SEAFOOD, SIGHTSEEING AND SCRAPBOOKING...

oh my!

Other good things that start with the letter "S"...

Seattle (arrival tomorrow right after lunch)
Snowday (new QK font)
snow globes (new QK packaging of said font)
Southwest Airlines (will experience new check-in procedures tomorrow)
spooky (how fun to travel on Halloween)
steamed (how I prefer the food we'll eat at the Crab Pot tomorrow night)
sold-out (classes on Thursday, Friday and Saturday!)
Starbucks (at least one pit stop at the founding location)
Seattle Grace (maybe a drive-by of the Grey's Anatomy hospital?)
sights (from the pier, out onto the ocean lined horizon)
Scrap-Mart (hanging with Howard again this trip...my giggle muscles have barely recovered from CA)
Scenic Route (a possible dinner/shopping date with this awesome company)
selebration (okay, that's a stretch, but for the last CKC of the year...a party is indicated!)

Just got home Sunday afternoon from California - and I'll do a quick turn-around to head out to Seattle tomorrow morning. Amy and Howard and I had a wonderful visit to Ontario. The crowds were lovely, the individuals rocked and the laughter was memorable! Good times had by all.

But now tomorrow - it's a plunge into the coolness. Make that coldness. Highs in the upper 50s for the weekend - overnight lows in the 30s. HELLO...it was 93 here in AZ yesterday. We're all going to come home with pneumonia. But I"m willing to risk is all.

Amy and I get in tomorrow and then are headed straight down to Pike Place Market - for an afternoon of fun, food and photography. She's not going to believe the flowers and the seafood. Can't wait to show it all to her. I'm sure we'll eat our fill of crab, shrimp and salmon - and try some of the local brews that we tasted last year! Lisa, from SEI is joining us for dinner - so we'll have to ask for a table in the corner - because hilarity will definitely ensue.

Oh yeah, on Thursday we have to work!

But Thursday night - we've got more places to see and people to greet.

Hoping that there is another vendor in Seattle who is carrying the Creative Cafe. We saw it in California for the first time and fell in LOVE with it. But I didn't do enough stocking up - their paper line ROCKS! So my fingers are crossed. If you haven't seen it - scramble yourselves over to Scrapbooks Etc. here in the East Valley and check it out. Felt words, cool paper, neat ribbons and buttons - oh the buttons - buttons for ¢5 each. You can buy bags full at that price. Love it! Totally love it!

I'll load travel pictures - um - well, sometime soon. Right now I've got packing to do. And a halloween costume to finish. And a contribution to tomorrow's neighborhood pot-luck to make. And dipped pretzels to finish...that will match these - - -


Lime green Frankensteins - gotta love it!

Also need to report on basketball games, Homecoming dinner and dance, projects, upcoming events and FUN STUFF!

But it'll have to wait - until I return from the Pacific Northwest. So excited!

until then - - -

CALIFORNIA HERE I COME...

right back where I started from.

Although, not really. I mean it's Ontatrio I'm going to. And I've never been there before. But you get the idea!

Amy and I are heading out - and YES - we've checked. The hotel is still holding our room and the air quality is still bearable. So the show weekend is a GO in California!

Big crazy week - which was so much fun and oh-so-short. Seems like I was just at the airport last night. Oh wait - I was!

More updates to come - I have serious updating to do...my family keeps reminding me!!

Have a great weekend - cuz you know I'll be having a blast!

until then - - -

I'M GOING TO KANSAS CITY...

Kansas City here I come.

Ready or not. Well, here's to hoping they ARE ready, because I plan to eat my fill of KC BBQ while I'm there.

I've got recommends, maps, web sites, plotted locations. I'm set. Seriously. BBQ here I come. It's going to be obscene!

Heading out tomorrow afternoon for the big convention in Kansas City. Big plans for this weekend - classes, new dies, fun with the Scrap-Mart crew. It's all going to be just grand!

And four full days of non-mom status. Hate to admit it - but it's a nice by-product of this job. No lunches, no laundry, no second and third opinions, no homework. Just me and my pals and the rental car and the city.

