Just Jana

Gratitude journal - Day 16

2010-11-17T07:36:00.002-05:00

So, today, I am grateful for two things: a dead car battery in the parking lot of Giant and our king sized bed. Strange, huh? Why would I pick these two things when there are so many other things to be grateful for? Well, here's the story of my evening yesterday:

It was a great day. I had a great meeting at work and I drove towards home with a smile on my face. I stopped at Giant (grocery store) to pick up some milk for Meg and a loaf of bread. Normal day,eh? Well, when I came out, my car wouldn't start. The electrical system did some funny stuff and then nothing. I knew immediately it was the battery or the starter (from MANY issues with the Diesel stationwagon my parents owned). Now, you might say that this isn't a reason to be grateful but I truly am... Why? Because:
1. It died in a parking lot. A well-lit, not on the side of the freeway, parking lot. A parking lot that conveniently contained a car repair place within a 2 minute walk.
2. Merchant Tire and Auto was that car repair place. These guys are awesome. The technician actually drove me back to my car (he had just gotten off work), tried to jump it with the jumper cables in his trunk and when that didn't work, he went back to work and got the jumper box (much more powerful). He returned and then stayed over at work to replace my battery.
3. My battery was not just dead, it was on the verge of exploding. Every side of it was bulging from an internal leak. The technician didn't think it would have survived another month and when it went, the battery would have exploded. Now, if I was parked, no big deal. The battery fluid would leak all over the ground and the car wouldn't start. BUT, if I was driving, the battery acid would have hit a hot engine, potentially causing my engine to start on fire. It would be worse because the battery on my Crap-in-a-Box (my personal nickname for the Equinox I own) is not located on the top of my engine like most cars. It's actually under the fuse box, in the middle of the engine. Very hard to get to and impossible to see. (which is why I couldn't tell if it was dead) I shudder when I think of myself driving home with the girls and having my engine catch on fire. Yikes!

So, I am very grateful my car died in the Giant parking lot.

While that might be enough for most people to be grateful in one day, I am also grateful for my king sized bed. Why? Because when the furnace goes out - which it did last night for the 4th time in about a year - there is enough room for Steve, Annde, Meghan, and I to cuddle/huddle together under the blankets and keep warm until the next day when we can get a repair person out. While there is always some kicking/twisting and random walking up by the kiddos, I can honestly say that I at least got 4 hours of sleep and for that, I am super grateful!

Whew! Bad evening to say the least... but today is a new day and I know that I will find something new to be grateful for today. Hopefully, it won't be because of something bad happening!

Gratitude Journal - day 15

2010-11-17T07:06:00.003-05:00

Day 15

Today, I am grateful for my parents.

I know that as children, we feel like our parents are out-of-touch and difficult. I know that I did some serious fighting with mine growing up and I am pretty sure that I am not the *best* child now - I don't call regularly and I don't write/send pics regularly. But, as we've starting dealing with the difficulties resulting from the daycare situation, I have really noticed how hard it is to *really* get to the heart and mind of a child - to find out just what they are thinking, feeling, experiencing. I am learning how hard it is to raise two smart, creative, and independant girls. I can't imaging how hard it was for my parents to raise four kids to be strong and smart and self sufficient. While us kids might not always feel like we are doing a great job or life is pretty sucky, I can only imagine how much worse it could have been if my parents hadn't laid the background and foundation that we now stand upon in our lives.

My parents taught me that marriage is more than the wedding. It's a partnership - not necessarily an easy one - that is full of twists and turns, ups and downs, celebrations and downfalls. They taught me that it's going to consist of arguments - if it doesn't, it's not a healthy relationship - and it's how you work out those issues that is important. They taught me that while opposites attract (which I think Steve and I are), it takes commitment and love to find that common ground to make it work, year after year. I saw what it took to make it through the tough times and still keep a marriage strong. I think that I am a better partner because of it. After 10 years of marriage, I am more committed and in love with Steve than I was when we walked down the aisle.

Life isn't easy - being a parent makes it even more difficult. Your heart does truly walk around outside your body. You can't always protect them and even though anyone can be a parent, it doesn't come with instructions. You will question your abilities, your decisions, your methods. I just want my parents to know (since they read this blog), that I appreciate everything you have done for me, intentional or out of love. I love you and I know that I don't tell you that enough. You have been good role models for me so I thank you. I can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Gratitude journal - day 14

2010-11-16T05:27:00.002-05:00

Today, I am grateful that I have very creative girls... I might not never really know what is going on in each of their heads, but I love the fact that they can play by themselves for hours or with each other. Every night is a 'new game' for the Little Pets/Zoobles/My Little Ponies/etc and we even get songs, voices, and acting with those games. :) And Meghan can sit there and flip the same toy for a good 20 minutes while jibber jabbering. So cute!! :)

Gratitude journal - day 12-13

2010-11-15T05:28:00.003-05:00

Day 12: Today is the MSU Basketball season opener.For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE college basketball - especially Michigan State. So, today, I am grateful that Coach Izzo turned down what was probably an amazingly awesome contract from Cleveland to return to coach at MSU. He's such a talented coach when it comes to working with young men, I would have hated to see him go to the Pro's where there seems to be a lack of respect for coaches and in general, the game of basketball. (It's a team sport, not a bunch of superstars trotting around the court, showing their style and forgetting to play defense...) So, thank you MSU basketball for starting up a new season and thank you Coach I - I'm glad you're here to stay!
(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/Detroit Free Press)

Day 13: Today, I am grateful that we have a wonderful farmer's market 5 minutes from our house. It's open April - Thanksgiving (yes, my sweet potatoes will be awesome!) and it's far cheaper than the grocery store. Plus, they carry these sweet babies (as well as the spicy ones) for the whole time. I love peppers and it's great I can get 3 lbs for $5! What a deal!! :)

Gratitude journal - day 11

2010-11-12T05:29:00.002-05:00

Today, I am grateful for all men and women that have given their lives to defend our country.

To celebrate Veterans Day, I decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery to participate in their annual Memorial Service. There's just something about this place that is so powerful. Maybe it was the fall wind whipping through the gravestones and the spirits of these extremely brave men and women who have given everything in service to our country that just put the tingle on your skin.

Of course, since the VP was speaking, we had to be there early, but I brought a book and listened to the President's band play patriotic music. Very touching. I looked around and I was excited to see so many young people. It was refreshing because they weren't always with parents.

When the canons started to go off (21x), the VP had arrived. He laid a wretch at the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and then joined us in the Amphitheater. The VP had a nice speech, honoring those who had fallen and reiterating our job as Americans is to thank these Veterans daily for service, not just wait until 11/11 to do so.

One of the best parts of the service was this guy singing. What a voice!! He obviously loves doing it too. This was the end of God Bless America.

It was a nice day - 50s and sunny. I looked up as I was leaving and the sun was framed just right...

After the service, I walked to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers to watch the wretch presentations by each of the Veterans organizations before heading home.

Of course, these morons (right side of the pic) decided to try and ruin everyone's day but honestly, most people just walked right by without even looking. The Harley riders kept them from coming anywhere near anyone. Thanks!!

I hope you spent an enjoyable Veterans day as well, honoring those who have paid the ultimate price. I want to thank all those in my life who have or are serving. There are too many of you to list - but I thank each one of you for everything you do! :)

Meg's 1 Year Old (Lotsa pics!!)

2010-11-11T07:43:00.005-05:00

Today, I am grateful for Meghan.
We were blessed with her presence last year today. (Nov 10)
She didn't necessarily want to come out of her cozy home but once she did, she changed our lives forever.
She's such a happy girl!
Walking and talking, dancing and singing. The child's energy seems boundless.
Her favorite thing: Dad! Followed closely by Mom, Annde, and food. She's also into phones and remotes.
She can be shy and sweet or loud and outgoing.
And when she nuzzles into Dad, it's the sweetest thing ever.
Here's some pics of our birthday evening:

This is the cake that I made and Annde decorated. It's a giant cupcake!

When Annde and Meg walked in - they went right to playing with Meg's gift: A Kitchen with all the fixins'!

Meg enjoyed pulling EVERYTHING out of the refrigerator!
Soon, it was dinner time. Even though Annde thought we should start with cake, we started with one of Meg's favorite meals: Chicken and green beans. Even Annde got into the act and ate some snap peas to go with her Chicken and pasta. Man, Meg really loves food!! (Look at that smile!)

Now, it was time for cake! Look who's ready!!

First, we have to sing and blow out the candles. (Yep, Meg did go for the candles first!)

She was hesitant at first... then Dad put a bit of frosting in her mouth and...

Let the fun begin!!

She polished off a bunch of the cake before we took it away cause she was starting to play instead of eat it. On to presents (once we cleaned her up of course!)

Today, she's tired. She got up early and I think she was a bit bummed that there was no more presents or cake. But, how cute does she look in one of her new outfits?!?!

Happy Birthday, Meggie!! We love you and can't wait to spend year 2 with you!

Gratitude journal - day 9

2010-11-10T05:26:00.003-05:00

Today, I am grateful that I have such cool people to work with - can't you tell from their snazzy facebook pics? These two, Sarah and Rachel, are especially fun! Together we make up the Transfer Under Pressure engineering team and we work really well together. I know that I have been blessed through the years to work with a lot of awesome female engineers (Rachel A, Jill W, Teresa VH, Amy B, Terria L, Karen C, and the list goes on). For that, I am thankful and I miss those of you still in Michigan!

Yesterday was Sarah's birthday and we had a great time at Good Eats, the burger restaurant from that DC cook on Top Chef. LOVE the fries there! (and the burger wasn't bad too)

Gratitude journal - day 8

2010-11-09T05:13:00.002-05:00

Day 8

So today, I am grateful that I have a high pain tolerance. Seriously! I think I inherited the gene for klutziness. I am constantly tripping over things or falling down. How many broken toes do I have from tripping over steps? Steve says I just need to look where I am going but I think it's an ingrained skill. Usually, I can be graceful and catch myself before I hit pavement. Today... yeah, no grace. I hit the ground hard. Ripped a huge gash in my pants and the knee below them. My palms took a beating too. But, I picked myself up, walked the rest of the mile to my car, and came home. My hip and knee hurt. My wrists hurt. But, I keep on going. Pain is not in charge of me! HA! So, I am thankful that I can take a licking and keep on going...

Gratitude journal - days 4 -7

2010-11-08T05:45:00.003-05:00

Day 4
Today, I am grateful, so overwhelmingly grateful that I have great parents in my girl scout troop. One of them, Anne Hoffman, lead me to Kim. Today, I interviewed Kim about becoming my new daycare. Some of you know how stressful the last 5 months with Kay have been. It's been overwhelming by how fast a situation can go bad. We've been very stressed out by our lack of options and Anne led me to an opening with Kim. Kim is everything we wanted in a daycare - she reminds us of Lynne, our daycare from Michigan. And now, since Kim had openings for Annde and Meg, we will be back in that loving, educational environment - full of activities and laughter and light. I can't tell you how quickly the weight on my shoulders lifted after that interview. Telling Kay we were done was VERY hard - she took it very badly and cut us off immediately (like I figured she would). But that's good - cause Kim is able to take us Monday! And, now Annde gets to ride the bus!! :)

Day 5
Today, I am grateful that we have an amazing friend, Kevin. Kevin flew in to spend some time with Steve (and the rest of the family) to not only celebrate his graduation with his Masters but also as my gift to Steve for our 10 year anniversary. It was great to see how relaxed Steve has been since Kevin got here. Those two have been friends for almost 20 years and I am glad to see that the friendship has not diminished since we left Michigan.
Day 6
Today, I am grateful for my husband. This is a picture from dinner where we celebrated our 10 year anniversary (a few months late) and Kevin's graduation with his Masters. Fogo de Chao is a fun restaurant where you eat WAY TOO MUCH. It was such a fun and relaxing meal. I am so thankful that I've had these last 10+ years with Steve! I could get really sappy here but y'all know how I feel about him! :)

Day 7
Today, I am grateful for the enthusiasm of my 6 year old, Anndelyn. We went to the Butterfly exhibit at the Natural History Museum and she was SOOO excited. She didn't want to leave! I love her enthusiasm over simple things like a butterfly landing on her hand. (One landed on mine too). Meg was shrieking in her backpack too... She's never seen butterflies like this before. I think we saw at least 20 different kinds of butterflies while we were there!

Well, I am off to get stuff ready for the first day at Kim's! Yeah!!

Gratitude journal - days 2 and 3

2010-11-04T05:27:00.002-04:00

So I'm a bit behind for posting:

Nov 2 - I am grateful that I get the opportunity to vote on who I want in charge. The candidates might drive me nuts with the mudslinging and the political ads/calls but I get to vote and express my opinion on who I think will do a better job. A lot of people in this world have to take what they get so I am glad that I don't.

Nov 3 - I am grateful that I have a happy and healthy baby. Meg's 1 yr checkup went awesome! She's now 25 lbs, 31", and walking like a fiend! :)

Start of Grateful journal

2010-11-02T10:55:00.003-04:00

For the month of November, I am going to list one thing each day I am thankful for. Then, at Thanksgiving, me and my BFF Tracy are going to put together the mini-albums I made for us to document these 30 days of gratitude. I also made one for my sissy, Susan, cause I am thankful that she sees me as someone to bounce ideas off of and turns to me for assistance. I am thankful that we don't fight like we did as kids!

So, here goes:

November 1st: I am thankful my child is getting a high quality education. I am thankful she is absorbing everything that is taught to her. I wish she had a teacher right now that I felt was a better match for her. But, I am thankful she's taken this year in stride - from having to make new friends, wearing glasses, and having homework - and really grown with it after only 9 weeks. I can't wait to see where she ends up at the finish of 1st grade.

(NOTE: Great report card, not so great parent/teacher conference. I am not happy with her teacher and we're going to have to find some way to work together to benefit Annde. I firmly believe that 6 year olds should not be entrusted to remember ALL the important stuff that parents need to know to help assist them (aka - homework expectations, what they need to remember to bring the next day, what they are working on, how to do assignments correctly...) I shouldn't have to guess if I am grading something correctly, if the teacher has expectations of how she wants it filled out. I have only had 3 notes/communications from the teacher in 9 weeks - 2 notes on Annde behavior and 1 on her surgery. That's it. I don't find that acceptable if she wants me to assist in reinforcing what's she's teaching in class or to make sure we are doing what she wants at home (reading 20 min, etc...), especially since the other teachers in 1st grade are communicating weekly with parents.)

Off to finish my lunch and back to work! :)

Halloween and a MSU letdown...

2010-11-01T05:53:00.002-04:00

So, Iowa spanked our football team hard - yikes! MSU must have been reading their own press-clippings a bit too much this week. What a disappointing effort. Good think I was cosmic bowling with the Brownies, or I would have been seriously bummed (actually watching the game).

But on to a better topic - Halloween!
Meg and Annde had a blast trick-r-treating. It was the perfect night for it - warmish with minimal wind. Only 3 people called Meg a boy. Guess the shoes weren't a big enough clue? (Pink sparkly shoes)

We went out with the Rashids - we had a lot of fun. Great neighborhood with lots of houses.
Here's the trick-r-treat crew:

Here's Dad and Meg starting out... The first house she walked to... and then she got a rest in between houses for the rest of the night.
Here are the speed demons - they (with Steve) finished the block really quick and then went inside to play games instead of moving on to another block. (Yeah! Less candy in our house to throw out...)

End of the night - Meg was still in a great mood - and wondering where her candy kept going... (Mom kept sneaking it out of the bucket on her.)

What a great first Halloween!! :)

Just a couple of quick notes...

2010-10-28T08:55:00.006-04:00

It's been very crazy around here lately. For the last 3-4 weeks, Steve's been working 20+ hour days. This trend of longer days has really been going on for 4 months now (12-14 hr days). It's been rough on him and everyone else. It's been awhile since I've had to be the single parent so it's taken me a couple of weeks to get in the groove. The girls - not so much. Annde's been upset more (more tantrums at night when Steve isn't home) and Meg cries/won't be put down by Steve when she does get to actually see him. Me - I am doing my best to roll with it. It's hard, to say the least.

I want to thank the officer who pulled Steve over this morning on his way home. Yes, this morning. Steve left for work on Wednesday at 5am. Steve came home from work this morning at 5:30am. He dropped off a co-worker at a hotel and was making a (what he now knows is an illegal) u-turn around a center median when he got pulled over. He explained the situation to the officer, who thankful let him go with a warning. It would have made an already bad day even worse. Luckily, Steve got home and went straight to bed.

So - since I have been resuming my role of Super Mom, my scrapbooking has somewhat fallen to the wayside. I did pick up this cute Mom Calendar at CVS for $8 (for 1.5 years!!) to replace my bigger calendar, which was too big for my purse now. (Thanks to Katy for hosting that purse party - I LOVE my new 31 purse!!) I love that it has a removable cover insert that I can scrap book and the whole calendar has a plastic case to protect it! Here's my first cover... obviously it will change when I get bored. I scrapbooked over the insert (folded over frame) so I can replace the pictures whenever I want with new ones, without impacting my layout. The back also has a envelope for paper so I just slid a solid piece of the black flower paper in to complete the look.

