A week of photos.....

What a cutie!!!!!!
Mom's Valentine!

Out geocaching in the rain...and being goofy!!!!

The SMART ones of the family...waiting in the truck while Dave and Evan go walk around in the wet grass while it's raining!

A chilly 45* at 2pm today!!!!!

Been a busy week.....I've taken a few weeks off the long term sub job I was doing. I'll go back in another week, so this week Alex and I have been hanging out at home. Friday night we had our Webelos den sleepover at the inlaws house behind us.....got pinewood derby cards and stands done as well as centerpieces for our Blue and Gold Dinner. Today we had to run an errand in Atwater so did a little geocaching in the rain on our way home.

ONLINE Crop!!

Want to scrapbook??? Need some inspiration??? Come join us at www.chattyscrappers.com for our People You Love Crop!!! Rick, a.k.a. Techno Dude, has put together a whole bunch of challenges for us to play with!!!!

I am hoping to get a few challenges done this weekend between Webelos sleepovers, coffee with friends, church and family time!!!!

Been a busy week but here's a few photos of what we've been up to!

Have a blessed week!!!!

Thursday 13...

Okay...so not quite Thursday...but close enough!!!

13 things coming up SOON in my life:

1. Thunder Hockey game on Saturday with my brother and Titia...they've never been so it will be fun!!!! Hopin' for a few fights!
2. Scout Sunday....BIG day for scouts and church! Boys have jobs in both services.....doing the offering at the early service.....carrying Pack flag--Alex and ushering--Evan in later service!!!
3. Washing and ironing scout uniforms and neckcheifs (see #2)
4. Attending an IEP (tomorrow at work.....ugh!)
5. A 9 day 'break' from work.....decided I didn't want to work all of Feb. since Alex will be off so I am taking some time off!!!
6. SuperBowl..really could careless about the game...love the commercials, half-time and FOOD!
7. Helping at Dave and Jeff's golf tournament....I'm the 'official' photographer!!!
8. Going to see "Wicked" in S.F. with Dave and staying the night at the downtown Marriott!!!
9. Cleaning in preparation for our weekend babysitter to come over for the weekend (see #8)
10. Organizing my scraproom...it DESPERATELY needs it!!!
11. A 5 day weekend for the boys...whoo hoo!!!!
12. Some time to scrapbook (although I think this is ALL the time!!!)
13. Spending time with my wonderful family!

More scrappy...and proud mom!

Still working on using up this kit for the Work It Wednesday challenge at Chatty Scrappers!!! It was to use a kit that we didn't like or found difficult....still have more to use. But glad to get it used up and get these old school photos (Alex in 2006, 1st grade!) scrapped!

Evan's 2nd quarter report card FINALLY arrived today.....we've been waiting all week. It was what we expected....straight As. Even an A+ in Writing (thanks to an assignment he ended up get about 50 bonus points on!) and in Algebra 1 (still trying to figure out HOW you get an A+ in Algebra...let alone as a 7th grader!). We are VERY proud of him!!!

Scrappy stuff

We ALL have tons of paper and supplies that have been sitting around forever! How many of us get monthly kits and NEVER touch them??? I admit...I get a monthly kit that is actually 3 mini kits. I have over 20 of these mini kits waiting to be used!!!! Over at ChattyScrappers, Tilda started a challenge to USE those kits up! The first challenge was to use a kit that has been a thorn in your side....one you have but not really thrilled with...not sure what to do with it. I've had these papers since Nov. 2007.....never really liked them so I dug them out from the bottom of the pile and made these two layouts! Still have more paper to use and the challenge is to use ALL of the kit!!! If you are in the same situation...come join us! A new challenge will be posted SOON!!!!!

Weekly photos...

For one of my goals for 2009, I want to start taking more photos of everyday stuff..not just major events/trips in our lives. So here is a weekly update as to what we have been doing!

Geocaching took us along the Stanislaus River in Knights Ferry....what a beautiful winter day it was.
A friend we happened to come across on our adventures. Not too often you see a camel in the middle of a pasture in Central California. He even walked right up to the fence when he saw us stop to look.

One of our first geocache finds of the day!

One HANDSOME dude! He had just received his STAR rank. Gotta love a guy in uniform!

Sensational Saturday!

Took a drive up to Yosemite today...what a gorgeous day it was! The sun was shining, the snow covered the ground. Not sure I have ever been up there when there has been so much snow on the valley floor!

