I Love Pennsylvania - Hershey's Kiss Craft

Have you ever been to Hershey, Pennsylvania? Our family visited Hershey in 2017 and loved every minute. It's such a unique and fun city. (The streetlights are particularly awesome.) It's 15 miles from the state capital, Harrisburg, and about 95 miles from Philadelphia. If you've never been, I highly recommend you plan a trip to all three cities. 

I thought it would be fun to design a craft inspired by the iconic Hershey's kiss. Mine represents my love of the great state of Pennsylvania. Obviously, you can write whatever message you want on your plume. Affiliate links below. 

I Love Pennsylvania - Hershey's Kiss Craft

Materials: 

• cardstock (brown and white)
• scissors
• pastel blue pen (Ohuhu has the perfect shade in this set!)
• aluminum foil
• craft glue
• Hershey's Kisses (to snack on while crafting)

Steps: 

Cut out a triangle from the brown cardstock, then round the corners to make a kiss shape. Place the kiss on top of the white cardstock and draw a plume. 

Write your message on the plume with the pastel blue pen, then use the scissors to cut it out. Cut (or tear) a square of aluminum foil that is about an inch bigger than the kiss. Wrap the foil around the kiss, folding back a section so the chocolate is visible. 

You don't need glue for the foil, but you do need a dot of glue to attach the plume to the back of the kiss. 

Reward yourself for a job well done with Hershey's kisses! 

Where I've Been

I love maps and I love checklists and I especially love maps that act as checklists. I've made (and updated) a lot of maps over the years, showing where I have traveled. Because searching for them to link is a pain, I've created a dedicated page to hold them all. Check out my new Where I've Been page!

Glen Cove Elementary, 20 Years Later

From 1995 to 2006, I taught fourth and fifth grade at Glen Cove Elementary School. My last day as a teacher was May 17, 2006, which was a Wednesday. I left at lunchtime. There was still a month left before the school year ended. I loved my job and I had a great class that year, but I had a very good reason for leaving midday, midweek, a month early: I was nine months pregnant. My doctor wanted me resting as much as possible. I'd been leaving school at lunchtime for the past month. With state testing finished that morning, I would be home full-time until the baby was born (exactly three weeks later, as it turned out). Fortunately, I'd used so little sick leave during my 11 years of teaching that I had enough time to cover a month of afternoons off in addition to the month of full days I was taking off, with plenty left over. 

I visited my former coworkers at Glen Cove fairly often for the first few years after I stopped teaching, until eventually almost everyone I knew there had retired. The last time I was at Glen Cove was in May 2016. I attended the retirement party of Greg Allison, the principal I'd had all 11 years I taught. Spending time at Glen Cove, with so many of my former coworkers, was like coming home. 

Somehow, ten years have passed since then, meaning it has now been twenty years since I ended my teaching career. I decided that I would mark 20 years out of the classroom by visiting the school. By happy coincidence, the current principal at Glen Cove, Kensaburo Daniels, is a leader in our Scout troop, so it was easy to make the arrangements. Since May 17 fell on a Sunday, I visited Glen Cove on Monday, May 18. 

My first surprise was immediate. There is a fence around the school! This used to be completely open. It looks so different with the fence there. 

Time to check in at the office!

The building is the same, but so many things are different. It was surreal. Back in the day, the teachers had a dedicated work room across from the main office. Now it is office space and the copier and laminator are in the staff room. Areas that were used for storage when I was there are now offices and spaces we used for storage are used for small group work with students. 

The cafeteria hasn't changed much. 

The trophy case now has photos from the construction of the school, which began in 1988. 

Glen Cove was named a California Distinguished School in 2000. I was part of the group that worked on the successful application.  

This is the school library. There was a class in there when I visited, so I photographed the only area without kids. The room has more tables in it than when I was a teacher, but otherwise is pretty similar. 

B-Pod was my building for all 11 years that I taught. It has six classrooms, B1-B6. I started in B5 when we were a four-track year-round school. Every three months when we went off track, the students and I packed up every single item in our classroom and stored it all in the middle of the pod. After a month off, we came back into the classroom that had just been vacated by another class. It was a weird schedule, but I loved it. (The schedule, not the packing and moving. That part was terrible.) The school year started the first week of August in B5, then we had the entire month of September off. We moved into B6 for October, November, and December, then we had two weeks off for the holidays, plus the entire month of January. We came back to a third classroom, B4, for February, March, and April, then had all of May off. We were back in B5 for June and most of July, then the school year ended. There was a week off before the new school year started. 

