Welcome back! Coffee's always on around here. Pull up your favorite chair and a grab a cup. Enjoy your visit today! And don't forget to stop back by again soon.

Lots of things to write about today – if I can remember all of them! LOL So let’s get crackin’ before I forget . . .

First, I’ve started a new “store” on shopify selling Reusable Bags. Because I think the Earth and our environment is a gift to us, on loan from the Creator. And it’s our job, our duty to protect it and cherish it. I use reusable bags when I shop and I love them. Since it’s something I do and whole-heartedly believe in, I thought, “Why not?” I’m still adding products to the store but it IS open if you’d like to take a peek! You can even buy something if you’d like – the shopping cart and payment gateway are all set up as well. Just head over to In The Bag.

Second, the “Around the Web” is going to be starting again soon, likely next week. I have several things and places to share with you that are scattered all over the web. Some are other blogs, some are specific posts on those blogs and some are just stuff I think is cool.

Third, a quick story from yesterday -

My mom and I went grocery shopping yesterday morning and on the way out of the store parking lot after we finished shopping, was a young man and his dog. He was holding a sign that said the dog needed food. After discussing it for about 10 seconds, we looped around, went back into the store and got some dog food, a box of dog biscuits, a couple bottles of water and some sandwiches. They were so thrilled and appreciative, it was a sight to watch! Jack (the dog) was a cutie and very well mannered. I think his boy even got a little misty-eyed.

Fourth, I think I’ll bring back the Reading List. Haven’t done one of those in a while, either. Got lots of good books on the shelf that waiting to be read and it’s time to get ‘er done! Any books you’ve read lately that you’d like to share?

Fifth, this blog now has, according to my feed stats, about 575 subscribers via the RSS feed and several hundred more who are subscribed via email. Why are you all so QUIET??? Speak up! Post comments! Talk to one another! I want to hear from you. This blog isn’t just about me – it’s about you, as well. Please, tell me what you think.

Sixth, my oldest child is turning 16 tomorrow. I can hardly believe how times flies! I keep thinking there is NO WAY I am old enough to have 16 year old! LOL But sure enough, she is. And I’m delighted she’s my daughter. Sure, she can be difficult – like any kid – but she’s the reason I’m a mom and I’m glad she’s part of me and my life.

Seventh, have you picked out a ThemeWord for 2010? Mine is CREATE. What have you created lately? Please share! I want to know what you think. It would be fun to really CREATE a community around this, this year. That’s part of my goal.

So, if you’re out there and you’ve never commented here or you haven’t commented in a while – what are you waiting for? Introduce yourself!

Be blessed,

Out of all of life’s little pleasures, the one I had hoped most to impart to my own children was a love of reading. But it seems with the digital age, reverence for the library and a good book have gone by the wayside. That makes me sad a little.

When I was growing up, if I wasn’t outside riding bikes and what-not, I was inside curled up with a book. And a cat. Especially during this time of year when the weather turns wet and cold here in Western Washington. Nowadays, the kids have their noses stuffed in a computer screen or video game or a cell phone all the time. I suppose you could – maybe – loosely define some part of that as “reading.”

When they were little, I read to them every day and we went to the public library at least once a week. And of course, they saw (and still see) me reading often. You know, the whole “be the example” kind of thing.

I’ll admit – I do, do a fair amount of reading on the computer these days but I also still read regular, hold ‘em in your hand, bound, paper books as well. (Although, if the reading gods are listening, I’d really, *really* like a Kindle for Christmas.) (Hey, at least it’s still a book!)

Still, it makes me a little sad and I wonder if any of my children will ever be bitten by the reading bug . . .

Be blessed,

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. ~Author Unknown

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ~Charles W. Eliot

If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions. ~Author Unknown

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Last night was the my oldest daughter’s NJROTC Annual Military Inspection and Parade (AMI) and her younger siblings and I were there to support her. She invited a handful of other friends and family but
none of them were able to make it. I think she was rather bummed about that even though she didn’t say so directly. Her body language showed her disappointment, though.

Even though the little kids thought it was boring and my youngest son had some trouble sitting still – and being quiet in otherwise silent gymnasium – I enjoyed it. The kids did a wonderful job marching and showing their expertise to the higher-ups. And **24** of them got perfect scores during the inspection!

