Beach bums

We know that summer is near the end, the kids are back to school next week, so we grabbed a pizza and took off for the beach. The tide was in, and let me tell you it was up the farthest I have seen it. Another Mom at the beach confirmed this, telling me they come down to the Edmonds beach a lot and this was the highest she had seen it too!

We took some fun pictures of the kids, and got a few of us too. The sunset was gorgeous tonite!

And did you notice our daughter, the falconer?

Happy time in the sun.

Taxi - What Does a Yellow Light Mean?

swap jack buddy

If you haven't visited the red velvet art girls then you are missing out. Recently they put out a post on a sort of "secret santa" idea, and asked for participants. I love the "secret santa" idea, so of course I jumped right on board. It was hard to choose the items to send, because I wanted to send so many things, and since I don't know the person that was given to me, it is hard to decide because you want them to be excited about what you chose for them! Well, my decisions have been made, and said package is on it's way to Ontario, Canada. I won't be posting, just incase my swap partner is lurking here.....so too bad for her, she'll just have to wait! But as soon as I recieve my package (I promise I will try not to stalk the mailman) I will post pictures of my goodies. Can't wait, who doesn't love getting something cool that is not a bill in the mail?

project complete

I did complete my project on Thursday, but just got around to taking a picture. It turned out quite nice don't you think?

a little project

Here is what I have been working on tonite. Well actually I started working on my 80's rewind party album and realized I needed to order a couple of pictures from Costco so I put that away and got inspired to make a little something to hang in our dining area. We have a cutout in the wall between the kitchen and dining table, so I decided to "dress" it up! The pictures are blurry, but I wanted to share it with you.

relaxing

Today I am thankful for a house with no children. Don't get me wrong, I love those girls, but isn't it time for school to start already? They are getting restless, they got their class assignments this week and are super excited about the teachers they are going to have this year. Let me quote Molly "my teacher gives candy" and Hayley "my teacher is the only teacher who throws popcorn parties." You know that school is all about the treats right? NOT the learning!
So today my Mom asked the girls if they wanted to stay over, and they jumped at the chance to spend some time with Grandma. I jumped at it too...Mark is working late so I came home, threw some laundry in the wash and got to work on my always messy scrapbooking room. I am happy to say that today I am thankful for a clean, vacuumed floor because that means I got the room all picked up and organized! And after browsing some blogs today (elsie's and Mara's) I am full to the max with scrapbooking ideas.
So I am off to a relaxing bath with my lemon verbena scented bubble bath and then I am going to put on some of my favorite tunes and get to scrappin.

BIG NEWS

Today my brother Keith called to tell me he is getting married! This is big news, Keith has been married before and let's just say he deserves to be happy now. We love his fiance, Carla, she is super nice and funny and really treats my brother and his kids well. CONGRATS, big brother!

Love this

Candace over at sparkle power
has started a new thing on her blog, which I think is a really good idea so I am going to follow her lead and do the same. It is all about being thankful, and recognizing the things you love.
The other day I was thinking of different sounds I love (while we were camping) and so I have decided to start with that.
1. The sound of water rushing in a creek
2. When my girls are full-on giggling
3. My husband when he is yelling at a football game on t.v.
4. Steel drums
5. When Molly or Hayley get into their own world and are either humming or singing when they think we aren't listening
6. The sound of the train engines running in the yard (crazy, but it is soothing to me)
7. Our cat Smokey makes this throaty sound sometimes instead of a meow, it is hard to describe but it is funny

Bob Marley - Trenchtown Rock: Live At The Rainbow

This is Molly's favorite, she asked me "to put this one on" so here it is. "When the music hits, you feel no pain." SO TRUE.

Lauryn Hill - Turn The Lights Down Low (Live)

first of all I have loved Lauryn Hill's boots for the last 8 years, and second of all I love, love, love this song.

UB40 - Red Red Wine

what a great song, hope you like it too.

America's Got Talent: Cas Haley - Higher and Higher

enjoy!

for the love of reggae

I know that we may be super bored, we are watching www.americasgottalent.com, but I have to tell you that this singer Cas Haley is actually really good. He just sang with UB40 and it was awesome! Years ago, when I was a wee child, I heard this song called "red, red wine" sung by UB40 and thus my love/obsession with Reggae music began! Most of my friends and family don't know the depths of this obsession. I really do like all types of music, depends on my mood, but if I was going to do one of those Rolling Stone magazine "if you had to live on a desert island and could only have ____ albums to take with you what would they be?" Well, they would all be Reggae my dear readers! When I was pregnant with Hayley I would listen to the Legend album by Bob Marley, especially "three little birds" and Hayley would kick in my stomach when the song was on! She loves music to this day too, and she is so lucky to have parents who love music too. What albums would you take to the desert island?

weekend is over

Our camping weekend is over. Mark, the girls and I headed out Friday morning to our spot we call White Pines. It is next to a creek, and not a state camp site. We love it! You can be loud, go exploring, watch squirrels, crazy ducks (we saw about 5 of them that were like the baby Raptors in Jurassic Park), and even see snakes! Which by the way, this was the first time we have seen a snake at this camping spot. The weather was great, and along with this when it is too hot or dry, you can't have a campfire. We were going to try to sneak one in anyways, until the Forest Service Ranger drove back and told us we were not allowed to have fires. We were still able to make smores, by roasting our marshmallows on the little grill.

Saturday, Erin and her kids and Rose and her daughter came over to camp with us. It was fun! My parents showed up later in the day and Mom helped the kids build a fort.

