The end of Summer...

I always think of Labor Day as being the end of summer. School usually starts the week after Labor Day. Not this year though... Chris has already been in school for two weeks, and Cheryl still have two more weeks until her classes start. But still Labor Day hold the place for "end of summer" in my heart, and I made this card...

The image a digital stamp from Tiffany Doodles through the Crafter's Digital Art Center Progressive Challenge.

That's not all I have some Summer photos to share. This first one is from the Southeast Japanese Community Center Obon in Norwalk.

Here are more pictures of the taiko, bon dance, and my mom's hula show:

Earlier this summer, Cheryl and I took a girls' day and spent the whole day in Laguna Beach. We started with a walking tour called "Flavors of Laguna Beach." We sampled 5 restaurants, a candy store, beer tasting at a local brewery, and gelato for dessert! After that we stopped at Casey's Cupcakes. That was the place that won at Cupcake Wars on TV. We visited some art galleries in the afternoon and spent hours at the "Art a Faire." What a FUN day!

How do you like Jim's summer haircut? Hahaha! He had to shave all his hair for a skin cancer treatment. Chris had some fun giving Jim his new haircut... (can it be called a haircut, if he has no hair left?)

The doctors put some kind of medication on his face and exposed it to light. The light targets the cancer cells and burns them off. Right now he looks like a boiled lobster, but he is skin cancer free!

The final good-bye to summer was heralded by a "blue moon." Did you see the blue moon this weekend? It only happens once in a blue moon, hehehe...

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend? We spent a day at my mom and dad's... where it is 5 degrees cooler than it is at our house. For a relaxing day, lots of food, and swimming. I'm so bummed that I forgot my camera.

Aloha!

Did you miss me? We got home from Kauai about a week and a half ago, and I've been busy creating a video memory of our trip. Well, that's finally done! Now on to the pictures :oD

What made this trip so special was that my friend, Mary, and her family came to join us! We've been online friends since 2005 and met IRL two years ago in Cleveland. We were worried about the hubbies... if they didn't like each other, this was going to be a looong week! But, no worries. Everyone got along fine!

Here is our first day. We picked flowers and made leis at my aunt and uncle's house for Mary's family's arrival. Then we dragged them out to a late night Obon in the evening. With the time difference, we kept them up until 3am Eastern time.

Here are some pics sight-seeing around the island...

We went ATV-ing one day. My family has never done this before and it was a BLAST! The kids were on 4-wheelers. Doug, Mary, Jim and I were on 2-seater mud buddies. We drove out to a private waterfall for a swim... what fun!

Another one of our prearranged events was a snorkel cruise to the Napali coast. This was Mary's family first time on the ocean and first time snorkeling! We've been on this trip a couple of times before. It was so fun seeing it all new through their eyes!

Mary and Doug took the day off, while we took Carley kayaking with us! It's completely safe. In all the years we've been kayaking, no one has ever fallen out. Carley paddled in a double kayak with Jim... and they rolled it over. Chalk it up to a full kayaking experience, lol! We paddled up to a trail, parked our kayaks and walked to a beautiful waterfall!

And lastly, no Hawaiian vacation is complete without a day of surfing!

It was a whirlwind vacation! All that in one week!
What made it BEST, was that it was a great time with great friends!

5K Sunday!!!

I arranged a Virtual 5K with my friends at Scrappin' Mojo this weekend. Do you like the logo that Chris made for us?

We actually ran a real 5K race today, so I'm going to use those times for the virtual 5K.

Chris and I have done the OC Fair 5K for the last 3 years. Cheryl just took up running this year, and she's always wanted to run this race. It's through the fairgrounds during the fair, but before it opens to the public. It is fun and festive.

There were 4 detours through the fairgrounds. The kids had plans to slide down the giant slide. I was going to just run through, but when I saw the slide... I thought, "Why Not?" It turns out that the kids missed the slide, and I was the only one that went down. I don't regret it... it was FUN!

Chris started out really FAST. He blasted out of the starting area. He finished in 24:04 (13/36 in his age group, Pace: 7:45)

If you take out the time that it took to me at the giant slide, I finished around 25:10. With the slide I finished in 28:26 (10/95 in my age group, Pace: 9:09). Without the stop I would have won my age group (the winner finished in 25:30).

Cheryl got stuck in the starting funnel. She finished in 26:13 (4/83 in her age group, Pace: 8:27).

No PRs for anyone this weekend, but lots of FUN!

Let me leave you with a couple more puppy pictures...

Buddy says,"Cheryl play with me!"

And, Chris forgot to leave his door closed, hahaha!

More Puppy Pics

Please don't roll your eyes at me, but I have more puppy pics to share. We have a whole pack of dogs here this weekend: Jena, Jammer, and Buddy.

Jammer is our neighbor's dog. She is so sweet that we knew she'd get along great with little Buddy. These three just play, play, play! Look at Jena and Buddy play tug-of-war! Of course, you know who won....

BUDDY!!! Haha! I wish I got some pictures of Jammer tugging with Buddy. Jammer was dragging the little guy across the floor on his tummy. She wasn't going to let Buddy win!

Now it's time for Buddy to sit it out and let the big girls play!

We tried to get a nice picture of the three of them for the blog, but it became apparent quickly that was going to be quite impossible. It was not problem getting Jena and Jammer to stay, but as soon as Jim put Buddy down, he'd pounce on one of the other two and all heck would break loose. This is as good as it gets, lol!

