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Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

2012, wow, it feels like 2011 just started. Not the best of years in our house and I’m glad to see it gone. Looking forward to a year good I hope with no sickness or death and much happiness and health.

I started off the New Year with a diet and exercise, I’m headed to San Diego in March and want to look good enough to have my picture taken so I can scrap some photos that I’m actually in when I come back!

Speaking of scrapping, Just Add Ink is having a scrapbook challenge which Jodene pointed out and I decided since it had been so long since I scrapped a page that I was in! My page is about Jake’s first birthday. Seeing how he just turned 16 and is now driving, I figured it was about time I did this page!

Thanks Jodene for the link and thanks Just Add Ink for the challenge, it was fun to look back on these old photos!

I also made 30 Valentine’s Day cards for the soldiers. I wanted to make more but taking down my Christmas decorations took me all day Saturday. Then yesterday I got started sorting the cards I’d received already and that took a long time so the card making took a backseat. But at least I got some done.

It’s been a very peaceful weekend at my house with everyone in Maine but they will be home very soon so I’ve got to go get dinner started, they already called and said they were hungry, they skipped lunch! Have a great week!

I Scrapped, Teenagers, and it Snowed in OCTOBER!!!

2011-11-06T11:47:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago I spend a few hours in my scraproom and made a few layouts. It’s been a LONG time since I did that! It felt good! And yesterday I went to an all day crop and got about 50 Christmas and Hanukkah cards done for the soldiers so that also felt good! Thought since I hadn’t blogged in a long time I’d share my layouts and of course the first snowfall story. I would share photos but for some reason I am unable to upload them right now!

I didn’t take photos of the cards, and they aren’t anything fancy because it was more about quantity not quality so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I got them done! Oh and my mom and my friend Pam were witnesses!

We also had two birthday’s in October so I am officially the mother of two teenagers now because my baby turned 13! Jake is now legal to get his license (how did that happen)? He starts drivers-ed in 10 days! He could have been driving by now but since football didn’t end until the 31st of October and took up every minute of his free time he had to wait (which I did not mind one bit). Honestly, I think 16 is too young to start driving these days!

And now for the not so fun stuff, we were without power for 5 days after the October snow. We got about 6 inches of very heavy wet snow last Saturday night. The kids missed school for a few days. So they have already missed their 3 snow days between these and the “Hurricane” on the first day of school. Not off to a good start at all! Luckily we have a small generator so we had heat, we did not lose our food in our fridge and we had a few lights. We have a gas stove too so I could cook. A lot of other people we much worse off so I did not complain, much! Wink Wink!

Other than that, things are about the same here, I’ve been spending all my free time on Cards for Soldiers.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, I’ve got to go do some stuff around the house before everyone gets home from Maine!

Lots of News

2011-08-21T08:20:00.001-04:00

Warning!!! Photo heavy post!

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged since that first day at the beach! It seems like so long ago because so much has happened!

I only got that one day at the beach and then had to go further north back up to the hospital as my Father-in-Law took a turn for the worse. He passed away on July 7th. It was a very rough two weeks between the week in the hospital and another week of services since we had one in Maine and another in Mass. I’ve known my Father-in-Law since I was 16, longer than I knew my own father so it was pretty hard to lose him. He was an amazing man with many wonderful qualities.

My friend Karen who moved to Florida 6 years ago came back for a vacation and we took a day off to spend the day in Boston with them. We went on the Fenway tour, walked around Boston for a bit, ate and then went to a Red Sox game. It was a great day and my only real vacation day this summer! The Sox won thanks to Ellsbury!

We went in to the game early to watch batting practice. That was pretty cool until Terry Francona yelled at me for throwing my ball at him, which was an accident totally out of excitement but he was very angry and I was very embarrassed! I have never seen the term took my ball and ran home used in that sense before then!

Got some great shots of one of my favorites…

My other favorites, Beckett and Varitek were not around that night. But Wakefield was starting pitcher. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to finish although he did well so we didn’t get to celebrate his 200th win!

I got a bunch of good photos on the tour too…

Like I said, it was a great day!

Also, after seventeen years in the same job field I’ve decided to take a leap and switch career fields! I gave notice with the company I’ve been with on base for the last 3 years on Thursday and am going to be starting with a new company also on Hanscom but doing more Acquisition/Program Management type work instead. It’s a huge change and kind of crazy at my age but due to a lot of crap I’ve been dealing with at work I decided that was what was best for me. I will not have to have any supervisory duties, will make the same money and get 5 more days of leave so I am pretty happy! I have two weeks left, one of which I will be away on business in San Antonio, TX for so things will be pretty hectic.

Third thing is Jake started playing football. Not my favorite thing because one, I know nothing about football and two not the safest sport out there. After two weeks of doubles you should see his arms! He looks like an abused kid! But he likes it so far. His position is Defensive End. That’s all I know! They had their first scrimmage yesterday, which they lost unfortunately, but good news is the Varsity team won theirs! And of course I have photos…

So I think that’s all the good stuff! Take Care!

Ahhh, the Beach

2011-07-04T07:15:00.001-04:00

Yep, it’s vacation week and we are at the beach. I didn’t think we were going to make it here as my Father-in-Law is in intensive care right now but Michael sent me home to take the boys on our planned for and paid for vacation because there is nothing we can do but wait and pray that he pulls through. So any spare prayer you have for my FIL Joe would be much appreciated!

So while we haven’t been to the actual beach yet since it was icky yesterday and it’s going to be again today we did go out to Nubble Light yesterday. Josh had a great time giving me a heart attack running around on the rocks…

Josh @ Nubble Light

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But he finally did let me practice what I’ve been learning in Karen Russell’s Photography Workshop…

Nubble Light 2011

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I snuck one of mom in there when she wasn’t looking too!

Michael stopped in on his way home from the hospital and had dinner with us and stayed for the fireworks which we thought were going to be cancelled due to rain but they ended up starting about 1/2 an hour late instead. They were amazing. I didn’t even attempt to get photos because it was very damp and drizzly out and I forgot my tripod. So I just enjoyed the amazing show. And hopefully I’m off to enjoy the rest of my week!

Happy 4th of July! Hope you have a great week!

I Knew This Day Was Coming…

2011-06-12T14:23:00.001-04:00

And it’s not the end of the world or anything and yep, I’ve got bigger battles in my future but it’s still a big one in my book. My 15 yo son wants to get his ear pierced. I am sick to my stomach over it. I don’t want to tell him no but I also don’t want him to do it! I don’t like ear piercing on guys. No offense to those that have them, it’s just my personal preference for them not to be on my men, and since he’s my son, I’d rather him not have holes in his ears! But I keep hearing that “Pick your battles” phrase in my head and think is this one worth fighting over? Probably not. So if his father doesn’t care I’m gonna have to roll with it I think, and cringe while he does it. I did draw the line on his friends sister doing it however! He is having it done by a professional.

So my photography class is great, I’m learning to shoot out of ‘Auto’ mode. I’m not necessarily ‘getting’ it all but I hope one day I will have an ‘aha’ moment! It’s been fun though and I highly recommend Karen’s class if you are looking to learn about photography.

Here’s a shot of an eagle I took at Michael’s parent’s lake a couple of weeks ago. It was up in a dead tree in the middle of the lake and we had to take a very shaky canoe out to get this so I’m pretty happy with it, even tho it’s in Auto mode!

This shot was taken out of auto mode in aperture priority mode, which is supposed to help blur the background a bit…

Other than that, it’s been work, baseball, karate, and Cards for Soldiers for me. Oh and Jake started driving too! Talk about nerve wracking! And that’s all I’ve got for today. Happy Sunday. Have a great week!

Upgrading

2011-05-07T06:35:00.001-04:00

I got my first DSLR when Canon made their first DSLR, back in 2003. It was 6.1 megapixels and I was so happy to get it. It has been a darn good camera all these years and although I have absolutely no issues with it except for the batteries don’t hold a charge for very long anymore I really wanted to upgrade because my Photographer’s Workshop taught by Karen Russell started this week! So what better time to ask for a new camera than for Mother’s Day? And boy did I get a new camera…

It’s the Canon 7D, 18 megapixels and it does video too! This thing has so many bells and whistles I can’t imagine learning half of them but Karen says I’ll learn them all in the class so that’s pretty darn exciting! I haven’t taken many photos with it yet because I’m still trying to figure it out and am only about 20 pages into the manual but the few photos I have taken are amazingly crisp!

I went to my annual weekend crop last weekend and got 17 pages and 6 cards done. Not bad but boy have I slowed down! I remember getting 17 pages done in a night! I take hours on a page now and I used to crank them out in a half an hour but then again I didn’t used to sew on every page either. It was a lot of fun, two of my co-workers came and they had a good time too, one of them already signed up again for next year, the other one isn’t able to commit that far ahead but wants to go again too. They are trying to add a second one in the fall as well so I hope to be going twice a year soon.

Other than that, not much new hear, work is crazy busy, still working around the house, the garage is all done except for a few minor thing but at least it matches the house. I LOVE IT!

I hope all my ‘mom’ friends have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

I hope this is an April Fools Joke from Mother Nature

2011-03-30T04:43:00.002-04:00

Winter storm watch in effect from late Thursday night through late Friday night,
The NWS in taunton has issued a winter storm watch, which is in effect from late Thursday night through late friday night.
Locations, northern Connecticut, western and central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
Hazard types, heavy snow.
Accumulations, 6 to 12 inches of snow.

Are you kidding me????

I’m Repeating Myself

2011-02-27T08:44:00.001-05:00

But it’s snowing again! It was too good to be true I guess. We got a few really nice days of warm weather, like 60 degree weather, and it was so nice to feel it. And we even had a week where one flake of snow did not fall, it was amazing! But then it snowed again on Friday, about 3 inches nothing major but then the rain came and added a nice layer of ice on top and boy was that nasty.

So now it’s snowing again and we woke up to Michael’s phone ringing at 6:15 calling him out to plow. The good part of this plowing thing is that it will help pay for our boat slip this summer. If the snow ever stops and we can get the boat in the water that is! We’ve got about 6” down already and it’s still coming down pretty heavily right now. They say it’s going to stop by 10am. But oh wait there’s more, we’re getting another storm just in time for tomorrow morning. Yay!