Brialveil Fall....wasn't much water there but the snow stuck to the cliff walls was beautiful.

Boys waiting to get on the ice at the rink! It was chilly but they had fun!

Boys and I up near Tuolumne Meadows...we wanted to go snowshoeing but that didn't work out so we just went and played in the meadow before heading down and going ice skating.

Hoping to post more on my blog...and have more photos! Some of my friends are doing a 365 days program where they take and scrap a photo a day! Not sure I can do that...so I am going for at least once a week! I am not really good about taking photos of everyday events....usually just when we go out on a trip, or something special.

First for 2009

Here's the scrapbooking page I did of the gift that Evan gave me for Christmas! He and I were watching TV one night and I saw the commercial for the necklace...said that I liked it. He said "I'll see what I can do about it!" Shrugged it off thinking..you are 12 and there is no way your dad will buy it! LOL! Well, evidently he did his homework on the computer, found it online, printed the info out, gave it to his dad and said "I'm getting this for mom". A few disappointing trips to mall, ordering it online and shipped to the store, wrapping something else in the Kay Jeweler bag (it was a loofa sponge) and wrapping the beautiful black box in 3 DIRTY socks....and there was ONE happy mommy! He even "paid" for it himself out of his chore cash (which is play money they can redeem for things they want!). I think I'll keep him for a few more years, I couldn't ask for a better son!

My Thursday 13 for today....13 things I will remember about 2008!

1. Watching Evan receive awards at his 6th grade promotion ceremony...my baby is growing up!
2. Alex blossoming in 4th grade...no longer a little boy. He finally really LOVES school!
3. Traveling to England for 2 weeks!
4. Watching the boys faces when they saw Stonehenge and Big Ben for the first time!
5. The many many many Cub and Boy Scout meetings I sat through!
6. Reading nearly 50 books!
7. Spending time with family.....Christmas and birthdays!
8. Dave's parents purchasing the house behind us!
9. Our hikes in Yosemite, no matter where else I have traveled NO place is as beautiful.
10. Getting to spend individual time with both the boys.
11. Growing as a crafter....and loving it!
12. Dave....he's the best!
13. My necklace Evan got me for Christmas!

Happy New Year!

What a wondeful year 2008 has been! But as good as it was, I am looking forward to a fantastic time in 2009. I am anxious to see the adventures the new year brings us: new ranks in Scouts and Webelos, campouts, Evan getting to spend several days in Ashland at the Shakespear Festival with his Jr. High, spending 3 days with Alex's class in Yosemite, family times.....and I am sure many other things!

We had an amazing Christmas! The boys (all three of them) definitely made me feel special. Evan had Dave drive around until he was able to find me the Jane Seymour Open Hearts diamond necklace (which Evan paid for himself!).....that brought me to tears on Christmas afternoon. I have to wait a couple months to fully get Dave's gift. He bought us tickets to see Grease in San Francisco in March...and even a night at a plush hotel! I almost fell out of my chair when I realized the tickets were for the ORCHESTRA section!!!! OMG!!!! NEVER have we sat that close! Boys loved their Street Waves and have gotten quite good at riding them.

Hope you have a safe and blessed 2009!

Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours:

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May all your wishes come true this holiday season!

(photo is from a couple weeks ago before the Christmas program at church! Gotta love a guy in a tie!)

Been crafty!!

Been getting a few little gifts done...keeping it quick and simple this year. Here are a couple that I have made recently. Top are post-it note holders and the bottom is a bookmark made from a jumbo paper clip! I also made 3 CD case calendars for my father-in-law, husband and brother. Haven't decided yet if making them digitally saved time or not...I think it did as I was able to use the same page for all calendars!

Starting to feel the last minute Christmas rush! Going to enjoy a leisurely lunch with one of my best friends (who I haven't seen since last Christmas) and then hit the ground running to get errands done and the house cleaned before tomorrow afternoon!

Looonnngggg time no post!!!

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 6 weeks since I last posted on my blog! Guess I really haven't had too much to blog about and haven't been doing much scrapping lately to show that either!

I will though, take from my friend Tisha's blog, a Satisfied Saturday Six....six things that I am satisfied with or happy with! That should catch you up on my life....

1. I am THRILLED at how well things are going at our new scrapbooking message board! It's a place to hang out and chat and scrap.....a place for friends and I am so thankful for my pals Tilda, Carrie and Angela for starting it with me! Come check us out www.chattyscrappers.com

2. The Christmas stuff is up....packages are starting to go beneath the tree. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!

