P.A.D 12/11&12/07 and Thank you!

First off thank you so much to all of you who went over and left CJ some love! I really appreciate it! And back to our regularly scheduled December Program! Yesterday's photo is from a set of 6! Wendy made them for the family in memory of our Disney Trip this year! Aren't they the cutest! I just love them! Thank you Wendy!

And today's photo! Following in my "star" posting this is the last tin star I have at the moment! I'm still waiting for the ones I ordered to alter to get here! GRRRRR! I love this Patriotic star and it's right up at the top of my tree near the angel!

Hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday!

PAD Postponed till tomorrow

Today I want you few readers to go over and read THIS post from a fellow Blogger Hallie. Hallie's son CJ is in the Air Force and his comment on his mom's blog brought me to tears. I hope my boys grow up to be just like CJ! Go on over and read the post and leave CJ some support! And tell Hallie I sent you she's a fellow New Englander who wants to move to FL just like me!

Have a great Tuesday!

Dec 10 P.A.D

Edited to share photo with the label and the lights lit. I definitely should have turned off the light in the room tho! LOL!

My photo for today is another Xmas gift. A wine bottle night light. I know I should have taken the photo with the lights on but I wanted the background of my pretty tablecloth and I was too lazy to find an extension cord! LOL!

Happy Monday All!

Dec 8th and 9th P.A.D.

My Pink and Brown Tree! I love it! It's only 3 feet tall and fits awesome on my dry sink in the dining room. I was going to put it up at work but I decided I wanted it at home where I could enjoy it more! And some ornaments I made last night. These are one of the many home made gifts I'm doing this year.

Dec 7th P.A.D

And I'm actually posting my photo on the day it's due! YAY! I got ready in record time today and was able to take my photo of the day and download it!

Another favorite Star/Snowman ornament!

I can't wait for my blank stars to get here (I ordered them last week) so I can actually make some altered ones with my BG Blitzen and Dasher papers!

Have a fantastic Friday!

Dec 6th P.A.D

My Festive Boy! He got the rest of his braces, his palette expander and his wires on today. And he asked if he could have some Red and Green Elastics! So cute! Here he is in all his metalness:


Yes, his lips really are that chapped! I can't get the kid to use chapstick to save my life!

Dec 5th P.A.D.

Here is one of many of my favorite ornaments. I now know why I loved those barn stars so much when they came out on houses! I've had this one for my tree for a long time! LOL!

Happy Thursday all! Have an awesome day! We're off to get the rest of the braces today!

Single Digits and PAD (Photo A Day)

It was 8 degrees when I left for work. Can you say BRRRRRRRRR??? I really hate winter!

And this is my photo of the day from yesterday: I didn't get it up last night because we went out to dinner to celebrate my Mom's 65th Birthday and then came home and had cake and presents. By the time Mom left I didn't feel like doing much else so I watched the season finale of Heroes that I had on the DVR.

As for today's photo, I was wishing I had my camera to take a picture of my car thermometer to share the cold with you all! I will have to think of something else later when I get home after I cook dinner, eat and go to the gym! I wonder if I'll be able to keep this photo thing up!

OK gotta get to work! Happy Hanukkah to all my friends that celebrate and Happy Hump Day to the rest of you!

My Tree

It's not as big as Debbie's but I love it! It's a blue spruce and nice and chubby!

Guess What I'm Eating???

A Double Chocolate Tim Tam!!! YUMMY!!! My wonderful blog friend Lynette sent me an awesome RAK!!! And it had my very favorite cookies in the world in it! YIPPEE!!! And look at that fun little tag she made me with a "P" and says Scrap Diva! And that little flower card is an accordian card with such a nice note! Such fun stuff! I just love happy mail days! Thank you so much Lynette! If you ever want me to send you something you can't get in AU that you like just ask! :)

December 3rd Photo

My photo for today is what I woke up to this morning! I'm gonna share two just for all you warm weather people! ;)

It's still coming down, we are supposed to get anywhere from 4-8" of this stuff and DH got called out to plow at 4am! I had woken up at 2:30 because I heard a noise, it took me until around 3:15 to fall back to sleep and then at 3:35 the phone rang! I'm going to be one tired cranky girl later on! Have a great day!

A Photo A Day in December

Lisa had this fantastic idea to take a photo a day and then make a mini book out of the photos. I decided to join in because I love December so much! So my photo for yesterday is of these Christmas blocks. I got the idea from Emily:

I wasn't thinking as I was covering the blocks and adding the labels on the first set and thought they would be best all the same, silly me! Now I need to make another couple of sets so they can be different! They are Christmas gifts so I need to make more anyway! :)

Today's photo is from our Cutting down the tree excursion. We brought our neighbor and her son since her DH is the one that fell off our roof and he can't take them. Here is Michael and Ben with the tree they picked out:

So far I'm off to a good start but it's only the 2nd of December! Hopefully I can keep it up! Thanks for the idea Lisa! At least I'll have something to blog about! ;)

For Donna

Because she asked so nicely, a photo of my DH. Another carving the turkey because I can't get him unless he's doing something! LOL!