I got my birthday present a little early this year. After years of wanting to sign up I am finally registered for Karen Russell’s Photographer’s Workshop! I am so exited! It doesn’t start until May but I am just so excited to be taking it I don’t care when it is! I wish I had a more current camera but my old and trusty rebel will have to do.

I finally went out and got a new phone yesterday since I was eligible as of Valentine’s Day. I have been dying to get rid of my Blackberry storm since I got the thing two years ago! I got the Motorola Droid Global. I had my heart set on the iPhone but with $300 price tag I said no way seeing as I already got my bday present. The Droid was $200 but with a $50 rebate card I had from Michael’s phone and a $50 gift card I had from Xmas it only cost me $100. Not too bad. Plus most of their apps are free, vs. having to pay for the iPhone apps! And of course I got a pink cover for it! I think it needs some bling tho.

Cards for Soldiers is keeping me very busy. If you are interested you can pop on over to my other blog here. I’m headed down to my scraproom to make some Easter cards today. Went to Michael’s to try to find some Easter papers yesterday with no luck so I’ll have to make due with what I can find in my scraps I guess since I am not leaving the house today!

I’ve made a promise to the boys and Michael that I’ll spend less time on the computer. I spending too much time on Facebook and playing way too much FarmVille and and not spending enough time with my family and that was a very bad thing. So if you don’t see me around FB that’s why, drop me an email if you want!

Speaking of family, my father-in-law was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. It’s cancer, the bad kind. So our family could really use some prayers right now if you could spare them. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

It’s Snowing AGAIN!!!

2011-02-02T11:57:00.001-05:00

I can’t even tell you what number storm this is but I think they said on the news that our average snowfall is about 42” for this time of the year and we’ve got about 67” so far. It’s still coming down although it’s now mixed with freezing rain right now. Yay!

Here’s a couple of photos I took awhile ago…

I am not sure my boys will see summer vacation or if I will see a paycheck since when the base closes I don’t get paid! LOL!

But whatever, I’m going to go make some cards for soldiers. Happy snowday!

A Scrappy Post

2011-01-16T11:16:00.001-05:00

Spent some time in my scraproom the past few days. Got 50 St. Patrick’s Day cards made for the soldiers and 4 pages done. I forgot how long it takes to do a page now. I used to be able to do a page in 1/2 an hour, now it takes me more like 2 hours to finish one! At this point I should be done scrapping the last few years in about 2020 or so! But here are the pages I did get done…

I’m off to see my cousin, her husband and their new baby today, then to a football party with friends but I hope to do some more scrapping tomorrow since I have the day off. With two snow days and a compressed work week this week I have had 7 days off in a row after tomorrow so it’s going to be hard to get back into the swing of things on Tuesday for sure!

Have a great Sunday! Thanks for reading and looking!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T09:13:00.001-05:00

Welcome 2011! I hope it’s a fabulous year for all of you! I can’t really complain about 2010 so I’m not sad to see it go or anything but we’ve got some exciting things going on for 2011 so I’m welcoming it as well. We had a very quiet but wonderful Christmas and New Year here and I hope everyone out there had enjoyable holiday’s as well. I got very spoiled as always and while I only asked for a Cricut Expression which I got with several cartridges, and a travel case (in pink and brown no less) I also got an iPad with accessories, and a beautiful and BIG Pink Sapphire ring (this thing has to be like 5 karats). Which I have tried and tried to take a photo of but I can’t do it justice. Here is the best one I’ve got but I really think I need a dark background for it…

I just love this ring! I have to have it cut down so I’m wearing it on my middle finger right now and it’s still big but I just can’t take it off!

We also celebrated Mom’s birthday in December, she turned 68…

and Sadie turned 2…

We got a blizzard with about 10 inches of snow right AFTER Christmas…

Oh and we got a second Christmas tree for the garage! (I didn’t take this photo a friend took it with his cell phone as he was leaving our house one night). The garage is almost done! I am loving that I can park in there and not have to clean snow off my car. Still getting used to going in and out though so I go very slow! Can’t wait to start the family room planning in the spring!

So today I have two friends (Denise B and Pam L) coming over that I haven’t seen in ages! I ran into them at a Tim Holtz class where I made this:

Denise and Pam are coming over to help me sort the ridiculous pile of cards for soldiers I have to send out this week. I must have a good 5000 cards in my basement! I ran into them as they were checking out at Absolutely Everything as they had taken Tim’s class prior to the one I was taking and so we decided to get together and I can’t wait to spend some time with them as it’s been TOO long! Should be a great day of catching up! And once all these cards are out in the mail next weekend I plan to break in my cricut making more cards and maybe scrapping too because I don’t have a lack of photos as you can see (and I didn’t even share a quarter of them)!

So I hope you all have a very enjoyable weekend and Happy New Year!

Happy Turkey Day!

2010-11-25T09:52:00.001-05:00

Wishing all of my faithful blog readers a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hope you have lots of fun whatever you are doing today!

The other day Sadie was playing in the leave pile that Jake was raking, I tried to take some photos of her but my camera was not cooperating so this is the best one I got and of course her head is cut off! This would have been a great scrapping opportunity if my point and shoot hadn’t been a bugger! And of course now all the leaves are gone.

I also parked in the garage for the first time last night. No it’s not done but it was fun anyway! It’s getting there! Michael is working on the stairs that go into the house today.

Doors and windows are on the way as are the garage doors so in a few weeks there should be another new update!

Enjoy your day and don’t eat too much!

Holiday Meme with a twist

2010-11-25T09:41:00.001-05:00

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to:http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family? Health, happiness and all they want under the tree!

2. What is your Christmas morning tradition? Cinnamon rolls, coffee, opening stockings first and then presents together, everyone does one around the room until they are all done, then relaxing a bit before showering and heading off to where we are spending the rest of the day.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be? An all inclusive family vacation in Mexico or a Canon 5D

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money? Spending time with family and friends I don’t get to see enough during the year

5. What games did you play with your family growing up? Sorry, Yahtzee, Parcheeze

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood? Opening one present on Christmas Eve.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas-away-from-home trip? Somewhere warm!

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year? Turtle Beach PS3 Headset, PS3 Rock Band Wireless Guitar, Rock Band for PS3

To enter, link to your Mama’s Holiday Wish List post using the Mister Linky box below.

Hope you play along for a chance to win!

10 on Tuesday

2010-11-16T08:56:00.001-05:00

1) I’ve got a day off today because Josh is sick again for the third time in 2 weeks. We are headed to the doctor in 20 minutes.

2) Garage is coming along. I’ll take a photo later when it stops raining.

3) It’s raining. Ick. But it could be worse, since it’s November 16th, it could be snow so that’s something I’m thankful for today.

4) I lasted exactly 4 days posting Thankful for things on my Facebook page in November! Not a good thing!

5) Our neighbors got a trampoline, I am not happy about this.

6) I hate trampolines.

7) I need a new dress for the work Christmas party on Dec 11th or I need to lose several pounds before then. I’m thinking buying a dress will be much easier!

8) I bought my first Christmas presents yesterday, only got two, I’ve got a long way to go!

9) Christmas is exactly 39 days away!

10) I have parent teacher conferences on Friday with all Jake’s High School Teachers, he wants me to skip it, I wonder why?

I Scrapped!

2010-11-14T19:02:00.001-05:00

Actual layouts not cards! For the first time in awhile! And I got 5 pages done. It felt good. I still have a pile of photos staring at me but was a pretty productive afternoon. Here’s my handiwork:

Jake’s School photo. I had the cute owl buttons made by Tessa Ann Designs (check out her Etsy shop she is awesome!) And the other buttons in the upper left hand corner were from http://evalicious.bigcartel.com/.

The boys birthdays:

And the first day of school photos:

and here is a little card I made for my cousin’s baby’s Christening:

And now I have to go back to reality tomorrow after enjoying 4 days off of work so I better get off here and get to my ironing! Thanks for looking! Have a great night!

Garage Updates and Carrie Underwood!

2010-11-07T08:52:00.001-05:00

So not a lot of progress on the garage. Poor Michael is not having much time to work on it as his actual job is very busy and he’s had to work the last two Saturday’s. Add some nasty rainy weather to that and we aren’t getting too far! Here is the latest photo:

And I took my mom to see Carrie Underwood last night as an early birthday present. It was a total surprise for her because I didn’t tell her we were going until we got in the parking garage. Needless to say she was VERY excited. It was a fantastic show. If you are a fan, I highly recommend it as she’s definitely one of the best singers out there! Her voice is just as amazing in person as it is on the radio, even better, I’d say. I got a few shots with my point and shoot that was very low on batteries so no flash but since we were five rows from center stage they came out OK…

Sons of Silvia opened up, these boys were talented in the musical instrument department to say the least!

Billy Currington was next, he put on a fantastic show as well:

And then came Carrie:

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And now I’ve got to go get ready for a Christening for my cousin’s sweet little girl, then come home and write out 16 customs forms for the 16 boxes of Cards for Soldiers I’ll be sending out this week! It’s a short week at work for me as I have Thursday and Friday off and I can’t wait, I am hoping to get some real scrapping in as all I’ve been doing is making cards lately. I can’t wait to edit some of these concert photos and scrap them!

Have a great Sunday!

Updates

2010-10-09T19:21:00.001-04:00

The garage is coming along! The foundation is dug and poured and it’s exciting to see some progress! Here is a photo of what it looked like when I got home from work the day it was poured…

Then it was time to backfill and compact, lots of fill brought in and then packing it down hard. And I thought we were waiting to have the floor poured but today I got home from baseball to see the first wall up. Talk about exciting! I wish I had been here to see the actual standing but we were all the way in Keene so I couldn’t just run home to see it…

On the way back from the baseball game I stopped to take some foliage photos. I was surprised that the colors weren’t better …

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I also went to an all day crop last Saturday. I made 40 Veteran’s Day cards for Soldiers and a 20 page 8x8 Baby album for a gift for a shower I had to go to on Sunday. It was a great charity crop and awesome to spend a day with friends scrapping. I’m looking forward to taking a Tim Holtz class with another friend at the end of this month and I also plan on scrapping tomorrow and Monday since it’s a long weekend for me! Oh I forgot to share this page that I did a few weeks ago as well…

So that’s what has been going on with us. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Back to School, Another Anniversary, Building an Addition

2010-09-21T08:29:00.001-04:00

So a lot has gone on in our house since my last update as you can see from my title! I guess I need to blog more often or I’m going to be writing books every time I update!

