My Paper Dreams

It's been a LONG time...

2010-07-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

I got SO lazy about updating my blog. It's not even that I've been super busy...just super lazy. The kids got done with school and we are about half way done with summer vaca. Mattie will be a sophmore next year and V will be a 4th grader. How times flies. It's been a pretty uneventful summer. Probably not taking any kind of vaca again since Steve can't get the time off from work. So the kids and I have been doing the movies quite a bit...the free ones and then we do movies as a family on the weekends...not free ones;) Visit my mom and Lal a lot, but that's about it.

I'm still going to the gym about 4 times and week and putting in some workouts here at home too when I get the chance. I hadn't been able to lose any more weight after the intial 20 lbs that I lost, but just recently, I dropped about 4, so I'm happy about that. Just REALLY need to watch what I eat...

We are also in the middle of planning our 20 year high school reunion. So meetings and trying to collect payments...busy, busy. We just had a "meeting" yesterday, but only two people showed up besides me, Lal and Laura, but it was still a lot of fun catching up and laughing a whole lot:)

We will be starting back to school shopping this weekend. I've pretty much got all the school supplies we need with the exception of like 2 or 3 small items. It really does pay off to stock up when they clearance this stuff. This is the second yr and I haven't really had to buy school supplies.

Mattie turned 16 the beginning of this month. Can hardly believe it. V will be turning 10 almost as soon as school starts. I feel so old:(

I have been trying to keep up with the scrapping. Been working on different things here and there. I have drastically cut down on my shopping...seriously...been saving myself quite a bit of $$$ ;)

I can't upload every single project I've done since I blogged last, but I will update with a few of the lastest things.

I've been on an Alice in Wonderland kick lately;) These are just a few of the things I've made using the theme. I've done some cards and quite a few different type tags. I am so loving the new Graphic 45 line. I just picked up some at 911 the other day and can't wait to use it. Jennie is doing a mini book class with the line and her book is AWESOME!!! I so want to do this class.

Just a card I made using one of my Tim Holtz dies. I am loving these dies and just starting to explore their possibilites. I can't wait for some of his new CHA release Alterations especially the tag one!!!

Going to try REALLY hard to remember I still have this thing here and update more often. Summer will be over before you know it and I'll be back to my regular schedule;) More soon...hopfeully;)

Happy Birthday to my Mommy!!!

2010-01-28T12:11:00.001-08:00

On Sunday my mom celebrated her 70th birthday. I can't believe how quickly time goes by. My Uncle Frank planned a surprise party for her. It was a little hard to keep a secret since I had been over at my mom's on Friday and spent the night until Saturday morning. I usually take my mom out to lunch and shopping for her birthday and bake her cake, but this year we waited out until Sunday. I was afraid she would think we had forgetten about her, but she was really suprised when she walked into my uncle's house that afternoon.

My cake had a little accident:( The cherry sauce melted my icing border and ran over the sides of the cake, but it was still yummy:)

My uncle bbq-ed and everything was delicious. All of my aunts came to celebrate with my mom. My cousins came...Ruby, Felicia and Kelly. It was a very nice time and I am really happy my uncle did that for her:) My mom is my whole world and I live to make her proud of me. I hope she enjoyed her special day:)

New LOs to Share...

2010-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

Lots of new LOs to share that I've gotten done since the new year. I've noticed that when I work with thinner cardstock; not textured, my Zig glue makes my paper bow:( I need to figure out what to do about that. Of course, it flattens right out sitting in the album, but I hate the look of it beforehand...

Someone on 2Peas posted about this awesome Cosmo Cricket kits they found at Tuesday Morning. There is a 1-800 number you can call to find out if a store near you has the product in stock. All you need is the SKU# and your zip code. So I called and found some at the store right by my house:) These were only $14.99 and they are FULL of goodies. I got two kits, one in the Coral and one in the Dusty Blue. I want to start some projects with these goodies soon especially the lacing card kits:)

Some other recent Tuesday Morning finds (not pictured) were packs of MM and AC paper; 25 the same sheet for $1.99. Love Elsie chip and assorted embellie packs; bundles of 4 and 5 for $3.99. MM Flower Shop Tins and Jars for $1.99 and some more AC Thickers. I found a chip Jewelery Box font and a pink puffy Umbrella for only $1.79 a pack:)

Family/Home Chip Album (as seen in Scrapbooks Etc.)

2010-01-28T11:38:00.000-08:00

Some really cute Vday stamps I picked up at J's a few weeks ago in the $ bins. Cute to make your own Vday cards with:) Also a few of the Spring stamps...

Here are the pics of my mini album I worked on the last time we got together with the girls. This was featured in the last issue of Scrapbooks Etc.

SO long...

2010-01-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that it's been over two months since I last updated my blog. For some reason I kind of lost interest in the whole updating thing:( I'm going to try to be better at keeping it up. I'm not even going to attempt to catch up for the last two months, so I'll just pick up from today:)

Well, I'm still hitting the gym and dieting for the most part, but I have been stuck at my 20lb weight loss for some time. Yesterday at the store, I picked up this acacia berry stuff to boost it a little. Today is only day one, so let's see how it goes. It's only a two week thing.

The kids were off yesterday for Martin Luther King day. We just stayed home and I did my house cleaning. Just ran to do my grocery shopping in the afternoon and a quick run to HL for a couple of punches I wanted for my Vday cards:)

Sunday the kids spent the day at the inlaws and we did a little running around. Caught a movie. Went to go see Lovely Bones. VERY good. I'd just finished the book like last week. Definately not a movie to take your small children to though. We also had lunch at the Olive Garden. Steve's parents gave us a gift card for Christmas and we just got around to using it. It was really good:)

A couple of weeks ago, we all got together here at my house; me and Lal, Laura and Liz...Yocasta couldn't make it:( We worked on a little family/home chip album project I saw in the latest issue of Scrapbooks Etc. I got the cutest little house chip albums at M's in the $ bins; got one for each of the girls:) It was a fun little project and I love how mine turned out. I'll be sharing in the next post.

Over Christmas and the last few weeks, I've made some updates in my room. Got some new storage units and added a new "desk" area to my room. Lots more counter space:)

We are planning on getting together again this Friday at my mom's house. I think we are going to be working on LOs or Valentine cards. I think I'll do a little of both. I'm really looking forward to the "me" time.

I haven't really done too much scrapping lately. Probably a handful of LOs, but I also haven't really done too much shopping;) That's a plus:)

Hopefully, I'll be back to post soon. I'm going to at least try to do it once a week. We'll see how that goes. Only 3 more days to the weekend. Have a good one:)

LO Update...

2009-11-15T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here are my most recent LOs. Some I did at home and some I got done @ the church gathering I went to with Lal. I'm too lazy to go through them all and list all the product and such so if anyone has any questions, just leave me a comment:)

Right now I'm working on a Halloween mini album. I'm about half way done, but haven't worked on it the last few days.

Yesterday an old friend of mine from high school came into town. Her sister threw her a surprise party so we went to that. It was a real nice time and SO nice to see her after almost 18 years!!! We've talked on the phone most recently, but hadn't seen each other since right after high school.

Today we just stayed in. We spent the better part of the day helping V with a state project she has due tomorrow for school.

Yesterday before the party, we went by The Rim and dropped off our shoeboxes for Project Christmas Child. We filled up 4 boxes. I'm really wishing we'd got more cause we had enough extra items to fill up a couple more. Next year I'm definately picking up a few more boxes.

Went by Michael's and found all sorts of MM Autumn Splendor stuff for 80% off. I got several paper packs and a kit and the journaling notebook. The Vintage Findings stuff was also 80% off. I got a couple of the embellies and that's about it. Also picked up the MM Craft Fair with a half off coupon.

Friday Steve suprised me with a new phone. Not really sure what it's called, but it's REALLY cool and has TONS of cool features. I've hardly begun to figure it all out. I'm sure it's going to be a while, but I don't have any reason to be bored while waiting at the doctor's office or anywhere else for that matter;)

I've been fighting a headache all day today. I've had a headache everyday for the past like 3 days. Last week I felt them coming on and knew I'd be getting them soon. They haven't been that bad yet, so I'm thankful for that at least.

This week is the kids last week at school before Thanksgiving break. They will be off for a whole week this year...Yikes!!! We'll be spending Thanksgiving at my mom's this year. Looking forward to it:)

That's about all I've got for today. Gotta go through my pics and see what else I still need to update with. Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday:)

MIA...

2009-11-10T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I last updated my blog. It's not like I haven't been on the computer...LOL Guess I've just been in lazy mode again.

I've been going to the gym 3-4 times a week first thing in the morning. I like getting it out of the way before I get lazy and unmotivated to do it later in the day. I lost 12 lbs, but somehow put 2 back on:( I have hit a plateau and have not lost or gained anything since my birthday...

Yep...our birthday came and went. The big 38!!! That is SO close to 40. Scary. For my birthday Steve took me to the movies. We went and saw Couples Retreat. Good flick. Then we went to eat @ Texas Roadhouse. LOVE that place. Did a little bit of shopping in between. The Friday before our birthday I met up with Jess, Maria, Laura and her dh. We had lunch at Logan's. Yummmy. Saturday we met up with Lal, Miguel and Mikey @ Fiesta Texas for Fright Fest. Then later in the evening I caught up with Lal, Laura and Maria @ Mama Margie's for dinner. They were going out, but I was feeling horrible that day. I ended up having a cold on my birthday. Boo!!! We dropped off the kids with Steve's parents so we could get an early start the next day for my birthday so after we did our thing, we went back to Steve's parents and did the cake there w/ the kids before we headed home.

We spent Halloween here at home. My uncle was throwing a party, but the kids wanted to go trick or treating in our neighborhood and Steve wanted to decorate. Halloween is like Steve's Christmas so I didn't want to ruin it for him. Our plan was to pull out our banquet tables and set up in the driveway and hang out, trick or treat and pass out candy.

Early that day my cousins called that they weren't going to the party afterall so I invited them over here as well as Lal. So we ordered pizza. Had chips/dips and cupcakes for the kids. It was a lot of fun. We sat out and talked, but when it started to get too cold we came in.

The kids played in the other room and we watched a movie; Orphan. It was SCARY:( We had a great time and I'm thinking this may become our new Halloween tradition;)

My cousins are in the process of moving back down here and we've really enjoyed having them here and spending time with them. They've been having a time selling their house though and I really hope they won't have to go back "home". So prayers for a smooth and quick house sale would be GREATLY appreciated.

This past Friday Lal helped organize a crop at the church she attends and asked me to come. Steve got home on time and we went and picked up Lal and he dropped us off. He took the kids to the planetarium. They LOVED it.

The crop was a lot of fun. Only 3 other girls showed up, but we all still had a fun time. I got 4 LOs done. Lal and I put together some little goodie bags that we had planned on using as "door prizes", but we since there were only 3 girls. They all got to take something home:) I'm really looking forward to the next gathering which is planned for the beginning of December.

Saturday I had to drive Steve to work cause he didn't have a work truck. Since I was going to be on that side of town and had to pick him up from work as well, I just went to hang out at my mom's.

That afternoon was Nick (my cousin's son's) birthday party. We went to Peter Piper's and then to the movies to see a Christmas Carol in 3D. The movie was awesome and all the kids had such a good time. My aunt took my other cousin's 3 kids so V had girls to talk to:) It was a really good time.

Tonight V has a PTA performance. They are singing patriotic songs in honor of Veteran's Day. They also have the book fair going on, so we'll probably be making a stop in there too tonight.

This morning I did 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym, then came home and did another one on the Eliptical. Hard work, but I'm really hoping to get out of this slump and lose another 10 by Thanksgiving.

This past weekend really threw me off. I made pumpkin bread loaves for the church gathering and ended up eating too much:( Darn that pumpkin bread!!! I need to stop taking my weekend "breaks" and just follow through all week long.

I have lots of pics to share, but I will post those later in a seperate blog. I really need to stop slacking on my blog too. Going to make more of an effort to keep on it;)

More LOs and Germs...

2009-10-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday we spent the day over at my mom's. We just hung out and the kids played. Lal scrapped and I kind of put some things together. I didn't have a whole lot of time in the morning to get stuff together, so I just did a little work on some LOs, but didn't complete anything. Lal did. I took some of my new Sizzix dies and my Big Kick and I did some cuts for Lal. The kids played Candy Bingo, which they LOVED!!! I ran a quick errand and brought the kids back McDonald's for lunch.

In the afternoon, V started complaining that she didn't feel well and that her throat hurt. She didn't look very well either. She felt warm and looked flushed. We came home and I gave her some Ibuprofen. As soon as it kicked in, she perked up. We went out to eat and ran a couple of errands; I went by 911 and picked up some new goodies. I got the new Comso Cricket Nutmeg line. LOVE it!!! Went by M's and HL, then came back home.

She ran more fever through the night. We stayed home all day Sunday cause she was not well. Last night she ran a lot of fever and I just couldn't bring it down. Pretty scary stuff. It finally broek this morning. We took her in the doctor this am though; double ear and throat infection. I am just ever thankful that it was not the swin flu or something else. She is on antibiotics and out of school for the week. On the road to recovery though, so that's good:)

Since we were home all day yesterday, I got to work on my LOs I started at my mom's. Here are the finished products...

Lift off 2Peas. Used up Early Bird scraps. The green pp is Carolyn Gavin and the brown I made using kraft and woodgrain rubber stamp. AC puffy Thickers, MM Puffy alphas and tiny alphas and an HS chip heart. I also machine stitched a border along both of the scrap strips.

Lift off April Yap. MM pp, Tim Holtz Addage tickets, Prima felt flowers, JB bingo card, MM Just Chillin' journaling sheet, 7 Gypsies cardstock stickers. The house is cut out of a sheet of Recollections fall paper. Vine is Sizzix cut; one of my new Bigz dies;)

In these pics V was about 4 or 5 years old. This was a playgroup date; Super Hero day at the park. She dressed up as Bat Girl. Papers are all Pink Paislee Twilight. Prima flowers, adhesive gems, Recollections diecuts, MM journal tag and Doodlebug Shindig alpha stickers.

Tomorrow is cleaning day since the kids were off for Columbus Day today and we had to run V to the doctor and all. Wednesday I have my appointment with OAG. Praying for the best:) Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their evening.

Where the Wild Things Are...

2009-10-08T14:26:00.001-07:00

So I'd really been wanting for Mikey to dress up as Max from Where the Wild Things are for Halloween; with the movie coming out and all. Of course there aren't any costumes in the stores. I looked online and found some really pricey ones, but I also found some ideas on how people made their own. This got me thinking, so I talked to Steve and we decided we'd make one ourselves:) We went to J's and found a pattern we could work with and we got a super deal on the fabric too. The weekend V was sick, we stayed home so we spent that Sunday sewing Mikey's costume. This is how it turned out. Of course, it doesn't fit V very well. She's quite a bit taller than Mikey...

I took it to Mikey last Friday when I went by my mom's and he loved it. It made me so happy:) and he looked super adorable in it...I'm not just saying that cause he's my nephew and we made the costume and all;) I gotta have Lal take some pics of him in it.

V is going to be a Skelanimal Kitty. We bought it at Target. She's modeling it in one of my recent LOs in my last post. Mattie is going to be the king from Burger King. It's hilarious. TFL

120 LOs!!! Photo HEAVY;)

2009-10-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

I've gotten quite a few LOs done since my last post. Some of these were done during a mini palooza that Lal and I had. I think I got like 4 or 5 done that day. Can't quite recall. The rest I've gotten done since then; here and there. So here they all are. I'm too lazy to list all my product and such for every single LO I have here, so if anyone has any questions, just leave me a comment:)

In other news, I had V home sick week before last. She was home for 2 days. She had ran a low grade fever for a day, but then she was super congested and coughing so I kept her home. A few days after she went back to school, I came down with it. I'm going on a week now. I started to feel some improvement and then I woke up yesteday feeling worse. Today was a better though, so here's praying it doesn't last much longer.

For the last week and a half I have been dieting and so far I have lost 8lbs. I'm hoping to get to 10 by the end of the week. I am setting short term goals to keep me motivated. Setting my weight loss in 10lbs increments.

We finally got our gym membership transfered to the new gym right by our house, so starting Monday, I'm hitting the gym. Hopefully this will help me with the whole weight thing; give me a little boost;)

Today I did a little yard work. All the rain we'd had really got the grass growing. Or should I say weeds. I went out there and pulled out quite a bit, then just mowed. The yard REALLY needs some work. Hopefully once the weather cools down more consistenly, I can work on the yard more.

Not much else going on here...at least not that I can think of at the moment. I'll be back to update with another post later today to get caught up. I think this post is photo heavy enough;)

BFFs 4 Ever...

2009-09-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

So today I only got one LO done. I started on it at 10am and I didn't get done until about 2pm. I did take a break for lunch, but that's about it. There was a lot of cutting involved on this one. It's a pic of me and my best friend since middle school, Jess.

We have been BFFs since the 8th grade. I can't really remember how we met or how we started talking. I used to "go around" with a friend of his. Maybe that's how:) Anyway, we were tight all through high school. We even shared a locker. We spent countless hours on the phone...I mean LOTS...We'd watch TV on the phone. One of our faves was Three's Company. I still remember:)...LOL...Jess didn't have a color TV so it was harder for him when we played "RED" (a game we made up where you had to shout "red" everytime something red came out:) hee hee

After high school we went through our "party" phase. You know...eating too much birthday cake...wink, wink;) and Jess always looked out for me. He was the best. For a while there, we lost touch. He got married. I had my son. I saw him a couple of times after, but then lost touch again. It wasn't until about six years ago, I ran into him at NIOSA and we got back in touch and the rest is history:)

Sure, we don't spend countless hours on the phone now. Life and kids prevent that;), but we are still close. We've had our rough patches, but we've gotten through. I pray that he will always be a part of my life in some way or another. I am forever grateful that God brought him back into my life. He is my constant when all else fails, I know Jess has my back;)

So a tribute to my BFF...

This picture is from one of our recent class gatherings. I made it black and white to fit my color scheme. All the flowers, vines and little quotes are handcut from the Teresa Collins Friends line. I Stickled my two small black flowers and the large white HS one. I built this one black cardstock, then a light blue Rhonna Farrer that I inked the edges on. Also used a piece of KI lace cardstock, Prima bling flourishes and some ahesive pearls for the flower centers. Oh, also added a piece of lace trim to one of the quotes. The LO idea was from a LO I saw, I believe, on the Teresa Collins blog. I am absolutely in love with the way this turned out and I hope he likes it too:)

CKC, Picture Day and a Couple of More LOs...

2009-09-22T19:23:00.000-07:00

So Saturday Steve took off work and we made the little road trip to San Marcos for CKC. I've been looking forward to this for pretty much a year. Ever since I saw the ad in a scrap mag a while back.

I got some feedback on the scrap boards about what to expect and was a little torn about whether or not it'd be worth it after all my expectations and waiting, but we went anyway.

We got there about 9:30. I was expecting to have to fight crowds, but that wasn't the case. Found parking fairly easy. Wasn't too much of a line to purchase tickets to get into the faire. We even got free admission for Steve; hubbies were free;) and I used a coupon and got in for $7 instead of $10:)

I must confess that the actual faire was NOT what I'd anticipated. It was a lot like the convention we did in Austin a couple of years back. It was still fun and I did get some things I wanted. Managed to spend about $80. We were there about 2 hours and then we left and hit up some stores around there before heading back home.

After doing these 2 events, I really don't think I'd go again...unless Lal came with me. Then maybe;) It's just not the same when you don't have another scrapper to keep you company:)

Here is a pic of my purchases along with some things I picked up at HL...

Today we actually got some rain again. Pretty much all day. It cleared up in the afternoon as was actually cool when I went to pick up V. Today was Picture Day. Got some shots of V out front...

I stayed home all day today and got some scrapping done. So did Lal. We had some what of a cyber crop. We are planning to get together on Friday and see what we can get done. No big expectations since it's kind of short notice. Probably just get a couple LOs done, get something to eat, do a little bit of shopping and hang out. It's been a while since we did that. We didn't get to do our Scrapapalooza Trilogy while Miguel was on vaca cause poor little Mikey got sick.

So here's what I got done today. This puts me at 106 LOs, I believe...
All Sass; Bungle Jungle and Anthem on kraft paper. Sass and Chatterbox chip "9"s and a Jillibean Sprout and Sass Happy Place alpha stickers.

Lift off 2Peas. The kids on the day we celebrated V's birthday. Cosmo Cricket Early Bird on kraft. STILL loving the kraft background. Cricut cut title using my Graphically Speaking cart. K&Co. diecut jouranling tag and a sticky note I got in M's $1 bins a while back.

Time for bed. Hoping to get a couple more LOs done tomorrow as I don't plan on leaving the house;) Night all:)

Birthday pics and LOs...

2009-09-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday we celebrated V's birthday @ Peter Piper's. Unfortunately we didn't have a very good turnout of her classmates. Laney was the only one to show up and then Haley showed up about 15 minutes before the party ended:( Luckily though, my cousins made it, my aunt brought my cousin's two girls and Steve's mom brought V's little friend from across the street from their house.Here are the decorated goodie bags. I bought plain pink ones and made the kitties with my Sizzix die:)

Stevie also came over on Saturday and on Sunday his girlfriend, Amanda came over and she came to the party as well:) We had a really nice time and we laughed a lot towards the end;) Here's a few pics:

The kids Sunday morning before we headed out to breakfast...

