It's Finally Friday!

I cannot believe how long this week has seemed! I'm looking foward to the weekend and some downtime! It's supposed to be nice and I think I'll do something with my boys since I have been spending way too much time on the computer or doing other stuff lately. I scrapped all last weekend and I'm going again in a couple of weeks so I'm gonna take some time and just hang with them. It's almost baseball and soccer season so we need to get baseball pants, and socks and soccer shorts and shin guards and cleats for both, cha ching!

I have also done not one stitch of Easter shopping and it's next weekend! ARG!!! I am usually done way before! I also missed a couple of bdays this month! I never do that! I tell you there is something so off with me! I think I'm going to have my blood drawn to see if it's a vitamin thing or what. I am tired, don't want to do anything, have gained a TON of weight and it's not like my eating habits have changed THAT much! I am also cold all the time! I cannot wait until the warm weather is here!

So here is another page I did this weekend. Torn cardboard is all the rage in the digi world and I decided I wanted to try it on my paper pages so I got a cardboard box and ripped it up. It does make for a bulky page but man I love the look!

Love those glitter letters from K&Co too! I think I used them on 3 pages this weekend! Gotta thank my good pal Rachael for bringing them! LOL! I hand stitched on this one too, now I remember why I love my sewing machine so much!

Welp, that's it for me. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

I Paper Scrapped

I went to a scrapping sleepover and did 11 pages. We had a great time too. There were 8 of us in total and there were a lot of laughs, good food, Chocolate Raspberry Martini's and of course scrapping! I was happiest with this page I think:

I love these papers! I think they are by Dream Street? The photo is of my MIL and FIL on their trip cross country. I am not sure where this one is exactly but they spent from June till Sept on the road last year, most of it in Alaska. They took some gorgeous shots! I don't have many photos of the two of them together because my MIL hates having her photo taken as much as I do so I love this one!

I am still in my funk, not sure what is wrong with me, I'm so tired all the time, have had a migraine for almost a week now too! I'm thinking it's stress but maybe it's the weather? I have no clue! I hope I can snap out of it soon tho because I hate it! So that's all I've got again! I hope that you all have a fantastic Tuesday! SMILE!

Blah Blah Blah

I've really not got anything to post about which is why I haven't posted in almost a week!

My friend Rachael has some new Chick Click templates available at TDC. That's about it for my world news. I am going to a scrapping sleepover on Sat/Sun and hope to have something to show for it when I get home. I have not been feeling great and am a little off in my mood so I'm not my chatty self! Hope you'll come back when I'm back to normal!

Have a great Day!

To My Digi Friends

Check this out, big sale at Elemental Scraps!

and my good friend Rachael has some new Chick Click Templates up at The Digi Chick!

I used all three of these templates this week! You can see them in my gallery here: http://123-scrap.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=12

Have a great weekend all. I'm trying to get over some kind of bug I've had all week, I'm thinking a huge snowstorm coming in tonight will make sure I rest up and get it gone!

My Pup and a Peek!

Bear was sitting so pretty on the office rug that I had to take a photo of her. She's 15 years old and declining fast so I'm trying to take as many good photos of her as I can before we lose her. She has been a wonderful dog the last 15 years! If you don't know, she's 100% purebred PitBull. And she would change your outlook on pitbulls forever if you met her. She loves everyone and doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's the worst watch dog ever! I'm sure if someone came into the house she'd say "come on in, take what you want and take me with you when you go!" She actually tried to get into a lawn guy's truck before when he told her "come on bear"! LOL!
And since I was taking pics of Bear I figured I'd give you a peek at the floors. I really wanted to do the "big reveal" when the stairs are done too but since you all asked so nicely! ;) This is my office and my most used room in the house besides my scraproom! ;)

Oh and thanks so much for the birthday wishes all!

Have a great day!

Birthday Fun

Last year when I turned 40 a bunch of my close friends came to town to help me celebrate and we went to a weekend long crop on Cape Cod. This year my friend Wendy came up from FL to help me celebrate! We had a lot of fun, we did some digi scrapping, lots of shopping and some beading! Here are a few photos from the weekend:

Me and Wendy:

Blowing out my candle:
There are several more fun photos but I want to save them until they are scrapped! TFL

Have a great Monday!

