Still bloggin'

Just not here....Blogger wouldn't let me do anything new for a while, and you can see that my format is screwed, so I've been bloggin here instead. Check it out. Cool photo albums!

Blogger

Ok, so Blogger is driving me nuts. What's with this thing??

Yea, Preschool!

So we did it...the girlie girls are in pre-school now. They love it. Though Emily informed me the first day, the day when the parents were only down the hall in the parent meeting volunteering for the phone tree and to make Play-doh, that "I looked everywhere for you, and then I cried." How sweet is that? Bless her little heart. The next day, when the parents truly did leave, her teacher informed me at dismissal that she only cried during transition, and she was fine and had fun. Both she and Maddie reported just one activity for the entire afternoon: playing on the PLAYGROUND!!!! I know they did other things, but that's all they had to say. Good enough. I have a cute photo of the girls out front on our way to school, but, of course, Blogger won't let me post photos now. Stupid blogger. Makes me wanna switch to Typepad. So here's a link to my cutie-pies, smirking as usual.

The husband and I went to the home improvement store to take advantage of a paint sale during the couple of hours the girls were in school. SO excited about that. We're painting the basement main room, aka the playroom, a tangerine-looking orange, white, and a splash of green on one wall. Rearranged a bit, still working on it, trying to make it a fun spot for the girls rather than, well, a basement.

Trying to finish some swaps and stuff with scrapbooking. Kinda tired of all the circle journals and swaps, wanting to get to my own stuff like NOW. Finished the CKU-A cj, finally. Just need to mail them off to Tina. Starting a new cj with a group from last year that was just super, so I don't mind that, and I used a journal we did at CKU Minneapolis as my book, so I just had to do the pages, the book was already done. Working on the recipe swap, which is just 5 8x8 pages. I'm finished with it, all but adding the recipe card in the pocket. My pages came out kinda funky, cause I was using 5 different colors of Bazzill 8x8 cardstock that I'm trying to use up, plus some My Life KI that seemed to match all the colors, punched some Whale Retro Flowers, painted and stamped some chipboard label thingys that Kara sent me (thanks, Kara!). Pages are ok, but not great. Like I said, funky looking. Hope my fellow recipe swappers forgive me! Also working on the 6x6 Friendship page swap....30 of those suckers! I cut my name and a flower out of each with the Wishblade, which looks cool, backing with pp (BG Gypsie) and adding more pp, buttons and some journaling, plus some Primas. Kinda cool. Ready to be done with it. Quite a bit of detail work still to do. Basic pages are done, at least.
I am excited about one swap - the Trading Pages swap on WT. I got Laura to trade with, who, from looking at her CHA photos, loves Heidi Swapp as much as I do. Well, Heidi is my girl! Ok, my product girl, so Laura, I got your back on this swap!!

So that's about it for now. No updates on anything...just working and doing. Should do more housework. Trying to figure out how to make the house "nicer" with two three-year-olds and a dog that sheds. Tired of the disarray; not sure what to do about it. So what's up with you?

Oh, I need to fix my blog set up. Couldn't figure it out when I tried once, will try again. UGH.

September!

So how did fall get here so fast? It seems like it's fall, even though it's just now become September. This is Labor Day weekend, and after this, we're full-fledged into fall, whatever the official start is. My girlie girls start 3-year preschool next week. I started to question whether to send them, but it's a small, very reasonable investment in them (just $75 ea per month - that's reasonable, right?) that I think we can do, even with our changed circumstances (the husband taking grad teaching classes, needing a new job to work with that, my working more hours, etc.). And I believe it will do so much for the girls. So, off to school they go on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. The first day is more for parents and official info stuff, but the kids should have fun.

Never did get my fair photos up. Here's one of my little farmers with their buckets of veggies and other farm goodies. The glare was in their eyes in most photos, but they still look pretty darn cute in their farm aprons!

Found this on one of my message boards - good for a coupon for a free full-size pkg, if nothing else! It's for baking chocolate, not sure what else. http://nestlechocolatier.fanspeak.net/?C1853_551699 Give it a try if you wanna. They said spread the word, so there ya go.

Work is going ok. The husband loves his weekend job at the WB station. Brings out his inner electronics technician. Go figure. LOL My work at A's goes pretty well. Love the days...work is a nice change of pace from what I did for so long there on the evening shift, and a change is always good. Of course, there's nothing like being able to see lots of new scrapbook goodies around either. I just wish the buyers would realize what all they are missing out on by not having some companies' goods in the store. I miss Junkitz, Scenic Route, 7Gypsies, Rusty Pickle and even the newer Heidi Swapp stuff.....A's buyers: wake up!!!

Ok, I gotta go read some blogs. Haven't done that in ages either. SO much to keep up with, ya know?? Oh, I also added a new layout to the slide above....one of the girls. It needs something at the bottom, but I don't have a new photo of the fix for it, so just imagine a strip of the pink pp across the bottom to anchor it.

The Fair

So I would say that I don't get the whole "State Fair" thing, but I do get it. I just don't think I'm a fair kind of girl. I would have loved it if the girls were older and would do what we ask or get some enjoyment out of it. I would have loved it if we could have even found the building I wanted to find so I could look at displays and such, the scrapbook layouts and all that. I would have loved it if we could have looked at the displays, the agriculture, the energy exhibits, etc. I could have loved if the food and drink wasn't so darned expensive, or if even the kiddie rides didn't cost an arm AND a leg. So basically, what did I like about the fair yesterday? Well, it was only 1/2 price to get in, but since I would never pay full price for that experience, 1/2 was a good thing. Parking was $5 because we didn't have 5 people in our car (don't twins count as 3??? lol). So we spent $15 just getting in the door.

Edit to say that Blogger isn't cooperating, so I"ll have to add images of my little farmers later.

THANKFULLY, the very first thing encountered was the number one thing on my list to do - take the girls to the "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit. There, they get to be farmers, wear cute aprons and hats, had they not been out of hats, and carry a pail to collect veggies and such. Then they take their veggies, eggs, milk to market, sell for $1, and spend their $1 in the general store. VERY fun. Only not fun part is that it's very rushed with so many people, and the girls didn't really get to enjoy it as much as they were just shuffled through it with lots of "ok, come on, we have to go to the next one; you have to put your veggies in the buckets; come on, others are waiting....." Not so fun, that part.

The rest of the fair? Eh. We don't do rides. We don't do junk. We got the girls a sucker. I did get a very good caramel apple that I enjoyed and shared with the girls (they count apples among their fave foods, thank goodness). After a lot of walking and squeezing through crowds with the stroller, which only held Minnie Mouse and Larry the Cucumber a lot of the time, we never found the right building with the scrapbook layouts and I basically thought the entire experience after Little Hands sucked. Yeah, there were lots of people to see; yeah, lots of food to be had for a ton of money, except the Pork Chops on a stick, which were our first choice for food, but the booth had closed. I mean, really.

So my whole thing is this - I'm just not a fair kind of girl. I know the girls would love it if they had more stamina for the heat and crowds, maybe they were a bit older to understand what all was going on, and if we had tons of funds for doing all the rides (though it's an insult to pay it, funds or not). I thought they would enjoy seeing the 4-H kinda fair stuff, but we never got far enough into things to even find animals. The husband likes the fair; he likes the food; he likes just walking around. My thing is, I'd like walking around, too, if the girls wanted to stay in the stroller and weren't chanting "ice cream" non-stop after seeing it, and if they wanted to go in the buildings and actually stroll through and see exhibits without whining. I wonder if I'll get kicked out of Iowa if I say I don't like the fair?

Hello

Surprised to see a new post, huh? Well, me, too! The husband and I have been pretty busy lately, working opposite schedules, running like crazy. Makes it hard to relax and do anything but read and keep up with the essentials. Hopefully, things will get back to normal soon. He's training for a weekend job now, so that's more hours than there will be when things settle out, and I'm also working double, it seems, so we're getting used to that kind of hustle and bustle. I'm loving the days at A's though. Nice change from the evening pace. I miss (generally nighttime supervisor) Dana though! I am going to be teaching 3 different upcoming workshops, which is cool! Doodling (RF stamps workshop), Hero Arts cards, and calendar workshop.

