the wheels on the bus are getting closer

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i've been working with an intern this summer who was looking to learn a few photoshop & photography tips. we didn't quite end up with as much face to face time as we'd hoped, but i think it worked out ok in the end. she came over for one last visit on friday morning. we went over a few things, then we went out and took some pictures of the girls. while she was here, we were looking through some old pictures she'd taken... she showed me these cool pictures of an old abandoned bus. with school starting in just a few days, i just had to find out where it was to get some funky back to school type shots. she hooked me up with the directions, and i headed out with the girls a little later that afternoon.

perfect for some back to school type pictures, right? oh yah! well, i had to take one for the team & clear out a bunch of stinging nettles first. my arm was pretty tingly for several hours... but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. we took as many pictures as lighting & personal risk management would allow, then headed on our way. (see more pictures here)

part way home, i realized i was missing my phone. crummy! so back we went to go searching through the crushed nettles for my phone. no dice. so i drove to my parent's house to see if they were home. i figured one of them could come with me, call my phone and help located it in the brush. daddy to the rescue! back to the bus one more time. yahoo, success this time. we got quite the laugh out of the whole ordeal. fun memory turned funnier. :)

saturday we headed to warm beach camp for their annual auction to support their "kids 2 camp" program. the girls got their faces painted & i came home with a chimney sweep... or at least a certificate for one to visit my house. now if he could only sing and dance on my rooftop!

stan's been working hard on all of his chief's initiation stuff. i wish i could explain the whole process, but alas, i don't know how the whole thing works entirely myself. i can say that it's been a really fascinating process to watch my husband go through. there's been lots of frustration, sleep deprivation, self-discovery and growth along the way. we've still got a couple of weeks left until the end on september 16th. i'm so dang proud of him, i'm nearly speechless. he's worked so hard on all of his last wood working projects. this one is the last one to finish, his hat box. i can't wait to see him in his new uniforms for the first time on the 16th. there's something about really working for something that makes the finish that much sweeter.

**thanks for all of the encouragement on my exercise & ww goal setting. i'm hoping to keep it up for week two!

goal setting & sore muscles

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so i've been doing a little goal setting this week, and surprisingly have kept quite well with them. i'm not usually one who can easily make myself do things i'm not particularly interested in doing. i suppose that's not entirely true in all areas, but in the category of exercising for exercise sake... well it's beyond true. having lost 41 pounds a couple of years ago with weight watchers, you'd think i would have figured out how to stay on the ball. well let me assure you, i haven't. i've put on a few pounds, which at the whopping height of 5'1", that means i've added a clothes size, too. darn it.

anyway, to make a long story longer, i've been buckling down on tracking my points and trying to get some good exercise in everyday. the food is definitely an easier area of control for me. but i have done quite well on my exercising feat this week, too. maybe this procrastinator has learned her lesson yet! (i wouldn't place money on that assumption, though, if i were you...)

so far this week i've put some serious exercising in each day. i went running (which i haven't done in years). and today the girls and i kicked out our longest bike ride yet, 34 miles! i've also been doing push ups, sit ups & jumping jacks each day (yah, my big encourager is a military man). so i've got some goals, and at least four days of follow through to tuck in my hands, and carry all the way back to my lesser sized jeans.

yesterday my friend, tamsen, met earlier in the day at the dentist office while waiting for appointments. while there we were inspired by a family fun magazine article. so she stopped by later with some felt sheets & we crafted with the kiddies. i'll have to get them lined up and take a picture of 'em tomorrow.

and to finish it all off... just thought this was pretty dang funny. emma decided to cool off after our big bike ride today. however, torrey had control of the hose... so this is what happens when your big sister gets a chance to send a little love (and water) your way to cool you off. :)

if you're interested, my tsr article on american crafts blue skies line went live yesterday. you can check it out here.

