Friday!

friday is here already.....busy wk. end planned. ok, well not "crazy busy" or anything. lauren starts soccer practice tonight, then a game at 8:00 am saturday. nothing like ONE day of practice. ha ha not that it really matters at that age. saturday night we're heading over to our neighbors for dinner. i'm in charge of bringing an appetizer. any good recipes or ideas for me. please share!
my in-laws we'll be here next week for a long weekend. i'm looking forward to that. i know some people dred the thought of their in-laws coming to visit but we always have a great time just hanging out. it's laid back, it's easy. i don't have to cook big fancy meals (not that i would anyway!) having been moved away from our families for 9 years now it's always a treat when someone comes to visit. i'm so very thankful that i don't work outside of our home and i can spend time with them when they come to visit. it sure makes it a lot easier only having to plan around one persons full time job.
supposed to be a beautiful day here today. last night was kind of ugly! our one bedroom wall faces south and the wind always comes from the south, or so it seems. man, when it rains hard and the wind blows it sounds like our house is getting shot at!! so needless to say it wasn't a very restful nights sleep. well, how could it be with lauren laying next to me too....if i don't have a foot in my face i'm getting slapped by her hand. man, she roots around!
so anyway...i wasn't going to write much...but looks like i've managed to ramble on about a-whole-lot-of-nothin'. have a great weekend! hugs
ps. did the layout yesterday...i think this is the first "tub" layout i've ever done of the girls. :)

Good Morning...

been a few days since i've posted but unfortunately i don't really have anything exciting or interesting to post. i've worked on a few projects over the past few days but i can't share them just yet sooo....i thought i would share a few pict. of the inside of our house. many of my friends have not seen our house yet. i did not take pictures of any of the bedrooms or even the kitchen. i was in the process of cleaning the kitchen so i avoided that part of the house.
so there you have it. just a few shots of the living room, dining room, mud room, upstairs bonus room and entry way. the table that i took a picture of was my great grandma's table. i guess it's roughly 100 years old or more? my dad refinished it several years ago and it could probably use it again... but the legs on the table are amazing... big chunky carved legs. love it. i'll take some pictures of our kitchen one of these days. it's a burnt orange color w/ dark wood cabinets. i love it! there isn't many things about this house that i don't like. terry picked it out all by himself as the girls and i were in fargo visiting family at the time. i get sad at the thought of ever leaving this house. kind of silly to get attached to a house, huh. we're planning on moving the flat screen tv upstairs into the bonus room and making the downstairs living room a more formal space. (we aren't very formal people though, so i'm not sure if this will ever actually happen?) terry HATES our couches so we may even swap them out?
i'm itching to paint that back wall by the fireplace a dark brown but then i'd have to find new things for the mantle so they wouldn't get lost in the wall color. darn! i hate it when i have to shop for new accessories!
looks like another beautiful day here...although, their calling for rain later. but i'll take 70 degrees! not sure what we have on our agenda today. i was hoping to scrap a bit when kati naps. i wish i could get more done at night. the girls are in bed by 8:00-8:15 so one would think i would have several hours to play. but for some reason i hate being all the way downstairs, alone at night by myself. ha ha big ol' chicken. when i cover up the windows it isn't so bad but the thought of someone looking in at me freaks me out! i'm such a dork.
maybe i'll have a layout to post tomorrow. i moved on to round 5 of scrapbook survivor! yahoo! but the next assignment is a tough one. better get on it!
have a super day! hugs to all! k

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

i really doubt my dear husband has time in his busy day to read my mumblings on my blog but in case he takes a glance at it... i'd like him to know we're sending him birthday hugs & wishing he was here to celebrate with us.
i have to chuckle when i think of the thought of terry reading my blog. it drives him crazy when people type like they are talking! ha ha and that is totally how i type...i think it's more real...it's more me! oh, and not to mention my lack of capitalizations or proper punctuation...that would surely send him over the edge! (love him!)
well, the girls and i are off to run some errands, then home to walk on the treadmill (kind of icky outside today) and then maybe work on some projects. it's been 4 days since i've gotten my hands dirty! have a great day! hugs...

