Ok, I don’t have a picture of this, but I will do my best to describe. But first, a little background. It has been raining here a crap-load, no, I know, “But Amber, you live in Oregon, doesn’t it rain there all the time anyway.” Why yes it does, but this is an insane amount. Usually it’s just drizzly and overcast most of the time, this is full on soak you to the bone wet rain. So last night I am watching the news. They have this overlay the weatherman puts over a little map of the valley. In the corner there is a chart, it’s like this: green = 1″, light green 1.5″ then it goes from yellow through orange to red. Now I forget the exact values for all of this, but here is what struck me: I’m looking at Salem and it’s frigin fuchsia, that’s right fuchsia. I’m like, “What, hey, do you guys see this, fuchsia isn’t even on that scale, on the chart, look, what the heck does fuchsia mean?” I’ve decided it basically means our city is going to drown. Or at least our golf course: Creekside Lakeside. Yup, it’s flooding real good.
      That was the background on the weather, now the background on the post office. See Sunday there was a rate change, you knew that right? 2 cents higher. I did not believe the friendly postal workers when they told me last week that this week would be busy. I thought, “how busy could it be?” CRAZYVILLE BUSY people, crazyville. Take this from some one who goes to the post office AT LEAST once a day, this is the busiest it’s ever been. Christmas? Oh no, that wasn’t bad, this SUCKS. I’d also like to make a suggestion. If you are going to require a new product to be purchased, then you should have the new product. It now takes 24 cents for each additional ounce, or for a postcard. Do they make 24 cent stamps yet, no. THEY DON’T MAKE 24 CENT STAMPS, BUT THEY REQUIRE THEM, AHHHHHH. So you could scream or you could laugh, and I went to the post office with a great attitude today, and boy did it pay off.
      So I park, it’s pouring, I’ve got my yellow rain jacket from gap kids on, whatever it takes right? I go into the post office get one of there carts and load all my packages into. I’m struggling with the cart (you know, since they don’t make them with handles or anything) and I see this girl my age come hustling up behind me, yes! Someone to open the door. But no, she goes “in through the out door, out door.” (hehehe, couldn’t help myself, you know I love the Prince). So I’m like struggling with the door and this huge metal cart. As soon as she passes me I get the first glimpse. Her butt, I’m talking about her butt. She is dressed in VERY unflattering joggins with about three inches of sweatpant material shoved up her crack. Yup, wedgie city. But that’s not all, her ass has “baby girl” written in cursive. She’s got a handful of manila envelopes, none addressed or closed. Gosh I love these people who cut in line and don’t have anything filled out, but I guess God put her there so I could have some amusement while waiting in line. And I did. She proceeded to drop, among other things, a bunch of tampons out of her little purse. Not little O.b.s that could be mistaken for lip gloss at a glance from a boy, but big huge applicator tampons. I’m not horrible, I would have helped her, but we were in a tight space and I had the cart between us, so I couldn’t. When she got up she had a way worse wedgie than before and I got to see her sweatshirt: “Pimp University; 420; High Life” nice. Baby girl proceeded to a postal clerk and I went to the next one. Of course I got out of there first because I had everything filled out and ready to go. Moral of the story? 1)You should not be so high that you can’t feel a wad of material up your butt and 2)It’s nicer to let me go first, since I was there first, and then I won’t make fun of you on my blog and 3)I can’t stress this enough: FILL OUT YOUR PAPER WORK BEFORE YOU GET TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE!!!

I don’t think this would have been a very good paper because I don’t think I really got the point across that all this water is making people do/wear crazy things.

Cracking myself up while helping my mom by modeling some stuff for eBay. Since I doubt this shot will make it under item description, enjoy:

Mom what was that word you called me? I can’t remember, but it meant like full of myself, right. So I was like, “well, this is for my blog, which is about me…” Okay so maybe I am. Hehehe. I finished these gloves last night waiting for Bj:

They’re for my little brother Taylor, who doesn’t get excited about anything, he’s such a cool, laid back easy going 15 year old. But I think he really does like them, he wore them around all night. And I made him give me a hug, I mean this was a time consuming handmade gift!

