For my daughter

Today my angel turns 10 and I just can't believe it! It does not seem possible that it could have been so long ago. Here is a picture of us 10 years ago....

Wow, time flies for sure. It kinda freaks me out because it's going by so fast.
I made this layout for her. It is for a challenge blog that me and some friends are doing using the cards in the Elsie recipe box. The title is "Yesterday came suddenly". To me it is appropriate because it seems like only yesterday that we welcomed her into this world.

I also wanted to share a song here. This is the song that I used to sing to my baby girl while I rocked her to sleep. She loves this song and knows it by heart.


Okay, enough of the mushy stuff. Here is a layout I finally finished up.

Thanks for stopping by!
~Tricia

How do you spell....

vacation? D-R-A-M-A, that's how! At least that is how you spell and sum up my vacation. Started with drama, ended with drama and a little drama sprinkled through the middle for good measure! Let me just say I hate drama, absolutely abhor it, so the drama that seemingly clouded this vacation was not of my doing. I will spare you all the details, but for the sake of venting will give you a small dose of the drama that I endured.
It started with a telephone call at 5am the morning we were leaving informing me that my Grandma had fallen and was in the emergency room. It turns out she broke her hip and back and they discovered a large aneurysm in her heart. Add that to the already long list of maladies that plague her (Parkinson's, cancer, emphysema, vertigo, blind in one eye and losing eyesight in the other, deaf in one ear and wearing a hearing aid in the other) and it is a list about as long as my leg! I think that she may be an indestructible super hero disguised in my Grandma's body!
We finally made it to the campsite after I spent the morning with my Grandma in the ER. As we were setting up our camp site I heard a very distinct sound. It sounds like the cracking, crunching, popping and crashing of wood. A tree that bordered our campsite fell over! Thank God it did not fall onto anyone or anything. I think now it must have been a sign. You know, like the sign that Dorothy and her posse read upon entering the Haunted Forrest on the way to the Wicked Witch of the West's castle? It said, and I quote, "I'd turn back if I were you". Maybe that is what the tree was trying to tell me, but alas I did not listen, I do not speak "tree". Just so you know though, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, it still makes a sound (trust me)!

In a strange twist of fate it turns out that there were a few appearances made by this person...

Now I know what you are thinking, Dorothy melted her, right? I know! I was thinking the same thing!!!!!! So imagine my surprise when she continued to show up time and time again. Man, where is a bucket of water when you need one?
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad. It's just that for me the drama outweighed the relaxation. My daily life is more relaxing than this vacation was. I do however have another vacation scheduled in 3 1/2 weeks to San Diego for 9 days! YES, an opportunity to redeem the dramatic vacation with a drama free vacation with just the 4 of us (and the dog). There is more than I care to detail here to be done in those 3 and a half weeks, but the anticipation of said vacation will hopefully carry me through! Oh, and did I mention I have absolutely no time to scrap?! Ugh! That makes me a little sad and melancholy at times, but what cha gonna do? This too shall pass, right??????????? ;0)

Here we go!

See ya in a week!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

It's independence day! Time for barbecues & fireworks! In an effort to be patriotic today I have recited the preamble to The Constitution while on the phone with my mother, sang the National Anthem and said the pledge of allegiance. I wondered to myself how many American citizens could actually do the same? My mom recited the preamble right along with me and she has been out of school for over 40 years! I don't actually remember where or when I learned it, and to be honest I am surprised I still remember it. That is typical me though. I remember things that one does not need to use on a regular basis. I can't tell you how many cups are in a gallon or a quart, but if you need someone to recite the preamble or tell you how many states border Tennessee (8),I am your girl. I digress. I hope your 4th is wonderful, safe and fun! Here is a recent photograph I took of Old Glory herself, long may she wave!

Here are some pictures of where I am going on vacation tomorrow (you can click on the mosaic to see a larger version). We are going camping in the North Coast at Patrick' Point. It is amazing up there. I am looking forward to the natural beauty and relaxing with my family. Hopefully I will be super relaxed when I get back and have lots more photos to share!

Oh, and by the way, it's okay to miss me while I'm gone! (insert smiley face here)

At long last!!!!

