Santa was so very nice to us....

The kids got fun stuff to play with (3 new wii games- Mario Party 8, Boogie Superstar (sining one) and wii music). K got from Santa a guitar hero game for her DS so she can rock out on her own! Ana got a new to her phone and new ringtones, some cool ugg style boots. Both girls got a ton of new clothes to model at school for at least a week :) LOL





Brett got a cool new turntable that converts vinyl records to digital music! My mil graciously brought a "few" of her collection so we can give it a try this break! Brett hasn't done it yet as his truck is giving him fits. It's been such a good truck..never giving us a problem for the last 10 years. It has to last a few more years, as I got the new car this year because of problems with the Expedition. Come on truck be nice... :) We had to replace a part for the 4wheel drive right before Christmas and now it's the battery causing havoic.

I was due for an upgrade on my phone....so Ana got my old phone (so new to her) and I got this!


Brett also came through... I've been drooling over a digital SLR.. but he kept saying it's way to expensive still. But low and behold.. this was under the tree for me!!


I'm in heaven and a little intimidated by it.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday so far! One more week of vacation left!! :)

I did do a layout here with a few of the Christmas memories!

Dancing in the dark...

Another production of Lisa's camera. Middle School dance team and high school cheerleaders doing a cool light stick routine. :)

For your viewing pleasure...

I'm pleased to bring a Lisa's camera production of OKMS dance team.. well our girl on the dance team.

Yes, she is the 2nd girl behind the little on in front for the first part! I lost track of her during the pom part but she's there for you to see :)

Fall time is here...

We played a bit in the leaves today... Can't believe it's the middle of November already!


I'm still looking for the perfect photo for christmas cards. K was not being cooperative today, so needless to say there are few "good" photos I got of her today!

Brett celebrated his birthday last week after an exhausting day of running kids around to various functions and then supervising a basketball game while I was still doing Parent/Teacher/Conferences. He now has the new tiger woods 09 tour golf game to play on the Wii. Made him low carb cheesecake late last night that we need to cut into tonight to celebrate. :) Just didn't have time before to make this!

A is doing dance team at school and they performed at half time on Thursday which I missed due to the above mentioned activity. I hope someone takes pity on me and shares what they took of video and such :)

We continue to try to figure out what is happening with K's cough. First thought was ashtma, then after a month of treatment..the next thought was her allergies. So to cover all bases we are seeing the ashtma/allergy specialist here on Tuesday. Hope to have some better answers. Though it seems that her cough has gotten better in the last few days.

So I'll leave you with a layout I just finished with the new collab kit that is coming out soon from SBB designers (Amy C's stuff is in there :))

She can see clearly now...

she has glasses!! Last year she was fine when we checked her eyes...this year not so much! :) We did find really cute frames though. What do you think?

Be Our Guest... and an "offical" teenager in da house!

All I can say is wow..!!!

I've been behind the scenes for the dress rehersals and for the 1st performance but I don't think you get the whole WOW factor until you sit in the audience and only worry about watching!! Last night the family went (with mil) and watched!! it was great! I got a few clips of my own little napkin performing her heart out (including coughing fit in middle of stage :))

Here is the first clip :



2nd clip:



and the last clip of them chasing the villagers :)




It's official... she's a teen!! We were laughing at how much she's changed since she was a babe!! Check out our walk down memory lane :)

Ana day 1:










I love ya girl!!! :) big hugs to my grown up girl :)

School is cool....

at least the pictures are this year! :) Woo hoo! We're celebrating!! for the first time EVER for Karina we are happy with the FIRST picture they took :) Honestly, in Kinder we didn't like even the retakes. 1st grade, retakes, 2nd grade--retakes and 3rd grade.. yep retakes! 4th grade is the magic year! hee hee

What do you think??


Here is A: :)


Ana didn't seem to change much between this year and last.. just a little more grown up looking but the same smiley face!

both girls seem to have sticky upy hairs there..but over all good pics!! I bought the copyright to these photos so I can post them, print them, etc. etc. :) Costco does a good job with printing for a great price!!