Looking forward to the weekend! We have the Ghost Ship Barry (The Navy Yard turns the Display Ship Barry into a haunted house for kids (2 levels of scaryness for different ages) on Friday, Cosmic Bowling and Soccer on Saturday, Trick-r-Treating with the Rashids on Sunday and the Annde gets 2 days off for parent teacher conferences... Yikes! I hope she does well...

Plus - it's only 2 weeks until Meghan turns one! How you resist this cute little giraffe?!?!In case you were wondering, the comb was to comb the mane of the giraffe but Meghan wanted to play with it instead of letting Annde comb it.

Have a good day! My hubby is up so I am going to go smile and chat with him!

GOAL!!! (and a few pages...)

2010-10-18T05:36:00.004-04:00

So, Annde is still learning the basics of the sport but we were so excited that she had a breakaway goal this week! She tried really hard the WHOLE game (for the first time ever) - no picking grass, no daydreaming or trotting behind the pack until she could be substituted out.

Before the game, we had team pictures. Yes, I bought them. Yes, they are overpriced. But, how cute is this girl?!?! (These were mine afterwards)

Here's her goal - look at that shy little smile on face as if she's realizing that it's going to go in. I was clapping too much afterwards to take a picture - wish I had. She was sooo excited this time.
I've also finished up a few more of the challenges over at Collections Coordinates. This one I did using the first Get Picky sketch - it's a new sketch site and I love what I've seen so far. The Challenge at CC was to use a quote in the title... I used the song by JaneDear Girls called "Wildflowers"...
This one I did with Annde. She picked out the materials and she drew the heart I stitched (thanks Crate Paper for that suggestion on your blog). We worked together to lay it out although I did all the actual work). I love the result!
That's it for now. I am working on a couple of mini books right now. Pictures to come once I'm done! 2 lucky people in my life will be getting these mini-books in the mail within the next couple of weeks...

Cyber Crop at Coordinates Collections & lots of pictures for Grandma!

2010-10-15T22:29:00.005-04:00

I'm having fun this weekend playing at the Cyber Crop over at Coordinates Collections. I challenged myself - since it's a Friday night and I've been up since 4:30am to do a couple of layouts. I hope to finish the challenges later on this weekend.

So, here's the first two:

This challenge was to use 5 different patterned papers (of 3 different manufacturers). I wanted the page to stay simple so that the pictures would really stand out since they were so dark. I like the mixture of colors and the simplicity in the embellishments.

The next page is a page to document Meghan's trip home from the hospital. I wanted these to go side-by-side in the album so I had to try and fit all the pictures on one page. That worked well with the second challenge I completed, Use 6 pictures in a layout. I've really noticed that lately my pages are taking on a cleaner look - maybe the days of Jana's 10 pound pages are gone... :)

Then I noticed that my scrap idea notebook was out of pages so I whipped together a new one with scraps from Basic Grey's Indian Summer collection (and a bit of other stuff)... I think I will take out some thread and stitch around the edge of the pink paper to finish the look off a bit more. I have to sew that button back on Steve's shirt anyway... :)
And lastly, because Mom doesn't have Facebook, here's some cute grandkid pictures for you! Meghan is walking all over now - not much knee walking anymore. Look out! The kid can easily take anything off the table or countertop now if it's near the edge. Dad learned when Meg took his Mt. Dew away... HA!

This was one of my favorite pictures! I love her expression here... Plus, you can't see it but Meghan now has 8 teeth! (4 top, 4 bottom)... Dad rode the "cow train" with the girls. I love the fact that he made the effort to fit as you can see below... definitely not made for 6'6!
One of the best parts of a pumpkin patch on a farm is the corn maze - this one was pretty neat too!
Here's some cute pictures of the girls in the patch!

A few more pics from the day before at the Burke Fall Festival:... and after MSU destroyed UM on the football field....

I can't believe this baby is almost 1 year old! It doesn't seem like she's been with us that long but we are glad she has... I can't imagine life with out our little chatty, walking, and always happy NutMeg!

A sneak peek in time

2010-10-12T05:13:00.002-04:00

It was a long weekend, with plenty of fun, and plenty of parenting. Here's two bright spots and I'll fill in the rest later. :)

And now a visual treat - Annde's Mad Hulla-hooping skills:

And Meghan's walking skills

It's a Sick Day!!

2010-09-29T17:15:00.003-04:00

So, Annde was under the weather today, forcing me to take a half day off from work. Since she was laying on the couch watching Phineous and Ferb or iCarly, I made the decision to have a 'sick day' too... only mine was to scrap!

I decided to do a layout on school since that's where Annde was supposed to be:

It's documenting Annde's 1st day of 1st grade. Hope you like!! Back to the sick kid upstairs... :)

Scrapbook Night - Birthday Crop

2010-09-26T21:10:00.004-04:00

So, Saturday night, I finally got out for a mommy playdate. It was awesome to be able to spend some time scrapbooking with friends and not worrying about which kid was doing something that she shouldn't. Steve's been working insane hours so I have been doing a lot of the parenting / chores / etc. I couldn't tell you how good it felt to walk outside and take a deep breath and have something fun like this to look forward too. Sometimes, that couple of hours with the girls and no kids is just priceless, you know?

So, I won a ton of stuff - lots of organizational containers which I can easily find usages for - in addition to stickers, prima flowers, christmas card kits, and more. I also got some new CTMH stuff and a new purse from Thirty One (? I think that is the name of the company - very cute though!!).

The best part - my scrapbooking mojo is back! I did a little mini-album on CTMH's circle chipboard album (forgot to take pics before I wrapped it) and it came out darling! It took me about an hour and I took on the Use my Stash challenge and created it from the leftovers from my Michigan Memorial Day album.

Here's the pages I got done...
This one is one of my favorites! The pictures are so cute and I love the tag that says, "Growing like a weed" which Meg certainly is! She's such a happy baby...

I had a ton of fun with the glitter glue... I applied it to the butterflies, the dandelions, and the title letters. I look the look. The picture below just doesn't do it justice.
Then I did a few about Annde's school this year. The first one was back to school night and my hopes that she finds a way to like her new class. Not so great so far but she's trying pretty hard. I just love this pose of her on the bench outside. Very Annde-like!
This one is Annde's best friend, Delaney. I love this picture of them too!! They are so cute together!! My sister says to hold on to it and if they go to the same high school and are still friends, it would be cute in the yearbook. I couldn't agree more! I took some inspiration from the current challenge over at PageMaps for this layout:

My last layout is my favorite! It's a 2-pager - shocker from me, I know - that uses boy colors. Yikes!! No pink or bright colors either!! But, I absolutely love this page. It was for a challenge over at Sketchy Thursdays - they have great sketches if you like play with them - and I was totally inspired because I took over 100 pictures during that hike. I love how I got 21 on this layout and they are all the perfect size to show what I wanted to convey.

Here's some closeups: I put a bit of glitter glue on the water scenes to "pop" them a bit from the people pictures.

Steve and I both love this look from Meghan - Sooooo cute with that confused look and big blue eyes!

I love this kit that I bought from Peachy Cheap - it was a steal and it came with the cutest embellishments. I am so glad that I bought the boy kit instead of girl. It's a great change for me.

That's all for now. The rest of the weekend was normal and mundane.

Just a quick note for my sister - I know you're having a rough time but keep your head up. We love and support you. Find some inner peace. I believe in you and I know others do too. Believe in yourself too! Don't let what you think others thing change who you are. You be the best Susan you can! Okay?!?! I love you, Sister!

Our first goal!

2010-09-20T05:00:00.003-04:00

So, we decided to sign Annde up for one more term of soccer. Last season (spring) was such a disaster! We would start with the tantrum the minute I said that it was time for practice. She would cry about going to games. Annde HATED it. I was afraid she really hated the sport, which I spent so many years playing myself, so when I talked to her about it before signing her up again, I was surprised she wanted to play. Her requirement? Not the same team. The coach last year was horrible. I can say that as I have been around coaches for a long time. The only thing he cared about was scoring and stopping them from scoring. He often mentioned that he thought it sucked that they don't keep score at this age. And, that's how he coached the team. We would practice scoring in relay teams. Loser runs a lap. The girls touch the ball (to get it out of the net) - run a lap. He would congratulate the girls during/after the game for scoring (of which Annde never did) even if they took the ball away from their own teammate to do it. We made her finish the season so she understood that if you agree to be a part of a team, you follow through. Needless to say, I was thankful when the season was done.

This year, to avoid that coach entirely (who emailed me to find out why Annde was playing, by the way - my response was that we decided to play in a closer league...), I signed up for Burke Athletic Club. A bit more expensive (with the uniforms) but SOOOO much better. Annde has already learned to properly dribble, how to stop the ball and change direction, throw the ball in, head the ball, and how to play as a team by spreading out and passing. They are obviously just starting out (this is week 3) but the focus is on team, not scoring. It makes me happy! And Annde seems to be enjoying it too... The two coaches are FABULOUS!! They take the time to work with the girls and there's lots of individual praise. The only laps they run are for warm-up and the practice, while chaotic at times, is always fun.

Annde loves to run so whenever she gets an opening like this, she's super fast. When there's s crowd around the ball, she tends to back off...

I love her face in this pic. The girl was elbowing her to keep her away from the ball - Annde did take it from her, by the way.
Even Meg enjoys the games!!

Annde didn't score once all last season. On Saturday's game, she got her first goal. She was very surprised it went in. She just stood there, turned to look at me, and smiled like, "Did that really go in?" Her confidence went way up and she seemed to be more into it. I hope this carries on to next week...

We might not sign up again in the Spring if Annde doesn't want to, but I am glad she's having a good time now.

Another Layout to share

2010-09-15T11:11:00.003-04:00

As part of my guest Design Team role this month for All About Me Challenge Blog, I was tasked with doing a layout based on ONE WORD to describe myself. Hmm... there are a ton I could use: Smart-alleck, stubborn, independant... the list could go on and on. But, instead I took a different approach: I picked the word TALL.

Now, all of you who know me personally know that I am tall, in a freakish- off the height chart, less than 1% of US population - way. When the average woman is 5'3" and average man is 5'10", being 6'3" is always a guarenteed conversation starter. But, I have never put this into a layout for my All About Me book.

So, I grabbed Annde to take a picture. I was reading on Becky Higgin's blog about taking pictures from different viewpoints so I had Annde take a picture of me from Meghan's view (aka lying on the floor). YIKES! That's not too flattering a picture. I would scare the crap out of me if I was Meghan. But, the picture tells the story of how tall I am so I decided to use it anyway. Here's the layout I came up with:

Journaling: While I started out @ just 4 pounds, I've grown as TALL as a tree. I love being super tall - it makes me unique! I can always reach things and I never get lost in a crowd. I was always picked quickly for sports/PE teams. Blocking my view is hard to do! I really hope I pass this trait on to my daughters. (Hopefully they find a tall man to fall in love with like Dad.)

Hope you like! Tonight is Back-To-School night so I am excited to see Annde in her classroom. She also did so well with Soccer this week - pictures to follow - that I am very happy we switched teams/coaches. :)

2010-09-08T08:52:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I love to read other scrapbook blogs for inspiration but this woman stole my dream scrapbook room and built it in her house...
Just Kidding!
But, this is definitely what I would have made if I had no concerns with money, space, or living in a rental... it's simply gorgeous!!

Dream Scrapbook Room

NOTE to Hubby: take a look cause I would love this when we finally get in to our own house and win the lottery. I would even share it with the girls - they could have their own little corner... :) tee hee

First Week of School - We survived!!

2010-09-07T08:12:00.003-04:00

Well. we officially survived the first week of school. As usual, it contained plenty of drama but I think we came out on the flipside.

I took Annde to the grocery store and she had a bunch of fun picking out stuff that she wanted in her lunch box. I had fun putting together these little love notes (free and totally cute downloads from Eighteen25 and Skip to My Lou) each day. I actually got a few back at the end of the day to put in her scrapbook!) I know she appreciated them, even if she did spell Sunny D on one!

She also needed a 'labeled' lunch box, backpack, scissors, and a clipboard. Since she picked out the lunch box and backpack, there wasn't much I could do. Scissors personalization included a little tag and some ribbon. But the clipboard - well, I could do something with that! Annde chose a green one at the store and expressed a desire for 'butterflies or flowers' on it. I took some CTMH paper that's one of my favorite designs and attached it to the flip side so the writing surface would still be smooth and flat. Then, I added some sticker ribbons to the top and bottom (where the paper wouldn't sit) and then some decoration to the clip. I wanted to put Anndelyn but Annde wanted Annde P. (Why I don't know... there are no other Annde's in her class) She absolutely loves it.
So, now that the backpack is packed and ready to go, so is Annde. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those pink converse tennis shoes. They are SOOOOO me 25 years ago. (I had them in blue, green, yellow, and pink myself.) Notice something else? Annde's got glasses now. Hot pink ones to be exact! She barely needs them - they are the lowest prescription you can get - but with our eyes, we know she's going to have them for a long time. She's not so good at wearing them - and she lost them on Day 2 but found them on Day 3 - but she's working on it.
Aren't they just adorable? Meghan was so excited for Anndelyn and Annde was excited that Meghan's little outfit matched her's. (I didn't think it would fit in time - it's a 24 mo - but that was silly because it fit perfectly)
We might look goofy and Meg might be confused, but I love this picture! (Man, Annde looks like Steve and Meg looks like me!)
This week promises to be even more exciting, with lots of soccer, start of Dance & Brownies, and Back to School night. Yikes! More to come, including some cute and easy scrap projects and a DT layout...

A bunch of Billy Goats are we!

2010-09-07T08:09:00.004-04:00

This weekend, we went to Great Falls, in MA. It was BEAUTIFUL - a perfect day for hiking and the views were breath-taking. No, it's not like Niagara - there isn't one huge falls, but there are a bunch of little waterfalls that are really nice... The park straddles the states of Virginia and Maryland, but we went to the Maryland side as it was supposed to be more picturesque.

We started out on the towline. It's about 1.5 miles and mostly flat with a few bridges. Great bike path with lots of spots to take pictures.
Then we got to the top of the falls. I had already taken about 100 pictures by now. (seriously!) Here's one of my favorites...On the way back, we saw this sign for a billy goat path. One of my friends, Sarah, had recommended it. We saw an older couple coming off the trail so we said, what the heck! This was how it started... It was supposed to be 1.7 miles of hiking along the edge of the rock face. It said that there were some extreme areas, but that couple didn't look to winded so, on we went.
Annde was in heaven. She LOVES to hike... we must have told her to slow down, be careful or "red light" 200 times over this hike.
Meghan apparently knew better.
After the first hour, we took a small break on the edge. Annde was having a blast. Steve, well, he was questioning our sanity but he was a good sport about it.
Then, we saw the Crevice. Yep, we had to hike up it. Annde, no problem. Steve, well, he did good...
Meghan and I - Steve thought the look on Meg's face was priceless... like, "What are we doing?!?! I am not a Billy Goat!' (Look closely, she has a death grip on the strap of the backpack...)
And once you go up, you must come back down. We did this face too...
Finally, 3.5 hours later with only one fall (Annde face-planted when she didn't see a rock but she was fine), we came out the other side. This was her "No more pictures Mom!" face.
Tee Hee!! I hope you enjoyed. More pictures to come later of the first day of school and the only school supply they let me decorate.

10 Years and I would do it again...

2010-09-03T05:40:00.002-04:00

Today is our 10 year anniversary. It's so hard to believe that 10 years ago, we got married. It was such an awesome day - it feels like last week. I looked back at these pictures last night and the first thought was, "Dang! We look so young?" followed by "Wow, I had a lot of hair!" It was such an amazing time, spent with the whole family and the majority of our friends. When I think back to the moment when my Grandfather stood up to light the candle, I still tear up. When I think back to the moment when Steve had to be reminded to say, "in sickness and health 'til death do us part", I laugh. When I remember the joke Chris Blair put on the wedding video, I crack up. For everyone who was there at the wedding, thank you for spending our weekend with us. For everyone who has been with us for the last 10 years, thank you for making our lives more memorable.

And for Steve, my soul mate, I have been truly blessed to spend these 10 years with you. You've stood by me for all kinds of experiences, good and bad. You've made me laugh and stayed with me while I cried. Together, we've made a family that completes our circle. I wouldn't trade a single second for anything, including $1,000,000 winning lottery ticket (okay, maybe that one second in the year 3 (tee hee... j/k) but I would spend most of the money with you, before I take Tracy and all my sisters/good friends on a girls weekend full of scrapbooking, laughter, and margaritas!). Seriously, you've helped me grow into the woman I am today, one that I am proud to be as a role model for our girls. Thank you and I love you!