First off Michael and I celebrated 23 years of wedded bliss! Since we are doing the big addition project this year we kept it low key and spent the day on the boat with the boys and he brought me some roses.

Secondly Jake and Josh went back to school, I am officially the mom of a kid in high school now! I wasn’t home for the big day since I leave at o’dark thirty (5am) but Jake was good enough to document the day for me with one photo of each of them. Not exactly what I had in mind but I’ll take it as it’s better than I would have got which is zip!

Here they are in all their happiness about going back to school…

School is in full swing, they are both doing well. Josh is playing soccer, doing karate and on the student council. Jake is playing baseball. So needless to say, I have no free time!

And last but not least, we have started the garage side of our addition. The foundation is in!

Hopefully the floor will be poured sometime this week and then the framing will begin. We hope to have it all done before the winter. Well I hope so I don’t have to clean snow off my car or trudge thru it ever again!

On the scrapping front, my friend Patty and I got together a few weeks ago to make Cards for Soldiers. We got about 50 done between the two of us on a Sunday afternoon. This past weekend I spent sorting all the cards I had received and packing them to ship them out, there were 2500! I have 8 boxes to go to the Post Office today! Pretty Awesome! And I did a page last night for the first time in months! I honestly think the last time I actually made a page was back in May when I went away to a crop! It felt good! I didn’t finish until late so I haven’t scanned so I can’t share.

Oh and the last thing I wanted to share is a very talented blogging friend of mine Kimberly Geshwin is an awesome font maker and she is offering up a pretty cool deal. So if you have a fun and funky handwriting that you’d love to see made into a font, go and check this post out…http://gesweinfamily.com/?p=3259, it’s for a very good cause!

OK, that’s enough for now, I have to hop in the shower. Have a great week!

Long Time No Blog

2010-08-21T12:15:00.001-04:00

It’s been awhile eh? I guess when you have like one reader (thanks Jodene) it’s not a huge deal anyway! Lots going on here! We have been in the midst of a construction project. Painters and construction. 4 years ago my fabulous husband decided to do hardwood floors in the house. Something I’d been asking him to do for years. Well this was a huge task because it involved tearing down some walls for the stairs and such. He eventually finished all the floors but never the stairs because we ran into some issues and we’ve been walking on plywood stairs ever since. Fast forward to this year, I decide I’ve had enough of looking at unfinished stairs and before we start more projects I’m hiring someone to finish the darn stairs, the trim all the way upstairs in the hall and into my bedroom and the windows! We had windows and siding put in and I decided that because the new windows are white and all of our trim in the house was stained that didn’t look right so btw, we need to hire painters because all the trim needs to be painted white now! So for the last week the house has been in quite an uproar to say the least! It’s starting to look great as the stairs are almost done and I can’t wait to see the finished product! It will be nice to have it all complete.

And then we will start all over again! We are adding on two additions! A two car garage with attic space above it on one side of the house and a big family room on the other side of the house. The garage will be first so that Michael will have somewhere to work on the other side. I hope this project doesn’t take another 4 years! Once it’s done I’m looking forward to doing some entertaining in my house because I’ll have a room big enough to do so!

In other news, we have been enjoying our boat. Last weekend Michael and I went out on it again while the boys were away for the week at my in-laws. We docked in Newburyport and walked around and did some shopping. Had lots of fun picking out some nautical decor for the downstairs bath. I decided since we are boat owners now I wanted a nautical themed room. We also found a yummy bakery where I got a gourmet cupcake, peanut butter flavored goodness! YUM! Michael snapped this photo of me enjoying it

Then he did some fishing and caught a few cod and this big cusk:

And we saw I pink boat which I loved so had to take a photo:

And then we went out to the Isle of Shoals and saw the scenery there plus a bunch of harbor seals:

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It was a very nice day and I didn’t even get a little nauseous! We had a great dinner at a place called Michael’s Harborside before we headed home that night. I could definitely get used to that kind of life. Maybe in a 100 foot yacht! ;)

The boys and I also had our annual week at the beach with my mom in July! It was a fantastic week of perfect weather. We met my uncle and cousin for lunch one day, had pedicures with my mom’s friend and her daughter one day, the boys had a friend up for several days. Couldn’t have asked for a better week. Here are some highlights from that week as well:

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So if you’ve stuck with me this far you are a true friend! This was a long one! I’ll try not to be so scarce so I don’t talk so much next time!

I’m headed down to my scrap room so I can get out of the painters way! Happy Weekend all!

We got a Boat!

2010-07-17T09:26:00.001-04:00

Well I should say we got a bigger boat, because we’ve had a little 18 footer for about 8 years now. I’ve hated that little boat since we got it because I always thought it was too small for the ocean and it made me nervous. It was fine for bringing up to the lake to take the boys tubing and such but out on the ocean I always felt like we were going to die!

Anyway fast forward to last month when Michael sends me this text pic that says I found my father’s day present…

One thing led to another and we bought it. It’s a 24’ Rampage and it’s much nicer than our old free 18’ boat. It’s got a cuddy cabin that sleeps 2 and a toilet! So Michael picked it up on Wednesday and we went out on it for our first time yesterday to see some whales and do a little fishing.

We headed out to a place called Jeffrey’s Ledge off of Newburyport, MA and before we got there we saw this:

Unfortunately it is the only photo I got because it was rough out there and every time we were able to spot one they were down so fast I couldn’t get the shot. We saw about 5-6 throughout the day and it was very exciting. The best was the tail shot that I missed and wished I could have got but maybe next time!

Then we set up for some fishing. This was Josh’s first time with a big deep sea rod so he needed a lesson from dad first:

He immediately hooked on to something and had to reel it in all the way from 150 feet of water…

And was very excited to catch his first shark!

No photo of Josh holding his catch because sharks are not welcome on the boat! They are a boatload of trouble (pun intended)! ;)

Then it was off to do some more fishing on mouth of the river hoping to catch some dinner. The only thing we caught was the tail of a whale watching boat that we followed out to another place called Stellwagen Bank. This is where it was a real rough ride but we got to see a bunch more whales so it was worth it sort of (I’ll leave the gory details out). Unfortunately because of the roughness no photos, I couldn’t even stand up, never mind hold my camera!

We headed back in before it got too late and the boys decided to stop to fish for a bit. This is where my stomach decided it did not have much more tolerance for the rough seas and had enough! I’ll just say this was my first and hopefully last experience with sea sickness! LOL! They did catch two fish before I said we needed to get back to dry land. I’ve been out on boats many times before and haven’t had this lovely experience so I hope it’s a one time thing or I won’t be enjoying the boat as much as the rest of the family I guess!

So there you have the tales of our first experience on our new boat!

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-31T08:12:00.001-04:00

Thank you to all of those that serve our beautiful country past and present…

Recent Scrappiness

2010-05-29T08:34:00.001-04:00

These are some of the pages I did during my weekend crop. I finally got a new scanner for Mother’s Day! I still have one more that needs some journaling on it to scan. I am loving my new scanner it’s much faster than the old one!

The splashes were a total lift from my very talented friend Leslie Ashe. She just makes the most amazing pages and when I saw them on one of her pages I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the photos of Jake jumping off a bridge last summer! Thank you for the inspiration Leslie!

TFL! Hope you had a great weekend! We are off to a baseball game and I have to go get ready!

Sign the Petition

2010-04-25T06:50:00.001-04:00

Food Revolution!

FYI

2010-04-24T06:37:00.001-04:00

Get Schooled Photo is having a birthday party! Over a $1000 in gifts from amazing vendors! visit the blog 4 YOUR gift http://bit.ly/awjv26

Headed to Maine

2010-04-24T06:36:00.001-04:00

The boys and I are headed to Maine this weekend. We are going to spend the weekend with my SIL and family which will be fun but unfortunately I am not going there for the purpose of fun. It’s been a rough week for bad news for me. A fellow blogger lost her 20 year old son very suddenly last Thursday. I’m not sure when I started reading Hallie’s blog but it was some time ago. When CJ went down to his training in FL we sent him care packages and grocery cards to get him fed well until he came home. And when he was going to be deployed to war we prayed for his safe return and I think when he got injured in training and ended up coming home more than a few of us were thankful that one mom didn’t have to worry about her son over there. I’ve told Hallie I’m going to meet her in person one of these days when I’m up in Maine since she lives 1/2 an hour from my SIL since we’ve only talked via email and blog, I never thought it would be under these circumstances. But I want to go and support this wonderful family I’ve come to know and love via this amazing WWW any way I can.

When I get back I’ll have to deal with the second unexpected and unexplained death I heard of this week. Our Colonel in my squadron at work lost his beautiful 41 year old wife on Monday night while they were traveling back from a conference. It was a huge shock to our group. For those of you that don’t have a military background, it’s like a family and because we all knew Donna from her coming to all of our squadron events we were all effected in some way. The funeral will be tomorrow in Colorado so none of us can attend and we will just have to wait see the Colonel when he gets back to work on Wednesday. It’s not going to be good, they were a beautiful, and very happily married couple with a 19 yo daughter.

If you can spare them please send prayers for both of these families.

A New Smile!

2010-03-20T10:27:00.001-04:00

Look who got his braces off! He was very excited to be able to chew gum again after two years. They gave him a big water bottle full of all kinds of chewy things he hasn’t been able to eat after all this time and a big balloon, it was very fun.

He got the day off from school for doing such a great job taking care of his teeth during the last two years and now hopefully he’ll do the same thing with the retainer he has to wear which by the way is lime green and glows in the dark…

I’ve been sick off and on for about a week now with a stomach bug and then a head cold sinus thing and am looking forward to enjoying the amazing weather we are having. Jake and I are off to American Eagle to get him some shorts and then some new sneakers since he can’t seem to stop growing. He’s now 5’10” and who knows what shoe size he’ll be now! It was size 12 last time we went in December!

