Ahhh, Spring is in the air!!!

It's absolutely gorgeous today! The sun is shining so bright and when I did the kindergarten car pool my van readout said 68 degrees! I love spring! I have all the windows open...it's wonderful. Just puts me in such a good mood!

Tonite me, Shelley, Angie, and Jill are going to see John Mellencamp! WooHoo!!! I'm so excited! Little Big Town is opening. Poor Shelley has to work at 6am tomorrow and the concert doesn't even start until 8pm (her normal bedtime! LOL! You know I love ya, Shel!) She is going to be draggin' a$$ at work tomorrow. We still haven't decided where we're going to eat yet...but Red Lobster sounds like it's going to win out.

I got my DT kit stuff for Scrap-Tastic today and I know exactly what I'm going to do with the papers! All the little embellies are great! I have so many ideas whirring around in my head! I'm going to try and start on it today.

The ucky crud stomach thing is going around again. The girls wanted to go to McD's playland for lunch the other day and I didn't take them. The place just grosses me out anyway, but with everyone and their dog sick with this bug, I just didn't want to take the chance that they pick it up from someone there. I know, roll your eyes all you want, Steve does...I'm used to it. That place is just a breeding ground for germs. I have a hard time even touching the girls after they've been there!

I've also been a scrappin' fool this week! I got done with a layout (that's the layout above), bookmark, and a card for my April class and two layouts with the KnK kit! I love it when I'm in the mood to scrap! Now, I'm thinking I need something else on the layout. I wanted to use my new Simply Fab foam stamps to stamp a big "C" in paint in the upper left hand corner of the paisley paper and then write "comfort" inside the "C". Steve said he liked it as is, but I just don't know....it's needing a title. Suggestions gladly welcome! :)

Oh, gotta tell you this! I got a new purse yesterday! I'm so excited! The evil world of Vera Bradley (yes, it's pure evil!) has sucked me in! I never liked VB....it looked too old lady-ish for me. Then, 2 years ago, they came out with the Orange Sherbert and that was my downfall. Then, along came Piccadilly Plum and NOW they sucked me in yet again with the awesome Java Blue! I had my heart set on the Villager when I went in to the store yesterday, but ended up falling in love with the Bucket tote (and a cute little wallet to match, of course!). EVIL evil stuff, I tell ya! But, it's driving me nuts...all my Piccadilly stuff is in my Java Blue purse....I need the matching Java Blue accessories! UGH! See what I mean!?!? EVIL! But, I love it! :) I've decided I'm going to have to do a layout about my VB obsession. Once again, eye rolling from Steve.

Well, that's about all going on around here lately. Not much to write about (pretty sad that buying a new purse was the best thing that happened to me! Well, the concert is going to kick butt, but still). LOL!

I finally scrapped! I had my DT kit waiting for me when I came home from vacation. I really didn't think I'd have much time to do anything with it until Monday, but I just decided to sit down and get to it. I just haven't been feeling creative lately, which makes me very nervous! This actually took Sat evening, Sun evening and Mon afternoon to finish! That is just so not like me. I sit down and finish a layout...not take 3 days! Anyway, I love the results. KnK'ers, you are going to looooove this kit! It could be my fave yet! Oh, and I realize that this layout makes more sense when you see the journaling! LOL! Micah is such a big cheeseball! I took this pic while we were in bumper to bumper traffic in Atlanta and she's in her car seat. I used the "spotlight" function in my Kodak software and it darkened everything around her, so you can't even see the seat! So cool! Now, the next thing on my agenda is getting something done for my class I'm teaching in a couple of weeks. I've had several people request for me to do 2 pagers and I just can't get into that! LOL! I've been more of a one picture layout scrapper for awhile, so I'm kind of intimidated. But, I'm going to try!

UGH!

This is our "surfer girl" Mara. You can see her massive bruise on her side like I explain in the post below!
The girls with Minnie Mouse! We also found Goofy, Chip & Dale, Brother Bear and Friar Tuck! I saw Lilo and Stitch, but Steve wouldn't let us stand in line for them!



Ok, so I'm having problems uploading pics to my posts and I'm having probs uploading them WHERE I WANT THEM! So, anyway, I'm tired tonite and I don't have the patience to deal with it right now. I'll post more on Moday. Sorry. But, I'll give it one more try before I sign off totally.....

It worked! But, I still have no idea how to put them where I want them. The pic with the girls in 3D glasses was taken while we were waiting in line for "It's Tough to be a Bug" at the Tree of Life. The other pic is my favorite-est of all the pics I came home with (close up of McKenna). Of course, we have to have a family pic in here somewhere, and this was the only family picture I had! Micah would not keep her hands off my head for some reason.

