12/8/09

When I asked my boss about it today, he told me today that I need to limit my over time to 15 hours/week so I don't get burned out. spoil sport!

Oh, and I got a call from someone I talked to LAST YEAR wanting me to go to Volkswagen for an interview!

12/7/09

Not such a good day today...my cell phone account was temporarily suspended due to lack of payment, I had to go by the check advance place and tell them that I would not be able to pick up the check until Thursday, and then I got home to an insufficient funds notification from the bank. I've got 4 of those this week...It all started last Monday with the 2 flat tires...the regular tire on the way to jury duty, and then the spare went flat while I was serving jury duty. Then Friday when I left jury duty, I had another flat tire. The Lord is breaking me down.

12/06/09

I was too lazy to go to church this morning. Not quite sure what's wrong with me. But I did do a load of clothes and take a shower and cooked lunch before church was out, and I addressed envelopes and stuffed them with the Christmas cards which I made with Alex and Mishal Friday.

I had planned on being at work at 1:30, but realized my phone was not in my pocket book or my coat pocket or anywhere to be found. I walked around the house with Mishal's phone calling mine trying to hear it ring to no avail. I even went out to the car looking for it. I finally found it on the ground near the mailbox, I guess I dropped it after getting the mail when coming home from work on the 5th. I'm so lucky it did not get run over or rained on.

I completed my year-end evaluation at work. My boss is going to think I have a big head I gave myself such high marks. It took me an hour to complete the evaluations, but I did it after the system went down at the scheduled time, so I got to work 6 hours today. Am looking forward to the time when I work at home.

Hello

I really have been neglecting this blog. I've been using it more for the blogs I like to look at than to blog about my life and everything going on in it, or my creative showcase. Will try to do a little better. Maybe just a sentence or two a day...that doesn't sound like too much work now, does it?

8/2/09

Today began the way yesterday ended, dark and storming. I found myself envying the male’s ability to pee in a bottle because I had to go out in the dark storm to use the bathroom. I took the short-cut of a small path to the out-house and I wish now that I hadn’t because I got some poison oak on my ankles. The rain lightened up a little about 7:30 or 8. But then when we started cooking breakfast it poured again. There was only one dutch oven to cook all the biscuits, so I suggested frying them. Since it was my idea, and I was the only one who knew how, I wound up cooking them. Alex cooked the eggs, and Dwayne cooked the gravy and sausage. Everyone was full afterwards. While the scouts worked on the rest of the paperwork for the canoeing merit badge, I went back to my tent and read some more Stephen King. About 11 o’clock, the sky was blue and the rain was gone, and everyone was preparing to go out on the lake again. I debated going or staying, and decided that the reason I had gone to start with was to canoe, so I got a life jacket and made Alex go in the boat with me. When we flipped the canoe over to put it into the water, there were 2 baby catfish about 3 inches long in the boat…as well as a spider easily that big. We went all over Parksville lake. It was supposed to have been just a 5 mile trip, but I’m thinking it was more like a 5 mile trip each way! But it was fun, and Alex and I worked well together. I think we’re ready for the Nantahala. I found myself wishing we had a canoe or a duckie so we could go anytime we wanted. We got home at 5:45, I took a quick shower and went to church. Alex took his shower and got to church before the sermon began. After church, Alex went with the youth to play Ultimate Frisbee and I stayed home and caught up on some forums on the internet and Farm Town.

8/1/09

I continued reading the Grief Recovery Handbook today. I can relate to a lot of the stuff they talk about in there.

