TGIF!!!!

Ahhh...the end of another week. Tonight is the Daddy Daughter Dance. Cora's pretty excited, but Andrew is afraid the same thing will happen this year: Cora will run off with her girl friends and leave him sitting all alone. Although the guys have planned on bringing Euchre cards tonight! They learned from last year. I had a talk with Cora about spending some of the time with her daddy, because daddies aren't around forever. She should take advantage of the time she has with him. Hopefully she understood. Andrew's sister Lara is coming over to do Cora's hair. Lara sometimes does her own hair for dances and stuff, and Cora's very excited for her to come do hers.

We had another snow day yesterday.I can't wait for Spring to finally get here. A few more weeks, and Spring will be official. Not sure the snow will get the memo, though.

Oh yeah!!! Huge day for The Digi Chick! They're kicking off their two-day Re-Opening Celebration today! Go on over and see what's going on! The site got a face lift, and everything is beautiful! Lots of prizes and contests to read about! GO!

Here's a couple layouts I did recently.

Long Weekend

Man I was tired! I spent all day Saturday at the bow club. There was a tournament there over the weekend, and I helped out in the kitchen. It was really fun to watch how a tournament is run. I learned a lot. I also participated in the tournament on Sunday morning. It was my first one! I've only had my bow for a week, so I didn't expect to do really well. It was a lot of fun to give it a shot though. After I was done, I stayed and helped in the kitchen again for a while. I'm really enjoying learning Archery.

It's Kindergarten Info Night! I can't believe Sarah's going to Kindergarten next year! After that I have to go and finish pictures for the theater group. There are only a few pictures left to take, and I'll be done for a while.

What a bummer!

For those of you who frequent Scrapbook Graphics, you might notice the site is gone. Apparently a tech made a HUGE error and deleted the ENTIRE server where the site was hosted. So, Maya's site is GONE. It's going to take a bit of time to get the site back up and running, but Maya is definitely working on it!

[Tuesday Morning]

School started back up today. We had a nice 4 day weekend because of the snow day. It was hard to get up this morning! Must...have...coffee!

I got some good practice in with my bow yesterday. We decided to take the clicker off because it was giving me more problems than helping me. It's suppose to ensure that I get to the same anchor point every time, but since I hadn't FOUND my anchor point yet, it was giving me fits. I'm shooting much better now that it's off. Once I find a steady anchor point that I reach every time, then we'll reinstall the stinkin' clicker. :) My back muscles are SO sore from shooting for 3 hours yesterday. This bow is considerably heavier than what I'm used to, so the muscles are hurting. I had fun though. Tonight I shoot in my ladies league. Hopefully I can shoot ok. I know I won't do really great, but that's ok. I know that it will take a LONG time for me to get used to this bow.

I've got to get my backdrop stand all in one place today. Thursday I'm doing the cast pictures for Fenton Village Players. Since I rarely use it, I think the pieces are scattered to and fro! I WILL need a background for these shots though, since I don't think brick walls are that attractive for these types of shots.

Yup. I'm OFFICIALLy ready for spring. I'm SO over winter. There's not much snow, but it's BUTT TICKLING cold!

Scrapbook Trends emailed me yesterday requesting a layout. That makes 5 layouts requested since I started digi scrapping in December. I'm really excited! Of course, I have MANY layouts that have not been requested, and that's ok. I REALLY love the layouts I've been creating lately, and that's all that matters. Scrappin' rocks! Can I get an amen????

Star Wars Movie Marathon!!!

My nephew has acquired all six Star Wars movies. He invited a couple of his friends over to watch the first three today. He also invited me. They're supposed to watch the next three tomorrow.

History of the movie marathon:

A couple years ago, James was sleeping over at our house. He and I decided to watch all the Star Wars movies (there were 5 at that time). We stayed in the house for two days and got through them all. Then in May of 2005, when Episode III came out, he wanted to see it with me. He and I went to the movies to see it. We've been co-geeks ever since. I was really flattered that he invited me to his marathon today. His friends weren't as enthused about it as we were, but that's ok. We still had a good time.

