Friday Favorite Five – October 16th 2009

Better late than never! Here are my FFF for this week:

1) Candy Corn – Yummmm……  My personal favorite is the original candy corn and the pumpkins from the Harvest Mix.  I find myself eating all the pumpkins first, then all the white tops of the candy corn second.  I’ve made myself sick with eating candy corn!  This is definitely one of the best parts of Fall!

2) My Favorite Halloween Decoration – Thanks go to my Mother-in-Law for sending me this last year.  For as long as I can remember, she put this kitty cat and jack-o-lantern decoration out every Halloween.  Last year she shipped it to me and now it’s MINE!  Woo Hoo!  I love it!

3) Unexpected Flower Deliveries – Aren’t these beautiful?  What a wonderful surprise to open my door last week and find flowers….for me!  And the card is the best.  Thanks honey!  They brought a huge smile to my face!

4) Birthdays – Not just any birthday’s, but my children’s birthdays.  This weekend is Sarah’s 8th birthday!  No one loves birthdays more than Sarah!  It doesn’t matter if it’s her brother’s birthday, my birthday, a friends’ birthday, or especially HER birthday.  She loves them all!  It’s hard to believe that 8 years ago my beautiful baby girl was born.  Happy Birthday, Sarah Elisabeth!

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5) First Dates – This week I have been remembering Bob and my first date.  Why?  Because Bobby is going on his first date this weekend!  Not just any date, but to homecoming!  I’m so excited and nervous for him.  He’s going to have so much fun!

I remember Bob and My first date.  I was studying for my SAT test, and he convinced me to not study but to go to the high school basketball game with him that night. (If you know Bob, of COURSE it was basketball!).  I remember telling my dad “it’s not a date, it’s just Bob from choir”.  Well, 21+ years, 3 kids, 3 houses, 4 states,  a dog and cat, a mini van and a travel trailer later…….here we are anxiously watching our oldest prepare for his first date/dance.  Where have all the years gone?

Do you remember your first date?  Happy Friday everyone!

Scrapbooks

I am so excited!  I just got 11 of my 15 scrapbooks embossed with dates on their spines  This is something I’ve wanted to do…..since I started scrapbooking!

Looking at my bookshelf, I realized that I have completed 11 family albums and 1 album that shows our vacation time with Bob’s side of the family.  That’s a lot!  The family albums I now have titled and they look great.  I didn’t know how to title the vacation one, so it will have to wait.  I also have 1 album that was completed for me (my wedding album – Thanks Aunt Katie!), 1 album that is “in progress” because I’m not sure how to finish it (currently holds our Cancun, Mexico pictures from 2003.  Maybe a beach album?), and 1 album that I gave up on and hope to finish some day (Bobby’s school album). 

This is quite the accomplishment, if I do say so myself!  I remember when I got started scrapbooking.  My friend Kate invited me to this scrapbook “party”.  I remember telling Bob “I’m just going to be nice.  I am SO not creative.  I’m sure this won’t interest me at all!”   Famous last words, as it has been about 9 years and I’m still scrapbooking like crazy.  I have made albums for friends and family members.  I did a stint as a scrapbook product consultant and had my “own business” for awhile.  And, of course, I will be enjoying my 8th annual scrapbook retreat this coming March with My BFF’s!

Take a look at my beautiful album spines.  I just love them!  I will be starting my 12th family album this weekend at my friend and CM Consultant Shelley’s event, and I’m hoping to possibly do some smaller albums as Christmas gifts.

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Friday Favorite Five – Girls Weekend Edition – 9/18/2009

My long time BFF’s, Denise and Eve, came to visit last weekend.

We met about 10 years ago when we were all young/new mommy’s living in California.  We belonged to the Roseville Moms Club, and we were all in a playgroup with babies around the same age.  The first time I met my friend, Denise, playgroup was at my house and both of our babies (Alex and Tarik) were under a year old.