Today was another blissful day. There weren’t enough canoes during the morning session for me to go out, so I stayed at camp with Jenny, Lucinda, and the girls. We got in the water and floated around on some pool floats and inner tubes. I had several dragonflies land on me. One had pretty blue eyes and when it landed its wings were together. Another one was a less delicate one with brown eyes and wings. I also had two that seemed to be joined together land on me; but I don’t think they were truly one because one was a blue-ish purple and the other was a pea green. While floating around Jenny discovered a fresh-water jelly fish! A passing coanoer explained to us that it’s actually f fish egg sack. They’re usually attached to trees underwater, but that one had come loose. After a lunch of sandwiches and chips Alex, Cody, and Nate went to ride in Sam’s motor boat. Actually, they were going tubing. Lucinda and Amy both told me how excited Alex was about it. I was glad because I had to make him get out of a canoe to go. He had been upset with me because this was a CANOEING trip, and a motor-boat doesn’t qualify as a canoe! I need to thank Amy and Sam for giving Alex this experience. While Alex was gone I took the canoe out solo. It was harder to navigate a large canoe solo than a duckie. I went farther than Alex and I had gone yesterday. It was just as beautiful, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as sharing it with someone I love. Grant paddled his duckie along with me, and I was thankful for that company. I don’t know if I would have gone so far if I had been totally alone. After we got back the scouts played in the lake near the camp; splashing, dunking, all of the wonderful things of summer. While the boys were building the fire, a camper from the next site came over to make sure we knew about the bear that tried to get into the tent which was set up last weekend where Dwayne and Jenny’s tent was. He came over about 5-10 minutes later to show us thunderstorms coming in on the radar. While eating supper, we made the tents more secure, gathered the life-jackets and oars, disposed of refuse, flipped the canoes over so they would not fill up with water (my idea), and picked up camp. Amy was too scared to stay for the storms so the Hargroves left and Cameron went with them because his mommy wanted him home! Doesn’t she realize boys need the experiences of camping in the rain too? It was 8:45 before the rain hit. I took a Stephen King book to my tent and read a little before going to sleep. There aren’t many better things to do than reading during a thunderstorm. After I finished the short story and turned off the flashlight, I lay there all alone in the tent; no one to talk to or cuddle up with. I don’t know if I’ll ever have someone to share my tent, so I’ll just be thankful for the day and the fun.

7/31/08

Today I took off work early and went home and cooked Taco soup, then Alex and I went to pick up cody cienkus and we went to Parksville Lake to camp and canoe with the Boy Scouts. Dwayne and Jenny were already there with Josh and his little sister & her friend. I was not informed that this was a family camp-out. Oh well. The boys about got my big tent set up when we discovered that while it was at Deana’s that the things at the bottom that secure the poles were torn off. Luckily Dwayne had some troop tents along so I could sleep in one of those. Since we arrived early, Alex and I took a canoe and went exploring. It is beautiful up here, and Alex commented on that more than once. I hope he remembers that trip in years to come. I feel blessed to be able to give him an experience like this. Other people didn’t start arriving until 8:30…and they were setting up camp when I decided to call it a night at 9:15.

Together cards

A co-worker is getting married this weekend, and I told them at work I would make the card. I made a tri-fold card with the Scor-pal according to the dimensions (kind of), and then decided to make it one inch larger because the word-on-word stamp I wanted to use was too big for that one. Then after I had finished it, I decided that there wasn't enough room for several people to sign it, so I made a different card with lots of room inside for people to sign. I used Basic Grey "Sultry" pp. I also used pp in that collection for the envelopes, and blinged the envelopes too :D

Secrets

Today has been a roller coaster ride. I got up and put in a load of laundry and started working on the Leopard Lounge Circle Journal pages. When I was putting the 2nd load of laundry in the dryer, I found my cell phone in the bottom of the washing machine...I should have given up then and there. So I look on Craig's list to see if there are any t-mobile phones for sale on there...knew I should have snatched a couple when I saw them for $20. No such luck this morning, so I called T-Mobile to find out what my contract status is...and Alex's is up in Dec 2009, mine is up in April 2010, and Mishal's is up in 2011. But then the customer service rep starts talking about how I don't use hardly any of my extra (non fave 5) minutes, so I could get a cheaper plan if I only sign a new 2-year contract...and I told her if I did that, I'd want to get a new phone too. She told me that signing a new contract would not have any affect on me getting a new phone. I told her about how I'd found mine in the bottom of the washing machine, and she said she'd done that too...so she hooked me up...since I've been such a loyal customer for 9 years, she waived a few fees and got me a new phone for less than $60, and a new calling plan that will save me $10/month. And then on my lunch break, I called and got another new phone for Alex's line at the same price. I figured that way, we have a back-up when something happens to one of them. So I was feeling pretty good until I got an e-mail from Donna that Grandma had died this morning. I called and let Mary Rose and Tammy know.

