Snowing...

WOO HOO! I just love it when it snows! And, boy, is it snowing today!! There is at least a foot outside - which is just crazy for before Halloween! But it's been fun. Kids still had school - which was also crazy. So I had a few hours at home when I got to work on some more of the Christmas Advent Calendars!! That was fun.

During the day, I took some photos of our Halloween decorations out in the snow. I sent them in to our local Channel 4 TV Station! While I was talking to my mom on the phone around 5:15, she freaked out because my picture and name popped up on the TV! She had tivo'd it - so she rewound and made a video of the mention with her camera. Here it is...

(They did spell my last name wrong and mispronounced my first name, but still...)



And here's the photos that I sent in...





I wonder how long it's going to last!!

Creating...

I did some fun things this weekend! It felt good to be putting some of my creative juices to work. The first thing we did was to make this cute, little pumpkin. Our neighborhood was having our annual Halloween Parade with all the kids in costume and one of the activities was a pumpkin 'carving' contest. We haven't gotten our real pumpkins yet, so we had to make due with a foam one from Michaels. We didn't win the contest (I think the judges were crazy!), but the kids had fun helping me with this... I call it 'Fancy Dallas Pumpkin.'




Then, while I was perusing etsy, I found an adorable muffin tin Christmas advent calendar. I have a little craft show coming up in a few weeks where I will be going with all of my Scrapbook Sussies stuff. Craft shows in the past haven't always been the best for me - mostly because people want to take something with them (and, at past shows, I've only had subscriptions to sell.) This time, I have lots of kits, add-ons, and extras to bring to sell, but I saw this and knew I could make these and they would be a hit!

I plan to make 6 different ones - each with a slightly different color scheme - and sell them for $35 each (Including the adorable little stand that it comes on!). Then, I plan on having an 'add-on' which will include everything you need to fill the 24 cups - hershey kisses, shiny $1.00 coins, little pieces of paper and ribbon for them to write an activity for the day on, and other fun things. If you have any ideas of what might fit in the cups, please let me know! I need to be on the lookout for the next two weeks!!

If you're interested in one, I'll gladly take your order! (And 20% of the proceeds will go to my kid's school!!)

Snoogling...

Snoogly! - Watch more Funny Videos

Remembering...

In July, I attended my grandmother's funeral. I had the pleasure of going out to take care of her for several days a month before she died. One of my fondest memories was that of the lemon pie I made while we were there. I didn't know that it was one of her favorites. I simply made it because I could recall the ingredients from memory while I was picking up things at the grocery store. Over the next few days, Grandma and I ate the whole pie! I joked with her that we weren't going to be sharing that pie with anyone! And, after we polished off the last piece, we took this photo of us with the empty pie plate....



At her funeral, there was a slideshow of all sorts of pictures of Grandma. I fell in love with this one. It was so artsy and special and showed my grandparents so full of youth. It's going to be a fun one to scrap!!

Celebrating...

Annie had her birthday party this last weekend. It was a slumber party - Rock Star style. There were 7 girls coming over and one little boy to hang out with Ryan. So we had 10 kids here!!

When the girls arrived, we did their hair and make-up. Big Thanks to Grandma Kathy for coming and helping! I know I couldn't have done it all without her! After their makeover, they took sassy pictures (for their backstage pass) and then got to sing Karaoke - lots of High School Musical songs! (I even got in on the action!!!)

We had pizza, cake in the shape of an ipod, Hannah Montana movies, popcorn, pancakes in the morning, and lots of fun!!! The girls did great - no big issues. And it was very easy to get Annie to take a nap the next day!!!

Drawing...

I found this paper in Annie's backpack yesterday. I realize that it said 'Do Not Open' and 'Freaky Picture Inside', but I was prepared to take my chances...

There's been a girl at school who has been a little bit mean to Annie and her friends. I did have a talk with Annie to tell her that it wasn't very nice to draw pictures like this because it could hurt someone's feelings if it got into the wrong hands.

But I, personally, think it's hilarious and worth posting! It makes me laugh! If you can't read what Someone In Jail is saying, it's "MMMMMMMM..... Poop is good!" (I think Annie takes after her Dad!!!)

Singing...

I just love this video. Every night, I sing to each of the kids. Ryan always wants us to sing "Jesus Loves Me". It's so cute because he always sings along. I got this video of him singing one night...

Scanning...

Whew! I finally did it! I went through all the layouts that I did over the weekend in Dallas and then also all the layouts from pictures from the year 2008. (These are all pics that haven't been put into albums yet so they were the easiest to scan.)

I do have plans to do all of my pages that I've done, but this will have to do for now!!! I've posted them here in a slideshow, but a lot of these can be found on the Scrapbook Sussies Design Gallery page as well as in the Scrapbook Sussies Member Gallery!

Thanks for looking!!

Reflecting...