Scraplift of Shabby Miss Jen

Her layouts ROCK.

This was a challenge at Sweet Shoppe Designs. I had a lot of fun putting this together. Here's the layout I lifted .



I used Bella Gypsy Design's Lollipop Kit found at A Cherry On Top. Nice and bright!

Snow Day

We finally got the snow day.

Watched Men's Figure Skating last night and have come to the conclusion that Johnny Weir is a big ol' baby. He says his "aura" was off because he missed the bus to the rink and it threw off his focus. Whatever. Suck it up and drive on. Big weenie.

Anyway...I LOVED watching Snowboard Cross. That was a very interesting event. Someone remind me to STAY OFF www.olympics.com!!!!!! I DO NOT WANT to see who wins the events before I see them on TV!!!!! MAKE ME STOP!!!!!!!

I'm hoping my arrows come in today. If so, I can get my bow set up. I'm excited to start working with it.

Snow, Sleet, and School, Oh My!

It was NASTY this morning when we woke up. I checked the news to see if school was closed. No such luck. Cora has a field trip today to an international concert. Luckily the roads outside of our neighborhood aren't bad. The snow is perfect snowball/snowman snow, but it's TOO cold to go out and enjoy it. Now it's raining a bit. Geesh. Spring, anyone???? Guess I can't complain, I DID move to Michigan of my own free will. I must have been nuts! :) Nah, I love it here, except for the snow.

Andrew's been home the past couple days. He hurt his back pretty badly last week, and as you can imagine he's in pain.

Tonight's the Men's Long Program in Figure Skating. Go Johnny Weir! Looks like he's our best hope for a medal. Evgeni Plushenko is going to be TOUGH to beat. It's never over until the fat lady sings, though. I've seen awesome upsets many times in the Olympics. Congrats to Toby Dawson for his bronze in the Moguls last night. That was fun to watch! I love the Olympic spirit. The fact that Lindsay Kildow could ski the downhill after her scary crash on Monday shows true Olympic spirit.

Anyway...enough gushing from me. Ok...a bit more...GO APOLO!!!!!

Pink Chucks

Page I made about Sarah's Pink Chucks. She totally loves these shoes!!!!

I'm totally bummed...

Michelle Kwan announced she was withdrawing from the Olympics because of injury. I was SO rooting for her to take gold this time. I just love her tenacity. I know she's disappointed, but I'm glad she knew when it was time to pack it in. Much admiration for her. My bet's on Sasha Cohen now...she's a bad ass enough to take the gold. GO USA!!!

Not much else going on today...taught Sunday School this morning, and am now in my jammies once again. I've got an exam next Saturday, so I should be getting my study guide together.

We got most of our taxes done, just need a few tidbits of info to finish.

Anything else to report? Nope. I'm just gonna scrap a page or two, then get my ad done for the program for The Good Doctor. I'm the photographer this year for the group, so I get free advertising. Gonna be fun!

COLD Saturday

We're about to go to Andrew's mom's so she can help us with our taxes. WOO HOO! Hee hee....


Ok...Anyone have some duct tape??? My children are driving me crazy. Cabin fever is rampant around here!

Layout Blueprints updated their site with the cover of the new idea book coming out in June. Guess whose layout is on the cover??? I'm SOOOOOOO excited. I literally screamed when I saw it. Of course, things can change and nothing's solid until it's in print. Still, it's cool nonetheless.

Here's a preview of a little kit a made that was inspired by a page I did of my friend Leila's son Devin. His nickname is D-bug, and I made this kit to scrap some photos of him.



Here's a link for anyone who would like to have it. Lemme know if you take it and use it!

Meet The New Designers!

This Friday! Head on over there and check out the details. Hope to see everyone there!!!!
Here's a layout I created with the gorgeous kit that you receive FREE for attending the chat!

Woah! I've been tagged!

Heather tagged me!

