She's My Crazy Poodle

I should look into how to edit the sound of a video, but here it is any ways. The things we say to get our pups to look cute in a video.

I also wish black poodle photographed better. They are so beautiful.

Free Gym Memberships

In April I received a free 1 month gym membership to Rollingwood Racquet Club for me and a friend. My crafty friend and I had just been talking about starting water aerobics again and wondering where to start. I went 3 days a week the month of April. I was achy and yet it felt good to get moving again. Also my medium blue swimsuit turned to nearly a shade of white. Little too much chlorine... but thank goodness for chlorine.

Membership ended and there we were thinking about where to go next.

Wouldn't you know it another 1 month free membership comes in the mail for me and my family this time. California Family Fitness this time and they are within walking distance for me, but I'd never ever ever walk there.

It makes me wonder is someone trying to tell me something? I just spent the weekend in the woods. We did our once a year pine needle rake up around the cabin. It's about a rigorous 4 hour job with 6 people working. I was so tired and achy for the rest of the weekend. It left me thinking I need to exercise and lose weight.

So, tomorrow I'm checking on the gym and finding out when their water aerobic classes are. Would I ever join a gym again... if the price was right... maybe. Right now I'll just enjoy my free month and then maybe I'll enjoy my free treadmill sitting in my living room calling my name.

The Miles' Get Musical

Last summer Erik asked if he could take base guitar lessons. I asked what prompted the idea and he said, "Playing base on the games 'Rock Band' and 'Guitar Hero' made me want to play one for real." (Take that Prince!) I didn't question any further and found someone who taught lessons fairly close to the house. I don't know about other moms, but when my child wants to learn something I like to encourage it. Too many times we have to force our children to learn things. When they volunteer I just count my blessings.

I called the local music store to get some leads on teachers and turns out they have a whole crew of music teachers. A clerk recommended their best base guitar teacher and their best guitar teacher. Todd was the first to call me. He said he also taught base, but I had already put a call into the base teacher. I signed Allison up with Todd for guitar lessons. I had almost given up on the base teacher, but he finally called and I set Erik up with lessons from him.


Here is Erik with Todd Weber. He wasn't Erik's original teacher. Erik's base teacher was a bit lackadaisical. He didn't return calls quickly if at all. Also Erik didn't seem as excited about taking lessons as Allison did with Todd. When the fall came I decided to switch Erik to Todd and have both kids take lessons on the same day. I thought Erik would like Todd better and it would save me gas only having to make one trip to the music store. I couldn't believe the difference in Erik's attitude. He really did respond to Todd's style of teaching with the same enthusiasm Allison had. Todd is just a super nice guy and serious about his business. If you call him he calls you back promptly. If you need a reschedule he cheerfully makes it happen.
I told the kids what I wanted for Christmas was for them to play a few Christmas songs for me. They fought like cats and dogs, but they did play me a few songs. I just couldn't believe how well they could play in just 6 short months of lessons. Really made their mama proud. Couldn't have had a better gift. I told them if they kept up with their instruments I would accept a Christmas concert every year. It would be easy on their pocketbooks and would really warm my heart.

PS. I've wanted to take Ukulele lessons for years and haven't been able to find a teacher. Kind of strange I know, but I just love the sound of the Ukulele. I like that it is unusual. Anyhow about a month ago I got this bright idea to ask Todd if he knew anyone since he's in a band and probably knows a lot of musicians. Well, he chuckled and said that he also plays the Ukulele and could work up a lesson plan if I was serious. I said yes I was! For a month now I've been taking lessons with Todd. I see why they like him. His laid back style of teaching is fun and encouraging. If you're not doing something right he is very gentle about getting you on track. He's also free with the compliments when you're doing well. I like that he has a degree in music and can offer a lot of knowledge not just about your instrument, but about music in general. I'm having a really good time being musical again.

April's CCC

I would love to add pictures with my post, but as mentioned before the computer only recognizes my camera when it feels. It didn't feel like it... this week. I used my kids' computer and uploaded some pictures to my webshots account. So, if you would please follow this link to my Webshots account you'll see pictures of my April Christmas Card Challege cards.

