Scrapbooking my life...one page at a time

Fantastic ...

What's so fantastic about Mr. Fox, well  ...

Let me tell you 5 fantastic things about Mr. Fox

1. Charming
2. Charismatic
3. Funny
4. Delightful
5. A 'curse' good story & movie
   

Mike & I went and saw the, 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'  movie on Friday.  We had heard some good reviews of the movie and decided to give it a try.   We fell in love with Mr. Fox!!!!  It's one of the best movies we have seen in YEARS (I know I say that a lot but trust me ... this movie is GREAT)!!!

I {heart}  movies with the ability  to make all age groups gathered  ...  _*chuckle_*, *sigh*,  -LAUGH-,  ::cheer::,   ~smile~  & leave the theater - 'grinning from ear to ear'.... and this movie delivers all of that and more.

 

I don't recall reading this book when I was little but I am going to buy it so I can read it.  It is such an utterly charming movie and I am curious about how they made such a 'curse' Fantastic full length movie out of a children's book. 

George Clooney & Meryl Streep just bring the characters to life! 

George Clooney is so 'curse' good! If you don't love him already ... you will after watching this movie!

I give this movie 10 Thumbs Up!  It's one of the '2' perfect holiday movies that I saw this weekend ...

Have a 'curse' Good Day

- N -

A Little Inspiration ...

It's Thanksgiving weekend down here and Mike and I are just relaxing and enjoying life & each other.  

A Little Thanksgiving Inspiration 

'Don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.'

- Howard Thurman -

Ten on Tuesday ...

 - Since it is Thanksgiving Week -

Top Ten Things I am Grateful For ...

1. Mike - my Mr. Wonderful
2. My Girls - two of the most beautiful & amazing woman I've ever had the pleasure of knowing
3. Family - without which my Life is Empty
4. Friends - the icing on my cake
5. My Church - God, Jesus and my church tie all the bits of my life together 
6. Aidan - my healthy, happy & incredibly sweet grandson
7. I am grateful that my brother-in-law Kevin is coming out for a short visit
8. My Job - it won't make me rich but it will keep me sane
9. Kate is will soon enter her last semester of undergraduate studies
10. 2 Days off work for Thanksgiving this week - with pay!

Mike & I will have decided that since Kate will not be home for Thanksgiving we will go out to a really, really nice restaurant for Thanksgiving this year.  Last  year Mike deep-fried a turkey for us and it was scrumptious but this year we feel like getting dressed up and going out on a 'date' night.  I am looking forward to it.

Kate is spending her Thanksgiving break on a cruise to the Caribbean with her roommate Liz.  They flew to Florida and from there they boarded a ship for some Fun in the Sun!  I hope they enjoy the sun because I see on the internet that it is cold & snowy in Pullman - they will turn back into frozen Sun Bunnies in no time at all.  

Kate & Liz (very excited) at the airport- going to catch some sun ...

So sad ... my bear, Yogi - wanted to go catch some rays too ...

But alas, he had to stay home with the other cats & dogs ....

I hope everyone has a Happy Tuesday

- N -

SYTYCD: Season 5 ....

On Saturday, Jessica, Jenny, Livy & I went to see the Season 5 - So You Think You Can Dance show in Everett, WA.

It was crowded, it was noisy, it was crazy but fun!   It's strange, but even though I have never watched 'So You Think You Can Dance' on TV (didn't last year, didn't this year and won't next year) - I love to go and watch the Best of the Season LIVE show.  It's strange that while I don't really enjoy watching dancing all that much -  this is the second year that Jessica & I have gone and the first for Jenny & Livy and we are already talking about going again next.  It is just so much darn fun and the dancing is truly amazing!

 

This year we decided it would be fun to get a hotel in Everett and make a mini-vacation out of it - so I made reservations at the Best Western which is in downtown Everett - not too far from the Comcast Arena where the show took place. Everett is a small town so there are not a lot of hotels to pick from - BTW,  the hotel parking lot was full of BC license plates and I remember last year that the parking lot at the Tacoma Dome was full of BC plates too!  I don't know why they don't take the show up to Canada ... but, then again, we could sure use the tourist dollars as I just read that our national debt has now reached just over 12 trillion dollars ... as in $12,024,131805,508.35.  They claim my share is $39,123.39 - Ouch!

