Tuesday, May 27, 2008

is it Monday or Tuesday???

It feels like Monday but yet it is Tuesday. So hard to get back into the swing of things when Monday is a holiday. Although for the most part Monday is the hardest day of the week we really do need our little Monday to help us get our week started!
Our Memorial weekend consisted of cruddy weather and Ed working most of the weekend. so needless to say we did not do much! We did get to the movies to see Indiana Jones...don't bother! so disappointing! It was good for the first hour and a half and then the bottom dropped out! Plus, why are movies do freakin long??? I really think they make them longer so we don't complain about paying 10 bucks! I say make them shorter and go back to 5 bucks a ticket! My first job was at the movie theatres. I can remember when we raised the prices from $2.75 a ticket to $3.25 a ticket. People threw rocks at our windows...I am dead serious!
I am posting a layout I did last week. I finally got a picture of it. I also did a couple of cards for Makenna's bible study teachers.
It is starting to heat up here at Mambi.We have our trade show in about 6 weeks. I need to start kitting my class real soon and next weekend is our crop event with Freckle Friends. So I need to not be blogging so much and get going.
We did get to church this weekend and it was really good! It was about God's mission map for us. some of us think that going on a mission is going around to the other side of the world. That is good and all but we have our own mission fields here in our own backyards. I like that! I like that my Jerusalem is where I live...Orange County! I can do that!

For the layout I used some of our new soft spoken that is being released at CHA-S. For the "thanks" card i used paper from our new "Sunshine" line and some of our new glitter alphabet. Love the colors of the alphabet. The "Thank You" card is from our Renee Family collection. I love the more masculine feel of the card.
I am off to finish up here at work!
Ciao!

Saturday, May 24, 2008

here comes summer...not!

Okay so we have had the weirdest weather ever the last couple of days. The sky just opened up for 2 days and poured. something us Californians are not use too!! At the office we all stood and watched the rain. Like we have never seen rain before. Which we have but not that much rain in about an hour or so. Streets were flooded 2 feet across, mudslides in the fire areas, tornadoes that is right tornadoes!!! Now I am sure for those of you that live in the midwest are thinkin buck up girl we get that kind of weather yearly. Seriously we just don't get this kind of weather and it freaks us Californians out! It is officially Memorial Weekend. Kickoff summer weekend and we are stuck in the house. Not sure what I will do with a 11 year old boy stuck in the house. We already have had nerf dart wars and fort building going on. Which I will have to say is not really my favorite. I am going to let you in on a little secret of mine. I am not a FUN mom. I detested going to the park when they were little. I did it but hated every minute of it. I am not the Mom that gets on the floor and does puzzles. I can count on one hand how many times I let them build forts in the house. I really envy Moms that did and do this with their kids. She is one of them and when I read her blog about the activities she does with her kids I marvel at that! Now this is not to say that I don't do other fun things. I sound kind of mean actually admitting this. I am going to go out on a limb and say I have other Mom gifts. I am sure I do. Not sure of what they are right now. haha!
So we have officially sold out the Me and My Freckle Friends Crop Event. You can click on the logo on the sidebar and see what we have in the silent auction. Even if you can't attend you can bid on the awesome projects we have up in the auction. If you do live in the area you can also put your name on the waiting list. You never know. Things do come up. You just may get lucky!

I am going to post some of my favorite pictures today. I still don't have a camera but I do have pictures on my library!
These are just a couple of photos that bring smiles to my face. Jaxon and his buddies at the desert riding. My South Africa trip and the "group". Park City at my parents house. Makenna taking the many pictures of herself. What is it about girls and taking pictures. She has tons of these kinds of pictures. Her alone and her with friends. Cracks me up!
I gotta go nerf dart wars are still taking place and I need to get it under control.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

