Behind!

Once again - I'm way behind on blogging. No excuses - just other priorities. I'll have to do some catching up:)

Things here have been going fairly well - if fairly wet. We have had lots of rain in the last week and 2 power outages. The first one lasted 14 hours, and finally tipped Mitch over the edge into buying a generator. Hooray! The last one only lasted 8 hours - but we were happing "generating" our own power - so didn't faze us in the least.

Course, boys and their toys - Mitch couldn't have a regular ole off the shelf generator - he had to have a Honda generator. Judging from the price - they are the Ferrari of generators. I do like it though, it is very quite, light and portable. Also I guess it generates clean power - so I could power the computer with it if I needed to.

The kids did really well in their school conferences. All of them got good grades. Emma is ready to read, according to her teacher, so her and a few other students will be starting on reading - and will have different homework than the other kids. She is so excited - and so am I.

We got the kids' school pictures back - they all turned out good.
Emma needs a haircut, which she has since gotten, courtesy of Mom
Look at that big smile on Brett's face - he is such a cheerful child, and even got a cheerfulness award at school.
Braeden thinks this is his best school photo ever - it is pretty good


Been busy working on rolodex cards for a swap that I'm in. I scraplifted design elements from a couple different ones that I saw on the web - I really like how they turned out. They are using the Cowgirl papers from Crate. I had to make 2 different sizes, so they are a bit different. The one with rounded corners is the standard size, and the other is 3 X 5.

Sweet Sixteen

My oldest son Braeden turned 16 today. I can't believe that I am the Mother of a 16 year old boy. Here he is on his birthday - just after reading over 20 plus emails that my internet friends sent him wishing him Happy Birthday!



He thought it was pretty cool to get those emails, and he even wrote back and said thanks - makes a Momma proud.

Here he is with his birthday present



We originally bought this car for me, then Mitch has used it as a commuter car, and now we have given it to Braeden. It is a 1994 Honda Accord with 150k miles on it. I think it is a pretty decent first car. Of course, Braeden already has ideas on how he is going to trick it out! He got his first taste of car ownership when I handed him the notice that the tabs are due to expire November 1st! ROFL at the expression on his face. We told him we would help him with maintenance, but he is responsible for his insurance, gas and tabs.

Course, now he just needs to go and take the test for his license. I think that will probably happen next week. I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Tagged again!

K - my friend Jen tagged me in an effort to get me to update my blog :)

The rules:
1. List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets.
2. Tag 5 friends and list them.
3. Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people.
4. Don’t forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

Sheesh, and I think everyone knows my weird things already - but here goes

1. I HATE feet. Except for kids feet ages 6 and under.
2. I don't like people touching my face.
3. I have to sleep with one foot out of the covers.
4. I only like Milk Chocolate
5. I always sit with one of my feet underneath me.

So there it is my boring weirdness is now out in blogville :)

And again, I'm not tagging anyone - just because.

Tagged

Okay, I was tagged by Lacey and Bonni - so I am finally getting around to doing this.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether or not they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal/blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

1. Chasing Cars/Snow Patrol
2. Hip Don't Lie/ Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean
3. Like Red on the Rose/ Alan Jackson
4. Summer of '69/ Bryan Adams
5. Melt / Rascall Flatts
6. How to Save a Life / The Fray
7. Zombie / Dilana

and I'm not gonna tag anyone - cause they've all been tagged

You know you are obsessed with scrapbooking when..

..your child is planning photo ops so you can have pictures to scrapbook!!

We bought a new weeding tool today - called an Ohio Weed puller- it looks like this and works by putting it in the ground, stepping on the bar to close the grabber and then levering it out. Pretty easy way to weed - and the kiddos loved it.


Emma kept up with it after Brett gave up, and I was sitting watching her weed while reading my latest scrapping magazine, and Emma says - "Mom aren't you going to take a picture?" Mitch asked her why, and she said "because this is going to be a memory - a memory of weedpulling and you can scrapbook it!" Well after that, I did have to go and take some pictures, and they'll be featured on a scrapbook page soon!



With Emma making sure that I take pictures of even the most mundade every day chores, I will never run out of material for scrapbook pages!!

Kindergarten Orientation

This was the "happiest day of my life" to quote Emma!! She was so excited to be going to meet her teacher and new classmates. She wasn't shy or nervous at all, and took off for the tour of the school, leaving Mom behind, without even a backward glance!




