Hold Dear

dang!

Just got to work and realized I left my beautiful lunch at home! Don't you hate when that happens!!!!

On a more positive note...I took some good pictures of my studio last night. I swear, EVERYTIME I go in to that room, I rearrange. Must. Get. Grip.

Later....

Happy Monday...

Thought I'd take a few minutes to do a little rambling. Join me...won't you? :-)

Nothing earth shattering going on...just lots of homework and happiness, i.e., crafts.

My math class has proved the theory that for every one hour of class time, you should allow two hours of homework. This is SO TRUE! Lots of homework but you know what? I am LOVIN' it! I just love using my brain. Mental stretching. So much of what I'm learning right now is pretty much refresher so it's not that difficult but (pause here for effect), it's stuff I haven't used in 35 - 25 years!!! Next chapter is fractions! How fun!

One of the fun things about this class are the other students. There is a core group that are there to learn. We are the ones that ask and answer the questions. We are the older ones that work full-time AND are going to school. We have tremendous incentive to do well because we know it's not about a good grade (although I am shooting for an 'A') but about the education. I am a NERD and am proud of it!

I have also had some fun craft adventures. I had a Stampin' Up party and the party was extremely successful! I just love my crafty friends! The total sales ended up being over $800 so I got something like $130 worth of free stuff PLUS lots of free stamp sets PLUS I got a free stamp pad because I had some outside orders! So cool. If you like stamping and haven't heard of Stampin' Up, check it out here. You'll be glad you did!

This past Saturday I went to the "Celebrate! Portland" event at the Oregon Convention Center. It is organized by Creative Memories and is an all day scrap 'til you crap kind of thing. I love it because not only do I get a whole day of scrapbooking and hanging out with my friends, but it also is the incentive I need to organize my pictures and memorabilla. I realized that I should have been the one to invent this whole scrapbooking craze because I was scrapbooking way back when and just didn't realize it. It is cool because I have scrapbooked events like my wedding and our trip to Hawaii from 1986 and I have all those crazy bits like receipts, soveniers, napkins, cards that I can include because I saved all that stuff! I just wish I could take a year off of work so I could get all caught up! I still have all of Miranda's school memorabilla do scrapbook. When Glen and I were first married, I was real good about putting pictures in albums but I think the last thing that I worked on was our trip to Yosemite in about 1988. Eeeeekkkkk!!!!!

So Saturday night, after I got home from scrapbooking all day, I was exhausted. I'm not sure how sitting around all day can exhaust a person but it does...this was my fourth year going to this event and it always wipes me out. Anyways, Miranda was out doing her thing and so Glen and I just settle down with some dinner (pasta and green beans) and we finally watched a movie that my friend Becky let me borrow...Finding Neverland. Have you seen this movie? Oh...I just loved it! I cried, of course! But not just at the end (won't give it away). I cried at the development of the characters. At their tenderness and vulnerability. So beautiful and enlightening. The little boy that plays Peter is SO wonderful. Such a full performance! Glen was watching me cry and said something that just made me feel good. He said, "I love that you can watch a movie and get so much from it." Well I got a lot out of it so I highly recommend this movie.

In other news, I found .06 cents a few days ago so I'm up to .73 cents so far for 2006!

Also, yesterday was Sunday and so we pulled out one of the "52 Reasons Why I Love You." Yesterday's was, "I love you because you took me to England and Scotland." Yep, Glen's a pretty cool guy. I think I'll get those posted up here so over the course of the year, we can watch them all play out!

Well love you lots and hope you find something you didn't know you lost today.

MY American Idol...

EEEEEEEeeeeeee....here I am with my scrapbooking idol...Ali Edwards!

Ali Edwards...a name known worldwide in the scrapbooking world. She is our Lance Armstrong. I visit a few blogs (just about) everyday and her's is always my first stop. Ali is an inspiration...not just artisitically but also in her perspective of the world. She teaches scrapbooking classes and so far I have been LUCKY enough to attend two of them! I should post the projects that I have made in her classes. Talented, original, and completely devoted to her family, celebrating and enjoying life not to mention that she is such a kind, generous, and gracious soul. Attending one of her classes is totally just like hanging out with one of your best pals. She also wrote a book about scrapbooking and has a column in Creating Keepsakes magazine (monthly scrapbooking magazine) so even when I don't have one of her classes on the horizon, I can still get my Ali fix!

So who's your American Idol!

I ARE A STUDENT!

Well last week, Tues Jan 10 to be exact, was the first day of school.

When I walked into Math 20 (Fundamentals of Mathematics), it wasn't just a class. It was the beginning. My beginning. My beginning of the long, happy journey I have dreamed of undertaking ever since I graduated high school. Of course, my ultimate goal is to obtain a degree but at this point in my life, I know that I am going to get more out of the journey. All that learning. All that mind expansion. That makes me smile.

