A Night with Little House

We had a fun, impromptu evening out on Thursday at the Des Moines Playhouse for the opening of "Little House at Plum Creek." The girls really had a great time. And hubs and I enjoyed as well.

Whirlwind October!

Absolutely amazing, how fast October passed. Now that it's November 1, I find it actually hard to believe October has come and gone already.

My month really accelerated October 9. I was asked the weekend of October 7-8 if I would be interested in taking over as instructor of two classes, the instructor of which needed to step aside due to health issues. I have taught the same classes myself, so I agreed, and attended class with the instructor on October 9. Beginning October 11, I was teaching 3 classes instead of 1, not to mention that the new classes are both writing classes, so that means a lot more grading. This big change in my class load alone made the month go quickly for me.

October also brought fall camping for my girlies with Girl Scouts. A fun overnight trip translated to lots of fun with fall colors, leaves, pumpkins and s'mores.

Immediately following camp, we had a great visit with Aunt Tori, who was in town for the Des Moines  Marathon.

There was a school skating party last week, and fourth grade concert performance was a fun part of October as well. The fourth graders served as the chorus for The Emperor's New Clothes (fifth graders had all the big parts).

 

Of course, the big October event was trick or treat! We have Beggar's Night here in Des Moines, so trick or treat is held October 30. My two candy corn girls were a big hit with the neighbors.

And let's not forget October 31, daddy's birthday!!

Smile

Busy week, as I am jumping in mid-semester as the new instructor on two writing classes. Nothing too exciting to report. I did take my class to hear a speech on campus by a top economic advisor from the Obsma administration, Kruegger...first name escaping me at the moment. Here's a photo.

And here's a message from my Maddie that she just thought was too cute. Smile, everyone! :)

Mmmmmm....Spaghetti Sauce

Made spaghetti sauce and a quick cavatelli for an easy dinner. Yum.

Happy Hallo-Curio Cabinet!

Found a cute idea on Pinterest that inspired this. We have a built-in curio in the living room, and it was high-time I dust it off and give it a re-do, holiday style! What do you think? This was pretty easy as I had a lot of cute, small decor ready to go. Made up that mummy card earlier this week, and it filled a final space on the shelf just right. :)

Haunting!

It's Still Here!

Amazingly, my Blogger blog is still here. When I searched for it today, I was surprised to see that I didn't even have to log in. The system remembered me, though I haven't posted since March 2010. And I'm using my new MacBook, so I can't imagine how it knew the password. I guess Blogger knew I would be back.

I was inspired to find my blog today by a new friend's blog. She posts all about decorating and cooking and family life, and I started to think that maybe I should blog again. Facebook has all but taken away blog inspiration, given that it's way too easy to update the fun and interesting moments along with photos, as I said two years ago.

But still, here's my little blog, looking so happy to see me. Maybe that means something.

Here's what I did yesterday. I'm having a spurt of Halloween-decorating energy, and can't wait to hang this over the curio in the living room once I get it cleaned up.

So that's where I am today. If I get all my decorating done, I'll post some photos. And, hopefully, I'll be back to my blog sooner rather than later. :)

To blog or not to blog

I had decided to abandon the blog since Facebook is just too darned easy to update and post photos on. For gosh sakes, I send the photos to FB directly from my phone. I don't even have to make the effort to upload to my computer first. It's too easy.

Lately, however, I've thought about posting some photos of better quality, just for fun. I just don't know if I'd keep it up...uploading photos from the camera card always gets me in the end. And i know it's photos that make good blog posts. I read blogs and expect photos. What would Cake Wrecks be without photos, after all?

My blog jury is still out....I'll keep you posted. Or not.

Yes, I am a bad blogger

This totally explains my move to Blogger from Typepad not long ago...I'm a bad blogger these days. I blame Facebook. Facebook makes it wayyyy too easy to share what I want to share, and on the go, at that. I can take a photo with my cell phone and send it directly to Facebook. Why would I want to get out my camera, take photos, upload them to the computer, edit with PSE, then upload to Blogger to share something quick that I'm working on or that I just saw and wanted to share when Facebook is so much easier? Yeah, I know......