I'll leave you with a sneak peak of Miss Napkin herself... K :) Dont' want to show you the whole thing.. it will spoil it for the performance :) LOL

Small town fun.....

It was Harvest Fest weekend. We were suppose to be out of town so we didn't pre-register for the Autunm Leaf Fun run but decided to go to my mom and dad's the weekened before when my brother and sil and kids were there.

Both girls did the run. K did the 1 mile run/walk and A did the 5K run/walk. She thought she was in shape from volleyball, guess it takes a different kind of "shape" to run that far! A did have a bit of excitement on her route. An older lady collapsed in front of her as they were running. A was a little shook up by it but was the only one with a cell phone on them, so she gave it to a man who called 911 and then she directed the ambulance to the right spot. Scary huh!

The girls during the run....



Later both girls were at the Girl Scout booth recruiting new girls :)

A and a friend were in the egg toss contest. They came in 5th but had lots of fun!!


So we begin the count down to the big day... A's Birthday and the opening of Beauty and the Beast... both fall on the same day :) You can still buy tickets @ Rawsons for the performances. :) Oct. 16, 17 and 18 ( 2 and 7 ) Oct. 23, 24 and 25

We have tickets to see Saturday's evening performance with Brett's mom who is coming for the weekend. A plans to celebrate her bday next weekend with a sleepover of 6 other girls (eek...)

So begins Volleyball

Can you believe what a bad mommy I was!! I totally ran off to Karina's piano lessons and then on to Ana's game and forgot my camera! It was their first away game... in the next town over all of 4 miles! They lost the first game, won the 2nd and lost the 3rd for an overall loss. I did take my camera for the 2nd game and got a few shoots! Hopefully, I can get better with my camera inside...the gym sucks for lighting! :)







okay off to pick up the girl from her away game tonight. Didn't win but sounds like they had fun :)

Fair results....

Even though it tires me to the bone, I love the fair!! I got to take my 3rd graders this year and see the thrill of the fair through their eyes! I walked a ton and my little piggie toe paid the price.. a huge blister! I'm still nursing that baby along. I didn't think my feet were ever going to forgive me! The 3rd graders had a blast and we really enjoyed our time!

My girls had their stuff in the girl scout booth. K's quilt won Reserve Grand Champion and People's Choice for Saturday. She also entered a few art projects and a very delicious chocolate chocolate chip zucchini bread which won a Grand Champion! (her other competition was her sister who got a Blue ribbon on her "regular" zucchini bread)

A's quilt got a Blue ribbon and her peanut butter cookies got a Grand Champion in the cookies (4 other peeps she competed against) On Sunday everybody was hungry for sweets so Ana's cookies got People's Choice on that day (the first day a quilt hadn't won People's choice).

Here are the girls reverse tie dye shirts :) they turned out cool :)




I entered 9 different photos in the photography section. I got mainly reds and a few whites. I'll take my reds though as I think the judging was a bit "different" than past fairs!

However..... I did excel in one area!! My digital scrapbook was named Grand Champion in the adult division for scrapbooks! Woo hoo go me!! Makes glad of all the time I've sat at my computer preserving my family's memories!!!


Here are two videos of A singing. Excuse the shakey hands of the camera women :) LOL God has truly blessed her with a decent singing voice. She gets better and better every time she sings :)





Here are the kids enjoying the carnival :)

First Day of School!

Where did the summer go? (see blog posting about who stole my summer) LOL

Today was back to school! Both girls were so excited to be going back! A went with her dad and I dropped K off on my way to my first of the school meeting. My stomach did a little... ahhh sniff sniff moment when I dropped K off at the school. She kissed me goodbye and as I drove away I was thinking... there goes my 4th grader! When did she get to be old enough to be a 4th grader!!! It only lasted about 3 blocks, but it was a brief melancholy moment!! I think because I teach too, I feel that the first day of school is a new year, a new beginning and it makes me sad in a way to see my girls growing up.

Okay enough blabbering... here are the girls posing for first day pics!





