kix in life

Inspiration, Sketches and Family Fun!

2012-01-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

I had a very fun week last week. First, last Sunday night, we went to Hollywood to see:

Jim got tickets for the whole family for Christmas. It was at the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Blvd. That's the same theater where they hold the Academy Awards. It's a BEAUTIFUL old theater! We had great seats, right down in the orchestra section.

It was amazing! It's so hard to describe what it was like... it was a sensory overload and made my mind open to all different kinds of possibilities. I saw things that I wouldn't have thought were possible. It was very entertaining, a wonderful show, and a great evening! I'm telling all the guys at work that they need to take their wives/girlfriends for Valentine's day.

Only a few days later, I went with my mom and dad to see Cat's at the OC Performing Arts Center. It was a GREAT show! I didn't know what it was about and was a little confused in the opening scenes. With the space ship taking off, I didn't know whether it was going to take place on another planet, or if the Cats were aliens. On top of that I thought they were saying the cats were "angelical" or "evangelical"... turns out they are just "jellical," hahaha! I still don't know what the deal was with the space ship, but they are on Earth and the Cats are cats. It was my dad's first Broadway play, and my mom's second. They both really enjoyed the show. (Not as much as Jacob's shows, of course)

From great works flows great inspiration! Here is my start on a couple of new She Art girls. This first one features Scarlett, the female lead in Iris:

This second one is inspired by Cats... Hmmm... This one needs work. The cat needs a more cat like pose. The background needs more interesting content too. BTW, did you know that the play Cats is inspired by a book by T.S. Eliot?

I hope everyone has a great week and stays dry!

Family-Time...

2012-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

If you are a follower, you saw my card post from yesterday. So what is the rest of the family doing, you might ask...

Well, Jim is spending his free time learning Spanish to get ready for his and Chris's trip to Costa Rica. He's using Rosetta Stone and Cheryl's old laptop to teach himself.

Cheryl and Jena went running today. Here is what the aftermath looks like, hahaha. And here's exciting news! Cheryl's girls are in a tournament this weekend and tied both of their games today!

Chris is doing this and that... He's playing with his new graphics design tablet and teaching himself new techniques in Photoshop. He's also brushing up on his Spanish. Oh, and he's taking care of some miscellaneous details... like mending his jammies.

You can see the spot in the lower part of the picture where I've already mended his pants once. The spot in the upper part of the picture is where he mended it...

Well, hey, it works... no more hole, lol! Don't worry about Chris... I ordered him a new pair of jammie bottoms from Old Navy this weekend. If your looking for a deal... men's flannel jammies are on sale for $5.92.

It's a lazy weekend at our house... AND it's a long weekend for us! 3-days off, YAHOO!!! Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr!

The Card Kit Club...

2012-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

We were going to come up for a cute name for this Club, but I don't think we ever did (I'll have to go back through my emails to check)...

Anyway, this kit club is the brainstorm fom Beth. She's the brains behind the group. I'm so flattered that she asked me to play! The idea is that the members take turns putting together a little card kit for the other members each month. We create a card using at least two of the items and share on our blogs. Here is the January kit from Beth. Look at all that Valentine goodness!

I had a GREAT time working with this kit... a real GREAT time! After I was done, this is all I have left. I still think there might be something there to use for a special card for my hubby.

I made SIX CARDS! SIX CARDS with all the goodies from this kit!

This first card was my initial brain storm. I just knew I wanted to make a shaker out of those cute conversation hearts!

Here's a close-up of the shaker. The plastic bubble is off a package of buttons.

Here is card #2. I just can't resist using stripes! I actually sewed on this one but it is hard to see. The stamped sentiment is from my stash... with Jim and Chris brushing up on their Spanish right now, I thought that it would be fun. BUT, I think this card is too girly for my guys.

Here's a close up of that card. The pink clay heart had a great patterned texture on it, but it was hard to see, so I covered it with blue paint, then wiped it off. Instant texture!

I love the simplicity of this card. I added some buttons and bakers twine from my stash.

Here's a close up...

I thought it would be fun to use the medium sized hearts as flowers. Here is what I ended up with!

I just love these clay hearts and wanted to highlight one on a card. Again I used acrylic paint to make the pattern stand out more.

By now, I've run out of any sizable pieces of paper, so I grabbed this scrap of heart paper from my stash. I didn't have enough to cover the whole card, but I like the way it came out.

Beth sent us those punched heart borders! What a cute punch!

We'll that's my crafty week! If you enjoyed these cards, head on over and checkout what the other ladies have made with this cute kit!

Beth
Mara
Diane

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

2012-01-13T19:48:00.001-08:00

Cheryl birthday and her first week back at school! I made her this card... if you can tell, her week did not go well at all!
Who in the world has a toilet paper stamp? UNITY! Cheryl's classes were completely messed up! It took all week and many hours to get it straightened all out.

Chris got his crafty on and came up with this cute card for his sister. Didn't he do a GREAT job?!!!

What does a 22yr old want for her birthday? GUESS...

Happy Birthday, big girl!

New pictures

2012-01-08T10:16:00.000-08:00

I'm on a wall decorating spree! It's amazing how just changing the pictures around in a room can make it feel like new! I've never been a big wall decor person, but with Cheryl's help, I managed to put together a nice wall.

The drawing by Cheryl isn't new... I just moved it from a different wall. And I added a couple of my favorite layouts of the kids. The highlight of the wall is my Christmas present from Chris. Isn't this great?!!! It's a panorama he took of Positano, Italy last summer. I really LOVE it!

The first card of 2012!

2012-01-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

Here it is! My first card of 2012! It's in anticipation of a couple of co-workers getting engaged... he said that he's "popping the question" on Valentine's day!

In typical Pile-It-On style, I'm entering it in several challenges:
PIO - Anything Goes
Scrappin' Mojo - January Sketch Challenge
Simon Says Stamp - Something New
Unity Friends with Flair - Anything Goes
Unity Kit of the Month - Sketch Challenge
Color Combos Galore - Challenge 213

Unity Friday Friends with Flair

2012 Word of the Year - GO

2012-01-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

I want to get motivated to get more things done this year! I want to enJOY my days (my word from last 2011). So the word I picked for this year is "GO"!!!

I get a feeling of excitement and anticipation before a race. That is the feeling that I want to have each and every day when I wake up. Then "ready, set, GO!" The horn goes, off and I take off running! I want to run into my day with that spurt of energy and sense of purpose. Then at the end of the day, like the end of a race, I want that great feeling of accomplishment! So I am GOing and starting the year off with a BANG! Happy New Year to EVERYONE!

Below are my past year words and a few of my other favorite ATCs:

Thanks

2011-12-30T09:08:00.001-08:00

Everyone needs thank-you cards after Christmas, right? I made this card with a new Ippity stamp set. I love those BIG flowers!

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends.
Happy New Year, everyone!

BFFs

2011-12-27T17:30:00.000-08:00

Here is my newest mixed media creation. "She knows the value of friendship." I used the two BFFs that I know as inspiration for the girls :oD

I used my favorite stamp for adding backgroud texture... the worn grid stamp from Unity Stamp Co.

Now time to plan my next project!

Christmas in Pictures...

2011-12-26T20:48:00.001-08:00

We had a GREAT Christmas! Starting with the BIG family gathering at Auntie Mary's and Uncle Tom's house. Here is a rare family photo:

Here are a few more FUN family pictures:

We had tons of food. Aunt Mary told everyone to not bring anything, so of course, everyone brought something!

We also had games:

... AND Santa made an appearance:

And we aren't done yet! The next day is Christmas! Yes, even Jena got presents...

Then we head to Grandma's and Papa's house for more presents!

And here it is! The Christmas KISS!!!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

From our House to Yours!

The cards are out and delivered!

The ornaments are done!

I went simple this year and attached a group shot of the kiddos to a small wooden plaque from Michael's.

While the paint was drying on the ornaments, and I had all my paints out... I started a new She Art background. I learned from looking at the backgrounds made by my friend, Mary. Her backgrounds are so much cleaner than mine... I kept the embellishment to the outside of the page and used less black. I think it came out nice.

This is going to be the perfect background for the BFF girls that Cheryl drew out for me. I thought the girls that Cheryl made looked too old, so I changed their clothes (thanks Old Navy!). They are going to be cute, cute, cute!

This will be my last post before Christmas.
Merry Christmas to ALL!!!

Kit card...

2011-12-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

While I was waiting for the paint to dry on my Christmas ornaments, I broke out a Unity KOM and threw together a quick little everyday card for FWF Friday!

This is a different look for me. I thought it would make a good GUY card. Thanks for dropping by!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas box

2011-12-19T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a close-up of one of my Christmas boxes. I cut it from two sheets of 8.5x11" papers; one for the bottom and the other for the top. I decorated it with my whole collection of Christmas stamps from Unity, PTI and an unknown Santa.

Thanks for looking! Merry Christmas!

Deck the Halls...

2011-12-17T22:20:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The kids setup the tree and decorated the house when I was at work on Thursday! What a surprise to come home to a house all decorated up for Christmas!

The stockings are up, waiting for Santa to arrive!

Chris found himself a nice hidey-hole tucked in behind the Christmas tree.

Jena found a nice comfy spot for herself too.

I took Friday off work and finished all the Christmas shopping. Then I spent all day today wrapping! Poor Jena... her comfy spot is now full of presents!

I need to show off my boxes and tags! Cute, huh? (That's why it took me all day to wrap presents ;oD )

Jim and Chris did some decking on the outside of the house too! Don't the lights look great?

It's been a long day of Christmas-y activity! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

She Art - Christmas Carol Angel

2011-12-16T16:52:00.000-08:00

We went to see the play "The Christmas Carol" at the South Coast Repertory a few weeks ago, and even before we left for the play, I had this project in mind. Here she is:

The white night gown and top hat were taken from Scrooge himself. Snow is blowing in the Christmas Eve night. I broke from the typical She Art tradition and didn't start the quote with "SHE." I used my favorite quote from the book. "I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year."

I like how the girl came out, but the background... YIKES! What a mess! I wanted to make it black, because it's night. But, I didn't like it black. It was too dark. I tried to add white and colors to lighten it up, but ended up with a mess. I'm glad the girl covered up most of it... In hindsight, what I should have done was covered the background in cream instead of dark brown; and not been so afraid to cover up the play paraphernalia, keeping only what mattered most, the play ticket. Then I could add colors and have it not be so messy looking!

Here's the ticket from the play in a place of honor.

Here is another close-up of the background... I stenciled the snowflakes with modeling paste. It adds some fun dimention! I don't know why I used blue instead of green. I guess I thought it might lighten it up more.

New Flash! Our house is decorated for Christmas! I'll post some photos later. Now it's time for the annual Bunco Christmas party! Good Night All!

Happy Birthday Olivia!

2011-12-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

Enjoy your day!!!

She Pair Drawing...

2011-12-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

Here is a pair of girls drawn by Cheryl. Aren't they cute? I think I'll do a She Art based on these two!

Girls in Hats....

2011-12-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

Knowing my current obsession with mixed media girls, it's no wonder that I LOVE this idea by Junelle... Girls in Hats!

I don't know if I'll actually make any, but I started drawing hat pictures just in case (all on yellow post-its of course).

Speaking of girls in hats...

They brought a photo booth to the company Christmas Party! A couple of my running friends Shanaz (left) and Paloma (middle) talked me into this little adventure. You can see that I'm starting to get into it there at the end, hahaha!

She's making me dizzy...

2011-12-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

Jena is such a funny girl!

A Late Birthday Gift...

2011-12-10T21:24:00.001-08:00

For my birthday, I said that I wanted to go up in the Great Park Balloon. We tried a couple weeks ago, but the winds were blowing and the balloon was closed. But today, the winds have calmed down and it's bright and sunny! The perfect day for a balloon ride. Nowadays, everything costs money... If this was a "normal" park, we'd have to pay for admission to the park, pay for parking, and pay for the balloon ride. BUT, this is the Great Park! Everything here is free. No admission, no parking, and no tickets to ride. All we have to do is sign in, and they call us when it's our turn. Here's Chris checking out the FAQs. The balloon is tethered, we'll be going up 400 feet, and the donut shaped gondola can carry up to 30 people. There were only 6 other people in the gondola with us, so there was plenty of room to move around.

Here it comes! You can see the cable that tethers it to the ground and the shape of the gondola in this picture.

And here we go!!!

There's Jim and Chris on the other side of the gondola.

There's a good view of the Great Park area. Eventually, the Great Park will take up the entire marine base, but right now it only covers a tiny corner. There's a merry-go-round, a couple museums, an agricultural area, and a hanger that they converted into classrooms and meeting areas. They also fill it with ice for ice skating in the winter.

Here's a view of the business end of the base. It's still filled with offices and hangers. If you look past the hanger's off into the distance, that's where we live.

The old runways are still here too... If you watch American Top Gear, you might see the Great Park balloon in the background, because this is where the Top Gear race course is...

Here is a view of the soccer fields and agricultural areas.

I couldn't resist taking a panorama of Saddleback Mountain from the balloon. I put it up in the blog header temporarily. Thanks for stopping by!

Being Sketchy

2011-12-07T20:17:00.000-08:00

The She Art instructor, Christy, doesn't use any patterns for her She Art girls. She doesn't even draw a cutting line on her patterned paper. She just grabs the scissors and starts cutting! I can't do it! I think it's the engineer in me. I have to plan... I have to sketch it all out... I have to make a pattern... I have to trace my pattern on my paper... THEN I CUT!

