Murraytalk

This morning I was looking through old pictures and this one stood out to me. I think mainly because my grandkids in this pic are now all in middle school. They're beautiful young ladies, and I must add, Fabulous . I remember them learning to how to ride a bike - before long it will be learning how to drive a car. They are starting their own journey - working on making their mark in the world. They're strong confident young ladies that are caring, loving, and giving. I'm so proud of them. In fact, I'm proud of all the women in my family. We all believe in the importance of women empowering each other and standing up for what is right. In fact, my daughter Melissa was just sharing with me last night how she sat down with a 13 year old that's a little lost right now. She explained to her the importance of loving and believing in herself. We need to remember that sometimes we're the only positive thing that someone sees, and the only voice of reason that so...

This week I've had some clarity regarding certain people in my life. I have always been really good about moving on because when I'm done, I'm done. But this particular situation has had me so irritated I keep re-living it in my mind. So today when I woke up I decided not to have an agenda and just take some time out of the house, clear my mind, and enjoy a day with no schedule. I ended up spending most of the afternoon at the park with four of my grandchildren. I snapped pictures, spoke to a couple of moms, and entertained a 20 month old that decided she was going to be my best friend.                                                                                                                   ...

Today two of my grandchildren, the twins are 13 years old... Happy Birthday Allie and Brad! It's hard to believe that I have grandchildren that are teenagers. They're great kids - focused in school, busy with their extra curricular activities, and a great big sister and brother.  It doesn't seem like that many years have passed. I still have great memories of them as new borns - they were the perfect snuggling size. As they grew Brad still wanted me to sit and hold him all day, and I did. I asked Tiffanie how she got anything done holding him.                                                          She said, " I don't hold him all day." But I still did. I spent most of my time with Allie pulling vegetables out of her nose. Great times - loved every minute! We've had a lot of great times growing up together, and I hope to ha...

Okay, so yesterday I talked about how it would have been my mother's 84th birthday... aging, and not wanting to live forever. So yesterday 5 of the 8 grandchildren were over - as they're eating lunch out of the blue Bradley(12 years old) says, " Can I have your Bob's Big Boy when you die?" My first thought was, does he know something I don't know? "Um, sure." I responded. Those two words was all it took for two other grandchildren to start calling dibs on my bed and everything else they apparently have been eyeing over the years. Bradley even added to his list as he walked to the sink and saw my rhinestone turtle sitting on the counter  - "Hey Grandma, can I have that too?" I know about now you probably have a not so pretty visual of my house with Bob's Big Boy and the turtle, but each item has a specific spot that goes with the area. I have an Eclectic home -  created for those individuals who love too many styles and colored ou...

I'm going through over 35 years of pictures. Yesterday after I talked about my camping adventure I remembered that I had pictures of our lovely camping trip. So I started going through my mound of shoe boxes which led me to the decision to sort and create scrapbooks. I've done sorting in the past and put pictures in envelopes and passed them on, but no one would ever guess it by looking at my collection. We're talking 5 children, 8 grandchildren and people I don't even remember worth of pictures. I do believe this is going to be a slow process. Happy Wednesday World!

Our Church Wedding  Today my husband and I have been married for 35 years. I was thinking last night about all the joy and sorrow that has crossed my path over the past 35 years. I typically don't reflect on the past too much unless something triggers a memory, which obviously my anniversary triggered me thinking of the birth of my 3 children in Tucson, moving to Phoenix, adopting my son and getting pregnant during the adoption process. I can't help but think of how we were two 18 year old kids that fell in love and never thought about all of the obstacles that would cross our paths along the way. We just continued to do what we had always done - work hard and love hard. While most people work on becoming rich, having a title, the best car, biggest home, etc., I work for my family. There isn't a bank account large enough or a material item meaningful enough to me to sacrifice my family. Over the past 35 years I have also experienced some losses - lost both of...

I get emails asking me questions that I typically answer on a personal level, but this one I thought I'd blog. Question: Who are you? I am a wife that has been married to the same man since I was 18, a mother of five and grandmother of 8. I feel those are my bragging rights, but me as an individual - I'm a spiritual individual that loves writing, dancing, fitness, fashion, and life in general. I always thought that I could save the world - I'm still working on it. Question: What are your dislikes? I really hate washing silverware - hate putting it in the dishwasher, and hate putting it away. I dislike bullies no matter what age they are. Don't like rude and pretentious people. Not a fan of drama, don't like disloyal people and I don't like beef. Question: What do you do for fun? Drink! No, the things I do for fun no one else would classify as fun, but fun for me is crafts, re-decorating, taking pictures, gardening, going to Goodwill and hanging out at hom...

It was another grandchild's birthday in the Murray family yesterday...holla! My husband and I did our new tradition of spending one on one time with our grandchildren on their birthday - yesterday was Madison's day. We started out with dinner at Oregano's in Old Town Scottsdale. I love the ambience of this particular Oregano's, but found out yesterday that after 18 years of being at that location their moving to an old farm house that was built in the early 1900’s.  http://www.oreganos.com/moving.html They had us sign their wall which she thought was really cool, and the menu consists of primarily Italian entrees so Maddie was a happy camper! Unfortunately, it was insanely busy at Oregano's that night - by the time we were seated and served we had to inhale our food so we could get to Jester'z in time to introduce her to the world of Improv Comedy. www.jesterzimprov.com She had a great time watching the actors do their magic... she als...

Sunday and Monday I decided to do a day of shooting pictures. I guess the photography event (The Shutter Release Project) has me thinking of my favorite hobby. Although I never left the house and my subject was my 2 year old granddaughter for most of the shots, this is a peek of what I took. None of them are edited and it's obvious that I'm not a professional photographer, but I love taking them as well as looking at them.

Going through photos...here's some of my favorite. Will share more soon. The Grandchildren My Son and Granddaughter Son & Granddaughter Daughter & Granddaughter My husband and Granddaughter My Grandson Grandson & Daughter My Son and Grandson My husband and Father in law My Granddaughter Granddaughters Grandsons Granddaughter