V at Peter Piper's:)

The birthday cakes and singing Happy Birthday. I actually ended up making two cakes. V wanted a funfetti cake with strawberry frosting. I'm not crazy about that so I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting too. We had very little of the chocolate cake left, but quite a bit of the pink one. Of course, the pink one was also bigger than the chocolate one though. I sent Stevie and Amanda home with some cake:)

In the pic above...Venus, Alexis, V, Laney and Brianna. In back...Nin, Mattie and Nick.

V with a couple of her birthday gifts from us; the Miley Cyrus book (she's been wanting this one for quite a while:) and a Disney video camera. She's been messing around with this DAILY. She walks around the house video taping everything and talking like she's talking to someone...LOL. She says she wants to do her own web show. I think she's been watching too much iCarly;)

I got a few LOs done this week too. I think this puts my count at 104 for the year:)
This one is a lift off Jenice on sb.com. I love that her LOs are very simple. I used kraft for my background again. I am really loving the look of that and doing it a lot as of late:) PP is Sass Skully, I believe. Some old Daisy D's punchouts, MM tiny alphas and AC Puffy Thicker number along with a Sass sticker flower:)
This was a lift off the Cosmo blog. Pics of V sleeping with her furry puppy friends. Steve says he didn't like the pics. That they were morbid looking...sigh...Whatever!!! Anywho...I think the names V gives her animals are funny. She never names them anything like Fluffy or Sparky. These three are named Lauren, Alicia and Biscuit.

I used kraft for my background again. PPs are AC and Cosmo Early Bird and Girl Friday. Doodlebug Paper Frill, MM tiny alphas, AC foam Thickers and some buttons.

This is another lift off Jenice. I used a Doodlebug paper I've had for quite some time, as my background. AC vinyl Thickers, HS block alpha stickers, Daisy D's rubon and some buttons.

This Saturday Steve is taking off from work and we are hitting CKC in San Marcos. I'm pretty excited. I've been waiting for this for about a year. I hope it's good. I wasn't too thrilled about the convention we did in Austin a couple of years back. Hoping this one is better. Thankfully, this one isn't as far a drive either. I'll update after. Hopefully with lots of awesome goodie deals:)

I did it!!!

2009-09-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

With the two LOs I did today, I have reached my yearly goal and completed my 100 LOs. I actually went one over and I am at 101!!! Woo hoo!!! Let's see how many I can get done by the end of the year. I still have a little less than 4 months to go. I'll see if I can get another 25 done before the end of the year. That will be my mini challenge;)

I think Miguel is supposed to be going on vaca real soon and I had mentioned to Lal that it might be time for Scrapapalooza the Trilogy...LOL...Hopefully we can make that happen. I think I got like 10 LOs done at our last "event". That would really give me a good boost to reach my "mini goal":)

Yawn...I am super tired tonight and heading to bed ASAP. Just waiting on a load of laundry to come out of the wash so I can throw it in the dryer and I'm headed to bed. Nighty:)

Happy Birthday!!!

2009-09-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on 9-9-09 my baby girl turned 9 years old!!!

We took her out to eat in the afternoon when Steve got home. Then we came home and had cupcakes. I usually make the kids a cake for their actual birthday too, but then we get stuck with a whole bunch of cake I feel compelled to eat;) So this year, I just got the little box of cupcakes...plus I don't like the frosting so that helps;)

V also took cupcakes to her class. She was super excited. Hers was the like third class birthday this week. There are lots of September birthdays she said:)

We'll be celebrating her birthday on Sunday with a little party at Peter Piper Pizza.

We've been getting quite a bit of rain these past few days. We REALLY need it so I'm not going to complain. The humidty afterwards has been just awful though:(

I've pretty much just been chillin' at home all week. It helps not to be out where the shopping temptation is more likely;) I've been trying to keep my sb shopping down to once a week and for the last week fews, I've been doing really well:)

This past week I went to M's and got the Sass packs they just got in. I got Vintage Yummy and Bungle Jungle as well as 3 packs of Whimsies flowers; Vintage Yummy, Bungle Jungle and Anthem. Last week I put in an order at Two Peas and got a whole bunch of Jillibean Sprouts @ 40% off. Can't remember what the previous week was, but it was a one day thing too:)

So here's some LOs I got done recently. The first two I got done today:) TFL

LOs to Share...

2009-09-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

First Day of School

2009-09-04T10:20:00.001-07:00

I'm finally able to update my blog. Blogger was NOT allowing me to upload my pics in the last few attempts I've made over the last week or so:( So these back to school pics are a little late;)

Mattie on his first day of high school.
V on her first day of 3rd grade. Both were very excited to go back.

They both had really good days and Mattie said he only got lost once:)

So the kids are back in school and I have gotten back into my routine. I got a lot accomplished the first week they were back, but still got a ways to go.

Every Friday they have a pep rally at Mattie's school so I have been driving him on those mornings so he doesn't miss out cause the bus picks them up later and the rally starts at 8am. Traffic is something going that way that early though:(

I will be updating in seperate posts until I am caught up:)

Last Day of Vaca...

2009-08-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of school. I am not looking forward to the early mornings, but I'm hoping to start a lot of cleaning and purging projects around the house.

So tomorrow V will start 3rd grade. We did Meet the Teacher last Thursday. She will be in Mr. V's class and she's really excited. Two of her former classmates will be joining her; Kassandra and Isabel as well as a former kinder classmate; Shelby. We've got our first day outfit all picked out and hanging for the morning already:)

Mattie will be starting high school. Boy am I nervous wreck!!! Mattie always makes me the most nervous:( I know he has more trouble adjusting to new changes and I know he's not very social. Not like my little chatterbox;) I'm just praying it will all be OK for him. He will be riding the bus this year too. He rode the bus in 6th grade, but after that they made some changes and our area wasn't eligible for bus pickup anymore:(

So he's got his outfit set out; a Nintendo shirt and some jeans, his backpack ready and his new schedule good to go.

Thursday we also had dr. appointment for Mattie to get a refill on his meds. Then I finished my grocery shopping I didn't get done last week.

Friday I spent the day at my mom's. Went to Skechers and got V's last two pairs of shoes and to T's for a couple other things we still needed. Took Mattie to Steve to get a hair cut.

Friday was also our 9 year wedding anniversary. 9 years!!! We didn't do anything since Steve worked both the office and the shop and be the time we got home, it was too late.

Saturday V spent the day at my MILs so I took it easy chillin' at home. Watched a movie, did some laundry, a little more shopping. When Steve got home we made another T run for socks for V and I found this patio swing I'd been wanting all summer long and it was half off!!! We snatched that right up as part of my anniversary gift:) I can't wait for Steve to put it together. Once the weather gets cooler I'm sure we'll get a lot of use out of it. Sitting out and watching the kids ride bikes or play out front:)

Today we went out to breakfast, dropped the kids off at my inlaws and went and caught a movie. We saw Post Grad. It was a good movie. We were going to go to lunch, but my inlaws wanted to catch a movie too so we had to go get the kids. So we all went to lunch at Logan's. ONE more T run then Steve took me by James Avery and bought me a chain/crucifix. I'd always wanted one from James Avery. The cross and chain I had before...well the chain actually...broke a week or so back so I wasn't wearing anything. I LOVE my new one:) That was the other part of my anniversary gift:)

Well, it's about one hour to bedtime routine. Let's see how quick and smooth that goes. Crossing fingers;) Will update tomorrow with some back to school pics:)

Ram Camp

2009-08-14T15:34:00.001-07:00

This morning I woke up to a very nice little visitor. Ruby and Ariel came by. I hadn't seen Ariel in a while. With the kids being home and all and running around for back to school and since Ruby started watching Bella, we just don't have the time to hang out like we used to:(

Today Mattie had Ram Camp. I dropped him off. It was from 1-4pm. Basically they were showing him around; where everything is at. How things work. That kind of stuff.

V and I killed time while he was there. I went by M's...found nada...went to the Dollar Tree next door; we just got drinks and V got some Cheetos:) Went to Tuesday Morning. V found some little wooden doll house furniture so we bought a set; a little bedroom I think. I took her to eat at Whataburger, then we went to Hobby Lobby...didn't buy anything there either.

So we picked him up at 4 and then came back home. It is SO SUPER hot out:(

I got two LOs done yesterday. They are both the same LO. A lift off Ginger Williams. I had done both these pics on a 6x12 LO a long time ago and I never liked how it turned out. I always wanted to redo it. When I saw her LO, I knew I had to lift it for these pics. I had to reprint the pics though cause when I tore them off the other LO, they kind of "warped". Besides I needed larger pics since I did individual LOs instead of the ONE they were both on before. I am SO much happier with these LOs than the one I did before. LOVE it:)...them:)

The pics are from Valentine's Day a couple of years back. I used on both...Papers: kraft, Cosmo Cricket Early Bird and Girl Friday, AC and Paper Studio. JB journaling spot, Doodlebug Hopscotch alphas, MS fabric cupcakes, felt star trim from M's $ bins, bracket punch and MS large scallop punch and a couple of buttons:)

Right now I am reading The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm hoping to go see the movie this weekend so I want to finish the book before then. I SO love it and I SO LOOOVVVEEE the Lifehouse song Broken that plays on the soundtrack. I've had that on repeat on iTunes and my iPod for the last couple of days:)

LOTS of LOs...

2009-08-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Lots of recent LOs to share. Everything I've got done since our Scrapapalooza:) Not in any particular order though. I can't recall which went where:)

Mattie and his little sister, Mia @ his birthday celebration last month. I lifted this off the Sass blog. Kraft paper, Sass papers, Bazzill Edge, Bo Bunny alpha stickers, MM tiny alphas and some MM chip stars.
This was a lift off Kelly Goree. I used BG Urban Prairie, Scrapworks pp, black cardstock for the background, MME diecut, Urban Prairie rubon and some things cut out of the paper to embellish.

Lift off Ginger Williams. Another one of my fave artists right now. Pic of V when she was 5!!! asleep on the living room floor. Kraft pp, AC pp, Colorbok pp, MM chip shapes and Doodlebug cardstock alphas.
Can't recall where this one is from. Either sb.com or 2Peas. Pic of Mikey in the pool. Built on white cardstock. Used some Cosmo Snorkel, Doodlebug pp and alpha stickers, P. Etc. stickers I've had FOREVER and some foam alphas from T's $ Spot.

Inspired by a LO in the latest issue of MM. My second Twilight LO. SO in love with this one:) I used some Creative Imaginations paper I had in my stash from who knows when:). A little bit of Foofala pp and WRMK. Prima velvet border and bling flourish, MM Vintage Hip flower, AC chip Thickers, 7 Gypsies stickers. Also stamped an AL image in the top left hand corner. The pic is an image I got online of a movie poster. My pic I took at the theatre of the poster did not come out well AT ALL:(

Another mag lift; Scrapbooks Etc. this time. Pics of V when she was in kindergarten; 2 years ago. Pics taken throught the rearview mirror. White cardstock background, Scenic Route pp, Colorbok pp, vinyl and puffy Thickers, 7 Gypsies stickers.

K...this one I just did last night. This is a pic of me and Lal and a friend of ours from school that we have known since kindergarten. We just recently reconnected on Facebook. We saw each other again for the first time in a LONG time at the last class gathering we had in June, then a couple of weeks ago, we got together with another childhood friend of ours and had lunch...a very long lunch...a SIX hour lunch @ Sea Island. It was such a blast!!!

This pic was taken just last week @ our second class gathering we had @ Cha Cha's. We had a lot better turn out for this one and got to catch up with a lot of old friends we hadn't seen in about 10 years. We are starting to plan our 20 year reunion. 20 years!!! We are also trying to plan more gatherings for us to just get together and hang out. I am really enjoying these gatherings:)

K...that's all I got for now. I'll update more later and post some more of our recent gathering pics:)

Prep Day...

2009-08-12T15:13:00.001-07:00

Seems I haven't updated my blog in forever. It's not that I haven't been on the computer. I guess I've just been lazy about updating:(

Today was Mattie's prep day @ school. He is going into high school!!! Yikes!!! So today Mark went w/ me. Thank God cause it was chaotic in there and I don't know what I would have done by myself...well, I guess I could have managed, but it was nice to have someone else along:)

So we went and had to get his schedule, locker, student ID, books...all sorts of stuff. I think we were there for about 2 hours. Whew!!! All I can say is, I'm glad it's not me. I feel so overwhelmed for him...though I'm sure he'll do fine. I always get all paranoid for nothing cause he seems to be very good at adapting:)

Today I met up with a lady this morning from Craigslist. I put up a listing for a bunch of clothes V outgrew and got a nice $45 for it all:) It's fairly easy to sell her stuff. I listed Mattie's school uniforms, but nothing on that though. Luckily the school accept gently used uniforms to offer those who can't afford them so I need to call the school about dropping them off. We have LOTS and they are all in very good condition so hopefully someone can benefit from them:)

I also went through all of our school supply stash and got it all packed up in V's new backpack for her. There are only a couple of things I am going to need to get. Sure am glad I stocked up with sales and clearance last year:)

V has her Meet the Teacher day next week on Thursday so we will find out who her teacher will be and we can drop off her supplies. I can't believe the start of school is just around the corner; the 24th here. V will be in the 3rd grade!!! I can't believe how fast these kids are growing:(

I've gotten a couple of LOs done. Not much since our Scrapapalooza. I'll upload those later. There's the lazy again:)

Gotta go get dinner finished and serve it up. Hope everyone is staying cool. It is SO hot here. Like CRAZY hot:( I can NOT wait for Fall or at least our version of it;)

Scrapapalooza Part Deux...

2009-07-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday Lal and I had our Scrapapalooza Part Deux. I spent the better part of last week planning for it. I had 12 LO ideas put together, but only got to 10. The first two still need titles, so if anyone has any good suggestions, please share:)

I met up with Lal at Crossroads a little after 9am. We made a quick stop at HL for some Prima Pearls I needed then went to breakfast at Bill's. After breakfast we made another stop at Scrapbook Heaven and just picked up a few things I needed for the day.

We got back to the house a little after 10am, I think. So we scrapped from then until like 2:30 when we stopped for our lunch break. We made another quick trip; to Tuesday Morning, then went to eat at Whataburger. Stopped at BL on the way back and scrapped again until 6 when Miguel came to pick up Lal. It was a really fun, relaxing, kid free day;)

After Lal left and the kids and Steve got home, we had dinner. I cleaned up, got V to shower and get ready for bed and scrapped some more. I scrapped until midnight and got 4 more LOs done for a total of 10 all day:) I was on a roll!!! ;)

Since there are so many LOs I won't go into details on them all. I super lazy that way;) But if anyone has any questions about any of them, please feel free to leave me a comment here or message me on sb.com.

Thanks so much for looking. I've got a couple more updates and more pics, but I'll save those for another post. I gotta go workout which I am really procrastinating right now. More soon:)

2009-07-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

Lots of new LOs to share...

I'd been seeing some kraft papers lately that had like a black border to them. I have no idea who makes them, but I really like them. So if anyone knows, PLEASE pass on the info. Anywho...I made my own here. I used a Glitz roller stamp to make a border on the kraft paper, then went back with a white Signo and filled in some of the loops. Papers are Cosmo Cricket Early Bird (LOVE this line:) and a strip of MM Sabrina. The stem is Sizzix cut and outline with a black Zig. I made my flowers using scraps, my scalloped circle punch, buttons and adhesive mounts for dimension. The little quote box is LYB mounted on black cardstock.

This one was inspired by a recent LO Lal did. The background paper is AC Amplified. Diecut paper is MM Sabrina as well as the black pattern behind the pic. Used some Quikutz butterfly diecuts someone sent me, a swank label, some MM tiny alphas and a Colorbok card I got in a pack at J's quite a while back and just opened and used:)
This one is a lift off 2Peas. I SO love the Collage Press diecut papers. I got these in the mail last week. The pic is of Mattie and Nick at Mattie's recent bday gathering. The background is just a piece of chipboard I was working on; not an actual part of the LO. Besides the Collage Press paper and diecuts, I used a piece of MME stripe paper and an MME rubon title that I put onto some plain cardstock then cut out.

Another lift off 2Peas. Pic of Mattie and V a couple of Halloweens ago. The little mosters are some Reminisce stamps I just got at M's. They are so stinkin' cute. I stamped them onto white cardstock, colored them with color pencils, cut them out and glued them onto black cardstock. Cut them out again. The orange border strip was made using one of my MS border punches. Paper is kraft and Scenic Route, AC chip Thickers, MM tiny alphas, mini brads and a swank label.

This is a pic of V and Mia at Mattie's birthday gathering. V kept making silly faces and Mia kept trying to copy her. It was SO cute. Then V would make some really silly face and Mia would just crack up. I built on black cardstock. Used some Girl Friday that I cut into a half artisan, mounted onto cardstock and cut again. Cricut cut label from Scenic Route grid pp. Cut the letters out of a sheet of the Girl Friday as well as the little bee and butterfly. Carolyn Gavin border strip and white Signo to make the bee "trail".

Not too much going on here. I went by my mom's last Tuesday and we took Mattie to lunch for his actual birthday. Did a little shopping too. Lal came over on Thursday and we did a little scrapping here and a little more shopping;)

I got all my cleaning done today as well as my grocery shopping. I'm getting LOs planned for Saturday cause Lal and I are planning Scrapapalooza Deux. I've got 3 together so far. Easy, quick, simple ones so far, but I can use those to warm up;)

Heading to bed earlier tonight cause I've been staying up WAY too late. Night all:)

LO count at...

2009-07-13T19:08:00.001-07:00

65 to date...Need to reach 100...or more;) by December 31st...

Last Tuesday...

2009-07-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

My mom was off so we went over to visit. Lal and I also planned a little crop day so I packed some LOs to work on.

This one is a lift off one Lal lifted off of 2Peas, I believe. I used Sass Life at the Pole for my background paper, WRMK pp to cut out the viney/leaves and bird, AC Puffy Thickers and MM tiny alphas, Sass border and Pink Paislee journaling card.

This is a lift off of 2Peas. These pics are of V at one of the two pool parties she went to right at the end of the year. I used some Cosmo Cricket Snorkel, 7 Gypsies cardstock stickers and some buttons. I cut one strip out of the Cosmo paper (the blue wave piece) and used pop dots to give it some dimension.

So while at my mom's, my uncle went over to fix a leaky pipe for my mom. While he was out front turning off the water to the house, it broke so he had to leave the water off until he went and got someone to come back and fix it.

So we left and came back to my house. Lal and Mikey came with us. We made a few stops on the way; M's, BL and Target. I worked on this one later that night cause I didn't get to it at my mom's...

This one was another lift off of 2Peas. It was actually an altered project someone did. I made it into a LO:) I used the image off of a box of Cracker Jacks. Just love how it turned out:) The stars are Sizzix cut chipboard painted with MM paints. I made my little "flower" embellies using Jenni Bowlin crepe paper and some milk caps along with some circle punchies and my HS edge distresser. I used a shipping tag and some Tim Holtz ink along with a Cricut cut "4", a JB gem button and some small painted chip stars. Label sticker with MM tiny alphas. Kraft paper, MME Wild Asparagus, Bazzill and a few buttons.

K...I think I'm all caught up on my recent LOs now. I'm off to lay on the couch and put some heat on my neck that has been killling me all day:( Night all...

Happy Birthday to Matthew!!!...

2009-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I will be the mother of a 15 year old. My...how time has flown. So 15 years ago today I was in labor...and didn't even know it. I actually didn't go to the hospital until the morning...about 3am. I had Matthew a little after 6am. I can't remember the exact time.

This past weekend; on Sunday, we celebrated. We went to Dave & Buster's just like last year. My mom didn't go this year and some of Mark's family, but there was a nice little bunch of us there:) I forgot to edit this one:( Me, Steve, Mattie and V...Oh and that's Steve's mom in the back there:)

Mattie and Mark...

Nick, Mark's dad, Mattie and Mark...

At Mattie's request a pic of me with him and his dad...sigh...Poor Mattie. We haven't been in a pic together since he was about 2 years old.

Mattie and his baby sister, Mia...

Mattie, Mark and Nick...

Mattie and Nick...

Mattie and his birthday cake...

Here's some LOs I got done this past week....

This is a lift off 2Peas with a pic of V from when she was 5 years old!!! For her birthday that year, one of her gifts was taking her on a trip to Build A Bear. She picked out her own bear and all the accesories for it:) I used some Cosmo Cricket Jack's World papers that I've had for a really long time. I really liked them. They are too cute. Now I wish I had more.

The thing with the Cosmo papers is that you really need to get 2 sheets of each cause they are double sided. So unless you are going to chose which one of the two sides you are going to use, you really need 2.

I used a pic here of V from our recent home photo shoot. I LOVE the pic...and the LO;) I used MM Chelsea's Place stamped edge pp, MM Vintage Hip pp, a cake doilie, some Paper Studio music sheet pp. I cut the red flowers out of a sheet of MM Chelsea's Place pp. The flowers/vines are flocked. Also used some Prima lace and flowers and a piece of an MM 5th Avenue journaling sheet.

I believe this one was a lift off of sb.com...maybe 2Peas...or maybe both;) This is a pic of V trying out the Superman ride at Fiesta Texas. The seat they have up front; the "mock" one. Used more Early Bird papers, AC Puffy Thickers and MM tiny alphas.

