New Goodies

To finish up some of my scrapbook pages this weekend I went to Joanne's and Michael's in search of some new goodies. I found three new punches at Joanne's that I just had to have.
Michael's had their cricut cartridges on sale this week so I picked up a new one that I'd had my eye on with my Michael's gift card.
After picking up my new goodies I got to work and finished up two new pages.
My other accomplishment this weekend was making some sourdough waffles with my sourdough starter. It's a two day process so I haven't been up to trying them until now.
It made a lot so I made them all and refrigerated the extras for breakfast the next morning.
They were so tasty. Just like sourdough, but in waffle form.

Chris and I were on Izzy duty this weekend since the 'rents were back in Oregon. On our way over there today we stopped at Kohl's since I had a $10 of $20 purchase coupon from the paper and I found a new pair of running shoes. Mine are over two years old and are starting to hurt my toes when I run.
They're so new and squishy it's like walking on cushions. I love it.

We're watching Sunshine Cleaning right now. It's got Amy Adams and Emily Blunt in it. They're maids that clean up crime scenes. It's okay so far. I'll reserve final verdict until it's over.

Special Bunko Guests

Bunko was at my house this month, but because of the stormy weather and other problems I had five of the twelve members call and cancel so I had to scramble to find some last minute substitutes. The problem being that we only have two regular subs and only one would come down the hill to Chico so I had to do a little begging and get Mum and Chris to agree to play, too. At first Chris was less than thrilled to spend his evening playing games with a bunch of old ladies, but soon he got into the bunko smack talkin' groove and started to enjoy himself.
Chris actually tied for most wins, but I wouldn't let him roll off for the prize. Not because I'm mean like he claims, but because what would he possibly want with some Halloween gift I picked out? Don't bring it up though, it's still a sore point!

Birthday Blowout

I may be 32, but I don't look a day over 39. Wait, is that how that goes?? Since it was my day I got to call all the shots starting with breakfast at The Golden Waffle after opening my gift from Jessica that has been taunting me for days.
After a huge birthday breakfast we headed up the hill to bring little Connor his birthday present for his 2nd birthday party. At first Connor hid from Uncle Chris, but Andrew was excited to see him.
If Andrew was okay with Uncle Chris then Connor figured he must be okay and invited him to play race cars with him.
After a little persuasion we convinced Connor to come out and open his present.
It was a car race book that teaches Connor colors. Andrew and Connor gave us their best race car impersonations. They're pretty good! After presents were opened, Andrew taught Uncle Chris how to play Mario Cart on the Wii while Susan and I chatted and made the train cake in the kitchen.
Andrew handed Uncle Chris an ass whoppin' the first couple of games, but eventually Chris got a handle on how the game worked and turned the tides.
Back in the kitchen, Susan was trying to piece together a Thomas the Train cake from scratch.
Chris and Connor were helping out the best way boys know how, by playing in the frosting.
We finally had to say goodbye around 2:00 pm so that we could get back to Chico and grab the 'rents for our 3:00 lunch/dinner date at The Bear.
Back in Chico we grabbed the 'rents and headed over to The Bear where I've been waiting to try the Jiffy Burger, a burger with peanut butter, mayo, bacon and jack cheese.
And the verdict is....
Oddly tasty! I tried to offer Chris some, but he wanted to stay pure for his basket o' hot wings.
The 'rents had the California Peep sandwich which is a chicken breast sandwich with avocado. They both enjoyed it and like the decor of The Bear (Applebees on steroids). After dinner we rolled ourselves down a couple of blocks to Jon & Bon's where we had some frozen yogurt. Mum wanted to take us out to ice cream, but that was after I inadvertently crapped all over Shuberts when she asked about it not realizing that she wanted to take us there. Doh! But Chris recovered nicely by remembering Jon & Bon's. We shared a Cafe Mocha and Cookies and Cream yogurt cup. Back at their house I opened my gift which was a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a beaded scarf all from Chico's (clothing store in the old Men's Warehouse). They're really pretty and in shades of gray which will go great with the four black and gray dresses I now own.

When we got home we were both so tired and full that we crashed on the couch. I took a nice little nap while the Canadian watched the 17th showing of some Bond movie. Around 8:00 pm we peeled ourselves off the couch and went for a walk through a neighborhood a few streets down where they were all decorated for Halloween.
The Rolling Bones.
I'm so jealous. I want a yard full of tacky Halloween decorations, too!

Girls Day Out

For my birthday present Kari took me for a whole day of fun and adventure today to Grass Valley and Nevada City. They have picturesque downtowns with lots and lots of shops to stroll through. My main focus was Christmas shopping, but I did find a couple of steals for myself. Nothing too extravagant though, now that I got my work hours reduced I'm trying to be more conservative with my money. However, I did buy a medium size flat bamboo cutting board that has a handle on it so that it can be hung up on the wall when not in use (very handy for my limited counter and cupboard space), a cute black and gray dress (yes, I know Chris, this is my fourth black and gray dress) that was on clearance for $20 and fit me to a T, a royal blue (polyester) pea coat that was only $26 at a teeny-bopper store (kind of like Forever 21), and a mini bread and muffin/soup and stew split Gooseberry Patch cookbook. Some of my Christmas finds included some stemware and mugs etched with dragonflies for Mum who collects such designs. And the mugs were even in the shade of blue she's decorated the lake house with. These aren't the exact mugs (I bought the only two there and they were being wrapped), but you can see the color and design:
Here's the stemware:
The rest if top secret until Christmas....

