Sunday

todays findings
Originally uploaded by STEF MCK

I found this on flickr and thought it was so cool. This dude found ALL of this beachcombing.........wouldn't it look cool in a glass jar?

Had a great Sunday! Went up to Ames to visit Jeff and Cheri T. and Jeff tweaked my computer for me. Cheri.....if you reading.....you OWE Jeff BIG TIME!......LOL

I stopped at Best Buy to buy a media card reader for my computer so I can just pop my compact flash cards straight into the reader to upload on my computer. Then I stopped at Staples to buy index card dividers so I can continue on in my Library of Memories class.....ARRGGHH! I totally get what Stacy is trying to teach us, but I'm struggling a bit with the category drawers.

My sister and the kids came over to celebrate Gunner's 6th birthday. We had Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce, but Gunner was so wiped out from swimming with his respite worker that he slept, so we sent a plate home with them and next weekend when Grandpa is here, I'll try and get some photos.

I'm leaving for San Antonio on Tuesday until Friday, so tomorrow I need to run a couple of errands. I'm also going to meet my Aunt Susie at Glendate cemetery in Des Moines to look at a couple of places to inter Mom's cremains. My brother, sister and I have all agreed to take the remainder of the money and spend it on interring her at Glendale. It's where her grandparents are, her parents, her brother and favorite SIL are, so that's where we'll let her rest also.

Knowing we are going to do this has stirred up some emotion. I'm working through it, but I think I will be glad to finally have a final resting place for her.

Have a good week!

It's a Sunny Saturday!

Thank God the sun is out today! One more weekend of crappy weather and I was going to scream...LOL....

I am LOVING my new laptop! I didn't come up for air last night as I was furiously working on it to install my backups and familarize myself with Windows Vista (which I also adore). The performance of the baby is awesome!

I did complete a page this weekend in the evening. I just love it, but of course it's of two of my favorite people, Connor and my Dad.



When my dad came back for my uncle's retirement party last September, Connor wanted to greet him with something funny. They are always talking smack on the phone and there is a running joke between them regarding my dad's love of Nebraska Cornhusker's football. Although I did the printing of the sign, it was Connor's idea and he added the "graphics". Grandpa got a BIG kick out of it!

I'm hoping to get out for another walk today. Fred and I walked last night (he actually didn't bitch at all) and I may actually get him to do it again today.

Chloe is coming over later today to spend the night and tomorrow I'm having them over for dinner to celebrate Gunner's 6th birthday which was March 24th. My mom's birthday was this week also, she would have been 69 years old. I miss her.

It's here.........

That is all. :)

Score!

I'm at the point in my Library of Memories class that I need to make a decision regarding what type of albums I'm going to use for my "Library Albums". I've pretty much decided on American Crafts albums, but I need to decide on whether I'm going to continue to use post bound or change to 3-ring. Today I took a trip to Hobby Lobby on my lunch hour because all of their albums and refills were 50% off and I recall seeing them carry some American Crafts albums.

After some deliberation, I've decided to start using the 3-ring 12X12 cloth albums. Hobby Lobby carries them, thus I will be able to use 40% off coupons or in the case of today, 50% off. Now the next question is color.....I need different color albums for "Us", "People", "Places" and "Things", so I decided on black for "Us", leaf green for "Things", sky for "Places" and chestnut for "People". This is what they look like:

At the southside Hobby Lobby, I scored on 2 black and 2 leaf green and 3 packages of plastic refills for 50% off!

Now that I know Hobby Lobby carries these, I will be stalking the two stores in Des Moines whenever they go on sale or there is a 40% coupon. I figure I'm going to need 3 black, 3 leaf green, 2 sky and 2 chestnut and I'll be good for all of my pages up to now. This of course does not included the separate albums I have for Christmas, vacations and heritage but those albums will never change. I did them separately on purpose and will continue to do that.

Easter Weekend

Had a pretty good weekend. Although I was inconsolible about Drake and refused to watch any basketball (I watched the scores, but that it) over the weekend. I'm better now especially since Drake was in good company regarding upsets, especially in Tampa! I might actually watch some of the games this coming weekend.

Well, we had plans to go to Prairie Meadows and eat at the Easter buffet at the Triple Crown buffet, our plans changed when I found that that they were going to charge us full price for Connor, even though I told them he would just be having a soda and sitting there with us. He wouldn't eat the food on the buffet and I wasn't paying $17.95 for him to sit there, so that idea was out and I'm glad it worked out that way, because one of my co-workers went and said it wasn't very good. My brother and Paul were going to go with us, but my brother decided to eat at home and Paul went to his brothers, so Fred, Connor and I went to Applebees and enjoyed the Ultimate Trio!

