My Crazy Life

Been a Long Time

Haven't blogged since January 31st....wow 4 months ago....there has been a LOT going on.....in no particular order....We spent a couple days at Disneyland.....baseball season started....John spent a week in the hospital....we went to Disney on Ice.....a friend's daughter moved to Seattle.....a friend moved to Australia.....another friend's son went to Iraq and another one came home from Iraq.....work has had it's ups and downs.....I got into Creative Escape along with several of my friends....worked on numerous Circle Journals.....starting to work on several swaps for CE.....laptop broke and had to have a new hard drive replaced - thankfully free of charge....and probably several other things that I am completely forgetting......

I have about a month of 365 pictures to catch up on....which hopefully will happen sometime this weekend....

So I was tagged......with the Kreativ Blogger Award from my awesome friend Timi and I really appreciate her doing this because it kicked me in the butt to get in here and do something with it...

Here are the rules :)
1) Thank the person who nominated you for this award.....thanks Timi
2) Copy the Logo onto your blog....done
3) Link to the person who nominated you for this award. Timi Forrest
4) Share 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.

    I am a collector of elephants, snowmen & dragonflies;  I have never been in the hospital; I love to organize and throw parties but hate to organize my house; I love watching all sports but watch baseball the most; I love melted M & M's; I hate to shop - I'm a get in and get out type person....don't browse alot; I love playing computer games

5. Nominate 6 Kreativ Bloggers and post links to their blogs.

    Ann Cobriere Scott

    Michelle Aguilar 

    Tammy Newger 

    Susan Lepore 

   Michelle "Hollywood" Delgado 

    Jackie McCormick  

6. Leave a comment on each of the blogs, letting them know they have been nominated. Finished!

Enjoy spending time checking out the above blogs as well.....thanks again Timi....Love ya GF

Circle Journals

As many of you know I am deeply involved with circle journals.....well I received one this month that took a little bit of a thought process for me.....the theme was "Your Mantra"......well the mantra part wasn't difficult but creating a page without a picture was kind of throwing me a little.....so a friend at work said "why don't you use your Tink cartridge".....so I started by cutting the Tink with the wand and then the rest just grew......I think I really like how it came out....let me know what you think......

 

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT????

The Arizona Cardinals are going to the SuperBowl.....the game about wore me out or at least the last half did.....I was playing right along with them....I couldn't believe that we came back from the half and gave up 19 points.....but I guess Arizona teams just don't know how to win without making their fans completely CRAZY...........the D-Backs did it to us in 2001 and now the Cardinals....but no matter how it happened just really glad we got there and oh so happy for Kurt Warner and my favorite player Fitzgerald.....now that man knows how to handle a football.....damn he is just exciting to watch and him and Kurt just work so well together.

So all you nay sayers out there.....once again we have _{^{DESTINY IN THE DESERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!}}

_{^{We are headed to Tampa!!!!!}}

New Blog

Well I decided to start a second blog to list all of my 365 pictures on so if you want to check out what I am taking pictures of check it out here 365 Days In Pictures  - I've got the first 5 days up and will hopefully stay up on this daily...if not at least it will be weekly.  If you see something you like - please leave a comment.

Thanks

Shannon

GOLF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I swore that I would NEVER take up the game of Golf....I didn't see the point....chasing a little white ball around for a couple of hours.....well again it is proven that you should never say NEVER......John started playing again about two months ago and asked me if I would be interested....I emphatically answered NO!  well he kept talking and asking me to just go hit some on the driving range....I made exuses after excuses......he kept asking.....so I figured I'd go up there show him how badly I was at it and then we would move on.......another BIG mistake!  Went for the first time....didn't do too bad but it wasn't the greatest either....didn't need to worry about them swooping me up to be on the next LPGA......then he went out and bought me Purple clubs......aw man....really did you need to do that....so a couple more trips to the driving range......then we took the clubs to the Golf Shop and found that the grips were really bad....what no purple grips.....well then the pink ones will be great......now I have new bright pink grips with my purple clubs......then I was told that I needed to start hitting with my Irons and not just my Drivers......so at this point my 4 Iron and I are best buds.....can hit that silly little white ball almost to the 150 mark.....my goal 200........still I'm not off the driving range yet.....John keeps telling me that I am ready to play....me not so much.....I have hit, chipped, putted and even practiced getting out of the sand.....I guess I need to take the next step and see how far under or over par I will be after doing 9 holes.....yes 9 holes - not jumping into 18 immediately........