Mirror Mirror on the Wall......

you know the day isn't going to be a good one when you look into the mirror BEHIND you w/ just your undies and a bra on and your jaw drops!!! i knew i had gained 10 lbs. since last fall.....but when you do the ol' reality check and you actually "see" for yourself....not good. i guess that's what i needed to get back in gear! just not the best way to start out a monday!

look at all of these goodies!!! my sweet new friend nichol sent me the package of goodies on your right. she designs for Creative Imaginations (just one of the many design teams she is on!) and had lots of goodies to share. so fun! love everything here. lots of PINK! and the goodies on the left are from Melissa Frances. i applied for their design team back in the fall of 2005. well, i didn't make the team but i did receive honorable mention. i was to receive a box of goodies in the mail as my "prize". but never got it, until thursday of last week. apparently, the box was stashed in their office and the person who was supposed to send it out didn't. what a nice surpise though. i had forgotten all about it. (there were 65 sheets of paper in that box! wow!)
had a very non-productive wk.end.
i would have liked to have gotten more accomplished but for some reason i just didn't follow through on that! it was beautiful here so i guess i can use that as my excuse. we spent lots of time outside. i have so many things i should be getting done but i just dred them. going through my daughters clothes is probably my biggest chore and i just keep putting it off.
i have tubs and tubs of clothes to either save for kati or give to charity. i think we're having a garage sale this summer but the thought of pricing all of those clothes is a nightmare. i'd rather give them to those who need it than make 10 bucks!
can you believe the month is almost over! where did march go? it's my sweethearts birthday tomorrow and he's out of town. i think the girls and i will have to make a few signs for when he comes home!
rainy & gloomy today.... maybe i'll actually accomplish something! top priority...hit the tredmill! :) oh, and get my hair highlighted at noon. :)

Premonition

so do you ever have premonitions? i have them all of the time. it's getting to the point to where it's almost spooky. like i could be on the john edwards show as his side kick or something. just yesterday i was thinking to myself (as i often do) about how lauren and kati have managed to stay pretty healthy since around thanksgiving. other than a few runny noses etc....5:00 am i hear lauren in room coughing and it isn't a normal cough, it's the i'm going to throw up cough! so i leap out of bed and there she sat on her floor throwing up. i think this is the first time she's lost it on the carpet. normally she tells us before hand that she isn't feeling well so we get the bucket etc....but there was NO warning what's-so-ever. she was fine the night before. but see, how strange is that? or have you ever had the one where you're about to eat something really bad....like something you know is going to go straight to your ass....and the phone rings. stops you dead in your tracks. see, someone is telling you something....it's so strange and it happens to me all of the time. if i have any premonitions about any of you i'll be sure to let you know asap! :) so i've spent the morning digging out the carpet cleaner and cleaning carpet. joy!
i'll leave you with my Scrapbook Survivor challenge #4....we had to create a layout that was inspired from an ad cheryl posted for us (click on her name and it will show you the ad)...so i thought it would be fun to get lauren involved...so we painted her hands and used them as the background, similar to the picture on the ad. and then she wanted to color a picture to go with it....so this is it.... my scanner wouldn't scan the top 1/4"...but there is a black border all around....

Snow? & Thank You Michelle

i can't believe it's mid march and we have about 3" of snow on the ground here in missouri. sounds like other parts got a lot more, so i had better not complain. i think it has snowed all of 3x's this winter and it has stayed on the ground no more than a day. a person could get used to these kinds of winters! although, it was just last week when there were 9 tornados that touched down in missouri...what is up w/ the weather? crazy!
i LOVE getting cards and goodies in the mail. well, who doesn't. but lately it's been like christmas around here. i have the best friends i tell ya! just yesterday michelle sent me the cutest little package full of fun stuff. some of which she designed for lil davis. so cute!!! i was going to take a pict. this morning but my camera needs charging! love everything michelle, thank you!!!


