Sensory Overload...

That is the only way I can think of to describe Las Vegas, NV. This was my first trip there, and I must say, I don't think I will be going back any time soon. Maybe it was just because I was there for so long (arrived on Monday, left on Saturday), or maybe it was just that I was completely out of my element...not sure. The conference I went for - the APA Congress - was pretty good and I did have a good time while I was there, but I was definitely ready to come home by the end of the week (really before then...)

Here are a few pictures of my trip...I stayed at the Planet Hollywood...

while my good friend, Chris, from OH, who I got to meet up with there...

stayed at the Paris, where most of the conference was held...

Her manager was not able to go at the last minute with her, so I got to tag along with her to her vendor party with ADP. They bought tickets for all their clients to go see The Producers - and yes, I got to tag along to that, too! It was a very good show - very funy! Thanks, Chris, for letting me tag along!!

We had several opportunities to do quite a bit of shopping...I brought home A LOT more than I went with. I'm still amazed that I was able to fit it all in my suitcase.

One of the best events of the week was Chris and I decided to treat ourselves to tickets to go see Celine Dion's A New Day show on the last night we were there. This is Celine's last year of performing at the Colosseum in Caesar's Palace. It was a REALLY good show. I'm so glad we splurged and did that.

All in all it was a good trip...and what made it especially good was being able to spend the whole week with Chris!

Here is one last picture of the fountains in front of the Bellagio, with the Paris in the background. The fountains spray to music - very cool!

P.S.

We did attend the conference most of the time - just didn't want to bore you with the details about the payroll classes that were actually pretty good! :o)

Can you believe, though, I didn't gamble once - not even the slots!! What kind of nerd am I??

Weekend Project

I got to do some scrapbooking this past weekend. I started a layout for our Seattle trip, but haven't finished that one yet. I'll share when I do. I did finish this project, though.

I was asked to make the group card for my boss's wife's baby shower. She is having her third child, but first girl. Not my best work, but other's seemed to like it.

Off to watch the rest of my recently discovered new favorite TV show - House.

It's coming!!!

This past week was a very long week, it seemed, however, it was broken up by something very exciting!! You see, August 2 through August 4 is earmarked for the very highly anticipated event - The Creating Keepsakes Scarpbooking Convention!!!!!! Wednesday of this week we were finally able to register for classes for this thrilling affair! And what makes it even more exciting (if that is even possible)...is one of my best friends from Ohio, Karie, is coming to visit that weekend to go with me!!!

So these are the fun classes we registered for:

Friday
8:30 - 9:30 Everything Embellished (Karie is actually taking 5 in 1 SEI at this time - a class I wanted, but sold out before I could register! (Heavy Sigh!))
9:50 - 10:50 A Thing or Two about Girls
12:30 - 1:30 Finished in a Flash
3:10 - 5:10 Focus on Friends and Family

Saturday
8:30 - 9:30 Thru the years
9:50 - 10:50 10 Things Every Scrapbooker Should Know
11:10 - 12:10 You've Been Framed
3:10 -4:40 The Choice is Yours

Of course this leaves us plenty of time to shop at the Vendor Faire! I get so excited about this event every year, but it is always so much more fun when you have someone to go with! Thank you, Karie, for coming to Charlotte for this! (It's about time - it only took you seven years! :o)!!)

Does anyone else want to join us?

Happy Belated Birthday, Bruce!!

A big shout out to Bruce, our brother-in-law, for his birthday, which was yesterday! Sorry for the late greetings, Bruce! Hope you had a great birtday!

For those of you who are wondering about the picture above - you can read the story HERE

Poor Pitiful Me...

It is amazing what I can get away with when I'm sick. I've somehow caught myself a pretty bad cold. I tried to convince myself that it was just allergies (something I never had before moving to North Carolina), but now I believe it really is a cold...the sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, having problems resting kind of cold (actually, without the fever, but couldn't leave that off the description). Anyway, I played the "oh, poor pitiful me" card and Del took the pictures I've wanting to take for about four days now so I could finally post them. (He's so good to me!!!)

