I've Been Published & California Trip!

Good news - I've been published in the online magazine called Scrapbook News & Review. Please click here to see my card, if you are a subscriber. It's a wonderful site with tons of ideas, so if you don't subscribe, what are you waiting for? I can't publish the card they used on my blog until 30 days after this publication, but it's a boy card using Surfer Ian by the Greeting Farm and it really is a cutie! :)

UPDATE - it's been more than 30 days now, so here is the card they published:


Soooo - we just got back from our wonderful vacation in Northern California! We arrived in San Francisco and drove about an hour north to Sebastapol, where we stayed with Jeremy's mom Dori and her husband David. We spent time in Santa Rosa, as well. I'll post more pics tomorrow, but for now I'll share a few of my faves!

When we arrived, we were all pretty tired. Dori made us a yummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and salad. We all relaxed at home and went to bed fairly early, anticipating a busy day ahead. However, I woke up in the middle of the night with one of the worst migraines I've ever had, vomiting and wanting to die. I couldn't believe it, I was so mad! So I slept for most of the day and finally got up and showered and felt halfway normal in the afternoon, when we all ventured out and visited a few places. We had ice cream and milkshakes and coffees, and visited Armstrong Woods (pictures below), then we just went back to the house and had a light dinner of leftovers and again went to bed fairly early. I felt fine by the next day, thankfully! I couldn't help but wonder if flying caused the migraine - when we were landing in San Francisco, my ears hurt so bad I was crying. The pain faded, but never really went away for a day or two.

Anyway - on to the good stuff! I'll label them at the top of each picture.

I got a kick out of this "casino"! hee hee The only casinos I've ever seen are Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun!

This is one of the beaches we visited - I think this might be my favorite picture of the entire trip:

Isn't it just breath-taking?

Trev sitting on a giant beach boulder:

Cassidy - she didn't know I was taking her picture, and I think this came out so pretty:

Me and Jeremy:

The Armstrong Woods - it's a smaller version of the Redwood Forest, this is Trev in front of one of the giant trees:

Cassidy:

It's easy to feel insignificant amongst these giant trees:

Dori and Jeremy:

Grandma Dori and Cassidy:

Trevor and grandma Dori - look how tall he is!

I had a wonderful time - I really want to move there. Cassidy is so against it - she has a tight group of friends and she gets very upset even talking about moving that far away. I understand, I remember being her age, and I also want Trevor to finish high school where he is, so that means we can't leave for at least another year, if we do decide to move. I am hoping to talk her into it. It's beautiful - where we were, everyone is so nice. We sat at the local coffee shop, Hardcore, and people just come sit with you and talk to you and are so friendly. This is Hardcore:

It's all outside. Did I say how much I love this place? LOL The tables are all old and mis-matched and ripped pieces of furniture - everything from booths to upholstered chairs to plastic lawn chairs. Tables made out of giant spools. The people who work there are awesome - they play like funky reggae and Grateful Dead type music, they are all organic, they are pretty much like hippies. So nice - it's such a happy place to be, you can't help but feel good here. You get your coffee or your sweet chai or whatever you want, but they also sell crystals and CD's and T-shirts and fossils (yes, fossils) and all kinds of cool stuff. When it's chilly in the morning, they have this heater outside built onto wheels so you can roll it around and warm yourself up. LOL Have I mentioned I just love it here? ;)

We also visited Alcatraz and hung out in San Francisco one day, which was TONS of fun. I'll post that story and those pictures tomorrow. I have some stamping to do - I was having withdrawals!!! AND - tomorrow is my girl's 15th birthday, so I have to head to the store to get the fixings for her choice of birthday dinner: steak, mashed potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, spice cake, and a small cheesecake. Smart girl, huh? LOL Peace.