Fair is next weekend so we'll be there most of it! A is singin on Thursday and Sunday :) Stop by the Girl Scout booth and say Hi! I'm sure I'll be there way too much! LOL

FOBTY 8/22 :)

Playing in the Sweet Shoppe Designs From Our Blog to Yours challenge :) This is the quiz this week :) What were you in high school!

You Were the All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain. You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

Who Were You In High School?

well except for the athlete part.... it was close LOL Me= clutz!

EEEKKKK... who stole my summer???

I had all this big plans this summer.... lose weight, get in shape, take a trip to Colombia to teach, and so on and so on. I didn't make one goal LOL *shrug* the Colombia one was out of my control...but she PROMISED next year same week in Bogota (Colombia again). It better happen!!

Here I thought I'd have a calm week before having to go back to work and really work. Today turned out to be a none working day. Dropped of K at quilting class, went to store for milk, bread and meat and some stuff for dinner tonight (no girls for 10 days..so we had no milk or kids bread in the house). From the store, Ana and I went to pick up Buster from Uncle Earl's kennel (cottonwood). Home with him, make K's lunch and then I had an appt. at the docs. office for a silly rash. That took forever. My appt. was @ 11 I was in the room by 11:05 but didn't see the doctor until noon. sheesh. Over to the pharmacy to pick up my stuff and then finally time to head to school. (planned on working while K was quilting to not waste gas back and forth). Did lots of talking and planning with the 2 new teachers. Are you tired yet??? I am! and it's not even 1 pm yet! LOL

so tomorrow is working in the morning after dropping off K for quilting. work in room in the AM and then go to Mentor class in the afternoon. Wednesday is more of the same.. except more mentoring stuff (minus the hair cut appt and running A to the Ortho) Thursday and Friday are full days of Science training. So who's coming over to help put my room back together?? anyone anyone?

The girls had a total blast at camp. It was tag team talking from camp to Spokane! :) I'm so glad they got the chance to grow and become such great girls :)

okay.. so carry on! Everyone enjoy our last couple days of freedom my teaching friends!

Scenes from a rearview mirror....

That would be my life recently... I thought I should take a picture today when I was sitting at a construction stop light looking in my rearview mirror. I've been doing a lot of that lately...looking in my rearview mirror!

First I got the pleasure of going along with A's Girl Scout troop on their trip to Wenatchee. At first I thought I was going to have to drive, but in the end we only had 7 girls go so we all squished into Amy's van and Laurie's car. A two hour drive to Leavenworth where we played mini golf (2 holes in one for me!!!), walked around downtown Leavenworth, and the girls had fun making trucks honk.. Thanks Amy for the video!



After a fun afternoon there.. we drove to Wenatchee and went shopping!! Stayed the night @ a hotel, more shopping on day 2 and then driving home. All the girls choose to go together in Amy's van, so Laurie and I had peace and quiet on the way home!

Home for one night, wash, reload the suitcase and then off the girls and I went to meet up with my 2nd brother, Dave. He recently got married in Hawaii and was bring his lovely wife Terri and her two cute kids, Kasey and Kolbie to meet up with my two girls. The "cousins" as they like to call each other. We meet up in the Tri-cities where my folks live and had lots of fun! (almost 4 hour drive). Got to see my mom and dad. Dad is back at home and mom is in her new home. She is doing good.. lots of good moments with her this weekend! :) Brett didn't go with us as he was playing in a golf tourney... he came in... 2nd again... for the 9th year.

So on Monday we hit the road again to come home. We were home long enough to wash clothes, and spent the good part of Tuesday getting stuff and packing stuff for the girls to go to Girl Scout Camp. It was a huge task.. they'll be gone for 11 days.

