Finally got to see WICKED!!! Last time it was through Portland, I dilly-dallied around too long making a decision about going, only to have it sold out by the time I made my decision. This time around, I bought the tickets through an on-line pre-sale event to be sure that I wouldn't miss it. Somehow, though, the date on my calendar was one AFTER the date on the tickets, and when Jill, Megan & I showed up to go to the show we found out that our tickets were for the previous date!! I haven't done anything that ridiculously stupid in a VERY long time.......I truly hope that this is not the beginning of a trend! :-). I was so determined to see the show, that I went ahead and bought tickets for the next week (even though the seats were not NEARLY as good) and we went to Powell's bookstore for the afternoon instead!! The show, once we finally got to see it, was wonderful! Megan liked it so much that she downloaded a couple of songs onto her iTunes. This is one I will see again, should it come back through Portland.

Fun with Digital Art!

Just messin' around with Paint Shop Pro and wanting to create something to put on a stretched canvas for a birthday present for my Mom. This is what I came up with!!

Here is part 2 of our "getting our house ready for Christmas 2008" story. Dad & Megan always lay out all of our ornaments onto the dining room table, then we all pitch in to decorate the tree. This is an idea of what our table looks like when full of ornaments. The glass snowman happens to be one of my favorites.

These are some pics taken on the day we brought our Christmas tree in. It's so nice that Tucker is old enough and BIG enough to be able to help bring the tree in now! Megan loves to wear the "Santa" hat while decorating the tree. It was a fun day!

My dear friend, Kathi, and I go on a trip together every year that we have dubbed Girls Weekend. We go from Thursday to Tuesday, sometime in October or November. This year (our 11th Girls Weekend) we went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wherever we go, we always try to make the most of our time and see and absorb as much as we can about that particular city or part of the country and find the things that make it unique. On this trip we had to, of course, go to see the Liberty Bell. This, unexpectedly, became a moving experience for me. After reading all about the origins of the Liberty Bell as well as how it symbolizes freedom throughout the world, I came to the realization that Kathi & I could not only stand there together and have our picture taken by the Liberty Bell, but we have the freedom to be able to travel together due to the many battles that were fought by our forefathers. I am thankful for this freedom and grateful that the battles were fought & won & will do what I can to make sure that future generations experience this same freedom.

Ghostly apparition in cemetery in Philadelphia

So we went on a haunted tour of historic downtown Philadelphia on our first full day there and one of the places we stopped to visit was this cemetery. We did not actually go into the cemetery, just stopped outside the closed gates while our guide told us stories of the spirits that have been seen here. I just put my camera up on the wall of the cemetery and took a photo and upon downloading to the computer this turned out to be one of the photos!!!
















Ok, I totally photo-edited the image of our tour guide into this cemetery photo........so don't go getting all excited!! I was just having some fun!!

Warm October Day in Salem, OR

I went downtown a couple of weeks ago on a Wednesday to meet a friend for coffee and it was such a beautiful day that we decided to walk through the weekly Wednesday Farmer's Market. I happened to have my camera with me and just couldn't resist taking photos of all of the beautiful colors of the market. A good cup of coffee with a friend on a beautiful fall day and an opportunity to look at beautiful things and buy fresh produce and flowers. Does life get any better than this??