Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I was right down to the wire finishing up the Mother's Day gifts. I made some card sets for the moms in our family. I packaged up each set prettily in a clear box. I was very pleased with how they came out. This one is for my mom:


Here is the one for my Aunt Mary:


And one last one for Mima (my SIL's mom):



My mother's day was wonderful! Jim came home from surfing early so that he could make breakfast. THEN he got the recipe for the soup that I was supposed to take to lunch at my mom's and he made it for me. AND he ordered me a big bouquet of my favorite flowers online. It was a HUGE mixed bouquet of alstomeria (I didn't even know that he could spell alstomeria), lol! AND he and the kids got me a present. Here it is, a BIG Stradivarius Wind Chime! Mima had a BIG beautifully toned windchime hanging in her backyard at Easter. I mentioned how much I loved it.. I was so surprised! Jim hardly ever seems to listen to me when I talk about stuff like that! He was definitely listening, and I LOVE the windchime! It comes in different scales... this one is Mongolian... Chris said that his ears were ringing for hours after picking out the perfectly pitched chime! It's been nice an windy last couple of days... perfect for listening to my new chimes!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Our New Feathered Friends

One more little share for the week... We had some birds nest under the eaves of the patio cover, and they just hatched! Here is the daddy. I think it's some type of sparrow. If anyone knows kind of sparrow it is, please let us know!

I hope everyone is having a great week! I am looking forward to a GREAT Mother's Day weekend!

The Strike is Over...

... and boy is Chris bummed! lol!

We got a call at 7am this morning and was told the strike was over. From what I hear, the HS students were called starting at 5am. Kids were grumpy that they got called so early. Chris said some of his friends stayed up late last night because they thought the strike was still on. I'm glad we were already up and getting ready to go to school, or else we would have had to scramble to ready to be there on time. Chris said another one of his friends didn't get the call until after he left his house this morning. He had to go back to his house, get his books and go to school... real bummer for him! A lot of other kids didn't make it because their parents had already left for work when the call came in.

One of the kids in English class asked the teacher, "Did you get everything you wanted?" The teacher said, "No..." The student exclaimed, "Then what are you doing here? Get back out there and strike!" All the kids cheered in agreement, lol!

It's back to normal routine now. Oh, and track meet tomorrow!

Teacher Strike - Day 3

Since Jim was off work last week, this was my first day at the High School since the strike started. The teachers looked like they were having a party. We passed three teachers walking up the hill to the High School carrying 15 pink boxes of donuts, lol!

Chris's English teacher assigned an extra credit project when the strike started, so Chris took some poster board to school and worked on his project today. They also did a packet on how to buy a house... oh, and they did yoga. They combined another class in with Chris's class today, so they had 15 or so kids.

The boys tried to do a track workout after class. The security guard wouldn't let them on the track, so they ran over to the college and worked out there until the college threw them out. After that they snuck back to the High School and finished the workout there.

Tomorrow, we don't know if there is strike or not... We were instructed to check the web site in the morning.

I have a photo for today and I'll add it to the post (when I can find my cable).

Teacher Strike Day 2 and a card share

Chris said there were only 4 kids in his class Friday. They did other "enrichment activities" like a personality test, healthly living test, and a "how to buy a used car." Chris's personality test said that he is, "romantic, idealistic, sociable,and talkative." Romantic and idealistic I can see, but Talkative? lol! His day ended with... you guessed it... yoga! Chris actually likes it. He said that the other classes have to play board games.

I didn't realize that the substitues aren't allowed to teach academics during the strike! If the strike continues on Monday, the kids are required to bring their books to class and study for finals. They have to study independently, because a group of kids studying together is considered an organized school activity, which is not allowed during the strike. Only 250 kids showed up to school on Friday. If they want the kids to bring their books and study "independently," I wonder how many kids will show up for that...

Well, on to my card share... I punched and stamped a bunch of these orange stars for my friend Mary. I had a few "flubs" leftover. Here is a card made with one of my flubbed stars.



I hope everyone is having a great weekend.
Stay tuned for a scrappy share tomorrow!

Teacher Strike - Day 1

The teachers are on strike. The kids were supposed to go to school and be provided with "enrichment activities." Guess what Chris's "enrichment activity" was at school... go on guess...

They split the kids up alphabetically by grade. All the Junior M's were in Chris's class (which had 10 kids)... only about 500 out of the almost 3000 kids showed up at school today. Chris said his class was medium sized... the Junior N's only had 3 kids.

So Chris and Phil, went to their assigned class... Chris peeks in the door at the substitute and tells Phil, "OMGosh! Our teacher looks like a drug dealer!" Phil says, "No, Way." He looks in and says, "No, Our teacher looks like Jesus!" Chris said their teacher was the talk of the school, everyone wanted to see the teacher who looks like Jesus.

Chris and Phil's teacher is a substitute Yoga teacher, so you guessed it! Chris and Phil's "enrichment activity" of the day was four hours of yoga!

After school the long distance track team (just the kids) got together for a run. They got caught by a security guard, who said they couldn't run together on the school grounds, because it would look like a school sanctioned activity. So, they all went across the street to the college to run.

I just got a call... the strike continues tomorrow. Stay tuned for day 2...

Happy December Birthday!

Last week was such a busy week that I didn't get a chance to mention my nephew's birthday. We have another teenager in the family!... BIG 13!

How do you like the birthday tower! With all those candles, it's lit up like a Christmas tree!

Here's what a Christmas birthday looks like. What a festive group!

Look at these cuties enjoying some birthday "cake"!

At a Christmas Birthday, we must have karaoke Christmas Caroling!

And we have the appreciative spectators...