I hope you all have a great weekend!
This is our anniversary weekend... 27 years!

It's Card Kit TIme

Happy Wednesday! I hope you are all having a GREAT week!
This month it's my turn to put together the card kit! YIPEE!!! I tried to control myself, but it's just so much FUN adding thing to a kit for my online scrapping friends to play with! Here is the kit... I've been holding on to this paper from Christy Thomlinson for what seems like forever. I actually had to hide if from myself to keep from using it. It's a good thing I remembered where I hid it!

Here is what I had pictured in my mind when I created the kit. I know not all the ladies are into mixed media, but how can I use Chrsity's paper and not do a mixed media project?

My next couple of projects are boxes that I made up for my niece and nephew's birthday.

Now what is the use of having a card kit, if I don't make a couple of cards?!! This first one is my favorite. It was so FAST and EASY using what I put into the kit.

On my second card, I wanted to use banners. Look! My first banner card!

If you are a blog follower, you've seen this card before. But, I added a PP border with paper left over from the kit. I think it adds something special to the card!

Thanks for stopping by, now go checkout the wonderful projects from the other ladies in the group!

Mary

Beth

Mara

FWF and CASology

So, what am I doing when I should be working on my homework for Monday? I'm creating cards! Here is my latest card. I'm entering it in the Unity FWF and CASology blog challenges:

The theme challenge at CASology is HAPPY. I used this wonderful saying stamp from Unity called "Never Too Much Happy." It was perfect for this challenge.

The ladies over at Scrappin' Mojo and the TV tutorial from Angie Blom got me all excited about washi tape today. I'm by no means an expert stamper, so I created my own digital washi tape by using a piece of double stick paper. I've had this stuff forever... do they even make this anymore?

I cut a piece of the double stick paper, peeled off one side, and stuck on a piece of tissue paper. I trimmed the tissue paper to fit.

I picked some nice digital paper from Hello Sunshine Collection from Jessica Sprague. I clipped some strips of my favorite papers in Photoshop and printed them onto the tissue.

Then I just cut them apart... instant washi tape!

Thanks for stopping by!
I hope you have a great evening!

Buddy's Visit

Buddy came to visit for a couple nights while my parents were in Las Vegas. This is not earth-shattering news or in any way exciting enough to be post worthy... but who can resist posting a mess of puppy pictures? :oD

Buddy at play... he can play and play and play and play... chasing after Jena with those sharp puppy teeth and sharp puppy claws. Jena put up with it all pretty well. When she wanted a little peace and quiet, she'd go hide under the computer desk.

Buddy at rest is so sweet! After a rousing round of play, the little guy just conks out. He is so snugly when he's tired. No one can resist him!

We worked on house training... not very successfully... We had him sleep in the bathroom. I prop-ed the coffee table on it's side to block the door. He slept in there at night with no problems at all... what a good little guy!

The kids learned to keep their doors closed.because you never know what the little guy will get into. lol!

Love ya, little Buddy!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

We celebrated my mom's birthday last weekend. I've had a busy week, so I'm slow getting these posted.

Here's the little gift that I made for my mom :oD ... Buddy is such a sweet little guy! We got to watch him this week. I'll post pictures of that later...

We all went out for dinner at Buca di Beppo. Oh, and if you were wondering, they don't let you have more than two free samples of the house wine, haha!

For 12 of us, we got large antipasto salad, large spaghetti with meat sauce, large penne arrabiata, large eggplant parmesan and large lasagna. We had tons of leftovers. For next time we must remember to get large anitpasta salad, large spaghetti with meat sauce, small penne arrabiata, large eggplant parmesan, and get a different small dish other than the lasagna.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!
We LOVE YOU!!!

Susan Komen Race for the Cure

The kids and I are registered for the Race for the Cure. The purpose of this race is to fund-raise for breast cancer awareness in Orange County.

I put together a team for the people at work who wanted to run/walk this charity. Do you like that logo that Chris put together for me? We have a requested fundraising goal of $125 each, so if you would like to give, it would be majorly appreciated!

Here are links to our fundraising pages in case you would like to donate to one of us:
Cheryl's: http://www.komenoc.org/race/CherylMoore949
Chris's: http://www.komenoc.org/race/ChristopherMoore949
Mine: http://www.komenoc.org/race/JoniMoore


Thanks for stopping by...

Lake Forest Firecracker 5K

We started our 4th of July bright and early at the Lake Forest Firecracker 5K. Jena almost ran with us, until Cheryl reminded me how she has a tendency to stop and go to the bathroom right in the middle of the path. So, she had to hang out on the sidelines with Jim.

Cheryl had a AMAZING race! She is getting so FAST! Cheryl came in 2nd in her age group!

Cheryl's time: 24:37.0
age group: 2/33
women: 55/597
overall: 239/1141

Cheryl left me in the dust!

My time: 25:09.3
age group: 5/51
women: 69/597
overall: 268/1141

Chris had to stop during the race and use the port-o-potty...

Chris's time: 25:38.7
age group: 58/78
men: 213/544
overall: 294/1141

After that we went to my mom and dad's for a visit and early dinner... then on to the Galaxy game, where they lost with just seconds left to go. Well,at least the fireworks show was good!