Invite and Card Swap

Here's my card for the November stamp of the month swap. I love snow men and I had so much fun creating this card. Of course, now that I mailed it, I wish I had added white sassy strands. I tried adding blue and didn't like it. Never even considered white until I saw Bren's card.....



And here's one of the invitations I made for the Court of Honor. The scout paper was another brand and I think it's not available anymore. I ran out and looked everywhere for it. I ended up having to use different paper on some of the invitations. Of course I kept one of my favorites for myself. The stamps are from a set called Legendary Moments. How appropriate!

Eagle Court of Honor

Here it is a few days later and my heart is still so full that I find myself at a loss of words. Joshua's Eagle Court of Honor was wonderful. We were blessed to have so many people come and share the evening with us. It reiterated how truly lucky we are to have such a large group of friends and family that love and support us!!


Here is a picture of the two boys taking the Eagle Charge....


But I love that when my step-dad zoomed out you could see the row of men who have helped the boys along the way. We kind of broke tradition a little bit and we split the Eagle Challenge up amongst the wonderful spiritual and scouting leaders these boys had. I think technically we should have used Eagle scouts. These men may not have earned their Eagle when they were young, but they have definately fostered the scouting spirit and have done some amazing things with the boys in our ward/troop/team.


They each had a "written" part to read, but they all added a few extra comments when they got up there. They kept it short and sweet but you could hear the love and admiration they had for each of the boys. I think it was my favorite part of the whole ceremony.

The eagle medal package comes with one mentor pin, but you can purchase additional pins as needed. Both boys immediately knew they would need two pins. There's no way to separate the "Ambassador of Fun" (Mark), from the "Assistant Ambassador of Fun" (Barry).

Later on that night, when things had settled down I expressed my thanks to both of them and they looked down at the pins on their chest and said "There's no greater thanks than this."

And the surprise of the evening was when I saw these two walk in the door. A few minutes after the ceremony started, Rick nudged me and said "look at the door." I looked over and saw the Polls sneaking in, then I looked up at Josh and saw his eyes get big and his face light up. I will admit, it was a little hard to patiently sit through the rest of the ceremony when all I wanted to do was go give them a big hug!

We love the Polls for many reasons but whenever we thought about this night, we always thought of sharing it with them. You see Bishop Poll was the one who first called us as Cub Scout leaders and he's the one that shared his testimony of scouting with us. He helped us to see the importance of scouting and how it helps to shape the young men and prepare them for a mission. He gave us the insight to understand the long term goals so that we could get through the short term difficulties.

The Polls moved to Utah a few years ago, but they continued to ask how Josh was doing and where he was in the process. We promised to keep them informed and let them know when the big event would happen. When it came time to send out the invites, we made sure we mailed theirs right away. I never called or followed up. I didn't want to add pressure or expect them to make the trip, but I hoped....

When I hadn't heard from them I told Josh, "I wonder if they would just surprise us."

And they did... and we are truly grateful!!

There are many other great people who joined the celebration Saturday night and we are just as grateful for their presence. My Mom flew in and when she found out that the girls didn't have a babysitter for the weekend, she bought them tickets and brought them with her. (They loved their first plane ride!) Our ward family was there as well as my dad and step-mom and so many of my friends; friends who know nothing about scouting, but came to support Josh. Friends who were balling their eyes out and I couldn't even look at them because I was afraid they'd make me cry. They were surprised I was able to keep my composure. I said "I think it's because I shed all my tears when I wrote his letter of recommendation and went to his board of review," now it was time to just enjoy the celebration. (We have more photos on other cameras...I may have to post a few more pictures once I see them.)

I'm not very photogenic, but here are my favorite photos of our family.

I love the cute smile Josh has as he goes to hug me. Yep, the boy still loves his mama!

And... this picture says it all. I remember the exact moment it was taken. Rick was so proud of Josh and you could just see how much he loves his son when he gave him that hug. It was a sweet moment of seriousness. You don't see that much with two "men" in the house. Usually you see them goofing around or annoying each other.

Halloween's Past

They were talking about haunted houses on the radio this morning, which prompted me to ask Josh about his recent trip with his friends. I laughed as he described how much fun they had. Apparently Bre was a good sport and fun to scare so the actors were calling to the rooms ahead saying "get the girl in the back." Josh said that at one point he was standing still like a pillar and Bre kept running around, hiding behind him and the actors would follow her from room to room. He said sometimes he'd warn her, but other times he just watched as they sneaked up beside her and walked along with her.

