Wish Us Luck!

Today is the day that Fred, my brother Larry and my brother's friend Craig are going to replace our sliding glass door with the new one we purchased.

The weather is fine right now, cool but sun shiney, I hope it continues because in about 3 hours we're going to have a gaping hole in the side of our house.

I can't wait to get it in. I'll take photos but I think I'm going to wait until I get the painting done and Fred will need to put the oak trim back on and that's not going to happen this weekend. So when it is finally finished, I'll take some photos.

I've got lots of housework to do today since I was done with sinus problems last weekend. Connor's clothes need to be gone through and put some of his winter stuff away and bring some of his summer stuff out. I need to do the same with my closet and Fred's clothes, but will see how far I get.

I really really want to get my garden enlarged and rototilled but with the rain that we've had lately, it's just too wet for that, so I'll wait another week. If the rain does stop, I might be able to get to it one night after work.


Have a great Saturday!

Hey Jude

Just a little something to put a smile on your face this blustery Friday!

Had a bit of excitement yesterday while I was at work and no, it's wasn't the earthquake tremor that I felt at 10:15am yesterday morning (BTDT when I lived in San Diego), but I received a phone call from my Aunt Jan, my Uncle Dic's wife telling me that my Aunt Helen (she was married to my Uncle Jerry before he passed away and we lived down the street from them for 16 years) was in the hospital and was in pretty bad shape with a pulmonary embolism...YIKES! She had surgery on her back on Wednesday, was doing great, walking, talking, feeling good and ready to leave the hospital on Friday when Thursday night, the nurse on duty noticed that her blood saturation levels weren't normal and called her doctor. He ordered some test and the embolism was discovered so late Thursday night, she headed back to surgery for the installation of some type of screen on her artery to prevent any other clots from going to her lungs.

I left work and ran up the Mercy (I HATE THAT HOSPITAL) to see how she was doing and to talk with my cousin Pat and Denise. She's very lucky she was still in the hospital when the embolism was discovered. This could have very easily killed her.

For as sick as she is, she looked pretty good and was in pretty good spirits. Unfortunately, she is going to be in the hospital a lot longer than she initially was going to be. I was relieved to see her in pretty good shape.

I've come down with another head cold so I'm sticking close to home this weekend. I blame my Aunt Susie for this one as we met on Monday to pick out a spot at Glendale cemetary to inter Mom and then we went out to lunch. Susie was sick all last week with a terrible cold, so I probably caught it from her. I'm about ready to start living in a bubble since cold germs seem to like me ALOT.

It's been a very busy week both at work and at home, but Tuesday night, we were treated to this



Thank YOU, Cheri! We had a blast!

I stayed up wayyyyy too late last night, but I had stumbled on a tutorial that Jessica Sprague had a link to on her blog. It taught you how to use digital templates and I learned how to use a clipping mask. I can't take credit for the design because it's a free download from Jen Caputo at Scrapbook Graphics. The paper is from a free Rhonna Farrer kit from Two Peas.




I attended the Midwest Scrapbook Convention Friday for the second time. They were here last October and I had a good time cropping there, so this time some of my scrap friends decided to crop also.

I got off work at 12:45 that day and decided to park up by the Iowa Event Center and walk back down to Palmer's on the skywalk for a fabulous salad! I just love their Cobb Salad with Italian dressing. The weather outside was yucky, so I knew I was going to have to move my car closer to Hy-Vee Hall so my supplies wouldn't get soaked in the rain. I walked back up to the Events Center (at least I got my 30 minutes worth of walking in) and met up with Jenni, Gina and Joellyn at the Vendor Faire. Found wayyy too many things I thought I needed....LOL

The pajama crop started at 5:30 and went to 11:00pm. Judy, Lori, Brenda and Kathy had reserved a spot for us and we all got settled in (me, after two trips to the car, which BTW I did score a excellent spot, it cost me $6.00 but it was worth it).

Had a great time with all the gals. I even won a door prize! I won a Cropper Hopper Vertical Paper Storage. I use these holders for my paper so I can always use them and I had the perfect space for it.

Believe it or not, I got 6 pages done. All I needed to do was journal and I finished all of that the next day. That's pretty good for me....6 pages in 5 hours.

This is my Aunt and Uncle, Susie and Jim. Susie is my mother's younger sister and she's more like an older sister to me than an Aunt.


