The Boys are Back!

Happy Memorial Day! Giving a moment to all the men and women who have given up their lives to protect our country and also to thank all the brave soldiers who are fighting right now for our freedom. May you all come home safe. Thank you each and every one!! I always send special thoughts to my Grandfather who died in WWII that I never got to meet, wishing I had got to meet him and wondering if he and my grandmother are finally together again.

My boys are back. Man it was quiet in this house! I got a ton done! The house was spic and span by 11 on Friday and I started scrapping by 1pm! Got 3 pages done after organizing my room a bit. I had so many pages that werent in albums and some stuff from the convention that I hadn't put away yet. Got another 10 pages done on Sat and Sun and some altered frapuccino bottles and the pack they came in! Pretty darn productive weekend.

Today I'm doing some laundry and we are going to a bbq. It's going to be 94! Wouldn't you know our AC died! The condensor motor went on a holiday weekend of course so we are going to be hot tonight! Oh well at least it's only for a night or two until we can get a new part! I'm telling you when it rains it pours, the well pump, the AC motor, we need a new furnace, and hot water heater, and money is very tight right now! Figures! Well one thing at a time and it will all work out. It always does at some point! :)

I'm very excited about the BBQ, our old neighbors that moved to FL almost 3 years ago are going to be there! We haven't seen them in 2 years! Can't wait! We were such good friends, there were 6 of us that always did things together and a group of us that got together often for bbqs and such so we are all getting together today. There will be lots of laughter for sure!

Well I better go check the brownies and magic cookie bars I've got in the oven! Have a great Memorial Day!

Long Weekend!!!

Woohoo! I've got today off and the weekend free!!! It all started because we thought the boys had no school today. I had a very old and very wrong school calender on the fride. It said there was a Teacher's Workshop today. So since Michael's parents are leaving for Alaska next week for the whole summer we decided to take today off to go up till Saturday to see them. We haven't been up in quite some time. LONG STORY!!! Anyway, we find out on Wed there IS school on Friday but since Michael is racing on Sunday and we have some very dear friends coming in to see us from out of town on Monday we can't stay the whole weekend so we decide we are going anyway. Well to make this long story even longer, Wed night, the Camaro breaks and on Thurs morning Michael decided he wanted to stay up for the whole weekend. Well I said I didn't want to, we had plans, Jake has a game on Sunday, I want to do some stuff for the bbq on Monday and clean the house on Sunday (and maybe squeeze some scrapping in)! We told Jake's coach we would be at the game. Well Jake wants to stay in Maine, he hasn't seen his cousins in a long time! I'm outnumbered, looks like we are staying. Then Michael calls me at work and says why don't I just take the boys up and come home on Monday? I don't really like to do that because when my SIL never goes up with my BIL I always feel bad for him. It's like she doesn't want to be with them or the family. But I've never done it and he tells me it's OK and that it will be good for him to get away with the boys and so here I am home on my own! So I took the day off today for nothing but I'll get some stuff done around here, go to the bank, grocery store and PO and not be rushed! Yahoo!

So can you guess what I'll be doing all weekend? Scrapping my little heart out! I got some fun stuff at the convention last weekend that I'm dying to use! The Basic Grey Ribbons, new Prima flowers, more Junkitz papers!!! and some Fancy Pants papers and huge chipboard! Woohoo!!!

Oh, we have a fun weekend challenge going on at 123-scrap that Chris came up with if you are scrapping so check it out here:

http://123-scrap.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6169&st=0&#entry82653!

Have a great weekend!!

Fun Filled Weekend!

