PLAY
MAKE THEIR DAY
CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE
BE PRESENT
Seattle is such a fun town to visit. You can't visit Seattle without experiencing Pike's Place Fish Market. Pike's employees are unbelievably entertaining. This week, the school where I work, had a week-long "Fish" experience. We were all given the book to read, bowls of Beta fish were popping up everywhere. I personally painted four large fish with the phrases, Play, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude and Be Present on them. We ended the week with a staff breakfast and the Pike's Place video. It's been a unique work week for both me and my husband. I had to be at work one hour early two mornings for meetings. I brought food for two potlucks. One for the breakfast and the second (because we are in Phoenix and our Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl) a Super Bowl potluck. Last night, I attended our schools musical production of "Bugsy". It was wonderful seeing so many of the children that I know on stage. I can't wait to congratulate them on Monday. This is the second year that my husband, as a PGA golf professional, has had the honor of being asked to volunteer as a rules official at the FDR Phoenix Open. In his capacity, he walks with a four-some, including a celebrity or tour professional and four amateurs. Needless to say, I am quite behind with my household chores. I forgot to mention, I had two meetings in the evenings this week and Bunco. I'll be getting right to those chores as soon as I arrive back this morning from shopping for a Cardinals shirt, going to the Chandler Flea Market and getting my hair done! Have a great weekend. Go Cardinals!

The Lion King was fabulous. We had front row seats! For those of you that have seen The Lion King, I'm sure that you can relate to my favorite characters, the giraffes and the cougar girl. That girl flowed. I loved watching her manipulate the cougar from using her arms and the wires attached to her head. Talk about coordination. Of course "The Circle of Life", Hakuna Matada" and several other songs are racing through my head. I would love to see it again! I'm currently working on coordinating another group of 25 for the "Wicked" production.

B-I-N-G-O
I found these darling downloadable (is that a word) Bingo cards on FLICKR. I'm not sure whose blog I orignally found them on. That's a symptom of reading too many. Guilty!

I actaully played Bingo this week. My friend, Loretta, invited me to go with her and a few friends. I didn't win. Too bad Taylor couldn't come with me. That girl always wins. Boy has Bingo changed.
You need an instruction manual to keep up! Every game is different with names like small picture frame, double t's, etc. Yikes! When did that happen?
Gotta get back out to the pool. We are going to the Lion King tonight! Yeah! We are wearing dresses and are tanning our legs this afternoon. Just a little and yes, we are wearing sunscreen. I'm reading my 10th Stephanie Plum - Janet Evanovich book. She makes me laugh out loud. Probably because they are so out of character for me to be reading!

Our Science Fair was yesterday. My girl and her partner won 3rd Place. I'm so proud of both of them. They get to go on to a higher level science fair next with their same project. They measured the different voltage levels produced from a potato, lemon or orange. GIRL POWER!

Yesterday we watched "The Battle of The Birds", the play off game between the Arizona Cardinals and The Eagles. It was soooo exciting. We are all thrilled that the Cardinals and won and are going to the Super Bowl! Patti was so hilarious. She is a big football fan. She grilled "Eagle Legs", which were very large chicken legs marinated in maple syrup and beer. They were delish. She said early on that if we all had one that the Cardinals would win. Must have worked! She was yelling "I Love You Larry" too. How exciting for Kurt Warner who hopefully will be named MVP. I love how he professes his faith in God publicly.

For the last two weekends, our son's high school band has been performing at Well's Fargo Events. Their first paying gigs. They have fun. There are lots of festivies including the Well's Fargo Stagecoach, free food and prizes. The fees they earn go against each student's $850-1250 winter band fees so I say bring it on. They pretty much take up our entire Saturdays though. After their event, they have to be taken back to other schools for competitions. Taylor and I have to drive him and a friend or pick them up from events anywhere in the Phoenix area. If you are familiar with Phoenix, that usually means a one-hour drive. We, therefore, have to kill 2-3 hours every week. I need to be home cleaning, organizing, etc, but it sure is fun to be out for the day shopping and going out to lunch. Yesterday we got pedicures for Taylor's straight A's. Of course Cole wasn't in on that deal so he chose a protective cover for his ITouch.

