{My Holiday Helpers}

This has been a strange month. It's like Friday the 13th
everyday or something. :( Couple good things though...

* My last day of classes is Tuesday the 16th. Glad this
semester (if you can call it that) is almost over.

* I've spent a lot of time with the Morenos in the past week.
Linds and Michael had their baby girls, Teagan and Boston,
Sunday the 7th. Boston is still in the NICU but doing okay.
She just needs to eat on her own before she can come home.
Teagan is home and in the process of figuring out her new
schedule. Mom and dad are doing a lot of back and forth,
but they're hanging in there. Those girls are so itty bitty!


Grandma Diane with Lindsay and Boston


Michael and Teagan


Here's a better look at Teagan's face.
Boston looks exactly the same, just a little smaller.

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Now onto those holiday helpers of mine. Killian was the
best gift wrapping partner a girl could ask for. We got
all the gifts for the kids wrapped and sent this week.
Killian loves wrapping paper rolls. :)
I was really excited to only spend $50 on gift shipping
this year -- a bargain after spending $200 on that last
year. I was also able to avoid buying one single plastic-
laden toy! Sorry "made in China". Instead, I focused on
books and clothes. (The first picture is a little blurry, but
it makes me smile.)




Remember how I discovered Oliver in my tree chewing on the
lights? Well, I took the lights off, and what do ya know...
They all still work. It's a mystery, but I'm glad they do.
They're the first lights I ever bought -- December 1996 --
and they're still delivering glimmering Christmas joy. :)


These floating shelves in the living room have become my
favorite seasonal decorating tool. They lend themselves
so nicely to holiday flair. Here's what they look like
this Christmas...




And one last thing...
Norah and Killian are the best. They make me smile every
single day, without fail. (And I've needed it lately.) They were
playing out in the back yard the other day with their trusty
tennis ball when it landed in the pool. I heard the sound of
sloshing water through the open window and thought they
had gotten in themselves. I went back to check on them and
found this. Such cute babies.


Never fear, guys. Mom is here. :)

{Memory Book for Mom, Part 1}

David's mom, Sandy, has a lot of pictures of the boys from
when they were little. They just needed a home in a book
that would be easy to flip through. When he was visiting in
August, I had him pick up a stack of those old photos so I
could do something with them for her.

My goals with this project were simple:
* get all the pictures in one book
* without spending too many hours or dollars
This translated into:
* photos on cardstock, for the most part
* an album style book instead of creative scrapbook pages

I sent it her way recently. So, now I can post the pages. I
thought those of you who knew Brian and David when they were
little or who know them now would especially appreciate this.

Click images to enlarge:

This is the photo I put in the book's front cover. David, the
littler of the two, looks like a blonde, miniature version of his
dad here.






Brian and David have a lovely mom. Here she is, back in the
day, cute as a button and all dressed in white. She has always
been and always is so absolutely put together.


Portraits of Brian through the years. He is 14 months older
then David. He lives in Chicago now.


David, the younger years. I had never seen the school
photo at the top, left of this page. It is officially my favorite
picture of him now. He still makes that expression at times,
and it always melts my heart.


David, a little older.


High school graduation. That's Brian and his mom on the
top and D with his mom on the bottom.


David took a photo with his mom during his senior pictures.

The rest of the pages are family pictures:

They spent a lot of time with Uncle Dick and Aunt Anita
growing up. That bottom, middle picture is Anita and the
boys with a bowl of Maryland Blue Crab.


That's Anita with Ryan in the bottom left. Love that picture.
As I do that one of Brian on the top left. So STRONG! :)


Family pictures with Sandy, her parents and her siblings.


I left a little spot for her to journal on this page. More family
time here. That's Uncle Jim, bottom right.


Pictures with the grandparents and more room to journal.


Eating Thanksgiving and blue crab.


These photos are of the boys as they're getting older.
That's Tracy, Brian's wife on the bottom right. They were
so young there! (They're still together.)




And last but not least, a holiday card from their house in
Sylvan Lake that I'm sure Anita drew for them, pictures of
Brian and his mom, family pets, and this cute birthday note
from Brian to Sandy.