I love haunted houses. Mom wouldn't let us trick or treat when we were kids. She heard the stories of razor blades in apples and tampered candy and said it was too dangerous. Then Mike was diagnosed with diabetes so he couldn't have candy anyway. Our Halloween's were spent at carnivals and haunted houses. I was absolutely thrilled when I was a teenager and a church youth group asked me to work at their haunted house. Our room was a surgical room with a "mad" doctor performing a gruesome surgery and we had a few other people in the room, like a crazy person in a straight jacket. Guess who played crazy real well? I had a blast. I asked people to play patty cake with me and danced around the room. My big claim to fame is that the local news channel came through and filmed our room and my antics and I ended up being on t.v. I also got to play Princess Leia chained to Jaba the Hut and a grim reaper.

I guess all that exposure kind of turned me into a warped mom because when it came time to take Joshua to his first haunted house we went straight to the big, professional, scary ones. We never took him to the ones at the little carnivals where you stick your hands through holes and feel strange things like spaghettti and pretend it's intestines. Of course our daredevil child was definately up for the task. He couldn't wait. We walked through and we laughed and screamed and Josh took it all in.... and then we got to the room with the chainsaws. They chased Josh around the room until he backed into a corner, scooched down the wall, at down and laughed and screamed. Rick and I just stood there and laughed.

As we were talking about it this morning I suddenly thought it was pretty odd that we just let them torture our kid and once again I told Josh "I'm sorry, we probably warped you didn't we." He laughed and said "yes, definately."

Once again I'm left to wonder if it's his nature or if the child truly did just have to learn to survive his crazy parents. I wonder if I'll be allowed to babysit when grandchildren come along?

I See You've Been Here

Hubby sent me this picture with a text that said "I see you've been here :-)" I saw the picture and wrote back "it even looks like my smiley."

People ask how we do it. Honestly, this week has been hard. I feel awful and there's nothing I'd like more than to have my hubby home so that he can massage my head and neck, listen to me whine, remind me to take my medicine and take over so I can just sleep and recuperate. Instead of telling Rick all this, I've been grumpy and haven't wanted to chat much with him. Then I almost lost it when I found out he won't be home on Monday, like planned. If you heard that conversation, then you'd realize that some days it feels like we can't do this anymore....

and then he'll send me a cute message like this and I remember all the reasons I love him and how proud I am to be his wife and I get excited because soon he will be home. Soon I will be able to lay down with him and he will massage my neck and make me feel like I am completely safe and loved.

Until then we just have to send silly text messages.

Awesome Women

Ok, I'm weird, but I absolutely love finding out cool things from people I know. I love learning homeopathic remedies, recipes, favorite products, organizing tips.... It's probably why I love reading blogs so much. You find out the coolest things.

I'm not sure why, but the other day I was thinking about how many great friends I have and how they have enriched my life by the cool things they know and love and before I knew it I was writing them down. It was pretty fun and I'm no where near done. I keep thinking of more. Plus there are some friends that entertain me in a variety of ways. It's pretty hard to narrow it down to just one. So, I've decided to make it a new feature on my blog. Periodicaly I'll throw a few from my list together and I'll post them.

Here's my disclaimer: If you know me in real life, rest assured you're probably on my list. You'll just have to keep checking my updates to see when you show up on the blog. There's no particular order. I'll probably choose a few that are relevant at the time...like Anita... I ran out of something that Anita shared with me.

Anita: Pomegranate and Mango Softsoap. She gave me a bottle for my birthday and I absolutely love it!! Anita is also sure to remember the crazy things that just kind of pop out of your mouth...like the time I told someone that I thought wearing a bra was standard operating procedure. In my defense, it was kind of appropriate at the time and I'm sure everyone else was thinking it. I just happened to actually say it.

And since I've been on a cycling kick... I'll share a couple from my cycling friends

Jane: She doesn’t send emails or type much, but the girl can find a bargain online and it’s sure to be cute and match you and your personality. You could call it a bad thing. I mean she finds deals that you just can’t pass up, so you might find yourself spending money you hadn’t planned on, but I’m still loving my $24 cycling jersey that was normally $75! I think that bargain will be hard to beat. It was only on sale in MY size!! Want a medium? Fork over $75.

Candace: I could list the things that she has shared with me over the years, but I will kind of lump a bunch of them into one category. Want to go out to eat? Call Candace. Not only will she come up with a great idea, but she might even join you. She's kind of turned over a new leaf and she's actually cooking now, so you can also give her a call if you'd like an idea for a healthy meal too. Wait - here's a tip from Candace. I love El Toritos Chicken Caesar Salad. The bottled cilantro dressing? Well, it just isn't the same. It's too thick. The other day she put a little in a bowl and added quite a bit of water. It was VERY runny, but it was awesome!! I got the taste and kept it low-cal.

and now that I've mentioned food....

Jessica – (My sister in-law) I love watching Jessica look at a cookbook and/or talk about cooking or food. She makes it all sound way more exciting than it feels when you’re tired and in the kitchen chopping vegetables. Thanks to Miss Jessica I now make homemade corn bread stuffing and rolls for Thanksgiving.

