Scrapbooking

I love scrapbooking.

If you had asked me if I liked to scrapbook five years ago, I would have answered "umm, no I've never done it. I was given a kit as a gift once and I'm not compelled to do it."

Then a friend of mine invited me to a scrapbook event called National Scrapbook Day. I brought what little supplies that I owned at the time along with photos of Miss K to work on. Turns out that the consultant that was hosting this event was the mother of a childhood friend of mine. I was in awe of the huge quantities of supplies she kept in her home to create scrapbooks.

After a full day of cutting photos, creating beautiful pages with my little girl's photos with my artistic flair in them, I was in love.

I spent over a hundred dollars that day buying more stuff to work on. I even won a full scrapbook kit to create a large album from Creative Memories.

After having my second child, finding the spare time to work on my books is much harder. I was working full time including Saturdays, which left only Sundays to myself. A few friends and I tried to organize scraps at each others houses every few months but that has fell by the wayside. It happens when someone has another baby too.

I met my best friend through scrapbooking. She used to go to the same events that I did and discovered that our children attended school together. Last year, she and I attended a scrap at a Bible Camp. It was the best weekend, despite the snarky remarks from a few attendees and sleeping on youth camp bunk beds.

It's that time again this year. I received the invitation bulletin for the Scrapbook at the Bible Camp. I have talked about it several times to my friend, that we need to go. Not just to work on our books, but to "get away". But now that I got the invite, I am having reservations. I do love to scrap but it's quite expensive. And I'm low scale compared to some of the ladies that we met last year. I would bet that they have have spent thousands!!

So I was standing in my computer room AKA the catch all room, looking at my craft racks. I stopped to gaze at my Cricket machine and many of the other supply items I have stored on my shelf. I love my hobby and it's so expensive. Can I really afford to go??

Friday Fragments #181 and Five Question Friday:

 After last weeks fragment post about my laundry, I used the tip from Ann in the Up about throwing in two loads of laundry a day every morning. Now I didn't get the loads in every morning, but I did three on Monday, one on Tuesday, two on Wednesday (thanks to a doggie having a potty accident) and one on Thursday. The laundry mountain never appeared. It was much easier doing one at a time.

 I don't know if I ever mentioned getting a dog back in October that started out as a foster. We fell in love the first day and adopted her. I felt bad for closing the door on fostering dogs for the rescue group so I told them I would open my door to another dog. Well we got another foster last Saturday and boy, having three dogs is a lot of work. Especially this one that came to us. The poor thing has been in several foster homes and needs to relearn basic doggy manners. In a weeks time he has done quite well. I'm impressed. The person that ends up adopting him will get a well mannered, sweet tempered dog.

 The one day that I didn't walk Miss K to class (I have walked her every day this year), I miss out on finding out that there is an awards ceremony for 3rd grade. Sitting at work, I get a text. K received the citizenship award. I couldn't believe it! I missed seeing her get this award!! I was SO bummed. My husband and I were so proud of her that we took her out for dinner, her choice.
This was the first time she received this award since starting Kindergarten.

I have another busy weekend ahead of me. My grandmother was in the hospital for four weeks and last weekend went to a rehab center. She should be there two weeks and then re evaluation to see if she is capable to go home. ( she has been bed ridden for two years) I am going into visit her on Saturday and Sunday. I haven't seen her in three weeks. Again, another reason the laundry work has been a blessing in disguise.  

I really dislike Florida weather. It's really stinks when it can't decide whether it wants to be cold or warm. We went from low 40's at night, last weekend to high 70's Tuesday through Thursday. Then a front pushed through, brought sprinkly rain and now today dropped back to the 50's in the afternoon. It has created a head cold for me. Hot throat, runny nose, sinus pressure..... ugh.


I usually don't combine memes, but this Friday I'm going for it. It's easier this way since I have a full plate this weekend. Heaven help me.






1. Where do you hide the reeeally good snacks?  Well if I told you, then you might come over and eat them. Then when I go looking for them, they'll be gone. Just kidding. Really good snacks would be home made cookies or chocolate covered ice creams bars. All of which are in the deep freezer in the garage, where the kids never venture to unless given permission. Because once, the freezer was left open and you can figure out the rest.

