Another Birthday Celebration at the Lavender Bleu Tea Room

Wouldn't you say 98 is a pretty impressive number to reach in your living on this earth?  Well, this is a picture of Marie, she is my friend's mother and on July 11 she will officially be 98!  She is an awesome person, really incredible what she does at this age.  She keeps up on all her stretching and moving and walking...she reads her bible every day and several newspapers, too!

She had a slice of quiche, a scone and some fruit, plus a little dessert with a candle for her birthday! Three other friends joined me in celebrating this day with Marie.  Sitting next to Marie is someone from her church, she is 20 years younger than Marie..a mere 78!!  She is in charge of the "Amazing Gray's" bible study group at her church...do you get the idea that all those in this bible study have "gray hair"?  That is a pretty clever title, I think!  Standing from the right is Mary's friend Karen and then Linda, who lives two doors down from Mary and Marie (Marie moved out here from the Chicago area two years ago).  Linda has earned her wings...yes for the last two years that Marie has been living with her daughter, Linda goes over every week day and helps Marie get her compression socks on and makes sure she gets down the stairs and is seated at the table for her morning meal.  Linda gets the summer off as Mary is a kindergarten teacher, so she takes over during the summer and any school holidays!  I pitch in for Linda whenever she is out of town or has an appointment.  But mostly Linda lovingly takes this responsibility and Mary is forever grateful to her!

We had a delightful time enjoying each others company and the delicious food that is served!  What a great place for lady friends to meet and spend the afternoon!

53 year Friendship

Toni, Peggy, Nancy, me, Linda, Maria, Judy....we met at the Lavender Bleu shop in Willamette, they have a delightful "Tea Room" and they serve the most delicious lunch.  My friend Linda came down for 4 days for a visit and I planned this little reunion for us because we all went to Medjugorje last May and even though I see these ladies all the time from church, Linda does not.  It was really good to get together and catch up with each other.

Linda and I have been friends for 53 years...we went to St. Edward's together and she lived just up the street from me, so we would walk home from school together and soon we became BFF's!  In junior high, her family moved to Des Moines, WA and so we had to settle for weekend visits and extended weeks in the summer.  Our friendship continued and thrived, even through my move down to Milwaukie, OR.  I was in her wedding and she was my Matron of Honor.  She had two boys, I had two girls....and on it went. 

We share the same faith and the same love of paper crafting!  We spent nearly all four days sitting in the craft room making cards.  We would inspire each other and encourage and make fun of, and be silly and laugh ourselves into fits of hysteria.  We had such a wonderful time this visit.  And we got a lot accomplished, I must say!

With her encouragement and her own card inspiration, she helped me to take a hold of the more professional 'markers' and color!  She finally said to me,  "Okay now I am jealous because you are really coloring great!"
It is so fantastic to have a girl friend that you can totally be yourself with and be silly and nutty and crazy and laugh until your sides hurt...that is what BFF's are right?

So here are a few of the cards that I made while she was here...

I hope we don't have to wait a year before we are able to get back together and create and laugh again.

Visiting a piece of Heaven

My good friend, Liz invited me and another friend, Becky to her house for a little luncheon and special 'girlfriend' time....you know, talk...talk....talk....whatever is on our minds.  We can go for hours and we did this time too!  We spent four hours and most likely could have gone much longer...one of these days we will have to have a sleep over!  Oh, we are going to do just that in September with 4 other girlfriends that we graduated with from high school.  Now that is going to be one fun weekend!

Back to the story...Liz lives out in Colton and is surrouned by 40 acres.  Twenty belong to her and 20 to her parents so you can indeed picture that she lives in her own park (that is what she says!)  I say it is a bit of paradise...set off the road, up a slight incline, horses in the field in front of her house, special little handmade artsy items placed strategically in her yard, tall fir trees, tree houses for the once young children of the house,  a very peaceful and beautiful setting.                        
                                                                                                                                                               This little house was built with wood they cut and milled from their property...it is a little 'playhouse' just waiting for grandchildren!!  It has two raised platforms for beds for the little ones.  What a wonderful place to grow up!