December 1

I am so excited! It is the little things in life that I need to embrace - things like I am doing a December daily album (a la Ali Edwards) and I got it nearly completed in time to start today AND I got my first page done today. I also signed up for Shimelle's Journal your Christmas and got that first page almost done today - just need to do a bit of embellishing. I realize the 2 may be redundant, but I'm hoping together I'll do a good job of documenting life right now and my Christmas memories. Truth be told, I don't remember much about Christmas as a kid, so hopefully this will refresh my memory. I just need to finish the cover of my DD album - need some stronger adhesive for a 3D accent I found and liked - and I am short ONE page of having enough for all 1-25 days. I did stop at Christmas, but I can add more if needed. I am doing hand journaling and it is a 6 x 8 album I made myself with some binder rings and chipboard, with just PP for the pages. I don't branch out like that so I am proud! For the Shimelle class, I am doing 8 1/2 x 11 pages, mostly computer journalling as I expect it to be more writing intensive. Sort of hybrid pages, if you will. Here is the photo I used for the first page - taken tonight in the dark, bulb setting on my camera, camera on computer desk and I pushed the shutter and held really, really still, holding my breath until it was closed. I really need to replace my tripod. LOL

October 3

Today is Photographer Appreciation Day!

I love learning more about photography. I always have. I don't know that I'll ever be a great photographer, but in honor of the day ~ here are some links to some of my favorite photographers (there's more, but this is what I can come up with right now.

Elisha Snow http://elishasnow.typepad.com/all_good/
Tara Whitney http://tarawhitney.com/justbeblogged/
Moon Ko http://www.moonkophotography.com/
Becky Novacek http://beckynovacek.typepad.com/live_and_learn/
and some non-scrappy ones (or at least not that I know of!)
Nicole Thomas http://photosbynicolethomas.com/

and my brother~ www.joshuawarrender.com

October 2

Today, October 2, is the beginning of No Salt Week. That's a holiday I won't be observing! I could maybe do No Pepper Week, but I need my salt.

Also, today is National Custodial Worker Day. A thankless job, most of the time. I'm posting this ahead of time, but I hope to do something nice for the custodial workers at school. I don't have the stomach for the work they have to do. My (deceased) father-in-law was a school custodial worker. He worked his way up from a sweeper to the building manager at the high school Scott works at and the kids attend. He retired due to disability in 1991. He didn't want to leave but his vision was failing and he wasn't able to work. He had to work many long days and got called in for things like a fuel oil spill on Christmas day one year. But, he loved working with the kids and Scott still remembers being able to see him every day when he was in high school. He was a great guy and I'm sure he did a good job at work.

So, thank a custodial worker today ~ they deserve it!

Another thing

Today is the start of the fiscal year for the federal government. Heaven help us all..... :-(

A New Venture

I'm trying something new - I got the idea from the Big Picture Scrapbooking Class I'm taking with Elizabeth Dillow called "Red Letter Days". I found a site (several actually) with different holidays, birthdays and such for each day fo the year. I'm going to try to post on some of these and just get thoughts out. Some of them will be serious, some funny and some just because. I think some of them will be nice to use for journaling someday. Some of them I will write ahead of time and some that day.

So today ~ October 1 ~ is World Vegetarian Day and the start of Vegetarian Month. I had originally considered trying to eat as a vegetarian on today when I first came up with this idea. But I had already eaten lunch when I remembered and I had a cheeseburger. Ooops. If I did eat as a vegetarian, it would be due to a preference and not a belief in animal rights or such. I actually was very near a vegetarian at one point. I ate very little chicken and fish and no red meat. I just don't like the taste of it as much. I could easily elimate all but fish and chicken, but sometimes, like recently ~ a burger or steak just sounds good. My mom always says it's my body trying to tell me something, like I'm low on iron or something, and maybe she's right? I could do some research on it.

In other news, I'm trying to scrap more again. Summer was rough on me and I was in a couple contests online that made me stressed about scrapping. One of them didn't go well at all ~ but the other was okay. I was not nearly the scrapper most of the other participants were, but at least people were friendly there. I am trying to embrace white space more.

My BPS class with Cathy Zielske starts tomorrow and I can't wait.

Scrapping contest

I don't have more scrapping to show for today (yet!), but I did find a new site (to me!). They're having a Summer contest and it looks like fun. I'm in the process of signing up, since tomorrow is the deadline (eep!). Check it out if you like at www.scraplove.com (I can't figure out a link right now for the life of me!)

Back again

I'm scrapping today, but taking a little computer time too. Hope to have a mini book done tonight to show!