Hopefully there will be more scrapping this week since I got all these new pics to scrap:)

Today I got all my cleaning chores done. Tomorrow I am going over to my mom's and we are taking Mattie out to lunch for his birthday:)

Have a good night and a great week everyone:)

4th of July...

2009-07-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

Here's some pics from the morning. We all got matching shirts except Steve's didn't fit him:( Boo!!! Ignore my neighbor's trash can in the background. LOL

Pics of the kids at Fiesta Texas. We went to see the fireworks, but only went as far as the parking lot. We did NOT want to fight any crowds so we watched from our tail gate. Then zoomed out of there as soon as it was over to beat all the traffic. There was TONS of people in the parking lot watching as well as along the streets at The Rim and all around that area. We only spent about 20 or so minutes to get out of the traffic, but that's cause we were literally one of the first ones out of the parking lot. I can't imagine how long we would have been stuck there otherwise. Hours, I'm sure.

I hope everyone had a very nice holiday:)

Aaahhh...

2009-07-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

After our very busy long weekend, I got a nice little break today. I got to sleep in until like a little after 9am. Steve went and got us breakfast. I got a few house chores done; put some laundry away, made the beds, took out trash and straightened up a bit.

I vowed I would NOT leave the house today. Steve wanted to go to Lowe's or Home Depot...can't remember which one, so he went alone...well, he took V with him and I got a nice little break. I got some scrapping done; 3 LOs!!!

Lift off of 2Peas. In the LO they used some BG doilie paper, but I improvised and cut out some Crate Providence. I really like the way it turned out. Embellies: K&Co. Berry Sweet diecut, flower cut out of some BG June Bug pp, JB journaling spot, Carolyn Gavin diecut bird and butterfly, 7Gypsies cardstock stickers, Circus Rose card pp, Cricut cut sun shape, scalloped circle punch and AC Puffy Thickers number.

Using more of the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line here. SO LOVING this line!!! Another lift off 2Peas...Bazzill Dotted Swiss, Cosmo Cricket Early Bird pp, Paper Studio music pp, AC Puffy Thickers, HS chip heart. This was also my first try at making some of those little pinwheel embellies. They are VERY easy to make and took no time at all. The centers are brads. Also used some MM Chole's Closet trim and I machine stitched the border on this one.

Another 2Peas lift and still more Cosmo Cricket Early Bird...October Afternoon pp, Cosmo Cricket spinner card, AC Puffy Thickers, MM tiny alphas, HS chip hearts, bakers twine.

Steve also went and gassed up and washed my truck AND did my grocery shopping for this week for me. He totally scored some points today:)

This is a LO I got done last week, but hadn't uploaded...

Pic of V and Laney at Laney's pool birthday party. More Early Bird, some Kraft paper, MS daisies and some AC Puffy Thickers. I hand stitched on this one too:)

So we had a busy, filled, long weekend. Steve was off since Friday. We took off early to Fiesta Texas. We got there about 11am. Boy, was it HOT!!! The water park opens at noon so we wanted to be there before so we could get a good spot in the shade by the water. We waited in line for about 30 minutes and weren't too far behind in line. We got an excellent spot. We were out there until like 4pm.

I don't think Steve put sunscreen on V's face and she was really red at the end of the day:( I put some aloe gel on her after she bathed and gave her some Tylenol. She's much better now:)

So we had dinner at Bill's on the way home and then came home, showered and relaxed. We were all exhausted.

Saturday we said no "outdoor" activities. We got up early, went for breakfast and then took the kids to the first showing of Ice Age at Huebner. It was really funny. We did some shopping afterwards. Oh!!! Have to insert here. I did birthday shopping for Mattie on Friday and got some AWESOME deals for some back to school clothes. I found jeans that were $24.99 for only $6.24!!! I got him 5 pairs. Then I found those cool graphic t's from $12.99 were only $3.24!!! I got him six. So I've got a good start on the school shopping. Yay for me!!!

Yeah, so Saturday I went by 911 (had just been there two days before too;) and then by Scrapbook Cottage, Hobby Lobby, a couple of Targets. Went to lunch and then took in the afternoon show of My Sister's Keeper. Excellent movie. I just finished reading the book last week. Definately a MUST SEE.

I did some other scrap shopping last week, but I'm too lazy to upload all the pics, but I found some AC paper packs at BL for only $8. I got Metropolitan and A La Carte, but I also saw Play. I REALLY want Amplified or Moda Bella. They had some really cool AC stickers too for only $1.

I'm going to upload some 4th pics on a seperate post. Being lazy again:) So to be continued...

Current LO count...

2009-06-30T20:18:00.001-07:00

I have completed 55 LOs this year so far. Just keeping track:)

A Whole Lot of Sweating Going On...

2009-06-30T15:53:00.001-07:00

Oh, my!!! is it ever HOT!!! We have had a couple of days that feel like our AC isn't working right, but it's just cause it's so darn hot:(

Well since my little "episode" last week, I have finally started feeling back to my old self again. It took a few days, but I feel great now:) I only two the meds the doctor prescribed for 2 days. They were keeping me up at night. I wasn't getting to sleep until like 1:30am!!!

I also felt that I really didn't need them. The thing that was bothering me was the headaches and I don't see how an antidepressant was going to help that. I really didn't want to be taking something I don't think I need. So that is that. In the event that I should need them (though I can't imagine why), I already have them, but for now...I am good:)

So today was the last day of summer school for Mattie. He also retested today. We will see how that goes. He said it was easy. We should be getting the results like mid July.

Aaahhh...so no more early mornings. I will be super happy if the kids let me sleep in until 8:30 am. Estatic if I can sleep in until 9am;)

This past weekend we went to go see the new Transformers movie. It was WAY cool!!! Even the kids loved it. Steve also took the kids to the pool in the evening for a couple of hours. They are there again right now. These couple of hours of peace and quiet sure do help. I haven't had a break from them since summer began.

About two weekends ago, we had a little gathering of our graduating class. Not too many people went, but it was a nice time. I'll upload pics of that later.

Today I got my grocery shopping done early; before it got too hot. I hate going out in this horrible heat:( I also gassed up at Walmart. Gas had been $2.49 and today it was $2.33. Woo hoo!!!

I've gotten to do a little scrapping, so here's my latest LOs. I'm finally feeling the mojo again;)

This one I got done a couple weeks back, just kept forgetting to upload. I'm not too happy with it, but there it is:) For one, I totally glued down that lined paper the wrong way. It wasn't supposed to stick out so much nor be so straight. Ah, well...Moving on... Oh...the pics are from V's Field Day this past year and this was inspired by a 2Peas LO. The background paper is Friendly Forest. Striped pp is Scenic Route and the lined is MM, I believe. JB ticket, K&Co. diecuts and felt flower.

This one was a lift off of my friend Gina's blog. Mine did not turn out so great:( It's hard to replicate her FAB style...but I tried. Pics on this one are from Field Day too...obviously...LOL...Textured cardstock background, AC polka dot and grid pp and Prima Rock Star (lime) pp. T's $ spot journaling tags, Paper Studio cardstock alpha stickers and Martha Stewart felt banner.

This one was a 2Peas lift and I love this one. Lots of Crate on here with the exception of the Whimsies card and the MME Wild Word and MM tiny alphas.

Another lift off Gina's blog. This one turned out pretty good. K&Co. Berry Sweet paper (thanks for the inspiration, Gina cause I have not know what to do with that paper since I got it forever ago;)...Creative Imaginations diecut tag, 7Gypsies cardstock stickers, MLS tiny alphas, Doodlebug Paper Frills, adhesive gems, Sizzix cut butterfly, MM tiny alphas and AC Puffy Thickers. This is a pic of V on Father's Day swining on a tire swing in my BILs backyard of the new house. She LOVES to swing:)

I worked on this one today. I was quite time consuming, but I am so in LOVE with it!!! :) This was a lift off of 2Peas. I used a shaped paper to trace onto some Cosmo Early Bird; SO loving this line!!! Then I glued it onto kraft paper and trimmed around to leave an edge. All the paper edges are distressed with my HS edge distresser. I made all my flower embellies using my scalloped circle punches, pop dots and buttons. The little leaves are Cricut cut and the daisies are Martha Stewart. Just picked these up today at BL especially for this LO:) I hand stitched the border on this cause I knew I wouldn't be able to manuver with the machine and I didn't want to wreck it and I SO needed the stitching on here. MLS and MM tiny alphas for the title and date. The pic is of V and Stevie on Father's Day in my BILs front yard of the new house.

This past week was also the last week of our Blog Hop Challenge. It sure was a lot of fun. We are planning on doing another one real soon:)

Well, I've got 30 minutes before the kids should be heading back home, so I'm going to go get started on dinner and see if I can start on another LO. Gotta strike while the mojo is HOT;) Have a great night:)

Blog Hop Mini Challenge...Points go to Julie!!! Yay!!!

2009-06-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Word Scramble

All the following words are scrapbook related. Be the first to correctly unscramble all the words to get the points. Only post once, please:)

1.oboraskgnpci
2.teanigr
3.sdieveha
4.snneimoliad
5.tannzrioioga
6.areect
7.ngkiin
8.deerfica
9.nblhemietslsme
10.ootpdnbus
11.crpogpin
12.sribfe
13.almsbu
14.epnttra
15.scokacdtr
16.aonuljgrni
17.emsh
18.otluays
19.nsechtquei
20.rteirmm
21.eaprp
22. psocr
23.suidcet
24.rveaetic
25.ledusgot

Ready, Set...Unscramble:)

Julie is our winner!!! Congrats, Julie!!! You get the points:)

Update on my "Situation"...

2009-06-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, my test results came in and I went to the Dr. yesterday morning. All the blood tests were fine. I'm in perfect health in that aspect, BUT...he said my "episode" was caused by stress/anxiety/tension and prescribed an anti depressant; low dose, but nonetheless.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about it. I've been feeling pretty bummed out about it. So if I wasn't depressed before, I sure feel like it now:( It kind of makes me feel "inadequate"...like I can't handle everyday life stress because I certainly don't have an overly stressful life. At least I don't feel like I do. My life is pretty chill. I'm well "taken care" of. I thought I was doing well, then, what seems like out of nowhere, this comes up.

Since the "episode", before the results, I'd been tired, not much of an appetite, don't really feel like doing anything. Just don't feel like myself. THAT bums me out... A LOT.

Right before this, I feel like I was on a huge "up". I was getting all sorts of stuff done. My diet was going great. I was working out everyday. I was happy...then it kind of all crashed:( I don't like feeling like this. I just want to be myself again.

I am thinking maybe this is some sort of "test" from God. I know I am not being punished for anything. I know that everything happens for a reason and I am trying to understand this and take what I need to from it. I am trying very hard to hold tight to my Faith and turning to HIM to give me the Strength to get through this. For whatever reason this needs to happen, I accept it...as difficult as it may be. This sort of thing runs in my family so that is a HUGE factor.

So that night was most likely a tension migraine. It can mimic the symptoms of a stroke which is a lot of what I was feeling.

Today was not a good day. I woke up with a headache. Not a really bad one. Nothing like that day, but still no fun. I took an Ibuprofen as soon as I got up. Just one, thinking it would do the trick. Laid down for a bit...didn't work. Took the other...Nothing...Laid around alot in between my daily chores.

After I picked up Mattie I took my first dose of the med. It said to try it out to see how you react to it before you drive and stuff so I decided to take it then since I don't have any running around to do after I pick him up. I fell asleep for about 2 hours. Not sure if that was the med or just the headache or a combo...who knows. I'll try again tomorrow, but I'm thinking it's best to take it later in the day so I can avoid having to drive "just in case". I can take it in the am or pm so I think that's the best option.

Steve brought me all sorts of stuff when he got home for my headache and the pain I'd had in my neck for quite a while. I see where the neck pain was coming from now; the migraines...which I didn't even know I was having:(

So I took some Excedrin Migraine that he brought me and that took care the headache...FINALLY. I feel a bit of improvement. Thank God. I'll take any bit of improvement right now.

So that is what is going on right now. A bit of a rough patch, but praying to get through it.

For Father's Day we just went out to breakfast with Steve's parents. Stevie came in for the day, so we were all together. Went to a movie and out to eat. Just chilled at home. Couldn't really do much running around with my constantly needing to lay or sit:( I have some pics to share that I will upload later. Hope everyone has a good night:)

Scary, Scary Stuff:(

2009-06-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

So this has been a kind of rough, scary weekend. I was pretty excited about getting to sleep in on Friday since there is no summer school on that day, but it just didn't work out that way.

I had a normal, oridinary day on Thursday. Did my usual routine and such. Worked out in the evening, came and sat at the computer for a while then went to shower for the night. As I am about half way through my shower, I start to see some "light" spots. I proceed and so does the light spots and blurred vision. By the time I get out of the shower, I can hardly see. My vision is SUPER blurred. I kept trying to focus in the mirror, but it was almost impossible.

I came back to the computer to let Lal know and she suggested I go tell Steve about it, so I did. He was already asleep so wasn't really paying the best attention to me. I decided to just go to bed and see if I could just sleep it off. By this point, I have almost developed somewhat of a headache. Not a painful headache, but a dull headache like "inside" my head. That is the best way I can think of to describe it.

I went to lay down and I just have to be super grateful that V was with me cause if I'd yelled for Steve, he would have never heard me:( I was laying on my back and my arm started to feel numb and tingly, so I had V run for Steve. He couldn't find any aspirin so he brought me two Ibuprofen. I took them and told him to sit with me for a while "just in case".

So I lay back down. After this I kind of lost perception of time. Everything kind of happened fast, but in slow motion...if that makes any sense. I remember that at one point I grabbed my throat cause I remember Steve asking me why I did it. I was having a little trouble swallowing. I got like this one sharp pain in my chest; closer to my left side near my arm. I started getting like the sensation that I was like "floating" and my whole body started going numb; like that tingling feeling ALL over. I got the overwhelming feeling like I was going to pass out even though I was laying down; flat on my back. This totally freaked me out so I told Steve we had to go to the ER. I think the all over tingling thing lasted like 5-10 minutes. REALLY scary. All the way to the ER, the fainting sensation kind of came and went, but not as strong as the first time. I felt really strange. The best way I can think to describe it is like I was "buzzing". For lack of a better description. I felt like I had to try really hard to "put my words together" when I was trying to talk....like when you are buzzing, you know??? We left to the ER about midnight.

We had quite a wait in the ER; like 1 1/2 hours. But once we finally made it back, it went rather quickly. They put me on a BP monitor and heart monitor. My BP was normal. They did a CT scan and it came back normal. The most they could tell me was that MAYBE it was cause by a migraine (which I have never suffered from before)...sigh... I think the whole "episode" from start to finish, lasted about 2 hours.

We got out of there like at 4:30. Poor Steve had to go to work an hour later. I slept unitl like 8am when V called and woke me up. (we took her with us to the ER and Steve's mom picked her up from there about 1:30). So I couldn't fall back to sleep and headed out to our family doctor over by my mom's house. I went in and had blood work done.

Went back to my mom's and just laid around all day. Felt drained, tired and still not myself. Real "out of it". Had to drive myself back home and about half way, started feeling faint again. No blurred vision, just the "felt like passing out" sensation. Made it home...barely, and came straight to the couch where I stayed for the next few hours. Got up and had a bit to eat, showered and went right back to bed.

I had some trouble falling asleep. Probably fear more than anything kept me awake, but once I got to sleep, I slept straight until like 9am the next day. Still feeling very "out of it" this day. Had to lay and take a nap every few hours. Still had that verge of a buzz feeling sort of.

We did manage to go to the class of 90 gathering and it was nice. We were there for a few hours and I managed OK.

Sunday was Father's Day. We met Steve's parents for breakfast. They went and picked up Stevie from Natalia then we all met up to eat. It was kind of a non-stop day which wasn't too good for me. We took the kids to the movies and out to eat. Felt very tired, short, small dizzy "spells" on and off. I keep getting that feeling like I want to pass out. More noticeable when the truck starts to tremble for some reason. Really strange feeling, but that's what I'm noticing. Showered and went to bed almost as soon as we got home. Didn't sleep as well as the night before either.

Today Steve took off and he dropped Mattie off at school this morning. (THANKS:)...Went and picked up a copy of my CT report for the doctor. The blood work results were supposed to come in today or tomorrow, but I called in this am and she said they would probably get in this afternoon, so to call back tomorrow morning. So I'll probably have to make the drive out there tomorrow and I'm kind of scared. Haven't been driving these last couple of days. I hope it'll be OK...

So that's been my super eventful weekend. Not so much in a good way. Hoping the results will come in tomorrow and shed some light on all this. Prayers would be greatly appreciated. Hope everyone has a good night:)

Blog Hop Challenge #4-Final Challenge

2009-06-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

For our final Blog Hop challenge will be using a color challenge. For this challenge you are required to use the following colors and ONLY the colors listed. Papers and embellies should all be of the required colors. The colors are:

hot pink, black, turquoise, lime green and white

These are the only requirements for this week's challenge. Please limit your colors to the ones listed and keep the shades as close as possible to the description. If you have any questions, please ask:)

Have fun:)

I'm Melting...

2009-06-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

Literally that's how I felt yesterday. It was SO hot. We didn't do much; just stayed around the house. I did run to do our grocery shopping, but that's about it. Steve did some yard work outside. Later in the afternoon, I went out to spray paint some frames. OMG!!! I was only out there like 10 minutes and I felt like I was melting into a puddle...Poor Steve:( I made him his fave dinner though; spaghetti and meatsauce and garlic toast:P

So I worked on my frame wall when my frames dried. I really like how it turned out. I'm thiking of a small mirror wall or a small wall with just crosses. Not sure yet.

So not much has been going on around here. Mattie is doing summer school so I'm still having to get up early. I can't stay up too late cause I'll pay in the am. On the upside; since we get up early, V is tired early too. Not like last summer where she was up until like 1am. She's been asleep by 11 at the latest. Let's see how it all goes in July when noone has to go anywhere.

I spent Friday over at my mom's. Took her to run an errand. We went by M's and the JCPenny Home store. Picked up new pillows for our bed.

Saturday afternoon, after Steve got off work, we took the kids to go see Imagine That. WAY cute movie. We all LOVED it. Eddie Murphy is SO funny:) We went out to eat at Jim's and Steve took me by 911 and M's. So a little shopping;)...

SO LOVING the new MM Vintage Findings from M's. I'm SO in love!!! ;) Also found this cool new EK Success border punch. It does bigger scallops. It's also supposed to kind of emboss a little edge on it, but it's pretty sublte. I like it a lot. I've only tried it out on a scrap paper, but it looks fun...Possibilites...:)

The MM ledger pad and the LYB journal books I picked up at 911. Lal just got these in the mail last week and I'd just seen them on Friday and I wanted them SO and lo and behold, 911 got them and I scored!!! I debated the school journal book, but ended up putting it back. STILL might go back and get it though. I was planning on picking up some JB letter stickers I had seen last time and totally forgot so I can go look for both. Oh, and I hit my free $10 again, so I can use that;)

A quick LO I worked on like last week. Totally forgot about this one. It's a pic of V on Field Day. I got the idea for this one off of 2Peas, I'm pretty sure:) Papers are AC except for the stripes which is Scenic Route. JB ticket, MM chip shapes and T's $ spot journaling tag.

Another lift, but I'm just not too crazy about how this one turned out:( I've had this one in progress, sitting on my desk for a while. The other night I felt inspired, but then I just wasn't too happy with the outcome. Anywho...there it is...The pic of is V on Polar Express Day this past year. Everytime I see this pic it makes me laugh cause I notice how short the sleeves are on her robe. It's a little hard to tell cause it's the same color as her pj sleeves. Right after I saw this pic, I went and checked the size on it and it was like a 5T or something...LOL...SO went out and got her a new one at T's...hee hee
It's Monday which means "house cleaning day" so that's what I'm up to today. I'm about 3/4 of te way done. All caught up on laundry and put away. In the middle of vacumming (I know I'm not spelling that right, it looks SO wrong...LOL). Not too much left to do. Gotta pick up Mattie in a bit and start lunch.

We are on our 3rd week of our Blog Hop challenge. It has been a lot of fun:) Hope everyone is staying cool indoors...Oh, Lal also told me last night that they all got season passes to Fiesta Texas. YAY!!! Happy dance...happy dance...Now we can all go together. Fun times to come. Woo hoo!!!

Mini Challenge...Points go to Clara!!!

2009-06-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

"It's All in the Detail"

For this week's mini challenge you must correctly name the products used in this LO:

First person to correctly name all products or the first person to correctly name the most products wins the 20 points. Please only post once. Please be specfic. I am looking for answers such as:

green with white polka dot paper by (name of manufacturer here).

You have until tomorrow evening to post your answers. I will close this about 7pm central time tomorrow.

The points go to Clara. I also wanted to apologize for my slip up. I totally forgot to delete my LO info off of my blog. The thought just never occured to me. Sorry ladies...

So 20 points for Clara. We will update on the sb.com thread:)

Hot Days of Summer Blog Hop Challenge #2...