Tomorrow a couple of my scrappy friends are coming over and we are going to work on some Cards for Soldiers! One of them I haven’t seen in ages and I’m really looking forward to it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Nor’Easter

2010-02-28T17:51:00.001-05:00

And a heck of a storm it was! It came in howling late Thursday night and our power went out about 11pm. It stayed out until about 5pm last night. Luckily after last years ice storm we invested in a small generator so we didn’t lose any food and had heat and a few lights so we were luckier than most. They said there were 300,000 people in New Hampshire without power and I believe it. This is what my front yard looked like and when I ventured out on Friday the roads and other yards looked much worse.

View Full Album

We made the best of it like last year and the neighbors got together again and had a good time. Mom and I also did some shopping at the scrapbook store to prepare for our scrapping weekend the end of April since we got more rain than snow and the driving wasn’t bad. Although we are in for another storm tonight so we will have to see what that brings.

I also packaged up 700 Cards for Soldiers, went to the laundr-o-mat for the first time in 20+ years and stayed off the computer for 2 whole days!

Now I’ve got to go get my clothes ironed for work tomorrow and see about some dinner! Have a great night!

Layouts

2010-02-21T08:10:00.001-05:00

Since I have nothing too exciting to blog about I figured I’d share the layouts that I have been scrapping over the past couple of months. Since my computer has been upgraded to Windows 7 my scanner is no longer compatible so I’ve had to take photos of them. Please bear with me as I have not mastered the ‘taking photos of layouts’ thing yet but here are some I’ve done…

from our Labor Day trip to Florida:

a little close up of the paper flowers I made for that page:

a rare two pager for me but what else do you do with all those fabulous xmas card photos?

and yes one of the dreaded snow storms we had actually gave me a good layout!

I have a few more to share but I can’t find the photos for some reason so I must have filed the some place other than the norm! Back later! Happy Sunday!

Snowy Monday

2010-01-18T19:16:00.001-05:00

Yes you read that right, another snow day here in New Hampshire. Thankfully it was a holiday today because it was one of those very wet heavy snows that made everything look so pretty but also knocked power out for a bit and made for long clean up! Michael had to go out to plow at 2am. Our power was out when he got up and it stayed out until about 6:30 am. Michael didn’t have time to hook up the generator when he left so I was very grateful to hear it come back on! I spent most of the day paying bills, doing laundry and stuff I should have done over the weekend but when I finished up with that I went down to my scrapbook room and made some Cards for Soldiers.

It was a 4 day weekend for me and it was very nice! On Friday my friend Patty and I went to my favorite LSS Ink About It and shopped. Michael gave me some of his plowing money to spend so I had loads of fun! Then Friday night he took me out to a nice Italian dinner where I had something I have been dying to try ever since I’ve heard of it, Lobster Mac & Cheese. It was heaven! The restaurant we went to was so good!

Saturday Patty came over and we made a bunch of Cards for Soldiers and I continued after she left since I was on a roll. Yesterday I snuck down to my room and did a few more. I haven’t been down in my room since before Sadie’s surgery so it was very nice to scrap! I made a total of 48 cards between Saturday and today and that’s pretty good for me since I usually hate to make cards!

Which brings us back to today, which is almost over. It’s going to be hard to go back to work tomorrow after such a great weekend but at least it’s a short week! Well gotta go wake up Michael so he can go back out and plow some more! Have a great night all and a great week if I don’t make it back here anytime soon!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T09:28:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful happy, healthy, safe year! The last few weeks of 2009 were not fun for me but I am hoping it’s not an indication of what 2010 has to bring but just all the bad of 2009 that we were going to get because 2009 was a pretty good year other than that!

Enjoy your long weekend!

Update

2009-12-20T15:00:00.001-05:00

Michael is home from the ER with a compressed L5 disc and no head injury. He also has degenerative arthritis in his hip from an injury that happened a couple of years ago moving a wood stove. I think he finally realizes he is not a kid anymore and needs to be more careful!

And it just keeps getting better!

2009-12-20T07:42:00.001-05:00

Hubby is now at the ER…

After working on his truck all day to find he couldn’t fix the problem, he had it towed to the mechanic. Can’t wait to find out how much that is going to cost. So we are down to one car for who knows how long. FUN. Then he had to work on the pond because the small pump that keeps the fish alive quit and with the frigid cold temps we’ve been having the fish would not survive. Then on to the generator hook up since a Nor’easter was on the way and if he had to leave us with no car I at least wanted to know we’d have power and heat! Oh and throw in turning our kitchen into a pen for the dog, including carpeting it and building a fenced in area for her for the next 3 months!

So you’d think that was enough work for one day right? Nope, he decides to go next door to help one of the neighbor’s kids with the snowmobile he bought to get it running in light of the earlier mentioned snowstorm. Well once they got it running he decides to take it for a quick ride to make sure it sounds good and what does he do, he hits a fire pit that is covered in snow! Off the snowmobile he goes, hits a rock with his head and he thinks something is broken in his leg/hip area. He can’t walk. He doesn’t want to scare the teenager he is helping so he hobbles home with a huge lump on his head, messed up vision and major pain in his leg and tells me he needs to go to the ER. I tell him let me call a neighbor because I can’t leave the dog. He and all his stubbornness says nope, he’s just going to shower, take some Advil and go to bed.

Well needless to say that didn’t go well. I slept on the kitchen floor with the dog and heard him get up a few times during the night. He finally came down at 5 and said he was going to the hospital. Now that the snow has started and he can’t even get a pair of pants on.

So to all of you that commented yesterday, thank you for your good thoughts and if you could keep them coming, I think I’ll really need them as you may be getting an update from Jake saying the men in the white coats came and took me away if something else happens!

When it Rains

2009-12-19T08:23:00.001-05:00

They say when it rains it pours or that good or bad things come in threes and I have to say right now I believe both. This is going to be a post full of bad news so if you are full of Christmas spirit and happiness you may not want to read much further so it doesn’t bring you down…

It all started about two weeks ago when Michael came home and said that things were not going well at work and he didn’t know how much longer he was going to have a job. He’s been with this company for 18 years. He has been pretty devastated to say the least and very grouchy because although his boss said he can’t run the company without him and he would be the very last to go he is very worried about his coworkers who are also his friends. This is not a good time to be unemployed no matter what field but especially in the construction world. We make the decision to start saving as much as we can, not exchange Xmas gifts with each other and do whatever we can to take precautions for going back to one salary.

Fast forward to this week when we take Sadie our puppy to the vet, and then decide we need a second opinion from a specialist and on Wednesday find out that she needs knee surgery right away not on one knee but both knees. They schedule the surgery on the left knee for the NEXT day. It’s $3500 for one knee. The next one has to be done as soon as the first one heels in about 6 weeks. And during the heeling she has to be confined to a crate, wear one of those God awful collars, and take all kinds of medications. She has to stay overnight in the hospital and boy Thursday night in our house is awful without her and I couldn’t wait to pick her up on Friday.

And then we get to Friday, I get out of work and rush home to meet Michael so we can go get Sadie. The day just seemed to drag by! I get a call when I am about 20 minutes from home from Michael saying that his truck just quit and he is waiting for AAA to come give him a tow. He has no idea what is wrong with the truck and it’s about 20 degrees outside and he’s freezing. 3 Hours later he is still not home. We finally get Sadie home at 7:30 last night! Still have no clue what is wrong with the truck or how much it will cost to fix it.

Sadie is resting right because she just had a Codeine. She’s not happy that she is confined to her crate but she has to have very limited movement for the next 6 weeks. Her whole back leg is shaved up to her back but the incision is only about 4-5 inches so it’s not too big. She has wagged her tail a few times which is a good sign but you can tell she is in pain because she whimpers once in a while. She hates the collar and when we have to put it on her she gets so sad it makes me want to cry. I hate to think we have to do this all again to the other leg. Poor thing, she doesn’t deserve this at all.

Oh and if you are still with me, this is all caused by a Luxating Patella. It’s also known as Trick Knee. Mostly common in small dogs but also starting to get more common in larger dogs such as Golden’s. And it’s Genetic. We have contacted the breeder because from the research we have done he should stop breeding the parents immediately but he wants more proof from us. There were 11 puppies in Sadie’s litter and we have no idea if any other pups have shown any issues but I hope not.

So if you made it through all that you really are a true friend and I thank you and ask for one more thing, a few good thoughts for Sadie’s fast recovery!

Thanks for reading!

I am Still Here!`

2009-12-06T12:09:00.001-05:00

Wow! It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged! But since I’ve got like 2 readers I’m sure no one has really noticed anyway. Between work, school, homework, the holiday’s and I’m embarrassed to admit a Facebook game called Farmville I’ve had no time. But since we got our first snowfall last night I figured I actually had an excuse to blog so here I am with photos!

As it was just starting to stick last night

And what I woke up to this morning when the phone rang for Michael to go out to plow:

And since I’m here I’ll post our Christmas tree photos. We actually got our first fake tree this year. It was kind of sad not to go out and cut our tree down for the first time in 27 years but Michael really didn’t like worrying about the hardwood and I hated cleaning up all the pine needles every day because of how dry our house is! It doesn’t look to bad considering!

And one with the lights off:

So now I need to get back to studying for my final. It’s Tuesday night and I could use all the good thoughts you care to send please as I hate tests! Thanks and have a wonderful week!

Whirlwind Update

2009-11-08T09:13:00.001-05:00

Phew it’s been a busy few weeks! We had one kiddo turn 11 on a Monday

Then on Wednesday the 2nd kiddo turned 14! Where has the time gone?

Then Friday I got a call from the School Nurse saying kiddo #2 had a 102 temp 20 minutes before school got out and he could not ride the bus that we had to come pick him up. Well I work 50 minutes away from school with NO traffic and hubby was about an hour away so we asked if she planned on staying there until we got there, guess what her answer was? You guessed right. Luckily we had a neighbor home who was willing to go get him. I rushed home and took him right to the immediate care to get him tested for the flu since she said a lot of the 5th grade as well as a bunch of teachers were out with it. We were at the doctor’s within about an hour and 40 minutes. Poor kid was miserable and just wanted to be home in bed, but they took his temp it was 99.8! The doc said with no meds there is no way it could have gone down that much. I’m thinking the nurse needs a new thermometer. He was sick and did run a temp of around 100-101 all weekend but was better by Monday. He did miss Trick-or-Treat though so was very unhappy about that.

