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Happy Birthday George!

Christine and I got to spend George Michael's 45th birthday with him in concert at the Forum on Wednesday night. He put on a great show. I saw him in 1988 ( yikes) and also as WHAM before that. It is hard to believe it has been 20 years!! He still was fantastic and I enjoyed the concert so much. You can see the set list by clicking here. I was sad when the concert was over. It is always so cool to see a live show and George is so talented. ( and nice to look at)

I have been keeping busy during my summer vacation. It seems like I still can't get caught up and I am not even working right now. EEEKKKK.

Anyway.. I have been staying up late and sleeping in a little so I guess I am just too lazy! Sammie and I went to LA to visit Jennifer and Julia on Monday and went to a cool place called the ART ZONE. The girls loved it. It is a children's art studio and the kids can do their choice of art during their studio time. Sammie painted, played dress up, made a collage art piece, played with clay and went in the "mud room". I will post some pics of this. It was quite messy fun. A very cool place. We didn't want to ride home in traffic so we stayed at Jen's house for a while and ate dinner.

Well, I am tired tonight so I am going to bed but I'll be back soon with some photos for you.

Bye for now!

Busy Weekend

My last day of school was Friday June 13th! I am so excited to be "done" for the summer. I just want to "hang out", scrapbook, go to Las Vegas, go swimming and play on the computer.


My parents came in town for the weekend. My little ( and much taller) brother Jeff graduated from Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday night. I am so proud of him! It has taken him a long time to accomplish this but he worked hard and finally did it! He earned his degree in Communications with an emphasis in Journalism. He is a brilliant writer and is very talented. He has an internship right now at a radio station in San Diego and has been "on the air" several times. He has a very outgoing personality and is very witty and personable. Jeff prides himself on his knowledge of pop culture (and teases me on my lack of it as well as my insistance on listening to 80's music) We went to eat at Heroes after the ceremony ( yummy food) and I even had a margarita!



On Sunday, my mom, dad, Nana, Brad, Sammie and I went out to Tom's Farms in Corona. It is a fun place to hang out if you have never been there. They have a train ride, magic show and good places to eat. This photo is of "Anthony the Magic" a magician who did a great show. He made the doves turn into a chihuahua. My Nana didn't want to walk too far so we put her on a chair in the shade and she sat with some really friendly biker guys and they talked and laughed with her. My mom told her "don't pick up any men!" It was hilarious! ( she's 94)
We ate lunch there and then Sammie rode a pony. It was a fun time.

After that, we went to the strawberry stand to visit Jeff, Jill and the kids. ( Sammie's cousins) Sammie loved the strawberries so much.. She ate and ate them one after the next. ( from what everyone says, theirs are the BEST!) She must have eaten close to 20 of them and wouldn't stop in between to rest. It was hilarious! Here is a goofy photo of her and the strawberry juice dribbling down her shirt.


On Monday I went to breakfast with my parents before they left to go home. Sammie and I went shopping at the Target Greatland in Fullerton. It was fun to explore a Target I don't go to regularly and then we went to Old Navy and Linens and Things too. I got some shelves to try to organize my pantry this summer. It is always a mess because it is tall and deep. The store was closing so everything was on sale. Sammie asked if she could have a lollipop while we were there and I said yes, and what flavor did she grab??? MARGARITA!! Yikes.. am i in trouble??? Just kidding! It was so hot that we came home and went in her little splash pool in the backyard. It was refreshing!

I know this is sort of a long post but I have lots to share.
Christine, Donna, Jennifer, Janet and I recently attended the Freckle Friends crop for Autism Speaks. It was held at the MAMBI warehouse and decorated so cute!! This was a great event with FABULOUS make and takes by Suzy Plantamura, Annie Adams and Suezi G. (who works at MAMBI) We had a wonderful time. I'll post some pics of the layouts I made. Anyway... in other scrapbooking news, I am very excited about THIS.