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO? I was 19 and working at Howard Industries making ballasts for flourescent lights. Fun! I was also in the National Guard.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO? One year ago I was waiting impatiently for my new camera to arrive!

5 FAVORITE SNACKS: Peanut Butter Cups, Butterfinger, Coffee Ice Cream, Oreos, Anything chocolate!

5 SONGS TO WHICH YOU KNOW ALL THE LYRICS: All Nick Jr. songs, Ice Ice Baby (hee), The Humpty Dance (hee hee), Can't Touch This

5 BAD HABITS: Too much computer, sweet tea, twirling my hair

5 THINGS YOU LIKE DOING: photography, reading, digi scrapping, watching movies, hanging with my girlies.

5 THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER BUY, WEAR OR GET AGAIN: platform shoes, huge dangly earrings, huge bellbottoms, pants from Old Navy, Maternity clothes

5 FAVORITE TOYS: Canon 20D, computer, my bow, digi scrappin' stuff

2 TAGS:


Justine H.

Nancy

Welp

The snow is here. It came down pretty hard last night while we were at the bow club. It took a LONG time to drive home. The electricity went out this morning for about an hour and a half. It got pretty chilly! We were about to have to find somewhere warm to hang out! Luckily it came back on, and all is right with the world.

Andrew and Sarah are at his dad's house for the Superbowl. Cora and I stayed home and I've been scrappin' a little. Cora's been vegging out on Dr. Mario and Super Mario Brothers.

Here's a layout I did yesterday.



LAYOUT REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION!!! CHECK IT OUT IN THE JUNE ISSUE OF SCRAPBOOK TRENDS!



Papers, ribbon and Alpha from Maya's "Love Life" Kit. Font is Secretarial Pool.

Less than a week until the Olympics!!! I'm stoked! GO USA!

Friday again...

Sigh. I got hooked into watching Survivor last night. Now I'll have to watch EVERY single episode or I'll not be able to go on. I hate it when I get hooked to a show like that. It happened with the first season of Survivor. I saw the third episode, and from then on my dad and I had to see how it played out. Poor ol' Hatch! :)

The girls' room is clean. Phew! That was a CHORE! I don't know how they do it, but they can destroy that room in no time. Then it gets too overwhelming for them to clean it by themselves. It's done now, thankfully.

Superbowl this Sunday. Yay. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself (Don't step in the dripping sarcasm) . I think Andrew and the girls are going over to his dad's to watch the game, but I SO don't wanna go. Not sure what I'm going to do here all by my lonesome! Guess I'll have to muddle through. Maybe I'll rent a movie. Any good suggestions?

I'm really craving some Hickory Cheddar Cream Cheese from Big Apple Bagels . I go there about once a week for a Caramel Latte and sometimes a Breakfast BLT. The cream cheese is the DEBIL! Going there makes me feel like a grown up. Cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich in a cafe with NO kids is such a treat. It's the little things...

Hundreds Day

Today was Cora's 100th day of school. They had a bunch of activities with 100 of a lot of different things. Cora brought 100 rubber bands. She came home with a cool Crown that had 100 little stickers on it.

I played a little Super Mario Brothers tonight. Cora was playing and couldn't get past a part, so I came in and kinda commandeered the controller from her. It was a blast. I hadn't played in a LONG time! It felt good to play like a kid again.

Phew!

So, I got my first quiz in Bioethics out of the way. Did pretty well on it, and even caught a mistake in an answer. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Thank goodness. Now, to get my other two classes' work done for this week. I just read a short story called "The German Refugee" for my American Ethnic Lit class.

I'm shooting again tonight at the bow club. I haven't practiced all week, so hopefully I don't tank too badly.

Cora's teacher called this morning because Cora forgot her lunch. She said that Cora didn't know what to do, so I told her to tell Cora to just eat at school. Cute kid.

I watched the European Figure Skating Championships the other night. All I could think of was how I missed my dad. He and I used to watch figure skating together all the time, and Olympics time was an exciting time for us. We'd argue over if the Americans would win Gold. We'd speculate on who would pull off a quad.
I'm still watching this year, but his presence is definitely missed.

