My Newest Hobby...

Here are a few samples of my trials at digital scrapbooking. I'm starting my new family album this way but I miss the textural part of working with the papers and embellishments. So, I'm still doing the kid's individual albums the old fashioned way :o)

TAG - YOU'RE IT

I've received my first tag from Nicole (I don't know how to link yet so you can view her's) so here goes...

A. Attached or single?  very attached

B. Best friend?  Nicole - since 1st grade counts for tons!

C. Cake or pie?  warm apple pie but it has to have ice cream

D. Day of choice?  Fridays

E. Essential item?  my Mac

F. Favorite color?  shades of pink

G. Gummy bears or worms?  really neither

H. Hometown?  Laie, Hawaii although no family remains there

I. Indulgence?  watching Amazing Race with Dove chocolates

J. January or July?  January

K. Kids?  Three really cute ones

L. Life isn't complete without?  A call to Cathy (my sis)

M. Marriage date?  August 17th

N. Number of brothers and sisters?  3 brothers and 2 sisters

O. Oranges or apples?  oranges

P. Phobias?  Flying!

Q. Quote?  "Quick like a chicken" -  ask my kids

R. Reason to smile?  Family

S. Season of choice?  Fall

T. Tag some peeps:  Michelle V, Rebecca L and Leslie H

U. Unknown fact about me?  I'm related to Daniel Boone

V. Vegetable?  broccoli

W. Worst habit?  nail biting

X. X-ray or Ultrasound?  strange...ultrasound I guess

Y. Your favorite food?  Chocolate anything

Z. Zodiac sign?  Virgo

Can it be true?!

Fall may actually be rolling into Texas.  Of course we don't get this kind of color where we are - but nonetheless it's coming! My birthday is on the Fall Equinox (1st day of Fall).  I've always loved that little fact - it almost feels like a holiday.  I also love that my dear brother, Dave, and I are the same age for one day - you see, he turns a year older the following day.  I love knowing that pumpkins, turkeys, and witches are on their way. 

Happy Fall to y'all from Texas!

Hurricane, birthday & awards...

Just a little update - we're still having a few issues with our phone but we've gotten mostly back to normal from Ike. The kids finally go back to school tomorrow after more than a week off. Luckily we have power which some of our friends don't have even now. The stores are getting stocked back up to normal capacity and there isn't a line hours long waiting for gas. There are still tons of trees down all around and it's sad to see - years of growing and one crazy wind storm comes to town. Friends who left have come back and everyone seems to have fared well through it all. Thanks for all the thoughts, concerns & prayers!

Ryan turned 11 this week. His birthday celebrations were altered by Hurricane Ike (this isn't the first time - Rita hit around this time three years ago). With the kids out of school all week, we decided to get the boys together for a pool party.  They seemed to have a fun time and Ryan had an awesome day.

After his party, we drove to our old town and picked up a few of his good friends to spend the weekend - talk about an extended party!  They were in the pool day and night. 

Guess who won this....

THEY did - my favorite show (and it starts in just a week!!!)

The Aftermath...

This is an old tree in the field behind our house. It was the only tree left in that area - I hate seeing it like this.

Driving down a main street in our subdivision - a mess it but could be much worse

This is how our bathroom looked almost around the clock for four days. We boarded that window and couldn't remove screws until power came back on - so it was dark the whole time.

The Morning After...

After being boarded up all night, we went out to assess the damages. Really the kids just played around in the wind (still about 50 mph) and the rain.

Being a scrapbooking family, we had to document the event and date :o)

It's hard to tell but the rain is really coming down still. We ended up with about 6" in our pool overnight and got another 5" the next day!

Waiting for Ike to arrive...

Ryan had fun playing out in the wind gusts that were beginning on Friday evening - as you can see....

The sky had the most beautiful sunset that night. Isn't there a saying about the sky turning red before a large storm?

Ready or not....

Come on in Ike - the weather's fine....

We're experiencing the calm before the storm. The wind is blowing just a bit right now. We've gotten our master boarded up (probably not necessary but eases the wind worries) and now we're dismantling the trampoline. We should have sustained winds of about 80 mph here - not as bad as we thought we would have.

Nothing like a bunch of patio furniture throughout the house!

Latest Info...

So, we may have lucked out with the Hurricane (those two words don't seem to go together, do they?!). Ike will still be hitting us hard but if the eye comes right over us or to the east a bit, we won't be on the dirty (worst) side of it. We are still supposed to get amazing wind but hopefully not the tornado mess that others will...whew!

Continuation...

We've stocked up on tons of the essentials. We'll have hundreds of gallons of water. We'll all be bunkered down in our master bedroom - the kiddies & the kitties. Wish us all well while we're munching on Rice Krispy treats and powdered donuts.

YIKES...IKE!!

I don't think we're dodging it as much as we thought. We've been in the center of "the cone of uncertainty" for a few days now. But this morning the track has moved a bit north - hitting between Corpus and Houston. We're on the south side of Houston so we'll get the "dirty" side of the storm - great :-(  Being the weather junkie that I am, I've checked the path every few hours.  We won't be evacuating since we're not right on the coastline...but now you can be scared for us ;-)

NieNie on NBC

This morning the Today Show on NBC had a feature about the Nielsen's (nieniedialogues.blogspot.com). It was very touching to watch this cute family (whom many of us have fallen in love with) get national attention and possibly even more help. More than $100,000 has been raised by bloggers to help with their millions of dollars of medical costs. You can read more about their recovery at www.blog.cjanerun.com

The Nogales Museum

Some of you know that I don't really have "artwork" in my home. I'd much rather have portraits of my kids around. So, today I established The Museum Wall up in our gameroom....I think it's a work of art!  Such talented painters and artists I have in my family.  I love the idea of having my kid's art framed and they think it's great. Of course these were done when they were younger :o)

Keep an Eye out...

