Santa

Took the boys to our local scrapbook store on December 5th to get a picture with Santa and to have some cookies and make a craft. The local store does this each year and asks the kids to bring new toys for the law enforcement toy drive. It is a good deal for everyone. We are also still digging out from our blizzard last week. We had 2 feet of snow. School was closed for 2 1/2 days. We picked grandson Conner up on the Monday when they dismissed school at noon. He was with us until late Tuesday afternoon when we were able to get him home. Well, yes I did make a scrapbook page about this. Thanks for asking!

Gonna go grab some dinner and keep working on my Christmas cards. Here is a little trivia:
When CC Moore wrote 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, he depicted the "face" of Santa as we know him today and also it was the first time that a sleigh and reindeer were involved. The poem was written in 1850.

Daily Decembers

I think I've lost my mind. I am doing three daily Decembers. So far I have been staying up but that is changing tonight. I just doing have time to do all three. Thanks for looking.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes!

Have good one!

Happy Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It gives me a chance once a year to pause and reflect on all that I am thankful for: Family is number one but my job which delights me, my health, my friends and our freedoms that we enjoy in this country are all thankful things. Here is a page from last Thanksgiving.
I will leave you today this thought: "Nobody diets on Thanksgiving" ~Erma Bombeck

My time does fly

I have been neglectful, haven't I? I have no excuse at all. Just plum lazy I guess. I have been taking scrapbook classes out the ying-yang, paper and glue, digital and hybrid. I am really loving my classes and I will post some pages here . This is from a wonderful class I took with Jessica Sprague called Type+Writer II. This is one week in my life in October.

This is from Beautiful Evidence also with Jessica Sprague. This is the title page of a 20 page album. If you have not taken this class it is so good.
















I am taking a 12 week class from Ali Edwards called Yesterday and today it is my first journey into heritage pages. I am really liking it too. Here is the title page of that album.


Here is a page from a class I am taking with Anna Aspenes called Album Magic. I am learning some design in this class which is nothing I have done before. The learning curse is pretty steep for me. But I love Anna and her designs so this is a good place to be.













I am taking two other classes right now too. College 101 with Renee Pearson. Another design class and Holidays in Hand at Jessica's. In holidays we will make a "daily December" type album starting December 1. This class is great and I will post daily (No, really, honest, for sure and all that jazz) beginning Dec. 1. Watch for it at a blog near you.

Here is just a tidbit for thought: I think there should be a sarcasm font!

Have a good one!

I got lost again

I'm just not sure where all the time goes. I have been going to summer school this summer getting enough hours to renew my teacher's certificate again. I now have 188.5 seat hours and I need 180. YAY I did 93.5 of them this summer. Whew! But now it's done. We have been having very nice afternoon mountain thunderstorms. I go daily to water aerobics and we have had to stop a couple of times. Although it is inside, lightening will mange to get in. Same reasons you should not take a bath or a shower during a thunder storm.

I have been taking classes at Jessica Sprague's place too. I took a free creative editing class and am into the 4th week of Oh Shoot, a great photography class and today started Brush Abilities (all about using brushes in Photoshop). Here are the first projects from today's class:




They are 6 x 6 cards and used several new brushes and new techniques.

Here is a great page I made of the grand boys with photos from the Celtic Festival. They loved having their faces painted. Be afraid Brave Heart, be very afraid!



I am working on getting my photos ready for the County Fair. I have my eldest grandson's ready. Last year we both won ribbons.......let's hope. Will keep ya posted. The Fair is over Labor Day weekend.

Here is some food for thought:

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

Have a good one.

Only in American

Happy Birthday America!

Which brings to mind just how strange Americans can be. Here are a few examples:

Only in America can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in America do people order double cheese burgers, large fries and diet cokes.
Only in American do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.
Only in America do we have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

I will leave you on the glorious holiday with this little bit of Americana knowledge.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5.00 bill.

Have a good one!

Summer School

After all these years I am going to summer school again. I need hours to renew my teaching certificate one more time. I am taking a Spalding class called "The Writing Road to Reading". It is a really good class but it is so labor intensive. Scads of homework every night. Right now I have a B in the class with three more things to be graded plus the final exam on Friday. This has been a two week class running from June 8-June 19. I have also been participating in a challenge at Jessica Sprague.com. We do a LO a day for each day in June according to the "rules" of each day's challenge. Below are three of the challenge LOs that I think came out nicely.