Need Magazines?

Yep, it's fundraiser time! Are you thinking of getting a new subscription or renewing a current one? Well if so please consider going through my son's school fundraiser program. It's usually at a very good rate (85% off newsstand) and it's helping out a good cause at the same time! The school gets 40% of every sale made too! So if you are interested comment here with your email addy or email it to me privately and I'll send you the email that has all the info to the online ordering! That's all it takes!

Thanks for letting me take up your blog reading time with my marketing efforts! Have a great day and thanks for considering!

No Pictures Yet

I know what kind of scrapbooker am I? LOL! A perfectionist one! I want to take the photos when it's complete. The stairs will not be done until the weather gets better. Honestly the floors look gorgeous! Take my word for it! ;) They are a bit hard to get used to though. My wonderful husband is a freak! You literally cannot step off the rug at the front door with a shoe on, you can't drop a thing on the floor and GOD forbid if the boys drop a toy or laydown and wrestle with jeans on. I have no idea what I was thinking when I said I wanted hardwood! He's all about keeping them prestine and not living. I understand how hard he worked on them and all but come on, this is real life, the floors are going to get a little beat up ya know? Bad thinking on my part. I already put the first dent in them when we were moving my desk back in place. One of the adapter plugs fell off the desk and dented the floor! Not a happy moment.

So that pretty much sums up my weekend. Hope you all have a terrific Monday!

WOOHOO! Floors are Done!

My floors are done! All that's left is the baseboard tomorrow and I get my house back! They look fabulous! My hunny did an awesome job! I'm so so excited to see everything all back in place and see it really finished! So so nice. I worked from home today due to ANOTHER snow storm! It was a bit noisy here but it was fun to be able to see the work get close to done and then the last piece go in! Granted my house is still a huge sawdust/dust pit but it's going to be so flipping awesome when it's done! Next step the stairs! Yeah, my honeydew list is a mile long! I really am spoiled! :)

Tonight, I'm scrapping! Hope you all have a great weekend!

So Far Not So Good

This week is starting off with a bang! The long work week continued into Friday night and Saturday night! I had to log in from Rachaels house to do a few minutes of work and then had to work until 11:30 pm Saturday night. Yesterday when the Sustaining Manager grabbed me in the hall I put my hands over my ears and said "LALALALA I can't hear you" when he told me I had work to do later that night! LOL! My boss later sent an email to me saying I may as well just officially start working the 5pm to midnight shift! Good Grief! YAWN!

Michael is making headway on the floors! My office is about halfway done and the upstairs hall is done! Today he's doing the landing in the stairway and some more of my office if his knee holds out. Poor guy is in sooo much pain. I wish he would just hire someone to do this work but Perfectionist that he is he would never be happy with the work. It's looking so gorgeous I can't wait until it's all done!

I scrapped this weekend! Got three whole layouts done! LOL! This one is one of my favs, Jake hates it and instantly wanted me to throw it away. I think it's hysterical but he hates the smaller photo. I hope later in life he can laugh at it.

It totally shows his personality! He's serious and goofy all at the same time! He is working hard on learning the guitar but I have to remind him to practice every once in a while, most days he remembers on his own. ;)

So that's my Tuesday news.Hope you all have a fantabulous day! Later!

TGIF

I sooooo want this week over and gone! It's not gotten any better since Wed. I've had to work late every night (last night it was until 10pm again!) so needless to say no only am I exhaused but DH isn't too happy with me right now. I won't bore you with those details tho!

Good news is hopefully my floor is finally going down this weekend and my house can be semi back to normal. I can have my living room and office back at least! We will still have the baseboards to stain and put up and the stairs are still undone but at least there won't be furniture piled everywhere! Eventually it's going to be gorgeous! I just love the bamboo floor in my bedroom and I had to look at that mess for a little while before I saw the love so I can deal with this (NOT!).

We've got our 3rd Birthday bash cyber crop going on at 123-scrap this weekend so tons of fun contests, games and challenges over there and I hope to do some scrapping amongst all the banging! I would like to stay as far away from the wood project as possible but I'm not sure that's going to be possible! I might have to Help! But hey if you aren't doing anything and you feel like scrapping, come on over!