After they came back from the tour - she drew the teacher an awesome picture, and then told me I know I'm going to be so happy here. It was a great feeling to know that she would be alright in her new surroundings!

Jury Duty part 2

Well as expected - my jury group number was called for today. I was soo upset. The thought of missing Emma's kindergarten orientation was heart breaking and DH did not understand the big deal. But she is my baby, and my only girl and I want to be there for as many of her firsts as I possibly can and this one was a biggie. First time meeting her teacher, first time in her classroom, first time meeting her new classmates. I know I should feel lucky that Mitch's job is flexible enough to allow him to take off the time to take her. I tried to make the best of a bad situation, I got the camera out, gave Mitch a list of photos he was to take, laid out her outfit to wear, put her school supplies out, gave instructions on how to get to her classroom and the time. So we were covered.

I showed up for jury duty at 9am. Signed in, and sat. About 9:15 they showed us a little video about jury duty, how you are selected, how the attorny's select you for an actual juror. They handed out our juror buttons, big red buttons with white lettering that you wear at all times - so that counselors and witnesses etc know not to try and talk to you. They also gave us our juror numbers - mine was 10. There were 20 of us, in a fairly cramped little room.

My plan was to ask to be excused by the judge - even though I felt bad about asking to be let off for that reason, but the bailiff assured me that they would want my full attention on the trial - so best to mention it. But in order to ask the judge, we had to wait until we were called up into the courtroom. At about 10:00 I called Mitch to make sure he was still on track to take Emma, since he needed to leave work at 10:30 in order to get home and get her in time to make it to the orientation. I had pretty much given up on being able to go, especially after the portion of the video that showed jurors sitting around waiting and waiting and it said that we would see first hand the slow, deliberate process of the justice system - LOL. At about 5 after 10:00 they called us up to the courtroom, and the judge greeted us and then let us know that they had no need for a jury at all that day, and we would be dismissed. I was soo happy!!! He then proceeded to tell us all about jury duty, the selection process, what types of trials we might have heard...etc. As the minutes ticked away, he kept on, and then finally closed and asked for questions - and some lame brain actually asked on!! So then off the long winded judge went again!! Finally at 10:25 we were released and I was able to get ahold of Mitch just as he was getting ready to leave his office! Whew!! I'll write about her orientation and post a picture tomorrow!!

Jury Duty

I have jury duty this week. We have to call in every evening after 6 pm to find out if we are scheduled for the following day. One small problem - I FORGOT - until Tuesday afternoon!!

I race home to find my jury duty info and call the recorded line number - whew! Off the hook for Tuesday. Then I have to call the jury clerk and find out if the sheriff's are after me for failing to report on Monday. Whew again - my number wasn't called for Monday either - so even though I forgot to call - I'm in the clear.

I remembered to call in last night - number not called again today. So I have to call again tonight. With my luck, I'll get called up on Thursday when I'm supposed to be taking Emma to her Kindergarten orientation or on Friday when I need to be at work to do payroll. Oh the joy of civic duty.

More of our vacation

Went to the Sea Lion Caves - pretty cool place - gorgeous views and some interesting history.


Here are the kiddos waiting for the elevator to take them 208 feet to the surface

A view from the observatory deck in the caves. You can see the sealions on the rocks below and in the distance you can see Heceta Head Lighthouse. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can then see those things :)

Next stop - Florence

From Salem we traveled to Florence Oregon to stay at the Holiday Inn Express and we went to the beach. I love the beach - and I love the Oregon beach more than anything! The first day - it was windy - so that wasn't so fun - but we still hiked out to see the ocean! We were even brave enough to go in the water a bit - but as you can see - we hurried right back out again :)




The next day we booked a Sand Dune tour at Sandland Adventures Back in 1985 we had taken Braeden here and done the tour, and we toyed with the idea of renting a sand rail and ATV and going out by ourselves. But it would have been about $400 for 2 hours, and they were also full - so we did the tour with 25 others on the Giant Dune Buggy.



The driver was so knowledgeable, funny and helpful too! He pulled a stuck truck out of the sand with the Giant Buggy - was cool! The kids really enjoyed the ride - the scenery is awesome and going up and down those dunes is fun! We did unfortunately see a dead seal on the beach, and Emma was quite upset and wanted to know why such a beautiful gentle creature like that had to die.