2. Do u keep your vehicle clean or am I the only one who has things falling out of their van?  I try VERY, VERY hard to keep my van clean. I regularly have it washed and I don't like clutter left in it. No toys, books, food wrappers, left over food (that will never and has never happened) or what such will be allowed to take up residency in my vehicle. I carry a small dust pan and broom and a micro fiber towel to wipe things down. Yes, I am THAT anal.

3. Have you ever been to Vegas? Nope. Can't say that I have.

4. Warm room light blankets or cold room warm snuggly blanket? Cold room with snuggly blanket. I would get a nose bleed in a warm room. I prefer to not run the heat (this is Florida, mind you) unless it drops to the 30's or below outside. So prepare to wear socks, long sleeves and snuggle into a warm, fuzzy blanket at my place.

5. What is the worst airplane/flying experience you've ever had?When Miss K was 14 months old (2004) and I flew home from Colorado after visiting my cousin who had just had her second child. I bought one ticket and had her ride in my lap. Going there was not bad because the plane was half full and she rode in an empty seat next to me. Coming back, it was a full plane, the afternoon (she missed her nap) and she was bouncing off the walls. It didn't help that we almost missed the plane, they had to hook up the gangplank (or whatever that is) so we could board. I'm sure the people on the plane were thinking oh great, a woman with a child held us up. Just great. K was not content to sit in my lap and watch tv, she was wiggling and crying. The guy next to me went to the bathroom a gazillion times and then he stopped coming back until we were descending. I felt horrible and apologized several times. I never have done that again. I will never try and be frugal and pay the consequences.

My 365 list for 2012

Have you ever heard of a 365 list? I hadn't until last week when one of my fellow bloggers, Kerri @ Kerri's Klutter posted about it. I'm not one for making resolutions for the New Year and when I read her idea, it seemed better suited for me.

It's making a list of goals for the upcoming year instead of resolutions. I used to make resolutions but I could never quite stick with any of them. After I read Kerri's take on this, I figured I could certainly try this. In her words, this is what it is.


Here’s what to do. 
Find a quiet place to think ahead, to the next day, into the weeks ahead of you and of the months full of possibility…. then write down: 
3 things you’d like to work on 
6 things you hope to do 
5 things you would like to get rid of 
Keep the list somewhere you can access it when you need a boost, some direction or a reminder of what you said you’d like to do with your year. Then try. Be kind, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t find lines drawn through every single thing come December 31, 2011…
“You haven’t failed until you stop trying” 

Sounds pretty easy to me.

List for 2012

3 Things I'd like to work on

1. Making better eating choices, get more exercise
2. Patience
3. Organization, filing

6 Things I hope to do

1. Take the kids to South Carolina in the Fall
2. Start my vegetable garden again. 
3. Finish painting my kitchen and hallway.
4. Work on my scrap booking more than once this year. Attend one conference.
5.Prepare myself to sign up Little E for tee ball and rearrange my schedule with Miss K
6. Date night with my husband, once a month.

5 Things I'd like to get rid of

1. The wall border in Little E's room (still up from the nursery theme)
2. The crap under my bed. I don't know what half of it is.
3. All the old shoes in my closet that I don't wear and add them to the pile of clothes ready for Goodwill.
4. 20 lbs off my butt, legs and thighs
5. The empty cd boxes that are piled up in the computer room. My husband thinks we still need them, yet the cd's are filed elsewhere and downloaded on the computer and hard drive.

7 Random Things About Me..Inspired by Laura

This is tough choosing only seven random things about me, but I'm enjoying the challenge. One of the blogs I follow by Laura, inspired me to do this.

1. I used to enjoy sleeping with the fan on and hating sleeping with socks on my feet. Now I find myself turning my fan on low, the heat up and wearing long lounge pants and socks to bed. Am I getting old?

2. I love peanut butter, banana and mayonaise sandwiches. The bread has to be toasted, the bananas sliced and the mayo is slathered on heavy. I love mayo! Me loving mayonaise is not random. LOL.

