Kickball season end...sniff

We had our last game of the summer kickball season on Tuesday. It was a tie and because the games were already behind schedule we couldn't go into overtime. But that's alright. The other team showed up in punk wigs so that set the tone for a fun evening. Fall kickball starts up in a few weeks and I can't wait. My highlight of the summer season was kicking the game point a few weeks ago! Sweet.

Softball Tourney

This past weekend Greg and I went to Iowa for the softball tournament my work sponsors every year. We had a great time and are looking forward to next year's tournament. I did pretty poorly at playing...the fact that I haven't played since third grade proved to be a disadvantage for me, however Greg had some great games. Greg's mom, sister, grandma and our nephew came out to to see us for awhile which was great. The tourney is all day Saturday but we got from Friday to Sunday to allow time to tour the host office, meet people and tour the town.

Our company chartered a bus for us to get to and from Iowa. The ride there was pretty lively with food, drinks, poker, music and lots of talking. By contract, the ride back on Sunday was very quiet...everyone had fun all weekend long and took advantage of the long ride to rest up. The company also hosted appetizers on Friday at the Iowa office, meals at the tourney on Saturday and tee-shirts to commemorate the weekend! A great time was had by all.

The top photo makes me smile, it's Greg's softball uniform for this year. Greg wore that to the tourney and I wore a hot pink shirt that matched my hot pink and black glove. Needless to say we got a few comments...him on his swirly socks and me on my overall color coordination. One cool side effect: we were both so bright it was easy for our nephew to spot us on the field and cheer for us!

The bottom photo was taken on the bus ride down. We all chose to wear Hawaiian-themed attire. Another office all showed up with mullet wigs on! It was pretty funny.

Long time, no post

I can't believe how quickly the summer goes. It surprises me every year. Perhaps it's because it started so late this year. In any case, we've been keeping busy with softball, wiffleball, kickball and weekend warrior-ing.

Two weekends ago some girlfriends and I went on a weekend kayak/canoe/camping trip and had a blast. Well, minus the bajillion mosquito bites we endured! Yes, literally a bajillion! I have never had that many bites in my life combined before that weekend.

We went down the Kickapoo river in Wisconsin. Friday night we went to one of the girls' dad's house to spend the night because he lived nearby and that enabled us to get an earlier start on the weekend bright and early Saturday morning. Saturday we kayaked/canoed about 10 river miles, then set up camp along the river, about 10 feet up a hill so that we wouldn't get washed out by the storms that came that night. We played a dice/quiz game and cooked dinner over a campfire and enjoyed some adult beverages.

Sunday morning, we woke up to find a weird scraggly fishermad hanging around our campsite. Needless to say we scrambled to get our stuff onto the boats and boats onto the water ASAP! When safely down river a bit we stopped for breakfast and to load up on sunscreen. We ended up have to portage around a first obstacle where several trees had fallen across the river. We came upon a second that was impassable by canoe. We got two kayaks past and went further down river only to find more impassable obstacles. SO we kayaked back to the first blockade, told the group we had to pull out, and then the whole group (3 kayaks, two full canoes, and 7 lovely ladies) went back upstream to the last bridge we went under and pulled all of our gear up the bank to a dirt road. We were lucky enough to have a park ranger pass, so we flagged him down and talked him into escorting our outfitter back to get us and our gear and their watercraft. If he hadn't come along, we would've had to carry that all 1/2 mile down a dirt road to the highway (apparently, the outfitter is not allowed on park property normally).

In spite of all this, or perhaps because of all this, we had a blast and I can't wait to go again next year. The scenery was beautiful and company was even better.

About Me Quiz

I got this from my friend Bonnie's blog and thought it was fun...

Ten Years Ago:July 1998 - was the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. I was in London with my friend Kelly taking a History of British Rock 'n' Roll class...yeah, life was pretty rough! :) We (Kelly and I) were preparing move out of the dorms and into our first apartment together with our other friend Jana. It was the summer I started seeing my first boyfriend (we broke up a year-and-a-half later). I think I worked at Eddie Bauer for a few weeks that summer before and after hour trip to London.

Five Things on Today's To-Do List:

(1) Organize for the canoe trip I'm going on later this month.
(2) Plant some coral bells in my flower bed to fill in the dead spot where the squirrels stole all my bulbs.
(3) Go to the gym
(4) Do some paperwork for a professional organization I'm in.
(5) Go to happy hour with some co-workers

Snacks I Enjoy: I'll agree with Bonnie on this one: fresh guacamole! I also love that People Puppy Chow (chex cereal with chocolate, peanut butter and powdered sugar), almonds (fresh or lightly roasted with salt), and beef sticks.

Things I Would Do If I Was a Millionaire: buy a house, upgrade our cars, invest like crazy, and pace ourselves spending the rest on travel (Italy, Key West and Hawaii would start the list), starting a college fund for any future kids we may have (no, this is not an announcement) and our nephews and then give to charity. I would continue to work, though!

Places I Have Lived: Omaha, NE; Ames, IA; St. Paul and Bloomington, MN; and part-time in Chicago, IL for awhile.

Scrapbookers!

Check out this lady's blog, she's got some great sneak peeks for the summer CHA show:

http://moniquemclean.typepad.com/scrap_etc/summer-cha-2008-sneak-pee.html

New Layout

This is a layout I did yesterday for a challenge on a scrapping message border. These are photos of my nephew and I in May.

Floral Cards

Got some craftin' time in this holiday weekend.

I made a set of 8 of these, all are similar but not are exactly the same due to the flowers I had available to me (they were handcut from a sheet of patterned paper).

I cut the flowers out of this sheet of paper by American Crafts...yeah, it took awhile but I caught up on some Oprah while I did it.

The textured cardstock is Bazzill, the patterned paper is from the American Crafts a la Carte line and it's called Vinegarette. I found it last week while strolling through Artsy Tartsy. I'd seen it several times before but this was the time that I found it inspiring. The scalloped edge was cut with the Fiskars Threading Waters punch. You can't tell from this scan, but I did put Close to my Heart Liquid Glass on the flower centers to give it an epoxy look.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope you all enjoyed the day safely! This was my view of the fireworks tonight...very Minneapolitan. Thank you to all of the servicemen and women who guard our freedom and keep us safe.