I do most of my sketching at work! {gasp} Well, some people surf the Internet when they have a few free minutes... me I like to sketch. I used to carry around an engineering notebook, but gave up on that when it started looking more like a sketch book, hahaha. Now I carry around a yellow sticky post-it pad. Now when I make sketches that I want to take home, I can just take the sticky note instead of having to Xerox my engineering notebook.

Here are my last two sketches. They are made on two post-its stuck together to get the height I needed. The first you might recognize as the Pride and Prejudice girl. The other girl is going to be a Christmas Carol Angel. Right now she's wearing a top hat, red scarf, and a white night gown. I'm rethinking the night gown, she might end up wearing a Victorian era dress.

Here's a post-it sketch of Jena. What do you think? Is it a good likeness? hahaha!

This "sketch" is by Chris. A few weeks ago we had a problem with the lawn mower. When Chris plugged it in, it caused a surge that flipped off a circuit breaker. He didn't know that at the time, and he was the only one home. So, he went through the entire house testing every outlet to try and find a pattern to the outage.

This is an accurate floor plan of our house and every outlet in it. That's my boy! He's an engineer in the making!

Well, that's all I had for today!
Have a good evening everyone!

Another Christmas Card

2011-12-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

When I saw this card by Mary VP, I knew that it would make a GREAT Christmas card!

Here is mine using the Unity Ippity stamp set, Totally Happy... it's pretty much the same card. I gave it more of a clean look by leaving the bird solid. I also added glitter stickles to the white areas in the fence to make it look like snow. Then I added an elegant Christmas sentiment and I have another Christmas card ready to go!

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday FWF

2011-12-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

It's FWF Friday again, and I'm continuing my quest to finish Christmas cards! Here is my latest card:

Thanks for stopping by!

Another She Art Girl

2011-11-28T21:23:00.001-08:00

Here is another She Art girl... I call her my Pride and Prejudice girl. Pride and Prejudice is Cheryl's all time favorite book. We also have the DVD and I just took her to see the play at the South Coast Repertory.

To make the girl's background I created a collage of all our Pride and Prejudice stuff... like the play ticket and the parking ticket from SCR.

This is a xerox copy of the title page of the book.

This is a copy of the front of the DVD box.

I looked up regency styles from the late 1800's and created a dress for my girl in that style.

She ended up too short, which kind of bugs me. I guess she could be the Bennet's little sister. hahaha! The saying is hard to see in black. It says, "She wasn't afraid to love."

Super SPECIAL Birthday!

2011-11-26T13:57:00.000-08:00

So, what made by birthday special this year, you ask? Was it because all the stores opened up super early and had extra special sales just for me? That was special... Was it because we got a free dinner? Actually, the waitress dropped our pizza, so it was free... uhm, not the one that she dropped, they made a new one.

My friends from work took me on a special run on the Newport Back Bay Loop... Nothing like a 10 mile run at 6am on your birthday, lol...

How about that GREAT blog header that Chris made for me? That's super special... Don't you LOVE it?!!!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I and Part II are special!

Flowers from my hubby are always SPECIAL!

And, LOOK! The Register put my picture in the paper on the afternoon on my birthday!

Three birthday desserts are special... And very VERY YUMMY!

Family gathered at my mom and dad's house is super special! I'm so Thankful for my mom, dad and the rest of our family!

... and no post is complete without a card! This is made with the stamp sets picked for me by my SIL. Yep! New stamps are SPECIAL too {grin}!

Thank-you, everyone, for a super SPECIAL birthday!

She Art 2

2011-11-20T10:08:00.000-08:00

I'm taking an online class called She Art 2. This first week, we learned how to do faces. I'm not sure I like faces on the girls. Without faces, they can be anybody... I feel that I can read myself into a girl without a face. She could be me... the quote could apply to me...

Well, I figured that I would give faces a try. After all, who knows, I might like it. Here is my girl... face and all!

I don't like the way the mouth came out. It was better before I outlined it... oh, well. I do like the eyes. It's been years since I've drawn or painted anything. I guess I didn't lose all my drawing and painting ability after all.

---- EDITED ----
Okay, I had to try... I erased her face in photoshop. I think I like it better. What do you think?

Friday FWF

2011-11-18T08:08:00.000-08:00

I finished another Christmas card to share with Unity Friday FWF! If I keep this up, I might finish all my Christmas cards by Thanksgiving! YAHOO!!!

This is the snowman from the Unity Itty Bitty collection reminds me of a snow globe. I accented the snow globe effect by mounting the snowman on the inside of the card covered by a clear acrylic window. My friend Mara has me hooked on baker's twine... I may never go back to ribbon again... {grin}

Don't Pass Me....I'm not in your Age Group

2011-11-16T16:12:00.000-08:00

I still laugh when I think of the T-shirt worn by another runner saying, "Don't Pass Me....I'm not in your Age Group!" Hahaha... I passed him...

In fact, I passed more people than I thought I would, finished 3rd in my age group and came home with an award! I feel so slow running with the people at work... I'm almost always the last one back. So... reality check... I'm slow when compared to men and women in their 20's and 30's, but do pretty darn well against the other "more mature" ladies in my age group. I finished in 24:42... not my best time, but an okay time for a rainy Sunday. That's why there are no pictures of this race. No one wanted to get their cameras wet.

As for Chris... he forgot his timing chip, so he has no idea what his finish time was. But, I know he was faster than me.

Next week is Thanksgiving. Time to start thinking "Turkey Trot."
Have a GREAT weekend everyone!

The Nutting Girls!

2011-11-12T20:38:00.000-08:00

I had the day off Friday, so Cheryl and I went down to Carlsbad to take a class by Julie Nutting. Julie is the author of "Collage Couture: Techniques for Creating Fashionable Art."

You know how I'm so into the "She Art" girls right now... well Julie has her own type of art girl... I'll call them Nutting Girls!

Here we are with Julie Nutting.

I wanted to share how we make the backgrounds. It's different than the backgrounds for She Art girls. Julie uses only paint with brushes, stamps and stencils. In the following steps, Cheryl's background is on the left, and mine is on the right.

We started with a coat of paint... most of the ladies used a royal blue. I used teal, Cheryl used light blue, and the lady next to me used green. Then we stenciled patterns with a doily and added texture with white paint.

Next, we add a glaze of color over everything. Cheryl used pink. Me? well, I had a problem with glazing... mine is more spotted than glazed. Julie had issues with mine... she likes her backgrounds more muted so that it won't distract from the girl... okay, I admit, I had issues with my background at this point too.

Now we redo the doily stenciling, add stamps and cover all with more white for texture... in my case, make that LOTS of white to cover up my mess, lol!

Even though all the ladies did their own thing, we all ended up with very similar looking backgrounds. I guess if everyone works in layers with the same 6 paint colors, everyone will eventually look the same.

Everyone added hair to their girl to make it look like them. I'm not delusional, I know that girl doesn't look like me, but she has my hair, lol!

When we got home, I did a little more work on the girls. I think it's from being in the She Art class, but I like my girls with words on them. I found a journal spot that I added to Cheryl's girl.

My girl got a nice sentiment stamp to break up the plain center of the doily. I also changed the huge white flower for a nicer smaller flower.

So what do you think of them? Cheryl likes them better than She Art girls. I think my style is going to fall somewhere in between the She Art and the Nutting girls.

Crafty Saturday!

2011-11-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

I made another card! It's a two card week, and I got a start on my Christmas cards, YAHOO!!!

I made this card for a couple of challenges:

VSN Jingle Bell Rock - used brads and bling
Scrappin' Mojo November card sketch

The challenges are motivating me! I actually started my Christmas cards before Thanksgiving!

And wait until you see what else we did today :oD
Stay tuned...

Friday FWF

2011-11-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

It's Friday... and time for Unity Friends with Flair! And here is the card that I did for the Unity November sketch challenge. I got the doll stamp from the "Get It While You Can Bin." The rest of the stamps are from the July KOM.

Here is the sketch:

Thanks for stopping by! Have a GREAT weekend!

12 in 2012!!!

2011-11-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

What does that cartoon to do with today's post? Well, (1) running with my coworkers is giving me speed envy, and (2) I can't make a blog post without at least one picture, lol... Anyway, my friend, Jill, is encouraging runners to join the challenge: 12 half-marathons in 2012!
We (yes, I did say "WE") have decided to take up the challenge... sort of...

Chris used to run in high school on track and cross country. He decided to just run on his own in college and not run with the college team. He thought that running when, where, and how long he wanted, instead of pushed by coach and team would be more appealing to him. But, he found that he lacks motivation and misses racing.

Cheryl is a Senior at Cal Poly Pomona, but she won't graduate this year because she can't get the classes that she needs. She wants to get back into shape so that she can try out for the Cal Poly soccer team next summer. Athletes get priority registration!

So I'm running with two kids who haven't run since last Spring. I think it's best for us to start slow... start with 5K's and work our way up to a half-marathon! Here is our schedule so far for 2012:

January - Neverland 5K(1/27) - this is a night run
February - either China Town Firecracker 5K (2/12) or Timberwolf 5K (2/18)
March - Coaster Run 10K (3/25)
April - still looking... can't find a local 10K in April yet
May - OC Half-Marathon (5/6)
June - Rock and Roll San Diego Half-Marathon (6/3)

That is as far as we have planned... If all goes well Cheryl will make the soccer team and will probably stop racing in June. So that will leave Chris and me to finish out the rest of the year.

Unity Friday - FWF

2011-11-03T20:12:00.000-07:00

This month's Unity Kit Challenge started with a wonderful poem about Fall. I took from the poem an inspiration of fall colors. I started with the little tree from one of the first KOMs and started adding colored "leaves." So how did blue leaves end up in my Fall colors? Well, they matched my PP... that's artistic license :oD I added a big drops of Diamond Glaze to give it some shine; and I have a gift card holder to send someone a special pick-me-up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's Halloween... and time for the annual Halloween Bash at my brother's and SIL's house.

Since, Jim had to get up early the following morning for work, he decided to stay home and hand out candy. He reported a total number of 3 trick or treaters! Oh, well, more candy for us!

Chris and Cheryl went out walking with the kids... not Trick or Treating. At 18yrs and 21yrs, they've decided that they're too old for that. BUT They are not too old to dress up! My mom isn't either :oD

I found Waldo!

Here's the whole BOO Crew!

Here are a couple of the CUTEST witches I ever did see!

Here are some girls... dressed up as.... uh, girls....

Here are a couple of photos that Chris took during Trick or Treating...

I hope everyone had a SAFE and FUN Halloween!!!

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

2011-10-29T22:17:00.001-07:00

I know some of the country is buried under snow, but here, our Halloween-eve is bright sunny and warm. In fact, it's a great day for the BEACH!

... and for throwing sticks...

... and for catching sticks...

... and for digging holes...

Jena is so proud of herself when she saves a stick from the waves!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!

Friends with Flair - She Art Girl

2011-10-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

I put this up for the Unity Friday share. I love using Unity stamps for background patterns in mixed media art. This month Unity release a new Mixed Media Stamp kit just for me! Well, me along with the thousands of other Unity mixed media fans :oD

Here is my share for the day:

The thing about mixed media is that sometimes the stamps get buried under layers of paint or other stamps. Here are the Unity stamp sets that I used:

I really love the "It's All About Today" stamp. It goes perfectly with the quote, "She made Today Count."

Jena the flying frisbee catching dog!

2011-10-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

The kids and I went running this morning in the Arroyo. It's been a while since we've been down there. Since we weren't sure what it would be like, we left Jena at home... poor Jena... she was so sad... It's a good thing we left her home because part of the trail was flooded. We tried to find our way around on a different trail, but we got lost and had to turn back.

After we got home, Cheryl went to her little girl's game, and Chris and I took Jena to play frisbee. Jena is a champion frisbee player!

Here is Jena in action!!!

BTW, Cheryl's girls TIED 0-0 today!!! YAHOO!!! This is the first game that they didn't lose! Hopefully, they are on a roll!

Engineers without Borders

2011-10-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I competed on the Panasonic Engineers without Borders team! I was the last person asked to join, making up our team of 13 engineers. I'm one of the oldest people on the team! {sigh} When did I get OLD?!!! Anyway, here we are! Panasonic's Engineering team!

Engineering without Borders isn't so much an athletic event as it is a team work event. Our first event was a series of relay events which included a balloon toss, pass the water down the line to fill a bucket, and pass a hula hoop down the line and back again... We also had: putting...

A walk the plank to the end of the field and back:

In this one we were supposed to find little foam blocks in a bin of packing foam, without knocking any foam outside the bin (points deducted if we get any foam on the ground). It's not as easy as it sounds!

Our two basket ball players were enlisted to throw the balls into the bucket... they didn't say we couldn't use a couple of our BIG guys as a backstop, lol! Riding on the edge of the rules kind of set the tone for our team, which you will see later...

In this one we had to get everyone to fit on one a small square. More points were given for the smallest squares.

We got a little messed up because we couldn't use the same people in each event (they should have told us that before!) Miriam and I were supposed to run the maze, but we had just done the plank walk. We had a bit of confusion as we tried to figure out who could take our places in the maze. As a result, we lost the relay event.

