Challenge complete!

Well I finished up my B&W pages on Sunday and got them in the mail to MI and CA today! Whew... glad that's done! (It was fun, used my creativity, but took longer than I had hoped!) I did different pages for everyone and then forgot to take pictures!!! Oh well, at least I still had the one I saved for Toni to photograph! This one is the only one I did not use a flower on! Instead I painted and glittered a chipboard that Toni had given me awhile back! I like the look but a punch of color would be nice too! And I'm not too fond of the glitter process! Boy is that messy and now I have glitter flakes everywhere!

After the cleaning ladies come tomorrow we'll finish decorating for the holidays! That may be backwards but I'm too tired to do it tonight anymore! For some reason I'm really excited this year... not sure why! I've barely begun my shopping, in fact not even sure what to buy anyone! And then there's sending out the cards... oh writing the letter first! And who can forget the present wrapping! That's what X-mas Eve is for right? Oh the holidays... love them!! I am enjoying all the lights in the neighborhood! Hope the hubby joins in on the fun! Our moose need to get out of the basement!!!

Off to create....

Happy Sunday!!

We got home late this morning... early from our big T-day ski weekend! We had an absolutely wonderful time on the slopes, despite the lack of snow and runs open! (This is Melanie in Breckenridge!)

We got up to Dillon on Wednesday afternoon just before dinner to a very nice and inexpensive Condo that we rented from a very nice family! After settling in, we went out for some dinner and pre-Thanksgiving shopping at the sports stores. Dan got a great deal on a Spider fleece! Then we settled in for our first night before ski begins!!!

On Thanksgiving morning, Moira and the girls arrived (from Castle Rock) at the slopes of Keystone just minutes after us! We spent the day regaining our legs and switching off between the 2 or 3 runs that were open! They are in desperate need of snow that's for sure! When we were finally beat, we wrapped up our turkey day at Pug Ryan's for an awesome dinner!

On Friday we tried our luck at Breckenridge and found they had a wee-bit more terrain open for us to cruise down! Or at least it sure seemed like there was more variety! It was a bit more crowded and by 2 we had gotten tired of the lift lines, so we headed down the slope one last time and made our way back to the condo! After joining us for some chili, Moira and the girls headed down the mountain, leaving us to rest and relax!

On Saturday we decided to try our luck with Breckenridge again and found it to be VERY COLD! Say, single digits when we began the day and maybe 20 as the afternoon warmed up! BRRRRRRRRRR!!! They did open one more small run, which helped a touch, but we were still dodging newbies, waiting in long lift lines and freezing out buns off! We packed it in even earlier (at 1 p.m.) and headed downtown for some shopping! Hey, we didn't buy a thing, can you believe it? not even at the scrapbook store! Wow, what was wrong with me? Anyway, after an early dinner, we treated ourselves to Cold Stone before finishing up the puzzle back at the condo!

Unfortunately the crowds and repeat of the same 4 or 5 runs got to us this time and we decided today to pack it in early and come home! So back went on my computer when I got home and up popped 200 new emails! Geez, they're out of control! After weeding through them, I have decided to blog a little before getting started on the rest of my B&W pages. Or maybe I'll do a bit of x-mas shopping this afternoon?! Or finishing up my x-mas decorations! (You know I did put up the tree over a week ago!) Whatever I decide, it shall be relaxing I'm sure!!

B&W

Our current challenge with the Seasoned Survivors is to create a B&W page with glitter! I'm not much of a glitter lover, so I'm taking the easy way out here! This page has glitter brads - it counts, doesn't it?! In the end, I'm creating 6 different pages because I'm not happy with any one LO - but they're all titled "LAUGH"! At least I have a theme going!!

We're off to the mountains tomorrow afternoon! The snow will be flying so the drive should be really fun! It's going to be COLD up there - upper 20's! BRRRRRR!!!! At least we'll FINALLY get to go skiing!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Get to know ME!