Anthony told me to go on home for the rest of the day, and let him know if I needed anything. I closed down all the programs on my computer and then pulled them back up again. As long as no one talked to me and told me how sorry they were or expressed sympathy, I didn't cry. I was able to work. I even made up the extra half hour when I made phone calls.

I stopped by the Wal-mart on Gunbarrell to pick up the i-pod accessory kit and to see if my new i-pod had come in yet...not yet, but maybe it will be there tomorrow.

I got home, and the clothes weren't washed or dried, and Alex had not packed ANYTHING for his trip. So we didn't go to the church for trunk inspection, so I've got to make extra sure he's got everything in there. I'm going to America's Thrift store tomorrow to get him a few pairs of shorts to take. I don't want him to take all his expensive ones.

So the big secret for the day is about Grandma dying. Since the kids are about to go out of town, I'm not telling them until they get back. I want them to enjoy their time away.

Tired

I have been staying up way too late the past few nights, and it is catching up with me. I acknowledge that I am extremely irritable. Aunt Flo doesn't help either. I almost fell asleep in a meeting today, and I rushed to get to the scout shop before 5 which is when they are supposed to close, but their door was locked when I got there 4 minutes before 5. So then I come home, and the kids have done ZERO house work. I've offered to pay them over $100 to clean the house, and it's not getting done, and I'm not going to do it for them, so the longer they procrastinate the worse it's going to get. I told them they are not allowed to go over to Deana's Friday if it's not done, and I'm not taking Mishal shopping on Saturday if it's not done. The house is driving me insane. Yeah, that's it, I'm going to blame my mental status on the mess. So I've taken some sleeping pills and will probably be asleep by 7 tonight.

Tonight I took Alex and his friend Peyton to the ball game. For some reason, Peyton could NOT keep still or keep his hands to himself. I guess he was very bored, and it must be Alex's time of the month because he was not very tolerant, and after Peyton hurt his finger, he didn't want anything to do with him. They made it hard for me to enjoy the game. But we survived. I told Alex tonight that there were a lot of times that I wonder when he's going to grow up, and then there are other times like tonight when I realize he is already more mature than some of his peers.

BTW...they didn't really want to pose with Looie, but I wanted the picture and didn't give them a choice.

June 1, 2009

Life is passing by too quickly. I feel the need to document it so that later I can remember....even if it is one picture a day and a sentence or two, which may be all I have time for.

Tonight was the Court Of Honor Ceremony for Troop 17. Alex was awarded his 1st class rank. I'm very proud of him. I dream of him getting his Eagle before he turns 16.

Done!

After coming home from Easter dinner with friends, I started laying Mishal's floor. It is done. She was dying to sleep in her new bed which we got from Ikea Saturday so I put that together. There were at least 82 pieces to that bed! And I figured it would be a pretty simple bed...boy was I wrong. But now it's done. She can start moving things in tomorrow! one step closer to a free living room...

Easter

We had a nice service at church this morning as well as doing the Lord's Supper.

Afterwards we went up to Suzan's and went with her to her sister's house to join her family for Easter dinner. After dinner her nephew took a couple of little kids out on the lake in a canoe and they asked me if Alex went if he had to wear a life jacket. I told them it wasn't necessary and that he'd had expreience handling a canoe...afterwards George told me that he could really tell that Alex had handled a canoe before.