Ok, someone PLEASE tell me how to put the darn pictures where I want them to go! This is totally tickin' me off! That and the fact that my stoopid MSN keeps popping up every flippin' 30 seconds wanting me to sign in for some reason. I just need to go to bed. I'm in a bad mood now.

We're back!!!!!

Wow! What a vacation! It went by waaaay to quickly for me. Ya know, I could really get used to that Florida weather...if it weren't for the darn hurricane season. Back to work tomorrow....blech. Oh, well.

Well, Mara had one heck of a tough week. First of all, she lost one of her front teeth. No, nothing bad happened, it was just really, really loose and decided to fall out while she was eating lunch at McD's in Atlanta. The tooth fairy brought her $10! But, that only happens when she's visiting Uncle Troy and Aunt Jeanne's house! LOL Let's see...on Sunday afternoon she got caught up in the wires of the DVD player in the van and fell out of the van extremely hard on the driveway at Grandma and Grandpa's. She slammed her knee and got a huge scrape and bruise and fell on her side and has one U-G-L-Y bruise there as well. Sunday evening she was running in her flip flops around the van, chasing Micah and BAM! fell again! This time busting up her other knee and scraping up one of her hands really bad! Poor thing! She also got a sunburn and dropped a ceramic bowl on her toe. This was not one of her best weeks, to say the least!

Well, here's the lowdown on what all we did. We left Thursday morning...ETD was 9am. We actually got out of the house a little after 9! Woohoo for us! But, after stopping by the grocery to pick up a few extra things, going by McD's for breakfast, filling up the gas tank, and making an extra potty stop ALL IN TOWN!!!, we didn't even leave town until 10am! Geesh! And Steve wonders why I hate travelling!

Friday we ended up not getting tickets to the aquarium, but we went and saw Deep Sea 3D at the Imax theater and that was pretty cool! I even visited my very first Archiver's! (Picked up the MM monogram foam stamps, and the BG Baby Girl paper pack, and a few extras). Arrived in Titusville Saturday evening.

Sunday we went to Cocoa Beach and the girls had a blast! They loved jumping the waves! Stopped by a Crafts 'n Stuff on the way back home from the beach and picked up Bazzill for .33 a piece! Everyday price! WooHoo!!! Needless to say, I stocked up! Monday we all headed off for Animal Kingdom at Disney. Pretty cool place! I think it was unanimous...we all loved the Festival of the Lion King! I loved the acrobatic monkeys, Mara liked the person who juggled the fire stuff. I also loved the Safari thing! We had a fast pass for that, thank goodness. Steve and I tried to ride the new Mt. Everest ride, but it was a 75min wait. Uh, nope. Not gonna do it for a wait that long. Me, Steve and Mara got to ride a little mini roller coaster at the Dinoland. Then, me, Steve, Mara and McKenna rode Dinosaur. AWESOME! McKenna LOVED IT! Mara, on the other hand, cried thru the whole entire thing.

Tuesday we went and checked out the Manatees, but only saw a few this time. Then we headed off to Playalinda beach for the rest of the afternoon. That evening Steve and I went out to the awesome seafood place I couldn't wait to get to....Dixie Crossroads. If you're ever there, get the broiled rock shrimp! It's to die for!
Wednesday, we played in the neighbor's pool all morning. That afternoon, Steve and I took like a 2 1/2 hour nap! Thursday morning, we were off again. Stayed over in Atlanta with Steve's sister and took off by 7:30am this morning and got home around 2:30pm. It's good to be home. I didn't enjoy unpacking, but, it's still good to be home. I get to actually sleep in my own bed tonite! And, while I was unpacking, I had to get my Grey's Anatomy fix in! Out of all the shows I had DVR'd while I was gone, I had to watch GA as soon as I got home! I was sooooo glad that Denny didn't die! I thought for sure he was a goner. And, even though Alex was a total a$$ to George, I'm glad he said what he did. Ok, I'm totally going off on a tangent here.

I think our cats are mad at us. It took them several hours before they would show their faces to us! Thank you, Ellen for taking care of them while we were gone! I had one awesome mail week! Came home to my KnK DT package, my chipboard swap package, my order of brads for a swap, and my complimentary issues of the latest PaperART mag that has my card and clipboard in it, plus, my CardMaker, CK, and PaperCraft magazines! I've got reading material for this weekend at work!

Well, I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I've posted from our trip. The beach pics are definitely my fave. The close up of McKenna from the side is my most favorite-est and I can't wait to change it to b&w or sepia and do something with it!

Boho chic!

Taught my gift bag/card class last night and went good! Everyone said it was a great class! I just love teaching. But, the main reason I'm writing today is because I'm so excited about some awesomely gorgeous paper I picked up last night to teach next month's class with! WeR Boho Chic! It's the deep red/brown/calypso blue (according to Bazzill!) polka dots, stripes and HUGE paisleys! I can't wait to get started on a layout for it!

