a bag of chips

Sweetwater House.

Oh, my, goodness. I'm back from Sweetwater House in Fort Morgan, CO, and I'm ready to pack my bags and head out again. It was fabulous, relaxing, fun and friendly. I was there with Margaret Scarbrough (hi, Margaret!) representing Simple Scrapbooks and sharing about photography, scrapbooking and the magazine. Can I just tell you how honored I am to have gone? And that I got to go with Margaret, one of my favorite scrappers? Woohoo!

Sweetwater House is a century-old house that has been completely and beautifully refurbished by the amazing mother-and-daughters team behind Sweetwater Scrapbooks. On weekends they host crops and the VERY reasonable price includes room, board and all the supplies you'll need to complete several darling projects. The house is beyond charming and the hospitality and friendliness shown us by Karla and her daughters rivals the best four-star hotel.

While I was there, my objective was to teach a bit about photography to the eight lovely guests who had come from as far away as Germany and Alaska. The quaint town of Fort Morgan provided some sweet locations, and Susan, one of Karla's daughters, graciously brought her kids along to model for us.

Here are a few of the photos I took during our lessons in depth of field, perspective and exposure:

And below are some of the photos I took of the house and grounds during my stay. In the evening, I enjoyed relaxing in one of the rocking chairs on the huge wrap-around porch and watching the thunderstorms and rain. One of my favorite pasttimes!
Here's cute Karla slaving away in the kitchen. Have I mentioned that every single meal is homemade? And delicious? I loved that these three ladies have combined two of my favorite things: scrapbooking and being pampered. Yeah!

And here's everyone in front of the house just before leaving for the airport. What a fun bunch of women! I loved our conversations over projects and at mealtimes. It's so amazing how people from all walks of life can come together over a common interest (scrapbooking!) and feel like old friends. How awesome is that?

Next month at Sweetwater House for Simple Scrapbooks is Elisha Snow, amazing photographer and scrapbooker, and Cheryl Overton, scrapbooker and home decor specialist. If my husband lets me, I'd love to be there with them - and hopefully you, too!

(Gallbladder update: No surgery scheduled yet, and, unless I have any more attacks, surgery could be a few months away. Thanks to those who have written and posted comments - I appreciate your sympathy and support!)

Catching up, part two

So, where was I? Oh, yeah.

After walking all over San Francisco (probably about 15 miles round trip), we went to mass at Old St. Mary's Church, and then out to Union Square for dinner. On our last trip, two years ago, we found this funky little sushi place about a block from the Square. Sushi Boat restaurant is quaint and charming, and the sushi is pretty good. What makes the experience unique is that between the sushi "kitchen" and the sushi bar is a little river with wood boats that carry cute little plates of sushi that you just grab off the boats as they pass. Interactive dining at its best. (Don't mind the sake cups and empty beer glasses. We were on vacation, you know.)

And on our way back to the hotel we went through Chinatown for a few more photos. I love Chinatown for how cheesy it can be with all the cheap trinkets, and yet how drenched it is in Chinese culture - a true American experience.

Then on Sunday, before taking the second, and thankfully last, of our white-knuckled shuttle rides back to Oakland, we met up with my Aunt Judi and her hubby Bob for breakfast at a great place called Towns End right near Petco Park. It's always great to see them and get caught up. I heard that my cousin, Sean, is directing a music video with Sony Records. How cool is that?

We got home on Sunday evening to a houseful of happy kids, thanks to my patient and loving mother. It was awesome to be away and even better to be welcomed home by all our little beauties.

So, that was our great trip. And then Tuesday happened.

For the last year or so I've been having lots of "episodes" of pain in my back and abdomen that have gotten progressively worse. I've been to three different doctors and to the ER once, and the best they could tell me was that acid reflux was to blame. So I dutifully took my medicine but I was still having painful attacks. On Monday I didn't feel that great, and I felt bad on Tuesday from the moment I woke up, so I made an appointment at Urgent Care for later in the evening. But as the day wore on I knew I wouldn't be able to wait. I was doubled over, unable to even think, moaning out loud from the pain. Chris was traveling and I had no one to rush home to take care of the kids. Luckily my neighbor (and one of the kids' favorite people in the world) was home and she was able to be with them while I took myself to the ER.  This episode was now on its second day and I thought I was going to die.

Five hours, four vials of blood, a tinkle in a cup and an ultrasound later I finally had the diagnosis that had eluded four other doctors. Gallstones. I have no idea how big they are but based on the amount of pain I've been in, they must be the size of a small car. So I need to have my gallbladder out now. Thankfully it's a very simple procedure that can be done as an outpatient and recovery should just be a few days.

What really chaps my hide is that I totally fit the "fat, fair, female and forty" profile and that my symptoms are textbook for gallstones (namely severe pain in the upper right abdomen and in the back between my shoulder blades, with attacks usually occuring after a fatty meal). If either of the four doctors I'd seen over the past year had bothered to do more testing, I'd have had my surgery and been pain free for months now. But I'm not focusing on that. (Really, I'm trying very hard.) I'm thankful that I know what's wrong, that it can be fixed, and that it's not something more serious. I'm also thankful for my awesome husband who has been upholding the "in sickness" portion of our vows, and for my neighbor whose neighborliness is so appreciated. (Thanks, Heather!)

The bummer is that we're not taking our August trip to Trinidad to celebrate hubby's big birthday. I can't have my surgery soon enough to be well enough to travel in three weeks, and the thought of being in a foreign country or on an airplane with three small kids and 150 total strangers during another gallbladder attack totally freaks me out and would seriously kill the vakay mood.