Umm..what else. Finished the She CJ from CKU-A in Chicago. Need to take and upload some photos of my intro pages and my lo for my theme that everyone completed layouts on, which is "Why I Scrapbook." I am in LOVE with my pages, as I finally used my Rhonna Farrer paper that I've been coveting. Also finished up a recipe swap and, when combined with two previous recipe swaps, gives me a nice 8x8 album that I altered the cover on and made a nice title page for (and that is one of the Elsie book challenges, too, so neato on that). And today, yep, I'm on a roll!, I did 2 pages and have one more going for my Heidi Swapp "She" album from CKU. Woohoo! Still, piles of stuff I wanna do, layouts and all, but at least there's progress. I'm so proud of my She CJ that I can't stand myself. Oh, and get this - I got my CKU Minneapolis CJ back! Woohoo!! This is from 2005, friends. I had Nietra bring it to me as soon as she got it, even though she didn't do her pages yet (hear that, Nietra? Make my pages!!). I'm thrilled, as I thought I'd never see it again. Hoping Miss Tina (yeah, you) will do a page set for me, even though she wasn't in the cj but was at CKU in 2005 with us. It's an 8 1/2x11 format, theme is "What I Know for Sure," and no tag, but sign a 3x3 piece of cardstock for the intro mini book, please.

Job front for the husband - weekend job going great-check; two phone interviews for 2 different jobs-check; at least one of those REALLY sounding good-check; classes started for masters in education program-check. So, the "worst" could be worse, I guess, and time will tell how we'll be for the long run.

Oh, house still a mess - yeah, as always. LOL We barely stay on top of the must-do's and can't get to the need-to-do's or want-to-do's, though the husband did clean crayon off half a wall in the basement today. Maybe someday we'll finish painting down there.

Visited with miss Nietra on Friday night and some Saturday. We cropped an hour or so here late Friday night, then she cropped at A's on Saturday while I worked. Fun, seeing a friend. They are in short supply these days, that's for sure. Miss Shannon now has a new baby girl!! How exciting and I know a relief for her. Visited a couple few weeks ago, handed off a ton of baby girl stuff, clothes and all, and I hope she's home and comfy very soon if not already. Can't wait to see new baby!

Okie doke.....gotta check on my girlies, who I believe are watching a Disney movie, so cool. :)

Class with Donna

**Edited - completed class projects shown in the slide show now. I had some scrapping time this week and am glad to have finished it. Each "page" has a large journaling tag tucked in with ribbon tied.
Had a pre-paid class with Donna Downey on Saturday. Pretty fun! A little disappointed in the level of the project for the cost, but very glad she used BG Urban Couture papers instead of the pictured ones in the brochure. I love those! Also, seemed the chatter was geared towards those staying all day, lots of references to "if you were in the morning class," and even some clips you needed only in the morning class pack. Got great ideas, took photos of what the other classes did, too. Kinda neat stuff, esp the Freeze Frame project. Not difficult, but lots of fun Heidi Swapp chipboard involved. My project, still not finished as I have no theme yet, is pictured in the slideshow. Horizontal chipboard covered envelope book. ;) That's Allison from my CKU dorm, Donna D and me in the photo.

The first step to fixing a problem

is to admit you have one, right? Well, I'm a bad blogger. I have had so little time and energy lately, and when I do have time or energy for blogging (hey, it takes THOUGHT, ya know!), I don't think to do so. So, bad blogger, me, hi, nice to meet ya. Anyway, so what's up?

Here, nothing and everything. Major life changes going on. Remaining optimistic in the midst of my panic. Hopeful. Scared shitless. Glad for some things. Mad about some others. We'll see what happens. Say a prayer for us and wish us well.

Fun stuff? Hmmm....going to a prepaid class with Donna Downey tomorrow. Someone had to want to buy my slot in order to cancel and get credit, and I'm not just giving them my money, so off I go. It's just under 2 hours east; the husband, girls and I are driving together, just to get a break from being here. He'll take the girls to lunch then maybe Barnes and Noble kids area while I'm in my 2-hour class. Hopefully, it'll be ok. Donna should be fun. I hear she rocks!!

Been teaching a lot at A's. Teaching two classes right now, and did both this past week. Another Wednesday night, if it makes, and another the following Monday. Working lots of hours, too. The husband is sitting for the Praxis I exam on Wednesday, so if my class makes, we gotta find a babysitter or I gotta find someone to teach the class, and I'm the only person who has taught it - all 6 times so far. If it's just a couple of people registered, I think Carla will bump them to the August class, and she'd have done that anyway, not just cause I have a conflict. Monday or so, I should know. We have to give 48 hours notice to people for changes.

Ummmm....the husband is all registered for the Kaplan University online Masters in Education program. It's a pilot program in Iowa only right now; it's for bachelors degree people not already in education to get the grad degree in education in a particular (really shortage area) subject area. Thank goodness, the husband is a math major geek education person from undergrad courses, and 7-12 math is a shortage area. We're having to secure student loans (UGH), but are hoping to figure out the loan forgiveness program in exchange for teaching so many years here. But we're not sure about that. Also, if one job opportunity comes through as we pray, there is tuition help. So, again, say a prayer for us!!

Ok, it's late, but I wanted to update a bit anyway. Let me see if I can dig up posted images of more recent layouts to share.

So, obviously, I have too much time on my hands.

I have had fun taking tons of blog quizzes this evening. Click on one. Have some fun yourself. And when you submit one, the options change to even more and more quizzes. Cool.

Say hello to my layouts!

Unfortunately, also say goodbye to them. They are for the CKU-A She group circle journals, and they will go off in the mail shortly. I might make color copies for me, but otherwise, they are gone to new owners, each with a theme the owner selected. In return, I'll get 14 layout and tag sets for my circle journal, the theme of which is "Why I scrapbook." Kinda neat, huh?

Hello

Just thought it was time to update, but not much new to say. First, thank you for all the supportive comments about the girls and life in general for us right now. It means a lot! Secondly, we're rocking along without really any updates. Time is passing so quickly. Looking into the transition to teaching is a bit of work, and I did find out that in Illinois, the alternative route program isn't the same as most other states. I was told they don't have a teacher shortage. Sheesh! So we got a copy of the husband's transcript so we'll have one, and now to talk to Iowa. Pt work is going pretty well though. I was told that I'm probably the best instructor this particular Archivers has had. That's pretty cool! It's based on the class evaluations and comments made by attendees.

Turns out we're staying in town this weekend. With the holiday travel clog, gas prices really shooting up, and everything else, we're not going to make it to the cousin's wedding. Hate it. Hate to miss significant family events, but it cannot be helped. Hopefully, the time will be useful here for us to get some housework and cleaning and strategizing done.

I've done a lot of scrapbooking, but none for me! I'm really trying to finish circle journals for CKU groups. The Heidi Swapp group cj is one where we have all the themes and do all the layouts at once, then send them in to be swapped out. Not as much creativity involved as when you can see the cj and get inspired by it, but a good way to insure no one loses a cj or holds it up. So that's 14 2-page 8x8 lo's and matching tags due this weekend. I have 2 more sets to do.

That's about it...worked all this past weekend. Thursday night, Saturday night, Sunday all day, and last night (Tuesday). Glad to be off tonight. We took the girls over to the park a bit before dinner, and that was fun.

More later!

So it's been a while

Sometimes, I just don't have the energy to blog. No, not that I cannot muster up the energy to literally type, but there are times I just don't want to think. Or, more likely, that the things I would blog about are themselves tiring or emotional, and the act of writing about them is tiring and emotional, which is where the energy comes in. But, stiff upper lip and all that, right?

