Friday is National Grilled Cheese Day!!!

seriously........seriously love these made up holidays! not quite sure why this one isn't considered a federal holiday, but whatever! you know I love celebrating them and this one is no different!

if you are local, you might considering hitting up Drewski's Hot Rod Kitchen for some gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. be sure to tell them Susan wants her Chevelle back on the menu......gosh darn it!

if you are more adventurous.......head down to San Francisco!! Tillamook is going all out to celebrate this monumental event! they are hosting a National Grilled Cheese Day happy hour from 5pm to 7pm at The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen! you get a FREE classic grilled cheese sandwich, cheese samples, games, prizes and more. (oh and for those cheese lovers over the golden age of 21......Speakeasy Brewery's local Big Daddy IPA will be $3.50/pint....sounds like a good pairing to me!)

if you can't make it......you can still play along:

• enter to win a year's supply of cheese by sharing your "cheesiest" grilled cheese moments beween today and April 12th on Instagram....tag your pictures #Cheesaholic and @Tillamook to enter! Rules are HERE!
• make your own celebration! Tillamook has oodles of great grilled cheese recipes! they even have a great Yum! Dance you can do to celebrate......or make room for more grilled cheese!

and before you ask........no, I won't be going down to SF for the fun. I am being a good and dutiful mom and spending my evening in chaos in an overstuffed high school gymnasium watching way too many kids make way too much noise.......wish they were offering grilled cheese sandwiches and beer! 

an airing of my grievances

I was originally going to post this blog post on December 18th to coincide with the Festivus Tweet Up and Diaper Drive. that made sense since the Airing of Grievances is an integral part of the Festivus holiday.......... and even though I was unable to attend this awesome event, I didn't want to miss my opportunity to air my grievances. however, in the process of finding a link to inform that one person on the planet who may not already know about Festivus (courtesy of Seinfeld), I found that it isn't on the 18th but rather the 23rd. so there you go!

so now it is the 23rd........and gosh darn it, here are my grievances! (and before anyone starts whining about my first world problems and how much better my life is than many many others......I totally get it! do you not get the sarcasm and humor in all of this?!?! I hope so.......otherwise I kinda wonder why you would even bother to read my blog or be friends with me. I do come with a high level of sarcasm, ya know.)

GRIEVANCES TO BE AIRED: (in no particular order of annoyance)

#1 - People who bum-rush the elevator and/or train.
seriously people! let us OFF the freakin' thing before you barrel your way on! it isn't like the elevator/train is going to slam shut and leave you......and where are you going to go if you don't let US off?!?! sheesh!

#2 - People who scan their access card on the elevator and then don't MOVE away from the scanner so other people can scan their cards.
this is particularly annoying to the chick who has to get off at the first stop (8th floor) and you bum-rushed your way on the elevator (see grievance #1) in the first place so you don't miss YOUR floor.........the 23rd! thanks for that free tour of the entire building!

#3 - People who drive in the carpool lane and aren't.
do I really need to explain that one?

#4 - People who answer questions that were specifically addressed to someone else.
did they use YOUR name when they asked that question? if the answer is no..........SHUT UP!!! (reminds me a little of my favorite movie, Holiday Inn....... "Is your names Miss Linda?" but no where close to being as cute)

#5 - People who use the express check out and have too many items.
(see grievance #3)

#6 - People who think because you work in a cubicle that you are ALWAYS available for whatever they want whenever they decide to walk on in.
yes, because I live to serve..........(super sized sarcasm alert!)

#7 - People who slurp their coffee.
is it because it is too hot? then don't flippin drink it yet.......or stick an ice cube in it.......or go hide in a closet to drink it cuz I don't want to hear you slurping!

#8 - People who eat/drink in my cubicle.
seriously................... go eat in your office, the breakroom, the closet. this is MY office! I don't want your food smells or whatever here. would you seriously do that to someone with an actual office? and if you want to talk to me WHY are you eating?!?! talk with food in your mouth often?

#9 - People who "overshare" their music on the train.
see how polite I was with that?!?!? first.....if I wanted to listen to it, I would play it on my own darn phone. second......you are gonna go deaf you fool! third......how would you feel if I were blasting MY music?!?! I would totally hand out ear buds if I didn't think someone would kick my butt for such an action. oh, and while I totally understand if your goal is to tune out the jerk who has been whining about his car repair woes for the past 20 minutes......I gotta hear it and so do you! welcome to public transportation!