Oh sure - we work - we work really hard. We also have a really good time!

So as much as I wanted to update the ol' blog with our Fall Break happenings - I have too much to do before I leave. Amy and I played all day yesterday at the scrapbook store, so I'm behind the power curve.

So update will follow in a few days mom - I promise! Good pix of the mountains, the teen's camping experience and the finished Egypt project!

Lots of goodness. I promise!

For now - I have clothes to pack.

until then - - -

THE BAD NEWS...

and the good news.

From Sedona, AZ.

The bad news - I'm not leaving this place. Not going home. Not returning to life. Not ever. So, it's been nice knowing ya!!

(dramatic pause)

The good news - I realize that I'm delusional right now - so all will likely return to normal on Sunday evening.

WOW - this place is amazing. This city, this resort, this condo, this balcony. All are amazing and we've had an amazing few days. If it wasn't for my dogs at home - it'd be really hard to make that trek down the mountain to reality.

For the last two full days, we've been hiking, hot-tub soaking, eating, bbqing, drinking and laughing. Today we tackled Devil's Bridge. Which just happens to be the LARGEST natural bridge in the United States...


it was amazing!

YES...that is me - out in the very center of the natural bridge - with an unknown distance of open air beneath me. I wasn't going to walk to the center - but couldn't let the boys show me up. So I did it. And promptly announced my achievement with a gigantic scream!!

It was amazing!

So we'll finish out our trip tomorrow - and then head down the mountain. Back home. Back to reality. Back to phone calls. Back to email. Back to real life!

I'm going to spend all day Monday at the scrapbook store with Amy. Catching up, scrapping and punching and cutting. I'm sure we'll make a few plans for our trip to California too. Hmmmmm - sushi, seafood or Italian. These are the big decisions facing us!

until then - - -

EIGHTEEN YEARS OF LIVING IN ARIZONA...

and I've never personally run across a scorpion.

So it makes perfect sense, that the first one I do find - - - is a doozie.

And by doozie - I really mean huge. As in 2.5" from head to barbed tail.


UGH! He's here in the bottom of a 20 oz. Dixie cup...after I grabbed him with a pair of needle-nosed pliers. They really are pretty easy to catch...I just reached out with the pliers and grabbed him. There wasn't even a chase or a fight. Just a grab...along with a small shiver of disgust.

And just for the record - he wasn't in my house. But he was in my neighborhood. We were cat sitting this week and yesterday morning when the boy went over to feed the lot of 'em, he called me with a slight panic in his voice. "Mom, I think there's a really big scorpion by the front door." I was never assuming this was what I'd find. But when I got there, he was standing over it with a golf club, trying to make sure it wouldn't scurry behind the couch, and thereby be more difficult to capture. Good thinking boy...but next time, you have my permission to RUN.

So that really had been the extent of our excitement so far this week. Cats and scorpions.

But then last night we got to entertain a baby for the evening - which is always fun. Our neighbors grandson - who we lovingly refer to as Version 3.0 - because he's a "third". He's a cutie - the dogs were totally enamored by him as he was by them. It was pretty hilarious. I took pictures with my big lens - but I thought I should share them with grandma first!

Today though, starts the real fun of the week. Got a phone call last weekend from our friends - who discovered they were unable to use their Sedona time-share for this week. Something about football practice and hospital rounds. So said residence was going to sit empty - unless we agreed to go in their place.

Ummmmmm - YES! Didn't take me long to think about the answer - that's for sure!

This morning, as I'm packing up the last of our food and clothes, I figured I should really look and see what the weather forecast is for the rest of the week...


(click on the picture and you'll be able to read the high temps)

oh-my-goosebumps! We've been in the high 90's during the day for the last couple of days. Guess I'll throw in my flannel jammies - just to be on the cozy side!

So packing, organizing, last minute errands will fill up our morning - and then mountain air here we come! Have to run pick up a new bag of dog cookies for the dog sitter - since we've been giving so many to Lumpy lately. You know, as bribes for getting up. But he's really been good lately - and he loves our sitter because he gets spoiled rotten...moreso than usual!