The CK Convention was in town this weekend and I got the opportunity to teach at it! I went and took a few classes myself on Friday, one Simple Scrapbooks class, one Scrapworks class and one CK Class. I really liked the SS class, the Scrapworks class was OK, the teacher was great, the CK class was cute but I didn't get what I wanted out of it. The Vendor Faire was great and I spent more than I wanted to but got some terrific stuff so cool! ;) On Saturday I taught "Ribbon Rapture" It went pretty well, most of the feedback was great, of course there were a few unhappy customers. Now granted they got more free stuff in my one class than I got in all three of my classes put together but I guess that didn't matter. The class was a 2 hour class and it should not have been. It was a 2 page layout and a card and there was no way I could stretch that to 2 hours no matter how hard I tried so it ended early. Some people were happy they had time to shop between classes other were not. I am just going to try to focus on the positive feedback! I also entered two contests and didn't win either so big let down's all weekend but I'm already over it! :)

Today we got more rain, in the middle of a make-up game. And it was not a nice rain, there was thunder and lightening and the game got called. So needless to say Jake was not a happy camper! He was supposed to get back on the pitching mound today after his breakdown two weeks ago. And at the rate we are going these kids will be playing make-up games till August! Nevermind what our yard looks like! And the basement is barely holding it's own!

So now, I'm off to recover from the busy weekend by hitting the hay early! Have a great night! See you all tomorrow!

Blue Skies and a Rainbow!!!

Yep, when the sun peeked out last night I yelled! I saw a rainbow on the news and wish I could have gotten a photo of it but it wasn't in our area. Man it was so nice to see the sun after a week straight of rain! I came to work today, there is another guy in my group that is still out pumping. There are people way worse off than me so I am very grateful that we didn't have any damage. I am wondering how long it will take for things to get back to normal, there are so many roads/businesses closed and kids still out of school. I have never seen anything like this in my life! So happy to see the sunshine! Josh has a baseball game tonight, the field should be nice and muddy. Jake has Travel Soccer tryouts. The road the field is on has been closed due to flooding so I'm wondering what that field looks like since it's right next to the river that flooded the road! We shall see tonight! May be a swimming try out instead! ;)

Sox Update:

Sox is adjusting well to the house, he knows his way around well and we are able to leave him out all night now. We don't trust him alone with Jasper during the day yet since Jasper seems to want to go for the jugular but hopefully by the end of the week they will be friends! He's not fond of Bear yet and keeps a very large distance from her, if she gets to close to him, he lets out the biggest hiss he can! Pretty funny seeing such a little thing hiss and spit at a 65 pound Pit Bull. Bear just walks awa, she's such a good girl! I got some great photos of him the other day so I see some more Sox layouts in my future! I think I need some kitty papers tho! ;) Maybe at the convention this week!

Oh yea, the convention, that's Friday and Saturday! I have 2 classes on Friday and 1 Sat. Then I teach Saturday afternoon. I think I'm set. Just need to create an outline so I don't forget anything. I'm nervous about teaching so many people, at such a big venue and I'm also looking forward to it. Very mixed feelings. Please send good thoughts!

So that's all I've got for today! Have a happy Hump Day!

Got Water?

It's been raining here in NH for so long I can't remember when it started! We've got some major flooding problems. There was no school yesterday in all of New Hampshire, a lot of Massachusettes and today there are several school closings as well. Lots of roads closes too. I have never seen so much rain in my entire life. Manchester has had a total of 11" so far and today there is another 1" in the forcast! I have to sit at home and watch the hole in our basement! If the waterlevel gets any higher than it is I have to start pumping it to keep from losing everything in it! See when we first built the house they didn't put the perimeter drain in deep enough and to boot they didn't put an escape in for it so about a month after we moved in our basement flooded. We had to have the builder come back and dig a nice hole in our brand new floor so now we have a hole about the size of a man hole cover that fills with water every spring. It's never filled more than about 6". This week, up to the very top, but not over the concrete, it's about an 1" which is why I'm sitting at home chained to the house watching it! NOT FUN and SCARY!!! Michael can't do it because they are on a huge deadline at work and of course short handed! And the rain is still coming down!