And this one from Disney. Don't mind the lizard earring (yes it's real)! I love this one because it shows off his gorgeous eyes!OK Miss Donna? I hope you enjoyed them! :)

Back to the Grindstone

First let me start by saying Happy Birthday to my dear friend Cindy Simon!

Happy Birthday Cindy!

It was a fabulous 4 days off! I got a lot done, saw some movies, scrapped both digi and paper pages and had a great time! Started off Thursday with a fabulous day spent with Family, Food and Fun! I ate way too much and am starting a very strict diet and going to start at the Gym this week so hopefully it won't matter much in no time! :) We watched Transformers and Harry Potter 3. Yeah, I'm a bit behind. I'm only now reading book 4 so I'm getting there! :) Transformers was very cool and of course who doesn't love Harry Potter! I have to say that I thought I wouldn't like these books/movies but I do! I got most of my Christmas decorations up on Friday. I say most because the outside lights are not done because my wonderful DH was so busy helping out friends in need that he just didn't have time. Poor guy worked all day Friday because his boss needed him, then Saturday he spent the day at my injured neighbor's house building him a wheelchair ramp and doing his fall cleanup. Then on Sunday he helped out our good friend who has the broken knee by going thru his whole plow route and installing the plow stakes. There were 70 of them to install in frozen ground! FUN! Needless to say he barely had any time to himself nevermind to put up my lights which he so hates to do! LOL! Hopefully this coming weekend we'll get the tree and get the lights up!

Oh and Jake got his top braces put on Friday morning. He's doing great so far, brushing after every meal, and eating good stuff. We'll see how long it lasts. I tell you after the $6100 pricetag he better take care of them! I took photos along the way and will post them in a layout at some point but here is a page of the finished product so far...

I also worked on my next hybrid project for the Hawt Mama's blog, and some Christmas gifts! All in all I'd say it was a very productive weekend!

Hope you all have a fantastic Monday!

Happy Turkey Day!

Wishing all of my wonderful net friends (and my IRL friends that read my blog) a very happy Thanksgiving.

I've got my green-bean casserole, choc. cream pie, pumpkin choc chip cookies and pumpkin roll all ready to go and all I've got left to do is shower so I'm off!

Have a terrific day however you spend it!

Weekend Recap

It wasn't the best weekend at the Bumbaca Residence. It all started out with having to get up and showered by 7am because the roofers were coming. Since my backyard is woods I don't have a shade on the bathroom window so if I wanted a shower I had to do it before there were two strange men and my neighbor outside my window on ladders! LOL!

I guess I should back up to 2 years ago this very same weekend. Michael was helping my neighbor George move a gigantic wood stove down to his basement. Well Michael was on the bottom and George and his son were up at the top when Michael's knee gave out on him and he tumbled down the stairs with the stove on top of him. A trip to the emergency room, a messed up hip and a broken ankle (nevermind the knee) is what we ended up with.

Now this same neighbor is working on our roof. At lunch time I say to him "George, do NOT fall off of my roof"! He says "Payback is a b*&CH". And we all laughed because it was funny. Well 2 hours later it was not so funny when there is an ambulance and the fire department in my driveway because George fell 20 feet from my roof onto my driveway! And is now in the hospital with a broken pelvis, tailbone and ankle (injuries sound familiar? if not read paragraph 2 again)!

So needless to say the roof did not get finished and George's two helpers had to come back to finish it. I was a bit nervous every time I heard any loud thuds until they were down from there!

On Saturday Michael was supposed to go and help our good friend John move some furniture down to his basement after the roof was done. Well due to the fact that Michael was in the hospital with George's wife most of the night it got moved to Sunday. Sunday morning I get a call from John's wife Lynne saying, tell Michael not to come because we are on the way to the hospital with John. He fell down the stairs and broke his kneecap. Nice huh, ended up having to have surgery Sunday night. So guess where we spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening... yep at 2 different hospitals! Not fun!

I'm hoping really hard for a nice quite 4 days off starting Thursday!

Have a great Tuesday!

What is Your Pilgrim Name?

I found this over at the Sweet Shoppe Blog and in honor of Thanksgiving this week I figured I'd post for you all to see and play!

Your Pilgrim Name Is

Faith Winslow

What's Your Pilgrim Name?

Come back and tell me what your Pilgrim Name is!

Bad Blogger!

