Thankful.

I'm thankful for:

1. Knowing Jesus Christ as my personal savior and friend.


2. Having my best friend as my husband.


3. My mom's great attitude and continued faith that God will heal her of cancer.


4. My steady job and my boss who is very understanding.


5. I have everything I could want, within reason. I have more than the basics of food, clothing, shelter. Most of all, I have love.


6. The Ohio State Buckeyes, who provided a thrilling fall season of undefeated football.


7. My nice faux shearling blanket on my couch.


8. My digital camera. It has helped me capture some of the best moments in life.


9. Photoshop Elements - for making a digital scrapbooker and designer out of me.


10. Sunny skies, warm breezes, and a 20 minute drive to the beach.


11. 7th annual Christmas on the Beach.


12. My health.


13. My body. It is strong, it gets me to places.


14. Bed Buddy - it's this bean-filled bag that you heat up in the microwave. Keeps my feet warm in the winter so I can fall asleep!


15. My friends. You know who you are.


16. My church home fellowship. After being absent from the scene, I'm so glad to be back in a group.


17. Food. I love to eat. :-)


18. Books.


19. My mind.


20. Tough things in life that shape my character.

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NEVER again. Last night I had the most unpleasant concert experience ever, although no fault of John Mayer or Sheryl Crow. We had paid $53 each for General Admission lawn tickets to the John Mayer/Sheryl Crow concert at Viejas Concerts by the Bayside at the Embarcadero Marina South. Based on our past experience with general admission lawn seats at Coors Amphitheatre in Chula Vista and Polaris Amphitheatre in Columbus, OH., there is usually plenty of room in a raised hill area to put down your blanket and enjoy the music. Although you're far away, you can at least see the stage. NOT the case this time. Viejas grossly oversold the capacity of this place. If you didn't buy an assigned seating ticket (for more than the $53 already), then you are out of luck as far as seeing the stage, not even from far away. It was standing room only, unless you want to be trampled by dirt and people while sitting on your blanket. The lawn area wasn't raised, so with all the people standing right in front of you, YOU CAN NOT SEE. And even when I did stand up the whole time John Mayer played, I still can't hardly see, because everyone else is taller than me. The whole area was flat, how can you expect people to see when the area is flat? I was so pissed. I'll never go to a concert at that venue again, it was such an unpleasant experience. John Mayer put on a great show, I did HEAR it. But I didn't need to pay $53 to hear it and not see it. There were PLENTY of people right outside the concert who put their blankets down on the lawn and also heard the concert perfectly clear, and paid $0 for it. In fact, they probably saw the stage better than I did. I was truly pissed. After John Mayer I didn't even stay for Sheryl Crow, because after standing for 1 1/2 hours, I wasn't about to stand around for another half an hour while they set up the stage again for Sheryl Crow, and then stand around for another 1 1/2 hours just so I can NOT see the stage. I don’t know who to blame in this case, but I gotta think it's the promoter/organizer of the show for over-selling the general admission tickets. They're not getting a penny of my money again. Greedy SOB's.

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My mom still has a joyful heart even though she has cancer and is going through chemo. The other morning I was upstairs and she was downstairs reading her Bible, when suddenly I heard singing. I realized she was singing some Bible verses. I was really moved. She did it again this morning. Her spirits are up even though she's going thru chemo right now. God is so good. Also, on Wednesday, I went for a walk outside with her in the evening, for 15 minutes. She hadn't gone outside to walk around and smell the flowers for over 2 months! She really liked it. I'm thankful that she has enough energy to walk around a little bit, and to eat well. She hasn't had nausea from chemo yet. I enjoy every day with her. I pray with her every night before bed too.

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One of my best friends, Sally, got married over the weekend on a catamaran. Since the catamaran only fit 50 people, they couldn't invite all of their friends, so they had a cookout at Mission Beach on Sunday 7/2 to celebrate their wedding with many other friends. It was really fun except that it was a bear to get there. Everyone and their brother is vacationing in SD over the July 4th long weekend, and everyone was at the beach! We parked 2 miles away and walked. This picture is me, Julie, Sally, and Stacy, all friends since we were 12 years old at Foothill Middle School! It's so cool to have this mini-reunion and catch up. Sally's mom Zora and her dad William, and Julie's mom all remembered me from the teenage years. We spent a couple of hours on the beach, the breeze was nice due to the heat, and had hamburgers, hot dogs, and drinks. It was really relaxing and fun.

