Go Drake Bulldogs!

We're a big college basketball house and today our #18 Drake Bulldogs beat #8 Butler Bulldogs at Hinkle Auditorium in Indianapolis. For those of you who don't follow basketball, not only was this a BIG win for Drake, but the venue it was played at was featured in the 1986 basketball movie "Hoosiers" with Gene Hackman.

Fred and I were doing some major yelling and screaming during the game. Connor on the other hand went upstairs to play his PS3. I think we scared him. :)

On another note, I wanted to share my new piece of furniture I got several weeks ago. The best part was the price. I found this online at JC Penney's. It was normally $399 bucks and I got it onsale for $129 with FREE shipping....ya gotta love stuff like that.



Of course, Fred had to put it together, but he said it didn't take long at all and he even likes the way it looks. I use the bottom two storage areas for the cat's supplies and Connor's art supplies. The top two storage cubbies are used for candles and wine glasses.

I've been scrapbooking today and I've almost finished the the second page. I made a quick visit to Memory Bound today and bought some of the new Tinkering Ink "Provincial Faire" paper & embellishments, which inspired me use it on a page. I'll share it when I'm done.

Tomorrow is Connor's last basketball game (a make up from last weekend) and then my sister and the kids are going to come over for dinner and to watch the Academy Awards. It's kind of a tradition with my sister and I.

Have a good weekend!

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Cheri to answer the following questions:

A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tag 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: We were living in our old house in Des Moines. Connor had just turned 2 years old. Although I was working at the same place, I had a completely different job. Fred was still a carpenter and we had two cats - Jinx and Willow.

Things on my to-do list today: Working from home and then today we are having friends over to watch Drake Men's basketball...GO BULLDOGS!

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Immediately quit my job! then start arranging a Hawaiian vacation. Once we were home from that, I would start looking for a new house to build. Give my family some money. Once the house was built, I would hire a housekeeper/cook and go nuts with decorating the new house. I would also buy Fred and I new vehicles. The rest I would invest wisely, so I would never have to work another day in my life.

3 of my bad habits: swearing, cursing and yelling.

3 places I have lived:Des Moines, IA, Scottsdale, AZ and San Diego, CA.

5 jobs that I have had: Bartender, Courier for FedEx, Database Analyst.

5 things people don't know about me: I can sing, I like reality tv, yet cannot sit through a sitcom, I love to re-read my favorite childhood books, I sometimes suffer from anxiety and I love to take naps.

I tag Janalee and Jen

A Long February Weekend

I've been home since Friday. Connor was out of school friday for a teacher's in service day, so we ran some errands. Connor needed new shoes badly, so Friday we paid a visit to Kohl's and found the perfect pair of New Balance shoes for him.

I spent Friday night finishing my acrylic stamp storage. I had been using CD cases for storage, but it wasn't working for me, so I had to figure out something else. I had been working on finishing up my Newport, RI mini album and I was using acrylic for the cover of the album, when I said to myself "Hey, I bet my stamps will cling to this"..."Yep, I was right", so I measured my FIRA drawers (where I like to store my acrylics) and decided I needed 9 X 12 sheets of acrylic.

I went to Menards and bought 18x24 sheets of acrylic for $5.99 a sheet. I bought two and Fred cut them right down the middle both ways, which gave me 8 - 9x12 sheets. I then organized my stamps by set and spent time mounting them on the acrylic. In a perfect world, I would have stamped the images on a piece of white cardstock and mounted the cardstock on the back (which I may do in the future), but for right now, I'm loving it!






I finally finished my Newport, RI album this weekend. That has been on my "To Do" list since 2006 when I took the trip and I actually completed a layout this weekend also and have another one almost done. This page was for a challenge from my scrap friend Mary on the AAC group. The challenge was to journal on strips of paper.




Tomorrow is a federal holiday, President's Day (remember, NO mail) and I'm hoping to make a trip to Memory Bound for some cardstock I need and I have a hair appointment at 3:00, so it's going to be a pretty relaxing day.

Is everyone ready for spring???

Happy Valentine's Day

Early in our marriage, Fred and I decided not to celebrate Valentine's Day with flowers or chocolate. Although I adore both things, flowers are too damn expensive during this holiday and chocolate I can do without right now. Besides a few weeks ago when we were at Mall of America, I found the Le Creuset Dutch Oven I wanted at Macy's and the best part about it was I got it for half of what I would have paid at either JC Penney's or the Kitchen Collage in the East Village.

Her is so pretty sitting on my stove......see....




Fred still about choked when the Macy's salewoman gave us the grand total of the purchase and this coming from the man who didn't blink twice at spending a fortune on our pots and pans 4 years ago.....WTH? Anyway, he's expecting great things to come out of that oven......which brings me to the next story that is quite amusing.

