Scrapbook page - Seth and Tanner in Arizona

About five years ago, Tanner, Seth and myself went on a trip to Arizona. While cleaning my scrapbook room, and reorganizing the paper (again), i found this partially finished layout in a sleeve.

Of course, I siezed the opportunity to click off 2 more layouts on my ticker so I finished it up really quick. Not that it's spectacular, but it is finished. Finished is good.

Paper, accents, transparencies are all K & company. An older line (obviously, I started it 5 years ago) that I absolutely loved. Now I'm thinking of donating it all to make room. lol.

Paper tags, I believe are from a company that is now out of business.

Kiss and make up? Wanna be friends again? aw.

This weekend, was dedicated to this boy:

This is an ornery (ha) 18 year old boy, that thinks he knows everything, but won't listen to the world around him telling him he doesn't. You know, like every 18 year old boy.

He's already full of a lifetime of stories, has a full time job and an apartment!, and a senior in Kansas. He's also in for a lifetime of ups and downs, and a few bumps in the road, but it gets better. Hang in there baby! See ya in 25 years! :)

Gene had his class reunion over the weekend. I won't tell you how long ago it was, but it's initials are 3-0.

I think the theme of the weekend ended up being forgiveness. Getting some, and giving some. Both is a healing process, and just as Gene and I had discussed several times before getting there, people have a way of growing up and changing over time. Stupid things you said or did when you were 17 really shouldn't matter when you're wondering how much longer til retirement.

I think he figured that out too, and reconnected with some old friends. We'll see how that goes, and maybe those friendships will rekindle, and maybe they won't. Either way, reunions are a good reminder that being a teen was hard and leaves a lasting imprint on you for the rest of your life.


Friday night we went to a bar called Austin's. I'd never been there before. Which is great considering that bars are always too loud and you can never talk. I think we should have reunions at libraries or church fellowship halls.

Something tells me it wouldn't be quite that popular.

We get there, sit for a bit, Gene and I recognize absolutely no one... which is no shocker since I don't know anyone :p But after a bit, Gene sees someone across the room. "Well I'll be DAMNED! There's Steve!" Steve was a good friend of Gene's and "cohort" would really be the best way to describe these 2. Steve has not seen Gene yet.

We come up with a plan. I will go over and pretend like I know Steve just to watch the look on his face for a bit. lol.

Yeah I'm mean like that.
I love my job.

I cut through the crowd, walk passed him, pretended like he caught my eye and checked his tag and said "OMG.. STEVE???!!!" and put my arm around him, gave him a hug, asked him how his life was and how he was doing. I let it drag out several minutes.

The look on his face was priceless. haha.

Finally I said, "You see that cowboy over there? He said I could pinch you on the butt if I wanted to." hah.

I point.

Cowboy is gone.

WTH!!?

LOL.

Gene ruined a great joke. Damn him. Either way I got a good laugh out of it. (You'll see steve in a bit).

Despite the agreement that he wouldn't ditch me.... he continously ditched me. UGH. It was ok, I entertained myself by watching him reconnect with ppl he hadn't seen for years.

See the guy holding up the beer? That was Chris. One of Gene's closest friends in high school. He lives in texas now with his wife Denise (also a graduate at the party). Yeah, I actually found someone more rowdy than Gene. Imagine that.

This is Kevin. And I must apologize in advance for the worst photo ever. But hey, the wall is in focus right?

(please hire me to photograph your event, I swear I don't suck ALL the time lol).

Kevin was really cool and come to find out, has been camping/hunting many times within just a few miles of my hometown. We spent a great deal of time talking about deer, pheasants, Lake of 3 fires, etc. By the end, I personally invited him to stop by the next time he came through hunting.


Saturday was the full reunion.

By the time we got there, I think Gene was done. Because of road construction, we could NOT GET THERE. We made a 20 mile loop, all the while being within a couple miles of the place and couldn't find the entrance. lol.

Thank you La Qunita for helping us, even though we didn't stay at your lovely establishment.


This is Steve on the left, Gene and Tony. (No really, I'm good at this photo thing, I swear. Please ignore the blurriness, GENE is in focus).

Tony was another buddy of Gene's. From what I gather, they always went for the same girl. Can you tell he's an MP? From Oklahoma?

Yeah me too.

This sweet lady I've been wanting to meet for years. I always have heard the story of Neicey (I bet I spelled it wrong). She was in a home ec class with Gene, 15 other girls, and a guy who had been in a lot of trouble (no, some other guy, not gene. ok, both had been in trouble). LOL.

Basically the story goes like this. Gene had been in some trouble, and it boiled down to he had to not miss one second of school, and not get in any trouble, and he could graduate. Yeah, he was a bad boy. LOL. (there's a lot more to this story but I'm leaving out the girl, jail time and getting stabbed with a fork). (hows that for a cliffhanger).

