Scrapbooking my life...one page at a time

Hot, Hot .... Hot & Gone, Gone ... Gone!

Hannah enjoying some 'pinata treasure' at the Family Reunion
(Today's Family Reunion Pictures - Pinata Fun)
Isn't that a smile that radiates 'pure happiness'
Happy 9th B-Day Hannah!

OH.MY.GOSH! ... it's been so hot the past several days.  YUCK!  BLECK! UGH!  Honestly, I haven't really done much of anything for the past several days except lay around and whine!!!  My apologies to Mike - Sorry Hun!  (He is my 'Hero' though - cause no matter how whinny I am when it gets HOT he just keeps trying to help me 'FIND' some comfort  - yesterday he dragged the TV from our bedroom & hooked it up for me in Kate's recently vacated AIR-CONDITIONED room so I could 'move in' there until it cooled down.  I was supposed to get into the 'triple digits' yesterday but I don't think it did - it was hot but not that hot. The thunder woke me up at 4am this morning - it was really crashing but so far it hasn't rained!  I sure hope the weather is breaking and will cool down.

Claire taking a whack at the Monkee Pinata at the Family Reunion

    It is always very Bittersweet when Katy packs up her life & heads back to Pullman but she has and now she is GONE.  She is very excited to get back to her 'real' life, school & her much anticipated 'Internship' at the Veterinary Hospital at the university.  She went on Friday and bought a 'Medical Terminology' book from Barnes & Noble  - she is sooo excited about not just having to shovel dog poop and dish out food.  The internship is for 1.5 years and so she will begin to observe & do more around the hospital as time passes ... I know if said it before but it really does feel like she just left for school and in the blink of an eye she is starting her third year! 
    Yesterday afternoon, after Kate had left, I was listening to the radio & Trace Adkins new song "Your Going to Miss This" came on and I started thinking about 'how times flies so fast'  & then crying.  Not 'Boo Hoo Hoo' sad tears - more 'So True, so true' tears!  The song is about trying to learn to slow down and enjoy whatever part of your life your living RIGHT NOW ... because as the song says '

You're gonna miss this - You're gonna want this back.  You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast - These are some good times ... So take a good look around, You may not know it now, But you're gonna miss this ... 'your going to miss this'   So true, so true! (BIG SIGH)

Max - taking a turn at the Pinata!

    The Family Reunion was very successful and fun!  Despite the iffy weather everything turned out great.  I am working on a new 'Family Newsletter' which will update everyone on the event so I will not include too much information about it  here on my blog.  I will, however, be posting pictures from it over the next several weeks so that everyone can see them. 

    This was the FIRST reunion and I did learn a lot about what worked and what didn't!  For example:

• I was blown away by the generous amount of food brought by everyone!  This family is amazing - I can't thank everyone enough for all the 'yummy'  food.  For the next Reunion I will not need to purchase quite so much food & we can organize it more of a 'Potluck'.  Thanks again to all those who so generously brought food!

• I will definitely plan more 'mingling'  activities for the reunion.  More  'Big People' activities so that we can share a bit more of our 'stories' with each other & the kids.  Not sure how yet but we have 3 years to work that out.

Ava - getting ready to swing at the Monkee Pinata!

• Next time I am going to organize some 'photo sessions'.  We did get some group shots but it was very informal and next time I would like to have structured photo time.  Brothers, Sisters, Kids, Group, Families, Oldest, Youngest, Out-of-towner's ... etc.
  

• I think the kids enjoyed themselves and were pretty much entertained the whole time but I am actually going to buy a 'growth chart' now and mail it out to all the families so that we can have each child marked on the growth chart so we/they can see how much they 'grow' between each reunion.  I will keep it in the 'Time Trunk'.

Jimmy takings a swing!

• If anyone has any suggestions regarding the Reunion - please email me so we can include them next time

Well, it's coming up for 8am and I have now been up for almost 4 hours, I need coffee & the dogs are starting to wake up so I'd better go.  BTW - now that the sun has risen I can see that it is all dark & cloudy outside - I hate to be a Party Pooper but YEAH!

The Monkee breaks open & all the treats are gathered!  Success!