 Jessica, Aidan, Jenny & Livy all came down together on Saturday morning and Mike & I met them at the hotel and then Mike & Aidan took off to go tour 'Imagine' the Everett Children's Museum (they had fun) while the 'girls' went to Target to do a wee bit of shopping (we all had fun).  (Since you didn't ask:  The Canadian National debt is $500 billion and each Canadian's share is $14,860.00.  Well, it's not surprising that our debt is higher because ... as you know,  we like to do everything bigger in the USA)  

Before the show we all met back up at the hotel and then went to dinner together.  It was raining like crazy and we decided we would all drive over to the Comcast Arena, park the cars (so that our car would be near the arena when the show was over) and walk around until we found someplace good to eat ... um, sounds like a good plan but we ended up walking around in the rain for quite a few blocks looking for someplace.

 

Many of the restaurants within walking distance of the arena were either closed, rubby-dub bars, seedy little steamed up hole-in-the-wall joints or just plain yucky looking.  We finally found a cute little cafe (along with every other concert goer) about 5 blocks from the arena.  It was small and CROWDED!

We had to wait for a table but finally we were seated, well actually we took it upon ourselves to find seats because the kids were getting cranky, the concert was rapidly approaching and the hostess was sitting at the bar chatting with a friend.

The food was okay but the service was very slow ...................

very, very, slow ......

 

I think we need some food quick  - or something fun to do ... 

 

 

Napkin art anyone?

We finally got our food, Mike & Aidan left to go back to the hotel for an evening of Checkers & Chips (as in potato chips) and we had to hurry-scurry back over to the arena to get into our seats for the start of the show.  We did not sit as close to the stage as we did last year but the seats were pretty good.

My biggest complaint was that the couple sitting right beside me had brought their very young kids with them.  I would say the older one was about 2 and the little one was about 5 or 6 months old.  And yes, the baby SCREAMED for much of the first half of show.  Who pays $50.00 a seat to brings a little baby to a REALLY loud, REALLY crowded show filled with flashing lights, screaming people and isn't over until after 11pm???? 

Ya, that's what we thought too! 

The family didn't come back after intermission ...

 

We had some other screamers in front of us too but they were the fun kind - they were so cute.  Jessica and I giggled at them all night because they were just screaming and swooning all night long. They were a family comprised of three a couple of tweenager girls - with mouths full of braces, screams & giggles - a slightly balding but equally screaming and swooning Dad and a Mom that didn't seem to move, or scream or swoon all night long. 

They were just so excited to be at the show and it was fun to just watch their reactions & excitement  ....

We got back to the hotel a little after 11 and we were exhausted!  Everyone was looking forward to a good nights sleep ... hum, better check out Jessica's blog to find out what happened ....

Have a great day

- N -

PS: Jen, you were right.  This plate is for the Consular Corps.  They have been red since 2007.

(The Consular Corps in British Columbia is based primarily in Vancouver and is the official body comprising all Consular Officers resident in the Province of British Columbia. Currently the number of countries represented by the Corps in B.C. stands at seventy-one. Consular Officers; who are comprised of Consuls General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls and Consular Agents, represent and promote their country's interests; from assisting nationals, promoting trade, to issuing passports and visas, within the province.)

I'm in Love ...

I love my phone a couple of weeks ago.  I think I must have sat it down somewhere and someone picked it up.  It was a Blackberry Storm and I loved that fact that I could pick-up my email and browse the web from it (hated everything else about it).

My Blackberry is a perfect example of, 'be careful of what you wish for - cause you just might get it!'. I was jonesing after that darn Blackberry soooo bad last year - had to have it - it was a 'must' have.  Yup, h.a.d to have it and so Mike bought it for me last Christmas.  Day one - Loved it, day two ...still 'little L' loved it but by day four - I was hating it.  Full on hating it. 

 It was nothing like an IPhone, in fact, it wasn't even an itty-bitty semi-sorta IPhone wannabe!

It was incredibly difficult to figure out - touchy & moody - no apps - and was not user friendly by any stretch of the imagination.  I toughed it out for almost year waiting for my contract on it to expire in January so I could pick out a new phone.  

Then ... about 2 weeks ... Hallelujah!   I lost it  (and no, I didn't lose it on purpose)  and I was forced to go out and buy another phone. 

