loveshackscrapspot

A few more ice pictures

2012-01-19T14:52:00.000-08:00

Ice storm January 2012

2012-01-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

Today was a bit of a crazy day. Yesterday we had a snow storm that dropped about 16" of snow and made getting to work tricky. Then today we woke up to freezing rain and a cold temperatures. As we headed out to work there were a few trees down along way, one or two in the driveway but not a big deal. Right? Wrong! One of the roads we normally take had a huge tree across it and downed power lines. So we went around and made it to work safely. Then the power went out at work and trees were coming down everywhere so we got to head home early. On the way home we saw more and more trees down in the road and obvious signs of power outages along the way. Then we got to our driveway. Yikes, trees everywhere. So we called Mike at the house and told him to bring the chainsaw down so we could cut a path. We got out of the truck to move a few of the smaller branches and were surrounded by the sound of falling branches and breaking trees. I freaked out, it was so scary. You could hear a "crack" and then look up to see a branch or part of a whole tree falling down. There are no less than 7 downed trees across our driveway, and there is no way we can risk cutting them to clear the road, it's just way to dangerous. So the truck sits at the end of the driveway and we are sitting in the house listening and watching trees fall every few minutes. Eventually we'll have to get out there and cut the downed trees to clear the road, just not today!!

Sledding with the Schoenings

2012-01-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a long time since we have spent any time with the Schoenings. So when they called to see if we wanted to go sledding today the answer was definitely yes. As you can see, Cody was limited on his fun today since he is still is his brace from breaking his back in a car wreck a few weeks ago. However, the rest of us all jumped on the sleds and took a few runs, some of them took lots of runs! It was snowing like crazy up in Capitol Forrest so we had plenty of fresh snow to sled on. Mike managed to catch some air on one of his runs and then crashed into the bushes on another. Sledding today reminded me of the trips we took up there together over the years, now our kids are almost all grown up so it was nice to do it again and have fun hanging out with each other like in the "old days". I hope we can get all of the kids and do it at least one more time this year while the snow sticks around. Fun times!

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Cain and Williams crew! We hosted my family at our house on Christmas eve and had a blast with the White Elephant gift exchange. Morgan brought over a Santa hat and everybody had to put it on when it was their turn to choose a gift and there was lots of swapping and laughing going on! Rachel brought both her dogs over and combined with ours and Morgans we ended up with 5 dogs in the house, Jim had mixed feelings about it as you can see by the picture. All of the kids stayed the night at our house so we were able to have Christmas morning with our whole family. It was a nice, peaceful Christmas and I enjoyed every minute of it. We went to Jim's Moms house on Monday afternoon and I totally forgot to take a single picture, grrr. It was nice to spend some time with Twyla, Shell and Bob though. I hope all of you had a great Christmas too!

OMG- She's 21!!

2011-12-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, seriously, where has the time gone?? Today is my little tiny baby Rachel's 21st birthday and I can totally still remember the night I gave birth to her. It was a full moon and her Grandpap swore to me that she was going to come that night and sure enough, he was right and she did. I do miss her Grandpap and wish he was here to see what a beautiful girl she has become. Our family, her dad and Sean's family all got together in downtown Olympia to celebrate with dinner and for Rachel- some drinks. Our waitress was a good sport and let me take a picture of Rachel's first time being carded. She managed a double shot and 2 mixed drinks without getting too tipsy, although I suspect later tonight that might not be the case. LOL!! I love you Rachel and enjoyed your birthday dinner alot. I'm very proud of you and look forward to continuing to watch you grow and mature. Happy Birthday!!

Isnt she lovely.....

2011-11-14T17:06:00.000-08:00

My Minds Eye is one of my favorite scrapbook lines and companies. They always come out with unique patterns and embellishments that catch my eye and inspire me to create. I took this picture of Rachel this summer and it's one of my favorites, I think it shows her beauty -inside and out. She has grown into a lovely young woman and I couldn't be more proud of her. Love you Rachel!! I used the Stella and Rose line for the base of this project and some embellishments from Lush to complete it. Hope you like it!

Out of the Loveshack and into the house

2011-11-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

It has been a really cold Fall and it's shaping up to be an even colder Winter, so I decided to move my scrapping stuff into the house. I love the Loveshack and it's been a really great space to create, but.. I feel really disconnected from the rest of the house when I'm out there. Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes that's a good thing! But I realized that I really haven't been doing any scrapping lately and the idea of going out there in the cold and hanging out by myself had become less and less appealing. So when Jim suggested we move my stuff into the house I thought about it for a few weeks and then agreed to take over Rachel's room as my new scrap space. It's kind of bitter sweet to use her room, I guess that means she's a "guest" now when she comes to stay since she doesn't have her own room anymore. So sad, but I guess I have to let go sometime. Once I moved everything in I started looking at the walls and wanted to do something to make it more "creative" of a space. I had a bunch of Theresa Collins chipboard covers in red from a project that Tiffany had done a few years back that I had an idea for. The red didn't match the paint on the walls so I used some papers from DCWV to cover them and then added some black and white pictures. A little bit of ribbon and some help from my husband to hang them evenly and I was all done within a day or two. Now that I'm in the house I am finding myself going up there to organize and play around a bit, I guess moving inside was a good idea after all.

Mike's WSU visit

2011-11-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Mike and I made the long, 6 hour drive to WSU for a campus visit. Mike has picked UW, WSU and Western for his 3 choices to apply to for college. Of course he hopes to get into UW but he wants to have a couple of back ups just in case. So, off to WSU we went for a tour and lunch. We got into Pullman around 8:80 pm and got a quick bite to eat then headed to the hotel to get some sleep. We spent all day Friday walking around campus and meeting with advisors and students so we could get a feel for the campus. The weather was a little cold and the scenery is definitely different than the "westside" as they call it in Pullman. Mike really liked the campus and he is leaning toward it right now, but we still have Western to visit so we'll see. The best part of the trip for me was just being able to spend some one on one time with Mike, he's so fun to talk to and I just love him to pieces. I'm so not looking forward to him leaving home.

Mikes senior pictures

2011-10-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to believe that Mike is a senior and is less than a year away from going off to college. Today we went to the Olympia Capitol building and took his senior pictures. If you've been watching my blog for any time at all you know this is one of my favorite spots for pictures. It was a little rainy so we spent most of our time on the steps of the capitol under cover but we did manage to dodge the raindrops and get some others too. Mike really doesn't like having his picture taken but he was a good sport and posed for over an hour. These are just a few of the over 300 pictures I took. Check out my grown up boy!

$20 Goodwill table

2011-10-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

I found this table at the local Goodwill and instantly knew it was a great project to use with my new Annie Sloane paint. I loved the details on the side of the table and thought they would look beautiful with the stark white of the paint. The bonus was that it was only $19.99! Jim took the top off so he could stain it while I worked on painting the rest of the table.Unfortunately he found out quickly that the top was veneer and the strip around the top was damaged. he ended up lightly sanding the top, removing the side piece and staining it heavily. I think it turned out great. As for painting the legs and details, I used white Annie Sloane paint. It a chalk style paint and it took a little getting used to, the first coat dries a little streaky but after the second coat it looks great. Once the painting was done and dried for a day or so I waxed it with Minwax paste wax and it gave it a smooth sheen. We put the table upstairs in the living room for now, it doesn't seem like the "spot" for it just yet but it'll find it's home eventually. Enjoy!

