Father's Day...

If you’re in a weepy mood, you better skip my blog - I’m feeling real melancholy today. I sent my sweet SJ friend, Carrie Lynn, a PM today asking how she was doing. She let me know that her dad has told them all goodbye and they are just waiting. This brought back so many memories for me of my own dad and his battle with cancer.
{cyber hugs to you Carrie Girl. Prayin' for ya!}

So since Father’s Day is right around the corner, I’ll commemorate my DAD.

I have many regrets when it comes to my dad. I never told him enough that I loved him. I didn’t remember all the stories he told me about my heritage. As a teenager I was ashamed of him cause he was so old. I never gave him enough hugs. I’ll never be able to ask him gardening questions. He never got to meet the twins – he would have had so much fun with them. Would he be proud of me? So many things…

It’s been 11 years. People say time heals all wounds. But you know it really doesn’t. It deadens them a little bit, you don’t dwell on them all the time, but it still hurts to this day that he’s gone. Sometimes I dream about him, that we’re doing things together, and he’ll be laughing. Those are the hardest days. It’s like having a brief moment with him and when I wake up I have to mourn all over again.

So, if you’re still reading…and if you are able, hug your dad for me this week. Get pictures WITH him, talk to him, listen, ask questions – if you don't have a great relationship with him it may not be the most comfortable thing right now, but you won't never regret it.

Sorry about the downer girls, I just needed to say that - really missin' my dad today. I was trying to find something that would change the mood of today's post, but I'm coming up empty. I guess there's always tomorrow...

Refreshed

That's how I feel after this weekend. It was so nice to have Absolutely Nothing To Do on Saturday!!! I thoroughly enjoyed my Saturday and did nothing but lay out in the pool all day. I have a lovely burn to prove it, but it'll all be good and tan soon. The boys look like little bronze babies. I can't believe how tan their backs are already. Their legs are totally white though.


Calvin & Denise came up this weekend. It was good to see them although we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them. It was good to see you guys - miss ya girl!!!!





I have to toot a little bit, I am pretty proud of myself. I did this LO in about an hour and a half. I managed to steal some pictures from Denise that she had shared with me on instant messenger. It was of her little puppy Josie. I thought it would be so much fun to scrap them since they were so cute. I totally lifted the LO from page 131 of the July 06 Scrapbook Etc., my first lift that actually looks good. LOL I was going to scrap it and mail it to her but I'm too much into instant gratification so I gave it to her Sunday at church. I'm still shocked that I was able to start and finish it in one night.

I already posted on Friday when I ran across Beth's Friday Blog Challenge on SJ. So I'll do it now. We were to tell about our nicknames, who game them, are they still used, do I like them, etc. So here goes:

Technically, the name I go by is my nickname ~ Becky ~ the natural s/o of Rebecca. As a teenager I never really liked Becky. I always felt like it was a hick-farm girls name which, of course, fit me to a "T" as I WAS a hick-farm girl. The truth hurts, I was always trying to be something I wasn't. Now I still don't like it but I deal. Next came Gucky - I was really young when my cousin gave me this one. He was even younger than me and couldn't say Becky. It evolved into Cupcake - don't even ask me how. I stayed this for a while until high school when I decided I wanted to be called Becca. This one didn't even get off the ground! Nobody called me that. Sadly I went back to Becky. Till Denise came around and, much to my mom's dismay, began calling me Reba. She's the only one who calls me this and for some strange reason Mom totally opposed it.

As for DH calling me stuff, weellll sometimes I'm White Chocolate, sometimes I'm Candy which came from a Dr. John song (this one usually causes a minor irritation since that was his old high school GF's name), and Beck but usually just boring ol Becky. I absolutely will not accept MOM from him though. I HATE, HATE, HATE that. Other names I've had are Becky Boo. My Dad used to call me this. He made up a poem about me. It started, "Becky Boo, eyes of blue." Now, my eyes are brown and I would always interrupt him and tell him this important piece of information. He would always laugh and act surprised. We played this little game every time. Gosh I miss him. I don't think he ever finished that poem. Once in a while Lisa will call me this and it always makes me think of my Dad. Then there's Eileen, my middle name. Jael and I have the same middle name and, to be difficult, Chelle insists on calling both of us by our middle name. Total confusion when we're together. So there's the story of my nicknames. Now weren't you glad Beth asked. LOL

I've been busy most of the day at work. It's been a joyous day here at work...co-worker is crabby and not talking. Makes for a fun day when there's only 2 of us.

I had to save this as a draft and add the picture of my LO tonight from home. I haven't taken it off my camera yet. Hmmmm, seems to be the story of my blog.

FINALLY....

Good Grief!!!!! What is up with the net????? Yesterday it was the Jazz today it’s the blog machine. Please why can’t it all just work with me when I have nothing to do @work. Gosh (said is my best Napoleon impression).

Last day in the crazy rat race…
I can’t wait for FRIDAY to be over. I am sooo ready for the end of this week. If you’ve been reading about my crazy life, you know I volunteered to teach VBS this week (momentary insanity on my part). For my schedule that means I get home from work, pull in the driveway and everyone (DH and kids) pile in and we drive straight to church and I don’t get home till 9ish. They are feeding the kids dinner at VBS so that’s nice for them, but bad for me. Monday night was a blizzard for dinner. I finally got a real meal Wednesday night – went to Sonic Drive-Thru (now that's healthy). Anyway, last night was the last night and tonight we have a youth thing so Saturday is the next day I have for myself.

During the week, with all our spare time, we’ve been working on getting the pool set up and it’s ready now– HALLELUJAH!!!!! So guess where I’ll be on Saturday????? I’m going to be selfish with my weekend – I told my mom to encourage my cousins to NOT come over Saturday. I want the pool to myself. They will probably get to go today so, the fact is, they will get in it BEFORE ME!! How wrong is that? I guess it'll be ok though since they are watching my kids for me.

Last year when our office moved, one of the bosses gave Donna and I each a GC to a spa. Now, I’m not really into the spa thing and have shuffled it around so long that it almost expired. So I got a brilliant idea to give it to my friend Andrea. She LOVED it, of course. But as a thank you she got me this really cute speaker thing for my ipod. First of all, she didn’t have to do that, especially since I didn’t pay anything for it. It was a RAK that I re-RAKed, so to speak, and she KNEW it. But I love the speakers. It’s like a mini tripod and every leg of the tripod has a speaker in it. It’s so cute. Here’s a pic, isn't it cute?:

I changed my avatar on SJ today. I figured since everyone else could have what they consider handsome men, I could have me one too. ;-) I picked Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. What a bad boy. YMMMY!!!!!!

In April I went on a scrap weekend to the YMCA Lodge in Potosi, Missouri. I don’t think I’ve uploaded any of the LO’s I did there so that’s what you’re getting today. (I plan on taking a picture of the front of the Bronx Zoo before posting the rest of those pictures. ) These are Valentine Day LO’s.

I stole all the valentines from the boys and used my punch to cut them up. I totally lifted the idea. You can see the original by Julia Sandvoss at SJ called Love U. (Hope that link works, html is NOT my thing folks.) It's not done ~ it needs something more, but everything I try doesn't work. Either the color is off or something (IRL it is a lit pink with white dots but it looks purple here). If you have any ideas, pass them my way. I'm letting it sit for a bit hoping inspiration will come.
I'm trying to do more LO's with me, so this one I did of DH and I. The hearts and quotes on the right came pre-printed on the paper and since I'm at work, I have no idea what they say. The ONLY things I added were the black CS, the thing above the pic that says LOVE (it pulls out and I've journaled on it & put another picture of me on the back), and the ETERNITY tag at the bottom.