The weather has been rainy and cold lately. Today, Annie had indoor recess at lunch - which means that they usually show a movie. At dinner tonight, I asked her what movie they played. Here is how the conversation went...

Me - What movie did you watch at indoor recess?
Annie - Guess.
Me - Madagascar?
Annie - No.
Me - Toy Story?
Annie - No mom. It's a classic.
Me - Oh. Ok. Sound of Music?
Annie - No.
Me - Wizard of Oz?
Annie - No.
Me - Ok give me a hint.
Annie - It starts with N and ends with O.
Me - Finding Nemo?
Annie - Yes.

It just makes me smile to see what she consider a classic and what she doesn't! Kids these days!!

Smurfing a cake...

Annie has been a big fan of the Smurfs lately and even wanted to have a Smurf Birthday party. It was a debate between a Smurf party and a Rock Star party. For her actual birthday party, we decided upon Rock Star - because most of the other kids don't know the Smurfs. However, she was still sad that no one would sing 'Happy Smurfday to You.' So I made her this cake today to bring into her class tomorrow for a treat.

This is my first time doing one of these shaped cakes with all the little dots for the icing. (See. I don't even know the cake lingo because I'm sure they're not called little dots for icing..) Anyway, I think it came out great and I can't wait to surprise Annie with it!!!!

Dodging...

"If you can dodge wrenches, you can dodge balls..."

Oh, the quotes were flying from Dave the week before the big Dodgeball Tournament! You can imagine how we all got a little lesson about techniques, etc from Coach Dave the night of the game! Whatever he did, it worked! Because we were the Champions!

Rewind...

It was back in March at the Wilder Elementary School Silent Auction. We had signed up for this tournament to help raise money for Annie's school. After a few cocktails, everyone thought it would be AWESOME to play in the tournament. So we paid our entry fee and made sure to request that 6 of us all be on the same team (with our friends, the Raabs and the Svendsens). Dave even managed to write a little note about how we were going to clobber everyone on the sign up sheet...

Fast Forward...

September comes along and it turns out only the Raabs and the McClendons can make it (The Svendsens chickened out - or they had a really good reason - I can't remember). Each team is made up of 10 people and we got placed with two other random couples. So our team was short handed. It should be really easy to knock us out, right? It really didn't matter. Dave and Mike (and the two guys placed with us) were a force. I didn't do much except for shuffle around, hand balls to Dave and Mike, dodge a ball or two, and jam my pinky finger (ouch). We played four games, won four games, and took the championship hands down.

Our prize? $10 per couple to The Gorilla Room - a little dive bar in downtown Littleton that I'm sure has never been as busy as it was when 60 adults (all in 1980's gym class attire) showed up to celebrate the tournament. I also happened to win another $10 for having the "weakest throw". It was really part of the master plan - I mean, if I'm not going to win strongest throw, may as well go for the weakest, right?

Anyway, it was a really fun night and we met lots of other Wilder parents that I can see us hanging out with more often in the future. And we won. Did I mention that already?

I told everyone to look tough... (No one listens to me, I guess.)


Kelly & me with our girl, Mo


Mike & Dave

Winning...

Saturday! Game day! First game day of the season! It was a bit odd to be in Seattle for Game Day - didn't quite feel right. It was rainy and overcast when we got up - none of that crisp, fall air to feel. But that's OK. We had a plan...

And that plan was to join 400 of our closest friends on a yacht for a tailgate party two and a half hours before the game!! We boarded the Spirit of Seattle and it took us all over Lake Washington. It then brought us right up to the stadium.

Dave and I had tickets in the middle of the Huskies seats. The fans were tremendously nice. The only person who threw their drink at us was Dave when he got so excited after a great play that his soda cup hit the guy in front of him while he was jumping up and down, spilling on us... The Washington fans were very spirited. The stadium was loud and rowdy and fun. At the end of the game, the LSU fans looked like their team lost because the team didn't play as well as expected. The Washington fans were cheering to the last second and looked like they were the fans of the winning team.

I think a wise man once said, "If you had fun, you won." (Not everyone will get that.)






Photo of those NOT dressed to the hilt in purple and gold... We were the only ones who didn't look like either LSU fans OR Washington fans - whose colors also happen to be purple and gold. The CU shirt may have also thrown people off!!!


Nice, David! ;-)














First cheering "GO Tigers" for the Tiger fans, then easily moving on to 'Tiger Bait' the Washington fans...


THE STADIUM...




WINNING....


Back on the boat after the game... Goodbye Seattle! It was fun!!!

Sightseeing...

About a year ago, we found out that LSU was going to be playing Washington in September of this year and that a lot of Dave's college buddies would be making the trip. Now, when most people say a lot of college buddies, I don't know what that means to them. When Dave says it, it means like 40 or 50. In addition to this, I had never been to Seattle, so we deemed this a must-attend road trip.

