I speak Portuguese!

Well, I wish, but not really! The latest issue of the newsletter for Digiscrappers Brasil has an interview with yours truly in it. I answered the questions in English and they translated it into Portuguese. They printed it in both languages side-by-side. Here's a screenshot of the first page: Pretty neat huh? I'm really excited about it. :) So what else did I do today? When I woke up I got the idea in my head to take all my 2008 layouts and put together a slideshow with music with them. I hadn't counted before today how many layouts I've done in 2008 so far... but it's 267 and counting! So I used the Windows Movie Maker that came with Windows Vista and made a simple slideshow. I've never used the program before, but it was pretty easy. With each layout showing for 5 seconds, the video is a little over 22 minutes so far. I'm guessing no one will have the patience to watch it except for me, LOL. I'll be including a couple more pages I'll be creating before the year is over. So far I've picked these songs for the slideshow: "The Story" by Brandi Carlile (this song makes me cry every time I listen to it) "The Way I Am" by Ingrid Michaelson "Forever" by Chris Brown "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat "Say" by John Mayer "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz "Better Together" by Jack Johnson When I woke up this morning it was only 42 degrees! Well, yea, it's cold for San Diegans with thin blood! But later in the morning it started to warm up, so Todd and I decided to go to the beach at Encinitas for a walk. We ate first at Beach City Cafe, then walked about 2.4 miles on the beach. It was low-tide and very sunny, yet crisp. I loved it! By the time we got back around 3 PM it had warmed up to 59 degrees, so yes, I know I have nothing to complain about. I took a few photos but they're still on my camera unprocessed, so I'll be back to post them later. I hate how weekend days go by so fast! Ok, here are some photos: Todd on the stairs leading down to the beach. Looking north... Looking south... It was low tide, so we were able to walk across some rocks that are normally covered by water. I thought this was so pretty, with the white foam... So pretty that I took a vertical pic too. We forgot our tripod, so we had to settle for the long-arm photo. :) What a pretty day at the beach!

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Soup Weather

So it's been kinda cold (for San Diego) and rainy here for a few days. It's perfect soup weather! Not that I need an excuse to eat soup, because I could probably eat soups as meals everyday. Yesterday I helped Todd make Coconut-Curry Chicken Soup, a recipe in the December issue of Cooking Light magazine. It was flavorful and absolutely delicious! It has spinach, snow peas, noodles, shallots, curry, garlic, chicken broth, coconut milk, chicken breast meat, green onions, fish sauce, cilantro, hot red chiles, and various spices. It was fairly simple to make. Click on the link above for the recipe. Yum-yum!

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Resistance is Futile

Believe me, I would rather still be in bed. But this happens to me from time to tome... I got INSPIRED. Hate it when that happens. I woke up too early and my head was swimming with ideas for not one, not two, but three digital layouts. After struggling for 45 minutes to fall back asleep... I decided that resistance is futile. This bout of inspiration had to heed its call. I had to obey it. So I got out of my warm comfy bed, put on some socks and a fleece pullover, and came downstairs. Yea, I'm suffering for my art! ::chuckle:: and a ::wink::

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I'll take 50 degrees and raining...