*side note: the funky picture at the top is me taking a picture into and through my living room window from my deck. kind of a funky mix of reflections & looking inward. kind of like my week. :)

happy thursday!

winners, scrappings & other culbertson happenings

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i swore i'd get my blog updated this week, and really, i'm not sure how the week got away from me. it was a busy, and sort of odd, week packed in with some really fun stuff. so first off... thanks to all who turned in stuff for the summer challenge! your stuff was great! random.org chose a winner for me, thank you random. and the winner is........... drum roll........ Jenny Brannies! Congrats Jenny, email me your info and i'll get your prize pack off to you!

so here's a little of what i've been up to this week...

i worked on a few projects for my local scrapbook store, lasting memories, using the teresa collins friendship line. super pretty & full of flourishes! my favorite! i think they're up in the store now. they've got our little design team galleries on the store's blog now, i don't have too many projects in there yet... but it's fun to check out everyone's stuff.

on tuesday my baby brother, jason, came to town for a quick visit. he'd just gotten back from visiting my other brother, dave, who lives in japan. we had a big family dinner and heard all about his trip. my brother, dave, got married the day before jason got there, so jason met his new wife kaori. we're hoping they'll be able to come out at christmas so we can all meet her. hurray for facebook, since we've been able to get to know her a bit there. she's super sweet & very funny!

jason was only here for just about 24 hours, as he had a business meeting to fly out to the next day. after breakfast on wednesday morning, we sent him on his way. only a few more months until we see him again!

wednesday we spent the day catching up on stuff at home & running a few errands. nothing too exciting. getting ready for back to school... i can't believe next week is the last full week of summer break. yowza! where did it all go?

thursday night i came the closest i've come to missing one of my 365 days. somewhere around 11pm i realized i'd forgotten to take a picture... crummy! i grabbed the camera and went searching. i went with emma's little fridge art monkey. i'm telling you fridge art is just one of those wonderful perks of having kiddos. just makes a house cheery. and who doesn't love a monkey waving at you when you're opening the fridge? :)

today was one of those work-from-home scrappy days. i spent the day working on projects & writing a tsr article that'll go live on wednesday. i've got a few sneaks of the projects below. we had the fuentes family over for dinner. the kids ran around making up some game that involved tying each other to trees and our lamppost. it was pretty dang funny. while sam was tied up, i got this cute little shot of him. :)

my crazy busy life of bliss

my crazy busy life of bliss

man, i haven't managed to keep up on my blog daily since before vacation. maybe it has something to do with the somewhat insane schedule we've been keeping.... maybe it's because i'm not that talented in the whole time management field... whatever it is, it's been filled with loads of lasting memories held in a flurry of passing moments. wednesday, i headed out to warm beach camp to take some pictures of their youth camp activities for them. it was an extra special day since i got to see my niece & nephew at their first trip to over-night camp. they were pretty excited to get to see someone from "home". madison showed the girls her cabin & bunk mates while i took some pictures. we spent the rest of the day running around picking up stuff our chief-man needed to save him a little time.

thursday i got to visit with my dear friend, lorna, who brought some of her homemade shortbread. (all through my teens & twenties lorna's sweet little scottish dad made me shortbread every year for my birthday.) anyway, it was great fun to visit with her for the first time in years! thank you facebook. :)

after the downing of shortbread, the girls & i headed out to the base for the big uniform fitting they have for all of the new chiefs. stan already had been fitted, but it was fun for them to get to have a taste of the new uniforms in the midst of the induction process. **chief = E7 in the navy. i don't really know that much about the process. but i guess i can best describe it as a boot camp like experience steeped in tradition & training that lasts 6 weeks culminating in a moving pinning ceremony.**

today i visited with a friend who was over from eastern washington for a quick visit. we took the kids to a local children's museum & spent some mommy time visiting. i, shockingly, forgot to bring my camera this morning. shame on me! so i took some pictures of torrey, the hula hooping champion, in the front yard. she beat me in 3 out of 4 hula hooping challenges... but i was happy to take one! darn it in the end, i liked this picture more than any of the hula hoopin' shots. such a sweet face, how could i resist?

thanks to all who have sent me links & emails of your challenge pages. i've gotten them all (even if i haven't sent you a reply yet... i'm sorry about that!) can't wait to see the pages & projects! you still have a couple of days (monday) to get your summer layouts in, and be entered to win the prize!

ready for a challenge?

sheesh, everyday seems to be filled with more and more busyness! monday i worked at weight watchers then the girls and i headed in to get a round of haircuts. each of them chose to have about 5 inches taken off. i was glad that they decided to keep it long enough to still have some hairdo options. :) now they're all ready for school to start in a few weeks. not that i can believe it's already time to start thinking about back to school! i must be getting older because time sure is traveling faster than i can keep up with.