I've been a very bad blogger! I even confused poor Lynette into thinking she'd missed a day! ;) Sorry Lynette. But to be honest, nothing really to blog about! We celebrated an early turkey day with the in-laws last weekend up in Maine and had a good time. I didn't take as many photos as I should have but that's OK. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and a pumpkin roll and they were sooo good I'll be making them again for the real Turkey Day! Since I've got nothing much to say I'll share the recipes instead!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (this came from Teresa Collins)

1 c.canned pumpkin
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. oil
1 egg
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
1 c. chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

Dissolve baking soda in milk; set aside. In large bowl add pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg; stir. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda mixture. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and vanilla. Spoon onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees 10 to 12 minutes or until done.

and the roll came from Fran a gal I met when I went to Melissa's house up North to scrap!

PUMPKIN ROLL RECIPE

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup pumpkin (canned, you can make 3 rolls with one can!)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda

Filling:
1 cup confectionery sugar
2 tbsp butter
8 oz package of cream cheese softened (I leave it on the counter while I bake the cake part)
3/4 tsp vanilla

*Mix all ingredients together to form a cake-like batter, grease a cookie sheet (Pam, etc) pour batter onto the cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Check it after 7 minutes because of differences in ovens. Once the cake portion is done you have to flip it onto a confectionery sugar covered dish towel and roll it up, towel and all! Before taking it out of the pan slide a spatula under it to make sure it will flip out easily.

Roll it so the two short ends of your cake meet. Leave it in the towel and let it cool for at least 20 - 30 minutes. After it's cooled, unroll it carefully, gently pull the towel from the cake so it doesn't tear. Spread the filling evenly along the entire cake portion and re-roll it (without the towel of course). Wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge. You can make these and freeze them also. Some people eat it after taking it out of the freezer for only 30 minutes. It's great either way.

So that's it for me and if you try them let me know (only if you like them!) LOL! Have a great Thursday!

A Janette Inspired Layout

I tried very hard to do a "Janette" style layout because I just love her pages. I love the way she uses flowers and lace! Well I didn't succeed too well! LOL! But Janette thanks for the inspiration, your pages look way better than this!

I also did a couple of other pages over the rainy weekend. Along with lots of digi stuff! I'm teaming up with Melissa Bennett and doing Quick Pages with her fun designs. For you non-digi girls a QP is a digi page all done and all you have to do is insert your photos.

Here are a few links to the QPs if you are interested in seeing them:

Quick Page Set 1
Quick Page Set 2
Quick Page Set 3

And here are the other two paper pages I completed this weekend. Both are for the Disney album. The first one is from the Extreme Stunt Show at MGM. Jake got picked out of the audience to "drive" the $100,000 remote control car. After it crashed they showed him he wasn't really driving it! LOL! He loved it! The little arrow says "15 Minutes of Fame". The second one is from the Swiss Family Robinson House tour at The Magic Kingdom. Both of these pages were for a couple of the November challenges at 123-Scrap!

And my last fun bit is that I'm home with Jake today. He had a rash show up on his back and because he had been bitten by a deer tick a couple of weeks ago I was worried about Lyme Disease. Well the doc says it's not but it is Impetigo so he's on an antibiotic and home from school for 24 hours. The doc also found a totally unrelated spot of RingWorm! Ick! So some lotion for that! UGH! How do these kids come up with this stuff! Can you say "Wash your hands" a million times? Because that's what I'll be saying even more now!

Happy Tuesday All!

Need some Scrapping Mojo?

We've started monthly challenges over at www.123-scrap! The November challenges are all posted and if you finish three unique challenges from the list you are eligible for a prize! So go on over and check them out!

Happy Friday All!

Happy Haunting!

It's Halloween here in the US and in true Red Sox Nation spirit here is Jake's Jack-o-Lantern:

Those little things around the "B" are bats and a moon. Not bad huh? He designed the whole thing himself this year vs. using those kits I buy every year and it went so much faster! LOL! I made Pumpkin seeds while they were carving. I made 2 flavors this year, Cinnamon and Sugar and Garlic spiced. YUM! Tonight we are getting to trick or treat in nice mild weather. It's not the balmy 70 it was here last year but I'll take it over snow and cold any day!

I hope you and all your gobblins have a great Halloween!

A 12 Year old and Sunrise

Jake is 12 today. Next year is teenage years YIKES!! He had a great day today and yesterday. Had a friend spend the night, we stayed up till 1am watching the Red Sox and they won and then today we went bowling, had his requested Chicken Parm for dinner, and Peanut Butter Ice Cream cake for dessert! Gotta love that your kid requests something you make for his bday dinner vs. going out to a restaurant!

Remember that sunrise I mentioned in a previous post. Well here it is:
It was actually better IRL because it was foggy and the field and the foliage were covered in fog! Way cool!

Oh I got two more paper pages done last night while watching the new game. Oh and Mary, I also did all the Make and Takes and the Mini Album that we got on the bus tour!

OK, that's it for me, I'm ready for bed after only 5 hours of sleep last night! Have a great night!

