2008: A Scrapbook Odyssey

A home in progress

2008-11-11T14:22:00.000-08:00

I've been busily buying and planting new things in our yard lately to replace the dead or dying ones that were abandoned here before we bought the place. We had the house painted in August so that looks good. I am starting a ornamental grasses and perennial herb and butterfly garden on the side by the retaining wall and put in ground cover in front. We really need a barrier for all the people (i.e. middle school and high school kids) who cut through our front yard. Mr. Geek wanted juniper for this and that is just what I got. I also got some Point Reyes kinnickkinnick for me, which will be in front of the juniper as you stand at the front door. I'm not a fan of juniper. I also bought some new rosemary and lavender and planted it up on the retaining wall.

IN the back yard we have a new fig tree and a pomegranate tree. I'm really excited about these. I can't wait for some shade AND some fruit!!

Rob's Favorites at 7

2008-10-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

We had our annual interview to find out all of Rob's favorites. Some of them haven't changed too much.

Favorite food: Pad Thai and Dirty Rice
Favorite drink: Strawberry Kiwi Juice
favorite veggie: peas
favorite toy: Lego beach house (he doesn't even own this)
favorite game: Shopping Spree money game from the book order
favorite place: grandma and grandad's
favorite holiday: Christmas
favorite season: winter
favorite color: green
favorite snack: apples
favorite dessert: apple crisp
favorite cookie: cowboy cookies
favorite book: Frog and Toad All Year
favorite school friend: Joshua, Lemar, and Moses

What do you want to be when you grow up?
5th grade teacher

Birthday weekend!

2008-09-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

Mr. R turned 7 last Sunday, but we made a whole weekend celebration out of it because Grandma and Grandpa came to town. It was hot (of course!) but we started the weekend off with an ice cream sundae party for relatives and our new neighbors. Rob had a blast. You can see some of the toppings and food items made available at the party. Jokes were made about the jimmies. I made a dark chocolate hot fudge sauce out of Scharffenberger chocolate which was quite decadent, and a lovely homemade caramel sauce as well. It was not a good weekend for dieting, but we had a great time. We played several games of Blokus, a new game Rob got for his birthday. What an awesome game! If you haven't tried it, I highly suggest it. It's a great strategy and spatial relationship skills builder game, kind of like an anti-Tetris. Rob received a Millennium Falcon Transformer toy from our neighbor which he immediately told me was "the best toy he ever received." We went out for pizza that night per his request and then went to San Francisco for the day on Sunday, his actual birthday. He wanted to take the ferry, so we took the Alameda/SF boat and that was a total blast. It's a whole new way to see the bay and it was such a gloriously warm lovely day. We mostly walked around by the Ferry Building and a fishing pier as well as the trolley museum. There was some kind of crazy get out and exercise fair thing going on along the Embracadero which made things a little crazy. We met up with Jon, had some lunch and then ended up taking the ferry home rather than waiting around another 4 hours.

On Monday we went to Dow Wetlands to find the elusive river otters, but they were nowhere to be found (just their droppings!) but we saw lots of birds and other cool things. It's a nice discovery of places to go in our new home town. We have had so many home towns, but most of them seem to be near a river, which makes everything seem a little better. Grandma and Grandpa flew home on Monday evening.

The chickens have hit maturity!

2008-09-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, the girls are really growing up. One laid a first egg on Labor Day, Sept. 1 and we've had one a day since. I think they are each laying once every other day, because the first and third eggs look the same, dark brown with speckles, and the other is just plain dark brown. They are such lovely eggs and we have eaten the first one...yum! It is so fun to have laying hens. I enjoy looking in the nest box for eggs each day. They have managed to lay the eggs in the right place despite not being able to keep the golf ball nest egg in the nest box.

In other news, the kids started up school again last week. Both seem to really like their teachers. The young one is in a combined K-1 class with 12 kids and took to it like a fish to water. He's already bossing the other kindergarteners around. :) My 2nd grader says he liked his class this year. I think the school is probably a better fit for him than the last, though the other had higher test scores and more prestige in the community. Test scores aren't everything.

Mr. R is now 7 years old too. We celebrated his birthday with a ice cream sundae party on Saturday and a trip to San Francisco on his "real" birthday so we could take the ferry from Alameda to SF. It's a great ride, though too short for my liking. The Embarcadero area was VERY crowded and crazy so we didn't stay as long as we planned, but it was still fun. The weather was quite warm as well.

I've posted a few new pics of the "girls", well, just Corsair actually (Ginger wouldn't cooperate) and their handiwork.

It's been eons- and Roo is 5

2008-07-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

We've been really busy moving, celebrating Andy's 5th birthday, visiting with grandparents, and fixing up our new home. It's also been HOT, and the computer is in the hottest room upstairs. I hope to post again a little more regularly as we settle in.

The Roo is 5. He loved his cow party this year. HIs friend from school couldn't make it this year, but all of the relatives came. He eagerly ripped paper off his gifts (this is only the second year he has been interested in gifts). ON his actual birthday, he started summer school and stood sadly at the gate watching us leave, crying. That about tore my heart out. I circled back around 15 minutes later and he was still standing there in the same place. I had to fight the urge to run over and hug him and take him home with me, nobody should be so sad on their birthday. The second day he was fine and has been each day since. We only have one more week of summer school and then it's time for a month with no school, which will make the transition to kindergarten in the fall all the more challenging. He doesn't do as well when not in school for extended periods of time.

After the rough first day of school, I took the boys out for lunch at Carlos Ginger (aka Carl's Jr.) I love how Andy calls it Carlos Ginger; Carlos from the Magic School Bus and Ginger from Chicken Run (and the name of our favorite pullet). Andy had his fave chicken stars and "chips" and root beer. Man, I never let the kids eat so much junk generally!

We are liking our new home but regretting the purchase of a 2 story house for many reasons. The stairs are not one of the reasons. It's so hard to cool the air up there and is frequently over 90 up there, even with AC running. Needless to say, I have problems sleeping because it's so hot and stay up way too late and then am sleep deprived during the day. I can't WAIT until summer is over. I say this every year, but this year it's worse. It's been around 110 multiple days this week. UGH!!

I will post more soon, I hope!

I'm adding some pictures that Uncle Jon took at the party.

Life on an urban farm

2008-05-29T22:04:00.000-07:00

Our chicks and veggies have really grown! As you can see from the pics, our squash have grown a lot in the few weeks since the last pic was taken. We have been having lots of of squash and cukes from the garden, it will be hard to leave it behind. I'm not sure the beans are going to actually have beans for us to eat before we move, despite the fact it has been plenty of time and they look tall enough. I'm not sure why they haven't flowered yet. It's so much fun to have a little bit of country here in suburbia.