While we were waiting for our tour time, we played miniature golf, rode go-carts and bumper boats! Trying to take pictures while driving a bumper boat - is a true challenge!! But I did it!

Enchanted Forest

Our first stop on our vacation was The Enchanted Forest which is an amusement type park outside of Salem Oregon. We had been a couple years ago with the kiddos and Brett and Emma have talked about going back ever since -so this was the year!

Emma couldn't wait to get on the Frog Hopper again


and Brett was so ready to go to Western Town and buy the rifle he had been wanting for so long


Braeden wasn't thrilled about going - but he was a good sport and enjoyed the bumper cars although he is so long legged it wasn't a very comfortable fit.


We stayed in Salem at the Best Western - was a very nice suite - loved that - and it had a regular pool and a small kids pool and a spa pool and sauna. Emma loved having her own little pool! While we were there - my sister Vivian who I hadn't seen in almost 2 years and her daughter Debbie came over and visited and had lunch with us. Was nice to catch up!


I'm the one in the middle, with the big middle. Man I need to get out and do something about all this weight I've gained!! I've been trying to make sure there are a few more pictures of me for my scrapbooks - but it is hard when I look like this!

Anyway, I'll post some more about our vacation later :)We are off to go camping!

Ha Ha

Well, yes Jen as a matter of fact the sticky note did fall off the computer - and that is why I haven't kept up with this ;)

We just got back from a vacation. Took the kids to The Enchanted Forest in Turner, Oregon. Got to meet Carrie (from Scrap Addict) and her girls. Was great to meet, the kids got along well and we took lots of pictures!

There was a guy there that looked like Abe Lincoln and you could dress up in Civil War gear and take a picture with him. So Carrie and I did, here is the picture. And to answer some questions - yes, I am quite tall 5 ft 11 inches, and I am purposely trying to be somber looking. I figured old time photos they didn't smile much, and holding a gun didn't seem to call for a smile either :)

Playing Catch - up again

Man - I have got to get a better handle on this blogging - maybe a sticky note on the computer would help. Lord knows I'm on the computer often enough!! And sometimes I even think about blogging - but get sidetracked. Story of my life!!
So from the July 4th blog and up to here are going to be new posts. Sorry to make it so hard on ya, if you actually read this - but my blog is more for a place to keep track of stuff so I can remember and journal it, if I ever get to scrapping again. Seems that the FSB (Fat Scrappin' Bastard) has struck again and has taken my MOJO. I have tried to even make cards - hoping that would jump start it - but no joy. So until the FSB brings me back my MOJO - I guess I'll update my blog :)

July 29th Blog Challenge

Described your loved ones in 5 words each. This includes your hubby, kids or anyone else... including pets if you want!

Mitch
1. Hard working
2. Funny
3. Mischevious
4. Loyal
5. Cute

Braeden
1. Tall
2. Good looking
3. Shaggy
4. Funny
5. Teenager

Brett
1. Emotional
2. Funny
3. Obsessive
4. Handsome
5. Affectionate

Emma
1. Drama
2. Loving
3. Silly
4. Smart
5. Pretty

July 22nd Blog Challenge

Do a favorites list

5 favorite foods
1. Pineapple
2. Pizza
3. Steak
4. Mexican
5. Chines

5 favorite people
1. Mitch
2. My kids
3. Vern
4. Amy
5. Lauren

5 favorite songs
1. Jukebox Hero
2. Blessed the Broken Road
3. Breathe
4. Sweet Child O Mine
5. Beautiful boy

5 favorite places
1. Home with my family
2. Columbia River
3. Guam
4. Oregon Coast
5. Utah

5 favorite movies
1. Shawshank Redemption
2. Sound of Music
3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
4. Harry Potter Movies
5. Anything with Catherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

Blog-a- Latte

That is to say that my blog is going to act like it has had a caffiene injection!
Stand by, I'm going to play catch up with my blog :) I know it probably isn't the "done" thing to go back and post - but it's my blog and I'll back post if I want to ;) So if you are reading this - you may want to scroll down to some of the older stuff to see what you "missed".

July 15th Blogger Challenge

List 5 specific moments that brought you joy this week.

