What Will You Think

When I share a big pet peeve. . .

I love blogging. I love the blogging world, but you know what I just dread? Opening the blog with the automatic play list. . . to me it's like pulling up to someone at a stop sign and having to hear his music. I know, I know, I'm totally sitting on someone's last nerve by sharing this, but I just have to say that although I love music and I've never been offended (yet) by any music I've heard on any blog I've personally visited, but I almost jump out of my skin everytime I load a blog and their music starts blaring at me. . .

Okay, enough of that.

A TUTORIAL for my Clippy Boards is coming soon! Thank you for your requests. I promise to deliver. My little Walker man is having his tonsils and adenoids out on Friday, so it may be a few days, but it will appear here!!!

On a side note:

No one in the US has my name. There are 3,035 people in the U.S. with the first name Rachele. Statistically the 3176th most popular first name.
More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Rachele are female.
There are 27,317 people in the U.S. with the last name Funk.
Statistically the 1298th most popular last name. There are 0 people in the U.S. named Rachele Funk. While both names you entered were found in the database, neither was common enough to make it likely that someone in the U.S. has the same name. If you'd like to find about your name, visit HERE.

I did pretty well at naming my kids too. . . No one has the name Mikensee (exactly) and few are named Wyatt and even fewer Walker. Jessica on the other hand has 66 people in this country with her exact name. . . My hubby ranks up there too, but with a name like Mike we knew it wasn't looking good!

AND, One last thought:

My friend Elaine sent me these:



And if I could I would send them to you! Aren't they beautiful?

Lassos and Whale Chicken

Yesterday it was Pirates today, we're cowboys. The boys were MIA for long enough for me to go looking. I found them in the garage with homemade lassos (string with some broken thing tied to the end -- very creative) and they were lassoing the garage door tracks. . . The pictures aren't great as the sun was blaring through the glass blocks to the side of them, but at least I have the memory. "MOM! We're real cowboys, see??!!??"


What's on the menu?

For dinner tonight we had one of my mom's old stand-by's; tuna fish on toast. I know it sounds like a meal fit for a king, but I'm sure tuna, milk, and bread must have been cheap back in the day! My kids all like it and it reminds me of my childhood, so occassionally, we indulge. So here's the conversation we had while whipping up some tasty tuna:

Walker says, "Mom, I love whale chicken."
I say, "Whale chicken?"
Walker says, "Yep, this whale chicken." (pointing to the tuna fish can.)
Wyatt enters and says, "It's not whale chicken it's dolphin chicken."

Well, that settles that. It's not whale chicken it's dolphin chicken. So from now on we'll be serving dolphin chicken on toast.

A Bit of Blarney

Also known as design team challenge 4! For this challenge I was given a new type of embellishment which I was required to feature in my designs. The first package I received was crushed in the automated postal machines. I used bits of it in the Irish card below. The second package was really the inspiration for my St. Patty's day card. I thought it looked like Blarney Stone, so there it is. The other piece was more like a tag. I used it on my Life card. I really just had to pick colors and a theme that worked with green - not just any green - Clover Meadow Green - Bright Green! Hope you like!

A Pirate's Life For Me!

Saturday the kids asked to watch Peter Pan, I said sure. The next thing I know they had pulled out an old VHS of Hook. Not that this was Robin William's shining career moment, but it was the first movie that Mike and I ever saw as a "couple" so it has sentimental value. He fell asleep 10 minutes into the movie and proceeded to snore. . . so it's also a great story teller! I digress. . .

So, in the movie, Captain Hook and his crew really play up the pirate life. So today, this is what I get:

 

 

 

Jessica has panty hose on her head, Walker is giving his best "ARRRR" while sporting a pink leotard and ballet slippers, and Mikensee is holding up Jessica's treasure map in the back. They hauled our cooler out to the sandbox and filled it with treasure (oh joy!)until somehow Jessica remembered that she had this toy trunk and traded the cooler in for it. I watch them for a while as they take steps around the back yard as if they are those cartoons you see with the trail of feet prints trailing behind. You just have to love when reality checks out and imagination checks in. Jessica really wants to know if she looks like a girl pirate. I say, "yes." She wants to know if I want to know where the treasure is. I say "I already found it. . ."

Clippy Boards

We had a blast at our unit meeting on Friday. The project was a hit and some of the baskets that were made were "da bomb!" I made a couple more myself, but I've given them all away already and forgot to take pictures of the rest. . . oh well!

I made these for the gals Friday night, but didn't want to post in advance because I knew some of them would be snooping for hints on the project on my blog and I was right! So glad I didn't give it ALL away! I also have to thank Sharli, Kelly T., Jenn D and Jen P for the awesome hostess gifts. . . They gave me buttons, a star box, some great cards and you gals just ROCK!!!

We're Going to Make These:

 

So unit meeting is my house tomorrow night (well, it's 12:14 AM so I guess that makes it TODAY!) We're having a fun auction and some other stuff, but the "project" for the evening is my responsibility. I knew what I wanted to make, but had I made one yet? NO! This is my goobered up, can we actually make it, trial mode project, but yes, I think we're going to make these! Wish me luck!

