AmAzing

I did something amazing today.
Well, at least amazing TO ME. I cleaned out my email 'inbox'.

For the first time in...well, never, I gleaned my emails down from
several hundred to only...drum roll please!

8!
Yes, you read right. I have only 8 emails in my inbox!!!!

Yeah! (I don't know why that makes me so happy,
but it does.)

Wanna know what else is AMAZING?

This little lady:

Her name is Helen, and she is my husband's grandma.

Helen and I share the exact same birthdate!
Except I was born several decades after her, of course.

This August Helen turned a mere 97 years old!
Way to go Helen!
You are an inspiration to us all.
At her age it's cool to state proudly how old you are, but
at my age...well, let's just say I'm 29 and holding. HA!

I hope I make it to 97 years too!!!

Back to Posting -Back to Work -Back to the Rat Race

Hi Everyone. I'm posting for the first time since April. Guess I took a little break. Sometimes posting felt like a chore for me, and I know many of my family and friends enjoyed them...but I decided that I only want to post if it feels FUN. And by that I mean that I, as well as you, get some joy out of my posts!

In 2 days I return to work. A job I feel so blessed to have in the current recession. I had an awesome summer vacation with my family. So hard to believe it's over. Since ya'll would rather look at pictures than "listen" to my ranting...here is a sampling of some of the things we've been doing since April:

Brian acquired a new (used) boat and a new hobby.
She's called "The Slack Off".

A visit to the Lefty store for our southpaws.

In June we took a fabulous vacation to Isla Mujeres, Mexico!

Had a fun reunion of Pepperdine friends in San Ramon, CA.

Sent my son, Zach, off on a week of adventure aboard houseboats on Lake Shasta.

Celebrated my baby girl's 13th birthday.
She waited all year for that cellphone!

Spent a week with my kids
helping out with Vacation Bible School.
They made great crew leaders!

Now, as I write this, my son is in San Luis Obispo, CA
riding quadrunners with his friend.
One last weekend of fun before he starts school as a junior in high school.

My daughter is vegging out, watching tv...2 more weeks before she
has to go back to school. Lucky girl!

Brian, my husband is working on "the Slack Off"
hoping to take us out for a ride later...
and me, I'm just trying to get myself organized.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful summer! Thanks for visiting!

My Baby Boy Turns 16!

I can hardly believe that 16 years ago today I gave birth 3 weeks early to this amazing baby boy. I knew I would name him Zachary 3 years before he was born.

Zachary, when you came into the world I thought you were the greatest thing that ever happened to me. My life-long dream of having a baby boy came true.

Little did I know what an amazing, fun, confounding, exciting, frustrating, emotional yet joyful adventure it would be to be your mom!

I LOVE your sense of humor and quirkiness.

I love your serious side too. I appreciate your intelligence. You have a strong sense of family, and I love how it is important to you.

You can be a great role model to your fellow young man....and a great dancer!

I know as your mom, I often embarrass you, but I am SO proud to be your mom!

I thank God daily for "loaning" you to me!
Happy 16th Birthday!!!!
I love you, Zach!

Mommy's Office Do-Over

Gosh, where does the time go? I haven't posted in about 2 months! Here is one of the projects I was working on around my house. I have a room in my house called "Mommy's Office". Over the years it slowly became "Mommy's Hoarding Room". I had more embarrassing pictures of all the junk I was hoarding, but I can't seem to find them on the computer. You will have to settle for this one picture and take my word for it that this room was in BAD shape!

This picture is actually looking 10x better than what it was. This picture was taken after I had already taken LOADS of junk to Goodwill.

Finally I decided to get REAL about cleaning up my "office" and turn it into a functional space for me to do...what ever I want in here!

And no, this is NOT an April fool's joke...I really did clean up this room!

TA-DA!!! When you enter the room, this is what you see.

My mom gave me her old curtain rod, and I hung up these curtains that my sister gave me years ago. They used to hang in her daughter's bedroom. They are Waverly design and I love them!