#10 - People who smoke around me, my kids.......anyone's kids.....or in front of buildings.
this falls under the concept that you have every right to kill yourself, slowly, quickly, whatever.....but you do not have the right to endanger anyone else. and probably just as bad is most smoker's sense of entitlement........like they have been wronged.

#11 - People who put their feet up on seats.
this one is basic: would you want someone to put THEIR dirty shoes on something YOU are going to sit on? then don't do it yourself! and while I somewhat expect this kind of horrific behaviour from some of the people on the train, I am thoroughly amazed at how many other places I see it happening.

#12 - People who leave long detailed voicemail messages.
people should assume a few things when leaving messages: 1. the person is going to listen to your message looking for a SUMMARY: name, number, why the heck you are calling. they are not expecting War & Peace. 2. people have a short attention span: limit your message to 15 seconds. 3. they are going to have to call you back to respond so you have a chance to be more specific then.......heck, chances are you are going to have to go through all the detail you so belabored in the voicemail message. and now you have annoyed them because they had to listen to all that "blah, blah, blah" and still have to call you back and hear it again. I feel so strongly about this that I have asked my family to not leave me voicemails on my cell phone. if I don't answer, I'll see that they called and call them back.........or they can send me a text. course that only works if you are dealing with cell phones and not landlines and you recognize the number calling you. so a little slack.......but there is never a need for a 2 minute voicemail message that ends with "so please call me back."

gosh I sound grounchy! but if you look over all my grievances, they come down to one thing: being considerate of others. how difficult is that?!?!? obviously extremely. maybe it is like that guy I met at the movies the other night said: "I don't like people. They are rude."

but now that I have aired my grievances I can warmly wish you and all those annoying people I just complained about a very Merry Christmas..............or whatever politically correct winter time holiday tradition you choose to participate (or not) in!

Variations on a Halloween theme....aka: a recipe I played with

so there is this blog I follow, My Baking Addiction, and she posts the most amazing recipes! all of them are easy enough for me to actually understand and make! Jamie......you know, cuz we are close like that......posts great seasonal recipes, giveaways, etc. I highly suggest you check her out.....and follow her.

a couple weeks ago she posted a recipe for Candy Corn Oreo Truffles. now I will admit, I wasn't interested in them. I WAS, however, totally focused on the concept of Candy Corn Oreos! who knew these existed........only at Target! I probably hadn't noticed them because I was busy hunting down the Boo Berry cereal. but lucky for me, a friend was planning on hunting down the elusive limited edition Oreos and was willing to snag a box or two for me! in fact, swellyn was awesome and not only grabbed me THREE boxes.......but also delivered them! so you can say that she helped subsidize this excursion into sugarland......

the next week, MBA posted another recipe featuring the Oreos I was now in possession of.......and oh yeah, I was totally making this one! Candy Corn Oreo Bark! for the win!!! but while considering the recipe, my mind started churning........please go read her blog post and then come back......this will all make more sense.......I'll wait.......

la la la la la...........

okay.....done? so I started wondering.....do I HAVE to use white chocolate? sometimes that is super sweet. and what happens if I don't like or (gasp!) can't find Candy Corn Oreos? will regular Oreos suffice? if you know me, and you probably do if you haven't closed out the window and gone back to Dancing With The Stars (or something) then you know I am not quite so good at following directions.......

thus my experiment........

 

upper right corner: original recipe - white chocolate and Candy Corn Oreos

upper left corner: semi-sweet chocolate and Candy Corn Oreos

lower left corner: white chocolate and Halloween Oreos (chocolate wafer and orange filling)

lower right corner: semi-sweet chocolate and Halloween Oreos

so here's the deal........the semi-sweet chocolate didn't set the way the white chocolate did. I am sure if I were a "real" cook.....or paid attention......I'd know why. but I don't and it didn't. hubby said they almost felt like a fudgy brownie. my second problem was the chocolate set too quickly and didn't get down into the pan enough to hold onto all the yummy goodies at the bottom........trust me I have a pile of peanuts and pretzel bits to prove it. (was I suppose to toss the goodies in the chocolate?!?!?)

