.

February 12

2012-02-12T22:47:00.001-08:00

1. My poor sick little one. Day 3 of some type of flu, his fever ranged from 98.6 to 104.7 today.
2. Chris took a pity trip to buy Jack a little something to cheer him up-a garbage truck which he loved.
3. That would be Garrett driving. He's doing really well and I'm now the passenger most of the time I'm in the car with him.
4. Garrett's high school soccer team had a post season picnic. Beautiful day outside and the boys played some type of game for 3 hours.
5. Garrett with his two buddies, Andrew and Chet, were the victors of the game today.
6. Kind of a down day for Morgan. She had been sick this week so I've kept her isolated from Jack and being busy with Garrett's activities she had Facebook to keep her company.
7. Still had time to cross things off my 40 bags in 40 days list. I'm falling a bit behind, but even today I got a couple more things accomplished.
8. Moving on from Facebook, Morgan painted her nails, listened to music and surfed the web. Not a very exciting day for her.
9. You don't know how excited I am to dump this box of cords in the trash. I don't have a clue what any of them go to and frankly, they are such a mess I could never find the cord I was looking for.
10. Garrett in the last game of the winter futsal session.
11. His team had a 7-4 victory and won the championship.
12. Late dinner. Stopped to pick up dinner at La Salsa.

Competition

2012-02-06T10:07:00.000-08:00

So I heard on the news this morning that there was a big football game yesterday.
Really?
Just kidding, we spent the day at UC Davis at a Cheer competition. Priorities people, priorities :-)

If you recall, their last competition they placed third and this week placed second. Next stop, Nationals at California Adventure in a month. I predict a lot of practices ahead, they are coming in as the defending champions and want to repeat!

I found a real nice girl who took the video for me. Morgan is in the last stunt on the right. I don't know much about cheerleading, but her coach she can do that stunt better than most high school girls. I'm just glad she didn't fall!

Painting With a Broad Brush

2012-01-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

When Jack was a baby, I began to notice that a particular population would stop and speak with us. No matter where we were, Gymboree, the mall, grocery shopping, I noticed that older Asian women would strike up a conversation with me about Jack. All. The. Time. More often than not, they were limited in their English skills and I found it strangely fascinating that they would initiate a conversation with me. I'm not positive, but I think it was the curly brown hair and boy combo that drew them to us as patting the hair was always part of the conversation. Well after the curls were cut, so did our conversations.

Well Jack has a new group of conversationalists: older, white gentlemen. You see, Jack can whistle. I mean, he can't whistle tunes, but he can whistle long and loud. His whistling skill far surpass my abilities so of course I think he's pretty good for four years old. There are days that he whistles constantly-at home and out in public. Cue the older, white gentlemen. And I should preface this by saying that by in large, older, white gentlemen generally have nothing to say to us (him) and tend to look right past him. But apparently there's something about a four year old whistler that warms their heart because they stop dead in their tracks to say something to him. Perhaps it reminds them of a bygone era when whistling was a way to pass time, I'm not sure. But for now, we're enjoying his new found popularity with strangers.

A New Year

2012-01-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012!
We spent New Year's in Santa Barbara. Garrett had a soccer camp so the rest of us stayed at the Fess Parker Doubletree and had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and the beach across the street.

I guess you can say that Morgan and Jack did the polar bear plunge!

So we came home and I was ready to join in the momentum of all those New Year resolution and then I got sick....
So I may be midway through the month, but I'm still hopping aboard that bandwagon although I like to see them as goals as opposed to resolutions. Just that subtle change in semantics makes it feel less daunting and more attainable.

So writing it down to be accountable for all...
1.Lose 10 pounds, eat healthy, exercise more, blah,blah, blah
(yep, you can tell I'm not too excited about this one. I do need to, no doubt-maybe once my energy is back, I'll show a bit more enthusiasm.)
2. Read 24 books-I did this last year and think that 24 is a realistic number for me.
3. Date nights-going to make an effort to plan one kid free night out a month-yes, you read that right, Chris :-)
4. Photography-I have all the equipment and I have so many tools to help me improve, I just need to focus and set aside some time and make it a priority this year.

5. Organization-So I'm always one to grasp on to a catchy name. I read about 40 bags in 40 days
and I couldn't help but think this would be a great way to get through lots of cluttered areas in my house in a short amount of time. So I made my list (below) and have set a date (2/22) and I'm already 2 bags down 38 to go~woo hoo! I have 3 friends that are joining me in this goal so it will be nice to have friends to help motivate me along the way.

Best of 2011

2012-01-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

Well I can wrap up my best of 2011 real quick...here's the Christmas card we sent out.

Here a few more details of the best of 2011...

Favorite scrapbook pages-I don't know how many pages I did this year, but here's my favorite 5.
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Favorite Books of 2011-
Last January, one of my resolutions was to read more. I hoped to read 24 books, thinking that 2 books a month was a realistic goal. Unfortunately I didn't keep track, but I'd say I was pretty darn close. I read anything from chick lit to more meatier literature. Most of my favorites were also turned into movies. Coincidence??
:-)

1. The Help-I don't know anybody who didn't love this book.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-It took me four years to pick up the last book even though I stood in line at midnight to be one of the first to get it. But if you do the math...Jack arrived and after reading 6 books and loving every one of them, I wanted to enjoy and savor the last one. And I did.

3. The Kitchen House-I hear a lot of people mention this book and The Help in the same breath. Certainly they both take place in the South, but this book is quite different, but it will stick with you long after you read the last page.

4. Water For Elephants-This is another book I've been wanting to read for a couple years and knowing the movie was coming out got me going on this.

5. The Hunger Games-I did not expect to like this as much as I did. I heard this book recommended for well over a year, but the title didn't really appeal to me. I guess I'm kind of a title snob~lol.

Other favorites included The Thirteenth Tale and Sarah's Key.

Favorite New Television Shows of 2011-
I really don't watch as much network tv as I used to. Kind of getting tired of investing my time in a new show only to have the network cancel it. Enter Netflix. I'm discovering older series and love being able to watch multiple seasons at a time without a long break in between.
Far and away my favorite was Breaking Bad.

I know I'm not the demographic this show was intended for, but I found this to be one of the best written shows I've ever seen.
And far from being a "best written show" (except Sue Sylvester's lines), I really love watching Glee.

Favorite Pictures of 2011-
I used a new template from Shutterfly to make a book of my favorite pictures this year. You can click on the book to take a look.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Visit Shutterfly.com to create your own personalized photobook.

October Review

2011-11-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

What? You say it's already November? That can't be!

October was a crazy, crazy month and yes it might be mid November, but life has hardly slowed down and I realized that the one measly post I did in October didn't even begin to cover everything that went on .

As usual, our month was filled with soccer. Lots and lots of soccer- 12 two hour practices and 8 games.

One of the games was scheduled for 5:00 the night of the Homecoming Dance. Garrett missed out on all the pre-homecoming activities including pictures, but assured me he'd get pictures later. And he did-one iPhone picture :-(

Luckily he tried on his clothes earlier in the day and I snapped a picture of him.

I worked in Jack's class twice this month. I love watching him interact with his classmates. Apparently he volunteers to say the prayer everyday, he's very outgoing.

Chris had his big Open World conference in San Francisco. This is a huge event for his company and each year he seems to speak at more and more seminars. I guess you have to be part of his world to understand what a big deal this is. He keeps telling me he's a VIP, maybe this picture proves it :-P
Thanks to Mom coming up and staying for a few days, I was able to join them for their big appreciation event. It's located on Treasure Island and it's quite a production. After dinner at Roys with his boss, we headed over there and watched Tom Petty and Sting perform.

About a week later, Mom and Art were up for another visit. I'll share more pictures later, but one of the days we headed to San Francisco and while Jack and Grammie rode the trollie cars for hours, Art and I rode on Segways and made our way around town. 3 words: So. Much. Fun!

October wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. Jack went with his class and then we visited another one.

We went to a Halloween party and Jack got second place.
>

This picture cracks me up. Here he is being lifted up like something being auctioned off by some creepy looking guy.

And here's our Angry Bird pumpkins. Got the whole family in making these and I think they turned out so cute!

And here's Jack who decided to forgo his prize winning fireman costume and wear his knight costume.

Morgan went with a friend in another part of town. She came home with 10 pounds of candy. I think that more than made up for not trick or treating last year.

So that wraps up the month of October.

We've Got Spirit

2011-11-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

yes we do. We've got spirit how 'bout you?

So I had updated about Morgan's injury, but right after that she started physical therapy. Two mornings a week before school we went and she did her exercises and was given the go ahead to participate.

The night before the first competition we hosted a hair rolling party. That would be 18 girls and 18 moms, a sister and a coach that came to our house for a potluck dinner. Afterwards we gathered around my family room and were instructed in the correct way to put five gazillion rollers in your daughter's hair. And in case you're wondering, that would involve nearly an entire bottle of hairspray per girl. The air was thick!

Then they were told how to apply their makeup. Morgan volunteered to be the model.

I went back and forth about taking pictures that day. I really wanted to just watch them perform, but I just hated to not come away with a few pictures. They did awesome, came in third and qualified to go to Nationals which are held at California Adventure in March. Chris got a nice video, but it's top secret and if you saw it I'd have to kill you~ha ha.

That would be Morgan tumbling right there.

Way to go girls!

Not MY monster

2011-11-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a project I recently did I thought I'd share. This past month as Morgan's cheer team has been spending more time getting ready for their first competition, tensions are beginning to flare. Morgan's coach has two sons, I think she is getting a crash course in dealing with pre-teen girls. And lucky her-she gets 18 girls 8+ hours a week. God bless her.

So using this project I did last year, I created a little gift for her.

I included a gift card to Starbucks and in between the candy is a bottle of aspirin. Her coach gets paid a very minimal stipend and I think really appreciated the thought and the humor.

The October Curse

2011-10-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

I guess it is more like the fall curse, but the last few years October has been particularly bad for Morgan.

2007-The day Jack was born, Morgan came down with strep throat. She was so bummed that she couldn't meet her brother.

2008-We escaped sickness this year.

2009-Highly anticipated week at Outdoor Ed camp with school. Not there even 24 hours before we got a call that she had a fever and had to come home.

2010-Snapping pictures and excited to head out trick or treating and once again hit with another high fever that put her in bed with not an iota of interest in going out.

2011-In an effort to break this string of bad luck, I made sure Morgan got her flu shot and was just about ready to laugh in the face of this curse.

I should know better.

About 8 weeks ago, Morgan did a jump and landed funny on her knee. She complained it hurt, but we did the ice and Motrin and she seemed to be getting around fine. After 3 weeks of her still complaining I took her to an orthopedist. He didn't see any swelling so thought she needed to rest-took her off PE, put a brace on her knee and said in a couple weeks she'd be as good as new. But she wasn't. So she got an x-ray and it was negative. So she got an MRI. We got the results yesterday and apparently she wasn't making it up. Her orthopedist seemed quite surprise, she has a tear in her quadriceps tendon-an injury rarely seen in kids, it's more likely to occur in middle aged people. Leave it to Morgan! It apparently is a complete fluke and the fact that it taking so long to heals means she's been to active to allow it to heal.

Cue bad news...she cannot compete in her first cheerleading competition. It's 2 1/2 weeks away and he thinks she's 4 weeks away from being healed. She's really disappointed. She'll be going to physical therapy to help, but there's no way to predict where she'll be in the healing process so she has to bow out.

Next year, I may not laugh at the curse, but I'm taking extra precautions.

Roar....Jack turned 4

2011-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

This year I decided to take a birthday shortcut and have Jack's party at an indoor inflatable bouncy place. I had a couple other birthday ideas, but this just seemed like a good place to celebrate this year.

And with smiles like these, I'd say he had a great time. The kids bounced and slid and giggled and sweated. Oh boy, they were worn out after an hour of bouncing.

We then headed to the party room where the purple and red decor of the room really clashed with the blue, orange and green decorations I had brought. But somehow, when everything was decorated, it looked real cute. If you can't tell, Jack (with some nudging from me) picked a dinosaur party. I bought a couple of digital files on Etsy and made the water bottle wrapper, cupcake toppers and a few other bag toppers. I also found some cute fabric and I sewed a banner in coordinating colors. Probably not necessary, but it turned out super cute. We weren't supposed to bring in outside food (I purchased pizza and fruit trays from them), but I did and they didn't say a word. What's a dinosaur party without some herbivore dinosaur treats? A basket of squeezable apple sauces and bags of veggie sticks were perfect for our hungry little bunch.

I had some mini plastic dinosaurs on the table that I used for decorations, but it turned out to be a fun thing to keep the kids busy while the food was being served.

Jack ended the party by passing out the goodie bags. I purchased plain kraft bags at the dollar store added a dinosaur ribbon and cut out a dinosaur on my Cricut. I actually purchased all the goodies inside the bag several months ago. Found some dinosaur goodies at Michaels in the dollar spot and took a gamble that we'd be able to use them. There was a dinosaur placemat, a dinosaur book, an egg with a dinosaur inside, an etched dinosaur pad and a small bag of jelly bellies that I packaged with a topper that said "prehistoric dinosaur eggs".

We brought the gifts home to open them as we were running short on time and Jack has been in toy heaven the last couple days.

Happy Birthday to my sweet 4 year old, you are a little ray of sunshine who delights in play and makes us smile every single day.

Summer-ventures-July

2011-09-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

I wrote this up some time ago, but I guess it never got posted. Better late than never.

We're are making good progress on getting through our lists of fun things we wanted to do this summer.
One Friday night, we went to the county fair. It was a beautiful summer evening and the crowds were very light-my type of event.
We thought we'd be doing a lot of this...

But instead we wandered through the 4-H rabbit hutches and got detoured by the railroad sign. And Jack stopped us in our tracks (pun intended-ha ha). An entire room was devoted to O and H-O scale model trains. Of course we didn't know this at the time, but the elderly volunteers were quite taken with Jack's interest and knowledge of trains and spent a good part of the night teaching us about model railroads. We had so much fun watching Jack, we actually came back to the fair on $.99 day and spent an afternoon here again.

Our big summer vacation this year was in Cayucos. But on the way down we stopped at Gilroy Gardens. It was the last day of the dinosaur exhibit. You'll notice in the picture Jack looking back at that triceratops. They were animitronic and gave him a startle the first time they moved. I think he was never quite convinced that they'd take off after him.

