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Monday, July 5, 2010

Love Long Weekends & My First ScrapTiffany Challenge

I took Friday off so we could have a nice long weekend, filled with family time and lots of cooking and grilling.  So I stayed up late Thursday night finishing up my first ScrapTiffany challenge.  This week's challenge is Self Portraits.  There are 18 ladies on the design team, so the DT reveal's are on Monday and Friday.  Mine is up today, so I can share it here.  I like to do pages like this a couple of times a year and it had been a while since my last one.

Making Me Happy Now

On Thursday this week I will be hosting Thrifty Thursday over on the ScrapTiffany blog, so make sure you check it out.

We started off Friday with a quick breakfast out at Mimi's and then headed to the new SeaLife Aquariam at Arizona Mills.  It was crowded but it didn't matter too much.  Nicholas had fun and even touched some starfish.  We got an annual pass so we could go back several times.  If you live locally, it is probably the better way to go.  It is kind of pricey to just go for the day. It only takes about an hour to walk through one time.









We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe then headed back home for the afternoon.  I finished up The Short Life of Bree Tanner, (the Twilight novella) that afternoon.  Mike's been doing all the cooking lately, so it was my turn.

I took this....



And made this....Smoked Salmon Pasta,Tomato Bread Salad and garlic cheese bread.



The salad is definitely going to be a repeat recipe.  The salmon pasta on the other hand was just okay.  Just as I was about done making dinner, we heard a horrible noise coming from one of the A/C units.  So we had to shut it down and got to sleep in a warm room (thank goodness for ceiling fans and more than one air unit, or it would have been the couch again).

On Saturday Mike made us pancakes for breakfast.  Nicholas and I went to see Toy Story 3.  He fell asleep half way through and I cried like a baby at the end.  On the way home from the movies Mike called with the news that the compressor had gone out on the A/C, at the price tag of $2K.  So we are now up to $4K in the past month in A/C repairs. If it would have all blown out at once we could have replaced the unit for $5K.  So hopefully the A/C gods will be nice to us the rest of this summer and we can budget to start replacing our units next year.  You would think you shouldn't have to replace your A/C units after only 5 years, but I have concluded that Carrier stinks (and that is the G rated version).

Mike grilled us steak, asparagus and pineapple for dinner Saturday night and I conked out early that night after starting a new book.



The 4th for us was spent at home making breakfast, swimming, making cheesecake, grilling hot dogs and potatoes and playing outside in the evening.











I also kicked off my new scrapbook organization blog - Michelle's Scrapbook Studio.  I am starting off with a tour of my room and features on how I organize my stuff.  After that I plan to feature organization tips for organizing our creative spaces.

After a quick bath for the boys, we finished up our 4th by watching the fireworks from a nearby park (Tumbleweed) out on the greenbelt across the street from our house. It was great to avoid the crowds. It was a quick walk home afterwards, which was a good thing, since Nicholas fell asleep during the fireworks and I had to carry him home to bed.  Mike and I had the chocolate chip cheesecake I made for dessert and again I crashed pretty early.



This ended up being the best fireworks shot.

Of course at the end when I was trying to get a good picture of the finale two cars parked down the street from us to watch too, and left their headlights on facing us.  Thanks neighbors! :)-

Today we slept in, me after waking up at 3:30 a.m. and not going back to sleep until well after 5:00 a.m..  We had made a breakfast casserole last night, so breakfast was easy and we spent the rest of the morning in the pool.






This afternoon I was tackling scanning of a bunch of old photo's from my mom's boxes.  It's fun to look at so many of those old pictures. I think I spent the age of 3 with my mouth open, because I found several pictures where I looked like this.



Tonght Mike grilled steak tacos topped with his yummy Pico de Gallo (which ended up way too hot for me this time) served with a tomato, corn and avocado salad.

 

Now that I have to go back to work tomorrow, I wish I had one more day.

Michelle's Scrapbook Studio: Scrapbook Studio - Around the Room - Part 2

Part 2 has been posted...check it out here....

Michelle's Scrapbook Studio: Scrapbook Studio - Around the Room - Part 2: "Hello! Welcome to Part 2 of this 10 Part Series on where I create and how I keep it organized. Today I am going to take you around the roo..."

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Michelle's Scrapbook Studio: Scrapbook Studio - Evolution of a Scrapbook Studio...

I started a new blog to talk about Scrapbook Organization. I am kicking it off with a 10 part series on my Scrapbook Studio and how I have organized my tools and supplies.