I'm sure you've seen these cool pockets to hold cards. I've always wanted to do something to save my cards so I did one for my Valentine cards this year. And YUP, that's some DOODLING. Don't be too shocked. LOL I know it's not a lot, and I wished I didn't do it, but...to late...maybe it would look better if I added more?

Anyways, that's all for this week folks. You know where I'll be this weekend so I'll write you on Monday about my beautiful tan. Please say a prayer for me that it doesn't rain!

Adios.

It's been a long day...

I thought it would never end. But, I've actually had work to do today :-( (yup that's a homemade smilie) so I haven't been able to dream up things to write about today. I DID want to post though. For some reason it bugs me when I check through the blogs and people haven't updated in a few days. So I try to not be someone who doesn't update. I'll let you all know right now that a weekend post will be a rare thing. Other than that I'll try to post every day.

I hope the internet is moving better tomorrow. Once SJ went down everything was slow. There's even a delay in typing my post here but thank God SJ is back.

That being said, it 4:50 and I don't have a lot of time left at work. So I'll leave you with a funny:

A Sunday school teacher said to her children,"We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times.

But, there is a higher power.

Can anybody tell me what it is?"

One child blurted out, "Aces!"

Thanks for stopping by ~ have a great evening.

Oops....I missed Monday

I tried, I really did. But I got busy and...well, sorry I neglected you.

Anyway, I'm back today and have pictures so get ready.

6/6/06 - Does that number bring any scary thoughts to you? It doesn't really bother me, I DO think it is a novelty, but nothing to fear. The DH of one of my friends thinks terrorists will attack today.

According to the United States Postal Service, my package was delivered to Wendy today. So my portion of the CJ is officially underway. Lori said she would mail last Friday. If she did I should be getting it in any day now.

I signed up again for Memory Safe's monthly kits again. I should be getting that in soon too. Woo Hoo. It's some Scenic Route stuff. It'll be like Christmas with my new kit and the CJ.

The pool is up and over half full. It's huge is all I gotta say. I turned the water on on Sunday for a while and worked to get the wrinkles out. This morning I turned the water on at 7 and Mike turned it off at 6 when we left for VBS tonight. It's only a little over half full. I can't believe how big it is. It will be so much fun though. I can't wait for Saturday. The kids got into it today and played around. They love it.

I have a burn on the top of my mouth from the frozen pizza we ate for dinner Sunday night. Yesterday morning it even hurt to drink water, the granola I had for breakfast nearly killed me. It still hurts today but I can tell it's healing.

I have a **VENT** today too:
Apparently our church has a new summer secretary. It's great for our pastor cause I'm sure he can use the help since he's never had a regular secretary. She has set up her office in the "public domain office" (for lack of a better description). This office houses the computer, copy machine and color printer and misc office items that EVERY department uses for bulletines, newsletters, mailers, schedules, etc. She informed me Sunday night that the computer is now password protected and besides the pastor there are only 3 people who have the password. I'm thinking what the heck!!!!!!!! Then she proceedes to tell me that there are more changes coming soon - like with the bulletin. Oh Really????!!!! I'm on that rotation and knew nothing about it, so I went to the person who heads up the bulletin schedule. SHE KNOWS NOTHING EITHER!!!!!!! Anyway, last night we go to VBS which, as most first nights of any event, was chaotic. I specifically took my laptop so I wouldn't have to try to get on her dumb computer to print some things off for my class. I walk in the door and she has completely changed the office around. NOTHING is where it used to be!!!!!!!!! Talk about added chaos. I am soooo ticked off at her right now, I don't know what she was thinking. Rumor has it (and it's TOTALLY a RUMOR) that she did all this w/o the pastor knowing she was going to do it. I serously had to go to my classroom and pray. There was no way I could teach kids with that nasty attitude. I'm still really ticked. Can't you tell?! I can't really say vent off, cause I'm still ticked but I'll stop this paragraph, how about that?

And now I leave you with the Bronx Zoo...(I didn't get an outside shot of their sign. It'll be coming soon.)

This is one of the rooms inside. She hung fabric on the ceiling.


That's all I'm uploading today. Everything seems to be running in slow motion today. GRRRR. I'll do more tomorrow.

Peace Out!

T.G.I.F.

Finally Friday!!! Usually 4-day work weeks go by really quickly. This week has just felt like it lasted forever. I'm glad it's finally here. Again, nothing to talk about. I even waited till late in the day thinking something would come up but....Nada! Sorry folks.

I do want to thank the peeps who are commenting on my stuff. Makes me feel special to know that someone took time to read what I had to say, although what I have to say is getting real lame~sorry. LOL

Lets see, how about another list of weekend activities:

1. Tonight going to Chevy's to eat dinner with my sister-in-law and her daughter. I don't know if the rest of the family will be there or not. We'll finally get to see Michaela prego. Can't imagine it since she's so skinny;
2. Pick up the tiller from Gary;
3. Tomorrow my mom is having a yard sale;
4. One of our young people is having a birthday party at 12;
5. VBS meeting at 1; :(
6. Watch Alisha at 5; It's her mommy and daddy's anniversary.
7. Wanna get the pool set up and get in the cool water;
8. Oooo and, I almost forgot this one, go by the Bronx Zoo. It's a little shop in town that sells all kinds of stuff - clothes, furniture, yard ornaments, etc. It's an excentric place. The owner takes trips to buy stuff from California, New York and Mexico so she has a lot of things that you wont normally find here in Podunck Illinois. She lets local people sell their hand crafted things there too. This lady is so nice. Mike went in there and she told him she would save some stuff for me to look at. How sweet was that? Anyway...I'll try and take my camera to this place. It's really worth seeing, since it's so much fun. My photography skills are really poor, but you'll get the point.

Oh, I found a photo that I haven't posted yet, so here's your daily dose of scrapbooking...I was thinking a BOM would be a good thing to start doing and this would go in that book. I thought the pic and the quote went together so well. The quote is:

"LIfe is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you."

I thought I would journal about what I see in myself and kind of relate it to beauty. But it was hard to write positive about myself, or from the heart. So the tag behind my pic is blank. Does anyone KWIM on this?

Guess that'll do me for the day. Probably won't post over the weekend. So until I blog again...

Stay safe, have fun, be blessed.

See ya next week ~ {{{CYBER HUGS}}}

The winds of change...

Scrapjazz just announced that Scrapbook.com just bought them!!! I understand to a point since Ben & Andrea are starting a family, which is a full-time job. I know the web site is too. I love the way they have maintained a friendly, non-attacking atmosphere and a close knit community. I'm sure Jill and her team will do their best to maintian that and the word on the street is there aren't big changes coming but you never know. Hopefully they will stay a part of the board and let us see the growth of their little one (although they haven't been real forthcoming with many details to date - unless I missed them). Anyways, Good luck Ben & Andrea.

Random Stuff:
Not a lot to talk about today - the SJ thang seems to be the only thing for me. Not that I'm obsessed, I just saw it and am still thinking about it.

It's raining again. Blech! I know we could use it. Oh Well.

I've been working on getting my online IM status thing on my blog. I think it worked. Now, if it works correctly, you can click the status icon and send me an IM. It took forever to find a website with the code though. Why is it so hard to find these codes!!!!!!
Next thing I want to do is figure out how to get the little smilies on here. I've figured out the places to get the code, but it doesn't convert the code to the litte smilie/emoticon. [img]http://users.pandora.be/eforum/emoticons4u/sad/1011.gif[/img] Ok, that's supposed to be a
sad face.