craziness and busy-ness

How many of you are burning the candle at both ends these days with school about to end, baseball season coming to an end, graduations, weddings, birthdays. This time of year for some reason for me gives Christmas time a run for its money! I received 2 graduation announcements yesterday in the mail. I know of another young man graduating on Saturday. Family birthdays are almost every week. That started about 3 weeks ago. It is just crazy!
The events that I am looking forward to the most are the graduations. One is my nephew Griffen. Pretty handsome guy. He can be quite reserved and quiet. So very proud of him. He really has turned into a great human being! I love how he interacts with Jaxon. Who by the way just loves his big cousin. Graduating is such a great accomplishment. It is so hard to remember that far back...26 years ago..can that really be...say it isn't so?? Back to remembering...the world was wide open. So many goals and ideas swirling around in my head back then. I am sure that I will shed a tear or two that day. Seeing him in his cape and gown. I can feel it welling up already. Such a cry baby I am! What is it about cap and gowns. Pomp and Circumstance song. So flippin exciting for these kids. Go out there and conquer the world Griffen we will be cheering you on!
Since I can't really add pictures yet I added a slide show to the sidebar. I posted all my projects and layouts that I have done lately. I will continue to add to that as i finish them.
I am going to sit back and think about what I wanted back in 1982 and ponder on if I accomplished anything that I thought I would.
You can go here if you want to see a picture of me back then. Not 1982 but pretty darn close! Gotta love big hair!
I better jet. Gifts to buy, projects to make and memories to think about!
Ciao

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

feeling blue!

So we went from 98 degrees to 70 degrees in about 60 seconds here in sunny orange county. We are officially now calling it May Gray. I thought it was June Gloom. Global warming my butt!!! When it gets like this I sometimes get a little blue. Not feeling real motivated to do much. House could use a good cleaning, closets to clean, car to get washed. So many things I can do but are refusing to do. So what do I do instead...BLOG! Post a new post and then read blog after blog. Makes the time go by fast. Such a waste of time though. But today I don't care! I also can't post with pictures because the camera is still not working and i don't think that it will turn on again. Refer to last post. so until i get a new one no new pictures with my posts.
I love reading blogs with pictures. It is a funny thing the blog world. I feel like I know all of you. Like you are part of my everyday world. Which you are but not really. Does that make sense?? I am sure it does to my blogger friends. What makes that statement more of a reality is the pictures on the blogs. The kids, husbands, extended families. Inspiring projects, layouts. I am just rambling on about nothing.
So very thankful for my blog friends to keep me busy!
Haven't forgotten about Salad of the Month. This next recipe has been around my family for years. It is the best and one of the fastest dinners ever!
Taco Salad
I am sure you all have some sort of version of your own but I do like mine the best!
1 lb. hamburger can use ground turkey
3-4 green onions-chopped
2-3 tomatoes-chopped
1 head of lettuce- chopped
1 can of pinto or red kidney beans drained
1-2 cups of mexican cheese
Doritios Corn chips-crushed about 2 cups
Wish Bone French dressing
Brown meat and drain fat when done.
Add beans and lower heat just to warm beans. I season with salt and pepper at this time
Toss together lettuce, tomatoes,onions. Put in crushed chips and cheese. Add your meat/bean mixture on top of cheese. add dressing. I add abut 1/2 cup to 1 cup of dressing I think?
Toss salad. I toss until everything looks well coated. Add more or less dressing depending on your likings.
You can also add a can of corn to this salad. Also, adding some taco sauce or Pico Pica. My family likes the spiciness added I do not so I let them add their own.
this makes a ton of salad. I like to put some aside before adding dressing. that way you have yummy leftovers the next day that are not soggy. Unless of course you like soggy salad.
Enjoy!
Well i did put some laundry in that needs to be folded. At least i am some what productive!
Ciao Bellas~

Monday, May 19, 2008

so Thankful!