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Happy Winter!

I looked at the calendar and today is the first day of Winter! Here's what winter looked like at my house today... what is it like where you live?

Elf Yourself!!!

These are so funny! How can I resist?!!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

The new blog look

They say white is the new black... what to you think?

I like the clean look. I still have a few more tweaks to make before I'm totally happy, but I really like it so far.

TGIF!!!

What a week! Jim and Chris were gone, the van broke down, and work is crazy! I had to run/walk home from work one day because Cheryl was at work and couldn't pick me up. Welcome weekend!!!

No time to put together a Friday-5 this week, but I do have a share. We are painting the house... FINALLY!!! Right now the house is all one shade of gray. I want to go brown to match the roof, but the association we live in regulates the colors we can use. We have about 15 shades of beige to chose from and they are arranged in sets of three (dark, medium, light). Here are the medium and light from two different sets; one set painted beside each window. We plan on using the dark from the set to paint the front door. Which set do you like?

This is your chance to go to Mars!

How fun is this?!!!
Enter your name, and it will be included with others on a microchip on the Mars Science Laboratory rover heading to Mars in 2011!

Copic Candy

I wanted to share about a blog giving away some stamps and copics. This lady is a great copic artist and I've been stalking her blog for a few weeks now. Go check it out and become a blog follower!

Chrissy's Art and Heart

Free Photoshop Class

I usually don't post these types of things, unless there is a prize entry for me involved, ;oD ... This is a free online Photoshop class by the super talented Jessica Sprague. Her classes are always in such high demand (and most people pay to take them).

You can find all the info HERE:
http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=976:free-photo-editing-class&catid=1:latest&Itemid=148

All you need is Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I have Photoshop, but I'm going to use the class to learn how to use Elements better.

Sign-up is on June 22... Hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday Jane!

My friend Jane (card artist extraordinaire) is having a Bloggy Birthday this month! She's celebrating with a great prize giveaway on her blog. Go check it out!
http://whoopsiedaisy-jane.blogspot.com/

SD4U Blog Hop!

Have you heard of blog hopping?
Everyone who is signed up makes a post with a project, and link to the next blog. We travel from blog to blog gathering ideas and inspiration.

I think we should give it a try!
SD4U is hosting it's first ever Spring Scrappin-ings blog hop!

Date: Saturday, April 25th
Time: 11:00 am EASTERN (POST READY) noon EASTERN (Blog Hop Begins!!!)

Since it's our first, let's keep this simple.
Your post must consist of:

1 - a Spring-related project
2 - the materials used
3 - favorite quote
4 - LINK TO THE NEXT BLOG.

Nothing wordy. Just Short and SWEET and SIMPLE. This way people will get through.

Keep your post up till 10:00 am Sunday, April 26th.

Why do it? Cause it will be fun, Fun, FUN! You don't have to have a blog to participate... there will be a prize drawing for all BLOGGERS and COMMENTERS.

Bloggers SIGN-UP HERE
If you are NOT blogging, you don't need to sign-up to play...

Friday Rambling...

Only one more month to the OC Half-Marathon! I pulled a glute muscle running 11 miles today, bummer! I'm hoping it's not serious. We'll see how it is after a couple days rest...

Running quote of the day: "We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." Will Rogers

I love the quote! Every runner needs their support crew... the ones that get up in the morning while it's still dark to drop us off at the starting line, take photos, cheer, and bring the car around when we're too tired to walk to the parking lot after the race... I love you Jim!

Now on to the job front. I am now unofficially an employee of a little company called "Panasonic." Just kidding about the "little" part... Panasonic is the largest company in Japan. Did you notice I said "unofficially"? The new fiscal year started April 1st (no fooling, lol!) and with it came a change to a different human resources computer system. Next week, they will have to open a new job rec and I'll have to re-apply for it, re-fill out a company application, and re-submit a background check. They want me to do all this next week Monday, so they can process it and have a formal written offer to me by Friday. THEN they want me to start full-time the following Monday... So Monday, April 13th, I will no longer be unemployed! I kind of wanted to wait until after the half-marathon, but I don't want to let this opportunity pass by. Jobs are really hard to come by right now!

Job News and fun stuff...

I interviewed with two groups at Panasonic on Friday and then again on Monday. Panasonic called yesterday... with "an intent of an offer..." LOL! Big companies... they can't just give an offer... they have to give an intent to give an offer before actually giving an offer. My friend Mary said,"It's like calling to say, I am going to call you but not right now." LOL!

Panasonic called again today and told me that they would call me tomorrow... What do you think of that, Mary? LOL!

Okay, enough of that and on to some fun stuff! Look what I made! I had so much fun during the Unity Blog Hop that I volunteered to organize a blog hop at SD4U (along with a new blinkie)! Mary is helping me. She is so good at getting an idea and running with it. The blog hop will be sometime after Easter... Stay tuned! It's going to be fun, Fun, FUN!!!

Starbucks Chocolate

My favorite relaxation is a cup of coffee with: a chocolate brownie, chocolate chip cookie, chocolate chip granola bar, or fudge. YUM! Coffee and Chocolate... could it get any better?

YEP! Chocolate from Starbucks!!! The Mocha Dark Chocolate is soooo gooood... Dark chocolate with bits of coffee beans... just heaven!

What is a lichen?

This question was put out to Cheryl's college biology class. Cheryl's thought was, "It's a werewolf!" Uh Huh, LOL!... what's even funnier is that one of the kids answered, "It's a WEREWOLF!" Hahaha! Actually, a werewolf is called a "lycanthrope." But, you can tell which kids are the ones that read Twilight and Harry Potter!