Give a Helping Hand

I believe that GIVING is one of the best feelings in the whole world! I am not talking about giving a mountain of gifts over some random holiday, I am talking about the kind of giving that connects you to another person in a good personal way. In that helpful sharing world peace kind of way! Now the holiday time DOES bring to light the needy are always with us! Giving, even if it is the smallest of actions can help a new friend! Examples like letting an old lady cross the road while you patiently wait to drive down the road. OR saving a baby duck that got stuck on a rock away from it's squawking mama. For ALL around me I see this amazing NEED to give!!! There is no other feeling as wonderful as simply giving! Be it in giving of your time, your hugs or even a donation! I use to think that I was born in the wrong time, that I was meant for a different place in history, one where we lived in smaller friendlier communities full of helpful hope. THEN I suddenly realized I can create that sense of kindness on my own, by my own choices of how I want to live, and most importantly how I want to give! 

SOooooo GO OUT THERE and GIVE, even if it's the simplest of a smile! Give from your heart and change the whole world!  http://givesmart.cityofboise.org

My First Sewing Class

In May of last year my sister-in-law and I took a sewing class together! It was truly fun to learn and create our first summer skirt! My sister-in-law is now an "A class seamstress", with her beautiful sewing room and great focus on perfection! She has created the most amazing things since those days of our first intro class. NOW I on the other hand, am NOT a perfectionist! (sometimes wish I was) My sewing setup isn't as grand. But I have come to like my differently sewn things....(For where else would you get a ribbon slanted bed skirt? or a uneven zipper? HA! Debby must have sewn that them! YUP! SEE that is more like ME! Hmmm my sewing is... well very....Unique? hahahahahahaha
I can live with it for now,  I Love shopping in the fabric stores like Caledonia Fine Fabrics.
In Caledonia where we had our sewing class, the fun of mixed patterns and laces really makes the afternoon hours fly by as you take in all the many colors and choices! Last spring I enjoyed listening and taking in all these new things about sewing again. For growing up my mother sewed and knew these things about this amazing talent. I didn't pay attention very well as she let me play on her sewing machine, I couldn't make the items like she could so I gave up! Now I did laugh when I sat down again in front of my sewing machine for that beginner class, only to discover phantom habits of where the controls were on my mother's sewing machine. My instructor asked "What are you doing?" Without paying attention my hand moves to the back of the machine for I was in the wrong place to move up and down the "Foot" of this classroom machine. I realized that somewhere in me there are some memories of how a sewing machine works, it truly made me laugh! For my mother's sewing machine is auto fixed in my brain, sadly though her great talents are NOT!
I like to spend some time in another fabric store not far from my home called, Hancock Fabrics.  It is the very store Grandma Wilson and I got my wedding dress stuff, For there isn't a more amazing seamstress like Grandma Beth! (Sometimes I tried to think of ways to wear my wedding dress again for the wonderful comfort of it all! Grandma did a perfect job on it) Sewing is a good thing to know, it is even better when you sew right the first time, augh! I am sure after I practice more and take my time....I will do much better! 

Of course I have noticed while I am writing that I will think to myself "I should go play with my sewing machine this afternoon, practice and create something..." Then my writing continues on and I forget:-)

Pot Traveling Car

I was the only one with a trustworthy clean roomy car, I got it serviced regularly thinking that whatever this 1990 GEO metro needed, it deserved! Not only where those four little wheels checked out regularly but they were so loved by ME, I thought of that car like it was my own personal horse, as if it was up to me to protect it. In Fact, I realized that car was the only thing I owned worth ANYTHING! So I had it for 6 years without as much as just a random broken belt. Once when my roommates and friends needed to go somewhere they asked me to drive, knowing I would say "SURE" like always. They could squeeze into a french vanilla smelling car with perfectly cleaned windows and working good seat belts....
When I first filled up my little white four door car for only $9, I squealed out loud in the gas station at the register lady and hugged the stranger behind me, everyone was laughing at me but I was holding my usually already spent 20 dollar bill for my other car, a big gray tanker that sucked up gas like soda pop! NOW I was bewildered and so happy to fill my NEW car on less money! I celebrated by purchasing everything I saw at the counter for an extra treat! I knew at that moment it was pure devotion I had for my little girlie car!