My Baby is 9 Today!

This cutie pie (see Lynette how cute he is for Peyton?) is 9 today! I can't believe that it was 9 years ago that he was born! Man where does the time go! This is not his bday photo, that is still in the camera but it's pretty recent. I took some photos this morning of him in and out of his Halloween costume. He was very excited that it was his bday, the Scarecrow Jamboree and the Halloween Party at school all in one day. And tonight he picked a great place to go for dinner so it should be a good day for him overall! Then we do it all over again on Sunday for Jake! LOL!

I also took some beautiful sunrise photos finally! Every day the sunrise on my way to work is amazing and I keep wishing I had my camera. Well today since I had it out, I took it in the car with me and pulled over and took some photos at a good spot. There was a ton of fog and it seemed like perfect photo opportunities so hopefully when I download them they will look good!

So glad it's Friday even tho we have a busy weekend in store. Even with a day off Tuesday it seems like the week just drags by!

Oh and on the DD update, I didn't go back. I get coffee there a lot and I am too paranoid of what will happen to my Latte when they are brewing it to speak up! Yeah, I think about that every time I go to a restaurant too! LOL! So I'm all bark and no bite sometimes! But thanks to all of you for your support!

Happy Friday All!

Extreme Home Makeover in NH

actually in Manchester, NH which is the next town over from me. Well techinally Manchester is a City but you get the picture. So I took a vacation day from work to go over and volunteer on the home building. I got there bright and early this morning and got turned away. They told me to come back at noon. I got there at 11:30 and there was a big sign that no more volunteers were needed today. I tried right! I guess I don't get to see Ty IRL but I also don't have to get dirty! :)

Instead I ran some much needed errands, got my nails done and now I'm going to scrap! Might as well make good use of my wasted day off!

Oh and I got ripped of by the cashier at Dunkin Donuts! I paid for my latte and she only gave me coins back. I said "I gave you a 20" she said "no you gave me a 5" I said "I only had a 20 on me so that is not possible". She opens the register and shows me a 5 dollar bill. Like I'd recognize it? I decided that $15 wasn't worth fighting over really. I'm going to go back there on the way to pick up Josh from school and talk to a manager. Tell them if they are $15 over in the register at closing it's mine, and if they are not than the girl with the spiderwebs painted on her nails is stealing from people! At least if she is she'll now be watched I hope! Bad people suck!

So there's my day! Hope you all are enjoying yours!

I Paper Scrapped Again!

Twice in a week, that is a record for me! I went to Debbie's house on Friday night and cropped. There were a great bunch of ladies there! I got one layout and an altered project done. I can't share the altered project just yet but if you head on over to the Hawt Mama Team Blog later today it will be there! ;)

Here is the layout I did. I wasn't liking it when I was working on it but now I'm happy with it:

I also did some more scrapping yesterday. I made one more layout and some 12x12 frames. The frames are for my bedroom. The frames were white when I started. Here is the left one:

Here is the right side:
And here is how they look on the wall:

And here is the other layout I did. Using Junkitz papers. I started this one Friday night but ended up quitting because nothing was coming together. I am still not sure if I like it!

So thanks to Mary and Debbie for inviting me to crops the last couple of week, I've got my mojo back! I am happy to be getting my hands dirty again!

Have a great Monday!

Happy Friday!

WOOHOOO! The Sox won! They are still in the competition! I was so nervous last night that I couldn't watch the game! And the first thing I did after my shower was turn the news on and bite my fingernails! I did a happy dance when I saw they won let me tell you!

Tonight I go to Debbie's house to crop. I'm not sure how much I'll get done, I'll probably just be staring over Mary Russo's shoulder! I just love her creativity! Hmmm, maybe I should bring my camera so I can lift her! :) I made some yummy brownies to bring, printed out my stuff for my Digi Altered project and now when I get home I just need to pack up my supplies. I have some stuff already packed because I knew I was going and just left it that way last week after being at Melissa's house. Now if work would go fast I'd be extremely happy today!

I just had to turn down a CT gig. It was for anothe rAltered Digi Team and I was flattered to be asked but I just can't take anymore on right now. I barely have time to finish my 2 monthly assignments for the one Altered Team I'm on. It's a lot of work, trying to come up with something unique, then the printing of the papers and such and then getting into my scraproom for long enough to put it together, take photos as I go, write up instructions. There is just no way I can do more! I do love Altering stuff when I do it tho! And I'm proud of myself for finding a limit! LOL!

OK, I'm gonna stop rambling now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's going to be warm here so I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Monday (yeah, I'm being Sarcastic)

I totally hate Mondays. Especially after a nice weekend.

Friday night we had a great time at the bowling alley for our good friend's DD. So good in fact that the boys decided that is what they want to do for their bdays. They aren't having a big party like in past years because after Disney it's not in the budget but I told them they could pick two friends and we would have pizza and go bowling. They were good with that!

