Designing Friday-5

Christmas shopping is done. I have my Christmas cards written and addressed. The tree and lights are up. I was going to do a Christmas post, but I didn't take any photos of our Christmas prep... I'm such a bad scrapbooker!

So instead I'll share Chris's new passion... Graphics design... He taught himself how to use Photoshop CS3 and has been experimenting. He thinks he might want to go to college and study to be a graphics designer. Let me show you 5 of his favorite designs.

What do you think? Does the boy have a knack for this?

Festive Friday 5

What's Christmas without a little JibJab FUN?! LOL! I have a few family photos I'd like to share this festive Friday!

The first photo is of Grandma baking cookies...
Bake them cookies, Grandma!

Look! Here's Papa hanging up his Christmas lights! For real this time, LOL!

Me and Jim (Santa in training) hehehe...

Cheryl and Chris having some sister and brother fun!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Friday 5 - Welcome December!!!

It's December already! The company insisted that everyone take all their 2009 vacation days and 1/2 of their saved vacation from previous years. Well I took 5 of my 7 days for a week off during the summer, and I'm adding one day to Christmas weekend and one day to New Years weekend. Since I have no carry-over days, that's it for me. A majority of my department is off for most of December. That makes it extra busy for those of us that are there. The holiday season will be a little hectic... thank goodness for online shopping!

Speaking of Christmas... LOOK! My dad hung up his Christmas lights!

Now imagine my kids seeing this picture... They smile, they laugh, they shake their heads, and say, "Paaaaapaaaa...." LOL!

We had a great time at the Jeff Dunham show last weekend. Jeff Dunham was so funny... It started with Guitar Guy opening the show, then they took a 20 minute intermission. Then Jeff Dunham came out and did a 2 hour show! We didn't get home until almost midnight. We laughed and laughed! The next morning, Cheryl got up and said that her cheeks were sore from laughing so much the night before.

As promised here is my report on the turkey trot. Chris and I ran the 10K at 8am... it was a lot colder there than it was at home.
I was wearing a tank top and ended up pulling on a t-shirt over it for the race. It was the biggest 10K ever with over 3500 people running!

Here is me running in my humongo t-shirt. I was hoping to finish in the 53 minute range, and ended up finishing in 51:06! YAHOO for me! Since I ran in the 50-55 year group this year, I thought I'd place really well... NOT! I came in 10th out of 134 in my group. I think that ladies over 50, who are racing, are more dedicated to running than the younger groups. There tend to be fewer walkers.

Here's Chris in this typical orange shirt. He said when he talks to others when he's running, they call him the orange-shirt-guy. He ran in the 16-19 year age group made up of mostly high school cross country runners. He finished in 43:14, 14th out of 66 in his age group. He said he was going at cruising speed, not race-pace. WOW!

Today, Cheryl wants to take me to see New Moon, and I think we'll try and get some Christmas shopping done.
Have great weekend everyone!

Friday 5 - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

It seems like it was just Halloween! I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving already! The year is just flying by... This Thanksgiving weekend starts with my birthday. Yep! 50yrs this weekend! I doesn't bother me... 50 is just a number, and I don't feel 50. I don't think I look it either and my very wonderful family supports me on that, hehehe... thanks, guys!

We had a great dinner at one of my very favorite places, TODAI! I got some wonderful presents too... lots of GCs for GAP (my favorite store). Cheryl and I braved the crowds at the mall and went shopping today! The kids got me a giant tootsie roll, lol! Not really, but you've got to admire the wrapping job. They got me a foam roller (Hey, Mara, I have a foam roller now! YIPEE!!) Jim surprised me with tickets to see Jeff Dunham at the POND! It's for tomorrow night, and I'm so excited!

Here is a photo of Chris giving his Thanksgiving toast (it's for extra credit in Spanish class). My cousin held Thanksgiving at her house this year. She just finished some major remodeling. Her house is gorgeous! I especially LOVE her kitchen. Hopefully, I will get the chance to do mine next year.

Before heading to my cousin's for Thanksgiving, Chris and I ran the 10K Turkey Trot in Dana Point. It was clear and COLD! We both PR'd... I wanted to finish in 53 minutes, and ended up finishing in 51! YAHOO! Chris left me in the dust, finishing in 43 minutes and this was without even trying. He said that he was going at cruising speed instead of race pace. I'll add more about the Turkey Trot in a future post.

I finished the Cross Country photo albums! 78 albums and just over 2000 photos! I still need to finish the frames for the seniors, hopefully by the end of this weekend. I've got to get moving on them... the banquet is coming up next week!