As luck would have it - at lunch I was sitting beside a guy that had been in my training class and we started chatting.  He was very excited because he had just bought a new phone a couple of days earlier and he was raving about it.  I told him I had just lost mine and would be going to buy a new phone soon and he said ...'Get a DROID! - you'll LOVE it'.  He let me play with for a while and within a few minutes I knew that I would be buying this phone. It was the Motorola Droid with Google.  Well, I did buy last week and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!

If anyone out there is in the market for a new phone I would heartily recommend this phone.  It's super user-friendly, the browser is lightening fast and there are a ton of apps out there for it already.  

Here are some of the stats on the Droid: 'Under the hood, the Droid comes with an Arm Cortex A8 550MHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, CDMA 800/1900, and EV-DO Rev. A connectivity. It also features a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, Google Maps complete with turn-by-turn voice navigation, Exchange support, and Android 2.0 as its OS. The generously-sized 3.7-inch WVGA capacitive display will be a special treat for touchscreen aficionados, but for those who prefer a more conventional way to enter text, the slide-out QWERTY keypad will come in handy.' You can read the full press release here.

I'm in love! 

- N -

10 on Tueday ...

What are the Top 10 things that make you feel old!

This week's question really made me stop and think because my list was long, very long and required a fair bit of tweaking but here are my top 10.  I know that mentally 'age' is a state of mind but physically .... well that's another story altogether .... isn't it!

Here is my list - don't be shy, everyone POST yours!!!!

Top 10 things that make me feel old

1. Gray Hair
2. Reading a People Magazine and constantly thinking to myself, 'Who are these people?'
3. Chatting at work with a younger co-worker recently and mentioning 'The Fall of the Berlin Wall', the 'Uni-bomber', the 'Oklahoma Bombing', 'Rock Hudson', 'Doris Day', (not all in the same sentence) & having them stare back at me with a blank look.  Come ON!  Seriously - ROCK HUDSON!  He was the George Clooney of his day ...
4. Having 'getting out of bed in the morning' be my aerobic exercise for the day
5. Having my doctor, dentist or supervisor at work being younger than me!
6. Having Kate phone me at 8:45 to chat on a Friday night and me say, 'Gosh, what are you doing home on a Friday night?' and having her say, 'We are going out later - as soon as we finish chatting I'm going to get ready'  (okay, okay - that's not too hard to picture)
7. Discovering that all I really want to Christmas is .... slippers! I still believe in Santa (that's the mental part) - but I now hate cold feet (that's the physical part)
   
8. Ramping up to the end of my middle age.  My middle age has always been the middle of my 'it could still be possible age'.  For example, I'm 51 and it could still be possible that I could live to be 102 so I haven't actually reached middle age yet - but I'm getting close. I'm thinking 56 is a bit of a stretch so I'll probably officially declare myself past middle age on my 55st B-Day.
9. Still loving Beer - but now stopping when I hit my 'limit'
10. No longer being a Fashionista!  HA HA HA (okay, how about no longer knowing what a fashionista would wear!)

Okay everyone - what's on your list today!

Smiles & Hugs
- N -

Goats ...

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Yesterday, after lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, Mike & I went over the movie theater at Bellevue Square to see, 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'.  Funny, Funny, Funny!  Mike & I  both loved this movie!  It's a funny, creative character driven movie that entertains the whole way through. 

There were plenty of scenes that made us both laugh out loud however, on second thought, maybe this movie is not for everyone - part was through the movie I had to get up and walk around (I usually cannot sit all the way through a movie - I think it's my Restless Legs getting restless ...)  anyways there was a woman sitting between me and the aisle so she had to squish up her legs to let me past and when I came back to my seat (about 10 minutes later) I had to wake her up to get her to move and let me by ...

I was surprised to see how full the theater got - I was expecting there to be just a handful of people in the theater.  This was the reason that there was somebody between me and the aisle which explains the woman sitting beside me because .... 

I usually leave an empty seat or two between me and the aisle because I have have to get up and walk around anywhere from 2 - 5 times and on a bad day ... for the entire movie and I feel bad repeatedly asking someone to keep moving BUT I do like to sit as close to the middle of the theater as possible for the best viewing ... anyways, today the theater was packed so she grabbed the seat next to me ...