1. Brett told me I was beautiful
2. Braeden gave me a hug for now reason
3. My indoor plants are still alive.
4. Emma crawled on my lap to snuggle and watch a movie.
5. Mitch held my hand as we walked.

Extreme Mom

Well, this is as extreme as my kids have seen me get. They didn't think I'd do it - but I showed them!! Good thing there isn't any sound on this video, or you would hear my high pitched screaming as I bounced across the wake, and got swung way out to the side during the turns! It was a lot of fun, and since it was so hot out, it was wonderful to be cool on the water. Braeden took this video while I was tubing behind our boat on the Columbia River during the weekend before the 4th of July.

My niece is a mommy - again

Nope, not the niece in the last post :) Another one. You are probably wondering exactly how many nieces I have - and I got to thinking about that too, so I did a little tally and here it is:

11 nieces
6 nephews
6 great nieces
14 great nephews
and 1 great niece, 1 great nephew and 1 great something on the way.

Sheesh - we aren't shy about populating the world :)

But I digress, back to the baby at hand. New little great nephew made his appearance while we were in the area, here is the little birth card off the hospital website.

My Niece is married

My niece got married today, and we attended the wedding reception. My niece J and my sister are members of the LDS church, as is her fiance, so her ceremony was in the Temple, and non-members don't attend. But she had a beautiful reception aftewards and a little ring ceremony. I'd never met her fiance, but he seemed like a nice fellow, very polite and well spoken. I hope they will be very happy together.

I made them this as an engagement present, to help show my support for J., because I love her and she was going through some tough times with her Dad and some of his family being less than supportive of the engagement and marriage. She loved it and displayed it at the reception - I was honored.

July 1 Blog Challenge

List 5 Favorite Things About Yourself
1. Loyalty
2. Sense of Humor
3. Work Ethic
4. Long Legs
5. Eyes

Ahh... Love

Last year Mitch and I attended our 20th high school reunion. It was so awesome to see people and catch up. We had a blast...especially hanging out with one of our friends BigK. He wasn't going to come to the reunion, had just been through some tragic life events. But he heard that Mitch and I (mainly, okay-probably 100% Mitch) and so he came. He ended up attending every event and having a great time. Later we heard that he had started dating another of our high school friends that was at the reunion, and over the past year we have gotten updates that they are doing great - have so much in common and are very happy.

Today I got a wedding invitation in the mail!! I am so very happy for these two people who have been through it in their lives, that they have found each other at the right time in their life and are enjoying themselves. I wish them all the happiness in the world.

S. wrote a nice little note in the invitation thanking Mitch and I for getting BigK there. I probably don't deserve any of the credit, but it is nice to think I had a hand in their happiness :)

New family fun item!

Well, Mitch used the chinese water torture method to convince me to buy a boat. He's been wanting one for years - and finally talked me into it. We spent the day Saturday shopping. Looked at a few old ones, and then went to Olympic Boat Center and looked at a lot of new ones!!

Mitch wanted the 17 foot one, but I thought the 18 foot one would be better for us. He finally decided to get the 18 foot one, which surprised me, and then commented that we should name it Kim's Choice.

But after taking it out on the Puget Sound on Sunday, he admitted that he wouldn't want a smaller boat on those waters, or for our family. So I think we should call it I Told You So or Mother Knows Best :)

Here is a picture of our un-named beauty



We had such a great time on it with the kids. I was a bit worried how Brett and Emma would do on it, but they love it and can't wait to go back out. We are planning on going to Oregon over the 4th and spending lots of time on the boat on the Columbia River - so hopefully they will continue to love it.

Here is a somewhat blurry shot that Braeden took while we were out on Sunday.


Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

Got Cards??

I hosted a Got Cards? Challenge during NSD month over at www.scrapaddict.com and made this card organizer as part of the prize for the drawing winner. Was quick and easy to make, using instructions from Self Addressed. I used papers from the Scrap Addict altered kit - XYZ, PDQ.

Men at Work

June 4th, 2006

Mitch and the kids moved 25 yards of 1/4- basalt to resurface our drive way. What a lot of work - took about 10 hours of Mitch and Braeden working hard! Emma worked pretty good too, Brett worked when forced :) We payed all the kids $10 an hour - so they were happy. While they all worked, I scrapped and snapped pictures -so I was happy too.