On the way to the mall, Cheryl and I stopped for our first RED CUP of the season! Now the season is offically underway! Here comes Santa Claus...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Friday-5: Good-bye Kayle...

Tonight, Kayle was outside when she yelped and started to whimper. She couldn't lay down and her stomach was bloated. We took her right away to Animal Urgent Care. They did x-rays and told us that her stomach detached from the wall of her abdomen and twisted... because of her age (she's 16yrs), they recommended that we have her put down. Poor Kayle is gone in doggie heaven...

It's Milkbone time! Every morning at 7am! How in the world can a dog tell time? I don't know, but she definitely knew when it was 7am!

Her luxury in life... sleeping wrapped in a blanket on a cold night!

She loved to go for car rides! Anytime she hears car keys, she's running for the door! ... AND yep, that's Chris. You can imagine how long she's been in our family.

She had a very non-dog-like personality. Instead of being eager to please and starved for attention. Queen Kayle has her own mind. She's stubborn and gets moody when she doesn't get her way. She may grace us with her presence when we call, or maybe not (depends if she's feeling gracious). But she was a GOOD dog and she was so darn CUTE!

Kayle's greatest joy in life was licking the dregs at the bottom of an ice cream cup!

Good-bye, Kayle. We LOVE you, and we'll MISS you!

Happy Crafty Friday!

YAHOO!!! It's Friday! I'm soooo happy! It's been a really busy week... Well, as promised today, I have FIVE crafty projects to share! I created them, inspired by the crop at Color Me Daisy. Here they are! Starting first with a couple layouts.

This first layout is from last spring at the flower fields. Doesn't that photo make a perfect layout?

Chris dresses up for school on Fridays. They call it Fancy Friday. He was in such a great mood when he got his first tie, that he even posed for me, hehehe!

I'm an owl hater... stupid owls! But I ended up using an owl stamp on Chris's layout and on this cute card. I can't believe I had more than one owl stamp.

This week I got into making flowers. This cute flower is made of gathered ribbon.

I decorated this little pillow box with a paper flower. My mom won a paper flower book from the craft fair a couple weeks ago and gave it to me. The flowers in the book were so amazing that I just had to try it.

Here's a close up. I'm really happy with how it came out, but it's not as nice as the ones in the book.

That's it for this Friday... don't be expecting five crafty items every Friday. As much as I would like to, it won't be happening. {sigh}

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Friday 5!

Welcome Friday! I had Monday off (Columbus Day), but it still felt like a full, long week. I was going to share five crafty projects, but I don't have five... (only two done so far). So instead, I'm going to share my five most favorite places to shop. I go to these places to browse even if I don't need (or plan to buy) anything.

The very tip/top of my list is Amazon! They have everything. I usually browse for books. I can get lost in reading reviews and following lists of recommended reading.

My favorite clothes shop is GAP! I also shop Old Navy, but I love to shop GAP when I can afford it. GAP clothes/pants fit me perfectly!

How much running stuff does a person need? Not much... LOL! I have enough clothes so I can go the entire week without having to wash, and I always buy the same shoes... BUT, I still love to browse the high-tech running stuff.

Well, hey, a girl's gotta have fun... {grin}

When I have time I like to checkout the magazines, patterns, and scrapbook stuff. If I find myself with a free lunch hour, I'll spend it at Joann's. There's a superstore only two miles from work. It's a great way to relax for an hour.

That's it for this week... next week I promise, crafty stuff!!!

Friday-5

Happy Friday! YAHOO!!! I'm in the mood for a great weekend! No plans other than the normal soccer stuff. We are in home improvement mode! We spent most of last weekend cleaning up Chris's room. We rearranged the furniture and cleaned out all the "kid stuff." {sniff} My little guy is getting so BIG!

Our other project this week is that we are finally having the house PAINTED! Here is the before photo.
And here is the after... we went from one shade of gray to three colors: white, sandstone, and baked potato. I like it. A couple ladies on the street emailed me while I was at work to tell me how the painting was progressing. They like it too!

Here's Kayle... you can see how she was helping the painters. She's still wearing her streak of sandstone. LOL!


Twenty six miles across the sea...
Santa Catalina is a-waiting for me...

We are going to do it! The Catalina Island Buffalo Run! I put our reservations in this week. Chris is running the half-marathon, and Cheryl and I are running the 5K.
Why do they call it the Buffalo Run? Because there are bison on Catalina. In 1924, 14 buffalo were turned loose on Catalina island for use in filming the motion picture, "The Vanishing American." The herd is still there. I've seen them in person when we sailed to Two Harbors (years ago). The bison came right into town!

That's it for this week... I hope you all have a great weekend!