so much to tell and show you! Here is Orange County we had an unbelievable HOT weekend! 98 where i live. I am a summer kind of gal but as I have gotten older I am getting less tolerable of the heat! the family did get to get out there and enjoy it and I am so very thankful for that! We of course had baseball. 97 when those poor boys were out there. Makenna was pretty much gone most of the weekend until Sunday when I insisted that family time would take precedence over baseball! You see Ed not only manages Jaxon's team he umpires and is on the board. So needless to say we are either at the field or he is or at a meeting or whatever!
I am going to show you the weekend in pictures. So here is a recap...
While Jaxon went to the Angel game with the neighborhood boys-Thanks Davey Family, and Mak spent the night at Chica's, Ed and I went to our nephews baseball game. (because apparently we just can't get enough) and then went to dinner with them. They are two of the most adorable boys EVER! I just love them so very much! The make my hear t soar! they had the giggles that night the picture gets them in action. On Sunday we went to the beach. It was glorious! Apparently a lot of other baseball families had the same idea. I told my friend Twila apparently when we get a free day with no baseball we get the heck out of dodge! We saw a ton of dolphins one even jumped out of the water for us. I tried to get a picture of them but try as I do every summer I never have accomplished a dolphin picture. The only bummer of the weekend is I put my camera in the cooler and it got wet somehow.No the best move on my part! So now it won't turn on! if any of you have any grand ideas of how to fix it let me know! I am just sick about it! I am so grateful to live where I do. Thankful for a healthy family and wonderful friends!


Mambi Monday is today and the creative team is going to feature some of our new soft spoken. I already have my favs picked out and as soon as I finish the layout I will post it so that you can see. I will also sneak peek a couple of others as well. So make sure to stop by again!
Ciao Bellas~

Friday, May 16, 2008

Winners and A shower

Better late than never! Seems to be my motto these last few weeks. I have the winners of the mambi kits and card.
montanafam is the winner of the kits and card
nanbeth and jenn are the winners of the kits.
All 3 of you please email (suezig@meandmybigideas.com)me your snail mail addresses and I will get those out to you! Have fun creating with them and let us know out here in blog land what you made!
We seem to always have a birthday or some sort of celebration here at Mambi. Today was celebrating Tonya and the birth of her first child. so much fun to get together with everyone you work with and just chill and hang out. Eat good food and just spend time with each other. We are usually running the hallways meeting deadlines and such. Not alot of time to chat! Love working here. Great atmosphere and great people!
Lots of stuff to do around here. Deadlines and projects to be made. Always seem to be waiting on product to arrive. Will be kitting CHA class stuff pretty soon. I love doing that. Means I am going to be teaching soon and that is the best part of my job!
Seems to be that tonight both of my kids will be gone tonight. Hoping to get some date night in with the hubby! We need it! Baseball has taken a toll on us. I know I said i wouldn't mention baseball anymore but it has been a week of it and it didn't go our way! bummer! So maybe a margarita and some chips and salsa will cheer us up! Sounds good to me!
Wow, this post has gone all over the place. Not alot to show you so i guess a little chatter is what I think might keep you interested.
Have a wonderful weekend and will hopefully have some great photos to share next week!
Ciao Bellas~

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Recovery and movin on

Okay, so last night Jaxon's team lost. 10-9. Great game...for TEXAS! I am a bit bitter and sad. Jaxon...already over it. The rest of the 10 year old Titans moved on when they found out we were having pizza for snack. Me, Ed and I am sure a few other parents...still going over the game in our heads. Maybe it is just me. There is a line in the movie Remember the Titans (how relevant is that) where the assistant coaches daughter says after he lost the Hall of Fame coaches award she says to her Dad "I wanted that Hall of Fame REAL BAD! I know how she feels. I wanted first place REAL BAD! I need to move on like the rest of those boys. Take a lesson from them.

I AM MOVIN ON! No more baseball talk...it is just RIDICULOUS!

