My Goodness, it's been way to long

Wow, it's been 2 1/2 months since I've blogged. 

Lets see if I can catch up.  Since my last update, I went to an all day crop in August.  Did school clothes and supply shopping.  The weekend before school started we went on vacation for 3 days in San Antonio.  Ryan went to 4th grade and Saira to 1st grade.  They've already finished the 1st 6 weeks.  And both were on A-B Honor Roll as well as Perfect Attendance.  Ryan is nearly done with the football season, with this team 2 wins and 2 loses.  Playoffs are next weekend and the weekend after is the Superbowl.  I've been subbing again this school year.  And so far, so good. Over the summer I had lost about 15 lbs, I was super excited about that.  :)

This Saturday is Croptoberfest and the group of girls I crop and retreat with will be gathering for the all day event.  I'm so excited to get lots of layouts complete. 

Hopefully I can keep a good routine of updating my blog more often.  ;)

It Came, and it's Gone

Well, the school year is over. And Summer is now here! We are enjoying the lazy days of summer!!!

May came and gone, and now June is nearly over.

Yesterday I hosted a Creative Memories Get Together. Had a wonderful morning/afternoon with the girls. Now it's time to prepare for the Retreat next weekend. I'm so excited. I wish I could pack my stuff up right now and spend the week there. Wouldn't that be totally awesome!?!?!

Here is where we are going, to Las Brisas Farm.

And check it out!!! I'm a guest designer for July again for Scrapperie. Sandi was such a suprise this month when she asked me to be a guest aagin. I was ecstatic over it and about jumped out of my chair. I can't wait to get the kit this week. Isn't the July Kit, English Garden, just goregous!!!??!!!

Layouts from Celebrate Houston

Here are the pages that I made last Saturday during the horrible storm in Houston.  1,000 ladies gathered at the George R. Brown convention center to scrapbook from 9am-8pm.  I managed to get 8 pages done plus several 8x8's for our Thanksgiving in Alaska album.

So here's the 12x12's....

This is a favorite, it's pictures from the Mayhaw Pageant last year.

The rest of these are from Pre-K last year with Saira.

A disaster and some lazy time

Last weekend, Jan. 30th, 31st and Feb. 1st I was in Galveston on a Scrapbooking retreat. Ohhhh, it was heaven. I think I enjoyed myself more this time than last time in August. It gave me the first opprutunity to go to Galveston to see how it looked since the Hurricane. I was so suprised. It didn't look near as bad as I expected. Infact, the Sea Wall was up and running. People were all gathered on the beaches (even though it was COOOOOLD!) It was even prettier than it ever has been in many many years. I was impressed. Galveston has done a supurb job at restoring itself. Two cheers to them!!

Anyways, I had a terrific time with all my scrappy buddies. Had some very good food, the house was neat, the bedding was way to comfy and the massage was what I needed. All the subbing last month had me all worn out. I was desperate for a massage!! I was able to get 14 pages done, and I finally took photos of the layouts so I can share with you. I'll do that later on after this post.

So lets move on....

Monday and Tuesday I worked. Wednesday I was suppose to go in at 10:30. But instead, my water heater decided I didn't need to do that. I had taken the kids to school that morning. And when I got back, I sat down to watch tv, because I haven't done that in months. I had LOTS to catch up on. Around 9:15ish I guess, I heard this banging cracking type of a sound. And it came from my laundry room. And then I heard water. I thought that was rather weird since no water was running anywhere in the house. So I get up and I really hear the water running..... from the water heater. OMG!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! OMG!!!!!! Panic mode kicked in. LOL I rushed and grabbed a screwdriver to take off the wall panel where the water heater hides...lol And YEP, WATER was EVERYWHERE already. It was starting to leak out into the hall and my sons room.....but not the laundry room. It was leaking out at the walls. So I got my dad on the phone cause there was no shutoff valve. The stupid retards that put it in didn't put a shut off valve. Thanks mister!! I talked with him for a minute and decided to call the city to shut off the water, cause I couldn't get the knob to turn at the main shut off on the house. So they came ASAP, Thank you city of Daisetta. They FINALLLLLLY did something quick and prompt for the first time that I've lived here and I've lived here for almost 12 years. They responded to my phone call within like 1 or 2 minutes. I was shocked. In the mean time Chad's on his way home from work. When he got here, we went to Lowes and bought a new water heater and a shopvac. I spent the day sucking up water and draining the water heater. Thank goodness it wasn't too bad in the hall and Ryan's room. We finally got the water heater put in around 7pm. And boy howdy, it gets HOT! I'm thinking Chad is going to have to lower the temp...lol