I'm taking a whole mess of scrappiness with me - the teen and I are going to finally address the Spain pictures. Printed up about 90 of them at Costco the other day - and have my travel kit ready to go. Should be a blast - I just hope we finish!

Behave yourselves - hiking, s'mores, pine trees, babbling brooks and rustic life HERE WE COME!

until then - - -

AMAZING, AWESOME, INCREDIBLE NEWS...

that won't mean a hill of beans to you, unless you're a diabetic.

Which I am.

Have been since I was nineteen. That's 21 years, for those of you that missed my 40th birthday celebration.

Twenty one years of injections, finger pokes, lab tests, doctors, vials of insulin and numbers. Sometimes I hate numbers - my blood meter shows numbers, my insulin pump asks me for numbers, my CDE (certified diabetic educator) asks me for numbers and my doctor reminds me about numbers. Sometimes the numbers are very good. Sometimes they are - well - just a little bit less than good. I just get tired of being a number. A meter reading. A lab result.

But my doctor has been reminding me for the last 3 weeks that I was due for lab tests. And I finally got around to it this week. Yesterday was my day to go and hear the results. Results that I wasn't all that sure I wanted to listen to. Mainly because I'm usually harder on myself than any physician has ever been. And let's face it, it's been a crazy summer - trips, travels, work, restaurants, family, friends and a whole lot of fun. I just wasn't sure - so I was preparing myself for a bit of a lecture from the doctor.

So when he walked in, with his hand extended to shake mine - and told me my number - I cried.

He smiled at me and then passed me the box of Kleenex. Because it was the best number I've had since right before I got pregnant with the teen.

My number? - SIX POINT OH. Literally, I was blown away. Not because I was expecting a worse number - but because I wasn't expecting a number that good. I'd have been happy with a SEVEN. My doc would have been thrilled with a SEVEN. But this left him practically speechless. In awe. He was thoroughly impressed. And so was I.

It shows that it can be done. So, of course, me being me, now I want to do better!

So that good news - carried me through my Friday.

Half day of school.
Movie for the boy.
Errands with the teen.
Packing the teen.
Dropping the teen off at church, and bidding two full buses a safe return.
One more stop at a grocery store.
Drug store for a new prescription.
Prep work for a neighborhood get-together in honor of Fall Break.
Good burgers, good baseball, good cocktails, good biscotti, good neighbors!
Falling asleep, knowing that my number is, right now, a SIX.

Thanks doctors. Thanks insurance company. Thanks friends. Thanks family. Thanks insulin pump manufacturer.

WHEW.

Today starts fall break - so I'm scrapping, doing laundry, and uploading pictures that the teen took at school yesterday.

The weather is gorgeous. We're all relaxing. Nothing is on the schedule today. How great does that sound?

Another update to come this weekend, because big stuff going on this week. But for now, another cup of coffee is needed.

Have a great weekend!

until then - - -

SHOPPING, SCHEDULES, STUDYING

all surrounded by a big dose of sanity!

Busy week - but a good week! And we're only half way through it! Which really only means there is more to come. But it's all good - so no worries here!

Have to hit some stores today for the teen. She's heading up north on Friday for a big teen retreat through the church.


She's very excited and her father and I are very excited for her (her brother is also very excited...no sister for three days!). But words like NORTH, MOUNTAINS, CABINS, BON FIRES, and LATRINE all make me realize she is grossly unprepared for the weather. So I'm going shopping today for some "layers". Nothing serious, just things to layer together to keep her cozy. That and some warm jammies!

(But doesn't a nice chilly sleeping bag sound good right about now?)

I added a few things to the family calendar yesterday...for DECEMBER! We are three days in to October and my December is already packed. Basketball practices and games, babysitting jobs, church functions, school commitments, club parties, travel dates, plane schedules, house guests, photo shoots, due dates and weddings. I have several Monday days, Monday nights and Tuesday nights open - so please, anyone who is planning a Christmas party and including the Keuter's on the invite list...those are our best-available-evenings! Thanks in advance! (grin)

Crazy studying in our house the last two evenings - the boy was working hard to commit all of his "land form" vocabulary to memory last night, while the teen is polishing some musical scales for testing today and doing biology lab reports. Love watching them study - it seems controllable and comfortable. When schedules get crazy and they feel a little frazzled - they sit down, check their homework lists, work on the next item and then cross it off. It's controllable. It's doable. It's progress. And with 14 A's between them - it's a job well done! LOVE YOU GUYS - keep up the great work!

