Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Giveaway!



Chelsey over at Joyfully Living is hosting a giveaway for a free blog header custom designed by yours truly!

Check it out :)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

New Design: Lily's Life is Great

I just finished a new Blogger design for Lily's Life is Great!

Lily is an 8 year old who has Down Syndrome. She just got a part in a new movie called "The Jerk Theory".

I had so much fun designing a fresh and whimsical site for Lily. I hand drew the lilies of the valley and all the other elements in the design.



After I installed the design, Lily's mom emailed me:

"Lily just saw the site squealed and giggled an excited giggle when she really likes something. Thanks!"

Awww! That totally made my day :)

Saturday, May 17, 2008

New Design: Hope has a Voice



I just finished another design yesterday for Hope has a Voice

I love doing designs for Blogger and Dana Hope was so much fun to work with :)

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New Design: T. Suzanne Eller

I just finished a new design :)

This time I was doing a redesign for Christian author and speaker T. Suzanne Eller

She wanted a warm and welcoming living room feel with pictures linking to her other blogs.



Suzanne was very sweet and easy to work with. She also has a wonderful testimony.
Go check out her site.

P.S. I did this site as a designer for Swank Web Style in case you were wondering :)

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Cinco de Quatro!

Cinco de Quatro (May 4th*)

Kenny was home all day Sunday! We had a relaxing morning and made Chorizo and Eggs for breakfast in honor of the upcoming holiday. So yummy!

Later on that morning we said goodbye to a new, but dear friend :(

That afternoon we met up with Chadd and his girls at the beach. Sierra and Haven dragged us into the water with them and begged us to bury them in the sand so that they could "stay warm". We were more than happy to oblige them since we weren't the ones who had to get all that sand off of them later on :)


Chorizo and Eggs... YUM!



Chadd & his girly girls



Kenny & Haven



We had a great cinco de weekend :)

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Another one bites the dust

Kenny chooses bad fish. I am convinced of this.

His bad fish talked my good fish into some kind of murder suicide pact.

That's right, my sweet innocent fish left us this morning. I went to feed him and he was gasping for air. I tried fish CPR, but to no avail. He was not long for this world.

It has been a sad week.

Fishing in Georgia

I left my honey again to go explore!

This time my mini paid vacation has taken me to the lake community of Sebastion Cove in Eatonton, Georgia. The other pilot's parents live here and have all the cool retirement toys, including a pontoon boat which is the local preferred method for taking anglers to the many large mouth bass hiding in Lake Oconee.

While I have fished quite a bit in my life, I have only fished for bass once and only for a few hours in San Vicente Reservoir in San Diego. The end result of that attempt was that I caught one fish on my bass rig, a nice trout! Go figure.

Well, expectations were high yesterday. We had the pontoon boat, we were in the the South, and the fish were jumping. We hit the water about 2 pm and started fishing.

To keep the story short, I got one! It might not be a trophy fish, but I sure can't complain, any fish is better than no fish. I did manage hook a few others, including a baby catfish that checked in about 8" and 1/2 pound. A record breaking day indeed.

On a side note, I met two authentic Southerns, drawl and all. I had a conversation with Larry their next door neighbor. Let me re-phrase that. I spoke to Larry and he understood. Larry spoke to me and I, well, I just nodded. Have you seen "King of the Hill?" Yeah, it was like that, I caught about one of every ten words. A little later, we met Floyd. Again...."Uh what did he just say?" Funny thing is Floyd was a high powered, super rich (still super rich) engineer type guy who traveled the world doing his engineering thing! Maybe his French is a little more clear.


Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Cinco de Tres!

Cinco de Tres (May 3rd*)

Saturday Kenny had to fly to Oregon so Danny & Tonita once again rescued me from a day of sheer boredom.

Around noon I headed over to their house and the three of us went down to the trolley station and bough tickets to Old Town San Diego.

It was D&T's first time on the Trolley and I think the people around us thought we were weird for taking pictures and listening to Tonita exclaim "Oh! It is so pretty from up here!"

When we got to Old Town some really nice people were there giving out energy drinks (which we really needed after the long night we had had the night before!) This was my first energy drink and I have to say that although it tasted good, I didn't feel all that energized.

What was energizing was the Cinco de Mayo celebration going on in Old Town! There were a handful of bands all playing music and tons of fun booths and stuff to look at. We had such a good time!


Our tickets for the trolley!



I am so energized!



Cousins :)



Low-Ri-Der


Danny showing his heritage



More tomorrow...

Monday, May 05, 2008

Cinco de...

Cinco de Dos (May 2nd*)

Friday night Danny & Tonita came over to have Mexican food and watch "Dragon Wars."

Here is the description of the movie...

"Meet Baruki, the vicious, 200 meter long, Imoogi serpent from ancient Korea. His army includes giant lizard with missile launchers, flying dragons, soldiers bred for evil, and mega-intelligent dinosaurs."

