Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Go here for a little Thanksgiving treat:
Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song: Watch a 'Saturday Night Live' classic - From Inside the Box - Zap2it

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The Thankful 10

I am thankful for:

1. A husband that loves me dearly and makes me laugh.
2. My family
3. Amazing friends near and far
4. The adorable little kiddos I have the privilege of working with everyday.
5. A house, a car, a job, food in the fridge and health insurance.
6. Creativity and hobbies that I love.
7. Freedom and the right to choose how I live.
8. The ability to make a difference in the lives of children everyday, even though sometimes I want to pull my hair out, scream and crawl back in bed.
9. My health and the health of those I love.
10. Books, yarn, pretty papers, the ipod, cd's, satellite radio, internet....

Thankful Week

So I downloaded this little album from Jessica Sprague last November with intentions of journaling things I'm thankful for the whole week of Thanksgiving. Last year we traveled to Chicago for Thanksgiving and though I brought the book with me, it just didn't happen. So I set it aside, hoping I would remember it next year.

I remembered to pull out this book about a week ago and set it by my bedside in hopes it would become a nightly task to jot down my thankful item for the day. So far, so good. Here's my thankful entries from yesterday and today:

Sunday: I am so thankful for a day off and time to spend doing something just for me. Creating and hanging out with a friend, enjoying good me time.

Monday: I am so thankful for a clean house, a smaller to do list, a fridge full of groceries and fresh baked pumpkin muffins.

What are you thankful for this week?

Musical Interlude

Diggin this song lately...off to Tivo Austin City limits this weekend.

10 is the Magic Number

Today's 10

1. I have a head full of songs I learned or heard at the music therapy convention last week. Including a particularly entertaining parody of Flight of the Conchords "Business Time" called "Amygdala Time."

2. I have a new list of books to read, including this book, this book and this book (which I already own but haven't yet read) thanks to the convention. I have added a few books to my re-read pile as well.

3. Lots and lots and lots of ideas and to do's in my head after getting all revved up and re-motivated by the convention.

4. I'm crossing my fingers the state does not make more cuts to DDD services. It's not looking good.

5. Been working on another pair of fingerless mittens. Here's the pair I finished while in OR a few weeks ago:


6. Starting my Christmas shopping and gift making.

7. Thinking about decorating for Christmas earlier than normal this year. Shawn is actually itching to put up the tree, which is a new thing for him.

8. Speaking of Christmas decorations, I'm loving this idea.

9. Looking forward to a couple days of no commitments this weekend...well Sunday and most of Monday anyway.

10. Thinking of making an Amazon.com wishlist for my Christmas list.

A Much Needed Girly Get Together

Thanks to this lovely and this lovely, I spent 4 days in Oregon enjoying some fabulous girl time this weekend. We had a great time. I hate that I live so far from them and relish any time I get to spend with them. Plus, there's a new little girly that I get to spend time with too...

I haven't seen Miss E since she was 6 weeks old. Boy has she changed! She's eating like a big girl now. Mmmm, carrots:


and she makes faces like this:


and like this:


We spent Friday running around getting things for a little Halloween/Birthday party and having a little coffee date in Corvallis with Miss Nicole. Friday night we got all dressed up and pulled out all the sweets we could find for our little party.

Here's the pirate couple:


The tutu girls...Pirate Princess and Ballerina Witch:


The Pirate Princess (complete with risque tattoo) and our birthday girl Helen the almost licensed party planner:


We had quite the table of junk food, dry ice special effects and festive cupcakes:


On Saturday, we waited for Miss Nicole to come over and we headed out for lunch at Wild Pear and some downtown Salem shopping. We spent the afternoon organizing Jessie's disaster of a scrap space, scrapping, passing out candy and eating squash soup.

Here's our little cheetah and a cute lady bug visitor:


Nicole is very excited to be posing for Halloween photos. Ella, well she wasn't so sure....


Zombie pumpkins created by Tim:


Poor cheetah had lots of pictures to pose for (story of her life I'm afraid):



Sunday afternoon we headed for the coast, where it was a beautiful sunny and crisp fall afternoon. I didn't get too many good beach shots, but here's my favorite:


On Monday we headed to Busick Court so I could enjoy my favorite apple walnut pancakes. Yum! Later we took a little walk around the neighborhood searching for some fall pictures.



and of course we needed to take more cute baby photos.


Oh how I'm going to miss these girls!

I Actually Scrapped

October was quite the crazy month, between working lots of hours, house cleaning, visitors, the flu and a trip to OR, I did not have too much time to scrap. I did however manage to get a couple pages done for the Scrapgal gallery before leaving for OR last week. Our manufacturer of the month is Bella Blvd and they graciously donated some products for us play with. Here's what I created with my goodies:


We also decided to get a jump start on the season and scrap some holiday pages. Here's mine, using new Crate Paper and Bo Bunny.


While in Oregon, Jessie asked me to scrap some of her photos. After a major overhaul of her messy scrap collection, we managed to get a lot of scrapping done. I had fun scrapping pictures of Ella and playing with Jessie scrap goodies. Here's what I created:



I was really excited to play with some Shimmerz products. I used the chocolate paint on the brown flower on the first layout and the bamboo spray with KI memories paper as a mask on the layout above. I'm pretty much in love with the bamboo spray. Pretty, pretty!

This last page is my favorite though. Something about the fall colors, some of my favorite older papers and of course the cute photos just makes me happy. Yum!


The good news is that I will be scrapping again this weekend...in the midst of lots of laundry, house work and packing for another trip. We are having an "Autumn Bliss" crop at Scrap for a Cure. The design team will be hosting lots of challenges and games starting on Friday evening (Nov 6) through Sunday afternoon. I'll be hosting a game and a challenge Sunday morning. Come on over and play with us!

Stay tuned for some my OR recap and some fun photos from my trip.