Garden and Chicks

2008-05-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

It is a time for growth here at our place! Not only are the kids growing, but our veggies are growing like crazy as are our chicks! It's amazing how fast they grow. They had their first time out of the coop last weekend, when these pictures were taken. They happily ran around devouring dandelions and pulling on grass and eating ants.

Rob had a field trip to a farm last week and brought home a tomato plant, despite the fact I didn't want to have to move more potted plants to our new home. Oh well.

Speaking of new homes, we closed escrow last week and it's OURS! We really like the neighborhood and the neighbors are so friendly and so happy to see a family move in, the place has been vacant for a year. We're a little nervous about it, but we are pretty sure that it will gain some value eventually. It will also mean a MUCH shorter commute for Mr. Geek and with gas at $4/gallon, that's saying something. We still can't get over how low the prices are right now.

Chicken Freedom!

2008-04-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

The chicks (or chickteens as it were) weren't overly interested in getting out today, but were content to perch on the side of the coop next to us, particularly Ginger, our sweetie pullet. It was pretty warm today (about 90) so they were panting quite a bit. Corsair is the Welsummer on the left in the 2 chick picture, and Ginger (darker) is on the right.

They will be 7 weeks old tomorrow, believe it or not, which means we have had them for 6 weeks! By late June they should be laying large dark brown eggs for us. They will also double in size again by then.

Sad day

2008-04-17T19:27:00.000-07:00

Our 7 week old Ameraucana pullet died today. She was such a bossy, pushy, curious thing, we'll miss her beauty and her funny personality. The kids are very sad about losing our Susie. We're not sure what happened, but it happened pretty quickly. She was a bit lethargic last night and earlier today, and then she died.

We have just loved having chickens. They are fairly easy care pets, they are fun to watch, and FULL of personality. I am sorry she didn't make it to laying, I was looking forward to her bluish/greenish eggs. The two Welsummers appear to be doing fine, let's hope they hang in there.

In other news, we are buying a house! A really nice bigger one in a nice neighborhood. We'll start moving in May and will finish in June. We plan to let the kids finish the school year here since it's a new town and a new district.

The picture here is of our Susie, may she rest in peace. This was taken about a week ago.

Monterey Peninsula

2008-03-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

We made our annual spring pilgrimage to the Monterey/Carmel/Pacific Grove area last week. It was wonderful as always. We spent most of the day at Point Lobos. It was really busy there, but a gorgeous day all the same. We didn't see any otters like we usually do, but we did see harbor seals and sea lions AND we found a cool tidepool with lots of sea urchins and chitons. After a fun day of exploring, we stopped off at the Sea Harvest and had clam chowder and fish. The boys, of course, had chicken. I guess we are lucky that this year Andy will eat chicken. There was nothing on the menu that he would eat last year. Point Lobos has to be one of the most beautiful places in California, if not the whole west coast. It is just amazing.

Chicks!!

2008-03-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

We finally got some babies! It was weird how it all came about. We were lamenting that all of the hatcheries seemed to be out of the bantam layers we wanted and were ready to just get a few smaller standards. So we researched some of the smaller sized standards and decided we would be ok with them. It would be nice to have some full sized eggs.

Mr. Geek REALLY wanted to get some chickens, but we couldn't find any we wanted. I decided to check craigslist and found someone with Aracaunas and Welsummers, two standard breeds on our short list. We drove 1.5 hours each way and picked out the last Aracauna and 2 week old Welsummers. They are all so cute. Susie the Aracauna (so named by Rob) is about a month old and quite the escape artist who required a bit of wing trim her first night with us, and Ginger and Corsair are smaller, but definitely using their wings too, and it won't be too long. I love their chipmunky look. They are all going to be so lovely as they get older, and they are quite engaging and amusing now. Susie will eventually lay medium to large bluish green eggs by summer time and Ginger and Corsair will lay large dark brown eggs.

It has been a very chicken spring break so far and it was so fun to have some little peeps for Easter here with us! They are such awesome pets.

First Harvest!

2008-03-20T17:55:00.001-07:00

Rob pulled the first of the radishes yesterday. He thought that was so much fun and especially loved eating the pretty little Easter Egg radishes. We'll have more again in a few weeks. We now have lettuce planted and will soon be planting some carrots.

7 years

2008-03-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

We've been married 7 years today. 7 years of wedded bliss. Ok, so a lot of it hasn't been blissful. We've had two wonderful children, both of whom have special needs and challenges, and that takes its toll on a couple, no matter how much we love them (and we do!) We haven't ever gone away by ourselves because Mr. Geek doesn't want to, though once in a while I would like it. We've gone through my severe depression, job terminations, career changes, and we've lived in 7 homes in 7 years. That's a LOT for a couple. But here we are, still together. Neither of us is the happy type (we tend to be moody and broody) but we are happier with each other than we'd be with anyone else, I think. Here's to many more years. :)

Just another (fun!) day at the Martinez Marina

2008-03-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

I forgot to journal about a recent trip to Martinez (weekend before last). It was a gorgeous (albeit windy) spring-like day and everything was crystal clear. We saw the usual gulls (western), avocets, western grebes, etc. But this time we also saw a sea lion off the side of the jetty. It was pretty cool! Usually there are a bunch of people fishing out there. A fisherman came along and told us that the sea lion likes to hang around when they are fishing and steal the fish right off the line! What a clever bugger! It was fun to watch and the boys were enthralled. Andy was making roaring and growling sounds at it after hearing it was a sea LION. Silly boy!

We love going out there, there's always so much to see and you can see the train tracks, small craft in the marina, large ships, and TWO bridges: Carquinez and Benicia. It's also a nice spot to go in the summer because it's windy and cooler than the surrounding areas. It's one of our favorite local landmarks.

Spring has sprung!

2008-03-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've been so busy and infected with spring FEVER! It's been so great here. I've been outside creating and amending 4 planting beds (building them up from a gravel pit, it's been a lot of work!) Mr. Geek has helped a lot on weekends at well. I think I may finally have them ready for planting in a few weeks.

So, along with garden fever I have somehow ALSO contracted chicken fever. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our dear little chicks. We've finally found a feed store that will order the kinds we want (bantams that will lay a reasonable number of eggs) plus a few silkie chickens for fun and because they are supposed to make great pets. I have learned more than I ever would have thought I would know about chickens. I can't wait to raise some baby chicks as well. It may be another month before we get them, but I can be patient, I think. We are hoping to get one or more of the following: Ameraucana (they lay blue and green eggs!!), Barred Plymouth rocks, Buff Orpingtons, and the aforementioned silkies. All of these are supposed to be gentle, sweet natured hens, and we look forward to adding them to the family. The coop is almost done, and it looks pretty good.

