Poker Power and Unbelievable Ice Cream

It is Monday night, 9:30 and this is the first chance I've had to look at the computer. We have been very busy around the Herdoiza household. Work has been crazy too. I've gotten 2 new clients and 4 old clients back within the last 2 weeks. That is at least 6 more hours to add to my full schedule. I guess that is a good problem to have in this economy.


I have a few random topics to discuss. First, I want to say how excited I was about last Sat. night. Our friends Robert and Debbie had a poker party and invited 19 people. Our friends Amy and Ben were in from Minnesota so it was fun to see them. We played tournament style Texas Hold'em. You had to buy-in for $20 per person, but that generated a lot of money for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. Let me preface this by saying I never ever wanted to learn poker. I was always resistant to it when Robert and Debbie tried to persuade me. With that said................. Guess who were the last 2 people standing in the tournament........... You got it, Me and Steve. I took home second place and Mr. Bully, Aggressive better, and final chip leader Steve took home first place. We won $300 dollars! WOWEE!!!! Needless to say, the babysitter got a nice tip (who happened to be Debbie's daughter.) Maybe it is not beginner's luck anymore!



My second random topic is this:

This is a picture of Amanda eating a Hagen-Daz ice cream cone at the mall. It looks delicious right..... Well, I have to share with you the cost of it. Let's just say I didn't have enough money in my wallet to pay for dessert. I had to flag down Steve for some extra bills. We eat ice cream out every once in a while. I would rather eat it out instead of buying a gallon that I'm forced to eat for a week. I would rather pay more for the enjoyment of Dairy Queen, or Carvel, or Baskin and Robbins. Now.... let me tell you our order, 1 kid cone with sprinkles, 1 kid cup with sprinkles, and 1 normal size cone. What is your guess for the total cost of the ice cream? Do I hear $17 and change. Well.... you would be right. Steve's cone was like $7.47 alone. Can you believe that? I had to ask for the receipt, because I thought we were getting ripped off by the teenager behind the counter. For 17 dollars I could have bought 6 gallons of Edy's Ice Cream or 3 pints of Hagen Daz at the store. I just thought $17 for ice cream was a joke and that is why I'm blogging about it. I'm glad I got a couple of new clients this week :)

Finally, we had a great time at Cameron's birthday party on Sunday. I have some cute pictures to post maybe later in the week. Hope everyone has a good week. Take some time to enjoy what is left of the summer!

Love this GUY!!!!!

So before I get into the exciting news............... I have a few things to say. First, doesn't this cake look great! Amanda and Nicholas picked it out, insisted on the fun candles, and chose pink icing to write the Happy Birthday message. It was very yummy! I think Steve had a good 39th birthday. He is enjoying his new laptop computer and golf balls. Now that he has his own computer maybe he will start a blog of his own, perhaps "Tales from the Tennis Court." It has a nice ring :)

So here is the exciting part. Monday, Steve's birthday was a little frustrating for me. My cell phone broke over the weekend, and I spent Monday at the Sprint store several times trying to get it fixed. It was a nightmare, but the phone is working and I am shorter on cash. C'est la vie! Needless to say, I was gone so long in the afternoon the kids and I didn't get to bake the cake we had planned. As you can see, the store version was great. So, that evening, when I was finishing up some scrapbooking projects Steve came into the office with a huge GRIN on his face. He was so excited to give me some news. I needed some good news after all the hassles in the afternoon. Anyway, he announced that he was about to give me my birthday/anniversary gift. He just purchased 2 tickets to Hawaii. We are leaving in about 3 weeks! I was stunned and EXCITED! I have always wanted to go to Hawaii, and we had been discussing places we would like to travel at dinner last week. He had been working on this trip for the last several weeks. He had all the details worked out and he even found someone to stay with the kids. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait. So that is the exciting news! I have a lot of planning and shopping and worrying to do over these next few weeks. I'm a little nervous to leave the kids when we are so far away, but at least I know Mom and Dad will be close by in case of an emergency. Still.............

So did I happen to mention How Much I Love This GUY? A LOT!!!

And the final WooHoo of the night. I finished and mailed off my contest entry for the Memory Makers Contest today. The entries are due July 31 and the winners are notified by Aug. 22. I'm not holding my breath, but I liked my layouts. Have a good night. I'm off to watch Last Comic Standing and read some of my book club book.

Lots of Layouts...........

I have a bit of EXCITING news to share, but it will have to wait until I have a longer time to post. The kids and I just finished lunch and played some tennis at the local high school. Now we are off to the park or library, and to finally color copy my layouts for the Memory Maker's contest I'm entering. Since I have been scanning some layouts today, I'll show you some of my recent layouts and a few losing entries :) I can't post my layouts for this contest until the winners have been chosen. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the stars and planets are aligned. Here they are...




These last two photos are of altered projects I made for the last contest I entered. One is an altered chalkboard which is now hanging in Amanda's room and the other is a cardboard box that houses her lost tooth. See you soon!!!!!!!!

Another long hiatus............

After another long hiatus I'm back. The last couple weeks have been busy as usual. The kids have been loving tennis camp. They go Mon, Tues, Thursdays and they can not get enough. In fact, their favorite past time seems to be driveway tennis or hitting with Mom at the local high school. Nicholas gets frustrated that I don't always hit him the ball perfectly, but I'm not the pro, his father is!

