Five years ago today I watched a little baby with feet kicking and arms waving penetrate the very depth of my heart. Today he is five years old and continues to hold that place in my heart and has all the love possible from his Grammy. It seems five years have gone by so fast and he is growing into a very special little man. He still loves to come and visit at Grammy's house and I hope that will continue forever.

I am so fortunate to live close and see him and his little sister Hunter often. What a blessing to be a Grammy with close proximity to the grandchildren. Kelly has learned to walk, run, play tennis, swim, read, paint, and give love. He is the best there is and of course, I will always think just a little bit better than anyone else. That is a Grammy's view and you will not change it. My heart just swells when I hear the little voice on the phone.."Grammy, where are you?" and the happiness when I say I am at home so he can come over and visit.

Five years have gone by so fast and it is hard to imagine how strong love can grow in such a short time but he has my heart, love grows each day, and I am truly blessed.

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Originally uploaded by barbara_sanborn

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Originally uploaded by barbara_sanborn

The minute I stepped off the airplane in Indianapolis, I knew this was not the time of year to visit the North. I could see my breath as I walked down the jetway into the terminal and the weather deteriorated from that point on. I had left New Orleans on an alternate flight as the one I was scheduled on with Delta was so late I would miss the last connection in Memphis. They moved me from a first class on Delta to a middle seat on a US Scare and then to a bullet shaped object that resembled a toy airplane. One seat on one side and two on the other. I was fortunate as I was in the side with two seats, on the aisle and had enough knee room to keep my kneecaps out of my front teeth. As I said, it was cold when I landed. My son Tom, met me at the plane and we proceeded down to the luggage retrieval area to find my bag with my hat, coat, gloves and all the warm clothes I had packed.
Guess what, US Scare could not find my bag...of course, they blamed Northworst and the saga started. Tom had the foresight to bring me a jacket, gloves and a hat so we proceeded to the parking lot. OMG(Gosh to those of you who think I would say something bad), it was COOOOOLLLLDDD. Memories came rushing back of North Dakota and Minnesota...the frost on the windshield, the cold seats, the necessity to warm up a car, not pleasant memories.
The rest of the visit was wonderful, a visit to the Indianpolis Children's Museum with trains, dinosaurs and my favorite, Chihuly Glass was a great part of the trip.

We went to a USA swim meet to see Nora race in the free, fly, back and breast stroke and had some great dinners, did a little shopping and just hung out together. It was great seeing Tom and hearing of all his achievements but I can't help but wish he were closer to us in Florida.
What do I miss most when I travel, Kelly and Hunter of course. I am anxious to hear the little voice say to me.."Grammy, where are you?" and I will know I am in their thoughts too.
And the airplane book you ask? Gitomer this time with wonderful advice. I have read this before and probably had it on this site, but recommend several reads of any Gitomer book.

JOHN CHOW IS HAVING A GREAT GIVE AWAY!!!

OIO Publisher Direct Give Away
written by John Chow on January 5th, 2009
Make $5,000 per month from home!

OIOPublisher is the best solution for bloggers trying to sell direct advertising. Before this awesome piece of software came along, I would always recommend new bloggers use 3rd party ad networks instead of selling ads directly because you need to concentrate on producing content when you’re starting out.

What OIOPublisher automates the ad buying process so you can concentrate on blogging instead of selling. By using OIOPublisher, advertisers can order, pay for and upload their ads directly to your blog. The only thing you have to do is approve the ad. If you get a sale, then great! If not, then OIOPublisher will run ads from the ad networks or your own house ads until you do. Some of the other features include:

* Possible to integrate the ad platform with any website that uses PHP
* Purchase / account pages are now templated, editable within the admin area
* Text links are now controlled via zones (like banner ads)
* Works with PayPal and PayPal Subscription
* Full javascript ad display support
* Entrecard Payment option integrated

The software will work on any website that use PHP. Wordpress users get an easy to install plugin. OIOPublisher Direct sells for $47 and is worth every penny. However, I have two copies to give away.

How To Enter

To enter for a chance to win one of two copies of OIOPublisher Direct, simply reply to this post. It doesn’t get easier than that! You only need to reply once. Replying multiple times won’t get you more entries. However, if you blog about this contest and link to this post, I’ll give you five more entries. I give you three more entries if you send the following tweet to your followers.

Win a copy of OIOPublisher Direct from @JohnChowDotCom. It automates ad sales for your blog. Enter here! http://xr.com/lnf

The contest deadline is Friday, January 30. The winners will be drawn on Saturday, January 31 at Dot Com Pho. Good luck and enter now!

