Mayhem & Musing

Fire!

2011-11-27T14:06:00.001-08:00

I received a Kindle Fire as an early Christmas present and I am loving it. Books, magazines, etc etc etc! I am enjoying it all. Now I have tons of books where ever I go. So fun!

Upcoming Classes I am teaching at Scrap Happy Sisters!

2011-09-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

You all know Halloween is my favorite Holiday (besides Christmas) so I am teaching a haunted house album. Here is a peak at it (it will have blue rings not the big silver ones, just wanted you to know.) I will post more pictures next week. Here are the details. Date: Saturday, October 15th from 2pm to 5pm. The cost of the class is: $38.00 What to bring: Pencil, scissors, paper trimmer, 3-in-1 glue, glue dots, Tom bow (dry adhesive) hole punch or crop-o-dile, 3-in-1 glue or Zip Dry (wet glue),and black ink. Call Scrap Happy Sisters if you are interested at 623-376-8257.

My November class is a wall hanging. This is a fun piece to have by your front door or anywhere you want to greet people. Here are the details. Date:Saturday, November 19th from 4pm to 6pm. Cost of the class is around $25, that's not final yet. What to bring: Pencil, scissors, paper trimmer, 3-in-1 glue, glue dots, Tom bow (dry adhesive), 3-in-1 glue or Zip Dry (wet glue),and brown ink. Call Scrap Happy Sisters if you are interested at 623-376-8257.

Feeling crafty!

2011-08-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share some projects I have been working lately. The first project is a diaper clutch I made for my sister-in-law who is due to have my new niece any day now. I got the pattern from Simple Quilts & Sewing Magazine Issue #121 pages 44-46. I love this project because it came together quickly and its something I wish I had when I was having babies. The clutch holds a diaper mat, a small package of wipes, and a couple diapers. Its perfect to fit in your purse or keep in your car. You close it up by wrapping the ribbon around the button. I can't wait to make more of these.

I had another baby card that has been long overdue making. My friend April is a patient new mom, who realizes that I don't always have it together. I think her chunky cute little man Dylan is just amazing.

Unfulfilled expectations

2011-08-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Okay so I told you all awhile back that I was taking another scrapbook that started on August 15th. I started the "Words to Live By" class by Big Picture. Well, I hate to say it but I am totally DISAPPOINTED. I am not sure what I expected for a free class, well not totally free by my choice because I bought the kit ($37.00) that they advertised for the class. I guess I had forgotten my cardinal rule of scrapbook classes: DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ANYTHING UNLESS YOU CAN SEE THE FINISHED PROJECT YOU ARE MAKING! I live by this, heck, its why I like teaching. People see what I have made and then decide if they want to take my class. Needless to say, I am trying to make an attitude adjustment and may attempt to do the projects for the class. I have until August 28th to finish it to enter into their drawings but its going to be a challenge I can already tell.

Up coming classes I am teaching

2011-08-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

I am teaching this cute car shaped album this month; here are the details:

Class title: Road trip

Class date & time: Saturday, August 27, 2011 from 2pm to 5pm

Cost: $21.00

Location: Scrap Happy Sisters 67th Avenue and Happy Valley Road

Telephone number: (623) 376-8257

Items to bring: pencil, ruler, scissors, wet adhesive like 3-in-1 glue or Zip Dry, glue dots or dry adhesive like Tom Bow (tape runner.) Crop-o-dile or hole punch. File set or sand paper.

I have limited number of spots in my class so if you are interested don't wait to sign up!

My September 24th Class

Class title: Tag you're it!

Class description: Create a tag album that has it's own cute box, to display your photos in a fun and unique way using Bo Bunny Ad lib papers and stickers.

Class Date & Time: Saturday, September 24^th, 2:00pm to 5:00pm

Class Cost: $32.00

Location: Scrap Happy Sisters 67th Avenue and Happy Valley Road

Telephone number: (623) 376-8257

What to bring: a ruler, a pencil, scissors, a nail file or precision file set, paper trimmer, crop-o-dile or paper piercer, brown ink, and liquid glue.

I have limited number of spots in my class so if you are interested don't wait to sign up!

I am taking a scrapbooking class - again!

2011-08-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

I enrolled myself in a Big Picture Scrapbooking class that starts on August 15th and ends on August 27th. Ha ha just in time for my last child to start school! I seriously think I could get addicted to online scrapbooking classes. I have plans to sign myself up for another online card class in November. I just thought I would share my fun!

Christmas in July Day 22 The birth of Jesus Christ

2011-07-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

Every year on Christmas Eve my family and I read the story of Jesus Christ's birth from the New Testament in the Bible. Luke Chapters 1 & 2. Before I had children of my own I did not truly understand the faith Mary would have to have had to be the mother of the Savior. And Joseph would have been an exceptional man to go against Jewish law and marry Mary while she was pregnant. They had trials to overcome, traveling to Bethlehem, and hiding from Herod in Egypt.

I know that I am grateful that the Savior was born, lived, taught the gospel, and died for me. At Christmas we celebrate Jesus Christ birth but we also practice what he preached: charity and love.

I hope that although I have talked about many things during my Christmas in July celebration, that what I tried to share is that giving to and serving others is what Christmas is all about. I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that through his sacrifice I can live with God again someday. I hope and pray that for the rest of this year that I and all that I share with will take the spirit of charity and put it into action.

Christmas in July Day 21 Salvation Army Angel Tree Program

2011-07-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

As a family we started participating in the Salvation Army Angel Program when the girls were little because they were getting a nasty case of the "I wants." So each year the girls pick an angel off the tree and buy a present for a boy or girl who wouldn't otherwise have presents. This reminds my children that one of the most important lessons in life is that it is better to give to others than to worry about what you will receive in return. I know this has made an impression on my daughters because they remind me each year as soon as they see one of the Angel trees go up. Its the end of July but you can take your Christmas spirit out now and participate in a back to school drive to help less fortunate children get the school supplies they need.

Christmas in July Day 20 Cookies Round 2 Peanut butter-candy bar brownies

2011-07-28T18:05:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, friends more Christmas Cookies, I promised I would let you down. Here are my cookies.

Here is the recipe:

Seriously read the ingredients, its an insane amount chocolate peanut butter goodness!

Christmas in July Day 19 Christmas Eve and Serving others

2011-07-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

Today is July 24th and in my way I like to compare it to December 24th. December 24th is my Dad's birthday and that reminded me of the Christmas Eves my mother, sisters, and I spent serving the officers of the Phoenix police force dinner. My father was a police officer for 35 years. I was 34 when he retired and honestly I was sad in a way that my children would never get to serve the people who protect them everyday like I did. You see many officers worked on Christmas Eve which meant dinner was usually fast food or whatever food they could get if places were closed. This was back 20 years ago when restaurants and other places were not open 24 hours a day. So, my father and mother would cook food and my sisters and I would dress up in dresses and go feed the officers my father worked with on Christmas Eve. It wasn't really until I was a teenager that I realized that the sacrifices my family was making were appreciated very much by those officers. To this day I cannot tell you any names of the officers we fed but I remember the look on my Dad's face as those officers thanked him for caring about them. Who can you serve and help? Can you donate your time? Can you donate food? Can you open a door for someone? Can you smile at someone and brighten their day? Why not start today?

Christmas in July Day 18 Going to see Santa Claus

2011-07-22T17:15:00.000-07:00

I am pretty sure my parents took my sisters and I to see Santa when we were little. I usually had a long list of things I wanted for Christmas to tell him. When I became a Mom I thought I would take my daughters to see Santa. Mostly this backfired on me; my children were either too scared or did not want to go. The picture above of my Anaya with Santa is probably one of two pictures in the last 12 years of one of my children with Santa. I know why my children were hesitant and I didn't force them to go once I realized why they didn't want to. Did you visit Santa? Do your children like going to see Santa?

Summer Card Camp 2011 Week 4

2011-07-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

I am sad that this card class is over but I have had a great time working with color combinations I never would have thought to use. I have loved the sketches and the videos. I wish all my scrapping friends could have taken this class it was great! Here is my card for week 4.

Christmas in July Day 17 Gifts for Teachers - Christmas Card Keeper

2011-07-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

When my girls started going to school I would make gifts for their teachers for Christmas gifts. Over the years my favorite gift to make has become a Christmas Card holder that the teachers can hang up in their classroom. Its a nice place for the teachers to keep all the cards and notes they get from their students and then they can take it home and keep the cards they receive at home as well.

Christmas in July Day 16 - Christmas in July Celebrations

2011-07-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

I was unaware of this but the city next to mine, Glendale, had a Christmas in July Celebration recently. Their was a street fair, sales at the down town stores, and even Santa. I want to thank my friend Tina for letting me know about it. Does the town you live in have a Christmas in July Celebration? Does your favorite store have a Christmas in July sale that you shop at each year?

Christmas in July Day 15 Traditions Food gifts

2011-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

The Christmas tradition I wanted to talk about today is giving food gifts. You have already seen the Christmas cookies but I also give other types of food gifts. The tin I decorated in the above photo I filled with toffee and fudge in 2006. Other years, I had made breads,peanut brittle, and even Texas sheet cake. I usually take the food gifts to people local so that the food stays fresh.

I have also been the recipient of many plates of goodies over the years from friends and family members. One of my favorite food items to get from my friends is Divinity, I love that sweet fluffy stuff. I have yet to learn to make Divinity maybe I will learn someday. What food gifts do you make for others? Have you tried anything new?

Christmas in July Day 14 Traditions Christmas Dinner

2011-07-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

Every year we have Christmas dinner. Dinner might be with our extended family or just the 5 of us at home. Each year the menu is different; one year it might be traditional with turkey and trimmings (see the fabulous turkey David made in 2007 up above) and the next year Mexican food with tamales and enchiladas. The other favorite thing I love at Christmas time is my mother Marilyn's cheesecake. I LOVE her cheesecake. I learned to make it just because its so darn good. (See the cheesecake I made below in 2006) What traditions do you have for dinner? Do you eat anything special? Do you eat on Christmas Eve?

