My "Junior Higher"

All of you will find this extrememly funny. The first morning of school was my flex day so I was home to see Connor off to the bus stop. Had my camera out and of course, he started fussing about me taking pictures, I said "Tough" I'm doing it anyway and started snapping away. I had him out back on the deck, in front of the house and started to follow him down the street to the bus stop (much to his embarassment), I ran into a neighbor who's son was also starting 7th grade and stopped to talk to her and snapped a few shots of Tanner and Connor together. Connor would NOT let me within 30 feet of the bus stop and I thought better of pushing it. I had enough pictures......well, an hour or so later when I opened the camera to take the smart media card out of the camera an upload to the computer, I discovered that there was NO smart media card in the camera and the 15-20 pictures I took, I didn't take....LOL...

So, once Connor returned school from school and I shared with him what I did, he was none to happy to have to recreate the photo opportunity....LOL....

A Historic Night!

As much as I would have liked to see Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination for President, I have to say that I will be proud to vote for Barack Obama come November and I'm DAMN proud of my political party for making history this week by nominating the first African-American to be our candidate.
I even made Connor stay up and watch his speech because I truly feel that it is a momentous occasion. Maybe there is hope for our country.

No How, No Way, No McCain!

Too Short of a Weekend!

The weekend just blasted past us. It didn't help that I had to work yesterday morning for about 3 hours, but Saturday, here's what we did:

1. Yard Work - lots of it (I bet I picked 50 tomatoes)
2. Hair Appointment (Kris)
3. Washed every rug in the house
4. Washed every bed linen in the house
5. Washed all of the furniture slipcovers
6. Did all of the laundry (well, I still have a couple of loads to fold)
7. Scrubbed the kitchen floor (which is no small feat considering how large our kitchen is)
8. Scrubbed ALL four and a half bathrooms from the ceiling to floor (literally)
9. Made 6 pints of salsa with above mentioned tomatoes
10. Had friends over for dinner Saturday night
11. Had friends over for dinner Sunday night

I'm pooped and glad that I'm facing a three day weekend coming up!

I've been busy!

Here's a few of the pages that I've worked on in the last couple of weeks




Bazzill Cardstock, American Crafts Patterned Paper – The Goods “Acorn”, “Pumpkin Pie”, Reminisce Shades of Autumn Self-adhesive Diecut stickers and letter stickers, (Paper and paper strips were part of a page swap kit - someone will have to recognize this also because there wasn't a name on this kit either.)




Bazzill Cardstock, Doodlebug Designs Patterned Paper, Doodlebug Designs Tabs and Teeny Tags Cardstock Stickers, Doodlebug Designs Sugar Coated Adhesive Chipboard, Scenic Route White Lined Paper, American Crafts Thickers, Ribbon – unknown, Zig Writer; Pure Pink, Stickles; Cotton Candy



Bazzill Cardstock, Autumn Leaves “Dated and Noted” Acrylic Stamp, Autumn Leaves “For the Record 2” Acrylic Stamp by Katie Pertiet, Queen & Co Giant Brads, Deco Art Acrylic Paint; Deep Waterfall, CK Stenography computer font, CK Spirit computer font



Bazzill Cardstock, Making Memories Die-Cut Artisan, Doodlebug Designs Bubblegum Daydream Cardstock, Queen & Co Brads, Coluzzle Letter template, Fiskars Treading water punch, Prima flowers, CK Journaling computer font



Bazzill White Cardstock, Purple Cardstock – unknown, Fancy Pants Chipboard, Making Memories Acrylic Paint – waterslide, Doodlebug Designs Simply Sweet Cardstock Stickers; beetle black, 7 Gypsies Stamp



Blue Cardstock – unknown, The Paper Loft Well Worn Patterned Paper, Making Memories Noteworthy Journal page, Karen Foster Brad Bars, American Crafts Mini Mark rubons; ned jr., American Crafts Elements Ribbon, Stars – my own design, Pop Dots

Of course, you can click on the image for a larger version. I have more to share, but I don't have them all photographed yet. TFL!

