Happy Birthday Jim

Today we celebrated Jim's birthday at home with a steak dinner (Jim's favorite). We got him a new movie which we watched tonight (Hopscotch). And we had some very yummy birthday treats! And LOOK... the tiki candle is making another appearance. I think that it may become a new family tradition, lol!

Take a look at these caramel apples! Cheryl found them at a store in Irvine Spectrum. Those apples were soooooo GOOD!!!

Southern California Half-Marathon results

They posted Chris's official time for the Southern California Half Marathon. He finished in 1:40 (that includes his bathroom break). He came in 56 out of 679 in his age group, and 279 out of 3832 overall. That means that 18% of the people running were boys between the age 15-18yrs. That's a lot of boys!

Surf City is only two weeks away and I'm still not doing a full run yet. Between the rain and my sore ankle, it's hard to get in any running time at all.

Scrappy Share!

Here it is! My first scrappy share of 2010! This is another page for my daughter's Europe album. Cheryl went to Europe in 2007, and I'm almost done with her album! Only two more pages to go! When I'm finished with the album, I'll post all the pages together... Cheryl and I are really pleased with how it came out... and I am really REALLY pleased that it's almost finished! LOL!

Southern California Half-Marathon

It was a beautiful morning... but since Jim and Cheryl weren't there, I don't have any pictures. It was warm enough that I was wearing a tank top for the race.

I just passed mile 2 at 15.40 and was feeling GREAT! At that point I could still see Chris way up ahead in his orange shirt. THEN... one of the SRLA kids cut across my path (I think it was to see her parents on the side of the trail). I had to step off to the side to avoid running into her. I stepped on the lip of the trail, rolled my ankle, and fell on my opposite knee and both hands. I looked at my scrapes and they weren't too bad, but when I tried to start running again... it was clear that the ankle wasn't going to make it. I hobbled back to the starting line and got some ice from first aid (they cleaned up my scrapes too). It took me so long to get back to the starting line that I only had to wait about 20 minutes until Chris came in.

Before the race, Chris said that he didn't think he would do very well, since he was out of shape. He did GREAT! I think he came in around 1:39-1:40, which is over his PR, but still a great time (especially since he stopped to use the bathroom)! He said that he after the first mile he never felt good... had to PUSH the whole race.

He was exhausted, came home and took a nap. I came home put more ice on my ankle, took Advil, wrapped a compression bandage around it, kept it raised above my heart... and repeated throughout the day. The ankle is still swollen and sore!

It's too bad I fell, I would have finished with a GREAT time! Oh, well, time to look forward to the next race... I hope the ankle is better by then.

Clear the Road!!!

Look out everyone... Chris got his driver's permit today...

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

It sure doesn't feel like 20 years have gone by... but they have in a blink of an eye! My beautiful little baby is now a beautiful young woman. She's in college with a career path in mind and she's working hard toward her goals to be a doctor of physical therapy.


Cheryl is also the nicest person I know, and my best girl friend!

We gave her money to go shopping with Grandma (Hey, Grandma, Cheryl said that hasn't told you yet, but she wants to come over tomorrow night after work.) We also gave her a set of Bare Minerals makeup. Now that she has her own set, maybe she'll stay out of mine, lol!

Do you like the hat? Cheryl came home from coaching last night wearing the hat and holding a balloon. She also had a nice birthday card that all the little girls signed. The little girls surprised her and sang to her... TWICE... It was very sweet.



Happy 20th Birthday, Cheryl!!!

One Little Word

I started doing this a couple of years ago. I pick one word that embodies the changes I want for myself over the year. My past words were:

2008 : breathe
2009 : focus

I had a hard time picking my word for this year. A lot of people pick adjectives, but I wanted a verb... verbs work better for me. I wanted that verb to mean: "Enjoy Life to the fullest... be present in each moment." Well, the best word I could come up with is "PARTICIPATE." So, participate is my new word for 2010!

The new year is also the time for setting personal goals... Jim is going to work toward losing a few pounds by walking during his breaks and eating less at night. Cheryl is working toward a transfer to a 4-year college by bringing her GPA up. She's making good progress by finishing last semester with 3 A's and 2 B's. WAY TO GO, Cheryl! Chris is hoping to pass all his classes so he doesn't have to go to summer school. He's doing that by keeping his fingers crossed. {sigh} Yeah, that's my boy...