And, just for fun, here's my 'most memorable' 10 things from the last 10 years (in no particular order):
1. Getting married! :) (and the honeymoon, of course)

2. Birth of Anndelyn

3. Birth of Meghan

4. Cruise to Mexico with Kevin W and the Salswedals... Fabulous time!

5. Cruise to Jamaica / Grand Cayman - we had a ton of fun on this one

6. 2009 Men's College Basketball Final 4 weekend

7. Moving to Virginia and starting my new job with the Navy

8. Anndelyn starting Kindergarten

9. Trip to NM for Katie's wedding

10. Triplet weekend / wine tasting at Disney World

There are other really amazing things that didn't make the list, like the annual Race for the Cure (Detroit) with our friends, the trip to VA beach with Anndelyn, the trip to Wisconsin for Jane's wedding, getting published multiple times for my scrapbooking, being selected for various scrapbooking DTs, and other trips around the US... The list goes on and on... That's one reason I scrapbook - to remember all the great times and events.

I challenge you to think back 10 years and come up with your own Top 10 list. As for me, I be drinking margaritas at sundown! (well, after soccer practice :) )

Meeting your Teacher, even if it's the wrong one...

2010-09-03T05:39:00.002-04:00

Today was the big "Meet Your Teacher" day at White Oaks. Very chaotic as they have EVERYONE come in a 1 hour time slot to not only find out who's in what class but meet the teachers, turn in supplies, sign up for stuff, etc... I don't particularly like the format but it's important to Annde so we go. She got up 2 hours early this morning because she was so excited. She wanted Ms. Austin and to be with Delaney, Megan C, and Sophie. What she got was Ms. Barrow and NONE of her friends. They are all in Ms. Austin's class. Instead, she got Anthony (her love-hate relationship) and a nice new girl, Ashley, to sit next too. I quit taking pictures at this point because it broke my heart to see her tears.

Anywho - before we took a couple of shots around the school. Annde's always up for an impromptu modeling session.
Here's her in front of the school...
... And sitting on the little bench in front of the school. (Love those weeds!)
And right next to the front door...
This is Delaney - her BFF. They are so cute together!!
Even if they are super silly most of the time...
I hope that this year goes better than expected. I wasn't too impressed the interaction so far with her teacher. Annde's performs wonderfully and above expectations when she's in a warm environment with an encouraging teacher, like Ms. Atkinson and Ms. Silva from last year. Ms. Barrow is not that kind of teacher (found out from other parents who had her last year). Ms. Barrow also doesn't seem to be too excited she's teaching 1st grade instead of 3rd grade. I am not too happy that her class is in the 2nd/3rd grade pod instead of the K/1st grade pod where the other 2 are. Hopefully they will correct that so that Annde gets to see her friends a bit more often. It might be a very long year...

Join us at All About Me Challenges

2010-09-01T05:24:00.003-04:00

I am really excited because today starts a fun month for me. To start with, I am the guest design team member over at All About Me challenge blog. The first theme that we are working with this month is our Morning Routines. I have been dying to do this for a while so I already knew exactly what I was going to do. This page documents how quickly I get things done in the morning (I even have time to blog! :) ) and then how much I get inspiration from the drive into work. There's just something so amazing about passing the Pentagon, turning a corner, and seeing the Washington Monument glistening in the red sunrise ahead! I hope that I never get to a point where it fails to inspire me daily...Anyway, here's the layout...

So, head on over to All About Me and check out the other DT members layouts. Very cool stuff!! Then grab your supplies and join us... This month AAM is being sponsored by Lucky Girls Crafts (Kit Club)!
Learn more about Lucky Girl by clicking here and we will also be doing a special feature of them on Monday! Our September Winner will receive a $20 gift certificate along with some fabulous goodies... now who will be the "lucky girl"??

As usual, we also have a sketch to add one more inspiration to our challenge!
This month we have a lovely sketch by Michelle McClung (courtesy of ScrapStreet!). We'd love to see what you girls will create with it.
(Just a note for entering for the prize: Please remember that you'd need to link your work to AAM using inlinkz to be able to run for the prize. When using it, please avoid linking it to your blog - instead of it, you should include a direct link of your layout ok?)

*******

Lots more coming up this week with the start of school, our 10 year anniversary, and Annde starting soccer again on Friday (I can't believe we are going to get 2 seasons out of 1 pair of shoes!)... Plus Annde has a little surprise for you all too. AND there will be more scrappy fun throughout the month!

Have a great day, everyone!

Missing tooth & Knee Walking

2010-08-31T05:27:00.003-04:00

So, it's been a busy week in the Patterson household. Our anniversary is this weekend - 10 years, can you believe it?!?! I can't! I also can't believe I haven't found the perfect gift for Steve yet. He's ordered something online for me and sworn Annde to secrecy. Dang! Suggestions? We're not going to do anything right now to celebrate. Unfortunately, Steve's work is a bear right now - he's at 30 hours and it's Tuesday morning... Yikes! We'll do something else later on this fall, I think.

This week is also Back to School week. Annde gets her teacher assignment Thursday and starts on Tuesday. Yep, it's another Hannah Montana backpack... I love how her lunch box is Baby kittens though. My big girl has some little girl still inside!
Meg has taking up the sport of golf - or maybe hockey? - just look at that back swing! So much like her Papa... she loves anything Dad related! Just check out the dancing video. Can you tell the moment that Dad walks into the room?

Annde's lost another tooth - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture - while Meg has gained another (up to 5) and has another on the way in. Annde wants to lose teeth to give to Meg but I explained it doesn't work that way... :) Gotta love the kids!
Well, I am off to work. More scrappy stuff will be posted tomorrow! I'll just leave you with this little clip of Meg's favorite way to get around:

Just a layout and a sneak peek

2010-08-21T23:22:00.003-04:00

I have been scrapbooking more lately... I think I'm definitely getting my groove back - aka being able to be super mom and scrapbook. Here's a page I did this weekend for a contest at Sketchy Thursdays... It was Meg's first zoo trip. (Tracy - those animals are just for you... I hope they bring back memories!)

I was also lucky enough to be chosen as a Guest Design Team member at All About Me's Challenge Blog. Here's a sneaky peak of my first layout... I totally love how it came out and can't wait to show you...

Keep Scrapbooking, my crafty friends! Post a comment if you have a great page to show me... I love to be inspired by others...

A relaxing Day at the park and some other fun

2010-08-21T23:07:00.005-04:00

So, it's been a bit since I last posted... sorry 'bout that!

We've been cramming as much fun into a short time as possible as Annde only has 2 weeks before she goes back to school. Lately, we've been doing a bit of hiking and playgrounds. Here are some cute pictures from a recent trip to a local park.

This local park even has a full sized merry-go-round. This was Meg's first experience and she squealed the entire time, clapping her hands!
I can see signs of myself in Annde... can you guess what I see in her here? Yep! The kid LOVES to run and race anyone. Steve even commented that she's getting faster and he had to try this time not to get his butt kicked...
Meg's grown so much this last month. She's standing and starting to walk. Don't you just love those shoes?
A scary thought: Annde driving in a car with Meg. The world is scheduled to end soon, I guess! Hold on, Meg! We'll rescue you!!Meg loves anything that rocks or swings. I love the fact that they have toddler toys...

Just a year ago, we moved here from Michigan. While Virginia is our home now, we still consider Michigan home too...
Whoops! Forgot to rotate the picture. You get the picture though - the girl is tall!! Hard to believe she's only 9 mo...

There are two things that Meghan loves more than just about anything (excluding food): Swinging and Dad. This picture says it all...
Here's my monkey child!

What a great day we had... Enjoy yours, too!

Just a quick moment or two...

2010-07-30T05:40:00.004-04:00

Running behind this morning, as usual...

Just thought I would throw up a quick layout and a memory... instead of the long, funny post I had thought up in my head. :)

So, here's the memory: 1 year ago, today, we were moving into this house. Man! I brings back some serious memories. We've adjusted well since we've moved here. I love my job, we've made a lot of friends, and we've gotten to do a lot of things that we never would have in MI. I still really miss my friends, though, and I know that Annde and Steve do too.

And here's the layout...

Okay now, off to work! :) Chat at you later!

Hey Y'all (Picture heavy post)

2010-07-26T05:22:00.005-04:00

It's been awhile....
I admit it.
I've become addicted to Facebook - the ease and quickness with which I can update everyone without having to do much work.
But, I decided to that I need to keep my blog going... at least for Mom :) who doesn't Facebook. So, here's some recent Patterson family fun:
For the 4th of July, we had a ton of fun celebrating America and Annde's birthday...
Here's Annde and I walking in the parade for Fairfax County with the girl scouts.

Then we did Annde's birthday, complete with presents (she loved the scooter and the noodle - see the pool pictures for that one) and cupcakes.
Meg especially enjoyed the frosting off Dad's cupcake. She was speed crawling for hours! Next, we did the fireworks at Fairfax. I've seen some great firework shows - Lake Orion, Washington DC (as a teenager), Chicago over the lake. I LOVED these ones because they were so close - you almost felt like you could touch them - and they went for SO long - almost 45 minutes - and they were set to Patriotic music I could sing along too. (It's not like anyone could hear over the boom of the fireworks!) Meg mostly slept but Annde loved them. What a great end to her birthday!

We've also had a lot of fun this summer with the pool. Meg loves to stand in the baby pool and make noise/splash or go in her float in the big pool with Sister. Annde has taken to the pool like a fish. She would be in it for hours and hours if you would let her. Her birthday party (with WO friends) was yesterday and she got a new 2-piece for it. Dad, of course, wanted her to put 'some more clothes on' but she loves it.... that and her noodle. (That silly foam stick that she's jumping in on)...
Annde was also excited to lose her first tooth this month. Meg added 4 to her mouth too. (Yes, that is Annde's ballet recital outfit. She didn't want to wear it for the recital (cause it's itchy!) but wears it to tap around the house in her tap shoes. At least she's getting some use out of it...

And for the scrap buddies out there, I had a great time scrapbooking with Tracy over the phone on Friday. Didn't get much accomplished but I did this page. I was originally working on a sketch for Sketchy Thursdays - a website I like - but didn't get it posted in time for their contest. O well! Here it is anyway - I love the bright colors. It's a page about Meg crawling for the first time in Michigan over Memorial day...

Off to work! Chat with you later!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-11T05:37:00.003-04:00

How could Mother's day not be great when I have these two angels? Meg is growing like a week - 18 lbs 6 oz and 26.5" at 6 months (yesterday!) and Annde's blowing us away with her reading skills. I got not 1 or 2 but 4 cards from her this year! (too bad she forgot to Meghan's name on all of them! :) ) It was a laid back holiday, complete with a trip to the park and a bbq rib and sweet corn dinner. Yum!! Here's some pics from the day:

And, then, because I'm a scrapper, I did a page for each of my girls' albums too! These were done with this really cool prize I won from Express the Moment! I love the pages because blue is traditionally boy and this paper was sooo cool!! I mixed in some scrap paper and embellishments from my bag and viola! Thanks for picking me!! Have a great week everyone!! And, to all moms, here's to another great year!

Apology and some pictures

2010-04-27T05:39:00.004-04:00

I am not the best friend or sister.
I know, I know... it's a shocker?!?!
But, I am notorious late at sending cards/gifts, I suck at returning phone calls, and I forget about things unless I write them down.
I do try to be there for my friends and family when they need me, but I find that life has a way of sucking you in so that it's hard to focus on something that's not "critical".
Take last night for example... my sister called in the middle of child number 1 throwing a tantrum because she "wasn't sleepy" (at 9pm), child number 2 crying because her teeth hurt, and the soup on my stove boiling over (which is supposed to feed at least 25 for today's Soupdown). Got child 1 back to bed and asleep while hubby dealt with #2 and the soup got turned off until the crisis was avoided. However, I didn't end up calling my sister back. It's the second time in a week or two that I have missed the boat on that task. I am publicly apologizing to her now because it's not that I didn't want to talk to her- I just got sucked into the drama of life.
I think we all have drama in varying degrees.
I think that it makes our lives interesting.
Without drama, each day would be the same and boring. So, I welcome the entertainment in my life.Unfortunately, that means that I don't call my parents like I should, talk to my sisters and brothers like I should, contact my friends like I should.
It's not that I don't appreciate each and every one of you - I do... I have the perfect family for me - with all the crazy, mixed up, loud people that make up the Giesler/Vlk/Patterson clans.
Forgive me if I don't call you right back or send a card late.
Susan, I will get back with you sometime this week... Mondays are very hard with the craziness of school/dance/etc.
For your viewing entertainment... a few more Take Annde to the Navy Yard pictures...

This was taken in one of the rooms on the USS Barry. We're touring with Mattie and another little girl.
Here's us at lunch...
And in the park before the dog exercise...
And, because it's freakin' cool - here's the hot dog getting electrocuted. How awesome is that?!?!
Off to work now... Have a great day, everyone!

For the Non-Facebook users (warning - lots of pics!)

2010-04-23T21:33:00.006-04:00

Hey - for the family, here's some recent pictures of the kids. Things have been super hectic around here with all of Annde's activities, multiple birthday parties, and my recent trip out to San Diego for a week (yes, Steve survived!)
Cherry Festival (Downtown DC) - We were lucky to have our friend Kevin join us for the weekend of Easter...Easter Day

Take your kid to work day (Navy Yard)

Misc Pictures of Meghan... can you believe she's almost 6 months old?

And some of Annde too...

I'm not environmental friendly...

2010-04-01T05:25:00.002-04:00

I like to drive...

I really do.

Since I moved here, I stopped doing it.

First, I took the metro. It seemed easier since I took me almost to the door of work. I would have to leave at 6am to get there by 7:30ish and it would take me almost 2 hours to get home. But, I didn't have to learn how to get to work... I could just drive to the station, park, and ride.

Problem: cost and time. How much is your time worth? Work would pay for the actual metro fares ($180/mo) but not the parking ($25 per week) or gas. No problem. Still a deal, right?

Then you bring in the fact that it was making me sick, physically. Being pregnant (where you puke all the time normally) isn't too grand when mixed with the rocking & swaying, tight conditions, with people smell in an enclosed area. Add on the lack of bathrooms for over an hour and yep, that choice went out the window.

Then I started commuting with a co-worker. Don't get me wrong, she's really nice. I would have to say that she's been one of my better friends since I moved here. For a while, it was fine. I would still leave at 6am to drive to her house... then getting into work would be around 7:15. Not bad, quicker than the Metro. But, she drives a little Honda. And, since she always wants to drive, it cuts down on the cost of gas.

Problem: time, comfort, and ability to dictate my hours. She drives VERY conservatively. (aka she would not survive in Detroit) While the conversation and friendship is great during the commute, it frustrates me not to drive my car - which is much more comfortable for my tall frame - and quicker since I drive over 50 mph. And she's apparently a horrible backseat driver so she ALWAYS drives. Always... unless she's sick. And we work the hours she wants to work, not the hours I want to work (if I need to stay a few extra minutes, I feel bad about holding her up or adding to the commute).

Then, she went to St. John's for a vacation (before Meg's birth) and was sick for several weeks recently. And I drove. And... it was awesome! I have the GPS so I don't get lost. (even though I now know the way) I leave at 6 and get there at 6:45 or 7 on a bad day... which means I can leave earlier if I want. I am not dependent on anyone if I want to leave early or stay late (another problem with sharing a ride).

So, screw the environment -
I want to drive to work, by myself, in my SUV.
I want to sing along with the radio as loud as I want!
I want to have the windows down and the sunroof open when I am coming home and it's a nice day (not done in her car).
I want to drive fast - as fast as traffic allows and is safe (no tickets please!) - and change lanes.
I want to get home 15-30 minutes earlier since I don't have to drive all the way back from her house.
I want to enjoy the awesome sights of the monument and memorials rising up in the morning with the cherry trees in full bloom as the sun slowly rises.
I want to drive...

Sorry, carpool friend, I don't think I will be carpooling with you too much in the future! Any ideas on how I break this to her, gently?

We're on our way to the Final 4, again!

2010-03-28T22:16:00.003-04:00

We're very excited here in the Patterson household... MSU is on it's way to the big Dance for the 2nd year in a row... Even Meg's geeked! Here she is (Mom, close your eyes on this one) watching last year's Semi-finals... getting geared up to go for today's Big Game against Tennessee...

Of course, we're all decked on in our MSU gear (except for Annde who didn't want to get out of her PJs today... Meg's excited to pull off her socks on a minute-by-minute basis...

Here's her and Dad on the couch. I don't know who was yelling louder through the game. V for Victory, Meg!
Here's Annde's sign. She made it after seeing some of them during the game. She spent the last 10 minutes waiving it around and cheering...

... like this...

And to think, last year, April 4 and 6th, 2009, we were there... and that weekend completely changed our lives. What a great way to celebrate this year!

Pictures of DC fun

2010-03-26T05:31:00.002-04:00

So, here are some pictures from last week... Annde playing soccer (She's in the brown shirt and pink sweat pants. She got knocked down about 15 seconds later so I didn't take many other pictures)...

