transition to a new blog

since facebook..I've allowed my blog posting to slip into the 'outer darkness zone' of never getting to it. But A few things have happened to our family since my last post in May of 2012 and the biggest is our Son & his lovely wife had the most adorable little boy, our FIRST grandbaby!!! adding so much joy to our family. BUT they have decided to keep all pictures of their son OFF facebook for privacy issues. To be perfectly honest I've had a REALLY hard time with this, but the compromise to their wishes and still wanting to share & show my WHOLE family is to update my personal blog. But with all the changes the email I had connected to this blog has been corrupted so I now have a new email which is attached to a new profile (still the same ol' me though). SO I will post that NEW blog site as soon as I get it up and running. There is a lot of info that needs to be updated, deleted & LOTS of pictures to post. It's interesting how much things can change in 2 years time. Wait till you see!

I should update this thing more often!  It's been another year...so much to write about, & I'll do that in detail in another post, but for today,... I'll just say GOOD MORNING, I'm UP & moving (slowly all be it, but moving just the same). I accidently broke my middle right toe yesterday morning while carrying a heavy load of wet clothes to hang on the drying racks in the living room by the wood stove and couldn't see where I was going well enough to avoid all the boxes, luggage & stuff piled there. I know I hit something hard cuz I went down hard, grabbed my toe and held in all the 'black words that wanted to surface from the pain'. I managed NOT to dump the wet laundry out of the basket and got up muttering loudly and then proceeded to continue my chores. I hung up all the laundry, then got dressed to exercise...did a 50 minute cardio workout from Rockin' Body, with Shaun T (w/BeachBody.com) (*noticed my toe really hurt when I put pressure on it in certain moves and tried to modify somewhat through out the workout). Then took a hot shower and as I was drying off looked down to see a HUGE purple/blueish swollen toe,...dang it! So I had my daughter wrap it for me and put back on my shoes and continued through out my days chores,...stopping every so often to put my foot up when I could.
I don't handle pain well at all, & some would call me a whimp...How I ever managed to birth 5 children is beyond me! So needless to say 2 ibprofin's to help with the inflamation didn't even come close to covering the pain tolerance, but helped with the constant throbbing thru part of the day's chores. By late evening I was GRUMPY at best and not very pleasant. I also had to help my daughter Wendy with an online purchase that went south. She'd never used her credit card to purchase anything that needed to be shipped here, so by accident gave the physical BANK address (that was on the back of the credit card) to the company instead of our BILLING address, which caused a glitch in the order to not process. 3 phone calls later & we THOUGHT it was all fixed. She checked her email at the end of the day expecting to see a proof of purchase and tracking info...and it said it was pending upon further information needed. UGH!!!! &*!@X)$%+)S!!!! (*those are loud mutterings under my breath for how I felt about this LONG unproductive process) SOOOOOOOO today we'll call again and get this thing straightened out so she can ether finalize the purchase of her NEW computer for college OR cancel the order all together and look for a better company with better customer service! Needless to say, with my pain tolerance for my broken toe, my tone to the folks over the phone was SHORT & impatient,..and it didn't help that NO ONE SPOKE very good English, PLUS on the last phone call they had some sort of 'emergency alarm' beeping loudly in the background making it near impossible to understand each other. SO FRUSTRATING!
I am hoping today holds MUCH better attitude & promise for things getting DONE!
I am dressed to workout, have my toe wrapped tightly, wearing tight socks & shoes to support & protect it,...I will choose a workout I can modify  and still burn off some calories ( I CAN'T AFFORD to sluff off just when I got back to my first real consistent week of workouts again...if the momentum is broken, I'll loose the steam to keep at it)
TODAY: I WILL GET THROUGH IT!!!!