Black to white conversion

2011-10-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

We found these old black end tables at a garage sale in Tenino and paid $3 each for them. The lady told me she had planned on repainting them but never got around to it. Lucky for us she gave up! Jim started off by stripping them and then decided to tear them apart, not sure why exactly, I think he thought it would be easier to refinish them. So tearing them apart resulted in him having to make new side panels and modifications to the tops but in the end they turned out beautifully. So far he only has one done but has promised me he will work on the other one "next". He is in the middle of refinishing a coffee table though so it may be a while! I have this one next to our bed and it totally goes with the dresser we did as our first project. Now, I just need an antique iron bed frame, King size preferably.....wish me luck.

From yucky to yummy- Teal Dresser

2011-10-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jim and I found this old , maybe 70's or 80's,dresser at a garage sale in late September. The lady wanted $20 for it but a quick inspection (and smell!) made us offer her $10. It needed a couple of top drawer fixtures and had an "odd" odor, kind of like a dirty house with pets maybe. Yuck. So we took it home for the $10 offer and let it sit in the garage for a few weeks while we worked on another project. Then we slowly started working on this baby. I had found inspiration for the color on another blog, mapleandmagnolia.com, but it took alot of convincing for Jim to agree to play along. Basically we agreed that this was my project and he was just helping with it. He actually worked on other projects while I was doing this one, stopping just long enough to do my painting and "honey do" requests. I had a distressed finish in mind but I'm not quite ready to shell out $50 for Annie Sloane was just yet, so I used a Valspar antiquing stain instead. It took a couple of coats but it ended up being exactly the color I was hoping for. Once it was done, I waxed it with Minwax finishing wax and put the hardware back on. Oh, the bottom drawers hardware is all original, we just painted it with Brushed Nickle spray paint. The top drawer knobs were picked up at a local store. I really do like how it turned out, I have a vision for re-doing Morgan bedroom with this dresser and a few other items. I'll show the finished room once I get there, I'm still looking for a few more things. I hope you enjoy the dresser, let me know what you think!

http://mapleandmagnolia.com/2011/09/08/sideboard-makeover

Weekend dresser project

2011-09-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I came across this antique dresser at a garage sale. I had been kind of looking for a project that I could re-do ala missmustardseed.blogspot.com. I have been stalking her site, admiring her work and thinking it might be possible to do a project myself (with Jim's help of course!) I love the look of a white painted piece with a contrasting top and sides and so that was the look we went for. We started filling holes and sanding Friday night after work and by Saturday night we were reading to paint. We actually stained the top of the dresser on Saturday and just needed one more coat of stain to finish it up. We were too tired to paint on Saturday but we were definitely ready. So Sunday morning Jim got started on the first of several coats of spray satin paint. Now, I was super hesitant about using spray paint but it honestly turned out just like I imagined it would. We went to Home Depot to pick up knobs and I was shocked at how much they cost- $4 each and we needed 10, they cost almost as much as the dresser! By Sunday night Jim had completed all of the painting and we just needed to let everything dry completely so we could put it all together. This morning Jim called me out to show me the final product and I absolutely love how it turned out. It is exactly the vision that I had for the piece and I have already put it into the bedroom. So, I think I may have created a monster- Jim is already starting on the next project and talking about selling the pieces we make! I'll have to let you know how that goes.

Summer camping trip

2011-09-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we went camping with the Schoenings and we couldn't have had a better time. The weather was nice for most of the days, a little rain the last the day but hey, this is Washington so we kind of expect it. We all agreed that the trip was going to be all about just relaxing and going with the flow. We spent time playing board games, reading fishing, talking and just enjoying the time together. We ate lots of great food, made fun of Sean and Rachel putting up their tent, played with the dogs and stayed up late laughing by the fire. Oh yeah, we also froze our butts off at night when it got super cold! I coerced everyone into taking a group photo on the last evening after dinner and we laughed so hard at Mike "planking" in some of the pictures- hilarious. I hope we get one more chance to go again before the summer is over, it was so nice. Love the time with my family and our friends.

Tenino Trail Days

2011-08-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

Tenino has a little "Trail Days" event every year that consists of a parade and a small food/craft booth area. I love the parade but somehow managed to miss it this year. The kids say they don't like it but I think they we sad we missed it too. We headed down for lunch and to check out the booths, the weather was great, super sunny. The best part is always just spending the time together as a family. Cameron missed it this year, he was in Hawaii with his Grandparents for vacation- lucky.

Our Anniversay

2011-08-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have the most amazing husband ever. He planned a surprise trip for our anniversary that included blind folding me for a 2 hour car ride until we made it to our destination. Jim rented a small house called "the Love Shack" in Pacific Beach, a small town about 20 minutes from Ocean Shores. He had flowers sent to the house and the owners set them up and gave us a bottle of champagne to help us celebrate. It was so sweet and romantic. Then he arranged for Jeff and Richele to surprise us at the restaurant for dinner... I screamed a little when I saw them! Dinner was amazing, it was small guest house Inn and restaurant called the Collins Inn, the kitchen was right next to our table so we could watch the chef cook our dinner. After dinner we headed off to the casino with the Schoenings and I even managed to make a little money. We spent the rest of the weekend fishing at the jetty and shopping the little stores in town. It was one of the best anniversaries I can remember, Jim did such a great job of planning everything. I love you honey!!

Summer scrapping and cleaning

2011-07-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

The weather here in Washington has finally gotten a little better. I hesitate to say it , but I think summer is finally here. Last night was so nice, it got up to about 73 yesterday and the evening stayed mild. So i headed out to the Love shack to do a little scrapping and cleaning. I moved my Expedit bookshelf from under the window and stood it up on end, I like it so far. I also purged some supplies and did some organizing, I much prefer when the shack is clean and organized. I did the two page Seattle layout last night and the Morgan layout this morning. The pictures of the shack are from this morning and show just how nice the day is shaping up - look at the sunshine. We are off to Cabellas today for a BBQ cook off competition- yum! Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Graduation time

2011-07-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Time sure flies when you have a child graduating. Not to mention several other nieces and nephews graduating too! Morgan graduated two weeks ago from North Thurston HS and has been accepted to the University of Washington. We are all so proud of her, she graduated in the top 10% of Washington state students-we all wonder who she got her brains from!! The following weekend we had her party with her mom and other family. It was lots of fun celebrating with her and watching her mingle as an "adult". We gave her an Ipad for her grad/birthday gift and she was super excited. Last Friday we headed to UW for incoming Freshman orientation and parent orientation. The campus is amazing, I'm so excited for her to start in the fall. Way to go Morgan!!

Ashley's party

2011-06-12T06:28:00.000-07:00

I have known the Schoenings for many, many years and actually first met this sweet girl when she was in the 2nd grade. Now she's graduating, wow how time flies. I had the honor of doing her senior pictures this year and she is one of the best models I have had, she always has great ideas for poses and will do anything you ask with a huge smile on her face. Her mother is one of the my dearest friends and I count myself lucky to have their family in my life. Ashley graduated this week and they hosted her party yesterday. Jim and I made some yummy cheesecake in a cup desserts that were inspired by a blog post on Elizabeth Kartchners blog (hers were cupcakes in a jar and I'm sure they were yummy too). We decorated the lids with a picture of Ashley and everyone raved about how delicious they were. We are making them again for Morgans party next weekend, probably about 50 or so, yikes. We had a great day with the Schoenings and are very proud of Ashley- Congratulations my dear!!

Mini album love

2011-06-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

Please hop over to Teresa Collins blog to check out my mini album she posted. I am so honored to have her use it in a post! Not that I'm bragging... LOL!
http//teresacollins.typepad.com

This boy is 17 today!!