She didn't mind when she wasn't playing - apparently there are a lot of wild flowers (read "weeds" here) in the field which she was collecting between her turns on the field. :)

We have been spending a bunch of time down at the Memorials. Here's Annde at the WW2 Memorial...

And the 3 of us in front of Lincoln...
... and Dad and Annde walking down the tidal pool...
Meg just wanted you to know she loves food - any kind that you put in her mouth - as long as you put it in her mouth at a high rate of speed. She likes rice, oatmeal, carrots, pears, peaches, bananas, squash, and sweet potatoes. She loves to eat... a lot!
Well, I forgot to post this the other day... So, I am going to hit a quick publish and then upload some more stuff!

Weekly Update from Patterson land.

2010-03-14T13:47:00.005-04:00

So, it's been a pretty busy week around the Patterson household. Besides the normal daily work/school and after school stuff, we attended our first Girl Scout function - a trip the Air & Space Museum for GS day. Annde and I got to try a lot of experiments, listen a female astronaut, meet a female pilot from WWII (WASP 43-7), and of course, spend a lot of time with our friends. I was happy that Raenise and her mom, Katrina could join us. Raenise is a new addition to Annde's daycare and it's wonderful to have such a nice young lady to hang out with after school.
Here's some pictures:
I totally dig those aviator glasses, don't you?
Learning about take-offs and landings and how the air can affect them...
I also scrapped 2 nights this week and came out with these two pages among two others partially finished.

The first page was using a picture I took of Annde at four months (in 2004) and one of Meghan that I tried to duplicate Annde's picture. Meg's only 3 months, though... It is amazing how similar they look to me.
And then, because a baby book would not be a baby book without a bath page, here's the faces of Meg during a bath. She's so expressive with her emotions.We're looking forward to the end of the month: Steve and Annde go to the circus, we are all going down the National Kite Festival and the National Cherry Tree Festival, and Uncle Kevin comes in for a visit and a chance to meet Meghan for the first time...

Speaking of Meghan - she's grown a lot this month and I do mean ALOT. 1.5" and 2 lbs. Her doctor was surprised and commented that Meghan is "definitely ready to be on table food" due to her formula consumption. So, Meghan's officially on rice and oatmeal now. We get to wait 2 weeks and then start her on fruits and veggies. Our little beefcake! :)
Here's her at 4 mos. Our big girl is now wearing 9mo and 12 mo clothing (this is a 12 mo outfit). Isn't she so cute?!?!
And, for your viewing entertainment... it's "Where's Meg?" Watch out, she can screech pretty loud so turn down your volume a bit...

President's Program

2010-03-03T22:44:00.004-05:00

Here's Annde in her president's program...

Miss Tracy - this one is for you since you love Abe Lincoln so much!! (She's on the left when I zoom in... Trying to get her and several friends in the picture so that I can share the video with the other moms due to camera difficulties...)

Her favorite part of the presentation... I love the end!

What a great time we had watching Annde perform. She did really well and had fun. We're so proud of her! Here she is on her 100 days of school (March 2nd). I love the project we did - so unique! (Blame Fancy Nancy for this one... she couldn't do a poster like the rest of the kids...)

We're also proud of Meg... not only can she roll all the way over now, she's starting to crawl on her face (legs crawling but no strength to push up so she scoots along on those big, padded cheeks!) and she can hold her bottle when she wants too:

Gotta love DC - we decided last Sunday morning to go to the Thomas Jefferson memorial... Only a 20 minute drive to so much history and opportunity! Love it!!

Rollin, rollin', rollin'....

2010-02-24T05:55:00.004-05:00

Yep, Meg's rolling over... and over... and over. It's become an Olympic event. For her, she can do it for an hour straight: Roll over, grunt for a while & then start complaining so Mom/Dad has to get up and roll her back, only to have her roll again immediately... We're calling it the Rolling Endurance Event (is it her endurance of rolling or our endurance of having to get up and roll her back?). Either way, it's cute and she rolled over on day 99 of life. Annde took another 3 months to hit this day, so obviously, we were completely unprepared.

Next step: Teeth... some are on the way in. Poor thing... she's a drooling, finger chewing mess. Sigh!

On another note, here's some pictures....
For her 100th day, Annde and I made this shirt - Annde glued on the sequins which I then stitched on. She wore it to Miss Kay's for the day. Isn't she just cute? It has the date on one arm and her name on the other. The back reads "... and I'm on the roll!"

Annde took this picture... Love it!
Here's one of the girls on Valentine's Day. I love the pink matching sweatshirts!

With all the snow, we finally dug out the old boat tube to go sledding since we can't find a sled to buy in any store... It lasted two runs before it blew out. I guess water tubes aren't meant for hard, icy snow! AHAHAHA!!
Lastly, I have been scrapbooking lately. Here's a page I did about the fact that I couldn't get Meg to come out on time. I like the doodling I did...

More stuff to put up but since it's 11pm and I've been up since 3:30am, I am going to bed! :) Nighty Night, everyone!

Meghan update

2010-02-09T08:52:00.002-05:00

So, Meghan is chatting up a storm - constantly making noises. It's pretty cute! (That was until she learned she can do it really loud and make Mom jump... now Mom has a headache...)

At the doctor for her eye - blocked tear duct - they weighed and measured. She's up another pound to over 13 and another 1/2" in the last month.

Music in my Life

2010-02-03T05:23:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note...

I did this page as part of a challenge over at It's All About Me... it talks about the role of music in my life. (I'm playing with my new birthday IPOD in the picture. :) )

This site is great because it posts really thought provoking ideas to scrapbook about ourselves. So, I also decided to submit for their design team call - what a great way to get pages about me done, right? I am excited to announce that they picked me as a guest designer! :) I don't know which month but it's exciting to be picked. The people that they have already used at Guest Designers are very cool.

Well - off to work! Annde doesn't have school today - snow - but she's going to have to make it up... not cool for her but cool for me because now I have a day off without the kids! :)

The Big Dance Recital

2010-01-29T05:28:00.002-05:00

For those of you without Facebook...

Here's the little video from the dance recital last week... Don't you just love how "original" (aka not following the leader closely like Mackenzie and Grace) can be? She's definitely got flair!

Fun Pics and Pages

2010-01-18T15:19:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone!

How are things on your side of the world? It always seems like when I have a day off (such as today), I remember why I work. I love my children but the oldest one is just so energetic and with Meg and I down with colds (Dad too)... it's hard to keep up with her exuberance. Sigh! I know I am losing parent points right now, but she's up in front of the TV watching "The Fresh Beats Band" so that I can do a few things online and put the new license plates on my car.

Yes, the last step to leaving Michigan behind... sniff! My new plates came in and are ready to put on my car. They're at least cool for me - Breast cancer ribbon on them. I personalized them with MSU as well... but they aren't my beloved MSU plate from Michigan. I might just have to frame that one. :)

Here's the weekly updated pictures of the kids for my family:

After canceling the last week of school last year due to the 20+" snowstorm, Annde's class had their holiday party on Friday. They got to make individual gingerbread houses. (I love the use of milk cartons and graham crackers! Annde is still munching the stale candy off of her's. Annde and Meg were goofing around... I just love those smiles!!
Here's Meg in the Bumpo... She's not quite sure she likes it yet. I adore her shoes - they were Annde's before her and now they fit her perfectly. If you think she looks annoyed here...

... just wait until after her sister makes her a "Princess hat" that ways down her head! Don't worry! Meg figured out all she has to do is lean to the side and it falls off, much to Annde's annoyance. It was fun to watch the action over and over: Annde put it on, Meg knock it off...
Here is a few pages I did this weekend - I actually have scrapped 2 weekends in a row! After I took down Christmas, I got a few pages done:

This page was about Annde and her morning question of Steve: "Is she here yet?" The pictures were taken on the day after my due date when Annde was trying to talk Baby Sissy into coming out. (Not effective - it took her another 10 days to be forced out.)
Here's a page I did about our last "Mommy-Annde" day before Baby Meghan came. I love how pretty this page came out.

This page is about Annde telling Meg she's going to grow big like her in a few years. I bet Meghan might end up bigger than Annde...
This page is about how Meg can get any pair of socks off her feet, usually in minutes. We call her sockdini as one of her nicknames... The 4 pictures were taken over a period of 10 minutes. (Sorry about the picture - my camera is acting up).

This page is about how Annde has wrecked all 6 pairs of school jeans this year. I am not 100% sure how she does it but she blows out both knees at the same time. I was probably the same way... Got to go buy some patches! This is a cool page I scraplifted (I saw it about a year ago and was saving it...) about Meghan watching her first MSU Basketball game. We watched it with my parents over Xmas - they are both alumni of MSU too - and Meg was dressed up for the occasion. I love the picture under the word STATE... She looked so cute!!
Well, out of artwork... I am off to work on my car while the older is distracted and the younger is asleep! Peace out, folks!

Has it been 8 weeks already?

2010-01-11T05:30:00.003-05:00

I can't believe how big she's gotten! Tomorrow, we have the dr appointment (and shots! yuck!!) but she's growing so fast. Up to wearing 6 mo clothing and holding her head up well. She's firmly on her way to rolling. We love her big grins too - just tell me all this slobbering doesn't have to do with teeth!

Saturday, she went to her first scrapbook day and half the people didn't even realize there was a baby - she only cried (one cry a piece) twice... to let me know she was done chewing on her hand and wanted the real thing...

Happy 2 months, Meghan... You've made our lives a more wonderful place!

PS: Did 5 layouts at the crop... you can see one here or check back later tonight to see the rest!

"Historical/Hysterical" Christmas Blizzard

2009-12-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

So, we were told when we moved here that we wouldn't get any snow or very little.

Today, there is already 8-10" on the ground and up to 24" expected. Crazy!! This leads everyone in the area to do the following:
1. Fill up their gas tanks - the line at the station last night was 2 hours long.
2. Buy up all the food around - Steve and I walked across the street last night to buy more butter for the cookies Grandma and Annde were making and there was literally no more milk, eggs, cheese, bread, etc... in the store. The lines were ENORMOUS...
3. Not leave the house. Apparently, everyone stays home because of the few crazy drivers - or maybe more than a few - who don't know how to drive who try to drive 80 mph in this weather.

Funny!!

So, we're hanging out, contemplating making more cookies, craft projects, or playing in the snow... oh wait! No boots - since it doesn't snow here - so that might be kinda difficult.

To my siblings who are coming next week - you might want to bring coats, hats, boots, gloves, etc... because it definitely looks like a white Christmas will be here!

Christmas Quiz

2009-12-14T10:58:00.002-05:00

I have been reading various blogs this week and saw this quiz that looked fun. So I figured I would blog it too. I found it on Melissa's Blog.

1. What 5 items are on your Christmas wish list this year?
* New IPOD - mine didn't survive the move from Michigan
* New Pants - mine don't stay up since I lost the weight with Meg's pregnancy/delivery.
* New Work Shirts - Most of my clothes are at least 5 years old. Some new ones would be nice...
* A gift certificate to one or two of my favorite online shopping sites for scrapbook supplies since there isn't a store close by... or a 6 month subscription to the kits at Coordinates Collections.
* Garth Brooks "The Entertainer" box set.

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
Ohhh... this was hard. Every year, I get handmade ornaments from my Mom and Aunts and sister. These are so awesome because they bring back so many memories. I can't pick just one of them.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I really need to get my butt in gear with the homemade ornament exchange...

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
Hmmm... to be honest, I can't remember most of them... I do remember the Atari game system but since Jon and Jeff hogged it, that wouldn't be it. I would have to say the year my Mom gave me a homemade cabbage patch doll. They were popular back then and my Mom made one for my sister and I that looked just like us. I might not have appreciated it enough back then, but I sure do now because I know how much effort she put into them. I wonder if I could talk her into bringing it with her at Christmas so I can pass it on to Annde?

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
* Littlest Pet Shop
* My Little Pony
* American Girl doll that looks like her (this is the only thing she asked Santa for... it's a great thing that we can afford to buy her one!)

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Appetizers... seriously. We usually make appetizers on Xmas eve. I love every one of them: wontons, pigs in a blanket, brie, guac & blue corn chips, sausage, bbq meatballs, etc...

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?
This year, not much. I had grand aspirations... but well, Meghan came and we moved and started a new job, etc... I haven't even been scrapbooking lately! I guess it would be the birth announcements/thank you notes.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?
I don't have one. I am not really into them. Maybe, "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Rudolf"?

9. Favorite holiday song?
"Silent Night" for sentimental reasons - preferably in German. (See my post from last December)
"Belleau Wood" by Garth Brooks

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Hands down - Hanging out with family and friends. Seriously... even if there were no gifts, no fancy meals, etc... I would want to spend it with family and friends!

If you decide to do this also, post a comment so I can read your answers!

Ho Ho Ho!! Here's Santa!

2009-12-14T09:29:00.002-05:00

This is the Santa picture I was talking about... Don't you just love Meghan's squanchy face? She loves to make that when she's waking up and stretching. I love the fact that he picked her up and she still didn't uncurl her legs.

Good thing about taking Annde to Santa twice - Mom can actually HEAR what she's telling him so we make sure it's there on Christmas morning... Phew!! When I asked her last week, she told me that it was a secret between her and Santa so she couldn't tell me! HA! Mom will always find out!!

Well, off to wait upstairs... the furnace is broken AGAIN and it's too cold to sit down here for very long.

Meghan's 1 month and Christmas DC style

2009-12-13T22:58:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, we went down to the White House. Annde hasn't been there before and it was a great opportunity to go see it as well as the National Christmas tree. Here's a pic of Steve and Annde in front of "Obama's House" (which is what Annde calls it). The exciting part: after some research, it looks like we're going to take Annde's Daisy Scout troop there in March to earn a badge. We'll get to take the tour and see the inside. I've never been inside before so I am excited too!

Then, we went across the street to the Christmas village to see the National Tree. It was somewhat underwhelming. It's big but not as impressive in the daylight.

To get a sense of the size, here's Steve in front with Annde. It is REALLY tall. We're going to take all the siblings and nieces and nephews down there to see it on the 23rd. That's going to be fun too! (Don't you just love Annde's poses?)

Around the tree are these little mini-trees: one from each state, one from DC, and one from each of the 6 territories. Here's Annde and I with Meghan (Can you see her? That's cause she's tucked into the baby backpack inside my jacket and her head is covered with the pink blanket!) in front of the Michigan tree. It was decorated with ornaments by a elementary school in Howell, I believe. There was also a Santa house. Inside you could get a FREE 5x7 of your kids on Santa's lap. I kid you not - we waited like 5 minutes and he looked real. I'll post the picture tomorrow but how often can you get a free pic with Santa with no waiting?!?! It wasn't the best picture - Annde had her jacket on and was standing in front of him but hey! It was the best one we've done this year... Here's part of the inside of the house... I love the categories. Annde says she's been "Nice all the time"... Yeah right!

Quick pic of Meg - she slept the whole time... but I figured she deserves some press too!

On that subject, Meghan is official 1 month old this week. Here's a pic of her with Annde.
Isn't she getting big? This outfit is 3-6 mos, I kid you not. She's over 10 lbs and growing like a weed. She's still consuming vast quantities of food - 3 to 4 oz ever 2-3 hrs - and stretching alot. Annde is still excited about her so that's great. I can't wait for her first Xmas!! :)

Well, off to bed. The kid still gets up every 2 hours and we both are working tomorrow, as well as Annde having dance class and a playdate. Geez!!! And, I still have to clean the house for my family coming. See ya later!

I'm organized... and almost ready to go!

2009-12-10T09:22:00.004-05:00

So, in the midst of getting my stuff together for Christmas, I found myself making (and losing) lists for the stuff to get done for the upcoming holidays. After seeing this super cute idea on Stacy Julien's blog, I decided to make one of my own to get organized. (Note: the ring doesn't have the ribbon yet because I need a larger ring to put this on...) The book is 4"x4"... perfect to fit into my purse.

I didn't make it specific to a year so that I can reuse it again next year but simply replacing the white papers between the tabs. I dug out some left over paper from a Coordinates Collections kit to make the tabs - what a great way to use up a kit with only bits and pieces left over...

Here are the cute pages between the tabs. I have a page for each member of the family, all my nieces and nephews, and parents... I love this little set of stamps from Close to My Heart... I used them for my birth announcements, thank you cards (for Meghan & Annde gifts), and now these...

Well, tons of things to do... Hope you are having a great Thursday! Bundle up (unless you live in Florida) cause it's definitely a cold one...

Ho Ho Ho!!

