So sad...

My son's cross country meet yesterday was traumatic. A girl died.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-me-deadrunner28sep28,1,3560875.story?track=rss

She's the same age as my son, and ran the race right after his. He said that she was throwing up blood and died before the ambulance took her to the hospital. I'm talking to my son (what would you say to your child if he just saw someone die?), and the coaches are talking to the team. He seems to be dealing with it okay. It's a terrible thing to have happened. I can't imagine how much pain her family, her coaches, and her teammates are going through right now...

It's a scary thought to think that one of your family memebers may leave the house on a typical morning, and not return home. I just got this image in an email from my dad. It makes me want to hold my family in a hug and not let them go:

Amber's Blog Challenge

What fall premiere are you looking forward to the most???

The only show I watch is Dancing with a Stars. I didn't realize it started this week, so I missed the dances. I saw the judging show... WOW, is Dolly Parton skinny!

Scrapping the Music - These are My People

Here is my layout inspired by Scrapping the Music song of the week, "These are My People" by Rodney Atkins. This is a hybrid layout. The PP is from the FreeForm Cosmo Collection. The diecuts are from Quickutz and the flower is from Prima.



Journaling reads: These are my friends and teammates. We have been together for over 4 yrs. And have something big in common; we all LOVE soccer! We are tough ladies... not a single girly-girl in the bunch! We all play hard, get dirty, and have fun whether we win or lose. Of course, it’s always better to win! On or off the field, they are the best bunch of friends anyone could ever have. They are my team... the people I play with, the people I hang out with, and the people, with whom, I celebrate the victories of the day!

Song Lyrics used: We fall Down and We get up; We walk proud and We talk tough...We got heart and We got nerve; Even If we are a bit disturbed...


Another new layout using the Scribble Scrabble August kit from 2SCD:



I just love the colors and patterns in this paper line!!!

Kim's blog challenge at 2SCD

My taste in art runs toward the whimsical beach/ocean prints like: Roaslie Prussing, Arnold Fields, and Ruiz Munoz.

My decorating colors follow that theme also, blues for the ocean and the sky, and brown/tans for the sand... accented with colors of orange and green.

Scrapping the Music - Say it Right

This weeks song is "Say it Right" by by Nelly Furtado. I was honored to be picked as the featured scrapper for the week. Here is my layout:



I tried to capture the passion from the song in my layout by using the trendy colors, then I added the black to make it all sparkle. The beautiful patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye. The border around the photo is a digital element that I added before I printed it. It's called "Ledger Overlay" from Kate Pertiet.

See more great layouts and inspiration at :

Scrapping the Music - Like a Star

Checkout this great new blog!

http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/

The is such a fun idea! Here is the layout that I created for their first challenge. I used the Scribble Scrabble August kit from the 2ScrappyChix Designs store. There was a lot of junk in the background of my photo. I could have used my photo editor to edit it out, but I did it the old fashioned way... cut it out with scissors!

Book Review - Sea of Monsters, Small Steps, Maximum Ride #3

Whoa! Call me slow... I just got it! Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series is a take off on Harry Potter! In the second book of the series, "The Sea of Monsters," Percy and the half blood Olympians must save the camp (instead of wizard kids saving their school), by recovering the Golden Fleece from the Cyclops Polyphemus. We find out in this book about Percy being the child mentioned in "the Prophesy." Also there is an evil titan spirit, whose henchmen are trying to create a new body for him so he can take over Olympus and the world. But add dodgeball playing cannibals, a satyr in a wedding dress, and partying-animal centaurs; and even with the similarities to Harry Potter you have a very entertaining story for 5th-6th graders! I very highly recommend this series.

This sequel to "Holes" features Armpit's and X-ray's life after Camp Greenlake. When I think of "Holes," I think of it's story as a tall-tale... Fun and magical. "Small Steps" is a story with social implications... growing up, triumph of the human spirit, of self-sacrifice, and of doing the right thing. It is very sweet and as long as you don't go in thinking that it will be "like Holes," it's a very enjoyable read.

Well, Max finally saves the world, kind of... I almost didn't read this book, because book 2 irritated me so much. I was irritated at the start of this book also, but I read the ending first, and that kept me going. LOL! Good thing I did, because I would have put this one down... the flock fighting and splitting up, Sight-seeing Europe, googling girls on the beach! Hello! You're supposed to be saving the world!

Amber's blog challenge at 2SCD

Share a SUMMER goal that you never got around to accomplishing.

Only one? LOL!
1) Paint the house
2) Find the kids a new dentist
3) Teach my son Spanish
4) Have my kitchen remodeled
5) Visit Niagra Falls (and Mary)
6) Run the 10K through Disneyland
7) Go parasailing
8) Clean out the bedroom
9) Get the carpets cleaned

Sweet Dog

M - mutt
I - immovable
L - lovable
K - kooky
B - beautiful
O - obedient (NOT!)
N - needy
E - energetic
S - spoiled

This is from a blogging challenge at 2SCD. The challenge is to use the letters in a sweet word to describe a family member... Well Kayle thinks she a person in the family and she also thinks milkbones are pretty sweet. LOL!

Relaxation Tip

I find that the best way to relax is to escape into a good book! If it's warm, I like reading outside in the shade. If it's cool, I like reading inside wrapped in a blanket.

Our stay home vacation

My son was away at High School Cross Country camp for three days, and we already had this week planned off work. So, we decided to have a stay home vacation. We played tourist in our own backyard! When people come to Southern California, what do they do? There's amusement parks of course, but we've been to them all. There's lots of desert activities, but my hubby refuses to go to the desert during the summer. When we meet out of town people the first place they want to go is Hollywood and Venice Beach. We've been to Hollywood, but never been to Venice Beach. So away we went.



Here is a photo of part of the canal system that gives Venice Beach it's name. It's beautiful and very ritzy! Then we headed to the beach. I heard that a lot of artists make Venice Beach their home. So, I expected: art studios, sculpture, upscale boutiques, and souvenir shops. What we saw were lots of homeless, tattoo parlors, tacky T-shirt and poster shops, drug dealers, and drug users right out on the street.

Well, next stop was Muscle Beach... again another disappointment. I guess the beautiful people all have jobs (we were there on a Monday). There was only one fat guy working out.



Here is a picture of the famous part of Muscle Beach. You can see the workout area behind the stage where the guys (and girls) get pumped up. Then they come up on the stage to pose. I'm standing in the bleachers to take this photo. I tried to get my hubby to pose with his shirt off, but he wouldn't do it. He also wouldn't go up on stage alone, so our daughter had to go with him. LOL!

The next day we headed to our local beach. We go to the beach all the time to picnic, surf, and run; but thinking again of what a tourist would do, we decided to rent jet skis!



Here's my daughter. She's ridden jet skis before on Lake Havasu. She's already a real pro.



I decided not to drive. It's kind of expensive to rent one, but free for a rider. My daughter has a waterproof digital camera, with video mode. Here's a short video of our ride. We got it up to 55mph!

I took my daughter on a marathon day of school shopping. I also tried getting tickets to a Broadway play, but everything was sold out. So I got tickets for her and my hubby to go to the Galaxy-Pachuca game. It was a rough/wild game. David Beckham got hurt again and may be out for the rest of the season... MAJOR BUMMER! I watched the game on TV... double overtime and a shoot out. Galaxy lost, but it was still a great game!