2011-06-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

17 years ago today I was laying in a hospital bed in Puyallup, Washington giving birth to this amazing boy. Mike was my last of two babies that I would give birth to and he was my little "honey pot pie" from the first moment I laid eyes on him. He has always been a kind, quiet, sensitive boy with strong opinions and a quirky sense of humor. He is a bit of a mommas boy but I love that about him, there's nothing wrong with a boy that loves his mother. I am very proud of the young man Mike has grown in to, he continues to be a joy to be around. These pictures are from a Penguins hockey game we went to together, we had a great time and I enjoyed every minute of it. Happy Birthday son- I love you with all of my heart.

Teresa Collins mini album

2011-06-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Oh my word, if you haven't used the new Teresa Collins Timeless and Posh lines you don't know what you are missing. I took Morgan out last weekend to take some new senior pictures, we ended up taking over 300 shots. Yikes. But... many of them were so lovely they inspired me to make a new mini album using the Teresa Collins products from my stash. I printed some pictures in black and white and mixed in a few color shots that I love too, then I mixed in several different papers and embellishments. I am loving how it all came together and turned out. This album is intended to be a gift for Morgans Mom and Stepdad, I hope they don't read my blog, it's a surprise. I do have to admit it's going to be difficult to part with but I think they will enjoy having an album to look at once Morgans gone off to college. I hope you enjoy looking at it too.

Picture, pictures, and more pictures

2011-06-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

I love to take pictures. Can you tell by my blog posts?? I wish I had more time to devote to fine tuning my abilities- I'll have to add a photography class to my bucket list. Last weekend I took Morgan out shopping to get a few new dresses for her upcoming graduation and party, then we realized we needed some new Senior pictures too. I really wanted some cap and gown shots ahead of time so I could display one at the party, it gets so busy the day of graduation that the cap and gown "shot" can get missed. So we loaded up Jim and went to downtown Olympia on Memorial Day to do a mini photo shoot. As usual, I took hundreds of pictures, these are a few of my favorites. Because it was Memorial Day we saw some cool stuff at the Capitol building, including a 21 gun salute to honor our Veterans. After we were done shooting we headed down to Ramblin Jacks for a yummy lunch. It was a great afternoon.

New family album

2011-05-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

The poor neglected LoveShack hasn't gotten much attention lately, I haven't really been in the mood and haven't had a ton of time either. I started this mini album over a month ago and I've thought about going out to the Shack to work on it many times but never did. Today the boys went fishing in the late afternoon and I was home alone with nothing to do so I headed out to "maybe" work on some scrapping. I had everything pulled out already so I got to work and completed the album in about 3 hours. Sweet! Then I cleaned up and went into the house and saw is was 7:30!! Time flies in the LoveShack. Enjoy!

Rachel and Sean's first house

2011-05-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

Rachel and her boyfriend Sean moved into their first house together this weekend. It a funky little place in Bremerton, close to both of their jobs. We hauled all of Rachel's stuff up their this morning and helped them gets things set up and put away. Rachel took me downstairs and showed me the basement, holy cow, it's like something from a bad horror movie. Check out the massive rat trap!! It's an old house right in town in a really busy street, not necessarily the perfect house- but it's perfect for them for a first place. They were both really excited and happy and grateful for all of the help we gave them. Jim made a run for lunch and we had a classic first place meal, sitting on the floor while we were waiting for the couches to get there. I'm really going to miss having my baby here in town, she;s so far away now, but I fully support her decision to move away and start her new life. Sean is a great guy that loves Rachel a lot, he treats her good and is a good "fit" for our family too. Love you both!

Morgan's Prom 2011

2011-05-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of Morgan all dressed up for her Prom tonight. We are so proud of her accomplishments this year- she has been accepted to the University of Washington in Seattle and starts in the fall. She received a large grant and is busy turning in scholarship applications to help pay for the rest. This will be here final high school dance and she is going with one of her best friends. I'm so glad she brought her dress over so we could take these pictures!! She's lovely. Love the last picture- Jim convinced her to sit like a "saloon girl" and she totally went for it.

Fishing 2010

2011-05-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

Jim took all of the kids fishing at one point or another on opening day and as you can see, it was a beautiful weekend for fishing. In the morning he took Morgan, Cameron and Mike and they met up with Jeff and Cody Schoening, unfortunately there are no pictures of them or Mike! Later in the day he took Morgan and I out, once the sun came out. I'm a fair weather fisherman so I wont go unless there is guaranteed sunshine. Check out the picture of Cameron, he looks a little like the uni bomber! Ashleigh even got into the fishing action and on that trip out Jim caught his biggest fish so far, it was over 6 lbs and was definitely a keeper.

Saturday stuff

2011-04-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

This Saturday we had our friends the Schoenings over for dinner. We started cooking early, I made a New York cheesecake and I have to say it was one of the best cheesecakes I've made so far. Then Jim and Morgan made his famous "cheeseburger soup" and the Scoenings brought a great salad and delicious rolls. Yum!! Everyone loved the soup, it's delicious every single time we make it. After dinner we hung out a little bit and caught up on the news of our families. Some good, some not so good , but it was good to talk and hear from each other. We played board games and laughed our butts off, everyone had a blast. Look at he pictures of the guys- you can see just how much fun were having!!We made a commitment to each other to get together every other weekend so we can keep closer than we have been lately. We really do miss each other when we don't see enough of our families. Love these guys.

Cameron's 15th bday

2011-04-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, it seems really weird to say Cameron is 15 already. That means he's less than a year away from driving which I cant even imagine. We had a small dinner and cake celebration at the house on Saturday with just us and my sister. Jim bought trick candles for the cake that weren't really too tricky, he blew a few times and got a little help from Rachel to finish up the job. We all got a good laugh out of the shirt that I bought without realizing it says "boobies" , everyone else saw it right away. Pretty funny. We had a super yummy red velvet cake from Costco but we were all too full from dinner to have any until way later. Mike had his wisdom teeth out on Saturday so he could hardly eat much anyway. He recovered pretty quickly though, much quicker than the girls. We got Cameron another new Ipod since his old one is broke, we did warn him this is the last one he'll get from us though, he doesn't have the best track record for taking care of them.

I went out car shopping with my sister on Saturday too- she bought herself a Mini Cooper. It's the first newer car she has ever bought, she gets to bring it home on Monday. Lucky!!

THS Soccer 2011

2011-03-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

Mike started playing soccer this year for Tenino HS and he loves it. He really hasn't played a sport for a few years, unless you count bowling, LOL. So I was glad that he decided to join the soccer team. Most of his friends play also so that helped encourage him to give it a try. He's on the JV team and plays forward. These pictures are from his first game , which they lost unfortunately, but two games later they won and Mike made one of the two goals. Nice!

Summer with the boys

2011-03-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

I scrapped this page last night. It's from last summer and shows lots of the things we enjoy doing during the summer. As soon as they are ripe, Cameron picks blackberries from the bushes in the driveway, then he and Jim make a pie. We usually end up with 2 or 3 pies and maybe one cobbler throughout the summer. It's kind of a tradition since we have lived in this house. Then of course there's fishing and fireworks and usually some yard work and goofing around. I love summer in Washington, so mild and nice. I just hope this years summer comes soon, I'm tired of the cold.