So, with all of this garden and chicken fever I haven't done much scrapbooking. It's bound to happen in the springtime for me though. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons and I like to be outside working in the yard. I get a lot more scrapping done in the summer and winter when it's either raining or too hot to be outside.

I made an interesting discovery while clearing a planting bed in front of weeds today. I found 4 perfectly intact squirrel skulls. I think they must fall or get knocked out of the palm trees out front (which are right next to this planting bed).

I've been busy at Rob's school helping in the classroom and helping at Andy's school as well. Andy is going on his first field trip this Friday. They are going to a farm. I am driving him to the farm. We also have Pinewood Derby this week and a few other things, and next week looks hectic as well. Then we get a week off to just chill. That will also be when I start planting parts of my garden. Can't wait! My radishes are getting close to harvest time...I can't believe how slow they have been to "round out" but they are doing pretty well now. Not a single one has been attacked by a predator (leaves anyway). I guess containers are the way to go for radishes. I started some baby leaf lettuces from seed too, but I won't see them pop up for another week. Soon it will be carrot planting time too! Well, as soon as those radishes come out.

Theft and inclement weather

2008-02-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

Somebody came by during the night or very early Saturday morning and very neatly cut my daffodils. I have more bulbs that are still coming up, thank goodness. What kind of person comes along and steals flowers from someone's front yard? I can't figure out WHO would do something like that. It REALLY, REALLY made me mad. It was obviously someone who planned it, because the cuts were made with scissors, which kinda rules out punk kids wandering along. Housewife stealing a bouquet while out for an early morning walk with the dog? Old lady and her walker? Good grief. I know there are worse crimes, but geez, this is pretty crappy and low.

It has been rainy and windy pretty much all weekend. We went out for a drive in it for the heck of it on Sunday afternoon. I made some beer cheese bread and Mr. Geek bottled his bitter stout ale he's been working on. We've had at least 2 inches of rain and there are a lot of branches and pieces of our palm trees out in our yard and on the street. Dratted palms, HATE THEM! I think I may have a lost a lot of my radish seedlings as well, despite my precautions. They may surprise me yet. Atleast it's supposed to be dry the rest of the week.

In other news, despite all odds, one of my little muscari is blooming! Woo hoo! I didn't think I'd get any this year!

Fave Feb Pics

2008-02-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

Just had to share a few of my feb faves...

President's Day check in

2008-02-18T20:49:00.000-08:00

I'd better quick post so I get another Feb post in!!

We had a pretty good Prez weekend. On Saturday we went to Hayward marsh and got to watch a seagull attempt to eat a shark. It was pretty comical. Poor guy just couldn't open the tough carcass and struggled to carry it. Other gulls arrived so he had to start posturing and look big and tough so no one else could take his shark. No swallows at Hayward yet, we'll have to go back in a month or so. The wintering ducks have mostly left for the season so there wasn't too much to see, just a lot of Least Sandpipers, some willets, and a few curlew and herons.

The boys have been holding hands lately when we walk places. It's pretty cute! I will be making a scrapbook page about it, I think.

We ripped out the crappy Aralia trees that were blocking the light to my scraproom. It's a whole new world!! Those trees were really bugging me. First, they blocked my wonderful morning light. Second, they had these hideous black berries that the robins ate and pooped all over our cars and sidewalk. And they are covered with ants. Goodbye and good riddance!! We bought a nice shrubby ceanothus to replace it. I'm liking this idea because it is low growing (under the window) and a native plant so it should thrive. Of course, right now it looks puny, but it should grow pretty quickly.

We also worked on raking and cleaning things up. We did a lot of pruning, adding to our compost bin, and more soil prep for our garden. Mr. Geek painted his chicken coop colonial red. It looks like a little barn. It will be fun to have some chicks next month. I definitely got a good yard work workout this weekend.

I am a little bummed that I didn't get any scrapping done, but the weather was so wonderful and I like working outdoors. Organic gardening is rapidly turning into my next big hobby. There's so much to learn. I wish I still could ask Grandpa questions, he was such an expert on garden matters. I feel closer to him when I work on it. It also makes me miss him more.

Back to school and craziness tomorrow!

February's here!

2008-02-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

Yikes, it's been a few weeks. Last weekend we ventured out between the storms on Super Bowl Sunday (like we watch...ha!) to go for a walk in Tilden. We stopped by the little farm and then walked out to Jewel Lake. There was SO much water there, the amount of water going over the dam was pretty cool. I personally liked seeing the pigs at the farm, oink, oink. The boys as always loved seeing the chickens. They can't wait until we get a few chicks in the spring. Mr. Geek is working on the coop right now as I type.

We had a couple of days without illness around here, now Rob is back to having a fever. Great. 'tis the season, I guess.

We planted our radish seeds in the old water table today and in a pot. I'm hoping these work out better than the ones we planted in Marysville. I guess we will know in a month. Rob was a great help planting.

Lucky me

2008-01-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

I started thinking about things in a positive light today. And this is a bit strange because I am generally not an optimistic glass half full sort of gal AND I am sick, which seems to make me a bit more pessimistic than usual. I received some wonderful feedback on Andy which just makes me so GLAD. Proud. Lucky. He is doing SO WELL in school. We don't have the financial resources to do additional therapies beyond what the school district offers, but thank goodness we don't seem to need them. He is just thriving at school, talking in long sentences, enjoying engaging in cooperative play with others, potty trained now (woo HOO!) and just generally a happy healthy kid with some sensory quirks and some social delays. I think back to when he was 22 mos. old and received his autism diagnosis and it's hard to believe this is the same child. This is the child who never talked, lined up his toys, and spun in slow circles in the living room. This is the child who now will have long conversations with me, can express his needs specifically, has a huge vocabulary and has a genuine love and interest in other people. It's hard to let moments go by without hugging and kissing him...he's just that sweet and wonderful. My heart still aches hearing him call me Mommy, because I just didn't hear it for so much of his life. He played IN THE MUD this weekend, and he didn't cry about it at all, even though it was cold and gloppy and gooey. He let the rain fall down on him without screaming and crying. This wouldn't even have happened 3 months ago.

I am a lucky mom indeed. My boy is going to be just fine. I scrapbooked this pic of Andy today, I just love that picture, even if it is slightly out of focus.

Last weekend in January

2008-01-27T14:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a couple of weeks already. I've been really busy and kinda sick with a cold and sore throat...not a great combination!