Saturday after the baseball games I headed up to Moultonboro, NH to Mary's sister Melissa's house for some scrapping. There was a nice bunch of ladies there, 8 of us in total and I got 6 pages done. Not too bad for being the last one there! I took a few photos but I don't have them off my computer yet. When I got home we went out to dinner and then I had to go and unpack and scan my pages! If you are so inclined to see them you can go here:

http://123-scrap.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=12

the first 6 are the ones I did Saturday night.

I'm scrapping again Friday night at Debbie's house and can't wait! One because Debbie is fun and two she's the Junkitz DT Coordinator so can you say heaven for me? I'll probably spend more time oohing and ahhing over all of her fun Junkitz stuff than scrapping! Oh Deb, if you're reading this, I need some Extreme Boy papers and a paisley foam stamp! ;) Just kidding (but not really)!

OK, so that's all for me for now. Hope you all have a great Monday!

Think Pink!

Debbie turned her blog pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month and I thought what a great idea so I've Gone Pink too! Thanks Deb!

So I got my Mamo yesterday and let me tell you, the girl that did it last year must have went easy on me to make sure I came back this year because it hurt like a son of a gun! I remember saying last year, oh that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, you know from all the friends who have already had one scaring the crap out of you! Well not the same outcome yesterday! Graned the girl was very sweet while she was mangling the heck out of my ta-ta's but dang they hurt for an hour after! LOL!

And you know how they say good things come in threes? Well the first was my collaborative sketch release with my pal Rachael, the second came on Tuesday when a layout I did was a Hot Digi Pick of the Day and the third was last night when Heather Roselli invited me to join her CT permanently! I was guest for her in August and I did such a good job she asked me to come back for good! How cool is that! I guess I better get to work! :)

So that's it for me today. Go make your blog pink or do something for BCA month and make it a great day!

Woohoo! Check this out!

See that "Special Guest Artist's" Name? Yep that's me! This is the news I was hinting too last week. My good pal Rachael asked me to do a collaborative sketch kit with her and of course I said yes! So for one day I'm a designer! Actually the kit will be up for more than one day but I think the glory will fade! ;)

So if you digi scrap and you like templates go on over and check them out here, it's $2 and you get a bunch of sketches!

I've been home sick for the last two days. I'm still working because I can work from home but still. :) I have some kind of ickiness going on and I think it's time to go to the doctor since I've been coughing for 3 1/2 weeks now! So now to get off my butt and make the appt. I hate going to the doctors!

Oh and tomorrow is squish my tata in a vice day. It's October so very appropriate! I have a very good friend going thru Breast Cancer right now and it really makes me sad but also very aware that I need to take care of myself. So here's my reminder to all of you ladies out there, get the TaTa's checked!

Over and Out!

I Shopped and Shopped and Shopped and...

shopped again!

Yesterday was the Scrapbook store bus tour. I left my house at 6am and got home at 9pm. 55 of us boarded a tour bus and headed to 5 stores in two states departing from the first one making it a day of shopping at 6 stores. I actually didn't buy anything at 2 of them. One because it was so new it shouldn't have even been on the tour, they had nothing but a few cute ideas! They did have a nice make and take tho so I'll give them some credit. The last store, the owner was so rude there was no way I was giving her one cent of my hard earned money! But don't worry, I did plenty of damage at the other 4 stores! Here's my stash:

The first store was the best of the bunch and I'm glad because it's only about 35 minutes from me so I can go back often! They are new too and doing a fantastic job already! They have a nice crop room and a Dunkin next door and it's a half way point for Mary and I to get together! FUN!

I have already used some of the Disney stuff I bought today, I did 2 2 page layouts! Woohoo! That should make a dent in my 1200 photos! NOT! LOL! But it was fun to scrap and use new goodies and I've got 5 pages done in my Disney Album!

Both boys won their games this weekend an Jake hit a ground rule double! And I got home to a clean house because Michael decided to surprise me! The only bad part of the day was the bus was lacking in the A/C department and it being almost 90 yesterday and having 55 women in one place made it very warm! The tour guide for us more than made up for it tho. She was a hoot! Her name was Sharon and she made the bus ride fun despite the heat! So all in all it was a great day yesterday.

So that's my Sunday post, I'm off to watch my DVR'd CSI! Have a great night!

The Lives of Boys.

So yesterday the boys had dentist appointments. I always threaten them that they are going to have cavities because they don't brush good enough and they hardly ever floss! I am always proved wrong tho! They need just one filling to teach them how important their teeth really are!