John's 18th birthday

2011-03-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we celebrated my nephew John's 18th birthday at his mom's house in Yelm. John is such a good boy, he has grown into an awesome young man. We spent lots of time talking about his college plans, he's a senior this year. He may go to PLU and he may go to OSU in Oregon, he's not sure yet but he wants to do something in business. Mom and Dad made it to the party and Dad even stayed for more than an hour. He really prefers to stay at home fro the most part now days due to the Alzheimer's but everyone likes to see him out and about when he can do it. The party was fun, John got a great new Cannon camera and was super excited.He also scored a ton of cash!! Lucky boy. Happy birthday John- we love you.

Hey there friends.....

2011-03-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am!! I had a chance to scrap some pages over the last few weeks, yep weeks, and thought I'd post them here on the blog. Poor blog, it's been horribly neglected!

I have been a bit busy at work and I also seemed to have lost my scrap mojo, not sure it's back but this is a start. The first layout is for Scraptiffany's blog challenge from last week, her link is on the left side task bar, check out all of the great layouts if you get a chance. The others are some of the product I got at CHA and some were projects we did at the make and takes. There was some great new lines there and they gave away lots of product to promote the new stuff. Especially Teresa Collins, I used her new sports line for the football layout below.

Well, I hope to post more often. I miss it and like to keep friends and family current with what's going on in our lives. Wish me luck! Have a great week everyone!

California Dreamin'

2011-02-15T17:49:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that 2 weeks ago this is where I was, on a beach in beautiful California. The last day of our trip to CHA we headed down to the beach for a few hours of glorious Cali sunshine. The weather was beautiful , the skies were blue, the people were friendly and I began to understand why people might want to live there....it was glorious. We took lots of pictures to be used as a reminder at a later, and much colder, time of how it was that one day. Today is that day- enjoy a bit of California dreaming on me.

Projects for my girls

2011-01-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

So sorry I have been MIA again, I just cant seem to find the time (or energy) to post to the blog more often. However, I have been hard at work on some special projects for the girls next week when we get together at CHA. So here are a few sneak peeks before I give them to away on Friday. I tried to pick colors and styles that I think are unique to each of them and I hope they love them. I am lucky enough that Rachel gets to come along with me to CHA, we had a last minute change of plans that allowed her to get away. Thank god for frequent flier miles, we got her ticket for $5! I love to travel with her, she's alot of fun and I cant wait to show her off to my friends. I'll post from the road next week if I can find the time ( and energy) LOL!

Mini album kit from Tiffany

2011-01-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

This album is a kit that Tiffany did a while back that I just loved. I had all kinds of ideas for using the album and ended up just letting it sit for all this time. I pulled it out yesterday and found a stack of pictures from our trip to Long Beach in 2009 with our friends the Schoenings that seemed to "fit". We had the opportunity to stay at a cute little cabin on the trip that was over 100 years old and it was such a cool experience. The house was closer to Astoria than Long Beach so we spent a bit of time doing touristy things there and had a really good time. The album is kind of sewing themed but the "sew sweet" theme works for family pics too. Gotta love Tiffany's work.

Morgan's Winter Ball 2011

2011-01-08T19:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight is Morgan's Winter ball at her high school. She usually gets ready at her Moms house so I don't get a chance to see her all dressed up or take any pictures. This year is her Senior year so this is probably the last chance for us to be a part of her going to dances. If you have been reading my blog for a while you already know how much I love watching the kids get ready, taking pictures and sending them on their way to have fun. I am so happy Morgan decided to get ready here today and have Shelton come pick her up. It's a small thing but it really brings me alot of happiness. Love you Morgan, you looked beautiful tonight!

Todays stuff

2011-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

Rachel was home last night so we got up this morning and headed out to do a little shopping and spending time together. We went to Michael's and I found some new Recollections flower embellishments and bought a couple of punches, one border and one butterfly that was on sale. I used the butterfly punch on the layout below, along with some old Hedi Swapp felt flowers Tiffany gave me a while back. I did that layout for the challenge at Scrap Tiffany this week, it's a scraplifted page from Sheri Twing- love her style!Check out her blog if you get a chance.http://auntierere.blogspot.com/

The other layout was just for fun to get me back into the groove, I am seriously out of practice. I have had an insane amount of time of the last month and I really haven't scrapped at all until today. I do have a few surprise projects up my sleeve that I'll be working on over the next week or so. I had to order some product that I am waiting for to get started. Have a great week!

Wow what a Christmas!

2011-01-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

I took soooo many pictures this year that I had a really tough time picking which ones to put on the blog. I ended up with 25 after I picked through them all. We had a really good Christmas this year, we spoiled the kids and spent time with lots of our families. We watched "A Christmas Story" multiple times, opened gifts with the kids on Christmas Day at 1:00pm so they could have time with their other families, hosted the Larsen family dinner and gift exchange with lots of laughter at the selection of gifts, and had lunch and presents at Gramma Twyla's house with board games afterward. The kids got goofy when they opened their presents, the girls loved their Coach purses, Cameron loved his pocket watch and his knives, and Mike laughed at the duck tape and gloves Cameron gave him and was relieved to finally get the toaster oven he has been asking for. Jimmy got a gun and was super happy, he freaked when he opened his slicer from Rachel, I got an Ipad which I was totally NOT expecting at all and Rachel got me that awesome Stephen King book I wanted. We all had alot of time off together and got to really relax and enjoy the holiday. Whew, now I need to focus on the New Year!! Happy New Year to everyone, hope yours brings you everything you hope for.

Merry Late Christmas

2010-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a peaceful and joyous Christmas. Jim and I had alot of time off so we were able to spend lots of time with each other and the kids. We pulled out a bunch of our old board games and had a marathon session-we played games that hadn't even been opened yet. (some for good reason!!) This year "tree picture" was taken by Rachel's boyfriend Sean. He was so patient, he even put up with me giving him a "lesson" on my camera. The end result was good, although the first picture I opened up was blurry and made me panic just a little bit. I'll post more pictures of our family Christmas' later this week. Have a good week all.

I'm baaaack! Just in time for Christmas!

2010-12-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Wow, where have I been? Nowhere really, just hanging out at home. I've had the lat 7 days off and I've just been shopping for Christmas and relaxing at home. It has been a really nice break and I've enjoyed just doing nothing most days. We've got all of the Christmas presents bought and mostly wrapped, all of the food bought for dinner tomorrow and nothing left to do but wait for Christmas morning. So I finally headed out to the Loveshack to put away some new stuff I bought over a week ago and maybe scrap a page or do a project. I pulled out the pictures below and was inspired to create these two layouts. They came together pretty quickly and I'm happy with how they turned out. I promise to blog more regularly again once the holidays are over. Sunday we are heading up to Jim's moms house for our Christmas with his side of the family, I'm looking forward to it. Enjoy the next few days my friends. Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Tiffany!!

2010-12-13T06:21:00.000-08:00

My sweet girl Tiffany is having a birthday today. As most of you remember she moved to Alaska this year and I miss her terribly. We get to see each other next month at CHA and I can hardly wait. Usually it's the scrapbooking I look forward to at conventions but not this year- I need a Tiffany fix! Unfortunately I am still having blogger issues so I cant post any pictures on here so click on this link to go to Tiffany's blog and learn a little bit about her. I love you Tiffany and cant wait to see you!
http://www.scraptiffany.typepad.com/

I think I need help!

2010-12-05T15:48:00.000-08:00

I think I may need an intervention.... from mini albums. I haven't scrapped a regular page in probably a month or so. I have been just doing mini's with some of my favorite pictures. You know it's bad when your husband asks if you do "big" albums anymore!! So this one is the pictures from the photo shoot we did in Olympia last month. I used a Maya Road album that Tiffany had given me and I picked up some Bo Bunny papers that I loved from a local store. I really like to blue colors with the pictures, they seem to match perfectly.