White Tanks Waterfall Hike

 

One of the best things about living in AZ, is that even on a cold day, you can still go outside. Cold is relative, I know, but in AZ, a cold day is low 60's. We do have colder days, but few. This hike was something I had planned for when BJ came to town, but as you know, the superbowl nixed her plans. My kids LOVE this hike and so we went anyway. The waterfall, although not heavily flowing was fun for the kids to play in and not so cold that they were miserable after we took off their wet clothes. This particular hike is a family friendly hike at the White Tank Mountains. We live in the Estrella Mountains, but have a beautiful view of these mountains from our back yard. The hike itself is about 2 miles round trip, but only the hearty actually ever see the fall. Most people get to the little river and think they've reached the top. There are actually 2 falls and the first wasn't even flowing today. The pool from this fall was about 4 feet dep. I've given you a mosaic of our day and one single shot of the fall with my kids at the top. You can't even see the original "pool" or "white tank" from my view point, but it was about 6' deep today. The entire hike offers birdseye views of ancient petroglyphs. They are fun to spot and fun to speculate on their meanings. Some are almost gone, so it's like a treasure hunt of sorts. Today we also found a geocache. We're not "big" into geocaching, but it was fun to find! Maybe when the kids are a bit older and can do the research, we'll do more of it. The desert is going to be really beautiful this spring. We FINALLY have had some rain this winter! The river we cross each day has been running for a couple of months now! Perhaps our drought is finally over.

You Ought To Be In Pictures!

Tagged: The Middle Name Game

So, Stacey has tagged me with the middle name game. Here's the skinny:

These are the rules:
You must post the rules before you give your answers.
You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
After you've been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

So,

My middle name: LEE

L: Lived through an
E: Earthquake in Utah when I was 5
E: Eating is one of my favorite past-times!

I tag:

Jenn
Lois
Kari

To Catch Up or Not to Catch Up

So where have I been? Some of you have even emailed me to ask, which just absolutely amazes me!!! I feel so loved! So, where have I been? I've been busy. No, seriously, I should have a better excuse but life just keeps happening! I have a LARGE file of things I intended to post, wanted to post and even tried to post a number of times, but life just kept happening! So, here is the question? Should I try to catch up or not?

How Twin Are They?

So today was another sad day for me. My babies are really growing up! Today, not one, but both of my twins lost a tooth. Here is a little collage I made of the event:

(to see the collage larger, just click on the photo)


Wyatt didn't like this event much at all. At first he was brave and you can see he's smiling in the picture with his brother showing off their lost teeth. . . but then, reality set in and for the next 4 hours Wyatt cried. He begged me to put it back. He asked me why I took his tooth. He told me I am the bad mommy and I need a big spanking. He told me that he wanted a new mommy. He told me that he needs his tooth and that it didn't have chicken in it. He cried. He finally fell asleep in my arms. He woke up and still complained and cried and wanted me to put it back. I tried to explain that it will grow back. His brother showed him that his other lost tooth was growing back in. It didn't matter. I finally distracted him with Sponge Bob Collapse. He still got up first thing this morning and asked me when I was going to give him his tooth back and that I didn't have to pull it out just because it had chicken in it. This just proves my point that they are growing up way too fast and they just aren't ready for this!!!

On a side note, my boys are fastidious about their teeth. They floss after every meal and can't stand having "chicken" in their teeth. Chicken (or any meat we call chicken) is the only meat they eat. I discovered the loose, almost to be swallowed baby tooth while cleaning chicken out of his teeth. After extracting with a small grab of a paper towel I checked Walker's tooth only to discover that he too was about to swallow his tooth. . . So how twin are they? Look at this collage and you decide!

It's That Time Again!

5X5 Card - a class favorite! They were asked NOT to drop theirs in the ink pad when finished to avoid the annoying ink line across the front! LOL!



Standard Size - Acetate Card, this was just plain fun to make!



Standard Size Card - Fun Puzzle Technique



8 X 3.5 Card - a SCS Sketch Challenge and My Personal Favorite!



6X6 Card - Simple, but a class pleaser




The purpose of these cards was to teach 4 quick to make card layouts using randomed stamped card stock or already printed paper. I use these layouts to make many cards quickly for fun gift sets when a new mother has a baby, as a birthday gift or any other reason. These were a class favorite as well.

A Kick In The Pants

Me and my kids exercise several days a week. The girls need PE time and lets face it, I'm not getting any younger or thinner for that matter! Our family favorite is called Walk At Home. Walker love it because the instructor frequently tells Walker to Jog and he believes Leslie is talking to him! (Walk or Jog is what she is really saying.) I just can't say enough about this program! Seriously, it's fun, it works and even my kids like it. I tell everyone about it; I bought it for my mom for her birthday last year and I finally have my friend Julie doing it instead of wasting her money at the gym! Anyway. . . here is a fun picture of my walk at home gang.