1. Remembering old times – I remember that playgroup.  I was super nervous about having a bunch of women that I barely knew coming to my house where the babies basically just slept or were nursed while the mommy’s carried on conversations.  Back then, I was super shy but was determined to make new friends since I was new to California and living away from family.  I remember Denise being so friendly and supportive and very interested in my thoughts about raising babies.  She knew I had an older child (Bobby was 8 by then) and told me I was the “experienced” one. I remember saying that having Alex was like having a first born all over again and that I didn’t feel very experienced.  Anyway, this weekend we talked about that first playgroup where we bonded as new mothers, helped each other relax about some child rearing issues and take a stand on others.  And how we’re still great friends all these years later.
   
2. Playing tourist  - I was so excited to have the girls visit me!  Denise has been out here before, but this was Eve’s first time visiting me since I had moved from CA.  I fly back every year for our scrapbook weekend in Bodega Bay.  But this was our first girls weekend where we played tourist and didn’t scrapbook one thing!  We started our trip off with the usual Seattle Sites –- Pike Place Market, Original Starbuck’s, Waterfront walk and Harbor Cruise. How fun to share your favorite spots with friends! 
   

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3. Experiencing New Things Together – It was a glorious weekend in Seattle, so we decided to head up to the mountains and take in Leavenworth – a little Bavarian Village in the Cascade Mountains. We stayed at this quaint little hotel right in town.  We had a great time walking through the little shops, eating German food, and laughing until our sides ached!  That night we went to a beer garden and listened to some live music from a great band called “Red Means Go”.  They were awesome!  We each bought one of their cd’s as a souvenir.  It had been a long time since any of us had sat and listened to live music from an up and coming band.  We had a great time!
   
   

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4. Laughing Until Our Sides Ached – There is nothing better than getting together with girlfriends and laughing so hard that you about pee your pants!  And that is just what we did all weekend long!  I swear it fills you up with sunshine and love and happiness when you can laugh that hard with a friend.  Whether we were giggling over text messages, snickering about honey buckets, cracking up about Papa Smurf taking Eve’s chair, or embarrassing ourselves because of the loud laughter over the bathroom locks in the German restaurant, laughter is always the best medicine and a requirement with good friends!
   
   (our nicknames for the weekend – written on the floor of the beer garden)
5. Spending Time With Those You Love – I love these ladies like sisters.  We’ve been through hard times, sad times, and happy times together.  We’ve shared our biggest fears, our greatest weaknesses and our most successful accomplishments.  We’ve scrapbooked together, shared books, cried and laughed together, and scrapbooked some more!  I am so honored that they took time out of their busy lives to come visit me!  With soccer games (3 kids each), girl scout meetings (3 troops between them), house hunting and just being away from family for a whole weekend – it makes me realize even more how important our friendship is.  Thank you gals!  And, Debby?  You’re coming next year for sure!!!!

 

Thanks Girls!  I miss you already!

The 2009/2010 Breakaway Book Club Selections

Here they are -- the new list for my book club!  We are entering our 4th year as a book club and I am so excited to read these new books.  Unfortunately, I have read 4 out of the 10 books.  But that just means I get to look forward to finally discussing them with a great group of women!

Check out our new list of books:

“The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel” by Diane Setterfield (432 pages)

“The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (290 pages)

“The Hour I First Believed: A Novel” by Wally Lamb (768 pages)

“Skylight Confessions” by Alice Hoffman (288 pages)

“Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time” by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin (349 pages)

“Time of My Life: A Novel” by Allison Winn Scotch (304 pages)

“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (384 pages)

“Astrid and Veronika” by Linda Olsson (288 pages)

“Firefly Lane” by Kristin Hannah (528 pages)

“The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel” by Garth Stein (336 pages)

Makes you want to join my book club, huh?  Feel free to read along with us!  We read 10 books in 12 months – we save the longest books for December and July.

Happy reading everyone!

Friday Favorite Five – August 28, 2009

Happy Friday everyone!  Here are my FFF for this week.   I hope you enjoy and think on your own Favorite’s from this week.

1) Back To School Shopping – I love back to school shopping!  The new shoes, the new folders and backpacks, new clothes – it’s such a reminder that fall is fast approaching with crisp mornings and long afternoon shadows.  The last week and a half, I’ve been able to take the kids back to school shopping.  We purchased new shoes, new backpacks, new school supplies, new clothes and even spent some good quality time together.  I love how they have their own opinions on what color scissors they want, which backpack “looks good” on them, and if they need the 5 subject notebook or 5 different notebooks for each subject.  Yes, school supply shopping can be stressful – especially when you end up having to go to multiple stores to find that specific erasure or calculator, or when your daughter wants 4 outfits, one son doesn’t want any new clothes, and the other only wants death/skull shirts.  But it can also be fun and exciting and a great way for the kids to start preparing themselves for back to school time.

