NSD and other fun things!

For those of you who are not

scrapbookers, NSD, stands for National Scrapbook Day and it was Saturday, May 2nd. Christine and I took a trip to Ever After and had a lot of fun. It is a great store and everyone is so nice and friendly. Coincidentally, both of our kids went camping with their daddies and so it was a nice little get away from home for us.

Here are some of the pages I did. I am happy with all of them. My favorite company right now is My Little Shoe box. I love love love the bright happy colors and patterns.

We got Sammie a new bike so she can learn to ride with training wheels and then eventually without!! Our little girl is growing up! She has had a tricycle because we didn't want to keep buying bikes when she gets taller. We waited until now and although she preferred the little 12" bike, we convinced her to get the 16" kindergarten bike. It is so funny because the kid rides gigantic horses but is afraid of a "bigger bike"??? She is having fun with it though. It is cute, purple, pink, princess and super girly!!

I can't believe her preschool year is coming to a close. I had a conference with her teachers and she is doing well. She has a good academic foundation with letters, numbers, patterns, counting, etc. She needs to work a bit on her fine motor skills which is also developmental. She likes to draw but doesn't have a strong pencil grip yet. She has a little bit of work to do on her name as well. The "a" looks like a "q" and her final "e" is upside down and backwards. I am proud of her development! Here is some of her recent art work. The first pic is a house and butterfly and the second pic is the Easter Bunny riding on a unicorn. ( her next favorite thing besides horses) I just love her little drawings and the stories she tells to go with them. Too cute!

When it comes to Earth Day, I am not the classic "green" person but this year I did do a few things to take part. I worked that day so I made my class do something kind for the Earth, whether it was recycling from their lunch or picking up trash, then we shared about it. I came home and planted some seeds with Sammie and talked about Earth Day. She knew a lot from TV and school She said "Green is Clean" and also told me that we have to save the "EARF". (that's Sammie speak) I also recycled a container from her "lunchable" and brought it to school to use as a desk caddy. I put post it notes and paper clips in it. My students were very impressed. I do think it is important to try to reduce the amount of things we use, buy, etc. I am such a "consumer" and love to buy, but it makes me more aware and I do try to stop and think if I can use something again. Speaking of Earth, I was surprised by the earthquakes we had. During the first one I was driving and stopped at a light near my house. I felt the car shake and move forward a bit but I thought that I accidentally took my foot off the brake for a second. When I got home, my neighbor asked if I felt the earthquake and I said, "What earthquake?" and realized that the jumping car was the earthquake. The aftershocks I felt at work in my classroom. It was really shaking and rumbling. It was sort of scary because I was in my file cabinets thinking they were going to fall over on me. It was all okay and over quickly but it is such a weird feeling. I never realize it is an earthquake until it is almost done. I guess I am so used to shaking from the train nearby that I am just immune to it.

We have been celebrating lots of birthday parties. One was for Donna's son Jacob at Scooter's Jungle, one was for Sammie's preschool friend Tori at the Freckled Frog, and also one for my niece Emily who turned 6. Sammie takes her princess dance class at the Freckled Frog. All of the kids dressed up in High School Musical clothes an danced around. It was adorable. ( Sammie isn't really into High School Musical but she had fun with the microphone and getting eyeshadow on and of course, dressing up like a prom queen! )

Well, as you can see, I have been keeping pretty busy and having fun too. I hope you are having fun! Bye for now!

Hello again

I'm back with another long update. As much as I intend to keep up with this blog and update regularly, it always ends up as a long summary post but I guess that's okay too.....at least I will have a record of all that we do. :)

So, here's what's been going on lately...

We finished up Spring Break with a trip to the beach. Sammie LOVES the beach. She could stay there for hours playing in the sand, jumping in the waves and collecting shells. She did all of those things on our recent trip there. It was a cold day for the beach when we went. It was sunnny but there was a cool breeze off the water and I was cold. I wrapped up in my towel. It would have been perfect if i had a sweatshirt to throw on but I didn't so I was freezing. We had a picnic there and she went in water with daddy. It was a great day. We went to Balboa island after and walked around.

