Old Melendez had a Farm....

E-I-E-I-O!!! And on his farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-O!!!

With a Rollie hereand a Chuck here,

here a Chuck, there a Chuck, everywhere a Chuck-Chuck.

Old Melendez had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!!
And on his farm he had some pigs, E-I-E-I-O!!!

Here a pig, there a pig, everywhere a pig-pig.
Old Melendez had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!!
And on his farm, he had some goats, E-I-E-I-O!!!

Here a goat, there a goat, everywhere a goat-goat.

Old Melendez had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!!


And on his farm, he had some ANNOYING Guinea Hens, E-I-E-I-O!!!

(but they make great Alarms, so I'm not complaining...) E-I-E-I-O!!!
Old Melendez had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!!!

Remember Splint (the black one) that Juan rescued and Jasmine used her newly acquired 4-H skills and splinted her leg? Well, she's all better and now has a companion, you'll never guess his name...Dodge, of course! (as in Ram, get it?)

Needless to say, we had a FABULOUS Easter at the Ranch and I wanted you to see the animals on the Melendez Farm.

Don't forget to say hello to Farmer Juan when you see him next!

Thanks for checking in!

Sharon

The kids' bday party

So, we went to the Lim's Family Banquet on Saturday night for Chinese New Year in Chinatown (as we usually do), but unfortunately the Chinese New Year Parade was the SAME NIGHT!!!
Tons of people, so we opted to take BART in and not have to worry about parking troubles.
Yummy food of course, and YES, I forgot to take pictures of the 8 different courses. Okay, so next year I will, I promise.
Onto Sunday, the "Triple Melendez" party. Jose-16, Natalie-13, and Jasmine-11. How time flies!!!
Jose just had a handful of friends come over and play video games while Natalie had a "Nightmare before Christmas" theme and Jasmine chose to have a cooking theme.
For Natalie's friends, we decorated some purses with "Day of the Dead" material, that's as close as I could get to the movie...it had skulls. For Jasmine, my sister Carol made Oreo Sunflowers, with M & M "ladybugs" Check it out:

Then came the best part, the cakes! They get to special order them from my sister Carol. Didn't she do an AWESOME job?

Here's Jose's cake, it is a checkerboard inside and on the outside she put chocolate chips, peanuts and marshmallows to make it "Rocky Road"
Then, for Natalie, she wanted Funfetti cake with some animated character and Carol embellished with Kit Kats all around the outside.

For Jasmine's Boston Creme Pie (yellow cake with custard filling and chocolate ganache on the top). Carol even made the chocolate bow on the top. It has edible heart transfers on it too!
Thanks for checking in!
Cardmaking on March 12th!
Stay tuned for the cards we create!
Sharon

Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe it's 2009!!!
I hope everyone had a great time during the holidays.

Here's my dog, Rex...we've been letting him stay inside with the weather being super COLD and all. Poor thing, his cataracts are really bad and he can't really see very well. Here he is hanging out downstairs with my mom and sister Annette, but once they go to bed, he trudges upstairs to hang out with me. Then, when I go to bed, as I am drifting off to sleep, I can still hear him walking around the house, his dog tags clink-clink as he walks. I guess he is just trying to get to know the house.

I've got my stamping and scrapbooking schedule for 2009.

CARDMAKING @ Sharon’s house(1013 Linden Avenue, Fairfield)
707-486-3500 (S’s cell phone)
1-4 pm-call/email to RSVP
· 4 projects for $10
· discounted stamps for sale
· access to my craft room, stamps, tools, paper
· and receive a gift from me!
· any Stampin’ Up! orders will get FREE shipping and handling
February 7-a bonus for every $50 order, Valentine’s Day cards
May 9-Mother’s/Father’s Day/graduation cards
July 11-new catalog reveal/specials
October 3-World Card Making Day specials

CARDMAKING @ Genentech
(4:30-6:00pm in 10-1H-call/email to RSVP)
Give me less than 5 minutes…
and you will can make your own card, REALLY!!!
· 4 cards (birthday, thank you, and with special occasions cards listed below) $2/each card made or $6/for all 4 cards including envelopes
· Handmade cards for sale
March 20-(Mother’s Day card)
June 12-(Father’s Day and graduation cards)
September 18-(Fall and Halloween cards)
November 13-(Holiday-Thanksgiving/Christmas-cards)
SCRAPBOOKING @ Genentech
(5-9pm in 10-1G-call/email to RSVP)
Bring your supplies, I will bring my tools and punches and you can play with them and try them out, share your projects and we’ll share ideas while we scrap together as long as you want.
January 23
April 17
August 14
October 16-help with scrapbooking gift ideas for the holidays

I hope you can make it to some of my events. Be sure to email me or call me to let me know you can come. I am looking forward to seeing the new catalog and will be sharing some more specials with you.
For those that participated in my catalog special, you will be receiving the new catalog soon. Watch for it in the mail.