When Glen Cove went to a single-track modified year-round schedule, whatever classroom each teacher was currently in became their permanent home. Mine was B4. 

Now B4 is used as an art room. 

So many things are different, most having to do with technology. The first thing I noticed is that my beloved chalkboards are missing! So are my pull-down maps and the screen I used with an overhead projector. I had one single computer in my classroom that I used for writing worksheets and parent letters and the kids used for Accelerated Reader; we had no Internet access. When I visited, there were Chromebooks out on most of the desks, as the art room was temporarily being used for state testing. 

The Dutch doors that we had (and weren't allowed to use for fear someone would lose a finger) have been replaced with normal doors. There are proper screens over the porthole windows. Most teachers left their windows uncovered back in the day, but since B4 faced the playground, I covered mine with curtains so that the primary kids didn't use their entire recess staring at us like zoo animals. 

That area on the left used to be grass. 

The playgrounds are similar to how they used to be, other than the now-dead grass. You'll have to take my word for it; there were kids playing on all the structures and at the basketball courts, so I didn't take pictures of any of that. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the painted map of the US was still visible on the concrete. I was there when it was painted. My students and I used it all the time for geography games and general fun. 

See those painted storage units? They were painted during Glen Cove's 20th birthday party in 2009. 

I wasn't teaching anymore, but we attended the party and had a great time. In fact, the smallest child on those storage units is Trevor! Check out these pictures I found. Trevor was 3.

Back to present-day. There is a fence separating the playground from the field. We used that field for PE, Presidential Physical Fitness testing, field days, outdoor art activities, and so much more. 

Another major change at Glen Cove: the people. There is exactly one person left from 20 years ago, Mrs. Ochoa. It was great to see her. By the way, I wore my 1995 Glen Cove Hawks t-shirt for my visit. I got a lot of comments about it. 

In some ways, my teaching career feels like it ended yesterday and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago. 

I had such a such a great visit. It was the perfect way to mark the milestone of 20 years out of the classroom. Huge thanks to Mr. Daniels for his time and to everyone at Glen Cove for their hospitality.

Wings, Flowers, and Bling Card Trio

The final National Scrapbook Day challenge I completed was Wings, Flowers, and Bling. We could make any sort of project, as long as it had flowers, wings, and bling. Doodlebug's Hello Again collection was perfect, since it has all three in abundance. 

Wings, Flowers, and Bling Card Trio (affiliate link)

I only had to make one card for the challenge, but I ended up making three. Once all the stuff is out, you might as well make multiples, right? I had a fun time making these bright and cheerful cards. 

I Said Yes

Steve and I consider our engagement date to be July 11, 2003 because that is the day that he gave me an engagement ring. However, there are two other dates in 2003 which could reasonably be considered our engagement day: May 17 and June 27. 

Backing up a bit: Steve and I first started talking about getting married in January 2003. Over the next few months, we bought a cake topper, went ring shopping, and starting thinking about venues (in that order). On May 17, Steve joined my family for Great Strides, an annual benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, held at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. It's a beautiful place year-round, but that day the weather was perfect and the flowers were in full bloom. Steve pulled me aside and asked, "Will you marry me here?" I said yes. We'd found the ideal place for us to get married. 

I Said Yes (affiliate link)

Technically, it was a proposal, but (oddly) we didn't consider ourselves engaged yet. That would come with the ring. I didn't know it at the time, but Steve had been shopping for just the right loose diamond and then was having it custom set, which took a lot more time than he'd expected.

We thought a lot about wedding dates before deciding that Sunday, June 27, 2004 would be the perfect day. As it turns out, Heather Farm is a really popular location for weddings. They required all brides who wanted a particular date to show up in person exactly one year ahead of time. If more than one bride showed up, they'd hold a drawing. So on Friday, June 27, 2003 I went to Walnut Creek. I was so excited to lock in our date. But it was not to be. Another bride showed up and she won the drawing. I was devastated. 

What to do? I asked if there were any weekend dates where no brides showed up. We could get married sooner if there was a date. Indeed, there was one: Sunday, May 30, 2004. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. That would work well for family and friends who were traveling from out of state. It wasn't ideal in terms of my job; we'd picked late June so that I'd be on summer break. But we could get married, have a mini honeymoon, and then I could return to finish out the school year. We'd do a proper honeymoon later. So on June 27, with Steve's blessing, I signed a contract securing our wedding venue for May 30. Technically, we still weren't engaged!