I used K&Company Wild Saffron on this page.

Here's a couple more that I completed.




I also got busy last week and finished up a couple that had been hanging out on my work space way too long.




Thanks for looking! Have a great week....I have tomorrow OFF! Yea!!

I knew I forgot something....

Here's a link to some free Photoshop actions from the Pioneer Woman Pioneer Woman Photography. I was jazzed when I came across them. I haven't used them yet, but I plan to soon.

I've been meaning to share something I made a few weeks ago. I can't take credit for the design, as it was a online download from Creating Keepsakes designed by Jennifer Gallagher. I though it would come in handy for the camera bag. For some reason, I can't keep all of the photography lingo straight and 90% of the time need a reminder of what F-stop, ISO, Depth of Field, Aperture, etc..is in regards to picture taking. I want to be able to take picture in manual mode, so I can think fast enough in camera lingo to get the right shot, especially if it's a candid shot.

Maybe this will help.




Went to a very fun convention/crop last night at the Iowa Events Center...more later on that....

Well, back to work tomorrow....not that I didn't work when I was in San Antonio but back to a regular day.

My weekend wasn't great. I was having big time sinus problems this weekend so everything that I wanted to do did not happen. :(

Here we were without Connor ALL day Saturday until around 7:00pm and I did nothing but sleep. I think Fred played World of Warcraft. I didn't get the laundry done, the little bit of household chores that needed done waited until Sunday and I did ZERO in my scraproom.

But, here's a layout that I completed before I left last week.



Today, I did get my new windmill out in the garden. When I get a chance I'll take a photo of it. It looks pretty! and it's perfect for the back of that flower bed.

I'm home....

I got home around 3:00pm yesterday afternoon and lo and behold, the house didn't look too damn bad. My boys can trash a house in 2 minutes flat, let alone 3 days and in past experience, I've come home to some pretty bad messes.

We almost missed our connecting flight in Dallas..why? you may ask...because the plane from San Antonio to Dallas sat on the tarmac for 45 freaking minutes waiting for a gate...THAT, is just plain unacceptable and only shows just how inefficient American airlines is in their operations and it doesn't show great customer service toward their customers either. Have I said that air travel in the U.S. SUCKS?

Last night we didn't do anything. I think I fell asleep on the couch at 8:00pm and Connor went to bed early because he was getting up at 3:30 AM so he could go turkey scouting with Uncle Larry. Fred and I are childless today and this evening as Connor is spending the day and a good part of the evening with his Uncle.

We are planning on attending my friend, Jenni's 35th birthday party in Perry tonight and then we will pick Connor up on our way home.

I'm not in a great mood today, I hope it improves as the day goes on. :(

San Antonio

First off......air travel in the US SUCKS!!! although my luggage did make it this time, when I arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth, I found out that my flight to San Antonio had been canceled, so my co-worker and I had to go from the "D" terminal to the "C" terminal to see if we could get on the next flight out. If any of you have flown through DFW, you know that changing terminals involves catching a tram and then walking a million miles.

We get to the C terminal only to be told that the next flight is full, but they can get us on the flight after that....great....but guess where that flight departed from? Terminal D...right where we started from.

Anyhoo, got to SA about 2 hours later than I thought I would, but thats okay, we grabbed a taxi to the hotel and got all checked in.

The best part of the trip so far was getting together with Jen McWhirt. She came down to the hotel and picked me up. We went out to dinner at a tex-mex restaurant called "Chuys" and we ate, chatted and laughed alot.

Our original plans were to go to a couple scrapbook stores, but we took too long at dinner and neither one of us were paying attention to the time, that by the time we got to Scrapbook Heaven, they were closed. :(, so we tried another one, Scrapbook 911 and alas, they were closed also.....so although we didn't get to go to the scrapbook store (I definitely saved myself money), we did stop at Cold Stone Creamery (I've never been) had had some amazing ice cream and I don't even want to think about the calories I consumed...LOL...

Since my training class doesn't start until 1:30 today, my co-worker and I got up early and went for an hour long walk along the Riverwalk. It was great to be walking down there without any crowds and let me tell you, starting tonight the Riverwalk will BE PACKED with the NCAA Final Four this weekend.

I just finished getting ready for my class and am taking advantage of the FREE internet access the hotel offers....gotta love that!