Greetings and such

First of all, "hello" to my girls at the lss who I found out the other night read my blog...that is you Kathy and Karen, two really fun scrappers with fab personalities and their own design styles! Kathy is usually our hostess for the lss crops, and she rocks. She's had a few health setbacks, but in spite of that, she keeps on plugging away with her big smile and great stories!

They like my picture on the blog with my glasses...hehehehehe.

I finally saw my blog friend, Mel, over at Scrapstreet today. She has been AWOL for a bit, although I enjoy her blog and her comments. That has kept me up with her activities since she lives in "the land down under." Now here is my question for her...if we refer to them as the land down under...what are we? the land up there? Just curious! Her precious baby, Lillee, is soon to be 1! Amazing, and happy birthday wee one!

My most treasured gift this summer was the visit of my cousins from Austria, Margot and Anna. It is a blessing to be able to share time with them and enjoy each other so much. It was heartbreaking when they left to finish their vacation with stops in NYC and DC before returning home. But then, Margot kept saying, that we will see each other in two years when we get to go there. It will pass quickly, but thank goodness for e-mail and such!

I'd never met Anna before. She is Margot's daughter. So this was a special treat that she got to come an stay, too. We are very spoiled by the fact that they speak English so well. We should be ashamed that we do not speak German as well as they speak English.

Margot showed me how to make some Austrian dishes and cooked for us one night. That was great. I have all the ingredients in my kitchen to re-make the Chicken Paprikash that her mom had showed me a few years before, but I forgot. And I finally have the recipe for this dish KrautFleckerl (or something like that) that Tante Rita made while she was here last time and was the most delicious thing I have ever had in my life.

We visited the USC autograph day, and the football players thought Anna was quite hot. We got Steve Spurrier's autograph, Corey Boyd and Kenny McKinley. The line was too long for Blake Mitchell by the time we got around to it, but I'm not a big fan of his anyway!

We also went to Charleston and Myrtle Beach. I think we covered lots of food choices as well with a final dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse.

How I miss them everyday. I can't even bear to go in their room and see them not there.

We are very fortunate to love our cousins so much.

I have been scrapping as well. I made 5 layouts on Friday night. I haven't posted them all as I may submit one, and two are for a gift. I made a layout last night and two Christmas cards, and two layouts today along with a Halloween card. I've been a busy bee.

I need to catch up with my blog friends and see what they have been up to. For the time being, I will just say HI in case they read my blog.