I made this scrapbook layout for the NSD Shape challenge at A Cherry on Top. We had to include at least 10 of the same shape on the page and the shapes had to be different sizes. I own three heart punches, which worked well for my layout. 

Duo of Floral Cards

The Celebrate Women challenge at A Cherry on Top required us to follow a sketch to make a card for (or a layout about) someone female. The project had to include a heart. I ended up making two cards since I was so happy with the first one I made.  

Flower Card Duo (affiliate link)

This is the sketch we had to follow. As you can see, I rotated the sketch. I replaced the main circle with the rectangular sentiments and changed up the proportions of the layers.  

 

This challenge was a lot of fun. I'll definitely be using that collection again to make more cards. 

Celebrating 50 in Las Vegas

Steve and I had such a fun time celebrating his 50th birthday in Las Vegas back in January. This is the page I made for the scrapbook. 

Celebrating 50 in Las Vegas (affiliate link)

I made this page for the Leftover Scraps Only challenge at A Cherry on Top. We were allowed to use a full piece of paper for the background, but everything else on the page needed to be scraps. I have a lot of scraps, so this was pretty easy for me to do. Once I decided what photos to use, the layout came together quickly. 

Hidden Journaling Mixed Media Project

Not all National Scrapbook Day challenges require participants to make a scrapbook layout. Some allow cards, traveler's notebooks, mini albums, journal pages, or even general crafts. The Hidden Journaling challenge at A Cherry on Top was open to any creation, as long as it featured hidden journaling. Most of us tend to create scrapbook layouts about happy subjects, so this is a chance to explore more difficult topics in our artwork. 

This is my finished piece: 

I started by writing my journaling on a piece of white cardstock, using a black Flair pen and messy cursive (affiliate link here and below). Then I used my fingers to cover most of the writing with acrylic paint in shades of blue and grey. I used black stencil butter and a drafting stencil (inherited from my dad) to further cover my writing. When that was dry, I added marks with purple and blue Stabilo Woody pencils. 

I tore the paper into pieces. I glued the base to purple cardstock, then added smaller bits on top to make an arrangement that felt right. Finally, I added word label stickers.  

• I'm fine, thank you. 
• I'll be okay. 
• This is real life.  

Making this project was cathartic and a surprisingly powerful tool for exploring my feelings. I love challenges that push me way outside my comfort zone. I'm glad to have made something so different and so unique for National Scrapbook Day. 

Easter Booty

I like photo albums, but scrapbooking is so much better. Not only is a lot more fun to do, but it's all about telling a story instead of just showing a photo. Our family photo album from 1980 includes a picture of me (age 8) and my sister (almost 5) wearing pink pajamas, pirate hats, eyepatches, and bandanas, posing with our Easter baskets. Just the photo - no explanation. There is little chance that anyone alive (besides the two of us and our mom) knows why we're dressed as pirates for Easter. This layout, which I titled Easter Booty, tells the story. 

Easter Booty (affiliate link)

My grandparents had discovered cruising in the 1970's and absolutely loved it. They talked about it all the time, which convinced my parents that they should try a cruise. In 1980, they went with friends on a Caribbean cruise over spring break; Kari and I stayed with her godparents. Our parents missed us while they were gone (at least, that's what they told us) and brought us back souvenirs, including the pirate garb that the cruise ship gave them. They gave us our souvenirs on Easter morning, which led to the photo of us posing with our Easter baskets, dressed as pirates. 

I made this page for the Grab Five challenge at A Cherry on Top. We had a list of 15 supplies or techniques and had to pick five of them to use on a page. Despite it being a very simple page, I ended up using six of the 15: the color green, at least one photo, patterned paper, washi tape, at least two stickers, and journaling. 

Here's a closer look at the photo. Be sure to notice the random dog bone sitting in front of me. I still have (and use) that Easter basket, by the way. And I still have the pirate stuff. 

Yo ho ho! Happy Easter!

Southern California Road Trip

Today's layout documents the road trip that Steve and I took in January 2025. It was inspired by the Numbers challenge at A Cherry on Top. We could choose odd (1, 3, 5, 7) or even (2, 4, 6, 8), then had to use those numbers of elements on the page. 

Southern California Road Trip (affiliate link)

My page is even. There are two patterned papers, a four word title, six word label stickers, and eight photos. Even with eight photos, there are a lot of memories that didn't make it onto the scrapbook layout. I am so glad to be documenting our travels here on the blog in addition to in the album. Together, they help me remember all the wonderful places we've been and the fun times we've had together.