And here is my dodge ball debut! We had to field three teams. I was in the first team. I didn't know that dodge ball had so many RULES! I'm so proud that I wasn't the first one out... I was the second.... A ball that I threw was caught by the other team, so I was out. My team lost. Our second team fielded won. And our third team lost. So overall, we lost...

Then there is the infamous ropes course! 8 people go up the ropes course and race to the end. The rest of us are on the ground building as tall a structure as we can before the ropes people finish the course. Points are award for the first team finishing the ropes, and for the tallest structure.

Here is the ropes course... I would have loved to go up there, but there was a height requirement.

So I was part of the ground crew (actually I spend more time taking pictures than building the structure). We were handed a gallon zip bag of popsicle sticks and paper clips. We were told that that was all we could use to build our structure. So, our interpretation was that we could use the bag too...

The plan... split the bag open, roll it up, and build on top of it. BRILLIANT! Well... The other teams complained, and we were disqualified.

We also had a tug of war 5 rounds of 12 people each side. Since we had 13 on our team, we had a tug off between all the women to see which one would sit out. Guess who lost? But I took a lot of great photos! Hahaha!

So overall, Panasonic came in 6th out of the 10 companies competing. Kind of a dismal finish for our team of runners, basketball players, and weight lifters.

It was still a FUN time! Here we are waiting for lunch after the competition was over... FIRST in line! At least we got first in something! LOL!

Unity Stamp Challenge

2011-10-15T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here's my entry for the Unity Stamp Challenge. I used BG paper and Unity Stamps. I love the typewritter stamp. In fact I bought that kit just for that one stamp. The "It's a great day!" stamp is one of my favorite sayings for thinking-of-you type cards. I threw the messy butterfly in the corner, for no reason other than I felt like using it :oD

Thanks for looking!!!

She Art #3

2011-10-15T16:55:00.001-07:00

Here's my last She Art girl... or at least the last one I have in progress. This one has a patterned paper background, which makes it more colorful than the other two. It was hard for my to work with such a colorful background.

I decided to make this one a brunette. I think the brown hair is easier to work with than the black and the blond.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Jim worked today... he'll be working Saturdays until the end of the year. Cheryl's girls had a game in Palm Springs... they lost again. Chris, Jena-girl and I went for a run. I'm excited! We did 4 miles in just over 31 minutes. I'm finally back in running shape after our trip followed by that pesky cold.

Tomorrow, I'll be competing with the Panasonic Team at the Engineering without Borders challenge. Wish us LUCK!

She Art #2

2011-10-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Here is another girl from the She Art class by Christy T. on mixed media canvases. This background is layered with tissue and stamped. I used my Unity Stamps: Distressed Dots, Worn Grid, and Time of your Life (my favoirte clock stamp). I LOVE how Unity stamps are perfect for mixed media projects!

Brown really isn't my color, but nothing else seemed to stand out from the background for her dress. I gave this girl a black bob, and I think she came out CUTE!

I have one more girl in the works! She's going to be very colorful! Wait until you see her!

Just me being random....

2011-10-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

As I sit here contemplating the mass murder of every ant living in the walls of our house, I changed my blog header...

She Art....

2011-10-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a class from Christy T. on mixed media canvases. She calls her particular type of art, "She Art."

We started with canvases that we collaged, painted, stamped and distressed:

Then we get to the fun part... adding the girl. I think she came out cute!

I have one more canvas that I'm working on for week 1 of the class. The first week of the class has taken me 3 weeks to finish. It's good thing it's a self paced class!

Stay tuned for girl #2. It won't be today though... I have to go kill some ants!

Happy Anniversary, Jena!

2011-10-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

We completely missed Jena's one year anniversary! Yep! Jena has been with us now for a whole year! We are so lucky to have her. She's such a good dog!

Here's Jena posing for a portrait at Fun with Chalk. Hahaha! She has delusions of grandeur.

Here' something that she learned just a couple weeks ago... Don't try to smell the fish...

Look Jena found a friend!

Speaking a friends... Jena is having a friend stay over for a week. This is Sandy...

Want to see what it's like at our house?

LOL! What a good dog Jena is! We sure LOVE her!

Italy/Greece: Day 16 - Athens -> Home

2011-09-25T19:15:00.000-07:00

What does 26.2 mean to you? Is it the number of miles in a marathon? That's on lots of people's minds right now since the Long Beach Marathon is just around the corner (I'm not running it, if you were wondering...).

Well, 26.2 is also the number of hours that it takes to get from the hotel in Athens to our front door. Yes, you heard that right! 26.2 HOURS!!!

So where do I start... We left the hotel at 8:30am via airport shuttle. That left us a couple of hours to bum around the Athens Airport.

Our flight to Philadelphia is 10 hours 45 minutes. No fancy in-flight entertainment on this aircraft. Nothing to do but watch Marley and Me on the itsy-bitsy screen way up in the front of the cabin, or sleep... UGH! What is that?

What's going on back there?!!

Oh, I see...

While the kids sleep, let me add some random highlights from Greece. First of all, does this look safe to you?

I guess if it's been standing for thousands of years, it'll stand for a few seconds more.

We learned that everything tastes better with olive oil on it.

I don't think I posted this picture of the bridge from the Greek peninsula to the main land:

Uhm... GO BRAZIL???

I think it's AMAZING how archaeologists can know what a statue looks like from the few pieces they find:

In Greece they use guard dogs! Yes, this is not a place for my niece and nephew to visit any time soon. There are dogs all over the ruin site, checking out the people as they walk by... do not pet the dogs!

Slushies! Need I say more...?

Hey, Mary! Athens is Doug's kind of city! Look at the types of cars they drive, lol!

Cheryl can never resist sunflowers! Chris took both of these photos... look at the butterfly he caught in flight!

The Greek islands are over run by cats! Chris decided that he was going to do a cat study. Here are some of his cat pictures.

I'm just realizing that most of these random pictures are by Chris. Here is another one of Chris's photos... a Greek Orthodox Priest,

A goofy goat...

A preposterous pigeon...

Silly swallows...

A freaky fly...

And as Jim calls them... a flying rat...

And here's a behind the scene shot! Is my behind really that big?!!!

Anyway, back to the trip home. We landed at 11pm (Greece time) in Philadelphia, and spend 1.5 hours going through passport control, customs and security.

We left Philadelphia at 3:45am (Greece time). UGH! No movies for almost 6 hours!

We ended up getting home at 11am (Greece time) which is midnight Pacific time. We are WIDE AWAKE and STARVING! Our first meal at home? Del Taco 24 hour drive through! LOL! Welcome home!

After all the planning, all the anticipation, and all the fun, now the trip is over... thanks for all of you who stuck through it all. The trip recap lasted about 4 times longer than the trip, hahaha! The pictures that I have enjoyed sifting through again and again, reliving the trip through the blog, will now get saved to limbo-land (AKA, the external USB drive). That makes me sad... But, now we have next summer to think about. Where are are going next?

Italy/Greece : Day 15 - Athens

2011-09-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

We slept in today... it felt so good! We went down to breakfast at 7:30am, stopping at the kids' room on the way (they were still sleeping). We'll meet them in the lobby later. We saw a lot of people from our group enjoying a late breakfast. Everyone is in a good mood and ready to explore Athens on our own.

Our first stop was the Plaka and in order toget there, we had to take the Metro. We walked about 10 minutes from the hotel to the station; Cheryl figured out which direction we needed to go; and we jumped on a train! We got off one stop too soon... We should have listened to Cheryl!

We meandered up and down the streets and past the shops displaying their wares.

Athens is full of graffiti... it's everywhere! But, I think it's part of Athens' charm.

Can you see the place behind Jim and Chris? Restaurants would just setup tables right along the side of the street.

We had lunch at a little place like that. We had our favorite... Greek Salad...

And stuffed tomatos!

After lunch, I asked the waiter to show me where we were on the map. Did I mention that we were lost? We were trying to find the Acropolis museum. I gave the map to Cheryl and we headed off!

Athens is full of ruins. Here are some places we saw on our way to the museum. This is called Hadrian Library. It was right in the middle of the Plaka with shops all around it.

This is the Statue of Nike in Hadrian Library. It has no head or arms...

This is what it's supposed to look like. A pretty good likeness, if I do say so myself.

Here is another place called Temple of Hephaistos:

Where the Parthenon is impressive because of its size, the Temple of Hephaistos is impressive because it's so well preserved. We saw it in the distance when we were at the Parthenon two days ago, and luckily stumbled into it today!

Wow, that was a lot of pictures of one building. You can really tell how much I enjoyed seeing it! Here's a last building, called the Church of the Holy Apostles. It's not really considered a ruin because it was built in 1000 AD, but it's still a cool building.

Thanks to Cheryl, we finally found the Acropolis Museum! The muesum is located at the base of the Acropolis hill; built right on top of more ruins of the city surrounding the Acropolis.

There are three floors to this museum and each floor has a glass floor so you can see the ruins underneath.

This also means that if you are on the lower floors, you can look up and see the people above you in a less than flattering angle. At least we were all wearing shorts! The museum contained all the pottery, stone panels and statuary found at the Acropolis site. The stars of the museum were the peplos that decorated a building at the Acropolis. They didn't allow any photos in the Acropolis Museum, but here are the repoductions that we took a picture of two days ago at the Acropolis site:

After the Acropolis, Jim was done with walking. We headed back to the Metro. Oh wait! Look, gelato! There is always time to stop for a gelato! Chris has his...

And how about a swim on the roof before dinner...

Time for our second farewell dinner. Surprise! We are not eating at the hotel! Fabrizio took us out to Monastiraki for a traditional Greek dinner: Greek salad, stuffed mushrooms, and choice of entree. I got the mushroom risotto, which was GREAT! But, there's more... fruit and then a brownie with Greek ice cream. Greek ice cream tastes kind of strange. I prefer gelato. The last thing they brought was a liquor that is supposed to help with digestion. I didn't like how it tasted. YUCK!

Well, time to say good-bye to Fabrizio and all our travel companions. We need to go to our rooms and get packing! We are leaving tomorrow morning!

Another Good-bye to Summer and a few Explosions

2011-09-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

I know I already did a good-bye to summer post when Chris went back to school... but Cheryl didn't start school until this past week, so it seems fitting to do another good-bye to summer in her honor!

Here's the last bike ride of the summer. The kids and Papa are taking my nephew's bicycle for a spin down the street.

HEY! Where did Papa go? Did he fall off?

Now on to our first explosion... bottle rockets! Here's Chris using his muscles to launch a rocket. They even sent one over the house and into the backyard pool, lol!

Here is our second explosion... I'm sure you've heard of Mentos and Coke, maybe even seen the videos... but have you ever tried it?

It's easy! Drop a Mento into a liter Coke bottle and run!

Oops, they didn't run fast enough, hahaha!

THERE SHE BLOWS!!!

After all the explosions, what I'm really going to miss about summer is nap time!

For those of you that are wondering when I'm going to finish blogging about the trip... I've tried to finish it, but thinking of doing it makes me sad. Hmmm... I wonder why?

Anyway, I'll get to it eventually... as for now, GOOD-BYE TO SUMMER!

A Card for Fall

2011-09-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a card with fall leaves, but found that I don't have any leaf stamps. So I improvised! I had this cute tree stamp called Itsy Bitsy Giggles from Unity Stamp Co:

See instant leaves! I just sewed them on to the front of the card. And look... I finally used my baker's twine!

Another Card Challenge

2011-09-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for card challenges, or I would never get any cards finished! This challenge was issued by Beth at Scrappin' Mojo. Her challenge was to use Red, Green, Yellow, Brown and Black!!!! Well, here it is Red, Green, Yellow, Brown and Black... It looks a lot nicer that I thought it would. It could be a new favorite color combo!

Italy/Greece : Day 14 - One day cruise

2011-09-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

A bus picked up our group of 14 at 6:50am for the one day - three island cruise. We stopped at 5 other hotels picking up people. We were the last ones there. As soon as we boarded, we cast off! We managed to find a table near the rail... a PRIME SPOT!

They called for the lifeboat information meeting. Jim and Cheryl went below deck to attend the meeting. Chris and I guarded our table, and listened to the lifeboat information in Chinese. We eventually gave up our table and hung out at the bow. What a BEAUTIFUL day!

Welcome to Hydra!

Hydra is interesting in that there are no cars. People get around on donkeys. Here's a donkey ready to tote some luggage to a local hotel.

The first thing we did was try to climb to the highest point of the island to get a view back down into the harbor. This is the best we could do:

We got much better views from the fort. You can see it on the left below behind out boat.

Oh, and this is one of Chris's favorite photos, so I MUST put it in!

Our ride to Poros went fast. We were served a nice sit down lunch on the way.

Welcome to Poros!

This is the island of stairs. They don't have alleys that you can drive down. Their alleys full of STAIRS!

We took those stairs all the way up to the clock tower with great views of the island.

And then we took those stairs all the way back DOWN!

And DOWN...

And DOWN...

Whew after all those stairs, it's time to head back to the boat for naps...

On our way to Aegina! Oh, look another little port town and another clock tower.

Well, we have had our fill of walking around little island port towns, and climbing to clock towers. Time for something FUN and EXCITING! How about taking a speed boat...

Across the channel...

To a private island...

For swimming!

BTW, they don't recommend swimming on Hydra, Poros, or Aegina. The water is dirty with all the boat traffic... but Moni Island is different. It has beautiful clear waters.

And peacocks and deer.

Ahhh... this is the LIFE!

