Happy 18 Years!

As of this past week, we have lived in the USA for 18 long years. Here’s the update on the past 216 months.

We came from Canada with two kids, ages four months and three years. Now we have four kids ages: 21, 18, 16 and 11.

We have lived in five places since arriving: one month at my parent’s house, 16 months in an apartment, 6 years in our first house, 6 months in a rental house and now almost 10 years in our current house.

Our eldest went to a charter school for kindergarten and grade one. We are in the middle of our 14th year of homeschooling. Now our eldest is a junior in college.

Rick has worked in credit card processing, flying for FedEx, had a janitorial business, a bug business and has been flying for the State of AZ for 14 years now.

We went to our first church for 18 months and then helped start a sister church where we attended for 11 years. We have been at our current church for five years five months.

I have been heading up to Prescott for scrapbooking retreats for 17 years.… but now they are just relaxing retreats.

We have been serving on the board of Arizona Families for Home Education for 4 1/2 years.

We love Arizona, but we do try to be gone for 3-6 weeks every summer. :o)

First Time EVER!

(Image scraplifted from: http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/2009/07/handmade-card-tutorial_30.html )

Yes, it’s that time of year again…. Scrapping in the Pines, our bi-annual scrapbooking retreat for four days in the cool pine-covered mountains of Prescott, Arizona.  There are seven of us going….. but this time I’m packing GAMES!  Yes, you read that right… GAMES!  Yahtzee, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, 13 and Carcasonne!  We’ve never played games in Prescott! And movies, but we always take movies!

AND… please make sure you’re seated for this announcement… I’m not scrapbooking at Scrapping in the Pines!  I know!  Unbelievable.  I am making cards this trip.  I’m always a bit envious of my sister’s beautiful handmade cards that arrive in our mailbox several times a year.  Mine are usually handmade by a little Asian woman and purchased in a big box at Costco.  But after my third box of that type…. I have LOTS of baby and sympathy cards… but I’m fresh out of birthday cards … AGAIN  Enough! 

I scooted into Barnes & Noble tonight and bought a card making magazine….it cost as much as buying five cards at Hallmark, but it will be worth it’s weight in gold when I’m done.  All of my scrapping patterned paper, ribbons, buttons, eyelets, lace, trim, glitter, flowers and such will be making the journey.  Along with blank cards and envelopes.  I also resurrected the stamps, ink, embossing glitter, heat gun, and the metal embossing template!  What a blast from the past!  WAIT!  Inspiration just struck at this very moment… and you’re here to witness it first hand…. I can MAKE the envelopes!  Oh, sweet mother of baby Jesus, that is a great idea.  My aviator husband has all kinds of maps that will be perfect.  YES!

And so, it will be the first time EVER that this retreat should REALLY be called “Relaxing, Gaming and Crafting in the Pines.”  But we’re not changing the name after 15 years!

The Countdown has Begun!

As I sat writing all the family birthdays in my new Greece calendar, filled with cerulean seas, cobalt domes and whitewashed walls, I realized that the countdown to nights away from home has begun!  It’s 15!  I know some people have to travel for work, and they don’t love it, but I work/live/breathe/sleep/teach in the same four walls day in and day out.  No mistaking it, I love it… but time away from home brings joy to my globetrotting soul.  I have imagined that the perfect job for me would be to travel the world and write reviews of far off lands for future vacationers.

There is a night coming this month… only one night.. but still, I look forward to it with my hubby.  The first of March there are four glorious days marked on the calendar for Scrapping in the Pines with my girlfriends.  It is supposedly a scrapbooking retreat… but less and less scrapbooking is accomplished as the years go by.  It should probably be renamed Being Lazy in the Pines….   THAT is a true holiday….. no kids, no cooking, no bedtime, no cleaning, no agenda (other than posted mealtimes)… no wonder it calls my name every six months!  Last September we watched 8 or 9 movies!  Couch Potatoes unite!  It was sublime.