My song is on. Come On Eileen. Well, it is my middle name. Thanks Dexy's Midnight Runners for the song. :-)

I don't have a clue about html stuff and it's just sheer luck and Denise's DH that got me this far. It's so stinkin' complicated.

Lisa said that we could borrow Gary's tiller to do our yard to set up the poole. YEA!!! At least now we don't have to rent one. We just have to get some free time to pick it up, do the yard real quick and return it. I really really really want to get in my pool!!!!!

In the last week I've altered a clipboard and 2 pieces of puzzle.

I'll leave you with pics of the altered puzzle. Thanks for reading.

Christmas in MAY

I have had this picture for 3 years - YES THREE!!!!! ::Gasp::

It's Mike's family and we are on the staircase in Toni & Mike's old house. Granted, there are some people in the pic who are no longer in the family and some family that wasn't family when the picture was taken and one brother who didn't bother showing up. It was Christmas for Goodness Sake!!!!! Regardless, it's a good pic of most of the POOLE CLAN.

When I first saw the BG Blitzen stuff I knew it was gonna be great on here. The red CS is Bazzill (sweet stuff). Totally lovin' how it turned out too.

lelelelelelel

Can I just say that I am soooo dumb. Our church is having Vacation Bible School again this year. I am not a teacher in any Sunday School class, nor do I have time to be. I figured the teacher parts would be taken care of by the existing teachers. We didn't want to have to be at the church every single night so Mike & I signed up to help get the stuff set up and get the sets painted and stuff. Jess told me last night that she had some people back out and was now short some teachers. I felt sorry for her and volunteered to be a teacher ~ but just for VBS ~ NOT SS!!! I don't have time for this and was really looking forward to a week off, but I guess it's not gonna happen. I'll be teaching 4th & 5th grades. They will be an easy group since I'm used to that age - Nathen & Austen will be in 4th grade next year. BUT.....the point is now I'm busy next week.

On the up side, Tracy just called me and told me she volunteered today and we'll be sharing a class. So between the 2 of us we should be able to handle this. I am very happy to have her help. She is a school teacher and our friendship goes way back with a little hiatus in the middle - called LIFE. So our class is now officially going to be the BOMB!!!!!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Just wanted to share that I'm wearing an Orange shirt today courtesy of Andrea. Love it! So bright and cheery.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

How could I forget to post this when talking about Memorial Day????
The kids always play with water guns at the picnic. I could only find 2 of our 3 water guns so on the way to the picnic I took Nick and his friend to WM to pick up another gun. Let me say that I wasn't dressed to kill and I was not going to win a fashion contest but I was comfortable. On the way out of WM Nick asked me why I was waddling. WADDLING!!!!?!!!!!?!!!?!!!!!?!!? OMGosh he nearly died cause I nearly killed him. I informed him - through clenched teeth - that FAT PEOPLE DO THAT GOSH!!!! He said I don't always do it but I was just then and he just wondered what was wrong, like did I "have a wedge or something?!" Sssssooooooooo not nice. Like a good son he did say I wasn't fat though. Like that helped at that point in time.

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And finally...

Oscar, on SJ, challenged us to send some cyber hugs to our friends. I started thinking of who I would send to and I think everyone at SJ came to mind.

Dani~ girl you've been on my mind. Hope and pray for your continued recovery.
Jitterbuggie and Patter and their DDs.
Oscar ~ Because you live in pain.
Denise ~ Prayin' you sell your house soon girlie. I'm trying to help. Everyone that's looking I tell them about yours.
Ashley, Brian and Clayton ~ My heart breaks for you guys. Ashley & Brian for continued strength and rest and Clayton to get better.

Guess these sort of turned out to be more like prayer requests. But {{{{{GIANT HUGS}}}}} to all of you.

Denise has always wanted to be tagged, so I'll tag her. Spread the luv girl. ;-)

TAFN ~ Ciao

Skipping Monday

I don't care too much for Monday's. If I could I would skip them altogether, which we kind of did this week since Monday was a holiday. Woo Hoo!!!!

I want to start this post off with saying thank you to our Veterans and those who still serve in the military. I am very appreciative of my freedom. I try to avoid the news cause it's biased one way or another but regardless of what is being said, there are people in America who support you and stand behind you and have not forgotten. I also want to thank the wives, children, mothers & fathers of those who are not at home because of their service. Each one of you is a hero! You have sacrificed for me and I THANK YOU.

What the heck happened to my ability to change the color of my fonts????????????? DARN IT!!!!!!!!!! So NOT happy about this.
Ummm, nevermind, I found it. DUH ME!!!

+++++++++++++++++

Saturday Mike bought us another pool, since he got mad and threw the last one away. He wouldn't set it up though. I guess we'll do that this week - as least I hope so. Yesterday would have been perfect for it. It's 4 foot one. Not too shabby.

Yesterday we went to the park for our annual Church Memorial Day Picnic. Would you believe that I forgot my camera!?!?!?!? Gosh. I was so ticked. We had some excitement too - one of Mikes buddys asked his girlfriend to marry him there. It was so cute - but NOOOONNNE got it on film. Sheesh. On the good side, I loved being outside all day. It was awesome. Started my summer tan, got a little bit of a burn, but not too bad. The guys played softball all day and I played a few games of volleyball. Other than that I was lazy.

Got to see my cute little cousins - Xander and Jackson. Jael will deliver Baby Gracie any time now. She is staying with my mom until she delivers. She only has a couple more weeks till her due date and I said she would not deliver early. Maybe Baby Gracie will wait for her "Aunt" Becky. Jael went early with Xander so I don't think I'll win but it was fun to bug Momma about waiting.

When I got home I finished a LO I was working on. Looks pretty good, at least it did last night. I want to look at it again tonight before I decide I'm done with it.

I've decided I want a Jeep. I don't know what kind yet, but I want one. I think it would be way cool to ride around in one. It would have to be one with a hard shell for the winter, cause I hate being cold, and a soft shell for the summer rains. I think Mike is willing and is even looking to sell our truck. YEAH!!!! So a new-to-us vehicle may be in store for us soon. I just have to research what I'm wanting. This is somthing like what I'm wanting.

+++++++++++++++++

Mike had to visit the company doc today for his annual (?) checkup. He texted messaged me:

"Just got done with Dr. C. Richard Grabbit, M.D. and I'm fine."

LOL ~ See Richard Grab It. Niiiiiice.

Guess that will do it for today. Buh-Bye for now.

Tagged...

This is the first time I've been tagged and I have to say I have been avoiding doing this one, but since Denise was so generous by tagging me, I guess I'll comply...

What's In/On:

My fridge:
Milk
Sweet Tea
Lemon aid
bottled water
some leftovers one of the guys brought home from some restaurant
eggs from Easter ::EEK::
cheese slices
misc. toppings for salads, ice cream, etc.
God only knows whats in the crisper drawers.

My Closet:
clothes
shoes
dresses
shirts
sheets for our bed
extra kleenex boxes (don't know why I opted to store them here)


My Purse:
Wallet
cell phone
cute altered book from Lori (Laurensmom)
ibuproffen
pens
checkbook
jump drive
metro pass
pictures
mirror
lotion
fingernail clippers
contact case
sunglasses


My Car:
toys
blanket (Riding with Mike I get cold - he cranks the air)
our Bibles
toys
ipod thingy that lets me play through the radio
church keys
composition book
toys
air pump for flat tire
trash
newspapers that should have been dumped 3 weeks ago in the recycle bin
Sunglasses
that's all just from the top of my head.
Oh, did I say toys - They're everywhere.

