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!

You’ve Got a Ticket to Ri-ide!

For Christmas, my brother received this new to us game called Ticket to Ride… Europe.  We have since played it 27 times and are loving it.  We loved it so much that we ordered Ticket to Ride North America for my husband for his birthday… which is Feb. 3rd, but we gave it to him within 20 minutes of it arriving at our door.  We wanted to make sure he got it before he leaves tomorrow for three days.  (We’re so thoughtful!)

Anyway, the game is a good mix of Settlers of Catan (building roads vs. building train routes), Risk (conquering the world) and Pit (collecting matching cards without the swapping of cards).  The North American version, I believe, came out first.  It is the dumbed-down version without all the bells and whistles of Europe.  In N.A. if you don’t get to a train route first, you’re outta luck and have to find another round-about way to get there.  In Europe, you simply put down a train station and use the other person’s route…. for a price, of course.

There are a few other versions of Ticket to Ride, as well as some expansion packs.  The game industry has truly figured out how to milk the most money out of us as possible…. expansion packs… GAH!  And at $20-25 each!  AFTER you paid $50 for the game.  They are unfairly using families like ours, who are totally game addicts, by limiting the number of players in the original game….. and then selling expansion packs.  And we fall into the trap EVERY time!

We invited friends over to play Europe and we played two games right in a row!  They called us the next day and asked if we wanted to come over and play again.  They went out and bought it the next day!  See!?!  Good game!  It’s set up on our dining room table if you want to pop by and give it a whirl.  Yes, we’re studying the Middle Ages, so if we play the Europe version, it counts as school!

Bed Sweet Bed

There’s nothing quite as inviting as your own bed.  Can I hear an amen?  Not that the beds up at Scrapping in the Pines were that bad… I simply didn’t lie down in them quite long enough to feel rested.  I slept last night from 9:30 PM to 8:15 AM and am feeling much more alert now.  When I arrived home last night to free Chipotle burritos… which I declined… and an invitation for a family game of Settlers of Catan… which I also declined.  SEE?  I was a bit tired.

Today I had a rude awakening when I realized February is over in one week.  YIKES!  Where did this month go? I have quite a long TO-DO list for my book that I’m supposed to have done on April 3rd.  I’m afraid My Sister’s Jar may turn into an every other day event as I am strapped to the computer chair with humorous and not so humorous marriage stories running amuck in my mind.  Nothing like a deadline to start the fire in the basement.

OH, minor adoption news posting today:  www.zazasmama.wordpress.com

Make it a great week!

Tahoe News from 6,225 Feet

The fires in Yosemite are still burning but the wind has shifted and we saw Lake Tahoe again today… even the east shore.  We aren’t feeling quite as “smoked” today and ventured out in the boat.  We dragged the kids around on a tube, which is really a game for the boat driver…. not the tube rider.  Figure eights make me laugh…. hard.  Well, when I’m not on the tube.  Every single blinkin’ time I ride in a boat on a lake I’m transported back to my teen years and water skiing on Anderson Reservoir above Morgan Hill, CA.  We always ate Arby’s beef n’ cheddars before we went and chewed wads of Hubba Bubba on the way.  It revives my dream of having a boat and teaching all of our kids to water ski.  I’m sure it kept me out of trouble… as it will them.  Some day.

Bags for Zaza has FIVE new bags posted this week raising funds for our adoption.  There is a darling pink surprise that was made from a NEW pattern.  Nothing but surprises over there.  www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com.  And how is THAT news from Tahoe, you ask???  I got three bags cut out yesterday AT Lake Tahoe for next week.  And I was going to be all creative and make an animal print bag next week, but Jennie beat me to it and posted one yesterday.  It makes you want to roar and fluff your mane.  Check it out.

The Shack.  I’m fighting my way through the book.  I’m having a hard time with God being a fat black woman.  But my sister tells me that the guy in the story, Mack, had a problem with a white grandfatherly God, so she’s black and all that.  I’m drawn back to the book over and over, in hopes that it will grab my interest in another way.  My detailed book report with a ___ out of 10 star rating will follow.  Right now it’s leaning toward 3.  He does have flowery, imaginative verbiage, but the split infinitives are driving me crazy.  My apologies to W.P. Young. 

We head home tomorrow.  It’s sad, I know.  However the week was jammed full of the Settlers of Catan game that has become a new family fav.  Seriously, with two games in the house we probably played at least ten times.  I think what makes the game so enthralling is that it is different every single time.  The game board changes.  The shortage of building supplies changes.  The probability of the numbers being rolled on the dice changes every time, yet we still place out settlements according to the red numbers of high chances.  I think were grasping at an unattainable reality, but hey, it’s FUN!

The Settlers of Catan

I have a new favorite game… Settlers of Catan.  We played it today for the first time with our friends, Chris and her husband.  It’s part Risk, part Pit, part Monopoly, part building blocks, mostly fun.  I did not win, in case you were wondering if I only liked the game because of a sweet victory.  Nada.  Chris’ husband didn’t explain ALL the rules until the last few moments of the game…. but I’m not bitter.  At all.  I might even be able to say his name tomorrow, or the next day.  I hear you can play it online too, but I haven’t checked it out.

Aaaaaaaand, I officially joined the ever-expanding sewing team at BFZ (Bags for Zaza) and almost finished my first bag tonight.  Can’t wait to show you.  Please stand by.   See the deal:  http://bagsforzaza.blogspot.com/