Random stuff

Keeping true to my blog title, here are a few pictures of random things i wanted to share. This is my new friend Julie who I met at CHA but have known her online. She is a very cool chick! We had a lot of fun hanging out at her booth and laughing. I feel like I have known her forever! She has a great challenge blog, stop by and check it out! She is having a fun giveaway on her blog here. Stop by and say hello to Julie and tell her I sent you over! Also, check out our challenge blog at scrap it forward. This month's challenge is to benefit Haiti earthquake victims. I also met another friend who i know online too. Her name is Sarah and she is fabulous as well.. She has a great website and etsy shop. Check out her stuff and talents too! :)

It was great to see Teresa at her booth. She has some new great lines coming out.

Here are a few peeks at some of my favorites from the show. I love Doodlebug and of course the barnyard line will be perfect for someone's horsey pictures.

My Little Shoebox is one of my favorite companies of all time.. Look how cute their new stuff is.. oooohhh... I can't wait to get my hands on this stuff!!

Now here we have some of Sammie's finest... This is a horse wedding. She arranged the horses on the sides to watch the wedding. Yep, now you have seen everything!

A fun photo from my birthday at Disneyland. This is us getting ready to ride the Toy Story Mania ride. I love this ride. It is amazingly brilliant!!!

A pic of Sammie with her reindeer food she made in kindergarten.

And a drawing that was too cute not to share. Sammie drew this on my whiteboard in my classroom. A reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh. I told you this post was random. I just was going through some pics and wanted to include these in my blog posts. I do enjoy going back and looking to see what we did so now i have it on record. :)

Crazy weather we are having. Lots of rain. Bummer.

Sammie is going to be 6 years old on Friday. I can't believe it. Time goes way too fast!! She is very excited to be 6 and has been counting down the days since January. We had to change the calendar 8 days early so she could have it be February, and that way "we wouldn't have to change the calendar again" for a while! LOL!

Fun at CHA

Wow... the CHA show is great. Making Memories is coming out with some fantastic new products. I can't wait. Had a blast in their booth riding on this fancy scooter. They are very generous and are giving away Slice machines in their booth, on the show floor and on their blog as well.

Thank you for the chances to win, Making Memories, you are awesome!

Hello 2010 ..... Hello iMac

Well, Happy New Year! I am making my first blog post of the the year on my brand new computer!!! We bought two, one desktop and one laptop, both of which I am trying to figure out. Apple is amazing though, and has excellent customer service so I am taking classes to learn. We don't even have our desktop up and running yet so I have been playing with the laptop which is challenging for me since it is my first one and the mouse and keys are different. I am very excited though. I had my first training today and an iphoto class and I can't wait to learn more! The photo program is incredible and perfect for scrapbookers!

This is going to be a short post since I just learned how to import photos ( which is a whole different process than on the PC) so next time I will share some holiday pics, etc.

Hope you had a great holiday and wish all of my faithful bloggy friends a happy healthy new year! Oh, by the way, please email me with your email addresses because I don't have my address book transferred from my old computer.

41

Yep, it's true, Today I am 41. If you know me well, you know I am 21 but according to my birth certificate, it's 41. If you look closely at the picture Sammie drew for me you can see 2 hidden "41's". You can also see "Birthday" written backwards and me catching money from the sky. LOL!

So in honor of 41, I am going to share 41 random things about myself. I started this list last year when I was turning 40- and got to #37, never finished it. So, here it is... a year later and a few more random things added. Some are facts about me and others are things I have learned in all my years!! :)

1. Time goes fast.

2. I love being a mommy.

3. Enjoy the moments, remember the details.

4. Always buy 2 of something you like.

5. I have been to a lot of places. Walt Disney World 5 times, and 8 cruises

6. Live how you want, do what you want, don't wait for anyone or anything!

7. I have had 6 cars so far and I named them all. ( Chuck, Fivel, Pretzel, Comet, Hi Ho Silver, Gomek)

8. I have been to 10 concerts. George Michael and Duran Duran twice. Oh, and I saw Wham so I guess George gets 3 points for concerts. The rest are General Public, Oingo Boingo, English Beat, Depeche Mode, and Heart.

9. I am a procrastinator, but then I turn that energy into productivity.

10. I swam with Stingrays in the Cayman Islands.

11. I climbed Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica. ( just like in the movie cocktail) I got my hair braided too.