It's been a busy time around here, but also a weird, good, bad, who knows kinda time. Busy because we've been researching some career options and other things like working on the house (finally painted the kitchen wall where the fridge used to be - and the previous homeowners didn't paint behind the fridge..sheesh, cheapos!). Busy finding info we need on the internet and sending off a few forms. Busy cause payday always brings bill-paying and such. Busy with some scrapbooking, trying to get through a circle journal group with all 14 layouts done at one time (UGH). Busy with two 3 1/2 year olds who don't mind and don't listen and are little hellions every day.

Here's the thing. My children are bad. I mean, yeah, they are wonderful, cute, fun, surprising gifts from God, but they are also awful. They are the same age, at the same age of development. They do not have an older sibbling to influence them on better behavior. They gang up on us. We do not have a house that offers a lot of options either. We started using a corner in the hallway for time-out. Sit here, alone, with nothing to play with sort of thing. But putting them both in time-out is really really impossible. Basically, that's because I can't literally hold them both down at the same time as they fight being in time-out, of course. So we moved time-out to their room. One day I took them both up there, made them put all the toys in their toybox, then I shoved the toybox into the guest room. I went back in, told them they were in time-out and were staying in their room, then I put a toddler handle on the inside of their door and left. I so needed that break. I was literally in tears with them, praying to God for guidance.

Unfortunately, when in their room against their will, they will sit against the door and rock back and forth against it - HARD - and have done something to the door or doorknob or both. The husband discovered that this morning. So, for now, I don't have their room for time-out.

It's hard to describe it this way and make it sound as bad as it is when they are "being bad." That particular day, they were spitting. Spitting on the floor, on the dog, on the furniture. Then they were hitting me, throwing blocks and things at me, and so on. They don't listen when I say stop. They don't listen to warnings. I just don't know what to do with them when they get wound up like this. Like now. Since I started typing this entry, I've chased them upstairs twice, given 4 spankings, taken their tv show away, and had to put the dog out where he doesn't want to be so they will leave him alone.

I try for quiet time, since they don't nap. I try for time-out. I try ignoring some things so as not to give them a reaction. I try chasing them and spanking (not hurting, just "spanking"). I try all kinds of tactics. Nothing works. Today, it literally occurred to me to take the shirt off Maddie's back and throw it in the garbage because she loves her kitty shirt so much (I can't even get her to take it off for the laundry). I need to get their attention, and I don't know how.

What I do know is that I am worn very very thin. Either I never should have tried to be a mom, I just don't know how to do it, I"m not mean enough, I"m too mean, I'm too easy, I"m too strict, I don't know. What I do know is that this is so hard. Every single day I fight them. I love them more than life itself, but they are wearing thin on my nerves these days. Someone tell me that it gets better! I hear often from friends, well, he/she gets it from his/her older brother/sister, and such. Well, I don't have that to work with. These two fight so much, egg each other on, it's ridiculous. They really FIGHT, too. They pinch, bite, hit, kick, spit. It's awful, and I don't know how to stop it.

So why haven't I blogged in 2 weeks? Well, it takes forever sometimes when referreeing the above-mentioned stuff. Also, it's hard. It's hard to talk about this stuff and not dredge the tears back up.

Fun things - had a great dinner with friends the other night. The downside (well, other than that the dinner made me really really sick) is that the dinner was a going-away dinner for Tina. I hate that Tina is moving. HATE IT!!!! You don't make a really good connection often, and I feel like I have that with Tina. We became pretty good friends pretty fast, and I think that is because we have a lot in common. Sometimes you think you are friends with people, then they turn out to be totally not who they purport to be or even who THEY think they are.....don't you wish sometimes those people could see how full of shit they are? Anyway, back to Tina. Love Tina. My girls love Tina. My dh even loves Tina. And now Tina is leaving. Contact will remain, but it won't be the same. No last-minute calls to get together. No play dates. No MNO. I guess we'll just have to see what's what as time goes. Bye, Tina.

Serious things - been doing lots of talking with the husband about our future. Since the job has turned out to be something that sucks for lots of reasons, definitely not what we planned for when moving here all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in August 2004, we're considering other options. The husband has near-complete academic credentials for teaching, and the notion of falling back on that is looking really good to us. Considering possible relocation to Illinois where the family lives. I'd love for the girls to have more time with their Opa and Oma, as well as their cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody. Wouldn't hurt us either. Sis in law's visit really meant so much to the girls and to us. Would love to be able to do that more. The Champaign area is pretty nice, a good size, and probably good-living and home prices for us, too. We requested transcripts and have other calls being made and forms printed out. I've talked to the State Department of Education in Illinois, but have also printed out the Iowa info. Good thing I worked for the Dept of Ed for 10 years back home! I know my way around this stuff. The husband is only lacking student teaching, and early word is that it might be possible for him to get that WHILE teaching with a regular certificate. We'll see! As we've talked about this and all, I see that he definitely has a spark for teaching; he loves kids of all ages; he's just enough of a goof to be a good teacher, too. You need to not take yourself too seriously in order to relate well to the kids, I've found. Of course, figuring out how to live with that kinda pay cut? YIPES, not sure. Parttime work in our future, for a while anyway!

What else? Well, hell. That's enough for now. OH, Tori! I haven't done much emailing either, but love ya, girlie, and miss you!!!!!!

Busy week

It's been a busy week for us round the ol' R-ranch here. Last weekend, we were thrilled to have Tori come to stay with us Friday through Sunday evening. I had to work some, but because the store wasn't busy, I got off a bit early both times to spend with the family. We had fun at Fudruckers on Saturday afternoon, then the husband worked for a couple of hours Saturday evening, but Sunday we just hung around and visited, dug through my scrapbook stuff, and had fun. The girls didn't want Aunt Tori to leave, and Maddie at first refused to say goodbye. Precious girls love their Aunt Tori! I took not a single photo. Bad scrapbooker, bad!

I taught a class at A's on Tuesday, worked last night, and been cleaning up some here. Slowly but surely. Hopefully more tomorrow when I'm not working or husband isn't. Gotta come up with a "reward" chart for the girls this weekend. They have developed a bad habit of not taking the time to go potty, and I am tired of wet panties! Being harsh about it hasn't worked. So, in addition to telling them to go more often (instead of asking if they need to), I bought some clearance ladybug stickers at the store, and am going to try getting them to "earn" them with dry panties for a day, etc. We'll see!

Found out that our friends are moving away. Sad for me, and it's gonna be tough getting the girls to understand, but Aunt Tori's visit helped them realize there are other people in their lives than those here, so that's a good thing.

Husband grilled last night while I was at work, and I can't wait to have it for dinner tonight. When we're busy working and running around, it's hard to have a good dinner often. Hoping to scrapbook some this weekend, too, but we'll see how much else gets done first. Guess I better get to it!

What the hell....

It's time for a new post! Not too much to add except that I've been scrappin'!! Really, it's that the girls want to go to the playroom in the basement every day after lunch, and I can scrapbook while they play. They also like to work with me, so their Little Tikes table and chairs is also in my scrap room so they can color or stamp. I have to watch them like a hawk though, or they slip away with crayons and color walls. Yeah. We've got some WD-40 in our future to clean up those walls we had recently painted!

But scrapbooking ~ ahhh, that's the life. Sweep floors? vacuum? change beds? Nah. That's no fun. Finally completing 6 more pages in a mini About Me book I started last fall? Priceless! Just 5 more topics to cover. It's from an article in a Simple Scrapbooks magazine from last summer. The layout in the entry below is for it as well. I've also done a couple of pages in my Heidi Swapp 'She' album, thanks to an impromptu visit to Tina and Scott's on Monday for helping them out and Memorial day fun. The husbands painted and we scrapbooked and cooked and such. Pretty fun for all. Kids got to play on a big, borrowed water slide. The girls did great, though at first the big plunging slide was a shock to them!
Also did this layout for a post-CKU-A She group circle journal. The topic was "Heisms," words and phrases about your dh or sig other. I had fun with the handwriting, but it took forever!

That's about it really. Oh, got a fun new round, drop-leaf table to scrap on. The handy-dandy husband saw some people down the street putting it on the curb with a "free" sign, and he stopped to talk to them. Cute round traditional table to dress up the scrap space a little. How cool is that?

