Me time

I spent yesterday at Remember When scrapbooking with friends. The group in the picture is most of us that went to CKU last June, 4 are missing. There were another 6 there with us from a variety of connections. It was great to have such a large group of us together. Usually its just Trish and me or we catch up with Lori, Steph, and Amy. I had a good time but in the 11 hours there I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have at home. I will have to take a few photos of what I did and post later. There was much too much socializing going on but a large part of this is about friends and enjoyment. Thanks for the fun girls!

Life in California

Sometimes I love my job. I got paid for this:

I spent last Saturday working. We went to Ventura Beach, ate lunch at a resturant on the beach, then went to a Winery for wine tasting-and got paid for it too. We were collaborating on next years program. We really did work a little. Honest.

I'm on spring break this week; trying to catch up on everything that needs to be taken care of; things we haven't had time to deal with. I leave on Monday for a Conference in San Diego for 3 days. Oddly enough it is at a hotel on the beach. I will be home for 2 weeks before I leave for another conference - no idea where.

In between conferences we did get tickets to see 3 Doors Down and Puddle of Mudd. We will be going to Vegas in April for Vacation. Yes, I am on Spring Break now but Tony can't get off work. In late April after my tax collecting friends finish their "year" we get to get away for a girls weekend and scrapbook. To top it off somewhere in there I REALLY want to go to Disneyland. Its been ages (Well, OK, since December) my passes are collecting dust. I have all of June, July and half of August for R&R.

I can't believe that there is only 9 weeks of school left - 9. One will be for AP testing, one will be for CST's and the last week for finals. That only leaves 6 teachable weeks - 35 days. Woo Hoo! Only 35 more lesson plans before summer. But really, who's counting????

Zach has been busy with his first real semester of college and auditions (now that there is work again). Amanda has another car to drive now that Sparky has been replaced by Charlie, a '99 Camry.

Spring must have arrived in So Cal, we're all coming out of doors now that the 45 -55 degree days are fading away. Boy am I glad I live here.

Huntington Library and Gardens

Photography is what started the whole scrapbooking thing. Sometimes its just nice to go back to the basics. I did nothing to this photo but add the "frame" The second picture I saturated the colors a little and added the frame overlay.

The banner was a picture I took on the same trip. This trip was mostly flowers; we went months ago but I have just gotten around to "managing" the photos. Sometimes its all about the architecture, sometimes the people I go with, and sometimes the flowers.

On a side note: Guess who will be at House of Blues on Sunset May 3rd - Puddle of Mudd. Guess where I'll be on May 3rd. Tony mentioned it yesterday when were we discussing what a great time he had at the Linkin Park concert. He does pay attention after all - most of the time.

Linkin Park & Lower Cholesterol

I don't know if means we're hip parents or just old parents trying to stay young. Tony took the kids to see Linkin Park tonight (it was really Tony's x-mas gift from me). I didn't go; not because I'm old, Linkin Park just isn't my fave. Now if it was Red Hot Chili Peppers, Puddle of Mudd, or Nickelback I'd be the first in line. Wait! I HAVE been the first in line for tickets to Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback. Top on my list right now is to see Plain White T's or The Fray.

Hey Tony did ya get the hint?? Someone wanna clue him just in case he missed it?

Do I look 40? Even if I do, thats ok, I am. I feel better now than I did a year ago. I lost another .4lbs at this weeks Weight Watchers meeting. Yea, I hear you saying what's four tenths of a pound, a sweater? Well, I've gained for the last 2 weeks, .4lbs last week, so this evens out last week. Even better I had bloodwork done last week and my cholesterol is down 43 points from 240 to 197. Wow, if I keep this up I could be *gasp* healthy.

CHA

OK, so I admit I had to "steal" this picture taken at CHA. I took the big camera; why I don't know but thought it was a good idea at the time. I decided to leave my camera in the hotel room and let others who brought smaller cameras take the photos. I should be getting set of pictures this Friday while at a crop but Lori, I had to steal this off of your blog early so I could post.
We took some awesome classes! My new favorite line is Little Yellow Bicycle. Their class was great, their booth was great, their make and takes were awesome and most importantly I love the paper.
MAMBI also had a great class and I really like their new paper line. There was lots of SWAG to take home and I did win a new font for my cricut from ProvoCraft and a pink sizzix sidekick.
So CHA was a week ago but it took this long to post because I went to a scrapbook EXPO this weekend and took a few more classes; both from Rusty Pickle. Not nearly exciting but I did get to buy a few of those new Basic Grey stamps I saw at CHA. Now that I've been out shopping to the last two weekends, I can't wait til Friday night to crop and get some of these projects done!

The hood is gone

The phone call no one wants to get at midnight on a Friday night.
"Hello?"
"Tony, it's Casey. There's been an accident"
"How bad is it?"
"The hood is gone...its not there anymore"
"Where are you, I'll be right there."
When all they can get out is the hood is gone, it can't be good. And it wasn't.
Sparky has been offically put to rest and delcared a total loss.
Good points:
1. Not Amanda's fault (he ran a red light and never even hit the brakes) 2. He had insurance and everything will be paid for. 3. The trip in the ambulance was a 2 for 1. (Both Casey and Amanda went in the same ambulance) 4. (and most important) Both Casey and Amanda are fine outside of a LOT of bruising, scrapes, and soreness. 5. It had both front air bags deploy, even though they were hit from the side (lucky? they were hit that hard to cause deployment)
Bad points:
1. We are short 1 car.
Not so bad considering the fact that the radiator is now sitting in the tansmission, the hood and bumper are on top of the car, and the interrior dash is much close to the seats.

Meet Lily

Meet Lily; our newest kitty member of the family. She is about the size of half a cat. She is 4 mos old but no bigger than a cat half her age. But what she lacks in size she make up for in every other way; from thinking she is vicious to her smell!

The name is actually "Princess Tiger Liliputian" Princess Tiger Lily because she had the tiger stripes and thinks she is a princess. The liliputian is because she must be from Lilliput being that small. She was Amanda's (20th) birthday gift from her Aunt Jennifer. We took her to Disneyland, an annual tradition, we always go near her birthday.

Yep, Amanda is no longer a teenager! Where did all those years go? No wonder I have so much grey hair, I'm old.

The Holidays are over and after a brief rest we are gearing up for Zach's 18th birthday. 18. WOW, after this no biggies until 21 for each of them.

This years theme for Zach's party is a USO, WWII dance hall kind of thing. It will be complete with the music, propaganda posters, pin up girl posters, dog tags, and mom's apple pie. It's just so hard to find the right props when creating a theme that really hasn't been done. I'm getting used to it happening though. Wish us luck on Zach's joining the 18th "fighter squadron"