catching up from being sick

so, i didnt really get anything done family tree wise since i was sick and in bed sleeping. so today, my projects are to get a detailed birthday list for myself from various sources since it will include most of my friends too. but i want to gift everyone i know with an original happy birthday art and it gets difficult if i dont know that the birthday is coming until the day before. so today i get that organized!! Then i have more to do on my friend's family tree so that i can deliver it to her when i am up that way. it was supposed to be this weekend, but will have to wait until next weekend. anyway, story for today. when i was a teenager, while my step-dad and i did not get along (to say the least), there were aspects of what we did as a family that i really liked and actually miss. one was going to a lot of sporting events, the other was sunday drives. on sunday drives - which could actually happen on saturdays - we got in the car and wandered. in the summer it was always an adventure finding garage sales, in the spring and fall looking for places with awesome colors and in the winter just driving. now a lot of our drives were to go visit with my little sister, then we would detour on the way home. one of our drives we were coming back from visiting my little sister and decided that we would stop and have a picnic dinner of albertson's fried chicken and potato salad. so we stopped, and being the oblivious one in the family, i had no clue where we were, just that we were not home in renton. so we are eating on this beautiful lawn with trees around, and i notice this beautiful old building across the lawn with large fences around it. i assume that it is some historical building and start talking about how beautiful it is and how i would love to live there. my mother then explained that it could be arranged since it was western state mental hospital and since my mental state was always in question she was sure they could get me in there. yeah, my mom was very warped as am i. needless to say, i decided i didnt really want to live there. but it is still a beautiful place for a picnic :)

**Photo of Western State Hospital**

hope everyone is having a great week,

peace and luv

laura