Here they are telling you they just walked 3 miles (in less than 45 minutes!)


I've wanted to post a picture of our Walk at Home for months, but when I got this email from the Walk at Home Gang, I had to pass it along! Seriously, I wouldn't tell you how much I love it if it weren't true and you can see that my kids like it too! If you want a fitness program you can do at home that doesn't cost a fortune, one that is doable and fun, this is it!



Just thought I'd share!

Valentine's Day

So who else but me would sign up to make sugar cookies and frosting for 60 kids in our homeschool group to decorate at our annual Valentine's Party? You guessed it! I also couldn't find the time to make them until midnight on Valentine's Day! We did get the kids' Valentine's mailboxes and valentines to give done on Sunday, but last minute me was up most of the night making the cookies. It was sure a lot of fun and definitely worth it.

I'm Drowning In Pink!

What does it look like when you are prepping for 50 primary children to make Valentines? It looks like my studio looked all week:


I cut 150 base cards, hundreds of hearts in many shapes and sizes, pages of clever valentine comments and many cute "stamped" images for the children to cut and color.



Hours of work and how long did 50 children take to make these sweet cards? Take a guess in the comment section of this post and if you are closest I will send you one of my exclusive Valentine's previously posted on this blog!

RAK

So this week brought me not 1, but 2 great surprises to my mailbox. First I got this great card from Nina


Then I received this amazing Stitch Alphabet set from CTMH. . . It really through me off. I have a secret sister swap I'm in, so I really thought that it was a gift from my SS. . . I posted a kind thank you and explained the surprise and confusion the package had been (long story, but CTMH has a hard time sending anything to me at my PO Box, so the fact it was in the mail was a really big deal!) I got a nice reply back that maybe it wasn't my SS. . . So, I posted to another group I'm on to "fish" for a sender. I did finally figure out the Barb from Texas sent me the RAK and I enjoyed the hunt as much as the gift. I really wanted this set, but it's $35 and I really didn't need another alpha set. . . Anyway, love ya Barb! You really made my week!

XL What?

So it all started with my friend BJ's planned trip to Phoenix from NY with her daughter this month. . . Airfare? $2000+ per ticket. She could fly to Vegas for less than $300. . . then I'm on the freeway going to a listing appointment and I drive by. . . oh, yeah, its a little thing called the SUPER BOWL!!! Well that explains the air fare. . . I don't care much, other than that. THEN, dear hubby brings home VIP tickets for our family to attend the NFL Experience. Okay, 2 days until the big event and off we go. Sadly when we arrive I discover that my camera battery is dead and we have my cell phone to capture this momentous once in a life-time -- errr-- (I guess twice as this is the 2nd time the SB has been in Phoenix in recent years) event.

Here are the highlights (or the low lights if you prefer!)

Parking $10. . . Walk to event, 1/2 Mile
Wait in Line. . . for us minutes. We had VIP Tickets. For the masses waiting in line for tickets when we arrived 1.5+ hours. PLUS 30 minutes to get through the ticket gates. (Hawkers wanting to buy tickets? Many until the cops arrived and they all ran). I really wanted DH to see what they were offering, but he wouldn't! They were asking $25.

Wait in line for wristbands to participate (you have to sign a liability waiver), 30 Minutes.
Wait in line for super huge ferris wheel . . .30 minutes

Wait in line for bathroom . . . 15 minutes
Wait in line for NERF event . . . 1 hour plus the time we waited while the Patriot coaches' son cut in line for his turn. (I will say that W&W Rocked at this event! Wyatt go every football in the target without missing in less than 30 seconds - they had 45! Walker missed 2, but got them all in under 30 seconds as well. Their age group was under 8, but the "Nerf" people told us that if there was a 5 and under catergory they most likely would have won. The Nerf people had to take their picture before we left.)



Wait in line for other miscellaneous children's NFL Experience events. . . hours plus time while some other famous player's children had to pretend to have a good time participating in these events on camera.




Time spent while children had temper tantrums over wanting to eat . . . at least an hour.
Price for the 4 poofs of cotton candy conveniently packages with 2 blue and 2 pink poofs, $6. Time bought without whining? 30 minutes.
Price for a hot dog, $9 (it would have cost our family of 6 $100 for 6 hot dogs and 6 drinks.)
Times we were on the NFL Channel while in line for the super huge ferris wheel for the 2nd time? 9

Length of line for tickets when we left the NFL Experience 5 hours later? 1/4 Mile. . . Approximately 3 hour wait just for the privilege to get IN to the over-priced, under delivering affair!

What I wish? That I could figure out a less useless way for people to line up for hours and willingly hand me money hand over fist!

Overall thought? We enjoyed dinner at our favorite Mexican Food Restaurant, left stuffed for less than $60! Wish BJ was coming instead of the Super Bowl!

So What Does "Published" Get you?

I suppose it depends on where/when you get published, but for me it meant this fun goody box:



Someday I'd love to get "paid" for design work. . . not that I expect to ever make it "big", but for this paper craft junkie this goody box was HUGE!!!