On the positive side, this surgery and the changes I'll need to make to my diet from now on should help me reach my "40 by 40" weightloss goal. YAY!

So, that's what's been going on with me, in between photo shoots and projects for the magazine (have you seen the new special issue yet? It's awesome!) and three kids, and this weekend at the Sweetwater House with Margaret Scarbrough. Looking forward to that!

And here's just one more photo. We went to the beach for a few hours last Friday, and I snapped this one of Aidan, pouting because it's time to go. I love my big dude, pouty face and all!

Where to begin...

...is always the hardest part when it's been a while, eh? How about I pick up where I left off? Okay. Get ready for a long post, folks.

Last weekend my hubby and I got away for the weekend. That's right, just us, for the WHOLE WEEKEND. It had been two years since we'd spent any real alone time together and my mother (lovely, patient woman that she is) offered to watch our three rascals for THREE WHOLE DAYS. Woohoo!

We had tossed around a few destinations and ended up sticking with the place we know and love - San Francisco. We caught an early-ish flight to Oakland and endured the first of our white-knuckled shuttle rides into the city. We stayed at the Hilton on Kearny which is right in the middle of downtown and near all the things we love - Chinatown, the Embarcadero, Union Square. Our awesome room was on the 12th floor and the rate of $139/night was a total steal. We'll definitely stay there again.

Once we got checked in, we headed out to Chinatown for lunch. I love me some spicy noodles:
Then we headed toward Ghirardelli Square (for chocolates, of course) and then over to the Buena Vista for an Irish coffee (a regular stop for us) and caught some fun stuff along the way:

(Ain't he the cutest?)

Then we mosied on down toward Fisherman's Wharf and stopped to watch The Bushman. I love this guy and blogged about him two years ago when we took our last trip up. He sits at the curb outside of Tarantino's restaurant on the Wharf and hides behind some bush branches, and then scares the bejeesus out of unsuspecting passersby. It's freakin' hilarious. In the first photo, he didn't scare this guy but I love the way he's looking at him. And in the second photo, The Bushman's cracked himself up from a particularly good scare. I "donate" generously in order to have freedom with my camera. If you don't pay him to take his photo, he stops the act. I bet this guy makes a ton of money.
Then on our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Ferry Plaza market and bought some cheese and salami and some crusty bread for a picnic back in our room. This cheese market had more cheese than I've ever seen in one place. We got some good stinky, soft cheeses, and some nice olives, too. Perfection.
I love this city, and I love being there with my man. If money and having jobs weren't an issue, we'd live there in a heartbeat. This nighttime photo was taken from our room. I love the fog and the sliver of moon.

Saturday morning saw us up pretty early for a walk through the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, another must-see whenever we're up there. I won't bore you with all the fruit and vegetable photos I took (I'm going to make a color book for Nadia with the photos I took), but I'll let you know what we ate for breakfast: I had a soft shell crab sandwich and Chris had a smoked sausage on a french roll. And then we saw this amazing open sandwich of smoked sturgeon with homemade cream cheese, capers and onions on crusty bread. And so we had more breakfast. This market is a veritable smorgasbord of good eats in every color.

The market is as much a feast for the eyes as it is for the belly.

One of the things that I really noticed this trip was all the music. Music was everywhere. At the Market there was a guy playing a banjo and another guy playing this awesome old steel guitar. Then outside the market was this group of people playing some awesome acuostical bluegrass (inluding some wee ones with wee fiddles - so cute). And then, in the Cow Hollow area near the Marina district, on Saturdays, the street is filled with jazz musicians on every block, belting out some jazz standards, some dixie and even some swing. I messed around with some actions on these jazz lads:
I could have stayed there all day, me and my ears, my hubby's hand in mine.

Well, folks, this is getting to be a longer post than I anticipated and I'm getting sleepy. I'll be back again tomorrow with more about our trip and about what happened when we got home. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me!

And the winner is...

...Stephanie!

Congratulations!  Send me an email with your address and your box will be in the mail by the end of the week.

And thanks for my lovely assistant, Makena, for drawing your name from the jar:

 
And, in case you haven't heard yet, Simple Scrapbooks is launching a brand spankin' new website tomorrow!  Check it out at www.simplescrapbooksmag.com! It's totally different but totally awesome. (Sorry, the Valley Girl lodged deep inside manages to sneak out now and then. But don't worry, she's been gagged with a spoon and bound by her legwarmers and sent back to where she came from.)

So, thanks again for participating in the give-away!  I'll be back the end of the week.

Give it away, now!

Here I am! And here is the long overdue post with the winner of the Stampin' Up! e*Scape set:

Congrats to Etta! I loved your darling card and I appreciate you taking part in the e*Scape challenge. Send me an email with your address and I'll get your goodies out to you.

Whew!

So, now that that's taken care of, let's do another give-away, shall we? It's time for me to purge my scrap supplies again and I'd love to send an outrageously large box of scrap goodness to someone. So, leave a post in the comments section below and I'll have one of my cute little assistants draw a name on Monday. (Really. I promise.)

We're not going anywhere or doing much for the 4th, just hanging out at home, eating lots of Otter Pops and chips and quacamole while smothered in sunscreen.

And what kind of post would this be without photos? Here is my friend Courtney's darling son, Spencer. His big sister, Cora, was on the cover of the Simple Scrapbooks "Album Shortcuts" special issue. They are two of the cutest kids in the world! 

Have a safe and happy 4th!