That's all for me folks! Have a great Friday!

Hope for HUMP Day?

It has been one heck of a week! I am hoping that it's Hump day that it will get better instead of worse! Monday totally stunk and yesterday got worse!

Monday the daycare was closed so I had to work from home so I could bus Josh back and forth to school and be home when Jake got out of school. The daycare usually buses Josh back and forth and also picks Jake up in the afternoon so when they are closed it makes it totally chaotic. Especially when I have no idea what the school schedule is! LOL! The Elementary School changed their hours this year and believe it or not I have no idea what they are! Since I don't do the transporting I never paid attention. Well since Josh started throwing up Sunday night it didn't matter, I didn't have to go anywhere anyway.

So Monday suffice to say, Josh feels much better, so much better that he is pushing every button he can of mine. Granted I'm trying to work at the same time. Then Jake gets home and joins in on the game. So by 3:00 I tell a co-worker that if I'm not in the next day it's because I've murdered one or both of my children! LOL! Top that off by starting work at 7am and having to work until 10pm! FUN STUFF!

Then yesterday work got even better! Someone at work had some not so nice words to say behind my back. This is the same manager that I worked till 10pm at night for! I bust my ass for this manager all the time but he's holding two mistakes I made (during one time of working till 2am) over my head! That just ruined my whole day. Graned my boss is totally behind me but it still totally bugs me that someone isn't happy with my performance. Then again another very long day of working from 5:30am until 9pm! Yep, day 2 of fun stuff!

So today I'm hoping for the upturn! Yep, thats the optimist in me, always looking for the bright side! Hope you all have a great day too!

For McCookie

and those of you that care enough to know

a Release Engineer is a support engineer. I build software. Basically I support Software Engineers. They do all the software development and Release Engineers (or as some company's call them Configuration Managers) make sure the software compiles into a deliverable product. We also version control it, and provide the support for the version control software (which in my case is Clearcase).

I used to be a hairdresser! I had to give it up due to allergies. The only thing I knew how to do was type so I started out after I quit hairdressing doing data entry in a bank. I decided to go to school nights and got an associate's degree in Marketing/Business Management. Yep, no engineering degree. I had a few administrative positions thru the years and one of them ended me up at a Defense Contractor who let me learn a few things more. I ended up supporting a bunch of engineers on a deadline and learning a few extra things. ;) I fell into a position because I had a clearance (thats how political it was) and learned a few more things (gotta love on the job training)! I basically just worked my way up by learning what I could. And that's how I got where I am today. Aren't you glad you asked?

Thanks for giving me something to blog about Curtis! ;) Hope I haven't bored you to tears!

Happy Monday!

I Scrapped!

3 whole pages! I also did lots of organizing in my room getting stuff together for the Ronald McDonald House donations that one of my LSS's has ever year. I lifted this layout from my friend Kendra one of my scrapping heroes! I think this photo of Jake is soooo funny:

Thanks for the inspiration Kendra!

I also went to a Dance Recital. Having boys I don't get to see that kind of thing often, once a year I go to a Make A Wish recital that my neighbor's daughters are in. It was great, they really do a stellar job of the whole show, raffles, and bake sale.

Then I got home and Josh is not feeling well so I think it's going to be a long night. The daycare is closed tomorrow so I have to play bus driver and have to work from home anyway so I guess if he's going to be sick he picked a good time! Off to play nurse now! Have a great night!

Great Mega Kit for a Great Price!

This is the DSS February Mega kit:

It's only 5.99 for a limited time so hurry over to Digi Scrap Shak and scoop it up! It's great for your valentine photos and more! Here is a layout I did using the kit that is not Valentine related to show you it's versatility:

And that's all from me today! Hope you all have a Happy Friday and a Wonderful Weekend!

Belated V-Day Post

Hope you all had a terrific Valentines Day! Mine was full of snow! The boys had no school and my DH left in the morning when we were all still sleeping and didn't get home until 2:30am today! He was plowing all that time! Then he got up at 6am and went back to work, poor guy! Can you say grouchy tonight? I'll be steering a huge path around him for sure! LOL!