today we went to a meeting at the chief's club about the chief's initiation that stan's going through. all of the selectee wives were there... they talked a little about the process, but mostly just told us it would be good when they were done. lol. i did get to visit with my friend cheree and her sweet baby boy aaden before the luncheon. funny how you can be separated by only an hour's drive and hardly get to see someone!

the girls and i spent the rest of the day doing some running around picking up stuff stan needed for his initiation process. we're trying to pick up any of the slack that we can and make his life just a little easier for the next several weeks. (not that we're doing a bunch of laundry or anything... i mean, i have a reputation to uphold!)

now for the challenge! (thanks for all of the ideas, by the way. i'm trying to figure out how to incorporate them all over the next few months!) come up with a layout or mini album that summarizes summer for you... the end of summer, your whole summer, a slice of summer, family summer memories, summer's past, summer, summer, summer! email me or link your projects up before wednesday, august 19th. *let me know if it's ok to post your project on my blog, as well. i'm putting together a fun pack of goodies to send to one lucky winner! keep summer alive for a few more weeks & share some inspiration.

xoxo. noel

keeping busy

holy moly! the last month just flew by. i'm not exactly sure where it all ended up, but man-o-man... august is here and in full swing. while writing a crazy goofy permission slip for my husband to go through his chief's initiation process i decided to design a new blog header. about time? yah, i think so!

i've been meaning to tell you about a fun new company i have the unique blessing of working with. ella publishing! ella publishing will publish scrappy related ebooks & a monthly ezine. sign up now for their newsletter here and become a fan on facebook here, and you'll be the first to know when new books are published for instant download! i'll make sure to keep you posted on upcoming books & info as it becomes available too! check out this great article emilie wrote on tsr about ella! :)

so for our last few days... the in laws were in town all of last week. with stan super busy with his chief's initiation, i was the lone ranger entertainer. of course, the girls did their part to entertain by filling grandpappy's hair & beard with rubber bands and bows. on thursday we had a picnic and hiked at the state park. it was a perfectly wonderful sunny and 75 degree washington summer day. stan even got off in time to have a late dinner with all of us before they took off toward home.

friday we slept in and did our first real grocery shopping in a month! we visited with our favorite baggers at the commissary who have doted on the girls since they were babies. i'm a sucker for enjoying the people attached with a place. guess it just makes everywhere a special place to me. call me crazy 'cause i'm a little silly that way. anyway, after unloading the chunk of our paycheck manifested in food, i was beat. the girls played outside for a little bit, and i snapped a quick picture of the day. wanna know a little secret about this picture? while emma's looking all gussied up on the top half of this picture... she's wearing blue & pink polka dot too-small pajama pants on the bottom. that's my girl!

torrey decided that she wanted to start earning money by doing some regular chores... so we talked about what she'd like to save toward. she decided she'd like to work toward earning enough money to get a laptop. (mommy's girl!) we talked about the regulations that would come with a "grown up" purchase like that. we made a list of some regular chores to do, as well as some extra jobs to help earn more on the side. so far we've made it a whole week with the regular chores getting done. suh-weet! now i've gotta pay up.


ahhh sunday! family day at last. stan had a mostly free day from all of the initiation stuff. so we enjoyed a family day... church, lunch and a bike ride together. it was heavenly. we did a short 8 mile ride around anacortes before heading to pick up some "chief stuff" for stan. there's nothing quite like those fabulous family moments in the middle of a haze of a crazy busy time. thank God for sundays!

**side note** i'm in need of a scrappy challenge & would love it if anyone else would like to play along. i'm sure i could come up with a few prizes to boot. anyone have a fabulous idea they'd like to share??

coming in from behind

oi! i feel so behind on getting things posted. the day i got back from cha in florida, my inlaws came into town. two hours after i got back, to be exact! it's been pretty nonstop since the first of july! so friday when i landed, i plugged my phone in and got the news about stan making chief. picked up my sweet baby girls and came home.

i ended up crashing for a little bit, but woke up when the command master chief from stan's squadron called. now, i was pretty out of it due to the extended lack of sleep... so I didn't exactly catch who it was on the line. i did eventually figure it out when he was congratulating me for stan's accomplishment. i hate feeling like i've missed something really important like that. i think i might have given him just a small piece of my mind. i'm blaming extreme fatigue. lol. we're pretty protective of our family time, and the chief initiation is pretty intense. i may have mentioned to him, that i wasn't into sacrificing our family time with a deployment coming up for their little initiation... oops. good thing i'm not the one in the navy. i did meet with him on monday, and i'm pretty sure it was all ok. apparently even i need *some* sleep to function properly.

