Merry Christmas!!!

We just celebrated my mom's birthday on Sunday since a few of my sisters were working and it would be hard for them to drive to Fairfield. I can't believe that she will be 74 on the 24th.
We got her a Wii and a Wii Fit to help with her exercising during the cold winter days. Carol and Brian also got her an electronic Price is Right game that plays all the games on the show like: PLINKO, Cliff Hanger and it even has the wheel to spin for the Showcase Showdown!!! I gave her some more word search books and Francie and Juan gave her a digital photo frame of the kids.
It took so long to "log" her into the game, she only got to register in the Wii Fit, but got to play tennis and bowling on the regular Wii game. I think she liked it.
My friend that I was going to dogsit for decided not to risk it and drive in the snowstorm that was predicted, so no dogsitting this year. I'll dogsit another time for them in January instead.

So, the countdown for Christmas, only 2 more days!

Thanks for checking in.
Sharon

Vendor Faire at Genentech!!!

On Wednesday, Mom came to participate in her third year at the Vendor Faire and made over $200!!!
She is finally down to less than 1 box of scarves. She had over 100 to sell this year and she didn't even knit any new ones. She offered a special of BUY 4 and get 1 FREE and people were taking advantage of it.

My survival kits and Snowman poop were not as successful.

I made little packets that had:

A Survival Kit
A rubber band to remind you to be flexible,
and help you snap back when you're stretched thin.
A Hug and a Kiss to let you know that you are loved.
A paper clip to hold yourself together on rainy days.
A puzzle piece to remind you
that you are an important part of a larger picture.
A lifesaver for the times you think you are drowning.
A coin to remind you of your value
A Snicker for when you need a good laugh.

and another one with marshmallows with this topper:
I heard you've been naughty, so here's the scoop…
All you get is…
SNOWMAN POOP!!!


Oh, and FYI, I will be dog sitting again over the holidays when my friend's Rachael, Lesli and their daughter Alex will go to Oklahoma from December 20-27 then again from Jan 17-25th. It'll be a little easier with only one dog, Baby. They had to put the other dog, Kansi, down in October when her bladder cancer got worse.

And mom did not pass her driver's test today, she got a 6 month temporary license and 3 more chances to try again. We'll have to study with her.

That's it for now.
Sharon

November's Stamping Class

Here are the cards that we did on Saturday for my cardmaking class at my house.

The first one used the Big Shot die cut system, the second one is "fun with punches" and the third one I had to alter with some Stampin' Up! designer Paper instead of the paper we rolled with some festive holiday designs at class.

I have only 5 kits left for those that want to have them to make themselves.

However, your kits will NOT include any of the stamped images, SU! has a new policy that states the kits we sell CANNOT have any SU! stamped images.

So, you can be as creative as you would like to be with the stamp sets you have.

Let me know if you would like to have a kit and I can get it to you. If you need it mailed, you'll have to add $4.80 to the $10.00 class fee.

I am working on my stamping class/open house calendar for 2009. Keep your eye out for it, I'll be adding some really GOOD specials to it too!

For those of you who took advantage of my catalog special back in July, you will be receiving the NEW catalog in January!!!

Thanks for checking in.

Sharon

Where has the time gone?

So, it's been a week since we came back. After laundry, multiple errands, doctor appointments and settling back home, we had a small get together at the Melendez Ranch for Betty's 35th birthday on Saturday. Betty showed over 500 pictures in a slide show with her new camera and we narrated together about all the fun we had. It's good to be home.
To catch you up...Poor Betty, since she just started to catch a cold, her flight home was not pleasant. She ended up feeling horrible and using a motion sickness bag. Since Mom was in the aisle and I was at the window, she was stuck in the middle with her bag, so she called the flight attendant to get the bag. Trying not to get MORE embarrassed than she was, she whispered, "I'm sorry, but I got sick" as she tried to hand over the bag. Unfortunately, the flight attendant yelled, "I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!", so Betty had to repeat herself louder and then the flight attendant responded with, "I'LL BE RIGHT BACK, I NEED TO GET SOME GLOVES!!!" Geesh! But thanks to some Dramamine, and Betty felt better.
With Halloween on Friday, and since my mom did not want to pass out candy at home, we trekked it out to the ranch with meatloaf to feed the kids before going trick or treating. But with the threat of rain, the Melendez clan decided to go trick or treating in downtown Woodland instead. It was a little different trick or treating at stores and such, but since they really don't have a neighborhood and they didn't want to chance getting caught in the rain in the old Winters neighborhood where Juan's mom and dad used to live, that was what the kids did. Then, we shared all the souveniors we brought back with everyone.
Really good to be back...
So, on to scrapbooking the hundreds of pictures of Cook Islands for me to share and of NYC and DC for my mom to have. It's gonna take a while...