I did get several pictures . . . none of the Teenager – she wouldn’t let me take one. Even though I begged. Pleaded. Bribed. Still, she just wouldn’t let me. The shots I took of her platoon didn’t turn out as clear as I would have liked but there is one where you can mostly see her peeking out from behind the others.

I haven’t uploaded the pictures from my camera yet but I will do that later today and add them to this post. Plan to check back tonight or tomorrow if you’re interested in seeing them.

Until then . . .

Be blessed,

It’s so frosty outside this morning! At first glance, I thought it had snowed! And it was only 23º f outside when I took the kids out to the school bus. It had BETTER NOT be another winter like last year . . . GRRRR

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

We’ve had much fun this past week, enjoying the sunshine and being outdoors. Here are a few pictures of recent activities, including a car show we went to Saturday afternoon.

If you want to see more pictures from the car show, you can check out my flickr photostream. They’re all uploaded there.

And I’ll be back shortly with some Around the Web posts and a few recipes we’ve tried lately that were just awesome!

Hope you’re having a wonderful summer! We are enjoying the beautiful weather here in Washington.

In the arena,

That stepside brings back memories for me! I had one of those after I graduated from high school until my oldest daughter was about 2 and then I traded it for a more suitable family vehicle. Boy, do I kick myself now! Perhaps someday I’ll have another one.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Here it is, already summer and I’ve been sorely lacking in the writing department. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say – there are many stories to tell – it’s more like I’ve been so busy with other things that by the time I think of writing something to post here, the clock is telling me it’s time for bed!

And I’ve even had to put my computer on an automatic shut off time or I’ll sit here until the wee hours of the morning trying to accomplish all of it.

So, the writing seems to never get done lately.

But I’m changing that today.

But first, let me tell you the other half of the problem -

I upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.8 a few weeks ago and things just aren’t working properly on the admin side. The admin dashboard panel is all out of whack and half the tools aren’t working at all, like the drop down menus and what-not. It’s not really affecting anything out here on the actual blog itself, thank goodness. But it’s really annoying to navigate around behind the scenes.

Since I still cannot figure out what is wrong, I’m just going to leave it as is for now and hope that I can upgrade to the next release when it comes out and maybe that will solve this issue. Or something.

So anyway . . .

It’s officially summer. The kids have now been out of school for 9 days and we’re settling into a summer rhythm. The weather, however, is not fully cooperating this week. It has been overcast, cloudy and a little rainy at times. We’re hoping summer is in full bloom by next week.

Speaking of next week . . . I am completely amazed that next Saturday is the 4th of July! Where did the time go? It’s mind-boggling! I can hardly believe it. And if I hadn’t just looked at the calendar, I probably wouldn’t.

I’ve got a ton of pictures and artwork to upload and hopefully I can do that next week when things slow down a bit. There’s pictures from the end of school activities, some hot weather activities and some from my husband’s sister’s visit a few weeks ago.

(That was great fun, by the way! We enjoyed meeting her girlfriend and her gorgeous standard Poodle. I’ll write about that soon.)

The pictures my husband took at the Classic Car Show last weekend didn’t turn out well, though. He’s going to be bummed about that. It was only 2nd time he’s used my camera and he just doesn’t know enough about the settings to get good shots. He’s used to a good ol’ point and shoot type camera.

The good news is that there’s another car show in a few weeks so hopefully we’ll get some good ones then. Maybe I will be in charge of the camera for that one. . .

Now it’s time to think about fixing dinner, though.

One last thing before I go . . .

I just posted a new “Gallery” page in the navigation above. There are a few of my recent designs posted and I will be uploading more soon. Feel free to check it out. And if you need a designer for logos, website/blog headers, 125×125 ad spots, or whatever, let me know. I’d be happy to work with you.

Speak soon!

In the arena,

Want to work with an award-winning writer? Now is your chance! Hurry and book for the 2nd half of 2009 before the calendar is full. I still have some space available. Check out the Hire Me tab above for info on how to contact me and your reserve your spot now.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

First, let me apologize in advance for the length of this post and it’s ramblingness. So many things have happened in the past several weeks since I last posted, there’s just no way to catch up without going on and on and on.

But I promise I will not be like the energizer bunny and never END.

So, having said that . . .

I’m happy to say the first order of business is to let you know that my former brother in law is doing much, much better! In fact, he is even going to be able to go home this Friday! We’re so glad about that. For the first several days after his stroke, it looked like he may not even make it through the weekend. Fortunately, he has LOTS and LOTS of people who just love him and his family who have never ceased praying for his recovery.

