Carlsbad Flower Fields

Welcome to the Carlsbad Flower Fields, just right across the street from Legoland. We haven't been here for YEARS and it's as beautiful as I remember it! Here is the must-take photo of the flower field with the Anderson's windmill and ocean in the background. It's too bad it wasn't a clearer day. The flower fields are mainly a huge field of ranunculus planted in rows of colors. The flower field plants the flowers for seed, not the flowers themselves... though you can buy the cut flowers in their gift shop. Even with the lens flare, you can see how HUGE the field is. That's not even the entire field!

They added a sweetpea maze. It was bigger than we thought! The little kids had maps, and we had to stop one to ask directions, lol! I LOVE the smell of sweetpeas! Chris thought that getting lost in the maze was, "very annoying," LOL!

I tried getting a top view of part of the maze... That's the best I could do...

They also had a beautifully landscaped garden. It was kind of crowded when we were there (lots of kids on spring break field trips). So, I couldn't get a good picture of it. Here's a few more pretty pics! Thanks for stopping by!

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...

Weekly Sports Report

I'll start with Chris this week (since I don't have any photos of the poor guy). Chris has been sick all week with lots of congestion. He didn't run in the track meet on Thursday and didn't play in the soccer game on Saturday. He played a little today, but I wasn't there to take photos. His team lost on Saturday 0-1 and tied Sunday 2-2. There was another red card today when a boy on the other team raised fists to a boy on Chris's team... Soccer is getting dangerous!

Cheryl missed her game Tuesday night because of mid-terms. Team Bob won 3-0, after a player on the other team was red carded for dangerous play. Saturday, Cheryl's team could only field 10 players, against 11 on the other team. They tied 3-3, and Cheryl scored with a long ball from outside the 18yd line.

Today, the girls were bushed from yesterday. Cheryl shot 2 balls off frame and one straight to the keeper. They ended up losing 0-1.

Galaxy played terrible this weekend! Colorado scored in the first 15 seconds of the game! A Galaxy player got red carded for dangerous play, and Galaxy ended up losing 2-3. BUT they have a chance to play Colorado again on Tuesday night... with a better outcome, I hope...

Next week's sports schedule:

Chris:
NO SPORTS

Cheryl:
WED - soccer at 7:00PM (Bonita Park)

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!!!

Scrapping the Music - Everyday

Here's my layout for this week's Scrapping the Music Challenge. I used the great embellies from the SD4U April kit and the song lyrics from "Everyday" to make a layout with one of my favorite candids.

Weekly Sports Reoprt

Lots of sports went on this week... We'll start with Chris. Capo tied the track meet with Aliso Niguel. Capo always loses track meets, so tieing was a BIG deal! Chris wasn't feeling well. He ran the 1 mile in 5:22, and came in last place in the 2 mile at sometime less than 12 minutes.

Chris lost his Saturday soccer game 1-2. It was a terrible game to watch.
The referee lost control... a fight broke out with 10 minutes to go where one of the San Juan players tackled a player on Chris's team (a football tackle, not soccer tackle). Two San Juan players were red carded including their keeper. That would have given Chris's team a chance to tie it up, but the fight took so long to settle down that by then the game was over. Sunday, Chris was amazing! I forget how well he plays when he doesn't run 10 miles in the morning. The team still lost 0-1.

Cheryl scored on Saturday and on Sunday! Saturday she was involved in a scramble in front of the goal. The other team's keeper lost control of the ball and she knocked it into the goal, but her team still lost 2-4. On Sunday, she chipped the ball at the 18 yard line. It looked like it was going over the goal, but it dropped right under the cross bar! She scored the first goal, and her team won 3-1! Team Bob was a loss... 2-4. They played another coed team whose women players were all from the Cal State Fullerton soccer team. Those women were really really good!

Next week's sports schedule:

Chris:
THURS - track meet at Capo
SAT - soccer at 8:30am (Laguna Hills Comm Ctr)
SUN - soccer at 3:25PM (World Cup)

Cheryl:
TUES - soccer at 8:30PM (Bonita Park)
SAT - soccer at 3:20PM (Melinda)
SUN - soccer at 11:00AM (Melinda)

Unity Blog Hop

Welcome Unity Blog Hoppers!

View the Inspirational Blog Hop by starting HERE!

Here's my project using Unity Gratitude = Joy kit. The card is kind of plain, but I wanted to show off the embossed transparency (I ran it through my Big Shot and sanded).

My Favorite Quote: It's not about talent, it's about ...

Your next stop on the blog hop trail is Carla in Canada:
http://scrappypug.blogspot.com/

THANKS FOR VISITING!!!
Joni (kix)

Scrapping the Music - White Horse

I finished a layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge this week. This photo of my kids was just screaming out to be scrapped! I used the lyrics for the song as inspiration.

This layout uses Scenic Route paper and a big FRIENDS bling.

Journaling reads:

Cheryl and Chris have been best friends from day one! They LOVE doing things together and have never fought. I trust you two to be the best two people you can be. I LOVE you two…Take care of each other!