I have one more short story... After spending hours in the sun at Moni Island, we decided to sit below deck and watch the Greek show. Do you think sitting in the back saved us? NOPE! I got pulled out of the audience to dance with the Greek dancer. Want to see me dance?

Hahaha!!! Being spun around on a boat can sure make you dizzy! I'm glad I got to sit down after that or I would have fallen over!

A bit of wisdom from a Greek Dancer: Don't just sit there... ENJOY LIFE!

Italy/Greece : Day 13 - Delphi -> Athens

2011-09-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

7:20am wake-up this morning, and were greeted with this great view from our window.

We say good-bye to Delphi and board the bus to Athens. We made a quick stop to over look a ski resort town built terraced on the side of a mountain. Later we stopped at a food park for coffee... after all, in Greece, everyone takes time out to have a coffee (and other treats)...

Three hours after leaving Delphi we arrived in Athens. Athens is a BIG city of 4 million people. There are only 9 million people in Greece, so almost half the population lives in Athens. The city spreads out as far as the eye can see!

When we arrived at our hotel, Jim went next door to the bank. I stayed in the lobby, listened to the "things to do in Athens" presentation and arrange for us to take a one day cruise tomorrow. I went back upstairs to take some things back to the room and left my key card in the slot to keep the air conditioner running and went back downstairs to wait for Jim. Cheryl was in the lobby waiting for Chris to come down from the room. We sat looking at the map for a little while... then a long while... where were Jim and Chris? We went to the bank next door to look for Jim, and he wasn't there. We went back to the room and knocked on our door, no Jim. We knocked on Chris's and Cheryl's door, no Chris. We checked the pool... no one there. We went back to the lobby and got a spare key for Cheryl's room. Chris was coming down with that cold that was going around... maybe he was sleeping. No Chris. He wasn't in the room. We had only 5 minutes before the bus was going to leave for the Acropolis. We hit the elevator button to go back to the lobby. The elevator opened, and there were Jim and Chris rushing back to the rooms to pickup cameras before the bus left. It turned out that the bank next door to the hotel didn't cash traveller's checks, so they had to run to a different bank. (Oh, and we didn't know that Chris went with Jim). But, we are all back together on the bus to the Acropolis. The moral of the story is: Don't take traveller's checks to Europe!

On to the Acropolis! The HIGHTLIGHT of Athens! There are three temples there.

This first one is called the Propylea. It's not a crowded as it looks. We got to walk through this temple, so the groups had to funnel through.

Does it look sturdy to you?

The Propylaea opens up to the grand dame of them all, the Parthenon! It was so nice that we had lots of time to look around and take it all in! The Parthenon is HUGE and amazingly BEAUTIFUL! There are spots where you can still see the double rows of columns and the inside wall.

The last temple was the Erechtheron. This structure is more interesting to look at.

There are also a couple other interesting places at the Acropolis, like the Theatre of Dionysus:

... the much better preserved, the Odeum of Herodes Atticus:

And our favorite... The slushie stand!

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the modern Olympic stadium in Athens made completely out of marble. It must be very slippery when it rains! We are having a hard enough time trying to not to slide on the marble when it's dry.

Back at the hotel, Jim and Chris went for a swim as Cheryl and I got first showers. Tonight is our FIRST farewell diner. A lot of our group are off on 3-day and 7-day cruises tomorrow. We also say good-bye to our Greek driver, Lapros.

Dinner was at a Greek restaurant in the Plaka district. Plaka is a very tourist-y area near most of the ruins. The restaurant was built into the side of a hill (multi-level outdoor dining).

The food was so good! We also have a Greek guitar and mandolin players. Later some dancers came in wearing traditional Greek costumes.

Walking back from the restaurant we got a nice night view of the Acropolis. Even though we got the great view, walking in Athens is not as safe as walking in Italy. We were told to watch out for pick pockets and to avoid dimly light areas at night. We were also told what part of the city to stay out of.

Well, it's back to the hotel and bed for us! We have a 6am wake-up tomorrow for our one-day island cruise!

Good-bye Summer...

2011-09-10T19:54:00.000-07:00

It was 104F just 3 days ago! Two days ago the power went out in the SDGE district that goes from Arizona, San Diego County, Riverside County, and south Orange County. It was a whole day before some people got power back. We weren't effected, because we are right on the edge of the SCE district. The next housing track over and south all lost power. It made terrible driving around here Thursday night!!!

So we went from crazy HEAT to HAIL in one day! Yep, thunder, lightning, rain and hail! Not a lot, but what crazy weather!

Well, I'll leave today with a crafty post. This card is for a friend who is recovering from chemo. I this cute stamp and saying from Unity Stamp Company always makes me smile.

I hosted bunco last night and have taken this whole week to get ready for it. Look for the trip recap to resume next week!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Italy/Greece : Day 12 - Olympia -> Delphi (cont.)

2011-09-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

I forgot to point out yesterday on the lack of crowds. Remember the mass of people in Italy? Greece is very quiet and crowd free. The only other group with us in Olympia was a group of Japanese tourists. It's funny how the Japanese tour groups keep trying to take Chris along with them.

Anyway, where were we? That's right! On the way to Delphi! We drove up a long winding road up the mountain to Delphi. A tour guide met us there an gave us a very long explaination of the Delphi oracle and the history of the site. BTW, Delphi was built on the side of a mountain so there were lots of steep slopes and stairs. Some of the ladies got scared of all the steps and decided not to enter the site. That's too bad, because not all of the tour was steep.

Did you notice that there is no one else here but our group. Here we are all standing in what little shade we can find. It was so HOT!

After the guide finished the tour, she let us climb up to the stadium and explore the rest of the site. Here's me in front of the Temple of Apollo:

Here is the belly button of the world. The story is that Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world to meet at its center, the "navel" of the world.

Here's a couple more photos of around the site.

From here we walked to the top of the site where the stadium is. It's all blocked off, so we couldn't run here...

Did you ever see "My Life in Ruins"? The stone with the whole in it was in the movie. Our guide hates that movie, because the oracle did not talk out of the hole.

We were told the the water here is good to drink. Does this look good to drink to you? lol! It actually was cold and refreshing!

Hey, look! Cheryl's on stage!

Cheryl saw a 3 column structure in the distance. She and Jim set out to go see it. Can you see it out there?

Chris and I headed to the museum. We saw most of our group sittingin the shade drinking slushies. Did I mention how hot it was? We decided skip the slushies and go straight to the museum. We were the only ones in there. A strange thing about the museums in Greece is that they allow photos (no flash) but they don't allow posing with the artifacts. I know that is weird. It became a game for us to try and get photos of ourselves with objects in the museum.

After Chris and I came out of the museum, we looked for our group and they were GONE! Uh, Oh! We hoped they were somewhere in the museum and hadn't left without us. They were! Whew!

In the meantime, here is where Jim and Cheryl ended up.

By the time Cheryl and Jim got back from their adventure. They also thought the group left without them. They were not looking forward to walking all the way back to town after all the walking they just did! But thankfully, the group was just finishing up in the museum. We all met up and took the bus back to the hotel.

In Italy, we had 4-5-6 course sit down dinners. In Greece, all of our dinners have been buffets. We had another GREAT buffet dinner tonight

After dinner we walked downtown... yep, even more walking! Cheryl picked up a Greek cookbook. She going to make us a Greek meal when we get home!

Oh, and today is our 26th Anniversary! Happy Anniversary to US!

Story of the Day: An Italian saying, "Mother of Stupids!" translated to English is "Oh my Gosh! How dumb can you be?" A Greek variation is, "Mother of Stupids was also pregnant in Greece!" LOL!

Italy/Greece : Day 12 - Olympia -> Delphi

2011-08-31T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've been procrastinating on writing up this day... this is a HUGE DAY! My apologies to all those who have been waiting...

Wake-up at 6:20am. It is so HOT and STILL. We took a short bus ride to the ruins at Olympia. It was a HUGE site!

Our guide gave us a VERY thorough overview of the site and the first Olympic games (very thorough as in, "Is she ever going to stop talking so we can look around?!")

Doesn't this look like an important place? Like where they would light the Olympic torch?

Nope! That is a fountain. Right in front of the fountain is Hera's Alter where they light the torch every Olympics. It's certainly not much to look at.

Here's the Olympic stadium!

Cheryl and I raced through the Olympic stadium. I think she jumped the gun...

Chris took that picture of us starting, then he took off after us (wearing flip-flops) and passed me before we reached the other end of the stadium. He almost passed Cheryl too. Yeah, Cheryl beat me. But I beat her back! Long distance running has it's advantages!

We never said we were racing up AND back, but that just makes sense, right?... I declare myself the winner! hehehe...

The museum was very nice. We saw the famous statues of Nike and Hermes:

The museum was full of other statue pieces and nick-nacks.

Chris was fascinated with all the little toys:

Now, it's back on the bus to Delphi. And a long ride it is! We have to leave the peninsula and head to mainland Greece.

We stopped a couple of times on the way to Delphi. Our first stop was a fort where the battle of Lupanto was fought. This major battle kept the muslims from entering Europe.

It really is a beautiful spot!

Our next stop was for lunch in Itea. It's at the foot of the Delphi mountain.The food in Greece is wonderful. Cheryl and I shared a Greek salad and stuffed tomato.

We had some time after lunch to mess around. Here we are trying to remember how to play checkers. It's Jim and me against Cheryl and Chris. We were doing all right until Jim had to jump Cheryl, hahaha! Too bad you can't see the older couple from New Zealand sitting on a bench laughing at us, lol!

We even had time to get our feet wet before climbing back on the bus.

I'm going to stop the commentary here and continue with Delphi in another post. This is already a HUGE post and the day isn't over YET!

I cleaned!

2011-08-29T19:00:00.000-07:00

I can actually see the top of my scrap table now! Just looking at that bare table makes me want to scrap something. Here is a sweet little card that I made with the Unity NOV 2009 KOM.

We interrupt this program....

2011-08-27T13:51:00.001-07:00

Well, we interrupt the trip recap... to give you the newest member of the family garage... A 2010 Kia Forte!

This is for Cheryl to drive to Cal Poly when she starts at the end of next month... The mini-van is gone. Chris really liked driving the mini-van, even though it wouldn't start sometimes. Anyway, Chris will be driving Cheryl's old car to Saddleback.

BTW, Cheryl got "smart girl" glasses, lol! Does she look like a smart girl, now? She's such a pretty girl... The Italians said that she looked Italian and the Greeks said she looks Greek. All the nationalities are trying to claim her as their own, hahaha....

Italy/Greece : Day 11 - At Sea -> Patras, Greece

2011-08-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

We are on our way to Patras, Greece. On a ginormous overnight Ferry. Yesterday was uneventful. We found our cabins, even though the number scheme tried really hard to confuse us! You know Greeks are the fathers of science and math... I think they used some complicated Greek number scheme for the cabins. Here's our cabin. This is top of the line! LOL!

There are different classes of travel on the ferry... There were the cabins which we had. There were airplane seats. It was just a big room with rows and rows of airplane seats. People just slept in the seats. Then there was steerage. Look at the photo below of the deck:

Can you see the people with mats and tents setup on deck? They have a ticket to ride, and they sleep where ever they can find room. I wanted to take a photo inside, but it seemed rude... people were lying all over the floors in the halls and in the stair wells.

The first evening on the ferry, we explored (stepping over sleeping bodies). There was karaoke, casino, video room, a pool and Internet (but the wifi didn't work with the iPad).

We had a nice sit down dinner in the dining room: soup, fish, salad, some kind of meat kabob, chips (french fries) and melon for dessert. Yes, in that order...

We spent the rest of the evening playing cards with the kids in the lounge.

The next morning we passed the ferry heading in the other direction. So you can see what the ferry looks like:

Cheryl is still getting over her cold, so as she was taking a nap, Chris hung out with us. He would like recorded that he beat me at Egyptian Rat Slap, rummy, crazy-8's, two games of rat-a-tat-cat, and speed. I did manage to win one game of slap and one game of speed.

The boat stopped at Corfu. I can't even tell you how many times Fabrizio told everyone, "Do not get off at the first port!" Well, no one got off at the first port, and it was a long wait to get to the second port at Patras.

At the port we met our Greek bus and headed off to Olympia!

The Greek countryside looks a lot like it does at home (just a little more unkempt). Dry low growing brush, and even the same types of trees. The sidewalks are cracked with weeds growing through, the houses we passed were rundown and there was trash all over the sides of the road. I was expecting the worst, but our hotel in Olympia was gorgeous... just what I pictured Greece would look like; white balconies, angular with bright splashes of color!

We got in late and had a buffet dinner in the hotel dining room. Look at the size of this buffet. All traditional Greek food!

I loved the little signs with the name of each dish (in English and Greek). Can you see the dish on the right? That's Cheryl and my favorite... stuffed tomatoes!

I couldn't bring myself to pick off the pig.

Oh, look there's ice cream!... not as good as Italian gelato.

After dinner we went into town where Jim got me a lapiz ring for our anniversary.

Since we got in too late to see the Olympia ruins today, we are doing a double header tomorrow... Olympia and Delphi! Get your walking shoes on!

Italy/Greece : Day 10 - On the way to Greece

2011-08-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

Last night we had to have our bags outside our door before we went to bed. The bus was going to load up, take the first ferry back to the mainland and meet us there.