I do still like blogs. I do still like Blogging. I'm trying to make a go of the Examiner.com article-writing, but that's hard, too, especially since school started and we're on the go so much. I need to get back on that effort as much as possible. And scrapbooking?

No, not so much doing the scrapbooking. I made cards to send the girls' back-to-school snapshot and a dance class snapshot out to family and friends. I've made no pages at all though! Not since a July crop. Maybe soon....And knitting?

No, not so much doing the knitting. Took the entire summer off, actually. Lately, however, I've done a bit of knitting on the sweater for Maddie that I started back in the winter, and also on a simple but fun sock I started a while back. I only did the ribbed edge, and have now quickly brought the first sock down, around the heel and am now working the foot. I hope to get it done quickly and start the second sock. That will serve as inspiration for me to get it done so I have a new pair to wear. I am jealous of those who knit all the time and knit more complicated, beautiful socks (like Amanda posted on Facebook recently!). I also want to knit the girls' some leg-warmers to use in dance class. I bought a pattern over two years ago, and now I have a good reason to knit them.

All else is moving along....Girl Scouts started again last week. Tonight is the year's second PTO meeting at school. Girls started faith-formation class a few weeks ago. Upward soccer continues through October 24. (I'll be glad when that's over, to tell the truth.) So we're on the go...a LOT. Once soccer ends, it'll just be weekly dance and faith formation classes. Girl Scouts are every other week (or less perhaps); PTO is only monthly for me. Husband works a lot, too.

Otherwise, Girl Scouts begin their Fall Product fund-raiser this Friday, so if anyone would like some nice nuts, chocolate-covered nuts and pretzels, and other chocolates in fun little cans and tins, let us know starting Friday afternoon!

School supplies and the like

My gosh, I can't believe it's time to buy school supplies. Actually, I think we were late when buying supplies today. Many bins and displays were picked over; the three-ring binders were boring at best with only navy and black to choose from. What an exciting yet sad thing to be doing -- the excitement of back-to-school and the sadness that the summer is nearly over. Wow.

We got nearly everything we needed. The girls's separate classes have separate class lists, so that's a pain. If Maddie weren't in the new "combined" class of first and second graders, her list would be the same as Em's....ah well. We shall see what that situation brings as the school year gets started. Tissues still need to be purchased, as we need so many boxes for the two classes that we decided to wait for a good deal on a multi-box offer. I never envisioned my life and looking for a good deal on tissues. I really know how to live, I tell ya.

We have previously purchased some back-to-school clothes, and the girls seem happy with what we got. I got a fantastic deal...stumbled into it, really....at Gap Kids. They had a sale on clearance items, and we got two pairs of jeans (Gap jeans!) and four t-shirts for the girls for -- wait for it -- $48! That's hard to beat anywhere. We spent $20 at Target on two cute denim skirts, for gosh sakes. Lastly, we hit Sears, where we found Levi jeans marked down to $12, then a bunch of Roughskins coordinates for 2/$10 for the girls AND sneakers they love ON SALE. I gotta say, we did great in finding deals the girls love. This year, Em will have Wizards of Waverly Place sneakers, which I think she will love as much as she does her Hannah Montana ones from last year, and Maddie has Camp Rock sneakers she loves. Yippee on those finds.

I had hoped to post photos of the kindergarten scrapbooks that I did for the girls at my crop a few weeks ago, but, alas, I just haven't had a chance to photograph it. Had Monday off last week and worked on Saturday. Went to early church on Sunday and also attended the newcomers' breakfast, which was very nice. Cleaned and organized the linen closet. Scrapbooked not a bit, but I want to. Just trying to find a relaxing mood since it's no fun when there's too much external stress. I've gotten some great clearance and Hot Spot bargains ($1-$1.38) lately, and I can't wait to use some stash!

Hope it's not too hot where you are.....kinda steamy here this past week, that's for sure. :D

I coulda scrapped all night...

But the crop was only til 9 pm, 2 full days this past Friday and Saturday, both til 9 pm, and still I didn't get done as much as I wanted. I worked on two projects: kindergarten scrapbooks for the girls and a fun valentine's day memento book just for fun since someone gave me a bunch of patterned paper and matching ribbons. I added embellies when they went on clearance, and voila, a quick scrapbook. Here is that one, photos in no particular order, and I didn't include the front page. I haven't taken pics of the kindergarten ones yet.