Ahhh-Cayucos. My sister and her family made the long flight for the east coast to join us. Would have loved to get some better pictures, but the wind was pretty strong and the sand was even more appealing.

The big surprise. Everyone thought we were going to Cambria to shop for the afternoon, but a little surprise was in store. 4 generations in a limo, made for a pretty memorable afternoon. Of course, some of us remember it a bit more clearer than others. But...what happens in the limo, stays in the limo :-)

If you ever are in the area, I highly suggest driving to Montana de Oro State Beach. I believe this area where we spent the day is called Spooner's Cove. My goodness, this is one of the most gorgeous beaches. It's not a swimming beach or a lay out and sun yourself beach, but geologically it's magnificent. There are tidepools, rounded stones, unusual rock formations, areas to climb and explore. In one word-GO!

Garrett attended a 4 day camp at UC Berkeley. He liked the camp, but he loved the dorm experience at a prestigious college. All in all, I'd say he learned some new soccer skills, but also gained a strong desire to make sure he's able to go away to college.

After we dropped him off, I took Jack to the Lawrence Hall of Science which is on the same campus. They have a similar dinosaur exhibit, but bigger. There was a lot more to see.

Well summer is chugging along, we bought a few school supplies just the other day so we know what's around the corner. Still have a few days of fun we want to squeeze in before it's back to school. Stay tuned for our August Summer Ventures.

Well that was kind of cool

2011-09-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Garrett and I flew down to Southern California for the NHB Soccer Tournament. With the tournament scheduled over Labor Day weekend, we were a little scared about the traffic we might encounter so Chris stayed home with Jack and Morgan-our regular cheering section for Garrett's games.

But our Southern California entourage showed up and definitely made up for it. And in return Garrett gave an awesome show. He scored 3 of the 9 goals in the tournament.

And I got lucky and captured a couple of those goals.

Unfortunately, our winning streak ended in the quarterfinals when a tied game was decided in PKs. Still had a great time.

Paia-Part 2

2011-08-29T20:53:00.000-07:00

Well I'm bound and determined to share the rest of our Maui trip so on to part 2.

So as I was saying...Paia-small, small town. Chris did all of the planning so he thought it would be best to do most of our excursions while we were here. The day we arrived we had a snorkeling trip planned, but upon landing we had a message saying it was cancelled due to the weather. Not exactly an ideal way to start a tropical vacation.
But we rescheduled for the following day. The snorkeling was supposed to be at Molokini, a partially sunken volcanic crater known for its snorkeling. About half way there, we were informed that the water was too choppy so we were going to head to Coral Gardens. Did we see fish? Yes. Did we see lots of them? Yes. But whatever spin your boat company may give you, Coral Gardens is the ugly step-sister to Molokini.

The boat was great as was the crew. The wetsuits were provided by the tour and boy were we glad we had them. The water was definitely on the chilly side. We enjoyed a nice lunch. So all in all it was a beautiful day.

That night we ate dinner at Mama's Fish House. This is probably the most popular restaurant on Maui and for good reason. The food is amazing. Chris and I showed little self control and ate until we were about to burst. If ever given a choice of last meal-Mama's Fish House would be it :-)

So the next day was probably one of our most favorite excursions. As it turns out, this was something that we could have done on our own, but we had the most wonderful tour guide that made this day long adventure so memorable. Our tour was booked through Hike Maui and we went on the full-day Hana waterfalls and rain forest hike. Actually, we didn't go to Hana, which having been several times before so that was totally fine with me. We stopped just as you got on the road to Hana. Our guide was Kahi, a native of Maui, a grandfather (still can't believe it), and just about the nicest guy you'll ever meet. The tour provided everything-river boots, bug spray, lunch, transportation from our hotel, etc...

Kahi is a naturalist and throughout an entire hike we were taught about the native (and mostly) non-native plants and their uses. This included some tasting along the way.

I would say the day could be summed up~over the river and through the woods...
In all we saw 5 separate waterfalls, Chris jumped off one cliff into a pool of water, I braved the freezing water to swim under a waterfall, we dined on boulders, hiked on slippery rocks, followed the trail of wild pigs (as identified by their urine~ewww!), and pretty much were exhausted by the end of the day. But, wow, you can't call the day boring, it was pretty amazing.

On Monday morning we checked out of the Paia Inn and drove up Haleakala to Skyline Eco Adventures for some ziplining on the crater. It always amazes me how different it is on different parts of the island. It's quite forested up there, Ziplining was fun. I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert, but we do seek out ziplining while vacationing so we felt pretty comfortable up there.

So after this excursion we headed down the volcano and over to the other side of the island-Wailea.
To be continued...

The Doldrums

2011-08-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

dol·drums
[dohl-druhmz, dol-, dawl-] Show IPA
noun ( used with a plural verb )
1. a state of inactivity or stagnation

In early spring we enrolled Jack in a weekly swimming class. Because he was just attending weekly, my primary goal was to make him very comfortable in water and begin some water safety. After the first session he earned his five stickers for specific skills and a ribbon for completing his beginning preschool level.
We continued with the class this summer and Jack has continued to improve and he is very comfortable in the water. About halfway through the summer he had earned four out of the five stickers for his immediate preschool level. The last skill he needs is to swim 2 yards.

This video was taken a several weeks ago. I know we shouldn't, but it makes us laugh. Poor guy probably lifts his head and feels like he swam across the pool only to find out he hardly went anywhere.
Today was the last day of the summer session. He still didn't earn a ribbon. Clearly he is stuck in the doldrums.

Some Summer Scrapbooking

2011-08-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Summer is my least productive scrapbooking season. I know we're doing a lot of fun things that fill up our days and nights, but I really miss the solitude (read peace and quiet) of crafting. It may take longer than usual, but I have managed to get a few pages done with the help from some very inspirational designers.

This is one of those pictures that wasn't very good, but the story was too good not to remember. Jack and Morgan's rooms are "Jack and Jill" bedrooms with an adjoining bathroom. Before I head to bed, I go peek in on Jack and have about a 50/50 chance that he's in his bed. He loves to sneak into Morgan's room and fall asleep in her bed. And so I carry him back to his room many nights. On this night, not only did I find Jack in her bed, but look at Morgan! I don't know how she even got into that sleeping position.

A fourth of July layout using some Lily Bee papers. Yes, I know that I'm missing some ric rac on the page and yes, it bugs me, but I am not a perfectionist...I am not a perfectionist...I am not a perfectionist (I'm really trying to convince myself.) I ran out and didn't have anything I liked quite as much.

This one was done with Basic Grey Luscious papers. We recently were at Gilroy Gardens and while it was perfect for Jack, it's not exactly an exciting destination for a 12 year old. But Morgan was a great sport, going on all the kiddie rides and making sure Jack had a great day.

This is a lift of Nancy Damiano. I don't think I used any of the same papers that she used in her original (and I used paper from 4 different lines), but it sure turned out pretty similar. This is a bicycle rodeo at Jack's school and Jack brought his Strider bike. It has not pedals on it and helps to teach balance so he can transition to a big bike and not need training wheels. He's a little speed demon on it.

This last one is a lift of Kelly Goree using Basic Grey Oliver paper. Yet another soccer layout from high school season

I have a few more to share soon.

P.S. Jenifer-How's my little niece's album coming along? :-)

"Pinterest"ing

2011-07-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I have filled my favorites folders on my computer with great ideas-scrapbooking pages, recipes, craft ideas, party ideas, destinations, etc... There is tons of inspiration in those folders. The problem is that they are in those folders and often forgotten or difficult to access.

And then came Pinterest. I seriously think this is the best thing since sliced bread and maybe even better. The best explanation I could give is Pinterst is like a virtual bulletin board. If you find something on the web, you "pin" it on your board. There will be a little picture to represent your idea and when you click your picture it will take you back to the original website. You can also create different boards to help you keep everything organized and easy to find.

Since I've been pinning, I feel like I've been more likely to try some new ideas. and I've made some new recipes. It has definitely provided a creative burst.

Well this whole explanation to share one of my pinned projects. I saw this picture and thought it would be a great summer activity. It was linked back to a Family Fun article with all the instructions.

So, with the whole family involved, we did it. And boy, was it worth it!

After the "cars" were all clean. We moved it over the grass and put the slip and slide under it and had a ball.

***Just a side note-if you decide to make this, the webbing straps are impossible to find. 4 big box stores, a couple phone calls-I finally located some on the web, but it was over $60 for a roll. We opted to take an old beach towel and cut it in strips and it worked just fine.

We Went to Cayucos Last Week

2011-07-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

And we laughed.

Are We There Yet?

2011-07-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely behind sharing, but thought I'd start with this cute video.

Jack and his cousin Arianna had a lot of catching up to do :-)

My 3 on the 4th

2011-07-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

We're kind of creatures of habit around here. Our Fourth of July always ends with a big fireworks show. And before we head out, I try to get a picture of my 3.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007 (Jack about 2 months away from joining us :-) )

Paia-Part I

2011-07-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to add some pictures from our trip to Maui. We started planning this trip almost a year ago to celebrate our 20 year anniversary. When we started talking about destinations, we settled on Hawaii for a couple reasons. 1) We could get a direct flight and the travel would not be exhausting like it was last year. 2) Our primary goal was to enjoy a relaxing trip that would include lots of down time and some activities.

We decided to break our trip up into two parts-Paia and Wailea. Although we've been to Maui many times, we've never been to either location. Friday through Monday we stayed at the Paia Inn in Paia. We discovered this boutique hotel on Trip Advisor and it was one of the highest rated hotels because of the small setting and charming location. Most people have never heard of Paia-it's often referred to as the hippie town and if that doesn't ring a bell, it's a couple miles from the famous Mama's Fish House. It's a very small town fill with small clothing shops, art galleries, organic shops and some really wonderful restaurants. It's the last stop on the road to Hana and if you're headed in that direction it's really worth a stop.

The hotel was very nice. We had a studio and it was very spacious, quiet, and clean. The furniture was nice as well. The hotel is not on the beach, but there's is a long path that takes your right to it. They provide beach chairs and other things you might need. We went for a few walks, but the weather wasn't too cooperative and we had lots of activities planned. They offered a continental breakfast each morning on their patio and a refrigerator full of pineapple. It was definitely an adult destination and we felt it was the right place for our getaway.

Summer-ventures- June

2011-07-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

I think this summer we've fallen into a good routine. Can't take the busy away, even in summer, but there's been some down time and a few fun things thrown in as well.

Just after school got out Morgan had her first dance recital. She loved taking Jazz this year and will continue on next year too.

Garrett finished the spring soccer season with a 3 day tournament in Turlock. If you've never been to Turlock, it's hot and really not a summertime destination (and probably not a wintertime for that matter), but they have built some awesome soccer fields-kind of field of dreams style. Anyway it was an exciting tournament and Garrett scored two goals.

Morgan headed off to church camp. She had a blast and can't wait to go back next year. "The boys" and I had a little daytime excursion. We drove to Jack London Square in Oakland and took the ferry across the bay to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. I had never been there before and would love to go back and wander a bit more slowly-boys are not wanderers :-/.

But boys will not turn down a good meal and we really enjoyed the food at Mijito.

Then we walked a mile down to Pier 39 and while the big boys wandered off, Jack and I watched the sea lions and then rode the top story of the merry go round.

And then we were able to catch the ferry from here and head back home.

Jack went to Aloha Camp for a week too.

We already have lots of things on the calendar for July. Still need to find a day to take Jack to see some dinosaurs :-)

June Scrapbooking

2011-06-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

To say I don't scrapbook in order would be an understatement. Never have. Never will.
So here's a look at some of what I got done scrapping with friends earlier this month at that gorgeous house.

This was an Allison Davis sketch. I attempted to scrap these pictures quite some time ago, but was not loving the direction or the papers. This time around, I'm really pleased with this page.

Funny story, we were looking for a picture of Garrett at a certain age so I pulled out an older album and these pictures were in the album, but just there loosely, not scrapped. So I decided to bring them with me. I used another Allison Davis sketch and dug into my black buttons to make those little Mickeys. I'm sure my page would look nothing like this if I had scrapped it 8 years ago.

You see what I mean-I scrap out of order. This is the first page to Garrett's K-5 book. I used the page I did for Morgan as my guide.

This is a lift of a page by Karen Grunberg. Even though the pictures aren't great, I like that I was able to tell the story about what Morgan's been up to since quitting gymnastics. I like to tease her that she is growing through her Marcia Brady phase and trying out lots of things.

Another Allison Davis sketch (and also completed awhile ago).

I had this Kick This template for awhile. I was kind off put of by using it, but it's a nice and simple page and sometimes I have to remind myself that nice and simple if just fine.

Some new papers that I had no intention of using for a Jack page, but I think they worked just perfectly.

A lift of a Nancy Damiano. Chris saw these pictures and said, "oh, that's the tournament that Garrett got 3 place." pause "I think." I asked Garrett and he thinks it was 3rd-quite honestly in 20 years from now, it won't really matter. So I'm creating a little family history here and documenting this as a 3rd place win.

I saw a page somewhere and this was really inspired by it. I changed a bit to accommodate my pictures.

And another inspired by someone on the web.

A Real Scrapbook Retreat

2011-06-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went scrapbooking with my friends. For the majority of 8 years that we've been going to this tiny beach town, we've stayed at the same house. But the home seems to be falling in disrepair and we were growing weary of the severe ant problem, electrical outages, and an owner who did not seem to appreciate his repeat business that we decided it was time to find something new. And WOW, did we find something pretty fabulous.

Actually the home was so beautiful, it was pretty distracting from a scrapbook point of view. It was my least productive weekend ever.

First, let's start with the view-
Sitting on top of a hill, this is what we saw:

Now for the inside. Apparently this home was purchased a few years ago and allowed to be burned to the ground by the firefighters and then the owners started from there. I can only speculate that there was either an interior designer who is one of the owners or utilized before the plans were even made because the details (which sadly are hard to see in the pictures) were so incredible that there's no way your average DIYer could have had the vision (or the money-ha!)

The main floor bath. Notice the transom windows? Those were throughout the entire house.

The family room-gorgeous stacked stone fireplace. Many of the pass throughs between rooms were framed in rough timber. The walls were all board and baten like you'd seen in a Pottery Barn Catalog, the ceilings were planks of wood and enormous wood beams.

The kitchen, again very high quality cabinets, high end appliances. No upper cabinets. To the right was a butler's pantry where it was stocked with platters, appliances, more dishes, etc... and a sink.

