I feel like I really haven’t blogged about life in so long — and there is ALWAYS so much going on. I’m putting a bunch of random stuff together and calling it a Friday FIVE.

ONE.  My ‘late’ layout for Write. Click. Scrapbook.

This also happens to be what I call a ‘least common’ layout in my Library of Memories class. Every year I give my students an assignment to ‘assess’ the trends in their current or most recent scrapbook pages or stories. They are then asked to create a page that represents (from both a content and journaling perspective) those things that they have not been doing.

While I do quite a few US layouts (layouts celebrating the personality and relationships of my immediate family) I’m NOT very good at scrapbooking Geoff and my relationship with him. Fortunately for me, the Write. Click. Scrapbook topic for January was ‘the men in our lives’ — click here to see MORE pages.

My journaling reads: I so enjoy the chance to share memories of our week in Osaka, Japan with friends and neighbors. I love the way we banter back and forth, adding in the bits. I doubt we hold the attention of our audience as much as our own. Never mind. We’ll just entertain each other–where shall we go next? Note: more on the back of this page.

The cool thing is I put a little envelope on the back of this page, handed Geoff a similar 4×6 photo mounted on cardstock and asked him to handwrite some thoughts. Here’s what he wrote: We spent the evening in Dotombori, a bustling downtown scene along the canal. Octopus balls are the local specialty. People stand in long lines to get a bowl. Stacy and I are posing, but could not eat them. They taste just like you would imagine. What a great place to walk around. Thousands of people, lights, lots of energy. I love this picture because it reminds me of a great evening spent with Stacy, and shows off her amazing, beautiful eyes.

Hello? I didn’t give him any direction and that is what I got? How easy — how often are we NOT including the perspective of others simply because we are NOT asking. And besides that, who doesn’t enjoy an unsolicited compliment about your eyes. Girls — give your man the pen and see what good things happen.

TWO.  Spokane Valley ENT

Geoff and his partners have built a brand new, beautiful surgery center and the open house is February 23rd. I’ve been helping with some decorative touches. I need to post the whole story sometime soon. I am SO PROUD of Geoff. He has really been the visionary behind this whole project and has seen all of the details through, working with the architect, his office manager and the new surgery center staff. We’ve had so much fun selecting art for the walls and making what could be a sterile environment feel a bit more comfortable.

THREE. Ate lunch with Nan Scott.

Nan is the owner and creative force behind nanscottdesignstudio.com
Nan emailed before Christmas and asked if we could go to lunch sometime — absolutely!
She flew in yesterday from Portland and Kayce and I had a GREAT conversation with her about vision and hard work and the future of scrapbooking. I adore Nan’s tagline: Modern Digital Scrapbooking, Beautifully Simple — you’ll be hearing more about Nan in the near future.

FOUR. Family FUN.

Life is busy, busy, busy as usual. I was talking to my mom not too long ago and she said “Hang in there sweetheart this is the busiest time of your life and the time that you will look back on with the most JOY.” I know she is right, but seriously … I’m exhausted.

Lunch at A&W, with Pete and Hannah. When’s the last time you ate there?

Love that they still serve root beer floats in chilled glass mugs. SO YUM.

The Cordons came for a their annual ski Spokane visit. This is Nolan and the snowboarders (L2R: Tyler, Clark and Trey)

What a cute shot — those Dad’s don’t do so bad after all! This was Trevor’s first time on the slops. Kara and Taft are now old pros and picked up right where they left off last year.

I don’t ski. Long story.
I asked Geoff to bring me some pictures of Clark snowboarding. Not sure I want to see anymore.
No, really — I need to post the movie that Clark made when everyone got home. It’s really good and it goes without saying that Clark (who is on the mountain today) has NO FEAR and is quite talented. We are all looking forward to the Winter Olympics!

Chase stayed home on the first day everyone went up. He didn’t want to miss school, because it was NERD Day. Enough said.

We had a little Super Bowl party after church on Sunday. Love this pic of Geoff and Dan with their chicken wings.

We served Taco Soup too. It has been our Souper Bowl tradition for probably 15 years. I need to post the recipe sometime!

I saved the BEST for LAST. Love this shot of little miss Addie. Even though her eyes are closed. It says so much about her personality right now, from the skirt she picked out herself at Gymboree, to the sandles in February. She is such a good ‘mommy’ to Peaches, the elephant.

FIVE. Happy Valentine’s Day.

I’ll be back on Sunday with a special surprise for my family. In the meantime, scenes from a 3rd grade Valentine’s party.

Not really the party, but Taft creating his own cards. He was the only one with ‘homemade’ valentines!

BINGO. With conversation hearts of course.

Taft winning BINGO. cool.

Taft with his BINGO prize.

Taft with his SUPER-COOL ’shake and pop’ valentine. Anyone else seen these? I tried to find some yesterday after school with no luck. You smash a little mylar package and then shake it — and it POPS open to reveal a little heart-shaped balloon. I was so amazed I asked the teacher to cut one open. I’m pretty sure it’s a basic chemical reaction involving vinegar and baking soda. Maybe?

Have a WONDERFUL (4 days at our house) weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 8:05 am and is filed under Family, Memories, Scrapbooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.