widgets & running with the bulls

I've had too much fun today adding a couple new widgets to my blog! I had to add a video game... of course, since I LOVE video games. That's why Mario is here! It's little but you can actually play it! (Arrow keys to move & jump. Spacebar to select. 0 for menu. You'll need to point with your cursor to start the game and select your player.) I think I may have to have a game of the month or something... :)

The other widget I added is "the drama llama." The drama llama sometimes wanders around our house and the houses of certain members of my family. We tease each other that it's someone else's turn to "feed the drama llama," if lots of drama has been going on at someone's house. I thought I might do my whole family a favor if I "sponsored" this drama llama. Now all my sisters (and anyone else who needs it) can come and feed the drama llama here, if they need to. You know... I do what I can! :)


OK... I have to add this picture and mention... Leila sent me this photo and the video clip where you catch a glimpse of her boyfriend, Mike, running with the bulls in Spain! She's circled him! I think that's a little too close to the bulls myself! (But I have to admit that must have been SOME adventure! Mike... I hope you're OK and that your mom didn't have a heart attack!) Mike is participating in a study abroad program in Spain for the summer. Leila is missing him but happy that they can communicate via skype.

r e c o v e r y

Ahhh.... What a BBQ!!! (I wish I had taken more photos...)

It may take me a few days to fully recover! We had more than 30 guests at our BBQ! It was a BLAST!!! I hope that our friends had as wonderful a time as we did! Although I am totally exhausted today I am already looking forward to planning another one in August. I feel so lucky to have such a great bunch of friends. They are all such nice, thoughtful, funny, interesting people. The party began around 4:00 and lasted until around 11:30 or so. There was relaxing in the spa, "competitive" billiards, a little Rock Band (Tim... we needed you! Next time! You'd be impressed... Julie was rockin' out on those drums and guitar! Maybe next time we'll get her to sing!?!), AND lots of just hanging out enjoying each other. Nearly everyone we invited came... only a couple of invitees were out of town and unable to join us (Art! and Jared!). Hopefully they'll be able to make the next one! :)

I am sad to say that our dear friends Nathan and Zhanna weren't able to make our BBQ... they had some excuse about the commute was too long or there was traffic or something. (They recently moved to Connecticut, this is NOT an excuse!) We missed you! :)

I don't know how I made it to volleyball this morning... I was definitely even more tired when I got home! Cami, Norm, and I relaxed in the spa for a couple of hours and just enjoyed being lazy. It felt great. On the way back into the house I couldn't resist taking photos of my succulent that has been blooming so beautifully for the past few weeks. I LOVE the colors... sage and a peachy orange. I wasn't certain if I would be able to capture the delicate and unique nature of the bloom. I hope I have. I also took some photos of one of my hibiscus plants that had a blossom open today. The petals and stamen were perfect. I posted a couple of macro shots on flickr.

I am very excited! I was featured for the first time in a treasury today! Thanks so much Mizzdraconia! I feel very honored to have one of my listings noticed and categorized with such wonderful "chocolate" themed items. :)

What a terrific weekend it's been!

SUPER busy

It has been a SUPER, SUPER, busy day! We're having a big BBQ on Saturday so today was the day that I did all the shopping I could for supplies. It was A LOT! Cami was a great help. We made our lists this morning and then headed out for our day of errands.

We started by going to the car wash. My MINI was begging for a cleaning. This was the fun part of the day because I told Cami to bring her Nintendo DS so that she and I could duel guitar hero while we waited for the car... (I don't know how long the guy waved his rag before we noticed! C'mon... we HAD to finish the song!) NOTE: I did win AGAIN! 2 out of 3 games... YES! She did play on hard, ...whatever!

Then the real errands began! C O S T C O . . . Luckily we went today because I can't imagine what the madness will be like there tomorrow as people get their last minute shopping done for the 4th! We filled up my MINI with lots of good stuff, went home unloaded, fixed a quick lunch, double checked the list for Ralph's, and headed out again! We filled the car once again at Ralph's... It's a good thing I have that extra fridge in the garage! :)

Cami and I are all set to start with cooking tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll make the barbecue sauce, a couple of the cookie doughs and start some of the other organization. Friday she and I will do the baking. It's going to be busy but fun! I am so excited about having a big group over. We have plenty of BBQ's but I don't always invite friends. Norm always teases me that I don't have any... so for this party I invited a bunch of my volleyball friends... He keeps teasing me that a) no one will show up... or b) I had to invite strangers on the street! (He better not be right!) :)

