{The Beginning of the End}

And so it begins...

Wasn't it just yesterday that she was starting Kindergarten?

Wasn't it just yesterday that she was a "big kid" starting Middle School?

Wasn't it just....oh, CRAP! It's TODAY! She's registering for HIGH SCHOOL!

Time flies...the beginning of the end of her "childhood"!

I'm so grateful for every moment I have with her. Every time she kisses me goodnight. Every time she asks me for a SUPER BIG hug. Every time she yells. Every time she's obstinate. Every time she is.

We're so proud of how you're growing up, dear Meghann! We love you...Freshman!

Love,
Mom & Dad

{2½ years of Braces for Megs....DONE!}

{Only a few more minutes looking like this!}

{One last close up!}

{Waiting, waiting, waiting...}

{Wow! How easily they come off!}

{There they go!!}

{All that's left for the scrapbook...}

{Happy Camper Girl!}

{BEAUTIFUL!}

{Thanks to Daddy for working hard and paying for this beautiful smile!!}

Well....after 2½ years of braces, it's all over! Meghann got her braces off today and looks as beautiful as can be! (She did before too...) What loving parents to dump all that $$$ into her mouth! :-D

{The Big 'Ol Ficus...Gotta Go Bye-Bye!!}

This tree had been "trimmed" before we moved in. It didn't look this unruly. We've only lived here for 3 months. This thing is OUT of control! A ficus will "grow to it's environment". Well...it's only 14 years old and just keeps on growing. I don't want to pay $900 to get it trimmed down to nubbins every year, so we're going to have it removed. It's not like we sit under it and enjoy a nice mojito...it's in that far back corner. Our neighbors hate it and will think we're the best thing since sliced bread when it's GONE! No more leaves in their yard blowing into their pool! WooHoo! Bye, bye Ficus! I hate to kill ya, but you're killing our block wall!

{Fun with Friends!}

Yesterday the Walkers and the Markers went up to LA and checked out the California ScienCenter and the Natural History Museum. We had a great day of fun! Lots of fun looking @ all the different colored gems and all the cool animals. We really enjoyed ourselves! We always enjoy our time with Ted, Steph, Colin & Kenzie! We're blessed with wonderful friends!

{Awwww....look @ that fox giving the squirrel a back massage!}

{I thought this was a SUPER cool shot of the Carnator}
{I wanna baby coyote!}{Meghann and her rock from outer space!!}

{YIKES! The dinos are gonna eat us!}

Enjoy those pictures of Meghann with her braces! In 5 days...they come OFF! Beautiful, sweet girlie will have a gorgeously straight smile! It's a nice thing for parents to do for their kids to give them self confidence (not like Meghann was lacking in THAT!) and it makes them look nice for the rest of their lives! $$$ well spent!

{The Walker Party Train....Choo-Choo!!}

Wow! It feels non-stop around here! Mike took off for Colorado early Tuesday morning with the band to do a gig there and was gone until Friday night. Michelle & Meghann went out to Redlands on Tuesday to visit the cousins and had a WONDERFUL time! I'm glad they live back down in SoCal! Then they headed out to Hemet for a few days with the family...nice and relaxing time of playing games and socializing! Mike working Saturday while Michelle and Megs went to celebrate Summer's 5th birthday party @ Josh's parent's house...fun pool with a rock waterslide and everything! Home for an hour, and now we're waiting for Mike to come home from work so we can all go over to the neighbor's house and watch the UFC fight. What FUN! We live a blessed life...we're lucky, lucky people!

{Finished the Website...Now I Can Relax!}

RIGHT during the whole house buying/moving process, my cousin, Suzanne, asked me if I could do a website for my Uncle & Aunt's business. They've owned their own business for over 20 years, but only recently decided that they needed to get up to speed with the idea of having a web presence. I agreed to do it, though it has been awhile since I've built one from scratch and only the 2nd time that I've done a web form. I also learned how to make a "Favicon" which is the little icon you see in the URL window and if you "favorite" a site and you can see it on the "tab" if you have multiples tabs opened in a window. I'm gonna do one for the blog! I started work a few months ago and just got the "rough design" idea approved...but then things kicked into high gear with the house/move so it had to get put on hold. I picked it back up on Friday and busted most of it out then, and did the finishing stuff yesterday (including the web form which involved MUCH trial & error!) and now the site is "live"! So....check it out and let me know what ya think!

www.tri-cityacoustics.com

{Baby Logan's Shower Invites for Melissa...}

Mike and I have friends from the military, Joe and Melissa. We've known them for 17 years. They live in Washington, we live in So Cal. Does that stop the friendship? Nope! Joe and Melissa are the type of people that you can pick up the phone and talk to after 2 years and it's like you just talked yesterday! (Huh, Melissa!?! Hee, hee!) Melissa asked me if I would make baby shower invites for her cousin's 1st baby probably about 3-4 months ago...just planting the seed. Then we moved and now I have a craft room all set up for JUST this type of thing! So I busted out 21 invites this week, and mailed them all out on Thursday. I can't WAIT to get people's reactions to them! Like usual...pictures just don't do them justice, they are SOoOO much nicer in person when you can feel/touch them! The onsies are all cut out of patterned paper, the rectangles they are mounted on are embossed, that whole panel is up on pop-dots...nice twill ribbon (since it's a boy it makes it look more masculine and STILL lets me use ribbon!), the cute little chickie stamp set that Melissa picked out, and custom printed to match. Ahhhh....babies! They are the best! And when it's the first one, even BETTER! Welcome Baby Logan...I know everyone can't WAIT to meet you! :-)

{A Wee Bit Sweaty in Long Beach!}

Well...our AC worked when we moved in. Mike ran it 2 days and then it stopped working. We're having our retractable screen door put in today, so hopefully that'll help with the cross breeze. I think having the new front windows put in (they put in brand new, double paned vinyl windows EVERYWHERE, except the front 2...weird!) will be a better investment right now than worrying about fixing the AC. I'm pretty sure it'll have to be a whole new unit (we didn't expect them to fix the AC before we moved in anyway, so it's not really a "loss" persay!) and I don't want to spend that $$$ right now, you can get a better deal on that stuff during the winter when they are hurting for business.

So a little more sweating....hey, it's losing weight the easy way! Ha, ha, ha! At least we have the pool to cool off in...that makes it very nice! 7 more days of Summer School for Megs and her 1st semester class of HIGH SCHOOL will be done! WOW! Time flies, huh? Meghann is a FRESHMAN in HIGH SCHOOL!

Back to sweating now....at least the vacuuming got done early when it was cool!

{A Few Cards I've Made Lately...}

Ahhh...the new craft room! It's HEAVENLY! My husband adores me SO much that he allowed me to take over the 3rd bedroom for this purpose! It doubles as the office too...but come ON, it's mainly all about the crafting! I had a daughter promote from Middle School, a cousin graduate from High School, another cousin get married, and a baby shower for Meghann's bass teacher all in the span of June...so I needed to put the craft room to work! Here are the cards I made!

{Finished Them...Now to get them in the mail!!}

{Front & Back of "We've Moved" Postcard side by side}{Our Own Little "Neighborhood" of Houses!}{All the Houses from a Fun Angle!}{A Pile of Hard Work!}

PHEW! I had all the house images colored and cut and mounted BEFORE we moved. But then...the MOVE! It hampered my crafting a bit! :-D But now that I have a nice, new craft room all set up, I was able to finish these on Saturday! WooHoo! Now to get them in the mail! Be on the lookout for yours!