Christmas in July Day 11 Traditions Opening gifts

2011-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

When my daughters were little we decided that we would try different ideas about how to open the presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I wanted to avoid the "dash and trash" that did not allow the girls to really appreciate the gifts they were given. I didn't want my girls to look at a gift for 5 seconds and then toss it on the pile. What we do is we give the girls one present to open on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning the girls get to look at what Santa brought them. When David and I join the girls we all take turns opening one gift at a time so we can ooh and aah over everyone's gifts. We also decided to limit the gifts that were given (see my note of 5 seconds per gift and then it goes on a pile.) The picture above is from 2010, that's my Lela being photo surprised while opening her gifts. What traditions does your family have? Do you wake up at dawn to open gifts on Christmas morning? Do you open on Christmas Eve? If you get a gift on Christmas Eve is it a special gift, pajamas maybe?

Summer Card Camp 2011 Week 3 card #1

2011-07-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

Christmas in July Day 12 Traditions Gift traditions

2011-07-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to talk about gift traditions. Growing up my parents usually gave all of us one gift that was the same but slightly different for each of us (that happens when you have three girls.) Every year it was something different. Some times my mother made the gifts. My family (David, Me, and the girls) started a tradition with gifts in a very funny way. A few years ago we decided to give our daughters more practical gifts like pajamas, socks, and underwear because of a tight holiday budget. The girls laughed at the socks and underwear and ever since then they can't wait to see what kind of crazy stuff we will buy them. The picture above is of my sweet Cora 3 years ago at Christmas with Christmas pajamas on. Do you have special gifts that you give your family?

Christmas in July Day 11 Traditions- Stockings

2011-07-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is so late today but hey, life happens. In my family growing up we hung up our stockings every year at Christmas time. Usually we got an orange, peanuts, or even small gifts. Christmas stockings were like the "appetizer" before the Christmas present "meal." I have carried on the same tradition with my daughters, they never know what Santa will bring them. The stocking pictured above is my Anaya's when she was just two years old. Do you hang up your stockings? What other traditions do you have with stockings?

Christmas in July Day 10- Traditions Christmas Trees

2011-07-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Every year we pull out our pre-lit fake Christmas tree (I'm allergic to pine trees) to be decorated. My children started helping us decorate when each of them was about 2 years old. They help hang up their stockings too. The date we put out the tree varies from year to year. We replace our ornaments every 5 years and we usually leave the tree up until New Years. What is your family tradition with your Christmas tree? Do you go cut down your own tree each year? When do you put your tree up or take it down? Do you have different themes each year? My mom has had a Southwestern theme with chili lights, another year it was ornaments with everyone's pictures on it, and this year she may change it again. Do you get a live tree or a fake one? So many of my memories include present under the tree: Do you put yours under the tree?

Christmas in July Day 9- Just for you ladies- Holiday Hair Styles

2011-07-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

During the Holiday Season there are parties to go to, people to visit, and other events that you may attend. I'll admit I am obsessive about my hair but I know that during the holidays we ladies sometimes like to do a little something extra with our hair. My dear cousin Kristina posted on her Face book page about an e- book that was offered on a Hair Blog. I don't know how she found it but I was glad she posted it. I did buy the e-book "The 30 Days of Twist & Pin Hairstyles" because she gave instructions on how to do each of the hairstyles. I actually put the PDF file on my I-pod so when I travel I have the book with me. On her blog she has pictures of each of the days and if you are talented enough to figure it out from just the pictures Kudos to you. (Sorry to you ladies out there with short hair I did not find any holiday styles for you.) Here is the link to her blog:Hair Romance

I actually tried several of the styles on my hair. This one is from Day 12. Here is my hair.

Here is her hair Day 12, yeah its way better than mine but hey I tried.

Sassy hair during the Holidays is fun, but you can give it a try any day!

Christmas in July Day 8- Cookies Round 2 Peanut Butter-Toffee Turtle Cookies

2011-07-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

This batch of cookies is courtesy of my thoughtful friend Denise, who loaned me one of her cookbooks. Denise is a great cook so I was very excited to borrow this book. I loved the picture on the cover (see below.) One cookie on the cover in particular caught my attention and I knew I needed to "audition" the recipe for Christmas cookies. Besides borrowing cookbooks from friends I also get recipes on-line. I especially like the websites that have reviews. I like reviews because I know that people tried the recipe and often people will give recommendations on how to alter the recipe or things to watch out for that might not be spelled out implicitly in the instructions. Getting ideas on-line is a free way to try new things. I loved this recipe and cannot wait to make it at Christmas time!

*Just a note on the recipe before we launch into this awesome cookie. You will notice that the recipe calls for all-purpose baking mix. I did not know what that was so I looked it up on-line. Here is the recipe for 1 cup of all purpose baking mix:

1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt

Here are my cookies

The recipe (*see my note above)

The cook book

Christmas in July Day 7- Using the skills you have to make gifts- Sewing

2011-07-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Now I know I already talked about using fabric to make gifts but that really was not the reason why I posted that in Christmas in July Day 3. Today I am talking about using the skills that you have to make gifts for others. This is a long standing tradition my family, I encourage my daughters to make things for gifts as much as they can. The project I am going to show you today, is from my Fourth of July crafting I did but its the idea that matters. I made head bands for my daughters. I have posted a link to the pattern I used (with alterations of course.) Think about what skills you have: do you sew, crochet, scrapbook, do woodwork, or construction work (seriously who wouldn't want a new patio for Christmas.) Everyone has skills of some sort that can be a gift to another.

Reversible Fabric Headband Pattern

These are the headbands before I finished them with the elastic.

Summer Card Camp 2011 Week 2- 2nd card

2011-07-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

Christmas in July Day 6- Gift ideas Books the classics re-visited

2011-07-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would share a gift that was given to me while I was bedridden and recovering from my surgery. I love to give and get books as Christmas gifts; so when theses titles were given to me I knew I needed to share them. At first I wasn't sure I could handle the paranormal twists to classic literature but in the end it helped the story along in an interesting way. I enjoyed all of them.

Do you think all the classics would be more interesting with a paranormal twist?

Summer Card Camp 2011 Week 2- 1st card

2011-07-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Christmas in July day 5- Christmas Cards

2011-07-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

I like making cards, sending cards, and getting cards in return. Christmas cards are my favorite for many reasons. I love the colors, I love the themes, and I love the letters & pictures that come inside the cards So today I am sharing some of the Christmas cards I have made in the previous years. I had hoped to make my 2011 Christmas card today but the alternator in my van had other ideas. Enjoy!

Send a card today to someone.

Christmas in July Day 4- Movies

2011-07-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

There are several movies that I would look forward to seeing on the television at Christmas time. My poor children will never know what it means to wait for something to come on TV since DVD's, streaming video, and on-demand videos are the norm now. So here are a few of my favorites from my childhood.

What is your favorite Holiday movie?

Christmas in July Day 3- Making gifts with gifts- Fabric

2011-07-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

I have always believed that the best gifts are those that you make yourself and sometimes you have to use what you to have or can get with little cost. My mother and grandmothers often sent homemade Christmas gifts. Some of the most cherished gifts I have received were made by people I love. So for this Christmas in July day we are talking about making things with what others have given us. My older sister Holly has a beautiful Geisha themed quilt that she made (I wish I had a picture of it to show you its amazing.) I had been admiring all the wonderful fabrics that she had used in her quilt and I had an idea. I called my sister and asked if I could have the remnants from her quilt for a project; being the wonderful sister that she is she agreed and sent me several pieces. With these remnants I made several sewing projects. Below I will show two of them, the others cannot be shown as they are gifts for my sweet sister I mentioned before (that's right Holly you'll just have to wait and see =)

This is a cute zippered cosmetic bag I made.

This is a matching pocket tissue holder.

This is where I got the pattern for the pocket tissue holder just in case there are some sewers out there who want the pattern:

Pocket Tissue Holder by Skip to My Lou

Look around. What do you have? What can you make for someone else?

Christmas in July Day 2- Music Round 1

2011-07-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

From time I was small, music was a part of my life. My mother played the piano and music was played in the house and in the car. I owe my love of music to my parents; its one of the most wonderful gifts they have ever given me. I grew up and learned to play the piano, flute, and piccolo. As a musician I gained an even deeper appreciate of music. Christmas time was enhanced for me by the music that I listened to.

Here are a few that I truly loved, these are all videos on You Tube:

Handel's Messiah

O little town of Bethlehem

White Christmas

Sleigh Ride

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree

What is your favorite Christmas song?

Christmas in July Day 1

2011-07-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Christmas in July sales remind me of Christmas, so I thought I would spice up my July by taking about different things about Christmas. I love Christmas because it reminds me of so many fond memories. I almost feel like a different person during Christmas; I bake more, make more crafts, I like to do things for others, and in general I just feel happy. I decided I would try to capture this Christmas feeling in July so that I could feel that love for more of the year (who knows maybe it will last until Christmas.)

Today I want to talk about two things: a gift given to me and how it became a Christmas cookie for my Christmas 2011 cookie.

My sweet husband David gave me these:

While I love Chocolate so very much, I wanted to share these with my children as well. I was staring at the bag of Hershey's Kisses and noticed a recipe on the back. Fate was on my side because it was a cookie recipe I had always wanted to try. So I recruited my children to help me make them. The recipe is below.

Hershey's Kisses Peanut Butter Blossoms

48 Hershey's Kisses

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Granulated sugar (for rolling the cookie dough in)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degree F. Remove wrappers from the kisses.

2.Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; beat well.

3. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

4.Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.

5.Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie; cookie will crack around the edges. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes 4 dozen.

Here are my cookies:

Oh no I'm melting!