2009-12-09T10:41:00.005-05:00

So the stockings are hung... (Reminder to self: Get Meg a stocking holder)
The tree is up... Annde helped to decorate. That's why there are SO MANY ornaments on the bottom. She loves to decorate (or as Fancy Nancy/Annde calls it: Accessorize the tree!) anything.
And Annde is going nutso about the Advent Calendar. You'd think she had a one track mind. Every afternoon, after school until after dinner, all I hear is, "Mom, is it time to open the calendar yet?" I bought this wooden one at Target (instead of making one like I had originally planned.) and stuffed it with Hershey kisses (her favorite) and Little Pets. She's so excited! She said the nicest thing last night when she opened it up and there were 2 kisses in it... she said "Mom, if Meggie was old enough, I would give her one to eat too." I think it's sweet how Annde is become Mini-Mom. She really loves being an older sister.

Speaking of younger sisters... Guess what Meg loves to do: Fall asleep during tummy time. It's a riot - EVERY time you put her on her tummy, she just goes to sleep. Of course, her favorite napping spot is here:
... but on her tummy is definitely #2. The boppy, a rolled up blanket, any time she's near her stomach, she's out like a lot. It's a lot nicer than Annde's reaction - which was to scream like a crazy child. Yep, Meg's our laid back kid...

We're so ready for the cousins to get here. Annde made this welcome sign and drew pictures of all her cousins. Obviously not to scale but so very cute. Ben has some really long legs and Lauren is the biggest (for being one of the youngest). We can't wait to see everyone. (Before you ask - I did the writing at Annde's request).

Well, I am off to start planning menus and such. Gotta love the holidays - especially the food!
Also - if you are related to me or want a birth announcement/christmas card, can you PLEASE send me your address to my tallgirl account or hotmail account? I have no address book (casualty of the move) and I would like to get these out before next year... Thanks!!

It's been a long time... once again!

2009-12-04T09:23:00.003-05:00

Well.

I have no excuses...

I have neglected my blog.

It wasn't like I didn't have anything else to do: I have moved to another state, packed and unpacked a house, started a brand new and challenging job, finished that last trimester of pregnancy, and brought a beautiful baby girl into the world.

But, I have forgotten/neglected this blog and to all of you who read it (especially Tracy and Dad), I apologize.

So, here's my early new year's resolution: Get my butt back in gear and start working on this again. I need to update my header with Meghan - can't do it with the current stuff since I lost Photoshop and my pictures in the Great Computer Crash of 2009 (October). So, I will have to come up with something new... look for it to debut in January (it will take me that long to get Photoshop reinstalled.)

So, here's the latest 411:

Yes, we love most aspects of our new life in VA. I love my job. I don't love our rental home, but it's okay and will work for the next several years until we can sell our MI home and buy a home here. Steve's working on a local gig but feels like he's still on the road since he's working insane hours on this project. (It sucks but I look at it this way: He's still home to tuck the kids in every night...)

Annde cut her hair short and started Kindergarten. Surprisingly, I had a harder time with the hair than school... She's made a lot of friends and joined both the Daisy Scouts and a Tap/Ballet class. She still misses everyone in Michigan and asks when we can go visit. (Memorial Day 2010?)

We were blessed with Meghan Brianna on 11/10/09. She was 8 lbs 6 oz and 21.5" long. She seems to be the opposite of her active sister - more content to just go with the flow. She's growing leaps and bounds - already in 2 weeks, she's gained 1.5 lbs and 1"... it's crazy how much she eats, I tell you! But, she is a great cuddler and her big sister is totally in love with her so life is great around here.We were lucky to have Tracy & Aiden come visit us after Meghan was born. That was so completely awesome!! We went downtown and did some of the Memorials and the Space Museum. The kids did awesome and we had a lot of fun. Plus, Tracy and I scrapped - we did 2 mini books each - it felt good to get going on that again.

Gotta love the matching sweatshirts... :)
We were also lucky to have Steve's parents come in for Thanksgiving. It came out wonderful - Steve was very proud of his perfect turkey (It should be perfect with the amount of time we spend watching Food Network!).

Now, we have a lot to look forward to: my family is coming for Christmas... all of them! I can't wait to celebrate with all my siblings, my sister-in-laws, and my parents and my nieces and nephews. It will be a full house but we are going to have so much fun! I can't wait.

Well, I need to get some things done so I am signing off for now. Hopefully, it won't take me another 6 months to update. :)

Feliz Navidad!!

Hello again... it's been a long time, friend!

2009-07-09T08:02:00.006-04:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I wrote anything on this blog...

Thanks to family and friends for reminding me that I have been slacking in this. (Especially you, Dad!) A lot has changed in the last 2 months... so, I'll jabber about that and post some layouts that I've done too...

First, I have a job again. (Yippee!! I am not a stay-at-home Mom kind of girl.) I enjoy working and using my mind and my new job is going to be a lot more challenging than the old one. Don't get me wrong... Automotive engineering had it's challenges, hard work, and patience crunchers. There was long hours and difficult situations. And, in the end, I still get some sense of pride watching a car/truck I worked on drive down the road... But, this economy and the automotive industry is really struggling now - the jobs just aren't there! So, when the opportunity with the Navy came along, and it was full of challenge and future, I took it. It took a long time (well, not so long according to others) but my interrim security clearance is done... so the move is on!

In about 3 weeks, they will come in and pack us up and off to DC we will go. We've found a townhouse to lease for 2 years that is nice and in a good school system. Hopefully - keep your fingers crossed - we are the last few stages of leasing our home to a family for 2 years as well. (that will make me feel tons better!) It's going to be a big change and the last month & a half has been super stressful! Since the clearance came through, we've been scrambling to get everything done/turned off/turned on/finding new people in DC... I am really excited but also nervous. My last big move - from my parents home to school - was done in a mini-van. This one will take a 18-wheeler truck and we're talking about "pounds of allowable weight" and proper packing techniques.

As for scrapbooking... I've been doing my stuff here and there, as needed for the design teams. I lack the motivation to scrap for fun. It's hard - this was a hobby that my BFF Tracy and I shared so much that scrapbooking now reminds me off leaving her here. And, instead of being a joyful creation, I find it harder to do... I know that the joy will come back but I also know that one of the hardest - if not the absolute hardest - things for me will be to leave Michigan with her still here. We've been so close over the last 5+ years... she knows how much she means to me.

So, here are some layouts before I lose it...

This first one is for So Sketchy. I love all the product on this page! I got it from Mega Meet and I just love how it came out. (I'll update this post with product tomorrow - got to find the sheet I wrote it down on! :) Hope it isn't packed already!)

These next few are from Pink Sketches...

Also a Mega Meet page - this one uses product we got free from the Crop Party or was left over from one of the classes I took. Tracy and I did this page together so we both have a copy of it!

This page is also Pink Sketches... I love the picture of Annde! The swim lessons did work. While she can't swim fully yet, she really loves to jump off the side and doggy paddle around. Earlier this week, we went to the Waterford water park and she spent 1/2 hour just doggy paddling around in the wave pool, making little happy screeches when a wave hit her... I am glad she is more comfortable in the water! We're are going to continue lessons in DC along with maybe soccer and dance.

This one of the last field trips for school - a trip to Cranbrook museum to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. The class got to do excavations for bones as well as feel real bones and fossils. It was a lot of fun!! This was also a Pink Sketch.

Last layout for today - also a Pink Sketch. This was Annde's art show... The art stayed up for a while but had to come down for the open houses... Annde likes to look at this layout and tell me about her pictures.
That's all for now. I have more So Sketchy stuff and some other layouts to post as well. I am going to try and do a little better - maybe every other day - with this blog. But, the kidlet is up and if she sees me in here, we'll be stuck on the computer for a couple of hours playing with her Littlest Pet Shop webkins... so off I go!

Blog Hop & Cyber Crop at Apron Strings

2009-05-15T07:50:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone!!

I am excited to announce a Blog Hop & Cyber Crop going on over at Apron Strings...

If you came here first, please click HERE to go back to the start... You need to visit each one to get all the phrases!!

As most of you know, I love to scrapbook! I've been doing this hobby for over 10 years and I love almost everything about it... the one thing I don't like? The cost! (Who does?) One way I have found to best use my money for product and still get the latest and the greatest stuff is to subscribe to kit companies online. They provide you with a great combination of product at a low price.

One such company is Apron Strings. I was blessed this year to be selected as a Sous Chef on their design team. I have loved working with the product because it challenges me to really be creative in what I do with my pages. Here are a few of my favorite layouts so far:

Apron Strings provides multiple options for your scrapbook excitement. The Smaller than a Breadbox option comes with 3 different lines of paper and matching embellishments. The Bigger than a Breadbox option has two larger kits with different paper lines and more goodies to play with. Both are amazing values for your money! And, with the Apron Strings kit club, you also get:

1. A group of scrappers to interact with that are kind and supportive!

2. Frequent challenges, contests, and crops - who doesn't love the GREAT prizes Lori and Kathy give out....

3. The latest and greatest products delivered right to your door!

4. A super online store with very competitive pricing and the new stuff we all want!

5. A free monthly newsletter, packed full of ideas, and available any time you want to read it.

6. You get a Becky Fleck PageMaps sketch each month with your kit as well as how the Sous Chef's use it as example.

7. And now you get the NEW Apron Strings Blog to make life even more fun!!

SO... On to the Fun!

If you hop over to the Apron Strings Blog, you will see challenges posted throughout the weekend. My challenge for you is the following:

A lot of the time, as scrapbookers, we like to do two page layouts. Unfortunately, they take up a lot of room on the shelf as you scrapbook more and more. So, my challenge to you is to scrapbook two events as a side-by-side 2-page layout *OR* scrapbook 2 events as 1-page layouts. Maybe you only have a few pictures for each one or even just a single picture. You can use the same paper for each layout or different paper - it's up to you. I just want to challenge you to try a one page layout, or two, instead of doing your normal 2 pagers!

Post a comment here for a chance to win a RAK from me!! Your deadline: Wednesday at midnight, Eastern Standard time. The same challenge will be posted on the Apron Strings Blog on Saturday so you will get a chance at a prize drawing from Lori and Kathy if you post at both places!!! NOTE: Lori's deadline is different! You need to have it posted by Sunday night. Lori is going to do a drawing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday for more chances to win so the more challenge you do the better your odds are of winning. *The Blog Hop will start on Friday, May 15th at 9:00 am MDT, this is 11:00 am Eastern, 10:00 am Central and 8:00 am Pacific. It will end Sunday, May 17th at 6:00 pm MDT, this is 8:00 pm Eastern, 7:00 pm Central and 5:00 pm Pacific.

Also, if you are participating in the Blog Hop, here's my special phrase to collect: AutoShips start at just $16! Now hop over to Anita Mulchaey's blog for the next phrase! :)

Have Fun! I can't wait to see your creations!!

Coordinate Collections & Mega Meet

2009-05-08T06:39:00.004-04:00

This year, Mother's Day weekend is going to rock! I started off yesterday with a full spa pedicure. It was a treat to myself and totally worth it... Last night my feet and legs were SOOOOO relaxed and my nails are a pretty red now. :)

The fun continues today... I am so excited! In about 1 1/2 hours, I head out to Mega Meet. It's a scrapbooking convention in Michigan and I always find really cool stuff. I've been saving my pennies and I can't wait to find that special item. This year, I am not working like I did last year. Nope, I am shopping! Yippee!!!

I am so excited because I am also spending the day with my buddy Stacy. I haven't seen her in a while and she's so much fun. She even talked me into taking some classes. Here's a shocker for you: other than a class at a crop - I've only taken 1 other class in my life... it was a 15 min. one on distressing paper. That's amazing to me! In over 10 years, I've only taken 1 class! Today, I am taking 3: 2 mini-books and 1 techniques class. Then, we're cropping all-night! (My BFF Tracy is joining us for that... We are going to have a BLAST!)

I am also participating in a Cyber Crop with Coordinates Collections this weekend... They are having a crop based on the Movies theme. It will be fun to see what Jennifer F comes up with... Interested in participating? Check it out here: http://coordinatescollections.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=38

Also, because I am already talking about the site, here's my guest design team stuff from April. I had a ton of fun with the product! I really loved the colors and the textures. :)

I love this page... It's hard to see but I stickled the lace paper (Basic Grey) to make it look 3-D. I also like the look of the B&W pictures with the one color. :)

This layout was about my scrapbooking confidence last year. I tried out and made several design teams. It's been a fun year so I wanted to commemorate it!

My daughter's closest friend at school is Gabriella. This was a page I did about having her over for a playdate. Can you believe it was the ONLY picture I took - and her Mom's a scrapbooker too! Shame on us!!

And, using the scraps, here's some easy and fun cards I did... I love these colors together.

Off to finish packing my stuff! Have a great day everyone!! Peace out...

Yummy goodness from Apron Strings

2009-05-05T13:42:00.005-04:00

Today, I would like to share with you some layouts I did in April for Apron Strings. I was given the Larger than a Breadbox kit and I love what I was able to do with all that fun product... It is so much fun to work with these kits because *everything* on these pages except for ink and a little thread is made from the kit I receive... no extra do-dads out of my bag. It really pushes me to be creative with what I am given...

This first page is a camping page that I did for my BFF Tracy... I just love the colors on this layout. Can you believe I freehanded those brackets? Aren't they cool?

This page was a lot of fun. I rarely do a 2-page layout but I had so many cute pictures to use, I couldn't help it! This page took me less than 30 minutes. Very simple! My favorite detail? All the doodling on the chipboard letters and flowers...

If you've read my blog, you know about the story in this next layout about being an artist. I like the layering and doodling of this layout - it really goes with the artsy feel of the story. She did have her art show... I'll be scrapbooking that one soon!

This page was my favorite... I randomly printed 4 pictures from the last couple of months of Annde and Steve together and then asked her what she loves about her Daddy. I love all the doodling and how the page turned out: girly with boy colors. Dad and Annde liked it too!

Do you have one of those spots you go to every once in a while? For us, it's Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills, MI. They have these food themed playground that Annde likes to play on. I've scrapped it once a year to show how much bigger she gets each year. It's a great way to watch the growth over the year...

Another school page... We got this sketch to work with and I was excited because it perfectly fit Snack and Share day at school. The colors are great and I love how it highlights different things throughout the class day.

As most of you know, my child is addicted to Littlest Pet Shop. On this day, she took out all her playsets (Barbie, Polly Pocket, LPS, and My Little Pony) and connected them together to play by making... Little Pet Land... That's right... there was just enough space for her 100+ little pets to each have a home. She played with it for hours without interruption. Don't you love it when a child finds that much enjoyment in an activity that doesn't require electricity? :)

Lastly, here's a couple of cards I made with the leftovers... Enjoy!

I like to leave cards blank (without a sentiment) so they can be tailored to fit when I am ready to send them...

Tomorrow, I am going to post my So Sketchy Layouts... so be on the look out. It will be later because we're going to the Zoo in the morning... yippee!! Off to buy some paint...

Have a great day!

It's been a while, eh?

2009-05-04T14:46:00.002-04:00

Wow... I can't believe a month has gone by without a single posting for me.

April was pretty rough. I had a lot of design team work that kept me on my toes as well as the mad rush to pack up the house. So much has happened that I would be typing all night so instead I will just list it and go from there...

* Yes, the trip to DC was crazy busy. The interviews went awesome... the plane flights did not. The return one especially. I ended up missing the games on Saturday night - Dad and Steve went instead - because I sat on the runway in DC for hours while we waited for the cross winds to die down and weight to come off the plane. It was a rough flight. It took me a day to recover from the air sickness. Uggh!! Everyone else had a blast at the game - and the Spartans won!! - so I was excited for the Finals.

* My brothers came in for the games and we had a great weekend full of A LOT of laughs. There are now a lot of inside jokes, including Jeff's new nickname "Google Boy" and Jon's new nickname, which I won't mention here... :) Annde had a great time playing up to her uncles and we had a lot of fun mocking Jon's Crackphone's 3G network. Jon - did you know that our network now has a 4G? AHAHAHA We're better than you!!

* The Finals - even though MSU lost in a large beating by UNC, we still had a lot of fun. We got to see things upclose for a while and even if we lost - we were still there. So there, ESPN folk - MSU got all the way to the end! You predicted we'd be out in the first round. It was VERY cool!! Thanks for the tickets to my siblings and hubby. It was an awesome experience!!

* I did take the job with the Navy... or at least I will when my security clearance is done. Who knows how long that will take. I know it's underway... but not sure when it will be complete. I guess we'll be moving, sometime... we'll just have to have fun in MI until that happens.

* Want to buy a house? Ours is for sale! It comes with a boat... :)

I have a ton of design team stuff to post that I will do in the next couple of days. I am going to try and post at least once a day this week to catch everything up.

Well, I am off. I have a ton to do before I get Annde from school. Thank you to everyone who posted nice wishes for me while I was on hiatus. I really appreciate it. :)

It's been a while - but life has been rough for the last week...

2009-04-01T10:53:00.003-04:00

I am unemployed.

It's hard to say that. It's hard to think about the fact that 1/8th of my state is unemployed with me with several large companies undergoing even more cuts this month. Last Thursday, my company did a massive cut and unfortunately, #17 isn't my lucky number. (That's the number of headcount cuts I've survived since I started working almost 15 yearts ago.)