So Thursday I was called in to sub, but I still needed to work on the carpets some more. I did it a couple of times and did the lazy thing for the day. WOW, that was great. I needed it so bad. Did the same thing on Friday. :)

Saturday was Ryan's Advanced Green belt test for TaeKwonDo! He did awesome!! Thursday is the award ceremony this week.

No work today, but I work Wednesday and Friday. I wasn't thinking when the Secretary called earlier, but Friday is the kids Valentine's day parties. But I think I'll be able to pull off going to their rooms to help with the parties. I'm sure the teachers aid for that class will help me out for sure. ....she loves me! ;)

So that's that.

Pics coming in a few....

Still Busy as ever and TERRIFIC NEWS

My goodness, I'm so amazed at how busy my life has been since I signed up to sub in October. Out of 18 1/2 school days last month I worked 11 1/2. And so far, the first 3 school days of this month I'll be working all 3. LOL But enough of all that...LOL

Last weekend I went on another wonderful Scrapbook Retreat. This time it was held in Galveston at the Galveston's Red Victorian. The owner of this home is amazing, she served lots of delicious meals and provided a great area for scrapping. I can't wait to go back there. It also provided me the first opprotunity see Galveston since Hurricane Ike came through. They have come a long way, I was impressed with all the restorations.

I will be taking photos of my layouts as soon as I get the chance, I promise. I'm excited to share my 14 layouts. :)

And now.... :) ....I saved the best for last!!

The Scrapperie was looking for it's new Design Team. ....and I will be one of the Guest Designers with the Tres Chic Girls this go around!! I'm so ecstatic over the news!!

And right now, Scrapperie is having there Fantastic February going on. It's always tons and tons of fun!!! There will be challenge after challenge for you to do. As well as games and classes. You'll earn points for all the things you do. The more points you get the more chances you'll have to win from the Fantastic February Prize Pool Drawing. Which consists of gift certificates to the boutique, tons of mini kits, mini-albums, acrylic albums, stamps sets (with inks) cardstock packs, cards kits, Essentials, Extras and Trimmings monthly kits- and someone can even win a Pièce de Résistance kit! If you join in, please mention that I sent you. I hope to see you there!! :)

Layouts from the Retreat

Like I mentioned earlier, I made 10.  I was proud of that.  Because my goal was to complete the vacation album.  :)

This first one was pics from my birthday this year....at my '2nd Party' as the kids called it...LOL I used Scenic Route papers with Scenic Route alphas, stampin up buttons and a ribbon from one of the ladies from the retreat.  :)

This 2nd one, I've scrapped the pics before.  But I put the layout in my 'whatever' album...lol  I made this one for Saira's album.  The pics are from Christmas '03, her 1st Christmas.  The pics crack me up becaue if  you look carefully, you'll see how she gets more and more into her brothers face.  LOL I used Daisy D's papers here

Again, this is her first Christmas...  my how time goes by so quickly.  And it was really neat to experiance the 2 Christmas' with Ryan and Saira.  His first, he was just 2 1/2 monthls old.  Were as she was 11 months old.  And able to enjoy her Christmas.  :) I used Daisy D's paper here with stampin up buttons.

See?  LOL  he was my little bitty guy, not knowing what was going on for his first Christmas.  I used stampin up papers here and bazzill card stock.

I guess I was tired of working with baby pictures...LOL  These St. Patty's Day pics are from this year.  It was a MAJOR windy day that day.  It was practicly knocking us down.  So I made it a quick photo shoot...LOL

More St. Patty's.  Check out the wind blowing through her hair...LOL  I used Bazzill bling CS, American Crafts ribbon, fancy pants chipboard, doodlebug glitter, some misc. green paint, and a pre-made journalling block from one of the ladies at the retreat.  :)

Yep, more St. Patty's.  :)  I used Bazzill CS, stampin up PP's, MM's buttons, and Creative Memories title sticker.

