A Proud Moment

Darren had his first communion yesterday. It was a special day for both of us as I have been witnessing his journey these past 2 years by being an aide in his class his first year and actually teaching his class this past year.

Here he is rockin' his first tie (No! It's not a clip-on!)

Proud parents:

Extra-proud Granny:

His Godfather (and eldest cousin) and his Aunt:

His Uncle, Aunt and cousins:

And his hands-down favorite cousin and partner-in-crime:

Next up: 5 more weeks of school and 2nd grade will be history! 

Bring on the summer!

No Turning Back Now...

I signed up for the See Jane Run half marathon in Alameda on June 5th. Granted, I've been training for it for almost 2 months now but I made a point of not registering up until today in the event of a re-injury to my calf or some other age-related body part breakdown. :-P

I am running with 2 friends and it's going to be our longest run E.V.E.R. We've been running our long runs together and have so far managed to do an 8-miler and a 10-miler. Yup, that 10-miler was a doozy. Let's just say a nap was in order that afternoon!

I'm super excited yet nervous about the race but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. If you're in the Bay Area, check it out. You can't beat the post-run party which entails chocolate and champagne!

On another note, I just received an e-mail from Starbucks that I've achieved Gold Level member status. 

Yikes! I didn't even know they were keeping track of my coffee purchases through my Starbucks card. I am not sure what entails achieving this level and I don't want to know! 

National Scrapbook Day is this Saturday, May 1st. What are your plans? I'm going to be quite busy that day with Darren's First Communion and a BBQ here afterwards so I'm hoping to catch some scrapping fever on Sunday. I would have LOVED to have attended the Reflections Event in Southern CA this weekend. Instructors for the event include Elizabeth Kartchner, Debee Campos, Katie Watson & Maggie Holmes. Totally amazing and talented artists...{sigh} Perhaps next year...

What are you doing in honor of Earth Week?

I got a little ahead of myself and ordered a few of these last week after seeing a friend using them:

They are reusable snack and sandwich bags! You can get them here. These bags are great! They come in different sizes and have a shiny semi-slippery interior so that anything can be put inside: chips, pretzels, strawberries, you name it! You can either wipe them clean with a damp paper towel or even wash them in the washing machine!

And in celebration of Earth Week, anything you buy on their website is 20% off!  

I am always in awe of the number of plastic sandwich and snack bags that kids use and throw away at school. I think how every kid probably goes through 2 or 3 plastic sandwich bags a day and if you multiply that by the number of kids at school and multiply that by the number of schools in my school district...well, you get the picture. It most certainly adds up to a lot of waste! 

I also like these as an option:

 

 They are Tupperware sandwich keepers. I like these because of the non-squish factor for sandwiches. You can get them through a Tupperware rep or here.

In celebration of Earth Week I also picked up these beauties:

These are my third pair of Simple sneakers. I {heart} them! They are soooo comfy and there is no break-in time needed! The box they come in is made out of 100% post-consumer materials, the shoelaces are made out of recycled soda bottles {no joke!} and the outsoles and shoe inserts are made out of recycled car tires! But really, the purple flower design on the inside of the shoe was the added bonus to the cuteness factor!

What do you do to recycle?

...and the braces are GONE!

Yesterday morning was a HUGE day for Darren. After suffering with braces since October 30, 2008, he finally got them taken off! 

Just before he got his braces put on {yeah, I know...for good reason!}

THE DAY BEFORE GETTING THEM TAKEN OFF:

AS OF YESTERDAY :

Ya gotta love a smile like that! It's worth a thousand words and over a thousand....well, I'll just stop there since you all know where I was going with that one! ;-P

Now off to plan the sticky, gummy and gooey party I promised him!

Wacky and Wet Weekend

I had such a whirlwind weekend! Friday night I cropped {well, mostly shopped and laughed!} with Ginger, Marie and Kerry Lynn at Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley. We browsed Anthro on 4th St., ate yummy food at Picante and laughed those kinds of laughs where your stomach hurts and tears are streaming out of your eyes.

The next morning Ginger and I ran a dreaded 8 miles in cold and wind for our half marathon training. Running 8 miles in no wind is hard enough but the wind added a whole new dimension to that run! Boy, was I glad when that was over!

Sunday arrived with pouring down rain and was supposed to be a day checking out cool Lego creations at Bricks By the Bay in Fremont but the line wrapped through the hotel entrance and up 2 floors of the parking structure next to it. Needless to say, we scrapped that plan and headed over to Toys R Us as a consolation for disappointed 8-year olds. 

Last night I ventured back to the world of digi-scrapping and created this:

I took this photo of Darren and his cousin Jason during my sister's wedding in Kauai in February. "keiki" is hawaiian for kids...and well, uh, you get the picture! When you get these two together for an extended period of time they can sometimes spell trouble!

It's back to the grind tomorrow

Our 4-day Easter break has come and gone and it's back to school and work for us tomorrow. We had quite the weekend but I'll post more about that later this week. In the meantime, here's my third digi page.

 I am loving this digital scrapping thing!

I think I'm hooked!

...hooked on digi-scrapbooking! Here's my second layout. 

I know, it's still basic as I'm trying to learn digital techniques as I'm going as well as looking for digi kits and elements. If you know of any good sites to buy from besides 2 Peas and Kitchy Digitals {which I've already raided!} then please enlighten me! :)

Have a great holiday weekend!