Ok, I've got to get lunch for the hellions. They have been so BAD today! They have gotten this notion the past week that their stuffed lab puppy needs, of all things, a BATH!!! So they take their little teacups and fill them with water in the bathroom and bring them to their puppy to bathe. UGH. Then, they seem to be fond of saying "no" to us, so that's not good. But, after lunch, they will want to go to the playroom (having already lost tv privileges up here in the family room - HELLOOOOO HGTV!!), and I have a better chance of good behavior. We'll see though. They are cut off from treats today, too, and that will get old with them, then the whining starts. Ahhhh, parenthood. I read in someone's message board siggy that "raising children is like being pecked to death by a duck." So true that one.

Lime Fizz

Quick post here to show off this little layout. It's in the BOM I started back, oh.....last fall? I found an article in Simple Scrapbooks magazine about doing an "about me" layout or book, and I thought it would be fun. Basically, there are questions to answer such as name, age right now, age I feel I am inside, last cd I bought, what I'm wearing right now, etc. This little layout is the "what I'm wearing right now" page I did last night. What I'm showing off (here ya go, Kathy!) is the LIME FIZZ Ranger Ink I used with my cool new Heidi Swapp acrylic stamp. I'm LOVIN this scented ink! We got an ink pad in our CKU goodie bags, and I'm sooo thankful mine is lime, though I want to buy the entire stinkin' line of em! The photo looks a little fuzzy here, but it's clear IRL. OF course, the ink is stamped on pink, so I"m sure that makes it a tad darker than it really is. Flower cut from GIN X super-cute paper.

Another day

I really meant to update the ol' blog yesterday, but didn't get around to it. It was kind of a pretty day, warm, threatening rain last night, but all in all bright and pretty. We grilled dinner out on the back deck while the girls played outside. Haven't done that in a while. I made a pasta salad, which isn't earth-shattering, but not something we have made much if at all. So dinner was pretty good. Talked to my friend Dawn, and that was nice. I really miss her and she misses me, too. There's nothing like having history with a friend, and friends are so hard to make in the first place. Going on two years here in Iowa, and I'm still not sure about it. The husband is even less sure than I am, but it's harder for men to make friends, I think. His office certainly isn't a place for that.

I think when we moved here, we looked for this neighborhood because we like neighborhoods like this and knew what we'd get here. I wonder now if we shouldn't have looked for something with more children, with homeowners more our ages. Our next door neighbor to one side and two houses down on the other both have children, but they are a little older than ours. I think sporatically there are children, but there's not anyone for the girls to really play with. The little girl next door is 6, and she'd play with Emi and Maddie, but that's not really equal for any of them. Oh well. Someday, I hope. The girls start preschool in the fall, two afternoons a week. Hopefully, that will produce the kind of interaction I want for them.

I so want to work around the house today, and I soooo don't feel like it. Everything needs to be cleaned, top to bottom. Cleaned, beds changed, things put away, dust bunnies captured, it all needs to be done. I'm so jealous of people who can keep things neat and clean. Maybe if every single thing with the girls wasn't so hard, doing housework would be easier. I dunno. From what I hear and read, it's not easy for anyone. I guess it just has to be more important to me than I seem to make it. Every day, we do our morning things, work towards lunch, have lunch, then the girls want to go to the playroom downstairs. I can do laundry down there, but then I work in my scrapbook room while they play. This week, the girls have been stamping and coloring at their little table in my scrapbook room. Yesterday, they got unruly with their stamps and I took them away. But, I came up with another activity. We made paper bag puppets! They seemed to like the making, but didn't so much get into the puppets. I mean, they liked them, and loved showing them off to daddy, but that was that. lol They do like puppets and have these great farm animal puppets they love to play with. They do love crafts though. I've still got some things up my sleeve for them. Maybe if we go down there today, they can make cardstock purses I cut from a Wishblade file. I got some of those foam shape stickers that are Dora theme. They will make a cute purse, huh?

Alright, alright. I've been tagged by Miss Tina. Well, not only have I been tagged by Miss Tina, I've been emailed by Miss Tina that I have been tagged and to get to it! So here ya go:

5 Things in my fridge:
~Milk, always milk for the girls, always
~Cheese - lots of shredded and string cheese for the girls
~Baby carrots - girls prefer these to chips, for gosh sakes!
~Salsa - yeah, we got that right now
~Coffeemate Caramel Vanilla - yum!

In my closet:
~Lots of shoes
~Toys we haven't given the girls yet (not ready for, bought after-season on clearance for next year, etc)
~Lots of purses I don't use anymore
~Little girl clothes bought after season last year that are for this year, but haven't worn yet
~Husband clothes

In my purse:
~Wallet
~Boxes of raisins (girls' snack)
~Sweetwater flash card mini scrapbook cards pack with girls 2005 Easter pics
~spare blush & powder
~spare sunglasses

In my car:
~Several music cds I rarely listen to
~Little girl toys and books
~A partial case of bottled water bottles
~Two car seats
~Fun canvas bag with clean little girl clothes, just in case.

On my Tivo:
Ok, I don't have a Tivo.....in my DVD player, which holds 7 discs:
~Monsters, Inc.
~Grey's Anatomy Season 1, disk 2
~Pirate Adventure Dora
~Ice Age
~Dancing Dora Adventure

Ok, so since Miss Tina tagged some of my faves, I now tag Tori, Julie, and you!

Just a few photos

I'm kinda tired today - stayed up last night watching six episodes of Grey's Anatomy from the first season DVD (a Mom's day gift!). I L - O - V - E that show! Of course, watching on DVD is compulsive - no commercials...one show right into the next. How cool is that when watching your fave show?

So, considering the afore-mentioned state, I'll just add some photos. We had a busy weekend, some working, some visiting friends, some hanging out. As usual, I need to clean house. Making progress in basement, but it's a work in progress for sure. I wanna paint the kitchen and get new cabinet handles. That's not news, well, maybe news here, but not in general. I think it's time.


Ok, to the photos. One of my lil' scrapbookers, especially Emily in the foreground looking all teenagery. Tina and Scott gave the girls each a fun Purse scrapbook kit at Chuck E Cheese's last week when we met them for Scottie's birthday. So the girls and I scrapbooked together. I had several photos saved up that didn't work for me when I needed those images, then I printed a couple of extras, and the girls each had a photo for each page of their scrapbooks. Add some purse stickers, some Dora stickers, and some purple patterned paper punches, and voila, scrapbooks.

I love this photo of Maddie. Both girls have gotten into the habit of wanting their photo taken when they see me with the camera. "Take a picture of ME, Mommy!" So, yesterday, I snapped this photo of Miss Madeline.

A layout I did yesterday about my Ali class at Reminisce. I think I like it. At first, I thought it was too busy when it was all said and done, but going back to it today, I think I pretty much like it.

Six Weird Things

For some reason, my friend Shannon decided this is her blog tag today. Six weird things about you. What the?? Let's see if I can come up with just six weird things about me......

1. I always make sure the car radio volume control is on an even number (22 or 24, never 23, etc.)
2. I hate having food on my hands.
3. I don't really like french fries all that much.
4. I really like vacuuming....once I start, I can go awhile!
5. I have terrible luck at games of chance...not sure if that's weird or not.
6. I don't like lettuce. I eat it (salads), but I don't like it.

Now, you.....Tori? Cricket? Tina and Shannon and Jinx? How weird are you?? :)

Been so busy...worked all weekend. Had a few hours for National Scrapbooking Day online cropping on Friday. That was fun. Did at least one great project and some other fun ones. Worked on Mom's day cards that I mailed too early, and finishing a gift today. Plus did some crafts with the girls that they can send as well for Mom's day to their Oma. Managed yesterday to eek out one layout I'm not sure I love. We did some pretty good clean up in some parts of the house, so that's good. Tonight we're off to Chuck E Cheese with Miss Tina (my girls just love Nina!).

Guess I should get the day started, huh? Photos are the layout I did yesterday, badly cropped and with a bad shadow - sorry, and frame I made during online crop Friday. I like it!