We've had a wet and wild week here with the weather. It's been windy and rainy and the ground is just waterlogged (gotta love the clay soil we have around here...NOT!) Andy finally went back to school after a week's hiatus and was so excited to be back. He is pretty much day trained for potty training. It's been so long since he's had an accident. I can't believe this finally happened. We've been working on this for what seems like FOREVER!

I've been really good about my scrappy spending. I bought some crackle paints (2) on sale at a local scrapbook store and a few discounted Basic Grey papers. I also spent a gift certificate to another site. And that is it! Just a few more days of the month and I've spent less than $20...woo hoo! I wish I could say weight loss was going as well. :(

Andy held the gecko for the first time last night! He was great with Lon...so gentle and cautious. I took pictures of course. He also has been "helping" out in the yard, which is quite funny and posted here on the blog today. This was last weekend on our one sunny day. He loves using his toy tool and mimicking his dad's movements. This is how they learn.

Homebody weekend

2008-01-13T16:45:00.000-08:00

We just hung out at home this weekend. It was actually sunny! It's been so gray and gloomy and raining here basically every day since we got back from Seattle. I did some scrapbooking, mostly of our Seattle trip a few week's back. Mr. Geek is working on a chicken coop (God help us) and I did a lot of weeding and prepping the ground for spring planting...radishes! I have a nice chunk of dirt I've been clearing and growing clover in to improve the soil quality for growing. Can't wait! Here are a few of my newest pages! I love doing Christmas pages!! The colors are so wonderful. The snow one with my son has a transparency over it which looks cooler in person than in the photo. I also used glimmer mist spray (how fun but messy!) and glitter glaze.

Scrappy Budget Time

2008-01-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

It's a really good thing almost no new products in the scrap industry interest me. Really, nothing is floating my boat. So this must be a good time to set myself a budget-$25. I will not be looking at new product release threads on message boards and I am canceling all magazine subscriptions that try to sell me new product. I have too much product as it is already. $25 allows me to buy a stamp or two, some cardstock, some ink, adhesive, or something like that. I don't need any more patterned paper or embellies. I really want to scale back and go more and more simple, even though I've always been a clean lines sort of scrapper. I'm also pretty disgusted with the packaging of embellishments and the associated costs, environmental and financial.

So I don't have the latest products...who cares. It's all about the memories, it's not a fashion show, at least to me. I've never been a trendy sort of person, why have I been that way with my scrapbooking? 2008, the year of living more simply, cutting back. spending less time on line and more time with my family and exercising and getting healthier still.

Merry New Year!

2008-01-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

We're having some crazy wild wet weather here in California. The winds have been super gusty and the rain hasn't quit all day. We need it and everything, but rain is so much better in moderation...because a flood ain't useful!! We did venture out to have some work done on my car. I couldn't wait to get back home again.

We had a great trip to Seattle for Christmas. The weather was bad, but really fairly normal for this time of year and it really makes my parents so happy to see the kids at Christmas. I also got my hair chopped off short and am donating the hair. It's a LOT of HAIR!

Highlights of our trip include:

Christmas morning (of course)
Garden d'lights at the botanical garden in Bellevue
Doughnut date at Top Pot
Coffee drinks made by Maw and Paw (almond lattes with plenty o' foam)
Playing in the snow at Mt. Shasta (which desperately NEEDS more snow)
Top 10 toys "playdate"
walk in the park with Mr. Geek in the snow on Christmas Day
Myrlene cutting my hair
Museum of Flight (Rob loved those radios from the WWII section)
seeing a ferruginous hawk near Mt. Shasta
stopping at seeing the snow geese at Sacramento NWR AND a peregrine falcon
walking on Lake Shastina
feeding trout at the fish hatchery
Woodland Park Zoo- the ruddy duck in breeding plumage ALREADY!
the amgen double helix bridge in Seattle...totally cool!

Favorite recent pictures

2007-12-18T15:47:00.001-08:00

These are a few of my favorite recent bird pictures. The top one is a goldfinch, the second is a great egret in a tree, and the third ian Anna's hummingbird. I have been trying to photograph owls and ducks and not having the best of luck, especially with the owls. I think I need a tripod AND a camera that works better in low light to make it work. The ducks are all so lovely this time of year. Mr. Geek and I are planning to go birding in Seattle and see even more glorious ducks in winter plumage and bald eagles. They are a pretty rare sighting here but extremely common in Seattle.

Weekend Fun!

2007-12-16T20:31:00.001-08:00

We've been having a lot of adventures on the weekends lately. It's so nice to be out enjoying the cool weather, the wonderful migratory waterfowl, and crisp air. We went to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento this weekend. It was nice, although the boys weren't very into things there. Mr. Geek and I had to work hard to keep them interested. I suppose they are a bit young for that sort of thing, and they haven't been feeling well. It has sparked Rob's interest in "how things used to be." He's been asking for more and more information all weekend about "the old days when they didn't have plugs." Haha. It's hard for him to even fathom it, even though he has been camping and things like that. It may be time to find some historical fiction books from long ago and read them.

We stopped by Vic Fazio on the way home to do the auto tour and catch a glimpse of some birds. We saw a lot of shovelers and coots. Our very nice sighting was a burrowing owl, but it was a fair distance off, too far for my camera even. I remember seeing a bittern last time we were there, but no such luck this time.

Today we went to Tilden and visited the Little Farm and walked out to and around Jewel Lake. We saw some bufflehead and a merganser out there, which is a nice sighting. It's always fun to see the animals at the farm. The boys had such a good time watching the geese, chickens and turkeys. I took some fun pics of them there.

I can't believe the kids only have 4 more days a school, and just a few days after that it's Christmas! Where has the time gone??!! It's almost 2008!!

A few of my favorite things!

2007-12-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas projects anyway!!

Great birding last weekend!

2007-12-08T13:05:00.001-08:00

We went to Cosumnes Preserve and took a nice long walk and saw lots of birds, including sandhill cranes and even a short-eared owl! I was pretty excited about that. Of course it was too dark to get a good picture. I did, however, get a few bad pictures of the owl.

On Sunday we went to Hayward Marsh, which is such a great place to see shorebirds. At least a hundred American avocets, long billed curlews galore, assorted adorable peeps, and quite a few shovelers, an eared grebe, some scaup, and the list goes on. I'll have to back in spring and see if we can find some skimmers and some other terns. The swallows are also great there in spring, we only saw a couple last weekend.

Cookie time!!

2007-12-08T13:00:00.001-08:00

I have been busy making cookies and breads and candy. Must be December. Here's what I've made so far...

