Reason #1 why we...

...should get another dog.  As I posted back in January, our pomeranian of 13 years died.  It has been REALLY quiet around the house (well at least the few minutes before Hope gets home from school).  LOL!

I am totally ready to get a dog and Hope was ready the day after he died, but Joe isn't quite there yet.  SO...I am starting a list of reasons why the time is nearing for us to get a dog.  :)  Add in your own version of a maniacal laugh here....wahahahahaha.

So reason #1was born upon a comment Joe made this weekend.  He told me he used Hope's new toy broom to sweep up a LOT of food on the kitchen floor.  WELL...if we had a dog, said dog would eat all crumbs of food dropped onto the floor.  Just food for thought...

Well, this post is being added to the site a little earlier than it normally would.  Due to snow, Hope's school got out 2 hours early.  So I have been catching up on some things.  By the time they called it an early out the snow had stopped, but by the time they got home it had started snowing again.  I guess it is supposed to snow all night.  We will see what tomorrow brings.  Maybe a late start or another snow day.  I hope not, we are already getting out sometime in early June.

Horse update...I guess Hope changed the names of the two smaller horses to Regan and Georgia.  They are friends of her's from school and they really like horses.  She played race horse all afternoon on Sunday and gave her horses gold medals after each win.  Pretty cute stuff!

Another funny moment...although I wish I could remember the exact words she used.  The other night we went out to dinner to celebrate national Margarita Day.  :)  Before our food arrived, out of the blue she asked Joe and I when we would need to pay our taxes to President Obama.  What????  We just looked at each other and cracked up.

How about a blast from the past...when Hope and I went shopping for her dress for the daddy daughter dance we went into Claire's to get some jewelry too.  I saw this...

I remember looking through my Grandma Palmer's jewelry box and she used to have an owl neckless nearly identical (at least from what I remember) to this one.  Made me think of her and Grandpa too.  :)

Here is Lauren and Hope at Christmas...

In honor of my niece Lauren's birthday today, here are some birthday related cards to share.  Happy Birthday Lauren!

And this one is in honor of my friend Evon...she turns 50 TODAY!!!!  

Lucky for her she is in Costa Rica celebrating her birthday.  Or maybe lucky for me since I am going to share these photos of her.  Again...insert your own maniacal laugh HERE!  LOL!!!!

On not just one occasion, but two separate times she let the neighbor girls put make-up on her.  And she made the mistake of sharing these photos with me a LONG time ago.  Lucky for me I kept a copy of them.  HAHAHAHA!  That is what you get for putting a picture of me up at work and telling everyone I was turning 60!  Good Grief!  :)

Hope you have having a lovely time on your trip and see you when you get back.

Everyone else, hope you have a great night!

Darla

Best Day EVER!

This was the declaration made by Hope on the way home from the family fun night at her school.  She was pretty excited since she won the raffle prize she REALLY wanted.  In fact, it was the only raffle that she put her tickets in for a chance to win.

Yep that is one giant horse, and of course two small ponies too.  She has named them Arabella and Tori for the kids and Sofia is the mom.  :)  She is one excited girl tonight, and of course they are all sleeping with her too.  Good thing she has a full size bed so there is room for everyone.

They had all kinds of games, but I think Hope played Bingo the most.  I was a volunteer tonight, so I got to serve pizza all night long.  :)  We had a LOT left over, so we started selling whole boxes of pizza and we sold them right up to the very end.  BUT we finally got them all sold! 

Friday after school, several kids in the neighborhood talked me into to taking them sledding.  Luckily, one of the other moms came along too.  I was a little worried about keeping track of 5 kids, but more worried how I would keep track of them all if something happened to one of them.  Anyway, we didn't have to worry about all that and they all had a great time.

As I was looking through these photos, I realized that all but one of the kids in the pictures are adopted (and one foster).  How ironic is that?????

I love our neighborhood and getting to know all the kids and parents.  As Hope has gotten older, and once she was in school, we really started to get to know a lot more of our neighbors.  

Some of the same kids showed up again today and wanted me to take them sledding again, but I had a few other things I needed to get done.  So they went back for a second try and one of the other moms and finally got them to agree to take them.  FUNNY!

I hope there are some good snow related scrapbooking lines that come out this summer at CHA because I have a LOT of pictures to scrapbook from this winter.  :)

And speaking of scrapbooking...here are a few cards I created using the scraps from the Easter Egg Hunt layout (and a few other odds and ends too) I shared in my last post.

I love using up older supplies when creating cards.  I have had these metal flowers for a LONG time.

I bought these hexagon dies a while back and I finally broke them out to create this card.

There is that other metal flower....

Strangely, I feel a sense of accomplishment when I use up all of a product and get to through away the packaging, etc.  I feel the same way when I use up as much of a set of scraps that I can to create cards.  Luckily, I have a great place to sell them here locally and to my friends and family too.  I helps support my habit.  LOL!!!!!  Because I always need more STUFF!!!!!

Ok, I am off to create some more cards from layout scraps that I have had for quite a while.  It is finally their time to shine.  :)  I will share them soon!