The following morning, the kids were coming down the elevator. Part of the way down, they met Fabrizio, who was rounding up the suitcases from the people who forgot to put them out last night. He saw the kids in the elevator and said, "Oh good! Take these two suitcases down to the lobby." Then he pushed the suitcases into the elevator with the kids. When they got to the lobby, the door opened to a harried looking porter who scolded the kids (in Italian) for not having their suitcases ready on time. hahaha!

Today is our travel day. We leave Italy behind! Here is our last meal in Italy on the way from Venice to the Ancona.

Here is our last gelato in Italy (down the street from the sandwich shop):

Here us our last church viewing in Italy. I don't know what the name of the church is. It was just across the street from the gelato shop:

In Patras, we boarded the ferry for Greece. There are only a few ferries going from Italy to Greece because of the unrest in Greece. The port that the tour company usually uses was closed. We had a few problems getting past the port authority, but Fabrizio took care of it all (in very heated Italian).

I'll talk more about the overnight ferry to Greece tomorrow. Today, I want to add a few tits and tats about our time in Italy. Here is a field of Tuscan sunflowers. There were sunflower fields all over Northern Italy. We were there just at the end of the growing season. You can see that they are starting to droop. They must have been spectacular to see a few weeks earlier.

Oh look! Here's my beau from Florance. All the wooden boys and toys reminded us that the story of Pinocchio originated in Italy.

Oh look! It's Chris's dream car!

The amount of luggage was AMAZING! Everyone on the bus had one suitcase and one carry on, and almost everyone's suitcase was the maximum size allowed by the airlines.

Venice is famous for MASKS! They were so FUN to look at! Some were really gorgeous!

Cheryl got a mask for a souvenir. I don't know how she could pick one out of the thousands and thousands of masks that we saw.

Chris is styling his new hat and sunglasses. He lost the sunglasses that he brought with him, and he's really going to need a hat in Greece. The sun there is supposed to be brutal!

This is a Burano color study... I'm dressed kind of blah, so Cheryl picked the green for me...

Blue of course for Jim...

Chris is styling the neutrals....

Since Cheryl picked my color, I picked hers... What do you think?

Chris is learning all the features of his new camera...

Lastly, here is my favorite photo of Cheryl and Chris. People on the trip were unsure about Cheryl and Chris. Some people thought that they were 14yrs and 16yrs old. Some people thought they were teenage twins. Most people thought they were going to be trouble. At the end of the trip, I think every parent in the group told me what joys they were. They were so sweet and polite and pleasant to talk to. They also commented on how well they watch out for each other and what good parents we are...

Those are my sweet kids... I'm so proud of them!

Italian wisdom: Parents need to be parents, not friends...

Italy/Greece : Day 9 - Venice

2011-08-22T17:15:00.001-07:00

We got to sleep in until 7:20 this morning! YAHOO!

After breakfast we took a boat to Murano.

It's an island famous for Venetian glass. We visited this one glass factory.

Checkout the front page on their website... it's a map of where they are... very COOL!

http://www.ferrolazzarini.it/

They gave us a glass blowing demo.

Everything there was CRAZY expensive! $900 for an 8" glass bowl... $135 for a small glass pendant! We didn't get anything there!

After that we took a boat to Venice. Since Cheryl was there yesterday, she knew her way around. She took us to all the best viewing spots. It was so CROWDED! Like Disneyland on a Saturday during the summer!

And it's not just the walkways that are crowded! Look at the canals!

We were so ready to get out of there! We signed up for a walking tour of back street Venice... What a RELIEF! No crowds, and the city is lovely!

After leaving Venice behind... we arrived at the Island of Burano for an early dinner.

I don't know if I mentioned that the drinking age in Italy is 16yrs. Since alcohol is included at every dinner we've had here, the kids have been drinking (just beer and wine).

After dinner, we had time to explore Burano. Burano is a fishing village (with tourist shops of course).

We took our boat back to Lido Island... And got our feet wet in the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it really is Mediterranean Sea this time. I checked on the map, hehehe...

Say goodnight to our last night in Italy!

Italy/Greece : Day 8 - Florence -> Venice

2011-08-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

We are now half way through our vacation!

We got our wake up call a little late today. There was a little mix up with bags and rooms yesterday. I think they put us in the wrong room and forgot about us. So, we were a little rushed. At least Cheryl is feeling better today.

We boarded the bus. We left minus 4 people and had to go back to find them.

We finally arrived at the Gallery of Accademia where our local docent took us in to see the original statue of David. It was much more impressive than its copy; standing in its own special built alcove!

Now, it's back on the bus for the 3 hour ride to Venice! We had lunch along the way and it was wild! So far we hadn't met any people who didn't speak English. The place where Fabrizio usually takes his groups for lunch was closed, so the bus driver took us to a truck stop... and they didn't speak English. People PANICKED! It was so funny to watch! Since Fabrizio was busy translating everyone's sandwich order, that left the Aus-talian (Australian-Italian) lady to resolve the bathroom problem. The lady who cleaned the room didn't want to open all the stalls... if no one uses the stalls she doesn't have to clean them. Well, she still charged 50 cents per person to use the bathroom AND there was NO paper!

The optional excursion for the day was a gondola ride in Venice. It cost 60 euro per person... which is around $90. We saw that and thought it was outrageous for riding a little boat through the canals, so we decided to skip it. When Fabrizio did the reservation for the boats, he ended up with two extra seats (each gondola holds 6 people). Well, it turned out that we were the only family that didn't sign up for the gondola ride, so he let the kids go along for free.

So we went our separate ways... the kids took the water taxi into Venice...

... to Saint Marks Square...

... for a gondola ride....

AND Jim and I went across the ferry with the bus. Taking a tour bus on a ferry is wild! It's a good thing that Samual is such good driver. He and the ferrymen had to work to get the bus in the exact middle of the ferry for balance, and then pack all the cars in around it.

Speaking of Samual... He doesn't speak English... You know when they say that Italian and Spanish are not far off, they are right. I could actually figure out what Samual was saying. For example, "Piccola borsa nel bus?" is very close to "Pequeña bolsa en el bús?"; which I translated to Jim, "Do you have a carry-on bag under the bus that you want to get out?"

Back to the kids... They weren't on your everyday gondola ride. They were on a gondola ride with a singer and accordion player. There were 8 gondolas and the singer and accordion player were on their gondola. Cheryl said it was very weird how people kept taking their picture and video-ing them from the bridges. TAKE a LOOK!

I thought we were going to Venice too and would meet the kids there, but it turns out that our hotel is on an outer island, Lido Island. So Jim and I set out to explore Lido Island. Which has it's own canals and a beach.

Remember how I told you that the mini-cooper is considered a big car here? Look at this!

And how about this one! LOL!

After messing around, we met up with the rest of the group at the hotel.

We had a nice dinner on the patio; enjoying the sunset with Mario and Carol from San Marcos. That's Venice there off in the distance...

We ended up closing the place down... and Chris found out what it feels like to drink too much wine.

Wisdom of the day: When crossing the street in Italy, be agressive and never show fear...

Italy/Greece : Day 7 - Assisi -> Florence

2011-08-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hi did you miss me? I've been trying to get rid of this pesky cold. Yes, I'm still sick, but not as bad as I was. I've also managed to give the cold to Chris. Poor Chris... he starts school on Monday...

Anyway, back to the trip =oD

We had a 6:15 wake-up today, and it's back on the bus again for a 3 hours bus ride to... Florence!

On our way, Fabrizio got a call from our last hotel. Jim left his money belt at the hotel. The desk guy at the hotel volunteered to drive it to our hotel in Florence. How nice is that? Jim paid him for his trouble, of course.

Welcome to Florence!

We took a 1 hour walking tour of Florence. Our radios which have been wonderful up to now, failed us... or maybe it was the tour guide. Anyway, it was very hard to understand what she was saying...

This is a church. I looked up the name later, and it's called Santa Maria del Fiore. It's in the Duomo plaza.

Now here is a door from the building across from the church. Dante was baptized here and the door has special significance, but it's not the real door. We couldn't understand the guide, but she talked about the door for a long long time, so it must be important.

We walked to another plaza full of statues. This plaza was PACKED full of people! The statues were amazing, but most of them were plaster copies of ones in museums. Oh, that lady with her hand up... that's our guide.

Here's the Neptune fountain. The Italians call him the "Fat Man." Does he look fat to you? Maybe he's only fat by Italian standards. Remember the elevator incident? hahaha!

And here's David! We'll see the original tomorrow at the Gallery of Accademia. What struck me about all the statues in the plaza is that they are all bigger than life! The statue of David is 17' tall.

I won't bore you with all the statues, but here is one more... They just referred to this statue in the book I'm reading. I was very excited that I had seen the statue IRL!

The tour ended with a trip to a jewelry store and a leather factory. Everything was very expensive. We didn't buy anything... but again, those shopping ladies were in HEAVEN! We left the tour after that and wondered on our own. We've been in Italy for 6 days and haven't had spaghetti, so after looking around, Jim spotted an outdoor cafe in the Santa Croce Plaza. Notice that the plaza is empty behind us? Well, it's raining! We had hot spaghetti outside under the umbrellas in the rain. A perfect meal! YUM!

That church behind us in the picture is Santa Croce. We walked in after lunch and found that they house the tombs of some famous people: Michelangelo's, Dante's, Machiavelli's... Here's Galileo's...

After leaving Santa Croce, we walked to the Ponnte Vecchio. This is an old meat factory bridge that they've converted to a tourist haven! Jewelry shops GALORE!

Oh, and also gelato, hehehe...

On the other side of the bridge, I fell in love with some pictures by water color artist, Adelina Quadri. We bought one of her paintings and she gave us a little painting for free (for Cheryl). It's a perfect souvenir from a European vacation. I still need to get a frame for it. I'm waiting for a Michael's 40% off coupon.

Here's an interesting tradition. All around the Ponnte Vecchio, there are locks left by tourists. They've all got names and dates on them. If we'd known, we would have brought a lock to leave!

Poor Cheryl has a cold. We headed back to the hotel so she could take a nap before dinner... poor girl. She was so much looking forward to seeing Florence. We also got Jim's money belt. All the money and travelers checks were still in it!

We went to dinner at Fabrizio's favorite restaurant. It was good, but our spaghetti lunch was better. Poor sick Cheryl went back to the hotel and the rest of us walked back to the Piazzo Vecchio for a closer look of the statues:

In the piazzo we saw the signature green cross of a Farmacia. That's when we go the medicine that I told you about last week.

We got back to the hotel at 9:45pm... wake-up tomorrow at 6:20!

Tip of the Day: If you are going to leave our money belt at a hotel, do it in a town run by Franciscan monks.

Italy/Greece : Day 6 - Sorrento -> Assisi

2011-08-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Pompei! Our day started at 6am, and our first stop of the day is Pompei. Fabrizio changed our itinerary so that we would be there first thing in the morning before it got hot and crowded.

We had a GREAT guide through the ruins! He told us stories and really had us imagine what life would be like in this city.

And it was a city, bigger than 100 football fields and buried under 60 meters of ash.

Actually 10% of Pompei is still buried... Who know what else they will find!

They have some buildings fully intact:

Now this was really interesting... they put all the pottery, statuary and other stuff they find in this gated area. It seems that the highlight for most people were the dead people. It was hard to get close to the fence.

Here is a great view of Mt. Vesuvius. The volcano is still active and people are living on the side of it... what are they thinking?!

By the time we were leaving Pompei, the tour buses from the cruise ships were just arriving... perfect timing again, Fabrizio!

Today is a travel day (5 hours on the bus), which is fine because as we drive back North we are driving into rain.

We did make a stop at the Cassino War Cemetery. I have to admit when we recited what we did this day, we always forget the War Cemetery. It wasn't memorable, even Fabrizio couldn't remember where it was, and the driver got lost.

It was only sprinkling lightly when we got to Assisi. It is a medieval town built on a hill. It is famous for the St. Francis Basilica.

We got a tour of the Basilica. We weren't prepared, so those of us in shorts had to buy a cover-up in the foyer for 50 cents. There must not have been photos allowed, because I don't have any photos of the inside. There are three churches in the Basilica, all built on top of each other. St. Francis is entombed in the bottom. We each left candles there.

Getting back to our tour guide, Marco. He was great! He was very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about St. Francis and the art there. It was a fun tour!

Our hotel was very nice. After Fabrizio kept warning us about the "moderate" accommodations, I expected the worse, but it was one of my favorite hotels.

After dinner, we took a walk in Assisi in the rain.

There are 14 churches in the one little town of Assisi:

It's a good thing all roads lead back to the Basilica, because we were lost! Yes, okay... we should have listed to Cheryl. Anyway, from the Basilica, it was easy to make it back to the hotel for a good night sleep.

Italy/Greece : Day 5 - Around Sorrento

2011-08-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

We got to sleep in until 7am! You should have heard the cheer when Fabrizio made that announcement. hahaha!

We were so used to getting up at 6am that we were still up early. The kid's room is right below ours. Good Morning Chris and Cheryl...

This morning we are taking a shopping tour into Sorrento. Our first stop is an inlaid wood demo. Hmmm... interesting and pretty, I guess. A lot of people from the tour were buying platters, music boxes, picture frames, and chess sets, but we didn't buy anything.

The kids took off for downtown Sorrento soon after that. Jim and I waited for Fabrizio to take us into town. He was going to tell us where we can find a birthday card in Italian for my nephew. We've been looking everywhere! Well, everywhere we would find a birthday card here... markets, drugstores, and book stores, but no luck. Turns out that to get a birthday card in Italy, you need to go to a tobacconist at a store called a tobacchi. They sell tobacco products, newspapers, and greeting cards. So after getting the card, we shopped a little downtown.