2009-06-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

"Think Outside the Box"...

the 12x12 square box that is;) I think the majority of us scrap the usual "square" LOs most of the time. Well now's the time to break the mold. Let's rock those shaped papers. The challenge will be to make a LO using any type of shaped paper; artisan, circle, scalloped circle...(let's try to stay away from the scalloped square as he's a very close relative of the usual square;) Let's take this a little further and incorporate shapes into our shaped LOs. You can use circles to make your own lollipop flowers, hearts for flower petals, artisan shaped journaling spots, scalloped and shaped borders, diecuts...You get the picture. You do NOT, however, have to cut your pics into any sort of shape. That is the one exception of the rule.

Please remember the LOs have to be new and not used for any other type of contest or challenges. You have until Sunday to upload and link your LOs. Don't forget to check back during the week for the mini challenge. Now let's get scrapping:)

Here is my LO for this challenge...

This was inspired by a LO from 2Peas. And despite the MANY shaped papers I have, I "made" my own;) I traced the artisan shape onto my polka dot pp, glued that down to a sheet of brown cardstock, then cut around that to leave a border around my polka dot paper:)

The smaller artisan was done the same way; tracing an 8x8 artisan shape onto my woodgrain pp and then cutting it out. I added a MM Noteworthy artisan shape journaling sheet (noticing a pattern here??? ;)

I made a scalloped border on my striped pp using my MS simple scallop border punch. My two butterflies are K&Co. Madeline diecuts. Also added some Prima flowers and velvet leaf, some lace, adhesive pearls, Paper Studio cardstock alpha stickers and a MME diecut.

This is a picture of one of my favorite spots in my sb room. It's a little corner on my cubbie shelf that holds some sets of vintage playing cards, some vintagey looking boxes, some vintage wooden spools and other vintagey type decor. LOVE it:)

Anyone have any ideas for their LOs yet???

Oh...just wanted to add, cause I saw Heather posted on sb.com that she'd only done scalloped circle LOs...you CAN do scalloped circle LOs, just not squares:) In case there was any confusion on that:)

Here is Lal's LO for the challenge. She used MLS scalloped circle pp and diecuts. The flower/vines were cut out of MME Bloom and Grow. Pink Paislee alpha stickers and MM tiny alphas for the title.

School's Out!!!

2009-06-04T18:37:00.001-07:00

So today was offically the last day of school. Both kids had full days; no early release. We however had a meeting at Mattie's school. Yesterday I got a call that Mattie did NOT pass his Math TAKS. This was his second attempt and he missed by ONE question!!! :(

So today we had an ARD to review his goals and discuss our options. He will be going to summer school and retesting on June 30. This also means...no sleeping in:( He goes from Monday through Friday from 8am to 1pm until July 8 or something like that.

It is so frustrating because all this year he managed to stay on Honor Roll; something he has never been able to do before. It's just this darn test that is hindering him.

So hopefully he will pass it the 3rd time. Once we get the scores, we will discuss options again, depending on the outcome.

Tomorrow I'm planning to go and spend the day at my mom's. Once summer school starts I won't be able to go during the day cause I have to wait for Mattie to get out. Luckily, the session is going to be held at his current school so I don't have to drive out of my way. I guess that is the silver lining;)

Didn't really do much today besides the meeting and running to gas up my truck this morning. Also made a quick stop at the BL across the street to pick up some Thickers for an out of town friend:)

That was my day. I hope everyone had a great one:)

Countdown...2 days...

2009-06-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Until the last day of school. I feel like a kid couting down, but I just hate the time restraints of the school year. We have to be home early, get the kids in bed in time...yadda, yadda, yadda. Summer means FREEDOM!!! No schedules and a more relaxed day:)

Today was V's awards ceremony at school. She got 10 awards!!! The dimmed the lights in the cafeteria for some reason and just kept some stage lights on so it made it nearly impossible to get a good pic:( I just video taped instead:)

After the ceremony, I went by Walmart to get a new TV cart for Mattie's room. The one he had was wobbly. After setting up the new one I realized that it was wobbly under the weight of the TV cause it was just fine after. But I had nowhere to move it to, so I put it out at the curb for someone to pick up:)

I spent what felt like an eternity untangling all the wires and cables and what not from the back of the TV, DVD, game systems...SUCH a headache:(, but I finally got it done. Whew!!!

I went by HL too and got some things I wanted for the living room wall. I also got two frames up for my frame wall. I like how it's looking so far. I need to spray paint one of the ones I found at HL a while back and then I just need a smaller oval or roundish one to go inside this one frame.

I got my workout done for today too. I'm going on almost 3 weeks on the diet/exercise thing. I'm so proud of myself;)

Oh and at HL today I found some really cool chip stickers that are VERY similar to Thickers. I just had to pick up a few packs cause I just LOVE the chip Thickers...

The chip stickers were 1/2 off so they were only $2. Same as the Thickers from Big Lots;) They had a few different fonts and colors. Not sure if there was anything other than chip though. I got those two stamps too; 1/2 off. LOVE the birds one. There was another similar bird on that I wanted, but it wasn't stocked:( Gonna see if I can find it at a different HL on Friday.

I'm planning to go to my mom's on Friday and spend the day since the kids are off and Miguel is going away on his retreat. So we'll probably hit up Crossroads for a little shopping:)

These last few days the base of my neck has been killing me. I was thinking that maybe it was from laying on too many pillows at night, but last night I only slept on one and I woke up with the worst pain this morning. I've been putting ice on it on and off, but it's just a temporary fix. I can't imagine what it could be from...???

Anywho...gonna be hitting the hay soon. I have two LOs I need to work on. One for our Blog Hop challenge and one for a color challenge on sb.com. Hopefully I can work on these tomorrow. Or at least get started. I have zero ideas so far. Seems my mojo is on vaca:(

Have a good night:)

Thickers...They're Just Like Stickers, but Thicker;)...

2009-06-01T14:22:00.001-07:00

The Thicker Mania continues. I've hit up a few more stores and accumulated several more packages. How many you ask...Well here's a pic...

People on the boards are saying that the stores are restocking and getting new ones in, so I will be back to check up on that. I still would like to find some of the fabric ones as well as some of the Jewelery Box font and also some more yellow and oranges ones...I just need more;)

Here's a LO I worked on the other day. Finally got the title done on this one. I built on white cardstock. I used some of my Prima Rock On papers that Lal shared with me as well as some of the Primas from this line and a piece of one of the cardstock strips. Strips of Love Elsie Roxie, some Magic Mesh as well as some Dottie Mesh. I LOVE the Dottie Mesh!!! Some Prima gems for the flower centers. Lal also shared some of her Prima Rebellious journal cards and I used half of one here. I used some MAMBI chip letters for my title and inked the lighter ones with black Cat's Eye.

This is a pretty simple one I did of Mattie with the pics I took on our mini photo shoot on Mother's Day. I built on DCWV black scalloped cardstock. Used some MME pp and some KI lace pp. 7 Gypsies cardstock sticker and a MAMBI chip title. I love those titles. They are great for "completing" a LO.

I spent this past Saturday with Lal...AGAIN. This is fun:) I went and picked her up and we went by a different Big Lots ISO of the Thickers. We found some. We came back to my house and waited on Steve. He got off early. We decided to make an evening of it too, so we went out to dinner together. Miguel met up with us there (at Mama Margie's). It was nice:) Then we took the kids to see Up. Mikey sat on my lap pretty much the whole time. He was real good:)

Afterwards, Steve took me by another BL where I found some more of the brown Chit Chat and a white chip set. Then I went by one more on the way home and found like 3 different chip sets:)

Yesterday was a very chill day. We didn't really go anywhere or do anything. We had breakfast here at home then Steve went out and got a lot of yard work done. Thank God cause that saves me the trouble of having to do it myself.

He trimmed down our hedges A LOT, cut down some branches and an old dead tree that was out front. Cut the grass in front and back and threw out some stuff we had in the backyard. He got A LOT done. I did some things in the house. Put up some frames and took down some stuff I am getting rid of.

I ran and did our grocery shopping so I got that out of the way. We ordered in Papa John's for dinner. Yummm...and that was our day;)

Today I got my cleaning done. Also washed our bed sheets and got caught up with laundry. So that frees up a lot of my week.

Tomorrow morning is V's awards ceremony; 8:15. I hope I can get some good pics. This will be my first time shooting with my new camera in that cafeteria. I have NEVER been able to get a decent pic in there:(

Well, I'm off to finish dinner. I'm all done with working out for today too. So far my "diet" is going really well. I've lost 3lbs so far:)

Oh, our Blog Hop challenge that we are holding over on sb.com started today. I'll be posting the next challenge next week so stay tuned:)

Slow Week...But Not...

2009-05-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

This whole week has been kind of off. First cause of the long holiday weekend and then my days have just been all mixed up. And despite the long weekend/short school week, this week has seemed to go by so quickly. It seems like it was just Tuesday and now tomorrow is Friday.

Next week is the kids last week of school. They go until Thursday which kind of doesn't make any sense. They should just go Friday too. I'm going to send mine;) hee hee

This coming Tuesday morning is V's awards ceremony. Not sure if and when Mattie has his graduation ceremony. I asked him, but he says he doens't know and then I told him to ask today and he didn't...SIGH...

This past week someone over on 2Peas and sb.com mentioned finding Thickers at BL. Then someone local found them as well. So yesterday after Steve got home from work we went ISO. I found a good selection and got like 12 or so packs; two of each font/color I liked that we found. Zandra also picked up several for us, so YAY!!! TY!!! I also got a pack of MM Chelsea's Place diecut papers at TM on Tuesday (can't recall if I mentioned that already:) I SO love that paper. Anywho...

I'm going to go look at the BL here by my house again tomorrow. I gotta run by Walmart and gas my truck and also gotta go by HEB and stock up on sodas. They are on sale again and with summer coming, we could really use them;)

I didn't run anywhere today, just hung out at home after I got my chores done. Did a little purging in the kids paper stuff. I also got to work on a LO...

I hadn't been feeling the mojo ALL week, but finally got a little today. This was a lift off 8supermum on sb.com. I had used this pic last week when I tried to lift a LO that Lal had done of Mikey, but I REALLY didn't like the way it turned out. Thankfully, the way I had used the pic, it was really easy to take off the LO and that's what I used here:)

The background paper is WRMK Over the Rainbow. The blue solid is BG. I used a scalloped paper to trace onto the back then hand cut. All the flowers and the bird/branch are WRMK Nonsense. All hand cut as well. I doodled a border on the scalloped paper and also added some little swirlies:) I used Pop Dots on all the flowers and on the one little bird by the pic to add dimension. MM tiny alphas and AC foam Thickers for my title. TFL and have a great night:)

LOOONG Weekend...

2009-05-26T17:11:00.000-07:00

It really did seem longer than just 3 days. Saturday I went over to my mom's early in the am and had breakfast there then took Mattie to get a MUCH needed haircut w/ Steve. Lal left Mikey with my mom and came with me. V went to spend the day with my MIL.

Lal and I went to M's...seems like we are always there lately...LOL...I got a few things.

Sassafras Hog Heaven and Whale of a Tale. Got both for 1/2 off of the $14.99 clearance price...$7.50!!! These were $24.99 at M's!!! The Soft Spoken embellies were clearanced for only $1!!! I got one pad in the am and the second later in the afternoon when we met Miguel at The Rim.We went by SB Heaven, but all I bought was ONE sheet of paper and 2 yards of some Prima lace. I SO prefer 911. The rain caught us on the way back once again. It was like a repeat of last week only not quite as bad.

We had lunch and then got a little bit of scrapping done. I got started on one LO, but not sure it's quite finished yet. It's still sitting on my desk. Gonna try to finish that up tomorrow hopefully.

My 2Peas order came in on Saturday also. Yay for Happy Mail!!! Cosmo Cricket Early Bird. SO love this line. Not sure what I'm doing with it yet, but it is so stinkin' cute:)

And one of my absolute FAVES...Jenni Bowlin. So lovin' those birthday bingo cards!!! I think she needs to make some for Halloween too;)

So after Steve got home Saturday afternoon, we met up with Miguel at The Rim at Cold Stone. The kids, Steve and Miguel all had ice cream. I'm still dieting. Afterwards we went to Game Stop next door. Game Stop to Steve is like M's to me;) Mikey was totally entranced by the Sonic game on the TV there. He was actually pretty good at it too. From there we went to M's and I got the other paper pad.

Sunday was an early day as always. These kids don't know what it means to sleep in especially on the weekends:( We went out to breakfast and then did some running around. Went by some different M's; J's Superstore, a plant nursery and Scrapbook Cottage. I got all these goodies...They had a sale and I got a 25% off discount:)

Afterwards we took the kids to go see Night at the Museum. It was good. We all really liked it. We went to dinner at Mama Margie's then came home.

Monday Steve was off. We dropped the kids off with my inlaws and had a day to ourselves. Steve wanted to go see Star Trek so we saw that. We didn't have time for breakfast so we got popcorn and nachos at the movies. Breakfast of champions;) I cheated one day this past weekend. Gotta have my 7th day;)

We went by M's and Steve bought me this!!!...

I've been wanting this for a while now. We got it for 40% off as well as the large embellishment jars. I put some of my buttons in them and moved some of my Prima jars from my flower shelf over onto it too. This way I can see more of what I have cause my flower shelf is packed 3 and 4 rows of bottles deep and it's hard to see what's in back without pulling them all out:(

We had lunch at Chick-fil-A. We can never eat there with the kids cause V hates it. What's wrong with that girl???!!! I also got my grocery shopping done.

Today I had to keep V home from school. She was up late last night with a stomache ache. She had an upset stomache on Sunday as well, but I gave her some children's Pepto chewables and she was fine after a while. So she tossed and turned and kept me up for like an hour. Then when I finally got to sleep it started to rain and thunder loudly which in turn woke me up...again. I was really tired this am, but I got to sleep in until 7:30 since I didn't have to take V.

I got all my cleaning done today. I took a little break and V and I went to the PO and then to TM. Someone on 2Peas mentioned finding the MM Chelsea's Place diecut paper pack and I SO love the artisan in there so I went ISO. I've already used all but one sheet in the 2 packs I bought at M's last year when they had it. I found them, but only got one pack. I MIGHT go back for another pack just for those artisan papers;)

I went by BL's too ISO of the Thickers that people were saying they'd spotted there, but no luck today. Then this afternoon someone local posted that two stores on a different side of town had JUST gotten them in today so I gotta go back and look again tomorrow and gonna hit up another store over on this side of town too. I hope I can find them. I so LOVE Thickers and they even had the Puffy Chit Chat!!! Gasp!!!

So I got back and got all my chores done which leaves me the rest of the week with more play time;) I'm hoping to scrap tomorrow. Well that's about all the news in my little piece of the world. I'll update tomorrow if I happen to find any goodies...Blessings all:)

Where or Where has my Mojo Gone???

2009-05-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

OK...I lost it. It's lost. Mine's broken:( I did the 3 LOs and now I've got nothing. I did one last night, but I'm not liking it too much. It was inspired by a card I saw on 2Peas...

The background paper is K&Co. Mira. The two strips are BG...can't remember which line...and K&Co. Que Sera. I used my MS lace border punch to make the lime strip underneath. The card used real lace, but I didn't have any lace or nice, fancy trim in this color. How can it be that in ALL this stuff that I have, I do NOT have that. That always seems to be the case...Sigh...Anyway...continuing...MM tiny alphas, K&Co. Madeline diecut (LOVE these, I think I need another box;), various Prima flowers...I cut the bird cage out of a sheet of BG. Once again...not sure of the name of the line as this is the only sheet I got from that particular line. Well two of this same sheet actually cause I just love the whole birdie/bird cage thingie.

I did another LO today. I tried to lift this one that Lal did last night of Mikey and improvise on the papers, but I just wasn't feeling it. I'm seriously not even going to upload it cause I REALLY don't like it. It's pretty simple and straight lined so I should have no problem removing the pic from it cause I love the pic and still want to use on that on a LO.

I think I just have a bit of cabin fever or something. I haven't gone anywhere all week other than to do my grocery shopping on Monday and back and forth to take and drop off the kids at school. Saturday I'm planning to go to my mom's; God willing, and Lal and I are going to do some shopping;) In a way it's a good thing. I'm really trying to limit my shopping trips and my spending and this once a week thing is working out pretty good. It's too easy to do the shopping thing when you are bored.

This week has been a nice weather week for working out in the yard. Monday I put out the potting soil and planted the wildflower seeds in that one area in my courtyard, but that's been the lot of my yardwork. The next two days I woke up with a bad allergy headache; all sniffly too. Boo!!! Hopefully next week I'll feel better and the weather will cooperate so I can do a little more work in the yard cause we all know once the summer heat hits...that's it!!!

Well, I'm off to peruse some galleries and message boards in search of some inspiration. I've got a load in the laundry right now, but right after I get it in the dryer, I'm hitting the sack. Oh...today I completed day 4 of my semi-Atkins. So far so good. Seriously. I don't know why I couldn't do it before...and the reason I say semi-Atkins is because I am not following it precisely.

During induction it's strictly protein with little else, but I have not elminated fruits and veggies nor my diet sodas although I have cut my consumption of them in a day by like half. I haven't weighed myself either so I'm not really sure what my exact starting weight was, but I have a fairly good idea. I will weigh in on Monday cause that will mark my one week. We shall see how that goes.

Oh...Lal is IMing me so I must go and "talk" to her cause it's been like a whole hour!!! SO much to catch up on;) Goodnight all.

Field Day and Fiesta Texas...Photo Heavy

2009-05-20T11:34:00.001-07:00

V with Bugs. This one came out too dark:(

Mattie with Batman and Wonder Woman.

V with Batman and Wonder Woman.

Mattie with Bugs. I should have used the flash on these pics:(

V on the carousel. They moved the carousel cause of that new Wiggles World place they added in. It's WAY cute. I can't wait to take Mikey. I think he's going to love it.

This is not the actual ride. It's the "fake" seat out in front of the ride. I should have had her scream to make it look more "real";)

V on the big ship at Wiggles World. WAY cool...

By the Bugs Bunny Rapids ride. We didn't get on though. Didn't want to walk around the park wet. It was a rather cool day.

V on the train ride...

Field Day...This one activity was hilarious. I wish I could get Blogger to upload videos. It never works for me:( They had to pull this rope that was attached to this big mat that the coach was standing on. So they were literally pulling him. It was funny. Poor kids...I think there are laws against this;) hee hee

V was the ball retriever for this activity. Boy was it hot out that day. Look how red her face is:(

Running the balls back to the "pitchers"...

V and some of her classmates and Haley's little brother there at the bottom:)

V and Haley. They had to walk across this area using a jump rope as their "plank"...

V in action, throwing a ball...

This one came out way too blurry:(...

Of all the hats V owns, she does not have one single baseball cap. I took her one of Steve's, but it was too big and kept falling foward or backward on her:(

Thanks for being patient with all the pics:)

Scrap Happy...

2009-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

I finally got some scrapping done. I did this one yesterday. This one was actually all my own idea. That might explain some things;) hee hee

All papers are from my recent purchase WRMK Over the Rainbow paper pad:) The clouds are cut out of a sheet of Love Elsie paper. Journaling spot is from T's Dollar Spot. AC Puffy Thickers, HS block alphabets and MM tiny alphs for my title.

The pic is of V this past weekend at Fiesta Texas on the "big swings". She has always wanted to get on these, but wasn't tall enough. Last year we didn't get passes so she might have been last year, but this year we got the passes. She was so excited and already knew what she wanted to get on.

I know this is a totally "mommy" thing, but I was a little scared for her to get on. Letting go isn't easy. It's just another step closer. My baby is growing up so fast:( But the look on her face was priceless. She LOVED it.

I started on this one last night. The pic is from Fiesta Day at school last month. These are V's friends Haley (on the left) and Carolyn (on the right). She's known Carolyn since Kindergarten. They were in the same class, but this year she's in a different class and she just met Haley this year. They are in the same class.

My background paper here is Friendly Forest. Diecut border by Carolyn Gavin. Diecut title by K&Co. Mira line as well as the butterfly. Sassafrass Lass border underneath the pic. 7 Gypsies cardstock stickers. Maya Road sheer and an MM rubon onto a cardstock circle.

I worked on this one today. It was a lift off of 2Peas. Background paper is plain Kraft. Crossword paper is MAMBI. Ruler strip is from a sheet of Scenic Route. Title is Cricut cut Graphically Speaking. MM tiny alphas and AC chipboard Thickers to complete the title. Sassafrass Lass stickers; heart, corner and cloud.

Going to update with pics of Field Day and Fiesta Texas in a seperate post. TFL:)

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

2009-05-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Boy did it come down today!!! I mean, it really poured. For about an hour or so.

Lal spent the night last night. I went to pick her up yesterday afternoon. V had her Field Day yesterday. Steve and I went. I'll post pics of that later. Afterwards we pulled her out and I drove Steve back to the office so he could bring home one of the work trucks. Since I was over on that side of town, I went by and picked up Lal and Mikey.

We were planning on getting together today cause Miguel had an all day event to go to, but he said he had to be there super early so Lal just decided to spend the night.

So last night we played some games of Boggle and then a game of Scrabble. We are a couple of wild and crazy gals;) We just hung out and talked and laughed...yada, yada, yada...the usual;) We also ordered pizza so no cooking dinner;)

Today after breakfast and cleaning up we headed out to M's. We had hardly been there about 30 minutes or so. We were getting ready to check out and as we neared the front of the store by the registers, we caught a glimpse of outside and it was getting pretty dark. We paid and were thinking about going next door to the Dollar Tree, but as we got outside, it was chilly and windy and not looking very good at all, so we decided to hurry up and head back home.