this little number off to the left is a gift i made for teri. she is on the cx team with me and was nice enough to send me some extra product she had...i got the box from target. it unsnaps and has a small "drawer" that pulls out for pencils etc...the top was already pink. i also have gifts for wendy and greta but i can't get the pict. to load for some reason. sorry girls.
you'll have to wait. :)
and then this is a layout i did yesterday using the Heidi Swapp rub-ons that my secret bunny at 2peas gave me. i love these rub ons. these are older photos of lauren when we lived in alaska.
ok, i think i have one more photo to share....this happened yesterday. the neighbor girls came over to play....all was going far too well and it was way too quiet...so i went upstairs to check on them... to find kati covered in lip gloss and glitter. lauren had big blue streaks all over her face and lexi looked like an over sized reflector. she could have landed a plane w/ all of the sparkles she had on her face. oh my heavens. it was a mess. but they were having so much fun i just let them finish and cleaned up after them. so here they are in all of their glory.
kati's poor face looks like it hurts! she had lip gloss or something creamy smeared all over her hair...too funny. their playing again today and wanted to do make-overs again....uh, i threw it all away. ooops....they had made such a mess of everything i didn't want to bother trying to salvage and clean up the little bit that was left. oh, to be a kid again! :)
have a good day! hugs

Sharing...

hi there...here is my layout for scrapbook survivor #3.
if you only knew how many sheets of flippin' paper i went through to hand write this layout i'd get an automatic shoe-in! this challenge was tough. i couldn't think of anything. we had to journal about someone we normally wouldn't scrap about and something they did to make us happy or sad. i didn't want to go the "sad" route. A. it gets too personal and B. i didn't want to seem desperate. (ha ha) so with just a few days left before the due date i was going to throw in the towel. i was also feeling bummed about some other scrap related things.....and this card shows up in the mail from tami....who is a co-worker/friend to my sister. she was congratulating me on a few of my recent sbing successes.... there was a reason i got this card in the mail days before the due date of the challenge. it was like a light bulb went off. i could use tami & her card as my "subject". so this is what i came up with....hope she gets me to the 4th round :) thanks again tami! you're too sweet!
oh, and just another layout i did using some of jenni's kit.

Not Sure....

hi...i played around last night with some more of jenni's kit....along w/ some heidi swapp...what a great combo that makes! not sure why i'm having such a difficult time scanning my layouts STRAIGHT! i tried 3x's to get that darn layout straight and for the life of me....this was the best it was going to get without something flying across the room. uhg! so again, it's not really crooked. just me being retarded.

this is too funny not to share....when i just wrote about "something flying across the room"....i was taken back to my younger years. my sister and i laugh about this now...but when i was younger i had this thing w/ my hair...if it wasn't perfect... A. i wasn't going anywhere B. everyone in the house was going to know about it! C. don't stand outside of the bathroom door...i was known to launch my hair brush out of the bathroom! it's so funny to me now but man, back then i was anal about my hair. i still have to "do" my hair before i'll go anywhere, or throw on a hat but at least i'm over throwing my hair brush. i've definitely tamed down as i've aged, it's my sister who has taken on some honery mannerisms. ha ha ha!!!

so i go downstairs today to find lauren fixing herself lunch. she's been known to do this before....which is great. i totally commend her for being more self sufficient BUT i'm not sure how healthy a piece of white bread with a glob of honey and sprinkles on top is for you??? i think it lacks some nutritional value! "A" for effort girl!

spent an hour and a half in hobby lobby today. oh good gravy...lots of fun home stuff! not all that great of a scrapbooking dept. but i could have spent at least another hour looking at stuff and probably a couple hundred bucks more....but my budget brought me back to reality!

