Great weekend

We had such a great holiday. The girls and I took our annual shopping trip to Boise on Tuesday and had such an awesome time. I forget how much I miss being around them and just visiting and learning what's going on in their lives and the kids lives. I had a great time with them. Sally drove this year because we thought the Suburban had a little more room for things than my Yukon did. I actually got to visit more and enjoy the drive. We stopped at the outlet mall first. I was disappointed that so many stores have closed. We really missed the paper factory. I always bought my big rolls of wrapping paper there. Then we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. Tori met us there and then spent the afternoon with us. After lunch we hit the mall and did quite a bit of shopping there. Then it was Toys-R-Us, then the mall out in Meridian. I totally forgot there's a Kohl's there, or we would have gone. Anyway, it was around 11:00 p.m. when we got back. I hope the girls enjoy the trip as much as I do.
I had planned on taking the whole week off, but we've just been so busy at work, that I didn't get to. I worked Monday & Wednesday. But...we still had a great time with the shopping trip.
On Thursday Steph, Jason, & Sally all ran the "Turkey Trot". I was proud of them for doing it. Steph and the girls helped so much. They helped set the tables and get things ready for dinner. David helped Jeff with the basketball backboard we got. I had started helping him, but he said it was a good thing Dave came because there's no way I could have helped with all the lifting and heavy work. So...thanks Nelson's. It was so much fun to have you. Steph & Dave also ran a Wii tennis tournament for us all and we had so much fun. Lindsay and Danelle ended up winning. Congrats! We had two Wii's setup out in the garage so eight people could play at once. It was great! And, Great-Grandpa Wood even made home-made ice cream for us. We had so much food...but talk about good.
Jeff and I were really worn out by the time everyone left, but it was that good kind of worn-out. Where you just sit and bask and how well things went and how much we enjoyed the kids and grandkids. I think we both fell asleep for awhile even.
On Friday, Jeff took his dad and drove to Driggs and back and his mother came over and we worked on Christmas gifts. We had such a great time. We went to the Sharing & Caring in Rupert, and I thought the tree and things our family put together were the best there. Thanks to the Stapelman family for putting that together. When Jeff & Vern got home, we had turkey noodle soup and then watched the BSU/Nevada game. It was pretty exciting and BSU won. If they can win this Saturday, they have a shot at a bowl game. But...sad news. Austin Petitis broke his ankle during the game Friday night, and he was our best receiver. We have lost so many people...hope we have a team by the time we go to a bowl game.
On Saturday, Darin & Connor came down for the weekend. It was so cold on Saturday we pretty much just hung out at home. We finally setup the Wii fit and did snowboarding. I'm hoping I can get busy and do some excercising with it too. We ate at ShonHing's Saturday night. On Sunday, Jeff took them out 4-wheeling and shooting. Darin said that would be Connor's "red-neck" training for the week. It was much nicer yesterday and they had a great time. I stayed home and tried to finish up a few things for Christmas. I got one more rag quilt finished and another started. I also finished up Robin's gift so I can take it on Friday. I just need to get Taylor's and theirs will be done.
Just so you all know...I feel very blessed in so many ways. Jeff & I have good jobs, and even though we like them...we're getting excited about retiring in a few years. There's soooo many things I want to do. We also have fairly good health. I keep saying we're falling apart, but...we're hanging in here. We have lots of kids and grandkids, and they are such a blessing to us. We love them all and are so proud of all of them. We're grateful that we still have my mother (she'll be 88 in March) and Jeff's parents (85 & 83). They all have fairly good health too. We are grateful to live in the United States, even though we're concerned with where we're heading. We love our extended families also, and continue to enjoy their company whenever we get the chance. Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday also.

November Exchange Cards

I saw a sample of this card at Archiver's in Boise, and fell in love with it. The only problem was, the stockings were stickers...and they were $4.00 a set. I couldn't see making very many cards with it, so I bought the velveteen paper and made my own.

This card and the one below, I sort of scraplifted from the Holiday cards mag. I thought they were both soooo cute.