Here are some pics:



before



and after.

Well worth all their hard work!

Scrap Addict Blogger Challenge #2

Todays challenge is to list 3 obscure facts about yourself, things people wouldn't know unless you told them.

1. I hate feet. DH gets very mad, cause I won't let his feet touch me. Can't stand it.

2. I hate having my face touched or anything over it.

3. I almost drowned when I was 2 - my brother who was 15 saved me.

Scrap Addict Blogger Challenge #1

Annette at Scrap Addict is doing a weekly blogger challenge - yeah - that'll get my blog updated :)

ABOUT ME

favorite color: Black (really!!)
word I most liked to be described as: loyal
best meal I cook: Chicken Cheese Enchiladas
favorite dessert: Cherry Crisp
favorite book: The Velveteen Rabbit
favorite outfit: Capris, flip flops and a 3/4 length sleeve t-shirt
usually in bed by: 10pm
favorite sounds: my kids' giggles
I wish: That there was more time in the day
What I crave: I crave to be more at ease within myself.
Surround me with: Family.

I Love my Wishblade!!!

I have to say, this is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I love it, I love it, I love it. I could only love it more, if it were a CraftRobo or my dream - a CraftRobo Pro.

I have had it for awhile now, and not really done anything much with it. But this past week I have been using it do do something on almost all my layouts, and hopefully soon I can branch out to some crafts and cards :)

Here are some of the layouts I've made using my Wishblade:

I used the WB to cut out the tags and big brother for "One GR8 Big Brother" Uses a Scrap Addict kit, Big Man on Campus and a sketch by Karen H. KH26




I used the WB to cut the title "Blow". Uses a Scrap Addict kit, Katie & Kimi, and a sketch by Monica K. MK41.



This is a scraplift of Rosie Posie over at Scrap Addict. I used the WB to cut the B for the title "Between" Uses a Scrap Addict Kit - Final Countdown.



I used the WB to cut the title "Bubbles" and also to cut the circles. This uses Scrap Addict kit Hit The Road Jack, and a sketch by Bonni R. BR1101.




Thanks for looking and reading. Ignore the washed out colors, my scanner isn't playing nice :)

Been awhile

Boy, it sure has been awhile - did ya miss me?? ;) Nah, I know you all are use to the long down times between posts. I always say I will try to be better - but you obviously see how well that works! LOL.

So, I see that my last post was about our easter egg coloring. I just finished a layout with those pictures - here it is



It's using the On the Goodship Lollipop Kit from Scrap Addict, featuring Basic Grey papers, and it is a sketch by Catherine CA49.

Now for a gripe. My new scanner is making me MAD! It so totally washes out the colors on anything that I scan. I emailed the tech support a couple days ago, and so far have heard back nothing!! I am so disappointed - hopefully they will get back to me soon.

So anyway, there is a small post to keep you happy. I'm still in the middle of NSD activities for Scrap Addict and I need to get in gear, those challenge ho-bags over there mean business - and I'm not getting left behind ;)

Easter

We had a somewhat untraditional Easter this year, it was too wet for the EASTER (yes I said Easter, not Spring!!) Bunny to hide the eggs outside, so we had an indoor egg hunt. Mitch boiled up 18 eggs, and we all dyed and decorated them in preparation for the Easter Bunny to come and hide them.



After we dyed the eggs, we had fun dressing up in the Easter Bunny hat that Brett had made at school! We made ourselves laugh anyway ;)



The following morning the kids hunted for eggs inside the house, and Brett found 9 and Emma found 8. Wait - that's only 17!! What happened to the 18th egg?? Mitch figures we will find it when it starts to smell bad, and he also says we should have made the Easter Bunny write down where the eggs were hid!! After searching high and low, Mitch remembers that Braeden ate one of the eggs before they got decorated, so although 18 were boiled - only 17 were decorated and left for the Easter Bunny to hide! Phew!!!

We had an excellent meal, spent some time with our neighbors and enjoyed the sunshine that came out that afternoon. We hope you all enjoyed your Easter as much as we did!

What Car are You???

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

This quiz came through a yahoo group I am on, thought it would be fun to see what car I am. I think it got me right :)

Lucky!!

