It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Back to school time at last! 

I love spending the summer with my kids and all…but all good things must come to an end! 

This year Matt’s going into fourth grade and Emily’s going into first grade.  This is the first time that Emily will be attending school all day – and the first time I’ll have some days all to myself (only on my Mondays and Fridays off, but hey – it’s something).

Have a great school year, kids!

First Day of HIGH SCHOOL!!!!

Andrew started high school as a freshman at Gloucester Catholic today.  I took these photos while he was waiting for the bus to pick him up at WaWa this morning (I made sure that there were no other kids around so he wouldn’t be embarrassed – although I think he was embarrassed anyway):

Hey, Andrew – just be glad that I didn’t drive you to school and take your picture as you walked inside…

Back to School Haircut

Emily cut a new cut today for back-to-school – look how cute she is!

Camping in Elizabethtown PA

We took our last camping trip of the summer season this weekend in Elizabethtown, PA at the local KOA campground.  Why Elizabethtown you ask?  Mike grew up in nearby Ephrata, PA, so this was like a trip home for him.  We booked this trip months ago so that we could combine a camping trip with a visit with Mike’s 91-year-old grandmother, Nan, who lives with his dad in Elizabethtown.

I have to admit, the trip started out not-so-well…the weather was fine when we left home on Friday, but by the time we got into central PA, it was POURING down rain.  And it remained raining as we set up our camper and pretty much the entire first night we were there and into the next morning.

Which would have been okay but…there was no cable TV at our site!  Yikes!  Stuck indoors in the rain with the kids and no TV?!?!  Oh…and then the bathroom roof started to leak as well…and did I mention that Geddy refuses to pee outside when it’s raining?

Andrew wasn’t with us this weekend – he was vacationing in Ocean City with his dad and step-mom.  I called him when we arrived and told him not to feel bad…he wasn’t missing much so far…

But we made the best of it – we threw a duct-taped trash bag over the roof (now that’s classy, ain’t it?), watched some movies and played some games…before we knew it, the sun was out.

We took a trip to the local flea market where we picked up some great bargains at the book stall.  Kids books were 3 for $1 and grown-up hardcovers were $3 each – not bad!  We also picked up some whoopie pies, one of our favorite sweet snacks.  For those who don’t know what a whoopie pie is, it’s basically a Pennsylvania Dutch version of a Hostess Devil Dog – but better.

We had a chance to visit with Nan in the afternoon – here she is with Matt and Emily:

Nan was kind enough to give Emily a lovely bracelet that her mother gave her:

The initials on the bracelet are “NM” for Nelly Marx, her mother’s name.  It’s over 100 years old – what a special piece to pass along to your great-granddaughter!  Emily is a very lucky little girl – and she was a very gracious 6-year-old, I’m proud to say.

This weekend, we also managed to fit in a hike along the Conewago Recreation Trail for a few miles:

This was a great trail (very level – I liked that!) that led through some cornfields and shady trees with lots of friendly bikers and hikers along the way.  We also saw an entire family of deer crossing the trail – and our own family didn’t even complain…that much, anyway.

We also took advantage of the campground activities – the pool, BINGO (Emily won a toy snake during one round – Mike was upset that she didn’t choose the Penn State coffee mug instead…), hayrides…

The activities also included a ‘wet hayride’.  We basically rode around the campground on a ‘pirate ship’ and were armed with large water guns and water balloons while campers sprayed us with hoses (and water guns, fire extinguishers, buckets of water…whatever they could put water in) as we rode by.  The kids had a blast – and we were soaked to the bone when it was all over.

But now summer’s over and it’s time to get back to reality…the back-to-school clock is ticking down – only 2 more days to go!

Take a Hike

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather with a hike in Ceres Park this week.  It’s only about a mile from our house, but I haven’t been there in YEARS. 

It’s not your typical park with a playground and picnic benches – instead, there are lots of hiking trails leading to a lake and beautiful clear stream.  I forgot how pretty it is back there…

We took the dogs along – Daisy loved swimming in the stream:

But Geddy wasn’t having any parts of it. I wish we could let Daisy off the leash, but prior experience tells me that she WILL make a run for it as soon as she’s free…

Thank You Card

I had a chance to play with some of my new Stampin’ Up! products for the first time the other day.  I made a quick thank you card for Ray and Barbara in Eagle River, Alaska to thank them for hosting us in their home last week.

I used two of the new In Colors – Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze – I love this combination!  I can see using Kiwi Kiss with a LOT of other colors as well.