getting caught up

It's been over a year since I last posted something, wow...But since then I have faced many of my personal fears, 2 of which were: Running in the 10K Homer Spit Race this past summer, continuing my exercise programs to stay healthy & NOT grow old or be sick, & relearning to swim *still in process. As well as tackling the dreaded OFFICE disorganization & mess with many of my projects that have somehow become stumbling blocks due to my own procrastination and taking on too many things all at once. My new years resolution LAST year was: to get ORGANIZED! hm...let me see...I see huge progress in my office but its not completed yet. I've moved things OUT of my working areas for scrapbooking, crafting, painting/artwork so now when I want to do a project I have the space to sit down and do it, but FORCE myself to put everything back where it belongs after so there are no more NEW piles of things to 'put away later'. I still have several LARGE piles & boxes I've strategicly place in the doorway and entrance to my living room area so it FACES me daily and creates a 'in your face, take care of soon before I drive you crazy' feeling. So far I've dwindled the piles down...one at a time (& yet there are still more to go through & organize). Through out this process I found projects I started & ment to finish, but didn't find the time. Now I have a section of 'projects to do' & have set a goal to complete them all by the end of next year..one project a month. As for the rest of the house,..ITS SMALL...so de-junking is a never ending process as my children and myself included seem to bring in more than there is room for. I've visited the local Salvation Army to donate many bags of usable items over the mast few months which feels really good. The trick is to not continue to let my 'stuff or things' get out of control over the space i have to use it & keep it in.My walking buddy Pat Evarts & I often talk about how to gain controll over our lives and help encourage one another to better managing our time & our talents. We both are so busy, but it helps when we remind each other...
..."just take it one pile at a time, one project at a time".
SO........as I face the up coming holiday seasons with many changes happening in my house hold I am determined to do it with OUT panic or becoming overwhelmed with too many projects I can not accomplish.I started with this process with a cute little notebook where i'm writting down all my ideas & projects to keep them straight with supplies/ ingredients/how many need to be made & time frames to get them done in. I don't like my own handwriting so this isn't easy for me as I cringe at the imperfect look of my scribbling, but I'm trying to follow through with a lifetime of advice to WRITE IT DOWN and check it as I go to stay on top of things.
The changes happening the Jones family household is as follows:
Our oldest daughter Jessica, who has been nannying for a family down the street (3 adorable native children: Jack age 19 months, Ava age 3 & Kyra age 4) will be moving with the Levit family(Jody & Barry) down to Whidbey Island, Washington at the end of the month. They will drive down the Alcan highway, catch a Ferry in Bremerton and continue down to their new home. Jessica signed a contract till Spring so she's going with them. I will miss her terribly!!! She is over at the house with and with out the kids at least 2-4 times a week and it will seem so quiet with out her around. I love her energetic attitude, which is always so very contagious & even when she's down we all rally around her and HANG OUT as Jones & get lifted just being together, even if its nothing other than us all reading books snuggled on the couch together. The other big change happening is Krystal my next daughter is moving down to Salem, Oregon to live with Rob's sister Sharla & Marty Havran to find a job, work/save & have a different life experience before she turns 21 in April and goes on her mission. Jessica & her have both talked about submitting papers in the spring (although Jess isn't committed yet, as continuing at B.Y.U. is still in her future plans but everything depends on the earned funds to pay for it). BOTH Jessica & Krystal have paid out of pocket for the education they've achieved so far and will being heading into their next faze of life OUT of DEBT!
PLUS....Rob & I will be going to Hawaii for 2 weeks just after both of them leave. We've been planing this trip for 2 years now and are really excited to go. The other trips to Hawaii we've gone on have only been for 7-10days...this time we'll be gone for 2 full weeks! My only concern is leaving Wendy (who is 18 & recently graduated from Highschool, but actively involved in FFA as a state officer *which includes a fair amount of traveling) & Brittany (who is 16, a junior in highschool & gets bored so easily).Two weeks is a long time to be away, especially after the older sisters have left. For the holidays Krystal will remain with Sharla & Hav, & Jessica will try to get over to join them there in Salem, Oregon, so Christmas will be celebrated with only 2 of our 5 children at home....how strange & so very different. I've already been planing the special care packages I'll send to each, but that wont take the place of them not being WITH us during the traditional celebrations.
Change is good, it's apart of life...I don't want to remain stagnant...but its never easy and this time I'm feeling it inside...a slow ache of missing my kids even before they've gone. THANK GOODNESS for modern technology so we can Webcam and visit/chat online so we can keep in touch and reconnect. Family is everything and I love mine with all my heart!