It’s been a very long road for him but he’s surprising his doctors and nurses and therapists with his bravery and his inner strength to get through this, to become whole again. All of that inner drive has certainly paid off. Even though he still has a ways to go, it’s looking better every day. For that, we’re all thankful. Just in time for summer, too!

And speaking of summer . . .

We’ve been so busy lately with school winding down. Lots of activities at the kids’ schools – committee meetings, award ceremonies, family nights, book fairs, concerts and the like – that I’ve barely had time to breathe. In between all of that, I’ve been working on design projects and writing projects, both volunteer and paid.

In fact, one of the committees I was on this year for The Short Dude’s preschool, was the cookbook committee. It was very fun and I met a few other moms and kids. It gave the Short Dude some other friends to play with once in a while during non-school hours as our meetings were usually on Friday’s when the pre-schoolers didn’t have class. He enjoyed the meetings as much as I did.

When everyone on the committee learned that I do graphics, they asked if I would create the cover and inner pages for the cookbook along with the flyers and what-not. I was blessed to be able to say yes even though it was A LOT of work. I enjoyed it.

The group and I came up with a cute cover, if I may say so myself. Honestly, though, I was skeptical about what it would really look like in print. I was afraid the background color would be way too bright and set an obnoxious tone. Since it’s all about kids, the cover features pictures of the kids from the pre-school eating fruits and veggies and it’s all in bright, primary colors. We called it “Children’s Chow of Choice” and I think it fits rather well.

So last week when I found out the cookbooks were in, my heart was pounding! I was both scared and excited to see them. Our group leader (who is a staff member at the school) assured me they turned out fabulous. And when I saw them, I must admit – they did look rather great!

Even though I’ve been doing graphics for almost 20 years, it’s still exciting to see something I’ve created in its final form. Often these days when I design something for a client, I never actually see the finished, physical product, (except for things like business cards). I’ll take a picture of the cookbook later and post it.

After such a great time working on the cookbook committee, when the director asked me if I’d be willing to work on the end of year celebration (graduation) committee, I agreed. So now I am working on the certificates for the pre-school ‘graduation’ celebration next week. The theme is “stars” so I’ve put a cascading rainbow of stars on the side of the certificate. I don’t want it to be overwhelming – it’s just a very simple design. I designed 3 different styles for the committee to choose from and now I’m just waiting to hear which one is a go.

Also coming up soon are the elementary school concerts. Gman’s class is performing a band concert with their recorders and other instruments they’ve learned to play in music this year. And Little Girls class is doing kind of a spoken word and music play of some sort. Not really sure but she’s says it’s going to be fun.

School is getting out almost a week late, though, because of the snow make up days. They were originally supposed to have half days this week but that changed too. I’m kinda glad, though – they’ll be home all day soon enough!

The highlight of the first week of summer vacation will be spending some time with my husband’s sister and her girlfriend. They are doing a 30-day long road trip around the Western US visiting as many of the National Parks (and friends/family) as they can. They are Zion National Park now, I think, and will be here June 12th for a few days before they head over to the Washington Peninsula to the Olympic National Park.

I’m very excited because this will be the first time I’ve met my sister in law! She lives in New York – almost as far away from Seattle as you can get and still be in the continental US – so getting together is not easy, especially when you throw in jobs and kids and school and those good things.

And the other thing I’m really looking forward to is the sun and BBQ’s and going to the beach! We’ve had such a cold, dreary winter, I’m definitely ready for a change of pace. This week has been quite nice – in the upper 60’s and low 70’s – just about perfect!

What are your summer plans? Has summer vacation started yet in your area? What are you most looking forward to this summer?

I hope whatever you do, you enjoy the time with family and friends.

I’ll be back soon with some pictures and maybe a reading list along with a few new recipes I’m itching to try out. Oh – and look for a new post over at The Weight Loss Papers soon too.

In the arena,

Shoot for the moon; even if you miss, you will still land among the stars. ~ Les Brown

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

I was beginning to think Mother Nature had forgotten what “Spring” meant. But it appears she has finally remembered. And I’m excited about that because snow and rain and cold, icky weather was just getting old and tiring. I can finally see why senior citizens and other retired folks go to Arizona and such for the winter months.