2) Our New Favorite Family TV Shows – Where has all of the great family TV gone?  Remember watching The Love Boat, The A Team or The Muppet Show when you were little?  Now you can barely find ANYTHING on TV that is family friendly.  So we were thrilled when this summer we discovered two shows that was not only family friendly, but such fun to watch:  Wipeout and The Great American Road Trip.

Wipeout is a game show where participants have to go through these crazy, difficult obstacles that involve mud and water and the “big balls”.  As the title implies, there are many hilarious “wipeouts” that just keep us laughing and watching! 

The Great American Road Trip was about 7 families who traveled Route 66 from Chicago to LA in an R.V. with challenges that slowly eliminated the contestants down to the final family.  We got to see how these families worked together as a team, improving their communications skills with each other while spending quality time on the road.  Our family TOTALLY thinks we should enter the next season of episodes – especially after our own Road Trip!

There needs to be more family friendly TV.  There’s nothing like snuggling up on the couch, with a bowl of popcorn, cheering on our favorite team or laughing hysterically as a family.  Thank you NBC and ABC for our summer family TV time!

3) Our Neighborhood – We live in SUCH a great neighborhood!  Everyone is so nice and thoughtful and we all love to hang out together.  Whether it’s late night phone calls about garage doors being open, getting the mommy scoop regarding truth or dare games in the front yard, or even hearing that Bobby has caught rides to and from work or school when he’s been “forced” to walk – I know that we couldn’t have picked a better place to live when we moved here 4 years ago.  It’s so much fun to have Girls Night Out’s,  Couple’s Night Out’s, Block Parties, Bunco, and Holiday parties with these group of friends.  We truly are blessed to have met these wonderful neighbors.  Highlands East Rocks!!!

4) Body Wash – I know this ones seems a little weird to put as a favorite five, but I love body wash.  Unlike a bar of soap, it doesn’t slip out of your hand or melt in the shower/tub; it comes in different scents from traditional soapy scents to flowery/fruity or masculine scents; and sometimes they come with their own body pouf!  :-)   My current favorite is Caress Glowing Touch Silkening Body Wash.   It’s inexpensive, smells so good, and leaves my skin feeling soft.

What’s your current favorite product?

5) Facebook – I know, I know, I know!  Seriously, right?  But I love it!  Yes it’s addicting and a total time suck, but I love seeing little snippets of my friends’ daily lives.  My friends list consists of current friends/neighbors, old high school friends/acquaintances, family members, friends from past neighborhoods, old acquaintances from when I was little, new blogger friends, and people from church/work/school.  Do I talk to these people on a daily basis?  No.  Would I have contacted some of these people otherwise?  No.  But that’s the good thing – people that you would otherwise have had no contact with due to time and distance, you now can reconnect with pictures, chatting, and little wall posts.  Come see me on facebook and be my friend!  :-)

Have a great weekend!

Ohio and Michigan Visit 2009, by Lisa Baker

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Friday Favorite Five – Great American Road Trip Addition – 08/07/2009

Wow!  It’s been a long time since I posted my FFF.  These aren’t  just any FFF – these are my FFF from the Baker Family’s “Great American Road Trip 2009”!  Woo hoo!

On July 5th at 8:30am (after a spectacular neighborhood block party with awesome fireworks the night before) we headed out for our road trip to the Midwest to see family.  We drove up to Bob’s mom house in Westfield, IN at 1:00am Friday morning, July 9th.  We had a great trip and an awesome 2 weeks in the Midwest seeing family members and old friends.  On Sunday, July 26th at 8:30am, we left Indianapolis for our journey home, with a 2 night stop at Bob’s Uncle Chuck’s house in Taos, NM.  We arrived home at 8:30pm on Saturday, August 1st.  This truly was the Great American Road Trip!