I just found out that we have abut 12 spots left for the Me and My Freckle Friends Crop event. So if you are waiting I wouldn't wait too long! click on the logo and it will take you to where you can register. Stephanie has a sneak peek of what she has made for the silent auction and make and take. We are going to start posting pictures of the silent auction items in the next couple of days. Don't forget all proceeds will go to Autism Speaks. What a better day. Spending time with friends, scrapping and putting your money to a great cause.
Stephanie is doing on her blog "Inspiration to Creation" once a week. She is taking a picture of what ever has inspired her that week and then posting a picture of what she created from her inspiration. Kinda of like what Project Runway has done. It got me thinking of how we go about our daily lives and not really pay any attention to the little details all around us that can give us so much inspiration. Color, texture, etc. It also kinda of in a round about way goes with my bible study my group just finished. It is the Dangerous Surrender study by Kay Warren. There are so many different aspects to it but what touched me is to pay attention to where God is leading me. To surrender my fear of where His path is for me and open my eyes and ears to Him. I always want to focus on the Big Picture just like focusing on getting my errands done and missing all the inspiration around me. So here is a picture of what touched me today. Not really touched me but stood out.
Tons of color and lots of hard lines. Soft and hard texture. Not really sure what will come of it but I am going to put on my thinking cap and see where it takes me. Should be fun. Go on over to Stephanie's and check it out.
Last but not least the Salad Recipe.
This one is one of my very favorites. My suggestion is only make this one in the summer as it can be quite pricey any other time of the year.
Summer Spinach Salad
1 lb. of spinach
1 cup strawberries-sliced
1/4 lb. bean sprouts
1 cup red seedless grapes- sliced
1/4 cup bacon bits-make your own way better than the store bought
Toss in large bowl- set aside
Dressing-
1 cup oil
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tsp. worchestsire sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1 small white onion- diced
Wire whisk all dressing ingredients. Toss with salad mix.
Enjoy!
Okay now I sure haven't gotten many salad recipes and don't forget I am picking a winner at the end of the month of the best salad recipe. So post those recipes!!
And...
you have until tomorrow to post a mom anecdote to get into the drawing for the Mambi kit. Leave a comment on yesterdays post for that one.
I am off kids are home and dinner needs to be thought of soon. Ugh!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Happy Mother's Day and what not

**Edited

What a week last week!!! We have been going non stop with baseball,bible sutdies, school work,work, and whatever else made our week fly by!. We are coming towards
the end of the baseball season and it is getting pretty intense. We are in 1st place and must win tonight to win the season which means we will play in TOC for you non baseball people means Tournament of Champions. Oh my Heavens!! Trying not to make it so stressful that Jaxon feels it. Very hard though.
Mother's Day came and went. I don't know what it is about posting on holidays. I have great intentions... thinking about something clever to post and then BAM gone is the stinkin day that I wanted to post on! I did have a fabulous day. Since my Mom and Mother in law were both out of town it was all about ME! I just asked for a very low key day. No fighting, whining kind of day. They did their best! We ended up meeting our friends the Murray's at Maggiano's for dinner! Yummy! I did manage to take some pictures of course none with my children.

This is what these four do when they get together! Goof Balls!
This is Ed and I, Doug and Torre! We just love them. We don't get to get together as much as we would like but when we do we always laugh and have fun! They are what you call "Good People"! Love them!
I missed spending time with my Mom! Happy Mother's Day Mom! Thanks for making the women that I am today! I Love you!
I also missed "Mambi Monday".
We are highlighting our new stuff that will be coming out at CHA-S. I am making a project with it. As soon as I finish I will post it. Great colors and love love the new soft spoken. I am not going to put picutres in it and will give it away to a lucky winner. When I post it tomorrow leave me a Mom anecdote and I will pick a winner from that.
I bet you are thinking she forgot about Salad Month! I did not! I will post that tomorrow as well. Susan from Freckle Friends posted a salad on her blog. Go here to see it. It sounds delicious! Speaking of Freckle Friends...did I mention the fabulous crop event we are hosting together.It is June 7th and I have a link on the side that will take you directly to the spot to sign up at! I promise it will be an event not to miss! We have some amazing stuff that we will be auctioning off. Ali Edwards has sent us something, Wilna Furstenburg has sent me a beautiful book to auction off! I am telling you that is just the tip of the iceberg! So sign up space is limited!
I am off to finish up the project I was talking about earlier and to think about baseball! I have to say I am stinkin excited!! Go Titans! What is one going to do when it is all over???
I finished the project faster than I thought. So I am posting the pictures of it. I used a kit from our new releases it is called the Renee Family kit. It is finished and all you would need to do is add pictures.