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Sensitive Soul I watched the first episode of Meercat Manor on Animal Planet, and I couldn't take it. They named each meercat in the family, and then one of them, Shakespear, got bitten twice by a poisonous snake, and he was really hurt. He limped home, which was pretty far away, and crawled into a hole and curled up. The narrator indicated he might not make it until morning. Prior to that, Shakespear had rescued his little brother from some vultures. I almost started crying, and I was angry at Animal Planet that they would name the meercat and make us feel attached to them, and then have one of them die. I was also angry that since they're keeping track and filming these animals, why didn't someone step in and help Shakespear when he got bitten by the snake?? I vowed to not watch the show anymore. A couple of days later, they had it on rerun again. So I pushed Info on my remote and the synopsis of the next episode came up. It said "Shakespear recovers from the snake bite..."! Shakespear's alive! So I might watch the 2nd episode. I've been through a lot the last couple of days. On Sunday I found out that my mom might have uterine cancer. It wasn't looking good cuz she was bleeding and had to go to the ER. The ultrasound did not detect any tumors, but both the primary care physician and the ob/gyn thought it might be cancer. She got a CT scan done and we were waiting for the results. I was so sad b/c I wasn't ready for my mom to go to heaven. I was also frustrated because I had told her for years that she needed yearly checkups and she didn't listen to me. I did some research and I was ready to do whatever was necessary to help my mom through the process, and push the doctors and medical establishments. Last night my parents called and said the CT scan did not reveal any cancer in the surrounding areas. That was GREAT news! We were SO excited to hear that. Mom will need a hysterectomy soon, but no cancer has spread! I slept like a baby last night, compared to two hours of sleep the night before.

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I always feel privileged when I run along the stretch of Hwy 101 between Cardiff and Encinitas. The view down the cliffs is breath-taking. It reminds me of why I live here. How I Feel When I Run On The Coast: 1. Free. 2. Small & insignificant - the sky & the ocean are so big. 3. Thankful - to be healthy and running in such a beautiful place. 4. Breezy - the ocean breeze on my face feels good when I run hard. 5. Even when I don't bring my iPod, Jack Johnson songs come to mind. 6. Hungry! I always go to Beach City Burrito after a good run! 7. Peaceful - there have been times when I run and run and run, and then afterwards had no idea what I thought about. 8. Healthy - breathing in the salty wet air and listening to the waves just makes me feel healthy. 9. Sweaty. ;-)

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You might be disappointed if you searched for Brad Pitt on the internet and clicked on my blog! I do not have pictures of Brad Pitt here! Literally everyday I get people from around the world clicking to my blog because I MENTIONED Brad Pitt once in my blog. It's hilarious. Nope, no pics of Brad here! I guess now I should start a business site selling something, and mention Brad Pitt! That way I'll have way more visitors coming to my site by accident. ;-p Yep, it's Sat morning and I was planning on paying some bills and scrappin' some pages, but got distracted... so easy to do on the internet.

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I have to plug our local San Diego surfer girl/singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman. We saw her over the weekend playing at Switchfoot's charity concert at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. I took a picture of Todd with Tristan. :-)

Enjoy her video for "Love Love Love" below. It was filmed in San Diego. You can purchase her CD on Amazon or any other music store.

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I had trouble with Blogger showing my blog onscreen when the video plays, so here's the link to play Tristan Prettyman's "Love Love Love" video!

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Todd's band Blizzard is playing at Steve Westly's (democratic gubanatorial candidate) Primary Election Party tonight in LA. Apparently one of Westly's staffers gave him Blizzard's CD to listen to, and he liked it. Todd also played with The Northstar Session on Sunday at the Rock N Roll Marathon here in San Diego, at Mile 18. He's got another gig with them this Thursday night at the Casbah. Too bad I won't be able to go, because I have to get up at 4:45 AM that morning for my conference call for work! :-( I do have links to some pictures of his previous couple of gigs with Blizzard at the House of Blues, and with Kim Divine at Lestatt's. House of Blues wouldn't let me bring my camera in... I was so mad. AND they wouldn't let me in with Todd at the band entrance, I had to go in through their regular door! You have to get a photography permit to take pictures at the House of Blues. Then I saw a bunch of people taking pictures of the band with their cell phone cameras. How fair is that?? I don't have a cell phone camera. I wonder how long the show "Table for Three" will last on MyNetwork TV (the new Fox channel). Both "Desire" and "Secret" are filmed around here also. Todd was in an episode of one of those. They called him for a night shoot, and then he didn't even get fed! A couple of weeks ago, they called me for a funeral scene for "Table for Three", but it was the same night that Blizzard was playing at the House of Blues, so I couldn't do it. However, I did make a screenshot of my latest appearance on UPN's "Veronica Mars"... it's pathetic, I know. You can only see my back and my green jacket! But all the people on Veronica Mars are really fun to work with. The guy next to me in the blue shirt, he's usually a stand-in for Lynette's husband on "Desperate Housewives", and he's on Curtis' Ops Team on "24" a lot. He does this professionally, while I just do it for fun. I've been in a couple of scenes with Enrico Colantoni (from "Just Shoot Me" fame) now on Veronica Mars, and he always seems really fun too. Now that VM has been picked up for Season 3 on the new CW Network, I hope they'll call me a few more times for that.

