my grandma

Today would have been my Grandma's (Ashby) 95th birthday. (She passed away February 13, 2006.) So, today I think of her. She was the best Grandma that anyone could have ever hoped for. She was full of LOVE. Anytime you wanted to come visit she'd let you, she'd even let you stay the night.

She'd have a warm cake waiting when you arrived, and would make icing from scratch. yum!

She was a great cook. She made the best scrambled eggs. (I know your thinking... um... those are super easy...but no one made scrambled eggs quite like hers.) One time she even made me green (scrambled) eggs and ham. :)

She was quite the NIGHT OWL, which made me laugh. She'd stay up until one in the morning, and then often sleep until well past ten. She was much like a teenager, with her sleeping patterns. Which made staying at her house fun... she'd play games well into the night. 

She was always up for a laugh. She kept a good sense of HUMOR She often said things like you'll just have laugh about it... that is all you can do. We often giggled until we cried.   

She had a good IMAGINATION, and also encouraged to let us be very imaginative. There were countless of times we set up Grace's Cafe at her house. We had so much fun. We loved being with her.

There are so may good things to say about this lady. She loved a party. She loved having people over. She celebrated life. She lived the gospel. She served others. She loved everyone. She would listen. She would give great advice. 

I am happy she is in heaven. I know she loves it there. I know she is happy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY grandma. 

love you.

temple + family = forever

The other weekend (Saturday March 19th 2011) we got to see these fabulous people become a forever family. So, happy for them. 

After we joined them for a wedding luncheon. It was extremely yummy. They had Marconi Grill cater, and they even served my favorite... Carmela's Chicken Rigatoni. They had a great looking set up for the lunch, and not sure why... but I didn't take any pictures. I guess I was too focused on the food. :)

I am so happy for them. They are such a cute family. I hope we get together soon.

A Festive St. Patrick's Day!!

Lucky the leprechaun (free download here) made a visit to our house to surprise Cruz. All he had to do was follow the rainbow to find some of Lucky's golden treasure, and lucky charms. 

My Mom and Dad made this oh, so yummy Irish dinner. Corn beef and cabbage never tasted so good. We tried Irish soda bread for the first time. It was super yummy. My Mom did such a good job decorating the table in green and white. I didn't really get a picture, but it was very festive. 

Cruz was desperate for green... he took a shamrock from the wall to wear to dinner. 

Hope you too had a HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!

π (pi) Day

Pi, Greek letter (), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…
Did you know this day was celebrated? I didn't. Until the very day... and good ol' facebook informed me. It got me thinking, I should celebrate this obscure holiday.


How did you celebrate March 14, aka π (pi) day? 


Well, I don't consider myself to be a "math enthusiast"... really I just used it as an excuse to eat piE. I did look up online on ways to celebrate this little hidden holiday, and found some clever ideas... and some not so clever ideas as well. (all i can say is WOW, people are really crazy about math sometimes.) But you can take a look here.


We went with:

• #5 on the list: Eat 'pi' foods. (we had key lime pie, and pizza pie.)
• #6 on the list: Do a pi mile run. (needed when you going to have pie, and pizza for dinner.)

All and all it was a good little celebration. I may just do it next year!

Oh, and you got to love the pic of me and cruz in the image above... i'd just finished running, and cruz had been sick all day... even had to stay home from work. (He didn't run a pi.) But it was really the only one of us, so I stuck it in anyway. 

Good wishes for Japan

Here is the Christmas card I designed for Christmas 2010. LOL!! I never posted it, nor did I ever send it out. This was one of, and probably my favorite designs that I did. It was simple, it was one of the best pictures that we took while in Venezuela... during the attempted family photo-shoot. Came across this file today, and thought about those in Japan. Probably because I love those people. I served (an LDS mission) in the Japan Hiroshima Mission in 2002-2003. I wish that they didn't have to have an earthquake or a tsunami. I wish them LOVE & JOY, I also wish them STRENGTH & PEACE, and SAFELY & HOPE. Donations can be contributed here. I am shocked at this disaster. Watching the news makes me cry. Seeing homes float and crumble; cars, vans, floating, people waving from roof tops. I love that the Japanese people have stayed true to their kind hearts. Watching the news they told stories of people patiently waiting in line for food, offering crackers to news reporters... even though they only had little food for themselves. There hasn't been looting, and the crime rate hasn't risen. What good examples they are. Please pray for the people in Japan. Please, please.

President's Day 2011

This year on PRESIDENT'S DAY Cruz had to work. I had the day off. But I did try to do lots of things in one day. I did cleaning, shopping, organizing, went and got a massage here.

