I RECEIVED MY FIRST BLOG AWARD

I was awarded this great honor by my friend Karen Pederson.

I am supposed to pass it on to six other bloggers. O.K. so I am going to be a rule breaker and only pass it on to three people. Before you start yelling let me explain. The two blogs who inspire me the most Karen P and Lynette K have already received the award and I don't have the other addresses for the other blogs I love (I lost all my bookmarks when I had to rebuild my computer). Soooo long story short I hope no one is offended for being left out.




I choose to pass this award on to three of my favorite bloggers:


1. Dianna B.

2. Ashley M.

3. Mekesha W.



The Rules are:

1. You can only use ONE word for each answer.

2. Pass this along to 6 of your favorite bloggers!

3. Alert them that you have given them this award!

4. HAVE FUN!!!



1. Where is your cell phone? table

2. Your hair? brown

3. Your mother? beautiful

4. Your father? Heaven

5. Your favorite food? Mexican

6. Your dream last night? ?????

7. Your favorite drink? Diet Sunkist (surely that counts as one)

8. Your dream/goal? health

9. What room are you in? family

10. Your hobby? scrappin'

11. Your fear? spiders

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here

13. Where were you last night? sick

14. Something that you aren't? tall

15. Muffins? chocolate

16. Wish list item? beach

17. Where did you grow up? SLC

18. Last thing you did? breakfast

19. What are you wearing? jammies

20. Your TV? on

21. Your Pets? many

22. Friends? greatest

23. Your life? incredible!

24. Your mood? happy

25. Missing Someone? Dad

26. vehicle? truck

27. Something your not wearing? makeup

28. Your favorite store? Target

29. Your favorite color? all

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

32. Your best friend? Darin

33. One place that I go to over and over? store

34. One person who emails me regularly? Dianna

35. Favorite place to eat? Chili's

Vampires vs. Werewolfs

This is for all the Twilight Fans out there (you know who you are!). Aren't these great, I found them at Smith's. I have to admit I like the Buried Pomegranate flavor of the Vampire soda better (sorry Jacob, just remember you will always be better looking) than the Candy Corn flavor. Both flavors have enough sugar in them to supply a third world country for a year so of course the girls loved them both.

November Workshop Christmas Cards and Layouts

I am so excited for Workshops in November. They will be on November 17th and we will be gearing up and getting ready for Christmas. You will be able to choose between a Christmas card workshop designed by my talented friend Karen Pederson or the traditional 2-two page layouts and 6 cards. Me, personally I would choose both. If you would like to do both projects just remember you will have to complete one of the projects at home. Either project will get certainly help get you in the mood for Christmas.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

If you choose the cards you will make 20 cards using the Creative Basics Jingle Collection (x5808, pg. 30), Flurry Dimensional Elements (z1225, pg. 94), Pearl Paint (z1039, pg. 98), Holiday Jingle Stamp Set (C1371, pg. 11), and the Holiday Trinkets Stamp Set (D1366, pg. 11).

WORKSHOP ON THE GO LAYOUTS AND CARDS

If you choose these projects you will use the Jingle Workshop on the Go Kit which includes the "Jingle" paper packet (X7115C, pg. 10), Somethin' Special Stamp Set (only available with the Jingle Kit), and Twinkle Brads (Z1220, pg. 92). I also added the On Target Dimensional Elements (Z1226, pg. 95), and Cranberry Ribbon (Z1103, pg. 91)

Can't wait to see you on November 17th

Donut Falls

A week ago I decided I wanted to see Donut Falls. I used to hike there a lot as a teenager. So off I went by myself to take pictures. I parked in the lot grabbed my camera and walked to the trail head. I guess that it never crossed my addled brain that there would be snow and lots and lots of mud. After much debate I decided to hike to the first bend of the trail. After all, this was supposed to be an easy hike according to the articles I had read. LIARS! I must have missed the part that said it was 3/4 of a mile straight up. Holy Cow I did not remember this hike being sooo uphill. It seems to me that as a kid we practically ran there in 5 minutes or so. Boy has my brain withered away!

After stopping to catch my breath I thought (stupid me) it can't be that much further just keep going. The next time I stopped I was thinking maybe I will just lay here and they can find my body in the spring. But alas (stupid me again) I kept going. Thankfully about 1/2 a mile up the trail leveled off some and was not as steep. So once again (remember my brain is addled) I decided it was a matter of pride to keep going even though my joints and back were screaming "hey stupid, what do you think you are doing this hurts".

So far even though my goal for this hike was to take pictures I had not even taken my camera out of the bag so I decided to stop and take some pictures of the stream under a huge pine tree. As I was taking pictures a mom and two kids came walking down the trail all with big grins on their faces (really do they have to be so happy). The worst part was one of the kids was only about four which really made me feel old and feeble. Almost there she tells me, at which point I decide that all the happy not in pain people should be shipped off to a deserted island somewhere close to the South Pole (o.k., maybe just to Antelope Island). Off I go to the almost there Falls which would be almost there if I were a Giant.