I also used a piece of Not Quite Navy cardstock and scalloped the edges with the new large scallop punch – so easy!

The flowers were stamped tone-on-tone with the Baja Breeze and then a few were embossed with white embossing powder.

Home At Last!

Remind me NEVER to take a red-eye back from Alaska again!  The problem is that almost every flight back from Anchorage turns into a red-eye at some point because of the long distance and time difference. 

I have come to the realization that I am just not capable of sleeping on an airplane.  I was lucky enough to get upgraded to first class for my long leg from Anchorage to Chicago, but I still couldn’t sleep no matter what I tried.  It might have been the man snoring loudly next to me…or the fact that I was in the first row right behind the kitchen where the light stayed on all night and the flight attendants were buzzing around the entire flight…or the severe turbulence that we were in for what seemed like about an hour somewhere over Canada.  By the way, United Airlines has a cool new feature for control freaks like me – you can plug in your headphones and listen to communications between the plane and the air traffic controllers.  I listened in during the turbulence and got to hear all the details.

I certainly did appreciate the first class service – free drinks, a lovely fruit and cheese plate, a hot towel, a warm blanket…I just wish it also included a big fluffy pillow and most importantly, a bed where I could lay flat.

I really wish that I had also been upgraded to first class for the second leg…I ended up sitting in a row with an extremely odiferous older gentleman in the window seat.  Not only did he possess a certain odor about him, but he kept repeatedly and loudly burping (without apology) an even more offensive scent.  After we reached our cruising altitude, I nudged the poor girl in the center seat and said, “You wanna make a run for it – there are some empty seats behind us?!?!” – and so we did.  But even 5 or 6 rows back, you couldn’t escape the smell – at least the burping noises were obscured by the sound of the engines.

After we landed in Philadelphia, I was so excited to see one of my bags on the luggage carousel that I actually cheered and jumped up and down (that would have really embarrassed Andrew if he were with me).  Unfortunately, my excitement was shortlived when after all of the other bags were sent out, my black bag was not among them… 🙁

I filed another missing bag report with the airline (I’m an old pro at it after this trip) and the man working the counter told me that O’Hare is notorious for losing bags and that he had filed 3 missing bag reports the previous day for people flying from ANC to PHL.  And as of this morning, they have still not located my suitcase.

So let this be a lesson – DO NOT fly United Airlines through Chicago…unless you plan on carrying on with you everything you need.

I was so out of sorts yesterday between my lack of sleep and the time difference – I got home at about 10am and forced myself to stay up until about 8pm – then I crashed HARD. I’m still not close to feeling back to normal this morning even after all that sleep.  I tend to get a little bit of motion sickness for the next day or so even after I landed (and all that turbulence didn’t help my case any).

But I did manage to unload my camera – I really didn’t take many photos because I spent most of my time either working or shopping for clothes to replace those in my lost luggage (I guess I can’t do that for THIS missing bag since I’m home now, can I?).  But here’s a shot of the mountain view from the back door of Ray’s house (the man who hosted the dinner):

And a picture of all of us on his back deck:

Poor Ray is trying to poke his head into the picture through my bushy hair at the upper right of the photo!  You’ll also notice a pair of hands at the left of the photo.  That is our project manager from Washington DC, Barbara – she said that she was uncomfortable having her photo on the web, so at her request, I cropped her out of the picture.  But from left to right, that’s Jeff (from the Tech Center), Norman (also from DC), Larry (Tech Center), Ed. T (from Anchorage), David (from Fairbanks), me, part of our host Ray’s face and Mark (from DC).

Here’s another less flattering photo of the group taken inside (Barbara was conveniently on the side again, so she’s cropped again):

That our host Ray on the upper right – thanks for a great time, Ray!  And also a huge thanks to Ray’s lovely wife Barbara – she did a wonderful job!

Shopping (and Stalking) at CKC Valley Forge

I had a great time at the Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge, PA this weekend!  My friends and I went at the same time last year and had so much fun shopping, we decided to do it again this year but stay overnight for the crop and some more classes this time too.

I took two great classes (I’ll finish up the projects and post them later, but here’s what one of them will look like when it’s done…but with photos of my own family, of course)

and got to SHOP all afternoon!  And when I say shop…the vendor area in these conventions is incredible!  Lot of new paper crafting products, demos, make-and-takes…and I also did a little bit of celebrity ‘stalking’…

When I first started making soldering projects, I mentioned on my blog a website called Simply Swank that sold pink soldering irons and other supplies including a fabulous instructional DVD.