At first, I was very upset. I remember what it was like for my Dad to be unemployed. I went into engineering to begin with because it was a "safe" career... now, it's the opposite. Then, something great started happening. People started calling me, outraged, when they heard. I started thinking - "Hey! It's their loss! I am a good engineer who managed to get out before the bottom fell out of the industry." I can say that I did get severance but that's about all I can say since they made me sign something to get it. I wasn't feeling great but it was okay...

... then I got a call. For an interview. The same day I got laid off. I had been applying in D.C. since Steve will never manage to get back to Michigan with the economy as it was. And, one of my resumes ended up in someone's hands who was interested... So, this last Monday, I interviewed via phone and they liked me enough to bring me for a second round this weekend! Keep your fingers crossed! This would be a wonderful job opportunity for me...

Needless to say, the speed is a little bit scary. There is so much that would go into moving to D.C. Annde is in school through the middle of May. And, we have so many close friends and family here. I would really, really miss a lot of you. But, I also have some great friends there - Tim & Robin, Katie & Warren, Terria... and Steve's made a ton of friends there over the last 5 years. These same people have already offered - if I get the job - to help us find a place to live, school/child care for Annde, doctors, dentists... just about everything. I will say that it's making me a little calm knowing that we have great friends here and there that will help us move, if this is what is meant to be.

Stay tuned for more developments....

So, this weekend, after I rush back and forth to D.C.... I am on my way to

My brothers will be here by the time I leave and I can not wait to see them or the games. I am SOOOOOO excited about MSU making the Final 4! (I am bummed that the girls lost in the Sweet Sixteen by a last minute shot) I can't believe how cool this weekend is going to be! I couldn't believe when MSU tromped Louisville (the #1 team in the whole bracket)... and that these tickets that my hubby bought were going to allow me to see my favorite team play live! I am charging my camera right now!

I need to upload a bunch of scrapbook stuff... I will do that as soon as I can. Off to finish cleaning the house before I take Annde on her first & last school field trip (she's been sick during the other 3) to Cranbrook to see the dinosaurs... :) Should be a great time!

So there! Duke isn't so dreamy now, is it? MSU continues to Dance!

2009-03-25T08:42:00.004-04:00

MSU Basketball is dancing today - cheering loudly because both our Men and Women made it to the Sweet 16!

When #9 MSU advanced to play #1 Duke, it wasn't surprising that our girls were going to get pumped up for this game. Duke was a really good team - there was a reason they were #1 going into the tourney. But they had to come through MSU at MSU... and there was no way she was leaving our home court with a win.

The victory by the women last night against Duke is especially sweet because the Duke Coach, Joanne P McCallie defected from MSU 2 years ago for her "Dream job"... It was ugly when she left - the manner she did so was not classy at all. I guess Coach P though MSU was inferior. Guess not from the look on your face at the end of the game... She was clearly outcoached even though she had a more talented team...

It's being called one of the biggest upsets in NCAA women's tourney history and I am SOOO proud to be a Spartan fan!

Thank you, Coach Merchant, for believing that coaching at MSU can be a dream job too. Our girls clearly believe in you and your coaching skills. What a wonderful job you did last night!

All pictures taken by Mandi Wright from the Detroit Free Press.

I'm Back...

2009-03-24T06:04:00.004-04:00

Sorry about being gone so long. The computer decided to die on Saturday morning...It seems to do this every six months and it's annoying as {bleep}. It usually ends up with Steve having to wipe the hard drive (thank God that he has my pictures and digi scrapstuff on the external drive) and reinstall everything. This is exactly what happened this time. So, I've lost all my bookmarks and he's reinstalling programs as I remember what was on the computer before. My advice to you: Go spend the money to buy an external drive for storage. It's worth every penny you spend. Last time, we didn't back up to it enough and I lost Mar - Sept 2008 worth of pictures.

So, anywho...

I went out with Stacy last weekend to scrap at Scrapbookers Inc and had a great time! I got 3 layouts done - which is alot for me in only 5 hours of scrapbooking. 2 are for Coordinates Collections DT so you can't look just yet. :) But here's is one I did about my sister, Susan.

The challenge was to scrapbook using your favorite book as an inspiration. My favorite book is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. Amazing book with a twist at the end... I knew immediately what I was going to do and had written the journaling in only 20 minutes.

Here's the page:

Since you can't read the wording too well... and I know my sister reads this blog...

" We were born 1 1/2 years apart. I can't remember much about growing up as toddlers or children: only playing sports together and having your teachers in school. Sometimes, things would be good. Most times, we would argue. There always seemed to be sibling rivalry present. We said things to each other than hurt. We did things to each other that were mean. We're weren't friends, we were forced roommates who sometimes managed to find a way to get along. Sometimes, we managed to be kind or to do nice things. It was rare. I was messy, hating to clean anything up. You were neat, getting up at 2am to clean up the room or study. Often, at work, you would get mistaken for me - I don't know how... I was 6'3" with short curly blond hair. You were 5'10" with long curly red hair. I was the sports star. You were the sporty band geek. Do you remember the summer we redecorated our room? Those were good times... Mom breaking the bed to avoid the flying brush from your hand. Just thinking about it makes me smile... Then, you went off to USC. And it became just my room. At this point, things started to change for us. We still weren't friends, but we weren't enemies either. Then I went to off to MSU. In college, we started to grow and change. I like to think we found an appreciation for the friendship we could have beyond the bond of sisterhood. We got closer when you came east to grad school at U of Minn. You supported me and cheered for me. We stood up in each other's weddings. I stood up for you when things fell apart. Now, we are friends and sisters. We love and support each other. I realize now that having a sister is a gift from God, not a curse. You're the only true sister I have and I appreciate you, no matter what. Do we still fight? Of course. Do we still get on each other's nerves occasionally? Sure. But, these things won't drive us apart again. We are united, unconditionally, in the bonds of sisterhood. I know that things will never be a completely smooth ride. But I do know... My Sister's a Keeper."

Other than that....

GO STATE!! I am so excited about March Madness!! The men are to the Sweet Sixteen and play Friday night against Kansas. We beat them earlier this year... I know we can do it again... The women are to the next round and are playing Duke. (That would be sweet revenge - the Duke coach used to be the MSU coach before she defected. And, we're playing on our home court!) Man, I love basketball!!

Off to pack the lunches... See ya all later!

Funny Stories

2009-03-19T06:50:00.002-04:00

Annde has been full of fun lately.

On Tuesday, we went to McDonalds (which she calls Old McDonalds) to get a "Happy Lunch" for dinner. While I was standing there giving the lady training on the register our order, I had a $20 in one hand and my wallet in the other. Annde was dancing around and pulling on my arm. Then, she slowly slid the $20 out of my hand. I didn't think anything of it - she loves to pay for things - so when the order was totalled, I looked down at her to tell her to give the woman the money and watched her pat the Donation box for the Ronald McDonald house... inside was my $20. She pointed and said, "It says Please help, Momma. So, I did." (All I can say is thank goodness McD's takes debit cards cause that was all my cash.) I guess sometimes we need to take time to look more closely at things, eh? My 4 year old knows how to be a good person and care about others... that and read "please help"... Good job, Annde! Thanks for reminding me how important it is to help others. Ronald McDonald house is an amazing place. Next time you are in a McD's, maybe you could be like Annde and donate some $$ - AFTER you pay for your meal... They really need it!

The other funny thing that happened was yesterday on the way home from school. You know this one is going to end up in her scrapbook cause it's too funny...
Here's the conversation:
Annde: It's going to be cold tomorrow.
Mom: Really? How do you know? It's been pretty warm this week.
Annde: I just know. It's gonna be cold.
Mom: Wow! You know that? Maybe you should be a meteorologist when you grow up.
Annde: What's that?
Mom: A person who tells others what the weather will be like tomorrow and the rest of the week.
Annde: Hmmm... I guess I could be.
Mom: What about being an Artist? That's what you wanted to be last week...
Annde: Oh Mom... I am an Artist right now!
I am just not painting right now cause I have to go to school today.
Mom: Oh! Are you selling your work?
Annde: Not right now... in a few days, I will be. So you better call your friends to see what pictures they want to buy... I have a lake picture and a dot pictures and a heart picture... I don't know where they all are, but your friends can still buy them...
Mom: They can? That's fabulous!
Annde: I know. I will make some more tomorrow. I am too tired right now...

(She fell asleep immediately after dinner on the couch - at 6:45!) So, here's your notice, friends. Annde's first show will be sometime soon.

Some Great News and other random thoughts...

2009-03-17T06:06:00.003-04:00

... So yesterday wasn't too good a day.

The weather was nice - I tried to eat lunch outside but after freezing in the wind, I went back inside after only 20 minutes. Then I had some minor disasters at work - you know the kind that suck up your time and you can't really resolve in a day?!? It's going to be a rough week at work...

Then, the guy who was supposed to come look at and hopefully by the wood burning stove didn't show up - he got stuck in traffic... He's the 3rd person to be interested. I really hope that he buys it because I would love to get it out of my garage.

The girls played outside until almost 8pm. It was so cute!! They built farms in the sand box to celebrate spring coming in 4 days. They used acorn caps for the veggies and fruits, sticks for the apple trees, and leaves for the pear trees. They even attempted to make a barn. Annde had blueberry hill - cause Swiper has to have somewhere to hide... Tee Hee! Look for it, coming soon, to a scrapbook page...

But then I came inside and the kitchen had a minor issue - the sink was completely full of muddy water and the countertop and floor were wet too. Hmmm... It took me quite a bit of time to fix whatever it was blocking the system. Later, I found out that Steve hadn't run the disposal when doing dishes the night before because Annde was asleep (it doesn't wake her up but he didn't realize that) so it backed up with the dishwasher ran... So, after mopping the floor, cleaning the cabinents/sink, and then cleaning the tub (which is where I dumped a bunch of the water) and getting Annde to bed, I sat down on the couch and promptly fell asleep. Whoops!! I was going to scrap last night! Oh well...

So, what's the good news? I got picked for the Design Team at Scrapbookers, Inc! It's my LSS - only about 10 minutes from my house - and they only picked 2 people to add to the current team. I am excited! I loved the Zone but I didn't love the drive... (over 1/2 hr) This store recently moved in and it's right next to the grocery store. Yippee!! It will be a lot of fun to work with the other 6 team members. Stacy and I are going scrapbooking there on Friday! Bring on the fun...

Okay... off to take out the trash.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Pink Sketches #24

2009-03-16T06:11:00.004-04:00

Here's the sketch for week 24...

And, here's the layout...

It's such a sweet story... And, I just love these pictures of Aiden. Enjoy!

So Sketchy Guest Design Team

2009-03-14T21:17:00.002-04:00

Hey folks...

For those who read my blog... there's a GDT open for April...

Here's the 411:
For the month of March, anyone who submits a card or page using any of the sketches posted for the month have a chance to win a guest designer position on So Sketchy for April.

Contest details:
For the monthly contest, please email your submissions to: sosketchy@live.com Create a page or card using any of the sketches showcased this month. Please reduce the size of your image to below 150kB.

With your image:
Please include your name, location and title of your creation.

Please identify what sketch number(s) you used for your creations. The So Sketchy Sistas will vote for the best submission and the submission that has the most votes will win the Guest Designer position for April.

NOTE: If would like to be considered for the Guest Designer position, I would love to see you comment on the March creations by the So Sketchy Sistas this month.MARCH CONTEST DUE DATE: All creations are due by the 4th of the following month. (ie: March sketches due April 4.) You will win a copy of the printable images from The Cutting Cafe the Sistas used for their March creations, PLUS two of your choosing and a guest designer spot for the month of April.

If you have won in the last 3 months, you are ineligible for this month's prize. Good luck!!

Please enter today!! :)

Sneak Peeks... and a breakthru.

2009-03-14T12:27:00.002-04:00

Annde had a breakthrough at her swim lesson today. I might have found the "button" to push... to get her to join in. We normally go to the library after lessons to pick some books up for the week. Normally, she gets 10 - the kid LOVES books.

So, today on the way to lessons, I put in a new rule: for every time she says No to the teacher, she loses a book. So, if she says no 5 times, she only gets 5 books. If she says no 10 times, no books at all. I reminded her again as she was getting in... At first she balked at putting her head in the water... So, I held up 1 finger. Then, she did it. Next, she didn't want to front float, so I held up 2 fingers... By the end of the session - she had only lost 3 books! It worked so well!! I was so proud of her...

For Tracy - here's you page... or parts of it... AHAHAHA!!!

For the rest of the page, check out Pink Sketches (link right) for the layout tomorrow.

Welcome to the Fleet, USS New York!

2009-03-13T13:08:00.003-04:00

Here SHE is, the USS New York, made from the --- World Trade Center !

USS New York was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there... 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.'Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the 'hair on my neck stood up.' 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down but they can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto? 'Never Forget'

And... it's about at the end...

2009-03-12T12:53:00.002-04:00

This week... it's been dragging along, slowly. I have only scrapbooked one night this week. Too tired, I guess. Work continues to be overwhelming. The end of the quarter is in 2 weeks and I'll find out if we have to repeat this temporary layoff thing for another quarter. I worry about it but I am still so thankful I have a job - even if I am completely exhausted all the time.

To relax, I've been reading instead. Finished 3 books since Saturday. They weren't earth shattering literature, just chick lit or suspense... but sometimes you've got to take a break from your habits to renew that creative streak.

I do have to say though that last night, I did a truly great page. My friend Tracy is going to be excited because it's for her. She routinely gives me her pictures to scrapbook. It's helping to "catch up" those memories she wants to record and it gives me some variety in what I scrapbook. I can't post it just yet though because it's my layout for Pink Sketches. (Sorry, Tracy - you'll have to wait until Sunday!)

Instead, you'll have to enjoy a 2 page layout that I did on Sunday instead... It was about Annde "searching for Santa"... from receiving a webcam message from him to leaving oats outside and cookies/carrots/milk instead... Annde was super excited about the jolly Santa.

That's all for now.. Have fun, folks, and thanks for checking in!

How much do you know about St. Patrick's Day?

2009-03-11T14:05:00.002-04:00

Me - not much... in fact, I know so little that I REALLY flunked this quiz. I know, I know... I'm appalled and probably should lose parent points on not knowing the origin of the holiday. (Although I'm German and Czech so I'm at least not disregarding my heritage!)

Try it for yourself and see how you do:
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/quiz.aspx?QuizID=306

I sure don't have the luck of the Irish, eh? :)

Pink Sketches #23

2009-03-09T06:13:00.003-04:00

I had a lot of fun scrapbooking with Tracy on Saturday night... Jessica came over too and it was good to see her. I didn't get a ton done but I did do a couple of layouts. I just spent too much time obsessing over one layout.

Sunday was Zoe's birthday party at the pool. We had a lot of fun - Annde and I swam for over an hour. I think that the temperature of the water makes a HUGE difference on Annde's willingness to participate. I also think that trust comes into play as well. She is still balking at putting her face in the water and jumping off the side. If anyone has an ideas on how to overcome those two things, let me know... She's so stubborn and I am running out of ideas.

Here's my Pink Sketches layout of the week:

Products used: paper (Reminisce, Scenic Route, Heidi Swapp), stickers (Reminisce, Jenni Bowlin, 7 Gypsies), die cut felt filmstrip (Prima), chipboard (Scenic Route), adhesive (pop dots, Kokuyo), and pen (Zig).

Well, off to make the lunches. Have a good day everyone...

Rounding up for Kindergarten

2009-03-07T12:31:00.003-05:00

So, this week was Kindergarten Roundup for the parents. We were very excited to go and see all the fun things that Annde will be learning next year. They showed us a movie about what a typical day involves and talked about all the fun things that they will be doing this year. I have to say that I am very happy with our choice! They really focus on writing, reading, and art in this class, in addition to Science, Social Studies, and the typical specials (art, music, gym, computers, library, and Spanish). They also do a lot of things with the 5th graders, which I think is really cool (book buddies, lunch buddies...) I think that Annde is going to be very happy there. Especially since she already knows several people in her classroom. I really hope she gets put in a room with Zoe. They play so well together.

Well, I am off to scrap tonight with Tracy - Color Me Daisy is having a Dr. Seuss Cyber Crop - and just relax. It should make up for my frustrating morning at swim lessons. If she didn't need to learn to swim for the boat... Man! She can be sooo stubborn!

Here's a sneak peak at my layout that will be up tomorrow at Pink Sketches...

Transformer Hoax in Detroit

2009-03-04T09:46:00.002-05:00

For all of those of you who have heard the following tale of Police Transforming vehicles, please know that this is a urban legend. Trust me, this state doesn't have the money to pay for these fancy vehicles! Besides, one of the news channels confirmed it was a hoax with multiple police forces and the State Police....