Went with Michelle, Wendy and Sheila yesterday for a pedicure. Fun times! I went with a pretty pink color and did enjoy the experience for the most part. I don't like to try new things and I'm self conscious about my feet, but I did manage to relax and have fun. :-)

We went to the Meadows last night - no winning to speak of, but fun times. It was a bit odd, with the new no-smoking law here, you can't smoke outside on the track apron anymore, but you can smoke inside where we usually sit because there are slot machines on the same floor. So our area was packed and our group had to go outside to all be together. It was a cool night though, in fact, a couple of us were cold! Today is a different story - hot outside.

Hopefully back later with new stuff to show!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my.....floor?

Yeah, loads of fun here. Little water problem in the basement last night with the deluge of rain we got. I heard 2 inches in an hour and I think it could have been more - I know it was 4 inches total overnight. Our window wells have a tendency to fill up because of our big hill in the back, plus the neighbors driveway drains towards our house and he also has a lovely downspout pointed in the exact worst direction that Scott is going to talk to him about. Anyway, the sirens went off at 10 p.m. last night and then again around 12:30, I think. That's when I got these pics. It was actually coming in much worse than this, like a literal waterfall but I only thought later to take the pics and it was slowing down then. I tried to get a picture of the street out front with the river going down it but I couldn't get one to come out.



Going to the Meadows tonight (for the 5th Friday in a row). Sometimes we win and sometimes we don't, but we have fun anyway. Woot!

June 3

Finally feeling pretty good. I didn't take any cold medicine today and made it through the day - whoo-hoo!!

Still no scrappiness to show, but that's okay. Busy day at work today, even if no one was there really. Got 5th grade records out to 2 middle schools via my car, one more via bag mail. The other two remaining records will go out in bag mail as they are going out of district. Then a few kiddos leaving that are in other grades and I can rotate all the other files to their respective places. It's actually going to be a busy few weeks before my vacation starts for a week on June 13 - I have to get the records moved, all the supplies ordered for next year, clean off my desk!, archive all the financial and student info sheets, figure out who has enrolled and who hasn't. Plus more, that's just off the top of my head. Seriously my desk could take me 2 days alone. Ordering will take probably a day - it's alot of supplies, archiving and shredding another day. Eeep. I will get interrupted alot too, plus I think I have 2 days of training next week that they have yet to tell me what day to show up on. Ay yi yi!

Took tables with Michelle to Amy's for the garage sale they are having this weekend. Stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way home to check it out. Had a dish of rainbow sherbet and some other concoction of sherbet too. It was grape and green apple and had Pop Rocks in it. I'm sure it was marketed to 6 year olds rather than 36 year olds, but it was fun to eat.

Finals are done tomorrow - little kids were done today. They are excited for summer and playing with friends, swimming and such. I'm thinking of entering in the fair, something to challenge myself anyway. I have a couple pics I think would be good to enter, we will see how that goes though - usually I back out or think of it too late. It'd be a kick to something I did there, though - dreaming on....

June 2

Woot! Back again!

Feeling marginally better on the cold front. I actually think I'll be able to sleep tonight (hope, hope). Today was the last day for staff at school. Busy busy! Went to lunch with the nurse and dean of students and enjoyed finally being able to sit leisurely at lunch and converse!! Usually we are all cramming in lunch with kids running around. I truly can't guess how few days I have gone to lunch and actually left the office, instead of eating at my desk. And even rarer - left the building!

No scrapping done last night, but maybe tonight as Scott is going to poker with his mom (that sounds funny, doesn't it?) I'm homebound with the kids, doing some laundry, cleaning our bedroom and getting settled in for the night.

I did get to Archiver's yesterday and bought some fun stuff, mostly from the "Hot deals" aisle or whatever it's called. And some grungeboard, too. Hoping to have something to show for it later.

June 1

I am initiating a challenge with myself about blogging and today is the first step. So here I am!

I am recovering from a cold, still feeling yucky but not much to do about it. And this morning I had a teensy episode of vertigo - something I've struggled with before but haven't had much problem with for a couple years. I am worried about that - 2 years ago in June was horrible - Scott was in Canada and I was home with the 3 youngest kids, passed out on Meclizine(sp) and non-functional. Today was just a little spell, so hopefully it's not back full force. I'm sure it is from the pressure in my ears from the cold.

I have one more day with teachers and then they are gone for the summer. The kids left Friday. My own kids have classes until Tuesday (littles) and Wednesday (bigs).

I hope to get some scrapping done tonight, maybe a trip to Archiver's today when Scott goes to Scheel's. We'll see how I feel. Ugh.

What color crayon are you?

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors. You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius. Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way. While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Pages

Here's some goodies from the day....

Catch up again

I see I'm not keeping up very well. Lots going on, just not updating.

Still taking my DMACC class - still kicking my butt. I have a paper due Tuesday that I haven't started yet and a huge, enormous paper I also haven't started yet due on April 6. Like ginormous. I have requested books at the library for my research but that's it. Eeep. On the plus side, I do have 3 days off work this week + the weekend so I should be in business. My days off involve a lot of dr. appts. but I hope to get some stuff done on the off time.