Tagged!

Tagged again! This time by mom's buddy Shannon. Cool idea, girlie. I'm just not too quick on the uptake, since this tag was last week. But, here I go.....

All That History

20 years ago (1986): I was in the middle of my graduate school years, and I thought I was all that. I was teaching freshman English composition, I was the best student I had ever been (4.0 first semester!), I had great friends, and things were cool.

10 years ago (1996): Life was 'eh.' I was working for the Department of Education in the Office of Special Education. I knew my job well and enjoyed doing it, needed more pay and less spending, per usual, lol. I think this was the year (in February) that my friend and I bought a big ol' charming house together. Loved the house, love the friend, but boy what a lot of work.

5 years ago (2001): Newly married and loving it. This was something that for a lot of years of my life, I never thought would happen. Working, living in an apartment (definitely 'eh' but good as far as apts go!), being happy.

1 year ago (2005): We had just moved to Iowa the previous August, so we were doey eyed about being here in our new house and such. Dh's job still going ok at the time, but signs were there that his boss was not making things easy for us. I had just been to CKU in Minneapolis and loved that, made and still have a couple of close friends though that experience.

1 month ago (2006): These days are full of stress dealing with dh's job and boss. I go in and out of "like" of my parttime job at Archivers. The girls are growing and saying new things everyday that surprise and amuse us. Easter was low-key but fun.

Today: Lots to do. Working on the job defense paperwork, cleaning, hoping to scrapbook a little bit, hoping to clean through some of the toys, too! There's just too much little stuff that gets everywhere!! Enjoying having finally hung a new curtain rod in the family room to replace the one the girls bent (by pulling on the curtains). Oh, need to do laundry, especially towels!

Tomorrow: More on the husband's job front, need to list some things piled for ebay, trying to declutter the house and hoping the ebaying and cleaning will help that. Idol on tv!

Tagging: Shannon already got Tina; I'll tag Tori, Kara, Dalis, Sarah :)

Elsie, Elsie, Elsie

Gee, I've used that title before.......here are the stamps designed by Elsie Flannigan. Cute, huh? Very Elsie-fied. Why aren't they acrylic?? Why are they red rubber unmounted?? Why oh why??

A great day

We had a great day yesterday, Easter day. Actually, the entire weekend went pretty well. The husband was home early on Friday, so we took the girls to McPlayland for fries, and we had McFish. They had a lot of fun, then we moved on to Target for basics for the weekend - milk and coffee! Saturday was a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. It was quick, but fun. The girls were cute and loved their basket booty. Sunday brought Easter, making cookies, and a nice dinner. The girls helped frost cookies - first time for that, and we all had fun. I didn't get to scrapbook at all, which I had planned, but the day was full of family fun and togetherness, so how cool is that?

Today, cool mail day! I received the Homegrown Scrapbooks Hybrid kit, which has the new SEI Paisleys and Petals line, some Maya Road chipboard set and book, ribbons and more. Also got the new CK and new Scrapbooks Etc magazines. Then, I received the Fontwerks Elsie stamps I ordered. Big disappointment there. They are red rubber stamps on a sheet to be cut out, not acrylic see-through stamps. UGH. Not sure what to do. Might sell on ebay if I can't return. Might use now that they are here. Still thinking on it. They are cute though. A bit smaller per letter than expected, too.

Cards

Just a quick post of some Easter cards I made. Kinda liked the dry embossing; haven't done it in ages! Like the puffy tails? ;)

More Ali

Here's the cover and an inside look at the "Favorite Photos" book I made with Ali Edwards on Saturday. Had tons of fun, and loved coming home with a completed book. I finished up the journaling at home, but it's done now. So fun!

Betcha Didn't Know

This is the topic of my on-again/off-again Monday blog challenge. Yeah, it's Tuesday, but, as Ali would say, it's o-----kkkk.

10 Random Facts I Betcha Didn't Know About Me!

1. I love, love coffee; developed the habit in grad school.
2. I had eye surgery when I was four, weak muscle or something.
3. I hate cleaning the tub.
4. I love Frosted Mini Wheats anytime.
5. I used to hate my middle name, but now I think it's ok.
6. I wish my house were less cluttered.
7. I cry way too easily.
8. I work parttime, but I hate it.
9. I love our house.
10. I have the brownest thumb known to man.

Good times, Good times....

I will post more later about the fun class with Ali E and Tina this past Saturday. For now, here's us! Sarah, Me, Tina and Ali. :) The class I took was "Favorite Photos," a fun 10"x5" chipboard book with 5x7" photos. Tina took this one and another as well. Lucky girl!

TGIF!

The husband is on the way home. Earlier than expected, so very cool! Also cool, cause the bathtub is stopped up. Curse of an older house. Love the charm, hate the infrastructure. Tomorrow brings a road trip for me again, quick one this time. I'm going with Miss Tina to take an Ali class at Reminisce. Well, I'm meeting Miss Tina over there. She's taking the morning class and we're both taking the evening class. Should be cool. Would be more cool if I had pictures ready! I need 5-6 5x7" photos, which means I can't just print them downstairs. I may have to print my 4x6" though and just see if I can get the enlargements at A's when I go back to work. Hate to pay full price elsewhere, but might have to for Ali. Sheesh.

House-cleaning today. Trying to do things that don't normally get done. That bag of stuff from the kitchen junk drawer in the Mississippi house that's been sitting on the bookshelf in the living room for-EVER? GONE!!!! All contents put away, thrown away, filed away. I'm giddy over just that if nothing else. Sad, I know.

I'm on a roll

With posts, that is. Here's a quick lo I did yesterday. Scrapworks papers and stickers I got on clearance, HS chipboard flowers, white Uniball pen - yeah, just starting to doodle on lo's...not sure if I"m doing it well though.
Not sure about the handwriting here either. Might cover it with patterned paper and rewrite. What do you think?

Couple more....

Me and sis-in-law who I was so glad got to share some of the Saturday eve CKU excitement. Also, me, my cow poster, and prize bag. I won for best use of location theme. Ol' Daisy there had here own CKU badge and scrapbook full of Chicago history. :) Next pic of me, Debbie S, who is Tina's cousin, and Tina. Finally, 1/2 of the Heidi kit. Cool beans.

Just one more sleep

til the husband gets home. Soooooooo glad for that, but we've made it through ok. Last night was the first that I've had a hard time after the girls fall asleep actually getting them to bed. They sit with me in the big chair, and, for some reason, last night they were sprawled in such a way that I couldn't ease out from under one or the other. I ended up putting them both in my bed and joining them a bit later.

Speaking of sleeping girls, Emily is just about finished with pull-ups! She wears only Dora panties, unless she wakes up soaked (about 1 in 4 nights), then she asks for a diaper. Maddie, on the other hand, won't give up the ghost, but I think Target just ran out of pull-ups, ya know? We've one more full pack, and I'm gonna give it a go, fighting her into the panties. Wish me luck.

Still need to post pics from the weekend adventure. Can't believe it's been a week already since I was there! A few pics from the weekend ~ 4. Me and Heidi Swapp. I love her spirit!! of course, love the products, too. ;) 3. Me and the unsung hero of CKU's, organizer Paula. 2. Me and Willow friends Dalis and Julie. 1. Me and Cricket, who I will love forever. Thanks for being such a sweet, caring, fun, real person and friend. (I had to reload the pics and got them backwards; thus, the numbers.)

Tagged by Dalis!

Another post within 24 hours? Wow....good record for me. I've been tagged by WT Dalis, so here goes!