well, i'm having to find lots of fun little projects for lauren to do today. she got herself grounded for the day. no t.v. and no playing with the neighbors. last night the girls from across the street came over.....well, one of them left early and the oldest stayed to play til 7:30. well, i had kati in the tub by 7:00. got her all cleaned up and let her play for a bit. come to find lauren and lexi w/ their pants pushed up and playing in the water w/ kati. ok, no biggy, whatever.

so it's 7:30 and time for lexi to go...great, her parents are going to wonder why on earth she's all wet! lauren has on underwear and a duck cover-up (towel). that's it....so i told her to just walk lexi to the door and she could get home by herself. what does lauren do....runs her home in bare feet, underwear and her towel. ok, i was worried about what her folks would think of lexi coming home wet....can you imagine what was going through their head when lauren walked in? hello! kid in a towel, wet, no shoes and it's 45 degrees out. apparently lauren's "bell tone" wasn't turned up when i told her to just walk her to the door! KIDS!

My Bunny loves Me!

i was like a kid at christmas! i got a surprise package in the mail today from my secret bunny (@ 2 peas). how fun is this? look at these goodies. i'm lovin' them!! can't wait to try the adhesive. i normally use hermafix but have been wanting to branch out and try something new. i love hermafix but it goops up and then i spend 20 min. cleaning the dang dispenser. frustrating. oh, and not to mention these are 2 of my favorite manufactures! thank you bunny!!!
got my Jenni Bowlin march kit in the mail yesterday. i'm so lovin' this kit! whipped this layout up this morning. couldn't wait to play. (it looks crooked but it's not in real life) so many fun papers and embellishments! i still have so much more to use...i was being a little chintzy....i can't use it all up on just one layout! ha ha
got an e-mail from my sister this morning. she was telling me about her new scrap space! so fun! my brother-in-law is making her an area under their stairs. the underside of their stairs are in the laundry room which is a good size. most people shove crap under their stairs but she's getting this souped up scrap space (knowing bob!)....i can't wait to see it. what a fun little hide away.
he can come to my house next. :) won't be the first time i've had projects lined up for him.
well, i think i'll find some craft projects for the girls to do so i can play with my new stuff :) thanks again "bunny". i love them!!!

A Word of Advice...

never let your husband answer the door when on the other side stands 2 little girl scouts selling COOKIES!!!! so now he's out of town and her comes 5 friggin' boxes of my favorite GS cookies. *please lord...give me the strength to restrain myself! ha ha ha not a good situation. the upside to having these 5 (now 4) boxes of cookies in our house is we have neighbor kids i can pawn them off on... i'm just not "pawning" fast enough. one for me, one for you!
lauren is now officially riding her bike w/o training wheels! yah!! she has amazing balance so i knew it wasn't going to take her long to catch on. we went up the street and back, twice and she was on her own. which is a good thing, i was on the verge of passing out. she made me run beside her!
welcome to missouri. we had a beautiful day yesterday...around 74 degrees, come 5:00 it's cloudy and i hear something about tornados. go figure, terry is out of town. never fails. but nothing came of it, thank goodness.
i have high hopes of getting a long list of things done this week so i should probably close this up and get at it! have a great week! hugs...

Disaster!