My dear friend Carmen was up from Tucson over the weekend. They had planned on arriving Friday night. Plans changed to Saturday and we were afraid that we would not be able to get together. Fate intervened and my cell phone rang Saturday afternoon just as I was dropping off Taylor at a birthday party. We were both free for two hours. What are the chances? We had a quick lunch and off we went to hit about 4 or 5 nearby stores. She made my day! Saturday night we had a family barbeque at my sister-in-laws and watched the Cardinals game. I am definitely not a television football watching fan, but what a fun game to watch and Larry Fitzgerald is so entertaining! Last time Carmen was up, we visited her friend Carrie. I was too busy to blog it at the time, but wanted to share these photos. Carrie and her husband bought an older home, had it torn down and built an exceptional custom home off of Camelback Road in Phoenix. Carrie's mother is an interior decorator specializing in custom fabrics. She took one year off of work to sew exclusively for Carrie and to help her with her three children while she tackles her new project. I've been lucky enough to see it twice, one year apart.
Several pieces of her furniture were garage sale finds including this chaise in her daughter's room. I love the trim and wish I could slipcover!

Please excuse the dark photo. I wanted to show the trim.
I'm loving this skirt on her baby girl's rocking chair as well. It, too, was a garage sale find. You would never know it now.
Last time we visited, this bench was royal blue. They have made so much progress in a year. We walked to Tammie Coe Cakes and I had my first, but definitely not last, Ooey Gooey Cupcake. I saw her zebra cake in person. Incredible! Such a work of art.

The Ever So Vivacious Scrappy Jessi was in town and hosted a blog party at The Arizona Grand Resort for several of us. Jessi requested a private room and after everyone arrived and the noise level went UP, they shut our door. I wonder why??? There was lots of giggling and chatting and several of us knew each other from our blogs but had never met in person.
Jessi had treats for each of us at our table. Maria presented each of us with her darling hearts, Tricia with a glassine envelope with yummy vintage papers and Jenny a pretty bag of Dove and Bliss dark chocolates. I brought Jessi a hostess gift but should have brought everyone else a treat too. I'll make up for it next time.


I finally had the honor of meeting Carol Wingert. I've been reading her blog for years and we seem to be at the same places but never at the same time. Leave it to Jessi to bring us all together. We definitely need to throw a party for her the next time she is in town. Thank you Maiji for sharing your photos with us.

Christmas Recap
I was beginning to really enjoy being home with my kids, finally getting a handle on Christmas, when my dear husband announced two days before Christmas, that he wanted to have his family over Christmas Eve. I immediately said "No." I did Thanksgiving. Your mother is doing Christmas and I'm not prepared. In Mark's defense, I will admit that he very sweetly had been praising me the last few weeks on my Christmas decor. By the time he arrived home in the evening, the kids and I would have all of the Christmas lights, garland, villages and fireplace lit. He said he wanted his family to enjoy it too. Of course I caved and spent the last two days before Christmas frantically cleaning and baking. We did have a wonderful Christmas Eve here.


We usually exchange gifts at Christmas dinner, tonight each family was surprised with a digital frame. I need to get busy adding more photos to ours.

Our kids traditionally open a gift from their Auntie Christmas Eve. Daddy read the Christmas story from the Bible and The Night Before Christmas, the cookies and milk were left out for Santa and off to bed we went. We still believe! Wink!
Christmas morning came fast. The kids were surpised by their big gifts. An ITouch for Cole and a Flip Video Camera for Taylor. They were really surprised by our family gift - A Wii Fit. I had put a deposit down on one about three weeks before Christmas. Save-The-Day-Carmen had spotted one at Walmart in Tucson, called me and suggested that she buy it for me just in case . . . mine didn't come in. Low and behold, mine didn't come in. Off to Tucson I went the Sunday before Christmas to have a wonderful lunch with my two dear, sweet friends, Carmen and Tina. Bliss! Of course we snuck in a little shopping at La Encantada. Lucky me, I was able to shop at Anthropologie. The lengths I go to for Christmas gifts. It was worth every penny and minute. We are all four enjoying our Wii Fit. Especially the balancing games.

Mark and I, without knowing, each bought each other Bvgari colognes. He selected their new Green Jade for me.


Cole and Mark shopped together for the cologne. Mark and Taylor went shopping and found a darling pair of pink pajamas adorned with Christmas stockings with matching slippers for me.

Each year, Mark surprises me with a $100 bill in my stocking for after Christmas shopping. They also chose a new Department 56 North Pole village piece. This year it was the Brite Lite village.
Christmas dinner at Grandma and Grandpas was filled with laughter and family.

We decided to only do gifts for the kids this year and they were spoiled! Grandma played Santa this year.

Check out Patti's Christmas tree Converse!

She wore a Candy Cane pair Christmas Eve.
My inlaws gave us a card with money for dinner and a movie with a cute message. "Have dinner and a movie on us and let the kids babysit us for the night." Cute! My sister-in-law gave all of the guys homemade cocoa mix and the girls beeswax candles that she made. Mine is in a darling vintage glass bee jar. We burned it tonight and loved it. We've seen two Christmas movies this week.
Bedtime Stories and Marley and Me. Lots of laughter and tears.