I know what the deals are and I’m buying most of them the first two weeks, so I PROMISE you will want them.  Do yourself a favor (and me), go to the website stick in your email and you’re in to WIN.  The contest is weighted so that EVERY school district has an even chance of winning (though Newton has gotten the word out so quickly they are running away with it).  (Email it to EVERYONE, The more of your friends who pick your school the greater chance you’ll be getting something new in your district!)  By the way, once you’re entered all the deals come straight to your email box, love it….buy it, if you don’t DELETE, it’s really that easy.

And,  I’m not supposed to say but I’m going to give you a hint, the first deal September 13th, is something you eat, something that’s sweet and frankly even I can afford this deal!! Hmmmmm…..what will it be??   Just because I love pictures I’m throwing this one in.  It was taken during the KSN interview for our FFS (Funds for Schools) story.  I look like a goober, but check out my sandals.  LOVE them!  (Half price in Vegas when I was there for Jewelry market.)   In this picture is Nathan Meyer, Wichita Funds For Schools, Josh Witsman, KSN Weekend Anchor, Anita Cochran  (MOI) and Kyle Gerstner, Green Zebra Concierge who will be offering  up a deal in the future.  Ooops, I’m giving away trade secrets.  I love that I have a big mouth but I’m not sure if the guys I work with like that about me.  Oh well, let’s find out.

These days, Sally is married, a mother of two and cranking up her business efforts to make custom Drapes, Pillows and Bedding.  (Look at  her wedding picture some 20 years ago.  I was the Maid of Honor…..She made her dress, her flowers, my dress, my flowers, her veil……did I tell you she’s incredibly talented? )

Now, back to my bedroom.  Here’s what she did in my room.  Remember I started with just the lime green quilt and two shams (bought for less than 30 bucks at Target.) I added the two white pillows I was already using, and found some great Ralph Lauren Towels at TJ Maxx. So Sally turned the towels into pillows and created a one of a kind bejeweled pillow for the front. I LOVE it. And I love her.

I have letters from Sally while she and her hubby were stationed in Germany. At the time, I was stationed in Hays, Kansas trying to become a news anchor. Looking back, I know I would have never made it through those TOUGH first years without her and those letters. These days she has put the pen down and picked up a needle, and her love letters are now spread all over my home in the form of pillows and drapes and dare I admit it, patched clothing!! Maybe this love letter wasn’t really about the bedding after all, it was about the seamstress. Either way, I’m the lucky one, and I know it.

Oh, and if you have something you want Sally to make for you, she’s for hire. (Though she has to get my projects done first.) Contact her at sallyrogers27@gmail.com.

We just got back from a trip to Los Angeles.  Our dear friends Ron and Renae Ryan bought Tanza an opportunity of a lifetime.  She was able to take a voice lesson with Hannah Anders and then have a recording session with Producer Daniel Ford.  Those two days were incredible and I just wanted to share with you a little of what Tanza left with.  This is one of her three original songs.  Yes, she wrote the music and lyrics.  She played the guitar and her loving family got to do some back up vocals, listen carefully.

Tanza I couldn’t really do you justice, but at 10 years old you are already the star of your first movie/music video!  Momma loves you.  The rest of you, enjoy.

It was all my idea.  I have such fond memories of my family growing up going on adventures to pick peaches and strawberries, but I’m not sure if I enjoyed it at the time or only enjoy it now, looking back.  So I made the girls get up early and met Papa and Grandma Carla for the drive to Harper.  The Beal Orchard isn’t where I went as a child, Blood Orchard probably doesn’t exist now, but Steve Beal has it all figured out and there were more peaches out there for the picking than I remember even being POSSIBLE in Kansas.

The only hitch in this years peach harvest, if you can call it that is some pest problems.  I would spy a partially eaten peach and say, “What the Heck has been chewing on that??”   Turns out, grasshoppers are the culprit, I even caught one in action.  I can’t really say it was much of a problem though, maybe three of all the peaches I touched had even a blemish.  (Yeah, Steve!!)

Because one of my favorite parts of picking ANYTHING is being able to eat as much as you want out in the field, I brought a knife (I hate peach fuzz) and peeled the peaches right there…..so did Dad.   Turns out the peaches he picked were the biggest and best….Should I have doubted that the farmer in him, would show us all up?  He did!

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My girls did a really good job.  They only screamed once.  (Lexy HATES spiders, and they grow BIG ones in Harper.)  They only started griping about how hot it was when we were a full hour into it and nearly done (and the sweat was dripping off each and every one of us at 10 am!).   I’m proud of them.  I didn’t make the memory I had from my childhood, but I made one nonetheless, and they will never forget how miserable they were picking peaches one hot Kansas summer day.  I, on the other hand, will never forget that sometimes the best part of being a parent is repeating what your parents did, just to say you did it.  And this time, for me,  it was peachy.

I managed to get my picture perfect photos of the girls and the sunset and the pier, but I snapped this one too.

We ought to be ashamed.  I know I was.

Maybe it’s the Indian blood in me, (Cherokee and Potawatomi) but I couldn’t believe the same people who were out here enjoying the beach’s natural beauty were also careless enough to leave their crap on it on their way out.  Maybe a whole new generation needs to see my all time favorite commercial.  The one of the Indian shedding a single tear over the littering of his native land.  I probably need a spanking I should have picked it up but the smell was gagging me……..so while Santa Monica was lovely look at and delightful to phtograph, the smell left me hankering for my homeland.  Flat, hot, dry and smell free Kansas (Unless you’re in Southwest Kansas XXOO to my friends out there!)