Magic Mountain

I was beat... There's nothing like trying to keep up with four teenagers in an amusement park, LOL! It's the last day of Spring Break. I had to work... the only day I was able to get off was Friday. So, on Friday we headed off to Magic Mountain. It's the kids' first time there, and we let each of them bring a friend. It was a 2 hour drive and a beautiful day in Valencia. It was in the 90's. Perfect for those drenching water rides.

Here are the boys... don't they look like they're too cool? LOL! They're both 15yrs, and we set them loose in the park with money for lunch and a cell phone. The boys rode every roller coaster in the park... some of them twice.

The girls are 17 and 18yrs. They, surprisingly, stuck with us for most of the morning. We headed to Tatsu first, but it wasn't working. Then we headed to Viper. My hubby, Jim, loves roller coasters, but he gets motion sick. After Viper he had to take a rest, and the girls took off. They got stuck in line a couple of times (once when someone got a bloody nose on the ride and the operators had to clean it up, and when Tatsu broke down again). They didn't hit as many rides as the boys, but they did get on all the "must-ride" roller coasters. Jim and I only did three roller coasters and a couple of the water rides. BUT, We saw Bugs Bunny in the Surf's Up parade. LOL!

Here are the kids riding Tatsu... They're in there somewhere... LOL!

Book Review

Time for another book review, before I forget all the books I read this month...

"24 Hours" by Margaret Mahy was indeed an entire book that takes place in 24 hours. It is about a good kid, Ellis, who is swept away by a sequence of events, and falls in with the out-crowd. He learns that the out-crowd are not bad kids, just misunderstood. Even running with the bad crowd, Ellis can't help doing good. The moral is: Money does not make the person. I really didn't care for this one. It was way too slow.

I was on a Margaret Mahy roll! The next book I checked out of the library was "Alchemy." To my surprise I already read it (I hate when that happens, LOL!) I liked it the first time I read it, but not enough to want to read it again. A boy gets entangled with a magician who is trying to steal another girl's powers. It has been a long time since I read this book, so I don't remember all the details. I remember that there was something about the universe unraveling. I guess since I didn't want to read it again, after I already read it, should give you the hint... I don't recommend this one either.

"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman brings to life the fantasy world of London Below... which is a very bizarre world. If you cross Alice in Wonderland with the Brother's Grimm, then you have Neverwhere. Richard Mahy, an insecure loser in London Above, drops into London Below and finds in him a strength of character, honor, and courage that he didn't know he possessed. I did enjoy the references to real life (above ground) London, and how he twist and turned it to fit London Below. If you like adventure, bizarre, and are a little disturbed; this is the book for you!

I love all of Cornelia Funke's books. "Dragon Rider", "Ink Heart", and "Ink Spell" being three of my favorites. "Igraine The Brave", was a bit of a disappointment for me. It was, well, uninteresting. There are giants, a talking cat, magicians, and magical singing spell books. There are good guys that are very good, and bad guys that are very bad. Good things only happen to the good guys, and bad things only happen to the bad guys. I can see this book appealing to young children, maybe as a great read-aloud bedtime story. Since nothing bad happens to the good guys, it won't give the little kids nightmares. So my recommendation is... great read aloud for little kids; right up there with "My Father's Dragon" and "Toad for Tuesday."


At our house, we are big fans of Jack Prelutsky's poems (more so than Shel Silverstein). This is a fun rhyming poem... not about a kindly wizard, but a wizard who you'd want to watch out for. The poem is set off and enhanced with amazingly beautiful illustrations by Brandon Dorman.

This was a wonderful, charming retelling of the Brother's Grimm tale, "The Goose Girl." A wronged princess, and evil lady in waiting, and magic powers... what could make a better tale? Ever bit as good as "Princess Academy."

Well that's it for the kids' books. I also ended up reading a supermarket romance novel, which I won't mention here. This is a family blog... LOL!

Crystal Cove State Beach

I love running at the beach, but I've been avoiding it until I felt my leg was healed. Here is another beach I run at. Welcome to Crystal Cove State Beach. It's a deserted beach... no surf here, and it's too long of a walk down to the beach for the casual picnic-ers. The only one's you find here are the occasional walkers and runners. The length of my Crystal Cove run is 7 miles, the same as my Trestles Beach run.

Here is the view from the parking lot. You can't even see the beach from here, but the wild daisys are a beautiful sight.