12. I ditched high shool ONCE (on my 18th birthday with my brother) and got caught!! LOL!

13. I am not afraid of snakes except poisonous ones of course. I am more afraid of spiders.

14. I love to play on the computer.

15. I have always had a pet. ( dogs, fish, etc.)

16. I have lived in 6 houses. 4 in California

17. I am indecisive.

18. I still love 80's music.

19. I was a cheerleader and I can't stand watching sports!!! ( unless Sammie is playing of course)

20. I have been on TV a few times in the audience of game shows. ( The Price is Right, The Joker's wild)

21. I have lived most of my life in California.

22. I was a very shy, clingy kid.

23. I am a stomach sleeper.

24. I love my bananas with spots.

25. I learned to drive on a stick shift.

26. I don't like soda. Nope, not any kind at all. ( Neither does my brother and 2 of my cousins)

27. I grew up having a boat and it was named after my brother and I.

28. I went to 3 different junior high schools for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades because we moved 3 times.

29. I loved horses when I was little and always wanted one of my own. I went to horse camp. Oh, and I did not influence Sammie in that area. She loved them all on her own since she was a year old.

30. I can balance a spoon on my nose.

31. I have no sense of direction. (I will always have a navigation system!!)

32. I almost always print when writing something. I like my handwriting, but prefer to print.

33. I still have my wisdom teeth. ( ah, yes, so wise too!) tee hee hee.

34. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, and Australia.

35. I am knock-kneed.

36. I take tons of pictures.

37. I have had acrylic nails for about 23 years.

38. I love the color pink.
39. I don't really watch much TV. ( except game shows and a few others) I prefer to do something creative.

40. I love Chinese food.

41. I have always had a hard time getting "older".

It is just a number but it seems like such a big one!!

Anyway... I had a fun birthday. We went to Disneyland and out to dinner too. I guess I have to raise my "age" from 21 to about 29 but who's counting???

I am glad to be off on winter vacation for the next 2 weeks. I look forward to having fun and relaxing a little bit!! Happy Holidays!

Hello November

Well, November is quickly turning into December. Where have I been?? Just busy with life and lots going on keeping me on my toes. I will recap these past several weeks for posterity since I do enjoy looking back over the years and see what I did the previous year. I know Halloween was so long ago but I want it in my blog for memory's sake. :)


Sammie was Ariel, the Little Mermaid. She LOVED that red wig! I tried to tell her that people pay a lot of money to have blonde hair like she has but she loves that red hair. ( She's gonna be that teenager that dyes her hair jet black!!!) LOL!
Anyway, I dressed up with my Kindergarten team as Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. I was Papa Bear. We had a fun Halloween. I was able to watch Sammie's Kindergarten parade, and visit her class party too. We went trick or treating in the neighborhood and after each house she said.. "That went well!" I was cracking up!

She loves Kindergarten so much and had anxiously awaited her turn to be "Special Helper". They choose a name from a basket every day and she was 2nd to the last one to be chosen so she was thrilled when she finally got her turn to bring home the purple share bag. She already knew what she wanted to bring to show her friends. A pink pony!

Special helper gets to sit in the front with the teacher and lead the class on the calendar. She loved doing that of course. I am really proud of her hard work in school. She is just beginning to read and it is so exciting!! She is sounding out everything she can!




Her artwork is very cute too. Here is the art piece she made for the PTA Reflections contest. The theme is "Beauty Is" and she did this entire project by herself. The title is "Beauty Is a Horse and Carriage".




And another "masterpiece" painted at Pretend City. Which is a great place for kids! I really recommend it! We went there a few weeks ago and she loved it. :)

We had our last soccer game today and have had a lot of fun this season. The Fireballs was a great team. We won every game except one. Sammie scored 5 goals this season. She really enjoys playing and cheering on the team. Her favorite position is goalie! ( I am not too thrilled because I am afraid of a ball hitting her in the head but some of our players are so good that they really keep that ball away from the goal. )

Well, this is getting pretty long so I will wrap it up with a scrapbook page that Sammie and I did together to give to our Pony Club leader as a thank you.

Tomorrow we are filming a small video for Pony Club. Sammie is going to be in it with a bunch of other girls. Some will be riding, some grooming and brushing, etc. Sammie is going to be interviewed on camera to share about her experiences with the club. She loves it as long as she can be with the horses. That picture at the top is Patches. She is a pony that will also star in the movie. At the last meeting we had, an Equine vet came to talk to the kids about horse health and they got to listen to the horse's heartbeat. That was very cool!


Well, I will try to be back sooner next time. Thanks for stopping by to catch up on my life. :) Happy Thanksgiving in case I am not back soon!

A Good Week!