Two in one night - BONUS!!!

I'd love to learn more about my blogging friends - here are some questions for you to copy and paste to your blog, and post your responses :) Enjoy! Here are mine:

1. Who am I? Sue - wife, mom, friend, benefits queen, occasional blogger
2. Who knows me best? My honey!
3. How old am I? 41
4. How old do I feel? 30
5. The most important thing in my life is... good health for my family!
6. I always carry... my glasses
7. Something I always do is... brush my teeth first thing in the morning!
8. I'm at my happiest when... relaxing in the mountains!
9. On a Monday morning, you'll find me... getting on the bus going off to work.
10. My favorite mode of transportation is... airplanes - they get you to great places fast!
11. My eyes are...blue/grey
12. My favorite material possession is... my photos
13. To relax, I like to... scrapbook, watch mindless TV.
14. The town I live in is...small but growing, not a suburb but someday will probably be one.
15. What's my worst habit? yelling at my child
16. My guilty pleasure is... duh, chocolate!
17. When I look at someone, the first thing I see is...their hair style!
18. I think ....................... is beautiful. Raindrops falling on the trees!
19. One thing that I can live without is... large amounts of stress! (I need a little bit!)
20. One thing people don't know about me is... I can't color within the lines!
21. My life is... great - living every day as if it were my last because you never know!!

What to say? What to say?

According to Toni, I need to post to my blog... so here goes!!!

Last week is almost a blur... let's see I went to work, got frustrated, came home, worked some more, got frustrated more and went to bed only to repeat the next day. Yes, I think that is how the week went! This is not my happy time at work, although I am trying really hard to make it pleasant! At least I did get 2 (very long) days working at home last week!

On Saturday the kids and I went to see a play - "The Diary of Anne Frank" in downtown Denver. It was very good. Although we knew the ending, we were surprised at the light comedy that they incorporated into the play! It was a theater in the round and we had the very last (or first) row of seats in the balcony! I'd say for me they were PERFECT! I can't wait to go again and see another good play!

Just 2 more days of work and 4 days off!! I love this holiday! Thanksgiving! Our tradition is to spend it up in the mountains as a family - just the 3 of us! Our plan is to go skiing, although I'm not sure the weather is going to cooperate too much with us?! But if it does, 4 days of skiing are always fun! We will go out for T-day dinner at some great restaurant in town - we never know where! Then this year I found a great deal on a condo, so we'll cozy up in there! If we can't ski, we'll find some place to hike or shop or who knows what?! We'll just find something to do! Maybe the ice rink in Breckenridge or the indoor pool there? Hmmm, the possibilities?!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!

(Maybe tomorrow if you're lucky I'll post some cards?! It's any body's guess!!!)

10 things....

that I have said or done that I am proud of (today's Two Peas blog challenge question):

1. moved my DH and DD to Colorado despite leaving the rest of my family behind in Chicago.
2. climbed 8 14ers (that's mountains over 14,000 feet)!
3. changed my diet and lost those "extra" pounds after suffering a heart attack 8 years ago. (And have kept it off!)
4. graduated 2nd in my HS class.
5. earned the honor of Outstanding Lt. Governor I-I District of Key Club.
6. saying "I do" at age 22 and being happily married for 19 years to my bf!
7. raising one very beautiful little daughter!
8. learned to ski (and love it) at age 35!
9. getting involved in scrapbooking and making a family "history" album for each member of my family!
10. having just a few ounces of the artistic talent that my mother had!

Have a wonderful night everyone!

Denver Ski Show

Well, it was 70+ on Saturday in Denver (and today it's pretty darn close), so there isn't much skiing going on yet. Well the resorts want you to think there is, as there are now 5 of them open. But if you look at the web cams (like Breckenridge), you'll find mostly rocks/grass mixed in with the white. It's not looking good for Thanksgiving weekend at this rate. Our tradition is to ski all 4 days that weekend, but we may be looking for alternative activities if the snow remains this scarce! Hopefully we'll get dumped on in the next week!! (How does that "snow" dance go?!)