BUT........that didn't equal a failure! I learned something and still have a full bag of Candy Corn Oreos to eat or bake with.........wonder if Jamie is posting anymore recipes?!?!?!

my favorite version was the white chocolate with Halloween Oreos. I thought the Candy Corn Oreos were too sweet and the chocolate wafers gave the right balance. overall it was a sweet success and now I have a LOT of Candy Corn Oreo Bark to share with friends!

 

and since I had to go back and correct my spelling way too many times (typing "Cane" instead of "Corn") I think I need to play around like this when the Christmas Oreos come out!

the Mother of all days

in case you spent the past day or so in a sealed off cave and don't know, yesterday was Mother's Day. a perfectly lovely holiday to celebrate the wonderful relationship between a woman and her children. But, if your mother has passed away it isn't quite so happy of a day. it must be similar to some one just out of a relationship being stuck dealing with Valentine's Day. 24+ hours of discomfort where you can't express your own sadness without raining on dear friends' parades.

yeah, that is kinda what it is like. 

indeed I was lucky to have my boys around. though at almost 14 and 16, they aren't the greatest rays of sunshine. but it was hard to not think about the one-way-ness of the day. no mom to call. no grandma to call. even if the boys had been doting little balls of adorableness, the day would have been a bit flat.

but my sadness was nothing compared to another person I spent the day with: a young woman who lost her own mother..........a 19 year old woman who lost her mom this past year. not that I loved my mother any less, but the pain she was dealing with was multiple times greater than my own. donuts, baseball, and frozen yogurt were great distractions but couldn't remove the sadness that Mother's Day brought her. it was really brought home when she reminded one of my oversized bundles of joy to be thankful they had a mom around to tell them what to do.

so.......Mother's Day is gone for another 364 days. that is a long time to not acknowledge one of the most important people in anyone's life.

even though there are no "day after Mother's Day" cards, don't let 364 days pass before you call your mom, hug your mom, or send your mom a sweet little note. some of us wish we had that same opportunity.

Some stuff you might win! (Giveaway)

I didn't know what to call this. It isn't like I have some humongous crazy prize I am giving away.....but I DO have an accumulation of miscellaneous fun things (I think) that I have been given/won/collected/whatever throughout the past year that I thought it would be nice to share with someone else.

Here is what you can win:

• Bath & Body Works Coconut Mango 2 oz body lotion
• Webkinz Very Merry Christmas Seal Ornament
• CODE ONLY Webkinz Reindeer (December Pet of the Month)
• Fiskars Peacock Decorative Corner Lever Punch
• Rizzoli & Isles Complete First Season DVD
• 2 Chick-Fil-A "treat" cards - each good for a sandwich, nuggets, or my favorite: milkshake (these are only good for the Arden Fair location.....please see caveat #2 below)
• Coupon for 2 lbs of Tillamook Cheese (good through 12-31-11) and bonus Tillamook toy car (please see caveat #2 below)
• Light the Town Pink light bulb from Panera in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

 ....and, I have the right to add more stuff to the box! I promise no kids or pets.

How can you win?
post a comment below. that is it! well, post it before December 4th. (and obey caveat #1 below) if you win, be prepared to give me your address when I announce the winner December 5th so I can get the package out to you asap. yes, I will only have 1 winner. some of the prizes seemed silly to pass along individually.

I have 2 small caveats:

1. you have to give something in this merry mix-up of stuff to someone else. please tell me in your comment which item you would give away, to who, and why you would give them that particular item. (I don't need specific name, addy, etc....."little ol lady next door because she still talks about her honeymoon to Hawaii" is perfectly acceptable)
2. if you do NOT live in the greater Sacramento area OR will not be visiting prior to December 31, 2011, I will exclude the Chick-Fil-A coupons from the package and figure out another way to pass those on. if you don't live locally but have a suggestion for what I do with the coupons, I'd love to hear it! ditto for the Tillamook cheese. while I think their cheese SHOULD be available everywhere, it just might not be. I can still send you the car if you want! lol!

you can enter once......and so can everyone else. I'd love to give everyone presents, but Santa would get jealous!

Giving Thanks......

So Thanksgiving is Thursday. Perfect time to let you know how thankful I am for you readers. You may not be many, but I love you all just the same! I'll take quality over quantity any day!!

As a thank you, I have a few sumthin sumthins to give away. I am going to do it shortly after the holiday. I haven't decided if I am going to do it in one fellow swoop or piece meal it so many can win. The only drawback to the one fellow swoop is that at least one item is local and I would hate to leave out my non-local pals.

and with that rambling completed......have a GREAT Thanksgiving! send warm thoughts to those of us working or running the Sacramento Foodbank's Run to Feed the Hungry.