Thanks for checking in!

Sharon

Merry Christmas!!!

We just celebrated my mom's birthday on Sunday since a few of my sisters were working and it would be hard for them to drive to Fairfield. I can't believe that she will be 74 on the 24th.
We got her a Wii and a Wii Fit to help with her exercising during the cold winter days. Carol and Brian also got her an electronic Price is Right game that plays all the games on the show like: PLINKO, Cliff Hanger and it even has the wheel to spin for the Showcase Showdown!!! I gave her some more word search books and Francie and Juan gave her a digital photo frame of the kids.
It took so long to "log" her into the game, she only got to register in the Wii Fit, but got to play tennis and bowling on the regular Wii game. I think she liked it.
My friend that I was going to dogsit for decided not to risk it and drive in the snowstorm that was predicted, so no dogsitting this year. I'll dogsit another time for them in January instead.

So, the countdown for Christmas, only 2 more days!

Thanks for checking in.
Sharon

Vendor Faire at Genentech!!!

On Wednesday, Mom came to participate in her third year at the Vendor Faire and made over $200!!!
She is finally down to less than 1 box of scarves. She had over 100 to sell this year and she didn't even knit any new ones. She offered a special of BUY 4 and get 1 FREE and people were taking advantage of it.

My survival kits and Snowman poop were not as successful.

I made little packets that had:

A Survival Kit
A rubber band to remind you to be flexible,
and help you snap back when you're stretched thin.
A Hug and a Kiss to let you know that you are loved.
A paper clip to hold yourself together on rainy days.
A puzzle piece to remind you
that you are an important part of a larger picture.
A lifesaver for the times you think you are drowning.
A coin to remind you of your value
A Snicker for when you need a good laugh.

and another one with marshmallows with this topper:
I heard you've been naughty, so here's the scoop…
All you get is…
SNOWMAN POOP!!!


Oh, and FYI, I will be dog sitting again over the holidays when my friend's Rachael, Lesli and their daughter Alex will go to Oklahoma from December 20-27 then again from Jan 17-25th. It'll be a little easier with only one dog, Baby. They had to put the other dog, Kansi, down in October when her bladder cancer got worse.

And mom did not pass her driver's test today, she got a 6 month temporary license and 3 more chances to try again. We'll have to study with her.

That's it for now.
Sharon

Where has the time gone?

So, it's been a week since we came back. After laundry, multiple errands, doctor appointments and settling back home, we had a small get together at the Melendez Ranch for Betty's 35th birthday on Saturday. Betty showed over 500 pictures in a slide show with her new camera and we narrated together about all the fun we had. It's good to be home.
To catch you up...Poor Betty, since she just started to catch a cold, her flight home was not pleasant. She ended up feeling horrible and using a motion sickness bag. Since Mom was in the aisle and I was at the window, she was stuck in the middle with her bag, so she called the flight attendant to get the bag. Trying not to get MORE embarrassed than she was, she whispered, "I'm sorry, but I got sick" as she tried to hand over the bag. Unfortunately, the flight attendant yelled, "I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!", so Betty had to repeat herself louder and then the flight attendant responded with, "I'LL BE RIGHT BACK, I NEED TO GET SOME GLOVES!!!" Geesh! But thanks to some Dramamine, and Betty felt better.
With Halloween on Friday, and since my mom did not want to pass out candy at home, we trekked it out to the ranch with meatloaf to feed the kids before going trick or treating. But with the threat of rain, the Melendez clan decided to go trick or treating in downtown Woodland instead. It was a little different trick or treating at stores and such, but since they really don't have a neighborhood and they didn't want to chance getting caught in the rain in the old Winters neighborhood where Juan's mom and dad used to live, that was what the kids did. Then, we shared all the souveniors we brought back with everyone.
Really good to be back...
So, on to scrapbooking the hundreds of pictures of Cook Islands for me to share and of NYC and DC for my mom to have. It's gonna take a while...

So, no more sabattical stuff on my blog, the next entry will be stamping stuff. Thanks for keeping up with my adventures. I'll have to save up again for more adventures in the future. I'll definitely do the Global Volunteers again when I can. The question is WHERE the next time?
I have a stamping class scheduled on Saturday, November 15 at my house. We'll be doing some cards and paper projects, stay tuned to see some sneak peeks and more details. Email me if you want to come.

Thanks,
Sharon