Thanks For Checking In

Never thought I would be missed here in blogville, but I have received quite a few e-mails over the past couple of weeks asking if I am okay. I have to say, I am very touched and the e-mails are appreciated. I am okay, just still missing my mojo. Actually just flat out no desire to create anything, which is a very strange place for me. Even my sis-in-law and Chuck have been teasing me about my lack of card making. :) Overall I think it is simply stress. Not that stress is simple; it stinks. lol. Losing my job and being the sole income producer kind of escalates stress. Very difficult to find a job in this icky economic climate, but I'm out there hunting.

As a bit of a tension reliever, my friend Deborah (also jobless) and I went to Enchanted Rock last Wednesday to "climb the rock". It is one of my favorite places to go, just to get away for a little bit, find some peace. It is remote, very quiet, beautiful out there. We took bottles of water and a picnic lunch. We laughed and goofed around as we were going up, took some really silly pictures, and at the top we sat down and ate our lunch. Then we laid back on the rock to relax, talked and watched the clouds go by...you know doing that hallucinating thing where you think you see a shape in the clouds. Couple of times we actually saw the same thing. heehee! We eventually climbed around on a couple outcroppings of rocks, then went back down. By that time we were hungry again, so on the way back through Fredricksburg, we stopped and had lunch at a German restaurant. We decided that day was the perfect "prescription" for stress relief...climbing Enchanted Rock with someone who makes you laugh. :)

Another bright note - I have some travels coming up in the next two weeks. I leave tomorrow to go to Vermont to see my daughter and participate in the Relay For Life that is being hosted at the university she is attending. I am SO looking forward to seeing my sweet Shelbie! I have missed her like crazy. I will return Monday from Vermont, then turn around and head to Daytona Beach Friday for the JROTC National Competition. My son, Tyler, is on the varsity male JROTC drill team and Color Guard, and this will be his second year to compete over there. I am so proud of how well he has done. After the competition we have a "free day" at the beach, and all the kids get to run around down on the boardwalk and play on the beach. This will be my fifth trip over there for this competition (my daughter was in JROTC as well and competed at Nationals, and last year both my kids were competing there).

Hopefully these trips will kick start my mojo. Thanks again to those of you who checked in on me, and I hope to be back to papering my blog soon. :)