So. Much. Fun.

I had a completely fabulous time at Kim's this weekend!!! I feel like my creative batteries are up to full power again. We had a great time and we even made beads. I miss her already.

It's been raining here like crazy and Friday night, when I was driving up to Kim's house (about 2 hrs north of me) they closed one of the freeways due to flooding! I was in the middle of NOWHERE and had no idea how to get around the flooded area. What a mess. I have a GPS (which I have named GyPSy) who just kept telling me to make a U-turn and get back on the freeway. Uh, no can do, Gypsy. What now? I would drive a mile or two down the road and see if Gypsy would re-route me using some other route besides 101, which was closed. Nope, no matter what I did, she just kept telling me to get back on 101. I swore a bit. I swore a bit more.

I should probably mention that I was driving around in the pouring rain, in pitch black hills in an area I am completely unfamiliar with and armed with nothing but a cantankerous GPS, a cell phone and a sketchy route map printed off from Yahoo maps. I have been driving for 2 hours and still have a long way to go. I finally pulled over in between a long line of cars, filled with people trying to figure out what to do now, and called Kim for help. Notice...I am not crying....yet.

Kim manages to point me in the right direction, backtracking a bit and taking another, much smaller highway that circumvents part of the flooded area. Still not crying. Close, though, very close. I backtrack a few miles, feel vaguely sorry for myself but also renewed with optimism that I might actually get to my final destination.

Ok, so on the smaller highway...oh my... kinda narrow, very dark and scary. I finally allowed Gypsy to speak again and she was helpful this time, not asking me to make a gosh-dang U-turn but rather confirming Kim's instructions and promising to do better in the future.

That is the only reason there is not a slightly smashed GPS sitting on the side of the road somewhere in Sonoma county.

I heart my friends!

I am going up to visit my friend Kim ( http://www.kimbeads.com ) and we are going to spend the weekend recharging our creative batteries. She has two torches set up and we are going to have a good ol' time!

She drives!

After FIVE (5!) attempts, Desiree finally has her driver's license!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Don't worry, she's a good driver - just a horrible test taker. Today, though, she didn't freak out. She took her time and didn't get flustered. There has never been a happier pair of people on the planet than when she ran up to me with that big smile on her face after her test. I don't know which of us was happier. I think it might have been me. :)

I made beads yesterday!!! I have to clean them but I want to give you a little peek at something new I did...

So, the LASIK is wonderful. I can see perfectly. I did have to pick up some reading glasses, though. I used them to finish a book I was reading. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is an awesome book, by the way. I really enjoyed it. I mean, it made my head explode a couple times and it was slow reading because I have NO physics education whatsoever but I feel like I understand things a bit better now...and maybe a little less than before as well. Like it causes you to ask questions you hadn't thought of asking before. It was a good book.

I lub hearts

I do love hearts. I remember last year when I finally learned how to make them consistently well, I was soooo happy! Now I can make them with the hole going either horizontally or vertically. Sweet! I make them throughout the year now, especially since my daughter likes to wear one all the time and has a habit of losing them. :)

Speaking of losing things...she got an MP3 player for Christmas, really cool one that had a spiffy full color screen, played videos and everything. Well, it's lost. Already. She has torn the house apart trying to find it. Anybody out there with any psychic ability?

OMG. I can SEE!

I had LASIK yesterday and when I woke up this morning, I could SEE! Thank you Dr. Manche & staff!!!

I went up to Stanford yesterday afternoon and the whole thing took less than an hour. It was never more than a bit uncomfortable and when the procedure was done, I sat up and burst into tears of joy! I could see without glasses! YAY!!!

I went back and had my eyes tested today and I have 20/15 vision. That's better than 20/20! It is also WAY better than I could see WITH glasses. Amazing. Totally amazing.

I even made some beads today.

Happy New Year!

Although 2007 was pretty good, I am looking forward to an even better 2008! Last year was a bit of a holding pattern year for us, waiting for Des to graduate and all. Now I am freed up from driving back and forth for over 2 hours a day and I no longer have to get up at 7am! YAY!!! I am toying with the idea of either making the bead business a full time endeavor or getting a job of some sort to fill the time. Haven't decided yet.

Tuesday I am going in for LASIK!!! I cannot wait to be able to see without glasses or contacts. One of the bummers of having the surgery is that you can't wear contacts for days before the measuring tests and the actual surgery. I feel like I've been wearing these yucky glasses for the better part of a month and it totally sucks!

Well, I got my beads back from the bead shop in Ohio ... practically all of them! Oh well, at least now I have lots of beads to put up on Etsy. I've been putting them up over the holidays and will continue to do so through my eye surgery and recovery. I've made a few new beads over the holidays but mostly I just hung out with Mark and Des.

The holidays were very nice, although I wouldn't call them restful. LOL! Mark is a 'get it done' kind of guy and holiday or no, he wanted to keep busy. We finished MANY lingering household fix up type things. I have beautiful new knobs on all my kitchen cabinets, for one thing.

Anyway, check out the Etsy store and help me pay for the really cute purse I just bought. LOL! Have a great week!