Well, this blog had a definite delay in it. I had difficulty posting my LOs and then I had lots to do for class. Class was over last Friday and my instructor emailed my grade. WOOHOO I got an A by the skin of my teeth. One less point would have been a 89% B. I just kicked it yesterday. Went to breakfast with the kids and grandkids so that grandson Jake could celebrate Father's Day with grandpa. Jake will be with his Dad today. We are going to meet Kurt's parents in Camp Verde for lunch at his Dad's favorite restaurant, Johnny Rocket's. He just loves their hamburgers. Here are the LOs I promised.








I leave you today with this thought in honor of Father's Day: Families are like fudge, mostly sweet but with a few nuts!

Have a good one.

Winding down the school year

Hi again my dear friends.

Since the last week in May I have been participating in a challenge a day at Jessica Sprague's
www.jessicasprague.com. This is really fun. The challenge will continue until the end of June.

My last teaching day was yesterday (June 2). The kids are out of school tomorrow (June 4). It is finally starting to warm up here. I think it reached 70 today and no rain!

My daughter and eldest grandson left today for San Diego. They are joining her aunt and and her two boys at Mission Beach. Her aunt is from Colorado and since her boys were out of school before Memorial Day she just assumed that Jake was too. Duh! Could have picked up the phone or sent an email before she booked everything. Oh well, he just missed today and the half day tomorrow.

I am going to summer school for the next two weeks (June 8-19) from 8 to 1. This will seem like a major undertaking since I only work Monday and Tuesday during the school year.

Ummmm.... seems like I'm whining tonight. Guess so.. not feeling too well. So let me just share with you a few of my lay outs that I've made for the challenge.

The top page is of my children from a picture taken in 1981. It was fun to do.

I will leave you with this thought:
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch long tongue.

Have a good one!

What a trip down memory lane!

I went to a sorority (Kappa Alpha Theta) reunion last week in Scottsdale, Arizona. I graduated from ASU (Arizona State University) in 1966 and haven't seen most these gals since. Forty of us gathered for three days and just had a ball. When I first heard about it I almost decided not to attend as I had gotten too fat. LOL several of us had and you know what it sure didn't make any difference. We had such a great time. We stayed in the Camelback Inn a AAA diamond resort
www.camelbackinn.com. If you ever get a change to stay there jump on it. The rooms, the service, the ambiance..oh la la supurb! I was official photographer and I took 217 pics. whew! still editing them and gonna post them at shutterfly for folks to buy if they desire. I am making a 20 page digital scrapbook and will send copeis of the pages (8 x 8) to those that want them for just my cost of priting and the mailing. The can get their own albums. Here is one page I made. These are all members of my pledge class. We pledged in 1962.


But, now it is back to reality. I have five more weeks to teach this year and then I'm going to summer school for three weeks. So, getting into a busy time for me. Our weather here in the mountians is starting to warm up. The trees are leafing out and so flowers are right around the corner.

It's in the high 60s today so we are going to the park with my daughter and the boys around 5pm. Is not too windy to fly the kites today. Last time we tried it was too windy and it broke the kites. Poor little guys were heart broken. But, today should work.

Here are some inspirational thought for you today.

The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

Have a good one.

Where have I been?

Good question. I just don't know. I have not really been doing anything so earth shaking to keep me from blogging. I just got out of the habit and time sure flew by. I have been scrapbooking. I have made some hybrid pages for the first time. I have done Episodes 1 and 2 at Jessica Sprague. Episode 2 I followed a tutorial to scan my 12 x 12 page in two parts and then stitch it together so I could post it. I also was able then to print it as a digital 8 x 8 for my daughter-in-law. Here it is:




I have made four others from episode 1 but I just took a picture of them and posted them that way. They do not post as well. Here are two of those:




They are fun to do and I like combining the two aspects of my scrapbooking.