So here is a photo I took of the Passaconaway Golf Course in Litchfield last night. It is completely under water. This is a very nice course and there is normally no water where you see water!!! I took the boys down to see it last night after the Schwan's guy told us about it. We'd been in the house all day Sunday and Monday and were pretty stir crazy anyway. It was amazing to see. I have been just shaking my head at the stuff on TV so to see this in real life, WOW! And here I thought nothing happened in NH!

Well I'm off to get the boys up, this is my life until the rain stops, praying it stops soon, not just for me so I can go back to work but for all the people who have had to leave their homes and for all the turmoil it is causing! I know we needed the rain but man, not this much!

Happy Mother's Day!

My day started yesterday! I got my present a bit early. Michael came home with this little guy. Meet SOX. I said Red Sox since he is reddish in coloring but the rest of the house shot it down so it's just Sox. He is very sweet and adorable! He looks right at you when you walk up to him and he has the most beautiful eyes. He purrs all the time which I'm so not used to because Jasper never purrs! I love it! Right now he is batting at this photo of himeslf on the screen!

Now for those of you that know the Jesse story you know that I refused to get another kitten. The woman at the pet store called me and said she had another orange kitten and I told her No flat out. I even sent Michael in there last week to get dog food and told him he was going for anything we needed until the kitten was gone. Well that didn't work too well! LOL! It's OK, he knew deep down I wanted another one.

It took us most of the day to name him. I love Andrea's kitty's name Cheddar, so perfect for an orange kitty but I didn't want to copy, so I said how about Copper? Shot down by Michael. Jake said Chester, I shot that down. Then I came up with Sunny, Blaze (too horsey), Ginger (too girly), Cinnamon (girly and long), Boots. Michael said Tigger, I said too common. Can you see how it went with kids names? LOL! Plus nothing 'fit' him. I think Sox does.

So we went to the Cheesecake factory in the afternoon. It was a 90 minute wait at 3:30! We had Macaroni & Cheese Balls and Buffalo Fingers for an app., then everyone had pretty good meals. Jake didn't like his fish tacos, and Michael's pasta was so starchy he couldn't eat it but the shrimp was good. Josh loved his little hamburgers and my crab cakes were terrific. Mom's meal was very good but the meat was undercooked so she had it wrapped up to take home and cook it herself. No sending anything back to get spit in! LOL! Got herself a comp dessert for that! :)

Then we all (except Jake he was full) ordered cheesecake! YUMMY! And I had the best latte too! Man I couldn't eat all my cheesecake or drink all my latte they are so stinking huge! And we got a White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake to take home! Woohoo! It was very expensive and the wait was very long but the dessert was so worth it. I will not be asking to go back anytime soon tho. I'm eating the rest of my cheesecake for breakfast this morning I think! We were going to go out for eggs benedict but after how much we spent last night I think we'll skip that!

It's still pouring here today. There are flood warnings out everywhere. The swamps and rivers are very high. Guess today's game is off too. And that means I'm scrapping all day!! Woohoo!

Hope all Mom's out there have a glorious day! You all deserve it! Hugs!

It's Raining It's Pouring

and my boys are snoring! Yep everyone is asleep, I'm drinking my coffee and getting caught up with everything. No games today, maybe one make up tomorrow if it doesn't get rained out.

Today we are going to the Cheesecake Factory!!! I went once in Florida and have been dying to go back ever since! We were going to go tomorrow but it's almost an hour drive from here and they are predicting 2 hour waits all day. Not a good thing to do when we can't even get there until 4 pm on a school night! So were hoping to get their around 3 and have it not be too bad a wait today. Walk around the mall while we're waiting and have some yummy grub! I'm hoping they still have the "Berry Berry" Martini on the menu they had in FL! That was the bomb! Looking forward to at least one of those! ;) And of course some cheesecake for dessert! And Andrea told me about Macaroni and Cheese Balls for an appetizer, sound pretty yummy! May not even need a main meal LOL!