Chocolate crinkles
Cranberry Hootycreeks
Lemon cookies
Joe-Joes chocolate fudge
cranberry orange bread
spritz
pineapple coconut macadamia cookies
toffee bars
russian teacakes/mexican wedding cakes

I have more to go too!! We need lots of cookie gifts and treats for schools and others. It's fun but it gets to be a chore. :(

Andy hasn't had an accident this week! This makes more than 2 weeks without accidents. Yay!

7 days and counting!!

2007-11-30T08:37:00.000-08:00

He's doing it!! He's gone 7 days without having an accident in his pullup! I think Andy may finally be on his way to being toilet trained. He's had times before when he's used the potty here and there, but still sometimes pooped in his diaper. He hasn't had a single accident in a week. This is about so much more than just potty training. This opens up options to him academically and allows for some time being mainstreamed in Kindergarten next year. This lets him do more activities with neurotypical peers. For every child it is a sign of becoming more independent and growing up, but for my Roo it is all that and more. I can't begin to explain how happy I am about this. Mr. Geek's idea of using Rob as a model teacher has worked brilliantly. I told Rob this morning what a great teacher he has been. He looked at me seriously and said "Mom, I can't be a poop teacher when I grow up, just a substitute in a classroom." The kid cracks me up. Way to go, Mr. Andy on your awesome achievements!!

Ready for the holidays to begin?

2007-11-17T21:07:00.000-08:00

It seems like 2007 just began sometimes...and it's almost over. Thanksgiving is just a few days away. And that means that Christmas is soon to follow. I can pull out the Christmas movies like the Muppet Christmas Carol (love it!!), A Charlie Brown Christmas with the wacky metal trees, and other seasonal music...like the Nutcracker and the Messiah. Woo hoo! The Playmobil nativity will grace our mantel soon as well. You can see the boys getting ready for Christmas a few years back on this scrapbook page I've posted here.

The stores are getting ready as well. Who are we kidding? They've been getting ready since Labor Day!! Even the grocery store has the trees and light out now, so you know things are getting serious. But the sign that Christmas is really close at hand is that Trader Joe's has Candy Cane Joe-Joe's now. Pure perfection and bliss right here on Planet Earth. I LOVE candy cane joe-joe's!!

I've done only a tiny bit of Christmas shopping, and it has all been online, primarily at amazon. I didn't buy much for anyone last year and this year won't be much different. We tend to buy the kids things periodically throughout the year. Dh and I tend to buy what we want when we want it. I have learned that the man doesn't do gifts very well, so it's up to me to take care of that. I'll do my usual Shutterfly calendars for the parents with kid pics and then another small gift to go with it.

Rob and I'll be making candles for teacher and grandparent gifts this year, as well as decorating bags and filling them with homemade cookies, a homemade ornament, and a candle. He loves working on this. We have done it since he was in preschool. I know that wasn't THAT long ago.

They have this week off from school, so it will be a good time to make the candles and bake some cookies and get some of the projects underway. He has made a few of the ornaments already. I let him play with my alcohol inks! How many moms of 6 year olds would do that?

Rob's Favorites at 6

2007-11-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

We had our annual interview to find out all of Rob's favorites. Some of them haven't changed too much.

Favorite food: Macaroni and Cheese
Favorite drink: Trader Joe's Sir Strawberry juice
Favorite fruit: grapefruit
favorite veggie: peas
favorite toy: GeoTrax
favorite game: Sorry!
favorite place: grandma and grandad's
favorite holiday: Christmas
favorite season: winter
favorite color: brown
favorite snack: popcorn and pretzels
favorite dessert: peppermint ice cream
favorite cookie: chocolate chip
favorite book: Charlotte's Web
favorite school friend: Miguel

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Substitute teacher

No way November!

2007-11-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's November already! October seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. Halloween went pretty well. The grandparents came over to have some soup and homemade bread and then Grandad and I took the kids out trick or treating just on our street. We ran into a few kids from school and both boys had a great time, Andy really got into it this year. He also now has decided he likes to EAT the treats. This is a new development. Well, he's still pretty limited, he mostly just likes m and m's. As usual, I got crappy pictures in the dark, even with my new camera. Little boys running around in the dark isn't great for any camera...I can handle still subjects in the dark, but little boys...no way! They dressed up as firefighters. The festivities earlier in the day were fun for them as well...parades at school and trick or treating and special art projects to boot. They were in heaven! The boys also had flu shots, which Rob enjoyed. Yes, enjoyed. He thought it was extra fun to go on Halloween because you get treats when getting your shot. Smart boy.

10 years of California

2007-10-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

My decade mark for life in California passed sometime in late August. It's hard to believe I've been here for 10 years. A lot has happened. I met my husband, I got a teaching credential, I've lived in 9 HOMES (good grief) and have had two children. That's a lot to do in 10 years. And while I miss Washington, there are a lot of things to like about California, and to dislike, Here's my list in progress:

LIKES:
weather
geology
Mt. Diablo
Marin Headlands & Golden Gate
Mt. Shasta
Yosemite
Mono Lake
beaches...so many great ones!
Sierras
Sequoias
Redwoods
Lake Tahoe
Yuba River
Feather River
Bridgeport (ahhhhh, I miss it so much it hurts!!)
The Cal Academy
Oakland Zoo
Monterey Aquarium
Glass Mountain
Burney Falls

DISLIKES:
weather (it made both lists, I hate the summers here, too hot!)
people (there are exceptions of course, but overall)
Berkeley
fancy cars and wealth flashed before your eyes every single day
traffic (need I say more)
Caldecott tunnel
The Maze
Bridge tolls and lines
cost of real estate
schools (underfunded, unapppreciated and overcrowded)
refineries everywhere

Howdy again, blog!

2007-10-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Next week is Halloween. Wow, October is my favorite month and it's speeding by so quickly. I like fall. I like the cooler days and the bite of the early morning. I like the changing of the leaves. I like that no one is really sick yet with the crud that seems to plague my children and everyone else I know from November through March. I really liked the modified year round schedule we had at my old school that gave us 3 weeks off in October...the most perfect month for vacation days, in my humble opinion. I also like taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and gettng a glimspe of the gorgeous Indian corn and the funky gourds. Andy picks out a gourd every year...ever since his 2nd fall. He was too little to care his 1st fall, but he's loved them ever since. I know it's just the something to carry routine that he's so attached to, but the boy does love his gourds. We keep them too, they make great maracas later on.

Our gorgeous tree (liriodendron tulipifera) is at its peak right now. I had to include a pretty pic of it with this post.