My DVR (or TIVO):
No TV here!!!

Summer Jazz Journal

Yup, I said I wasn't going to get involved in another one of these for a while, but here I am, another circle journal. I chose Summer for the theme since I'm soooo glad it's finally here. I also thought it would be kind of easy to do since it's a season and sort of generic.

I finally got some time to work on it this weekend. I kept it really simple as far as the rules go, but I went a little crazy on the patterned paper. LOL. None of my pages match. It doesn't even look like one person did it all. But that's ok with me. I'm looking for it to be bright and cheery, unless someone don't care for Summer.

I thought it would be easier posting my pages here instead of on the boards - I am soooo gallery-posting-challenged. So here ya are...

First, here's the outside of my book:



SUMMER:
Since my sign-in is a little more complicated hopefully the rest of the CJ will be easy.

Please do at least 2 pages, but no more than 4, about SUMMER. It can be reality or a wish, a memory, your favorite or least favorite thing about summer, where you vacation or want to vacation, colors, smells, at the pool, the beach ~ anything to do with YOUR summer. Somewhere on your LO or sign-in I would like a picture of you. Don’t attach your pages, in any way, to someone else’s pages. Other than those few things, anything else goes.



SIGN-IN:
Alrighty girls, I don’t mean to be complicated here, but I wanted to try something new.
So my sign-in has 2 parts.

1) Decorate, fill and sign a library pocket. Include your real name, SJ name, the date, and where you’re from.

2) Then select 2 pieces of puzzle and alter them using the following color scheme: Golden harvest (yellow), black and red. Somewhere on the pieces write your SJ name. (You can do this on the back if you want, I just want to be able to tell whose piece I’m looking at.) You may do 2 pieces that would connect or 2 separate ones.

Rules for Altering: There are no rules!! Well, except one- Don't wrap anything around the pieces. Keep the sides clear so that the puzzle can be put back together. Other than that feel free to ink, paint, sand, paper, chalk, or even use crayons! Add whatever embellishments and bling you want (so long as you stay within in the color scheme); ribbon, flowers, metals, charms - you name it! Get creative and have fun! This is also a great way to use up some scraps!

When my puzzle returns home, I hope to assemble it and hang it on a wall in my scrapping space. I have painted one of the puzzle pieces with actual paint from my walls so you know exactly what my colors are. (I’ll re-alter this piece when it comes home.)

Portions of the above rules were copied from a thread at www.scraplove.com. There are some examples of puzzle pieces in their gallery and links to completed puzzles at 2P’s.
Here is the address for the thread: http://www.scraplove.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14404&highlight=circle






& then my layout. Thanks for looking.

YAAAAAYYYYYYY IT'S FRIDAY

WOO HOO. I tell you, I have never been so excited for the weekend. This has been the longest week - totally bored here at work. I think everyone is in summer vacation mode. The phones aren't busy, the mail is slim and the dictation is minimal. I asked my boss if I could leave early today, he's leaving too, and he was fine with it. So I'm outta here in 1 hour baby!

I feel bad for neglecting my blog yesterday but I really had nothing to say, just like to today. Oh well, I'm just happy to be leaving soon.

Oh, and I'll be heading straight to the LSS when I leave. Gotta get a few things for some special peeps and some stuff for my CJ. I swore I would not do another one of these for a while. But look at me now. ::rolling eyes:: There's only 5 of us though so it shouldn't be too hard.

The weekend is crazy, as usual. Here's my list of things to do:

Buy nathen some shorts and nick some new jeans.
Work on my circle journal.
Buy some stuff for my CJ: envelope for puzzle pieces; library pockets; another piece of the summer pool paper;
hang the sign at church for SFC pledges
graduation party on friday night
massage - 10:00 am Saturday
Youth party on Saturday - at Mini-Golf 7 p.m
grocery shop for picnic (notice this isn't done. It was pathetic what we took - and that's all I'll say about that.)
monday is the picnic
get door prize for picnic (Scott did this)

(What's DONE is in RED.)

I'll add more as I remember. This will be my check list. Gotta go, my boss just brought me some dictation. WHY NOW??!?!?!?!!!!

Have a wonderful, safe weekend everybody.

Happy Hump Day Everybody!!!!!!

I really don't have anything of any importance to write today. So you're gonna get a random post.

You know that song "Workin' For The Weekend"? Well, that's my theme song. I LIVE for the weekend. Can't wait. Not that we have anything special planned, but that I just don't have to go to work. And in the words of Martha, it's "a good thing."

I'm feeling soooo huge today. Perhaps it's because of the skirt I have on. Somedays are better than others. I keep trying to lose this weight, but I've been really hungry today, so unfortunately I pigged out at lunch on Pasta House pasta and salad. YUMMY!!! I am so full. Can you say "BLOATED!!!!" Since the rain looked like it was going to hold off, my mom brought Nick over and they ate lunch with me today.

I joined a circle journal and anyone who knows me knows that I get these random wild hairs and get all kinds of crazy notions. Well, I've never really understood the fascination of altering puzzle pieces. But I found a really cool swap (on another site ~ eek) where you treat it like a CJ and assign a theme/color scheme for your puzzle pieces and everyone alters a piece of your puzzle. Then you can assemble it and somehow put it in a frame or on a SB page. I thought this would be a cool piece of original artwork to hang in my scrap area at home. Riiiiiiiigghtttt.

So I went on an excursion to buy a puzzle for my sign-in page and couldn't find one. To be really honest I only went to one store, WM, but since they have everything you would think it couldn't be difficult. It was after 9 so all the other stores were closed, but who would have thought it would be so difficult to find a little puzzle?!?!?

The wonderful girls on SJ are all busy trying to find me one. They are the best!!!!! Yes, I have 3 weeks left but what if I run into some other problems. I have to make every minute count on this. Lori is already done with hers and is mailing it - No pressure there. LOL

So anyway, I'm going to be doing my CJ on Summer. Anything about summer. It should be bright and cheery when it comes back. I love summer, it's my favorite season. I love the heat, sun, vacations, days off, picnics. Mike hates it, he don't like to be hot, how did we ever hook up again?!!? I still have to decide on what picture I want to use. It will be 8x8, so it shouldn't be too hard and go pretty quickly.

I love making words different colors.

I'll leave you with one LO. It turned out how I saw it in my head, how often does that happen? The tag lifts up for some journaling. This is Austen last year on Halloween. The kids go to a Christian school, so they had to dress up as someone from their favorite time in history. Yea, well, I don't think they have a favorite time in history so we found what WM had cheap and made it work. LOL I didn't put a mustache on him, I actually didn't think about it till I was on my way to work. He was happy with it so that's all that matters. I still have to do a LO with Nathen and his Knight costume.

Thanks for stayin' with me and my ramblings.

And now...I'll bid you Adieu.

As Promised...

Here are my latest works of art. LOL They are all from the Florida (except for the Tag). Before I go on, let me just say that I always thought I was an "EVENT" scrapper. You know throw all your pictures from one event on one page, journal about it and you're done. Well, I'm so not seeing that happen in my stuff lately. I am liking my new thang though. It creates a lot of freedom in my scrapping.

If you are curious about supplies, ask. Otherwise, I'm not going to posting that on here. The first 2 are 8x8 and will go on my wall. The "Oceanside" one is a 12x12, 2-page spread.

I tried my hand at some doodling. VERY VERY LITTLE DOODLING. I am sooo scared that I will mess up the LO and, sure enough, I did. I hate it but didn't want to redo it. So I tried covering it up as best as I could.