So I actually had a lot more pictures but Google or Picasa wont let me upload any more pictures. Apparently I have used up all of my space? I didn't even know that was possible. So, I need to figure out if I have to buy more space or if there's a way to delete some of my older stuff. If any of you have advise please let me know. Thanks!!

Rachels Birthday Dinner_Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm behind in my posts! Last week we took Rachel (and her boyfriend Sean) to dinner to celebrate her 20th birthday. We let her pick the place and she chose Applebees which was nice because it was close to home for all of us. We gave her the new Nook Color for her present and she loves it- look at that smile on her face. Now we just need to figure out how to use it well. During dinner Jim offered Mike $15 to drink the whole bottle of A-1 and of course he did it. The lady at the table next to us was cracking up watching him!

I also posted a few pictures from Thanksgiving at our house. Jim made a deep fried turkey for the first time ever, it turned out really good. The only thing I don't like is the stuffing has to be cooked outside of the turkey and I like the flavor of it inside the bird. The day was nice and quiet, everyone was gone by 4:30 to go to other dinner so Jim and I had the night to ourselves. Hope everyone had a nice holiday too.

Rachel turns 20 today

2010-12-02T06:51:00.000-08:00

Today is my beautiful daughter Rachel's 20th birthday. I have to say, the time seems to have sped up since she turned 18, 20 crept up fast on me. Rachel has always been loving sweet girl with a strong personality and she continues to be that kind of girl today. I am very proud of her and love her with all of my heart . Happy Birthday my girl.

Snow day and stuck vehicles

2010-11-24T12:40:00.000-08:00

If you live in the Pacific Northwest I don't have tell you just how cold and snowy it's been this week. But for my out of state friends I thought a few pictures might be fun for you to see. We got about 8 -10 inches of snow and then the temps dropped down to the teens so everything turned to compact snow and ice. We have managed to get both my car and Jim's truck stuck in the driveway within the last 2 days. We got up early this morning and tried to get the truck unstuck but ended up having to call in reinforcements when it started to go over the embankment. Zac and Greg, our co-workers, we nice enough to drive out and give us a hand, Unfortunately, Greg's truck got stuck for a while too!! Finally, after lots of digging and scraping and pulling, both trucks made it up the driveway. So I have spent part of the morning searching for an SUV on line. I love my station wagon but this was ridiculous, we were basically housebound and I'm not having that. So I think I'll go test drive a Durango on Friday, wish me luck.

Morgan's mini album

2010-11-20T17:37:00.000-08:00

I am so super happy with how this mini album, turned out. Lat week when I traveled I stopped at Archivers and found these really cool mini covers from 7 Gypsy's. They are a "Faux" book cover made from a heavy chipboard and as soon as I saw them I knew they were perfect for an album of Morgans pictures from last weekend. So I started on the album last night, cutting the papers and inking the edges. Then I had a bunch of Thanksgiving shopping to do so I didn't start on putting it together until around 2:30 this afternoon. I used the new MME papers and embellishments, I cant recall the name right now. If you really love and want to know post a comment for me and I'll go check. It's hard to see but some of the papers have pink glitter accents, really cute. I finished up around 5:00 and by then all the daylight was gone so I had a little bit of difficulty getting good pictures for the blog. Anyway, let me know what you think.

More and more and more pictures of Morgan

2010-11-15T15:36:00.000-08:00

Whew, I can't just pick one or two to post here. There are way too many that I love. I made it safely to Minnesota this afternoon and have a little time to post some more shots. Keep in mind that I just took all of these yesterday and I have done absolutely no editing of them whatsoever. I think a little photo shop may make some of the "so so" shots really alot better. We spent about 2 hours getting these so overall I think they turned out pretty good. She's an easy subject so it wasn't too hard. I have family picture too that I'll post tomorrow, I don't want to overwhelm you all with too many posts in one day!

Pictures of Morgan

2010-11-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

I hope you can stand looking at lots of pictures because I have lots of shots of Morgan to share. I'm sitting at the airport, on my way to Minnesota where I hear there is SNOW- yikes. So I have a few minutes to post some of the shots from yesterday's photo shoot of Morgan for senior pictures. We took over 400 pictures so obviously I will have to pare it down a bit for posting here. We went to the state capitol campus because Morgan wanted trees and leaves in her pics and there were lots of those at the campus. So here are the first few shots that include a few of my favorites. Oops, they're boarding my plane, more later.

Family picture mini album

2010-11-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

I started working on this mini album last night while watching TV with Jim and Morgan. I painted the canvas pages and set it out overnight to dry. Then I headed out the Loveshack this morning around 10:30 to get started. It went pretty quickly, I was done by 12:30. The pictures are from a photo shoot of the the family at Tumwater Falls park in January of 2009. I really like how it turned out and can see myself doing another one of these as a gift album. Super quick, easy and cute.

Seattle for the day

2010-11-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a holiday for the kids from school so Jim and I took a vacation day to do something fun with the boys. We decided to take them up to Seattle to the EMP- that's the rock and roll museum built by Paul Allen. We made few other stops along the way and I managed to get a few pictures before my camera battery died. I only got a few at the museum and they turned out kind of yucky since no flash was allowed. We stopped at Top Pot donuts for breakfast and had some really good apple fritters and donuts. Definitely worth the stop. Then we walked up the the Science Center and figured out that Cameron had never been up the the top of the Space Needle. So we bought tickets, at a cost of $68- yikes, and headed up. Jim got a little freaked out in the elevator, he really doesn't like heights, but everything was fine once we got up top. The day was super clear and we had great views of the entire city and surrounding areas. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then headed off to the museum. The EMP is kind of cool, it has some interactive exhibits and lots of Seattle based music history. There is also a science fiction museum attached and that was interesting too. I don't know that I'll go again any time soon but it was a nice visit anyway. We took the monorail over the Pike Place market and had lunch at the Hard Rock Seattle. We had a nice relaxing day with the boys and I'm glad we did it. Next time it's the girls turn......

Ashleigh got a car!!

2010-11-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Melissa, Jim and I took Ashleigh out car shopping today. She has been diligently saving money for several months finally had enough to get a cheap, but decent car. We all went to breakfast at the Shipwreck cafe and then began our hunt. It didn't take too long to pick the Ford Explorer she ended up with, we had actually researched it on the Internet the night before. We took it for a test drive and Ashleigh decided this was the car for her. Then Melissa and I took her for a driving lesson down at the high school parking lot. That was fun..... nothing like a brand new driver to to make things interesting. The first time she used the break she flung us all forward- I told her "now Ashleigh, don't do that again, it's not fun for anyone"!! We had had a good laugh and let her practice a while longer then they headed back home. I am proud of Ashleigh, this step in her life has been a long time coming but she is finally ready for it. Great job Ashleigh!!

Dinner with the Schoenings

2010-10-31T07:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed over to the Schoenings for dinner at their new house. Richele made some yummy bbq ribs and potatoes and apple cake for dessert. The ribs were so good that I made them myself the very next day. Apparently the secret to tender pork ribs is boiling them for two hours and then baking them- fall apart tender, yummy.I wish I knew that years ago, I had given up making ribs because mine were always so tough! After dinner I took a few pictures of Ashley with my new lens, I'm not loving it just yet, I think there's a learning curve on this one. She took out her crazy multi colored lizard, it was their weirdest lizard I have ever seen. We were all goofing around and laughing, we had a really nice relaxing evening. Love you guys.

