Goodbye Old Friend

It's sad for me to say that we have to part ways. You have been near and dear to my heart for over 4 years now. We have shared every holiday and celebration together. We have shared the little things and the big things. You were there with me at the birth of my last child and have watched as all three of them have grown. You have changed the way that I view the world and have made it a much brighter place. I know it sounds so cliche', but it's not you, it's me. I admit it, I'm shallow, and I only want the best. I have found a new friend. One that looks almost identical to you, but is so much more sophisticated. I'm sorry it had to be this way. I will miss you, but it is time for you to move on. You have new friends now. Someone that was so excited to meet you and take you home to introduce you to his family. You'll be happy there. I hope they treat you as well as I did. I will always remember you, and I will miss you. Here is a photo of the two of us together. I will always have the photos--the MANY MANY photos.

The Ides of March

March 15th was called the Ides of March by ancient Romans. It was made famous by Shakespeare in his play, Julius Caesar, but did you know that there are actually 11 other ides during the year. Ides is also the name for the 15th of May, July and October and the 13th of all other months. Anyway, there's a bit of trivia for you.

This is also the day that we remember my Grandma Mary Lou. It was on this day 3 years ago that she passed and ever since my mom, siblings and all the aunts, uncles and cousins have gotten together at her favorite restaurant, Smitty's. It's just a little hometown diner where she felt very welcome. I wish I had pictures to share, but for the 3rd year, I forgot my camera.

In other happenings for this weekend, Brown & Caldwell held a family bowling night for the company. There was good food and then bowling. I didn't actually bowl but Hannah, Justin and Dale did. Hannah and Justin had a great time. They bowled with a whole group of kids and did quite well--better than mommy ususally does, but I might do okay with gutter bumpers up like they had. Owen just had fun running around and clapping for everyone and trying to lift the bowling balls. I do have some pics to share from the bowling fun.

Here is another random photo from the weekend of the kids being crazy singing and dancing to songs from itunes.

My Sketch World March sketch

I'm a few days late, but the first sketch that I had to work with as part of the new design team over at the My Sketch World blog is up. Here is the sketch and the layout that I made with it.


If you do a layout using this sketch and upload it in the MSW forum, you will receive a ballot in the drawing for some goodies at the end of the month. MSW also has a separate contest going on right now with a brand new sketch and a theme. The prize is the awesome Feb. spice kit from Scrapdango, which I've had the pleasure working with. You can see my creations from it just below. Check out the MSW blog for the contest details.

Scrappy stuff

Once again, I've had a lot of scrappy stuff going on. First off, we had our February reveal of the design team designs over at Scrapdango a few days ago. Unfortunately for you, both the fantastic kits for the month are sold out again for like the 3rd month is a row, so if you like what you see, you need to get over there early to get your kit. The March kits will be available to order on March 1st and here are some sneak peeks at those:


March Sugar kit:

March spice kit:
Now, here are my creations I made with the gorgeous February spice kit.

Now, on another note, I found out that I made another design team. I was chosen as one of the new designers for:

This is an awesome blog where a talented sketch artist, Lucy Chesna posts 2 sketches each month for the team to design with. It's always neat to see how different people interpret the same sketch. I am so excited to be a part of this team and working with Lucy's great sketches. To celebrate the 2nd blogoversary of the sketch blog, My Sketch World is hosting a crop that starts today, the 19th, and goes through Monday the 23rd. There will be challenges, games and prizes from sponsors, so if you want to get your creative juices flowing and do some chatting this weekend, come join us on the forum.

Happy Valentine's/President's Day

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and were able to spend it with someone you love and hope you are having a wonderful long weekend for those of you who have Monday off. Dale and I are actually currently sitting in the Hood River Inn in Hood River, OR for a night away from the kids for a belated Valentine's Day. Grandpa Robert and Grandma Pom came down this weekend to visit and kindly offered to watch the kids while we went away--maybe they didn't actually think we'd take them up on a whole night away, but give us an inch and we'll take a mile when it comes to getting a break from the kids. We love them to death, but they can be exhausting. G'pa and G'ma were keeping them occupied by cooking homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs for dinner, making beaded jewelery and building a Lego StarWars ship that was one of Justin's belated birthday gifts. Owen also got some little mini StarWars figures that are now his new obsession, and he was totally content playing with them when we left.

Harold and Sharon, we know you'll appreciate our location. We're sorry you weren't able to make your trip here over Christmas. We'll try to enjoy it for you. We walked around town a little and went to a nice dinner in a restaurant that we realized we had been in many years ago on a day trip around Mt. Hood and back. We are now relaxing in the hotel and watching the first episode of the newest season of The Amazing Race.

I want to leave you with a few photos I took of Justin and Owen for Valentine's Day. Hannah was at school at the time and probably wouldn't have cooperated anyway.

My Lover Boys

A New Pet

Well, this family has not had much luck with pets so far. We had a cat, Murray, that we got as a kitten 4+ years ago, but he only managed to live a couple years. The vets could not figure out what was wrong with him, but he was not in good shape, so we had to have him put to sleep. The kids still ask about him and wish we had him. We also had a beta fish, Red Fins, (yes, not the most original name) that did not last long either and fish are want to do. Well for quite awhile, Hannah has been saying she wants a guinea pig. Over Christmas break, she got the chance to pet sit her class guinea pig, Shadow, which went well. The cage was just in her room on her window seat (although I just learned that guinea pigs are highly susceptible to heat stroke, so we'll have to make sure the blinds stay down when it's sunny) and as Dale said, we were relatively unaffected by his presence. We decided that for her birthday she could get one. Well we finally went last weekend and got Fudgey. Now, you might think by the name, that he is dark brown, but we were rather limited in our options and Hannah was rather set on the name, so here is Fudgey--he's peanut butter fudge.

And here are the kids looking for him under the

entertainment center when he got away from Hannah

Unfortunately, he hasn't quite gotten used to us. I think he'd rather be back in his cage at Petco with his other guinea pig friends. He's rather skittish and seems very nervous. It doesn't help that Owen has learned to open Hannah's bedroom door, where he is not allowed, and gets in there and "plays" with Fudgey. I go in there and find him and he has had the door open and done who knows what and there is cage bedding everywhere and Fudgey does not look happy. Hopefully he gets used to us soon and can be a family pet for years to come.

I've been tagged

Quite a few days ago, I was tagged by Michele from Scrapperie and am finally getting around to doing what I was supposed to do and pass this along. So what I am supposed to do is:

Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.

1. Pick the 6th Folder, then select the the 6th picture in that folder.

2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.

3. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

So I have numerous folders where I store photos for each of the 4 digital cameras we have had (and still have), but I will go to the biggest one and this is the photo that comes up.


This photo is from March 24, 2007 and it is Hannah and Grandma Pom making origami. They brought down some origami books and paper and they did it the entire weekend. They still do it every weekend they come down. Ironicially, Grandpa Robert and Pom are coming down this weekend and Hannah has mentioned doing origami again. Man, I'm really glad the photo wasn't some dorky one of me like most of them are. I probably would've lied and skipped to the next photo. Thankfully, I didn't have to do that.

Now, I have to tag 6 people. I am tagging

Annaliese
Tara
Ginni
Julie
Jana
Kerryn