Just a few pictures of our adventures this weekend.

The first two are from the Ag Fair, I think this calf was only a few days old. Not sure how old the chicks were, but they seemed to be the kids favorite.

The last two are from our adventure archery shoot on Monday. It's funny that K is the big shooter and I didn't take one picture of him shooting his bow? Probably because I already have a huge stash of those.

So anyone else out there getting the oh my gosh it's already Wednesday, then in the next breath ewww it's only Wednesday??? Holidays always make my weeks seem strange.


 

Grocery's put away, dishes done, kids in jammies...

Well now that the everyday necessities are taken care of I can pop in and say hello! I hope that everyone had a wonderful kick off to summer weekend. It was fun around here. On Friday I went with K's class to the Senior Ag fair at the high school, we got to see baby pigs, cows, chicks and ducks. We also heard about horses and the kids got to try out running "barrels" and roping a chair. The coolest thing for me was when they all got to make bouncy balls from corn starch, water, and oil. I got the recipe and will post it for all my friends with little ones. Julie this might be something you want to try, little miss crafty mom.

Saturday Jeff and K worked on their food plots (that's the corn and other stuff they plant just for the deer and turkey on their hunting land), Jeff realized the brand spanking new trailer he got was not big enough for the 4-wheeler and mower thing, that it was meant for. Great now we have to fork out some more $$ for the bigger one, oh well. Linds and I worked on cards at home, I am doing the Masculine card swap for Memories and I have designed a fun card using alcohol inks, outdoorsy colors, some new photo hanger's I got from CTMH (thanks Tara!), and an old stamp set I had sitting around. I like the way they turned out, maybe I will post that too???

Sunday we had girls day, Linds and I took my mom shopping with us, just clothes no scrappin stuff. I love shopping! We got a few things for Linds, and K and I got some much needed PG size shorts. I hate gaining weight and this time around I am bigger than a house, my old stuff from the other kids doesn't even fit! And after all that rant about weight I do have to tell you we had a great lunch, we tested out the new sandwich place at the mall, Potbelly Sandwich Works I am a sandwich freak, love all sandwiches (as long as there is no mayo)! I really didn't think that I would find anything fast type better than Quiznos, but this place is the best! Loved it!

Yesterday we had a great family day, we all went to an archery shoot. Linds decided she had had enough shooting after 12 targets and wanted to play on the swing set there, so her and I and her cousin played for the next 3 hrs while Jeff and K and company fished the last 20+ targets. Towards the end of our wait the kids were getting ansy and then a guy came out and turned on an outside water facet to clean something out and left a wonderful little river for the kids to play in, that kept them busy just long enough for the others to get back. Then we went home to clean up a bit and then it was off to the super WM (which we have decided we hate) to find a couple things before seeing the Over the Hedge movie. Liked the movie, but I think that as of lately my expectations are high and nothing seems as good as I think it will be.

Finally on to today... back to school for K and work for Jeff. Only 7 more days of school for K, we are so ready for summer! Crazy weather today though, I was glad that we got out for a walk early. It was dark and stormy then the sun would pop and then 15-20 min later dark and stormy again. Linds has developed this complete fear of storms and well it was tough to handle, we had to put a movie in and try to get her to stop listening to the thunder. Anyone got any advice on how to cure this fear??? Nothing else to exciting to report today, just what I started with laundy, dishes, and groceries. gotta love the everyday ordinary stuff.

Another day done, almost.

So we made it through yesterdays craziness. We had Linds' pre-school picnic and that didn't go so well. Linds wanted to bring watermelon and strawberries, all fine with that. Got everything cut up and set to go, off to the van and what do we do, dump the bowl of strawberries over, inside my van and not just on the floor but in between the front seats and into my organizer thing, what a sticky mess. Finally we get that cleaned up and off to the park we go. Shortly after we get there (maybe 15 min) it starts to rain, then quits, then starts raining harder and then the tornado sirens go off. Both K and Linds are terrified and I am like great now I have to run through the rain with two kids and a bag full of stuff and a huge bowl of cut watermelon. Forget the watermelon, just get the kids back in the van. Ok so I am completely soaked, we drive the 5 min back home and the rain stops the sun comes out and the rest of the night is completly beautiful. Go figure. And I am trying to do my week in the life and I don't even get a single picture of the craziness. LOL!!!

