Can You Hear Me Now?

So tonight as I was driving home from work, trying to talk to my husband hands free - my headset died. This was the last straw. For the past several weeks I've been having issues with my phone. 6 years ago, I wouldn't have thought anything of this, but because I dated & then married the man that I did - I've become a gadget girl. I love gadgets. Before I met Tim, I had the same cell phone for 7 years. Since we've been married, I've had 4 new ones...here is #5...

It's so pretty. It's the same phone that Miss Erin, her mother, & sister have too. I'm not trying to be a copy cat in this situation -I just really liked the phone & of course the color is lovely. So all evening Tim & I have been taking turns playing with the phone. I think he enjoys getting new gadgets for me almost as much as he enjoys getting them for himself. He's currently trying to upload my 'Cliff Hanger' ring tone from the Price Is Right. And of course I'll need 'Manamanah' back for when Laura calls...

Ladies Craft Night...

I've just returned home from ladies craft night at our church. This is the first Christmas that we will be at our new church & I'm excited to see all of their traditions. Apparently this is one of them & I'm a fan!! You come, eat some lovely treats, & make crafts! My good friends Amanda & Victoria joined me & we had a blast. We ended up making 3 crafts. Victoria decided it was like 'speed crafting' - which totally fits our evening. Look what we did:

We each made a rustic sign - I chose to hang mine in our entry way from the 'Joy' mirror.

We also made live center pieces. I LOVE this one - it's my favorite.

And since we had extra time & they had extra supplies we made a snowman. I'm not sure where to put him. Any ideas?

More Photos...

Here are some more photos for you. :) Tim took these of my Christmas ornaments - recognize the style?!? So I had to show off my husband's fancy photography skills:

Here is a photo of the bruchetta from Postino's. SOOOOO good.

Here is Miss Erin handing Shawn a piece of 'meat bruchetta' - I'm sure it has a real name, but you don't really need to know it - all you need is to see her face & know that it's a meat induced face. ;)

Messing around...

The Beginning of...

silly pictures!! Here are our toes after the pedicure. I got a pretty flower - but it's hard to see in the pictures. My polish is called 'Have you seen my limo?' It's new...so I brought it in with me & she added the flower. I also got a French manicure on my fingers. I haven't had my nails done for months...since I took off my acrylics that Laura did for me - it was a nice treat.

Andrea, we took this photo for you. We went to Super Target last night & it was AMAZING!!! We both need one...within 1 mile of our houses...or 1/2 mile... :)

Here is our other Christmas crafty project. We bought ornaments (you can read all of the details & see Erin's here) & finished them last night. I was discouraged when we first started as some of mine weren't turning out the way I'd planned...but it wasn't anything that a little ribbon & a change of attitude couldn't fix. :) I love them - & the GREAT news is that they all arrived safely from the plane. Hooray!

And here we are...with our toes in the air. That's right, we had nothing better to do - how great is that?!

Thanksgiving Fun...

This year for Thanksgiving we were invited to the Smith family's house (the former home of Erin). I headed to sunny Arizona on Wednesday morning after working two 12 hour days in a row on Monday & Tuesday - bleh - the reward was getting to spend the night with my sister Tuesday night before flying out on Wednesday morning - we had a wonderful time...
Here's the quick synopsis of our trip:
I arrived in Phoenix on Wednesday afternoon to a wonderful 80 degrees with sunshine!! (I almost didn't recognize it).

Wednesday we played & hung out. Tim was already there so I had two greeters at the airport - nice.
Thursday was side dish day for Erin & turkey day for the rest of us. We had dinner at her parents house - pictured below...notice we ate outside!! How great is that!?!

Friday we went shopping (but not until around 11:00 am - hee, hee). We also played Christmas crafties...the button trees below & another project I'll show you in my next post.

Saturday we got manicures & pedicures then headed to Postino's for a late lunch with Erin's family. It was a relaxing & nice time to just hang out with everyone. Here is a photo of me & my love taken at the restaurant.

The rest of Saturday night was spent finishing Christmas crafties & hanging out. We found some time to take silly photos...here is just one of many.

Thank you Erin, Shawn, & family for welcoming us for Thanksgiving. We had a truly wonderful time. Wish you lived closer...

Christmas Trees...

Here is crafty project #1...button Christmas trees. Erin & I made these Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday - & look...they're done!

2 cones, 4 bags of buttons, 8 containers of pins, 3 seperate trips to the store, & hours later...here's the finished product...

Can you guess who's is who's?

52 Card Scrap-Up Week #6

This week's prompt was given by Erin - & her inspiration was from yesterday's holiday "Thanksgiving". Tonight Erin & I created our cards...here they are:

Front:
Back:

I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend as much as I am!!

Thankful...

5 things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1. My wonderful husband
2. My loving family & friends - near & far
3. Our home
4. Our church
5. A year full of blessings, big & small...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Look!!!

...at what I caught in my shower...

This is what happens to kitties who are curious about the shower & go wandering in - let this be a lesson to you all! Hee, hee, hee.

Food & Fun!

Here we are - at the end of another perfectly good weekend about to be ruined with routine once again. :)

This weekend was very fun. Friday night, Tim had some friends over for Guitar Hero. I bounced back and forth between scrapping & watching the boys. Nice, relaxing evening.

Saturday morning Amanda came over & we ran some "Christmas errands" while the boys (her husband & mine) worked on the electrical outlets outside...in the rain...fun.

We brought them back Starbucks & had some lunch. Ben & Amanda left a little while after that & Tim I took a nappy-pooh. I love naps. It was the only one I got this weekend - so I'm glad it was a good one. :) After naps, I finished cleaning the house & then Ben & Amanda were back to pick us up to go to dinner at Claim Jumper in Portland.