Have you ever seen the movie "The Cooler"?? Where the casino has on it's payroll, this guy who is so unlucky that he can just walk by someone that is on a lucky streak and stop it cold?? That is me - if I lived in Vegas - I'd be a Cooler. As it is, I live within 10 minutes of 2 different casinos, and we go about once a month. My MIL and my DH like to go and they can play for a long time on $20. I on the other hand, can lose $20 very quickly - and on a penny machine at that! I usually take a book to read, and once I lose, will go to the car and read while they continue to gamble.



Saturday, Mitch wanted to go to the casino, so we headed to the "big" casino to gamble and eat lunch at their buffett. Mitch headed to the machine he prefers Paddy's Luck penny machine and I hopped about from machine to machine before heading to one that actually treats me decent "Leprechauns Gold" 2 cent machine. To cover all the lines you have to do 20 lines - so that is a 40 cent bet. I played for awhile and was a bit up and down and then lo and behold - 5 pots of gold. 5,0000 credits on my 40 cent bet. $100.00 !!! I couldn't believe my luck - and you can believe that I cashed out and I kept the receipt for $128.00 - the most I've ever won in my life and probably the most I'll ever win. But for once it was nice to not be The Cooler :)

Garlic Fries!!!

So, Mitch went out for a few drinks after work on Friday, at my urging I might add. I had visions of scrapping time dancing in my head. But, that turned out not to be, as I got a call from him saying that he would need a ride home, and would call when he was ready. So I knew that if I started trying to scrap - he'd call right in the middle of it, so why bother.

So the call comes to go get him, and I drive the 40 minutes to the base to pick him up at the club. I get there, it is very loud and he and his friends have to lean in close to talk - and OMG!!! The smell! The stench!! The overpowering aroma!!!

They had all had the same thing:


GARLIC FRIES.

I kid you not, the smell was overwhelming. It was coming out of Mitch's pores, and it stunk up the truck and the house. When he woke up in the morning, I had a headache, which I told him was from smelling Garlic Fries all night. He had the worst taste in his mouth - and not even brushing his teeth and his tongue and gargling with Listerine could take it away.

These things might be delicious, but they linger!! So the moral to this story is: When you are out drinking don't over indulge in Garlic fries - or they will outlast the hangover!!!

LAZY!!! (part 2)

Well, looks like it has been a lot longer than it should have been since I posted on my blog. Thanks to Bonni, Jen, and Lacey for reminding me :) Not a whole lot going on in my life lately - except for trips to the Doctor. Emma had a bladder infection, and was on antibiotics. I went in for my annual exam, and they called and said I had a bladder infection, so I went on antibiotics. Brett started running a fever, and cough - so took him to the dr., they did a chest xray - he had pneumonia - so he went on antibiotics. Braeden started running a fever, and cough - took him to the dr. since his brother has pneumonia - likely he does too - so he went on antibiotics. 5 trips to the clinic and 7 to the pharmacy, plus 2 trips to the eye doctor in the last month. Thank goodness the military has decent insurance and our medications are free - or we'd be in trouble!!

The FSB has my scrapping mojo again. Which isn't a good thing, since I gave a gift certificate of a scrapped wedding album to some friends for their wedding last spring, and they just finally brought me all their stuff. So, if you see the FSB, tell him I want my mojo back!!

So, there, done, blog updated!! That wasn't so bad - guess I'd just better try better to stay on top of it!!

LAZY!!

My goodness, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I updated my blog. Where has the time gone? I kept thinking I needed to update it, and then just didn't. Can you say Lazy??? So grab a drink, pull up a chair - we're gonna be awhile.

So anyway, a lot going on around here. Mitch and I have been busy on some home improvement projects. Our bathtub in the kids' bathroom broke, so that had to be replaced. We had already purchased new linoleum for the bathrooms, so was a good time to put that in, and since Mitch was already doing all that - seemed to be a good time to replace the sinks too!! After a couple of weeks of using just our bathroom, we finally got the kid's bathroom put back together. I went and bought new towels and rugs and decor stuff for the bathroom. The new floor looks great and I love the new furnishings.

Here are some old/new pictures.



This is the old sink on the left and the new one on the right. I love the rounded look to the new one - think it really brightens up the bathroom. I still want to have Mitch change out the faucet on it though. And you can see the new dragonfly accessories I bought too.