Teresa – I can’t mention Jessica without mentioning Teresa because Teresa is just as excited and passionate about eastern medicine and acupuncture and herbs and the cool homeopathic things you can do to heal your body. It’s endearing and infectious to listen to her. Love it!

What have you learned from your friends? What do you find endearing about them? Take a minute and think about it. Feel free to leave a few in the comments or send me a link to your blog.

Stamping AND Cycling in the same post!

I decided to shake things up a bit. Before I start talking about cycling...I'm going to share some stamping. What a novel concept!!

Here's a simple card I made using the October Stamp of the Month Annotations. The paper is from the Magic Moments Paper Pack. I absolutely love this set! It is perfect to add little journaling spots/embellishments to pages and cards. I think it definately goes in the "must have" column. (Sorry about the photography....I seem to be having issues lately...)

And here is a sneak peek from my 14 card holiday workshop in November. Of course I haven't decided what I'm showing at my workshop this Saturday...ooops.... It will be a surprise.


Now can we talk about cycling? Here's a link to a fun blog that Jane shared with me. Velo Vogue I am fascinated with this blog. I think it's because I just can't relate.... Is it even possible to look cute and chic and vogue while riding a bike? Heck, I can't even wear cute shoes when I'm not riding. I wonder what it would be like to put on some heels and pedal around?

Seriously. When I ride my bike, it's a whole production. Not only do I wear cycling gloves, workout wear and tennis shoes; I even take the time to change bras! My life would be so much easier if I didn't have to haul an extra set of clothes with me to work each day. My desk would look better too! Here's the view under my counter.

The lovely plastic bag is my breakfast/lunch, then we have my saddlebag. Mostly it contains clothes, but the pockets have an extra innertube and tools. Next is my front bag aka purse, aka pharmacy (I think it has more meds than "purse" items right now....) and my helmet is on top. You should see me walking in with all of this each morning. It's comical.

I did make one change. It seems I've decided to stop changing my shoes each day. I'm sure my coworkers love the fashion statement. White tennis shoes....lovely.... Apparently I'm too lazy to switch my orthotics around twice a day so if there is any white in my outfit whatsoever, then I think the white tennies match... right?

I think I'm going to make it a goal to wear a skirt while riding some day. Stay tuned! Maybe they will feature me on Velo Vogue.

Tour de Poway

I've gotten a couple of emails and I've talked to a couple of friends and it turns out that there really are people who read my blog and they noticed my absence. Ooops. Sorry about that... It's that same old problem... I set this up to be my creative space; my scrapbooking and stamping blog, and lately I have been filling it up with cycling news, so I felt guilty and besides...aren't you all tired of hearing about cycling? (apparently not, since that's what I've been getting emails about...) and so I am here and I am repentent...haha...

No wonder I got emails. I didn't realize it has been a whole month since I posted!! You probably thought that the Coronado bridge did me in and I have given up. Not so, not so...

Shortly after we finished the Bike the Bay, Jane (the temptress) was making plans for our next big ride. I called Candace and told her I was pretty sure Jane was trying to kill us because what did she pick? The Tour de Poway. We ended up compromising. Jane and Karen signed up for the 50; Candace and I signed up for the 18...and even then we were pretty sure the hills would still kill us.

For me, it was almost the ride that wasn't. I spent the whole month working on hills and I was feeling pretty good. Mapmyride even made it seem like it was similar in climbing to my commute... I was ready for this... and then....

• Mon - Bike fell over on driveway and bent derailleur in. Josh bent it back and adjusted.


• Tues - Bike "feels funny" and I'm slower than molasses.


• Wed - Gave up the big booty seat in hopes that would make me faster. Just made me sore.


• Thurs - Chain came off bike and got stuck. Couldn't finish ride.


• Fri - Rest day


• Saturday - Josh attempted to fix chain, it broke. Put on new chain, bike shifts funny. Begged Inky's Bike Shop to take a look. They said no more cheap chains. Put a different chain on and told me to move basket mount. Put big booty seat back on. Too sore to attempt it for Tour de Poway.


• Sunday - Headache that I've had since wednesday is now approaching migraine status. Took Excedrin Migraine and went to put everything in driveway....No helmet... it's in the back of the car!!! The car that Josh took to his soccer game.... Had to buy helmet on way to ride.

But miracles of miracles, somehow I actually made it to the ride and my bike ran perfectly. The headache kind of sucked, but I was determined to ride. I ended up taking some ibuprofen partway through and it knocked it down to tolerable. Other than that, I felt great!!!! I was one of the SLOWEST riders, but I really didn't care.

Candace and I ended up being a good match. I was slow and she needed rest on the hills so she would stop and I'd catch up and we'd ride together until she pulled away. There were a couple of hills that were pretty harsh, but I never walked my bike!!!!!!! After the bridge, it has been my goal to never walk again. So far, so good.

Headache update: Doc says, sinus infection. At least I have some meds now. Should be better soon.