Oh my goodness...it was delish. The portion sizes were HUGE-mongous. I ordered a half salad & was only able to eat half of that...a quarter of a salad. Crazy. We were told to have dessert (thanks for the tip Erin) so we took it to go. Fascinatingly enough the picture below is NOT my chocolate cake. I opted for Pumpkin Cheesecake (which I ate some of yesterday, some today & there is STILL some left). Ben got 'a piece' of chocolate cake & here is what he received. Insane. We had a really great time at the restaurant, I would recommend it (& also that you split a meal with 3 people). :) After dinner we came back to our house for more Guitar Hero & mongo desserts...

Amanda & I realized that we don't have any pictures together, so we took some steps to begin to remedy that. Here we are after dinner last night - back at our house ready for desserts & Guitar Hero.

Today I hosted our knitting bee. Nicole, Honey & I started this in September & today my good friends Amy & Victoria joined us. We had a great time knitting, snacking, & chatting. I actually made progress on my sweater! Hooray!

Tonight has been filled with AWANA & catching up on Grey's. Now I'm off to finish getting ready for the week...lots of activities this week - I may or may not be a good blogger, I guess you'll have to check back & find out for yourselves...

52 Card Scrap-Up Week #5

Can you find the Scrap-Up card?!? :) Can you tell that I'm still in love with my pumpkins? This is about the extent of my Thanksgiving decorations, so I need to take advantage of them while I can. One of my students gave me the pear candle on the right hand side of the table. It was a 'Thanksgiving gift'. So sweet & I love it, so that's a bonus too. :) Okay, okay...the card is below:

This week's challenge was 'song lyrics'. I chose the song that was sung at our wedding by my cousin Dwayne - 'I Will Be Here'.

Front of card:

Back of card:

Pretty...

Copy Cat...

Many of you know that I am a self-proclaimed craft copy cat of this girl & this girl. Today, I've chosen to copy cat this girl. I've been in love with her glitter pumpkins ever since she told me about them & then I saw the photos on her blog. So CUTE!! And being the princess of glitter, how could I resist?

Today after saying goodbye to my in-laws...I took myself to Michael's to look around. I was able to obtain these pumpkins at 70% off & the glitter magic was priceless, of course! :)

I thought about waiting to post pictures until they were set in their places, but I couldn't. So you lucky readers get to see the 'just finished product' & tomorrow I'll try to take photos of their new home inside.

And now on to the weekend. Thursday night my in-laws arrived from the other side of the state. I got home late, so I didn't see them until Friday. Friday night we had a 3 hour dress rehearsal for our concerts that we performed on Saturday & Sunday.

On Saturday, Faith & I went in search of some fall decorations - we didn't find any but we ended up having a great time looking at things & then hanging out at our house knitting. She was going to show me how to knit socks, but in the end I chickened out & decided I should finish my sweater first...plus I don't have the right needles. Faith is going to send me the correct needles & give me a lesson on a weekend when we have more time. Saturday evening...concert.

Sunday was church in the morning, then a concert in the afternoon - then a delish dinner at Red Robin with Tim's family & friends, then to Target. Yay for Target. Last night we also watched The Prestige. Tim & I had seen it before but it's such a captivating movie, it was great to see it for the second time. Very suspenseful.

This morning after saying goodbye to Richard & Faith - I went to Michael's, cleaned the house, glittered pumpkins & now....not sure what I'll do. I did get 'fun mail' again today. My Studio Calico kit arrived & it looks grand! I plan to play with it in a little bit.

Lastly, but certainly not least, thank you to all of our veterans who have served. We are blessed to have several veterans in our family & to them, I offer a special thank you for serving our country with dignity & for making our family very proud. This weekend our concerts were centered around Veteran's Day & I was very proud to be a part of some wonderful music thanking these wonderful people for the sacrifices that they & their families made for our country.

Happy Veteran's Day!

52 Card Scrap-Up Week #4

This week's challenge was hosted Andrea-Perpandrea. The challenge was: "What is your favorite treat?"

I LOVE chocolate - but only milk chocolate. It can be in any form...I'll take it however it comes to me - unless it's on toffee, then I'm out.

Here's what I came up with - I used my fab new kit from Cocoa Daisy (see previous post).

Journaling says: 'My favorite treat is CHOCOLATE! Milk choc. only please - any form will do...'

Happy Mail...

Today upon returning home from work at 7:00 PM. (that's right...PM - I love doing grades for 500 kids)...anyway, before I went inside I decided to get the mail & this was waiting for me. It is SOOOO cool!! I love it. My lovely Erin was the guest designer this month for this kit & you can see what she did with it here. I'm thinking of making this week's 52 card Scrap-up from this kit. Hee, hee. Off to go play!!

And yet...

...more photos! I have a few more birthday photos for you & also my 'new doo' photos. The first pic is to show you again how CUTE Addison is. It also serves to show you what my hair looked like yesterday afternoon - yikes! Check out that grow-out!

Before:

After:
(it's not quite as dark in this photo as it looks - there is some red to it & a few blond highlights which didn't show up in this photo...)

Another fab face from Mia - she's such a character!

My two favorite nieces at play before the party started...

Party Photos!

Happy Birthday to Mia! (Once again). :) Here are just a few shots from her party yesterday.

Here is the birthday girl - showing off just one of her fabulous faces...

The famous Rocket cake - great job Laura!!

Holly & baby Addi - so sweet!

Mia blowing out her candles