Doesn't that sound like the BEST MOVIE EVER?!? No? Come on. We are talking MEGA-INTELLIGENT DINOSAURS... what could be better?!? Semi-intelligent dinosaurs can't even hold a candle to the awesomenesses of MEGA-intelligent dinosaurs.

Don't even get me started on the soldiers bred for evil. They aren't just born evil... they were bred for it. If that doesn't say great screenplay writing, then I don't know what does.

We had such a fun night eating, laughing and making fun of the giant lizards with missile launchers!




Celebrating Cinco de Dos!



YUM!



There is nothing like homemade guacamole!



Danny had too much fun!



More on our Cindo de weekend tomorrow :)


*Don't correct me. I know that Cinco de Dos means 5 of 2 and not May 2nd. Nonetheless, it was dubbed "Cinco de Dos" by D&T and we like it :)

The one that got away...

I have been reading Big Mama for a little over a year and let me tell you, if you haven't seen her site, go check it out because she is hilarious!

Anyway, she has a little daughter Caroline who is what I imagine our daughter will be like. This recent video cracked me up...

http://thebigmamablog.com/index.php/2008/05/04/the-one-that-got-away/

R.I.P. Zippy

Well, Kenny's new fish Zippy swam off to fish heaven yesterday afternoon. So sad.

That makes two of his fish that haven't faired well swimming alongside my fish. Either my fish keeps killing his or he just picks out sickly fish to begin with.

Good thing he didn't get the 100 gallon tank!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Say again...?

So, I am starting to blog funny things I hear on the radio while flying. Here is that latest laugh, I will keep the story short...

A student and I had just taken off from one of Gillespie's two runways. Just as we took off from runway 27R, another student (from the competition) crashes on the other runway, 27L. He manages to smash the small Cessna 152 into the ground so hard it bursts into flames. As one can image, it is no longer advisable to land on a runway which is occupied by a flaming Cessna.

Tower Control now has their hands full in that there were about 5 airplanes all doing touch-n-go's on runway 27L and another 4 planes doing them on 27R. Tower Control remains calm and starts directing all the touch-n-go traffic to land on 27R, the non-flaming runway. Well, one ever so eager student, amidst the flames and smoke, after given his clearance to land, complains, "Tower, Cherokee 25Yankee, I requested touch-n-go's!?!"

Okay, picture this. About 10 airplanes, one active runway, one flaming runway, and everyone wanting to see the spectacle, and this guy feels the need to continue his landing practice.

Tower Control, in his most polished voice, "Uh, 25Yankee, negative. You need to land."

Zippy

Well, ever since Jen killed my fish two days after we got him I have longed for a replacement of my finned companion.

This particular story began with a simple run into Walmart to get Pilot a new leash. Of course, I had to walk past the fish tanks to find his leash. Being the ADHD-oh-look-at-the-pretty-fish person that I am, it was all down hill from there. In less than 15 minutes, I had a new aquarium picked out along with the 27 different fish that I could not live without.

In a rare moment of weakness, I showed some self restraint, and put it all back. I did not really need a 250 gallon fish tank and half of the marine life of the Pacific Ocean in my living room.... or did I?

Unfortunately, Walmart did not have any leashes in stock. So the fish gods forced us to drive over to Petsmart. Now if what Walmart had was considered a small fish section, then Petsmart had an enitre city of fish. I could have both species from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans...and all in a 350 gallon tank. Hooray for me!

I swear the moon, Venus, Pluto and the North Star were aligned, because I showed another amazing feat of self restraint and managed to pick out a tiny single gold fish for 99 cents. Yep, and his name is Zippy.


Thursday, May 01, 2008

Protect your children, people.

So I admit it. I have watched Hannah Montana. I actually kind of liked it. It is cute and innocent and easy to watch on a Saturday morning when Kenny is off flying.

Needless to say I was bummed by the recent pictures of Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair. It seems as if another child has been sold out by their parents and is destined to go the way of many other child "stars".

DaMomma, a blogger that I read, just wrote a great post about the situation...

http://forums.parenting.com/blogs/parenting-post/posts/gateway-porn


She wrote...
"Adolescents are hypersexual because they do not yet have the maturity, wisdom, experience to control or protect themselves. Until they reach the age of consent, that responsibility falls on the adults in their communities. It is wrong for adults to engage children as sexual beings -- no matter what those children claim to want."


It is so sad when parents refuse to be parents. Miley is only 15 and her parents and other adults in her life should be looking out for her... not selling her to the highest bidder or letting her make life altering decisions on her own.

I am so thankful for parents who loved me enough to protect me and help me make the right decisions. They weren't crazy overprotective and still let me make my own choices, but still did their job as parents. Thanks Mom & Dad :)