Rick and I endured one of those time-share sales pitches to “win” a free cruise… with some strings attached, of course.  But the strings are cheap cheap cheap for the eight-day trip.  I like bunk beds!  We are awaiting to see if it will be the Western Caribbean in March or Alaska in June.  I’m REALLY hoping for white beaches and not white whales…. but alas, it is also my husband’s 25th wedding anniversary… so I was the nice wife (not the crabby wife) and let him choose one destination.  He’s a true Canadian with ice in his veins.

Our annual trip to Lake Tahoe has moved to August this year…. which is fantastic for us living in Phoenix, right next door to hell in the summer.  And our son, who is cycling again after the broken arm the week before Christmas, has a couple of races that may require over-night stays… can you see how high my hand is raised to volunteer to escort him???  I feel some mother-son bonding around the corner.  I’ll wear whatever t-shirt they want me to!

So, school drudgery is laid to rest each time I peer at the highlighted days in my purse daytimer.  By the end of February the kids will be wondering why I keep taking the daytimer into the bathroom so often.  It’s my own version of Calgon.

It’s Darla’s Fault

Darla is my friend.  We have been friends since we had a combined total of four kids.  Now we have seven kids.  We have multiple similar addictions including, but not limited to: scrapbooking, collecting scrapbooking supplies, visiting voting booths with sick kids, decorating our kids’ rooms, making crafty decor items, killing centipedes, refinishing old furniture, playing games and finding BARGAINS! But most recently, she has led me to my current addiction: shopping at Goodwill on 50% off day.

It all started last summer in the dark of a Friday night when my phone rang.  It was Darla.  In her most sinister voice she asked if I would accompany her the following morning as an accomplice to score some goods.  I agreed.  She had been to Goodwill on Friday night and scoped out some dandy items for her girls’ rooms.  “Pre-shopping the sale” is what this is called. 

This was not a beauty pageant, in fact, I think she asked if I would at least brush my teeth before she picked me up in the get-away car at 0-dark-thirty.  Saturday morning, the alarm rang, I grabbed some sweats, brushed my teeth, found a hat and was out the door.  She looked a little worse than I did, as she had not found a hat.  Her red hair was sticking up a little more than usual.  Possibly it was a scare tactic.

As early as our arrival at the store was, 30 minutes prior to the doors opening, we were not the first people in the race for the 50% off pre-owned merchandise.  There were five people ahead of us.  Darla was eyeing up these early morning shoppers and she figured only one lady with a toddler might cause some grief. She was fairly determined that she could outrun (or trample) her on the way to the furniture section.  She carefully emptied her coffee cup in the bushes by the front door and secured her travel mug in her purse for the pending pursuit.

As we stood in line, Darla outlined the open door procedure for me in a hushed voice.  She had scoped out a shelf, a table and a crib mattress that she was determined to SCORE!  However, the furniture always goes fast, so if she took time to get a cart, one of her items might be grabbed by an offending shopper.  So, Darla instructed me to take her purse, as well as my own, and head straight for the carts.  I was to immediately drive to the furniture section at the far southeast corner of the store.  She would single-handedly seize all three items.

NINE O’CLOCK on the button the doors opened and the stampede began.  Darla was gone in a red-headed flurry.  With both purses encircling my arm, I acquired the first cart I found and bee-lined to the southeast corner.  Darla is good, baby.  Within 27 seconds, she captured the mattress, threw it on her desired table, clutched the shelf in both arms and sat on the mattress on top of the table.  Still makes me giggle thinking about it!  SWEET SUCCESS!  That toddler’s mother still doesn’t know what happened!

Even when Darla and I are off on scrapbooking retreats in Prescott, Arizona, we make sure we hit the Goodwill store on 50% day.  The deals are simply too good to pass up…. and after all, it’s now an addiction.  (I visited two stores this past Saturday…. 50% off day, baby!)

Lions and Lambs

If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.  I know this is supposed to be concerning the weather, but I’m hoping it also applies to our family stress level.  It is our turn in the big Farris wheel of life for the operator to stick the ride on super-high and leave us flinging through the air without any control of life’s circumstances.  We can barely catch our breath and our hair is in our eyes.

