An unexpected event

Yup. Darren had his braces put on today. Poor guy.

He had an appointment today to get his retainer refitted as he had broken a retainer 'rule' by eating a tootsie roll at school last Friday and one side of the retainer had popped out. Thankfully we were able to push it sort of back into place until our appointment today.

Turns out Darren's teeth had moved so quickly he didn't need to keep his retainer in and they decided they would put the braces on right then and there! This came as quite a surprise to me but Darren was such a trooper.

So here's Darren's new temporary smile for the next year.

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

I must have seriously taken someone's mojo...

...because at Saturday's Scrap Pink event hosted by Scrap for a Cure I won 3 (count 'em: 3!) raffle prizes! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw THICK packs of Hambly overlays generously donated by Hambly. I was most certainly happy to have won just the one pack but when another raffle ticket of mine was called AGAIN I knew exactly what I was going to get: the other Hambly pack!

Since friends are for sharing I gave the second pack to Ginger since it was plainly obvious that the only reason why I was winning was that I had successfully stolen her Mojo because when I bought my raffle tickets I rubbed her shoulder (as I now always do) to take some of her inordinate amount of luck. I mean, what's a girl to do with all that Hambly without feeling a bit greedy?



So the photo above is all of the Hambly from the first pack I won. So I guess now I need to go out and buy myself some lottery tickets and see where that takes me.

Ginger and I also won a silent auction for a photography sitting with the one and only Maria Grace Abuzman. Talk about scoring! Not only is Grace an amazing artist she is an incredibly talented photographer. We can't wait to see what kind of portraits we're going to get of our boys.

All in all, the Scrap Pink event was a huge success. It was a sell-out and I was able to see some familiar faces and well as make new friends.

So this is one of the things I worked on at the crop. I'll have to explain the title in another post ;)

another birthday

Happy '29th' birthday Mom.

Somehow that's not gonna work anymore considering I'm '26'.

ha ha

Enjoy your Kauai trip tomorrow.

I'm not jealous or anything. ;0)

inspired...

Granted, I have 3 projects and 2 blog challenges swirling around in my head to do but as soon as my kenner road vintage revival kit found it's way to my doorstep I had to play with all that goodness!

Here are a few layouts I made.

2 more days 'til fall break! But who's counting???

kenner road on my doorstep!

I'm back. I had to post again as I just got the inaugural Kenner Road September kit.

Squeeee!!!

Isn't it pure loveliness???

...the papers, the ephemera, the pink paislee overlay? the vintage trim...need I go on???

I'm totally not surprised that the kit is sold out and I got one!

*does the happy dance*

OK, so now I'm totally inspired.

KL: you rock, girl!

now off to scrap! ------->>

Yes, I survived the weekend!

We watched our final A's game of the season on a perfectly sunny Saturday and it was actually a great game! We beat the Seattle Mariners 8-7. The highlight of the game was when a Mariners base runner tried stretching a double into a triple and got called out at third base. The Mariners head coach ended up getting ejected after a heated argument with the umpire. Ya gotta love events like that since they don't happen too often.





Darren's 7th birthday party on Sunday went off without a hitch. It was madness with 13 kids and almost as many adults. Here's Darren showing off his new age:





So this is the last week of school before fall break. Yay! Of course, if the weather holds up we are planning yet another camping trip to Whiskeytown Lake near Redding.

Whiskeytown:


I'd also love to take Darren to the City to check out the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It opens next Saturday complete with a planetarium, 100,000 gallon water tanks and rain forest exhibits. It sounds amazing!

Finally, I'm going to a Scrap Pink crop this Saturday sponsored by Scrap for a Cure. In support of a cure for breast cancer if you're a scrapper here in the Bay Area try to join us. The event is being held at the new Cortona Park Senior Center and it is supposed to be GORGEOUS. See SFAC's website for details. It goes from 10am - 10pm and for your tax-deductible $40 donation it also includes lunch, snacks and dinner. I hope to see a lot of familiar faces!

Look Who's 7 !

I can't believe my little guy turned 7 today. I don't know how these years are escaping me! So our busy day today started out with a few presents...






...and then his first grade class took their first field trip to a local wildlife museum where they were able to see a bald eagle and a mountain lion. They were even able to pet a snake and visit with an owl. Watch out! Those owl talons are SHARP!