Getting out of my comfort Zone!

I give advice to people that in order to grow you sometimes have to get out of your comfort zone and do new things. Yesterday I did that in a round about way... I went Dip Net fishing on the Kenai River with Rob, Fred & Carol Kaatz. I haven't been on a boat in a very VERY long time for a good reason,...I get sick easily! The whole idea of being in an environment that mimics the way I felt while being pregnant is the LAST thing I would go do for fun. But Rob was going fishing with Fred, and Fred suggested that the 'wivess come along' to spend time with them, and according to Fred...Carol wanted to go . So I didnt' want to seem like a wimp, & I'm not one to back down from a challenge. Fred just talked the idea into a invitation before I could explain my self out of it.
SO I DID IT! Got up early (grumpy since I didn't have my morning quiet time to wake up, or workout and shower)...was a bit snippy when I couldn't find my hat that I knew I'd need to cover my head/ears with. Rob said I kind of through a tantrum & wasn't very sociable. OH WELL~! (I appolagized to Fred later for being grumpy but said he had come 30 minutes too early and hence saw/heard the real unprepared for company CJ!)
We drove to Kenai..(1 & 1/2 hours away)to the river.Stopping by a store briefly prior to pick up a new net.At the dock, I took possition in the middle of the boat and concentrated on NOT feeling queasy with the movement of the boat on the water. Then after we got out a ways I was moved to the front where I took charge of one of the dip nets. With a 6 foot handle and a 5 foot circular net it was fairy heavy and difficult to manuver with the river drag. Rob was driving the boat and Fred was handling the other dip net, while Carol was in the back. I struggled with the net and didn't catch anything..and Fred managed to get 4! He was really excited untill ...by complete accident the "D" ring detatched and he lost the new net down the river.
We'd been out for 4 hours and decided we needed to eat. So we pulled the boat out, took it to Rob's Dad's place not too far from the river and parked it there. We droce into town and found alittle Chinese restaurant and ate,...but after discussing our plite,..we decided we spent enough effort to drive all the way to Kenai and rearange schedules that we shouldn't waste the opportunity & decided to go buy another two new nets and TRY our luck at more fish.
The weather had been cloudy but not rainy, so the afternoon seemed to spread the clouds out so that the sun shown and warmed things up a bit...but the WIND was still out and I was NOT warm at all. With the new nets ..we began to catch more fish quickly and by the end of the day we had 36 salmon totall between the two couples to share. When the water was calm I had no problem but every time a boat wold zipped by us.. the WAKE would create huge waves that surged my queasiness back to the surface... I felt sick more often than not,but struggled to just look up at the horizon and breathe the crisp air and focus on stuff that WASN'T moving! With the two nets on each side we balanced out the drag, but as soon as one net caught a fish and was brought up the other would drag the boat into a circle..so the other net would need to be brought up as well. Fred did most of the catching, switching off with Rob. I did however catch about 8 and once had two in the net at the same time. But standing there manuvering the heavy net & pole was exhuasting to say the least and at the last pass through the channel to catch ONE more fish..we found our selves acccidently caught up on a sand bar. Rob & Fred jumped out into the shallow water, pushing us back into the main part of the river again. But in the process Rob accidently tripped over the net handles and fell, getting wet up to his hips in the muddy silt. We were all tired and glad to call it a night as we headed to the dock/ramp by 9pm. Then of course we drove the 1 & 1/2 hours home. My headach from day 4 of my monthly cycle and sleep deprivation after taking care of Wendy from being sick with the flu for a week had taken its tole on me,..so I simply crawl into the shower to clean up and then into bed..with the floor seeming to still sway to & fro! Oddly I woke up with the same sensation..but not as strong. I hope it doesn't last long! Rob, Fred & Carol fillet the fish and put them on ice in coolers to tend to by this evening, after Rob, Fred & Jessica took another trip up to catch more fish. (they returned home with 8 more..not alot, but every FISH COUNTS when your hungry in the winter time!)

SO I went DIP NET FISHING on the Kenai River, didn't throw up and came home with another adventure under my belt. I'm sore, tired and exhausted even a day later. Who know FISHING could be such a workout!

