One More Chance: The Story of Jonah

Davi was in a musical last night at her school. The Children's Choir at Shadow Mountain is an amazing gift. Somehow they get about 100 children 1st-7th grade to do amazing performances. I cant even get my 2 kids to get shoes on before getting in the car...but Lynette Davis can get 100 kids to do complex choreography. I watch and think it would be more like herding cats...

humor for the day

Hallie talks all the time - I mean all the time. I asked Hallie to be quiet for a few minutes and she said "if I was quiet I couldn't tell you what I was thinking of telling you and you will be sad when you don't hear what I was going to say"

Me: "Ok, tell me what you were going to tell me"

Hallie: "I already did"

Me: "what were you going to tell me?"

Hallie "that I was THINKING of telling you something"

Me: "Ok, WHAT were you thinking of telling me?"

Hallie "I don't know, I wasn't done thinking it, but I knew I had more thoughts in me before you told me not to talk so much"


Davi and I were reading the biography about Noah Webster. there was a part where a woman had to choose between two men who had proposed to her. Davi said "I know how I would pick- I would pick the one that did housework!"

I got tagged :)

I have been tagged and I am to post 7 random things about me....hmmm

I love the smell of the jets at the airport, the smell of jet fuel...don't really know why

I cant relax if my house is a disaster - which explains why I am a nervous wreck most of the time

I DREAD, I mean just DREAD unloading the dishwasher. I would rather do laundry , dust, vacuum... ugh- unloading the dishwasher.

I want to go to Egypt and China one day

I sleep better with the TV on, and if I cant fall asleep I turn the TV on.

I listen to my kids Cd's- you know, Disney radio jams, Hillary duff, Girl next, Hanna Montana...secretly love it :)

the sexiest, nicest, most generous thing a guy can do is ......

housekeeping.

Happy Jeans

you moms of girls know what I mean....

I shorten the jeans and then like 2 months later they are 2 inches too short...grrr

and when I say I shorten the jeans, I typically have to CUT 3-5 inches off and still leave enough for a new hem.

Ok, most of davi and hallies jeans have patches - holes!! (grrr...) that are intentionally there - stitching - beads - rhinestones - ribbon.... they have a lot of things added to the pockets, legs hems...

The other day I was packing away pants that were too short and hemming/cutting new pairs that were too long

**LIGHTBULB**

Hmmm.... what if I added on this part of the jeans I just trimmed off to the short ones!?!?

I ran upstairs and pulled the short ones out of the attic and stitched the trimmed off cuffs to them! I used hot pink thread to sort of match the rest of the jeans and used a pair of cuffs that were lighter. I did zig zag and straight stitch to make them look funky.

wow..why didnt I think of this like 5 years ago?????

I am just stunned by the shooting at Virginia Tech.
I am saddened by how many people lost loved ones in one day.
Its the ripple effect...
My heart goes out to all those families who raised bright, productive, college bound students, and to the families who lost their husband or wife, mom or dad who were professors.

mean people suck.

Candice

Just wanted to do a layout about a person who is beautiful inside and out. Candice.

We all need a Candice in our lives. She is smart, funny and upbeat. She can handle anything and the first to say thanks. and she is like a way fab, totally talented scrapper too.

Just a little shout out to my friend, to say thanks for all she does.

You are appreciated more than you know.

Descanso Alpine Pacific Railway

I have driven past this house many times and not paid attention to the sign that said "free train rides". I saw the Rail Road Crossing sign and just thought the people who lived there were train hobbyists.

wow, was I really missing out by not slowing down and reading the sign. There are many adventures right in your backyard...literally.

Roy, an Alpine resident opens his backyard and shares his love of trains every Sunday 1-3 pm. all free. Its a little over a mile of track and it is one of the only running 2 foot railways in California. He also built the longest 2 foot train trusses, over 110 feet long.

You get a ticket, and have to punch it at the station and then once on the train it is punched again. The kids just loved this. He tells you the history of the tracks, most of the track came from old mines. Some sections of track were made in Germany and some were made in the late 1800's.

We stop in the Engine Shed and he shows us the blacksmith tools he uses to build and repair the railway.

He isn't quite done with the caboose, but he built it all himself.

the train ride is 20 minutes long, so while we waited for the train to come we had a orange creme soda and a root beer.

If you live local, I totally suggest going to see this. it is located at 1266 Alpine Heights Rd. Alpine CA. 619 . 445. 4781 (there is a recording with info)

Recipe Saturday

ok, my friend leah fung suggested I write down some of my signature dishes. I thought it was a good idea, like if something happened to me, they would go with me.