The massage was so relaxing that I even missed my exit off of the freeway. LOL.

I'd planned to have a little President's Day Dinner with Cruz when he got off work. However; everything took a lot longer than planned and we didn't get dinner until late... and it didn't quite go as planned. I couldn't find our American Flag. (I could find a Japanese and a Venezuelan flag...) I had decided to do a recipe that my Mom had made a few weeks prior; with lots of veggies. I'll call it Pres. Thomas Jefferson Veggies since one of his favorite foods were vegtables. (See this fun site telling the US President's favorite foods.) These veggies included beets, carrots, rootabaga, turnips, onions, peppers, etc... cut them all up and season them with garlic, salt and pepper, and Mrs.Dash. They tasted pretty good, just that it took FOREVER to cut them all up, and get them cooked.

We also had grilled lemon pepper fish. Which was a favorite of President Roosevelt. We served a yummy pomegranate on the rocks drink, with little unbrellas. For dessert we had some tasty President George Washinton cherries. All in all after it was done, it was a good dinner.

Happy to have had a day off.

Happy to celebrate living in an amazing country that has been blessed by good leaders.

Loving the goal I made for 2011 of PARTY MORE. It's fun to think of ways to celebrate the little holidays. What did you do for President's Day?

Lucky Little Leprechaun

Lucky my Little Leprechaun and I are getting ready for Saint Patrick's day!

Download Lucky the Leprechaun for yourself by clicking on him.

Disney has some fun ideas... HERE

(I got my Leprechaun there and colored him in illustrator.)

I also like all the festive things eighteen25 has on her blog... HERE

Other things...


St.P-day love note sayings...
Because you are my sunshine, and I am your Rainbow...
(Cruz, (my hubby) always says Love you Rainbow... when I have said Love you Sunshine.)
Lucky to be in LOVE with you.
You are my LUCKY CHARM.
Kiss me I'm Irish.


Leprechaun Visits...
Turn Milk Green
Green foot prints around the house
Little messes with a shamrock 
(Not sure I'd ever do that, since I'd have to clean it up afterwards.)

Treat Ideas From the Store...

Lucky Charms

Skittles

Rollos

Hershey's Treasures

Gold (Almond) Kisses

From the Kitchen... 

(I would list links here but seriously google them... there are lots of ideas.)

Irish Soda Bread

(I saw that Kneaders Bakery & Cafe are selling Irish Soda bread)

Rainbow Pancakes

Rainbow layered Jello

Rainbow Cake and or Cupcakes

Root Beer or Cream Soda Ice Cream Floats

I am planing a for a festive St. Patty's day. 
(I think I will be festive, and yet simple... since I do work all day and such.)

I hope you are doing the same. 

We have no kids, but we celebrate any time we have a chance. 

(We even celebrated ∏  (pi) day 3.14.2011. More to come on that later.)

Any great ideas let me know.

Valentine's Day (WEEKEND)

I know that Valentine's day was almost a month ago... but I finally got my computer to cooperate with me and allow me to get these pictures off of my camera and on to it. :)
However... we had a fantastic Valentine's day or should I say weekend!

Cruz did such an amazing job at making me feel like the most wonderful wife ever on my birthday... I wanted to have some fun with valentine's day. I made a yummy dinner Friday. Then I made breakfast in bed for him the next three days. I tried to keep things budget friendly, and still fun.

We opted for restaurant on Saturday... instead of the actual v-day.

We didn't even have to wait. Perfect idea if you ask me.

Valentine's day can seem commercial. But I really do like having a day that the calendar says "Hey, do something romantic for each other." I like getting flowers, little chocolates... and I also like doing little surprises for Cruz. He is my LOVE, and I loved spending Valentine's day weekend with only HIM!

{Click images to see them larger!}

working on working out

{download this calendar for yourself by clicking on the image, and then zooming in.}

I am going to run this. (the 5k part)
I have never ran a race before.
I do well when I keep track of my progress.
I was really motivated in January when I signed up for the race.
I made a calendar for February, and it only filled out the first 2 weeks, and the last few days.
I hope to do much better this month.
I have a goal this year to BE HEALTHY. This is part of that.
I made this calendar for March, and thought you may want to keep track of yourself as well.

It's simple...

time = total time exercised

dis = total distance 

cal = total calories burned

I plan to fill out this cute little calendar at least 4 days a week.
My goal is to go 3.2 miles (5K) at least 2 times a week.

Wish me the luck of the Irish!

Feel free to download this for yourself, and keep track of all your hard-work.