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!