A thought for the day:

A Promise is a Promise

It was the day after Christmas at a church in San Francisco. The pastor of the church was looking over the creche when he noticed that the baby Jesus was missing from among the figures. He hurried outside and saw a little boy with a red wagon, and in the wagon was the figure of the little infant Jesus.

So he walked up to the boy and said, "Well, where did you get your passenger, my fine friend?"

The little boy replied, "I got Him at church."

"And why did you take Him?"

The boy explained, "Well, about a week before Christmas I prayed to the little Lord Jesus and I told Him if He would bring me a red wagon for Christmas I would give Him a ride around the block in it." 

 Have a great Day

- N -

Family Reunion ...

 

Sorry for the delay in posting about the reunion and getting some pictures up but I have been busy trying to get my Scraproom in order and helping Katy get ready to return to school. 

Anyhoo ... as most of you know, this Saturday past was the 1st Johnston-McCusker Family Reunion and despite the weather - clouds, rain, SUNSHINE and more clouds we managed to have a GREAT REUNION!

I had such a wonderful time planning, hosting & attending the first reunion but I will admit it was very much a learning experience.  Yes, many lessons learned - the biggest being that next time I will, "Visit More - Stress Less" ... Yes, I did not spend nearly enough time visiting with everyone and far too much time running around worrying about stuff.  I apologize for that - my loss, my bad!

This is a short post because Katy & I are off to get her some much needed 'back to school supplies'.

More later - enjoy the scrapbook for now!

Make a Smilebox photobook

- N -

This is me ... "Cobbling together a Family Reunion Website"

Hey everyone - I concocted a new Website today for the Family Reunion.  It was getting to hard to keep all the information I wanted to post about the Reunion on this site.

You can get to it by clicking on the "Johnston/McCusker Family Reunion Website" link on the right-hand side of the page.

Take a look!

This is me ... "Monday Morning Walkabout, Doing the Ten on Tuesday & Family Reunion News"

Therese & I resumed our Monday Morning Walkabouts yesterday after a short hiatus.  We decided to go check out the "Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture" instead of braving to outdoor elements.  The Burke Museum has been operating as part of the University of Washington since 1899 and had several interesting exhibits. 

The first exhibit that we looked at was titled "Peoples of the Plateau Arts: The Indian Photographs of Lee Moorhouse, 1898-1915" & "This Place Called Home" and was a traveling exhibit. 

There was an interesting display of basketry, bead, shell & leather work by the Plateau Indians of the Palouse & Columbia River Basin area of Washington state .  It included old & new examples of basketry, bead, shell & leather work by peoples of the Walla Walla, Yakima, Nez Perce, Umatilla & Wanapum tribes.   There was also written & oral testimony's by the artists where they spoke of their heritage, culture and what their art work means to them - Beautiful work.

The "Lee Moorhouse" exhibit is on loan from the University of Oregon and was just a minute sampling of the over 9000 photographs that Moorhouse took.  Moorhouse, "an amateur photographer and agent of the Umatilla reservation ... took over 9,000 pictures in and around Pendleton, Oregon documenting this transitory period of Pacific Northwest culture as it moved from frontier life to the modern era."

The most interesting thing about the photographic collection by Lee Moorhouse was that many of the photo's were actually staged and to be used as marketing Ads for the Pendleton Mills Company.

There were also several other exhibits such the, "Rare Birds of China by J. Fenwick Lansdowne" which is a collection of 32 limited edition  prints (similar in style to John James Audubon as well as several long-term exhibits about Washington 'State. 

It is a very nice museum and it was a great outing!  We even got a small - micro walk out of it as there was some sort of Band thing at the university and the parking was FULL.  We had to park a distance from the Museum and walk back to it (there was a hill involved).

Another Tuesday means  Another Question

What are the
"Top Ten things you could / should be doing instead of watching TV?"

I actually don't watch TV that much anymore - just certain shows off TV.  It is very rare that I just sit in front of the TV and channel surf (which I used to do all the time).