Download OIOPublisher Direct

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Merry Christmas. What a beautiful time of the year in Florida. I am looking forward to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Kelly and Hunter, Tim and Allison. Tom will be in Indianapolis with Brenna and Nora. They are having weather that is much worse than ours. I've been making fleece hats to keep us warm at night here in Florida. Yes, it does get cold in the evenings this time of year. We had to wear hats and jackets to St. Augustine last night to view the lights and visit Winter Wonderland. After a great dinner at the Columbia restaurant we wandered through Elf Village and Candy Cane Lane.

Great fun at Mousefest 2008. We had an opportunity to go on a tour with Steve Barrett who wrote the Hidden Mickey guides for both Disney World and Disneyland. I had no idea how many hidden characters, mostly Mickey's, are in the parks. Steve suggested there are close to 1000 so finding them could be a really fun challenge when visiting the parks. If you plan to visit the parks don't forget to go to Destinationsinflorida.com to find tickets, hotels, food venues, and other information. The owner of the site lived in Orlando, did her residency at Disney and is now one of the top agencies for Disney.

Make a Smilebox postcard

I spent three wonderful nights on a Disney Cruise recently with my oldest son and two grandchildren, Kelly and Hunter. It was the most relaxing and enjoyable vacation and one that I could recommend to anyone. It would be especially great for consultants who work Sunday through Thursday as you can leave Thursday from Port Canaveral at noon and return by Sunday at 7 am in time to fly out to your next engagement. The cruise went to Nassau in the Bahamas and then on to Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay is the Island that Disney owns. It had a pirate ship, beautiful beaches and a great bar-b-que.


Disney has fantastic attention to detail and the customer service is incredible. Everyone stopped to make sure our cruise was going as planned. They also stopped to talk with the grandchildren and every character on the ship stopped to say Hello to them. They also stayed in the children's area one night while we went to an adult dinner. The caretakers provided regular messages so we knew how the grandchildren were doing in the play areas.




My cabin was on the outside of the ship with a very large port hole window which gave me the opportunity to lay in bed at night and watch the waves and other ships go in the opposite direction. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets added to the enjoyment. To see all the pictures from the cruise, go to my flickr site.

Working in New Orleans at the National Finance Center. We stay downtown at one of the Renaissance Hotels so we are within walking distance of many wonderful restaurants. It is hard to diet in New Orleans.

I have been learning a new skill and am now a pretty good UPK developer. We have a very small team so it is easy to get to know one another.

The flights are not bad and certainly better than the coast to coast flights on the last few projects.

The pictures are some of the destruction that has not been addressed. Bourbon and Royal are pretty much as usual with the smells on Bourbon and the Antiques on Royal. Still lots of music and street people.

Working In New Orleans again and noting some of the changes. There are many buildings still in a state of disrepair scattered among those that have been totally rebuilt. We went down to Jackson Square last week and Royal and Bourbon have changed very little. Still dirty, smelly but lots of activity.


Kelly and Hunter are preparing for the upcoming Halloween Party. They are such a joy and truly give life meaning. They had sleep overs at Grammys and we went to St. Augustine, rode the "Red" train and played miniture golf. What a great day.

I went back to New Orleans this week. It was an interesting week and Metairie really hasn't changed much. The drive to the NASA building brought visions of empty homes, broken windows, damaged buildings and in many areas just general disrepair and destruction. It is hard to believe that areas still have not been cleaned out and many homes look as though they may never be rebuilt.

I read a book on the plane Which I can recommend. It is called "Shut up, Stop Whining & Get Life" By Larry Wingate. I thought it might be edgy but really had some good information. Like all books, you don't agree with everything but fundamentally it is a good book with information that can make you better. Many of the things he states, cannot be argued with and he has an approach to business, relationships, religion, money and stress that is a "get er done", results based approach. Worth the read

We didn't make it downtown so I am hoping next week our travels will take us at least to Jackson Square for a cup of Louisiana Coffee. We are working at the NASA facility which is out past the old six flags amusement park. The park is closed but the large rollercoasters and other rides stand abandoned like large dinosaurs or a forest of with large streams of metal trees and streams.

