Stamp Camp

Stamp Camp comes around twice a year - today was the day!  It's a day when a bunch of "stampers" get together to learn new techniques and complete projects, usually cards of some sort.  May sound silly to some, but it's a lot of fun!  It usually provides inspiration and, hopefully, motivation to get started on homemade Christmas cards! :)

This Stamp Camp was not my favorite - learned a few new tricks, but in general, I was disappointed that there were no Halloween or Thanksgiving-themed cards, and one of the cards in particular was so complex, I would never make it again!  It wasn't necessarily difficult, just too many steps - I like super cute, super easy cards!

You can decide though - here are the cards we made today (sorry, the pics are kinda blurry):

This was a cute little window card...but you have to buy this
expensive machine and die cuts to ever make it again, ugh!

Swimming with Daddy

Since I had Stamp Camp scheduled for today, Eddie got to join Samantha in the pool for her swim lesson!  It was so fun to watch the two of them!  What's kind of interesting is that I noticed halfway through the lesson that all of the babies were in the pool with Daddy that day - all the moms were on he sidelines with cameras!  Funny also to note that among the 6 babies, 5 were girls!

This was Eddie's first time with Samantha in the pool.  We'd been in our swim spa as a family before, but this was a first for Eddie in lessons with Samantha.  They both did really well!  Samantha was still a bit hesitant when it came to being on her back, but when she is upright or on her tummy, she is getting really good at scooping the water and kicking!!

Picking the Perfect Pumpkin!

This year, work group rented out Camp Korey for an afternoon/evening team event.  This particular event was open to families, so Ed and Samantha were invited too. 

We picked up Ed at his office, and after showing off Samantha to his team at work, headed out to Camp Korey.  Though there weren't many who attended the event, we had a blast!  They had pony rides, bounce houses, a mini-racetrack, a pumpkin patch, corn maze, food, live music, and mini-rockets to create/decorate/blast off for some of the older kids!

We were blessed that the rain held off while we were there.  We had so much fun!  Samantha got to experience her first pony ride!

Following that, we strolled through the pumpkin patch and picked out two pumpkins - Samantha was so excited! 

The corn maze was a lot of fun too.  It was a little muddy to take the stroller through, so we parked it and carried Samantha through it.  The maze was in the shape of a big rocket with a fire pit at one corner for s'mores!  In fact, as we entered the maze, they gave us each a little package with the makings of one s'more each! 

On our way out, we stopped at the barista and got Samantha her first hot chocolate!  While I think she enjoyed it, I'm pretty sure hot cocoa pales in comparison to apple juice in her book!

Overall, it was a fun evening!  This is one work event I hope they repeat next year!!

Ward Choir

My calling at church is as the Ward Choir Director.  I have to say, there are times I absolutely love this calling.  Today is one of those days.  Today, the choir sang, "I Heard Him Come," in Sacrament Meeting.  I remember singing this song in choir when I was a teenager!  I've always loved the song and thought that it was about time that we hear it again!

Though our choir is not very large, especially compared to the amount of talen in our ward, they are so great!  I am grateful for those who come each week and join in singing hymns of praise!

Right now, we are preparing our Thankgiving-themed song, "Anthem of Praise."  This is one tough number, but the choir is doing well.  At the same time, we are also preparing for our Christmas Program.  Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, we are having the program on Christmas Day.  Though it shouldn't make a difference, I am so nervous about this and am working hard to make sure that we really invite the Spirit to be there to inspire and teach!

I had no idea at the time but am learning very quickly that Ward Choir Director can be a very challenging calling!!

WHEEL. OF. FORTUNE!!

My mom sent me an e-mail telling me that Wheel of Fortune was holding tryouts in the Seattle area.  Really, how many times does an opportunity to try out come around??  So, I talked Ed into it and we trekked down to Tacoma after work to try out. 

I was impressed at how like clockwork things seemed to run.  We got there, finally found a parking place, and got in line.  We filled out a registration form each and proceeded into the showroom where the tryouts were being held.

Not everyone gets to try out - bummer.  They take all of the registration forms from that session and put them into a big drum.  Kind of like bingo, they draw five names at a time for the opportunity to go up and try out for the show. 

Unfortunately, neither of our forms were drawn :(  Oh well - it was a fun experience nonetheless.  They told us that if our names were not called tonight that there's still a chance that we'll be called if our forms are drawn after the fact.  So, who knows...maybe we'll get to spin the big wheel yet!

Oh, the fun times we have...

Early in the summer, we received a letter from the water district advising us of a possible leak.  We checked all of the faucets inside and out - no leaks.  There was not a huge increase in consumption reflected in our bill, so we disregarded the notice. 

We received another notice in August along with the meter reader knocking on our door telling us the "leak indicator" was moving.  Ok, so we checked the faucets again and chalked it up to an increase of water consumption from the pressure washing we had done recently.  Hmm, bigger than usual water bill...maybe we should call someone out to come inspect our water main.  Yep, the leak indicator was running.

Ugh - we just put on a new roof, now this?  Really, how many more expensive surprises are in store for us?  So we knew that we had to do something - asked the water district for a blueprint of where our water main is...they don't have those kinds of things on file though!!!  Great!  So, we just dig and hope we find it?  Exactly!

Well, the month got away from us with paying for the new roof, Samantha's birthday...then today, we got our new water bill (drum roll, please)..............$738.50!  No kidding!!!  Where does that money come from?!  After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I showed Ed who decided it was a good day to come home from work a bit early and start digging!!

Thankfully, our brother-in-law, Ryan, had the afternoon off as well and came over to help Ed dig.  Of course, they had to turn off the water at the street so they could dig and not have the trench fill up with water, so we were without water Friday afternoon/evening.  On the plus side though, Ed and Ryan pretty much got the trench dug by the end of the day.

"The Trench"

Sure hoping no permanent damage to that lilac tree... :)

Because of no water, we ended up staying at my mom's Friday night.  The next morning, Ed finished digging the trench.  My brother, Matt, a jack-of-all-trades handyman, came over to assess the situation and help us identify what we needed to buy to replace and install the new main.  So glad to have family close by :)

Finally, the water was turned back on by Saturday night!  Another crisis...managed!  Now to write to the water district and request an exception to their rule and for help in lowering the water bill!!!

See?  Don't we know how to have fun?!?!