Love this one.  :)  I used Bazzill CS, MM's alpha's, Crate Paper PP's and tag.  These pics are from the last crop I went to in May for National Scrapbook Day.  Had lots of fun there with Kim!!

Haha, this one cracks me up....  or should i say...  quacks me up...ROTF!!!!!  Anyways, this is my brother.  And I'm pretty sure the little duck belongs to his step daughters...LOL  He's so goofy!!!  I used Crate Paper PP's and some misc. cardstock as well as stampin up cardstock, MM's buttons, and Thickers.

I'm not to thrilled with this page.  I think it's mainly just the photo.  I didn't like my wedding pictures.  But as you can see we were tickled pink to be married.  ;)  I used Crate Paper PP's, Bazzill CS, MM's flowers, SU buttons, Pink Paislee alphas.

Thanks for looking at all my LO's.  :) 

~OMG~ Lots Of Layouts!

I have so many layouts to share.  So lets get started...

Last Sunday I was at Kim's house scrapping with her.  I got 4 LO's done.  But 1 isn't finished yet.  I need to title it and journal on it. 

So here is 3 of them...

This first one is my real dad with Saira when she was 23 months old.

This next one is of my step dad, me and Saira.  But he really isn't my sted dad anymore...LOL  But he's raised me since I was 5 years old.  So I still call him my Daddy.  :)  :)

This is Ryan sitting at the front door at my grandparents house.  They always kept beautiful flower gardens.  I miss that.  But the house is now my moms. 

These next 10....yes....TEN...layouts are from this past weekend crop at Scrapperie.  Wow, was it a busy weekend. Soooo so many challenges.  There were 10 more challenges that I could've done.  This first one was a fun challenge.  We had to mail about 10 3x3 scraps to another person.  And my person sent me these really cool and AWESOME papers.  We had to use 3 of the scraps and I used 4.  I wish you could feel that tiedied and marble swirl papers, they are just the neatest! ...Thanks again Jennifer.  :)

This next one we could only use cardstock obviously. I loved how this one turned out.

Loved this challenge.  I had been wanting to scrap my weight lose journey.  And this scrap from that pack of scraps that Jennifer sent me was PERFECT.  ...again...thanks...lol :)  I put a before and after pic of myself.  The after pic is like 2 weeks old now. 

The next challenge I picked was a scrap lift.  And I had to lift from Janet.  I love her pages, she always does such a great job. 

This was a progressive tag, like 'telephone'.  It was cool seeing all the layouts after we were all done.  It's so funny how it starts at one thing and ends up looking like a complete different page at the end.

Awww, I love these photos of Saira.  This challenge we had to use paint, in a free hand manor.

This challenge we had to scrap our favorite movie and for me, that would be The Unsinkable Molly Brown.  When I was about 13 years old, my mom took me to the broadway musical.  But I was already in love with the movie before the musical.  She knew I'd totally love seeing the show.  She's the best mom I tell ya.  :)

These next 2 go together.  ;)  But the first one was for a challenge to use 5 different non paper embellishments.  I used buttons, ribbons/fibers, brads, safety pin and stickles.

This one we had to recycle something, so .....lol....I recycled my many saved up Starbucks Sleeves.

And last but not least this one was for a challenge called Peanut butter cups(a color and layering challenge).  We had to use orange and brown and make 3 layers.

Well thanks for checking out all these layouts that I've been busy making.  :) 

Mmm, an Ice Cream Social!!!

You won't want to miss out on this fun occasion at Scrapperie!!


Scrapperie is having an Online-Crop on the last weekend of the month. From June 27th-29th, Friday-Sunday. There will be LOTS of challenges, games, prizes and more!! The prizes are going to be AWESOME! You won't want to miss it!!!

NSD layouts

Yesterday I completed 24 7x7 pages in our summer vacation album, it was a great start. Then I completed 3 12x12 pages. I was at a 12 hour crop at a Hotel with my friend Kim and 6 other ladies. We had a ball!!