Mother's Day card using Carolee Jones's graphics

Ok I know this is a bit self promoting but heck it's my blog right?
So I made a cute Mother's Day card using my new "Modern Mom" graphics from PcCrafter.com (plus one image from "Cluckin kitchen"). The basic victorian envelope is in the creatable set and I just added some of the images and typed in addresses to mail out using Wendy Medium font. The hard part was deciding which graphics to use since they were all so stinkin cute! Plus how do you use ONE image to show all the things a MOM does? My mom did it all and I am finding I am following in her footsteps to do the same,...us SUPER CHICS have to remind each other how much we apprecate the examples of those that have gone befor and made such big shoes to fill. I hope I'm measuring up to the potential of what my Mom was and is and what I can be.

Basic Bread Recipe by Carolee Jones

Preheat oven to 370 degrees
*Mix together and let rise 15 minutes or until yeast is fully bloomed
1 cup of warm water
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of honey
2 Tablespoons of Yeast
*In a glass measuring container or bowl heat milk in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes
2 cups of milk (you can substitute water if desired)
*slowly add milk to yeast
*add one cup at a time
approximately 6-9 cups of flour
(* I grind 2-3 cups of wheat into flour then add remaining white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt (add this after the 6th cup of flour)
*Remove dough from mixing bowl - it should be still slightly sticky.
*Kneed just enough flour into the dough to make it elastic.
*Place dough into a large greased bowl & cover & let rise till doubled!
My house is hot so it doesn't take more than 30 minutes, but the more wheat you have in the recipe the longer it takes to rise.
*Punch dough down from sides into middle, dump dough onto counter and divide with knife into 4 equal parts, place in bread pans & cover to let sit and rise.
Bake @375 for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
*if using a convection oven Bake for only 15 minutes.
***optional***I like to throw in 1 cup of wheat germ, 1/2 cup of ground flax seeds, & 1/2 cup of zoom hot cereal uncooked. This just gives it extra texture and crunch.
***for my crescent rolls*** follow recipe but use only white flour. After mixing dough divide into two equal parts and roll out into 18" circle. Brush olive oil over surface and using a pizza cutter cut from the outside in making long triangles. Then Roll each from the outside inward and place on a greased baking dish. *I've used a pizza circle pan, and placing rolls like a big floret design, or same placement in pie tins.Let rise till big and puffy & Bake @375 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
ENJOY!

Happy Oven card

I craft & make projects all the time, but always forget to take pictures to show so ..here's one you might like using a recent NEW design from ME (*Carolee Jones) with ART GONE WILD
http://www.agwstamps.com
and using Michelle Cutts new CLEVER CUTTS small inset box Template. The supplies used are:

• AGW Happy Oven set
• AGW What's Cookin' set
• Acrylic block
• The Clever Cutts Small Inset Box Template
• Scoring tool, .5mm pencil and craft cutting knife (all available as part of the Clever Cutts Starter Kit)
• Straight edge
• 1/8" or 1/16" foam tape
• Adhesive
• Card stock: White to stamp images onto, Paperbag Tan Brown for card base & coverage of oven insert on the inside of the card, Baby blue for saying above stove and inside oven backing behind cookie sheets, Dark Brown to frame saying, Red Plaid pattern paper for front
• 6" Red see through 1/4th" wide ribbon
• Coloring pencils/ markers (* I used COPIC alcohol based markers cuz they leave no streaks when blending)
• Inkssentials blending tool
• Tim Holtz Distressed vintage photo ink from Ranger
• Inkssentials non-stick craft sheet (*great to blend the ink and not waste or ruin counter work surface)

I've included some links conected to ART GONE WILD's website to where you can purchase the Happy Oven, What's Cookin' sets along with the Clever Cutts starter Kit that has the foam matt & cutting/scoring tools needed. The blending tool, craft sheet, & distressed ink I purchased at Stampers Anonymous:
http://www.stampersanonymous.com/acc-index.html
I shared this card project with some of my family on a recent trip to Utah a few months back. It recieved great reviews and we all had fun making it! GOOD TOOLS make all the difference in a great project!