Memorial Day Weekend

It's the end of a great weekend.

Friday night Peter and I went to the new Indiana Jones movie with our friends Liz and Eric. I thought it was good and that they did a good job replicating the Indiana Jones feeling.

Saturday Peter and I took the CTA to the museum campus and up to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We took a lot of pictures with the new camera and experimented with several of the settings. We still have a lot we would like to learn but it helped us get better acquainted with the camera. I definitely like the camera.

Sunday we went to church and then I went to Windy City Scrapbooking for Grace's card class. It's a great class each month and I was finally able to get my friend Sarah there with me. We made a everyday card, Father's Day card, and a set of note cards. It is always fun to make cards with Grace and I look forward to it every month.

Today we got some things done around the house and then spent the afternoon at the beach with our friends Sarah, Jim, Emily, and Greg. It was good to hang out with them and grill out. The weather was beautiful and it was great to be out enjoying it.

Peter leaves for Seattle tomorrow. I'll really miss him and hopefully this week will go quickly.

ta ta for now...

The days of May...

are flying by! I'm excited as I look forward to the next few days. Not that there is anything special planned but I'm looking forward to an unstructured weekend with my hubby. We usually are traveling to Michigan for Memorial Day weekend but have opted out this year due to the weekends we will be traveling to Michigan for weddings this summer. I'm hoping we will get out for a day of picture taking with our new camera. We both need to play around and learn what it can do.

I had a big day this week "scrap-wise." My "Live, Laugh, Love" layout was chosen as the Layout of the Day on Creating Keepsakes Blog for May 21st . It was such a great surprise. I love this picture of my neice and nephew and was happy to finally have the perfect paper and embellishments to use. Due largely in part to my Studio Calico May kit.

I look forward to showing you some pictures from the weekend!!

I'm thrilled to tell you that we got a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR Camera yesterday! I've been wanting one for awhile now and had a hard time talking Peter into the purchase. We bought the kit that came with the 17-85mm Image Stabilization lens and the 50mm. The next lens (awhile down the road) will be the 70-300mm so that we have 17mm through 300mm covered. We have played around with it some but have a lot more to learn. We got a DVD and I'm sure we'll invest in a good XTi book in the near future. I'm hoping that we can spend some time next weekend out and about just playing with the different settings and lenses to get a sense of what each does. I've been reading a lot about them but I need to really "see" what each one does.

I really wanted this camera to take our pictures to the next level. I've always loved pictures and I love scrapbooking them to preserve the moments. Great picture quality is very important to me since they mean so much to me. I look forward to sharing pictures as I begin to play!

Today we went to our friends Andy and Jen's house for their daughter Kate's 1st Birthday. They threw a great birthday part for her with lots of friends and family around. I cannot believe it was already a year ago that we visited them in the hospital after Kate's birth. Wow, how time flies.

Home from Florida

Peter and I had a great trip to Florida to visit my Dad and Judy. The weather was beautiful, upper 80's and sunny the whole time. My Dad was off work all three days we were there and it was really nice to spend time with him. Judy had to work but we saw her as much as we could. We came back to a cold Chicago with quite the sun-burns. Here's a little re-cap:

Friday: Visited the National Museum of Navel Aviation at NAS in Pensacola, FL, Joe Patti's Seafood, Naval Live Oaks, Pensacola Beach and finished with a shrimp dinner prepared by Judy.

Saturday: Visited Navarre Beach and spent time on the beach, in the ocean, and in the sand. Drove to Destin where Peter and Dad had their first "Whataburgers." Enjoyed some great Barbeque and finished the day at Peg Leg Pete's in Pensacola Beach with some great Key Lime Pie.

Sunday: Went to Church and enjoyed Mother's Day brunch with Dad and Judy before heading to the airport.

My First Post

Well, here it goes...I'm joining many of my scraping friends in the blogging world. I'm joining a community of many but am excited that I can take this blog in whatever direction I choose. I plan to keep track of events as time flies by and display my scrappy projects. I'm hoping it will evolve into a place where my friends and family can check in on me regardless of how far apart we are.

Here are some of the things we've been up to:

• Attended Caleb's graduation at MSU in East Lansing, MI on Sat. May 3rd. I couldn't believe it had been 5 years to the day that I had graduated from the same business school. Time certainly has flown but a lot has changed too.
  
• My husband, Peter, and I are heading to Pensacola, FL on Thursday to visit Dad and Judy. It will be a short trip but it will be nice to spend some time with them and show Peter around the area.
  
• We've booked our tickets to visit my brother John and his family in Oregon at the end of August. We'll get to see my neice and nephew that have grown SO much since we were there last summer. (They are inspiration for many of my scrapbook pages.) Caleb will be in Washinton so hopefully we'll get to see him too. It will be a great family affair!
  

I'll leave you with a couple layouts that I've completed recently.

(yes - this is me)

Two of my closest Friends: Jenny and I with Megan on her Wedding Day

Oct 2007