Some of the people that I adore!

Mary Rogers and Suzanne Quillen outside of the CK and Chatterbox booths!

Maria Grace Abuzman, Kah-mei and Suzanne Quillen at the Fontwerks booth! These are such fun girls and wow, talented!



Michelle Hill
This Girl has got "it"! A product designer for Lil' Davis she seriously sparkles!


Elsie Flannigan
A CK SuperStar, but more importantly, a really soft and sweet woman!




Sharly Balcaen
Designs for Scenic Route and a few other cool shops! So Cute!





Debby Shuh
A talented woman who is beyond classy! She designs for Anna Griffin and exudes confidence and style!

How lucky am I that I have friends like these!
B-

The low down on my CHA summer trip

Let's start with the roommates:
Sara Winnick
Sara*W
Seriously...
hilarious, talented and easy-going. She is amazing. She can express things with her face that she will never say, but if you were to spend enought time with her, she would always be an open book! She is so patient and professional as well.

Mary Kay Seckinger
EmKayEss
Wonderfully talented, a great converstionalist, and delightfully opinionated!
She is so independent, she would get up first thing go to her classes, and do her "things"! She is a girl with plans! She managed to hit all of the desirable make-n-takes, do the manufacturer tour and get her card filled so she could get the goodies!

Suzanne Quillen
Squillen
This girl doesn't need sleep, we had a lot to talk about! She could actually outlast me, that scares me! She brought with her besides the requisite clothes and scrapping gear, 14 dozen cookies that were all hand decorated, a gorgeous (and quite tasty) apple pie and a loaf of sweet potatoe bread! Hello, does she really ever sleep? After that weekend I have decided deninitely NOT! Oh yeah, and everyone and I mean everyone knows her! Which is great if the said cookies are with her and I get to become associated as "cool" by proximity! And she is that whole talented and fun thing too!

So we called it Roomie-palooza!
We brought kits for each other and we did pages for each others albums with the kits. It was a three scrappers five products kind of thing. Each album used the products that had been brought by that person! It was great to see each artist's style and process. It was a palette cleansing for me. After seeing so much "stuff" through the day, getting to comeback and be challenged by this was a great way to put away all the days sights and sounds and re-focus!
B-

Taking the Scenic Route

Lazy Summer Days So what have you been doing for the summer? I haven't been that busy until just this last week. Had a wonderful opportunity to play (thanks Sarah and Layle!)with the new Scenic Route CHA release, and it is gorgeous!
TemptationSo with the last week being full of paper and glue, the rest of my stuff has been in a holding pattern! I leave in 36 hours for Chicago, and still have just a few more things to do besides love on the kids a little more!
Two PeasI really like the work I was able to do with this new line, and the colors really were fun and spoke to me!
TrueI could visualize just what I wanted, and totally get there! There were some paper size issues, since we were working with printer proof sheets, we only had one of each design! Rox and I had to do some serious negotiating to make it all work, scraps and all! It got very funny at some points!
Room for Squares
SpoiledThe summer has just flown by, and I can't believe that the kids go back to school in just four weeks.
Me and My ShadowI need to get them out of town, but I am not sure how and when or where! Any suggestions? Karla wants us to go to Oregon in a week, but *ack* not sure if I am up for that drive!
Good Clean FunThe kids would love to go to CA, but there is a bit of weirdness with Dave's parents, they haven't been very communicative, so we think there is something going on with his mom's health. Any way, don't want to drive all the way there to find out they decided to jump to Hawaii for a couple of weeks.
Take a HikeDave is still relatively new in some duties at the office so he isn't feeling like a long week is in the cards for him. So thus, my best vacations this summer (but not the kids, hehehe!) have been in my scrap room playing!
And getting to take the Scenic Route Paper Co. vacation was heavenly!
B-

I am such a Dufus!

Is that a word? Even if not, it still would describe me!
I made travel arrangements to go to Chicago alone.
I love adventure, and so when the opportunity came to go, I just bought my plane tickets. Well, I spent the day trying to find out exactly where I am going!
The flight is into O'Hare airport. The Hotel is a Westin, there are only three in Chicago. The convention is at the Donald E Stevens center in Rosemont. I think I have it covered! I'll just bring my running shoes and be good to go! I think the downside of this convention center is that it isn't in downtown Chicago. I was really looking forward to seeing this area, and will probably have to take a train to get there. Easier to rent a car, maybe. I will seriously be missing Rox on this deal, she and I rarely are apart when it comes to stuff like this, but she used her fun money to go on a "family" vacation. I will still take the kids to Oregon later this summer, but this was just too much cool to pass up!
All the girls who are going to be sharing the hotel room have decided to do some fun swaps with each other, and some little giftie things. I love this!
So my count down has started! Only Ten days!
The girls will be gons all week for girls camp, so that will make the house a little quieter than usual also, and with Wimbledon done, I will have plenty of time to make happy messes in my {S}crap room too!
I do have to try to catch up with the Tour tho, in the past I had followed it closely, but this year has been a thin watch for me, I only know a handful of the riders that are left. I really wanted to see George Hincapie have a breakthrough for his many years of hard work, but he is 17th right now, not good! Dave Zabriskie is a local guy, but the news in Utah suffers from a state of smallmindedness, so we never hear how is doing. I think he is in 9th.
Anyway, Lots of tennis to play this week, and lots of scrapping to do!
B-

