Desert Heat Retreat

We headed up to Arizona's high country for a 3 day retreat from the heat. We met up with our great friends Brian and Lindy Francom for 3 days of camping along the Mogollon Rim. On Friday afternoon when we arrived, we were met with a thunderous sprinkling rain which was an awesome way to cool our heels. We set up camp and had a dinner of fajitas, fresh tortillas and fixings, then afterwards a campfire with plenty of SMORES! The kids (and Lindy) were in heaven! Thanks to Brian for cutting all that wood. I don't think Caris would have let him rest if he hadn't gone out and got that wood chopped right away. She was just dying to get that fire going so she could toast her 'smarshmallows'.



The next day, Zeke woke up at the break of dawn and we were up early, ate some yummy breakfast burritos and then Brian used his Arizona map and GPS to find us a hatchery to visit. We were off on a new adventure to God's Country. We found out that we made a wrong turn on a forest service road, but ended up at a beautiful stream called Clear Creek Ranch. It was truly a beautiful place. You could still see the remains of the fire that burned all around the rim a few years back. That ranch was completely encircled by burned trees as far as the eye could see. We then back-tracked and made it up to the fish hatchery. The kids loved it. Thanks to the kindness of strangers who gave me a couple quarters to buy some pellet food for the kids to feed the fish. We had a great time, then after a morning of driving around the forest, went back to camp for some rest.


We then made steaks for dinner and an ominous monsoon storm looked like it might hit us at any minute, but was uneventful. After a delicious dinner, we enjoyed our campfire and Brian and Lindy surprised me with a birthday cobbler in their dutch oven by the campfire. They even brought along ice cream. It was so yummy! I think that with all the relaxation and eating, I'm going to have to go on a serious diet.
It was such a great way to spend a weekend.



On our way home, we took a detour by Saguaro Lake and ended up deciding to pull in and hop in the lake with all our clothes on for a dip! The hot desert had already gotten to us so a cool-off in the lake was just what we needed. I wish we could do it all over again this coming weekend!

PAYDAY Friday!

Hi Peeps! Just rolling thru a Friday afternoon wondering what I'm going to have for lunch. I am due to get out of work at 3:15. I sure hope I can cram all my work into the next 3 hrs! haha

I have been a blog-slacker, but since I saw a chance to get a completely free Bo-Bunny Blinkie AND a chance to win a great prize from them, I decided I better get crack-a-lackin'.





As for some scrap news, I have to say I am SUPER disappointed with Creating Keepsakes magazine. I got the new August issue in the mail this week and happened to notice an article and picture of a Seashell album on page 112. Well, I read and re-read the article 3 times and nowhere did I see any credit to a gal named Glynda Roffman. I happen to follow her blog http://glyndaroffmann.blogspot.com/ and several months back, she sent me an email that she had put together a cute seashell album kit made out of REAL shells that she drilled herself. Well, I was amazed by her creativity and how cute it was, went over to etsy and decided that while I didn't have $25 to blow right then, I'd keep checking back and buy one eventually. Fast forward to this past week and what do I see but her exact same idea with credit given to someone else. I emailed Glynda and asked if she had come up with the idea herself or if she had seen it somewhere before because I had seen the CK article with almost her exact same album. She replied that she was HORRIFIED because it was her own god-given idea and that she had submitted the idea to several magazines months and months ago and after she didn't get any response, she decided to make up kits to sell on etsy and ebay. So for you CK readers and fans-I challenge you to decide for yourself....Cruise on over to Glynda's blog which will lead you to her etsy stuff where she has the seashell albums for sale. Then take a look at page 112 of CK mag./August issue. I'd love to hear your comments. The pictures posted here on my blog are copied from Glynda's etsy kits that she has for sale.

Happy Friday everyone-keep it scrappy!

p.s. in all fairness to the CK contributor, I emailed her directly this afternoon and she replied that she really had come up with the idea all on her own and cited a timeline to when she submitted it. So in all fairness to both parties (neither whom I have ever met in person)-it is a probable coincidence.

Packing for the Bahamas

I can't believe our trip is in two days. We leave for the Bahamas
this weekend and I am NOT READY! LOL. I've only had 12 months to get packed
and I'm a total procrastinator and slacker. I have my kids all packed up and ready to go (somehow the thought of shipping the kids off is more exciting!).
We are going to be staying at the super-all-inclusive Sandals Royal Bahamian Resort in Nassau. I have never been to the Bahamas, but we have stayed at various Sandals resorts in Jamaica 7 times. We have high expectations of the resort because we know
how great the accomodations are in Jamaica. We have 6 other couples (friends and relatives) traveling with us and we are a party crew so it should be a blast. I am looking forward to all the fruity drinks and of course scuba diving. I am hoping we don't run into any sharks, but from what I've seen, there will probably be plenty. We also intend to spend a day at the Atlantis resort so that we can see the aquatic life they have there. When I return, I have stamp club night on Wednesday (I'll be the hostess) and CKC classes and vendor faire shopping on Friday. Sheesh this is going to be one heck of a month as far as spending goes.

Ides of March

Well the wind was blowing yesterday and it made me wonder....does the wind blow EVERYWHERE in the month of March? Is that a 'global' thing that happens? Why does everyone know about March winds? Does the world turn windy in that particular month only?

I can hardly believe how fast time goes. In the past few weeks, we've entertained our friend Leah, who we met while scuba-diving in Kauaii. I truly think she'll be a life-long friend for us. Hopefully I'll get to go visit her more often than she'll get to come visit me! She and her hubby are from Texas and decided to open a scuba shop in Hawaii. Very brave of them, but they seem to enjoy what they do. Doing shore dives is pretty tough work. Especially if someone gets tired. It's alot of swimming and when you're underwater, you don't quite notice how far you've distanced from shore because you're exploring and having fun, it's only when you notice the oxygen tank level is low and realize that you're nowhere near shore and that there's no boat to come pick you up that it's tough. Trust me. I swam a great distance when this happened to me. I never felt so unprepared. But since I was on vacation, I just took a breath and realized that even if it took me all day to swim to shore, I'd get there eventually!

I am planning to help my Aunt with her yardsale tomorrow. I am looking forward to finding some new treasure that she's ready to cast off and I'm looking forward to meeting her friend who has traveled all the way from Pittsburgh. Should be a nice 80 degree weekend too so that should be great.

Our trip to the Bahamas is quickly approaching. I hope we can gather up all our 'loaned out' pieces of luggage so that I can start packing. I'm sure the weekend will be over with all too soon!

Single Mom

My hubby called and said he has to work late AGAIN so he'll have to stay the night up in Globe with his mom or his sister. This makes the 2nd night in a row he can't come home. YUCK! I feel like a single mom when he doesn't come home. I have to do it all and it's no fun!

Kids-I think this means we're having Ramen Noodle soup for dinner again! hahahahaha

TUESDAY....BLAH BLAH BLAH

OK so the Cards lost the superbowl....oh well. I am still happy they were in the big game. And they didn't play all that bad either. Heck I was a Cards fan when they were losing ALL their games so what's another one?! go Cards! Maybe next year I can actually go to a game. I had a hard time justifiying the ticket price, the all day trip just to get out there, finding a sitter, etc. but I'll be there next season for sure. I hear the tailgate parties are awesome and something to see.

I've been trying to find some scrap time. I brought out all my junk yesterday and it looks like I won't have to cook dinner tonight since Fred won't be home. So I am thinking tonight will be a good night to scrap and watch some TV. I joined 'album club' at Scrapbooks, ETC. and the whole point of it is to scrap 50 pages. So I seriously have to get busy so I can go take in some of my work and get my list stamped for my store credit.