I had this crazy idea to plant a bunch of bulbs. Hundreds of them, actually. I planted muscari, daffodils, and tulips. It's been a lot of digging in less than ideal soil and more work than I actually wanted to do. I'm hoping it all works out in the spring and is worth it. The kids weren't much help, but I think they liked doing it.

I am reminded while typing here that fall is the beginning of split finger season. That's when I develop cracks and splits on my fingertips and around my fingernails. Ugh, there's something not to love about this time of year. It makes typing and wiriting more painful. :(

Instead of scrapping today (just wasn't feeling the spark) I decided to start organizing my piles of pictures. This is a monumental task that will take HOURS. I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy while organizing, it helped to pass the time. I can't get over HOW MANY pictures I have. I feel like I have scrapped a lot of them, and I have. I can't believe how many I still have. I need to start getting rid of some that aren't so great. I am trying to organize them by theme, as this seems to be how I scrap these days. All of them have dates on the back as well.

Off to make some tasty lasagna for dinner! Yummy! Mr. Geek will be thrilled, it's one of his favorites, other than lamb shanks.

Grandparents come to visit

2007-10-11T16:58:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd make a separate post about the grandparent visit a week ago. I was so glad they could come. We went to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm, the Oakland Zoo, and just around town doing stuff (including errands) and hanging out. It was very fun going out to El Tapatio with them and watching Andy polish off baskets of chips. That boy loves tortilla chips somethin' fierce! I wish I had had my camera. THe pure look of bliss when a new basket arrived and was set down in front of him...priceless!

This pic of the boys is so funny...they look like they are about to embrace, but really they were arguing. Awwwwww. Well, that's how they are these days, almost always bickering. Sigh.

Ok, so it's been a while

2007-10-11T16:42:00.001-07:00

Slacker! Yes, me. It's just that I get caught up doing stuff and I forget.

We're still without a regular teacher at Andy's school. I am still really p.o.'d about that but there's not a lot I can do. They are supposedly looking, nobody seems to meet the requirements exactly. The district tells us they are supposed to hire a new sub every 20 days, and showed us the ed code stating that this indeed is the law. What kind of stupid law does this to autistic kids?? Good freaking lord. This could seriously happen the ENTIRE YEAR, and it would be perfectly legal. Never mind that a teacher with the correct credentials from another state WANTED to be there. I can't stand red tape, but especially red tape that gets in the way of my children's education. What a stupid law. Aren't laws made to be broken?? Rob still doesn't have the regular speech therapist either...they keep saying they have someone coming in October. Well, it's October. He still hasn't had a speech class to my knowledge. I am pretty angry about things in this district right now. I think they actually want to do the right things, but geez. I am pleased about the new psychologist at school (she is a tremendous improvement over last year, who blamed me for everything...hmmm, that's pretty outdated!) and the OT we love. This OT has really helped change Rob's life. We "heart" Mr. Torrez!

Rob had his first Tiger Cub den meeting last night. I think things went all right. He sure looked cute in his uniform!! He was pretty excited about it all as well. I am hoping it will provide the realistic social group skills that he needs. It's also good that he has an activity to do with Dad (Mr. Geek) that he enjoys.

As for scrapping, I seem to have stopped buying for the time being (insert dh's YAY here) and am focused on scrapping. I have made a lot of 2 page layouts with lots of pics lately. It does drain the pic pile more quickly when you put 14 pics on. I am also trying to use a lot of older stash...a lot of old Paper Loft lately in particular. How could I have forgotten about my Paper Loft? Love those heavyweight papers and th weathered and worn paper designs and colors. That Nautical collection was a bit of perfection. The layout at the top was using up some of that wonderful Vibe collection from CI...such playful beach papers, rub ons, etc.

I can't close my Crop in Style binder full of thickers and remarks stickers...please, help me. It's serious.

Coming back to blog!

2007-10-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

Well, apparently I decided to take a few weeks' off. Not much has been going on. Kara, Scott and Maya were here last weekend on their way back to the airport. We had a nice visit. Maya and Rob had a great time and Maya even slept in the room with both boys. NOBODY got enough sleep. We went to Rodeo Beach so Maya could see the ocean for the first time. The kids had a great time. We went back to San Francisco and went out to lunch at the yummy Greek place by Golden Gate Park. Jon and Heidi came along for the fun too.

I've been scrapping a little, feeling kinda sick with sore throats and the like and taking it as easy as is possible for me. The kids are still up to their usual antics. Mr. Geek brought his boat over from his parent's house and took it out to Martinez to the river. Both kids went out with him. Andy loved it, you can see him in the boat in the pic for today's post.

Well, time to go fire up the stove and heat water for lobster ravioli...mmmm, dinner. Always a blessed event with ravioli. ;)

What I have learned in the last 36 years...

2007-09-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

This topic is part of a challenge at Rocky Mountain Hobbies and it got me thinking...thought I'd journal some thoughts here.

I've learned that:

having kids is the best and toughest experience I'll probably ever have
I can live without tv (but not movies)
chocolate is its own food group
college really is better than high school in every way
it's a good idea to choose a vocation and not just be the liberal arts major
my mom is a cooler person than I thought she was
my dad really did know more than I did as a teenager
travel broadens your outlook on life
a camera is a great sidekick
homemade ice cream is better than store bought
root beer is my favorite carbonated beverage
love is complicated and not always lovey and romantic
knowledge is power
not everyone thinks the same way I do (thank goodness)
laughter is good medicine
hormones control the universe

Mean Squirrel

2007-09-12T07:26:00.001-07:00

I don't think I've posted about the mean squirrel that lives in one of our palm trees. We had a baby squirrel fall out of the tree about 3 weeks ago, and then the body vanished about 3 days later, leaving only a small amount of fur. We thought this was weird. The baby was awfully cute too. Too bad really.

This leads me to the mean squirrel. We hadn't encountered this squirrel before the baby dropping out of the palm tree incident, but she/he has been there every day since...hissing, chattering, and giving us the evil eye almost every day since. She even ran at Mr. Geek one time and he kicked at M.S., he was afraid it would bite him. It's like he/she is mad at at us for taking the baby away, we can't figure it out. M.S. is acting through the grief perhaps...going through the Kubler-Ross stages of death and dying and grief. I hope M.S. is through soon...I am getting pretty tired of the hissing, etc. every time I take the garbage out or take the kids to the car.

Ah, high school...