You can see it's a long walk down the cliff to the beach.

Here's a view of the tide pools from the trail. A lot of school field-trips will come here to view the Marine Life. At this time the tide is on its way in.

A nice view up the coast to Newport Harbor. The harbor is huge, with no commerical traffic. A lot of superstars have houses on the islands in Newport Harbor.

Here is a nice view of Crystal Cove... or is it Emerald Bay... Hmmm, I'm not really sure.

See all the things littered all over the sand? Those are shells, big ones! Mostly, mussels and scallops.

Weekday High School Sports Report

Chris set a 3200m goal of 11:36... and beat it. He ran 2 miles in 11:30... a new PR for him and 15 seconds faster than his last PR! He came in second for Capo Frosh/Soph. I don't know what his place was overall. The Varsity wore their shirts normally. The JV wore their shirts backwards, and Frosh/Soph wore their shirts inside out. It was impossible to tell the backwards shirts from the inside out shirts as they were crossing the finish line. There was big celebrating after the meet! The boys won their second meet of the season!!! They haven't won two meets in one season for the last five years! The boys head coach came over to congratulate the long distance team. He said that the long distance runners won them the meet!


The Capo Lacrosse team lost 8-9 against Trabuco High School. It was a very close game. Cheryl saw her chance and ran the ball down the field. She almost scored!


Now for the soccer... Chris had two games. Saturday, they lost against another Mission Viejo team 0-4. Sunday, they had a much better game... winning 4-0 against Laguna Niguel.


Cheryl played in a College Showcase in Temecula. They couldn't find enough U19 players so had to take two 14yr olds with them. These kids have never played with the team before. As expected, they were creamed! They lost 0 to a gazillion on Saturday, and 0 to half a gazillion on Sunday. It was very sad for the girls who wanted to get scouted by the college coaches.

Scrapping the Music - Stronger

It's been a month since I've attempted a Scrapping the Music challenge. I just had to do this week... it's my son's favorite song: Stronger by Kanye West. So, here it is... a layout of my son:

Journaling reads:
CVHS Freshman yr 2008, you joined the Capo Cross Country team. You figured that it would get you in shape for the winter high school soccer season. Little did you realize that you would like running more than soccer! You finished the season with PR of 19:08, and at the end of year banquet, you were named most improved runner of the season.

Progress Map

Hi, It's me still on my way to Woodsfield, OH. Today, I'm coming at you from the middle of Arizona, just past Sedona.



It's a beautiful area!

Mammoth Layouts

I have been scrapping... I just haven't been posting. Here are a couple of my new layouts using photos from Mammoth. The paper and embellies used on both these layouts are from a cute kit sent to me by my friend Mary. She assumed that I didn't have any snow scrappy stuff for my Mammoth photos, and she was right! Thanks for the fun goodies Mary!

High School sports report

Chris ran the 3200m (2 mile) last night in 11min 45sec, in a head to head meet against Tesoro. It's his personal record (since he hasn't run the 3200m before). He came in 2nd for Capo Frosh/Soph; 3rd overall Frosh/Soph. All the teams run at the same time. Varsity run with regular jerseys. Junior Varisty has their shirts on backwards, and Frosh/Soph runs with a red ribbon tied to their jersey. In this picture you can see Chris right in there with the Junior Varsity.



Cheryl's team played Aliso Viejo at home, losing 2-7. She was not expected to play because of her sprained ankle, but she went in for a while and saved a goal! Her ankle is feeling much better. She's hoping not to reinjure it before the Toyota Soccer College Showcase next month.

Happy Easter!!!

This is the earliest Easter we will see in our lifetime, and it was so early that it took us by surprise. We forgot to dye eggs, and bake cookies, but we did remember to celebrate the day and remember the true meaning of Easter. After our usual Sunday morning we headed to the market, so I could get ingredients for a layered taco dip and chips.

Then we headed to Mima's house... taco dip in hand. My sister-in-law has a big family/extended family. There is always lots of people, lots of laughter, and lots of fun! The day was beautiful, well over 90F (very hot for mid-March). Hot enough to melt the chocolate eggs in the traditional Easter egg hunt. No one there is every too old to hunt Easter eggs at Mima's. Then we had a great dinner, and even better dessert! My brother brought his water slide and the little kids slid for a while. The bigger kids had more sense... that water was COLD! After the water sliding was over all the kids got into the action bouncing, sliding, and wrestling on the dry slide. They all had a blast!