So they always have the same girls do their teeth, Jake has Jen and Josh has this angel named Laurie. Man she loves Josh and she has so much patience with him. That kid is a handful, he talks thru the whole cleaning, has to hold a mirror to watch her every move and plays with everything. I am always ready to kill him and Laurie takes it all in stride. Well the first thing the boys did when we get there is brush since I had picked them both up from school and we went right there. So you know what comes next, the blue stuff! You know the stuff to see where you missed. I couldn't wait! Damn, they actually did pretty good. Only right in the front was bad which I guess is very common. They both thought it was very cool to have blue teeth. So I say to Josh, you need to brush better all the time so you won't have that plaque and what does he say to me... "I've got more important things to worry about than teeth"! Well I thought Laurie was gonna laugh right out of her chair. What does he have to worry about at the ripe old age of 8? I asked but that was the time he decided to be quite in the chair! LOL! They left the dentist with good reports and we went on to baseball practice for Josh.

So while Josh is out practicing Michael and I are watching and Jake is playing with our neighbor's son. Jake comes over and sits down and tells me that there is a dance on Friday night at school. His FIRST school dance! YIKES!!! I say very calmly, "are you going?" he says " I don't know, all my friends keep asking me but I've got more important things to do than a dance"! What is up with my boys, they have all this important stuff going on and I've had no input in it?Friday nights usually consist of the boys staying out late to play or us all going out to dinner. I never realized they had all this "stuff" going on! LOL!

Well it ends up that Jake decides he is going. It's from 7:30 - 9:30 and I so wish I could be a fly on the wall! I mean it is his first one after all! I'm not sure if I want there to be blog stories after it or not!

I guess we'll find out tomorrow night! Have a great Thursday!

Hurry Up Friday!

It's Wednesday, half way thru the work week. It's been a killer week already since I had to work Friday night until 11pm, Saturday until 10pm and Sunday until 11pm, with time off only for two baseball games on Saturday. Six hours at the ball fields working in the concession stands is not my idea of time off!

Lots of fun stuff to talk about...

I've added another blinkie to Creative Team list (for you paper girls that's a Digital Design Team)! I was a Guest CT for Melissa Bennett in September and when she invited me to stay on permanently I jumped at the chance. I just love her designs. I discovered her at Elemental Scraps when Cindy was there and she's also at The Digi Shoppe. Fun stuff for any of you digi gals! I figure if I can't get down to my scraproom, this digi thing keeps me out of trouble at least! And I never run out of anything either! Gotta love that!

I did a little collaborative digi release with a very talented lady and I'm looking foward to seeing my stuff in her store! Hopefully I can spill the beans this weekend if she gets the release up! No pressure to her tho! ;)

Saturday I'm going on a Scrapbook Bus tour with my good pal Mary. We start off at one store for Breakfast and a Make and Take at 6:30 am. The Coach Bus leaves at 7:30 to take us to 5 more stores where we will be fed snacks, lunch and dinner and do make and takes at each store. We also get a 20% discount at each store. Then we return to the host store for dessert at 7:30pm. Should be a blast to shop and of course Mary is always fun to be around so I'm looking forward to it.

So that's my fun stuff to talk about today. Hope you all have a Happy Hump Day!

October 1st

This year is flying by! I'm kinda glad, it's not been the best one. Thank you all for your wonderful comments for the family after losing our sweet Bear. Everyone is healing slowly. Michael the slowest of course. It will definitely take some time. I'm making collages for everyone's bedroom. Jake asked for one and then Michael and Josh saw his and wanted one too. I am making one for the neighbors who always took care of her too. Joe always called Bear his dog and spoiled her rotten so Michael thinks he will like it.

In other news, the boys are back to baseball full swing. We were at the fields from 12:30 till 6 Saturday. I worked my whole weekend away other than that time! All the way until 11:00 last night. Needless to say I'm very tired today! And my other news... I'm going paper croppin! Debbie from Junkitz has invited me to her house! It's been a while since I've hung out with girls and had a good time so I'm really looking forward to it. The last very simple paper page I did took me almost 2 hours so I can't imagine being with people how long it's gonna take me! But I don't care if I get one page done it will be fun.

And that's all I've got for you today so have a great Monday!

Friday Finally

And it's not been a good week. I've been sick with a terrible cold all week. There was a fire at my work while I was gone so thanks to that I've been able to work from home while I've been miserable instead of spreading it around!

I finally got all my Disney photos uploaded to shutterfly. It took 2 full days! Granted there are a lot of them but man why is uploading so dang slow?

And the worst part of all is that we've made the dreaded appointment for our beloved dog Bear. She's going in at 9:30 tomorrow to be put down. She's had a wonderful life, she'll be 16 in December, she's been the best dog I've ever know but she's declining so quickly. She's been throwing up for 2 days and hasn't eaten in 3. Not a good sign. So so sad.

So if you don't see me for a bit you'll know why. Hope you all have a better weekend than I do.

We're BACK!