After what seemed like an eternity I arrived at the falls to find out I have to climb down some huge rocks to actually see the falls which are literally just right around the corner. The rock wall is about 10 feet straight down. Now it was a matter of pride to get myself down to see those stupid falls. Luckily no one was around to see my very ungraceful climb down the rocks. And there it was Donut Falls. Not as grand as I remember but still beautiful.

The best part was knowing I did it, me, all by myself without any help. My Rheumatoid Arthritis has stopped me from enjoying a lot of things I used to do so this was a great accomplishment for me. Would I do it again anytime soon, absolutely not, but I am sure proud of what I accomplished. And I even got some great photos along the way!

Blunck Family Photos

The Bluncks are such a great family! I followed them up American Fork Canyon so we could take some family pictures before Brad left for another tour of duty overseas. It was so wonderful to see how they interact with each other and the love they feel for one another. My thoughts and prayers are with the Blunck family as they endure another year apart while Brad defends our freedom and rights and all that makes our country great.

MOOSE

O.K. I admit it one of my favorite things is moose, yes moose. So needless to say when we came around a corner on the Mirror Lake Highway and saw this mama and baby I was ecstatic. What beautiful creatures!They help remind me how fortunate I am to live in this beautiful country created by my Heavenly Father. The kit "Back Country" (X7110B pg. 25) was perfect to highlight my moose pictures. I also used the matching My Stickease (X7110C pg. 25), Metal Brads (Z1217 pg. 92), Adventure Dimensional Elements (Z1158 pg. 95) and Natural Hemp (Z280 pg. 91).

I also created the pages and card below from the same kit using the Let's Go Camping My Acrylix stamp set (C1355).

The Miller Family

I was fortunate enough to be asked to take pictures of my friend Daekon and his cute family. By the way this good looking guy is SINGLE and a remarkable man. So......... if you want a date with an incredible guy let me know.

Aren't his kids adorable!

Halloween Countdown Calendar

Cheyanne, Taylor, and I had a lot of fun creating this Halloween Countdown Calendar last year. The idea came from the Imaginisce website. Instructions can be found at www.imaginisce.com/documents/cache/DOC240_HWAdventCalendar.pdf?20081001095617. My title and envelope panels measure 7"x10" and the center panels measure 10"x14". I used a 2" circle punch instead of a square punch and did not use any of their supplies. It took us only a couple of hours and uses only things I had on hand; scraps of paper, stickers, a manila envelope (mine was even a used one) and a cardboard box (courtesy of Close To My Heart). Cost is probably less than $3. ENJOY! I would love you to email me a picture of yours!

Cheyanne even came up with her own take on the calendar. She used a paper bag book to create a calendar. The pockets make a great place to store the different days. She even created some extra pages in the back to put a picture from Halloween each year. TOO CUTE!

The Best Darn Math Teacher Around

I want to give a shout out to my mom Norma for being the best darn math teacher in the state of Utah. My mom has been teaching math for over 38 years. She is one of those teachers that the kids love and the parents celebrate knowing their kids are in such good hands. She has touched so many and given so much and continues to love each and every student. What math teacher do you know that will sing, dance, make funny faces, or come up with a silly rhyme just to help you learn a new concept. Whatever she does it is certainly working because she had 26% more of her kids pass their CRT's (state proficiency test) than the other teachers at her school, helping her school (West Highschool) to pass the No Child Left Behind Act. WHOOO HOOO! YOU GO MOM, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Thank you from all of us dummies who wouldn't have made it through math without you.

Bountiful Harvest

Jack-o-lanterns galore! We had so much fun this year growing our own pumpkins. Our pumpkin plants grew so big they almost went from one end of our yard to the other (over 150 feet long). We ended up with 18 regular pumpkins and 16 jack-be-little pumpkins. It was so fun to go out everyday and see how much the vine had grown. For a few weeks in July it would grow a foot or more a day. It grew so fast that while we were gone to Washington for 3 weeks it grew right over the top of everything else we had planted in the garden.  We were very lucky to have such a bountiful harvest our first time around that we can hardly wait for next year.

The girls will be very busy the next few weeks carving and decorating.

Hey Birdie

This is one of my creations from my bird, owl, and tree phase. I made this card for my CPR retreat. It uses the new "Twitterpated" kit (X7118B) and Playful Flourishes Stamp Set (D1212). I freehanded the bird and cut her out of Tulip Cardstock and then attached her with dimensional adhesive. Her tail is stamped in Chocolate and Crystal Blue ink. I hope you enjoy my birdie as much as I do!