Austen drew this in the sand in Cocoa Beach. Little sweetie. I bought a $5.00 package of stickers for the one that says "Sand Art" cause I knew I had to have it for this picture. I know the term "sand art" usually brings to mind castles in the sand but this was my Baby's art! I'm sure I'll use the other stickers. We're going back this year...


Last beach one...for now. LOL First of all, yes the large pic on the left was staged. Everyone thought I was nuts but they did it anyway. I LOVE IT!!! Under that pic is some journaling about the problems I had getting everyone to do this little photo shoot. I bought the transparency and cut it up. That was a hard decision to make - I kept thinking what if I didn't like it cut that way. But I like how it turned out.

And finally...the tag. Basic Grey Color Me Silly Frogs.

This was so fun to make.


I have a couple more to post, but I'll save that for another day. Even though one is another beach LO - consider yourself warned. LOL

Buh-Bye

My weekend

First off, I want to say thanks to my two commenting friends. Yea, someone is reading my blog, LOL, and Denise even copied me. True, she said she had nothing better to do, but a copy is still a copy.

I'm ssooooo very tired today. I want my weekend to last as long as possible so I stay up as late as I can, which was 2:00 both Friday and Saturday nights. I'm gonna pay today. I could hardly keep my eyes open on the Metro on the way to work.

We had a very busy weekend.
Friday night we went to Allyson's graduation party. As I was getting ready to go, I got to thinking that R&W had been living in their house for over a year and I had never been there since they moved in. They have had things/parties at their house, but I had not been to any of them. Just a random strange thought. Allyson likes frogs so I made her a cool card with a Basic Grey Color Me Silly frog tag. It turned out totally cool. I'll upload later, I haven't downloaded the pics to the 'puter yet.

Saturday was a golf tournament. This had been rescheduled from April, due to a rain-out. We lost a lot of teams because of prior committments so it wasn't as big as it was in April. We had 11 teams originally and it was cut in half. Turns out it was a good thing for the golf course, they had 2 huge tournaments that day, so they were swamped. At one point, they had about 100 golfers on the course. He said they could technically accommodate about 120 but it would really slow things down. It ended up misting rain a couple times but it didn't stop our guys. I figured they didn't need any more drinks (I was the water girl) since it had cooled off so I went to Archivers and spent a little cash.

Got some cool paper for some LO's I was working on. My main reason for going though was to get some Bazzill. I am sooo not a name brand paper snob. I like all kinds of stuff and I'll buy it if I like it, I don't care what the brand name is. Well, for some reason I had this thing against Bazzill, I guess I figured all plain cardstock was the same. Boy was I wrong. I got a few sheets in some of the kits I ordered from The Memory Safe and I've decided there's nothing quite like a good, solid piece of Bazzill CS. N-E-ways, I had to get some coordinating colors for some PP I had and ended up with a pile of it. Woo Hoo for me.

Sunday was church and we had our SFC kickoff. It went really well if you didn't know how the schedule was lined up. If you knew what was supposed to happen you would think it was a disaster (this was my opinion). But we totally wanted God to be in charge and our schedule was a tentative outline for Him and He chose not to follow it. So - the bottom line is it went good. Cause that's what God would say, "and God said it was good." ::firm nod::

In the middle of all this, mostly after 10:00 p.m., I did some scrapbooking. Got a couple Florida things done that I'm really liking. I haven't taken pictures of them yet, so I'll do that and then upload several things tomorrow.

I'll leave you with another of Mike's famous pictures...he calls this one "Half-Done."

Um, yea, well ok, anyway, looks all done to me.

That's all for now. Thanks for hanging out. ~Cya.

For Mike - luv ya babe! <3 <3 <3

Yes, well ok. These aren't my normal uploads as you can tell. I was showing Mike my blog the other day and we were navigating through everyone that I "stalk" and when we got to Kayla he kind of got offended. Not at Kayla, but at my thoughts on his photos. He gets my camera and you never know what will show up. So the other day he took the camera out and this is what I got. He informed me that they were every bit as good as some of the other stuff he had seen classified as "art." So here Baby, this is for you...
I have one of those yard windmills. It's pretty cool. He got a great perspective of the moon on this one. I guess he laid down on the ground.


I would have to guess that this is his favorite. He loves how the glass looks like it magnified. That's how I feel about our power bill. MAGNIFIED!!!!!!!!!

I waited all day to post to my blog cause I usually find something to say after I've posted. Wouldn't you know, today is not that kind of day. I guess I'll leave you with one more. This is a LO for a CJ I'm in. We were to scrap our scrapping space. I copied this for my own book but got even messier on it than this one. Is that even possible?!?!?!?! I'm a make a mess when I scrap but clean up between each LO. Weird huh?

That's all for today. If you are readin' let me know.

More than 20 questions:

Here's a couple tags I made for a challenge.

Guess I should have rotated this one. Oh well. I sent it to Buttonscrapper. She said on her rolodex card that she liked purple and her children are older, so I thought I would go with a non-child theme.


I am totally loving the brown one and didn't really want to send it on to Wendy, but I did anyway. I hope she likes it. I had to ask a million times for her address, so it would have been a legit reason that she didn't get it. I did some resesarch on her and went this route since she has a little boy who likes to explore. I added the flower for her - She's a lone female in a male house, like me. She seems to have busy stuff in her gallery. I hope she likes it. She hasn't responded that she got it yet.

See the Stampin' Up brown paper again? It's double sided and it all coordinates and so easy to use. I love browns. It comes in pink or blue as the accent color. I got blue for obvious reasons. I also think it's a little too distressed for pink. But that's just me.

(doesn't look like it's adding my pics. I'm gonna publish this and see what's up. Sheesh - gotta upload one at a time.)

++++++++++++++
Here's the 20+ questions portion from my title:
Saw this in Lesle’s Blog, thought I would copy it.

What exactly are you wearing right now? Brown Shirt and a tan skirt with brown flowers embroidered on it. Love it.
What is your current problem? My co-worker
What makes you most happy? Being At Home, Scrapping
If you could go back in time and change something would you? Yup - both personally and world wide
Name something obvious about you. I have acrylic nails
Name something that people might not know about you. I want a black tattoo of a lizard on my foot.
What's the name of the song that you're listening to? Meanwhile Back At The Ranch, by Asleep At The Wheel (Yahoo country tunes)
Name someone with the same birthday as you. A long time ago I had a friend from church camp, I can't remember her name, but she had red hair. We shared the day. Seems like there is a celebrity I like that shares my day, but I can't remember who it is.
Ever sang in front of a large audience? Yes
Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? Yes, I’ve heard Sandra Bullock and Natalie Wood.
Do you still watch kiddy movies or kiddie TV shows? I like to watch Veggie Tales with the kids. They like Sponge Bob when they are at Grandmas – can’t stand that show.
Do you speak any other languages? Not really. I got about 20 words in Spanish but I probably don’t use them correctly.
What magazines do you read? Scrapbooks, Etc. I think. I just got a subscription. I’ll read any scrapping mag though.
Have you ever ridden in a Hummer limo? No
Has anyone you've been really close with passed away? Yes, my dad.
Do you ever watch MTV? no
What's something that really annoys you? people who complain – even though I’m guilty of it.

Chapter 1:
Middle name? Eileen
Nickname(s)? Technically Becky is a nickname since my real name is Rebecca. Other names are: Beck, Reba, mom, "home slice" (thanks to Nick), Becky Boo, My Baby & Candy – by DH.
Eye color? "poop" brown

Chapter 2:
Do you live with your parents? nope
Do you get along with your parents? yup
Are your parents married/separated/divorced? nope
Do you have any siblings? nope

Ummm, Lesle, what happened to Chapter 3?

