Quick card post...

I'm working from home today and with just a few more minutes left for lunch, I thought I'd post a card! I found this sketch on SCS (I think) and made a few similar cards like this last week! I just love this one because of the colors - they are ones I use quite often for making cards! I still love the look of the inking on the edges, so I contunue to do that too!

We had a few inches of snow last night but nothing major. My commute to work today was a piece of cake - 30 seconds from the bedroom to the office! I just love days I get to work from home! The evening commute is even faster - 1 second from work desk to scrapbook desk!!!

Hope everyone has a good day!

What makes you Happy?

That is the topic of the CJ that I am working on tonight. Hmmm, why does it seem so hard? I'm a pretty happy person most of the time??!! Maybe because I haven't been challenged to a CJ in quite some time?!

So what does make me happy?! Well, I can tell you I am probably the happiest when I am not working but rather outside enjoying God's nature. Whether it be sitting on my deck, in front of the campfire or on top of a mountain, I just love being outside!

• the fresh air
• the bright sunshine
• the birds chirping
• the occasional plane flying overhead
• the wildflowers in bloom
• the rain dripping off the awning of the camper
• the snow flying around my head

just everything about being outside is wonderful! So guess what I'm going to scrap about? Outside! And the picture I'm going to use is my family happily on top of Mt. Sherman from this past summer! It's really a great picture! I am very proud that we do these things as a family. We are trying so hard to teach Ms. Melanie how important nature is and the world around her! I think she gets it in her own way...

As I sit here continuing to avoid starting my CJ but realizing that this post is helping me anyway, it is continuing to snow. We were only suppose to get 1/2 inch, but I think there is way more than that going on! I get to work from home again tomorrow, so maybe I'll get out there with my camera and try some snow shots - maybe I'll find something as cool as Patti did!! The best part is no long commute to work tomorrow in the aftermath of the snow!

I'll post a few more cards tomorrow after I download them from the camera... too lazy now to do it! Night - Night!

Absolutely Glorious!

That is what I have to say about this weekend!

We got up (very) early on Saturday and beat all the traffic getting to Vail just as the lifts opened under bright blue sky's for the day! Yeah - yippee!!! Our friends were way, way behind us, so we took off and skied towards Blue Sky Basin! (They never did make it, turning off at Keystone at 11 a.m.!!! When will they learn?!)

On our way to Blue Sky Basin we had to ski down the front mountain in China Bowl! It is a huge open area with lots of snow, few trees and tons of room to carve! It is probably one of my favorite spots at Vail! We jumped into a double-BLACK diamond (hardest) in about 6-8 inches of powder! This picture was taken towards the top of the bowl! Now Dan always says if you're not falling, your not trying your hardest!! Let me tell you, I fell 3 times in this bowl on 2 different runs! The first one was the best! I must have slid 50 feet on my stomach, feet behind in the air! I didn't lose a thing but my helmet and goggles were on my forehead! I pulled something in my shoulder, but it didn't stop me from completing the day! We skied hard and I was very happy at the end of the day!

We got to sleep a WHOLE extra 30 minutes on Sunday before we took off for a wonderful day of snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain National Park! We went up with our friends Luis and Mariel! Again we had a very beautiful day with very moderate temperatures for Colorado! (It was in the 60's at home!) Since they had never been snowshoeing before, we took them up to Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes! It is a great hike with lots of payoffs along the way. It is always fun to walk across the frozen lakes but this time they were covered in snow! We had never seen them like that before! Despite my aches and pains I really had a lot of fun! Hopefully we will get back there one more time to snowshoe this season!

Hope everyone else had as fun of a weekend as I did!

It's Friday!!

Yeah, I made it through another week! Well, there wasn't a lot of doubt but I am glad that I don't have to work tomorrow! If I could only sleep in...

Up "before" the crack of dawn tomorrow to hit the road by 5:45 to make it out to Vail for a day of skiing! It is suppose to be about 30 degrees there, so that won't be too bad - sure beats those single digits! And it sounds like there might be some flurries, which could be good or bad depending on how I feel. With how my knee has been of late, I hope that I catch some good luck and it's a good day!

Up "around" the crack of dawn on Sunday to head up to Rocky Mountain for some snowshoeing! It's a long drive up there, so we want to get on the road by 6:30 to get up there around 9! It should be about 50 in Estes Park, with temps cooler up in the park, so it should temperature wise be a great day to snowshoe. We love it up there because there are so many great trails with wonderful "pay-offs"! Hopefully I'll get some nice pictures!!! (Putting camera in my bag right now!)

I hope everyone else has a fun-filled weekend planned too - even if it's just relaxing with a bowl of popcorn and a good movie! Enjoy!

Let's try this again since yesterday my session was abruptly ended by Yahoo and I lost everything I wrote...

Here are the pages (mini book) that I did for my CJ - "What Your Shoes Say About You"! I had so much fun comparing my pathetic shoe collection to my traits that I had to do 2 extra pages! I hope the Seasoned Survivor group has as much fun with it as I did! I think the gals in this group are really pushing the creativity button this time! Some of them are even keeping their theme's a secret! How fun! I hope I can keep up with them!

I am soon to have 4 CJ's in my possession! There has been some problems in the other group with one of the gal's that shipped to me. She had some family disasters prior to Christmas and the book that should have been mailed on January 1st has still yet to arrive. She shipped it last Friday. Then she claims to be shipping the one for February this week but I haven't seen a tracking number on that one yet. Then the one for February that she was suppose to get was also shipped to me - they took her out of the circle. Geez, talk about confusion. And on top of all that, I have Toni's CJ from the other group! Wow, that's a lot a mouth full! I guess I'd better get busy on these, huh?!