Had the kids' school conferences last week - same old, same old there. Zach is lazy and disorganized, but skating by, Tiff is doing okay and working hard, but missing a few assignments, Macy is struggling lots and her teacher thinks she would have benefited from special ed. but not much to do at this point in the year in 5th grade, and Brady is doing well but constantly rushing to be the first done so making careless mistakes. Frustration almost all around.

I am in an online crop this weekend and have lots to do today to get "caught up", but looking forward to it and have some ideas in my head so that's good. We went on a drive today to allow Zach to work with a friend of ours on math. Math = not the strong suit for Scott or I, so Aaron came by to help him out. I hate to blame Zach's math struggles on his teacher, since I'm married to and the daughter of a teacher - - but I think it's his teacher. It's the only class where he consistently turns things in and still get crappy grades. He's only missed 2 assignments in there but has failed all his quizzes and tests. He says the teacher passes out worksheets daily and then turns on his Ipod. I don't know if that's completely true, but I know that he doesn't understand what he is supposed to be doing. He said today he learned more in an hour than he's learned all semester. :-(

Here's a few photos of things we saw on our drive. I saw the train coming and got my camera ready. Turned out pretty good I thought, considering we were going 65 in one direction and it was going who-knows-how-fast in the other. Timing is everything. :-)

Quiet Sunday

I've been working around the house today, trying to get some sort of organizing done. I just really wish I was born with that gene, but unfortunately, no. I got a couple bags of the girls old clothes ready for the DAV and hope to get one more before the day is done. We're having dinner here tonight with Dixie. Steak, baked potato and salad. Crap, reminds me I was supposed to go out this afternoon and get the salad dressing because all we have right now is French. Blech. Well, maybe a quick trip to the store will be next.

I've doing a bit of scrapping - trying to stay in the DW2008 challenge on 2peas. Got my 4 projects done for the month in the nick of time on Friday. Three were done earlier in the week but the last was a mad dash. Ah well, I like them and they are pages scrapped, ya know. I need to figure out how many I have done so far this year and keep track from now on so I know how I do.

Also joined a new message board that has lots of challenges. Looks like a fun group, we will see how it goes. I just need that extra push to get going I think. And I've found the joy of online ordering lately too. Ergh. My cc balance doesn't appreciate it but I think I've done okay with keeping it "reasonable". I got some new foam stamps after I found some that I LOVE at HL on their sale one week. I got some new BG paper pre-ordered that should be here shortly too.

Hope to keep up better here, didn't mean to disappear. Once spring is finally here, maybe I'll be more in the mood to post. Snow and cold makes me crabby. Lots of melting this w/e but another 4 - 6" expected tonight. Seriously.

Catchin' up

I would like to state for the record that I am DONE with winter. UGH! So over it. I am tired of being freezing cold all the time and walking like a penguin because I'm afraid I will fall. I'm tired of my kids wanting to go outside all the time and having to explain that it is subzero wind chill and they can't go out. I'm tired of being tired and cranky because I get no sunshine. I'm just plain over it.

I'm making spaghetti for dinner as we speak. Gotta put new cartridges in the printer and help Tiff with her science project after dinner. She thought it was due next Tuesday and unfortunately, it's tomorrow. :-( I want to scrap after dinner but I don't know yet again if I'll get to. Need to get laundry done, need to clean the house in general. Argh.

Macy at the hop

Big day last Friday - first dance for Macy. The theme was at the hop and she had a great time. Borrowed vintage saddle shoes from grandma, bought a costume cheap off the internet and had a great time. She learned how to Crank that Soldja Boy and all.

Depressed

It started yesterday morning when Scott took the dogs out in the morning. Bailey slipped on the ice and totally messed up her back legs. She has been going downhill for at least a couple years now - vet said she had arthritis and she was having a hard time going downstairs for awhile now. She still had some kick in her but this really hurt her bad. We tried yesterday to baby her through but eventually she was not able to walk at all, so we made the decision last night to have her put to sleep this morning. It was hard, but watching her like that was hard too. We didn't tell the kids before school (not my idea, but it was okay). Big kids took it okay, Macy cried awhile and Brady just wants to know when we can get a new dog. Macy says she doesn't want another dog, because then this will just "happen over and over." So sad to hear her so upset too. I've teared up a few times today, and cried myself to sleep last night. We had Bailey longer than 3 of our kids! Scott found her on the side of the road as a pup in 1995 and here we are in 2008. That's pretty long for a lab, especially a hunter that jumps out of boats and into the frigid water to retrieve. Here's my girl - she was such a good dog. Edit: we already have one dog, Malley is a 2 year old lab we deliberately got so we wouldn't be dogless when Bailey was gone. Brady wants another dog. Not right now.

inspiring

Checkin' in

Just a quick update on life here! We went to Eric and Amy's for a Super Bowl party today/tonight - had a lot of fun there! We all brought snacky foods, gave Eric and Wendy b-day gifts, played a game Smart Ass or something like that, watched the game and commercials. Laughed a ton!