All right... back to getting stuff set... (I sure do hope I have friends show up!) :)

guitar hero ON TOUR

I LOVE video games! We had preordered TWO (One for me and one for Cami, because I DON'T want to share!) of the new Guitar Hero games for our Nintendo DS Lites... They arrived today!!! Oh my gosh, it's the coolest thing ever! I have a feeling I know what I'll be doing A LOT of during our vacation next week! I just finished working through the tutorial (that's the kind of person I am, PLUS I thought I might learn some tricks so that just maybe I'll be able to beat Cami once before she figures out all the little tricks! ...Hey... I can dream, can't I?!) The guitar duel features are sooo cool! You can earn "weapons" to use against the other player like fire (start their guitar on fire and they have to blow into the microphone to put it out and continue playing, break a string (they have to reattach), throw something to be autographed (they have to autograph it before continuing to play), and all kinds of other VERY neat things. These are the things I'm hoping that Cami hasn't learned yet. All right... I'm going to test out my luck... CAAAAAMMMMIIIII!! (wish me luck!)

UPDATE: I just beat Cami!!! THREE TIMES!!!! See it was worth learning some of the "weapons"... I'm sure this is the only time I'll be able to beat her so I think I'll have to torture her about my wins the rest of the day! (Of course she did beat me at the regular competition where no weapons were allowed.) The game is a BLAST! Such GREAT songs too! (Heather... Jessie's Girl is on there... I know you're running to the store NOW!)

e n j o y

I had a WONDERFUL weekend with all my visitors! (Mom, Heather, Kavyn and friend-Kirstie, and Kylee - Mom and Kylee were surprises!!!) We were on the go until they left this morning! (I had to take a little nap this afternoon to recover.) We all went to the beach on Friday afternoon and then came home to enjoy the spa and pool... It was extremely relaxing.

Heather, Kavyn, and Kirstie went to see Wicked Saturday afternoon and LOVED it! While they were doing the theater thing, Mom and Kylee hung out with Cami and I, we had a nice relaxing afternoon with a little bit of shopping thrown in...

Heather and I had our "concert" performance last night with Sing Star!!! (This is a tradition for us... We LOVE our Sing Star!!!) We did get "Sing Star" and "Superstar" status on quite a few songs!!! (We may have also shattered a few glasses but we won't dwell on that...) :) We had a blast... It just went by too quickly! It was so nice to enjoy each other's company. I smile just thinking of it!

I can't wait to go through my camera tomorrow to look at the photos from the weekend! I'm also hoping I got some great shots of all the fun and the beautiful day at the beach. I'm also anxious to check out the shots because I'm trying to learn my new camera! (Thanks again, Celina, for all the tools and help!)

new blossom and mario

I had a chance to complete the new Blossom Card AND list it today! Another item complete on my list!!!! :) I love how the combination came together. I had to run to Michael's today to find a paper for the background. I didn't like any of the combinations I had. (It's amazing that I have drawers of paper and I couldn't find one I really liked! Sad!) As soon as I saw the black and white polka dot I knew it was the one... Of course, I didn't buy just that! I also found a nice set of Amy Butler papers that I think would make some gorgeous Blossom Cards, I couldn't leave without getting those! I think I'll have to add one of those to my project list for next week...

I couldn't resist adding this goofy photo of Norm and Cami. They have been playing a lot of Mario Kart on the Wii... you can tell because in this photo they have turned into Mario and Baby Mario. Cami is even looking cross-eyed! I might have to take video game privileges away for a little while (at least until the moustaches fall off!). I absolutely LOVE hearing them play games together, it makes me smile.

happy birthday honey...

Happy Birthday Normie! Today is my husband's birthday... Here he is with Cami. They're playing his new Mario Kart Wii game. It was so much fun! (Game was Cami's idea.) Leila added to his DVD collection with all three Bourne movies. He was very excited about this gift as well! He loves peanut butter and chocolate so for the "cake" I made peanut butter and fudge brownies... Boy, were they rich! I will definitely have to walk MANY hills to burn that off! :) Honey... you deserve the best... I hope all your wishes come true!

Cami had her school play performance today as well. She did an amazing job! The whole class really worked hard and it showed. I'm so glad that Norm and I were able to go and enjoy this together. We were so proud of all the hard work and practice she's put into getting ready for this day.

I packaged up the Paisley Skulls Blossom Card today... It's going to Yonkers, NY! I love mailing packages all over and I always anxiously await feedback! I LOVE reading that stuff! :) I am looking forward to working on the sushi tomorrow. I plan on getting started first thing in the morning as Cami has a minimum day (12:15 dismissal). I haven't played with my sewing machine for a couple of weeks... it's going to be nice to hear that motor hummmmmm....