Find it here...Michelle's Scrapbook Studio

Michelle's Scrapbook Studio: Scrapbook Studio - Evolution of a Scrapbook Studio...: "Welcome to my 10-part series on how my scrap room has transformed into where it is today. Over the next 10 days, I am hoping to share some ..."

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Halfway there....

...to my 4 day weekend that is.  Work is busy this week.  Internal audit is visiting and our air conditioning went out (again) yesterday.  We had to sleep on the couch in the basement last night to keep cool.  Our bedroom was a stifling 85 degrees with the fan blowing full blast.  That doesn't make me happy, it makes me cranky...those poor auditors. :).

Air was fixed today so back in my own bed and a comfy weekend at home is planned trying out some new recipes.  Saturday we made this Smoked Salmon Pizza it was so yummy....



Nicholas and Jackson are playing pretty well together now....well maybe too well.  On sunday, after several minutes of very loud noise and a closed bedroom door we walked into Jackson's room and found this....





Trouble with a big fat capital T, I tell you...

Also on Sunday, Mike pointed out I had not updated our family room banner.  It still said Spring from one I made a couple of months ago.  We were having the family over for dinner Sunday evening, so I had an hour or so and whipped this one out.  Not super fancy but I love the colors of the Echo Park Paper Sweet Summertime line.  Mixed with some Sassafras whimsies and banner stickers, a few Making Memories glitter stars, ribbon from Michaels, a few punches and Studio Calico Carter and Storytime alphabet stamps and Stamps of Life  stamps I whipped this up in no time. We now have a Summer banner....









Saturday, June 26, 2010

Love Saturdays....

We got up a little after 5:00 this morning so Mike could do some cleaning up outside (you have to when it is going to be well over 100 degrees).  So I was able to get up and have a quiet Saturday morning with my coffee and computer before the kiddos got up.

I worked on Operation Organize the House and cleaned out my bedroom drawers and bathroom cabinets, stuffing a huge bag full of clothes to give away and another with expired stuff to throw out.  The rest of the day was spent doing exactly what I hoped...relaxing.  I took a nap (a rarity for me anymore), scrapped a bit and planned my shopping list for the Studio Calico reveal tomorrow.

I did this layout using the Studio Calico Partly Sunny June kit/add-on's plus an additional coordinating We R Memory Keepers paper.  I had done a similar page about Nicholas a little while ago so I wanted to do an "alphabet journaling" page for Jackson, too. It worked great to do an 18 month page for him.  I found this 6x6 alphabet section on the backside of the polka-dot WRMK paper and the page was born.  And I love, love, love the stamps from this SC kit too.

Jackson is...



Salmon Pizza is baking in the oven and the boys are eating bagel cheese pizzas (because no matter what time we plan dinner they want to eat earlier.)  Looking forward to some more scrapping tonight after the kiddos are in bed.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Can't wait for the weekend....and weekend plans

After being gone last weekend, I can't wait to be home this weekend and get some relaxation and scrap time.  This morning I had to whip up a birthday card for a friend, the leftover scraps from the May Mosh-Posh kit were perfect:



This weekend I'm looking forward to:

Starting Camp Scrap at Big Picture Scrapbooking and digging into that this weekend.  

Ordering my Studio Calico July kit add-on's (OMG the add on's this month are unbelievable)

Dinner to celebrate the Arizona dad's on Sunday night.

My light potato salad for said dinner.



A quiet Saturday morning before the kiddos wake up drinking coffee from the new Kreuig coffee maker



Hoping the Kindle I ordered today (at the new lower price) gets here this weekend so I can get it set up for some books I want to read.






Working on my 1st challenge for ScrapTiffany that will debut the first week of July.

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The good old days....

I love Facebook.

I had been looking at old pictures from high school this past weekend and I came across pictures of me with one of my best high school friends that I have lost touch with.  We were pretty inseparable during the last couple of years of high school.

She moved away to live with her mom before we finished high school  We saw each other when we could for a while, but back in those days we didn't have e-mail, internet or free long distance on cell phones (we didn't have cell phones!) so it was good old fashioned letters that we had to write to keep in touch.  We did that for a while, but I am sure life got us busy and we lost touch.

Every time I came across these pictures over the years I wondered where she was and what happened to her.  And along comes Facebook and there she is.  The thing I love about Facebook is we are all busy in our everyday lives but it only takes a little bit of time throughout the week to keep in touch.

Some random Friday night during football season....1987


Probably during a water polo game.  Our high school team was great and the cheerleaders didn't miss a match.


And I have to love the 80's hair here (especially mine, what was UP with that?)  I think this was after high school when I went down to visit Holly at her mom's house and we went out dancing at a club.


Nice to reconnect with old friends.