This is the flooring. I love the new stuff (it's on the right) - think it makes the bathroom look brighter and bigger.




Here is an overall look at it. The bathroom is dinky, but I think it looks great with all the new stuff. Now I need to remember to put the rug grabber stuff on the bottom of the rug - cause it is slick on the new floor!

We have also made some major family type changes lately. We had become very fragmented, all of us eating at different times, doing our own things. DH was in charge of cooking, cause he said it relaxed him - but he fed the kids whatever they wanted and would make 3 different meals to please everyone. That wasn't teaching the kids anything good - so I have taken back the kitchen. I am not the most favorite Mom right now :) Family dinner is at 6pm, we all eat the same thing, at the dinner table. The kids have to eat at least a little of one vegetable and one fruit (this is a struggle). I've also put a ban on computer and video games Mon-Fri. In addition (Mom is on a roll!!!) on Mondays, we have Family Home Evening. This is an idea that I have adapted from the LDS church. My sister is LDS and has long called me a "dry Mormon" whatever that means - LOL. So on Mondays, there is no TV at all. We all do an activity together. There is a person put in charge that day, and they choose the meal and the activity. It rotates, and when it is the parents turn to be in charge - we will go out to eat and maybe to a movie or something.

Braeden (15) wasn't too excited about this new regime, but Brett (7) and Emma Grace (5) were excited about playing games. I bought Operation and Candy Land and our first evening was 2 weeks ago. Emma Grace was in charge and we had Spaghetti and played games. After a shaky start - it was great!! Mitch and Braeden were determined to beat Operation and played for quite a while. Emma, Brett and I played Candyland until it was time for baths. We had our 2nd Family Night last night (we had to delay it because Brett has been sick) and Brett was in charge. We had Tacos for dinner and played Trivial Pursuit for kids - Nick Edition. Was a lot of fun and the kids have adapted very fast to the new routine.

Here are some pictures from the first Family Night




Mitch and Braeden battling it out over Operation.





Brett and Emma in an intense game of Candy Land.

I also got a lot of scrapping done during the Beat The Winter Blahs Challenge on
Scrap Addict I won't post them all here - there are quite a few. But I was happy to get them done and break into my awesome kits! Here are a couple of my faves:


A photo of my Mom and Pops, just a few days before she passed away in 2004. Love this Tainted Love Kit from Scrap Addict!!

Inspired by a layout by Gretchen M., photo is of Mitch at Jeff's Pirates Cove in Guam.

You can see the rest at my gallery at Scrap Addict, my userid is artsnscraps. You do have to be registered to view them - but all the talent at SA makes that definitely worthwhile.

So that sorta catches you all up - I'll try not to go so long without updating!

Cyber Crop

Well Jen and I are running a Cyber Crop on our military wives scrappin group. I have actually gotten 3 layouts done. That was Friday though - when I actually had some scrapping mojo - and I had to interrupt it to go to work. That is when my mojo left in a huff. I had all day today to myself pretty much to get some stuff done, and I got very little done. I am hoping that if I wish on the first star I see tonight, my Mojo will come back.

Here are the layouts that I got done. Something funny, a friend of mine actually told me that she dreamt about my Snow Cap layout - lol. It was so wonderful it catapulted me to fame, and I took her along with me as my Personal Assistant. Nice to know that I am the star somewhere!! ROFLMAO!!!


Scrap Addict Winter Wonderland SDJ kit and sketch BR1103


Scrap Addict Mother Earth SDJ and sketch LS23. Inspired by Linda S.'s "It's Fleece Weather" layout.


Scrap Addict Ally kit and scraplift of a layout by Karen H.

I got TAGGED!! Jen tagged me - thanks Jen.


What were you doing 10 years ago? 1996 - living in Guam

Five snacks that you enjoy (in no particular order because all snacks are created equal):
1. Peanut butter M&M's
2. Oreo double stuff cookies
3. Reeses peanut butter cups
4. Payday candy bars
5. Cheetos

Five songs to which you KNOW all the lyrics:
1. Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion
2. Killing Me Softly by The Fugees
3. Jukebox Hero by Forigner??
4. The Friends theme song
5. Happy Birthday

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. be debt free
2. make my family debt free
3. make sure my kids will never want for anything (and that they will go to college!!)
4. Buy a Volvo SUV
5. Buy a scrapbook store that someone else runs, and I just get to play in!