The kids did their shopping in their own way...

We shopped all morning and had lunch on a local farm. They make all their own food and ingredients from what they grow.

Some of us got put to work making pizza...

TIME TO EAT!!!

YUM! Cheryl's favorite meal!

Those of us who still had energy climbed on a bus to the Amalfi coast and Positano. The drive was fairly short, the road was twisty, and the views were gorgeous!

The town of Positano was crowded. We walked to the beach and put our feet in the water. (NOTE: at the time we thought it was the Mediterranean Sea, but I just looked it up. It's the Tyrrhenian Sea) I wish we had our swimsuits. The water felt wonderful!

We did a little exploring... I LOVE those grapes hanging down over Cheryl's head!

Everyone was ready to go back to the hotel early, and most slept on the bus. It was a LONG day... and it's not over! We have another BIG meal tonight at the hotel. All this food is getting to me, so I decided to go for a run through the park adjacent to our hotel. It wasn't a big park so I went round and round and round. When I was done, I stopped on the terrace to cool off and what did I see?

Cheryl and Chris going for a swim! There were a LOOOOONG staircase running down the cliff side, so I went down to say "hi."

I left them to it and went back up ALL THOSE STAIRS!!!

Later when I saw the kids at dinner, they asked, "Hey, Mom! Did you know there was a elevator?" Huh? Now you tell me! hahaha!

What we learned today... If you visit a farm, wear pants and long sleeves or the bugs will eat you alive!

Italy/Greece : Day 4 - Rome -> Capri -> Sorrento

2011-08-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

We had another marathon day today, but I'll try to keep this post shorter ;0D

Today after another 6am wakeup, we said good-bye to Rome. I realize that I didn't give you a description of what Rome is like. It's crowded, but clean and charming. In Rome, a mini-cooper is a BIG car... a smart car and cars of that size fit right in. There are thousands of scooters which the Italians call mosquitos, because of how they buzz around everyone. Fabrizio keep touting our bus driver's skill, saying that, "You are lucky you have a Napolian bus driver!" Even Jim was impressed with how he'd drive the little streets in Rome with inches to spare on each side of the bus.

We didn't really know what the "Napolean bus driver" comment meant until we left Rome for the port of Napoli (our bus driver's home). What a crazy place! There, markings on the street on only for decoration, and signal lights are considered only suggestions. But, thanks to Samuel's skill we made it safely to the port, and boarded a boat to the beautiful Island of Capri (thankfully, leaving Napoli behind).

The main part of town at the top of the hill. Jim and I headed to the funicular (cable car) that would take us there. In the meantime, the kids jumped on another boat for an island cruise:

The town was so interesting! The houses are carved into the side of the hills; the streets are little walkways or intersecting tunnels.

We found some pretty spectacular views:

Meanwhile, on the cruise, the kids were see the same things we were, but from sea level:

When the kids got back, they did a little exploring of their own... Trust them to find the Rodeo Drive of Capri. Capri is the designer showcase (second only to Milan). All the major designers and new upcoming designers have shops in Capri. Yeah, the group of ladies on our tour, who we affectionately called the "shopping ladies," were in heaven!

We stopped at a cute little sidewalk cafe for... you guessed it... PIZZA!

Now is our time to leave. We met up with the kids just before heading back down the Funicular to board the ferry to Sorrento. The ride was only 25 minutes, but it was an exhausting day. We all fell asleep.

BUT, it's not over YET! Welcome to SORRENTO!!!

We had just enough time to get to the hotel and take showers, but with our entire group taking showers at once, the water pressure was almost non-existent. I had to rinse my hair out under the faucet. Eventually, the hotel ran out of hot water... some of the group members were NOT happy! After the showers finally got finished, we took several micro-mini-vans to a lemon farm for dinner. The road to the farm was insanely narrow... too narrow for a bus... too narrow for van... but just wide enough for a micro-mini-van. BUT NOT wide enough for the micro-mini-van to pass anything (not even a pedestrian). Seriously, there were inches of clearance on each side! Here is the van:

And here is what it looked like inside, lol!

This is a private residence and they open their home up to serve tour groups a home-cooked meal. Isn't this a wonderful place to eat? The food was WONDERFUL and plentiful. Like all Italian dinners, it lasted for a couple hours.

Look at this view from their yard!

The specialty of the lemon farm (in fact the whole region) is a lemon liquor that they call limoncella. We tried the limoncella here, and it was very strong! Chris and I didn't like it, but Jim and Cheryl did. In fact, Cheryl finished Chris's cup. I told Chris to make sure that Cheryl didn't fall down the stairs on the way to their room tonight. On the way back down the mountain in the micro-mini-vans, the group, who we fondly refer to as the "crazy Australians" had hit the limoncella a little to much... they offered our driver 50 euro, to pass the van in front of us. Needless, to say, it was a WILD ride down the mountain! When we reached the bottom, we all tumbled out laughing. We got back to the hotel after 10pm... time for bed!

I'll leave you with the FUNNY OF THE DAY: Our hotel was old, but with lots of character. The elevator was tiny! It claimed to hold a maximum capacity of 5. The 4 of us got into the elevator, and it wouldn't budge! We were over the weight limit. I got out and took the stairs... Well, the elevator may have a maximum capacity of 5 Italians, but it only holds 3 Americans.

Italy/Greece: Day3 - Rome

2011-08-13T17:53:00.000-07:00

Grab a full cup of coffee... This is a monster post for a marathon day! I have lots of pictures to share. We were up at 6am via wake-up call, and didn't get back to the hotel until after 10pm!

Our first stop was the Vatican. Where Cheryl fell out of the bus... don't worry, she wasn't hurt; just embarrassed. Look at all the people here!

Our local guide told us that some people stand in line for hours to get in, but thanks to our "front of the line" pass we walked right in. Our first destination was the Famous Sistine Chapel. We walked through long halls full of statues (yes, there are statues around all those people).

And walked down another long hall full of tapestries. But the highlight of this hall for me was the ceiling. It looked like a bunch of framed pictures all lined up. Each picture was amazing, and they went on and on and on...

There is a dress code for the Vatican, and in fact for all the churches in Italy... shoulders and knees must be covered. Our host, Fabrizio, reminded us over and over about it, so we were all dressed appropriately for the day. No photos were allowed in the Sistine Chapel. So here is my token photo:

We were not allowed to speak in the chapel (BTW, "shhh..." means be quiet in Italian too). You saw all those people in the hall? All those people were crammed in a 134'x44' room all looking up. It was packed! Remember the radios I told you about yesterday? They came in handy today. Our guide was whispering in her microphone, telling us about Michelangelo and the story depicted in each panel of the ceiling. Then she directed us all (scattered throughout the crowd) to the exit door when it was time to leave.

Our next stop was my favorite: St. Peter's Basilica!!! This place was so amazing! I could have spent the entire day in just that one building. I have lots of photos to share... I couldn't pick just one:

The big difference between the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica is that the Sistine Chapel is all paintings where St. Peter's Basilica has NO PAINTINGS. Look at this below... do you think that is a painting?

NO! It's a mosaic!

It's hard to tell even in person that this is not a painting. We had to zoom in with a camera to see the tiles. They were so small! There were lots and lots of these mosaics in the Basilica along with fantastic sculptures.

Here we are set loose for lunch in St. Peter's square. See that building on the right? That's the Pope's residence. Since the shutters are closed, that means that he's not there. He's at his summer residence.

Here's Chris having a drink at the Vatican. All the water in the Italian fountains is potable. The water from this fountain was cold and delicious!

Yeah, that is just our MORNING! Now it's off for a bus tour of the city and a stop at the FABULOUS Roman Colosseum! Look at all the people!!! Again, it's another place where people stand in line for hours to get inside, and we walked right in with our front of the line pass!

Here we are! Just to prove we were there!

And here is the inside of the Colosseum without us blocking the view, lol! To get an idea of how HUGE this place is, look how small the people are! This place was truly MAGNIFICENT! It could seat 90,000 people! The Home Depot Center only seats 27,000.

Do you see the labyrinth of rooms in the middle? Those are the catacombs under the Colosseum. We took an underground tour of the catacombs. Unfortunately, they didn't allow pictures. Here is Cheryl waiting patiently with her radio on, like a good little tourist:

The catacombs were okay... a pretty cool twist of tunnels with burial chambers and nitches (all were empty). If you have a chance to go to the catacombs or spend more time in the Coloseum area, I'd recommend the Coloseum.

You think we are done for the day? We are not done! Some of the group went on a trip to an Italian Opera. We decided to skip that one and head out on our own. We took the metro (yes, in Italian) to the Treve Fountain.

... And like everywhere else we've been, it's mobbed with people!

Cheryl and I managed to get close enough to toss a coin in the fountain! They say that means we will return to Rome someday... After that, we just wandered around the Baroque district...

We must have pizza! So we wandered until we found a sidewalk cafe that 1) spoke English and 2) served pizza. Our waiter was quite a character!

After our adventuring, we headed back to the metro. As we were buying tickets a man ran by us and yelled something at us in Italian. We shrugged and went back to buying tickets. We got to the platform just as the train was arriving and jumped on. We figured the man was telling us that the train was coming. Anyway, Rome is so beautiful at night... we had the urge to see St. Peter's Square lit up in the dark, so got off at the Vatican stop (two stops before our hotel). It was BEAUTIFUL and so QUIET after the crowds of the morning:

We were tired from all the walking and were ready to go back to the hotel and get some sleep. We walked back to the metro station, and guess what? THE METRO WAS CLOSED! The man was telling us that the LAST TRAIN was coming! There was no traffic around the metro and the streets were quiet. Jim thought that maybe we could find a taxi if we walked back to the Vatican.

We did find a taxi and the taxi driver spoke ENGLISH! Thank goodness, since we had no idea where the hotel was! Jim gave him the name of the hotel, but (since it's new) the taxi driver never heard of it. He called the hotel name into his dispatcher and got the address! WhooHoo! We made it through our first European adventure!

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That's it for our first full day in Europe... if you made it this far, thanks for sticking through it. But I'm not done, because I want to end with the STORY OF THE DAY:

Chris's college registration appointment was 4:45pm on Monday, which is 1:45am TODAY! Cheryl and Chris got up at 1am to register using Jim's iPad and the hotel wifi, but the registration didn't go through. Chris needed to complete an academic advisement online before he could register. He tried to fill it out, but it wouldn't work on the iPad (no flash). So at 1:45am, they were in the lobby using the hotel computer. They said that it was a good thing that the night desk guy spoke English. They had to buy time on the computer, 3 euro, and ask the guy how to type the "@" on the Italian keyboard... That was quite an adventure for them. I'm so proud of them for taking care of it all... Chris is registered for Saddleback for FALL 2011! YAHOO!

Italy/Greece - Day 1 (leave USA) - Day 2 (arrive Rome)

2011-08-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, 25 hours of travel from our front door to the hotel in Rome! I was working on Friday, so I didn't finish packing until after midnight. I got about 3 hours of sleep before the van picked us up for the airport. We flew USAir to Charlotte. Bare-bones. No food, no movies, no music. But surprise! Our aircraft from Charlotte to Rome was running the P@ssport IFE system! I had never seen a system that I programmed in service before... I was so excited! It's a 10 year old system, but it still works GREAT! We had the choice of about 15 movies and lots of music. BUT that airplane was soooo UNcomfortable! We hardly got any sleep. When we got to Rome, I asked Cheryl, "How to you feel?" She relied, "Like crap. How about you?"

Here we are waiting for the bus with our "one suitcase and one carry-on per person."

After we made it to the hotel, we had time for a shower and and 1 hour nap before meeting the rest of our group. There were 46 people in our group... from Australia, Canada, USA, and New Zealand (most from Australia, and only 4 from New Zealand). Our "host" was named Fabrizio. He makes all our arrangements and makes sure that everyone gets where we are going.

After we met our fellow travellers, we all piled in the bus. (Believe it or not, we have a bus seating chart. Fabrizio rotates our seat position every day.) We headed out to the Piazza Navona. What a perfect place to start the trip! It looks exactly how I expected Italy to look... large plaza lined with sidewalk cafes, quaint buildings, churches, fountains, statuary, and street artists!

Oh, I want to point out that church on the left... that's where Cheryl fell down the stairs. Don't worry she wasn't hurt. She just left her butt print in Rome.

What else do I associate with Italy? Ancient ruins... we saw those too! In fact Rome is a city build on top of a city. One bank we saw had an inside balcony over their open floor that looked down into the ruins under the building. Here is one of the most famous ruins in Rome, the Pantheon. It's the only Roman building still intact.

We had dinner in quaint little cafe called the "Opera Cafe." It was on a tiny side street (or is it an ally?). There were two bottles of wine on the table (white and red) and the food kept coming and coming and coming. We were stuffed! There was a fabulous opera singer and accordionist to entertain us. Oh, and also there was Jim dancing with the opera singer, hahaha! After dinner we went for a walk along the Tiber River to the Castle of Saint Angelo.

We got back to the hotel at 11pm for bed... there's a 6am wake up call tomorrow!

