Greeting Cards!!

Here are a few of the card's that I've made over the past 2 months in my class. I just love making these. Of course my demonstrator provides all the pretty paper, punches, inks, and stamps. I'm still building my inventory, but I'm getting there slow but sure. It is actually much better seeing them in person because some have glitter and dimension that you can't always see in the photos. Sorry, a couple of the pictures are turned the wrong way when I imported them and couldn't get them to turn the right way.

Logan and Bentley Ready for Halloween

Can these two get any cuter?!?!?! This is our neighbor Logan and of course Codi's boyfriend Bentley. Logan was the cowboy in town and Bentley was the Indian. Philippa made their outfits... too cute.

We Had So Much Fun with Paula & Whitney!!

Paula & I have been long time best friends from high school and I just love her and her family. In fact, I have always called her parents my "second" parents and try to visit them whenever I'm in Arizona. Paula & Whitney live in Oregon and this was their first visit to our home in Lincoln, so we were excited for them to stay with us. The guys went golfing for two days while the girls did girly things, like shopping and going to a scrapbook convention.

This is Paula's parents, Leo & Barbara... my second set of parents.

We enjoyed a great lunch at Red Robin with the deep fried onion ring tower and the unlimited french fries... it's time for a diet!!

Of course we had to go shopping in Old Town Sacramento. We were checking out the sunglasses and purses here.

Paula knows that I'm into scrapbooking and card making and she wanted to bring a gift to me related to that but she didn't know what to get. So she called her sister Kathie who is also into scrapbooking. Kathie said she had the perfect idea... so they made it happen.

Here's how the story goes, but I didn't know it at the time I opened the gift. Kathie bought a Cricut machine (which is an electronic cutter for home crafting that can cut beautiful designs and alphabets for card making and scrapbooking) a while back, but she never used it. She went out and bought a bigger and better one, therefore had no use for the first machine she bought. Kathie told Paula that I would love it and that she wants me to have it.

Here I am opening this big box wondering what in the heck was in it. To my shock and surprise was this brand new Cricut with all the accessories. I just didn't understand and I kept asking Paula why she was giving it to me. This is NOT a gift that you bring to someone just because they're staying at your house for a few days!!! She explained the whole story to me so I could understand why she gave such a generous and thoughtful gift. I'm still in shock over the whole thing!! Of course I thanked Paula profusely and I called Kathie right away to personally thank her for her generosity.

Here I am in SHOCK!!
Then came the tears of thanks and joy.

Here is Kathie... one of the most generous people I have the privilege to know. The other one is Paula.

Whitney & Paula

We spent lots of time playing pool and had a ton of fun. We just love our pool table!


I guess this is Hank's way of beating the opponent... cover his eyes (cheater).

For those of you that know billiards, this is a really crappy set up. So glad it wasn't my turn!!

Whitney and I are doing the Woohoo dance. That's good for making the shot.

The Woohoo dance in motion (sorry it's turned the wrong way)

Paula's brother Mark lives about 40 minutes from us and he graciously invited all of us over for dinner one night.

And here's a beautiful rainbow in front of Mark's house right after a rain shower.

It's always hard to say goodbye to our good friends. Thanks for coming to visit us!!

We Love Babysitting Our Grandkids... So Much Fun!!

Our grandkids caregiver went on a 2 week vacation... good for her! So we wanted to help out our kids by babysitting Charlie & Lizzy during the day while their parents worked... so that's just what we did. In early October we spent 5 days in San Jose caring for the kids, bringing Charlie to school, and playing with them. It was fun... except the part when we had to get up very early early every morning! The first morning we were up at 5:30, got dressed, made the bed, made breakfast and figured out lunches. By the fifth day we weren't so enthusiastic... LOL.

Lizzy loves Codi so much and she follows her around and pets her all the time.


The kids had a great time at the park. They got lots of exercise playing on the jungle gyms and running up and down the hill.

Lizzy thought she was hot stuff trying to ride her brothers old bike.

Oh how cute... Charlie was picking flowers for Vovo.

Charlie wore himself out running up and down the hills a gazillion times! Check out this video.

Charlie and Vovo spent lots of time in his play room making "stuff" like a Halloween frame, Play Doh creations, doing puzzles and playing games and cards.

Here's the finished product; made especially for Mommy.

Although Halloween was still about 3 weeks away, Pami wanted to let the kids try on their costumes to ensure they fit properly. The children, especially Charlie, were SO EXCITED. Charlie did not know until this moment that he was going to be Optimus Prime and I caught his excitement. For those of you that don't know OP, it's a character from Transformers. That's all Charlie talks about is Optimus Prime.

Lizzy as Snow White

Guess who...

My Uncle Jim & Auntie Jean

I visited my Aunt & Uncle on September 22nd and we had a very nice visit. I try and visit them when I'm in the Bay Area. Check this out... my Auntie Jean is in her early 80's and she just got a computer 2 years ago and loves the communication with emails, YouTube, jokes and much more. She catches on to everything so quickly. She got a Wii 2 months ago and she loves it!!!! She uses the workout programs every day and her flexibility and endurance have increased a bunch... she is just so cute!!