Anyway, back to Senior year home ec. The guy in the class with him got in a fight with Gene, during class and pulled a knife on him. Both of them got yanked out of class and both were going to get expelled. Even though everyone saw it happen, Neicey was the only one that came forward and said that Gene had gotten a knife pulled on him and it wasn't his fault.

So had it not been for her, Gene would have never graduated.

I told her thank you, because we probably would have never met. She looked at me strange, and Gene explained that one wrong step sends you down an entirely different path in life. That might have been that moment where he would have went in a whole different direction.

Oh wait we need to thank someone else:

This is Susie. Otherwise known by Gene's oldest boy as "Aunt Susie". She's been friends with Gene's first wife for 35 years. They still visit her, and keep in close contact as she's family.

She also helped tutor Gene in American History his senior year. He sqeaked by with a D-, but he made it. Thanks Susie.. I swear you did a great job, because he LOVES the history channel. lol.

It's sad that he didn't love school, because ironically, he is incredibly smart person. I guess he just saw high school as a place to meet girls, hang out with buddies and torment the masses. All of which, he did a great job at. You know, sometimes tho, people change and wish they'd done better, and then later, they do better for themselves.

He has done better for himself. He also educates himself daily via the discovery channel. hah.

I reflected a lot, as I was just a bystander by most of the event, standing back watching events unfold. I observed a few things.

1. 30 years does not stop some women from still being insecure. Sometimes they need reassurance from their friends that they are smart, beautiful and that the other "girls" are just jealous of them, even at pushing 50 (overheard conversation in the bathroom).
2. For some people, high school was the high point of their life. They were the jock, or the cheerleader or whatever and life was really great. Sometimes they make it out and make something else more of their lives. But sadly, sometimes they live, just to re-live that moment in time. Somethings never change.
3. Nerds and geeks really do well in life. They also sometimes end up quite handsome and wealthy. Girls... *date them*.
4. People really do grow up, and let most things from the past go, even if it's just for one day. A reunion is a great place for the jocks and the geeks and the cheerleaders and the stoners to shake hands, smile at each other, catch up on each others' lives and show true interest in each other.
5. Graduating doesn't make you more secure. When presented with a popular jock that was a jerk in high school, who was standing all alone with no one to talk to, Gene took the high road and went over to chat for a bit. The jock looked so relieved.
6. It's fun being in the trophy wives club. Myself and the other one connected. Yep, I just called myself a trophy wife. LOL. Gene does too. Hey, it's his JOB to stroke my ego. thankyouverymuch.
7. It was fun to hear the music with all of his classmates there. You see, whenever I hear disco music on the radio, I smile to myself because I wish I knew him back then. While technically it was possible, it also would have been highly illegal in every single state. LOL. Anyway, I'd hear a disco song, catch his attention from across the room and we'd both do our best John Travolta imitation then have a good laugh.
8. Even really old ppl like facebook. LOL. I swear, I bet I heard at least a dozen ppl ask Gene to get on FB. I'm going out on a limb and gonna say that he probably won't any time soon. Unless I just go and do it for him and say "here's your password dear".

Be impressed by this photo. Really.
I was jealous of everyone else's point and shoot. I went with one lens, and there was NO WAY I was going to be able to shoot a group shot with it, so I had to do a panoramic photo and stitch them together. yeah, that's been my morning.

Olathe Kansas, class of 1979, if you want a copy, please email me, and I'll get you a cheap copy!

In the end, Gene had a great time. I know he loved seeing many of his old classmates. He said from the beginning that this would be the only time he ever goes, but something tells me that he enjoyed it, and maybe 10 years down the road, he'll soften up even more and go again.

I'll start working on him right now.

Why do I always feel like I'm saying "catch up post?"

Unfortunately, another catch up post. It's that time of year that I get more and more busy and have less and less free time for the things I truly love to do.

The saddest part is, I had some grandiose plans this weekend to catch up with some posting. This past weekend was spent in Kansas City as I had a seminar to attend (photography) and Gene's class reunion was this weekend too. (more on that later).

I had loaded some pictures onto my laptop and planned out several posts I've been wanting to make. I had predetermined that most of you would have no idea I was even gone! We were there for 3.5 days, and the only time I could find access was in the hotel the first day! (where the seminar was located). Olathe might as well be Fort Knox. Everyplace was on lock down, even restaurants. SHEESH PPL!

Anyway, so this is my best excuse for the past 4 days.

Thursday I went to a seminar by David Ziser. It was really informative, but really fast. A bit of a commercial too, ok, a lot of a commercial. I bought some stuff I really hadn't planned on. Ooops. I'm planning on selling off the bits I don't want and breaking even on the deal. LOL.

Friday we spent some time hitting a few antique stores. I can't "go" quite as fast as before so we only went to a couple. Friday night was spent at a local Bar where some of Gene's classmates got together for a pre-reunion reunion. It was loud. Did I mention I'm not a fan of bars? They're always loud.