I have a grandson who loves pirates. I thought others might be interested in the pirate cake and party as well. It is such fun to be able to do the little extra things for grandchildren, things you may not have been able to do with your own children. When my children were growing up I tried to spend as much time with them as possible, but being the primary support, this wasn't always possible. It is difficult for a working parent to do the little extra things that are such fun. I did manage to have parties for them and it was always such fun and brought them such joy. They are older now with their own children and are doing a better job than I did at parties for the wee ones. I am grateful they both have loving partners to help them provide for and give love to my grandchildren. Take some time out today to do some little thing for your children, your grandchildren, or just have a party for yourself:-).

How to Make a Pirate Cake

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Having a pirate party? Celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19? Ahoy there matey, this pirate cake will be an instant hit with any budding swashbuckler. This article assumes that you already have the cake (madeira sponge); you can either make one or purchase one.

Ingredients

• madeira sponge cake
  
• buttercream
  
• chocolate sticks
  
• chocolate coins
  
• mint imperials (round mints)
  
• sugared miniature gems
  
• yellow cocktail sugar or yellow sherbet
  

Steps

1. Add the buttercream. Cover the whole of the madeira cake in buttercream using a palette knife. This will help the chocolate sticks stick to the cake.
   
2. Add the chocolate sticks.
   
   • Stick chocolate sticks to the long side of the cake.
     
   • Alternate them from side to side, as shown in this image.
     
   • Fill the gaps by cutting more chocolate sticks to length. Repeat on the other side.
     
   • Fill the ends with more sticks cut down to size.
     
   
   
3. Make "sand". Spread a rough layer of buttercream on the cake board around the chest.
   
   • Use a spoon to sprinkle the yellow sugar over the buttercream.
     
   
   
4. Place the treasure on top.
   
   • Cover the top of the cake with chocolate coins, and place a few around the sides of the chest to make it look like the treasure's overflowing.
     
   • Use mint imperials and mini gems to make necklaces and jewels.
     
   
   
5. Place the characters amidst the treasure. Complete the scene by positioning a few pirate characters and toys around the chest.
   
   • If wished, put a few bits of toy treasure in the cake. Just be sure to take anything inedible off the cake before you serve it, especially if this is for very young children.
     
   
   

Tips

• If you cannot find some of the candies/sweets/lollies mentioned above, substitute with ones that you have in your region, using your imagination to find suitable shapes.
  

Things You'll Need

• Clean workspace
  
• Palette knife
  
• Clean pirate figures
  
• Serving platter/cake stand
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Make a Fire Breathing Dragon Cake
  
• How to Make a 3D Dinosaur Birthday Cake
  
• How to Have a Pirate Party for Kids or Adults
  
• How to Have a Pirate Costume Party
  
• How to Act Like a Pirate
  
• How to Talk Like a Pirate
  

Sources and Citations

• VideoJug. A video of making a pirate cake; original source of article. Shared with permission and appreciation.
  
• Original creator of cake: expert Sugarcrafter Jan Clement-May and sugarcraft school, Squires Kitchen.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Make a Pirate Cake. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Going to Kansas City....what a great week. The weather in Kansas City was great and the training went well. It was a time to get to know our team better and we all enjoyed the evenings out.

You can tell by the smiling faces that is wasn't all work. Colin and Bob enjoyed sitting on the Fish Bench in front of Red Lobster on Metcalf Road. Sharon provided the navigation system to get us there and we all enjoyed a great dinner.

Those of you who have worked with Bob Patti remember he was called 212 because he was from New York. New Yorkers have a certain approach to the world and work that sets them apart.

If you want to set yourself apart from the crowd, read the book 212 and see that a single degree can make all the difference. Sometimes it is not the big things that make a difference but the small steps that make the difference big. Buy it and read it on the airplane between stops. Very easy read.

I just finished reading The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. It is a great book and a quick read. After reading it I think I want to be a Fred and follow the idea that everyone can choose to be exceptional. This is a book about Fred the Postman and I would recommend it to anyone who is building a team, managing a project, or wanting to make a difference in their lives. Some great concepts.."Measure what you Treasure", "no unimportant jobs, just people who feel unimportant doing their jobs." Go read it tonight and look at the world through glasses of awareness with a change in attitude, moving forward with action and making sure you accomplish something.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 69 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

And so did Sharon

And Yes, I went down the slide too.

Another day in Dallas. Last night we went to dinner at a restaurant that had a slide. Yes, I did give it a try as the attached video will demonstrate. The food was excellent, and the company was fun. Too bad I didn't have my cowboy boots with me to do the boot scootin boogie as they had a great dance floor and even a band.