Weekly Sports Report

Chris didn't have any sports this week. Cheryl on the other hand had three games scheduled. Her first game was Tuesday night. Team Bob won 3-0. The other team was very good and was giving Team Bob a hard game even though they only fielded 9 players (that's the perils of scheduling a game on St. Patrick's Day). One of the goals scored was off of Cheryl's corner kick.

Saturday's game didn't go so well. Cheryl made herself hoarse playing with her AYSO team. She said that everyone probably thinks she's a bitch because she yells at them so much. She was very frustrated on Saturday. The team lost 0-3.

Sunday's game was canceled because of rain. But we did see Galaxy play on Sunday. Galaxy scored 2 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game to tie DC United 2-2! At least the season didn't start off with a loss. Next home game is April 4th against Colorado.

Next week's sports schedule:

Chris:
THURS - track meet at Capo
SAT - soccer at 2:55PM (World Cup)
SUN - soccer at 5:00PM (El Morro)

Cheryl:
WED - soccer at 8:30PM (Arroyo Park)
SAT - soccer at 8:10AM (Crown Valley Lower)
SUN - soccer at 12:00PM (Wagon Wheel)

Issho Ni

Issho Ni was the theme for the dinner/hula fundraiser we went to last weekend. I thought it would make a nice title for a layout. It means "together." Here's my layout. It won "Layout of the Week" this week at Scrapbook Deals 4U! The paper I used is from two different Basic Grey collections. I love how it all looks together.

On another topic... at the dinner/hula fundraiser I saw a guy that I used to work with. He was manning the parking lot. What a coincidence! I was going to start job hunting this week (my contract at Rockwell-Collins expired on Monday). I mentioned to him that I was looking for a new job, and he said he would try to find me something at his company, Panasonic. He was good to his word! I had a telephone interview last Friday. If they are interested, they'll bring me in for an interview next week... keeping my fingers crossed!

Scrapping the Music - We will Rock You

I finished a layout for the Scrapping the Music challenge this week. I had the perfect photo! I used a distress frame on both photos to give it an Urban feel. The large photo is printed on the white textured background cardstock to enhance the grunge look.

I got the PP from Michael's just for this challenge (American Crafts).
The urban butterfly is from The Angel Company.



Journaling reads:
We are the Highlighters, the mighty, mighty Highlighers. Here's Cheryl and her friends, Maiah, Sarah, and Sammy, playing in the charity soccer tennis tournament.

Chris's Birthday weekend

Dad, Tell mom we can't make it for lunch Sunday.

NOTE about sports this coming week:
Chris is sports-less this week... no soccer games and no track meet.
Cheryl has:
Team Bob game on Tuesday night.
AYSO game on Saturday, at 12pm at RSM Intermediate - Track
AYSO game on Sunday, at 2:30pm at Melinda Park

Galaxy kick-off at 12pm SUNDAY!!!

Happy Birthday, Big Guy! It's a BIG family weekend. We started out with a fun dinner show at the Norwalk South East Japanese Community Center, and ended Sunday with a birthday party for Chris.

Look at all that GREAT food!

After that my mom's hula group did several dances, the ukelele band performed, and the taiko group.

We even won a raffle prize!

Weekly Sports Report

Starting with Chris... He had two games this weekend. Saturday's game they won 4-2, Sunday's game they won 1-0. I only saw the Saturday game. It was exciting! Chris started again, and he played hard!

Cheryl played two half games this week. Tuesday, she went to play with Team Bob after her biology class. She got there in time to play the second half. The game ended in a 0-0 tie. On Saturday, she played the first half of her game, so we could get to the hula show on time. The team ended up winning 2-0!

Happy Birthday Chris!

Yesterday was Chris's 16th birthday. It was busy day for us. There wasn't a single moment of the day where all four of us were home and awake at the same time, but we still tried to make it a special day for Chris.

Chris and I were the only ones awake and home when he left for school. Cheryl and I had dentist appointments in the morning, then after that we made a sign, picked up balloons and a pizza and took them down to the High School. Cheryl snuck into the school during lunch, put the sign up by his locker and presented Chris with the balloons and pizza in front of his friends. I had to wait in the car because I couldn't get in, and frankly I was a little worried about Cheryl being able to get out. But there was no problems, and Chris was very surprised... and yes, he did share the pizza with his friends.

Chris had his first track meet after school. He tied his PR in the mile (5:18), and had a great run in the 800m (2:23). In the photo you can see Jim and Cheryl sitting in the stands just above Chris's head. I wore Cheryl's old track sweatshirt and I snuck on to the field to take some photos.

Cheryl had to leave for school before Chris got home from the meet. Chris opened presents from me and Jim, and opened the present from Cheryl after Jim went to bed. We had store bought cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to him twice.

Happy Birthday BIG Guy!
.

Weekly Sports Report

We had a good soccer week!