We had a good week. Sammie LOVES kindergarten and is doing well. She got to visit the Principal on Tuesday for good behavior. Although, Wednesday morning, she woke up crying and said to me, "Mom, I don't want to go to college, I just want to be a horse rider." (we had a previous conversation about what college is) I chuckled and said to her, "Let's get through Kindergarten first and then worry about college!" Anyway, we are very proud of her for going to see Mrs. Howland, the Principal.
She ran in the jog-a-thon on Friday and had a blast. She raised a lot of money for the school. She loves her teacher and told me that kindergarten is the BEST!

Today was a busy day. We went to volunteer for the Pony Club at the pumpkin patch fundraiser. Most of the club members were working in the food booth, bounce house, and petting zoo. What a perfect surprise that we got to work at the pony ride booth! It was a very hot day but it was great because "someone" got to have a few pony rides as a bonus for helping collect tickets. Oh, and a horse ride too.

After our shift at the pumpkin patch we headed home for a quick lunch, rest, and then got ready for Sammie's soccer game. She started out playing goalie which she really enjoys and then the next quarter she played and scored a goal. She was so excited and so was I because I missed the last two she scored so this was goal number 3 for Sammie and I finally got to see it! Of course, the batteries died in the camera right as Brad was capturing the goal shot, but we quickly changed them and we got this picture of her so proud of herself!!

Just wanted to share what Sammie made in Kindergarten this week. She named it Sally which I thought was a very cute name for a witch.

Hello October!

October hasn't started out so well but it is getting better. When we got home from Las Vegas, Sammie got sick with a fever and ear infection and missed the rest of the week of school. That was a big bummer. She stayed in her jammies for a few days. ( We got these at the Gymboree outlet on the way home from LV) They glow in the dark too. :)

I wanted to share a few of the projects from IU. We made some fantastic mini books and layouts as I mentioned in my previous post. I am very excited because I really admire Layle Koncar. She is a sweet person, a very talented scrapbooker and has been a teacher at IU for the past two years. If you saw my previous post, I have pics with all of the instructors from this year. When I asked Layle to take a picture with me, she also handed her camera over and said, "take one with my camera" too. Well, I was reading her blog and there is our photo on there. I am so honored to be on her blog. She is so cool!
Here is the project we made in her class. I haven't finished it yet but you can see the beginning of it.



This is a Friendship album we made in Teresa's class. It is very elegant, Teresa style, with lots of bling and fun pages. We learned how to make tissue paper flowers to hang on the binding of the book.
Look at these fun layouts we made with Janna. I am going to put some pics on them soon, and journal some of the "Sammie-isms" that I hear regularly!

Also, there is a new challenge on the Scrap it forward blog. This month we are focusing on Breast Cancer Awareness. Hop over to the blog and participate in the simple challenges and you might be the winner of some fun pink prizes!!!

After 2 trips to the doctor, lots of tylenol and motrin, and antibiotics, Sammie is feeling better. Well, she isn't loving the "do all the work you missed while you were gone at "mommy school". Yes, that is handy that I am teaching Kindergarten right next door to her class and know exactly the work she missed, however, it doesn't really matter in Sammie's world, I just don't do it the way her teacher does. Nope, not even after teaching kindergarten for 12 years. (LOL!)

On Saturday she played a soccer game and then we went to LA for my cousin's Bar Mitzvah.
The cute little boy is Cole, another cousin who Sammie had so much fun with. He is adorable and 3 years old.

On Sunday we went to see the Toy Story 1 & 2 double feature. We really enjoyed both movies. I saw them long ago and even though we have both on DVD, I haven't seen them in a while. I realized how clever they really are and found myself laughing at several "adult intended" jokes. The movies were in 3D so that was cool. We are excited to see Toy Story 3 when it comes out in June.

Today was just "one of those days" where things didn't go so well. I started to take Sammie to school and my A/C wasn't working in my car. ( Although I am thankful that the weather is cooler and it didn't happen when I was in warmer temperatures in Las Vegas.) It just made for a trip to the car dealership to get it fixed.

Then the phone headset I use for my cordless telephone was shorting out so I conveniently took out the file folder with the extended warranty I purchased, and realized it was now expired (of course) so I went to the store to buy a new one. When I got home, I realized I never got my receipt showing the new headset and that I paid for the new product protection plan. I called the store and they told me to come down and get a new one, which I did. Later on tonight, I found the original receipt in my wallet, which was there all along. Grrrr...

Yep, just one of those days. The rest of the month will be better!! :)