2007-09-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

It wasn't a high point in my life. I'm that rare person who PREFERRED middle school. Yes. Betcha don't meet too many of those types. There were things I liked about high school though. I liked German class (most of the time), journalism, drawing and painting, theater production, but most of all, I liked Creative Writing. I had this very inspired new teacher named Mr. Nolet. He found so many ways to draw so many of us into writing, and writing about our experiences. He actually valued our opinions and thought our feelings were real. It was nice to feel truly respected by a teacher. His class was my favorite high school class.

I know you may find this hard to believe, but I wasn't one of the popular kids. Shock! Horror! Alert the presses! I was friends with a few of the popular kids from middle school, who sort of remained aquaintances throughout. I was pretty good at having a lot of aquaintances. My best friend from high school was probably Mikhael. She was her own person and was sooooo cool about it. She had a mohawk and wore black eyeliner, and she was as sweet and smart as could be. She and I went out a number of times, including an overnight or two at her house where we, characteristically, sneaked out. Doesn't every high school kid do this at some point or another?? And yes, we concocted strange fruity alcoholic beverages on the sly once or twice. She had a fake i.d. and got into dance clubs. She is the only person from high school I have met since high school, though not since college ended. We liked listening to Depeche Mode and the Cure and a few other bands I can't really recall right now.

My other high school aquaintances were a mixed bunch...proper Melissa who went to Wellesley and planned out her life meticulously, Michelle who was always there to talk to or go out for a coffee with, Jane who was my walking buddy, and crazy Paisley who was very smart and never really rubbed it in your face. It wouldn't be until college that I would get to be good friends with any guys. In fact, it wouldn't be until I went to Vermont.

High school was a long time ago...18 years ago. It's hard to believe that now none of that crap really matters and I'm a mom of a kid in first grade and another in preschool. I was pretty adamant about never having children when I was in high school because of the pain associated with childbirth. Turns out I was right about the pain, but I was too naive then to know it was all worth it. I'm wanting to start scrapping a bit of my high school days soon, so I'm trying to get into that mindset. I have so many projects going on right now it's hard to keep up or even feel like I can. A scrapbooker is never actually "caught up" though. At least none that I have ever met.

This layout cracks me up!

2007-09-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

I worked on this layout this week, it was a very fun memory. Too bad the dude doesn't do that anymore. :(

HELP ME!!

2007-09-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

My poor paypal account has really taken a beating lately! There's so much great new scrappy stuff to buy. My favorite has to be those new 7 gypsies change out stamps. I bought 3 sets. THREE!! That makes 9 different stamps. I have two more on my radar that I want as well. My other problem is that so much great stuff is on clearance to buy right now. I seem to be incapable of stopping myself from picking up a good deal. No, I don't need 20 more sheets of that Crate Paper I fell in love with in the spring. But they are 40% off...how can I say no to that?? Then there's the irrational fear that you might "run out." Yeah. Right. As if I don't have 10,000 other patterned papers to choose from. I think I may need counseling. The worst for me is collecting American Crafts alpha stickers and thickers. It's a serious illness, I tell you.

I've done a lot of scrapping the last few weeks. It's nice having the kids back at school with a bit more free time for me. I've also loved just getting back to it after about 2 months off for our move. It's just not a good day if there's not at least a little bit of scrapping or fondling of papers and ribbons.

I'll be getting ready to try some alcohol inks for the first time this week...I can't wait!

I love this train man page I made, I posted it above. The Cosmo Cricket Halfway Cafe papers were just perfect for these old trains. I did Andy's birthday party with these papers as well, they were perfect.

Back to school (and normalcy)

2007-09-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

After a 3 day and party weekend, the kids are back in school. Whew. The pizza, corn, and ice cream sundae party went really well. I think Rob had a fantastic day. It was really hot out...over 100. Ugh. The unlikely food combos went over pretty well with everyone.

We decided to go to Big Basin Redwoods and then to Santa Cruz for the day on Sunday. We never made it to the redwoods because it was so hot, the roads were very windy, and I started feeling really ill. So we continued on down to Santa Cruz, just south of there to Capitola and Aptos. It was CRAZY busy on that beach! Never seen anything like it! It also stunk to high heaven from all the seaweed. There were millions of sand fleas as well. I was ready to continue on to another place, but Mr. Geek wanted to stay. So we did. For a while. The definite high point was seeing dolphins a ways offshore...too cool! They didn't hang around long, though, and the beach held no interest for me without them.

I have to gripe a bit about our counter job on Friday. It's not done. Not by a long shot. And the part that was finished was done so poorly that Mr. Geek wants them to take it out and redo it. They started out by not measuring or cutting (or maybe both) the laminate properly. The instead of going back and fixing the problem, they cut corners and fudged and didn't support the back and side splash at all. It's off by more than an inch on the right side. It doesn't even reach it's intended support so it's just floating there. Sheesh! How can you be off by that much??!! Oh, and the sink is leaking under the faucet.

Let's hope they make things right this week. I've lost enough sleep (and money) over this. This is what comes of choosing the low bidder. Shhhhh, don't tell my husband.

I added a pic of my huckleberry layout here. Love how it turned out. This pic is my first with my manual zoom lens on my Lumix.

Baby's going to be 6!

2007-08-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning at 5:54, my baby will be 6. I can't believe this! We've got the cookie treats ready for school. I can't believe I didn't make them myself as I never get storebought cookies, but with no sink and no countertop, I wasn't going to bake cookies. That and the fact I have no idea where my baking staples are. :( I also know enough to never subject a teacher to cupcakes and frosting. Anyone who has ever taught school cringes at the sight of cupcakes and frosting for 5 and 6 year olds. Or older kids, for that matter. Maybe the only thing worse is some nice grape juice or Hawaiian punch to go along with it.

Tomorrow, in addition to being my son's birthday is also countertop and sink day. This will greatly improve life in this house. We haven't had a sink or counter since mid June. It's getting really old. I'll be happy to use that laundry tub for its intended purpose. I'll be glad to not buy prepackaged foods and other ecologically problematic items any more. Sink!! Counter!! What more does a mom need, anyway?

I did another scrapbook page when I should have been doing other things. What's new? I did do 6 errands this morning, it's not like I was all that idle. I used up some older Imagination Project-Rawhide papers and those coaster rings I can't get enough of. I think every company should make those rings to coordinate with their paper lines. This particular page is from our Oregon trip and our visit to the Curry County fair, where Rob wanted to go meet Wilbur. Rob's favorite book ever, to date, is Charlotte's Web. The boy has very good taste. I was happy to share that story with him as it's one of my favorites.

Some like it Hot! (just not me)

2007-08-29T16:07:00.001-07:00

So, it is HOT here today. It's only a 5-7 minute walk to the school but we were drenched in sweat by the time we arrived. The fact the air conditioning came on at 5 am was a sign of bad things to come as well. I just can't stand the heat. We've had it pretty nice this summmer, so i shouldn't complain too much.