We are going in October and it will be extra fabulous! The teachers are Teresa Collins, Layle Koncar, and Janna Wilson! All who I adore in the scrapbook world! It is in Henderson, Nevada which is right in my parent's backyard!! YIPPEE Today we went to the Yorba Linda Library for story time. They have a great summer reading program with prizes and fun activities for kids. The story time is for kids only so moms have to wait in the waiting area but there is small place to observe. Sammie loved the cute songs and fingerplays that they did and the puppet show. We checked out a bunch of horse books and then went out to lunch. She had a riding lesson at 2:00 and learned how to trot today. She did an awesome job. She rode a new horse named Belle and after she trotted around the arena, her trainer Alyse asked her if she liked that and Sammie said, "Can we do it again?" So they did. We came home afterwards and relaxed for a while. It was super hot today!
P.S. We got the bill from the ER visit ( see previous post) and the charges to remove the eraser from Sammie's nose with a paperclip were $1353.00. We didn't have to pay that (thank goodness for insurance) but have to pay $213.00 to meet our ER deductible. We have a PPO.

What a TRIP!

So our trip to Vegas started off a little "differently" than usual. Sammie and I left Saturday morning and were making great time. We stopped for lunch in Barstow and then jumped back on the freeway expecting to arrive in Vegas around 2:00. Well as I drove up the freeway ramp, Sammie started yelling, "MOMMY, I have an eraser in my nose... get it out!" I couldn't imagine what she was talking about but then it all became clear. I pulled off the freeway into a deserted spot and looked in her nose. Sure enough, she had a bright pink piece of eraser in her nose. It was from our school carnival the day before and it was a Disney princess eraser shaped like a lipstick with a delicious scent. Well, a piece broke off and she was smelling it and decided to put it in her NOSE! I couldn't get it out so I called the Dr.'s office who connected me to a nurse's advice line. They advised me to go to the ER because if she inhaled the eraser, it could go into her lungs which could be dangerous and she would need surgery. GREAT!!! So, thank goodness for my navigation system. I programmed it to find the nearest hospital which was backtracking about 11 miles in Barstow so that's where we went..
Sammie got admitted to the ER after I filled out a bunch of paper work. At the top of it was marked "semi-urgent". We had to wait about an hour or more to see the PA and she came in and said the eraser probably wasn't even in there anymore since Sammie was sitting there calmly. She kept sneezing and sneezing and her nose was running profusely. I told her that Samantha had a high pain tolerance and that I was pretty sure the eraser was still in there but she said sarcastically "we'll see". Well, after she looked in the WRONG nostril, and didn't see it, I told her to look in the other side and sure enough, she saw it. Then she disappeared for another half hour and said the doctor would be back to take it out.
Meanwhile, there we are in BARSTOW Community Hospital which is like being in Wal Mart. The element of people was quite interesting.. The doctor finally came in and he was wearing soccer slides and socks. He introduced himself and then said he'd be right back with his "hook" so he could remove the eraser. Well, his "hook" was an unbent PAPER CLIP which he proceeded to drop on the floor, drop in the sink and then finally pick up and place into Sammie's nose ( no, not sterilized) while I held her arms down, the nurse held her head still and another nurse held her feet because she was KICKING the doctor. He got it out quickly and then the drama started. She cried a bit but they gave her ice cream and she was fine! She was a champ! We had to wait to be discharged from the hospital and finally after a total of 3 hours, were on our way again. I think Sammie learned her lesson!




We had a good time while we were in Vegas. We went to the splash pool in my parent's community. It is a shallow pool with sprinklers and different fun water things for the kids. There is also a slide but Sam is too little for it still. Here is her own version of "get ready to go swimming".


On Monday we went on a tour of Anderson Dairy which is the only dairy in Nevada. It was a lot of fun and very interesting. They had a movie with a lot of history about Las Vegas long ago. We got to tour the dairy and see how they fill the milk cartons, where they make cottage cheese and see the giant freezer. There was a cute show with talking farm animals. When the tour was finished, we got free ice cream! This ice cream was SO delicious! It was fresh and creamy like nothing i have ever tasted. It hadn't sat in the freezer for very long and wow was there a difference! YUM!