Are you hungry for cookies now? I sure am. I will be sharing all kinds of things this month so come back each day.

Question of the day: What is your favorite Christmas cookie?

New Blog Look

2011-07-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yup it was time for a change. I love the black and red its so fun!

My life is a Zoo

2011-04-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

My youngest girlie Anaya had her class field trip to the World Wild Life Zoo recently and I was able to go with her. Here are a few shots from the Zoo.

This is Miss Anaya and I before we left for the Zoo.

Seriously, who doesn't love Meerkats?!

Anaya with the Meerkats.
(It wasn't really bright outside, so I dont know why Anaya is squishing up her face.)

Anaya feeding the giraffes.

Anaya and I looking at the exotic birds.
(Okay. Why is Anaya always making that squishy face?)

Anaya with the sting rays at the aquarium. At first she didn't want to touch the rays, slimy things bother her but she did it and said, "Wow, they're cool."

Miss Anaya with the Penguins.
(Again, what is with my daughter's face?)

Rhinos

Capuchin Monkey

I fed the sting rays while at the aquarium and I may post those another day but I wanted to share the fun we had.

Scrap Happy Sisters Class in May

2011-04-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hey I just wanted all of you to know that I am teaching my class to make the tag album (shown below). Here are the details if you are interested.

Class title: Tag you're it!
Class description: Create a tag album that has it's own cute box, to display your photos in a fun and unique way using Bo Bunny Ad lib papers and stickers.

Class Location: 6525 W. Happy Valley Rd, Glendale, AZ 85310 Telephone: 623-376-8257 (call and sign up if you are interested.)
Class Date & Time: Saturday, May 14, 2011, 2:30pm to 5:00pm
Class Cost: $32.00

What to bring: a ruler, a pencil, scissors, a nail file or precision file set, paper trimmer, crop-o-dile or paper piercer, brown ink, and liquid glue.

Cute Punk Alert!

2011-04-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Do you see this cute punk's little face?! This is Corwin. I want to gobble his cheeks up. I want to hug and squeeze this little man. I remember when his mama was pregnant with him. I never got a boy, so I have to live vicariously through my friends. When he was a cute rolly-polly baby I made faces at him and held him while his mama and I were at scrapbook classes. Now he is 3 years old. {gasp} Now he is big and running around like a maniac and driving his mama crazy. And me I am enjoying him through pictures I scrapbook, you know, from afar because its the cleanest safest way I can. I miss you Corwin and your mama too.

Sneak Peak for future class

2011-04-06T08:44:00.001-07:00

Here a sneak peak at my next class. I dont have a date for it yet but I will keep you posted.

Valentine's Day Album Class

2011-02-09T07:39:00.001-08:00

Make this cute Cuckoo 4 You mini book, a perfect Valentine surprise! Join Me Saturday, February 12th at 4:00 pm. If you are interested in taking the class call the store at (623) 376-8257 to sign up.

Yeah I am messing around....again

2010-10-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

I got the bug to play with my blog again. Well, its not going the way I want to so.....We'll see what happens. I want to change the look and other things. For now the fact that I am even thinking about my blog is a good start. So look for more changes again soon.

Life Happens!

2010-08-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Yes my blog reading friends life happens. I have been very busy since my last post, so much has happened but yet there isnt much to say. I have been hanging out with my children, teaching scrapbook classes and just living life in general. We did not take our summer vacation we had planned to. David became very ill with a sinus infection (back in March) and long story short he ended up having surgery on his sinuses (in August because the infection never went away.) We are hoping this will prevent future issues for him. The girls started school on August 9th and they are happy to be back. My computer died two days ago so now I am trying to get used to a laptop. You never know how much you need your computer until you can't use it. I don't have access to my photos right now but when I do I will post back to school pictures. Some of you have given up on reading my blog and I am sorry to hear that but I understand. There is only so much I can do each day and when I think of blogging in the future I will. So read, stay with me or don't, just know I appreciate that you care for me.

The Black plague, the tooth fairy, & Tee-ball

2010-05-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

My dear friends I have been long absent from my blog and I feel dreadful about it. Much has gone on since my last post but really it's just my life that has kept me so very busy. Most recently, Lela had a play at school where she portrayed a victim of the Black plague(See picture below.)I was very ummmmm enlightening to learn about the Black Plague and even more entertaining to see a play about it. Let's just say it was in the spirit of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Cora was finally able to not only have a loose tooth but lose the her first tooth. (See her smiling face below, it's one of her bottom teeth in the front in case you cannot pick it out) She was very excited to get her first visit from the Tooth Fairy.

Anaya has been playing Tee-ball for the last two months. This is new and exciting for her since she has not played any sports before. The photo below is of her in her jersey before a game. She is throwing well, batting well, and hustling after the ball with all the energy she has. We are very proud of her progress as a player.

And that darlings is the news for now. I shall return soon as summer is upon us and my daughters will be out of school soon and the escapades we will be embarking on will definitely be showing up here on my blog. I miss you all and hope you are all well.

AHHHHH! Where did the time go?

2010-01-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

So much for my goal to update my blog more often. The holidays came around and I just got BUSY! Then the New Year arrived and my children got sick. There were doctors appointments, paperwork to do, and lots of cleaning and laundry. Still digging myself out. I don't have any craft projects or classes lined up. I am actually kind of sad about that. This is the first time in 5 years that I have not taught a class for Valentine's Day (which is my 3rd favorite holiday after Halloween and Christmas.) Anyway, I am alive and kicking. I hope all of you are doing well.

Because I must.... that's why

2009-11-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I must start updating my blog more often. See that's the easy part, to decide to do something. Its the getting the blog updated part that I struggle with. Well, here is what I have been up to since my last blog post.

Halloween- The girls went as Ariel the Little Mermaid, Cleopatra, and a vampire. I went as Vampire Snow White and David went as Vampire Victim Prince Charming.

My favorite Halloween Decoration

In November I taught my Together album class, here is the front cover:

I also was able to visit with my new niece Kendell Michelle Carter, such a cutie face! This a few photos of her and her mother(my sister-in-law Karali) and my nephew Tyler.

And Finally, on December 8th I am teaching my Gingerbread Dreams Album class here is the covers:

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I will be back before Christmas.

Updates & more

2009-09-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Crafting update:
This beautiful fabric is what I am planning to use for the purse I am going to sew in October. (Thanks again Aunt Debbie for the fabric!)

I am working on 4 scrapbook classes right now that will be taught over the next 4 months. My favorite classes right now are a family album made with Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper and a Christmas Album made with American Crafts Merrymint paper (See below.) Don't you just love the reindeer and the gingerbread people. (You can't see it in the photo but they have lovely metallic elements on the paper.) I finished up 6 scrapbook layouts that have been sitting on my desk forever, it was nice to make room for other projects.

Mandy update:
I started allergy shots this month and so far its not bad; hopefully after doing this for a year I will start to see some relief. I have been working with an Advocate the last two months, she is helping us with our problems with the school district regarding the classroom supports we feel our youngest daughter needs to be truly successful in school. I have run the gamut of emotions regarding this; I have been angry, sad, depressed, hopeful, and content. I believe that all of the work I have been doing with our daughter's teacher and the advocate will pan out for us in the future. I have gained the strength I have needed to get through this from my family, friends, and the Lord. I have appreciated everyone's support and advice.

Here is what my children have been up to:
My oldest daughter, Lela, is continuing with her horseback riding and has enjoyed going on several trail rides that last two months. We are excited to report that my parents ( Lela's grandparents) horse is still pregnant and we are hoping for a successful birth next year so that Lela will finally be able to see "her" horse. Lela joined the CARE Club at school; its a club for 5th and 6th graders; they do fund raisers and participate in school/community activities. Lela was also selected as one of 60 kids who will compete and interview for 3o spots for a special Mission at the Challenger Space Center near our home. We are very excited for her and we hope she gets selected. We will let everyone know if she makes it.

Our middle daughter, Cora, returned to her singing troupe, Shine Your Light Singers, this month and is enjoying making friends with the new girls in the troupe. According to Cora's teacher at school, she is one of the most popular children in her class. Usually I don't put much stock in "popularity" but in this case I was happy to hear it because the teacher said she was popular with the other children because of her kind and compassionate behavior toward them.

Our youngest daughter, Anaya, is enjoying Kindergarten very much. Anaya has been telling me all about the things she does at school and the friends she is making. I have to keep asking her who everyone is because she has so many friends. We feel very blessed that Anaya is doing so well in a regular Kindergarten class. When you have an Autistic child you worry if they will connect well with other children their own age that don't know about or understand her condition. Anaya is working hard to overcome the challenges she is facing each week as her school work becomes more difficult for her. We are hoping that in the next few months the classroom supports we have been asking for will become a reality.

David:
David is busy as always with work, he took over some projects that another person on his team was doing previously. When he has free time, David plays chess and helps his grandmother work on his family's genealogy.

That's what we have been up to since my last post, hopefully I didn't miss anything. I love you all and miss those of you I don't get to see regularly. Happy Fall to all of you who get to enjoy the changing of the leaves this time of year, just know I am a little jealous of the beauty you are surrounded with.

2009-2010 School Year has begun

2009-08-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been MIA for awhile, getting the girls ready for school and learning how to function with all my children being gone has taken some time to get used to. Here is the "First day of school" picture. I promise to post more often. I have a scrapbook project and sewing project I am going to tackle in the next month or so. Stop by soon to see what kind of good stuff I am up to.

I changed my Blog!

2009-07-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

Okay I messed with my blog, I parsed code, and cursed blogger but for now this will do. I am working on a very personalized template: i.e David has to program it. So this is my look for now. In the process of changing things I lost some information like most of my friends blogs.....ladies & gentleman I need you to give me your blog addresses again. I also sent everyone e-mails as well. Up this month: New scrapbook mini album class, a new purse, and photography experiments!

June is here!

