Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Day One: Success!

I'm not talking about the new school year here. I'm talkin' 'bout the Student Store I manage at one of the girls' schools.

Phew!

It's taken quite a bit of coordination and prep work to order new supplies, set everything up. double check deliveries, create a volunteer schedule and design a bulletin board.

But you know what?

I've loved every minute of it. It's so, so, so fun!

And the students adore the store. They've been asking since school started last week when the store would open and always groaned when I told them not until today. Even the principal moaned! Haha.

I couldn't open sooner for two reasons... 1) my food order didn't come until yesterday and 2) parents seem to be a bit more reticent to volunteer these days. Volunteering is down across the board. I'm hoping that means that more parents are working again. (Wouldn't that be awesome?)

We did an awesome business today, with long lines of excited kids handing over their dollars for school supplies, trinkets and (relatively healthy) snack foods.

And here's on of the greatest parts of my Manager job... seeing my sixth-grader greet me with big smiles, hugs and kisses. She's so proud to have me there! And I'm so grateful for the opportunity. What a blessed mama I am!
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Monday, August 29, 2011

Come see my bee-you-tee-ful cards!

My handmade card collection depleted earlier this summer when I presented several sets to teachers for end of year gifts. Time to make new ones!

Perfecting timing, too, because visiting One-of-the-Besties Melanie loves making cards as much as I do.

We scouted out a fantastic little stamp shop nearby and spent... um.... many, many beads on cute paper, necessary pens, unique stamps, etc.

Some of the ones in the photo below we did together. Others, I've done before or since her visit.
These two cards required a new technique for both Mel and I.
Sooooo worth it because the insides are adorable!!!!  
Inside the birdie card
Inky Antics has created honeycomb paper to glue inside cards so that when you open them up, the honeycomb stretches into shape! Naturally, they sell coordinating stamps which, as you can see, are so high on the cuteness scale that it's totally worth pulling out the ol' Amex card for.

Here's the link if you're interested in checking it out yourself... http://www.inkyantics.com/honeypop.htm
Inside the elephant card


I just put together a packet of cutie cards for Scott's mom--a belated bday gift, if you will. He sent her a new version of Norton Anti-Virus. LOL Needed and appreciated, no doubt, but not very birthday-ish!

My fingers are itching to get back up to my craft corner and create more cards, but since school is now in session and the girls are out of the house for several hours a day, my focus must be on finishing up this latest round of edits on my novel. I've been working on that at least a couple hours a day and if I ever get my sleep schedule regulated so that I sleep enough during the night and don't have to fortify during the day, I'll get even further with those edits. 

And if you feel the need to order any cards.... heeeheeeheeee.... just let me know!
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

"But wait! There's more!"

Scott came home from meetings today with food enough to warrant a call to our friends down the street... "Come over and take some of this food!"

18 cookies, 4 kinds of bread, 2 giant containers of OJ, chicken salad, a full box of microwave popcorn and apples.
6 bags of chips, lunch meat, 2 bottles of Sprite, 3 bottles of water and enough lettuce to feed Scott for the next two weeks. (He eats *great* quantities of lettuce every day, btw.)
Fruit salad, 5 candy bars, apple juice and 2 partial bottles of soda, not to mention the 4 2-liters not pictured. 
You can imagine that I'm not kidding when I say it took the better part of an hour to repackage it all and figure out how to get it in my fridge. LOL

But wait! There's more! (Do I sound like a Ginsu commercial yet? Hahahahaha!)

So Scott dashed in with all this food and dashed right back out to meet the business associates for dinner at Outback Steakhouse.

Three hours later, my super-duper amazing husband waltzed back in with yet more food... the second half of his Porterhouse and a Chocolate Thunder from Down Under.

He is a good, good man.

But wait! There's still more! (A little useless trivia for ya...Did you know that those annoying Ginsu ads actually sold between two and three million sets in just six years, earning its place as the marketing icon for infomercials ever since.)

Just a few minutes ago, Scott looks at me and says, "Oh, yeah. I forgot to bring home the Dove ice cream bars. I'll have to go get those tomorrow." I'll help you remember, Darling!

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Friday, August 12, 2011

PHOTOS! PHOTOS! PHOTOS AT LAST!

Awesome friend Melanie and her daughter, the Great Gaberdini, visited us here in Sunny San Diego for a whole week! And we had the best time ever. Seriously. The. Best.Time. Ever.

There are sooooo many photos I want to share with you. In the end, I had to pick and choose and even then, it took me hours to adjust and size just those. I figure individual slide shows are the best bet to display them. I tried to include little tidbit-y stories in the captions for ya.


San Diego Zoo



Hollywood!


We have no photos to prove it, but we saw Rodeo Drive as well. Sort of. Kind of. Well, really the entire experience turned into a giant disaster.

Scott came with us up to LA, but he drove separately since he had to be back in town for meetings on Friday. We drove all that way just fine. Him behind, me in the lead. We made it to Rodeo Drive and drove the length of it. We were turning left to look for parking when I made it through a light and he didn't. I parked in the closest garage and called him. But my phone was dead. The battery was fine, but the signal? Dissolved into thin air.

He didn't know where we were. We didn't know where he was. And we couldn't call each other! His signal was just as dead as mine. And everybody else's who was on the AT&T Network in that part of town.

I'll abridge the story now and just tell you that by the time we all hooked up again, there was no time left for Rodeo Drive to be awed by our presence. *sigh*

And later that night... as the bellman unloaded our things into the Presidential Suite, he told us that lots of celebrities stay in this particular room, Sean Penn being the most recent. Hayley, my usually reserved girl, grabbed the camera and flipped the dial to video. She said to this poor bellman, "My friends will never believe. Would you say that again, please?" And he did! I just shook my head. You can never tell what exactly will be important enough for that girl to break out of her shell.


More fun photos!


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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Banner day at the beach!

One of my very best besties, Melanie, is visiting with her daughter. Today we took them to the beach and they LOVED it!





Ten year-old, Gabby, has never seen the Pacific and had no idea what a boogie board is. Well, we cured her of that one. The girl simply adores boogie boarding. Check it out...






While Melanie and I stood ankle-deep in the icy Pacific waters watching Emma and Gabby ride the waves, a very large group of people came to the edge of the water. Three people stepped in about knee deep and the woman in the center was immersed and baptized!

After a bit of convincing, I got Melanie to try her hand at riding the waves. I don't blame her for being hesitant--the water should have had ice cubes bobbing about, it was so cold. But I got her on a board and her reaction? "That's so fun!"




A couple hours later, we saw a wedding! We tried to get a photo, but couldn't. I think the camera battery died or something. We got a *ton* of other photos, but it's getting late so I'm not going to take the time to adjust the color, resize, save as and import. I'll get them up soon though.

So if you don't hear from me for the next few days, know that I'll make up for it after Mel and Gabs fly home on Wednesday. Then you'll probably hear too much from me! LOL

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