STUFF

Lots and Lots of Stuff... to say, to do, to enjoy! Besides being a wife, mom, daughter, friend, aunty, and several other titles (titles other's call me may not be appropriate to mention here, I am sure they are always said in LOVE by others), I am a consumer. Mostly I have disappointing consumer stories - one such story was about my TARGET experience last January. Good News, I have still not shopped in a Target since January (my original goal was only 3 months). I did go in the door of one back in April, turned around and left.... Good for me! But there are some brands and places I remain very loyal too and for good reason so here are my stories from yesterday......


The good consumer story (ies).... took my Canon Rebel into the Canon center here in Irvine yesterday and they clean them for FREE... yes, FREE. I thought it was going to cost about $200.00. The attendant said if your camera is working fine it probably only needs to be cleaned. So I dropped it off and picked it up four hours later.... The test will be taking pictures next week on vacation. But the pesky spots I was seeing looking through the view finder are all gone. Now that is nice.... Second Story.... I had a camera lens which for some reason decided to act more like a quacking duck beak than a solid camera lens. I purchased it in February 2007 at Ritz camera at the Market Place in Tustin.... I returned it to them sometime this past June with the date of purchase and they were able to come up with my original receipt for the return and warranty information.... Amazing. To make a long story short, somehow the lens was lost and I never got a repair estimate for the lens..... Due to the long delay they found another lens just like the one I had and replaced it .... No more questions asked. I have always used Ritz camera and really like them. They do great film/digital developing of pictures. The prints may cost a penny or more but they have the best vibrant true colors on prints and I have always been happy with their processing..... Just like the other places you can upload from your home computer. Now aren't those nice consumer stories....

Vacation stuff is slowing getting done and Rich and I are looking forward to our trip. The emotional part is that they are having Aunt Liz's services when we are gone in Kauai. We will be there in spirit to hold sister Susan and her family close in our hearts and Rich and I are planning our own little "aloha", for Liz and Susan's family. There is this one BEAUTIFUL spot by the resort where the ocean, sky and land all come together. It is where we stood with Liz (and sister Susan) in September 2006 when we placed the flowers from our lei's in the water... You will find us in that spiritual spot at 7am Kauai time on the 26th not to say good bye but to say THANK YOU and ALOHA to a wonderful, brave courageous lady. We were so proud to call her AUNT but even prouder to call her FRIEND. Knowing she is not there any longer really leaves us with a big vacancy in our hearts.
Top of the blog - Rich Liz, and myself the day they were flying back home from Kauai. Beautiful Liz, tossing her flowers into the Pacific, her and sister Susan and finally - just the flowers floating in the rocks on the ocean tide. Life is so precious.
My prayer this week has simply been for the Lord to open my heart to how precious life here on earth can be and to know he is in control. It has been hard and there are lots of times I just want to sit and be sad. However, if there is one thing (actually there were several and they were all good) I learned from Aunt Liz it was to keep going, keep moving forward. She had been through very rough and emotional times and most people would have given up but she always quietly endured and kept going forward. Amazing example!

Liz, thank you for setting the bar so high on how to live this precious life.
xoxox Aloha GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!