Without further ado, here are my FFF (ok, favorite 6 and I still had to pair it down!) from this road trip:

1) The Beauty of the USA:  We have such a beautiful country!  It was amazing to see how just from going state to state we could be in the mountains, the prairie, the desert (both beautiful and ugly), the rolling hills, and the farm lands.

We were fortunate to be able to see sights like Devils Tower in Wyoming; Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; The Mighty Mississippi and Missouri Rivers; the St. Louis Arch; Dodge City, an old Western Town in Kansas; the Rio Grande River and Gorge in New Mexico, the beautiful red rocks in Utah, and the Oregon Trail wagon ruts.

   
It was a beautiful trip with sunshine and good old fashioned thunder storms, beautiful landscapes, and wonderful monuments.  We are truly blessed to live in this Country.

2) Making road trip memories that will last a lifetime: What would be a road trip without memories/experiences that your children and you will remember forever?  Like when we almost ran out of gas while crossing the Montana/Wyoming border in the middle of the Crow Nation Reservation.  No gas for miles!  We put the car in neutral, turned off the AC, and rolled the windows down hoping we could make it to the next gas station.  We put 37.5 gallons of gas in a 36 gallon tank!  Crazy!  Or, how about being so bored in the truck that we were doing Mad Libs with as many gross words/bodily functions as we could and laughing hysterically!  Or how about Bob realizing that he truly is Clark Griswold from National Lampoons Vacation?  Good times….good times!  :-)

3) Technology: I have to give a shout out to my wonderful phone, the Black Jack II. I was able to keep up with facebook, check my email, and text my girlfriends all while traveling on this road trip!  And how about wireless internet access at every campsite we stopped at?  Oh yeah baby!  Bob could keep up with work, I could download my email to read the next day in the car, and I even did a blog post.

Also, there was the wonderful in-car DVD player with headphones for each child!   It kept the kids from killing each other – especially on our drive home.  I think they may have watched about 20 movies while traveling.  Yes, I wish they would’ve looked out the window and taken in the beautiful scenery.  But I also was quite glad I didn’t hear too many fights and much more giggling at funny movies than I thought!

4) New Experiences:  We were very fortunate to be able to take our first ever hot air balloon ride while in Taos, NM.  Bob’s Uncle Chuck set up this surprise .  Every single one of us were super nervous about getting in the balloon.  But what an experience!  It was amazing, exciting, thrilling, scary, and beautiful all at the same time!  And the fact that all 5 of us were in the balloon, experiencing this event together for the first time ---- Priceless!

5) Seeing Family: The best part of our trip?  Spending 
time with family.  We have lived so far from family for so many years.  We only get to see most of our family members about once a year.  So we were thankful to have so much time together this trip. 

The kids got to see all of their cousins but one (who was in Canada), both sets of grandparents, all 4 aunts and all 4 uncles, and spend time with their Great-Grandma and their Great-Uncle Chuck. 

Highlights from my side of the family:  Grandma teaching Sarah how to sew a Barbie pillow; Alex finally getting to mow the grass on Uncle Cokey’s riding lawn mower; Bobby spending time with Uncle Cokey making deliveries for work; running back and forth between Aunt Debbie’s house and Grandma and Grandpa’s house; watching Grandpa eat Shocktarts; and making fudge with Grandma.

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Highlights from Bob’s side of the family: Brownies and deviled eggs at Grammie’s house; family breakfast at Bob Evan’s Restaurant; spending time with Great-Grandma; playing at the park with Cousin Will and the family; catching firefly’s at Uncle David’s house; and visiting Uncle Chuck and his adventurous Pirate Treasure Hunt.

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We were truly lucky to spend so much time with family.  Let’s hope it sustains us until we see them all again next year (hopefully)!

6) Finally Coming Home:  “There’s no place like home!  There’s no place like home!”  We were all so very excited to finally pull into our house after driving for 12 hours that last day.  To sleep in our own beds, to laze around our own house, to watch t.v. in bed, to know that the kids could go outside and play with their friends (instead of each other)….it was like Bliss!  Road trips are super fun and should be experienced at least once in awhile.  But coming home and feeling the peace of your own place? There’s nothing quite like it.

I hope you enjoy this very lengthy FFF!  Happy Friday everyone!