In other news, we finished up swimming lessons last week. This week brings school registration. There are a few issues there that I'm thinking about. We are also enjoying our new church, and I need to call about getting the girls in (what I used to call) CCD for the fall. Husband has some irons in the fire (prayers welcomed for this). Work for me continues to be ok...tiring some after all this time working there.

The summer has come and is waning with us having not finished much of what we planned to do....the kitchen still isn't painted, nor is the hallway or our bedroom. The basement still isn't tidied from last summer's flooding. The back deck isn't painted. The yard isn't weeded. Siigghh....what happened to our get-up-and-go??

A quick card

I have some new stamps and I saw Jeanette's sketch challenge over at the 2RedBananas blog, so here ya go. :)

Two....get me two....

Stupid movie reference, I know. Or have you seen Point Break, by any chance?

Anyhoo....here are the two pages I finished this morning. You can now see what the "two" reference is for. One page for each of the girls' books. Em likes the pink; Maddie loves green. I did have a second, different ice cream paper, but figured I'd save it for something else. It's Basic Grey and is pretty cool, but completely different. This one is Imaginesce, very cool. The brown polka-dot is the reverse of the ice cream side. Gotta love that. This is the only piece of the line I bought, and it did the trick. Cardstock is Bazzill bling. Ice cream cone is QK. I think that yellow scalloped ribbon is Fancy Pants from the Office line? I bought it on clearance, I remember that. Sticker labels are Jenni Bowlin. Alpha is AC Thickers. Not sure I'm in love with these pages, other than the photos, which I do love, but the pages are....what?...say it with me.....DONE! I do love THAT!

Anyway, my goal is to get some pages done, use the new stuff I just had to have, and also to burn the stash as much as possible, downsizing as I go. Hope you like 'em, too. :)

Making the switch and another swim page

I didn't cut off my other blog in time to miss the next month's charges, but I believe I'm going to work with this one from now on to get the hang of it. Cool, huh? Not quite as fancy-dancy, but it'll do just fine, I do believe.

Here's another swim page I did...figured I had more of this paper that I really liked from last summer, plus the flowers I bought to match it. This page will go in the family book. The previous two are for each of the girls' books. This paper was by WRMK exclusive for Archivers last summer. The bling matched the line. Flowers by Prima also bought last summer (just perfect for the paper though). Chipboard corners are Bo Bunny. And, my rockin-the-stash move here is the rub-on title by MME that's at least 2-3 years old!

I have also completed a page for each of the girls' books using photos from our first trip to Snookies Malt Shop this year. I'll get those up this weekend, too, but haven't snapped pics yet. Used the fun Imaginesce ice cream paper...forget what the line is called, but it's this year's.

Testing again...posting photos

I remember previously leaving blogger because of endless troubles posting photos. Hopefully, that's all a thing of the distant past. Here goes....

What I did tonight - a couple of pages, one for each of the girls, using the summer 2008 WRMK line for A's that I liked so much last year. Glad to have these photos which are perfect for it! Yellow chipboard from Bo Bunny. Flowers are Prima, bought to match this paper...pretty good match, huh? :)

Ok, I'm not thrilled with how the photos are formatting. I'm going to have to look up some tips on sizing and placement of photos...thus far, it seems easy to upload, but I'm not happy with the result when seeing the post. What gives with this, I wonder. Like how I can custom-size the photos in Typepad. Can Blogger do that?

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

After a bit of thought about the ol' blog and other sites I now frequent like Facebook and Twitter, I decided to come back to Blogger and see how the site works now. My last post, still listed below, was nearly 3 years ago, when the site here was really sucking, so I moved to Typepad. I've been using (and paying for) that site since then, and even though it's only a token amount, I decided that if Blogger is up to snuff now, I should try it again and eliminate the cost of Typepad since I don't blog as much as I used to. I guess that's what Facebook has done in giving me another site to share some photos and updates with family and friends. So, this is sort of a "test post" to see how I like Blogger again.

Like my design? Free download elements and PSE....I'm so far from knowing what I'm doing with such things, but it's better than the basic template options, I think.

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?