Spring is Coming!
Operation Yellow JacketLook out for MI-DOT trucks parked along the road or suddenly appearing behind you pacing you - it could be a Trooper driving the truck. Called 'Operation Yellow Jacket', each Michigan State Police District has a truck cleaned up and ready to go! These trucks have specially modified engines that can virtually catapult the truck from snow-plow speed to intercept speed in seconds. And when the engine boost kicks in, the warning lights automatically change from flashing yellow to the dreaded red and blue! Starting March 1, 2009, Michigan will launch a 31 day speeding ticket frenzy. The state estimates that $9 million dollars will be generated in speeding tickets, with an additional $3.5 million in revenue for failure to wear a seatbelt. $1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime. There will be 47 state troopers on duty at all times patrolling the main intersections and highways with the highest rates of speeding. They are the following:
I-75, especially from the Ohio line north to Woodhaven, and again from Auburn Hills to Flint
I-96 east and west in its entirety
I-275 north/south
I-675 north/south
I-94 east and west from Battle Creek to Jackson
I-696 east and west in its entirety
I-196 east and west
US-131 north and south
I-69 east and west from Lansing to Flint and again from Flint eastward to Port Huron.
I-69 north and south from I-94 to Lansing
M-14 east and west from I-94 to I-275
M-39 from I-94 to I-96 going to and from Dearborn
M-59, especially from Pontiac to Utica , and from Utica east US -10 from Midland to Bay City
US-23 from I-96 to Flint US-27 from Lansing to Mt. Pleasant
Quotas:
5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket and every state trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10 to 20 minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Dodge Charger Police cruisers and canceled all vacation time. In addition, they are bringing in all of their part timers on full time for the month. This nonsense will conclude on April 1.
Driving Ticket fine increase in MI: Starting on January 15th, the price of a ticket for violation of MI Law 39:3-29 (failure to show your driver's license, registration, or proof of insurance card at the time you are stopped) went from $44.00 to $173.00. Please make sure your vehicles have the proper documents in them. If you jump in the car to run to the store and forget your wallet with your license in it and you are stopped.... Oh well... you just spent $173. And the fine for not having all three documents is $519!!!

While we should all be following the traffic laws which would prevent you from being pulled over to begin with, please note that these transforming MDOT cars don't exist, to the sadness of children all over Detroit who believe in Transformers. Besides, the highways listed are pretty much every highway in the Metro Detroit area - where do they plan on getting all those cops based on reduced budget, layoffs for officers, and the normal crime rates of a major metropolitan area? It is also miraculous that this list is identical to the last speed trap hoax from last year...

So Sketchy again...

2009-03-04T06:08:00.003-05:00

So, Ally gave me this sketch and some great images by The Cutting Cafe to do a page... I surprised her and did TWO, very different pages...
So, here's the start point:
And, here's my first page. I didn't take any pictures on Valentine's Day this year. Instead, I took some pictures of what we exchanged to show our affection. There was a really great quote on the card that Annde gave me so I used that as my journaling... I mimicked the sketch in that there are 3 pictures and a journaling block, but I didn't use round. Then, I took the the 3 circles and mirrored it into the diamonds at the top. I used both the round sentiments and the heart cupcake by Cutting Cafe to jazz it up.Products used: Paper (CTMH, Doodlebug, Glitz, American Craft), Heidi Swapp diamonds, Kaiser pearls, Thickers, Stickles, Jenni Bowlin stickers, Creative Imaginations flowers, Cutting Cafe images, misc gel pen, and Kokuyo adhesive.

This second page is about me. There's this list going around that you answer your feelings in. For example, it has I love..., I cry..., I sing..., I wonder...., I wish..., and so on. I filled the list out and put it on the blog back in November of last year but always thought it would be a cool topic to do. So, the circles just gave me that ability. I spaced them (there's about 35), into 4 journaling circles and then used some wallet sized pictures and this FABULOUS Doodlebug flocked paper as a background. Sorry, there's a lot of reflection in the picture but I wanted to show the irridescence in the butterflies. Trust me - the colors are REALLY bright on this page. Products used: Close to My Heart paper, Doodlebug paper, Cutting Cafe image, DMC floss, Making Memories letters, Craft n Craftin stickers, Oriental Trading arrow brad, Glaze pens by Sakura, Microsoft Word, and Kokuyo adhesive.

Also - I'm hosting the challenges this month at Coordinates Collections... Head on over there and see all the fun you can have for free stuff! There's a guest design team contest, a March contest about using Green, and my 4 challenges.. All you have to do is upload into the gallery in the right folder and post a link in the message board thread for the contest and you're entered! Check it out here: Coordinates Collections

Well... I'm off to get stuff done. Have a great day!

It's a So Sketchy start to March

2009-03-02T23:07:00.004-05:00

My layout just happened to be picked to lead out the month of Sketches over at So Sketchy. Here's the sketch...

... and my layout:

Don't worry! All pictures were taken while sitting at a stop light. Annde and I spend a lot of time together in the car and she can be very silly at times when I check on her in the rearview mirror at stop lights. So, on this day, at each of the 3 stop lights, I took a picture of her face in the mirror... It says a lot about her personality...

Products used: Paper (CTMH, Sandylion, Bazzill), Ribbon (Basic Grey, misc), Thread (DMC), Hearts (Heidi Swapp), Pins (CTMH), Arrow & Tags (Little Yellow Bicycle), Ink (Zig, Uniball, Sharpie, Sakura), Stickers (American Crafts) and Adhesive (Kokuyo, Popdots)

Crowned Week 4

2009-02-28T17:37:00.005-05:00

For this week, Scrapdango's DT challenged us to take one of our roles and scrapbook it with a list of pros and cons. I chose the role of Mother and my sometime insecurity/lack of confidence...

First, I had Annde tell me good things and bad things about me. Her list is at the bottom of the page. My personal favorite is "bugging her about eating veggies". AHAHAHA! This week, Annde has been trying everything I put on her plate: Salmon (good), celery (not good), french fries (okay), and tater tots (not good)... In fact, the child has been eating a lot! She's definitely growing again. I think maybe we've turned a corner... but this could all be a joke on mommy. Who knows! This parenting thing is not easy!
Here's some close ups on the details...
This is the last week of the competition so the winner will be announced sometime next week. I didn't win any sashes (weekly challenge winner) but they said the voting was close so I guess I still have a chance. I love the layouts I completed so it's still worth it even if I don't win anything...

I also have to laugh about something. I was surfing the blogs and noticed that another Jana (Eubank) has the same blogwear now on her blog. Hopefully, we don't confuse everyone! You saw it here first, fans.

Check back tomorrow for my So Sketch layout... It's going to be on the site then. Pink Sketches will also be announcing their new DT members so there won't be any layouts from me on the board this week... I can't wait to see who Kelli picked to join us!

Also - this makes post 28. I managed to make my goal of a post per day (or the same number of posts as there are days)... Maybe I can keep this up for another month...

Great News

2009-02-27T06:05:00.005-05:00

Yesterday was my BFF Tracy's Birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I know this year will be Fabulous! :) (Well, it will once your family gets over that crappy flu thing!) Here's to a wonderful birthday week and great things in 2009!

Then, I got home from work and this was in my mailbox from Kelly Purkey:

I read her blog a lot and she was giving away a Fiskars punch. How great is this one going to be to do the swimming pages and summer pages... :) Thanks Kelly!! (I also love the rub on letters! VERY cute!)

I also found out this morning that my layout was picked for the Coordinates Collections February GDT Contest winner. Yippee!! I knew Cutie Pie was good luck! I get to design with one of the April kits. I can't wait to see what I get!

Well, I am off for now... Gotta go make lunches/breakfast for the family... Have a great day!

So Sketchy

2009-02-24T06:08:00.003-05:00

My last layout for February has been posted over at So Sketchy... so I can now post it here.... yippee.... I just love the softness of the colors in this layout. I had a lot of fun putting it together. I've had these pictures for a while but I just wasn't too motivated to scrapbook them. Then, I got these fun papers from Close to My Heart, trim from an exchange on Scrapbook Doodle, and a sketch from Ally. I love the result!
The page talks about Annde's (and my hubby's) ability to sleep with an eye open. It's part of the lazy eye syndrome they both have/had. As I am the only one who can't do this in our family, it used to freak me out a bit. I could never tell if Annde was truly asleep in the dark. Thankfully, she doesn't do it as much since we started working on strengthening her weak eye but I thought the pictures were fun and it's another one of those fun Dad traits! Head on over to So Sketchy to see Cherie's use of this sketch!

Products used: Close to My Heart (paper, stickers, white letters), misc trim from Scrapbook Doodle exchange, Thickers, Kaiser pearls, Pop Dots, Kokuyo adhesive, DMC floss, and Zig ink.

Pink Sketch #22

2009-02-23T23:28:00.004-05:00

Here is my Pink Sketch for this week - a layout I did about the scarf my mom sent Annde... She absolutely adores it...

I had fun swapping the sketch around this week. Instead of using angled papers and a straight picture, I used a straight block and mounted angled pictures. I also added an additional picture at the bottom and used 2 angled transparencies over the top of it. If you want to check out the original sketch or what the rest of the DT did, head over to Pink Sketches.

Products used: Sassafras paper, Close to My Heart paper, Creative Imaginations transparency, Little Yellow Bicycle journaling block, Stampin' Up chalk, Oriental Trading arrow, Creative Imaginations (?) tag, Thickers, Sakura Glaze writers, misc trim from Scrapbook Doodle exchange, and Uniball pen .

Taking Chance

2009-02-22T13:54:00.002-05:00

Last night, Steve and I watched an amazing movie.
It was called "Taking Chance".
It's the true story of a soldier named Chance Phelps and his journey home after being killed in Iraq. It's primarily told through the eyes of the Witness, or soldier assigned to escort the body home. I cried the whole time. Literally. Such a wonderfully simple story that is so powerful.

What made this movie even more powerful is that my husband was on the flight last Monday that escorted a young soldier from our town, US Army Specialist Byron Fouty, back to Washington D.C. where he was buried in Arlington Cemetery. His whole family was also on-board the flight. The whole plane honored him when the plane arrived in Washington D.C. It was truly a moving experience for Steve.

I am proud to say that both my Grandfathers, my Father, and my Father-in-law have all served this country in the military. I am extremely lucky that none of them were killed in their service.

Here's the HBO site about this movie: http://www.hbo.com/films/takingchance/

Whole Bunches & Bunches of stuff...

2009-02-21T18:20:00.004-05:00

It's been a super busy week, hasn't it?

Annde's class went on another field trip Friday. At first, I wasn't going to send her - they were going to see Hotel for Dogs. Each of the times we've taken Annde to the theater, she's wanted to leave after about 20 minutes. I didn't want the teachers to have to deal with that. They said that was okay and when Gabriella showed up to go, I knew that I needed to send Annde or it would be a very bad day. Gabi and Annde are pretty much inseperable at school... She went (2nd school bus trip) and she had a blast! She didn't really understand the movie too well but her and Gabi had a good time hanging out together. Next week, when she's back in school, she's going to be bored after all these fun field trips!

Friday night, I hosted a scrapbook night for the Women's group at our church. It was fantasticly fun! I was kinda worried - I had 5 people cancel throughout the day due to sickness. (That NASTY flu that's going around just seems to be a bear!!!) So, I was worried no one would show. I got there, set up 10 sets of make-n-take cards and tables and held my breath... And, then the women started to show! We had 9 women other than myself doing everything from making bracelets to scrapbooking to knitting to crafting with fabric. We listened to music, pigged out on Sandi's AWESOME chocolate fondue... mmmm...., and chatted. It was a pretty relaxed group and everyone had a blast making the cards. Surprisingly, I did 2 layouts in under 3 hours! One of them was for Pink Sketches - the sneak is here but it will be posted sometime on Sunday (link to site on left)... Yep, you guessed it... there's those scarf pictures from earlier this week!

The other was for So Sketchy and I have to say... it was truly an awesome page for me... I will post a sneak later this week. :) Obviously, Ally gets to have the fun of the reveal first!

I've also been participating in the Crowned Competition over at Scrapdango. This is week 3 of 4...

For this week, we were challenged to use only 2 patterned papers, 1 type of letters for the title, and 2 types of embellishment (unlimited ink, adhesive and cardstock). I chose brads and stitching. It was hard for me because you guys know my love of embellishing... especially with stickles and chalk, which weren't allowed. So, I did the next best thing. I grabbed this sheet of paper with an Owl on it from Sassafras.

This current trend to using deer and owls and such is not for me.... My BFF Tracy laughs at me everytime I win something with an owl or deer on it because I won't use it. In this case, I was generously given a Sassafras paper pack from Jamie for naming the January Kits at Coordinates Collections. I just don't particularly see the point of using them for "Whooo's the cutest" or "Whooo's turning five?"... They just don't do anything for me, creatively. So, in my quest to save money and use what I own, I figured this was a good opportunity to think outside the box and get rid of this owl paper.

So, first I cut the owl and tree out of the paper. Then I cut a large block and mounted it behind the paper, layered with a piece of cardstock that I distressed with a brown pen. Then I hand drew some brackets out of 2 more of the patterns on the paper and cut those out, also using the brown pen to edge them. Then, I cut out the stitching down the side of the paper to create stitched sections that I glued on and around the pictures. I added some stitching and a few brads and I was ready to get started with, in true scientist fashion, dissecting the owl:
His eyes became the flowers in the flowers in the corners.
His heart tummy became a heart.
His wings became another heart.
His feet became rays coming out of the date circle.
His stitched body became the arrow.
Then I used the flowers and leaves on the tree to decorate around the page. When I didn't have enough, I made some more out of the branch.

Here's the finished layout...
Here's a few closeups... By the way, it's really hard to write clearly on textured cardstock... So, I grabbed some correction stickers from CTMH and made it a little bit easier...

I have more stuff to post but it can wait until later this week. Better to not overload the system.

I hope you all are having a great weekend. And, Aiden - I hope you are feeling better! I missed your mommy at Scrapbooking Friday night!

I'm going Scrappin' tonight!

2009-02-20T06:06:00.002-05:00

And I am soooo excited!
My church is doing a Women's night once every month or two and tonight is CRAFT NIGHT...

My stuff is packed...
New pictures ordered...
20 bookmarks are just about done...
40 cards are ready to be assembled (make-n-take I am doing)...
I have the raffle prizes and the pop...
Yep, I'm all ready!

It's been a rough week for me - work has been very stressful and I haven't been feeling super great. But, today's the day! I can't wait!

I'll leave you with this picture...

Love of a Scarf!

2009-02-19T06:01:00.004-05:00

A day or two ago, Annde received a present in the mail: a beautiful scarf that my mom made her... She loves it! She's been wanting one for a while and I have to be honest, I stink at knitting! So, when my mom was here at Christmas, she looked at yarn with Annde and this is what she made - it's it beautiful!
Then, yesterday, Annde went on her first field trip this year - with the child care (Our school is on Mid Winter Break right now) instead of her preschool class - and she absolutely had a great time. She got to ride the yellow school bus (a first!) and they went to Uncle Al's to play glow-in-the-dark putt-putt (another first!) and eat pizza. Annde had so much fun that by 6:30pm, she crawled up onto the couch and feel asleep. Completely, totally asleep. I could barely wake her to carry her to bed! And, she's been out since that time... Wow! They wore her little butt out!

Well, no scrappy stuff to post. I did 2 layouts this week plus prepped cards and made bookmarks for this weekend's crop/craft night at Church but I haven't take a picture of them. I will try tonight.

Off to make the lunches (like the Dunkin Donuts guy...)

Wait 15 minutes, the weather will change...

2009-02-17T06:15:00.004-05:00

Just a quick posting...

I didn't do any scrapbooking last night as I had planned. I came down with a headache at work - it was a pretty rough day - and I just couldn't get ahead of it. After I got Annde to sleep, my parents called and we ended up talking on the phone for almost an hour and a half. By the time we got off the phone and dishes/trash roundup/pickup was done, my headache was boring a hole through my brain so I went to bed. I hate the weather changes because they really bring out my migraines. Sigh! There's nothing I can do about Mother Nature other than to pray for kindness from her...

Yesterday, our tickets for the Men's Final 4 came. I am SOOO excited! March Madness is one of my favorite seasons and the fact that we will see the final 2 rounds live is so exciting. We're in the nosebleeds but I don't care. Just being there is so exciting and if MSU gets there - I am going to be bouncing off the walls!! Plus - my 2 brothers are coming in - that will be fun too!! (They also have tickets.)

So, I will have to leave you with a sneak peek of another So Sketchy layout that hasn't been revealed yet. The product is mostly from Close to My Heart - out of their new catalog and I just love it... even though it's blues and greens, it can easily be used for girls:
Have a good day and I hope tonight might contain some Mom craft-time!

Pink Sketch #21

2009-02-16T06:04:00.003-05:00

For my Pink Sketch this week, I chose to alter an item instead of a layout.

I took a leftover Reese's heart box and covered it inside and out, using this sketch. It was one of Annde's gifts and she loved it ( and the candy inside)! One thing that I love about sketches is that they are so versatile - you don't have to use them just for layouts... I kept it pretty simple because EVERYTHING had to be well-glued on for a 4 year old to play with.

