Blah, blah, blog!

We're All In!

Last Friday night, my text message beeped about 9:30 p.m.  It was Wendy rallying everyone to go online and register for the City of Hope Walk for Hope on the following Sunday morning.  Our good friend and neighbor Stephanie just finished her fight with breast cancer a few short months ago and the City of Hope saved her life.  Stephanie and her husband and kids planned to do the walk and she didn't want to make a big deal about it.  Wendy heard about it and said, "Of course it is a big deal.  It is the biggest deal" and encouraged all of us to get off our asses and walk a few miles on Sunday morning for Team Cullen.  So we laced up our shoes, threw a few bucks down and put on our Team Cullen shirts.

Sunday morning, we met at the Cullen house at 6:30 a.m.  Someone had run by the Corner Bakery and picked up coffee (God Bless them).  Wendy had picked up Team Cullen (a la Twilight tees) at Nordstrom Rack for us the night before and my girls we up and ready to go.  T and J were at camping and on their way home for an early football game.  They had no idea we were on our way to the walk.  We all caravaned to the City of Hope campus and set out to get it done.  We had a fantastic time!

 

We've all committed to be back next year.  Candy will be walking with us!  She'll be done with her treatment and be ready, rested, strong and fierce!  Thank you  City of Hope for your awesome research and cures!

Awesome, wonderful, fabulous weekend in The Desert!

My end of summer celebration involved two college girlfriends, a weekend in Palm Desert at the Villa, sushi, chick flicks, an introduction to the Gin Ricky.

Tia and Beth are sorority sisters from U of A.  Tia came to visit me in Ecuador where we adventured in the sierra, jungles and the Galapagos Islands. Three days after my return to the U.S. after my Peace Corps service, I flew to San Francisco where she was living and she helped rehab me back into the U.S. with spa treatments, a haircut and clothes shopping.  It was during that visit I noticed a cute Aussie guy who clearly wanted to get to know her better.  I slipped the Aussie her phone number and history was made.  They will celebrate 11 years of marriage AND living in Adelaide Australia this fall!

Beth was Tia's AOII little sister.  She lived in San Francisco when Tia did and they have remained close over the years. Beth married a Brit and lived in the U.K. for over three years.  She now resided in San Diego with her British husband and her adorable three year old Georgie.  Tia and Beth can related to each other in a unique way as they have both lived as expats.  I have too, but the English and Australian experiences have much in common.

It was so fantastic to spend time with these two girls!  We did EVERYTHING that sounded good for our girls weekend: pedicures, movies, long leisurely dinners sharing appetizers, talking for HOURS about everything going on in our lives, reading, shopping, book store, lots of coffee, cocktails, sushi, board games, frozen yogurt, chips & salsa & margaritas under misters on El Paseo drive and more.  Yes....it was a fantastic time.

I am now ready to take on the new school year!

Tea Time Out for Moms

My three children have all attended a very special preschool with the most amazing woman: Miss Martha.  The day P "graduated" from Miss Martha's preschool five years ago, I attended the performance, hugged my five year old, and left to go have Baby D two hours later.  Miss Martha went on to teach J two years later, and finally Baby D this year.

D has had a terrific, wonderful, growth-filled year with Miss Martha.  I didn't realize how emotional Miss Martha is about the fact that she will graduate my last child out of her school in a little more than a month.  This is a woman who came to the hospital as P had her surgery and prayed with us and sat with us the entire time.  She is so special to our family and she has impacted our lives more than she will every know.

Miss Martha hosted a tea for the moms of her class on Saturday.  It was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL garden tea party!!  Every aspect was perfect.  She worked so hard to make everything perfect for us.

She served homemade scones with clotted cream, lemon curd, and blackberry preserves. This was followed by a tomato bisque, then a variety of tea sandwiches, mushroom and sausage quiche (to DIE for!), and finally a peach Brown Betty.

The tea, of course, was wonderful, but I was quite taken by the pink sugar-rimmed water glasses.  So much beauty and care in every single thing she prepared for us.  She just wanted us moms to relax and enjoy.  What a gift!

On each chair, Miss Martha placed a pillow with a sweet Mommy & Me photo on one side, and the stitched likeness of our child's hand print and signature on the other side.  Precious.  We also got a collection of photos taken throughout the school year, that made us all stop and think about how time flies.

Thank you Miss Martha, for not only a beautiful tea party filled with your extra special touches, but for loving and teaching my children in the way only you can. 

My batteries are now fully recharged....

I spent the weekend on the other side of the country, surrounded by some of my favorite people, doing my favorite things. I attended Scrapbowl '07 last year and made up my mind before the weekend ended that I was definitely coming back for '08. I cannot think of a single thing that could have made this fabulous weekend one tiny bit better. IT ROCKED!