Saturday is a special day

Today Dave and I got up and went to the aerobic tennis workout, lots of balls, lots of running and lots of fun. After that hour and a half of sweating profusely, I went to my team workout and hit for another hour and a half with girls who absolutely RACK on the ball! So much FUN! I got home, exhausted, sweatier and ready to put ice on every joint I own! So instead of sitting down Dave and I went over to the church and fulfilled our scheduled commitment to help clean the church building. The good thing is that when everyone shows up it goes quickly! Dave and I vacuumed (my shoulders were so tired, the vacuum felt like it weighed 1000 pounds!) a bunch of the classrooms, emptied the trash cans and shook the front foyer entry mats and then vacuumed them. The building always looks so nice, and it is so great that all the families in the stake take turns to care for the building!
I am now finally sitting down and icing knees and watching Wimbledon Women's finals. Mauresmo is finally staying tough and beating Henin-Hardenne. Any tennis fan worth their balls is supporting Mauresmo because of the Australian Open where Henin-Hardenne retired from the finals in the second set she was playing against Mauresmo because her stomach hurt. Such incredibly bad form to steal such an important moment from another athlete that they have earned! Congrats Amelie, well deserved win! Beautifully played tennis!
On the scrapping side of life, I have taken this week off. I had so much tennis to watch and so many other things going on, that this took a break. It is good for me, I think that this keeps me fresh and humgry, I always have so many ideas in my head that it is really hard to stay focused, so a little time off helps me. Whenever I get back to my room after a small break, the ideas that have the most staying power find a way to a page usually!
Sometimes is I wish that I had way more time, but I don't think that I am alone in that wish!
Well, I will be watching the Men's Wimbledon final tomorrow with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, hoping that it will be on in my craft room, and not my bedroom with my ice packs!
B-

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th

And today is the 6th.
What was I doing instead of blogging?
Well, Kimand her good friend Lindsay had this really cool contest going and Rox and I couldn't pass up the chance to enter!
It was for 2 (yes, two!) registrations for the SBA girls weekend! That is almost $1000 worth of wow!
So getting our entry done took the better part of two days. We had to do some layouts and answer some really funny random questions about some of the participating instructors. But most of the questions were from Kim and Lindsay's fun lives!
Along with this silliness I played a little tennis, LOL! Monday was about 4 hours total, two in the morning and then two in the afternoon! Poor me! Tuesday brought one of my favorite holidays and oh, yes I started the morning with a hit with Winnie!
Winnie is the amazing mother of the other pro I hit with a lot, Lindsey. She is in her late 50's, and she is incredible! Beautiful, athletic and the nicest most sincere person, LOVE her! So it costs me a lot of money to hang out with her, but worth every cent!
After a refreshing and necessary shower, I watched tennis, Wimbledon is in the second week, and I am obsessed! No American players left in the draw, bummer. But the quality of tennis is so high that it is so inspiring!
After a slow start, we got ready to go to my parents house to enjoy the late afternoon with a BBQ, card games and then fireworks. It was fun and we stayed way to late!
My brother and his wife have been staying with my parents since they sold everything and moved from Dallas. So I spent the day with them driving around and looking for the neighborhoods that appeal to them. They want to be really smart with their next house purchase and try to find a "livable" fixer. But staying with your parents for an extended amount of time could become trying, and they don't really want to get there, so it is something they want to stay on task with! I was very glad to help!
Of course there was the requisite 1.5 of tennis for me in the late afternoon, so I was able to deal with the car ride knowing there was light at the end of the tunnel!
Sadly, I haven't used a camera in days now. I just haven't had it in hand when I wanted it, and haven't taken the time to go find pictures, bad me!
The girls have loved having their "girl cousins" move so close and have enjoyed every minute spent with them! So many wonderful things about your family living close together!
We are blessed!
B
p.s. still miss the boy.

TV Tennis butt!

So I love tennis.
And I love to watch tennis.
And today was one of those days that was an amazing tv day for tennis, but the result after a day spent on my butt, I am SAD!
Andre Agassi, what a wonderful athlete and great philanthropist, played Rafael Nadal.
He lost and it broke my heart, because Andre just announced that he is retiring after the U.S. Open in Sept. It was a beautiful match but Rafa had all the answers today.
The next match that took my heart was Andy Roddick playing Andy Murray. After almost three hours Andy Murray played brilliant tennis and upset Roddick. I so wanted Roddick to get through here and have a comeback worthy of his ability, he just couldn't come up with what he needed to make it happen today.

On a more spiritual note, Chad and Tori (nephew and niece) were baptized today, and I spoke. It was a great experience to share my love of the Holy Ghost with them. We spent the afternoon at my parents enjoying lunch and the company of my quirky family, it was fun!

My project for the next couple of days is to WIN a trip to AZ for a scrapbooking event that I have been wanting so badly to go to!
Kim Kwan pointed this out to me, and I am really competitive and want to win because I deserved it, not because no one else is playing! So find a partner and play! Don't you really want to go? Yeah, you know you do!

So this post is going to be short because I have a lot of blog reading to do to find the answers!
See you in at the girls weekend!
B-