Just the High Points {Life Lately}

I'm just going to start off by saying that yesterday I finished off the last of a Costco-sized bottle of A1 sauce on my elk steak that Russ cooked for dinner, and after tossing the bottle in the garbage and eating my meal, I realized I couldn't remember a time before that bottle of A1 sauce was sitting in our fridge door, so I retrieved it to check out the expiration date and was horrified to realize it was in 2007. That's expired in 2007, not made. DEAR SAINTS ABOVE.

And... I'm alive today so I figured, hey, maybe I should blog.

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy for us as a family. The weekend before last we were in Redmond, Oregon for the 1A volleyball State Finals, where Russ and I cheered on our daughter's team (we won the championship!) and also helped cook the team meals all weekend; I came home to a full week of last minute planning and preparation for Scrap Around the Clock, the huge 33-hour scrapbooking event I'm in charge of twice a year; we watched the elections and our minds exploded, along with the rest of the country; I ran Scrap Around the Clock with my scrap crew, the same weekend that we celebrated 4 different nephew's and niece's birthdays; basketball season just started up again; and oh, our dog Miley had puppies.

PUPPIES!

So here's a little pictoral recap:

Scenes from Redmond

Scenes from Scrap Around the Clock

And the best part of all...

6 little boys! We are in for a fun next couple of months :)

The Madness of March

Good golly, it's been a busy spring. Particularly, the entire month of March. What with the state finals in Baker, both of my boys' birthdays, our school auction which I was a room coordinator for, prepping for Scrap Around the Clock - the huge 33-hour-long event I am in charge of, and EASTER, let's just say I didn't take much time to think about blogging last month.

Did I mention baseball & T-ball started?

Time management isn't exactly at the top near the top of my personal skill set. If you still make it over here to read my blog now and then... thanks for not giving up entirely!

And now, for a few of the things I missed...

Coop the birthday boy turns 13. I made him his favorite dinner (chicken broccoli braid) on his actual birthday and we gave him a couple of gifts, and then we had a large (very large) family party over the weekend and he got to go see Batman vs. Superman with friends. You know what's awesome about older kid parties? ZERO THEMED DECORATIONS. Guys, nary a balloon was blown.  

This is what happened when I threw an open invite out on facebook for a girls night to go see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. How fun is this?!! We packed the theater, ate all the popcorn, laughed and cried, and LOVED IT. I love the age mix here... Grandmas, moms, daughters, sisters, we're all represented!

The four man squad that ran this Spring's Scrap Around the Clock. We were short two of our helpers and still pulled off an amazing event (if I do say so myself.) I just needed a full week to recover afterwards is all, no biggie. 

It was a full house. We filled our 70 spots in the first week registration was open! Already planning and looking forward to our fall event in November. 

A darling moment I stealth-snapped a pic of a couple of weeks ago: daddies, never stop cuddling your daughters. *heart melts*

Toothless! Blake pulled out his own front tooth (again) and made quite an elaborate display on his dresser with rocks, tissues, and mentos, for the tooth fairy to find and be impressed by. And guess what? She remembered on the 2nd night! She's getting goooood ;)

All Scrapped Out

Here's where I was this weekend... Scrap Around the Clock Fall 2015!

I've recapped this event several times before so I won't go into all the logistics of it... just imagine a large space filled with giddy scrapbookers with no kids or other commitments, and you can guess what a happy place it is :)

We were completely full once again, in fact we sold out in a record 3 weeks! I love how word of our event keeps spreading through positive word-of-mouth. Yeah, happy scrappers!

{Kelly, Karyn, me, Jana & Gaylen}

Our fab crew, minus Linley who was out of the state. This was Gaylen's last hurrah; she's moving to Louisiana at the end of the year but hopes to come back as an attendee twice a year - ahhh the luxury life of a new retiree! We will of course not let her out of this verbal commitment and will badger her until she returns ;)

Kelly and I love having our Mum come - this year she worked on a photobook of her bike ride across the States, and got sucked into the movies on the big screen like I always do. It's hard to be productive while shedding a tear over The Age of Adaline! (Great film, by the way.)

Working with family is fun! 

I'm excited for next Spring's event and meeting old friends and new, once again. I'm also excited for a week of catch up sleep! Dang I ain't 20 no more!!

Last Spring's recap.

The Scrap Recap

What a weekend! My Scrap Around the Clock crew and I hosted our 23rd event, and it was a crazy, awesome, and super-rewarding time!

We hosted 74 ladies from all over western Oregon and parts of Washington for a 33-hour crop, which included 4 catered meals, 7 vendors, 2 make 'n take workshops, prizes and giveaways, 15-minute massages, an espresso cart, movies on the big screen, and lots of personal scrap space!

{Our crew: Kelly, Jana, Karyn, myself, Linley, and Gaylen}

{The scrapper's showcase, where ladies vote on their favorite layout or cards made over the weekend.}

{Karyn getting her nails done by Joni, our Jamberry Nail rep. It's not just about the scrapping!}

Personally, I got a lot accomplished myself besides helping run the show. My big project was photo organization from the past 3 1/2 years, and sorting through the THOUSANDS of cell phone pictures that I had thrown in randomly named files on my laptop over the years instead of putting them with my regular camera pictures in monthly files. It was a huge headache but I did it! And I feel sooooo good to have it done. 