2009-06-06T09:04:00.000-07:00

While my kiddos are watching Saturday morning cartoons I thought I would run over here and give everybody and update. I can't believe its already June. This week we celebrated our sweet middle daughter's birthday she is 7 years old. (Hair, make-up and cheesy photo shoot with mom was in order.)

This Sunday I turn thirty-sexy; that's according to my husband (for the rest of the world I will be 36.) I know too much information. We are just hanging out in AZ in June no real vacation trips yet but stay tuned we have stuff coming up in July. I will be teaching a class this month at Scrap Happy Sisters. Other than that things are pretty quiet around here.

Summer Fun

2009-05-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is how we spent our Memorial Day. The girls love to swim so we go as often as we can. We are also doing the Summer Movie program and going to the library as often as possible. Not much crafting is going on right now but hopefully I can get some scrapping done soon.

Preschool Graduation!

2009-05-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is our sweet youngest daughter who graduated from preschool today and will be going to Kindergarten in August. I was crying my eyes out because I cannot believe my baby is going to be in Kindergarten, I am just not ready for her to be so grown up!

Its Done!

2009-05-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

I have literally been trying to finish this album since February. As you all know, life has been interesting for the last few months so scrapbooking has been delegated to a lower priority up until now. I am hoping this album will be my next class, if all goes well. I have to finish up a few things and then take it into the store. I still do not have my scrappy groove back to where it once was but I feel like the inspiration is there again. I hope everyone had a great International Scrapbook Day.

Happy International Scrapbooking Day!

2009-05-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hey I am scrapping today and I hope to have some stuff posted later today. I hope all my scrappy friends are getting their groove on. I will be blog stalking today to see what everyone is doing. And on a unrelated note I will be making some changes to my blog the next week so dont freak out if things are different its still me. Have a great day!

First Sewing Project Completed!

2009-04-14T21:48:00.001-07:00

I am so very excited to show off my first completed sewing project. I finished it today! I really needed at new purse because I got a new/bigger planner that did not fit in my existing purse. This was a great project because it got me sewing and got me a new purse to play with. The headband is not done yet but once it is I will take a picture. And yes, that is me modeling my new bag. (Sorry no close ups today.)

Computer down time/First born daughter to arrive home

2009-04-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well, after I finished my last blog post I told my tech support person (Mr Dave my husband) that I have was having performance issues with my PC. Well, after he worked on it for awhile I was informed that I have some problems with my registry and that my operating system may need to be reinstalled. I was not happy about that. We have more computers than family members in our house so I still have access to a computer. I can still get on the internet and check for new e-mails I just can't access my files or print. So, I am kinda of going through withdrawl right now because I was in the middle of two projects that require my computer.

My oldest daughter arrives home this afternoon after being gone for two days, I am very excited to hear how her trip went. I am also looking forward to having her disposable cameras processed to see what pictures she took. I will report back tomorrow on all her fun.

I hope all of you have a great day. I am going to kick off my bunny slippers and try to get back into my computer-less day.

First Q & A Session

2009-04-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

Okay I had a few questions come up the last week in my comments and e-mails so I thought I would answer them.

Question #1: The first question is about the fabric I showed at the end of my April 2nd blog post.
What is the name of fabric you are using to make your bag?

Answer:
I bought this fabric at a great local store(35th Ave Sew & Vac) my mother and my aunt shop there frequently. The fabrics are by Westminster Fibers, the collection is Park Slope, the names/numbers of the fabric is Poppy Dot flower #EM02 and Flower Field #EM3, and the designer is Erin McMorris.

Questions#2: What kind of bag are you going to make?

Answer: I had this lovely pattern below by Amy Butler that I picked out when I bought the fabric. I just love the idea of having the bag with a matching scarf I could wear as a headband. The bag is reversable so that you can decide which fabric you want to show. I was thinking of adding a strip of giant hot pink ric rack that I have in my ribbon stash, it's super cute!

But then my mom brought by one of her quilting magazines and showed me another pattern that would allow both fabrics to be seen. I will try to scan the original article in the quilting magazine so you can see it in color it is VERY cute too. Once I get the bag done I will take a picture.

Question #3:What kind of sewing machine do you have?

Answer: My machine is a BabyLock, I cannot tell you what model it is but its a very basic machine.

Question #4:How long have you been crocheting and kniting?

Answer: For many years. I was taught both crocheting and kniting in the 3rd grade by my wonderful teacher, Mrs.Ingber. She was a very crafty teacher. I think she taught us all because it helped our fine motor skills, what a smart teacher! I have been primarily a crocheter for many years and just recently picked up knitting again after seeing some fabulous patterns I want to try out.

Question #5: Do you sew/quilt a lot?

Answer: No not reallybut I am going to be trying to do it more often. I come from a family of sewers, my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother all sewed and quilted. My first memories of sewing were my grandmother and my mother at their sewing machines; I could always tell where they were by listening to the hum of their machines. My grandmother made my sisters and I dresses and other clothes when we were little. I also love to admire my great-grandmother's quilts.

That's the end of my first Q&A session but I did want to address some other comments that were made.

Crocheting is not really difficult to learn, I truly believe this because I learned as a dsylexic 8 year old. If I can learn to do it, anyone can. There are lots of great websites that have step by step instructions with photos that you can follow to teach yourself and their are of course several good books. I happened to like the instructions at www.lionbrand.com and www.crochetspot.com . Lion Brand is a yarn company, they offer online instructions in knitting as well. There are several websites out there that offer patterns for crocheting and knitting; my favorites are: www.crochetpatternscentral.com, www.lionbrand.com, & www.bernat.com I like the websites that the yarn companies have because they often have patterns for the yarn you have choosen. I like this because I often buy yarn without having a project in mind, its hard for me to pass up a good sale on yarn.

Well that's its for now. See you tomorrow.

First Born, First trip from Home

2009-04-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

This my first born girlie, she is off for the next three days and two nights on an Outdoor Education trip with her entire grade. She will be away from home for the first time in her life without any family members. I am proud of her for earning this trip and I hope she is having a good time. (I think this is the first time I have posted a picture of her with her glasses on, hmm or maybe I just cannot remember. Oh well.) I miss her laid back personality, her wicked sense of humor, and how good she is with her sisters. I know she will enjoy all the learning opportunities that will be presented on her trip. I hope that she does not have her mother's luck and manages to come home unscathed.
(Trust me when I say I am no good at camping or being around nature. It never ends well.)

Firsts

2009-04-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

I meant to post this yesterday on April 1st but hey with all that I have been going through lately I am just glad I had time to write this today. So I am sharing some firsts with all of you this month.

My first "first" is this picture of my first niece (she is the oldest grandchild on my husband's side of the family.) She just turned 15 years old this last weekend. Yep, she was born 3 months after I married her uncle my sweetie. I love being an Aunt! The other photo is of my girls and two of their cousins, my nieces from my husband's family.

My next "first" is something I have been promising photos of for awhile. My dear older sister, Holly, (who rocks by the way) sent me some very exciting yarn to make her some hats and scarves to keep her warm in the cold weather of Northern Idaho. So the first hat is what I call the Sherpa Hat, its the first hat I have crocheted that had ear flaps. The other photo I choose to put in because the yarn was kinda of funky.

The next "first" is really a two part first. The first part is that the wonderful squares of fabric you see laid out on my kitchen table is my first quilt. (The fabric is by Moda it's Basic Grey Sultry, ha ha ha who said I couldn't use my scrapbook taste in other crafting pursuits.) The quilt is for my sister-in-law who is having her first baby girl, she has three boys already so you all know I am thrilled out of my head that she will now have a daughter. When its all done I will take another photo.

My "first" new sewing machine, I just had to prove that I was actually using it:

My next "first" is my first knitting project, yes it's a scarf for my sister. Did I mention its really cold in Idaho where she lives?

And last, but not least,is this beautiful fabric I bought that I am hoping to turn into my "first" swing bag (it's like a purse.) I promise that once I get that done I will photograph the final product.

There will be more firsts in the up coming weeks so stay tuned.

It makes you think....

2009-03-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Yes, I am alive but things have been very busy. After I survived dental issues my middle daughter ended with a sty in her left eye (Yeah! Another trip to the doctor.) Then I had to get caught up on some things like: the scrapbook project I was trying to finish (no it's not done), gathering up all the stuff for our taxes (that's not done either) and the usual laundry, dishes, and cleaning.

Just when you think life is beating you down you have an experience that reminds why all that other stuff does not matter as much as you think it does. A week ago my husband's grandmother had her 4th mini- stroke (TIA is the medical term). We were very concerned but she was lucky she did not suffer any permanent damage as far as the doctors could tell. This was scary for us because not only were the doctors worried about the stroke, they were worried about her sky high blood pressure, her heart, and her kidneys. They wanted to do a procedure to clear some blockages from her heart but had to postpone it because of her kidney issue. My husband and I took turns visiting the hospital, calling, and being with Grandma throughout her hospital stay and during her recovery at home. My husband's Aunt is taking very good care of Grandma and we are thankful that she is recovering.

I spent two days with Grandma this last week helping her do things around her house, cleaning, grocery shopping, making follow up doctors appointments, etc. I realized several things during this experience. First and foremost, how much I love my family. I have a wonderful husband who took time off work to stay home and be with our children for two days while I helped his grandmother. He cooked, cleaned, did laundry, worked on homework with our daughters, dealt with potty training accidents, and tried to keep our house running while I was gone 10 to 12 hours a day. Each night I would come home to my dear husband and I could tell that being "mom" was hard on him but he did not complain he gave 110% and that is the best gift a wife can get. Second, I felt blessed, I did not have the opportunity to help my own grandparents during the many health crisis that they experienced over the years because I was too far away from them. I feel blessed that I was able to spend time with Grandma and help her. My heart ached for what I missed with my own grandparents but knowing that I can make a difference with Grandma has helped ease my heartache some. Third, I realized that I really needed to start taking better care of myself now. Many ailments that plague people in their senior years started when they were younger. I have not been taking advantage of that knowledge these last few years. When I tucked my daughters in bed tonight I thought about what it would be like for them to have to take care of me. I realize that will happen someday but I want to try to be healthy so that hopefully they will not have too much to worry about. Like everyone else I figured I had "time" I am "young" I can still do what it takes to get healthy. But time never stops it just keeps moving and I am closer to 40 years old than I used to be and I have run out excuses for not doing what I need to. Does this mean I will be making some changes, yes it does, but its been a long time coming. I will write about my efforts from time to time to share my progress and hopefully my successes. Its been a week of reflection in many ways. So much else is going on but I will have to share that another day.