Dan was Sarah's boyfriend, Sarah was the newest roommate to our 2 bedroom apartment in Caldwell Idaho, Holly and her close friend John piled into the backseat of my car along with Sarah as Dan took the front while I drove.  My car always made me proud, getting us out on to the freeway safely, Dan grabbed my dashboard as we drove along the wide open lengthy freeway, "COPS!" the other 3 people in the back gasped and began freaking "HOLY SHIT!", "FFFUCK Noooo", "OH MY GOD!" I was the ONLY one not freaking out as I drove along shaking my head chuckling "What is it about cops with you guys? Every time we see one y'all wet yourselves? Hahahaha Cops are the good guys keeping single women like us safe in our homes, hahahahaha." I lived in a different world then most street wised college aged kids my age. Dan whispered "Just drive carefully, drive safely..Debby please just keep your eyes on the road." I frowned because I was under the impression that they all wanted to go out to a big party in the country where Dan lived. And they were all going to stay there if they drank to much at least that is what I had them promise me. Being safe, being smart when at a party was all I ever preached about...so really I thought this was just a quick drop off to let them have a fun time. Suddenly, my chuckling ended as I watched my driving thinking about WHY cops would upset everyone so quickly...my connections were all coming together...and Debby's happy go lucky world went crashing down as I shouted out "What the HELL are you carrying on YOU?!?!? THIS IS MY CAR, MY RESPONSIBILITY!" Dan showed me his big bag of pot and I went off all over again, I understood it wasn't as scary as cocaine or acid, yet I was still upset to have not been told. Even though I didn't put up a fight when the pot smoking circle of people were on my patio, I would just baked chocolate chips and set out bite size candy bars before I went to bed. Caring for people even if I didn't understand why they liked doing what they did, was very important to me. So by the time I dropped them all off safely at the party, I said loud and clear just like the parent I felt I was sometimes... "You can NOT hide this from me and NEVER take anything illegal in my car again, what if they took my car away if we got pulled over? I would be crushed! YOU ALL BE SAFE Pppleaseee!" Everyone seemed to agree and promise not to repeat that situation every again. Then I drove away with a sigh of relief, thinking it's time I started paying more attention to the world around me. (This was when I did my research on all the names of drugs and what they do to your body, so I would be smart enough to know if ever I was driving a group of people right into a jail situation again)....Perhaps that is why I loved my car so much, I felt really safe in there while driving around a crazy world!

La Cafe de Paris

My husband Tony has just a few favorite restaurants in Boise that he loves to visit time and again, One of them being,
La Cafe de Paris. This is such a lovely place to enjoy a yummy dessert with coffee or some rich tasty french foods. We have enjoyed some very romantic nights here in this place, taking in the evening glow and melting into each other as we talk about the flavors in each of our dishes. We have been here at all hours of the day, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even only for dessert. We have enjoyed this place with family and friends, but some of my most favorite times have been just the 2 of us cuddling up together over my favorite dessert there called "The Melissa" It's layers of raspberries, cream and chocolate that make the matched combination with straight black coffee simply perfect, (very much like being married! Perfectly paired for life:-D)
 When it comes to a nice cozy place in Boise for a date or a group outing this cafe has been delightful over the years!

