Friday thoughts...and flowers!

Look at the gorgeous flowers my hubby sent! How could these not cheer someone up on a Spring day :) Iain has done such an awesome job taking care of me this week - just another reminder of how lucky I am....

The Two Peas Blog Challenge for today is a fun one. Here goes:

Two things about me: my hair is about 70% gray and I have lots of freckles!
Two names I go by: tone and toners (courtesy of high school friends and Iain)
Two things I am wearing right now: jammies and socks
Two things I want (or have) in a relationship: humor and security
Two of my favorite things to do: scrapbooking and photography
Two things I want very badly at the moment: for my throat to heal and for the snow to melt :)
Two pets I have: 2 cats: Pickle and Sally
Two things I did last night: watched "Survivor" and had beef pot pie for dinner
Two things I ate today: popsicle and water (so far)
Two people I just talked to last: Iain and the pest control company (coming next week for our maintenance service)
Two things I'm doing tomorrow: laundry and working on a circle journal entry
Two longest car rides: We've moved a lot by car because we didn't want to put our cats on planes, so we have driven from San Diego to Orlando (4 days in 1995). Also Orlando to Boston (1996) and Boston to San Francisco (1997). Quite an adventure!
Two favorite holidays: Thanksgiving (I'm from the UK and love the whole idea of Thanksgiving) and birthdays (I tell my kids there are lots of holidays, but your birthday is the only day when it is really your own day!)
Two favorite beverages: Earl Grey tea or a Mai Tai
Two favorite scrapbooking tools: Ink pads and patterned paper
Two favorite scrapping companies: That's a tough one! If I have to narrow it down to two, I'd pick Crate Paper and Making Memories.

26 Things Photo Scavenger Hunt!

Found this cool game for a Photo Scavenger Hunt! There's a list of 26 items to try and photograph with your own interpretation of each. I'm gonna try and play along :) It'll be another way to improve my photography skills. Anyone else?

Here's the list of items:

keys
dance
fold
soft
tangle
panoramic
truck
sparkle
nose
round
currency
electronic
large
fake
stop
feast
multicoloured
before
after
landmark
from the hip
front page
a difference
telephone
the number 9
sticky

Teacher Appreciation Week

I made some chipboard books for Nattie's and Jamie's teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week. Each of the kids wrote inside the book cover, and the rest of the book had different quotes about teaching inside. Here are some pics :) We packaged them up nicely with a Starbucks mug and gift card :) Thank you, teachers!

If only....

If only...this snow would disappear! It's been awesome moving here last October and experiencing 7 months of snow on the ground, but enough already! We are all more than ready for some warm weather and to see what is actually under all the white stuff! Our new patio furniture just keeps getting covered with snow :)

After almost one week on an extremely soft diet, I can't describe how much my mouth is calling out for some REAL food! LOL! I feel like someone on Survivor who has been living on rice (only I'm just on day 6, not day 39) and can't wait to bite into a big ol' cheeseburger! On a positive note, I've lost 10 lbs! Unfortunately I know it'll come back on just as quickly as it came off, but I can enjoy it while it lasts, right?

Miscellaneous Monday stuff...

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm still resting up here but the painkillers are helping. Starting to get a bit of cabin fever, though, because I can't go out and drive! Needless to say, I was on the internet a lot while resting at home this weekend and found some random questions:

1. What was the last magazine you read? This week's issue of "Entertainment Weekly"

2. Look to your left. What is the first thing you see? The view outside the bedroom window: trees covered in more snow!

3. What is your favorite kind of potato chips? Beef & Onion flavor (from the U.K.)

4. Have you ever gone bungee jumping? No, I don't know if I could do that!

5. What is the current temperature outside? Hubby tells me its 38 degrees right now.

6. What is the best place to get/eat pizza in your town? BeauJo's in Evergreen, CO.

7. If you had only 24 hours to live, what would you do? Stay at home with my family, talk and hug!

8. Who is your hero? Anyone who beats the odds!

9. Who was the last person you said "I love you" to? Nattie when she headed out for the school bus this morning.

10. When was the last time you cried? Apparently when I came around from the anesthesia on Thursday (not that I recall it, LOL!).

What always makes me happy....