We were about half way home when it started to pour. It was really coming down. I had to put the wipers on high and drive really slow. Luckily everyone else was driving pretty good. Usually there are some crazies who don't seem to notice that it's raining and want to drive like maniacs and weave in and out of traffic, but thank God today was not one of those times.

So we finally made it home after driving those some fast flooding streets, but we had to sit in the truck for a while until the rain let up. Then we took the kids out one by one and then us:)

We made lunch and the kids played. Steve got off early and made it home just as we were sitting down for lunch.

After we cleaned up from lunch, Steve took a little nap then drove us to 911. I'd seen on the blog that the new October Afternoon had come in and I desperately wanted the Wild Cards. Sadly, when we got there, Mimi said those weren't in yet:( I did get the papers though and the journaling cards from one of the lines. It's so very lovely. I also got two packs of AC Puffy Thickers; the Rainboot ones. I finally found the yellow ones and I got a pack of some light blue ones too.

Also hit up the M's at Northwoods, but we didn't really find too much. They are clearancing quite a bit so I am wondering if even more new stuff is on it's way...???...Impressive:)

Well, I'm pretty tired and ready for bed. I'll update with photos tomorrow. Have a good night:)

Another One Bites the Dust...

2009-05-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

I got one more done today!!! This puts me at 37, I believe. This was another lift off of Life as Lou blog. I used my new Lily Bee Designs papers I got as a RAK on 2Peas. The greenish flowery papers is the only non-Lily Bee paper. It's MME. I used a Phrase Cafe rubon, some Maya Road flowers, some MM and Paper Studio lace trims and my Apron Lace punch for a border. This pic is of us on Mother's Day.
Not much else to talk about today. Did a quick run to T's with Ruby and that's about it. It's SO hot:( Tomorrow is Field Day for V, but I think there is a chance for rain. We shall see...

Current count is 36...

2009-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

I got one done yesterday and another done earlier today. This is the one from yesterday. I got the idea from my latest issue of CK that I picked up at J's over the weekend. There was a lot of inspiration in there:)

Lots of MME here. I hand cut the flowery viney thingie on the top right hand side as well as the little orange flower on the lower left side. Both of the pps are MME too. The background stamped edge is MM Chelsea's Place. The diecut and small rubon is also MME. Also used a piece of Bazzill scalloped edge pp on the side. I made my little label using my Cricut cart and Storybook cart then outlined the inside with a marker. My "title" stickers are Scrapworks and Remarks along with a tiny Prima and a gem center. Also added a Wild Saffron dimensional butterfly sticker and some Jenni Bowlin gem buttons.
Lift off of 2Peas. MM Sabrina for the background pp, black cardstock behind the pics. Strip of pink cs cut with the MS Simple Scallop border punch, HS chip crown (with gems) and cherries and Verb Stickers. My title is Cricut cut using my Graphically Speaking cart. I outlined my pink strip and the title using a black Zig to make the stand out from the background. I made my little "tag" using some MM rubons and white cardstock. Also added some AL and Paper Studio polka dot buttons.

Not much going on here today. Just chillin' at home. Did a little dusting and washed my big fluffy blanket from my bed and put it away for the summer.

Yesterday I went by HL after I picked up V and got some glue cause it's 30% off right now and I was on my last one and had very little left. Also picked up a box of Glue Dots and a sheet of MME paper that I used in my first LO:)

Mattie is done with his Math tutoring and will be retaking his TAKS next week. Prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Only about 3 more weeks of school left. Sigh...

A Tribute to the Women Who Matter Most in My Life...

2009-05-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. I didn't get a chance to get on the computer yesterday so I am doing my "Mother's Day" post today:) I just want to say how very thankful I am for my mom and my sister. The two most important women in my life.

I have such great admiration for my mother. She raised us by herself, sacrificed so much and pretty much taught me everything I know. I think my mother has to be one of the strongest women I know. She taught me that anything is possible and that you don't need a man to do it.
My mother has always stood by me, supported every decision I have ever made (even when they weren't the best ones) and always listened to me. My mother is one of my best friends and I am forever and eternally grateful for all that she has ever done for me.

My sister is my other half (that's what my mom always says;). We talk pretty much 24/7. On the phone, on the computer, in person, on the phone WHILE we are on the computer. We talk about EVERYTHING. I don't think two people could be any closer. It's almost like we are the same person...LOL And regardless of how much or how often we talk, we never run out of something to say...and if we do, then we just stay on the phone and listen to each other breathe and yell at the kids until we think of something else to say...ha ha ha...No one knows me like my sister. No one "gets me" like my sister. When we are together there is a lot of laughing involved...oh, and more talking...and then more laughing. Then we take out the camera and take silly pics and laugh a whole lot more;) I don't know what I'd do without her and I hope I never have to find out.

So on the day AFTER Mother's Day;)...I just want to say "thank you" to them both for all that they are to me. I hope that yesterday was a good day for them both:)

So that being said....my Mother's Day kind of started off early for me. Saturday after Steve got off of work, he took me out to eat dinner at my fave Chinese place. Afterwards he took me to Michael's ISO of the new K&Co. Greenhouse line. Found it (thanks to Lal;) and bought some of it. Also got my MM desktop carousel with a 40% off coupon. I also got a new outfit to wear and this LARGE collage frame I wanted for our living room. We also stopped for ice cream at Baskin Robbins on our way home.

Sunday I got to sleep in until almost 9am. Yay!!! I got lots of nice cards. V had been giving me cards since last week and on Sunday she gave me like 3 more. She must REALLY love me;) Mattie's card had $5 in it. So sweet.. and Steve gave me $50 in my card to spend. Here's a couple of pics from the morning before we headed out...

We went out to breakfast then I went by my mom's to drop off Lal and my mom's card. My mom was not there:( She was off visiting my grandma. But I got to spend last Friday with her, so that was nice:)

We went by Steve's parents and took them out to lunch. Dropped them back off , then did a little more M's shopping. Didn't pick up much. Just a few things...The Recollections felt trims and those most adorable little owls for only $1 pack.

We took in a movie. Finally got to see the new Matthew McConaughey movie. It was really good.

One more quick shopping trip to J's before we headed back towards home. The Sizzix die, fat quarter, stamp and mag in the above pic:) The die was on clearance for only $5.97. They had lots of others. Some were $7.97 or something like that, but those were Bigz dies and some were those long like border strips and the Sizzlits strip sets.

Stopped at Culver's and had dinner, then came home. Did a few chores, got the kids in bed and then Steve and I watched a movie; The Reader. It was also a really good movie. A little long, but good still.

Today I got all my cleaning done early then did my grocery shopping after I picked up V from school and before I had to pick up Mattie from tutoring. I got Squirt a new tank cover so I refilled his tank, changed his filter and put the new cover on. We seriously need to set this poor turtle free cause the kids do NOT pay any attention to that poor thing. He deserves to be FREE!!!...;)

Hopefully I'll get some scrapping done tomorrow. I have some pics to "play" with and quite a few new goodies. I did a little photo shoot with Mattie yesterday morning. I'll post those pics later cause I'm having one heck of a time putting pics into my post.

Off to do a little internet surfing and check on my fave scrappy sites. Ta!!! ;)

TGIF, But Boy Is it HOT!!!

2009-05-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

About 7pm this evening, Ruby came by and when I opened the door, I was just hit by this overwhelming heat. 7pm and it was still HOT. I heard on the news that the heat index for today was supposed to be like 107!!! Horrible!!! I didn't even work out today cause it just didn't feel too cool in the house. I might still work out in a bit. Now that the sun has gone down and it's cooling down a bit. Although now I am totally unmotivated:( Maybe I should start working out first thing in the morning.

Anyho...I didn't do much today. The kids had early release. V got out at 11:45. Mattie got out at 12:30, but he had a TAKS tutoring workshop to go to that ended at 4pm.

I worked on a LO this afternoon after I got dinner done. It's a LO for the challenge that Lal and I are holding over on sb.com...

We had to use polka dot paper. I used two different ones. The yellow is Doodlebug and the orange with the hedgehog is Colorbok Friendly Forest. We aslo had to incorporate some type of bingo card. I used a mini Jenni Bowlin. Our color combo was yellow/orange/blue and we also had to use some sort of trim, ribbon, etc. I used Doodlebug Paper Frills on mine. Also used a T's $ Spot journaling spot, Prima notecards, a Colorbok chipboard tab, Doodlebug Hopscoth alpha stickers and some buttons. This LO was inspired by a LO on 2Peas...as always. Just LOVE that gallery;)

Yesterday the kids both had dentist appointments with Roland. Steve had the first appointment, but he never made it sot he kids took his slot. We weren't there long at all. The kids got their teeth cleaned. Both were good. No cavities. V had just been not too long ago, but Mattie hadn't been since he was like 6 or 7!!! And not one single cavity. He inherited his dad's good teeth. I'm SO glad.

So since we got out so quickly, I went by to visit with Lal and she made us a most delicious lunch; chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. SO YUMMY!!! Thanks, Easter Bunny...;)

The kids last day of school is June 4. Not very much left to go. It'll be over before you know it. Next Friday is Baby Girl's Field Day. 1-1:55 pm. I guess since it's so hot out, they are cutting the time down. I remember it being longer than that in previous years. I guess that's a good thing though;)

Well, not much else to tell. In case I don't update before Sunday, I just want to wish all the moms out there a very blessed Mother's Day. Take it easy cause you deserve it!!! ;)

33 LOs...

2009-05-06T16:55:00.000-07:00

I got another one done today. This was inspired by 2Peas once again.

I dug into my BG stash and used a sheet of Gypsy...or Romani. I think this line had two different names. Also used a sheet of DCWV scalloped cardstock. MM Noteworthy journaling sheet, AC foam Thickers and MM tiny alphas. Lots of Primas and buttons.

This is a pic of V on Fiesta day at school. We bought her that dress and flower halo at Walmart. She looked so cute:)

This is pretty much as productive as I got for today...except for a few small loads of laundry. I was still so tired...and sore fro,m the yard work yesterday.

Ruby came by for a bit in the morning. Little Ariel is getting so big. She is too cute. I love her:) She is laughing out loud and it is SO funny. I had her laying on the floor trying to get her to crawl. She wants too, but not quite there yet.

The kids both have appointment with Ro tomorrow so I gotta run them over there. Probably won't get to do much else, but I'm going to try to go by M's on the way back. We'll see:)

My LO Count...

2009-05-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to post for my own benefit... I am at 32 LOs and a mini album to date. I had originally set a goal of 200 LOs this year, but realized that was NOT going to happen at the rate I have been scrapping at. I set a goal of 100 for last year and went over by maybe 20 or so. I wanted to double it this year, but I guess I'm back to 100. I'm hoping to go over some like last year and hopefully I will...and maybe next year I can set the 200 LO goal again and try harder;)

Baby, It's HOT Out Here...

2009-05-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been pretty hot in the afternoons. I don't know how we are going to manage this summer. Yikes!!!

This weekend, I had Elijah over. Saturday we just hung out at home. Just ran a quick errand to the store and then back home. The kids played video games and hung out all day. I made spaghetti and meat sauce and garlic toast for dinner.

Sunday we got up early, went to breakfast and then took the kids to the movies. We were going to see the Planet Earth movie, but then Steve started saying her wanted to see the Xmen movie. So I said he could take the boys and me and V would go see the new Matthew McConaughey movie.

Well we got our tickets, they sent us to theatre #3 and we sat for like 10 minutes and the movie still had not stared. A few minutes after the showtime, I decided to check my ticket stubs and the time printed on there said 11:30. We bought for 10am.

So I go back out and the ticket person tells me there is no 10am showing, just 10 pm...??? Uh...oookkk...so we got ticket to the Xmen movie and went and joined the boys. I was really bummed out, but the Xmen movie was pretty good and we all enjoyed it.

We took Lij back and picked up Fred's on the way and ate at my mom's. Came back home and dropped off Mattie then went to do our grocery shopping.

Yesterday was my cleaning day and I got all my chores done. Mattie also started his new tutoring session. He did not pass the Math part of the TAKS so he is doing more tutoring before the May 19th test date. I REALLY hope he passes this next one. This is totally stressing me out.

Today I spent the morning doing more yard work. I tilled the soil in the one area in our courtyard, trimmed the hedges some and pulled LOTS of weeds. I need to get some weed and feed cause I can't keep pulling them up manually. There are just too many:( I also cut the grass. Well as much as I could cause in the backyard, I can't get the mower past the pool. Steve needs to start taking that down.

We got our Fiesta Texas season passes on Sunday so we are good to go for the summer. Woo hoo!!! I need to keep working out cause I am NOT wearing a bathing suit otherwise;)

Today Mattie had a dr. appoinment for his Rx refill. I went and pulled him out in the afternoon and Steve came home early to take him so I wouldn't have to pull V out as well. We met up after and went to eat at Bill's while we waited on the Rx.

Earlier today I got to work on a LO I started on last night. Finished it up a bit ago. Here it is...

This is a lift off of 2Peas. Background paper is MME. Also used BG Urban Prairie, Elsie pp and a strip of Colorbok Friendly Forest punched with the Fiskars Uppercrest. Friendly Forest puffy sticker border, Daisy D's rubon, Sandylion dimensional owl sticker, T's $ Spot journaling spot, Cuttlebug butterflies and handcut flowers from a sheet of DCWV Green Stack pp.

I'm heading to bed early. The yard work wore me out. TFL and have a good night.

Oh, forgot to mention that me and Lal are doing a 4 Product Challenge over on sb.com if anyone would like to join. It is limited to US residents only as there will be a small RAK sent to the winner. You can go over to to sb.com on the Challenge forum and check out all the details:)

First Day of May...

2009-05-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Today I spent the day with my mom. I took her shopping to find her Mother's Day gift. Miguel is doing a lot of work on her yard so I wanted to get her something to put out there. We went by HL, but she didn't find anything she really liked. I picked up something for a wish RAK and two cute stamps that were half off.

So I was going to take her to Big Lots to look at this really cute planter thingie I had seen earlier in the week. On the way over, I went by M's by Ingram. On the way there we saw this really cute wishing well planter out in front of this little store. I had just seen one in the morning on the drive over to my mom's and was thinking I'd love to find her something like that, so we stopped to take a look.

They had the cutest stuff out front. The small wishing well was $45. As we were heading into the store, I noticed a much larger one out front. I checked the price and it was only $9 more!!! So I got her that one instead. My mom is always saying not to spend money on her, but I think she is worth it and so much more. I wish I had more $$$ to buy my mom all sorts of things:)...but I do what I can:)

So that completed our M day shopping. I went by M's and found some cool goodies in some $ bins; some MM velvet stickers, some chipboard letters, some Vintage Hip flowers and a few other goodies.

Afterwards we went and had lunch at this Chinese restaurant we like. Hadn't had Chinese in a while. Ended up taking my mom to Big Lots anyway then went by Walmart real quick. My mom bought me a pair of sandals I wanted. I just LOVE the Earth Shoes that W carries. They are my FAVE shoe.

Took my mom home after I picked up the kids and hung out there for a while. Brought Lij home with me for the weekend.

Got a couple of LOs done over the last few days...

This one was inspired by a LO by Sasha Farina. I used CI paper; background and Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine pp. I LOVE this line. Prima flowers and bling flourish, AL buttons, 7 Gypsies A La Card sticker strips and a small doilie.

This one was inspired by a LO I saw on the Prima blog. Background paper is Prima as are all the flowers. Lil' Davis chip alphas and number circle, Bazzill Edge, BG pp and HS verb sticker.

This past week I spent some time outside working on the courtyard. I started clearing out the area; got all the leaves raked out and pulled a whole bunch of weeds. This coming week, I hope to get those pavers out, clean out some more and then start leveling the ground. I wish I'd taken some before pics, but I'm going to try to remember to take some as I make progress.

I'm exhausted so I am heading off to bed. Hope everyone has a nice National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow. Maybe I'll get some scrapping done myself. I just gotta make a quick run to Walmart and the PO, so the rest of my day is free:)

Yesterday...

2009-04-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Here's the LO I got done yesterday. It was a lift off 2Peas. Can't remember who. I got it out of Lal's BOS:)...

I used Paper Studio grid pp, MME Tres Jolie paper pad, some Bazzill pom pom trim, Prima flowers from M's a while back, adhesive gems, handmade lollipop flower, Bo Bunny chipboard flourish, MM Noteworthy journaling sheet, MS lace border punch and AC Puffy Thickers.

I did a mini photo shoot with V yesterday afterschool...

The last two poses were her idea. She's so funny sometimes:)

I'm totally just bumming around the house today. I have no motivation to do anything. Well I am doing a load of delicates right now and the buzzer just went off so I need to go and hang them in the washroom. Ta for now:)

Tuesday Update...

2009-04-21T11:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday there was a garage sale at Scrapbook Heaven. I am very curious as to what they would have and since it's SO close to my house I decided to go check it out. Sadly, it was quite a disappointment. Not so much how the sale was run and all, but the "merchandise" that was being sold. There was a bit of a line when we go there about 10:30 or so. The sale started at 11. We were like 4th or 5th in line (V and I). There was maybe a dozen "vendors". The crop room isn't as big as I thought it was or as big as it looked from the outside of the store. It's definately not as big as 911. I don't know...I am VERY partial to 911 regardless of the store. I just always compare to 911 which in my opinion, just can't be beat;)

So anyway, I ended up spending like all of $7. This is what I got...

I LOVE the font on these stamps. I should have just bought them all. She had like 4 or 6 more stamps and they were only 50 cents each. Really cute little mini book kit from Amy Butler. LOVE Amy Butler and 2 of the Glitz roller stamps. All of these items were only $1.This what I bought at the actual store; not the sale. They had these Bazzill sheets $10 for $1. Not all the sheets. There was this bin with papers and there happened to be this shade which I LOVE. All the other colors were light colors. I also got some of the big Jenni Bowlin Vday cards and some buttons. I'd been looking for these colors; the black and red. These cool WRMK stamps. I got one for Lal too. There wasn't two of the other stamp set so I only got them one:(

Saturday afternoon I went by 911 to pick up some stuff I had on hold...

I love the new Crate lines. Too cute and I love that it's textured.

Then I found these cute Basic Grey stamps. I didn't even know these were coming out!!! What happened???!!! I'm slipping. And I LOVE these Maya Road flowers. I wish they'd had them in different colors cause I've been wanting some of these for a while. Let's see how I am going to use them.

Sunday we got up pretty early, went for breakfast, then hit a couple of M's and I finally found for of the clearance things I had been looking for!!!

It's funny how some of the stores have some stuff marked down and others do not. The M's on 1604/Culebra had all the MM Sabrina and Chole's Closet marked down. Finally got the flowers/buttons I'd been looking for and the Primas I wanted more of. I did not anywhere in town, find the trims though:(

I picked up a couple of Easter clearance items too. Look at my cute little corner on my shelf...

We went over to Steve's parents after Steve went by the shop to do a haircut and then we all went to a festival at St. Gregory's for a bit. Afterwards, we all went out to lunch at Sea Island. Steve's parents took the kids with them to go to Roland's for a bit and we came home. I took a nice, much needed nap then we ran to the grocery store when the kids got back.

Yesterday I got all my cleaning done and today I managed to get a LO done. I'll upload the pic in a bit. I gotta get ready to go get V and then I gotta run by Walmart to return something for Steve that he bought the other day. Be back in a bit:)

On the Verge...

2009-04-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

Of falling asleep, but I wanted to update with my latest LO. I just got this one done a bit ago. This is one I'd been wanting to lift from the Life as Lou blog for a while:) Here it is:

I used a sheet from the MM Chloe's Closet specialty paper pack to trace this shape onto another sheet from the pack and then cut it out with my Cutterbees. I inked the edges of most of the papers on here and distressed some with my HS edge distresser. I used MM paper flowers; I believe last year's Easter line, some buttons, Colorbok chipboard word painted with MM paint and inked. Some Bobbin ribbon, Sizzix diecut stem. All the papers are MM Chole's Closet as well as the little journaling sticker. I did the ruffle thingie again (tutorial on Life as Lou:) Pic is me, my sis and uncle on Easter.

This is the "updated" pic of my LO from yesterday WITH the gem centers in the flowers. HUGE difference;)

Some diecuts I worked on today for someone on 2Peas for the Grant a Wish thread...Cuttlebug butterflies; added some gems/pearls to the centers. Some Sizzix cut butterflies and some Sizzix cut ladybugs.LOVE these!!! Another awesome envie from the Grant a Wish thread. Some FAB fabric stacked buttons. I'm in LOVE:)...did I already say I love these??? ;)

K...I'm literally falling asleep here so I best be getting to bed. I'm SO old...I'm like the Crypt Keeper...ha ha ha...that's a line from Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan;) Night all.

Here in my Gloomy Place...

2009-04-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today was a very grey sort of day. Drizzling and cloudy and humid...at least for the better part of the day cause it got a bit chilly as the day progressed. Didn't stop me and Ruby from doing a bit of running around though. Stopped by a couple of stores; didn't really find much. Had to run by Walmart to pick up a few things I needed; laundry detergent, water for the turtle's tank and I had to fill my gas tank...$1.86 today.