Everyone have a great night!

Darla

Great weekend!

I got a surprise text on Friday afternoon that my BFF Kristi was going to come visit.  We hadn't seen each other since last fall, so we were overdue for a catch up session.  It was great seeing her and her son Owen.  Hope and Owen had a great time playing with my old lego sets and some of Hope's Toy Story legos too.

Joe was kind enough to watch the kids for us so we could go see a chick flick.  We went to see Safe Haven, based on a Nicolas Sparks book.  I love all his books and enjoyed the movie too.  I had to laugh because I actually had the story of this book mixed up with a different book by Danielle Steele called Safe Harbor.  So I couldn't figure out why the movie wasn't following the book until I realized I was thinking of a different story.  LOL!

And of course we did a little scrapbook shopping and already planned our next visit in March.  YEAH!

Not much else going on so will just share some crafty inspiration...I haven't shared a layout in a while and since it is supposed to snow again this week maybe I can scare it away with a Spring themed layout.  :)  Wishful thinking?  I am pretty sure I heard somewhere in the neighborhood of at least a foot of snow or more in some areas around here.  YIKES!

I just realized I don't have the date on this layout (unless I added it after I took the pictures).  This was from Easter 2012 down at Grandma Deloris' farm.

And here are a few cards using the scraps from this layout.

Well, that is it for tonight!  Have a good one!

Darla

Beware...Cuteness ahead!

Last Friday night was the Daddy Daughter dance at our church.  We got back from vacation just in time for Joe to take Hope and this year Annie and Allie joined them too.

Don't they all look cute (and Joe looked very handsome too).

They had a lot of fun dancing, eating pink cupcakes and making crafts.

Today I survived the Spring Party at Hope's school.  Somehow I ended up being the ONLY parent available to help out.  YIKES!  Luckily, Hope's teacher was able to help me out too.  She covered passing out treats to half the kids and I handled the other half in a game.

We played Minute to Win it games.  I had found the idea from Pinterest.  I used plastic cups and marshmallows.  The marshmallows were cheap, but I would reconsider if you do something like this because the kids kept stepping on them and they got squished into the carpet.  EWWWWW!  Other than that, the kids had a lot of fun and I had to keep reminding them not to eat the marshmallows after they had been on the floor.  GROSS!  Cracked me up, because most of them would have been willing to eat the ones we used during the game if I had let them.  LOL!  Luckily we had lots left over, so I passed out the clean ones to the kids that didn't get enough sugar from the cupcake treats.  :)

Here is Hope sneaking a peek into her Valentine bag of treats she got from her classmates.  It looked like a LOT of candy in there.  What ever happened to the good old fashion paper Valentine cards.  Now we get to deal with the sugar battle of limiting how much she gets to eat and when she can earn some to eat, etc.  FUN!

Since I had my camera at work, I took a few better pictures of the roses Joe sent me for my birthday.  They still smell very fragrant and are opening up beautifully!

Well, I need to go get my little mermaid dressed and fed so we can head off to the Y for her swimming lessons.  :)  She is still in the beginner level, hopefully the fourth time is the charm for her to move up. :)

Well, now for your dose of creativity...in honor of Valentine's Day here is a card I made for a couple that celebrate's their wedding anniversary on Valentine's Day and my mother in law Karen wanted a special card to give to them that would celebrate both.

This card is the one I made and gave to Joe this morning...

...and this one was for Hope.  She had been bugging me for quite some time about a kids size broom at a store near her dance studio and she wanted it really bad.  So I decided this would be a good time to get it for her.  She was pretty excited.  I kind of am too because I am hoping it means she will use it to help me keep the floors clean in the kitchen.  Our floors have never looked so bad.  After Reilly died, we don't have an automatic "dropped" food eater to clean up all those food crumbs.  We REALLY need to get a dog soon!  (hint hint to Joe).  :)

Even Joe got crafty and made me a card too using the pictures from our recent trip.  What an awesome husband I have.  My craftiness is rubbing off on him.  :)

Alright, that is it for now.  Have a good evening and Happy Valentine's Day!

Darla

Birthday Week continues...

Between my family and Joe's family, we have a LOT of birthdays to celebrate in January and February.  This year seemed to have a LOT of milestone birthdays too.

Today is my mother-in-law's 70th birthday.  Happy Birthday Karen!

Here is the card we sent her...she loves birds, so I think I always seem to make her cards with birds on them.  :)  This one was super easy.  I was mostly just cutting paper that had the design on it already and adding the "to celebrate" letter stickers and the chipboard numbers.  It is hard to tell, but the numbers were sprayed with the Heidi Swapp color shine spray so it has a shimmer to it.  I loved the way it looked in person.

On to other news...

We got to see the costumes for Hope's dance recital this week.  They will be performing Swan Lake this year, which will be the purple tutu costume and their tap dance will be to Grand ole Flag in the patriotic costume.  VERY CUTE!

