Tour of California - WE ARE VIP'S!!!

Yes, we have credentials!!!

Can I hear a huge "WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!?" The 4th Tour of California is in already heading down the coast right toward Escondido for the final stage, the highest mountain stage of the history of the Tour, and US IN THE VIP TENT AT THE FINISH LINE!!! Fully catered, open bar, live feed of the race on a big screen TV... I still can't believe we are going to be there! For those of you that follow professional cycling, you know what an INCREDIBLE race this is... first race for Lance Armstrong since coming out of retirement, Floyd Landis' first race after his 2-year suspension, Tyler Hamilton is back, team Astana is ROCKING (can't wait to see them race in France in July!)... The field racing here in California is soooooo strong... pretty much all the big names and teams are HERE!!! It has been a great race so far... weather, not so good... crashes... yep even Lance and Levi have gone down already... attacks... sprint finishes... and Levi in yellow!!!

The final stage will pass right by our house and although we won't be there with our neighbors to cheer on the riders, we have several friends taking pictures of the live race while we party like rock stars at the finish line! Hope you have a GREAT day!!!!

Princess Anna, Princess Catalina and Sir Robbie's Valentine's Day Party

The kids have been asking to dress up for school, so we thought a "Royal Tea Party" would be a lot of fun to celebrate Valentine's Day. As always, Miss Penny did a wonderful job putting together the lesson plan and party to include painting with marbles, making Valentine mail boxes, special Valentines for the Daddy's (shhh, that is a secret!), special gifts for the kids and a lovely tea party with the most beautiful cupcakes! You ROCK, Miss Penny! Make it a GREAT day!!!

FREAK Storm in Escondido... "Snow" and Flooding!

Looks like we live next to a river... No, we live on a corner... there are supposed to be streets and sidewalks under there...

Our poor tropical plants... don't know how they will handle this weather, but they sure are beautiful backdrops for the hail!

WOW!!! Living in San Diego county, our typical weather is... well... typical! Perfect weather most of the time, cooler weather and a few rain drops in the winter, followed by more perfect weather... Even when we are on (Da, Da, Da) "STORM WATCH," we may get some sprinkling with a few minutes of rain, and the storm is over. Which explains why we are in such a serious drought...

So... we have had a pretty decent weather system come through in the past 24 hours (decent for us... nothing compared to what you get back east!). It had been dry for about 5 hours and there was even some blue in the sky. When all of a sudden, this black cloud comes out of nowhere and the sky started falling!!! It started POURING and a few minutes later it started HAILING... WHAT!? Then it started flooding... hailing, rain, and flooding... all the neighbors started gathering outside, hooting and cheering... the boys started talking about "tubeing" down the street... the storm was so fast and so unusual that we were all stunned! Within about 10 minutes, you couldn't see the street anymore... it was one big river. Trash cans started floating down the street... heck, there were currents in the water in the street! It lasted a good 25 minutes or so and it was AWESOME!!! And it was FREEZING... seriously... I was out there in my bare feet taking pictures when my feet started freezing... this is San Diego, what is that about!? The water level came up so fast, we did have a bit of flooding in our office and garage, but all is fine... flooding in the house... SO WEIRD! Jeff, Anna and I had an impromptu "snowball fight"... what a COOL STORM!!! It is starting to cloud up again... can't wait to see if there is more!!! WOO HOO!!!

It sure does look like snow, doesn't it!? :-)

These are not the small, green waste trash cans floating down the street... they are the huge HEAVY cans!!!

Jeff loves "tree" pictures, so I had to take this one of our front median... with a pile of "snow"... where our driveway used to be...

Yes, we have deep curbs, but a current in the river in the street!? CRAZY!!!

I thought this was a cool picture of the "snow" on our grass.

Our neighbors (Hi, Tom and Sandy!) celebrating this AWESOME weather!!! Looks like it is snowing to me!!!

YEP... More Scrapping...

Another layout that I had fun with... 12 x 12 cardboard, Rusty Pickle, and Prima... loving this layout with Daddy and Anna at the park... I cut a 12 x 12 out of cardboard, distressed, inked, and started creating!!! "Swing, Daddy, Swing..." Have a GREAT day!!!

I FINALLY SCRAPPED!!!

I have been soooooo busy (as you can see below), but I finally had a chance to scrap! (Yes, I missed Chris' game tonight, but THEY WON... AND I got some scrapping done!) Here are two layouts with Rusty Pickle... "Yes We Can" is about our Homeschool Preschool... Yes, we can educate our own kids and get them ready for Kindergarten without paying thousands of dollars! "Sweet" is a cute layout using the "Pop Star" line and lots of flowers... my two girls at church on Christmas Eve! Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

Rusty Pickle CHA Peak...

"Panama Jack" Loving this color combination!

HOLY COW!!! I seriously can not BELIEVE how AWESOME the new Rusty Pickle lines are!!! Of course, I love all things Rusty Pickle, but these new lines are some of my all time favorites!!! Hope you enjoy this sneak peak into the new product... to be hitting your favorite scrapbooking store SHORTLY!

"Time Captured" Perfect for weddings, graduation or home decor projects!

"NEW Lucky" line additions. More papers for one of my FAVORITE lines!! Woo Hoo!

"Rockin America" GREAT patriotic line... I will be using this for the OGHS Patriot layouts for sure!

"Funny Bunny" Spring is coming and these papers are perfect for Easter, little boy or girl, or anything fun and new!