I got a chance to do another LO today. This was inspired by peainapod over on 2Peas. And speaking of 2Peas...I've been doing the Grant a Wish thread over there and have been getting the most awesome things. Today I got a brand new tin of Maya Road chipboard cupcakes!!! Woo hoo!!! I also went by the PO today and mailed out like 6 packages of things I owed from the thread. Lots of people will be getting happy mail;) Anyho...back to our regularly scheduled program...The background diecut paper is MM Chelsea's Place. Stripey pp is Cosmo Cricket Gretel. The little piece of text paper is from a K&Co. Life's Journey pad I just recently got at M's. MME diecuts, Prima flowers (LOVE these:) Some Sizzix cut stems. I also made a ruffle again using a strip of another Cosmo Cricket Gretel pp and added a piece of lace trim over it when I sewed it down. This pic is of V and Mattie on Easter morning.This was another LO inspired by the FAB Stephanie Howell. This is NOT my actual finished LO exactly. I can't seem to find that pic:(...??? So I will update this one when I do. The only difference would be that I added blue adhesive gems to the centers of the Prima flowers. MM Passport stamp edge pp on white cardstock. Cricut cut scalloped circle and circle of MME Tres Jolie pp. MME diecut. Stems cut from Scenic Route pp.

And here's the pic of the other Hello Kitty Sizzix dies Steve bought me:)

The one on the end is the one I actually wanted and he got me the other two. I ended up going back to look for the ladybug one and happened to find the last one hiding behind some other dies. Guess Steve must've overlooked it.

Well I was planning to start working on another LO, but now I'm just getting tired and it's getting later so I'll do that tomorrow. I'm also getting tired so I think I'll call it a night. Bye:)

Giant Dust Bunnies Live Here...

2009-04-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Seriously...it's not even funny. I suppose my OCD does NOT carry over into the dusting department. I HATE it!!! I just know it's going to aggrivate my allergies and make me miserable so I avoid it at all costs. I usually make the kids do it when they are on break of some sort, but just haven't done it in a bit.

So yesterday I did the purging/rearranging/reorganizing in my scraproom. Moved a lot of things around and of course...there was dust. Not too bad, but it still gave me a headache. Took some Ibuprofen. Was good after a bit.

So today after dropping off the kids, I pulled some more weeds out front while it was nice and cool. Came in, cleaned up, did my chores then I decided I'd do a bit more purging since I had those boxes Henry brought me. So I went to go through V's books. It didn't take long at all so I decided to tackle some of the books in Mattie's room. Good Gosh!!! It was like dust bunny breeding land!!! And I mean some BIG ones.

I'm embarrased to say that it was pretty disgusting. I did like three shelves then I had to call it quits. There was just too much, so I'm going to have to tackle this a little bit at a time. I did manage to clear up some space and fill one more box of books.

So today I did some crafty-ness. I played around with my new yoyo maker and made these. I think they came out pretty good...

I bought these fat quarters at M's yesterday to play around with and I added these Rusty Pickle buttons on top. I need to find me some brighter pieces of fabric cause all they had were like dull, dark colors:( But I love the embellies themselves:)

Some Hello Kitty dies I got at J's like last week or so. They were regular $19.99 and I paid $5.97 for them. I got 3 others. I'll update with a pic later. I forgot to take one. They are way cute, but these were Bigz dies so they were $7.97. Still a good deal for a Bigz die.

And here is the pic of the big haul I got at M's last week with my 30% off my entire purchase coupon...

A lot of this was on clearance PLUS the 30% off!!! Score!!!

I also had time to work on a LO today. I haven't got a pic of the finished LO though so I'll post that tomorrow.

Tomorrow I've got to run by the store for a few things and gas up as well. I hope gas has gone down some. For some reason the gas at Walmart will be like $1.79 one day and then like $1.80 something the next. I hope I catch it on the low day;) Also gotta run by the PO and mail off a bunch of envies I have to get out for the Grant A Wish thread on 2Peas. I'm SO loving that thread and I've gotten some really great goodies from some wonderful women:)

Well, I'm hitting the hay. I'll be back tomorrow. Sweet dreams all:)

Thanks Easter Bunny...;)

2009-04-14T18:53:00.000-07:00

So Sunday morning the kids were up pretty early. I tried to sleep in a little longer. I could hear the rain really coming down outside. I finally got up about 9am or so. That's good enough for me, but I'd really appreciate not being woken up at 6 am prior to that:(

So we got dressed. Once we were all ready, we let the kids have their baskets...

V got a Littlest Pet Shop basket I picked up last year on clearance at T's for only $1!!! Funny that she is SO into those right now;) Their baskets only had candies in them. We got them a gift bag of gifts to share instead of individual gifts this year. They got Bolt, Despereaux and Bevelery Hills Chihuahua on DVD and a Disney "quiz" game for the PS2. Kind of like the Scene It game for the Xbox 360.

I really like how this pic of the two of them turned out. It's usually so hard for me to get a decent pic of them together. For some reason, I could not find a pic of Mattie with his:(

So we headed out to go have breakfast at Steve's parents. Jerry went by for a bit and then Roland went by later. I didn't get to get any pics of V and Gaby, but I did get one of her and Briana...

Roland got there not too long before we were getting ready to leave for my uncle's house. Since V hardly gets to see Gaby and just LOVES hanging out with her, she stayed behind. My unlce lives on the same street as my inlaws; just minutes away so Steve's mom said she'd bring her by when they were done there. They did an egg hunt, but I wasn't there to take pics and V missed the one at my unlce's cause she got there right after:(

So we hung out at my uncle's for a while. Ate a bit there, had a couple of drinks and just chatted. Lal and the kids and my mom and aunt and uncle were there too. V and Mikey did the see saw. They loved that thing, but see saws always give me the heevie jeevies. I can just see someone getting hit the jaw or falling off. Those things are dangerous IMO:( Here's some pics I got there...

This would have been a really good picture had Elijah's eyes not been closed...sigh...

We headed over to Jerry's house after that. He lives a couple of blocks away from my uncle's and Steve's mom:) We hung out there for a while and ate our dinner there;) I got a few pics...

My BIL has 3 little chihuahuas so V was in puppy heaven:)

I love this one, but I desperately need to photo edit this. I hope the software I have will be enough. Can someone help me with this. I really want this one to look good:)

Today was a pretty full day. I got my house cleaning done yesterday, so that left today pretty much freed up. As soon as I get back from dropping off the kids I did a little bit of yard work. I figured I'd get to it before it got hot. So I trimmed the hedges out front some and pulled out some weeds. The hedges still need to be trimmed some more, but I need Steve to use the electric trimmer and I still have to pull some more weeds and work on the yard some more, but it's a start:)

So I called up Ruby to see if she wanted to run with me to the Rim, but she had a couple of errands to run so I went with her to do those first. Then went to T's and M's. I bought these 3 canvas bins. They were from that Ora Kiley stuff. Way cute. I just picked up some fat quarters at M's for some yoyos I wanted to work on.

So I came home and had lunch then went by Walmart to buy some boxes. I finally got to purge quite a bit of the stuff in the shelves in my sb room; lots of outgrown baby games and books. I still need to go through the books I kept and see which ones are on her reading level and which she has outgrown.

Henry brought me some smaller boxes today so I can work on that tomorrow. I will be more time consuming cause I have to go through each individual book. But I got lots of things rearranged and reorganized in there. I'll take pics and update tomorrow.

I'm going to close this post now cause for some reason I keep getting knocked off and this is like the third time I've edited this post:( Maybe it's too long;) LOL...Have a great night everyone:)

Happy Day...

2009-04-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a full day. We got up early and headed over to my mom's to spend the day with Lal and the kids and my mom. We planned a mini crop. I only packed 2 LOs and only got one done. I got the other done here at home later in the evening.

This is the one I got done with Lal. We both lifted this one. It was from sb.com and I believe it was from Prima. They used the new Prima Mommy and Me, but I improvised and FINALLY used some of the Friendly Forest I got at M's. The background paper is at least. Also used some Prima flowers, a homemade lollipop flower with an epoxy brad center and some felt stitched flowers I got at Walmart a LONG time ago. Some adhesive gems in the center of the blue Primas, Oh, I also used my Friendly Forest stamp set to stamp those little leaves on cardstock and then cut them out. Lal gave me some of her white pom pom trim and some more of her boy Prima notecards that I then cut the little owls out of:) Oh, and she let me use some of her stitched rubons for my little "circles". What a sis:) My little branchie thing is Cricut cut from Storybook. LOVE that cart. Can't say that enough and I have used this branchie cut on several LOs. My title is AC foam Thickers and some Doodlebug cardstock alpha stickers; Simply Sweet, I believe.

This is the one I got done at home. This was a lift off one Lal did. Not sure if it was a lift for her too though. Papers are MME; one of the CHA release lines, WRMK Tiffany and some BG Urban Prairie. I used my Stampin' Up scalloped border punch on the stripey WRMK paper. Oh, and a small piece of some BG Blitzen; the white "solid" in back. Title is AC Puffy Thickers and chipboard Thickers along with some MM tiny alphas. Also added a Prima Sprite and a button, and a MM Chloe's Closet journaling sheet where I still need to add my journaling:)

Lal made Mikey this cute, cool litte puppet theatre from one of those project displays. We got it at HL the other day. It came out pretty well. V and Mikey played with it for a while. Mikey was using these cute monster puppets Lal got him from the T's $ spot some time ago.

The kids played video games and just hung out while me and Lal scrapped. Later in the afternoon, my mom watched the kids while Lal and I ran to T's to do our Easter shopping. I already had their candies, but that's about it. I took Mikey and Lij their baskets yesteday since I wouldn't be seeing them before Sunday. I forgot to take a pic of Mikey's. I know he already ate his little box of blue Whoppers...he had the blue mouth to show for it;) Lal take a pic and post for me:)

Anyway, so we went to Target. I got the kids gifts to share. SO much easier this way. I got 2 DVDs; Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Despereux and a Disney quiz game for the PS2. It's like the Scene It for the Xbox 360 that Lal and Miguel have, but for PS2 and it's Disney stuff so easier for the kids. That was even on clearance for $20!!! When we walked out I joked with Lal...I walked out with only one bag...and a seperate bag with a hat.. and spent almost $80!!!

So on the way home, Lal picked up McD's for the kids. Thanks, Lal:) and we ate. She also got some Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies at T's for dessert which the kids LOVED...and so did I...hee hee

After lunch we did our egg coloring. I took some eggs to make hard boiled eggs which my mom boiled for me. Thank you, Mommy. Lal had the empty egg shells for cascarones. I HATE cascarones. For such little things, they sure do make a HUGE mess.

Lal had those little tablets to do her coloring and I took these two spinnie thingies I got on clearance after Easter one year. These things are too cool cause there is little to no mess for the kids. Practically ideal;) Of course the kids start whining. V and M want to do the tablets and Lij and Mikey want to spin the eggs. These kids!!!

So they all took turns doing both and they didn't make TOO much mess. Steve got off work kind of early and decided not to go to the shop in the afternoon, so he came by and watched the kids finish the eggs. We hung out a little longer and then took the kids outside to try to take some pics. My goodness, are these kids difficult!!!

They are like ALL over the place; making these ridiculous "fake" smiles...sigh...I managed to get a handful of good ones. This one is really funny. Mikey just ran in at the last minute and kind of hid behind V. LOL...

Today I was looking forward to M's cause they had a 30% off your entire regular priced purchase coupon for between 8am-1pm. These type of coupons are usually for Sunday evenings and I really don't use them cause I've usually wrapped up my day by that time. These hours worked out perfectly. We got up, I did my chores, got the kids breakfast, got dressed and headed out.

As soon as we got there, I hit the sb section. I picked up a few things I was wanting, then we walked different sections of the store. We took our time and just browsed around. Right as we were getting ready to leave, I went back through the sb section and all this stuff was marked down!!! Pretty much the entire older Designer Corner. I grabbed bunch of stuff and the greatest part. The 30% off coupon applied to the clearance too!!! I saved $17.90 on my purchases today. Not bad. I must share that with Steve so that he knows how thrifty I am;)

I'll update later with pics of all my goodies I got:) Well, I gotta do a bit of dishes. We just had dinner and I gotta go fix up the kids Easter "baskets". Hope everyone has a nice, safe and Happy Easter. Easter blessings to everyone:)

The Lost LO...

2009-04-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

I did this LO a while back. It was a lift off of one of Lal's lifts. I meant to upload it, but for some reason I could not find it in my files. I just found it a bit ago in searching through my pics...
I really like how this one turned out. The background paper is Jenni Bowlin. The decorative edged strip at the bottom is Sassfrass Lass and the polka dotty strip is Scenic Route. All the little cutouts were from a sample piece of Happy Place I got in one of my sb mags a while back with the exception of the photo corner which was from the Happy Place stickers sheet. Also added a few 7 Gypsies stickers and the little branchie thing peeking out of the left hand side was Cricut cut out of the Storybook cart:) TFL

Today I Am...

2009-04-07T10:23:00.001-07:00

I was just thinking that it was about time to do this again and then saw it on Estee's blog:)

Reading:Sadly, I am STILL not reading anything new. Unless you count my scrap mags.

Listening To:Right now my fave songs are The Motions by Matthew West and Does Anybody Hear Her by Casting Crowns

Obsessed with:Twilight; the movie and I just downloaded the Soundtrack. I also just found my t shirt and two COOL keychains.

Thinking About:The end of the school year which is coming up SUPER fast.

Planning To:Do more organzing in the scraproom. I desperately need to get some boxes to purge lots of kiddie VHS movies and books and toddler games.

Dreaming Of:Sleeping in.

Enjoying:The kids being in school cause V had been home for a whole week!!!

Vowing To:Keep working out and watching what I eat. I've been doing a pretty good job. Worked out ALL last week.

Working On:The kids Easter goodies.

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy:)

2009-04-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

So as soon as I dropped off the kids today, I headed to my BIL's office. I was a little apprehensive. I don't like the dentist:( But it wasn't bad at all and didn't take long either and I'm all good as new now:) Stevie ended up there too cause I guess a tooth was bothering him. He'd called over the weekend asking Steve to make him an appointment. I guess he couldn't wait cause he got there not long after me. I talked to Steve earlier this afternoon, and he ended up having 4 cavitites!!! Brush your teeth, Stevie!!! LOL ;)

Yesterday when we went to drop off Lij we hung out for a while and I was showing Mikey my "missing" tooth to scare him into brushing his teeth when he's told. He just kept looking in there with this "look" on his face and then he goes..."I don't want that to happen to me". LOL...That's right!!! Brush!!!

So anyway, I went back to my mom's today after the dentist and visited with my mom for a while. Then she left to go see my grandma and I hung out with Lal for a bit then we went to HL and J's at Crossroads. They had the Hello Kitty Sizzix dies on clearance for only $5.97!!! I got 3. I think I might go back and get one more; the one of Hello Kitty. I think they'd be cute for V to make cards or something for her little friends.

I plan on going to my mom's on Friday again cause the kids are off for Good Friday. Lal and I are planning our day to hang out and stuff so I can go back to HL then.

I wanted to replace my punch I broke the other night, but punches weren't on sale and that itty bitty punch was $7.99!!! I asked if they took competitor's coupons and the lady said "no", so I put it back. I'll wait for the 1/2 off sale or one of their coupons.

That was pretty much my whole day. I'm really tired cause me and Steve were up a little late messing around with his new DSi. It's pretty cool and you can link up multiple DS games and play up to 8 people at a time on seperate systems.

Since I did nothing today, I have to do all my cleaning chores tomorrow. I did; however, get my laundry done, folded and put away so that's one less thing to do:) Have a nice evening:)

It's So Tragic...

2009-04-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

One of my worst fears came to be today. We took the kids to eat at Cici's for dinner and as I am chewing my pizza, my crown came off!!! Aaahhh!!! It has been a little loose for a while, but I was being real careful. It seemed to be doing OK and today it just came off!!! :( I had Steve call my BIL immediately. He said to go in first thing Monday and he'd work me in.

OK...anyone who knows me knows I HATE the dentist. Nothing personal to my BIL. I just don't like going thus my procrastination on this whole loose crown thing. I was hoping it would just "fix" itself;)

It's just totally driving me nuts though feeling that emtpy space in my mouth. CRAZY I tell you!!!...sigh....Monday can't come soon enough.

So today Lal brought Lij over. He'd been wanting to spend the night, but last week V was sick so we had to postpone. I was going to pick him up yesterday, but he had CCD early this am, so Lal and Miguel dropped him off after.

I got some crafty time today while the kids played games on the Wii. This is what I worked on...

I saw these on a blog I like to read called Mish Mash. She makes the cutest things; lots of cards and cute embellies. For these I used my 1 inch scalloped circle punch on some K&Co. Berry Sweet pp, some polka dot groisgrain ribbons, buttons (MME, Autumn Leaves and some Junkitz, I believe) and some MM threads. These were pretty easy to make and didn't take long at all. You can go on Mish Mash for the "tutorial":)

Last week I went by M's...twice;) They got some many new things in again. This is getting dangerous. M's is going to send me to the poor house:(...;) They reset pretty much their whole open stock paper section as well as their paper pads/packs. There is also a new little section by the Designer Corner. I am calling it Designer Corner Part Deux;) They got some really cute Prima stuff in there. I picked up these...

The light is this pic is horrible. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing with my camera...OK...A LOT of the time I don't know what I am doing with my camera:(

These are from a Prima line called Nursery Tales. SO many yummy, very vintagey goodies. SO my style. I got two sets of the felt borders cause I just LOVE them, but only one set of each of the roses. MIGHT get more. I debated getting the 12x12 paper pad. It's just SO much paper and I already have so much. I am thinking of just getting the smaller mat pad once they put it out. One of the few things on the shelves that wasn't put out yet.

So today Steve got off from work early. We hung out for a while after he got home, then we went out for a bit. I went by the M's off 1604/Culebra and found the MM Flower Patch stuff. I'd really been wanting the 8x8 pack of the diecut papers and finally found them. Yay!!! I also picked up a few sheets of the 12x12. Have some plans for some cute embellies;) Also found a pack of the Bazzill they had out at Christmas. The one that matched the MME Festive papers. Got it on clearance for $5.99.

Went by Best Buy and bought a Wii game for the kids. It was a really cool Fiesta Texas game. Went by Game Stop. Cici's and the big tooth drama, then back home.

The kids played the new game and I decided to work on some more embellies. I had this brilliant idea that I was going to make some felt versions of my previous project. Quite a while back I had Steve punch through some adhesive backed felt with my biggest scalloped circle. So tonight I asked him to punch the felt with my 1 inch punch I used early today. BIG mistake.

The first punch went fine. The second...kerplunk!!! Broke it:( Ugh!!! Not such a good idea afterall...So now I gotta replace that punch. Steve tried to fix it, but the plastic casing around the metal part broke and couldn't be put back together:( He still managed to punch through the felt with just the metal part. He was banging it with his hand, but I made him stop before he broke something else...like his hand:(

So he managed to punch out like 5 circles for me and I played around with those. The embellies came out really cute, but I didn't get around to taking a pic of those yet.

Well, it's after midnight and I'm exhausted. Steve went to Game Stop to get the new DS that just came out. He had it on reserve and just HAD to go get it tonight...sigh...

Oh!!! Friday I went by Walmart on De Zavala and finally found my Twilight tee. Yay, me!!! ;) I also found a keychain type thingie with the little werewolf charm on it:) I think I am up to 6 times watching Twilight since I got the DVD...hee hee.

K...time for bed. Who knows what time these kids will be up in the morning. Good night all:)

Part Deux...

2009-04-01T20:24:00.001-07:00

My second post for today;)...I got my Hot off the Press 3D cupcake template in the mail today. Happy Dance...:) So I played around with it a bit. It was a little hard to figure out. I'm more of a visual person. So I found this online tutorial on Paper Pizzaz and boy did that help. I got two done and they are just SO stinkin' cute...
and here's a pic of the template. It is 12x12...These would make great little favor boxes for a party or just as a little gift:) Well, that's all for my day. Gotta hit the hay. Have a great night:)

April Fool's...

2009-04-01T11:53:00.001-07:00

I wish I had some clever joke to play on someone, but I don't. I think me and Lal wore out the "I'm pregnant" one on my mom years ago. She doesn't buy it anymore;)

V got me like last week. She got an early start. She got it off the TV; Disney channel, I think. They kept showing all these different tricks you could play on someone for April Fool's. So she switched the bags of cereal in the boxes. So when I went to pour myself a bowl of my Fruit Harvest, I got Rice Krispies...YUCK!!! But I got her back cause I swapped them back out before she noticed and then went to get cereal again and it was the right one!!! Ha!!!

So yesterday I got a LO finished. I'd been working on it for the last couple of days and got it all finished up yesterday...

This one is a lift off of the blog Life with Lou; Leah Killian. I read her blog and love her work. I used MM Fa La La pp and MME (the polka dotty one). I "matted" the artisan on cardstock and then cut around it to leave a small border. I distressed the edges of all my papers using the HS edge distresser. I just have to say that I absolutely LOVE this thing and I owe it all to my friend Gina (hi, Gina:). I saw her use it once at a crop and asked her what it was for and what she did with it. I'd had mine for a while and had tried it out, but apparently I was doing it wrong. Once I saw what Gina did with it, I was HOOKED:)

Edges are all inked as well. May Arts lace and AC Puffy Thickers. I made the "ruffle" by following a tutorial on Leah's blog. I am in love with these ruffles now too;) It adds such a lovley touch. My reindeer was Cricut cut using my Joys of the Season cart. I cut it out of cardstock first and then out of the MME paper and them glued them on top each each to make it a bit sturdier. Inked the edges of that too and tied a piece of velvet ribbon around the deer's neck and added a HG pin. The smaller part of my title is made using MM tiny alphas. HS chipboard numbers and a couple of AL buttons finish it off.