Funny of the day: The hotel we stayed at in Rome was a newer hotel (The Executive Style Hotel). To turn on the lights in the room (or use any electric outlet), you need to put your key in a slot by the door. Cheryl and Chris had their own room, and when they went to bed, Cheryl just pulled the key out of the slot to turn off the lights. Well, Chris had to use the bathroom during the night, and he couldn't find the key! I asked, "What did you do?" He said, "If you sit down, you can't miss."

We're Back...

2011-08-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

WE HAD A SUPER-SPECTACULAR time!!! Even after living out of a suitcase for 16-days, I wasn't ready to come home yet!

I have over 1000 photos from Chris's, Cheryl's and my cameras. Don't worry, I won't share them all here, lol! I still need to sort through them all and pick out the best ones... it's tough when I'm at work during the day, and can't stay awake past 7pm! Yeah, jet lag is making my week difficult. I've also caught a cold...

The rumor is that someone started the trip with a cold, and as our host said... "when someone gets a cold on the bus, in 5 days EVERYONE will have a cold." Well, it wasn't 5-days, but it did spread to almost everybody. Cheryl was one of the first to succumb... she got the cold in Florence. After Cheryl got sick, Jim, Chris and I ran straight to the nearest Italian Farmacia and got some cold medicine for Cheryl and Zinc for the rest of us (BTW, "zinc" is still "zinc" in Italian). Chris got sick after that, but since he was taking zinc, he didn't get anywhere near as bad as Cheryl did. But, a cold wasn't enough to keep Cheryl down... she stayed on the road touring with the rest of us.

By the time we got to Greece, our host, Fabrizio, made an observation... He said, "By now most people would be comparing souvenir purchases and passing biscuits and crackers to each other across the aisle of the bus. This group is comparing what they bought from the pharmacy and passing cough drops." Oh, and BTW, Fabrizio got the cold too (but not until we got to Greece). He was supposed to go on vacation right when he finished our tour. I'm sure he's thanking us for that... NOT!

I'll start posting pictures of our trip soon. I just need to make it through this week. They saved all my work for me (nice of them isn't it?). Now I have two releases to do that were due last week. UGH! I want to be home in bed... at least I didn't come down with the cold until I got home. Jim is the only one that didn't get sick. After all of his years working with the public, he's pretty much immune to everything.

I ran out of pages in my journal, and had to journal my last day on a separate piece of paper. I need to add more pages and rewrite my last day. I also have some pictures that I want to add.

Stay tuned for photos and commentary!

I'll leave you with a piece of wisdom from Chris on How to Pack:
"Put on your two cleanest things and throw everything else in the suitcase."

What's for dinner?

2011-07-19T17:58:00.001-07:00

Cheryl had to work tonight so Chris made dinner. Tonight we had: Stuffed Red Peppers with Chicken and Orzo; 4 ingredients, prep time 5 minutes, cook time 5 minutes. So 10 minutes to the table and just a little longer into our tummies! YUM!

My Travel Journal

2011-07-18T21:23:00.001-07:00

I made myself a journal for our trip to Italy and Greece. This is one trip that I don't want to forget!

Is this the last family vacation? Maybe... maybe not... This page is about that and how we decided where to go.

These pages aren't finished yet and won't be until we go. The left page is about what we are taking. The right page is going to be a running schedule of the day, in TWEET format, hahaha!

Last Saturday, we were at the LA Colosseum watching Galaxy lose badly to Real Madrid. It was fun thinking that in just a week we would be at the Colosseum in ROME!

Now we are busy busy busy getting ready for the trip!
FOUR MORE DAYS until we leave!!!

Another celebrity look alike?

2011-07-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

We have another celebrity look alike in the family... or so some people say... lol! What do you think?

It's a doggie beach day!

2011-07-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's a June Gloom morning, but that didn't stop the crew from heading out to Doggie Beach.

This is Jena's first trip to the beach... there are so many new smells...

... holes to dig...

... and waves to chase...

Jena loves doggie beach!

Don't you Jena?

What's for Dinner?

2011-07-12T20:03:00.001-07:00

Cheryl had help tonight with dinner! Yep, invite the cousin over to spend the night and put her to work, hehehe...

Tonight, the girls made... Greek Pasta Salad with prosciutto, artichokes and feta cheese. YUM!

... AND for the main course... Olive, Red Pepper, and Arugula Pizza on whole wheat pizza crust. This was delicious!!!

Now the kiddos have settled down for a Red Box movie marathon. They got Green Hornet, Beastly and Unstoppable. That should keep them busy for a while {grin}...

Is this ART?

2011-07-11T20:29:00.001-07:00

Cheryl and I took an Art Journal class last week at the Carson Stamp show. It's kind of new, kind of different, and a lot of FUN! This first one is Cheryl's creation:

I'll have to admit that I didn't think that I would like it that much. Do the pictures give you the creeps? BUT, after working with them, they have a charm and a mood... which leads to a message (hence the journal part).

The whole process was rewarding. And even though you won't find my girl hanging on the wall at my house, she still has a place in my heart (and on the first page of my art journal).

Celebrity Look-alike?

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

My friend from work brought her 14yr daughter to the 4th of July race. She thinks that Chris is so CUTE!... and that he looks like T.L. (I'm not going to type his name because I'm afraid my blog will get found by the crazies).

Chris thinks that she's delusional. But, what do you think? Maybe a little around the nose? lol!

Summer Card Camp - week 2

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

It's week 2 of summer card making class! And here is the color combo for the week:

It's hard to see the glaze in the flat light, but it's there... I love the extra shine it adds to the card.

What's for Dinner?

2011-07-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

Since Jim is working late on Tuesday and Thursday, Cheryl has been making dinner for Chris, herself, and me. I give her $20 a week to spend at the market, plus she can use anything we have at home. For dinner tonight she made Mediterranean Chicken with Feta Cheese and Sun Dried Tomatoes:

Add an arugula and spinach salad with Champagne Pear Vinaigrette dressing... YUM!!!

Thank-you for the GREAT dinner, Cheryl!

Lake Forest Firecracker 5K

2011-07-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

Chris, I and a few people from my lunch time running group ran the Lake Forest 5K on the 4th of July. It was downhill out and uphill back... UGH!

Poor Chris hasn't run for 4-5 weeks and had a tough race. There were a lot of boys running in his age group!

Chris
men 15-19: 36/77
time: 23:24.5
pace: 7:33
men : 108/505
overall: 144/1096

...and me! I came in 1st place in my age group. We really should remember to wait for the award ceremony to find out if we won a medal.

Me
Women 50-54: 1/41
time: 24:29.0
pace: 7:54
women: 53/591
overall: 181/1096

Summer Card Camp!

2011-06-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've joined an online card making class for the summer. It supposed to teach me all sorts of new ideas for using stamps on cards... and I do have a LOT of STAMPS!

Week 1: Color Combo:
This card uses light blue embossed paper rubbed with white ink; stamped tag; stamped circle border; and die cut sentiment. I also added this to the PIO challenge!

It's a Party!!!

2011-06-26T19:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Graduation to Chris!!!

Here is my crafty share (besides the invites). When I was making these, I kept thinking how proud Mara, my crafty buddy, would be of me!

Cheryl helped me with the hats. We used melted chocolate chips to glue together, a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup, a Ghirardelli square, a mini M&M, and a strip of mango Fruit Rollup. The Fruit Rollup wasn't as yellow as I hoped, but oh well... They went together very quickly! A tip... freeze the peanut butter cups. It keeps them from falling apart when unwrapping.

The finished product!

But wait! These are not ordinary cupcakes! They are topped with a BIG dollop of whipped cream; filled with cream cheese and a mini Oreo! YUM! Everybody LOVED them!

My friend Mary is always interested in what kind of food we serve. My mom was a BIG help... she brought sushi, spam musubi, fruit, rice, and jello. That just left me to make green salad, macaroni salad, spicy fried chicken, sesame chicken, pizza and munchies. Everyone ate a lot :oD

I wish I had taken some pictures backyard. Jim worked really hard cleaning up the yard and it looked GREAT! Most everyone was outside enjoying the backyard.

Here is the grad... what a handsome guy! He'll be attending Saddleback Community College in the fall.

We actually have two grads. Cheryl graduated from Saddleback with a AA in Liberal Arts. She'll be starting at Cal Poly Pomona in the Fall. She said that we shouldn't celebrate until she finished her PHD, but notice that she's not objecting to presents, hehehe... Here she is checking out the digital recorder we got for her to take to lectures in the fall.

Jena-girl went next door to play with Jammer while this was going on. Here is Jena helping Jim and Chris fix the screen on the sliding glass door before the party.

That's it! Schools over! Bring on Summer!

Oreo Cupcakes

1 pkg. (2-layer size) chocolate cake mix (I used devil's food)
1 pkg. (8 ox) Cream Cheese, softened
1 egg
2 T. sugar
24 mini Oreos
1.5 cups cool whip

Prepare cake batter per package directions. Mix cream cheese, egg and sugar until wll blended.
Spoon half the cake batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Top each with about 1.5 tsp. cream cheese mixture and 1 cookie; cover with remaining cake batter.
Bake 350 degrees for 22 minutes o runtil toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean.
Frost with Cool Whip.

Congratulations Chris!!!

2011-06-23T16:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Chris's High School Graduation! That's it for us! No more High School-ers! There were 664 graduating seniors... smaller than Cheryl's class, which was just over 800.

The night of graduation is Grad Night. Chris went back to school at 9pm where there was a dance in one of the gyms. After a couple hours, they all piled onto buses and went out to Bellflower for a night of entertainment. Chris had a GREAT time and was in very high spirits when I picked him up at 6am this morning. That didn't last long... he was out within 10 minutes of his head hitting his pillow.

Anyway, back to graduation... it was a pleasantly breezy day as we sat and watched the ceremony... trying to pick Chris out of a sea of black.

Hey, LOOK!!! THERE HE IS!!!

Grandma, papa, my SIL and all the kids came to cheer Chris on!

Here are the obligatory posed shots... Of our family...

And with Grandma and Papa...

After the ceremony, we went back to the house for cake. I actually tried to make a reservation at Farrell's. It took me a couple of hours of trying to get through, and then when I asked to make a reservation, they laughed at me! I think that was very unprofessional of them, but then I guess they were overrun with graduation parties.

So, We had a nice relaxing family time at home...

Look! It's the first graduate from the class of 2020!

Happy Papa Day!

2011-06-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

Happy Papa Day, everyone!

I had my camera with me, hoping to get some photos of the papas... but I didn't even take my camera out! So, today, all you will get to see are some Father's Day cards.

This one is for my dad. Kinda fun and playful, just like my dad!

Here's the one I made for Jim. This one is made using a two sided stamp.

Isn't this FUN? I really like how it came out!

Here is the model for the the dog on the card. It's a good thing I have a lot of different shades of brown copics!

Happy Birthday Sweet 16! (and a crafty share)

2011-06-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my niece!

All the kids are getting big so fast! Look out everyone! She'll be driving now before you know it... Notice the Happy Birthday hat? We have now passed it down to the next generation of birthday kids. Cheryl has been dying to get that hat out of the house... now I can't make her wear it on her birthday anymore.

Here are a few photos of today's SWEET celebration...

Cheers, Chris!

"The cake is a lie"? I don't really understand this one... can someone explain it to me?

Now, this I understand! CAKE~

... and PRESENTS!!!

Speaking of presents... We picked up a couple of video games for the birthday girl, and I made a cute birthday box to put them in. I used the PTI Game On Stamp set...

... and I altered the Timeless Templates Captured Card Case so that they would fit in there perfectly!

Add a cute tag from the PTI Birthday Tags collection, and it's a go!

Hugs to the Birthday Girl! Make a Wish!!!

Friday Ramblings...

2011-06-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy at work these last couple of weeks that I haven't blogged for a while...

I think I need one of these workout tanks from Another Mother Runner to wear during my lunchtime workouts. Depending on how hard boot camp is (walking lunges are KILLERS) workout is not the easiest part of the day, but as long as I keep beating most of the guys, cocky bravado reigns supreme.

I usually run 4-6 miles on M, W, F; go to a 40 minute lunchtime boot camp on T, TH; and do a long run with Cheryl and Jena at least one day on the weekend. The other weekend day is my rest day... ahhhh.... resting is definitely the easiest part of my day, hahaha!

Speaking of boot camp... We had a guest instructor and he videoed our Panasonic group. In the video, he told me that I was doing a good job twice, so I must have been doing a really GOOD JOB!

Cross Fit Forest Panasonic Video

Exercise isn't necessarily the easiest part of my day, though certain days it works wonders at changing my outlook. It has become the most non-negotiable part of my day... as in, if I don't go out at lunchtime and work off some of this frustration, someone is going to get hurt this afternoon! If the choice is between "working through lunch and maybe staying late" or "working out and lunch and then definitely staying late," I take door #2 every time!

As I ramble on here, I find I have no real purpose to this post. I'll leave this rambling post with a couple of photos from our last race.

Chris doesn't even look like he's breathing hard!

Make it Monday - Tissue Paper Texture!

2011-06-08T17:35:00.001-07:00

Here is my card for PTI Make it Monday!

I cut out a cloud image, attached to blue cardstock and covered the whole thing with white tissue. I thought it would lend a softer image to the background cloud.

The PTI products I used in this card:
For the Graduate stamp set
Everyday Button Bits stamp set
Cloud 1 & 2 Die Collection

We have lots of graduations this month, so stay tuned for more graduation cards!