Cards with Fall Puns

I'm not really into puns, so when I saw that one of the National Scrapbook Day challenges at A Cherry on Top was to make a project featuring a pun, I wasn't 100% sure if I even had any supplies that would work. But once I started looking through my stash, I found a fall collection with puns. I used them to make these two cards. The fox says, "Falling for you" and the squirrel says "I'm nuts about you."

Cards with Fall Puns (affiliate link)

Steve loves puns, so maybe he'll get two unexpected greeting cards in the fall. Or I might just donate them. Either way, it was a fun challenge and I enjoyed the opportunity to work with fall colors.

First Flight

When I was cleaning for National Scrapbook Day, I came across a pair of black and white photos taken at the airport in 1972 when I was a baby. I'm with my parents in one picture and my maternal grandparents and uncle in the other. I suspected that the pictures were of my first flight, which I thought would be a fun topic to scrap. I checked with my mom; indeed, I took my first flight in September 1972, at 6 months old. Unfortunately, the reason for our flight was not a good one. 

My dad had gotten a call from his brother: their mom was hospitalized following a heart attack. My parents packed their bags, loaded 6-month old Cindy into the car, and drove 800+ miles from our home near San Francisco to Seattle. My parents dropped me off with my mom's parents, then visited Dad's mom at the hospital. We stayed two days. She seemed to be recovering well, so we drove back to California so Dad could get back to work. Grandma Jones died right after we got home. My first plane trip was from Oakland to Seattle so that we could attend my grandmother's funeral. While I wish my first flight had been for a happier reason, I'm glad to have documented this story. 

First Flight (affiliate link)

I entered this page in the Choose a Sketch Challenge at A Cherry on Top. As you can see, I included the basic elements of the sketch, but tweaked a few elements to make them work better for this page. 

These pictures are, by far, the oldest ones I've ever scrapped. I have more than enough recent photos to scrap, but I'm inspired to occasionally go back to pictures from my childhood and tell some of those stories. I'm particularly interested in learning the stories I didn't know, like the story of my first flight, and getting those into an album.

2025 Christmas Card Layout

I like to include our family's Christmas cards in my scrapbooks, but I struggled figuring out how to deal with this year's card. I ended up treating the card like picture frame and "hanging" it on a split background. My page was inspired by the Half-It Challenge at A Cherry on Top.  

2025 Christmas Card (affiliate link)

It's a really simple page, but I'm ok with that. The title and journaling that I would normally put on a layout happen to already be on the card itself. Into the album it goes!

Happy Birthday 2026

Here's another layout I made for a National Scrapbook Day challenge at A Cherry on Top. This one required us to follow a sketch, using at least three items that start with the letters in the word SKETCH. I used: stickers (S), a tag (T), and cardstock (C) to complete the challenge. 

Happy Birthday 2026 (affiliate link)

This layout is from a joint birthday dinner at Cattlemens. It's not obvious whose birthday it is (mine and Trevor's roommate's) unless you read the journaling. I'm annoyed with myself because I forgot to ask the waitress to take a group picture at the table AND I forgot to take pictures of our food. Too busy having a good time, I guess! I made due with separate pictures taken after dinner. 

I had a lot of fun making this layout. Once I figured out that I could do a tag for letter T, it came together quickly. I'm happy with how it turned out. 

Our First Road Trip

Saturday, May 2 was National Scrapbook Day. I didn't get to participate as much as I normally do, but I did get some scrapping in and enjoyed the games, challenges, and camaraderie at A Cherry On Top. The first layout I made was for a scraplift challenge.

1st Road Trip (affiliate link)

The layout tells the story of the first road trip that Steve and I ever took together, back in July 2003. We had been engaged for two weeks when we took off on a 9-day adventure from Sacramento to Calico Ghost Town, Grand Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Las Vegas and the Hoover Dam, and Yosemite National Park, then back to Sacramento. 

The trip got off to bad start when the undercarriage of Steve's car fell off about two hours into the trip, in the middle of nowhere. He'd had the car serviced the day before in anticipation of such a long road trip and apparently they did not secure it correctly after the service. Steve saved the day (and the trip) with zip ties and his engineering skills. While there were some other hiccups during the trip (though none so dramatic), we had a fantastic time together. It was the first time we'd traveled any distance together and it was immediately apparent that our travel styles were compatible, just like we were in so many other ways. 

I was 31 and Steve was 27 when we went on this trip. I love looking back at the pictures of us, so young and so happy. We're not young anymore, but we're still happy. It's been 23 years since that first road trip and we still love traveling together.