The island was a really unique piece of furniture, it was definitely something that was picked up somewhere.

Master bath-again the details are hard to see. But that gorgeous armoire was a focal point. In the very corner of the picture is a door that leads to the toilet, it is mounted like a barn door. It is absolutely stunning. Again, it had to be picked up somewhere and incorporated into the design of the house early on.

The kids' room, 2 sets of bunk beds and a big tv and gaming system in there along with this pretty mural.

The downstairs family room. Not that I was looking, but amongst all this beautiful, antique furniture we found a little table with a Ross tag on it~lol.

I "borrowed" some of these images off the VRBO website. We are planning to stay at a few other houses, but I think it's really going to be hard to top this one.

Summer Forecast:

2011-06-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

BUSY!

Despite our crummy weather we've been having, school let's out in less than four days and my life of leisure that I lead (totally joking, but some people seem to think that) will come to an abrupt halt and my job as cruise activities director begins :-)

At one point, we could spend the summer at the pool hanging out or a day trip to a local museum, but now days seldom is there any agreement about what is entertaining. So I have to juggle to keep everybody happy.

So here's a look at the top highlights that the kids will be doing:

Garrett
1. A week at soccer camp staying at a local college.
2. A couple short trips with some buddies to their vacation home in Santa Cruz
3. Soccer tournaments that takes us to exotic locations such as Turlock or Sacramento :-/ for the weekend.
4. Hopefully a few golf tournaments

Morgan
1. A week of Xtreme (away) Camp with the church
2. 3 days of USA Cheer camp at a local college staying at the dorms (remember those days Diane?)
3. Using a Christmas gift for some horseback riding lessons
4. 2 day a week practices for cheer-it's less about the practice and more about being with friends.

Jack
1. The dinosaur exhibit at Gilroy Gardens
2. The dinosaur exhibit Lawrence Hall of Science (do you see a pattern here?)
3. Seeing the movie Cars II
4. Going to the California State Railroad Museum while in Sacramento.

As for me, I have my own list as well:
1. Celebrating my 20 year anniversary in July.
2. Getting together with so many people from my family for a week at the beach in Cayucas.
3. Seeing the movie version of one of my favorite books, The Help with friends who also loved the book in August.
4. August 23...the first day of school. Kidding!!

1 Down, 15 To Go

2011-06-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

(number of years of school, that is)

Sept. 2010

May, 2011
Jack just finished his first year of preschool. He loved going everyday, playing with his friends and playing with toys. And while it sounds like he just loved playing, his preschool was wonderful about sneaking in learning opportunities disguised as play.

And with the last day of school came my last duty as room parent. I was actually inspired by the photos above, thinking about how much the kids have changed over the school year. So on the front of the flowers (cut by my Cricut) are pictures from September and the back are pictures from May showing how much they have bloomed.

I made a little envelope to tuck a gift card from the class inside.

Now I have three months to come up with an excuse of why I can't be room mom next year or a list of some new projects, I think word has gotten around the school and I'm starting to feel the creative pressure.

A Little Scrapbooking

2011-05-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

Haven't been sharing much of my scrapbooking lately. Right now, I'm getting ready to head off to a scrapbook weekend next week so here's a few pages from the last few months.

Sometimes I feel like I cannot scrap another soccer page. Luckily I came across this great paper by Teresa Collins that made this a quick and easy page.

Ironically tomorrow is Jack's last day of preschool. So when I look at this, I can't believe how much he's grown and changed this year.

Another layout from preschool. We were given a little yearbook this week. On the first page the teacher included a certificate with their Christian characteristic. Jack's was endurance. This page probably sums up how she decided on that-he plays with these trucks every day at recess and spends the entire time racing with his buddies around the playground.

Well I'd love to take credit for this page, but I was so inspired by Debbie T. I copied most of it. And since it wasn't my idea, I'll just say I love it. Everything worked so perfect with my pictures. These pictures were taken a couple months ago and fortunately we're seeing a little bit less of the tantrums and mischievousness.

And here's one (and yes, Mom these were taken and scrapped before you were here) that I guess you can say that I scrap the good, the bad and the ugly-and this would be the ugly-Garrett's room. I don't think that he'll qualify as the dirtiest room in America, but it is certainly the room in the house I'm most likely to shut the door and try to forget what is behind it.

Well, I have loads more, but that's it for tonight!

Pre-Trip Craziness

2011-05-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm in the middle of post-trip craziness. There was a wonderful trip in between, but right now I thought I'd get a quick post in.

Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but I made this the night before I left for Jack to countdown the days until we would be home. Still, almost a week later, he keeps saying, "no more kisses till mommy is home."

I attached a piece of cardboard to the back of the cardstock and used a screwdriver to make holes. I then inserted Hershey Kisses with numbers glued to the bottom. I wasn't sure how it would hold up, but it was much sturdier when I expected.

And this binder is something I worked on for a good week that was the keeper of the schedule, directions, addresses, info, etc... That schedule nearly killed me as even till the night before new stuff was added. This is a crazy time of year. But everybody seemed to get where they needed to go, I think a couple good grandparents made sure of that!

Playing Soccer

2011-05-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

With over 40 parks in the town I live in, to say that playing soccer is popular would be an understatement. In fact, the city is looking into adding additional parks to accommodate the demand.

Over ten years ago, I became a soccer mom (oh, and Garrett became a soccer player :-) ). The games were fun, the families were nice, the commitment was minimal and we were kind of swept up in the soccer mania. By the time Garrett was in second grade, we had a real super star on our hands. Or so we thought. My goal scoring, super dribbling son was apparently placed in the "B" league, meaning he was playing with players who were the bottom half of the skill level.
Insert deflated balloon here.

Well initially we were disappointed, but the following year when they had actual competitive levels, we figured Garrett would show them. But Garrett would not be playing soccer on a competitive team that year. In fact, these naive first time parents learned that it wasn't just the kids that played soccer.
Boy were we schooled in the art of navigating your child through the ranks of the soccer level.
Now I should make it clear, the truly great and gifted soccer players make their own path, but the rest of the "very good" players-let's just say it's who you know and what you have done for the club. And we knew no one and reluctantly participated in fundraisers so you can guess where we fell.
Without boring you with details the soccer club is structured like this for each of the age levels:
D1-Premiere
D3-Select
D3-Advanced
D4-Recreation
The higher your level, the greater the commitment, fees, training, and games.
For a couple years, Garrett tried to get on a competitive team, but unless you make it that first year, it is very hard to break through. By fifth grade a friend suggested he join him on the competitive team in another city and he did. For two years he played for a team that lost nearly every game, but he had a great time and loved the extended season of soccer. A coach from our town noticed him at one of the games and asked him to be a guest player. Finally, that opened the door and the following year he made the Advanced team. For two years he was team captain of that team and then last year he moved up to the Select. He seemed a little unsure of his value on this stronger team, but quickly he earned the coach's respect and the coach said if he were to give a Coaches award to any one player it would have been Garrett.
Well the tryouts we had learned to dread were scheduled last week. Our expectations were that Garrett would play for the same team, but strange things happen at these tryouts and because our club is very competitive, kids from cities up to an hour away come and try out. You just never know who is competing for your spot.
All weekend, we waited for the phone call, jumping when it would ring. Late Sunday afternoon, we got a call from some unknown business and it was the D1 Premiere coach calling to invite Garrett to play on his team. We. were. stunned.
Our family had agreed that whatever team he was asked to play for, he would play so I'm really not sure what we have gotten ourselves in for except practice starts in a couple weeks and games in June. Oh, and a big, fat check is required.

So in retrospect, we really thought we had done Garrett a disservice by not navigating the system correctly and getting him onto a competitive team early on. We figured we'd learn from our mistake and make sure Jack had it easier. But you know what, Garrett can honestly say he earned this spot through his own efforts, dedication, and hard work. He knows that the straight path may be the quickest, but perseverance pays off.

And that's how you play soccer!

Ta Da...My Pantry

2011-05-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

This was a labor of love. It was very laborious, but I love how it turned out. I'm fortunate to have a pantry. I'm especially fortunate because the storage in our entire house is dismal and poorly planned so my pantry must be used for storage of items that cannot be accommodated elsewhere.
So here's my "before" pictures. Nothing to be proud of that's for sure.

Now I don't want to name names, but there are 3 (and maybe a fourth who will remain anonymous) who are responsible for those before pictures. We do have a lock on our pantry, but some people and again I don't want to point fingers forget to lock it and some little fellow tends to think of this as his all-you-can-eat buffet.

Then one night, I was perusing blogland and came across this pantry. Oh my goodness, my heart it was all aflutter. I know some people feel this way when they see shoes or a purse, but this was my obsession. And then I came across this and I became completely obsessed with redoing mine. I looked and took notes on each of those pantries, mine was very similar in size so I tried to figure out what elements I could borrow from each that would a) fit my needs b) make it doalbe for a not so handy DIYer c) be affordable.

First, I knew my shelves had to go and that's where I spent the bulk of my budget. The shelves were thin particle board with a flat paint on them-impossible to clean. And we had added our own shelf along the top which did not match. So I contacted our cabinet guy and he put 1 inch think melamine shelves. That alone was a huge improvement.
I also spent some time shopping for containers. In the first pantry, she bought lots of her containers at thrift stores. Let me tell you, there are no thrift stores around here that are, um, thrifty! My friend and I went to an Antique Fair hoping to score some unique items, came home with an overpriced wooden crate, but struck out there as well. So it was trips to Marshalls, Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Lowes and the Container store eying solutions for my pantry.

So with the new shelves in and all the food boxed up, next came my job. Painting. I love how bold the first pantry was, but I'm not that daring and really couldn't come up with a complimentary color that would look good in a pantry, so I went for a very light beige (boring, I know). I also knew at this point, that I did not want to be painting this again because I didn't like the color, so beige it is. I also loved the idea of the wallpaper in the second post. Chris did not. He's anti-wallpaper. But I love beadboard so he let me have my way. I just put it on the one wall and then painted it white. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I'm really happy with the result. So here are (lots) of pictures of the after.

You can kind of see the beadboard here. To the left is an electrical panel which is why the shelves don't wrap around. That empty space right there is for my crockpot (need to get a new one). The bins below are from The Container Store. They are so far my favorite storage solution. One of them holds "Jack" foods and the other bulkier snacks that I removed from the boxes-popcorn, juice boxes, fruit bars, etc...

Those baskets I picked up at Lowes. I also did some rearranging of the food. I took the suggestion of moving the soup cans down low and it really is a better spot for them.

This is at the very top. I had it lower in the other pantry, but I realized that I don't access it very often and Jack was getting into them and making a mess, so to the top it goes. I keep cookie cutter, cupcake liners, plastic utensils, leftover party paper goods, etc.. Each drawer is labeled.

More baskets. One contains disposable containers, paper plates/cups and the other is extra wraps like foil, bags, etc...

I can't remember where I got this, but I've had this CPR poster taped to the inside of my pantry for years. I bought a cheap lightweight frame from Michaels and framed it. I also added a sticker with poison control's number on it.

This was the last thing I did-added vinyl numbers cut from my Cricut. Had this been the first thing, I might have put vinyl on everything. Wow, it's easy and kind of a fun break from scrapbooking (I may have a new hobby!).

I borrowed the idea to use some carousels in the corner. I love how this is now usable space. (By the way, in the old pantry I had two support boards that further prevented me from using this space. It's so much more open now.)

I put lunch bags, sandwich bags, some plastic utensils, Jack's snack bags-pretty much everything you need when making brown bag lunches.

Not a great picture, but inside this collage are pictures of the kids eating food. Kind of silly, but I think this is one of the things I like best.

Well thanks for taking a look. We are a month out from this completed project and I'm pleased to report that everything is still in it's place and it's been super easy to maintain.

I Ate The Whole Chocolate Bunny

2011-04-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

Today was a nice family day. Went to the 9:30 church service and then headed over to a brunch. Before we sat down Jack talked to the Easter bunnies (missed that picture opportunity) and then went inside a little petting zoo-chickens, bunnies, miniature goats, and a pig.

After brunch, there was an egg hunt. Jack was a bit slow, he didn't like touching the wet eggs and since it was drizzling a bit, there weren't too many dry eggs left. Oh well, he still walked away with a chocolate bunny.

Later we came home and the Easter bunny had visited our house and brought some sunshine with him. Morgan spent most of the day wearing her coat, so I didn't get any good pictures in her dress, but she sure looks pretty in yellow!

And Jack was giddy to see his basket. You might notice a bit of a theme-the basket has a liner with dinosaurs and he got a big dinosaur puzzle, dinosaur jibbitz for his croc, a dinosaur coloring book and paint set, and lots of other dinosaur goodies to keep him busy. Fortunately for Jack, he didn't have much competition hunting for eggs, he and Morgan scooped them up pretty quickly and ate a few along the way.

Got Peeps?

2011-04-21T15:26:00.001-07:00

A very cute and fast little basket of treats to bring to Jack's class today. Peeps+grass+snack size ziploc bags+printable PDF topper=DONE! I saw this project on the eighteen 25 blog last year and tucked that little project away. Here is the link so you can find the original post.

Next Project

2011-04-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

So moving on to the next project...
Our closet was being worked on in December. For over a year Chris had talked about getting a big screen tv. I'm not against big televisions, but as you can tell, we didn't really have the option of getting one.
Cue Peter the cabinet guy and suddenly the idea of heading to Best Buy and buying a tv suddenly became a project.

Before: television circa 2000, weight about 500 pounds (or so it felt), all cords and auxiliary outlets in the back making it impossible to hook up a gaming system or just about anything else.

During: The bottom half remained intact, but the top was completely gutted.

The day big boys dreams come true:

The (immediate) after:

That black speaker above and another black box in the corner became permanent decor. The cabinet below the tv which was really roomy and great storage became home to more electronic "toys" and the surround sound has added a whole new dimension to watching Diego.

And then I decided to tackle a little home improvement. I hated this brass around the fireplace. I read about a quick fix and decided to give it a try.

Goodbye brass!

{Jack}

2011-04-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

at 3 1/2

It's really hard to get a good picture of this little ball of motion.

Life Lessons

2011-04-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a page I did for Garrett's high school soccer season. I used Teresa Collins Sports Edition II. I happen to see this layout in the booth where I purchased the paper and tried to remember the design to recreate it.