You can check out what the rest of the team did here...

Happy post-Valentines' to you!

2009-02-16T05:56:00.002-05:00

Hey Y'all...

Well, another holiday has come and gone and I swear time is flying in 2009! I can't believe it's already the middle of February!

Update on Annde - doing better... Her fever has been down for several days and she seems like she's back to normal. She is still on medicine but at least we only have to argue a bit with her as opposed to a lot...

Valentines was pretty relaxed this year... We didn't have ornate plans and that was cool. Tracy came over to watch the kidlet so we could go out to dinner & (pathetically) Meijers for some grocery shopping. Unfortunately, dinner tanked... After waiting over an hour for our food, it finally came when we told Tracy we would be home so we ended up getting it boxed and eating it at home on the couch. Sigh! It was totally awesome Thai but I was disappointed by the lack of "atmosphere". Could have been worse, eh?

Steve absolutely loved his blanket while Annde liked her's (she wants one as big as Steves...) and the LPS Monkey (it's about 6" tall and you get to decorate it with stickers and glitter and rubons) that Steve got her. I also gave her some candy via my Pink Sketch project and she loved the box. She'll end up keeping it and using it for something once I let her eat all the candy. I got pink roses because - well, Annde loves pink and roses... Steve tried to buy tulips but got overruled. AHAHA...

Well, that's about it... Off to make the lunches for today. Chat more later!

Blog Tag

2009-02-13T18:02:00.003-05:00

Quite a few days ago, I was tagged by Heather from Scrapdango. Sorry it took so long but here's my turn. The Rules:

Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.

1. Pick the 6th Folder, then select the the 6th picture in that folder.

2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.

3. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

So here is the 6th picture in my 6th folder. AHAHAHAHA I about died laughing when I saw what it was...

Annde was trying to convince me to let her open her Advent Calendar and I said that if she let me take a few pictures, she could... This was what I ended up with!

So, I need to tag 6 people...
Stephanie
Staci
Sophia
Abbie
AnneMarie
Shelley

Okay... off to help with dinner...

Another Layout and some Drama

2009-02-13T06:46:00.005-05:00

So, yesterday was supposed to be Annde's second field trip for school this year. She missed the first one with a raging case of double pink eye. We had high hopes for this one - Dad specifically flew home a day early to take Annde on this field trip to the Bowling Alley, where the kids were going to bowl and have their valentines party. We were all so excited!

Instead, we took a family trip to the ER: Annde spiked a 104 fever at lunch and started to complain her chest/side/stomach was really hurting. So, off we went and after several hours involving the trauma of putting in an IV (which Annde REALLY REALLY did well at... seriously! She did better than I do!!) and chest x-rays... we found out she has pneumonia and severe dehydration. She sucked down 750mL in her arm - we told her that her arm was thirsty and she did really good with it - and 2 purple popsicles that the Dr. gave her... Boy! Annde, really knows how to miss field trips, eh?!? Needless to say, our sleep last night was limited by getting up to give medicine for the fever and the nosebleed at 2am. Sigh! Hopefully, she feels better today so we can still enjoy the holiday tomorrow!

And, just for fun, here's another layout I did a couple of nights ago. I used Becky's Sketch from PageMaps and tipped it on it's side... You can see the original sketch HERE. Then, I combined it with a journaling challenge from One Little Word, for using the word FUN on a layout. The journaling is (since it's sooo small on the layout):

With my job in jeopardy of disappearing into this crappy economy, getting up to go to work each day has become difficult. I don't look forward to the 1/2 empty parking lot, the constant tension and fear coursing through the hallways... I stress out when I think about missing paychecks through layoff periods. But - I have to remember that I HAVE a job still, I work with great people, & I'm good at my job... I need to look deeply into myself, release the fear and anxiety because it won't change anything. I need to find the fun in my career again... cuz there aren't many options out there for a change.

And on that perky note - HA! - I'm off to work for a couple of hours...

Products used: Paper (CTMH, Sandylion, K&Co, misc scraps), overlay (KI Memories), stickers (CTMH, American Crafts), rubons (Stampin Up), butterflies (Making Memories), ink (Zig, Sharpie), and adhesive (Popdots, Kokuyo).

So Sketchy Layout : Frozen Fun

2009-02-13T06:32:00.005-05:00

Here's the page I finally get to reveal from So Sketchy. These are pictures from Annde and Nickie playing outside earlier this winter - one of the only sets of winter pictures I have from this year because it's been soooo cold and she's been sick a lot.

This was the sketch:
and here's my page:

I changed the single picture in to a picture strip and then also changed the single title block into a series of round punched snowflakes. I distressed the edges and used some white chalk ink to soften them. My journaling went around the page because I liked the clean lines of the sketch and didn't want to ruin them. But, my favorite part of this page is the intensely bright colors. I just love how they light up the pictures and make the snowflake lace really pop. Enjoy!

Products used: Bazzill (cardstock), Basic Grey(PP), Dream Street (PP), K & Co. (PP), K&I snowflake paper, Popdots, Kokuyo adhesive, chalk ink, Uniball writer, and EK Success snowflake punch.

Interesting Article

2009-02-11T12:39:00.002-05:00

I read a link this this article, "I'm Invisible" on Virginia's Blog and thought it was phenomenal. You should check it out too!!

It really resonances for me because not only do I hear myself saying the things she does at home, but I feel it here at work too. Check it out!!

Crowned Week 2

2009-02-11T00:06:00.004-05:00

So, for week 2 of the competition at Scrapdango, we had to scraplift something and use ink "as makeup"...

I scraplifted Kathi's layout:

And came up with this one:

I really need to take a picture during the day because the page is pretty sparkly with all the gold and stickles. This view shows a close up of the finger painted letters (like putting on eye shadow):This view shows how I applied gold pigment ink to white chipboard shapes to make them gold, like blusher.
This view shows the blusher technique on the chipboard frame as well as adding lipstick - covering the raised bumps of the gold flourishes with color (but not the cracks...)Well, it's late and I need sleep so ... I am off! Enjoy!!

Yeah!! I won...

2009-02-10T12:01:00.001-05:00

I am excited to say that I won a contest over at one my of LSS, Scrapbookers Ink. They had a January Challenge for a PageMap sketch and you know me and sketches...

Here's the sketch:

And here's my layout:

Yippee!! I won a gift certificate to the store and will be posting my layout. Fabulous!

Man, my fingers are tired!

2009-02-10T00:23:00.003-05:00

I decided to do something unusual for Steve this year for Valentine's Day. He was really admiring this wonderful fleece blanket my Father in Law got for retirement so I decided to make him one. Now, my hubby is 6'6" and over 225 lbs... So, a regular sized one wouldn't cover him too well. So, I made him one that was 7.5' x 6'. The thing is absolutely HUGE! Annde and I did it together tonight... or rather, I cut and tied and she ran around on the top of it (it was spread on the floor) yelling "GO Michigan State! Go Green! Go Michigan State University! Go Sparty! Go White!" It was her way of "cheering me on" to do it. What she doesn't know, is that I used some left over fleece and the remainders from Dad's to make a mini-one for Annde (5'x3')... She is going to be SO excited. Here they are:

Annde's sitting on top of Dad's...
Annde's unfolded to show the pattern of strips.
I love how they came out... Don't worry about me not having one. Steve's is MORE than big enough to share!

Today was my first day back to work and I was surprised, only 293 emails! It took me about 4 hours to work through all of them. It felt good to get back into the swing of things, even if I did get more work when I met with my "new" boss. (While I was gone, 5 more people in my department got laid off for an additional 9 weeks.) Annde did very well today at school and came home to eat a large bowl of fruit salad (I am talking a salad bowl full) and 2 - yes, 2 - full size chicken breasts (and she wanted more!)... Can you say "Growth Spurt?"

Well, time to gather the trash for the trashman tomorrow and go to bed. 5am will come really early tomorrow!

Pink Sketch #20

2009-02-08T11:56:00.004-05:00

Here's the full layout for my Pink Sketch of the Week (#20)...
I love all the detailing in it... from the coloring in of the border around the journaling to the layers of papers which made up the flower. The only thing I don't like about this layout is how hard this paper was to work with. The Laundry Line from My Mind's Eye is coated with sparkles. Normally, I would love that - you know me and bling! - but in this case, the sparkles make it INCREDIBLY hard to get anything to stick. So, all my pics and layers all were put on with pop dots. I still have more of this paper to use - any other suggestions for adhesive? I already know tape runners (Tombo, Kokuyo) and adhesive squares (3M, CM) don't work... I did use some glue stick but that wasn't too sticky either... You know, it's funny - the only thing that went on smoothly was the rub ons by Heidi Grace... :)

Scrappin' with Tracy & Speeding on a Toboggan...

2009-02-08T00:31:00.006-05:00

Friday night, Tracy and I got together to scrapbook... There was a lot of laughing and chatting, and a little scrapbooking too. Here's 2 pages I did:I love the bright colors in this layout as well as the layering. It talks about how Annde is not too fond of the phone but there are these moments, like this one, where I realize that she's growing up... and where I see some of myself in her. For example, I used to lay on the floor under the dining room table and prop my feet up on the chairs when I would talk on the phone... The year I went home to my parents, after I had started dating Steve, I was laying on the floor and talking - just like this...

This layout is about Annde's FAVORITE stuffed animal - Cutie Pie. He's (yep, he...) is a tiger she adopted from the Zoo gift shop with Dad and he goes EVERYWHERE with us... I noticed that he seems to pop up in pictures alot so I decided to scrap him...
Yep - it's a Jana page - lots of hand doodling and layering... don't you just love those waves from Bazzill? I have the strips assortment in just about every color...Saturday, after swim lessons, we went tobogganing at the Fridge. It was super warm today (mid 40s) so they closed early (noon) since the ice was melting. Imagine that? With the extra water on the tracks, it's harder to stop the sleds at the bottom - we found out when our sled went off the end of the track... Using my camera, I took this picture as we slid down the track at just over 30 mph.

Here's the back of Annde's head (she was in front of me) as we came out under the awning. Camera didn't focus too well, eh?The camera was contraband so I never got a picture of us actually sitting on the sled but here is us waiting... and waiting... and waiting... to take a turn again. It was worth the wait! (Yes, the sled was heavy - it can hold up to 4 people so Steve obviously isn't having as much fun as me and Annde were.)
Well, it's late... so I am off to bed. More tomorrow so check back!

Sneaky peak Sketches...

2009-02-05T15:12:00.004-05:00

I have scrapped the last few nights but can't show you them...
Instead let me offer some peaks...
Here's my page for So Sketchy. I just love the colors of this layout - the blues and greens and sparkle. Plus, any page with Annde sticking her tongue out has got to be a favorite!

And this one is for Pink Sketches. There's that hand stitching again... Had to do it last night so my hubby wouldn't tease me about it tonight...I probably won't have anything from tonight for tomorrow... My head is still working out a migraine from this morning so chances are, I will just go to bed early...

See ya!

Crazy Busy Day...

2009-02-05T00:04:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Annde had a playdate after school with her best buddy, Gabriella. The two girls are so great together. They had a blast playing princess & treasure hunting. My house got TOTALLY trashed as they piled EVERYTHING in the house not nailed down on the floor in the kitchen as "treasure"... I am so not kidding. I am talking EVERY book on the bookshelves, all Annde's stuffed animals, Little Petshop houses, Barbie stuff, Teapot sets, Legos, Pillows from the couches and bedrooms, clothes, art supplies, shoes... Do I need to go on? And what do princesses eat to get ready for this treasure hunt? Nothing... They make fun pizzas and then ignore them for the rest of the night. (Annde scarfed her's right after Gabriella left and then went right to sleep)... The night was awesome - especially when I learned Gabriella's mom was a fellow scrapper. YEAH!! Another person to 'play' with! Annde had so much fun that today her first words were "Can Gabriella come over today?"

... but my answer was no because we spent the morning with Poppy in Lansing. Retirement is definitely agreeing with him. He looks fabulous!! :) I am so glad he's doing well...

However, today was kinda nutso. Yeah, I know... that's not really a word but I felt like I was behind the whole day. This not-working thing is totally getting to me. I am so used to my clockwork day: the getting up routine, the at-work routine, the pick-up-the-kid-thru-bedtime routing, scrapping-while-watching TV routine... My week works because I have a plan.

Right now, no plan. No schedule. No routine.

Yes, the house is clean. Yes, the laundry is done. Yes, I've scrapped a TON while I was off. Yes, Annde and I have spent a TON of time together playing and being together. And, its been fun.

But, we're off our routine and I can tell. She struggling to figure it out. I'm struggling to figure it out. She's been super clingy this week, super sensative about being told what to do, and bouncing off the walls at school... She's hasn't been "Annde" this week.

I think part of the problem is that with me being home, my fiercely independant child is losing some of that independance because with me around, she wants my attention ALL the time. Because she knows that "I am home this week." I love that independant child... I love the fact that she can and will play by herself, that she wants to figure things out without help, that she is determined to do it her way. I see that as so important to growing up and into a strong woman.

Next week, we will struggle to get up and back into the swing. But, I think it's better for us. I think that once she gets back into her zone, she will go back to being the normal Annde. Maybe this is a scrapbook page - what our daily routine is... I should do it with her tomorrow maybe... so we can both remind ourselves what's in store for us next week.

While we were home this evening - we spent the morning in Lansing with Poppy - Annde and I worked on our valentines. We made them for our friends and classmates (Little Petshop with M&Ms - of course) and for our family (see the pic below). I am usually the loser aunt that forgets to send a card so this year, one of my goals is to stop being the loser aunt. I'm going to mail these Friday.
The pictures are tinted pink or super saturated in pink. I like how they came out... I used all scraps from out of my bag and Annde helped decorate them. :)

Well off to bed... I have to get up in the morning and jump on that bike downstairs before Annde gets up.... Nighty night!

Layout Tag at Scrapdango & Cyber Crop at CC

2009-02-03T08:03:00.004-05:00

So, Scrapdango plays this fun game called Layout tag... I can't say that I've seen it other places but I am betting others play it too. Basically it goes like this: the person in charge picks a layout to start with. Then, using a list of participants, sends it to the first one on the list. She scraplifts the layout (in 48 hrs) however she wants and then sends it to the person in charge, who in turn sends that layout to the next person on the list. It's great to see the reveal because the layout design REALLY changes through the process, due to other scrapper's style and material choices. Here's mine from the last game of layout tag:
I turned Colleen's page 90 degrees and replaced the circles with the bugs/stitching. I also moved my journaling to the corner so it would easier to read.
You can see our team - we won! - go through the game here...
and you can see our competion go through the game here...

Lots of fun!! Since I am in charge of games at the next Cyber Crop at Coordinates Collections, we are definitely going to play a version of this game, if people are interested... That Crop is March 27-29th. Join in the fun. As always, there will be a ton of challenges as well as a ton of prizes!!

Crowned Competition at ScrapDango

2009-02-02T11:44:00.004-05:00

ScrapDango is having a fun "Crowned" competition... For the next 4 weeks, they will be having layout challenges and games. No one will get knocked out unless they miss a week's layout and every week, someone gets "sashed" for having the favorite layout. It's free to play, you just have to join the site. So, head on over!

Week 1's challenge is using multiple kinds of bling. I used K&I's glittery snowflake lace, Fancy Pants' glittery transparency shapes, glittery Making Memories brads, and, of course, stickles! Here's my layout:

Go join in the fun, everyone!!

My first So Sketchy Layout

2009-02-02T09:59:00.002-05:00

I wanted to do a special page for my first So Sketchy layout. And, if you've been reading my blog, you know that Breast Cancer research is one of my causes I actively support. So, I asked my sister and BFF Tracy for some pictures of the 3-Day when each one participated in it. I wanted to do a page about how much these two ladies inspire me.

Here's the sketch that Ally sent:And here's my layout:
I just love how it turned out... the bright colors against the dark background. I used Bazzill cardstock; paper by Heidi Swapp & Creative Imaginations; a lot of ribbon scraps from my stash; brads from Imaginisce; ink by Uniball, American Crafts, & Chalk Ink; and Kokuyo adhesive.

Check out what my fellow DT members did on the So Sketchy blog!

I'll be back later to post some more fun I had this weekend.

Pink Sketches #19

2009-02-02T08:12:00.001-05:00

Here's my layout for this week...

I had a lot of fun creating it. I wanted to use these Valentines pictures without doing a "We did this on valentine's day..." page. I have a really hard time scrapping very squared out sketches - I just have to turn something on the page! I love the results...

A New Look...

2009-02-01T23:34:00.001-05:00

I felt a change coming on. Don't get me wrong, I love my previous blog look but it's been a year and I was ready for something new. I found this cute set at the Sweet Shoppe and had some fun putting it to use on my blog. Do you like it? I love the colors - much easier to read and not so hard on the eyes. I also changed around some of the stuff to the side... Let me know what you think!