3. I am currently trying to read two books at one time. This is crazy because I have a hard enough time getting one book finished with my busy life, let alone two. I am reading Many Waters and Monster. ( Monster is a fiction book about Bigfoot-pretty interesting)

4. I love and hate my SUV. I always wanted a Ford Explorer and was very happy with it until a few months ago. So many things have started to go wrong and my warranty has ended.

5. I used to love the Fall Season, but I have changed my mind. I love Spring. I love when the grass in green and recently cut. The flowers are blooming and it's warm but not sticky hot yet. It stays dark until 8:30 and I can enjoy playing outside with the kids longer.

6. Six is the number that my daughter was born on. In so many ways that day has changed my life. I gained a new member to my family and what a blessing she has been. It opened up a new door in my life. I'm so thankful for everything that has happened since then. The people that have come into my life and I really can thank my little girl for that.

7. I love to cook. I enjoy making meals and getting creative with them.

That's a few randoms about me, some old and some new. Hope that you get inspired and write some of your own.

Well Water

Having a well is really a great thing. There are no water bills, you don't have to worry about contaminants that some terrorist could put in there, it's ground temperature and it's clean. Downfall, if you have no power= no water, if you don't filter it, you have iron on everything and if the temperature drops to freezing, the well freezes.
This morning was the coldest morning we have had this winter and I had no water. I had enough water to take my shower before I realized that I drained the water that was in the holding tank and hot water heater. Not a good thing. Thankfully this was at 5:30 in the morning and my husband was still home. He tried to warm the pipes with my hairdryer which didn't work. He decided that he would make a fire in our burnpit (those mobile kind) and put it next to the pump to heat up the pipes.

But I didn't have time to wait for the pipes to get warm. This was a school day and I had both kids to get ready, with or without running water. I was glad that I still had a gallon jug and some Zephyrhills bottles of water left in my computer room. It was the funniest thing. I felt like we were camping out with no running water in a modern home. LOL.
So having a well hasn't been the best thing, when it comes to a day like today. It's supposed to freeze again tonight. They're forcasting a deep freeze. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Wish me luck.

Kids do the darndest things

After eating dinner, I always ask Evan if he's done and he answers in his little boy voice "ahh done". It's the cutest thing. When he got down from his high chair tonight he must have not been finished. He ate his dinner before us because we were eating tacos and he doesn't like them yet. He sat down at his big boy chair at the table he that uses sometimes and said "eat". We gave him some cheese but he handed it back. I finished eating and sat down in the family room. Evan was wandering around, climbing up in my lap and busy being a boy. I never noticed when he walked over to his highchair and dug into the seat area. He pulled out a cookie that he left there from dinner and ate it. Not my idea of a snack. Boys will be boys. Something I'm trying to get used to.

Happy New Year or not?

Most of my friends hope that 2009 is going to be a better year. Not sure if they just mean financially because a few of them have had some rough times. REALLY rough times. I on the other hand am being very optimistic. Like why does the start of a new calendar year mean a clean slate? It doesn't really. The hardships and woe are carried over from December 31st to January 1st.
I'm the type of person who believes in "signs". Some people may think they're just coincidences but not me. Rewind to the New Year's Party we were at. We're counting down the ball, 10...9...8...7...6....5...4....3....2.. and the tv goes to black and white fuzz!! What the hell? We're all in shock. What happened? Did the network go out? Then my sister in law hands me a tv controller. She must've hit it with her elbow or sat on it or something. In those few seconds we lost the start of 2009. Ok, coincidence or what? Scary..
Another sign that 2009 is possibly going to be bad. It's a southern tradtion to eat ham and black- eyed peas on New Year's Day. To make it easier my mom bought frozen black-eyed peas instead of dried which take several hours to soften. The package for the frozen said 30 minutes. Well, we cooked them little peas for over an hour and they were still hard. We all ate what we could swallow. I smothered mine in mayonaise. In hopes of having a good year I ate more than I would have, just in case. I payed for it later. About an hour after dinner my stomache was killing me. I felt like I ate at an All You Can Eat buffet. I swear it was those black-eyed peas. They must've been swelling up in my stomache. I thought I was going to burst from the stomache pressure.
It all boils down that it might not be a good year.
But I'm not ruling out a good year. 2009 is 12 months long and it could pull through and be the start of better times.