So, since we could not go skiing this weekend, we went to the Denver Ski Show instead! They had booths from all the local resorts and from other places like Canada, Jackson Hole and SLC. There were also other vendors there as well. Moira won a hat that had headphones in it from some radio station! Keystone was giving away custom t-shirts - you pick the logo and the location and they printed it (for free)! And the kids loaded up on stickers galore from all over! A few good deals were had at the Colorado Ski and Golf sale but not by me. :( Before we left, the kids spent a long time climbing the rock wall (pic) - they loved it! It was a great way to get out for the afternoon and enjoy the day - even if we couldn't be skiing!


I'm off to organize my scraproom and work on something - don't know what! Maybe a special card for my friend Marlene's birthday coming up at the end of the month. No pressure - I've still got 19 days to get it there!!!

Dad's birthday and the holidays!

Here is the card that I made for dear Dad for his birthday... always the carpenter theme for him!!! It's not bad - not my best - but not bad either! I always hate making MALE cards! If they can't have flowers, do they really need a card?

Well, the job stress has now begun. I don't like to talk much about work, but for the next 2-3 months I will have plenty to do and will be totally under-appreciated at the office. Open Enrollment should be moved to another time of year so we can ALL enjoy the holidays equally!

Speaking of holidays, I'm ready for Christmas! No, I'm not finished shopping, although I do have at least one gift in my stash! But I am ready to decorate the house! I love to see the tree up and all the sights and smells of the holidays! I think the weekend after this (before thanksgiving) we will get the tree up! Melanie has promised to help put the ornaments on this year! Yeah, right, we'll see if she holds true to that! And Dan has expressed interest in putting up the outside lights and our "Moose" this year! Yeah! Yippee! I hope it is a good holiday!

During our hike last weekend I decided we would try a new tradition this year on Christmas. I want to hike up to Castle Rock on Christmas Day! We can record it with pictures and document how the weather was. Then every year when we make our trek up, we can do it again! I think that will be fun! Hopefully this year it will be WARM!!! You never know in Colorado! That's why I love Living her so much!

Mosaic Challenge...

It took me awhile, but I finally got a result I liked in the mosaic challenge! I ended up leaning towards the Christmas theme, but that's OK! I had to make 6 different ones, so the placement of the trees was different, the frames for the pictures were different sizes and I used different words to make each one unique! I hope the ladies like them!

The next challenge is yet another technique I've never used before. Not only is Kristi asking for a B&W page but also adding glitter! I have the glitter and have used it once or twice on cards when stamping, but never in a scrapbook page. Maybe I'll end up loving it - who knows! I have never scrapped in B&W either - but I like the look!

I'm still thinking about mine. Maybe since I have this nifty new circle cutter I'll work off of that for a theme... hmmm! The wheels are turning!

Off to make a b-day card for Dad. Need to ship his gift this week if I'm going to get it to Chicago in time for the big day!! Turning 73 this year!

Beautiful November day...

It was 77 degrees as we drove home from Roxborough Park this afternoon - how awesome for Colorado!!!

Dan, Moira and I took a very nice hike up to Carpenter Peak today! It was 6.4 miles round trip and gained about 1000 feet! The views of the front range and out West towards Pike National Forrest were awesome! I didn't take any pictures bc I was too busy enjoying the warm fresh air! We are hoping to go back there when we have some snow and do a bit of snowshoeing! The South Rim trail looks like it might be perfect for that - again if we have enough snow! I think we will go back in Spring and do some hiking there as pre-14er training!

I need to get my mosaic pages finished. They are suppose to be shipped tomorrow - hmmm, I hope they'll be done. This was a scary challenge for me, especially since I'm a perfectionist! Off to work on them...