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.