On a totally unrelated side note... Does anyone know where I can get curtains like this?

Look at my BIG girl!

2011-06-07T18:02:00.001-07:00

Was it only 7 months ago we brought home a scared little puppy from the pound? Look at the BIG HAPPY girl we have now!

Happy Birthday, Cookie!

2011-06-05T21:15:00.001-07:00

Another new layout for me! This is another one for Chris's birthday... And the HUGE cookie that he got from his friend Thalita.

I followed the May Mojo Challenge at Scrapping Mojo. This really isn't my style... I prefer my photos to take most of the room on my layouts, but I'm okay with how this one came out; even though that blank area in the upper left really BUGS me!

I used my die cutter A LOT on this layout! Add some Stickle sparkle, and it makes great cute embellies.

I'm going to end off with a BIG-NOSE picture of Jena! We've been trying to get a BIG-NOSE picture of our girl, like the one Chris took of BJ. BUT, everytime we try to put the camera in Jena's face she tries to lick it. Well, here she is after our 7 mile run... FINALLY, so tired that we got the picture. Not as good the one of BJ, but we'll keep trying...

Thanks for stopping by!

Frisbee Dog!

2011-06-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Jena was never really a tennis ball kind of dog. She'd chase it a few times, but would stop bringing the ball back. She's better with a soccer ball, but when she brings it back, she won't let it go. We found Jena's "go fetch" toy of choice! FRISBEE!!!

Look at her GO! This is a soft fabric Frisbee and she can even catch it!

What a BIG DOG she's getting to be!!!

Awww... well, she's still not too big to CUDDLE! Jena must have her cuddle time...

Laguna Hills Half Marathon

2011-05-30T19:49:00.001-07:00

I usually wait until I get race pictures before I post times, but I'm super excited! I ran a 1:52! That's 5 minutes faster than my fastest half-marathon time! This was a very hilly course, but it was a perfect day for running (not too hot and not too windy). I still only came in 4th place in my age group... yes, first loser again!

Jena and Jim came down to see us off. Jena really loves to go running, and was very bummed that she wasn't running with us.

And we're off! Chris didn't do as badly as he thought (he hasn't been running for 2 weeks). Once track season ended, he joined scuba. Anyway, he finished somewhere in the mid 1:40's.

This is our second half-marathon in May, so we have run a FULL marathon in May! We even have a medal to prove it!

EDITED:------------------------------------------------
Official results: Me
Overall: 343 out of 1414
Women: 88 out of 708
F 50-54: 4 out of 69
Age/Grade: 66.90% Place: 101
Finish: 1:52:52 Pace: 8:37
Tag Time: 1:52:52
Gun Time: 1:53:23

Offical results: Chris
Overall: 253 out of 1414
Men: 193 out of 706
M 13-18: 16 out of 40
Age/Grade: 57.13% Place: 427
Finish: 1:47:31 Pace: 8:13
Tag Time: 1:47:31
Gun Time: 1:48:02

Diaper Cake...

2011-05-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

A couple ladies at work are putting on an impromptu baby shower for one of the other ladies. They contacted me on Friday and asked if I would bring decorations. I said I would bring a diaper cake centerpiece. I've always wanted to make one of these! Chris said that he would help me. We downloaded directions from the web, and they said we needed 54 diapers. I went down to the store and bought a package of 56.

The first disaster was that the diapers were BLUE printed fabric! Min is having a GIRL!!! When did diapers turn blue?!!! The last time I used diapers they were white and plastic. So the color scheme has changed... the cake will be blue and pink (with emphasis on PINK).

Second disaster is that 56 diapers is not near enough! We decided to use a paper towel core to fill out cake. This worked GREAT because it holds all the layers together! It's going to be a lot easier getting this to work than I thought.

The height of the paper towel roll dictated a 3 tier cake. Chris rolled most of the diapers, twice! I won't bore you with the reason why we did it twice... just call it a problem with indecision.

The bottom layer has 34 rolled diapers, the middle layer has 14 rolled diapers, the top layer has 4 flat diapers wrapped around the top of the paper towel roll. That left me 4 diapers left over that we just stuffed in the top.

The first decoration we needed was something for the top. I got a pink/green toy that is connected to a carrier handle... I guess it would be called a mobile?

I think it looks GREAT! Now I need something to bring in more pink. Time to breakout the scrapping supplies!

This paper from Basic Grey is just the thing. I didn't have enough paper, but this paper happens to be available as a digital download from BG! I printed off 6 strips of paper to cover the layers.

Add some pink ribbon, tie on a few teething rings and pacifiers, add some pink silk flowers to cover up the blue diapers AND TA DA!!! A pretty diaper cake centerpiece!

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a matching card for the mama-to-be! (made with more BG paper and a cute stamp from Unity Stamp Co).

Oh one more thing... as I was looking at the diaper cakes, I couldn't find where anyone listed how big it would be! Our diaper cake came out 16" tall, and the base is 12" across.

Thanks for joining us on this diaper cake journey. My only regret? I didn't get a picture of Chris rolling baby diapers, lol!

The tail of the dog door continues...

2011-05-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

Jena has to work on her aim a little... instead of going through the dog door, she went straight through the screen door!
What a klutz!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

2011-05-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

I made this cute card for my mom and dad's 53rd anniversary...

I used the Mat Stack 1 Collection and a saying from the Fillable Frames #4 set.

The flowers are cut for me by my friend BethieJ. The colors were perfect for the Crate Paper Brook collection. I altered the flowers slightly by cutting a hole in the center, running a gather stitch around it, and pulling it tight. It gives the flower more dimension. I used this method on the blue and gold felt flowers.

The small green flower is one I made from ribbon. Here's how it's done.

Take a length a ribbon: #petals x (ribbon_width x 2) + a tiny bit more. So for the flower below, I used 1" ribbon and it has 6 petals... so 12.25" of ribbon.

Mark the ribbon every (2 x ribbon_width). So, for me that's every 2". Run a gather stitch along one edge, over to the other edge every time you reach a mark, and on both ends of the ribbon.

When you pull the gather stitch, the flower starts to form.

I'm going to use this cutie with these scraps of paper. Won't that make a striking card?

Thanks for stopping by!

More on the door...

2011-05-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

I'm sure that everyone is dying to know all about the dog door... No? Well, maybe not, lol! Here is the XL sized dog door. It took a lot of calling and coaxing and finally sausage in marinara sauce to get Jena through the door. Something that we didn't think about is that not only is the door wider (definitely wide enough for Jena-girl), but the rise on the bottom of the door is higher. Jena's legs are too short to climb over the lip from the outside. Chris had a great idea and grabbed the bicycle ramp that papa made for him... it now makes a GREAT doggie ramp! After shoving Jena through a hole a few times, she is now comfortable enough to go through on her own.

It was a traumatic day! Jena is exhausted!

On a side note, I definitely recommend El Toro Carpet and Tile Cleaners! Too bad it isn't a sunny day. The cleaners came at 8am this morning, and the carpets are still damp this evening, but they look GREAT!

Weekend Project...

2011-05-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

We are getting our carpets cleaned on Monday... the ENTIRE house! I can't wait! Well, since the carpets will be all clean and fresh smelling again, we want to get a doggie door. That way Jena can go out when she needs to... no more accidents in the house! We found out that Jena is an in-between sized dog. A Medium sized door is 7.5" wide... an XL door is 10.5" wide. For some reason, there is no size Large door. We want to know if Jena will fit through a medium door. The Home Depot guy told us to get a piece of cardboard and cut a medium sized door in it; then we just have Jena take a test drive, so to speak.

Well, here is our test door!

... and here is Jena, hiding under the computer desk. She is terrified of the cardboard with the hole in it.

We tried to coax her through with food. We even showed her that the kitty was eating her food!

We tried to get her to play ball, chase the bunny, or come after her favorite squeaky whale... Nothing worked!

Hours later, we finally coaxed her through with a piece of sausage dipped in marinara sauce. Her ears brushed the sides of the door and she freaked out. So question answered... we need to get the XL doggie door.

Oh, you might have noticed the realistic looking kitty and bunny. Chris has really out done himself! Hahaha!!!

Chris put the bunny out front... for no special reason... "Why not?" We have lots of bunnies in our area. Maybe it will keep the bunnies from coming into our yard...

All the neighborhood dogs are going NUTS over the bunny! When they walk by, they bark and want to kill Chris's bunny. We may only find paper shreds left in the morning.

Chris makes more jewelry...

2011-05-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

This first pendant is cutout by hand and enamaled. Chris decided the enamal is not his technique of choice... I think it's BEAUTIFUL!!!

Now that the teacher has taught all the techniques that she is going to teach, she let the kids pick their own projects (incorporating the techniques from the class). Can you tell that Chris LOVES to make rings? This is his first student choice project... a turquoise ring! He did such a great job on the background around the bezel. The band is pretty cool too!

His next student choice project is... you guessed it... another ring! I can't wait to see what he's going to create!

Card Share... Fun for young and old...

2011-05-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

Look at me GO! Another card for the PIO challenge for this week:

When I saw the theme, "Boys and Girls Come Out To Play," I just knew that I had to use this stamp set! I've had it forever, and since I unmounted all my woodblock rubber, I don't remember which company the set is from.

This is a simple pocket/tag card, I don't have time for much more during the week... I like how it came out. I can see using this card for almost anything!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon

2011-05-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

The results are in!

Here are Chris's results. Not his best race but still GREAT! He came in second in his age group and would have received an award (if we had known to stay for the award ceremony).

Men 1-19 - 2/15
Time - 1:41:38.3
Pace - 7:46
Overall - 45/741
Men - 38/313

Here's me. I love the angle on this photo! I look so ... oh, I don't know... competitive? lol! Also, not my best time, but it was really hot and windy that day!

Women 50-55 - 4/37
Time - 1:58:35.7
Pace - 9:03
Overall - 181/741
Women - 57/426

We have one more half-marathon on Memorial Day... May 30th... WHOOHOO!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's day to all moms! Being a mom is not an easy job... Raising kids and working full-time is tough! I'm so thankful for Jim. The kids wouldn't be such the wonderful people they are without him. I'm at a bittersweet time of life. The kids are growing up... they have grown up... and they are at the point where they need to make decisions for their own life. Let's hope and pray that we have given them the good sense and strength of character to succeed in their own way.

I have a couple mother's days cards that I want to share. This first card is for my SIL. She's the great mom to FOUR of our nieces and nephews!

The buttons on this card are cut from paper! I got these buttons from my scrappy friend Beth. I really love how they look like buttons, but the card is less bulky (makes putting it into the envelope easier). I really need one of those button dies! It would be great to make my own buttons!

This card is for my mom. She's a GREAT mom and a WONDERFUL grandma to all the kids! I was going for a clean classy look. I used an unusual color combination for me... I tend to lean towards the pinks, blues, and greens. I like the way this one came out too.

I also whipped up a couple of gift card holders. My aunt Mary came down for Mother's Day. It was great seeing her, Uncle and Scott. Aunt Mary was my favorite Aunt when I was growing up!

Here are my two wonderful kids! They got up early Sunday morning, went to the market, and made some very very yummy peanut butter fudge.

We took the fudge to my mom and dad's house... everyone there thought the fudge was very yummy too! This is all that is left.

Here is the recipe... Cheryl found it on FoodTV. Recipe is by Jim's Foodie hero... Alton Brown.

Again, Happy Mother's Day to all!!!

This and That...

2011-05-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

Chris and I ran a half-marathon this weekend. It the first time either of us has run serious mileage since the Huntington Beach half-marathon. We started kind of far back in the pack (between the 2:00 and 2:10 pace groups).

Chris took off at the start, when I saw him around mile 3, he was running with the 1:30 pace group in 5th place! He ended up falling off his pace and said he didn't finish very well. I ended up passing the 2:00 pace group, so I know I finished under 2 hours. I'll post exact times when they are available.

After running 13.1 miles today, Chris is running his very last track meet this week. He's been entered into the Varisty 1600m at the CIF Preliminaries on Tuesday. After this week, High School sports are over...

Cheryl has only one more week of classes and one week of finals, and she is DONE! It's official... Cheryl will be attending Cal Poly Pomona in the fall. She got her rejection letter from CSU Long Beach this weekend. Due to the budget crisis, CSU Long Beach is only taking out of state transfers... BUMMER! Cheryl is still optimistic that she can transfer to Long Beach after she finishes her BS at Cal Poly Pomona.

It's back to work tomorrow...
I hope the everyone had a great weekend!

First layout of the YEAR!

2011-04-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

I've made a few cards, but this is my very first layout of the year! I created it by following the Mojo Master Challenge at Scrappin' Mojo. We are given new steps weekly and have no idea what the layout will look like until it's complete. I really like how this one came out!

Card Share...

2011-04-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

I won, I won, I won! I won the March Mojo Challenge! The prize was a $5 gift certificate from PTI, where I picked up this rockin' grunge stamp set. It's just perfect for those BOY cards! Beth also sent me some cute little embellies. My favorites were SUPER CUTE clay cupcakes made by her daughter! I got inspired and made up a card right away! Isn't that cupcake GREAT?

Another bit of news is that the old fashion rose bush that I got from my friend Mary in Ohio is finally blooming! I can't remember how many years it has been three? four? The flower isn't open all the way, but I couldn't wait to post the photo! WHOOHOO!!! Look Mary! It's blooming! And there are lots more buds.

Happy Monday, everyone! Have a great week!