Can you see where the ball always lands after Nicholas whacks it? In the street..... therefore Steve and I are recruited to play in and watch for cars.

In other exciting news, for Megan's birthday the kid's were invited to Bob and Kaye's house for a Friday night sleepover. They had a wonderful time staying up late, building forts, and playing with their cousins. So........ on Friday night we tried a new restaurant in downtown Plymouth called Fiamma's Grill. It was sooooooo GOOD! We will definitely have to go there again. The restaurant next door, Compari's, is owned by the same family so we are anxious to try that place too. After dinner we met Robert and Debbie for dessert and POKER of course. We broke even and Steve's winning streak finally came to an end. We had a lot of fun, however I got eaten alive by mosquitoes on the patio. Today I counted 17 bites on my ankles. OUCH and ITCH!

In other news, I'm thinking of entering another national scrapbooking contest. I need to submit my pages by the end of the month so I have to mail them on Wed or Thurs. This time I only have to enter 5 pages which I pretty much have finished. I keep trying and trying. I don't even have to win, I would be so happy to just get a page published. Anyway, there is a lot of talent out there and who knows what the judges are really looking for.......... In the meantime I will keep trying. Ultimately, I like my pages and that is really what matters most. I haven't posted any layouts in a while because if I enter a contest they always want the pages unseen. They can't be posted on blogs or galleries.

Finally, this entry would not be complete without a round of what broke this week. Do you have a guess? Here are the hints: We all have them, we use them daily, mine contains all my appointments, phone numbers, and addresses. Did you guess my phone/palm pilot? You are a WINNER. Tomorrow after work I will be running to the Sprint store to try and get my nightmare cell phone fixed. Ugh! I have so many better things to do.... like bake a birthday cake and wrap presents for someones big 39th birthday!

Here are a few more pictures I thought you might like:

Have a great week!

Pictures etc.............

So here are some of the pictures I promised............These are from our evening at Pine Lake when we watched the fireworks.

How cute are these kids with their cotton candy?

I know what you are thinking.... and you are right SUGAR HIGH!!!


Here are photos from the Fourth of July parade in downtown Northville. Leave it to Kaye to make these crazy cute noise makers with the kids. The kids shook them a lot and they got a lot of candy in return!

I don't have any beach pictures. I brought my camera except I forgot to put in the battery. I was so mad at myself. I wish I could have showed you the kids playing the Wii on video. It was very funny! Maybe next time.....

On another note, I'm thinking of adding a little game to my blog. I will call it, can you guess what is broken this week? It does not involve plumbing, patio furniture, or garage doors. You need another hint. It is something I can't live without, I use it a lot for cleaning. Give UP? It's my vacuum cleaner. It is only a year old. I have diagnosed the problem, and now I need to try and fix it myself before taking it to the repair shop. The vacuum turns on, but NEVER turns off. The switch is stuck on ON. I am scared I will be electrocuted every time I yank the cord from the wall socket. Dad says that is probably not possible. I don't want to find out. So my goal tomorrow will be to try and fix it otherwise, I guess I will just have really clean carpets because the vacuum is constantly on!

Finally, on another random thought....... I just finished the book Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I really liked it. It is about a 93 year old man in a nursing home who reminisces about his crazy past life in a circus. Once you get into it (90 pages or so) the rest of the book flies by. Now I have 2 more books on hold from the library. I have been reading much more than scrapping lately. It takes less creative energy and I can lie down while I do it. Anyway........... I'm off to get the kids ready for bed. Have a good week.

Its been awhile............

Its been awhile, but I think I'm back. It has been a hectic couple of weeks. Here is the condensed recap in a few run-on sentences. The family room is painted, the furniture has arrived, Mom and Dad helped to hang the crazy curtains, I accessorized, the room looks great. I scrapbooked for a long 3 day weekend with MO, I got a lot done and Mo got terribly sick. I'll try to post some layouts soon. Mom and Dad Herdoiza came for a visit last Tuesday and left today. We had a great time playing, visiting, eating, watching fireworks, playing Uno, etc. We were sad to see them go. We went to a parade on the fourth of July with the cousins and Bob and Kaye. It was a great time! Steve has still been working awful hours, but he did have a fun time golfing with Dad H. and Bob yesterday. While they were out, the kids and I were invited to go to the lake with Debbie and Robert. The kids had fun at the beach and even took a kayak ride. The night ended with dinner and the kids playing the Wii with Robert and Alicia. That brings us to today. Let me say YUCK YUCK YUCK. Mom and Dad H. left and I spent the rest of the day working, cleaning, doing laundry, and grocery shopping. I did find time to take the kids to the pool. Nicholas is finally learning to swim, it is AWESOME. Amanda learned how to do a somersault in the pool so she was very excited too! Now I am off to give the kids a shower and pack for camp in the morning. I hope I will be back to blogging on a regular basis. Things should slow down for the rest of the summer. Steve and I are thinking of taking a long-weekend vacation with the kids up north just to get away. I think it sounds fantastic. I'll try to upload some pictures of the recent festivities later. For some reason the site is down and it won't let me upload photos. Have a good night!

UGH!!!!!!

I just posted and I just erased it! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the photos won't upload. I guess I'll wait until tomorrow. This wasn't meant to be tonight.