Jake on the other hand did not miss it. I thought he was too old to go out but since all his friends were going who was I to argue. He dressed up as an old lady. We had fun shopping at the Goodwill store for his clothes! He was pretty funny!

Our pumpkins never got carved since Josh wasn’t up to it and Jake didn’t care so they sat like that on the porch instead. Kind of a bummer but I didn’t miss the mess at all!

I passed my mid-term thankfully. I didn’t get the A I wanted but no one in the class got an A so I guess I’ll be happy with the B. At least I know what to expect on the Final. Now I have to work on my project. Maybe I can get an A on that! This teacher is tough!\

Oh and I just have to show you how big my puppy is! She’s not a puppy anymore, she’s 10 months and looks like a full grown dog. She is the sweetest thing too! I couldn’t ask for a better dog!

And speaking of that, I promised her a walk so I’m outta here! Have a great day!

I WON SOMETHING!

2009-10-29T18:52:00.001-04:00

I just started reading Stephanie Howell’s blog because of post my friend Kendra had on her blog and quickly added her to my google reader. I enjoy reading her stories and love her pages! Imagine my surprise when I entered a contest she had recently and won this:

Not only did I get the awesome bracelet made by Stacey Curry of Star Hitched Wagon I got a signed copy of the June 2009 issue of Bead Trends magazine that it’s published in which I thought was so fun! This bracelet is even prettier in person and I highly recommend you checking out both links I’ve shared today! Thank you again Stephanie and Stacey!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-25T16:40:00.001-04:00

I have been wanting to make a banner for awhile now and since I got the opportunity to work with Basic Grey’s new Eerie collection for a product review over at ScrapFriends I decided that is exactly what I would do. I had fun making it and think I just may make one for Christmas too!

Now I’ve got to go iron my clothes for the week, fold some laundry and see about dinner. It’s going to be a busy week for me with my boys turning 11 and 14, a mid-term and Halloween! Have a good one!

Columbus Day Weekend

2009-10-23T18:26:00.001-04:00

We went up to Maine to visit my Sister-in-Law for the holiday weekend and had a great time. It’s been awhile since I’ve been up there and it was nice to spend some time with her. Julie and I met in High School 27 years ago and believe it or not she is the one to blame for introducing me to my husband all those years ago and I’m still friends with her! Anyway, I taught her how to make some jewelry and did some scrapping, took some photos, cooked and best of all relaxed. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the weekend…

Josh collecting eggs:

Julie making her first necklace:

My newphew Cole

Sadie and her new BFF Daisy playing Tug-o-war

Josh near the brook

Julie’s front yard

The Mill

Jake being ‘Bad’

It really is pretty up there! And it although it was cold it was a very nice peaceful weekend!

Cards for Soldiers 2010 Schedule

2009-10-18T07:47:00.001-04:00

I sorted 725 cards to send out to the soldiers this week! It’s been another great year for sending cards. Only one more shipment this year and then its on to the 2010 mailings! This will be our 4th year!

I’ve posted the 2010 Mailing schedule on the Card for Soldiers blog. I hope some of my scrapping friends who make cards will have some time in the new year to send some cards!

Thanks to everyone who has helped out with our project we are hoping for another successful year.

Apple Picking

2009-10-09T16:33:00.001-04:00

We went on our annual apple/pumpkin/corn maze trip on Sunday and it was an experience to say the least! The corn maze was a bust! After almost 2 hours we had to give up and take an emergency exit out because it was getting late and I needed to get dinner started because it was a school night. To say the least the boys were not pleased with me because I was a quitter! LOL! Well I also got stung by a yellow jacket earlier at the apple orchard and my finger was swollen up like a balloon and hurt like a son of a bee so I was done to say the least. Plus it was hot! I had no idea it would turn out that warm and I had my fur lined crocs on! LOL! It was fun and then some but enough was enough! Anyway, here are some photos from the fun…

OK we are off to Maine for the long weekend! Have a great weekend!

Scary Stuff

2009-09-27T15:20:00.001-04:00

So Jake spent the night at a friends house Friday night and they went to his sister’s soccer game here in town. The field is set back behind some houses and there are woods and a stream around it. Jake and his friend decided to kill some time walking around the woods near the stream and come upon this:

Jake thinks' it’s a toy so goes to pick it up and realizes it’s a bit too heavy to be a toy so puts it right back where he finds it! They head back out to his friends mom, who immediately takes them to the police station to make a report. It turns out its a loaded handgun! Seriously, in my little tiny hick town! What scares me the most is that this could have turned out so differently. I’m very proud of my son and thankful that nothing bad happened with such a dangerous weapon so close at hand to a place where many children are every weekend. I have to say that I am still sick to my stomach thinking about how things could have been!

This Makes Me Smile

2009-09-26T16:33:00.001-04:00

I couldn’t even move like this in my 20’s and this lady is 62!!!

We are off to Gaucho’s with some friends for dinner tonight and then I plan on a rainy day full of sorting cards for soldiers so have a fabulous rest of the weekend!

My New Curtain

2009-09-18T18:39:00.001-04:00

Chris reminded me that I hadn’t posted a photo of my new curtain in the scraproom! I can’t believe I forgot since it’s the cutest addition to my newly renovated room! Chris made this out of the fabric I covered the chairs in. She is so talented! Oh how I wish I could sew on something other than paper! Look how cute…

Thank you Chris!!!

Tim Holtz!

2009-09-13T09:30:00.001-04:00

I had the pleasure of taking my second class with Tim yesterday at my LSS and of course it was as awesome as I knew it would be. This one was called Idea-ology Intrigue and we made 5 pieces of jewelry.

I think this little bird house pin is my favorite and this photo of it does it much more justice (it’s is from the slide in class):

And of course I had to get a photo of Tim and Mario but Tim wouldn’t let me unless I was in it too so here were are:

This is a close up of the charm necklace which was so fun to make:

All the projects were awesome and I learned a lot. I am loving all the idea-ology line of Tim’s and can’t wait to play with all the stuff I bought!

Cards for Soldiers

2009-09-10T20:19:00.002-04:00

As you know some of us girls over at 123-Scrap.com started a "Cards For Soldiers" Project several years ago. We were even written about in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. Well the Chaplain and our good friend Carol's husband that went over to Iraq and gave Chris the idea to start this program has come and gone on 2 tours over there and is home safe for good and since I started working on an Air Force Base about the same time he was coming home I started making some contacts for new places to send some cards.

It took awhile to get things ironed out but now I've got two different places to send cards to and now I need lots of cards again and quick! So if you like to make cards head on over to the Cards for Soldiers Blog and check out the specs and the schedule in the right hand column! Oh and if you have any good sources that are willing to donate A2 envelopes I need those too! I am buying them myself as well as paying for the postage to mail these cards and envelopes so it gets pricey!

Thank you for your support!

Long Time No Blog!

2009-09-09T20:14:00.001-04:00

Sorry it’s been awhile! After finishing up my scrap room makeover, I had plans to have my friends over for a scrap night and at the last minute we got invited to a Red Sox game so thankfully my good friends understood and off to the Sox game we went! It was fantastic. We had seats under the awning so while it rained a steady rain all night and there was even a rain delay I was dry and toasty the whole game. Here are a few shots from the game which we won!

YOUK!!!

My favorite catcher!

A Happy Beckett

This was something to see that you don’t see on TV!

Lynne, Johnnie and Michael

And JV again

I did not think this guy was going to get up. It was scary!

We would have had a great photo of Big Papi sliding into third but it came out blurry. Oh well they can’t all be perfect right?

And then during the rain delay it was tied 5-5 in the bottom of the 8th with tail end of a hurricane coming in and it was late so we decided to leave, while we were sitting in traffic, they restarted the game and the Sox won! I will never leave a game early again! LOL! It was still a blast. Thanks John and Lynne (and Lynne’s boss for the tickets!)

Yearbook Yourself

2009-08-31T17:13:00.001-04:00

Here I am in 1984 from http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

Nice hair eh? It’s actually pretty accurate minus the bow! LOL!

My New Scrap Room

2009-08-26T19:46:00.001-04:00

I’m a bit later than I said I’d be but here are the photos of my newly renovated room

I got the desk at Pottery Barn Teen, the chairs were from an old dining room set and I picked out some Michael Miller fabric and then choose four of the colors from the fabric to repaint the chairs. My sweet hubby painted them for me and then recovered the seats.

The chandelier also came from Pottery Barn Teen

The word art is from http://www.onceuponadesign.net/ and I got the idea from Jodene, it is not a great photo but it says do something creative everyday. I found the big scissors on Ebay and the word scrap has been on my wall forever I just added more ribbons to match the new colors.

The shelf is from Ikea and the baskets and boxes are also from Pottery Barn Teen

I absolutely LOVE it and plan on spending tons of time down here.

Oh and my good friend Chris is making me a curtain out of the same fabric that is on the chairs so I’ll be sure to take another photo when that is here too!

A Wonderful Thing to Wake Up To

2009-08-23T07:38:00.001-04:00

I actually slept late yesterday (7am) and it felt great and then when I went to let Sadie out this is what I saw:

I love rainbows, they always make me smile and to see this one was just the right thing to get off to a great day.

Michael and I went to Ikea to get a second Expedit, a black one for the den so I have somewhere to display my albums instead of in the basement in my scraproom where no one ever looks at them. We are going set it up and move all the albums off my new desk today so stay tuned for scraproom photos!!!

I’m excited to break in my room on Friday when Debbie, Deb and Dawn come over to scrap. It’s been too long since I’ve seen them and I can’t wait to scrapbook.

After IKEA we went out to lunch and then did some shopping at the mall. It was a fabulous afternoon and then when we got home we went over to our neighbors for a swim and bbq. More fun! I love weekends like this!

OK well that’s about it for me for now. I’ll be back later or tomorrow more!

Have a fabulous day!