so as i mentioned in my previous post, i had a night out with the girls last night. my husband was leaving for a few days, so i arranged a sitter. well, the 2 neighbor girls were over playing, which is good but i think it often times would be better if only one of them were here playing. (won't get into that) so i went across the street before i left to tell their mom i was leaving etc....i gave the babysitter the run down and said the girls need to go home sometime soon. i didn't want her watching 4 girls when i was paying her to watch 2!!! totally not fair to here, right. soooo, 7:00-7:30 rolls around and terry is back home. his flight was over booked etc....he said he walked into a complete disaster!! the poor sitter was in a frenzy, apologizing left and right. ya see, earlier that day i told the girls NO crafts upstairs in the kitchen. NONE....the table we have in their is new...it's one of those counter height tables. wasn't all that expensive, but is nice and we like it. well, as you can about imagine...the 4 girls had talked her into letting them do crafts on the table. i didn't tell her not to let them....so she was totally set up! AND the one neighbor girl refused to drink water...she wanted some gatorade. so the sitter gave in and let her have this little bottle of RED friggin' gatorade....do you see where this is going? yup, you guess it, onto my chair pads. their scotch-guarded but there was a big-ol' red stain across the chair this morning. i scrubbed it a bit last night then decided to put some oxi spray on it. so we'll see if i can get it out. the sitter felt so bad....oh and back to the arts and crafts. bless my husbands heart....he tried cleaning everything up and the house looked pretty darn good. almost the way i left it. i guess both girls were covered head to toe with ink and glue and so was my table top!!!! luckily it's washable ink and the glue is just elmers. but it had dried and i had to scrub. the one neighbor girl was still at our house when my husband came home. i totally set our sitter up to fail! i feel horrible about it. i should have sent those girls home before i even left. none of this would have happened as lauren knows better than to do crafts on the kitchen table other than color. we have our old table and chairs in our basement just for that purpose.
as for my evening prior to going home was so much fun. we went out for dinner and a few drinks. my neighbors husband was our driver. nothing like curbside service!

Already Friday!

Hi! so it's the start of the weekend again. man, where does the time go. not sure i have anything to "blog" about but it's been almost a week since i've done so....we signed lauren up for kindergarten yesterday. she's so excited. and so ready! i think she was in awe. all of the big kids walking around with their backpacks and little kids lined up ready to get on the bus. poor thing wants to ride the bus so bad...but it really doesn't make sense for her to ride the bus when her school is just a mile down the road. i remember when i was little...if you rode the bus that meant you were a geek. ha ha oh, how times have changed! or maybe i'm just getting old and it really does mean you're a geek? i don't know?
we're going to have a busy spring/summer. lauren is all signed up for swimming, soccer and tumbling. i tried t-ball but she didn't want to do that. which is fine...i'll keep workin' on her :) i played fast pitch softball since i was in 6th grade...but of course now my arm, wrist and elbow thank me for it! poor kati needs some activities...i just couldn't see paying $30 for play dates. there isn't a lot of organized activities for kids under 4-5.
i applied for another design team! Cherry Arte. WOW!! i love their papers! BUT i'm sure i'm not the only one and once word gets out there will be a designer frenzy and i'll just be one of a 1000 that applies. but i guess at least i gave it a whirl. they won't announce the chosen few until may. so i wait!
going out with the girls tonight!!! can you believe it's 2 outings in 2 weeks. holy smokes! i'm so looking forward to it...i think we're doing a nice dinner first and then a few after dinner beverages.
i'm just rambling...i did make this cute little box for Cheryl (who i haven't had the opportunity to get to know all that well yet. she's on the SBA design team as well.) cheryl was in a terrible accident a while back and is having some major back problems...anyway her close friends sent out an e-mail to those who know her requesting cards with jokes. well, for those of you who know me...i'm terrible at telling jokes. i forget the punch line or i leave out words that are important in making the joke funny....so even tho' the joke would have been written in a card...i'm almost positive i would have screwed it up somehow. so i opted to make her a little gift box from the box the Heidi Swapp chipboard letters come in. BUT the photos i took of it are terrible. i also put some chocolate in there and a few of her other favorites...skittles and green orbit gum. ? i hope she likes it and i hope she's feeling better.
hopefully my misc. ramblings haven't been too terribly painful to read....ha
ps...if you're reading this tami...thanks so much for the sweet card! made my day!
have a super weekend!

