CHA and BIG news

I went to CHA, the scrapbooking tradeshow again, this time in Chicago, and had a WONDERFUL time. I stayed with three message board girls whom I'd never met. We had a great time, made little albums for each other, stayed up way too late...

I came home with a suitcase FULL of stuff. Literally-- I almost had no room for my clothes! I took six classes while I was there, all with fabulous goodies, and then I got tons of free stuff at the show, too. Gotta love free stuff. One woman I sat with at a class said that "Gifts is my love language." I'm not entirely sure what that means, not having read the book about love languages, but I think Gifts may be MY love language, too. LOVE free stuff.

Bigger news awaited when I got home, though-- I had a layout picked up by Simple Scrapbooks magazine! It's a digital page about the kids' names, and it has a photo of the whole family on it, so that's even nicer. It will be on the web site to coincide with the November/December issue! I'll link here when it's up.

Madeline Wins Coloring Contest!

One day while dining at a favorite fast-but-healthy food restaurant near us, Madeline noted that they were having a coloring contest. There were entries posted all over the restaurant, and we got coloring pages for all three kids. Naturally, I had crayons in my purse (what mom doesn't?), so the kids colored the pages right there and turned them in.

A few weeks later we got the call that Madeline had won the contest, beating out kids as old as 12. When we went in to claim the prize, the employee who'd drawn the coloring page and helped judge the contest, Stephanie, told us that what set Madeline's entry apart was the detail on the snowboard-- she'd drawn in a "9-ball" logo she copied from the ski/snowboard/skateboard company decals pasted all over the dining room.

The prize turned out to be a bucket of "stuff" from the restaurant, including t-shirts, bandanas, decals, and a caribeener. Madeline was just so proud that she'd beat out older kids!

Jon Beats Out 2700+ Players at the World Series of Poker!

For Jon's 40th, he wanted to go to Vegas to play in the World Series. Instead of trying to get into the $10K buy-in "Main Event," which this year had 8773 players, he played in the $1K No-Limit Hold'em tournament. The field was 2891 players, and Jon went out 183rd. That may not sound so good, but he finished "in the money" and MORE than paid for his trip. He was really excited, and I was so totally thrilled for him.

His friends Nate and Michael met him there, and they had a great time. What a great birthday!