The journaling reads:
I think this picture depicts some of the struggles you went through playing on the freshmen soccer team. You injured yourself before tryouts even began and it seems like you started the season in a hole-overlooked and under appreciated. It was very hard as parents to watch-it was clear that a strong and valuable player was spending way too much time on the bench. About midway through the season, when it appeared that nothing was going to changed, we chalked the season up to being a life lesson-
*not everybody will like you
*not everybody values skills equally
*despite the circumstances, you still work hard
*and just when you accept the circumstances, the game changes
And at that moment, you rarely sat on the bench and suddenly could do no wrong in the eyes of the coach.
*People are unpredictable

Here We Go Again

2011-04-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Here's a layout (a lift of Nancy Damiano) that I did last month on a scrapbook retreat. It's a page about Morgan's injuries that she's had a year's period of time:
A cast on the arm and two boots, one on either foot.

Well Murphy's Law, I knew if I completed it, something would happen.

Here's the lovely green cast she's sporting on her right arm for another couple weeks. If truth be told, I think there's some type of racket her doctors are pulling because once again it's a small fracture on her growth plate that doesn't show up on x-rays. No denying, she's complaining that it hurts and did for about 2 weeks before I finally took her to see the orthopedist (we did see her doctor who prescribed Motrin for the week). But c'mon, 4 casts/boots in 13 months?

The Last Line of Defense

2011-03-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

Ugh...
you know there are certain milestones you rejoice when achieved.
There is no celebration here. In fact, if you thought you heard hoots and hollers you are mistaken. What you most definitely hear is, "Jack, don't open that!", "Jack, put that back!", "Jack, you better not touch that!" Could somebody please invent some real childproof latches?

Rainbow Day

2011-03-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

I LOVED this idea from the It Is What It Is blog. I immediately bookmarked it. Jack's school doesn't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but last week they did have rainbow day and this was just perfect for the occasion.
The pictures above are the ones Morgan made for her friends yesterday, but for Jack's class I decided to modify it a bit. It just seemed like a lot of candy for a three year olds so I cut the licorice and half and only put in one large chocolate gold coin. I think my chocolate gold coins are bigger than the original ones, so it worked fine. Anyway, they were easy to find the supplies and assemble and were definitely the hit of the day.

Awesome

2011-03-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

With kids ranging from 3 1/2 to almost 15, the course of discipline I choose varies greatly. With Jack, a 3 minute trip to time out against the wall is usually effective. I have to get much more creative with my older two. Taking things away (and yes, they have a lot of electronics to choose from) is a standby favorite. I've also learned that refusing to take them anywhere is good as is some extra labor around the house.

I do believe I have found the most effective technique and you won't be reading about it in any parenting book. The best part is I don't have to do a thing. Peer mortification by three year old brother is not only the best tool in my discipline toolbox, but I also believe you get an ab workout from laughing so hard.

Unfortunately, I missed any type of documentation of this event, but imagine if you will, 7 fourteen/fifteen year old boys sitting around having breakfast and a little three year old approaches and animatedly speaks about the topic below for a good three or four minutes using this word at least every other sentence. To see their expressions-hysterical. To see the older brother's expression-priceless.

Jack-you've been good entertainment for the last few years, but now you are really earning your keep. Thanks!!

(ETA: I couldn't get the audio file to load, so I video'd it...not the best, but at least it will make sense.)

BTW-any guesses what he is really saying? It took us a couple days to figure it out.

It All Started Here

2011-02-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

Remember that Brady Bunch episode where Marcia got hit in the nose with a football? Of course you do, what a classic! But do you remember the subplot? Carol and Mike were redecorating their bedroom and couldn't decide on a wallpaper. In the end, they went with paint and the episode ends with Carol telling Mike that the whole rest of the house will need to be painted since each room is connected. Such pearls of wisdom from that show.

Well it all started in our bedroom too. Our bedroom furniture that was purchased two houses ago has never looked good in our room. It's a very odd shape with one long wall where all the furniture is lined up along. I even had an interior designer come over to rearrange the room and she shrugged her shoulders-apparently she was not up for the job. LOL. So it was decided last summer to update our room with pieces that fit better. That was last summer and nothing has changed. You'd think most people would have run down to their local furniture and checked that task off their list. But I'm stuck. I don't know what I want.

I do know what I don't want and that is a lot of furniture for clothing. In fact, my idea was to get all of Chris' clothes out of the bedroom.

He gets up and dressed at the crack of dawn.
He cannot be bothered to close the drawers-ever!

So the first step was to our closet organized and utilize the space better. Initially we called a closet company and they came out and showed us all the bells and whistles and got us pretty excited for what could be. And then they sent their price.

THUD!

So another couple months go by and Chris keeps nudging me to make a decision. And my decision was to call a cabinet guy we've worked with several times before. He came up with a realistic plan, but needed to get started on it before Christmas. So a week with all of our clothes in our room

and a carpet guy out to patch the carpet
and a paint guy out to repaint and patch the walls
purging and organizing clothing
a shopping trip to IKEA to pick up baskets (which btw smell like hay :-( ) and here is what we ended up with.

Those are the smelly IKEA baskets. As you can see, they fit perfectly so I can't exactly just replace them. I just hope the smell goes away.

I'm kind of going through a chalkboard phase lately (as you'll see later). Pottery Barn sold some cute little chalkboard labels, but I needed 10 and really didn't want to spend $40.00 So I found these at Cost Plus-$16! Score!

Those drawers are where all the clothes from Chris' dresser went. They are super roomy and deep and he even had a leftover one for me.

Onto my side of the closet. That cabinet on the very left side of the picture is a hamper. It's huge and there's a second one on the other side of the closet. I don't need to do laundry for weeks. Kidding! But it probably is my favorite addition in the closet.

And a few more smelly baskets.

So there you have the closet reorganization, but like Carol Brady-it doesn't stop there.

Pictures (or lack of)

2011-02-22T20:52:00.000-08:00

So when the first of the year came around I decided not to do Project 365 again. After two years I needed a break. I also forgot to take pictures on the 12th so I thought I figured out something I could do as an alternative this year. But when it came time to put together the collage, I realized I couldn't come up with 12 good pictures. I've seriously been slacking in the picture taking department this year. I definitely need to challenge myself to try harder.

Today when I was in the waiting room for Garrett's dentist appointment I scrolled through the pictures on my iPhone. What an odd assortment of pictures! I usually take them and email to Chris so he can get a peek at our day. Here's a few to share.

*Finally (and I mean FINALLY) got to go with my friend to the Alameda Antique Fair. This was one of my finds that needed a little TLC.
*Just a pretty sky.
*Back at the gym and no that's not Morgan, it's Garrett!! He and a friend attended a clinic to learn out to do a flip throw in for soccer. Let's just say he has a new appreciation for his sister's sport.
*Jack after a haircut, this is the shortest it's ever been cut. He looked adorable!

*Any guesses about this? This is Garrett's soccer jersey, pulled out of his bag, oh, I don't know, 1 month after the last time he wore it. All those black spots? Mold. And this is post wash and bleach!
*Another Christmas project. Seriously, what was I thinking?
*Jack at his dentist appointment. The first time he went they just "counted" his teeth. This time he got the full treatment. He was so good, I think it shocked the staff, he just chatted away the entire time.

*Morgan turned 12! Went out to her restaurant of choice-Red Robin.
*Got tracks? We do. And they are often set up and can make a track around our family room.
*Why did the turkey cross the road? To get to the mall, silly!
*Words With Friends...been playing since early summer I think. I always have at least a few games going. I may or may not show my kids mercy :-P. This was a screenshot of my biggest word (117 points)*. No, I did not play "ghazi" (I don't have a clue what that is). But I played "spiv" and the "s" landed on a triple word tile. That made my day!

*Morgan at her jazz class. She really loves it.
*And the little guy getting his papers from his mailbox at school.

And there you have some terrible pictures of the goings on from the last couple months.

Valentine's Party

2011-02-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was at the park with a fellow preschool mom and said, "I totally forgot their class party is tomorrow (Thursday). I guess I know what I'll be doing at naptime."
She looked at me like I probably had some kind of writing handicap because she informed me that they picked up some Valentines at Target and it certainly wouldn't take her more than 5 minutes to sign her kid's name.

So you're going to tell me that other moms don't scour the internet searching for Valentine ideas?
And I don't suppose other moms enlist other moms to track down shovels?

Or make their tags?

Or reuse an idea from last year for the teacher?

Okay Jack, we must check out this Target. I hear there's some good stuff there.

Cheap Banners from ShindigZ are Back

2011-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Last year just before Jack's birthday, Shindigz had a great offer for a personalized banner for only a penny. I shared the deal here. We were very pleased with the banner, it's now rolled up and ready to use for another party.
Well if you missed out or like me are going to order another one, now is the time-the same deal is back.

Today through this Friday, you can purchase one 18x54-inch personalized horizontal vinyl banner from ShindigZ.com for ONE PENNY using coupon code VSTEH6 at checkout.

To order your banner for one cent, follow these steps:
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Oh, the Places You'll Go

2011-01-15T14:09:00.000-08:00

And the sports gear you carried.

And the kids you've lulled to sleep.

And the kids you've carpooled.
And the Goldfish you've caught in your crevices.
And the sippy cups that have spoiled under your seats.
And the clothes that have been changed (and left there for weeks on end)
And the fights that have been broken up by some authoritative figure yelling from the driver's seat.

7 years, without a single trip outside of California, driving to pick up a kid from school, this occured:

And here's my unscientific analysis of how it happened.

So I ask, when am I going places and where? Cuz my car seems to drive on autopilot and rarely seems to leave my city limits.

December Scrapbooking

2011-01-10T15:41:00.001-08:00

I don't think I did that many layouts in December, but finished up several that were started in November.

Love this page, these Lily Bee papers are so easy to use and those corrugated flowers are something new in my scrapbooking stash that I've gotten a lot of use from. Created from a sketch I think I found on the Two Peas site.

This is a page that I really want to move my style of scrapbooking towards. While I always have my camera with me for the big, traditional events, it's these small, ordinary things I don't want to forget. So I hope to do more pages like this (which happens to be measuring the kids on a wall in a closet~something we've been doing since we moved in our house 8 years ago).

Another page using the Catching Fall papers from Lily Bee.

I've been looking at this thinking something is missing and I realized it's the title. Now to figure out what the title will be and where to place it :-)

A sketch, not sure where this came from.

This is a lift from Scrapbook.com These last 3 pages used paper from The Girls Paperie called Toil and Trouble. I really loved that paper and my friend was going to a well stocked scrapbook store and I asked her to pick up a few sheets for me, she picked up 2 of each kind. So I should be stocked for Halloween paper for the next few years.

This orange paper is from the Halloween line, finding it to be pretty versatile if I pair it with other papers. And pair it I did. I used 6 different papers from different manufacturers here. These are some Thanksgiving pictures. I had just read an article about "shooting from the hip" which is literally placing your camera at hip level (crossing your fingers) and getting pictures from a different perspective. I really like it shows our family prayer before the Thanksgiving meal.

This page is a sketch from a sketch site using Restoration papers. This sweet little girl is Jack's friend which took a bit of coaxing, but glad I had my camera in hand.

This month has been more about getting back into a routine and getting organized and hasn't left much time for scrapbooking. I'm headed to Dillon Beach with my friends next month for some scrapbooking so I need to start organizing so I can take full advantage of a weekend away.

Why I Hate Michaels Part Deux

2011-01-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

Don't remember part one? Well in the chaos of December, I didn't get around to sharing, but trust me it involved some misleading advertising and a dead car battery and left a seriously bad taste in my mouth.

Well enter, part two-the part that makes me really miss my local scrapbooking store.

So I heard through the rumor mill that they might be clearancing out some old Cricut Cartridges for $9.99 on January 8 (normally $89.99). And then I read some people were already finding them. Well not wanting to miss this opportunity, I called and asked. And yes, they did have them. They were located in the Cricut aisle and there were a lot left.
That was at 12:30 today and if I didn't have a 3 year old who was napping I would've been there at the moment. But I had to wait till 3:30.
Trying not to get my hopes up because they've often been dashed with promises of great things that never materialized at Michaels, I head straight to the Cricut aisle.

Great googly moogly, what do I see...

Seriously fellow scrapbookers, could this not be a more beautiful site??

So I grabbed 4 (took some pictures so I could share with my friends) and headed to the check out.

Still wondering why I hate Michaels?

Well I get up there only to be told they don't have any of these cartridges. In fact they don't have any of them left. Seriously-you see the pictures, it sure doesn't look like they are sold.
Saleslady upon seeing that I was ready to blow a gasket calls up the manager who said they did have a few left, but not what I wanted. So she rummaged through the locked cages and pulled out a few-wild west, doodlecharms, printing 101, a few wedding ones. Nothing that I was interested in settling for after I had the mother-lode in my hands just a few minutes prior.

So there you go, my tale of great woe which may or may not make you run out to your nearest Michaels and see if you can scavenger a great deal. Personally I'd boycott Michaels altogether if I had other options. But seeing as they are the only place around, I'm going to become the shopper the hate-the one with the 40% off coupon and only one item in hand.

Top Ten in Twenty Ten

2010-12-30T18:44:00.000-08:00

How is it that we're already slipping into 2011. Weren't we just worrying about the Y2K bug?
2010 was filled with milestones and good memories.
And in no particular order, here are a few of the things we'll remember from the year:

1. Getting to meet my niece who was barely a week old. Jack and I went back to the East Coast 2 months later for an even longer visit.

2. Cayucas. We fell in love with this Central California beach town.

3. Moving on...moving up. Garrett completed middle school and is on to high school. And Morgan's days at elementary school are behind her as well.

4. Our ten day family vacation to Cancun. The amount of travel we did both to and from was ridiculous, but we enjoyed our time together there and it could not have gone smoother.

5. Not exactly a happy memory, but 2010 was definitely the year of injury for Morgan. A cast for her arm and a boot on each foot.

6. Look at this smile from my preschooler! He loves school and enjoys his new friends. He has learned many sounds and can spell his name. Not bad for 2 mornings a week. (A little side note-he's also wearing big boy underwear here~woo hoo, we are diaper free at last!!)

7. With newly retired grandparents we made two trips to Palm Desert. The temperature in this pictures was around 110 degrees, but visiting with great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins-definitely worth it.

8. We enjoyed Morgan's last season as a competitive gymnast. She ended up changing gyms, met some wonderful new friends and had a very successful season that culminated at the State Championships and her personal best on both vault and bars. We are very proud!