I did finish a couple more scrapbook pages this weekend and I'm continuing to work on my Library of Memories class. We're at Lesson 3 and I'm pulling photos to put in my catagory files under "Us", "People", "Places" and "Things".

I probably won't do much updating of my blog this week because my laptop took a crap this weekend and I'm waiting for this:



I'm soooo excited! I may NEVER get off the computer once I get this blazing fast sweetheart in my grubby hands.

I'm Heartbroken :(

The Drake Bulldogs lost in OT...101-99...I hate losing like that...I think I would have rather them lose by 16 points then to play their hearts out like they did and then lose.

I got permission to bring my mini tv to work today, so I did get to see the game and my co-workers got to see I take my basketball very seriously. :)

I need a stiff drink.

Day #4 of Spring Break

Didn't sleep in quite as long this morning as I did yesterday. I was up and showered by 8:30, but son of mine didn't get up until 10:30AM!! THAT is unusual for him, so I finally went upstairs to his room to make sure he wasn't sick, but no...no illness, just tired.

The weather was lousy so there went my big plans to do another 40 minute walk. So...I think instead of walking I'm going to run up to the gym this evening and do a 25 minute strength training session.

Got ambitious in the kitchen today also. I've been wanting to try The Pioneer Woman Cooks! Chicken Spaghetti, so today I made it for dinner. It was pretty simply and I did change it a bit, I used Campbell's Heathy Request Cream of Chicken soup instead of Cream of Mushroom, I added a can of mushrooms and I didn't use quite so much cheese. I'm happy to report that the family LOVED IT and it will go into our rotating file of "go to" recipes.


Connor went over to one of the neighborhood kid's to play this afternoon, so with the laundry done, house cleaned, dinner made, I scrapbooked...LOL.

I got another page completed and will probably have another one done before I go to bed tonight.

Here's a couple from this weekend -




I now have both Chloe & Gunner's school pictures done.

I've also been working on "flagging" my scrapbook pages in my albums. We're doing this exercise to see what we scrapbook the most. Do we scrapbook "Things", "People", "Places" or "Us"? So far, I'm pretty even across the board....I'm hoping that trend continues. Another benefit of doing this is when I do decide to tackle redoing my albums, I'll be able to identify what pages will go into which album. That's a good thing!

Back to work tomorrow but at least it's from home!

Day #3 of Spring Break

Yesterday was pretty laid back. We did a bunch of housework in the morning and then I scrapbooked in the afternoon. Chloe came over to spend the night, so she and Connor entertained one another. It's funny, they finally get along enough to play, but they argue just like a brother and sister, so I get a "glimpse" of what it would be like to have more than one.

Paul came over after he got off work and we had pizza for dinner and then watched the movie "No Reservations" with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Abigail Breslin. It was good. A bit different than I expected, but still good.

Today, we're going to Menard's to order our new patio door...YEA!!! I HATE sliders and have been wanted to replace our patio door since literally the day we moved in. I've had my eye on one at Menards and have been waiting for it to go on sale before I pounced, well....it's on sale, so we're heading up there later to get it ordered.

No more vertical blinds because the new door has the mini blind between the glass. No more sider.....did I say, I HATE sliders.....oh, yea, I did...

I'll probably scrapbook some more this afternoon, but at 5:00pm, the NCAA Selection program is on and no way am I missing it. Can't wait to see where and who Drake will be playing in the tournament.

I'm been kicking ass with my scrapbooking....I finished 4 pages as of this morning. I've been keeping up with the Library of Memories assignments, although I'm not quite done with Lesson #2 yet, but I have until Thursday.

and the best part.....I have tomorrow off and I work from home on Tuesday.....

Day #1 of Spring Break

Connor and I both slept in today. I didn't get up until 9:30am. I NEVER do that unless I'm sick. It felt soooo good.

I spend some time in my scraproom today. Cleaned up alittle and finished this layout.



Paul is one of mine and Fred's closest friends. I took this photo of him last summer during one of his visits. We see Paul at least a couple times a month for dinner and a movie.

I also started on a very special layout that I can't share yet. Someday I will, but I must say that I'm loving it.....

Lesson #2 of Library of Memories was released yesterday and I've got my work cut out for me. This week I have to go back to the albums I want to reorganize and start flagging the pages with the post it notes Stacy sent us that are labeled "Things", "People", "Places" and "Us". I'm going to start with the oldest albums I want to change. She advocated not doing this in one session, but rather spend time over several days, so that is my goal while I am home.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

It's been a good week!

I'm finally feeling better, getting a little bit of exercise, eating right and looking forward to the weekend.