Karen and Mara jumped on my plane in Phoenix and we all flew into Dulles. The event was held in a HUGE expo hall in Chantilly, VA with a total of 800 women spending the weekend between classes and cropping. Fantastic.

Get Croppinwas founded by Marirosa and Ashlie, two girls who wanted to bring women together to share scrapbooking. Legend has it that their small crop group started in a library and grew into small venue paid events. Last year they hosted more than 300 scrapbookers and welcomed talented instructors from across the country. THIS year, the event grew to accommodate 800 scrapbookers/paper/life/artists, fantastic technique or concept-driven classes taught by well-known instructors, multiple vendors, massage therapists, food vendors (including a barista!!!), and a HUGE expo hall with plenty of workspace, lighting and creativity flowing throughout every nook and cranny of the building. Well done ladies.

A few of my favorite things about the weekend:
- Seeing Korie and her wonderful, loving, generous girlfriends who open their arms and welcome me into their fold. Jenny, Laurie, Kitty, Amy, Beth, Suni, Cenia, Pat, Jeanette, Carol, Marirosa, Ashlie and so many more. These ladies are genuine, talented and so much fun. They represent the best of what women can be to each other and how stinkin' cool it is that this hobby can bring people together. I love this.

- Shopping at Tysons Square and visiting Teavana. I bought a bag of Mate Vana herbal tea and a blend of herbal Caribbean Breeze and Key Lime for brewing iced tea. Seriously delicious.

- Friday night's keynote address with Stacy Julian. I subscribe and really enjoy my Simple Scrapbooks magazine. I love her books, The Big Picture and Photo Freedom (now in my hot little hands). She is a very gifted speaker and shared some insights about this hobby, this industry, and how we can find our creative flow. Part motivational speech, part practical common sense, I found myself nodding in agreement and walking away energized and open to my own authentic creative self. Fabulous.

- My Sunday morning Inspire Me class with Kristina Contes. I loved the project and I loved the way it opened me up to think about what inspires me. Kristina's style is so edgy and urban and it was great fun to leaf through her mini books that are really more journals with layers, quotes, technique, thoughts and ideas. I LOVED this class. I definitely need to spend more time in self-reflection and the whole process of creating something out of that awareness just works for me.

- My 3 1/2 hour layover in Chicago Sunday afternoon. At first I bitched about it, then I grabbed a table near a rain-streaked window and sat and wrote for the next two hours. It was good.

- Reading I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids cover-to-cover on my flight home. Quick read, very validating. Offers solutions, but is really more like a nice long bitch session with a best girlfriend...it gets it all out and you feel SO MUCH better knowing you are not alone. I can't say that it qualifies as ground-breaking or great literature, but because you can consume it an afternoon, and probably feel a whole lot better for having read it, I do recommend this book.

This was truly a fantastic weekend: girlfriends, laughing until it hurt (and Korie laughed herself into an asthma attack), shopping, trying new things, stretching our creative muscles, getting massages on our sore muscles, eating junk food (back on the shake wagon today), reading, writing, listening, and reflecting....it was all so good!

Thank you Marirosa and Ashlie for working endless hours to give women like me a weekend like this. I can't wait for next year!

Teavana: Heaven of Tea

Aren't gifts from girlfriends just the best?  Korie sent me my Christmas present and opened my world up to something new: Mates from Teavana.  She sent me this fantastic Perfect Tea Maker, a selection of tea and mate (my new best friend), a tea measuring spoon, and a pound of German rock sugar.

This is from the Teavana site: Mate Tea: Maté is a wild shrub from Argentina and a relative of the holly bush. Maté tea contains a stimulant similar to caffeine, although without the jitteriness or addictive tendencies. Many people say Maté contains caffeine, while just as many people swear it is a different version xanthene called Matéine. Reports show that the blends of natural chemicals present in Maté react differently on the central nervous system, as compared to just caffeine or guarana.

Try MatéVana as an excellent transitional tea to get you off coffee, and on to tea.

I love this stuff. Looking through their catalog, I see a number of teas that I need to stock: The Tranquility Night, Night Tea, more mates, and of course the Egyptian Chamomile for P. 

This is the perfect gift at the perfect time.  I gave up Starbucks.  Yep. No more lattes for me.  I'm switching to straight homebrew in the AM and tea in the PM.  That is, until I hit VA for Scrapbowl next month.  Then all bets are off and I'll be loving on my venti paper cup.

