Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

Following last year’s tradition, many of the pieces of confetti that will descend upon millions of revelers in Times Square on New Year’s Eve will feature messages on them, written in more than 20 different languages by people all over the world. The confetti is part of the “3 Musketeers Confetti Wishing Wall,” on display until December 31 in the Times Square Information Center. Anyone can stop by and write their very own personalized ‘wish’ and pin it to the wall. You also can make wishes online at www.timessquarenyc.org.

Layout made from "Happy New Year" by Lou Cee Creations. Frame from "Christmas Around the World" by Johanna L.

Later.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Magic

We had a wonderful Christmas with Gene's extended family as we experienced the peace, hope and joy that children bring to the holiday.

Our friend Patricia arrived in town today for our annual New Year's get together. We go to movies, visit the Del Coronado Hotel's Christmas tree, eat lobster, and do the tourist thing. Of course this year we will be watching the Chargers hopefully pound the Colts. Go Chargers!
My Christmas Magic LO was scrapped using pieces from various Christmas Around the World kits.

Later.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas

The reason for Christmas is Christ. Let us rejoice in the peace, joy and hope the season offers.You can download our Christmas Letter here in pdf format. My Christmas wish above was scrapped using pieces from various Christmas Around the World kits.

Later.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Goodbye to Mom

We made it back to LA on Thursday and met with my sisters and brother to go over the eulogy. Gene & I did go back to San Diego for clothes and I was able to print up the Memory Book I scrapped for the funeral on our long drive down from Canada. Download a copy of the pdf Memory Book here. The visitation was Friday and the funeral was Saturday. My sister hired a coordinator who did an excellent job. She left us with these wonderful words to live by.

What Really Matters—

Ready or not, someday our lives, too, will come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do-lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built. It's not what you acquired but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered by whom and for what. Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstances but of choice.

May you choose to live a life that really matters.


Later.



Thursday, December 18, 2008

For Mom

We left Big White on Tuesday. I did get in a couple of runs on Monday between packing up, crying and cleaning the condo. It was -5°F when we left at 1 PM. The roads have been horrible with snow and ice and cold temperatures. This morning it was snowing in Wenatchee, WA. We thought we would be facing snow fall all day but we just hit patches of bad roads and snow, and mostly on the passes. Gene did great driving all 12 hours. I'm exhausted.

I put my travel time to good use and started on some layouts as part of a tribute to my mother for her funeral. I am still having problems coping with the loss but scrapping memories of her is helping. Here's one of my favorite LOs.
Later.

Monday, December 15, 2008

For my Mom and Dad

Yesterday, my mother died unexpectedly. I was shocked when my youngest sister called to tell me. My Mom was only 81, and while not in the best of health, she was doing pretty good.

My Dad died just this past February.

As I am sitting here trying to work all I can think of is how much I miss my parents and all the selfless things they did for us five kids. They started with nothing and gave us their love, faith, unity, guidance, values, self esteem, ambition, and an education so we could become who we are today. What more can a child ask for? I have so many wonderful memories but it's not the same as them being with us. Later.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Big White Skiing

We finally went skiing yesterday and it was wonderful. Temperature was around 15°F most of the day with a light snow fall. Visibility was good and the snow was soft and fluffy and well tracked. Last night we went to Big White's 1st Wine Tasting event. It was great with good pick food and outstanding wines from the Okanangan. Today we are headed to Kelowna to replace the DVD player we broke. Monday we hope to ski again. I am out of shape and my legs are definitely feeling it today.

Here's Gene at the top of Kyle's run. This was my favorite run of the day. As you can see there was no one else on it so we had some good untracked powder.
Later.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Big White Open

After a beautiful sunset last night, we woke to a snow fall that has been coming down steady all day. Right now there are only 4 lifts open and 5" of new snow. We were suppose to leave today but our renters rescheduled their trip so we can stay a week longer. So instead of skiing, Gene has spent the day installing the wide screen TV we just bought for the unit. We probably need to go to Kelowna to get the better cables but... It's snowing in Kelowna too. And we will probably want to ski tomorrow so... At least we have another week now to get everything done. This was the view from our living room yesterday! Tomorrow it's suppose to get really cold, like -20°C or for those of us not on the metric system, -4°F.
Later.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Prayers for Peggy

We are snuggled in our condo in Big White with the fireplace blazing as we watch the snow fall and wait for the lifts to open. It is so very beautiful and peaceful and gets us thinking about our recent ski trip to Bariloche and our friend Peggy who is struggling with cancer and chemo. She has a really hard-to-treat cancer but is fighting the fight. To date, she's had two chemo treatments with four to go.

There is a great organizations called Caring Bridge that facilitates a blog for those like Peggy with cancer. You can leave a message of hope and read her journal to catch up on her progress or check out her new do. If you know Peggy or just want to leave encouraging words, visit her here. Our prayers and positive thoughts are with her always.
I made this layout for Peggy. The pink is in honor of her valiant fight. The layout was made from bits and pieces of stuff I've designed over the years.

Later.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Big White Snow Play

It snowed on and off all day at Big White yesterday. When the sun peaked out we were able to watch the "kids" walk up and hill and slide down on skis, snowboards, sleds and platters. This young lady was most entertaining as she did a header as she went off the run. It's suppose to snow again tomorrow with the mountain opening on Wednesday. We can only hope and pray. At least it's cold enough.
We have been putting our time here to good use. We are headed down to Kelowna later today to buy stuff to fix our vacuum and dish washer. Good thing we were here when they broke.

Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.


Later.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Big White Snow

We've been in Big White a week now and it just really started snowing today. It's frustrating that the mountain has not opened yet but we've enjoyed the peace and quite. The mountain is hoping to open on Wednesday but we need colder temperatures and more snow for that to happen.

Here's the view of falling snow from our unit looking towards the main Village Center. Although it's been snowing and blowing all morning, not much snow is expected. We continue to pray anyway.
Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.


Later.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Pac Rim Argentina Photo Gallery

It's been a long time coming but I finally have Pacific Rim Snow Sport Alliance's Argentina Photo Gallery up and available for viewing. I will be working on the DVD for participants and hope to have it done by the time I return to the states.

It's been a bigger job that I had anticipated. Collectively, our group took more than 9 GB of digital photographs—that's more than 6,000 shots! Don't worry, they are not all on this web site. To make viewing more manageable, slide shows consisting of about 50 - 100 photos have been created for each day. I tried to pick the best of the best and concentrated on the people. Hope you enjoy. It was a truly great trip.

Our ski club, Pacific Rim Alliance, is running a ski trip to Big White April 5-12, 2009, when the skiing and weather is at it's finest. Click here for the details.

Pac Rim also has a ski trip to the Kootenays (Fernie, Kicking Horse, Panorama, Kimberley) Feb 28 - March 8, 2009. Click here for details.


Later.