happy halloween.

i cannot take credit for the pumpkin carving... james did that at work yesterday for the lab pumpkin carving contest.
he will find out on monday if he won. :]
sometimes i wonder why i didn't want to work there too...

in my opinion, a jack-o-lantern of jack skellington is rather perfect.
perhaps it should become a tradition.
i also think that james will be the pumpkin carver from here on out. seriously. it takes me forever to carve one pumpkin and they never turn out as well as i'd like.

it's also nevada day today.
i met up with tracy and michele for breakfast this morning. it's always nice to have breakfast with friends. i used to do it at least twice a week when i was in school, but it's become a rare thing these days.

james has the day off work in honor of nevada day too.
we're going to do a little shopping and errand running.
i'm exhausted today [still not feeling 100% recovered from being sick] so perhaps i need a little hot apple cider for a little boost. :]

be safe & enjoy the night!

: [

i guess my grandpa isn't doing very well.
it looks like he will have to start chemo soon.

i'm going to see if i can visit for thanksgiving.
i was just going to stay here, but i think i should try to go visit instead.

i'm just sad.

crop result:

yes. result is singular in this case.
i only made one layout during the crop, but i'm happy with just one. baby steps. :]
and to be totally honest, i didn't even finish the page completely last night. i put the final touches on it during work yesterday.

it felt nice to work on this layout.
it came out better than i envisioned or expected. i enjoyed the process of just pushing the different elements around the page until i found the perfect placement and adding the little touches of hand stitching. that's not to say the creative process didn't feel like a total struggle at some points. i definitely felt frustrated more than once. maybe one day things will just easily flow, but generally it's a struggle for me.

i don't remember if i mentioned that a couple weeks ago i got the urge to just throw away all of my scrapbook supplies? ha. i think a small part of it has to do with wanting to declutter my house, but mostly i've just been having a hard time with scrapbooking. i don't think a hobby should feel like that.
when i tell people about the urge to throw away all my stuff, they usually suggest that i take a break from scrapbooking.
[that's after they suggest that i give them all my stuff. ha.]
the thing is i've been taking a break! i think the break is the problem. so like i said at the beginning of the post... i'm trying to work in baby steps and not get my expectations too high. [a hard thing for me.] hopefully the creative process will start to come more easily eventually.

timing is everything.

today, time just wasn't on my side.

i've been wanting to go to the local pumpkin patch, and now that halloween is just around the corner i decided that today was the day. we can't get our pumpkins too early around here because they tend to end up smashed in the street. nice, i know.
but.
our lunch went way too long [if you live in reno, i don't recommend cafe de thai at all.] and james had plans to go golfing with his friend. plus, the pumpkin patch was a little further away than i remembered. so by the time we arrived... james was checking his watch, i got frustrated, and we left without any pumpkins.
sigh.

i did get one nice photo though.
better luck next year i guess.

tonight, i'm off to scrapbook. hopefully i'll get a page or two completed. it's definitely been a while. :]

my week away.

i keep meaning to blog about the trip, but it seems like i don't have much to say, and i don't have many photos to share... so i keep putting it off.
oh well. i can at least share what i have. :]

it was so fun to see the parks all decorated for halloween. i don't think i've ever visited during halloween time, so i enjoyed looking for all of the little details and special decorations.

hanging out in the room... we did a lot of this. we had a pretty nice suite at the grand californian... which worked out so well for us. since we had the baby along, it was a slower paced trip... meaning that we spent more time in the room. plus, my dad always has to work during our vacations, and he had plenty of space to set up his computer and a work area. i have to say, we watched quite a few episodes of house during the trip. :]

this was the view out the living room. very pretty. sadly, i never made it down to the pool, but i did ride the roller coaster several times. :]
oh. and our neighbor in the next suite over was johnny depp. seriously. pretty cool.

victoria did so well during the trip. she would often fall asleep during the rides, and it was so cute. here she fell asleep on grandpa's shoulder. so he decided to pretend to be asleep too. :]
[see those candy corns in the planter! loved that detail.]

and here she is getting ready to go on a ride with mommy and daddy. i think it was nearly nap time at this point, but she made it through the ride without any problems.