I used Stampin' Ups Bold Snowflake wheel on a 12X12 piece of off white paper. Bad idea, because I was using a stamp pad. I wanted the Chocolate chip color and don't have a wheel ink pad with that color. So, half the 12X12 had fainter stamping. Next time I'll roll each piece for each card to ensure a properly stamped image. Live and learn.

Next I sponged a caramel color ink around the edges of the stamped piece and the tag. Next I sponged on Moss Green to mostly the tag to make it stand out.

Then I found fiber and matting that looked good with the card. I taped it all together and really liked the outcome. Although how could I not seeing as I got the idea from Splitcoaststampers. When I saw it I knew I wanted to recreate it as best I could. I loved the nontraditional Christmas colors and I loved it even more that I owned all the ingredients. Didn't have to buy anything. I knew the couple things I didn't have like fiber I could get from my stash.

Simple But They're Done

I am continuing to do the Christmas Card Challenge this year. It worked out great having all my cards made by November last year. This year I know it's great to have them done, but I'm so lackadaisical about it. The above cards were made using a 12X12 cut out of Christmas trees. I worked at cutting it a part so a piece of it would look nice on each card. They actually look quite nice. It was a bit more difficult that I thought being as I didn't want to cut any of the trees. I could have layed it down on a cutter and just cut out probably 6 nice rectangles. As I said I didn't want to hack it up. So, I carefully snipped it to get 10 pieces to overlay on a piece of burgandy patterned paper. I was pleased with the outcome. Now on to April's cards.

My Refrigerator's Strange Request

This is the light up panel on my refrigerator. It's not the fanciest refrigerator on the planet, but it does everything I'd want a frig to do and more. It is a freezer on the bottom type. So, on top I can open up both doors and have the whole frig for storage. It is great as I don't have room for a regular frig with one big door. Trying to squeeze food into a side by side for years was such a pain.

Now my new frig might be becoming a pain. I'm not sure. One day a strange symbol showed up on the screen. Each symbol has a meaning as to the inner workings of the frig, so we can keep it working and maintained properly. The new symbol stumped me. It looked like a canning jar with berry seeds in it. I looked all through the owner's manual. No symbol. I looked online no symbol explanation. I thought it just couldn't be true what it was asking of me.
Was my refrigerator asking me to make blackberry jam? How odd I thought seeing as blackberries weren't even in season. Could it wait until August before demanding blackberry jam. The Marionberry jelly inside wasn't good enough? Would it accept store bought blackberry jam? Would it go on strike until I found some blackberries shipped up from Chile where they grow this time of year. How dare it demand I enlarge my carbon footprint just because it has a hankering for blackberry jam!

I finally decided to calm down and look for a logical answer. Could it be the symbol for replacing the drinking water filter? Could those be water drops rather than blackberry seeds? Could the makers of refrigerators make symbols that make more sense? This symbol looks nothing like the water filter. Although I'm not sure what symbol would make more sense. I think I'll put my children on it. I bet they could come up with something better than Kenmore.

My posts have been scarce

I've got a few things to post, but due to my computer in great need of repair posting a blog has been like wrestling an anaconda. OK maybe that wouldn't be survivable... a baby anaconda. Highly annoying and you break a sweat. Putting pictures with a post on my computer has been like trying to change lanes in rush hour traffic in San Francisco! Nearly impossible.

My computer has been in great need of a reformat and reinstallation of software since October of 2007. I promptly back up all my items and got ready. Getting DH ready that is another question. I keep hearing.... "my emails!!! I'll lose all my emails!!!" I've even told him he could lose them any day if we don't get the computer fixed due to a crash.

We've shared a computer for 19 years and it hasn't really been a problem, but I'm thinking it might be time to get our own computers. OK me get my own computer. We have completely different views on broken stuff. I was raised when something breaks fix it. He was raised to limp along and make due. Even break out some duct tape if needed. I was raised to avoid duct tape at all costs unless I'm working on a duct.

So, with an examination of our funds we'll see what happens. Computer fix or my own computer.