Bad Blogger!

I've been a bad blogger this week. Work has been oh so busy. We are getting ready to install a new version of our electronic filing software, so I have been up to my neck in last minute preparations. I have to work for a few hours this Sunday to get the version installed and configured before our users can start to file again first thing Monday morning.

Lots of things to share - from the Foghat concert we attended last Sunday night at the Iowa State Fair, Connor's first day of Junior High, LOTS of scrapbook pages that I've completed in the last couple of weeks and the fact that I just scored Fred and I tickets to Kathy Griffin at Carver-Hawkeye Arena October 4th! We are Kathy Griffin freaks and I am so meeting her when we go....I don't care what it takes..LOL!

What a night!

This guy is amazing! and so much fun to cheer for.....



The whole country is proud of you Michael! You're an inspiration for everyone!

Congratulations to Shawn Johnson!

Our Iowa girl took a silver medal last night in the Olympics! That is so awesome! Fred and I watched it all last night and stayed up way too late again, but I couldn't not watch. We thought the judging stunk, Shawn should have had a much higher score on her uneven bars and Nastia should have had a higher score on the balance beam.

I can't say I wasn't a little bit disappointed that she didn't win gold, but I only felt like that for a couple of minutes. Nastia was graceful and powerful and she deserved the gold. Besides, Shawn can try again for gold on the individual events coming up in the next few days.

Connor and I are heading out to the fair in a bit. There are several things that I like to check out every year and there still food to be eaten...LOL

Last night we had 7th grade orientation. What a trip! 474 kids! Largest class at Southeast Polk. What's really cool is the online parent portal where we can track their every move.....{{insert evil laugh}} what they buy for lunch, what assignments and homework they have to do and when it's due, their attendance, their behavior and easy links to contact each of their teachers.

I told Connor, big brother is now watching! I don't think he's too happy.

We found his locker, he practiced getting the combination right and opening his locker, walked around to his classrooms and met a couple of the teachers. We're stopping back up there today to get him signed up for art club and take some of his supplies to his locker so he's not so loaded down the first day.

Have a great day and weekend! Foghat and Rare Earth at the fair Sunday night! Anybody that wants to join us is welcome....see you at the AE stage around 6:30!

Olympics Junkies!

I will probably neglect my blog just like I'm neglecting my home and family while the Olympics are on. I'm actually more of a Winter games kind of gal, but I do like watching swimming, diving, volleyball and gymnastics in the summer games. I'm not too much into track and field, so when those events start later this week, I will probably go back to paying attention to my home and family, except to watch Lolo Jones win a gold in 100 meter hurdles......oh, I forgot...I actually put about 50 layouts that I had in a stack in my albums the other night while watching the Olympics. How's that for multi-tasking?

YEA ME! Another Blue Ribbon!

Went out to the fair last night to meet up with my brother and my girlfriends and had to take a detour to the Cultural Center to see how my scrapbooking entries did in competition. I'm please to say I won another Blue Ribbon. This year in the Photo Scrap Book Page - Two page layout! I didn't even place in that category this last year. I also won a 2nd place Red Ribbon in the Photo Scrap Book Page - Use of Embellishments!

Here's the winners:







Had a good time at the fair last night. Had four beers, caught a buzz, stopped drinking, had the most fabulous London Broil Steak Sandwich with grilled onions, pepper and mushrooms, a Wonder Bar and came home....LOL...so much for acting 21!

A new food stand called "Butcher Boy's" on the Grand Concourse is home to that wonderful sandwich and if you get out to the fair, considering stopping there for lunch or dinner.

I'm taking Connor out to the fair next Friday and my goal that day is to stop at the Bauder's Ice Cream stand and have either a scoop of their fresh Strawberry ice cream or their fresh Peach ice cream, or maybe a scoop of both....once I have that, I will be fair food satisfied...well....maybe...

It's Iowa State Fair time!