3. My inlaws recently purchased the house behind us. Not to live in full time but to come down and spend time with the boys. Tonight is the first night my mother-in-law is staying there...and Alex has already asked if he can stay with her tonight! Made her night!

4. Getting some stuff rearranged and cleaned in the boys rooms. Our houses have such tiny bedrooms. Until recently one room had bunk beds which took up the entire room. Now we put those in the other house and got a smaller bed for that room. Kind of make a little more room for at least one of them! But now is the job of CLEANING their rooms...which are a MESS!

5. Enjoying my current long-term position as a special ed teacher at the high school.

6. Slowly getting back to scrapbooking! I have a few projects in mind....hopefully I can pull them off before Christmas!

CYBER CROP

Chatty Scrappers is having our FIRST Cyber Crop!!!! Come check it out...there are challenges for everyone: layouts, holiday, cards, altering, gift making.....come check it out!!! If you come visit because of the post here be sure to tell us!!!!!!

Love to scrap and chat????

Well...with the closing of another site that I visited and hung out at for years, some of my best cyber friends and I decided we needed a new home to hang our hat, sit and have coffee or wine and chat...well, and maybe do a bit of scrapbooking! So.....we opened the doors of Chatty Scrappers (www.chattyscrappers.com) and are having a blast with new and old friends!!!

If you are one who loves to just sit and chat and scrap....learn new things...make friends....then this is the place!

Twelve Years.....

Where have 12 years gone? It's hard to believe that 12 years ago (on the 19th) we were blessed with a wonderful, happy, intelligent little boy. Watching him grow from a baby, to toddler, to little boy, to the young man he is today has been a wonderful experience. Not a day goes by that I do not thank God for him or the gifts he brings to our family. I am looking forward to facing the years to come with him....teenage year, driving, high school, college. The future holds bright things for him! LOVE YOU EVAN!

I'm here

I went to a weekend long scrapbooking retreat this past weekend! WOW! What a great time. It had been years since I had been on one. Packing was a challenge as my entire scraproom wouldn't fit in my little car but I think I did pretty well. Here is a sampling of the 27 pages I got done!!!! YEP, 27 scrapbook pages!!!!

Had to scrap these photos of Yosemite Falls in different seasons. It looks like a totally different place during the different seasons.
Gotta love that smile...he had just gotten his braces and loved to show them to people!
Had fun using the Basic Grey Archaic paper for this layout of a hiking/camping trip we went on in the spring.
January 2007...we had a RARE cold snap...things all over froze including our pool! Top photo is a chunk of ice from our pool.

Other than a scrappy weekend away, life has been busy. Scouts, soccer, work, family.....never stops. Right now we are gearing up for Evan's 12th birthday on Sunday! YIKES where did my little boy go!!!!

Saturday Evening Ramblings

Well, yet again it has been a long time since I have posted. Guess I haven't thought I had anything to blog about. Thought I would do a little catch up for everyone!

Alex has started soccer. So now we have Thursday practices and Saturday games. Today was their 2nd game and so far they are 0-2. They play their little hearts out but haven't quite figured out how to win a game.

Cub Scouts have also started back up again. This year Dave and I are leading our own Webelos den. I think we have a good group of boys. Most in our den of 6 have known each other for a couple years and get along well. Should be an adventure to lead them for the next 18 months before they bridge into the Boy Scout troop.

Court of Honor tonight for Boy Scouts. Since Evan didn't go to camp this year he only received one merit badge, but it was a required one so that is good. He needs to get those done to move up in rank. He also received his patch for 25 nights of camping.

Today I received Evan's first progress report for junior high. WOW! I am soooo proud of him! He's taking quite the class load and doing very well! He has straight A's in all his classes. But I am most proud of his Algebra 1 grade...A+!!!! This is a class that is primarily 8th graders. Math has never been my strong point and I remember struggling in Algebra 1 in 9th and 10th grades (yep, I took it as 1a and 1b!). He is so determined to keep straight A's.....even told me to ground him the other day because he didn't do well on a couple quizes!

I am working...2 more weeks in the class I am teaching now. Then off for a month and back to another class in November!

Hope to get some of my scrapbooking creations up soon!