Team Bob won this week! Cheryl assisted the first goal, giving a nice through ball to Jaime (the forward). Then she scored the next goal... she was called offsides, but if she was offsides, it was very close. By half time, the score was tied 2-2. Team Bob has 8 subs, and it helped in the second half as the other team got more and more tired. Team Bob WON 6-2! There are no photos of Team Bob. Cheryl said that I'm not allowed to bring my camera to the adult league games (it's too embarrassing), lol!

Chris's team tied 2-2 against Laguna Niguel. Laguna Niguel has an advantage over other cities in that they have an artificial field. That means that they have been practicing for three weeks, while the other teams have been rained out for the first two weeks of the season. Chris started today in mid-field! His first start in years! He took three shots on goal (two on frame) but none went in.

Next week:
Chris has a track meet on THURS (his birthday). He's slated to run the 800m and one mile.
Chris has a soccer game on SAT, noon at Melinda Park.
Chris has a soccer game on SUN, 11:45 at World Cup.
Cheryl has a Bob game on TUES night. She may not be if her class gets out late.

Scrappy Birthday!

Scrapbook Deals 4U is celebrating their one year anniversary this month... and to celebrate they are hosting a month long crop with great prizes!
Come and party with us!

The Season Begins...

This week is the first week of Spring soccer.
Cheryl plays on two teams: an adult co-ed team (BOB) and an AYSO team. Her adult team has to have at least 4 women on the field. Unfortunately, only two women were there at the start of the game, so the team had to play two players down. By the time the other two women showed up, the team was down 0-2. Cheryl played the whole game and she played hard... she ended up taking the skin off the back of both of her heels.

Cheryl's AYSO game didn't go any better. Cheryl can hardly run with her ruined heels. This team also ended up losing 0-2.

Chris was amazing today! He played defender and stuck with his mark like glue... and he never got tired. His team ended up WINNING 3-2. The two goals scored by the other team were when Chris was out.

Cheryl's next BOB game is Wednesday night. Her AYSO team has a buy next weekend. Chris's next game is Sunday, 1:30 at World Cup.

Truth or Dare!

Here is my layout for the newest challenge over at SD4U. Everyone had to pick two numbers correspond to two lists. The first was a list of techniques, and I got paper piecing (perfect for me!). The second was a topic. My topic is "My Worse Habit."

I asked my family what my worse habit is, and they said it was my obsession with the Internet... so, here it is, a paper pieced layout about the Internet :o)

Journaling reads:
The Internet was introduced in 1990, I started using it at work in 1996 and at home (via modem) around a year later. From then it has grown from a curiosity, to a valuable tool, to a necessity, and now it's become as obsession. I have to check email, update facebook, interact with message boards, and hop my favorite blogs DAILY... multiple-times a day. It's become my diversion while Jim is watching TV or playing video games. Now I'm hooked... I'm addicted to the Internet!

Scrap-lings

I learned about Scrap-lings from my friend Mara's blog.

See the Hero Arts blog for a full explaination about Scrap-lings.

Typically they are only 1.25" wide. I made mine wider 2-7/8" x 5-1/2" (that's a sheet of 8.5x11" cut in 3 strips). I don't know if it was the tall skinny size or my new toys, but these were so much FUN to make!

I used my new cupcake stamp set and my new border punch:





Then I made some matching envelopes... large enough to mail (3.5"x5.75")



And packaged them up in a pretty box for a nice gift:

Who's that baby?... answer...

It's Jacob!

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!

I WON!!!

I was one of the winners for the Biggest Scrap Loser! It was a 5 week long contest. We were given a list elements to use on a layout every week and then everyone voted on their favorite layouts. The people with the most points after the 5 weeks are the winners.

I am going to be a Guest Design Team member for April! SD4U has the best kits! I'm excited to see the beautiful paper and fun new stuff that I'll be showcasing!

Floppy Treasure!

I was sitting at the computer yesterday, looking at our mess... then I noticed all the floppies... floppies that have been sitting by the computer forever! Our family desktop and laptop don't even have floppy drives. So I fired up the old computer today and read in all the floppies and burned everything to CD... one CD! LOL!

Anyway, I found a treasure trove of old photos. Here are a few of my favorites:

Randy

and

Cat...

Do you

know

which

of your

kids

this is?

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!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is what I woke up to this morning:

... and a card made by my kids, along with a Starbucks card! My daughter always says that the best gifts are the ones that she gets something out of too... I guess I'll be taking the kids to Starbucks this week, LOL!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Biggest Scrap Loser Week #5

I have exciting news! The orange layout that I did last week of Cheryl tied for first place! The competition is so tough! I never expected to win!

It's week #5, the last week of the Biggest Scrap Loser Challenge over at Scrapbook Deals 4U! This week we had to use all of the following items on a layout:

1. rub-ons
2. 2 different fonts for the title
3. 3 patterned papers (from 3 different mfrs)
4. bling
5. number stickers
6. chipboard
7. 3 ribbons
8. brads
9. distressing

I've been doing layouts of Cheryl... they have the best chance of winning since she's so pretty, IMHO {grin}... But, this week I did a layout of Chris!
The words on the journal spot came from the family. Cheryl and I each picked a word to describe Chris, and then I had Chris pick a word to describe himself.