A Wicked Album

When Jen and I went to see Wicked, we took several pictures seen here . I measured and cut chipboard. I wanted the covers to be thicker so I used Modge Podge to glue two sections of chipboard together before I started to cover them.

I covered the cover with black. For every layer of paper I used Modge Podge

Then found a perfect green

I took the cover of a playbill and cut the picture out.

I then separated the pictures and spelled out WICKED with phrases and words explaining what was going on.

They gave us the wicked lottery buttons when I won the lottery!

I placed our tickets in the book too.



To end the book, I took a picture I had taken of the stage, before they asked me to put my camera away. I left a blank square below the picture so we could write in our own memory's of the night. Then on the rear cover I made a pocket for the Playbill to be in.

When I was done the album I used my Bind It All to bind the album together. I then used coordinating ribbons and tied them to the wires. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the finished albums. I only had time to make Jen's album. But I took careful notes of all of the measurements of all of the papers and the embellishments so that I can eventually make myself the same album.

Making Ice Cream

On August 30 I decided to do something fun and different with Cameron. We decided to make ice cream. I was going through the "Kid Concoctions" books and came across a method that you can do in a zip-lock bag. So when in Rome . . .



Cameron was excited to shake the bag.



But after about 20 minutes of shaking we really hadn't made any progress of turning our milk mixture into ice cream. So we gave up on the bag shaking method and went for the old container in a bowl of ice with rock salt.


Okay, that's not really a method, but after another 20 minutes It wasn't exactly ice cream, but it was a wonderful milkshake consistency. Either way, Cameron and I enjoyed it. But for the future we will probably borrow the crank ice cream maker from my parents.

Removing our Palm

On August 11th one of our palm trees finally sold. We have been waiting for years to have these tree's removed. It was such an interesting experience to see the palm removed. On the 10 the company sent out a team of three guys who literally dug out the palm tree by hand. They were armed with just their shovels. They even climbed the tree with ropes to trim it up to a nice "pineapple" look. The next morning the team that was taking the tree out of the ground came. 45 minutes later it was loaded on a truck and on it's way to San Francisco. We found out the the tree weighed in at 17000 lbs!




They were able to lay that 37 foot palm tree right between our purple plum and our fence!




Larry is 6'2.5" that is the root ball behind him


This is what the roots of a palm tree look like. I didn't know what I was expecting them to look like, but they are very fibrous.


Loaded and on it's way

Walk Down Memory Lane Wednesday

Cameron has always loved anything that moves. Trains, planes, boats, cars or trucks. If you can name it and it moves, he loves it. Most things that are in motion will actually stop him in his track so he can watch it. When we go to my grandpa's in Torrance, he loves to walk to the corner to see the trains go by. When he hears a firetruck or ambulance he will crane his neck to see it. He can even tell the difference between different sirens, just by their sound, before he ever sees the vehicle. He loves loves loves planes. He loves to go to the airbase to watch the tankers fly when a fire is burning. A couple of years ago there was an air show at Ryan airbase. He was thrilled and spent the majority of the day with his head craned toward the sky.







I finally got him to look at the camera

9 Y-E-A-R-S

Nine years! Holy Crow! Larry and I are celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary today! I can't believe that I'm old enough to have been married for 9 years! We got married in my parents back yard in a simple wedding that was FABULOUS despite it's simplicity. And 9 years later, he's still my best friend! Here's to many more years!!!












Here's a video from "Our Song" It's Your Love by Tim Mcgraw and Faith Hill

Defying Gravity

On Friday August 28th my friend Jen and I headed off to San Diego with the hopes of winning the Wicked Lottery. It was Wickeds closing weekend at the civic theatre. They had 20 seats for the lottery and each winner could get two tickets, which meant that if every winner took two tickets they would only draw 10 names. There was easily 100 people at the lottery. I was so anxious I was bouncing with anticipation as they started calling names. SLOWLY they would call someones name and then wait for them to come forward, check their ID and then have them go inside before they called another name. FINALLY I heard my name! I SCREAMED and started bouncing toward the front!!! I fumbled with my ID and then with my camera inside cause I wanted to make sure I had pictures! I got two tickets, for $25 each!! Our seats were in the FRONT row! For me this was the second time I had seen Wicked, Larry and I had gone while it was in LA, you can see those pictures here But this was Jen's first time seeing it. Naturally she loved it, I mean, how could you not? It was a Oztastic night!!!