Rachel poked me!!

2010-10-28T18:57:00.000-07:00

Rachel is currently in the Phlebotomy class at Bates Tech College and in order to pass the class she has to have a minimum number of "pokes". So.... she asked me to come to class and let her stick me. I wasn't really even worried about it, I'm not afraid of having my blood drawn and I bet I've had worse people do it. Rachel was great! She drew me twice and did just fine (a little bruise after the second one, but who's complaining??) She is really liking the class and is looking forward to working in a hospital or clinic soon. I'm proud of her, she has been working and going to school for a few months now with not much complaining. Oh, and doesn't she look cute in her scrub shirt??? Love it!

Some new pages

2010-10-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last week's ScrapTiffany challenge was "pennants" and I really didn't think I'd be able to pull it off, they are just not my style. But, I actually like how this page came together. The pictures are from Mike's birthday in 2007, wow I am way behind!! Who cares, right?? The other page is Morgan's birthday from 2005!! Whatever, moving on.... I am sure I'll never be caught up and that's fine with me. Enjoy the pages.

Homecoming 2010

2010-10-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

When Mike brought home the pictures from Homecoming I was excited to see them , just like always. I like to see the dress the girl wore and how elegant they look with the background. But this time they totally hammed it up and I cracked up when I saw the picture. They look like they were having lots of fun together and enjoyed the dance, don't they?? Mike is such a nice boy and I love his fun spirit. This page was super easy to make, the paper is form a pad I got at Michael's, I think it's called School Daze... love the way it all came together.

The family and Jims Birthday

2010-10-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was Jim's birthday so we started the day by just hanging around the house doing not much of anything. I went over to my parents and watched my Dad so Mom could do some shopping and then headed back home.

Melissa had come over on Saturday to have Jim work on her truck so I snapped a few pictures of her and the boys. Then Sunday night we all headed out to the Casino to have dinner at the buffet and let Jim gamble for his birthday. I swear, I just don't get the whole gambling thing, it just seems like such a waste to me , but Jim likes it and since it was his birthday it made sense to go. The kids like the whole buffet experience so it was fine. Afterward I took some pictures of everyone out front of the casino. What a bunch of goofballs, they were all joking around and making faces. In the past I would have gotten all tense about it and worried that I wasn't getting a "perfect" picture, but nowadays I just go with the flow and try to make the most of it. We all got a good laugh out of it and the pics are fun to look at.

Senior gift album

2010-10-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

I have been having major struggles with Blogger. I cant get it to upload my pictures from my home computer for some reason, it's been so frustrating. I finally decided to try it at work and was able to get them to load just fine. Crazy! Thanks to all of you for continuing to stop by even though I haven't posted in over a week!!

This album is a gift my my friend Richele's daughter Ashley. I took her senior pictures this year and used those shots to make her this memory album of her senior year. I plan to give it to her mom tomorrow so hopefully this posting doesn't ruin the surprise!! Hope you enjoy looking at it.

I really do scrapbook....

2010-10-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

The way my life has been lately hasn't really given me much time to scrap. Between family and work there just isn't enough time in the day to have "me" time. And I definitely feel the need to scrap especially when I haven't made time for it. These pages are from the last few Scrap Tiffany challenges and I did them over about 2 weeks. Yikes- 3 pages in two weeks is not such a great pace but at least I did something. I really need to make myself some time to get out there and do it though because it really does relax me and make me happy to scrap. I love the new Theresa Collins papers in the page of Rachel and Morgan, the colors are beautiful and there are so many options for this line. Love how the page came out.

Well, I'm off to California for business tomorrow and will be gone for 4 days, too bad I cant scrap in the hotel!!

Lovely Josee

2010-10-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the oppotunity to take more senior pictures for a sweet young girl. Josee and her mom met up with me in downtown Olympia for the shoot. Here are a few shots in case Josee stops by the blog for a peek.

More pictures of Ashley

2010-09-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of my sweet girly Ashley. I'll try post a few more later if time allows.

More shots of Hannah

2010-09-07T06:37:00.000-07:00

Wow! I had a hard time picking favorites from my shoot with Hannah yesterday. She asked me to take pictures of her at the stable where she keeps her horse. Ooops, I didn't put any of the horse pictures on here, maybe later tonight. I've got to rush off to work!! Enjoy your peek Hannah!! Beautiful girl.

Scraptiffany Challenge

2010-09-06T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last week Tiffany's challenge was to do a vintage page. It was an odd coincidence that they day before my Dad had given me a picture of him when he was a young boy. There aren't alot of pictures of him so it was a wonderful surprise that he had this one. His aunt in New York had sent it to him because it showed him and her son. I made a copy of the picture and then scrapped it. I love how it turned out and I am grateful to have the done this page of him. Enjoy!

Hanna......

2010-09-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

You didn't think I'd leave you off the blog, did you? LOL! I had a feeling you would be checking for a sneak peek of you pictures so, here they are. I love how these ones turned out, I cant wait to finish up with pictures of you and your horse on Monday. I had a great time yesterday!! Thanks for making my job so much fun.

Sneak Peek for Ashley

2010-09-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

This month is turning into a busy one for me with lots of senior pictures to take of friends and family. This beautiful young girl just happens to be one of the "family". Her mom is one of my best friends and I have watched her grow up since she was about 10 years old. I really, really loved taking pictures of her. She is such a willing subject and she has her own ideas about poses and such great style that it was hard NOT to get a good picture of her. She was also very patient with me and allowed me to work with the settings on my camera so I could learn a bit at the same time. These pictures are just a few of my favorites, we took over 400 pictures of her yesterday. I also was lucky enough to get to take pictures of her cousin Hannah and will post those either later today or tomorrow. Hannah is a little beauty too and she was a very adventurous subject, be on the lookout for some pictures with her horse early next week. They wanted pictures together too which was fun and new for me, trust me, those turned out super cute too. I want to thank both of their moms, Richele and Deb, for being so supportive (you know what I mean ladies), I can go buy that new lens I've been dreaming about. Love you all!

More pictures of Kiana

2010-09-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures from our shoot last weekend. I still have about 10 more favorites that"ll be posting tomorrow. If you have a favorite please leave me a comment and let me know!

Kiana senior pictures- Take 1

2010-09-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

This year I have several different girls to take senior pictures for. I usually just do friends and family but this year I may end up with a few "strangers"s via word of mouth. The first girl this year is the daughter of a co-worker, Kiana. We went to Tumwater Falls park and the Capitol building for her locations. I really like how her pictures turned out- and so does she thankfully! I'll post shots from the Capitol building within the next few days. Enjoy!

A few scrap pages

2010-08-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

I managed to scrap a few pages this week in between troubles with the girls. Two of these pages are for a challenge this week at Scraptiffany, hop on over to her blog and see them later this week. I am super tired and frazzled tonight so I don't have much to say. Hope you enjoy the pages.

Oh my gosh!

2010-08-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

We had a huge shock yesterday afternoon. Morgan's mom called and told us that Morgan had wrecked her quad while wheeling at the dunes and broke her back. Obviously we were shocked and freaked out, especially since she was so far away and we couldn't get to her quickly. Thankfully the break wasn't too bad, it's a fractured vertebrae that wont require surgery. She will have to wear a back brace for the next 3 months almost continuously to make sure it heals well but it's a small price to pay for being able to walk for the rest of her life. I'm just so grateful she's okay.