I’m going through a bunch of magazines tonight and organizing all my binders of inspiration. Watching X-Files while I do it. It’s so strange how I can’t seem to watch anything else scary, but I can freak myself out watching these alone. It’s only because I know Mulder and Scully will always come through!

            Well yesterday was a pretty rough day for me. My great grandmother died on New Year’s day and yesterday was the funeral and wake. When I was born I had seven great grandparents, and she was the last surviving one. Marie was 93 years old when she went up to heaven. I was so lucky that I got to see her on Christmas Eve. She had just gotten sick that day really, a gall bladder thing. I was sad when I went to see her because she really wasn’t feeling well and she was moaning and in a lot of pain. But you know the amazing thing? Her mind was all there, and I am just so thankful that we could have one last conversation. I showed her my knitting because she was one crafty lady and I knew she would appreciate it, and she did. I asked her if she wanted a new Kleenex because she was wiping her mouth, and she was like, "oh no, those don’t hold up nearly as well as my handkerchiefs." I don’t know why but I love that. My mom and I always have handkerchiefs with us too and I had one at the funeral, holding it I was thinking of her.
        Before my great grandpa died and she still lived on their farm she would cook us these huge dinners (which of course was lunch, because supper was a smaller meal in the evening). There would always be a pie or desert and some salads, and meat. I remember when I was younger eating this meat and thinking, "what is this" then my grandma said, "do you like the tongue"? Ahhhhhh!!!!! My great grandparents were "rock hounds" before it was illegal to just take any rock or fossil you wanted. They travel all over with rock clubs (hehehe) digging them up, and then polishing them. This was so cool to my younger self. My great grandma kept crafting up until the end. I hope I can be like that. She made a ball out of granny squares for her great-great-grandson (my cousin’s boy Matthew who is five). And Krissy said he wanted to bring all the things she made him to the funeral. She made him leave it then all in the car where the ball was buckled in with a seat belt. He was playing with the ball at the wake, and it just reinforced how much things made with love really mean. I’m sure he’ll have that ball forever. I still have the mini crochet Barbie outfits, and stuffed turtles, baby blankets, and homemade slippers. My mom and I think we got all our crafty skills from grandma and I’m sure we did. She painted, sewed, knitted, crocheted, cooked, never forgot a birthday, loved everyone, and everyone loved her.
      So the funeral. It was in this super old cemetery. I mean they must have gotten their plots many years ago, because I said to my cousin, "doesn’t it look like grandma got the last empty spot?" And it was so strange because when they picked out this final resting place I’m sure it was in the country, but now it is smack in the middle of a development. Like, houses surrounding the whole thing, very interesting. Then we went to the wake. My cousin Jenny is pregnant, I asked her how she was doing and she said, "barf-a-rama man, it’s nasty" poor Jenny. I said maybe when she has her second baby we’ll be pregnant together, and she was like, "after this man, I don’t know." After that we drove by my great grandparent’s old farm (I didn’t take pictures, oops). The new owners took down the swing set that we all played on since we were little, even my mom and her brothers and sisters. They also cut down some big old trees, we thought it looked pretty bare. When we got home I was having a ton of trouble with the Ribbon Jar and I just got so overwhelmed. I started to cry and I told my mom, it’s just so hard, because if I had a "normal" job, I could just take the whole day off, but I can’t because no one can do all the stuff but me. Bj’s been in Minnesota and I just need him. Being the sweetheart that he is he drove down to Salem after he landed at PDX, even though his plan was late and he didn’t get here until two. He had to leave early this morning but those few hours of sleep with him just brought me peace.

         Today was much better, calmer, and I got a lot done. Check out the new products section. Plus I’ll update later tonight with pictures, but this post has been long enough as it is.