Chapter 4:
Do You Sing in the shower? For sure
Write on your hand? no
Call people back? Sometimes
Believe in love? yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes. "My" side = anywhere I want. LOL, poor DH.
Have any bad habits? Yes, but I won’t list them.

Chapter 5: Have You Ever
Broken a bone? yes
Gotten stitches? no
Taken painkillers? yes
Gone SCUBA diving? No
Been stung by a bee? yes
Thrown up in a restaurant? Not that I can remember
Been to overnight camp? yes
Had detention? yes
Been sent to the principal's office? yes

Chapter 6: Who/What was the last:
Person to IM you? Mona
What did it say: Um, something about the computer being frozen.
Person to call you: probably Andrea last night. A client just called, but they didn’t want to talk to me.
Person you tackled? Mike
Thing you touched: besides the keyboard, a coffee cup
Thing you ate: peach yogurt
Thing you drank: chi tea
Thing you said: Your welcome. Bye.

and that's all I got to say about that.

My recent cards and other random stuff...

An Anniversary Card - Used Stampin Up stuff on it. I think it turned out pretty neat. Kind of busy, but that's my style...for now, at least.


A Birthday Card ~ I had bought some Rob & Bob file folders on clearance at Archivers and couldn't bear to part with them, so I traced one and made my own. Yes, I hoard stuff. ;-) I am totally loving the Heidi Swapp ghost flowers too.

The next one is a card I made for Chelle for her open house. I used an extra long piece of CS so I could fold it up and make a pocket for some gift certificates. This one has some Rob and Bob and Christina Cole paper. I love how it turned out ~ I felt sort of bad showing up at an open house and not taking something for her roomie, but I don't know her and I really only wanted to give to my cousin. So I gave my card to her in private. I guess the people that were there thought we were flakes cause Ididn't walk in with a present.

I have more to post but I'll save them for tomorrow, just in case I don't know what to post. I am really getting more comfortable with my messy style. I used to not want to show my friends cause they just don't "get" it. Course, this is why: The anniversary card didn't get anything but "thank you" without even a wow in the voice or anything. It really does look cool IRL, and she's a scrapper. Oh well, DH liked it and said so.

Now on to the stuff of today...

I absolutely HATE the weather right now. It is raining for like the third week in a row. Yes, I said WEEK. It has rained every day for what seems like weeks and weeks, and I don't think that is too much of an exaggeration cause it's been at least 2 if not 3. I am sooo ready for summer, I can't wait to go to Florida. Mike is supposed to play softball tonight, might be more like mud ball. YUCK, he will have to take the truck so he don't get the van dirty.

My co-worker is a crab today. OH JOY! Make for a fun day. Seems like she's mad at the world. She is talking to me -- but barely. Makes for a long 9 hours. I think she has a problem with the amount of work she has to do and the amount of work I have to do. The problem is, when she started working here she began taking over jobs that I was to do. Now she don't like it that she seems to to EVERYTHING. Well, excuse me, but she wants to look like she's all important, guess you could say she has a real high opinion of her worth. Sheesh. Here's one for ya: She hasn't taken a real vacation probably since here first year here. Now she says things to me like "what if I took my vacation like you did?", "what would you all do?", "who would write checks?", "good thing I'm not planning a vacation." Ok, get over yourself!!!!!!!! I taught her that dang computer and some of the check program too. She is forever asking how to do one thing or another - over and over again. Then she brags at how you only have to tell her once and she has it, blah, blah, blah. So, I say, Take your stupid vacation. I don't care. I can handle it. She acts like I'm totally incapable of doing anything here in the office. GRRRRR!!!!!!! Ok, that's off my chest now, maybe I can be ok for a while.

If you're still reading - if anyone is reading - thanks for hanging in there.

Thoughts from the weekend

Monday's are so hard. I would absolutely LOVE to be able to work Tuesday - Friday, 10 hours a day. That would be sweet!!!! But I doubt the bosses would go for that idea.

I am truly about done with this weather. We've had about 2 weeks of nothing but rain, rain, rain. The past week has been cold too - down in the 40's and the highs barely reach the 60's. As I was walking in to work last week, it felt like October weather. It was cold and rainy and you could hear the wind blowing in the trees. It sent a winter chill down my spine. It feels like we had winter, spring, 3 days of summer, back to fall. YUCK!!! I really can't wait for summer. From what I understand it's supposed to hit about 90 by the end of the week. It's in the mid 50's today. Good Grief!

Mother's Day was kind of funny. I totally forgot to get my mom a card. Bad, bad daughter. So Sunday morning I wake Mike up and tell him we have to go to Walgreen's on the way to church so that I could get her a card. Come to find out, he had to get me one too. We had already talked about my gift. I told him I wanted to get him something for Father's Day but the whole family would benefit from it. A cool BBQ grill. He's fine with that but says, "Do you want to just get it in a combined Mother's Day/Father's Day thing?" I'm totally cool with that cause we're talking a couple hundred smackers. In the meantime though, he graciously decided to get me some Hershey's cookies which, when we got into the van, they all proceded to munch on on the way to church. Silly guys. It was a good day though. I totally love my kids. Saturday morning, Nick gave me a random hug and told me Happy Mother's Day. I don't get those hugs very often from him anymore and it was so sweet of him. The twins made me cards and gave me flowers in cool pots from both school and Sunday School. If it will ever stop raining, I'll plant them in my flower garden. If you could only see my flower garden - all weeds and one beautiful, blooming Clematis plant. Guess these 4 flowers will help.

**************************************

I accepted a RAK Girls Challenge to send a random card to a fellow Jazzer but I forgot to take a picture of it. I thought I would remember what I did. Terry was so sweet to post a picture for me on Scrapjazz so I could put it on my computer at home. I thought it was kind of funny when I saw it though. I knew I used the purple flower and the fishing lure thing, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember how it all went together. So when I saw it, it was like looking at something new. I think it looked better IRL though.

This weekend was a whirlwind, but that's seems to be the story of my life. I was able to get some more rolodex cards done for the people that asked for them on SJ. I stayed up till 2:00 catching up on rolodex cards and my challenge scrapping - Tags this time. They turned out really neat and I didn't really want to send them out. I still have one for WendyPants, since I can't find her address, I may get to keep it. Just kidding. I'll probably send it out to someone else. I did take pics so I'll post them on here later. I keep forgetting to post pics though. Hopefully I'll remember tonight.

A "How To"

from the wonderful Ms. Lindsay Teague. I'm actually posting it here so I can remember how to do it.

1. Register for an account (if you don't already have one) at flickr.
2. Once registered, sign into your account and you will be brought to your flickr homepage.
3. Now you need to acquire the pictures you want in your photo mosaic...for the one above, I used purple as my theme. There are lots of options here...so just do what you like! To do this, you'll need to search through the flickr photo database. Go to the bottom of your home page for the "Photo Search" option under the "Explore" category. Click "Photo Search."
4. Now this page will come up where you'll type your keyword or search word into the serch option on the right that says "search titles, tags and descriptions. Then Click "search."
5. Then pages of pictures will come up with pictures that match your description (some better than others).
6. Now scroll through the pictures until you find one that is of interest to you. Once you find one click on the picture and a new page will open up with that picture on it.
7. If you like the picture and would like to include it in your mosaic, click the "Add to Faves" icon above the picture to the left side. It will turn that empty star to pink to show you that it has been added to your favorites.
8. Now go back to your list of pictures and continue to scroll through until you find your desired amount of pictures and make them all favorites (please note that the max amount of pictures for one mosic is 36).
9. You can periodically check the amount of pictures you have in your favorites by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking "Your Favorites" under the "Your Photos" heading.
10. This will bring you to your favorites page where you can take a closer look at the photos you've chosen.
11. When you have got all the photos you want in your favorites, it's time to turn them into a mosaic. Open up a new web browsing window and go to http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/mosaic.php
12. Now enter in the options that work best for your mosaic by changing the layout (when you click on different layouts, it will show you an example to the right), changing the amount of pictures in your mosaic, changing the tile size ( I usually go with medium), and changing the background colors.
13. Select "Flickr Favorites" from the "choose how you would like to select images" options.
14. Enter your flickr screen name into the box below.
15. Now Click "Create Mosaic"
16. This "Please Wait" page will come up and it could take up to 30 seconds...just be patient.
17. If all is done correctly, your mosaic should appear in large form, like this:
18. Now right-click on the mosaic and save it to the appropriate place on your computer...and, voila...DONE!