Let's talk turkey....turkey DAY that is!

So.....what are your plans for Thanksgiving? Sleeping in and then heading out to enjoy some turkey and stuffing with family members? Maybe some crazy pre-Black Friday shopping? 

Back to dinner, let me guess......you start with grace and end with 1 pie per person? Along the way you cruise through 2 kinds of cranberry sauce and enough mashed potatoes to pull a Richard Dreyfus.

For many families in our area, this isn't the case. For many families, Thanksgiving is a Thursday like any other Thursday: one when they go to bed hungry. But I know you know that. And if you are the way I know you are, you do what you can to help. You donate money to your favorite charities, and extras around the holidays. How the heck can I dare harass you about this? 

I'm not........I want to tell you how to feel GOOD! How to make your Thanksgiving THAT MUCH BETTER! How to START your day of giving thanks REALLY feeling thankful!

The Rat Brothers bright and early Thanksgiving morning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consider starting your morning with a cool 10K or 5K. Might I suggest the Sacramento Food Bank's 18th Annual Run to Feed the Hungry? A wonderful CRAZY event starting at 8:30 or 9am (depending on your race length). Let me tell you, no run ANYWHERE gives you a better feeling! You can some fun exercise in the cool morning air and leave knowing your entry fee will go to feed local families through the Sacramento Food Bank! 

And hey, before you say "oh, but I need to go get ready to feed my family" or "how the heck can you expect me to get up that early?" Let me tell you.....you get to sleep in later than you will for Black Friday......and you'll be done and home by 11. That is plenty of time! I guarantee it! How can I? Well, because this will be me and my family's 4th year at the run! And we don't run....oh, NO!! We show up BEFORE the runners, help set up, and register same day runners! And, yes, there are plenty of runners who are done and gone before us.

But.......it is SO worth it! Never has a turkey tasted so good as one eaten after knowing you helped other families have a good meal the same day. So, consider this your invitation! Come join us for the start of the best Thanksgiving you will ever have!

Labor Day Weekend: enough time for FUN & a little relaxation!

School has started and I can't believe how much I am already looking forward to the first holiday, Labor Day! A three day weekend somewhat guarantees me I'll get to sleep in at least ONE morning....and even offers that whispered promise of a possible date with hubby!

But just when I start thinking wonderful thoughts of kicking back, that old adage comes crashing through: "the universe hates an empty calendar." This must be why there are SO many things to do this weekend! And believe me when I tell you, there is something for everyone: young at heart, old fashioned at heart, and gay at heart! (sorry! just couldn't pass that one up!)

Here are my top picks for this coming Labor Day weekend:

• Sacramento Gold Rush Days: Did you know I was a history major in college? They called it "social science" but it really was history! Anyway, I used to participate in events like this on the side. The folks from the Historic Old Sacramento Foundation (and others) are going to truck in a bunch of dirt to Old Sacramento, have loads of people in period costumes (like I used to do), and pretend Proposition 13 and Governor Terminator didn't exist! The sites says the year is 1850, but if you want to attend the preview night on Friday, it will only be 1849......as in $18.49! If you can hold on until the clock strikes 1850, the event is free and runs from 10am to 5pm. No planning ahead necessary! If you are good at planning ahead (to go back in time) check out the Old Sacramento Underground Tours while you are there! The site also has a great schedule of performances and events.....you know, in case you are good at that planning ahead thing.

• If you want a more colorful weekend, how about checking out Sacramento's own Rainbow Festival! This event runs Friday through Sunday (you will need Monday to rest). The Rainbow Festival is held to raise awareness and raise money for charities that provide support and services to the Lesbian and Gay Community......and to have a blast!!! The main event is the festival street fair Sunday from 10am to 6pm. There will be entertainment, vendors, etc. J and L Streets between 19th & 21st will be blocked until about 8pm Sunday night for the Festival.

• Should the Rainbow Festival prove a bit TOO colorful for you, how about Sacramento's 20th Annual Chalk it Up! Held at Fremont Park Saturday through Monday, this will feature artists creating works of chalk art, kids activities, and even your own opportunity to create your own personal square!! If nothing else, you might want to check out the festival just to get a chance to track down your favorite elusive food truck! AND, Blackbird Kitchen & Bar is going to be there! These are the awesome people who fed us some AMAZING oysters at the last Sacramento TweetUp! I am SO looking forward to these guys opening for business! Anyway, come get your hands dirty (or chalky), listen to some music, and be a kid again!!