9. And another soccer season this year for Garrett. He ended up playing on a more competitive team with his club soccer and ended the year playing for his high school. I think this makes 10 years that I've been a soccer mom!

10. And our latest trip to Palm Desert to enjoy Thanksgiving for family. Always grateful when we can enjoy time with family.

Here's wishing you the best in 2011!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas Cookies

2010-12-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

Christmas vacation + a dreary day=a perfect day to stay in and bake. I know people bakes dozens of varieties. We managed three:
Frosted Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
and a new to the mix-now the favorite-Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies that we modified.

Move over Toll House, you've been replaced. These cookies are the top rated cookies on my favorite recipe site All Recipes.com.

There is no reason to mess with a great cookie recipe until I saw a bag of Andes Baking Mints at Target and it kept saying, "buy me." So I did.

We love all things mint over here-Andes mints, Ghiradelli Mint Squares, Hersheys Candy Candy Kisses, Starbucks Mint Frappucino, Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Mojitos (okay, maybe that's just me), anyway you get the picture.

So I decided to substitute the Andes candy bits for the chocolate chips and omit the nuts and mmm, mmm, mmmm. To quote Morgan, "that was the best cookie ever!"

And not that I would know or anything, but the cookie dough might be better than the cookies.

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 Bag Andes Creme de Menthe Baking Chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Have You

2010-12-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

Elfed Yourself this year?

Lots of new dances to laugh at. I'm still partial to the original, but Jack liked the Hip Hop.

Now that you've laughed at my family go ELF yours.

***Well there seems to be some technical difficulties-this video shows up in the preview, not sure why it didn't once it published. Oh well, go check it out, good holiday fun.

November Scrapbooking

2010-12-11T05:31:00.000-08:00

Busy month, but was able to get some scrapbooking done earlier in the month.

I actually finished 3 more Halloween layouts, but the rest have just a bit of journaling to add. Will share later.

Crate Paper Restoration. This is another one inspired by Ginger Williams. I love that picture of Jack with Nana (his great grandma).

Crate Paper
This was a lift of a layout by Nancy Damiano.

Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934. This was a lift of Ginger Williams-I knew exactly what pictures this would work for and went together in a snap.

More Crate Paper.

Dioramas and Other Educational Dinosaurs

2010-12-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

Morgan is in sixth grade, her first year of middle school. She has transitioned easily and loves it.

Every year I find myself saving a shoebox or two thinking surely this will be the year one will be needed for a diorama. I remember being in a panic when I was a kid because we never had one on hand. But never fear, I'm prepared for it now. Oh trust me when I tell you there's been no shortage of projects. In fact, she seems to have one every couple of weeks, but the need for a shoebox is apparently so outdated, Morgan probably could not define the word diorama

Here's a look at a recent science project:

She used stop animation to create this.

I'm afraid when I say that I can no longer help my middle schooler with math homework this also extends to these projects. Her knowledge of technology is lapping mine on a daily basis. However, the teachers have taken that into consideration and have apparently found that parental help is as outdated as, well, dioramas.

Holiday Decorating?

2010-12-02T12:41:00.000-08:00

A peek into our closet.

And a peek into our room :-O

Not what you had in mind?
Me neither.

Sunday-Take all items out of closet (big purgefest here)
Monday-Demolition of old closet
Tuesday-Repair gaping holes left in the floor by removal of closet that won't match new closet design.
Wednesday-Repair and paint walls. Shop for closet accessories.
Thursday-Installation...well that was the plan, but it's 1:00 and I'm still waiting.

Growing weary of the disaster in our room and regretting starting this when I would much rather be getting ready for the holidays.

Hope to share an "after" soon (crossing fingers).

Gymnastics-The End

2010-11-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

The last gymnastic meet has come and gone and I'm to happy to say that it ended on a good note. Very good indeed. Morgan's vault score (her weakest event) was the highest she's had this season and her bar score shattered her personal best-a 9.2. She was thrilled. Considering that three weeks ago she had a boot on her foot, competed in a competition where she had to qualify to make it to States and ended the season with a smile, I could not be more happy for her.

I had my camera at most meets photographing Morgan and her teammates. If you know anything about photography, gymnastics is one of the most challenging sports to photograph, especially for an amateur like me. The lighting is poor, no flash is allowed and the movements are very fast. So here's a look at her season with a bit of video thrown in as well.

$h*! My Mom Says

2010-11-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, guilty as charged. I tend to throw around this word a lot especially when it comes to accumulation of junk found scattered around my house.

Yesterday day upon entering Garrett's room a sea of clothes was strewn about. It might not have phased me had his room been absolutely spotless on Wednesday. So knowing I was displeased about his room, Chris sent him to clean it up with a little helper while I slept in this morning.

Here is the little helper's recounting of the tale.

October Scrapbooking

2010-11-02T15:58:00.001-07:00

Not much to share for this month, but I do like what I did so that must count for something, right?

This was a lift using some Pink Paislee papers. Turned out to be quite a challenge because I wanted this to have a baby girl feel, but had a whole lot of red in the pictures. Anyway, this is older paper and think it worked perfectly for Morgan's album.

My Minds Eye papers. One of those obsessions I needed to document.

This turned out to be a favorite. I was inspired by the directions for the cathedral quilt found on this blog. There is more journaling behind the picture, but since I knew the crib would be coming down, I wanted one last picture of it. The papers are by Making Memories, some travel line, but I've been saving the paper for something special and I think that it fits well. Also, she used a punch to create the circles and I didn't have a punch so used my Cricut and had to adapt the size and play with it a bit. I'd suggest playing on scrap paper as it did take more paper than I was expecting.

A mix of papers, but the monster paper is Monstrosity by Sassafrass. I used it for some of Jack's party decor so trying to use of the rest of it.

The last is based off a Page Maps sketch. Pictures are from Morgan's 2009 gymnastics season. I used Basic Grey's Oliver which is definitely more masculine, but thought it worked perfectly.

Thanks for looking.

A Tale of Three Halloweens

2010-10-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well here's our cute little lion. This year he had a hard time deciding what he wanted to be. A monster? A race car driver? Once the costume was ordered, it was too late. Of course, this morning he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear. He LOVED trick or treating. He kept saying, "A couple more" and filled his bucket.

This one had her costume picked out last month. She made plans with her best friend and had pretty much mapped out the route we'd be taking. This afternoon she decided she was tired and took a nap. Hmmm, that is so not Morgan. After her nap, she walked around with a blanket and wanted to change her costume into something with more layers. Hmmm, that is so not Morgan. Her friend arrived and Morgan was laying on the ground with a blanket. Clearly she was not feeling well. After an hour or so of trying to convince herself that she'd perk up, she finally decided she just wanted to go to bed. Poor thing. So she's been in her bed and was asleep before 8:00.

And this one (far right) was told that he was too big to go trick-or-treating. As seems to be the norm lately, I was alone in my decision. So the compromise was for the boys to hang out-they watched the Giants and played some basketball. The group went trick-or-treating for about an hour, but Garrett just tagged along. I bought all his favorite candy so don't feel too sorry for him, he has plenty of candy to rot his teeth :-)

The End

Homecoming in the 21st Century

2010-10-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well I know I'm dating myself, but Homecoming when I went to school was more the football game, the crowning of a king and queen, and a dance in the gym afterward. I don't recall it being a huge deal.

Fast foreward to the 21st century. My how things have changed.
First, you don't just ask a girl. You come up with some elaborate proposal. Treasure hunts, CD mixes, silly Bandz, etc...
A week before Homecoming they have nominations for King and Queen for Freshmen, Sophmore, Juniors and Seniors.
Garrett was nominated to his surprise.

In the meantime, after much pestering Garrett said he wanted to go, but most of his friends would be going as a group. Sounded like a good plan.

Well I'm not sure how this plan morphed, but somehow a boy group and a girl group merged and this became a much bigger event than I expected .

Black is the attire for boys. You'd be hard pressed to find a boy who wasn't wearing a black shirt.

This was the get together before the dance hosted by one of the families of a girl. Dinner was catered from a really nice restaurant that Chris and I go to on special occasions. They also hired a professional photographer (can I just roll my eyes here?).

And this is Garrett's date. Garrett did not partake in any of the elaborate proposal and apparently included the phrase "as friends" when he asked her (such a charmer we're raising, eh?)

Second Verse Same as the First

2010-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Take a close look, do you notice a difference between the pictures?

No...not a trick question, look real close.

The one on the left was taken on the first day the school and the other was taken today.

Did you say Morgan's boot is on a different foot? ding ding ding you would be correct.

She competed 2 hours away on Saturday and she (and her teammates) had spectacularly low scores so this meet was already pretty craptastic at best. She completed her final event, the bars, which has a dismount consisting of a swing and a half turn off the high bar. Something she does multiple times a day. She landed, saluted the judges, I looked away and heard, "oh no she's on the ground." And there she was flat on her back. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, her coach saw nothing, and even the judge commented that she saw nothing. So she hobbled to the car and home we went. We were told it probably was a sprain, but nope, she fractured her foot-a real fluke. So that boot that was worn on the left foot for 3 weeks this summer is now on her right till we see the orthapedist later this week.

And that concludes the gymnastics season.

September Scrapbooking

2010-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

I guess these are really scrabook pages from August and September.

Lily Bee papers

These are papers from Sassafras Indie Girl line. A class was offered through Scrapbook Nook and I made very few changes.

My Little Shoebox papers and a sketch from Allison Davis.

Sketch from ?? Papers from Fancy Pants Rusted Sun.

My Minds Eye Papers

A lift a page I saw on 2 Peas in a Bucket. The Girls Paperie papers which I bought knowing I'd be using them for some pages of my niece Arianna. This is the first page I've done with just her. And no Jenifer, I'm keeping this one :-)

Showing it without the glare.

My Minds Eye papers.

Bo Bunny papers. This is Jack at his very first movie (which also happened to be Garrett's first movie too-Toy Story 1 that is).

More Sassafras Lass Indie Girl.

Little Yellow Bicycle papers.

I feel like I have some big stacks of pictures to get to this month. Hoping I can be productive. At the end of the month the last local scrapbook store will be closing. I'm either going to have to make a 45 minute drive (which is going to be rare) to go to the closest one or do some shopping online (which I hate because the shipping is such a rip off). Apparently scrapbooking as a hobby is losing popularity, but nobody told me :-)

The Party's Over...

2010-09-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

The monster birthday bash is over and since then there has been a whole lot of this....

And then there were two days of this....

(can you tell how this ended?)

And a day of this...

(can you tell how this ended?)

And way too many days of this..

So yesterday I finally got around to taking down the party decorations and was about to put them in yet another tub in the garage when I realized, what are we going to do with these? The answer is uncover them in a couple years and toss them out. So thinking they'd be better off being passed to someone who can enjoy them now.
I have odd numbers of favors and decor left. Not enough for a party, but enough to have a few friends over for a festive playdate. Any takers???
I can cram the stuff in a flat rate Priority box and ship it off next week. Raise your hand (also known as leave a comment) and we'll send it out next week. And should there be a brawl over them (ha ha), we'll draw a name on Sunday night.

We had a Monster Bash

2010-09-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Yes, just three hours ago~lol.
But what a sweet bunch of kids and Jack is thoroughly entertained with his presents so thought I'd share his third birthday party while I have my feet up. (Not to mention I'm looking at a weekend consisting of a soccer class, 4 soccer games and a gymnastics meet an hour away, so if not now, when????)

Okay, aren't these adorable? My crafty and creative friend Carrie made the invitations for me. And the shirt? Found that on Etsy and it is really well made. Love it!

Here's a few before the party pictures I snapped. My Cricut got quite a workout making this banner. So happy I had it. The monsters were added with temporary tape so maybe I'll be able to recycle it for future parties?

And here's a few more crafty projects. Found the canvases at Big Lots for $3, bought one and painted with some acrylic paints from my stash. Turned out pretty cute so made 3 more. It was honestly a project I completed during one nap.

These banners were prompted by the fact that I didn't have much monster decor to choose from. I found an adorable monster print and cut them out and quickly sewed them to ribbon. They looked cute from afar, but definitely not my finest handiwork.

We did have other food, but I put it out a bit later. The little monsters are puppets I propped with water bottles.

Made the cupcakes, but bought the cake for the adults at Nothing Bundt Cake, because they have the yummiest cakes.

The whole monster theme started with these felt bags I found clearanced at Michaels this summer. Came across the monster counting books at the dollar spot at Target, added a monster lollipop, monster rubber duck, and some adorable homemade monster soaps made by Melsfunsuds on Etsy. And a big shout out to her, she rushed my order with time to spare.

Found these make a monster sticker faces at Michaels as well.

Exhausted the kids in the bounce house.

Hope you enjoyed your party Jack. I promise we'll do the cars or trains next year :-)

Gymnastics

2010-09-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Last week Morgan had her first gymnastics meet of the season. It was at a gym 1.5 hours away so we were gone from 1:30 till 10:00. And the three hours I wasn't driving, I was sitting on a metal bleacher in an area smaller and more uncomfortable than an airline seat, unable to use a bathroom, and attempting to take pictures with a camera that wouldn't cooperate. And thus begins to explain my love/hate relationship with gymnastics.

Morgan started gymnastics as a toddler doing mommy and me classes and has never not been in gymnastics. She's tried other sports/activites, but they never seemed like a fit for her personality. When she was five she was moved to the developmental team. She has progressed and was training this summer level 6, but is competing level 5. Typical of Morgan's personality, she quick to learn new skills, but slow to perfect them. She loves the challenge of something new, but hates the monotony of the little details. Also typical of Morgan, she doesn't take it too seriously. Getting first place is not important to her, chatting with other girls about tv shows and music is. I like seeing her successes, but I know Morgan is not motivated by a medal. This can be a bit frustrating for her coaches, but to me I realize the Olympics are not in our future, so it's not worth getting worked up over.

So here we are approaching a fork in the road. When she finishes this season, I think she's decided to quit. The next level would be seventeen hours a week. She did the training this summer and she was pretty miserable-felt like she missed out on having a fun summer. Unfortunately when you progress as a gymnast so must your commitment level. I have mixed feeling about it. On the one hand, yippee, 8 less trips in the car each week. And don't even get me started about the money. Morgan's had a few injuries, but they've been minor so I'm glad she's leaving the sport healthy.