My goal this year is to finish a half-marathon in under 2 hours. I've been running at lunch with a couple of guys who are qualified for the Boston Marathon. They've been giving me pointers.

I also want to get our kitchen remodeled. It really is time... one of my top cabinets is propped up with a 2x4. I've also been threatening to do dishes in the bathroom because our kitchen has so little water pressure. I've put some kitchen idea books on hold at the library, so I'm storing up on ideas!

For my first time ever, I have a scrapbooking goal! I'm going to FINISH a digital book all about me! I'm going to use the alphabet as prompts and do one page every one or two weeks that way I'll be finished by the end of the year. My second scrappy goal is to start a digital book of family... starting with my dad's parents. I started a regular scrapbook about them, but decided to start over and do-it-digital so I can share it with the entire family.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading my long winded post! Good luck on your own 2010 goals!

Welcome 2010!

Welcome to January 1, 2010! My friend, Mary, asked me what we usually eat for New Year. My mom really out does herself! She dances until after midnight on New Years Eve, stays to help clean up after the dance, then she gets up early to cook all this GREAT food! Here's a sampling:

Sushi... all homemade of course!

Nishime... It's a Japanese stew. Very SPECIAL and very YUMMY!!!

Namasu... I guess you could call this a salad. It's one of my favorites!

Add TWO types of chicken, baked salmon, macaroni salad, clam chowder, and an assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables; and there you have our New Year's Day dinner. Whew! Were we stuffed!!!

Now to work off all that GREAT food! Here's Grandma and Papa competing in Dance-Dance-Revolution...

... And here is the family Rock Band! My SIL is on the drums, Cheryl is on base...

Hana is playing guitar, and Chris has the microphone... singing!

Oh yeah! Don't forget Jacob on the DS... lol!

Happy New Year! It's time for new goals... I'll share our goals with you all tomorrow...

HAPPY 2010!!!

Happy New Year Everyone! I'm going to make this a quick post. We're expected at my mom and dad's house for New Year's Day dinner and Cheryl's birthday in about an hour.

We spent New Year's Eve at a dinner dance at the Norwalk Japanese Culural Center. Here we are decked out in "little black dress."

Here's Chris decked out in totally Chris fashion...

It IS a dance... Here's my dad trying to teach me a few stumbling steps of Fox Trot. I'd love to learn to dance. I'm trying to convince Cheryl to take a class with me.

Cheryl's doing much better than me... the first couple you see in this video is my mom. Then you'll see Papa and Cheryl doing the swing.



We had a FUN time!!! I hope you all had a safe, fun, and very happy New Year's Celebration!

Holiday Hangover

I copied the title of this post from my friend Mara. It's a perfect title for a post-holiday post, after I dragged myself out of bed and into work this morning. We sure had a fun, Fun, FUN Christmas! Here is the family Christmas ornament for this year... cubes make perfect ornaments for our family because there are six kids.

We started the holiday with Christmas Eve at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Hacienda Heights. The whole family gets together for great food, games, dancing....

... and a visit from the BIG GUY!

The next morning... LOOK! Santa came to our house too!

We spent the morning opening presents at home.

Then came the fun playing with presents, Jim cussing out the new Tivo, and eating our traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls... the secret are the crushed red hots!

After a nice relaxing celebration at home, we head over to my mom and dad's for a big family opening! It's fun seeing my brother's kids get all excited over the presents, they are just at the perfect age to really get into it! {sigh} When did my kids get so old?

Merry Christmas, ALL!

AND to all a good night!

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!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Here are the Christmas cards I sent out this year... It's different than the ones I've sent out in the past. I got the cute button stamp set and Christmas paper from PTI.


This adorable stamp made us LOL when my friend Mary sent it to us on a card last year. Mary stamped me a few images to sent to our dog loving neighbors this year!

For the envelopes, I used the PTI button stamp set again. I punched a button shape out of Fun Foam and used it to stamp the envelopes... a nice non-bulky alternative to buttons.

Merry Christmas again to ALL!!!

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?

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?