Waiting for the lottery


Buying our tickets!


The civic theatre



Our tickets



Our great seats




We had SO much fun!!!

Walk Down Memory Lane Wednesday

In May of 2007 my cousins and us went down to Corona del Mar to take pictures for our grandparents. We had a great time!

Wow, Summer is over . . .

So I was thinking I haven't blogged in a while. Well that would be an understatement. Aside from Music Video Monday's (which I haven't even done in a while) I haven't written a real blog in about 6 weeks! Yowza! Where did the time go? Oh wait I know, it was summer which equals busy, which means time moves TOO fast. Well here we are on the cusp of September. It was a great and busy summer. I still can't believe that it is over.

Last Monday, August 24th was Cameron's first official day back to school. We are homeschooling again this year and he is in Kindergarten with Julian Charter School. He is starting to read! This is really exciting for so many reasons, but especially because I'm a big reader! He is doing first grade math and is really doing well! He LOVES to learn! We are really enjoying the homeschool experience and look forward to what this year has to offer!

Larry has been quite busy this year. He got a schedule B engineer job several months ago and has spent little time at home since. This is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing cause the overtime is great but a curse cause we miss him. He has, as of today been home 5.5 days in the last 6 almost 7 weeks. Needless to say, I need a break! But we are thankful for the work.

Business is going well. We have one more wedding planned for this year . . . but could still get more. If we don't get any more we will have ended the season with 7 weddings! That is significant growth for us! We have several events coming up and will head right into the Christmas season here in about another month. We are thankful that we are growing! I'm thankful that I don't nescessirily have to work, but get to on my terms. It's been a great experience for our family.

Well my goal now that I'm getting back into a normal routine, will be to update on a more regular basis. So stay tuned cause I have lots of pictures to show off from the summer :O)

If you ever get bored you can look at the business blog, I'm really good about keeping that updated!

You might be a redneck

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Bass Pro in Rancho Cucuamunga. If you have never been, then I suggest going! But that's a different blog. Bass Pro has everything the outdoor enthusiast could possible dream of! Including a line of interesting home goods and furniture. These interesting pieces helped me have a Jeff Foxworthy moment, so if you don't mind please join me in my version of

You might be a redneck if . . .

You own a camouflaged chair


Now look carefully friends, this is not just a camo chair! It's a camo massage chair! That's right, after a long day of hunting you can come home, strip off your own camo pants, wash off that doe urine you put on to attract that buck, open up a Pabst Blue Ribbon and flop into this comfort of all comforts as you dream widely on which wall of your trailer you will be hanging that buck head when it comes back from the taxidermists. Weeewwwww eeeeeeeee that is one fine lookin chair! And it looks SO good next to this little beauty . . .



Yup, that there is a GENUINE whiskey barrel holding up that there table top! As if that was not a fine enough looking table, the artist went a couple of steps further and added rifles along the sides. I mean nothing says "come on and enjoy your dinner" like a Winchester rifle holding up your plate! But look closer friends, you see that thing the price tag is hanging off of? Yup you guessed it, that is a GENUINE spur! I mean it wouldn't be a thrilling adventure if you didn't have to worry about impaling yourself on that spur! Where would the fun be in that? But I love how the pros at Bass Pro knew who their target shopper would be. It may be hard to see in this picture, but those are beer cups on that fine piece of furniture.

And just in case you are shy and never let your neighbors inside, but you want them to know just how big a redneck you are, may I suggest one of these little beauties?



I mean come on that is MAGNIFICENT! Someone may never be able to come in and see that big ol' large mouth mounted on the wall, but they may assume you have one after getting an eye full of your mailbox. I mean . . . come on! Rednecks of the world unite! Join me as we stand together against conformity of the man! We have our choices! Yes!! You can choose bass, trout or catfish! No conformity here! Join me join me!!

Whew . . . sorry . .. I think I'll be okay now. Now back to your regular scheduled programing.