Some Interesting Facts about the Light Rail

• Light rail cars are powered by electricity from overhead wires.
• Each rail car can handle about 200 passengers, 66 of which can sit.
• Rail cars will be air conditioned to 74-78 degrees.
• A station is designed to fit up to three rail cars at a time.
• The METRO fleet will number 50 vehicles altogether.
• The initial line is about 20 miles long.
• Trains will travel at the posted speed limit for that road. They will travel up to 55 mph in future freeway corridors.
• If you take the initial 20 mile line light rail system from end-to-end, the trip is expected to take about 60 minutes.
• The expected "dwell time" at stations -- the amount of time that a train will "dwell" in a station while passengers board -- is 20 seconds.
• Trains will operate 18-20 hours per day, seven days a week.
• Passengers will be able to catch the train every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 20 minutes off-peak.
• The fare for light rail is the same as the bus.
• The 8 park-n-ride locations have a total of 3,324 parking spaces.
• Each rail car has racks for 8 bicycles.
• There are locking bike lockers at each park-n-ride.
• Service to Sky Harbor International Airport will be provided through a transfer from the light rail station at 44th and Washington streets to shuttle buses until the airport builds an Automated People Mover. The people mover is scheduled to be connected to the light rail station by 2012.
• The federal government is paying for about 41% of the cost of the 20-mile starter line: $587 million. The rest is funded with local sales taxes in Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, with a small portion of the 20-mile starter line funded by Prop 400 monies.
• Six future extensions (37 additional miles) to other parts of Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa, and to downtown Glendale, are included in the Regional Transportation Plan.
• The METRO system is expected to reduce airborne emissions (pollution) by more than 12 tons each day compared to emissions associated with the same amount of passengers in cars.

Light Rail Hits Phoenix

Earlier this week the Light Rail started running....if you want to know some more about this you can go here Light rail information.  For the rest of 2008 it was free to ride....starting January 1, 2009 it would cost you $1.25 for a one way ride.....to anywhere that the rail traveled.....which means for $2.50 you can run from 19th Avenue & Montebello in Phoenix (Christown) to Sycamore & Main Street in Mesa - 20 miles one way in 60 minutes.....takes you through downtown Phoenix - past AmericaWest Arena, BOB (Chase Field), Arizona Center, Phoenix Main Library, AZ Science Center, Tempe Town Lake, Mill Avenue in Tempe, ASU and close to Sky Harbor......

Well we decided to go down and ride it today.....no we didn't get in on the free ride but come on now....you usually spill more than $5 bucks and for two hours of entertainment.....not too bad.   We figure that we might be riding it more than what we thought....it would be a perfect way to get down to the ballpark when we go to watch the D-Backs....we are even going to see if we can feasibly take it when we go to see The Lion King at Gammage. 

Anyway back to our trip......of course, it is really new and clean right now.....we started off at 19th Avenue and Montebello.....we were going to stop at Friday's Front Row at the ballpark but with some miscommunication that ended up not happening......we saw quite a bit in downtown Phoenix that we didn't know was even going on.....there were some interesting people who boarded the rail.....and at points it was really quite cool......there were times when it was so packed that you didn't know how it would hold any more people....and then all of a sudden it would clear out again......you can even bring bicycles on and they have racks to hold them while you ride......there isn't suppose to be any eating or drinking (only in unbreakable, spill-proof containers) which we saw this rule broken quite a bit.....

The stations where the rail stops have different types of decorations which I really hope will stay untouched but I know that this is probably just a dream....

          So this is how we started our New Year....how did you start yours?

Disney Wants Me To Come Celebrate

Is this not the best thing.....I can hardly wait to go spend my weeks at Disney........

We are Home!

Had a fantastic time but we were ready to come home.....11 days....3 theme parks......over 1,000 miles driven......2 hotels......many many laughs and good times.......I did get to enjoy my favorite ride ever Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR for short) on Saturday when it finally opened from being down for maintenance and it was so worth staying and fighting an amazingly HUGE crowd......we spent a large part of our day on Saturday on DCA (Disney's California Adventure) because it is usually the least crowded.....not so much on Saturday.......we headed over to DL (Disneyland) and walked right in at the start of the parade......okay....not a big deal.....we can watch this......made it down Main Street to the photo shop so we could pick up our photo disc......this is a great deal - for $59.95 you can get a disc of all the photos that you took thoroughout the park.....we had 87 photos that is just $0.68 cents for each photo.....not a bad deal when you get to bring home all your photos.....our friends had 250+ so they really scored.  We also received 3 5 x 7's in this price and then everything was 20% off and then another 10% due to being Annual Passholders......sweet.......so I can use these photos for whatever I want and print them in whatever sizes I want as well........

All of our babies were very very happy to see us.........even the turtles wiggled in their tank when I walked up to see them.......have a bunch of unpacking to do and some washing to get done before tomorrow.......

     

December 4th - Segway Day

A couple of months ago John got a bug that he needed a Segway......well at $6K I decided that we really needed to ride on one before we made such a decision....so I set us up to do a Segway at Disney's California Adventure.......we had to be there at 7 a.m. and would spend the next three hours learning, playing and running around the park on these with no one else in the park other than the worker bees.  These things are a kick in the butt....if you ever get a chance to do a tour.....go for it!  I could of played on these things all day long.  They are so easy to operate and will turn on less than a dime......well my idea of John not wanting one was completely foiled by this idea.....he LOVED them and so did I - now he wants to buy two of them............ we spent the rest of the day running around California Adventure and Disneyland.........rode the new monorail, did Toy Story Mania twice.....this is an awesome ride....Timi if you are reading this YOU MUST DO THIS RIDE.........went to Innoventions to see the new home of the future.....found this little thing about what you will look like it 30 years....this is if you smoke and had sun exposure.......I'm thinking I am really really glad that I don't smoke anymore and that I am not a huge sun worshipper.........beware this is pretty scary......

I really hope that this isn't what I will look like of 30 years.......if I do I am never leaving my house again......LOL

Til tomorrow.....we have breakfast with Lilo & Stitch.....not my favorite characters but from what I understand it is a really fun breakfast and other characters show up as well.........