My First Photo Shoot

2009-08-13T07:56:00.001-04:00

Well since I didn’t get paid for it and it technically wasn’t my first since I’ve done the ‘christmas card photo shoot’ about 13 times now maybe I should say my first magazine shoot. Cause that’s really what it was! A good friend of DH’s 1965 Buick Riveria is going to be in a Buick magazine and he asked me to shoot the photos to send to the magazine! I won’t share the ones that actually made it to print but here are a few from the 150 I took:

And since they were official photos I figured it was time to make myself a watermark. I’m still playing but what do you think?

OK, I have to get off here and get ready to go to the neurologist to get some migraine help. Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Happy Birthday Kristi!

2009-07-30T20:16:00.002-04:00

It' s a wonderful and beautiful lady's birthday tomorrow. Kristi and I met thorough the Junkitz site when we both used to stalk the DT's blogs. Well she was actually friends with Kendra IRL so I was the only stalker but that's another story. I had the pleasure of meeting Kristi IRL last October during our girls weekend in Kansas City which I have blogged about in previous posts. I even got to room with her and she is so much fun.
So Happy Birthday Kristi, may you have many many more and a fabulous day today! I am a slacker so I didn't make a fun little album or post unflattering photos like Sue did!

New Wheels!

2009-07-19T20:06:00.001-04:00

I got me some new wheels today! We decided that it was a good time to trade in the H3 since the mileage wasn’t too high and it was still in great condition. Plus I was worried they won’t be making these anymore after 2009 so I just had to convince Michael. Well when we got a letter in the mail saying they were desperate for 2006 H3 trades and were willing to give me 120% of Market Value plus 0% financing we headed right down to the Hummer Dealership to make a deal. And a deal we got! My payment will not increase and now I’m driving around in this:

Oh and I scrapped a bit this morning as well:

It was a fabulous weekend! Hope you all had one just as great!

Happy Friday!

2009-07-17T06:09:00.003-04:00

I'm so glad there is only one more day of work! It's been a long week! I'm looking forward to a very quite weekend of scrapping! It's supposed to rain tomorrow so I'm going to hide in my scraproom. Both boys are gone, Jake is spending another week in Maine and Josh is going to his Nana's house so it's just Michael and I. Michael has lots of projects he is working on so I'm gonna let him! LOL!

I got some fun stuff in from 2 Peas yesterday that I can't wait to use! Although I should know better than to order things online because you really can't tell and if you don't read descriptions you may not know that these are actually huge!

And on top of that I accidently ordered 2 sets! It's been awhile since I ordered anything online so I guess I wasn't paying attention to the final checkout page! It's OK, I've got plenty of scrappy friends to send one too!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be back this weekend with more layouts to share! Have a great weekend!

I scrapped and scrapped

2009-07-14T05:38:00.002-04:00

So hubster and the boys went to Maine for the weekend to drop Jake off for 2 weeks ack! And what did I do? I holed myself up in my scraproom the whole time! Here’s what I made:

The recipe box & matching cards are for the Taking a Chance on Life Raffle a fellow blog friend is doing that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. She’s got some amazing prizes donated.

Go check out the prize list here: http://wonderfulworldofweiners.blogspot.com/2009/06/list-of-raffle-prizes-ever-growing.html

and then make a donation while you are there!

I also did lots of laundry, did some weeding, planted some flowers, and took the dog on a few walks. It was such a quite and relaxing weekend. I loved it!

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

2009-07-12T08:37:00.002-04:00

So there was a little challenge over at SSD to post our Celebrity look a like. No one has ever said I look like a celebrity so I used an online generator. I seriously don't see one resemblance but I'll take a few of them anyway! LOL!

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage

Happy Belated 4th!

2009-07-10T16:09:00.001-04:00

I hope everyone had a great day! We have had a fun filled weekend and I have today off to recover. Here are some photos from our weekend:

There was swimming and jacuzzi fun:

Go Kart rides around the cul-de-sac

routing on the go kart drivers by my neighbor and granddaughter:

Sparklers

View Full Album

and of course fireworks. I really need to work on this part! I had my ISO at 100, used a tripod, was in BULB mode on the camera but the shutter speed was off:

View Full Album

Happy Friday all! Have a fabulous weekend!

How’s Your Weather?

2009-07-10T15:38:00.001-04:00

It finally feels like summer here in NH. In the past month we have had about 25 days of rain and it’s been awful. All of my flowers are waterlogged and dead and my summer glow is seriously lacking! But today it’s 79 degrees and bright blue skies and is supposed to stay that way this weekend so I’m hoping to be outside for some of it!

I hope you are enjoying your weather where ever you are!!

Smoothie Anyone?

2009-07-02T18:31:00.001-04:00

You Are a Banana Smoothie

You are friendly and popular without even trying to be. People just like you.

You are easy to be around and never offend everyone. You're quite mild.

You have a warm demeanor, and many people find you to be inviting.

You are sympathetic and kind. You have a soft spot in your heart for everyone.

What Flavor Smoothie Are You?

Sick!

2009-06-29T07:11:00.001-04:00

Ick, I am sick. I’ve got a sore throat, sneezing, that itchiness that is in your ear but not really in your ear that you can’t scratch, yep, I have that bad in both ears! Plus I have a raging headache and I even took a nap yesterday! I never nap. I blame the constant rain! Which it is doing again today. I tell you if this is any indication what our winter is going to be like I’m putting in for a transfer down south fast!

Sadie went to the groomer for her first time on Saturday. Since we got her we’ve just been bathing her at home but she’s really shedding and needed her nails cut so I spent the money which I will not do again. She looked great but no better than we do and it’s only $7 for a nail trim so I’ll just do that from now on because it was not worth the almost $60 I spent. But she got a pretty pink bandana and looked adorable in it. Of course I was all over it but Michael and the boys hated it and want no signs that she is a girly dog since she’s a girly dog as it is being a golden. Ridiculous huh? I joke that Michael is insecure in his masculinity because he needs a rugged dog with no pink to be found! LOL! Anyway, she did look cute as a button, here is a photo I took before she ate the bandana!

We went to see Transformers 2 at Chunky’s Saturday night. It was so fun and the movie was awesome. If you don’t know what Chunky’s is, it’s a big movie theater with long tables and reclining seats from Lincoln Continentals where you can order dinner, drinks, dessert and such right there. It’s pretty cool as long as you pick the right seats! We are going to do it more often since everyone had a blast so if you know of any really good family movies out let me know! I of course forgot to take photos and I even had my little P&S in my purse!

Oh and this is a reminder to stop over at Hallie’s blog and donate! There is an amazing list of prizes you can win. Just one warning, don’t go on a Monday if you have a week stomach because she has a Morbid Monday post and the photos are not for the squeamish! LOL! But donating for Taking a Chance on Life fundraiser is worth it!

Not much else going on. I’ll close with a few digi pages I’ve recently done:

The page with the hearts is for my friend Amy in case you were wondering who those people were! :)

Have a great day!

What Kind of Swimsuit am I?

2009-06-26T18:46:00.001-04:00

You Are a One Piece Swimsuit

You are a bit conservative and traditional.

And you are not at the beach to put your body on display!

You are a low maintenance person. You like to look good, but you're not vain.

Your taste tends to be sophisticated. You always opt for classy over trashy.

What Kind of Swimsuit Are You?

I agree on the conservative and traditional part but the low maintenance I think hubster would disagree! :)

Cards and a Coach Gift

2009-06-20T07:37:00.001-04:00

So my good friend Chris is here in town this week and I took the day off yesterday to spend with her. It was crappy and rainy so we didn’t do the usual boating on the lake that we usually do every year so instead we scrapped! I needed to make a coach gift and some cards for teachers and I convinced Chris to make the cards for me while I worked on the album. She’s such a great card maker and I hate making them and I knew she would do so much better than I could. I was right, check these out:

Thanks girlfriend you are da bomb!

And I made a CD album for the coach. I won’t bore you with all 18 pages. It’s pretty simple because it’s for a guy that’s probably never seen a scrapbook so I didn’t go nuts.

Front Cover stitched to look like a baseball

And a few of the inside pages:

We are off to a soccer tournament, baseball playoff game and then a party at the Lake with Chris and her family! Busy day! Have a great one!

And yet another quiz...

2009-06-18T17:43:00.001-04:00

Your Gift is Imagination

You are constantly dreaming. You are always thinking about what could be.

You love to express yourself in many ways. You have a way with words and tell vivid stories.

You love to be amused. You are good entertaining yourself, and other people find you hilarious.

You're the type of person who finds staying happy easy. There's always fun to be had!

What's Your Gift?

Lemonade Stand Award

2009-06-15T05:30:00.001-04:00

I’m not sure what this award means but I got it from Jodene, my cyber sister way the heck over in AU. Thanks Jodene! And now that I’ve posted it (that’s part of the rules of getting it) it’s my turn to give it away! Here is the award:

And here are the criteria:

1. Comment on this blog.
2. Cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog.
3. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.
4. Link to your nominees within your blog post.
5. Comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award.
6. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation..

And I’m awarding it to the following people all because they really do fall under #3!

1. Kristi

2. Kendra

3. Donna

4. Debbie

5. Hallie

6. Candice

7. Dawn

Enjoy! Have a great Monday!

What Taste R U?

2009-06-11T19:45:00.001-04:00

You Are Salty

There's something about you that makes the world a better place.

You make life more colorful, more flavorful, and more vibrant.

You get along well with others. You always have something to add.

Without realizing it, people can become very addicted to you.

What Taste Are You?

A Raffle for a Great Cause

2009-06-06T09:33:00.001-04:00

A fellow New Englander is looking for donations for a great charity raffle. I am making a recipe box and maybe a piece of jewelry to donate and I thought I’d post here for all my creative friends to check it out in case you feel inclined to donate something yourself. Check it out here and be sure to tell Hallie I sent you.

And I know donating items over the net can be a scary thing but I honestly trust this girl and I also know sort of where she lives too if that makes you feel any better! ;) So please consider donating something for her raffle!

Thanks so much!

The Zoo

2009-06-04T08:43:00.001-04:00

So on the Sweet Shoppe blog this week we were asked to talk about our favorite zoo animal. I’ve got lots because I love animals but the Tiger is my favorite and if it’s white, even better! Every year we visit the same Wild Animal park in York Beach, Maine where we go on vacation and when the white tiger is playing in the water I could stand there all day. But this past year I had the pleasure of going to San Antonio to visit my good friend Amy. We spent a day at the San Antonio Zoo and I found that I could sit and watch these guys all day too if I could

They were so cute. Each time they dove in the water and came back out they would go over to this one family, I think they thought one of the men had something for them and that one would sit up and beg and almost paw at the guy, it was so adorable!