The fact that my first class is basic math tells me that my mind clearly needs some expanding. But you know what, I have spoken to two other people in my class who are in the same boat as I am. They work full-time, decided to start school and this is their first class. Both said they scored high in reading and writing but scrapped the bottom in math. Is that indicative of the fact that we really don't do a lot of math in the real world? Could be...but I think it's more that we DON'T have to do math in the real world. Calculators and Excel do the math for us. The most math I do on any regular basis is figuring 20% of a bill for the tip! I try to do math in the real world such as figuring out if it's cheaper to buy 5 lbs. of oranges at $3.00 or buy 5 lbs. of loose oranges at .89 a lb. I rarely find opportunity to figure out if x times y = z then does x2 times y3 = z2 and x3 times y4 = z2? Yeah, the placement test was that kind of crap....I knew I was a goner when I saw all those friggin' "to the power of" things. I even took all the practice tests but there was NO CLUE about that junk. If I had thought more about it, I might have been able to figure some of it out but I just choked!

Oh well, I scored well in Reading and Writing. Good thing...I do those on a regular basis! :-)

Love you and hope something made you smile EXTRA BIG today!

Close One!

Whew ... I ALMOST broke one of my New Year's Resolutions the other day. I was in Borders Express and ALMOST bought a new book. It just sounded SO good and entertaining. "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell. AND it was 50% off. Absolutely unheard of that I would walk away from that. But...I am very determined to make a dent in the bag of books that I have picked up here and there...mostly from Goodwill...before I buy or borrow any more.  Here is a small sampling of the wonderful books I have in my possession just waiting for me to read (the first four are next but after that, no particular order):

• East of Eden - John Steinbeck (started but haven't finished)
• Sea Biscuit (borrowed) - (started but haven't finished)
• In Praise of Slowness (started but haven't finished) - Carl Honore
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (borrowed) - Ann Bashares
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
• Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky
• The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight - Thom Hartmann
• Natural Cures - Kevin Trudeau
• Wicked - Gregory Maguire
• Harvest for Hope - Jane Goodall
• The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan
• Sacred Cows at the Public Trough - Denzel and Nancy Ferguson
• A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar (LOVED the movie!)
• The Human Stain - Philip Roth
• The Red Tent - Anita Diamant
• At the Root of This Longing - Carol Lee Flinders
• Essential Lewis and Clark - Landon Y. Jones
• Letters of a Woman Homesteader - Elinore Pruitt Stewart
• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding
• The Hundred Secret Senses - Amy Tan (LOVED The Kitchen God's Wife!)
• There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem - Wayne Dyer
• Nothing is Impossible - Christopher Reeve (I know I'm going to cry with this one...I LOVED Christopher Reeve)

So you see...I could be stranded on a desert island with my books and be happy for a full year before I looked up and noticed anything was amiss. I just love to read. And I already know, that after I read everything I'm ever going to read, I will then re-read Jane Erye and that will be my last book. My all-time favorite...well, so far anyways.

Love you!

52 Reasons....

ATTENTION 21 DAY CHALLENGE FRIENDS:

D'oh! I messed up my post on Rhonna's blog...please click here to get to Day One of 21 Day Challenge!!!

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I have advertised lately that money is tight for the Gellers. I mean, we're not going to be losing the house or the car any time soon and c'mon, Glen does have an airplane that he keeps in a hanger so I actually probably sound silly and selfish when I say things are tight. But in our world, we have had to trim a few corners to make sure we can protect our investments (the house, the plane, the car).

A GOOD THING our tight budget did was that it forced us to cut WAY BACK on Christmas this year. We bought Miranda a few goodies (bless her heart --  her list consisted of under garments, a few carefully chosen books, and an Slingshot organizer for school) but Glen and I did not exchange gifts like we usually do. Santa brought us both a couple of books and he brought me a gift certificate for Victoria's Secret (again with the undergarments!) but that was it.

About a week before Christmas, I was listening to a radio station and the DJ was talking about how her husband was out of work ...that got my attention! She was saying that they didn't have money for their usual Christmas this year ...I turned it up at this point! Listeners started calling into the station and gave her ideas for gifts that cost pretty much nothing. One of those ideas was something called "52 Memories." You take a jar and write out on 52 separate slips of paper memories that the family has shared together. Well I decided to take that idea and turn it into something a little different. I wrote out on 52 slips of paper "Reasons Why I Love You." I thought it turned out pretty darn cute, even if I do say so myself. I gave this to Glen for Christmas and he said it was his favoritist gift! Mission accomplished! :-) Instead of folding each slip of paper, I curled them so it looks like ribbon (I think). I used some construction paper that I had around and a large canning jar leftover from when I tried to can green beans. Made some funny little tags and here you go...

Glen opens it up each Sunday evening and pulls out a slip, reads it, and I elaborate on why that's one of the 52 reasons why I love him. So far, the reasons he's pulled have been:

42. I love you because you treat me with respect.

26. I love you because you take care of the cars.

And last night he pulled:

10. I love you because you support my veganism.

I did this for Glen because he makes me so very happy.