I played around with another one of my Sizzix dies and made these. These are for the Grant a Wsih on 2Peas. I am sending someone an assortment of bird/owl goodies:) I got this die at J's quite a while back for like $5 AND it's a Bigz die!!! Good deal;)

I got this one done today. This one was a lift off of Kihaku on sb.com. She used the new Fancy Pants Kraft Kuts. I really want some of this line, but I improvised and this is what I came up with...

I'm really happy with the way this one turned out. I just keep going back to look at it on my desk:) I used a sheet of Bazzill scalloped cardstock, some old MM kraft paper, MM tiny alphas and Doodlebug Loopy Lou cardstock alpha stickers. I hand cut my tree using a BG Mellow chip piece that I traced onto my cardstock and just enlongated the truck. I punched out circles of MM, K&Co. and Amy Butler pps for the "leaves" of my tree. The little diecuts; bird, butterfly and flowers, I have had for AGES...Seriously. I don't even know what they are or who makes the. I am thinking VERY old Fancy Pants, but if anyone knows PLEASE leave me a comment because it's irking me not knowing;)

I also handcut my little stems/leaves for my flowers. I'm going to see if I can't get another LO done later this afternoon/evening. Enjoy the rest of the day:)

It's Finally Monday...

2009-03-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

and V went back to school today. As much as I love that girl...it was time;) She was very eager to go back too. We got all her assignments done over the weekend, so she was good to go.

We didn't do much yesterday. Stayed in for breakfast. Steve ran by his mom's. When he got back I ran quick like by Tuesday Morning and got me that self healing mat for my desk. It was only $14.99 and it's big enough to cover up pretty much my whole desk area AND it's pink!!! :) I really love it. I also found another of the AC 12x12 D ring albums and picked that up too. The price is such a GREAT deal.

When we got home, Steve took my truck to wash and V to get donuts at Krispy Kreme. I went over to chat with Ruby and when Steve got back, we all sat out enjoying the nice weather. An ice cream truck came by and we had a nice little treat;) We have to do that now as much as possible before it gets too hot. Our summers are just unbearable:(

So today I got all my cleaning chores done and then I had a little scrap time. Instead of working on the current LO in progress, I decided to play around with some new dies and cuts. This is what I made...

I made these using a Quikutz die I got some time back off of 2Peas. He is SO cute!!! :)These I made by using my Walk in the Garden Cricut cart. I used the "shell" part of the lady bug for the tops of the mushrooms. Then I cut one inch strips of the yellow paper for my stems and just rounded them out freehand:)These I made using a Sizzlits die I picked up at the last 911 garage sale. I think they turned out pretty cute. Instead of the cherry that goes on top, I put a button to take it's place:)

I plan to work on my LO in progress tomorrow. Shouldn't take me too long as I am about half way done.

Going to go watch Twilight...again. I LOVE that movie. I can not wait for New Moon. I just know it's going to be so much better. Can't wait:)

TGIF...

2009-03-27T12:27:00.000-07:00

Even though I've been sleeping in until almost 8 as opposed to my usual 6:30, I still feel like I need a break. V will hopefully be going back to school on Monday. She is almost done with her meds.

I went by the school this morning and picked up her missed class assignments. Boy, did she have a lot of work to catch up on. She's done some of it already, but still has quite a bit to go. We'll work on some more later today and then do more over the next couple of days.

So I finally finished my LO from yesterday. I didn't find any Prima leaves like I wanted to finish it off, but I improvised and I like the way it turned out. This is another lift off of Allison Shubert. I can not get enough of her work. She totally ROCKS!!!

I used MM Amplified diecut paper, October Afternoon pp, Prima felt border and some sunflowers I had in my stash as well as some Primas I got at M's a while back. My branch is Cricut cut. The leaves are from a flower bunch; I trimmed them off and used Glue Dots to attach them. The centers of the sunflowers are felt. The butterfly was cut using one of my Sizzix dies and some BG Urban Prairie. Sheer polka dot ribbon and an MM Chole's Closet decorative pin through the bow in the flower. Also used a Jenni Bowlin mini bingo card and one of my MME Laundry Line stamps to make the little "card" behind the pic.

That's all I have to share for now. TFL:) Have a great weekend:)

Pretty in Pink...

2009-03-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

Only if you are Molly Ringwald. V woke up yesterday with pink eye. OMG!!! It's just one thing after another with this little girl. It looked horrid:( It was SO red:( I'm guessing it was from her infection; must've spread to her eye cause it was the same side as the really bad ear.

So I put some allergy eye drops in it twice yesterday. No fever yesterday, but today...earlier this evening, she was running a very low grade again. Then this afternoon, right after we went to pick up Mattie she broke out in hives!!! She came up to me and asked me what was on her cheek/neck cause it was itchy and I noticed them. I took her to the bathroom to put some anti-itch cream on it and noticed it starting to show on the other side. It was SO red. So I put some on both and then a few minutes later, she is sitting in the kitchen at the island and says she feels some under her eye and there they were!!! So I gave her some Benadryl. That seemed to do the trick cause about 20 minutes later it was all gone. Let's just pray that she doesn't wake up with something else tomorrow:(

We stayed in all day today. Good thing cause it looked pretty dark and cloudy this am and then the rain kicked it. It rained for the better part of the day then cleared up around the time I went to go get Mattie.

I got a chance to scrap yesterday. Got two done. Both are lifts from my latest issue of Memory Makers.

I used some MM Passport pp on this one. AL flourish/word stamps and a sticker mounted onto cardstock and cut out. Some Prima flowers and Center Kiss, CI rubon, Paper Studio glitter flourish sticker and some MME and Paper Studio pp strips.

I used some MM ledger paper for this one. An Anna Griffin transparency I got at M's, some old Daisy D's French Market pp, Prima lace and some 7 Gypsies cardstock stickers. Also a Jenni Bowlin mini bingo card and some adhesive gems.

I worked on another one today. Took me a bit longer as I kept going back and forth. It took a little more work than either of these two and it's still not quite finished. I want to add one more thing if I can find it, so I will update with that one tomorrow. Hopefully I can get some more scrapping done.

I have to go by the school tomorrow to pick up V's classroom work for this week so she can catch up on what she'd missed. The only thing she had done was her spelling assignments cause I got her list off the online class newsletter. She was real apprehensive about what she was going to have to make up so now she'll have the weekend to work on it:)

Well, I best be getting to bed. Praying this will be an easier night and we can all get some much needed rest:)

It's Not Easy Being Sick...

2009-03-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

or caring for the sick:( V got hit pretty hard. Ended up taking her in to the dr. on Monday morning. She'd been running fever and had started complaining about her other ear as well. Turned out she had a very bad throat and ear infections. Got some antibiotics and she's home until at least Thursday. She's still running some fever. Not as bad as the first few nights though Thank God, but still low grade. So I'm having to get her up to take her meds, watching the fever as so on. I can't wait for her to be back to her old self again.

So I haven't done much of anything, but stay indoors with her. She's also still got a bit of a cough. I might just keep her home this whole week. Friday is an early release day anyway. I know she's really bored already, but you can see it in here eyes; she is not well. She just hates missing school and being home. I'm sure she's dying to interact with her little girlfriends, but I don't want to send her back before she's ready. The doctor said ear infections take a bit more time and being in school, she'd be missing a dose of her meds and I want to get her off to a good start. By next Monday she'd be pretty far along on them. We will see how things play out.

Some pics to share from last week. Finally got the cupcake stamps pic up:)

I bought two others that are not pictured here. One is a border type on that says "cupcakes forever" and the other is two cherries that says "love you with a (pic of cherries) on top". The chicks border stamp is from the barn animals section. There were LOTS of other stamps from both of these themes. The cupcakes ones had wood mounted and clear. The farm animals ones were just wood mounted and then there was a whole fairy set in the just the clear ones. All these have all sorts of other themed goodies as well. Go check out your M's:)

A couple of pics from last Friday. It was group picture day for V at school:) This was the day she came home not feeling well at all. Poor thing:( And I just realized that this is the same time she was sick last year cause she missed group pic day and in Kindergarten she came home sick on group pic day and then missed the individuals school picture day. Uncanny, but must be whatever is in the air around this time.

And here is poor Baby Girl...bored, bored, bored. She was laying on the floor today playing with different board games. Here she was with Mouse Trap...The mice were "eating" the cheese:)You can see it in her eyes; she just doesn't feel well:(

Well, not much else going on around her except blowing of noses and such. I'll update later. I'm hoping to get some scrapping time in later this week. Fingers crossed:)

In Addition...

2009-03-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Don't know how I could have forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Mattie once again made A/B Honor Roll. He has made it every grading period this year so far. Well, he made straight A's on the first one, but these are super good grades. The best he's ever had and I'm not sure if this should be credited to the slight increase we made on his meds, but I am SUPER pleased. This is seriously a HUGE sigh of relief for me. I have always worried SO much about how much he struggled in school. If I had known that this TINY increase would have made such a difference I would have done it a lot sooner rather than delaying it. Seriously.

And in other super fab Mattie news...he passed the reading part of his TAKS!!! OMG!!! Another HUGE load off my shoulders. I was SO stressing this cause he totally needs to pass to go to the 9th grade. We still have the Math part to go, but I am feeling a lot more confident on this as well.

He is still doing the morning tutoring, but now only for the math part and next Friday there is a Math TAKS workshop on early release day that he is doing also. He needs all the extra help he can get and I am SO grateful for all these opportunities he has at his school to help him achieve his goals.

Today Lal and Lij came over early in the am. Oh, thanks for the bacon, Lal;) I'll get you on that later. Totally forgot. So we hung out here for a while cause we were just getting up here. Got breakfast going, tidied up and then we went to M's at Ingram. Found the new goodies there too and I got the stamp I accidently put down yesterday. Also this really cute jouranl that will work great for some journaling sheets. Also picked up the K&Co. Que Sera Sera paper pad with my 50% off coupon and shared it with Lal. Mattie used a coupon for me too and I got another pack of these like layered Primas that I LOVE.

Went by T's and got my 3 disc exclusive Twilight...!!! Came home and watched while we ate McD's that Lal picked up for us. LOVE it!!! Maybe I'll watch again in bed;)

V started feeling under the weather again this afternoon; complaining of a headache and sore throat. I gave her some medicine and then after Lal left early this afternoon, we took a little nap on the couch.

We had planned on going out to eat Cici's when Steve got off work cause V had been wanting that, but she got up complaining of an earache and she was running a fever again so we stayed in and ordered Papa John's instead. Lucky for us it was Customer Appreciation Day and we got large pizzas for only $6.99.

So I gave V some Motrin and put some drops in her ears. The fever went down and hasn't come back so far. Gotta keep an eye on it through the night. I hope it's not a rough one:(

Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow yet. I am going by the big J's though. I had planned on going today too, but that got postponed as well. So let's see what I find. I heard there were some SUPER good clearance deals. I hope I can find some. More tomorrow...and I'll update with the stamps from M's pic too. Night.

It's Friday...I'm in Love...

2009-03-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

With all the new Prima goodies. I got these in the other day. Ordered from a friend's Ebay store. VERY reasonable and super fast shipping:) The two stamps were from ACOT.

It's all just SO beautious. I SO want to get some more of the butterflies and some different colors in the Say it in Pearls. Probably some black ones. and I just ADORE that bingo stamp. Now I can make my own bingo cards;) Woo hoo!!!A recent LO. This was a lift off one that Lal just did. I used the WRMK Teen Angst papers that Lal shared with me. Some of the new Bazzill edges, a couple of the BG Obscure diecuts. MM tiny alphas, AC Thickers and a chipboard #3 for my title. OH, and I finally used some of my Magic Mesh Lal got me for Christmas:)This was also a lift off of one Lal did which she lifted off of someone on sb.com. I used mostly Jenni Bowlin here, some Prima Essentials, HS verb stickers (Lal shared a pack with me:) 7 Gypsies sticker and a piece of Foofala paper.

I went to M's and picked up some super cute cupcake wood mounted stamps. I haven't uploaded the pic though so I'll do that tomorrow. I'm going to go to a different M's cause I accidently put one back that I wanted while I was sorting through all the stamps there:( Didn't realize it until I came home though. My little stamp basket is starting to get pretty full. I just might need to get another;)

Oh...tomorrow Twilight comes out on DVD. I can't wait!!! I'm giddy just thinking about it. Open, open, open...LOL Until tomorrow.

Twofer Tuesday...

2009-03-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

OK...it's not Tuesday yet, but close enough;) I got two more LOs done this afternoon. I'm on a roll. I was going to go for one more when I realized the paper I was going to use was missing!!! Lal had shared her new WRMK Teen Angst pad with me; gave me a sheet of each, but in going through them this evening I realized I was missing one. The one I was going to use. So hopefully tomorrow Steve will pick it up for me and I can work on it in the evening. Poor Steve. I've had him stop by there to pick up like 3 little chipboard letters or some small embellie...what a guy:)

Anywho...here they are. Both are lifts from the Feb. issue of Scrapbooks Etc.

I used some old MM Cosmo for this one; the polka dot and the striped. Sure am glad I didn't get rid of it;) The original artisan at the bottom is MM Chelsea's Place. I used the artisan to trace onto the other pp and then cut it out with my Cutterbees. Used my Threading Water punch on the striped and the cut it to fit over the artisans. HS ghost heart, some buttons, AL stamp, tiny Primas, some MM white rubons and some AC foam Thickers:)I used my new MM Sabrina line on this one. The other paper; the green one with the print is Amy Butler. Butterflies are HS felt, MM 5th Avenue tag I cut. Paper Studio flourish rubon. Quote is from Dr. Suess:)

Hopefully I'll have a couple more LOs to share tomorrow. Have a good night everyone:)

Boo Hoo for Spring Break

2009-03-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

So the kids had Spring Break last week and I must say it was somewhat of a bummer. The weather turned cold and rainy so we did NADA. Steve also had to make two trips out of state for work so...:(

Thursday he had to go to Oklahoma so I went over to hang with Lal at my mom's. I had a mini crop night;) I got two LOs done.

Both of these were lifts off of Stephanie Howell. She is just FAB!!! :) Here I used CI scalloped edge pp and a sheet of the MM Flower Patch artisan. M's is supposed to be getting this line in and I went over the weekend, but they had everything BUT the papers:( and not sure they are going to be carrying the shaped ones cause all the papers were priced at 69 cents:( Anyho...MM Sabrina frame and MM tiny alphas, some misc. chipboard letters and AC grid pp. I used some of the lyrics to this Paul Simon song about a father and daughter. This pic was from my uncle's wedding recently.On this one I used Prima Angelique pp. I do believe this was one of the sheets sent to me by the SUPER talented and very generous Allison Shubert. I PMd her on 2Peas to inquire about a particular sheet of paper and she sent me an awesome package of papers and embellies!!! The diecut and tag are K&Co. Que Sera. HS block alpha stickers and MM tiny alphas again. I'm so loving these. I think I need to restock;) The frame behind the pic is Cricut cut with the Storybook cart. Some lace trim around the pic and then I added some little fabric roses from the craft dept.:)

This one I did on my own yesterday. Lal lifted this one too a short time back from the 2Peas gallery of apeainthepod. Daisy D's pp, Jenni Bowlin Farmer's Wife artisan pp, Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl pp, MME pp and diecuts, MM tiny alphas...AGAIN;) I hand cut the clouds out of cardstock. Used my Fiskars Apron Lace border punch on the bottom of one of the MME papers and distressed the edges of both the artisans with my HS distresser.Last year everyone over on sb.com was talking about this wire tierd basket that came out in the Spring. I do believe last year's was a different color though. So I'd been eyeing this for a bit and wanting it for my stamps, but just felt that at $20 was a bit much. The more I thought of it though, the more I wanted it and I thought I'd better get a move on before they sold out. I remembered seeing a few left at the Crossroad Ts so on Friday, while I was still over at my mom's, Lal and I went and I bought it:) LOVE it!!! All my $ bin stamps fit in here:)AAnd speaking of stamps...I got these in the M's $ bins just this past week. Gina over on sb.com had posted a pic of some she had picked up and I just LOVED that little owl. I finally found them. They had quite a few others I didn't get, but they were all really cute. I picked up the owl and cupcake for Lal too;)

So Steve got back home mid-day on Friday, but he pretty much just slept and we let him:) Saturday he took off from work. We went out to breakfast and then took the kids to see Race to Witch Mountain. It was a good movie. I "heart" The Rock;)

After Steve took me to the 911 sale; everything 30% off. Woo hoo!!! The day before they had gotten in some of the new Thickers and I got to grab some:)

I got some of the new Bazzill edges too. I really wanted the black, but just my luck...they were out:( and I didn't get the hot pink ones, but now I'm thinking I should have;)...LOLWent my Ts at the Rim and found the MM Just Chillin' journaling book. It was the ONLY thing from the line they had out and it seems they have lost a whole side of the sb aisle!!! Boo!!! The other goodies are from M's. I am loving those little frames. There are 4 to a pack and this past week the Desinger Corner was 30% off:) And I am so loving that calendar stamp. It reminds me of the new Prima ones that just came out, but for those you have to buy each individual month seperately for $1.99 each. I got this set for 40% off of $6.99 with my coupon;)

Today I am catching up on housework. Just folded and put away a lot of laundry. I still need to "clean" house, but hopefully it shouldn't take me long cause I have about 3 other LO ideas in my head and I don't want to lose the mojo before I get to them.

I have V home sick with me today. She'd been somewhat under the weather since Friday, but yesterday she was complaing a lot about her head hurting and last night she ran a low grade fever. She's been coughing and sneezing like crazy too. Hopefully she'll be better tonight or else I'm keeping her home again and possibly making a trip to the dr's.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day so just in case I don't update before then...Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone:)

2009-03-11T19:20:00.001-07:00

I saw this one the Sassfras blog and thought it was hilarious...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy0SrWpfFmA&eurl=http://sassafras.typepad.com/&feature=player_embedded

2009-03-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

So last week was the big truck drama. My truck was overheating and I could hardly get down the street to drop off the kids before it started hissing under the hood:( So Thursday night a tow truck came and took it away. It was SO sad:( And I guess that saying is true...when it rains it pours. I literally came and sat down at the computer after watching my truck be carried away and it freezes up. Turns out it caught an internet virus and our Norton had expired. Aaahhh!!! So I couldn't get to the store to buy a new antivirus software cause I didn't have any transportation and I couldn't get on the computer. I don't know how I managed...but I did.Fortunately I got my truck back Friday night... $281 later. So Saturday after breakfast I got my Norton and got my computer back up. Yay!!! My uncle's wedding was also that night and I was so afraid I was going to have to miss it if I didn't get my truck back. We have no other form of transportation that fits us all.Here are some pics from the wedding...

Mikey, Mattie and Lij.

All the kids; Victoria, Mikey, Lij and Mattie.

Victoria and Mikey.

Me and Lal. Aren't we lovely??? ;) hee hee The wedding was very nice and the kids had such a blast. V danced the WHOLE night. When the music first started I told her she should go and dance with her daddy and she said she was too embarassed, but as soon as the dance songs started, she went straight to the dance floor and never sat down. LOL

Here's V with Steve.And me and V. My head scarf came out of my hair twice so I just took it out...LOL

Sunday my inlaws took the kids and we took in a movie. Went to go see Watchmen. Steve had been wanting to see that one. Ugh!!! The movie was 2 1/2 hours long and it was not fun:( And it was so cold in there and I forgot to take my jacket. I hate being cold:(

Afterwards, I went by 911 and picked up these goodies...

I'd really been wanting some of the JB gem buttons. I improvised on a LO I recently did where I wanted to use some of these:) And that WRMK paper...they didn't have that one when I picked up the others from that line a while back so now I have it;) LOVE, LOVE this new Comso Cricket line; Ever After. This is the only one of their new lines that really caught my eye...at least so far. This one is more my style, I think.And this new My Little Shoebox is just too stinkin' cute!!! I LOVE the shaped papers and the tags. All this I got with my store credit. I still have near $80 left and only $15 to go to hit my free $10 again. Woo hoo!!! Bring on the new goodies;)

So the kids started Spring Break this past Monday. I doubt we are going to do much though. It's hard for Steve to go off from work especially right now. They are closing the company they have in Oklahoma. In fact, he has to drive out there tomorrow to pick up a trailer. This past week he had to drive out to San Angelo. Too much driving:(

So anyway, I did my grocery shopping on Monday. While I was at Walmart I decided to go check out the cameras. They had quite a few on clearance. I saw this one Fuji camera was on sale from $298 to $199, but they were all out except for the display one:( I came home and kept thinking about it, so after lunch I headed to the other Walmart up the street to see if I could find it. I am SO glad I did. It was the only one there. It is 10 megapixels and 18x optical zoom!!! I've played with it a bit and I LOVE it. I still have quite a ways to go, but I'm determined to learn how to use this camera to it's full potential:)

I also got my DCWV 8x8 pad in the mail on Monday. A short time ago there was some kind of promotion. You had to go and watch this video of all the new DCWV pads and be one of the first 1000 and you could chose a free pad and I won one!!! Here's the one I chose...There are glittered and embossed and all sorts of lovely papers in it. Lal chose the Whimsy and we are going to split them:)

Some updated pics of my room. There is just too much stuff in here now. You'd never be able to tell that I purged for the 911 sale back in the end of January.