UPDATE:
I wanted to say these directions are perfect. Lindsey is amazing at teaching. I haven't uploaded what I created to my blog yet since I'm wanting to have a totally cool mosaic and am still considering my choices.

Tuesday's Challenge:

If you had to join a witness protection program with your family, where would you wanna live???

I would love to move somewhere that has a lot of water and beaches that are made for lounging. I want the weather to be warm most of the time, but NEVER humid. The nights can cool off – but not too cool, KWIM? An Island would be nice. I would also like to try out Mexico. And just for DH’s benefit, I would be ok with experiencing Europe for a bit but nothing long term.
If I had to pick somewhere in the states, I would do Arizona, Cali, Maine, Florida and Hawaii (that’s in the states isn’t it?).


I want to start uploading more of my completed LO's here since I have a dickens of a time getting the loaded at SJ. Here's a familiar photo from Florida that I made sepia toned and did this LO for a CJ I'm in on SJ. The theme was LOVE. This is love to me ~ my guys. I'm sooo loving how this turned out. The only thing I would change is my lettering but I dont' know what I would change it to since I'm working on the exact same LO only in 12x12 for my own scrapbook. I am still stumped what to put there.

I love bulk - even though none of my non-SJ-pals who scrap understand it. It looks a little heavy but the flower is really light.

I got this kit from Memory Safe. I love their kits. I want to buy some more, but I think I should hold off for a bit and see how our vacation plans start working out. LOL


Ok, well that's all I'm going to say to myself for now.

In the near future,

when I'm stumped on what to blog about AND I have my ipod available (that's the key here), I'm going to do this challenge. Sounds fun.

EDITED TO SAY I DID IT AND ADD THE SONGS. JUST FOR THE RECORD, I DIDN'T EVEN LOOK AT THE LIST AS I WAS DOING THIS. I TYPED THE LIST UP IN MS WORD AND NUMBERED EACH ONE, THEN CAME OVER HERE AND TYPED THEM UP. IT'S PRETTY AMAZING HOW SOME OF THEM TURNED OUT. COINCIDENCE? HMMM, MAKES YOU WONDER.


The Song of my life
Instructions:
• Put your music player on shuffle.
• Press forward for each question.
• Use the song title as the answer to the question, even if it doesn't make any sense.

1. How am I feeling today? IT HAD TO BE YOU - HARRY CONNICK JR
2. Will I get far in life? MAYBE NOT TONIGHT - SAMMY KERSHAW
3. How do my friends see me? MR. MOM - LONESTAR
4. Where will I get married? OVER THE RAINBOW - HARRY CONNICK JR.
5. What is my best friend? YOU ARE - (SONG FROM MY MUSIC DIRECTOR)
6. What is the story of my life? YOU'RE WORTHY OF MY PRAISE - JEREMY CAMP
7. What was high school like? HE'S GOD - BROOKLYN TAB
8. How can I get ahead in life? REMEMBER JESUS - JOE PACE
9. What is the best thing about me? HEART'S WOUNDS - (BACH)
10. What is today going to be like? PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE - LENA HORNE
11. What is in store for this weekend? CORAZON ESPINADO - SANTANA
12. What song describes my parents? GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS - CECE WINANS
13. To describe my grandparents? ANCIENT OF DAYS - PETRA
14. How is my life going? DON'T TAKE THE GIRL - TIM MCGRAW
15. What song will they play at my funeral? ARMS LENGTH AWAY - SAMMY KERSHAW
16. How does the world see me? TAKE ME WITH YOU - PRINCE
17. Will I have a happy life? GOD'S PROMISE - LUTHER BARNES
18. What do my friends really think of me? GEE BABY, AIN'T I GOOD TO YOU - DR JOHN
19. Do people secretly lust after me? JESUS IS ALL - FRED HAMMOND
20. How can I make myself happy? I WANT TO KNO HIM - LAUREN TALLEY
21. What should I do with my life? LORD REIGN IN ME - (WOW CD)
22. Will I ever have children? SHADOW OF THE CROSS - RUSS TAFF
23. What is some good advice for me? LOVE ALL THE HURT AWAY - GARY OLIVER
24. How will I be remembered? THE LOVE OF GOD - GAITHERS
25. What is my signature dancing song? WHERE IT'S ALWAYS BEEN - PHILLIPS, CRAID & DEAN
26. What is my current theme song? POWER - YOUTH ON MISSIONS
27. What does everyone else think my current theme song is? I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU - HARRY CONNICK JR.

MONDAY

Thanks to Beth at SJ for the daily blog challenges. It's definitely making this blog more interesting. LOL

Today's challenge is to list something I would like to change about myself, but it cannot be a physical feature. I think I would like to be more outgoing and sure of myself (self-confidence). I am so unsure of myself and uncomfortable in most social settings. I think I come across as a snob, but in reality I am just very backward and shy. Once I get to know you, then I'm mostly generally ok, but it's hard at first. Being comfortable in my own skin would be really nice.
+++++++++++++

I read this on someone else's blog from SJ (Kristi or Christina ~ not sure whose):

Does anyone else ever get the urge to move away when things aren't going your
way?? Sometimes its nice to dream about making a change, starting over.

I wanted to record my thoughts about this...I do wish this - - A LOT!!!!!!!!!!! I would really love to leave my job and move on to a different one. If we were financially able, I would be a stay at home mom and be really involved in the kids' school. But since that isn't realistic, I just want to work closer to home. I feel underappreciated by my boss. As of my last raise (last year) my salary is supposedly capped, so what exactly is there to look forward to? I think it would be great to up and move totally out of state and out of the area. The only downside is, Mike's Dad and my Mom would have to come along. I couldn't bear to leave either of them here. Well, I'm sure there's more "downsides" than that one, but that's the biggie.

Ok, and here's another blogging challenge from another blog I thought would be fun to do:

This week's blogging challenge: A quickie! List ten food cravings that you easily cave in to! If there was one offered, you’d never turn it down. Share any thoughts on these.

1) Chocolate. I love Chocolate and it's a rare occasion when I turn it down.
2) Ice Cold Diet Coke
3) Pasta
4) Mashed Potatos ~ no gravy, just butter. Lumpy is even more of a temptation.
5) Chips
6) Ice Cream
7) Coconut Cream Pie
8) Peanut M&M's/Peanut Butter Cups (there's the chocolate?)
9) Funnel Cake
10) Dumplings (you can leave out the chicken, just give me the dumplings baby!)

Looking at the list I guess I do have the will power to turn them down (cause I have in the past) but I just choose NOT to. Who could blame me?!!!