The highlight of the trip was my first ROYAL FLUSH ever!! I don't usually play poker but every once in a while I do and am always hoping to get a royal even though the odds are that it shows up 1 in every 40,000 hands played. I always wish and wish but never has it happened until Monday night!!!


My dad and I went to this "dive" of a casino called the SKYLINE. It is a locals hang out and the average age is senior citizen. I was definitely the youngest, hottest chick in the place.. EEEKKK
Most of the people are in walkers and can barely see to put the coins in the machine. Yes, some of these machines are so old you have to feed the coins by hand. Anyway.. My dad and I sat down, I put in my $20.00 and was playing nickels for about 15 minutes. I was looking at the pay schedule thinking about how much each payout was. I said to my dad.. "How much is 8000 nickels?". He said, "Oh, it's $400 but that's if you get a Royal Flush, and you won't get that so don't worry!" And a few minutes later, that's when I got Jack, Queen, King and Ace of Spades. I held them all and then hit the draw button and then POOF, the 10 of spades jumped right in there and I got it! I was sooooo excited I was jumping all around in my seat and all the old fogies looked at me and I said, I never got a royal in my whole LIFE and they all smirked and said "oh, it's your first one, you have to share with everyone". They were just kidding but anyway.. I won $400. I gave my dad $100 and I shared with Brad too when I got home.
Our drive home was much better than our drive there!

Scrappy Stuff

Just thought I'd share some scrappy stuff. I cleaned off my scrappy desk the other day too so now I can actually sit down and work there!
I love scrapbooking, just never get enough time to do it! If my desk is cleaned, though, I am more likely to sit down and work on something if I get a chance. I feel so much better looking at a clean workspace.. ( I have tons of stuff to go through but that is a SUMMER project) For now it is tidy and workable!!
This is a just a quick post. I'll leave you with this thought.. A friend posted this on her blog and I thought it was sort of thought provoking.. So make a comment and finish this sentence... I was ____________in high school. My first answer was I was naive in high school and my 2nd answer was I was a cheerleader in high school.. So there's 2 random things about me.. Tell me what comes to mind when you think about high school.
Have a good day!

So Happy!

Sammie started horseback riding lessons. We stopped by Rocking T Ranch last week to inquire about summer programs for her age group. They told me they only do private lessons for 3-6 year olds. I asked them if they thought she was ready and they said they had an opening for a lesson and they could try her out to see if she was ready. She had a lesson that day and they said she is definitely ready!!! The kid loves horses and loves to ride! Her trainer's name just happens to be Alyse. She is wonderful with small children. Sammie rides for 1/2 hour. She is learning how to tack and groom as well as ride. She rides bareback with only a saddle pad so she can work on balance and be able to feel the horse better as she squeezes to give commands. She is doing great!! Here are some pics of her on Biscuit. As soon as she gets on she has the biggest smile on her face! She is so happy!

Open House

Tonight Sammie had her first Open House at preschool. Her teachers worked really hard and did a wonderful job. Each child got to take home their memory book of all the projects they had hanging up in the classroom throughout the year and photos of field trips, and special events. It is adorable. ( I can appreciate all the work that went into it being a scrapbooker and a teacher. ) They planted bean seeds, did graphs, learned about insects, made a garden and learned about how plants grow. They even had a harvesting center in the classroom( see picture above) and could practice what they learned. There were fresh berries and jam from their garden served to the parents to taste. The kids tasted potatoes and yams in class and graphed which one was their favorite. Samantha liked yams better. We had a good time walking around the classroom looking at all the things the children made and learned about the last few weeks. The best part for me was being able to appreciate it and not having to "do" it this time. It was nice to see Open House from a "parent" view rather than the "teacher" side of it like I normally do. Sammie was so excited about Open House. She talked about it for weeks so she wanted to wear a "pretty dress" tonight for this special occasion.
Anyway.. this is just a quick post for now.. check back again soon because I have lots more to share!