Saturday, a bit more antiquing. We found lots of cool goodies, which I'm hoping to share with you later, and then that night we went to Gene's official class reunion. It was pretty fun considering I knew absolutely no one, but "knew" so many from all the stories that I'd heard over the years. At first, Gene was kind of reluctant, but then after a while he became his usual social butterfly self, and ditched me a WHOLE LOT. (I have a strict no ditching policy. Instead I used my "free time" to get some good stories on Gene. lol).

Sunday we got up, packed the car and Gene was so sweet and took me to the best place on earth.... Waffle house! Man I love that place. LOL. Maryville needs a waffle house.

We got home around noon-ish, no antiquing on the way home, mainly cuz I was worried about the cats. Worried about the house (which I always do) and wanting to get some other work done.

We worked on the island and only had one good argument about it. Heck I don't know, if you spend that much time, and that much money, I'm gonna guess a scratched tile really isn't worth staring at every day for the next 15 years no? NOTE: You can't cut black tiles upside down. They scratch. *sigh*

Sooo.. the island is not done, however, we did sieze the opportunity to cut all of the back splash pieces and stain the trim and cut to size. Damn we're good as there were some really difficult cuts.

I'll share an update on all these things later too. Yeah Lana.. later later. I promise!

That's basically the quick and nasty update, so I can feel like I'm moving on with my life now! lol.

NCO Financial Systems

I thought you should read some of this information:

"Be sure to go and leave a comment at NCO Financial Systems at CallFerret Phone Number Lookup so that all of the new NCO phone numbers are available to people as soon as possible.

"In case you are getting calls from the wonderful people at NCO Financial Systems. You should read some messages people have posted about this company. Apart from having to pay $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), there are also many many claims of state and federal violations of legislation like the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

"The company purchases old debt from people like your cellphone provider, hospitals and the government for pennies on the dollar and then tries to collect it. You may have even already paid the bill, like I had, but that is really a minor irrelevant point. The reality is, much if not most of this debt is so old noone has any obligation to repay any of it, least of all not to NCO. Many people have been harassed for debt belonging to neighbors, relatives, old residents of the same address, and co-workers. Don’t pay NCO a penny.

"If you receive letters or phone calls from NCO or phone numbers like

"800-709-8625 or 888-804-3488 or 877-803-8009 or 800-541-2742 or 888-688-7929 or 800-445-4918 or 866-569-8956 or 800-218-1175 or 800-448-9576 or 800-684-8429 or 866-429-3592 or 800-976-8307 or 877-871-6484 or 800-735-6588 or 800-220-1942 or 877-778-1799 or 800-227-4000 or 800-807-7809 or 866-626-9112 or 866-425-8131 or 800-967-4100 or 877-252-4534 or 877-202-9074 or 888-691-8955 or 888-259-3021 or 800-437-7403 or 800-383-4761 or 866-360-9791 you should read this page about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If NCO does anything wrong with you, you could be entitled to $1000 per infraction and they may have to pay your lawyer and possibly even your debt.

"To halt their “contact”, send NCO a certified, return-receipt cease and desist letter (they throw away all faxes and non-certified letters). A sample letter might read (though, you must seek real legal advice, which I’m not):

This is to advise you that pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (”FDCPA”) 15 USC 1692c(c), you are hereby notified to immediately terminate any contact with me, or any members of my family or household, regarding any matter concerning the collection of a debt you allege is owed to your company or to your principal/customer/client. This notice shall include, but is not limited to written correspondence, as well as telephonic communication. This letter also verifies that I live at the address above, therefore, any further locator attempts would be a violation of the FDCPA.

Their address is:

NCO Financial Systems, Inc.

507 Prudential Rd

Horsham, PA 19044-2308

"Is NCO calling you? Do you have a new NCO phone number or information? Please leave a comment and share it with the rest of us. Thanks!

NCO may or may not report your debt dispute with them on your credit report. It is important to make sure that if NCO puts anything on your credit report, all of the information is accurate, such as date of debt, last activity on account and the correct amount. That information is not always placed on all three major reports and your valid creditors usually only check one of these sources, so make sure you check all three (TransUnion, Equifax and Experian) for correct information. You should also check your credit score at these agencies to see the impact of your debt history on your credit-worthiness."

"Important! File a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General - easy online form (NCO is a PA company and PA is investigating NCO)

P.S. The Pennsylvania Attorney General recently finished a big case against them, though the complaints continue."

I stumbled across this information after getting a few calls from NCO myself. Seems that they think I am someone else and now I'm caught in their web too!! They are calling from and request a return call to: 1-800-956-4638.

Buggy

The other day I went out in the yard with my camera under the premise that I was going to take some flower pics. One can never have enough flower piccies no?

Well, instead, I got distracted by the critters instead.

I don't know if you can tell or not, but I'm not scared of bees. Just sayin.

Now, are you really all that shocked that I'm still picking grass out of my boot? Srsly.