Today was smoother, thank God. Waited for the UPS man to bring us some stampin stuff (it was raining on and off all day and I didn't want my precious paper to get wet). Then took off to Madison for Barnes & Noble. I needed to have some sort of book on Photoshop and I think I found one that I really like. Back home, oh wait we had to stop at M's too. New perfect pearls to play with (maybe I should do another tutorial on that???). We did lunch in the van, can you beleive the kids wanted Subway? Yup there was no Happy Meals today! Back home with enough time to relax a little, throw in a load of laundry, work on my swap cards and then off to pick K from school. Wow when I jot this all down, I start to think that maybe it's ok that I am tired all the time. Tonight I really need to get the laundry done and finish my swap cards. It is an exciting life I know, but someone's got to do it!

Another Lotion Story!

Where does this kid get these silly ideas??? So we are home from dance and we have picked up Kaleb from school everyone is playing outside and I hear a rattling sound coming from the side door. It's Linds, does she want to come in I ask, as I look out the window and see her covered in white. What are you doing??? It's sunscreen mommy, I don't want to get burned. God bless her little heart, I had to take the pictures. Her excuse for the massive amount is that the bottle was too hard to squeeze so she had to take the top off and well then too much came out. But she's pretty sure she can rub it all in. The rattling I heard was her steadying herself on the screen door, there's the handprint to prove it. 

Goats, goats, and more goats!

Well we're back from trip one, and it was a great time. We visited a goat farm where there are currently over 600 goats! Wild! It was so hard to get good pictures, Linds was clinging to me for the first hour and then the second she was just running wild. I found a couple that I like. Now if I could just figure out how to use the silly Photoshop thing I got... I am having a bit of trouble figuring it out. Any of you with some experience I would love any advice you have to share. I do think i will head in to Barnes & Noble tonight and pick up a "how to" book.

We did get to taste some goat cheese, it was different, not something I would switch too, but there was one that was flavored with tomatoe and I thought that would be fabulous in lasagna. A few of the kids even got to milk a goat, they were so cute. Well it's off to dance class!
 

HELP, I'M IN OVER MY HEAD!!!

Ok so it's not that serious, but I am feeling like a computer idiot at this moment. I took a big leap and bought Photoshop Elements. The little comercial on their website makes it all seem so wonderful (it probably is), but I have now installed it and I can't decide if it's me that it makes no sense to or if maybe because my computer is so old it just doesn't like to run correctly. I am leaning toward the fact that it is a little of both.

I will justify the expense of purchasing a "dummy" guide with the fact that I got the software really cheap. $40 from viosoftware just incase you need a copy. Now does our little WM carry the book I want now, or will I be making a big trip into barnes & noble tonight??? That really is what makes me want to scream. So how many of you out there are the I must have it now and I mean now, types? LOL!!

A Week in the Life, here we come!

I am starting my week today and I may just have to use this blog to keep it up, or at least to go back for some ramdon notes. I did get some good pictures this morning of K and daddy snuggling, and some of dropping K off at school. I think that I will be pretty good at the picture part, just maybe not the written documenting. I'll make it work. I am going to print the instructions today and see what I really need to do.

The count down for the end of school has started and I am still amazed at how fast this year has flown by. Linds only has 4 more days of pre-school, then its off to Kindergarten in the fall. When did that happen??? Summer is just going to go way to fast, our calendar is more than half full at now.

Kaleb has 11 days left and then he is a first grader! He got a new bike last night and I really wanted to cry watching him. He's my baby and now he wants to bike to school all by himself. I'm afraid if I close my eyes he'll be 16 and driving away in his own car. How to let go, I guess that's something that as a parent we will always be stuggling with.

It's a busy week around here, tomorrow we are off to the goat farm with pre-school, then it's costume day at dance class, and finally pre-school picnic. Oh yeah and I have to throw a doctors appointment in there too. I am hoping that the long weekend will give me some time to just relax.

GOOD MONDAY MORNING!!

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend, I did! Jeff was gone to an archery tournament so I took over the kitchen table with my stampin/scrapin stuff and just went wild all weekend. Ok so I didn't scrap all that much. I finished up this page friday (another insperation), I wish the green peice with the pp on it was bigger, I had just the right color green, but only in an 8 1/2 x 11. Kaleb has taken to riding his bike around our gravel circle everyday after school. He does this all night long. Today we are off to get him a new bike. The little one in this picture he has had since he was three and it is a tad bit small. Ok so I have to tell you where the insperation came from. Have any of you ever shopped at stickerplanet ? I found this site when I was just starting out and was really into stickers. Well I have moved on, but I still love this site, mainly because I get their catalogs. I don't really buy all that much from them, but they have great papers and really great ideas to lift. So this one was pictured using the BG baby boy paper and I just fell in love with the LO. Ok so it is totally a blatant lift, but I worked it out so it's mine too. Oh and I used my new Calvin QK (loving that!). Chris asked what Studio I had gotten in my new toys post, it's the skinny mini. I already have the classic Studio, and it is a real favorite of mine. See if have issues and if I have a big size of something and then there is a small size I must have that too. Yes I need help.