Supplies:
PP-Pink Paislee
diecut-Pink Paiselee
buttons-walmart
tag-??
ribbons-target and walmart
grungeboard
ink-su!
stickles-diamonds
linen thread-su!
alphastickers-cm


Supplies:
CS-bazzill
PP-Cosmo Cricket
Felt-Fancy Pants
Diecut sticker-Cosmo Cricket
Alphastickers-MM
Stickeles


Supplies:
PP-MM diecut paper, ivory textured paper from Joann's
Felt-Queen and Co.
Brads-paper studio
Ribbons-SU!(cream) and walmart (red and black)
Buttons-walmart
CS-Hobby Lobby
tag-??

completions from the Cyber Crop

Yesterday I was able to scrap ALLLLLLLLLLLL day long. Seriously, I scrapped for 15 hrs. I managed to get 7 challenges done. There were 10 plus an extra to make a bingo card for the bingo game.
Here's the first one I completed. The challenge was called 'Lucky 7'. We needed to use seven things on the LO from the list provided yesterday.

This next one was a Monochromatic challenge. So duh, my color was pink.

And this next one for the 'give it an edge' challenge.

And then it was Bingo time and we have to have our Bingo cards completed and uploaded to the 'gallerie' by 6pm. Yeah, it was 5:45 and I totally forgot about it. I was running all over my scraproom trying to rush and get it completed. We had a list of words to chose from. I was late completing it, but they waited on me. I need to fix my little boo-boo's...as you can see. BTW, I won 2 bingos...HEHE, I wouldn't have the 3rd bingo, but I wasn't paying attention.

Then it was the 'tag' challenge. We had to make a tag using 2 pp's, buttons, ribbons or fibers and stitching. I love my tag!!

This was the last challenge I was able to complete. We had to make a card using CS only, stamps, ink, circle, ribbon and rub-ons. Ugh, the rub-on part was giving me such a hard time. But finally I found these brown flowers and thought maybe it would work. And I suppose it's ok...lol

A One Day ALL Day Crop At Scrapperie

It's Fantastic Feburary over at Scrapperie!!


To go along with our Fantastic February Challenge at Scrapperie, you won't want to miss out on all the fun we have in store for you this Saturday - February 23, 2008 at our one day cyber crop!

We'll begin at 10am CST by posting all ten challenges and the sign-in thread. (All challenges will be due by midnight that night CST.) The fun will continue throughout the day with games, challenges and other crazy chances to earn prizes and points towards the February challenge.

Did I mention random door prize drawings throughout the day? You can win gift certificates, mini scrapbook kits and loads of other scrappy prizes from our Boutique. Oh! The Boutique will have all Vintage Ltd Kits on sale at 50% off!

You do not have to be participating in our Fantastic February points challenge to participate in the crop and win prizes.

You'll want to be sure and register at Scrapperie so you can join in the Bingo game. We'll be playing on bingo cards that we create our ownselves. How fun is that!?! And of course there is prizes for the winners!

We hope to see you there!

Fun Weekend

Saturday we ventured out before the nasty storm came through. I needed to go pick up Saira's portraits. I'll scan those later to share with you. They turned out pretty, except for the ones of her and I. I looked weird...LOL
Anyways, before we went home, we stopped at the tire store. The city had announced that BigFoot (monster truck) would be there at the tire store all weekend to see and take pictures of. Well, on Saturday Feb. 2nd, Chad and Ryan went to Houston to the Monster Jam show. BigFoot wasn't there that night though. So anyways, we went to the tire store, hopped out and took a few pictures. I had to take these with my cell, because I left my camera at home.



Yesterday I went to my friend Kim's house to scrapbook. We hadn't done that in MONTHS. It was great. I only got 3 pages completed and 1 more started.


I think I'm going to journal on this one of Chad and Saira. I haven't decided yet.

I don't like how the title looks on this one. I was hoping it would look better than this. I may do a paper piece title or something.... to cover it up. I used Deja Views papers for this one, Queen & Co. felt border, Fancy Pants chipboard, I inked that with Stampin Up green ink, Target ribbons and gem flowers and felt butterflies. I have Making Memories brads and mini safety pins on here as well.