Man what a vacation! We were on the go from 7am until 11pm each day! We went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot twice, MGM, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. It was amazing, it was HOT, it was so much fun! I'm sooo tired and COLD! We went from 95 degree weather to 60! It's definitley fall in New England! I've got so many photos to go through, over 1000 are still stuck on my card (little downloading issues I've got to get fixed!) and 600 that I've already downloaded from my mom's and my cameras and what Wendy took when she came to see us and we all went to Animal Kingdom!

I've got to clean my house, unpack, do laundry and catch up with everything that I missed so I'll make this short!

Have a great Sunday!

Leaving On a Jet Plane

Bye Bye!

We are off to Disney tomorrow morning! See you on the 15th! Have a great week! Don't miss my boring blog too much!

2nd Day of School

and I've got a sick kiddo! Josh started puking at 9pm last night, ended at 1am. Needless to say he's missing the 2nd day of school! We are not off to a good start attendance wise considering he's going to miss all next week! OOPS!

Both boys loved school, loved their teachers and Jake was anxious to leave today! Hooray! Hopefully it stays that way throughout the year!

And since I don't have first day photos to share with you I thought I'd share the flowers that Michael got me for our Anniversary. He's so cute, he designed them himself, picked out the vase special and all the flowers on his own!

So pretty and some of my favorites in there! Love that vase with the daisies on it too! I think I'll keep him another 20 years or so!

And now I've got to go see how Josh is doing! Have a great day!

First Day of School! 4 Days till Disney!

Yep, today is the first day of school! And yep, I forgot to take photos! UGH! I'm not a good scrapping mom at all! The boys were both so excited to go and I also gave them both haircuts today so it was a bit chaotic. My camera was not out in the open either so that helped me forget! Oh well, we'll try again tomorrow! LOL!

And only 4 work days till Disney! Woohoo! I can't believe it's finally here! We leave Saturday morning for Disneyworld! We are going to AAA to get our passes for Disney and SeaWorld tonight, I got a great deal on a set of new suitcases on Sunday and we went and bought Michael a ton of new clothes for the trip at Kohls so we are good to go except for the packing and rain ponchos. So Exciting!

And that's it for my post today. Have an awesome Tuesday!

For Donna

Thank you all or the anniversary wishes! I've never had so many comments on my blog before! :)

And since Donna asked, here is a photo of us during our First Dance as Husband and Wife. Boy was I thin and young! :)

Happy Labor Day!

20 Years!

Man where does the time go? I've been married to this man for 20 years today! We met in High School thanks to my now SIL who introduced us. She apologizes constantly! LOL! ;) And we broke up for a bit and dated others but we ended up back together for good when I graduated. We've had our good times and our bad times but as Shania Twain says "Looks Like We Made It"!

We aren't doing anything special tonight, we leave for Disney on Sept 8th. That is our present to each other and the boys! :)

And before I get told I blog too much again by Kristi, I'll stop here! Happy Hump Day!

Warning! Don't Take Sensitive Children to a Wild Animal Park!

Since we spent the weekend in Maine at my In-laws house we decided to break up the 3 hour trip home with a stop at the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, ME. We thought it was a good idea at the time, both boys wanted to and the weather was nice.

Foward Scene to when we start walking around the park after they have just taken my last $20 in cash (they don't take credit cards and I never have cash!) and we get to the bobcat cage. The bobcats are pacing as most wild animals do when caged, the stench is horrendous and Jake doesn't like it much. Next cage, another animal I think it was an albino porcupine cool huh), and it's pacing. And the next cage, at this point I can't remember the animal, it's pacing too! And at this point, Jake has a breakdown, is bawling and wants to leave. We try to explain to him that these animals are better off here because they were hurt, orphaned, or being held illegally as pets and can't live on their own in the wild. What does my boy say, "they would be better off dead than unhappy and pacing in a smelly cage". I have to admit I kind of agree with him. I also don't think he will ever go on another elephant ride again. And as for taking him to a real zoo, that's not happening!

Oh the joys of having a sensitive kid! Now you've had fair warning,if you too have one! ;)

IKEA!!! OH MY!

I went to Ikea last night with a couple of friends. The store closest to me is an hour and a half away and let me tell you it was sooooo worth the trip! What an awesome place! It took us 2 hours to get through the whole place! I had a list a mile long when I left of ideas and wants! So stinkin cool!!! I am not so sure Michael thinks it's cool because now I've found more ways to spend money I don't have but he'll get over it! He always does! :) Seriously, if you have one near you, you have to go! It's so much better than the website!

And in other news, Jake and I are a total mess. I was thinking allergies because it's itchy eyes, soar throat, runny nose and coughing but the weird thing is that there is nothing in the allergy index even on the moderate side right now. I also have a huge cold sore on my lip (totally looks like I got smacked in the mouth) so I figured I could be getting sick because that's about the only time I get these damn things. Who knows! All I know is that it's miserable!

And that's all I've got! Have a wonderful Thursday!