So, it looks like we are going to dodge Hurricane Gustav...whew!

Poor New Orleans - almost 3 years to the day of Katrina!

The kids asked what Labor Day is ... so we decided to let them know it was the day we labor in our homes and yards. We'll be doing all sorts of cleaning and organizing. They asked why people have barbeques and parties if that was the reason for the holiday. "Well," we said, "of course everyone then celebrates all the labor they did in the morning."  

*If anyone tells them the "real" history, you'll be coming over to help clean with them!

What is a girl to do?!

So now that the kids are back in school, everything is just...

Dishes are calling, cleaning is calling and so is dinner prep - but all I can do is look at my iMac. This whole computer obsession has gotten a bit out of hand, don't you think? If any family member is looking for me, check the office where I'm with...

Even Sugar doesn't know what to think or do other than watch the mouse go 'round and 'round

A Boo Hoo or Happy Day?

So, what kind of day was it for you?  I was kind of doing the Happy dance (but didn't let the kids see..shhh)

Ryan was really excited to be in 5th grade since they get the BACK of the school bus!

Tess was happy to get back to school to see some friends but not excited for the work of it...my kind of gal ;-)

We can't believe we now have a High Schooler - we're far too young!  Tomorrow starts seminary - 5:30 am pickup...yuck.

Bummer thing is there are NO good friends in her lunch period - something's wrong with that!

My Olympic Update

Okay - so I complained about no NBC air time for the synchro swimming (see post below). I usually have the Olympics on my TV non-stop whenever they're airing - even if I'm not into the sport.  So, this morning we're doing our Saturday chores and listening to music (everyone moves faster) when I remember, "the Olympics are on!!" - turn the channel!  To my delight and horror (since I miss all but three teams) Synchronized Swimming team finals were on NBC!  So, we got to watch the Japanese team, the Spanish team and the Russian team (the gold medalists) do their thing - AMAZING.  Did you see that beginning flip thing the Russians did? That alone deserved GOLD (unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of it yet).  Jose asked if I could do something like that in our pool - I responded "of course, but I'll need a headpiece like they wear".  

My good friend suggested trying to see video on the computer - Nicole, it worked and I got to see the pairs routine - I always had a suspicion the internet was good for something ;o)

I Can't Wait!!!

The Amazing Race is coming soon!!  This is my absolute favorite show of all time!  Only a week after my birthday - Happy bday to me :D  Join in the race and watch with me starting Sept. 28th. Phil is the ultimate host (they have Emmys to prove it).  Will discuss soon...stay tuned!

Synchro Swim...where'd it go?!

For some reason this summer Olympics has kind of been frustrating. I've enjoyed the swimming, diving, gymnastics, volleyball and such - but one sport I really like watching is the synchronized swimming. I don't know if I like the whole girly part of the sport - sequins, glitter, makeup and all.  Or maybe I just enjoyed the SNL skit with Martin Short so much that I love the real thing! The problem is that it's all on the Oxygen channel which my cable doesn't provide. Maybe if I knew this ahead of time, I'd have been able to do something about it! So, I'll have to wait another four years to hopefully view it. 

Our Kitties

This is Sugar - our newest Ragdoll kitty. Here's a picture of him as a baby and now. He's two years old and bigger than Cocoa. He's almost 20 lbs. and just fluffy as can be. We just love hugging on him even though he's kind of our scared kitty.

This is our first kitten, Cocoa.  He is a six year old Ragdoll cat. He was so white when he was little but reached full color at age three.  He always wants to be around the family and in the mix of things.

Summertime!

We just built a new pool and have been in it almost 24/7 this summer.  The kids especially love the waterfall and rock slide. We do have a grotto/cave they can climb through but the girls are convinced there are creepy crawlies and don't go in very often. 

Ryan is our biggest dare devil on the rocks. He tries to get away with anything he can - jumps, flips, dives, etc. 

 We've had some fun pool parties and swim time with friends this season. We've even had a dislocated shoulder by one of the boys at church roughhousing on the slide - that wasn't the fun part.

Utah Trip

We just spent two weeks up in Utah seeing family & friends. We got to see Manny & Carla who came down from Park City to meet us for dinner.

We stayed at Cathy's house and had so much fun with them and their doggie, Goldie. We went to Cherry Hill waterpark and just goofed off and had fun. Marisa spent most of that week at EFY down at BYU - and had a blast there.

Ryan with Tim's kids - Tyson, Bryce & Katie. Checking out the Aflac Nascar racing car that was in town.

Tess making cookies with Aunt "Weesie".  She loves Louise and always remembers that she makes lots of treats at her house!

Visting our great friends, The Vances. They moved up to Utah this past year and we have missed them so much. The kids loved seeing them again and had fun hiking right out side their home, playing in the nice soft Utah grass and hanging out with all their girls. Ryan got a major case of "road rash" while he and Madison raced down their mountain on a scooter he couldn't stop. We thought football season was at an end, but he's healing well and surviving practices - a little painfully though!

 We celebrated my mom's birthday and had fun just hanging out with everyone. Here's a picture of Tess, Marisa, Grandma Judy, Ryan, Cathy, Kimberly & Christopher (Cath's kids).  It was a great trip and we had so much fun - thanks to all who hosted our family - We love you all!!

We're in the world of Blogging!

Some of my great friends have been blogging and we've loved keeping up with their lives. So, with the purchase of our new beloved iMac computer, we're jumping into the pool with everyone else!  YeeHaw - here we go!