• However, should your weekend plans include a belated spring cleaning.....or early fall cleaning, maybe you are looking for something a bit more practical? How about an e-waste event? You are in luck! One is being held this Saturday from 9am to 1pm in the parking lot by the softball field at Mira Loma High School!
• They can accept: monitors, tvs, PCs, VCRs, stereo equipment, speakers, keyboards, mouse(s), PDAs, digital cameras, zip drives, telephones, cell phones, printers, copiers, toasters (huh, didn't know about that one), blenders, microwaves, laser and multifunction scanners and fax machines. They'll even destroy your hardrive!!
• They cannot take: household appliances like fridges or washers/dryers, furniture (seriously people? when is furniture considered e-waste??), hazardous household waste like: flourescent light bulbs, paint, pesticides, used oil, cleaning supplies, and tires......again, not e-waste!
• While you are there, consider making a donation. That IS what it is all about, right?
  

So, a big beautiful weekend ahead of you! Lots of fun things to do......and still get that lazy morning to sleep in! If you decide to check out any of the events listed above, please let me know! Also, remember to take a moment and tell me how you would have some fun sharing Tillamook Cheese! I have some great ideas (and terrific jokes) already!

is it a bad sign.....

when you wake up on your birthday with "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" streaming through your head?!?!?

bookend birthdays.....

things have been crazy around here. trying to get in the swing of the new job has taken quite a toll on my free time. dh is working on taking over making dinners and R is helping out a bit more around the house. thankfully summer is almost upon us and that means that atleast I won't have to do the morning carpool before catching Light Rail to work.

today, being June 2nd is the calm in the eye of the storm. R's birthday was yesterday and D's birthday is tomorrow. we celebrated this year with a miserable day at Great America. it was cold and windy and the boys lasted about 5 hours before wanting to head home. on top of that lunch almost killed us all it was so gross. if anything might push me to becoming a vegetarian......it was that hamburger! all in all we spent more time driving back and forth than we did at the park.

yesterday we went to Melting Pot for the next part of the ongoing party train. we joined a grown up couple for a lovely dinner. thankfully no hamburger there and the food is always superb!!

today was our day to rest from stuffing ourselves and tomorrow we will be off to Red Robin for the last of our great birthday parties. seems silly but Red Robin is our traditional place of celebration. we go every year on Gotcha Day and for birthdays.

D turns 10 this year. it isn't as shocking as when R turned 10. I wonder if that has anything to do with being the second child or because he hasn't actually been with us for all those years? not really sure other than it is still strange to think that he is 10.......

so anyway........hopefully I will be back up to speed and blogging AND scrapping more. I sure hope so!

Ring of Fire.....

we finally watched Walk the Line tonight. I am not a Johnny Cash fan and don't like country music. however I had heard such great things about the movie that I wanted to see it. dh didn't care if we saw it but R really wanted to see it. but only because when we saw LoveHammers in concert they did a cover of Ring of Fire! lol!! the movie didn't disappoint. we didn't let D watch it and I was worried that it would be too mature for R. but I checked out a family review site and their concerns were violence and drug abuse. BUT, they said, the movie did show serious consequences for the drug abuse. I thought that might be a good thing! afterall, we knew that the movie was a reasonable likeness to reality. so R got to see how bad things can get when you do drugs and how you can lose things and people as a result. it also showed that you can turn things around. sometimes I think having the kids get messages like this from sources other than parents and teachers is a good thing.

but this post wasn't supposed to be a lecture about drug abuse.

so moving on!!! today I completed 2 two page layouts. I haven't updated my accountability blog but will do so tomorrow. I am hoping to get 2 more layouts done tomorrow. I think I have an idea for one of them.......we shall see! lol!! but I am enjoying doing those unpopular double page spreads with all those pictures on them. can you believe that I have done 3 layouts in the past 2 days and 2 of them had 7 pictures each and the other had 8?!?!? and the funny thing is that I really think they are nice looking. I think the boys will like looking at them in a couple decades.

guess that is all for tonight. tomorrow is the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. take a moment out of your day tomorrow (especially if you don't have to work) to think about his message of peace and acceptance.

they say it's my birthday.....

but Wednesday is a crappy day to have a birthday on!! birthdays should be like MLK day or Thanksgiving (well not really Thanksgiving because Thursdays aren't so great a day to have for a birthday either). but on a day that will give you a nice long weekend to celebrate it........or just sleep in! lol!!

so......for my birthday I want to throw myself a virtual party since I don't think any of you can drop what you are doing and meet me for lunch today......can you?!?!? I already sent out silly birthday food to all my friends on Webkinz. so how about sending out a RAK to my blog friends?? all you need to do is list an interesting fact about JANUARY 16th.......other than that I was born on this day a couple years ago!