By Sunday we needed to head home, it started raining late Saturday night, so we packed up early Sunday and hit the road.

Elvis Presley ( viva las vegas ) edited djf

This is the song stuck in my head today, which is not a bad thing.

Wedding Crashers

Earmuffs on this one, but isn't Vince Vaughn the funniest? "You motorboatin...."

Viva Las Vegas!

We did a little Vegas shopping last night. My girlfriend Theresa and I hit Macy's to buy the guys their clothes. Macy's was having some pretty killer clearance sales (North Face shirt for $5) up to 75% off the regular price. I really wanted to purchase Mark some "Don Johnson" looking linen pants, but I would still like to be married to him on our actual 10th anniversary! Yes folks, we are nearing the home stretch to 10 years. For our anniversary we will be taking the Gondola ride at the Venetian. Has anyone out there in blog land been on this? We will also be dining on Saturday night at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, which should be excellent! Other than that, lots of pool time, water show at the Bellagio , and wherever else the hot desert wind will take us.
As the King says "Viva Las Vegas".
P.S. my partners in crime, be watching your mailboxes for a special Vegas Mix CD, courtesy of moi.

girls get together (boys too)

Yesterday was fun! Rose, Theresa and I got together and scrapbooked the whole day. Mark showed up at about 3 to hang out with Alan ( who is not 7 and IS allowed to play Halo).
Us girls got a lot done, maybe not as much as we would have liked, but it was still good.
Theresa wants to make it a regular date on Sundays while the boys watch football-and I am game for that! I love the chance to get projects done, and I secretly love the sounds that the boys make when they are "yelling" at the t.v.! I will post some pictures of my scrapbook pages and Rewind Album as soon as I get around to charging up my camera batteries.

I'm lazy

I was going to go back and do a huge post about the Rewind party, but my good friend over at www.ribbonsandbuttons.blogspot.com did an excellent job re-capping the whole evening. For a good laugh go there and check it out!

super kitty

So we live on the second floor in our building and tonite at about 10-ish, I let our cat Smokey out on the deck. She usually tries to catch bugs at night, or just generally lay around. Not tonite though! At 10:30 Mark came home from work to find Smokey out in front of our building meowing in her whiniest of ways. The fool had jumped off of the second story and made it around front! Imagine my surprise when Mark walked through the door with her in his arms.
Guess who is on deck restriction tonite?

A sneak peak of the rewind

I don't have much time to blog, going for a walk with Theresa and Alan in this beautiful sunshine. I wanted to give you a little treat from our "Rewind" party last night. Which, by the way, was the most fun we have ever had at a party! (and I believe Alan-mini-me would agree!)

I also want to say that my husband shaved his head and gave himself a mohawk ALL BY HIMSELF. I had no idea he was going to do that. It was a great surprise.

Anyway-here's a few pictures for you to enjoy. Wish I could post them all.

Madonna Where's The Party @ Japan(Blond Ambition Tour)

I so wanted Madonna's hair piece!

Relax, don't do it...

Are you out there oh lost Frankie Goes to Hollywood fans? I have had that song stuck in my head all day...you know the one that you will now have stuck in your head? You can view it here . Relax, today is my birthday bash my good friends have been planning for a while now. It is called "the rewind" and we are doing it up 80's style. I can't wait to see what everyone has found to wear, it will be totally tubular!!!

Mark is wearing a blond wig (part rocker, part mullet) and these great shoes I found at Payless shoes. Check out the boom boxes and speakers. If you have not been to Payless in the last few months, you have to check them out. They have really stepped up their game and have some very cool shoes.

Well, you all have a great night...I will post some 80's pictures as soon as I can.

Now I am off to groove to Madonna's "Where's the party?". It's going to be bitchin'.

funky fresh scrapbook supplies

As always I like to share good scrapbooking sites that I find. Check out this cool place . I am sure you will like it.

Everybody is a winner!

No, actually just Mark and I. I signed up for a drawing to win a gift certifcate worth $50.00 from Fisher Broadcasting and guess what... they called me today to say I had won! This was just shortly after going through this local coffee place and getting free drinks! Wahoo, luck be our friend today!!!
Mark and I will be dining at Matt's Rotisserie and Oyster Bar in Redmond on their dime. Has anyone ate there before? Just wondering if it is a place you would go to eat.

the rundown

As you can tell by my absence from blogging that we have been busy.
Monday night we went to Marymoor park to an ABC screening of 2 of their new shows. It was fun, despite the cold front that set in when the sun went down. You would have thought it was winter! Two of the professional dancers from Dancing With the Stars were there to perform. Anna, and her husband Jonathan (here is where I should put a link...but I am feeling lazy) were the dancers. We never did get to see them dance, because first off was the premier of "Pushing Daisies". In a nutshell.....DISSAPOINTING. This is a new show I will not be watching in the fall.
The premier was sooooooo long, and we were freezing our you-know-what's off so we decided to leave. It was almost 10:00, so probably a wise choice to head home.
ABC did a good job with keeping everyone entertained before the sun went down. We had free pizza, popcorn and cotton candy. Jonathan and Anna came out and answered questions about the show, we won a Jimmy Kimmel t-shirt and a Grey's Anatomy shirt, got our picture taken with the "Desperate Housewives" and aquired some mirror ball keychains. Plus, a local radio station, asked me to do a little radio spot about which artists I listened to and then a plug for their station! So you may hear me on the radio from time to time.
This is why we love the Puget Sound so much, there are always fun things going on.