I may have also mentioned a book, Simple Soldered Jewelry & Accessories by Lisa Bluhm (one of the ‘swanky’ sisters), that I just loved for project ideas and instructions.

Well, Lisa Bluhm, her royal ‘swankiness’ herself was at the convention and I just had to stop and gush over how much I loved her book and products!  I was such a geek – but I honestly do love her stuff and didn’t hesitate to tell anyone who stopped by her booth (in fact, she asked if I could stick around for a little while and help sell some sets with my free advertising/testimonial).  I eventually pried myself from her booth and continued shopping, promising to send her some emails of some of my projects.

After shopping all afternoon (I got some GREAT bargains!), my friends and I grabbed a quick dinner then went to the crop Friday night.  I couldn’t believe how many women were there!

Here we are at our table:

There were lots of vendors inside the crop as well – and one of the people helping out was…Lisa Bluhm!  This time, I was even geekier and showed her a photo of one of my projects that I still had on my camera:

I whipped this project up this week after one of my co-workers announced her retirement – THE NEXT DAY!  (Note:  If you are going to retire, please give your friends more than 24 hours notice in order to plan an appropriate gift)  I used a vintage postcard with some images of a rose garden, added some glitter and a rub-on that says, “Enjoy” – then I wrote on the back, “Take some time to stop and smell the roses.”  Hey – it was the best I could do in one evening with no advance warning!

Anyway, I showed Lisa this photo on my camera (at least, a tiny version of it on the little camera screen) and she said she loved it (I’m sure she was just humoring me, but I pretended that she meant it anyway).  Then I took even one more step toward being arrested for celebrity stalking, I asked to have my photo taken with her and she kindly obliged:

How did she manage to look so good after all those hours at the vendor fair?

I noticed a man standing to the side laughing at us – Lisa said that he was jealous that no one ever recognized him and asked for his photo.  Turns out, his name is Brian and he’s a model who has done lots of work including underwear ads for Target…so I told him I’d like his photo too:

Um…I didn’t ask him to see his work – or his abs.  That might have been going just a bit too far.  Right, Mike?

I also chatted with former Paper Crafts editor-in-chief Stacy Croninger (I had my photo taken with her last year, so I didn’t make the poor woman pose again) – but this time, she came up to OUR table (was she stalking me???).  Turns out that she just announced that she is leaving the magazine to take a position as the director of the Creating Keepsakes conventions.  We talked about that a little bit (I offered some feedback on the convention – she also humored me and made it seem like she was interested in my opinion) and I showed her the photos of Emily during the “princess incident” that I happened to have out on the table – she thought they were really cute and would make a great layout…I’ll work on that when I have time.

I also saw Mindy from Crop Classix – she also found me out in the crowd and came over to chat…I guess scrapbooking is really becoming a small community – you see the same people year after year at each event.

I didn’t get nearly as much done at the crop as I’d hoped (I was too busy chatting!), but I had a lot of fun and will definitely go back next year!

After a late night of cropping, we headed back to the vendor fair the next morning and picked up a few more bargains and did a few make-and-takes.  Most of the free make-and-takes were pretty lame, (mine were always MUCH better, if I do say so myself)…but what do you expect for free?

On my way out, I ran into Stacy Croninger again and she was with Stacy Julian, the founding editor of Simple Scrapbooks.  But poor Stacy J already had a list of other stalkers waiting for photos, so I just said hello and headed out.

I had JUST enough gas in the truck to get home…and then got stuck in a MAJOR traffic backup on the Schuylkill Expressway (known for its traffic backups) – it took me almost 1 1/2 hours to get home – twice as long as it would under normal conditions.  But I didn’t run out of gas (thank goodness) and to ease my stress, I took the time in the truck to admire my purchases…now let’s see what I can create with them!

Aviation Enrichment Mini-Symposium

What a strange name for a fun event that we attended at the FAA Technical Center yesterday! The Tech Center is not just the building where I work – it’s a 5000-plus acre facility containing the main building (for FAA system development and research) plus the Atlantic City Airport, US Coast Guard facility, 177th Fighter Wing Air National Guard facility, Federal Air Marshal facility, and other buildings where there is research done for bomb detection, airplane safety, weather phenomena…it’s a really interesting place to work.

I took Andrew and Emily with me to work yesterday for a series of tours and workshops introducing kids to different aspects of aviation – labeled an “Aviation Enrichment Mini-Symposium”.  That was the title of the email that was sent out to all of the FAA employees a few weeks ago announcing this event – and I think many of them ignored it because they had no idea what it meant.  So many people stopped us and said that they had no idea the event was even taking place today!  If the email had been titled, “Fun Things For You and Your Kids To Do Together So You Don’t Have to Just Sit At Your Desk All Day”, more people might have opened it and read it.  But there were still lots of kids there today and they all seemed to be having a great time.