Whew! That was a lot of scanning. I have one more post of
the pages in the book posted below that include all the boys
sports pictures.
That's in for now...

{Memory Book for Mom, Part 2}

Here are the rest of the pages in the scrap album I made for
my mother-in-law.

David and his brother, Brian, were nothing if not little athletes.
They participated in so many sports all through school, starting
as little guys with pee wee football. These pages are all about

sports and CUTE players of sports. :)


That top, center picture is tough to make out, but Brian is
the little boy all the way to the left with the ball. David is
right in the center running towards him.


More sports teams -- football and soccer. Then that's Brian
running cross country, bottom left. David running track,
bottom right.


Baseball!


I'm thinking this was late elementary or early middle school
football. That's Brian on the top and David on the bottom of
the page. CUTE, CUTE!


These are all photos of Brian in wrestling.


And here are David's wrestling photos. So skinny in that
top picture.


Brian also golfed. Here are pictures of his tournament at MSU.


More of Brian and his golf team rockin' the 80's look.


David


David played football through high school, too. I love these
pictures of him, especially the little one in the center.

And that's a wrap. It was a fun project. Sandy received the
book yesterday. I'm anxious to hear what she thinks about it.

{Just So There's No Question}

There's nothing more delicious in the Universe...



This stuff to to die for. It's spreadable hazelnut
chocolate. Like Nutella but 1,000 times better...
Smoother, more intense. If you have a foodie or a
chocolate lover on your Christmas list, think about
getting some for their stocking. I got mine in Sedona
at a little gourmet shop. You can find it online, too.

Happy Friday to all. I'm off to mail Christmas
gifts to the kiddos. :)

{Travel Treasures}

I'm a big fan of souvenirs as reminders of places I loved
visiting. It's also nice to collect things with a story of some
kind. I've got enough small nick knacks to last a lifetime
though. So, I've almost officially made the switch to bigger
pieces, jewelry and ornaments as reminders of my stay when
I have the chance to go somewhere. My trip to Sedona the
other week included some splurging! I was in a shopping kind
of place. :)


These bowls now have a home atop our kitchen cupboards.
They are Navajo designed but not Navajo made, which I
think is code for "they cost a lot less that way."
The ladies I bought them from were so wonderful. I
appreciated them telling me about the baskets. It's
better to know what you really have then think you have
something you don't -- a lesson I've been learning in my
own life lately.


The same ladies sold me this gorgeous rug. I don't normally
do the southwest thing, but the texture and color of these
rugs was so lovely, I couldn't pass them by. This rug was
handmade in a Mexican village. Each area there specialises
in one product. They deliver the rugs to the store in Sedona
instead of shipping them. Since the store owners don't pay
for shipping, they kindly pass that savings onto their
customers. So, it was very reasonably priced. I still haven't
decided where to put it.


I love this lamp!! I found is so accidentally while out
walking the dogs. We went to this grassy area which
just happened to be encircled by a bunch of shops. I
spotted this through the window and knew it had to
be mine. I've been looking for a lamp to go on our living
room end table since I bought it at a garage sale
in May, but I hadn't seen the right one. This lamp has
three settings -- you can light the top bulb by itself,
the night light below or both of them together. It was
made by a family run company called Ariel out of Texas.
Their warehouse and factory took a beating in the hurricane
that hit the Galveston area this year. They were never
able to recover from it. So, they decided to shut their
doors for good.


I don't know if I love the lamp or this blanket more.
It was actually in the room where I stayed. The colors
are "my colors" and the size and weightiness of it
were perfect. So, I asked if they had any for sale,
and as luck would have it, they did!


This is what the inside looks like. I've bought a lot
of blankets over the years, and this one is by far my
favorite. So nice. It just feels like heaven on, and
it's big enough for two. If you're in the market for
an awesome blanket, check out their site. They have
other colors, as well.

The very last "souvenir" I picked up in Sedona was a
pricker that impaled itself into my heel. Neither David
nor I could extract it. So, I went to the doc to see if she
could dig it out. She said to soak it 2-3 times a day in
really hot water. I'm trying to do that, but it still
bothers me, especially when I wear shoes that go around
the back of my foot. No fun!