Words of the song, "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of " By U2

I'm not afraid of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find a decent melody
A song that I can sing in my own company

I never thought you were a fool
But darling, look at you
You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere, baby

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it

I will not forsake the colours that you bring
But the nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me
I still listen through your ears
And through your eyes I can see

And you are such a fool to worry like you do
I know it's tough and you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now, my oh my

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
Oh love, look at you now
You've got yourself stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it

I was unconcious, half asleep
The water is warm till you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along the stony pass
It's just a moment, this time will pass

My Dirty Laundry

There is a saying or a "Catch phrase" that even my husband uses quite often about people airing their dirty laundry. What I disagree with this is that sometimes airing "Dirty Laundry" is the only way to fix the stinking baggage in our lives. Sometimes a true friend is there to listen and help. Have you ever noticed a pile of laundry? Have you ever seen the dirty clothes get bigger in the collection? The smell after awhile gets really rank and then what happens? This laundry will cover the room! Then the whole house stinks and the fact that there is dirty laundry rotting in your home makes you never want to go back. When the situation gets out of control like this, I think it's time to take the dirty Laundry out to air! In much the same way our lives are full with crushing stories and hurtful memories that eat away at us like dirty laundry. The tough work of washing our clothes is so worth it, the scrubbing, the cleaning and the airing out bring us happiness! ( For what once was a useless clump of stinky clothes, can be worn proudly) I LOVE taking dirty laundry and watching it become clean again, hanging back up in the closest nicely and ready to go again! If we do not deal with our personal "Dirty Laundry", if we never share it or wash our emotional self of it, then how can we be renewed again? So I may totally disagree and disapprove of the "Don't air your dirty laundry" commonly used phrase because I know better, because dirty laundry itself needs to be dealt with....It isn't about bad mouthing the people you know, it's about sharing the pain you are carrying around to be helped with, to heal again. Everyone has laundry, everyone has a story that needs closer. So I say bravely "Take your dirty laundry out to washed again and then let it fly high in the fresh new warmth of a new day! Let it come clean from deep within your very soul! Let it be fixed, let it be healed! We should encourage everyone to deal with their dirty laundry! 

For have you ever smelled those sun kissed bed sheets after a hard day's work?

Meet Alison

Meet Alison, the girl I drew up one day on a white sheet of fresh clean paper, I sharpen my pencil and drew a story since I couldn't read or write. I was just a young 7 year old girl, when I sat down and drew up Alison! I have NO IDEA why her name was always Alison, I tried to change her name so many times at first, and I DID try with names like Abby or Mary. Always In mid-way of all my drawings the name I had chosen would automatically change to Alison! So I gave up, leaving her name as my main character to all my drawings. My drawings that were stories by the drawing of expressions and pictures I created. Being home schooled our school room also doubled as my brother's bedroom, when I would look up from my story I was saying out loud and drawing, both my little sister and brother would be hanging on my every word and asking to see my drawings, my pictures. While my story was going, I was lost with Alison, lost in the story world. I became a "Story Teller" with my drawings of Alison. It became a routine that whenever I sat down with fresh paper my siblings would sit on either side of me ready for a new adventure and story! I loved sharing my pictures and my story world with them. Sometimes a story would die in mid thought, or I would loose the thrill of it. Then I would stop drawing and leaving my brother and sister mad at me for not producing an ending to my story. I soon learn to not drag on the story with Alison so long, I began to always plan the ending before I knew the beginning so I wouldn't leave them upset at the unfinished story.

I talked about romance, adventure, and a whole other world I had yet to really live in. I drew Alison being pregnant or a nanny with a hundred kids. She had heroes like handsome men saving her from prison or a magical horse that rescued her from drowning. I told of stories that came to my mind or I had seen on the TV. I also drew the most amazing hair styles and never want a girl to go without beautiful red lips....This was my other world, my perfect place with pen and paper of my friend Alison. 
A place that was far better then where I really was, a story I could control and see the sparks of excitement in my siblings eyes. Whenever I saw a blank piece of paper I felt like I was "Alice in Wonderland" I felt down the "rabbit hole" in being a story teller, of seeing things differently through my imagination, where Alison never leaves me and never ages. She has returned lately once again as I draw now in my early 30s. I sit up late at night recreating her on new paper and She whispers back to me "Oh my! Look at all the places you have been! And That handsome hero you got to marry! Along with All these sunny days you can now capture and yet you still remember me......"