1. Scrapbooking - either digital or paper!  I have recently started doing a minimum of 20 minutes scrapbooking every day.
2. Exercising - I have rejoined the YMCA & started going there 3x's a week.
3. Working my MK / CL business - surprise!  Nothing happens if I don't so I need to start working at it every day!
4. Gardening - while it's not full-on gardening season yet (and I have the world's smallest yard) I do have some grasses that need pruned - pots that need cleaned out etc.
5. Volunteer - I need to decide where I want to volunteer and get started!
6. Read - I have so many books queued up to read.  I am currently reading "The Devil in the White City", "Collapse" and "The Patterson Principals of Selling".  I have at least 75 lined up and ready to go and I won't even mention all the magazine I have sitting in my office.
7. Go to the Movies - there are so many great movies that I want to go see - Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, Atonement, We are the Spartans etc
8. Play a game with another Human - not a computer game!  I sit at my computer far, far too much and I have decided to make a concerted effort to NOT SIT by myself on the computer for most of the day & night.  I am going to get up and move and regulate how much time I spent sitting here.
9. Go see a Play - I was just talking about this yesterday.  I am going to start taking the bus into the city to meet Mike at work at least once a month so we can start going to see some plays, museum etc.
10. Organize my bills, finances & filing - it is an ongoing mess!

Well - what's on your list?

Hey EVERYONE

I made an executive decision (sorry to jump ahead solo) and booked the Cultus Lake Community Hall for the family reunion but  I was starting to get worried that we might lose out if we didn't get moving on it and let people know before it got to late.

We had talked about having in Saturday August 16th but that day was already booked and so I booked SATURDAY, AUGUST  9th to hold it.   

HELP:  Okay, here's the deal - they have to rental session daily on the weekends - from 9am - 4pm and then 5pm until midnight.  I went ahead and booked the 9-4pm session.  Is everyone okay with that????  Any suggestions - Ideas - Input?????

If you look on the :Family Reunion" page it lists the amenities that the hall comes with. 

What next - Jenny volunteered to put together the invitations - JEN should we all start emailing you addresses?  How are you planning to do it?  What are you planning to do. 

Sarah do you want us to email you people's email addresses so you can send out a "Recipe SOS" for the family cookbook?

Any other ideas???????
- N -

Hey Jen - Okay, I'll split the difference with you and accept your offer of 3 more weeks of winter!  Thanks.

This is Mii ... "Games, Books, Movies & Family Fun"

GAMES:

This week's "Ten on Tuesday" was all about games and on that note - last night Mike & I played a couple rounds of Golf, some  baseball & then went bowling ... on the Wii.   We've been playing Zelda on the Wii since Christmas but this was the first time that we had played any of the sports games.  I think I actually liked them better than Zelda.

Mike & I officially became Mii's - a Mii is the avatar or character you assign to your name to. They look like little "Lego" people.  Fun, fun, fun!

Golf was by far the most fun.  I have no idea how realistic the game is to actually playing but it is fun - nonetheless. Mike won - I usually hit the ball way to hard & it went sailing off the green.  Baseball was much harder than I thought it would - I only hit the ball a couple of times and got on base once.  Mike did better - he hit a homer!!  I did much better at pitching - Bowling was great fun too - as a matter of fact -  I think bowling & golf are my 2 favorites.  Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to burn too many calories doing any of these sports but they sure are fun!
Speaking of sports ... these pictures are for John & Todd.  I guess I'm eating "crow" or should I say "hawk" for dinner!!!!   Seattle got out snowed, outplayed & out fanned! Green Bay definitely had more versatile selection of fans!

I think the bulldog with the Cheesehead Hat on is priceless!

I don't think you can even bring dogs into any of our stadiums in Seattle!  Hey look John - He's wearing #4.

Not that Seattle didn' have their share of strange looking fans too!

  Crazy boys!

BOOKS:

I just finished up another great book for our Bookclub.  It is called "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen and I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a good read.  The book chronicles on man's life and focuses on the incredible bond between animals & man.

The story is told by 93 year old Jacob Jankowski who is looking back on his life while waiting for his family to come and take him out to the circus for the day.  Jacob is very excited to go see the circus because he had spent a good deal of his life working as a veterinarian for the "Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  The Benzini Brothers was a traveling circus  during the Great Depression and Jacob, though a series of unfortunate events, ends but spending a a large part of his life traveling with th circus and ultimately being defined by it.