Wonderful Weekend

We spent the long holiday weekend up in Yosemite with Dave's family. Other than the HUGE crowds of people also wanting to visit one of the most amazing places on Earth, it was a GREAT weekend! The boys had fun with their cousins, Anthony and Tanya. Evan and Tanya (who is almost 5) were inseparable. Where ever he was...she wasn't far behind! They rode their bikes around the campground loop DOZENS of times.

On Saturday we took a hike to the top of Sentinal Dome....about 2.5 miles, the hardest being the last bit to the top of the dome. BUT, once up, the view was AMAZING! Beautiful 360* views of mountains and more mountains! Got this photo of the boys with Half Dome in the back! Climbing Half Dome is on Evan's list of MUST DO's!
Sunday, Dave, the boys and I got up early, and headed to the top of Nevada Falls. We had been to the top of Vernal Falls (on the way to Nevada Falls) but never to the top of Nevada so had NO idea what we were in for! Above is a photo of the trail to the top of Vernal Falls. Something like 600 granite steps up the side of the cliff! Talk about the ULTIMATE stair climber!!! LOL!
First good view of Nevada Falls (not flowing very fast this time of year).....kept asking myself if I REALLY wanted to go to the top! It's WAY up there! The hike between the top of Vernal and the top of Nevada is just over a mile but you climb 1000 ft in elevation!
We made it! Here are the boys at the top of Nevada Falls. Both did AMAZING! Evan has always been up for an adventure and lead us up the trails most of the time, never stopping to rest (unlike his mom who stopped every 5 steps!) except to WAIT for me! Alex though was a TROOPER! He kept going and never complained!!!! And finally admitted..."Mom, I kind of like hiking now".
Before leaving had to go get a photo of Yosemite Falls.....have dozens of photos of these waterfalls in all seasons...do you notice somethign MISSING in this photo of the waterfalls??? Yep...NO WATER! Yosemite Falls has all but dried up this summer. Kind of depressing but will make for a great scrapbook page where I can show the waterfall in the different seasons!

My legs are killing me, definitely NOT happy when I have to walk up and down the stairs, but getting to spend time in the most amazing place was well worth it. The hikes were hard but well worth the satisfaction of reaching the top! Now to climb the trail up Yosemite Falls and Half Dome!

Still here......

Wow! Sorry I haven't updated this in so long....seems like it's been a long month of August! Here's a quick update of our lives...

1. AFTER returning from England I had about 6 days to get things together before starting a 2 month teaching job! CRAZY! I'm enjoying the class but am looking forward to being off in October!

2. Evan started jr. high on Monday! He's attending our bigger jr. high here in town.....1600 kids in 2 grades! YIKES...that's 2x bigger than the high school I went to! He's got such a GREAT attitude about school, which I hope continues for the next 6 years! He's taking Algebra 1 (loves to remind me I took this in 9th and 10th grades), Spanish 1a, Language Arts (Gifted and Talented level), History, Science and PE. Already taking things very seriously and studying above what he needs to do. Striving for straight As....I'll update and let you know how it goes!

3. Trying to continue to get Alex caught up after being gone for 2 weeks! He's got all his school work caught up but he's behind in independent reading points...which he doesn't like to do! So we are trying to read EXTRA every night...which isn't always a fun thing!

4. Dave and I (well, mainly Dave) have stepped up and become Webelos leaders in Cub Scouts. Alex's den was getting REALLY big and FULL of unrulely children, so he decided to take 1/2 of them and start his own den. So now, on top of Boy Scouts on Monday night with Evan, we will be having Webelos meetings on Tuesday nights! YIKES!!! Not sure EXACTLY what we have gotten ourselves into but we are excited and have a great group of scouts and parents joining us!

5. My birthday.......turned another year older the other day! Just another day...another year older until a friend reminded me that I am 364 days from the BIG birthday! LOL!!!! And she vows to remind me regularly how many days (she's already had the BIG birthday!) until mine!

6. Camping in Yosemite this coming weekend...normally AVOID the place during the summer and holiday weekends but Dave's sister got reservations for the housekeeping units (half tend/half cabin) and asked us if we wanted to go! SURE! Our goal is to hike to the top of Nevada Falls.....probably an 8 mile round trip hike.

7. Scrapping...when I can! Hasn't been much lately......but check out the kits at The Shaker Box...Linda is putting together some GREAT kits!!! September 1st she is also debuting a CARD KIT and a HYBRID KIT!!! There is something for EVERYONE there!!!! Go check it out!