My friends and family please take care of yourselves. Give yourself the best chance at a good life; only you can do that for yourself.

Sweet Technology

2009-02-21T21:54:00.000-08:00

We are celebrating a little ray of sunshine that came into our life recently in the form of David's bonus at work. We didn't think he would get a bonus so it was really nice. I have been trying to save us money on groceries and in other ways so it was nice to spend a little money on us for us change.

David got this: An iPod Touch Generation 2 16 GB its silver, very shiny!

Its totally awesome and I could blab about all the awesome things it does but I won't. Don't get me wrong I want one but then....

Hello Lover! Sweetness and Light! I love this camera!

(The picture of my new camera was taken by my old camera. My old camera was not happy so the photo is not that great. I promise to take better picture of my new camera with my new camera.=)

Yes, its true...I am now the proud owner of this amazing camera. A Canon EOS Rebel XS 1000d with a Zoom Super Wide Angle EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Autofocus lens. Don't ask me if its the 40d or whatever, blah, blah. blah, I don't know.... just let me enjoy this moment. {SIGH} I have been waiting a very long time for this camera, it is like a long lost friend to me. {I will stop hugging camera now, will not sleep with camera next to me in bed.} As part of the package I bought I also got a 2 GB High-speed SD Memory Card, SD Memory Card Reader, a tripod, a deluxe camera case, battery charger, LCD screen protectors, a lens care kit, and huge manual I need to read. I took a few pictures on the Automatic setting which I will do for awhile until I can get a handle on this baby and then I will take the plunge and go manual and see what I can do. I am also studying my Adobe Photoshop CS2 book like crazy so I can start making my photos look awesome with all the free action packs I have been downloading off cool Digital photography websites. Wish me luck because I will be dragging you all along with me in my journey.

Here is the first picture ever taken with my new camera. Yes, it all starts with a man somehow doesn't it?

Thanks Mr. Dave we love you!

Well...when it rains it pours {figuratively}

2009-02-19T19:33:00.000-08:00

So again I have been M.I.A. that seems to be my permenant status these days. So what have I been up to well this going to be long and a little whiny but you still like me right????

Different family members including me had colds, then my oldest daughter who didnt get the cold had pneumonia. My oldest daughter doesn't get sick all that often but when she does she usually gets very sick and this worried me. You see my oldest daughter is my dependable one, I count on her to be...well....her...she is smart, independent, quiet, and lots of help around the house. My oldest daughter is getting to the point where I won't be able to "take care of her" like I do my younger daughters, I am not ready for that. So I rented her movies and took out to run errands with me when she started feeling better. I am not ready to let go my oldest "girl" before she becomes a young lady. Then my youngest daughter got a cold again which you wouldnt think would be bad but a drugged up on cold medicine 4 year old is dangerous thing, its like a bomb...you just dont know when she will go off.

After everyone got well one of my teeth went super-massive-blackhole (I suffer from particularly bad genes when it comes to teeth) and I needed to get a root canal. I was in total agony the night before I went to the dentist, in fact I did not sleep at all for about 48 hours. I got in to see the dentist Tuesday, he prescribed pain medication. Well pain medication is great.......when you are not allergic to it.....yes....apparently I am allergic to Codine....at least that's what the hives attested to. So my Dentist (who by the way is 2 years younger than me, wow I'm old) switches me to another pain med, which by the way still had Codine in it......yeah more hives....I returned codine filled pills to pharmacy....got another prescription (Wednesday).... no hives....was able to sleep about 6 hours.....Limped to the dentist today(*see my story below as to why I was limping)....dentist says"Hmmm your tooth is dead"......."what????" says I....."Yes," says the dentist, "and its all infected in there." (Flash backward two days ago when dentist said, "NO you dont need an antibiotic is just a broken nerve you need pain medication.") Okay I didn't say much more after that since I was nice and drugged up on novacaine and had a dental dam stuck in my mouth. My dentist was nice to me and gave me a pillow for my head and a blanket to keep me warm while I spent 2 1/2 hours in his office getting my root canal. He even gave me another shot of novacaine before I left so that I wouldnt be in pain later, he was truly penatent man.

*Before this lovely trip to the dentist I was cleaning the ceiling fan in my family room. I needed to move the chair I was standing on to get at the fan from a different angle but then my youngest daughter decided to "help" me, well, the chair ended up whacking me on the front of my left ankle...yes, if you recall that is the ankle I broke in two places about 2 years ago. So its swollen and will probably have a huge bruise tomorrow.

Tuesday was also memorable because it was the day my daughters 5th grade class was supposed to be given "the puberty talk." Well, since my daughter didn't go to school for the entire week before (because she had pneumonia) no permission slip came home and somehow it slipped the minds of her teachers even though I was in e-mail contact with them all week long. So of course Tuesday morning when the school called to get permission so she could go to "the talk" I wasn't home. So she had to sit it out and I will be going over "puberty" with her.

Then today after I lived through my dentist appointment my middle daughter says her foot hurts. Apparently she stepped on something with her bare feet yesterday at our neighbors house and either she is allergic to it or its infected.

I also have a scrapbook project due for a class I am trying to teach that I have stopped and tried to work on about 20 times in the last 10 days and its driving crazy that I am either: too tired, in too much pain, too distracted, or its too late at night to work on it because I need to sleep at some point.

This evening my dear husband looked at my swollen face and swollen ankle and recalled with me all of our difficulties in the last two weeks and he handed me some chocolate and hugged me and said, " We just have to figure out how to keep you from hurting yourself." Poor diluted man doesn't realize its my karma and he is married to that karma. Its a good thing he keeps me in chocolate or I just might not make it.

Hopefully I will have good news tomorrow. Thanks for letting me vent, I love you guys I really do.

Stressed and Blessed

2009-02-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry I havent been around, things have been a little intense lately so I haven't had time to post. So what's been going on:

1)I joined Coupon Sense and have been shopping and saving like a mad woman. I have also been recruiting everyone I know to start using coupons, its not as hard as you think. I saved $500 just this month on my groceries and I will probably not have to buy some of my staples for the next 4 months. If you want to know more e-mail me. =)

2)I donated blood a two pint donation, yeah for helping people! I will be donating again in May when I am elligble again and I encourage any of you who can donate blood to do so when you can.

3)A week after I donated blood I got a head cold along with David and my middle daughter. My other two daughters never got sick, go figure.

4)I have been preparing for my class on Saturday, I am very excited to teach this month its such a joy I am so blessed to have students that sign up for my classes on a regular basis.

5)I have been learning to knit and will have pictures soon. Thank you to Holly my older sista for getting me the yarn and needles so I could start knitting, I love you shorty!

6)Now to my stress, yesterday at church I was told that two of my friend's husbands who work for the same company as my husband were laid off. We have all known for months about the layoffs but with each new round of layoffs we have all been on edge. I was so sad for my friends but thankful that so far my husband has not been told he will be laid off. I am feeling stressed today, I know the company plans more layoffs but right now we do not know which departments will get hit next. If you are reading this whether you know me or not please pray for my family that no matter happens we will be okay. No I am not asking for you to pray that my husband won't get laid off I know that whatever happens that I will be blessed. Thanks to everyone for you support, I am feeling better already just getting that off my chest.

Well, I am off to clip coupons! Happy Monday!

A quick note on my class

2009-01-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

I am teaching at Scrap Happy Sisters on February 7th. We will be making this adorable heart shaped album. Here are a few pictures.

PS. I promise to try to get photos of my crocheting, knitting, and scrapbook exploits posted soon.

Crochet hooray!

2009-01-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

Okay I promised pictures of some of the crochet projects I did for Christmas, most of these are the ones I gave my daughters. I have made other projects since then just haven't photographed them yet.

I used Caron yarn for this hat and scraf combo; it was so soft and cute!

I used Lion Brand Fun Fur for this scarf.

I used two different colors of Lion Brand Suede yarn for this hat.
Again I used the Lion Brand Fun Fur, she just had to have her dog in the picture.
My oldest daughter likes funky hats so I made her this red and cream hat with Lion Brand Suede yarn.

This is also I Lion Brand yarn but I don't remember what its called but its got the Fun Fur and Slub yarn mixed. I made two pink and blue like this one.
This was the beginning of a shawl I made for my husband's grandmother; its made of the Lion Brand Suede yarn. I made a purple shawl for my mother-in-law and I combined two shawls to make my oldest daughter a poncho. Since Christmas I have made 2 more scarves, 2 ponches, and I have another scarf in progress right now.

Now here's my secret of the day: I bought knitting needles today, watch out I am on a roll. But don't tell my hubby yet, he cannot handle another craft craze right now. He, he, he.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T10:23:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone its been a crazy month of crocheting, weaving, sewing, scrapping, and wrapping trying to get ready for Christmas. I will get pictures downloaded soon all of the crafy goodness I gave away this year. Santa was good to us this year, we got a Wii, games, and all kinds of other good stuff. I also got a nice gift right before Christmas, a new cell phone. I am now the proud owner of new beautiful red Samsung Rant. Oh sweetness and light I love this phone!We have been up since 5am so I am going to keep this short. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas. I appreciate all the love support all of my friends and family have shown me this year, its been the best gift of all.

