Frisbee Dog!

Jena was never really a tennis ball kind of dog. She'd chase it a few times, but would stop bringing the ball back. She's better with a soccer ball, but when she brings it back, she won't let it go. We found Jena's "go fetch" toy of choice! FRISBEE!!!

Look at her GO! This is a soft fabric Frisbee and she can even catch it!


What a BIG DOG she's getting to be!!!

Awww... well, she's still not too big to CUDDLE! Jena must have her cuddle time...

Laguna Hills Half Marathon

I usually wait until I get race pictures before I post times, but I'm super excited! I ran a 1:52! That's 5 minutes faster than my fastest half-marathon time! This was a very hilly course, but it was a perfect day for running (not too hot and not too windy). I still only came in 4th place in my age group... yes, first loser again!

Jena and Jim came down to see us off. Jena really loves to go running, and was very bummed that she wasn't running with us.

And we're off! Chris didn't do as badly as he thought (he hasn't been running for 2 weeks). Once track season ended, he joined scuba. Anyway, he finished somewhere in the mid 1:40's.

This is our second half-marathon in May, so we have run a FULL marathon in May! We even have a medal to prove it!



EDITED:------------------------------------------------
Official results: Me
Overall: 343 out of 1414
Women: 88 out of 708
F 50-54: 4 out of 69
Age/Grade: 66.90% Place: 101
Finish: 1:52:52 Pace: 8:37
Tag Time: 1:52:52
Gun Time: 1:53:23

Offical results: Chris
Overall: 253 out of 1414
Men: 193 out of 706
M 13-18: 16 out of 40
Age/Grade: 57.13% Place: 427
Finish: 1:47:31 Pace: 8:13
Tag Time: 1:47:31
Gun Time: 1:48:02

Diaper Cake...

A couple ladies at work are putting on an impromptu baby shower for one of the other ladies. They contacted me on Friday and asked if I would bring decorations. I said I would bring a diaper cake centerpiece. I've always wanted to make one of these! Chris said that he would help me. We downloaded directions from the web, and they said we needed 54 diapers. I went down to the store and bought a package of 56.

The first disaster was that the diapers were BLUE printed fabric! Min is having a GIRL!!! When did diapers turn blue?!!! The last time I used diapers they were white and plastic. So the color scheme has changed... the cake will be blue and pink (with emphasis on PINK).

Second disaster is that 56 diapers is not near enough! We decided to use a paper towel core to fill out cake. This worked GREAT because it holds all the layers together! It's going to be a lot easier getting this to work than I thought.

The height of the paper towel roll dictated a 3 tier cake. Chris rolled most of the diapers, twice! I won't bore you with the reason why we did it twice... just call it a problem with indecision.

The bottom layer has 34 rolled diapers, the middle layer has 14 rolled diapers, the top layer has 4 flat diapers wrapped around the top of the paper towel roll. That left me 4 diapers left over that we just stuffed in the top.

The first decoration we needed was something for the top. I got a pink/green toy that is connected to a carrier handle... I guess it would be called a mobile?

I think it looks GREAT! Now I need something to bring in more pink. Time to breakout the scrapping supplies!

This paper from Basic Grey is just the thing. I didn't have enough paper, but this paper happens to be available as a digital download from BG! I printed off 6 strips of paper to cover the layers.

Add some pink ribbon, tie on a few teething rings and pacifiers, add some pink silk flowers to cover up the blue diapers AND TA DA!!! A pretty diaper cake centerpiece!

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a matching card for the mama-to-be! (made with more BG paper and a cute stamp from Unity Stamp Co).

Oh one more thing... as I was looking at the diaper cakes, I couldn't find where anyone listed how big it would be! Our diaper cake came out 16" tall, and the base is 12" across.

Thanks for joining us on this diaper cake journey. My only regret? I didn't get a picture of Chris rolling baby diapers, lol!

The tail of the dog door continues...

Jena has to work on her aim a little... instead of going through the dog door, she went straight through the screen door!
What a klutz!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

I made this cute card for my mom and dad's 53rd anniversary...

I used the Mat Stack 1 Collection and a saying from the Fillable Frames #4 set.