First things first, we had to get there... Some old friends of ours, David & Colleen, were nice enough to wait up for us and pick us up at the late hour of 11:30 pm at the airport. D & C used to live in Denver and were our camping / hiking / drinking / hanging out buddies. They had been in Seattle since Wednesday for a few days of hiking up by Twilight Territory (They didn't see any vampires, but they did eat a Bella Burger.) And even though we made them stay up halfway through the night to pick us up, they had a beer waiting for us in the car and hung out in the hotel bar for a bit when we got to the 'busiest hotel in the world' - The Westin in Seattle). (Thank you Doug!)

Friday was spent all over Seattle - we hit Pike Place Market, the first Starbucks, a Brewery for lunch, and Snoqualmie Falls for a quick hike, and finished the day having dinner in the Space Needle. It was insane to see the number of people wearing LSU colors around. It's a funny thing to me how the LSU crowd brings not just one outfit of school colors to wear to the game, but three or four to wear on the days preceding and subsequent to the game as well. They sure are proud of their school! One lady even offered to let me wear her LSU jacket when they were taking a picture for us since I didn't have anything with the school logo on! I politely declined - I was at least wearing a gold colored shirt!

Pike Place Market - you have to see it if you go just to say that you did, right?





I happened to catch this awesome video of the guys throwing the fish...


Very first Starbucks - Guess what?! It tasted like the soy latte that I get at the one 5 minutes from my house!




After seeing a ton of Dave's buddies at the Brewery, we headed off for a hike down to the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls!




Notice this is the only picture of our 'dinner'. While the rotating restaurant was cool, it took CC and me a bit of time to get used to it. The food was phenomenal!


And I'll leave you as we walked home from the Space Needle on Friday (You'll have to wait to hear about Game Day.) with a pic of something you don't see every day.... Hmmmmm......

Losing...

Annie is about to turn 7 in a few weeks and has been very much bemoaning the fact that she hasn't lost even one tooth. She's been very dramatic. She'll get a phone call from a friend who just turned 6 who lost a tooth and, while she is very happy for them while she's talking to them, begins crying immediately after she hangs up. It's so important to her, but one of those things that she just has to be patient with.

This last weekend, when I was in Seattle, I got a phone call from her.

"Guess what, Mom. Good news!", she says.

"What is it, hon?"

"I LOST MY TOOTH!!!"

She lost her first tooth while she was still six while she was staying at Grandma's house! WOO HOO! What a story!! She was so excited and so animated when she was telling me about it. Of course, the tooth fairy had to wait one night until we got home to come because 1) she didn't want the tooth fairy to become confused about where she lived and 2) I didn't want to explain that the tooth fairy doesn't always give $100 bills (which I was worried my mom would do!).

I asked my mom to email me a picture and this is the one they took. You can just see how excited she is!!!

WORKING...

So I just got back from CHA in Orlando. They moved it from Chicago to Orlando. Which is good and bad. I loved having a fabulous excuse to go to Chicago - one of my very favorite cities - at least once a year. But it was awesome to go visit my brother in Orlando (and lay by the pool by myself and soak up the sun! - even if it felt like a sauna!!)

CHA was very productive. I felt like I got a lot of great deals this time and will have lots of cool things to offer up to my customers in the coming months!

After a few late nights staying up to get all the calculating, figuring, ordering taken care of, I had a chance to have some fun at the show.

My favorite booth is the Doodlebug Designs booth. It's always set up like a little candy house. It would be the type of place you would love to have as a playhouse for your kids (or yourself!). Here are some shots of it with one of me 'in the kitchen, baking cookies'!

Also, the one and only shot from the night I went out with my brother and friends....


Unless you consider these two 'photos from the night...' (First is the front cover of a great newspaper in the Orlando area. Second is a shot of my brother's friend, Brendan, which may have been manipulated to look as if it was in the newspaper. I don't know. You'll have to ask Bennie / Brendan for the truth...)

NEW KITCHEN!!!

Yes... it's my quarterly blog entry.... I know that I need to be better about this, but this summer has been crazy with a capital C! Along with several vacation trips we made in June, my grandmother passed away. So I had an unexpected trip to Viriginia in early July as well. On top of all that, the kids were home and we were spending time doing fun things AND we were getting our kitchen remodels.

Seven short, stress-filled, fun-filled weeks later, we have three small things that need to be done in order to completely finish the kitchen (dimmers put on two lights, a valence put over the cooktop, and to get that darn oven actually working.) Aside from that, things are put away, organized, and we're absolutely loving it! Dave and I spend time in the kitchen in the evenings just enjoying it. We're looking forward to having people over to break it in!!

For now, here's the before and after shots!!!

BEFORE #1


AFTER #1


BEFORE #2


AFTER #2


BEFORE #3


AFTER #3


BEFORE #4


AFTER #4


BEFORE #5


AFTER #5


BEFORE #6


AFTER #6



So there it is!! Who wants to come over??