Much to my surprise, I was showered with gifts yesterday by my co-workers. I got a tea cup and saucer from Joanna, a travel mug from Denise, a CD from Kari, a mini window flower vase from Dina, homemade soap from Cheri, and a coffee card from Coffee's On from Suzanne. I'm going to keep it comin' all weekend!
I even got one of my co-workers' Lori's famous flower bouquets.

So far our big plans for the morning are to get up and go to the Golden Waffle for a yummy birthday breakfast and then we're going up the hill to see Connor before his big birthday bash that evening. I know, our lives are so glamorous!

Special Delivery

Look what I found on my front door step when I got home today...
Don't worry, I didn't open it. I suspect something from Papertrey Ink is meant to be saved until Saturday. Woman's intuition.

So, this last weekend I pulled out my Pillsbury Best Cookies cookbook and picked a new recipe to try. Pumpkin Pecan cookies with a brown sugar frosting.
I split the batter, half with pecans and half without for the Canadian. I took the pecan half to work on Monday and they disappeared instantly with requests for more soon.

Besides cooking I've been working steadily on my scrapbook. Three more pages down. One about babysitting the boys, one for the May elections and one for Andrew's 4th birthday.
Notice the red stars on the red background for texture:
Insert stupid sideways photo:
Arggg!!!!

Only one more events worth of photos are printed before I have to sit down with the laptop and make a new list of photos to print for the rest of the layouts. Only three more months of going-on's left to scrap!

Crafty Saturday

I love these new three day weekends. I can spend Friday getting chores and errands done leaving Saturday completely open to play (shop and scrapbook). In my newly charged effort of getting my personal scrapbook caught up to date after a long sabbatical of working on other people's projects, I whipped out three more pages today. The first was a page about our new front fence and courtyard. What you can't tell from the photo is that the word "fence" (on top of the white fence sticker) has dimensional glaze on it.
The next was a page for the British Car Show we took the 'rents to at the end of April. Dear computer or blogger, I hate you for continuously merging in my photos sideways. I hate you so much.
The last was for Mother's Day.
Besides scrapbooking, I spent some time this morning running around downtown trying to finish up my Bunko shopping. I needed to buy five gifts and get snack candy. I found two halloween themed gifts at Bird in Hand, two at Kohl's and the last one at Made in Chico. They sell wares from local artists and farmers. One of the artists is a scrapbooker, and a really good one. She (I assume) make great blank albums and cards. I found a fall themed album for a Bunko gift and a little boy album for Susan as a birthday gift for Connor. I know with her little ones she doesn't have a spare, uninterupted minute to scrapbook anymore and I couldn't have done nearly as good a job on an album like this.
The page are actually brown paper bags that have been folded in half so that every other page has a side opening for journaling cards. Too cool!
The harvest album I picked up for Bunko is made the same way. There were other albums that were actual covered chipboard, but they were over my Bunko budget.

It's getting time for our evening constitutional. It's 67 degrees at 7:20 pm. Excellent!

It's Punkin' Time!

I love October, and not because it's my birthday and I expect lots of gifts (which I do), but because it really starts to feel like fall. I love the colors and especially the temperatures. I know it's fall because all the stores have piles and piles of pumpkins now. And as not to repeat our pumpkinless year last year, I picked up two beauties this morning at Safeway.
Aren't they cute!? They'll be looking even better once we carve elaborate scenes of motorcycles and breweries on them. Speaking of pumpkin, look at what else I found at the store;
Oh, I know! It's like heaven on earth. The pumpkin ice cream might have already opened itself and hopped in a bowl to accompany my hot cup o' java. It was fabulous, not too sweet. I'm already daydreaming about the peppermint.

Big Hank (our truck) is at the doctor today. He didn't want to work Friday's either and refused to start this morning. He's been coughing and faking sick all week, but today he put on the big show. He was still here when I dropped off my first load of groceries this morning, but the tow truck had picked him up by the time I came back from Safeway. I might need to go drop off a sleeping bag for Chris today so that he can just stay at work over the weekend since he won't have a way out to Orland Monday morning. I should probably pack him a granola bar or two.

I've some big shopping plans this afternoon. I need to go bunko prize shopping this weekend. It's my night to host on the 13th. What's nice is that I just got a $10 off coupon for Kohl's so maybe I can find some nice Halloween stuff there.

Well, it's official, the Canadian is going to Macau (island off of Hong Kong) for a week in November right before Thanksgiving. It's for a 4-day racing extravaganza. He's not racing, but he hooked up with a motorsports magazine and got full press credentials so that he can go in all the pits and talk to the teams so that he can write an article about it. He's going with his friend, Craig, who works for New Balance and will be out there checking on some of their manufacturing plants so Chris will be able to bunk with him for free. I had to help him take his new passport photo the other night.
He's been overseas before, but his passport expired in 2007 so we had to send in for a renewal. Trust me, this photo is much better than the 1970s inspired one he had before (think yellow tinted Top Gun glasses and poofy hair [with NO gray!]).

Alright, time to boogy. Don't want to waste my whole new day off playing on the computer!