Good Times & "Bunny" Request

well, for those of you who may be wondering....our date night was a success! our plans changed a little when our neighbors called and wanted to know if we would join them. so we met them at morton's steak house. wow! the food was awesome! delicious crab cakes! almost equivalent to alaskan crab cakes. :) as if appetizer, drinks and a huge meal wasn't enough...probably a 3000 calorie consumption in one sitting! we had reservations at the melting pot. i had never heard of this place...you can eat dinner or you can just reserve a table for dessert. it's a fondue place. each table has a hot plate on it for appetizer such as cheeses/breads or for us it was for our chocolate turtle fondue. zoinks! creamy milk chocolate laced w/ caramel and topped with pecans all melted to perfection. then they bring a couple of plates with a spread of brownies, sponge cake, cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, pineapple... oh and i forgot marshmallow. finish it off with a good cup of coffee...pure heaven.
we had such a good time. thanks neighbors!
rainy gloomy day here today. good day to scrap.
as i explained in a post previously...i am involved in a "secret bunny" game...the secret bunny who has my name posted a comment on my last post...so i thought i would respond to her in case she visits my blog again? she made thecomment, "it looks like i have everything"....I ONLY WISH!!! ha ha i really don't have much and i love and appreciate anything and everything. love the greatest and latest products...heidi swapp is one of my favorites, lil davis, ki, chatterbox, mm, and the list goes on and on!!! so really, don't fret...i'll love anything! thank you!

4 Giddy Girls+SlumberParty=TROUBLE!

oh my heavens! what did i get us into? 4 girls all under the age of 6! wow! no sugar needed! somehow i got roped into having a slumber party at our house tonight. all i can say is... i just don't know if i'm ready for all of this. i think back to when i was in middle school or even jr. high....the stunts we used to pull when we stayed at a friends house...and what we must have put the other members of the family through....holy smokes! i remember flicking pudding up at my girlfriends basement ceiling w/ plastic spoons. can you imagine? or putting crushed crackers in someone's hair because they were the first to fall asleep. OMG....how did we think of these things. i guess i'm just going to have to keep reminding myself of my adolescent days and all of the mischievous things i did...at least the girls were just giggling and running wild through the house! and thank goodness their still too young to lock themselves in the bedroom and talk to boys on the phone til all hours of the night! but....I LOVE HAVING GIRLS! (i know, you're all saying, "just wait til' their 13!)
feelin' good...was able to finish my 2 layouts for my Scrapbook Answers assignment. hopefully, they'll like them so i won't have to panic and re-do. i was even able to finish up a layout that had been unfinished for a few days.
well, suppose i should close while the house is finally quiet. i'll post my misc. layout i finished...oh, by the way... i'm almost out of the heidi swapp hearts....i've been using them on just about every layout :) ha ha, figured you must be sick of seeing them on my last few layouts! love using her letters too, w/ staples
hope you have a great wk. end....
ps. cari i'm glad you got it figured out! :) hugs

why does that dang picture always go to the top? grrr...what am i doing wrong people? or is that just the way it is? hmmm

Clarification...

just had to pop in here and say...the layout that i posted yesterday does not pertain to the "Check this out" title :) after i sent the new post i noticed the layout was at the top. what i was referring to was the Scrapbook Answers web site. i still don't have the ins and outs of this blog thing figured out! i like the layout but that wasn't the highlight of the post :) (for me anyway!) hee hee
have a good one. almost the wk. end! (that means date night for me! wahoo!)

Check this out!

SCRAPBOOK ANSWERS we have our own page! looks so good!
i was in Archivers today and was looking for the magazine, just to see if they had it. but i couldn't see it anywhere. so i asked the lady working if they had it, and would you believe she had never heard of this amazing magazine! how dare she? ha ha so i made sure to tell her all about it. by the way... michelle, thanks for keeping sba up front and center! good work! ha ha michelle was at the grocery store the other day and noticed the scrapbook answers mag. was hidden so she rearranged the newsstand by lining several sba magazines across the front row! ha ha ha!!!
don't have much else to chat about...other than it was 75 degrees here today. nanana booboo~! :) absolutely beautiful! i better not get too cocky....when it's 100 degrees here and 90% humidity and a perfect 70 degrees in Ak i'll be wishin' i was there!
thought i'd share this layout i did a few weeks ago. this is lauren and her cousin sydney @ the pool. (dah) i bet you thought they were bowling!
night.