Then Rachel woke up this morning with food poisoning! She ended up at the urgent care clinic for a shot to stop the nausea. She is still recovering as you can see my look on her face. My poor girls!! I hope this is the last bit of bad stuff that happens to us!

Welcome to our house Carl!

2010-08-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we brought home a puppy from my Mom's house. For those of you who don't know, I am not really a pet person. I don't like the potty training, the poop and the stress. However, look at Carl's face! Isn't he the cutest? And I'm sure you're asking yourself, how did we come up with the name Carl? We started out calling him Little Jimmy and then Mike came up with Carl and it just stuck. So we've had him for a few days now and so far so good. Wish us luck.

Our 10th Anniversary

2010-08-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

Last week Jim and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We went to a great restaurant in Lacey called Ricoardo's, it was super romantic. There was a guitar player in the corner that sang love songs the entire time and the food was delicious. It's hard to believe 10 years have already gone by, it definitely has gone by fast. Who would have guessed that a guy I met at work and just "started talking to" would end up being my husband and a step dad to my kids. I had been alone for a while and when Jim took me out on our first date I was so nervous that I just kept talking and talking. Finally Jim looked at me and said " you know, it's okay not to talk". LOL!! I knew he was a keeper at that point . We went to see "You've got Mail" and at the end of the movie Jim leaned over and kissed me. And then we looked back and saw several "old folk couples" looking at us and we started laughing. Jim is the goofy one in our relationship and I'm the serious one, he's the fun dad and I'm the strict mom, he has high expectations and I have compassion- we compliment each other. I love him and I know he loves me and for that I am truly grateful. Happy Anniversary Honey.

Scrap Tiffany Challenge

2010-08-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

This week at Scrap Tiffany the challenge is based on a sketch and I decided to try my hand at a few layouts based on the sketch. I took these pictures of Morgan last year when we had a surprise snow storm in March. I think the Bo Bunny papers are a good match for the colors of the pictures and the snow. The Sisters page is old, old, old paper that I kept hanging onto because I liked it so much. I think it's called "white out" but I cant remember the manufacturer right now. If you haven't been to Scrap Tiffany in a while you should head over and take a look at all the great projects on her site. You'll find lots of inspiration, just like I did.

Summer Fishing

2010-08-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Jim has been taking the boys fishing almost every night for the last few weeks. When he took Cameron last weekend they hit the motherload of fish. I think they caught about 30 or so and finally ended up with the "big one" that they brought home. Cameron had plunked his line right over the side of the boat and the big one bit. Jim had me come outside to take pictures of his fish and Camerons, quite a difference in size! Mike went with Jim a few nights later and they caught 30 or so too! Just look at those smiles on their faces, good times!

Weekend shots

2010-07-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

We headed down to the trestle in Rainer on Sunday so the kids could swim a bit. It was a super hot day, close to 90. Once we got there no one really wanted to swim, weird kids. So we hung out playing with the dogs in the water for a while and then headed back to the house. Morgan's boyfriend came over for dinner and we grilled yummy stuffed cheeseburgers. I love summer, now that it's finally here!

Tenino Oregon Trail Days

2010-07-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about living in a small town is local parades. There are usually two per year and I try to go to both of them. Jim and I went to a few yard sales this morning and then went back home to get the kids. We headed down to town and lined up on the sidewalk with the rest of the town to watch the parade. It was so sunny and hot out, a perfect day for a parade. The first thing out was the honor guard for the armed forces and then the mayor of Tenino. There were lots of fun things coming down the road, my favorite was the huge shopping cart from the local grocery store- they were throwing FOOD at the crowd-hilarious! It was fun watching the little kids run for the candy that was being tossed, I could tell my own kids wanted some but they were way too cool and mature to run out in the road and get candy... so Mom did it for them! After the parade we headed over to the park to check out the booths and get some lunch. We had some yummy BBQ and fries and an Italian icee thing that was delicious. The kids kind of complained about be drug down to the parade and the park but in the end they all had a good time. We laughed, we ate, we were together, it was all good.

MIA again

2010-07-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I have been a bad blogger. Not many posts lately. I partially blame Facebook. After much prodding by Tiffany, I finally signed up for Facebook and now I find myself there more often than I am at my own blog. I post very little over there, but it's time spent that I should be doing other stuff. I need to work on that.

Monday I took Mike into the doctor for a second biopsy on some lumps on his thyroid. The first biopsy came back with "atypical" cells, meaning they could be something bad, maybe cancer. But they could also be nothing. So , to be sure, we had to do another biopsy. Look how happy Mike looks about that! This time they sampled two of the lumps instead of just one, so he got poked in the neck about 15 times. If you go to my Facebook(there it is again) you can see more pictures of the procedure. I think the doctor thought we were a bit odd when I asked to take pictures but he totally played along anyway. I tried to post them here but I ran out of time, I was doing it before work today. Anyway, we have another appointment with the specialist next Tuesday to get the results. Wish us luck!

Picking up the truck

2010-07-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday of this week we headed back out to Long Beach to pick up the truck. $550 later, we headed down to the jetty to do some fishing. This was part of the plan for the weekend that we never got to since the truck broke down. It was such a beautiful day, the weather was gorgeous, over 90 degrees at the beach. Jim fished and I hung out watching him, we even saw some dolphins right in front of us. It really was a nice , relaxing few hours. Then we headed up town to get our "Scoopers" ice cream, another one of those things we tried to do on Saturday but the line had about 35 people in it so we gave up. We also stopped at the covered bridge that we always stop at on our way home from Long Beach, Jim wanted to fish but there were kids swimming there. Traffic was good and we got home around 8:00, much better than last Saturday!

Pink Pages

2010-07-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to spend some time in the Love Shack this weekend, some on Sunday and then some more today. I don't usually get a chance to use the color pink too often so I really had a good time doing these pages. I love the picture of Teri and I think the page turned out really cute too. The page of Mike turned out good too, him getting his license was a big deal so I'm glad I got it scrapped. So I'm thinking I'm just going to sit around for the rest of the day, maybe take a nap or something. Lazy day..... my favorite kind.

Let's do something today....

