Finally a chance to blog!

When we started the idea of the Bring-A-Friend chat at DST, I really, really thought it would be simple. (Funny, didn't I say the same thing about starting DST as well? LOL!) But the chat turned out to be HUGE. Huge kit, huge turn out. Just huge. And that is NOT a complaint! I couldn't have been happier with the turn out. There were a few minor snags and I expected that because it was our first time doing this and there were so many details that needed to be worked out. But the snags were minor and I think if we continue to do this on a regular basis, it's just going to get better and better. I was especially pleased and so proud of the seasoned-scrappers who showed up and did their best to answer all the newbie questions in the chat. I got an awful lot of emails after the chat from people saying that they (or their friends) were really impressed with how helpful everyone was. That made me feel SO proud, I thought I'd burst. You can't make people be nice. You can't make them be helpful. The members at DST choose to be that way and I feel like we're just so lucky to have so many amazing people there who choose kindness and generosity and to be so welcoming. I promise you that I can do everything in my power to make DST successful but if we didn't have a kind, generous, welcoming atmosphere, anything I did wouldn't matter a hill of beans. So anyway, I walked away from that experience feeling really proud of our members. And then I was even more thrilled to see so many newbies actually use the kit, post in the gallery and even have some of them post on our forum. I fully expect people to download the kit and then let it sit on their hard drives for months (like I did as a new scrapper) because it takes awhile to feel ready to tackle it. But a lot of them have already scrapped and posted their first layout (some have even moved on to posting MORE layouts!) So that definitely proved to me that the chat was a success and I will definitely be planning more of those.

Soooo.....what else.....

I'm really sad because we didn't get to have McKenna take school photos. She threw up Monday night. She seemed fine all day Tuesday but then threw up Tuesday evening. So we kept her home from school today (the day of the pictures). I was just so sad about it. I've already paid for the pictures and we had bought the cutest outfit at The Children's Place. I'll probably take her and Kyla in to Picture People to get their pics taken anyway. But still, I would've loved a little class photo.

Our anniversary was wonderful. Thanks to everyone who emailed, PM'd and posted to my anniversary layout to wish us well. My Dad and Cheryl babysat that night and Erick and I went out for dinner. We ate at Market Broiler and ate sooooo much food. Check out this meal (we shared everything):

Appetizers:
A dozen oysters on the half shell
Hawaiian Poke (we had this in Hawaii and it was so good! We were totally excited to see it on the menu. LOL! It's marinated Ahi tuna and onion on sticky white rice with wasabi and mustard sauces.)

Erick had a cup of Manhattan Clam Chowder
I had a dinner salad w/bleu cheese dressing

Then we each ordered the three-choice entree and shared all of it so our entrees included:
Tri-tip steak
Crab shrimp cakes
Shark fillet
Shrimp skewers
Snow crab
Mahi Mahi fillet

Plus side dishes which neither of us could even bother with. I had a glass of Riesling. Erick had some mixed drink called Surfer something. We skipped dessert although I did get a craving for the Licorice Twists and Stix that they sell at Sweet Factory so we grabbed a goodie bag of those.

We shopped for a bit. I bought these books:
Queen Bees and Wannabes (because I've heard this is an excellent book for mother's of girls)
You Remind Me of Me (because it seems like an awesome premise and it was on sale so I couldn't pass it up)
After This because Alice McDermott is my favorite author and I have to own everything she writes.

And I also picked up the November issue of Scrapbook Answers magazine because they actually mention DST in there!! Isn't that cool? Erick and I were pretty proud of that because we had no idea it would be in there. One of our members told us she found it. So fun!

My official gift was renewed Disneyland passes! McKenna was probably the most happy about that! We went yesterday (because we thought McKenna was feeling better) and had a wonderful time. We never go to Disneyland in the summer (too hot, too crowded, it's hell!) but in the fall it's not too busy and the weather is gorgeous. It was the perfect Disney day!

In more news, my sister is pregnant!! I'm so excited that there is another baby on the way!! She's due on June 22 (her birthday!) and I cannot wait! I'm already so excited to see her belly grow and feel some baby kicks. And the baby name discussions have already begun (if you know my sister, baby naming is a PROCESS. Nay, it is an obsession.) But she has some incredibly cute names on the table and I can't wait until we get to meet the little one.

Ok, Erick just got here with our sushi and between trying to balance my yellowtail on chopsticks and McKenna asking how to spell sushi, I can't concentrate anymore. ; )