We are leaving for Florida in 2 days and I have NOTHING packed yet! I have sooooo much to do it's not near funny. Well, I take that back, the beach bag is packed and a grocery bag full of snacks is packed and that's it (what else do ya need?!). Steve cleaned out the van last night, which is one less thing I need to do. We are staying in Atlanta an extra day going down and going to the aquarium. Then on to Florida! Hitting MGM on Monday, beach on Tuesday and on Wednesday, going somewhere else in Florida...wherever Steve's dad and Lillian are at and visiting them for the day. I'm hoping the in-laws will babysit one evening so that Steve and I can go out one evening and hit that fabulous seafood place there in town. Then back to Atlanta on Thursday and home on Friday (just in time to go back to work! can you hear the sarcasm in that? LOL)

THANK YOU, STEPH for letting me borrow your DVD player for the van! What a flippin' life saver that will be! I'll be ready for a vacation from our vacation when we get back. I don't travel well...especially with children.

So, you won't be hearing much from me on here for about the next 10 days! WooHoo!!!

Sometimes I really, really hate my job!

Don't get me wrong, most of the time I like my job, seriously. Other times, not so much. Sometimes I wonder why in the world I would choose this field to go into. Other times, I know exactly why I went into this. For a moment today, it was one of those times I wonder. I'd rather not go into details, for those of you with a weak stomach, you'd hate me. But, let's just say this....you do the world a favor when you keep clean. Trust me on this.

Hmmmm, so I have some work to do....

to get a picture in the correct place in my post! So sorry! So, when you read the next post, realize that that picture is supposed to go with the paragraph down a litte ways...got it?!

My second week of having a blog...

and I'm already slackin'! Steve told me last night he's been checking my blog like every day to see if I've kept up with what I said I'd do....and I haven't. I'm such a loser. So, maybe I'll amend what I said to writing in my blog to 2 days a week, and maybe work up to 3 days! Yeah, that's it!

Had a couple of waves of storms pass thru the area yesterday. My mom got us a weather radio thingy for Christmas this year after the tornado that went thru Evansville and Newburgh last November scared the bejeezus out of her. So, I put it in a drawer and there I left it....until yesterday. She called wanting to know if we'd hooked it up. Um, no. I felt guilty as hell, so I dug it out and hooked it up. Called Kasara and she helped me get it programmed. I even put batteries in it! I was so proud of myself. That stupid thing went off all afternoon. Mara came home from school and the weather radio went off and the Celestine sirens went off at the same time...I thought she was going to pee her pants she flipped out so bad! Bless her heart, she's scared of a tornado, but it just gets old. It's all she has talked about since the one hit in November. So, I sent the girls to the basement. Honestly, it didn't look bad outside at all, so I stayed upstairs and watched the weather on tv. Heck, the storm broke up before it even got to us. We didn't have hardly anything happen and the whole time I'm upstairs, Mara's yelling "HURRY UP MOMMA! GET DOWN HERE!" It was kind of cute. I was, personally kind of bummed! I love to watch storms. Then later last night, the wind picked up...enough to knock down some electric lines because we lost power about 10:25 pm. I was upstairs watching CSI (yes, DVR so I can fast forward thru commercials!) and Steve was downstairs on the computer. How he made it thru the basement without breaking his neck is beyond me! The girls' toys were everywhere! So, we sat in candlelight and flashlight for awhile. Then Steve asks me why isn't the weather radio going off? I had him go check it...it was off! Evidently the batteries weren't any good that I had put in it! Grrrrr! I was so mad. Now I have to reprogram that stupid thing! Such is life. Oh, Mara said something cute last night at supper. She thinks Santa gave us that weather radio for Christmas so that she wouldn't be as scared anymore. That works for me!

This morning was so funny and so unexpected from Micah....I was the second one up, just got done with my shower and was getting dressed. Steve had already left for work and the girls were all still asleep. Micah runs into my bedroom, sees me standing in there, gives me a big hug around me legs and runs back to her room. After I'm completely done getting ready, I'm laying out their clothes and Micah is asleep in her bed! All snuggled and looking pretty darn cute. (yes, of course I took a picture of her!) So, all she did was get up and give me a hug and then went back to bed! She didn't even complain that it was me and not Steve that she was hugging! It's the little things....

Ok, I'm going to try out putting a picture in my post! This is a pic of the class I'm teaching Monday night at the D'bug...keep your fingers crossed this worked! Oh, have to rant a little bit about this (it is, after all, what my blog is called!). Got a call from one of the owners yesterday afternoon telling me that the paper I used is discontinued. The only way they can get it in on time is to overnight it, but that would cost more than the paper itself. Hey, totally cool, if I had just turned in that class project last week...but I didn't. They have had it in the store for over a month complete with a list of everything I need for the class. I was told shortly after I turned it in that they could still get that paper. Sooooo, what happened?!?! The one owner told me that she'd substitute it from something they had in the store already. Fine and dandy, but I need 4 different pattern papers (they very rarely carry more than 3 pattern papers in one line). But, I went by there today and they did it....I'm somewhat happy. It still ticks me off a bit, though.