Unfortunately, my poor son Matthew has walking pneumonia and wasn’t able to come with us today – Mike had to stay home with him all day.  I hope Matt feels better soon.

During the day, Emily and I made some crafts (of course – any time crafts are offered, you know we’ll be there!), watched a K-9 demonstration by the Egg Harbor Township police department (we’re not sure who was policing Egg Harbor Township while most of the police force was at this event), tried a flight-simulator, made some paper airplanes and took a fantastic tour of the Coast Guard facility on base.

I had NO idea exactly what the aviation division of the Coast Guard did – and boy, was I impressed!  These are some extremely brave men and women – especially the rescue swimmers.  I had no idea of the intensity of their training or the extreme danger of their missions.  These are the guys that are dropped from helicopters to rescue boaters or others who fall victim to sinking boats and rough seas, often in shark-infested waters.  Their physical stamina is incredible – they have to be able to swim with no floatation devices in sometimes up to 20 foot swells for up to 30 minutes – almost impossible conditions that require the swimmers to remain in top physical condition.  We met several of the swimmers who were very candid about their experiences – and were also quite easy-on-the-eyes if I do say so myself!  But I digress…

While we were there, we were able to tour the Coast Guard facility and the children were allowed to climb aboard a $10 million helicopter while a pilot explained the controls to them individually.  They were so accommodating and so patient with the children – I’d like to thank them for a great experience.

Meanwhile, Andrew was able to tour the 177th Fighter Wing, NJ Air National Guard facility.  He got to see their F-16s and weapons too – a boy’s dream!  After that, he toured the Federal Air Marshal training facility (which was a little bit more secretive about their operations – these are the guys who are present on every airline flight and act as cops in the sky) and also toured some air traffic control labs in the main building.  He also got to participate in a ‘mini egg drop’ where the kids has to try to cushion an egg that would be dropped from the second and third floor of the atrium.  Unfortunately, Andrew’s egg cracked on the first drop, but we had fun watching all of the other egg contraptions fall while we cheered them on.

I wish I had taken more photos, but my camera seemed to stay on my desk for most of the day while we ran from event to event.  I didn’t realize that the facility gave so many tours – this would be an excellent place for class trips for elementary and middle schools.

I think this experience also gave the kids a glimpse into what it’s like to work at the FAA Technical Center – they saw that the work that takes place there is interesting and that we can sometimes have fun at work too (like when one of my co-workers gave Emily a toy moose that ‘poops’ out brown jelly beans – thanks a lot, Jeff).

By the way, Andrew found it difficult to believe that I might actually have some knowledge about something other than raising kids and housework.  He kept saying, “So people actually come to YOU with questions about this stuff?!?!”  He may have actually been impressed with his own mother – although I’m sure he’d never admit it…

Church Scrapbook

One of my largest and most overwhelming projects this month was to make a scrapbook for our pastor, Dr. Rev. Lanie Price, who is leaving us in a few weeks to go to another church.

Our church has been through a lot in the last few years including a church fire and rebuilding project, so there was a lot to include in the scrapbook.

In order to get the book completed, I had to let go of my OCD side and keep the pages simple – if I agonized over each embellishment on every single page, I never would have finished. Instead of traditional journaling, I included one more scripture verses on each page that reflected the subject.

Still, this book was an enormous amount of work in a small period of time – and my messy house proves where all of my attention has been focused lately!

I will be presenting Lanie with the book tonight – and will also be making a speech to the 200+ people who will be attending the Celebration Service – yikes! But I think I have a good little speech and I’m happy with the book turned out – I’ll just be relieved when the speech is over and the book is out of my hands.

I thought I’d include photos of the pages of the book here on my blog for members of the church to view (since she’ll be taking the book with her). There were also a few additional pages not included here that contained letters and cards given by members of the congregation.

Just as a point of reference, I started the book at our last Scrapbooking Ministry meeting on May 31st and completed the book yesterday. Can you see why I haven’t had time to post in a while? 🙂

I did make it a bit easier on myself by purchasing coordinating products from the K&Co K-Ology “Hannah” collection. I bought one of the “Scrap Pad to Go” paper pads and actually used the whole thing and had to buy another.

I think the result was well worth it – I hope that this book will help Lanie to remember her years at PUMC.