The flowers are cut for me by my friend BethieJ. The colors were perfect for the Crate Paper Brook collection. I altered the flowers slightly by cutting a hole in the center, running a gather stitch around it, and pulling it tight. It gives the flower more dimension. I used this method on the blue and gold felt flowers.

The small green flower is one I made from ribbon. Here's how it's done.

Take a length a ribbon: #petals x (ribbon_width x 2) + a tiny bit more. So for the flower below, I used 1" ribbon and it has 6 petals... so 12.25" of ribbon.

Mark the ribbon every (2 x ribbon_width). So, for me that's every 2". Run a gather stitch along one edge, over to the other edge every time you reach a mark, and on both ends of the ribbon.

When you pull the gather stitch, the flower starts to form.

I'm going to use this cutie with these scraps of paper. Won't that make a striking card?

Thanks for stopping by!

More on the door...

I'm sure that everyone is dying to know all about the dog door... No? Well, maybe not, lol! Here is the XL sized dog door. It took a lot of calling and coaxing and finally sausage in marinara sauce to get Jena through the door. Something that we didn't think about is that not only is the door wider (definitely wide enough for Jena-girl), but the rise on the bottom of the door is higher. Jena's legs are too short to climb over the lip from the outside. Chris had a great idea and grabbed the bicycle ramp that papa made for him... it now makes a GREAT doggie ramp! After shoving Jena through a hole a few times, she is now comfortable enough to go through on her own.

It was a traumatic day! Jena is exhausted!

On a side note, I definitely recommend El Toro Carpet and Tile Cleaners! Too bad it isn't a sunny day. The cleaners came at 8am this morning, and the carpets are still damp this evening, but they look GREAT!

Weekend Project...

We are getting our carpets cleaned on Monday... the ENTIRE house! I can't wait! Well, since the carpets will be all clean and fresh smelling again, we want to get a doggie door. That way Jena can go out when she needs to... no more accidents in the house! We found out that Jena is an in-between sized dog. A Medium sized door is 7.5" wide... an XL door is 10.5" wide. For some reason, there is no size Large door. We want to know if Jena will fit through a medium door. The Home Depot guy told us to get a piece of cardboard and cut a medium sized door in it; then we just have Jena take a test drive, so to speak.

Well, here is our test door!

... and here is Jena, hiding under the computer desk. She is terrified of the cardboard with the hole in it.

We tried to coax her through with food. We even showed her that the kitty was eating her food!

We tried to get her to play ball, chase the bunny, or come after her favorite squeaky whale... Nothing worked!

Hours later, we finally coaxed her through with a piece of sausage dipped in marinara sauce. Her ears brushed the sides of the door and she freaked out. So question answered... we need to get the XL doggie door.

Oh, you might have noticed the realistic looking kitty and bunny. Chris has really out done himself! Hahaha!!!

Chris put the bunny out front... for no special reason... "Why not?" We have lots of bunnies in our area. Maybe it will keep the bunnies from coming into our yard...

All the neighborhood dogs are going NUTS over the bunny! When they walk by, they bark and want to kill Chris's bunny. We may only find paper shreds left in the morning.

Chris makes more jewelry...

This first pendant is cutout by hand and enamaled. Chris decided the enamal is not his technique of choice... I think it's BEAUTIFUL!!!

Now that the teacher has taught all the techniques that she is going to teach, she let the kids pick their own projects (incorporating the techniques from the class). Can you tell that Chris LOVES to make rings? This is his first student choice project... a turquoise ring! He did such a great job on the background around the bezel. The band is pretty cool too!

His next student choice project is... you guessed it... another ring! I can't wait to see what he's going to create!

Card Share... Fun for young and old...

Look at me GO! Another card for the PIO challenge for this week:

When I saw the theme, "Boys and Girls Come Out To Play," I just knew that I had to use this stamp set! I've had it forever, and since I unmounted all my woodblock rubber, I don't remember which company the set is from.

This is a simple pocket/tag card, I don't have time for much more during the week... I like how it came out. I can see using this card for almost anything!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon

The results are in!