Travel Adventures in Arizona and New Mexico, Part 14: Albuquerque to El Paso

This is my fourteenth and final post about our adventures traveling through Arizona and New Mexico. I recommend that you read the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh,  twelfth, and thirteenth posts before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received comped passes, media rates, and other benefits for several of the places we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no effect on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

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Travel Adventures from Albuquerque to El Paso

After leaving the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, we had a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get to our next destination. We made two short stops along the drive. The first was to get a quick photo in San Antonio. These Official Scenic Highway Markers are all over New Mexico (approximately 650 statewide) and I love them. This one marks the birthplace of Conrad Hilton. 

A bit more driving and we came to Valley of Fires Recreation Area in Carizozo. Valley of Fires is located at the Malpais Lava Flow, important because it is one of the largest volume young lava flows. 

Unfortunately, the Visitor Center had just closed when we got there, so we headed directly out on the trail.  

We followed multiple switchbacks to get down to the lava fields. It was great to stretch our legs a bit.  

This was the second "malpais" (badlands) we'd visited in three days and we enjoyed both immensely. 

Onward! We drove for another hour or so before reaching PistachioLand, home of the world's largest pistachio. 

  

They were about to close when we arrived and they'd stopped ice cream sales, so we weren't able to try their famous pistachio ice cream. Nor could we take a farm tour. But we did enjoy checking out their large store. It's packed with all things pistachio. 

  

  

The store is 98% pistachios and 2% aliens. I assume that is because Roswell is near. Well, sort of. It's 110 miles away. 

There's a free pistachio tasting bar at PistachioLand that we enjoyed. We tried most of the 15 or so flavors. I never would have guessed that Margarita Lime would be my favorite. Steve's favorite was Lemon Lime. Citrus and pistachios go together really well!

  

I really would have liked to try the ice cream. 

But that would have ruined my dinner and then I wouldn't have enjoyed the excellent food at D.H. Lescombes Winery and Bistro. 

Steve and I shared potstickers, french onion soup, and a steakhouse salad. Everything was really good. 

Our home for the night was the Holiday Inn Express Alamogordo. This hotel offers the usual amenities of the brand (free breakfast, free parking, etc) but if also offered one perk I've never seen anywhere else: free sled rentals. While we were checking in, a happy family dropped off the sleds they'd been using that day. 

As you might imagine, there was no snow in southern New Mexico on that sunny day in April. The sleds aren't for snow - they're for sand. Alamogordo is about 15 miles from White Sands National Park. 

Or is it White Sands National Monument? 

White Sands was a national monument from 1933 until 2019, when it became a national park. Most of the signs are updated, but not all. It preserves the world's largest gypsum dunefield, as well as the world's largest collection of fossilized footprints from the Ice Age. 

We started in the Visitor Center. I really enjoyed this exhibit about some of the most common tracks seen out on the dunefield. 

There were other interesting exhibits, but it was really crowded and we couldn't get decent pictures. We watched the park movie, then set out on Dunes Drive to experience the park. Fortunately, there were no missile test closures (!!). 

We listened the audio tour as we drove and stopped at several of the points of interest along the way. We walked along this trail, then up onto the dunes. 

Yup. It's sand. It's white. 

Because the sand is ever-shifting, the trails are marked with posts. Follow the blue clubs symbol for the Dune Life Nature Trail. 

Full disclosure: I don't like sand. I hate touching it and I don't like walking on it. The gypsum sand at White Sands is definitely better than the normal silica sand, but I still didn't enjoy it. It's pretty though. It looks like snow.  

I'm glad there was such a beautiful blue sky when we were visiting White Sands NP. 

If you've never been to White Sands, take a minute to picture what you think the picnic area looks like. 

Is this what you'd imagined? I sure didn't!

It's hard to properly express how much white sand there is at White Sands. We enjoyed looking at the pristine areas that didn't have footprints. People's footprints, that is. We were really excited to spot roadrunner tracks, which I never would have recognized without going to the Visitor Center first. 

We left White Sands and had a 90 minute drive to the airport in El Paso, Texas. It was the closest and best option for getting home. We flew to Phoenix, then went to the gate for our long layover. Steve, not in the mood to sit and read, walked through the whole airport. Thank goodness he did - he discovered an eegee's!! I thought we'd had our last-ever eegee a week earlier!

Steve and I had a great time exploring Arizona and New Mexico together. I hope I've inspired you to visit this area of the Southwest. There are so many fun and fascinating things to do. We packed in as much as we could, but it still has so much more to offer. We'll be back!