Happy Anniversary My Love

Today is my Anniversary! I have been married to this wonderful man for 9 years now and my life is better than I ever imagined. I love you sweetheart! here's to the start of many more!

Happy Staff Appreciation Day!

Well on the calendar it is Administrative Professionals Day but some of the places I have worked at in the past have called it Staff Appreciation Day - to include all the worker bees. Since my office has now officially forgotten, I brought in donuts for everyone. If you are not feeling appreciated, have a virtual donut - there are no calories or fat grams in the virtual ones!!

The May Kit at Urban Anthology

I have just had a sneak peak at the May Urban Anthology kit. It is called Enchanted Afternoon. It is a soft and beautiful kit containing papers from the Basic Grey Porcelain line, Webster's Pages Magical Wishes and Pink Pasilee's Enchanting Collection - 12 sheets, many of which are double sided, custome jornaling tags, ribbons and trims galore, buttons and much, much more.
It is not up at the store yet, but will go live on May 1st!

The Layoffs Continue

And it hit home today. Anthony was layed off from his part time job at the Home Depot. They presented this apron to him which was signed by many of his co-workers. He is really sad. I jsut feel for him.

How Hot Is It?

The thermometer read 101 at 3:00 today. We were supposed to go to Disneyland today with my mom and dad and Jillian, Mandre and the kids. It was too hot and Pat really wanted to watch the Angel game and the 1st game in the NBA playoffs - the Lakers were playing. We we decided to stay home. So what was I doing in the car outside of Disneyland at 3:00? Ugh - the cable went out on the tv and my Pat still wanted to watch the games so we went to TJSchmids to see the last quarter of the Laker game. Lakers won, Angels lost. The Angels havn't been doing so well this year, but is is just the beginning of the season. Go Angels. Go Lakers. The air conditioning inside of TJSchmids was really nice. After we left the restruant Pat suggested we go to Downtown Disney and get some of the Kettle Corn. So we dropped by and picked up a large bag. But it was just to hot to walk around, 101 degrees to hot.

Adventures with my Cricut

A couple of weeks ago I purchased a new electronic cutter. I got the Cricut Expression! I have wanted one for quite sometime and HSN had a really good deal on one with a bunch of extras thrown in. I sent the ad to my friend Heather and darn it if she didn't buy it. Well, she couldn't be the only one with a bug so I bought one too!! Then I told a few of my other scrapbooking buddies about the deal and Kari bought one too!! I have been reading all over the internet about all the really cool things this machine can do!!
Heather came over today and we spent over 4 hours playing with the machine, teaching each other various things we have learned about the machine and watching a few short instructional videos!! This is but a small stack of scraps that we went through!
Here are a couple of things I made. Some of the other things I sent home with Heather. (Yep - those are googly eyes on my caterpillar!) I even bent the edges up on my flower in my easter title to give it some dimension (do you see that Ching!).
Patrick and I joined my parents, Lew- my mom's old boss (um - let me rephrase that -previous employer) and Tyrone and Colene for dinner at the Red Lobster. I had the Peach Bourbon BBQ Shrimp and Bacon Wrapped Scallops, only I had a backed potatoe instead of the rice. (this is a picture from the Red Lobster website) This dish was sooo good. I found a recipe on the web and I can't wait to try it. Guess I will need to go and buy some bourbon!! LOL (That is funny - for those of you who know my recent experience with booze. What I didn't blog about that? Maybe later - umm maybe not!! After all Lew reads my blog and I wouldn't want him to think I have a drinking problem.)

Just Another Egg-celent Day

Easter dinner was spent at my mom’s house this year (as in years past). I made the deviled eggs (displaying them on the tray that I received as a Christmas present from my niece) and a desert. My mom made ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, various salads and of course, her yeast rolls that everyone loves.

After dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard for the kids. Lil Mandre enjoyed being the first one on the grass.

Then came Amara.

Then came Arianna and Stuart.

Just look at this cutie-pie!

For desert my mom made this wonderful Coconut Cake . . .

using fresh coconut!

and I made Chocolate Ice Box Pie.

The cake is a family favorite, as is the Ice Box Pie I guess. There was one piece of Ice Box Pie left for my Gino, but since it won’t be good by the time he can eat it, I will make another one when he comes home!

These are just some photos of Jillian and her family enjoying desert!

I can't wait to see how I scrapbook these photos!

