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 :)