Baked Potato Salad

this one is dedicated to my sister in laws who don't like mayo. :) - Julie and Dawn

bake 6-8 potatoes, depending on size
*I like to bake them like this:
put a bit of butter on a piece of foil and sprinkle season salt and Parmesan cheese on it. wrap the potato up in it and bake like usual - the peel of the potato is so yummy!
**also, when I am baking a chicken or something that takes a while, I make a few potatoes and keep them for the next day or so.

In a really large bowl, melt some butter
3 TBS Butter works well.

Chop up the warm potatoes, if they were made ahead, reheat them - chop in cubes

put in the big bowl and add

a few scoops of sour cream
1 Cup of shredded cheese
1/2 cup bacon bits
salt & pepper

Mix well, the heat of the potatoes will melt and mix with the sour cream and cheese really nice :)

top with chives.

Basically its like a baked potato in a bowl, but everyone I have ever made it for said it was so good, and they never thought to make potato salad like that :)

next Saturday: macaroni and cheese

My life as the child of an aerial photographer by Davi Peterson

If I am not in school, I usually end up going flying with my mom. I like flying - my sister doesn't. She went to lunch at the resturaunt near the airport. She had nachos.

I took a book to draw in- flying use to be more exciting, its pretty routine now. sometimes I even fall asleep in the back seat. I have my own set of headphones. I like to listen to the pilots talk.

I like looking out and seeing everything from the air, it looks so different. The cars look like they are going slow and people look like dots.

It was too cloudy by the water for my mom to shoot one of her sites. If she cant shoot a site since there are clouds she takes a shot to show to the person who hired her. Sometimes its really clear in one spot and totally cloudy a few miles away. sometimes her clients look out the window and its sunny where they are so they dont get its not like that everywhere.

It was sunny for 2 sites, so she got some work done anyhow. we flew with todd, I like him. I dont see him much since he got a job with the airlines.

Bunny Love

While up north for a job interview (*oh, I got the job by the way...YAY ME!!) I stopped by to see Melisa Sanchez (of Scrapbook Lifestyle)

Slight tangent here....

The best part about Scrapbook Lifestyle is the friends I have met and made that I otherwise wouldnt have made. Melisa is just one of the people in my life that add to the blessed life I have. I am lucky to have met her and say she is my friend.

Back to our regular programming.....

Melisa just got a new bunny- ugh, my girls just loved him!!! I personally just wanted to rub my cheek on him and squeal. Not only is he a baby (I say he, we dont know yet what he/she is) but he is a dwarf bunny.

So tiny, so so cute, aaaack- cute covered in fur.

egg artists

my girls love to color eggs. I mean really love to color eggs. they cant wait for Easter and often ask in mid October for me to boil eggs so they can color them.

This year I boiled 8 dozen to end up with a bit over 7 dozen, some of them crack while boiling. Good thing we like boiled eggs around here.

They use crayons, colored pencils, rub ons, and davi dipped a paintbrush and painted with the dye.

Hallie was so funny, she wouldn't color on an egg while one was in the dye, she would wait until she pulled one out of the dye and then start another.

Puppy Love

this is a layout about Aubrey's 2 dogs, hanna and duke :) they are so cute together. Hanna is a mix and so is duke, but they almost look like a match set. Hanna was rescued/adopted when her owner passed away at the hospital and she was left locked in her house for a month! duke just found them and stayed :) - they are lucky to have Aubrey's family for a second chance.

it was such a perfect shot of them touching noses- I had to scrap this

The paper is Rusty Pickle and the graph card is 7 Gypsies. The chipboard title, hearts and adorable little dogs are all new Queen & Co. I painted the hearts and title, but left the two little dogs "natural" to match the black and white photo. So funny the Q&Co chipboard came with two dogs, one just a tad bigger than the other :) - it was destiny!

Time to dust ourselves off

Time to get out of the house, so I took the girls to Mission Trails for a hike. The girls noticed all the rocks along the trail and wanted to take most of them home for the rock tumbler. we arent allowed to take any since its a state park.

They liked the water at the Mission Dam. The Mission De Acala is about 5.5 miles down hill and the missionaries had made a dam with a flume to carry water to the mission. You can still see some of the original dam.

It was really warm today, so the shade at the dam was a welcome break.

We saw a coyote, lizards, many hawks and birds.

They loved the old oak tree and called it "old Oakie oasis" - its a oak tree that lays close to the ground and creates a tent.

After the hike we went to Jamba Juice to get some smoothies :)