For the past few days here in NW Washington, we’ve had sunny skies in the 60’s. Great weather for this time of year! And it’s what makes me love spring in the first place. Nice, cool (but not cold) mornings and warm afternoons.

Beautiful.

The kids are funny, though. They insist on wearing their winter jackets to school.

Gman – “But mom, what if it gets cold? Or what if it rains?”

Little Girl – “Yeah, mom. He’s right. We should wear them just in case.”

Short Dude – “No, mom. I really want to wear my warm jacket.”

Me – “Ok, fine but trust me, you won’t need it.”

And then when they get home from school,

All of them – “Geez, mom. It’s H-O-T out here!”

Um, yeah, guys. Tried to warn ya.

The bummer of the whole thing, though, is that LAST week – when it was still cold and rainy – was SPRING BREAK. Go figure. So, the kids were cooped up in the house all week with not much to do because it was too nasty outside to do anything or go anywhere. And we all were definitely ready for school to resume this week!

Can’t wait to get outside and ride bikes! Biking is one my favorite pastimes. Another good thing about Spring. I know – there are people out there who ride year-round no matter the weather. But not me. Sorry. Rain, I can deal with – but freezing temps are another thing. And as that’s about all we’ve had since last November, I haven’t ridden in a while.

Not that I have a bike to ride at the moment anyway. I’m looking into getting a new bike as I gave mine to The Teenager because she outgrew her old one. So, I’ve been researching new bikes and drooling over them.

Due to my back and arm issues, the doctor and physical therapist have all recommended I ride a recumbent bike anyway so giving my bike to The Teenager made sense. It’s really a nice bike – 24 speed mountain bike with some extras including a nice seat, top of the line shifters and brakes that were easy on my arm. It’s a smaller frame so it fits people in the 4′8 – 5′4 range quite nicely. If she continues to take care of it as I have, she should have it for many more years.

I am looking forward to getting a recumbent so I’ve whittled my list down to a couple of 3-wheel (trike) versions that I think would really work well for me. Now it’s just a matter of making a final choice and biting the bullet. (Recumbents are typically quite expensive. In fact, some of them are even more expensive than what my CAR is worth! LOL) Too funny.

The models I’m looking at are:

1. TerraTrike Path 8
2. Catrike Pocket
3. Greenspeed GT3
4. Sun EZ Tad

I really like the looks and everything of the TerraTrike, but I’m leaning towards either Catrike or the Sun. They all seem fairly comparable to me though the Catrike Pocket comes in a smaller size to fit shorter folks. Actually, so do the TerraTrike and Sun models. I really like the look and reviews of the Catrike and Sun and I know of 2 of each of those models for sale for a little less than the retail prices.

If you’ve ridden a recumbent – and specifically, one of the models I’ve listed here – let me know what you think and why you like (or don’t like) that model. I’d appreciate any input I can get. Hopefully, I will make a choice and be able to purchase one by the end of the month.

Aside from my back and arm issues, the other reason I want to start riding again is part of my exercise plan for weight loss. I used to ride everywhere as a kid – all over the place, really – and if I wasn’t at home reading, my friends and I were hanging out and riding bikes. I even built my own bikes when I was a pre-teen & teenager because I couldn’t find one exactly like I wanted.

Funny enough – the bike I was riding when I trashed my arm was one I had *just* finished building. It wasn’t even 24 hours old when I had the accident. (No, the accident had nothing to do with the bike – just stupid teenage error on my part; i.e. – riding down a really steep hill going very fast.)

Bike riding has always been one my favorite outdoor activities and I always miss it during the cold winter months. With that and my arm/back injuries, I don’t ride as often as I’d really like to so I think getting a recumbent is the answer I’ve been looking for. Maybe I will even want to venture out when the weather isn’t so cooperative.

Luckily, my kids and my husband also enjoy riding. In fact, that’s we did after our wedding – we packed everything up and went bike riding for the afternoon!

Yes, I’m a funny girl. My kids think I’m downright weird.

But it’s okay . . . it runs in the family. I’m pretty sure I’ll get to laugh at them when they’re my age as much as they laugh at me now.

When I started this post, I had intended to write something about my weight loss achievements over the past few weeks but I think I’ll end here and save that for tomorrow.

Hope you’re enjoying your week!

In the arena,

The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.
~ Denis Watley

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.