Responsibility; Membership Has It's Privileges

A trait we are constantly working on here at home.

Snapped a pic of Ian "earning" his way to the privilege of having a cell phone. He has had to take on several more chores this year, including, but not limited to, mowing about 2.5 acres of lawn twice a week, keeping up his room, cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes and several other daily tasks like trash,  dinner dishes, practicing guitar, doing homework and reading.
So, today the Fed Ex man arrived. With not only one package (for Mick's work), but two.

This was what the second one held:

Suffice it to say he has been quite literally, doing "Backflips" ever since!

"Membership does have it's privileges"...for those who are responsible enough to earn them!

Vegas Continued

While we were winning!

Let me emphasis while! (Actually we were up about $70 at one point playing the penny slots-we're not gamblin' folks) but ended up losing our $40 ($20 each) of "entertainment money" over the course of the three days!

Playing with bathroom mirrors + lenses:

Taking it to the "Strip"

Orientation

One could just taste the anticipation...

...and the fear (by both kiddos and parents alike) in the auditorium. Stifling!

Heading into "Advisory Classroom" (AKA: Homeroom to us "Old Schoolers")

 The flag outside the  school. I was trying to catch the gorgeous sun's rays from the oncoming sunset but didn't have my wide angle lens with me!

Here's a better shot over the rooftop of the junior high.

And this one on my drive to TB to play tennis. (SOOC and taken through the window of my vehicle)

What Is It With Punctuation?

My boys have an ongoing playful banter which occurs when one of them makes an error in pronunciations and such.
For example...

...one morning Ian had been giving Ethan grief referring to "inertia" as "Internetica."
A few minutes later Ian incorrectly read a can's label and said,

"Mom, what are "Toe-ma-toes?" to which I obviously replied,
"Do you mean TOMATOES?"
He promptly realized his error in reading the syl-la-bles incorrectly and grinned sheepishly while eating a slice of "humble" pie.


More banter occurred when they were practicing their form meanings for tae kwondo and Ethan was rattling off the meaning Yul-Gok when he said,
He's nicknamed the "Con-fyoo-G-Us" of Korea." To which I replied, "Do you mean Confucius?"
And earlier this weekend after Ian slept over at a friend's house and stayed up until 5am...he said,
"Mom, why do you keep telling me I'm comma-tose?" (Hence the title of this blog post!)
And Ethan, while helping input a title of a book which had a semi-colon in it. He said, "You forgot the semi-cola."
(Ummm....Ethan...when have you ever known that punctuation to to have "cola" in it?)
He grinned with acknowledgment and went on his merry way.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me with my quirky sense of humor, but I find it all, quite literally, comma-cal!

Journey from Tweenhood to Teenhood + The Short List

Today...I've been reading + researching books + websites for study topics + curriculum for Boo. He is going to be home schooled this year and Ian will go to jr. high. Big changes (insert HUGE here) for us all.
Orientation is tonight. Mixed emotions for all of us as we trek our way along this journey from "Tweenhood to Teenhood" + beyond.

Excited.
Nervous.
Scared.
Apprehensive.
Cautious trepidation.
Anticipating good things.
Great memories.
Forming new friendships.
Keeping some old.
Building new bonds.
Strengthening others.
Communicating better. (And with different/much different mediums than what I grew up with. Learning a new language (texting).
Keeping an old language ! (Plain ole face-to-face encounters with English-LOL)


Will try to post some pics of the big event "l8r."   ;-)
Suz


PS The reason I began this post was actually to create a short list of books I've been reading. Please comment on any recommendations you might be enjoying.
Here's my current "SHORT LIST":

Crazy Love- Francis Chan
Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling (hope to have completely read by Nov.21 the day the movie is out in theaters).
Phantom of the Opera- Gaston Leroux
Life Skills for Kids -Christine M. Field
The Holy Bible (ongoing read)
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto -Mark Levin


As you can probably imagine now, my nightstand (and my Kindle) is overflowing with good reads!

8.9.10

I just had to post it! Dates like this certainly don't happen very often!! LOL

More Venetian Pics

from our recent trip to Vegas. For those of you who may not know, the movie RAT RACE ( I believe it came out in 2001 because we watched it to lift our spirits after the 9/11 tragedy) was filmed in it. The pictures above are taken from the oculus. (Those of you that know me, as an optometric physician , I HAD to take a picture of this!) LOL
More interior views:

The gorgeous ceilings of the Great Hall

More images of the Great Hall with oculus area in the far background

Look who we ran into whilst out sightseeing!

Blue Man Group:

And here's the next addition to the group:

He's just thrilled to be a part of it all, isn't he?
More to follow in next post.

Scrapmade for my Sista's 50th

Here's a little simple gift that I recently made for my sweet and very talented Biggest Sister, Karen, to commemorate her 50th birthday. The chipboard album is Maya Road. I used MM paint, Hambly screen prints, Prima flowers, brads, bling, Sharpie poster pen and Basic Grey Rub-ons along with a few choice vintage photos from when we were all so very young!

Front cover (above)

Front side of book

Back side

Back cover (below)

And here's the card I made for her as well. Pics were minimized version of vintage photos I had scanned of us! 

Selphy, My New Main Squeeze

...He, ahem, I mean "it" is my new favorite toy!!!
Prints 4x6 photos in mere seconds. Is totally portable and totally KEWL!!!! You purchase the photo paper reels that apparently have the ink within them. They make postcards too! And it even has a creative function where one can play some more!! I can definitely see that I'm going be needing to buy more paper packs. This is one fun little tech device and affordable too! (~$86US). Gotta run and go play with it some more! Toodles!

Happy Mail

ok...happy Fed Ex delivery!

This showed up on my doorstep upon our return from Las Vegas. I saw it on Kelly Purkey's blog and new it was just what I needed (err...I mean wanted!) Gone are the days that I'll have to truck my larger photo printer to the cabin, or Lexi's, or to any other of my scrapping sistas' homes.

Suz's Citrus Crab Seviche

So, Mick and I had some awesome crab ceviche in a restaurant called Dos Caminos located within the Venetian. It was sooo delicious!!! I attempted to replicate the recipe here at home Monday. It turned out pretty well, given that it was my first try and I didn't have an actual recipe to go by, just a list of some of the ingredients our server, Jose`, was kind enough to rattle off.

Since it is more of an appetizer, Mick and I both were in agreement that next time I should halve the recipe-if it's just us eating it. I learned something too about ceviche, that I wasn't aware of before. The seafood that one uses is actually raw and "cooked" by the acidity of the citrus one uses. Cool huh? Great summertime dish for those of us experiencing heat advisory weather!

Next time, I plan to drain a little more of the excess juices from the concoction as well. Regardless, I definitely plan on making this delish dish again soon! BTW-We ate the ceviche by scooping it up in corn tortilla chips. Some of the ingredients used were papaya, jicama, red onion, fresh mint. coconut milk, king crab legs and limes.

Phantom...

..was everything we had hoped it would be and so much more! The theatre was spectacular and the actors absolutely stunning and perfection! It was unbelievable how well they could control their pitch while singing so softly. Mick and I were so happy we waited 15 years to see it in Vegas at the Venetian. We heard it was the best locale to see it and we couldn't agree more!
Note: I call the above my "Curtain Dress." Thought it was very fitting attire for the evening. I think I may wear it again for Halloween, add a curtain rod, and go as Scarlett O' Hara from Gone with the Wind. LOL :-) I guess that means my Mick will have to go as Rhett!! (Hee hee)