Here are Chris's results. Not his best race but still GREAT! He came in second in his age group and would have received an award (if we had known to stay for the award ceremony).

Men 1-19 - 2/15
Time - 1:41:38.3
Pace - 7:46
Overall - 45/741
Men - 38/313

Here's me. I love the angle on this photo! I look so ... oh, I don't know... competitive? lol! Also, not my best time, but it was really hot and windy that day!

Women 50-55 - 4/37
Time - 1:58:35.7
Pace - 9:03
Overall - 181/741
Women - 57/426

We have one more half-marathon on Memorial Day... May 30th... WHOOHOO!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's day to all moms! Being a mom is not an easy job... Raising kids and working full-time is tough! I'm so thankful for Jim. The kids wouldn't be such the wonderful people they are without him. I'm at a bittersweet time of life. The kids are growing up... they have grown up... and they are at the point where they need to make decisions for their own life. Let's hope and pray that we have given them the good sense and strength of character to succeed in their own way.

I have a couple mother's days cards that I want to share. This first card is for my SIL. She's the great mom to FOUR of our nieces and nephews!

The buttons on this card are cut from paper! I got these buttons from my scrappy friend Beth. I really love how they look like buttons, but the card is less bulky (makes putting it into the envelope easier). I really need one of those button dies! It would be great to make my own buttons!

This card is for my mom. She's a GREAT mom and a WONDERFUL grandma to all the kids! I was going for a clean classy look. I used an unusual color combination for me... I tend to lean towards the pinks, blues, and greens. I like the way this one came out too.

I also whipped up a couple of gift card holders. My aunt Mary came down for Mother's Day. It was great seeing her, Uncle and Scott. Aunt Mary was my favorite Aunt when I was growing up!

Here are my two wonderful kids! They got up early Sunday morning, went to the market, and made some very very yummy peanut butter fudge.

We took the fudge to my mom and dad's house... everyone there thought the fudge was very yummy too! This is all that is left.

Here is the recipe... Cheryl found it on FoodTV. Recipe is by Jim's Foodie hero... Alton Brown.

Again, Happy Mother's Day to all!!!

This and That...

Chris and I ran a half-marathon this weekend. It the first time either of us has run serious mileage since the Huntington Beach half-marathon. We started kind of far back in the pack (between the 2:00 and 2:10 pace groups).

Chris took off at the start, when I saw him around mile 3, he was running with the 1:30 pace group in 5th place! He ended up falling off his pace and said he didn't finish very well. I ended up passing the 2:00 pace group, so I know I finished under 2 hours. I'll post exact times when they are available.

After running 13.1 miles today, Chris is running his very last track meet this week. He's been entered into the Varisty 1600m at the CIF Preliminaries on Tuesday. After this week, High School sports are over...

Cheryl has only one more week of classes and one week of finals, and she is DONE! It's official... Cheryl will be attending Cal Poly Pomona in the fall. She got her rejection letter from CSU Long Beach this weekend. Due to the budget crisis, CSU Long Beach is only taking out of state transfers... BUMMER! Cheryl is still optimistic that she can transfer to Long Beach after she finishes her BS at Cal Poly Pomona.

It's back to work tomorrow...
I hope the everyone had a great weekend!

First layout of the YEAR!

I've made a few cards, but this is my very first layout of the year! I created it by following the Mojo Master Challenge at Scrappin' Mojo. We are given new steps weekly and have no idea what the layout will look like until it's complete. I really like how this one came out!

Card Share...

I won, I won, I won! I won the March Mojo Challenge! The prize was a $5 gift certificate from PTI, where I picked up this rockin' grunge stamp set. It's just perfect for those BOY cards! Beth also sent me some cute little embellies. My favorites were SUPER CUTE clay cupcakes made by her daughter! I got inspired and made up a card right away! Isn't that cupcake GREAT?


Another bit of news is that the old fashion rose bush that I got from my friend Mary in Ohio is finally blooming! I can't remember how many years it has been three? four? The flower isn't open all the way, but I couldn't wait to post the photo! WHOOHOO!!! Look Mary! It's blooming! And there are lots more buds.

Happy Monday, everyone! Have a great week!