My DMACC paper isn't due now until Thursday, I guess. I signed on tonight to send it and now it's not due. Hopefully my partner will get my review done and sent to me now. I was going to submit without it because I refuse to be late with it.

I need to get off to bed here soon. I wish for a snow/weather day but have no hopes of it! Gots lots to do this week - hopefully check in sometime!

One of these things is not like the other......

It's a big day in our household. It's a day 3 years, yes, 3 YEARS!, in the making. I'm pretty happy about it. There's at least one person in the household happier than I am. Can you guess what it is?






THE BRACES ARE OFF!

Thursday! Woo-hoo!

I don't know why shorter school weeks always seem as long or longer than normal ones. Maybe because the kids try to pack everything into the days that they have? I don't know. All I do know is that I'm constantly frozen everywhere I go lately. I took an old sweatshirt to school today to wear over my long sleeved sweater after lunch. I'm always freezing then. Then I came home and covered up with an old comforter to watch a little TV. Now I am on here and my feet are freezing and my arms have goosebumps. I am so over winter! I could get in the hot tub and warm up but I don't want to have to get out into the cold. (It's on a 3 season, unheated, non-insulated porch and it's presently about 9 degrees outside. Brrrr!) It is supposed to warm up to 35 this weekend and over 40 on Monday. I might be able to unthaw a bit.

My DMACC class is kicking my butt. I knew it would be a lot of writing but I don't think I knew how much work it would really be. I should have taken it in the summer when my job is easier but it's too late now. Argh. I have to interview a peer this weekend and write up the interview, have him review it, then have another peer review it, make revisions along the way and have the final to the teacher by Feb. 2nd, I think. I gotta get my questions to him tomorrow at the latest. Ugh.

So needless to say, I've completely fallen off the LOAD wagon. *sigh* I was so excited too. But I do have a lot of pages mapped out in my head or at least inspiration started for them. So hopefully I will get some things done soon. I am keeping up on the 366 pics for the year though. I think it will document how boring my life really is. :-)

Well, off to formulate questions!

She said......

Last week I took Macy and Brady with me to Hobby Lobby for buttons and maybe to look at scrapbooks to see if they were 50% off. They weren't but paper was 5/$1 so I had to buy 119 sheets. I tried to buy 120 but I lost count. And I also bought 31 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 too because I can't apparently count to 32 either. But as I was picking out my 60, er, 59 sheets of cardstock, Macy felt the need to tell me, "Mom, you have some really white highlights in your hair." Um, that'd be gray....thanks so much.

1/16/08

Yee gads! I need to get here more than once a week. I'm trying to get this post done quick and off to bed since the morning drive doesn't sound too pretty. Ugh. I'm so over the snow thing - once Christmas is over, I don't want anymore and we've had more than usual it seems. I'm behind on the LOAD but still plugging along. Got one done tonight I'll try to upload but not sure how to do that. I could really use a snow day!

Keeping up on my 366 photos challenge okay though. I need to find or get a little point and shoot though because right now all my photos are from home pretty much because my camera is just too big to lug sometimes.

Going to the wrestling match tomorrow - hopefully get some sort of photo there so it doesn't look like I never leave the house!

Okay, I figured out the one photo - I'll try to add another I've done and catch up on posting them a little at a time.

1/9/07

Whoo hoo! Middle of the week already. Nothing too exciting today ~ make a quick Tar-jay run tonight to get a new book (Plum Lucky), some zip tie things to organize all the cords for Ipods, cell phones, etc., of course found a couple things I needed in the dollar section - 3 pairs of Valentine-y socks, scrapbook stuff - got a basket also for the top of the fridge to organize the crap that ends up there like my trash bags, ziploc bags and foil stuff. Hate not having enough/well planned out cupboard space.

Scott and the kids are playing cards, I'm typing this quick and then hopefully off to organize some more things like my papers for my BPS class, my DMACC class, etc. Bought some binders that I can slip a custom cover into at the store tonight too + got 4 more yesterday at Walgreens. I am in it to win it with this organizing thing! I plan one notebook for the GOBI class at BPS, one for Stacy's Big Picture class when it starts, one for my DMACC class, one for my other craft patterns that are in a yucky binder now, one for my pagemaps/sketches and one for my household binder thing I plan to set up. Whoo-hoo!

I'm going to get this stuff done and maybe GET INVOLVED in this game in the next room.

First Post

I have kept up on the other blog okay so I thought I'd jump over here to the big kids playhouse! I'll post more tomorrow, just getting this set up now.