It's that time of the year again....the Iowa State Fair starts tomorrow. Growing up in Des Moines, it was the premiere annual event and we attended every year. In the years that I didn't live in Iowa, it was one of the things I missed and I even came home for it one year.

Last year I was a Blue Ribbon winner in two catagories of scrapbooking. I entered 4 different things this year and will see what happens. It will be hard to top last year's wins.

I've had tons of friends call me this week asking about the "first Friday night" out and I've had to say "We'll see" instead of a definite "YES".

First, the weather. If it stays the way it is now, it's now an issue, but if it gets hot and humid again, no way. Last year it was MISERABLE and I'm not doing THAT again. Second, I have to work all day Friday and if my ass is dragging, I'm not going, but if by chance I get a second wind, the weather is nice...I'll be meeting my friends for a our traditional "get drunk" and act like we're all 21 again.

It's about DAMN time!

I did it! I have offically moved down a size in clothing! YOO YOO!

Yesterday, Fred, Connor and I were at Target trying to finish up Connor's school shopping since there is no state sales tax this weekend and I happened by a rack of Merona woven twill capris that were on sale for $11.88 a piece. I decided to try them on because I can alway use capris, I live in them in the warm months.

I took the size I have been wearing with me to the dressing room and then decided to also bring a pair in a size smaller for shits and giggles. Lo and behold, the smaller size fit great, so I bought a pair in both khaki and black. So my training truly is working even though the scale isn't reflecting what I would like.

I have two more weeks with Darcy the Devil and then my 12 week session is over. I really can't afford to hire her again right now, but I'm going to try and save some money to be able to purchase a 12 week session in November so that I can do this again in the winter time. I'll be anxious to see what my BMI and inches reflect at the end of our 12 weeks. I know what the scale says and I'm down, but dammit, I wanted to lose 40 pounds in 12 weeks, not 10-15...LOL!

My Library of Memories

In late January this year, I decided to take Stacy Julian's on-line class "Library of Memories". If you have read my blog for awhile, you'll probably remember me posting about it earlier this year.....anyhoo.....

After 6 months of sorting, purging, organizing every frigging photo I have, I can now say I'm satisfied with how I can access my photos and organize my pages in a manner that I find much more enjoyable.

I said I haven't purchased a lot of scrapbook supplies in the last 3-4 months because I've been on an American Crafts album run. Actually, other than a couple of them, I was able to take advantage of Hobby Lobby's coupon and frequent 50% off sale of those things, so it didn't cost me nearly as much as I thought it was going to.

I went back to 3-ring binder from post bound. Why? because it's easier. period.

Here's a couple of photos of where I store our albums. Easy access to get at them and LOOK at them. That's important.




The black albums that you see in the top photos on the top shelves are all of the 8 1/2 X 11 pages of baby Connor, toddler Connor, little boy Connor and I kept them chronological. Down below there are also black albums, but these are 12 X 12 and they are "Us" themed and contain all of pages of the three of us or even a father/son page or a mother/son page.

The red albums are Connor's "School of Life" albums and they contain both 8 1/2 X 11 pages and 12 X 12 pages from school, sports, friends and any thing else I decide to put in it.


The brown album is "People" and this is where I keep layouts of my extended family, friends. Chloe and Gunner are in this album, but I have separate albums for them also. This one is mine, the others will someday go to them.

The blue albums are "Things" and this album store pages about certain stuff we do, everyday moments type things, traditions, things we like.

Lastly the green albums are "Places" and this album houses all of our vacation pages (unless I decide to do mini album from a vacation), roadtrips, zoo visits, museums and places we like to go.

I decided against using ribbon to tie my labels on and went with some larger brads that I've had FOREVER and I have attached the label onto the bulldog clip that way.

I have a whole stack of current pages that need to go into these albums, so that my next motivation to get done. It's very satisfying to have created a system for my hobby that lets me enjoy the process rather than worrying about how much I get done or being behind. I don't think I want to be "caught up"...then what would I do?

So ****huge project finished****big pat on the back to me****i see a reward in my future**** LOL