Its December already!!!

2008-12-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

Okay where did November go? Well now its time to start thinking about Christmas, but before I do that I wanted to show you some Thanksgiving crafts that my middle daughter made at school. My daughter's teacher is seriously crafty. The children made two costumes, a pilgrim and an Indian (Native American.) They also made a turkey napkin holder out of a toilet paper roll, too stinkin' cute. I just had to share.

Twilight Movie

2008-11-24T08:10:00.000-08:00

Here I am in front of the Twilight poster at the movie theater, with my Twilight t-shirt on. This was taken after we saw the movie since I didn't have time before the movie. ( I hate how I look in this photo I had to stand at a weird angle to make sure there wasnt too much reflection on the poster.) Here is my opinion of the movie: Yes, I liked the movie. Was it as good as the book? No. No one should have expected the movie to be as good as the book because honestly we all had our own ideas about what the movie should look like based on what we saw in our own minds as we read the book. That being said I still felt that movie hit all the major elements of the book. The things I liked (without revealing too much to those who havent seen the movie by now): I liked the back story added to certain plot lines, I liked the prom scene too. I was dissapointed in few things: First and foremost I felt like the entire movie moved too fast, I wanted it to linger more in certain scenes or areas. Second, I wish certain parts of the book had not been left out. Third and last, I didnt like the actor they cast as Mike Newton. So there you go my unsolicited opinion. Will I see it again and buy the DVD? That is a definite yes. I wonder if they will make movies out of the other books? The answer to that is yes! Summit the company that made Twilight will be making New Moon into a movie. Here's hoping they can get the orginal cast back.

Mandy's next class

2008-11-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

Okay fans, I am going to be teaching a double mini album class at Scrap Happy Sisters in Glendale, AZ on December 17, 2008, at 6pm. The cost of the class is $29.50. I put a sneak peak below of the two albums we will be making in class, a scallop album and 4x4 laced album. I would love to see you all there, don't miss out because the classes have been filling up quickly. If you live in AZ and cannot attend the night of the class you can pay for your kit over the phone and pick it up at Scrap Happy Sisters another day. All my classes have detailed photo instructions so that you can complete it at home. Now I am onto my other holiday projects.

Scallop Album

4x4 Laced Album

Twilight the Movie Countdown

2008-11-20T19:03:00.001-08:00

Okay I wont be going to the movie tonight at Midnight like the "die hard" fans will be but I am hoping to go on Saturday. I will let you all know what I thought. My husband bought me the soundtrack to the movie so I have been trying to get into the mood for the movie. I also bought myself a t-shirt with the Twilight cast on it. Wait, I am too old to wear those kind of t-shirts? Maybe but I dont care, I am wearing it. I will post pictures of me at the movie theather after I see.

YouTube, we love you

2008-11-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

Sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile. I just finished up another scrapbook class I will be teaching in December and of course I have started the insanity of making Christmas gifts so they will be ready in time for Christmas. Other than that have been getting my daughters over colds and getting out their winter clothes.

My YouTube Find:
You never know what you will find while you are surfing on You Tube. My husband and I were goofing around looking for music from different countries (instead of doing important stuff like working and doing housework) we happened upon a group of videos by Bulgarian singers. I love this song by Bulgarian singers Anelia and Miro entitled Zavinagi. You can watch the video for it by clicking the link below. I don't speak Bulgarian but someone posted the English translation in the comments section. I think both of the singers have great voices. I just thought I'd share some of the weird things I find while avoiding my housework.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGLZHZpOPBo

Halloween Pictures!

2008-11-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

I {heart} Halloween! So here are some pictures that week took on Halloween. I am waiting to see the pictures my sister Samantha took, hopefully she will e-mail them to me soon and I can post those as well.

Okay so I'm no Bella Swan but I really liked the fangs!

I was sweating big time in this cape but I love it too!

This our dog Shadow dressed as a pig, its his birthday on Halloween and his nickname is pig-dog because he snorts like a pig sometimes.

Here are the girls.

My oldest the Gypsy.

My middle daughter the Ballerina Princess.

My youngest daughter Tinkerbell.

David wore is his "This is my costume" t-shirt, he promised he would dress up next year. The girls got lots of candy and had a great time with their grandparents before and after trick or treating. I hope all of you had fun.

I was tagged!!

2008-10-30T13:20:00.001-07:00

Okay I was tagged by my sweet cousin Marisa; I want her and everyone else to know I am supposed to be doing laundry and dishes instead of typing this blog post.

Had you for a second there didn't I. ((((Evil laughing)))) I despise housework so this gives me an excuse to do something else.

So here goes my 8's

8 TV shows I watch (really its like used to watch I just seem too busy these days to remember to turn the TV on at night after my children go to bed. And they cancelled some of the shows I really liked.)

1. CSI
2. CSI New York
3. ER
4. Criminal Minds
5. The Ellen Show (because my neighbor watches it while our children play after school)
6. The Tonight Show
7. Mystery (PBS Series)
8. Word Girl (PBS kids show)

Can you tell we don't have cable yet.

8 Restuarants I like to eat at:
1. Red Lobster
2. Olive Garden
3. Outback Steakhouse
4. Cheesecake Factory
5. PF Changs
6. Bamboo Grille
7. Elephant Bar
8. Carlos O' Brians

8 Things that happened today:
1. I bought our dog a Halloween costume.
2. I did dishes.
3. I did laundry.
4. I drove the girls to school, they missed the bus.
5. I talked to my mom.
6. Made preparations for my husband's birthday on Saturday.
7. I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwhich for lunch.
8. I surfed on You Tube instead of moping my bathroom floor.

8 Things I look forward to:
1. Halloween!
2. Christmas!
3. My sister Holly coming to visit.
4. A day when I dont have to get up before 6am.
5. Seeing Twilight the movie.
6. Doing my Christmas shopping.
7. Finishing some Christmas projects.
8. Taking a nap.

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A Zutter. (Its a cool scrapbook related item.)
2. For the economy to get better.
3. A raise for my husband and brothers-in-law.
4. I wish I could finally lose the extra 35 lbs I have been carrying around the last 4 years and never find them again.
5. I wish I could take horse back riding lessons so I could ride with my oldest daughter.
6. I wish and hope that my youngest daughter will be totally toilet trained before 5th birthday. (Remember she has an Austism Spectrum disorder, potty training is way down on the list compared to communication and safety. It will happen, I am just impatient.)
7. I wish my sisters did not have to work.
8. I wish that my older sister and my brother-in-law can adopt a baby next year.

8 People I will tag

Hmmmmm, I have to see who has been tagged and get back to you on that.

Halloween is tomorrow I will take pictures and post them then. I hope you all have a great Halloween!

Where have I been????

2008-10-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

Okay I know where I have been but all of my adoring fans (all three of you) are definitely wondering what I have been up to these past two weeks. So here is the top ten things I have been doing:

1. Celebrated oldest daughter's 10th Birthday (Yikes! I have a 10 year old!!!)
2. Oldest daughter got glasses. (Picture to follow)
3. Worked on and survived Crafting Saturday at my church.
4. Caught a cold.
5. Laid in bed for two days, then got out of bed and cleaned.
6. Went to the Desert Botanical Gardens (The Monarch Butterfly exhibit was awesome, photos to follow.)
7. Worked on my Christmas Album class (Teaching it tonight!)
8. Obsessed about Halloween costumes.
9. Tried to figure out how to attend 3 "Fall" parties at school and 3 parent-teacher conferences all in a 72 hour time frame.
10. Re-read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and 1/2 through Breaking Dawn. (Edward, SIGH, to bad he is fictional, wink)

I promise I will get more pictures posted things have just been CRAZY. I miss you all.

Legos are for girls (and Mommy too!)

2008-10-07T20:22:00.000-07:00

My dear husband bought himself a set of Legos a while back because he wanted to use them for a robotics project he was doing in his spare time; little did he know that once our youngest daughter saw the aforementioned Legos that she would take great pains to get her little hands on them. Daddy gave permission for our little darling to play with the Legos (while supervised by Mommy.) Ever since her first Lego experience she has become quite interested in building with them; houses and towers are her favorites. She also likes to build the projects that are shown in the little booklet that was in with the Legos. Today she asked me to the make the red truck that was in the instruction booklet. I was really digging this so I put the little Lego man inside the cab so he could drive our truck. We had lots of fun so I took some pictures of our red truck and my youngest playing with the Legos.

See the Lego man's smiling face; he is in Lego Truck heaven.

" Mom, Help! Its stuck!" (Mom puts down the camera and prys the Legos apart.)

She likes to build tall buildings. "Up, Up, Up," says my girl.

"Honk Honk Beep Beep Vroom Vroom!"

Keep on Truckin' my blogging friends!

PS. Thanks to everyone that weighed in on the Facebook question. I am going to keep working on my Facebook page and enjoy the pages of my friends.

Facebook

2008-10-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have been goofing around on Facebook today; inviting friends and updating my profile. I am taking a poll on what folks think about Facebook so please vote; yes I really want to know that's how twisted I am.

Girly Hair

2008-09-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

This is my middle daughter, my princess, the girl who loves girly hair! Sorry the pictures are not great but I was late for church and wanted to snap a quick photo. I dont think it turned out too bad but if I were to do it again I think I would use bigger sections of hair.

Now I know you are asking yourself: "Where did Mandy find the idea for this hairdo?" Well dear friends, I was blog stalking my cousin Marisa's blog and she has several "Little girl hair do blogs" listed on her blog. I listed I few I liked:

http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/

Her girls are so cute!

http://piggiesnponies.blogspot.com/

Can I just say, "Oh my heck! The lady has talent and patient children."

http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/

Really unique ideas here, so great.

That's how we roll in girly town!

Funny stuff my daughter says

2008-09-24T14:18:00.001-07:00

The picture I posted has nothing to do with this post other than its a picture of my three girls. I just wanted everyone to see their cheesy grins while you laugh at the silly things the girls have said to me recently.