So while I still love my tigers I am a huge otter fan now too!

Eight

2009-06-03T18:21:00.001-04:00

Debbie Tagged me. Ugh!

eight things i am looking forward to

Friday afternoon
Sadie being completely trained
weekend bbqs with the neighbors now that summer is here
Visit with my friend Chris
4th of July fireworks
Lost coming back on
Bedtime
getting back in shape

eight things i did yesterday

Worked
Drank Coffee
Went to Jakes Baseball game
Took pictures
Surfed the net
Ate Pizza Hut pasta and cheesy breadsticks
Put on Makeup
Went to the store

eight things i wish i could do

Go to a tropical island
Go on cruise
Have another KC Trip
Have more determination to eat right and exercise
buy a bigger house
lose weight
have endless amounts of money
Not sweat the small stuff

eight magazines i like

Creating Keepsakes
Scrapbook Trends (but I don’t subscribe because it’s too expensive)
Scrapbooks Etc.
Memory Makers
People
Rachael Rae
BH&G

eight things on my wishlist

A bigger house
Canon 40D
Nicer Zoom Lens
A Trip
Lyposuction
Karen Russell’s Photography Class
To live somewhere where the weather is perfect (meaning no snow but all the other seasons)
2010 Camaro SS

eight bloggers i am tagging

none, I know how much people hate these things!

Summer Plans?

2009-05-29T20:16:00.001-04:00

So this summer we are not going on vacation for the first time since like 1990. Mom and I started going away to the beach in 1990 and have done it every year since except for the year we went to Disney. It’s going to be so strange and very sad. No vacation time for me so I’ll be working all summer. Josh will be going to Daycare which is sort of like day camp as they go on field trips and do fun stuff and Jake will be at home for the most part. He is going away to overnight Boys Camp for a week and I’m a bit freaked about that but I know he will love it. Baseball and Soccer end June 20th and after that at least my weekends will be free and maybe we can do a weekend trip to the beach or something. It’s going to be a very boring summer for me!

What are your plans for the summer, let me live vicariously through you?

I Paper Scrapped

2009-05-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

On Mother’s Day we decided instead of going out and spending a ton of money on dinner that we would hang out at home and have Lobster and Steak. After going out to get my annual hanging plants we get every Mother’s Day Mom and I headed off to Michaels and AC Moore since the LSS was closed and got some scrapping stuff. I really didn’t need much and Mom just picked up some Disney stuff since she wanted to work on some photos from our trip. I got one two page layout and another page done in the short time we scrapped. We then had a fabulous dinner all cooked and cleaned up by Michael and the boys and it was a great day. Here are the pages I got done:

The single page was about all the wild animals we saw at the park that weren’t caged:

And the two pager is another sea world page:

I hope to find some more scrappy time soon, I forget how much I miss it until I do it again.

May Musings

2009-05-21T20:08:00.001-04:00

Can you even believe it’s the 22nd of May and this weekend is Memorial Day weekend? Where the heck did the time go? It seems like we just celebrated the new year and now we are almost half way through it? May has been a busy month with soccer and baseball twice a week, as well as Physical Therapy which I just finished up. Then there was Mother’s Day and of course some Orthodontist appointments and teeth cleaning for good measure! I also got bit by a deer tick and we thought the head was still in my belly button so had to go to the doc and get a dose of Doxicycline (sp) to hopefully prevent Lyme Disease. And now I get the joy of watching for symptoms for the next year! Work has been very busy too so I can kind of understand why the time has just flew on by. I’d like for it to slow down now though so I can enjoy the summer!

Have a great long weekend and remember to say a word of thanks and prayer to all the veteran’s and soldiers out there!

Tragedy Strikes Close to Home

2009-05-16T08:11:00.001-04:00

A good friend of Jake’s family lost their home yesterday to a fire. It’s unknown at this time how the fire happened but thankfully the whole family including the dog were not at home when it happened so no one was hurt. This family has lost everything, the home is a complete loss and they only have their car and the clothes on their backs. I am hoping my town rallies together to do something for this family of 6 as they are known well in this community. I am so heartbroken for them and asking if you all could just send them some prayers and positive thoughts.

Thanks so much!

My Star Wars Name

2009-05-14T16:30:00.001-04:00

I hate to admit but I have never even seen the movie but in honor of George Lucas’ bday I took the quiz…

Your Star Wars Name Is Pambu Chbro

Your Star Wars Title Is Acacho of Leahcim

What is yours?

A Mother's Day Poem

2009-05-11T09:54:00.001-04:00

for me from my sweet 10 year old boy. I almost bawled like a baby but I figured it would make him think I didn't like it! LOL!

My mother is a good cook.
She is also nice and smart.
But when she is a parent,
She always does her part!

She works a lot and has a job.
It's secret though and I can't say more,
But it is enough
To get food in our door!

She likes to scrapbook,
And shes good with art.
She uses our pictures,
To get her pages a start.

She likes to keep everything,
All neat and tidy.
She cleans inside,
So our house looks shiny!

I know shes not always happy,
About what I do.
But I sill love her
And she loves me too!

Happy Mother's Day
Love Josh

Happy Mother’s Day

2009-05-10T05:58:00.001-04:00

To all of you who are Moms! I hope you are all treated like a queen, today and every day!

Happy Sunday to the rest of you! :)

Have a great day!

FACEinHOLE

2009-05-09T08:58:00.001-04:00

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Another Quiz

2009-05-08T20:40:00.001-04:00

You Are Blooming Flowers

You are an optimistic person by nature. In even the darkest times, you are hopeful about the future.

You feel truly blessed in life and can sometimes be overwhelmed with emotions.

You have an artist's eye. You are always looking for beauty in the mundane.

You have a good sense of aesthetics, especially when it comes to shapes and color.

What Part of Spring Are You?

Long Time No Blog

2009-04-30T06:25:00.001-04:00

It’s been crazy busy around these parts. Between doctors appointments, physical therapy, orthodontist and dentist appointments, baseball, soccer and work I have barely had time to breathe never mind blog! I have what I hope will be my last ‘knee’ appointment with the doc today and only about 3 more PT appointments left so that should help.

Work has been a total bummer lately with someone I volunteered to help out because I had some time and they were really busy turning around and stabbing me in the back saying to two supervisors I don’t know crap about Configuration Management! Totally disheartening when you are doing something nice for them.

Other than that nothing new in these parts! Here are a few pages I was able to get done in the last couple of weeks:

View Full Album

Have a fabulous week! Oh and I hope to catch up on all your blogs this weekend!

Pondering

2009-04-19T19:23:00.001-04:00

Over on the SSD blog the question was asked what you could absolutely not give up no matter how tough the economy is. I wouldn’t be able to narrow it down to just one thing, I have a bad habit called spending! I have no will power when it comes to cute new digital kits that get released. I used to be that way with paper supplies but since I haven’t been paper scrapping I just don’t shop much for that stuff anymore. I also could not give up going out to dinner once a week because I need that night off from cooking. And of course there is my makeup, that would be one thing I’d never be able to give up! LOL! I could go on too but I’ll stop there. What is one thing you could not give up no matter how tough it got?

To all my friends….

2009-04-12T11:21:00.001-04:00

What Kind of Easter Candy are you?

2009-04-10T05:02:00.001-04:00

You Are a Cadbury Creme Egg

You're the type that stole little brother's easter basket so that you could have MORE CANDY!

Here’s the quiz to see what you are: http://blogthings.com/whateastercandyareyouquiz/

Ha! I prefer the caramel creme eggs but I do steal my kids candy! ;)

Update and TV Musings

2009-04-02T09:51:00.002-04:00

Got my stitches out yesterday and the doc gave me the OK to go back to work on Monday, YAY! I have to go to physical therapy for a bit but he says that within 6-8 weeks I should be 100%.

So on The SSD Blog there is a question about which 5 TV shows you have seen every episode of or if you haven’t name 5 that you would like to. I tend to spend way more time on the computer than I do watching TV these days but I have a few that I have for sure seen every episode on and then a few that I’ve seen most of them twice but not every one so here is my list:

LOST (every one)
American Idol Seasons 2-7 (have seen all)
Friends (seen all)
CSI (seen all and some 2-3 times!)
Buffy (would like to see them all as I started watching this way into the series)

What does your list look like?

Been Scrapping

2009-03-28T11:55:00.001-04:00

Since I’ve been spending all my time on the couch I figured I may as well do something constructive so I ‘ve been digi scrapping. Here are a few of my latest pages:

These are my friend Amy’s fabulous kiddo’s

This is the beautiful Candice and she really is this gorgeous in real life:

And these are some cupcakes that Candice made and was nice enough to loan me her photo to use on a new kit that will be debuting very soon made by my new friend Emily Card!

A little taste of the warm weather that I’m anxiously awaiting and Jake playing with his CSI kit:

And my sweet baby girl:

Thanks for looking!

Are You Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter?

2009-03-26T07:38:00.001-04:00

You Are MySpace

You are young ... or at least you feel like you are. You are drawn to musicians and artists.
You are proud of who you are. Your quirks are an asset, and you flaunt them!
You are attracted to shiny things, and you aren't afraid of a little bling.
You're stubborn enough to stick to what your like, even if falls out of fashion.

I don’t even have a My Space account! LOL! Which are you?

Post Surgery

2009-03-25T07:53:00.001-04:00

Well yesterday was a long day, I had to stay in the hospital for a couple of extra hours due to feeling sick when I woke up but it wasn’t too bad. I got to the hospital at 6am, my surgery was at 7:30 and we were home by about 1pm. I had thought I’d be home by 11 so it was only a couple of extra hours there. My knee hurt a bit last night but today I don’t need any painkillers yet and am crutch-less! My mom is here to help out with the puppy and it’s been chaotic already and it’s only 7:30 am LOL but I am optimistic!

Thank you all for your well wishes and thoughts, you truly are great friends!