So I did a page to document my no more red hair. Love love love the page, hate hate hate the hair! It is so flipping dark! I want my red hair back! Man I forgot how dark my natural hair was! I have no idea why I'm so against it, I lived without coloring it for 34 years! But I always did love red hair so that's probaby why. I just can't spend $100 every five weeks anymore. I need to cut down on my spending! So anyway, here is the page and the new me. It's definitely a huge change, I've stopped people in work in their tracks. It's pretty funny. Other's haven't said a word, which of course makes me think they hate it as much as me. And then my good friends who are honest tell me they like it better red, which I love them for because I hate it when people lie! I actually have had a few people tell me the like it this way better too, which I can understand because afterall this is the color I was born with, my eyebrows are this color and my eyes match it better! Anyway enough about my hair color! UGH!

I'm off to fold some laundry and take a shower, not that I need one, when I go outside today I'm gonna get one for sure! Have a great Saturday all!

LOST!

Yep, that's what I am! I just love the show but every week I'm left so confused! I'm also left loving the episode but I am totally LOST!!! And then when you read about the book and the coporation and the websites forget it! I can't go there! Holy cow! They must be making a bundle! I'm just gonna watch and see how far it goes because I'll never figure it out! Oh and can I just say, all those gorgeous guys on the show have the most butt ugly wives IRL!! I'm sorry but it's true, there were some photos of them on the set with them and these women are homely (and yes very lucky too)! So totally not what I expected.

Oh and I've got a new digi layout! I've been dying to use this kit by Robin Carlton. It's available at www.sweetshoppedesigns.com. It's called A Taste of Home. I snuck this photo of my hunny on Easter. He hates having his pic taken about as much as me. ;) So when he wasn't looking...

I also got a good one of him actually posing but I did that one in a paper layout that I cased from my good pal Rachael. All my good pages are cases of Rachaels! And since she's back to paper mode I've got lots more inspiration from her! Yippee!

So it's been raining all week, two baseball games have been rained out so far. We have two makeup games schedued for Friday and Sunday and two games scheduled for Saturday plus a soccer game. Holding my breath to see how those go. It' supposed to rain right thru the weekend! I can't complain, our pump for the well is dead and we don't have the funds to buy a new one right now so with that and the brush fires we really need the rain. I feel bad for the boys tho.

What is everyone doing for Mother's Day? Me, I'd just love to spend the day in my scraproom, have absolutely no responsibilities but to scrap! Not hear the word "Mama" one time! But of course I have a Mom to do something with so that's no gonna happen. I also have a DH that thinks I have to do something fun! Of course he doesn't realize that a full day of scrapping would be fun for me! LOL! I think eggs benedict for breakfast and not having to make lunch or dinner would be perfect! Oh and I want a new gas grill, nothing too fancy, just something that will self-ignite! :)

Have a great Thursday everyone, I'm off to eat some lunch!

Wednesday Already!!!

How awesome is Junkitz!! I was reading Stacey's blog yesterday and it says Pam don't forget to email me. I'm like hmmm, more than one Pam must read her blog so it can't be me. Well then I read further down and on a day I missed it said that she was sending a prize pack out to someone who commented on her blog and Pam is the winner. Well that told me it was me! I about fell out of my chair! My user name over there is just Pam and I know no one else can have that user name so I was psyched! You all know I love junkitz, even tried out for their Design Team last year. I'm on the fence this year about doing it again! I saw all the talent that made it last year and know why I didn't make it and don't need to put myself thru that again! But none the less I'm really looking forward to my prize from Stacey! Thank you Junkitz! They are the best!

I can't believe LOST is on tonight! I can't wait to see it! I just watched last weeks on Saturday night so I didn't have to wait a whole week for a new one! It's gonna be a good one too! Last week was a nail biter!

I worked from home yesterday because I have had a killer headache for a week now and it made me sick. I think it's the rain now. That and the fact that I ran out of my daily preventative meds so I haven't been taking them for a few days. Bad me! Just goes to show you they really help.