Eventually I'd like to get those two big bookshelves out of at least minimize what's on them so I can use some of that space to "branch out" onto;) Those two shelves have V's books, some games, DVDs, too many VHS that we are trying to get rid of and stuff like that. Then she has her easel there in the corner. Please ignore that pile of stuff on the floor in front of one of the shelves. I started purging again and got stuck with it. There's all the back issues of my mag subs and tons of stickers I cleared out from my sticker basket. I put up a thread on sb.com for locals who might want them. I got 2 responses so I started clearing out and then I didn't hear back and I'm stuck with this stuff on my floor:( Just what I didn't want to happen...sigh...So if anyone local sees this post and is interested PLEASE leave me a message and a contanct email. TIA:)My desk area...

The table next to my desk. I have a little more space since I cleared out my older mags off the table.

A hanging basket over my table which holds a lot of my smaller wood mounted stamps. It's kind of overflowing and I just bought some new ones today:( hee hee The shelf in the back has a bunch of clear jars with different embellies; chipboard letters, tubies of bling, other stuff...not really sure what...LOL Also some of my knick knackie things up there:)

Just a quick little simple LO I did last night. I just can NOT seem to get the mojo back and flowing. It's been SO long:( Anyway, it's a pic I've wanted to scrap forever. Not the most glamour pic. You always see those pics of women who just gave birth holding their newborns and they look like they just stepped out of the salon or something. Well...that was NOT me...LOL But it's still something I wanted to document. I have lots of pics from my hospital stay and those first pics of V we took there so I need to get those done eventually. I got the sketch idea for this from this little paper mache box Lal altered for Miguel for Vday. I just LOVED the little MM quote sticker that she used and knew it would be just PERFECT for such a pic:) I was thinking of maybe adding some type of "title" there above the pic, but not quite sure what. Any idears??? ;)

I made spaghetti for dinner and it was ever so yummy. Then Steve brought me home a Bill's tea and some dutch apple pie for dessert:P Today was the first day I haven't worked out in over a week, but I still might later today;) It's cold here tonight; we cooled down this morning. Also some rain...some much needed rain. We'll see how long that lasts. Oh...yesterday I rented a movie out of the redbox...The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Excellent movie.

Well, I believe I am all caught up on my happenings around here. I am some dishes in the sink calling my name:( Have a great night:)

What Have I Accomplished...

2009-03-09T22:25:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to make a quick update of my LO count. To date I have completed:

13 12x12 LOs
6 cards
one mini album

I need to get my rear in gear. We are already in March and I haven't gotten much done:( Will be back to update my blog tomorrow. It's late and I tired;)

Does Anyone Want to Buy My Truck???...

2009-03-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

So the darn thing is overheating...again...don't know what it is this time. Steve had come up with something and I talked to Jess and he got me a quote from a friend who said he could do it, but then Steve calls me from his BILs saying it's something else. Of course, he hasn't looked at the truck yet though. So I guess we'll have to wait and see. This truck is giving me a big headache:(

In other news...I got a LO done today...since I can't go anywhere...Both Lal and I lifted the same one off of sb.com. Here's my version...

I used a sheet from my K&Co. Sweet Talk pad; the red background one. All other papers are various lines of MME; Kaleidoscope, Wild Asapargus, Magnolia, I think. The red letters are some foam ones I got in the Ts $ spot some time ago. Marcella by Kay dimensional flowers and heart and diecut journaling tag. MAMBI glitter title. The little birds I hand cut and embellished:) Also used my HS distresser for the edges of some of the papers. The pic is of V and M the day before Vday:)

Well we'll see how all this truck drama plays out. I really want it fixed by Saturday cause it's my uncle's wedding and I don't want to miss it:(

2009-03-02T17:34:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since my last post. I'm still suffering from these darn allergies. I am seriously so tired of it already; the itchy eyes, nose and throat, the water eyes, the sore throat, coughing...Ugh!!! I just want it to be over already:(

I've got a couple of LOs to share and some fun new goodies too:)

Some cute journaling pads I got at J's and one I got at HL (Anna Griffin:)Some of the new EK Success border punches from M's. I got the stamp edge, the tiny scallop dot and the binding edge which gives you the torn out of a notebook look:) Got them all with a coupon too:)One of my recent LOs. A lift off 2Peas. Lal lifted this one too:) I used a lot of K&Co. Que Sera on here; diecuts and acetates and adhesive border. Used one of my MS punch/emboss border punches, some buttons and some adhesive gems in the centers. I think the paper is MME. Can't really remember:(

A FAB gift from my dh who picked these up for me the other day:) I had SO been wanting these super cool new punches. A new die I just picked up. I thought making some paper buttons would be cute:)My latest LO. Lift off of the one Lal did from a Page Map. I did mine on it's side...I think...compared to Lal's:) Paper Studio black grid paper and damask papers, BG Urban Lily; cut out border, Marcella by Kay journaling diecut and dimensional hearts, EK Success Binding Edge border punch and Doodlebug True Love glittered Icons.

Today I Am...For March;)

Reading: Still not reading anything:(

Listening to: Matthew West's "Through The Motions". LOVE this song. Lal and I heard it in the car the other day and I had to come home immediately and look for it and buy it off iTunes:)

Obsessed With: still my weight. This never changes:(

Thinking About: Spring Break next week ALREADY. Why do I feel like the kids were just home on vaca...???

Planning To: get some LOs done this week.

Vowing To: Stick to my workout/diet routine. I MUST lose the weight.

Working On: Purging...just like Lal. I've already started. The other day I went through all my scrap mags and got rid of anything before '08. Last night I went through a cabinet in our master bath and today I did one in our kitchen plus I threw out a bunch of old throw pillows we had on the floor by our fireplace that I'd been hating for a while now. I'm going to try to work on at least one small area a day:)

Excited About: hopefully going to the coast for Spring Break. It isn't the best weather for the beach, but we haven't been in a while and I'm hoping to get some good photo ops;)

So Much to Share:)...

2009-02-19T14:01:00.001-08:00

For some reason I have been really lazy about blogging. Maybe because I feel like there really isn't anything very exciting going on.

Vday came and went. Steve bought me this wall frame from T's that I wanted and also got me roses, chocolates and a very nice card. We got the kids some little gifts and also the Madagascar 2 movie. I LOVE that movie. Oh, Steve also brought us breakfast early that morning so we ate and watched the movie before he went to work.

I got some pretty good shots of V on Friday; the day before Vday. I used those big pops. I found some at Walgreens cause I missed the ones at T's. Here's just a few...
I still need to take pics of Mattie with the pop. I saw some good ideas on Teresa Collin's blog. I did get one of them together though...Ugh!!! Mattie was so in desperate need of a haircut here:( He finally got somewhat of a cut on Sunday. I'm having Steve cut it again on Saturday cause it's just not short enough around like I like it. Mark went and took him to get it done...what does he know??? :(

Sometime on Friday my internet went out...along with my phone and cable. They are all connected. We didn't get it back up until Sunday evening.

Saturday V went to my MILs and I just chilled here at home; watched some movies cause there wasn't much else I could do. I also baked some Valentine cupcakes for the kids...

V spent the night with my inlaws and when Steve got home we went out to eat. We went to Zio's first and there was an hour wait so we decided to try somewhere else. We tried Macaroni Grill and there was a 2-3 hour wait there!!! They were even behind on reservations!!! So it's getting later and I am anticipating we are going to run into this wherever we go so we drove around a little. We passed up Pei Wei's and it didn't look to crowded so we stopped and ate there. We had to sit at the bar, but it was pretty cool; like watching live Food Network while we ate. Food AND entertainment;)

Sunday we ran around a bit. Went by 911 to pick up some things. Went by T's. I bought Steve his birthday present. His birthday was on Tuesday. He'd been wanting the PSP, so that's what I got him. Of course, he loved it:) Came home early to be home in time for the cable company.

Monday the kids were off from school for President's Day. I did my grocery shopping early and then ran the kids to Skecher's for new shoes. I ran by M's afterwards to use some 50% off coupons that were in the ad. There wasn't much. They still have lots on clearance. I am so anxious for the new stuff to start coming in. I am hearing some good things on the boards about stores that are already getting their new stock in. So exciting...hee hee. But anyway, I just got a couple of packs of Primas from the Designer Corner.

Tueday for Steve's birthday, his mom made him a cake and some dinner, so he went by his mom's after work. He brought the cake home and we did that here...
Don't you just love that look on V's face??? That girl is SOME drama...sigh... I got some video of him blowing out his candles, but didn't get to get some good pics of when the candles were lit:(

I'm just not too happy with the way this one turned out:( Not like I had imagined, but oh, well...I used Paper Studio grid paper, some new MME and older MME paper and a diecut. Bazzill paper flower, K&Co. Wild Raspberry border, MM journaling page, button and two Sizzix cut swirlies.This one I absolutely LOOOVVVEEE!!! It's a pic of V and Ariel the other night. I was watching her for Ruby cause they were getting all their stuff out for the Brush Pick-up. As always V wanted to hold her and I quick grabbed my camera and snapped some cute shots. Then she got fussy and I rocked her to sleep. We pulled out this music carousel of V's and she sat real quiet like and just listened. Then I gave her her binky and rocked her and she fell fast asleep holding onto my finger. LOVE her:)

I made the pic sepia toned. Papers are MM; Vday and old Chelsea's Place; the viney/flowers are also cut from a sheet of this line. MM journaling sheet (Noteworthy). Strip of MME at the bottom that I cut into that shape by tracing a Sassafras Lass border onto it and cutting it out. Paper Studio music note pp, MME diecut, some Prima Sprites w/ an adhesive gem in the center and a cake doilie.

Ruby and I hung out a couple days this past week; did a little bit of shopping.For the last few days I have also been Wii Fit-ing. I gotta do something. I'm just so unmovitated:( I hope the weather starts warming up a little in the am so I can go walking/running outdoors. It's just not the same being on the Eliptical and staring at the wall:(

Hopefully it won't be long until the next time I blog:)

One For Today...

2009-02-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

I did a quick lift off of Stephanie Howell's blog. She does some amazing work and I love reading her blog:)

I used MM paper, Amy Butler pp, HS damask stickers, Stampin' Up scallop border punch on the Amy Butler pp, K&Co. Madeline diecuts and some adhesive gems.

Today I took back my movie to the red box and rented Tyler Perry's movie The Family That Preys. Excellent movie. I really enjoyed it and want to see a couple of his other movies.

Not much else going on around here.

Today when I picked Mattie up from tutoring which was just a few minutes ago, he tells me that this kid (the rubber band kid) asked him in 7th period, if he was ready to go to court. For one, that kid shouldn't be anywhere near Mattie for any reason. He has no reason and secondly HE is the only one going to court. I also doubt it's tomorrow cause the school officer told us he would filing the paper work most likely next week cause he was going to be away for a few days. So I'm not sure if he's saying it to him in a threatening way and it's not like I can ask Mattie and he can interpret...sigh. He also didn't go and say anything despite the MILLION times I told him to do so if this kid came anywhere near him. I guess he figured since he wasn't hitting him that didn't count. Ugh!!! He is not making this any easier. So I am having him go to the VP or officer FIRST thing in the am to let them know about this.

Off for now.

***Per request, the link to Stephanie Howell's blog...http://www.stephaniehowell.typepad.com/***

More Vday Cards

2009-02-11T06:59:00.001-08:00

So I worked on and got the rest of my Valentine's Day cards finished up yesterday.

I used some BG Blush scraps for the first two. On the first card I also used a K&Co. Sweet Talk dimensional stickers, some Cricut cut and punched out scalloped circles and a doilie. I also used my MS lace punch for the little border on the bottom.

On the second card, I used my Inkadinkadoo stamps for the cupcake and the little "saying" on the bottom. Also added some adhesive gems.

The last one I used a valentine card I got at the Dollar Tree. The pp is MME and I used another MS border punch; one of the new Valentine ones, to make the border on that one. Also added some Marcella by Kay dimensional heart stickers.

I got these huge pops at Walgreens. I missed getting the ones at T's $ spot:( Then someone on sb.com posted about finding these at Walgreens so I went by yesterday morning and found these. I picked up several. I want to do a "photo shoot" with the kids using these pops. Sherelle Christensen has some AWESOME photos on her blog that she took of her kids with the big pops:)

These two are for Mikey and Lij. I made the little tags using a Snag 'Em stamp and my circle and scalloped circle punches and some red ribbon.

I also rented the movie Nights in Rodanthe from the Red Box at Walgreens too. It was a nice movie. Not super, but still good.

Just a note for myself to keep track, that kid who hit Mattie with the rubber band was back in class yesterday. I have told Mattie repeatedly that if that kid does or says ANYTHING threatening that he should go to someone IMMEDIATELY. I am just praying that it will be OK.

Tomorrow is an elective information night at Marshall for Mattie. I can NOT believe he will be going into high school already. Totally freakin' out!!!

Yesterday V came home with one of her little friend's phone number and she called her in the evening. This was her first "phone call":) She spent like an hour on the phone. It was so funny to hear her talking to her little friend Haley; the things she was talking about. This morning she asked if she could call her again today...and it begins;) LOL

Last night we got a little hail. Only lasted for about 5 or so minutes though, but it did make some pretty good noise. This morning was a little cool; not too bad. Today is supposed to be another rather warm day; near 80. The rest of the week is going to be much the same. So much for more winter. I think somone needs to fire that groundhog;)

That's all for today. Have a great day:)

2009-02-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

I am:

Reading: Nothing at the moment. I haven't found anything to read since the Twilight series:( I am in serious Twilight withdrawls:(

Listening to: So loving Tenth Avenue North.

Obsessed With: Twilight. I am so anxious for the next movie to come out.

Thinking About: The very fast approaching Summer and what we will be doing to occupy ourselves:)

Planning To: Do some organizing in my scrap room. Some more purging and a little more order.

Dreaming Of: Getting some LOs done. I've been in quite a bit of a rut since the new year:( Boo hoo...must scrap.

Enjoying: Visiting with my neighbor and watching her baby girl grow...rather quickly I might add:)

Vowing To: Get more done. Be more productive. Continue to watch my sb spending. So far so good:)

Working On: Finishing up my Valentine's Day cards. I have a few left to do.

Excited About: Yummy new CHA products coming in to our LSS. I have quite a few projects in mind with some of the fab new goodies.

Oh, the Drama of it All...

2009-02-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

So last week, I believe it was on Wednesday, I got a call from my son about 10:30am or so from school informing me that he got hurt. I am thinking he fell in gym, got hit with a ball..something along those lines. Turns out some kid shot a rubber band at his face at CLOSE range. He was actually walking up behind him and shot right at his face!!! It broke the skin. My son, unfortunately, didn't say anything. The teacher was even IN the room and didn't see this happen. That makes me more than a little angry. I am sending my kid to school and the teacher can't even keep an eye on the class...???!!!

I worry that the reason he didn't say anything was out of fear. That this kid is intimidating him into not saying anything. Or that he fears what this kid might do to him if he says something:(

So he gets to 3rd period where his teacher notices the "mark" on his face and asks him about it and then he tells and the teacher in turn goes and reports it to the 1st period teacher and he gets sent to the nurse which is when I got the call.

He had to write out a statement about what happened. I was told by the VP that the kid apologized, but would not admit to the "crime". Doesn't make sense here, does it??? So it's basically word against word. NOONE saw anything. How odd...sigh...

So this kid was suspened...something...they won't give us that information, but I want to know if/when he is coming back because I don't want him anywhere near my son. He has his for 1st and 7th period. One too many classes if you ask me.

So we were encouraged to press charges which we are doing and we will just have to wait and see how this goes. It enrages me SO that it seems that you have to wait until some major tragedy occurs for these types of kids to get dealt with and usually they end up taking innocent people down with them in the process. What has our world come to???!!! :(

Things are just so different now and it's so sad that we have to live in fear of children and their actions. So different from when we were kids:(

We met at the school today to discuss things and they will continue with the charging process. Now it's just a waiting game. I will have to send my kid off to school every morning and worry that he is OK. This has been very nerve wracking:(

I only pray that God will watch over him and keep him safe and that HE will work this all out for us. So please...any prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Whew!!!...on a lighter note... I have some goodies for sale. If anyone is intersted, please leave me a message here with an email to contact you or email me at: shopgirlaudi@yahoo.com.

I have several packs of these. They are MM Sabrina line which is exclusive to M's. They sell for $14.99. I am asking $10 plus shipping. There are 24 sheets; 4 of 6 designs.

So Friday Lal and I hung out. I met her at Crossroads. We just went by T's there and then we headed to The Rim. We went to M's and T's over there. Picked up some goodies and did a little Vday shopping for the kids goodies...

The diecuts and the borders are from M's; new K&Co. Madeline and Wild Raspberry. They had some of the embellies out, but not the papers. I really want the papers (my paper addiction;)...The older K&Co. chipboard words are also from M's. They were on clearance for $1!!! I always have trouble with title and I LOVE things like this cause I can add an instant title...no brain work required;) The page kit in back is from T's. It's Marcella by Kay and it was also on clearance, but only 30%, but that's better than nothing;) Some of the new Studio G Easter wood stamps. And I just LOVE that little bird in a cage stamp. Got that at M's too on sale for 25% off. It made me think of those new BG stamps that are coming out; the ones with the little bird cages. I SO want those!!! The inchie stamps are from J's as well as the pink glitter glue. I picked those up Saturday, but threw then in when I took the pic of my Friday goodies to kill two birds with one stone:)Another really cool M's find. I found two boxes on Friday and the other 3 on Saturday at a different store. $1!!!

Saturday Stevie stood in his stepsister's Quience (15th birthday) in Natalia so we drove out there for the church service. We didn't stay for the reception cause that didn't start until 6pm and the church service was over at 4pm. Too long of a wait with nothing to do or anywhere to go and it's just too much a drive to come back so late so we decided against. We didn't get very good pics of the actual service, but I got a pic of V at my inlaws before we left...

Mattie spent the weekend at my mom's so it was just the 3 of us. After we got back in town I stopped at M's and then at 911 and just picked up a couple of things. No biggie;)LOVE, LOVE the BG paper with the little bird cages. And the chipboard house I wanted to make some type of mini family LO with, but now I'm thinking I should have snagged up a few more to make a mini album. Gonna see if I can get some put on hold for me to pick up later this week.

Saturday V spent the day at my inlaws and we took in a movie. We went to go see Push. It was good. Not great, but not awful either. The kids both saw Coroline. V with my inlaws and Mattie with Lal. Kind of wish we'd seen that one too cause now both kids have seen it. Guess we'll wait until it goes to DVD to watch ourselves.

So today after I got back from our meeting, I invited my neighbor, Ruby to breakfast. Ariel is getting so big. She is SO adorable. I love seeing her grow:)

Today is cleaning day and I got a kind of late start so I'm still trying to finish that up. I'm ALMOST done, but this will free up the rest of my week. Steve went with me to do our grocery shopping yesterday so that is one less chore off my week. Yay!!!

Have a great evening and enjoy the rest of the week. Off to feed my kiddies dinner:)

On the Road to Recovery...

2009-02-03T16:27:00.001-08:00

I am finally beginning to feel an improvement in my health. It was a long weekend. Saturday was just the worst:( I should be done with my antibiotics on Thursday.

Today was a bit of a rough day, but Mountain Cedar was really high so that is NOT good...for me. It was a rather warm day though. Our high was like 74 or 5. WARM.

So I just chilled at the house today. I got two LOs done...finally. I've just been in such a rut. Nothing is inspiring me:( But here's what I got done today...

This one is a lift off of 2Peas. I used some of my new MM Chole's Closet on this one; all but the music notes pp in the center is from that line. The stems are Sizzix cut, MME title, Prima flower, epoxy brad and Bazzill pompom.This was a lift off of Lal's recent Twilight LO. I used a lot of old stuff on this one. The only new thing is the Rusty Pickle Chocolate Covered Cherries pp (the red/brown with the roses). The rest...Foofala papers, MAMBI Coastal diecuts, K&Co. Remake chipboard letters, MM vintage hip rose.

Here's some goodies I had on hold at 911 that I picked up on Sunday; the Imaginisce papers and Snag 'Em stamps and the Rusty Pickle sheets. I got the cupcake stamps and mag at J's and the Fiskars punch at M's. I still have $202 in credit at 911. Woo hoo!!! Can't wait for all the new CHA stuff to start coming in;)

I saw these really cool inchies stamps by Inkadinkadoo at J's but couldn't find the punch so I decided to wait on them. Then I went by M's and found it, but figured I should buy it before I'm not able to find it again. It was 40% off this week. So now I gotta go back to J's and get those stamps. They are also 40% off this week:) They are so cute and fit right into that punch;)

Sunday the kids went to my inlaws and we went to go see Underworld. Twilight it was NOT, but it was still pretty good. Went to eat at Jim's and that was about it. We got a late start and I was still not up to being up and about so much, so we had a short day.

Not much else for my start of the week. I'm hoping to get out on Friday and do SOMETHING;) The weather should be nice all week. Hope the cedar goes down...