Oh, and I am staying on track with the LOAD Challenge.  I completed three LO's yesterday, but they all focused on back to school with class pictures and teacher names.  I didn't have time to Photoshop out all of the details, so I am keeping those off the web.  But trust me, they are cute!

I sat up last night watching Desperate Housewives and Cashmere Mafia with six scrapbooks torn apart all over the floor.  I organized all of the pages and now the books make sense.  I also spent time loading my unscrapped photos into the Target 3-ring photo album (4 photo layout) in yet another effort to organize my workflow.

It's back to school today for J.  P's surgeon will not sign her release and wants her home until February 4th.  She is doing really well. I think she would be fine in school, but the doctor feels she needs to take it slow and reduce the potential for over doing it.

Happy Monday!

Let's Go...GNO!

So....Friday afternoon, I was minding my own business, trying to get some phone calls made and get to school when Wendy called.  She said she had an inside lead on scoring some Hannah Montana tickets for the Pond. "Are you in?" she asked.  "Sure", I said, certain it would be for sometime next month or next year or whenever Hannah Montana came to town. I really should pay closer attention before I agree to things.

It was sometime Friday night while we were working the Country Fair Jail booth when I realized she meant Saturday night.  As in, November 3, 2007.  Her hookup wouldn't know whether or not we could get tickets until 11 A.M.Saturday morning.  Wendy called me during J's football game to say we won't know until 1 o'clock. and if we got them, we would have to be ready to go by 2'o clock because the concert started at four.  She was speaking in code, because none of us wanted to hint at this until we had the tickets in our hands.  Offering up a night seeing Hannah Montana live, then telling the girls "Sorry, we tried" wouldn't have been good.

Sure enough, at one o'clock on the dot, my cell phone rang and she said, "Would you and P be interested in a Girls Night Out at 2 'o clock?  Meet in front of Stephanie's house...we'll probably go to Build-A-Bear or something".

I scrambled to pick up, running to my mom's house, trading D for P (thanks Mom!).  We showered, dressed and met the other five girls and three moms and caravaned to the Pond in Anaheim (now known as the Honda Center).

Stephanie and I got the quiet car without kids, following Wendy's packed Suburban. Wendy jumped out to run into pick up the tickets across the street from the Pond and the girls caught a glimpse of Miley's hot pink tour bus in the parking lot and went on and on about "how lucky" the girls were who were going to see the concert.  They still had NO CLUE!

Wendy and Denise called my cell and put theirs on speaker phone when the finally broke the news to the girls that, yes, they too will get to see Hannah Montana...RIGHT NOW!  The shrieking, piercing six-girl strong screaming started then and only got louder as we worked our way into the packed arena.

 

  Our over-priced, three rows from the parking lot, vertigo-inducing seats from the nosebleed section gave me the best seat in the house: right next to my nine-year old daughter who lit up with excitment and wonder and screamed with emotion and delight as the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana took the stage.  Now, that, was a seat worth having!

There has been little else on my mind this week than my best friend's husband.  At this very moment, as I write, he is undergoing a triple bypass surgery.  He is 37 years old.  He has a wife of six years and a beautiful two year old daughter.  Thanks to his intinct and paying attention to his body, he will also have new life, greater health and will know first hand about the miracle of second chances.

I have tortured myself with the "what if" questions all week.  That really isn't useful for any of us, because we didn't have to go there.  The time between discovery and intervention has been the most stressful.  Waiting all week for Friday morning's surgery, for me at least, has found me holding my breath.  And then I remember to breath and I feel my faith and know with absolute certainty that this family is going to be just fine.

Oh how I wish I was a quick car trip away.  These are the times when all of the girlfriends are supposed to be rallying around the friend in need, taking her kids, giving her a break, bringing her casseroles, and just BEING there.  It is killing me that I can't drop everything and run to help, to just sit with her and let her know that I love her and her family and that I would do anything to help her shoulder the burden and stress.  I know she would do it for me.

I send my love, my prayers and my certainty to my best friend, her husband and her family.  I want her to know that while I may try to distract myself with Photoshopping Swedish names for cheap Ukrainian-made furniture for my blog posts, really, little else has been on my mind this week than B's health.

Friday night dinner party

Sometime Thursday afternoon, Wendy decided to throw a dinner party for us Friday night.  Of course we are always game for a reason to gather, so gather we did.

She planned a grown-up poolside dinner party with real table settings and a "no kids allowed" policy while we dined.  It was perfect.

The girls arrived at 7pm for cocktails and appetizers.  Wendy had arranged for four manicurists from our favorite nail shop around the corner to come set up for pedicures for all of us!  All of the nail girls know all of us on a first name basis and they were so sweet and funny.  I think they had a good time too.

