Happy 40th Birthday, Julie!

Last night, I went to a surprise 40th birthday for the most amazing friend I know. Her husband had a gathering of friends and family at Sweet Basil in Fairfield, and while I’m not sure exactly how surprised she was, it was a wonderful and relaxing evening.

I made some favors for people to take home. I wanted to contribute in some way and at the last minute came up with this idea. These are the large chocolate bars and I made a wrapper to go around them. I think it was a hit!

Julie is one of those rare individuals that really knows how to be a true friend. She is warm and understanding, full of great ideas and knows when to play devil’s advocate and when to sympathize. We have laughed together, cried together and share our thoughts and hopes with each other. I am so blessed to have Julie in my life and my only regret is that we don’t get to see each other enough. Somehow, raising a couple of kids has kept us from seeing each other as often. But we both know that as our kids leave the nest and our hair becomes grayer, we’ll have lots of time to hang out together.

Here’s to good friends and good times. Cheers, Julie!

Snowy New Hampshire

Last weekend we went to New Hampshire for a little getaway. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t ski, but since my back has been giving me so much pain, I knew I couldn’t handle a day of skiing. Besides, somebody needed to stay home and hang out with Sparky! So, I was elected.

There was a ton of snow up there! And it was really cold so the snow was glistening and oh, so pretty. Honestly, snow just makes me giddy. I love how it blankets everything and makes it sparkle.

Sparky seems to enjoy the snow, too. My sister-in-law, Francine had given Sparky a coat for Christmas. Now, I have to say, I’m not one for dressing up animals. I actually think it’s kind of ridiculous. But, this coat is awesome! Doesn’t he look handsome? And it helped keep our sweet boxer warm.

While I was at the house dog sitting, I had planned to scrapbook. Since I have a goal of completing 365 pages this year, I needed to get cooking. So, in between walking Sparky, I scrapped 15 pages and made my January page goal. Yay! Here are some of my layouts and completed pages…

Here's the first page of our April trip to Colorado last year. Aren't those mountains just breathtaking?!

And here we are hiking at the trailhead just down the road from my parents' house. This is Melissa's favorite activity.

Aunt Nancy and Fran stopped by for an afternoon and we enjoyed visiting with them.

Here is a layout of us skiing at Breckenridge on a spectacular April day last year.

This was a layout of the day after we skied in Colorado without sunscreen and ended up with sun poisoning. Ouch!

And now it's time for me to figure out when I'll carve out some hours to meet my February goal of 28 pages. Thanks to the members of CMOS Club Achieve for keeping the enthusiasm and motivation going!