I would highly recommend this quirky fun film if you like off-beat humor.

Have a great day

- N -

Finding some Wonderful ...

Today was such a wonderful day - the kind of day that finds you taking deep breath *sigh* after deep breath  *sigh* - just so you can breathe in as much of the day as possible - filling up on all that wonderfulness in the air I suppose.  

There was nothing special about today really, other than it was Sunday - in fact, it was rainy & cloudy - an umbrella kind of day much like every other day of late.  But it didn't feel dreary or depressing, for the rain, while heavy and cold, was almost refreshing and unnoticeable.  

I  got up this morning like normal, drank some coffee, dressed and went to Church but today's service, for some reason I can't explain, was so Amazing!  It just left me feeling so, well, so wonderful.  

First off - we treated to the incredible sounds of the Chancel Hand-bell Choir - It was magical.  We truly  have a  very special choir at church and they always sound great but the hymns they sang today were some of my favorites and while I know I sing off-key - I sing my heart out nonetheless. 

My favorite hymn - to date, is 'Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness' -  today we ended the service with it. and somewhere between the great Fellowship, the Choir & the sermon I was moved gently towards a very special kind of wonderful ...

After church I went over to Bellevue Square on a 'Secret Christmas' mission for someone and then I met up with Mike (he doesn't attend Church with me) for a yummy lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  We had such a nice relaxing time.  We just chatted & laughed together and it was  ... I hate to say it yet again, but it was wonderful...

While I am not really sure why and probably never will  but suffice it to say that  today was wonderful from the bottom to the top and from the from the inside out ...

And, In the end, that's all that matters I guess - that it was!

I hope you found some wonderful in your day too ...

- N -

 

On This Day ...

On This Day in History in ... 

1775 - U.S. forces captured Montreal during the American Revolution.

1789 - Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1856 - Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis was born in Louisville, Ky.

1927  - The Holland Tunnel linking New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River opened to  the public.

1942 - The minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.

1969 - Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network TV news departments of bias and distortion,and urged viewers to lodge complaints.

1974 - Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a car crash.

1977 - The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.

1979  - Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.

1982  - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1985  - A mudslide triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano buried the city of Armero, Colombia, killing some 23,000 people.

1997 - The Disney musical "The Lion King" opened on Broadway.

1998  - President Bill Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt.

2001  - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban abandoned the capital Kabul without a fight, allowing U.S.-backed  northern alliance fighters to take over the city.

2002  - Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.

2003 - Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel for having "placed himself above the law."

 "I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge, myth is more potent that history, dreams are more powerful than facts, hope always triumphs over experience, laughter is the cure for grief and love is stronger than death."

- Robert Fulghum -

- N -

Look What I Found ....

- Reindeer Cake Pops -

OMG, are these not the cutest little Christmas munchies ever!  Rudolp is just too cute!

- Sheep Cake Pops -

Look, here's some more ...

 
Sesame Street Cake Pops

I'm totally in {love} with these little guys ...

 

- Hello Kitty Cake Pops -

 
- Santa Hat Cake Pops -

These oh-so-charming and oh-so-yummy-looking little inventions are the brainchild of Bakerella over at www.bakerella.com. 

- This whole box of chocolates is edible -

Talk about creative!!  The great thing about Bakerella is that NOT ONLY DOES SHE GIVE YOU STEP-BY-STEP Baking INSTRUCTIONS for making these little pops & bites but she also gives you step-by-step instructions for decorating them TOO!  And, if you can't find the 'nuts & bolts' needed to create these little wonder-pops ---- she'll hook you up with the the supplies too!

 

Hey J ~ another SUPER Fan!

These creations actually look fairly easy to make -as in - easy enough for Nancy to try!  Come-on, it can't get any easier than that.  I'll show you what mine look like this weekend after I give them a try.  If they turn out even half way decent than I am going to be BRINGING some Rudolph's & Santa Hats to the 'Annual BOULANGER  Christmas Eve Gathering. 

 
- Jack-o-man Heads! -

HELLO, Okay, well - what's everyone waiting for???  Let's head over to www.bakerella.com for a look.  I guarantee you're gona be inspired!  I know I was!  Okay, see you over there ....

 

I'm so excited to be sharing something great I found floating around in cyberspace ....

I hope everyone has a Cake-Pop kinda Day.

-N-