I finally finished a layout I started 2 or 3 weeks ago for a glitter challenge I created at Scrappin Chicks. I like how it turned out. I finally finished another one as well. I didn't end up painting the window again today, Mr. Geek told me not to. I said ok. I didn't want the window open on a 100+ day anyway.

I'm going to have a six year old in a few days. Wow, almost 6 years of being a mom. Sometimes it feels like I've been doing this for 20 years and other times it feels like yesterday. I suspect this is pretty common.

I've got a a busy next few days getting things ready for Friday's installation, going to the post office, shopping for the party at various stores, etc. I also realized I don't have a gift for my kid yet. Nice! I just haven't been able to think of anything that he would really like AND would use a lot and needs. We have so many toys and stuff. He also has plenty of art supplies. I tend to buy them little things as they need them or at random times, so I don't feel too bad. I also know other people will give him things.

I can't wait for a sink and countertop! Then it will seem like a real kitchen and I can finish putting all the boxes of kitchen stuff away. Signing off for now...hopefully I'm more interesting next time.

To wake or not to wake...

2007-08-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

Mr. Geek decided to wake me up to see the lunar eclipse last night. I was sound asleep, of course. While it was pretty cool, I really wanted my sleep more than anything else at that point. I never did fall back asleep. And now today my head is humming and I feel kind of sick and crampy and spacy. I know a geek that's going to bed early tonight!

The worst thing about not getting enough sleep is that it's too hard to scrap!! I tried scrapping on just a couple of hours of sleep and it wasn't pretty. I had zero creativity. I did manage to paint some chipboard white without anything bad happening, I tried using a sketch and I was having a hard time using the sketch. You know you're tired when you can't follow a simple sketch. :(

I worked in my scrap room a bit, I'm still trying to figure out where things will go. I think I may actually have enough space for everything, it's a miracle. The problem is that I buy it faster that I use it. I'll need to scrap about 75 pages a month with my current supply income. There's just too much good stuff, it's hard to pass up a sale, etc. Let's face it. I have ENOUGH!

I want to figure out some projects using that new Sumner and Ashville papers by Scenic Route. Those are great! I say this about a lot of Scenic Route. Nothing, but nothing, will ever top the North Shore line, though.

I think my current faves are:

Basic Grey
Scenic Route
My Mind's Eye
Crate
Dream Street

Basic Grey and Scenic Route are ALWAYS in my top 5, it seems.

Me vs. Primer, etc.

2007-08-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the kids are back to school. I was VERY disappointed to arrive at my youngest guy's school and discover his teacher WASN'T THERE. She may not be back. Apparently, she didn't pass a consitution test and because of NCLB, can't come back until she does. And apparently she has to take an entire class on it because she failed the test the first time. So my son has a sub in his class. Again. I wonder if he'll ever start a school year with a regular teacher in his class. We just love his teacher. On a good note, the sub seems very competent and the aides are the same, so I think he'll settle into class nicely. It's hard to get IEP goals met and worked on with the lack of continuity though. I'm trying to figure out what my next move should be. My first thought last year was to jump ship, but this year he has friends in class and knows the aides, so I'm not sure that's the right idea.

As for my eldest, he just gave me a hug and walked away to the playground. I'm thinking about him and his long school day and hoping all is going well. It sure was a busy scene over there this morning.

Ok, now for the title subject of my post today. I primed the darn Andersen window. I know you must be thinking, it's JUST a window. It isn't just a window. It's a very irritating, complex, moving pieces of hardware and inaccessible wood surfaces sort of window frame. I was cursing it, wishing we had put in one of those cheap plastic or aluminum framed windows so I didn't have to paint it. My hands are covered in primer. And I had no relief in thinking, hey, after almost 2 hours, I'm done. I will have to go through it all again tomorrow when I paint it with regular paint. :( Depressing. I'd rather be painting chipboard letters. I wouldn't mind spending 2 hours doing that. Maybe I can get a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be painting chipboard." Or "My painted chipboard is prettier than your painted chipboard."

So, a bit of scrap talk to finish things off. Hmmmm, I am using some of the Imagination Project Rawhide paper and stuff to make a county fair page. I have some other projects I'd like to work on as well. Maybe I can get to one today. You can see one I did on Saturday here on my blog page. I scrapped some awesome pics of swallows at Redwoods National Park with the new My MInd's Eye Bohemia papers. I have quite the collection of Bohemia papers and embellishments. Please ignore the non-swallow bird that was printedon the paper. I think it's supposed to be some kind of wren or maybe a finch. Hard to tell exactly.

What kind of geek scraps pictures of birds? Me! I have also been known to scrap pictures of rocks. I'm waiting to find a good slime mold somewhere so I can photograph and scrap that too. ;) What can I say? I've already got banana slug pictures waiting to be scrapped, but nobody has come out with a "slimy things found in forests" paper line. I bet it's in the cards for Karen Foster come spring.

Welcome to my Odyssey!

2007-08-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Odyssey! This, the 26th day of August in the year 2007, seems like a good day for the journey to begin. I've been wanting to do this for a while. You see, I like to ramble. I also like to scrapbook. But there's one thing I do better than anything else: collect scrapbook supplies.

This week I acquired some new My MInd's Eye Bohemia papers and transparencies and new Basic Grey. I just feel so good looking at these papers. It's blazing hot outside, and the cool fall tones make it seem like it's fall outside. I have tons of beach pictures to scrap from our Oregon Coast trip, but I have new fall papers. It's an addiction, I'm allowed to be irrational. ;)

Today Mr. Geek and I took the kids to the beach. It was high tide, but we still saw harbor seals and plenty of birds. You see, we also like to watch birds. It's not something we've done much of since having kids. Our boys have this way of scaring off birds. They run ahead of us on the trail...yelling, shrieking, bickering...and the birds take off. Imagine. So we see a lot of birds flying away from us, and we see lots of birds faraway on the horizon. Eventually, we hope, we'll be able to actually watch them in peace again.

One final thought for the day-I'm positively giddy with excitement over tomorrow! My oldest son goes to first grade. That's right. ALL DAY. My 4 year old will be in school AT THE SAME TIME. I will actually have several hours to myself each day. Giddy, I tell you! Pure unadulterated scrapping hours! This is as close as it gets to nirvana for me. Never mind the cleaning, the work getting the kitchen prepped for Friday, the errands, etc. I choose not to think about that part.

Well, it's time to wrap this baby up. Back to the family and the dinner tasks at hand. You know, heating up stuff.