I'm loving my Library of Memories class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Just received my lesson 2 today and can't wait to see what Stacy has in store for us.

I'm on vacation tomorrow and Monday is my normal day off so I have a nice long weekend to spend with Fred and Connor. Connor starts spring break tomorrow and I sure hope that weather is nice. He's been furiously filming his "movie" with the neighborhood kids the past few days and is anxious to finish it.

Congratulations to the Drake Bulldogs!

They routed Illinois State 76-46 to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament for the first time in school history! It was awesome! now on to the NCAA Tournament...We love March Madness!

Since I stuck around the house this weekend and rested, I did get some scrapbooking done. I completed 6 pages, which for me is pretty darn good. I got some older pictures done and a few I've been wanting to do.

I used up some older supplies and I used some supplies that I've never used before, so that was fun.









Thanks for looking and have a great week! It's back to work for me, but only for 4 days, as Connor starts spring break next friday and I'm taking some vacation.

Saturday

Woke up today feeling a bit better. I least I'm showered, out of bed and actually helped straighten up the house.

I listened to Drake win their semifinal game against Creighton this afternoon while scrapbooking.....WAY TO GO BULLDOGS! on the to Missouri Valley Conference title game for the first time in the school's history....that's awesome!

I also woke up today with an ephiphany. I'd had something bothering me for a while and today I have decided to make the changes I need to make to remedy the situation. It just not worth feeling shitty about or having my feelings hurt over anymore. I'm not completely happy with what I have to do, but unfortunately, it's the only option and I'm going to have to be okay with it.

On a not so heavy note, I happy to report that I have finished Lesson 1 of the Library of Memories online class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking. For the last couple of weeks I've been up to my eyebrowns in printed photos deciding it I will EVER scrapbook these photos and if yes, sorting them chronologically and getting them into Pioneer 3-up storage binders.

I was actually relieved that I didn't have thousands of pictures to deal with and had done an okay job of organizing them, I just need to take it to the Library of Memories level, but I'm jazzed I finished especially since I've been sick.

Here's my Lesson 1:



Did some pages today also, I'll try and get them uploaded this weekend.

See ya!

Human again?

I think I finally feel human again. Unfortunately I've been sick since Monday....Thank God for sick leave and a understanding boss.

I guess the only good thing that has come out of being sick is I got completely caught up with my magazine reading. My Aunt Susie gives me all of her magazines when she is finished, so I had 6 months of Architecural Digest, Traditional Home, Better Homes and Garden and Ladies Home Journal, along with my Vanity Fair, More and Scrapbooks Etc. that I have a subscription sitting here to read. I swear the pile was 2 feet high and thats just my magazines.

I did finish John Grisham's new novel "The Appeal" last week and just started on Janet Evanovich's "Plum Lucky", a "between the numbers" novel.

My goal today is to get out of bed, take a shower and move around. I must get my energy back.

Sometimes it's just the little things......

Spring.....at last?

One can only hope. The weather was beautiful this weekend and just in time. I think many people were just about ready to come off their rockers, me included if we didn't get a break soon.

I opened a few windows and the fresh air boosted my energy and I put it to good use to purge a few more areas in the house and organize the garage sale pile in the basement. We have one last pile of mom's stuff and a few big ticket items, i.e. bunkbed, recliner, stereo equipment, tools that we ARE getting rid of this spring. My sister was suppose to finish bringing her stuff over this weekend, but surprise, surprise, it didn't happen.

FRED arrived Friday on my doorstop. For those of you wondering what FRED is, it stands for For Really Easy Design. It's a tabletop easel type holder for scrapbook pages. My neck and shoulders get really tired and sore "craning" over my pages when I work on them. FRED will keep your pages at an angle utilizing a metal board and magnets. I bought two of them because I do, do two page layouts.

Friday, I had to run up to Ankeny to get pet food and meet Laureen for lunch and I stopped in to Michael's. I had a 40% off coupon and I found the perfect storage tote for FRED, in pink....how about that?






I used it all weekend and just loved it. I love how I can use the magnets to "glue" everything down to see if I like what I doing, then lift the metal board off of the wooden easel to permanently glue everything down. The angle is MUCH easier on my neck and shoulders. Now if you didn't have a large work table, two FRED's might be a problem, but as you can tell from my photos, work space isn't an issue for me.

Went for a nice long walk this morning. It felt good to get out and do that. I haven't been to the gym in over a month. I used the weather as an excuse. My goal this week....either a 30-40 minute walk or a 30-40 gym session three times.

Fred is doing really week in the wellness program he joined at work. He is down 15 pounds and is learning portion control....I just wish I could learn appetite control...LOL!