5 snacks I enjoy:

Chocolate - duh!
Ice cream - vanilla, cookie dough, vanilla
Pretzels
Popcorn
Trail Mix

5 songs to which I know all the lyrics:
(Nothing new.....lol)
The Star-Spangled Banner
The One that I Want (from Grease)
I think I Love You (yep, Partridge Family)
Annie's Song
Country Roads (yeah, both JD songs, Tina)

5 things I would do if I were a multi-millionaire:
Pay off debt
Take care of family near and far
Invest
Travel
Give a lot

5 bad habits:
Eating - bad portion control, eating late at night
Staying up too late
Too much internet time
Waiting for the husband to clean the bathroom instead of doing it myself
Spending too much at the grocery

5 things I like doing:
Being with my family
Scrapbooking
Talking about scrapbooking
Reading about scrapbooking
Decorating

5 things I would never wear, buy or get new again:
The latest greatest sb thing in its first five minutes (before seeing, researching, etc)
QVC sb kits with tons of stuff
Christmas ornaments just because
Heels, if I can avoid it
Bras without underwire

5 favorite toys:
Stamps and ink pads, esp alphabet
Wishblade die cutter
Our computers
Sewing on layouts
My AMM Tote-Ally Cool tool tote

5 people I will tag:
Tina
Tori
Cricket
You :)

That was fast!

Here it is, Tuesday, and CKU is past. It's amazing how quickly time flies. I had so much to do to get ready, and it seems like the days there, while jam-packed, just happened so quickly. The drive home seemed long, but that's the only thing I can say was long. Hopefully, I"ll upload my pics today and can share a couple.

First, I had great fun on Saturday evening visiting with Tori, my sis-in-law. We had a Chicago dog! New for me....yes, I ate the pickle; no, I didn't eat the tomatoes. Uh, yeah, I put ketchup on it. Sorry....it had to be done. Just had to. So, for authentic Chicago food, pizza - check, hot dog - check. Oh, and I gotta give props to Cricket for being the most fun ever. Chicky, I"m sooooooooooooooo glad we got to spend some time together and look forward to doing it again. Tell Sue that Iowa City is at least an hour past Davenport. ;)

Because the final event at CKU (graduation and prizes) does not require a ticket, Tori was able to go in with me and see all the craziness. It was fun though. I made a great poster and was fortunate to win my category. Got a great goodie bag for it. Later that night, roomie Sue and I "worked the crop room" by going around talking to people cropping and looking at albums we hadn't seen from the other tracks. I didn't get to see the AMM Life Lessons one though. I hear it turned out great. :)

The classes were pretty awesome, some better than others. The main class, my album track with Heidi Swapp, was truly awesome. It's too bad that she will be changing the class after this, but hopefully, it will have the same impact on participants. What an amazing experience. It's not so much that, ooh, it's Heidi Swapp. It's really that she shared with us some of herself, something she discovered, something she thought would touch other women, too. And it did touch other women. So many women in the group shared how it touched them, and it was great. I have a lot of work to do to finish my album from the class, but we did a lot of the hard technique work, so the pages should come easily.

The regular classes, the 60- and 90-minute ones, were pretty good. I can't say that any I took were great, but several were ok. The best I saw was the Rusty Pickle 26-Reasons one. Great project. I really like the little book we made in "The Guy in my Life," the board tag book we made in "Festivities at your Fingertips," and Bo Bunny's board book class. The other projects were a little less exciting and really too simple for a CKU albums class. Seriously. Too Simple.

As to the evening activities, they were ok. I had a blast on Wednesday shopping with Lori Bates and Kathy Northup and crew. Wild and crazy chicks. The Yahoo group dinner on Wednesday night drew a small group, but the 10-12 of us had a really fun time. I loved the pizza! Thursday night brought the dorm contests and CKU pep rally. I preferred last year's way of doing these on two nights, but it was ok. The dorm stuff is really getting major....not sure I'll do that again. Had fun seeing it all though. Friday night, no party, but cropping with our album track for 2 hours was scheduled. Heidi Swapp and crew ordered great pizza once the "official" time ended, and we kept going for hours. I loved that and I got a lot done, too. ;)

All in all, thrilled to have had the experience. Not sure how so many do all the CKUs that come along, but happy I went. I made new friends, stepped out of my box, did some great stuff, had tons of fun. Didn't spend *too* much either, which was nice. Now to unpack it all and get back to work on all the projects!

So now, it's Tuesday already. The husband is on a business trip this week, so it'll be another long week around here, or maybe it'll fly by like the rest of them do. Saturday brings a class with miss Ali over at Reminisce, so that'll be cool. At first, I thought of cancelling and saving the credit for Donna D classes in July, but I think I'll go and have fun with Tina, maybe some early dinner before hand, and some coffee talk. Sounds fun, no? Tina, ya ready to do Donna D with me in July??!!

One week to go

One week from today, I'll be on my way to CKU-A. I'm pretty excited about it, but a little worried, well, not worried, but hatin' to leave my family. I really really like being around my family, and I will sooooooooo miss the husband and the girls. To make matters worse, the husband has a business trip Monday-Friday the day after I return! UGH. So, needless to say, I'm having a bit of separation anxiety before it even happens.

So, CKU-A. Very happy about it. I feel as if I am going alone, even though I'll know a couple of people there. I guess that's ok. I never do anything alone because I feel so invisible and conspicuous at the same time. Still, I have some possibilities for fun, so we'll see what shakes out. I know that I will enjoy my album track. I just LOVE LOVE Heidi Swapp's line, and I have heard great things about the track. The other classes seem as if they will be fun, but the main focus is "She," Heidi's classes. I also have some contest entries, well, at least one, another one if I have time. Hopefully, I'll have some luck! My tags are mostly done for the open tag swap; I borrowed and changed up a bit a tag I received in the swap at Mpls last year. I have some dorm things to do still, name badges and some table things. We're going casual on the costume. You just can't go over the top on all of it, ya know? Anyway....hopefully, it'll be as great as last year when Nietra and I went. Now that was fun.

What else....had Mom's Night Out last night with Shannon and Amy. Loved getting together, so-so on the restaurant (the tempura didn't sit well with me overnight), loved the coffee and dessert, really loved all the chatting. I had to miss last month because of the work schedule. Hoping to iron it out for the next MNO.

Trying to do some extra house cleaning every day. I am a horrible house cleaner. Hear that, Tina?? I'm horrible at it!! I just don't wanna do it. It's like exercise. Know how, yes. Need to, yes. Wanna, no. So I am trying to do what I normally get done each day plus an extra thing. I have cleaned the front of the refrigerator and dishwasher. I have mopped the kitchen floor. I have scrubbed the toilet, including the part where the floor bolts are that seems to catch all the dust and hair. So, it's going ok. It's a good thing.

I finally got my Christmas flag down from the front of the house and put the Easter one out. Then it snowed several inches that same day. I found that funny. It's one of the mini flags on an iron hanger, not a big flag pole one.

Fun things I'm loving ~ actually, getting the extra cleaning done, I"m lovin' it. My new Wishblade for scrapbooking, I'm lovin' it. SO glad I decided to go for it and sell my alphabet dies to finance the WB! It rocks. Let me say that again. It rocks. Having my scrapbook room back. LOVIN' IT!!! Works so much better for me and for the girls as it turns out. Who knew. My knew khaki pants that are supposed to be crops, but are really just about regular length because I'm short and pants are made for the extremely tall, I'm lovin' em. Spring arriving, I"m lovin' it cause I want the husband and girls to enjoy warm days and no coats for a while, and me, too!

Okie doke...that's my update. Though I am behind on the Monday blog challenge. For that, which is music this week, I got nothing. Not much of a music girl, I'm afraid. Oh well...next week's might be easier. :)

Monday Blog Challenge

Well, today's challenge is the "four things" listings that I've done previously, so I'll just let ya scroll and find them in last month's entries. :) I'm a cheat, I know.

I've been reading blogs, and, inspired by the vivacious Tina, here's my doll. Yeah, that's me in an alternate universe. Fun though, that site.

Also got the scrapbook room moved back this weekend. By "back," I mean back to the space I had before I decided to give up my wonderful basement office for the girls to use it as a playroom. Yeah, that failed (see post below). So, it went quickly because I really just had to put things back as I had them before. It's even roomier, cause no piles o' stuff. But I can have piles o' stuff if I want 'em, cause there's more room. Heh.