...tonight we're heading out to the local ice cream parlor in support of a fundraiser for Darren's elementary school and in celebration of his big day.

Tomorrow we're headed off to our last Oakland A's baseball game of the season (thankfully ending their miserable and depressing season!) Then I need to rest up for Darren's big birthday party this Sunday. What a weekend this is going to be! Wish me luck!

Run Forrest, Run!

So my pal Ginger and I (and possibly even my hubby too!) have set a goal of running in our first-ever 5K this coming November.

Realize that we have never been nor claim to be great runners. On average I can run a mile. 2 miles is definitely pushing it. But recently our beloved boot camp trainer had us unknowingly run 2 miles a few weeks back. And it wasn't THAT bad.

So, to change up our workouts we decided to set a personal goal of running a 5K to keep us motivated to continue running on a regular basis. Now we run 2 miles a few times a week together. A 5K is 3.2 miles so it's definitely a do-able goal for us.

So here are my new best friends:


ha! ha!


Oh, and big news:

Darren turns the big 7 tomorrow. His first grade class just so happens to have a field trip planned tomorrow which I am volunteering as a chaperone so some pictures of our big day and the birthday boy will be up tomorrow!

Happy day!

the street of the house i grew up in

So my friend Kerry Lynn Yeary (aka 'KL' to those of us in the scrappin' world) is premiering her Kenner Road kit club tomorrow and it certainly looks divine. (sigh!)

I admire KL for her honesty, her passion for her family and her passion and talent for creating scrappy goodness. I also love the RAK she is giving away on her blog. Her kit club is named after the street she grew up in as a child so she asked us to tell our own story about the childhood street we grew up on. I was SO all over this!

I honestly LOVED the street I lived on: Farthing Way.

It was a brand-new housing development back then and almost every single home was filled with young families with elementary-aged children. To make things even better, a brand new elementary school opened at the end of our street so we all enjoyed a very short walk to school everyday.

I can count off the top of my head 22 of us. I can still tell you who lived in which house. All of us neighborhood kids loved playing at each other's homes and riding bikes and skateboards, hopscotch, barbies (!) and a few of us little girls wanting one day to be a cheerleader and memorizing our older brother's Pop Warner football team's cheerleading squad routines. We would spend entire days in the summer hanging out outside just enjoying each other's company. We all grew up together: from elementary school all the way through high school. We were almost like family. Heck, we were one big family.

I miss the close-knit feeling of those days. There was nothing like it.

I have to share this picture because it's dear to me. I had my 20-year high school reunion a few years ago (am I aging myself or what?!?!) and I was able to get this photo of me and a few of my Farthing Way classmates together.




Those were definitely the days. Thanks, KL, for letting me take a trip down memory lane (or shall I say Farthing Way?)

Now I know why I love camping on the coast...

...because inland camping is too darn hot! We survived sweltering heat this past weekend by spending the hottest hours of the day in the lake. Water gun fights were also a fun way to stay cool. Gotta love those Super Soakers!

The boys got a kick out of 'surfing' on the hubby's windsurf board. I think we may have a future surfer or two in the making!






Here's a layout I finished this morning for ScrapMojo. The challenge is to use a bumper sticker saying in your layout so I took the liberty of making mine up. It's definitely appropriate considering camping was a significant part of this family's entire summer (and then some!)

Must-see TV!

So we had quite the camping adventure last weekend. We did lots of hiking and eating over the span of 3 days and we were ready to come home on Monday. Let's just say this trip didn't go as smoothly as our last one. Those kinds of trips are bound to happen but I would have done it again if I had the choice. There's just nothing like fresh ocean air and me and Ginger's margarita nights which is now a camping tradition as much as eating having her Friday night spaghetti.

We did manage to stop in and do some scrappy damage at Luna's Memories and found these treasure bags at a vintage shop in the town of Pescadero.




We're off on our last camping trip of the summer tomorrow. We are hoping for a mild fall so we can catch a camping trip to Yosemite when the kids are out for fall break at the end of this month. Keeping my fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I am looking forward to the return of my favorite TV programs. Here are a few of mine. What are yours?



LOST:


American Idol (been watching since Season 1):


Prison Break:



24 (darnit for having to wait til January '09 for the season premiere!)