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!!