{A Tickle for Your Funny Bone}

Humor to make our days lighter.
That was one of the values my old boss in Dallas had up
on the wall in the office. He really tried to make sure we
set our focus on those values. I always thought it was a
good one. Then, last week, someone encouraged me to
use humor when trying to get through a difficult situation.
He said either way it'll be tough and painful, but if you can
laugh and joke a bit along the way, it'll make it easier on
everyone. Good advice.

I woke up this morning and wanted to spend the day at
home in bed in the worst way. Too bad, so sad. I can't!
Too much to do. When I got a cute email forward from Jen,
I thought I'd use a little humor to make my day lighter.
Hopefully it makes you're day brighter, too.











Yesterday was a busy one.
* I popped by the hospital three different times to see
the Morenos, which was totally the highlight of my day.
* I was able to stop at the book store and snag some Christmas
gifts for the kiddos in our life. Good bargain books deals!
* My story had me running around to pick up and drop off
camera equipment in both the morning and the evening. I
also did a lit interview that I was really happy with. Today,
I'm heading to the booth at ASU to download all my footage.
I'm anxious to see what I was able to get in the past few days.

That's it for today...
Love,
Sam

p.s. Is it seriously already December 9th???? Oigh.

{What a Difference a Day Makes}

This is our first Christmas with Oliver, and I think he really
likes it! I liked sharing it with him until this morning.
(More on that in a minute.)


So, now the cat's out of the bag, (pun intended) and you
know we have a fake tree. So bad for the earth. But I didn't
understand that when we bought it years ago, and now that
we have it ... Anyway, here is Mr. Oliver exploring the tree
box, which he was sure was specially purchased for his
amusement.


Helping his mama put up Christmas lights Saturday morning.


And here he is being adorable in his new spot under the tree.
Pretty lights!


Little did I know this cuteness was about to get ugly!

And when I say ugly...
This morning I woke up and walked out into the living
room. I let the dogs outside and wondered why I didn't
see and hear Oliver like I normally do. So, I was
looking around. That's when I heard this little cracking
noise. I moved my eyes to where my ears had heard it,
and there he was. Three quarters of the way up our
tree, CHEWING on my LIGHTS!

Grrrrr. Now my lights don't work, and I'm not sure how
to fix them or if they're fixable. Bad, Oliver! Someone
is getting put in my office with the door shut when I
leave today! If you have cats, have you had this problem?
If so, how do I keep it from happening again.

Very mad at my bad cat,
Samara

{Today is the Day!}

My dear friends Michael and Lindsay are going to
become parents today at precisely 12:30 PM
Arizona time. Teagan and Boston have created
quite a stir in the past months while they've been
growing in their mama's belly. I'm so looking
forward to meeting those girls. I wanted to wish
all four of the Morenos a healthy, safe day!

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UPDATE: The girls arrived and are doing great
in their tiny, preciousness! I just posted some
photos and info on Lindsay's blog if you wanna
check it out ... Click here.

{Put a Fork in Me. I'm Done!}

This week has worn my ass out. It shows, too.
I took some self portraits yesterday because I
wanted to document my new hair color. :)
Damn, I look like I've been hit by a truck! And I
deleted the bad ones, especially those of a close
up nature since close ups were not my friends. So,
I kept the self portraits at a safe distance with the
web cam. I guess life is about all of it, not just the
parts where you look fresh and rejuvenated.



It hasn't been all bad. I needed a blog break and
took one. I got to spend some time with Lindsay.
She is having a c-section on Sunday at 12:30pm!
So, we had a few things we wanted to do together
before that. I've started Christmas decorating,
and I've been putzing around the house making it
look cute.



I've also done some work on school. I had a really
good appointment with Chelsea this week. She's amazing.
It was such a good thing for me to switch from Jeff, who
wasn't a good fit, to her. You've gotta be able to
connect with your therapist. I'm heading out for a shoot
right now -- should be an interesting one. I'm starting
at the mosque in Tempe and then going to Tasneem's house
to do a couple interviews and get some shots of her mom
and grandma cooking traditional Palestinian dishes. I'm
anxious to see what I'm able to get.

Hopefully, I'll have a chance to do some crafting later
today and tomorrow. So, stay tuned, and have a great
weekend...