I went scrapbooking by myself the next day at the Oasis. It was nice to have a little time to myself and get a few things done. I met Stephanie Ackerman there getting kits ready for their upcoming Reflections event. She was very sweet and we had a lot of fun joking around!! I'll post some pics next time of some of the pages I made.

** okay.. I had to edit this post becauser blogger wouldn't let me upload all the pics I wanted to so I got frustrated and stopped.. Now I am back to start a new post with pictures. Bye for now.

Hello April!

So... April just snuck up on me and now it is the middle of April and here I am with my first post of the month! EEK! Where does time go? I am always so busy and so this is one of the things that gets squeezed out when I run short on time. I do enjoy blogging. It helps me keep track of the things I do, and remember the good times I have with family and friends. It is fun to look back and see what we were doing a year ago. I have always been sentimental like that. That is why I love to scrapbook so much, to record memories. I have always done it, even when I was a kid. I loved to look back and see what I did the year before or the birthday before, etc. I also love to write, so this is a combination of both. So that's just me in a nutshell. I get so busy living life that sometimes I don't have a chance to record it, so here I am now catching up in one long post!

How are you?? I hope you didn't give up on me, those of you who do read my blog. I hope you will stay with me because eventually I will always be back to update.

So here's what's been going on...

Sammie finished up her ballet and tap class with Ms. Tina and started a new one called Princess Dance at the Freckled Frog. The ballet photos are from her last class mini recital. They did a little show for the parents and then each child got called up to get a goodie bag and award certificate. This is her preschool friend named Hayley. They have fun together. Sammie takes horseback riding lessons from Hayley's aunt, Victoria. Hayley likes horses too.

The princess dance class is cute. The girls wear a princess dress each week, dance with ribbons and wands, do a craft and listen to a story. It is a lot of things in 45 minutes but very well organized and well-paced. She is enjoying it. ( she is in the pink dress)

Speaking of princesses, here are some cute Disney pics. We went right after her princess class one day.

Here is something unusual.. We were out in the front yard and some ducks flew by and landed in the street right in front of our house. Not something you see everyday. They must have been heading to the nearby lake but stopped to say hello and eat some bread at our house.
We finally got to see Jennifer and Julia after a few rescheduled plans. We went to Color Me Mine and the kids painted pottery. ( it was very expensive) Sammie made a unicorn and Julia made a birthday cake.

I finally got to scrapbook at Christine's crop to benefit Autism Speaks. It was a successful event and many wonderful prizes were donated by popular manufacturers. Here are some of my recent pages.

It was a fun day and I got to spend time with my friends Christine, Donna and Jennifer. Christine raised about $600 for Autism Speaks. WHOOO HOO!! I am getting ready to join her in the walk for Autism on April 25th. This is the 3rd year I am walking with her. If you would like to sponsor me I would appreciate it. You can click this link and go to "support a walker" and type my name to find my page. All donations are for a wonderful cause and are tax deductible.

I finally got to go on Sammie's preschool fieldtrip. They went to Tanaka Farms to pick stawberries. It was a lot of fun and the kids got to taste fresh veggies from the garden. ( romaine, carrots, radishes, cilantro, sugar snap peas,) and of course all the stawberries you could eat!! They do the tours year round and change it seasonally. I want to go back in the summer and do the watermelon tour! YUM!!