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Stuff I did this past weekend: 01. Ate at In-N-Out Burger, yum. 02. Went to Circuit City to check out the digital camera I'm thinking of buying. 03. Went to Barnes & Noble and read some magazines. 04. Got the blueberry tea latte at Coffee Bean, but they forgot to put sugar in there! 05. Got a free burrito at Chipotle for showing my zoo membership card. 06. Went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas (it was hot!) and saw Switchfoot in concert for free. It was part of their Bro-Am surfing contest charity. 07. Made homemade guacamole. Yum! 08. Todd's band played at the Rock N Roll Marathon at mile 18. 09. Attended Sally's bridal shower, which is very fun and not obnoxious. Saw cute little pregnant Julie. We scrapbooked pages for Sally, ate cheese, crackers, and quiche, had little contests with prizes (I won notepads and cards!), and she opened her gifts. 10. Watched Gatchaman with Todd.

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I found a free photoshop action at AdobeStudioExchange called "The Big Picture" by Panos. I ran the action in Photoshop Elements 3.0 and it split my Puerto Vallarta vacation picture up into 25 pieces, with white borders. It was so cool. I just learned how to run photoshop actions in PSE 3.0 last weekend, and I can't get enough! You can do SO MUCH with actions, stuff that I don't know how to do myself, or steps that are way too time-consuming! I also found some great photoshop actions for digital scrapbooking at Atomic Cupcake.

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Ha ha! Well, this photo was taken by a skydiving photographer while all three of us were freefalling at 120mph! I think my hair looks pretty good for going at that speed. :-0 I used Gina Cabrera's American Dreams kit, and the stamped To-Do List is hers too. I don't know about hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro... worried about altitude sickness, especially with the latest news about that dude who almost died climbing Mt. Everest. I'm not THAT die-hard. I just want some cool achievements. Hmm... speaking of knitting, I haven't in a while... all those yarns sitting there going to waste. And now it's getting warmer, and I hate knitting in the summer. Maybe I'll knit with some cool summery cotton yarns...

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Here's a set of 5 4x6 pages I made for my best friend's bridal shower today. I got these printed out at my local Rite Aid for 19 cents each, so can't beat that for printing out digital layouts! The size is so convenient and fits into any photo album. The digital kit I used is Gina Cabrera's Full Bloom kit. I love her stuff. Plus, since I bought a bunch of her stuff, I feel compelled to use it! Of course, being Listgirl, the last page of these 4x6's has a list of "Wise Marriage Sayings".

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Just posting some more of my digital scrapbooking layouts.... "Never too old to dance" is made from Gina Cabrera's Flirty Girl kit. The pic is from my dance recital in 2004. It had a distracting background with other strangers in it, so I extracted just the two of us out. I liked the colors in this kit, as it matched our outfits! ;-p

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Here's a new layout I created tonight, using the May free kit from Two Peas In A Bucket... I also took the free mini class they have online there, that's how this layout came about. I learned to cut and draw circles, and warp my text! This was very cool. :-)

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So lately I've just gotten into digital scrapbooking, and I'm really into it! There's a whole huge community of people out there doing it, and there's tons of stuff to download. Here's one of my creations. I made it for my friend Sally's birthday, to include into a 25 page photobook that I made for her. I cropped a bunch of our Cancun pictures into one inch squares in Photoshop Elements 3.0. The background "papers" are designed by Gina Cabrera, as well as the flower stamp. "Visions of Cancun" is the Angelina font, from the internet. The "OCT 2004" is the StampAct Jumbled font, also downloaded from the internet. I'll be sharing more on the topic of digital scrapbooking soon!

Another topic... Good Morning America is having a segment in May called "100 Dollars a Day". It's about finding/making $100/day. Here's the list so far.

1. How to Find Your Unfound Money

2. Spending a Little on Your Home Can Pay Big

3. Spend money on the vacation, not getting there

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