A TON of work goes into these weekends, with all the proceeds going to a ministry at our church, and by Saturday night we are poooooped. But then we start reading the comment cards left from our attendees and are so tickled pink by the compliments and praise our event receives that we start getting excited for the next one already! C'mon October 9th & 10th!

I'm so proud of Scrap Around the Clock :) 

Jodi's "Moments of the week"

Let's take a look at last week, shall we?

 

Sweetest moment: 

Capturing Kendall and Cooper squeezed into a chair together while Cooper read out-loud to his sister before she had to leave for a volleyball game. 

Awwwww.

Most productive moment: 

This year I made more grape juice from the grapes on our property then I ever have before, and made grape jelly for the first time! And I loved, loved, loved doing it.

Funniest moment: 

Blake coming out of his sister's room looking like this after a "makeover session" with his cousin Debby who was over visiting. HA!

Most awkward moment:

Umm, that would be when the utility workers installing our fiber optic cable had to go in my bedroom closet to check out the attic access in case they needed to use it, and low and behold, there was my bra laying all spread-eagle across the floor. No, NOT the pretty one.

Proudest moment: 

Running another uber-successful Scrap Around the Clock at our church this past weekend, and actually getting quite a bit of scrapbooking done myself! We had 61 attendees, 7 vendors, top-notch catering, our favorite massage therapist and coffee cart ladies on-site, and our very own bell-hop crew! You guys, our event is AWESOME. 

Pinkest moment:

Our scrap crew... I love our team! (clockwise from top left: Karyn, Linley, Gaylen, Jana, Kelly, and myself.)

Most exciting moment: 

Getting a new Project Life scrapbooking core kit and album for 50% off at Michael's - for a grand total of $25.00! As it was a super lucky find and a spontaneous purchase, I didn't' actually have $25.00 budgeted to spend, but that's what the Christmas savings account is for! I came home with them and announced that Russell now had the perfect Christmas gift for me and I was going to be ever so grateful and excited to receive it ;) His response? A high-five and a, "You better wrap it up nice then!" 

DEAL.

late night Friday photo dump

Last Friday at the Oregon zoo with friends Dylan and Emily. It was a great day!

After the zoo I was honored to be invited out with these lovely ladies to celebrate our friend Tracy's birthday. 

Olive Garden and Divergent at the movie theaters. (really good!)

Saturday morning project: finally putting up the wall decal Kendall got for Christmas! 

It turned out super cute, even though you can't see the stems on the white dandelions in the picture.

And Saturday afternoon we went to a big family birthday party for Russ's grandma who turned 80 this month. This is just the family of one of her five children (my father-in-law, Gary) so I'm sure you can imagine what a big party it was! And we were even missing two of our clan!

March Madness is consuming the boys in my household right now. 

Cooper has his own bracket and isn't doing too bad!

And speaking of Cooper - Sunday was his 11th birthday. Instead of a "party" he invited two friends (his cousins Mark & Drew) over after church to watch March Madness, go birthday shopping with him, rent movies and get pizza for dinner, stay the night, and go swimming the next day! And thus began a 29 hour marathon of rowdy boy mayhem!

This required caffeine of course ;)

The swimming crew after two hours of pool fun. I finally wore them all out!

Blake decided to get all his favorite fixings out for me to make him a sandwich.

Yes, this included pickle relish and his beloved hot sauce. He swears he loved it! (Odd child.)

And this is where I am today (and the reason for the late post) - 33 hours of scrapbook madness began at 9 am Friday morning and will go until 6 pm Saturday night. We have our biggest group attending yet (70 ladies), from 3 different states, and so far it's been AWESOME!

And I'm loving time with these girls :)

Now back to scrapping!

Have a great weekend!

Scrap Around the Clock

It's Monday night and I may still be recovering from the weekend. It was our Fall Scrap Around the Clock, a fundraiser event I head up at our church twice a year that involves 50+ woman from all over the state (and one awesome traveler from California!) scrapbooking for 24 hours straight from Friday night till Saturday night.

It is AWESOME.

^^Annie, myself, Kelly, Linley, Karyn, & Gaylen. We RUN this show like bosses! Okay we actually are the bosses.^^

^^My table buddies Tricia, Ronda, Debbie and Jana. I had so much fun with these girls!^^

^^working on a little project life^^

The weekend involved catered meals and lots of yummy snacks, hourly giveaways, grand prize drawings, movies on the big screen, make 'n takes, our onsite espresso cart, vendors to shop from, 15 minute massages, and a bellhop crew to unload and reload our cars. 

Like I said, AWESOME. 

Of course, I slept in till 10 am Sunday morning, and after a relaxing morning home with my family took a two hour nap the same afternoon. My body wasn't quite sure what was going on all day.

A small price to pay for such a fun weekend, I say!