I have no clue what the RAK will be, but you can about 90% guarantee that it will be scrap related. I give myself that 10% leeway just in case I think of something appropriate to send that isn't scrap related. and since I have a pretty low readership and am not going to post on all the scrapping boards "visit my blog for a giveaway" you have a darn good shot! (wow the cynicism is high today)

oh yes.....and your fact can't be the same as a previously posted fact! sorry!! and since I know I am not on people's everyday look list (reality....it is okay).....you have through Friday night midnightish......rules subject to change based on an ol' ladies whim! lol!!

so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!! take this as permission to go eat some cake today.......REAL cake.....not flavored tofu or soy imitation cake.......

thinking of Easter....

yes, a little early! lol! but we don't do much other than a little heart candy for Valentines and St. Pats is all about the green...... Easter, on the other hand, has baskets with treats to hold the boys over between Christmas and their birthdays. usually they each get a movie, another toy (probably a Webkinz this year), a few little things, and some candy.

so today while I was at Learning Express, I saw Grass Headz. it is like a chia pet with an attitude! what could be more perfect for my two little attitudes?!?!?!? and what a fun *spring* kinda thing?!?! so today I bought the first thing for their baskets! don't I feel accomplished? lol!!

and while I previously have mentioned my dislike for using my blog as a place to hawk people's stuff......I thought these were darn cool....and again, it is my blog and I can do what I want with it!

I hope this isn't a sign.....

last night both dh and I were in bed well before 2008 hit the west coast. we were woken near midnight to the sounds of fireworks. REAL fireworks....and I have no clue where they were being launched....but they were and we were awake. when I heard people cheer and pop crackers I kinda mumbled "happy new year honey" and went back to sleep.

2 hours later J is awake and leaving the bedroom. seems he forgot to wrap up the cinnamon rolls and decided he needed to do it.......at 2am.

a couple times one or the other of us was awake and restless and waking the other one. at 6:45 this morning that ended when R's alarm went off.......some Christmas song at full blast! neither J nor I had intentions of getting up at 6:45. atleast we had coffee and fresh homemade straight from heaven (via J's hard work) cinnamon rolls to calm our nerves and keep me from climbing in my car to go wake R up at his friend's house. he had been up until 2:30 welcoming the new year and playing video games.

less than 2 hours later D managed to spill a gallon of milk on the hardwood floor.

two-ish hours later (and about 30 minutes before they were due to arrive) J's co-worker's wife called to say that she was sick (and sounded sick......so if she was faking she is a good faker! lol!) and that they weren't coming over. BUMMER!!! I was totally looking forward to a little shindig. I had bought lots of fun foods but really hadn't done anything more than soak the beans and make some brownies. I figured since they were coming over to watch football I could put things together as the day went on.

sure hope the whole year isn't going to be like this. I am not sure I could handle it.

and now for something completely different......

in stark contrast to the past 2 months where I have just LOOKED at my scrap stuff......I actually completed a layout today! only one......not for DT work......not for anyone else but me.......based on a sketch......but a layout nonetheless! a memory that will now be shared with my children and their children and their children.......assuming someone chooses to lug all my scrapbooks away when I am old and senile!

and yeah, I usually don't post layouts on my blog......maybe I am feeling especially proud of having scrapbooked or maybe it is the start of something new. don't know........my blog......I can do what I want! lol!! hey, look.......I even managed to use one of those 13 cups of buttons I sorted the other day! it was so easy to just grab the right colored jar and dig through it! (and the button is green, btw, not brown like it looks in the scan) I tried to figure out how to sneak some ribbon in there too......I thought a line running under the title might be nice. can you believe I didn't have any that would work? shocking! sheesh! lol!!