Okay so having gone through this super lean Christmas, I want to say that this ended up being a VERY NICE Christmas for Glen, Miranda, and I. For some reason, I burnt out VERY early in the season (probably from hustling to make journals for the bazaar) and once I resigned myself to just kick back and not be stressed about trying to make homemade gifts for my dear family (can you say overachiever?) and go with the flow, I really enjoyed it all. It was at THAT POINT that I finally got around to doing a bit of decorating (never did buy a tree though). All in all, I LOVED the minimal Christmas. I was able to dedicate more time to doing nothing. I LOVE doing nothing and being quiet. It's in the quiet when I do my best thinking and realizations and appreciations. And then the culmination of all this being that I hung out all day in my little art studio in my jammies on Christmas day with the people I love SO MUCH napping in the house. On that day, the quiet in this house never sounded so good. :-)

Bye bye for now! Can you name a reason why I love YOU?

Happy Birthday

83 years ago today, two very important people were born into the world.

The first one was my father, Theodore Augustus Wyke. Born on January 5,
1923 in Hanford, California to Edward Thomas Wyke and Kathryn Almina
Russell.

My daddy....the sweetest, kindest, tenderest person I knew. Growing up,
I might not have described him with these words, but certainly, as a
grown woman and mother, this was how I came to know him.
My best memory of my Daddy is this ... once I was grown and on my own,
in EVERY single conversation I ever had with him , we always said "I
Love You.' That is something I will always be thankful for. No man was ever loved more.

I remember when I would call him and tell him I was coming to visit, he would say "Oh that's wonderful honey, what do you want for dinner?" The man LOVED to cook and he LOVED to eat.

And oh he would have been proud of our New Year's Eve dinner...sushi (vegan, of course!) The meal turned out wonderful! Miranda made most of it...thank you Grrgrr!

After Daddy died, I learned so many things about him. He was in a play when he was in high school. Huh? When he was in the Air Force, he traveled to the Phillipines and Bornea. I never knew anything about these times in his life.

There was still so much to learn from him. He died on 11/28/95. A Tuesday, four days after Thanksgiving. That was the last time I spoke to him. Our last exchange was "I Love You Daddy," "I Love You ShellShell." I think of him every day. I miss him.

Also born on 1/5/23 was Glen's Mom. She was one classy dame. Always gracious, always true, always genuine, always kind. She hated garlic and bugs but that was all she hated. She only saw beauty in the world. She brought out the best in people. She made friends EVERYWHERE she went. She had a charm about her and she endeared herself to anyone she ever met. I am a better person for having had her in my life and I am SO grateful Miranda had a chance to love her and know her.

Claire died this past year at the age of 82 on Sunday, April 10. I will forever treasure a handwritten note I have from Claire. It reads, "You are a shining example of the modern woman: bright, accomplished, modest, caring, and beautiful." I cry (like I'm doing now) when I think that this woman, whom I respected and loved so much, saw me this way.

I love you and hope you have some special memories that will help lift your spirits and get you through the day. Somedays the burden feels heavier than others. I wish us all comfort and I wish us strength.

New Year's Resolutions

I have been carrying around my list of New Year's Resolutions (aka Intentions), adding to it, re-creating it...so I thought I'd just post the list so it would all be in one place.

In no particular order....

• Glen and I prepare and notarize wills
• Get caught up on personal filing (bills, receipts, clippings, etc.)
• Start school {can check this baby off my list --- start next Tuesday!!!}
• Get good grades in school
• Turn my job into something that makes me happy
• Be green as much as possible (pre-cycle, recycle, be less of a consumer, etc.)
• Grow food
• Have people over for dinner on a regular basis {we used to always do that when we were younger!}
• Make homemade goodies more often
• Continue yoga
• Continue veganism
• Walk more
• Encourage Glen to play the guitar
• Go flying with Glen more - maybe even initiate a trip
• Send family and friends cards for no reason
• Get more sleep {stop staying up until mignight on work nights!}
• Volunteer at C.A.T. (Cat Adoption Team - no kill shelter in Newberg)
• Continue to raise awareness of animal abuse and factory farming
• Continue to support women's rights groups
• Continue to closely monitor all things that can go cancer on me
• Be FULLY decaffeinated...that's mean decaf iced tea too!!!
• Finish afghan
• Make bowling jammies
• Be nice
• Slow down
• Enjoy the quiet more
• Go to church again
• Watch minimum tv or none at all
• Watch more movies {theatre and home}
• Read books I own before I buy any more new ones
• Get current on my scrapbooks
• Enter scrapbooking contests
• Do three letterpress projects
• Start 2006 Christmas presents in January
• Be an aware, supportive, kind, encouraging, generous, loving wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, friend, and stranger
• Expect the best from my daughter
• Expect the best from strangers
• Start a countdown clock until Conan takes over the Tonight Show...2009 BABY!
• Drink more green tea

Okay...that's most of it...I added the last one just now. And it's now 10:00 so I'm going to go have a quick cup of tea (decaf green tea perhaps?) and then go to bed. I went to bed at 10:00 last night...still didn't get out of bed until 7:30 but I've got some catching up to do....

I love you all. Some lucky family members should watch their mail for their first month's installment in the Michelle Geller's Card of the Month Club. Like it or not...you're enrolled by virture of me loving you! 

Hearts and smiley faces.... Michelle

Must Love Blogs

Hi there...just finished watching Must Love Dogs. It was really cute but then again, I'll watch anything with John Cusack.