The template is from Louis in our graphics department. He made a ginourmous one for his Mom for Mother's Day. I had him shrink it down to fit a 12x12 piece of paper and Voila! A pretty simple card that took about an hour and a half to do. I will get a pdf file and post it tomorrow for the template. Don't forget to leave a Mom anecdote... be it for babies to teenagers. I will pick a winner on Thursday!
The Renee Family kit is on the left and the other two are some of my favorites from the release. This is what you will also get when you post an anecdote! So let's do this... winner number 5 will win the finished card and the 3 kits and winners number 10 and 17 will win the 3 kits. So post your anecdote comment! You have until Thursday.
One more thing that us here at Mambi forgot to mention on our blogs is Mambi has gone primetime tv!
If you are a fan of the show Desperate Housewives you might have seen it. Susan received a cookbook as a gift and on the front cover was the "Family" from our Modern Milan collection. How lovely is that?

Ciao!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

What Have I DONE!!!

Man oh Man...

I found this new website that downloads blog templates...trouble! Who am I kidding that this would be an easy task for a not so savvy computer girl! I downloaded this cute new pink scrolly flowery template saved it in blogger and BAM a new template. It looked great until I realized that all of my page elements were GONE! Never to be found by me! So I have spent that last hour re-doing my blog, adding links and song lists and blog counters. Now my blog counter is at zero again. I don't like that. It was fun to see how many blog friends have visited. It was getting to be a somewhat big number. I liked that. I wasn't going to post because quite frankly I was tired of the blog thing today. But then I remembered that I needed to post my salad recipe and I have a proud Mom moment to tell you about.


First the Salad. It is called Cabbage Taco Salad.
1 head of cabbage-chopped( when I am in a hurry I use the bagged cabbage)
1 bunch of cilantro-leaves only chopped
1 medium red onion-diced
1 small can of mexican corn-drained
1-2 cups of mexican cheese in bag
1/2 bag of your favorite tortilla chips-crushed
1 Tbls. of cumin
1-2 Tbls. fresh lime juice
1 jar of ranch dressing( I like to make mine from scratch when I have the time)
Toss the first 6 ingredients in large salad bowl
Mix together cumin, lime juice and ranch dressing at least a half hour before serving salad. Toss with salad mixture about 5 minutes before serving to let the cabbage soften a tad and the flavors to all come together.
I have taken this to many of potlucks. I also like to add grilled chicken to make it a main course. I promise you your guests will eat this one up. I never have leftovers of this salad.


Now my proud Mom moment. Some of you may think this is just silly. Some of you may think no big deal but in the Gurzi household this is HUGE!
I only wish that I had a before and after photo to get the full picture of the situation.
Makenna has an issue with keeping her room clean as do most 14 year olds. I know this only because all of us parents talk. This is one issue that we all bring up and realize they are all the same. We go round and round with her about this. Ed will go to the mat on it. I have come to an understanding that it is alright to close the door. That way I can pretend it really isn't as bad as I thought. We decided that she needs to have it clean before the weekend in order to do what she wants on the weekends. Now I will admit we have forgotten sometimes and we go up there and enter at our own risk and then kick ourselves all the way down the stairs. She had juped us again! Ugh!
This week was another story. She had piles upon piles of laundry. I don't even know how she had anything left to wear. But she did. She did laundry all weekend. But what was happening was it was piling up all over her floor and I just knew that all those clean clothes would end up in the laundry basket not to ever be worn. I told her she absolutely had to get them folded and put away. Here is the proud moment...only once did i have to tell and her and look here is her room absolutely nothing on the floor. I opened drawers and closets because I was just astonished. Clean clothes folded put away and hung up! Say it isn't so. So I had to take a picture.


Although her bed is unmade.You can see a floor and the trash basket is EMPTY! A very proud moment! It really doesn't take much to make me happy!