Superbowl Sunday.....I decided to break in our new dutch oven by whipping up a batch of turkey chili that day....to make a long story short, I guess I should have read the directions that came with the oven, because I burnt the chili.....how?? you may ask....too high of heat....DUH!! Food in dutch ovens should cook slow, not at a high temp unless you're searing meat....so lesson learned and one that Fred will not let me forget for a long time.

I got busy!

I was pretty productive ths weekend. Once I got home from work on Friday, I dove in and started cleaning my scraproom from coming home from the retreat. I just dumped all my stuff in the middle of the room and it needed to be put away and whenever I put things away, I REORGANIZE....I swear, I think that part of scrapbooking. Finding new ways to store your stuff. It must be part of the process for me.

An idea was shared on Ames Area Cropper that I saw and said "Oh baby...that is an awesome idea and one that I am totally going to steal!" I own the original Clip It Up, I bought it for myself at the Midwest Scrapbook Convention last fall, but I quickly filled it up. Now I have four feet more hanging space that only cost my $3.00 for the rod and $4.99 for the bag of clips. I could make my own clips, but I'm okay with buying them.





I also got busy and separated out ALL of my alphas. My floor was a sea of ABC's Saturday. When we were at IKEA a couple of weekends ago, I picked up three of the FIRA 9-drawer wooden units to use to store my alphabets in. I've not got everything separated by letter and one drawer houses all the numbers.



I finally got around to spray painting a wrought iron basket that I bought at Hobby Lobby for 50% off! I'm hoping to have it hold stamps that I want to use on my pages and projects and if I can see them, I'll be more apt to use them. Besides I think it looks cool in my room and it makes me smile.



I think I'm finally squared away in my craft room so that I can finish the mini album of Newport, Rhode Island I was working on at the winter retreat and get back started on some pages. I have lots of idea swimming around in my head right now but I don't have the time to devote to those ideas.

I'm going to challenge myself this week, to spend one hour in my scraproom every evening just to see how much I can accomplish. I'll keep you posted.

SNOW DAY!

Yeeesssss!

Connor and I got to stay home today. Although I had to "work", I wasn't very productive, but at least I got to stay in my warm "woobie" clothes.

This is what greeted us this morning....



Thank God spring is only 6 weeks away! This has been a bad winter!

44 ODD Things about Me!

My friend Jenni sent me this survey, and since I opened it, I need to fill it out.

1. Do you like blue cheese? F*CK NO

2. Your favorite song? I have too many to list

3. Do you get nervous before a doctor appointment? No

4. What do you think of hot dogs? Love them, especially with ketsup, mustard, relish and sauerkrat.

5. Favorite Christmas song? The Spirit of Christmas by Ray Charles

6. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee and Water

7. Can you do push ups? a few

8. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My BIG ASS diamond wedding ring

9. Favorite hobby? Scrapbooking

10. Do you have A.D.D.? I don't think so.

11. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? My expectation of others is unattainable and unrealistic.

12. What is your middle name? Sue

13. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment : I’m wasting time, I can't stand one of my co-workers and I hope I can work from home tomorrow.

14. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Diet Pepsi, Water, Coffee

15. Current worry right now? None

16. Current hate right now? The same co-worker that I mentioned in 13.

17. Favorite place to be? At home with my family

18. How did you bring in the New Year? sound asleep

19. Where would you like to go on vacation? Washington DC with Fred and Connor

20. Name three people who will complete this? Who knows?

22. What color shirt are you wearing? Black and Lime Green

23. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nope, too slippery

24. Can you whistle? Yes

25. Favorite color? Blue

26. Would you be a pirate? Yes

27. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever happens to be in my brain at the time.

28. Favorite girls name? Shelby

29. Favorite boy's name? Connor

30. What's in your pocket right now? No pockets

31. Last thing that made you laugh? Our cats

33. Worst injury you've ever had? Broken shoulder the summer after 3rd grade

34. Do you love where you live? Yes

35. How many TVs do you have in your house? Five

36. Who is your loudest friend? Colleen

37. How many dogs do you have? None - we're cat people

38. Does someone have a crush on you? Yep

39. Favorite book? Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

41. Favorite Sports Team? Iowa Hawkeyes

42. What song do you want played at your funeral? "Listen to Your Heart" by Little Feat

43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? Sleeping.

44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? F*CK, I have to go back to work.

I finally have some time..........

It does seem like it takes me forever to update this blog. I think about doing, I'm on the computer, but then I forget.....I'm blaming my 50 year old brain....LOL

I've been doing some decorating around the house the last few weeks. A few weeks ago I ordered the below wall art.....isn't it cute?



I found this this site one night and loved their designs.

Here's some more:



Had a great time at the scrapbook retreat I went to this weekend. I put together a 32 page mini album of my trip to Newport, Rhode Island in August of 2006. I didn't finish it because I need to print the journaling out for it but the time consuming part is over. I'll probably enter this in the Iowa State Fair this year.

Today was my flex day and I've spent most of it finishing up laundry, putting away my scrapbook supplies and finishing up our income tax.....I think it's time for a nap!