Worked on this cj yesterday. It's about time.....we've been doing this about 10 months, and I think they're all lost. Somehow, Sarah's cj made it to me, and I send it home to her, so at least one is on track. I think it's Amy Totty's fault. That Bazzill chick has them stacked up. I want my book back! But I want Amy's work in it!! Get to it, chicky!

So, that's where I am. Oh, and I got my Wishblade on Friday. That thing is COOL. Even the husband loves it after we were able to make a Cubs'-looking logo, circles and all. Made the title on the cj layout with it, too. Now just to learn the more advanced functions. I'm going to be happy with it though...definitely the right decision to sell the old Sizzix alphabet sets to pay for it. And I made better money on those than I spent, especially since I bought them from ebay in the first place! Nifty, nifty. :)

Wednesday

Man! do I need to catch up. The days seem to pass quickly whether I have anything specific to do or not. After several work days in a short time from last Thursday through all day Sunday, I was thrilled to see Sunday night come, except for the fact that the husband returns to work Mondays. So...I've really enjoyed the past two nights, but tonight, it's work again. And tomorrow night, too. Bummer. A few short hours on Saturday early, just filling in for a co-worker and grabbing some extra pay, and the weekend is mine. Yippee!!

I had a revelation yesterday about my scrapbook space. Well, actually, I had that particular revelation a while ago, that my space SUCKS. The revelation yesterday was that I am taking my good space back from the kids. I'm moving back into my fun little office painted Becky Higgins Behr asparagus green with my scrapbook words foam-stamped on the overhang. Yes, the husband will have to clean and paint over the crayon that now adorns the walls, but so what. I'm taking my room back, my room with the shelf-lined closet and hangy space. The move starts Friday eve. Yippee, again!!

The playroom? Ahh...it will be in the big space that I've attempted to occupy since Christmas. The space is large, but so unusable for scrapbooking! I can't hang anything in the cinder block (not easily, anyway), I can't place anything that's a temptation for the girls, I can't use low shelves or open spaces, stack things on the floor, etc. It will be a perfect play space...good area carpet, wide open space for the Little Tikes stuff, Barbie tent, Shrek chairs, etc. And now that the girls have the feel of the basement, I think it will be easier to keep them from the spaces they don't need to be in, such as the laundry room and furnace room. At first, I thought it would be tough, but after standing in the little office yesterday and seeing what I'd see out the door from my scrapbook desk if it were back in there, I realize I can still keep an eye on what the girls are doing, and, truth be known, they'll want to be near me enough that I can keep them from going where they shouldn't anyway.

No new layouts to share....several nearly-complete ones needing titles or journaling. Hope to get back to scrapping soon. It's therapeutic, cheaper than therapy, creative, and fun. Oh, I'm also trying to keep my pledge to not buy patterned paper anymore for a while. Got a few sheets of the newest stuff, and now I just need to use it!

Elsie, Elsie, Elsie

I just gotta say, could Elsie Flannigan's layouts be any more cute??? Check out her blog; link to the right.

Guilty Pleasure

Our WT weekly blog challenge is "Guilty Pleasure." Gee, not sure I have any of those, as I'm so bad about having what I want. Maybe if I did feel guilty, indulging wouldn't be so easy. I have to say that I love Hershey Nuggets with Almonds. Just love them. Sadly, I find that they taste different, actually better than Kisses. Not my fault they are bigger. There's just something about chewing a nice chunk of chocolate that's soooo good. I guess the guilty pleasure part of it is having several in a row. Like 6 or 8. Lots. Love em. Love em so much that last year, each instructor at CKU got a single Hershey Nugget with Almonds in a tiny plastic bag with a thank you tag attached. Chocolate is always welcome by scrapbookers, ya know. I think it's a universal rule or something that you must have chocolate while scrapbooking. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Pre-pre-school blues

So today we went to pre-pre-school for the 3rd and last time. The "director" told me last week that she and the teachers are concerned with the girls' apparent fear of the bathroom. They don't care if the girls go potty or not (they are only there for 2 hours a week, anyway), but they MUST wash their hands before snacks. This is a health department regulation (yeah, I confirmed it). I figure, sheesh, won't an antibacterial wipe do the trick? Health department and day-care licensing guy says their doctor can write them a note about their phobia and an exception would be made, but I'm still not taking the girls back. They just turned 3, they will go to 3-year-old pre-school in the fall, and that will be fine. This was an attempt to get them involved outside the house and with other children to help them learn and play with others, share, etc. The director was pretty rude, which is why I used quotes around her title in the sentence above. I mean, here I am, obviously-distraught parent with 2 3-year-olds who want to go to school, and she's just walking by like I'm not even there. "We have to keep the group together," she says. So I ask, is it a "keep the group together" issue or a wash-hands issue? There are 7 kids in the class and 2 teachers. Sheesh...can't they wash their hands in shifts with those numbers? The potty is just a few paces from their class, too. Even the pastor who walked by showed concern for my distraught state at least. Well, good riddence, I guess. If she can be that rude and unfeeling (not even showing sympathy, despite the "rules" is what gets me), I don't want my children in her school anyway. And this a church facility. Harumph!! I have already enrolled the girls in a closer church program that starts after labor day. It's a 3-year-old class, twice a week, and my friends have their kids there and LOVE how they nurture the kids and HELP them. Gee, what a concept.

So yesterday, I did two simple layouts while the girls played, but I'm waiting for my new QK Studio Classic alphabet to arrive by mail so I can put titles on them before posting. :)

Fragile and amazing

If you feel like it and haven't already, take a look at Tara Whitney's blog today. She and her family are amazing and deserve some great joy in life, especially right now. I don't know Tara at all; I just read her blog and think she's amazingly talented. Link is to the right in my Blogs listing. :)

Flat hair?

Ok, so I'm looking at the pics below and thinking, sheesh, I've got flat hair. You know how when the lady fixes your hair and it's not the way you would fix it, so you fool with it on the way home? Well, it's still an improvement over how badly outgrown my hairstyle was, but I gotta get my poof today. Trust me, it'll poof, and it'll be better. lol

New Stuff

I joined my WT buddies in a blog challenge. It's to get us all blogging again after a sluggish winter with not many entries among us. So the first challenge is "I am a child of the ___." Well, in my case, it's the 1970s! I was born in the early 1960s, so I came of age in the 70s.

I remember wearing clogs.
I saw Aerosmith in concert 30 years ago.
I wore bell bottoms.
I thought the Mystery Machine was cool long before Sarah Michelle Geller was even born.
I rang in the country's bicentennial.
I remember Watergate.
I wore a dress in my 6th grade picture that was so short, my teacher threatened to send me home if I ever wore it again.
I had shag haircuts.
I loved Donny Osmond.

Concerts I saw:
Aerosmith
Blue Oyster Cult
KISS
ELO
Alice Cooper with Eddie Money and Sweet
Captain and Tenille (I have no idea why though....lol)

The other blog challenge was to post about what's new. Well, nothing much new with sb'ing and the usual things I go on about, but I did get new glasses and a haircut today. What do you think?I'm hoping I shook off the winter dowdy! First photo is a "hold the camera at arm's length" self-portrait; dh took second photo for me.

One more....

This is Maddie's birthday lo....Em's was posted a-ways back. Again, love the Bazzill biggies!

A layout

Might as well add a layout I did at Tina's last week that I finally journaled on....not entirely happy with the journaling as I ran out of room to write....oh well. Love the big Bazzill flower!

Valentines and Crocs

Two things I did yesterday...brought hand-made valentines for the girls to trade in preschool and got some crocs for comfy feet while working parttime. I blame Donna Downey for enabling me on the Crocs, btw. Oh, yeah, those ARE my fat, pale ankles, thank you very much!

Tagged

Well, I've been tagged by Cricket! A second post within 13 hours or so? Gee, I can't believe myself! :)

WHAT SCRAPBOOK LINES/PRODUCT ETC. DO YOU DISLIKE?
Hmm..I don't dislike a whole lot; I prefer some things to others. I guess if I have to say something, it would be that I dislike Zots because they do NOT stick like Glue Dots, most roll stickers, though there are some nicer quality ones with quotes or good alphas (like American Crafts), and I guess cheap cardstock. Hate cheap cardstock.

