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!