Today:
My youngest daughter (who is 4 years old) was looking that pigeons that have taken to sitting(& pooping)on top of our swing set while she and her sisters are at school. My youngest sent Shadow (our dog) outside to chase the pigeons but the pigeons were not impressed or threatened in any way by our small dog.

Since the birds didn't leave she started waving her arms saying,"Shoo Shoo birds."

She turns to me and says in a very serious tone, "I can be the scarecrow."

I had to laugh, how practical my girl is trying to keep the pigeons away by being a scarecrow.

Meteor Crater, Navajo County Fair & Rodeo, Quading

2008-09-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

This last weekend our family went to Holbrook and Show Low, Arizona, to spend some time with Kris and Stan (my in-laws.) On our way to Holbrook we stopped at Meteor Crater; this was very exciting for our family as we are big fans of Space Exploration and all things Space related. We took a quick tour of the museum and then went out to look at the crater.

We climbed back into the car and headed to Holbrook for the Navajo County Fair & Rodeo. Unfortunately, the rodeo started late so I don't have any pictures other than the picture of the arena. My camera doesn't handle the dark well. One of the best parts of the rodeo was when Lela participated in the Grocery race, this is where they put packages of stuff kids like to eat (chips, juice boxes, candy, etc) in the arena and a bunch of kids run out their and pick it all up. Lela sprained her ankle but she was a trooper about it. Our other favorite part of the rodeo was the bull riding. The bulls won hands down with only two riders holding on long enough to get a score. One rider did get stepped on pretty bad and most likely ended up with a few broken ribs but he walked out of the arena on his own power. Lela and I walked around the fair looking at the craft winners, their were some really beautiful quilts (sorry no pictures, got to respect the artists.) The girls fell asleep on the way back to the in-laws.

Okay now some of you who know me are thinking right about now: "WHAT??? Bull riding?!? Mandy watches bull riding ?!? Well not exactly, my parents got Lela interested in bull riding and then David got into it too. So yes, I watch bull riding with my family.

Oh, and just for the record, I do not own a pair of cowboy boots......yet.

The next morning on Saturday, we took my in-laws quads out for a ride around their property. Okay, "quading" is that a real word? I am not sure but lots of people own quads and go quading. In fact my in-laws hosted a really big quading jamboree recently with 350 people. Crazy! Who knew? Not me obviously. Here are some photos of the girls and David on the quads. Yes, I drove one of the quads, badly. In my defense, you have to use your hands to drive and since I have advanced carpal tunnel it really hurt to hold down the lever that was the gas for so long. Oh well, I'll just have to work on it because I have been told that I will be involved in quading expeditions in the future.

Photos, as promised

2008-09-12T08:41:00.001-07:00

We are off to the rodeo tonight out in Holbrook, AZ, where we will be meeting my in-laws. The girls are all dressed up in their cowgirl boots and jeans. I promise to post pictures tomorrow because they just look so stink'in cute. But, before we run off to the rodeo, here are the photos I promised. This is only a smattering of what I have been doing. I have another mini album I will be teaching at the end of October, a Birthday Girl album I just need to photograph it. I am making cards, scrapbook layouts, and have plans for a large canvas as well. My printer is out of ink so I literally have 7 scrapbook layouts sitting on my desk waiting for journaling. No, I don't write out my journaling by hand most of the time because my handwriting has become less legible each year with the advance of my carpal tunnel but I do try because I want my girls to remember what my writing looked like before it becomes totally illegible. Okay now that I am off that tangent here is the pictures I promised.

This is the front cover of the Christmas Mini Album I am teaching in October at Scrap Happy Sisters. Its a 10 page mini book, I just really loved the papers by 3 Bugs In A Rug.

This is the Family Canvas I am teaching at my church's craft day in October. The Family letters are vinyl which is sweet because its so easy to work with.

The Recipes album is a gift for my mother-in-law, her birthday is this month and we will be seeing her this weekend.

This canvas is a project I started at CK Convention Phoenix in September of 2007. I just finished it in August 2008 but hey I got it done right? This will be a Christmas gift for my husband's grandparents.

See you tomorrow part'ners!

Color Inspiration Card

2008-09-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

I have this REALLY talented cousin, Kristina. She has an awesome blog http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog and was recently asked to become a Garden Girl (for those of you not familiar with the online scrapbooking world let me tell you this is a HUGE honor.) Congratulations to my cousin, UR DA BOMB! She does a color inspiration challenges on her blog and I just haven't taken the opportunity to participate until now. Of course I had nothing in my stash that fit the color scheme so I just winged it. So here is what she chose:

And here is my card, which has probably missed the deadline for today (hey its the thought that counts right?):

Teaching classes, being a parent, & more

2008-09-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Where have I been, well I have been very busy with lots of things. I promise to start posting more of my scrapbooking work. I will do a post soon that shows all the work I have finished lately. I am going to be teaching a Christmas mini album class at Scrap Happy Sisters http://www.scraphappysisters.com in October. I missed teaching scrapbook classes so I jumped back in. (Again I promise photos will be posted soon.) I took a very long break from teaching classes because I needed to focus my energy on taking care of my children during the summer and deal with some things that related to the business that I closed. In a way, I needed to grieve for what I had lost. I was burnt out creatively and I needed to get back to reality, which unfortunately is often harsh so its doesn't leave much time for scrapping.

I am also helping out with my church's crafting day in October as well. I am supervising some projects and teaching a canvas class (photo to follow.) This is something I am doing for fun because I love the ladies at my church and love all the crafty stuff that we make each year; its kind of our "get-ready-for-the-holidays" crafting day.

What else I have been up to, well being a parent. What that means is dealing with with my daughters and each one is very different. My oldest daughter is struggling to adjust the rigors of 5th grade. She has two folders to keep track of, a daily planner to write in, she has to change classes two times a day, and she is also in band this year in addition to the usual- P.E., Art, Music, Library, & Computers. She has always done well in school but this year she has been struggling to be organized. Its hard to watch your children fail and know that you cannot fix it for them, you can only help them by giving them support and helping them deal with the consequences of their actions. This is the year things get serious for her, she has to learn that from now on this is they way life is going to be. She is going to have to grow up some and take on responsibilities that she doesn't enjoy. While this is a difficult time for her she still maintains her sense of humor, enjoys her favorite activity horse back riding, and is coming along with her flute lessons.

My middle daughter is struggling with reading, but was lucky enough to be put into a special reading program at school that will help her. We are also going to have her eyes checked to make sure her vision isn't giving her trouble. We will be reading, reading, & reading with her at home. Other than her reading troubles she enjoys school and is making new friends and is just a very happy girl. She joined the Shine Your Light Singers this month, we wanted to give her a chance to do several things at once. This group does singing, acting, and dancing; we are very excited to see how she does with it.

My youngest daughter continues to improve in her second year of preschool; her therapists tell me she is making good progress. I have to say how thankful I am that the state and school district I live in provides my daughter with so much assistance. I have not talked about my youngest daughters diagnosis on my blog a lot but I think it's important. Just in case you are new to my blog I will explain what I am talking about. Our youngest daughter was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2006. Most people know what Autism is but not what Austism Spectrum Disorders are and to be honest I cannot describe what they are in a short sentence other than to say that our daughter's particular disorder gives her trouble with sensory input and she has a moderate speech delay. If you want the full story e-mail me and I will share.

Back to my point. Our daughter has 5 therapists that work with her. She has an Occupational Therapist, a Speech Therapist, and Music Therapist that work with her at home 1 hour each week (that's 3 hours of therapy a week if y'all are counting.) At Preschool, she has a Speech Therapist and an Occupational Therapist that work with her and her classmates. Let me tell you how often I thank God for these therapists. I don't think I can say how much they mean to me and our family. These women (her therapists) are a very dedicated people who love children and give all they can to help their students succeed.

I am complimented all the time on how well my daughter is doing and always respond they same way- I don't do the work my daughter does. I review with her and put in place the work that her therapists have given me. I like to think that the best thing I have done for my daughter is to love her just as she is and try to have her live up to the same expectations that I have for her sisters. We also believe in helping others so we decided to join the Austism Society of the America this year. We are trying to raise money for Autism Society of America so if you are feeling generous go to our donation page today: http://www.autism-society.org/site/TR/Events/newsite-norightcolumn?px=2179173&pg=fund&fr_id=1040

Wow are you exhausted from reading this post, sorry if you are but thanks for listening!

A Shout out to Bob

2008-09-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Who is Bob? And why is he being written about on my blog. Well, Bob is a man who is reading the first book Twilight Series because his wife Emily loves them. And because Edward kidnapped Emily and Bob wants her back. Her is Bob's blog:

http://edwardkidnappedmywife.blogspot.com

I thank Bob for his male perspective on Twilight, he seems like an open and honest guy. Go read what he has to say its interesting.

Back to School

2008-08-18T11:29:00.003-07:00

Sorry it took me so long to get these posted I have been very busy decluttering and digging out from a very busy summer.

I got distracted...

2008-08-09T10:43:00.001-07:00

You'll notice my previous post about what we did this summer was dated August 4th because that was the day I started working on it but it wasnt posted until today August 9th. I got a little distracted when this came in the mail:

If you haven't read this yet, don't continue reading this post, and if you are not a Twilight Saga Fan you'll just have to ignore this post too. I was really looking forward to this book I finished the book in about 10 hours. I barely slept, mostly didnt do housework, but did manage to feed my children. I finished the book Monday but then had a bizillion things to do to get the girls ready for school so I haven't had time to talk about the book until now.

Here is what I thought of the book: Sweet!, what?, really?, NO-Way, well I guess...., hmmmm

Now for the interpretation of what I just said:

Sweet!- Bella and Edward get married and run off to an island honeymoon.