Ok....

Ok...maybe I'm completely deluded. I created a poker themed digital kit tonight. It's not much, but I had fun playing around.

Here's a preview.


You can download it here if you want to give it a try. Please let me know if you encounter any problems with it; I'm pretty new to this. Also, please leave a comment if you take it; I would like to know if anyone likes it.

Thanks!

Digi Chick Blog Challenge

"Tell us about your first paycheck. Who did it come from? How much was it? What did you spend it on? Have you never received your own paycheck? How do you feel about that?"

My very first real paycheck was a direct deposit pay stub from the Mississippi Army National Guard for my first weekend drill. It was only like 80 bucks (I was a Private). I was 17, and that money was SOOOOO cool! I sure did think I was a grown up! I don't even remember what I did with that money. All I know is that it ROCKED!

What a freaky Winter this is!

It's RAINING! There is NO snow on the ground. This is MICHIGAN!!!!! It's just totally weird not to have snow and it be 5 degrees outside.

Not much going on today. I'm supposed to be going to get my brother- and sister-in-law from the Detroit airport today. They were on a week-long cruise. Bah! :) Driving to Detroit is not what I wanted to do today, but my MIL can't do it. It'll be alright.

Hmmm...what else. I watched a movie last night that I had never heard of! It was "Staying Alive" with John Travolta and Cynthia Rhodes. I can't believe I actually watched the whole thing since I really don't like John Travolta. There was even a cameo by Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote, produced and directed it. Total 80's movie!

Layout Share

Here's a layout I whipped up with the paper pack I created. I'm diggin' it.

Lazy Saturday

Not much going on today. Our Super Walmart opened yesterday morning, so I've dropped a considerable amount of money in there in the past 24 hours. Walmart is the DEBIL! We're getting a Kohl's soon as well, so that should be nice.

I was just playing around today and created a few patterned papers. I don't see myself creating kits all the time, but it was fun to play around. Here's a preview.

Here's a link to download it if anyone's interested. Not much, but was fun for me. If anyone does use it, please post a link to the layout, I would LOVE to see!

What Scrapbooking Supply Am I?

You are PAPER!

You are an all natural basic person who likes to

act as a foundation to others. You are

willing to take a backseat in most of your

relationships and let others take the

spotlight, while you show your support and

help them shine! Underneath it all, you are

the one who makes it all happen. You are the

focus and stability in any group, even if you

are not the leader. Others look to you to set

the pace and provide ideas for ways to get

things done. But Paper Beware - sometimes you

get a little edgy with the people who look to

you for support and can give them some

papercut remarks that can hurt their

feelings. Remember to watch what you say,

because you are best when leading by example.


What scrapbooking item are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

My Joy List

This is a challenge on the Egg Blog to list my "Joy List". Just stuff that makes me happy when i think about it.

1. Sleeping Late
2. Warm blankets
3. Summer!!!!!!!!!!!
4. Watching my girls sleep
5. Seeing joy on the girls' faces
6. Hugging and cuddling with Andrew
7. Snagging an awesome photo
8. Being recognized for my work
9. Peace and quiet.

There are many more, but these are foremost in my mind right now.

What's on your Joy List? Leave me a link so I can read it! Thanks!

If Ya Don't Like The Weather in Michigan...

Wait 5 minutes...it'll change.

Of course, they say that about every state. Our weather has been crazy. COLD today, but will be fairly warm tomorrow. I'm ready for spring.

I shot in my league last night. Since I'm shooting with a club bow and arrows, Andrew put my arrows back in the cabinet, but on the top shelf. I would never in a million years look on the top shelf for my arrows, so when I went in to get them, I picked up some in the bottom that I thought were mine. When I started shooting, I was shooting high, so I adjusted my sight accordingly. I thought that was odd, but kept on. About 5 minutes before the league started, Andrew told me that my arrows were on the top shelf. So, I get them out and try to resight. I was flustered all night after that. The other arrows I was using were too short, so I couldn't use them. Grrr... I didn't do terribly, but could have done better. Oh well, better luck next time.