saturday morning we headed out to our annual town parade & fair. the girls marched in the parade for our good friend, john koster, with their cousins and several friends. then we headed to the fair with stan's dad for lunch & rides. the girls are tall enough now to ride all of the crazy fun upside down rides. woohoo! emma likes the upside down ones a lot more than torrey does, so her and i hit those together. torrey was more into the spinning ones that don't flip you around quite so much. there are a bunch more pictures here.

sunday was a little more of a lazy day. stan had to fly, so the girls and i headed off to church, then home for a family afternoon with the inlaws. nothing too exciting, just playing, relaxing and dinner. i caught a quick picture of torrey in the middle of an intense session of webkinz.

monday was stan's first day of chief's initiation. i headed to the base to meet with his cmc and find out why it was so important for him to go through all of this. i did leave feeling like there was a purpose to it all, and that really helps a lot. being apart a lot, we tend to keep our commitments lower so we have plenty of family time. i've heard, as crazy as it is, that this whole process is quite the moving experience steeped in tradition. i'm really looking forward to his pinning ceremony at the end of it. we're so proud of him!

while i was out meeting the cmc, stan got to take his parents & the girls on a tour of his plane. i can't believe it but i forgot my camera! nuts! it was fun getting to see him tell his parents all about what he does. i'm not sure they've actually had a tour of the inside of his plane before.

tuesday we headed out to a local farmer's market called snowgoose produce for some of their immodest ice cream cones (homemade waffle cones, that is). we sat out on their deck overlooking the skagit valley farm fields while licking the drippies off our cones. then we headed to laconner to walk around some of the fun little shops they have there. we stopped by one of my favorite stores childhood bliss. the girls are pretty much too big for everything in there now, but i just love the owner, and always love seeing all of the fun goodies she has stocked up in there. i've got a bunch more pictures, including some of our fun finds here.

today was another one of those lay-low type of days. i got a couple of scrappy project/assignments done this morning. we spent most of the day at home. torrey played scrabble with grandpa and emma played paper dolls with grandma. i quite enjoyed watching the whole process. something special about those magic moments that last a lifetime. they watched princess bride for the first time ever. i couldn't believe they'd never seen it. it's just one of those movies you never grow tired of watching. tomorrow is our last day together before they take off toward home. so we'll be living the moments up tomorrow to last us until next summer.

forgive the sleepy writing today, i'm still recovering from my trip... i wonder how long i'll be able to use that excuse?! :)

catching up... sort of

catching up... sort of

wow, what a week. i touched down in seattle friday afternoon. my phone was dead because i forgot to turn it off on the flight. as soon as i got down to baggage, i plugged it into the nearest outlet. as soon as i plugged it in and turned it on i got a call from stan. he'd just found out he made chief (it's a navy thing). anyway, that's big news for him. so after the next 6 weeks of initiation, they'll have a big ceremony... then i'm sure we'll have a party! :)

stan's parents got into town about 2 hours after i got home. so we're still hoppin' around our place. gearing up for the start of chief initiation, in-law visit & all of the rest of regular life stuff.

i picked up a new lensbaby while i was at cha for a steal. the first chance i had to mess around with it was in my hotel room. so while i should have been packing, i was playing. i did eventually get my packing done, however i still need to practice with my lens. so i'm sure there will be plenty more 365 shots with it. :)

spent wednesday working the cha show floor. taking pictures, doing interviews and whatnot. of course, a good part of the day were spent oohing and awing over the quickutz letterpress system & the provo craft gypsy. i've got a bunch of show pictures up on my flickr page, and i'll be adding more in the next few days.

tuesday i helped the ever fabulous glitz girls take pre-orders. who doesn't love hanging with great friends and loads of goodies?

took this shot at this amazing little italian restaurant we stumbled upon while looking for a different restaurant. we sat outside & enjoyed the view of a lake and a sunset.

as soon as i can manage to recover from sleeping 11 hours in 5 days, i'll get more pictures up. i have several posted here, if you're dying to see. :)