This card I whipped up on Sunday, I am in another splitcoststampers swap and here it is.

Oooo, and I got my recipe swap finished! It should be in the mail to Christine today! It doesn't look at all like what I posted earlier and I am going to let you all be surprised. Now to decide which recipe for next month??? 

I GOT NEW TOYS!!!

Alright Chistine I am blamming my not getting anything done on you! Even though the challange is done I am now so in the scrapping mood that I am working on yet another inspired page. So the story goes I did not have the right color paper and I need to do this now! I head to the LSS and yipee there are new QK! So now not only do I need to finish the page I am working on but I must set up these new dies and make some pages with them too. Oh and the flowers I found at WM when I went in to get more ribbon for my recipe swap page (again I can blame Christine! LOL). 

Alright Christine this one is for you! Ok so I can't really say the inspiration for this came from something outside the SB world, but sometimes you just gotta go with what you got. Challange completed!

I took this picture yesterday and I really love how it turned out, so I wanted to scrap it right away. Then my friend gave me the paisley paper (I am on a paisley phase) and I just knew that I wanted to use them together. I worked on this all day, well inbetween drop-off, pick-up, archery stuff and laundry, when I should have been working on my recipe swap, but oh well. I used the new We-R-Memory Keepers XL snaps and I changed the color by heating up and adding some distress emboss powder. I really, really like how that worked. It gives a very textured look. Made my own photo turns from QK and again embossed with the distress on them and the brads. I don't really like the "angel" stamp, I wish I had something more scripty, but it is a completed page.

Thanks for the challenge Christine, do some more that seems to be the only way I get stuff for me done. Otherwise I am always working on store and class stuff, not that that's a bad thing, but I do like doing stuff just for me too.

Lindsay wants to say Hi to all - lindsay (she typed her name for ya).

Ok I am totally wasted now, I feel like I haven't sat down all day, cuz if I had I would have fallen asleep. Now I am sitting and I NEED to sleep. 

My daughter is tugging at me to help her write a book. So I am trying to finish a couple things on the computer and be done with it for today. Lucky readers you get an update! LOL!!

Ok so I have been up since 3am, who knows why, but I got a couple things done. I worked on a LO, it's not done yet, needs something. Tweeked my recipe swap a little, I am at the point where I need to quit tweeking and just put it together. And i have printed out a few pictures to do more LO's with. One of which I am using for Christine's challenge. Ok so if I get that together (it's in my head) I might be back at the pc and post it.

Linds and I are going to have lunch with K today. He has been bugging me about doing this and we are light on daycare kids today so we're going. Of course when i looked at the hot lunch menu (Chilli) I went ick! So I am sure we will be the hit of the lunch room when I bring in subway sandwiches! I have always dreamed of being the perfect mom, now at least I might look like it! LOL!! I am rather excited too, I am bringing the camera. Lunch and playground shots will certainly be fun to sb.

The sun is shining, the sun is shining!

Ok so I am feeling good this morning. It has been raining around here for the last few days and it has been awhile since we have seen the sun so I am excited. I will however keep it in perspective, I am praying for all of the miss-placed families due to flooding in the northeast. Now that would be horrible, we really don't have it that bad. But still it sure is nice to see the sun shining after too many rainy days.

The sun even popped out yesterday long enough for the neighbor to show off his new toy. Check out who is playing with it. Lindsay really seems to think she needs her own "nascar" car!

Here are the decorated photo frames that Nana and Grandma Mary got for Mother's day. These were a total blast to do. Father's and Grandfathers may get a variation of these next month.





Funny story while I'm here, Sunday night Lindsay thought it would be nice to put lotion on my feet. Yes this was definately a Mother's day treat. Well now she has become a lotion freak. Yesterday as I was getting dinner ready and watching for dh to come home what is Linds doing, putting lotion on. Jeff pulls in the driveway and I wander into the living room to check on the kids and announce that daddy is home. Where is Linds I ask K, she pops out from the corner completely naked and covered with lotion. Where does this child get the idea to do stuff like that??? At least she smelled nice. 

Here's what I've been working on today. Just a little card swap I joined on Splitcoaststampers. 18 cards are finished and in the mail to the hostess. Gotta love that feeling. Now the next project is the recipe swap pages. I found some pattern paper that I think will go better with the strawberry theme so now I must re-work that in. Maybe later! 

Well last week was busy. Just finished checking out a few other blogs and felt the need to update mine before I post comments on everyone elses.

Hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. I did! I got the best gift (in my opinion), a pair of CROCS! So I must say thanks to Christine and Julie for turning me on to these shoes. My dh thinks they are silly looking, but when your feet feel this happy who cares what they look like. Shannon's blog had a picture of her Mother's Day breakfast, which made me laugh because dh says to K sunday am, you gonna help me make mommy her special mother's day treat. I of course have to ask what is up and they tell me they are going to make me breakfast. Well I squashed that chance the night before by taking a pastry out to rise. Which I just told dh it really is the thought that counts, because I would have had to clean up their mess which would not have been fun.

Saturday I went on an LSS adventure with my friend Janell. We went to three LSS and Michaels. I picked up some new QK stuff, primas for my mom, the pack of BG baby boy (yep it has been confirmed the baby is a boy), and Lindsay got stickers from each place. I was also lucky enough to bump into Katie! I wish I had more time to chat with her, but we were at our last stop and Janell was late for a wedding. I am so excited to see my Camando friends next month! I just have to get to work on my week.

It's Monday and I am behind on archery stuff so I better get to work. I think this week will be a little less crazy, maybe I could even scrap a page or two.

Opinions please?

Ok here is my first attempt at the recipe swap I am in. What do you think? It turned out mostly like I pictured in my head. I am not so certain about the pattern paper. It's not exactly what I wanted but you make do with what you can get.

Anyone out there have a strawberry punch or die cut??? These are just clip art that I printed and cut out. Does that look too tacky???

Such uncertainty today, what is with that??? 

Ok so the pressure has got to me and I took the test! The desperate house wifes test that is! Here is the deal you answer some really silly questions and then the test tells you which housewife you are most like. (And yes if you do not watch Desperate Housewife's, you have no idea what I am talking about).

I am most like Lynette! I can see it. Here is what it said: "You gave up a great job for this? (ok if I can count full time at the LSS, than that fits) No one really appreciates you, and yet you slog on, with very little sleep and very little thanks. (so my life) Who can blame you when you occasionally lose it? (thank God it's only Jeff who gets to witness that, LOL) Hang in there. (I always do!) Just lay off the Ritalin. (what???)" So can you see me as Lynette? If you know me a little I bet yes.

Ok here's the link try it for yourself, it's kinda fun and a good way to put off other things you should be doing.

Ok the link is not working so just copy and paste this

abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/quiz/index.html

Ok so my last update worked let's see if I can get this to work too!

Check out these pictures! Last night Kaleb found out he could read this book all by himself! Yipee! I am so proud of him. And he is so proud of himself. These pictures are from this morning, he was excited, but of course did not want to smile for the pictures. Gotta love 'em. He is reading to Linds and Braden (my daycare guy). He also had time this morn to read the story to daddy. I already have a layout in mind for the pictures. I probably won't get to that today, gotta finish my prepping for my class tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will have a scrappin day.

I also got a great idea for my recipe swap. Thanks to my friend Tory who forwarded a super recipe to me this am. So swappers how does Strawberry Margarita Cake sound??? I got to taste it the other night, delicious!

 
  

YIPEE IT WORKED!!!

Ok I am getting a little annoyed, I have been trying to update this thing all morning with no luck. And when i try and just view my page from my link I am getting a blank blog. Not good! I will try this as a test and see what happens. I have some really fun stuff I want to tell my on line friends about and I can't seem to make it work! Frustrating!

HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!

Ok so I am a little late, but I had a ton of things going on yesterday.

For NSD I worked at Memories, always a favorite thing to do. I got to teach my picture frame make/take! I had a blast, we were really hopping in the morning. We also had scrappin garage sale at the store, and that was wild. I didn't sell any of my things, but the people who did bring stuff in... Let's just say we opened at 9 am and by 10 there wasn't much left. There should be a few happy participants with lots of scrappin cash! Always a good thing.

I didn't really get to work on anything for myself, so when I came home I was totally in the mood. And I wipped out a couple of cute projects for a special person on Mother's day. Can't post pictures yet,never know who checks this.

Today we are off to mad town to visit with Grandparents in honor of their 65th wedding aniversary. Can you image 65 years together, what a journey. I really wished I could have gotten my hands on some photos of their wedding day. I would have loved to do a special framed page for a gift, but that idea came to late. I am off of make a special card anyway.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, happy scrappin!

 The smell of beauty!

This morning after running some stuff down to Memories, I came back into the house and there was such a wonderful scent in the air, fresh flowers. I of course wondered where that could be coming from. Then it hit me, our silly crab apple tree! I have been meaning to take a picture of it. I normally curse the thing, but once a year when it's in bloom, it's breath taking. And the scent is just wonderful. I really do love spring time. I took a couple pictures of some tulips and a few close ups of the blossoms on the tree, now maybe I can come up with an amazing scrapbook page. Christine has a link on her blog for a layout contest, and I would love to put another page together for that. We'll see... 

