I did it...

After 23 years of working as a legal assistant for Sue, I’ve decided to retire. (not sure how long that link will work—out with the old and in with the new!)

Today was my "retirement" luncheon at A Bellagio and about 20 of my former co-workers and attorneys from those past 23 years were there. Mark (the attorney that both Sue and I worked for before she started her own practice) even drove down from Sacramento to celebrate with us - that was just the sweetest!

A few of my favorite lines from Sue’s "retirement" speech for me:

"Christine has been my right-hand man for 23 years and I have needed her! Especially since I’m left-handed AND dyslexic!"

"...we’ve been together so long it’s like we’re an old married couple."

"I blame the reason for Christine’s early retirement on one thing, and one thing alone! SCRAPBOOKING!!!"

I especially loved Sue's personal note to me, which began: "Christine, this is probably your last chance to decipher my handwriting..."

I will definitely miss everyone, but now I will be able to devote more time to the things I REALLY love to do...creating and teaching!




Left to right/front to back:
Ted and Sue
Maria, me (the retired one), and Matthew

Photo Walk and Adobe Digital Crop

Here's a picture I took on Friday when I went on the "photo walk" in downtown San Jose with Michelle and her husband Dave.

Dave graciously let us (well, me lol) follow him around and take pictures, while Michelle asked him what settings we should have our cameras on for the particular situation. I did actually learn something from this process! I am not able to repeat it verbally, but a few more of the knobs on my camera make more sense to me. This setting was for stopping the droplets of water!

And here's a very tired looking picture of me, the digibear (every time you finish a layout, you ring the bell and get to keep the bear until the next person completes a layout), one of my digital layouts and the Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet that I won.

I was operating on about 4 hours of sleep that day, and planned on leaving early, not staying for the entire 9am-9pm crop.

And here's Veronica, Michelle and I at the end of the day of the Adobe Digital Crop. Surprisingly, the three of us stayed from start (7:30 for breakfast) to finish! It was a lot of fun!

My Birthday Crop

We had a belated birthday crop for me yesterday. The Drama Queens out did themselves, especially Michelle who baked this beautiful cake. It was delicious! Drama Queen Kathie was paying me back for my "tattoo" prank and gave me a lovely birthday card with a very tattoo-faced person on it and brought me a delicious "possom pie" (it was really lemon meringue).

Inbetween all the fun, I just about finished my 9 pages for the recipe swap.

I made a pull-out recipe, a handmade paper apron, and traced a Basic Grey chipboard vine shape onto grungeboard and stamped, inked, bent and outlined it. I was hoping to distract the girls with the pretty embellishments to make up for my "easy" recipe!

And the night before the crop, I finished up the "Drama Queen" book party favors I had started in Hot Springs. I had fun making the interactive pages, layering charms, hanging pages onto the binding with charm holders (for your cell phone), making the UTEE "Drama Queen" embellishments with the stamp I found in Hot Springs, and making lots of grungeboard flowers!

Here are a few of the pages...

And here's a closer view of the UTEE "Drama Queen" embellishment. I made a bunch of these when we were in Hot Springs.

Hot Springs...

Spent four great days in Hot Springs, Arkansas, scrapbooking with Leah, Joy, Chandra, Sandra and Hayley from ACharmingplace.

We always have a great time together.

I did manage to actually do a little scrapbooking too. I got started on my pages for Michelle's recipe swap and even finished a few books I will use as party favors for my birthday crop next month.