Today, at long last, is the day we have been waiting for for months! Today my husband opened up his new store for Nugget Market in Elk Grove. This store is unbelievably amazing! The front of the store is painted like a sunflower and took over 3 months to paint. Here are some photos of the store.

Produce section

Floral department

Cheese department

Natural Living department

Wine aisle

Overview of the store

The Family

All in all this has been a very exciting day! I am so proud of my husband. This is the culmination of many years of hard work for him. He has been in this business for over a quarter century! Wow, that makes us sound so old!!!! Anyways, with all of the excitement none of us were able to sleep the night before and we were all up at the crack o' dawn. So, it came as no surprise when this is what the scene looked like on the way home!

This is a day all of us will remember for the rest of our lives.

TODAY.........

was utterly uneventful and yet full. Here is what happened.

TODAY:
~I woke up before dawn for no good reason! I got up and started the dishwasher and the laundry.

~I didn't even have my morning cup of coffee because I was busy with house work.

~I read with my kids.

~I saw this face...


~I found out that I will definitely be moving salons in August which will save us a bunch of money each month!

~We went out to dinner as a family.

~I actually sat down at my scrapbook table for the first time in a couple of weeks and made this for the One Little Word challenge blog.



~I blogged!

Here are a couple of digi layouts that I have completed recently for a Jessica Sprague class that I am taking. Boy, I am learning a lot! If you click on the layout a full size picture should come up and you can read the journaling if you want.




Oh, and one more thing! I was contacted yesterday by Ronda from One Little Word blog. She told me that I had won something in their last blog post. I had no idea. That was a nice surprise.

Do you want the good new...

Or the bad news first? Well, since I think it's nice to end things on a positive note I'll start with the bad. My Mom fell on Monday and broke her arm and dislocated her elbow. OUCHIE!! She has several "chips" in her bone which prevents it from going back into place until she has surgery on Tuesday. So for the time being she will remain in a tremendous amount of pain till it gets fixed. We're talking pain so severe that it makes you vomit every time you move. Yeah, good times!! So that's the bad news.
Alrighty, so on to the good news! On Tuesday two of my layouts were chosen for the Catwalk on Scrap in Style TV! Woo Hoo!
Celine Navarro chose this one called Friends.

That alone thrilled me, but I scrolled down further and there was another one on the Catwalk! Wha? Crazy right?!Jody Ferlaak chose this one that I made for the One Little Word challenge blog.

So I was feeling very good indeed on Tuesday! Then, I wake up this morning and found out that they had already picked a winner over at Scrapjacked. So I head on over and see this layout staring back at me.

Dude, I thought I was being punked by Ashton or something! I still can't believe it. So, that is my good news.
So that is my week so far. A little bit of good news mingled in with a little bit of bad. Oh well, such is life I suppose..........

Scrapbloggin'

I made this today at Scrapblog. Super easy and fun! If you haven't tried it yet you should. It is a great way to get your feet wet in digi without spending a lot of money on software. In fact, it is absolutely free!!!! Gotta love that!

So today was my children's last day of school! Woo Hoo!!!! I can't believe my babies are now in 3rd and 5th grades! UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE!!!!! Here is are two pictures of them. The first is of them on the first day of school, the other on the last! I didn't realize how much they had grown and changed until looking at these side by side.


We have got so many fun things planned for this summer. I am so excited! We are going camping for a week and to San Diego for a week later in the summer. We are "pet-sitting" one of the 4th grade Bearded Dragons. These things are super cool! Here is what they look like...
Cute, huh?
Later in the summer we will be pet-sitting the hampster. The teacher had several pets in the class room this year. They included 3 tortoises, 2 bearded dragons, a turtle, a rat, a corn snake, a hampster, a guinea pig and a tarantula! What a wonderful experience for the kids to have all of these pets surrounding them at all times. They would the animals out (excepting the tarantula) to roam the classroom. The kids LOVED it!
I am so happy that it is summer and can't wait to spend some quality time with my peeps!

4 generations...

