGBTQ bar/nightclub. The gun laws in our country need to change and need to change fast. My heart goes out to the families of all those people.
Then a two year old at a resort hotel near Disney was grabbed by an alligator and pulled into the water and died. They did find the body of the baby and they're doing an autopsy. My heart cries out for those parents of the toddler, who will live the rest of their lives in pain. I CANNOT and WOULD NOT even try to understand the devastating, heart wrenching agony they are feeling right now.  It's incomprehensible.

What's happening in MY corner of the world is, the Cav's came back from a 3-1 deficit to the Warriors in the finals. It's now 3-3 and they'll play for the NBA championship (which they've never won) on Sunday...GO CAV'S!! Now I'm not going to pretend I'm a fan. I am not really. I don't like many sports except soccer but I do LOVE the city I live in!

Our fans, I've said it before and I'll say it again, there are NO FANS out there LIKE CLEVELAND FANS!!!



I really feel for the fans of Cleveland. I've lived here now for almost 30 years and I've watched with anguish the fans when our teams lose, whether it's the Indians, Browns or Cavs they can't get a championship and they can't get a break. There's a bet between Paul and Steve that if either the Indians or the Browns win a championship, they'll both get tattoos. Now, really? Do they believe they'll ever get tattoos? They keep hoping and rooting for their teams though. Just like all the other Cleveland Fans. I remember when the owner of the Brown's Art Modell, decided to relocate the Browns to Baltimore in 1995. Oh my God! Fans went down to the stadium and ripped the paid for season seat chairs that were bolted to the ground right up and took them home. It was an awful time for Cleveland and I felt so bad for this city. They LOVED their losing Browns.

I was pissed, really pissed when Lebron left the Cavs. I watched as my kids posted pictures of themselves dressed in their Lebron jersey's standing in front of the Q waiting for Lebron to make the announcement of whether or not he'll stay. I was bitter because I watched my family, well my whole city in mourning! I watched grown men and women cry! I watched fans burn Lebron jerseys.

Well, Lebron came back and this city is once again hyped up! And I mean HYPED! They want a championship so bad they can taste it. Businesses are waving signs and employees are dressed in their best fan gear they can find. My friend and I walk nearly everyday and over near her house is a beautiful neighborhood with manicured lawns you wouldn't believe. And there, mowed in the front lawn of one house is ALL IN! Their next door neighbor has a basketball mowed in their lawn.

C'MON CAV'S!! LET'S DO THIS!! LET'S DO THIS FOR CLEVELAND!!


I hope the Cav's win on Sunday and I hope you (wherever you are) have a great weekend! As always...



Sunday, June 12, 2016

Random

Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog. I know I posted yesterday but I'm so excited about a couple of things, I wanted to share....

The chairs are DONE! Yay! Paul finished them up for me. He didn't like the spray paint as much as I do but he did use it.

Now I'll get some pretty chair pads for them
When it says + Primer, don't believe it!
Now this little spray can trigger attachment is so helpful...why didn't I think of this??
I'm so jazzed I finished a layout today! I forgot how fun it was to just scrap a page and I think I'm going to start doing it more often, we'll see...

I know you can't see it real well but some of the background flowers are glittery! For the title, cats and yarn I used my birthday present from Paul, a Cricut Explore Air (oh my is this thing amazing)!  


About a week after our other clematis started blooming, the one on the front arbor started. The flowers are gorgeous...


Well, that's all for now. As always...


Saturday, June 11, 2016

Happy Birthday!!

Yep, it's my birthday! Funny story, yesterday I ordered lunch at the Thai restaurant across the street from where I work. When I went in there, I said hi to the guy at the counter and asked how his day was going. He said okay except he hates all the new technology. I kind of try to embrace it and I'm desperately trying to stay caught up. This morning the grands, Logan and Emmy Face timed with me while Eric was driving them to the pool. That fascinates me! I LOVE the fact that I can get on a plane in one time zone and phone automatically changes when we cross that zone, even if we're driving!
I just got on my computer this afternoon and on my homepage even Google knows it's my birthday...


Pretty sweet huh? (I know it's because I have gmail but still).