So, no more sabattical stuff on my blog, the next entry will be stamping stuff. Thanks for keeping up with my adventures. I'll have to save up again for more adventures in the future. I'll definitely do the Global Volunteers again when I can. The question is WHERE the next time?
I have a stamping class scheduled on Saturday, November 15 at my house. We'll be doing some cards and paper projects, stay tuned to see some sneak peeks and more details. Email me if you want to come.

Thanks,
Sharon

Last Day in DC!!!

Since we got the tickets to go inside the Washington Monument for 11am today, we used the Metro and walked over to the Monument. The winds were SO FAST, they were blowing poor mom (and us!)when she was walking.

Here's a shot of how windy it was just waiting to get into the elevator to take us to 500 feet to the top where we can see from all 4 sides of the pyramid on top. Mom liked that the older pictures were from 1909, 1934(her birth year) and 1999. Here she is posing by one of the pictures.

You could walk around the top and stop and look out the North, East, South and West sides of the monument. Here is the West view and the guide that is posted to show you what you are looking at.

We almost were late to our designated 11:00 time because there was an police escort that blocked all the intersections leading to the monument. We don't know who it was, and the police officer wouldn't/couldn't say, just for us to tune into CNN sometime tonight. So, here is he or she passing us by...WHO COULD IT BE???

There were some different marble benches outside of the monument that Mom liked too. Here she is sitting on the "curved" ones.

So, Betty just checked out flights and it looks like we are good to go so far.

We'll be back in California before you know it.

Sharon, Betty and Mom

Only one more day left tomorrow!!!

Since our plane laves at 7:40am on Wednesday, we are trying to avoid the rush hour traffic and will be leaving the hotel at 5:00am(!!!). But, we are using a car service, so we will be arriving in STYLE!
Today, we planned on taking Mom to the Museum of Natural History, the White House Visitors Center(since we didn't get tickets to the actual White House), and the National Aquarium, but the second we stepped out of the hotel, it was so windy, she took a couple of steps and said, "Oh, no, I want to go back. It's TOO windy." So, Betty and I set out on our own once we walked Mom back to the room and put up the "Privacy Please" sign on the door.
We returned in time for lunch and we ate some instant soups we got at the store and Mom napped some before we trekked it out to Chinatown again for some real Chinese food. We took the Metro, kind of like BART, what a bargain for only $1.65 each way. It was a little rainy and cold, but not bad enough that Mom wouldn't go through for some rice.
The waitress from yesterday was amused that we returned. The waiter that was taking care of us today was really trying to "upsell" us to some Seafood Casserole with Tofu, he mentioned it and immediately wrote it on his pad, when I asked him to review what we ordered, when he mentioned that, we were like, "uh, no, we don't want that, just what we ordered."
Then, we dropped by the Chinese store and got Mom some more Chinese Cough medicine before heading back to the hotel. Good thing the Metro stations are so close to the hotel and to the restaurant, literally only a block away from each of them, it's really cool.
So, we only have one more full day tomorrow and that's it. Betty is starting to get Mom's cold, so I think we are going to take it easy tomorrow and I will try my best not to catch anything anyone has. Lot's of sanitizer!!!
We'll try and blog one last time tomorrow before we leave and then we'll be back in CA before you know it. Betty's going to get a car service from the airport to her house and then get a Zipcar to drive us home, so no worries about who's picking us up.
I just added a counter on the right side of the blog and you can see, we are up to 25 people checking in already...Cool, huh?

Sharon, Betty, and Mom

Random find!!!

We were channel surfing today and stopped on a special on the local PBS station here in WDC, WETA. They were talking all about Chinese immigrants and such and on the various Chinatowns all over. One shot was a far away shot with the host speaking in the middle of the sidewalk and lo and behold, Betty and I shouted, " Hey, there's cousin Robert Won and Uncle Johnny!" They just happen to be standing next to the host as they panned out to the street shot of Chinatown in S.F. They both were turned around and facing the camera as the host spoke. Funny, huh?

If you are interested in the show, Betty found it here:

http://www.globetrekkerstore.com/dvdschinatown.html

I'm going to try and see if it's available at the library when I get back.
We know FAMOUS people!

Beautiful Sunday at the Zoo!!!

So, the weatherman said today would be nice, high of 70 and then a cold front coming in on Monday with a high of 50 degrees...so we decided to go to the Zoo. Another FREE outing, no admission, just the cost of the Metro ride and a few blocks of walking from the station.

We saw LOTS of animals and we did get Mom another wheelchair because of all the ground we needed to cover. BOY, it is really hard to push a wheelchair uphill!!! Betty and I got a real upper and lower body workout today.

We did see the pandas today and one of the treats that they get is a plastic milk crate that has honey slathered all over it, so it's a treat and something to play with too.

All weekend long was the Zoo's "Boo at the Zoo" event, so they had a bunch of Halloween decorations. Here's a Chinese scarecrow at the panda exhibit. A black kitty snoozing in a tent. A skeleton wedding.