So once again up early this morning and off we go with an additional GS friend Emilee today. It was almost 3 hours to Spokane, we ate @ Sonic. Sonic is okay, they have yet to make my bacon cheeseburger correctly for me in the 4 times I've eaten @ a sonic. LOL From there we drove the approx. 36 miles to the Camp. We got there a bit after 2 when drop off was scheduled only to find a back up. The bad part... I had to go potty REAALLY bad... so they took pity on the old lady and let me hike in the camp a bit and use the bathroom! :) All girls were delivered to camp and left with a hug and see ya mom. I hurried back to Spokane so I could get the oil changed in the car.. you see we've put on 2500 miles on new baby Gus since we got her at the end of June. Got that done..love Gus Johnson Ford...they even wash the car how cool! I hit the road to come home. Arrived home a little after 8.. 11 hours after I first set out this morning!

so there are my scenes from my rearview mirror... I plan on sitting at home as much as possible over the next few days.... :)

oh one tidbit from today... we drove the river road to spokane today and we happened to see a little coyote pup on the road.. I had to swerve to miss the little one... He looked so cute.. big head, little body.

What kind of Music are you?

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative. You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you. But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way. Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Where does the time go....

Not too long ago little Miss K was this bald headed cute little baby!



Now she's a tyrant... no just kidding!
She's still my cute little baby but she has hair now! :)



Can't believe it was 9 years ago she was born. It's been a beautiful nine years! Love ya kiddo!

Photos from the beach.. enjoy!

Photos from our beach vacation :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Kilroy was here....

oh wait.. that's not Kilroy! That's the quilt holder!

Ana finished her quilt in record time (well all the girls in the class finished in 3 days!) This one is going into the cedar chest for "later" MUCH later!


K will do her class in August. It was suppose to be the last week of July but they had to change.. It's right after GS Camp so I hope she's not too grumpy.... She can be that way.. Grumpy that is :)

Beyond bummed...

There are no other words to describe it.. I'm beyond bummed. I finally got ahold of Janis who is in charge of the trip to Colombia. Poor thing has been dealing with a sick mom and just hasn't been able to have this on her plate. She turned it over to someone else and nothing has been done (or not much). she told me today to assume that we are NOT going. Airfare has risen sooo high that she doesn't think we'll be going. I was so looking forward to going and expanding my horizons! She did say plan on going next year...same time of the year! Next year will be Bogota. Guess I have an extra week in my schedule now :)

*big sigh*

Did I say I was bummed???

The usual Suspects??

Here is Suspect #1


He is accused of using the carpet in front of A's bedroom door as his personal bathroom. He was promptly scolded by the girls and K lost the bet to clean up the wetness he caused. (A had a bad headache) Off K went with her roll of papertowels and grumpy face. I followed a few short minutes later with a grocery sack to put the offending papertowels in. One step onto the carpet and looking at all the water I saw I knew that Suspect # 1 was off the hook!

Here is the actual culprit of the water:


Yep the waterheater had decided that 30 years was enough of a service to anyone and promptly decided to leak out the bottom onto the carpet! Called in Brett from outside where he was about to start mowing the lawn and he took a quick inventory and then went to Home Depot to purchase a new and improved water heater! :)
We cleaned the carpet (wetvac) drained the old one enough to get it out of the closet. Put the new one in and Brett said a few choice words as the new on is much shorter than the old one. Worked and worked and finally had to just put the water back on without the hot connected. Quick trip the next day to Home Depot again another hour or so later we had hot water!

We were just glad that this little culprit decided to leak the day BEFORE we left for Spokane for a few days. Can you imagine the MESS we would have had when we got back?? ummm no thanks! :)

New stuff :)

We went for a drive on Saturday. Not expecting to actually do ANYTHING (thus not cleaning the car out)but look what we ended up driving away with a NEW 2007 charcoal gray Ford Edge. We beat this other couple by minutes that wanted to buy it too. I was afraid for my life for a just a few seconds after I had gone to the Epedition to get paperwork and they were backing out in their old car after losing the deal (kinda thought they might be a tad ticked and run me over! LOL)

so here is my new Girl... name to follow. The expedition was named CARla by the girls so they'll have to think a of good name for this car! :)

Just for fun....

Found this on Sarah's blog.. what fun! Canada looks big and blue on the map but I've really only been in the area of Canada just above Washington and not all the way over there! :) Also small but there is Jamacia. I'm hoping to add to my list of been there.. Colombia S.A. It's still up in the area.. I hope it lands soon!

Where has Lisa been?

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Now for the US... I'm sadly lacking back east experience! LOL

Where has Lisa been?

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

where have you all been???