House remodel

Happy New Year to all....what are you doing this evening? I am going to my mom's to play games and eat-we get very competitive with the game thing. Hope you all stay safe. Have a fabulous new year.
I am posting a picture of my new bar area....and my kitchen if I can figure out how to post 2 pics..I am still working on the technology thing.

Christmas/Hanukkah

A couple of weeks ago we went to see the Christmas tree at Fashion Island. It is the biggest Christmas tree in the United States! Quite amazing to see...I wonder how they put it up? I would love to watch them put it up and decorate it. How many people does it take? Thought it would make a cute holiday card. Staying home for the holidays. I sure appreciate the time to sleep in and stay in my jammies if I want. It has been a long last couple of weeks! Happy Holidays!

Halloween 2007

Make a slide show, scrapbook, or ecard

Thanksgiving 2007

Make a slide show, scrapbook, or ecard

Cute pic...

Here is the Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday, Dev!

Well, a sad day. November 18th Devyn turned 8. We had an ice skating party with a snowflake theme-so as not to be "girly" for the boys we invited. Devyn was disappointed that her one "boyfriend" no-showed. I hate to tell her-this is the first of many to come.....we had a disappointing start. A handful of kids were sick and cancelled at the last minute-including my brother, sister-in-law and neice. Another friend had a grandma in the hospital...two friends ended up getting hurt. One knocked a tooth out on our trampoline when we got home to open presents. I pulled a muscle in my back. I am no spring chicken and some of the moms convinced me to go do some tricks. Guess I deserved it....Still, we had about 25 kids and parents skating. Go figure, we can't have one event that is drama-free in this household!

Tag, I'm it....

O.k. Illyse, I am going to kill you....I am NOT computer savvy. No idea how to "link" things. Since you tagged me, here are 7 random things about me:

1) I could live on Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt. My husband says it isn't a meal...but I disagree. Get a big one with three flavors and some granola....yummy!

2) I tap dance every Wednesday night to keep up with my daughter-and for exercise (I think I am pretty good if I do say so myself).

3) I have had 13 surgeries, the last being 2 open-heart surgeries in the past 4 years-hey, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.....right?

4) I ice skated for 17 years. At age 6 or 7 I skated on plastic squares in the middle of a mall to get business....(the ice rink was in the mall). The plastic dulled our blades so much that we had to get our blades sharpened almost every time we did it!

5) I was a crayon on a float for the City of Santa Ana and my mom was a clown. Speaking of floats, Disney wanted me to try out for their Christmas parade as Minnie on Ice Skates because I could skate and I am under 5 feet.....just barely.....I didn't do it. I was still competing at the time.

6) I went through an "I LOVE black" phase and would wear very little else. I HATED pink and any other pastels. My mom taunted me and told me I would have a daughter and that she would LOVE pink. She was right. But I like pink now :)

7) I have no one to tag---all of my scrappy friends have been tagged. Most of my friends don't scrap. They claim they don't have the time. Who "has the time"??????

It has been fun Illyse.....if I can think of someone else to tag, I will. But most of my friends haven't even been on my blog, let alone started a blog......Heather

It's demo time...

So, we are in the midst of re-doing a good portion of our house. The kitchen was torn out this week. Kind of scary. I am not much of a cook but I really miss my kitchen. The bar was ripped out too! SO, I come in the house and want to put my purse down but I just throw it on the floor. Not a single place to put it! The dining room and living room are covered with the contents of our kitchen! Oh, save me from countless take-out meals. My husband took some "before" shots-I will post them. I will keep you in suspense for the "after" shots.....But we are getting an 8 foot island with granite counters and the bar will look awesome (I hope) with lighted cabinets and a wine rack!!! I will just dream of the finished product.....