...of fabulous ladies in the same place at the same time! This is a picture that was taken a week ago with my Grandma, my mom, myself and my daughter. Although I have seen better pictures of almost all of us, I love it because we are all together. It took an act of God to get us all together at the same time, seriously!!! My Grandma is 86 1/2 years old and she is not in good health. This may be the photo I ever have taken with her. I hope not, but you never know. So that is why I think this photo is great. Not because we look like supermodels in our Sunday best, but because it is who we are and we are together!

It has been a busy week for us here. The kids have had Tae Kwon Do, drama club performances, field trips and all of the other things that go along with the end of the school year. Only 1 1/2 more days till school is out for the summer. I am looking forward to that! I have been working, volunteering at the school, scrapping, sewing and making some jewelry. Here is a pic of some necklaces that I've made this week.

Last, but not least, is a pic of some vintage treasures that I picked up this week! Aren't they gorgeous?

Out with the old, in with the new

So last Friday I got my hair done. I like to mix it up a bit with my hair color between summer and winter. Here is a pic of my hair color from before. I was going for a reddish color. I liked it, but with the change of season I was feelin' the need for change.


Here is a pic of the color I got for the summer. What do ya think?

Here is a little pic of a layout I did recently. I did a "Bossy Scrapper challenge" where you are told what page elements to grab and given a time limit to grab them and add them to the page. Then you are given your next task. This goes on for 1 1/2 hours then you post what you post what you've come up with. Well, I am not going to post the first page I made here because it was truly sad looking. This is the LO after I made some modifications to it. I love the floral patterned paper so much. I could wrap myself in it and take a big nap!
So that is it for now! Thanks for coming over and paying me a visit!
Tricia

Slip sliding away!

Today is another hot one. It's over 100 degrees with no end in sight to the heat. My kids have created a little game they like to play in our backyard called "Water Works". They put the hose here and there on our play structure. They have a ride that is called the "slip and slide" and another that is called "five minute shower". Here is a pic of my son enjoying the slip and slide.

Here is a little project I did today using corks I have been saving up for quite some time. At first I wasn't exactly sure what I would do with them. This is what I've finally come up with. What do you think?

I did this layout this week about my relationship with my dad. I heard a song that totally inspired me to do this one and played it over and over while I created this. This one just poured out of me and onto the page. Totally scrap therapy! I used some lovely vintage lace and buttons that I picked up at a local antique store. Although the topic is a bit sad, I really like the way it turned out.

Well, that's about it for now. I hope you have a great Sunday.

Tricia

Hmmm, let me see....

What to post? Let's see... I got some happy mail today from Becca at Scrap in Style. Some great goodies included in the package that I won from a challenge on the site. I also got a magazine in the mail today, woohoo! Now that is happy mail!

Hubby is up in Tahoe. He took 12 of his employee's on a surprise camping trip up in Tahoe! It is only going to be for one night, but I already miss him.

I am getting my hair colored tomorrow. I don't know quite what I am going to do yet, but I am excited to get my hair done. Isn't it crazy when you work in a salon and you have to schedule an appointment at least one week in advance just to get your hair done? Seriously though, why is it that I realize that planning in advance is a necessity, when other's fail to see it's value? I had a client call this week acting all crazy because she couldn't get an appointment in the next two days. Even as I type this I got a call on my HOME phone about making an appointment tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. Seriously! 9 a.m.! Can you believe that? Okay, I need to stop before I go off on more of a tangent than I already have!

Oh, and it was over 100 degrees here today. Holy cow that's hot for May! If this is any indication of what's to come then I think I am going to curl up in a ball and shrivel up in a ball and die! Usually this kind of heat doesn't happen till much later in the season. We need to get a pool.

One last thing, I spent $72 dollars on gas today. Cool, huh? Gas is crazy expensive and shows no sign of going down significantly anytime soon. I may need to put my kids to work just to afford the gas to shuffle them around from here to there. Sheesh.

Okay, I realize that it seems like I am complaining here. That is not at all what I meant to do. I am not grumpy of pms-ing or anything! I am just sharing little bits of my daily life with you. So, with that said I bid you adeiu.

much love to all of you who endured this entire post!

Tricia