Here is another easy project done with our "Sunshine" line. I love these projects that take no time at all and add so much color and fun to your home!


Thanks for taking the time to read about my Mom moment. It was a little wordy. I just had to put it in writing though.
Enjoy your day
Ciao

Monday, May 5, 2008

Life Lessons and Sunshine~

This weekend started out fantastic. We went to our friends the Murray's for dinner. We have known them since before Jaxon was born and the kids get along like sisters and brothers. A wonderful friendship. We Love the Murrays. I was coming off a somewhat stressful couple of days. So for me it was great to enjoy a glass or two of wine with my friend and just relax. But then baseball came on Saturday and with that comes issues! This year more than ever!I think it seems like more than ever because Ed is not only a manager, but he is an umpire and is the safety officer on the baord so needless to say we are baseball 24/7! Although I try to stay out of things and really just be a sounding board for Ed this was a hard one. It had to do with integrity. A huge issue in my book. This word seems to be creeping into my life alot lately. Hence the stressful couple of days last week. Not sure if God is trying to teach me or I am to be an example. I feel pretty strongly that I am to be an example. I don't really compromise my integrity since I feel so strongly against that. I just really HATE Dad's...who are coaches/mamagers that will do anything for a win. Even to their own son. People~ as competitive as I am, meaning I LOVE winning it is not worth it if you cheat, hurt, or whatever else to win a 10 year old baseball game. Lots of talk amongst parents and gossip. You know how that goes. Parents talk even if they don't know the specifics and don't get me wrong I have made the same mistake myself. I guess what I am trying to say here is I am learning from this guy and trying to put things into perspective. 10 year old ball is not going to make my life better whether we win or not.

Okay, onto other fun stuff....
Did you know that the Month of May is salad month?? I read that somewhere last month. Is that hysterical! Who knew!!

So in honor of May the Salad month. I am going to post a new salad recipe every week with a picutre of the delicious salad. I would love it if you would either send me your favorite salad recipe or even link us to your favorite salad recipe in the comments. I will pick my favorite recipe at the end of the month and will send the winner a small gift card to a grocery store in your area! How does that sound?? Should be fun and by the end of the month we should have a pretty good collection of recipes!

I haven't forgotten that it is MAMBI MONDAY!This fabulous Monday the creative team decided to post on our perspective blogs a project that we all used our new line "Sunshine" with. So after you read my blog hop on over to Renee,Rachel,Lauren,Stephanie, and Terri's blogs and go check out their projects. I have seen Renee's and it is stinkin cute and a great idea! Especially for a summer birthday party...just a little hint!
Here is my project. It was fast and super easy. It took me about a half hour to complete!
I really like the colors of this line. It will make for some great summer/vacation layouts and projects! You can get this new line at Michael's.
Go check it out and let me know what you think!
Have a fantastic day and don't forget to start gathering your favorite salad recipe. I will post mine tomorrow!
Ciao Bellas~

Friday, May 2, 2008

winner winer chicken dinner!!!

serena (scrapbooking fiend) said...
scraptastic taste!!! luv the products! can't wait till tomorrow morning.

Serena is our winner!!!
Send me your snail mail address and I will get those fun products out to you pronto!
Next time I will take a better picture! (suezig@meandmybigideas.com)
I am off and out of the office to go enjoy the beautiful day that the Lord has made! I am excited because I am meeting a friend and gettin a pedicure! Yippee!!! If you have never treated yourself to a pedicure...DO IT! It is the best ever!!!
Check back on Monday. The creative team is posting a sneak peek!
One more thing,
I am deeply saddened that CKMedia has decided not to go forth with the Home and Heart magazine. The May and August issue will still be released but after that...GONE!
So go out there and buy up this magazine so that the Big Wigs at CKMedia have made a tremendous mistake!
If you would go on over and send sunshiny thoughts to her I know that she would really appreciate it!! If you have never ventured over to her blog you will not be disappointed!!! She is inspiring and a very talented gal!!

Now I am off !
Ciao Bellas~