After homework last night - the teen and I cranked up the kitchen and stocked the freezer with Bento-makings for the next 10 days. We had a blast - the boy also wandered through the kitchen, in between holes of Wii golf with his father, to add his 2¢. Our task for the night was a pan of "onigiri" (terriyaki pork stuffed rice balls). But they can't just be plain - they have to be cute. Because it's bento - cute is a big factor. Here is what we came up with...


And this morning we used three of them to pack into their bentos...


Three bentos? Yep - three. My neighbor who drives the boy to school each morning has become quite intrigued with our Bento craze. Last night, when she was asking for some details - I offered to pack her one. How fun! She got the blue two-tiered Bento today. Each one includes:

• pork stuffed onigiri (smiley face, squinty kissy face and squinty sumo face)
• lots of star carrots
• gyozas
• edamame
• a hard boiled egg (I added slices to the blue box after the photo)
• mango
• jelly candies
• soy saucies and furikake sprinkle packets I added after the photo too

Can't wait to hear how she liked it!

Contributing to my sanity today will be the fact that I have some time to play. And when I say play - I mean scrap. I got a fun box in the mail yesterday - from my fave company...


new Halloween dies, Thanksgiving dies and Christmas dies. And from the UPS tracking email that came last night - it looks like another box is en route for delivery today. I am assuming it will contain new fonts and new monograms. WOO-HOO! Gotta love it when the brown truck pulls into the cul-de-sac! So I'm going to do some playing with new dies today...doesn't that sound calm and relaxing?

Of course, that'll be after the shopping!

And after a few emails!

And after 2 phone calls!

When the next load is out of the dryer.

And I get dressed.

But then - it'll happen! Trust me!

So take a deep breath, focus on the next task at hand - and just go for it. Because having things to do - sure as heck beats the alternative now, doesn't it?

until then - - -

WHAT CAN I SAY...

other than "I'm glad it's Monday".

This weekend meant:
- school bbq
- basketball meetings
- early Mass
- good dinner
- better leftovers
- crazy house chores
- FULL scrapbook class at my house on Sunday
- happy scrappers, at the end of said class
- late Mass for the teen
- LifeTeen for the teen, after said Mass
- movie and cocktails with dear husband
- birthday surprise prep for girlfriend
- late to bed, finally, exhausted!

This week means:
- kids off to school
- no morning carpool (!!)
- birthday celebration with girlfriend
- tryouts for the teen
- babysitting for the teen
- more babysitting for the teen
- scrapbook special orders to finish for customers
- lunch date on Wednesday
- basketball practice for the boy
- half day of school on Friday
- sending the teen off for 3-days in the mountains, for a church retreat
- potluck dinner on Friday night with friends
- a COOLER than COOL scrapbook SECRET, that I'm just busting to tell someone about - but the only person here is dear husband, so I guess I'll tell him...can't wait!
- two more plane reservations to make, and one hotel to find in Ontario, CA
- more Bento Box research...and preparations

WHEW! With all of that to look forward to and to get done - I'm not going to have time to focus on my foot. My right foot, which really, really, REALLY hurts!

With that - I have to get started on my Monday...and my week. The first week of OCTOBER - wowzers!

I'll leave you with what the kiddos left for school with - their Monday Bentos...


which included: (from upper left, clockwise) two pork Gyoza, a brick of sticky rice, a hard boiled egg, decorated with star cut-outs, a pouch of mango chunks, another brick of sticky rice, one half of a salmon patty, some baby carrots thrown in for some more color, all surrounding a muffin cup of edamame. On the top tier they will find their fork and some peach gummy candies for dessert.

They continue to love their boxes. I love putting them together in the morning. And neither one has really picked up on the fact that they are so dang healthy. LOVE IT!

Happy Monday - happy week - happy October!

until then - - -