Earth Hour

Shutting down for an hour... I find it kind of interesting that the world is shutting down for an hour, and that it is such a big deal! But the reports from previous years say that it means such a huge savings in power if enough people do it. I wonder what would happen if we were Globally challenged to have an "Earth Day" and not use our modern technologies and conveniences for an entire DAY! We have had unintentional Earth Hours when the power has gone out. I'm glad we don't have an electricity curfew on a regular basis.

Earth Hour is from 8:30-9:30pm in your local time zone. Ours is coming up in 1 hour, so I am getting a couple things done before I power down the computer. Happy Earth Hour :)

pic from Earth Hour blog.

2010 Digi Pages

Here are a couple pages I just did for our 2010 Family Yearbook. These are 8 1/2X11 pages, and will be part of a hardcover, professionally printed book that I am creating through MDS (My Digital Studio). Click on the link MDS for more information.

Some Inspiration...

My "mojo" hasn't been flowing as much as usual lately, and I blame it on Spring Break, the time change, and whatever else you can think of. So, for today, I just want to send you to 5 links of projects that I discovered this week that are (in my mind) just awesome!

Stampin' Pretty - Got Milk?

'Eh'mazing Stampers - Card Share

Marelle Taylor - The Bunny Jar

Patty's Stamping Spot - Simply Adorned

Julia Bettencourt - Tulip card

These are all projects that I want to put my hand to in the next week or so, maybe add my own touches, and then my own mojo will be back!

I have also been working on a Family album with MDS (My Digital Studio) over the last couple weeks, so I haven't been totally delinquent with my crafting!! I'll share some of those pages as I get them done.

Reba Nell McEntire

The woman is almost 55 (b-day is March 28th). But, she's still got it!

Steve and I got to go to Reba's concert last night here in town, and it was amazing! She did a lot of her older songs, as well as about 5 from her new album. Here are a few pics from our date....


Melissa Peterman, also known as "Barbara Jean" from the TV Series, "REBA" was one of the opening acts, doing her stand up comedy. She was hilarious!

(this pic is borrowed from a friend)

Crystal Shawanda is a Canadian singer who caught Reba's attention last Fall, so Reba asked her to join the tour - lucky girl!!!

Crystal came out later on, during Reba's show, to sing a duet with Reba - Does He Love You.


And, of course, Melissa couldn't sit still back stage, so she came out to join Reba for some more comedy! She busted into Reba's song "Survivor" and sang along.

(**Friend's photo)
Reba did "Fancy" as her encore, and slipped backstage to change into this red dress. What an all around awesome concert! Can't wait until she comes back to town!!

Running

I've started running again... today I went out with my 6 year old for an hour of running/walking. He is quite the motivator! Kept saying, "Wow, mom, you're a good runner!" Funny that I even heard him over the wheezing in my lungs. haha! Actually, it wasn't that bad. We've been doing a lot of hiking lately, and I have been using the elliptical in the basement on rainy days, so I wasn't totally pathetic.

We have a little goal - The Run For Water... I would go for the 10km option, but kids can only go in the 5km race - so I'm saved by the kid!!

Here's the link, want to join us?! RUN FOR WATER


** Disclaimer: The photo is not me, but I'm so close to that, you're welcome to just pretend it is me!!!

Spring Break...

Spring Break is almost over. It's a happy/sad time because the kids are quite happy to be heading back to school on Monday, and truth be told, I'm kind of happy that the routine will be back in place. But at the same time, sad because it means that both my boys have turned a year older and I realize just how quickly this year is flying by.

I think we accomplished enough on Spring Break to say that it was a successful 2 weeks. Here is a quick summary... this will also explain why I haven't posted much...

- bought a new (to us) truck (shopping for a vehicle is a time consuming process, which took a total of 3 days of looking and test-driving, etc. But we found one, and I am happy to recommend Brent E at Mertin GM in Chilliwack if you are looking for a new or used vehicle. Tell him I sent you!!!!)
- enjoyed a kidless week (thanks to my parents)
- went out for dinner twice and breakfast once, and rented 4 movies while the kids were gone
- Steve and I spent a total of 5 days in Victoria ourselves
- sewing day with the girls (something I actually did manage to post about!)
- had 2 six-year-old boys for 2 weeks, now they are 6 and 7
- a couple mornings of scrapbooking
- read a number of books... just not sure what that number was - at least 4 books.

Here's a pic of the boys a couple days ago, while they were both still 6.

I hope you are enjoying a happy Spring Break, too, and gearing up for the start of the real Spring!!!

Sew Successful!!

Yesterday, I spent the day sewing at Andrea's with the "Bag Ladies." I replaced handles on a bag, and then made pillowcases and matching pj bottoms for all my kids. After I finished sewing, I picked up some coordinating t-shirts at Walmart, and the sets were complete. I think the kids will like their new jammies and pillows. I know I had fun making them!

Family Pages

Here is a layout I finished this morning. It is very basic, but I like how it incorporates so many photos. These are the photos that we had taken by Judi Petker back in September. I will put these pages in my "All About Us" book.

What goes up.....

Must come down... And up we sure went! Almost to the top of Vedder Mountain.

We are enjoying a "kidless week" thanks to my parents. If you have ever been to my blog at this time of the year before, you know that it has become tradition for my kids to hang out with my parents for a week in March. This is the 4th or 5th year that they have done it. I love it, my parents love it, the kids love it... win, win, win, all around! Haha! We like to believe that my parents enjoy it as much as we do! We sure appreciate you spending time with the kids like this :) Thank you!

So, today we hit the trails on Vedder Mt. We love the show Mantracker, so we thought we would have a little fun and pretend that he was after us. We got good at finding tracks, and were very surprised at how far up the mountainside trucks will dare to travel on such rough roads. We mainly stuck to dirt bike and mountain biking trails, but at one point our path was blocked by fallen trees, so we had to make a decision - go up the side of the hill, or retreat back down the path we just came up. Well, where is the fun in that?! We went up, of course!

Here are a few pics of our adventures this afternoon. Thanks for stopping by.

We had planned on heading straight to the top, but then hit our "turn around time." We had to get off the mountain before it got dark, and so we opted to not climb the rest of the way to the top... I know we'll go back another time to reach the top, though. What we did was a 2 1/2 hour hike, but you could spend all day on that mountain exploring!


Dirt bike trails.... we saw only one bike today.


Mountain Bike trails. These guys do a great job of maintaining their trails. It's encouraging to run across one of these trails when you are in the bush because you know it will always lead back to the main road!


We followed a really rough road at one point, and there were still truck tracks heading up here. I joked that Steve could just go get our truck and pick me up at the top!! He didn't go for it.

The weather was perfect hiking weather!

Road block.... so...
We went up...

But then on the side of the hill, we were met with more fallen trees. I opted to go under this tree, Steve went over. (The highlighted part shows where I crawled under).

It was much bigger and steeper than a picture can show.

What a fun day... where are we going tomorrow, Husband?!


Stamper's Note: If you come here to see my stamping projects, I promise I will post some more of those very soon. I spent the morning scrapbooking in my boys' books. Tomorrow morning I will put the finishing touches on those pages and then post them on here.