Clear Creek Camp

60 - 5th grade girls; $60 billion dollars

an indoor craft; $1000

a heated cabin with bathroom; $1 million

being the group with the fastest time to start a fire; $800

not falling into the hot lava; $1500

HUGE squirrel's nest (squirrels included); $600

making it through the rope course; $900

Bunk Beds with paper thin mattresses; -$5000

Waking up to 5" of snow; $2000 (until I had to scrape it off the truck, then its value went way way down)

The chance to spend this time with my incredible daughter; PRICELESS

Twas The Night Before Christmas

These are some pages I did for a quarterly page swap. My inspiration was a quilt that I fell in love with and hope one day to finish. In the meantime, I am looking forward to filling these pages with Christmas Eve pictures from this year. We always have a big Christmas Eve Dinner (so we have nummy yummy leftovers for Christmas Day), the girls get new p.j.'s, we play games, and wait for Santa. I think the anticipation of Christmas Day is just as good if not better than the day itself.

If you would like to recreate these pages I used all Close to My Heart products except the thread for Santa's reins. The pages, Santa, and reindeer, are black CS (#1386 pg. 100), moon - Sunny Yellow CS (#1225 pg. 101), twas the night before words and holly leaves - Olive CS (#1245 pg. 101), Christmas words and holly berries - Tulip CS (#X5753 pg. 101), house - Brown Bag CS (#5644 pg.100), snow - White Daisy CS (#1385 pg. 100), windows - Honey (#X5668 pg 101). The smoke from the chimney is two spiral clips. The holly and letters were cut out with my Cricket. The shingles on the house are from the Cupcake Sprinkles Stamp Set (D1336 pg. 60). The bricks and window casing uses the November Stamp of the Month (shown below) - Around the Block (#D1377 pg 109).

November Stamp of The Month (click here for more information)

Science Day

O.K. don't hate me but I spent yesterday going to classes and having lunch at the U of U for free. Yes FREE! Once a year the University holds a science day for High School students and their parents. My daughter Taylor, a junior at Westlake High School, wants to be a Pediatric Endocrinologist (wow that was a mouthful typeful. LOL). This was her second year (last year dad went, this year was all me! YEAH).


Our first class was Fluorescent Microscopy. We looked at yeast cell protein that had GFP (green fluorescence protein) and RFP (red fluorescence protein) from the jellyfish attached. When you attach the jellyfish protein to another species protein that protein will also fluoresce. It was so exciting! By studying how the different proteins work in the cell this lab is hoping to learn how to turn off the Cancer and HIV triggers and stop the disease from spreading. I hope I didn't bore you too much, but it was so exciting to see the beginning stages of a possible cure that could save millions of lives. Yes, the truth is out I am a total science geek. The best part of the whole day was when Taylor was offered a 4 week internship with this lab next summer. WHAAA HOOO! She is so excited she can hardly stand it.

Our second class was Extreme Makeover: Human Body Engineering. This class was about how Metallurgy and medicine come together. We learned about artificial joints, stents, and disk replacements. We have come so far but have even farther to go. For every problem we solve we create a new problem to be solved.

Our last class was Astronomy. We were able to look through the telescopes at the Observatory. One telescope was pointed at the sun. All Taylor and I saw was a big red blob. Apparently we are part of the unlucky few who have a hereditary eye problem and can't distinguish the different colors put out by the sun. Taylor looked on the bright side (no pun intended) and decided that knowing she couldn't major in Astronomy had an upside. She has one less major to think about leaving 75 other majors to consider. That girl cracks me up!

We ended the day with a yummy lunch and awards ceremony. The College of Science has a random drawing and gives away six $500 scholarships during lunch. Taylor may not have won a scholarship this year but the excitement for college and learning new things is a prize that is immeasurable.

Another Scrap Project

This is our Thanksgiving Advent Calendar. The idea came from a Craft Day at our church. It is made using a muffin tin, paper scraps, ribbon scraps, stamps, and brads. Inside each tin is a different thing to be thankful for. Each square measures 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 and is held on by a magnet attached to the corner on the back. The only thing I bought for this project was the muffin tin (I bought mine at Walmart for under $4). I love (really I mean LOVE) projects that use my extra supplies. Talking about being thankful, I want my family and friends to know how THANKFUL I am for their love and support. I am so very blessed and feel like the luckiest girl around!

Ballroom Dance Competition

Westlake High School hosted a Ballroom Dance Competition on October 31st. I can think of no better treat on Halloween than watching my daughter make it to the semi-finals at her first competition. She did fantastic considering she had to find a new partner an hour before the competition started. Taylor has worked really hard and I know she will go far. YOU GO GIRL! WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

TAYLOR AND JEREMY