X = ?

X ... here's a little story for ya ...  I was getting my new (well new to me) car (it's a honda, i love it) and the insurance agent comes in with 4 licence plates for me to choose from.  2 of them had 8's in them (considered to be a very lucky number in some cultures) 1 of them was really easy to remember and the 4th had 3 numbers, followed by 3 random letters that seemed difficult to remember ... until it dawned on me that the 2nd and 3rd letters were my middle and last name initials ... I pointed this out to Mom, and told her I wish that it had a J for my first name ... and she replies with "well this plate is perfect for you, X, afterall, stands for Unknown quantity ....

so now, my plate is quite easy to remember ... and I am now Unknown Quantity Jo

Okay so by now you are thinking that hey, where have I been for the last 3 or 4 weeks or so ... well at least some of you are thinking that ... truth is, I got stuck on R ... yes R ... a letter with hundreds of words I could write about, but didn't.  I was going to go with Real ... and talk about the absence of Real in just about everything we eat, drink and watch ... especially Housewives ... but I got so caught up in the politics of "Real" that I hit a major block ...  Instead, my R is Rainbows ... and I love rainbows, as does my daughter ... infact she is enamoured with them, they have a secret special meaning to her, and if something is meaningful to her, it is meaningful to me ... so when she asked me to whip up some rainbow jelly shots she found on pinterest, of course I obliged ...

These shots ... oh to die for yummy!!!  but they took about 4 hours to put together ... not a solid working 4 hours, there was about 45 minutes between each layer at least ... These photos are before we cleaned up the glasses ... my daughter took these to her party, and finished them off with a little dollop of whipped cream and cake sprinkles ... they must have been adorable
Are you Sitting down???  this is going to be one lengthy post, and we are only up to S ... and for those of you that know me S could only be for scrapbooking ... I actually went to a retreat with some friends last weekend and had a blast, and got a lot of scrapbooking done.  I still have a passion for scrapbooking and other paper art, like ATC's, cardmaking, and altered objects ... and more and more I find myself dabbling in mixed media pages, incorporating paints and sprays and mediums and well just stuff ...  this is a page of me I did on that weekend ... I have an alter ego,and this layout is about that part of me ...

The best thing about Scrapbooking, is that it has led me to meet some amazing women, and we are all now the best of friends.  It also led me to blogging and to meeting some wonderful blogging friends.  Scrapbooking has been a big blessing to me.

T .... time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking ... and where it is going so fast i do not know ... but what i do know is that in life's hourglass, the glass is firmly glued to the table and there is no going back to turn it over and start again ... we only have just a finite number of bits of sand, and is it me, or does it seems to everyone that as the bottom of the hourglass fills, the sand seems to slip through quicker and quicker ...

So I am determined to have fun and play ... in some way, every day ... there is no reason to grow "old" ... and I encourage all of my friends and family to enjoy, and get some play time in every single day!

U ...  underground .... it's a place i never want to think of ... I know for a fact that I will never be a cave crawling spelunker ... the thought of being underground just brings chills.  So what am I doing here ...

This was our ride ... we are heading into the mine 

all signed up for a mine tour (daughter dearest planned this excursion for us and Grandma and Grandpa) ... and well, after seeing the museum, the outbuildings, and everything else, it was time to climb 45 stairs and then enter the mine ... and it was Fabulous!!!  but underground is so totally different ... no sounds from birds and wind ... and the air smells so different, you can smell the minerals in the rock ... and it was dark and damp ... water constantly running down the inside rock walls ... and cold ... constant cold ... would i do the tour again?  YES!!!  it was fun ... and hopefully it's the only underground experience I have ...

in the underground ... the mine shaft ...

V ... well here i am again, stuck on a letter ... this was my second reason for not posting for weeks on end ... and I am ashamed that I am so very very late.  I feel like I should be chastised by a white rabbit screaming "your late, your late" at me ... "very very late!"  and speaking of white rabbits, is it just me, or do some of feel like you have too have fallen into wonderland, and that tea may never come?  'nuff said about stuff and nonsense ... let's just leave it at very very .... for V!

Now, for those of you still with me ... cuz this is one mega post ... i am on to the last of my "late" letters ... W.  And please stay tuned because there will be a test! What to say about W?  again, so many options ... Wanderer is a word that I would use to describe my self.  Not that i wander about the earth visiting mystical hidden gardens or forests that speak in the language only known by trees ... Nor do I visit the great cities ... my wandering is all on the interior ... in the heart, the soul, and the brain ... I love to explore the nooks and crannies .... the clear paths and the blinds of a good maze ... Images conjured from books read long ago spring forth with new life and collide with memorized song lyrics, light, space and colour ... now and then I insert a bit of reality to see what comes of this inner space ... and for the most part, it is beautiful ... or at least that is what i feel in my heart ... and I think that I will always explore this inner space, happily wandering in an ever expanding land of beauty and peace ... 

For those of you still with me .... there is no test .... i was just pulling your leg ... but thanks for reading and sticking with me!  I am linking up with Jenny's meme, Just click on the button below to read some wonderful posts about the letter X!