Wasn't tagged but...

I read this year-end set of questions on a friend's blog and decided to try them:

What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? I went on a cruise in the Mediterranian with my family. I saw a card I made published in a magazine.

Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't recall any resolutions so it's a good guess I didn't keep any!

Did anyone close to you give birth? No

Did anyone close to you die? My father-in-law.

What countries did you visit? Bahamas, United States, Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey

What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? I can't think of anything.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? Celebrating 25 years of marriage.

What was your biggest failure? Not MY failure really, but the biggest failure I experienced was that a joint venture of my church with another fell apart after over a year of work.

Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing major. I have a problem with the retina in my right eye that I had investigated this year.

What was the best thing you bought? Not sure

Whose behavior merited celebration? My husband's - he is so innovative and committed to his work as a radiologist and helping diagnose women with breast cancer.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? A group of people from the other church who undermined a lot of other people's good work and slandered their good names.

Where did most of your money go? Scrapbooking, travel, (well...and groceries, heating oil...)

What did you get really, really, really excited about? Traveling with friends and with family (especially the Med cruise) and by myself.

Compared to this time last year, are you: much happier, richer, nicer. About the same. Probably poorer (see above re travel and scrapbooking). Somewhat sadder due to the church thing.

What do you wish you'd done more of? Sleep

What was your favorite TV program? CSI, Criminal Minds

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? I don't hate anyone. I am dissapointed in a few people.

What was the best book you read this year? I don't know. I've read a lot of books.

What did you want and get? Lots of things!

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 54 last March. I can't remember what I did. Next year I will be on a cruise with friends on my birthday!

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If the church ammalgamation had worked out.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Casual and comfortable.

What political issue stirred you the most? Climate change debates.

Who did you miss? My mother (still miss her since 1991)

Who was the best new person (people) you met? My middle daughter's boyfriend is very nice. I also met a lot of people from the church we were trying to merge with who were very nice.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. Some people just don't understand the concept of progress.

I would like to tag anyone who would like to participate. Leave a comment that you have done so.

I'm so excited!

If you look back a few posts you will see one about Canada's Scrapbooking Crops for Kids and see I was honoured with 3rd place in a card contest. Well...today I got an order from Scrapbooks by Design, a store in Toronto and got a copy of Scrapbook and Cards today, which is a free magazine supported through advertising. What did I find but a page all about the card contest with a few of the cards and mine was there! It is the "thanks" card, very simple but they seemed to like it. Closest I'll ever get to being published in a scrapbook magazine (seeing as I don't submit layouts!).

Altered Apple Juice Boxes

We have been buying this apple juice which comes in pouches, 10 to a box. The boxes are just too good to throw out! They are a double walled box, with a thickness of a little over 1/4 inch. They just perfectly fit a CD box cross-wise. So far I have made a box to hold Christmas cards and 3 boxes for photo CDs, which also fit perfectly on the shelf. As you can see, I labeled the card one on the side and the CD ones on the end.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

After a couple of years of fairly little in the way of snow we are back to what passes as normal in this area. Here are a few pictures of the house from the front and then the side after we have had two big snowfalls.

Canada's Scrapbooking Crops for Kids

In October, this event was held for the first time in 6 locations across Canada. The closest one to me was in Saint John, NB. It was held over a weekend and we had meals provided and some great classes as well as cropping time on our own. All the money raised at each location went to the local children's hospital or ward. In the case of Saint John, it went to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Saint John Regional Hospital. People could also submit layouts for contests for $2 or cards for $1 and all the cards were then given to the hospital for use by patients/parents. I didn't take a lot of cropping stuff with me as I mainly took classes but I decided once there to make a few cards so I bought a few things from the on-site store and made them. One of my cards was picked for third place and will be published on the website for Scrapbook and Cards Today, a Canadian magazine. The top winner from each location will be published in the magazine. I was very excited about my card being chosen as it was very simple and I had seen some of the gorgeous cards that people made, however they seemed to be looking for simple ones, maybe easier to reproduce. Here are a few pictures from the weekend. First the table of prizes they had to give out. The sponsers were amazing! We got awesome goodie bags as well. Our crop room and the little store they had set up at the end of it. Our meals were served buffet style in the room right next door. Me and my table mates (kind of blurry for some reason - I didn't take the picture...obviously). We were assigned to tables which was nice as I went alone. Kerry McRorie, Editor-in-Chief of Scrapbook and Cards Today and one of our teachers for the weekend, holding up my card. Kerry and I with my card.

Family Thanksgiving

We had all the family home for Thanksgiving weekend and my sister in law had everyone over for dinner on Sunday. It was a great opportunity to take some pictures of all the family, incuding all the kids who are normally away at school. Here are a few. Top to bottom: the assembled company, grandpa and grandma with the grandkids, my husband and I, our daughter Renee and her boyfriend Miles, all the cousins.

Added a few pictures

I added a few to each section of the Mediterranean trip from my pictures.

Mediterranean Cruise

My family and I just got back from a 12 day cruise in theMediterrean. Here are just a few of our over 4000 pictures. They are backwards chronologically here. That is we started in Barcelona, went to Villefrance, etc., and Naples was our last stop before getting back to Barcelona.

Naples and Pompeii, Italy

More from Pompeii - tracks from sliding doors, stepping stones and chariot tracks, Marcel, Alix and Nicole at Pompeii, a beautiful fresco.

You have to admit this is an odd sign! Street vendor in Naples - anyone need a Prada bag? Frescos and a lovely Roman home in Pompeii, also Roman baths, the forum with Mt Vesuvius in the backgraound and "this way to the brothel" sign on the street.

Athens, Greece

few more from Athens - the Olympic Stadium for the first modern Olympics, the girls up by the Parthenon, a view down from the Acropolis.

Here we had a tour of the city and saw the Olympic stadium from a few years ago as well as the original one from the first modern Olympics. We also went up to see the Acropolis. Very crowded and hot! The guard is at the former royal palace (now the parliament). Got to like the shoes which weigh 10 pounds each.

Kusadasi Turkey

The Library of Celsus, Ephasus, a (very) public toilet in Ephasus, Nicole and our wonderful guide, eating lunch near the ruins at Dydyma.

Here we went to see the Roman ruins at Ephesus, Miletus and Dydyma and had lunch near the ruins at Didyma. We had a great guide and I think the consensus is Turkey was one of our favourite stops. The ruins we visited and the history of the place were amazing, and they really seem to want to make a good impression for tourists to encourage more visits. We loved it.

We then did a little shopping in Kusadasi (the port).

Santorini Island, Greece

A church in the village of Oia, the cable-car we took to come down to the port from the town of Fira, a view from the cable car. We took a tour to Oia, around the whole island and to a winery before stopping in Fira where we had lunch and looked around before going back to the ship.

Here there were no pelicans, but there were many friendly dogs.