Ignore i am just trying to re-do my profile pic.

Here are my samples for the paper bag album I am teaching in a couple weeks. I needed to get some creative help from two pea's, gotta love their gallery. I used an example and went from there. I am way into earthy colors lately so these chatterbox papers were so fun to work with. I also got to try out a brand new tool I picked up last weekend. The totally fabulous Crop-a-dile! Have you tried this thing? Oh, it is so cool, if you are even the slightest bit into eyelets you have got to get one. I love it! I hope the ones we have on order for the store are in, in time for this class. I haven't done a cover page yet, still trying to get creative with it. Hopefully that will be done tomorrow so i can turn it in to post at the store.

Silly news to report, I had an ultrasound today and they asked if we new the gender. I said no, but i would love to know so we can figure out what to keep and what to get rid of. Ok so the doctor looks and says in her opinion it's a girl, but she is only 90% sure. Alright cool, then they move around and look again doc says wait a second I think I was wrong that looks like a boy. Then she says well I can tell you for sure it will be either a boy or a girl. How reassuring! At least its not an alien! LOL!!! We go back in a month, and we'll have them check again.

Gotta run Jeff seems to think he needs a snack.


 
 
  

 
 
  

Here is a little page I wipped up today for my tuesday class next week. We are doing the QK stamps, which I totally love now that I have had a number of chances to play with them. This scrappin stuff it's all so addictive. 

Here's the stuff I did at the store last week. The first one is something we are doing for NSD make/take. I think that Dorothy may have altered it a bit, I think she gave me a little too much creative freedom with this one. LOL!! I do like how it turned out and I might just have to buy some blank frames and do these for mothers day.
This one is the make-take from yesterday, I really like it, very simple but fun too! 

Found this on Shannon's blog, and I just felt like doing it too!

A- Age of 1st kiss: 12
B- Band you are listening to right now: no music happening at house right now
C- Crush: I think his name was Pete, that was in high school, now it's all about the hubby
D- dessert: Anything chocolate is good
E- Easiest person to talk to: My BFF Judy
F- Favorite ice cream: That double chocolate kind with brownie pieces
G- Gummy worms or gummy bears? Love Ju Jus, hate gummie anything
H- Happiest moment: Watching the McDonalds light come on at 5am while feeding my first baby
I- Instruments: clarinet in middle school
J- Junior high: Gompers Middle School
K- Kids: 2 for now 3 by october
L- Longest car ride ever: coming home from o'hare after being gone for two weeks, it really isn't a long drive, but I just wanted to be home so bad it seemed like forever
M- Messiest place in your house: our office/my craft area
N- Nicknames: Nickie, the only people who call me that are my old friends from high school, I went through a phase where I thought i would like to be called Nickie, then I grew out of it.
O- One wish: More time with my dh
P- Phobia(s): Surgery
Q- Quote: I say this to my dh all the time - "Life is not about being happy" yes I am a total pessamist
R -Reason to smile: two beautiful kids and number three on the way
S- Song you sang last: Something mc hammer, lins got into some old cd's today
T- Time you woke up today: 5:30ish this am
U- Where are you: the messy office/craft room
V- Victorious moment: my first day working at our LSS
W- Worst habit: food
X- X-rays you've had: broken arm
Y- Yoga or Yoda: Yoga, never done it, but I would try
Z-Zodiac sign: Libra

ICK!!!

So today has not been a lot of fun. Saturday night (as I am almost asleep), my dh yells out there's something wrong with the computer. I am tired, so I yell back, just turn it off I'll fix it tomorrow. Not what he wants to hear, so he says, no you need to come here. Out of bed I get to find 50+ x-rated pop-ups and our computer virus software going crazy. Great! I let the virus program run all night and this did nothing. I don't know what sickness we got, but it was bad. So today I backed up most of my files and pictures to CD and proceeded to format the hard drive and re-install windows. My internet guy said this will definitely take care of any junk lurking in our pc. So I have been trying to get windows back up to speed and I think I have downloaded and installed the last of the updates and now on to all of the necessary programs we run daily. My back hurts and my eyes hurt from staring at this screen all day!

One little thing I forgot about saving, all of our email addresses and old emails got wiped out. So if you would like to be in my email addy book, please pop me an email and I will add you back in.

That's it for now, gotta go pick up K. I did get some pictures that I want to post, but i gotta get that software back in so it might be a couple days before I can update this again.

Later, ya'll!!