Ok, that's quite an entry for today. Gonna get back to work.

What is Beauty?

The blog question for today is: What do I find beauty in that others may not see?

The first thing that came to my mind was Oil on pavement. A lot of people don't think of it as beauty since it's a stain on their driveway or on the road. If you look though, and I know you have, you can see a beautiful rainbow. Rainbows, no matter where they are, bring "GOD'S PROMISES" to my mind. I am very thankful for His promises to me.

Austen used to call the heat radiating from the pavement "____ water." (Wish I could remember. I left it blank so I could think about it though.) You can see it when driving along on a hot summer day with flat road stretching out in front of you. He enjoys looking for it and he thinks it's pretty.

Psalm 8
1 O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On another note, nobody likes to be told negative things - especially from someone who has a lot of negative attributes. So someone told me today that I can't sing. I believe I can and have been told by others that I can. This person told me today I have a church voice, not a disco voice. (Same person told me a few minutes before that I couldn't whistle either.) Ok, so I was singing in the office trying to be relatively quiet, but come on.... She kept trying to explain herself, but in my opinion just kept digging a bigger hole with her foot in her mouth. Then she would say "You know what I mean?" I finally told her "no, I don't." Cause at "my church we don't sing songs that you might hear in church, like the Ave Maria." It really hurt my feelings. Guess I'll just consider the source.

Ok vent off.

Down Memory Lane...

Today we are supposed to write about our first job, so here goes:

My first job I watiressed at a Greek Restaurant. I started working there when I was 15. I don't even know if the place had a name or not, it's been so long that I can't remember, we just always called it "The Greek Restaurant." The owner's name was Paul Panagapalis (I have no idea how to spell that) and he had the worst temper I had ever seen. I remember one day going to work and the place was closed. Come to find out he had gotten mad at his wife and destroyed the insides. He ripped the thermostat out of the wall and broke various other things. I only worked there for about a year cause one day I got word not to go back in. The government had deported him back to Greece.

What a guy.

He made THE BEST food though. I loved the Baklava and the Gyros. Wonderful!!!!!!!

SPRING...

I've been challenged to write about it.

First of all, let me just say "It's here!!!! WOO HOO!!!!" I love spring.

I love the flowers and trees, the sunshine, people out walking and riding bikes, motorcycles, the pool, vacation, warm weather, green grass, flip flops.

Not so much the spring rain, but I know that I have to have the rain to get some of the gorgeous flowers.

SCRAPBOOK RETREAT

YEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited. I can't wait for Friday. I will be gone from Friday to Sunday evening at a scrapbook retreat. I have been looking forward to this all month. I think it's the only thing that helped me get through the craziness that's been going on. I'm almost there ---

I ordered some pictures last night and have to get them tonight after work. So I'll be loaded up on photos. I just have to organize the paper, ribbon and embellishments I'm taking, oh yeah and stamps and albums, gosh will I have room for clothes???? My goal is to kind of get LO's together so that I can really get some stuff done this week. I know it's probably a lofty goal but I'm gonna try. I already have 2 ready, one with valentines and one of Xander. The one of Xander is gonna be cool I'm gonna use green and purple. I have a huge purple flower to put on there it's gonna look cool.

I am a little concerned about the weather. It was beautiful here yesterday and today it's FREEZING COLD. I hope it is nice this weekend. In addition to getting scrap time we also get to use the facilities at the lodge so I hope to spend a little time outside too. According to Weather.com it looks like it might be rainy and in the upper 60's - but who can tell how accurate a 5-day forcast is?!!!

Ok, I'm off to browse SJ. I don't think I'll have internet access while at the Lodge and I want to be ready with ideas to get some LO's done.

How about another movie review...

MONSTER-IN-LAW:

Totally funny movie.
My favorite character was Ruby (Wanda Sykes). She had some realy great lines.

Tales from the Crypt

Ok, so I've not died, but it has been a long time since I've added anything here. I have been to two more states and 4 airplane rides since my last post. Whew!

In September Mike, the boys and I flew to Orlando and Cocoa Beach, Florida for our family vacation. We had a wonderful time being on the beach and enjoying being away from home for a while. We stayed in 2 hotels (one we lovingly call "The Dump") and a resort. The resort obviously wins, hands-down, every award for our week away. They also had a lazy river where you could just soak up the sun on an intertube plus an amazing water slide and pool. It was just a few minutes walk to the beach too. Who could ask for anything more?

I managed to get all the boys in white t-shirts and jeans for a famly photo op. I think the picture turned out pretty good since I took it myself. LOL

The weather was wonderful while we were in Orlando. However, when it came time to move to Cocoa Beach, Hurricane Rita decided to make the ocean angry and the waves were pretty rough and it rained our first day there. I wondered if we would make it home on time or not. The airlines delayed our flight for a couple hours due to the weather.

Austen's decided he doesn't like to fly and cried when it came time to leave - he wanted to drive, take a train or even a boat, anything but a plane. Poor little guy. I bought him some Dramamine for the ride home and he did just fine.

Let's see... the next place I went to was General Conference in Richmond, Virginia. I was only home 7 days from Florida before I took off to Richmond. I have decided that I don't care for Virginia too much. The locals were not very friendly and the area didn't seem too great to me. But then again,I didn't get very far out of Richmond either.

My mom, Aunt Debby and I stayed together while we were there. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of laughing. The church services were really long (no surprise there).

Mike is going to Budapest, Hungry next month so that trip will put mine to shame, but I enjoyed myself anyway.

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I Survived!

Well, I made it back! Hallelujah!

Columbus was a lot of fun and we all had a good time. Our hotel ended up being about 6 blocks from the convention center/arena and we walked to church. So that killed our feet. On Thursday I wore my heels to church but carried my flip flops in my purse for the walk home. I noticed it wasn't too cheesy cause a couple of our girls did it the next night too.

We got to do a little sightseeing while we were there. We visited Greater Ice Cream and watched how they make it. The concept was the same as how we make homemade ice cream - salt and ice - only they have huge machines to do it. Their claim for charging so much for it is that they don't whip in a lot of air like other companies - when you buy a gallon of their ice cream you get all ice cream and no air. It was heavy, so maybe there is something to their claim.

The chaperones all wore t-shirts on Sunday night to church that said "I Survived Youth Congress 2005." I think it makes it sound worse than it really was. We had very little sleep and got up early most of the days.

The twins survived quite nicely - they stayed with mom and she took them to Grant's Farm on Wednesday and Lisa, Kaitlyn, Wendy, Rachel and Hannah took them to 6 Flags on Thursday. They had never been before and have been begging me all summer to take them. They had a blast and hardly missed dear 'ol mom and dad.

Hump day - Only 2 more days to go

Here is it Wednesday and this is the first opportunity I have had to update my blog all week. Whew!!

The heat index is once again over 100 today and this is one of those rare times I will say it's pretty hot out. But I would still rather have it hot than cold.

This week is my last week of calm for a while. Next week I will be in Columbus, Ohio with 16 young people from our church for 5 days. I think its going to be fun, but it's also a lot of work, so I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for it. Is that possible?

I can't wait until our vacation in September. Right now it seems that is all I'm living for. I really need to get away. I just hope all goes well while we're away. The twins are such home-bodies and anytime we go away, even if it's just for the weekend, they complain after about a day that they think we should be getting home. What will they be like in Florida for 6 days?!!! EEekkkk.

I'm trying out some new things here on the blog. I think I have a counter now, so I can tell how many people are hitting it. I also want to try and change the picture on my heading. I don't know if I can or not, I'm still researching that. So, maybe there will be some more changes coming down the road.