Fleur de Aleta

Below are a various pictures ~ just doing a simple picture share with this post. The first picture is a bracelet I finished. It's a "flat" spiral. I took a side picture afterwards to show the "spiral" part of it. (In the background you can see a small section of the pegboard desk that Greg created for my jewelry hobby!) The second bracelet is one I completed last night (at midnight). Then there are pictures of Pebbles and Tigger and Greg with his niece and nephew. They were in town to visit during the summer. Both of them are green belts in Karate and Collin brought with him the board that he broke! Cool! The picture of Greg coming out of the coffee shop is from the day that he proposed *smiling* ~ the place of our first date.

Live from Bruce and Sally’s backyard ~ wild animal kingdom entertainment! Bruce and Sally invited us over on Memorial Day for supper and a movie and to offer their congratulations. Greg met Bruce when he was doing competitive shooting many years ago. They are great people, very real, love to laugh and open to talking about anything and everything. Sally is an extremely talented beader; she’s the one who introduced me to the Beading Society. We had a lovely time and the best part ~ the live entertainment! They have a bird haven in their backyard. There are at least 5 bird feeders, those long kinds, always filled and the birds know it! Just that afternoon I saw 4 different types of birds. Sally knew the types of each and they have a Bird Watcher book for new ones that flock in. As we finished up supper, I looked outside and Greg remarked how a bird almost flew into the window! I suddenly saw two long bird legs and a long tail! I was so excited! I said, "Hawk! Hawk!" There it ...

Greg completely surprised me! He said that we would get engaged for Christmas and I thought that maybe the earliest would be in August, when we make 2 years dating. He even mentioned August and I smiled and thought, "OK, that’s just a few months away." Today was like any normal morning. We woke up and exercised and got ready. He said we should go to our "coffee house," which we have taken to enjoying on a weekend, the place where we first met. They make delicious Southwest Omelets and we placed our usual. What I didn’t know was what Greg had planned. We even sat at the same table of our first date. The rest, I’m going to share in an email that Greg sent to our families and showed me today: "SECRET EMAIL NOT TO BE SHARED WITH ALETA PLEASE!!! I want to propose to Aleta this weekend… to make it a "memor"ial" experience I thought I would take her out for breakfast to a place where we first met. We go to this restaurant a couple times a month so there...

I was visiting a blog and the first post that I came to for this lady’s site said that she liked to see random pictures of where a person lives. Sort of like peeking into a person’ s life, but not a peeping tom! I liked the pictures that she posted and started off doing something similar, only to be caught up in a game with Greg and the boys across the street. The pics are in the house with Tigs, Greg standing by the painting his Mom did of one of the plantation homes, me with Pebbles (see honey, I didn’t cut my hair short!) then I went outside and took a picture of the chair and patio set that we repainted and put in the front garden (you might be able to make out the swan stained glass that I did. I love the tube like flowers in the front of the picture because they attract the hummingbirds). Greg was across the street with his three-man slingshot. I was taking pictures of them and couldn’t resist, "I’d like to try!" They were aiming water balloons into a garbage can. My f...

This blog is going to be a hodge podge of topics! Greg coined it and there’s a lot of truth to it. We have a Feel Good Room. Starting a tradition, we are waking up at 6am and going into the Feel Good Room to exercise. We start off with some cardio (Greg on the bike and me on the treadmill) and then we alternate with using the BowFlex machine. I told Greg that I liked what he called the room and it’s great working out with him! He created a sign for the room, which I thought was a perfect fit. (Though you can't see it in the pictures too well, the color of the walls - sunshine yellow - not too bright and not too soft. It's a cheerful room!) Last night, Greg and I were watching American Idol. Greg never cared for the show until he heard David Cook sing Billy Jean. We DVR’d the season and he would play back that song, because it was incredible to listen to, absolute art! We thought we were smart to watch another show while the DVR recorded the final showdown between the two David’...

This bracelet is an Oopsy, given it started out with a Daisy chain as the center, then I added crystals on the outer loop but it didn't fall right. The outer loop wanted to curl in, so I ended up increasing the bracelet size with another row. I like how it turned out, but the picture doesn't give it justice. The bracelet sparkles with the blue Swarv crystals in the center and then clear AB Swarv crystals on the outer layer. The seed bead colors are snow white and iridescent clear.

Drill, dental, shudder, torture, tooth, scary, pain ~ that’s what comes to mind when you think of that horrible sound in the dentist’s chair, or was that a scream? One thing I realize now, having a good dentist, one that cares not only about the health of your teeth but also about the mental comfort of the patient, is incredibly important. From childhood experiences I used to despise going to the dentist. I could write a book on those times, having permanent teeth with holes in them (caused by an extreme high temperature that I had when I was a baby). Braces were nothing in comparison to those holes in the teeth or the four wisdom teeth I had taken out (some from surgery where the tooth was wrapped around another trying to come down). Needless to say, going to the dentist was not a priority in my adult life. I shunned the appointments as much as possible. Then one day my brother, who is of the same nature towards pain and dentists as me, said, "Aleta, I found a good dentist."...

Vacation Journal: Poplarville, MS and Lafitte, LA ~ Oct 2007 Mini-Vacation of Prometheus Inspiration, Birthday Wishes, Spence’s Yearlings, Victorian Gardens, Alligator Swamps and Aerial Display Our vacation started with a visit to my Mom’s school. I needed to drop off the keys to my home, so she could take care of Tigger while Greg and I were gone, as well as give the car keys to Dad in case the electrician came by. Last year, the teachers at Mom’s school were tested to see which would qualify for advanced technology in their classrooms. It was not something that was given to their school, but rather, something earned by means of scores from the teachers, which made the technology all the more precious. I’m proud to say that my Mom scored amongst the highest at her school! For a while now, I’ve wanted to see the new board and was tickled to go to her classroom. Named after Prometheus, a Greek mythological God who is known for his intelligence, the Promethean board looks like a huge whi...