I haven’t blogged much lately because we are busy coping.  In the past week there have been several disturbances in the force.  We’ve had an Auntie pass away, another Auntie get run over by a car, a nephew desperately crying out for help, a bank error that caused hundreds of dollars to disappear from my account that required an investigation, my hubby in a three-car accident that totalled his car and the vacuum died.  But the vacuum dying was so much less significant because of the week it happened in.  We almost didn’t notice. 

My four-day scrapbooking retreat had been planned for over six months… on the exact weekend that God knew I needed a break from mothering and family news.  After hearing about my husband’s fender-bender, one of my scrapping friends asked if I was still going away for the trip.  OF COURSE!  Usually when on scrapbooking weekends, I get massive amounts of pages and photos done.  Not this past weekend.  On Friday I did nothing.  Nothing.  Well, I did patronize some stores up in the sleepy mountain town and I took in at least three movies.  I read my Bible and I sat in my chair.  It was sublime.

As you can imagine, I look forward to March going out like a lamb.  Not the lamb that is lost and bleating loudly for its mother.  Not Little Bo Peep’s sheep either.  The fluffy white lamb curled up in blissful peace next to Jesus’ manger.  Please, oh please.

Princess Album! (love!)

It’s finally done!  Nora’s Princess Crown acrylic album!  That only took me three years!  Here’s the original story from the scrapbook convention class that I took…. and was thoroughly disgusted with:  https://mysistersjar.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/pathetic-princess-crown-albums/

I went away for the past four days to a little cabin in the woods, way up in the mountains of Prescott, AZ to scrapbook with some friends.  There was snow on the ground and laughter on our lips.  We had a GREAT relaxing time.  We go twice a year and enjoy every minute of the freedom from being moms for one weekend.  We haul all of our scrapbooking materials in suburbans to the tiny cabin and create works of art for our family and friends.  This was my first time leaving Nora, so I called every day and got the report on how Papi was doing taking care of his little girl.  He passed. 

I only worked on two projects: Nora’s princess crown album and her “baby” book.  I scrapped all of the pictures that we have of her from when she was five years old.  I loved every minute of it and she beamed with delight as I showed her my masterpieces.  She did ask why I didn’t get more done.  Sheesh.  I didn’t tell her that I was busy watching movies without kids…. or eating without kids…. or sleeping the night through without kids…..  some day I will finish!

Blog-cation

That’s when I take a vacation from blogging.  But do not fear, it will only be for three days.  Yes, I get to escape the rigmarole of a homeschool mom and venture up to high country where the air is cool… for a SCRAPBOOKING retreat!  Itsda BEEEEST!  (That’s from Nacho Libre, in case you haven’t seen it yet.) 

I was apprehensive about going because I don’t get cell reception where we stay… and this IS September… the month we are getting our adoption referral call.  But I was informed a week ago that we had not been matched at that point, so the call will be after the 16th.  Relief!  I can scrap worry-free! (Relatively speaking.)

These retreats come twice a year, and with my current lifestyle and schedule, it is the only scrapping I get done any more.  So, I knew I would want a lovely scrapbook of Colombia to share with everyone, but we obviously don’t have the pictures yet.  That’s ok.  I’m putting together all the pages now and then I can slap the pictures in when we return. Muy bueno!

Upon dragging out my supplies and tools (and dusting them off) I realized I still have not finished out scrapbook of our 2007 trip back East.  There are only 3 or 4 more double page spreads and I’m done.  So that is going too. 

Enjoy the weekend!  I know I will.

W.O.W. (Wildflowers of Washington)

A photo tribute to the beautiful flora and fauna of the most northwestern State of the contiguous 48.  Never have I had the opportunity to capture so many of God’s creations… every color, well almost.  My favorite colors were all covered… and that’s all that really matters, right? I don’t pretend to know what all of these flowers are named, but I do know some of them…. having lived in the great Northwest.  Please help me out if you know any missing names. 

Yarrow:

Daisies, duh:  (and grass seed)

Foxgloves:

???:

Roses:

Different Roses:

Different Roses #3:

Bachelor Buttons:  (these were our wedding flowers!)