While we were in Seattle a couple weekends ago, we bought two accessories for the house. The glass one was shipped home, which is part of the reason why it has taken two weeks to post these - we just got it on Tuesday.

We have this one in our fairly newly painted bedroom.



We found this at Pike's Market from one of the local artists selling there. A really nice lady that seemed to have a lot of passion for what she did.




And this one on our dining room table.





I fell in love with this piece while on my tour of the city and had to drag Del back to the Glasshouse Studio to see if he loved it as much as I did. I'm not sure he did, but it ended up on our table anyway.


So, tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo! Of course, everyone knows that, however...did you also know it is NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY?!??!? To celebrate this joyous ocassion (hee hee!), QVC is having a special day of scrapbooking treasures - can't wait!!!!!! The fun starts at 2:00 a.m., however, with the way I'm feeling right now, I don't think I'll be staying up for that two hour stretch (heavy sigh!!) , but there is plenty more throughout the rest of the day to make up fo it!

Also to celebrate, I am having a few friends over tomorrow for a Scrapbooking Cinco de Mayo party. I may need to make this an annual event! Should be fun.


Until next time...

Initials with meaning

So I was reading on another blog today about someone who felt her initials meant something other than the first letters of her name. And it got me thinking about what my initials would stand for. Although I'm stealing one of her words, I believe my initials stand for

"Truly Blessed."

I have the most adoring husband.

The cutest kitty on the planet.

A family that loves me.

The best in-laws a girl could ask for.

The house of my childhood dreams.

A fabulous career. The best of friends...the list could go on and on...What more could a girl possibly want or need!?!?

God has truly blessed me!

What do your initials stand for?

Home..safe and sound...

There is a lot to do in Seattle - more than a weekend will allow. And surprisingly enough - it didn't rain!!

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

We got in a little late Wednesday, so we just went to dinner and explored the Grand Hyatt.

Del was tied up all day Thursday with his conference, so I was on my own. I did some shopping and then I took a tour of Seattle. It really has a lot to offer. It reminded me in some ways of Chicago, with a lot of charm. The pictures above include the famous market place sign - what a hoppin' place that is with all local vendors from fresh seafood, to a bazillion fresh cut flowers to bouquets of chili peppers and home of the very first Starbucks Coffee. The tour took us by the floating houses - the one Tom Hanks was on in Sleepless in Seattle is across the lake (barely visible in the picture). There were several fishing boats in the harbor just like the ones you see on Discovery Channel's The Deadliest Catch. The Gothic style building is on the campus of University of Washington - it was such a beautiful building and a beautiful campus. There is a little town just north of Seattle that has this huge statue of a troll under a viaduct - that was fun. The tall white building is the Smith Tower. The lobby of this building is amazing - marble walls, brass mailboxes, but the most quaint detail is the hand operated elevators.

Del still had a 1/2 day at his conference on Friday, so I spent the morning at the spa getting a massage and a facial. We then spent the entire afternoon walking around Seattle - all around Seattle.

Del and I didn't leave the state of Washington without getting at least one hike in. Saturday we hiked the Rattlesnake Ledge Trail, which did not disappoint in the way of views. On the way back to the hotel, we happened by a couple scrapbook stores - the Paper Zone and Bee's Knee's - (hmm...wonder how that happened??)

Although our bodies are a little messed up from the time zone differences, it was a very good trip all in all.

Only two days of work this week...

...before we head to Seattle, WA for the weekend. But until then....

...some pictures from this weekend.

Del got up a little earlier than usual on Saturday morning to go to Bruegger's to get breakfast since he had to be back home to play a Starfleet Battles tournment game. While he was gone, Chalupa and I were awakened by an odd tapping on the bedroom window. Chalupa became vey alert and did not budge from this spot for several hours.

So what held her attention for so long, you ask? This little fella...