I do notice that in the scan you can tell the pattern of the gaekkebrev much better (it is Danish for "joke-letter" and the "a" & "e" should be smooshed together.....I don't know the function key to do that). isn't it gorgeous though? a friend (uh ahem.....C) sent it to me from Denmark last Easter. I knew I had to save it in my scrapbook.

well......before I get too crazy and possibly start another layout I think I might rest. this was hard work!!

been awhile......

tomorrow is 12of12 so before that happens I thought it would be a good idea to do a 10 second tidy on the blog and catch everyone up to date.

on the 26th, C arrived from down south and we started our whirlwind celebration of Halloween with a little Christmas thrown in. if you check out her blog (linked in the Oct 30th blog entry) you can atleast see some photos of what happened.......even if you can't read Danish! lol!!

we went to the pumpkin patch, visited a haunted house, had dinner at Weiner Works, L&L Hawaiian BBQ, Big Joes BBQ, had a merry little Christmas (little being the operative word), saw Nightmare Before Christmas, took a mini Christmas album class, carved pumpkins, went to the Jelly Belly factory, went to the zoo to see the penguins, ate at the Hard Rock, had lots of Starbucks, Trick or Treated, made Halloween treat packets, volunteered at R's school, ate breast cancer awareness bagels at Panera (actually VERY tasty!!), and of course met some LM friends for dinner at Chevys! whew! even just typing it wore me out! lol! we totally had a blast while she was here but I think we wore her out a little bit.

then C and I took off for Detroit for the LM crop. what a BLAST we had!!! we were lucky enough to sit near each other......so it kinda extended the feeling of her visiting a little longer. I roomed with Peggy and it was SOOO great seeing her and Stephanie (and everyone else too) again.

I flew home late Sunday and had Monday off. I pretty much spent it on the couch watching tv and almost napping. Tuesday I woke up to go to work and was sick. my head was so clogged that I was getting dizzy just looking side to side to drive. so back home I came and into bed for a majority of the day.

this past weekend I taught again for Cosmo Cricket at the Sacramento Scrapbook Expo. it was fun! I only taught 2 different classes each day so I felt a little repetitive........ but it was easier than teaching 4 different classes. R had a band event in the afternoon so I went to see it and then brought him back to the crop to help with Make & Takes. as always the women just thought that a scrapping boy was the cutest thing....... and let me tell you........ that boy is a serious salesman!!! I really wish I could have videotaped or even tape recorded his spiel. he was selling Buck Naked Chipboard like there was nothing more grander!! at one point I just started busting out laughing because he was s-m-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-t-h!!! he sounded like he had been a scrapper for the past 11 years! really!!

to finish off the weekend......I actually cooked! lol! I cooked yesterday but it was just a soup mix and crescent rolls. today I made chili (lots and lots of chili), cornbread, and pineapple upside down cake. I was in the mood for the cake when I made it but by the time we had it after dinner I wasn't in the mood anymore. but it was still good!! I really loved the chili. J thought it would be too spicy for me but I thought it was terrific. good thing too because there is enough leftover for 2 more meals! good thing because I doubled the recipe and there was 4 lbs of meat in there! lol!!

tomorrow is 12of12 and Veteran's Day observed. not sure what I will have to take pictures of except atleast a photo of R working at a local pizza place to raise money for his Scout Troop. if you live in the greater Sacto area and want to come support them, drop me a line and I will give you the info!

also.....take a moment today or tomorrow to say a prayer for all Veterans and those who are actively serving now. while we may not agree with the war we should all support the soldiers and their families!

land that I love....

this week's theme over at LM. my turn to write the article and I talked about patriotism, both of country and of ethnic background.

I really love the different feel of all the layouts done this week: land that I love

in other news....we survived the 4th. went and saw fireworks on the 3rd so that we could let the boys sleep in afterwards. the show we saw was AMAZING and LONG.......and CROWDED!!! but, we will go back next year!!

then yesterday we spent a good portion of the day at the waterpark. OMG it has been SOOO hot around here!! I was smart this time and took a hat so my part didn't get burnt. but I spent most of the day floating around in the lazy river. it was just too hot not to! but it wasn't as crowded as I truly expected it to be. we have figured out that about 5 hours is our limit there. even the boys are ready to head home after that.

today is all business. back to work and school. blech! the phone dude supposedly comes this afternoon to hook us up with wireless. now I will be able to cruise the internet from a tub filled with ice cubes! lol!!!