Lions and Tigers and Camp... Oh my!

Where does the time go? It seems like certain times (and seasons) of life just get busy, and some of the little things get away from you... like blogging. It seems to be even more the case when Stan's away. But rest assured everything is going fine in our little family. Stan's staying safe and plenty hot - he says it's upwards of 130 degrees there daily. I know he'll greatly appreciate some rain when he gets home, although I'm not-so-secretly hoping we don't get more rain anytime soon. He will, hopefully, be back in-country very soon! 

What in the world have we been up to here on the home front? All of that end of the school year goodness. Helping in classes, prepping for summer, planting our flower beds and all of that jazz. I got to be a chaperone for Emma's 3rd grade field trip to the Seattle Zoo. We tromped around and looked for all of the animals that weren't sleeping the day away.

And a few weeks ago, I got to head up a cabin of girls at Torrey's 5th grade Outdoor Education camp. The kids did all kinds of fun outdoor studies in the rain and shine. I might just brag a little and say that the orange team took the gold... Way to go Tangelos! From scavenger hunts to dissecting owl pellets, from water and forest studies to one crazy skit night Torrey had a blast. I survived the week with a reasonable amount of coffee and a lot of reflections back to my days as a camp counselor many moons ago.

Torrey's class with "The Bird Man"

Dissecting Owl Pellets

Doing water samples

Estuary studies from a canoe

Then in the in between time I've been playing with my scrappy goodies. This layout is using Punky Sprouts lil' Stems & lil' Petals, along with papers from Best Creations. Mist the lil' Stems with glimmer mist, then twist together with tulle to add a flower with lots of texture. Check out more Punky Sprouts goodness here.

mom moments

i love being a mom. although, i'm not gonna lie to you, some days are tougher than others. some mom-days are tough because of the little ones, and sometimes just because life is hard, and you have little ones. then other days are just a shower of reminders of the precious daily blessings that kids bring. not that the blessings were not there on the harder days... it's just that i tent not to notice them.

all that to say, the other morning the girls had been in torrey's room quietly all morning. i figured, as any mother does, when things are quiet for too long something must be wrong. however, when i tapped on the door and peeked into see what was going on... they were doing a little Bible study together. what a precious mom moment to hold onto in the tidal wave of life. a very precious little blessing to cherish.

now, i am bound and determined to get the last bit of my 365 pictures caught up. so here it goes! just a lot of daily life, and here and there moments that i'm sure i'll be glad to hold onto in the years to come.

torrey wearing the necklace stan gave me on our wedding day.

just a little reminder of what's important in the bigger picture... hee hee. :)

mr. culbertson rocking some signage in our local town parade.

we dropped the girls off for their first week at overnight camp at warm beach, the same camp i was a counselor for many, many years ago. crazy how things come full circle. it was fun and painful to drop them off...

this is the kind of picture i get when the girls are not available for my daily pictures. :)

shining happy camera in the sun.

lucky for me, i take pictures for the camp the girls went to, so i got to stop by for a quick visit and a few snapshots during their week there. it was pretty darn funny, i walked in after not seeing them for several days, they both gave me a courtesy nod and went right back to what they were doing. gotta love it!

some of torrey's cabin-mates from camp being goofy girls & loving it!

another child-less picture of the day from the girls' week at camp.

picking the girls up from camp, i snapped a quick picture of all of the girls from their cabin that i could muster.

man, my pictures of the day are so much easier when i've got america's top models back at home!

did a little more playing with sunbursts with torrey in stan's hat. love, love, love how they turned out. there are a few more here.

and now, i'm pretty close to being caught up on posting my daily pictures. hopefully i can manage to get my daily cleaning under control next...

the wheels on the bus are getting closer

.

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!

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!

happy national scrapbook day!!!

celebrate the little things

as you read this, i am off on a great relaxing weekend with a bunch of fabulous ladies from my church at a women's retreat. but i wanted to be sure to celebrate some fabulous scrappy goodness with all of my bloggie friends!



i love these little holidays that we can sneak onto the calendar to celebrate the little joys of life. pretty darn fabulous if you ask me! so in honor of national scrapbook day i put together some goodies for giving away. i've got 5 goodie packs up for grabs, including some stampin up stamp sets, glitz packs, mini albums and some all around scrappy fun! so since i'm in the middle of trying to pack for my weekend, i can't really come up with anything super creative... so how about you post your favorite thing about scrapbooking & how it's blessed your life. how's that? i'll be drawing names on tueday. :)


also check out the scrap review for some fun national scrapbook day projects & sketches! the pictures are little sneak peaks of the my take on one of the sketches. check out tsr for the full layout! :)

happy celebrating!

new friends & annual fun

i met a new friend this weekend! i was out at warm beach camp taking pictures for the first of their two annual women's retreats. this beautiful lady, thelma wells, is the speaker this year. she's got such a lovely heart and an amazing story. we sat and enjoyed a couple of meals together this weekend, and i just love her to death! :) i can't wait to see her again this next weekend. if you're in the area, and would like to see her... i'm pretty sure they've still got a few spots open. you can register here for overnight or commuting.


while i was out getting pics, i figured i'd get some updated high ropes course shots. and you know it's not flattering taking a picture of someone from 35 feet below looking up. so up i went with my camera in tow to get a few from a better vantage point. this was the only shot i got of myself...
today i snapped a quick pic between catching up on projects of emma in her i-wanna-be-like-dad dress up outfit. too too cute!

crazy days!

crazy days

i've spent the last couple of days out at warm beach camp taking pictures for the first of their two their annual women's retreats. i love taking pictures for them, and seeing all of the women that come to the conference. i even got to connect with a friend i haven't seen in 15 years! how fun is that?

anyway, i have a bunch of pictures from the last two days for the camp, but a few i snuck in for myself, too. including a few i took from 35 feet up in the trees on their ropes course. (my very favorite thing there!) so i'll hopefully be getting my 365 pics up tomorrow.

april fools

you've just gotta love april fools day. i always wish i'd done a little more planning for it when it comes... but such is the life of a procrastinator! it was handy that today was my volunteer day at school since emma's teacher is a much better planner than me. she got the kids a bunch of times in class today. we got a lot of laughs out of their expressions.

this trick was one on their daily timed math tests. they normally get 1:40 min to take the test, but today after about 20 seconds she gave them the 10 seconds left warning. you should have seen their faces. racing pencils, total silent concentration. and when she called, "time" the expressions were priceless! :) hee hee. first graders are fun!

i worked on a project for warm beach camp, a local non-profit christian camp, when i got home from volunteering at school. i didn't think it would take very long, but man! it took forever to find what i needed. scouring stock photo sites for vector art of bees. hmmmm. i thought it would come a lot quicker, but april fools on me! lol. once i found a bee that would work, it all came together fairly quickly. by oh my goodness, a 4 hour search for a bee... who knew?

**added**

i just noticed that my blog is only 12 hits away from 100,000. holy moly! i'm pretty sure i'm going to need to put a giveaway together tomorrow to celebrate! thanks everyone! :)

023/365 warm beach

spent the morning out at warm beach camp this morning for a women's retreat planning meeting. i worked at warm beach for 7 years about 10 years ago. now my kids get to go to camp there. it's a place filled with so many memories for me. so i figured while i was out at the meeting and dropping off a disk of pics for them, i'd sneak a quick pic of the front entrance sign for the pic of the day. :)