It’s Snowing!

2009-03-22T16:10:00.001-04:00

Yep, you heard me right, it was 50 degrees here yesterday and today on March 22nd it’s snowing. Argh! The sun is shining though so maybe that’s a good sign?

Thank you to all who left supportive comments about my drama. I appreciate it and I want you all to know that I’m putting it behind me and moving on. I have unfortunately had to close down my blog but that’s OK I think I got all my loyal readers and friends! If not shoot me an email.

I am having knee surgery on Tuesday so I may miss a few days before I post again. Not to worry I’ll be fine and back asap!

Well we are headed out to dinner with my Mom, hope you all have a great Sunday evening and fab week!

I am NOT Surprised

2009-03-20T16:33:00.001-04:00

Well about the chocolate part, as for the definition I’m questionable!

Are You Chocolate or Vanilla?

You Are Chocolate

You are dramatic, charming, and downright addicting.
You have a strong personality, and and people are drawn to your fabulousness.
You are stimulating and exciting. It's hard to get tired of you.
You are incredibly likable and popular. You live a glorious life.

Note to a 'So Called Friend'

2009-03-19T14:57:00.001-04:00

I don't care if you read this and I don't even want you to respond, this is just to make ME feel better.

I hope you treat your 'besties' much better than the treatment you have given me. I have 'thought' we were friends for the last 7 years. I stood by you during several hard times. I was right there when you suffered a big loss and took time off of work to be with you. I even went so far as to collect money from friends to get you a memorial for that loss. I listened to you talk it out during your rough times with your husband and understood when you decided to take him back. I knew you needed a tenant and against my better judgement to mix business with pleasure I trusted you to be a friend no matter what. Boy was I wrong. You are a liar and a backstabber and the things you said were not true and the person did not deserve that. You should have just been truthful but you only care about yourself and no one else’s feelings so why would you?

And your guilt is showing through by your actions because I did absolutely NOTHING to deserve the treatment I have gotten from you. Have a good life.

Warning – Rant Ahead!

2009-03-18T18:57:00.001-04:00

Don’t you just hate it when you think you know someone but then you find out they are two-faced? One of my biggest pet peeves is two-faced people. You know the kind, they say one thing to your face and then they go behind your back and say something completely different. And it’s even worse when you thought this person was a good friend! You do someone a favor and try to help them out and be a good friend and to get stabbed in the back in the end really hurts! And that’s all I have to say today.

I hope you all are having a better day than I am!

Girl Scout Cookies

2009-03-15T16:13:00.001-04:00

I haven’t got mine yet this year! I ordered from my friend’s daughter in Texas. It’s her first year as a scout and I wanted her first try at cookie sales to be successful. I’m patiently awaiting my favorite flavors, Tag-a-longs and Samoas.

I like the Lemonaides and the Thin Mints too but these two are my very favorite. It’s funny how I am willing to pay $4 for a box of cookies with only a few cookies in each box but I do it every year! What is your favorite flavor?

Birthday Wrap Up

2009-03-09T04:50:00.001-04:00

Well my birthday started out fabulous and went downhill very fast. My sweet puppy was not acting like a puppy and just kept getting worse so we ran to the ER vet and spent the next couple of hours there. They ended up keeping her because her sodium levels were down and they wanted to give her some fluid and observe her over night to see if they would need to do any more tests. I was a wreck to say the least. I called around 7pm because they said they would try to feed her at 6 and see if she could keep it down and she did. They said she was happy and wagging her tail! I was so relieved. Here is the poor girl at the vet, the photo stinks because I had to use my phone since I left my memory card in my computer for the camera I had with me!

Poor girl was so lethargic and couldn’t even lift her head. It was so sad! I can’t wait to see her tonight!

We did have some bday cake when we got home and it was yummy but boy what a day!

Thank you to everyone that sent me the sweet bday messages on Facebook it really did mean a lot!

Have a great Monday!

March 8th

2009-03-08T08:04:00.002-04:00

Since Sadie was my bday present I didn’t expect anything but cards today. Instead my sweet hubby gave me a totally unexpected Birthday Surprise!

Fleetwood Mac floor seats! I am so excited. I have always been a huge fan and have never seen them in concert and have never seen any concert on the floor.

And in other news, I got the confirmation that I do have a torn meniscus in my knee and will need surgery. I'm now playing the waiting game again for the insurance company to approve it. I am looking forward to getting it over with and getting back to my normal self.

Sadie is doing well but man I forgot how much work a puppy is. I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't even see straight. And what a beyotch I was! I went to bed at 8 since Jake said he would stay up with her until 10 and it's a good thing I did because she had us up at 3:30 this morning. I'll be needing a nap today.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Flowers

2009-03-05T18:48:00.001-05:00

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

Your Daisies Say You're Very Resilient

You have a spirt of pure optimism. Your view of the world is eternally cheerful.
You are bold and vibrant. Incredibly striking, you always stand out in a crowd.
You are adaptable and flexible. You can thrive in almost any situation.
You are often under estimated. Your critics and enemies are in for a surprise.

My Birthday Present

2009-03-02T07:52:00.001-05:00

We got my bday present a little early but she is worth not having any presents to open on the actual day:

We haven’t decided on a name yet because no one can agree. I think since she’s my present I should pick!

Birthday Trivia

2009-02-27T17:35:00.001-05:00

You breath at a rate of about 30 breaths per minute so, since your last birthday you have taken approximately 15,768,000 breaths.

Since your last birthday you will have had about 1,460 dreams.

World population has grown by around 76,570,430 since your last birthday. In the time it takes you to read this another five babies will have been born.

Just something to think about! Have a great weekend!

A Freebie

2009-02-22T06:49:00.001-05:00

I figured now that I’m not selling my designs anymore I’d post them here for free so they aren’t just taking up space on my hard drive. Today I’ve got a template for you. If you already bought Sketch it Pack 6 then you already have it but for the rest of you here you go:

Click on Image to Download. Enjoy!

Going for my MRI at 12:30 today right when our snow is supposed to start, at least the DH is driving! :)

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

2009-02-19T16:30:00.001-05:00

Saw this little quiz on the SSD blog. I hope the rich part comes soon! ;)

You Are a Tycoon

Watch out Donald Trump! You've got a head for business and money.
You'll make it rich some day, even if you haven't figured out how yet.
A supreme individualist, you shouldn't get stuck in a corporate job.
Instead, make your own way - so that you can be the boss.
Your strength: Your undying determination
Your weakness: You require an opulent lifestyle
Your power color: Plum
Your power symbol: Dollar sign
Your power month: August

What Does Your Birthday Mean?

WOOT!

2009-02-19T05:46:00.001-05:00

The insurance company finally approved my MRI!!! I have no idea when it will be yet but we are headed in the right direction! YAY!

I scrapped on Sunday. Got one whole page done before a nasty stomach bug kept me on the couch whining. Here is the one page I got done:

It snowed again here in NH. Thankfully school is not cancelled and we only got 3 inches or so. I guess we had to be reminded it’s still winter or something, I mean we haven’t had a storm in like 3 weeks! Happy Thursday all!

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-14T14:18:00.001-05:00

So I woke up to this this morning:

Yes that box of candy does say Princess and those ARE green M&M’s. And then he said bye and went to work. I cleaned house and did some CT assignments. Now I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to go take a nap.

Oh, I had breakthrough with my knee yesterday! After almost 5 weeks the swelling finally went down and my right knee is almost the same size as the left. I’m not sure if was the E-Stim/Ice from PT or just time but I’m happy. It still hurts but as long as I’m careful it’s pretty much fine. I am hoping by mid next week I’ll get my approval to get the MRI to find out if I need surgery.

It’s a long weekend for me but not the boys, Michael has to work and our town is making up a snow day so I’ve got the day to myself. I may just heat up my scrap room and head down there for the day now that I’m off the crutches.

And that’s it for me. Have a great weekend!

My Word

2009-02-13T13:00:00.001-05:00

I saw this on the SSD Blog. I am pretty happy with my word:

Your Word is "Love"

You see life as possibility to form deep connections with a few people.

Relationships are the center of your world, and you always take time to bond with those you love.

You are caring and giving. You enjoy helping those you love.

And when it comes to romantic love, you feel passionately ... even in a very long term relationship.

What's Your Word?

Blah Blah Blog

Happy New Year!

I Scrapped, Teenagers, and it Snowed in OCTOBER!!!

Lots of News

Ahhh, the Beach

I Knew This Day Was Coming…

Upgrading

I hope this is an April Fools Joke from Mother Nature

I’m Repeating Myself

It’s Snowing AGAIN!!!

A Scrappy Post

Happy New Year!

Happy Turkey Day!

Holiday Meme with a twist

10 on Tuesday

I Scrapped!

Garage Updates and Carrie Underwood!

Updates

Back to School, Another Anniversary, Building an Addition

Long Time No Blog

We got a Boat!

Happy Memorial Day

Recent Scrappiness

Sign the Petition

FYI

Headed to Maine

A New Smile!

Nor’Easter

Layouts

Snowy Monday

Happy 2010!

Update

And it just keeps getting better!

When it Rains

I am Still Here!`

Whirlwind Update

I WON SOMETHING!

Happy Halloween!

Columbus Day Weekend

Cards for Soldiers 2010 Schedule

Apple Picking

Scary Stuff

This Makes Me Smile

My New Curtain

Tim Holtz!

Cards for Soldiers

More Catch Up Posting

Long Time No Blog!

Yearbook Yourself

My New Scrap Room

A Wonderful Thing to Wake Up To

My First Photo Shoot

Happy Birthday Kristi!

New Wheels!

Happy Friday!

I scrapped and scrapped

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

Happy Belated 4th!

How’s Your Weather?

Smoothie Anyone?

Sick!

What Kind of Swimsuit am I?

Cards and a Coach Gift

And yet another quiz...

Lemonade Stand Award

What Taste R U?

A Raffle for a Great Cause

The Zoo

Eight

Debbie Tagged me. Ugh!

Summer Plans?

I Paper Scrapped

May Musings

Tragedy Strikes Close to Home

My Star Wars Name

A Mother's Day Poem

Happy Mother’s Day

FACEinHOLE

Another Quiz

Long Time No Blog