Columbine:

Not sure, but could be the flowers of blackberries??:

???:

Unknown to me, but the blue ones look similar to Lobelia, the white similar to Star Jasmine, and the little yellow ones are shaped like Violas.

Lilies:

There you have it.  See?!  I need to do a W.O.W. scrapbook album and give it to Rick so that he will have fond memories of our hiking in Washington.  Please, take time to smell the roses!

Vacation Saga #27

While soaking up the cool breezes at Lake Tahoe, I happened to go to mapquest to see how far away my sister’s house was from the Lake….. I was surprised to find that it was closer than my own home by more than 100 miles.  Yes, this is my sister of My Sister’s Jar fame.  My mind started scheming.  I mentioned to my vacationing, beard-growing husband that it would be cool to “run up to Washington” to see my sister’s family.  We figured out that if Rick took off two more days we could vacation for another WEEK!  (Gotta love the four-day work week!)

Long story short, Rick called in and they were able to get another pilot to cover his flights… so we drove to Vancouver, WA on Monday.  YEAH!  All of the people in the Northwest should be thanking us for coming and bringing the nice Phoenix weather with us!  Seriously, yesterday was their first day of summer!  They are all scorching at 82 degrees, but we are loving it.  It was 25 degrees hotter today at home. Makes me want to stay here until October.

(scrap-lifted photo)

To get the most of this non-Arizona weather, we attempted a hike to the Camas Lily Fields above Lakamas Lake yesterday.  I say attempted because among our two families, there was not one successful map reading soul.  A picture was even taken of the trail map so that I could eventually show the routes that we hiked and re-hiked to find the lily fields.  No one told us that they only bloom the week of Mother’s Day.  Sheesh.  I did capture a photo of every little blinkin’ bloom on the entire trail (partly to make my necessary heart-rate-in-the-danger-zone stops seem of the photo taking nature… and not the totally out-of-shape nature)… much to my speedy marching husband’s dismay.  He kept saying, “You know we’re not going to develop all these pictures, right?” Whatever.  I decided, while kneeling on the wet path getting the perfect picture of a purple and orange wildflower, that a Wildflowers of Washington (WOW) scrapbook was indeed in my future.  I might even give it to Rick for Christmas.  Plus, I have 75 free prints on snapfish right now.

I would be showing you some of the photos, but I did not bring the cord for my camera… and my techy brother-in-law doesn’t have the photo card capability on his treasured macs.   I didn’t even have the photo card in the camera when we started this adventure on June 9th. I bought a card at Walmart in Nevada… but it didn’t work.  I don’t really understand all the little letters printed on those tiny cards.  Eventually, I purchased the correct card and it is FULL of pictures that I wish I could share.  But no.

TaHoe cRafTiNg

Those who know me well, know that I love crafts and crafting and being crafty…. and craftsy.  Trying new projects brings joy to my soul.  So, my current new-to-me idea is soldered charms/ornaments.  A friend of mine shared a link to her friend’s etsy.com site where she sells these darling handmade trinkets.  See more at:  www.MyMelodieDesigns.com.

Not knowing how to create these little gems, I did what all craft-direction-needing minds do… I went to YouTube.  Yes, I found many instructional videos and made my shopping list.  Today, I’m off to JoAnn’s to get the booty… with coupons, of course.  For the first time ever, I’m glad I saved my glittery scrapbooking paper scraps from my Christmas albums.  Sweet!  I knew I’d eventually find a reason to use them!  It has presented itself, much to my liking.

This week I’m getting together with my highschool bosom friend, Connie.  We are known for trying new and uncharted waters when it comes to crafting.  In March we covered the antique chair with vintage quilts and green piping.  I can’t remember if I blogged about that, so here is the finished product:

I also can’t remember if I ever showed a pictures of our Macramé beach bags???  I made mine about 1/2 a day ahead of Connie and figured out that I should have made the flowers all smaller.  So her bag has tidy, neat flowers in little rows and doesn’t look as spread out as mine does.  Here’s mine:

In a few weeks I’ll post our finished product pictures!  Please stay tuned!