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.

Happy Birthday Boys!

This weekend we celebrated my husband and my nephew's birthdays...ok, so we were a little late for J's and a little early for Greg's, but who's counting anyway?

We had a great time celebrating at my sister-in-law's new house with both her (our) family and her in-laws there. J and Greg had a fantastic time with their Pixar Cars-Themed birthday party, ice cream cake, presents and plenty of good times outside with family and friends.

Happy birthday, boys! You know I love you both so very much!