Ok, I'm signing off for now....I've got a ton of stuff to do or Steve's going to kill me when he comes home from work! But, hey, I was only doing what he told me to do in the first place! Somehow, I don't think he'll buy that.....

Faster than a speeding bullet....

.....well, not really, but my computer connection is at least soooo much faster than dial-up! We just got our satellite internet set up yesterday! I'm literally flying thru sites now! It's just awesome! Poor Steve has been trying to get me to understand this whole new concept to me, along with ethernet and wireless routers (wth?!?!). I'm so computer stupid. He was getting so frustrated at me last night. He said I'm just not one to like change, that I like my "comfort zone". Yep, that's me!

I've been working on my blog like crazy since yesterday. It's so much easier to do now that everything is so fast. It was just darn frustrating trying to do it with dial-up. I'm zippin' around everywhere. I'd like to add some of my friend's blogs, but need to ask them first.

I've also been trying to remember what sites I'm registered at so that I can go and update my email address. What a big pain, but, I shouldn't complain. I tried to change my email at KnK, but a message came up and said I wasn't an active user! LOL! Even Steve had to laugh at that! So, I've emailed Angela, hopefully she can get it changed for me. She's just awesome.

Thanks, girls, for all the congrats on making the new DT. Your words just make me feel so loved! ;) Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to put pics in my posts on here....Oh, SHANNON and HEATHER?! Do you feel more questions coming on? You two girlies have been fantastic sports about getting me thru this whole blogging thing! And Steve says I don't like working outside my 'comfort zone'! I even taught myself how to make a new side header for my "blogs"! Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf?

Oh, just have to add....we are called DT girlies on Scrap-Tastic, which is so funny because I looove using that word!

I've vowed to keep up on this new blog thing. I'm going to try like heck to write at least 3 times a week. Maybe this will get me more in the groove of trying to journal more on my sb pages. Is that a stretch? I don't think so. I'm just so not a writer. Never have been. Never really wanted to be. But, at least I'm trying.

I'm supposed to be teaching a sb class tonite at Schmitt. I need to call to see if anyone is signed up. I'm just excited to get to Evansville tonite. I've got a $10 gc to Victoria's Secret (gotta get some more Angel's Heavenly body wash) and a % of card to Limited Too (Mara is so lucky, she's always getting the new clothes...the other two girls get her hand-me-downs most of the time). Also need to stop by Target and get a few things for the girls to wear in Florida in the next couple weeks.

Oh, just gotta do a shout out to my pal, Nicole. Last Friday evening, oh around 5:45 pm I got a wild hair up my butt to go to Red Lobster (in Evansville...an hour away!). I started calling around to find someone to go with me. I'd had a RL gift card just staring at me all week and was dying to use it, and I wanted to check out the new J's. Bless her heart, I called her up and told her to get ready and I'd pick her up in 20 min. She did just that and we were on our way. Well, it came time to pay, and she picked up what the gc didn't cover....as a Congratulatory dinner for making the DT. So sweet. What would we do without friends?! Oh, and J's...just not as impressed with it like I was the one in Michigan! It's laid out stupid. And there's fabric everywhere. Yes, duh, I know, it's a f-a-b-r-i-c store, but they had the fabric in like 3 different areas. The aisles are too little and it's just weird. And they don't have near the selection of sb stuff and they have a whole long area of stickers! WHY?!!! Here, I'd been bragging about J's to everyone and it ends up being a total dud. I'm hoping they start to improve a little the longer they're open.

Another shout out goes to my Mom. She passed her Real Estate test on Saturday! Yeah for you, Mom!

Wow, I've written so much! Does this get me out of writing anything until next week?! LOL!

Until next time.....

WooHoo!!! I made another DT!

OMGosh, OMGosh, OMGosh, I'm still in shock! I just got the email this afternoon that I made the 2006 DT for Scrap-Tastic! A brand spankin' new site that's not even up yet! But, by the congrats email I got, it will be up and running in the next couple of weeks! I'm totally psyched! Somebody pinch me, PLEASE!

Ok, I've got my own blog! Yeah!!!

Just checking things out, getting the feel of my new blog! Let's see....what this blog will contain....family stuff, everyday rants and raves, and best of all, talk of my fave hobby, SCRAPBOOKING, and a total bonus....it's PINK! Bear with me as I navigate my new site! My old site wasn't very user friendly and there was the most annoying lag when I typed! UGH!