The guys arrived with all of the kids in tow about 8:30pm.  Five husbands and 14 kids came busting through the door.  They were all given orders by Wendy to march straight through the house back to the pool and "don't even look over at your mom".  Inside the house was indulgent bliss: tranquil music, a glass of wine and someone rubbing my feet.  Outside in the pool, was piercing kid-screaming, splashing, and typical chaos.  And the Dads were in charge!

When our pedicures were finished, Wendy opened up the offer to the guys and several jumped at the chance to have their feet pampered.  I admire that in a man.

After we were all blissed out with fresh French Pedicures, we dried off all of the kids, sent them to the boys vs. girls rooms to either watch Hanna Montana or build LEGO cities and play video games.  They all did really, really well at leaving us alone.  All except Baby D, of course.  She wandered out about six times just to check on us.

I didn't get great shots of our dinner table, but you get the gist....lots of candles and tiki torches, fantastic food, toasts to good friends and great (quiet) conversation WITHOUT kids and constant interruption.

Aahhhh....life is good!

Nice people rule

I just have to acknowledge and say thank you to the wonderful, generous, caring people that have reached out to me through this blog.  I am truly touched by your words and acts of kindness and generosity.  These past couple of weeks could have been difficult, had I needed to learn about the whole gluten-free living stuff on my own.  But I didn't.  So many of you posted comments sharing your experiences, emailed me with recipes, mailed me boxes of frozen pizza crusts (thanks Tara!), sent me your best sites, tips and resources for figuring this all out. So much knowledge and so willing to share...and I am so lucky to have you willing to share it with me! Kel forwarded an organic mini farm listing to me and baits me with tales of the PNW lifestyle.  I will meet her for coffee someday! Even comments posted asking how a bread recipe turned out or how its going mean a lot to me and I want you to know that I am grateful for your readership and your friendship.

If that wasn't enough, just yesterday I posted about wanting a 3-tier wire basket.  I was blown away when I opened my email and read that Jenn just happens to have two that she isn't using and she offered them to me.  Wow!  Can you imagine?  I'll have to figure out something nice to do back for Jenn!

When I started this blog it was a communication vehicle for our distant family and friends.  I started with kid updates and an occassional recipe.  Now I love to get instant feedback on design, decorating and lifestyle ideas, opinions on pop culture references and the soothing assurance of my peers who have walked in my shoes. I value my blog as a real resource and I love that I can come here and share an interest or a need and we have a forum in which to contribute to each other.  Check out my sidebar and the blogs of other women who have so much to share.  I love reading about their lives.

Life is never easy and no one ever promised it would be, but it sure is a lot more fun when you are surrounded with good friends and nice people.

Thank you!

PS: While searching for an image appropriate for today's post, I stumbled across this chart highlighting world religions and The Golden Rule.  I thought it was cool:

Have a beautiful day!

Blue Hawaii

When I was nine, my grandmother took me to Hawaii for the first time.  My aunt and uncle have lived on the northshore for almost 40 years and we spent a fantastic week beachcombing, attending luaus, visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center and doing all things Hawaiian.  I think that first big trip sparked my love of travel and adventure.

P turned nine this spring and her grandmother made the same offer. P's favorite book series is The Royal Diaries.  She has read Kaiulani's biography at least three times.  She has watched the Travel Channel and spent nights dreaming of swimming with dolphins.

My mom's best girfriend and her granddaughter joined them in Hawaii and the fab four did Hawaii in grand style.  They started the week at my aunt's beach  bungalow with a private beach and the Big Blue Pacific right out their French bedroom doors.  Then they moved next door to my aunt's friend's home: a private estate with a lanai and more sweeping views.  My aunt did everything do make their stay just right with a perfect blend of family hospitality, private accomodations, tour  guiding and the BEST DAY OF MY YOUNG DAUGHTER'S LIFE: SWIMMING WITH THE DOLPHINS!



After four days in Oahu, the fab four jumped on a plane and finished out the week in Kauai at a grand resort.  The grandmas spoiled the girls rotten with plush robes and room service, sand castle building classes on the beach and pool hopping through the resorts EIGHT pools.  Man, will my kid ever be knocked down a few pegs when and if she ever gets to go on a vacation with her parents.  Thanks Mom.

In the photo below, the girls are wearing matching shirts that say, "Today is my Lucky Day!"  They wore them to the airport on their way to the island.  I hope they KNOW it!

We have unpacked the sandy swimsuits, faded leis, and seashell treasures from beachcombing.  We have allowed her to sleep in, hole up and dive in to her new Harry Potter book with plenty of cuddle time with her pup Bella in her lap.  Princess P is back from Hawaii and did she ever have a fantastic trip!