WHAT IS THE HARDEST THING YOU EVER HAD TO SCRAP?
I don't think I've sb'd anything hard, but I've tried things that turned out hard, like an entry for the Basic Grey contest last year.

WHAT TECHNIQUE DO YOU USE MORE THAN ANYTHING?
Probably inking and distressing. Even though a cleaner look seems to have taken hold of the industry lately, I still love the shabby chick look.

WHAT'S THE SMALLEST SCRAP OF PAPER YOU SAVE?
Geesh, I need to get over this, but probably about something 1"x2" depending on what paper it is. I figure if I can get a die cut out of it, it might come in handy, and some cardstock I use over and over so I know I'll use that color again.

EVER HAD ANY SCRAPBOOKING RELATED INJURIES?
None that I can think of...I'm sure I've been stuck with the piercer or a staple or something.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: "IF I WASN'T A SCRAPBOOKER/STAMPER, I WOULD SPEND MY MONEY ON..." books, first edition and collectible books, Gymboree clothes for my girls, house stuff.

GIVE US YOUR BEST STORAGE OR ORGANIZATIONAL IDEA:
Wall storage. I have learned that you can't find a place for every little basket you can find, but storing on shelving or on the wall (like the MM panels) is helpful. Also vertical paper storage...can you say easier than a million wire Target cube shelves??

YOU JUST WON A WEEK LONG SCRAPBOOKING CRUISE FOR 5, WHO IS GOING WITH YOU?
Wow...Nietra, Tina, Donna Downey, Ali Edwards, Heidi Swapp, Karen Burniston, Dana from Archivers and Teri from Scrap This Crop That. Wait, that's 8. Well, we'll just have to eat less so we can all go.

AFTER YOU HAVE ANSWERED, TAG FOUR OF YOUR BUDDIES:
Four? Not sure I know four who blog.....Tina, Kara, Amy Renee', and ..... Karen B? are you reading still? lol

Happy Valentine's Day

Well, technically, it's 7 minutes past Valentine's day, but I had a bit of trouble logging into Blogger. I am now using Internet Explorer to surf, and I had to reset some things in the Internet options before Blogger would let me blog.

So I have been busy...just nothing too exciting to blog about. I've done some layouts that I have pics of but need to upload. In the meantime, I"ll share a glimpse of dh's mini-album/Valentine's card that I made. Tomorrow, the girls have a little party at pre-school. I made a bunch of heart-shaped valentines for them to take for their classmates. I'm so excited! Their first official valentine swap!!

Speaking of swap.....ok, bad pun....I switched to the Heidi Swapp album track for CKU-albums. I just couldn't help myself. I knew I'd love the one I was in, but I just can't resist the Heidi Swapp stuff...in the words of one of my three-year-olds, I reabby reabby reabby wub it!!

I'm all verklempt.

Karen Burniston read my blog today and said nice things about the Emily's 3 layout. Cool, huh? That's what a nice kit will do for ya and a little bit of fun ingenuity. Not much blogging time right now, as little Emily is right here wanting to play alphabet. I guess that's ok.

Today, this made me go "hmmmm" -- why does my hair and/or pores smell of onion when the shower water first hits me on the day after I eat something that's made with fresh onion? Why is that? There is absolutely no mistaking that smell of fresh onion either. We had homemade chicken noodle soup last night with plenty of fresh carrots, celery, and onion in it!

Did two layouts today. One is of the girls in 2004 before our move playing with Little People for one of the first times. The pic isn't great, but the fun sure does show. Used stuff from my stash, including Little People stickers that Santa brought me my first Christmas as a scrapbooker. I need one more MM Tag Maker rim to finish it up but thought I"d go ahead and post anyway.

Second layout is from the Lisa B QVC book. I just love all things Heidi Swapp. Well, almost all things. I'm not into the chipboard strips and a few of the other things. Still, lovin' this book!

Oh, it finally happened. One of the girls got into my sb'ing stuff while I wasn't home and dh wasn't watching them in the basement. She got Zig markers and blank shipping tags. Could have been so much worse....still, we can't trust them at all in the basement by themselves. Will the day ever come that they can play without being watched like a hawk?

Ok, so I posted the layouts backwards. No biggie....

New Layout

Just a quick post to add this Emily birthday layout since it's been a while since I uploaded one. Created this (mostly) while cropping with Tina the other day....still have to finish the journaling off in pen, but first I have to buy a Zig Millenium .05 in brown. This paper, tags, and embellies came in a GREAT kit by Over the Moon Press; I'll be doing a Maddie lo next, then a bigger birthday lo, too. Fun kit!

More Scrapping!

Ever since we moved my beloved scrapbook room to the "outer" basement area, formerly my stamping room, I have gotten lots more layouts done. It's not because the space is that much more inspiring; it's actually less so. It's because my toddlers took over my little room for their play room, and now that I can be downstairs more during the day, I get more done. That's kind of a "duh!" moment, huh? Ahh well. I'm glad to have gotten much more scrapbooking done. I am usually doing projects for gifts, cards, etc, and not doing so much of my own layouts, so I'm happy. I feel like Matthew J. Bruccoli when asked what his (at the time) new biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald had in it that the other (classic) ones didn't, and he replied, "more facts!" Well, now I've got 'more layouts!' I need to post pictures soon. In the meantime, check out the latest in my gallery at Willow Traders. http://www.willowtraders.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1266

Tagged by Kara

I've been tagged for the latest quiz, so here goes!

Four jobs you’ve had in your life:
1. Theatre box office (live theatre, not movies)
2. Paste-up artist for commercial printer
3. Educational Television traffic and administrative positions (fave jobs EVER)
4. State Department of Education, Director of Statistical Reporting (my career job)

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The American President
2. Princess Diaries
3. You've Got Mail
4. Bull Durham

Four places you have lived:
1. Biloxi, Mississippi (birthplace)
2. Jackson, Mississippi (college and adult years)
3. Starkville, Mississippi (grad school years)
4. Des Moines, Iowa (husband transferred)

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Desperate Housewives
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Gilmore Girls
4. The West Wing (esp the old, really good ones)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. DisneyWorld
2. NYC
3. Charlottesville, VA
4. Smoky Mountains

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Yahoo mail
2. Willow Traders
3. 2Peas
4. Various Blogs

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Sandwiches (I dunno, just love sandwiches)
2. Beef roast cooked with potatoes, carrots and onions
3. Barbeque
4. Chicken cooked all kinds of ways

Four places you would rather be right now:
1. I think I would like to live in the Chicago area or Champagne, IL, area (so girls could be around family)
2. A Disney vacation would be great
3. A Cooperstown vacation would be great with Dh
4.

Four bloggers you are tagging:
1. Tina
2. Dalis (ya out there, girl?)
3. Husband
4. ??

Happy New Year

I just read one of my top three favorite blogs and enjoyed the new year's resolutions so much that I thought I'd drop one or two of my own. As a rule, I don't make resolutions because they always seem doomed. I make a cheer and a prayer for things to go terrifically for us in the new year, however.

We love our new home in the midwest, but this has not been the best year in terms of success and advancing our income/financial lives, and I pray for more resolution and success in that this year. We did some GREAT things, like let my scrapbooking be a little income for us (something we didn't think of when I started!) and also improving some small but important areas of the house.

I am committed to making the most of my current sb supplies and tools before adding any unjustifiably, whether it be cleaning out, selling, giving away, or using....I don't want anything stagnant in my stash.

I need to keep up with the housework better and more quickly so it's not always such a task to do it.

I need to figure out how to get the girls to WANT to wear clothes....these two pumpkins seem to like being au natural for whatever reason. Also MUST make it through the home stretch of potty training - they can, they do, but they don't always, and that's gotta change.

I pray for success, peace, friends, and fun for my dearest, wonderful, warm, nicest guy I know, best friend I will ever have, father of my beautiful angels, fruitcake of a guy husband.

There. I think that's enough for anyone, right? Happy New Year. Peace.