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter!

My Hubby at CHA

This is my friend at CHA. She's standing next to a layout of my hubby done for the show by Stayce DeWid (Creative Imaginations).







The story: Stayce DeWid was commissioned by Creative Imaginations to create two layouts for CHA using the new "Old Guys Rule" surfing line. She needed pictures. She contacted my friend, who contacted me (she knows my hubby is an old guy who surfs :lol: ) and I sent some photos to Stayce. It's so exciting to have a layout done by a professional. She said that she would send me the layout when Creative Imaginations is finished with it.

My hubby's reply to all this attention was:
"Oh, great! Now I'm known throught the scapping world as an Old Guy!" LOL!

High School Sports

Well, we switch from a weekend of soccer to a week of track and lacrosse.

Chris had his first track meet this week against Dana Hills High School, at Dana Hills. His events were the 1600m (one mile), and the 800m (half mile). Dana Hills is a FAST team. Even the cross country team that they raced last fall, was really really fast. Dana Hills swept the meet. Chris finished the mile in 5 minutes 17 seconds, that put him in the middle of the group. He's happy. 5 minutes 17 seconds is a new personal best for him. He came in 4th to last in the 800m. He said he was too tired after running the mile.


Cheryl's team played Dana Hills High School at home, and since I'm the team photographer, I was at the Lacrosse game. Jim went to the track meet and took video, so I could see the race too. Capo beat Dana Hills 10-7! So even though Dana Hills won the track meet, they lost the Lacrosse game.

Soccer weekend

It's the first weekend of Spring soccer... sorry Papa, we forgot to let you know the game times.


Chris's team played two games. They lost Saturday to Lake Forest, 5-0? or something like that... I kind of lost count after about 3 or 4. Sunday was much better. They tied the Ladera Ranch team 2-2, with a header in the last 30 seconds of the game. Their performance from the weekend has pushed them into the higher bracket for pool play (I'm not really sure how they figured that one out).

Cheryl had her first tournament of the season.

They won their first game by forfit. The other team couldn't field a whole team and dropped out of the tournament. They won their second game 3-1. Cheryl's still playing striker, scored the first goal of the season, and assisted the other two!... then she stepped in a sprinkler hole and twisted her ankle AGAIN! She said it's not too bad and should be better by the end of the week. The team went on to lose their third game 0-2.

TallyScrapper Challenge

It's anniversary weekend at TallyScrapper, and we are playing a little game. We are supposed to challenge the person who posts above us in the MB to do a layout with certain parameters.

I challenged LauraJean to do a layout using any song title from the album "Colour by Numbers" by Boy George and the Culture Club. She's an 80's music fan.

My challenge was issued by Charlee. I had to use a plain sheet of cardstock and a pen to create a layout with the word PROSPERITY in the title. No other embellies allowed. Here is my layout using a plain sheet of aqua colored cardstock, a pen, and the title: May Blessings and Prosperity be Yours... Ps. 128:2

13.3 MILES!!!

I had to try it! I had to know! and I did it! I ran 13.3 miles today. Now I know for sure that I can finish a half-marathon.



I strapped on my son's GPS watch and went running through Dana Point Harbor; from the Marine Institute to the end of Doheney State Beach, over the bridge around the island, between the boats, through the shopping villages, and past all the people sitting outside having lunch. It took me 2 hours and 23 minutes to finish my random course. I'm not too disappointed with the time, I'm just so happy that I made it!

Progress Map

I didn't make much progress the last couple weeks... I'm still out in the Arizona desert:

Thank-you Cards

Here are what my son's thank-you cards look like:



And look who made them... Yup! He made his own thank-you cards... pretty good, huh?

Happy Birthday, Big Guy!

It's the "Big Guy's" 15th birthday! We had all his favorite food: pizza, spam musubi (the spicy kind), chili/rice, AND his favorite lemon cupcakes! Here's the recipe:

Lemon Cake
1 small package lemon jello
1 cup water
1 lemon cake mix
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
Dissolve jello in water. Beat cake mix and oil together well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add jello and beat well at low speed. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13" or bundt pan and bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

Glaze: 2c. Powered sugar mixed with juice and grated rind of two lemons.
As soon as cake is removed from the pan, pierce all over with a fork and pour glaze over the top.

C's in High School now, running cross country, and long distance track. He has new friends and turns in his homework most of the time (Well, it's better than NOT turning it in most of the time). He is getting better... he hasn't missed a homework assignment all semester.