2010-07-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Those are my famous last words from Saturday. When Jim and I got up in the morning we talked about going somewhere to "do something" for the day. We talked about MT Rainier or the beach and let Mike decide if Long Beach sounded like a good idea. He agreed to Long Beach so we loaded up Lucy and some fishing poles and headed off down the road. Half way there we heard a weird sound coming from the front tire, so we pulled over to check it out. Jim thought it might be the power steering and that it wouldnt be a problem to get to the beach and back home safely.We got to Long Beach around noon and stopped for lunch at the Crab Pot where Mike and Jim ate a pound of fresh crab. I had grilled cheese, I just hate seafood! Then we headed up into town to do all the normal tourist stuff we do in Long Beach, the candy store, the arcade, Scoopers, all the fun stuff. BUT.... on the way up town the car started to make a really bad noise from the front tire. It was so bad we went to the auto parts store and tried to take off the tire to see what was wrong. We ended up at an "old school" tire store where an interesting character helped up get the tire off and told us that the wheel bearing was shot. I don't know much about cars but the look on Jim's face said it all- we were in big trouble. The guy couldn't fix it but his friend down the road might be able to so we limped the truck 3 miles down the road to get the bad news. Because it was a holiday weekend he wouldn't be able to get the part until Tuesday or Wednesday. So that meant we either needed to find a place to stay in town ( no way that was going to happen on a holiday weekend, although a nice lady at the thrift store offered to let us use her tent and sleep in her back yard! LOL!) or get someone to come pick us up. So I ended up calling my sister who immediately said she would come to get us, no hesitation. The only problem was how we were all going to fit into her two seater pickup. So that meant she had to go to our house first to get my car and then head to get us. Just so you get how horrible this whole situation was, it's a 2 1/2 hour drive, each way if there are no delays. Once she was on the way we headed down to a lake with Jim's fishing poles to kill some time. And we did, 2 full hours. Then I called my sister to see where she was and she was stopping for gas, and then took a wrong turn and was still over 1 1/2 hours away. We walked back into town and found one restaurant to eat at so we tied Lucy outside and went on in. It was Mexican and it was empty, at dinner time. Kind of a scary thing but the food ended up being good and cheap too, we all ate for $16. So after about another hour, Melissa and Ashleigh made it and picked us up on the street corner. We hadn't even seen the ocean all day so we drove to the beach approach and I hopped out to take a few pictures and everyone else used the bathroom. Finally we were on the road, oh it's like 9:00 pm by now, just so you know. And then to put the icing on the cake Jim got pulled over about 30 minutes outside Long Beach. We were all so exhausted that all we could do is laugh and we even asked the policeman if we could take his picture to mark the event. He was hilarious and totally agreed, he even asked what kind of picture we wanted!! We finally got home at midnight, poor Melissa had to leave from our house to go right home and change for work. I'm sure she was exhausted. I can't say enough how grateful I am that she came to get us, I don't know what we would have done without her. So, to make along story short, I will never again utter those famous last words "let's do something today"......you never know what you might end up doing....

Blast from the past

2010-06-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here's some oldies from our past. I pulled out my picture box and decided to do a few pages of stuff from 2005. I had to have Jim come out and help me jog my memory on some of the details but I think we got the dates right. Maybe..., eh, close enough!

It's fun to look back at the old pictures of the kids, they are getting so big now it's hard to remember how little they were just a few short years ago. I'm trying to use up some of my old scrap stash before I buy anything new, it's hard not to shop but I really don't "need" anything. The page of Morgan is some old Making Memories and the page of Rachel is another older line of Making Memories. I guess I like Making Memories! I'm thinking about doing the ScrapTiffany challenge this week, it's all about scrapping your ugly pictures. I'm sure I can find some oldies that would qualify. We'll see how the week goes.

Happy Birthday Morgan

2010-06-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated Morgans 17th birthday. We headed up to Tacoma to the Southern Kitchen for lunch and it was delicious, as usual. We also went to Freight house Square, thinking we could walk around looking at the shops- but it was almost completely empty! We didn't do any shopping, instead we went to the waterfront and walked around for a bit. The weather was beautiful and it was a nice way to spend the day. I tried to take a few practice shots for senior pictures but it was just way to sunny out to get anything worth using, although I do like the one on the bench that's included in this post. Happy 17th Morgan!!

I'M BACK!!!

2010-06-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, where have I been? I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged. Life has been keeping me insanely busy and stressed out too, so blogging hasn't really been on my mind too much. But, today I had a few hours to spend on some scrapping so I figured I'd post those pages for your viewing pleasure. LOL. It was really nice outside today in Washington, so nice I actually turned on the air conditioner in the Love Shack. It was nice to be able to spend a little time looking at pictures and putting stuff away from shopping trips and crops I've been to lately. I'm one of those weird people that like to look at my paper and organize it, it's relaxing. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pages and hopefully I can get back into the swing of blogging again this week.

Saying Goodbye to Tiffany

2010-06-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend was Tiffany's going away crop in Rochester. As some of you know, she is moving to Alaska this week. She invited over 40 ladies to come say goodbye and crop for the day. It was fun for me to see many women I had met through my connection to Tiffany, some who I now call my friends only because I had made her aquaintance. My favorite part of the day was when Tiffany stood on the stage and spoke about each of us, explaining how she had met us and how our friendships came to grow. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.

Tiffany welcoming us all to the crop.

Tiffany supplied us with stuff to each make a page of us with her.

Tiffany and her sweet mom Susie- so glad I know her.

This silly girl is Teri , Tiffany's Aunt and my sweet friend.

Talking about her friends, my favorite part.

Teri and Tiffany's daugther Ashley.

Silly Nancy and Tiffany.

Me and my girl.

Me, Richele and Tiffany, my favorite friends.

Seattle Tourists

2010-06-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

You know how when you live in an area you never really see all of the cool touristy type sites? Well that was true of me regarding Seattle and some of the stuff there. Yesterday I took my friend Teri and some friends of hers, Stella and Lisa, sightseeing in Seattle. We went on the "duck tours", a super fun way to see the city. You ride in these trucks that are amphibious vehicles so you get to go into the water in them! That part was a little scary at first but not too bad once we got going. We went to Pike Place Market and the very first Starbucks store and of course the Space Needle too. We rode the monorail, something I had never done before, it took us to the market for $2, not a bad deal. We went to PF Chang's for lunch, it was place I had also never been before and it was delicious. I had a great time with these ladies , they had me laughing and smiling all day. It was nice to get away and just relax for the day. I'm off to Tiffany's going away crop for the day.

Mike's a driver!

2010-06-10T18:52:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Mike's birthday and we scheduled his driving test so he could get it right when he turned 16. Hopefully! Well, he did pretty good on the drive, he was nervous and messed up on the parallel parking but otherwise he did great. He said it was awkward because he was trying to talk to the instructor and she wouldnt talk back to him- very intimidating. He was a good boy though and posed for plenty of pictures for me. He didnt even complain that he had to use his Mom's station wagon for the test! It's hard to imagine that 3 of our 4 kids are now driving, not too much longer and they'll all be on the road. Life goes by quick, pay attention.

Happy 16th Mike!!!

2010-06-08T06:39:00.000-07:00

16 years ago today this sweet boy was born. He was a tricky one- he was a week overdue and had to be induced to get him to leave me! I think he just wanted to hang out with mom a little longer. Labor with Mike was way different than Rachel, inducing makes things a whole lot more intense. Add to the it that he weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and you get the idea that it was a bit painful. We hadn't found out the sex prior to him being born so it was a nice surprise get the boy I was hoping for. My sister was working at the hospital that day so she was the first one in the family to see him. Mike and I have always had a special bond, he's my momma's boy. But you know what? I'm okay with that, there's nothing wrong with a boy loving his mom.

We had a party for Mike on Sunday at the house to celebrate. We also have a special birthday dinner planned for him up in Seattle with just Mike, Jim and I. Oh and of course you can't forget the car.....his Dad will be giving him a car this weekend. He's so excited he made me call him to ask if he could have it early!! Not! We are off to take his driving test this morning so he can get his liscence on the actual day of his birthday.

I am so proud of the young man Mike is becoming. He is kind, respectful, smart and generous and just a really good kid. I love you son!!

More of Mike's album

2010-06-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

So, remember a few weeks ago when I started on Mike's 16th birthday album? And I thought I might actually have enough time to get it done? Well, not quite.... I got through to about age 12 or 13 and gave it to Mike on Sunday at his birthday anyway. He was so funny, he actually thought I got it done!! I should have played along but I knew he'd figure it out eventually. It was fun to watch Mike look through it and then pass it around to everyone else for a look too. That's why I scrap, right? I'm happy with how it is coming along so far, I'll be working on finishing it this weekend at Tiffany's crop. I have everything all packed up and ready to take with me. I like how the rub on that's on the front looks, I was worried it wouldnt stick to the fabric but it was totally fine. These albums are alot of work but it's always worth it once it's all done.