What?-Bella is pregnant, what? I didn't think the undead could procreate so this kind of goes against the traditional vampire model. Which hey, kudos to Stephanie Meyers for putting a new twist on that but is just didn't seem right.

Really?- Bella handles herself as a newborn vampire really well, which at first I was like okay she is different from most but that is just TOO convenient.

NO-Way-Jacob (werewolf) imprints on Bella and Edwards daughter Renesmee (half-human/half vampire) Okay I know they mentioned other werewolves imprinting on children before but this just did not seem right to me. This was NOT the way to end the Jacob-Bella-Edward love triangle. This REALLY bothered me.

Well I guess...It makes sense that someone would find out about Renesmee and that the Volturi would show up. I also figured the werewolves would help regardless of the Jacob-Renesmee connection.

Hmmm- I did like that she introduced other groups of vampires from other parts of the world that was very interesting. And I did like that she left the situation with Renesmee with hope that she could survive her uniquess and that there were others of her kind. Also the revelation regarding the "werewolves" in Forks and La Push really being "shape-shifters" and not "real werewolves" was interesting as well.

Now here are the questions I have wondered about: Does this mean that Stephanie Meyer will write about the werewolves/shape-shifters now? Will she write about Renesmee and Jacob? Will there be another saga? At this point I don't know but I will say that if there are more books in the future I will be harder please because of my disappointment in this book.

What we did this summer

2008-08-04T11:53:00.000-07:00

Okay since back to school is only a few days away I thought I would just do the summer round up so you could all enjoy the crazy things we did this summer. This is going to be long with lots of photos so get a drink, a snack, and get ready to oooh, ahh, and laugh at all we did this summer. Also, don't forget that if you want to see the pictures bigger than they are here, just click on them. Yes they are going to be really big if you do that, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Lela, our oldest daughter got her ears pierced the day after school let out, on May 22nd. (I finally gave in, what drama this caused with our middle daughter Cora, who is now counting the days until she can get her ears pierced, sigh)

The next week on May 27th David's step-sister Karali got married, here he is with the bride. Karali and I are balancing out the universe, she has three blonde-headed boys close in age to our girls.

Then on June 4th our middle daughter, Miss Cora turned 6! After her party she asked how long it would be until she would be 7! I have to slow this girl down or she'll be a teenager before I know it.

In June I also got to watch my youngest nephew, Ethan, (he just turned 1 year old) for a few hours one day while his Nana (my mom) got her nails done. Ethan is my younger sister Samantha's little man, she works full time right now so Nana and Papa (my mom and dad) watch him and his two siblings (big brother Morgan aged 7 and older sister Katie aged 4.) Look at those cheeks! I just love to nibble those cheeks!

Anaya, our youngest daughter, took her first dance class in June at The Little Gym. Okay I am not a girly-girl per se but I was so freaking out over how CUTE my daughter looked in her dance clothes, tap, and ballet shoes. I watched her all through her dance class planning what dance outfit I was going to put her in next.

Our family enjoys the Phoenix Zoo, so here are some pictures of us on the Endangered Species Carousal while we took a break from the hot summer sun.

July 1st we went on a fun field trip with Anaya's summer Developmental Preschool group to our local Bounce Play Place. Here is Anaya sliding down the slide. (In case anyone reading this doesn't know already, Anaya has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Anaya goes to a Special Education Developmental Preschool at a public school in our school district. We are very proud of the progress she has made in the last two years. As always, if you have any questions about her disorder please feel free to ask me about it. I love to help people get educated.)

July 3rd was Anaya's 4th birthday (yikes my baby is 4!) July 3rd is a big birthday day in our family because its was also Ethan's 1st birthday and David's cousin Karah had her son Ryker that very day this year. (Note to self: I need to get a picture of Ryker to post on the blog, he is a cutie.)

July 4th we all got in the car and headed for Cedar City, Utah for 5 days of fun at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. I have been attending this festival for many years and each year it just gets better so if you are inclined and can go one summer check them at here: http://www.bard.org/ Lela attended her first live Shakespear play; we took her to Taming of the Shrew. Lela really enjoyed herself, I was so impressed that she was able to following the story even the dialogue was 16th Century English. Lela also attended Fiddler on the Roof with my parents. David and I attended Two Gentlemen of Verona and School of Wives while we were at the festival as well. We took the girls to the Green Show and we ate tarts (according the fine gentleman that sold the tarts to me - our tarts were fat free because we were eating them outside, they also make you look more attractive, well maybe not, but when said with a perfectly bawdy English accent you might just believe it. wink wink nudge nudge)

The girls played at the park with my parents while we were at our matinee of School of Wives and then we all went to see Disney's WALL*E. We also went to Cedar Breaks which is near Bryce and Zion Canyons. We had a great view and saw lots of wild flowers that the girls were crazy about.

Okay is it just me or is my Cora always making some kind of distressful emotional face in the pictures I take of her. (She's my drama mama in case you didn't know that.)

This part of our vacation was not withouts difficulties, the first night we stayed at the resort I wacked my head on the low ceiling of our loft bedroom. That little middle of night walk in the dark pretty much knocked me to the floor and gave me a huge bump on my forehead that lasted over a week.(Seriously, could I be any less coordinated on vacation than I already am at home.) We didn't have air conditioning so we sweated all night the first night (gasp! Doesn't everyone in the Western region of the United States have air conditioning, I guess not!) We didn't need the air conditioning the rest of the week because the weather was cool and beautiful. We also had to have the brakes replaced on David's car. This meant spending 2 hours in the waiting room with our daughters with nothing to entertain them as all their stuff was in the car. I had no idea it would take that long! My children survived and lets just say that we were all very happy to leave when the car was done.

The next destination on our vacation was Sedona. We love Sedona! We go to Sedona at least twice a year. This was a nice place for us to stop and catch our breath before we came home. I washed clothes like a mad woman. We went swimming at the resort's pool and David cooked for us. Being away from home for a week was great but we were ready to come home. Sorry no pictures from Sedona this time but I promise our next trip I will post something.

Cupcakes from Boston Market. Okay they didn't taste as good as they looked but since I am total freak I took pictures of them anyway on July 17th. (Thank you for enduring this cupcake break here at my blog.)

Our next fun event of the summer was July 23rd, when the girls dressed up for a Princess Tea Party in our living room. (Sorry you folks out there that only have boys; this is just how we roll in Estrogenville when David is at work.)

This is the tea set that we use when we have tea parties; I have had it since I was 8 years old and its very special to me. I am so glad that I have my girls to share it with.

I hope you have enjoyed our summer wrap up. We had a great time and yes, I am glad school is starting. We did some back to school shopping (sorry no pictures) and went to school for meet the teacher. Stay tuned for the back to school pictures!

July is gone but school is starting soon!

2008-08-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Okay I was going to do the July round-up yesterday but didnt get to it so I will have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out all the things my family and I did in July. We are doing back to school shopping next week which is fun because the girls get new school supplies and clothes. I will post picture of our new school stuff next week.

Late night scrapbooking

2008-07-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

Warning! Lots of photos because I just have to show off everything I have been doing late at night when I am scrapbooking. The paper bag album is for Suzy who was on my design team, she is marrying her sweetie Chris. The layout above is of my oldest daughter.

Blogging, flocking, and swimming oh my!

2008-07-30T20:21:00.001-07:00

Okay I am still getting used to blogging, I sometimes forget to blog about the stuff that happens in my life but I am trying. Today I tried a new scrapbook product/technique called flocking. No that's not a Mormon swear word or a bunch of birds flying around; its actually a fine fluffy powder that you adhere to your scrapbook projects. The card below has yellow flocking on the wings of the heart. The girls and I went swimming today with our park group, it was really nice to dip in the pool and then sit under an umbrella and watch the girls have a good time.

Trying to keep it simple

2008-07-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here is a layout of my youngest from last year, it was very difficult not to embellish all the "blank space" on the page.

A picture is worth a 1000 words but what is this one saying?

2008-07-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

I took this picture of my middle daughter to show the little brown part in her left eye. Most people dont notice it but I thought it would be fun to have a picture where you can see it. But then I got to I'm thinking, does this photo look more like a poster for "Firestarter" or is my little girl still the angel I think she is. Who knows? Just thought I'd share some neurotic thoughts with all of you today.

I'm happy for now

2008-07-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

I have been messing with my blog non stop for the last few days and I feel that I can take a break for a little while. I hope everyone likes it. I have laundry and dishes waiting so I will check in with all of you tomorrow.

Can I fit one more thing in?

2008-07-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today was a very busy day, just so you know what I did here is the list:
5 loads of laundry
3 loads of dishes
Returned over due videos
Cleaned out the garage (several hours)
Weeded the back yard and garden area (several more hours)
Scrapbooked (not enough hours)
Feed children (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks my children are well fed)
Entertained children
Kept children from killing each other (several times)
Worked on Primary lesson
Tried to squeeze in more scrapbooking but my carpal tunnel is making me wish I'd stop hours ago.
Have good night!

XML what?

2008-07-25T13:32:00.001-07:00

I am trying to download a new template for my blog but since my knowledge of computer languages is sketchy at times, I need my interpreter, my computer go-to-guy, my dear husband David. Well he is working right now so I'll have to wait until he has time.

More Cards

2008-07-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

These just experiments I tried with rubons and ribbon just for fun, they are not masterpieces but I thought I'd share.

Things happen

2008-07-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

I am currently locked out of my gallery for now so I am going to post a card I made for card challenge at my website (www.secretscrapper.com/forum) that I am closing on August 5th. Its hard to lose a business when you have worked so hard for it. I spent two years really loving my products and my customers so this has been kind of depressing for me. I have appreciated everyone's support.

So I have a blog now...

2008-07-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, those of you that know me know that I have been saying I would start a blog several times over the last two years and today I finally did it. I am excited to start customizing my blog and making it look more like something I would have made myself so bear with the "free template" blogger provides until I can get my grove on and make this place look better.