There's a spot for my Cricut! What's in the mini armoire behind the Cricut?
Cans of spray paint!

This bookshelf is a bit of an eyesore...just no way to store that stuff cute-ly. I'll have to work on making it look better.

Did you notice my ribbon jars on the shelf?

Here's an up close pic of ribbon jars. I love storing them like this. Got the idea from blog-land. Everyone's doing it!

Finally had the hubby put up this shelf and brackets after acquiring the brackets from my mom almost 10 years ago!
In the baskets up there...those are my childhood friends: Domy, Dewey, Bashful, Nutshell, Monkey and others.

The bulletin board in a frame was a recent project. I got the cute pen holder thingy at a garage sale.

Okay, ready to do some projects in here...just need to find me a cute garbage can first...instead of that cardboard box down there under the windowsill.

Sorry I haven't been able to visit your blogs lately. I should be having more time on my hands soon since my job is making us take furlough days. But that's another story!

Little LOVE-ly Mailboxes

Yesterday I went to Tina's home and learned how to make these cute Valentine mailboxes.

Aren't they ADORABLE??

Here's the lovely Tina and her cutie-pie doggy, Eva. Check out Tina's blog, and all the wonderful things she makes here.

I just couldn't resist...I had to hold Eva too. Smile Eva!

Julia & Judy, the Stampin' Up girls taught us how to make these. Here's my finished products. Check out Julie's blog to see all the cute stuff she makes including these mailboxes.

I L.O.V.E. it!!!
And guess where you can get the undecorated, plain mailboxes? The dollar section at Target! Awesome!

I ran over there and got me a few more mailboxes to decorate. Look what else you can get in the dollar aisle...Valentine paper!

When I got home my daughter and I made more mailboxes.

My mom gave me this cupid punch years ago. I finally got to use it.

Pretty mailboxes all in a row.

Ready to be filled with surprises...

Thanks Tina, Julie and Judy for the inspiration!

These mailboxes were a cinch to make...just cover with scrapbook paper and embellish with ribbon, buttons, stamped images etc...Have fun!

New Year's Clean Up & De-Clutter

During my week break after Christmas I took advantage of the time I was home to go through my home and PURGE!

Purge, Purge, Purge and De Clutter!

I also went through boxes of old papers and shredded 'n shredded until my shredder overheated 3 x!

That's what I get for saving papers since the 1980's!

Then I went through my upstairs bookshelves and purged books.

I no longer desire to be a Book Hoarder.

Some books I am saving to swap on Swaptree, some I am giving away...and the rest get to go to Goodwill!

Here are some of the many bags-o-clutter that I got rid of...

My home "feels" great without all those added pounds of junk!

You should try it. It's an awesome way to start the new year!

Happy Purging!

December 2009 Round-Up

Seems I've been MIA for the month of December,
but I didn't want to move on into the new year without
filling ya'll in on some of the things we did.

We started out December with a new pet:
meet Yoshi, the bearded dragon.

Just so you know, it wasn't MY idea. It was my
daughter... and my husband, who couldn't say, "No."
after days of begging and pleading from my daughter.

The first Christmas party I attended was my
work party at the Diehl's home.
It was attended by one the 3 Wise Men (Royce) and his
assistant, Crystal. Too funny!

I got to see an old friend from highschool days-
Mark Troutner. His wife, Theresa works
at my school!

Here's my daughter, Summer, starring in the 7th
grade Christmas skit at Vineyard Christian Middle School. She's the girl on the right kneeling down and praying.

Christmas Eve celebration at my in-laws home.
Zach, Summer and their cousins Courtney, Brittney and Kalie.

Christmas morning at our home.

Christmas afternoon at my parents home.
The Louie cousins: Amanda, Tara, Chad and Carson.

Summer and Paulina decorate cakes.

Ta-da!!!


It was a fun and very blessed month.


My son passed his written driver's test a couple of days before Christmas. So now we are teaching him to drive. Scary! Please keep us in your prayers! Thanks!!!