Sleeping With the Bears

Sept. 12, 2007

O.k.....so I am a little behind. School(teaching) has started back for me and I am not too happy. Thought I would post a funny picture-Devyn after camping out on the field at school. Her school had a campout with 100 families on a Friday night. It was a great idea-and well organized-had I gotten any sleep!!! The man sleeping in the tent behind us snored all night long. I thought there was a bear behind us! I thought I was well-prepard and had taken a sleeping pill. But that didn't even help. I had just fallen asleep when Ron woke me to tell me he was going home to sleep-it was 2 a.m......then I really couldn't sleep. Here was what we did at the event: Friday night they served El Pollo Loco, we played games, and ate S'mores. We weren't allowed to actually have fire pits (safety issue), so the S'mores came in a bag. My daughter talked me into a kids against parents soccer game. It was myself and 4 dads-versus about 20 kids! They just kept coming. I was dying.....couldn't give up though because my daughter kept telling her friends "that is my mom over there". I ended up with a pulled groin muscle and a sore ankle the next morning. Let me just say, in all of my life I was NEVER on a soccer team and I am NO spring chicken. In the morning, we hiked up to Robber's Peak (not me though-I was dying...) and then had Krispy Kreme donuts, fruit, juice, and coffee. Then we all packed up and left. It was a fun experience. Devyn got to hang out with all of her friends. I guess I would do it again. Could I ask for a "NO SNORING SECTION??????"

Back to School!

Wow! Just doesn't seem fair to have to go to school in July! Devyn started third grade this week. It was a crazy week- she had dance recital-yes, again-different dance studio-on Wednesday AND Thursday. We had practice on Monday and Dress Rehearsal Tuesday. All four nights she went to bed between 9:30 and 10 (bad mommy). Friday was an Angel's game, and Saturday a.m. we did a make-up dance lesson at the other studio (in case she didn't get enough dance this week!) Gotta love these kind of weeks. Don't know what I would do if I were back at work already....here is a pic of her with her best friend, Tori.

More trip pics

Yosemite

Yosemite was beautiful! Hiking was difficult-it was hot and I hadn't planned on struggling so much with the high altitude. They were really low on water this summer so the waterfalls were not as impressive as I had heard they had been previous summers....Devyn did awesome on the horse. Her first "real" horseback ride. The trail guide kept praising her and asking her if she had ridden before to which she confidently replied "yes" (I hardly call riding in a ring with a guide "riding") Her horse decided to go off of the trail at one point. I would have freaked but she just steered the horse back on the trail. Amazing. I was looking forward to scrapping this pic but sadly they got "lost". Miraculously, after 3 hours of my husband trying to retrieve them, my step-dad somehow managed to.....thanks BOB!!

Recital

June 25, 2007

Yesterday Devyn had her dance recital. It was a long day! Seems weird-it was the culmination of a lot of hard work. Her routines were cute-tap was to "Freeze Frame" and jazz (or cheer as it was) was to "Hey Mickey". I felt like I was in the 80's. Now that recital is over, they won't really being doing the routines anymore. The teacher disbanded the group of 12 girls and split them in half-they will be in 2 separate classes now. I was hoping they could perform the dances again somewhere for fun. They put so much into practice, costumes, etc....oh well, guess it is just the nature of dance. I will try to post some pics..... Devyn and I are home today just "chillin". Devyn doesn't really want to leave the house. Fine by me.....

Loved

Wow! Technology is so frustrating for me! Blogging is a new thing for me. It is trial and error. I wanted to post this layout because I love it. It was so simple but I love the picture. Devyn looks so serious here-she looks a lot older than 7! YIKES!!!! They grow too fast.

I remember when we saw this TINKERING INK paper at CHA. I wanted it instantly. We begged Karen to get it.

Today is weird...my first day of summer....kind of an emotional let down. Hard to believe the school year is over. The end was rough. Saying goodbye to the good kids is always hard (the others I could push out :) Just kidding....)

Looking forward to visiting my dad and grandma soon. Can't wait to see Yosemite. I can only imagine the awesome pics I will get. I am itching to scrap them and they haven't even been taken yet-is that bad or what? Scrapitis. Is it curable? I think not......Until later (hopefully not too long as I perfect the blog thing....) Heather

O.K......this is my first attempt at this Blog thing...don't laugh at my title-my husband suggested it. I am not great with technology. I have computer phobia. Maybe I was traumatized by computers in a past life. I am so excited to have finally conquered my fear of blogging. As soon as I figure out how this thing works, I will post some pictures! Can't wait!!!