So I am no longer a red-head. I went back to my natural dark brown! I didnt' realize how dark my hair was! Holy Crap! It's dark! Michael doesn't like it and neither do I! But I wanted to stop coloring my hair, I don't need to do it, I have maybe 5 gray's total on my head. So why spend all that money every 5 weeks? Well now I know why and I'm going back in 5 weeks to get my red back! LOL!

Might just have to take a photo and document this mistake! LOL!

Well it's time to go to work, promised the boys they could have Dunkin this morning so we have to get out of here early! Have a great Hump Day!

Is it Monday Yet?

Man! I'm gonna need to go to work to get a break from this weekend!!!

Best thing that happened was that the gallery was fixed by noon on Friday just in time to start our NSD Cyber Crop! And the crop has been going well so far considering a lot of the faculty was away at their own NSD stuff and whatnot! I've been seeing some great stuff added to our newly updated gallery! Woohoo!

Yesterday we left the house at 7:25 for the baseball parade, got home at about 9:30. Then turned around and left again at 11:15 for a baseball and soccer game (at the same time)! Then ran home to get Jake for his baseball game that he had to be at at 2:15. We got home at 5pm! Very long day! By this point I had a killer headache but since Michael had been gone since Friday he wanted to take the boys fishing for a bit so I snuck down to my room to fit in a page. It came out pretty cute considering I was limited on what to use! I did the Creativity Jar challenge and could only use Red, Paint, and Beads. Here is the page.

So this morning I put up the last of my sketches, and my final challenge. Now I'm off to clean the house, take Jake to practice at 12:30 and hopefully get some more scrapping in this afternooon! That's gonna be a huge stretch tho!

Thank you to everyone for your support during my very frustrating week last week! Have a great day!

No Time for Bloggin!

Man! Even with rain all week sports are killing me. Soccer Monday, one cancellation and one game in the cold mist so far. Then we have more Friday, the baseball parade on Sat am, then Soccer and Baseball at the same time, then another baseball game in the afternoon. I need a clone! My mom is going to the soccer game and I'm going to the baseball game since Michael will be out of town until Saturday afternoon sometime. Then we have another practice on Sunday. No breaks for these kids. You'd think they were playing pro or something!!! Jeesh!

Well one thing, money talks! Money on two software upgrades and an installation package and we may get the gallery up by the end of the week I hope!!! We have a cyber crop planned for this weekend and I'd like for everyone to be able to use it! I know I haven't been scrapping so I don't need it but everyone else does! LOL! Thank goodness for good patient members!

Well off to a doctor's appt and work. Have a great day everyone!

Good Thing I Color My Hair...

...or it would be completely gray or maybe even all pulled out by now!!! I have done absolutely nothing but work, sports and try to get 123 back to normal!!! We still don't have a gallery and not the chatroom is down too! What's up with that?! I used to have someone to help me out with these MySQL and PHP issues but not anymore so I'm left to do it on my own with the help of the server tech support people. NOT FUN! I am so close to saying the heck with it but at the same time I don't want those hackers getting the best of me! I'm not sure what I'll do if it's not back up by today.

On a better note, Jake had a great day of sports on Saturday, first there was soccer where they tied but he did a great job as goalie not letting anyone score on him. Then right on to a baseball game (changing in the car) where he struck out two players in the inning he pitched, had two great hits and made an awesome out! I took about 150 photos between the two games! As if I don't have any soccer and baseball photos to scrap already!

Josh has his first baseball game tonight weather permitting. Can't wait to see how that goes! LOL!

And to close, how about those RED SOX!!!! What a game last night! I watched pieces of it while working and working on the site and man I got to see some good stuff! Windy and Ortiz still get's a 3 run homer! And then to have Pap catch it! Man that was awesome! And gotta love those fans booing Damon! I would have probably got thrown out for throwing something at the traitor! I wonder when he'll learn money isn't everything! HA! Who am I kidding, if I had money my thoughts might be different! Anyway, hoping they will keep up the winning streak against the Yanks! Go SOX!!!