Who doesn't love a fresh, sharpened set of colored pencils, just waiting to be used on a new sheet of paper? Since I was a kid, this has been one of my favorite things :) Just a blank canvas of possibility waiting to be played with! Or how about seeing the kids picking up something to read, completely unprompted? That definitely brings a smile to my face every time. Guaranteed. Other happy things are Iain's jokes (and sense of humor which completely matches mine), the cats purring, and putting on my favorite jammies.

National Scrapbooking Day

Happy NSD to all my scrapping friends :) I'm checking in here from the couch following my surgery on Thursday.

It was tough, but I'm feeling better every day. Also had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic the surgeon put me on, but we got that sorted out yesterday. And can I just add that my hubby has been great and so have the kids. Hopefully in 3 or 4 days I'll be up and about again; I feel like an old lady right now hobbling around dizzy from the pain meds!

The challenge from Two Peas today is, of course, about scrapbooking: list the top supplies on your wishlist right now. Mine would include some new idea books. I love getting a new book to leaf through! I know that there are new books in the pipeline from Ali Edwards and Elsie Flannigan, and am looking forward to them both later this year. I would also like a Glue Pad which you can dip rubber stamps into, and then sprinkle the image with glitter, beads, or other decoration. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? I'm also working on teacher gifts for Teacher Appreciation Week this coming week and have used up my stash of chipboard albums, so I will need to replenish those....

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Mothers...and sore throats

Two Peas Blog Challenge is all about mothers, with Mothers Day coming up in less than 2 weeks. My relationship with my mum is non-existent; the last time we spoke was several years ago. It's a long, drawn-out saga which I won't get into (I don't think Blogger gives me enough space, LOL) but I have decided to take a positive learning experience and decide that mum taught me how not to parent my own kids. And so far, so good....Nattie and Jamie are way more emotionally healthy than I was at their ages and I plan to help them continue to grow in all aspects.

We usually have quite a low-key Mothers Day, just the 4 of us, with a nice breakfast and me being generally taken care of :) Just the way I like it!

Tomorrow I'm having my throat surgery done to try and open up my airway a bit and alleviate my sleep apnea problems. From what I've heard I'll have the "mother of all sore throats" and will generally feel cr*ppy for a week or two...so if I'm not here blogging, it'll be because I'm enjoying the pain medications....

I'm a little nervous - who wouldn't be if a surgeon was going to alter the inside of their mouth and throat, right? But if it helps with the apnea and (according to Iain) super-loud snoring, then it'll be worth it. Otherwise we'll be adding on another bedroom to the house.

And on a completely unrelated topic, how cute is the cover of the book shown in my photo here? Both of my kids have loved this story, but the illustrations to me are the best part. We always say that the illustrator must have cats, because the expressions are right on.

I've been tagged

By my new blogging friend Noelia! There are two tasks:

Firstly, reveal seven random facts about yourself and then tag seven others...

1. I sang solo parts in school shows and was in the town drama club up until the age of about 15 and loved it!
2. I have never eaten tomato soup since a bowl of it landed on my head when I was 7 years old...we were staying in a caravan (RV) and the fold-down table decided to fold itself up unexpectedly :)
3. I'm a reality TV junkie. Amazing Race, Survivor, Bachelor.....
4. The place I would love to visit most in the world is Alaska, closely followed by New Zealand.
5. I am an emotional eater.
6. I can't bake.
7. I was born in England, moved to Scotland when I was 5, and moved to the U.S. when I was 22.

Secondly: share some favorite blogs you visit for inspiration.

Some of the blogs I have bookmarked include:

http://www.kerismith.com/blog/ Keri Smith is a super-talented artist. One of my favorite parts of her blog is the "100 things" section. There are 100 suggestions for pages of an art journal (or as one of my friends has done, a Circle Journal!).
http://dancinginpajamas.blogspot.com/ this blogging site is written by Alma, the owner and "Creative Cat" over at The Cat's Pajamas Rubber Stamps. I'm a proud DT member and find Alma's writing often makes me ponder :) Always a good thing!
http://alifeunrehearsed.blogspot.com/ Bonnierose is another new blogging friend. Her writing is thoughtful, unrestrained and just plain fun!

Alrighty, I'm off to tag some fellow bloggers....have a great Tuesday evening :)

Springtime :)

OK, OK, I'm cheating...these Springtime photos are from when we lived in CA :) Every year between March and May, the ranunculus flowers are in full bloom at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. We went and visited them each year we lived there and took the tractor ride around the field. The flower fields are also great photo opportunities, as you can see! This place is a must-see for anyone visiting Southern CA at this time of year.