No segue. I am going next week to Scottsdale, AZ and the famous Camelback Inn to stay for two night with 30 or so of my college sorority sisters from 43 years ago. My sorority sister Merrilee Bean Buchanan put this all together with other's help and now it is a reality. I am really so excited. I am going to be the official photography and archiver. My problem is this: In my mind they all still look 20 years old. I am going to walk into the room and say,"Who are all these old ladies? Where are all my friends?' LOL

I will blog and post about it.

I leave you with this food for thought:
The average person has 1,460 dreams a year! Dream big!

Have good one.

If Only.......

If only things had gone differently in that superbowl game the Cards would have won....well duh!

If only is a strange expression. We all have if only(s) in our lives. We tend to take them as negatives, but they could be positives too....like, "If only I hadn't flown the day before, I would have been on that flight...". You get the point.

I think things in our lives happen for a reason. Will we always know the reasons? Well...no!

It's snowing again for what reason, I don't know..seems like we've had enough. I went to a very nice Valentine's luncheon with my lady friends yesterday. If only our Valentine princess hadn't fallen and hurt herself the day before she would have been there too, to get all the good presents we brought her.

I try not to think of If Onlys these days. I just like to enjoy each day as it comes and try to see the good in it. I am taking an afterschool class to get hours to renew my teaching certificate. It is held at the high school. On the wall was a big sign that some kids had made it said, " Make each day your masterpiece". How great is that? huh? I will use that as a digi scrapbook page quote one of these days soon. If only I hadn't gone to that class I would never have seen that sign.

When George W left office he said something like this, " While the days can be long, the years are short." I like this too and will think of it as I put off things I want to do. It will be a reminder that someday I will run out of time to do them. Don't want to reach the pearly gates and have to say..."If only".

If only I wasn't so philosophical today I could have written a blog with more humor. Oh well.....

Here is just a little somthing to think about as you go about your long day and short year. If only you'll remember it!

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Have a good one!

Waiting for......well, the Super Bowl

As an Arizonan I am waiting for the Super Bowl. Our Cardinals finally get a chance at the BIG ONE! I am not a serious football fan. Either is my husband. But,.......well it's the Arizona Cardinals. I am really into basketball. I used to coach it. I love watching it live or on TV. Never bother me when March Madness comes around. I am glued to the TV, brackett in hand on the road to the final four. I love college ball and I cheer for the Phoenix Suns too. I see that former Sun, Kevin Johnson is now the mayor of Sacramento. Who would have thought as he scooted around being a great point guard.

Sports in general are interesting in a wacky way. We played them as children and like to watch them played as adults. We pay big buck for the pros to entertain us and follow the local high school on the local sports page. I don't think this blog entry is really making a point but, I digress.

I am waiting for the Super Bowl. I have lined up my recipes on the counter and gone over the ingredients. I have planned my menu and bought my paper plates. I have choosen my serving pieces and planned out my time. The game will start about 4:00 pm in AZ. I will clean my TV screen and set out the napkins and drink mixes and pull out my old Cardinals jersey.

Umm let's see there must be something else I need to do to get ready. Can't think what though.

Here is a good football scrapbook page I made for Type+writer at Jessica's . It's a good one for waiting.

I read this the other day, "Reindeer like to eat bananas", as long as they don't want to eat my Super Bowl snacks they are welcome to come on over.

OH MY GOSH wait, wait wait....I forgot to invite my friends.

Have a good one.

Happiest of New Years

Happy, Happy. Already the 10th of January. Time flies regardless if you are having fun or not! My youngest grandson will be 3 years old tomorrow....speaking of time flying. School has resumed (last week) and I'm still working my two days a week and liking it. I have continued with my water areobics classes three days aweek and have added a strength training class for beginners. Went to the first one this moring. I am somewhere way below beginner. The class lasts for one hour and will continue for three more saturdays....hope that I do.

While I'm thinking of it...here are a couple of pics of my grandsons at Christmas:

Well, I guess I'd better lie down and recover from my weight training class today. We did a lot of exercises some with weights, some without weights, some standing up and some on the floor. I did find out that I can't jump. Which makes this little piece of interesting info that I came across not true!

The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump. That needs to be amended: The elephant and fat old ladies are the only mannals that can't jump!

When I start feeling just too, too fat I think of this statistic: The earth weighs around 6,588,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo tons and I am thankful that I weigh a few tons less!

Have a good one.