My Boy Made the Paper!

Josh went to "Old Home Days" last weekend with my Mom. He had his whole face painted like a lizard and had a great time. Well this weekend, my Mom was reading our small town weekly newspaper and look what she found...Yep, the boy with the green face is my Josh! LOL! He was so excited to see himself in the paper! Granted my Mom had no idea who the person was taking his photo and she let him anyway! I told her not to do that again! At least his name isn't in the article without permission!

A New PAPER page!

Yep, I scrapped! It was fun. We spent the day at the Lake with Chris yesterday and then last night she came over to hang in my scraproom. I got one page done in 2 hours! I hate to say it but it's really hard for me to paper scrap lately! I think I've been doing way too much digi! LOL!

I got my August Heidi Swapp kit in on Thursday so I was dying to use all that pink and brown loveliness since it is my favorite color combo. I had to find a girl photo and the only other girl in the house is my sweet pup Bear. This photo was taken in 1997 when she was about 4 years old. She's now 15 years old and much greyer! ;)

Credits can be seen here. The tag flipped during scanning, the other side is painted with a bronze krylon pen and there is a white "B" in the center.

So we are off to a friends for an annual Luau today and tomorrow we are having company. I may not post again till Monday! Have a great weekend!

A Little Digi Freebie

It's been awhile since I gave anything away here so I've got something today. These are some cardboard photo corners I made. The four you see are it so don't get all excited that it's some amazing freebie because you'll be sorely disappointed. But heck it's a digi freebie so ENJOY!

Here is the Download link.

3 weeks 4 days till Disney

I got my Birnbaums Official Guide and also the "Unofficial Guide" books in the mail yesterday! Jake started reading the Official Guide before bed! I have put together a spreadsheet of Park Hours and Schedules for the week and now we need to decide which "Special" to do, whether it be a Character Breakfast, Dine with Shamu, Luau, etc. I am voting for Shamu but we'll have to see how everyone else in the family sees it!

This is our first time to Disney with the boys and Michael and I haven't been there since our 5 year anniversary in 1992 so I can't wait! There are a few things I'm not looking foward to like who will go with the boys on the 'hell' rides and some stuff I won't mention on my blog for fear of who reads it that I don't know about! ;) But all in all it should be a blast!

If anyone has any 'must see' things or something special you want to mention if you've been there please do!

And for the next three weeks and 4 days you may see a lot of counting down!

Happy Tuesday!

MEME for today

This was over at the Sweet Shoppe Blog. I have no idea what a meme is because I'm too lazy to google it but it reminds me of a tag that I didn't get tagged on.

Five in a Row
1. Name one thing you do everyday. I sleep every day! :)
2. Name two things you wish you could learn. To play the piano and scrap like my favorite scrappers!
3. Name three things that remind you of your childhood. Big Hair, Cabbage Patch Dolls, 10 Pin Bowling Alley
4. Name four things you love to eat but rarely do. Lobster, Prime Rib, Scallops, Donuts
5. Name five things that make you feel good. My boys laughing, a favorite song, a warm sunny day, my friends, a brownie sundae!

Now since this is not a tag you don't have to do it on your blog but you can if you want! Happy Friday :)

Cool Contest

You could win a TV!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/2032/insignia-37inch-flat-panel-lcd-hdtv-contest/

Check it out!

Tagged!

My sweet friend Jolene tagged me. This is a pretty fun tag actually! The tag goes like this:
Write 8 of your blog friends names in a unique way and post them. Then come back over and let me know. You must write the blogger's name that tagged you, then add 7 others. Be creative! I used this to do the names.


Jolene loves the bling! You should see her cool cell phone! And it's pink my favorite color! She is also a total sweetheart so that's why I picked the bling heart! And dang the girl can cook! Love ya Jolene!


Kendra reminds me of a smooth cup of my favorite cappuccino. She's got more talent in her pinky finger than I could even handle and such a cool person.


Kristi is another girl I'm so glad I met online. She is so nice and so stinkin funny! Oh and the guitar is because she's always got something rockin on her blog and I have no clue how to do that!


This reminded me sooo much of Tammy I couldn't resist! She's got pups that look just like this!


This is for my California girl Chris! She's one of my very best friends and lives way too far away!


Donna is a way talented graphic artist. I couldn't find a cool graphic photo for her but I know she loves animals so this one is for her!


And for my east coast beach girlfriend Andrea who also lives way too far away down in the Sunshine state!


For my coffee loving friend who has been trying to cut down her coffee intake!

And for the girl who is never home!

For Jolene

We went to Maine this weekend. The boys stayed with my In-laws all last week and we picked them up there. During that time we went over to my SIL's house and when I shot this photo I thought of my online friend Jolene. She loves barns. So Jolene, this is for you...

The boys had a great time, there were a few issues about sunblock and showers but I'm over it. Sort of! ;)