2011: A Year in Pictures

January: 1st Trip to Washington, D.C. (guided by Amy and Tito)



February: 48 Hour Film Festival - Lighting/Actor


March: Cat Sitting Elliot (pictured here), Gertie, and Sonny


April: Corey Shows Me the Collage House


May: I Return Hand-Knit Owl Sweater to my Friend from Australia, a la Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants


June: Scorpion Photo Session


July: 4th of July with Friends


August: I Freeze My Ass Off in San Francisco with My Family,

and Corey & I Get Free Front Row Tickets to a Diamondbacks Game!


September: Melanie and David's Wedding in Flagstaff

Table 7 Rules Over All Tables at the Reception


October: Corey and I Occupy Phoenix

and Avett Brothers Concert with Stephanie and Beth


November: Our Last Hike as a Pack of 4 (Stellaluna coming soon!)

and Angi and Dan's Wedding Reception


December: Dance Party at Joe and Jon's!



Love and Happiness to All in 2012!

2011 memory

In June we went on hike 10 in Best Hikes with Dogs: Arizona with Corey's dad.

Description from book: You and your dog will enjoy this shady hike to a highly unusual geological feature, the heart of a cinder cone estimated to be about three quarters of a million years old. Cinder cones are common in this region, but this one has crumbled and eroded in a way that makes the mountain look as though a cross section has been scooped away.


Magic picture! It looks like we let Captain loose, but he's on a skinny retractable leash.


"The trail ends at the base of this cone, and you can explore part of the area inside this ancient volcano."




I kept imagining what it must have been like when it was flowing.






Heading back now..."Before the 1.2-mile mark, you come upon a stepladder, which takes you into the base of the cinder cone -- dogs will most likely need assistance."

Thanks Papa! On our way in Corey had to help a woman who could not get her stranded dog down.



Dog tired.


That was the 2nd hike we took from this book and we fully enjoyed each one.

2011 Book Quiz

Time for end of the year book quizzes! Yay! On this one you're supposed to answer the questions with titles of books read this year.

Describe yourself: The Sugar Queen
How do you feel? The Help
Describe where you currently live: The Grim Grotto
If you could go anywhere...? Hotel du Lac
Favorite form of transportation: Secretariat
Your best friend is: The Little Prince
You and your friends are: Remarkable Creatures
What's the weather like? Summer of Glorious Madness
Your favorite time of day: The Dark Half
What is life for you? A Three Dog Life
You fear: The Book Thief
Best advice: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Thought for the day: Everything That Rises Must Converge
How you would like to die: The Year of Pleasures
Your soul's present condition: Sweetie


Who else wants to play?

P.S. Poet's House is by Maggie Taylor.

Let's play a game!

Can you guess which movie I was just disappointed by? I reread the book last year and tried to get you to play my game before.

Thanks again to Polaroid Cupcake for the inspiration.

Photo Credits:
1. Treasure Map 2. King 3. Shore 4. Mouse 5. Dragon 6. Mermaid 7. Birds 8. Lion 9. Anchor

finally scrappin again!

I didn't get to scrapbook too much in October and November so I'm catching up on some of the challenges I missed even though the deadlines have passed. This is helping me scrapbook as much of 2011 as I can before it's over!

In November Scrapping the Music had a challenge to use "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette as your inspiration. The line, "lay a whisper on my pillow," made me think of when we were trying to keep the dogs quiet in The Hollywood Hotel. They did pretty good!


That got me started scrapping our trip to Rosie's Dog Beach.




putting Beginner's Obedience to good use:




In October Scrapping the Music had a challenge to use "Enjoy the Silence" by Depeche Mode as inspiration. "Words like violence, break the silence, come crashing in, into my little world." The lyrics made me think of my little dogs crashing into each other at Rosie's Dog Beach.


I had fun mixing the paint colors I found in the patterned paper to stamp the title.


right page

Merry Christmas!

The dogs had to put on their Christmas sweaters from Aunt Stephanie before we could open our presents.


Peace and love to all!

Joy & Peace

Scrapjacked chose Leslie Ashe's page for inspiration this month. They also requested that we, "...Christmas it up a bit."


I still needed to scrapbook our own Christmas card from last year and had already picked out the black patterned paper to use. I also saved the cover of the book of stamps I used last year to include.

Leslie's snowflakes inspired me to make stars to sprinkle around. I love using those square alphabet stickers so those came out of the drawer. I also liked how she used strips of paper so I cut up a sticker border instead.

the stockings were hung on the bookcase with care

I can't find the hooks we hang our stockings on so I had to improvise and hang them from the bookcase instead. Seriously, where are the hooks?!

On the left we see Captain's stocking. His got put under "Plants of Arizona" because he likes eating grass so much. And for the first time on Wednesday he ate a lettuce leaf Corey dropped on the floor.


Corey's is next. He likes Hunter S. Thompson.


Then comes Stellaluna's hand-knitted stocking that I usually use as an ornament, but it was just her size so now it's hers. Her stocking is hung from "The Traveler" because of the way she came to us.


My stocking is hung from the only Christmasy title I could think of, "All She Wanted."


Last is Caprica's. We like to say she's a witch even though she's a sweetheart. She also has a lot of energy so her stocking is hung under, "No Rest for the Witches."

I now feel like losing the hooks is a happy accident.

The Witch's Christmas by Norman Bridwell

I have a ton of Christmas books in my classroom so I let my class choose which one they wanted me to read on the last day before break. They selected The Witch's Christmas, by the same author of the Clifford books. This book has been mine since 1984, and I know that because I wrote my name and the date on the inside cover.

It had been a long time since I'd read it and was reminded why it should be a Christmas classic.

It snows BLACK snow at the witch's house.


The snowman has snowball fights with you! That would have come in handy when I was a kid with no siblings around to torture me with sneak attacks. I also like how hard the witch is laughing in this illustration.


I would go sledding more often if it weren't for the goddamn climb back up the hill.


Never seen a tree like this one before, and I've seen some sacrilegious trees in my day.


As long as no bats are harmed in the making of the wreath...


How awesome would shopping be?! I like how pissed off the lady waiting in line looks, very true to life. Boys and girls, no short cutting.


SPOILER ALERT!!! On Christmas Eve Santa gets hung up on a space ship. The witch saves the day by conjuring a broom for the astronauts, Santa, and even the reindeer to ride!

"What else could you want if you had a Merry Christmas witch like ours?"