Hope has been very worried lately about how she is ever going to learn how to drive since she is so scared.  LOL...she is only 8!!!  So we tried to calm her nerves about getting a learners permit and practicing in a parking lot (or farm field like I did) and taking a class to learn all the rules of driving, etc.    We also joked with her and told her that if she was too scared to learn how to drive then we wouldn't have to buy her a car!  :)

Alright, here are a few more fun cards to share with you today...

Hope you have a great night and a wonderful Valentine's Day tomorrow.

Darla

40 and Fabulous!!!!

Due to some computer issues this weekend, I didn't get around to posting about my 40th birthday yesterday, so I will just share some of the highlights of the day...

Joe was quite the talk of the office.  He had 40 red roses (from him) and a smaller vase of 8 red roses (from Hope) and the balloons delivered to me at work.  It took three people to get it all back to my desk.  CRAZY!  I guess he is a keeper.  :)  They definitely help to make my office space smell better.  (That is another story for another day...)

My friend Evon made these fun margarita cupcakes and chocolate pies for me and Kristin made sugar cookies too.  Do I have great friends or what??????

We went out to dinner at Red Lobster (after Hope had dance class-normal life doesn't stop just because you are celebrating a major birthday).  YUM!

Before we left for dance I got to open my gifts from Joe and Hope.  Of course, my main gift was our trip, but they got me some other things too so I would have something to unwrap.  :)

Hope remembered that I needed a new iron, so that is what she picked out.  I was actually quite impressed she remembered.  :)

And of course, Joe got me a bottle of my favorite wine, along with some margarita mix and pina colada mix too.  YUM!

I almost always request a chocolate pie for my birthday instead of cake, so Joe picked up a special (February only special) chocolate pie from Baker's Square.  It was AWESOME!!!!

And that was about it.  Hope really wanted me to put her to bed last night, so she had to promise she would have good listening ears otherwise I was going to leave and let dad put her to bed.  She did pretty good and went to bed relatively easily (for Hope).  :)

So in honor of my birthday here are a few birthday related cards to share with you...

Well, that is about it.  Here's to being 40 and FABULOUS!!!!

Darla

Cabo San Lucas

We just got back from vacation and it was SO wonderful.  Joe did a great job finding a perfect location for us to relax and have some fun too.  These are in random order of how they downloaded (because I was too lazy to move them around).  LOL!

This was our resort.  We took this picture from the catamaran whale watching tour.

Joe and I on the beach just after we arrived.

I had to walk in the sand and dip my toes in the ocean.  We were on the Pacific side, so we were on a non-swimable beach because the waves are too dangerous.  That's ok, we had a great pool to relax by and cool off in too.

This is a picture of the famous arch.  Our tour guide called it the drinking dragon because it looks like the head of a dragon drinking from the ocean.

We arrived too early to check into our room, so we enjoyed some food and our first (of many) happy hours.  Those margaritas were GOOD!

This was a sea lion resting on the rock, which is considered land's end because it is the last tip of the Baja peninsula.

Here we are by the arch again in a smaller glass bottom boat.  We stopped in an area for snorkeling and could see the fish down in the water.  They would come right up to the bottom of the boat since our guide was feeing them.

This sea lion was resting under the dock when we got back from our whale watching tour.  It's eyes were so beautiful.  I wanted to just reach out and pet it.  :)

This place was interesting...Gordo Lele's.  It is a VERY small restaurant, and if you are ever in Cabo, you have to go there.  He calls himself the 5th Beetle and sings their songs while the customers eat.  The food was fantastic and very inexpensive.  This was probably my favorite meal.

The entire place is probably 10 x 10 room that seats 16.  When we walked in they turned on a portable AC unit and quickly started serving us.  Very friendly.  All over the walls are tons of Beetles and Elvis pictures and other pictures that people have sent to them after their trip.

This was the signature drink at the pool bar.  The coco loco.  YUM!!!!!!!

After we ate at Gordo Lele's we stopped at Cabo Wabo for another drink and some live music.  This is owned by Sammy Hagar.

The glass bottom boat took us across the marina to the Mango Deck, which is a bar/restaurant on the public beach.  Joe had these singers sing Happy Birthday and then they sang Pretty Woman.  Of course, for a tip.  :)  

Before heading to Mango Deck, our boat tour guide agreed to drop us off at Lover's Beach so we could explore for about 10 minutes and then off to eat lunch.  We stayed clear of divorce beach.  LOL!

Here are a few pictures from our whale watching tour.  Fantastic time!  I got brave and climbed out on the netting.  It was pretty cool being out there.

We saw several whales while we were out there.

Joe did a GREAT job of capturing this tail as the whale went back under water.  We also had a whale surprise us and jump out of the water right in front of our boat, but nobody got the pictures since we didn't even know he was around.  :)  It was an awesome site to see though.

And one last picture of us in front of the arch.

We had a great time and it was very relaxing.  I would highly recommend going for vacation.

Since we were in Mexico, I have a Mexican themed layout to share.  

And since Valentine's Day is coming up, here are a few cards for that too...

Alright, that is it for today.  I will be back to share photos of the daddy daughter dance from last night.  Talk about hitting the ground running when we got back...

Darla