I was so pleased to capture the moment, since I thought it wouldn't happen again. Wrong!! The next morning he came back - so we had to name him. Meet Bob the Blue Bird. He is a very pretty bird, but we cannot figure out why he keeps tapping on our window with his beak - constantly!!! I'm guessing he sees his reflection in the window - but that's all I got. Anyone have any other ideas? Here are a few other shots that I got of our new feathered friend and Del took the one of Chalupa intently watching Bob.

How cute is that??


I also got to do some scrapbooking this weekend - something I feel like I haven't done in forever...no excuse really - just haven't felt that creative lately. I did my side of the family's 2006 Christmas gathering. I had some fun using the sewing machine a little on this layout.






















I will try to post some while on the road this week. I'm realy excited about Seattle - I've never been to the state of Washington.

Until next time...

I've missed you...

Has it really been two weeks already since my last post? I've thought about posting several times, but it's always been too late. Work has really been rough lately again and doesn't seem to be letting up any time soon. So by the time I get home at night, the last thing I want to do is sign on to another computer.

Last weekend Del and I went to the cabin lot to see what has changed, if anything. The gate to the community is in and working and they now have a mostly gravel road instead of just the red dirt road. We drove the Porsche that day because it was in the 80's and a perfect day to drive a convertible in the mountains, but Del wasn't too happy with the coat of red dust from the gravel road it put on his car. I'm sure you all feel very sorry for him, don't you?!?

We spent Sunday driving around neighborhoods looking for landscaping ideas. We're probably going to do some major overhauling of our landscaping this year, so we were taking some pictures of other peoples' yards and went to a nursery and took some more pictures of plants we liked. Del, of course, is not expecting us to have to do any of the work ourselves...his philosophy is...if we can pay someone to do it, why do it yourself?

Since I haven't downloaded any of those pictures from the camera yet and since a post without pictures is boring...I will post some more of my "everyday life" pictures...

A pile of anything: This is the pile of books I'm reading right now...well mostly...
The top book is the "idea" book I made
I finised the second book Girl Meets God - a memoir of a girl who explores and sometimes even questions her decision of converting from Judiasm to Christianity.
The next two are my daily devotional books I read every morning - Daily Light and My Utmost for His Highest.
I just started reading The Audacity of Hope by presidential candidate Barak Obama - a very interesting account on politics, America, and life in general. So far pretty good. The next...a special magazine edition from Creating Keepsakes called Photography for Scrapbookers - I love my scrapbooking magazines!!! And finally, You on a Diet. I haven't started that one yet, but I keep it out to try to motivate me - hasn't worked so far...


Something colorful: I love my ribbons in my jars. These are sitting on a shelf above my scrap-booking desk. They just make me happy. Being able to spend more time in this room would make me even more happy, but I'll take what I can get right now.














Well, I guess that is about it for now. I'll try to be better about posting more regularly (Laurie - forgive me if you're still checking daily!). I know next week is going to be another horrible week at work - especially Tuesday, but after that, I'm hoping it will ease up a little bit.

We did decide that I am going to make the trip to Seattle with Del on the 18th of April. I'm looking forward to that.

Until next time....

Spring has sprung in NC...

All the Bradford Pear trees are in bloom here - and there are a lot of them- - one in every yard almost. It was probably the upper 70 degree weather last week that tricked them into believing that spring is finally here. Although today's weather has regressed - upper 40's and windy - not very spring-like.

It feels like forever since I've posted last. Work has been a bear lately. I've averaged 65-70 hours a week over the last 2-1/2 weeks. It is annual incentive time for one of our toughest clients which has caused a lot of late nights (one night as late as 2:00 a.m.). I'm hoping the worst is over and we can start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel soon.

Other than work, not much else has been happening, so I guess there isn't much to report anyway. We are both planning some trips soon. Del gets to go to Seattle in April for a stock option conference and I'm going to Las Vegas for a week for the American Payroll Association Congress in May. We are also planning on a vacation some time in June with Del's parents. The tentative destination right now is Maine. Neither of us has ever been to Maine so it will be something new for us..

I haven't surfed the web in over two weeks, so I'm looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I normally read. I'm planning on some scrapbooking and reading and just plain ole veggin' out this weekend.

Talk to you soon....