But as much as I complain, I do love watching her compete. I see this little girl who shows not a trace of nerves salute before the judges and do amazing things with her body that most people cannot attempt. I see a little girl who doesn't care about the type of medal she receives get a big smile on her face after her events. I see a little girl who has a disastrous warm up, shake it off and nail a routine. I see confidence, hard work, and a bond with her teammates. I will miss it and I will be the gym mom until the last meet this season.

I'm not sure Morgan can just sit at home, so who knows what she will choose next. Acrobatic horseback riding has come up, but that's been shot down. Maybe some golf lessons so she can play with the boys or maybe some dance classes.

In the meantime, I'm capturing this poised and confident little girl and proud that she is my little gymnast. (By the way, she had a great meet, placing 9th overall out of 70+ gymnasts)'

Happy Birthday....

2010-09-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

Jack!!
It's been kind of hard to deny that I have a little boy moving out of toddlerhood lately. He sits at the table with the family for meals, sleeps in a bed, has potty trained, and has a vocabulary that expresses exactly what he wants and reflects his personality.
Here's my little time capsule of the last year.

Pictures

2010-09-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

My almost three year old was due for an annual portrait at the Picture People. This was kind of spur of the moment, my membership was expiring so no time for a haircut and didn't bring a change of clothes. He had no nap so I was just hoping that we could leave with one good picture.
We ended up with such a great photographer. Usually I'm jumping up and down like a clown, but this time I remembered I had my camera in my purse and pulled it out for this little video while the photographer did all the work.

I need to pull out Garrett and Morgan's three year old pictures. The preschool teachers are telling me that I brought the boy version of Morgan to school. We shall see.

Back to School

2010-08-27T09:00:00.001-07:00

We are 3 days into school and it appears that everybody is happy with their new schools.
The following was not written by me, it's just making the rounds right now and wanted to share it. I think *most* of them are funny! I've made a few comments in bold as it applies to us.

10 Misconceptions of Moms and Back-to-School

Misconception Number 1: Moms miss their kids when they go back to school

Seriously. I've had enough of you by now. Every morning with the "what are we going to do today, Mom?" is finally over. I've had looked at your face twenty-four seven for the last 77 days. It's time to go learn something. No more asking me about the pool, when is the next snack or if you can stay up late and watch a movie. It's over..You're going back to Hogwarts and I get to have a life again. There is a Christmas morning for parents and it's called "back to school".

Misconception Number 2: Moms like to go school shopping.

Are you freaking kidding me? Why do I pay taxes?.so I can rack up a 200 dollar bill at Staples for crap that we have laying around my house in junk drawers. Why does it have to be new pencils? What's wrong with the chewed up, broken strawberry shortcake pencils sitting in the bottom of the toy box for the last 6 months? And how many subject books can you possibly need? What happened to reading, writing and arithmetic. If they added a couple of things for parents to that list I wouldn't mind so much..why not pencils, erasers and vodka ...or some Nyquil.
We got no school list before school so I stocked up on some basics (like $100 worth) to tide them over. Still I had to face the crowds to find a spiral notebook with 100 pages because the 70 page spiral would not work and of course, just one day notice. grr....

Misconception Number 3: Moms like back to school night.

Why must we do this every year? I got it already. You're the teacher.I'm the parent. My kid is either going to be smart or dumb. If he gets a certain number or colored dot on his discipline chart, he can't get a prize from the prize box. Pretty simple stuff. Listen, I'm pretty old school. If he doesn't listen to you.you can throw something at him. I don't care. But I got a lot of work to do at home and I'm paying a babysitter right now. Plus, I'm pretty sure you are going to assign some project on wigwams made by some Indian tribe I've never heard of, so I need to get home and start my research. So, I got it. We're all here for the betterment of the kids. Blah Blah Blah. Can I leave now?
I used to be a teacher, I love teachers, but I've been a parent longer and side with this.

Misconception Number 4: Moms like school paperwork.

How many trees are you planning on killing to tell me the same stuff I had to pay a babysitter to listen to the other night? You know our name, where we live and our emergency phone numbers. He doesn't have a nickname..call him "stinkbutt" for all I care. We don't have any "special circumstances" that you need to know about. He lives in a home with two parents who may or may not like each other at any given time and they will fight. If that qualifies as a reason he can't get his homework done on time then he won't be able to function as an adult and have a real job so you may want to "educate" him on that life lesson.

Misconception Number 5: Moms like covering books in that annoying sticky paper.

What exactly will you be doing with these books that I have to cover them in a plastic laminate? Do you often teach in the rain? Or while the children are drinking soda and eating soup? Do you know how long that takes? Has any parent in the history of education been able to do it without any air bubbles in it? From now on I'm covering it the old way.brown paper bags. That way I can cover the books and pack their lunches at that same time. Who says moms can't multitask?

PS. Please tell my son if he can't find his lunch to look in his science book.

Misconception Number 6: Moms like helping you with your homework.

What? I am scared out of my mind. I'm pretty sure that I forgot everything I learned in fifth grade by the time I was in sixth grade. I have no idea what you are talking about most days. I don't really know my 12 times tables, I read the cliff notes to all your summer reading and I don't know how to conjugate anything but I do know that song "conjuction junction what's your function" if that helps at all. And please don't even say the words "new math" to me. What the heck was wrong the old one?

Misconception Number 7: Moms can't wait to pack your lunch every day until we die.

I hate doing laundry. Making dinner every night is the bane of my existence, so making your lunch every day for an entire year, in terms of "mom fun", lies somewhere between brushing plaque off the dogs teeth and scheduling my annual pap smear. Listen, as a child I hated what my mom packed me for lunch. But, like every kid before me, and every generation to come you will find a kid to trade with.I'm sure someone likes sardines.

Misconception Number 8: Moms love after school activities.

I don't know who made up this idea of organized clubs and sports but they should be the ones in charge of carting your A$$ around. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against all after school programs. I just wish they would offer it during hours that would work best for me so that dinner wasn't at 8:30 at night followed by 4 hours of homework. Why not do it on the weekends and call it "after-hours activities" so mommy and daddy could actually go out one night and pretend that we have a life of our own. Don't worry about us though I'm sure that me and "what's his name" will be married a very long time.

Misconception Number 9: Moms don't mind taking you to school if you miss the bus

Your bus comes at 7:10 am..which means that you should be standing by the door at 7:05 am. Not eating breakfast , chasing the dog around the house or in the bathroom, asking me to check your homework while I'm taking a shower. Get it together! I don't like running down the street in my jammies at 7:12 screaming "Please wait" or "If you stop I'll show you my boobies."
On this one, I just wish I had the choice to go running after a school bus in my jammies. Currently I spend 1 hour EACH WAY taking my kids to and from school. Not 55 minutes, not 58 minutes. 1 HOUR. So yep, I'd trade 2 minutes of chasing after a bus for 2 hours in the car a day.

Misconception Number 10: Moms cry on your first day of school

We do cry but they are tears of joy. I have done my job. I have successfully kept a human child alive for at least 5 years without doing any major damage. Motherhood is the hardest job in the world!! Sure, doctors save lives and CEO's run million dollar businesses but.you teach a kid not to poop their pants and then you can say you've made the world a better place."

Well said unknown author. I think we could be kindred spirits.

Right Now...

2010-08-23T20:49:00.000-07:00

He

registered for high school
has no classes with his best friend
just put a message on his cell phone voice mail (guess he realized you can actually use it to talk to people)
is way more particular about clothing brands than I ever expected a boy to be

She

is obsessed with open face sandwiches
is already planning her Halloween costume
bedazzled her boot
actually listened to my input when it came to clothes shopping
doesn't seem to think starting middle school is a big deal

And he
loves his trains

has commandeered my iPhone to watch videos about trains
still has sand in his hair

might be more than a little excited for his sister to get busy with school

Right now we're busy getting ready for things to come and savoring those last summer days.
Right now we're excited for change and nervous about the unknown (okay, maybe that's me).
That's us right now.

Soccer By the Bay

2010-08-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

Another tournament weekend for us. This is the largest tournament in Northern California and we won our age bracket-only allowing one goal in the entire 4 games. Hope this is a sign of the type of season to expect.

Here's some pictures of Garrett. He played really well (proud mom bragging)! Really, this is a new team for him and he's been feeling like he has something to prove. I think he's finding chemistry with his new teammates and stepping up to the challenge of playing different positions as needed in each game.

And I was busy clicking away. None of the pictures below are Garrett, but just some of my favorite shots from the weekend. I love my 70-300 lens!

A quick little funny...
This tournament was an hour away with long gaps between games. We hired a sitter for the morning games and then came home and picked up Jack watched the second game and then came home again. Long days. On Saturday, we were laying on the couch around 7:00 and Chris wanted to go get yogurt and I say, "I don't think we fed Jack any dinner." So Chris says to Jack, "Did you eat your dinner?" And Jack replied, "Yes, I had Gold Fish and candy." Good enough. Off we went for yogurt. Third child, anyone?

Some July Scrapbooking

2010-08-12T10:16:00.001-07:00

It's the 12th today...I should be taking pictures, but forgot to share some scrapping from July. Summer is a really hard time for me to scrapbook, but my friends usually organize an all day crop for me for my birthday. This year they planned it for July, the week after we got home from our trip and the week after we found out there was a mouse where I keep my scrapbook supplies. Yes, I said mouse! Needless to say, I did not go into that room and by the time we caught the little guy, we had company for a couple days so on Friday night I was throwing all my supplies in a bag wondering how I was going to take advantage of a rare scrapbooking day. Well the solution was a lot of sketches and a lot of copying!

These two two page layouts are both lifts of Jana Eubanks. The first used paper from Pink Paislee's Starlight collection and the second Basic Grey's Max and Whiskers.

October Afternoon papers and a sketch made this a quick one. This is one of the last pages in Morgan's album~yay!

Inspired by a layout by Jana Eubanks, I used my Cricut to cut the shapes and some Sassafrass supplies.

This is a rare one. First I used year old supplies-gasp! And, get ready, I did this all by myself.

These are some Lily Bee papers. This was part of a challenge to scraplift some from the recent Creating Keepsakes magazine which proved to be difficult because I'm not enjoying this magazine at all anymore.

And this one is adorable and I can say that because it is a (pretty darn close) copy of a layout by Nancy Damiano. I just think she's my favorite scrapbooker right now and hope she thinks that imitation is the sincerest form or flattery (or I'm in BIG trouble). I had all those My Little Shoebox papers and with her inspiraton, this just came together so quickly.

I have a couple more in my almost finished pile (which seems to be growing!). Pretty productive for a busy month.
Happy Birthday Nana! Hope you're enjoying your little album.

Page Maps Contest

2010-08-11T15:40:00.001-07:00

Got started on some vacation pictures using an awesome sketch from Page Maps. I love using a sketch, but somehow having a deadline prompts me to get to my stack of photos much sooner. Thank you Page Maps.

Victimless Crime?

2010-08-09T17:16:00.000-07:00

You may recall that I wrote about a little tradition in my family with this elf pictured above. The short story is he was a gift to my mom and because he qualified as one of the tackiest gifts ever received, she thought she'd share him with other family members. Because my entire family has such exceptional decorating taste, they declined the offer to decorate their homes with him. So sneaking him into homes, cars, suitcases, etc.. became the game and he was passed unknowingly from person to person for the last several years. He seemed to be accident prone and occasionally an injury would occur, but he was quite the hearty elf.

We last had possession of the elf last January and then packed him into a suitcase and flew him down to Southern California for my sister's baby shower. During the shower, Morgan stole the keys from my cousin's purse and being quite the clever girl, kept pressing the unluck button until she found her car and sneaked him into the trunk. My cousin discovered him a few days later.

Last week while visiting family we were informed that my cousin's car was stolen. Six days later it was recovered, but the elf was missing.

There was a collective round of groans when she announced this. The end of a tradition.

I'd like to think that the elf found a better home-one that was more stable and perhaps a "bit" more loving. My instincts lead me to believe that his ultimate resting place may have been eerily foreshadowed...

A Day Out With Thomas

2010-08-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Thomas came to town a couple weeks ago. When I say my kid is obsessed with all things Thomas, I am not exaggerating and I bought tickets months before in anticipation of what I thought would be his most favorite day.

Roaring Camp is in the small town of Felton located in the redwoods above Santa Cruz. On most visits to Roaring camp you could select a train ride through the redwoods or one that takes you to the boardwalk. It's a great way to spend an afternoon.

And our little train lover sat in the car with a train in each hand and chatted about trains the entire drive. And I sat in the front seat smugly aware that I was making my child's dream come true.

And we got there and my smugness was exchanged for exasperation when all he wanted to do was play with the trains. We have a train table, tons of tracks and I don't know 30 to 40 trains at home. I paid $18 per person, Chris took a day off of work, drove an hour each way and we came to play with trains?
Pictures you will not see:
Jack in one of the three train bounce houses.
Jack in front of the giant inflatable Percy.
Jack getting a train tattoo.
Jack at the arts and craft table coloring trains.
Jack singing train songs.
Get the picture (pardon the pun!)?
Anytime we tried to drag himto one of the above activities, it was tantrum time. So we did what all parents who are trying to coerce their child to do something they are not interested in doing does...

Buy two more trains!

Our day ended with a 25 minute train ride in an open car being pulled by Thomas. The entire ride had recorded songs and stories and Jack enjoyed the ride, but loved playing with his new trains on the train :-)

And while the day did not go quite as I had anticipated, for days and days he has talked it. So maybe it was his favorite day after all.

An (almost) Freebie

2010-08-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

Came across this almost free deal and wanted to pass it along.

Get a free personalized party banner from ShindigZ.com through Thursday, August 12 for just a penny using the coupon code SS2R3M at checkout.

To order your banner for one cent, follow these steps:
1. Click on the blue "Banner" tab at the top of the ShindigZ.com home page
2. Select a banner design theme from those listed on the right side of the page
3. Select a design style from the many examples images that are shown
4. Look for the large yellow oval button that reads, "Add to Cart" - and under that, click on the small circle for option "18 x 54 Horizontal Vinyl Banner.... Item: B1118 $14.79 each"
5. After you've selected the $14.79 banner size, click, "Add to Cart" yellow oval button and here you can add your own wording, edit colors, text and more.
6. Proofread and click the "Add to cart" green oval button.
7. Add other party supplies items to your cart or click the "Check Out" green button in the upper right.
8. During checkout, enter Promotion Code SS2R3M when prompted to apply the $14.78 credit to make your banner purchase just one penny.
9. Shipping is $7.95

Here's a look at the one I made for our almost birthday boy.