We pretty much saw a lot of different animals from all over. Tigers, gorillas, lots of different birds and prairie dogs too! Here is the Capybera, it's like a BIG rat.

And Betty was taking pictures of all the Invertebrates and came up to the spider exhibit and was really close until I said, "Hey, there's NO GLASS on this one." So, essentially, Betty was INCHES away from a whole MESS OF LARGE SPIDERS. That really freaked her out!!!

There were also a bunch of HUGE lobsters, prawns, crabs in the aquariums!

There was a monkey that was sitting near the window and kept "smiling" randomly at us as we were walking by...as if smiling for a picture.
The orangutans also climb up this 45 feet tall tower between 11am-11:30AM every day. We missed it, but the towers are on either side of the walkway and are connected with a rope that the orangutans swing on. Crazy!

Here's a funny picture of one of the orangutans inside. It covered it's head with a blanket as it sat next to a mini-waterfall.

We saw two bald eagles and a bunch of other birds (flamingoes!). Mom really liked this bird (above) because of all of the colors on its neck.

Then, since we had to transfer to another line on the way home in Chinatown, guess where we had an early dinner? The waitress spoke Mandarin and was laughing since Betty and I only spoke Cantonese. Then we all laughed some more when the Cantonese waitress came by to explain some dishes and we STILL didn't understand! It was a different dialect of Cantonese. We ordered a steamed Cod fish and it came on a platter with some Sterno underneath it, so it was bubbling hot when we got it. Mmmm...

Oh, and this is how they explain that you are in Chinatown, they just translate the restaurants into Chinese characters.

Then, we hit the grocery store to load up on more breakfast and lunch items so we don't have to go full meals each time and either have a early dinner or late lunch as our big meal of the day.

Oh, and we found another SUPER powered hand dryer in one of the bathrooms at the zoo. This time Betty took a video of it.

Later!

Sharon, Betty & Mom

Special request

Just because you commented and asked for pictures of the Vietnam Memorial...here you go! See what happens when you comment on this blog?!

I actually didn't realize that there was lawn (grass & dirt butted up against the back of the wall) immediately behind the wall. FYI:Mom didn't really want to hang out there, so they're mostly "passing by" walking shots.

This is how far Mom had to walk from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.

Here are some more shots of the WWII Memorial.

Here are some more WWII aircraft from the Air & Space Museum.

A weekend in DC!!!

We wanted to take it easy on Mom today, so since the Air and Space Museum is only a block away, we just had the breakfast buffet downstairs and then walked over to the museum. We immediately snagged a wheelchair to give mom a break on all the walking she would do. Of course there are NO pictures of her in the chair, she wouldn't allow it, just like yesterday she would hide the cane she was using every time we took a picture.

The museum is HUGE and 2 stories high with lots to see. They basically follow the history of the airplane, through all the wars and such, and covers space travel through the years. We took a break around 1 to get lunch, they have a McD's and a Boston Market inside the museum, although you can't bring in any food from the food court.

Here's a picture of the inside of Apollo 13...you know, the Tom Hanks/Ron Howard film where there was a small fire in the capsule and they had to abort their mission to the moon..."Houston, we have a problem."

Can you guess what type of astronaut food this is???

It's mac-and-cheese and shrimp cocktail (or jambalya?). The cubes in the back are also astronaut food...from the 60s! They actually made the food into CUBES!

We stuck around for some of the videos and saw LOTS of actual artifacts and models. It was really neat. Mom's favorite part of the space exhibit? The astronaut uniform...wait for it...because it has all of the pockets and velcro enclosures! Pockets galore!

It was pretty busy today for a Saturday. Here's Betty trying to move a chair in one of the "theaters" The chairs were all bolted into the floor. [Of course, I didn't know they were bolted down when I tried to move it! That's me laughing when i realized what a dope I was!] HAHA!

There was also a heat sensing live tv there. Here's what Sharon & Mom look like with the dark colors showing the highest heat. As you can see, as usual Mom is very HOT! Sharon's hands don't even register as warm...they are a nice bright orange color. Betty's the one taking the picture. Sharon is the orange faced one standing behind me and Mom is waving her hand.

It did start to rain by the time we were ready to head back for the hotel, but being only a block away, it wasn't so bad.

Betty got some real neat shots of a lot of the planes and such, she figured Tony would enjoy them, maybe Jose too.

We hope the weather is better tomorrow, we were planning on going to the zoo and seeing the Panda Bears. We also signed up for tickets on Tuesday to go inside the Washington Monument and see spectacular views from the observation deck.

We only have a few more places on our list to see then we will be back in California on Wednesday.

Happy Birthday to Hailey Boyd today!!! She is now 5 years old!!! We called and sang "Happy Birthday" to her via a message on the machine.

That's it for now.

Blog you later,

Sharon, Betty and Mom