We finally went tonight and got our hair cut! I had them take off a few inches off the bottom! I didn't like how it laid under my ski helmet! So off it went! Yeah! I think I like it shoulder length anyway!

I got to work from home today - always a wonderful treat! I get to sleep in an extra hour and I don't have to dress up! I get so much more done too! Too bad the project I worked on today was so deadly boring! I have one more day at home and the it's finally Friday!!!

This weekend we're planning on skiing and snowshoeing! It will be our first trip up to RMHP to snowshoe this winter - I can't wait! I hope its a nice day and we can take some awesome pictures! We're going to try to go to Vail and ski. It will be my first time there this year - I hope to get back to the Blue Sky Basin for some good bowl skiing! I just hope it's not ICE COLD!!

Shoes and Sarah..

I finally finished up my CJ - What do your Shoes say about you? I really love how it came out! I hope the Ladies in the group will have as much fun working on it as I had! And I hope that I learn more about each of them through their shoes!! What a funny concept huh? Especially from someone who isn't much of a shoe fiend! I like comfort and you'll see that in my book! I'm glad it's off to it's first destination - Kristi!

Work has finally slowed down to a manageable speed! I was able to work at home today, which was awesome since we got snow this morning! If I had waited for the bus, who knows if it would have been on time and how long it would have taken! At least I could sleep in a bit and still get lots done! And the best is I get to do it again tomorrow!

Speaking of snow - it just keeps coming! At least Colorado is not in a drought this year! The mountains are getting it almost every day, which makes for great skiing! Last weekend we spent in Breckenridge and were lucky to get 2 days with some sunshine! On Saturday we went snowshoeing in the morning and had a very lovely time! We weren't able to go too far because we had an appointment, but when we got to a clearing, the view was awesome and there was even a very nice swing for us to enjoy! I'd like to go back to this spot and do some hiking in the summer - it was a great trail! On Sunday we skied and had a great time in the trees, on the bumps, hitting all 4 mountains and getting some much needed sunshine! This coming weekend we are hoping to get to Beaver Creek on Sunday! Can't wait!

In a few weeks I'm going to Chicago for a very quick weekend! I'm excited to spend one day with Marlene shopping and eating Chicago style! And the other day I get to spend with the family! I must write them and make sure they save the date!

Oh, I've been emailing with Sarah lately - she's just started WW and I'm so PROUD of her! She seems very committed to doing this and it showed in her first week - she lost 3 lbs! Nothing is more important that making yourself healthy at a young age! Maybe if I had paid attention more, I would not have had so many problems in my 30's! Hopefully Sarah won't! She has a long way to go, but that's OK because she's going to take this one small step at a time! And I'm going to stay there right by her side!! YOU GO GIRL!!!

Happy Tuesday!

Where do the weeks go - can you believe that the first full week in January is GONE. Like that - GONE! How did we spend the time? Hmmm, let me think...


Working, working, skiing, working, working!


Yes, I managed to get a little bit of fun in there! Sunday was Dan's birthday (the big 41) and we did what the birthday boy loves most - went skiing! It had snowed the night before and was scheduled to snow all that day, so he was bound to get some powder skiing in! And POWDER is what he got! We went all the way to Beaver Creek, which we learned afterwards, had gotten the most snow of all! They had 9" on Saturday night and another 16" on Sunday - at least a foot while we were there! He was in 7th Heaven! I enjoyed it as much as I could - I wore the wrong socks and was not comfortable (learned my lesson on trying to stay warm), so I packed in the skies at lunch time and went snowshoeing the rest of the day with Melanie (good thing I got showshoes for Christmas)! We actually just took the lift to the top and snowshoed down the mountain - or slid on our butt! (Mom, let's take a black diamond, it'll be fun!) It truly was fun! We were soaking wet, tired and happy! Dan could barely walk but it was one of the best birthday presents he could ask for!



I think I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel at work and I'm pretty sure it's NOT a train! Just another week and I'll be back to normal hours, I hope! My personal life will appreciate that!

Here is one of the LO's I did for the Winter Themed challenge that I hosted recently. You had to use 3 different brads on the page. I used the same format for each of the pages but different paper, etc. I got them mailed out last week, just a few days late. I think everyone was a bit late this time. We have one more challenge due next week and then the CJ due to be mailed on the 15th. I've really got to work my butt off to hit that deadline! So, off to work...

Is it over yet??

The holidays? The stress of work??

Well, yes on the holidays although it will be several more days before any of the decorations are taken down here! I don't want to start a new mess until I'm ready to get it all done and when will I have the time for that - that's anyone's guess!!

The stress of work... no! I'm hoping by middle of next week, things may be calmer where I can breath! It wasn't pretty today and I'm glad I just made it through. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

We had a fabulous long 4 day weekend up in the mountains (despite having to work all day on Sunday)! It was mighty cold though and we only skied 2 out of 4 days (boo hoo)! We just couldn't bring ourselves to go out in the NEGATIVE 11 degree temperatures yesterday! That is just insane! It's not much fun either! One run... warm up... another run... warm up again! We only made it til 10 p.m. MST on New Years Eve! We figured it was midnight SOMEWHERE! My brother rang at 11:10 our time but I couldn't get to the phone so I let it go into voice mail. Nice that he thinks of us... even though we are party poopers!

While I was up there, I finished up my challenge pages - that felt good! I still have a CJ to complete and send to Toni! Hmmm...