The cards and envies are scraplifted from the CTMH catalog. But I used SU materials. I had gotten a Simply Scrapping kit and thought it would make some cute cards. Enjoy! I sure do.

Here are the cards that I made for the November exchange. The theme was to use glitter or beads. It was a fun one to do. Hope lots of people will join our little exchange.

I'm back!

Well, California was nice and warm for the most part. When we arrived on Tuesday, it was in the 80's but cooled down over the week to around 60 on Friday when we came back. But, it was still pretty fun. The Automation Fair was super and my customers are such great guys! Loved all the time we got to spend with them. On Tuesday night we had a division dinner. There were 180 people who attended from our division. On Wednesday night, CED held their hospitality event at the Richard Nixon library, which was pretty cool. I guess we had around 1700-1800 people at that one. Driving in LA is for the birds...we rented a car and I did the driving and it was ...interesting? We had a Garmin thank heavens! And we would still have trouble. Mainly because there's so much traffic you can't get over to where you need to get off. But we survived.
We got back into Boise and drove home. On Saturday morning I got up to snow...and still thought I'd go to Boise for the BSU/Idaho game. The roads were awful. I saw about ten accidents between the Kasota on ramp and the first Twin exit. I know that at least one person died in them. But, after the next exit it wasn't too bad. Of course, it was super cold! I was actually fairly warm except for my feet and they got really cold. But we won...and it was a super game. BSU actually played like they wanted to win.
On Sunday, I sort of lazed out and worked on cards for my exchange mainly. Danelle & Gary were dedicating Ellie at 5:00 and having a dinner, so I made the hot rolls for that. Otherwise, it was a pretty laid back day. Gotta have those once in awhile.

Exchange cards from October

These are the four sets of Christmas cards and tags that I made for the exchange in October. We got some really cute ones back, but I think Janell posts all of them on her website, so I'm only posting the ones I made here.

Go Yankees!!!

Last of the layouts from the retreat

I just need to enlarge the photo on the first page before this one is complete. I added the title "Homemade Salsa" in orange letters above the large picture. I thought it turned out cute. I would like to add the recipe for the salsa along the side of the first page.

This was Halloween last year...Robin took lots of photos for me. I also made a star album and put my extra pics from Halloween in. I thought it really turned out cute.

This was the retreat at Robin's home last year. I loved the projects...especially the FALL blocks. I've used it to decorate for the last two years now. We had birthday cake for Steph's birthday. It was a total blast.

This was just a single page, which I very seldom do, but it will be the opening page for my album..."2008-2009". I always scrap from September to September, because that's how I always thought of my kids...1st grade, 2nd grade...and even though my kids are all gone, I've kept scrapping that way.

Just a few more layouts from the retreat

This layout had a lot of photos that I really sort of wanted to use, just so I'll remember all the people. It won't be too many years from now that I'll be retiring, and all our customers have become such good friends. This layout is of Georgia's retirement party. She was a great person to work with; always so cheerful and happy to do anything you asked of her.

Bless Robin's heart...she gives me photos to scrap of the boys. Otherwise, I wouldn't have many of them. They are growing up way too fast. This one is of Taylor and their dog Sparky. They just picked him up at the pound, but he has been the best dog for them.

I went to Danelle's one afternoon and did a little photo shoot of Treven. I had soooo many good photos it was hard to pick just one. Isn't he a cutie?

I had Chelsey and Mikayla come over yesterday and help me do some cleaning. Boy, I'd like to get them about once or twice a month. They were such good help. We got all the windows in the house done, vaccumed, dusted, cleaned the blinds, cleaned out some cabinets, and then they helped me with my rag quilts and finishing the invitations for Thanksgiving...Loved it. Thank you!

Steph & David bought our camp trailer, and they came down late (very late) Saturday night and spent the night and then took the trailer back with them. I didn't know we had soooo much "stuff" in that trailer. And then I forgot to get the pots & pans out of one cupboard. I sure hope they enjoy it. Jeff felt bad as we watched them drive away with it...He bought it new and has had it for several (alot) of years. But we're moving up to a little bigger one, so it's all good.