I started working on Mishal's floor this morning. The quicker her room is done the quicker I can start working on my room, the quicker my house can be clean and peaceful...and the quicker I can scrap and make cards to my heart's content.

I'm making sure Alex cleans his room every day...hoping to keep it from getting messy.

Camp Cooking 101

It seems like eons ago that we went on this camping trip instead of just 2 years ago. This was the first time we had ever had omelets cooked in ziploc freezer bags...and it's now a favorite camping recipe.

4 flowers

This weekend I went looking for inspiration, and pulled up a card from each of my favorite artists that I would like to re-create. This card was lifted from http://stampinat6213.blogspot.com/2009/02/delicate-polka-dot-punches.html. Most of the paper is Americn Craft with some SU cardstock thrown in there. I used a little acrylic stamp by Studio G for the flowers. The inks I used were Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Regal Rose, and Ridinghood Red. The scalloped circles were punched with a SU punch and then I used a paper piercer to put the individual holes in the scallops, the circles were created with EK Success punches. I used the SU mat pack to punch the dots on the bottom strip. I used a ribbon punch to attach the ribbon at the top.

VLVFeb01

I did this for the Viva La Verve Challenge.

I wanted to make a card to send to Grandma (whose name is Rose). I had this pp with roses, and found a rose stamp in my collection. I stamped it on water color paper with black Staz-on, and then water colored it using SU Aqua Painters. The inks I used were Pale Plum and Perfectly Pomegranate, Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke. The ovals I cut out using my Coluzzle. I rounded the corners with a punch. I inked the edges of the pink layers with Perfectly Pomegranate and the edges of the other layers with Mellow Moss. The twist for the challenge was embossing, so I hand embossed the rose paper using a Fiskars template and stylus. I decided that the embossing didn't show up very well, so I took my dauber with Pale Plum and inked the embossed panel. I used pearls by Martha Stewart to lend a touch of elegance. The last one I put on the satin ribbon, and I really like that touch. The finished size of this card is 5.5 X 4.25

TECC55

This card took a lot of measuring 2X2, 2X1, 2 1/4 X 1, 1 X 4 1/4, 2 X 3. I used the Colluzle for the circles. On the larger circle, I used the corner punch to scallop the edges. I used the matpak to pierce all of the pp. The stamp on the outside says, "Your childhood dream has come true!" The inside says, "you're finally older!" The sentiment was stamped in Certainly celery.

Friendship

The bird is a stamp bought at HL. I think the sentiment was also bought there, but not sure. I used the mat pack to make the holes in the corner on the focal panel, but got out the sewing machine to pierce the other two layers and the main cs. The flowers were made using a daisy punch by McGill. I actually punched these from the bottom layer, so no extra paper was needed. I inked the edges of the pp with SU Groovy Guava and that is the ink I used for the bird and sentiment stamp.

I feel like I'm on a roll today. Not only am I making these cards, I am cutting out extra so that next weekend I can take a few to the Big Girls Play date at the church and crank out a lot of cards without having to think about it. Aunt Helen is getting an awesome Christmas present this year!

MoJo74

The bird is a stamp bought at HL It took me 6 different colors of blue to find the right one. The color I used on this one is SU Pacific Point. I inked the edges of the pp and the cs with Bayou Blue. I used dimensionals with the panel with the bird and the layer below that. I stamped "Thinking of you" on the green and matted with blue pp. I pierced the edges of the pp using the matpack from SU. The sketch I used was MoJo Monday 74. I also made an envelope with a pp that compliments this blue/green pp.