we met jack and sally near the haunted mansion, which is all decked out in a nightmare before christmas theme. it stays this way through christmas, so the last few times we've been to disneyland it's been decorated like this. i think i might actually enjoy this version better than the original. :] anyway, jack and sally were really fun. they talked to each person for a few minutes before posing for the photo.

i almost made everyone get a photo with them. but i failed to set up a group shot or get mom in a photo. ah well... there was a line of people waiting.

victoria absolutely loved the characters. she wasn't frightened by them at all, more like fascinated. when amanda took her up to jack and sally, jack said, "oh my, it's a little miniature human." she grabbed his glove and wouldn't let go, and he said, "you're not afraid of me at all, are you?" it was very cute.

if you know me, you might know that i love mr. potato head. there is a new toy story ride at california adventure with this very large talking mr. potato head that you walk by as you wait in line. i was thrilled at the photo op. :]

finally on wednesday, james arrived. it was so nice to have him there. it's always fun to have a friend to ride the rides with. we took this photo while waiting in line for space mountain. i told him the other day that i don't think he looks like me, and he said, "that's because you look tan". haha.

thursday was the halloween party that i made into a huge ordeal as far as costuming. ha. but it turned out to be so fun. i'm really glad that we all dressed up. katie and jamie had to leave this day, so they weren't able to join in on the costume fun.

here's mom and dad in indiana jones theme. pretty simple, but i'm so glad i was able to get them to go along with a costume.

paul, amanda, and victoria in star wars theme. paul is han solo, amanda is princess leia, and victoria is yoda. ha. people kept commenting on how cute they were. i have to agree. one lady even stopped them and asked to take their photo. i wonder if she was a scrapbooker?

and james and i in haunted mansion theme. we had a quite the adventure experimenting with how to put on the makeup. i'm so sad that i didn't get a photo of james' first attempt. it was hilarious, but in the end i think it turned out pretty well.


that's basically it for the photos. friday was paul's birthday. his long time friend april drove up from san diego to spend the day with us. she's super nice, and i enjoy getting to see her every few years.

friday night was the night that i got sick. ugh. i barely recovered in time for the four hour drive to vegas on saturday. there were several times i contemplated asking my dad to pull over, but when i looked out the window and realized we were basically in the middle of nowhere, i decided to just try to make it. mind over matter, right? by the time we arrived at the bellagio, i was feeling ok... good enough to eat some rice even. my dad's host messed up the reservation, so we got upgraded to a penthouse suite. it had two bedrooms, each with two bathrooms. plus there was a half-bathroom off the living room. seriously. two bedrooms four and a half bathrooms. ridiculous. but it turns out that the two bathrooms per room idea is genius. around nine or ten o'clock, i was laying in bed and james told me he was going to take a shower. roughly two minutes later, i had to run to the bathroom [where i spent the rest of the night on the floor]. so really, thank goodness for two bathrooms. i'm going to take that idea into consideration if i ever build a house. ha.

anyway, i'm glad we were able to make the trip as a family. it was a good time. :]

a new favorite.

tonight radhika, james, and i finally went to see nick and norah's infinite playlist.
it's my new favorite movie.
:]

& & did you know that movies are matinee price all day on tuesday?
well. at least where i live. and i think that's pretty awesome.
perhaps a new tuesday night movie night tradition needs to start.
and next tuesday might need to be nick and norah again. ha.

p.s. vacation post is still coming. i need to upload photos and then have the energy to battle with the photo uploader. maybe tomorrow...

recovering.

we got home around 11 on sunday night, but i've been trying to recover since then.
i got terribly sick on friday night with food poisoning or some type of gi bug. not really sure what it was, but i couldn't keep anything down until sunday.

i'm still feeling kind of weak, but i'm feeling way better than i was a few nights ago.
nothing like spending two nights sleeping on the bathroom floor to take it out of you.

anyway. i'll post about the trip when i have a bit more energy. :]

and we're off!

mom & i are at the airport.
others have already arrived.
and some will arrive later.

all of us are excited!

ok. time to board. :]