Ill

Being sick is just no fun. But at least all the monkeys will be in school today so I will lie abed for hours!

TLC...are you a technique lover?

The Monday Splitcoaststampers challenge is TLC...Technique Lovers Challenge. While I enjoy the lovely images/backgrounds that techniques can produce, I am weary to do them. Either I don't have all the supplies or enough time, or a little (or a lot) of both. (In fact, I was the LSC hostess last Friday. My challenge was: TLC meets LSC. Stampers were asked to make a card using a techique that only used the basics: stamps, paper, ink.)

Today's technique was to make a glitterfied background by using glitter and a glue pad or heat n stick powder. Here is my design. (The colors are totally off. If you are an SU officiando, the colors are: pixie pink, tempting turquoise and certainly celery.)

To the Mayor of Sheffield Lake, Ohio

Subject: Kudos!

As one who grew up in Sheffield Lake and who still has ties to that community on the lake, I want to congratulate you and your staff for taking the appropriate steps and measures to gain control over Shoreway Shopping Center. My first job was at the ice cream shop, JoLee's Lil Dipper, that was located next to Pizza Hut. Then Rini Regos (now Giant Eagle) employed me. Both jobs were stepping stones as I continued my education and increased my skills as a worker. As a sophomore in high school, a group of art students and I painted store front windows of the empty stores. On my college application, I listed that endeavor as "community enhancement." I learned valuable lessons from living in a small, hometown environment. While the shopping center was always on the downward slope of decay, I found myself saddened more and more during my visits home over the last decade. If Sheffield Lake could muster up strength and rally with some hometown pride, I am sure that the city can have a renewal. As the property is cleaned up and wisely utilized, it could spark a momentum for other residents to do the same to their own homes. Then Sheffield Lake can become "Paradise," the name my parents have used to describe this bedroom community of fine neighbors. Best wishes for all that you do to improve the community. Be assured that there are several native sons and daughters, living across the United States, who are cheered by these recent events.

Sincerely,

Dawn **(daughter of Robert and Susan * of 809 W* Dr. and alumni of Forestlawn Elementary, Sheffield Middle School and Brookside High School)

Book recommendations

On Wednedays, E will be going to a library class. Last week was the first one. And boy, did I enjoy perused the shelves for a few minutes...sans kids! haha


If you have younger children and want to teach them to tell someone when someone hurts them...check out Not in Room 204 by Shannon Riggs.

So, we used it tonight during FHE. And now, if they kids are moaning and groaning, I will say "We do not complain or murmur at the Barrett Bungalow." If they start to kick and wrestle, I will say, "We do not kick and wrestle at the Barrett Bungalow." But the book does touch on sexual abuse. To which my family and siblings know..."Sometimes you just gotta yell and scream. Sometimes it's the only thing to do! Noisy as a fire truck, you just gotta open up and get the crowds attention turned to you! SCREAM!!"

I also got out a book called Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Mah. It is in the kids biography section. What a great read. Seems this author has a New York Times bestseller biography for adults called Falling Leaves that I will check out this week.



For those who are wordsmiths, please find time to read Reading the OED: One man, One year, 21,730 pages by Ammon Shea.



This author took a year to read the 12 volumes of the complete Oxford English dictionary. He had to read it 8-10 hours a day to get it down in one year. Yikes! Plus he was taking notes. So he wrote a book. The beginning of each chapter there is a little story about how or why he read it. And each chapter is a letter of the Alphabet. So in A, Shea tells a little anecdote about the process and then there are a bunch of unusual and intriging "A" words.

Like Artolator: One who worships bread. (Aka, my sister Marissa.)

But of course we all know Airlings: A person who is both young and thoughtless. LOL

The B's are better: Backfriend...ooh..we all have those: a fake friend; secret enemy. Which goes hand in hand with Fawnguest: A person who pretends to be a friend in order to steal. (Yep, I have one of those too.) Most toddlers tend to be Hindermates: a companion who hinders more than helps. Or...Night-worm: a treacherous companpion. (Yep, I'm feeling worse off for having a fawnguest in my life.)

Now it is always a pleasure when someone Bedinners me. Bedinner: to treat to dinner. (I hope that means there is a such thing as Belunch...b/c I'll be incorporating it into my vocabulary.)

Hopefully when you dance, your partner doesn't Balter to the music. As in to dance clumsily.

And if you have a Bed-swerver for a mate, then I am so sorry. It is so hard to regain trust of an unfaithful spouse.

Onward to the C-words...

Ken has a friend who is a Cachinnator and this guy is so annoying. A person who laughs too loud or too much really should get a reality check and tone it down!

Then we come to Cacozealous. A word that will definitely be used when addressing someone who is mocking me. "Badly imitating" is one of its definitions. But when someone mocks my tone, then sure, that's cause to tell him that his Cacozealous manner is hardly becoming of a gentleman.

If you lay in bed have nag your hubby, then you have just given him a Chamber-lecture. haha...that one is so pictorial!

And I can't wait to use Constult in a sentence: To act stupidly together.

Check back in later to see what D, E and F bring to my vocabulary! haha