The white cs is 2 3/4 X 2 3/4, the green mat is 3 X 3, the blue pp is 3 1/2 X 4 1/2, the green mat 3 3/4 X 4 3/4, the strips should be 1" wide with 1 1/4" green mat. The half circles were punched with the 1 1/2 and the 1 3/4 circle punches. Completed Card: 5 X 7

Sleeping Beauty

When I look at this precious picture of my daughter, it takes me back to that summer 13 years ago, being a new mom and wanting to play with the new born baby, and all she wanted to do was sleep.
I was putting pages in her album when I noticed this page which I had started over a year ago...I had picked out the background pp, cut the title using quickutz squeeze, and even glued it to the cardstock, and I had doodled a simple line around the light pink cs with a glittery pink pen, and I had rounded the corners of the picture and the mats, and I had made a tag to go with it too. I wound up not using the tag because I couldn't find a spot on the page I was happy with.
I decided that I didn't want to just put them onto the pp I had chosen, I wanted more interest to the page. I had bought a Jenni Bowlin decorative edge pp with the intention of using it as a template on Monday, so I actually used it. I inked the edges of it with SU pale plum. I tried all the pinks, but none of them were the right shade, and then I tried the plum expecting it to not work, and it turned out to be perfect. I was excited to be able to finally use some of the Bazzil In Stitchz templates. I actually combined a couple of them for this page. I used some of Mama's DMC floss. I could use it on every single page and never run out of any color...on the other hand, I always have just the right color! I only used two strands of the floss on this page, but I think in the future I'll use 3 strands of floss. I bought this stamp a couple of years ago, and I think this is the first time I've used it. I really need to use my stamps more. Finding these flowers in my stash took a little time, but while going through, I actually filled up some of the Starbucks Frapacino bottles I've been saving and washing for this use. So far, I have 4 bottles, one each with blue, yellow, pink, and peach flowers. I haven't yet decided where they will belong on my wall, but I'll figure it out.

Happy Birthday Balloons

I completed a few more cards for the birthday swap I'm in using some balloons I had stamped a long time ago and using the Fiskar's Threading Water border punch. I used a scrap of pp and inked the edges using a sponge dauber and SU ink. The brads on each side of the sentiment came in handy on one of the cards when I accidentally stamped it upside down. Then I stamped on a scrap piece of paper, trimmed it and attached using the brads. I also inked the edges of the card with Not Quite Navy

Oh, and this was totally a copy of http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1150616?cat=12324

Any Occasion card

I used some of the Anna Griffin ribbon from my ss on this page. The focal image is a piece of embossed pp. The center of the flower has a filigree bead cap and a brad. I used the Stampin' Up Mat with a piercer to make the holes around the mat, and the strip of purple paper. I began with an "Old Olive" card base with "Pumpkin Pie" and "Whisper White" mats.

Mojo69

I made this card for the Mojo Monday card at I started with an "Old Olive" cs base, and the pp is American Craft, the diagonal strip is brown on the back, the dotted is pink on the back. The cake is a $1 studio G stamp, and the flowers are a small Stampin' Up stamp. I used punches for the scallop circles and the two large circles, and coluzzle for the small circles. I used the Stampin'up mat pack for the corner holes.

Saturday, January 3rd

I had another laid-back, not get much done day. I shelled and shelled and shelled pecans while watching TV. I still have a bag of them to be shelled. I don't know if I'm going to get any more or not. There is the issue of storing them...and when am I going to find time once I go back to work to shell them? Aleah came over to see the newspaper article and to give me some more little spoons for my embossing powders. I think I need to tell her I have enough now, but I can share them with some friends who emboss, so I'll let her keep saving them for me. I can't wait to get back to my work-out routine next week.

Goals

My goals for 2009 are:

1. Be debt free (except for my mortgage) at the end of each month.
2. Buy dd and ds a laptop when they go on sale for less than $300.
3. Put down hardwood floors in ds' room.
4. Lose another 50 pounds.
5. Complete 52 layouts.
6. Complete 104 cards.
7. Mail out B-day cards on time.
8. Go to 6 scrapbook events
9. Pay for dd to go to FL during the summer
10. Pay for ds to go to scout camp during the summer

I did it!

The times free press did an article about people who have lost weight...and they included me! I'd lost the most weight of anyone in the article at 105 pounds lost. I still have lots to go, but it's really cool!