I picked a somewhat generic theme so we could reuse it from year to year.

And here's another tip I read somewhere in the blogosphere. One mom created a very generic birthday banner that she hung for each child's birthday. And on the back of the banner she had the child put their handprints on it each year so you could see the growth of the hands. Brilliant!

Breakers Cup Tournament, Santa Cruz

2010-08-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

And with this, the soccer season begins.

I guess Garrett is taking a "hands off" approach this year. 5 yellow cards in 3 games and none of them were on Garrett. Phew!

Not the best picture, but I got a picture of the ball going in the net and found out later, Garrett headed it in. Go Garrett!

And the little man kept busy too.

The Mexico You Thought You Knew

2010-07-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's funny, ever since we got back from vacation I keep seeing this Mexico tourism commercial with the slogan, "The Mexico You Thought You Knew" and I can't help but think that is exactly how we felt about our trip. We were really hesitant to head down to Mexico-last year's swine flu outbreak, daily news about the violence, possible bad weather, etc... In fact, this was the only vacation we've ever purchased travel insurance for. Well I'm happy to report, Mexico (at least the part we traveled to) was not at all what I expected. First and foremost, the people of Mexico were among the nicest and friendly of anyplace we ever visited. Every place we went had filtered water, nobody ever got sick and we were very comfortable eating and drinking while we were there. And while we've visited Mazatlan and Puerta Vallarta in the past, the Riviera Maya area is gorgeous, much more modern, and the poverty is far less evident.

For the last few years before going on any vacation, we have used Trip Advisor. It has really helped up select hotel, decide about excursions, and provide helpful hints that can't be found anywhere else. After this trip, we decided to add our own reviews so if you want more detailed information about places we visited, they can be found here, here, and here (this link will be edited, it takes 48 hours for the review to post).***Trip Advisor name-homeleone

Here's a day that Garrett and I spent together at what I think is a big kids amusement park. It's called Xplor and I would venture to guess there will never be one like it in the US due to liability issues. It's recommended for ages 6 and up so Chris volunteered to stay back with Jack and Morgan was scared of the cenotes (she hates water things where she can't touch the ground-she can swim, but just a phobia). So Garrett and I got to share this wonderful day. There are 14 ziplines (though we ended the day having gone on 23 ziplines!!), some of them through waterfalls, one over a crocidile and puma pit, all of them over the jungle. Absolutely thrilling and beautiful at the same time. There is also a 3 mile ATV (4 wheels, so not sure what's it's called) course -very fun-, and cenotes, there were 2 circuits to kayak through and one very long stalagtite "river" to swim through.
It was a very physical day, both Garrett and I felt a few pulled muscles the next day and I can't tell you how many stairs I climbed, but talk about exhilarating and unique.

My little beach bum. I swear this kid could lay in sand all day.

An excursion to Tulum. Do we look wilted? Honestly the beach was just beyond the ruins, but there was not a breeze to be felt. Needless to say, we took the quick tour.

One of the nightly shows that kids club put on. I was really impressed and I think Morgan may have gotten an acting bug.

The courtyard of the hotel.

This is the way we walked to get anywhere on the hotel property. I should preface this by saying that first we applied bug spray and then we walked and walked and walked.

Well imagine the picture overload if my camera hadn't have broken~hee hee!

I think the reviews are mixed as to whether or not we'll return. The biggest negative about the trip was the time-we really lost 2 days due to travel. On the day we left, we left our home at 9:00 p.m. and arrived at the hotel at 3:00 p.m. There's a 2 hour time difference, but still that's a really long day. And one more picture of what the best thing we brought to make the travel more bearable for Jack (who slept the entire time on every flight!!).

I bought this at Toys R Us-on sale for $29.99. It holds up to 16 trains and folds out as a portable wooded train track. It kept him thoroughly entertained the entire trip and we figured it would be really helpful during soccer season.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Blush

2010-07-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

On the day before we left, we purchased some photos and when I showed Chris what I was getting he said, "you're not going to get the stupid picture?" So I added it to the purchase. The funny thing is he has never heard of that website, he's probably overheard me laughing, but he has no idea it exists. Garrett is missing because he "claimed" he was going to get sick once she had us posed and when you're in Mexico and at the bottom of this pyramid, you tend to take those threats seriously .

And if you have an extra half hour to spare, take a look at Awkward Family Photos. Scroll to the bottom and you'll see some of the more popular pictures. And should this picture ever show up there, I'm hunting you down!!!

ETA: Oh dear lord-did you see the cover of the book? Hanging head in shame!

July 12th

2010-07-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Felt very lucky that the 12th occurred on our trip~my family is much more agreeable to pictures while on vacation than at home~ha! But this was also the day that my camera broke. Fortunately it was toward the end of the day, but my picture taking came to an abrupt halt.

The pictures aren't numbered, but here's a description of each of the columns going from top to bottom and then left to right:

An early start at the beach. That little wave right there was about as big as they got.
Morgan with her hair braided.
Jack's absolute favorite things to do. One of the things I liked most about the beaches here is the sand never got hot.
Morgan having her hair braided. When we were approached she said it would be $25, but I talked her down to $18.
The spa on the property. I treated myself to a Swedish massage and it was a great way to spend the afternoon.
Ice cream for breakfast, or lunch, or dinner? Not sure, we had a lot of ice cream!!
Jack's breakfast-Nutella sandwich and sausage and it NEVER varied from that.
Not the best picture, but once I describe it, you'll be glad. This bird was munching on a gecko. Poor little gecko, didn't look like a great way to go.
The sports court, Garrett was there most days practicing soccer and played in a few pick up games with people from Italy and England.
Morgan and one of her MANY new friends. She loved the kids club and when she wasn't there, she easily found a friend to play with.
Shopping in Carmen del Playa. We bought very few souvenires, but I did get this silver necklace. Chris did the negotiations on this one so not sure if it was a good deal or not.
And one more of us on the beach. I could lay there all day with the great breeze, it was so relaxing.

I have a few more pictures I want to share. Garrett and I had the most amazing excursion we went on and I've got some great pictures from that day as well.

Awkward Family Photo

2010-07-13T14:42:00.000-07:00

I should preface this by saying yesterday on the twelth my brand new camera died :-( I'm bummed. Really. So the rest of our vacation will be recorded via the crappy iPhone or the disposable camera I picked up. At least it's something. Then today at the beach I realized I had another alternative-the resort photographers. They roam around with some super nice Nikons. Usually they have an animal they try to get you to pose with-an iguana, a parrott, or a monkey, but today they were at the beach. We have not taken a family picture while we were here, so I flagged them down thinking this was my chance. It started out pretty good. Mostly my thoughts were who could I hide behind so that only my face was showing.
But then she asked Chris to lay on his stomach in the sand and the photographer in me thought "hmmm, strange". Then she asked me to lay on top of him, followed by Garrett, Morgan, and Jack. Chris was dying from the weight atop him, I got a massive case of the giggles when I realized how absurd we must look, Garrett was mortified, Morgan was posing and Jack was struggling to stay on top of the family pyramid.
The only thing more absurd than the photo I pictured in my head was seeing the picture on a huge computer screen. It is awkward defined! It is what that website is all about.
No, we did not buy it. And my only hope is the delete key will be pressed and the picture will be banished forever.

Top 10 List

2010-07-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

1. Didn't know it was possible to sweat so much.
2. Travel size deodarent=not nearly enough
3. Now know what a tropical storm is. Dang-that's a lot of water!
4. Positive the mosquitoes here have built up a resistance to bug spray.
5. Europeans. I don't really have anything against them, but if they could leave their speedos and cigarettes behind they wouldn't make my list.
6. My hair. I didn't know my stick straight hair could form ringlets.
7. Must always look down while walking-if you step on an iguana your size does not guarentee a victory.
8. hmmm, can't think of anything else. Actually having a great time and lots of fun activities to share at a later time.

5 Star Dining

2010-07-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what your definition of a 5 star restaurant, but I'll tell ya, it doesn't get any better than this-dining al fresco along a picture postcard beach, fresh fish tacos, the best margaritas-what more could you ask for?

(crappy iPhone picture really does not show the true beauty of this location nor-thankfully-the sweaty dirty mess of a family we were :-0)

Some Follow Ups

2010-07-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

I had posted a picture of our calendar for June. It seemed pretty jam packed at the time. Here's what it ended up looking like:

I love having my calendar online, it's visually easier for me to read it and really convenient to move things around or just delete. Many of these "events" are linked to emails which provide more complete details.

You might also recall in April I wrote about potty training. Well the follow up to this is 1)I have not bought anymore diapers 2) I have not come close to depleting our supply 3)I put a Pull-Up on Jack because it was handy and he threw the mother of all fits. We are not in a hurry apparently.

Our contract: We're getting into our summer routine and everything on that list seems to be getting easier. I think Garrett has realized that down time isn't necessarily a bad thing (though he hasn't had much of it). The raffle that I mentioned is turning out to be a landslide for Morgan. In general, I would say she is more helpful, but in Garrett's defense he's been really busy and just hasn't been around as much to help. But I stocked up on $5 gift cards. I bought some for Coldstone, a few for a local candy shop and a couple for Barnes and Noble.

Have I mentioned I hate moles? Here's my once flourishing zucchini plant-the roots were all chewed off. I know I need to get rid of the grubs, but not sure if there is a pestacide-free way of doing this. My gardening friend Cara suggested we put chicken wire down. That might be the next step.

And here's one layout I was able to squeeze in and used some pictures I shared during our lost blanket days. I don't usually work with pictures this size, but I took advantage of a free offer from Wink and decided to create a layout based around it.

A Happy 4th

2010-07-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

Teaser

2010-06-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

I've been teasing my family with some of the pictures I took of my niece while I was in Annapolis.
I promise, I will upload them soon. But in the meantime, here's a couple more with a new collage site I just discovered.
Photovisi has some interesting (free) collage designs. For my scrapbooking friends, you might want to check out the site.

Some June Scrapbooking

2010-06-27T13:29:00.001-07:00

I just haven't been able to get much done this month. I did get a layout done for each of the kids' books.

This is the one I shared that I did on the 12th. The pictures are of Morgan on her first day of kindergarten and last day of 5th grade. The title is Blink. Can't believe she's on to middle school next year. When I saw that paper, I knew exactly what I would use it for.

This is a layout of some photos of Garrett I took in Cayucas. I was inspired by a layout on 2 Peas. All the papers are scraps and I kept it pretty simple because I really liked the photos. Pulled out my sewing machine and it just seemed to finish it off.

And the last one is a lift of another layout I saw on 2Peas. The photo was a 5x7 collage I had made up of all the different modes of transportation we used while visiting in Maryland. I had all the papers and it went together in a snap. Love it when that happens.

There's a few days left in June, maybe I can get another one done????

Mary Mary

2010-06-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

How does your garden grow?
Really?

Here's the picture I took on the twelfth of June proudly showing our flourishing garden.

A couple days ago I noticed our parsley was looking a little droopy so I gave it some water and assumed it would perk up the next day.
But when I went to water it again, it was gone. As in VANISHED. MISSING. POOF.

So unless we have a parsley caper in the neighborhood, my hunches lead me to believe it's the work of one nasty mole.

I detest these creatures. They've absolutely been a menace in our yard. They're impossible to get rid of. In the past they've left mounds all over our yard. Is is too much to ask that this 8 foot square plot of land can be zoned mole free?

Since these pictures have been taken, we've since lost 3 green bean plants and the basil looks like it will be a victim any day now.

So back to my original question. Mary, how does your garden grow?

12 on the 12th

2010-06-15T16:55:00.001-07:00

Yay, finally remembered this month. The 12th fell on a Saturday which was the day after the last day of school.

1. Nobody had to remind Garrett it was the first day of summer break-9:30 and still snoozing.
2. World Cup Soccer-USA v England (tie). The last World Cup we were traveling in Europe when Italy won. We were very much caught up in soccer fever then.
3. And it proved to be enough motivation for Garrett to go out and practice some moves.
4. The garden this month. Everything is looking good. The bell peppers look healthy, but have hardly grown at all. Most of the other plants are beginning grow something that resembles the vegetable.
5. A close up of the tomato plant. Lots of little tomatoes, but waiting for them to ripen.
6. Morgan is the Skype queen. It really has helped her maintain her friendship with Megan who moved last year to Wisconsin.
7. Looks like several people got cut off, but this is my car being loaded up with kids to head to the movies. Chris and Morgan saw Karate Kid and Garrett and two friends saw A-Team.
8. And this is what I was left with. He does not like being left behind.
9. Finally got him settled and we watched Toy Story. Just a couple more weeks till Toy Story III is released and we'll be taking him to his first movie at the theater.
10. In his big boy bed...It was a rough week or so, but he has transitioned well and is back to a sleeping champ.
11. Took Morgan to Borders to pick out a new book to start off the summer.
12. And when Jack went to bed and the house was quiet, I scrapbooked.

Summer Commandments

2010-06-15T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well here we are on day two of summer vacation and you can tell it's going well (insert sarcasm) because I wrote out a two page document that was signed by Garrett and Morgan clarifying my summer expectations. What the spring is to tax accountants, the summer is to a mom. It's a huge increase in work and lots of overtime. Of course, my pay and compensation is nil both in monetary terms and gratitude when you're dealing with a teen and a tween.

Summers seem to have become increasingly more stressful for me over the last few years. I think the biggest shift occured when Garrett and Morgan not only stopped enjoying being around one another, but were annoyed at the sound of one breathing in the same room as the other. Then add to that the fact that it is not cool to go anywhere without a friend and I'm left trying to find entertainment for not two but four kids (plus a toddler). It's exhausting not to mention expensive.

So in an effort to start this summer on the same page, my commandments were typed up. I guess it's not exactly starting summer on a sunny note, but I feel that my parental responsibility to raise children who have boundaries, understand financial responsibility, and respect ALL family members do not get a summer vacation. And I can only hope that my compensation will come ten-fold in years to come.

Quick Catch Up

2010-06-06T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'm baaaacckkk! And after a great night's rest in my own bed I'm jumping right back into things-cleaning up the backyard, a trip to Costco, dropping off a kid at the golf course and it's just noon.

I also came back with a memory card full of pictures. But here's a quick look at our trip through the iPhone.