considering that we've been in sub-freezing temps! We were visiting my sister Joyce and her family from Saturday to yesterday in Dallas, TX. Saturday was fine, about the same temps as San Diego, so there wasn't a huge transition. Sunday was downright balmy. We wore our t-shirts around in the 70 degree temperature. Then Sunday night the temperatures suddenly dropped. I mean, Monday was so cold! When we were going out to lunch and Joyce opened the garage door, there was freezing rain outside! Todd and I had to borrow coats, because we don't own any, let alone travel with them. We gave all our coats away when we moved to San Diego. Our flight home yesterday got delayed by a couple of hours due to the weather in Dallas. When we finally boarded our plane, it made it to the edge of the runway, then it suddenly stopped and the engines were shut off. Captain said we were stopping for 10 minutes of de-icing. I saw the truck pull up and spray the wings with tons of that de-icing stuff. Some people scowled, but I personally would rather fly with non-iced wings that worked! I loved seeing Joyce & Alex and the kids. But a sad & unexpected thing happened on Sunday morning. Alex's dad passed away very unexpectedly. He had been having some health issues and was in the hospital to get checked out, but no one ever expected him to pass away so suddenly. We were all saddened, but especially Alex of course. Plus it was such a shock. So, a lot of our Sunday was spent re-arranging schedules, with Alex trying to find flights to Cleveland to be with his family. Alex ended up leaving on Monday morning. Joyce & the kids left today for Cleveland, because Joyce had to finish up some things for work first. I felt very sad for them. Joyce and I lost our mom last year and now Alex has lost his dad. I felt like we shouldn't be losing our parents yet when we're only in our 30's. It seems that should happen later. On Sat night Joyce & Alex took us to their couples Bible study Christmas get-together. It was a potluck and Joyce made chicken enchiladas and cheesy potato casserole. The food was good, and they were a fun bunch, even though we didn't know anyone there and felt weird in the beginning. We had a fun time eating and playing games. I'm glad that J&A have all these friends from church that they can rely on and build each other up. I miss that. We used to be in a small group Bible study, but the group got defunct after some couples started having kids and stopped coming. We joined another group but that group got disbanded too. Since then we haven't found any other groups to join. After we found out the news about Alex's dad on Sunday, we got some pizza from Little Ceasar's for lunch. Then Joyce and us and the kids went to Super Target to get some gifts for the kids' teachers. I had never been to a Super Target before! I wish there was one by us. Joyce spent a lot of money on getting the kids' teachers and therapists and other kids gifts. When we were kids we didn't give our teachers gifts at all. But I hear that this is the trend now. While at Super Target, I found the Target brand of Peppermint Bark, so I had to give it a try. It actually is very good. Quite comparable to the Williams-Sonoma one, but at half the price. They also have raspberry bark and cookies & cream bark. Then Sunday night Joyce made some lean pork chops for dinner. We made a gingerbread house and helped the kids decorate it. Make It Easy - Set III template by Designs by Lili @ Scrap Artist (coming soon!) Jingle Baby & Cozy Kitchen (alpha) by Kristin Cronin-Barrow & Meghan Mullens @ Sweet Shoppe Designs. It's A Date by Zoe Pearn @ Sweet Shoppe Designs (coming soon!) Font is Another Typewriter On Monday morning Alex left for Cleveland, and the kids went to school, so Todd & I and Joyce went to Chili's for lunch. Joyce had to work some from home too. We had some sandwiches for dinner so that nobody had to cook. Early on Tuesday morning, Joyce found out that the boys' schools were closed due to the icy weather. She had planned to go to work for a few hours. So Todd & I took care of the boys while she went to work. It wasn't too hard since she had already packed lunches for them. We played games and fed them lunch. Xander has a current fascination with spilling liquid on purpose. I found him all wet at one point, after we didn't see him dump a cup of water all over himself. He is 6 1/2 years old, but he's autistic and non-verbal. I think he's a sly one though! He knew his parents weren't around and tried to take advantage by making mischief. I had Andrew (the 4 1/2 year old) help me find some clothes for Xander to change into. After that all cups and liquids were put away or up high, where he couldn't reach. That little rascal! The flight back was uneventful, except for the delay initially. I loved seeing my sister and her family, but I was also glad to be home.

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The sound of credit cards charging...

I enjoy the Christmas season... really I do. But I don't enjoy the consumerism so much. Christmas isn't about who got the best and most expensive gifts. Some of the best gifts I've ever gotten are token gifts and didn't cost a lot. But they were thoughtful and sentimental to me. And I actually remember them for years to come, because they meant something to me. And Christmas is really about the love that God has for us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to die for our sins. Now that's a gift! In the spirit of not giving expensive gifts... did you know that Amazon is giving away a free Christmas MP3 song per day? It's been so fun to download a Christmas song per day and listening to it. They're actually from well-known artists too. Click on this link and you can download them too! The first 11 are all still downloadable. You can put these in your chosen MP3 player, including iPods. Being a financial analyst at work and a financial planner of my household, this time of the year I have these financial things on my mind. Maybe they'll remind you to look at your financial situation and make some choices too.

• Have you spent all your healthcare money in your FSA (Flexible Spending Account)? If you still have money leftover in it, be sure to go get some glasses/contacts or even some over the counter medications. If you don't spend it by Dec. 31st, you lose the money you've put in for the year.
• Have you incurred a capital gains loss of $3,000 or more this year? (This is a rhetorical question this year, I suppose...) If you sell some stocks that you've lost value on this year, you can offset up to $3,000 of the loss against ordinary income, thus decreasing your income tax liability. Who doesn't want to pay less taxes?
• If you've set a goal for yearly contributions into your company's 401k plan, now's the time to look and make sure you've contributed enough. If not, make a larger contribution in December. This year's contribution limit is $15,500. Same with IRA contributions. If you haven't made yours for 2008, start thinking about it. The limit for 2008 is $5,000, and you can contribute for the 2008 year all the way until April 15th of 2009. Don't be afraid to invest in your future. After all, the stock market is on sale right now!
• Year-End Charitable contributions - we always evaluate in December whether we've given enough for the year. If we have some money to spare, we give to our usual charities that we support, picking one or two of them. After all, this IS the season of giving.

Oh, and one last thing... this came in the mail yesterday for me.

The Williams- Sonoma Peppermint Bark. It's one of my favorite Christmas time treats. But I'm willing to share! ;)

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