Advice

Take time to spend with your girlfriends. Friendships are so important. I have a group of ladies (Karen, Eva, Ching and Kari all have blogs that you can check out, Yolanda and Jackie - you need to get blogs!) that I try to meet with at least once a month. These ladies are talented beyond belief. I love to get together with them as they inspire me with their work We were celebrating Kari and Eva's birthday! Happy Birthday again ladies. This is the layout I made will spending the day with these lovely ladies.
The pictures are from 2006 at Disneyland. I love that man!! (Tha would be the one playing with the cards - not the pumpkin head!! LOL)

Happy Easter

Bailey's MRI - Take 2

So today we took Bailey back into the vet to have his MRI and once again they had to stop the procedure as his heart rate went up, his blood pressure went down and his temperature went up. They are not sure what is causing this. They ran an ultra-sound and a heart scan. His white count is high so they put him on an antibiotic and changed some of his pain meds. Look at what I have to give to this dog twice a day and the three little yellow ones, three times a day. We take him back in next week for another re-check to determine when to retry the MRI. On the good news front, Bailey has lost 2 more pounds. He is down to 92lbs!

Viva Las Vegas

Last weekend was our annual trip to Las Vegas for the TGIF bowling league sweeps. We had decided to take the Corvette. Patrick had put four new tires on the car in late February to make sure we were set to go. We left the house about 8:00 in the morning and we were just flying down the road, as there wasn’t too much traffic. We were halfway between Barstow and Baker when we felt a vibration in the car, then the tail-tell signs of a flat. Oh man – let me tell you – not a good sound at about 90 miles an hour in the middle of no where. By the time we made it to the shoulder, we were both worried to look out the door to the possible damage.
Not to bad at 1st glance. We shredded the tire. God Bless cell phones. I got on the cell phone, called AAA to arrange for a flat bed tow truck. You see, the 2002 Z06 Corvette does not have room for a spare and did not come with runflats. Ugh. I then call around to America’s Tire to find a local store that could help us out. Not only does the car not come with a spare, the tire is one that you have to special order. I found an America’s Tire in Las Vegas. They would order the tire from the warehouse and it would be waiting for us. I then call AAA back to let them know we would need a tow truck drive that could take us all the way into Las Vegas. AAA tells me she is not sure the tow truck drive can cross state lines. When the guy got out to us (about 40 minutes later), he said not a problem.


He hooked the car up and we got a chauffeured drive the rest of the way into Vegas!! Since Patrick always buys the road hazard warranty, the new tire only cost us $61 (instead of the $500 the guy started to ring up)! It turns out that the air duct to the right rear break was also ripped up as part of the tire being destroyed. The man at America’s Tire said that should be covered by the road hazard. We will see what happens there.


While waiting for the tow truck driver, I realized I had to go to the bathroom. Umm – kind of badly. So I went up and over the burm on the freeway and – umm – left some DNA behind. (I hope there have been no murders in the area) Patrick’s favorite part of the our story is – Tow truck driver = $50; New tire = $62; Susan peaing in the desert = priceless!!

A 3 – 3.5 hour drive turned into an 8 hour trip into town.

As far as bowling – I didn’t do too badly. I came in 2nd place woman’s overall and cashed at $245!! Not great but it beats a poke in the eye!

I also went out to Frannie’s house for her baby shower on Saturday night. She got some nice stuff. Ladies – please remember this. I hate baby showers. I love to buy you a present. I made Franny’s new little baby a bear quilt (that I hear her sisters already love) and I got her a couple of new outfits (one that Frannie said the baby may come home from the hospital in), but I hate showers. I don’t want to play silly games. I don’t want to eat. Let’s open presents and ohh and ahh over all the cute stuff, have cake and go home! Ok maybe it’s just me that is the party pooper. (oh yea – Alex , aka chunk, Franny’s son loves to say poop! I tried to teach him to say vomit!! LOL)

Happy Birthday Arianna Layout

In my last post I mentioned that Urban Anthology was having a Design Star contest going on. I am playing along just for fun. Here is my layout based on the sketch provided.

Urban Anthology's Design Star Search

Check out Urban Anthology's lastest Design Star Search! You can see all the details on the UA blog.

They also have posted pictures of the April kit entitiled C'mon Get Happy - you can check out more pictures on their blog. The kit is filled with all sorts of happy goodness!