Next is "Rock Angel..." "Pirate Princess meets "Brass Knuckles!"

"Mood Swings" Can you say Rusty Pickle shaped cardstock...? :-)

Yep! New chipboard albums!

There are also new t-shirts and TRACKIES AND HOODIES!!! Care to scrap in your own Rusty Pickle OUTFIT! WOOOO HOOOO!!! Hope you enjoyed the peak! Have a GREAT day!

OGHS Basketball, SPHS Cheer... What a Week!

Alright... to clear up any confusion, my son, Chris, is a student and athlete at OGHS... his girlfriend is Nicola who is a student and cheerleader at SPHS. Yes, the schools might be cross town rivals, but in this house we can support both. This week we had THREE Varsity basketball games... Ramona, Valley Center and Escondido. Looks like Chris found his mojo and is putting up some great points and great defense... like the 3-point basket below... SWISH! Anna had more fun cheering and playing with (or should I say flirting with) little Peyton Plash (son of the head Varsity football coach and the cheer coach at OGHS!) Peyton and Anna are the cutest things ever... her in the cheer uniform... him in the t-shirt that says, "OGHS Football... the FUTURE!" TOO CUTE! Jessica was down for the weekend and attended two of the games to support her alma matter. Check out her cool new glasses!
Sunday, we spent the day in Long Beach to support Nicola and the SPHS Cheerleaders at a competition. I just love going to competitions and SPHS is AWESOME!!! They tumble, jump, throw, dance... just FANTASTIC!!! And Nicola... WOW! Her pike jump... SERIOUSLY!!! She is like a pancake in the air!!! YOU ROCK, GIRL! (Yes, I admit, I am a bit of a proud "adoped Mama!") The SPHS parents thought it was really cool that we were there to support Nicola and their team... we thought it was really cool that we were invited to the event and to lunch at GameWorks with the team! At the end of the day, we are all parents in the city of Escondido and we all support our kids... no matter what school they go to, WE ALL support OUR kids! Although the team didn't place like they should have (in my opinion they were robbed!), they have already qualified for Nationals... I told you... they are REALLY GOOD! Have a GREAT day!!!

Visit to our Preschool...

2009... the year that Anna and Catalina will start Kindergarten (excuse me while I wipe away the tears...) I can't believe our little girls have grown up so fast!!! We are back to our homeschool preschool after a few weeks off for the holidays. Today the kids learned about "Winter and Snow"... not exactly 2 things they are familiar with since it was 80 degrees here in San Diego today! Penny taught today and, can I just say that she is BRILLIANT! She started her lesson by having the kids hold cotton balls over a fan... of course, the cotton balls flew EVERYWHERE... the kids LOVED it and were excited to learn about snow! We also have new dry erase boards for each of the kids... so much easier to work on their letters and spelling!!! We did some finger painting, did a few parachute games, read a story, made birdfeeders with pinecones, peanut butter and seed and did ballet. What a great day! Finally, I had to get some new pics of "Big Boy Robbie!" He is the BEST model!!! Off to scrap... yes, SCRAP! WOO HOOOO!!

OGHS Basketball, Anna the Cheerleader, and Final Christmas Decor

Tuesday night was our first Varsity Basketball league game and WE WON!!! GO OGHS PATRIOTS!!! It was also our first game with the new Nikon D80 and we are LOVING the new camera! We are getting shots that we never caught with the D50 and once we actually read the manual and know what we are doing... watch out!!! Here are a few shots... Chris warming up and the newest little OGHS Cheerleader, Anna Banana!! (She was the cutest little thing EVER! Can't wait until little Cami and Justice cheer on the floor with her!!!)

Finally, I wanted to share our newest (and my favorite) Christmas decoration. I had to post this after seeing what friend Noel Culbertson did above her dinning room table, AND... NO... we did not copy her! Just goes to show that great minds think alike... although, I am going to add to our display with more hanging ornaments like she did... next year... :-) You can see Noel's decor above her dinning table here. We cut this branch off a tree in our backyard and Jeff stripped it down. Jeff hung it from the ceiling with copper wire and then I tied the ornaments and lanterns on with the ribbon. It is centered over our dinning room table and I LOVE IT!!! Have a great day!!!

Scrapbooking.com Studio Article and Best of 2008... WOO HOO!

As I finish catching up with email and putting away the Christmas decorations, there are two fun things I wanted to share with you!

Scrapbooking.com Magazine: "Scrap Space on a Budget" My latest article for Scrapbooking.com Magazine was published in this month's issue. The article has pictures and details about my new INDOOR Scrap Studio that Jeff built with such love and care! This room is also our guest room and it all works very well together! Ms. Jami Peterson (editor) also published an email I sent her in her Letter from the Editor... (Love ya, Jami!)

ScrapScene Best of 2008!!! I was a Guest Author for ScrapScene back in September. I wrote an article called, "Tips for Design Team Auditions." It also linked back to an article I wrote for Scrapbooking.com Magazine about my Cosmo Cricket Design Team audition this summer. Yesterday, I came apart at the seams when I saw my article was listed as #1 "Best of 2008"!!! It is pretty obvious that I love to write (did you read my "Livestrong Story" post from December 17th?), so I am just tickled that my article was so well received!!! Thanks to friends Beckie Dreyer, Kathie Davis and Becky Chabot for their additions to the article!

Looks like 2009 is turning into a fun year already!!! I have a few posts to get going... so I'll see you soon!!!