In other news, I have had a bad pain in my neck for a few weeks. I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to help ease the pain, ( tylenol, motrin, muscle relaxers, heating pad, ice, jacuzzi tub, even a massage) and nothing worked. When the muscle relaxers and tylenol, etc. did nothing, I knew there was something going on. After talking to a few people and getting suggestions, I went to a chiropractor. I was pretty skeptical but figured I should give it a chance since nothing else was working. In 2 visits after having electro-therapy, ultrasound, and spinal manipulation, I began to feel better. He took x-rays of my neck and determined that I have a reverse curvature of my neck which is the beginning of spinal degeneration. ( sounds terrible but it is treatable) One of those "turn 40 things"... It was sort of shocking to hear that though. Anyway.. I have been going several times a week and it is helping tremendously. I still have the pain but it is not like it was. I started to realize that my hip was hurting on that same side and that because I sleep on my stomach with my leg pulled up ( like a frog) it puts a lot of strain on my neck, back, etc. I have been trying to sleep on my side but still wake up on my stomach every day. uggghhh Anyway... it all makes sense now and I am glad that it isn't as painful. I couldn't even turn my head when backing up the car or changing lanes. Now I am able to turn quite a bit before I feel the pain. The doctor may send me for an MRI if it still doesn't improve soon. He thinks it could be a pinched nerve.

Well I have more to ramble about as always but this is getting long so I will stop for now and hope to be back soon. Meanwhile, say hello and come back again because I will try to write again soon!

Kindergarten Shots!!

Poor Sammie had to have Kindergarten shots yesterday. She had 5 shots a TB test and 1 finger prick to test for anemia. She was not too happy about the whole thing and was quite a fighter in the doctor's office. She got through it and is fine now except for a soreness in her arm. She talked about it again this morning and said "Kindergarten shots are not fun." I guess I have to agree.

We just got back from Las Vegas. We had a lot of fun. We went to the marina to watch the boats and feed the giant fish. They are amazing to watch. There are hundreds of them competing for popcorn and sometimes they jump on each other and splash to get to the popcorn first. It is quite a feeding frenzy! We also went to the Children's museum which is fantastic! They have wonderful exhibits and a cool science show using liquid nitrogen. We were amazed. There was a special Clifford display while we were there with a lot of fun play areas for Sammie. A kitchen, dinosaur dig, sand, music, bubbles, water.

The best exhibit was the grocery store with cash registers and the auto shop garage. She loved putting on the mechanic clothes and working on the car. Now that I look at the photos, it looks very realistic!!! The blue car is just a picture on the wall but the red car has all kinds of things to take off and put on the car. It makes noises when you put "antifreeze" in or check the oil. The tools make noise and there was even a magnetic "job chart" to organize the work jobs and pretend clipboards to do the service orders. ADORABLE!!

There was even a basketball court and someone had a lot of fun teaching Sammie how to slam dunk!!!

Of course we had to snap a pic of this mural! Hmmm.. I wonder why???

We also went to a carnival for St. Patrick's Day. We had a good time riding rides and playing games. There was an Irish dancer teaching the kids to play the drums and dance. Sammie went up on stage and we couldn't get her off!! Then they had a dance off with all the kids and she was the last one left and won some leprechaun trinkets. It was quite entertaining. I think she truly takes after her great-grandfather Sam! He would get up in front of people and play his harmonica and sing. Not a shy bone in his body!

In other news, I am getting ready to participate in the walk for Autism Speaks. This is the 3rd year that I will be walking for this cause and to support Christine and her hard work to raise money for Autism which of course is near and dear to her heart. The walk is on April 25th at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (Los Angeles) If you would like to support me you can click this link and click the "donate" tab and the menu will say "support a walker". Type my name and to go to my page. Thanks!

For all of you scrapbookers out there, on Saturday, April 4th there will be a crop at the Scrapbook Oasis to also raise money for Autism Speaks. It will be a great time with FABULOUS goodie bag and raffle prizes! Lunch will be included in the crop fee of $25.00. Check it out!

Don't forget to stop by Scrap it forward and do this month's challenge to benefit Project Cuddle. There are only a few more days left and the prizes are SUH-WEET!!

Snow much fun!

Sammie got to experience snow for the first time this weekend. She has been wanting to go for a long time and we told her we'd take her after her birthday since every weekend in February was busy. She kept asking and asking and even said "it is already past my birthday now", so daddy took her to the mountains for the day while I sold some scrappy stuff at a garage sale. She had a wonderful time playing in the snow. She said to daddy, "this is my luckiest day ever!"

