Goodbye Pennsylvania

The packers were here, and quickly stuffed nine years of lives into boxes. The movers came and shoved all those boxes into a semi, including our car. And today, we are flying off to California. So bittersweet. On one hand, I'm glad to finally go. But I love this little village we've called home for so long. I love the people here. I love the schools. I love the four-seasons weather. I love the pizza. I love Philadelphia.

I thought I'd share a layout I created a while ago about our little town.

As seen in the March/April 2008 issue of Simple Scrapbooks magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

This little town is old, adorable, and quirky. You can click on the layout to get a bigger picture, in case you want to read the journaling.

And a few photos that I love about our lives here.

Rare foggy snowy day. It's foggy here all the time. But not usually while snowing. (The view is from my backyard deck.)

My middlest being his usual goofy self at our favorite park.

My husband and the littlest taking a walk at our favorite hiking trail, next to a creek in Valley Forge National Park.  We'll miss that trail and park so much. We go there all four seasons. It's fun in the sun, in the rain, in the snow, in the ice. I love seeing how different it is throughout the year.

Our backyard after a big rainfall. Have I mentioned it rains a lot here? It makes the area beautiful and green, and our (former) yard very waterlogged. We are going to miss that yard so much. It's huge and flat and has great shade in the summer. Our yard in California is smaller than a postage stamp.

Me, walking my favorite shrimp nigiri sushi to preschool for his Halloween parade. The kids come out, and walk around the church in which the school is housed. The school is right in middle of our downtown area, and the parade attracts everyone around. So cute. All three of my kids went to preschool there. It's a special place for all of us.

So there you have it. Nine years in five photos and one layout. Tomorrow, I'll be posting from Los Angeles. Crazy!

Tweet

And there goes another week!

I can't believe that two weeks into it, my kids are still feeling draggy due to Daylight Saving! Can someone stop the madness? Please?

My life has been the usual excitement! Laundry, vacuuming, cooking, Pinteresting, procrastinating about the basement, trying to figure out 7th grade Math, Angry Birding (the Rio version.) Good stuff.

I did go out to lunch with some of my local friends. We went to this amazing little restaurant that we all love. Ordered our food, and started yapping. We haven't seen each other for a while, but we've known each other for almost 9 years. Halfway through the meal, we notice the restaurant is filling up with smoke. Then the manager shows up to apologize that they have no electricity. OK, I can eat with just the sun shining through the windows, but why is the restaurant smoky? My guess is that their exhaust fans were down, and they just kept on cooking with their wood burning grill. We try to keep on chatting and noshing. Pretty soon, we are chatting, noshing, and coughing. Add some eye rubbing. It was nuts! But we stuck to it because it was my goodbye lunch. I left smelling like I had worked all day in a smokehouse. Later when I picked up the kids, my middlest hugged me and said I smelled like bacon. Which I guess is not a bad thing altogether. As long as there aren't any lions around. I hear they like bacon.

And of course, I can't possibly sign off without a photo or a layout. How about both? I know! You get so much for your money here. Yes, I do know how to please a crowd. You are welcome! Have a good weekend!

Pre-smoked. Love those girls (and should probably tell them I posted their photo online. Oops. You don't want to be my friend. This could happen to you.) BTW, do you see those super cool dog profiles cut out of canvas on the upper left? I think I'm going to make something like that. Minus the dogs. You've been forewarned.

I love this layout about the walks the littlest and I used to take before he started going to school daily. Sigh. I miss that. As seen in the March/April 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

Tweet

Weekend In Photos: The Chinatown Edition

I spent a delightful day with my dear friend Margaret. Every few months, we go and get haircuts together in Center City, followed by chowing on yummy food in Chinatown. Afterwards, she usually wants to visit Chinese knickknack stores, and buy everything in sight. I usually have to talk her down. This time, she was in search of the perfect jade dragon. I just wanted to visit my favorite pastry shop to get some dan-tat and a boba drink. But I'm a good friend, so we searched high and low, and found her dragon (and a few other questionable buys.)

Chinese checkers. Kind of hard to play if one can't read Chinese. I can't play it.

Chinese dragons are friendly. Uh-huh. (And apparently, they have good orthodontists too.)

Not sure what this is. A basket of cheap, fake hair? Blonde? In Chinatown?

No idea what's printed on this plate, but it's beautiful.

We Asians dig our jarred, canned, and packaged foods.

Love the store signs in Chinese. Again, I can't read Chinese. 
(I can hear my Mom sighing from far away.)

Happy with my boba and new haircut. What did you say? My hair looks exactly the same?
It's a bit shorter. Really. Really!

Tweet