Sarah actually took a nap today. She put pajamas on and crawled into bed. I was shocked! My girls NEVER take naps, ever!!!! They've been getting to bed a bit late the past few nights, so I guess she needed a little extra sleep. Works for me!

Sunday night, and all's quiet...

Andrew and the girls are in bed snuggling. They're all asleep and so cute. It's only 10:30 pm. Andrew's never in bed that early. The girls are usually asleep before now, but alas.

Trying to get my homework done while listening to the radio. I love to study with music. I can't do it with the TV on, but music seems to help me concentrate.

Got some scrappin' done this weekend, of course.




I'm itching to take some pictures. I think I'll take Sarah out tomorrow and have a little photo-taking fun. We'll see how cold it is.

Welp, I'm gonna go watch a little TV before I go to bed.

Lata!

NOW it's Friday

Whoopee doo.

The girls are out of school today since it's Records Day at school. That means that report cards are imminent!

Yucky, dreary day today. The sun has forsaken us. I'm SO ready for Spring. Only 3 more months! :)

My little sister-in-law is coming over tomorrow night and we're going to scrap. I might even pull out my stuff and do a PAPER page!!!! I do have a bazillion photos that need to be scrapped. Should be fun.

Welp, I'm off of here to maybe get something done around this house. Or maybe I'll just sit here and surf.

[almost friday]

It's cold. It's supposed to get up to 41 today, so maybe the snow will melt. Might rain this afternoon. Rain in February. Who woulda thunk it? Very unusual winter. I told Andrew it's because I bought sleds for the girls. He also bought an ice-fishing pole. So, as per Murphy's Law, there will be NO winter since we bought winter stuff. Sigh.


The kids are off of school tomorrow since it's Records Day. Cora should be getting her report card Monday or Tuesday. My little genius. :) Only problem she rushes through handwriting, so her papers look like a serial killer wrote them. Messy! We're working on it, though. When she slows down it's really nice. I guess I have to remember she's 6. She's still learning to write.

Things to do today:
1. Finish folding and putting away laundry. DONE
2. Balance Checkbook. YUCK!
3. Put gas in truck.
4. Clean my bedroom. YUCK!

Ugh...I hate all this white stuff on the ground...

Ok, there's not much, but enough to put me in a bad mood for about 3 more months.

Not much going on today. I taught Sunday School this morning, then went to 11 O'clock service. The girls went into the nursery to "help out". Luckily the nursery staff love them. Communion was served, so I' m refreshed and renewed for a new week of craziness.

Tomorrow the girls don't have school, so we're going to hang out with a friend. We're gonna have pizza, root beer floats, and many pictures. Since she and I are both professional photographers, that's a given! :)

I was pretty excited to be named to Heather Roselli's Creative Team last week. I love her designs, and am pretty geeked to be designing for her. I got a couple pages done with her new kit today, but you have to wait until Thursday to see them! :)

Here's another one I did today. I did quite a few pages today.


I used Heather's Fresh and Funky Kit which can be found at The Digi Chick.

I also got this one done. This was done using Maya's "Ticklish" kit which can be found at Scrapbook Graphics.



I even got all my homework done, too! Go me!!!

A Day At The Circus

Cora, Sarah and I went to the Shrine Circus this morning with Sarah's preschool. It was a lot of fun, but what was most fun for me was watching the girls' reactions to what was in the ring. It was their first time to the circus, so everything was new to them. I love how I get to experience everything again through my girls. How blessed I am to have them. Thank you, God, for humbling me once again.


After the circus, the girls went to their friend Makena's house for a few hours. I took that opportunity to go to the bow club to get a little practice in. Man, I shoot like crap. Yeah, I know it's only my 4th time shooting EVER, but I get frustrated easily when I don't master something right away. I'll keep working on it. A bow of my own will help as well, since I'm using a club bow that's been used by many people. We shall see.