Here is a scrappy page I made for a scraplift challenge at Scrap Whispers. It was a fun page to make. Speaking of scrapbooking, check out the Scrap It Forward blog. The new challenge is up so give it a whirl!

I will be walking again this year to support Autism Speaks. Click here to check out my page and/or make a donation to our team. I am walking with Christine.

My scrappy friend Alicia nominated my blog for the "spreader of love" award.

I have to nominate 5 people and tell why I nominate them. Alicia is a wonderful crafty gal. I met her online at tallyscrapper. She makes me laugh all the time and if she lived here, we would be great pals. She loves to make cards and shop!

I nominate these people to receive this award:

Jenn... She is a truly giving person. She is amazingly talented at paper crafts of all kinds. She is creative, kindhearted and fun and easy to talk to. A true friend. I am so glad she is my bud.

Dawn.. Another amazingly talented scrapbooker and baker too! I met Dawn at a local crop and had a lot of fun with her. She is a super nice girl. I had a blast hanging out with her at CHA too.

Erika ...I know Erika several different ways. I met her from OC Peas originally and then we hung out at Gymboree play class, local mommy and me classes and I see her often at scrappy events. She is a sweetheart.

Susan ...I met her online at tallyscrapper. She is easy to talk to and a kind person. She loves cardmaking and scrapbooking. We have fun giving out tallypoints to each other and we have the same birthday!

Lydia ...Speaking of the same birthday, Lydia and I also have the same birthday and we both have a daughter, Samantha. I met her online as well and I love to see her scrappy creations. She is a very talented scrapbooker.

Now here's what you all have to do. Nominate 5 people to receive this award and tell why they deserve it. Then link them to your blog and leave a message to them letting them know you gave them this award! Thanks and have fun!

I guess that's all for now. I'll be back again soon. Now go check out Scrap it Forward.

Happy Birthdays!!

Wow.. I am behind on my blogging but it has been a busy birthday month! We have a lot of family birthdays in Feb. ( my nephew Jason, Sammie, my brother, my sis-in-laws, Nana and then Brad sneaks up on March 1st.)

Sammie just turned 5! It is hard to believe how fast time goes. This picture was taken on her first birthday.




Here she is on her 5th birthday enjoying some cake!!

She had many celebrations this year. At school she got to be the helper and line leader. "Betty Birthday" came out to sing to her as well. It just so happened to be letter "Hh" week and hat day so she was very excited to wear this horse hat on her birthday celebration day at school.


Here is Sammie as she began her love for horses. ( this isn't her first pony ride either)

Riding Joey at her horsey birthday party. She had so much fun at her birthday celebrations! This year we had 2 parties since we usually have such a big group. We had a family/friend party and then a horse party with the friends in her preschool.

We also went for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Her favorite flavor suits her perfectly.. "Wild and Reckless"

Sammie is very excited to be 5. Happy Birthday Sammie! We love you so much!

Here is some birthday wisdom right from the little horse's mouth:

Sam: "Mommy, when I grow up and get married, I'm gonna be nice to my kid and when she bees rude, I"m not gonna put her in her room, I'm just gonna talk to her".

hmmmm what is she trying to tell me?? LOL!!

Yep, I can't wait for her to turn 13!!

This weekend we celebrated Nana's 95th birthday. My parents came in town and we went out for dinner at a yummy restaurant. (Blue Agave) Everyone enjoyed their meals.

Today we clebrated Brad's birthday at Disneyland. This year eveyone gets in free on their birthday and if you are an annual passholder, you get a merchandise certificate for the value of a park admission.. That was really nice. Sammie went shopping and got 2 sweatshirts, an autograph book and a robot dog. It was crowded but we still had fun.

Happy birthday to you all.

This weekend there are a few scrapbook garage sales

I am hoping to sell some of my retired scrappy goodies. Stop by and say hello!

1. Residence: 533 San Miguel Dr. Corona

2. Scrapbook Oasis: Skypark Circle ( Irvine) **see link at the right... \

That's all for now.. be back soon!