It's required now for all kids starting with the class of 2011, to pass a physical fitness test to graduate (They are required to pass 5 out of 7 tests). C is taking his physical fitness test during health class. The first test is Friday... and it's running a mile in less than 19:30. He thinks it's hilarious, since he can run a mile in 5:57. He's trying for a personal record this Friday. His goal is 5:30.

Book Reviews

A month has gone by... time for another monster book review! LOL!

"Alchemist" has a lot in common with the "Children of the Lamp" series. They both feature twins, who discover that they have secret powers. They get hooked into helping Nicholas Flamel save the Codex from the evil John Dee. There are two reasons to get the Codex. One is to keep John Dee from releasing the powers of the dark ones. The other is that the recipe for the immortalitly elixir, which Flamel needs to take every month, is written in the book. If Flamel doesn't make and drink the elixir, he will be dead within the month. I really dislike authors that don't let on that it's a series until you get to the end... but in this case I forgive them. I look forward to the next one...

"Princess Academy" is the Newbery Honor book by Shannon Hale. I expected something akin to a Disney princess story, but what I got was a wonderful story about girls with character. The plot is simple... it is decreed that the next princess will be from Mount Eskel, a poor mining community. So, to ready themselves, all the girls from Mount Eskel are sent to the Princess Academy to learn how to be princesses. The prince will pick one of the graduates for his bride. The girls learn to respect each other and work together. I can't tell you too much without giving it all away, but this book is a MUST READ!

We are BIG Alex Rider fans! Anthony Horowitz has us hooked! Unfortunately we were disappointed with this latest book. Snakehead lacked the action and excitement of the previous books in the Alex Rider series. Alex teams up with Ash, an old friend of his parents, in the hopes of learning more about his parents and his parents' death. The bad guys are easy to pick out from the beginning, Alex knows he's been betrayed, but doesn't care doesn't tell anyone. Because of it all, he ends up in big trouble. Very frustrating to read. But, we are die hard Alex Rider fans... we'll be there to pick up the next book!

"Titan's Curse" is the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This is another wonderful parody on mythology. Percy and his friends are on a quest... again. The enemy captures, Annabeth by the General (he's working for the Titan Kronos). The General has also captured the goddess Artemis. Now it's up to Percy and his friends to rescue the goddess, find Annabeth, and stop The General's plans before it's too late. If you have loved the first two books in the series, you'll love this one too.


I either love or hate Margaret Mahy. Her books of fantasy are definitely for the older teen audience... dark, menacing, and never seem to end with a "Feel Good" type ending. This book, "Maddigan's Fantasia", fits all three descriptions. In the world of the future, the Earth has been ravaged in what they call the "destruction." Garland Maddigan travels with a circus called Maddigan's Fantasia between the isolated human settlements bringing joy in the way of circus performance. This time their journey involves a mission. They must pick up a solar converter and return it to the city of Solis, or civilization will be destroyed; and three time travelers from Garland's future travel back into the past to help her complete her family's mission. This felt more like a collection of short stories. The stop at each city being a different story. It was an interesting book, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Hey, look!!! I read a book written for adults! This book has been on the best sellers list forever, so I had to read it and see what all the hoopla is about. I read it... I don't know what the hoopla is all about. It's sad. It's miserable. It's tragic. I don't know what the attraction is... Perhaps those interested in history and social oppression, will get a kick out of it? I don't know why else anyone would want to read such a sad book. I like books with feel good endings. That's probably why I like reading children's books.

Progress Map

I like posting the map every other week instead of every week. I feel like I'm making more progress. Here I am... Just crossed the Arizona border... on my way to Woodsfield, OH.

Scrapping the Music - She's not Just a Pretty Face

It's been a while since I've done a Scrapping the Music Challenge. In fact, I haven't done much scrapping at all this year. I have the perfect photo for this challenge. My daughter hates this layout! LOL! All the paper, alphabet, and bling are from the TallyScrapper February kit.




Journaling reads: After not making the Varsity Soccer team, Cheryl didn't give up. She announced that she was going to try out for Capo's first Varsity Lacrosse team. She made it! We now have a Lacrosse player in the family. None of the girls have ever played; most of them don't know the rules, but it looks like a fun game. The coach declared the first scrimmage of the season a success! They lost against ETHS 8-9, but El Toro's Lacrosse program is in its second year.