Five bad habits:
1. addicted to the internet
2. procrastinate
3. don't exercise enough
4. kind have a potty mouth
5. don't eat healthy

Five things you like doing -- I am going to change this to other than scrapbooking: 1. playing online
2. reading books
3. being with my kids and husband
4. baking
5. taking a long hot bath

Five things you would never wear, buy or get again:
1. a mini skirt
2. spandex
3. a tube top
4. high top sneakers
5. stirrup pants

Five favorite toys:
1. wide format printer
2. computer
3. digital camera
4. Honda Ridgeline
5. A3 scanner

And I'm not going to tag anyone, cause all my friends have already done it :)

Big Wind

We had a big windstorm that came through early Saturday morning and when it left, it took our power with it :(

The road that I live on is always like the red-headed step child when it comes to getting power back - last in line. And true to form, it was 5pm on Monday when we got it back. 60 hours without power. We lost all the food in our refrigerator/freezer and all the ice cream in our upright freezer.

Sunday it was 47 degrees in the house, and I knew there was no way I was trying to sleep in that, so we went to a hotel. Also, we had to watch the Superbowl -but that's another story. Turned out to be a big mistake to go the the hotel. The Seahawks lost, and on Monday AM as I was leaving the hotel to take the kids to school, I tripped and sprained my ankle. So got to go to the ER, get x-rays, pain meds and crutches. No Fun!

And where was my darling husband during all this - Arizona. Fun in the sun, with his Dad.

Ankle is healing and house is warm again. DH came home on Wednesday night - so things are back to as normal as can be in this household.

Friends

It is amazing the places you can make friends these days. Some of the people that I consider my best friends I have found through the internet, and we have never met in person.

One of those friends is Bonni, who I met through another friend Tasha. Bonni has become a very good friend, even though we haven't ever met in real life. When my Mom passed away in 2004, Bonni made me this gorgeous layout, based on a story that I told about the day my Mom passed away and on a photo that I had posted previously of my Mom and I. I was so touched that someone would go to the effort to make something so beautiful for me. Bonni was so worried that she would upset me with the layout, that she emailed me a picture before sending it and apologized in advance if she upset me. Dork! I love it and I can't believe I haven't shared it with anyone yet. I promised Belinda that I would post this - so here it is.



The day that my Mom passed away, all 8 of her children were there, along with various in-laws and neices and nephews, quite a crowd. We would take turns going into the house to spend time with her. At one point quite a few of us were sitting outside and a hummingbird kept coming over and hovering at the bush right by our shoulders and then would fly up to the tree next to us and just sit there. We all commented on how it was so odd to actually see a hummingbird just sit, and also on the fact that the bird hung around so closely to us. Hummingbirds were always my Mom's favorite and she collected hummingbird stuff. I commented to my sister that maybe it was Mom's spirit guide and by brother said maybe it's an angel. It is a special memory and I was so shocked when I got this from Bonni. All the thought and time that went into it. I cherish it!

Bonni you are a great person and I'm glad to call you my friend.

Melancholy

I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I get this way every so often, since my Mom passed away in August of 2004. I don't think I'll ever heal completely, but I am able to handle the funks better, and for that I'm grateful and so is my family.

I've found that scrapping about my Mom is very therapeutic, so I've been scrapping these last few days to get through the funk.

I'm also running a Kit Smackdown Challenge challenging people to use up kits that they have been hoarding, and this is the start of mine. I've got 103 new, unopened kits and 28 partially used kits. So I've got a ways to go!




The kit is the Scrap Addict Ally Kit from Dec of 2004 and it features Basic Grey papers. This one is inspired by the 2005 AL Calendar on 8/20-8/21. I added MM Rub on Alpha, BG Wholly Cow Rub On, Scrapworks Rub On Alpha, Maya Road Ribbon, and used my Fastenator for the first time! If you want to see the journaling - you'll have to check out my gallery at Scrap Addict :)



This one is inspired by the 2005 AL Calendar on 12/30. I added MM rub ons, charms, mailbox letters and pins, along with unknown charms, Maya road ribbon, unknown ribbon, and again my Fastenator. This is one of my favorite pictures of my Mom, it was taken a couple of days before she passed.

TFL!!