This morning I went to my friend Lydia's and we walked 3 miles. We've been walking every morning now for a few weeks. I want to up my exercising though. I look in the mirror and see my mom in her late 50's and I feel old...really old.
I won't go on and on about it though. Paul took me to Crocker Park this morning and we walked around the art show. Usually we find something we like but today we weren't feeling it. I sometimes buy earrings but the prices were outrageous. We did stop and look at the menu for Burntwood Tavern so Paul's taking me there for dinner. Hopefully we don't need reservations.

I went to Jenn's Tuesday and part of Wednesday and helped her with her centerpieces. They turned out really nice...



She took me to the venue and it's lovely. Right on the Maumee River called Thompson Stone Hall, in Bowling Green.

I've been wanting to get some pretty chair cushions for the rockers out on the front porch but we've had those for so long, the wood is really wearing and splitting etc. Well, silly me I got adventurous and decided to paint them! Insert frown and wide eyed emoji's here. Here are the old rockers where I'm starting to paint them..



I found some spray paint that has primer in it...wrong. I guess it does but not enough to work on these. So back to Home Depot I went to get primer and some more paint. I was wishing we had just gone to Cracker Barrel and got a new set, but Paul reminded me that when we bought these, we didn't like the comfort of the ones at Cracker Barrel (or the price I don't think) and we went to Amish Country south of us and bought these along with the front porch swing at the old house. I'm thinking if these don't work, maybe I can talk him into taking a little road trip..keep your fingers crossed (for the road trip, not the chairs LOL).

Earlier in the week went to Aunt Donna's and picked up a finch feeder she wanted us to have since she's moved. I had it with the other feeders and didn't see one finch. Paul thought maybe it was because the other feeders have large birds, woodpeckers and blue jays etc. that perhaps they were a bit intimidated. So we moved the feeder and lo and behold...

Kind of blurry but they're back there


Well, I'm going to go play in my scrap room for a while. I'll leave you with a photo of my sweet Tobycat enjoying some sunshine...


As always....

Friday, June 3, 2016

It's June!

Wow is this summer going by fast! It probably feels that way because we went from freezing to summer heat, we didn't get a nice mild spring. Oh well.

Here's a few pics of our first camping trip with the new camper. The camper was great! Perfect size for us and the fridge worked great (our last camper the fridge didn't work). Even the heater was nice since it was in the 40's at night. Of course the second night, Paul decided to use a space heater (insert shocked emoji) and Brandy and I froze. I think he thought maybe the propane would run out. Who knows.

It's been a few years since we went to Findlay State Park and we DID NOT KNOW they changed the campsite numbers around. Usually when we go camping, we walk around and check out the different sites and which ones we would like to use in the future and we write them down. So needless to say, the site we picked was not the site we got! I was really disappointed in the park itself. They're doing construction down one of the streets and putting in paved pads and since it rained, there was mud everywhere! There was a bathroom half way down our cul-de-sac but of course it was closed so we had to walk over where the muddy road was. Then the ladies latrine ran out of hand sanitizer Friday night and they didn't replace it!

Since it rained all day Saturday, Steve took Paul fishing early in the morning but I didn't want to go in the rain. I wasn't a happy camper then.



Our little camping sign Eric made for us (when we had the other camper). He did an awesome job, we love it! 





Paul caught the first fish :)
Steve's quite the fisherman!




We ate good! Besides the burgers and dogs, I made some mac n cheese to die for (I love Pinterest for camping food) and we had walking tacos. Instead of making them in the bags of Doritos, we put ours in bowls..yummm!




So all in all it was an okay trip. It was a practice run with the new camper and after we figure out where we're going to keep everything, and get a set up system going it will be fine.

We have some pretty irises blooming...




I finished two more walker bags, one for Aunt Gert and one for Aunt Jane...



And...more postcards are arriving. They may be boring to you and that's okay, feel free to skip right over them.


Latvia

Thailand (one of my favorites)

Taiwan 1 ~ another favorite
Taiwan 2

I'm off today so I'm hoping to get a scrapbook page done. I got an early birthday present from Paul, a Cricut Explore Air and I can't wait to play with it. 

As always...