He and the boys did get me cards and chocolate (I always say NO flowers) I hate the way they jack up the prices just because of a date! And then they always die! So why waste the money. Granted I didn't really want the chocolates either since I'm trying to lose weight but oh well! Here's a digi page I did of my yummies:

Credits can be seen HERE

We got about 6-8 inches of snow with lots of sleet mixed in between. I guess the driving was pretty bad yesterday and this morning because there is a 2 hour school delay today. I know we've had an easy winter but I hate this stuff! I hope this is it! Believe me if I didn't have to live here I wouldn't!

So that's it for me today. Have to get ready to head out the door to work! I hope you all have a Terrific Thursday!

Another Tag...

I've been tagged . . .
by my friend Kristi Smith. The tag was to list 6 quirky/weird things about me. I think I have a few friends who might be able to come up with more than 6 but here goes...

1) I have to clean my house every week and do it all on the same day. I can't skip a week or spread it out or I don't feel like the house is clean. I do it all, wash the floors, clean the bathrooms, change the bedding, scrub the kitchen, dust. Usually every Saturday.

2) I can't leave my house without all the beds being made. It will irk me all day if Michael is home and in bed after I leave because I know the bed is unmade and I'll make it right when I get home even if I'm getting in it in a few hours. I also will not leave with dishes in the sink!

3) I don't cry easily at all, I could be really really upset or angry and I won't shed a tear but the minute a wedding starts or a stupid movie or commercial comes on I bawl like a baby!

4) Whistling irrates the crap out of me. I know this is so bad since usually when someone whistles it means they are happy but it just bugs me! LOL!

5) I can't sleep on my back, every time I do, I have a nightmare.

6) I put ketchup on way too many things, like chicken sandwiches, egg sandwiches, steak and cheese subs to name a few.

I'm tagging all 5 blog readers (well the ones who haven't done this tag yet anyway)! You know who you are!

Glutton for Punishment

or I just love rejection! LOL!

I read on Stacey P's blog that Junkitz is going to be adding to their DT throughout the year so silly me, I sent in my wishes to be on the team with my gallery links. I have already been rejected once so I have no clue why I would do that to myself again but I just can't help myself! Everyone knows how much I would love that gig! ;)

So tonight we went out to dinner for Michael's birthday. My Mom and my Godmother joined us. We went to a restaurant that gives the kids Wiki Sticks. They are these sticky sticks that you can mold into shapes. Well Michael asked the waitress where his were and that started it all off. Michael made some glasses, then we all wanted a pair, the waitress wanted a pair and then other waitresses were bringing him sticks and requesting theirs in certain colors! It was pretty funny. Here's a photo of all of us in our Michael originals:

The waitress said we made her night! And that was before the tip! You can't tell but mine have hearts on the front of them, very 'designer'! ;) We had fabulous prime rib and yummy martinis! It was very fun!

And now to get the kids ready for bed! Have a great night!

A Quote

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

So I've been challanged over at DSS to write about how the above quote inspires me or maybe how I feel this is true about my life right now - or even braver - how this ISN"T true in my life...

Live life to the fullest, isn't that what it says, and nope, that is so not me, I'm a huge chicken, I keep things very well bottled up inside me most of the time, there is an occasional time where I'll go outside my realm like flying cross the country when I said I never would or the rare occasion when I'll blow up instead of letting the feelings lay deep inside but for the most part, I won't try new things, I'm very content to live my life the same way I have been. So I'd have to say that this is pretty much not true about my life. Would I like it to be, in some ways yes, but in other ways, I'm safe here so not really.

And that's about as deep as I get! Happy Hump Day!

Busy Busy Busy

PHEW! Go away for a week and there's a ton of catchup to play when you get back let me tell ya! I've got message boards to read and man I missed a lot, digi assignments to do and the worst part, housework!

Rachael the wonder woman released 5 sets of Chick Clicks last week and has more coming this week! Does this girl ever sleep?

Cindy has a new kit coming out tomorrow! And it's gorgeous!!!

DSS has me hopping on my toes this week!

and Rachel Solenberg even came out with some fun elements to release this week too! So I now need about 10 more hours in my days!

So if my bloggy gets neglected you'll know why! ;) Happy Tuesday!