1. I was really concerned about how I was going to manage carrying all this stuff, but it worked and nothing I brought I wished I left home.
2. That glow is Virgin America lighting. They were fabulous. My flight was cheap and if given the chance, I'd fly them again. Also, Jack took naps on both flights and didn't need to walk around until 4 hours into the flight. That carseat was a lifesaver!
3. Jack holding Arianna for the first time. He had the sweetest smile on his face for the 2 minutes it kept his interest.
4. On Sunday, we spent about 4 hours at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum before heading over to the Inner Harbor. Needless to say my little train lover was in heaven. If ever in the area, I highly recommend it.
5. On Monday, we toured around downtown Annapolis. What a darling little town. It was pretty hot and humid, but felt great to take the water taxi from Jenifer and David's home to the downtown area.
6. Each day, Jack became more and more interested in helping me care for the baby. Today he asked to feed her.
7. This little onesie I had bought for Jenifer and David for a Christmas gift. She's just starting to fit into her 3-6 month old clothing.
8. We were treated so nicely while we were there-David arranged to have a pizza and salad delivered one day for lunch. East Coast=yummy pizza.
9. We were also treated to a big thunderstorm. I don't know if this was considered big by East Coast standards. But this California girl enjoyed the rare treat.
10. Just one of the pictures I sent to Jenifer to help make her week back to work go a little easier. Nothing like a little Arianna smile to help you get through the day :)
11. 2 things~we did a lot of shopping while we were there :) and I ended up giving our stroller to Jenifer and she ordered the umbrella stroller we've been wanting to get. LOVE it. So nice to downsize to a smaller, lighter stroller.
12. Finally reunited. Morgan and Jack had such big smiles on their face when they saw each other. Garrett did too (but I'm apparently not quick enough for the 5 seconds it lasted!)

The Lazy Days of Summer?

2010-05-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

School is out pretty soon. I spent the week getting things on the calendar knowing that more things have yet to be scheduled.

I would say my visions of sipping lemonade by a pool are clearly delusional.

12 on the 12th

2010-05-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

You'd think when you have one child that has a birthday on the 11th, you'd have no problem remembering the next day was the 12th. But nope, it didn't occur to me until late in the afternoon. So saved it for the 13th this month.

1. Chris off to work around 7:00 every morning.
2. Morgan continuing to enjoy riding her bike to school. She has a flat tire, so she's been riding Garrett's bike.
3. A few minutes together before Garrett is off to school. Garrett has never been late for school, but every morning I hear, "c'mon, I'm going to be late". EVERY MORNING!
4. Jack started out with the trains inside, but moved them outside.
5. We ran some errands and after the last store Jack said, "Let's go get chicken nuggets, french fries, and chocolate milk." And we did. And we don't do that very often, but this was the first time he asked and he had such a cute smile on his face I couldn't turn him down.
6. A view of the garden. It's growing!
7. Jack has rediscovered the sand box. Unfortunately the lid was left off during some storms, so it's really wet sand.
8. This little guy isn't looking so little. He's 4 months away from turning 3.
9. Morgan is the family gardener. She's watering the garden before heading off to gymnastics with the help of her little assistant.
10. Garrett in the final regular match against a team at Round Hill Country Club.
11. He came up to me before this putt telling me that he had a rough round, but ending up parring that hole with a nice long putt.
12. This picture represents what I did for the last half of the day. In summary, I picked up the kids at 3:00, dropped off Morgan, drove Garrett to the tournament which was about 20 miles away, returned home and picked up Morgan to take her to gymnastics, ran a couple errands, then headed back to the country club. Garrett thought he'd be done around 6:00, we didn't leave until 7:15. He also arranged for 2 boys to come over to work on a group project. So I drove Garrett and his teammate to the house and without even getting out of the car, turned around and picked up Morgan. Pulled in the garage at 8:20 and had put 104 miles on my car since 3:00. I think the only reason I'm smiling is because Chris was able to watch Jack so I didn't have to listen to Life Is a Highway over and over (although that is quite fitting!).

NSD

2010-05-17T12:40:00.001-07:00

NSD=National Scrapbook Day.

Bet you didn't have that date on your calendar. As it turns out it was my friend Robin's birthday and Robin is a scrapbooker so guess what I did that day?

Used lots of My Mind's Eye paper and really like how this one came out. Those are pictures from a golf tournament over spring break.

Crate Paper. With all this rain, glad Jack enjoys playing in it.

This is a lift (nearly identical) of one of my new favorite scrapbookers. I honestly could copy everything she does and when I grow up, I want to scrap just like her! Oh wait, I love to scraplift, so technically I already scrap like her. Ha!

And I liked it so much, I did it again :)

Here are Morgan's school pictures and since I'm just about done with her k-5 album, I finally got around to doing this first page in her book. (I've yet to do Garrett's, so I'm just going to copy this).

This was an old layout that I redid using BG Max and Whiskers. It was on the back side of the other page that I gave a makeover to. I promise I'm not redoing the whole book, just maybe a few pages here and there.

Not sure how much scrapbooking time I'll carve out the rest of the month, but I have lots of supplies and pictures calling my name.

If it's not fun, you're not doing it right...

2010-05-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

14 years old

So birthdays and 14 year old boys are kind of a non-event. I'm sure I won't be saying this when Morgan is 14, but everything about a 14 year old birthday needs to be understated. Party...no, just wants to hang out with friends. Invites via email (not even Evite), dinner, movie, cake-but no candles and singing, sleepover and sleeping in till almost 9:00.

But all bets are off when it's my day to celebrate with my boy :) I don't have kids turning 14 everyday so I wanted to make the day special.
Garrett has had the same pay as you go phone since fifth grade and despite going through the washer and dryer, that thing would not die, much to Garrett's dismay. Garrett's been a little vague about what kind of phone he wanted because ultimately it needs to work with the phone plan that we are willing to pay for. So we decided to give him cash and let him decide.
So I made this cake

If you can't read texting language it says Are you 14? Happy Birthday. You are great.

And then I found this

How perfect was this? So now, what do I do about the money? Take a look.

I did good if I do say so myself! It's not easy getting this type of expression from a 14 year old.

Happy Birthday Garrett!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2010-05-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ta Da!!

I know, this is not terribly exciting, but yet another one of Morgan's ideas- something she's been bugging us to do for several years. We found some planters online and were all set to order them, but a trip to Costco changed our plans. They had this whole kit in a box, just the right size for our space.

The kit also came with a humongous bag of nails. If you know us, that is usually something we try to avoid. But it turned into a family effort over several weekends putting together the beds one at a time. Finally we got a free weekend and some beautiful weather and were able to finish it up.

Tomatoes, bell peppers, strawberries, squash, zucchini, some herbs like basil, rosemary, parsley, and mint and a some butterfly attracting plants and we're just waiting for our garden to grow.

She's Crafty Like Her Mama

2010-05-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Morgan and I have more than light brown hair and freckles in common. She loves a good craft.
She found a series of video tutorials on easy sewing project and in total Morgan fashion, took the project on herself and figured it out. This purse is made from a tank top, the handles are the straps of the tank top. Unlike her Mama, she's already figuring out how to market these. She came home with a friend's tank top today.

Love Story

2010-04-29T16:02:00.000-07:00

He's got a twinkle in his eyes, a bounce in his step, and merriment in his voice.

Guess what we found? Yay!!! I actually need to give credit to Morgan who found it outside absolutely soaked. It's rained for the last two days, but he must have followed me when I took some garbage out and left it there.
So those four hours I spent turning the house upside down-waste!
Those couple hours I spent on eBay and various other sites looking for a replacement-waste!
The moment I pulled the blanket out of the dryer-priceless!!

Thanks for all the positive thoughts!

Missing :(

2010-04-28T19:52:00.001-07:00

Aww, this makes me so sad. My blanket loving little boy lost his blanket. These pictures were taken two days ago (little did I know :( ).

All of my kids have been blanket babies. I have never been able to predict which blanket would become the favorite. Garrett had a woven blanket, we still have remnants of it. Morgan's Gymboree blanket fared better in terms of condition, but it still lost part of its binding. And Jack's was just getting to that point of being worn in. See that last photo with his finger around the tag? That's was the spot.

The frustrating part is he woke up with it yesterday and we went one place...to the grocery store, but didn't take it with us and when he came home we could not find it for his nap. We have looked in every closet, every drawer, under beds, behind doors, in the pantry (found it there before), dryer, etc... It has vanished. I'll ask him where it is and he says, "I no know" in the saddest voice you ever heard.

Several times I thought I should buy a back up blanket. Those have come in handy before. It's just a simple fleece Carters blanket, but I can't find the exact one, they all have emblems on them. So putting out a plea, if you have seen this blanket, please let me know!!! It will make one little boy very happy.

Remember When

2010-04-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

I know this doesn't seem like an odd series of pictures. I'm sure we all grew up riding our bikes to school, but here Morgan is in the last few months of elementary school riding her bike to/from school for the very first time.

We live just about a mile from school, but for most of that mile it is along a very busy street. Add to that the hills along the way and the fact that almost every kid at her school is dropped off by a parent in a car and quite honestly I never considered it an option.

But Morgan has been begging to ride her bike. She and a couple neighborhood kids put together a plan, bought bike locks, pumped up tires and continued to beg until we realized how silly we were being.

Kid + riding bikes=childhood passage

Cayucos

2010-04-18T18:11:00.001-07:00

Home and unpacking. We were treated to two of these gorgeous sunsets. Could we have picked a better weekend? More to share later.

April 12 and a few scrapbook pages (photo heavy)

2010-04-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

These are a bit out of order this month, but here's a look at our day.
1. Filling out the final paperwork for Jack's preschool next year.
2. Last photo of the day, picking up Morgan at 8:30. The one thing I love about her gym is they work hard, but they give the girls time for socialization and play (probably the biggest factor Morgan stays with the sport).
3. Already thinking about growing her hair long again.
4. Yet another rainy day. Morgan I'm sure would share, but it would so uncool to be under an umbrella with your sister.
5. Jack heard Chris' car pull up and ran out to say hi.
6. A glare...smiling for pictures is another uncool thing to do. Do you see a pattern here?
7. Used Jack's naptime to finish up some scrapbook layouts. I really never am able to work for more than 2 hours at a time and never can finish an entire layout, but I'd say I'm doing about 8 to 10 layouts a month. I'm pretty current on my pictures.
8. I wish I had photographed the inside of that bowl, it was filled to the brim with cereal. That's just the after school snack.
9. Just a few books to be read around here. Morgan loves the Princess Diaries series. The other two were recommended to me, hopefully they draw me in fast, I don't have interest in slow books.
10. Morgan doing her homework. I think I can officially say "fifth-graditis" has hit and it's been such a struggle to keep her focused.
11. Ahh, the Thomas trains. Such a daily part of Jack's life. He plays at the train table or over on the ottoman. He recently has gotten a few new ones, so the trains become longer and longer, but everyday he asks about getting a new one, pounding his chest and saying "for me, for me".
12. Sick little boy with a cold that turned into a pretty bad cough. After playing for a bit, he'd just run over to me and snuggle.

Sometimes, the pictures/stories that I share here become scrapbook pages. Here's a couple recent ones.
Locks of Love

and here's one that uses the picture that I turned into a canvas print:

Other times, I mean to, but don't get around to sharing some favorite moments.
Like our visit to Daffodil Hill, which has become an annual tradition.

or Chris and Morgan's last Indian Princess Father Daughter Dance:

or one of the layouts with some of the gazillion soccer pictures:

and this one was a bit different for me, but it's all about Morgan missing Outdoor Ed this past fall.

Anyway, there's a sampling of some of my latest pages. I've got several that I'm working on, but you can expect a few pink layouts in the not so distant future. Afterall, 300 pictures of one baby girl is a very inspiring prospect.

Jack, You've Been Duly Served

2010-04-08T17:01:00.000-07:00

After three kids, I have finally mastered the art of buying diapers for a bargain price. And as you can see from the picture, I tend to be an overachiever. But I do have a bit of a dilemma.

As much as I'm enjoying Jack and going through all these stages and phases one last time, I'm not going to be sorry to say goodbye to diapers. He's 2 1/2, shows not the slightest interest in potty training, and cannot be coaxed by the Cars underpants I've bought. So I continue to stockpile.

Today I came home with two more packs and I realized that Jack might not be the only one who is ambivalent toward potty training. So being the older and wiser of the two, I'm making it known that when this stack runs out, we will begin. By my calculations I have approximately 496 diapers left and if we use about 5 per day, it looks like we've got about 99 days before Pee-day commences.

(Of course, if any really great deals come up....)

.

February 12

Competition

Painting With a Broad Brush

A New Year

Best of 2011

October Review

We've Got Spirit

Not MY monster

The October Curse

Roar....Jack turned 4

Summer-ventures-July

Well that was kind of cool

Paia-Part 2

The Doldrums

Some Summer Scrapbooking

"Pinterest"ing

We Went to Cayucos Last Week

Are We There Yet?

My 3 on the 4th

Paia-Part I

Summer-ventures- June

June Scrapbooking

A Real Scrapbook Retreat

Summer Forecast:

1 Down, 15 To Go

A Little Scrapbooking

Pre-Trip Craziness

Playing Soccer

Ta Da...My Pantry

I Ate The Whole Chocolate Bunny

Happy Easter

Got Peeps?

Next Project

{Jack}

Life Lessons

Here We Go Again

The Last Line of Defense

Rainbow Day

Awesome

It All Started Here

Pictures (or lack of)

Valentine's Party

Cheap Banners from ShindigZ are Back

Oh, the Places You'll Go

December Scrapbooking

Why I Hate Michaels Part Deux

Top Ten in Twenty Ten

Merry Christmas

Christmas Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Have You

November Scrapbooking

Dioramas and Other Educational Dinosaurs

Holiday Decorating?

Gymnastics-The End

$h*! My Mom Says

October Scrapbooking

A Tale of Three Halloweens

Homecoming in the 21st Century

Second Verse Same as the First

September Scrapbooking

The Party's Over...

We had a Monster Bash

Gymnastics

Happy Birthday....

Pictures

Back to School

Right Now...

Soccer By the Bay

Some July Scrapbooking

Page Maps Contest

Victimless Crime?

A Day Out With Thomas

An (almost) Freebie

Breakers Cup Tournament, Santa Cruz

The Mexico You Thought You Knew

*Blush*

July 12th

Blush