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I was tagged by Gabrielle and Sarah. These are always fun ways to get to know each other. Give it a whirl!
Fun trivia....
Ten Years Ago:
July 1998  - It was only 5 months after losing my father, we had just purchased a new mini van (the one Chelsea was driving up until she got her new car)
Five Things on Today's To-Do List:
Pick raspberries make vet appointment for Shaggy clean up kitchen...

Thank God for them!
They are such an important piece of my life!  I have many girlfriends from many areas of my life and I swear that is a big factor of what has helped me through the most difficult times in my life.
Take for example yesterday... a group of us were going to get together to celebrate five girlfriends birthdays.  We thought it fitting with everyone's lives being so busy and since...

Chelsea and I went up to Party Station to pick up some more leis for her party and we found these cute little graduation bubbles in her school colors.  I still think I want to add a little tag or ribbon to them, but it was so simple to make up some labels to wrap around the bottles.

I'm so excited and proud to be a part of this fabulous new design team for Work in Progress.  You can check out the details here
If you haven't seen the work from these ladies your sure to be blown away...
And so you all know, the NEW WIP design team consists of:
Tina Zarlenga Janelle Richmond Laina Lamb Emily Anderson Jana Eubank Francine Clouden Amy Coose Colleen Vasconcellos

So in between watching the Bachelorette finale I began working on the I hope carousel for Chelsea's graduation party.
Now as for the Bachelorette I have to say that I was broken hearted that she didn't pick Jason... but in the end or after watching the "after the final rose" episode you could see the connection with her and Jesse, and I loved seeing Matt and Shayne again...
So while watching I...

Well since we've almost finished up all the outside work I thought it was time for me to get inside and work on some of the other projects I had planned for graduation. 
One was the favors that I did for Chelsea's 18th birthday that Val told me about.  These were my favorite of favors that I've come across in a while and not to difficult to make. (done)
I also want to make the I HOPE carousel...

More before and after photos... and Jen wondered where the kids went by the willow tree - before and after picture?  You know they always disappear when there's work to be done, right?
So we completed everything we planned to do today and then some!
Pulled out and cut down a few more trees, mulched and Joel started burning out the grass for where we are adding the turn around that will meet up...

1.  Trim willow tree
2. Edge bed by willow tree
3.  weed
4.  move 10 ton of riverbed gravel to beach and willow tree
5.  cleaned out fire pit
6.  add stone to beach area
7. add stone around pool
8. add  stone to front yard
9.  add stone to walkway around barn
10. dig out trees in back bed
11. trim trees and shrubs in back bed
12. watch a movie and relax
Before

...

but today its back to work.  With 10 ton of gravel in the barn driveway and 8 yards of mulch in the house driveway, I'd say we have our work cut out for us!  I'm hoping we get lots done with no poison ivy encounters?
Here's some of our 4th....
We celebrated Zach and Cameron's birthdays and Deb found these adorable Horton bags at Target and I don't care if the kids are 20... they still love getting...

my new camera bag.  The camera bag arrived today and I absolutely love it!  After getting another new lens I knew I would want to change them more often and realized it was time for me to get a good camera bag.  I had been looking online for a while and kept coming back to the Tracy Joy bags.  I love how you can buy additional flaps to change out the bag.  Here's what I started with.

Did...