Has anyone finished reading Ishmael yet?

MOVIES:

A couple of night's ago Mike & I went and saw, "There will be Blood" and it was incredible!  I don't know if anyone else has seen it yet so I won't say too much about the story but the acting is so good and the story / screenplay is very well written.

Daniel Day Lewis is so believable in this movie role - Just an around GREAT movie experience.  It is definitely giving "No Country for Old Men" a run for its money as my top favorite movie of the year.  I enjoyed the movie so much - I might even buy the book, "Oil" by Upton Sinclair.

Family Fun:

Well, it's time to get started with some serious planning for our Family Reunion which is tentatively planned for August 16th.  I guess the next step is to rent the Community Clubhouse out at Cultus Lake so that we can get the DATE nailed down and then we can think about all the other bits & pieces that we need to do.

Here is a  list of items I have come up with that will need to be on our TO-DO LIST - if anyone can think of anything else we will need to take care of please let me know AND if anyone wants to volunteer to help arrange or take care of please let me know.

1. Rent the hall
2. Invitations (make & mail)
3. Activities
4. Food
5. Track down possible hotels, RV camps etc for those that might need or want them
6. ???

Have a great day!

- N -

This is me ... "Talking Family Reunion" & "Doing 10 on Tuesday"

...Back to the Family Reunion - which has not been forgotten.  Jessica and Auntie Agnes have been making plans and keeping us on track.  It seems the majority who responded about the location of the reunion expressed an interest in Cultus Lake and so they have been busy getting down to facts & figures together for us.

Jessica has volunteered to go and do a visual inspection of the Cultus Lake Community Center and see how close to the lake it is, assess the parking situation, the park & play area attached to the community center. 

THANKS JESS & AUNTY A.

I will let everyone know what Jess finds out!!

Here is this week's question!

10 Countries you'd Love to Visit (listed in ranking order)!

1. Italy
2. China
3. Ireland
4. Czech Republic
5. Germany
6. Spain
7. Peru
8. Japan
9. Netherlands
10. Egypt

How about You? 

This is me ... & Our Family Reunion

Family Reunion Update: I haven't forgetten about our Family Reunion - just been busy.  Lets keep going ... shall we!

I have created a  "NEW"  Family Reunion Page that will house all our "SET IN STONE" information & facts.  That way everyone can just go straight to that page to get information and not have to sift through all the posts on my blog to find something out or get the facts.

The new page is located on the right hand side of the blog, at the top just beneath the Inspiration...under PAGES.  See it!

Well, it looks like everyone (who responded) would like to see an August 2008 "Family Reunion" date and would like a "One day - All day event" for the first year at least.  Now we need to decide on the date in August and the location. 

I am assuming we would like a Saturday for our "1st EVER One Day-All Day Family Reunion" event!

How about Saturday, August 16, 2008 (I just picked a random Saturday in the middle of the month)

Yes, No, Maybe so????  Please post your suggestions or comments!!

We also need a location.  Everyone who commented on location so far felt that it would be best, since this is our first and we are "experimenting" we should hold it somewhere close to where the majority of the family lives.  So, I guess it needs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the lower mainland. 

Please post your comments or suggestions!!  So where are some GREAT parks where we can reserve a large area in around the lower mainland:  Mission, Harrison Hot Springs, Stanley Park, ???? 

Here are a few I found:  What else?

Rolley Lake Provincial Park - Mission

Sasquatch Provincial Park - Harrison Hot Springs

Silver Lake Provincial Park - Hope

I suggest that the park have:

1. Lots of free parking
2. BBQ
3. Handicap access
4. bathrooms (not porta potties)
5. playground
6. covered area
7. swimming??
8. large grassy area for baseball, badminton, playing etc
9. maybe camping, RV area for out-of-towners
10. hotels nearby (for out-of-towners)
11. ???

What else??

Have a great day - I'm off to work

PS:  Has anyone checked out the "Culinary Concoctions by Peabody" yet (under "Read")  check it out ... today's looks so yummy!!

- N -